#but like charles... they got better roles elsewhere so good for them

[guardian-angle22]

911 Lone Star | Talking about TK’s ~brushes with death~

[in--somnium]

@forgivingtouches (I’m too lazy to find the meme, but you know what this is lmao)

It might have sounded a little macabre to say, but Scott always assumed he’d die first. In fact, he was practically counting on it. Julie had come to the school looking to learn control of her powers, but she was not built for battle. She didn’t want to be. But Scott? He’d been fighting this fight most of his life. He threw himself into it without hesitation, took his role as a leader almost too seriously. It was uncommon that he walked out of a fight before the last of his team got off of the battlefield. Because that’s what leaders did- they looked out for their own. They made plans, formulated strategies. He knew he could tell them “C Formation” and his team would get to their positions without question because they trusted him. He was strategic. He was intelligent. He was a fighter and a survivor. And he was a mentor. Because first and foremost, this was a school. They kept the battles elsewhere as often as they could (though the occasional ambush on the mansion happened, they were generally fairly rare and quickly stopped). The kids here, even the adults like Julie who didn’t want to fight, were meant to be kept safe. To be kept away from the worst parts of the world. To learn in comfort and peace for as long as they so chose. And, generally, that’s what they had- rather normal lives. 

Yet when you have as large of a target on your back as mutantkind does, it’s not easy to hide in the shadows forever, even if you wish you could. It’s only a matter of time before something, or someone, finds you. In this case, there was no attack on the school. There was no attack on the students. There was nothing, as far as any of them were aware. Because the day had been typical in every sense of the word. Good morning kisses. Breakfast. Classes. Lunch. More teaching. And so it went, all things falling into place as usual. Until he couldn’t find her. He’d dismissed his last class of the day about 15 minutes early, an odd feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. He had texted Julie about half an hour earlier and not heard back yet. That didn’t usually happen. Hell, she hadn’t even left him on “read”, just on “sent”. Maybe she’d lost her phone? Or maybe she was busy? He hoped it was one or the other. What else could it be? But this typical day had just taken a turn, and Scott was, for the next half hour or so, completely unaware of it.

Being not only a mutant, but the leader of the main team of X-Men, Scott didn’t just have a target on his back- he was the target. His enemies would do anything to undermine him, hurt him, destroy him. And while some, like the Brotherhood, were usually against killing mutants (as they were simply trying to help their kind, much like the X-Men, albeit with a darker approach), there were plenty of others who wanted them dead. What was happening to Julie, he would soon discover, was meant to be a warning.

Not seeing her around was strange. Not being able to contact her was even stranger. When he asked around, no one had seen her recently, and it was this that really tied him in knots, made him feel like he might be sick. But he wasted no time in rushing to the professor, getting him to use Cerebro to find her. No questions were asked, no alternate options offered. Scott was clearly in a state of panic, and Charles knew better than to hesitate when Scott came running. Even when it came to Julie, he was usually pretty level headed, after all. There was a short wait as Charles tried to pick up on her thoughts, and when he finally did, it took self-control not to gasp. “I’ve found her.”

It was a rush to edges of the woods just beyond the small lake at the center of the grounds. She wasn’t dead yet, but she was already on the brink of it. And it wasn’t just Scott who had come- Logan had followed him for extra protection, Hank for any immediate medical attention, and Jean to try to calm and stabilize Julie’s mind and levitate her back to the mansion more steadily than human hands possibly could. Despite that, though, Scott held Julie’s hand the entire way back, his jaw set firm, glad for the ruby quartz sunglasses that hid the already forming tears- something between relief for having found her and sorrow for the state of her. Bloodied and broken and dying. 

The wait was the worst part, though. Nearly 3 full days, about 67 hours, of waiting. Pacing. Sitting at her bedside in case she should wake up. And for a time, on day 2, they had her stabilized, thought she might just be okay. But even all the advancements they had here, all the medical technology at their fingertips, wasn’t enough. And it was at that 67th hour, with Julie hooked up to life support, barely alive and still comatose, that Hank finally caved in, told Scott that he should prepare to say his goodbyes. And it was at that 67th hour, also, that Scott felt that he might just die, as well. Because the atmosphere was so heavy he was suffocating. Hell, he thought his heart might have stilled in his chest, threatened to stop beating altogether for the words that Hank had just said.  The moment he was alone in the room with her again, he pressed one of her hands between his, rested his forehead against her, and sobbed his heart out onto her shoulder. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. It couldn’t. There had to be- there had to be another way. Something. Anything. Yet he knew that if Hank was the one saying there was nothing else to be done, then it was because he had already tried everything.

In the hour or so that followed, people gathered. Not everyone was informed, only those whom it would concern most, and Scott had to watch them as they slowly filed in and out of the room to see her one last time. The whole while, he didn’t leave her side. If anyone wanted to hug or kiss her or hold her hand as they said their goodbyes, they’d have to round to the other side of her bed, because Scott wasn’t going to budge. And though he had stopped with the body shaking sobs of a man losing everything, he had not stopped crying. He wasn’t an overly sensitive guy most of the time, and if the circumstances weren’t so dire then he supposed that someone like Logan might have even teased him for a little. But no one said a word directly to Scott, except to apologize. As if any of this had been their fault. As if any of them had had any bit of control over the situation. Why did people apologize when someone died? It was, he supposed, the proper thing to do. The kind thing when no other words could reach a person. But it felt so... so distant. Julie was still lying here breathing through a machine, still alive as someone could be when they had only minutes left to live, and all anyone could muster was an “I’m sorry”. Later, in hindsight, he wouldn’t feel so angry about it, but right now it was like he needed to direct his anger somewhere. His rage at the whole situation. How cruel fate was to ruin her like this. To take someone as soft and kind as Julie and to throw her away so suddenly. And all for what? To make a statement? To enact a brutal bit of vengeance? (Oh, when he found out who did this, he would show them vengeance).

Scott asked for a few more minutes alone with her before they let it all end, before the machines were shut off and her body grew cold. Just long enough to kiss her goodbye. To sit with her a little longer, sing her her favorite song one last time as his finger gently brushed an already tepid cheek. He wondered if she was in pain. He hoped not. He hoped that Jean’s attempts to soothe her mind had helped, and that the morphine still steadily dripping into her veins was keeping her comfortable. Keeping her numb to the extensive injuries. “I’m sorry, Julie.” He said softly, bringing her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss against her knuckles, “This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have- we shouldn’t have-” She would have been safe if they weren’t together. The attack had been targeted at him, to hit him where it hurt most. And she had been a casualty in this fucked up game. Who would go to such extents to hurt someone like her? To decide to kill an innocent bystander who dared to love a soldier like him? It was disgusting. It was pure evil to do something like this. And Scott could feel the rage still settled deep inside of him, rising the more he thought about it.  But right here, right now, was about Julie. It was about being as close to her as he would ever be again. It was about brushing her hair back with his fingers and watching her, pretending that she was just asleep. As much as he wished he wouldn’t, he’d always have this image of her like this trapped in his head. It would live with him until the day he died- seeing her so pale, so helpless. Seeing her shallow breaths forced by a mask feeding her oxygen. “I hope you know I love you.” He continued, that same soft tone, his lips still brushing her skin ever so slightly, taking it all in, trying to breathe her in like he could keep her here inside of himself forever. In a way, he would. Always, “I had a ring picked out and everything. Jean and Kitty helped me plan a proposal.” The smallest chuckle, melancholic and ending with a soft sob, “Guess that’s kind of meaningless now. But I hope... I hope you would have said yes. And that, in some universe, somewhere, you did. And we get to live our own little happily ever after. I don’t know what that would have looked like-” because he tried not to plan too far ahead for exactly this reason- life had a way of ruining things, “but it would have been nice, right? You and I. Maybe a kid someday?” He didn’t know that he could have made fatherhood work, but he would have tried if it was what she wanted, “I think we would’ve been really happy, Julie.” Happier, even, than they had been up until just a few days ago. And while Scott knew he was far from perfect, he’d been trying to change that. He’d been trying to be better for her. He hoped that, even if he’d never gotten as far as he’d wanted to, that she had been happier for the things about himself that he had tried to fix to be better for her, “I hope there’s something more for us beyond this life. Because our time wasn’t meant to be up yet. I can feel it.”

“Scott?” He turned to look at Hank, and the other man nodded. If he was ready, it was time. And while Scott would never actually be ready, he supposed he was about as ready as he could be. To prolong it was doing neither him nor her any favors. But as the oxygen mask was removed and the only sound left was the slowing sound of the heart monitor, he kept her hand between both of his, “Julie, baby-” he said softly, “It’s okay. You can rest now. You can go.” He assured her. If there was any part of her still fighting, he wanted to assure her she could stop. Not because he didn’t want her to survive, but because he knew that it was a pointless battle. A war she needn’t wage, “It’s okay.” He said again, his voice shaky with emotion, the tears that he’d only just managed to quell now rising up again, “I love you, Julie. This isn’t over for us. I promise.” Those final words were met, only a moment after, with the earth shattering hum of the heart monitor flatlining. One last breath leaving in a rattle. And shock set in for the next fifteen seconds or so as he said her name again, then once more, as if doing so might make her wake up. But when nothing changed, and Hank turned off the heart monitor, Scott wept. Not the self-indulgent sobbing of before, but the anguished weeping of love lost. He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there like that, clutching her limp hand between his own even as her skin cooled. It could have been 5 minutes. It could have been 5 hours. It was all meaningless, anyhow. Everything felt meaningless without her. And it was Jean who finally quietly helped him leave the room as they covered Julie’s body to take her out. He would find whoever did this. He would hunt them down if need be. And he would show them no mercy when he finally ended their sorry life. Not because it was what Julie would have wanted, but because someone who could do something so awful didn’t deserve the kindness afforded by living.

[scottydd]

**By piling pressure on the chancellor and Treasury mandarins, the former PM engineered nine meetings to lobby for Greensill**

David Cameron resigned as prime minister and left No 10 in July 2016. But when the pandemic tore through Downing Street almost four years later, it was as if he had never been away.

On April 3 last year, as Boris Johnson was in quarantine, Cameron emailed an old colleague in Downing Street with an extraordinary demand. He explained that the chancellor’s emergency loan scheme to help big businesses, in its current form, seemed “nuts”. The former prime minister told an ex-aide: “What we need most is for Rishi \[Sunak\] to have a good look at this and ask officials to find a way of making it work.”

Cameron’s wanted the programme redesigned to include Greensill Capital: a privately owned financial services firm that was in trouble. Having met its founder — Lex Greensill, the son of Australian sugar cane farmers, while in No 10 — Cameron was working as an adviser to the company. He held share options worth tens of millions of pounds. A personal fortune was on the line.

The Treasury had written to Greensill that day rejecting the idea of giving the company special help: the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) was a way for the state to lend money to blue-chip companies, not to a financial services start-up. Charles Roxburgh, the Treasury’s second most senior official, spoke for Sunak, having “obtained a view” directly from the chancellor. The conclusion was firm: “We cannot consider your request further.”

However, Cameron would not take no for an answer. He began a lobbying campaign that soon secured Greensill special access to the Treasury’s most senior officials. The financier was able to pitch his ideas and exert his charms at the highest levels of government for months.

[Greensill Capital](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/david-cameron-lobbied-no-10-and-hancock-for-greensill-nht3x2c5z) later became an accredited lender under a separate scheme, granting taxpayer-backed loans worth almost half a billion pounds.

A year on, Greensill Capital is in administration having imploded under the weight of its debts. Cameron’s share options are worthless. The company’s collapse threatens 55,000 jobs globally, including 5,000 in Britain. Johnson has not ruled out bailing out Britain’s third biggest steel business, Liberty, which faces bankruptcy as a direct consequence of Greensill’s disintegration.

### Questions for Cameron

For these reasons the list of questions about Cameron’s conduct keeps growing. Was it proper for the former prime minister to lobby ex-colleagues directly on behalf of a toxic firm in which he had a financial interest? How was a private citizen able to bend Whitehall to his will?

Cameron has refused to comment on the affair. A “friend” suggested on Friday that he regretted texting the chancellor. But today, emails leaked to The Sunday Times reveal in Cameron’s own words further attempts to lobby insiders . They also pose questions for the chancellor.

It all began at 2.23pm on April 3, 11 days after the start of the first lockdown, when Roxburgh sent his rejection letter to Greensill, saying helping his company would create an unhelpful “precedent” for the Treasury. The department’s scepticism made sense.

The CCFF scheme was designed to give temporary taxpayer-funded loans to the biggest companies in Britain: retailers, construction giants or manufacturers which, in their own right, were deemed to make a big contribution to the economy and had to be saved at all costs.

In contrast, Greensill, a plucky finance start-up, wanted to do something entirely different: use taxpayers’ money to issue its own loans to small and medium businesses left vulnerable to late payments or a lack of cash due to the pandemic.

Sunak was not unsympathetic to such concerns: the Treasury, though, was designing other schemes to address them. To give Greensill a role under CCFF, the Bank of England would have to change its “market notice” — the rules set for the financing scheme.

Cameron was undeterred. His first port of call was an impressive young MP who entered parliament in 2015, only to disappoint him by backing Brexit the next year: Sunak himself. Perhaps the chancellor would have better news for his old master now. Cameron texted him asking to talk. The response was polite: “I am stuck back to back on calls but will try you later this evening and if it gets too late, first thing tomorrow.”

Cameron looked elsewhere. He contacted two MPs who had served under him and were now ministers in Sunak’s team, John Glen and Jesse Norman.

He also rang Sheridan Westlake: a veteran special adviser whose No 10 career encompassed Cameron, May and Johnson’s tenures, and whose focus, business, made him the ideal contact for the moment. He got through and the pair spoke.

At 5.28pm, Cameron sent a follow-up email, telling Westlake it was “great to talk” and putting his cards on the table, saying he needed to “find a way of making it work”. The former prime minister added: “It seems nuts to exclude supply chain finance \[Greensill’s speciality\]. We all know that the banks will struggle to get these loans out the door — and so other methods of extending credit to firms become even more important.”

Cameron attached a detailed list of bullet points outlining what Greensill wanted and why, explaining that the company had the “scale, technology, UK-based staff and capability” to make a real difference.

They at once exhibited confidence and desperation, with one stating: “Surely HMG \[Her Majesty’s Government\] should be seen to be supporting UK Fintechs \[financial technology groups\].”

There was also a warning: failure to help Greensill would “almost certainly” mean that businesses across the country would not get the help they needed.

Cameron signed off the memo: “All good wishes, DC.”

### Treasury changed stance after ex-PM’s lobbying

Like many ideas put forward by Greensill, who liked to speak in language about “democratising finance”, it was never said explicitly who the real winners were likely to be: not the taxpayer or businesses people but his own company.

There was scant mention of the company’s core business model either: paying a company’s invoices upfront in exchange for a fee.

In any case, the official is understood to have forwarded Cameron’s request on to the Treasury. What happened next is unclear. But within days of Cameron’s lobbying, the Treasury’s outright “no” suddenly turned into a “maybe”. Even though Johnson was now in intensive care, and his ministers were grappling with the biggest postwar crisis, Sunak’s officials were made to find the time to hold Zoom meetings with Greensill to hear more about its ideas.

On April 7, Tom Scholar, the Treasury permanent secretary and Roxburgh held a virtual meeting with Greensill representatives, who “had been thinking hard about how they could propose something that fits with the purpose of the CCFF” and would not require the market notice to be changed. If the official view was that their original plan did not work, then the Australian financier would happily work up something else that did.

The Treasury considered Greensill’s revised ideas and appeared willing to be flexible. On April 15, Roxburgh wrote, saying Greensill’s tweaked plan still “doesn’t address our central problem” — but that an alternative he had proposed on the phone might work. “We and the Bank \[of England\] would be happy to discuss the details of this approach and could move ahead quickly on this basis.”

###

[1863-project]

I’m at the end of my first-ever Omega Ruby run, and I’ve honestly had a great time getting to know Hoenn. I just have to evolve some Pokemon and catch the Regis and Deoxys before I move along (I’m waiting to trade with folks to finish the Dex properly, but I can do that at any point), but I think it’s worth doing a retrospective on the characters and Pokemon I met along the way.

As a region, Hoenn is unique in that it has a LOT of water routes. You spend a large portion of the second half of the game traveling via Surf. The Azumarill in my party, Pikablue, ended the game knowing Waterfall, Surf, and Dive (it also carries Play Rough), and it was one of the most crucial members of my party for transport purposes.

When I won the Hoenn League, the team May (named ‘Hatshepsut’ in my playthrough because we love cool historical figures in this house) had with her was her evolved starter, a Blaziken named Cluck You, along with Pikablue the Azumarill, Pangaea the Groudon, Charles II the Shiftry, Friendo the Latios, and the team anchor, Bastet the overleveled Skitty. I beat Steven because Bastet dodged a Zen Headbutt from Metagross and gave me the time I needed to revive both Blaziken and Groudon in the back, and their fire moves handled the rest. Bastet went on to become the first party member to reach level 100, way ahead of everyone else. She was absolutely incredible and I love her. Her final moveset: Heal Bell (surprisingly useful, especially in Doubles), Thunder, Ice Beam, and Play Rough. She’s a Dragon Slayer.

As soon as I got my hands on the Eon Flute I started running around to check every Mirage location that came up in the hopes that it would be a Mirage Cave. I knew that was where Tynamo was, and I needed Eelektross to complete the Submas team I was building (the other nine members are in SwSh at the moment; Eelektross will hopefully someday join them). On November 30th, my persistence paid off, and I went and caught three Tynamos so I could have the entire evolutionary line in my National Dex in Pokemon HOME. As it turns out, Eelektross still hasn’t been added to HOME because Third Rail has become a vital member of my party in postgame and I love him and he loves me. (I’m just Emmet, really.) The Eon Flute is also really nice in that using it allows you to literally fly in real time over the entire region, and I prefer doing that to using Fly because it’s just so aesthetically nice. Friendo just swoops down and picks me up, and we have a nice time exploring together. It’s especially pretty at night when everything is all lit up. It’s a lovely little feature exclusive to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and it’s so great.

Character-wise, Hoenn has produced some notables. Magma and Aqua are two of the most beloved villain teams in the entire franchise, and the reboots gave them so much more personality and gave the leaders and admins some excellent updated designs. (Years ago, when the remakes were first released, my dash was filled to the brim with Hardenshipping.) I had OR, so I had Magma to contend with, and one of the single most entertaining things in the entire game is Maxie’s losing animation. It’s perfect, it suits his character so well, and it’s just really funny. Also, shout-out to the Team Magma grunt that I met in the Extremely Obvious Hideout who told me how proud he was of kicking his soda habit whilst standing next to the vending machines. I love that guy. In terms of reformation, Magma and Aqua come around very easily when they realize that they’ve had a very bad idea - they ultimately were well-intentioned but made a really horrible mistake and set out to set things right (with the player’s help, of course). It ultimately makes both teams very likeable.

In terms of other characters, not every Gym Leader from Hoenn is a complete standout, but a few are very, very popular. Flannery is a perfect time capsule of 2003 fashion and I love that so much, and I don’t think I need to say much about Wallace. He’s just Wallace. He’s so freaking entertaining. Steven is also a very popular Champion, and he plays a pretty big role in the plot, so you see a lot of him throughout the game. (He and Wallace are also a very popular ship, with Originshipping - named for the Cave of Origin which Wallace has to grant you access to - actually being referenced in Pokemon Masters on, of all days, Valentine’s Day. Make of this what you will, but I’m here for it.) The Gym Leaders all received redesigns as well, with a lot of them benefiting greatly from it - I like Roxanne’s new school uniform so much better than her old one, for example, and once again, Wallace outshines everyone with an ensemble that would go wonderfully at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. I wish we got to know the Gym Leaders a bit more as people, because they don’t get to stand out as characters as much. Galar actually did this very well by allowing us a lot of interactions with the Leaders outside the Gyms and as teammates and rivals in the Galarian Star Tournament. A big part of the reason Wallace is so popular as a Gym Leader here is that you see him outside the Gym multiple times and can even compete with him in Contests. You get to know him as a person more and not just as the eighth Gym Leader, and it makes him a much more interesting character.

In short, here’s how the League stacks up for me:

Roxanne: Benefited massively from her character redesign, which gives her a lot more personality. Would like to see her and Steven interact since they’re apparently friends, which I imagine revolves around going out and licking rocks together or whatever geologists do with their geologist friends.

Brawly: He still isn’t very distinct. He’s a surfer who trains Fighting-types, which is a bit of a subversion since you’d expect Water-types from someone like that, but nothing about him really pops for me.

Wattson: Gives off Grandpa Vibes. Wattson actually gets a lot of expository development via his work on New Mauville and Sea Mauville, where you find out he halted the projects to protect the Pokemon ecosystems in both locations. A lot of employees were angry about this and he was even investigated briefly for stopping the projects, even being called a traitor to the company (which appeared to overwork its employees and prevent them from unionizing), but it was apparently evidently clear that he did things out of environmental concerns, and the employees were able to find work on other projects elsewhere. This actually slots nicely into the themes of the game involving environmentalism and how to ensure the livelihoods of people and nature both.

Flannery: Time capsule from 2003! I was, of course, around in 2003 (I turned 14), and Flannery was at the peak of fashion back then. Flares were in, and I miss that trend so much. For that alone, she’s one of my favorite Gym Leaders in this generation, but I also appreciate that she’s shown trying to find her footing and figure out who she is instead of pretending to be someone else. There’s a certain performative aspect to being a Gym Leader, but it needs to come naturally from them and be an extension of their own personality, not be artificial. I would, however, love to know who her grandfather is. It’s still never been confirmed. (As a side note, a lot of people headcanon her to be Kabu’s niece, since he’s from Hoenn, which is cute.)

Norman: A Dad. More specifically, the player character’s dad. There’s really nothing that stands out about him except for that damn Slaking, which gives a lot of people trouble. I did, however, appreciate the conversation he had with Wally’s father as Wally and the player character departed together, because I’m actually pretty close to my own father (who I’m very similar to in many aspects). I’m 31 years old and I still get emotional every time my parents tell me they’re proud of me. Notably, Norman is the only player character father we have ever seen in Pokemon, though, which is odd.

Winona: In-game, she doesn’t feel like she has much of a personality, although she goes off on aesthetics pretty well. It just weirds me out that that’s her hair coming out from under the helmet and not wings attached to it. She could have been really cool but she gets the short end of the development stick.

Tate and Liza: The two of them intentionally playing up the ‘weird twins’ angle by completing each other’s sentences actually comes across really cutely because they’re kids. You can also run into them in the Lilycove Department Store being children and buying toys, a good reminder that they’re still very young and evidently very skilled for their ages. Battle-wise, my Azumarill knew Surf by this point so I ended things quickly because I’m into Doubles as it is and like using spread moves when I can.

Wallace: I’ve discussed him a lot above, so I don’t need to say much else, but he really is the most notable Gym Leader in the region, and not just because he’s the last one you face. He has a lot of personality and development, you meet him outside the Gym several times, his niece Lisia is also out and about in the game and the family resemblance is notable, and you find an old magazine in Sea Mauville featuring a woman on the cover who looks like Lisia - likely Wallace’s older sister, Lisia’s mother. The entire family gets more development than a lot of the other Gym Leaders in this region.

Sidney: The first member of the Elite Four you face...I’d actually like to know more about him. He seems like an interesting person, and I personally enjoy Dark-types myself so I always appreciate seeing Dark-type users not being portrayed as evil. His upbeat nature is nice, and it’s a pleasant surprise to run into him at the Battle Resort, even if he was only there to track down Steven.

Phoebe: I love how much her appearance contrasts with her Pokemon typing. She’s a Ghost-type trainer and you’d never guess that from her outfit! Her grandmother is the old woman on Mt. Pyre, which is why Phoebe has an affinity for Ghost-Types, and I’d love to see more interactions involving them together. You can run into Phoebe on Mt. Pyre after you beat the League and talk to her briefly - she was likely visiting her grandmother - but sadly she doesn’t get much development outside of that.

Glacia: An Ice-type trainer who we learn next to nothing about. Glacia is mentioned outside of the context of the Elite Four by an NPC in the Mauville Food Court who says she was slurping down ramen so intensely that she broke a sweat, but that’s all we know about her aside from that she’s originally from a different region, and she tells us that herself. Not very memorable.

Drake: Yet another Dragon trainer late in the game, and not one of the more notable ones. Lance and Clair are remembered for being cousins and for being the first Dragon trainers you really come across in the series, and later Dragon-type trainers like Iris (who becomes Champion of Unova in B2W2) and Raihan are carried by their personalities and distinct looks. Drake is just an old sea captain with Dragon-types, and he doesn’t really jump out at me much either.

Steven: A major player in the plot - one of the most active Champions we’ve had in the franchise - and a perpetually popular character. I never minded running into Steven out and about in Hoenn, even if it meant I’d have to listen to an infodump about rocks, and his Champion battle was actually fairly difficult for the team I brought in despite having two team members with Fire-type attacks to handle the Steel. As I mentioned above, it was my Skitty that made the decisive dodge to allow me to bring in the team member I needed to deliver the final blow, meaning this is now the second time in my life I’ve beaten the Champion with an unevolved house cat. (Rick Pratt the Purrloin is a vital member of my beloved Young Ones Galar Championship Team.) Overall, Steven’s a very likeable Champion, and I did enjoy the little detail of the rocks on display in his home - he has them labeled so you can see where he found them, and they’re from every region featured in the games up to that point.

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire also have the Delta Episode, which features Rayquaza (which you’re forced to catch) and a character named Zinnia, who isn’t in RSE at all and is new to ORAS. Besides being named after my favorite flower, Zinnia’s personality is actually very interesting because although she comes across as cheery it’s clear she feels the weight of a massive responsibility and that the cheeriness is covering a lot of pain. Her Whismur named Aster is evidently named after someone important to her who is no longer around, and it’s never revealed in-game who the original Aster was. Whoever Aster was, though, Zinnia misses her deeply. In a 2015 interview, Ohmori Shigeru stated that the original Aster was the person who held the position of Lorekeeper before Zinnia, but we don’t know anything more than that - a shame, really, because that makes for some interesting backstory.

Overall, I had a lovely time in Hoenn, and I’ll be moving on to Kalos in the next few weeks once I finish up this Dex business first. I just wish I got to get to know so many of the characters I’ve met a little better, but I adore the team I put together and I’m super proud of them and all they’ve accomplished.

[crapfutures]

Post-petroleum futures

Several months ago Crap Futures gave a talk at the Center for Contemporary Theory (3CT) at the University of Chicago. The theme provided some good inspiration for new thinking on the state of design. Now, at the dawn of the new decade, we’ve finally got around to sharing some of these thoughts in blog form, many cups of coffee and plates of toast later.

For obvious reasons, there are many discussions at the moment asking: ‘What comes after petroleum?’ Before getting into this, it might be helpful to better understand the promise of petrol – what were the origins of petroleum utopias? Who was responsible for them? And what agendas were hidden behind the progressivist imaginaries?

So, starting with petroleum (and related materials): this naturally occurring liquid is essentially a battery, which stores a fragment of the solar energy that reached the earth during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods (typically via algae and woody plants). While the first recorded use of petroleum can be found 4,000 years ago when natural asphalt was used in the walls and towers of Babylon, it wasn’t until the early 20th Century that its potential, as a useful form of energy, began to exert its influence on so many and diverse aspects of human life.

This diagram (which appeared in a previous post) describes the fairly typical journey a technology makes, starting from its genesis as an emerging technology in the laboratory. Next is the technological dream phase in which the potential of the emerging technology is translated into techno-utopian imaginaries – intended by both corporations and politicians to sell particular agendas to the public audience. Designers love this phase, as the constraints that apply to the design of normal products do not yet exist. The last phase is the transition of aspects of the dream into real products in everyday life – and this of course means the implementation of all the infrastructure necessary to allow them to function. Finally the product descends into obsolescence, as it is replaced by more advanced iterations. Or else the dream gets recycled or regurgitated; updated with the latest technology.

Applying this journey to petroleum – the new machines of the late 19th and early 20th Century, such as the internal combustion engine or the coal-powered steam generator – revealed for the first time the true potential of petroleum. In a split-second its energy, captured during the time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, could be magically transformed into heat, noise and more importantly movement! Lots and lots of movement – think of the Italian Futurists in 1909, championing ‘a new beauty: the beauty of speed’ – ‘a roaring car … more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace’ – a new perspective on time and space that comes to symbolise modernity in all its thrilling, dynamic and destructive power.

The aeroplanes, automobiles and ships that were built around these engines also became the symbols of the new machine age, as extrapolations of the potential of the internal combustion engine fed the utopian imaginaries of the near future.

For a country emerging out of the despair of the Great Depression, Streamline Moderne (as it became known) represented the American dream of freedom and escape – both in the physical sense, through the action of the engine, and in the metaphorical sense, through the sleek teardrop styling that gave the impression that the object was moving – even when standing still. Designers, meanwhile, were for the first time beginning to play an instrumental role in linking technological progress to the notion of a better future – all in the service of American corporate capitalism …

… and in turn inspiring the design of the new wave of domestic products – toasters! radios! televisions! washing machines! – that would give consumers a sense of buying into, and thus belonging in, that utopian American dream.

Nothing exemplifies this period of techno-optimism better than Futurama, General Motors’ exhibit at the 1939 New York World Fair. This described a further extrapolation of the potential of petroleum - outwards across time and space. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes, the 35,000-square foot interactive exhibition presented a version of the United States set 20 years in the future, with sprawling superhighways connecting the major cities and facilitating the growth of suburbia as commuters escaped from the claustrophobia of urban life.

E. L. Doctorow’s 1985 novel World’s Fair is revealing in its dramatisation of events, as it connects the key players who, behind the scenes, write the scripts for such techno-utopian futures. In this excerpt a family are leaving Futurama when the child asks his father for his opinion. The father replies:

Of course the roads were built and many cars were sold, but with the benefit of hindsight it is obvious that the Futurama was no utopia. For consumers, however, the dream kept evolving.

In the 1950s the jet engine allowed for super-sonic flight, expanding the horizons and moving the utopian visions upwards and into the ‘final frontier’ (note the colonising terminology) of space.

Another famous world’s fair took place 25 years later using the very same venue – Flushing Meadows in Queens, in 1964. It represents the final extrapolation of petroleum utopias – within a few years they were exhausted. As the novelist J. G. Ballard observed in a 1979 interview with Penthouse magazine:

‘The world of "Outer Space", which had hitherto been assumed to be limitless, was being revealed as essentially limited, a vast concourse of essentially similar stars and planets whose exploration was likely to be not only extremely difficult, but also perhaps intrinsically disappointing. … The number of astronauts who have gone into orbit after the expenditure of this great ocean of rocket fuel is small to the point of being ludicrous. And that sums it all up. You can't have a real space age from which 99.999 per cent of the human race is excluded.’

Elsewhere at the same expo, however, a new genesis was being revealed - introducing a refreshingly new direction for technological futures.

The IBM Pavilion, with exhibition design and a film presentation by Charles and Ray Eames and architecture by Eero Saarinen, introduced visitors to the computer and its place in mainstream contemporary life. Again quoting Ballard:

‘The ability to pass information around from one point in the globe to another in vast quantities and at stupendous speeds, the ability to process information by fantastically powerful computers, the intrusion of electronic data processing in whatever form into all our lives is far, far more significant than all the rocket launches, all the planetary probes, every footprint or tyre mark on the lunar surface.’

Jumping forward to the present and the corporate dreams of today – very well encapsulated by Google’s self-driving car – it becomes apparent that little has changed in terms of strategy: government and corporations in collusion, shaping the technological future on our behalf, with largely the same agendas. At the forefront are a few leading designers whose role hasn’t for the most part evolved much since the days of Norman Bel Geddes.

Here are a few key observations on why visions of the future have stagnated or are simply not appropriate for the world of the 21st Century:

1. Those responsible for the creation of future visions are guilty of being overly optimistic – never acknowledging the possible negative implications.

2. Those responsible for the creation of these visions are guilty of being overly simplistic – perfect worlds, perfect people, interacting perfectly, thus negating the complex and messy reality of human lives.

3. The reduction of future visions into objects of desire has resulted in the dislocation of means and ends – the systems that facilitate the function of products have become largely invisible and intangible.

4. The reduction of visions into objects of desire leads to an increased instrumentalisation of operation and banal iterative development.

5. The emergent technologies that are extrapolated into today’s utopian visions (IoT, AI, nanotech, etc.) tend to act in the background, at intangible scales, or in complex languages – meaning that the resultant futures are difficult to convey (and sell).

6. Corporate imagination that informs future visions is frequently underwhelming – merely updating, through the application of emergent technologies, the pursuit of ancient human obsessions (artificial life, immortality, flight, automation).

7. Finally, many of the metrics through which we evaluate future imaginaries remain the same as those from the machine age – faster, more efficient, more automated – and as such are wholly inadequate for addressing the complex problems we face today.

[purpletalewasteland]

What else did the book say cause I don’t remember. And the book saying they had broken up but got back together is confusing. Not sure whether it proves things fake or real. Was the rush to get married tied to his family name getting trashed?

Well Kushner Inc. was about the Kushners in general, with tidbits about Karlie and Josh throughout. Full disclosure: I didn't read it, but I read some excerpts and articles, and a friend of mine read it cover-to-cover because he has always had the opinion that Jared Kushner and co are an even bigger threat to the US than Trump himself and that the public is only aware of the tip of the iceberg of corruption and evil that he's participated in. Just a sidenote, I never really discussed Kaylor with him, and he read the book and had read elsewhere that Josh and Mikey are a couple, so he was the one who brought up the fact he thought they were a fake couple before even hearing about Karlie and Taylor. Just thought that was interesting.

Some key info that the book mentioned about Karlie:

-Charles and Seryl (Josh's parents) did not approve of Karlie

-many sources confirm that the family spoke ill of Karlie

-she was referred to as the "lingerie model"

-josh wasn't allowed to bring her to family gatherings (or didn't want to and they just used that as an excuse)

-at one point, Jared owned the New York Observer, and told the editor (one of the author's sources) that Karlie wasn't very smart, and that the family would take care of it, they're not happy he was dating a "shiksa" (this is what I mean that they're strict about keeping the family Jewish)

-Ivanka was a better choice, despite not being Jewish. She came from "real estate royalty", was Ivy League educated, and was a "Trump", whereas Karlie was uneducated and grew up in St Louis.

-Jared and Ivanka have swindled their way into the whitehouse and will take down anyone in their way. Their goal is to be “the self-styled prince and princess of America.”

-Charles figured that Jared getting into the White House was some redemption for the family, after he was convincted and sent to Prison. He apparently even thought his son may be able to get a pardon

-he literally thought his family should be the "Jewish Kennedys" (grandiose much?)

-this caused more tension, and even greater dislike toward Karlie

-then sometime in 2018, Josh and Karlie broke up for unknown reasons.

-Josh came back with seriousness saying he was going to marry Karlie.

-for some reason the parents changed their minds (??) and she came and spent a weekend with them (presumably the first time meeting her)

-Charles, Seryl, Jared, and the two daughters apparently attended the wedding but did not take part, and did not take part in the planning

-Seryl considers Josh marrying Karlie her biggest failure, but the book author points out that with Karlie's outspoken liberalism, she is much more aligned with the family's values and goals than Ivanka is (the Kushners have been long registered Democrats, and Jared only went Republican to get into the White House).

So make of that what you will. Like I said before, I think that even if the relationship is fake, his parents still didn't approve of her, fake partner or not. They probably still talked shit about her, and probably still wanted him to choose someone else. I get the feeling Josh is slightly more independent than Jared and probably has his own reasons for choosing Karlie over someone else (the benefits of dating a public figure and access to Hollywood social circles come to mind. Venture capitalists and Hollywood are becoming intertwined, look at that whole phone number bit). The author is correct that Karlie is logically more suitable as a liberal role model (save for her connection to the Kushners), and to me their insistence that she isn't good enough is telling that their position is just a farce. If the rumours around here are true - that Josh needed a wife for whatever reason, then they probably realized he didn't have a lot of choice but to marry Karlie. And I'm not sure if the family name being trashed had anything to do with it, but I'm sure it played a role. But what do I know.

[kittymaverick]

MCF Moths to a Flame commentary part 2...

I really heavily underestimated how much jumping I was gonna do watching the gameplay alone... So, Eipex, good job on making me scared for the MD’s life... MD: LEMME OUT. If this weren’t so entertaining, I would honestly be screaming the same still...

1. Pazu: I remember these people Who doesn’t? MD: I wish I don’t! 2. Oh, THEY MOVED THE ENTIRE DOOR HERE??? MD: ...Okay, next time, I’m not just bringing a lighter. I’m bringing lighter, and gasoline, and kerosene, and napalm, AND A TONNE OF TNT JUST TO BE SURE NOTHING OF THAT MANOR EVER SURVIVES AGAIN. 3. MD: this room, it’s like all the Ravenhearst cases in one-- I’m gonna go pass out in the corner. Eipex, when I asked for Ravenhearst, I don’t think I meant like... give the MD a full room of it... Or maybe I did... MD: I knew this case was bad before we started whyyyyyyyyy did I come whyyyyyyyyyyy *sobbing* 4. There’s even a shrine-- wait, why does Gwen’s nest have... eggs... MD, which one of the twins was it that survived? MD: Um, let me check your posts... Okay, apparently, it was Charlotte. ...Are we absolutely, 100%ly, without any doubt whatsoever, certainty beyond all reasonable speculations that Gwen LEGIT DIED WHEN ALISTAIR STABBED HER? MD: ...Look, I checked her body, OKAY? RANSACKED IT EVEN. THE DALIMARS DON’T EXACTLY STAY DEAD THOUGH IF YOU HAVEN’T EXACTLY NOTICED. (Meanwhile, probably elsewhere in this museum, maybe... Dalimars: The Master Detective sure likes arguing with themselves nowadays... they’re never going to get to the end of this game at this rate...) 5. MD: I probably shouldn’t go into a fireplace that just showed up, but... I’m too curious-- Oh, good to know you’re just like a cat like me! Which life are you on now? MD: ...Considering Ankou gave me the feather, negative 2? 6. Complex puzzles actually seem doable and logical this time! Though it is hella creepy. 7. “All the cases are too easy! I’m gonna look into some of the Master Detective cases next. Maybe there’ll be a challenge in there.“ MD: I’m second hand embarrassed about this man’s ego. And other than the security breach your agency has, can I say... Your cases don’t so much have challenges in them as so much as loose ends that never tie up... MD: Look, I REALLY try with the fire, okay??? 8. Shoot all the evil ducks. If you shoot a wrong one, you’ll have to start again! MD: THIS IS THE NEW WHACK-A-TROLL I SWEAR. Pazu: I got this. *100% it* MD: See, in the hands of a good player, I still got it. ...First, how dare you diss me. Second, You do realize your adversary now know your shooting skills, right? MD: Shut up and let me have my small victories will you? 9. Hm, Raven badge, crystal badge... wonder if the last one is going to be death badge.... MD: If the Dalimars and that Scottish guy teamed up, I’m as good as dead... 10. ...is that... is that? MD: ...ISIS??? PLEASE LET US KEEP HER AS A PET. MD: Wait, HOW DID YOU GET CAUGHT? YOU’RE BASICALLY A GHOST CAT. Isis: *innocent kitty eyes* 11. Gargoyle chest with... Madame Fate’s Crystal Ball. MD: Please tell me that’s not the real thing because if it is, I’m breaking it right here and now. I think the pieces are under lock and key because they have Charles’ soul fragments in them right now, right? MD: EXACTLY MY POINT. 12. Video guy assumes you’re a guy. MD: I’m glad as least one part of my identity has been kept secret more than anything else... (Note: MD’s voice acting in this game suggests they are feminine) 13. And the final badge is revealed to be... the cog badge? Wha? (Even Pazu is confused lol.) ((I also just realized, we’re still in the Beta segment of the videos...I’m gonna cry in act 2 and 3, aren’t I?)) 14. MD: Should I be scared or honored that someone made rooms out of my old cases? Do you really want me to answer the obvious? MD: ...Okay, VERY SCARED. FREAKED OUT SCARED. ...BUT THEN YOU KEEP ON DOING THOSE PUZZLES. MD: I CAN’T HELP IT OKAY IT’S MY OCCUPATIONAL HABIT AT THIS POINT. 15. Cheating with weights on the hammer, MD? MD: Look, I walk around a lot solving cases, but that doesn’t exactly leave me time to work out, okay? 16. Oh, so MAC... was constructed by this guy-- MD: ARE YOU SAYING MY BADGE LITERALLY BETRAYED ME??? Well... MD: I CAN’T BELIEVE IT I CAN’T EVEN TRUST MY BADGE IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE. WHERE IS THE NEAREST CLIFF I’M GONNA YEET MYSELF OFF OF IT. (...I did say they were gonna give us a companion cube just to take it away, didn’t I?...) 17. MD, considering how well you know the queen... um, why didn’t you check before coming here whether it was fake or not? MD: ... Well? MD: Look, UK’s going through Brexit right now okay, I don’t think she wants to be disturbed when her country is in a crisis. 18. Okay, past the spire staircases! And behind door number three is-- OH NO. MD: OH THANK GOD THEY ARE ALIVE. NO THAT’S NOT GOOD WE HAVE HOSTAGES. REPEAT WE HAVE HOSTAGES! 19. Chloe: Thanks for freeing me-- MD: Okay, can I first say, how could you fall for this? Um, pot calling the kettle black here? MD: ...OKAY OKAY I’LL RESCUE YOU THREE THEN WE’LL REEVALUATE OUR METHODS, TOGETHER. Aiden: Make that Archivist pay for what he did to us! Blake: ...No pressure? MD: *sobbing* 20. MD: OKAY I GOT EVERYTHING, AND THIS IS... an apprentice badge? Archivist: Yo. Wassup? *Springs trap* MD: I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT WE KNEW IT WE KNEW IT WE KNEW IT Other detectives: Um, oops, sorry? Archivist: Really, though, how could you fall for that? And you call yourself a Master-- MD: I AM GOING TO GET OUT OF HERE AND HURT YOU SO BAD YOU WILL WISH YOU WERE DUMBER. Archivist: Um... that wasn’t... on the script-- Me and MD: SHUT UP WE HAVE A LOT OF FRUSTRATIONS AND PARANOIA BUILT UP OVER THE YEARS TO VENT OKAY. MD: And YOU just happen to be on the receiving end of it. Archivist: *drops trap several stories down* MD: DAMN YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-- [Here endith the Beta section!] 21. Hey, we awake? MD: Yeah... awake, ish. OW. Need, to, break, out, somehow. How convenient this guy left sharp objects in the cabinet here for us to use... MD: ...How did the glass not break from the fall? ...Hey, I’m supposed to be playing captain obvious here, not you! MD: Oh right, sorry. Anyway, to vandalism! 22. Archivist: You’re sloppy, aren’t you? MD: Says the guy who left sharp objects for me to break out of here with. Probably because he WANTS you to break out. Archivist: Remember Broken Hours, detective? Tick tock-- MD: I can’t believe I preferred the Dalimars as the villains. Me neither. At least they had some competence in their madness, minus Victor. 23. Blake: Take this Detective! Quick, I’m almost out of time-- OKAY WE ACTUALLY HAVE A HOSTAGE SITUATION HURRY UP! MD: If we take back the incompetence comment, will you give us more time? Archivist: No, of course not. MD: I thought so, you incompetent bastard. Archivist: You little...! Um, PUZZLES AND LIVES TO SAVE PLEASE??? 24. MD: Solving books puzzles gives me more books? Really now, that’s real creative-- Um... is that what I think it is? MD: It’s... It’s nitroglycerin. I’m... I’m so moved. Finally someone understands me. *sobs* Might I remind you this guy has your colleagues HOSTAGE??? 25. There are literally so many references to past games that I’m like overwhelmed with joy. MD: And I’m overwhelmed with HORROR. 26. Pazu: He’s going to get squashed. THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING. MD: Nah, he’s gonna be fine. I hope. I wish. I mean, I usually turn out fine, right? Right??? ...I’m starting to think your agency is so broke because of all the health bills you guys need to get reimbursed afterwards. 27. Archivist: You fall into my traps again and again-- Let’s be honest, that’s just an MD thing, okay? The rest of the MCF crew-- well, actually... Okay, you know what MD, the Archivist is kind of right here. It’s like you guys are literally DRAWN to traps. MD: I’m sorry for being a bad role model and starting the trend? 28. Huh, this room, looks REALLY familiar. MD: I GET IT. THIS GUY, HE’S A COPYCAT. LITERALLY NONE OF HIS THINGS ORIGINATE FROM HIM. HE’S BEEN STEALING THEM FROM EVERYWHERE AND FRANKENSTEINING THEM TOGETHER. It’s almost kind of impressive in a very disturbing way... 29. MD: Oh hey, Parker, coming with? ...I think the reason why you didn’t get a partner for this mission now is because... they all got kidnapped. MD: Yeah, I’m starting to see that now. We REALLY need better security... 30. MD: Found the center of the mechanism! Now to stop it-- WAIT, THINK, THIS IS A TRAP? MD: Gosh I hate that I have to do that for everything now... 31. Pazu: what is this obsession with badges? Someone clearly didn’t get one and is salty. MD: Gods, all four of us agents are going to need new badges after this, aren’t we. Oh gods that’s gonna come out of our pay too, I’m sure... Speaking of badges, look! You get an agent badge! MD: Can’t believe I’m saying this but I really, really, really, much prefer solving the case involving STAIN as well as about the Hope Diamond to get my qualifications than this... massive puzzle tower... Wasn’t Huntsville how you got start on the whole MD path to begin with? And solving the Hope Diamond got the queen asking you to go to Ravenhearst? MD: ...*sighs* yes, this is a trip down memory lane in the worst way possible, I swear... 32. Um, someone’s calling. You gonna pick up? MD: You know, the least you could do is fix broken things after bringing them over, Archivist? Archivist: But if I did that, where’s the SURPRISE? MD: The last group of people that tried to surprise me got their asses kicked, you know. 33. MD: Draining people of their mind force, huh? I believe the Dalimars have officially been outranked on delusions of grandeur. If this note doesn’t scream trap, I don’t know WHAT does. MD: Honestly, considering how dumbly I fall into traps... I’ll like to see the guy try to drain my brain and see what he gets out of it. 34. Is that... THE PATH TO RAVENHEARST MANOR REPLICATED INDOORS? MD: I’m both impressed, and also feeling Charles’ jealousy emitting from whereever he is sealed. Let’s just hope this guy doesn’t propose at the end too. You have all of our blessings to defenestrate him if he does. 35. Awwww he didn’t have time to finish the rest of the manor. Only got up to the gate. MD: It’s like watching someone give up half way on their ambitious project. HEY GUY, AT LEAST ALISTER AND CHARLES FINISHED THEIR PROJECTS. DID YOU? Archivist: Did they build traps like these? *Trap Chloe* MD: ....You are rising up my shit list with record speed and that doesn’t happen often. ALSO CHLOE SERIOUSLY! 36. Archivist: Too bad for your companion, she paid the price. MD: ...I KNEW I should have kept some of that nitroglycerin! Oh hey look he even has a cable car ride for you! Don’t think we’ve seen that since Return or Escape from Ravenhearst? Archivist: If you want to get to the end of the ride, take a seat, NOW. MD: Oh I’ll seat, but only because I WANT TO. Also, your chair aren’t even replicas. 37. MD: Okay the box now... let’s open it-- Oh come ON! IT’S WHACK-A-TROLL!!!!!!! 8D MD: *Smash emergency exit button* Now ladies and gentlemen, please exit the ride into the next insane area. We hope you’ve enjoy the trip BECAUSE I SURE HAVE NOT-- Really? AN AMUSEMENT PARK NEXT? You did say you weren’t having fun... 38. Aiden: HEEEEEELP! MD: ...as much as I feel sorry for the old guy, I’m also glad I’m not the one stuck in that rocket ride... 40. Oh hey, it’s whack-a... detective. AND IT’S MORE FRUSTRATING THAN WHACK-A-TROLL. REALLY EIPEX? REALLY??? MD: ...Can’t believe this, but now, I miss Whack-a-troll. 41. Archivist: Can’t believe you made it this far without realizing I was one of the missing people? MD: ... Actually... Me: That makes sense, like, I was expecting it, honestly. There WERE four missing posters and we only found three. I was wondering WHEN that was going to come up. MD: See, some of the players don’t go through 19 cases and NOT develop SOME sense of paranoia that you’re going to be betrayed. 42. Archivist: Why don’t you step through the door to claim your prize? Me: How about, no? MD: No here as well. Aiden: Also no here. LET ME GO THROUGH INSTEAD! Archivist: WAIT NO THAT’S NOT HOW IT’S SUPPOSED TO GO-- Me: ...Aaaand we’re out of the illusion. I KNEW IT! WHEN EVERYTHING WENT MISTY I KNEW SOMETHING WENT WRONG! MD: Okay, instead of celebrating you seeing this coming HOW ABOUT YOU GET ME OUT OF THIS CONTRAPTION THANK YOU. 43. Hey, you got your badge back. MD: I know. And it’s stabby. MD: I KNOW. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? MD: IT’S VANDALISM TIME! 44. Chloe: Hello? Anyone there? Blake: Um, same here? Aiden: AHA! Knew there was something fishy. MD: Okay, since we’re all awake, let’s do what we Master Detectives are great at doing. MDs: solving freakishly complicated puzzle panels. *sighs collectively* 45. Archivist: TOO MUCH BRAIN POWER! NOOOOO *Poofs* MD: THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR PLAYING GAMES WITH US-- Um, who, is, that? Basically everyone who remembers the sole survivor of the Dalimars: CHARLOTTE! [To be continue!]

[bestnoncannonship]

Alright..I'mma get in on this VC fancasting debate.

As a director, I often have a LOT of opinions on people's casting decisions. A LOT. (Someday, I'll write a novella on Ken Brannaugh's casting.) So as I see a LOT of fancasts casts based on how people look and few based on whether or not the actor can likely handle the role, I'mma throw my hat in the ring. (Warning....the more I write the less technical and more shitposty this is gonna get!) So here you go! The Vampire Chronicles series if I got to cast and direct it!!

The Brat Prince:

Most importantly....we gotta get us a Lestat. And the choice is clear:

Evan Williams: this fabulous shitposting aesthetic trash is as close to the one and only Vampire Lestat as we are gonna get on this plane of existance. He is all charm and quite light in his loafers and a complete mess.......but most importantly, he has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is able to play a character that does inexplicable and morally reprehensible things while still being read as highly sympathetic, likable, and even a hero. That's what I worry about most with Lestat. He really is a very terrible person who doesn't learn or face too many consequences. And he has to be very very very sympathetic. Not just "Oh I Stan that villain" likeable.....but a true hero. And it takes a very. Special. Actor. To pull that shit off. And this is it. This is the guy. He was hired to play an Iago-esque gay villain type in Versailles, STOLE THE SHOW OUT FROM UNDER GEORGE BLAGDEN (no mean feat as Blaggy was giving a hell of a performance) and made his character a beloved icon. Yeah....I trust him to lead a show. I trust him to be Lestat.

Nicholas L'enfant:

Okay not gonna lie I struggled with this one. There was someone else I wanted to see in this role....but I decided he was better employed elsewhere. And this is who I ended up with:

Yep. George Blagden. See...in the grand scheme of things Nikki is a very low-screentime role that has a LOT of impact on the story. And who better to trust with low screentime that the god of grantaires, who took a few small shots and lines and GAVE US A FULLY CHARACTERIZED GRANTAIRE in the Les Mis film. He is very sweet faced, and easy to like, can make being an on screen depressive fascinating instead of dull and has proven time and time again that he is the master of the complete mental breakdown, complete with horrifying but tragic crazy eyes. Also.....he bears a strong enough physical resembles to.....

Louis!!!!:

Our beautiful depressed dark angel with a vampire eating disorder who has no self esteem and is still in love with his abuser needs nuance. He needs soul. And he needs a sweet and delicate beauty. And so:

Alexaner Vlahos!!! The soulful eyes!! The delicate bone structure!!! The slight tones of simmering resentment!!! The ability to play a character that could have become VERY one note VERY quickly with goregeous amounts of nuance and sympathy!!! Vlavla has quite the varied resume. Mordred. Phillipe. Romeo. Captain Hook. To put it lightly he has a LOT of range and the one through line is he is NEVER boring. He plays a lot of roles that could very quickly become boring and one note (Romeo? Captian snooze right there!). But every second he's on screen or stage he is so completely alive in whatever he is feeling. I TRUST him to keep the entirety of Louis's brooding nuanced and fascinating for an audience and to physically and facially convey Louis's very important internal monologue that we will not be able to hear because this version is going to be from Lestat's point of veiw. I toggled with the idea of making him Nikki for a while....but ended up with Louis for 2 reasons. 1) he doesn't need the scripted plot drama Nikki has written in to make a compelling character and 2) he and Williams share such beautiful chemistry. Whenever they're together, even off screen, their focus shifts so that they orbit each other like bianary stars and any director can see that that's something that should be explored and exploited to add demension to the Louis/Lestat relationship and justify why they keep coming back to each other.

(And so ends the Men of Versailles segment of my fancast. So sue me. There's some incredible actors there.)

Let's return with

Gabrielle De Lioncourt:

The incomparable Alex Kingston, lately of River Song fame, though I met her as Elizabeth Corday, and Doctor Corday is driving this casting choice. I wanted an actor who was an appropriate age to play Williams's mother cause we don't fuck with that women are "old" at 30 shit in this house. And she can carry off the kind of "I will not hesitate to kill a man" BDE that Gabrielle requires without trying, but she's also proven herself comfortable and competent with the level of CAMP that VC requires. I can see her easily showing up on set for a few scattered episodes, slipping easily into the verse, and nailing the kind of woman who can put Lestat in his place then run back off to the jungle. Also....that De Lioncourt hair!!!!!

Marius "Daddy" Romanus:

Yep. This fuck. I can hear it now.... "Why isn't he lessssaaaat??? He's so blonde and prettttyyyyy????" Well....mainly because....I ain't sure this lil fuck can run a show as a very despicable but likeable hero yet. He's admirable. A good actor. A great villain. But not a hero and not heroically likeable. Personally, I'm of the opinion that in 10 or 15 years he will have grown into the ability to play something as complex as Lestat with likability....but for now.....DAMN is he a creepy imperial thing. He's got that "My house, my rules" vibe down. He's preditory. He's distinguished. He is Marius. And he's go the best Roman coin profile I've ever seen.

Armand:

N/A

Ok. Controversial decision....but I want to see a complete unknown as Armand. Send casting out to cast a wide net, scour the world for the Botticelli death machine. But definitely don't pull him from the pool of already famous younguns. Because your Armand needs to be deep. Skilled. And primarily UNSPOILED by the school of child acting that is forced upon child actors. (I was a commercial kid and child stage actor. It was terrible.) Go out and get some twinky fresh faced raw talent so you get depth.

Claudia:

N/A

Big old ditto on what I said above about child actors. A nice doe eyed unknown, preferably without a stage mom.

AKASHA:

Yikes. So many amazing choices!!! How do you follow Aliyah??

With literal human perfection Gina Torres of course!!! Again....I wanted to go with an older woman. Someone who would be seen as an authority to all vampires. Someone god damnned goregeous. And someone who I find intimidating. Also, since I'm skewing a little tall with this cast (at least as TV actors go) I wanted someone who comfortably stands among and above most of them! She's a seasond tested actor, and certified badass. And we know she can steal a scene. Besides if she can look regal as a queen in that weirdass dress they gave her in the serenity movie she can pull off whatever monstrosity costumes comes up with to follow the Aliyah getup.

Khayman:

Don't @ me but....I have a LOT of feelings about Khayman. I love his particularly breed of immortal insanity. I love the way immortality drove him mad into a childlike enjoyment and curiosity. And I knew exactly who has to be casted to play that combination of intimidating ancient and innocent curiosity:

This is Howard Charles. He is capable of playing both an intimidating giant and a sweet soulful cinnamon roll at the same time. I cannot sing this man's praises enough. Am I scared of him? Do I want to hug him? Both? He's also one of the best scene SHARERS I've seen on screen in a long time and that's very important in a supporting role.

Maharet:

Just because Anne Rice doesn't know shit about Mesopotamia doesn't mean we have to follow her in that. I wanted to pull from Middle Eastern or Indian populations for her to best reflect the look of the region in a time that's roughly in line with the pre-dynastic Egyptian mish-mosh associated with Akasha.

So I'm gunning for Indira Varma. When I say this woman has timeless beauty.....I mean timeless. She's as prehistorically hot as she is today. And she's such a strong actress, I want to give her a role that isn't 50% sex scenes. She's got both the warmth and the commanding strength to play Maharet. I would ideally like to get a dancer to play Mekare....someone who can handle the physical interp of the role. Probably an Indian dancer to match Indira Varma.

David Talbot:

In the newly declared tradition of Doctors playing Talbot:

This is the only current Gif I could find of Sylvester McCoy. Known to many as the Seventh Doctor. And to many as Ratagast the Brown. He embodies that sort of huffy aging britishness that David projects, but has the over the top personality that can give us those hints of the vitality of David's youth. Basically I can see this man telling stories about hunting tigers in India. Then when he gets the hot young Raglan James Body:

Luke Pasqualino. Swarthy young troublemaker. But for all the youthful good looks, he proved that he was able to play grace and gravitas as D'artagnion in the final season of the BBC Musketeers. I'd love to give him a chance to explore that deeper part. I also trust his ability to match the energy of a cast, which he did repeatedly on musketeers, and portray both the impulsive self aggrandizing Lestat in the Raglan James body and to play the DarkAU Musketeer type that is Raglan James himself.

That's literally all the Gifs I can put in a post. I know I skipped Daniel......but that's because I have surprisingly few opinions on Daniel.......he's very much a vanilla audience connecting character. I'd almost like to see an unknown in that role....just to see what we a new face could make.

And thus ends my casting of the Vampire Chronicles!!

[mash-notes]

Season 3 Episodes, Ranked

So… ALL of these are good. Really. You can start at the “worst” one and just have an amazing time all the way through. As always, feel free to reply with your own rankings if you like!

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24. A Full Rich Day

The Luxembourg colonel riseth from the dead! A murderous Turk must be sedated! And Frank is a dick, little less of a shock there.

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23. Bulletin Board

Trapper’s letter-home show. The muddy tug-of-war at the end is too erotic for my taste.

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22. There Is Nothing Like a Nurse

How DARE they take our nurses away and leave us to mope and sing in the Officers’ Club for an excessive amount of time.

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21. Adam’s Ribs

Did Hawkeye really have to throw the tray?

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20. Payday

OMG Trapper steals from Hawk, I am aghast, but I still can’t resist shows about gambling.

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19. House Arrest

The stuff with ball-busting cougar Colonel Reese is a little misogynistic and gets uncomfortable. However, nothing but respect for Hawkeye belting Frank in the face.

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18. Officer of the Day

Hawk looks terrific in his sheriff outfit. The drama of Col. Flagg trying to execute the patient feels too serious for Flagg’s character.

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17. Iron Guts Kelly

Always here for military stupidity, which is very starkly on display when Colonel Wortman insists on moving Kelly’s body around. If Margaret hadn’t done the same this whole mess could’ve been avoided, AMIRITE?

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16. Big Mac

Radar cosplaying General MacArthur will be a resounding yes from me.

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15. Alcoholics Unanimous

Minus a couple of points since Henry doesn’t appear, this is still great, the booze klatch between Hawk, Trapper and Margaret being a standout moment. Let’s hear it for one of this series’ most beloved, enduring themes: clownish drunkenness.

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14. Springtime

Light fare in a heavy season—sweet, charming. Klinger at his romantic best, looking like a D.H. Lawrence heroine (better than the wedding dress IMO). Even Radar gets a roll in the hay.

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13. The General Flipped at Dawn

The season premiere boasts a funny plot and a good sneak preview of li’l Harry Morgan, vaguely elfin in his gloves and giant helmet.

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12. Life With Father

We waited for a Mulcahy show and we got one! A big +1 for the flamboyant gayness of Piercintyre on the horse.

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11. White Gold

Flagg is back to being cartoonish, and penicillin theft is the name of the game. Hilly Hicks is super as the beleaguered medic. Also features Flagg’s notable “glasses” disguise.

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10. Mad Dogs and Servicemen

Radar isn’t rabid, but it was a nervous couple of days. Love the kindness shown to him here, as well as the languid scene where he and Henry walk the countryside looking for the dog.

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09. Check-Up

Trapper won’t get a proper chance to sign off for good, so it’s here that I have to say bye, Trap. I worship your dropped R’s and your crooked smile and your fairly Olympian body and I’ll miss you, my darling.

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08. Rainbow Bridge

Ooooohhhhh Tokyo. Another time, guys--we have to do a bunch of surgery and then pick POWs up from behind Chinese lines real quick. The folk music here (more than elsewhere) is affecting and informs the atmosphere very well.

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07. Love and Marriage

Hawkeye helps Kwon and his wife form a domestic tableau, while an American G.I. participates in a marriage scam. Nice symmetry in the two stories, both of them engaging and believable.

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06. Private Charles Lamb

Lavish, celebratory, and indulgent. This visually stunning show, teeming with cute animals, is one of MASH’s most joyous, still balanced by the sadness of the boy who shot himself in the leg.

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05. The Consultant

A plum role for Alan’s father, and a bittersweet “student has become the master”-type plot. Also, you know, a pool party.

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04. Bombed

Stunning, terrifying effects and true panic—we’re in a war, everyone. Also the car-crash fascination that is Trap and Margaret in the shed, the love that dare not speak its name.

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03. Aid Station

Even worse and scarier conditions. The first big, open show of tenderness between Margaret and Hawk, platonic of course, the result being effing top-notch teary-eyed feels.

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02. O.R.

So much surgery. Not all of it successful. This and all the attendant emotions are just a day in the life of our brave doctors, here in Korea at the 4077th MASH.

 .

01. Abyssinia, Henry

Shitfaced bonhomie at the restaurant, Klinger’s Carmen Miranda outfit, the nifty grey suit, and hearts full of love. All for nothing. The last scene may be rough to sit through—it appalled a nation of viewers when it first aired—but that’s only because they did Henry so right.

[sillylovingpupper]

So I finally saw a Wrinkle in Time

Not bad at all. Like my other brief reviews, you’ll find the fullness under the cut, but to sum it up, it’s a good adaptation. It’s not perfect, but so few film adaptations are, since some themes don’t make the jump from page to screen. The good news is that the core of the book made it, even if some of the details seem to have been left by the wayside.

As a whole, the film is kind of jerky; the transition from scene to scene can get a little dizzying, and it feels like the director hasn’t quite gotten the hang of pacing. The pieces are set up, advanced, and prepared for the next scene. It’s not bad, but it can feel inorganic at times.

The characters and actors playing them were so so. As I suspected, Chris Pine just doesn’t have the presence of Mr Murray. He’s a good actor, and he played his role quite well, but it wasn’t the haggard Mr Murray of the books. There were parts that were better, and parts that weren’t handled as well, but taken as a whole, this Mr Murray is very believable as a father. Meg is the center of the piece, as she should well be, and the arc is her learning self-esteem (A message I know I could certainly use) and realizing while she isn’t perfect, she is glorious. The kid they got to play Charles Wallace has a career ahead of him, I’ll tell you that, probably the best actor in the movie. Calvin was...kind of there, which kind of hurts, since he was one of my favorites in the book, and played an important role. The Misses...Oprah was larger than life (literally in quite a few scenes), playing Miss Which as the spiritual advisor she was. I wasn’t crazy about Witherspoons Whatsit, as she seems to have taken the young cuckoolander bit a little far. Miss Who was fantastic; though she had the fewest lines, her expressions really sold the character.

I am happy to say the core themes of the book are there. It’s a heavy book, despite being so short, and so several scenes were cut out, and the story was edited slightly, but I think that in so doing, it added to the story in a way that’s meaningful. The overarching theme is love. Love is the one thing that transcends time and space...no, wait. That’s Interstellar, and frankly, A Wrinkle in Time did what Interstellar didn’t, managing to balance the mind and the heart into a meaningful whole. The stand against the darkness, the need to be your flawed, but special self, that was all there. I feel like the movie needed more time to build up these conflicts; as it was, we only very briefly visited core scenes and locales in the book, but Wrinkle in Time doesn’t translate well to the big screen because a lot of it is just standing and talking and musing and internal, and that doesn’t make for a good film. It’s very much enriched if you’ve seen the book, because the things that go unspoken can be filled in, and you realize “Oh, this is what is happening in this scene”, and they become a lot more meaningful.

The movie plays on the slightly unsettling; very much of Camazotz is played out in alien geometry rather than the unsettling sameness that takes place in the book, which is a shame because the 50s themed atmosphere would probably unsettle the modern viewer even more than weird movements. All in all, if you’re a fan of the book, it’s a decent adaptation; if you’re looking for an exciting scifi film, look elsewhere.

[tak4hir0]

For the past 3 years, freeCodeCamp has surveyed 10,000s of developers about how they're learning to code and pursuing their careers. And we've made our full datasets publicly available. In 2020, we decided to take a year off. So this article isn't about a new dataset from us. Rather, it's about a survey conducted by our friends at HackerRank. They surveyed 116,000 developers for their 2020 skills report. And I'm going to break down the results that I think are most relevant to new developers here. Many of the developers they surveyed were also hiring managers. So let's start there. What do Hiring Managers Look for in Developer Hires?It turns out this depends a lot on the size of the company. Smaller companies rely more heavily on generalists. They bring on lots of full-stack developers who can wear many hats. This usually comes at the expense of dedicated front-end and back-end developers. Smaller companies consider full-stack developers more important. Larger companies are more likely to want specialists.A chart from HackerRank's 2020 Developer Skills report showing that for smaller companies (less than 50 employees) 43% consider Full-stack Developer to be their highest priority hiring role.If you think about it for a moment, this makes sense. Larger companies allow for more specialization. This said, most hiring managers at all sized companies reported prioritized front-end, back-end, or full-stack developers. Only about 25% of hiring managers considered it a higher priority to fill roles like: DevOps EngineeringData ScientistQA EngineerAnd in terms of skills that employers are looking for when they hire... JavaScript is still the most sought-after programming language skill by employers.A chart showing language popularity among hiring managers by region, with JavaScript as the most popular language, followed Python and Java.JavaScript was by far the most popular globally, followed by Python. In the Asia-Pacific region, Java is still very much in demand. C# and C++ are more popular in the Africa-Europe-Middle-East region than elsewhere. But one of the most interesting insights here is that a growing number of managers – especially in The Americas – are "language agnostic." They don't really care which specific programming languages you know. This goes back to something I've been preaching ad nauseam over the past few years: if you can learn one programming language well, you can easily learn a second language on-the-job. So I'm glad more employers are acknowledging this reality instead of just posting jobs for "JavaScript developers" or "Python developers." What a developer has built in the past is a much better indicator of ability than which specific tools they used to build it. Fewer and fewer employers require university degrees. And smaller companies are more flexible on this.A chart showing the proportion of developers who have no Bachelor's degree, who have a degree, and who have graduate degrees - sorted by employer size. Smaller companies are more likely to hire developers who don't have degrees.31% of developers who work at small companies don't have Bachelor's degrees (also known as "undergraduate degrees" or "4 year degrees" in the US). And even at large companies, 9% to 18% of their developer workforce don't have degrees. This represents a pretty big shift from the 1990's and early 2000's when most developer jobs required a degree. If you think about this for a moment, though, it makes perfect sense. The cost of earning a university degree – certainly in the US – has skyrocketed over the past 40 years. Inflation in US University tuition and fees VS overall inflation (Consumer Price Index). Source: The US National Center for Education Statistics.More and more Americans are choosing to forego traditional university degrees in favor of self-learning. My advice has always been: go to a cheap community college, then a cheap public university. I still think 4 year degrees are worth it if you can earn them without going into debt. But I can understand why someone who's already past the traditional university age (late teens to early 20s) may want to skip university entirely. This 2,500% increase in university tuition and fees has also coincided with the birth of the world wide web, and a wealth of free learning resources. These days you can learn pretty much anything for free if you're willing to sit down and learn it. So it's heartening to see more and more employers who are bringing on fully self-taught developers in addition to university graduates. And there's a new middle ground between going to university and just learning everything for free on the web: coding bootcamps. I've written extensively about coding bootcamps, and the role they can play for people who don't want to go back to school. Most people are able to successfully get a developer job after a year or two of self-teaching with online resources, attending local tech events, and hanging out at local hackerspaces. But some people prefer the added structure and accountability that enrolling in a coding bootcamp can provide. These can be nearly as expensive as going to community college + state universities. But they are a bit faster. And the good news is that some employers are hiring these coding bootcamp grads, and are sharing their opinions of them. Do Coding Bootcamps Work? Here's Data From Employers.A chart showing that nearly 32% of hiring managers surveyed had hired a developer who went through a coding bootcamp.About 32% of hiring managers surveyed said they'd hired a coding bootcamp grad. And here's what they had to say about their perception of these bootcamp grads' skills: A chart showing most hiring managers consider coding bootcamp graduates to be as well-equipped for the job as non-bootcamp grads.They found these coding bootcamp grads to mostly be as well equipped as their other hires. And nearly a 1/3 said coding bootcamp grads were better than their typical hire. One thing to note is that many coding bootcamp grads already have Bachelor's degrees – some in Computer Science and Engineering fields. So some of these bootcamp grads have more education than a typical hire would have. Also note that the quality of instruction among different coding bootcamps varies dramatically. This survey didn't release the underlying data, so we don't know which coding bootcamps are most favorable among employers. We also don't know how many of these were traditional in-person coding bootcamps VS online coding bootcamps. (And if you've read my articles in the past, you'll know that I think much more highly of the in-person variety.) But either way, the fact that the 32% of hiring managers who have hired a coding bootcamp grad think so highly of their skills has to be reassuring for all the developers out there who have founded their own coding bootcamps in their cities. What Skills are Developers Interested in Learning?While JavaScript is the most widely used and most widely-sought programming language skill today, there's always a question of what's next. Fortunately the survey covered that, too. Here's the chart: A chart showing that 36% of developers want to learn Go next, followed by Python and Kotlin.We can assume that most of the respondents already know JavaScript since it's hard to be a developer in 2020 without knowing it. So developers are shifting their gaze to focus on some new languages. I'm going to describe these languages right now in case you aren't yet familiar with them. Go is a powerful server language created by Google in 2007. Go offers: garbage collectionmemory safetylimited structural typingand a ton of features for writing heavily-parallel programming.Want to learn Go? You're in luck. We've got a free 7-hour course on Go right here: Learn the fast and simple Go programming language (Golang) in 7 hours The Go programming language (also called Golang) was developed by Google to improve programming productivity. It has seen explosive growth in usage in recent years. In this free course from Micheal Van Sickle, you will learn how to use Go step-by-step. Go is designed specifically as a systems progr… The second language developers want to learn is Python. Want to learn Python? More than 10 million people have done this free 4-hour course freeCodeCamp published on Python: Learn Python basics with this in-depth video course If you’ve been wanting to learn Python, you’re in luck. Mike Dane created this in-depth video course for Python. It’s 4 and a half hours, so it will probably take you at least a weekend to go through. In this video, Mike will walk you through important Python concepts, and help you build some basic… And we also have the world-famous Dr. Chuck teaching a free 14-hour course called "Python for Everybody": Python for Everybody - Free 14 hour Python course from Dr. Chuck This course aims to teach everyone the basics of programming computers using Python 3. The course has no pre-requisites and anyone with moderate computer experience should be able to master the materials in this course. The course was created by Dr. Charles Severance (a.k.a. Dr. Chuck). He is a Cli… And we're working on an interactive browser-based Python curriculum with certifications, too. It'll be out later in 2020. Build 111 Projects, Earn 10 Certifications - Now With Python We’ve been working hard on Version 7.0 of the freeCodeCamp curriculum. Here’s what we’re building. Some of these improvements - including 4 new Python certifications - will go live in early 2020. Note: if you’re already going through the current version of the curriculum, keep going. As you’ll see… The 3rd language developers want to learn in 2020 is Kotlin. Kotlin is an awesome language created by our friends at JetBrains (creators of popular IDEs like InteliJ and WebStorm). Kotlin makes it much easier to create Android apps (which were originally written in Java). So – of course – freeCodeCamp has a free 4-hour course on Kotlin, too: Learn how to develop native Android apps with Kotlin - A Full Course Android is the most popular operating system in the world. It is on more devices and computers than Windows, iOS, and MacOS combined. In this complete video course from Ryan Kay, you will learn how to build native apps for Android using Kotlin. This full course explains how to build an entire Andro… What do professional developers actually care about in terms of professional development?A chart showing that 59% of developers want to learn new technical skills at work. This is significantly more than the developers who primarily want to earn certifications, develop soft skills, or receive promotions.In one word: skills. Most developers care less about traditional markers of professional advancement (promotions). They care more about expanding their toolbox of technical skills. And this makes a lot of sense when you look at this following chart: A graph showing developers are much more interested in technical roles than managerial roles.Most developers would rather get promoted into more technical role than a managerial role. An Engineering Manager is a manager and an individual contributor is a developer who is managed. But what is a technical lead exactly? The role of Tech Lead varies from company to company, but usually involves making high-level technical decisions (like an architect) and setting the vision for a team of developers. Tech Leads usually report to Engineering Managers, who then report to executives like the CTO. As of 2020, how much money do developers make each year?Based on the 116,000 developers surveyed, average annual salary is US $54,000. This is for developers globally. Let's zoom in to look at the US – the country where developers get paid the most. (I'm not quite sure why this is, but I suspect it's a combination the US housing the headquarters of many of the world's largest software companies, combined with restrictive immigration policy that limits the availability of developers.) Here is average developer salary by US metro area: San Francisco leads with an average annual salary of $148,000, followed by Seattle, Los Angeles, and Boston.To put these numbers in perspective, the average American earns around $47,000. So being a developer – not bad work if you can get it. 😉 Thanks again to the HackerRank team for conducting this survey and creating these visualizations. These, combined with Stack Overflow surveys and freeCodeCamp's own surveys, help paint a higher-resolution picture of software development as a field.

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

New Evolution Brotherhood fic ideas

I was thinking about the end of the X-Men Evolution series, and how we see that in the future, Magneto will join the X-Men and become teacher to the New Mutants, while the Brotherhood will go on to work for SHIELD. And so I was thinking, if I were to write a continuation of of Evolution, who will be the new bad guys? SHIELD can be antagonistic to the X-Men at times, but that's not the same thing as bad guys. I personally would like to see lots of baddy groups from the comic books who never made it to canon Evo, such as the Marauders and the Hellfire Club, and I already have ideas about the Evolution version of the Hellions to combat the New Mutants, but how about a new Brotherhood too, who would be foes to both the X-Men and SHIELD? I think that would only make sense. The canon Evolution Brotherhood was just vulnerable teenagers being manipulated by an adult into making trouble for her own ends, not real bad guys with any real goals. This new Brotherhood, however, would be more like the Brotherhood of comics and movies, a true radical organization formed in response to rising anti-mutant sentiment as mutants became more and more well-known. Since mutants only became public knowledge during the course of Evolution, things are probably gonna get worse for them before they get better. The new Brotherhood would be adults lashing back against that with real terrorist activity. (I do love the “teen rivals” idea of the original Brotherhood though, so that would continue with the aforementioned Evolution version of the Hellions led by, of course, an Evolution version of Emma Frost. So they would be the successors to the Evolution Brotherhood in spirit---a pack of mostly good kids misled by an awesome evil lady---while this new one would be more in name.)

For this new Brotherhood, I would pick characters from the comics canon who were involved with the 616 Brotherhood and 616 Acolytes (not to be confused with the canon Evo Acolytes which were nothing like them and had none of the same members), as well as similar groups like the Mutant Liberation Front (which was not run by Magneto in the comics, but had likeminded goals, as evident by the name) So here is my lineup idea and my reasons for picking each mutant. Click their names for links to info pages about them elsewhere on the web!

Obviously, with Magneto gone, a leader is needed. I guess Mystique is the obvious choice, but for a NEW series, I think I would like to have a new Big Bad, and have Mystique doing new things. I think she could be a sort of chaotic neutral type, aiding the “bad guys” and “good guys” alike---helping out the Acolytes and their ilk because she agrees with their cause, but also the X-Men in an attempt to win over Kurt and Rogue, as well as anyone else who suits her ends. No, for the actual leader of the new Brotherhood, I would pick (no surprise from me, I guess) Fabian Cortez. At my RP blog for Fabian and the other first-gen Acolytes from the comics ( @thecorteztwins ) I play an Evolution verse where Fabian and his sister Anne Marie are teenagers, not terrorists, and pretty ordinary nice kids. I find it fun to play a Lighter and Softer version of them both. But if I were going to actually write for the show (or just a fanfic) I think that an adult Fabian Cortez, one who is very like his 616 counterpart, would be an excellent choice for a villain and as a successor to Magneto's role---I mean, he did that for awhile in the comics anyway, and he actually did it pretty damn well until Magneto came back and he got demoted to abused comic relief. Also, Evolution Magneto was pretty despicable and far less sympathetic and complex than 616 Magneto, so the fact that Fabian himself isn't at all sympathetic wouldn't be an issue as far as “is this character a good replacement for that one in terms of story role” goes. I also think Fabian would be a bit more fun to work with, because he's not just very competent and clever and threatening as a villain, he's also frequently hilarious and embarrassing as a person, as you know from my other posts about him. So he can be more fleshed-out, versus just the scary bad guy in the background. No offense to Magneto fans here, I just don't think Evo did Magneto justice, at least to my memory.

Fabian being there means that Anne Marie Cortez is a shoe-in for the team psychic. Since they'll be fighting a team that has both Xavier and Jean Grey (until the Phoenix, as also shown in the future of Evolution) I think it's only fair that the Brotherhood has somebody to balance that, though her powers being much more limited compared those of Xavier (she is not a true telepath, but an empath who can also control minds) keeps her from making their side TOO overpowered in that regard (since if the bad guys have their own Xavier, that would just end every fight before it starts) Her enhanced agility and skill with a firearm (as shown in the comics) can make for dramatic physical fights as well, so she's not just standing there with her fingers on her forehead. It would also be neat to work in my theory that Empath of the Hellions is cousin to the Cortez twins. Also to work out if this version of Anne Marie would want to bring Magneto back to the cause, or just sees him as a traitor and is loyal only to the ideas of the Brotherhood, not its founder. That would apply for everyone I guess, but it would especially apply for how I write her because the way I write her 616 version on my RP blog is someone who is fanatically devoted to Magneto as a religious character, so it would be a radically different Anne Marie for me to write in many ways if I changed that. Which would also be interesting. Delgado or Frenzy or Kamal El Alaoui as the team strongman. I have a bias for Delgado since I write him on my RP blog, and Kamal has a cool extra ability too (takes on qualities of whatever he touches, such as steel or concrete) but I really like Frenzy there. Female strongman characters with visible muscle are a bit unusual, and I don't think we've had a super-strong woman in Evolution. Plus, since she joined the X-Men in 616, she could be this season's Rogue...but honestly, I kinda like her better as classic 80s-90s total asshole Frenzy. I guess there could be a way to make it both, though, and redemption stories are more powerful when the person was REALLY bad first.

Astra or Amelia Voght for team teleporter. Amelia was the teleporter for the 616 Acolytes, while Astra was with the 616 Brotherhood. I prefer Amelia for her interactions with Fabian, but Astra would be great for Magneto stories, either pursuing her personal grudge against him (like she had in the comics) or trying to recruit him back into his old life, or both. And if she's trying to recruit him, how does Fabian, the current leader, feel about that? Does he support it, because having Magneto will attract more followers? Or is he opposed to it because he doesn't want his position threatened? I think I'd have to go with Astra for these reasons, and I think Amelia's interactions with Fabian could easily be duplicated with Astra (Fabian is a creep, then pays for it, basically) Just as Astra has a past with Magneto in the comics, Amelia has a past with Xavier, so she could be used for doing an Xavier-centric story, but I think we already know Evolution Xavier is pretty terrible, and I think Astra going after Magneto could make for more actual conflict, so again, I'd pick Astra. But I would still like having Amelia for reasons other than her powers and her connection to Charles, mainly that she was the one who questioned the Acolytes cruelty and, unlike Scanner or Neophyte (see below) she wasn’t meek about it. I think someone like that is important for the team dynamic---you’ve got the sadistic assholes (Carmella, Kleinstocks, Senyaka, etc), the people who aren’t that evil but also don’t care (Phantazia) or are oblivious (Milan), the ones who feel it’s wrong but are too afraid to do anything (the aforementioned Neophyte and Scanner types) and then Amelia, the sole one saying anything. In order not to make her redundant next to Astra, I would tweak her powers, so she no longer teleports via mist, but has powers like those of Mist Mistress, making her a composite character (like how Evolution Avalanche is a combination of comics Avalanche and Rictor) Mist Mistress never got a civilian name in the comics, and Amelia never got a codename, so it works out pretty well! Neophyte or Scanner as the one who, as previously mentioned, is not as cruel as the majority of their comrades but lacks the spine to take a stand. Their powers are different, but their abilities are visually similar and both non-combative, and both of them are meek types who aren't cruel like many of their teammates but too scared and submissive and unsure to actually question Fabian, who they obey and who bullies them behind closed doors like the big dickwad he is. So I would pick just one to use so it's not redundant. Scanner is an adult woman and Neophyte is a teenage boy, so Fabian's interactions with Scanner would have an extra gross edge that they wouldn't with Neophyte. I'm not sure if that's a reason to pick her or a reason NOT to, to be honest. On the one hand, it helps show how awful he is. On the other, this is a kid's show. I think I'll go with Neophyte. Fabian can still be gross to other women in the series, but then they can kick his ass. Plus Neophyte being a teen gives him a chance to connect more with the New Mutants (I picture most of the X-Men being young adults at this point, but the New Mutants will still be teens) I'm not sure about Chrome. He would either make the Brotherhood too over-powered in a fight (since he can turn everyone to metal)...or he would do the reverse and be an enormous liability, since he's making a bunch of metal WHEN THEY ARE FIGHTING MAGNETO. I guess if I picked Delgado for the team strong guy, I would use Chrome too, since it would feel weird to use ¾ of the first-gen Acolytes team from the comics (Fabian, Anne Marie, Chrome, Delgado) and then not use one of them. But since I picked Frenzy for the team muscle, I'll leave out Chrome. Phantazia aka Eileen Harsaw. She was a member of the 616 Brotherhood who could manipulate electromagnetic energy. I'm fond of her, as there aren't that many Brotherhood women as there are men, and she's a little-known 90s character which is my favorite kind. So I would like to include her in this new Evolution Brotherhood. I'm also going for a team that's well-balanced, so since they've thus far got Fabian's support powers, Anne Marie's psychic powers, Frenzy's physical strength, Astra's teleporting, and Neophyte's transport/spy powers, Eileen's offensive elemental/energy powers are a good addition. It will also be neat to see her face off against Magneto, as their abilities seem similar. Not much is known about her, but Blob refers to her as “Ms. PhD” in the comics, suggesting she may be very intelligent or well-educated, and I think something could be done with that as well. The Kleinstock brothers, from the 616 Acolytes, have a mix of physical and energy powers.  Like their comics counterparts, they're just there to be evil sadistic assholes, in order to contrast people like Neophyte. In the comics, they were originally triplets (Eric, Harlan, and Sven) but Eric was killed in their first mission, so most of their appearances have just been Harlan and Sven. I would like to keep it to just Sven and Harlan as well, to avoid confusion with Magneto due to him sharing a first name with Eric, but I also would like for Eric to still be acknowledged. I'm just not sure how to do it. Evolution was dark, but people rarely actually died, so I don't think having Eric die is the way to go. Then again, maybe the Eric/Erik thing won't be such a big deal, since Erik will usually be referred to as Magneto anyway? Francisco Milan was the Acolytes technopath in the comics, and he was precious. Just a precious nerd. I need this precious nerd in the new Evolution Brotherhood. He's not a jerk like Frenzy or the Kleinstocks, but he's not really...aware enough to question things like Neophyte. It's not that he's stupid or callous, he's just totally focused on his own little cyber-world and I don't think he notices much else, he just hacks what they tell him. As in the comics, he probably gets picked on for his non-combative powers by the other Acolytes, and is super happy whenever he gets used to, and very ashamed when he feels he's failed (read: performed less than perfection) LOVE THIS PRECIOUS NERD, EVERYONE! Unus the Untouchable (Angelo Unuscione) or his daughter Carmella Unuscione. Unus was a member of the 616 Brotherhood, Carmella of the 616 Acolytes. I really like the friendship that Unus and the Blob had in the comics, so I'd like to reproduce that in Evolution. But since Unus is old enough to have an adult daughter, he'd be a lot older than Blob is in this universe, since Blob would be a young adult himself when working with SHIELD. Plus, if Blob is with SHIELD, he and Unus would be enemies if Unus is with the Brotherhood. So what I'm thinking is that Angelo “Unus” Unuscione is an older guy who works with SHIELD and was one of their first mutant members, and he becomes a father figure to Fred. Fred's never shown to have any parents in the picture, so this seems like a much-needed thing for him. As for Unus, his daughter being with the Brotherhood provides obvious drama and conflict and an interesting background story, and it also shows why he'd want to mentor a substitute child figure. So, Unus for SHIELD, and Carmella for the Brotherhood. Carmella, by the way, is very much one of the BAD Acolytes in the comics, so she's a horrible person in the Evolution Brotherhood too. Maybe Barnacle as the team Toad Like Frenzy, Carmella, and the Kleinstocks, Senyaka is one of the horrible bloodthirsty human-hating members of the 616 Acolytes, and his Evolution counterpart will fill that role in the Evolution Brotherhood. I don’t particuliarly care for Senyaka but he’s an iconic member of the Acolytes, so including him feels right, and we could use a really scary guy like him.

Lorelei was a Savage Land native in the comics that Magneto artificially mutated, and she served in his Brotherhood. For her Evolution version though, I think she'll just have a cameo. I can't see her as full-time member at all; in the comics, she was totally naive of what was going on and just did what Magneto told her without thought or opposition since he was her creator. She doesn't seem like she at all understands the human/mutant conflict or why she's supposed to fight the X-Men. Her Evolution counterpart would of course not be from the Savage Land, but an ordinary young mutant woman, and therefore know about these things, but I still see her as someone with a personality that just has no interest in participating in this fight. So my idea is that when Anne Marie is captured or otherwise can't fight, they find and recruit her, by payment or force, to fill in for her on a single mission. Anne Marie can control everyone's mind, while Lorelei can only control men, but that's a decent enough replacement in a pinch. Also, Lorelei's name as a Savage Land girl was Lani Ubana, and since the name Lani is a real-world Hawaiin name, her Evolution version would be Native Hawaiian. She'd have a corresponding Hawaiian surname has well, since I doubt Ubana has a coincidentally real-world counterpart as well. Also, Fabian is probably a huge creep to her so she should use her powers to make him slap himself. Solarr or Strobe or Crucible (commonly known as Burner but I prefer his Crucible codename) or Firefist, purely for the sake of a literal firefight with Pyro (which should also happen with Magma of the New Mutants) I like Solarr but I would pick Crucible because in the 1990s animated series, he and Gambit are established to be old friends, and it would be neat to use that in the Evolution universe, especially since the original cartoon was never really clear on how they met or the details of the relationship, so that could be established in this story. Also Solarr is a tall ginger so I think that could get confusing with Fabian around; I’d still keep him as a baddy in the Evo sequel, just not part of this group (Solarr was always about money and never mutant rights anyway) Alternatively for our fire/heat user guy, we could use Reignfire as the team’s evil counterpart to Sunspot. Rather than being Sunspot’s sort-of clone like in the comics, he could be his older brother or cousin instead, to make things less confusing and convoluted. I might also throw in Feral as a cruel counterpart to the Hellion’s Catseye (since she’s included in my Evo Hellions who would also be in this Evolution sequel I shall never write) and/or Mellencamp just to have an overtly monstrous-looking team member. Also maybe work in my Evo ideas for Polaris not so much as a Brotherhood member but more like a target, like maybe part of Astra’s schemes to get at Magneto. Though that would naturally have to involve my ideas for an Evolution version of Zala Dane too!

[thebestplltheories]

*NEW* Pretty Little Liars Endgame (Alternative)

Whilst I still stand by my first endgame theory, today I want to explore an alternative way the endgame could potentially unfold. 

One day at Radley, Charlotte accidentally pushed Marion Cavanaugh off the roof. Jessica, who was on the board at Radley, agrees to help her niece Charlotte by ruling Marion’s death a suicide, but internally within Radley, Charlotte blamed Bethany for it. Charlotte reversed the roles when telling her story to the liars in 610 so that they would feel sorry for her. 

Jessica feels bad that an innocent patient, Bethany, was blamed for something her niece did so she signs Bethany out of Radley to adopt and ride a horse. Considering she helped Charlotte get away with it, it is the absolute least Jessica can do. But Bethany isn’t appreciative of these sympathetic gifts because she knows that Jessica is having an affair with her father. Jessica asks Bethany to call her “aunt Jessie” as a way of saying “I’m not having an affair with your father, I’m just a long lost aunt hence I’ve been around your father lately!” Bethany throws a tantrum and buckets after Jessica’s lies. “Is it like mother like daughter?” and “can I trust anyone in that family?” says Bethany in her recordings. Bethany’s hatred is building towards two dead characters, ‘mother and daughter’ Charlotte and Jessica. (Even young Charles thought they were a part of the DiLaurentis family for quite some time.)

After Charles’ funeral, Charlotte’s doctors let her go, out of belief that trapping a transgender patient in a mental asylum isn’t doing any good. And, she’s apparently been making progress… again, Bethany was blamed for Charlotte’s fatal mistake. She never returned to Radley as Charlotte: she was free to walk the streets of Rosewood. She created the new alias CeCe Drake, after having found out about her birth mother Mary Drake (although having still never met her). CeCe attended college and shared a roommate, explaining how she knew everyone at Eric Kahn’s party and perhaps how she slipped into the Rosewood High yearbook. This also explains why Charlotte needed a visitors pass to see Mona in Radley, as she was no longer a patient that can sneak down the hall. 

During college, CeCe and Noel happened to be at the same frat party. Noel accidentally pushed a girl down the stairs, but of course the bystander ex-Radley patient gets the blame for it. As a result, Charlotte is kicked out of college for something Noel did. Hence Noel helped Charlotte in the dollhouse; he felt he owed something to Charlotte. He took something from her that she worked extra hard for. 

While CeCe was off beginning her new life in Rosewood (still before ‘that night’), Bethany was still in Radley, taking medication that should have Charlotte’s name on it, drowning in her own drool. That’s sure to drive her crazy. 

“That night”, Bethany escaped with the intent of killing Charlotte as revenge for ruining her life. Jessica, who was Bethany’s caretaker at Radley, got a call that night from Radley workers informing her that Bethany has escaped. “I’m very worried, please send someone”, said Jessica, knowing how much Bethany hates her and her niece. A war was brewing. Charlotte wanted to hurt Bethany before Bethany harms anyone. Charlotte accidentally hit Ali instead of Bethany, but thankfully Mrs. Grunwald came to Ali’s rescue. “I swear I thought it was Bethany, mum” cried Charlotte.

Mona hit Bethany with a shovel thinking she was hitting Ali; she hated Ali that much. The purpose of a psychic saving Ali was because only a psychic could know to come back to Rosewood and save another person: Bethany Young. Mrs Grunwald sensed more danger and went and saved Bethany. I don’t like supernatural elements as much as the next person, but it exists, and we have to acknowledge it and use it.

Notice how the person saving Ali/Bethany is different in the two instances. TWO people were pulled out of the dirt. (Red sleeve vs no sleeve.)

Bethany Young is alive. Bethany Young is Uber A and AD, which stands for After Death. Whilst there have been many deaths over the seasons, Bethany’s “death” was THE death that started it all and so it’s very iconic for her to go by AD. We know AD has to be someone who has access to medical records, as they leaked Yvonne’s abortion and Veronica’s sickness. Who better than someone who successfully faked her death? 

Bethany couldn’t stand the idea of that bitch Charlotte getting 5 years treatment and then getting to go home with her family, happily ever after. As revenge, Bethany killed Charlotte the exact same way that Charlotte killed Marion and blamed her for it: Charlotte was pushed off a building (bell-tower). 

Here is our clue from the writers that we should be looking at Bethany. In the (FAKE) flashback we saw of Bethany, she was wearing this red sweater.

Yet we saw someone in an awfully similar red sweater walk into the bell-tower the very night Charlotte was killed: Bethany? Again, even though it was a fake flashback and that red sweater doesn’t technically exist, it is the writers foreshadowing. 

And if it wasn’t already clear, Bethany killed Jessica, too… the affair that could’ve teared apart her family forever (Bethany might have become related to Charlotte, that thought scared Bethany!) and Jessica also helped Charlotte get away with pushing Marion. Jessica had to go. Season 5A made it extremely easy to guess that Melissa and/or Peter killed Jessica with Peter’s drugs, and hence they lied about where they were the night she was killed. Yet, here we are in 7A, and the writers still haven’t confirmed Melissa and Peter’s involvement. For that reason, I believe the answer is elsewhere. If it really was Melissa and Peter, that could’ve been confirmed years ago. If it really was Melissa and/or Peter, why is it being extended into season 7B? Because there’s more to the story. It was Bethany.

Bethany/AD chooses to frame Melissa for Charlotte’s murder. Out of all people in Rosewood, why did the killer chose Melissa? Because Melissa has a motive that would make sense in front of a jury: Charlotte sent Wren the video of Melissa confessing to burying Bethany the actual person in the grave, which lead to Wren breaking up with her. Melissa’s relationship crumbled, combined with the simple fact that Charlotte is in possession of a video that could destroy Melissa’s reputation forever, is why Bethany decided Melissa is the perfect candidate to frame: she would have a motive to want Charlotte dead. 

Bethany stole Melissa’s suitcase, broke the handle and bashed Charlotte’s head with it. She then put the suitcase back before Melissa notices it’s missing… or did she? Whilst unpacking her clothes, Melissa says in 613 “I know I had more clothes in here”. Evidently Melissa’s suitcase was tampered with. 

Melissa was the person sending unsigned, emoji texts throughout 6B. She was being harassed by Bethany, that if she doesn’t admit to killing Charlotte or find another killer before the end of the election night, her confession video will be shared with everyone. 

How did Bethany even get her hands on this video? From Wren. As we know, Charlotte sent the video to Wren so clearly Wren is in possession of this video. The reason he instantly ended his relationship with Melissa is because Bethany is his sister and he was mad that Melissa potentially killed his sister and didn’t say anything. Of course, she’s alive now, but what a big secret that is to keep.

As Emily stated in 617 after being attacked, “there’s definitely 2 people after us”. Bethany wanted Emily to touch the suitcase handle (why not have a second person to frame?) whilst Melissa was the one trying to get it back to save herself.

Marlene has said there is one question she can’t wait to answer, but she can’t tell us what this question is because the question itself is a spoiler. That question is precisely “who is actually in the grave?" The answer is one that makes total sense: Alison’s twin. This also explains how the Jane Doe was identified as Alison in the first place: similar DNA.

They foreshadowed this in 513 by showing a dead Alison in a grave. This was the writers telling us that YES, despite all complications, there really is an Alison in the grave. We already have twins; Mary and Jessica. However, scientifically, twins CAN give birth to twins. So, it is possible to have another set of twins involved in the endgame. Also, Marlene has explicitly said that “we won’t see Courtney”. We may never actually find out the name of Ali’s twin. It doesn’t matter. They aren’t alive, they aren’t A like in the books. We will never see them. They are DEAD. 

It’s also possible that the person in the grave is a random girl we’ve never met before - probably one of the many new cast members joining the finale.

This is tricky to answer for 2 reasons:

- At the time of this Tweet, Marlene knew there will be a FAKE flashback involving Bethany in 610. Ignore that flashback COMPLETELY. It never happened. That was Charlotte retelling a story of lies.

- There is before the incident regarding her face,

- There is after the incident regarding her face.

What incident?

One day whilst on temporary release, Bethany was with Jenna in Jenna’s garage. Alison and her friends threw fireworks inside and as a result, Jenna was blinded and Bethany was burnt. This is how the show is coming full circle as we are circling right back to the stories of season 1. Bethany hates Ali and the girls for the permanent damage she has suffered. 

Alison blamed Toby for ‘The Jenna/Bethany Thing’ which Bethany assumes means that Toby was involved, too. Hence, in a true moment of anger right after her name was announced to the public on television, Bethany blew up Toby’s house. 

Note that Bethany never shows her face in her pictures. This is not laziness by any means, she is actually a brilliant artist.

So whilst Bethany is framing Melissa for Charlotte’s murder, she is harassing the Liars over it too because they ruined her life.

Bethany/AD is walking around Rosewood in masks. Her face is deformed, on top of the fact that she’s supposed to be dead. She cannot show her face. Further, 6A revealed that Bethany Young shared a room in Radley with Leslie Stone. That same season we saw Leslie with boxes of glasses identical to those that AD has been wearing. Leslie knows Bethany is alive and she was trying to locate her long lost friend - she found her!

Bethany shot Spencer as not only revenge for burning her (The Jenna/Bethany Thing), but for being the one to bash her over the head that night. Of course, Spencer didn’t actually do it (Mona did) but since everyone in Rosewood thought it was Spencer, Bethany later latched on to this popular belief. (Note: if Alison survived a rock to the head, Bethany survived a bashing to the head, too. Heightened reality, unfortunately.) 

This message was from Bethany: 

Again, note the blacked face.

This Black Veil person from 401 was Bethany. CeCe’s story of who this person was, revolved around Sara Harvey pulling off a veil to reveal her face, but in reality, there is a (BURNT) Alison mask underneath that veil. CeCe’s version couldn’t be true as Sara never had a mask when she entered the limo. Sara never saw the girls as dolls - Sara was just Charlotte’s decoy, so it makes no sense for Sara to have been playing dolly earlier… This is Uber A.

Why would Sara Harvey care about Bethany Young? She doesn’t. Below is Bethany sending flowers to her family who she misses. She wants to tell them she’s alive and well! But first she wants to finish off this game and punish the people who hurt her.

Despite the above Tweet being from 2013, she is going to follow through with that in these final episodes because:

I know what you’re probably thinking… Bethany being Uber A is not satisfying. To me, it is! It goes right back to season 1 as it revolves around ‘that night’. The person that suffered that night in the pilot, is back for revenge! 

I could do a part 2 for this theory to explain who is Bethany. Who are her parents? Is she a DiLaurentis? Is the “aunt Jessie” thing supposed to be taken literally - is she a Drake? Is she someone’s twin? Is Melissa Bethany? Is Sara Harvey Bethany (I hope not, but very possible)? Is Bethany Charlotte’s twin who also transitioned, hence Jason thought he saw CeCe that night (but really it was Bethany, like Charlotte says)? I believe we are dealing with Bethany - but who is Bethany, is for another day. I do NOT believe for a split second they will make Uber A be a person we’ve never met before. That’s pathetic.

When the Bethany-ideas came flooding to me, I googled ‘Bethany is Uber A’ to see the fan consensus on this topic and the first result was an amazing post by @the-outlast. Whilst we have some largely contrasting opinions on some aspects, shoutout to this person for a couple pieces of evidence I used to explain our belief that Bethany is alive :)

[fooboo24]

watched the reign finale and despite everything i cried fiixjfijdjfjid

thoughts beneath (and therefore SPOILERS so do not click if you don’t want to see them) because i need to ramble

OVERALL MESS OF THOUGHTS AHOY

-francis and mary at the end had me blubbering ifjdijxjfijgjg. mary got to go back to the best and most ideal time of her life, when she was back in france (her home lbr... she was generally raised there) with francis. like...... it was just nice to see after everything tbh

-the entire show could have REALLY benefited from anywhere from just one more episode (pacing pacing pacing!) to just one more season. or, ya know, a rewrite of the second season. ive seen a lot of people on youtube commenting that mary being in france for like ... 2.5 seasons or whatever was too long and bogged down the plot, which i agree with. if they’d kept things concise and clean with a linear storyline and maybe only a few little side things going on, the show wouldn’t have suffered so badly later on.

alas, however, this cannot be undone. but i honestly feel like the show would have really come into itself quite well if they had been given a fifth and final season. shit could have been better paced and relationships and character better treated and fleshed out. everything this season happened way too fast because they had to come to such a definite conclusion so suddenly due to their farting around with mary in france :/ and due to this, a lot of side characters were quite literally sidelined and given half-assed sideplots that ultimately worked against the main plot moving so quickly because they felt so out of place/weren’t given enough time to go anywhere properly.

like greer and claude (AND CATHERINE!!!!!... and elizabeth... and mary herself... im rambling here), good god. claude’s plot was all ???? but felt like it could go somewhere because she was given considerable screentime with luc. but then out of nowhere, it was just: leith’s getting married (no screentime with him let alone further mention) and then “luc left claude!” and then claude was just dropped entirely. like ????? sensible or satisfying plot conclusion who? this french princess gets none. and like, she didn’t even need to have a guy for either one. it could have given her a 2-3 minute scene where she resolves to start clean and make amends with her heart and romantic struggles by allowing herself to just “be” herself outside of the expectation of having a man in her life. because we know claude is a strong girl, and they could have shown these labours of love she has been put through as fostering both a sense of sadness, but also strength with which to uphold herself. but nah. she walks away from henry and charles having a bitch fit in the throne room or whatever and that’s the last of that.

and greer. hers is a bit less severe, i suppose, but it still shows. kind of had a thing going with james that was alluded to, but the last mention of it was episodes ago when she was momentarily angry at mary for sending him away. then in this last episode? nothing, because it would be tonally inappropriate because it was a very MARY only episode both in situation and being the finale. but series’ finales handle multiple plot lines well all the time, and so could have this one, but once again other characters and storylines suffered for the immediacy of jamming a bunch of plotlines into some 40 minute episode. i mean im glad they didn’t subtract from everything going on to an extent, because that would have detracted ever further from mary’s main plotline due to time restraints, but im glad for the poorest of expectations in the show, in some ways.

my favourite character has always been catherine. a wickedly interesting character, great actress, in a mostly “meh” show overall. she got a poor end, too, but at least she got something (hello margot). the whole devil-worshiping witch thing was a bit much tbh. couldn’t emmanuelle have taken the boetia and some gold and been good to go? no. we had to see her get narcisse and catherine drunk and drugged in order to force them into an ... orgy (yes, it was effectively rape)  in order to conceive a child to be her demonic spawn or something? and this gives way to catherine learning she has to buddy up with her other daughter margot (margaret? marguerite?) in order to outlive henry and charles’s bullshit (GOD!!! THE SHIT WITH NICOLE!!!! SO! MUCH! WASTED! SCREENTIME!). uhhhhh????? idk why catherine couldn’t have NORMALLY (not drunk or drugged and just having been sexually assaulted) overheard charles and henry plotting to give weapons and shit to the basques and been like “yall are idiots this won’t work” (because she’s intelligent af) and then when they brush her off and tell her she’s “not like she used to be” (or smthin along the lines of that...) she could have been like “fuck it if my idiotic sons are gonna drag france and themselves to hell im going to start this over properly with another one” and then, with the intuition she has always had, realizing that henry and charles will eventually die for their idiocy and that they are lost causes she can no longer steer to sense and survival, gone to margot to teach her of her own volition instead of by the shoe-horned prophecy of emmanuelle? just.... blah :///

literally every character deserved better, is what im saying.

with a fifth season shit could have been waaaay better explored and better ended overall. hell, mary’s life after darnley’s death could have been explored. a wedding to bothwell (let mary be momentarily happy???? [spongbob voice] and ALIVE!!!!). more conspiracies and plots against elizabeth. her capture and being held in england. greer could have given a proper chance with james, and seeing as the show isn’t largely reliant on historical accuracy, they could have been happy together. OR, seeing as she wouldn’t be playing any kind of a significant or necessary role in the story at that point any longer (she can’t join mary on the run or really visit her in captivity i imagine... and she needs to be safe for her daughter), things could have been dissipated with james and she could have been granted some land and a home and the chance to live her life with her daughter, and maybe find love and a husband in the future. she could have gotten some scenes to do justice to her character, and then been off on her way without sidelining her poorly and entirely (but still keeping her character lurking in the background for no discernible reason) to the detriment of the show. claude could have gotten a final confrontation with leith where they end it entirely, because good god leith is also one of those characters that’s been dragged around for excess punishment more than necessary, and he could have gone off and gotten married and been GONE and happy. claude would grieve, of course, but maybe she could have gotten luc back and that could be its own happy love story where she is fully ready to commit being in a happy, functional marriage with luke while falling love with him. or hell! she could have had her scene to distance herself from luc permanently, been granted an annulment, and could have gone off and just done her own thing or could have gone off to find love elsewhere. instead of her entire story left dangling. catherine could endure the loss of two more sons and the loss of the valois line in france, but how she remained a powerful surviving figure in european politics. margot would have been an interesting character to potentially get to know, too! and it would have been hella interesting to see how elizabeth would deal with the threat from spain. IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER UGH!!!! and im mad about that :///

even oneeeeee more episode would have drastically improved it. help pace it and slow it down and for the billionth time, resolve dangling sideplots. but nope.

well, okay, that’s it from me. i mean, despite its glaring flaws a lot of the time, reign is a show dear to me that also has a lot to love, and i’ll genuinely miss it.

t’was fun, reign, goodbye! :’))

[ramialkarmi]

This biracial woman knew nothing about Silicon Valley before she founded a startup — now she's trying to help other non-traditional entrepreneurs succeed in tech

Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon succeeded in Silicon Valley despite not knowing anything about the tech industry before she moved to the area — and despite being a biracial woman.

But Dixon recognizes she was lucky; entrepreneurs who are women or people of color have struggled to gain a footing in the valley.

Hoping to use the lessons she's learned and pass them on, Dixon's founded a new startup that offers training courses designed for non-traditional entrepreneurs like herself.

When Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon launched her first startup, DemoLesson, seven years ago, you likely wouldn't have given her much of a chance of succeeding in the tech industry.

At the time, Dixon didn't live in the Bay Area, didn't know anyone in the industry, and knew little about how to fundraise or how Silicon Valley worked. She's wasn't a coder or an engineer; instead, she had been a middle-school teacher and working on a PhD — in education. What's more, she's a biracial woman with an African-American dad and launched up her company at a time when there were few women or people of color founding startups.

"My experience in this space was really isolated," she said. She continued: "I didn't know what i was doing most of the time."

But Dixon succeeded even so. During an event sponsored by Startup Weekend, she connected with other founders and investors. That helped her secure venture funding for her company, a kind of LinkedIn for teachers, from famed tech investor Mitch Kapor.

When her startup didn't pan out, the connections she'd made led to a job at Startup Weekend helping organize events for entrepreneurs in the education technology space. After Startup Weekend transferred her program to another organization, Dixon eventually went to work for Kapor's Kapor Capital, helping mentor other startup founders funded by the venture firm.

And now she's got a new startup, this time focusing on helping other women and people of color succeed in the industry. Dubbed Founder Gym, the new organization offers a four-week training course for entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups that are intended to give them the knowledge and connections they'll need.

Dixon's experiences in the industry have given her a view of it and insights into it that many women and people of color don't have, she said. Her decision to start Founder Gym was also fueled by being the child of civil rights attorneys and her experience as a former teacher.

"I've navigated spaces and been in rooms with people most people never have access to," Dixon said. "I actually feel like it's my duty to share this information that I'm getting and spread forth this message."

Founder Gym's program is structured like an online course

Given Dixon's background, it may be no surprise that Founder Gym's program, which costs $400, is structured like a class, albeit an online one. Students have a curriculum and weekly coursework. The program features weekly video presentations from professional investors. And students collaborate with each other and critique each other's work.

After launching Founder Gym in November, Dixon trained her first group of 26 founders early this year. A second group of 44 entrepreneurs recently completed the program, and a third group of about 50 will start soon.

The entrepreneurs come from a variety of backgrounds. Some had already raised venture funding. Others hadn't. Many live outside Silicon Valley. All are either women or representatives of groups that are underrepresented in tech.

Dixon has tapped people in her network including Kapor, Ellen Pao, and Charles Hudson, who is one of the few African-American venture partners, to serve as visiting lecturers and mentors. She intentionally brought in people who were comfortable, willing, and able to have frank discussions with the founders about issues of race and gender — the kinds of conversations they couldn't have elsewhere.

"When you go to Y-Combinator's startup school, those things aren't being addressed," Dixon said, referring to one of Silicon Valley's most well-known incubators for new tech firms.

The program helps connect founders with others like them

But for many students, the best part of the program is being able to meet and share experiences with other founders who come from similar backgrounds.

"When you're building your startup, it's a pretty lonely experience at times," said Sunny Washington, a Korean-American woman who was a member of the first Founder Gym group.

"The reality is that if you are a person of color or female, you don't fit in this cookie-cutter mode. Your experience could be different," added Washington, whose three-year-old startup, Because Learning, sells software and hardware kits to schools that are designed to interest kids in science, technology, and math.

Founder Gym's initial sessions have all focused on fundraising so far. That's on purpose, Dixon said, because having sufficient funding is crucial to a startup's success. And how to play the venture funding game is a skill that many founders, particularly those who aren't from Silicon Valley or don't have a background in the industry, just don't have.

"There's no precedent for teaching underrepresented founders how to fundraise," Dixon said. "We are literally creating the textbook for this."

She plans to eventually offer a whole curriculum for founders that includes a range of topics. Those will be inspired both by the questions entrepreneurs raise, but also by the topics investors affiliated with the program think founders need to be familiar with, she said.

"We have both sides of the equation," she said. She continued: "We're bridge-building between these two worlds that don't really know each other."

The tech industry has a big diversity problem

Dixon's identified a real problem in the tech industry. Even though the Bay Area — Ground Zero for the industry — has a liberal bent, women and people of color, particularly Latinos and African-Americans, have long been underrepresented at tech companies. Despite public pressure in recent years from the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the #MeToo movement, the situation hasn't gotten a whole lot better, as the diversity reports from companies including Apple and Google can attest.

But the problem is particularly acute among tech startups. Only 17% of venture-backed startup firms launched last year had at least one female founder, according to PitchBook. Just 1% of startups had an African-American founder in 2010, the last year CB Insights made such data public.

And the lack of diversity is a self-reinforcing problem, say critics inside and outside the industry and researchers who have studied the issue. Much of venture capital investing stems from what they call pattern matching.

VCs often base their investment decisions on the pictures they have in their minds of what successful entrepreneurs look like, researchers and critics say. More often than not, that archetypal startup founder is white and male and has a degree from — or at least attended — a prestigious university such as Stanford or Harvard. That's largely due to the fact venture partners are overwhelmingly white and male and attended those kinds of schools — and because the startups they've funded in the past were founded by people just like them, researchers say.

For founders who are women or people of color, "it's harder to raise money," said Fern Mandelbaum, a lecturer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and a partner at Vista Venture Partners. "We know it still is."

The venture funding process is stuck in a "feedback loop"

Because white male founders get a disproportionate amount of venture funding, a greater number of them are likely to be successful. Those entrepreneurs are then often targeted by venture capital firms looking for new partners. Once they fill those positions, the cycle repeats itself in a kind of "feedback loop," said Y-Vonne Hutchinson, the founder and CEO of ReadySet, a consulting firm that helps other organization improve their diversity.

"This is how power, money, wealth, and opportunity gets concentrated in the hands of the few and excludes the many," she said.

That's obviously bad for women and people of color. But it's not good for the tech industry. Researchers have shown that companies with more diverse teams tend to perform better than those without them. Companies with leaders that come from a variety of backgrounds can recognize trends and customers bases that more monolithic firms might miss.

Thanks in part to the #MeToo movement, in Silicon Valley there's starting to be "a recognition that diversity is going to translate into better outcomes," said Dana Kanze, a doctoral fellow at Columbia Business School who has focused on gender discrimination issues in the tech industry.

Non-traditional tech founders have few role models

The flip side of the funding problem is women and people of color have relatively few role models or examples they can point to for how people like them can succeed in tech. Many may not realize that becoming a tech entrepreneur is a possibility as a career.

Those who do generally have few people like themselves who can guide them on how to navigate the industry. And because they often don't know anyone else who has gone through the process of building a tech startup, many just don't have the knowledge they need to succeed, whether that's about how to pitch a venture capitalist or even just how to get a meeting with one.

That's the part of the diversity problem that Dixon designed Founder Gym to address.

"There are all sorts of ways in which gaps get created in knowledge and preparation" between the traditional white male entrepreneurs and those who are women or people of color, said Kapor. "What Mandela is doing is, in an intensive way, helping close some of those gaps."

Dixon is hoping to pass on what she's learned about the industry

Dixon knows first-hand about some of those knowledge gaps and lack of preparation. While she successfully launched and attracted funding for her startup, she says she was lucky.

She had no idea how to pitch a venture firm, but she gave her presentation to Kapor and his wife, who have placed a premium on diversity and made a point of backing founders who come from underrepresented groups. They overlooked the fact that she gave a non-traditional presentation and decided to back her startup anyway. Once they were on board, she was able to lure other investors.

"I just stumbled into it," she said. She continued: "I'm not sure I would have been been welcomed in this industry if I hadn't gone through that door."

Unfortunately, there are lots more founders who are women or people of color than the Kapor's small firm can back. So, not everyone can be as fortunate as Dixon was; other investors typically aren't as receptive to pitches that veer from the standard script. Dixon's trying to make sure other entrepreneurs are better prepared than she was — and hoping to help them succeed.

"We need case studies" for what a successful woman- or minority-run startup looks like, she said. "I understand my privilege and the doors that have been opened for me.

"I want to throw a rope down and help other people climb up."

SEE ALSO: This Stanford grad went from living in motels to working in VC — here's his unusual path and how he wants to help others like him

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley's MeToo moment is changing the venture capital industry — but many wonder if it will last

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