#controversial opinion also: i like Both Of You more than Its Over Isnt It

[thatone-highlighter]

What’s ur favorite SU songs

The first song to come to mind is actually Be Wherever You Are. It seems like such a random song and def not one i see talked about much, im not even sure why i like it so much but its just one thats Stuck with me. I have such clear memories of singing it to myself every week when i walked to soccer training for at least a year. Its such a nice and and simple song with a lot of repetition, and while the repetition does make it s but hard to keep track of if you sing off the top of your head im never one to turn some down.

That said, while i would have to call Be Wherever You are my favourite there are still a good few that hold nice little places in my heart.

Love Like You has to get an acknowledgement, even to this day if im standing somewhere wasting time not listening to anything its the first song to pop into my head to hum, i have so many memories of walking around school, around shops, a soccer field, in a game and humming or singing it to myself. Around the time season 2 and maybe early season 3 i used to love to think about who the song could be sung by and sung at, because all the answers i could come up with none of them fit the lyrics perfectly.

Peace and Love because like, u mean come on its peace and love you can tell me anyone hates that song, it was also the first i learned to play fully on my ukulele. The song is lovely and it shows up in a nice place during peridots arc, whats there not to like. Oh yeah and because Steven actually plays his uke on screen at the start it was the song that made me realise they accurately animate his hands to the chords hes playing. I dont know guitar or piano chords well enough to be able to say anything about a few other songs where they diegetically play the instrument but i thought that was a nifty little detail

Tower Of Mistakes id like to mention as well. Il always a sucker for songs with amethyst in them, and ToM is actually Amethyst‘s only solo song, every other time she sings(on the run, extended intro, peace and love, for just one day, no matter what, happily ever after) theres st least one other person (usually steven) singing with her in the song as well

There are only a few songs on the SU soundtrack i dont really like (Sorry but the Sadie Killer and the Suspects songs arent really for me) but those ones id say are at the top of my list uwu

[dateamonster]

what’s your opinion on monstrous transformations (both fast and slow), and also more controversially what do you think about having monsters/nonhuman characters serve as minority allegory (as opposed to society’s hate for them being being an allegory)

ohhh hold on this is a rly good question i think abt a Lot actually.

ok getting the first bit out of the way, love a good monstrous transformation. fast, slow, its all good. i personally like gradual slow shifts the most but its a situational thing. transformation is one of those things that like just always has to be symbolic. even more than the degree to which Everything is symbolic ya know. so like context rly matters when it comes to how to invoke it most effectively.

MOVING ON

i think from the phrasing of the ask ur looking for something more along the lines of like. for example shapeshifters as representation of nonbinary people or aliens as representation of different cultures rather than like monsters vs humans as allegory for racism. but im also not sure you can meaningfully separate the two! the latter i think is more overused so it like registers more as an immediate red flag, but its like. if the aliens from avatar werent being violently invaded by humans it wouldnt make like their reskinned stereotypical indigeneity anymore tolerable i dont think.

which isnt to say i think every story that draws connections between fantastical fictional species and real world people are inherently bad. i dont really think theres any trope that i believe cant be handled well by anyone under any circumstance. the super easy fix to bad rep via monster or fantasy creature characters is basically just have actual humans who also represent those same identities and communities and experiences so that the audience isnt drawn to connect the traits of any one group with your fictional species.

the harder fix is to like seriously analyze why you want this character to be a monster and what that says about them and what that says about you and your own experiences and biases and what you actually want to communicate with the inclusion of this character. and when applicable hire a sensitivity reader. its kinda crazy how many pieces of media seem to prefer half-assing the hard way over just doing the easy thing and not assigning the status of token minority to a literal monster.

of course once again all of this is ya know circumstantial. im speaking to like my own experiences and the things ive observed. and its weird too! bc im also speaking as someone who like is trans and nonbinary and thinks of myself and my gender expression as inherently intertwined with monstrosity. and as someone who is autistic and thinks of myself as a changeling. and as someone who is a fat person who represents themself with a pig themed sona. if i talk abt cringeass hollywood blockbusters engaging in High Fantasy Racism i feel like to be fair i kinda have to talk about independent own-voices creators who write stories and make art about their own identities in the lovely language of monstrosity. theres not rly a way to draw a hard line around the former without the risk of catching some of the latter.

so umm as usual i dont rly have a snappy all encompassing answer for how i feel abt this kind of characterization. im simply too much of a Nuance Enjoyer. i do i guess think this is something that generally turns out better when it is someone making art about their own experiences, but also unless i believe minority artists are a monolith, which i dont, i need to accept that artists will inevitably make stuff that is beautiful and resonant to some people and totally repugnant and offensive to others, and that both of those responses can be like totally justified and correct. thats art babey!

anyway slight digression but i think any case where a character feels more like an allegory than a fully fleshed u know Character is gonna flop for me no matter how relatable it is. tbqh, id rather more ppl try and fail to make beautiful grotesque frightening sensually moving monsters out of their lived experiences and their empathetic connections with others than succeed at creating bland toothless universally approachable Good Rep tm. if u know u know. if u feel me u feel me. that is all.

[literallyshiv]

Unpopular opinion but i feel like dasha hasn't said or done anything someone like idk, john mulaney or jimmy carr wouldn't say? Every tomgreg person I like hates her so bad, but I find her interesting... I like hearing people who I can't tell if they're mean or not. I'm in the position of shipping tomgreg, liking dasha, being 10 days sober and sleeping on a mattress on the floor

have you actually looked into criticisms against her at all? because i don't know how you could've gotten the idea that "she hasn't said or done anything someone like john mulaney wouldn't say". also it sounds like you're conflating people's opinion on dasha as a public figure with succession fans' feelings towards comfrey as a fictional character, when they have nothing to do with each other. or—people might dislike comfrey because she's played by dasha but nobody who knows what they're talking about only hates dasha because they think she got in the way of a ship

dasha redscare has been a piece of shit well before she joined succession, and people criticizing her for it didn't just start a of a sudden. her entire brand is stirring up controversy for the sake of self promotion, and this has ranged from being at best in poor taste to at worst giving the appearance of her genuinely endorsing alt right ideologies. her point of pride for red scare is that it embraces the grey area within conflicts, but by toeing the line of the far right under the guise of hearing out both sides, all they have managed to do is give bigots access to their platform of fans (the most notable of which being Alex Jones because they actually had him on the podcast, but its common for her and the people she associates with to be seen interacting with nazi sympathisers and crypto fascists because they think its funny to say they're doing so ironically)

I'd reccomended you read this summary of the politics of who she associates with

warning for an instance of nazi symbols in that article, in which dasha is seen with an ss flag. the most abhorrent example of her history of embracing the offensive because the controversy generates free publicity is that she sent in those photos herself. after the site updated the article to include the images, she revealed that she intentionally sent them in, knowingly associating her public image with nazi iconography, and laughed about it.

the same author posted a follow up to the entire ordeal that summarizes better than i can exactly how hypocritical and absurd it is that so many self identified lefists feel comfortable embracing the far right as long as its done 'ironically', as if its something worth laughing over.

finally: here's a few more articles

Red Scare’s Real Offense Is Nihilism

What is Red Scare and Am I Exempt From Caring About It? A Brief Guide to the Podcast World’s Laziest Provocateurs

These ‘Dirtbag Left’ Stars Are Flirting With the Far Right

about why this isnt an isolated incident of an annoying internet micro celebrity but rather indicitive of the way alt right ideologies are able to infiltrate leftist spaces and are a danger to progressive movements by pushing the idea that you can call yourself a leftist without giving a shit about any of the actual framework of leftist politics, and doing so makes you immune to any criticism and means you no longer have to be held accountable for misconduct.

so yeah, regardless of what you think of comfrey as a character in the vacuum of the succession universe, the actress dasha nekrasova is an pathetic voice in the field of political commentary and what she stands for is shallow and built on a lack of compassion and the fact that she got a trophy for being a part of the succession ensemble as if she has any claim over the series' success is fucking asinine, and it's infuriating that she's been put in front of such a huge audience of viewers that she can promote her shitty podcast to.

[enderspawn]

fuck it, jrwi riptide wizard101 school placements + in-depth reasoning below cut ^_^

GILLION

GILLION

SO ^-^ i placed gillion as a storm wizard with the secondary school of ice. part bc its the main types of magic he's used in canon, but also bc i feel like they're the most fitting

storm magic is ALL about high risk high reward. they have the lowest base HP and the lowest accuracy at only 70%, but they get the max fucking deeps. SO much damage dude. which feels fitting for gillion who also tends to go all in with combat even at great (usually personal) risk. they work best, at least early on, with a team to help make up for their low accuracy +general risky gameplay generally at the benefit of the whole group. plus, storm is like. half lightning themed half just ocean themed.

ice is only an average damage and accuracy school tbh, but where they excel is as the tank. they have access to tower shield, the best shield spell in the whole game which reduces damage by 50% AND they get the max base hp out of any school. which, again, works with gill bc he functions a LOT as the party tank + defender

its a fun contrast of him being made up of the glass canon and tank schools, but i chose storm as his best part bc i felt it fit better but also bc he was raised as a weapon to attack: he CHOSE to become a shield to defend. (also bc uh. i think gill only has a tiny bit more HP than jay, he mainly tanks so much bc his high AC and bc he's very reckless jfklsdjk)

EDIT: ALSO!!! I FUCKIN FORGOT STORM IS LOWEST ACCURACY AND MOST PRONE TO FIZZLES!!!!! SO LITERALLY THE CLASS MOST LIKELY TO FAIL JUST LIKE GILLION BEING A FUCKIN PROPHETIC SCREWUP

JAY

HHOUHOUHOUHH THIS ONE OKAY

so. controversial opinion, but jay is a balance wizard with fire as her secondary. I KNOW. IN CANON shes more fire coded, but within w101 terms i feel like balance fits WAY better

so balance is a kinda middle school. average damage, alright accuracy, etc. its unique quirk tho is that it's the buff/debuff school. and that doesn't mean relegated support either: balance base damage isnt much to write home about, but w all the traps and blades it can hit like a TRUCK (much like how jay can hit like a truck w her colossus slayer + hunters mark)

BUT, to do that damage it needs TIME. time to place all the traps and blades and build up pips (ESP if they're casting judgement). so they have to be deliberate and slower in their actions and use time to prepare, which i feel like is a fun way to show how jay is usually more (in theory) strategic in her fighting and how she's more reluctant to jump into battle. its equivalent to her having to take an action/bonus action to cast hunters mark, you use time in battle to give yourself an advantage when the time is right to strike.

but also..... balance in w101, thematically, is about duality. and duality is a MAJOR theme for jay in riptide, w the duality of being both navy and a pirate and having to balance those two sides of herself. her story is inherently ABOUT balance, so i feel like you HAVE to put her in that.

fire magic's main quirk is higher end damage + good chunk of AOE and damage over time spells. which, from my own experience, is actually a pretty shitty school to pair w balance bc it means you cant place traps half the time but shhhhhhhhhhh JFKDSLJ. honestly, the fire quirk doesn't have much connections within the gameplay front, mainly its thematic and taken from riptide itself. which is another reason for balance to be her main, bc it has more meaning

CHIP

chip...... i struggle with. no school in particular calls out to me for him. on my first post, i said myth wizard w life secondary. myth was part bc the fake name he came up with (Felix Lionsgold) FELT like a myth wizard name, part bc it just fit, but im not too sure tbh?

the life one i feel more confident on. life school's gimmick is healing, they get up to 7 healing spells and they can heal anyone (while most schools can only heal self without investing into life). funnily enough, chip is the one pc who CANT heal tho.

i feel like life works tho bc 1. symbolic due to the fact that chip has been LIVING for so long when like. mans shouldve died like 4 times. but despite all he goes through, he picks himself back up and keeps going. in this case, the heal spells are more for self-sustaining than support 2. life directly counters death magic, which i think is a neat way to work in chip's aversion to killing and death-- he LITERALLY is against it (and does more damage to it).

but...... despite it fitting best, i just cant see chip as a life wizard. for sure life as his SECOND SCHOOL, but not as his main. its too many healing spells +support, non-flashy damage, etc. he doesnt feel like a life wizard to me (and my main IS a life wizard, i know how it can play + clean up battles).

myth..... myth's gimmick is summoning, then later stun spells and some multihit attacks that can help get rid of shields (but dont work well w traps). it's pretty versatile and evolving over time which is a good description for many rogues. i think the stun and multihit can work w how he's a crafty lil rogue bitch whos good at going in for chip (heh) damage + how he can nope tf out of combat before the other person can hit him back-- stunning them in this case. but beyond that.... not much

the other school i considered for him is storm, but purely for aesthetic reasons-- gameplay wise, i actually think its a VERY poor fit for him. 1. i DO think arlin would be a storm wizard, so chip being storm could be a motif to arlin. 2, storm as mentioned is the water/ocean class and hes a pirate

...... thats all i got for storm. other than them both being squishy bitches, i got nothing.

despite my unsurity, i think i am gonna stick w myth + life for chip.

....actually, yeah, i REALLY fuck w that and you know why? myth and storm are opposite schools. they both do more damage to the other type-- its a fun foil between chip and gill, esp w ep 15 in mind. they're quite literally opposites.

and life is his secondary to be able to not only keep himself up but help others when he can (bc despite his outward selfishness, he cares a lot abt the ppl around him). neither school is uber flashy or cool, both are mid to low damage, but they're reliable and they're adaptable

[ichayalovesyou]

Please stop making up problems about fictional alien cultures ❤️ they arent humans, and bonding isnt marriage. Vulcans dont even have marriage so please stop judging it like that? They can also break the bond when they get older. They make arranged bondings because it is logical to make sure your child has a mate come pon farr. Seriously this stuff is just nonsense stop trying to earn woke points by over-examining a fictional, non-human culture. Its not arranged marriage. Its not child marriage. Its not marriage at all nor is it sexual. Stop clogging up the star trek tag trying to bitch about how you dont understand it. Problematic… theres no debate on Vulcan and Vulcans have never once complained about it in canon or otherwise because no one cares because it doesnt matter to them lol

In reference to this post.

I thought about deleting the post, because I will admit it is, very reactionary. I got a little more heated than I should have. I could’ve been a little more articulate. For that I apologize. But I haven’t changed my mind.

I really wasn’t gonna share this, anon. I disagree with you on a good chunk of what you’ve said, I still think it’s worth talking about. And I do think your anger with that particular post is justified.

I’m going to break down why I feel the way about Vulcan childhood bonding the way I do in a more responsible and coherent way, and explain why I disagree about why these topics shouldn’t be discussed.

I will never, ever stop talking about fictional races and cultures and how they affect and reflect upon the real world. Vulcans, among many other alien cultures, are amalgamations and abstractions of our own cultures. The Na’vi from Avatar help us examine colonialism, the extra terrestrials from Arrival help us examine how we perceive time and language. Vulcans, when it comes to this topic, are an examination of traditions and how some do more harm than good (like the homophobia Amok Time is allegorical for). Fiction has to be analyzed, it’s meant to be examined, learning from what we read is an important literary (and life) skill.

Star Trek especially! It’s purpose is turning genuine philosophical questions into drama and discussion topics for everyday people. Morality plays in space, it’s why the cast is so diverse for the sixties, it’s why there are racism and Cold War allegories all throughout it’s the Original Series. One of the reasons I love Star Trek, and Vulcans, is because they are flawed and can be examined from many angles. I’m not angry to be “woke”, I’m angry for the reasons Amok Time is meant to make you angry.

You’re right, bonding isn’t marriage. It’s more intense than that. They are mentally bonded in ways humans cannot be, and they are arranged in such a way that they will be married, and Vulcans DO get married. Sarek and Amanda are married, Tuvok and T’Pel are married, both Sarek and Tuvok refer to their partners as their wives. The betrothal is not just for clout, they will eventually have sex, it’s a guaranteed Pon Farr security blanket. Yes they can break it when they get older technically, but the only known socially acceptable way to get out of it is death via Kalifee, one way or the other. The entire point of Amok Time, is that all of that tradition is incredibly cruel and wrong. It causes Spock to “kill” his best friend, and T’Pring to condemn a stranger to death.

Nevermind questions of consent when it comes to children and when Vulcans mature as my short opinion on that is pretty aggravatedly stated in that post. At the very least it’s unfair to Spock, who cannot physically/mentally mature as a Vulcan or a Human. So if T’Pring can fully consent to betrothal, it’s certainly up in the air whether Spock can.

One of the reasons I love Vulcans so much is despite their beautiful philosphy that I really believe more Humans should strive for. They are at the same time as they are serene and logical, they are rigid and extremist in their beliefs and traditions that they’re illogical as well. The only thing logical about Spock and T’Pring’s arrangement is the assumption that if he had Pon Farr, and no Vulcan would want him (because, hey, Vulcans are insanely xenophobic, illogically) at least he’d have T’Pring in that emergency, assuming she’d be willing to capitulate to that once she was an adult. Big surprise, she didn’t, because 24 years had passed and they were both completely different people by that time, and it almost killed James Kirk.

I want to clarify that I’m not attacking arranged marriages as a cultural practice in real life. I understand it can be an extremely important cultural cornerstone and there are many examples of happy couples in marriages arranged by their parents, I’m not knocking that. I’m criticizing the way Vulcans specifically practice arranged marriage. Both because of their philosophy, and that the only respectable way out being murder. Which I can’t condone under most circumstances anyway.

There is very little logic in betrothal, other than reputation, which is a huge deal to Vulcans even though they preach meritocracy. And the aforementioned failsafe for Pon Farr, but there are cases (like Starfleet officers) where that justification is shaky. Whether the betrothed old enough to understand and accept their responsibilities not withstanding. It assumes the children involved’s sexual/gender orientations and that they both have the self-awareness to know what that will be, and that the parents know and have accepted it as well. That they will be the same people/love each other (or at least be willing to have sex with each other, which is not a given) by the time Pon Farr rolls around in the coming decades and all subsequent cycles.

All of that would be easily fixed and rearranged and such provided that the parents are reasonable. If the parents are unreasonable the two could alienate themselves from their families by refusing to get married to each other. Except there’s one problem, in Vulcan culture, as far as we know, the only way to get out of an arranged marriage like Spock and T’Pring’s is Kalifee, which results in the death of at least one of the betrothed, or the death of champion the other has chosen. In Spock and T’Pring’s situation, T’Pring willingly condemned a stranger to death, and Spock murdered his best friend. There is no utilitarian purpose to a crime of passion, Vulcans, in this circumstance, forego the simple, bloodless option instead letting people kill each other in the dirt over sex at the simplest and love at the most optimistic. There is nothing logical about that.

The point of Amok Time, the betrothal, the Kalifee, all of it, is that it does actually hurt Vulcans to practice this tradition. That it is flawed, that it is restrictive, Spock is at his most heavily queer-coded in this episode, he is not in love with this woman, and he kills the man he loves most to escape. T’Pring has blood on her hands too, all so that she could be free to make her own choices because she did not want Spock, bodily or romantically, and she’s completely Vulcan. We’re supposed to object to those practices, the same way we now advocate for same sex marriage and the eradication of child brides. They’re very old practices, but they are hurtful. Humans have them, Vulcans have them. Humans object to that cruelty for moral and logical reasons, why shouldn’t Vulcans be able to as well?

[help-i-need-a-cool-username]

Recently saw a tiktok that was like "if you ship [toph and zuko] than you have issues or you see something galaxy brained that i havent" and stumbled upon the concept of aroace Zuko and i concocted this idea ages ago so im posting it now: the epic Toph x Zuko Marriage of Convenience 

Okay what you are all thinking of is book 3 Toph and Zuko, which totally dont have romantic chemistry and with the added age difference is prob why no one ever considers this ship. Four years when you're a teenager is a big difference. Four years when you're in your twenties and beyond isnt that big a deal. So they're adults and they've been friends for years at this point.

You also gotta sit back and look at what they are. Toph is the only child to a very rich and very well known Earth Kingdom family. Her family name in general is huge and carries a lot of weight but you also got her own accomplishments: Master Earthbender, the Creator of Metalbending, the Avatar's Earthbending teacher, and shes a war hero. Thats big. And then you got Zuko, who at this point is the Fire Lord. Zuko himself comes from a prominent Fire Nation family, seeing as he's royalty. He's also descended from a Avatar, but i dont think thats all that well known. Zuko is a Master Firebender, the Avatar's Firebending Teacher, and a war hero. On top of being famous both these people have credibility to fall back on.

So what im leaning into here is not exactly a marriage alliance seeing as the Earth Kingdom has its own royalty but its definitely a political move

Anyways Zuko has a lot on his plate, dismantling his dad's empire and all that. When he's nearing 30 the council is all like "you need to find a bride". Zuko writes up his ex-girlfriends and finds out they're either married or he just cant bring himself to trap someone into a marriage with him after knowing how it destroyed his mom. So he's stuck with no one of his own choosing so the council and high up nobles are trying to fix him up and not-so-subtly set him up with their daughters. Half of Team Avatar comes and visits (lets say Toph, Aang, and Sokka) and witness the behind the scenes of all this. They're having tea with Zuko and two people come in at different times and try to casually talk about the marriage thing. Toph can hear things that happen in the hallways too. Zuko is all "noooooooo guys why is this happening to me" and Sokka probably finds it funny but also a little sucky, and Aang probably hates it because "Zuko should marry for love!". And Toph is all "I know right" because she can totally relate. Her parents were looking for matches for her since she was born, and now that shes visiting again they've started back up again. Her and Zuko start swapping match-making stories ("so i come home and this boy and his father are there and my mom is all like 'Toph have you met __'" "I'm in the throne room for a meeting on road construction and this guy derails the whole thing so he can introduce his niece to me"). Later on after Toph has been listening in on the palace for a few days now and shes starting to really feel sorry for Zuko. Sokka just keeps making jokes until Toph snaps at him. Aang is pretty oblivious and probably spends all day at the market looking for souvenirs to bring home for Katara. And one night while Zuko is up late doing paperwork by candle light Toph stops by because her body cant sleep at night sometimes and they get to talking and Toph jokingly throws out "what if we just married each other? Then everyone will get off both our backs!" and they're laughing and after they've calmed down Zuko has a light bulb moment and he's like "wait, that might not be a bad idea". They spend all night working out the details to their hypothetical wedding and a day later decide to actually go through with it. Theres uproar from the council of course because Zuko didnt choose their pick Toph isnt Fire Nation nobility. And then Zuko starts listing all her family's importance and stuff and the council is forced to admit to themselves its not actually a bad idea. Plus marrying Earth Kingdom would make the Fire Lord more relatable to the colonies where theyre having a lot of problems with people of mixed heritage right now. Sokka and Aang hear rumblings of this because palace servants gossip and they're debating wether or not to believe these rumors when they run into Toph and just ask her and shes all like "yeah we're talking about it" and they boys flip out. Aang still maintains that everyone should marry for love but Toph and Zuko won't budge.

Over in the Earth Kingdom Toph's parents are ecstatic because the only better option Toph could marry was Earth Kingdom royalty. They completely endorse it and only argue to not seem like pushovers and when topics revolving money come up (ex. dowery). The Earth King gets in on this because its too good a opportunity to not capitalize on it. The Earth Kingdom is abuzz because a foreign King is marrying one of their own. Everyone is hyped and Team Avatar are the only ones who find the whole situation weird because to them its not a fairytale its their actual friends.

All-in-all they get married in the Fire Nation and the guest list was awful to make but people from all over the world are there. Toph's mother freaks out the whole time because "what if Toph falls down all those steps!" The wedding is mostly all Fire Nation tradition but Toph wears a Earth Kingdom wedding dress because everything is political now. Toph and Zuko have a relatively fun night and Sokka has the time of his life. And their marriage actually really works out for them because they're friends. They make fun of fancy people and rant to each other in the evenings. Toph is still running metal bending schools but either now they have to come to her or she gets stuck with a Fire Nation security team for like 3 months of the year she spends in the Earth Kingdom and she gets flashbacks to her childhood. And Zuko is sometimes all "i miss my wife" and the servants are all "awwww they're so in love" but the truth is he wants to talk sh*t with her and because shes blind he always has to write letters with the interpreter's opinion/gossip in mind. Toph still sneaks out all the time because shes not giving up her independence willy-nilly and is not above pulling the blind card to get out of things, which irritates Zuko sometimes because that means he has to deal with boring meetings by himself. They gaang visits all the time and by the time Republic City rolls around Toph manages to get herself sent as a "ambassador" (her and Sokka have some fun their shared meetings) and then to stay on to help set up the police force, which is a little dicy since shes representing the Fire Nation but also shes teaching only metalbending so its a controversial thing. This also gives Zuko a excuse to visit Republic City more often so he can see everyone since they settled down there.

[atiny-piratequeen]

Also since some of yall won't hear the blacktiny side of this debacle, lemme hit you with the Hongjoong and Ateez side of this (bc from some of the anons, yall are putting Hongjoongie over Blacktiny and apparently this is the only way I can get through to some yall hardheaded and borderline or full on racist asses)

KQ following in the footsteps of bigger companies before them and putting Hongjoong in braids (several times, looking at those new photos hnn) isnt good for Hongjoong, Ateez, or KQ.

Looking back at bands who have had the same thing done and gone through similar cultural appropriation incidents (i.e, BTS, EXO, Blackpink, Red Velvet, Stray Kids, Mamamoo, iKon, NCT (all units, including the recent WayV incident), etc ), you not only insult your fans by mocking their culture and/or using them for a costume, you also sever ties with a lot of potential fans and on the business end of it, thats a completely unessesary loss.

To this day, even after apologies, bands that have gone this path STILL have people who wont even touch the band because of their cultural appropriation. Everyone is different, but at the end of the day, poc are not REQUIRED to forgive companies and bands and swallow the pill, so to speak, when these topics come up.

Understand when I say what I'm about to say that I dont condone bullying, but I am using the previously mentioned incidents as examples but

To. This. Day. Even after apologies and what appears to be understanding and remorse from companies and artists, both fans and 'antis' will still bring up these cultural appropriation incidents. Even YEARS after its passed and if there was no repeat offense in between. Again, i in no capacity am condoning bullying or threats, but to this very day idols like Bang Chan (SKZ), Taeyong (NCT), Namjoon (BTS) are recieving threats and constant harassment for mistakes made previously because companies refuse to learn.

KQ set Hongjoong up for some bullshit, and all of this is completely and utterly unnecessary.

Now, unpopular opinion or whatever, but I still hold to my opinion that Hongjoong did not want this shit. He has been nothing but sincere about his intentions to connect with Atiny of all cultures and build a strong relationship with us. I very seriously doubt he was in agreement to this.

That being said, it is perfectly okay to still be disappointed. In him, in KQ. He by no means deserves hate, but as someone who is not only a blacktiny, but also Hongjoong biased myself, anyone disappointed in him is valid in being as such.

On the same hand, I'd like us all to keep in mind that Hongjoong is an idol. And I know a lot of us in the west have a very western view on things, but at the end of the day, we have to understand idol culture and companies are different from over in the west.

These idols may have *some* creative freedoms and control, some more than most, but at the end of the day, unless they completely run their own company and make their own rules, they do not have full say in what happens to them and their careers.

Idols have been very vocal about this in the past. And again, I'm in no way saying idols are completely helpless or that *some* of them dont actually see the error in their ways (plenty of idols really are just,,,problematic, no company bullshit needed), but I ask yall, if bands that have been around half a decade or more still dont have full creative control over their lives and careers, what makes yall think Hongjoong (if he didn't want these braids, which I strongly believe he didnt) could actually say no to the company holding him and his whole band in their hands and stand a chance?

I cannot stress that I'm not telling people they cant be mad or hurt *at* Hongjoong, but I'm seeing a lot of people saying he could've just "walked out of the chair" "hes a grown man, he can say no" and??? Not really no he cant???

Moving on to the reason a lot of these companies give when we raise hell about CA (if they bother to respond to), thats rooted in so many problems.

They say they put (African) braids or dreadlocs in idols hair because its "cool" or "makes them look tough" or some shit.

It fits an aesthetic. Thats why. Because it fits a hood aesthetic.

I really shouldn't have to explain to yall the problem in using someone else's culture to fit an aesthetic, but since this always comes up, allow me to tell yall a bit of why thats a problem.

The braids come into play when they want their idols, (mostly rappers, a role adopted from black culture) to look "gangsta"/"tough"/"intimidating"/or 🙄🙄🙄"urban". They take hairstyles from black culture to fit an image thats ~intimidating~.

Our braids, our dreads (which, again, to some rasta peoples, is a RELIGOUS symbol and SACRED) are temporarily put on these idols so people can gasp and go "ooo intimidating."

Historically, black people who wear their hair in braids or dreads are turned down from jobs, assaulted wrongly, looked at with prejudice, or down right murdered for the same idea. Nonblack people are historically more intimidated by a black person with hair in braids or in dreads because media portrays black people who dont have short cuts or straightened hair as someone to be feared.

Our braids, they're protective styles.

Our dreads, also protective, sometimes religious.

Our hair isnt for us to look "cool" or "intimidating". That whack ass excuse doesnt work. Companes are in their 4th generation of kpop and refuse to learn from the mistakes of past companies and generations. Yall use our culture (and brown and latinx cultures) improperly and when we tell yall why its wrong, we're pushed aside by our own fandoms or the companies we're constantly giving money to.

We're not asking for an arm and a leg. We're asking for yall to listen to us and not blatantly spit in our faces. We matter just as much as East Asian and white fans.

Also, not nearly as relevant as most of this post, but standing with blacktiny and our allies for this voting really shouldn't be as controversial and hectic as it is.

Thanxx and Inception are amazing songs. Thanxx is not going to disappear if yall vote Inception. It literally means Inception will be the TITLE song, therefore the song getting the MOST attention out of the two, which is important because you're not forcing blacktiny to have to deal with a whole promotional period of pushing a mv where our culture is blatantly being disrespected. Thanxx as a B side is not the end of the world. No, people shouldn't be rude to you about the voting, but I ask that yall please take that into account when we ask you to vote Inception.

Stay hydrated. Listen to your neighbors when they're talking about their cultures and their pain. Thanks

[dyketubbo]

yo.... been seein too many of em in my notifs reminder that i aint want any pro shipper mfs interacting w me, nor anyone who thinks its okay or excuses them. even if its to cope w trauma i dont agree w romanticizin shit like r/pe and inc/st, if youre doin it in a way where the message is that its fucked up i can respect that but jus full on writin shit like pedoph/l/a and sayin "its okay its so i can cope" while excusing it in the media itself i dont fuck with.

idc about calling myself an anti or whatever (though for the sake of being clear, yes, i am but also i think this is just a normal fuckin opinion to have) i just think that if youve gone through something shitty that you should find a better coping mechanism than romanticizin what you and others go through in media because "fiction doesnt effect reality" or some shit.

if you have to call your ships problematic then stop encouraging the problem. i know full well theres discomforting views on both sides and i dont agree w saying that you cant portray dark themes at all or that ppl are bad for having thoughts abt it, bc i do too, but encouraging people to normalize their experiences by putting them in media is.... not okay!! it isnt! and using *other* peoples characters for that is gross too, i hate it esp in fanmedia bc those arent your characters!! its gross to look at someone elses work, someone elses characters, and go "what if this had pedophilia? what if the siblings fucked? what if they were into beastiality, what if they were abusive, etc etc" esp if the media doesnt have traces of that.

theres a difference between healthily projecting and doing something that just encourages normalization of that kind of stuff (and yes, writing media of fucked up shit while acting like its okay in the media itself [again, not talking abt media where its acknowledged that its fucked up {and i dont mean like a pedophile going "oh i shouldnt be doing this" and going ahead anyways, thats disgusting} / where the victims heal] helps normalize the idea that its okay)

and in the end its frustrating to see ppl think that bc people are going "yo its not good to encourage the idea that this stuff is okay and 'coping' by exposing yourself over and over again and telling yourself that what happened was okay and valid isnt actually coping, its just getting more and more unhealthy" that means that everyone who says it thinks dark media shouldnt be explored at all or that survivors are gross people for having intrusive thoughts and trying to cope even if its not the best way to go about it. no it just means stop fucking romanticizing shit like pedophilia and stop allowing it to happen holy shit.

just because we have the option to click away/not see doesnt mean its not uncomfortable and gross as hell that its there in the first place!! if someone does something fucked up im gonna say thats fucked up it doesnt matter if i shouldnt have seen it in the first place, it being kept secret just makes it *worse*, acknowledging that you shouldnt do it and doing it anyways is *gross* and i cant believe this is controversial to say

[flower-of-the-desert]

hey, i really liked your posts about ep12, it helped me a lot to put things into perspective. i was wondering if you could share your thoughts on the 2gether finale as well, coz right now i just wanna cry im so disappointed with it =(

Aww, thank you, anon. <3

Ok so my thoughts on the finale are kind of all over the place but I’ll try to explain as best as I can and hopefully it’s gonna make sense.

Like I said, in my original post I dont love the ep but I dont hate it either. I suppose I fall somewhere in the middle. I enjoyed a lot of it - seeing all the couples progress and be happy together, Man/Type especially were just so adorable, Mil and Phukong starting to build something with each other (lil bro using Sarawat’s pick up line was a really nice touch, love that), Mil being an all around awesome supportive friend to BOTH Tine and Wat?? We love to see it. The way he turned up at the football field where Wat was being his angsty self and literally kicked his butt into taking action - *chef’s kiss*

Him and Fong are now the parents of the baby gays I dont make the rules.

Wat’s confession on stage and his song that he literally named after Tine and when he said he never confessed to Pam because he didnt know what love was before he met Tine - perfection. Absolute perfection. I’m here for it.

And Tine’s heartbreak was so well done too, I just felt so much for him.

Again, as I said, the whole thing with Pam didnt turned out exactly as I had hoped but it wasnt the worst case scenario either so I’ll take it. I’d rather have Pam making a mistake and realising it and backing off while assuring Tine that Wat really does love HIM and even though she tried Pam didnt stand a chance because it’s always gonna be Tine for Sarawat and she understands that now over her being an actual bitch who keeps trying to seperate them and uses the situation to her advantage. I mean they could have gone that way too - Pam didnt have to give Tine that recording or to tell him how Wat changed after meeting him but she did, I think, as her own way of apologizing for what she’d done. So yeah, overall, I’m fine with this.

ALSO NOBODY DIED SO THAT’S A BIG PLUS.

(History 3 MODC can’t relate)

ANYWAY, so those are the positives for me. Which as it turns out is most of the episode yay! Now onto what wasnt quite so positive.

My main issue with this episode is the resolution to Wat and Tine’s conflict. Mainly, there really... wasnt one. And I’m not talking about the physical intimacy thing, I’ll touch on that later but more importantly for the ending - the emotional intimacy. None of the problems they had were properly addressed. Tine’s insecurities were rooted so deeply that despite Wat spending 12 EPISODES doing anything and everything to show his love and adoration, Tine still couldnt really believe it. And that’s not gonna be resolved with a simple recording.

And on the other hand, can you image how all of this would make Sarawat feel? Like no matter what he does, no matter how much of himself he gives to Tine, his boyfriend still would find it easier to believe that Wat is just using him as a replacement for someone else. That’s gonna fuck with his head even if Tine came back. I really really wished they had talked at least a little about these things.

Like maybe if we didnt have half of the episode filled with pointless flashbacks there could have been time to actually talk... (tbh, part of me kind of wonders if they purposefully put in so many flashbacks to fill in the air time so they wouldnt HAVE to write those scenes which leaves me ?????).

I think I mentioned this too in the other post, but the Wat/Tine reunion echoes beat for beat the Fighter/Tutor reunion with all its issues but while WhyRU has a reason for why things turned out like that, here I just... I dont know what could have been the reason for 2gether’s writers? Unless they also couldnt film everything they wanted...

And then there’s the... “high-five controversy”, let’s call it and again I find myself in the middle of the argument. I stand by what I’ve said before about how I feel about the way they handled physical intimacy between the characters - yes, objectively and critically speaking, I’m not here for writers/directors/channel/whoever trying to censor the physical intimacy of an established couple. There is nothing wrong with two partners wanting to kiss/cuddle/have sex/etc. Sex isnt something dirty (I mean it can be depending on what you’re writing BUT THAT’S A DIFFERENT GENRE OK, we are not talking about smutty fic here cough cough) and shameful that “pure” people shouldnt be enjoying (lovely post on the topic here I was just thinking about it last night). And it’s about time show creators got with the programme, ESPECIALLY when it comes to non-straight couples.

As of ep13 it’s clear to me that 2gether went through some serious censorship - lots of people have talked about how it’s a thing that they do on this particular channel and maybe that’s all it is, I dont know. I dont want to speculate what’s been going on behind the scenes since I dont have any idea and sadly I dont think the writers will ever be willing to talk about it. I’d LOVE to hear their throughts on this matter tbh and why they decided to do things this way.

So on an objective level, this is bullshit. Subjectively, and this is where my personal opinion comes in, I wasnt as bothered by this as I normally would be because I’ve been enjoying all the other aspects of the relationship that the show successfully built up and prtrayed on screen. Does that make sense?

Specifically about the finale, though, I agree with the complains. Part of why the reunion felt so underwhelming and disappointing, I think, was not only the lack of emotional intimacy but also the hella.... awkward? physical “intimacy” they showed? The scene absolutely did call for a kiss or a hug, at the very least. Instead they were standing 2 feet apart cause... they’re not gay? I really really do not understand what happened there in that scene. I’ve seen some people mention that the finale was filmed before the other episodes so the actors werent used to each other yet and honestly I can see it - watching Tine and Wat in that ending montage felt like I was watching them at the beginning of their fake dating when both were awkward and unsure of where they stood with each other rather than seeing an established in love couple coming back together after going through something tough.

So these are my thoughts on the finale. It wasnt the best one I’ve ever seen but not bad enough to ruin the rest of the show for me (and there’s NOTHING I hate more than bad endings ruining a story I’ve fallen in love with so there’s that) and I do really love this show and its characters so much. It’s hard, even impossivle to find a perfect show from start to finish and honestly I’ve come to believe that’s not as important as what you get out of it - if the show makes you happy, despite whatever writing issues it might have, that’s the most important thing, I think. And 2gether did that for me. So I’m glad I watched it.

Omg, this got so long. Again. If you’re still with me, anon, you’re a hero. I hope I was able to help you. <3

[movedthechangingman]

j’onn j’onzz and john constantine?

under a cut bc this is REALLY long!!! my two favourite johns

favorite thing about them

the thighs i like thats hes kind of the ‘serious jl member’ but hes always 80% nude for jack and shit reason. starfire has that dumb whole “needs sun exposure” excuse j’onn just wants to walk around in bootyshorts and a harness

least favorite thing about them

he hates ted which like OK i know everyone hates ted but like… ted

favorite line

“i have a confession to make, diane. the martian manhunter is not a hero… not yet.”

brOTP

i actually think him and bruce would be good friends if comics cared abt depicting friendships… i havent read them interacting really since the early 2000s so idk where they stand 

OTP

red tornado!! i call it redmartian or tornadomartian. theres no basis i just think they deserve to fall in love and get married 

nOTP

ive never seen anybody else care enough abt him to ship him with anyone

random headcanon

this is silly but i do think he like, doesnt wear pants. like ever. the longest he’ll go is mid thigh. hes never worn anything that goes past that unless hes at his earth job

unpopular opinion

ive never even seen anybody else form an opinion on j’onn so heres my noncontroversial feeling: he should be considered an essential JL member i dont care about main justice league lineups without him in them

song i associate with them

i dont have one… sorry j’onn

favorite picture of them

to shock everyone its not a photo with his thighs in it

john constantine 

(im doing his rebirth/52 version not vertigo)

favorite thing about them

1. the everything

im extremely attracted to him and also he makes me feel better about myself as a person. additionally , i like him. hes horrid and terrible and i genuinely adore him… i almost went into a huge rant abt how while i think the 52 “i cant lie” thing was dc woobifying him if i do take it into account i think its just… sad and inchresting. maybe a bit relatable 

least favorite thing about them

2. the everything

this isnt his fault but every line hes ever spoken about zatanna is annoying. i know its the writing. i know i already didnt like them. but oh my GOD dude get over it

favorite line

brOTP

legally i have to answer chas bc thats just canon but other than that, john and shade got along fine in that first crossover and i think they should be terrible people together

OTP

truthfully its bruce/john/boston they should ALL date

nOTP

johnzee :I scarily codependent and unhealthy for both of them

random headcanon

he had asa and boston there once but now they wont leave the house of mystery and now he has 2 roommates he cant get rid of. shade uses the madness to come and go from the house to bother him or just do you know, shade things. i dont think he actually has the house of mystery anymore but it turns out i dont care at all

unpopular opinion

controversial: i see people (esp adult men) act like hes not like. a horrible person and he doesnt deserve all this etc etc etc like.. hes a piece of shit who doesnt think about the consequences of his actions and when bad things happen as a result he just

noncontroversial: its good that hes not actually a team member of the jld in rebirth. he fits better as a jerk who just wont leave them alone

song i associate with them

like a friend by pulp… mostly in reference to him & chas (esp in the tv show,)

i like to purposefully misinterpret the lyrics of ocean breathes salty, also but it gets more into shade+john+kathy than john himself

favorite picture of them

this cover by riley rossmo PLEASE dont @ me i just think its such a graceful pic…. all primary colours in different saturated tones… AUGH

[morphogenetic]

why you should play the ds version of 999 first and not the nonary games version: a thread

excuse the formatting of this bc im copying it from my twitter as text, but: why you shouldn’t play the nona/ry games version of 999 on your first run, a thread. lots of this has been said by other people too but i figured i would condense my opinions + what other people have said. 999 spoilers ofc, also vague vlr spoilers later on but the 999 spoilers are a lot worse lmao.

this is ABSURDLY long and i am sorry but tl;dr spoiler free version: buy tng anyway so you can easily play vlr in hd and to support the games, but play 999 on either a ds or an emulator if you have to because boy howdy the story is really meant for this platform (if you’re replaying 999 in the tng version after originally playing the ds version none of this applies LMAO)

(also this isn't meant to at ALL be angry at people who played the t/ng port first! im sad y'all didn't get to experience the dual screen version, but at this point t/ng is much more accessible and a lot of people don't even KNOW about the ds-original thing, so it's not your fault!!  like i WISH to god that they had ported it in some dual-screen/two-screen way, but the fact that they didn't isn't anyone's fault. ok end this part y'all are so valid i just feel sad that you didnt experience the game in its Best State)

spoilers below the cut

1) the big one: the implementation of the dual screen thing. they were always going to have a hard time implementing this on not-a-3ds, but i'll start with the non-spoilery part: action mode...is bad. the fact that they force you into it. is bad. novel mode is more passable but the fact that they default you into a mode with nearly 95% dialogue-only, in a visual novel, is..pretty gross, and the fact that they force-switch you into novel mode sometimes anyway is. maybe an indication that having a 95% dialogue route in a visual novel...wasnt good

  they EASILY could have done a split-screen mode instead, and while that wouldn't have been ideal either, it would still have allowed for the incorporation of both screens simultaneously without having to make compromises

also, petty spoiler thing, but some of the dialogue rewrites to make action mode flow better took out one of my fave pieces of foreshadowing. the main example of this is in junpei's flashback thing to getting kidnapped near the beginning of the game. in t/ng, they had him voice the 'huh, did i leave that open?' line, with respect to his window being open because, you know, zero 'bout to kidnap him. in the original, this is /not/ on the top screen (i.e. voiced by junpei) - it's on the bottom screen. without quotes, i.e. it's not something he's thinking but it's there, in the same formatting as the rest of the descriptions. in other words.....zero is the one saying 'huh, did i leave that open?' in real time, foreshadowing the dual screen twist. this is SO minor in comparison to everything else for SURE but the fact that this got left out still makes me so sad bc i LOVED it. anyway.

 (also the fact that the narrative mode twist of all the random gore descriptions being food-like makes WAY more sense in retrospect with the dual screens, because of course a fucking 12 year old wouldn't know how else to describe gore lmao. this is kind of lost in t/ng because it makes it out to be more of something that jun/pei is thinking but i digress. dual screen for dual protagonists good thanks)

2) (YES IT TOOK ME THIS LONG TO GET HERE. SH) the final puzzle.....in t/ng....fucking sucks. not only because the puzzle itself sucks, which uh...it does (PASSWORD IS THE PASSWORD?? FUCKING REALLY??). but a) it loses the theme-ing of the sudoku itself since, yknow. 9s everywhere but, 

b) more importantly, it just...doesn't have the same punch to it. even ignoring the fact that the sudden upside-down-ness is one of the best ways i've ever seen a puzzle suddenly hit you with a plot twist/a revelation, in this case the 'oh shit, we were solving puzzles from akane's viewpoint the whole time and /only now/ are we truly doing it with junpei being the input source' is just. fucking masterful. explaining this is so hard but i promise it makes sense. like obviously the twist w the dual perspectives thing is revealed right before but the fact that they suddenly (literally) flip the entire game on its head is just. *chef kiss* so good. 

also, adding to this, c) the fact that the tn/g version took out the fact that you were seeing baby!kane's face while you were doing the sudoku just adds to the emotional impact of the puzzle. like, in that moment, the puzzle itself isn't the relevant factor, it's the fact that you're doing the puzzle to save her. i no joke started fucking CRYING irl when that happened bc of how hard that hit me emotionally and the fact that they didn't even have something to mimic that in t/ng makes me so goddamn sad. it's not about the puzzle, its about Saving someone via the puzzle, and they just...removed that part. h

(also another dual screen thing here bc i forgot to add it earlier: the constant perspective-swapping thing during the true end feels much less awkward on the ds since you can just naturally shift your eyes between the screens. again, minor, and there probably was never going to be a great way to implement this with a single screen regardless, but it really does flow so much better with two screens. 3ds port of tn/g when)

3) finally, a more Controversial Opinion, but the timeline flow, while absolutely great for replays, kind of ends up spoiling you on the fact that there are multiple timelines that you have to search through for the truth. i wouldn't have minded this so much if the timeline feature in t/ng only unlocked after you hit your first ending, but they didn't do that - they let you look at it from the very start, which really..misses the point of the game. 

(minor vl/r spoilers incoming) in vlr, the fact that you know you have multiple branches from the start makes sense, especially both because it's SUPER obvious that there are branching points (door choices, allying/betraying, etc). obviously 99/9 has choices like that too ala the door choices, but you're actively -not- jumping between timelines. that's the point! because junpei CAN'T jump!! he's an esper, sure, though maybe only one by accident/strong emotional connection [thats a whole different thread LMAO], but the whole point is that he can't make timeline choices  in the same way that phi and sigma can literally timeline shift.

(end v/lr spoilers here i think) tl;dr the timeline feature is great for replays bc its super anti-frustration but boy howdy they did not implement it well. final point:  the fact that you have to play 999 from the beginning every time you get an end makes sense narratively since akane has to do the same thing - she has to go through the whole route (in junpei's head ofc) over and over, she can't just skip around. again, anti-frustration feature that i'm glad they added, but you still lose something w t/ng this way

like ngl, having to fast forward through things instead of just skipping around is annoying as hell, but akane had to do the same goddamn thing! probably way more than we actually have to do it in the game, tbh. definitely this is me prioritizing certain limitations of the ds hardware as important to the narrative but you really do end up missing out if you can just skip at will

4) very minor thing that isnt actually a plot thing at all but  some of the puzzle dialogue is infinitely funnier when you have the ability to see the characters on the top screen talking at the same time you have the puzzle stuff on the bottom screen. this mostly applies to all the stuff with the cards w all the player faces on them in the...cargo room? like it's still funny without it but somehow seeing santa talking about himself on the card when he says 'that's one handsome son-of-a-bitch!' is 500x funnier when you literally see him TALKING about himself

JESUS FUCK THIS IS LONG IM SO SORRY IF YOURE ON MOBILE

[mattgambler]

My thoughts on Sekiro - Shadows Die Twice

TLDR: I talk about what I liked and disliked about Sekiro and why it in my eyes is probably* the best game From Software has released to date. Which means I also compare it to Dark Souls a lot.

*I havent played Demon Souls or Bloodborne, so I cant really talk about those. As someone who played through all three Dark Souls games as well as several other soulslikes on stream, I always stood by the unpopular opinion that Dark Souls 1 is a good game, but also a vastly overrated one - with one of the most unbearable fanbases out there, right up there with Undertale, albeit for very different reasons. My opinion is of course strongly coloured by my interactions with diehard fans of Dark Souls, both on stream as well as everywhere else on the Internet, but at the end of the day I never hated Dark Souls. I wouldnt have played through all three games otherwise. I *did* hate smaller aspects, like the fact that I ended up entering the tomb of the giants without ever finding a lantern and therefore  being forced to crawl through that place in near complete darkness until I found the emergency lantern in there, simply because I was unlucky enough to have none of the necromancers drop one for me. Or how the curse mechanic in the sewers got me trapped in a place that i already struggled with, but now with only 50% of my original HP. Or the entire “Git Gud” mentality that is so grossly abused to defend poor game design that the travesty that is camera control in the Ornstein and Smough fight looks like a piece of art in comparison. Onionbro and Solaire would weep if they knew. There were other things that I didnt enjoy, like what the Souls games count as a story, but I have an easier time pinning that down as personal preference and something that just isnt for me. Vaatividya makes good videos. The tomb of the giants without a lantern however, that just shouldnt exist in any game, not to mention a game that is glorified to such an extent that it could get its dick sucked every day by a different dude without running out for centuries. Can you taste that sweaty salt yet? Along comes Sekiro, a game by the same dev studio, with the same feel, minus many of the things that I have hated and criticized for several years now. Guess what, I like it.    This isnt a review, Im not trying to tell you if you should buy, Im not telling you that there are no microtransactions in the game or what framerate it isnt capped at. There are tons of videos online that jump-attacked all over that on day 1 of release or earlier. Im telling you why, in my opinion, this game is so vastly superior to Dark Souls that it simply warms my heart. Let me start a list and then never finish it: - You can swim - You can jump - You can talk - You dont immediately die when you fall off a cliff - You cant accidentally walk over a cliff like a moron, at least most of the time. - You can’t simply rely on dodgerolls and invincibility frames all the time - You can understand the story without having to go to Youtube to have it explained to you by someone - You can’t kill strong enemies simply by chain parrying them over and over, or at least it is hell of a lot harder - You can’t simply kill strong enemies by knocking them off a cliff (I think) - You can’t abuse magic for an immediate easy mode - You can’t abuse coop for an immediate easy mode

... I’m getting a little unfair here, I know. I actually think coop is a cool feature, even though I personally never used it and even the multiplayer pvp invasions are an original and interesting concept, although I’m not personally into it. Magic is cool too, although poorly balanced and therefore in my opinion less interesting. The reason I added those last two points to my unfinished list is not because I dislike them, but because of the lately relevant “does Sekiro need an easy mode” controversy. Especially the most elitist diehard fans of the souls franchise strongly disagree with the addition of an easy mode, which is funny... ... given that Dark Souls 1 has several. Personally I dont think Sekiro NEEDS an easy mode, but it sure wouldnt hurt anyone. I personally wouldnt have minded playing on a lower difficulty, I had three or four bosses greatly overstay their welcome before I finally managed to smash their asslike faces in. ...but Im rambling. On a surface level, just looking at the feel of combat, movement and overall story coherence Sekiro is already miles ahead, but I can understand that it therefore feels less like a Souls game and that not everyone will like that. I can understand and respect that. DarkSouls 1, as well as 2 and maybe even 3, have a couple of features that I greatly appreciate and that partly even surpass Sekiro in my otherwise overly critical eyes. Dark Souls 1 has the best and most memorable map in my opinion. Dark Souls 2 has incredible DLCs, especially Frozen Eleum Loyce was awesome and beautiful, with the minor exception of that retarded snow zebra area and how you would respawn *before* the loading screen to get there again instead of after. I also liked the Pursuers concept a lot, as well as the idea of despawning mobs if you killed them often enough. I dont remember much about DS3, it was okay as far as Im concerned but I enjoyed it the least out of the three, probably because of burnout as I had played through all three (blind) in a row. Im mentioning all of this because I want to clarify that in my eyes Sekiro is not THE TIMELESS MASTERPIECE NOBODY WILL EVER SURPASS that Darksouls 1 is often celebrated as. But in many ways it is headed in a direction that makes more sense to me than “if you are not enjoying it then you are doing it wrong and you should maybe think for once”. (Not that Sekiro streamers werent told exactly that just the same) Let me tell you, there were many instances in Sekiro where I also didnt think, didnt consider every possible option the game had given me, honestly Im pretty sure I sucked most of the time, in the eyes of your usual GITGUD-Bro. But I struggled, I improved, I succeded, and I had a way better time during it all, even though I did the same shit in the Souls games as well. Just without falling off edges in waist-high water every 10 minutes, or being invaded by some bowing edgelord, or losing 50% of my max hp as punishment for dying to the wrong enemy. There is this myth going around online that Dark Souls might be a harsh mistress, but at least a fair one. The one spreading that rumour must have been the Bed of Chaos herself, because that is nothing but horseshit. Sekiro isnt exactly fair all the time either, there are many moments in the game that feel all too familiar in their GOTCHA nature. Like how the game conveniently places the key to one of the hardest areas of the early game in your path so you go check it out just to get crucified there by Lady Butterfly and a special drunkard, just for you to learn after finally breaking both of them that you would have had a way easier time if you had simply ignored that area and soldiered on on your original path. Sure, one could have simply abandoned that area and returned later, but how many of you did? I sure didnt. The game likes to oneshot-kill you if you fail to dodge the wrong attack, be it a giant carp, a giant snake, or a giant TERROR man. Even worse, in Sekiro you cant even get your souls back! You die, you lose 50%. ALso 50% of your cash. Suck it. Im not particularly happy about that myself and Im not sure what the motivation behind that design decision was, but you take the good with the bad, right? Another thing that Sekiro does that I dont understand is how the game has you collect loot. Every time you kill an enemy you need to hold a button to collect. You can kill several in an area and then grab everything at once if they arent too far apart, but at the end of the day it eludes me why From Software didnt simply go for autocollecting instead. It’s not a big deal (even though I would forget about picking up loot every now and then) but at the same time it isnt adding any enjoyment to the game either, no matter how hard I try and emphasize with whatever a gamer who likes this might possibly think. It is not hard, its is not really relevant,  and I cant think of a single advantage it has over autocollecting. Maybe holding that button is supposed to feel rewarding? I consider it meaningless at best and tedious busywork at worst. At the same time the game introduces a stealth system that actually means something, while at the same time keeping it both well integrated as well as completely optional. Im truly impressed by how that is even possible. I also like the immortality mechanic, that results in you only truly dying if you go down twice, and even refreshes that revive if you kill enough enemies inbetween deaths. It doesnt help that much, as it doesnt refill your estus fl.... healing gourds, but it allows for a little bit more practice against tough enemies before you die, a little bit more lenience while exploring in an area where it is easy to fall, a little bit more standing power in a world where a giant carp can simply eat you. I appreciate it and it is far from making the game anything close to easy. Its more like an extra gourding flask. I could keep going and praise this (surprisingly satisfying enemy style and variety given the setting) or criticize that (less replayability because of fewer possible weapons and builds), but at the end of the day my opinion is crystalclear - Sekiro is stunningly beautiful, very enjoyable, hard as fuck, and while I have heard people say that “it is not a true soulslike”, I have to shrug and agree. It is better.

[patriotsnet]

Do The Republicans Want To Cut Social Security

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/do-the-republicans-want-to-cut-social-security/

Do The Republicans Want To Cut Social Security

Democrats Urged To Reject Latest Gop Attempt To Hold Social Security ‘hostage’

Donald Trump Might Want To Cut Social Security But Won’t Admit It

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday said he would be willing to vote to raise the federal debt ceiling in exchange for a policy that could result in cuts to Social Security and Medicare, a proposed trade-off that progressive advocacy groups implored Democrats to reject.

“Fortunately, Democrats can protect Social Security and Medicare by raising the debt ceiling in the forthcoming reconciliation package.”Alex Lawson, Social Security Works

With members of Congress staring down an to increase the debt limitthe amount of money the federal government is legally permitted to borrow to meet its financial obligationsGraham toldBloomberg that he could bring himself to vote yes on a debt ceiling hike if Democrats agree to legislation establishing commissions tasked with crafting Social Security and Medicare “reforms.”

But Social Security Works, a progressive advocacy organization, was quick to warn that Graham’s offer is a thinly veiled trap.

“Lindsey Graham and his fellow Republicans will stop at nothing to cut the American people’s earned Social Security and Medicare benefits,” Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, said in a statement. “Graham has now telegraphed his party’s intention to demand a commission to cut Social Security and Medicare as the price for raising the debt ceiling.”

Social Security Works and other groups warned at the time that the proposal was nothing more than “a plot to gut Social Security behind closed doors.”

Democrats Have Already Signaled Trumps Budget Is Going Nowhere

While Trump tries to have it both ways by proposing entitlement cuts while claiming hes not really doing that, Treasury Department spokesperson Monica Crowley was somewhat more straightforward during a Monday morning appearance on Fox Business.

Asked by host Stuart Varney if she agrees that the new budget hits the safety net, Crowley said the president understands that Washingtons habit of out of control spending without consequence has to be stopped.

Treasury Secretary Assistant Sec. Monica Crowley defends cuts to entitlements in Trump’s new 2021 budget proposal: “The president also understands that Washington’s habit of out of control spending without consequence has to be stopped.”

Aaron Rupar

But for Trump, not all spending is bad. While his budget cuts non-defense spending by 5 percent, he actually slates defense spending for an increase to $740.5 billion for fiscal year 2021.

Budget proposals are just that proposals. And while Trump insists that Republicans are the ones trying to save entitlements from destruction, the irony is that the truth is exactly the opposite: Entitlement cuts are dead on arrival as long as Democrats control a chamber of Congress.

Related

The viral video of Mike Pence being grilled by an ER doctor about Medicaid cuts, explained

House Budget Committee Chair John Yarmuth alluded to this reality in a statement he released on Sunday blasting Trump for proposing deep cuts to critical programs that help American families.

Republicans Are Pushing Myths About Social Security

Republican politicians want to cut Social Security. They never say so out loud, but their 2016 platform reveals the truth. In the section labeled, Saving Social Security, it proclaims, As Republicans, we oppose tax increases Since Social Security cannot deficit spend and is projecting a shortfall in 2035 if Congress doesnt act, that only leaves benefit cuts.

Representative John Larson , the Chairman of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Social Security, is trying to force his Republican colleagues into the open. Larson is the sponsor of the Social Security 2100 Act, which increases Social Securitys modest benefits. Additionally, it raises enough revenue to ensure that all benefits can be paid in full and on time through the year 2100 and beyond. Ninety percent of the Democrats in the House of Representatives are co-sponsors, but not a single Republican. Given their refusal to back his bill, Rep. Larson has urged Republicans to offer an alternative proposal to no avail.

Non-action is not an option, unless your goal is to cut Social Security. The most recent Social Security Trustees’ Report projects that with no action, benefits will be automatically reduced by 20 percent in 2035. As Chairman Larson has plainly stated, The hard truth of the matter is that Republicans want to cut Social Security, and doing nothing achieves their goal.

Read Also: How Can Republicans Live With Themselves

His Tax Cut Isnt Helping The Economy But It Did Blow A Hole In The Budget That Hed Fill By Gutting Entitlement Programs

Health-care activists rally in front of the Capitol in March 2017 to highlight the changes then being sought in Medicaid in the Republican American Health Care Act.

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Later this evening, Donald Trump delivers his third State of the Union address. If past speeches are any indicator, we know tonights speech will be filled with a number of exaggerations and outright falsehoods especially when it comes to the economy.

Since he signed the bill two years ago, Trump has heralded the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as this administrations greatest accomplishment, declaring that it is helping everybody so much.

But this couldnt be further from the truth. While the law gave giant tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations, the rest of us were left with crumbs at best. The wage growth that Trump promised hasnt materialized, and 100 million Americans are going to be left paying higher taxes.

Another opinion:Trump should offer a new deal for the middle class in his State of the Union speech

Now, Trump is using his tax cuts, which he promised would be a boon to the economy, as an excuse to threaten cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs Americans have been paying into with every paycheck, and programs the federal government is required, by law, to offer to every single eligible person.

Turns out everyones predictions were right: Republicans are targeting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. No surprise there.

Is The Gop Really Trying To Do Away With Social Security

Social Security is unquestionably the nation’s most important social program, with more than three out of five current retired workers leaning on it to account for at least half of their monthly income. Yet, this crucial program is on shaky ground, with the latest annual report from the Social Security Board of Trustees painting a grim intermediate- and long-term picture for the program.

According to the report, Social Security is facing an inflection point this year. For the first time since 1982, aggregate expenditures, which almost entirely includes benefits, but also takes into account administrative expenses and Railroad Retirement exchange contributions, will exceed revenue generated. Although the net cash outflow is only estimated at $1.7 billion, which is relative peanuts when compared to the $2.89 trillion currently in asset reserves, it’s a conclusive sign that the existing payout schedule isn’t sustainable.

Things begin to get really dicey in 2020 and beyond. Beginning at the turn of the decade, ongoing demographic shifts are expected to cause the net cash outflow to balloon. By 2034, following 16 years of outflows, the $2.89 trillion in excess cash is expected to be completely gone. Should this happen, Social Security would survive, but payouts to then-current and future retirees could be cut by up to 21%. That’s not a pleasant forecast given the noted reliance of seniors on the program.

Read Also: How Many Seats Did The Republicans Win In Senate

Yes Republicans Want Big Time Cuts In Social Security

Over the last couple weeks, Dylan Scott has been out front on the House GOPs effort manufacture a Social Security funding crisis that would hit over the next two years. Theres more than one Social Security Trust Fund. Theres one that covers most retirees. Theres another that covers the disability part of the program. And over the years, Congress with little controversy has shifted funds back and forth between the two to maintain actuarial balance. So to date, the whole push has been rather technical and framed around bean counting. But earlier this month, most notably from Rand Paul, we heard the other prong in the attack come into play.

Speaking to Republican presidential primary voters in New Hampshire, Paul said that most Social Security disability recipients are in fact malingerers and scofflaws who have no business receiving benefits in the first place.

The thing is that all of these programs, theres always somebody whos deserving, everybody in this room knows somebody whos gaming the system. I tell people that if you look like me and you hop out of your truck, you shouldnt be getting a disability check. Over half the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts. Join the club. Who doesnt get up a little anxious for work every day and their back hurts? Everyone over 40 has a back pain.

The Republican Record On Social Security

1935: Almost all Republicans in Congress oppose the creation of Social Security.

1939: 75 percent of Republicans in Senate try to kill legislation providing Social Security benefits to dependents and survivors as well as retired workers.

1950: 79 percent of House and 89 percent of Senate Republicans vote against disability insurance to defeat it.

1956: 86 percent of Republicans in Senate oppose disability insurance; program approved nonetheless.

1964: Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and future president Ronald Reagan both suggest that Social Security be made voluntary.

1965: 93 percent of Republicans in House and 62 percent in Senate vote to kill Medicare.

1977: 58 percent of Senate votes against amendment to provide semiannual increases.

1977: 88 percent of Republicans in House and 63 percent in Senate vote against an increase in Social Security payroll tax needed to keep the system solvent.

1981: President Reagan proposes $35 billion in Social Security cuts over the next 5 years. The cuts would have included the elimination of student benefits, lump-sum death benefits, and a retroactive elimination of the $122 minimum benefit for three million recipients.

1981: Reagan administration begins a wholesale review of the Social Security Disability rolls, resulting in over 560,000 eligibility investigations in 1982 360,000 more than the year before. Ultimately, at least 106,000 families were removed from the rolls.

Don’t Miss: How Many Republicans Won In Tuesday’s Election

The Average Retired Worker Could Be Taking Home A Lot Less From Social Security In 15 Years

This has been a challenging year in so many respects for the American public. The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the way we interact with one another, and it’s displaced more than 20 million workers. If you’re an investor, you were also taken on a wild ride, with the stock market packing about 10 years’ worth of volatility into a period of four months. And don’t even get me started about the murder hornets.

But one of the few solaces working Americans have always been able to take is the idea that, if they earn 40 lifetime work credits, a Social Security benefit will be waiting for them when they retire.

The Social Security program has navigated through 13 recessions prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite some obviously grim outlooks during those previous recessions, you’ll note that Social Security is still here, and it’s been paying continuous retired-worker benefits for more than 80 years. This is why it’s often referred to as America’s most successful social program.

But just because it’s been a historically successful program doesn’t mean it’s necessarily in great shape to service future generations of retirees.

Vote Tallies For Passage Of Medicare In 1965

GOP Rep: Let’s Privatize Social Security And Cut Benefits

Actions in Congress- H.R. 6675, The Social Security Admendments of 1965, began life in the House Ways & Means Committee where it passed the Committee on March 23, 1965 and a Final Report was sent to the House on March 29, 1965. The House took up consideration of the bill on April 7th, and passed the bill the next day by a vote of 313-115 . The Senate Finance Committee reported the bill out on June 30th and debate began on the Senate floor that same day, concluding with passage on July 9, 1965 by a vote of 68-21 . The Conference Committee to reconcile the differing bills of the two houses completed its work on July 26th. The reconciled version of H.R. 6675 then went to final passage in the House on July 27th and final passage in the Senate the following day.

You May Like: What Republicans Voted To Impeach The President

The Republican Obsession With Dismantling Social Security And Medicare

The Republicans are desperate to destroy Social Security and Medicare. These two programs demonstrate government at its best. The federal government runs these two extremely popular programs more efficiently, universally, securely, and effectively than the private sector does with its alternatives or indeed could, no matter how well those private sector programs were designed.

Because Social Security and Medicare are government programs that work so well, the Republican elite with its seemingly religious belief that the private sector is always the best hates them. So obsessed are the Republicans in their desire to eliminate these effective government programs that the very first action that House Republicans took in the new Congress was to adopt a rules package that included a new rule that amounts to a stealth attack on Social Security and Medicare.

The rules package, adopted at the start of every new Congress, sets out how the chamber will operate for the next two years. This years package is already infamous for provisions in the initial version that would have gutted the Office of Congressional Ethics provisions that were ultimately dropped after a massive outcry from the American people. Unnoticed by most was an additional provision, which is one part of the Republican game plan to destroy Social Security and Medicare.

Here’s How The Gop Could Remove $174 A Month From Retirees’ Paychecks Without A Direct Cut

On Capitol Hill, both political parties have acknowledged that Social Security needs some TLC. Unfortunately, neither party is in the same ballpark as to how best to fix what’s estimated to be a $13.9 trillion shortfall over the next 75 years.

What isn’t in doubt, though, is that if Republicans were able to implement their two most prominent solutions, every beneficiary would see some form of reduction in their payout.

The GOP has long favored cost-cutting as the best means of reducing Social Security’s shortfall. The most commonly touted method of tackling this would be by gradually raising the full retirement age — i.e., the age at which you become eligible for 100% of your monthly payout. Currently set to peak at age 67 in 2022 for those born in 1960 or later, Republicans would like to see this figure gradually increased to age 70. Such a move would require future generations of retirees to either wait longer to collect their full payout or to accept a steeper up-front reduction by claiming early. No matter their choice, lifetime benefits, and therefore program outlays, would be reduced.

But the thing about raising the full retirement age is that it takes a long time to work. Meanwhile, the other Republican proposal — changing Social Security’s inflationary tether from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers to the Chained CPI — could yield modestly faster savings.

Read Also: What If The Republicans Win Everything Again

Softening Social Security Rhetoric On The Right

This represents a break from Angle’s past comments. Her website used to say that Social Security should be “transitioned out” in favor of “free market alternatives.

But that has been replaced with a markedly different stance.

“We must keep the promise of Social Security by redeeming the ‘IOU’s’ that have been written to the Social Security Trust Fund and then putting that money in a lock box that cannot ever be raided again by Washington politicians. The only way we pay for it is by cutting spending,” it now says in the “issues” section.

Talk of a “free market” alternative is replaced with “personalized accounts for the next generation that cannot be raided.”

Still, that careful rebranding will be complicated by comments she made Friday, when she apparently referred to Chile as a model for privatizing social security in the future, according to a short AP write-up.

Democrats Hope To Turn Attention From Economy

For their part, Democrats are intent on convincing voters that Republicans want to privatize the whole system.

“Republicans are dead set on privatizing or eliminating Social Security to please their Wall Street backers,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee National Press Secretary Deirdre Murphy.” Democrats will continue to stand up for our seniors and call out Republicans who want to leave them high and dry.”

But he said changing the subject from the economy will be challenging.

Progressive Groups Seek A “No Cuts” Pledge

Heals Act Vs Heroes Act

In a joint statement issued Tuesday afternoon, Pelosi and Schumer outlined where they said the HEALS Act falls short compared to Democrats Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, which passed the House in May.

The $3 trillion Heroes Act extends $600 weekly unemployment benefits through January;2021, whereas the HEALS Act;cuts supplemental unemployment benefits to $200 a week through September, when the payment will be combined with state benefits to replace 70% of wages.

Pelosi and Schumer also said HEALS gives wealthy corporations a business meal tax deduction but doesnt extend the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for struggling families. The Heroes Act provided;a 15% increase to the maximum SNAP benefit and additional funding for nutrition programs.

The Heroes Act contains $175 billion in new supports for rent, mortgage and utility payments and other housing-related costs.

HEALS, Pelosi and Schumer said, also provides zero election funding or Post Office assistance, while spending $2 billion on President Trumps priority to renovate the FBI headquarters and prevent competition for Trump Hotel and handing a $30 billion slush fund to defense contractors.

HEALS does not extend the eviction moratorium, provide rental or mortgage assistance or boost state and local funding, Pelosi and Schumer added.

Related on ThinkAdvisor:

Recommended Reading: When Did The Southern Democrats Become Republicans

[scarewulf]

do all of them :gun:

oh my god....ok

ill put them under a readmore so i dont annoy anyone KJDNFKSDFJ

--top 5 fav songs rn?

ive been exclusively listening to the over the garden wall soundtrack recently and nothing else. but my faves from it are you have beautiful eyes, the beast is out there, adelaide’s trap, come wayward souls, and into the unknown

--do u have any tattoos/piercings? do u want any?

yes! i have one tattoo and id like a lot more :-) maybe some piercings too in the future

--what’s ur favorite food?

indian i think. or mediterranean. also tiramisu...

--are u in a relationship/do u have a crush?

im not in one, and yeah i do. im usually crushing on someone at any given moment tho its a curse

--what’s ur favorite movie?

lord of the rings!

--if u could have any superpower, what would u pick?

telekinesisssss

--do u prefer warm weather or cold weather?

a healthy mix of both but on the warm side

--if u could change one thing about urself, what would it be?

i would kill 10 men to be tall

--what’s something u wish u were good at?

i wish i was good at writing! i suppose it just comes with practice but still

--do u drink, smoke, or do drugs?

i drink sometimes and i smoke weed too but i dont do anything else

--do u have a lot of friends?

i have a good amount of close friends who i love dearly :-)

--do u believe in astrology?

eh...not really but i have an open mind

--have u ever committed a crime? what was it? *adjusts wire* if not, would u ever commit a crime?

yes....ive stolen many times jdfnsdjfosbj

--what’s ur favorite website?

crouton.net

--what’s ur favorite book?

dune!

--are u neat or messy?

mostly neat

--if u could visit/live anywhere in the world, where would u?

id love to visit colorado or somewhere mountainous :weary: or scotland! 

--show ur lock screen + home screen!

--what’s ur favorite holiday?

halloween and valentines day!

--what’s something ur looking forward to?

summer break...

--are u religious?

yes and no. its complicated

--do u believe in ghosts/demons/aliens/magic/anything paranormal?

yesss :weary:

--give a controversial opinion >:3

this isnt controversial unless you’re a freak but if you go on about how much you hate kids or something you should die

--what would u describe ur style as?

cozy goth 

--what is ur biggest fear?

uuhh.....id say something like “failure” or something but its really heights im a wimp

--do u have any weird/obscure interests?

i suppose ancient art history is kind of an obscure interest! 

--what’s ur favorite historical time period? (without the old-timey bigotry)

paleolithic times i wish we could all live in caves again

--do u collect anything, or want to? if so, what?

yes! i collect rocks, fossils, and gems

--what’s ur fav hobby?

i draw :-)

--what’s ur biggest pet peeve?

i dont like when people talk over me :/

--what character do u relate to a lot?

data star trek

--how do u think ppl see u? how do u see urself?

im not sure...i think people think im quiet but not judgemental. i see myself as reserved and complaisant

--do u have any pets? do u want any?

yes i have a dog named rizzo :-) in the future id like a cat, lizard, and maybe a tarantula

--what’s ur job? (or dream job if u don’t work?)

i work at a library! 

--what’s something everyone else hates, but u love?

i loveeee mint and chocolate together

--what’s something everyone else loves, but u hate?

i wouldnt say hate but. i much prefer playing games on console than on pc sjfnsofof (i couldnt think of anything for this one ok..)

thanks king love u <3

[sailorrrvenus]

6 Tips for Photographers from a Vogue Model

I’ve been working as a model for over four years now, which I love, but there’s plenty of room for improvement in the way that models are treated in the industry and I feel like this is a good place to start. I love collaborating with photographers on creative shoots and editorials, and mostly I find the people that I work with respectful and kind, but there’s always one or two!

Tip #1: Encourage a Healthy Working Environment

If you want to think of your photography as a career option rather than just a hobby then you should extend that professionalism to the people you work with. For example, models should be able to take breaks for food or water or to use the bathroom. When shooting on location, perhaps consider stopping halfway through for a quick break in a nearby coffee shop for comfort, or providing water or even a blanket if it’s cold out.

Never expect your models to change outfits in public, it’s fine if they offer and are comfortable doing so but don’t act like it’s a given; instead, allow models to change in nearby public bathrooms for privacy.

If you have organized a test shoot then it is fine to agree to TFP compensation for your models, but if you have been approached by a brand or other company and you yourself are being paid, you should definitely compensate your models financially, as well as providing images for them to use, if your contract with the brand allows – if not then the compensation should reflect the lack of images.

It is also important to respect other commitments of your model, they may need to leave at a certain time or not be available before a certain time and this may mean that you have to shoot slightly quicker than you would otherwise like to but it is important to remain respectful of this, especially if you aren’t paying them for their time.

Tip #2: Make Your Contracts Fair, and Mutually Beneficial

“TFP” as mentioned previously, stands for “Time For Prints” (or “Time For Photographs”) meaning that there is a mutual exchange between the model and photographer- the photographer donates their time and skill and the model receives prints or copies of the photographs for their own use. TFP is a very common means of operation in the current market, and it is important for contracts to reflect this fair exchange.

It is important that the photographer realize that they aren’t the only creative force at work during a shoot. Ideally, the ideas of all team members should be considered and respected equally.

An annoyingly common issue I’ve had to deal with when shooting TFP is feeling like you’ve shot some genuinely good quality and useful images, and then only receiving black and white images.

Of course, if this was the concept agreed on beforehand then this is completely fine but if not, it isn’t exactly fair. Instead, if you think that the black and white files look better for some reason then feel free to send those to your model as well, but also send them the same images in full color, as this is only fair and polite.

Another equally frustrating thing that some photographers do is to not want to share what they feel is their best work with other members of their creative team, which again is very unfair to all the other parties that were involved in the shoot.

The emphasis with TFP shoots should be that all creative parties’ contributions are treated equally and fairly. Always send over high-resolution files in color, and preferably without a watermark on them as this looks very unprofessional.

Tip #3: Always Respect a Model’s Safety and Boundaries

Anyone who has ever worked as a model for any amount of time will quickly learn one thing: you don’t always get to feel safe at work. In fact, you tend to feel unsafe quite often.

This feeling is typically more likely if the creative team is smaller, for example just a photographer and a model – a very common arrangement.

Thankfully, I have been in only a small amount of genuinely risky situations as a model throughout my career, but it shouldn’t be an accepted or expected part of the job. Karl Lagerfeld famously said earlier this year that “if you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model”. It’s actually not a particularly controversial opinion to have, and low-level forms of physical and sexual assault are almost an accepted part of the job. This is far from being a problem with just photographers, or a problem with even a considerable percentage of working photographers, but you as a photographer can do your bit to help.

I would hope that this would go without saying but based on my own experience it sadly doesn’t, but make sure you always respect a model’s personal and professional boundaries, never push a model to shoot in a way that they aren’t comfortable with and if they wish to bring a chaperone with them to a shoot then let them. As a photographer, you should try to create a working environment that allows models to voice what they are or aren’t comfortable doing and always respect that without trying to convince them to go beyond that.

Tip #4: When Posing Try to be Specific

This is particularly important if you are shooting with a new or less experienced model, as they may not be familiar with how to pose themselves properly.

Not long ago I was given a vague and bizarre piece of posing advice which was to “just be water” as this was in line with the theme of the shoot. Needless to say, I didn’t have a particularly clear idea of what they wanted me to do.

This is a reasonably extreme example, but it’s quite a common problem. If you’re shooting with a more experienced model and you’re happy to just let them do their thing then that’s completely fine but if you’re looking for something quite specific it’s usually helpful to have a mood-board of specific posing styles rather than relying on vague directive statements alone.

The same can be applied to editorial and e-commerce shoots as well. It may also be helpful for you to show them the poses that you want them to do, you may feel silly doing this but they also probably feel quite silly trying to follow vague posing advice while being given little to no feedback.

Communication, in general, is undervalued in collaboration, and many photographers I’ve worked with have been quiet and introverted, making it difficult to actually understand what they are trying to achieve.

One of the best ways for a beginner to pose is through “mirroring” where both the photographer and model relax and then the photographer moves into a pose, expecting the model to mirror the actions and achieve the same pose. This also allows the photographer to directly see what needs to change in front of their eyes, and can adjust themselves and therefore the model appropriately.

Tip #5: Do Not Diminish the Role of a Model

I can’t tell you how many shoots I’ve been on where the photographer has made some kind of backhanded comment about how easy it is to model compared to what they do, or sometimes compared to having a “real job.” Now don’t get me wrong, models are met with these sorts of comments all the time, from all sorts of people who do all sorts of different jobs. But it is a lot more annoying coming from someone that you actually have to work with.

One of the worst incidences I encountered was when I was on a shoot for a graduate clothing brand and almost the second we started shooting the photographer starting saying things like “your poses need to be more interesting” (see my previous point), “come on! I thought you’d done this before!?” and “the only difference between you and any other girl on the street is your ability to pose, so pose!”

Needless to say, this was far from encouraging. I appreciated that this was a high fashion style shoot and required some more “interesting” poses, but as we were just starting to shoot I was surprised by the sudden aggression. It is completely fine to expect a certain standard from a more experienced model, but it is your duty to communicate this in a tactful and constructive way, rather than insulting and denigrating your subject.

Tip #6: Always Credit Your Talent

This is more of a prevalent problem on social media rather than in print, but it is still important to credit everyone involved in a creative project. This does differ greatly depending on whether or not you have approached a model through an agency or not as most modeling agencies require that you credit them rather than the individual model. However, if you have arranged a shoot with a freelance model, or a model that is signed to an agency or agencies non-exclusively, then it is preferable to credit them as an individual.

Giving people appropriate credit for the work that they have put into a project is another way to show them that you respect their work and value their input. It is very commonplace for a photographer, or another creative team member, to credit everyone involved on social media and not the model. This, as well as being credited in caption but not linked to your actual profile, makes it even harder for a model to market themselves on social media, which is increasingly important.

About the author: Arianne Hargrave has been working as a professional fashion and fine art model since 2015. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Hargrave has been featured in Vogue Italia, Scorpio Jin, and the front cover of Afi Magazine. She is open to collaboration and can be contacted through her Instagram and her full portfolio can be viewed on her website.

Image credits: All photos by Simon King

source https://petapixel.com/2019/03/01/6-tips-for-photographers-from-a-vogue-model/

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Whats Worse For Your BrainDrinking or Playing Football?

Our correspondent drinks for a living. Is he putting his brain at more risk of damage than a football player?

I woke up Sunday morning with a throbbing headache. Id spent the previous night heavily sampling a selection of rare whiskeys with some friends.

That may have been fun, but now here I was, still in bed at 11 a.m., barely able to keep my eyes open, hardly able to think, certainly not wanting to turn on the days NFL games.

A parent cant consent to giving their kids a cigarette or a beerwhy can they consent to him playing tackle football?

And I thought this cannot be good for my brain.

The effect of NFL action on the brain is one of the hottest topics of the moment, with the movie Concussion opening this Christmas weekend.

In that film Will Smith portrays Bennet Omalu, the forensic pathologist who first brought to light the appearance of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in American football players.

Thanks partially to Omalus work, nowadays when we watch the constant brutality on the football field, when we see players crashing their heads into each other down after down, when we notice aging players getting dementia (and worse) once retired, many of us have even started to wonder, Can I ethically enjoy football any more? Myself included.

At the same time, though, I often put my own brain in serious jeopardy too.

Yes, I am a professional drinks writer. Mid-day cocktail tastings. Evening scotch samplings. Beer festivals on the weekends. Trips to breweries, distilleries, and wineries. You should see how much free liquor gets delivered to my house on a daily basis!

People often tell me I must have one of the best jobs around. But they arent the ones that have had to drink literally every single day for hell, who knows how many days in a row it has been now. They arent the ones that wake up many mornings with a hangoverjust another occupational hazard.

So, with all this in mind, I decided to ask some football concussion doctors about the effects of my equally dangerous profession on my own precious brain. I wondered, how bad is my drinking compared to playing football?

Was a single whiskey shot equal to a QB sack?

A night of heavy beer drinking equal to a half of football?

Did my brutal Sunday morning hangover feel worse than it did on a Monday morning for a running back?

Neither Dr. Omalunor Will Smithreturned any of my calls, but luckily I had other accomplished doctors willing to answer my questions.

Dr. William Barr is the Director of Neuropsychology at NYU Langone Medical Center.

He is a clinical expert on epilepsy, forensic neuropsychology, and sports concussions. He has testified in numerous cases involving forensics and in civil cases involving MTBI (mild traumatic brain injury). More importantly, from the mid-1990s until 2004, Barr was a neuropsychological medical consultant for the NFLs New York Jets.

He quickly understood the somewhat silly concept behind this piece, and even why a professional drinks writer had reason to be concerned.

I used to think about boxers, he told me, noting that this was before all this concussion talk was in the mainstream. People used to say boxing was the only way for a kid to get out of the ghettobut he had to put his brain at risk. How terrible it was that society forced them to do this! But I also thought about the typical Mad Men-era businessmen. They had to do the three-martini lunches for their workthey too were pickling their brains just to get ahead!

Barr is a bit of a firebrand when it comes to talk about concussions. In fact, he believes concussionswhether from football or otherwiseactually have a fairly minimal impact on future cognitive functioning.

When you look at the studies and what happens three months after a concussiondo you know what meta-analysis is? he asks. I dont. He explains that, In science, rather than making conclusions based on a single study, you look at all the literature. Put it into a similar metric. Whats the overall effect based on many, many studies? So now, maybe, youre looking at 300 people over 10 studies. What it shows is the overall effect (on your brain) of a concussion after 30 days is lower than the effects of intoxication.

The study Barr is citing is Grant L. Iversons 2005 paper Outcome from Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Iverson didnt study alcohols traumatic effect on the brain per se, but he did find chronic cannabis use to be worse on overall neuropsychological functioning than an MTBI (mild traumatic brain injury) was on a person just one to three months after the injury had occurred. Likewise, he found chronic cannabis use to be slightly worse on future memory functioning than an MTBI.

For Barr, that was enough for him to deduce for me that alcohol abuse would be probably likewise worse on the brain than head injuries from playing football. Uh oh.

Barr isnt completely speculating, as he has co-authored his own significant studies. With a team of other doctors and PhDs he helped pen Cumulative Effects Associated with Recurrent Concussion in Collegiate Football Players and Acute Effects and Recovery Time Following Concussion in Collegiate Football Players.

Ive studied athletes more than the general population. With them we can get information before their injury and then after, he tells me. And what that shows is that 95 percent (of athletes who have a concussion) recover back to normal in 7 days or less.

He tests alcoholics brains in a similar manner to how he tests concussed athletes. He interviews them and then gives them a series of tests, ones mainly based on memory functioning (they have to remember a certain story).

So I might notice, this person has problems with attention and remembering things. In the past theyve been a 10-drinks-a-day alcoholic and now it looks like theyve pickled brain.

Though well-honored and quite thorough, you can probably see how Barr is considered a bit of a contrarian for his thinking on concussions.

Barr was even dismissed from the NFLs MTBI committee in 2004 by then-chairman Elliot Pellman, another former New York Jets team physician who is not without his own controversy.

I wanted another doctors opinion on my potentially pickling brain. Dr. James Paci, a professor and orthopedic surgeon, specializes in sports medicine at Stony Brook University Medicine. Hes also the football teams doctor.

First, he clarified that he was neither a neurologist nor brain physician. Despite that, he was trained to deal with concussions on a day-in, day-out basis in his own role as team doctor.

My expertise is how do we treat these athletes, Paci told me. What do we look out for? How do we prevent long term consequences?

However, unlike Barr, Paci somewhat struggled with the comparisons I was hoping he would draw for me.

Certainly there is some connection between alcoholism and Alzheimers, brain diseases. Drawing a parallel between drinking and football though? I dont think anyone has made that correlation. Though he does note, The rock n roll lifestyle and athlete lifestyle certainly do have some comparisons.

A man like Paci believes that both football and drinking are inherently dangerous, but thats OK, so long as we acknowledge the risk involved in both activities and, thus, let potential participants make informed decisions.

Ive had concussions before, Paci tells me. Anyone who plays sports has had one before.

Paci is about my age, having played football at Yale University in the late-1990s, while the slightly-older Barr played during a time head injuries werent treated all that seriously.

Back in the day when I played high school football, Barr tells me, you pretty much had to be in a coma before they did anything about it.

So both men had played football at a fairly high level, had head injuries on the field, and were still able to become prestigious doctors. But did they drink?

Not routinely, but I do, Paci tells me. Most doctors do. There are certainly benefits to some alcohol.

(Ive been saying that for years.)

I do, Barr also tells me. Everything in moderation. A little bit of alcohol can be good for the heart. Theres good data for the red wines. Some scotch in moderation, a finger a day maybe.

So you guys drink, but now knowing what you know, would you let your own children play football?

On that point Paci is fairly strict, believing young children simply dont have the body control and should stick to flag football or two-hand touch.

A parent cant consent to giving their kids a cigarette or a beerwhy can they consent to him playing tackle football?

Barr has a six-month grandson he absolutely wants to play football some day.

Should that boy play football or not? My take, from what we know right now: the chance of getting dementia, the prospect of a 13-year-old boy who starts football getting dementia one day is, lets say, 1 to 2 percent. Im being liberal, Barr tells me. But lets say that boy is not allowed to play football. Instead junior becomes fat and gets diabetes and high blood pressure. Now he has a 30 percent chance of dying of dementia.

So to Barr inactivity in this country is a much bigger problem than helmet-to-helmet contactinteresting, because drinkers on the whole are statistically much more active than non-drinkers according to the Center for Advancing Health.

That papers lead author, Michael French, a professor of health economics at the University of Miami, found that alcohol users not only exercised more than teetotalers, but the differential actually increased with more drinking.

I dont fully understand the relationship, Barr admits, though he has a speculation. Maybe people feel like after visiting the gym, they deserve to do something bad.

Its true enough anecdotally for myself, though Im a bit more of the reverse. I do something bad the night before, then feel the need to go jog five miles the next day.

I ask Barr point-blank, It seems like you ultimately think its safer to play in the NFL than to drink heavily?

Yeah, you could say that, he confirms.

This did not sound good for me. But what exactly did heavily mean? This week alone I sampled new whiskeys on Monday, drank wine with dinner on Tuesday, visited a hot new cocktail bar on Wednesday, went to a brewery opening on Thursday, and hit happy hour with friends on Friday.

Luckily, Barr relieved some of my concerns about any sort of future with dementia, simply telling me, You would not be on the phone with me, or even able to write this story, if you were drinking too much.

Regardless, I think Ill start trying to be more cognizant of my intake. As Paci ultimately summed up for me: The brain is an amazing thing. Your head hurts when you bang it. So you try not to bang your head again. With a hangover, theres obviously something similar going on there.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/28/whats-worse-for-your-braindrinking-or-playing-football/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/165813833432