#a bonafide Rant

[jacksprostate]

Treatise on why No, the doctor just giving the narrator of Fight Club (full name) his requested sleep medication or sending him to therapy would not have Fixed Him

Firstly, saying giving him the insomnia meds would’ve fixed him ignores the reason he has insomnia in the first place. He is so deeply upset by his place in society that he literally cannot sleep. Drugging him to sleep would not change that. That, of course, is the easy, quick response.

But with regard to therapy? The biggest flaw is that it ignores a central tenet of the book. Part of what tortures the narrator and drives him to invent Tyler is that his feelings about this collective, systemic issue are constantly reduced to a Just Him thing. His seatmates ask what his company is. He’s the only one upset at the office. He gets weird looks if he says the truth of what he does. People will do anything in their power to pretend he is the issue, as an individual, because it is far scarier to consider the full implications of the systemic issues implied by what he is saying. Everyone treats it as if the issue is him, so he goes insane. He does anything to get someone to say, holy shit, that’s fucked up, what you’re a part of is wrong. In an attempt to feel any sort of vague sympathy and catharsis, he goes to support groups to pretend to be dying, because then at least people don’t habitually blame him for his anguish. 

Saying therapy would fix him ignores that his problems are not individual. They are collective. It’s the reason the entire story resonates with people! Something deeply, unignorably wrong with society, where people would rather blame you for bringing it up than try and address it, because it feels impossible. I don’t blame people for this, really, because it IS scary. It’s terrifying to sit and feel like you’ve realized there’s something deeply, deeply wrong, but if you say something, people will get mad at you since it’s so baked into everything around you. Or, even if they agree, it’s easier to deal with the dissonance by pretending it’s individual.

And it’s not like that’s not the purpose therapy and medications largely serve, anyway. Getting into dangerous territory for this website, but ultimately, the reason the narrator was seeking medication was because it’s a bandaid. A very numbing bandaid. For these very large, dissonance causing problems, therapy does very little. Medications do what they always have, and distract you with numbness or side effects. It’s a false solution. He is seeking an individualized false solution because he has been browbeaten with the idea that this is an issue with him alone, when it's plainly clear it's not. 

Don't get me wrong. Obviously he has something wrong with him. But it's a product of his situation. It is a fictional exaggeration of a very real occurrence of mental illness provoked by deep unconscionable dissonance and anguish.  There is a clear correlation between what happens and his mental state and his job and how isolated he is. 

The thing is, even if he were chemically numbed, I do think he would’ve lost it regardless. Many people on meds find they don’t fix things. For reasons I’ll get into, but in this case because even if numbed or distracted, once you’ve learned about deep, far reaching corruption in society, it’s very hard to forget. Especially if, in his case, you literally serve as the acting hand of this particular variety. He’s crawling up the walls. 

So why do people say this?  Well, it's funny I guess. Maybe the first time or whatever. But also, often, they believe it, to a degree. Maybe they've just been told how effective therapy and meds are for mental illness, they believe wholeheartedly in The Disease Model of Mental Illness, maybe they themselves have engaged with either and have considered it successful. Maybe they or someone they know has been 'saved' by such treatments. 

But in all honesty.... What therapy can help with is mentality, it's how you approach problems. For issues on a smaller scale, not meaning they are easier to deal with my any degree, but ones that are not raw and direct from deep awareness of corruption; these are things that can be worked through if you get lucky and get an actually good therapist who helps build up your resiliency. But when your issue is concrete, something large and inescapable? It's useless. At best it can help you develop coping mechanisms, but there is a limit for that. There is a point where that fails. To develop the ability to handle something like this requires intense development of a comfort with ambiguity and dissonance and being isolated and a firm positioning of your purpose and values and and belief in wonder and all the other shit I ramble about. The things that the narrator lacks, which lead him to taking an ineffectual death knell anarchist self-destruction path. Therapy, where the narrator is, full of the knowledge of braces melted to seats and all the people that have to allow this to happen? It fails. 

And meds — meds are a fucking scam. We know the working mechanism of basically none of them, the serotonin receptor model was made up and paid its way into prominence. We have very little evidence they're any better than placebo, and they come with genuinely horrific side effects. Maybe you got lucky. I did, on some meds. On others? I don't remember 2018. The pharmaceutical industry is also known for rampant medical ghostwriting, and for creating 'off-label' uses for drugs that have gained too many protests in their original use, then creating a cult of use to then have 'grassroots' campaigns for it to be made a label use (ie, legitimize their ghostwritten articles with guided anecdotes). 

The DSM itself is basically a marketing segregation plot. It's an attempt to legitimize the disease model by isolating subgroups of symptoms to propose individualized treatments for subgroups that are not necessarily all that separate. But if the groups exist, you can prescribe more and different medications, no? Not to mention, if you use the disease model, you can propose that these diseases are permanent, or permanent until treated, considered more and more severe to offset and justify the horrific side effects of the medications. Do you know why male birth control doesn't really exist? Same reason. They can justify all the horrible side effects for women, because the other option is pregnancy. For men, it's nothing. 

And they're not bothering to invent new drugs without side effects. When they invent new drugs it's just because the last one got too bad of a name, or they can enter a new market. Modern drugs don't work any better than gen1 drugs. They still have horrific side effects. At best, the industry will shit out studies saying the old one was flawed (truth) so they can say this new gen will be better (lie). They're doing it with ssris right now. 

Fundamentally, the single proposed benefit of any of these drugs is that they numb you. To whatever is torturing you. It's harder to be depressed if you can't feel it, or if you just can't muster the same outrage. Of course, there is people who find that numbness to be helpful, or worth it. But often, it's stasis. For the people who have problems that can be worked on, it serves as a stopgap to not actually work on said problems. The natural outcome of the disease model is stagnation for those whose need is to develop skills and resiliency. It keeps them medicalized and dependent on the idea that they're diseased and incapable. Profitable. Stuck in the womb. 

I’ve been there. It’s easier, to wallow, and resist growth because it’s difficult and painful and unfair and cruel and you can think of five billion reasons to justify your languishing. But don’t listen to anyone who tells you you’re just permanently damaged, no matter how nicely they word it, no identity or novel pathologization, no matter how many benefits they promise, especially if they swear up and down some lovely expensive medications with little solid backing and plentiful off-label usage and side effects that’ll kill you. Some days it feels like they want us all stuck in pods, agoraphobic and addicted to the ads they feed us to isolate the markets for the drugs they’ve trained us to beg them to pump us with. Polarization making it as easy as flashing blue light for go, red like for stop, or vice versa. I worry about the kids, for fucks sake. That’s a bit dark and intense, and I apologize. But I want you (generic) to understand, there is a profit motive. Behind everything. And they do not mean well. They do not care about your mental health or your rights or your personhood or your growth. They care about how they can profit off of you.

For those struggling with immovable, society problems, like the narrator grappling with how his job fits into and is accepted by society while his rejection and horror in the face of it does not, it can work about as well as any other drug addiction. Your mileage may vary. From what I've seen, recovering from being on prozac for a long time can be worse than alcohol. They put kids on this shit. They keep campaigning for more. Off label, again. A pharmaceutical company’s favorite thing to do has to be to spread rumors of someone who knows someone who said an off label use of this drug helps with this little understood condition. Or, in the case of mental illness, questionably defined condition. And like, damn, I know I'm posting on the 'medicalization is my identity' website so no one will like all this and has probably stopped reading by now, but yall should be exposed to at least one person who doubts this stuff. Doesn't just trust it. Because I mean, that's the thing right?

It's so big. What would it mean, for this all to be true? Yeah, everyone says pharmaceutical companies are evil and predatory and ghostwriting, but to think about what that really entails. Coming back to the book, everyone knows the car lobby is huge and puts dangerous vehicles through that kill people. What does it mean if the car companies all hire people to calculate the cost of a recall and the cost of lawsuits? No one wants to think about the scale that means for people allowing it or the systems that have to be geared towards money, not safety like they say. Hell, even Chuck misses the beat and has the narrator threaten his boss with the Department of Transportation. And shit, man, if every company is doing this, you think Transportation doesn't know? That they give a fuck? You're better off mailing all the evidence to the news outlets and hoping they only character assassinate you a little bit as they release the news in a way that says it's all the fault of little workers like you, not the whole system. Something something, David McBride, any whistleblower you feel like, etc. 

So I don't blame you, if your reaction is "but but but, that can't be right, people wouldn't do it, they wouldn't allow it" or just an overwhelming feeling of dread that pushes you to deny all of this and avoid thinking about it. Just know, that's in the book. That's all the seatmates on the flights. That's all his fellow officemates. It's easier to pretend, I know.

But think about, how the response fits in with the themes of the book. The story, as a movie too. What drives the narrator’s mental breakdown? How would you handle being in his position? How would you handle being his seatmate? It’s easy to say you’d listen. But have you? Have you had any soul wrenching betrayals of how you thought society worked? How about a betrayal by the thing that promised to be the fix of the first? Can you honestly say you wouldn’t follow that gut instinct, saying follow what everyone says, that person must just be crazy, evil, rude, cruel, whatever it is that means you can set what they said aside?

For a lot of people, they can do that, I guess. Set it aside. Reaching that aforementioned state of managing to cope with the dissonance and ambiguity and despair is very hard. The narrator made the Big Realization, but he couldn’t cope. He self-destructed. Even when people don’t make the big realization consciously, they’re already self-destructing. It’s hard to escape it when it feels easier than continuing anyway. When it feels like the only option,

Would therapy fix the narrator of Fight Club? Would meds fix the narrator of Fight Club? No. He knows too much. All meds will do, by the time he’s in the psych ward, is spiritually neuter him. A silly phrase, but really. Take the wind out of his sails. 

Is he fixed if he doesn’t try to blow up town? If he just shuts up and settles in and stops costing money? If he still can’t cope with the things he’s unearthed? Do you see how this is a commentary in a commentary in a commentary?

Fight Club is an absolutely fascinating story because of this. The fact that it addresses the fallout of knowing. The isolation. The hopelessness. The spiral that results from a lack of hope. This is, I think, what resonates most with people, even if not consciously. Going insane because you’ve discovered something you wish you could unknow. It’s a classic horror story. Should our society be lovecraftian evil? I don’t think so. 

Do I think changing it will be easy? No. Lord knows a lot exists to push people who make these sorts of Realizations towards feelings of individuality and individualized solutions and denial and other distractions and coping methods. And to prevent people who make One realization from expanding on it and considering further ramifications. Fight Club itself gets into this; the isolation of men being a strict part of the role society shapes for their sex leaves them very vulnerable to death fetishes, in a sense, and generally towards self destructive violence. It helps funnel them away from substantial change and towards ineffectual change. Many things, misogyny, racism, serve to keep people isolated from one another, individualized, angry, and impossible to work with. Market segregation; god knows even appealing on those fronts has become such a classic ploy that companies do it now, the US military frames its plundering that way, etc. 

I’ve wandered a bit but ultimately, my point is this: Fight Club is a love letter to the horrors of critical thinking, and the importance of not falling into the trap of self destruction and hopelessness in the face of it. The latter is why Tyler was an anarchoterrorist instead of anything useful. The latter is why it was a death cult. It’s important to work through the horrors of critical thinking so you can do it, and stand on the other side ready to believe in each other. It’s worth it.

[bruciemilf]

wait I have got to hear your thoughts on bruce being lottie!!

Rewatching Princess and The Frog has got me in a chokehold! But basically, the AU as of now;

It's a well established, well know, well respected fact from the White House to the Bayou; If you ain't Wayne rich, you ain't rich at all.

But you won't catch Thomas Wayne bragging and boosting and yapping about hot cars, or big mansions, or pearly white yachts.

Thomas' pride and joy is one tiny, fawn eyed, overly energetic boy that made Gotham collectively swoon.

"And I want a princess when I grows up!" Bruce is just prancing around in his pink prince costume, adjusting a paper crown that Alfred made, " Or a prince! Can you get me a prince, papa?"

"You know the deal, Bruce; You wish it, daddy grands it; Ain't that right, Martha?"

Martha Kent chuckles in that warm, knowing way of hers. Her friend is infamous for the way he spoils his boy. But the Waynes are good people. And not just because they keep her farm afloat.

"Yeah, you're good on that front. But you know, sweetheart; It doesn't matter if you marry a prince or princess. As long as they make you smile, that's all that matters."

Lois, just a bit older than Bruce, makes a disgusted noise, " I don't want no prince or princess. I just want Princess money."

Bruce squeals, " But a PRINCE. I'd love to marry a Prince. We'd have a big big wedding and the sweetest cake in the world, and everyone would have fun, -- Clark! You gonna be at my wedding, right?"

Clark, dressed up in his blue overalls and paper sword, to fit the knight Bruce always calls him, nods, with a smile that doesn't match his words, " Course I will, Bruce. If you'll have me."

Now. Bruce is so very good at forging fantasies. But when a princess from a far away island rumoured to be populated entirely by women comes into town, it doesn't look like make believe at all.

"Women only? Lucky."

Lois doesn't have the time for dreams; She's a bonafide, concise, straight to the point realist. Taking truth by the throat and brings it to light.

And often enough, truth isn't pretty. And ugly truth, as Parry said, right before booting her right out of her job, doesn't sell.

Luckily, Clark's folks were nice enough to give her a delivery job cause Clark can't drive worth a damn. Still. If she's gonna watch him contain another dreamy sigh for Bruce, she'll blow chunks.

"Did you see her in them papers?! That's the prettiest woman I ever did see!"

Mr. Wayne growls behind his newspaper (that Lois could've written better than fucking JIMMY) and Bruce doubles down, " Um. After mama."

Mr Thomas smiles. "Hm. Guess you're finally getting that princess, huh, Brucie?"

Even in adulthood, Bruce squeals like a strangled kitten, " Where's Clark? Can't have the perfect wedding without the perfect best man!" Lois bites her lip and stacks up the peaches in Mrs. Wayne's Cafe.

After all these years, she just refuses to let that old place go. Lois has to respect that. Martha gives her a sympathetic look, warms her up with a mother's love. " How's work, Lo?"

"It's work, Mrs. Wayne. Thank you for that big order for the masquerade ball. At this point, you're the only ones keeping that farm alive..."

"Give those apples some credit," she winks, but squeezes Lois' hand, " If you ever need anything..."

"Thank you. But I don't take handouts."

"Pride won't buy you food, honey. But I guess I gotta wait for you to open your own newspaper. Then I'll make you rich. You'll see."

Bruce is just hugging and squeezing on Clark's arm, ranting a mile a minute about his wedding colors, his cake flavor, the honeymoon, all while nuzzling Clark's toned arm.

And Clark does what he does best; Hide behind a smile.

Alfred sighs, " If he wasn't mine, I'd whack that boy's head with a pan."

"You'll do no such thing, or so help me!"

"Save it for the after party, Tommy dear," Martha chuckles, " But I gotta understand, -- this Diana lady's making waves. I never even seen a woman talk to the mayor before. Let alone yell at 'Im."

"That's cause Tommy Elliot only wants women under his desk," A roll of the eye, a coil of disgust fanning resentment In her gut, Lois takes the box. "Sides, little miss princess probably ain't better than he is. "

The problem with always looking back is you're never ready for the forward.

When Lois bumps up in something tall, solid, and warm, she thinks its Clark. Except neither she or Clark smell like vanilla ice cream and clean air and blue oceans.

Clark certainly doesn't have long, majestic hair gracefully dancing in the winds. He doesn't have blood red lips, or strong blue eyes.

Clark's eyes were summer sky blue. Not a blue Medusa herself couldn't stone.

And he certainly doesn't make her heart stop with a smirk.

"Well," Diana Fucking Prince says, voice satin and velvet, "I don't know about being a better. But I could change your mind about that."

[chumpovodir]

i don't have it in me at the moment to make a long, detailed rant about this but r/castlevania's insistence that games!Isaac is a lesser character for being a "self-harm obsessed, shallow BDSM playboy that only serves as an inciting incident" compared to N!Isaac?

first of all, i think y'all are letting anime stereotypes from the early 2000s massively color your opinion and it's really obvious you didn't bother looking at his character any deeper than that. edit: i'm putting this under a cut because it was actually, in hindsight, a pretty long post lmao

"BDSM playboy"? my man was sitting in the ruins of his home for 3 goddamn years letting the clothes rot off his back, in no condition to care about his appearance and with precious little materials to forge something new. you could also argue that his skimpy look is a mark of his arrogance (already well-established by his fight with Hector previously, and feeling so cocksure he sends his Devil away and even arms Hector with a sword, confident he could easily take him in a fair fight), going into battle barely clothed as a show of faith in his own skill after playing Hector like a fiddle. or even as a radical show of his devotion, the Devil Forgemasters crest embedded in his skin for the world to see; the fact that the physical marks of his position may fade away, but it goes so much deeper than that - it's seared into his very flesh, and will only die when he and his corporeal form finally leave this earth. also, it just speaks to a really shallow understanding of BDSM in general to associate "skimpy strappy outfit = kinky"

"self-harm obsessed"? first of all, where is ANYONE getting this notion from the game itself?? (considering there's a very low chance these people even know about the mangas) there is literally no scene in-game where he self-harms - further proof people are grafting a grab bag of stereotyped character traits onto him when the canon doesn't support it. if this is about his tattoos, i consider this a bit of a reach, but then i don't regularly associate tattoos with masochism.

there is of course this one, singular panel from Prelude to Revenge where we see him slitting his wrists:

but the context here makes it clear: 1) he's doing this as a morbid way to mark the passage of time and 2) most likely in response to the sheer contrast between him and Hector's respective situations - how would you feel seeing the guy who was at least partially responsible for your predicament living a happy life, while you're forced to live in the abandoned ruins of your home, constantly surrounded by all that you've lost? this is an act being shown when he's at his very lowest.

and this is the only instance we actually see - there is no other official material that implies this is something he does on the regular, although it's a popular headcanon considering the general fandom consensus that he most likely had a very rough start to life.

shitting on him for being "merely an inciting incident"? i don't even know what to say to this - do you understand how characters and stories work...? the narrative lives and dies on the push and pull of characters taking actions and other characters responding!

but it sure is curious (read: hypocritical) that this is a negative in these people's eyes when you point out the similarities between Lisa's and Rosaly's deaths.

sure, there is a bigger story about the cruelty of humanity as a whole that Lisa was executed, unprompted while Rosaly's execution was deliberately manipulated by Isaac - but that also adds to Isaac's character, the fact that both he and his younger sister were persecuted for being bonafide magic practitioners, and the sheer hypocrisy of and underhandedness of knowing that pain firsthand, and choosing to inflict it on an innocent woman anyway. it really shows how much his morals, if he ever had any, has truly eroded to the point he only cares about causing maximum damage.

i don't even want to waste my words on the ways N!Isaac is a worse character, comparatively, if you actually take into account the themes of the Devil Forgemasters' respective stories as presented in the games. but it does chap my asshole that, from this angle, both N!Isaac and N!Hector end up for the worse since now their stories are completely decoupled and it ruins the symbolism and duality that their game counterparts had.

[mirai-desu]

I drafted a meta rant on William two days before The News hit and I was just gonna delete this, but you know I'll just edit it. Because I do still love this character, and it's a testament to Stuart Martin (and well, Ben Edwards, I'll give him some credit where credit is due), given how Rachael New seems to view her creation now.

Because one of the greatest things about Miss Scarlet & The Duke really was how William grew and was developed a character.

As frustrating as the obstacles that RN threw in the path of Wiliza's romance were, and now what all has happened (I discussed theories here), it was so amazing to see William go from once viewing Eliza as engaging in "hobby" of hers, to then truly believing she's a very good bonafide detective.

And it's his words of encouragement that echo in Eliza's mind before we see her reopen her agency under her own name vs. her father's.

That's why I was so sure that the show was heading to have their professional and personal lives to come to a head at the same time. I'd long thought that, even before S4, that William will eventually leave Scotland Yard, and thought he was primed to do so upon his return from New York. He was struggling to get promoted, and now he was done the chaos and stress that culminated in him making a mistake that almost cost him his life.

Likewise, he saw working at Scotland Yard as a barrier between him and Eliza, and was looking for an option to get rid of that barrier. He loves her, and where we left him, he was willing to make sacrifices, and it was lining up with how unhappy he had become in his career. Ultimately as time worn on, we'd seen him grow to see Eliza more and more as an equal. Which should have played a part of where he was to go career-wise and how they should have picked things up with their relationship when he was to return. Now... well this isn't a rant about that (but this one is, ahem). But there was so much potential there.

The flashback episode not only showed us how Eliza and William met but also highlighted just how far he has come. He went from a workhouse in Glasgow, to a teen living on the streets London--begging a stall owner to let him work free for a day to prove he's a good worker, to being a Detective Inspector at Scotland Yard. But he also learned that that job was not everything to him. Eliza is. As things stand, unless we get a cameo from Stuart in the final episode (or perhaps just a letter that he's returning to London)... it seems like he ended up sacrificing his own happiness for her so that she may flourish. He'd never ask her to give up her career to be with him, so he was the one who had to go (again... there was a third option but different rant for a different time).

Outside of Eliza, we also saw William mentoring Fitzroy and taking him under his wing just as Henry had done for him. We saw him give back to the townspeople of London, him give food to a homeless man everyday as part as his routine. We saw just how much of a good, kind, man he is. Sure he was sometimes gruff, sometimes he was grumpy. Sometimes he was too protective of Eliza when he didn't need to be, but always there when she needed him. But ultimately, he was a hardworking, thoughtful, romantic at heart who tried to do the right thing.

[lokisgoodgirl]

What are your real thoughts on Odin? Like, you think the MCU made him a genuinely terrible dad, or do you think Ragnarok redeemed him enough? I just ask because i feel like he gets vilified so much in fanfic but didn't he call Loki his son too and say he loved him before he died?

When I think of Odin, I think of the Narcissist's Prayer:

That didn't happen.

And if it did, it wasn't that bad.

And if it was, that's not a big deal.

And if it is, that's not my fault.

And if it was, I didn't mean it.

And if I did,

you deserved it.

Suffice to say, I think he's a bonafide arsehole. To be fair, he's a dick to Thor too. The bad dad trope isn't unique to Odin though, @lokischambermaid and I were laughing the other eve about how Marcus Aurelias in Gladiator has suspiciously Odin-esque qualities.

Not captioned: "Son, you're a failure and I hate you"

So basically, yes I think he was a bad father, and a pretty shitty person. But then, he had nine realms to run. Somethings gotta give. Also I don't personally think Ragnarok redeemed him at all? 🤣🤣 that fade to death on a bombshell like Hela is the coldest shit I've ever seen.

xx

@ijuststareatstuffhereok89 idk if this falls in your rant categories but feel free

[yingchuchang]

Rant

I was happily going through #TimKon tags, and still I bumped into one post that labeled "destiel"...how the hell did Kon&Tim (Superboy&Red Robin) of Dc comics has anything to do with that necrophilia ship?! And BTW, both Kon and Tim could totally kick the butt of Castiel the Castrated into next week and would not like that winged rat at all, cause they are bonafide superheroes, not a useless coathanger.

This is ridiculous.:(

[jeyneofpoole]

prompting you to rant about tma s5 i only know this podcast through osmosis. never knew there was martin hate i always saw fanart and stuff and he seems like a fandom lil gay blorbo....

yin he IS a fandom little gay blorbo i and i still manage to hate him i’m a hashtag contrarian!!!!! seasons 1-4 contain some of the most amazing storytelling and writing i’ve ever seen in not just a podcast but like. media as a whole. and then you get to season five and it’s the terrible no good jon and martin fieldtrip where we stop to do a ten minute long navel-gazey pretentious slam poem and THEN take a break from progressing plot to be mad at jon for a situation that is maybe the most out of his control than a situation has ever been out of anyone’s control ever. martin will oscillate between hot and cold whenever he feels like it and they try to do the vile soft boy tea-loving sweatervest gay is actually a manipulative girlboss thing but he doesn’t come off as smart or cunning he’s just a cunt!!!! yes jon i squashed all of your doubt and guilt over revenging yourself on one of your enemies because i liked it and it was moral and right. not ten episodes later and maybe two other disintegrations (of bonafide evil demons basically) or whatever later he literally tells jon that he ‘wasn’t supposed to like it that much’ i need to kill him for real. also this is totally off topic but all of the fanart literally makes jon and martin into personified versions of those kiki and bouba images do you know what i’m talking about???? anyways i hate it it’s hideous. basically all of this is to say that the entire podcast crawled up its own ass and died. SAD!!!!

[sickenoughsteve]

Beef, Bars, and Banter: Navigating the Drake vs. Kendrick Feud and the Hilarity Ensuing

When I first came across Pop Base’s prompt to write something for their newsletter based on modern-day pop culture, like Drake, I wanted to hire a ghostwriter. 

Allegedly! Anyway…

I went to ChatGPT to see if I could streamline the process and create something funny, witty, and on-trend without spending too much time. It didn’t work at all. What came out (with specific prompts, even) was incredibly corny and very clearly written by AI. This is why we need REAL writers to be compensated fairly and given the correct resources to entertain and inform us properly.

Anyway, that’s my little rant on writing. But let’s go back to Drake. Right now, this man is getting cooked by the entire industry, yet it seems he’s holding his own? Whether our favorite cornball, who everyone admits is actually somewhat appealing in a way none of us can explain, is your favorite, or if you like the Pulitzer Prize winner, Kendrick, you must tip your hat to the revival of beef in the rap game.

This is fun!

I mean, The Weeknd is out here singing sultry diss bars, Future is butt-hurt for what seems to be the first time ever, Metro Boomin is catching strays simply because he’s good at making beats but doesn’t rap, Rick Ross is on IG calling Drake “whiteboy”, J Cole avoided a massacre but might have lost some respect in the process, Pusha T is somewhere saying “I told you so,” Kanye is continuing to be his same insane self… even Quavo and Chris Brown are getting intensely and perhaps almost violently disrespectful on the undercard for this headliner beef.

That said, rather than diving into this beef from all angles, I want to acknowledge that this is a lot of information to digest, and many battles are going on in this war. That’s why I will do my very best to give a bird’s-eye view of this whole situation and see if this perspective can help all of us enjoy it for what it is. Not necessarily to tell you who to “support” but rather to recognize that negativity might save us in 2024.

We’re missing pop culture events that unite and get us all thinking about the same things. That’s where I believe Kendrick and Drake are doing a massive service to hip-hop. Putting it all on the line gives us something great to sink our teeth into. I, for one, love it.

So, as far as comparing this beef to past beefs, I remember in middle school, hearing Nas on ‘Ether.’ It rocked my world. I was raised on Nas and thought of him as the ultimate rapper. A rapper’s rapper. Instantaneously upon hearing “Fuck Jay Z” several times in succession on the song, I became a bonafide 100% Jay Z hater.

Did I have a problem with Jay? Not really. He was a star. I liked his music and had absolutely no issues with him. But not anymore! Nas had set the stage for me to learn as much as possible about Jay Z and become skeptical of everything about him.

This time around, the same feeling is back. However, it’s even weirder because the internet is out here internetting. Drake has a team of social media people who ensure he has the best and most impactful content strategy any rapper in a beef could ask for.

The internet is all about timing and trolling. Drake and his team are certainly better equipped there. And it’s showing to be necessary. However, one could argue if the bars are all that matters, Kendrick might have him beat there. Hence, the need for Drake to win these small battles on social media.

I think the best thing about beef between world-class musicians is that we are instantaneously reminded that everybody is insecure and we all make mistakes. The goal of beef is to expose those missteps and air out those insecurities. Before, I never would have guessed Drake had a BBL, fake abs, and other body modifications. Does that make me hate him? Not really. Does it even bother me? No. Does it make me think he’s very weird? Hell yeah.

In this politically correct world, toxic masculinity makes a resounding comeback whenever rap beef is declared. That’s probably the most upsetting thing about this all, but at the same time, let me reiterate that it’s fun. In a world of Israel and Palestine headlines, one of the most significant elections of our history, climate issues, and other general sad, sad truths, this is something we quite certainly NEED.

Silly bullying.

Drake making fun of Kendrick’s shoe size is, frankly, hilarious. I don’t care at all that Kendrick is short. Why would I? It doesn’t matter one bit. But if you put it on a song, it’s GOING to be funny. But of course, he refers to him as “midget” a few too many times for our PC culture to be happy with him. I found this most interesting when stepping back and thinking about it all. To come across as “real” also means NOT being politically correct.

Drake came for Kendrick for making music with Taylor Swift. Meanwhile, he’s in a commercial singing and dancing to Taylor. Is working with one of the biggest stars of all time something you should be ashamed of? Clearly not. But it’s not manly. So we have to be embarrassed by it. Beef is confusing in 2024; that’s all I’m saying.

And Kendrick isn’t guilt-free, either. He told Drake he doesn’t like it when he says the N-word. Of course, Drake has a black father but was primarily raised by his white mother. Now, he must feel bad about using our culture’s most controversial word. Of course, there’s a lot a sociology professor could unpack about why this is wrong, but in rap beef, it’s fair game. And it works as a way to poke holes in Drizzy's entire being! So it plays.

Another thing. Before we had Rap Genius and could look up what these guys were saying, some more subtle jabs would go under the radar. But now, the whole thing—from Kendrick naming the song ‘Euphoria’ because of the HBO show Drake is a producer on—and the connection there to pedophilia to Drake calling his diss ‘Push Ups’—there’s simply lore everywhere you look.

I used to write for a company that covered Marvel/DC, comics in general, and action franchises, and the main thing I took away from it was that people love Easter Eggs. We love digging into the material and finding references to the past or things meant to not just be on the surface. That’s what we love most about rap beef - especially nowadays.

We want to make discoveries about these greats that make them less untouchable, to bring them down a peg. Interestingly, human nature is to humiliate those on top whenever possible. 

But alas.

So, whether you “don’t trust” Drake or love and agree that he’s winning this 20v1, you must admit this is “for the culture” and far from over. So buckle up; this will be a hilarious and fun ride.

[the-somewhat-rambling-reviewer]

Teen Wolf (2023) Movie Thoughts (Mostly Ranting)

Mainly, I'm disappointed.

First here are the things I'm neutral about/did like:

I honestly thought Liam was Stiles at first. It could just be me, but Sprayberry strongly resembles O'Brien, and Liam came across more like a mature, collected Stiles than a grown Liam in that first scene.

For all the issues I have with Derek's storyline, I did like both the writing and the acting presented dad!Derek. I liked the fact Derek is helping out law enforcement when there's fires being set around Beacon Hills.

Unfortunately, this is pretty much all I liked, and to be clear, mistaking Liam for Stiles is something I'm neutral about. I didn't particularly care one way or another about Liam in the movie, and I was fine with Stiles not being in the movie.

Liam's girlfriend is another thing I'm neutral about. I'm not going to hate on an actress for accepting a job when another actress was done dirty. I didn't dislike this new character, but I didn't see anything that made me interested in her, either.

Now onto what I didn't like.

For all I liked dad!Derek, it rubbed me the wrong way that there was no mention at all of Eli's mother. It seemed pretty clear to me that Eli was Derek's biological son, and so, this is not a case of single Derek adopting a kid, which, I'd be totally down for.

Look, was he married? Is he divorced? As much as I usually hate the trope of dead mothers, is she dead? Did he have a one-night stand, and she handed the baby over with explicit instructions to never contact her? Did he get involved with another horrible woman, and there's a court order stating that, if she comes within hundred feet of Beacon Hills before Eli is eighteen, she'll be arrested?

Moving on, I could unhappily accept complete lack of Corey, but Mason as a cop?

No.

Nope.

Uh-uh.

This is like if Lydia was a deputy.

Bear with the jumbled way I try to express this.

Sheriff Stilinski and Parrish are both intelligent men. In this universe, maybe, BLM doesn't even need to be a thing, because, the justice system is largely fair and about actually protecting people.

If so, then, the police would be essentially a blue-collar job, and I absolutely do not intend to demean honest, hard-working blue-collar workers.

Mason had an insanely high GPA, he genuinely loved science, was a bonafide bookworm, and there were hints he was from an upper-middle-class background.

If he decided on the justice system, he'd be a lawyer or some type of specialist, but I really doubt he'd decide on the justice system in the first place.

He wasn't particularly athletic, and while he wasn't one to naturally challenge authority, he wasn't one who would try to uphold authority, either. Yes, he wanted to help people, to protect them, but he was more, 'let's figure this out so that I can get back to kissing my boyfriend, working on my grades, and learning all this cool stuff about my friends,' than anything.

But moving on, I wish I could have liked the Ethan mention, but it's not great when a person goes to a dangerous place to put themselves in danger without telling their significant other, and it's even worse when they decide to do all this despite knowing that their significant other has big, big problems with them doing so.

Assuming Ryan Kelley or whoever that bare-bottom belonged to was okay with their naked bottom being shown and touched on TV, then, yay for equal opportunity fanservice, but ugh to Parrish/Malia.

Ugh to Malia apparently going by the surname Hale now.

I could have been on-board with Harris' return, but the movie had to frell that up.

I accepted a long time ago that Harris being Jackson's biological father wouldn't happen, but it's canon that Harris showed genuine concern, possibly even affection, for Jackson.

And of course, his motivation is that, like almost all the villains, whether correct in doing so or not, he blames Scott for his pain and suffering.

I wouldn't say Adam Fristoe was bad, he does seem to be a good actor, but aside from all my problems with Harris' role, I felt as if Fristoe was playing a way different character than Harris ever was.

Random, but when I first the line, "They call me Mister Tibbs," I thought, 'But the character is a detective.'

I had a similar thing when Peter referred to Deaton as 'Mister' Deaton. He is a licensed veterinary doctor.

The thing is, I honestly don't think this was a race thing with Deaton, but that's where my mind went.

Finally, onto Allison.

This had the potential to be great, but it wasn't.

Erica and Boyd were never brought up. So, everyone going on about how Allison wouldn't harm a fifteen-year-old boy- how old was Boyd when Chris himself said, paraphrased, 'Caught came awfully close to kill.'? Erica was sixteen when Allison shot an arrow at her whilst she was lying on the ground from another arrow shot.

Whether Allison ever truly felt bad for contributing to Erica's death or whether she was just horrified she became this person she recognised as immoral due to manipulation was, arguably, never made clear in the series.

That could have been explored. Has everything made her a coldly practical person who is determined never to cross certain moral lines and to follow this path of being a warrior, or is she a passionate, empathetic person who is trying to heal from the mistakes she wishes she could take back but knows she can't?

Chris had a line about how he'd kill to protect a fifteen-year-old boy, but whether he actually did hold a gun to Scott's head to get Allison to agree to stop seeing Scott or that was unreliable narration, he did do a lot of other things to make it clear that teenage shifters were lesser in his eyes.

And I'm still convinced, if he could have, he would have locked Lydia in his basement after her fugue state until she either died from a combination of starvation, dehydration, and possibly infection, or until she turned, whereupon he either would have killed her or secretly deposited her in Eichen's.

In the end, it was all about Scott/Allison, not about Allison rediscovering/reclaiming herself.

This is minor, but Scott not knowing what 'wistful' means was stupid. I didn't buy that.

That's all for now.

Fin.

[ara-mitama]

Makima’s appearance and her identity

I’m back after a long slumber...and I shall rant about Makima, once again.... Ever since the grand reveal surrounding Makima in chapter 75, there have been doubts regarding Makima’s appearance and her identity. Was Makima a fiend? Was she a hybrid? Why did she look like a human?

Oh, Makima is a devil alright. Neither a fiend, nor a hybrid, a bonafide devil is what she is. Let there be no doubt about that. She just happens to look human. But why was she alone blessed (if I may say so) with looks that’d instantly hook the average unsuspecting human male. Why does she look human, and did Fujimoto decide to represent her as a female? Well, it certainly isn’t a plot hole as many assume it is...

READ MORE!

[leam1983]

Creeping Terror

It's not every day your shift ends with your boss asking you to take a really weird CSI ticket...

To summarize:

Client's this sweet English teacher in Outremont, West of Montreal

Just kindness distilled. You'd sell your soul to her, really

She tells me that an embattled Mazda dealership usually meets her needs, but that one Customer Service Rep has obvious issues

Poor girl left her lights on overnight, her battery went kaput, she had to call the dealership to have guys ship her a new battery

The one rep associated to her case blew up in her face, saying they knew she'd been abusive toward her car, somehow

She asked how and why, and the fucking bonkers idiot says they've put cameras in her car. He goes on a full-on Orwellian rant in front of her and five other customers.

The whole while, he's calling her names and bringing her to tears

I jot down the related details and call up my BF, who can pull up bills of service or other CSI requests

He calls me five minutes later and passes the dealership's Head of Sales

Dude sounds exasperated beyond belief - and familiar with this particular Service Rep's rigamarole.

I learn that some dealerships, including this one, sometimes work with the cops for gang and drug busts and can sometimes get commissioned to mount cameras in a car that's going to be used for a sting operation. The camera-obsessed Service Rep apparently Hasn't Been The Same since he's tasted of the power of court-order-sanctioned breaches in privacy

The fucko thinks "You've got cameras up the ass, fucker!" now works as a dissuasive practice against customers who'd want to file a complaint

He apparently genuinely thinks that some of the routine mechanic-related stuff he does now involves slipping spy cameras into customers' vehicles.

There's a long, loooong silence on my end.

"Tell me the guy's on meds. Please."

The dealership's Head of Sales sighs. "He's been at Philippe-Pinel a couple times. That was Joe's last offense, as far as I'm concerned. I'm firing him tomorrow morning."

For context, the Philippe-Pinel Institute is Canada's most widely-known specialized psych institute, a bonafide nuthouse that's almost as historical as Montreal's oldest buildings.

[aceshavens]

a quick little drabble, based on the words “ward, guard, youth”

——————

“Alright guys, break it up!”

Max Mayfield groans in relief, immediately skating over to the side of the ice rink and hauling herself over the rim. It’s hard with the forty extra pounds of hockey gear weighing her down, but she’s sure that she manages to look cool regardless. Hawkins wasn’t big enough for an indoor ice rink, so every November a couple of high school jocks were recruited into setting up a slap-shod rink.

It’s nice because they don’t have to worry about seating everyone like in the school gymnasium, and after getting tackled she can stare up into the sky and wallow in her misery for a few seconds before forcing herself up. However, the gusts of wind that had been buffeting her from all sides this entire morning weren’t as pleasant, especially since she’s no longer moving.

It’s days like this, where the sun does little to alleviate the chill of winter that leave Max wishing that she had stayed in California. It is a guilty wish, and a foolish one because if she was still in California she would have never met Lucas. Or El. Or Mike or any of the others. But goddamnit, she missed having winter be a vaguely cool season instead of whatever kind of hell a midwestern winter was. Winter break was still two weeks away for christ sake, Max thinks grumpily.

A hand lands on her shoulder, and she twists around to see Steve smiling at her in his awful earsearing windbreaker. He, of course, looks perfectly fine and not cold at all. Max hates him a little.

“You’re killing it out there kid,” He says, patting her on the back with enthusiasm, “I really liked the way you sent Collin’s scrawny ass flying.”

Max grins at the reminder. Jacob Collins was a scrawny boy barely a year older than her, and he liked to spend most of his time chasing after girl’s skirts and drinking cheap-ass beer. She would have disliked just for that, but he liked to say shit like I can’t believe Harrington let that redhaired bitch join community hockey.

Hence, the hard shove she had given him when he had skated too close to the goalie posts, a move that wasn’t exactly game-legal. Max hadn’t expected for him to go flying, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel bad for him and his broken nose.

“He had it coming,” Is what she decides to say, “He should really pay attention or he’ll be a ‘weakling dragging down the entire team’” She makes quotations marks around the last part of that, and Steve’s grimace tells her that he recognizes from one of Collin’s many, many rants.

“Forget about him, Max. He’s a little punk that’s too cowardly to say shit to your face.” He grins, , “Besides, if you keep on improving you’ll probably be the best player on the team.”

Max scoffs a little, but- Steve is nice, but he’s not a good liar like most nice people are. When he says shit like that, he actually means it. The realization sends a wave of fondness through her, and she scuffs the floorboards with the tip of her skate, looking down so she can hide her smile. She’s pretty sure she fails.

“You really think so?” The words come out more vulnerable than she intended. But Steve doesn’t skip a beat.

“Hell yeah I do.” He pats her back again, harder this time, “You’re a bonafide natural. The poor sods you’re plating against will piss their pants when they see you.”

Max laughs, sharp and high. A couple of the boys glance over, and she can she the way one or two of them blanch at whatever expression is crossing her face right now, Good, she thinks fiercely, they should be afraid.

[wryrlia]

totally not a late intro post :(

✦ i go by ana or theo preferably, or just by my username, totally okay with either one. bonafide they/them user and i use neutral gendered terms (i use dude as a neutral gendered LMAO), eighteen and very very queer ashell. i'm in the gmt+8 timezone <3 also sort of a tarot practitioner and roleplayer ahah.

✦ my account is mostly consisting of random rambles and occassional art of my ocs or from fandoms i enjoy. it looks deader than dead since i just lurk around most of the time and i tried migrating to other accounts.

✦ so very tldr this is a silly happy fun place for me and is most likely unserious for the most part, english isn't my first language exactly so you might see weird ass grammar from time to time. i don't have much boundaries, just be patient with me please.

ANYWAY TIME FOR THE IMPORTANT BITS

✦ main fandoms i would most likely post about; in no particular order

villainous ; cult of the lamb ; creepypasta ; slenderman mythos ; the bendy franchise ; invader zim ; undertale (+aus) ; deltarune ; eddsworld ; the owl house ; chzo mythos ; arcane ; zelle ; fear and hunger ; and a whole shit load of rpg maker / indie games that i forgot to name out

✦ those are just the main ones, probably forgot some aa, i'm trying to delve into oc content more but i might just sporadically post them compared to fanart for now.

✦ it's an old ass account but i'm too attached to part with my old posts, so i'm merely separating them with a border and all.

@/ner1umol3and3r, @/wiltedthornns and @/theatriarch were all me LMAO (username refs cause all accounts failed wahh)

tags tags and more tags

#speaking incoherently > thoughts, rambles and rants basically

#blast to the past yeehaw > old posts / art posts

#consistentlyinconsistentbutshhh > horrible name but i can't think of a better official art tag actually i'll add more tags when the time comes because i genuinely can't think of any right now >:(

[reggiexcpt]

Random Rants: Hogwarts Legacy A BONAFIDE HIT As The Woke Mob's Cancel Cu...

[yostresswritinggirl]

Bonafide Specials Rant

Exiled, before the event : Maybe based on their placement, the top one would be longer than the second placer, and that one longer than the third placer.

Third Place Fic: 4337 Words

Exiled: Ah... Never fuck*n mind then,,,

Exiled, when asked about the event: *holds up fist* It's not about the likes wldnskbsh it's all about the importance of exercising your

right to vOTE-//shot by democracy//

Oh gawd this event just turned into "how many words can Exiled write under 24 hours" event lmaaao-

[littleboyirwin]

you know what bugs me? what bugs me is that people on twitter are okay with bad grammar/spelling (i.e. mixing up “your” and “you’re” and adding apostrophes to make plurals (sunday’s) *gag*). “it’s twitter, it’s not school/not an essay, they know what i mean, it’s not a big deal, and it’s not that deep.” yeah. sure, jan. it isn’t.

for now.

sooner or later, you’re gonna get used to typing/writing like that and that horrendous grammar is gonna carry over into your real life where people are gonna make fun of you for not knowing the difference between your and you’re. and then other people are gonna adapt to your terrible writing and start writing like that, too. and sure, people (on twitter) might get what you mean but when you pull that shit outside of that hellsite (tumblr is still the #1 hellsite, though), people are gonna look at you like you’re a dumbass and wonder if you passed freshman english. wouldn’t you want to have some intellectuality and at least look like you know difference?

and let’s not forget the infamous who’s v. whose case (play on words)! but that’s for another time.