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sbknews · 1 year

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Martin doubles up to home in on Bagnaia

Martin and Bezzecchi pip Pecco to cut the Championship deficit as Pedrosa threatens to spoil the party at Misano. Pole position, Tissot Sprint win and a Sunday race victory. Jorge Martin’s (Prima Pramac Racing) weekend at the Gran Premio Red Bull di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini couldn’t have gone any better as the Spaniard made no mistakes to take maximum points on his title rivals' stomping ground. The winning margin over second place Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) was just 1.3s as Bez homed in though, with reigning World Champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) fighting through the pain to claim an important third. And Pecco was only just ahead of some familiar company at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli: wildcard Dani Pedrosa (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing).

Martin untouchable again as Pecco fends off Pedrosa Just like he did in the Tissot Sprint, Martin got a perfect launch and pocketed the holeshot as Bezzecchi and Bagnaia slotted in behind. Pedrosa got away well again and was up to P4, and the MotoGP™ Legend held on after a moment between Turn 1 and 2 looking for a way through on Bagnaia. But Bagnaia then picked his way past Bezzecchi at Turn 3 as the #1 immediately began to hound Martin. Unlike yesterday, Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) made good progress off the start and at the beginning of Lap 2, the South African was up to P4 and began to chase Martin, Bagnaia and Bezzecchi. A fascinating early race fight was unfolding at the front. Martin, Bagnaia and Bezzecchi were locked together, with Binder 0.7s adrift heading onto Lap 5. On Lap 6, Bezzecchi passed Pecco for P6 down at Turn 8 but just like he did a lap previous, the Italian was wide at Turn 10 to allow the Champion back through. That gave Martin a little bit of breathing room – if you can call 0.3s that – as Binder went quicker than the trio in front of him. Disaster then struck for Binder at Turn 14 on Lap 8. The KTM star was down at the tight right-hand hairpin as his podium hopes ended, handing Pedrosa the lead KTM baton. The #26 was 1.5s off the leaders, as KTM’s afternoon then got worse as Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) crashed out of contention after being involved in an incident with Michele Pirro (Aruba.it Racing). Elsewhere, on Lap 12 of 27, it was time to cue the jaws music. Who for? Pedrosa. The wildcard was beginning to close at a vast rate of knots and with 15 laps left, Pedrosa was just 0.6s off Bezzecchi’s rear wheel. Unbelievable. The Little Samurai was the only rider lapping in the 1:31s at this stage of the race. Pedrosa’s pace dropped off soon after but the gap remained at just over a second. At the front, with 10 laps to go, Martin’s lead grew to over a second for the first time as the #89 began to get the hammer down. Were the injuries to Bagnaia and Bezzecchi starting to take their toll or was Martin’s pace just too good? Bezzecchi was looking impatient behind VR46 compatriot Bagnaia, and a move came at Turn 8. By now though, Martin’s advantage was 2.2s. Bagnaia was fading. Pedrosa was coming. 0.7s split the double World Champion from the three-time World Champion, with Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) and an extremely classy ride for Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) putting him a further four seconds back after initially closing on the number 12. A huge six laps beckoned, could Bagnaia hold on to what would be a very valuable and hard-earned 16 points? With four laps to go, Bagnaia was holding Pedrosa at bay by 0.6s. Bezzecchi was now under two seconds away from Martin but it was too little too late, with the latter controlling his advantage nicely as he powered towards completing the perfect weekend. With two to go, Pedrosa was right on Bagnaia’s coattails. Catching the Ducati rider was one thing but as he found out in the Sprint, passing was a whole different kettle of fish. In the end, Bagnaia did hold on to a crucial P3 as Martin made no mistake to cap off a sensational weekend. Bezzecchi bagged P2 despite his injured hand to gain ground in the title chase.

The points scorers in Misano Just off the podium of Martin, Bezzecchi and Bagnaia, Pedrosa took the chequered flag just 0.6s away from the rostrum as the Little Samurai again demonstrates why he’s a three-time World Champion and a MotoGP™ Legend. Unreal from the popular Spaniard, who finished six seconds up the road from fifth place Viñales. Miguel Oliveira (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP™ Team) was sixth ahead of Marc Marquez, who somehow bags a brilliant P7 after racing with a soft rear tyre. Raul Fernandez (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP™ Team) takes home his best MotoGP™ finish in P8, as the Ducatis of Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) and Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Racing) complete the top 10. Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP™), Catalan GP winner Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing), Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™), a recovering Binder and Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) closed out the points in San Marino. Pol Espargaro (GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3) and Joan Mir (Repsol Honda Team) joined Miller and Pirro as the riders to notch up DNFs.

36 points in it heading to India! A brand-new challenge awaits us next time out as India hosts MotoGP™ for the very first time. Martin’s perfect weekend sees the gap between him and Championship leader Pecco sit at 36 points as the flyaway tour of the season begins... for the first time in some time, it's back below the 37 points on offer in one weekend. Don't miss it! For more MotoGP info checkout our dedicated MotoGP News page Or visit the official MotoGP website www.motogp.com Read the full article

#Michelin #Misano #MotoGP #MotoGP2023 #SanMarinoGP #Sprint #Tissot

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chiseler · 4 years

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The Second Most Dangerous Anarchist in America

{NOTE: September 16th, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the Wall Street bombing, an event which the city, for some reason, refuses to commemorate.}

A little after two on the afternoon of April 15th, 1920, the paymaster of one of the two shoe factories in Braintree, MA, together with a security guard, decided in a change of pace to simply walk that week’s payroll the few blocks from the office to the factory. The payroll, a little over $15,000 in cash, was divided between two strongboxes, each carried by one of the men. Along the way, and in front of over fifty eyewitnesses, a gang of five men, strangers to the small town, gunned down the paymaster and the guard, grabbed the strongboxes, hopped into an idling blue Buick, and sped away. The Buick, later determined to have been stolen a few weeks earlier, was a fancy model with curtained windows, plenty of chrome, and fat tires.

Two days later, on April 17th, two men on horseback discovered the car abandoned in the woods along the western edges of Bridgewater, just a couple miles south of Braintree. Much thinner tire tracks leading away from the scene were assumed to belong to the car into which the killers piled after ditching the Buick.

Bridgwater’s police chief, Michael Stewart, was a cigar-chomping, two-fisted type who’d been raised in Boston. Despite being the son of Irish immigrants, Stewart harbored a deep distrust of more recent immigrants from Germany, Poland, and Italy, especially the political types, suspecting them of being responsible for most of the crime in the region. He was proud to have been able to turn over six bona-fide Reds living in Bridgewater during the Palmer raids of the previous year.

Upon hearing about the Braintree killing, Stewart was reminded of a similar attempted heist in Bridgewater four months earlier on Christmas Eve. Again a shoe factory payroll had been targeted by a group of armed men in a getaway car. That time, however, they were thwarted when the truck containing the payroll crashed, and the would-be thieves were blocked by a passing trolley. Frustrated, they hopped back into the getaway car, another fancy, recently stolen model, and fled empty-handed.

During his abortive investigation into the failed heist, Stewart had been pointed to a ramshackle two-story house in the woods. Locals referred to it as Puffer’s Place, and believed it was home to a group of Italian anarchists. Those who’d heard of Puffer’s Place had no idea what went on there, but if it was full of anarchists, you knew it couldn’t be good. It sounded like a promising lead—Stewart was convinced Italian anarchists were responsible for the job—but he wasn’t able to find the shack, and gave up on the investigation.

All that changed a day after the Braintree attack, when Stewart received a call from the immigration bureau asking after one Feruccio Coacci, a known anarchist who lived in the area and was scheduled for deportation.

Coacci, who’d been living with his wife and a housemate at Puffer’s Place, was quickly tracked down and deported on the 19th. In fact, after weeks of delays and excuses, he insisted on being deported on the 19th. Upon learning Coacci had coincidentally worked at both targeted shoe factories, and just as coincidentally failed to show up for work the day of both heists, Stewart became suspicious. On Tuesday the 20th, he headed back out to Puffer’s Place with another investigator.

They were met at the door by a small, funny-looking man who introduced himself as Mike Boda. Bona invited them in, showed them around, and answered their questions. He even showed them his revolver. Coacci, he said, had some friends who were anarchists and very bad men, but he had nothing to do with them himself.

When they were done looking around the cluttered house, Bona led them to the dilapidated car barn out back, explaining his car, a clunky 1914 Overland, was in the shop to get its magneto repaired. Although Overlands had very thin tires, there were also fatter tire tracks on the garage’s dirt floor. Buda explained this away by telling the officers he sometimes pulled in at a funny angle.

Satisfied, Stewart thanked Mr. Voda for his time and cooperation, and left.

Realizing later what a horrible mistake he’d made, that the tire tracks were just the clue he needed, Stewart rushed back to Puffer’s Place the next morning, arriving on the front stoop about twenty seconds after Bona slipped out the back door and vanished. By the next day, when Stewart stopped by again hoping to find Buda, Puffer’s Place had been cleaned out.

A few people at the time described him as resembling a clown without makeup. He was short and balding, with a great bulbous nose poised above a black mustache. But Mario Buda was not a man known for his rollicking sense of humor. Those who knew him said he was quiet, serious, enigmatic and a little arrogant. Still, there was something of the clown about him. At least he took his slapstick very, very seriously. Instead of cream pies or seltzer bottles, however, he leaned more toward dynamite. Now, a century after his most famous performance, he’s become the stuff of myth, both in anarchist and law enforcement circles.

Buda was born on October 13th, 1884 in Savignano sul Rubicone, Italy, a region known at the time as a hotbed of anarchist thinking.

In 1907, after a few minor scrapes with the law and an increasing sense he’d never be able to make a go of it in Savignano, a then-23-year-old Buda sailed to America. Although already an avowed anarchist, Buda had also apprenticed as a shoemaker, a skill he hoped might come in handy in the land of plenty. It didn’t, and after working a series of menial jobs, starving and getting nowhere for two years, he returned to Italy in 1911. In 1913, he decided to give America another shot, this time settling in Boston and finding work at (depending on the account) a shoe factory, a hat factory or, together with his brother, a shop that sold cleaning supplies. That same year he became friends with another shoemaker named Nicola Sacco, whom he met when both took part in a protest at a nearby textile factory. Along with being a shoemaker, Sacco was also an anarchist, a follower of Luigi Galleani. In the pages of his magazine, Cronaca Sovversiva, Galleani advocated what he called The Propaganda of the Deed, which called for the violent annihilation of all government institutions through a relentless program of bombings and assassinations. Although the magazine never had more than 5,000 subscribers, it was considered the most influential anarchist periodical in America, while Justice Department insiders had labeled Galleani himself, who lived in Barre, Vermont, the country’s most dangerous anarchist.

Buda began attending local Galleanisti meetings where, sometime around 1916, he also met a fish peddler named Bartolomeo Vanzetti. He would later cite Sacco and Vanzetti as two of his best friends in the world.

The image of the swarthy, bomb-tossing anarchist in a long dark coat and low-slung hat solidly entered the American popular consciousness in 1919 (see below), but anarchist bombings across the country were not that uncommon prior to 1919, and in fact can be traced back to at least the Haymarket Square bombing of 1886. Still, there’s something so simple, even comforting and Romantic, in attributing all these incidents to a single figure, a lone super villain with a taste for black powder. Apart from a few scattered basic facts, precious little is known about Buda. He gave no speeches, left no writings, never married, played things very close to the chest, yet still seemed to be everywhere in the country at once. Over the past century this mysterious little man with the big nose has become as prime a candidate as anyone for supervillain status.

So this is where the speculation begins, most of it based on hindsight which itself is based on speculation.

On New Years Day, 1916, a security guard at the Massachusetts State house discovered a wicker suitcase packed with dynamite in the building’s basement, but was able to dispose of it before it went off. The following day another bomb planted in nearby Woburn was a bit more successful, detonating inside a factory belonging to The New England Manufacturing Company. No one was hurt, but the building suffered extensive damage. Was Buda involved in either incident? It’s unknown, and in fact it’s fairly unlikely, but in recent years armchair radical historians have been including them as possible early examples of Buda’s handiwork.

Seven months later on July 22nd, as America began prepping to dive into World War I, cities across the country staged what were called Preparedness Day parades to express public support for the military. Radical and labor groups assailed the idea, not only because they saw it merely as a cheap excuse for large businesses to angle their way into fat government contracts, but also because part of what was termed preparedness was the institution of a new military draft which would mostly, if not exclusively, affect the working class.

The parade in San Francisco, which attracted an estimated 50,000 marchers, was thrown into chaos when a suitcase packed with dynamite and left on the sidewalk exploded. Ten people were killed, and another forty were sent to the hospital with serious injuries. Suspicion immediately focused on socialists, labor groups, subversives and other radicals. The local chamber of commerce and business leaders, happy to cooperate with the police, compiled a list of known labor agitators who’d been involved in recent strikes. They passed the list over to the cops, who started rounding up Reds. In the end Warren Billings and Tom Mooney, both of them low-level labor activists, were charged with the bombing. Both men had solid alibis, both had been out of town that day, but thanks to the testimony of one well-coached prosecution witness, Billings got life, and Mooney was sentenced to death.

In the uproar that followed, Billings and Mooney became poster boys, early martyrs for the labor movement, but, twenty years later, received full pardons. That still left the question, who built and planted the crude bomb? Assuming it was the work of anarchists and not German saboteurs, every notable anarchist in the country—beginning with Emma Goldman—fell under suspicion, with the smart money leaning toward Boda. There exists no evidence linking him to the explosion, but there was no evidence linking anyone to the explosion, so whose to say it wasn’t a Buda job? The case remains unsolved to this day.

Later in 1916—and this we do know—Buda was arrested at a Boston anti-militarism protest that turned violent. At his hearing, like so many anarchists at the time, he refused to take the oath on a Bible, and was sentenced to five months in jail for contempt. Upon his release in early 1917, and hoping to avoid that newly-instituted draft, he reconnected with Sacco and Vanzetti and the trio spirited away to join a growing collective of Italian anarchists living in Monterey, Mexico.

There, Buda worked in a laundry and—here we’re back to speculation—may have spent his free time honing his bomb-making skills. What evidence there is to support this idea came later in 1917.

On November 9th, a Milwaukee, WI-based Italian evangelical minister, fed up with these slacker anarchists giving speeches badmouthing America when the country was at war, held a loyalty rally in front of the city’s anarchist headquarters. A fight broke out, the police were called, and in the end two anarchists were shot and killed. In retaliation, a group of ten anarchists, Buda among them, left Mexico and returned to the States with a mission. On the night of November 23rd, they left a bag containing a bomb in the basement of the offending evangelical church. Before it detonated, however, it was discovered by a janitor, who brought it to the local police station.

That’s where it exploded, killing nine cops and one civilian. Although several anarchists, including Buda, were rounded up and questioned, there was no solid evidence against any of them, and they were all released. No charges were ever filed. Today the Milwaukee blast is generally accepted without question as a Buda operation.

Buda, who upon his return from Mexico adopted the pseudonym Mike Boda, moved back to Massachusetts in early 1918. His precise whereabouts and doings over the course of the next two years remain foggy, though a few people think they know what he might’ve been up to.

On the afternoon of April 29th, 1919, a small package wrapped in brown paper arrived in the mail at the home of Georgia senator Thomas W. Hardwick. Hardwick wasn’t home, so his housekeeper brought the box inside and, together with Hardwick’s wife, set about opening it at the kitchen table.

The package turned out to be a novelty sampler from Gimbel’s. Or so the box claimed, anyway. When the housekeeper tore open the flap marked “OPEN,” she unwittingly released a spring that allowed a small vial of acid to spill on three blasting caps, which detonated the stick of dynamite packed in the wooden box. The explosion blew off the housekeeper’s hands and left Hardwick’s wife badly burned and lacerated.

That same day, an identical package arrived at the home of Rayme Weston Finch, a Bureau of Investigation agent with the Justice Department. One of Finch’s staffers took the initiative and opened the curious package, but ignoring the clearly-marked instructions, opened it from the wrong end. The acid vial merely tumbled out onto the table, and the bomb didn’t detonate.

After these two incidents, law enforcement departments, the post office and the media all began posting nationwide warnings about any similar packages. Even before word started to spread, a sharp-eyed postal clerk in New York had already set aside over a dozen identical packages for lack of postage. A total of thirty-six bombs had been mailed around the end of April, apparently in the hope they would be received and opened on May Day. Scanning the list of those politicians, judges, law enforcement officials, wealthy businessmen and newspaper editors who’d been targeted—including J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Attorney general A. Mitchell Palmer—gave investigators a reasonably clear insight into the motivations of the Mad Bomber.

In a paranoid frenzy following the Bolshevik Revolution, city, state, and federal governments passed a series of sweeping anti-immigrant and anti-sedition laws, making it all but illegal to be an outspoken socialist, communist or anarchist, especially if you also happened to be Italian. All those people slated to receive mail bombs had either supported or enforced the legislation. Fisk, for instance, lead a raid on the offices of Cronaca Sovversiva in 1918, arresting three Galleanisti. Hardwick, meanwhile, had sponsored legislation aimed at crushing the labor movement and driving Left-leaning immigrants (mostly Italians) out of the country.

Two thoughts at this point. First, if Boda built the bombs in question, and if it was his idea to disguise an exploding box as a “Gimbel’s Novelty Sampler,” then he clearly had a much wackier sense of humor than most people realize. And second, again if Boda was responsible for the bombs used in the April campaign, they represented a marked leap forward in design. The earlier bombs attributed to him had been crude devices, just bundles of dynamite with primitive timing mechanisms, while these mail bombs were sophisticated and intricate. So who knows? Maybe he really had honed his skills during those months in Mexico.

On June 2nd, as federal investigators were still trying to narrow down their list of suspects for April’s mail bombs, eight much more powerful bombs, once again targeting judges, politicians and Attorney General Palmer, were detonated simultaneously in cities across the country. Bombs went off in Pittsburgh, Washington, New York and Chicago. Along with being packed with metallic shrapnel, each of the devices also contained a leaflet which read:

War, Class war, and you were the first to wage it under the cover of the powerful institutions you call order, in the darkness of your laws. There will have to be bloodshed; we will not dodge; there will have to be murder: we will kill, because it is necessary; there will have to be destruction; we will destroy to rid the world of your tyrannical institutions.

The flyers had been signed “The American Anarchist Fighters.”

This time there were two casualties. One was a night watchman, the other the former editor of Cronaca Sovversiva, who was in the process of depositing a 25-pound bomb on Palmer’s front steps when it prematurely exploded. The bomb demolished the front of the house, but Palmer, who was at home with his family at the time, was in a back room and remained unharmed. The bomber, meanwhile, was scattered in small pieces all over the genteel Washington, D.C. neighborhood.

Combined with the flyers, when the bomber was eventually identified as a Galleanista the feds had all the evidence they needed to deport Luigi Galleani back to Italy. But that was only the beginning of Attorney General Palmer’s revenge.

Although no one was ever arrested or charged for the bombing campaign, toward the end of 1919, the Attorney General, a long-time hardliner when it came to immigration, Sedition, labor unions an radicalism, launched what came to be known as The Palmer Raids. Cops across the country (including Police Chief Stewart in Bridgwater) rounded up roughly 10,000 suspected anarchists, communists and socialists, most of them Italian. In the end over 500 were deported. Meanwhile, American intellectuals whose own political views edged into the pink found themselves subject to federal and local suspicion and persecution. While the Palmer raids only lasted a few months, the first Red Scare would linger much longer.

Sacco and Vanzetti

On the evening of May 5th, 1920, two weeks after Mike Boda slipped away from Police Chief Michael Stewart, word began to spread the cops were going to start rounding up local radicals in their as yet fruitless search for the men responsible for the Braintree and Bridgwater crimes. Members of the local Galleanisti cell, including Sacco, Vanzetti, and Boda, decided it might be wise to quickly dispose of any stray dynamite and anarchist literature anyone might have laying around their homes. It was also decided the best and most efficient way to do this would be by car. Boda had the only available car, and though it was still in the shop, it was ready to be picked up. Boda, Sacco, Vanzetti and another friend made their way to the mechanic’s house about nine, but when the mechanic and his wife made a hamfisted attempt to stall them, it became clear something was afoot. Boda correctly smelled a set-up, and told the mechanic he’d come to pick up his car the next morning instead. The four men quickly left, splitting up as they did so.

Boda went into hiding in East Boston, but on their way home on the trolley that night, Sacco and Vanzetti were picked up by a cop who considered them suspicious characters. The pistols they were carrying and all the anarchist pamphlets in their respective homes only strengthened Stewart’s belief he had two of the killers in custody.

While keeping a very low profile in Boston, Boda closely followed the growing case against his two friends in the local papers. On September 11th, 1920, Sacco and Vanzetti were officially indicted on first-degree murder charges.

Five days later, a little before noon on September 16th, as the sidewalk began to fill with the lunch hour crowds, a man drove his old horse and cart down Wall Street, coming to a stop outside the corporate headquarters of the J.P. Morgan bank, just down the street from the Stock Exchange. The man, whom nobody would later recall seeing, climbed down, tied up the horse, and strolled away, one would like to imagine with his hands in his pockets and whistling a casual tune. Nobody paid much attention to the horse and cart, a common sight around New York at the time. Besides, everyone was too focused on lunch and that afternoon’s business meetings.

At a minute after twelve, the hundred pounds of dynamite packed in the cart exploded, sending nails and 500 pounds of iron sash weights ripping into the junior executives, bank tellers, secretaries, stock brokers and office boys who filled the streets. Cars were tossed around like cheap toys, trolleys a block away were blown off the tracks and windows throughout the financial district were shattered, as a fiery mushroom cloud arose above the gaping hole where the horse and cart once sat.

The streets and sidewalks were littered with broken glass, bleeding bodies, and parts of bodies as an eerie silence fell over the area. Then the screaming began.. In the end, thirty-eight people were killed, with another 300 hospitalized.

William Flynn, director of the Bureau of Investigation, insisted on handling the case himself, ordering the immediate arrest of any known anarchists and, for good measure, the IWW’s Big Bill Haywood, who was in Chicago at the time of the bombing. Along with Haywood, eleven anarchists from the New York area were arrested, but all were soon released for lack of evidence.

Although a $100,000 reward was offered for information leading to an arrest, Flynn only had two clues to work with.

One was a handful of flyers discovered by a mailman in the minutes before the bomb went off. In prude red letters on yellow paper, the flyers read:

“Remember we will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death for all of you.”

It was signed by “American Anarchist Fighters,” the same group behind the 1919 bombings.

The other was a blacksmith from Little Italy who told police that a day before the bombing, a short, balding Sicilian came into his shop to either (depending on the telling):

1. Rent an old horse and cart.

2. Rent a horse to pull a cart,

Or 3. Have his old horse, who was already pulling a cart, fitted with new shoes.

Flynn didn’t have much to go on, and his investigation went nowhere. In retrospect, he would later insist he knew from the start his primary suspect was Mario Buda, but Buda was never brought in, never questioned, and no charges were ever filed against him.

Buda, meanwhile, still going under the name Mike Boda, slipped off to Providence, and by the end of the month was on his way back to Savignano where, despite ongoing political activity and occasional trouble with the police (including a five-year exile), he would spend the rest of his days as a quiet and serious shoemaker. He died on June 1st, 1963.

According to Buda’s nephew, in 1955 his uncle confessed to him that he had indeed built and delivered the Wall Street bomb, though it’s unclear if he confessed to any of the other bombings attributed to him. It’s also unclear if Buda, eight years before his death, clarified to his nephew whether the Wall Street bombing was done in reaction to the indictment of his friends, as a final Puck You to Attorney General Palmer—or, hell, merely as a kick in the balls to the whole damn capitalist system. We’ll likely never know. To this day, the shrapnel pockmarks from the bomb can still be seen on the facades of several financial district buildings, and the case remains open.

Buda was, without question, a shadowy and slippery character. Over the years he’s taken on the aura of a Dr. Mabuse or Professor Moriarity. And who knows? Maybe he really was a mad anarchist genius. After all, no clues were ever left behind at the scenes of the bombings attributed to him, so there’s no saying he wasn’t responsible for all of them and more. Maybe he really was that good. I’d like to believe so.

by Jim Knipfel

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telltalebatman · 4 years

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oc facts: charlie

no one tagged me i just love her a lot

PLACE IN SOCIETY

✖ FINANCIAL – wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty

like all of my oc/canon girls, charlie is filthy rich - and all of it came from her parents, a politician/university professor and a med school lecturer/a highly respected surgeon. some of those money her parents got from their families; but the point is - charlie never had to worry about money. (until she met her soon-to-be husband who robbed her blind.) charlie has no problems with sharing her wealth with those in need - she frequently donates to various fundraising campaigns.

✖ MEDICAL – fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged

she’s bit of a couch potato, and a bit clumsy too; she certainly wouldn’t run in a marathon, and finds herself out of breath after a short, intense jog - but it’s nothing too severe. what she lacks in shape, she makes up with agility - she practices yoga, which renders her a tad more agile than an average person. she still can’t do a lot of things though.

✖ CLASS OR CASTE – upper / lower / middle / working / unsure

charlie is, whether she likes it or not, a member of the social elite. her father spent two terms as a mayor of metropolis when she was a kid, and is an active politician, and a college professor. her mother is a globally renowned as a surgeon and comes from european nobility. charlie grew up with children of ceos, leaders, celebrities - and even after the untimely demise of her parents at the hands of her husband and moving to metropolis, she still finds herself amount the elite, quickly befriending bruce wayne himself, as well as getting cautious attention of the maroni crime family, one of gotham’s assistant district attorneys and thomas elliot - one of gotham’s golden boys, a highly esteemed surgeon and her mother’s pet student. and whether all of this is good... that is a different matter entirely.

✖ EDUCATION – qualified / unqualified / studying

charlie has a master’s degree in english literature - nothing more, and nothing less.

FAMILY

✖ MARITAL STATUS – married, happily / married, unhappily / engaged / partnered / divorced / widow or widower / separated / single / it’s complicated

she’s a widow - because she killed her husband. it was an ugly mess of a situation - he killed her parents, stole her fortune (in the canon verse - in various aus this changes, depending on what I have in mind) and ran away, prompting her to go on a wild goose chase across the globe, culminating in her finally tracking him down and stabbing him to death with an ice pick. one thing she hadn’t expected though was ending up in a long-term, happy, loving relationship with oz: gotham’s prodigal son, a failed revolutionary and a loyal friend to his (at times unwilling) loved ones.

✖ CHILDREN – has children / no children / wants children / adopted children

the idea of motherhood is kinda scary to her - she’s not opposed to being a cool aunt to someone else’s kid though. (in chasing echoes oswald is eventually going to pull jason todd to his side, and charlie’s gonna develop a fun, unexpectedly satisfying relationship with bruce’s troubled ex-errand boy.)

✖ FAMILY – close with sibling / not close with siblings / has no siblings / siblings are deceased / it’s complicated

✖ AFFILIATION – orphaned / adopted / disowned / raised by both parents / it’s complicated

even though charlie - painfully aware of her own personal mediocrity - sometimes felt like she doesn’t quite fit in with her social, accomplished parents - they still made a happy family. for various reasons, her relationship with her mother - eleanor - was always just a bit strained and tense; but it was still, above everything else, loving.

TRAITS & TENDENCIES

✖ disorganized / organised / in between

if left to her own devices, charlie’s going to inevitably scatter her belongings everywhere, forget about doing the dishes and start getting late to things. due to unfortunate depression - time simply flows differently for her.

✖ close-minded / open-minded / in between

charlie is very open-minded, thanks to her father being an outspoken leftist - perhaps even a bit too open-minded. after the split-second of initial confusion, she’d be willing to accept everything - even a violent “revolution”. even an unjust revenge. some may call it open-mindedness; others - naivete.

✖ cautious / reckless / in between

in general, she’s rather cautious - mostly thanks to overwhelming depression and anxiety that make her doubt her every move.

✖ patient / impatient / in between

most of the time, she’s patient - but then come those times when she’s waiting for oz to hurry up and pay attention to her. then, suddenly, she’s the most impatient, almost nagging person you’ve ever met. it has a lot of charm though, because she’s well-aware of being a pain in the ass.

✖ outspoken / reserved / in between

this is something her parents taught her - have your opinion, but know a time and place for it. don’t reveal too much to people you don’t trust, or to people you want to see gone. after all, her mother did come from a noble family, and her father did have a political career. even if he kept challenging his rivals to fistfights.

✖ leader / follower / in between

charlie has absolutely NO desire to lead, or to be in the spotlight - and to be honest... she kind of doesn’t understand people who do. it’s just too responsible, too difficult, too stressful.

✖ sympathetic / unsympathetic / in between

charlie has a lot of sympathy for other people - and that’s why her short-lived marriage with a con artist struggling to pay off his debt to the mafia was so tragic: she would’ve helped him if he asked, no questions asked.

✖ optimistic / pessimistic / in between

though she might appear to be an optimistic ray of sunshine - she’s actually very, very pessimistic. she actually did go through her fair share of feeling deeply let down by people in her life; so she tends to look at every relationship - and every possible scenario - without a glimmer of hope.

✖ hardworking / lazy / in between

you know how i said she inherited a fortune from her parents?

yeah.

(to be fair, she did work hard for her degree, so it’s not like she doesn’t know how to put effort into things. she simply never really had to put that effort into anything, thanks to her financial stability.)

✖ cultured / uncultured / in between

despite appearing as a ditzy socialite only interested in fashion and gossip - charlie is actually very cultured. she knows quite a lot about many topics, from french cuisine to religious traditions of indigenous cultures; her parents made sure she knows as much about the world as possible.

the problem is - she’s painfully disinterested in most of those topics, instead pretending to stick to things she’s actually into: fashion, games, literature.

✖ loyal / disloyal / in between

all it takes to earn her loyalty is to give her affection and attention; and she’ll be yours forever. she’s also not above being loyal to two people whose causes clash; she can be loyal to her lover, who wishes to kill harvey dent - but also to her friend, who wants to see dent flourish.

✖ faithful / unfaithful / in between

she’s faithful, she’s monogamous, she’s not afraid to wrap herself around her partner in public to make sure everyone sees how much in a relationship they are with each other.

(she might sometimes fantasize about doing the deed with someone other than her partner though. like fish mooney, because have you SEEN fish mooney? charlie had.)

SEXUALITY & ROMANTIC INCLINATION

✖ SEXUALITY – heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual / omnisexual / demisexual

charlie is bi, without any actual preference for her partner’s gender. fate (me, it was me, it wasn’t fate) caused her to mostly end up getting intimate with guys - but her first partner was a girl, she’s very into fish mooney and selina kyle and she did once have a massive crush on lex luthor’s sister.

✖ SEX – sex repulsed / sex neutral /sex favorable

charlie LOVES sex - but only with the right person. she’s definitely not against talking about it with people she’s only platonically involved with, and has nothing against having others go at it in appropriate semi-public spaces, assuming it doesn’t go too far.

but yeah. she likes sex. it makes her feel good, plain and simple - and she likes the sense of connection between her and her partner, as well as feeling comfortably vulnerable and excited.

✖ ROMANCE – romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable

charlie really craves romance. she wants - needs - to both feel the butterflies in her stomach, and to be a source of someone else’s butterflies. she craves the casual intimacy, tender words, affectionate gestures... it’s all like water to her: an absolute necessity.

✖ SEXUALLY – sexually adventurous / sex experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious / uninterested

while she’s not actually very experienced - she has a lot of fantasies and ideas she’d love to try out one day. she’s also not averse to toys and porn; even if she tends to not watch a lot of porn, for various reasons.

(such as: various fundamental problems rooted in modern-day porn industry, like incessant violence, name-calling and really bad camera work.)

ABILITIES

✖ COMBAT SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

to be honest, she only knows Woman’s Self Defense 101: the heel-stomp, the deadly elbow, the nails.

oh, and she also knows how to stab people. and oz taught her to shoot.

✖ LITERACY SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

she has a master’s degree in english literature.

except we all know this doesn’t mean SHIT, since there are people with actual degrees claiming kylo ren is queer and femme coded out there, so: she’s actually damn good at reading and understanding things and picking up subtexts and nuanced aspects. her father was a college professor, remember? he was a good teacher, and she was a good student.

✖ ARTISTIC SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

she has, and i can’t emphasize this enough, negative artistic skills, both verbal and visual.

(”but she has a master’s degr-” have you ever read anyone’s master’s thesis? because i did.)

this is one of the core roots of her depressive thoughts also.

✖ TECHNICAL SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

give this girl a piece of paper and tell her to fold it in half and moments later the paper’s gonna be torn and on fire and she’s gonna be having a depressive meltdown.

she is... not very good at using her hands to make things happen. this is actually one of those few things her parents did wrong; they kind of overlooked this part of their kid’s development, and as a result - charlie is a clumsy mess.

and, by the gods, don’t give her a hammer. unless you really hate all of your kitchenware, that is.

#4.txt #charlie

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gavillain · 6 years

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So with the year about to close, I’m once again doing my annual Top Ten Villains of This Year list. My personal rule for doing this: these characters are judged solely on the merits of their 2018 appearances, and I’m not going to include any villain who has appeared on last year’s list (which you can read here), even if they would still make the cut. Also bear in mind that this is only from media that I actually saw/read/played this year, so forgive me if your favorite isn’t here because I might not have seen them. New December movies in particular slipped through my fingers.

List under the cut

10. Lotor (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

Ever since Lotor first debuted, he's never been villainous enough for me. He's been positioned in villainous roles, but he never really did anything all that bad or evil. Season six, however, sees the true depth of his evil finally get revealed. His obsession with his Altean heritage and loathing of his Galra side is interesting from a psychological perspective, and his actions as the seemingly benevolent but truly vicious leader of the Altean refugees really highlight how truly sinister this guy was. He has quite a lot of blood on his hands all done to fuel his thirst for power. The final battle with him in the quintessence field was pretty cool too. I love seeing normally refined and restrained villains just totally lose it and go balls to the wall psycho and that's exactly what we got. We really finally got to see Lotor for who he was beneath all of the false masks he showed to Team Voltron and the audience, and, for that, I definitely consider him one of the year's best.

9. Barbara Kean (Gotham)

Gotham every year always has a great villain to highlight, and while I assume most Gotham fans are coming out of this year talking about the Valeska brother, I think Barbara Kean really showed her stuff this year. Barbara's had an interesting journey on the show, going from a bland love interest to a psycho ex-girlfriend to a Fish Mooney esque crime boss to this season becoming the heir of Ra's al Ghul himself. This year we saw Barbara Kean inherit Ra's al Ghul's mantel as the Demon's Head and assuming control over the League of Assassins. She proceeded to immediately put the sexist men in their place and established a lethal team of female assassins to serve her. It's fun to see Barbara taking on a new mantel and even being instrumental in taking down the original Ra's al Ghul when his schemes go too far. Her ultimately taking charge as the leader of the Gotham Sirens and declaring her turf a violently men-free-zone is a fun touch that I look forward to seeing get followed up in season five.

8. Magica DeSpell (DuckTales)

When I first heard that the DuckTales reboot was building up Magica DeSpell as some serious business Big Bad, I was definitely among those scratching my head. Magica had always just been a reoccurring funny villain with wacky hijinks rather than anyone who acted as a true Knight of Cerebus. However, 2017 DuckTales pulled it off and did so WONDERFULLY. Magica is not only a big serious villain and threat; she also maintains her same charismatic and funny personality. You see her manipulating Lena to giving up her body and unleashing ultimate darkness whilst still cracking jokes and going after Scrooge's number one dime. It's hard to balance genuine serious villainy with comedy, and it's a balancing act that the Disney villains of the 90s had down pat. And that's exactly what Magica feels like: a harkening back to that golden breed of Disney villains, and I hope to see her continue on in season two.

7. The Sanderson Sisters (Hocus Pocus: The All New Sequel)

This was the twenty-fifth anniversary of Hocus Pocus, and, to celebrate, Disney released a sequel novel that included both a novelization of the original film and an all new story set years later. The Sanderson Sisters are iconic and hilarious villains who have long been among my all time faves, so seeing them return in book form was a rare treat. This time, the Sandersons are scheming to bring all of the witches back from Hell to take over the world, and it's pretty scary reading Winnie's evil literally sending innocent people to Hell to exchange for evil witches. Mary also gets a solo musical number about her relationship with Winnie that's a lot of fun and sheds a new light on her character. It's operating at about the same level as A Twisted Tale in terms of quality so it's not hitting anything out of the ballpark, but seeing the Sandersons get treated to new content coinciding with their twenty-fifth anniversary is really fun and is worth their inclusion for sure.

6. Killmonger and Klaue (Black Panther)

The biggest movie of the year also gave us two of the very BEST villains of the year in the form of Killmonger and Klaue. Klaue, as portrayed by Andy Serkis, is naturally fun as a sinister and charismatic thief and arms dealer, filling sort of the "funny villain" quotient for the film. He's enjoyable and a treat to watch every time he's on screen. He's an evil white man who is raping African of its natural resources out of his sense of greed and entitlement. Killmonger compliments that nicely by being one of the deepest and most thought provoking character in the entire MCU. Killmonger is fun because not only is he sadistic and someone who enjoys bloodshed, he's also driven by righteous anger over the way that Wakanda has turned its back on black people globally. He has a desire to turn all of that around and remake the world. He may be cold and ruthless, but you can also see where he's coming from and that makes him all the more effective.

5. Salem (RWBY)

Salem, since her debut, has been a generic evily evil who eviled for some evil evil and never really had any texture at all besides being a vague evil. All of that changed this season of RWBY. We now know Salem and Ozpin's backstory. I was enthralled and mystified the entire time during their backstory. The animation, the story telling, everything was top notch. Salem is a woman who was cursed by immortality that hardened her into someone bitter and angry. She lost the man she loved once through death and then after his reincarnation, she lost him through his own fear of what she had become. She really feels like the type of character who is a tragic figure of myth at this point, and I loved how her motivation seems to stem from a bitterness at the gods and a desire to end the world that they created. Very fun for an arch-villain.

4. Red Goblin (The Amazing Spider-Man)

Dan Slott's decade long run as head writer of the Amazing Spider-Man came to an end earlier this year with a grand finale to end all grand finales: Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, rediscovers Spider-Man's secret identity and bonds with the Carnage symbiote to form the Red Goblin. Now, on some level, I find that whole concept to be very fanwanky, but, on the other, it's REALLY fucking cool. Yeah, Spider-Man writers have a tendency to continuously try to tell the next great Norman Osborn story, and, while this doesn't really rank in my top five, it's a worthy effort. I appreciate how it shows off how vicious and relentless Norman is. Him just fire bombing random people on the street to get under Peter's skin in particular is one of those great twisted moments. I also liked seeing Norman corrupt his grandson Normie Osborn with the symbiote and getting a grandpa's little monster serving him. It's got that fun "he's an assassin and a hostage rolled into one effect. And, of course, the Red Goblin left a permanent mark on Spider-Man history by being the villain who murdered Flash Thompson, long time friend and ally of Peter.

3. Obake (Big Hero 6)

The Big Hero 6 TV show has been a slam dunk for Disney television. Bringing in the same creative minds behind Kim Possible, the show has a great "loving parody of he superhero genre" feel to it whilst still being an epic hero show in its own right, and six heroes are only as good as their villain. Voiced by Andrew Scott of Jim Moriarty fame, Obake is an evil genius mastermind who's always in control of a situation and always crafting diabolical and brilliant schemes. Obake is in many respects a dark image of what Hiro could become: a man who refuses to limit his brilliance by morals or familial ties. His brain has outright been damaged to where his conscience doesn't check him and this brain damage IS slowly killing him, but he accepts it as a reasonable price for his perspective free of morality. But in the end, his schemes were all that he had, and when he's defeated, he has no reason to live and effectively commits suicide after letting Baymax go. There's a really great tragedy to the way he ends up. And, on top of that, he's just a really interesting and charismatic villain with fun quirks, fun minions, and engaging schemes. Easily one of the very best villains to come out of Disney television. 2. Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man PS4)

One of the really smart features of Insomniac's Spider-Man game is that Octavius is actually not Doctor Octopus at all for the first half of the game. Octavius is Peter's friend and boss, and the two of them are working together on cybernetic appendages for prosthetic limbs that respond to the brain waves just like regular limbs. Octavius has a degenerative brain diseases that is causing him to slowly lose control of his motor functions. As such, when he thinks he has the solution, he's overly hasty to use it even though the cerebral interface has a dangerous impact on his personality and moods. It causes him to act upon his worth impulses, particularly his resentment and anger towards Norman Osborn. This turns him into the Doctor Octopus who we all know, much to Peter's sadness. Peter ends up struggling a lot in this game over whether Octavius is worth saving, and it tears him apart when they reach their climax. No spoilers, but it's POWERFUL writing and acting. I particularly like how this version of the characters takes a little from every single iteration of the character without ever feeling unfresh. He has that personal connection and tragic element of the Raimi Ock, he has the intelligent master criminal side of the comics version, he has a design that echoes the sort of "I may be an overweight nerd but I can still kick your ass" appeal of the Spectacular Spider-Man version, and yet they still find his own unique sweet spot of characterizations that perfectly blends with the Insomniac Spider-Man world. I particularly enjoy his use of the Sinister Six and how he gets them all under his control by using his intelligence to give them each what they want so that they're all in debt, but they all genuinely seem to enjoy and admire him. That's an excellent retelling of the Sinister Six that's far more interesting than just "We all hate Spider-Man so let's team up to fight him."

1. Venom (Venom)

This was honestly the biggest and weirdest surprise of the year for me. See, the whole idea of a Venom solo movie is a uniformly bad idea from basically the word "Go." Oh yes, let's do a movie about a villain whose entire character revolves around being a dark version of Spider-Man in a movie that completely omits Spider-Man so that the villain can be the protagonist. That won't backfire at all. Well, of course, it totally backfired into a complete mess, but it happened to create a mess that was entertaining and enjoyable and had an absolutely wonderful and fun take on the Venom character. This film leans hard into the romantic side of Eddie and the Venom symbiote's bond and sort of formats itself as a gay alien romcom. Eddie is a journalist who wants to be a hero through his reporting, but he pursues it at the expense of every meaningful relationship he has. Venom is the runt of his alien litter who on Earth suddenly finds himself as the big fish in a small pond, and he likes it that way. In Venom, Brock finds a relationship that allows him to indulge his savior complex that won't be destroyed by it, and in Brock, Venom finds someone who allows him to indulge his power trip and sense of narcissism. They complete one another. Yes, it's stupid. Yes, it's cheesy. No, it's NOT the Venom we know at all. But, yes, it's a fun and effective route to take the character in the absence of Spider-Man. The thing is that the reason why it's so fun is pretty much all Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy has a weird awful accent, but he also gives this weirdly camp performance that's just captivating and fun. It actually reminds me a bit of Jack Sparrow in a way in that it's so out there, you can't help but he enamored. The Venom symbiote has fun banter and chemistry with Hardy, and the humor is on point. You've got Venom eating gangsters as people around him under-react, and he just shrugs it off with a one-liner. It's that type of thing, and, honestly, I love it. Like when the movie is Tom Hardy and Venom being goofy murder bros together, it's fun and engaging. Eddie himself is definitely more hero than villain, but Venom absolutely counts as far as I’m concerned, even if he is restrained by Eddie’s moral code by the end of it. It's exactly the type of ridiculous villain protagonist fantasy that it needed to be, and even though Venom isn't the main antagonist of his story, he's still easily my favorite villain of 2018... I have no idea what that says about me XD

Also I have all three of Spider-Man's big archenemies on this list in the reverse order that I usually like them XD That's fun lol

#Top Ten Villains of 2018 #Venom #Otto Octavius #Obake #Red Goblin #Salem #Erik Killmonger #Ulysses Klaue #Sanderson Sisters #Magica DeSpell #Barbara Kean #Lotor

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kathemy · 7 years

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[Nygmob/Batcat] One flame a day keeps the doctor away!

I rarely get flamed on tumblr. I’m unclear why this is so. Maybe my blog is inoffensive. Maybe nobody reads it. Maybe most people just know better.

Today one or more people who clearly did not know better wrote to me. I realize that writing a long, detailed and reasoned answer to four supremely idiotic private messages may come across as pretentious, but I don’t really care. Frankly, they were a godsend, because that allows me to discuss the degeneration of the fandom by example.

Suffice to say the people who wrote to me are those hard at work perverting the fandom down the Road to Hell - a small piece I wrote nearly two years ago to tell people why the Gotham fandom was basically... you know, healthy. That, and how I’d like it to stay that way. Actually, it’s still pretty healthy - the gay bashers, the identitarians and the anal comic book fanatics taken as a whole only make up a fraction of the fanbase.

What is funny, however, is how some of these insults actually make a good topic for discussion. That’s what prompts this post; it’s not a mere counterflame.

So, let’s get down to it.

Like just say you don't like Black People and go [...] gross and transparent, feel free to choke you rancid bitch [...] why don't you tell people the real reason you don't like tabitha you vapid idiot.

Now, this is... how to put it... “how to be an identitarian asshole”?

In fact: this type of “gag order” even forbids you to address harmful stereotypes of these people on television! This would require me to defend Andrei Chikatilo for being a poor Soviet worker because I’m a Communist, or you to defend Margaret Thatcher for being a woman because you’re a Feminist.

Unfortunately, in this rotten postmodern world with fake leftists pissing all over the concept of working class solidarity, this is what people do. If you don’t like Barack Obama bombing the shit out of third world peasants you’re a racist. If you don’t like Hillary Clinton effectively destroying Libya you hate women. It doesn’t matter that both are Imperialist scum.

Please note that my examples were carefully chosen. I could’ve brought up Valerie Solanas - though, let’s face it, the vermin I’m responding to probably likes Valerie Solanas - but it’s far easier to find a Black or a woman than a man from a proletarian background in the position as a world leader... which should tell you were the chief contradiction in society really lies. But, that’s a different story.

Let’s move on...

You ugly fucking roach. You have so much to say about tabitha, but Nothing to say about all the other villains. Not to mention you called her a "thug" [...] how are you going to talk shit about tabitha when you stan and ship 2 murders. [...] both penguin and riddler are fucking evil but you coddle them. [...] riddler is worse than her, he kills for chaos at least when someone dies at her hand it's for a reason!

Wow, that sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Evil Kathemy discriminating against the poor Black woman...

Too bad it isn’t true.

The thing is this: I did not even attempt to bash Tabitha in my first post. I tried to give a fair assessment of her character, as I do with all the characters on the show. I also made this assessment not merely for the sake of putting down the character; I made it to point out why Tabitha and Selina might not be a good team-up. Tabitha is not a good role model for Selina. She’s a negative one, and will probably come off as a warning example in their interaction, which should be of some concern among those who are bothered by “negative representation of people of color on television.” Selina went to Tabitha in search of a purpose beyond survival. What purpose will Tabitha give her?

This is why I live a much happier life than most Nygmobblepot shippers.

Did you ever see me throw a tantrum at Ed for shooting Oswald? Yes, I enjoy their interactions - how could I not, Cory and Robin are fantastic - but I never lose sight of the bottom line that they are both violent, mentally unstable killers!!! Thus - I’m not surprised by their terrible behavior towards each other and people in general. I’m not saddened by it. I don’t dream up fake head canons of a happy-ever-after domesticated existence for either of them. And, I certainly never make excuses for them, as you do claiming Tabitha “kills for a reason” stabbing an old woman in the back leaving her to bleed out in the arms of her son!!!

I review Gotham for Doux Reviews. Let’s take a look at a snippet from one of those...

The man shooting Oswald at the end is a deeply conflicted Edward Nygma, but this is still Edward Nygma. The notion that he could simply forgive such a betrayal, that he wouldn't consummate his revenge, is completely alien to his character [...] Last episode, in a signature don't-try-this-at-home move, we saw Selina "breaking up" with Bruce by physically assaulting him. [...]

And, Bruce and Selina aren't anywhere near as maladjusted as Oswald and Edward. As intricate as the Riddler's schemes may be, he always chooses the nuclear option in dealing with all his personal problems. Dougherty abused Kristen? Kill him. Kristen threatened to rat him out to the police? Kill her. Jim might be onto him? Kill another colleague and pin it on him to put him in prison for murder. Oswald? He kills people for a sandwich.

Wow, I sure do coddle them, don’t I?!

I called Tabitha “an impulsive thug” because she is an impulsive thug - a violent, reckless criminal prone to making rash decisions. She’s certainly not portrayed as a methodical or calculating person. She doesn’t scheme. In fact in this respect she’s close to Selina, and that’s exactly why Selina has little to learn from her - she’s the same, only worse, only more amoral.

It’s actually true I don’t like many Black characters on Gotham - because there aren’t many Black characters on Gotham. Fish Mooney was a character that outlived her usefulness by season one and wasn’t played by a very good actress. Crispus was a non-character. Essen didn’t get much to do either. Tabitha is a bit erratically written, but she’s actually among the better of them, and I’ve enjoyed her interactions both with Butch, Theo and to a lesser extent Barbara. The only really good one is Lucius Fox, who’s more or less an antithesis of the Black stereotype.

That’s not on me. That’s on the show.

Finally:

your faves are trash and your opinion on tabitha is gutter trash, much like Selina herself. kys

Now, if I were to play your game, I’d conclude you’re a racist for calling a Latino actress “gutter trash” - but I’m not like you. I just realize you have very poor taste.

#gotham #nygmobblepot #batcat #baby batcat #tabitha galavan

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sueboohscorner · 7 years

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#Gotham S 3 Ep 20 "Pretty Hate Machine" Spoilers, Recap, and Review

Woah, this episode had a lot going on and it left us on a cliffhanger! Just to be expected before the two hour premiere of the third season finale of Gotham.

Well, I don’t want to take up the time with pleasantries, so let’s dive right into it.

Now the last thing we saw in the previous episode was Lee (Morena Baccarin) inject herself with the Tetch virus because Jervis Tetch revealed that even though he and Jim were involved in her husband’s death, it was actually all her fault, and boy, oh boy, does she put the virus to good use right away.

You know how the Tetch virus brings out the darkest part of a person? Like how it brought out Marco’s jealousy and Barnes’ need for absolute justice? Apparently, the virus brought out her sick love for Jim….as well as her desire for some heavy eye makeup. So Jim (Ben McKenzie) realizing that Lee stole the virus, he confronts her about it at her home and, well…..with the super strength that comes with the virus, a scuffle quickly occurs and Lee manages to knock out Jim.

At the GCPD, Harvey (Donal Logue) and super stressed out over Bruce, Alfred (Sean Pertwee), are quickly crossing off every marked spot on the crystal owl map. Unfortunately, the reason they’re going through them so quickly is because no matter which spot they arrive at, it’s the same thing: dead members of the Court of Owls. What in the world happened to them, you ask? Um, well…with Bruce (David Mazouz) under the Shaman’s (Raymond J. Barry) control, they’re going from location to location taking out each Court member until it’s time to detonate the weapon. Oh yeah, and it’s totally confirmed that the Shaman is the freaking LEADER!!!!!!!

In a, I guess, unconventional way, Alfred gets some stress out when the GCPD arrests Dr. Hugo Strange (B.D. Wong) and Harvey give the O.K. to get information out of him about the Court and Bruce as well as he can. Needless to say, seeing Alfred Pennyworth dangle Strange of the side of a building by just his tie was an awesome thing would witness.

Anyways, while Bullock and Alfred are in a tizzy about what to do next, Lee thinks it’s a good time to come on in and inform the GCPD that she had buried Jim in a coffin. So, it’s kind of another day in Gotham I suppose. Don’t worry; she didn’t kill Jim. She buried him alive with a CB radio and a sample of the Tetch virus for Jim to take and escape with. So now we have Alfred worried sick about Bruce, and Harvey worried sick about his partner Jim. Those poor guys. They, of course, lock up Lee and her caked on makeup in a cell.

With a little detective work, Jim figures out that the radio he and Harvey now have, has about a mile radius on them and they quickly discover the general location where he’s buried.

While searching for Jim, the time and location of the bomb are then revealed: at Union Station at twelve o’ clock, which does not give Harvey enough time to find Jim and the bomb before it goes off. Running very low on oxygen, Jim reluctantly takes the virus and breaks free of the coffin.

With the members of the Court gone, the Shaman and Bruce have only one thing left to do: detonate the bomb. Shaman gives that responsibility to Bruce because he is entirely convinced that it is his destiny to destroy Gotham and make it rise from the ashes of insanity. They are quickly stopped by Alfred who threatens to shoot the Shaman. Bruce hesitates only for a moment when he arrives. You can see the absolute torment

Alfred is going through seeing Bruce under the control of the Shaman and the whole crazy, destiny talk. Alfred begs Bruce to step out of the way and drop the detonator. The Shaman furiously steps in front of Bruce and sets off the bomb himself, Alfred shooting him in the process. In Bruce’s anguish, the Shaman has one last message for Bruce: to seek out the Demon’s Head. In a grief stricken fury, Bruce tries to attack Alfred, but then arrested by the GCPD.

Now we see Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) stress out about his lack of a freak army to Ivy (Maggie Geha) in a safe house *emphasis on safe*. He inquires Selina (Camren Bicondova) to go and find Firefly since she knows her. The Riddle (Corey Michael Smith) and Butch (Drew Powell) quickly barge in to capture Penguin and Ivy. Selina manages to get herself out of there, only to get knocked out by Tabitha (Jessica Lucas). But it turns out, when Oswald called it a safe house, he wasn’t kidding. Armored plates and lights are activated and provide a much needed escape for him and Ivy.

At the Siren’s Club, in exchange for Ivy’s safety and money, Barbara (Erin Richards), Edward, Butch and Tabitha make a deal with Selina to help them find out where Oswald is hiding. We also get a little snit between Babs and Tabs because of the whole betrayal thing with Mayor James.

Unknowingly, Ivy reveals that she and Oswald are hiding in her greenhouse. With Riddler’s posse accompanying him, they quickly hold Oz at gunpoint. Edward has full intention to shoot Penguin, but only until he calls him “The Riddler”. Scoffing at his stupid request, Oswald declines a quick death and would prefer a slow and painful one compared to calling Edward by that ridiculous title.

Sounds of people are heard outside the greenhouse. It’s strange because, we seem to have everyone involved in Oswald and Edward’s war in the same room…..until FISH MOONEY (Jada Pinkett Smith) APPEARS WITH ARMED GOONS, BITCHES!!!!!!

Needless to say, everyone, especially Oswald, is stunned to see her. Well, I guess Butch is more amused than surprised, but whatever. The only thing Fish came for was Oswald. In a surprising turn, she takes Penguin for herself and leaves everyone else in an opened mouth stupor.

Meanwhile, even with the virus in his system, Jim couldn’t make it in time to stop or turn off the bomb. Apparently Lee had escaped police custody and smacked Jim around a bit before the counter hit zero. The bomb goes off and a rush of red madness affects thousands of people, leaving so many innocent people to fall deep into insanity.

Wow, wow, wow! A lot of awesome stuff happened in this episode. A lot of things got resolved, leaving with even more questions and new problems in the episode’s wake. Even though Lee was in the episode, I still liked it.

8 out of 10 for me.

The title of the episode is “Pretty Hate Machine”, which is also the name of a Nine Inch Nails album. I have no idea of connection between the two, or even if there are any. If anyone can think of one, let me know in the comments section.

I would state now the things I liked and did not like about the episode, but I enjoyed watching the whole episode. Is every episode of Gotham or any television series a ten out of ten? Absolutely not. But nonetheless, I had a great time watching and experiencing this episode and I can’t wait for the two hour season premiere of the season finale. It’s going to be hard not seeing Gotham and waiting for the next season, but I am grateful as hell that there is going to BE a next season and I know that the season finale will leave us all emotionally scared and wanting more.

And as always, stay weird. Til next time.

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womenofcolor15 · 4 years

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EXCLUSIVE: 'All American' & 'Grown-ish' Star Da'Vinchi Is Fine, Philanthropic & Single! Here’s Everything We Learned About The Hollywood Hottie

You better put Da’Vinchi on your radar! Not only is he a sight for sore eyes, the 22-year-old is wise beyond his years. He’s been through some things, but those experiences taught him valuable lessons that he hopes to pass on to our next generation of leaders. Here’s everything we learned about the uber talented Hollywood hottie inside….

You better get familiar because Da’Vinchi is just getting started!

You may know him as hottie Cash Mooney on "Grown-ish," Darnell Hayes on "All American," his stage name Da'Vinchi, or simply as Abraham D. Juste (the name his mother gave him). Not only is he making a splash in the acting world, he’s also uber popular on TikTok (with 1 million followers and counting) and he just launched his rap career!

TheYBF.com exclusively premiered his fire debut single “Bet On You,” featuring female rapper Jus.Be and it’s a total bop. In fact, Da’Vinchi told us he collaborated with her on the track to provide a beat for the kids to dance to on TikTok. Genius!

”Let’s just put a little dance element to it, make it something positive and we just see what happens,” he told TheYBF.com in an interview.

Yep, the #BETONYOUCHALLENGE is coming soon:

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Single “Bet on You” drops this Friday ! Click link in bio to Pre-save! Feat: @jusletme.be Prod by: @zayah_jaleek Mixed by: @irkostudiobeat

A post shared by da’Vinchi (@davinchi) on Sep 1, 2020 at 3:37pm PDT

Da’Vinchi is ALL about positivity and inspiring the youth. With more music coming down the pipeline, you will not catch the Hollywood actor rapping about sex, drugs and violence. One thing we learned, Da’Vinchi is about that action when it comes to the kids.

The “Grown-ish” star revealed he adopted an all-boys charter school (grades 4th - 6th) in Washington D.C. to become a mentor in an effort to inspire the young, black, male students. However, he wasn’t exactly prepared to hear what one child told him during his first visit at the school.

”I was just there and I finally got to meet the kids last week,” he told TheYBF.com. “One of the kids said to me because of all the shooting that’s going on, ‘I wish I was white.’ I just had to pull him to the side and tell him despite all of this nonsense going on, we’re still dope as hell. We’re KINGS. Not all of us are getting shot. There’s some of us out there, we’re telling a different story. We’re fighting against it. He was really listening because he’s looking at me like ‘This black kid is on TV and I look like him.’ So, it was just amazing. I mean you can’t change the world, but if I can make a difference in some of the kids’ lives that’s all that really matters.

We’re not crying, you are! It’s heartbreaking to learn that this is how our young, black children are feeling during these times, but we’re thankful there are celebs like Da’Vinchi who take time out of their busy schedules to make an impact on our future because it's important.

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A post shared by da’Vinchi (@davinchi) on Oct 7, 2019 at 11:20am PDT

Turns out, his upbringing is why he holds children so close to his heart. Growing up in Brooklyn, he said he used to commit crimes because, well, he had no other choice. He became a juvenile delinquent after he was caught with stolen property.

”I only did the crimes because I HAD to. But, I just want them to know you can get out of that,” he explained. “So, that’s kind of what I want to be. I just want to be an inspiration to the youth. Adults – a lot of adults are already stuck in their ways, so if I can get the kids, I feel like that’s really it.”

After the sudden and tragic passing of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, Da’Vinchi really started to ponder what he wanted his legacy to be.

”I want to inspire the kids and try to shift the mindset of our future leaders,” he shared. “I feel like the world promotes a certain way of living that sometimes I don’t think is necessary to constantly bombard the youth with that because you’re programming them a certain way.”

He continued:

”It’s like the world promotes a significant amount of infidelity and wonder why you’re more likely to get divorced than stay married. I mean, look what the media does. It’s like they give us the poison and the medicine at the same time. It’s kind of like they’re pimping us in some way.”

Wise words.

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#gratitude @isybisiii

A post shared by da’Vinchi (@davinchi) on Sep 9, 2019 at 9:45am PDT

Looking at him, one would think Da’Vinchi has had a plethora of girls/women in his life, but that’s simply not the case. He's only had two girlfriends so far, but there’s a reason for that. Apparently, he had to learn some hard lessons about trusting females too quickly.

”Sometimes I’m gullible,” he revealed. “Majority of my life I spent working and taking things serious. I didn’t really dabble in having girlfriends left and right. I’ve only had two girlfriends and the first one [relationship] was like four-in-a-half years. I never really experienced [having a lot of girls], so it was this naivety that comes with that from lack of experience.”

At first, the “All American” star would open up too soon and start trusting women, thinking everyone is “cool and trust worthy” and then “you just find out they are putting on a character.”

”Sometimes I didn’t realize that some people look at me like I’m this celebrity and I forget that,” he said.

He has learned his lesson now.

”I’m not that gullible anymore, ya know. I learned my lesson quick,” he said.

So, speaking of women, we had to ask…is he single?

”Yes,” he responded.

What about a relationship? Is he open to one?

”I am if it’s the right relationship. I learned that relationships can be two things: They either make you or break you. Unfortunately, our society is not conducive to healthy relationships and I had to realize that.”

”I’m not opposed to it, but my guard’s up. It’s going to be hard as hell for someone to break these walls. I’ve learned from previous situations that were toxic – it [can] mess up your whole work flow and your life up. You catch yourself getting out of character and things like that. But, if I find something I’m not going to just close my mind off. I’m definitely going to take it slow.”

You hear that ladies? But wait! Is he only open to dating celebs or is a regular, 9 to 5 woman on his radar as well?

”Of course! But the thing is, she has to be used to this world,” he said about dating a regular woman. “I realized that a bird and fish could fall in love, but if they do, where would they be?”

Better shoot your shot (carefully) ladies!

Speaking of dating, there have been rumors swirling that his “Grown-ish” co-stars Chloe Bailey and Diggy Simmons could possibly be dating. Of course we had to ask him about it.

”Wow…umm. They said they’re dating? Whoa! Whoa! That’s not my business,” he responded. “If it’s one thing the streets taught me is to shut the hell up.”

Ha! Well, so much for tea.

Being so young in the game, once you reach 18, you start feeling like you’re grown. We wanted to know what his first “grown” purchase was. And we weren’t expecting his response.

”When I turned 18 I played the lottery [laughs]. I don’t smoke, so I didn’t buy like a cigarette or a Black ‘N Mild [cigar] or anything like that. Now with the way my life is, I feel like I’m grown every day. Life has changed. Life is so serious. Dealing with accountants, taxes, etc. It’s just a lot.”

Tell us about it.

So what’s next for the Hollywood hottie? Plenty!

”I’m working on another song right now that I’m really excited about and it has a little Spanish flavor to it. I’m up for this movie right now. I’m also writing another project and I’m working on my own docu-series about the boys that I’ve adopted.”

Sweet!

Fine, funny, philanthropic, talented and intelligent! We’re here for everything Da’Vinchi’s is serving. You should too.

Photo: GAVIN BOULWARE

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/09/04/exclusive-all-american-grownish-star-davinchi-is-fine-philanthropic-single-here%E2%80%99s-everyth

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