#however there's a context to the former and it's also 20+ years after the fact

[fideidefenswhore]

not for this to be the hill i die on or whatever but oh my god, ‘her parents were the catholic monarchs’ is not an argument. what is there to suggest her parents were any more against sin/more pious than arthur’s? catherine would later complain that during fasting periods at the tudor court, you could not receive meat to consume ‘even if you were dying [...] they look upon anyone that eats it as heretics’ , which suggests the early tudor court might have been even more rigorously catholic than her parents by comparison, at least in some respects...

[triathledan]

This photo of a record-high temperature in Death Valley represents, what I believe, is a pivotal moment in current history. The topic of climate has been in discussions for decades, with no real improvement or serious measures taken to curb the issue. As we all probably experienced, this past summer had very volatile weather, with much of southern California doused in rain. This massive amount of rainfall was quickly followed up by one of the hottest summers ever recorded on Earth. According to the National Weather Service, 7 of the 10 hottest temperatures recorded in Death Valley all occurred within the last decade. Our shifting climate is not isolated to sunny California, however, these extreme weather shifts are occurring all over the world. Hawai'i famously had a disastrous wildfire tear through the island of Maui, just last month, which has been experiencing a drought after a decrease in their annual rainfall. The fire was exacerbated by 60-mile-an-hour winds caused by a concurrent hurricane off the coasts of Hawai'i. At the time of the fire, 16 percent of the island was considered to be in a severe drought, with an additional 20 in a moderate drought. Similar decreases in rain are also being felt in rainforests around the world, with large concerns over the Amazon's dropping humidity levels. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that June also had the lowest recorded sea ice coverage ever. While the photo of high temperatures in Death Valley may seem trivial, it actually represents a worldwide problem that worsens with each year.

Last month, former president Donald Trump was processed in Fulton County Jail in Georgia complete with fingerprinting and a mugshot. This photo can hold different meanings for people across the United States, depending on what their political leanings are. Regardless, the weight of the photo remains the same. It is the first time a U.S. president has been processed for an alleged crime in a state or federal institution. Regardless of whether Trump is found guilty or not or if he wins re-election, his mugshot will forever embedded in the nation's history and in the minds of the generations experiencing the moment. Moreso, it's a relatively known idea that words do not have the same impact on the public as a photo and this mugshot has made real, so to speak, the accusations against the former president. Donald Trump's mugshot captures a historic moment, the context of which has never before occurred and the effects have yet to be seen. The photo is also significant as it is the fourth time Trump has been indicted on charges related to election fraud, but it is the first time he's been booked, a rarity for any U.S. citizen. It brings to light the fact that Trump has, thus far, been given special treatment whereas he's avoided being booked as anyone who has been accused of a crime has been. The choice to process Trump as anyone else hammers home that no one is above the law.

[hurricanewindattack]

Victor Conway in a youtube comment:

To give a little context, initially this wasn't how the Soviet Union worked before the 30s. From the time which Lenin and the Bolsheviks declared the Russian Soviet Republic and the later constitutional formation of the Soviet Union alongside Russia's neighbouring soviet republics, voting was much more indirect. It was a Soviet Union in a much more literal sense of the word.

People didn't directly vote for a candidate, instead small sectors of the population were organized into direct-democratic worker's councils (a "soviet") and each of these councils sent a delegate to form city or rural soviet, who sent delegates to a regional soviet, who would then send delegates to a republic soviet, and the republic soviet would then send delegates to create the unicameral Congress of Soviets for the whole Union. Each of these congresses passed laws for their respective areas (with the Congress of Soviets deciding laws for the entire Soviet Union), but they only convened a couple times in the year.

In the absence of the Congress, the Congress would elect a "Central Executive Committee" who (as the name indicates) would be the acting government and collectively execute the decisions of the Congress and appoint bureaus for the day-to-day administrative affairs throughout the rest of the year until the Congress met again. An important factor of this time was that communist party membership was not required to be in the government. The Communist Party actually made a point of keeping the party separate from the state to an extent, as the Soviet government was supposed to be their envisioning of a pure Dictatorship of the Proletariat ("dictatorship" in the marxist sense of the word) while the party acted as more of an external vanguardist guide. The fact that the delegates were from Worker's Councils was how the Communist Party determined that the Soviet government was genuinely proletarian and uncorrupted by bourgeois influences. 

When Stalin seized a majority of the Communist Party's support in the late 20s, he initially maintained this system. However it became more and more problematic to the soviet public and the communist party as years went by due to its very vertical, indirect structure and chaotic tendencies. Stalin participated in a special commission (using his popularity at the time to take a very heavy hand) pushing for radical reforms (including a new constitution in 1936) which culminated into the Soviet system that this video describes.

The Congress of Soviets became the Supreme Soviet and the Central Executive Committee became the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, still functioning as a collective head of state. Stalin was initially seen both internally and internationally as a democratizer. Because this new system threw away much of the old Bolshevik vanguardism and closely resembled a western parliamentary system. Individuals voted directly for their candidates on a secret ballot, the Supreme Soviet was bicameral with a "Soviet of Nationalities" giving much more proportional representation to ethnic minorities (of which Stalin himself belonged to as a Georgian) against the overwhelming Russian populace, and it was just overall much more stable than the preceding Leninist experiment.

However, the Communist Party had one big issue with it. If the soviets no longer elect the government, but instead individual voters through direct candidates, how were they to prevent careerist and opportunist politicians with capitalistic tendencies from forming within the government like in the West? How were they to keep the Soviet government, as the Party saw it, proletarian? After all, a more western system logically would give rise to a western-style political caste. To counterbalance this, the communist party also did away with its former conviction to keep the party and state separate, and made a requirement for all candidates to either be in the communist party or no party at all. This also led a massive increase in membership for the communist party, up to a million more. The theory was that the communist party itself certainly wouldn't cease being communist (a very wrong assumption as Khrushchev and Gorbachev later proved), so if they directly filter out the candidates on the basis of ideology the Soviet government would remain communist.

It's easy enough to give the communist party shit for this as just a plain and simple power-grab, but I think it's important to understand that what the Soviet communists envisioned was ultimately a partyless democracy. A proletarian society with a pure democracy uncorrupted by partisans, foreign collaborators, and political careerism. But since that wasn't quite feasible in their precarious political circumstances, they instead sought to simulate such a society within the womb of the Communist Party. Didn't quite work out that way, because the communist party itself is at the end of the day a political party too, and thus it'll behave like a political party but with a monopoly of power. So deeply interwoven with the monotony of state affairs, the Party lost its old revolutionary spirit and devolved into a bureaucratic establishment.

[ailuronymy]

Do you think a cat becoming mates with their leader (when they are already leader, not beforehand) is more likely to spurn a power imbalance in the relationship? I think it's a bit different if the cats trained together and were close/mates before one became leader, like in the case of Firestar and Sandstorm. But say they only started growing closer after the fact, and/or there's a significant age gap. Would the warrior be urged to get with someone on their "level"?

Hello there! Thank you for writing in. I’m a little confused, though--I don’t think “spurn” is the word you’re looking for? 

Anyway, this is an interesting question because the leader is the most powerful cat in the clan, politically speaking. There’s a rule in the code that even states “the leader’s word is law,” which means that ultimately what the leader says--and what the clan accepts--goes. Given that “a power imbalance” is a situation wherein one person has more power than the other, every relationship the leader has is one with a power imbalance in the leader’s favour, romantic or otherwise. 

This is true regardless of whether the cats grew up together, or trained together, or are the same age. Being friends for years before being partners doesn’t actually make any impact on the structures of power at play in the relationship. The leader is endowed with power that no other cat in the clan has, and is institutionally supported (insofar as the clan is a form of institution) in their authority. When we talk of a power imbalance in interpersonal relationships, it’s often helpful to look at the structure of where power comes from and how it can be exerted, rather than looking at the superficial factors alone. 

For instance, one person in a relationship having significantly more money than the other can be a power imbalance, not because of the money itself but because that money means that person can afford to leave the relationship. They are financially supported and able to be independent even if the relationship ends; they are not reliant--at any point--on their partner for financial support in order to get what they need to live. If both people in the relationship are financially well-off and stable, the fact one partner earns more is not often an issue. 

However, if one partner earns/has more money but their partner has very little or no money, that power imbalance can become concerning. That’s because the power falls heavily on the richer partner’s side, and the poor partner--who is reliant upon the other, or otherwise less protected by wealth--is at far greater risk of being manipulated because of that disparity. If the poor partner’s well-being and security is reliant upon keeping the moneyed partner happy, that is a dangerous power imbalance. It is also how women for much of history were disempowered and forced into marriage, and then kept in unhappy marriages. 

Age gaps are another form of power imbalance, but typically one that intersects significantly with finance. If you’re older, you’re more likely to have saved money, to have ongoing work or hereditary wealth, to have a bigger network of professional influence, and overall be more stable--e.g., might have equity in a house, or significant savings. Likewise, you will also have valuable life experience. If you’re younger, you are far less likely to have any of these things. Which means as the younger person (and specifically a young person) in a partnership with an older person, the dynamic is more likely to be more similar to the above financial example of disparity, rather than that of equals. 

That’s why a 20-year-old dating a 30-year-old is often concerning, but a 30-year-old dating a 40-year-old is nothing, even though those are the same age gap. In the former example, someone very newly in their twenties is starting out as an adult with limited life experience and maturity (and probably little to speak of as far as professional development and finances), whereas thirty years old is a full-grown adult with a decade more of experience. In the latter example, that same age gap isn’t really noteworthy, because as you get older, those years become far more homogenous in terms of your development. 

The reason I’m saying all this is because:

1. nearly every relationship is a power imbalance in some way, because relationships are complex; 2. a power imbalance is not necessarily dangerous, because power is complex and it can change form and relevance in different contexts; 3. power doesn’t come from nowhere--it is constructed, and it’s important to recognise what a power imbalance actually is, rather than assuming by rote that power always looks the same in every context.

To bring it back to Warriors, the leader is a figure of unparalleled power in their clan. The next closest, arguably, is the medicine cat, but even then, the medicine cat’s power and authority is expressed differently and hinges on the approval and support of the leader in many instances. So it’s just not possible for the leader to have an equal relationship with another cat, in terms of power. 

However, there are so many other factors that also impact relationships and that should be considered when thinking about power. The leader’s mother or mentor, for example, might have social influence over the leader, because of the dynamic of their relationship. A loud, popular senior warrior who vocally disagrees with the leader’s decisions and has many fans and supporters in the clan exerts political pressure on the leader. The medicine cat, particularly an older and wiser one, who acts as an advisor might not have power over a young or inexperienced or insecure leader, but will likely have significant influence. 

I haven’t really answered your specific questions because I think it’s something you’re better off thinking through yourself and figuring out what’s right for you. As I said in this recent reply, how your clans think about and have relationships is something only you can determine, so I can’t really shine any insight into that beyond what I’ve already done. Hopefully what I’ve said here is useful to you! 

[eretzyisrael]

An extinguished, precious life remembered in Melbourne

Twenty years ago we started the endless process of adjusting to life without our delightful first-born daughter Malka Chana - Malki to her friends - stolen from us before she reached her sixteenth birthday.

Our copy of the Melbourne Herald-Sun's front page report on August 11, 2001 isdamaged. We are trying to acquire a repairedimage.

It wasn't an illness or a tragic accident that removed Malki from the warm embrace of those who loved her. It was a gang of ideology-crazed thugs led by a chillingly satanic Jordanian woman, armed with a powerful explosive package disguised as a human being, an Arab man in his twenties, and egged on by millions of backers.

Those millions still exert a deeply painful influence on our lives.

We scan the Arabic social media six days a week. This week on the day of the twentieth anniversary we saw - though we didn't need it - plenty of evidence of how utterly different the world in which they live their lives is from ours in this generations-long war of terror.

It's a war that Arabs launched against against Jews in Palestine long before the name Palestine was appropriated by the Arab side. And decades before the State of Israel announced its existence as new-born state on the 1948 day the British Mandate ended and six Arab armies invaded.

A random selection of some deeply hostile and ugly anniversary messages appearing on Twitter (minus the links - we have interest in giving these people any traffic or attention):

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of Operation Sbarro carried out by the martyr Izz Al-Din Al-Masri in Jaffa Street in occupied Jerusalem with the help of the liberated captive Ahlam Al-Tamimi in retaliation for the martyrdom of the two leaders Gamal Selim and Jamal Mansour [Arabic]

..A martyrdom operation in the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem which led to the deaths of 20 Zionists and the wounding of 100 [Arabic]

We do not want to forget the liberated captive, Ahlam Al-Tamimi, who carried the attacker of the Sbarro restaurant, Izz Al-Din Al-Masri, to the restaurant after which she was arrested by the occupation army [Arabic]

Prepare it for them in the manner of the people of Aqaba and serve it [pizza] hot and delicious. Al-Masri [the name of the human bomb], go through here. Occupied Jerusalem August 9, 2001 [Arabic]

Proud of our representative from the family in the heroic operation. The liberated captive, Ahlam Al-Tamimi, who transported the martyr Izz Al-Din Al-Masri and handed him a guitar stuffed with maddening death [Arabic - posted by a male with the surname Tamimi]

...Al-Masri was killed on the responsibility of the Jews and their responsibility is extensive [Arabic]

If her parents hadn’t chosen to become foreign invaders she’d probably be alive now

My argument is with the creation of an apartheid theocratic state created by the West (mostly by the US and Britain) in Palestine largely so Jews wouldn't immigrate to the US. I'm a Jew not an Israeli Zionist. She should never have been put in this position by her dad.

We saw no Arabic messages condemning or criticizing Tamimi or the massacre. They might exist and we're just not seeing them, but the truth is we have been looking for years and not finding.

Malki, like her father, was born in Australia. The current edition of the Australian Jewish News, a weekly community-focused newspaper, ran this editorial on Thursday. It's reprinted with the permission of its editor, Zeddy Lawrence.

‘A precious life extinguished’

"THE Australian Jewish community was in mourning this week," reported The AJN 20 years ago, on Friday, August 17, 2001. "The death of 15-year-old Malki Roth in the Sbarro bombing catapulted Israel's crisis into personal grief for much of this community."

Fifteen innocent people were killed in the terrorist attack just a few days earlier, when a guitar case packed with nails was detonated at the central Jerusalem pizza restaurant. Among the victims were seven people aged between just two and 16. Scores of other diners were wounded.

Reflecting on the death of his daughter at the time, Arnold Roth told The AJN, "This was the extinguishing of a precious life."

Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, who masterminded the attack and drove the bomber to the restaurant, was apprehended by Israel soon afterwards and sentenced to 16 life terms in an Israeli jail. But in 2011, she was one of more than 1000 Palestinian prisoners freed in exchange for the release of Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage in Gaza for five years.

Since that time, Tamimi has lived in Jordan, feted as a celebrity, and expressing her joy at the high death toll the Sbarro bombing inflicted.

Determined to bring her back to justice, Arnold and his American-born wife Frimet have long called for her to be extradited to the US, as Malki and another victim held American citizenship.

A warrant was issued, but insisting the extradition treaty between the countries was never ratified, Jordan has never acted on it.

The latest evidence, however, appears to show that the treaty was indeed signed.

With that in mind, as the community marks 20 years since Malki's death, the Roths are hoping their sustained campaign may bear fruit.

Pressure is mounting within Washington for the US to withhold foreign assistance from Jordan, and they're urging the Australian government – who they claim have been reticent to speak out – to also take a stand.

Twenty years on, we share their hope that the authorities, both here and Stateside, will take action, so that the unrepentant, bragging terrorist who has Malki's blood on her hands will soon be back behind bars, where she belongs.

The same AJN edition carried this article by senior journalist Peter Kohn:

Still seeking justice for Malki Roth

ON the 20th of Av this year (July 29), Arnold and Frimet Roth visited the Israeli grave of Malki Roth and recited Kaddish. It was their daughter’s yahrzeit – 20 years after the Australian-born teenager was murdered in a Palestinian terrorist attack at a Jerusalem pizzeria, along with 15 others, including seven children.

“Life was heavy,” Malki’s father told The AJN this week, reflecting on the yahrzeit. “You’re missing somebody desperately and feel awful about the fact that she’s not part of your life.”

But this Monday, August 9, the secular anniversary of Malki’s killing, Roth was back on Zoom and on the phone continuing his relentless campaign to see Ahlam Tamimi, the mastermind of the attack, extradited from Jordan to the US. “The ninth of August … that’s all about justice,” he stated.

Tamimi had picked out the Sbarro pizzeria targeted by her and another bomber on August 9, 2001, her accomplice dying in the attack. Tamimi left the scene disguised as a tourist, later professing her glee as the ever-rising death toll was reported.

Although sentenced in Israel to 16 consecutive life terms, she was exchanged in a 2011 prisoner swap to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity. She continues to be feted as a media celebrity in Jordan, and, according to Roth, she recently added a regular newspaper column to her stint as a Jordanian TV show host.

In the US, she faces charges relating to the death of two American citizens – Malki, who held dual citizenship, being one of them – and an extradition request was issued in 2017.

But four years on, Roth is still battling three governments to get Tamimi extradited.

For years, the US had maintained its hands were tied because Jordan had not ratified its extradition treaty, a position stated by a Jordanian court in 2017. However, in 2019, Roth learned from an American official that Jordan had indeed ratified the treaty as far back as 1995.

Last year, under US freedom-of-information laws, he even received an archived letter from Jordan’s former monarch King Hussein to the US State Department confirming that fact. He is hopeful this legal development will provide a much needed stepping stone.

Desperate for the Australian government to weigh in, Roth’s entreaties to Malcolm Turnbull when he was PM did not bear fruit. Approaches to Prime Minister Scott Morrison last year were referred to Foreign Minister Marise Payne, whose office cited constitutional problems in Jordan with extraditing its nationals, an assertion Roth rejects because oddly “it goes beyond what the Jordanians say”.

In Israel meanwhile, Roth says his fight to have Tamimi extradited to the US has been “betrayed by a chain of Netanyahu governments and, so far at least, by the new government. Of course, Israel could do something. But Israel has no charges against this woman. Israel has washed its hands of the case.”

Roth’s growing perception is that justice for Malki has become expendable to higher policy priorities in Jerusalem, Washington and Canberra.

“There’s a lot of group-think going on – among Israelis, among Americans, among media people,” he said, describing Tamimi as “the most wanted female fugitive alive today”.

The Roths maintain their ties to the families of other victims of the Sbarro bombing, particularly to a victim who remains “in a vegetative state”, he said.

Arnold remains honorary chair of the Malki Foundation, established in his daughter’s memory to support children with disabilities. Malki had been a caring, loving companion to her severely disabled younger sister and others with special needs.

“A 15-year-old girl who had a legacy – it’s unbelievable, but she did,” exclaimed Roth. “She was so good, so empathetic, so involved in making the world better for children with special needs.”

This blog isn't a memorial to our daughter. That function belongs to the website of the Malki Foundation (www.kerenmalki.org). We hope you will visit it.

In the context of terrorism and the worldwide efforts to defeat it, we write here at the site you are now visiting about our efforts to bring Malki's killers to justice - in particular Ahlam Tamimi. the Jordanian orchestrator of the massacre at Sbarro twenty years ago.

Tamimi, now 41 years old and a celebrity in the Arab world, lives free and famous in her homeland despite being the world's most woman female fugitive with a $5M reward issued by the US State Department for her capture and conviction.

One valuable way to give us your support is to sign our petition at change.org/ExtraditeTamimi

[stonecoldhedwig]

I’m still in a WhatsApp group with all the people I used to work with at my hot trash job. Today has truly been a day to be grateful.

I was a digital strategist in the third sector before I gave up my job to write full time. My Big Boomer boss hired someone to replace me who *can’t use Microsoft Word*.

It’s a rollout day for one of their new programmes. Big deal. Generally brings in a lot of money from important donors. I think I spent more time teaching my replacement how to do this than anything else because I had digital programme launches down to an art.

The Boomersaurus Rex hired to replace me has fucked up the delivery strategy so the programme launch has come from her personal account, is going to everyone’s junk inbox, and has thus far been sent out nine consecutive times. The WhatsApp group is a-flurry with messages about how everything has gone wrong.

I got a text this morning from the Boomersaurus that simply said “I cannot send?”. Send what.

This is obviously amusing for me, but it highlights something about the third sector that pisses me off. It never, ever uses the skills, knowledge and diverse experiences of younger people that could genuinely make a difference.

The international third sector is generally no longer about sending neatly-turned-out white kids “overseas” to find themselves and occasionally build schools. Thank God. Despite popular conceptions, it’s not full of altruistic angels looking to change the world, either; it’s instead full of people who—for the most part—do want to do good but are also flawed and desperately human.

There is, however, a major stumbling block to genuine progress all the same, and it’s exactly the people you’d expect it to be: white boomer men.

I’m the youngest year of the millennial generation. Most of my friends are involved in either public sector or third sector work. Most of us are paid like shit, and work for boomers who don’t know TikTok from Twitter. My best friend works for an organisation that defends journalistic freedom around the world, and her (male) boss is incredibly proud of being a second-wave feminist who once read Simone de Beauvoir, and likes to chime in with suitably outdated opinions on gender with typical White Man enthusiasm. Great. Only, it’s 2020 and we’re now on fourth-wave feminism. How can his organisation defend the journalistic freedom of trans, enby, gender fluid people when his mindset is firmly rooted in the 1970s?

My former boss used ethnic slurs about various peoples from the part of the Middle East we worked in. We provided healthcare. Imagine the impact it has on a population when the person who heads up your healthcare provider is a racist. (I obviously reported this to the chairman before I left, and it was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me in terms of having to resign. In good conscience, I couldn’t stay). That doesn’t even touch on his deep and rich misogyny.

These are obviously much more extreme examples than simply not knowing how to use Word. But the fucking up Word is important. It highlights the fact that the third sector is steeped in capitalism—the kind of capitalism that values longevity more than anything else. The boomer who was hired after me? She was hired because she’d been in the sector for a long time and my Big Boomer boss respected that. It’s capitalism in action: how much production can we squeeze out of you until you expire? It is quantity over quality every time because that’s what late stage capitalism does.

There’s a really simple remedy to this: bring in young people. More than that, bring in a diverse range of young people. Young people of colour, young people with a range of gender identities and sexualities, religions and heritages. Organisations don’t need these young people to have degrees in digital marketing or seven hundred years experience of sending Tweets. We’re the fucking internet generation. Choose the quality of a more meaningful, more nuanced CV than a boomer with 20 years in the same role who, sure, has lasted long, but doesn’t really have much to show for it.

When charities or third sector organisations contact you asking for support (and let’s face it, that’s predominantly financial), ask them the age breakdown of their staff. Ask them their hierarchical structure within their offices. Ask them the demographics of their staff, and ask them how they’re pursuing a more diverse and representative workforce.

Part of believing in radical economic restructuring for me is knowing that the need for charity constitutes a moral failing on our part, collectively. Our economic structures should (and can!!) be reformed so that charity is a thing of the past. Part of the work of moving to a regenerative economy that removes the need for charity is by using charities as a proving ground. What this means is holding “the best of us” to account. It means ensuring that the most vulnerable of society are served by people who look like them, and who are committed to a society that includes them. The best charities ultimately want to be redundant.

So, just as you do for politicians, hold the third sector to account. It’s uncomfortable. No one wants to be the dick that questions the lovely people at a charity. But no third sector organisation is immune to its context, and the damaging attitudes and prevailing cultural norms that we see in the rest of life exists there too. Radical economics demands this of us.

[ihatetaxes99]

A Brief Retrospective Look At MVA (In The Anime)

Well. Here we are. Every end of the time is another begun. After what has felt like years of anticipation (mostly because it actually has been years), My Villain Academia has been fully animated. Well, "fully" may be the wrong word here, but that's something I'll get into later.

To honour the end of the arc, I decided to do two things: One, I re-read the entirety of the arc in the manga all in one sitting; Two, I rewatched all five episodes of the anime's adaptation back to back once again. My life is pain and I know not of sleep. Anyway, the reason I did this is because of a little project I proposed to myself back just before the first episode aired; Once MVA was done and dusted, I would go back and give my own retrospective on the whole thing. Because why the hell not, sounds like fun. This will also hopefully be less emotional than my thoughts I shared as the episodes were still airing, but who knows?

So, let's begin. And I wish to start by stating that My Villain Academia is my absolute favourite arc in the manga. It did a lot of things right. It focused entirely on my favourite faction, the villains. It offers a glimpse into their lives and goes a long way in humanising them, particularly Spinner and Shigaraki. It sets up key points for others too, such as Mr. Compress' habit of thinking more about the bigger picture than the others, which would factor into his major reveal during the Paranormal Liberation War and of course the formation of the Front itself. It introduced us to Rikiya Yotsubashi, one of my favourite characters in the manga, even if he honestly peaked in this arc and was never as good again. And it gave us a large-scale, grueling fight for supremacy in which I found myself actively rooting for the League. It is, in my mind, the very best of BNHA, the only arc I would want them to do well in the anime. They could screw up literally everything else and I would be happy if MVA was even just as good as the manga, it didn't even need to be better. I would have been delighted to have an excuse to experience the arc all over again, seeing my favourite moments with the sublime soundtrack and voice acting.

Yeah… 

But before I get to that, let us take a little trip of sorts down memory lane to see the road to MVA, what led to it. So, 2021 rolls around. What a fun year. It's just 2020 without the excitement of everything being so uncertain, and frankly it's been really fucking boring as a year. However, BNHA Season Five was announced. In February, we get the first trailer for the upcoming season. It's... It's fine. Obviously, it focuses heavily on the Joint Training Arc (in fact, that is all it shows) and although I despise that arc with a passion, it's not too bad. I had not watched the anime since Overhaul ended, so my plan was I just wouldn't watch JTA and would wait until the big attraction, MVA. And so, Joint Training starts. And it goes on. And on. And on. I checked back almost two months later to discover it still wasn't over yet. Now I found this odd. Joint Training Arc was horrible for many reasons, but the big one was that it dragged on for so long as a result of Horikoshi's health complications, which is by no means his fault. But, surely the anime, which would consistently release on a weekly basis, wouldn't have the issues associated with this. Episodes of BNHA have always encompassed around three to five chapters, and Joint Training's were shorter than usual, so why was it taking more than ten episodes to adapt it? 

Very strange, but I didn't question it much. Then, the key visuals released, confirming that MVA was at the very least happening. Great, wonderful. I love it. We've got the whole gang there, seeming like they're in Deika, looks pretty good.

Wait, did I say whole gang? Yeah, my bad, there was someone missing. Spinner. Now, I am not the biggest Spinner fan so I wasn't prepared to riot over his exclusion like I would have been if Compress wasn't in it. But this was starting to get strange. Spinner was the main narrator of MVA. Even if his importance was not on the level of Shigaraki, Twice and Toga, it was certainly more than Dabi and Compress, who did both appear in the art. Why was he excluded? Obviously, I bet you're all having a good old chuckle to yourselves right now because in retrospect, this makes perfect sense now.

Alright, then. I heard from a friend around June time that Joint Training was finally over. Awesome, great, time for the good stuff- why is there a Christmas episode here?

Yes, this was probably what really started to get the alarm bells in my mind going. The Christmas episode- in June. Very, very strange. Also, absolutely no mention of Rikiya, which even if they were reshuffling things, I would have expected him to appear in the episode of Bakugo and Todoroki getting their licenses, since it directly ties in. Concern levels rising, I shrugged it off and waited for next week.

Bam. Major reshuffling. Now, Endeavour Agency comes first, fuck you if you want context for who the hell the PLF are or the significance of Destro's memoirs. This was really starting to worry me now. I told myself that the key visual meant that MVA had to be happening, but it was starting to seem like the villains were being shafted. A fact not helped by the new OP.

Look, I'm sorry. I don't mean to complain or whine, but season five's second OP is just bad. The music is fine, I have no problem there. But the visuals are just awful. Not only is there an extended focus on that stupid bloody trio of Midoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki, not only is there more screentime given to characters who don't appear in MVA or EA than the main cast of the former, but the animation itself is just so stiff and lacking. It had potential, but the visuals are the worst out of any recent anime opening I've seen in a good few years and this was what got me really panicking.

Boom, a beach episode smack in the middle of Endeavour Agency to promote the upcoming movie. Boom, adapting two chapters per episode during EA. Boom, the Shirakumo episode, which I always thought was part of the War Arc and not EA. But finally, mercifully, the title leaks came and it was revealed that episode 20 of season five would be the start of MVA.

20. Out of 25. And it was pretty obvious that they weren't going to end the season with MVA, so really, up to 24. Ohhh no…

But hey, I'm an optimist sometimes. I was excited to just finally be clear of all this nonsense and get to the real good stuff. Hell, in preparation, I watched the entirety of the season up to that point. I finally realised why JTA took so long and it's one of the most depressing things I've ever learned, in a bad way. Were all those flashbacks really necessary? EA was okay, as someone who as a manga reader, already had the necessary context for the PLF stuff. The beach episode, I watched half of, got too bored and skipped the rest of. And you know what, I liked the Shirakumo chapters. They weren't as good in the anime, but it was nice to see.

And then, finally, in comes episode one of My Villain Academia, on a cold, dark August morning. I even bought Crunchyroll Premium to watch it as soon as possible, I was excited. All the messing around, all the crap, it was finally over and the time had come to enjoy what this season was really all about.

I can now safely say why Bones kept pushing back MVA, because if I was them, I would be embarrassed to show this.

No, that's not fair. I promised I wouldn't get too snarky, so let's reek things back in. As a whole, MVA has been… fine. Just fine. Not good enough to justify the bullshit, but not horrendous (mostly.) In fact, right now, I'll give a ranking of the episodes, my worst to best:

5) Episode One 

4) Episode Two

3) Episode Three

2) Episode Five

1) Episode Four

Yeah. So, there's a clear pattern here, that things more or less got better as time went on. From just straight up bad, to still not great, to alright, to the final two episodes being what I would comfortably call good. This is not a good look. I'm sorry, but Episode One, an episode that I just called bad, is still one of the season's best in spite of that. That spells out awful things for this season as a whole. But what exactly made this such a disaster?

Well, cut content is the big thing. MVA in the anime cuts out:

The League's battle with the CRC

Their struggle with poverty

The sushi joke setup

All of Spinner's character

All of Rikiya's character, including most mentions of Detnerat and Miyashita

Fairly integral pieces of Skeptic's character

Most of Giran's integrity and bravery

This doesn't look too bad at first. It could be far worse. We got basically everything else from the arc, so what? Well, I would already be annoyed about all of these cuts, but the issue is that they cause a knock on effect. Without the establishment of the League's poverty, the payoff of Toga's duffle coat now makes no sense. Without the setup of Spinner's characterisation, his battle with Hanabata now feels hollow. Rikiya's surrender to the League now makes even less sense, as his love of human life and desire to cause no more death is completely non-existent. The first time Rikiya being a CEO is mentioned is in the closing minutes of the arc. The sushi scene is hamfisted into a two second flashback just so that the payoff makes some sort of sense, but again, it is hollow without it being at the start (this is also the first mention of the League's poverty and it literally happens just as they are freed from it.) Can you see how these little seemingly unimportant cuts spiral into bigger problems? I would have been pissed even if they hadn't caused some tremendous cascades, but the fact that they did just makes this from a subjective issue to an objective one.

Yes. They did some things well. Toga's backstory is mostly intact, SMP is just as satisfying as the manga, Tenko's backstory is one of the best things the anime has ever done, the awakening is very well done, I adore the PLF formation as much as I did in the manga. Everything important is intact, but as I keep saying, you cannot just keep the bare minimum and expect it to work. How about in the next arc, they decide to cut everything involving Bakugo out, and only keep him jumping in front of Midoriya because it's the only absolutely necessary thing he does in the arc? People would be pissed, and it's the same thing that's happening here. It's a problem, it's not just a bad adaptation, it leads to bad storytelling in general.

The animation. Now, I do not believe this is a be all, end all. BNHA's anime is never going to look as gorgeous as Horikoshi's art, that is a fact and I do not begrudge them for that. They have a week to draw hundreds upon hundreds of frames, it's not a process that lends itself well to good looks and the animators and artists do their best with what they have. This does not change the fact that it is extremely hit or miss. Some things, Tenko's backstory in particular, look fantastic. Other things, mostly every action scene, make me laugh at how bad they can look and some things, particularly Twice and Re-Destro's hideous designs in the anime, make me cringe. The lighting is also an issue. Garaki's lab looked fantastic, but every other scene is just boring mid-afternoon with dull, basic lighting. I don't expect huge detail, but sometimes, it fails to achieve competency and as an extremely popular show, I don't think that's okay. I don't blame the animators, I blame the higher ups. And while I wouldn't mind the poor animation and art in an MVA that at least has all the story content, this does not have that and so I am even harsher than I would have been.

MVA was rushed. That's not up for debate. It took forever to get to it and once it came, things moved so quickly that they gave me whiplash, with no time to think or lament. Now, this could be attributed to the story structure of the arc, which is essentially a series of big fights, and it just isn't as bad in the manga because I can stop at any time to catch my breath. But I think it's worth noting that the anime at least highlights these issues. Curious dies in the same episode where she first appears, really driving home how pointless she was in the end. Episode Two alone tries to cover everything from the journey to Deika up until Jin finding Toga's body. That's a lot of content to fit in one twenty minute period and it was bound to feel messy in the end. I will say that, much like everything aside from the animation, this did get better as time went on, with episodes three, four and five adapting more reasonable amounts of content, compared to one giving us almost nothing and two giving us too much.

At the end of the day, that was it. The show's over. MVA has been closed in the anime. It will never be given a chance to improve, to go from just fine to anything even close to the manga. Why did this happen? I don't think we'll ever truly know. Some blame the new movie, others the studio's lack of faith in the villains, and there are those who say that it's just how fate turned out. I personally think it's a combination of all of these things. Without the movie, that beach episode wouldn't exist, giving more time to MVA, without the studio's hesitation, we'd perhaps get stuff like an actual good OP and perhaps some more general hype for it (I mean, MVA didn't even get a trailer.) Whatever the reason is, we got what we got. My verdict is something that's very overplayed as of late, but seriously, just read the manga with the fantastic soundtrack playing in the background. The anime's adaptation of MVA is not worth the time investment, when you could read the manga in roughly the same length of time and get more content, a more coherent plot and beautiful artwork.

So, what may come next for Season Six? I don't know. Season Five has definitely been one of the most unpopular seasons in the anime, with a lot of people speaking out against it, but this mostly seems to come from the Western fanbase, so it's up in the air if Bones will learn from their mistakes. Since they'll have a full season to do presumably the War and Rouge Deku arcs, then I feel like they'll put on a better show. But we just don't know. Spinner had his spotlight stolen this time around, will Compress suffer the same fate in Season Six? Dabi and Toga will probably be handled well, since they have inexplicably high amounts of popularity, but with his own lack of recognition rivalling Spinner's, I can see Sako ending up much the same way. Time will tell, I suppose.

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression, radio version - Ep 57, Nov 2016 - Bob Dylan awarded Nobel Prize,    Headlines taken out of context.

Kaoru starts by saying that at the time of broadcast the band should have just finished a live show in Hong Kong the previous day, but at the time of recording, they were still in rehearsals. Kaoru had been in rehearsal up until coming to the studio to record this show, and he was a bit tired. Joe says that when Kaoru arrived at the studio today, he looked utterly exhausted. After meeting up, they had a bit of time before they were due to start recording the show, so they had to just hang out for a while outside, despite him already being wiped out.

Kaoru's first news is about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the many voices that had been raised as to whether song lyrics count as literature/whether they warrant winning a Nobel Prize. Joe really wants to hear Kaoru's opinion about this, him being a musician. Kaoru says it feels as if they are trying to change up the awarding of prizes a bit. He doesn't think Dylan was chosen for only this reason, but part of it was probably a reflection of changing times. Joe comments the science prizes are being awarded to wider and wider scopes each time, but the literature prize has always tended to be given to novels. In this era of evolving media, Joe wonders whether we are near the era where even influential tweets will be awarded prizes. He continues to say the Dylan definitely makes it as one of the top three influential musicians of the twentieth century, and awarding the prize to him opens up a lot of doors for the future of the award. Kaoru agrees with this, but also says that he understands the feelings of people who want to protect the Nobel Literature prize. He repeats that he does see this news as a reflection of the changing times. The prize is changing, rather than the artists.

Joe comments on the fact the there was some doubt as to whether Dylan would turn up to the award ceremony. In order to collect the prize money of nearly $1million, attendence to the ceremony in required, and a speech must be made. He also mentions that it would be quite Dylan-esque to miss the ceremony as a kind of rebellion against authority. Kaoru agrees with this, but also kind of hopes he does turn up. It would be interesting to see what Dylan had to say in his speech. Joe says that Dylan has recieved a number of prestigious awards in the past, so he is not exactly averse to award ceremonies really. He wonders whether Dylan might be embarresed about having to dress up for the Nobel ceremony.

They welcome Hiranabe next for the first time in a while, who is in the process of checking a new Line message during his introduction. After deciding not to talk about Niigata women for his topic, he brings up news that former Fuji TV announcer Hasegawa Yutaka (an aquaintance of Hiranabe's) has been under fire for making extreme statements on his blog, including the statement that all hospital patients on artificial dialysis should be left to die. Hiranabe thinks he didn't really mean to say this, rather he was trying to raise the issue of the cost to the state of treating illnesses that can never be cured but which also require huge financial costs. However, he took his point too far. Hiranabe admits that Tokyo Sports have been serialising his posts, and he may have made such extreme statements as a way to get sensational headlines in Tokyo Sports, therefore more attention on his blog. Hiranabe feels some small responsibility in the matter, for publishing said headlines. Kaoru still feels that Hasegawa took his ideas too far.  Hiranabe says that after knowing Hasegawa in person, he is actually a very tuned in, alert person. He had put considerable thought into how to attract more attention. But he is also senstive, and has stuggled mentally with the backlash. Hiranabe wants him to revcover, not by forgetting about what he said, but by reflecting on it, and changing his behavior.

Joe brings up one time when Gotch/Gotō Masafumi of Asain Kung-fu Generation did an interview for Rolling Stone. During the interview, he made a brief comment criticizing PM Abe, but as a whole was not overly critical. However, this one critical comment was picked up and spread online, prompting harsh accusations of Gotō 'insulting our Prime Minister!'. Joe says that according to researchers, small chunks of text are much more likely to go viral, and only about 20-30% of people actually read the original longer sources where such headlines are picked from, leading to the the original meaning of statements to become obscured by sensational headlines. Kaoru thinks that people these days aren't interested in the details of news, they only want the headlines. Joe says that for writers or public speakers it has become kind of scary knowing that individual statements can be be blown up and taken out of context so easily. They won't be able to say anything before long. He does still  think that Hasegawa's statement is in itself problematic, but putting that aside, he wants people to put more effort into reading news in full, instead of just the headlines.

Hiranabe then makes the comparison of looking at an image of a woman online and thinking she is nice, without really thinking about her emotion, earnestness, womanly stengths etc. Hiranabe is a fan of the Furumachi district in Niigata, which he says is still stuck in the Tanaka Kakuei era of Japan, but does also retain some of the old style clubs. The women who work there have such qualities as described above. He sees them as 'analog humans', not just after money. When Hiranabe talked about seeing photos of women online and being taken in by first impressions, Kaoru thought his story could have gone in an entirely different direction!

To finish, Kaoru plugs his upcomIng tours, and says that during the Kisou rehearsals, he rediscovered some songs he hasn't played for 15 or so years, which he thinks are really cool.  He then quickly mentions the Instagram campaign before ending the show.

Songs - Dir en grey/Zomboid, Raintime/Beat It, Dir en grey/Utafumi.

To radio top page

[beneaththetangles]

Review: The Stranger by the Shore (Movie)

Good Morning, Good Evening, Good Afternoon! Josh here! You know, I’ve been an anime fan for a little over 20 years now, and over the course of those 20+ years, I’ve watched shows or movies where I’ve said to myself, “I really don’t think I’m the target demographic for this one.” When I heard the premise of The Stranger by the Shore, I originally thought, “Meh, this just looks like one for specific fans of this genre. Probably not for me.” But this past Sunday, I saw Twitter go crazy over this movie, heaping prodigious praise for this rather short film, so I figured “Meh, why not? I need to watch something to wash the tastes of Girlfriend, Girlfriend out of my mouth” and checked it out.

Three viewings later, and I can honestly say that I was, in fact, exactly in the target audience for this one. Why? Because it’s about love. And after watching the farce of Girlfriend, Girlfriend, I kinda needed to be reminded what pure, genuine love looks like, and how this particular kind of love has many challenges both internal and external.

So what makes this movie so good? Let’s get into it. I’m Josh, the Cajun Samurai, and this is my review of The Stranger by the Shore...and interestingly enough, this is my very first review of an LGBTQ+ anime!

Okay guys, time to be a bit serious here. I know, it’s weird coming from me, but don’t worry, it won’t last long. I am duty-bound to let you guys know that this movie is rated “TV-14” on Funimation’s website, and honestly, were I in charge of the rating scale, I would probably rate it a little more mature as it does feature talk about sex and features characters engaging in intimacy. While nothing is seen, much is implied. If you decide to watch this film, but are put off by this sort of thing, it starts at 47:00, and ends at 49:30 if you’re streaming on Funimation’s website. Okay, end of disclaimer. Let’s get into it.

The Stranger By The Shore is based off a manga series by Kanna Kii. It begins with Shun, a writer living in Hokkaido with his aunt after running away from home. Why would he run away? Simple. Shun is gay and would not enter into an arranged marriage with his childhood friend. His parents were naturally upset over this revelation (How dare you not marry the bride we picked out for you?! And how dare you have other preferences for who you love?!) and so Shun hot-footed out of there to his aunt’s house to work on his book.

One night, Shun sees a young man making like Otis Redding and sitting on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll away. Shun’s aunt explains that the boy, named Mio, is now an orphan after having recently lost his mother (his father died earlier). Shun decides that he wants to try and befriend the boy, but Mio is having none of it, misinterpreting Shun’s advances as pity over the loss of his mother. However, this misunderstanding is quickly cleared up and Mio apologizes, saying that he was actually glad and didn’t mind if Shun was trying to flirt with him. After a day of unsuccessful fishing and a delightful dinner of curry, Mio reveals that he’s being sent to an orphanage on the mainland of Japan, and would only be able to communicate with Shun by phone once he arrives. Shun is pretty down about this.

Time passes and Shun’s cousin is moving out to live with her girlfriend, leaving an open spot at the house. Who could possibly fill it? Why, it’s Mio of course. Our boy is now 20 years old and is able to make his own decisions in life, including but not limited to love. Mio is fully ready to start up a relationship with Shun, not caring what society thinks, but Shun, having been on the receiving end of rumors and teasing about his sexuality, tries to get Mio to think twice about his decision, not wanting him to be ostracized as he was. This results in a couple awkward moments where Mio really wants to take their “relationship” to the next level, but Shun dragging his feet, just barely able to say “I love you” to Mio.

Oh, and if that weren’t enough, later on, Shun’s former fiancé, Sakuraku, comes to the village with some news: His father is gravely ill and wants to see his son before he punches his ticket on the Midnight Train to Georgia. Naturally, Shun is not too excited to see the parents who shunned him, nor is he excited to see the woman who he was once engaged to (albeit through an arrangement). Mio meanwhile is showing some signs of jealousy and a little insecurity at this new arrival. Is this new girl going to take Shun away from him? Will Shun actually go back to the girl that he left at the alter? Find out next time on DragonBall Z!

So yeah guys, I really and truly like this one. As I mentioned, I’ve watched it three times so far since it came out. The first time I watched it on my own just to see what all the commotion was about. Then I watched it a second time to take screencaps and offer up Twitter commentary as I typically do, and the third time…well…it was because the movie is just that freaking good.

It’s awesome just viewing a romance play out over time and watching two people deal with their respective issues to find one another. That’s part of what drew me to shows like Toradora, Kare Kano, Yuri on Ice, Wotakoi: Love is Hard for an Otaku, and Horimiya. Watching a romance from the very beginning and see it work itself through to its inevitable conclusion is beautiful, and that’s what you get with this one.

I also love the fact that this just isn’t a typical high school romance story. Yes, I know how ironic that sounds after the last sentence where I praised a bunch of high school based shows, but still… sometimes you just want a story with two mature adults instead of two crazy kids who are probably operating more on hormones than true love…even though there are times when Mio, young lad that he is, REALLY wants to make his relationship with Shun more physical, bless his heart.

Another thing that I really loved about this story are the differences in how Shun and Mio see the world with regard to their sexuality. While Shun sees their relationship through a somewhat wary lens, and doesn’t want Mio to be hurt like he was, Mio is much more of a free spirit, not allowing anyone or anything deny him from what he really wants. Part of me feels like the differences between these two are because of the times they grew up in. Shun is older than Mio, and no doubt grew up in a time where being LGBTQ+ was something to be scorned, mocked and bullied for. Mio, being a more modern and in some ways a more mature young man, understands what he’s in for and yet has no problem with it because he knows he loves Shun and in his mind, that’s all that matters.

One other thing that I find refreshing with this movie is that it doesn’t have any complex or mystical story lines. While I enjoy movies like Weathering With You and Your Name, sometimes those movies can just be too complex for their own good, adding mystical elements to a story that can at times clouds the waters. In fact, there are two moments where the characters seemingly pass out at different times during the movie after highly stressful situations, and I couldn’t help but think, “Okay, here comes the magical mystical stuff…these two are the reincarnation of some long lost, Feudal Era star crossed lovers that are bound by fate by the red string of something-or-other and they have to find the mystical key of the twilight or something…” But to my great surprise, these dorks were just TIRED. No magical journey, no mission they have to accomplish, just…tired. That is surprising. The Stranger by the Shore pretty much makes the characters the standout elements. These guys don’t have mystical powers, there’s no legend they have to figure out in order to save the world, there’s no time travel or dimension portals… it’s just a love story like any other.

Speaking of things that aren’t a big deal… I feel the need to address the elephant in the room. Yes, the intimate scene between Shun and Mio. Honestly… it’s a non-issue, as it should be. It’s two characters that are of age sharing an intimate moment with each other and they just so happen to be two males. It happens in loads of different anime and it’s not a big deal. Honestly, I found the way the moment was executed to be very realistic, gentle and tastefully done. If you avoid BL anime entirely, (and no judgement whatsoever–it’s not for everyone; watch whatever makes you happy) I suggest you check out our recent articles examining yuri and yaoi anime and see if those give you some food for thought, and maybe make you more likely to try out The Stranger by the Shore. Yup, I’m a true southern gentlemen–offering up Food for Thought. You always offer food to your company, thought or otherwise. Now go and get your grub on.

If I could find any faults with this movie, it’s probably that it’s too short and doesn’t give the characters enough developmental time. There’s just so much more I wanted to know about these adorable dorks: What was Shun’s life before the arranged marriage? How did he end up becoming a writer? What was Mio’s father like? How was Mio’s time in the orphanage? At just under an hour including credits, it feels like this movie could’ve explored so much more and expanded this beautiful world it created. This movie does a great job giving us endearing and lovable characters, but not enough time to fall even deeper in love with them.

Also, as a somewhat unrelated complaint, Funimation, please do the streaming anime community a favor. Please, please, PLEASE fix your video player! It’s just a mess! Sometimes the volume bar would be stuck on the screen long after I adjusted it, thereby ruining any screen captures I wanted to get. Also, please add closed captioning to the English dub video. It’s really a drag that the hearing impaired can’t enjoy the writing in the dub like everyone else, and it also sucks when bloggers like myself don’t have the text at the bottom of screen captures for context of a particular scene. You are partially owned by Sony Pictures… you can do better than this! But, I digress…

Speaking of Funimation, this movie was dubbed and released by Funimation Entertainment with director David Wald in the director’s chair. Honestly this was quite a shock to me as I would’ve expected Sentai Filmworks to put out a title like this, as they have never been shy to license and dub anime with LGBTQ+ themes. Yes, Funimation has put out a few here and there, the most famous being Yuri on Ice, but in my eyes, Sentai has always been THAT company to go to for movies and anime series like this. In fact, Hi Dive, Sentai’s streaming service, has an entire section devoted exclusively to LGBTQ+ anime and movies. Funimation? Not so much. But I digress.

Director Wald does an amazing job with this production, getting outstanding performances out of Josh Grelle (Shun) and Justin Briner (Mio). These two are just AMAZING in their roles, and captured these characters perfectly. Just try not to think about that when watching the English dub of Dr. Stone, as these two guys also play the bodyguard brothers Kinro and Ginro respectively. Speaking of Dr. Stone, listen closely and you’ll hear Senku Ishigami (Aaron Dismuke) as one of Shun’s classmates in a flashback.

So where does that leave us? Simple. This movie ranks a prodigious 9/10 for me. A must see. The Stranger by the Shore features a story that’s simple yet beautiful, adorably awkward and engaging characters, and acting that is just top notch in the English dub. The only thing that you may find a problem with is that there isn’t more of it. By the time the ending credits roll, you’ll want more of this one. Trust me.

Yes, I know that the story of two guys starting a romantic relationship might not be in everyone’s wheelhouse and the intimate moments might be something that gives you pause, but honestly, wherever you fall in the sexual identity debate or however you feel about it on a religious level, I can’t stress enough that you owe it to yourself to give this movie a chance. Because, at the end of the day, A has much to say about love and acceptance, things we ALL know a thing or two about and long for—gay, straight or otherwise.

=====

The Stranger by the Shore can be streamed through Funimation.

[tomorrowusa]

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo cuts through the bullshit.

The US should have left Afghanistan no more than 18 months after the initial invasion. Instead we’ve been there for 238 months and did not basically change things in the 220 month difference.

It probably made most sense to leave Afghanistan in 2002 or 2003. The Taliban were roundly unpopular by the time the US military and mostly its local allies had driven them off. A critical, critical decision was made in late 2002 both to remain in Afghanistan but move it to the backburner as we launched on to our folly in Iraq.

All the histrionics by pundits and the hypocritical criticism by Trump Republicans won’t change the fact that Biden made the only possible reality-based decision. You’ll never hear the expression “reality-based” used in connection with Donald Trump.

To the extent there’s a political strategy for the President, it’s to stick to his guns. It would be a grave political mistake to begin handwringing over the fall of Kabul or second-guessing the decision. It’s done. If nothing else, Lake and his cohort are right: Biden owns the decision. He needs to combat overheated insider DC nonsense like this. Since it was the right decision he should not run away from it. It’s sad to see what it is happening, he should say. But after 20 years of support, it was time for the Afghans to stand on their own.

[ ... ]

However ugly the denouement, Biden understood the reality of the situation better than his military advisors. He was and is more in line with US popular opinion which long ago soured on our perpetual occupation of Afghanistan. Whether they will reward him or punish him for following through on that judgment I can’t say. But the best way to ensure the former outcome is to be clear, direct: After 20 years it was up to the Afghans to decide their own future. This is a fight for Afghans, not another generation of American boys. A perpetual deployment was not in the security interests of the United States.

Also, the over the top kvetching about comparisons to “the fall of Saigon in 1975″ forgets one thing: It had approximately ZERO effect on the 1976 election.

I read the transcripts of the three 1976 presidential debates. Nobody even brought up the fall of Saigon. See for yourself...

23 September 1976 – 1st Ford-Carter debate

06 October 1976 – 2nd Ford-Carter debate  

22 October 1976 – 3rd Ford-Carter debate 

The closest thing was when journalist Henry Trewhitt mentions “lost the first war in Vietnam" in the context of various Cold War events.

Unless there’s some unexpected disaster there in the next few days, voters won’t care any more about the fall of Kabul in 2022 (or 2024) than they did about the 1975 fall of Saigon in 1976.

BONUS LINK: The famous staircase to the top of the old US embassy in Saigon now resides at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. If President Ford felt sensitive about such a reminder of the fall of Saigon he would have rejected it when the government of Vietnam offered to donate it in the 1990s. You can see the exhibit with the staircase at the museum’s official Tumblr.

[rendezvous-ramblings]

I saw some of your asks about whether E liked you when you were a student, and I want to say that I agree with you that the important thing is that he didn’t act on those feelings or make them obvious. And even when you graduated and it became clear that you liked him, it seems that he was still very level headed and thoughtful about the situation. But where do you think the line is with that? Like—and this is hard to phrase—at what point is it okay and not malicious that he acts on those feelings? I guess, for some context to my question, I’m trying to figure out how I would (hypothetically!) deal with finding out that my tc likes me. At this point, we’re good friends and I’m almost 20 and a junior in college, but would it be kinda weird if he likes me? Sorry, that’s a few questions rolled into one. feeling a little embarrassed about it. I hope you’re doing well!

Hi,

I think from E's perspective he was really conflicted over what he wanted vs. what society would label us as. However, he also wanted me and our friendship to have the opportunity to mature first before anything serious could happen. He acknowledged how mature I was when I was a senior in highschool but there were moments where I look back and do cringe at my shortcomings. After all, I was still a teenage girl even though I was more mature than some of my peers given some personal factors. So, I think an age gap relationship with an ex-tc or whoever is appropriate when you've had some time to realize if it's an infatuation vs. serious feelings. Your friendship also needs to evolve past the friendly teacher/student relationship. You also have to overcome the authority your tc may have had on you and stop idolizing or putting him/her on a pedestal (we all do that at varying levels!). You have to learn your tcs flaws as a person and the filter needs to come down so you can both become equals in a relationship. I openly disagree with E on things now and I'm not worried about his opinion/reaction like how senior year high school me would have been. Of course I do respect his opinions/feelings but the fear of not having all things in common or not impressing him are gone. If that makes any sense? Those were my major anxieties when navigating my crush on E while he was still my teacher.

I would think it's odd for a teacher to pursue an ex-student straight after graduation or right when the student turns 18 with 0 reservations. Yes, E did kiss me my freshman year of college but he pretty much stepped back (what felt like several feet back!) and tried telling me "No, wait this can't be happening." He had to deal with some guilt afterwards and kept telling me to be open minded in college and find someone my age to share my first experiences with. It's a great indicator if they obviously are very conscious in wanting what's best for you and have a conscience over the fact that there's age/authority issues that need to be addressed before proceeding.

I don't think it would be "weird" for a tc's feelings to change if they've kept in touch with you so long post-graduation. Especially if your relationship has evolved over the years and you've both grown out of your former roles to each other. I hope this all helped! Don't feel embarrassed by your question at all! It's an interesting one and I'm sure everyone has their own opinions on it but this is my take on it! Good luck and I hope you're doing well too! 💛

[aion-rsa]

Black Widow: The Disturbing Real Spy History Inspirations

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This article contains Black Widow spoilers.

Black Widow is the first Marvel Studios release to have an opening credits sequence since 2010’s Iron Man 2. Which by itself is kind of nice. After all, both movies bookend Scarlett Johansson’s tenure in the role of Natasha Romanoff. Yet when watching the opening moments of Marvel’s latest adventure, the decision to include an ominous montage of young Nat’s childhood after the movie’s brutal cold open is about more than creating symmetry with the past; it fills in the most mysterious Avenger’s blindspots… and reveals the red in her ledger is also our own.

Scored to a haunting cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Black Widow’s opening titles dovetail out from one of the movie’s best moments. With a stripped down prologue devoid of space gods and magic rocks, Black Widow’s first 10 minutes wouldn’t look out of place in a Tom Clancy adaptation or an hour of premium cable TV: Young American girls Natasha and Yelena (Ever Anderson and Violet McGraw) have the comforts of their midwest childhoods ripped away when their “father” Alexi (David Harbour) reveals to “mother” Melina (Rachel Weisz) that their cover is blown. American authorities are coming to arrest them as Russian spies, and they need to leave the country. Now.

While the following car chase features some of Marvel’s typical bells and whistles, there is an impressive restraint implemented (at least initially) by director Cate Shortland. The movie minimizes the CG spectacle here but ups the on-the-nose Americana: high school football, rock and roll, and literal “American Pie” of the Don McLean variety. This is a story about a sham “family” of four Russian spies seeing their illusionary bliss shattered, and their innocence stolen. The implications then become explicit during the unusually bleak title sequence which juxtaposes Nat’s sterile and cruel girlhood with the geopolitical chaos that closed out the 20th century.

Unlike nearly every Marvel film not named Iron Man or Black Panther, there is a momentary consideration for the real world context in which these flights of comic book fancy are borne, and how grim post-Cold War espionage would be for a superhero’s origin story. With fleeting snapshots of young Natasha and Yelena asked to imitate happy Christmastime memories for phony family photos, or being brainwashed inside the fabled Red Room’s ballet studio, Black Widow echoes actual horrors from the recent past…

Russian Spies on American Soil

The story of Russian spies infiltrating American borders is of course nothing new. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg made international headlines in 1950 when the American couple was arrested, and later convicted, for spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. Indeed, they were the first Americans executed during peacetime for espionage after they were revealed to have smuggled nuclear weapon designs to Russia.

Of course the childhood origins of Natasha and Yelena better resemble more recent Russian spy games, including sleeper cells who operated in the U.S. for decades. Like FX’s The Americans TV series before it, the prologue and opening credits of Black Widow appear to be greatly inspired by a Russian spy ring arrested by the FBI in 2010. 

Dubbed the “Illegals Program” by American law enforcement, the Russian spy network dated back to the early 1990s and was implemented after the fall of the Soviet Union by the SVR—Russia’s foreign intelligence service which replaced the KGB. Designed to place Russian spies in positions of influence and access in American government, business, and academia, the program included 11 spies operating in locations as far flung as New York City and Seattle, and Boston and northern Virginia.

While the program never successfully achieved its reported aim to gather information on America’s nuclear weapon arsenal, foreign policy toward Iran, or access to CIA or congressional leadership, it did in retrospect presage the soon-to-be chilling relationship between the U.S. and Russia.

It also required intricate false identities, aliases, and cover stories which led to some Russian operatives starting families in the guise of blending in. For instance, Vladimir and Lidya Guryev arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s under the names Richard and Cynthia Murphy. Cynthia proved especially adept at adapting American life, if not gathering pertinent state secrets. In 1997 she earned an associate degree from NYU, and in 2000 an MBA from Columbia University. During that entire time frame, she worked at a prestigious Manhattan accounting firm, taking home an annual six-figure salary.

The couple also gave birth to two daughters during their time as Russian sleeper agents, with both children being American citizens when their parents were arrested in 2010. The daughters were ages 11 and nine at the time, and were forced to follow their parents back to Russia after they were swapped with Americans convicted of espionage in Russia.

Similarly, Andrey Bezrukov and Yelena Vavilova were assigned the task of becoming Donald Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley while still a young Russian couple. They moved to Canada to more easily establish false identities before immigrating to the U.S., with “Donald” eventually studying at Harvard. Their two sons Tim and Alex were born in Canada and were ages 20 and 16 when their parents were arrested. Despite having Canadian passports and having never even been to Russia, they were stripped of their citizenship, which as of the publication of an in-depth profile in the Guardian in 2016, they were still fighting to get back.

“I never had anything close to a suspicion regarding my parents,” Alex told the British newspaper. “It seemed all my friends’ parents led much more exciting and successful lives.” It didn’t even seem quite real to Alex and his brother until they went to Russia and were shown photographs of their parents in their 20s—in officers’ uniforms and adorned with medals.

Perhaps the most famous spy from this ring remains redheaded Anna Chapman, who the press in 2010 dubbed the “sexy Russian spy.” In fact, The Independent reported that the FBI’s then-counterintelligence chief Frank Figliuzzi said she was getting “closer and closer” to possibly seducing a member of the Obama administration’s cabinet in a classic “honeypot” scenario. 

However, Figliuzzi said he was misquoted and they were worried about her proximity to American officials, not “seduction.” Cynthia Murphy, however, did establish contact with a friend and fundraiser of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. Clinton was then the Secretary of State.

Since being deported to Russia, Chapman became a model and social media celebrity… and a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump.

The Real Red Rooms

Another aspect that looms over Black Widow’s opening credits and beyond is the depravity of the Red Room, an institute we see teased in the movie’s title sequence when Ray Winstone’s interpretation of slime-incarnate, Col. Dreykov, tells young Natasha the school “is your home.” Viewers are also later reminded this is where Natasha was sterilized as a teenager after being taught to kill, and an older Yelena (Florence Pugh) was literally brainwashed with mind-altering drugs.

While mind control and sterilization appear to be fanciful additions made by Marvel, Soviet espionage schools for young women and otherwise were a definite product of the Cold War era. While details remain obscured even decades after the Iron Curtain fell, CIA officers and even some former Russian intelligence personnel have given peaks behind the shroud. Former KGB Lt. Gen. Leonid Vladimirovich Shebarshin recalled living in a “dilapidated” dormitory while being trained in espionage and surveillance.

And a school specifically designed to train women to use sex and seduction as tools of spyycraft did exist. According to multiple former CIA officers, it was located in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. Graduates of the program, variously known as “swallows” in the espionage world, inspired many Cold War stories, including how the Widow program is depicted in the MCU.

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Jason Matthews, who worked as a CIA officer for over 30 years, including in Europe during the Cold War, explored the sordid details as an author in his Red Sparrow trilogy, which the CIA officially reviewed as “accurate [and] richly detailed.”

“The Russians have for many, many years, used women to try and sexually entrap [high-ranking foreign officials] for blackmail purposes, to try and tell their secrets,” Matthews told CNBC in 2018. And while he said the Kazan “Sparrow School” has been closed down, those honeypot operations persist.

Indeed, Jonna Mendez, a former CIA chief of disguise and a member of the International Spy Museum’s Board of Directors, confirmed the Kazan swallows school. In a 2018 interview, she told The New York Times about the time a swallow compromised a U.S. Marine stationed in Moscow during the 1980s. After being enticed by the Soviet spy, he allowed her and several other women (also likely swallows) into the American embassy. The marine was later convicted of allowing a security breach.

“It was a seduction scenario not unlike what you would have [seen in the Red Sparrow movie],” Mendez said.

The Menace of Dreykov

The real world seediness of the Red Room and Widow program’s inspirations is only matched by the darkness of Dreykov. To go back again to the movie’s opening credits, it’s disquieting in the way the villain of the film is juxtaposed. He is not seen rubbing shoulders with Thanos or a cameoing Vulture, nor is he depicted as in pursuit of some mythical MacGuffin. 

When we get our first good look at Dreykov, he’s visiting the Rose Garden with President Bill Clinton, who occupied the White House during the film’s 1995 prologue. Another shot in the credits show him meeting with Condoleezza Rice, who was President George W. Bush’s National Security Advisor and then later his second Secretary of State. She participated in the meetings that led to decades of war in the Middle East, including the invasion of Iraq and its quest for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.

When coupled with actual shots of the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003—which would’ve been around the time Natasha “graduated” from the Red Room—the implication is obvious: Dreykov is orchestrating or participating in world events from the shadows. While the film never overtly states Dreykov played a role in shaping American or Russian foreign policy at the turn of the century, it is nonetheless heavily inferred as his root motivation, much like the menace of sexual manipulation and violence in a school inspired by actual Soviet era honeypot programs.

In fact, during the climax of Black Widow, Dreykov is revealed to be a sleazy amalgamation of multiple predatory men in power who’ve finally seen their reckoning in the last several years. During their final confrontation, Dreykov looms over Johansson’s Natasha like a brute trying to intimidate a woman by his girth and the implicit threat of violence. He’s a toxic blend of every account about Harvey Weinstein or Roger Ailes trying to manipulate and assault women, or the way a certain presidential candidate purposefully stalked around a debate stage to loom over his female rival.

It also mirrors the disturbing connections that some of these serial abusers possessed. Convicted sexual offender, pedophile, and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein famously associated with leaders of every political stripe, visiting the Clinton White House four times, and having the former president fly repeatedly on his private jet. Donald Trump, meanwhile, flew on the same plane, multiple times according to Epstein’s brother Mark. Epstein was also a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club where at least one underage girl was allegedly preyed upon and groomed into Epstein’s sex ring. Epstein was eventually banned from the resort in 2008, but that came after he was indicted by a grand jury for soliciting child prostitution.

In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

The Marvel Method

That a Marvel Studios film would wade into any of this, even with the lightest of steps and most diminutive of glances, is a surprise. Which is not to say Black Widow—a movie which features a flying mansion fall from the sky—is some kind of pensive commentary on the exploitation of women, be it in espionage or other halls of power. It’s a superhero movie, and one made by Disney, no less.

And yet, in its own way, it is a superhero movie that at least reflects the world it’s made in, thereby offering something more tactile than most Marvel alternatives. It also provides an entirely euphoric catharsis. From the opening credits to the ending resolution, we witness in all its comic book trappings how powerful men embodied by Dreykov use and abuse women’s bodies, often beginning when they’re still girls who can be indoctrinated into what’s “expected” of them.

Seeing Scarlett Johansson sever her own olfactory nerve to break the power of a man like this and then beat him to a pulp— signaling to her target audience they are not just the tools or playthings of the society around them—is the kind of spy game we should watch play out a lot more.

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The Last of Us Part II: Abby and Plot Review (Sometimes, The Straightforward Approach Really is the Best Way to Execute a Story) MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR BOTH GAMES!

Yo, fellow gamers and geeks alike! How goes it? Don’t mind me. Just the dragon coming out of her den to rant/review within the realm of geek culture yet again. Since the beginning of The Last of Us Part II’s release, there have been some pretty strong opinions on the plot of the game (to put it lightly….).

I’m still in the middle of completing the game myself, but I’ve pretty much been spoiled the entire story anyway, enough to express my opinion about certain aspects of the game, particularly my feelings on the odd narrative framing choice for what (IMO) should have been a fairly straight forward executed plot line. I was going to wait until I’ve completed the game for myself, but time just doesn’t allow for a lot of gameplay for me at the moment, so I’m writing this review fairly prematurely (though I have watched everything on youtube). I’ll probably post a part II of this review after I finish the story for myself if anything changes.

Anyway, based on what I’ve personally seen and heard (both from personal gameplay and online), my main opinion (so far) is that the ideas, the themes, and the concept behind TLoU II’s story itself are overall decent to me.

However, the way Neil Druckmann and the rest of Naughty Dog chose to frame the narrative is decidedly not.

And a large part of it IMO is how they chose to implement this new character named Abby in the story. Not to mention the over reliance on shock value, and trying too hard to illicit certain emotions and reactions from the player, rather than just trusting the content to steer the narrative and giving the player space to have their own personal experience with the story, something the first game understood and did very well.

Needless to say, there will be MASSIVE SPOILERS for both TLoU I and TLoU II plots from this point onwards. Last chance to back out the den now!

To try and make my point, the original game did a wonderful job of establishing its dark premise, its major characters and getting the player emotionally invested in wanting to know more about both from the outset with a good prologue set up, taking place 20 years before the main time period of the story proper.

During the prologue of the first TLoU, we (as the player) are introduced to (main character) Joel and his cute, young, (but sadly ill-fated) daughter Sarah shortly before the outbreak of the Cordyceps plague. The player gets the opportunity to see Joel at probably his “(moral) best” in the game prior to everything going to hell (and even then the game still establishes the darker parts of his overprotectiveness rather well).

We see him depicted as a very loving and protective father, hardworking, and just generally and average everyday guy (neither “good” or “bad” just “normal”) trying to make a living in the world as he’s talking to his brother (Tommy) on the phone trying to secure a business deal. And then the world begins falling apart at the seams with the trio forced to flee from their now infected neighborhood, doing whatever it takes to get out alive (even if it means now they have to kill other people, something neither probably would have fathom doing prior to the outbreak), setting up a very miserable, but soon to be familiar pattern for them and any other people determined to survive in this devastated world.

Unfortunately, just as they make their way out of the area, Sarah is fatally shot by a soldier tasked with killing any stragglers in an attempt to contain the chaos. And all Joel can do is watch the light leave his “baby girl’s” eyes….

During this short, but very meaningful first hour or so of the game, we have Joel’s dynamic with his biological daughter established (a very fun-loving and healthy and overall heartwarming bond between them), the overall sibling yin-yang world perspectives between Tommy and Joel (how the former is more idealistic and more willing to help others even amidst a crisis, while the latter is cynical, lives more in the moment, and primarily focused on the survival of himself and his closest family) and how those respective character traits subtly foreshadow several major events to come between Tommy and Joel, how and why they eventually drifted apart from one another over the years, as well as the latter’s final choice regarding Ellie and the Fireflies in the finale.

Also by this point, we as the player are invested in these characters from the jump, and have a good idea of what’s going on in the larger scheme of the story (and the direction it’s going….pretty bleak but engaging), and what’s to come so that by the time we’re at the end of the prologue and Joel is getting emotionally shattered by the death of his only daughter, we as the player are right there with him. It was clear that Naughty Dog wanted to make the player sad and emotionally invested in the moment.

The difference in the first game from the second is that the creators seemed more willing to trust their own content to carry and convey the emotional weight of the story and the scene. Shock value is still very much there in the prologue (Sarah’s death was somehow expected and out of nowhere at the same time and it worked because it was just heartbreaking to see such an innocent and nice girl gunned down in her youth), but it’s not the sole driving factor behind the scene itself. Then we jump 20 years into the present day, the world is a very different place and Joel is a very different person.

He’s not the most likable, moral, or friendliest old dude around, but his brutality, his cruelty, his bitter resentment towards humanity over the course of the game is very understandable and the player has been given the time to understand the deeper nuances of his character and establish a bond with him and understand his later feelings and actions regarding Ellie and the Fireflies at the end of the game. His actions certainly weren’t “right” but they were definitely human and understandable.

Well, certainly a lot more understandable/human than it would have been had the game opened with Joel dooming all of humanity from a cure by killing all the doctors with no other context and then trying to force us to empathize with him after the fact.

That’s the problem with Abby’s implementation at the core of the second game’s story, and sadly, it’s enough to mar nearly the entire experience. When Abby first appears, we as the player know nothing about her (and I mean nothing. We don’t even get her name until at least an hour or so after controlling her. That’s not the best introduction for a soon to be major character….).

We get nothing about her, then she kills Joel from the jump (about barely 3 hours into the game), and puts Ellie on a warpath and all of it goes down from there. By this point, we still know nothing about Abby (but hey, at least we as the player get a name before she bashes Joel’s brains in with a golf club). And not only do we not know anything about her, but Naughty Dog didn’t realize that this framing choice effectively prevented the player from wanting to know or care about her as a character.

At this point, later forcing the player to later control her and empathize with her for 10-12 hours is out of the question. She should have remained squarely in the villain role (from Ellie’s point of view). The shock value of Joel’s murder is there as they wanted (whether good or bad is up to the player), but without knowing anything about Abby beforehand, all it really does is completely alienate Abby from the player before we could have gotten a chance to know anything about her, or even want to know anything about her. That’s what I meant earlier about TLoU II not giving the player space to understand and relate/connect to/with the newly introduced characters, to have the scenes and the content convey the emotional intent without the need of these unnecessary forced framing choices and over the top shock value instances.

Seriously, how hard would it have been to let the player know from the outset that Abby was associated with the Fireflies, and that her father was the lead surgeon that Joel killed to rescue Ellie five years ago? From what I understand, it’s several hours into the game before this information comes to light.

The game makes the mistake of introducing Abby in such a way that the narrative (almost to an absurd degree) assumes that the player is already invested in her. We’re not. We’ve literally just met her. And we as the player are given no room to get emotionally invested in her as a character, and when the game finally realizes that “oh, without some context on this matter, no one will care about Abby” (roughly 12 or so hours after the fact from what I’m understanding) it feels like it’s too little too late. 

We as the player never received the opportunity to understand who she is, who she’s after, what her deal is, nothing prior to the controversial murder scene (it all happens after the fact, but by then, people are typically closed off from truly caring or able to change their minds about her so the whole 10 run feels more like a slog narratively rather than a deep, engaging “walk a mile in this person’s shoes” thing. 

We’re just forced to continuously bounce back and forth between controlling her and Ellie throughout the game from the beginning. That’s honestly not the best story structure….ND....you can’t shove Abby down our throats later and expect us to truly care about her. That’s not how it works. And even the whole “well, we wanted the player to hate Abby” thing falls apart because the later scenes where we’re forced to control her feel very unnatural and are often trying too hard to FORCE the player to empathize with her rather than just again, trusting the content to allow us that (again, give the player some space to experience the narrative, build things/people up better, stop relying on shock value without the adequate suspense) for ourselves in a more natural way like with the characters and the way they were presented in the first game.

And Why? Because Naughty Dog was so focused on trying far too hard to illicit certain reactions/emotions from the player. Yes, the overall framing of Joel’s untimely murder at Abby’s hand is bold and (to a point) brilliant in getting us to feel exactly (and I do mean EXACTLY) what Ellie feels in that moment because she doesn’t know any more about this Abby chick than we do. That definitely works for getting us to feel something for Ellie and truly understanding her pain and sorrow in the moment, however, in the larger scheme of the narrative, it was unnecessary. We’re ALREADY just as emotionally invested in Ellie as a character by this point as we are Joel. They are both returning characters.

If they knew that they were going to have Abby (an entirely newly introduced character) kill off one of their major (returning) characters in the first few hours of the game, and ESPECIALLY if we were going to be forced to control her later, then all of their efforts should have been made into making Abby as emotionally understood as possible from the very beginning. This easily could have been rectified with a montage, or a playable prologue or something explaining exactly who she is and her friends were. THEN have her kill Joel somewhere in the middle of the game (while having her conflicted over doing so in part because he saved her life multiple times). People would have still hated her as you wanted ND, but her story is much more understandable and less convoluted and infuriating for the player to experience (and not in the genius way that you think, but just in the “bad story structured way”). The canon structure of Part II might have worked for a novel, or a movie or TV show or something. 

This is a story driven VIDEO GAME. Players directly experience the narrative, not just read or watch it. It has to work in a way that doesn’t feel like an outright HATE message directed to the player themselves. There’s a difference in “exploring the themes of hatred and revenge” in a game, and “deliberately creating something that people are going to despise” (something Druckmann said. He literally said that he’d rather people passionately hate the game rather than just saying “eh, it was ok”). 

To me, I think it would have been more conducive to focus their efforts on creating an experience that people would ultimately LOVE TO PLAY AS A GAME, as Naughty Dog explored the themes of hatred/revenge solely within the realm of the game’s content, rather than this borderline preachy way they presented this current flop of a story. Just IMO.

It’s sad too, because it would have been a great opportunity for Naughty Dog to fill in some of the gaps in the first game regarding the Fireflies, getting more of major key moments from the Fireflies’ point of view (since their movement was largely in the background of the first game, but still prominent enough) and she could have served as an interesting foil or something to both Ellie and Joel.

Abby is a character who lost her father at the hands of Joel, while Ellie never knew hers and found a father figure in the very man who took Abby’s father away from her. Joel in the first game was depicted as a man who had largely given up on humanity after everything that happened to him, more than likely didn’t believe humanity deserved a cure, or at least damn sure that to him it wasn’t worth losing Ellie over, and killed a lot of the Fireflies to rescue her.

Abby had a direct connection with the group, her father probably a hero in her eyes for still wanting to do the right thing and help humanity (what was left of it anyway) and was brutally murdered by someone who, by all accounts was nothing but a thuggish criminal and smuggler from her point of view.

All of those things could have been compelling and made Abby more understandable and relatable from the start. Would her killing Joel in such a brutal fashion so early in the game still have been bad? Absolutely. However, to me, the difference in knowing who she is and what her deal is before hand would have at least given the player the space to decide how much so for themselves. The overall framing choice of the narrative made this story more convoluted than it needed to be unfortunately. I get what Druckmann was going for overall, but the over reliance on shock value and screwing around with the player’s emotions in this game ultimately came at the cost of good story structure in the process. Sometimes, the straightforward approach is the best way to execute a story….

Well, that’s it for part one of my review. What do you all think? Agree? Disagree? Let me know what your thoughts are on the matter. But for now, I will return to my Den. Thanks for reading! If you liked this review, then stay tuned for my follow up after I complete the game.

Edit: Part II of my review is up! If you liked this, and want to read about how I would have personally structured this story, here’s the link to that!

[katzviedrehypercraft]

Myths and facts about Roma community.  Because of their nomadic lifestyle and differences in language and culture, Roma and their more settled neighbours have held each other in distrust. The popular image of Roma as tramps and thieves unfit for work contributed to their widespread persecution. This belief is often cited as the etymological source of the term gyp, meaning to "cheat", as in "I got gypped by a con man." There are still tensions between Roma and the majority population around them. Common complaints are that Roma steal and live off social welfare and residents often reject Romani encampments. This has led to Roma being described as "perhaps the most hated minority in Europe."  In Eastern Europe, Roma often live in depressed squatter communities with very high unemployment, while only some are fully integrated in the society. However, in some cases—notably the Kalderash clan in Romania, who work as traditional coppersmiths—they have prospered. Although some Roma still embrace a nomadic lifestyle, most migration is actually forced, as most communities do not accept Romani settlements. However, each year in May approximately 10,000 to 15,000 Romani people go on a pilgrimage to Les-Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer in Southern France. Roma arrive in caravans for celebrations, weddings and religious ceremonies.Many countries that were formerly part of the Eastern bloc and former Yugoslavia have substantial populations of Roma. The level of integration of Roma into society remains limited. In these countries, they usually remain on the margins of society, living in isolated, ghetto-like settlements (see Chánov). Only a small fraction of Romani children graduate from secondary schools, though numerous official efforts have been made, past and present, to compel their attendance. Roma frequently feel rejected by the state and the main population, creating another obstacle to their integration. They may have emerged from the modern Indian state of Rajasthan, migrating to the northwest (the Punjab region, Sindh and Baluchistan of the Indian subcontinent) around 250 BC. Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves, is now believed to have occurred beginning in about CE 500. It has also been suggested that emigration from India may have taken place in the context of the raids by Mahmud of Ghazni. As these soldiers were defeated, they were moved west with their families into the Byzantine Empire.[169] The author Ralph Lilley Turner theorised a central Indian origin of Romani followed by a migration to Northwest India as it shares a number of ancient isoglosses with Central Indo-Aryan languages in relation to realization of some sounds of Old Indo-Aryan.  The traditional Romanies place a high value on the extended family. Virginity is essential in unmarried women. Both men and women often marry young; there has been controversy in several countries over the Romani practise of child marriage. Romani law establishes that the man's family must pay a bride price to the bride's parents, but only traditional families still follow it.Once married, the woman joins the husband's family, where her main job is to tend to her husband's and her children's needs and take care of her in-laws. The power structure in the traditional Romani household has at its top the oldest man or grandfather, and men, in general, have more authority than women. Women gain respect and power as they get older. Young wives begin gaining authority once they have children.Romani social behavior is strictly regulated by Indian social customs ("marime" or "marhime"), still respected by most Roma (and by most older generations of Sinti). This regulation affects many aspects of life and is applied to actions, people and things: parts of the human body are considered impure: the genital organs (because they produce emissions) and the rest of the lower body. Clothes for the lower body, as well as the clothes of menstruating women, are washed separately. Items used for eating are also washed in a different place. Childbirth is considered impure and must occur outside the dwelling place. The mother is deemed to be impure for forty days after giving birth.Death is considered impure, and affects the whole family of the dead, who remain impure for a period of time. In contrast to the practice of cremating the dead, Romani dead must be buried. Cremation and burial are both known from the time of the Rigveda, and both are widely practiced in Hinduism today (although the tendency is for Hindus to practice cremation, while some communities in South India tend to bury their dead).[196] Animals that are considered to be having unclean habits are not eaten by the community.

According to a legend reported in the Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh, from Iran and repeated by several modern authors, the Sasanian king Bahrām V Gōr learned towards the end of his reign (421–439) that the poor could not afford to enjoy music, and he asked the king of India to send him ten thousand luris, lute-playing experts. When the luris arrived, Bahrām gave each one an ox, a donkey, and a donkey-load of wheat so that they could live on agriculture and play music for free for the poor. But the luris ate the oxen and the wheat and came back a year later with their cheeks hollowed with hunger. The king, angered with their having wasted what he had given them, ordered them to pack up their bags and go wandering around the world on their donkeys. Romani Code, or Romano Zakono, is the most important part of Romanipen. It is a set of rules for Romani life.Though Romani ethnic groups have different sets of rules, some rules are common for all. Those rules are considered to be the Romani Code, and rules that differ are called "customs". Oral Romani cultures are most likely to adhere to the Romani code, these communities are geographically spread.[20] There are proverbs about the Romani Code and customs, such as:There exist as many customs as there are Romani groups. (Kitsyk Roma, dakitsyk obychaye in Ruska Roma's dialect) There are many Romani groups, but only one Law. (Romen isy but, a Zakono yekh in Ruska Roma's and Kaldarash dialects) Rules of Romani Code describe relationships inside the Romani community and set limits for customs, behavior and other aspects of life.The Romani Code is not written; the Romani people keep it alive in oral tradition.The kris is a traditional institution for upholding and enforcing the Romani Code.The code can be summarised in pillars; the main pillar representing the polar ideas of baxt (pronounced "baht") meaning honour and ladž (pronounced "Ladge") meaning shame. Linking to the article above in reference to "purity" they can also represent the idea of being "pure" or "clean" and "impure" and "unclean" It is honourable, in Romani culture, to celebrate baxt by being generous and displaying your success to the public. The focus on generosity means sharing food is of great importance to some groups of Roma. Making lavish meals to share with other Romani visitors is commonplace and in some cases not having food to share is considered shameful.

Sources: Wikipedia. 2021. Romani society and culture. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_society_and_culture. [Accessed 9 March 2021]. Balkanproject. 2021. Who we were, who we are. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.balkanproject.org/. [Accessed 9 March 2021]. Arzamas. 2021. Truth and myths about cigans. [ONLINE] Available at: https://arzamas.academy/courses/4. [Accessed 9 March 2021].

[cyn-00]

Moreid one shot, 16 - "light of his life"

This isn't inspired by any episode, although it is kind of a sequel to my One shot 6 (around seasons 7/8). For those of you who haven't read it/don't remember it, in that fic Morgan's sister Sarah mentioned to him that he should ask Reid to come over for dinner. It isn't an actual sequel - this is a one-shots series after all ;)

Also: in my magic, fictional world where Moreid is real, there's no such thing as hetero-normativity. I'll never spend time writing about Morgan and Reid's past coming out, or the others' reaction, or whatever. Sometimes you'll find references to the fact that they're hesitant to show affection in public but that's about it - and I imagine it's because they don't feel comfortable doing so in a working context, not out of being afraid of discrimination :)

This is the longest one I've written so far lmao bear with me ily. (future me says: wait until u read number 20. Oh, little did I know...future me also says: I added a couple dialogues and other stuff)

Read it on AO3

-------------

"Boy Wonder." Garcia's equally teasing and scolding voice came from the other side of Reid's phone.

"Hey Garcia" he greeted her, trying to sound as non-chalant as possible.

"Were you not gonna tell me? Was I supposed to find out from JJ??"

Spencer sighed. He should've known better than to tell JJ about him going to Derek's family home for dinner. He took a wild guess probably everyone on the team knew now.

"I'm- I'm sorry, alright? I have no excuse."

"No you don't! Especially not the cliché excuse where you say 'I forgot' because your eidetic-memory-cute-little-butt would never forget about such a thing!"

Spencer chuckled shaking his head. "Fine but, now that you know, please don't tell me you called to say how 'cute' it is or whatever, because JJ thought of doing that already."

"...well...ok then, plan B. You genius managed to burst my little bubble of "aww how cute"s in a fraction of second."

"...sorry ? again." he said in a confused tone.

"Nuh-uh don't think for a minute that you got rid of me so easily. I have another million yet un-burst little bubbles of topics you and I HAVE to discuss before you meet your in-laws."

"My wh-"

"FOR INSTANCE your outfit." Penelope raised her voice to interrupt him before he could tell her not to call Derek's family his "in-laws", because it freaked him out.

"...well for that I could actually use a little help." Spencer replied, staring helplessly at his half unpacked go-bag.

"Wait...you DID bring something NICE, didn't you?"

No response from Spencer.

"Oh. My. God. I can't belive this. Spencer, could it BE more obvious? Derek being totally in love with you + mentioning that his family wanted to invite you over to dinner + case in Chicago?? So much for being a math genius, huh"

Still no response from Spencer. "Derek being totally in love with you". He was smiling so hard he thought Penelope could FEEL it through the phone. His brain got stuck to that point in her phrase - he didn't even bother wondering how she knew that Derek had already mentioned it a month or so before.

"...uhm, hello? Earth to Doctor Spencer Reid?"

"Yeah- I'm- I'm sorry Garcia it's really late I have to go, thank you for your precious advice, you're the best." he finally answered in a rush.

"Wh- but I didn't even GET to-" he hung up before she could finish the sentence.

-

That phrase from earlier triggered a sudden realization in Spencer's mind: Derek could probably not care less about what he was gonna wear. The important thing to him, was that he'd show up. And it was late, so he had to get it out of his head - it wasn't like some kind of breaking news that Derek loved him, anyway. Spencer knew it, deep down. Even if it was still hard for him to wrap his mind around the fact that SSA Derek Morgan, the hot chocolate, the hunk, the ladies' man - pfft, yeah, right? - was in love with him.

That very thought escaped his brain only to make space for another one, just as paranoid, inconclusive and time-consuming: Penelope was right, wasn't she.

Derek always made time to visit his family everytime they had a case in Chicago, before going back to Quantico; it was a known fact amongst the team. Plus, the others didn't mind spending an extra half-day in the city to go out or - more realistically - crash in their hotel rooms.

So if you take that, and add the fact that Sarah had hinted to Derek to invite Spencer for dinner sometime; you get that Penelope was right. EVEN if Derek could've asked with a little more advance - instead of that same morning - and EVEN if, at the time Derek had told him about that conversation with his sister, Spencer hadn't really said a clear "yes". He hadn't said "no" either, to be fair.

Also, one would guess Spencer should've just been prepared for it, sooner or later, right? After all, Derek and him had been dating for... well, he wasn't quite sure. Not because he didn't remember: of course he remembered their first kiss, their first "date" - or whatever you call it when two people see each other outside of work - the first time they had kinda-but-not-really expressed their feelings for each other, the first time they had slept together. So, which one of those should he take in consideration to determine how long they'd been dating? Or maybe it was a matter of guessing an average out of all those parameters? Spencer had always had troubles trying to pinpoint that.

Anyway. None of those thoughts were helping him to decide which one of the 3 shirts displayed on the mattress he was going to wear that night. If not a whole "nice" outfit, he could've at least packed Derek's favorite shirt, just to be sure. He didn't even know why that was his favorite: it was just a pale lilac button-up. He said that the fact that it hung a bit too loose on his shoulders and arms, and had to roll up the sleeves once or twice, gave him permission to fantasize that it was his shirt, worn by Spencer - which, by the way: he could simply say he'd like Spencer to wear his shirts. He definitely wouldn't mind doing that. And ultimately, aside from this whole reverie of Derek's: it was still a damn pale lilac button-up a couple sizes too big.

-

Spencer checked his watch for the fifth time in the last 20 minutes: 7:15 pm. Derek was gonna knock on his hotel room door in 15.

He chose to keep it elegant but subtle, finally picking a blue-ish grey shirt, to pair with black jacket and slacks, trying to go with his gut - whatever that meant. Derek always told him to "feel" stuff. He probably didn't mean him to apply it to such a shallow thing like picking which fricking shirt to wear, though.

He quickly got out of his sweats and put the outfit on, looking at himself in the mirror.

Shit. The tie. The question wasn't even WHICH tie, rather: with or without tie?

Spencer came to the most logical and well-thought decision he'd made during that whole outfit-picking process: if he'd chosen to wear a tie, he would've had to spend another 15 minutes choosing which one. So, no tie. However, he wasn't used to not wearing one, so he tried not to stare too long in the mirror observing how strange he looked - and felt - without it.

He left the first two buttons of the shirt undone, and tried to un-mess his hair up - "c'mon I love your messy hair!", Derek's words popped into Spencer's head, making him giggle as he proceeded to put his shoes on.

He didn't even have the time to take one last look at the whole situation in the mirror, that he heard a knock on the door.

"Fuck." he gasped to himself.

"Coming!" he said as he quickly made his way to the door, jogging back and forth every 5 seconds to pick up pieces of clothing spread out on the floor and go back to squeeze them into his bag.

-

Derek waited in front of that damn door for what felt like 30 minutes.

He kept his eyes down at his feet and his hands in the pockets of his pants, as he tried to decipher the sounds coming from inside Spencer's room.

Much to his frustration, he spent the waiting time regretting having asked only that morning. He had actually done it on purpose to ask with little to no advance, so that Spencer couldn't say "no", knowing he'd be afraid to sound rude if he didn't accept. He didn't force him to do anything, though: Derek was 100% sure that he wanted to meet his family as his actual boyfriend - because he had met them a few times before, first as his co-worker, later as his best friend.

He was just trying to make the decision-making easier for him, coming to terms with the fact that he DID want to meet them a little quicker than he would have if Derek had asked him days and days before, hence had way too much time to think and rethink and go all paranoid.

Anyway, as it turned out, even that tactic had a couple of downsides: first of all, Spencer would've felt tenfold more nervous because of the lack of time to process the thing; second - which was a direct consequence of the former - it would've taken him a million years to get ready, leaving Derek out in the hallway for 5 minutes straight.

-

"Hey!" Spencer finally opened the door, nervously running his tongue in between his lips and adjusting his hair behind his ears. He also looked slightly out of breath.

"Hi" Derek greeted him back, smiling warmly. It took him a few seconds to realize what was standing in front of him. His man, looking handsome in those clothes.

He walked inside the room and turned around, watching Spencer as he closed the door. He gradually got closer and closer to him, forcing him to pull back until he was caged in between his broad body and the door, with no way out.

Derek placed a hand on his own hip and leaned against the door with his other forearm, just above Spencer's head. He bit his bottom lip in the attempt to stop smiling, staring carefully up and down at every inch of his boyfriend's fineness.

"How dare you" he murmured, knowing that Spencer understood perfectly that he was referring to how outrageously and disrespectfully good he looked.

"W- what are you talking about?" Spencer asked, playing dumb, courageously staring back right into Derek's deep eyes and not even making the slightest effort to contain his furious blush.

Derek didn't answer, instead he reached a hand toward Spencer's jaw, teasingly stroking his bottom lip with his thumb. He was inching closer definitely too slowly for Spencer's liking, to be completely honest.

Derek finally pushed his body against his, making Spencer's back produce a light smashing-like sound against the wooden door. He gasped in all the air he needed before making their lips collide dangerously, forcing a surprised moan out of Spencer's lungs.

"Mmhh...now... t's clear what you're...talking mm'bout" Spencer mumbled teasingly against his lips.

He wrapped his strong arms all around Spencer's body, as if it was threatening to fall on the floor, unravelling his hot tongue inside his mouth at last.

Derek's lips ran down to his jaw, allowing Spencer to catch his breath and his arms to finally grab onto him as his head fell back, hitting the door.

The second his mouth reached his ear, slightly biting his lobe, Spencer realized he couldn't take anymore of that without risking to rip off with his bare hands every single layer of clothing Derek was wearing.

"Ok w- wait, Derek wait a sec" he breathed out, unable to keep his eyes open and aware.

"Mhmh" Derek hummed unbothered, as the tip of his wet tongue brushed on the warm spot beneath Spencer's earlobe, before sucking it into his mouth.

"Ohw fuck- no s- seriously we're already late"

Derek suddenly stopped like Spencer had pushed a "OFF" button. He'd totally forgotten the reason why he got there in the first place, being so distracted by making his boyfriend's head spin and his body squirm uncontrollably.

"Holy shit. You're right." he said checking his watch, without pulling back from Spencer's body even a quarter of an inch.

After a few seconds of silence, while they rested their foreheads against one another to catch their breaths, Spencer spoke up.

"Believe me, I wouldn't have stopped you if it wasn't so important to me."

Derek distanced his face a little in order to look at him. "It is?" he asked with a sparkle in his eyes. "It's important to you?"

"Yes. I really want them to see us together like this." Spencer said smiling softly, caressing Derek's cheek.

"...well maybe not like this " the other answered chuckling, breaking the romantic mood Spencer's words and demeanor had set.

"Yeah right- you know what I mean!"

"I know." Derek concluded nodding, pecking at Spencer's already flushed lips one last time before letting go of him.

"It took me 30 minutes to come up with a decent outfit and you messed it up in 5, that's rude to say the least." Spencer said after a while, adjusting his hair and tucking his shirt back inside his pants.

"I'm sorry pretty boy, but you kinda asked for it." Derek justified himself, shrugging mockingly at him.

"...could say the same thing of you, though." he replied murmuring, not sure if he wanted Derek to hear him or not.

"What was that?" the other asked, even if having heard crystal clear, in fact.

"What?"

Derek snorted, inching once again very, very close.

"Baby, you're only making it worse, you must know that right?" he whispered with a smirk.

Spencer didn't answer, too busy looking at Derek's lips as he ran his tongue in between his.

"And, you're standing in my way."

Spencer frowned and shifted his gaze down, noticing Derek's hand was on the doorknob behind him: he was, indeed, standing in his way. He shot him a glare and stepped aside, so they could finally get out of the room.

The realization that they were about to have dinner with Derek's family as a couple fell onto him once again, out of the blue, easing whatever bit of heat was left inside his pants.

-

30 minutes later or so, they got to Derek's house. The car ride was strangely silent, probably because they were both nervous - even Derek was, a bit. He was just better at hiding it.

He parked the car and turned it off, deciding to wait a little before getting out. He looked over to Spencer, whose eyes were staring blankly at the small house outside.

"Hey," Derek spoke softly, placing his warm hand on his thigh in the hope to calm him down a little.

Spencer turned his head toward him as soon as he felt his touch, revealing quite an anxious look.

"It's gonna be great. And I bet I'm gonna find myself saying something like 'I told you so'." Derek tried to lift the mood, not needing him to say anything to gather what was troubling him. Still, he paused right after, letting him have the time to say it nonetheless.

"...what if they don't like me?" Spencer finally asked, his voice small and a little trembly.

"They already love you. I can guarantee you that."

"Yeah but I mean, what if they don't like me... this way? With you?" Spencer explained further, trusting that Derek understood what his main concern was. Which wasn't the possibility that they wouldn't like him as a person - because they did, as Derek said and as he already knew. It was the possibility that they wouldn't like him as his romantic partner. As his boyfriend.

"Spencer... they know already that we're together, you know that right? It's not news to them." Derek said furrowing his brows. "and they're not just 'ok' with it, they love it. This. Us." he added reassuringly, pointing between the two of them with his finger.

Spencer simply nodded in response, getting back to looking down at his knees.

Derek shifted in his seat to lean closer, moving his hand from Spencer's thigh to his chin to lift it.

"Baby look at me." he murmured. His heart swelled when Spencer followed the order, giving him puppy eyes.

"I love you. And they love you as much as I do. So they will love us too, for sure. Alright?"

"Alright." Spencer finally spoke, a shy smile on his pretty face.

"...I partly take that back though. Not possible for anybody else to love you as much as I do." Derek concluded on a cheesy note, winking and giving him his signature smile.

Spencer chuckled, refraining from face-palming and choosing instead to simply shake his head.

-

They finally got out of the car, after that 10 minute pep-talk. Derek made his way around it to reach Spencer, holding out his hand toward him.

Spencer looked at him, shifting his eyes back and forth between Derek's hand and his smiling face. He sighed, acting annoyed, when actually he thought it was very cute of him to decide they'd get to the front door holding hands.

He took it and crossed his fingers with Derek's, clenching it tight to try and lessen his anxiety.

When they arrived at the door - standing beside one another, but Derek a few inches ahead of him - Spencer inadvertently squeezed his hand even more the moment Derek rang the bell.

"Derek! My boy!" Fran opened the door only a couple of seconds later - she'd been probably waiting on them for quite a while - with a wide, shiny smile on her face. Each time he'd seen that smile over the years, Spencer got more and more convinced of whom Derek must have got it from. And he could only thank her for it.

A few moments after, Sarah and Desirée joyfully came to the door as well, the younger one clapping her hands and squealing a loud "yes!" as soon as she saw the couple holding hands. Spencer's whole body was blushing, but he was genuinely happy to be there, with Derek.

"Hey mama!" Derek greeted back entering the house, letting go of Spencer's hand to hug his mom and kiss her forehead, with a smile just as shiny as hers if not more.

"Oh, Spencer, it's so good to see you! Come here," she said closing the door, right before spreading her arms to hug him. She was so small even compared to his skinny frame, Spencer could only imagine how tiny she must have felt in Derek's strong arms.

"It's good to see you too, Mrs Morgan." he smiled back, a little embarrassed because, even if it was from his boyfriend's mother, it was still a hug after all.

"Oh please, don't call me that. You make me feel old!" she pleaded arching her brows, while the two greeted and hugged Derek's sisters as well.

"Old? You look younger than your own son!" Spencer joked.

"Uh excuse me, what side are you on now??" Derek replied, playfully messing Spencer's hair by untucking a strand of it with his fingers to let it fall over his face, causing him to scrunch his nose in that way. The others laughed affectionately at them.

The three women led the way toward the dining room, enveloped in a warm, homely light.

Spencer waited a second to sit down, letting the others choose their spots. Desirée and Sarah sat next to each other, asking that him and Derek mirror them; while their mom - who had temporarily excused herself to check on the food in the kitchen - was of course entitled to the seat at the head of the table.

-

Dinner proceeded serenely, between some small talk about their tough job and a lively laugh at some joke Derek or Desirée said. Anyone who had spent even just as little as 10 minutes in that house, could tell with zero doubts that those two where the pranksters of the family.

The food was so good, the company even better. No one had brought up any embarrassing topics, nor had made Spencer feel out of place or looked at him weirded out, whenever he'd thrown some of his beloved facts and infos in the conversation: he was struggling to believe it wasn't all a dream.

He used to always remind Derek how lucky he was to have a family like that, but he'd never stood by that statement so much like in that moment. And Derek had clearly noticed it, by how much he was enjoying himself.

At a certain point though, after God knows how many half hours had passed, when they had finished eating and were enjoying the faint inebriating effect of the wine, Sarah asked the question.

"So...since Derek has never really answered this clearly, and since your memory is kind of a big deal right? I'm gonna try and ask you..." she started, staring at Spencer with a grin on her face, keeping both him and Derek on their toes.

"...how did it happen?? Like, who confessed and when?"

"Sis we already talked about this!" Derek said face-palming, dramatically leaning back on his chair resigned to the fact that she would never stop asking until she was fed every teeny tiny detail.

"Shush! She's right, you never gave a legit answer!" Desirée added, coming to her sister's aid.

"Well, it's just fair that he hasn't given a clear answer because it's not easy to determine exactly when the 'confession' happened, cause there have always been a lot of...let's say mixed signals from both parts through the years, for lack of a better word" Spencer started. "but first of all I can safely say that Derek was the one who confessed first, and I guess that's kinda obvious being the confident, cocky kind of guy I think we can all agree that he is." he paused his narrative, turning his head to look at Derek's reaction while he accused him of being those things.

"Alright alright, I'll give you that. Keep going." Derek nodded smugly, shifting in his seat closer to Spencer to stretch his arm on the backrest of his chair.

"What's ironic though is, that it actually happened while we were FIGHTING, about a thing that happened on the job - which I'm not gonna elaborate cause I feel like 4 years, 1 month and 21 days later, he's STILL mad at m- hey! " Spencer got interrupted by a light hand-smack on his nape from Derek.

" 'Course I'm still mad at you, smartass!!"

"Alright, fair enough, point is," he cleared his voice in the attempt to stop chuckling. "point is, we had a big fight, and then Derek just...he just said it, out of nowhere." Spencer shrugged in conclusion to his story-telling, lowering his voice on that last bit, while drawing circles on the empty wine glass with his thumb.

There were a few seconds of complete silence, during which Derek stared at Spencer's perfect side profile, absorbed in that... life-changing memory he'd just brought back. "Life-changing" was the right adjective because he remembered very well that it hadn't been all good. But - seeing how things were now going between Spencer and him - certainly not even all bad. It sure as hell had changed their lives, though.

"See? It's not like I came dressed in white with a carriage and asked him to dance, lemme tell you we were fucking MAD at each other!" Derek broke the silence, speaking to his sisters.

"Alright, you could've just told us!" his mom replied among a choir of laughs, too amused by the comment to bother about the cuss that had slipped out of his son's mouth.

"Well I don't exactly strike as the dancer type, so with all due respect you guys could've easily ruled that out from the beginning!" Spencer added jokingly, supporting his boyfriend's thesis.

"You don't- what?? You asked me to dance just about a couple weeks ago at JJ's wedding, who're you tryna fool, genius??" Derek loved to joke around about that episode.

"But that's different! Slow dancing at weddings isn't dancing per say, that's common knowledge."

" 'common knowledge', blablabla, a'ight, we get it, you're the smartest in the room." Derek kept mocking him, rolling his eyes and air-quoting the words "common knowledge".

He reached his hand out to place it on the back of Spencer's head, affectionately running his slim fingers through his soft curls. "I'm still convinced you're a pretty good dancer." he added softly.

Spencer finally shifted his look from the glass to Derek's eyes, trying to hide his smile.

"That's not an unbiased opinion, though"

Derek's brows shot up. "Oh you're right, I forgot that you're my handsome, smart boyfriend for a second there. I do have a couple bias."

Spencer shot him a look that said: Jesus Christ, Derek. His cheeks could've easily melted like candle wax and he was about to fall off his chair from hearing that answer, so the stabbing glance was only fair - Spencer was clearly not yet worrying about the 100% worth probability of Derek later mentioning how "cute" and "adorable" his reaction and expression were in that moment. "You're lucky I didn't sprinkle that face of yours with kisses in front of everyone, pretty boy" he always said.

The three women didn't even try to interrupt that moment, absolutely struck by their chemistry. If anyone was still wondering how in the world two people so different like them could be a couple, it must've been because they hadn't yet seen a playful banter between those two like the one Desirée, Sarah and Fran had just witnessed. It was like watching a movie.

-

"Oh my! It's so late. You two should probably get back if you wanna get some sleep before your flight tomorrow." Fran pointed out half-heartedly, checking the clock hung on the wall in front of the table.

"You're right ma'. Though it's not like we get much sleep with this job anyway..." Derek added dry-wittingly and with a deep sigh, as he checked his own watch, too: it was around 10 pm. Not even so late if it were a normal day of work in Quantico, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. They had to drag their asses on the jet at 5 am the next morning.

Spencer was brought back to reality when they mentioned work, but mostly when Derek's warm fingers until then drawing patterns on his scalp abruptly pulled back; leaving him mentally complaining.

"Do you need help in the kitchen?" he asked Fran politely, seeing her standing up from her chair and starting to pile up the dishes.

"No baby c'mon, that's my job." Derek immediately dismissed the other's offer, before his mother had even had the time to do that herself; getting up too while subtly caressing Spencer's cheek with his knuckles.

The two managed to gather all the dirty dishes and glasses and cutlery in one run, and headed to the kitchen, leaving there a blushing Spencer - calling him "baby" in front of his family? Dear God - alone with Derek's sisters, in what he anticipated to be an awkward situation.

-

After an unsettling amount of seconds, Desirée's almost whispering voice breached through the silence, as if afraid of being heard from the other room.

"Ok so, the most important question now is-"

"Desi, come on!!" Sarah tried to stop her from asking what she was about to ask, lightly hitting her forearm with her hand.

"What?? You wanna know too, don't play innocent all of a sudden!" she lowered her voice once again, shifting her attention back to Spencer in front of her.

"As I was saying, question is... has he proposed yet? "

Spencer's brain stopped working - if that was even possible, for the genius with an IQ of 187. He should've expected such a question - should he, though? Really?? What the hell.

"No! No he- we've never talked about it, I don't- I don't know what he thinks of it, I don't even know what I think, to be honest" Spencer was having the hardest time putting his words together. If the topic had been marriage in general, he would've undoubtedly started blurting out statistics until everyone's ears were bleeding. But they were talking about Derek and his hypothetical marriage: he hadn't rehearsed for that one.

How was it possible that in all the years they'd been together, the thought of getting married hadn't even brushed his mind? Or Derek's? Was it a bad sign? Or maybe Derek HAD thought about it but was afraid of rejection? Wow. Yet another paranoid thought to haunt him now. Thank you, Desirée.

"But how's that possible?? You're literally the light of his life, I don't understand..." Sarah shared her thought out loud, crossing her arms and staring at an undefined spot on the table cloth, as if the lace embroideries could give her tangible answers to the question.

Spencer's smile was impossible to control now. He tried, he really did, but that night it seemed like they were all daring him to melt on the floor.

"Girls, don't steal him! I know he's pretty but he's MY pretty boy alright?" Derek's loud voice came from the kitchen, from where he could hear his sisters' bickering but couldn't decipher what they were saying - luckily.

Derek's comment was probably about the twentieth proof of what stated before - they were literally RACING on who would get Spencer's face to catch fire first.

-

Fran laughed at Derek's scolding, shaking her head.

"Well, for what it's worth, he really is gorgeous if you ask me." she said, finishing to wash the last fork and passing it to him so he could wipe it dry with a cloth.

"That makes two of us." Derek replied. "Actually a lot more than two, so I'm very lucky." he added, after being distracted by that thought for a few seconds.

"He's lucky too, you know? To have you in his life." his mom assured, affectionately stroking her son's shoulder with her small hand.

Derek sighed, finishing to dry the dishes out and rolling the sleeves of his button-up shirt back down to his wrists. "I don't know mama. Sometimes I feel like he's getting tired of me."

"Oh baby that's not possible, trust me. I've dated a bunch of guys when I was young, and the ones who looked at me like Spencer looks at you were the ones I had to dump because they never would have in a thousand years." she paused. "...until I met your father, and then we both looked at each other like that. Just like you two do." she concluded in a nostalgic tone, forcing a sad smile out of him.

"...have you asked him yet?" she changed the topic, after a long silence.

"Asked what?" Derek answered with a question, frowning.

"...to marry you? "

"What?? Mom, I don't know if- we've never even mentioned it- Jesus mama we don't even live together yet!" he replied, even more confused than before he got asked, trying to keep his voice low.

"Alright! No need to fuss like that! Take your time. But you should at least think about it, if you really wanna know what your mother thinks." she winked, before finally getting back to the other room, leaving Derek full of questions he didn't even know he had in the first place.

-

Spencer entered the small kitchen, holding Derek's leather jacket in his hand.

"You done?" he asked, handing it to him as Derek turned around to face him.

The man nodded in response, putting the jacket on.

"I wanna hear you say it." he then said, grinning at him with his arms folded on his chest.

"...say what?" Spencer asked, as if he didn't know what Derek wanted to hear, non-chalantly leaning against the counter.

Derek made a step closer, grabbing his jaw in one hand and trapping him between said counter and his hips.

"Just say it" he repeated, this time murmuring a few inches from his face.

Spencer tried to avoid his eyes, but it was almost impossible. Considering how he'd been kissed senseless against the door earlier in his hotel room, Spencer should've known better than to stand between Derek's body and whatever other vertical surface. He would never admit he didn't want to learn that lesson.

"...you were right." he finally confessed in a sigh, trying to contain his smile.

"Yes." Derek let out a whispered exult, before ultimately erasing that bit of space left between their lips. He cupped the back of Spencer's neck to prevent him from hitting the crown of his head against the metal handle of the cabinet above. Or to prevent him from escaping his mouth, whichever option one deems more realistic.

They kissed slowly and secretly, both struggling to stop the giggles and little smiles from interrupting it every 5 seconds, making it impossible for their tongues to keep prolonged contact.

-

The moment Spencer was starting to get carried away just enough to wrap his arms around Derek's neck, they heard an intentional fit of coughing coming from the threshold of the door.

They quickly and embarrassedly took their hands off of each other and turned around to face Sarah.

"Uhm, guys, it's starting to rain..." she said with a slight cringe on her face.

"Nice." Derek sighed. He took Spencer's hand and led the way out of the room and toward the front door.

They hugged and said their goodbyes to the three women, and Derek opened the door, letting Spencer out first.

His mom grabbed his arm before he could close the door behind his back. "Think about it." she mouthed, winking at her son.

Derek snorted and rolled his eyes in response.

When he stepped out and turned around, he saw Spencer looking blankly in front of them, sheltered by the porch, righteously frozen in spot and gaping: it wasn't simply "starting to rain". It was like someone from up there was literally pouring the whole Lake Michigan over their heads.

They exchanged a resigned look, before deciding unanimously to run toward the car, luckily parked only 30 ft away from the house.

-

"Shit." Spencer cursed under his breath when they finally got into the car, soaked from head to toe.

"Yeah" Derek agreed. "Maybe we can wait a lil until this mess calms down before heading back, what do you say?" he asked rhetorically.

"Most definitely." Spencer replied chuckling, tucking his wet hair behind his ears.

They stayed silent for a few minutes, listening to the relaxing sound of the water running down the windshield, making it absolutely impossible to distinguish the shapes of whatever was outside.

"So, uhm" Spencer broke the silence, interrupting himself immediately after to sigh annoyedly at his failed attempt to wipe dry his drooling-wet forehead with the sleeve of his equally wet jacket. He wanted to talk about that thing before he could lose any sleep over it.

"...your sisters asked me a question that left me...honestly, I don't even know if there's a word to describe my reaction in that moment." he continued, now pinching with his fingers the pants sticking to his thigh.

Derek's heart rate started to increase uncontrollably. He didn't say anything, letting Spencer finish, to have actual proof that he was gonna say what he thought he was gonna say; and just then, could legitimately freak out.

"Desirée asked if you had proposed yet." Spencer said straight up, still struggling to believe that he'd actually received such a question. "I didn't know how to justify the fact that neither of us has thought about it yet. I mean, should we have thought about it? Is it- is it an option? I don't even know I just- I don't know. I don't know what to think about this so please tell me that you have a vague idea of what to do with that question." Spencer finished talking, leaving Derek speechless. Now, he had the right to freak out.

Derek let his forehead drop on the steering wheel, chuckling to himself - he didn't even know where to start.

"A'ight, uhm...mom asked me, too." he finally confessed, pulling himself together just enough to sit up straight again. "I don't know if it was all calculated, but it wouldn't be surprising if it was, now would it?"

"Definitely not." Spencer replied laughing.

Derek cleared his voice and got a little more serious. "Of course I told her I didn't ask you to marry me... yet. I guess. Dammit, I don't know, am I supposed to know?"

"I don't know!"

"How are we even gonna talk about it if we don't know? She told me to 'think about it', think about what??" Derek was freaking out way more than Spencer was, which was the most unexpected turn of events ever.

"Ok Derek stop for a second." Spencer said in a soothing tone, turning slightly to his left to look at him better as he grabbed his hand. Derek quieted down and stared deep into his boyfriend's gentle eyes, entwining their fingers together.

"It's hard to picture it because of our job. That's literally the whole point. The only point, to be fair, cause- look, I don't know if I wanna get married, what I know is that I...I think I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life with you...you know? It sounds cheesy I know, but there's no other proper way to say it..."

Spencer's words calmed Derek down. He let go of his hand to caress the back of his neck, staring silently at him as his smart brain formulated the next things to say.

"and- and maybe, in the future, when the job and everything else falls into place...maybe we could consider signing a piece of paper, I guess. But the point is that if you asked me in this exact moment I'd say yes because- because yes, I want to be with you- but there's no pressure what so ever cause this is what I think and maybe I'm not making any sense to you right now and you don't ever wanna get married or...or be with me forever and- and it's ok, I'm just tryna figure my thoughts out-"

"Kid. It does. It makes sense to me, too. All of it." Derek was the one speaking sensibly now. He leaned closer and started to run his fingers through Spencer's damp hair to relax him.

"...do you want me to give you statistics about divorces within the first 3 years of marriage in homosexual couples?" Spencer asked after a few seconds of silence, though it wasn't so much a question rather an excuse to put a halt to the gears overdriving in his mind.

Derek burst into such a glee, beautiful sounding laugh, Spencer was on the verge of swooning. He swore if saying lame jokes was the way to hear that laugh 24 hours a day, he would've recorded himself saying them and played them to him non-stop. That was husband material, no doubt.

"Baby, you know I'm always here to listen to your ramblings, but I really don't think we should be discussing divorces before even having got married, what do you think?" the man said eventually, once his laugh had quieted down.

Even having predicted such an answer, the words Derek said and the way he said them didn't fail to make Spencer giggle and flush - a downside to his attempted teasings he'd found himself fall into a quadrillion times during the years. Another of many lessons he wasn't quite willing to learn.

-

After that, they stayed in silence for a while, staring into each other's eyes. From the sound of it, they noticed the rain had almost completely settled down.

Spencer timidly inched forward and laid a kiss on the corner of Derek's lips.

"I love you." he whispered, before placing his palm behind his neck to push him deeper into his mouth.

The moment Spencer pronounced those words and blessed him with one of his sugar-kisses, Derek started to contemplate that if spending the rest of his days with that man meant wet-making out in the car; and cozy family dinners, awkward questions included; and that sweet voice of his endlessly pouring his smart - oh, so smart - brain out to him at 3 am; and velvet tongue healing his bruised skin; and slow dancing even if it wasn't "dancing per say"; and feather-like fingers drawing goosebumps underneath his clothes; and being unable to stay angry at such a gorgeous face for too long - then he could've signed that piece of paper right there, right then.

When he woke up from that thought, Derek realized that the gap between their car seats that was keeping their bodies apart was starting to bother him. He pulled out of that tongue-melting kiss.

"We should get going now that it's not raining anymore." he said breathily.

Spencer nodded, swallowing the rich taste Derek's mouth left into his. "Yeah." he shivered. " 'm starting to get cold..."

Derek started the car, smirking as Spencer's words prompted a very specific thought to crawl its way into his head.

"We could keep warm actually doing that thing we were about to do earlier in your room."