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zukkacore · 4 months

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okay okay okay. it was so hard to choose a scene from (tell me how) for the director commentary but i got it: The start of “Listen to me.” Porter takes his face in his hands. “I have everything under control. The Bad Kids are nothing, Jace. Trust me..." to.... well. End.

Shameless Self Promo for (tell me how) to be more like you

OOOOOOHHH ok ty ty this is great thank you. This was actually super fun to think about and thank you for asking! I came into this thinking I wouldn’t have much to say, but oops. Guess not. I’m not gonna TOTALLY backtrack but what I will say is that. This is actually kinda interesting b/c i was talking to a friend abt the fic in general, and this scene gave me some grief b/c I remember saying I was actually like. Really hesitant to add like. More overt “romantic” elements to the scene b/c I thought they would be too… abrupt or jarring I guess? Like. To me this fic is more of a conduit for me to scream abt Jace n Gorgug parallels from the rooftops, so it wasn't about the starbreaker relationship until I realized it was ALL ABOUT the starbreaker relationship. I also don’t tend to see Porter in my mind as this…openly affectionate or reassuring… Something like that.

But also there’s this huge roller coaster that Jace is being pulled through and he’s being so starved for affection that he will take absolutely anything rn. I also realized a resolution like that was necessary because, maybe it’s just me extrapolating from headcanon, I always sense this, like, underlying tension between Porter’s desire to dominate and control others vs. his desire to push, to optimize and actualize. We’ve seen him act this way with Fig and with Gorgug, and it’s not textual that this is an internal conflict regarding his feelings about Jace being his subordinate, but to me this tension seemed like a natural extension of Porter’s relationships with the character’s we DO see. After so much breaking Jace down, he’s gotta get built up, gotta get on the hook again.

“Listen to me / I have everything under control”

is also. So authoritative, and the closest thing to reassurance Jace is gonna get. So much of Jace’s side of the conversation is 1-2 degrees of separation away from basically admitting “I care about you so much despite everything, and I’m just begging for you to care about me, too. (Don’t you see how stressed i am. Don’t you care about my life at all. etc).” And it’s telling that Porter can’t be vulnerable in return, the best he can do is reassure Jace that everything is gonna be ok in this egotistical, almost paternalistic way.

(“They’re twig gremlins” is such a signaling facts line tho. Sorry if that’s confusing. I used to listen to the shrieking shack podcast, and their dunkfest on HP7 will live in my head forever highly recommend btw, it fully changed my opinion on the final book forever that it truly should be seen as a GOT final season level embarrassment and for some reason its not even tho it’s astoundingly bad AND meanspirited. Anyway. I remember so clearly them saying one of the weird things abt deathly hallows was that it kept doing this fanfic thing of like “signaling facts” about the lore to prove the writer has done their research or is winking playfully at the source material. Which is weird bc it’s a book and not a fanfiction, so it felt really out of place and jarring. Anyway i have no qualms with fanfic signaling facts. I thought using a fantasy creature that is equally as insignificant as a rat or a spider would be fun. We all know what the ratgrinders do.)

Maybe I got a little over-invested. I can’t help it, I need recruits, and the kid’s a natural. But that’s not everything. He’s too… Too timid. Afraid.” “Of what?” “Embracing his power.”

Extrapolating on Porter’s motivations for saying he needs recruits tho; I mean, I don’t think he ever outright SAYS it but if he wants to be the god of war, I’m assuming he wants strong soldiers for his empire? In my mind this goes hand in hand with the like. Wanting to actualize certain characters even if its technically against his best interests (which i do think is somewhat is goal even if sometimes you can chalk it up to manipulations for his other plans. Like. I do think on some level as just a teacher, Porter thinks giving gorgug some tough love will push him where he needs to go). If you want to meld a strong warrior in your image, it's not a problem as long as you can get them On Your Side, ideally by persuasion but he has no problem using force (presumably shatterstar).

Which goes hand in hand with the doublespeak that is both about Jace and Gorgug when he says that jace/Gorgug is afraid of “embracing his power”. As much as I view it as a tension, i don’t think it’s a true contradiction for Porter to want to control Jace while also wanting to “actualize” him, control to keep someone submissive vs. control to shape someone into something you find personally acceptable.

And in the eyes of Porter, Gorgug’s flaws are that he is timid, noncommittal, and kinda dense; Porter’s never stated in the canon that he’s repulsed by Jace for the same reason, but why wouldn’t he be? He calls Gorgug a “natural” and I’m pretty sure he says that directly to Gorgug’s face in-show? And with Jace being a sorcerer, it’s meant to be a subtle reinforcement (Even when he’s trying to be comforting!!!) that like, yeah, raw talent isn’t enough. Especially if you’re letting it go to waste. I also think it’s Porter trying to recontextualize everything he’s expressed abt Gorgug. No, that wasn’t disgust, it’s a good thing. Trust me. It’s because I want what’s best for you.

All of this is building to Porter making Jace feel like he’s getting a shot to rise to an occasion. He basically just got reprimanded for wanting things to be easy so now it’s like—this is an opportunity for you. (I actually joked w/ a friend abt this, too, abt this idea of like Earning Porter’s Approval literally through the experience of watching FHJY. I actually described it to them as like, I felt like me and gorgug were basically Andy from Devil Wears Prada in the trenches, and on a practical level, we know what Miranda is putting her through is abusive, but also finally gaining her approval feels GOOD and you feel good FOR Andy when she starts nailing the job. I hated Porter for so long but by the time he was getting along with the bad kids I swung in the other direction, I started to really like him. Oh how young and foolish we were)

And Jace from the very start of “Listen to me” buys the whole thing. Porter doesn’t care for who Jace is, but he loves what Jace could be. And I don’t think Porter’s motivations are all manipulative, at least not overtly, because he does see something in Jace, so what if it happens to coincide with using him to ascend to godhood? It’s this genuine, like, god-as-patriarch perspective of i love you so much that I decide what is best for you. And that belief is both a source of frustration and motivation (esp b/c this personal take on Jace is neurodivergent coded. I won’t go into it. The failing wizardry comment did something to my brain, ok? You’ve built up a perfectly actualized version of me in your head and say it's because you want what’s best for me, and you’re making it my problem. I’m not injecting personal experiences into this. Who said I was).

So Porter loves who Jace could be, and in that moment, just out of Jace’s reach it’s enough, it’s even something aspirational. As fucked over as he was by Porter, its like, after a long time of just kinda Existing, it feels good to feel like someone believes in you.

“Tell me some things aren’t worth a little risk.”

Porter kisses him, and it’s an implicit signal of, like, it’s good to be a little dangerous actually. Don’t be such a stick in the mud. It’s good to be bad. It’s exciting, being with you is exciting, don’t you want to push the envelope a little bit for me?

(And in my mind because Jace has referenced missing being with Porter “It's the closest they've been in ages. Jace can't help but lean a little bit into it.” etc etc Jace kinda does this thing where they do their like toxic yaoi at each other's throats back and forth and Jace will kinda peel off. And then come back. Like they’re technically in one of their Off Phases now where Jace tries to convince himself that it’s better if they maintain some space. This is by far one of the more tender instances of them like coming back together, usually it's a lot more, ya know. Violent toxic yaoi coded. But it reminds him of before the shatterstar, when there were more instances like this. Maybe i should have included some of this in the actual fic. Lol. I literally wrote it in such a rush.)

“Hey. You’re gonna knock it out of the park, alright? [...] We’re all looking to you, now, Stardiamond. It’s a heavy burden, but I can’t think of anyone else I’d trust more to handle the responsibility"

And trying to be sneaky, saying things with double meanings is creating this moment of intimacy of like—we get each other. This is OUR thing. AND the flirting is doing double duty. The undercurrent of “I trust you with this responsibility” doubles as a more menacing “Don’t let me down”. But there's also that recalling of like. Oh yeah, they really are just like. Co-workers. Maybe a little intense to say, but also on the outside, is that not innocuous enough? Who among us has not said to our best friend (i kid)

Anyway, I wasn’t sure where I was going when I wrote it, but i also think there’s something so interesting abt a sorcerer needing to be so dependent on another person for that sense of purpose. Porter is so his whole world here, which is crazy b/c sorcerers project their Will into the world (I have so many thoughts abt how this parallels the thing tracker said to Kristen about liking the idea of making your own meaning but also not wanting to do the work b/c on some level you think you deserve to have it easy. I think Jace is so similar. He likes the idea of being self-determining, of projecting his will, he’s even smug about it, but he also doesn’t want to put in the WORK so the minute someone else comes along gives him answers he’s like ok. That’s ok. Making meaning is exhausting anyway. This is my new reality now. But never mind it. Maybe it's for a prequel?).

(also bonus that didn’t really fit into the progression of Thoughts, but there’s also the fact that in my mind, Porter saying about Gorgug, “He earned it, after the damn display at Frosty Fair,” is all but an admission that Porter is absolutely placating Jace, and Jace had actually very little sway in Porter’s decision-making. Porter was always gonna sign Gorgug’s MCAT (as long as Gorgug took the initiative to demand it). But Jace FEELS like something has changed, and that’s what matters. (something something that meme of the cow about the illusion of choice lol). I do think there is something intentionally disempowering about Porter bringing it up this way as well. Like, yes, Jace’s problem about antagonizing the bad kids seems to have gone (as far as he’s aware), but he is ultimately reinforcing, “this is my decision.”)

This doesn’t have anything to do with anything, but I do think there is an interpretation to be made (that I also enjoy in and partake) that Porter does also love Jace. I don’t know how much of that comes through in this particular instance.

Anyway, this was such a treat, thank you so much! Sorry if any of this felt redundant af bc i feel like I’ve said a lot of it before, or maybe it’s super self-evident.

#jan.ask #fhjy spoilers #jan.fic #sorta

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radio-charlie · 10 months

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I'm in despair it's like as shit gets worse, the desire for cathartic bloodshed and easy self-flattering conclusions will follow suit. Everything that's been going on should tell you that if you want to make saving the world (to put it crudely) your life's business you need to understand the world and work with what it is, instead of just screeching until it takes the form you think it should. But nah we're all just hooked on snappy dunkfests and a kind of superficial wholesomeness worship that's really just the elevation of reactionary values. Chugging content that appeals to our more antisocial desires, oblivious or apathetic to how it's grooming us for an even uglier and bloodier world. Total devolution, very low vibrational.

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jimmyneutrontaughtmehowtoeatass · 2 years

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logging back onto Tumblr dot come I guess because Twitter has become an exclusively elon musk dunkfest. I need ENTERTAINMENT..

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daedaluscried · 3 months

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Since I have Hazbin friends I wanted to share this dunkfest.

Context: we were describing each other's music tastes

I'm having trouble breathing.

#ooc #also its my new discord pic #it's paras with an eiffel tower on his head #ari the friend not ari the character btw

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obiternihili · 10 months

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I feel like csci suffers from a genuinely self destructive lack of professionalism. I don't mean HR stuff, though that's downstream of the genuine root of the problem. But like a genuine lack of fundamental respect for peers and peer projects even when you boil away the business competitiveness.

Like it's routine to just completely shit over the entirety of a project. Small things, whatever, but like instead of being sober about the comparitive limitations of entire software ecosystems, it's like, no, $proglang is all bad and made by bad people who are stupid. Or $library. or whatever. Any project really.

And like to be fair, sometimes yes software is unusable. But like, instead of acting like it's a miss and moving on, it often turns into this big dunkfest.

I'm afraid the cavalier attitude to sweeping criticism instead of nuanced sobriety does a few things

Drowns out genuine criticism. Like when every minor failure is treated as collossal stupidity it becomes easier to tune out the critics as 'haters' or whatever

It probably burns a lot of bridges

I suspect that it muddies the waters when it comes to separating the work from the person. Like if someone churns out bad code for a project, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're habitually bad programmers, it doesn't mean that they're bad people, or whatever. it probably means that they were crunched, or so on

And, like, as I alluded, it probably contributes to what fuels the perception that csci workers are all chuds. Because if you're bad at separating the work from the person then you're going to let weird ass shit confirm your biases.

And like, I don't know if letting the rest of the public have that attitude contributes to mistreatment of programmers. I'm pretty sure if management at least has this attitude that the software they commission should just do what they want, and if not you're doing bad work and are incompetent buffoons who are expendable, that workers are going to be treated like shit.

Like I was going to compare to the movie industry where everyone is treated like garbage by the studios, but it's just pretty frankly what happens in the gaming industry, which involves programmers. You get people making fun of the 'i want shorter games with worse graphics where the programmers are paid more to do less' thing when King Kong released, while the team behind it were horrifically crunched.

and I wish I knew what I was talking about more so I could write this essay better

but in general I feel like the project driving the technology behind AI, behind many promising technologies that can help the disabled, driving the future of our experiences, were driven more by an open, careful world collaboration like CERN or something, with the cooperative professionalism corroboration requires, than this perpetual pissing contest reflecting a bunch of reckless evaporating profit motives designed to shit out half-finished opaque tools as quickly and dangerously as possible, so they can earn the venture capital to maintain the illusion of profitability. All while not being good enough to replace anyone, but to demote them to much lower paid, unprotected jobs cleaning up after the AI.

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championmindsethq · 2 years

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Jamie Malonzo withdraws from the PBA Slam Dunk Contest

Barangay Ginebra's Jamie Malonzo Withdraws from PBA Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend

HIGH-flying For the PBA All-Star game this week in Passi City, Iloilo, Barangay Ginebra forward Jamie Malonzo decided not to participate in the slam dunk contest.

Malonzo pulled out of the meet at the last minute, meaning that one of the All-Star weekend's skill challenges will be missing the player expected to win it.

Malonzo's absence has narrowed the competition to a four-man dunkfest between rookie Tyrus Hill of Blackwater, veteran David Murrel of Converge, young gun Chris Lalata of Phoenix, and veteran Brandon Ganuelas Rosser of NLEX.

The 6-foot-7 center from De La Salle who has been playing regularly with Gilas Pilipinas since the fourth window of FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers last year pulled out of the game for unknown reasons.

Malonzo also dedicated himself solely to basketball at the beginning of the year, playing a pivotal role in the Kings' victory over the Bay Area Dragons in the Commissioner's Cup final.

Malonzo also played for the national team in the final window of the qualifiers, against Lebanon and Jordan, between the finals and Ginebra's ongoing campaign in the Governors Cup.

When asked about the slam dunk during Sunday's game between Barangay Ginebra and Converge, Malonzo said that he still hadn't prepared any tricks for his first foray into the All-Star skills challenge.

"I prefer to dunk during games. To please the audience, I'll do whatever they want. To the best of my ability, "The young player said.

Final Thoughts

It's unfortunate that Jamie Malonzo has withdrawn from the PBA Slam Dunk Contest, as he was expected to be a top contender for the title. However, the competition will still be exciting with the remaining four participants, including rookie Tyrus Hill and veteran David Murrel.

Malonzo's absence may be disappointing for fans, but it's understandable that he has prioritized playing for Gilas Pilipinas and for Ginebra in the Governors Cup. It's also refreshing to hear that he values performing well in actual games rather than just in exhibition contests.

Regardless, the PBA All-Star Weekend promises to be an exciting event, showcasing some of the league's best players and their skills. Fans can look forward to watching the remaining four dunkers compete and possibly see an upset in the competition. Additionally, those who are interested in betting on the PBA can also take advantage of the All-Star Weekend and bet on various PBA Philippine Cup events.

#PBA #Jamie Malonzo #Slam Dunk Contest

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