#idk if this is the best example from the article but throughout it you can just hear the pained patience

[e-the-village-cryptid]

my first reading in my African history class this year is about why using “tribe” to refer to ethnic groups stems from a racist desire to make African conflicts sound primitive or stemming from a desire to pretend that these are just ancient conflicts that have always existed. great article and I also feel like I’m vicariously experiencing the bullshittery that this author has been subjected to from people they’ve tried to talk to about this. like the article remains extremely professional but you can just hear in the tone that they’re talking through gritted teeth, you can practically see the customer service smile

[ID: a screenshot from a section of the article titled “But why not use ‘tribe’? Answers to common arguments.” Under the bullet point for the argument “Africans talk about themselves in terms of tribes” is written, “Commonly when Africans learn English they are taught that tribe is the term that English-speakers will recognize. But what underlying meaning in their own languages are Africans translating when they say tribe? Take the word isizwe in Zulu. In English, writers often refer to the Zulu tribe, whereas in Zulu the word for the Zulu as a group would be isizwe. Often Zulu-speakers will use the English word tribe because that's what they think English speakers expect, or what they were taught in school. Yet Zulu linguists say that a better translation of isizwe is nation or people.” /end ID] 

translation: “ ‘Oh ho ho but some Africans themselves say tribe!’ You dipshit. You fucking donkey. When someone has a word that means “nation” or “people” in their own language but then when they learn English YOU TELL THEM IT TRANSLATES TO “TRIBE” then THAT WILL BE THE WORD THEY USE. Maybe if you LISTENED TO THE LINGUISTS OF THAT GROUP you’d have more accurate information. Asshole.”

each point is repeated over and over with like five different examples because you just know there are dipshits out there who will keep arguing.

to the anonymous author of this article for the Africa Policy Information Center I hope you have a good day every day and experience fewer people being assholes about this, your patience is actually legendary

[jonnnysuh]

(probably) rejected going seventeen ideas

On the off chance someone from the seventeen team is reading this (((like you probably did with the hide and seek post AHEM COUGH COUGH jk unless)))) I present to you my GOSE ideas:

They are in a courtroom and have to defend each other. The case should be something that actually happened (i.e one of their petty fights) They can present their arguments with irrelevant proof (for example, Mingyu is a lawyer, and the other party’s lawyer Seungkwan presents a picture of Mingyu flexing his muscles and says he’s a show off or some shit bc he wants to EMBARRASS HIM) Since there’s 523 members of svt some could be lawyers, defendants, judge, key witnesses and jury… hell, someone could be a security guard. Also I am merely a fan of seventeen in suits (update: they actually did this one omg)

BET ON MY BESTIE. They are all given a prompt and they have to bet on which member they think would do it best. The betted on members have to prove whether or not they can do it. For example, “Which member can do 30 pushups in 15 seconds?” You have everyone SCREAMINGG hyping up Woozi Mingyu and Joshua. You’d have Hoshi making crazy promises like “JOSHUA IF YOU WIN THIS I’LL BUY YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT” and then when Joshua wins Hoshi’s like “🤭 just kidding”

SVT building ikea furniture in two teams. One member is blindfolded, another member is wearing noise cancelling headphones and another is not allowed to talk -> these three have to some how relay the instructions to the rest of the team

This is definitely a long shot but seventeen WIPE OUT edition. I wanna see Dino bounce off a huge red ball

I KNOW YOU REMEMBER SILENT LIBRARY PLS DO THIS I KNOW VERNON WOULD ACTUALLY COMBUST FROM TRYING NOT TO LAUGH AND EVERYTHING IS FUNNIER WHEN IT’S QUIET

An actual serious game of dodgeball pleaseeeeeeeeee. I know y’all did it for the Jun appreciation day video but they were purposely trying to let Jun win. I wanna see S coups whip a ball

They each design an article of merch (hoodies, shirt, sweatpants, hat, etc). The twist is they have to keep passing on the merch to the next member and add on to the design every 15 minutes until it’s gone thru all 13 members. It’d be cool to see the behind the scenes of something they made collectively and it would be CHAOS. Imagine The8 being really proud of his drawing and then Hoshi gets it next and draws a big ass evil banana or something idk. The merch gets sold on their website for a limited amount of time.

Seventeen in a BIG ASS MAZE and each person has to find a specific member among it in order to exit. Imagine DK runs into Jun but needs to find Vernon so DK starts yelling “GET OUT OF THE WAYYY” Minghao would do some shit like wait by the exit until his partner found him pls

They get to style a member and make them pose however and wherever they want for a picture. At the end, the pictures are presented and the members have to guess who styled them and who got the best makeover ((winners get a wish ticket))

All 13 of them (or two teams) have to shoot a low-budget music video for one of their b-side songs

They wear prosthetics and go undercover in public and have to fulfil 5 tasks

MAFIA (DONT LIE) BUT pairs are handcuffed together (one team of three people). Ideally, the pairs are of the most unlikely duo/the ones who bicker a lot. If you want it to be simpler, ask every member many days prior to compile a list of who they would most to least like to be handcuffed to. Only on the day of do they find out they are handcuffed to the person they listed last. They play Don’t Lie Mafia as they usually would. Throughout the set are a limited amount of handcuff keys (so not every duo can separate) This would be A MESS. If your partner is eliminated, they become separated and the remaining member goes on solo. My goal here is to have a lot of fighting i.e Wonwoo wants to go left but Woozi wants to go right but they BOTH can’t have what they want. Josh is mafia and Mingyu is getting close to finding the prize money so Josh leads the poor man astray bc Mingyu trusts him. Okay, honestly I can’t think of a full concept but I would still love to see them handcuffed to each other. In my head it’s Hoshi-Seungkwan, Jeonghan-Dino, Mingyu-Josh, DK-Jun-Scoups, Vernon-The8, Wonwoo-Woozi

Shark Tank Parody. The8, Joshua and Woozi are sharks. Each member has to present a product… the catch is they have no idea what their product is until it’s their turn. Really reliant on improv (similar to their seventeen got talent GOSE)

Idk what the actual scenario is but one member is wearing a secret headset and is being told what to do by the staff. Either no other members are aware and think that one member is being a weirdo OR all members are wearing headsets and they have to figure out who is being controlled (Similar to Mystery Mystery GOSE and Secret Santa GOSE)

They recreate their PLEDIS auditions. They are styled with similar hair, outfits and introductions. They sing and dance to their audition songs. The members are not allowed to laugh or they get shocked.

A chill GOSE where they sit around a campfire roasting marshmallows and tell each other their real life ghost stories. Potentially a prank on DK where they disappear into the darkness one by one

SVT AS BOBA SHOP EMPLOYEES??? IDK WHAT I WANT FROM THIS BUT I WANT THIS

Likely would be an end of year video but a trivia game where they are shown moments of their year (or even their overall lives together) and it’s in a game show format where the goal is to select the right answer. (For example, they are shown a picture and asked where it was taken with A,B,C,D options) It’s a recap of their year and they can explain the moment in more depth

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

Hi, I have hard executive dysfunctions but had some (temporary) results using to-do apps and stuff. For everything, brushing teeth, eating, etc. But it always end (very quickly) by me adding 30+ to dos for a day and working 10 hours to get them done until I break down. I can't not do it. Once I think about it, there is sooo much to do, so much I neglected.

So I saw this nice bullet journal in a shop today and took it with me and need some ideas how to make it, to not end like the others:

I thought about a symptom part, how good did I sleep, what mental health issues do I have, etc pp.

I am completely unsure if I should ad any "chore to-dos" or only self care/mental health ones. But even those feel like chores so...

And my energy level varies strongly so I thought about keeping it vague like idk "do one relaxing thing"-like maybe. So I could decide on that day, what I think I will get done. But that's pretty unsatifying.

Ah and, as much as I love such book and diaries etc, writing it down feels like a chore too so... It sounds worse than it is, I had some results but everything in this world sounds like a chore so I am unsure how to make this fun and manageable and neither go to the extreme nor give up.

Give me all your ideas and examples and plans.

Hi anon,

As soon as I saw your ask I just knew I wanted to answer it ~ I have ADHD, but because of other chronic health issues - I cannot take stimulant medications for it and rely on my adaptations to manage symptoms (and yup, some of my mental energy does get used up doing it this way - but it is possible for some of us!). I wanted to start by sharing some resource links and articles first:

The Best Work Schedule for ADHD Brains: Flexible or Rigid? (with resources at the end, and lots of reflections from a variety of folks who benefit from both - great starting point to see which style resonates with you)

Adults With Executive Function Disorder (scroll about halfway down for tips and resources)

Tips and Tricks for Executive Function Disorder (geared towards the caretaker of a child with it, but still impactful suggestions, including movement breaks and reward systems)

Executive Function Disorder: Bullet Journal (one person’s personal bullet journal and how an adaptable reward system - shaped like a bingo card - really helped them) 

But also wanted to share what I use/tell myself throughout the day/week to help: (under the cut to help avoid the post getting super long)

I personally use an adapted planner for the overall schedule, it’s got enough blank spaces where if I want to “change it up” I can do that week to week, but in general this is the place where I store my overall monthly calendar and every Sunday night write out my week ahead of “big things” (apps, time sensitive errands, etc).  

I take a picture of my monthly calendar, as well as my weekly so even if I’m out and about I can quickly refer to it if someone asks about a date - versus saying “I’ll check my calendar later and get back to you” . . . and then - never doing it, whoops!

People in my life are used to it by now, but essentially if someone tells me something like “next weekend is so and so’s birthday” - I’ll take a moment to set an alarm reminder to add it to my calendar when I’m home, and or make a text message note on my phone, and set an alarm that essentially reads “don’t forget to add your text notes to the calendar” (some days I can have like fifteen alarms going off throughout the day, but this way I also manage to add the information I need to, versus feeling like I’m constantly forgetting something, or worse, expending limited mental energy constantly cycling through a “don’t forget don’t forget don’t forget” concentration).

I timeblock my day every morning before everyone else is awake, for example: 7 to 8 - studies, 9 to 10 - social, and so on.  By doing it every day, I can refer back to it throughout the day and adjust as needed but also not plan too far ahead with no adaptability to changing circumstances.  I also ensure that for a chunk of “serious chores” I also schedule in what I like to call “serotonin boosts” - whether that’s some friends time, or creative time, whatever sparks joy for you.  There have definitely been days where I felt like I could not do one more email - and then reminded myself that as soon as I got through the five I scheduled myself for, then I could draw for an hour (a basic ‘this, then that’ reward system).  Suddenly, I manage to push through it, and often quicker than I had originally thought it would take - allowing me to have even more time with something that brings joy.

If I have to be somewhere at a certain time, I set several alarms, almost like a countdown 

I like to use fun color pens, or even pens with like fuzzy balls, or some other sort of stimming part to it as I work - it allows me a moment to stim if I need it, even when I’m tackling the “boring brain dump” stuff.

No amount of telling my brain “just do it” for twenty minutes is going to magically create the dopamine/serotonin it needs to do the thing.  So if a reward isn’t working, I get up and move with a timer to get it going that way, and then try again.

I’m sure there’s plenty more ideas/tips/tricks - anyone stumbling on this, please feel free to comment, reblog, and add to it, but I hope it’s a helpful start for you and anyone else out there looking for adaptions. - Mod Kat

[uncloseted]

Is there something bad about prince Charles now being king since she died? Like I don't know anything at all Abt the royals and their history, but it doesn't seem like this is necessarily a good thing even if people are glad that she's not in power anymore you know? Idk that's how my teacher was making it seem lol

This whole situation is kind of complicated, but I'll do my best to keep it brief here. The people who are glad that Queen Elizabeth died generally aren't against her specifically. They're against the British monarchy in general.

Queen Elizabeth was generally pretty well-loved as a figure. In 2012, at her Diamond Jubillee, she had an approval rating of 90%, and several surveys have found that she was the "most admired person in the UK". She became Queen at 25 years old, when Edward VIII abdicated the throne in order to marry Wallis Simpson, and served for 70 years. Throughout her time as Queen, she was largely apolitical and served only as a cultural figurehead. As a result, many people viewed her kind of like the "grandmother of England"- someone harmless and friendly, if a little formal. She provided a sense of stability in a turbulent world and fostered national pride in many.

Charles is not nearly as popular as Elizabeth was. His popularity with the British people was about 42% before he became King, and 46% of Britons wanted Charles to abdicate immediately upon accession to the throne, in favour of William. His public image is tinted by his treatment of his first wife, Princess Diana, as well as his affair with and eventually marriage to Camilla Parker-Bowles. He has been much more outspoken than other royals, both politically and in terms of how the press treats him. Perhaps in retaliation, he is regularly referred to as, “a prat,” “a twit,” and “an idiot" in media publications.

So, then, why are people against the monarchy to begin with? The most common criticisms fit into one of two categories: the idea that the monarchy is a financial drain on the British people, and that the monarchy is a symbol of the British empire, and, by extension, British colonization.

The first criticism is pretty straightforward. The British monarchy is estimated to cost British taxpayers about £202.4 million each year, making it the most expensive monarchy in Europe, and it is exempt from taxation on any money it makes. The funeral and coronation will reportedly cost gross domestic product an estimated 6 billion pounds when it’s all said and done. This is while the UK is in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, one that the government has been slow to intervene in. Understandably, people are upset that this money is going to the monarchy instead of to helping everyday people who are struggling to put food on the table. For example, a New York Times article quoted Mo Varley, a teacher in Sheffield, England, who said, “the royals seem to be adored by so many, and at times like this I find it a bit frustrating when so many are suffering and those in power don’t appear to care about that. I don’t think you can have a family paid for by the state be free of scrutiny.”

The second criticism is a bit more complicated. For this, it's important to know that at its height in 1920, the British Empire occupied 24% of the Earth's total land area. A total of 65 countries have claimed their independence from the British Empire. The last of these countries became independent in the 80s (Brunei was last in 1984), and Ireland was fighting to maintain its sovereignty until 1998. This is recent memory for a lot of people.

Britain also still retains sovereignty over 14 territories outside the British Isles. Plus, there are ongoing independence movements in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. An additional fifteen Commonwealth realms voluntarily continue to share the British monarch as their head of state, although this number is decreasing and will likely drop sharply now that Charles is the king. Barbados removed her as its head of state and became a republic just last year, and Jamaica seems likely to follow suit.

So, why does this matter? Part of the criticism is just that the monarchy refuses to acknowledge the harm it has caused. South African political party the Economic Freedom Fighters issued a statement saying that, “[Queen Elizabeth] never once acknowledged the atrocities her family inflicted on native people that Britain invaded across the world.” Many people, especially those from formerly colonized nations, feel that because the privileges the royals receive are built on the back of an exploited empire, the monarchy should cease to exist.

For example, Uju Anya, an associate professor of second language acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University, tweeted, "If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star.... I take deep offense at the notion that the oppressed and survivors of violence have to somehow be deferential or respectful when their oppressors die. There are people literally around the world, rejoicing at this woman's death, not because they're vile or cold but because her reign and the reign of her monarchy by extension was violent." Anya goes on to say that to this day, the crown continues to meddle in African affairs and act as an oppressor.

Jamaican-born Matthew Smith, professor of History at University College London, commented that, "I think when people voice those views, they're not thinking specifically about Queen Elizabeth. They're thinking about the British monarchy as an institution and the relationship of the monarchy to systems of oppression, repression and forced extraction of labor, and particularly African labor, and exploitation of natural resources and forcing systems of control in these places. That's what they're often responding to. And that's a system that exists beyond the person of Queen Elizabeth."

Other concerns about the monarchy include that it's undemocratic, elitist, and unfair, that it elevates people who are unqualified to lead, that it's incompatible with the multiracial and multicultural British society of the 21st century, that it imposes a state religion, that it causes harm to would-be monarchs, and that the monarchy is not accountable for its actions.

[lordymaru]

I'm about to refute this entire essay with the simple explanation being:

The only interaction we've seen of these two is when she's a freaking 8 year old. Your self insert shows no boundaries.

And this is probably the last time I'll make a post about the stupidity behind the way the pair is viewed:

Note: I know there's people out there with a brain who ship these two in a more conventional way. In the end you do you, ship whatever you want, no one can prevent you from doing that, just don't be gross about it.

One of the parts being the Significance of their first encounter:

She’s a poor peasant girl who’s suffered immense trauma, suffering, and loneliness. Her initiative to help Sesshomaru came from her generosity

Exactly, she's alone for her family had been killed before her eyes, the villagers treat her like garbage. When she meets Sess he's wounded and simply in a bad state, both mentally and physically. Both of them are, the difference being he's a demon, a powerful one and for him to have ended in such a bad shape only stabbed at his pride- Rin on the other hand is a child, a human tiny child who is vulnerable and to him she poses no threat. Both of them are weak then.

At this point, it’s observable that despite knowing her story, her scars, and her difficulties, humans do not even empathize, let alone sympathize with Rin. It is the feudal era, after all. She’s a young, disabled orphan and the villagers only see her for what she lacks: a voice, a family, and a place of belonging.

Again with your feudal era shit. I can assure you the world is just as ugly today as it was before you and I existed. Next.

When he asks about her bruises, this is the first time anyone had ever afforded her a second glance.

This was a huge step forward for Sess, a huuuuuuge one for he showed interest in another living creature, not just any creature but a human. And for her it was probably like Christmas, for no one had showed her any mercy or interest. Ok you get a point. But oh, boy, how I'm about to spit on the next one:

The audience can see Sesshomaru calculate her body language, recognizing that she is mute. Instead of pressing her further or ignoring her outright, he attempts to comfort her (in his own way), making her feel that it is okay if she chooses not to answer him; that her desire to reply to him should only be a desire, not an obligation. I think, on one hand, that was the first moment of something that would resemble compassion that Sesshomaru had ever administered, trying to put himself in her shoes — if someone had asked him to do something that required, for example, his left arm, he probably would have appreciated them saying “you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to” so to provide him agency for something that he actually cannot do. And the same goes for Rin. He recognizes her disability, maybe even resonates with it and decides to empower her with a choice. Choice is important when it comes to the Sesshomaru/Rin dynamic and it’s a word that will come up often. 

Ok why are you comparing the loss of his arm to her not being able to talk? Not all disabilities are the same, you moron. Or am I dumb for thinking this way? If so, feel free to call me out on my lack of common sense kr whatever you wanna call it. Sess physically couldn't do shit with his left arm because well- it was gone! That's a physical disability. Rin had "lost" her voice after what she witnessed and so she wouldn't speak anymore. Have you heard of Psychogenic Dysphonia? If not, you can click here and give it a reading or do your own research. The more you know: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0892199703000158

So you say he "empowers her with a choice" that is "important when it comes to the Sesshomaru/Rin dynamic" let me get this straight, a choice because why? She's a child? A female? Because you said so yourself, it's the Feudal Era after all and therefore women had no choice in life, no voice, no agency, no nothing. So he was being magnanimous then? You know... This is where you start edging into the gr00ming territory. Can't you see? No? Alright, moving on.

BRUH WHAT THE FUCK?! Are you fucking good? See how you self insert? Bye. Next

The next time Sesshomaru sees Rin, it is suggested that he actively sought her, whether it be by curiosity or concern for well-being

He did... It is not suggested, he actually did asdfhkl. For both curiosity and he probably was worried. He also states he wants to test out his sword, what a perfect chance to do so for Rin is pretty much dead and that's the only way to make his sword work. So she was both being a guinea pig and an itch he wasn't quite sure how to scratch. Next.

Silence Rin.

Rin screams endlessly, annoying Sesshomaru. Firstly, this is the first time we hear him call her by her name. Secondly, Sesshomaru is visibly annoyed by her noises, however, he does not tell her to “shut up” as he normally would with Jaken or even InuYasha. He simply says “enough of that Rin, stop it.” (In Japanese he says, “Silence, Rin. You make too much noise.”) Even analyzing the Japanese dialogue, it is evidently softer than Sesshomaru’s usual ‘kisama’ (貴樣) manner of speech that we see depicted usually. This is the first time he’s had a companion who is not a demon, someone with compassion, and who has had his general best interests at heart with no expectations in return. His softer tone is a logical deduction to make.

Ok... "someone with compassion, and who has had his general best interests at heart with no expectations in return." Bruh... As if he would even consider meeting someone's expectations. Are you sure you're talking about Sess? Another thing is, he always speaks in a calm tone, he rarely yells or loses his composure- he had no reason to be rude to her either, you're excusing his regular behavior simply because she ain't Jaken. Anything else?

Rin doesn't change Sesshomaru overnight, it's a gradual and long process

Well duh!!! Just like you don't lose the pounds you gained from eating in one sit 12 donuts a week ago. Stating the obvious and for what? What's exactly your mf point?

The silence part is important, idk how to tell you there is a power imbalance in their relationship from the moment he tells her to be quiet. He didn't say please, he didn't ask her to, he told her to be quiet. Like a parent would, if I could count the times my mom told me to shush.... That's your first indicator he is not her friend, he is not her equal.

Letting you Be Yourself: The Panther Demon Arc

the first frame the audience sees in the anime sets the scene, painting the Sessshomaru entourage in a serene manner, indicating a level of comfort between group members (episode 75). This is vastly different from our last depiction of Sesshomaru and Rin’s relationship. In episode 44, he was unable to withstand her (albeit annoying) childish antics. But here, it’s observable that Sesshomaru can accept her and her package of unconventional fun. Not only does he tolerate and even more so, accept Rin, but he accepts her influence on his vassal, Jaken and allows them to be free around him.

Is called developing patience. I can assure you that when you're a parent or an older bro/sis and your kid/younger sibling is noisy af you either learn to tolerate that or get used to it for kids are kids abd you have to let them be kids. Next.

She's a child, she's not stupid.

The Abducted Rin: Calling her Name

The respect that Sesshomaru shows Rin is insurmountable. However, the InuYasha franchise is clever to portray the subtlety of Sesshomaru’s respect for her. KV on Twitter points out how highly he regards his companion and never relegates her to anything less than the value that she as a person embodies (@KVndie via Twitter). He consistently humanizes her. 

He only sees how important she is to him after her ass dies a second time. What do you mean? He respects her enough to not coddle her, she is independent and taught her to be self sufficient from the very start. That's respect. He consistently humanizes her because... She ... Is ... Human! OMG WHAT A SHOCKER!

As Naraku remarks on his hostage to Sesshomaru, "Naturally, the girl you're looking for is not here…,” he continues, “the girl is in custody outside of the castle..." Naraku never makes an attempt to give her personhood, leaving her unnamed, disposable, and relegating her to a mere "girl." But Sesshomaru doesn’t take any of this. He is a cold-hearted Daiyokai, yet he still makes an effort and upholds his principle to refer to her as Rin — not a replaceable “girl.”

Naraku is a mf genius. It didn't quite click until now he wanted to see if she was important or not to him and to what extent. For he planned his moves that way, making people turn against one another. While he wouldn't have made Rin turn against Sess he set everything up so he would end up wanting to kill Kohaku and in doing so, Inugang would have engaged against Sess.

Sesshomaru’s insistence on using Rin’s name isn’t only highlighted in this isolated incident though. It pays off. It is an ongoing theme in their dynamic throughout the series.

That's her name ... How you want him to call her? Baby?

I could go on and on but... This is a fucking essay. And then I stumble against more bullcrap:

The second point I want to highlight here is Sesshomaru’s reaction to Rin’s fall and her risky expedition. At this point, it’s unquestionable that Rin has a special place in his heart.

Of course she has a special spot in his heart. I won't deny that. What worries me is how you're trying to justify the way she's important to him since she was a child. As if his way of seeing her had changed.

I'm gonna disagree by agreeing with you in a few pointers. Kagome and Kikyo were rivals, they both romantically love the same guy. Kagome being the only one who could save Kikyo chooses to help her, knowing damn well Inuyasha would have suffered if Kikyo had died- further more, if it was in Kagome's hands to do something about it.

Rin on the other hand, I will applaud to her how she grew past her fear of Kagura after being kidnapped by her, she saw her body in the river and said fuck it and did her best to try to pull her from the water. I loved how stubborn and brave she was, even tho Sess had to pull everyone out of the water- she deserves a gold star. You go baby girl!!!

Rin later makes a cheeky comment, noting Kagura’s romantic interest in Sesshomaru. Jaken brushes this off as childish naivety. But for the spectator, this establishes two things: (1) That Rin does not see Kagura as a rival for Lord Sesshomaru’s attention, let alone affection; and (2) that Rin is still a child. Rin is certainly a child, with a youthful and fresh outlook on life that brings out the best in people. But even as a child, her relationship with Sesshomaru is incredibly healthy, clear, and surprisingly communicative.

Why would she? She's not a spoiled brat

Nah? I thought her double D indicated otherwise. OF COURSE SHE'S A MF CHILD.

Why do you keep mentioning is healthy? Do you need reassurance of it? Communicative in what way? Cuz if you wanna talk about communication let's talk about how he didn't even acknowledge her ass when she gave birth. He didn't even say her name, didn't even look at her. Tell me now how they are communicative and healthy?

I could go on, I really but all I'm getting from this load of bullshit I'm forcing myself to read is how you do in fact need to reassure yourself thr ship is god tier and is... How you said it was? Ah, healthy.

Anyways, thanks for reading and if you see any typo ... My apologies, I tried. Also if you have any input or I was out of line in some way, my apologies once more.

[monkberries]

They dealt with all of the above. Ringo was treated as a joke for pretty much everything, especially since this was the era of prog rock. His personal life was also tabloid fodder. George was derided as being a dour spiritual nut who was out of touch. He along w/ Ringo didn't get the respect he deserved as a guitarist bc his style wasn't in at the time & people knew little about his role in The Beatles. All credit went to Lennon/McCartney. 1/2

John had the benefit of having the rebel genius image, but even he became a source of ridicule with all the stunts he pulled with Yoko and the way his career declined after Imagine. He wasn't deified to the degree he was in the 80s. I'm not trying to say Paul never had a hard time, but the way this fandom talks as if he is the only one who faced extreme criticism or disrespect just tells me they haven't looked much into the other Beatles' lives. The man is more admired than most musicians. 2/2

(IDK if this screenshotted anons were from the same person or not, but I’ll just answer them in this one since it’s all the same subject.)

Here’s what I think is valid, as I see it: Paul fans are upset by the way his music was treated by the music press, especially in the first few years of the 70s, while the music of the other three were generally given at least the benefit of the doubt. They’re not upset about the tabloid gossip, the purely personal stuff – they are upset, specifically and with good reason, at the way Paul’s music was treated and the way the music world’s personal dislike of him seeped into their music reviews. I’m gonna focus in on 1970 through the end of 1974, since this is where a lot of the complaints spawn from, and things start to shift in a big way in 74. You didn’t ask but contemporary writings about their early solo music is something I’m fascinated by anyway and you turned the wind-up toy key in my back, so. Off I go. This is gonna be so, so long.

At different points in the decade, all of them were subject to a sullying of their personal reputations. That is where I do agree with you: all of them were subjected to that by the press, to varying degrees, at varying times, and for various reasons for each of them. That is just what happens to public figures the longer they are public figures. Tabloids mess with everyone no matter how beloved they are. 

However, that’s not what I generally see Paul fans getting upset about. What I see is that they’re upset at the way the much more legitimate and widely respected music press approached Paul’s music and talent in general. It is widely received knowledge now that the critics treated Paul’s music differently than they did John’s and George’s and even Ringo’s; the trashing was not “equal.” They came at John and George with the assumption that their talent was real and ongoing outside of the Beatles, their genius unquestionable, their motives pure and well-intentioned and honest. Paul was not afforded these assumptions. Some examples to show what I mean, most of them found through wikipedia, rocksbackpages, or rollingstone.com.

John

Plastic Ono Band was Robert Christgau’s number one album of 1970 in The Village Voice. from Creem’s review: “John's record, of course, has been righteously raved over ever since its release, justifiably. It's interesting and even enlightening to see a man working out his trauma on black plastic but more than that, it's totally enthralling to see that Lennon has once again unified, to some degree, his life and his music into a truly whole statement.” From High Fidelity’s review: "a tremendously exciting listening experience, perhaps the best any Beatle has ever offered." In their Imagine review, Rolling Stone called POB “perfect.” A couple reviews in the mainstream were more mixed, put off a little by the rawness of it, but overall the rock world quickly grew to see this album as a work of genius.

Imagine was even more widely well-reviewed, despite a mixed review from Rolling Stone (John fell out with Jann Wenner around this time, curiously). Here’s a passage from rateyourmusic.com: “Imagine was actually one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the year, aside from this tepid review in Rolling Stone. Indeed, much of the rock press seemed palpably relieved that the former Beatle hadn't gone completely off the deep end. ‘It's the best album of the year, and for me it's the best album he's done, with anything, or with anyone, at any time,’ Roy Hollingworth wrote in the 10/9/71 issue of Melody Maker. ‘The album is superb,’ Alan Smith agreed in the 9/11/71 issue of NME. ‘Beautiful. One step away from the chill of his recent total self-revelation, and yet a giant leap towards commerciality without compromise...I have no criticism at all.’”

Some Time in New York City was admittedly John’s nadir, and the press was vicious about it, both personally and musically, deeming the album egotistical, lacking in energy, and devoid of sincerity. However, many maintained a reverence for the genius that came before it and hopeful encouragement for the future. Rolling Stone said that “The Lennons should be commended for their daring;” Creem said it wasn’t half bad; and even though NME’s article was scathing, it ended with a plea for John to return to form, saying, “Don't rely on cant and rigidity. Don't alienate. Stimulate. You know, like you used to.”

Mind Games, though reviews were mixed, fared far better in comparison. Again, there is a hopeful tone to the reviews, a sureness that John can do better. From Rolling Stone talks about the music being a return to POB form, but the writing is his worst yet; however, Landau qualifies this by saying the lyrics aren’t “offensive, per se, just misguided... [John Lennon’s admirers] might even be able to withstand something more challenging” and then praises John’s voice, his production, and a few individual songs. In Melody Maker, Ray Coleman says, “if you warm to the rasping voice of Lennon and, like me, regard him as the true fulcrum of much of what came from his old group, then like any new Lennon album, it will be enjoyable and even important.” Christgau is more middling but also says, “Still, the single works, and let's hope he keeps right on stepping.”

Walls and Bridges seems confusing to reviewers in retrospect. They couldn’t seem to come to a consensus on it. The musicianship was widely praised, for the most part, though Rolling Stone criticized the first side on this front; reviewers alternately said it was “the latest chapter in John Lennon’s Identity Crisis” (Creem) and “truly a superb album by any standards” (Melody Maker). Throughout the Rolling Stone review, the author is able to thoroughly critique the songs, for better or worse, with a neutral affect and without resorting to insulting John personally. He ends the review on a positive note: “When one accepts one’s childhood, one’s parenthood and the impermanence which lies between, one can begin to slog along. When John slogs, he makes progress.” Again, even though the reviews aren’t all positive, we can see, especially and most importantly in the most influential rock magazine of the time, the acknowledgment of his talent, a sense of excitement for what John will do next, and a belief that his work is authentic and honest.

George

All Things Must Pass, I mean. Apart from a couple of outliers like Christgau in The Village Voice (he called it “overblown fatuity”), it was incredibly, almost universally beloved by the music press when it came out. There was quite a bit of surprise that such a talent had been under everyone’s noses all this time, but I don’t think anon is quite correct that all the credit for the Beatles went to Lennon/McCartney. For example, Ben Gerson in Rolling Stone recognized George’s talent within the Beatles like this: “Up until now, George has been perhaps the premier studio musician among rock band guitarists. From the electronic whine which began “I Feel Fine” to the break in “Hard Day’s Night” to the crazed, sitar-influenced burst on “Taxman,” George exhibited an avant-garde imagination and a technical flawlessness, as well as the ability to stay within the bounds of a song, which has remained unparalleled.” In Melody Maker, the feeling of journalists was summed up thusly: hearing the album was “the rock equivalent of the shock felt by pre-war moviegoers when Garbo first opened her mouth in a talkie: Garbo talks! – Harrison is free!" The personal nature and honesty of the lyrics were praised as well; Time described it as an “expressive, classically executed personal statement.” Ben Gerson did call his proselytizing offensive, but in the next sentence says that George redeems himself from that with the personal plea in Hear Me Lord.

Concert for Bangla Desh - again, some cynicism from Christgau in The Village Voice (must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day) and of course tax issues dogged it later, but overall, for the rock press at the time, this was a crowning achievement that George pulled off. He was praised all over the press, countercultural and mainstream, for his live musical talent, the group of musicians that joined him, the lack of political motivation, the sincerity and goodwill, and George’s ability to bring back  "a brief incandescent revival of all that was best about the Sixties" (Rolling Stone). To this day he is credited with creating the model for future charity concerts. 

Living in the Material World - Nothing could have topped the one-two punch of ATMP and the Concert for Bangla Desh, but honestly, LITMW came pretty close for some journalists. Rolling Stone again praised George’s honesty and authenticity: “ Despite the occasional use of “psychedelic puns,” Harrison’s lyrics are so guileless they convey an extraordinary sincerity that transcends questions of craftsmanship. Similarly, the devotions we are called upon to share with Harrison, though they communicate no specific, private torment, do have the authenticity of overheard prayers and are therefore sacred.” Melody Maker said, "Harrison has always struck me before as simply a writer of very classy pop songs; now he stands as something more than an entertainer. Now he's being honest." The pushback against his pious attitude and lyrics picked up some steam with this album, particularly with Christgau (again) and Tony Tyler of NME, who called it “so damn holy I could scream.” However, it was far from the consensus opinion at the time, and with the biggest rock magazine in the world at your back, you can withstand quite a bit.

Dark Horse, oof. That poor man. It did get some positivity in Billboard and Melody Maker, but my god, the reviews for this album and its subsequent tour were so cruel. I suspect when these anon(s) talk about the others being treated terribly by the press as well, this, along with John’s STINYC, is one of the examples they would give, and they’re not wrong about that. This was the point where George’s piety and what they perceived as a sanctimonious attitude finally started really getting to everyone, and the album plus the tour was the perfect opportunity to dogpile on him. I guess it was to be expected; no one can ride that high forever, and the press loves to knock people over and kick them while they’re down. Rolling Stone called it “disastrous,” “shoddy,” and called his guitar work “rudimentary,” eventually declaring that George had “never been a great artist.” This from the same magazine that was practically worshipping at his feet the year before. Yowch.

Ringo

Sentimental Journey - The less that’s said about this album, the better.

Beaucoups of Blues was actually quite well-received. No one called him a genius for it, and it wasn’t a serious personal record and therefore wasn’t treated that way, but journalists seemed uniquely able to let themselves enjoy this record despite the serious/political/personal tone of most musicians at the time. Melody Maker believed Ringo had  "conviction and charm" and that because of that, the album stripped away the serious “hip posturing” and let you just enjoy the music on its own terms. The Village Voice said that Ringo was “good at making himself felt.” Although Rolling Stone’s tone was a bit more cruel than other magazines (there was a crack somewhere in there that Ringo wasn’t as smart as John), it also called him lovable and the record “a real winner” where the songs “sound terrific.”

Ringo was a total smash and I think people forget this. It’s remembered only because it’s an album that was worked on by all four Beatles, but actually, the critics fuckin loved it. Ringo was praised in Rolling Stone for his unpretentiousness, sensibility, and essentially collaborative nature: “Ringo was always the figure of conciliation within the Beatles, undoubtedly the most genial, conceivably the most sensible, and the one with the smallest musical axe to grind. His very lapses bespoke the esteem in which the others held him; had they not liked him so much, those perfectionists would never have allowed him to sing. Perhaps because as the drummer he stood outside the process of creation, he had the best perspective from which to see the Beatles as a unity. Ringo has never had any pretense of self-sufficiency. Once he had gotten his special projects out of the way (projects for which John, Paul and George's talents would have been unsuited anyway) Ringo was ready to call upon the three most obvious people to assist him with writing, singing and playing. As Starr's first "pop album," Ringo signifies a homecoming, not just of family, but in musical style as well.”

Goodnight Vienna was kind of a minor album for Ringo, but still, reviews were pretty good. Rolling Stone praised his “unalloyed sincerity which is his trademark and trump card.” Yet again, we see the theme of authenticity popping up in these reviews - if you are perceived as authentic, honest, and sincere, that takes you a long way with music reviewers in this time period, and Ringo was nothing if not wholly, completely himself.

Paul

McCartney - One of the main complaints of Paul fans is that Jann Wenner forced Langdon Winner, the author of the review for this album in Rolling Stone, to rewrite his article and put a more negative spin on it. The result is that Winner praised most of the music but totally undermined his own praise by questioning the authenticity of the tone and deriding the press release that came with the album as much as he praised the music. He ends the article like this: “I like McCartney very much. But I remember that the people of Troy also liked that wooden horse they wheeled through their gates until they discovered that it was hollow inside and full of hostile warriors.” This was a huge blow at a time when personal authenticity and substance were considered paramount. Melody Maker also questioned the legitimacy of his genius, saying “With this record, [McCartney's] debt to George Martin becomes increasingly clear.” Most other reviews weren’t any better.

Ram, I mean, Jesus Christ the reviews for this. It’s a widely respected album now, even made the RS top 500 albums of all time list last year, but at the time people were still so angry with Paul for supposedly breaking up the Beatles that they were still taking it out on his music a year later (imo). Landau in Rolling Stone called it “emotionally vacuous” and said it lacked conviction, saying also that it was “so incredibly inconsequential and so monumentally irrelevant you can’t even [hate it]; it is difficult to concentrate on, let alone dislike or even hate.” NME called it “the worst thing Paul McCartney has ever done.” Threaded through these reviews is a belief that the songs are devoid of meaning and that Paul’s happy domestic front is just a frustrating lie; Christgau in The Village Voice said he was “infuriated by the McCartneys' modern young-marrieds image” - infuriated because he clearly doesn’t believe it, rendering Paul dishonest and his music inauthentic. Once again journalists are unable to review Paul’s music without sniping about him as a person.

Wild Life - Though the situation remains largely the same - reviewers refuse to take him seriously, believe anything he says, or treat his musical talent as anything but vacuous fluff - the reviews aren’t quite as bad as they were for Ram and a bit of positivity begins to stir. It’s evident especially in the Rolling Stone review, where Mendelsohn wonders if Paul is making crappy fluff on purpose to piss John off because it will sell just as well anyway. It’s not much, and on top of the fairly strong criticism there is almost no hope for future Paul releases: “My own conviction is that we'd be foolish to expect anything much more earth-shaking than Wild Life out of McCartney for a good long while... In the meantime the reader is advised to either develop a fondness for vacuous but unpretentious pop music or look elsewhere for musical pleasure.” But it’s something.

Red Rose Speedway Paul continues to be lambasted by a lot of the press on this album for being lightweight and having no meaning behind his songs (at this point it’s just repetitive to quote the articles, just trust me that they say basically the same thing they were saying for the past three albums too), BUT I think a nuance that gets forgotten in all of this is that Rolling Stone gave it kind of a decent review. It seems like they finally quit gatekeeping and realized that songs don’t need to have some deep personal meaning to be good. Kaye is still not very nice about Paul’s lyrics but he recognizes that he doesn’t have to take Paul’s music on the same terms as he takes John and George. Paul’s music is less personal, but that doesn’t make it unworthy. He calls it “pleasant, accessible without concentration” and praises Paul’s voice and arranging skills. It feels like for this album, Rolling Stone took the stick out of its own ass when it came to Paul and finally relaxed enough to receive Paul’s music on his terms rather than theirs. Which, imo, primed the rock world for...

Band on the Run, Paul’s comeback. Even though Christgau in The Village Voice remained unconvinced (he called it “a pleasant piece of hackwork”), almost everyone else adored it. It seems weird to us now, but the general sentiment seemed to be that people were surprised by how good this album was. NME said, “The ex-Beatle least likely to re-establish his credibility and lead the field has pulled it off with a positive master-stroke”; and although Landau’s review in Rolling Stone overflowed with praise, he also said, “I'm surprised I like Band on the Run so much more than McCartney's other solo albums because, superficially, it doesn't seem so different from them.” 

I hope I’ve been able to demonstrate a general trajectory with the musical reputation of each Beatle here. John starts off on two incredible high points, crashes and burns, and then works his way back up. He DEFINITELY missed with STINYC, but even when he followed it up with Mind Games, there was still a hopeful tone to the reviews, sort of like, “Ah, well, the last two weren’t great but we’re still looking forward to what John will give us next.” Until the Dark Horse tour/album, which did sour the press on poor George, the music press adored him. It was hit after hit with him. He could not miss. Three high points, one after the other, then a monumental crash. Ringo seems to stay fairly high, even if the records aren’t serious records. All three of them start out incredibly well, and the music press was able and willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Paul was given none of that. Perhaps because he was out of step with the attitudes about music at the time, perhaps because journalists hated him for breaking up the Beatles, perhaps because they believed John when he painted Paul as “establishment,” perhaps a combination - whatever their issue was, Paul was given no benefit of the doubt to start with, no faith in his genius, and no belief in his authenticity. He was just a hack to the music press for the first few years of the 70s; he started at the bottom and was forced to work his way up, unlike the other three. It started, imo, when Wenner forced the journalist who wrote the McCartney review in RS to rewrite the article, and it spiraled from there. He was seen as hollow and uncool, as one of the anons said, “straight” in the parlance of the time - straight meaning “establishment.” This is kind of where I do start to roll my eyes a little bit at stans, when they get upset at people calling him “establishment” and trying to prove that actually he was so anti-establishment that people couldn’t handle it or whatever, without trying to understand what the word “anti-establishment” meant at the time. But there are also really substantive arguments you can make that say Paul’s music was not taken seriously because of a personal grudge against him.

I’m not saying that all of them didn’t have run-ins with the music press. I’m saying there is nuance here that I don’t think these anons are allowing for in the first few years of that decade. They came at George and John and Ringo with a positive, or at least neutral, slant most of the time. They came at Paul with a negative one. Case in point are the reviews of Band on the Run that were surprised at how good it was. That stuff gets people’s hackles up. The others didn’t have positive reviews rewritten to be more negative. The others didn’t have albums savaged that are now on the Rolling Stone top 500 albums of all time list. I do agree that John, at least, and George post Dark Horse, had a harder time with the music press than people generally remember or care to think about – deification is retroactive, I guess, and as Paul fans we should definitely recognize that Paul wasn’t the only one who went through a rough time with the press. But I do think Paul’s situation was made uniquely and unjustifiably difficult for those first few years.

I mean, at the same time, I cannot stress enough how much this did not affect his bottom line. Despite the horrible reviews, Ram still made a ton of money, McCartney made a ton of money, Band on the Run and Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway all made a ton of money. He had a fanbase, a huge one, that followed him loyally and faithfully through the early 70s as he was getting savaged by the press, and through the middle and late 70s when he was touring. At some point, you have to step back and go, wait. Why does any of this matter? This was 50 years ago. He was a multi-millionaire then and is a billionaire now. And you are right; whenever people over-generalize and try to make the case that Paul was always badly reviewed and the others were press darlings, I tend to get annoyed because they’re totally missing the actually interesting nuances of the situation (that can be easily found online! I found most of the music reviews through snippets on Wikipedia!) In conclusion, I guess my point is that both “Paul was vilified while everyone else wasn’t” and “everyone was equally vilified” paint the events of the early 70s with brushes that are too broad and miss the nuance that was evident in the way the press interacted with their music.

[bandsanitizer]

What exactly does everyone mean by sgfg isn't "cohesive"? Like I've seen this said so many times over the years and I just don't get what ppl mean. I'm starting to think that I have a different idea of what the word "cohesive" means bc the album sounds pretty cohesive to me. like do you guys mean sonically, thematically??? what criteria am I missing lol I feel stupid 😭😅

aw no please don’t feel stupid! it’s a pretty general term lmao

I’ve seen cohesion used in different ways and in the end it’s all subjective. but I think about how overall the album feels. it’s a very… internal thing. Like do all these songs fit together in one album? Is there an overarching idea to the album that the songs within the album all touch upon somehow?

Again this is all subjective and I tend to have some unique music perspective lmao so I hope this helps and if not, I’m very sorry and I would direct you to the many other 5sos fans (or critics’ articles on the album can be insightful too! like take it with a grain of salt but sometimes they’re cool to see what other people look for)

***also note: the last time I listened to sgfg in full in order was like last year so memory? no so good.

For me, SKH and Hey Everybody! and Permanent Vacation and The Girl Who Cried Wolf are weird ones on the album. The first three almost feel like leftovers from their debut album or their EPs from them. I wouldn’t be surprised given the little space between writing the two. Then you have songs where they can have playful little “caching!” or w/e and then there’s like Invisible

I also think a large part is their lyrics. I’m a big fan of album lyrics using motifs—something I can follow throughout the album that ties it all together. This isn’t necessary and from a sonic sense 5sos does this fairly well—they have a sound that is just 5SOS about their music and a large part of it is their abilities as live musicians, but 5sos doesn’t really do the best with lyrics. I think they have a handful of songs with really good lyrics—some notably featuring other artists known for lyricism (story of another us, as an example)—but overall… the sound and music tends to be their focus. Which, to each their own, but then you come to things like Fly Away and The Girl Who Cried Wolf which are on two different levels of story telling from being very… un-poetic to “ignored by gravity but in the end don’t ask why” like ??? am I just supposed to not ??? care about physics being broken??

I understand (sort of. that song is confusing af for me sometimes) what they’re trying to do and I know they make efforts to bettering the lyricism (and it has definitely improved over the years) but I think on SGFG they wanted to do so much—touch upon so many themes, try so many different things with said themes—that it wound up being a little too much.

Sorry if that doesn’t help much. For me, it’s a mix of really tangible things to being more or less about the vibes. I would say Youngblood is their most cohesive album (despite its eclecticism) and CALM imo is cohesive in halves (like split it down the middle and you could have two different albums almost) Regarding SGFG, I don’t think it’s not? cohesive—like I see how it can all fit—but I do think it could’ve been more so. Like I think a lot of what gives it cohesion is how the instruments sound/their approach to the genre enough that… it all sounds similar to some degree (maybe a production thing? idk). but I think there are songs that would be better not on the album/on a different album.

tbh cohesion is just something that 5sos, to me, doesn’t have the best grapple on yet and I do believe that their solo work and their time off will help them with having a clearer picture going in. but I can’t imagine meshing 4 people plus everyone else assisting, makes for easy putting together of ideas and thoughts and views and wants. so I just…. I think sgfg is a lot of them being ambitious, a lot of stories they want to write and tell, a lot of themes they wanted to cover, and in the end—with them likely being exhausted, rushing to get out a second album, and still trying to find their own sound and place in music—I think it might’ve been a little too much for then and resulted in putting out whatever they had. like I’ve never written an album but to be touring AND getting maybe a year? from your last album to write and recorded and finish a 17 track album? I’m not suprised sgfg is the way it is in terms of a mix of their best music and also tracks feel like question marks, at least contextually in the LP

[lesbeet]

so a former co-worker from the english dept at the hs i student-taught at last year has been hiring me to do a bunch of editing work for her (stuff from academic essays to sports articles to blog posts to poetry lol it’s a whole lot of various types of writing), and right now i’m working on an academic paper she wrote about the mistreatment and misplacement of “heritage language learners” (students who grew up speaking a native language other than english, but who were never formally instructed in that language—so for example, a native spanish speaker growing up in the u.s. who never had access to formal spanish language education, as opposed to a student born in a different country who learned their L1 formally in that country’s school system before moving to the u.s.)

and while i’ve learned a lot and am excited to contribute even in this small way to bettering the educational experiences of these students (and bilingual students in general), it’s been so difficult to edit the paper, mostly bc the original version she gave me was not organized effectively at all. so i had to start by trying to map an outline of the original structure so i could re-organize it pretty much from scratch.

so i’ve spent the last like 3.5 hours attempting to start filling in the actual content within the new outline i put together. i started by assigning highlight colors to each of the big topics/sections and then i went through the original version and highlighted different parts/sentences/quotes accordingly so i could find them easily when combing through the paper to look for specific pieces of information

and doing it this way has shown me how REDUNDANT the essay is lmao like i feel like it’s going to end up significantly shorter than what she gave me bc there are so many points restated in several places, or like unnecessary additions/explanations of things that don’t need explaining, and extraneous information...the quotes she used are like almost as a rule twice as long as they need to be, and usually only one part of the quote is actually relevant to the topic at hand

like it’s not BAD i’ve seen much much worse, and the language itself is fine (nothing particularly special but definitely coherent and clear most of the time), but editing for organization is so much more difficult logistically lmao like especially doing it digitally on google docs. i know i technically COULD print it out and cut it up and physically move things around, but that’s even worse than doing what i’m doing on the computer, which requires that i have like 4 different docs tabs open at once (outline, old copy, new copy, extra page for copy/pasting stuff i need to come back to) and i have to have a split screen so i can copy and paste stuff directly from one doc to the other without constantly having to switch tabs

i do like this kind of editing though, like i kind of trained myself to really understand what makes certain types of organization effective and just in general like how to reveal information in the order that will best convey my points with the desired effect, and now whether it’s a story or it’s an expository essay i’m always kind of re-arranging things in my head to see how it might change the end result

but usually my editing is very light-handed in the sense that i don’t often go into the doc and change things directly (unless it’s grammar stuff or simple diction/syntax changes), i usually just leave comments with questions and suggestions, and oftentimes explanations for why a certain element isn’t working, along with several options that might work better. because when i go in and just directly edit sometimes it’s hard to stop myself from rewriting it to the point where the author’s voice has kinda been replaced by mine, and i really try hard not to do that

but for giant structural changes like this it gets so difficult NOT to edit directly, bc it’s not as easy to try and convey macro-level arrangement suggestions through google docs comments bc they often affect bits that are scattered throughout the whole work. and it’s such a conceptual thing that sometimes it just makes things way more confusing to try and get the person to put things where you want them, and it makes more sense to do it yourself

idk this got long i just needed to ramble a bit to sort out what’s been frustrating me w this paper ksdflksdj

[an-avid-reader]

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

my rating: 5/5 stars

On the night of a party gone wrong in Garden Heights, or “the hood”, Starr and her childhood best friend, Khalil, drive away only to be stopped by a white police officer. Khalil, unarmed, gets shot right in front of Starr’s eyes. Alas, Starr’s worlds—Garden Heights and Williamson, a predominantly white prep school—collide as word of Khalil’s death spreads and she is the only witness. Will Starr be able to bring justice to Khalil via riot and protests, or will he be remembered as a drug dealer and a thug?

"Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black"

Link to Goodreads || Spoiler-free review

A few things to check out:

Dear White People (Netflix)

When They See Us (Netflix)

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Book)

A list of places to donate to / one YT video if you’re unable to donate 

Here’s a post that is much more comprehensive

let me know if any of the links don’t work, I will update them :)

There’s a reason why this book has quite a few awards on the front—this book covers what some may consider a “taboo” topic aka racism, but it’s an issue. I’m writing this review slightly earlier than before I’m posting it, but right now the current news is about George Floyd’s death, which is arguably more brutal than what happened in this book, but the fact that some police officers still think race has something to do with one’s intentions is outrageous and disgusting. Even in Canada, there have been instances of racism across history (spoiler: Canada isn’t a ‘saint nation’, even though the population is very diverse). 

For these reasons, I think this book, while it is triggering, I think it should be fit into the curriculum for students to read so that they may be educated on racism, and how it can literally kill others, as well as to try and dismantle the systematic racism that is imposed on us from a young age. I can never sit here and tell you that I can experience what Starr went through (or what any POC—black or otherwise—has ever been through), I can only educate myself and emphasize with what’s been said/done to you—please call me out if I’ve said something that may be offensive and feel free to correct me if I’ve said anything wrong.

Alright now on with the book review! This book is so raw and powerful, Thomas does a great job of describing the scenes and the emotions Starr goes through during each scene. We get to see how she feels about dating a white boy while being black herself, how her neighbourhood is beautiful despite it being described as the hood, we also get to see how Starr’s demeanor completely changes while she’s at school vs when she’s visiting her family. While Thomas’ writing may be simple, she does a great job of capturing those moments and the emotions tied within the scene.

As we get to see Starr becoming a witness and taking legal action, I wasn’t sure where the story was headed. Would Khalil get justice and would the cop go to jail? How would Starr’s mental health be affected? Will her family be okay? (Don’t you just love it when there’s so much more conflict in the story that needs to be resolved and yet there are only 2 chapters left) Etc. etc. The thing about The Hate U Give is that there are multiple story lines, which help to drive the story forwards. Those plotlines didn’t feel out of place or forced—everything seemed to progress at a reasonable pace. 

I feel like one of the key parts of this story are the characters and their dynamics to the story. The most obvious being between Starr and her family. Although Starr has her own secrets that she keeps from her dad (*cough cough* Chris *cough cough*), I feel like they still have a strong bond, especially as the story went on and her dad, Maverick, stood behind Starr, even when things went south. (I could also 100% relate to Starr bickering with her brothers—even her half-brother). Then there’s Chris, which I kinda feel weird about him...which I feel like it’s a spoiler so I’ll talk about it under the cut. Overall, I’m glad that while he doesn’t understand what Starr has been through, he doesn’t judge her—he listens to her story and he also stays by Starr’s side at all times. I appreciate that Thomas didn’t put too much focus on the romance, otherwise I think it would’ve detracted from the main message. Finally, there are Starr friends. Even though we only got to know Khalil for a bit at the beginning, I like that Starr’s friendship with him was sprinkled throughout the story, even if it was in subtle ways. You could tell that, while their friendship may have fallen apart, Starr really cared for him and he was at the forefront of her mind. We also get to see Maya and Haliey’s friendship with Starr...and I can’t talk much about that without spoilers :/ let’s just say...it was interesting…

While I can’t exactly relate to Starr on an emotional/traumatic/life experience level, I love that we are both Harry Potter fans and she runs a Tumblr (which idk why but I’m always taken aback when books have Tumblrs?? Yet here we are). I appreciate that she tries to see the best in people, until they prove her wrong (or give her a reason to not like them). I think Starr is a strong role model in the sense that she stands up for herself and is determined to get justice, although she’s not cocky about it. It’s quite the opposite, she doubts herself—I just remember that there were so many parts where she blamed herself for not recalling every single detail of the incident or not putting emphasis on the type of person Khalil was to avoid him getting stereotyped. Starr also questioned her relationship with Chris, albeit she seemed a bit naive at some points. Because of Starr’s strong personality and her core values, the message of The Hate U Give is so much stronger, hence why I feel like everyone should read this novel.

Finally, I learned a lot from this novel. Regardless of the fact that this is a fictional book, it is very much based on the realities of Black people and the hardships they must endure on a daily basis. To be honest, I feel so dumb for not even realizing that the title spells out THUG and runs parallel with Tupac’s meaning of THUG LIFE. Mind you, now when I look at the cover, it’s all I see. I also didn’t realize that Black kids and teens are taught how to act around the police—all to be avoided to get arrested, shot, or killed—which is frankly, messed up. Thomas also takes the time to address the names she used, intentionally to give another layer of the book, which I feel that it is based on reality. I can definitely see why this book has received so many awards—and if this book were implemented in schools, it would allow the discussion on racism to be opened and it would also allow kids to see that not all authors are white, old men (looking at you, Shakespeare, which tbh the only good play I read was Macbeth).

I wanted to thank you for reading my review; if you’ve read this book, I’d love to know your thoughts. Below the cut, I have a spoiler section that I wanted to include (which I might add in future reviews, idk though). 

Please stay safe and healthy,

~ Cassandra / an-avid-reader

THE REMAINDER OF THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Okay, I’m not going to lie, but I thought that no one knew about Chris; didn’t Starr mention within the first few chapters that she can’t introduce him to her family because she’s afraid of what they’ll say/judge her for dating a white boy? But then, it turns out it’s just her dad that doesn’t know about him??? Idk if my memory is really that bad or if it’s such a slim detail (maybe it actually is an inconsistency o.O). But anyways, I love how Maverick was just playing with him (and making it clear that Chris would be in big trouble if he hurt Starr). I’m also not sure if he has a fetish for Black women (which Starr also pointed that out)—which I don’t know how to feel about that. I know some people have a thing for people of colour (Asians are commonly a fetish too, for example) but then some guys also have a thing for super short girls? Um yeah. I’ll probably leave it at that.

I’m not sure if it was just me, but I deadass thought Seven was going to be a gangbanger. He was sooooo suspicious anytime King was mentioned (which I get King is with Seven’s biological mom, but still I can’t be the only one who was suspicious, right?). I have to give him props though for putting his sisters’ needs before his own and for also listening to Iesha’s point of view. This man doesn’t give on people easily, and that’s a nice change. 

The last thing I wanted to include in this spoiler section is Haliey. I just— wtf man. She perfectly embodies the issue and idk she gave me such Karen vibes. It’s so frustrating that she just accepted the newspaper’s article story at face value—I don’t even think she even took the time to listen to the other point of view. I’m so glad that Starr punched her in the face, even though that resulted in her getting in trouble. And it’s not even towards just Starr that she was racist! When Maya opened up about Haliey’s comments, I was pretty infuriated. I think Haliey’s comments came from a place of ignorance or a lack of education, but it just bothered me that she just brushed it off. Smh “it was just a joke” or “get over it” *rolls eyes* Just apologize, Haliey, and educate yourself, please. Actually, maybe she could take lessons from Mr. Warren, their english teacher because he was lowkey a G. I was pleased to see he was a teacher (who are often seen as role models) that actually gave a crap about Starr and what she was going through. I guess we just need to be more attentive to what people have to say and be more empathetic when they’re hurt.

[mental-health-advice]

(1/3)I'm concerned for my friend and looking for advice on how to help. He seems to be experiencing delusions (most fits what I've seen described as "delusions of reference" and a little bit like delusions of grandeur, but not quite as grand, but suddenly seeming really self-important? been sending rambling messages to me and other people he knows, talking about how he "knows how he's inspired so many of us with his story and message", w these spiritual undertones.) He's never done this before.

(2/3) It seems like this stuff started really recently, in the last week or two, or at least that's when it got to a point where it's noticeable, idk. But I just know that he's not acting like himself. i want to help him. I read a little bit of stuff about helping someone with delusions but I still dont rly know what to do. I want to encourage him to seek help but I don't know that he'd listen, because the whole thing with delusions is that the person believes it's true. If he thinks he's-

(3/3) right on this, he has no reason to listen and think he needs help. A mutual friend of ours tried to express her concern for him but it didn't go well. I want to be there for him through whatever it is that's causing this. I want him to know I'm there for him, I know he's struggling with something here, even if I don't know what. How can I help him, without doing anything thatd make the situation worse?

Hi there, 

Thanks for reaching out to us about your friend! You sound like a really great friend for wanting to help him so badly, so I think he's really lucky to have you as a friend!

It's definitely true that it can be hard to get someone to get help for what appear to be delusions. As you correctly pointed out, a person who experiences delusions strongly believes them to be true, so they don't see any point in getting help because, from their perspective at least, there's nothing wrong. Since your other friend tried to talk him into getting help and it didn't go well, maybe you could try just expressing concern for how he has changed lately and you want to make sure he's doing okay. Remember that you can't force someone to get help, as that professional help is typically only effective when the person truly wants it. This is why I recommend just expressing how concerned you are about the changes you've noticed in him lately and then maybe gently suggesting getting help, but try not to be too stern or pushy. Unfortunately, no matter how badly you want it to happen and know he needs it, you can't force him to get help.

Something else to keep in mind is that when someone is experiencing delusions, it's best not to try to reason with the person to try to get them to see that their delusions aren't true. It's likely tempting to try to disprove your friend's delusions, but this can actually be harmful and make him believe the delusions stronger. On the other hand, paying into the delusion by legitimizing it, as this can make the person's delusions worse and cause more distress. Many delusions are distressing in nature, so feeding into them (for example, asking your friend more about the story and message he inspired you with) can cause more distress or make him believe them even further. It's better to validate the feelings behind the delusion and interact with the person and their delusions in a non-judgmental way. 

If you'd like more information about the tips I discussed above, feel free to check out this article from someone who has experienced delusions and how they believe loved ones can best support a loved one with similar struggles. 

Finally, remember that it's important to take care of yourself throughout all of this. You can't help care for others if you're not also taking care of yourself, so remember to take a step back when necessary. You're an amazing friend for wanting to support your friend, but don't forget that your needs matter too. Don't forget to seek support for yourself as necessary as well. 

Take care! 

-Samantha 

[ladyloveandjustice]

Fall 2018 Anime Overview: Continuing Series- Golden Kamuy Season 2 and Banana Fish

Golden Kamuy Season 2

If you enjoyed the first season, this is pretty much more of the same, so check out my review of season one to know what to expect.

Though I guess you could say this portion of the season DOES lean even harder into weirdness than the first one did. There’s not many anime where you’ll see two dudes having the time of their lives modeling fashionable outfits made out of human skin, which include...crotch appendages...only in Golden Kamuy y’all.

Interestingly bizarreness tends to overlap with queerness a lot in this season and its hard to know how to feel about it. For instance, it’s definitely an unexpected revelation that dudes are attracted to Lieutenant Tsurumi like whoa. 

IDK apparently he’s a catch. Half of his subordinates are in love with him. It’s handled as comical and of course the dudes are mentally unbalanced weirdos (as is everyone in Golden Kamuy except Asirpa and Sugimoto only sometimes) and one of them dies, but the show is never overtly mean to them either. Nobody acts disgusted about it and when one character observes the attraction, he basically shrugs about it.

 Satoru Noda apparently also REALLY loose with his fixation with dudes muscles with this part of the story, to the point we got the beef-cakiest hotsprings episode I’ve ever seen, which includes an extended fight scene where the male characters were naked throughout. There’s also an entire scene where apparently otter meat is an aphrodisiac that causes the dudes to be really into each other, so they engage in nearly naked sumo wrestling.

This is all clearly supposed to be wacky and funny, but at the same time it’s pretty clear the mangaka must REALLY LIKE drawing these scenes of muscular, naked men, and I support him following his dreams. Also I won’t deny it’s refreshing to see a hot springs episode where not a single woman got objectified, but there was dude oglin’ a plenty. It healed me a little.

I guess while we’re talking about this show and its weird relationship with queerness I should reporting that my prediction was right and the trans woman I mentioned in the previous review did become an ally. Her transness hasn’t been bought up again (though for some reason the subs decided to switch to “he” despite sticking with “she” before) and her role is pretty minor, she does reveal she’s skilled in both cooking and surgery (because she likes dismembering people) and talks about how great it would be to see people murdered every so often, so pretty much more of the same.

And that’s really all there is to say. Golden Kamuy has only gotten weirder and the plot only more convoluted (I’m starting to have a hard time keeping track of the characters tbh), but it’s an entertaining story and there’s still characters with resonance and heart underneath it all (the scene where Sugimoto discusses his trauma from being in the war with Asirpa genuinely tugged a heartstring. These two are still great and have really settled into a kinda of adorable dad-daughter dynamic at this point) and the historical and cultural research that went into this story is still amazing. 

I can tell the anime’s still skipping a lot of the manga (most of volume 7 was completely skipped), but since the English release of the manga is so slow, I’m happy to watch it in the meantime. It helps that the show has a bangin’ soundtrack and and it managed to pull its ginormous cast together for some truly exciting and action packed final episodes that left me eager for more. 

Banana Fish (13-24)

Again, if you read my review for the first half of the show, you can basically expect more of the same, both with the good and especially the bad parts. We do get more downtime with Ash and Eiji’s relationship, and they continued to make me think this show would be so much better if it focused more on these quiet scenes rather than on piling as much trauma on Ash as it possibly can. 

I think this second half did allow me to see what was compelling about Ash and Eiji’s relationship and why it’s stayed with so many people. When Ash explained that he’s finally found someone who will love him without expecting anything in return, so of course he’s willing to do anything for that person, that got me in the heart. Ash is someone who has either been viewed as a threat or someone to exploit- he’s especially used to being treated like he’s nothing more than a body, a receptacle for desires. Eiji isn’t afraid of Ash, or in awe of him, and never asks anything of him other than for him to be okay and by his side. Ash genuinely can just be a dumb teenager with him while he can’t with anyone else. Eiji is an outsider, to Ash’s gang-bangin’ world, to his culture in general, and that allows him to see Ash as he truly is, just a kid who needs to get out of this mess.

The romantic in me really loves that concept, and as an ace person, I especially connect to the underlying implication that Eiji is a romantic partner who isn’t going to demand sex from Ash or try to force him into it. Though Ash’s implied desire to avoid sex almost certainly stems from trauma, I know how he feels in a broad sense. And I think it’s a thing a lot of women can relate to even if they aren’t ace, wanting to find a relationship where they aren’t used or objectified, so it goes back around to how Ash acts as kind of a representation for the anxieties and desires of (likely) the mangaka and many women despite being a male character, and I still find that very interesting. The scene where Ash has a complete breakdown and screams at his rapist while laughing hysterically was really affecting.

So there’s moments of real resonance here, but is it worth the bullshit surrounding it, which includes every single gay man being represented as a rapist, to the point a gay bar is connected to a child porn ring? The nasty implication that gay sex is inherently evil and non-consensual, and Ash and Eiji’s relationship is only okay because they’re not doing it is very strong, and as much as this ace appreciates a romance that doesn’t require sex, I don’t want it THIS way.

There’s also some SERIOUS anti-Semitic bullshit that I can’t believe MAPPA didn’t edit out in a couple episodes. Like it would have been so easy to cut. Also some more pretty rough scenes of black men being murdered (they’re extras this time at least, and the main black dude for this part of the anime miraculously manages to both survive and not be an offensive caricature. Also his name is Cain Blood which is the best name in this story, and possibly ever). 

The second half of the anime also involved some of the more absurd elements worsening. I got REALLY tired of every character commenting on how hot and amazing Ash is like. I GET IT.  Also Ash’s life of being sexually exploited somehow gives him the ability to seduce any man holding him captive, and every bad guy is down for raping a teenage boy, I guess. It’s actually again, a little surreal to see these tropes with a male character. I’m used to seeing hot female characters who’ve been through sexual trauma and have magic seduction powers and are endlessly drooled over...I almost want guys to watch these segments so they can see how uncomfortable it feels when the tables are turned. 

There’s also some really good examples of ACTUAL jarring tone shifts, where the anime really fails to land some of its attempts at a funny, light moment in the midst of really tense and tragic situations. I think it’s possible the manga managed this better, but I can’t imagine the “joke” where Ash has to crossdress and a male doctor gropes him and Ash punches him out cold and his friends chortle and tell him he’s not a gentle woman could ever be done in a non jarring way. Like, I don’t like sexual harassment humor in anime at the best of times, but it’s especially bad when the person who is harassed has been raped more times than he can count.  We’re expected to take that seriously, but not this, because Ash is in a dress? It’s also like, appalling that his friends who are fully aware of his history would laugh about him getting assaulted again. It’s a moment that feels like it comes from a completely different anime. 

So um, yeah. My conclusion is those resonant moments are not worth the bullshit. The ending really cemented this for me. I had an (admittedly overly flippant) reaction that kind of sums my feelings up. Let’s just say I HATE meaningless cruel tragedy for the sake of tragedy, and I especially hate the implication abuse victims can never find happiness. 

I can’t say Banana Fish is an anime I’ll think fondly of or recommend. I do still find the discussion about it interesting, much more interesting than the actual story (as presented in the anime, again, haven’t read the manga), tbh. And I can see the seeds of a good story there, and I can understand why fans would want to see a reboot that truly modernized the story, cutting out the worst stuff and giving it a better ending, while keeping the resonance of the main relationship and the good characters (I really did like Sing, and Yut Lung was interesting. Shorter and Skip both deserved way better. Also Jessica, who at least got to do something besides be victimized at the last minute. One whole female character got a few moments of agency. Hallelujah.) Maybe someday it will happen. 

In the meantime, there’s a bunch of cool articles on Banana Fish that are worth a read. All of the pieces published on animefeminist as well as this post on Otaku, She Wrote are really informative, illuminating, and break down a lot of the issues I found here.

[acaemia]

Hiii! You are studying IR, right? Could you please recommend me some sites in English language which you consider useful for your studies? Sites where I can read about current international questions, global challenges? I only know some news sites but if there are sites (or shorter books) that contain short analises or anything like that would be so helpful. Thank you and have a nice day! :))

Hello Darling Anon! ~

Sorta! :)) I’m taking up International Studies, which is like a fraternal twin of IR? IS (at least in my uni) is a lot more general compared to IR which delves deeper into diplomacy. (As in if u wanna be a Diplomat vibes.) I spent the last three years studying theories, tactics (lack of a better term but like the soft power + foreign policy shit I see it as manipulation styles LOL), and the European Union (I major in European Studies). Just need to point that out in case it matters(??)

Could you please recommend me some sites in English language which you consider useful for your studies? Sites where I can read about current international questions, global challenges?

For research papers, I rely on credible journals I find through google or the databases my university provides for us. My uni is a research university so students have access to a lot of journal databases. You should check ur uni’s website to see what student perks you have. You might have full access to JSTOR! Make ur tuition worth it HAHA. JSTOR is a classic but I find stuff over at Emerald Insight too. 

For current events, news sites are definitely your friend. My professors would sometimes assign supplementary articles for us. They get their shit from Reuters, The Atlantic and Global Asia to name a few. Maybe that can be a good place to start in terms of current events/run-downs on certain issues. 

I don’t go to these sites myself (like on my own volition) but back when I tried to be updated on news, I downloaded this app called Press Reader which gave me access to different magazines and newspapers so that could also be another option! I just checked and apparently it’s free but I know it was paid back then so yay? (I got it for free bc of my uni). 

Press Reader gives you access (this sounds like a skillshare ad HAHAH) to a lot of different media from many places and that can really help you develop your critical thinking skills + see different perspectives on the same issue. This is a skill which is very important for us IS/IR students. (NGL everyone should have this skill! We should be able to look at different sources and then come to conclusions on our own/see patterns). 

...sites (or shorter books) that contain short analises or anything like that would be so helpful

In terms of books, the only book I can swear by is Global Politics by Andrew Heywood. It’s not short but the font is big?? I found it online freshman year so if you need it I think I can try making a dropbox for it? You can mosey over to libgen.io (free pdfs!) though. I bet it’s there. I got a physical copy from Amazon (I invested since I know it would be useful) and the information on there was useful for my other classes. It has a lot of general IS stuff like the basic theories (realism, liberalism bleh bleh), history, and notable people. Definitely a good source for foundational information which you can build on in your essays or use as a source!! 

Unsolicited Advice

Can I just say!! You’re so cool for being interested like this and I wish you nothing but the best fellow IS IS baby.mp3 <3 

I’m not sure what year you are so you might know this already? But since I’m already talking about stuff useful for my personal studies I’ll just thrown in this part LOL. 

I think the most important thing an IR/IS student should know is how to analyze information. Especially since we write a lot of essays. Honestly IS to me is just professional overthinking but make it nerdy somehow?? You need to know how to apply what u learned to what u see playing out in the international arena. Analytical skills are really important! Some assignments I got required us to read three journal articles then write a cohesive piece about it. Sometimes, we have to watch videos then answer guide questions. This is where regular reading and healthy media consumption comes in. 

Best part is: You can practice analyzing content using any kind of material. It doesn’t have to be international affairs stuff!

Do you watch people like dangelowallace, tiffanyferg or even those tea channels (lol) on Youtube? There’s a massive rise of analytical content the past few years and I think you can study the way these people break down drama/internet lore. What makes their video so interesting? How does everything connect? How do they organize their content?

There’s a reason why these videos gain millions of views. They make issues accessible and neat but they make it so interesting at the same time. You can also read fashion magazines since they also have articles which analyze style or talk about a specific piece. 

Honorable mentions: Buzzfeed Unsolved, Storytime Mukbhangs, Kennie JD’s Bad movies and a beat, Crime stories youtubers, etc.

Alternatively, watch your favorite movies and take time to think about why you liked it! Do a character analysis! Watch video essays about your favorite movies/shows on Youtube!! It’s nice to just chill and watch these stuff but at times, try being an active watcher and take note of their reporting style. Talk to your friends about shows you watched. Gather their insights and come up with your own. Analyze popular memes! (Why do spongebob memes have a gorilla grip on gen z??? Why is the white girl dance so freeing? — ngl I do have an opinion about this phenomenon as an asian who “dances like a white girl” but this is so long already HAHAH)

here are a couple of videos:

Mina Le (Fashion) -- In this video, Mina breaks down the wardrobe of Emily in Paris and how the choices weren’t so good in terms of the storyline. Emily is seen in designer clothing but her character never shows interest or awareness regarding fashion. (this is jus one point she talks about) For viewers who aren’t into fashion or something, they might not notice this detail at all! But since Mina is viewing this show from a fashion perspective, she was able to pick up these details and connect it to the bigger picture. 

It’s the same for IS. We look at things through different perspectives and from there we can make sense of certain decisions or events! We deal with a lot of problem solving and above all else, we study events so we can understand them. People like Mina Le are perfect examples of good researchers!! They just study different things but its all the same.

ModernGurlz (Fashion/Contemp Stuff) -- This video dissects the style of the characters in Mean Girls and how it says so much about the personality of each girl. For Cady, she has a lot of different styles and it really reflects how her character changes throughout the movie. It helps as a visual guide for us viewers but her clothes tell a story too. 

For IS, Every decision made in the International Arena is important. Everything tells a story. Small actions can say so much about the bigger picture so its important for us to pick up on details the way ModernGurlz did so we can explain developments of a certain issue. (Like how Cady started with very conservative style, then she met the Plastics and that changed her and led her to wearing more revealing clothing, then that gets stripped away because of the plot learns her lesson blah blah and she goes back to slightly relaxed clothes combined with revealing clothes aka her true self i guess).

If you’re not into fashion, you can just analyze whatever ur interested in! These are just some videos I enjoy watching. :)) Astrology is another cool practice! I started getting into astrology and it requires a lot of analysis. It’s fun so it doesnt feel like a chore.

Final Word (HAHSDHF SORRY THIS IS SO DRAMATIC) 

I honestly don’t study or read about international affairs unless I happen to chance upon it. The most helpful things for me aren’t even related to IS. HHH I watch and read a lot of different content and I think that helped me so much with this course! 

I love memes a lot and I usually plug them in a lot of conversations. I guess I use that skill when it comes to my homework in IS when they ask us to talk about a certain topic? I can think of stuff that might be able to connect i guess??? IDK KSDHFKSHD IDK IF any of this makes sense im sorry I just like talking about stuff shdkfhasd. If these tips don’t apply, let it fly. <3 You just need to find your own way of learning. 

I hope that these links can help you tho! Thank you so much for reaching out, it means a lot. Send another ask if u need more help and thank you for your well wishes. Stay safe and take care my luv <3 

[eternlmisery]

So... Charmed is getting a reboot (by the CW)

For those of you who don’t know what “Charmed” is, it is a fantasy/supernatural tv series that run on WB from 1998 to 2006. It focused on three sisters who after the death of their grandmother find out that they are witches. Throughout the show we see them get their powers, learn to use them, fight demons, warlocks, face real-life problems, grow, fall in love, get married, experience loss. And all of that as they struggle with their magic and protect humanity on a daily basis. I think that the core of the show is the sisters, Piper, Phoebe, Prue and Paige and their love for each other and the innocent people that they protect. 

“Charmed”, along with “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” were two of the first female-lead tv series back in the day and everyone loved them so much. I know that people in my country loved watching "Charmed” and still do. It has so much magic and at the same time it is so refreshing and realistic because we have these characters that could be anyone and at the same time are so unique because of their magical abilities.

And now, 12 years after the last episode they decided to take that iconic series and reboot it. 

-FROM NOW ON IS MY OPINION AND LARGE ANALYSIS-

First of all, *sigh* there won’t be a reboot with the real cast. So there goes my heart. Second of all, it’s on the CW from what i have headrd... And if you don’t know why this is a problem... just search “anti-CW” on tumblr and you’ll see. (In an article i saw paramount pictures so idk what is up there).Third, the description. THE DESCRIPTION. 

"This fierce, funny, feminist reboot of the original series centers on three sisters in a college town who discover they are witches. Between vanquishing supernatural demons, tearing down the patriarchy, and maintaining familial bonds, a witch's work is never done."

First off, "feminist” and “tearing down the patriarchy”. What is this supposed to mean? I’m not saying it in the way that feminism or tearing down the patriarchy doesn’t matter or i don’t understand it but... is there a point of these being in the description of the show? Why is everyone trying to re-make incredible old tv series or movies into 2018 GARBAGE. And it’s pretty much 100% certain that they will fuck up in portraying feminism and tearing down the patriarchy in 2018 , as well as the original “Charmed” did in 1998. The thing is that I am scared that the whole plot will be centered around that. “Oh men are trash, women are here to save the day, fuck patriarchy and fuck guys we are the best”. That will not be feminism, but misandry. Aka hating men. Cause y’all know they are going to put men as scumbags and as the villains just to highlight how much better the women are. Because of course there are a LOT of scumbags but not all of them and the show has the responsibility to show the reality of a situation.

Enough with my overthinking and panicking.

Let’s take an example of a shitty 2018 reboot with Heathers. There is representation (plus size students, Asian students, gender fluid students, Jewish students, black students) but... it’s not the right kind. They play the bad guys and they are super cliche in the wrong and most twisted way from what i have seen. And it’s... so bad. The villains are a plus size girl, a black lesbian and a gender fluid guy and the good guys are a white blonde girl..? What is this supposed to pass onto the audiences? Where is the good and healthy representation?

Also the Ghostbusters reboot portrayed Chris Hemsworth’s character as a man who was dumber than a pile of bricks, another way to put the spotlight on the women. 

“Charmed” never needed to do that. It didn’t need to force anything on the viewers and it didn’t need to make the male characters assholes just to show how amazing the sisters were. Piper had Leo who was super supportive and an amazing character and helped them through all the seasons. Prue had Andy, Phoebe had Cole... well... he was half good? And Paige had Henry who despite being a mortal was always there for her and accepted her just the way she is. Of course there were shitty guys just as there were shitty women in the show. 

But the point is that “Charmed” was a show that: 

1. was feminist without being misandristic 

(Also Penny Halliwell, Grams, believed they didn’t need men but sees how her granddaughters have surrounded themselves with good ones so don’t take this quote the wrong day)

2. Gave the sisters love interests which almost all the time accepted them and didn’t hold them back from being independent and themselves. That also goes for the men in their life in general (Victor, Darryl)

The biggest example of this is actually Leo, who was the sisters’ whitelighter who fell in love with Piper. Throughout the show he is there not only for his wife but for the sisters too and he helps them every way that he can, as they are now his own family. He has faith in them and their abilities and he believes in them more than themselves sometimes. Also of course he is sometimes the one that is saved by the sisters just as he saves them.

Also Victor, who seemed like the absent asshole dad in season 1, came back and redeemed himself, explaining the situation and building a relationship with his daughters as much as he could. 

Case point #3: Darryl Morris. The Police officer who risked everything for the sisters and despite being super suspicious of Andy, he himself protected the sisters and helped them any way he could so they could save innocent people. Of course he was a human and he had weaknesses and he pointed out a lot of times how wrong it was for him to go against the law practically, but he knew what the sisters were doing was more important.

3. showed the struggles of magic vs family, friends, career, relationships

We see Prue struggling with her job before realizing what her passion truly was and she realized that her true calling was photography after she got her powersand Phoebe finding a purpose with her column and Paige quitting her job to be a full-time witch and Piper and P3 and later her restaurant (in the comics).

Piper trying to get pregnant and finding out that she actually couldn’t get pregnant easily because of all the fighting they do, Phoebe searching for true love, Prue losing Andy. We see Piper’s journey from her first meeting with Leo, to finding out that he is a whitelighter to getting together to the elders forbidding them from being together to their marriage and... just their whole life story until they are gray and old.

Phoebe has her love story with Cole who is a whole different thing, but it came to show how Phoebe grew from the experience and felt independent and free and just ready to focus on herself. 

Paige didn’t have that many serious boyfriends and the addition of Henry was very sweet even though he is very underrated by many!

4. showed people who experienced so much loss, but who kept going forward, thus giving out a positive message

Like after Patty’s death and Penny’s death, Andy’s death and Prue’s death and Leo leaving and vanquishing Cole and Kyle’s death and etc. They were beaten down so many times but they were strong enough to keep going, giving the viewers a positive outlook of even the worse situations and that with the magic that is inside of them they can heal their broken hearts. They show that even magical people have hearts and they die and they cry and they lose and sometimes not even magic can fix everything. They can’t cheat death when it is time for it and not even magic can help them.

5. had BAD-ASS and ASS-KICKING ladies that were also soft whenever they felt like it but it didn’t made them any less bad-ass and amazing 

Because we all love both bad-ass and soft leads who are ready to defend innocent people and vanquish demons and kill warlocks but also squeal and be funny and make jokes

6. was all about FAMILY!

From the logo to the storylines and down to the last detail “Charmed” was about family. First it was the love the girls had for grams, then sisterhood and from then on the sisterhood remained as they fell in love and created their own families and began to bring more people in their family until it became complete (well almost complete with Prue not being there). The thing is that from beginning to end this show was about love. And mainly the power of three. The power of three is the power the Charmed ones have all together; aka the three Halliwell sisters. The Triquetra also is three points. 

And the Charmed ones’ powers are immediately tied to the emotions. Which brings me back to my initial thought, the love between the three of them is the main thing, both for the magic and for their lives.

There is also Grams & Patty, Grams & the girls, Patty & the girls:

Leo & Wyatt & Chris:

THIS SCENE:

Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige:

Mom Piper & Dad Leo:

Prue & Phoebe & Piper & Paige:

I feel like the 2018 show won’t focus on that. It won’t focus on all of the points that I listed, which in my opinion are the most important qualities of “Charmed” and are the reason that it truly remains a timeless show even 12 years later. Sure it was not perfect but I feel like a show that will focus on all the wrong things will be MUCH MUCH worse. Personally, I am very satisfied with the ending of “Charmed” and i feel like it was a great epilogue to 8 great seasons. Let’s not forget that the story of the sisters lives on with the comics/graphic novels! So in my opinion the only “Charmed” reboot that would be worth it, would be one with the original cast and producers/writers! 

[nothingneverforever]

The Good Place (2016)

I chose to start watching this only because I was at a very low point in my life in terms of facing a dearth of TV-derived entertainment, having just finished Virgin River (2019) and Sweet Magnolias (2020). Both Virgin and Sweet are not what you'd call .. uh... productions of any real calibre or value or perhaps worth at all, like you can be certain that no niches were filled when they were realsed into the Netflix ether... But they also happen to be epic masterpieces by sheer fact of how banal and predictable and PG and saccharine and inconsequential they are, the best of the suburban vanilla Hallmark Movie genre, and basically they rock af ok?? and so when I finished both first seasons of the two series I was left empty and thirsty. And it was in this lostness that I turned to The Good Place, thinking it would be as enriching in it's simplicity, as palatable in it's shallow distraction, qualities I generally look for in the fodder to keep my eyes engaged on something that isn't the clock when I do my daily evening indoor cardio.

So maybe I should first set the stage by establishing that I simply fucking hated this series lol. I couldn't get past episode 12 (I know, this makes it sound like i already gave it way more time than it deserved, which is the truth) of the first season, because once I decided I'd had enough, it was really fucking enough and I couldn't give it one more second.

As always, here's my shoddily written premise of the series; I don't want to put much effort into capturing it's essence well because idgaf about this dumb show seriously fucking hate it lol but anyway: Eleanor (Kristen Bell) dies on earth, and goes to 'The Good Place', where all souls who were much more good than bad while living on earth go to upon their death, as opposed to The Bad Place, where the bad people go. There’s some mathematical calculation for this heaven and hell allocation basically. So the good place (i can't be bothered to capitalize it every time i type it anymore lol sorry), is run by a head architect who has designed and is in charge of the neighbourhood our characters live in, and he has a female robot assistant, Janet, who is the omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient right-hand lady who can also be called up by any good place resident who has any question for her, anytime. Anyway Eleanor, after dying on earth, was actually sent to the good place by accident, because she was actually a completely irredeemable asshole but due to some dumb boring never-happened-before error, she was sent to the good place instead of the bad place where she actually was meant to end up. Here she makes a small group of friends, some to whom she is eventually honest about the fact that she does not actually belong in the good place, and it is because of this incorrect placement that the good place is crumbling and its inner workings are going haywire etc and everyone suffers from the consequences. So blah blah blah soon we find out that it is not just her, but also some other guy who is here by mistake, and so blah blah blah etc yupp

So here are the things that suck about this show:

So there’s this other guy who also doesn't belong in the good place and who was also sent there by accident, his name is Jason okay but umm it's complicated because the person he was mistaken as (and the actual 'good person' who was intended to be sent to the good place while Jason was meant to be directed to the bad place) is named Jian Yu, a Taiwanese monk. Jason however is a Filipino-American from Florida and I guess his character is meant to be a stereotypical 'White trash' character, but it's meant to be funny or some shit so we aren't meant to be deeply affected by fact that his life was fucking sad, like how his small-town dreams were meant to be comedic relief for us to laugh at how pathetic he is when ... i dunno, I feel very uncomfortable making a joke out of real-life situations that umm aren't funny at all idk whatever... Oh also the weird (dumb/shitty/lame/thoughtless) thing about the show is how even once it is revealed that Jason is in fact his Jason-y, oblivious, infantile, one-dimensionally-tropey self, the characters who know the truth still continue to call him Jianyu throughout...? But like.... he's not Jianyu lol?

So anyway, Jason is characterised quite disturbingly to be honest as an extremely immature dudebro, to the extent that one could call him child-like. In his unhappiness at being stuck in this weird world where he can't be himself and has to pretend to be Jianyu most of the time (which involves being a complete ascetic as well as silent because the real Jianyu had apparently taken a lifelong oath of silence), Jason latches on to Janet the robot assistant. He says she is the only one who has been kind to him, etc etc etc, and begins ummmm, falling in love with her. But because he's painted as a literal baby with absolutely no rational or critical thinking skills, him falling in love with her is meant to be uhh earnest and sweet or at the very least inconsequential and jokey I guess? But like... this isn't funny...? Not when sex robots are a real thing and will probably lead to the abuse, violation, murder of millions of women in time to come because men will be so used to putting their penises into awfully, scarily 'life-like' dolls whose limbs have been programmed to move and who can even utter words of affirmation to their degenerate users that actual human females will no doubt bear the brunt of being expected to perform in life and in bed similarly to our robotic counterparts...? Yea so the good place disturbingly first makes us almost forced to feel some endearment toward Jason for finding a kindred "soul" in robot Janet, glad that he finally has "someone" to "talk to" (quotation marks cos once again she's a fucking robot), and it's all very "pure" and "wholesome" at first because again, he's portrayed as a fucking kid (one piece I read describes the character as "a sweet ding-dong human"). And then suddenly, about one or two episodes after they fall in love or whatever, Jason says:

You guys have fun. This is me and Janet's honeymoon, so we're gonna go try and figure out how to have sex.

Yeah umm so once again, in case any of you forgot, Janet's a fucking robot. If I use a scale of human consciousness out of 100 where a regular human's sense of self and awareness and independent thinking and authonomy and whatever else makes us human is at 100, Janet is probably at .... 10? at most? So yea.... i guess rape jokes are okay these days? I dunno? Literally how the fuck were there 3 entire seasons of this dumb show after this

Anyway when I attempted to put in *some* effort before I gave up, realising this show wasn't worth my precious weekend downtime, I googled Jason and Janet's relationship to see if there were any other similar voices of dissent but umm apparently, according to the headlines of articles, this is instead public opinion:

The Unlikely Romance of The Good Place’s Janet and Jason

Why Janet And Jason Are The Good Place's Ultimate Love Story, According To The Actors

How Janet and Jason broke the infinite love mold on The Good Place

From these disgusting articles, here are some choice quotes by the actors and crew involved themselves:

And the fact that this should not happen but it does makes it very special. We think that their relationship is really sweet. There's something very innocent and real about their love even though that is insane

Yeah, I always talk about this whenever I get the question, “How does Janet and Jason work?” And my response is always — and I’ve thought about this a lot — Jason is slowly becoming a little bit more aware and intelligent. He’s evolving a little bit, and through Jason, Janet is able to become more emotionally intelligent. She’s feeling these things, whether it be good or bad, through Jason because that’s what Jason is. He’s all these different emotions that he can’t tame, and Janet’s learning that. They’re kind of evolving.

Okay so perhaps I should clarify that Janet the robot goes through a couple of 'deaths' in which she comes back as a rebooted version, and supposedly more 'human' each time. So yeah I guess it's okay to have sex with robots if they actually become 0.0000001% more human-like each time they come back to life though!!!!! Sorry for overreacting guys!!!!!

Seriously though how the fuck are they even using the word 'romance' in good conscience to describe the 'relationship'

Actually as I'm writing this I'm reminded of this video by Pop Culture Detective on youtube, titled "Abduction as Romance". Jonathan the host/video creator goes through various movies through history and from contemporary cinema of this unbelievably damaging and disturbing trope, where women are shown to eventually fall in love with men who have essentially, in some way or another, abducted them, annyway here it is if anyone's interested 

I’m calling up this video because in the shows used as examples in Jonathan’s thesis, the female characters fall in love with the men just because the men happen to be the only choice they have. Okay I actually only managed to get through a quarter of the video because it was too disturbing and too awful to think about how frequently such plot points are used till today and how so much of the shitty love we see on screen is completely abusive in nature (he’s also made another video called Stalking for Love which I’m sure is as eye-opening, i haven’t watched it cos i don’t need to lol, i’m already woke thanks), but anyway the bit that I did manage to watch does remind me of this stupid love story from The Good Place that we’re supposed to be moved by. We’re seriously supposed to believe that Janet, through her reboots and whatever awakenings of consciousness she supposedly has, also has feelings for Jason just because he’s the only pathetic dumbass immature enough to think that he has feelings for her because she’s the only person who’s willing to listen and talk to him properly? When ummmm she’s only listening to you because she’s programmed to...?

Honestly I can't be bothered to talk about freaking Janet and Jason anymore

There are other things that suck about this dumb show

I don't know what kind of character development Eleanor (protagonist) goes through in the seasons that succeed that I shall never be audience to, but she remains unlikable in almost every way in season 1. This is even though the entire premise of the plot is that she learns to become a better person with each day, struggling to distance herself from her past (on earth) where she was every caricature of a selfish, cruel, demeaning, unlikable person ever. The few and short flashbacks we get to her earthly past are so annoyingly annoying that it made it almost impossible for me to continue to care for this charatcer her in her afterlife. I know, being in the profession that i am, i should have a great deal more empathy for her and where she's coming from (and i would if the show was not so fucking shitty), so i'm not hating on the fact that she was such a bad person, more so that the creators of the show did little to give us anything real to hold on to at all. Between boringly unreal dialogue, stilted acting typical of American sitcoms, overly defined character traits again typical of dated, unchallenging and unsophisticated American sitcoms, I honestly can't understand how on earth this is rated 97% on rotten tomatoes... I mean I guess if I actually read the reviews I'd understand but hehe I'm not about that open-minded, balanced POV narrative okie? :)

----------

Updates: Haha so ummm eventually I was too bored / curious so I decided to give this show like it’s fourth chance or something and eventually I ended up finishing the entire series and yes I cried as fuck and yes this series made me feel many feels and no I shall neither take back anything of what I said above nor clarify how or what made me change my opinion on it nor elaborate on why I ended up rather enjoying it :-) bye bye

[newxchasingclx]

alright hoes now that i’m done with chinese class for the rest of my life after finishing the AP test i am here to spill some wisdom and shit that you should and should not do for the AP chinese test. don’t be an idiot like i was with these (probably) helpful tips:

- if you have a choice, please take the corresponding AP class. this goes for almost all APs, but they basically train you and give you everything you need to know. plus for my school many of the AP teachers were the ones grading the tests so you know first-hand how to get a 5. you’re going to be much more familiar with how the test works and how to score well on each section. i didn’t take AP chinese and i just walked in there like a dumbass hoping that shit would turn out right and shit did not turn out right let me tell you that

- practice your ass off, especially with speaking. preferably with other people. most likely, you’re going to freeze and/or repeat the same phrase over and over again if you don’t practice. get a list of oral questions and time yourself to make sure you answer them in the time period. recite them in front of someone who can speak the language. walk into a room and bust out your responses. scream them into the void. do what you need to do to familiarize yourself with talking in front of a screen in a room with twenty other people answering the same question.

- i think this goes for other languages as well, but find a way to expand your knowledge of culture for the two minute cultural presentation. they will literally pull any topic out of their asses and expect you to talk about it for two minutes. this shouldn’t be a problem if you are taking the AP class as they make you practice this shit throughout the entire school year. what i did was kinda dumb but i somehow found a list of topics and i printed out the articles and just memorized them. like i could recite to you the story of chinese new years right now. it’s inefficient but i had a whole year beforehand to study. however, if you’re short on time, here are the most frequent topics the AP chinese test will ask you to talk about:

~ chinese new years (年)

~ 粽子／赛龙舟／屈原 / the guy who committed suicide bc the king kicked him out and they threw rice into the river so that the fish wouldn’t eat his corpse

~ 中秋节／后羿／嫦娥／mooncake festival

~ actually all the holidays just memorize those

~ dragons. i shit you not you can connect this one to anything. “describe chinese paintings” they painted a fuck ton of dragons “share your understanding of the coexistence of man and nature” they liked dragons “talk about traditional chinese architecture” they carved dragons on shit

~ tea (same as above)

~ beijing. there will be at least one question about beijing. look up the wikipedia page and memorize that shit.

~ any random chinese philosophy. i used “三人行 必有我师” then if they ask you a question about an ancient chinese figure you can pull that shit out

~ 黄山 bc you need a nature thing in case it shows up

- expand your vocabulary. there will be questions where you don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. one word could make or break your answer. quizlet is great for this kind of shit; if you have time you can watch dramas/movies or read books (listening to music doesn’t help me unless i search up the meaning of the lyrics)

- grammar. grammar is important otherwise your entire sentence will get fucked over. as i have a decent sense of grammar i can’t recommend much but textbooks always help you get a better understanding (obvious i know)

- if you’ve got spare time, memorize some idioms. they make your writing/speaking look more fluent and like you know what you’re doing. make sure you also know how to use them and integrate them into writing or else it’ll be obvious you just memorized them to look good. here’s a good list (although tbh i haven’t heard of most of them lmao)

- self-studying, or studying with no one around who speaks the language, is a pain. you also probably won’t be able to sound out words you don’t know (google translate sucks shit, i tried) possibly find a friend who speaks the language or look for a tutor to help you. shit will flow much smoother. (another obvious one sdkjkdfk)

- confirm that you can actually write an entire story/email response in 15 minutes. i forgot to do this and panicked and i finished writing like 3 seconds before the timer was up (which meant no time for proofreading). my friend was in the middle of adding a sentence when she got cut off. pace yourself, time flies faster than it looks in the testing room

- the collegeboard website actually has a ton of useful stuff; you can find the rubric (which hasn’t changed much since 2016), examples of past students’ responses and how they scored, free response questions in pdf form, etc.

and finally, don’t be discouraged! almost 80% of all AP test takers get at least a 4, just don’t panic and remember to memorize your shit correctly. proofread when you can, don’t use a word if you don’t know what it means, and it’s better to type/say something than leave it blank (according to my friend you can get a 2 just for repeating the question, idk how true this is). if you’re preparing to take the test, keep studying. don’t give up. learning a new language takes time and effort. you’ll be fine.

and if you didn’t do well, don’t kick yourself. if you are early enough (before june 15 of the year you took the test i think) you can cancel it and no one will know. and if you’re still worried that colleges will look at your score negatively, it’s better to have shown that you attempted a college-level course and are familiar with it, especially if you yourself are not chinese (ik this is a touchy subject but there is some harsh truth behind it). so don’t panic abt the test. it’s just a test, you’ve taken many tests in your life.

if y’all have more questions you can ask (but i don’t think i’m the best resource fkjjfdasjn) and i hope you learned something from this mediocre list lmao good luck and keep studying!!!

- snow

[sxix]

hey wanna read a fucked up thing about quentin tarantino

first off i don’t care how many people see this post i’m mainly putting it here both to ease my mind bc it stresses me out and also bc sometimes i mention this to people and then they want the full story but i don’t feel like typing it out again

i really don’t know how to introduce this bc it’s gonna sound like a bizarre complex lie and i promise it’s not but this is about how elf (u know the 2003 christmas movie starring will ferrell as buddy the elf and zooey deschanel as a department store elf) was originally directed by quentin tarantino and not jon favreau despite what the movie credits/all of the search results in all of google say

this is an extremely long post because i didn’t want to forget any major details and i’m gonna put a read more here so i don’t clog anyone’s dash read it if u feel like it

to answer the question you probably already have, no i do not have a link to this article or any articles like it you will learn why later but unfortunately if u wanna know what the fuck went down during the filming of elf u have to read through this mess im sorry

so in about 2011/2012 (i was about 13/14 at the time) i was researching behind the scenes production stuff and for whatever reason started focusing on the production of elf and ended up finding an article about how quentin tarantino was the original director of elf and jon favreau was part of the cast (the doctor buddy goes to see w his dad) and generally available on set for advice/assistance bc he had more experience with family friendly comedy and stuff and elf was basically quentin tarantino’s first attempt at branching out into different genres (spoiler alert: it did not go well)

before you ask your second question yes i tried to check and see if the site was satire i know satire sites when i see them but on this site the rest of the articles were perfectly normal and about stuff that had actually happened and most of it i had already seen on more popular news/entertainment sites + i also could not find any disclaimer on the site and usually satire sites will provide a legal disclaimer stating that they are in fact satire

the author did not provide their name or exact occupation (you will understand later) and only claimed to have been part of the production team on elf from the beginning to end of filming so they were present for most of the events that happened during principal photography (aka filming)

according to the source quentin tarantino originally came into the film just trying to diversify his work because pretty much all of it was within the realm of crime thrillers and black comedy (also contained a lot of violence and other not family friendly things)

during pre-production and the very beginning of filming he had to get adjusted to the different atmosphere and was overall pretty optimistic about the decision but as time went on he became progressively less confident and comfortable with his involvement in the movie, basically he felt like it was too much of a change and was never able to become fully comfortable with the new style which was seriously impacting his ability to work on the movie so jon favreau ended up having to completely take over at times because quentin would just show up in a horrible mood and have terrible days of necessarily having meltdowns but pretty much everyone could tell he was really not enjoying directing elf

idk the full details because i am writing this just from my memory of what i read and this part of the original article also didn’t contain too much detail but basically what ended up happening is quentin continued losing interest in being part of elf and a good portion of the way through filming (i think they said it was somewhere around 50-65% however at this point jon did have to step in more often than not) quentin basically gave up and worked out a plan to get his name removed from all of the movie’s records

quentin didn’t receive any of the profits he would’ve made from the film and instead divided his earnings primarily between jon and other higher-ups within in the production but also various less significant members of the production team to help out with salaries as well as a few other things

another part of this deal was that anyone who had been on the production team at any point was allowed to talk about quentin’s involvement, especially to the press because it would defeat the purpose of going through all the trouble to get rid of evidence that he was involved in the film. this is also most likely why whoever wrote this article did not provide their name or exact occupation, however they weren’t really legally bound to that agreement because quentin did not want contracts made or signed to ensure compliance w/the no outside communication rule, he felt like having tons of contracts describing the full situation floating around were bound to end up in the wrong hands at some point  

since jon had basically taken over directing at that point he was just promoted to being the director of the film instead and the movie’s records were changed to credit jon as the director throughout all phases of the movie

they weren’t so concerned with with people from the general public who noticed the change in direction because a) members of the general public weren’t usually on set and if they were it was definitely not so they could directly interact with the crew b) at the end of the day it was their word against the official credits of the movie so if someone said they thought quentin was the director it could be attributed to an honest mistake/confusion with his other work***

***this is something the article only briefly mentioned since it was just from the perspective of a member of elf’s production team but i think it’s important to note that kill bill (all filmed together but released as vol1 and vol2) was going through its phases of production and release around the same time as elf

this is important because it’s highly possible quentin felt he was working on too many projects at once or simply decided kill bill was the priority and he didn’t have time for more extraneous work he didn’t enjoy

in my opinion i think kill bill was likely a bigger factor in his decision to leave elf than the elf article’s author let on but they did make it very clear that quentin had agreed/decided to direct elf with the intention to see it through to the end and did not make the final decision to leave the film until after it had obviously become more of a burden than anything 

i also think his reasoning for erasing his name from the elf wasn’t just general dislike of the movie but rather not wanting it to get mixed up in his other projects that he was known for and actually confident in/proud of especially considering the release dates for elf and kill bill vol. 1 were just under a month apart

now to explain my lack of source: in the article it does state that quentin did not want his involvement to be available even through news publications and anything that was posted either then or later should be removed as soon as it was found

i have scoured every corner of the internet i can think of several times in attempts to find this article again. i don’t remember the name of the website but even if i did i doubt it would help because i’ve done every different keyword search i can think of and come up with absolutely nothing that even comes close to being the original article i read

my best guess is that quentin and/or one of his publicists found the article made sure it was taken down pretty as quickly as possible

i really don’t know what more i can say about this so here is basically all of the previously mentioned information but in a neater format (if u dont feel u need everything reiterated feel free to scroll all the way to the bottom for some additional info and tldr action)

- an article written by someone from elf’s production team (who did not disclose their identity or exact occupation) submitted an article (that i have not been able to relocate since originally reading it in 2011/2012) talking about quentin tarantino being the original director of elf 

- no the site was not satire/fake. since i can’t find it i’m not able to provide specific quotes or examples from the article but the person who wrote it went into much more detail about the changes to quentin’s attitude toward over time. considering satire is generally used to expose/criticize behaviors within politics and social issues, it’s just not likely for this to have been satire since quentin tarantino’s secret identity as a romantic comedy director hasn’t really been an important social issue at any point in history.

- jon favreau, the person who is now the only credited director, was available on set both as a minor cast member but primarily to help quentin out when needed with the transition from his usual style to a more family friendly world

- his purpose for directing elf in the first place was to branch out, partially to see if he even enjoyed working with such a different style but also to see how comfortable he was working with such a limited amount of involvement in comparison to his usual work (on elf he only directed but in most of his previous films he at least directed and wrote, however in some he was in charge of even more than that)

- throughout filming he became increasingly less confident and happy with his decision to direct the movie and ultimately decided to leave the film, pass the position of director off to jon favreau and use the money he would’ve earned to instead  pay people within elf’s production team both to help cover their salaries and in exchange for removing his name from any and all stored information as well as keep any mention of quentin that could be linked to elf out of the press 

- he opted not receive any money from the production or write up any contracts relating to him leaving the film because he did not want any record of his time with it to be accessible by anyone. because he did not want contracts involved, this meant that no one was legally bound to the agreement not to discuss his time as director of the film. as a result, people were able to write articles like the one i’m describing and not risk prosecution, especially if their identity was not disclosed

- jon favreau was chosen as the director because not only is he an accomplished director who has worked on several movies within the same genres as elf, since he had working on the movie since the beginning there was already documentation of his presence on set and directorial choices he made even before quentin’s departure which would make it harder for people to dispute the claim that he had directed the movie from the beginning

- kill bill was also being filmed/released around the same time as elf so i would not be surprised if quentin also did not want his name to be attached to a movie he didn’t enjoy especially when it was being released within the same month of a movie he did enjoy and feel confident in

- the article this post is about cannot be found. i have tried several times to find it because i know this is a very outlandish piece of information to just randomly have with no sources and that is why i’ve tried to explain it as much as i can from memory and summarize things more than once so i don’t leave anything too important out. 

- i am assuming that the article was found by quentin himself or a publicist of his and whenever they found it demanded for it to be taken down immediately

- i promise this was not just a really elaborate dream i had and somehow retained the details of. i haven’t really talked about this much until last summer when one of my friends was talking about pulp fiction and i remembered all of this shit that i guess i had been suppressing for whatever reason. 

- when i originally discovered the post, i only kind of understood who quentin tarantino even was/had not actually seen any of his movies so i didn’t realize how signifcant the differences were between his work and elf. while i did think the article sounded really strange/unrealistic and checked to see if it was satire (as i do with very article i read that sounds even partially made up), i wasn’t able to appreciate how surreal all of this was and didn’t care about quentin tarantino enough to share the article with anyone and now it’s gone so that’s why i now get to pass this story along through word of mouth as all stories once were

- u may be thinking “wow, this is a pretty elaborate description and analysis of an article you read maybe a couple times four or five years ago” 

- shut the fUck up i did not spend hours writing this post and making sure i remembered all of the important stuff for u to be an idiot i am older now and know more things which means i can comprehend what i remember from the article better than i could the first time i read it so fuck u

- i actually do have very good memory especially when it comes to weird shit like this and i love analyzing things let me have fun and educate u on an important scandal at the same time

- also i really don’t know why this person even came forward and wrote the article since they more than likely knew it was going to be taken down asap and didn’t gain anything from it bc they remained anonymous so ?????

basically just what the fuck

tl;dr quentin tarantino directed elf but quit because he hated it and now whenever he finds an article talking about it he makes them delete it so no one finds out he directed elf also if you tell me im lying after i spent several hours making sure i covered everything and even repeated it all to make sure if i left out an important detail the first time it got included the second time i’ll eat apple seeds until i die of cyanide poisoning