#i am also not immune to the casting of simon - i am after all only one poor poor bisexual

[gwynfish]

public service announcement for my friends: I have apparently succumbed to the call of penny and therefore decided to read all of bridgerton (i'm only at book five no spoilers!!) and also watch it, so, uh, if you want to block the tag. these characters are too stupid/iconic and the looks to amazing not to reblog stuff. be warned.

[ravennm84]

Complicity

Hey everyone! Sorry I’ve been missing for a while, but I’ve had a lot going on and lacking inspiration, until the other day! I know that Lila thinks she’s the smartest person in the room and that everyone else it too stupid to figure her out. So, I decided to let her “think” she’s being smart, but gets caught because she did something stupid. Warm-Fuzzies and please enjoy!

Lila was happy. Since she had become a model, she had acquired a small fan base of people that thought she had beauty and talent. Granted, it wasn’t as large as she thought it should be, but she had only done three photo shoots and had been mentioned in one magazine. But this was just the beginning; soon, all of Europe would know her name and reporters would be clamoring after her for pictures. 

But at the same time she was very angry.

This was because Marinette had been mentioned in the same magazine as her. And where Lila got a single photo that showed more of Adrien than it did of her, Maribrat had gotten an entire article and multiple photos about her designs and the collaboration she was doing with Style Queen Audrey Bourgeois since the woman had decided to stay in Paris. She had even looked at the girl’s website and saw that there was an actual wait list to receive one of her original designs.

Enraged that someone she considered to be plain, talentless, and all around lower in status than her, Lila started coming up with plans. She wasn’t about to share her spotlight with anyone, let alone Maribrat.

She was tempted to accuse the bluenette of stealing her designs and ruining her reputation, but since she had been designing for longer than Lila had been in Paris, that had too much of a chance to backfire. She’s thought of sicking one of her classmates/sheep to break into her house and destroy her commission projects, but that also had too much of a chance to backfire since they would likely blab if they were caught.

No, she needed a different type of plan. Something that would be farther removed from herself so nothing would blow back on her, but harsh enough so that even Maribrat wouldn’t connect what happened to her. It took a few weeks and a lot of planning, but she came up with something that would work. It had been the perfect plan, a way to get Marinette out of her life and the spotlight for good. 

All it took was some sweet talking one of her new followers; a large, burly boy named Henry that was a couple years older than her and not very bright. He would have done anything for her… including going after a “stalker” that had threatened to hurt her. She barely even had to suggest anything before the boy assured her that he would protect her at all costs. It even seemed to be working when Maribrat was suspiciously absent from school for a few days after Henry said he would “take care of it”.

It had been the perfect plan...

Until the police showed up. 

She had just gotten home when the police arrived, saying that she was wanted for questioning in an open case. They had already been in contact with her mother and Greta Rossi had promised them their full cooperation. Rather than risk looking guilty, Lila called her mother to make sure they were telling the truth before grudgingly going with them. 

When she got to the police station, she was met by her very confused and furious mother. This wasn’t the first time she had been in trouble with the law. There had been an incident in Rome where she’d been accused of pushing a boy, Simone, down the stairs, and her mother had been forced to pay his medical bills. She had made it very clear that if Lila caused any more problems at school, it would not be pleasant.

So there she was; sitting with her mother and a couple of police detectives that she didn’t recognize, who were giving her condescending looks. “I am Detective Cooper, and this is Detective Raimus. We understand that you have been made aware of your rights, correct?”

“Yes, multiple times. What is this all about? You can’t just bring my daughter in for questioning like she’s some common criminal.” Her mother said as she stared down the two men.

“Mme. Rossi, we need to ask your daughter some questions in connection to an assault that took place against one of her classmates.” Stated Cooper, a detective with a thick mustache.

“Are you or your daughter familiar with a M. Henry Mortaure?”

“I’ve never heard of him,” Lila lied with a shrug.

“Neither have I, who was attacked?” Her mother asked, suddenly worried about what her daughter might have gotten involved in.

“A Mlle. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, are you familiar with the name?” Asked Raimus, who looked a bit older than his partner.

Greta Rossi thought for a second before nodding. “Lila has mentioned her a couple of times, said that she was a bully. What about her?”

“The Dupain-Cheng residence was broken into a few days ago by M. Mortaure. He was armed and confessed to be doing so with the intent of killing Mlle. Dupain-Cheng.” Mme. Rossi gasped in shock while Lila was attempting to hide her smirk with a look of worry. “The Dupain-Chengs were not harmed, although the same cannot be said for M. Mortaure.” Cooper placed some photos in front of them on the table, gaining another gasp from Greta. Three of the man’s limbs were wrapped in heavy gauze, his face was swollen and bruised from a black eye and a seriously broken nose. 

Lila didn’t flinch when she saw the photos, but was now fighting a scowl at the knowledge that Henry had failed her. And since she was here in an interrogation room, it could only mean that the idiot had blabbed. But that didn’t matter, she could just say that he must be a crazy stalker who had somehow found out that Maribrat was bullying her and decided to take things into his own hands. After all, it wasn’t like she had called or messaged him from her personal phone. She had bought a burner phone with cash just for this occasion. 

“Despite being armed with a pistol, he never had a chance to use it,” Raimus stated as pushed one of the photos towards Lila. “He will require reconstructive surgery on his face from being hit multiple times with a rolling pin. His arms were severely burned when he fell into a fryer, it’s likely that he’ll never have full use of them again. Despite the burns, he attempted to go for a kitchen knife after being disarmed. That knife was turned on him and he ended up with a perforated lung.”

Greta looked like she was going to be sick, unable to look away from the pictures in front of her. But she eventually did, casting a harsh stare at her daughter. “Please, tell me you had nothing to do with this.”

Doing her best to fake her shock, she shook her head and pushed away the photos. “I swear, I had nothing to do with this. I don’t even know why he would do this.”

“We were wondering the same thing and discovered that he’s a fan of yours. He has multiple pictures of you, as well as Mlle. Dupain-Cheng. We suspected that he had been stalking you and came to the conclusion that he thought she was bullying you and decided to protect you on his own-”

“Oh no, that has to be it!” She exclaimed, skillfully faking shock. “Marinette followed me out of school last week and threatened me to stay away from my boyfriend. This boy must have seen her and decided to get rid of her.”

“If that’s the case, why are you questioning my daughter?” Greta pressed, not completely believing Lila but seeming to be coming around to her side.

“As I was saying,” stressed Detective Cooper. “We had suspected that M. Mortaure was stalking your daughter, until we got the warrant for his phone. It seems that someone, supposedly Lila, has been corresponding with him for many weeks. She had been flirting with him, sending him photos of herself, and then Marinette. She went on to tell him that Mlle. Dupain-Cheng was a stalker and had threatened her. M. Mortaure seems to have done what he did with the understanding that he was protecting Lila, at Lila’s own behest.”

“I would never do that!” Lila cried before reaching into her purse to pull out her personal mobile and set it on the table in front of them. “Check my phone, I never messaged him.”

“We have already checked your phone records against the one that has been messaging M. Mortaure, and found that the numbers did not match.” Detective Raimus said, and Lila watched her mother visibly slump from relief… but it was short lived. 

“We did, however, track the number to a burner phone that was purchased in cash from a gas station. We thought it was a dead end, but the person who bought the phone made a mistake.” Raimus continued as Detective Cooper pulled out his own mobile and dialed a number. “The person who bought it has kept it on, and it is currently active.”

Seconds after Cooper pressed send, a ringing came from Lila’s purse. Greta Rossi stared at her daughter in shock before yanking the purse out of Lila’s hands and pulling out a second phone from inside. When Cooper cancelled the call, the second phone stopped ringing. 

“What have you done?” She spat at Lila.

Panicking, she shook her head while looking around the room for an exit. “That’s not mine! They must have planted it on me when they brought me here! They’re trying to frame me!”

“DON’T LIE TO ME!” Greta screamed at her daughter, causing Lila to practically fall out of her seat in fear. “You convinced someone to commit MURDER for you! That makes you just as guilty as him!”

“But-but I have diplomatic immunity! I can’t be charged for any of this!”

“Yes, you can,” Greta said, her voice going cold. “I may be a secretary to the Italian Ambassador, which grants me immunity, but that doesn’t extend to you! I told you to behave! I told you to never cause trouble like you did in Roma after what you did to that boy that called you out on your…” Understanding washed over Greta’s features as her expression morphed from anger, to understanding, and then disgust. “That’s it, isn’t it? Marinette never bullied you. She knew about your lies and you set out to hurt her just like before!” 

Standing up quickly, her mother started pacing the room before looking back to the detectives. “I’ll still need to speak with the ambassador, but you can expect our full cooperation in this.”

“Mom, no!”

“What are the charges?” Greta asked, acting as though Lila wasn’t even there. 

“As Lila is a minor, she can be charged with Complicity to Commit Murder, the decision of sentencing is ultimately up to the judge. But seeing as she purposefully bought a burner phone to use and has also lied to the police, I wouldn’t hold much hope.”

~oOo~

The trial took longer than expected. At first, things had been looking up since her followers from class had come to act as character witnesses. All of them saying how wonderful she was, a great friend that did so much for them and everyone she knew,   and that she would never do something so terrible. That Marinette was just jealous of Lila, so it was better to take whatever she said with a grain of salt.

Then, the prosecution started their case. Showing evidence of Lila falsifying records at school, video evidence of her purposefully framing Marinette for assault and theft. As well as the communications between herself and Henry, encouraging him to kill Marinette. 

Her followers had still been a bit sceptical to believe what the prosecutor was saying about her, not wanting to believe that they had supported someone who would try to get another person murdered. But then came her past victims, many of whom her mother had never known about. Simone from Rome, Sara from Florence, Giulia from Venice, Daniel from Viterbo, and Sofia from Palermo. All of them testifying against Lila, many with screenshots of threatening texts from her, photos of ruined property and injuries she had inflicted on them, and all around proof that Lila was the reason behind many hardships that had happened to them. And all because they had figured out that she was a liar and she had done everything in her power to hurt them.

After all that, the judge had not been kind. 

“It is clear, Mlle. Rossi, that you are a very disturbed girl in need of help,” the judge said, not bothering to hide how offput he was by Lila. “I cannot, in good conscious, allow you to roam freely. Having seen that these habits of yours have not only been repeated over and again, but have escalated to attempted murder. I have no choice but to have you returned to Italy where you will be kept in a juvenile detention center until you turn 18, at which point you will be transferred to a mental hospital for treatment for no less than five years. At which point, you will be evaluated to see if you will be able to safely rejoin society.”

Lila was immediately escorted back to Italy in disgrace. Her name slandered across every newspaper and magazine across Europe for what she had done. She was now famous, with most everyone knowing her name and reporters scrambling to take her picture as she did her walk of shame out of the courthouse. She was finally famous, but for all the wrong reasons

In case you are wondering. Henry made the mistake of coming after Marinette when she was with her parents. Tom and Marinette were in the bakery kitchen and Sabine was at the front. Tom saw the gun and hit him in the face with his rolling pin twice. He dropped the gun but was still coming after Marinette, she tripped him and he landed in the frier, which had been turned on to make donuts, and splashed oil all over him. Sabine had rushed back in time to see a bleeding and badly burned Henry grabbing a knife, she did some wicked moves that resulted in Henry stabbing himself. By then, he passed out from the pain and the Dupain-Chengs had called the police. The officers that came were both impressed and terrified by what happened to the boy, but the surveillance footage proved that they were only defending themselves.

TAGLIST:

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[carryonsimoncarryonbaz]

Hey! So I read a post abt how Simon’s wings represent his love for Baz in CO and WS. Do you also read into the wings this way (taking Awtwb into account of course)? In fact, Is there any deeper symbolic significance to his wings or did Simon just create them in the heat of the battle?

Also remember how in WS Penny and baz (penny particularly) wonder WHY Simon gave himself wings and a tail? And whether they are magic or not? I don’t think that question is ever completely answered. What is your take on that?

I realise I m asking a lot in just one question but I feel this is connected: Why do you think Rr chose to make Simon immune to magic? And did it happen solely cuz of smith richard’s spell?

hey anon! thank you for this incredibly fascinating and complex ask. I will do my best to answer you, but I have a feeling this may be long and very rambly. I have many thoughts and they’re not all linear, as I’m a bit jumbled myself with real life at the moment, but I didn’t want to leave your very thought-provoking ask unanswered.

I think the post you are referring to is this marvellous, detailed meta by @adamarks. It’s worth reading. So many good points. 

I do feel there is a symbolism to Simon’s wings. HIs love for Baz may be one way to think of them. Other metas have approached the wings differently (which I address in the last paragraph of this post.) 

Simon initially created them as a means of escape—a literal definition of “flight.” He first used wings when he and Penny had to get away from the Humdrum at the end of seventh year. But as others have pointed out (and I am so sorry I can't remember who!) the teleporting to Lancashire happens when Simon sees Baz and Agatha holding hands in the Wavering Wood. It's been mentioned that perhaps the depth of his emotion in that moment resulted in him teleporting himself away from them, to a previously familiar place, encountering a corporeal version of the Humdrum, and creating a new dead spot. He created that initial set of wings to fly away from the Humdrum with Penny, but they were wings of convenience, misshapen and ephemeral, falling to bits when Penny cast "nonsense."

The wings he manifests in the woods by Pitch manor also encompass the escape definition of “flight” as well as the more literal one, and come after another confusing and upsetting encounter with the Humdrum. And a night spent kissing Baz. Choosing to be boyfriends. Choosing each other. And another extremely intimate magical connection, when Simon fills Baz with his magic after the Humdrum drained him. And then after that, once Baz realises that they’re in a newly created dead spot, once he’s seen the Humdrum has Simon’s face, Baz tells Simon to go. He's drained the magic from Pitch Manor. The humdrum is somewhere, looking like Simon. Baz’s parents are headed their way.

This is just the kind of disaster that could set in motion irrevocable moves from the Old Families—understandably seeing this as a hostile attack on their magic by the Mage through his acolyte, in their very homes. The implications, looking at it that way, are grave. They're both in a panic and Baz's instinct is to have Simon get away because he's somehow tied to this disaster and it may be the only way Baz can protect him in that moment. So Simon goes. He manifests wings again this time but they are far more solid and corporeal. They are dragon wings. Perhaps in remembrance of the time he and Baz first shared magic fighting off the dragon at Watford--the first intimate connection they ever had. He's distraught at being sent away in this manner--and he's basically incoherent from stress and exhaustion when he arrives at Penny's. His wings resist any magic Penny's mom throws at them. They resist Penny’s magic as well. If you look at the wings as a metaphor for his love for Baz they are what he’s taken with him as he’s left Baz behind, the visual representation of that love. 

Simon’s love, as we see in AWTWB, isn’t necessarily soft or gentle--it’s fiery and tumultuous, rough and raw, all-encompassing (much like his magic)—he’s never felt this depth of emotion for anyone previously, and it’s there even in the early days of their relationship (and following the idea that his obsession with Baz was actually an attraction, he has felt intense emotion for Baz for a long time). Simon’s never had a passionate love like this before. This isn't what he had with Agatha. He’s got no idea what to do with it all—like his magic, it’s boundless. Huge, fiery, all-encompassing. Like a dragon, perhaps. And a dragon is what precipitated that shift in their relationship, that first intimacy. It’s compelling imagery. 

Simon has the wings when he goes to Watford at the end of Carry On to find the Mage. He's also wearing a grey suit that he somehow manifested as well. Likely the image of the grey suit Baz had him wear to dinner at his home. We’ve seen how Baz armors himself with clothing when he goes into stressful situations— to go to the vampire bar in Carry On, at the Katherine where he meets Lamb, all the varied suits he wears in AWTWB. This is an instance of Simon arming himself with Baz's suit. The wings, if you think of them as his love for Baz, remain in place. He adds that extra layer of armor, Baz’s way, Baz’s clothes, his favor so to speak—if you put it in the guise of a knight wearing his love’s token. ( ( @adamarks has a fantastic scarf meta about this idea!)

I think Simon’s decision to remove his wings at the same time as he breaks up with Baz in AWTWB is very relevant to this idea and love symbolism. He’s cutting himself off from magic, from his relationship with Baz—from the love of his life. And then, after the devastating confrontation/breakup with Baz, after a night of thinking about what Baz said, he can't actually do it. It feels wrong to even have them touched by Niamh.

And later, his wings figure so prominently in his thoughts on getting back to Baz:

“What if I needed my wings?” —he’s needed them before, to save Baz in the desert. This rambling of mine kind of addresses your first question. I do think they are symbolic. Of love. Of a connection with Baz. Of Simon’s fight or flight duality. Of all those things. 

That ties in to your second question on why dragon’s wings and if they are magic or not. I think the choice of dragon parts is up for debate. Is it a call back to that moment of intimacy with Baz, where Simon assumes he was thinking about the dragon, as he says in ch 72 of Carry On? Or does it relate to the theory that the Mage used dragon blood for his Greatest Mage rituals (ch 79 Carry On) and somehow that imbued Simon with some vestige of dragon?  Does he have enough in him that Maggie senses it, as she appears to in WS? I don't have an answer to that and any and all of those options are reasonable. 

I do think the wings are magic. They hold magic in them still. They were created by magic and they are intermittently resistant to magic and spells (Like with Penny’s mom and how Baz and Penny usually have to cast concealment spells rather than spells that actually spell the wings away). (It took over a year for Penny to come up with the bell spell to make Simon’s wings disappear.) (And Baz can’t really make it work.) My take is that they are magic, hold magic in them. I think your last question, on the immunity to magic, ties into this, in a multifactorial way. 

A few points to consider. Simon has always had an aversion to having spells cast on him. He dislikes it when Premal does it, he prefers that Baz not spell him clean the second time he arrives at the Pitch estate. He actually flinches the first time Baz does it. He grows to hate it in Wayward Son, flinching and verbally rejecting spells at times. Smith’s spell doesn’t give people magic. It pulls the intrinsic magic they have to the surface and makes it all accessible to them at once. What intrinsic magic does Simon have? In Wayward Son, Blue tells Simon he gave it all back and more--so he gave the magic he took from the magical firmament to the humdrum and he gave his own magic as well, his intrinsic mage magic inherited from his parents. So what magic does Simon have left, for Smith to tap into? The wings. The magic in them. When Smith casts the spell Simon feels a sensation like a bubble rising, pushing up against his skin, then popping. Is it the dragon magic pulling out of the wings and enveloping all of Simon? Giving him a dragon’s resistance to magic? Which in a way is exactly what he wants--a separation from magic, a way to be free of people casting spells on him? Possibly. Could it be a void in him, having given all the magic he had, a nothingness left over from the Humdrum, that absorbs magic and/or repels it? Hard to say but I personally lean more to the dragon wing theory.

Simon has felt out of control for much of his life, not being able to manage his magic when he had it, not necessarily having agency over himself when he was under the Mage’s tutelage, not having autonomy and agency when he lost his magic and felt he didn’t fit in either the Normal world or the World of Mages. Being impervious to magic gives him a boundary with magic, with mages. He doesn’t need to tell them not to spell him anymore, they can’t. (Not that Penny listens, she still tries to cast on him just to see if he remains immune, even toward the end of the book!)

There are a few moments where magickal immunity is distinctly mentioned in AWTWB--the Ent-like rowan tree bartender at the bar Penny and Shepard went to, the Watford goats who seem to be able to choose when and if they respond to magic, Simon’s immunity to it at the White Chapel confrontation with Smith, an instance where being immune to it actually saved his life. 

It’s possible Smith’s spell pulled magic from the wings and gave Simon an imperviousness to any magic cast on him, something that ties into and relates to his aversion at having magic cast on him.

I don’t think the spell will necessarily function on Simon the way it did with the other mages Smith cast it on—it pulled all their magic to the fore at once and then they burned through it themselves by casting spells (and the bastard knew it!) With Simon it may linger, as he’s not necessarily using it up. It’s hard to say if the magic is repelled vs. absorbed and neutralized (which is reminiscent of how Ebb was able to counter some spells.) I don’t know if there is a finite amount of magic that can be repelled after the spell, if it will weaken and slowly dissipate. 

But the recurrent theme of immunity to magic in this book and having agency and choice regarding spells cast on one is a fascinating point to ponder and if it perhaps may be something Simon eventually may be able to control himself—the choice to accept magic cast on him or not. Magic surrounds him. He doesn’t have to wield magic himself to be part of that world, if he chooses to be part of it—perhaps it’s enough to have it in him, like the goats, or be of magickal heritage and still be able to use a magickal sword, as he and Jamie can, or appreciate and be curious about the magickal world, as Shepard is.

(I will mention here that there are also theories that Simon’s wings symbolize disability, in the way they are something he must constantly think about, accommodate, plan for, work around, hide, be overly self-conscious of, that visually identify him as being different in both the world of mages and the Normal world. In much the same way Baz’s vampirism has been discussed in other meta on here as a metaphor for his queerness and also as a metaphor for chronic illness/disease, which are valid and interesting hypotheses. As we are talking about Simon’s wings in your ask, I will say I can see the validity of the disability metaphor and I find it worthwhile to think about and discuss.) 

[enbylesbianism]

ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS: Simon Snow trilogy wrapped! (review)

Hi, there! It took me a while to finish this post, as I could talk about it for... a long time (not necessarily a good thing), but I got it! I like praise, so if anyone wants to tell me I did a good job... Also, I might edit this post later on. I don’t remember anything else I’d like to add, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did after posting. My brain does not obey me. Anyways, off to it! By the way, I won’t give this book a real rating.

While this is a review on Any Way the Wind Blows, I intend on analysing some points of the overall series too. The book starts where Wayward Son left off, the end of the road trip, Simon and Baz having problems in their relationship, Penelope helping Shepard with his curse... and the whole situation of the NowNext vampires. Rainbow Rowell only seems to remember the first part. That leaves us with the second book of the series ignored almost completely, with the exception of Simon and Baz’s feelings as well as Shepard’s existence.

Don’t get me wrong, aspects of the book are mentioned, but never in a truly important way. Lamb, the Vampire King, is mentioned by Simon, but only focusing on his and Baz’s relationship, never about the fact that there are a bunch of vampires (supposedly ‘evil’) in the U.S. but I guess what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? I could count on one hand the times the NowNext vampires were mentioned (like, literally, this isn’t an exaggeration, I looked up ‘NowNext’ on the e-book and only got five results), all of them either being one of them considering telling someone else about it, then not following through with it, or dismissing it as a concern for Lamb. Which makes the plot of Wayward Son completely useless for the trilogy. Now, that wouldn’t matter as much if everything else had been properly developed, but we definitely can’t say that.

We are introduced to a brand new, poorly developed villain, Smith-Smith Richards, whose character arc is as ridiculous as his name. He’s one of the fake Chosen Ones that started appearing after the events of Carry On (and the only one to be mentioned and/or defeated, for that matter). It becomes clear that presenting as Simon Snow-ish is part of his brand, especially when Baz describes him as looking like the Netflix adaptation version of Simon, and that he was raised and guided by his uncle, who’s just... there. I don’t think it would’ve been hard to make him manipulating Smith-Smith into believing he’s the prophetic savior of the Magickal World, which would not only make both of their characters more interesting, but it could also serve as a parallel of Simon’s relationship with the Mage. Richards also has some special powers such as increasing a mage’s magic for a limited amount of time, but taking it away afterwards, as well as making someone immune from spells. It’s worth saying those aren’t skills that are usual in the Magickal World, or else there wouldn’t be so much confusion and shock from people (specially Baz and Penny, who would definitely have heard of something like this before), but we get no explanation on why or how Richard has them.

Then, we have the Salisbury’s. We, as readers, already know Lucy and Davy are Simon’s parents, making Ruth his grandmother. It’s noticeable that Rowell builds up to that discovery, by making Simon get along with Ruth instantly, him thinking about Lucy a lot etc. It makes us excited to read the part where they actually figure it out, to know how Simon would deal with that, him dealing with the fact that he’s the Mage’s son and the fact that, technically, he killed his father. I suppose that’s the point, but actually getting to that part was incredibly underwhelming. The way they discovered about Simon—being able to lift a family sword—hadn’t been mentioned or hinted at before. One would’ve expected Simon, who’s particularly interested in swords as it’s mentioned many times throughout the series, to notice a freaking Excalibur at the Salisbury’s place before. 

And speaking of noticing things: when it’s finally revealed that Simon is Lucy’s son and the Mage’s heir, Baz pointed out the uncanny similarities between his boyfriend and the deceased Watford principal. “Those narrow eyes. That tilt of his head. I thought... I thought he’d learned it. Was imitating it.” + “Merlin, Simon, you even look like him.”  (Any Way the Wind Blows, chapter 86) Simon was the Mage’s protégé for years and I assume the Magickal authorities knew that he was the one to inherit all of his money and personal belongings, but no one, in the whole British Magickal community, thought about them being related? I refuse to believe there were no conspiracy theorist teachers at Watford or that Mitali or even the Pitch’s alongside everyone who was against the Mage didn’t at least check to know if there was something behind those characteristics. Baz literally said (chapter 88), “I think it’s undeniable. I’d cast ‘Flesh and blood’ on them, but it would bounce right off of Snow (...)”, so there is a spell for that. Plus, we didn’t even have one whole chapter of Simon dealing with this information! The chapters (no more than five, out of ninety-one) were divided between Simon, Baz and Lady Ruth’s POVs. He’s the main character, so one would think he’d get more development.

Another point that felt rushed was the romance. While Simon and Baz’s relationship wasn’t, as it’s been a topic Rowell has explored for three books (we’re not counting Fangirl here, as their ‘participation’ on it was minor and their personalities weren’t as consistent as in the trilogy. Not that it is that consistent there), the others just felt like she wanted everyone to finish the trilogy with a pair. I’ll start with Shepard and Penny. There were fans who liked them together before Any Way the Wind Blows, but it wasn’t hinted at—it was more like a fandom thing. I personally like them as a couple, but it could have had development and, maybe, foreshadowing in Wayward Son. I mean, they did fight monsters during a huge part of a road trip together.

The next one I’ll talk about is Agatha and Niamh. I love them, don’t get me wrong. Actually, it’s precisely because I love them that I wish they’d gotten a better treatment. Niamh wasn’t introduced before Any Way the Wind Blows. I get why she wasn’t introduced in Carry On—it was interesting to see a character who wasn’t caught up in Simon and Baz’s drama during the school years—but a hint of her existence could’ve been left in Wayward Son. Agatha is an important character on it, and a mention of her father training an aspiring veterinary could’ve fit somewhere, as a hint, maybe. (Also, Lucy, the dog, being absolutely forgotten during this book when a lot of Agatha’s time is spent in a veterinary clinic...) Besides, we could get the vibes from them, but after they kissed, there was barely any content. We didn’t get them calling each other ‘girlfriend’ (or if they even like that label at this point), or the aftermath of the kiss, or a POV from Niamh. Or Niamh appearing the epilogue? If Agatha was taking care of the goats, I’m sure Niamh would have a part in that too. Still on Agatha’s character, but not on Niamh’s, it felt like Rainbow Rowell was setting up for aromantic and asexual Agatha, specially because of this quote: “It was like she'd pulled the feeling right out of my heart. I could have kissed her. (I still wish sometimes that I wanted to.) (That would feel like an answer to... the question of me. Then I could say, 'Oh, thats who I am. That's why I've been so confused.')” (Wayward Son, chapter 4).

And I was leaving the best (I need to be sure everyone knows I mean this sarcastically) of the romance topic for the end: Fiona and Nicodemus. It’s just... so forced and undeveloped. Not even because, to me, they’re both gay as hell. There was just... such a lack of development! I don’t think we had any interaction between the both of them before Any Way the Wind Blows. There was no foreshadowing or why would Fiona, a vampire hunter from a family of vampire hunters, would marry... a vampire! I’d already find it weird to see fanfiction of them as a crackship, but it’s canon?! Like, canon as in they’re going to get married and use Fiona and Natasha’s mother’s ring? Seriously, nothing will take from me that this is a lavender marriage (as I’ve already discussed with my best friend, which inspired this post of theirs.)

I’d also like to speak about a topic that’d been hinted throughout the series, especially post-Carry On, which is the criticism towards the Magickal Community in the U.K.. That criticism is very much embodied in Shepard’s character. It’s explicitly said that the British mages have some kind of supremacy towards other supernatural beings, such as vampires for example, gatekeeping literal magic. Up until relatively recently, mages with weak links with magic couldn’t attend Watford (and that’s a major plot point in the final book) and there’s a denial towards any other kind of magic except the ones that are part of their craft. Even within the Magickal community itself, there are more important families that are more likely to succeed, like Natasha receiving criticism for marrying Malcolm, as a Pitch. It felt pointless not to tackle the issues you’ve set up yourself in your own universe. Penelope has very strict morals related to magickal law and beliefs, something that she could’ve deconstructed, especially considering Shepard, her love interest, symbolises that. Another point related to that is, the trilogy is very clearly heavily inspired by Harry Potter, where many of those points are very clear (e.g. wizard supremacy in relation to other species, such as werewolves and domestic elves and the status quo that makes some traditionally magical families more influential than others, like the Malfoy’s vs. the Weasley’s), so it’s not an easily forgettable concept.

The series also had a lot of inconsistencies. The one I’ve seen talked about more often is Simon and Agatha’s... intimacy status, let’s call it that. Simon’s whole thing in the first book was that he struggled controlling his magic when experiencing intense emotions, which makes it hard to believe that he managed to have sex withount an... accident. Besides that, though, there’s this quote, “She (...) presses a kiss into my temple. No one has ever kissed me there. No one has ever kissed me anywhere but on my mouth” (Carry On, Chapter 27), but in Any Way the Wind Blows, when Simon’s about to have his wings cut, Agatha says, “It’s a strange feeling to look at someone’s chest and know it’s nothing to do with you anymore, but still to remember kissing every inch.” (Chapter 14)

So, we have established that Rainbow Rowell’s work, both character and plot driven, is flawed. “But we got the characters interacting for the closure of the series, at least!” Well... we got interactions between the canon romantic relationships, yeah. But besides that, we didn’t get much. There were no interactions between Agatha and Penny, or Shepard with Simon and Baz. Or Penny and her mother figuring stuff out. Or literally anyone with a therapist. And not gonna lie, the interaction we got between Baz and Dev was underwhelming, to say the least. Niall is nowhere to be seen, too.

Rainbow Rowell’s writing is beautiful: she writes poetic lines that make the book seem perfect at first glance, if you don’t think about it for too long. Her words are very shiny, but once you get use to that light and see what’s behind them, what’s between one shiny quote and another, it has so many flaws and plot holes that it reads like a first draft. There are many concepts in there that are genuinely good: the rest of the trilogy focused on the protagonist dealing with the trauma of being a child soldier instead of being entirely an adventure, Simon being unlabelled, a fake Chosen One that gives mages fake hope... Those are all good ideas, but so poorly explored that, despite being an entire book/trilogy, it still feels like a writing pitch or something among those lines.

I felt iffy about other things during my reading of the series, but they aren’t exactly plot points, so I’ll just list them below:

Mitali, Penny’s mom, including ‘discovering your bisexuality’ as a mid-life crisis thing 

As I’ve seen people talking about biphobia/bi erasure in the books, I’ll be including this post that features both unlabelled and bisexual individuals talking about the topic (it isn’t my place, as a lesbian, to talk about this, that’s why I decided not to do so.)

Romanticising of Baz’s suicide (a.k.a. chapter 61) in the first book. If you’re not in a good place mentally, like I was when I first read Carry On, I hope you know that a kiss or romance doesn’t help any mental illness you or others might have. Don’t let anyone use your guilt to manipulate you. Paraphrasing Alice Oseman in their graphic novel Heartstopper, love can’t cure a mental illness.

Any Way the Wind Blows was... very horny. I can’t point out how this makes the book bad exactly, but it wasn’t something I enjoyed. One of Rainbow Rowell’s strongest skills is that her quotes, when loose, are good. They tend to be poetic and just beautiful, overall. But in the... explicit scenes, these skills were barely used, and I felt like I was reading NSFW tweets off of someone’s private account on Twitter. Besides, the first two books of the series weren’t written like that, so the change was very sudden.

The older people could’ve been more explored. Penelope and Mitali’s relationship and how similar the both of them are compared to each other, Daphne and Professor Bunce’s insecurities and why they believed in Smith-Smith, Fiona, Nico, and Ebb... Also, the Mage and Lucy. We could’ve had more on them, y’know. 

The pop culture references. They made the book read even more like Twitter’s feed. Honestly, if I wanted to read prompts and nice ship content alongside memes from Twitter with some horny thoughts sprinkled all around, I would’ve opened the Twitter app. Or Tumblr, Instagram, whatever.

The POV switching felt lazy to me at times. It’s nice to know how different characters are experiencing that situation, yes, but sometimes, like during the discovery that Simon is a Salisbury, it read as if Rowell wanted to create tension, but couldn’t think of any other way to do it except the switching around.

Narrative wise, I think Simon and Baz should’ve spent more time broken up. 

[roominthecastle]

A ‘bullet point text reaction’ post thing to the season premiere would be forking good. If you can spare the time in between all the rewatching and RL, which again might be messin with the rewatching. Ps. sexy librarian ftw.

Apologies for the late reply, anon, and thank you for the interest. I gave it a try but apparently I had a lot more rambling in me than expected, so I’m not sure how much the bullet point format will help. Still, I rolled w/ it behind the cut:

obv spoilers ahead for those who haven’t seen + it’s mostly Michael focused but who is surprised at this point? ok, here we go:

Yes. All hail the Sexy Librarian Guy! 👍

and his ~~flawless~~ Australian accent lmao. I am no native speaker but even I could hear it was just… delightfully off. I love this disaster zone demon so much.

and how pleased he was that Eleanor was pleased w/ that particular “intervention”. It’s a small but nice reminder of how making her happy makes him happy now. #oppositeTorturesRule

it’s a v small thing but I also loved the “fast food link”: Michael being ecstatic about the Pizza Hut/Taco Bell combo & Eleanor fantasizing about Chipotle during Chidi’s lecture on Aristotle. It reminded me of that s1 moment when she tells Michael about those Arizona churro dogs and they both just go ahhhhhhhh at the image + Judge Gen ofc (they love fast food in the afterlife)

also also the sweet ache of Michael being entangled in her ticker tape while insisting on nudgy-nudge-nudge her & Chidi together bc that’s how it should be is still pressing hard on my heart thank you v much

but

I think that being deprived of close contact w/ his humans is causing Michael to slide back into puppet master mode again. His motivation is different or “reformed” now (secretly helping instead of secretly torturing) but his methods, his itch to control everything (and failing), and the rigid focus on his goals are… not so much, imo, and I love it bc this is Michael: he is a nerd but also an idiot w/ Wile E. Coyote vibes. Janet tries to reel him in but she can’t. Eleanor was the only one who could control him and she was the only one whose advice he actively sought and listened to, but she cannot be there for him now, so yes, I am getting a lot of S1 vibes from this double ep complete w/ her unintentionally messing w/ his formula by not falling for Chidi & the arrival of Trevor. *rubs hands*

COCOONS

so many

so… squishy

and TODD! I never thought I would see him so soon but I was right: he is the best lava monster and fork you, Shawn, for being a jerk to him when he was nothing but supportive and even brought you guys Dunkin’ Spiders to snack on.

I love Shawn, he is the perfect baddie, and I love that we got another glimpse into how TBP operates w/ all their excruciatingly low-tech gadgets. It’s in sharp contrast to (even Michael’s fake) TGP where everything is so neat, efficient, and high-tech. It’s another nice reminder of how the torturers are also being made miserable in TBP in various ways. I can’t blame Michael for wanting to keep his failing experiment running as long as possible.

Judge Gen (who continues to be a delight and way too relatable w/ her binge-watching of media content) is so up to something, people. I cannot shake this feeling that this whole “Operation Resurrection” is not what it looks like on the surface at all. Maybe it’s an experiment within an experiment sort of deal. I mean, why does she trust Michael of all creatures w/ the monitoring duty at all?? She might be quirky but she is def not stupid. She must know he’s a natural rule breaker who’s incapable of sitting still for longer than 2 seconds and he’s not at all impartial here. The way she set this all up reminds me of the test she gave Jason, and Michael is already failing just like Jason did bc he couldn’t opt out of “playing” due to lack of impulse control and a massive personal bias regarding his favorite team, the Cockroaches. idk what this will mean long-term but I think he’s gonna be in a lot of trouble soon.

speaking of Jason and Michael: theirs is my favorite (sort of bonding) scene, hands down. Again, it reminded me of an early S2 moment when Jason stumbles on a brooding, lost Michael and tells him a dope story about his 60-person dance crew that unexpectedly inspires Michael to seek out Eleanor & Co. The situations are reversed here but it’s an excellent parallel, esp when you compare the two scenes and see the development in both characters and their relationship. Jason is a bit   more grounded and Michael is less dismissive and much kinder to him now. I also love Jason’s continued immunity to Michael’s b.s. It’s different from Eleanor’s (his is stupid-based and hers is about being smartbrained) but it works and pushes Michael to just level w/ him and the second he does, Jason becomes instantly receptive. It’s just a really really great character moment that also moves the plot, so it’s basically perfect. Also I think this is the moment when Michael is temporarily pulled from his puppet master mode due to being near one of his human friends again, and his other side peeks out as he lets himself rest a bit - it’s in his body language, too, as he leans back against the bridge railing and has a semi-honest chat w/ Jason.

Michael’s disguises are an eternal source of happiness to me. All of them (and based on promo pics, more is coming). I also love the way he approaches each human bc it is reminiscent of how he steered them during the reboots: to Eleanor he gave a small clue and just let her chew on it and work w/ it. W/ Chidi, he was more direct, posing as a wise helper/guide. W/ Tahani, he targeted her sense of self-worth. W/ Jason, he gave up after 5 seconds and just told him what he wanted him to do.

I doubt his aliases raised many eyebrows, tho, not in a universe where Simone has colleagues called Mrelk and Catapulp :D but Eleanor seemed to have a bit of a “hmm” reaction to the name of Dr. Charles Brainman, so… we’ll see.

Dr. Simone Garnett had probably the smoothest entry into an established character group, imo. I’m usually sensitive to changes like this but it’s like she’s always been here - another excellent casting choice right there. I am not gonna touch shipping issues, thank you, but I love how Simone’s presence, which is a lot of fun in itself, instantly enriched the landscape of relationship dynamics regarding the present, the future and also the past. I feel that every character combination exists somewhere in canon whether it’s explicitly on screen or not, and that’s just an incredibly freeing, resourceful attitude to have on a show w/ this sort of “multiverse” setup, imo. They have the premise, so why not milk its full potential? The writers use relationships as tools to aid character development, they have admitted as much already, and I am looking forward to seeing what other combos they have in mind and how they play out.

despite his limited screen time and despite him spending most of it being flat and emotionless, frog guy aka The Doorman managed to deliver the biggest punch in my heart w/ that reaction to Michael’s gift. I.crumbled. the way his flatness did when he saw the frog on the mug. Thank you, Mike O'Malley.

It’s probably a good thing that they are becoming buddies now bc w/ evil Trevor in the mix, Michael’s gonna turn that Earth entrance into a revolving door. Unless Judge Gen is onto him and steps in at some point. And I still don’t know how he will interact w/ the team now since they’ve all met him already and he was posing as a different person each time. And given his track record, whatever solution he comes up with, Eleanor will see right through him eventually anyway.

ok this is way too long already, so I’m just gonna say that I am very excited for this season, I love the new setup, I miss the fake Good Place but the university environment is growing on me fast, too, and just bring it, show, ok?

my body is ready

[challengersvschampions]

Episode 1 — “I’m Not a Patient Person” (Eddie)

Wow, it's like you guys literally tried your hardest to fuck me over.

ok so yall just opened the confessionals up but dont hate me for the book I'm about to write, the confessional is literally my home away from home and the only reason I'm recognizable enough to come back in the first place ajdfs *record scratch* *freeze frame* Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation. And to that I say....GIRL ME TOO TF. I can NOT believe I'm back and playing tumblr survivor again, the last time I played this everyone wanted to attack me, burn me like a witch, you name it. a MESS is what it was. But whatever, I'm an attention seeking drama thirsty whore so I'm back for more. Last time I played this game I think I did play a really good game, I didn't do much, because I didn't have to, and I was never a target, and I only ever got 2 votes cast against me, with only winning individual immunity once. Now back then, I was definitely in over my head and thought I was doing a lot more than that which is one of the several reasons I lost at final tribal. My game then depended a lot on luck and intuition, but this time around I want to prove that I can do more than just rely on the odds. I want to prove that I am a boneified survivor player, because I am one. This time I'm gonna put more effort into having a solid social game and try not to just fade in the background as much, however, since it worked for me before maybe I'll do a little of that too just with more umph. Anyway, as far as this cast goes, I was definitely worried about pre-existing relationships playing a factor in this game....and then I look on my tribe and  WHO do i see? JAKE. JAKE JAKE JAKE. AND ON THE OTHER TRIBE??? JESSY. GORL. WE INVENTED PRE-EXISTING RELATIONSHIPS!!!! Not only were they my hosts on egypt, but the only reason im apart of this community and did egypt was because we knew each other way before then. They were some of the first people I ever met on tumblr and talked to and they know exactly what I'm capable based on games we've played in the past together. Which is both good and bad...good because maybe I can try to get them to work with me by just playing up the whole "omg reunited!! yay!!" angle, but bad because they know just how dangerous I am and if they're smart they'll get me out as soon as possible, but honestly, I would love for us to work together and make it to f3, and represent  bbmafia an era that's been long forgotten. I've also talked with a lot of the other people on my tribe now too, and I already feel like I'm developing more of a social game now than I did on all of egypt if im spilling tea.

While this was being uploaded, I MISSED getting an advantage in the rules. I feel like I was the second person because the link still existed when I got there but the image was gone, I'm upset.

I wasn't planning on returning this soon after All-Stars, but here I am, and I'm kinda happy about it? Speaking of All-Stars, why are there SO MANY All-Stars people here!!! Ari, Carson, Jakey, Jenn, Jessy, Kait, Ryan, Simon.......including me, that's nearly half the cast, omg. So obviously this cast is pretty stacked because that season was pretty stacked. I don't know how I feel about it, either. I'm happy to be playing with friends, but I kinda wish most of them weren't here. Tribe rankings so far: 1. Ari aka Riley- One of my favorite people outside of Tumblr Survivor!! I'm thrilled they're playing this with me, and I hope we're able to go far together. There's a lot of people that know how close we are though, so I don't know if we can pull it off. I hope we can, I wanna get them to the Rites of Passage that I robbed them of in Heroes Vs. Villains II 2. Ryan- He's hosted me in nearly every game I've played, so it's kind of refreshing to play alongside him for once. He's a really huge asset because he knows so many people, and I trust that he won't target me anytime soon. Plus I luv him 3. Elliott- We have a connection through The Miranda Wowart of Tumblr Survivor: Olympics and Tumblr Survivor: Egypt fame, and thankfully Miranda has said nice things about me to him. We've agreed to look out for each other, and he seems pretty cool. I want him to teach me some yoga moves 4. Ting Ting- Seems really sweet! We've talked about our pets, and she seems like she has a good sense of humor 5. Callie- Only had a brief conversation with Callie so far, but I like her a lot!! 6. Jakey- Nice person, but he's a bit of a snake, and I don't wanna let him get too far, honestly 7. Alex- Interesting 8. Adam- Stopped talking to me right after saying how he had a bad social game in his first season lol 9. Eddie- He's a Libra

Night 1 - What the fuck am I doing to myself? Ima get voted out real good and early I can just FEEL it. The tribe chat is quiet AS FUCK and it's really awkward to me. Anyways, I have some things to work with at least for the moment. Jakey - we were partners on RRN Fresh Meat and got fucked over together so hopefully I can get that partnership together. Logan - we both have a love for Miranda so that has brought us together pretty quickly. Eddie - we were both in Bangladesh so we have that season connection. I didn't vote for him to win, so hopefully we can play up a feud like I did in Bangladesh with Joe to get myself further. Alex - seems really cool and we've been talking so hopefully that goes somewhere. Ryan - I'm not actually sure where we stand, we haven't ever worked together before, but he might not have many connections in this tribe starting out so hopefully he's more trusting of me, at least early on. Although, he's really the only person here that knows how much of a comp player I can actually be, so that could be a problem. The rest of my tribe I haven't had much conversation with. I was hoping to see certain Champs on the other tribe to make my post-swap life a little easier (Miranda, Gage, Sam G.), but nope. Simon is my best hope. Kait and Lexi and I worked a lot together on RRN Battle Dome, but we were kinda forced to work together so I'm not sure how much I can rely on them. Also, they (hopefully) are very large targets because of how close they are and will be targeted early. Whew, after writing all that down, I might not be in as rough a position as I thought. Idk, we'll see (:

FADE FROM BLACK: Int. of Don Corleone's home office -day BONASERA (seated in front of the Don's desk, facing the camera) I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom, but -- I taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a boyfriend; not an Italian. She went to the movies with him; she stayed out late. I didn't protest. Two months ago, he took her for a drive, with another boyfriend. They made her drink whiskey. And then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. So they beat her, like an animal. When I went to the hospital, her nose was a'broken. Her jaw was a'shattered, held together by wire. She couldn't even weep because of the pain. But I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life -- beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful again. [Bonasera breaks down. The Don gestures to Sonny to give Bonasera a drink] Sorry... [Bonasera, taking the drink, sips from the shot glass] I -- I went to the police, like a good American. These two boys were brought to trial. The judge sentenced them to three years in prison -- suspended sentence. Suspended sentence! They went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool. And those two bastard, they smiled at me. Then I said to my wife, "for justice, we must go to Don Corleone." VITO CORLEONE (sitting behind his desk, petting a cat) Why did you go to the police? Why didn't you come to me first? BONASERA What do you want of me? Tell me anything. But do what I beg you to do. VITO CORLEONE What is that? [Bonasera gets up to whisper his request into Don Corleone's ear] That I cannot do. BONASERA I'll give you anything you ask. VITO CORLEONE We've known each other many years, but this is the first time you came to me for counsel, for help. I can't remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let's be frank here: you never wanted my friendship. And uh, you were afraid to be in my debt. BONASERA I didn't want to get into trouble. VITO CORLEONE I understand. You found paradise in America, had a good trade, made a good living. The police protected you; and there were courts of law. And you didn't need a friend of me. But uh, now you come to me and you say -- "Don Corleone give me justice." -- But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married, and you uh ask me to do murder, for money. BONASERA I ask you for justice. VITO CORLEONE That is not justice; your daughter is still alive. BONASERA Then they can suffer then, as she suffers. (then) How much shall I pay you? VITO CORLEONE (stands, turning his back toward Bonasera) Bonasera... Bonasera... What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? Had you come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And that by chance if an honest man such as yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you. BONASERA Be my friend -- (then, after bowing and the Don shrugs) -- Godfather? VITO CORLEONE (after Bonasera kisses his hand) Good. (then) Some day, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But uh, until that day -- accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day. BONASERA (as he leaves the room) Grazie, Godfather. VITO CORLEONE Prego. (then, to Tom Hagen, after Bonasera leaves the room) Ah, give this to ah, Clemenza. I want reliable people; people that aren't gonna be carried away. I'm mean, we're not murderers, despite of what this undertaker says. CUT TO: Connie's Wedding reception. We hear the music "Connie's Wedding (The Godfather Tarantella)" -day CUT TO: Connie and Carlo at the head table CUT TO: The family gathers for a family portrait VITO CORLEONE (to Sonny) Where's Michael? SONNY CORLEONE Don't worry; it's early. VITO CORLEONE We're not taking the picture without Michael (then, he tells the photographer, in Italian) TOM HAGEN What's the matter, Sonny? SONNY CORLEONE It's Michael CUT TO: The Don meeting some guests outside CUT TO: Mama dancing with Sonny's twin girls CUT TO: Connie and Carlo laughing with guests at head table CUT TO: Long shot of guests dancing CUT TO: FBI arrive at entrance CUT TO: Clemenza dancing with his wife CUT TO: FBI take license plate numbers CUT TO: Tessio sitting at a table with Carmella & twins, tossing himself an orange CUT TO: FBI continuing to take license plate numbers CUT TO: Don Barzini arrives VITO CORLEONE Eh, Don Barzini. (then, Vito introduces Barzini to someone, in Italian) CUT TO: Clemenza is dancing, gets tired, and spins off the dancefloor, laughing. CLEMENZA (after dancing) Hey, Paulie! Let me have some wine. Paulie! More wine... PAULIE (OS to someone) Scusi, please (then, in view, to Clemenza, handing him a pitcher quarter-full of wine) Ah, you look teriff' on the dance floor CLEMENZA Hey, what are you a dance judge or something? Fatt' i cazzi tuoi ["Mind your own damn business"] Go take a walk around the neighborhood -- do your job. CUT TO: Sonny pinches Lucy Mancini's cheek as he walks towards his wife, Sandra SONNY Hey Sandra, do me a favor, huh; watch the kids -- don't let'em run wild, all right? SANDRA Well, you watch yourself, all right? CUT TO: Reception continues with Part 2 of Connie's Wedding Song (The Godfather Mazurka). We first see Tessio dancing with a young girl standing on his feet. OS: Eh Tessio, cosa fai? ["What are you doing?"] CUT TO: Don Corleone dancing with his wife, Carmella (Mama) CUT TO: Connie collecting gifts for her bridal purse. Paulie is watching. PAULIE Twenty- Thirty-grand. In small bills, cash. In that little silk purse. Madon', if this was someone else's wedding, sfortunato ["Oh, how unlucky I am!"]! BUTTONMAN (from afar, tossing him sandwiches) Hey, Paulie! I got two gobbagool... gabagol [cappicola] an' a prosciutto! PAULIE Eh, you stupid jerk! CUT TO: A photographer takes Barzini's picture. Barzini motions to his men to get the camera PHOTOGRAPHER Eh, what's the matter? [The men bring the film to Barzini, who exposes and crumples it] CUT TO: Tom going up to his wife, Theresa, who's sitting at a table at the reception TOM I have to go back to work THERESA Oh, Tom TOM (after he kisses his wife) It's part of the wedding: No Sicilian can refuse any request on his daughter's wedding day. LUCA (rehearsing his lines as Tom passes him) Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your home... CUT TO: Sonny goes out into the driveway to see the FBI guys. The Mazurka ends. SONNY Eh -- what's this -- Get outta here; it's a private party, go on! (then, to FBI man in car) What's is it? Hey, it's my sister's wedding (then, he spits after being shown a badge. He turns and walks away) Goddamn FBI don't respect nothing [jazz music begins to play from party] (then, to photographer) Eh, come here; come here; come here; come here, come here; come here; come here... (then smashes camera, which Paulie kicks, and flips cash to him) [music ends] ***Extra dialogue from The SAGA only*** NAZORINE (off screen) He was captured by the American army. Then he was sent to New Jersey, as a prisoner of war... *** CUT TO: Nazorine and Enzo in Don Corleone's office -day NAZORINE (seated in front of the Don't desk) But towards the end, he was uh paroled to help with the American uh war effort. So for the last six months he's been working in my pastry shop. VITO CORLEONE (seated) Nazorine, my friend, what can I do for you? NAZORINE Well now that the war is over, this boy, Enzo -- they want to repatriate him back to Italy. Godfather, I have a daughter. You see, she and Enzo...

I didn't think I'd be playing ORGs again this soon after but.... I'm here! I really love this tribe and I'm gonna try and work my social game because every time I play I just flop with that, but 39 days isn't too long to talk to people daily. It's so weird to be here because I'm such a bad player and I barely know how to play, and I'm playing with people who have all won or played like a million times, and it's just weird? I don't know. Aside from my paranoia of being horrible at the game, I really am going to try to go full throttle this time. Usually when I play, I don't throw out names because I'm scared that I'll be targeted for it, but how else am I going to win with players of this caliber? So, safe to say, that this is a NEW LEAF for me, and I'm playing hard. Socially, strategically, and strengthly (is that even a word?) I will DOMINATE! (hopefully.) Ooh, also, I almost forgot, but this idol thing, body and strength or whatever it is for us, is interesting, but with only 36 spots, and 10 people guessing, I'm assuming whatever was hidden was already found. Also, I found the MAROONING ADVANTAGE, hidden in the rules, but SOMEONE GOT IT BEFORE ME. https://challengersvschampions.tumblr.com/marooningadvantage https://i.gyazo.com/c279e5e96fc79dad7c431905c83878e6.png I took a picture of what it said on the URL because it showed when I posted it in Skype which is like.... so scammer-ish but.. that's me! I'm sooooo mad I didn't get it especially because Connor removed it from the rules after, so I got there like... shortly after the other person. And, I'll give some thoughts on my tribe because the Challengers will lose again so they don't matter. Hanne - love talking to her! shes really sweet and i lowkey wanna align with her. also both our cats are named kiki so..... it's fate! Jenn - have barely talked to her, but i really want to work with her after all stars, but im still cautious. Jessy - yes!!!! im so happy  to be playing with her and able to work with her for REAL after all stars, because we met in all stars and like shes became such a close friend of mine and i love talking to her and im so excited to FINALLY be able to work with her and just ahh im excited to have someone i trust around. Kait - same as jenn, but she talked to me a bit more Lexi - we shit talked mj then our conversation just kinda trailed off, but she's nice from the  like hour i talked to her! idk if i want to align with her, but im open for anything. Molly - i dont think she likes me! thats all i get from the short time i talked to her is that she doesnt like me. Sam - i talked the most to her about tons of stuff and she's definitely one of my favorites on this tribe and i really want to work with her moving forward. Shareef - same as sam! really like him! Simon - he keeps cutting off our conversations short and isnt like... that fun to talk to? i don't know And, an order of who I would align with: 1. Jessy 2. Sam 3. Shareef 4. Hanne 5. Kait 6. Lexi 7.  Jenn 8. Molly 9. Simon And.... That's it! Jessy said she liked Shareef/Simon, but I don't really like Simon, so! I forgot how much I love writing confessionals! Thanks for letting  me play, Connor and MJ, and I'm gonna try and win this, or at least make a champion win again. In the spirit of the Olympics.... let the games begin!

The first night was quiet and I hope that doesn't mean that I was put on the outs. I've heard through the grapevine (aka Eddie's been telling me) that Ari/RTP/Logan are pretty close which doesn't look too good for me. But so, with all this Cutthroat controversy/politics going on, it's kinda fun that while that's going on Elliot and I are having a simple conversation about names.

Okay so the video I submitted was my first impressions on the cast, I thought it might be helpful if I added timestamps so it's easier to navigate! Ryan: 0:44 Callie: 1:08 Simon: 4:04 Sam: 8:01 Molly: 9:57 Hanne: 11:15 Lexi: 12:16 Jessy: 13:30 Jenn: 15:39 Carson: 16:51 Kait: 17:17

Why does it feel like a lot of the newer players are really bad at carrying on conversations?? It felt that way in All-Stars, and it feels like that now. They just come off as indifferent and like they aren't interested in anything I have to say, which is annoying. And I would think that I'm the problem, but other people like Riley have been saying similar things, kinda squashing that idea. Whatever, I guess. I know a lot of people aren't good at small talk, but how are we supposed to move past the small talk part if you give me literally NOTHING to work off of!? Conversation is a two-way street.

https://prnt.sc/fwjvlq

Me every time my bunny falls in winterbells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD_vt-pXs5Q

https://68.media.tumblr.com/fb24a9fe6be206d6b4cc1c4c984e8c0e/tumblr_omig384i7u1teep5ro2_500.gif It's time for my first confessional of the season! I'm really glad y'all bitches cast me again so here it goes... Instantly right off the bat I can tell I'm on a tribe with big players who I know are going to cause some trouble. I see Shareef who straight up DOMINATED two seasons in a row with Jakey on his side for one of them which makes me feel a little more comfortable around him. I see Sam who I just got off a season with so I'm feeling a little nervous about that. Anyway let's get down to the REAL business that y'all are here for. I bond really well with Carson which is good for myself but I'm scared that people might know we're close. I've been trying to downplay it with everyone but I'm not sure if it's working because we both played a season together which I think will be noticable. I need to try to downplay it really well because if I don't it might fuck me over. I also like Shareef because he's really funny and I just like him a lot as a person, but I know he's very smart and will do what is best for his game even if we're friends from a past game. I shared idol guesses with Sam which was really cool because I thought working with her would be really fun this time around! I was thinking of like.. being HVV levels close but I'm not sure. I also talked a lot to Kait so she could just like me, since once again the only thing we have in common is us both being friends with Jake so I'll try to work harder on that. Anyway down to the REAL REAL business! I have a spreadsheet of my own and Shareef told me we should make one for idol guesses but like I don't wanna spill all that earl grey at once... It wouldn't be a good look! He made his own so I was like oh okay that's fine. KLSKLBMASDKL Yeah, I think he wants to make an alliance with Carson and I because we'll gravitate towards him eventually since Carson said the only person he talks game to is Shareef. I'd be fine with that because like... it's an alliance? I'm not gonna say no gal! Speaking of alliances, Kait said she wanted to make one with me and that's fine! That's great! From my last season, I worked with people deemed "non-threatening" so I wanted to work with players that were seen as really good this time around so I could hide behind them and manuever my way around this game. I'm not sure if that'll work because these people are blood thirsty and want to win. The least talkative people on this tribe I think are Lexi and Simon so if I see an opportunity to possibly snatch one of them up.. I will! I think Lexi might be the first boot so I'll try to snatch Simon under my wing and see how that goes. Shareef said he was really smart so I hope I don't turn him off or anything, but like I never saw how good he was in our last season together so idk! I know I just won a season so I shouldn't be like.... this thirsty for another win? But like I wanna win! I remember that I was kind of annoyed that Jenn could've thrown for her friends in All-Stars so I don't wanna do that and make this a season where I didn't try as hard as I could've. https://media.tenor.com/images/1905513144999e9d87a7a6e8b830a65e/tenor.gif So it's Night 2 and Shareef told me he was on a call with Kait and we'd talk soon but SOON turned into like 2 hours so I was like okay there better be some good tea? And there really wasn't any. All he told me to do was to talk to Jenn more often and didn't give a really good explanation as to why. I'm left confused... shook... and tea-less. The tea bags are cold and someone slipped some tiny ice cubes in it. I feel like I'm being paranoid about this but I feel like Shareef could snatch the world from Kait in 2 hours? Also he told me that Sam told Kait about her idol guesses, and then he proceeded to tell me their's so like I'm worried that he knows I've known about the Sam idol guesses.. but I just didn't tell him. So I might own up to that tomorrow because it's snakey but I wanna make it seem okay but that's REALLY hard to do with Shareef. I'm un sure why I did it, but I think it's because I really want to snatch an idol or advantage this time around. But yeah, I think these people are going to underestimate me this game because I don't have Allison or Scott with me this time so I'm going to prepare and cultivate relationships of my own. http://66.media.tumblr.com/459d0878d92171d20f901e84962f3207/tumblr_o9xl1xeEAk1v9bduuo6_r1_400.gif

Ok so first things first I found the legacy adavantage!!! woho!!!! yea no, it's useless until final four and I'm not a patient person. I would much rather have a double vote our something that would help me out before the final 4, cause who know's if I'll even get there. Alex on call: OMG eddie so there was an advantage on the rules page but i was just seconds to late from getting it Me: Advantage who? What? where? What’s an advantage? https://media.tenor.com/images/fb3f2d1e814190100a4ae401b1660d5b/tenor.gif Alex and I have been getting really close, we called for almost two hours on night one, and we called for about 40 minutes last night. [7/16/17, 4:57:13 AM] Eddie Bracco: I made alex woke to the fact that logan and “riley” were very close in animal crossing, and ryan hosted animal crossing. Also I served him tea about the group chat from almost a year ago and how Ryan has all these connections in the game. If callie will actually work with me i will be so loyal to that girl. There is something about her i just love and i want to run this game with her. She’s sweet and kind, and if i can remember correctly in R&R she was playing the middle and she was taken out because sole was woke to how good of a position she was in? And I got taken out in maldives because sherry was woke to me playing the middle. Then in bangladesh, I found somebody who was just as good as I was at playing the middle aka sam, and we ran circles around that cast. So I’d love to make callie my sam. It’s just about her trusting me and believing me when i say i want to go all the way with her. And it really is in callie’s best interest to work with me. I will be such a big meat shield for her in the merge. I usually like to be the one hiding behind people. But with this cast there’s no way I can hide. There’s people on that champion tribe that will want my head on a silver platter as soon as we’re on the same tribe together. Alex wants jakey, elliott, adam, me, and ting ting but I’m trying to lowkey get callie into it. I told alex that I would rather not be at the forefront of creating this alliance but he said he has no problem creating the alliance and being at the head of it so I’m like ok then bish go right ahead. I’m going to go on call with callie tonight when she gets home and let her know what’s going on and see what she wants to do about it. I think this would be a really good way of building trust with callie and showing her that i really am loyal to her at the moment. Im going to try to get alex to do all the dirty work. He will think that he’s making the decisions and running the show, and it will be apparent to people that he is, but behind the scenes I’m going to be pulling his strings. Also another reason I need to really strengthen my trust with callie is because I need lexi to want to work with me whenever we end up together. Right now I feel like lexi probably wouldn’t really want to work with me because I screwed her over in bora bora so hard. But i know her and callie are best friends, and if i am someone who is good for callies game I can probably avoid her targeting me for a bit, because she wouldn’t want to do anything to harm callie’s game. And if she brings up targeting me to callie I need callie to trust me enough to turn it down and say she doesn’t think it’s a good move right now. And honestly, maybe callie won’t be the one hiding behind me. Maybe i’ll be the one who can exploit her and her friend ship with lexi to the point where people will want them out because of how tight they are, and I can let them take the bullets and allow myself to go under the radar for a few rounds. Not only that, but alex is pretty confident that the champions are going to 100% stick together so he wants a strong group going into the merge. If Alex wants to do that go ahead that’s fine by me. But I know Callie will have an in to the champions side because of lexi which means that Callie and I could easily play the middle come merge. This is all so reliant on callie actually trusting me and wanting to work with me long term though. So Ima need to get to work on that.

Why is this tribe ASLEEP? I had more thoughts that I should share but I'm sick and just spent 8 hours playing Patience so maybe later

omg you can choose my name. shadyyyyyy. anyways this game is cool. i guess. sideeye at connor and mj. joking. anyways WE WON. US BITCHEZ WON THE FIRST CHALLENGE HAHAHAHAHA WHO'RE THE CHAMPIONS NOW. but honestly we're probably going to get taken out by the real champions. sad. anyways let's do some player first impressions. ok so... adam: hilarious. he love peih-gee. i love peih-gee. match made in heavan. he seems kinda quiet though so i'm hoping i can talk to him more in the pms. alex: oh alex. what a character. seamus knew him and was like omg it's alex he's weird but cool. and i'm like ok. i can see how he's a lil annoying but it's like aw like you would look at a puppy dog. is that demeaning? i don't mean for it to be that way. sorry brochacho. callie: queen. slay. i was like yeah i last played in myanmar. and this is what she said On 7/15/17, at 8:02 PM, Callie ♡ wrote: > omg the game u should have won??… i remember tuning into the final tribal for a few mins while at work i think OMG QUEEN FLATTERED and that 99 bottles girl we slayed connor: nasty. we get it you're australian. you like to say mate a lot. eddie: yas eddie. love. we played in world of survivors tibet and i went out quick but not this time haha. we gon go far. i love eddie he's amazing. elliott: steffen was like if you're going to love anyone in this game it's going to be elliott bc he's the sweetest bean. and i'm like girl i believe it. elliott is so nice and he has 2 cats like me. LOVE. jakey: this bitch i can not. i can't say anything except "iconic...?" joking he's great love him but he burnt bacon and i'm like uh uh no. jenna: actually iconic logan: omg he has so many animal friends and i'm so jealous. as;dkfj i want to be surrounded by animal friends. like disney princesses honestly. logan is hilarious and we slayed 99 bottles together. mj: stop asking us to fight. we are a happy family riley: omg i heard something about riley being a catfish but that's probably not true lol. either way i love them. they're from canada. i love canada and justin trudeau. and they love waffles, the obviously superior breakfast food. #wafflealliance made right there ryan: last but least. jk jk. ryan and i are like already working together to find the idol. lowkey along with jakey but none of them know that the other is working with me. idk how that's gonna turn out. but anyways ryan is fun <3 btw um apparently there was this marooning advantage like right in the very beginning hidden on the rules page. i don't appreciate it. plz don't thx.

hello! so... we lost? i think yeah. im trying to work the sochele game but its not really working because everyone knows each other and i feel like whoever goes im screwed. i guess i shouldve figured that, but i just dont wanna be first boot. thats my only goal. well andmake jury but im fine with accomplishing either. names being thrown around are lexi and hanne, which funnily enough, both were told to me by jessy! because everyone says "oh yeah, ill let you know if i hear any names", and then jessy comes to me and be like oh yeah, the person who said theyd let you know told me they wanted out lexi. its nice having kind of a secret relationship with jessy, but im p sure jenn and kait already know. also, theres a big alliance of molly, sam, shareef, jenn, and kait, from what jessy told me, so she said we should work with lexi and simon and vote out hanne this round. lexi is one of the people i told id want to work with so im good with that, but i also cant help the feeling that im just being jessy's bitch right now, but its early on in the game and id rather let her get her hands dirty while i sit back and stay updated. if she ever goes though, im fucked, because shes the only reason i even know anything and the only one giving me the time of day. shareef says how much he likes me then doesnt tell me jack shit, jenn and kait both say they wanna mend our relationship from all stars then offer alliances to like everyone but me, and im pretty sure molly hates me, plus i gave her 3 of my idol guesses and she just said she guessed one of mine. i feel like im in a horrible spot, and i guess i just have to latch on to the power players until i can find my footing, but i dont wanna just be a floater all of pre-merge because that sucks so much. i dont wanna be a goat and i feel like im already being prepped to be a goat to like... shareef and jessy and jenn and kait. also i just feel like no one trusts me bc no one offers alliances to me, or anything and it just sucks. im trying to be proactive but i dont know the difference between taking control of your own fate and overplaying because ive never actually played before! this is the first time im trying to do a social game or trying to make moves or dictate boots and ive never done it before so i dont know whats good or bad or what i should or shouldnt do so i keep coming back to jessy as a crutch to lie on and UGH it just sucks. Tribe Assessment: Hanne - i love talking to her but i think i have to vote her and that makes me sad i really didnt wanna lose bc i do love this tribe Jessy - i really dont know how to feel. i think im just her goat/extra vote and it sucks, but shes also a really good friend of mine, idk how to feel. Kait - kait's so hard to read i never know what shes thinking so i got no idea Lexi - shes fun to talk to but i think she likes jessy more than me from what jessy told me, dont wanna vote her out but it seems like majority is Molly - she hates me i know it, just from how she talks to me Sam - i like sam but jessy said shes really connected. idk Simon - i have no idea im so mixed on him? like he talks strategy one moment then just leaves me hanging or says something to end the convo idk Shareef - i like him but hes not telling me everything like he is to jessy i hope he does soon bc i do trust him but hes a lso a double winner. Jenn - love jenn and love talking to her, shes such a fun person, but i also know she can stab me in the back with a smile and thats scary Ranking of How Likely I Am To Vote Them: (1.Not Likely - 9. Likely) 1. Jessy 2. Jenn 3. Shareef 4. Kait 5. Sam 6. Simon 7. Molly 8. Lexi 9. Hanne orgs suck

Sooooooooo I’m back after a year for a final appearance. http://68.media.tumblr.com/a86b8dd23287e4e6157e9a29c481a96c/tumblr_omzv6xlMLl1w8v6pno2_400.gif Honestly, I expected the cast to be like full of people I wouldn’t know but I’m just here for fun before I go into the skype community “afterlife”. LKSJHDASK My goal is not to be first boot after that idc ^_^ [2017-07-14, 10:49:58 PM] Callie ♡: me day 2: I KNOW YALL PLOTTING AGAINST ME AND U KNOW WHAT.. WATCH IT CAUSE I GOT SOME TE- remembers there’s only 39 ppl watching me: nvm the cast: [2017-07-14, 10:49:58 PM] Callie ♡: https://68.media.tumblr.com/fae46f8f7edb781a532e43f7259b8b34/tumblr_omxidd8Wek1w7ty5ho1_400.gif [2017-07-14, 10:50:46 PM] connor // cvc host: hvdgsdsd omg putting all this in the cofnessionals already Me just before the cast reveal: [2017-07-15, 4:55:42 PM] Callie ♡: I’M HAVING ANGINAAAAAA. DANIELLE_REYES_IM_OUT.GIF [2017-07-15, 4:55:57 PM] Callie ♡: jk im calm. love depression Then I walk into the tribe area and you know who I see??? 3 people I don’t know and Ryan whom I orchestrated the vote out for in rebels & rogues so like that’s like super awesome and I’m obviously winning. 💯😩😍👌🏼👌🏼😍💯💯 Do you know WHAT he messages me first? [2017-07-15, 5:33:10 PM] Ryan Palmer: OMG QUEEN! I am so fucking excited to play with you [2017-07-15, 5:36:36 PM] Ryan Palmer: and like with you this time [2017-07-15, 5:36:41 PM] Ryan Palmer: don't vote me out at merge again Oopsies! He said merge so there’s a part of me who wants to be chaotic and vote him out premerge kalsjhdgasjkjda but like he’s one of the few people I know here so we will see! Tbh idk if anyone should wanna vote me out when like everyone else is considered like a legend and I’m easier to beat in a final oop! More people get added.. don’t know them! I see Riley… and they have hosted me twice before and I was a little sketchy in those seasons (but like only to protect my closest allies) anywhooooooo! Eddie also was added and idk I feel like I could work with him and I think he’d probably assume the half of the tribe that has connections to the winners tribe is coming after him so I look like a safe bet! I spoke with Jake a bit and he seems iconic and we bonded over being awkward and nervous… you know the usual first day talk. Everything died down and that’s when… my depression faded for a bit and… [2017-07-15, 7:26:39 PM] Callie ♡: im gonna have a meltdown [2017-07-15, 7:26:52 PM] Callie ♡: https://68.media.tumblr.com/4d38b77c271145b7ea77ab2052b4c9de/tumblr_inline_on53iuWbxV1tb0ry4_500.gif [2017-07-15, 7:26:54 PM] connor // cvc host: its day one [2017-07-15, 7:26:58 PM] Callie ♡: I KNOW..... [2017-07-16, 12:40:30 AM] Callie ♡: eddie keeps messaging me about riley and asking if it’s ari like BIH THE WIKI LITERALLY TELLS U I just don’t want to be the one who’s like well duh! Because idk if Ari wants to play the Riley persona and I don’t feel like Eddie going to them and being all “well Callie said…” OPKSDIJHUAGSK Ugh I’m losing it already. [2017-07-16, 12:41:04 AM] Callie ♡: adam and alex give me weird vibes [2017-07-16, 12:41:11 AM] connor // cvc host: inch resting Adam had a conversation with me and then told me I could always talk to him for support and in general but like it came off weird alksjhda but then again that’s literally how I come off to people so moving on laid ease! Alex seems like an aggressive player like he just wants an alliance right away and wants to call everyone but he does seem straightforward more than the rest of these (sneaky) players. [2017-07-16, 12:54:45 AM] Callie ♡: i need an alliance [2017-07-16, 12:54:54 AM] Callie ♡: where’s regan and masen when u need them Legends of making alliance chats out of nowhere [2017-07-16, 2:26:11 AM] Callie ♡: i heard eddie always has like a good social game. and that he does this thing where he tries to connect really well with a certain few ppl before backstabbing them later on but like with that said i sure will work with him i think [2017-07-16, 2:26:45 AM] Callie ♡: im waiting for more offers. like… these ppl… are so rude Sidenote I just drank from my water bottle and forgot I had replaced the water with something else. Day 1 and I already blindsided myself! [2017-07-16, 3:28:22 AM] Eddie Bracco: And I'd really love to work with you too. I was really excited when I saw you were on the cast. I feel like you would be a super good ally and I just want to work with people who are genuinely good people and I enjoy talking to. I don't expect to do that well in this game so I just want to have fun while I'm playing. I also feel like you're really smart and are someone I can rely on. I'm honestly so obsessed with the idea of working with you. [2017-07-16, 3:28:42 AM] Eddie Bracco: I was literally just talking about it in my host chat aisjdnend “obsessed” lets not oversell it [2017-07-16, 3:46:38 AM] mj ultra . _/: On 2017-07-16, at 3:45 AM, Callie ♡ wrote: > and then i sprang out the old “let’s work together omg” NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN [2017-07-16, 3:46:40 AM] mj ultra . _/: JKGDLHG;JSKGSD [2017-07-16, 3:47:08 AM] Callie ♡: im hoping it sounded less mj and more christine if u know what i mean Anyways I think I'm okay with Ryan but he seems to know and talk to a large part of the tribe. Eddie and I are officially working together. I think Elliott and Eddie and friends? Or like worked together in a season. Jake and I are bonding over being awkward. So like I'm hoping jake and Ryan are still close and I think Ryan and Riley are close so I'm hoping they'd all bring me into an alliance. But I don't have any high hopes so I'd settle for ppl liking me enough not to come after me. Also I do a lot better on tribal day by being creative last minute ^_^ Oh and like I think ting ting and jake might be friends? Idk she said something to him in the tribe chat yesterday. Adam seems to be okay with me and said I should come to him any time but like idk he sketches me out for whatever reason. I heard he was an Ika fan so like maybe I'll be petty and target him first for funsies. WHKDLSHSL I don't remember if there's more people here so like anywho. +Logan apparently is veryyyyy close with Riley which I heard from Eddie I’ve been sitting and watching the tribe bond from afar for far too long but then Alex talked about his musical so I did what any sane person would do… told him my sister was in the same one even though she wasn’t and wished him luck! [2017-07-16, 3:09:50 PM] Callie ♡: My sister wasn't in the musical btw [2017-07-16, 3:09:58 PM] Callie ♡: I just wanted to be in the conversation [2017-07-16, 3:10:50 PM] mj ultra . _/: fuck It’s not my fault!!! I never have any of the same interests as these people so I gotta lie! [2017-07-16, 4:19:48 PM] Callie ♡: if they make the tribe chat active again.. im gonna count up who sent the most messages in there and make them my target [2017-07-16, 4:19:50 PM] Callie ♡: https://68.media.tumblr.com/68fff2106e8aba194a0ea5f80a09024f/tumblr_inline_onwrrbYwdh1tseyg2_500.gif I reply to ryan thinking he’s gonna make an alliance with me and you know WHAT he says [2017-07-16, 4:35:10 PM] Ryan Palmer: I'm bored [2017-07-16, 4:35:14 PM] Ryan Palmer: there is nothing to do Not related to my game but couldn’t let this be lost forever. [2017-07-16, 4:55:17 PM] mj ultra . _/: On 2017-07-16, at 4:54 PM, connor // cvc host wrote: > crickey mate it's so hot today mate gotta grab my thongs mate I just had a stroke We worked on the challenge and since we did the 99 bottles, we were on call together and they bonded while I was my awkward self and chimed in every few minutes with a laugh or “yeah”. Call highlights: [2017-07-16, 10:32:18 PM] Callie ♡: “i dont like kait” -alex on call On 2017-07-16, at 12:41 AM, Callie ♡ wrote: > adam and alex give me weird vibes CLOCKT! [2017-07-16, 10:32:32 PM] mj ultra . _/: DUVDOLJKDGFHSJ;FLSDKGHJ;SK' [2017-07-16, 10:41:19 PM] Callie ♡: “who even likes brussels sprouts” [2017-07-16, 10:41:23 PM] Callie ♡: BIH…. I DO?!?!?!? [2017-07-16, 11:00:54 PM] Callie ♡: alex messaged elliott and asked him to pick out what he should wear today…. why u telling us this sis! you didn’t message me all day. WEE WOO.jpeg [2017-07-16, 11:16:19 PM] Callie ♡: “callie have YOU seen moana?” me: yeah! (googles the summary) [2017-07-16, 11:16:39 PM] connor // cvc host: u: yeah I was on that tribe [2017-07-16, 11:17:05 PM] mj ultra . _/: SLDKJGHLG;JSD'KSLS [2017-07-16, 11:17:25 PM] Callie ♡: SHUT THE FUCJAFISOUHYHIA [2017-07-17, 3:10:45 AM] Callie ♡: no goodnight before hanging up? penciling that in between targeting adam for being an ika stan. and alex sending the most tribe chat messages. [2017-07-17, 3:11:22 AM] connor // cvc host: dfshdsfhsdggdshgsdhgdssdghsd [2017-07-17, 3:11:42 AM] mj ultra . _/: On 2017-07-17, at 3:10 AM, Callie ♡ wrote: > no goodnight before hanging up? penciling that in between targeting adam for being an ika stan. and alex sending the most tribe chat messages. JUST SNORTED [2017-07-17, 3:12:19 AM] Callie ♡: forgot to mention ryan asking not to be voted out at merge so ill assume he meant he wanted to be out premerge [2017-07-17, 3:12:35 AM] mj ultra . _/: FUCK [2017-07-17, 3:12:37 AM] mj ultra . _/: SHUT UPDS FLSHLG JSD;GKSD [2017-07-17, 3:12:41 AM] mj ultra . _/: IM LITERALLYLAUGHING https://68.media.tumblr.com/a732f16086fe90340f625f77b5a43b7a/tumblr_onhgcp69FO1v9roxto10_400.gif Eddie and I called and he kept convincing me that him and Elliott aren’t on great terms and that Elliott seems sketchy and I’m not sure if he just wants me to believe if I’m the closest to him or if he actually means it. He said him Alex and Elliott made an alliance chat and then we talked about ALL the connections in the game multiple times and there’s so many more than I thought there were. I think my best bet is to go with his group even though my faves to work with rn besides him are Ryan and Jake but they have too many connections with the winners tribe. I just think if we went to tribal that if I voted with Eddie’s group that the others would be mad at me if they expected me to vote with them which could cause them and their friends on the winners tribe to not want to work with me either. So I want to think it all out more and I also want an alliance chat which I don’t have right now. I feel Ryan/Riley/Logan could be together, Jake/Adam/maybe Ting Ting could be together and I know Alex/Eddie/Elliott are together so that leaves me. KLDJAHFGHSJDKAL Jake is kinda close with Ryan I think and whenever I talk to people they all say “I’ve talked to Jake” and that they like him a lot so I mean! Anyways, either way I’m at the bottom which is like good and bad. Good because why would they target someone by themselves but bad because for that reason I’m easiest to get rid of. Depending on how numbers go and who tries to keep me in the loop and whatnot will probably factor into my decision later. [2017-07-17, 4:18:08 AM] Callie ♡: i feel like we’d win the second part and they’ll win the third part and then itll just come down to the winterbells matchups… which is like such a sad thing to say. [2017-07-17, 4:18:24 AM] mj ultra . _/: (happy) [2017-07-17, 4:18:24 AM] Callie ♡: i feel like i remember kait and jenn saying they were good at patience [2017-07-17, 4:18:46 AM] Callie ♡: also lexi won it in palawan [2017-07-17, 4:18:57 AM] Callie ♡: rip us huh! [2017-07-17, 4:20:01 AM] Callie ♡: i wonder if ill be targeted cause im friends with them. but then again im like just super loyal and like 100% honest that anyone would be lucky to have me in their alliance ^_^ [2017-07-17, 4:20:21 AM] mj ultra . _/: GHFGSHDJFKGLH;U'LJKJLGKH;J'K [2017-07-17, 4:20:25 AM] mj ultra . _/: MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Soooo I woke up today to a message from Ryan as per usual and I talked to Alex a bit and told him I’d love to work with him which he just agreed but… [2017-07-17, 5:50:09 PM] Alex C.: I want to work with you too, you're a pretty nice person and I think that'd be fantastic. Idk this doesn’t sound convincing, sounds like a brush off to me laid ease! I don’t think he’ll target me but I wanted more of a concrete alliance. Eddie did tell me earlier that Alex wanted to bring me into their group of 3 but idk if that’s true or if he just wants me to vote with them. Zzzz We won the challenge so I’m not first boot and I’ve accomplished my goal... time to get voted out and leave! [2017-07-17, 7:43:28 PM] Callie ♡: Me last night: was bored outta my mind Them: (tumbleweed) Me tonight: is having a depressed episode and doesn't want to talk and has work at 7am Them: omg lets have a bonding session [2017-07-17, 7:45:09 PM] mj ultra . _/: LSJDKSJDDJJDD Jake messages me out of nowhere and then not even a minute later you know who finally replies? Adam. He’s also literally never here. BUT THEN… I asked who he talked to and he said he spoke the most with me Jake and Ting Ting. Ting Ting never speaks to me... so interesting! Jake hosted the season Adam was in so not completely shocking. Also, Eddie and I spoke about that on call the night before. [2017-07-17, 10:59:31 PM] Callie ♡: adam just said he talked to ryan too… [2017-07-17, 10:59:48 PM] Callie ♡: BIH! why’d i have to message u first then after 2 days I’m exhausted trying to find a way into an alliance, when we finally go to tribal and they need a vote? You can count on me to throw my vote laid ease! Also forgot to mention that Ryan asks me my idol guesses and then tells me his even though I know he’s getting other ones but hasn’t mentioned those to me oop! Tonight Adam randomly gave me his guesses and then Jake said he trusts me suddenly and sends his to me too 20 minutes later… sus. Who even knows if they’re being honest about their guesses but I’m sleep. https://68.media.tumblr.com/6478af2827f3c9bece2b82f20bb63e62/tumblr_ogcknzEuCU1v9bduuo1_250.gif

https://youtu.be/Rf1ACJ0yLgw

"Who here has an alliance with Kait?" https://media.giphy.com/media/xT9KVwVraalcvmKBfW/giphy.gif

We won immunity, yay! I would pay to see the drama at the Champions tribe, I bet it's wild. I was hoping to go to tribal though, just so everyone would wake up a little, but it's whatever. I would've been good, I think. I have an alliance with Riley and Ryan, with Jakey being an unofficial fourth member. Then Elliott and I have a deal to look out for one another, so that's half the tribe right there. Speaking of Elliott, I really like him! Like, a lot! He's so sweet. But maybe too sweet... I was asking him who he would wanna be in an alliance with on the tribe, and the conversation kinda went like: Me: Elliott who should we work with? Elliott: I love EVERYONE on this tribe EQUALLY SO that's far from perfect since we all can't make the merge together and the chances there's no swap is pretty slim, lol. C'mon Elliott, c'mon. If we had lost, I think either Adam or Eddie would get the boot? Adam is really quiet. As for Eddie, Jakey was saying he felt Ryan didn't like Eddie. I think maybe Alex could get booted too, but I hope not anytime soon. Alex is like unintentionally hilarious. The two times we've called he goes on these random rants against Kait, so I wanna see Kait and him interact just to see how messy it would be.

Hello, I am back again for what is hopefully my last season of any game ever (I am high key excited about my retirement coming up). I am on the champions side which absolutely scares the hell out of me since its not like these people have just made it far only once, a lot of them have consistently made it far in multiple seasons and that obviously worries me but I made a promise to myself to work on my social game this season and so far it is working kinda. I still have no idea what is really happening but at least I can say I have talked to everyone on this tribe past day 1 which is a major accomplishment for me. With my tribe consists of some really big icons: Carson - I have never spoken to him before this game but he is one of the few people I think I have actually made a connection with so far in the game. We have spoken a lot since the start and we seem to be on the same page about a lot of things going on so I am hoping to be able to work with him a lot in the future! Hanne - Def the person I have talked to the least in this game and I think its mostly due to our schedules clashing. We did talk a lot the first night but its been a few days since then and she is the player that worries me the most because unlike other players, she is a very low key target in this game. In most games she has played in TS, she has made top 5 AT LEAST and thats a good record plus the fact she is most likely close with players like Jessy and Molly is not good for my game Jenn - I played in Bora Bora with her but she did sort of betray me in that game so I am kind of hesitant with her around. I don't really let past games come into other games unless its like a consistant thing so I would be more than happy to work with her if I have the opportunity! Jessy - She is the most recent winner in this cast (literally just won like 10 days ago wow) and I really like her a lot. I think we have a lot in common and we have spoken a lot but like I said before with Hanne, the past connections thing really does worry me so I dont know if she is playing me or truly wants to work together Kait - we have been rocky the past year but I kinda heard she was playing or at least applied so I was ready to either work things out or get my ass beat but THANKKKFULLY we both were sort of on the same page of working things out since it really would benefit us if we do work together cause dead ass no one would expect it. So we called and spoke things out the first night so as far as I am concerned, legend! Molly - I have heard things from her from like MJ and just around the winners chat in general and people say she is iconic but like I am high key bored talking about retail for the past  4 days fjghd Sam - a legend in this part of the woods but again, our schedules have not lined up at all. She is a night owl and I have turned into a day owl (kinda) so its hard to find a time where we both can  ya know talk about things besides patio furniture Shareef - a bbtc dad. You would think he would be like my number 1 target cause you know 2 time winner and all that fun stuff but right now.. I need someone to take control of things and thankfully Shareef is one heck of a planner cause our tribe would not have made it anywhere in this challenge without him! We are currently talking and we are on the same boat with a lot of things so I am really hoping to work with him in the future if we both are able to make it past things. HOWEEEVVERR, that is mostly counting on if the challengers do gods work and get jake out cause i saw generations! Simon - literally birthed me into the community 2 years ago which is such a long time. He has seen me flop in so many things but I have also seen him flop in many things so its like fate. He is a lot more extreme than I am in manyyy cases but he has been kind to me so far so I am all for ignoring his messiness if it makes sure we both stick together. In this past challenge, I knew after the first hour or so of figuring things out that we would most likely lose. Everyone wanted to do something and I was just like a sitting duck because I wasn't confident in annny of my abilities. After like hours and hours I ended up on the bottle one and that made me scared af cause my mind cant handle sitting there for over an hour staring at the clock anymore but I somehow got through it and so did my other team mates which makes me happy even tho we lost cause giving up is just annoying and stupid in my opinion. As for tribal, I am lost as hell because no one really has a plan and tribal is currently in 4 hours and no one has anything yet but I am still trying to talk to people and if I do end up going then at least I left ya know trying to have a game. I am currently talking to Shareef and Carson and they are saying they have nothing yet so I hope its not just me who is lost. Here is to praying!!!!!

So I went on call with Callie and basically filled her in on everything. I mean what is there to really fill her in on? This tribe is dead af and there's barely anything going on. But anyway yea tru I told her about the alliance with Elliott and Alex. I made it seem like alex and elliott are playing really hard and are dying for something to get started and like alex approached me with the idea of the alliance and i wasn’t gunna say no. I told her we didn’t have to work with them if she didn’t want to but she like immediately replied no i do want to work with them cause i feel like we don’t have any other options. We both agree that taking ari, logan, ryan teddy palmer, and jakey to merge is like basically asking to be in the minority in the merge because of all the connections they have. We’re both woke to jakey’s social game being on fucking fleek and i want him the fuck out of this game as soon as I can do it. I told her about Alex and Elliott wanting to form a majority and I told her about them bringing up jakey, ting ting, and adam as a majority, and callie maybe as a 7th but i plan to make callie higher then seventh and just exclude jakey from it all together and exclude adam as well. While we were doing our wiki research we realized that jakey hosted adam. Im going to have to go on a call with alex today and explain to him all of this. Jake’s scary alliance with shareef from generations, him hosting jen and adam, him and kait working together prior to this and liking each other, (that alone will get alex to want nothing to do with jake being in the majority because alex wants nOTHING to do with kait) Jake being one of the FIVE okinawa hoes on the cast. Alex brought up the possibility of a tight four with him, Elliott, Callie and I. Now I of course and so fucking down for that and I of course ran to Callie immediately when he said this. So I'm trying to get the ball rolling on this thang and get this game going. It's just scary cause you never wanna be the one doing way too much and I already feel like I'm over playing. I'm talking to a lot of people but so aren't others? I don't know this tribe is so fucking quiet like WHY CANT THESE PEOPLE JUST PLAY THIS GAME FAST?? If I'm going to be in the majorityI wanna know it, if I'm gunna be out of it I want to know it. I don't wanna wait till the day we are actually going to tribal council for people to decide to step up and start playing. Like we're here for a reason, we're "all" some of the best players to never win, and we didn't get that title by sitting on our asses and not doing shit. ANYWAY, my ideal would be for a five person alliance between Ting Ting, Alex, Elliott, Callie and I and for us 5 to push for a unanimous vote the first vote, and then take majority. It's difficult to bring anyone else in to the majority because they would all be connected to somebody in the minority and could easily leak what's going on. So yea, basically my next goal is to make these dead people come alive and get something going. On the to do list: - Get this tight four going with callie, alex, and elliott. - Engage in some game talk with Ting Ting, find out who she likes, who she doesn't like and who she wants to work with and maybe try to steer her in the direction of Callie, Alex, and Elliott. And that's about it???? I do want to try and talk to Jakey just a bit more, even though I'm planning on trying to give him the early boot when the opportunity arises I do want to try and cover my bases with him. That's all I really have to say for now. Till next time.

So it's 50 minutes before Tribal Council but I just have to send in one more confessional! It's really smart to keep Lexi in the game but Simon is being really difficult. He's apparently really close to Kait and thinks we should "bite the bullet". No, if we bite the bullet we're next so! Also, Jenn literally just exposed her alliance that Shareef told me about and everyone in the Big Mix chat is lying about it. I'm literally done with them and now at least I have an excuse for the future if I ever want to pull off an Ashy Idols esque move. https://68.media.tumblr.com/9d58c1c344333c8002b2c7e2f3064320/tumblr_inline_oooim4HcSv1qgwh17_500.gif

https://youtu.be/z0Wy7CFAO6k

So hello... let me skip all the dumb cast assessment stuff and get straight into it. So Kait and I go on call with Shareef and discuss aligning and adding other people. Kait wants to add Jenn and we all agreed on Molly but I want Hanne because we know each other and she doesn’t have any other connections and if they’re gonna use their connections then I want mine too. Shareef was like “I can’t vote out Jessy cause Jakey will kill me” honey he ain’t on our tribe there’s no ned to worry about that rn. So we made a chat with me, Kait, Shareef, Jenn and Molly and were gonna let Molly and Jenn decide between Jessy and Hanne as the 6th. But then Shareef wanted to vote Hanne out.... THEN HE ADDED HER TO THE CHAT!!!! https://68.media.tumblr.com/27db5c009974768d1027972be3327b8f/tumblr_ot9it2RRrf1snwhbeo1_400.jpg Like how does that happen??? So we agreed on Lexi as a boot and then I had to go talk to Hanne and Molly and do damage control over the whole Shareef adding Hanne thing. Then myself, Kait, Jenn and Jessy formed an alliance and we all agreed on Lexi. Lexi going is good for me cause she doesn’t talk and she has Callie on the other tribe. So Jenn, Kait and I called and then I got off to call Molly (look at me social goddess queen of everything) and today Carson called me and wants to make a 4 with Molly, Hanne and I but also didn’t tell me that Lexi threw out Hanne’s name. So right now, the fear is that Lexi has an idol and she wants to vote out Hanne which is bad for me. Originally Kait was scared Lexi would vote her but now that she’s not she really doesn’t give a fuck if Hanne leaves. But I can’t have Hanne leave. So there’s discussion of throwing a vote but we’d have to throw 2 because there aren’t any re-votes. ANYWAYS a better confession will come when I have more than 40 minutes. Hopefully I survive long enough to make another. xoxo

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8U1xAckrzQWT1IweDkwOXE2eEU

hiiii  um typical hanne here doing my confessional 30 min before tribal BUT i forgot to make the video i was gonna make so this will have to suffice ummmmm i think lexi is going home but pretty sure she's voting for me bc of reasons and shareef fucked up yesterday which was rlly funny bc he added me to this alliance chat i wasn't supposed to be in so 👀 someone tell me how he won twice ANDDD i've been playing dumb as per usual to everyone when i know more than i let on :~) we'll see if it works tonight lmao

[survivorwakea]

Episode 14: “YEEHAW!” - Elmo

im so flop w these orgs but I AM SO HAPPY THAT I AM IN THE F5!! JARED LEFT HE LEFT! HES GONE! IM IN THE FINAL 5 WOOOOOO I MIGHT BE FLOPPING WITH MY MOVES BUT I AM JUST SO HAPPY THAT IM HERE WAAAA

Jared...that sucked. I hope we are still good friends after this. I never wanted it to go down like that but I wouldn’t stand a chance against you at a final after everything that has happened this game. I truly enjoyed getting to know you and hope that you love stranger things. I have some hot memes saved for it. At least if you don’t like the show maybe you will appreciate the memes. Anyway... now we got a challenge that I have like a .00002% chance of winning because I work 10-6 tomorrow. I considered staying up but I can’t. I’m gonna do it as long as I can tonight but I don’t think it’s gonna matter. My plan is if elmo wins vote Bodhi. If Bodhi wins vote Elmo. If neither of them wins then...this vote will be something mighty interesting.

ive been so bad with confessionals so i want to do a proper one for once. It's day 36. I still have my idol and my closest ally, Chloe won immunity. Which means that we are both going to final 4 bitches  YEEHAW! I couldn't be happier that we have both pulled this off. There's only so little left and I'm so proud of coming all this way because comin into this season I really had no expectations of myself but I genuinely think that I have a chance of winning and that is just not a feeling I get every day.

This vote could go two ways. The more likely way is to vote out Bodhi. Bodhi/Asya are inseparable duo since forever and votin bodhi would be very smart. Other option is Lily. I feel like Lily hasn't played as well as Bodhi has (aka I think I have a shot against her in the FTC) but I feel like shes defo better in challenges. I am not sure what route is the best but I am leaning towards votin Bodhi out. I know that I can beat Lily in FIC and hopefully then get her out. My dream f3 for a while now has been Asya and Chloe and its fairly close to come into fruition.

I just hope I can pull of these last challenge wins. I have zero (0) individual immunities so now would be a very good time to get a win on my record. I hope that I don't choke this end game ajsoidfjasf. I also hope that I am not being delusional about my chances,,, worst case scenario would be jury hating on me. I don't think that is the case but I really cannot know for sure yanno? I am not there and hopefully wont be!!!

https://imgur.com/a/4SUfgSs

________________________________________________________________

Bodhi is voted out 3-2. He becomes the eighth member of the jury.

Well. I did it. I made a move. It was risky and the jury may not agree but I had to do it. I would have lost this game for sure if I didn’t save elmo for another round and vote Bodhi out. Bodhi mad respect for you and absolutely love how you take things seriously but also don’t??? It was really great getting to talk with you again. Anabel is a beautiful singer but I think you were the true winner of the talent show. No matter what happens, if I’m the next jury member, get 3rd, 2nd, or somehow win the thing, I’m happy. I met some awesome people and played differently than I have before. Hoping I can win this next challenge. If elmo wins, it’s no good but I think I can make it to F3. If elmo doesn’t win, hopefully all the girls can come together and get him out.

Voting Bodhi tonight because I'm not letting ANYONE drag me anywhere, not even to 4th place xx

________________________________________________________________

The fact that I've made it to F4 and get to do ROP really makes me happy, I never thought I'd be at this point in the game holy shit

fuck simon says. If any game I play in the future includes this game I will quit on the spot. Screenshot after each round????? Ummmmmmm. no. hard pass.

I'm almost certain Elmo will win, I knew it from when I saw he was in the cast. Even if I somehow end up sitting beside him at FTC, he's going to get the votes over me. I feel so defeated. Hell even if I make FTC and he doesn't, I'll probably still lose. I feel like such a bad player and person. This game has ruined me totally. I don't feel like I have much fight left to give but I'm trying so hard to pretend to everyone else I have the most fight left in me. Elmo deserves the win though.

me, having the attention span for this challenge? its less likely than u think

im like frustrated bc i wanna win so bad like i feel like i need this win not to get me to the end but to VALIDATE me bc ive worked so hard and stressed so much to get here and even if the jury tears me apart i want to be able to say that i Did something even if the something was just this.

fuck pitbull

Honestly...1. The first question on this form being, who am I? Is a loaded question, I don’t know???? Some weird a** chick who plays online games of survivor and just wants an unplanned all female FTC.  I’m too gosh darn emotional for this. What is wrong with me? 2. I’m a mess (this is really just a continuing of the first point)! First I freak out during the counting challenge cause I messed it up the first time and then I couldn’t get it together cause I’m a damn mess. Then I write diol instead of idol on my #102 in the endurance challenge. I hate pit bull. F*** puzzles and I don’t know if 23 selfies is a lot or nothing at all? Im driving myself bonkers. I called in sick today. I ate a big a** chocolate chip cookie and I still want the peanut butter bar that I was trying to save for later. F***. I shouldn’t be given three days to do anything. It’s too much time! Never thought I’d say this but TOO MUCH TIME. I’m losing my s***

https://youtu.be/tp-ZZAq5BV8

I'm just here to be sad. I can't win and I've known that, I've said all along Elmo my main competition I need to get rid of him. But I love him too much. I'm scared. I don't wanna make it to FTC and be dragged to hell and back by the jury, while Elmo sits there and gets praise. I'm so scared they're all gonna hate me. Like can Elmo just win without me being dragged please. It feels like I've put so much into this game surviving every tribal so far and being immune once, where I put in everything I had to make sure I won and it could literally all be for nothing. I could somehow make FTC and the jury just turns on me. It's kinda my biggest fear. I don't even know what I'm saying right now, I'm tired and scared. I just want this to be over with.

I’m honestly just so glad that is over. That was the hardest challenge I’ve had to do in my time. Congrats to us all for doing that damn. Chloe, Asya, and Elmo it has been a pleasure.

so. i didn’t win final immunity, which. duh.

i was really hoping to see chloe win, but of course, elmo won instead which means as far as i’m concerned, the winner of this game is already decided. i can’t lie and say i’m not mad at lily about this. she got too cocky and thought elmo wouldn’t win FIC when she took out bodhi.

chloe and i agreed to vote for her tonight, which i assume means elmo is also voting for her, even though he won’t say. not like there’s any reason to hide your vote at Final Fuckin Four but okay elmo.

the circle of life gets completed tonight. jared kills johnny, bodhi kills jared, lily kills bodhi, i kill lily, and then the jury kills me. it’s gonna be a fun time.

________________________________________________________________

Lily is voted out 3-1. She becomes the final member of the jury.

FTC in 15.... and i genuinely feel sick

as i wrote notes for myself, i started to realize that i’ve been... very hard on myself in this game. this isn’t the best game i’ve played. it wasn’t flashy, i definitely don’t have anything close to a winners edit and yes, i’m probably still getting 3rd but.

i did what i had to do. i just wanted to make it to the end and i did. i put my emotions in the back seat and made the moves that would secure me a place in the final 3. my opinion is probably gonna 180 after the jury tears me to pieces but for now i listen to 80’s music and try to tell myself i’m not gonna cry

time to get roasted by the jury

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Cassie Clare and the Canon-Sue Debate

by Dan H

Thursday, 19 February 2009 

Dan talks around the subject of Cassandra Clare's City of Ashes.

Ferretbrain readers should remember from my last review, I hated Cassandra Cla(i)re's City of Bones so much that I could barely express myself. It went around the “Bad/Funny” wheel so many times it gave me motion sickness. It also read rather a lot like Harry Potter fanfic.

So as you can imagine, I was overjoyed when our illustrious editor presented me with a copy of the second book in the trilogy (carefully informing me that since she had bought two other books on a three-for-two offer at Waterstones she had not, in fact, paid money for it).

It's still bad. It's bad in pretty much all the ways it was bad the last time.

Thanks for reading. 'Night.

Okay, there's more. Once again, this is going into disjointed subheadings, because Cassie Cla(i)re just does that to me.

Chapter Headings

Just in case you were in any doubt what kind of book this was, I thought I'd start off by giving you a full list of the chapter headings:

Prologe: Smoke and Diamonds, Part One: A Season in Hell, Valentine's Arrow, The Hunter's Moon, The Hogwarts High Inquisitor, The Cuckoo in the Nest, Sins of the Fathers (do you see, it's a biblical reference), City of Ashes, The Mortal Sword, Part Two: The Gates of Hell, The Seelie Court, And Death Shall Have No Dominion (yes, that's right “And Death Shall Have No Dominion”), A Fine and Private Place, Smoke and Steel (supposed to echo the prologue maybe?), The Hostility of Dreams (okay, seriously Cassie, you're taking the piss), A Host of Rebel Angels (because Valentine is a bit like Lucifer), Part Three: Day of Wrath, Fearless, The Serpent's Tooth, A Stone of the Heart (no, I don't know what that means either), East of Eden, Darkness Visible, Dies Irae.

I should probably add that these self-aggrandising, portentous titles pretty much exclusively come in front of chapters in which very little actually ... y'know ... happens.

Basic synopsis of City of Ashes: Valentine is back, zomg. Referring to the Ministry of Magic Guide To Resurgent Psychopaths, the Clave (the international organization of Shadowhunters in charge of stopping the world going to shit in a shoebox) decide that the most sensible thing to do is to (a) victimize his son and (b) sit around with their collective thumbs up their collective asses.

The Pesky Kids from the first book return. Cassie Claire “Clary” is slowly discovering more about her precious Mary-Sue powers, and is now dating Everygeek Simon, Draco Jace has been locked up by “The Inquisitor” because they think he's spying for his father (spying, presumably, on the Clave's secret plans to do nothing the fuck about Valentine), Alec is still being tokenistically gay and Isabel is ... not in it much actually, having been relegated to the place where girls who are hotter than the protagonist get sent in the second book. It's the pesky kids who work out that Valentine is planning on taking the Mortal Sword and performing the Ritual of Infernal Conversion to turn it into an evil sword that will allow him to summon Demons.

The Ritual of Infernal Conversion

Okay, so here's how it goes. Valentine has stolen the Mortal Sword, one of the titular (is it titular if it's the title of the trilogy, rather than the book?) Mortal Instruments. He steals this in chapter – like – six and the Clave pays no attention whatsoever because after all, it's not like the powerful psychopathic genius would have stolen the awesomely powerful mystical artefact for a reason is it?

In order to complete the Ritual of Infernal Conversion Valentine must drain the blood of a child of each of the “Downworlder” races. “Child,” by the way is defined as “anybody under the age of eighteen”. Clary objects to this definition later on on the book, on the grounds that sixteen year olds aren't children but teenagers, and somebody corrects her by pointing out that “teenagers are a modern concept” whereas of course the RoIC is deep and ancient magic.

Now ... you probably know where I'm going with this, but yes, I know that the idea of “teenagers” is a modern concept but that isn't because in ancient times you were considered a “child” until the age of twenty, it's because you were considered an adult from pretty much the moment you hit puberty. I would have been just about okay with the fact that the “children” Valentine was targeting were actually people who were all old enough to hunt demons for a living, had Cla(i)re not pulled the infuriating “aaaah do you see ... it's a modern concept” thing. If you're going to play the sub-Gaiman “ah, but in the old tales” card, at least get your old tales right. Idiot.

Anyway, Valentine attacks a couple of Downworlder kids and drains their blood (right there and then in the street, this will become important-slash-infuriating later), it comes right down to the wire and he needs only Vampire and a Werewolf.

Shockingly,

Cassie

Classie

Clary's best-friend-slash-pity-fuck Simon gets turned into a Vampire just as Valentine is looking for a Vampire Child to kill for his ritual. Not only that, but he winds up being sorta-romantically-involved with a werewolf who is also conveniently old-enough-to-be-sexy-while-falling-under-the-arbitrary-sacrificing-age.

Side note: how do you even define a Vampire “child” anyway? Is it vamp age, total age, pre-vamp age?

Anyway, Valentine captures Simon and the Werewolf who fancies him (oh, by the way, in a shockingly original twist, Vampires and werewolves in Cla(i)re's mythos don't get on with each other) and locks them up in a cage without doing anything. Because, y'know, you can't rush evil rituals. Except that he did the last two times. And now he knows the Clave are onto him. He really shouldn't be beating around the bush with the whole “army of demons” thing is what I'm saying.

So Valentine prevaricates, meaning he only has enough power to raise half an army of demons, because his sword isn't fully evillified yet (so presumably at close of play he has a terrifying sword of Neutrality ... what makes a sword turn neutral?). He drains Simon of blood (which doesn't kill him, because he's a named character) but leaves the Werewolf girl untouched (named character also). This gives our heroes the opportunity to totally brock his shit ap.

Did I say “our heroes”? I of course meant “Clary”. And Jace, a bit.

But I'm a Creep

I'm going to quote something now.

“I think the Queen meant I can draw new runes that are more powerful than ordinary runes, and maybe even create new ones.” Jace shook his head. “No one can create new runes-” “Maybe she can, Jace.” Alec sounded thoughtful. “It's true, none of us have ever seen that Mark on her arm before.”

And something else:

A soft voice spoke inside her head: Who are you, to think you can speak the language of heaven? The pencil moved. She was almost sure that she hadn't moved it but it slid across the paper, describing a single line. She felt her heart skip. She thought of her mother sitting dreamily before her canvas, creating her own vision of the world in ink and oil paint. She thought, Who am I? I am Jocelyn Fray's daughter.

And now something else:

She smiled slightly as she sat down on the stool, placing her left leg across her right and then placed the sorting hat on her head. 'This should be interesting' she thought. The whole hall was silenced in anticipation of which house she would be put in, each person wishing that it were his or her house. 'Strange’ said a voice in her head, 'there are parts of your brain I cannot get into.' 'For good reason' 'Care to tell me those reasons, and where and how you learned such control over your mind?' 'Lets just say there’s more to me than there seems and all will be revealed later.'

And finally:

Kuro chuckled 'kids are so funny now a days. Have to remember I’m supposed to be sixteen so I have to act like them. Damn.' Kuro then waved her had and a small section of table appeared between the Slytherin and Gryffindor tables at the opposite end of the hall from the head table. She waived her hand again and a black throne like chair appeared there. Kuro then turned to face Dumbledore. "Is that acceptable kocho?" "Yes it seems to work." "As you can all see I don't use a wand,” said Kuro as she turned to face her classmates. "I hope that won't be a problem. Now I bet you all wish to eat after that long train ride so I will take my seat." With a final wave of her hand Kuro transported herself to her chair.

Okay, I know it's a cheap shot to compare published novels to PotterSues featured fics but there is, in fact, a similarity of type there. In fact, having read the last section aloud to our esteemed editor, I'd go so far as to say that you'd be hard pressed to tell which was the published work of original fiction, and which was the bad HP fic if it weren't for the specific references to canon.

Cassie Claire's protagonists are some of the biggest sues I have ever encountered. Clary has what seems to be unlimited power, constrained only by the demands of the plot and the author's wishes. If she had been a character in HP fanfic who had the ability to “cast new spells that are more powerful than ordinary spells, and perhaps create new ones” she'd be laughed off of fanfiction.net. But of course it's okay here because she's the “main character” of this totally “original” work of fiction.

I'm going to go off on a sideline here, because I find this rather interesting. Fanfiction is a strange beast, with a lot of peculiar ideas and conventions attached to it. One of the most interesting and abiding rules of Fanfiction (in my limited experience) seems to be “thou shalt not attempt to upstage thy source material”. No HP villains who are more evil than Voldemort or heroes more powerful than Dumbledore. No Lord of the Rings characters who are immune to the power of the ring. No House characters who are better at diagnosing stuff than House.

The interesting thing about this rule is that actually it can be applied pretty readily to original fiction. It's a bit more fluid, because the same person who sets up the rules gets to set up the exceptions to those rules. On the other hand, a writer who breaks the rules which they explicitly and personally created is one of the most infuriating things in the world. Cheap examples of this include Harry Potter's Magic Love Powers and Wand That Acts By Itself, Tom Bombadil's immunity to the ring, Auraya's ability to keep her powers even after the gods have abandoned her (much as I love Trudy Canavan, that one went a bit too far).

Put simply, here's a piece of advice for people writing original fiction: if you couldn't get away with it in fanfic, it probably sucks hard.

I've done the “Clary” / “Claire” / “Clare” joke to death by now, but I'm going to have one more crack at it: Clary Fray, whose first name sounds suspiciously similar to Cassandra Cla(i)re's adopted surname, is a horrible, horrible sue. Leaving aside the “name that sounds a bit like your name” thing, she gets the ability to make up new runes. This is, in fact, functionally equivalent to a Harry Potter character being able to make up new spells (indeed the runes in the Mortal Instruments trilogy – hey! I've just realised that the acronym for that is “TMI” - function rather a lot like potter spells. There's the shielding one, the fast-healing one, the one that opens doors that conveniently fails to work half the time...) it just screams “speshul” at the top of its lungs.

Of course the “defence” of all this stupid speshulness is that there are totally plot reasons for it (which is the defence that people trot out after “it's my story!” and before “if you don't like it don't read it!”). Clary and Jace (who gets awesome jumping powers I shit you not) have apparently been experimented on by Voldemort Valentine, because he wanted to ... well actually we haven't been given a reason yet (it will presumably come out in the final volume City of Glass). Either way I just plain don't care. If you make your protagonist teh super speshul it doesn't matter what half-arsed justification you give for it. You made the decision to write about a character like that. You. Not your muse. Not the harsh necessities of your secondary creation. You.

“I can create new runes that are more powerful than normal runes”. For fuck's sake.

Comments:

http://miss-morland.livejournal.com/ at 16:51 on 2009-02-19Hee! Those chapter headings almost deserve their own article. At first, I was a little impressed by the literary references ('A Season in Hell' seems like an allusion to Rimbaud, for example), but then it just became too much. Also, whiel naming the first chapter of the second part 'The Gates of Hell' is sort of repetitive, it's nothing in comparison to naming one chapter 'Day of Wrath' and another 'Dies Irae', which means EXACTLY THE SAME THING. Love this site!permalink - go to topDan H at 17:07 on 2009-02-19Hiya! Literary references in this sort of book always annoy me. It always feels like a cheap attempt to legitimize your work by saying "look! I've read famous stuff! That means I must be an intelligent person with interesting things to say!" It's sort of like a chef plastering his restaurant with pictures of other people cooking him dinner...permalink - go to topViorica at 17:12 on 2009-02-19On the one hand, I like titles that allude to the classics. On the other . . . she's writing YA urban fantasy. She might as well just title each chapter "This is Deep and Meaningful and Intelligent!"permalink - go to topRami at 17:59 on 2009-02-19naming one chapter 'Day of Wrath' and another 'Dies Irae', which means EXACTLY THE SAME THING Ah, but the second one is in Latin which means it is super-speshul, because everyone knows Latin is the language of the Catholic Church All Magic Evar.permalink - go to tophttp://miss-morland.livejournal.com/ at 23:13 on 2009-02-19Yeah, I agree. She's making it more difficult for herself, too, because evoking the classics just serves to remind people that her own work isn't all that great... (Which I'm saying without even having read the book, but this is a case where I think some amount of prejudice can be justified.) Haha, yes, Latin makes everything more super-speshul. Especially when it's obvious that it's only there to impress the reader (as long as said reader doesn't know/care about what the title actually *means*, that is).permalink - go to topWardog at 12:31 on 2009-02-20(Catherine Morland was always one of my favourite Austen heroines - she is so terribly sweet) I would like to put forward a vote for "And Death Shall Have No Dominion" has the best-worst chapter title ever.permalink - go to topWardog at 12:36 on 2009-02-20At first, I was a little impressed by the literary references ... but then it just became too much. I think you're right, it's excess of desperate literariness that completely sinks this. I mean, I'm all for a few relevant chosen references but this looks like nothing so much as an indiscriminate spree in wiki-quote. Let's see ... let's play the reference spotting game... off the top of my head .. Rimbaud, as you say, The Bible, Dylan Thomas, Milton, Marvell, Steinbeck ... oh pulease, give me a break! permalink - go to tophttp://descrime.livejournal.com/ at 22:19 on 2009-02-20I'm okay with breaking world rules as long as breaking them results in at least some negative consequence for the exception. The protagonist who has powers no one has ever seen before/in centuries is a common trope in YA stories; the good stories just balance that out with something that gets taken away in exchange for that power. The second problem I see from the two sections you quoted is that Clary's new power isn't the result of hard work or persistence in studying this magic or even an innate understanding of the nature of runes or just natural brilliance. She doesn't even seem to be aware of what she's doing. In that passage, they just come to her without thought because she's someone's daughter, and that's just ridiculously cheap in my books.permalink - go to tophttp://miss-morland.livejournal.com/ at 13:23 on 2009-02-21I would like to put forward a vote for "And Death Shall Have No Dominion" has the best-worst chapter title ever. I think you're right. *g* Although now I'm sort of curious as to what chapter headings she'll invent for her next novel...permalink - go to topWardog at 14:42 on 2009-02-21I'm not sure Dan will survive her next novel...permalink - go to tophttp://rudecyrus.livejournal.com/ at 04:02 on 2009-02-22When did books for young adults and children become so damn mediocre?permalink - go to tophttp://katsullivan.insanejournal.com/ at 09:53 on 2009-02-22Isabel is ... not in it much actually, having been relegated to the place where girls who are hotter than the protagonist get sent in the second book" Ha ha! That's funny. But don't forget that according to Jace, Clary is more beeyootiful than Isabelle and Isabelle is jeluz of her. Clary's Sue-nature gets even better in Book 3 when a 3rd character - a hot dude called Sebastian - also falls in love with her. You will be interested to know that the chapter titles from the 3rd book - City of Glass are just as pretentious of the other books. This is from her Livejournal, with explanations from where she got the titles from: Chapter One: The Portal Self-explanatory, especially if you've read the first chapter. Chapter Two: The Demon Towers of Alicante “Those are the demon towers,” Jace said, in response to Simon’s unasked question. “They control the wards that protect the city. Because of them, no demon can enter Alicante.” Chapter Three: Amatis In which we meet Amatis, a character mentioned once, briefly, in Ashes. Chapter Four: Daylighter Well, what else are you going to call a vampire who can walk around during the day? Chapter Five: A Problem of Memory In which the Inquisitor would like Simon to remember something that never actually happened. Chapter Six: One of the Living “A true vampire knows he is dead. He accepts his death. But you, you think you are still one of the living," said Raphael. Chapter Seven: Bad Blood "“Everyone seemed to blanch when your name came up earlier," said Sebastian. "I gathered there was some bad blood between your brother and you.” Chapter Eight: Where Angels Fear to Tread “Fools rush in/Where angels fear to tread” — Alexander Pope Chapter Nine: This Guilty Blood “I am ashamed/of these foul deeds;/Nor with this guilty blood/Sprinkled, would I pollute the innocent.” —Euripedes, Hercules Chapter Ten: Fire and Sword “Their state The noblest-born must abdicate; The fairest, while with fire and sword Come Spoilers--horde impelling horde.” — William Wordsworth Chapter Eleven: All the Host of Hell Milton. “the hollow abyss Heard far and wide, and all the host of hell With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim." Chapter Twelve: De Profundis De profundis: In Latin, "out of the depths.” Psalm 130 is known as "De Profundis;" it begins "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord." Chapter Thirteen: Where There is Sorrow Oscar Wilde. “Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground.” Chapter Fourteen: In the Dark Forest Reference to the beginning of Dante’s Inferno. “I found myself within a forest dark” — the narrator, Dante, wanders in a dark forest of confusion and grief. Chapter Fifteen: Things Fall Apart Yeats’s famous poem “The Second Coming” : “Things fall apart/The center cannot hold” Chapter Sixteen: Articles of Faith Articles of faith is a general expression for statements of faith-belief all across Christianity and other religions. The Nicene Creed ("Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorum coeli et terrae") is an article of faith. Chapter Seventeen: The Shadowhunter's Tale This mirrors The Werewolf’s Tale in book one. Chapter Eighteen: Hail and Farewell From a poem by Catullus. Ave Atque Vale, means hail and farewell. Shadowhunters say it when someone dies in battle. Chapter Nineteen: Peniel Peniel is where Jacob wrestled the angel in the Bible. Chapter Twenty: Weighed in the Balance “Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin” : “You are weighed in the balance, and found wanting.” From the book of Daniel. Epilogue: Across the Sky in Stars TE Lawrence: “Because I loved you, I took these tides of men into my hands, and wrote my will across the sky in stars.” permalink - go to tophttp://athread.livejournal.com/ at 14:15 on 2009-02-22A group of girls in my school have become obsessed with Cassie Claire (the new Twilight? I live in hope.) and read/analyse her books over and over again. If I hear CC called "a modern genius" in French class one more time, SOMEBODY WILL DIE, seriously. I flicked through the first book in Easons a few weeks ago and could tell from the one page I read that it was crap. I'm also a bit shocked that she actually named one of the chapters A Season in Hell, since, you know, one of her most famous H/D fanfics is called that. She's not even trying to get away from the whole fandom thing.permalink - go to topViorica at 18:19 on 2009-02-22Of course she isn't. That's why she got a three-book contract; it's why she had a built-in fanbase. Moving away from it would be bad for her career. When did books for young adults and children become so damn mediocre? Since authors decided that kids and teens were too dumb to appreciate quality, so they could churn out pages of crap, an it's be eaten up by the target audience. Sadly, they aren't wrong. It irritates me, since I'm a part of the target audience, and I'm sick of getting lumped in with people who think Cassie Clare's or Anna Godberson's stuff is the height of literary genius.permalink - go to topDan H at 20:06 on 2009-02-22Yeats’s famous poem “The Second Coming” : “Things fall apart/The center cannot hold” Hooray! One of the many things I would absolutely *love* to see in a modern fantasy novel somebody quoting the *first* line of the second coming. "Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre" or possibly "The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer" would make excellent pretentious chapter titles. Also, I'd like to add that I actually scrolled *up* to your post from below, so I looked at it, laughed, then read it again and went "wait, those are the *actual* chapter titles, I thought she was making this up". permalink - go to topWardog at 20:14 on 2009-02-22When did books for young adults and children become so damn mediocre To be fair, YA is *also* producing some of the most exciting authors my jaded heart has encountered for many a cold year. For every Cassie Clare, there's a Melinda Marchetta, for every Anna Godberson a Catherine Fisher.permalink - go to topSonia Mitchell at 22:05 on 2009-02-22Theresa Breslin, Stewart and Riddell, Charlotte Hatpie, Philip Reeve... there's a lot of decent stuff out there. But like other genres, when authors start imitating each other things spiral into crap. I think on the whole YA is doing better than thrillers and fantasy in that respect - it's a genre I'm more willing to take risks in because the chance of a pleasant surprise seems a lot higher. (As an aside - is YA a genre as such? Or something else? Marketing category maybe? I'm hazy on the boundaries)permalink - go to topWardog at 11:26 on 2009-02-23Oh my God, the chapters for book 3 are even worse - thank you for, err, sharing the pain =Ppermalink - go to topWardog at 16:34 on 2009-02-26Also am I the only person who finds the tagline a little bit amusing? The Shadowhunter war rages on ... shouldn't it just be "the shadowhunter war rages". The addition of the "on" makes it sound like its tediously extended. You might as well say "the shadowhunter war drags on" (and on).permalink - go to tophttp://mary-j-59.livejournal.com/ at 04:40 on 2009-02-28Hi! I can comment at last! About Cassandra Clare: I have refused to buy or read these books because I discovered she had plagiarized Pamela Dean. That was enough for me. But, Dan, I'm a huge Tolkien fan, and I actually think Tom Bombadil's power over the ring works. It works because it's made quite clear that Bombadil's powers are constrained by space - he is the ruler of a tiny kingdom - and because it's also clear that, as Gandalf says, he would be a most unsafe guardian. He cannot remember the ring exists *because* it has no hold on his mind. And if he can't remember it, he can't guard it. Which is like something descrime said above. If someone has a superpower, it should have constraints. Bombadil is constrained, and Clary apparently isn't. Just my two cents-permalink - go to tophttp://disdainful-soul.livejournal.com/ at 10:16 on 2009-03-16I'm also a bit shocked that she actually named one of the chapters A Season in Hell, since, you know, one of her most famous H/D fanfics is called that. She's not even trying to get away from the whole fandom thing. If you think that's bad, the trilogy takes its name from a Ginny/Ron incest fic. If she was trying to get away from fandom she would publish it under a name that wasn't so close to her fandom one (removing the "i" does not make the change clever, Cla(i)re) and stop putting in references to fandom and fandom people all throughout the book. Other fic authors have gone on to be published and don't ride on the coattails of fandom to get there.permalink - go to topWardog at 09:32 on 2009-03-18I think the point is that once you've made a claim to having read Rimbaud you want to make that claim as often as possible :)permalink - go to topWordless at 07:58 on 2009-11-10From a poem by Catullus. Ave Atque Vale, means hail and farewell. Shadowhunters say it when someone dies in battle. sorry but i had to know, do they do it in a funeral procession afterwards or do they do it in battle? does every one stop fighting and do the whole latin tellytubby "BYYYE bubye byee!!!!" thing. if so that totally rocks.permalink - go to topWordless at 08:03 on 2009-11-10Also I noticed that half the titles have absolutely no relevance to what happens in the chapter....is there a rule somewhere that says quoting original literature somehow makes you original??? Bah!

[survivormarmoreal]

Episode #11: "okay so heres the tea mawmaw henny... anyways" - Bryce

I guess i wasnt right to be paranoid but doesnt feel good knowing your name was used as a fake target. I really want to win the next immunity but idk. Hopefully i can do well.

nick tried super hard that tribal i got a tiny bit nervous but i'm glad that things seem to be going pretty well and working themselves out with nathan brian and sharky but i feel like nathan's gonna be pretty upset with me after the season :(

Welp I blew another challenge. Good times. Hopefully Nathan won't win because I want him out next. Ideal boot order for me going forward is Nathan, Bryce, Maynor, Matt, Anna. So we'll see how this challenge shakes out and then I can create some beautiful mastermind plot to send his ass home. Tbh he's just gotten too shady. It seems like every round it gets back to me that Nathan has been working some plan that he never told me about. And Nick was always the leak so with him gone Idk how I can trust Nathan anymore. But I feel solid with The FB Bois and with Brian's steal a vote in his pocket we should be able to control the majority from here on out. There's a lot of "hopefully"s in my head right now.

The challenge didn't go so well because I was sleep deprived and reaction time was slow. I don't think Im going to win. It is crazy though that it is the Final 7 already. Im closely working with Nathan in this game. I would totally go to the end with him. This is where we can make a move to keep the majority. Nathan says he is able to get Annabelle's vote and I think I can get Bryce's vote which means that's 4 and enough to send either Matt, Sharky, or Brian home. It sucks cuz I'm also working with Sharky and Brian but both haven't really talked game game to me. They have told me the vote but not really strategy talk. So I feel like I rather side with Nathan, who actually talks to me about strategy. We have to wait and see who wins immunity to really make a plan for tribal.

i really wanted to uh win immunity but JKFASKJ guess thats never gonna happen. i was like how can anyone flop at this simon says game and well. love simon outsold... i want to get annabelle out this round but now it can be hard without the blanket of protection that immunity brings what if it backfires. we still have brians steal a vote tho so thats 3 votes and we'd only need one more barring another idol. speaking of idols i still have NOTHING.

Okay now I'm starting to feel a little guilty. Nathan just came to me stressing. He's never made it this far and he feels like he's so close but he's feeling the pressure to build his resume. I get all of those feelings. And I know if I'm the one to betray him and ruin his streak I stand no chance of getting his jury vote. I'm feeling so conflicted. Nathan is a threat and I can't trust him. But I finally understand why he's been such a mess throughout the merge. What do I do?

So remember how I said I felt bad for Nathan? OVER IT. So I wanted to vote him out this go around. But then I was unsure. And I told him it would be easiest to just vote Bryce. AND HE TOLD BRYCE. I'm over it. he's doing literally too much. He's never made it this far and it shows. Like scrambling and betraying your allies who had your back and EVEN FORGAVE YOU WHEN YOU LIED TO US. Like It's not cute.

ok so heres the tea mawmaw henny. ... anyways i um love stream of consciousness writing NNN so sharky doesnt trust me and wants me out but like everyone tells me why doesnt he trust me ive been nothing but honest anyways gays cant be trusted. but maynor sharky and anna wanna vote matt. and matt wants to vote maynor/anna and i wanna vote anna with brian so idk im just scared that if we use brians vote steal we'll be in danger at f6 maybe voting matt is smarter like if they just voted sharky id be down but i dont want to go into f6 with sharky AND nathan/anna

So I forgot to vote last round before I literally passed the fuck out after work... how sad!  Nick still did go, just like I had worked on... But I'm OK again because I won immunity //again// (a physical threat...) so therefore I'm safe for yet another round.  It's worrying because if I ever lose I become a huge target for the vote, and I think this round is very risky bisky.... but it'll also finally draw the final lines in the sand with people I want to go to the end with.

I've decided that Nathan's messiness and choice in allies is what strays me away from him.  I love Annabelle, but her relationship with Sharky is what deters me from going further with her.  I like Maynor, but his sketchiness during every tribal is what deters me from going further with him.  If Nathan got over his obsession with voting for Matt... Every.  Single.  Round... then maybe I'd feel better about this all.  If he threw out Sharky, then whew, let's do it!  Nathan is one of my favorite people ever, and he's so enjoyable to talk to... his big ass heart is what's making me feel so fucking bad about this decision, but I think it's what's best for me.

At the moment, I'm seeing a very iffy chance at winning come final tribal time, but I still have a fighting spirit to get there and to dominate final tribal.  I'm just worried about losing all respect from people like Nathan, Sharky, and Annabelle when I vote them out.  I know it's very plausible, so I have to start planning around that.  I have to be able to manage talking about a dominating game and also owning up to being shitty from time to time.

Ideally, I'll be sitting in final 4 with Bryce, Matt, and someone else (it's between Maynor and Nathan/Annabelle).  I know Sharky has to go, but I also have to be ready to work around him making finals with me.  Final 3 situation ideally would be with Matt and Bryce and then final 2 with whomever I see it easier to beat.  And that's all the tea I have for now.

To have tied in the immunity record and also be confirmed top 6... I'm so proud of myself and what I have done given all the time restraints I've had in this game so far.  It's impressive, if I do say so myself.  I really hope I can make people proud of me... and even if I go in 6th, I know I did the damnest fucking thing and fought my ass off.

Annajane, Matty, Jack, Jones, and Drew..., thank you for believing in me enough to cast me for this season.  I hope I don't let you guys down and haven't yet.

Marie, I hope I'm making you proud by still being here!!  I'm trying really hard every day to ensure one of us could do the damn thing.

Zacky, Tobi, Loris, Scott, Justin... and to really anyone out there rooting for me... thank you!  I may not know everyone who is rooting for me, but I really appreciate any support you've given me this season!!

So I think this vote might be the breaking point for me and Annabelle. If we're really coming after Nathan I can't tell her. I also told her that Matt's idol was the merge idol which isn't true. But the fact that she asked makes me think she doesn't know another idol is out there. Which is a great sign. I feel bad but I'm worried if she has to choose between me and Nathan she may choose Nathan. Ugh

God I am SO over these people! Like i seem to be the perpetual target every single round! And it is quite demoralising tbh. I seem to be the easy target cause Brian has immunity and Sharky has got close with Annabelle. and we 3 are a "trio!!!" who apparently need breaking up, even though nathan really needs to like fuck off out of here. I appreciate how hard the man is playing but he's just coming off as a dick now. As he has said, he wants to basically be fuck buddies with Brian to the end, which is not a cute look for him, riding Brians coat tails to the end where he will clearly be beaten. I am just SO over it. At least I _should_ be safe (and should is the correct term here) cause we will have bryce with us hopefully going into this vote but if i leave, i leave. I just want these people gone so I can have a stress free game for ONCE. Like please just fuck off out of here and LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE.

ok so idk whats going to happen sharky threw my name out but now says he didnt and since i want him to vote with me i just say oh ya ofc i believe u. like i want anna out but sharky/matt wants nathan and maynor/anna/nathan want matt. what about what *i* want...

Today is the day where Nathan and I take majority with Bryce and Annabelle anf get rid of Matt or our plans come crashing down in flames. Either way we are making a move. I just hope we prevail and things go our way and our plan doesnt leak.

brian is amazing i need another immunity win so we can just have ari stans only winning immunities. i'm nervous because like this tribal is like anyone can really go the next few rounds but i feel like people still don't think i'm a threat but idk we'll see this game is really like i'm not sure.  

So now Matt is pitching Maynor because we couldn't choose between Anna and Nathan. But they still want to keep it a secret. And that's a terrible idea. We're going to do all this lying and plotting and then vote out the smallest threat. That's a wasted opportunity. I could get behind voting for Maynor but I'm not going to lie to Anna to do it. Plus they want to do it for fear of advantages but like...if Anna or Nathan have anything they'll definitely use it at F6 if we lie to them about the vote. We're overcomplicating this.

ok so like im gone.. idk its so hard to know whos telling the truth. what if sharky leaks to anna i want her out. like anna/maynor/nathan SHOULD be doing matt which means that like as long as me and brian vote together ill at most have 2 votes against me so maybe 3-2-2 but i really trust matt so i feel like he'll vote with us. i really dont wanna vote nathan out when anna is still here... bc she'll go to sharky so quick and take maynor with her. im trying to think of damage control if things do go bad ill just have to tell nathan i wanted anna out bc i thought he was closer to her than me and then maynor idk what to say NNNN... also sharky made an alliance with me matt brian and him but didnt tell me before hand lol love that.. i feel like the abi maria of the season idk why... or like the gabby who doesnt get her way AJSDHFKJA so sad... anyway im a goner :(

It looks like Brian, Matt, and Sharky are voting Bryce. While they think Bryce will vote Sharky. Me, Nathan, Annabelle, and Bryce are doing Matt which will suprise them. I think imma have to do lots of damage control with Brian and Sharky cuz last time I voted differently than they did, Sharky was fine since it wasnt him but Brian was made he was lied to. So like oopsie. But hey its the game of survivor and sometimes you have to lie who ur voting for.

Okay so...I amde a questionable choice...a VERY questionable choice. I told Annabelle everything (almost). She came to me and confessed the Matt plan because she didn't want me to be blindsided. Which verified all me feeling about fighting to save her. So I told her the truth (almost). I said Bryce leaked all of that info to us. I told her the 4 of us came together. I didn't tell her we named it the Fajita Fellas. That's just for us. But then I told her that I had protected her and got the vote on Maynor. Now if there is an idol played it will be on Maynor and Nathan will still go home. I'll send her a PM during the voting and be like SOS it's switching to Nathan. That way I cover my ass. Now I'm just trying to calm Brian down because he is ANXIOUS. Can people just chill out

Nathan is voted out 4-3.

[survivor-switzerland]

EPISODE 14: SENT HOME OVER A LIE - TYLER

So it was crazy that last vote. I have no clue what is going on anymore. I think there's something in the water cause plans go awry in an instant. Omg I'm just happy to still be here. I honestly am surprised that last two votes have worked. I think this one is gonna be crazy as well. I'm hoping to actually get a win but I seem to get one upped by someone!! I think we all need a sit down cause feelings are all over the place and I don't think anyone really knows who they can trust. I feel like I'm in a good spot cause I've been open tho. Time will tell.

EPISODE 14

Tribal council ended and we got rid of Nick. Excuse me, that's actually incorrect. Tribal council occurred and because Nick decided he didn't want to succeed in the game, we gave him his wish of sending him to jury far before he would have been if he had just sat still for a moment.

Blah blah blah--more insincere damage control with Tyler. Everything's okay. We're still a thing. Blah blah blah. Honestly, the only thing that bums me out about pretending I'm still loyal to Tyler isn't the lying to Tyler. He's lying to me too, 100%. We're just kidding one another. The thing that bums me out is leaving Ian in the dark and Ian being collateral damage to that. That part feels terrible.

The immunity challenge was SIMON. I took aside time on my Sunday while sick with a cold to get as far as humanly possible along in the game. For my strategy, I typed the first letter of the color SIMON selected into a word document and then kept it neat by putting them in rows of five. Then, when I had to press the colors, I would do it rhythmically in bursts of five while speaking it out loud to myself to make sure my mind kept my hand and my eyes accountable. My first attempt, I scored 43. Determining that not enough, I gave it a second attempt and scored 88. As that had taken a few hours, I decided that was the best I was going to do and submitted it. Fortunately, the majority of the cast finished below 40 and Ashley Sarah was the only person close enough to my 88 with a score of 78. I won immunity! And honestly, it couldn't have come at a better time. I know Tyler wants me out and this is one more time I won't have to use my hidden immunity idol--thank God.

Initially, I didn't make any attempt to strategize or set a target or anything. Why? Because I sucked at that REALLY bad last time. I thought I could keep a lid on people that I couldn't. I failed. And I wanted to let someone else call out a target this time and see if it would blow up or if it would be fully realized. But then literally NO ONE offered anything! For me, I felt like losing Luke would have been best for my game. But Dom wasn't particularly down for it. He was more worried about Tyler and Ian. Luke wanted Ian to go because he feels Ian hasn't done anything worth being kept around. Ashley Sarah wanted Tyler. Tyler and Ian wanted Dom. No one wanted Luke to go! So in my next best interest, I got back on the let's get Tyler the fuck out of here train and reassumed a leadership role. Originally we were going to be quiet and put all the votes on Tyler, but Dom was worried as the prospective idol target that we ought to split instead. Out of respect, I arranged for that and if that split failed for the THIRD time this game, clearly this cast wasn't meant to split votes and what the hell do I care? I'm not going anywhere. If Dom goes, that's one less person I have mad as fuck at me for betraying them.

Lastly, I just can't trust Tyler. I can't. Everything that I tell him, he runs and tells Luke because he's floundering like crazy. Luke is a good friend of Tyler's, but Luke is also here to play Survivor. Luke is genuinely worried, with good reason, that Tyler won't be friends with him anymore if he betrays him and I hate hearing that because that personal connection belongs nowhere here. Before this game started, my ORG best friend Keegan and I made a promise to one another--we do whatever it takes to win and under no circumstances to we sacrifice our own game for the other. We're friends no matter what. I sincerely hope Tyler takes a page from that friendship book if he's the one who leaves.

Bye snake!!

Scraped by another tribal and I've now made it to F7. I have no loyalties left for the H4rmony alliance. From now on I'm placing all my trust on Tyler, Luke and Jev. This four needs to work tbh because Brett and Ashley have been filthy moles from the beginning and I want them gone.

Brett wins immunity which is a pain I want him and his idol gone ASAP. Right now I'm being fake in the H4rmony chat (eww) because I know if we say Dom they're gonna try and flip the script.

Ideally I'd want Dom gone this vote. I've been after his ass since the Renee vote and then at F6 Brett and Ash cannot win immunity, then me, Tyler, Jev and Luke split the vote. If Brett doesn't play his idol we send him to jury.

In all honesty I don't know if I'm even gonna win even if I make to FTC. I'm feeling like Nicole at the Bora Bora F6 because I'm realizing that even if I make it to FTC my moves will only be credited as Tyler's moves. It sucks because I know that if I try to explain it, they're just gonna think I'm a puppet. Ugh I just want to finish this season with my never voted out status unharmed tbh lol

P.S I MISS MY BORA BORA FAM <3

The fact that last round Nick got sent home over a lie that Luke and I made up. Dear lord 😂. This next Tribal should be interesting now!

So close to winning immunity!!!! Damn Brett!!! Jk ily!!! I think that it's going to be insane vote with everyone uncertain about where they stand. So close to the end makes everyone a tad nervous. Definitely need to play it cool and strategically vote. 

heyyyy so im trying to make a big move. Last night I went on call with Luke and he told me that Tyler and Ian were voting for me for God knows what reason. As of now I think i was able to convince Luke and Jev to not vote with Tyler and Ian. Then I came up with a plan for this round that would help us blindside brett the next vote. For this round, we would build up our trust high enough with Brett by voting out Ian like I had previously told him I would. Then the plan changed to vote tyler blah blah. But since Tyler has the merge idol, we had to be smart about it. I mentioned to Brett that splitting the vote would make the most sense because if Tyler really does have an idol and he plays it, it's 3 votes negated instead of 5. That way it'd be 3* on tyler, 2 on ian and 2 on me. We'd revote and then Ian would go home. If Tyler did use his idol then we'd have to get in possession of it instead of Brett having two idols. The following vote would be the biggest blindside of the season and here's why. If this vote works, we would have built up enough trust with Brett to the point where he might feel comfortable enough to not use his idol at the next tribal. The only way that we have a shot at getting Brett out is if he doesn't win the next immunity challenge. That's why Luke and I are going to go HARD for the next one just so Brett doesn't win. He would assume that the vote was going to be for Ian. We wouldn't tell Ian about the vote because he would just leak to Brett and Ashley then end up tying it. Hopefully the result of that vote would be 3-2-1. 3 on brett, 2 on ian, and 1 on whoever ian votes for. Okay that's all the tea I have right now. If it's me tonight, I love you guys for letting me host. You guys have been great <3

[lexieduranyoung-blog]

Reality Television - The 411

There is "Reality TV" and then there is REALITY TV! What exactly is Reality TV? Most people would say that they are television programs, in which real people are continuously filmed, designed to be entertaining rather than informative. In all honesty, that's the route that most of the Reality Television shows are headed - causing drama induced blank stares, just for the sake of ratings.  There are, of course, some informative styled ones too. Maybe I'm getting old? Or maybe I just appreciate the originals and better television! The old formats that all of these shows used, in the beginning, still work. I can handle big change, on some shows. I get it - production has to continuously adhere to the newer generation, in order to ensure new viewers... but the original viewers are still here, too! The classics, the pillars of Reality TV, those are the ones we watch religiously and the ones we are worried will conform to the new era of unimaginable twists, boring casts, and production induced controversies. The three complaints that I see most often are: 1. There are too many young people cast. 2. We don't want to see returning players; give someone else a chance. 3. The casts' ethnicity is not diverse enough. You know the face you make when you are thinking to yourself, "Really?!" The face where your mouth is straight lined and your eyes are rolled so far back in your head that you can see your hair follicles? That's the face I make when I see people complain about the things, listed above. Of course, all these things have been the case since Reality TV began, over twenty years ago. The bigger social media gets, though, the more complaints we actually see - and in some shows' cases, we've seen the change and it's hurt their ratings with original viewers. We are already seeing it with Survivor (2000). Survivor started out as a show, where the goal was to "Outwit. Outplay. Outlast". They dropped them in some remote area and they were initially left to fend for themselves. Their shelters were bare and so were their stomachs. It's been numerous seasons since I've seen a discussion about how the rice and beans would be rationed! Survivor has given us some of the most notorious reality stars, including one of my very favorites - "Boston Rob". Over the last few seasons, though, I seem to be forgetting more and more of the so-called "dynamic players". They can't be that dynamic, if no one can remember them. This show, in particular, I have seen the most complaints about there not being enough "older people" cast. This last season's theme was conveniently titled , "Gen X vs. Millennials". Let me say this (which by the way I will still say when I am sixty years old): If you put a bunch of senior citizens on Survivor, you're going to need about 20 ambulances on stand-by. I realize that there are some older people out there who've "still got it" and if they're interested, they've submitted an application. Let's face it, though. The majority of our elders are going to get out there and either break a hip or die from undernourishment. When is the last time you actually saw one of the elder cast members get out in a physical competition and just kick ass? The problem is, most complaining people don't stop to think; just because they've aged with the show, doesn't mean the show's cast should age with you. When you were twenty years old, you had no problems watching a show that included mainly twenty year olds.  Personally, I don't want to watch shuffleboard immunity challenges - no thank you! This year, Big Brother (2000) became the first major cable reality show to move their season to online viewing (costing viewers $6/month). I didn't pay for it and I'm not sorry that I didn't. Big Brother is one of the few reality shows that still only airs, on cable, once a year! Every summer, we look forward to watching the June premiere. I'm somewhat of a spoilers buff - so we even stay up late and watch the free "After Dark" live feeds, for clues as to what may happen in the coming episode. A lot of viewers don't care to see returning house guests. I live for it! I could watch Dr. Will and Mike Boogie over and over - there will never be another alliance, in all of Reality TV, like "Chill Town". There is a reason that all of those alliances and house guests are still talked about, today. This last season, four past house guests were brought back - Thank God. If I had to sit through another season of the whole house voting together, every single eviction, I may have begun to boycott. What happened to the alliances? What happened to the sneakiness and making big game moves? In the words of  Rachel Reilly, "you better grab a life vest, floaters" - because that is what seems to be the plan for most new house guests. Snooze fest! That's not what viewers want to see - yet they also complain that they want new house guests. News Flash, these new players don't have the balls. For the first time, in four seasons, they finally brought back some old house guests and finally we got to see some action! It is a serious long time coming for a Big Brother All Stars season. I hope that one is in our near future. It seems like every major channel now has some type of dating show - mimicking the original dating show, The Bachelor (2002). However, that's a show that I do not dabble in. From the reviews that I've read on this season's contestant, Corinne, I'm still thankful that I never got into this one. Both Survivor and Big Brother are shows that I started watching, as a family, with my parents and siblings. Then there is the show that most 90's teenagers quietly watched, hoping their parents wouldn't notice - MTV's The Real World (1992) - "The true story of seven strangers picked to live in a house and have their lives taped. Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. The Real World..." Who cannot recite that intro?! Probably not most young millennials and definitely not the even newer generation - because beginning four seasons ago (after twenty eight seasons) they changed the intro to some sort of awful techno beat. It's gone from a show that mainly focused on getting to know the seven strangers, to a show mainly focused on fabricated drama - due to the stereotype casting that the liberal station produces. The intro is no more, no longer do they show the jobs of the house guests, and if they still take a vacation then I have yet to notice. They even did away with the show's logo! Yet, still, they're managing to produce some serious conflicts between the roommates - but that seems to be all that they're producing. They've listened to their viewers, asking for more a more diverse cast. They've cast more African Americans, yet put them in the houses with the biggest redneck's they could find - and during election season, at that. Coincidence? Unfortunately I think The Real World is slowly losing viewers, but maybe production can pull it from the grave in the following seasons. With The Real World, comes MTV's The Challenge (1998) - a show where they combined members from The Real World casts with cast members from Road Rules (1995). Unfortunately, Road Rules is no longer a running show. This means that The Challenge is slowly losing its number of participants to choose from - and having to resort to picking from the Are You The One? (2014) pool, a show where 20 people are put in a house and try to find their "perfect match" in order to win some cash. The Challenge just happens to be my favorite Reality show, of all time. I'll save the full description and review for another day and another blog - I have lots to say about it, of course. Moving on, to some other somewhat famous (and favorite) Reality shows... Even some of the talent shows are trying out new and improved techniques, but those may actually be for the betterment of the contestants! American Idol (2002)was the first talent show that I can remember watching. The contestants were full of talent and the judges were pretty spot on about weeding out those who didn't have "it". Each year, the Top 12 were all different and diverse - and that was appreciated. The crown wasn't going to the same Britney Spears wanna-be, every season. In 2010, American Idol lost its most honest judge, Simon Cowell. From there, it was "bring in the mainstream". Unfortunately we got judges, like Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj, who were more focused on the in-house conflicts rather than the actual contestants. Let's just say it like it is - that season was a shit show. Year after year, they kept crowning a winner, but no singles were making it. Then there was Phillip Phillips, a southern boy, with a rock and roll rasp, and a comfy wardrobe. I think his season (season 11) made a lot of loyal viewers realize that American Idol had become more about raking in viewers with the mainstream look, rather than actually seeking out true talent. Phillip Phillips went on to win, but not without letting the world know how American Idol truly worked. How they dressed you up to "fit the part" and took more than their fair share of credit. Thus, The Voice (2011) was created - a show where the judges can't see the contestants, they can only hear your voice. After a few years of The Voice, American Idol finally stopped rolling. "Praise the Lort" for shows like The Amazing Race (2001), TLC's Little People Big World (2006), HGTV's House Hunters (1999), and MasterChef (2010). All four of these shows still hold true to their original formats and  not surprisingly, they're all still big hits on television! The Amazing Race is still one of my favorites, as well - even to the point that I have applied several times (yes, I'm that woman). Travel the world, compete in culture-based tasks, and be with someone you're closest to? Count me in! Another Reality show that is near and dear to our heart, due to the little bit of red that we have in our necks - History Channel's Swamp People (2010). There is nothing better than some good ol' Southern accents and nature. That could be the reason we also took a liking to CMT's Party Down South (2014) and MTV's BuckWild (2013)... those are our types of people! RIP - Shaine Gandee VH1 did have one long-running reality show, that I watched each season of (although I had to Google it to recall the title), The Surreal Life (2003). The Surreal Life was kind of like The Real World, but for washed up celebrities. From The Surreal Life, VH1 then used lots of previous cast members to create short-lived spin offs: Flavor of Love (2006), Rock of Love (2007), and I Love New York (2007) - all of which bit the dust after just a season or two, Did that really surprise anyone though? How long can you actually stand to watch Flavor Flave swing that clock around his neck or put up with Brett Michaels' eye liner? Another breakout network, known for it's Reality TV shows, is BRAVO! They of course house The Real Housewives franchise (2006). The franchise began with Orange County and now runs seasons for New York, Atlanta, New Jersey, Beverly Hills, Potomac, and Dallas. Both Miami and DC were cancelled. If you don't watch The Real Housewives, you might be missing out on some laughter. Of course the show is nothing but a bunch of rich women and the stories of their lives - but some of the ladies' character just kills me. The Real Housewives has produced fourteen spin-offs, on Bravo. Some spin-offs were just one time deals. Others, likeVanderpump Rules (2013) and Don't be Tardy (2012), are still raking in the viewers! If you like the drama of The Real Housewives, then you'll love what Oxygen's Bad Girls Club (2006) brings to the screen. A group of self-proclaimed "bad girls" put in one house - cuss words, hands, and short dresses are sure to be thrown around often. I've actually applied for this show, more than once, and made it into the later application rounds. The questions that production asks you are "deep", you could say. That's not always the case for the women that they actually cast. I will have to get that application uploaded, for all that are curious, in the future! Wrapping it up with a few more teenage-hood favorites, from MTV. One of MTV's longest running shows, True Life (1998), follows a particular topic each episode - such as drug addiction, homosexuality, or pursuing a specific career. Over the years I think they've slowly ran out of things to document. My husband and I were looking for something to watch, recently, and settled on True Life. The episode was titled "Being a Feeder", a phrase we has never heard of. For those of you who don't know, this seems to be an obsession, that obese women have, with being fed. It also documented a woman who recorded sexual videos, of herself farting, for those with an obsession. After a few blank stares and each of us asking "what in the actual hell is this?' - we changed the channel. Something a bit more mainstream: What teenage girl didn't watch Laguna Beach (2004) or The Hills (2006)? Both shows focused on the life of high school graduate, Lauren Conrad. If you watched the show, you know of the infamous reality couple, "Speidy", and anytime you hear the pronunciation of the name "Steven" prolonged, you cringe. They recently did the 10 year reunion for The Hills and needless to say, it made me feel old; as do all of the growing babies, from Teen Mom OG (2009) and Teen Mom 2 (2011). These two shows originated from the series 16 and Pregnant (2009), where underage teens and their pregnancy drama was documented for the world to see. Clearly Reality TV is taking over the television world, slowly but surely. I don't mind it, as most of our regular cable television shows are getting more monotonous by the minute - but my message to productions is: Please don't ruin our pillars! Leave those for the die-hard fans and start something new for all of the whiny viewers. By now you should be able to tell that I am a nerd for Reality Television! January is off-season for most television shows. So if you're a fan of spoilers, like me (and just cannot wait) check out Vevmo.com - those should hold you off until the premieres and blog reviews begin!