#i thought it was in the europe episode but it didn't seem to be

[yeahdefnot]

Does anyone know which wtnv episode the quote "indecision is the present tense of regret" (roughly) is from?

[runwayrunway]

No. 54 - Ryanair

You are watching a video on a popular video sharing service. It is a full episode of a popular and long-running show, generously uploaded for free. It is narrated by a calm man with a BBC accent of the sort which belongs exclusively in documentaries.

The narrator names a date between 1903 and the current year. It is accompanied by a location - an airport. An airplane is on approach. It has a certain number of people on board, and it flies for some airline. There are pilots, most likely two of them. They make some sort of mistake, and maybe there's an issue with the weather, or the ILS is down, or the instruments are giving misleading information, or some other thing has gone tailcone over teakettle in an alarmingly short timespan and now their approach is tremendously unstable. They aren't on the glideslope. They're too fast or too slow. They really need to declare a missed approach, but for whatever reason they don't.

The plane lands, or 'lands' - finds itself on the ground, regardless - either on or short of the runway. It bounces, or flips over, or just pancakes into the ground. The fuselage cracks, or splits, or peels open, or horribly catches fire. There is an evacuation. It's all very stressful at minimum, and an unmitigated tragedy at worst.

You scroll down to the comments for some reason. "Average Ryanair landing," says one near the top.

Ryanair (not to be confused with Ryan Air, a real but unrelated airline) is Europe's largest air carrier. It has over 550 airplanes and serves over 200 destinations. It is difficult to imagine an airline with a worse reputation - their CEO is a literal troll, their customer service is legendarily poor, and their ultra-low-cost model is one in which you inevitably get what you pay for. They are memetically despised, and their rough landings are the stuff of legend.

And yet their livery is understated, with a certain head-held-high gravitas. It is difficult to describe the legitimate cognitive dissonance which arises from Ryanair's aerosartorial choices, an effect that seems to touch more people than just me. On another airline, I wouldn't find this livery particularly thought-provoking. Enough substance to write a post about, but not something which lurks in my mind and draws my attention. But on Ryanair, it's downright fascinating.

I've said what I've said, but I'm actually a defender of Ryanair. Look, it's like getting a ticket on a bus or the metro. It's cheap (at least in theory - they seem to be getting pricier lately) and it gets you where you need to go and it's probably not going to be that long of a flight anyway so, I mean, whatever. I've flown some pretty long flights before in-flight entertainment was standard, Ryanair is fine. I never even noticed the hard landings until I saw people talking about them, and to be perfectly honest I didn't notice them afterward either. Maybe I'm just not bothered by hard landings, the same way I'm not bothered by turbulence. Who really knows? My point is that I'm something of a Ryanair apologist. I live in the US, where you just don't get dirt cheap flights like that and getting anywhere outside of your home metropolitan area by train (and even sometimes bus) costs even more than flying. Ryanair could make me board the plane by abseiling up it myself to save money on airstairs and I'd be fine with it if the price was right. I'm not a millionaire. I haven't got the money to go jetsetting around Europe on a real airline. So I mean this when I say it: thank goodness for Ryanair.

I mean, I'm not saying this because Ryanair is good, don't get me wrong. They are the Big Bill Hell's of airlines. They are the closest thing we have to John Mulaney's version of Delta. Ryanair is not just no-frills, it's hot-glued fabric scraps in the vague shape of a garment. They are legitimately comical in their commitment to service so Kafkaesquely bad that you almost wish you'd travelled by trebuchet instead! And all this for the low, low price of...well, I mean, they do get pretty low.

When I released my first questionnaire I added a question about Ryanair specifically because of its reputation and my own feelings about the airline. Multiple people did agree with me - well, it's definitely not comfortable at all, you won't enjoy yourself, but it's so obscenely cheap that this isn't really objectionable. You are getting exactly what you pay for. And, well, if you do want some semblance of the full-service experience you can pay an extra fee. Or a lot of extra fees. That's how they get you. The ULCC model relies on stripping out everything possible and then charging you extra for it. That does mean that if you need things like printed boarding passes or the ability to pay by credit card that come standard with literally any other airline you could end up paying a decent amount for your miserable cramped flight, but if you truly want the bare minimum they will charge you appropriately, and that is so important to me, because I have too little money to insist on being comfortable.

I do feel...particularly sorry for one respondent.

It isn't bad press they are legitimately a nightmare. A attendant once lied to me and told me that type of plane just didn't have toilets (it did. There was a working toilet on board) then proceeded to lecture me about 'not planning ahead and going in the airport'

This is kind of hilarious in a sad way and I'm very sorry that this happened to you. Ryanair is infamous for its bad customer service but it's rare you'll hear about cabin crew behaving this poorly at any airline. While this particular incident was a one-off, you probably will have a pretty miserable time if you need to call the airline about literally anything.

One person just answered 'bitches'.

Well, that answers the question "what is Ryanair", but why is Ryanair?

The world is full of low-cost carriers. Wizz Air, EasyJet, airasia, Allegiant, Jetstar, FlySafair, Volaris, T'Way, Azul, Nok Air, Frontier, Lion Air, jetBlue, and SpiceJet are just some of the dozens which fill the skies. They are often colourful, frequently grumbled about, and essential.

Low-cost carriers, and especially ULCCs, are a relatively recent phenomenon. They only sprung into being after aviation stopped being by necessity a luxury product. It's generally agreed that PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines), an intrastate carrier from California colloquially known as the Poor Sailor's Airline, was the first low-cost carrier. While the large interstate carriers of the time had a sort of detached gravitas to both their services and their prices, and were often prevented from lowering said prices anyway due to federal taxes that didn't apply to intrastate carriers like PSA, a ticket on "The World's Friendliest Airline" was cheap and the service was casual and personable. The low-cost model is built on being an option for a normal person. If you don't have the money to fly TWA, you can fly on an airline which is made for normal people and charges you accordingly.

The model didn't really catch on immediately, though. I couldn't exactly say why - it might have to do with the lack of demand for air travel that wasn't either commuter flights or long-haul. There was some activity in the market, with Loftleiðir (a precursor to Icelandair) offering cheap-as-dirt transatlantic flights in the 60s and Laker Airways having a three-year tenure in the late 70s serving a similar market from a Western European base. Even today the long-haul low-cost market they served is notoriously difficult to make anything work in.

What is generally thought to be the next major player in low-cost airlines, Southwest, emerged in 1971. David Neeleman further refined the model, first with innovations in cost-cutting at Morris Air and later by raising the bar for customer experience at jetBlue. David Neeleman, though, was active right at the turn of the millennium. Low-cost carriers only really began to emerge in real numbers in the 80s and 90s, with examples that are long-gone, like the infamous ValuJet, existing alongside ones US residents have probably seen at their local airport, like Spirit.

Spirit is different from jetBlue and Southwest. Spirit Airlines is not just a low-cost carrier but an ultra low-cost carrier. As the name suggests, the difference is one of scale. A low-cost carrier provides less comprehensive and less ritzy service than a full-service airline, but they do so in the tradition of PSA, trying to provide a comfortable experience that makes people want to choose their airline. The ULCC model, on the other hand, guts out literally every possible feature and then dangles it in front of you on a string, telling you to pay extra if you want it. These airlines do not provide a good experience. There will be no baggage allowances, no extra legroom, and no priority boarding. The base fare, however, is almost absurdly low relative to even low-cost carriers, and as air travel becomes a fact of life more and more the humble ULCC becomes a necessary part of the ecosystem as the only way many people can afford to travel.

Ryanair is technically 38 years old, but it's only been a low-cost carrier since 1990. This pivot is the brainchild of then-CFO, now CEO (and ouster of the eponymous Ryan) Michael O'Leary, one of the wealthiest and most unpleasant men in Ireland.

image: Associated Press Yes, this is actually a real image of the CEO of Ryanair. I imagine this may clear up a thing or two.

Why is Ryanair? Because Michael O'Leary, is the simple answer. Michael O'Leary is - and there is genuinely no better way to describe the man - a troll. If you take David Neeleman's image during his tenure at jetBlue, a sweet everyman trying to improve the experience by sitting in on flights and giving up his salary to employee medical funds, Michael O'Leary is the literal exact opposite of him on every point. A self-described "gobshite" and "obnoxious little bollocks" who has admitted to "not liking" aeroplanes, Michael O'Leary is a cruel, selfish, belligerent, publicity-seeking freakazoid on a mission to piss off everyone in Europe which has so far been largely successful.

I don't want anything I say about the man to come off as positive. Michael O'Leary is a wealthy ghoul (and, yes, he was born wealthy, no rags in his tale) who publicly berates, mistreats, and underpays his staff. He has expressed prejudice against racial and religious minorities, fat and disabled passengers, women, and just about anyone who expects to be treated with some measure of dignity. He has committed legitimate crimes, like impersonating journalists. He denies climate change and has accumulated his massive wealth by abusing the pilots and cabin crew who keep Ryanair adequate. In 2010 Ryanair was named one of the least ethical companies in the world. The fact that he is so absurd as to be hilarious isn't an endorsement or a defense of him.

That said, here is a short, curated list of Michael O'Leary's, and Ryanair's broadly (as their public image is really an extension of his and vice versa) most Ryanair shenanigans:

O'Leary installed a taxicab license plate on his luxury car and driving it in the bus lane to avoid traffic.

Advertisements have taken open and somewhat sneering shots at other major European airlines, like Lufthansa ('bye by Late-hansa'), British Airways ('expensive BAstards'), and the now-defunct Sabena (using a reference to the famous Manneken Pis statue). These have not been simple comparisons but outright name-calling.

One time they advertised sales to 'sunny' vacation destinations, like Norway.

Generally, their advertisements push so many boundaries that they were once found to have committed seven violations of advertising law in just two years, and I'm shocked they didn't begin an ad campaign centring around this dubious achievement.

They frequently misbrand airports way outside of major cities as being in that major city, with the most insane example being "Vienna Bratislava" - yes, Bratislava, the one in Slovakia.

Pilots are forced to pay for simulator checks while cabin crew are forced to pay for uniforms and training. Employees are even forbidden from charging their phones from office sockets, apparently.

Sometimes passengers are forced to carry their own luggage to the planes! Not carryons, luggage.

O'Leary, in a bold move, outright denied that the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull had created a massive cloud of volcanic ash hazardous to airplanes (it very obviously had).

He also said he would like for there to be a recession, since it would let Ryanair keep costs low. He said this in 2008.

One time he said travel agents ("fuckers") should be shot .

O'Leary claimed that Ryanair would begin offering business class, featuring "beds and blowjobs". I'm personally not sure I would want a Ryanair blowjob. That sounds really horrible.

Also, bold coming from an airline with no seatback pockets.

Apparently they tried to get planes delivered with no window shades (though they weren't able to because of regulations).

They've floated the idea of standing seats. I don't believe this will or indeed could ever happen but it definitely is truly dystopian.

Ryanair keeps trying to buy Aer Lingus. They keep failing, and they keep trying. Obviously, everyone in Ireland has a vested interest in making sure this does not happen.

Fundamentally, Ryanair doesn't care. They can and will essentially throw tantrums to get airports to charge them lower operating fees and if they can't get an airport to do this they just won't operate there. It's like negotiating with a seven-year-old. Except that seven-year-old is Europe's largest airline.

They wanted to buy the C919. This isn't, like, a bad thing, it's just really strange for a hardcore Boeing loyalist airline and I can't imagine how it would save them money.

image: Robot8A This is the interior of a Ryanair plane. Note the safety cards attached to the seatbacks due to the lack of pockets, plus additional adverts on the seatbacks and overhead bins like this is a sports match in a massive stadium. It's also just quite ugly.

Fundamentally, Ryanair is just perpetually doing Ryanair things. Why is Ryanair? Because Ryanair is one giant publicity stunt. A couple of people answered my question by referencing the CEO saying he'd like to charge people to use the toilet, and that's sort of true in the sense that he's said he'd like to do this, but he's always been pretty clear that it's a publicity stunt:

Short of committing murder, negative publicity sells more seats than positive publicity.

Like, it's a bit. He's doing a bit. He's 100% in on the joke. For every one of the more particularly insane claims, like charging to use the toilets, he's outright denied it. Even some claims that are pretty borderline are ones he's contradicted at other points. He's a legitimate bigot who's created one of the most nightmarish work environments out there and just wants to suck money out of people by any means necessary, and he's indefensible, but that's not really what people talk about when they talk about Ryanair. They talk about charging for toilets.

Charging for toilets continues to be the number one story that resurfaces in the press and it’s the gift that keeps on giving. We’ve never done it, but it keeps coming up on social networks every three or four months, the media picks up on it and then someone writes a story on it.

Which I think is misplaced effort when he's also, for instance, a climate change denier who forces disabled passengers to pay for wheelchairs. And I don't believe for a second his climate change denial is based on legitimate convictions - he just doesn't want to have to spend more money. He would absolutely knowingly feed the world into an incinerator if it lowered costs.

Anyway, here is a picture of him having his face violently introduced to a pie.

image: Olivier Hoslet

All of this said, there's no such thing as an ethical airline - he's just playing it up to the extreme for essentially business clickbait.

I feel like the best example of Ryanair's general...Ryanairness is their Twitter account, which I have a sneaking suspicion Michael O'Leary runs himself to save money. It's mostly composed of firing back at complaining customers, Formula 1 opinions, and jabs at everyone from Boris Johnson to the British Museum. (Heartbreaking: the worst person you know just made a great point.) Their description, 'we sell seats, not windows', references the frequent complaints about seat 11A, which does not have a window. (To be fair, their website does warn you about this.) Their weird window situation actually generated my all-time favourite Ryanair tweet.

Here are some other winners.

No, seriously, I think Michael O'Leary might be writing these. I also really don't know how to feel about the fact that it appears someone at the airline - potentially O'Leary himself - has made an edit of a yassified Ryanair plane.

But at the end of the day, it's Ryanair. O'Leary himself has described aeroplanes as "a bus with wings on". As one individual tweeted,

THANK YOU to [Ryanair], for letting me see Europe for Feck All

and that's why I do think I genuinely have primarily positive feelings about Ryanair as a product rather than a company - you truly do see Europe for Feck All. (O'Leary has claimed both that he would introduce $10 transatlantic tickets to the US, and that he would make tickets literally free and make all profits from ancillary fees - while neither has yet happened, it takes one hell of an airline to claim that it's on the table.)

Ryanair isn't affordable, it's dime store. It's an airline you bought from Wish.com. It's the free pen you stole from a cup of identical pens at the bank which stops working within days. You're not just in steerage, you're on a tramp steamer. You get exactly the misery you pay for, and you go from one place to a different place.

And it's worth noting that Ryanair has at least one positive feature - safety.

When I ran my first questionnaire I asked respondents what type of airline they thought was most dangerous. Other than what's shown there was also an option for mainline full service carriers; unsurprisingly, nobody chose this. There were 50 respondents but 5 declined to answer this particular question, so the sample size isn't really significant enough to draw any conclusions from, but it's what I have. (I kind of wish I could stop to re-run this with my current follower count, but this post is actually a request. No, not for my wonderful beloved followers - for my dentist. Not joking. Thank you for making my teeth not have holes in them.)

20% of respondents indicated that low-cost or ultra-low-cost airlines probably had the worst safety records and practices. It's completely understandable why someone would think this, but without going into the actual statistics of plane crashes this simply isn't true, and in fact they're the safest category on here. While it obviously depends on the specific airline, low-cost carriers as a category are no less safe than mainline carriers. This is despite the fact that they tend to fly shorter flights and thus they operate more takeoffs and landings, which are the points in a flight where the majority of crashes occur.

How does that make sense? Well, part of it is that the airline industry has gotten very close to eliminating accidental crashes via innovations in technology and an incredible safety culture built on years of hard lessons. The world has paid in blood for crew resource management and GPWS, but it has paid, and now the sorts of crashes that would have been unremarkable just 20 years ago are completely unthinkable. Actually, in the 2010s it's quite possible more people were killed by planes brought down deliberately than accidents. But beyond that, the costs low-cost airlines cut tend to be ones that aren't safety-critical. They tend to operate shiny new fleets (better fuel efficiency, purchased in bulk) with large maintenance teams (shorter turnaround and less planes grounded for long periods of time) at less congested airports (lower operating fees) and indeed when I think about famous accidents that involve massive cutting of corners it's nearly always full-service airlines, save for egregious examples of low-cost industry pariahs out of business within a few years. Focusing on eliminating operating costs by making the passenger experience cramped and miserable allows for pouring all your budget into running a smooth and well-oiled operation.

The axiom "if you think safety is expensive, try a crash" is often attributed to EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou. And it's true. Beyond the cost of writing off a plane, of financial compensation to survivors and families, of lawyers and PR, of having to update your operation to make sure it never happens again...as O'Leary himself said, all press is good press...short of murder. A heinous, clearly negligent crash, on the other hand, can kill an airline as easily as it can kill people. It has done in the past and that threat will never stop being there. Airlines go out of business all the time for any number of mundane financial reasons. In many cases margins simply do not allow for something like a crash. Crashes have even ended the lives of deeply historic, beloved, well-established nationalized flag carriers, so this particular sword of Damocles could cut Ryanair's control cables just as easily. And they've managed to avoid this fate, with zero passenger fatalities and only one written-off airplane - the 2008 crash of flight 4102, caused by a birdstrike during landing.

And I'll be honest, "miserable and safe but a tenth the price of a train ticket from Boston to New York" (I am unfortunately not exaggerating) is a pretty appealing package to my non-millionaire self.

...so why do their planes look like this? I'm dead serious, it vexes me. I don't know what to make of this. Hey, did you remember I'm an airline livery review blog? Look, I can't help myself. Low-cost carriers as a topic, and how they're viewed, is probably the most interesting facet of the aviation industry to me. I feel like if I had infinite time and resources I might genuinely sit down, hit the databases and archives, run a few studies, and write a book about it - it's fascinating, and low-cost carriers are something that only economists and businesspeople seem to want to talk about. I think it's about time someone approached them through a lens of history and social psychology. There's not really academic value to what I do here, on Runway Runway, my tumblr blog where I call Lufthansa planes ugly, but if something doesn't exist I will create it even if my sample size is 50.

So how about how they're literally viewed - like, what their planes look like? Well, here are some low cost carriers I've reviewed. Notice something? They're bright and eye-catching. They don't take themselves too seriously. They're fun. The original low-cost carrier literally painted big smiles on their bright pink and orange planes.

Okay, yes, they don't all look like this. WestJet and IndiGo, for example, are fairly normal-looking. And there are full-service carriers like TAP Air Portugal (and condor. Absolutely condor.) that I would say have a pretty low-costy look to them. There is nothing wrong with that. Low-cost liveries are frequently colourful and exciting, with much more thought put into distinctiveness and charm instead of a passionless appeal to dignity. Indeed a lot of my most highly esteemed liveries, including all the ones pictured above, are low-cost airlines. GOL, for example, is a snappy, eye-catchy design in bright colours that's clearly not meant to look expensive. The same goes for Breeze Airways. There's even more examples out there I've yet to touch on, like EasyJet; ValuJet; Scoot; Spirit Airlines; Frontier Airlines; PLAY (and the late WOW air); Volotea; airasia, so on - to be dignified or clean is not the goal here. Even the names of low-cost carriers frequently are very hastily stapled together and generic, like EasyJet or Super Air Jet or Wings Air; JetSmart; SkyUp; Smartwings; FastJet; Sky Airline (just one!); MYAirlines; the classic ValuJet; flyadeal; and the legendary jet2.com, making no attempt at all to seem as if they have a legacy to fall back on. And there's even more out-there specimens, like Mango or even Nok Air. Many of them have specific themes, like Batik Air, Tigerair, or Buzz, which isn't something you see on full-service carriers, which brand themselves on national identity and the promise of luxury and good service - which is boring. Low-cost airlines, if they want to succeed, have to do something to make people remember they exist.

This is the fundamental shape taken by the low-cost product, which operates with few laurels to rest on and a mission of getting people to remember their website at any cost. Much like a can of Arizona iced "tea" guaranteed to cost ninety-nine cents, literally cheaper than a bottle of water, the package it comes in makes no attempt to look classy. And I am a heavy tea drinker who considers myself fairly discerning, whose favourite type of tea is gyokuro yamashiro (which is absurdly expensive), but you literally can't beat Arizona! It's potable and it's ninety-nine cents and it sort of resembles tea if you don't think too much about it and Massachusetts summers are surprisingly hot and the can is pretty and colourful. Sure, I'd rather have Ito En, but that costs normal money and Arizona costs 99 cents, and sometimes that's all I really have, and it gets the job done even if my teeth aren't enjoying the experience. A Wizz Air plane is a can of Arizona iced tea. It is ninety-nine cents and potable.

This isn't Arizona, this is a box of Darjeeling from Harrods. Ryanair outfits their fleet in handsome navy blue and gold. Their logo, an outline of a woman with harp-like wings taking flight, is simple yet elegant, and that feels so very wrong. I actually asked in my questionnaire what the colours of the Ryanair livery were, because I had seen people expressing casually that they weren't sure they could recognize so much as a Ryanair logo, and the results aren't worth showing in a chart because they're basically as good as random. I do want to specifically appreciate the person who answered "I don't remember but it must be whatever the cheapest colour of airplane paint is", though.

But the truth is that they have such a rich palette, and I do mean that in the sense of 'wealthy'. A deep royal blue paired with a saturated gold used as a sparing trim, these are the colours of an overstuffed plush armchair, not a budget airline. Aside from the name on the winglets and the giant billboard wordmark there is nothing, and I mean nothing, that is typical for a low-cost airline. This is not garish advertising, this is stately.

The layout itself is what I call "Deltalike". Delta certainly did not invent this style of livery but they are the carrier I associate most with it, likely due to the fact that I live right by one of their hubs. The Deltalike is a white plane with a painted tail unconnected to the main fuselage body, painted winglets, painted engines, and a painted underbelly large enough still be visible when viewed directly from the side. While a 'true' Deltalike uses a consistent palette for the engines, tail, and underbelly, there is significant variation. The detached tail is, in my opinion, the harbinger of the Deltalike, and I call liveries with an incomplete presentation of Deltalike features Deltalites.

This scheme is not as common as the Lufthansa Line variants but it is still very common, with its popularity probably peaking in the 2010s. Some examples of the true Deltalike include Air Canada, 2006 Icelandair, Azul, the old GOL livery, and jetBlue. Some colour-varied Deltalikes are the old Flair livery, the SAS red engine livery, and British Airways. An example Deltalite is the old Croatia Airlines scheme, which has a painted tail and belly and engines that are sort of painted. Sure, the engines are just grey and a bit of the tail extends onto the body, but it's got the colour concentrated in the right place and it has the painted belly, it's a Deltalite. A lot of liveries have painted engines and detached tails but no painted bellies, and I do consider these to be on the far end of the Deltalike spectrum, but they aren't what I mean when I refer to a Deltalike. They're what brown dwarves are to actual stars - related but not really the same.

Ryanair is a true Deltalike, but I would even call it an elevated Deltalike. The gold trim, like the cord adorning the hems a of a thick brocade smoking jacket, has an effortlessly shallow curve as it trims the rich blue underbelly, larger than that of a typical Deltalike and with a very deliberate shape to it which at the rearmost point covers half the fuselage by height but fades away to a sort of goatee at the front. This is not a plane which sat in a puddle of blue but an intentional cloak impeccably positioned, visible not just from the side but from the front. The engines, instead of being plain or just one colour with a website printed on, large and garish, are the same white and blue with yellow trim, the last traces of the setting sun melting into a glassy deep blue ocean below a stark white sky with which it inexplicably coexists. Sure, the detached tail still looks bad, it always does, but you can ignore it at most angles.

From below the dark blue creates that distinct cetacean effect, a certain brightness-inverted countershading effect, similar to what you see on airlines like KLM and other blue-side-up liveries. The underside doesn't have a huge, legible logo, visible even from the ground on final approach. One of the defining features of the low-cost livery, in my mind, is a large, prominent website. It's tacky and a little pointless (I mean, surely they can Google your airline's name if your wordmark is large enough) but it is downright ubiquitous. Even full-service carriers frequently heavily feature their website, but it's nowhere on a Ryanair plane. That's so, so incredibly weird.

Just...think about it. Their entire identity is outrage marketing. They are the xQc of airlines - bigoted, constantly in the news, and obnoxious. And nobody remembers what their livery looks like because it doesn't look obnoxious. This is like if MrBeast's thumbnails were lovingly curated aesthetically pleasing shots of scenery that could pass for screenshots from an actual film. It's not tacky and cheap and it's not generic and cheap, it's elegant and cheap. And of all airlines to look like this...Ryanair? Seriously? Ryanair?

image: Associated Press

The CEO.

The airplanes.

Do you see what I mean? Do you see why I find this deeply strange? This is not a clickbait plane. This plane is downright unclickable. It has never been clicked. I bet if I covered the name up and showed it to people (again, I wish I'd had the time to do this) I could fool people into thinking this is like United. Hell, I've learned from my other survey that the average person clearly knows less about liveries than I, the Joker of liveries, do, and can't identify basically any from memory. I could probably fool at least one or two people into thinking this is Singapore Airlines. I may try this on a few co-workers and then get back to you.

How did we get here? I have no clue. While Ryanair did start out as a charter carrier rather than a low-cost airline, and they always had blue and yellow as their colours, their very early liveries were just white planes with wordmarks.

This livery seems to have appeared very early in the history of low-cost Ryanair. Unfortunately, I can't date it precisely - the only thing I can say is that the earliest photograph I could find in this livery was from 1994. Based on the fact that their planes were photographed in different liveries right up to then, including this very brief TAM-like BAC 1-11 livery, I think 1994 is most likely the point they committed to it.

Oh, Adam Rowden, what a different world you lived in.

Even for 1994 this is a pretty conservative livery. Sure, this was before the real boom of bright and venomous flying billboards, but it's still strange. And Ryanair is no stranger to literal flying billboards in the form of logojets for such companies as Vodafone and Hertz, often sort of hideous ones, though I imagine these days nobody would ever want to associate with them like that.

And they never changed it, except that they did - to the modern, softer curve. This I can pinpoint with much more accuracy. It was changed in mid-2003 as new aircraft were delivered, while the older livery was phased out together with the secondhand airframes which wore it. I do not understand this at all. If any airline were to just make the decision to go full circus tent and be as garish as possible it should be Ryanair, right? Ryanair is a brand incapable of cowardly behavior. But they look far more sober than even the average modern flag carrier livery. I guess they don't think they need an eye-catching livery, but I just don't buy that as a full explanation. Imagine the news they'd make for introducing something truly heinous. I think their genuine best move would just be to put a huge picture of Michael O'Leary's face, blown up massively and poorly aligned with visible JPEG artefacts, all over their fuselages. All of Europe would be furious. So why? Why is this the situation?

So what's the verdict? This may be the hardest decision I've made so far. The options here range widely. I'll lay them out.

If I were rating this based on pure visual appeal, I would give it a B-. I am dead serious - this is a visually pleasing, well-balanced livery, simple yet elegant. The detached tail is my only major complaint. But I think Saudia's planes are quite pretty and I graded them low because I think they fail at representing their airline or having a distinct identity, so this cannot be my sole criterion.

I almost want to give them an F because of just how un-Ryanair they are, like how Copa's livery is literally not the Copa livery, but that feels wrong because that's still the Ryanair livery, it's not just a refusal to design a livery at all.

Do I marry these two into a tepid union destined for either divorce or a dramatic act of arson after a seeming eternity of languishing in mutual dysfunction in Tallahassee? I really don't want to do that, because attempting to balance these factors betrays the fact of their contradiction, the mental strain I've been afflicted with over this simple, pointless choice with zero consequences except maybe one of my followers disagreeing with me, which is fine. Unlike certain individuals I will not call you swear words and say you're an idiot.

The final option is maybe my least favourite of them all, because it's capitulation. It's admitting Ryanair is special, just the most annoying golf-ball-sized hailstone in the blizzard of absurd and comical frustrations which is the airline industry. But I just don't know what to make of this miserable little pest, this plague on the patience and knees of the traveling public.

Z. FUCK YOU IT'S RYANAIR.

It defies categories by being good, but being Ryanair. I hate that. I hate it, I hate their beastly little CEO, and I dislike that their planes are sleek, elegant, and could easily pass for an airline that doesn't instruct stewardesses to kick their passengers' shins as they walk down the aisles. If I am buying a ten-euro plane ticket I do not think the plane should look like this, teleologically speaking. At the end of the day I just have no better way to quantify my feelings.

Prick.

[oh-contraire]

Coming back to fandom

Okay so it's been like 15 years since I've been properly excited about a fandom, so I didn't expect to be sitting here in my 40s, supposedly a serious adult with a real job and a real life (such as it is), having fallen even more deeply in love with Good Omens, a show based on a book that I've loved for over 20 years, a story that's always been there for me, this lovely little comfort read with a life-affirming message, and that has now eaten my entire brain and made it abundantly clear that I'll be stuck right here at least until season 3 comes out and gives me that beautiful everything-is-as-it-should-be cathartic resolution and I can finally rest and go back to real life (ha!)

I certainly didn't expect for this silly show about angels and demons to help me figure out this late in my life that I'm non-binary, to have all those parts of myself that I didn't quite understand suddenly start to make sense. I didn't expect to actually start to really own my queerness - which as a perpetually single person at my age, who's straight-enough-passing to not have to hang it all out there, while simultaneously being lucky enough to exist in a group of friends where queerness is basically the default and you'd almost have to come out as straight (old goths are the best) - is such a powerful experience, and is helping me figure out what the next part of my life will be and what the hell I'm doing around here.

The last time I was in a fandom, I was young (well, compared to now). I had parents who were still alive, who I was close to, and who I could share my excitement with. I've got beautiful memories of travelling from Australia to Europe with my mum in 2008, the last time we'd ever do that, of spending a couple of days of our precious holiday at Cardiff Bay watching the post-hub explosion scene in Torchwood Children of Earth being filmed, of her sneaking away and getting GDL's autograph for me on a random piece of paper, when I was too mortified to even consider it. I'll never watch Family of Blood or Utopia without remembering how I saw it for the first time with my dad, randomly flicking through channels and not really knowing what we were in for, and both of us experiencing that incredible, literally jaw dropping moment when Derek Jacobi was revealed as the Master, how I teasingly called him Father of Mine for years after that because it was such a wonderful shared moment for both of us (and because I was a totally cool and normal grown adult even then).

I never expected to fall straight back in love with Doctor Who after that, 15 years later, having lost both of my parents to awful illnesses, having tried to pretend that life, however fine it all was for the most part, hadn't had this constant undercurrent of existential dread, a horrible sense that from now on it would just be a series of losses, that all the things I loved would just fall away until there was nothing important left, that I could scramble for those little crumbs that felt like renewal or purpose but that ultimately felt hollow in the face of what seemed like an increasingly bleak and relentless world of serious things like work and mortgage payments and obligations and the whole thing of pretending to be a real adult doing Important Things.

I never expected just how healing, how utterly cathartic it would be to see 14 come back after all these years, older, tireder, after experiencing all that loss and grief, and to see them love so deeply, to see them find a new home, a new family, and to finally find a way to be actually, truly happy. I cried so much during that episode, and it felt like actual hope for the first time in years, like it helped to heal some part of myself that thought it would never be properly healed.

I'll never stop being in awe of how stories can do that. These silly little TV shows about angels and demons or time travel and the universe, which are really about humans and life and death and love and everything that's actually important, and which bring to the surface those deep truths that are hard to see among the minutiae of everyday life.

Stories are so powerful, and I'm so happy to feel excited about them again, and to have them weave their way back into the fabric of my life. So, thanks to RTD and @neil-gaiman for helping me find this feeling again, and thanks to fandom for continuing to exist while I figured out that this was one of the big parts that was missing from my life! <3

[galvanizedfriend]

what do you think about the baby plotlines? about hope and the twins? do you think they ruined any chance of klaroline being together? or do you think kc could have been together for real and had a good relationship if the babies didn't exist?

This might seem surprising since I have written over a million words of baby fic (although I will argue that it's not a baby fic, it's a fic that contains a baby, which is very different 😌), but I hate the baby plot. I'm a clown. 🤡

It's not about Hope or the twins in particular, nothing against them, I just think that suddenly including magical babies in a supernatural story about vampires is just about the stupidest thing you can do. Vampires are not supposed to have babies, period. I remember watching the backdoor pilot episode of The Originals not having the slightest clue what to expect because I wasn't in fandom back then, or even following anything about TVD, just watched the episodes as they came out, and the moment they revealed The Originals' move to New Orleans was about a baby, I turned off my TV. Whoever thought that giving Klaus A BABY was the best thing they could do for him, is an idiot that should've been fired on spot.

If they wanted to explore the whole father-child situation, drawing from Klaus' immense well of daddy issues, they could've used Marcel. It would've been so much more powerful and so much more interesting. The thought that Klaus, out of all the Originals, would just decide to embrace fatherhood after getting a one-night stand he didn't even like accidentally pregnant makes NO SENSE AT ALL. This is the man who stabbed his siblings and carried them around in coffins as a love language. And people want me to believe that this violence-first, emotionally constipated hybrid would want to raise a child. Sure.

As for Caroline's pregnancy - I guess once you have established that Klaus could make magical babies, then anything was possible. The excuse they used that Candice was pregnant was so dumb though. So many movies and shows have been shot while the actresses were heavily pregnant, but their characters weren't. Catherine Zeta Jones was six or seven months pregnant in Chicago. Everyone in Grey's Anatomy had babies. Ellen Pompeo had three onscreen babies but none of them were written to match her real life pregnancies. In fact, Candice had to wear a prosthetic belly because she wasn't pregnant ENOUGH. So stupid.

HAVING SAID THAT. I don't think the babies were the reason why Klaroline didn't happen. At the end of the day, it wouldn't have been something that would've kept them apart if the writers had wanted to go there. If anything, babies could've brought them closer. I mean, Klaus should've been completely inept when it comes to taking care of another human being who's entirely dependent upon him. Caroline, as a carer at heart, could've seamlessly fit into the narrative. And especially after they gave her babies as well, they could've easily connected through their snowflake kids.

In fact, my personal headcanon (somewhat backed by real canon) is that they did. Klaus gave her money for her school, and while I don't think he did it so he could send Hope there later on as Legacies tried to make us believe, I do think the reason he ended up allowing Hope to attend the school was BECAUSE Caroline was there. He trusted her with his daughter, in a way he probably wouldn't have trusted anyone else, particularly because he was absent. He needed to know she would be safe and in good hands, and that was definitely not because of Alaric. And I also think they kept in touch during all those years where Hope went to school there and he went on a murder bend around Europe. Hayley couldn't get a hold of him, but Rebekah IMMEDIATELY knew who she could reach out to to find him. If Caroline hadn't seen or spoken to him in 15 years, that would make no sense. The way Klaus is all 'Trying not to flatter myself that you're here on a sudden whim to see me' implies more intimacy than two people who hadn't spoken in over a decade would've had. They were definitely in touch. How much touching was involved is up to your imagination. :)

One thing I wish Legacies had explored was Caroline's relationship with Hope. They obviously had one, we were just never shown it, which is sad, because there were so many interesting layers that could've been explored. It's also in my personal headcanon that Lizzie would've been fascinated with Klaus had him and Caroline ever had a chance to be together and he got to hang around her kids as well, and the irony that her middle name is Jenna is just delicious (Klaus wouldn't have felt the slightest bit of remorse). It would've given Alaric so much grief.

In conclusion, Klaroline could've been together with or without the babies. They weren't what was standing between them. Stupid writing was.

[11cleyvaart]

You did a Talon, can you do one on Penny??

This is has been sitting in drafts for a while. Sorry.

I'm assuming you mean my thoughts on Penny? Depending on which one, I mostly just know the 80’s and the 2015 one. I watched the Gadgetinis as a kid but it didn't sink in. 

Um, Penny to me seems like a somewhat spoiled niece at times. In the 1983 show season one, it's shown she gets a lot from her Uncle. He spends an episode trying to keep a plush he won (that's a bomb) to give to her. He takes her to the amusement park twice. Even though he acts he doesn't have enough money when he buys MAD brand groceries, so make up your mind. 

She comes on some of his trips like to NY and Europe, and those are the ones she allowed to go on. I'm sure if he found she went to the places he did without telling him he'd probably freak out. 

He generally gives the care and love she needs, she goes to school. She's fed, she's dressed. She got the dog. 

By the second season, her room has expanded and she now has more toys like the dollhouse, box full of pushes and random wind up cars. And again, given everything. But still a good kid will protect her.

But newer Penny in the 2015 show, now she's supposed to be 14 in this she acts way older than she is. And she's a bit more ungrateful of her uncle's actions. 

He's fed her for years, and then suddenly one episode she wants to tell him he sucks at cooking but is afraid to hurt his feelings. Then he can cook again just fine in later episodes. 

Then she just gets annoyed at him for taking her off a bomb, and goes off on him for being oblivious. Which of course it's water on a duck's back to him. 

He gets sick but all she wants to do is get away from him. She wants to be an agent but doesn't want to go to work every day. She spends way too much time thinking about Talon instead of trying to arrest him. She's occasionally hugged her uncle and said a few nice things to him but mainly she seems to want to distance herself from him at 14. Which is young to want to do that. It is funny to me that everyone dumps on her for being ‘ugly.’ The professor tells her she needs to moisturize her face, Quimby is like ‘holy shit you broke my camera you're so ugly’ on Badge day. And her more focused obsession with fighting, technology and science is a weird thing. Maybe to be more of a ‘see girls can do STEM classes too!’ and she's there to be a push for girls to want to do math and science because people claim it's over run with boys? 

But her obsession with those subjects don't make her any more interesting to me, oh no I said it. I'm not a fan of 2015 Penny, hell it's not even Penny. It's an artificial, blue light special, great value Penny.

At least the Gadgetinis Penny gave me a more believable teenager. She had attitude problems like a tween. 2015 Penny, now is more calm and rational even though she's two years older than Gadgetinis Penny. 

I miss little Penny, she was a good kid. 2015 Penny is a dud to me. 

[ladyzirkonia]

The Crossing

This one is for you my beloved @lightwise. I wrote my thoughts down while the episode was released and decided to take some screenshots. Not profread just copied the text and added the pictures.

This is still one of my all time favorite episodes.

Well, first of all, the scenery, the planet, the colors, the music that really appealed to me. You have to know that as a geologist I love deserts and sandstone formations. Unfortunately we don't have much of that in Europe, I was in America for three weeks once, that was the most wonderful thing I've experienced from a geological point of view.

Back to geology. The mine and that mineral they're supposed to extract. Needless to say, I would be there right away? Super interesting, I would of course pee my pants with fear, but what the heck. That sounds like an adventure to my taste.

I can't stop staring at Tech's tight Star Wars ''jeans''. This episode it's even a bit dustier and dirtier from the environment. Please don't blame me! (Where the thirst started ;))

I just have to mention again how beautiful these sandstone formations are. I read somewhere that someone wrote about Space Utah and I think that's 100% correct.

(And just a random Sergeant picture for you, because he's hot and we can, look at this man.)

And then comes the absolute lion king moment! That can only be intentional, right? I was really scared for a moment because I associated the scene so closely with The Lion King. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid and the scene where Mufasa dies still makes me cry sometimes. I mean, those critters literally look like space antelopes, don't they?

Oh man and I felt SO sorry for Wrecker! How heartless Tech sent him back down to get the Ipsium. ''What about protecting me?'' I just wanted to shout I protect you. And again a very uneasy feeling watching the animals trample over him, maybe that traumatized me more than I thought as a child.

And how Tech then just take the container himself, hello? I mean we already talked about him being a good fighter just like his brothers. But you're just not used to the autistic nerd being so physically fit. That's pretty hot. (Edit: Still a shrimp, we love it)

And the next argument between Tech and Wrecker. It's hard to defend Tech because he's really acting like an ass. You can tell how depressed Omega is in this situation and Hunter is just trying to hold everything together. I really feel sorry for him because I can't imagine he's doing really well, but as a parent, you always have to hold back your emotions. But isn't it clear here that the group has been thrown off balance? That they obviously care that Echo is gone, as some have complained after the last episode?

''What is your issue'' really wanted to make me scream.

And Omega's angry face afterwards. I just want to jump in and smooth things out. I mean it's nothing new that kids get traumatized in Star Wars. Boba didn't exactly have the dream childhood either, but I don't think it was worked out anywhere and thought about it, it's so wonderful.

And props to Wrecker I had to laugh SO MUCH as he looks at Tech afterwards and shakes his head in slight disappointment after she left just wonderful, so many little details anyway and the facial expressions just lovely.

And then comes THE moment. I mean this man just doesn't hesitate for a second and jumps after Omega, into the dark, into the unknown, he could just die but he doesn't hesitate. I'm just so speechless, if this isn't even a complete unconditional love father/brother moment I don't know what is.

It just seemed to me, but the way Hunter looked after they both fell, it felt like he could really sense that something was wrong and that they were both in danger, which I found really interesting.

The cave they end up in is so beautiful. But apart from that, I would have died of fear if I had been pulled under the water like that. And the moment when Tech is on the ground and lifts his goggles slightly to let water run out, another cute little detail!

And then comes the conversation, I don't even know if I want to go into all of this here, you could probably write an essay about that alone. I'll just sum it up, it was wonderful, it touched me and I think a lot of people who can identify with it did too. That there isn't just one way to express your feelings, that just because you don't show obvious feelings doesn't mean you don't have any or don't care. Most of the time when I'm feeling really bad I don't talk to anyone and you might think the same thing that I don't care about anyone and don't care, but that assumption couldn't be more wrong. I feel for Tech, I feel his words, I think that's one of the best lines of the season as well as his ''Understanding you does not mean I agree with you'' from season one. I'm jealous that despite everything he can express exactly how he feels, that he doesn't know how to feel about the changes.

And the first time, the first time they say they're a family, not just a squad, and Tech confirms it, that made me so happy. The scene is so beautifully acted, the facial expressions are so good. How Tech falters in the meantime and struggles for words, not at all self-confident and precise as usual. That made me so happy.

I may process moments and thoughts differently, but it does not mean that I feel any less than you. The sentence!!! And if he feels that way about Echo, how about Crosshair? His brother, who he's known since they were little? I'm crying! I really can't wait to see you all again Crosshair, it's getting so emotional!

And that it's just Tech who is allowed to shoot the Ipsium, no, not Hunter but Tech, how he holds the blaster with both hands, yes, we already had the topic of weapons, but that's just hot too. Now imagine some target practice with Tech or Crosshair, or best of all with both, I'd be a nervous wreck!

Did I mention that Tech sometimes walks a bit stacked, like a giraffe? It's hilarious, I had to remember that Penny once called Sheldon a giraffe. These tall, lanky nerd boys, I'm in love. (Here comes the shrimp again!)

And the perfect ending as Omega just uses Tech's words to keep morale up and he gives her a slight smile. Bonding mission successfully completed I would say!

Lot's of love and may the force be with you my space sister.

[aralisj]

You are the first person I found that also sees autistic trades in Carmy.

Last year after the first season (I loved it so much! I watched it 3 times & some episodes even more often) I even came back to tumblr just for this series, I needed more content!

I saw so much of myself in Carmy, I never before saw a character so much like myself (although I'm a woman, from Europe & not good at anything at all).

All his struggles with other humans, it was like looking into a mirror, seeing myself.

So I got a psychological evaluation for my anxiety and other stuff. After some research I thought maybe I'm autistic. Getting officially diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and avoidant personality disorder with autistic traits. I still have the feeling I'm autistic and at the same time I feel like an imposter for feeling that way.

Carmy is such a people pleaser, so unaware of how other people see him, his bursts of anger, his fidgeting with the spoon, wearing the same kind of clothes, him not understanding other people except in regards to food. Him getting used and abused by other people (NY chef, his mother and brother, even Richie but with him the punches at least back & does not only take it, take it and take it). Other people have to point out that his relationship with Claire makes her most likely his girlfriend, that reminds me so much of myself when I had to ask my sister if my boyfriend had shown interest in me because I could not say for sure.

And maybe I'm just projecting, but for me it looks like he never looks other people into the eyes just with Sydney (yes I do ship them but I do not mean it like that) and Richie. Maybe it's just me but I do not like to look into the eyes of people I do not know at all/well, it's hard work to do. But it's easier with people I know for longer and I feel safe with. I still let my eyes wander to be able to concentrate better but it's easier to look directly into their eyes. At least I think I'm better with them. Or it's the camera angles fault XD.

In regards to friends, do you think all the connection he does have in the culinary world see him as a friend but he himself does not recognizes them as friendships. For example Luca?

Sorry this is kind of long and I'm rambling. A long text just to say yes I see it too. :)

I had a very similar experience with the show. I watched season 1 twice and I think I'm due for a rewatch quite soon.

During my first watch I didn't really see the autistic traits per se but I definitely related to him. Especially when he talks about routines and being good but completely burnt out at the same time - that was my experience at school.

I started looking into getting professionally diagnosed right about the time when I rewatched and I realized his experience echoed mine especially in the ASD related stuff. I made a post about it, and I believe it really resonated with some people within the autistic community, not just as a headcanon.

I feel you, I haven't gotten my official diagnosis because tests are very expensive. Plus, I'm a woman and I have been masking all my life, so it's hard to get a psychiatrist to believe that you are actually struggling. Maybe there's some overlap with avoidant personality because my psychiatrist has mentioned it a number of times, and it would make sense for Carmy to develop a disorder as a result of his family trauma.

And yes, a lot of his "quirks", the things that make him seem high strung and shy, could also be signs of ASD. I hadn't noticed that he's literally wearing the same clothes all the time but you're absolutely right. The Claire storyline really shows that he doesn't know how to navigate relationships and needs it spelled out by someone else (and honestly, same). He's concerned with being "shitty" but doesn't know when he's being perceived as that and so he asks Sydney to be his gage (my sister is mine)

I think you're right about the eyelines, and I guess it makes sense in the kitchen, since there's always something to do, you can talk with people without looking them in the eye, or taking breaks in between. I like talking while I'm walking or in the car, no eye contact 👌👌👌

You make a good point that he isn't particularly aware of who is his friend and who isn't. When Claire called him and told him that Fak said he was his best friend, Carmy took a second to process and then agreed. He has no idea. And I think that also plays a part in being used by other people - if he doesn't know what friendship or a healthy family relationship looks like, he's going to take it all like that's normal, which is not great

I do believe that Luca and Chef Terry would consider him a friend. They took in one of Carmy's staff, no questions asked, just believing in his judgement. Especially Chef Terry talks about him with a certain fondness that feels very sweet. With Luca, they probably had a more competitive, sort of brotherly thing going on but they ended in good enough terms? I don't know, I'm just guessing.

Thank you for such a thoughtful and generous message! I believed that I would get backlash when I first posted about my feelings on this subject but everyone has been very kind and supportive (not everyone agrees but no one has been rude and I count that as a win lol)

I hope you have better luck getting a diagnosis, and that you get to navigate this chaotic world as easily as possible 💜

[caleb-is-existing]

Why Formula 1? I thought it was just people racing cars, but there seems to be so much of it on Tumblr (interviews, gif sets, people passionate about it in a way that's uncommon on Tumblr in my experience) that I assume there's something I'm not seeing and I've been wondering for a while

Hello there!

For me atleast it's because of the fast cars and some of the drivers. But I know for other people it's different, some people watch it for the drivers, some for the races, and some for both. The community varries, I know a lot of people aren't there for the teams and more the drivers who race for the teams.

Alot of people have come from Drive To Survive (DTS), alot of the newer part of the community. I'm not too new to it as I enjoyed it back 2020/2019 but things got in the way, but I've just gotten back into it. I haven't seen an episode of DTS so I didn't join on that hype train, but I found it on my own.

Why Formula 1? Well it's the biggest motorsport in the world. Everyone knows of it, well most of world. As someone from New Zealand I know Bathhurst and Supercars are more our motorsports than Formula 1. Japan has a big racing scene, the same as Europe. There's a culture inside of it.

Just take in account this is all my experience and others have had different experiences. I think if you do a bit of digging into the past few years, look at the history of Formula 1 and watch a few races here and there, then maybe you'll understand what others see.

I hope you understand a little bit more. I would go into more detail but it's exam season rn and I'm doing some work to pass the year.

[miss-rum-hee]

Hey! I was thinking about something and wanted to ask: What do you think of calls for GOOD Slavic representation and Slavophobia being shoved aside (mainly by POC) as being unimportant because "you're just white and already have enough rep", when Slavs of all white people should get the rep. Slavs and Eastern Europeans are usually represented in negative ways. Some examples of movies and TV that are guilty of this other than spy movies are:

Taken and Hostel - Stereotype: "Eastern European S*x Trafficker". Taken, one of the most blatant pieces of propaganda. Basically "Big Strong Eagle Daddy American saves his Beautiful Damsel Daughter from Those Savage Barbaric Albanian Perverts", and Hostel. Hostel is "The American Men Get Tortured by Slovaks", and Slovak people called it out. Albania's government had to make signs showing how nice Albania actually looked to try and fix their bad reputation.

Orphan - Stereotype "Eastern European Killer". Esther is revealed to be Estonian, which is Baltic, which while not Slavic is still Eastern European. She's a killer in a kid's body who manipulates people and even tries to SEDUCE AN ADULT MAN. Ironically, Estonia is closer to Finnish culture than Slavic/Russian culture.

Are You Afraid of the Dark? The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors: Not really a stereotype. Also implied antisemitism too. The main characters are a brother and sister, and their new neighbours from Ukraine are sus. The sister believes them to be vampires (which turns out to be true). The problem is how she talks about Ukraine and Eastern Europe when trying to convince her brother the truth. She's like "Ukraine is around those other places. Hungary, Russia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Transylvania". The neigbours are also implied to be Jewish with the surname Braun.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch episode Date witj Destiny. This one is more subtle, and I don't think this had malicious intent as it should be noted, Harvey, one of the recurring characters and Sabrina's boyfriend, is Slovenian-American. But this episode is still kinda sus. Sabrina's dating another man at this point and he gets a business job in the Czech Republic. But Sabrina seems to have a hatred and bias against Czech people. She spends the entire episode trying to keep Josh (the man) away from Prague, she's like "oh with that guy Vojtek Kreszowski" or something, and she makes his trip their miserable. Makes the hotel staff rude, makes the room a sty, to the point where he says it's like he's a POW.

Another subtle one most people don't get. Sixteen Candles is notorious for Long Duk Dong, but a quick and often unnoticed discrimination is there too. the heroine's dad , when talking about her sister's boyfriend, says "we're glad she's not marrying an oily Bohunk". Bohunk is an offensive term for a Hungarian person, so he hates Hungarians, and the boyfriend is Hungarian-American.

Or they get erased (like the new MH G3, despite what people say "Draculaura's still Romanian" when it's clear she's not, "the accents were stereotypical" when Romanians and Russians didn't care, "Abbey wasn't Russian" when she was, with her family's names, as well as being okay with mixed Drac and Clawdeen but drawing the line at Abbey, or the Netflix Witcher getting rid of all the Polish influence from the original books, and even the author calling out how they handled his story and characters).

Just wanted to know what you thought of all of this, and how Slavs get called "racist" for talking about Slavophobia and why they deserve rep even when they clarify they're not trying to make POC seem less important

I think it's pretty shitty ngl. It's hard to put into words, but like....One group's representation shouldn't matter more than the other & treating them that way is not a good thing, but it seems like some people really want to push that crap. They should all have the chance to be shown on screen.

It's kinda goofy how they dismiss Slavs wanting better rep as "oh you're just white you HAVE rep already" considering how the Irish (you know, mostly fair-skinned people) weren't even considered the same as whites for a long ass while. I forgot where I saw this, but back in the 40s, there were legit signs at workplaces saying shit like "Asians/Irish/Blacks need not apply."

The Irish weren't even considered as white for a long ass time, so like, what makes these mfs think Slavs are even considered the same?

[sepyana]

Jjba Stardust Crusaders ep 16-20 thoughts

Ep. 16 and 17

This one's a two parter. I didn't talk about the portrayal of the countries visited because I don't have much of an opinion on them. I'm not from from those places. I am middle eastern tho so I wanted to talk about some stuff here.

So, Fun fact! Döner and Kebab are two different foods. It's just that joints that sell one usually sell the other. The food is named Döner (Dön meaning spin, -er being the present simple tense or same suffix in English. Meaning It spins OR spinner.) When it spread to Europe and rest of the middle east it got the name "Doner Kebab". I just thought that was cool.

Bargaining bit is pretty funny. Joseph's advice isn't half bad. I've never seen people bargain or overcharge for street food but It's pretty much expected in bazaars. You gotta learn how to do it if you are a tourist because it's expected also you WILL get scammed at some point.

OKAY, now onto the actual episode. The lovers card is not only for romantic/sexual relationships. It encapsulates all relationships and connections. Dan's stand "connects" his target to himself. I thought the lovers would be two people with matching stands or something. This is a fun take on the card though, omitting the romantic/sexual context altogether.

Wow Jotaro is mad. I don't think we have seen him being this brash before. I think it's funny how Polnareff mutters "He just might" when Kakyoin is says "Are you trying to kill your grandfather?!". He never would, but it's funny that Polnareff thinks he would consider it. (The music for this scene slaps btw. if you even care)

This is a nice bit of characterization of Jotaro. He does most of the things Dan says, while also trying to explode him with his mind. The whole time you're watching you're like "Dan's ass will be absolutely destroyed next episode lol"

Stands being able to shrink like that makes sense, Green Hierophant could do it. Not to this extent but still. Having a battle in Joseph's brain is a fun idea either way.

I think Jotaro writing Dan's bs in his notebook was to help him calm his nerves a bit.

I can't believe the jewelers started beating in him up with a bad, telling him to go back to his country and shit. Made worse by the fact that Jotaro is like, 17. I know he doesn't look like it but the characters seem to be aware of it. They call him "that asian kid".

Ep. 18

^ This is probably the most expressive Star Platinum has ben so far.

I have no idea what the fuck is. going on with this episode.

So the first half is really boring. I'd make fun of Jotaro for wearing a black coat in a desert but it's better than not wearing it at all.

I actually thought something bad happened to Kakyoin but no he is fine.

At the end of the episode Joseph was like "Is that it? The end of the episode?" Jotaro just answers "Yeah shut the fuck up old man"

^ They are so normal

Ep. 19-20

I did guess there was gonna be a Kakyoin episode my last post. Well, we get two. I'm not complaining, he is shaping up to be my favourite.

Kakyoin's first instinct when he sees the dog is to pet it, which is the correct response btw. The dog dies in 2 minutes because Araki has something against dogs.

Our stand for today is Death 13! It's a better name than just Death tbh, Death is something you'd call the main villain's stand. It's really strong, like, TOO strong. The crew basically stumbles into victory this time. If the other stands are as strong as this one, they might be in trouble. Making the stand user of death, new beginnings and change a baby was a smart move.

I love that Polnareff sees Kakyoin wake up screaming, hears him say he had a horrible dream and the first.thimg he does is tell him to spill the tea.

I initially thought the Polnareff in the dreamworld was fake. There is no way he is that stupid. Turns out he is that stupid, actually.

Y'know, after the third one you'd think Joseph would get rid of planes as an option. But no

This episode doesn't fall to the same pitfall of being infuriating like other's similar to it. You can see why the crew doesn't trust him. If I saw my friend with letters cut into his arm saying a BABY was a stand user my first thought wouldn't be "Oh, I see. We should kill thr baby then."

It is undeniably funny that the people who thought someone having dusty windows in the middle of the desert made them a stand user didn't think anything of Kakyoin's sudden change. I can't balme them tho. A baby stand user feels like a stretch at best.

Polnareff thinking about apologizing to Kakyoin while he is about to die is strangely wholesome. Their friendship is my favourite part of the show, personally.

Kakyoin is the only one to remember the whole thing. He is so energized by the rush of victory that he makes everyone breakfast. Also makes the baby eat his own shit. He was so wild for this

I'm fighting tooth and nail to get these screencaps from Youtube just.to make this a bit more readable. Typing "jjba death..." on the search bar was like entering a mine field.

Anyways, I wanna make some predictions for my future self to laugh at later. Polnareff is gonna be the first to die, assuming he dies, which I think he will.

[lafiametta]

I'm rewatching Episode 1 and I noticed a bunch of things I'd like to discuss, if you don't mind! (This will be long, hang in there!)

The one that intrigued me most is when they found the Prometheus. There was something off about how it looked from the start. Firstly, it didn't look like a ship that had been missing for only 4 months, but much longer. And secondly, and worse of all, is that it looked like it had been sunk, and then submerged. And when did we see a ship sink? In the last episode, where the vortex swallowed Kerberos, and it came out in that other "sea" with the other failed simulations. However, there's something about both ships that I don't get. At first, I thought the Prometheus acted as a bait, reeling in the Kerberos to its location over and over again to kickstart the simulations, especially because at some point its equipment sends those messages with only triangles, rather than the Morse code. So it was clearly a tool in the program. But then, in the show, when they started to toll the Prometheus back to Europe, it was Daniel that used that device that made the fog swallow the Kerberos and send it back to its original location. I can't tell how much Daniel did in this simulation (I don't believe he started The Calling, for example), but his impact on the Prometheus (his coming from there) and then the Kerberos (spiriting it away to somewhere else, letting it be engulfed by the fog) was definitely something he did. Where was the Prometheus before the Kerberos found her? Is it possible that its 'disappearance' is where the failed Kerberos ships go to? And if Daniel, if real, is not part of the simulation, did he get inside it by accessing it through the archive of failed simulations and went inside the 'test zone' with an empty ship, that turned out to be the Prometheus? Could this simulation have been the first one where they found the missing sister ship?

The storm still happened, though, so he couldn't control everything, as we obviously saw how he had to hack into the simulation to make changes in there, but now I'm wondering what is the purpose of these two ships - and, most interestingly, in 2099 they are travelling aboard the Prometheus, not the Kerberos. And it is called the Prometheus Project. So... Could the spaceship also not be reality???

And what about the third, mysterious ship that is part of this triangle? Eyk said the 'company bought three ships, and they spent three months docked while a new system was installed'... So???? Hello???? What does all this mean!!!

So I don't know if I have all the answers you're looking for — in fact, I know I don't! — but I'm going to do my best to walk through some of what I think is going on.

The simulation begins on the morning of the second day of the voyage, before the message comes from the Prometheus. It's unclear whether or not a message comes from the Prometheus during every simulation, but in this one, the message is coming from a specific sender: Daniel.

Daniel is trying to reach Maura, to tell her that she needs to wake up, to remember who she is (and their life together), which will somehow free her from being stuck in the simulation, which just seems to run again and again. In this, he also enlists the help of Elliot, who he knows will trigger Maura's natural protectiveness and her forgotten maternal instincts. Elliot's also meant to use access to Maura and her stateroom to look for the key. (The fact that they both can use the beetles/bugs to open doors or know what direction to follow is a clue that they're working together.)

For some reason, he can't bypass the programming and get the two of them directly on board the Kerberos. Instead, he gets them onto the Prometheus (which I suppose was just hanging out in the simulation graveyard; this one, I have to assume, must have sunk four months earlier, which explains why it looks so rusted and dilapidated), brings it through the whirlpool wormhole, and then secretly sends a signal to the Kerberos, hoping that it will be enough to send the Kerberos on a rescue mission. (The original message gives coordinates of longitude and latitude, not triangles, so the crew and the captain know where to go to find it.) While Eyk, Maura, and the rest of the lifeboat squad are searching through the Prometheus (and successfully discovering Elliot, who was left there to be found), Daniel is making his way over to the Kerberos. (I have to assume he rowed, but he's so soaked that maybe he swam??)

(By the way, Nina's hair ribbon, the one that so freaked out Eyk when he found it on the Prometheus? I suspect he left it there himself when he was there during a previous simulation, or maybe it was in his possession and it got lost ["what is lost will be found"?]; he just forgot that he had ever had it, much like he forgets everything from each simulation.)

Clearly, Daniel is hoping that Elliot's presence is enough to get Maura to start remembering things, even though the boy is kept from speaking (I suspect because doing to will bring him to the attention of either Henry Singleton or a different "Creator" — perhaps Ciaran? — who then will be clued into Daniel's plan). Elliot's role is also vital because he's got the pyramid (it's not entirely clear what his connection to it is; it's clearly important that it stays in his possession) and the pyramid holds the lock that can be opened to shut down the simulation. Eventually, it's clear to Daniel that Elliot on his own will not be enough to get her to remember, so he starts spending more time around her, hoping to trigger some long-lost feelings or memories. (Too bad for him that she seems to prefer hanging out with Eyk, either exploring each other's memories or the ruined engine room of the Prometheus!)

I'm still not entirely clear why Daniel killed ("killed") Ada. He's responsible for the mysterious collapse/death of many of the other passengers and crew, so it's possible he did it to sow confusion and panic among the remaining ones, enough so that Eyk will abandon his plan of towing the Prometheus back to Europe. (The only other person who has the capacity of "killing" the passengers is Sebastian, and he and Daniel seem to be working at odds for much of the series.) And perhaps Ada's death being first is meant to be symbolic; she acts as a prophet in the first episode, talking about the "ghost ship," so maybe she's meant to be the first sacrifice.

Daniel also summons the fog, meant to stymie the Kerberos and stop it from returning with the Prometheus back to Europe. It gives the plotters of the mutiny enough time to put their plan into action, taking weapons and arming the lower-class passengers, and it's at that moment that Daniel uses his sliding puzzle controller to turn the mainframe of the simulation on, which zaps the Kerberos back to its original position before it went in search of the Prometheus in Episode 1. He, like everyone else (with the exception, it seems of Eyk), wants to get the ship back on track and not run the risk that it could be shut down by Henry Singleton (who may or may not be the mysterious "Creator"). Essentially, he's buying more time with Maura, hoping that eventually she'll begin to remember and then recall where the key is, allowing her to wake up (and stop the simulations).

I agree with you that the Calling and the storm were not Daniel's doing; those, I think must have been externally created, I suspect by Henry Singleton, who is still trying to test out his theory about human behavior and whether we are still ruled by our emotions. At Singleton's behest, the simulation is also shut down in Episode 7, with the Kerberos going back through the whirlpool wormhole to the simulation graveyard, where it meets up with the Prometheus (although it might not be the same Prometheus from Episodes 1-3). It doesn't work entirely, though, because there are still a handful of passengers (Maura, Eyk, Ling Yi, Ramiro, Clémence, Tove, Virginia, and Jérôme) that are still existing within it. Daniel takes the opportunity to hack into the mainframe and change the structure of the simulation, one final attempt to save Maura and help her wake up. (He needs to keep her safe until Singleton uses the fake key in Elliot's pyramid and the final countdown ends, at which point, he hopes, she'll wake up again in her own memory, which is tied to Elliot's playroom — their first simulation. The new key — her wedding ring — can be used in the puzzle pyramid that's also been in Elliot's possession, but in his playroom, not his hands.)

Anyway, that was a long discussion, and I'm not sure it made much sense, but my best guess for the existence of two ships is that the Prometheus (through Daniel's intervention) saves the Kerberos. To take a clue from the mythology, Prometheus (who brings the light of fire) illuminates the darkness that the three-headed dog guarding hell is mired in. And the Prometheus Project is a rescue mission, much like the Prometheus ends up saving the Kerberos (even though it was the Kerberos that first deviated from its course to come to the aid of the Prometheus).

As for the third ship, hell if I know. My brain hurts just having gotten this far... :)

[sosleepylars]

I recently reflected about all the differences and arguments inside the Star-Wars fandom as well as my own thoughts about them. This was initially supposed to be a little rant, but got way out of hand quickly. So buckle up, this is a long one. A long time ago (it must be roughly 15 years by now), in a little town far, far away in europe, there was a boy. The boy sat in front of the TV and watched with growing awe Episode 2 of a thing called Star Wars. He didn't new that this feeling never would truly vanish and that the awe would grow into love. Love for a universe, that seemed endlessly rich with stories and wonders to dwell in, a welcome distraction from all the problems the boy had in school. When he grew older, he started to read books. "Order 66" by Karen Traviss, "Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader" and "Labyrinth of Evil" (both by James Luceno) to name a few. These grounded him even more inside this fantastic universe, widened his view upon it, bridged all those years that saw no new content and, at least in Karin Traviss'es case, shaped his world view and ehtics to a certain degree. Star Wars was not only a passion or a hobby. It was something the boy identified with, something that gave him the feeling that he, for the first time in his life, was part of something. And that people who loved Star Wars too understood him. That was, until he talked to people who were older than he. He asked them about the films and told them how much he liked them, especially episode 2 and 3. And he would never forget, how they made fun of that. How they said he wasn't a "true" fan. That the "prequels" were trash, and the original films far far superior. This angered him. He WAS a true fan. Those people just couldn't see what made the films good. They just were too old and dug in inside their beliefs of what Star Wars should be like to see it. But the boy, HE could understand the grandeur of the music in the finale of episode one, as he watched Qui-Gon fight for his life and ultimately fail. HE could thrive in the breathtaking pace of episode 2, that started out so small-scale only to end with a view over thousands of soldiers marching gloriously in the sunset. And, lastly, HE knew how hard it was to hold back the tears he felt coming up, as he watched two brothers turning on each other while everything they (and also the boy) had once believed in, crumbled in episode 3. Sure, Jar Jar was annoying. And the romance dialogues, even tho synchronized in German, were still awkward and felt misplaced. But those flaws got outshone greatly by the magic, George Lucas created. And the fights! Nothing like the akward stick-fighting in the hallway in episode 4, or the to lengthy, drawn-out Dagobah-scene in episode 5. Not to speak of the fact that Episode six felt at times like a déjà vu. Those films had their moments, and they where not bad. But they paled in comparioson to the films he had grown up with. Truly, the boy just loved the prequel films. This little boy was me.

Fast Forward to the year 2015. I 19 years old now. But the love for Star Wars only had grown. I had always thought there wouldn't be another Film in the universe, tho of course I always had hoped for it. And so, Books like "Labyrinth of evil" and "Dark Lord - The rise of Darth Vader" by James Luceno and "Order 66" by Karen Traviss helped to quench the thirst for more adventures in the Galaxy far, far away. Especially Traviss, with her unique ability to fill the Clones with life and personality, not only shaped a great portion of my world view and ethical beliefs, that lasts to this day. She also provided the cement my perception of the films rested upon. Her stories of the Mandalorians, the idea of 151 emergency orders, of whom Order 66 was just one, this was the fluff that had filled those years for me. On a rainy, cold day in late december, I went to the cinema to watch Episode 7: The Awakening of the Force. And oh boy. That I was excited would be more than an understatement. Back when the Clone Wars-Movie released in 2008, I had a short hope of a comeback for my beloved Universe. And even tho the Movie broke with as many of my ideas and head canons as it expanded on them (I had mixed feelings about Ashoka back then, to say the least) I still was glad to have it. Until it was announced that there would be a TV-Show building up on it. You see, in Germany it was (and sometimes still is) notoriously hard to get your hands on american shows. Many TV broadcaster here battle for the rights to air them, and when it finally did come to Germany, I couldn't watch it since I was in school whenever it aired. YouTube provided some of the Episodes in German dub, but the quality was bad. Nonetheless, I sucked up every bit I could. Then, I learned, the show got canceled. So back to no content, I thought. Then, 2012, Disney bought Star Wars and announced there would be a new triology. And I E X P L O D E D. I would have a chance to watch a complete new trilogy right from the start and finally experience how it must've been back then, when the movies released that brought me into the fandom initially. Whe nEpisode 1-3 already looked so good, I couldn't even start to imagine what they would do with all the new technology they had now at their disposal! And so, on this afternoon in December, I went out of the cinema, back into the pouring rain, and was trying to comprehend what I had seen. It was a disaster. Sure, it was a Star Wars movie. It was all there. A hero rising up from the ground to save the galaxy. Space fights. Exotic locations. A gripping introduction scene to the new threat to the galaxy. Seeing old faces. The occasional comedic relief. And of course the hero saves the day in the end. But it felt so soulless. Where Episode one somewhat hinted at Episode 4 with its build-up and story (Droid-Controlship and Death Star analogy), this was just a bland copy. It felt to me as if the movie had been made according to a formula. As if all the writer had tried to distill the essence of what made episode 4 great and just...do it again. Which isn't bad in itself, if you present new and refreshing taskes on it. But this movie was far from it. As if it was designed to scratch the itching nostalgia spot. On my way back how, I pulled myself together. It was the first film. Episode one hadn't been too great either overall. Surely, they would do better in the next entry. I only got worse. In the end, when I left the cinema after watching "The Rise of Skywalker" (ironically enough again a rainy December day) all that was left inside me was anger. They had not destroyed the fandom I held so dear to my heart. They had dug up its peacefully resting carcass, robbed it, spat on it and duped it onto a disposal site to rot, after it was quenched for money.

This grudge should last for the years to come, while I watched the several new shows unravel on Disney+. And while some were better than others (to put it lightly), the anger and hatred for the new movies faded. To be absolutely clear, I never understood why people blame the actors when something is wrong with the movie they're in. I didn't partake in this. But I spilled several "Hottakes" during that time I'm not really proud of. And looking back at those I wonder... Did I do the same to a new generation of Fans, that was done to me

Have I, in my disappointment and anger that Disney "ruined" the franchise I so loved, been blind to what my words may cause to someone whose first entry into Star Wars those films were? A young girl, who first experienced the magic of the Galaxy far, far away in Episode 7? Who identified with the troubles Ray had, only to be laughed at and hear how terrible the films are, that Rey is a Marry Sue and basically worthless as a character? How would I have felt? And I remembered it. Angry. Misunderstood. That those hut’uun just couldn't appreciate the magic of those movies. And so, in the end, my point is as follows: I don't want to lecture anyone by this. But I for myself want to deeply apologize to anyone I might've hurt. Be it because you read a comment on YouTube were I flame about the movies and their fans, or a tweet, that states how much I dispise people who support these because I didn't wanted Disney to profit from something that hurt me so deeply. But this is the thing: it only hurt me. To you, it might have given comfort in a time of need. Spent that deeply desired distraction from a life that maybe was short of being too much. Provided a welcome escape from the pressure of daily life. Or was just a fun thing that came up the right time to enjoy with friends. Whatever your reason is to enjoy the sequels: Have fun! Love them! Cosplay its characters! Draw fanart, write fictions, replay the scenes in the woods with sticks together with your friends and laugh at how cringy you all are, as long as it makes you happy YOU ARE VALID. Nobody has the right to take it away from you. Not the critiques. Not the fans on Twitter or YouTube. And certainly not me. Now, in the end, I just want to humbly ask to forgive me for what I have said.

May the force be with you. Always. - Lars

[thismoleculeisacomedian]

Do you have any theories about world on fire season two?

i have thought about this A Normal Amount XD

my opinions are sort of just based on the information shared in the interviews that peter bowker gave? like he said something to the effect that nancy will be in the USSR at some point (he didn't specify if she would be in russia or a satellite country) for some of it; that vernon and lois would be in a "loveless, Brontesque marriage" (having only read charlotte bronte, i have no clue what this means to be totally honest, but it doesn't sound good lol); that we'd learn more about nancy and webster's respective pasts; and that harry and kasia would get back to manchester and lois and kasia would meet.

honestly, going off this alone, my thoughts are along the lines of ??? ??? ????? ??????????

(also he only mentions these characters so i have NO idea what's going to happen for everyone else, so i probably won't discuss them here.)

i mean, when he says kasia and lois meet, idk if he mean they MEET, or like, they meet in passing and kasia remains oblivious to the circumstances/nature of lois & harry's relationship and the complete train wreck of a situation that was. and i have no clue what the hell happened between s1e7 and s2e1 for lois and vernon to be so chilly with each other now.

i do very much want to know more about webster's past, but i have waaaay too many ideas on this subject to actually have a real ~prediction~ on it lol. (same goes for nancy tbh.)

now for the historically-related predictions i have:

personally, (and i hate it) i think either vernon or randy will die, because either death would move the story forward for at least one other character and also, the statistics for the RAF in terms of survival were ridiculously low. also historically speaking, nancy is going to probably move to england, because it was almost impossible for american reporters to continue to work in occupied europe for the most part (but there were exceptions of course). also, i very much doubt webster is going to leave france, so he will probably be interned, as almost all americans in occupied france were after the U.S entered WWII. (this is assuming s2 reaches that point in time, but december 1941 seems like a bit of a reach if each season only covers one year, so if it does, it's probably going to happen in the last episode and then we'd have another cliffhanger from hell 😀👍)

my crazy brain thinks that kasia will join the SOE also 🤷‍♂️. because the SOE needed people who knew certain countries very well, and also because this is the BBC.

basically, my predictions are a hodgepodge informed by historical knowledge and the way that the narrative is structured so far (+wishful thinking because i refuse to contemplate any major character deaths)... but i'm not putting money on any of them! 🙃

[theorist-influencer-untitled]

7.1.23 Saturday

8:57 am

Uncle Jun, jumped on the Zombie'z cave an hour ago ( Georgia'Z forest which I hate all of their tandem)....

I have windblow trap and I'm not happy... I'm not happy being flatten this way... It seems I don't have a freedom to grow coz of this windblow trap or unknown force against my growth...

This Uncle DD didn't give extraz for the other creditz, it is not fair just to eat... How can you be a father figure on an extended relationship ( Aunt Karen's son) if he or they can't or they didn't at all fulfill whatever deal they made since 2007, since they started journeying using their motorcycle and suddenly upgraded to the group of "black cars "....To wipe me out in this world??? Or was it all just a "conspiracy plan"???

By the way, angels...Done,watching "Arnold Schwazengger'Z " life story... Yeah! He started as bodybuilder and he became Mr Universe, meaning he lifted up his own life and he can lift people but not doing any conspiracy plan against someone... But life is a case by case.... Arnold is one of the luckiest people in the world...I didn't know that he is married with a "Kennedy"... But they cut the episodes into 3, it is supposed to be until episode 6... Hmm....I wonder why...

Arnold is truly an inspiration to all the people who are fanatic of English speaking world... Arnold is not american, he was an austrian then he became american....When you wanted something it is about your will, your friends around you and luck in life and grab it!

America is our dream land... Israel is the holy land... Philippines is the baby but some became a bad gremlinZ... Europe is the central figure....Russia is the tyrant leader... Dubai is the new wonderful land....Egypt is an old kingdom... Iran is the vase of sunflower... Japan is the life of the sunset... China is the circle of fire...hmmm...hmm...

Our family case is very complicated.... Sometimes I wanna say only intellectual people can get my point or can comprehend things that I wanna point out coz I know the right flow of life...

11:25 am

You will surely remove your brief and give your wallet if you taste my "purely brownish chicken adobo" . By the way I have 3 versions of adobo...

12:41 noon

Done, eating....Yeah! I'm almost perfect but I don't have money.... I need a job and a colored alien bf to be my support system...

I accept myself that I'm almost perfect... My super nice attitude made other people to take advantage of me....I choose a new bf wisely...

I will explain perfect later or being perfect or how to be perfect...

2nd batch of John's fur...

2:39 pm

Being perfect it doesn't mean skinny or skin and bones only to appear that someone is perfect... Love the plumpness of your body...

Being perfect it doesn't mean that you are on a professional position though it looks perfect but it can still look empty...

Not all glittering and colored sequences of someone's dress is perfect, it can still look dull and plain...

Being perfect is knowing empathy!

Being perfect means learning respect and etiquette...

Being perfect means to eat and burn not to starve on perfection!

Being perfect is able to laugh out loud on things that is funny coZ you thought it is the right way but you didn't mean to harm me....So, laugh out loud!

Being perfect is to be true but blurry but sincere but hypocrite...

4:03 pm

I still have windblow trap... I still wanna leave the hometown, in a way....I hate being smashed down unfairly... I feel jealous... I lost xfactor and friends....

Still, wanting to get a colored alien bf with full maturity!

8:41 pm

I need coffee... I want my possible bf to be very sensitive on me needing of coffee....Coz I have no extra savings now... It is my way on my bf to ask this and that but these things are still shallow happiness such as I want to have starbucks everyday... Or I need lots of coffee, I want flavored my most favorite these days is Nescafe COFFEE LATTE! I aslo appreciate Coffeebean Sachet and other different flavors such as Vanilla... I need someone who can be sensitive of me having coffee coz seriously I feel down if I can't have coffee...It is like my uppers these days...

On original flavor I want the decaffeinated/decaf coz it is good for the heart, it has 2% caffeine... It is my addiction and my system needs it...

I dream to have an expensive personal coffee machine... Argh! I wanna have it... All the syrups and the tool for making coffee even the espresso coffee machine...

The time the I was with Mommy Fortune ( a mother, used to be a real estate agent, I met in my caregiving class ) I joked on her that if I can have her coffee machine coz it is very seldom for them to drink coffee hahah She said if it wasn't a gift yeah! you can have it but it was gift on me... I said hahaha ohkay!

9:20 pm more about my coffee, angels!

I also love making iced coffee ( the diet version not the fattening)...I even miss making "Irish Coffee" with a lil drops of whiskey wow! There is a particular coffee whisky flavored for that, it is kinda pricey around 1k pesoses here or 20 to 25$ there...

9:34 pm

These things are my shallow happiness... I wanna leave the hometown... I wanna settle-up with someone supportive, with someone my ideal now a possible colored alien bf but like what I posted sometimes we don't know our fate but I still want coffee and lots of coffee aside from my vanity coz I'm a woman...

9:50 pm

I sensed a game team up on Aunt Teresa and Uncle DD, angels...

My main point angels, whenever Uncle DD is sending money he is somehow telling or texting the same way as my Aunt Teresa... Uncle DD sounds angry...

The other main point, it is not enough to just eat...We are educated and I'm a college graduate, it is just that I have a windblow trap and it is hard to explain and there are as well people who interfered on me since 2007, in a way part of whatever conspiracy plan that Uncle DD is one of the leaders, that I can't understand...

[enterenews]

'Kim Seung-hyun' Jang Jeong-yoon "Daughter Soo-bin and Dmyeon Dahmyeon, title = older sister"

'Geollwanjang' Kim Seung-hyeon and Jang Jeong-yoon couple started a trip to Europe with Gwangsan Kim's family.

In the first episode of KBS2's entertainment program 'Walking Into the Fantasia', which was first broadcast on the 22nd, Kim Seung-hyun and Jang Jeong-yoon's 'Sea World' European tour was revealed.

For the first time on the air, Kim Seung-hyun and Jang Jeong-yoon couple appeared together. A couple who has been married for 3 years. Jang Jeong-yoon made her laugh by saying coolly, "I'm just living a good life."

Regarding her relationship with her in-laws, Jang Jung-yoon said, "I thought I was close to her, but my parents-in-law seem to think I'm lacking. I don't have aegyo, so I didn't know what to say even when I called."

Regarding her relationship with her daughter, Soo-bin, Jang Jeong-yoon said, "I don't contact her often enough when there is an issue. I call her Subin and she calls me an older sister. I don't know how Subin feels or thinks of me." He said, "It's hard for me to get close to you, and I feel like I'm forcing my feelings on Subin. So I'm living in spite of myself."

A few days after deciding to go on a trip to Europe, Gwangsan Kim's family came to the Kim Seung-hyun couple's house. When Uncle Si and Shigomo appeared, Jang Jung-yoon was clearly embarrassed.

[astrangergivingthestrangewelcome]

Sometimes as a Result of Your College Education You Wind Up Applying Theory on Medieval Performative Emotions to Cardassian Society

Hi my name's Italia and I'm a fucking clown! So in my Senses and Feelings in the Middle Ages class I'm taking, we talked a lot about this idea of "emotional scripts" that we find in chronicles and stuff. To put it simply while of course medieval people felt and expressed genuine emotion, Medieval Europe prized the performance of emotion. It's the opposite of the Victorian "stiff upper lip" sort of thinking. You were expected to wail and grieve loudly when you lost someone you loved if you didn't want people to talk. If you're a king and you want to invade some land or punish a noble and you don't want to get shit for it you take care to frame that as just anger for a perceived offense and you take care to act righteously in expressing that anger. If you were wronged by someone and you wanted that person to be punished for their crimes you screamed about it in the town square immediately or else you'd be suspected to not be genuine and your village might not side with you. Whoever was the best at being convincingly emotional won the day back then.

So I was thinking. That sounds like it could be Cardassian society to me. From what we see with Dukat and Garak and the other Cardassians, the emphasis seems to be very much on expressing the right emotions at the right times very loudly. When Garak and Dukat hate something they HATE them. And not just the two of them. I see Damar do it to, and even Rugal's dad that one episode. The emphasis seems to be "I hate you and will absolutely never pretend otherwise bc I want everyone to know that this is what I feel." You're supposed to be expressing devotion to the state at all times, and when you fail in this there's a specific form of contrite you are supposed to be in order to save face. Dukat's dad said that his only regret was that his ambition outweighed his patriotism... I can't help but wonder if this was a show of self-abasement calculated to give his family a chance to recoup from the dishonor he was leaving them with. When Dukat tries to leave in "Civil Defense" that message specifically gave him 2 hours (or whatever) to "sit and contemplate the depth of your disgrace and try to die like a Cardassian." They could've programmed the station to just blow up immediately, but they gave Dukat two hours to feel his shame and disgrace, which seems culturally significant to me. Garak and Dukat always act so offended when someone hurls an accusation at them, even when they know an accusation is true... perhaps because it's been emphasized to them that you always have to deny guilt loudly in order to be believed.

Anyway, I don't think anyone writing the show thought about it like this, but I think what we do see of Cardassian society seems to fit the bill of a society that deeply respects emotional codes, and has rewards and consequences for performing or failing to perform emotions in a "Cardassian" way.