#is kevin's experience with this shit in any way similar to other people's? who the fuck knows

[kariachi]

Some fanfic! More necromancer au stuff, this time set after Enemy of My Frenemy.

Kevin died and shit has to be done about it.

~~

There was a practiced ease to Kevin’s wardings anymore. He remembered the first one with what was almost too much clarity- how slowly everything had gone as Argit checked diagrams and played back audio files of books he couldn’t read. The mechanical repetition of ‘the fire will be safe’. Kevin using his powers to take in oxygen, worried even the movement of breathing might fuck something up. The undercurrent of desperation beneath every heartbeat between them.

Anymore it was nearly old hat.

“-and I told them, you know I told them!”

“I know you told them.”

“But do they listen? No, of course not! ‘That Kevin, he’s just being an asshole again’, and what happens?”

“You die on me.”

“I die on you!” As always aggravation and worry practically rolled off Argit as he worked, tracing runes along Kevin’s body in liver, blood, and whatever other bits and pieces the magic needed. Kevin didn’t pay attention anymore, whatever else went on between them, he trusted him with this. After all, this was far from their first rodeo, and he took warding him very seriously. “You know they’re trying to pretend it didn’t happen?”

“Really-” Argit rolled his eyes as he spoke, one ear twitching in its spot against his mane. “-can’t imagine why anyone would do that.”

“Hush it.” Kevin didn’t sock his arm like he would have normally, but they both knew it was there in spirit. “I get it, I really do, I just coulda done with an apology before they went all ‘nothing happened everything is fine’ mode.”

“You’re too good to them, this needs more than an apology.”

“It’s rough on them. I mean, G watched me get murdered in front of her-”

“Only because she dragged you out there in the first place.” Huffing, Argit caught his jaw in one hand, drawing out the sharp angles Erinaens only put into their magic over the major lines of Kevin’s face. “If I thought I could without commanding her I’d be using her blood in this rather than mine.”

“You’re gonna hold this against her forever, aren’t you?”

“If she lives that long.” With a sigh and smile despite himself, Kevin reached up to stroke his fingers over one of Argit’s ears.

“Slow deep breathes, man. She’s already suffering.” He let Argit tilt his head up- he may have been stronger than he looked but there was no way he was moving Kevin if he didn’t want it- and sighed as he pressed his nose up beneath his jaw. They stayed like that for a long moment, fingers at ears and nose at throat, before Argit sighed.

“This is the third time you’ve died on me, Ravrsa.” A near whine came unbidden to Kevin’s throat.

“I try not to. I promised I would, remember?”

“I know.” With a brief nuzzle, Argit pulled away and went back to his finishing touches. The two sat in a familiar silence as he got the runes on Kevin’s face the way he wanted them, checked every marked inch of bare skin to ensure everything was perfect. Did a quick check of the more complex diagrams he was working off now. Every time something with magic or death happened to Kevin, he went for something more intricate, that took more power, and would make him harder to hurt.

“We about good,” Kevin asked with all the calm of somebody who had been in this exact position what was now seven times as the final check went by with affirmative sounding murmurs.

“Yeah.” With each moment that passed Argit’s ears came further off his mane and his quills smoothed. “Yeah, you ready?” With a deep breath and a bit of shifting, Kevin centered himself. Magic could be just as… fun, as any other type of energy, and it took effort to let it pass over and through him without reaching for it. When he was acting as a conduit, when it went through and out, was one thing, but when it was staying… This would be his first warding since he fell off the wagon and he would need to keep a tight grip on himself.

“Ready.” Argit gave him a sharp look over for any sign of weakness, then chattered an affirmative. Kevin closed his eyes as he laid a hand on the runes, keenly aware as magic began to pour into them.

All magic, all life energy, felt different from the electricity he’d long been used to, a steady, flowing thing in counter to manic crackling, not as tempting but easier to take in. Electricity yearned, it leapt into your arms and begged to be set loose. Kevin didn’t discuss such matters with Gwen, no matter what she wanted they weren’t that close yet, but with Argit he had described it as a wild thing, a beast that heeded his call yet always strained to break loose even as it jumped to his every order. But magic, magic knew where it was going, and it went with a smooth and steady grace that belied its power. It washed over you, sunk into you before you’d even realized, needed that bit more strain to divert it from its path and to follow orders.

And he wasn’t ashamed to admit that Argit’s was his favorite, even ahead of his own.

His magic was a constant flowing stream beneath his flesh, a constant presence that brought comfort as much as it kept his nerves aware of the power he wouldn’t take. Charmcaster’s magic had been like standing in the shallows of the coast, feeling the waves crash around your calves, around his mind, and she had kept it neatly tucked away like Argit and his mom. That one had been like standing in a whirlpool, swaying in circles as he was made to do as she commanded. The Fulmini, his had been like a river washing him away, and the Citrakayah’s had been like gazing up from the bottom of a pool.

The Anodites didn’t bother hiding anything, he didn’t know if they even realized they didn’t, and just being around them was a test of his resolve. Every minute with Gwen, much as he loved her, was rain falling on and through his skin and begging him to let it soak into his bones. Sunny had been the same way and their grandma had been worse. Legerdomain had been like dissolving into the ocean, intense, overwhelming, trying to make him part of itself and itself part of him.

Argit’s was a whirlpool, and Kevin had to wonder if such similarities were tied to families or the type of magic, large enough for him to rest comfortably in the center as the walls rose high around him. He was stronger than his mom, for all he refused to acknowledge what he was capable of outside of times like this. Stronger, and his magic flowed in time with Kevin’s own in a way that nobody else’s had. It was, supposedly, part of being a familiar, and why they could play off each other’s power well enough for him to fill the role. All he knew for sure was that it felt nearly like a part of him, and he had to clench his teeth to keep from reaching out to take it in, to pull more and more beneath his skin, to savor it like he was sinking in his teeth.

Vaguely he was aware of Argit’s hand coming up to massage his shoulder, of soothing words that meant nothing but a thing for him to drop his head to the side on, to rub his cheek on thin skin. Argit chuckled, brushed his knuckles over his cheek before his hand dropped away. There was a click, and heat that crooned to settle in his gut and stay forever. Kevin kept himself in line though, ignored the siren song as it burnt the magic down to cinders settling through him, forming a second skin over every nook and cranny of his being.

The whole thing wouldn’t have taken more than a minute, but it felt like the best kind of hour.

Kevin took another deep breath as Argit carded a hand through his hair, slowly and blearily opening his eyes. Argit was tired, a major ward for his best disaster, but his eyes were bright, mane smooth, ears upright. A favorite look, one that screamed Safety in his head. They shared a grin, and Argit leaned in to press his nose under the corner of his jaw.

“That,” he said, “is the second strongest ward I’ve been able to get my hands on. Anyone gets through that and the next up’ll turn anyone who magicks you into a smear.” Snorting, Kevin flashed his teeth as he pulled away.

“Thanks, Hedgehog.” With something almost a purr, Argit slipped a lock of hair behind Kevin’s ear before stepping away and tossing him back his clothes.

“Anything for you, buddy,” he said as Kevin laughed and started yanking shit on. “Now we just need to get your little jackasses set before someone gets hurt. Again.”

[thespineoftherighteous]

foxes and ping pong

a lot of the time when they're at away games they'll find a ping pong table in their hotel and it becomes A Thing with the foxes (tho they'd never admit it ofc)

it becomes such a customary thing that they start specifically making requests ahead for there to be a table there

eventually they also convince Wymack to use the official credit card to get one for the court lounge

all nine of them are exceptionally good at it. they've been playing for so long that even those of them who weren't great at the beginning (*dan) have improved to the point where really anyone could win

this makes betting on the games very interesting cause they could always go in any way..none of them have a huge upper hand over any of the others

there are certain matches that cause a lot more excitement tho. namely those between the twins

Aaron and Andrew are beasts at the game and when they play against each other it's a whole Experience

they play fast and they play hard but it's not sloppy...on the contrary, when they play together they can usually go back and forth longer than any other pair

their games usually involve a lot of moving farther and closer to the table as necessary and they usually last longer than any others but, uncharacteristically, the others don't mind because they actually enjoy watching the twins play

also it should go without saying that all the fox ping pong games are taken very seriously. but with the twins its like a whole new level (not mean spirited tho, just bloodthirsty)

and they never let each other get more than a couple of points ahead of them so the end scores are always hella close

speaking of, there is always some sort of argument over scores and what counts and what doesn't

in a game against Kevin, Aaron once managed to bounce the ball off the side of the table and that led to a twenty minute, full team argument over whether or not that was legal. rulebooks were pulled up. articles were shoved into peoples faces. professionals were nearly consulted.

sometimes they'll pair up for doubles games and those are always...entertaining, to say the least

certain pairs are elite: Allison and Aaron are 7-0 as a pair; in the nine games matt and Andrew have played together, the only time they lost was to Aaron and Allison; Nicky and Neil- Neil is very enthusiastic and Nicky works well with it because in games he's (uncharacteristically) calm so it balances; Dan and Kevin- I mean their dynamic just always works

certain pairs are disastrous: Kevin. and. Neil. it's just...they're not used to having to share their space with someone similar to them so they are just awful together and can't stay in their own spaces for shit and will sometimes go for the ball at the exact same time. they've both given each other bruises with their ping pong paddles and when they play it's usually a guaranteed win for the other team because these two will spend the entire match fighting each other instead of trying to score points

this is problematic tho because neither of them want to admit that they have a problem working together so they insist on playing together more than usual pairs (it does pay off tho when they eventually do develop an effortless teamwork between them)

certain pairs are a goddamn menace: I am talking, of course, of the twinyards. it's already been established that they're insane against each other but when you put them together it's game over. once you get over the initial terror at seeing Andrew and Aaron standing side by side at the end of the table, spinning their paddles evilly intimidatingly, you get to experience the terror of them moving scarily in sync and coordinating effortlessly in a way that Kevin and Neil could never

also, in either single or double matches, if a round is getting tedious or they simply want to add *spice* to the game, out of nowhere they'll just b l a s t the ball at their opponent. (not their opponents side of the table, their opponent.)

(this has caused the implementation of an official rule- that goes into the written fox rule book and all- that explicitly says that players "are not allowed to blast the ball at their opponents Aaron and Andrew")

regardless tho just imagine standing at the opposite end of a table with these two and it just starts a chain thought of "what am I doing with my life? all I wanted was a scholarship to play murder stickball in school and now I'm about to be lapidated to death by these blond ping pong gremlins who I'm surprised are even tall enough to see over the table... where did I go wrong?" (bless you matt)

for the other six foxes, their train of thoughts are usually more of a "I came out to have a good time but honestly I'm feeling so attacked right now"

the foxes have broken (cracked) so many ping pong balls in their games that Kevin is seriously considering devising a rotating schedule of who needs to buy a new pack of balls

Renee is really good at, not hustling necessarily because they all already know she's good, but like starting slow so that her opponent thinks she's off and then coming back and just absolutely wrecking them

when they get the table for themselves at their lounge, it proves to be a very progressive thing for the team (an elated Dan uses this to justify the expensive purchase to a very grumpy wymack) because even tho they're a million times better than they were a year ago it can still be tedious to get all of the foxes (willingly) together for certain things

but with this, tho, they're all into it so they start spending a lot more time together as a group and it's not even painful (well in the sense that everyone goes voluntarily...Nicky would claim that the black eye Dan gave him is very painful)

in the lounge, there are dozens of those huge notepad paper things stuck up along the walls. these papers (which, between allison's design and Kevin's handwriting, are practically works of art) show the results of the many tournaments that the foxes have every so often

they are very official looking with brackets and tags and all..or at least they would be if matt and Neil wouldn't do their tick tack toe games on them but it's fine it's fine

one corner of the papers are also dedicated to the bets that have been placed on each game. Allison is usually more proud of the stars next to her name that indicate she won the bets than she is of the stars that indicate she won the tournaments

it takes Dan like four months to win one but when she finally does she says she's going to take the paper and frame it

every so often Kevin or Neil or Dan or someone will rope wymack into playing with them and he's not bad but the foxes are all a lot better so by the end of it he's always huffing and puffing about tiny paddles and annoying kids and minyard im going to assign josten as your running buddy if you ever hit a projectile that close to my face again

Dan also sees these games as great photo ops. she doesn't want to push it tho so she doesn't usually take as many as she'd like but she's gotten some of the best photos on the wall from those days:

Nicky and Renee paired up together both looking uncharacteristically intense; matt and Neil celebrating and jumping all over each other after managing to score one (1) point on the twins; the twins themselves, Andrew stepping back to let Aaron offer a deadly serve; so, so many shots of people (*Nicky and matt*) with their faces screwed up in pain from askew balls; Kevin and Neil bickering and gesturing wildly with their paddles (their opponents, Allison and Aaron, can be seen in the background looking bored because this has been going on for five minutes); Andrew with his eyes trained upwards at a high ball; a grinning Dan proudly pointing at the paper declaring her a winner of a tournament; Kevin and coach playing together; Neil laying on his back under the table, his feet propped up on one of the supports, chatting with Allison and mechanically sending the balls that roll under that table back out to whoever is playing; one of their MANY nine person arguments, this one about whether or not it counts if the ball touches the ceiling before dropping back onto the table; Neil in a really spectacular dive for the ball (that unfortunately did not pay off in the game); Dan, Kevin and Allison in a huddle trying to figure out how to thwart the twins; Allison and Kevin aggressively pointing at Nicky to get away from where they are working on making the brackets (rulers and highlighters can be seen); Renee leaning sleepily against matt who makes it his life's purpose to defend her from any incoming balls; Nicky looking like he just rolled out of a yoga class in the 80s with headbands and wristbands and knee socks galore (to this day he claims that that getup is what helped him win the tournament that day); the twins, Andrew with his hair in the tiniest of ponytails, Aaron next to him in a loose, grey sports tank top, both of them looking (objectively) hot as hell

there is one photo in particular tho that is basically everyone's favorite. they didn't even notice it on the wall until Dan was putting up more pictures and saw one that she was pretty sure she hadn't taken:

its taken from the doorway of the lounge so you can see the whole room and its mainly of the twins in a match (a typical, intense twinyard match) but in the background it clearly shows a mound of seven kids stretched out, every one of them asleep

they had clearly all fallen asleep watching the game and though some of them (Allison and Neil) had tried to make a point of staying awake, they're all knocked out. matt is being used as a pillow- his lap for Dan's head and his shoulder for Kevin's. Nicky and Renee both have sports towels propping up their heads. Allison is draped over Renee's legs. you can barely see Neil in the picture but his hair in contrast with his pillow (Andrews thick black sweatshirt) indicates where he's curled into a ball in one corner

Aaron and Andrew clearly have taken no notice of any of this but are playing with undaunted vigor

that's as much as the picture shows but when the foxes see it they remember how they had only gone that day to play a few games but didn't end up leaving till the next morning

the twins remember finally finishing their game (congrats Andrew) and turning around to find a pile of their friends strewn across the carpeted floor and together taking in both the 2:17 on the clock and the fact that the music that had been playing on low all night stopped fifty minutes ago

they seemed to recognize at the same time that there wasn't much else to do. Andrew threw a couple of clean towels at Aaron and then made for where Neil lay. Neil momentarily woke up enough to ask "d'you win?" and move over, giving Andrew space to prop himself up with his back to the corner, before promptly falling back asleep. Aaron turned off the room light, leaving the hallway lights on and then made himself a nest out of towels

there's a picture of this scene as well but it never goes up on the wall, remaining instead in the camera roll of one undeniably sappy coach

[kimburgess-ruzek]

okay but like, hear me out,

kim survives. she does. and the team is there for her and all of that lovely jazz. she is expected to eventually fully recover. meanwhile, while everyone is in her hospital room checking up on her, she asks about roy walton. she asks voight if they caught him. voight says no, they didn’t. that once she was found, everyone rushed to med and forgot about the case at hand. kim sighs, but voight says it’s okay. that the case is over and that all that matters is that she’s safe. kim tries to stay strong, stay brave. she thinks everyone for working together in order to bring her home; little does she know of all of the tension, but everyone temporarily puts all aside in order to be there for kim.

hailey is extremely distraught. shes shaking, can’t even form words. jay notices and later asks her about it, but hailey says she’s okay, just exhausted and is overwhelmed with everything. right now she doesn’t tell anyone of what happened. she’s trying to put the pieces together, and she is traumatized by pulling the trigger on roy. later, she asks voight what happened after she left, but he shuts her down. saying he took care of it and not to worry. hailey is such an emotional wreck that she doesn’t stand up to him. not yet.

later, kim passes the physical portion of being all cleared to rejoin the field. she doesn’t however pass the psychological part. voight calls kim into his office with dr. charles who is already in there. voight explains her results and says can’t rejoin the field. surprisingly kim is okay with this, which is different than in s7. she says she needs more time to recover. dr. charles recommends therapy, but kim shoots him down. she says she’s fine but just needs more time. voight decides not to press her, for fear she might just fall apart then and there. dr. charles tells voight that kim is broken, distressed. voight agrees but doesn’t know what to do. that therapy would help but if kim doesn’t want to do it then he wasn’t going to push her.

she rides the desk for a while but everyone is scared she won’t ever return to the field. as much as adam wants kim to stay out of danger, he also knows how much she loved being on the scene and how good of a cop she is. adam tries to get her to share her trauma, but kim doesn’t want to show her fear to adam. she wants to be strong for him. she shuts him down, saying she’s perfectly fine at the desks and just wants to get back to him and her being happy, not thinking about anything bad. their relationship becomes stagnant. she can’t tell adam what she feels. she just can’t find it in her. he’s too close to her, she’s scared he’ll break if she shares her story.

kim still rides the desk, helping out the team as much as she can. voight calls her in and says that she is able to take the psych portion of the test again. kim reluctantly says she’ll take it again, but she is okay with still riding the desk. she feels comfortable at the desk. voight tells her that it’s okay to talk it out. that he’s always here for her. kim just thanks him but goes back to her desk.

dr. charles reaches out to kim and again offers therapy to which kim again shoots down. she doesn’t want to rehash her emotions to some stranger who doesn’t know her or what she’s been through in the past. dr. charles then suggests she talk it out with someone she’s close to, someone who does know her. he suggests talking to someone in intelligence. kim says she’ll think about it and proceeds with her comfortable life. she does consider his idea, but she doesn’t know who to talk to. adam is too close to her. he’s trying to be strong for her and makayla, and she feels that talking to him would break him. kevin is so gentle with kim, so fragile. after finding her and seeing her in such a state, kevin has felt guilty himself. he can’t seem to shake the image of his sister being so helpless in that car. he is there for kim, and kim has to be there for him. she has to boost his morale by not bringing him into all of her mess. kim notices hailey’s sudden anxious ways. she doesn’t know what happened, but she feels as though she can’t put that burden on her. and jay, kim isn’t close to jay, so she doesn’t feel necessarily comfortable talking to him. even if dr. charles’ idea was good, she has no one to talk to.

jay, who has been through a similar situation before, picks up on this. although he and kim aren’t the closest, he saved kim and saw the extent of her injuries. he knows what it feels like to be dying. he goes to kim as a last resort hail mary to see if she’ll talk one day when it’s just him and her in the room. at first she denies any trauma or ptsd. she says that everyone just needs to stop worrying about her. jay sees right through kim’s lies. instead of pushing her like everyone else has done, he instead decides to open up and share his experience. he shares stories of him even before intelligence, all of his past trauma. he shares his experience of being shot, thinking he was going to die. she hears him out and starts to open up ever so slightly. he tells her that it’s okay to be scared, but it’s also okay for her to shoulder the burden on others in order for her to get past this. he tells her to not give the enemy power. to not give roy walton the power. she begins to share what happened to her. how she felt, what she did to survive, who she thought of in order to survive.

she then confesses something to jay: she’s scared of the idea of roy walton still being on the street. she can’t push herself to be on the scene for fear he’s still out there. even if roy fled, he’s still out there, and that threat alone scares kim. she also is scared that roy will eventually pick back up to his bad behavior and start sex trafficking minors again. as much as kim fears for her life, she is even more angry that someone like roy walton, who shot kent darby like it was nothing, is still out there and could potentially start abusing young girls. she sees makayla as one of those young girls. she fears for makayla, that there’s always going to be someone out there and she’s scared she’s not going to be able to protect makayla.

jay’s heartbroken. he hates seeing kim so scared. so vulnerable. to him, he would’ve thought she was the most emotionally strong. after everything she’s been through, she has been able to pick herself back up and keep going. keep fighting. but this, this time it’s different. she has a daughter in the equation. she has makayla to think about. he thanks her for sharing. he tells her that admittance is okay, admitting that you’re scared is good. that being raw and honest and human is good. jay tells her that even if roy got away, he won’t ever step foot in chicago again. jay vows to kim that he won’t let anything happen to her. or to makayla.

back at home, hailey asks jay about kim and how the talk went. jay doesn’t go into detail for kim’s sake but says he thinks there was a breakthrough. hailey is seemingly happy, happy that kim can take the next step towards healing. however after some conversation, jay slips up and mentions how roy walton is still out there. hailey freezes and asks jay where that cane from. jay caves and says that kim is scared of roy being out there and that she doesn’t want to rejoin the field while roy’s on the loose. hailey internally panics, not knowing what to do. jay sees the fear in hailey’s eyes and asks if she’s okay. to which hailey shakes it out and says she’s just sad and scared for kim.

bam. then hailey goes to voight and demands she know what happened to roy. that she’s on the other side, he took her there. that she’s in this mess and she deserves a right to know what happened. voight again shuts her down, saying eh took care of it and that it won’t trace back to her. then hailey has a breakdown. she yells at voight that he needs to tell her. that he had no right not telling her and putting her in this position within the team. that he ambushed her and lied to the team, making her feel as though she couldn’t tell the truth. that she doesn’t know if she can handle the other side. that she eventually will cave and tell someone. that the truth will eventually come out. because it’s the right thing. voight tells her to calm down and that the less people know about the better. that no one will find out and that it’s not tied to her. it’s all on him so let it go. hailey tells him she can’t. she can’t take it.

hailey then confesses to jay what happened. she completely breaks down. she tell him everything. and that voight won’t tell her what he did.

once the truth comes out whenever and however it does, then shit really hits the fan.

jay is furious. hailey is broken. kevin is distraught that he was lied to. kim feels guilty for all of this happening. adam is worried for kim. and voight feels trapped.

intelligence is shattered.

wow. seriously wow. i didn’t not expect that to be so long. also can i just say, i know this will not happen. it’s too dramatic and not focused on policing. just a snowflake turned into a snowball. but damn.

[pinkpatiencecreepers]

Izzy Stradlin & Johnny Thunders: An essay in the making lol

Okay, time for the conspiracy theories over here. Nah, just kidding but let's talk about the connections between Izzy Stradlin and Johnny Thunders. Here's my take:

I'm currently reading "Too Much Too Soon", the authorized biography of the New York Dolls by British journalist Nina Antonia, who was also close friends with Johnny. The thing is that I can't help but find a lot of similarities between Izzy and Johnny (of course, taking into consideration how much of an influence was Thunders in Izzy's life, not only on a musical level).

So, let's start analyzing some facts about Johnny's life and observations from the people who knew him. First, he didn't grow up with his dad, since the latter split when Johnny was just a baby and he was raised by his mom and his older sister. 

From an early age, he developed an interest in fashion, rock music, and especially, in Keith Richards. So much, that he dyed his hair jet black and asked his sister to cut his hair in the same style as Keith’s. During his teenage years, Johnny made a reputation as a regular on the NY music scene of the late 60s and was praised for his unique appearance. He didn’t look like any of his peers and people often wondered where he got such rare and incredibly interesting pieces of clothing since they couldn’t be found at any of the local thrift shops. Turns out, he bought his clothes at the women’s department and customized them with the help of his mom and sister. 

In terms of his personality, people described him as a quiet, shy, and reserved guy, except when he was on stage and you could see him jumping around and living his best life. Also, he started dabbling in drugs pretty much since puberty, beginning with pot, and then experimenting with LSD, quaaludes, coke, meth, etc., until getting to the ultimate killer: heroin. 

Also, alongside with frontman of the NYD, David Johansen, Johnny was responsible for writing the most important songs of the band, as well as being praised as a songrwriter. Same as Keith Richards, he was keen on simple and precise compositions and focused mostly on bluesy sounds and nods to old school rock n’ roll with heavy influences from the greats Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc.

.....

Got all that? Okay, now let’s go with our Indiana boy.

At this point we have pretty much nailed down Izzy’s background and biography, right? We know that he was raised by his mom and his grandma Elizabeth back there in Lafayette. He has two younger brothers, Kevin and Joe. His dad split and left for Florida where he remarried and had two other kids. 

Same thing, from a very early age he became interested in music, mainly thanks to his grandma, who was a drummer on a local jazz band. He was also greatly impacted by Don Kirschner’s tv show where lots of the most important musical acts from the 70s made appearances. He definitely saw the Dolls there and they became one of his favorites.

We still don’t know many details about his life as a teenager in boring Lafayette, except the little that he, Axl, or other close sources have shared. Izzy started smoking cigarettes and pot, firecrackers, and the usual soft drugs that all of us have taken during high school years at one time or another. We know that he liked skating, playing drums, and drawing, among other stuff.

Things start to get interesting when he gets to Los Angeles. Being Keith & Johnny MAJOR influences on him, he dyed his hair jet black and styled it the same way as Johnny in the early 70s. Long, straight, and looking like raven feathers. So, if you are a hardcore fan of the NYD and one afternoon you casually bump into Izzy down the Sunset Blvd in 1980, you’d highly lose your shit and think you’re seeing Johhny Thunders himself in front of you.

Also, like Johnny, Izzy didn’t start playing guitar. He was a drummer, then a bass player, and finally a guitarist. The difference in Johnny’s case is that he first played bass and then switched to guitar.

Now, concerning clothing, Izzy also brought attention for his curious looks, being one of the first people in Hollywood to wear creepers (according to Hollywood Rose founder and close friends with Izzy, Chris Weber). Same thing happened in New York to Johnny when he decided to subvert the local style by wearing chunky shoes and platforms. Not saying that he was the creator of the look (neither was Izzy), but they certainly inspired some people to do the same and express themselves through fashion. Izzy also used to customize his clothes, DIY some of them, make jewelry, thrift flips, etc.

On top of that, as a little tribute to his idol Johnny, Izzy embraced the color pink by wearing it in jackets that he spray-painted, socks, shirts, etc. Mix that with his ivory skin, dark hair, and facial features and you have another Mr. Thunders right there (And they DO look like they’re related... as well as Keith, Ronnie Wood, Sami Yaffa, Nasty Suicide, Tracii Guns, etc. On the fandom we call that breed of rockstar: “Emo Rat Boy” lol).

Another thing is that Izzy’s drug of choice was smack and as it also eventually happened to Johnny, it made him all doom and gloom, moody, and vanished the once happy and joyous spirit, both on stage and in real life. 

Even in the dynamic between Axl and Izzy, you can see the same chemistry and looks of Johnny and David Johansen back in the day. Even the essence of the New York Dolls as a whole is visible during the formation days of GNR. Just look at Arthur Kane and Duff McKagan, and this is just a little example.

To finish this, around 1990-1991, Izzy is seen playing the same guitar model that Johnny is most known for, Gibson Les Paul Junior in yellow. And in the late 90s-early 2000s (I’m not exactly sure when) he made a cover of “Do You Love Me?”, really, but really inspired by Thunders. 

And that’s all, folks. THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK.

PLEASE LIKE AND REBLOG IF YOU ENJOYED IT!

UPDATE: @roger-taylors-car please illustrate this with pictures. I can’t do it because my internet connection is SHIT. Thanks and excuse my French. Much love!!!

[ripjaws]

Ben 10 Survey Results!

Huge thank you to everyone who submitted a response, it was really fun looking through them all and I was genuinely surprised by the results of some of the questions.

Hopefully this will work under a read more because it's quite long and I don't want people to have to scroll a hundred years to get past it.

If anyone has any questions or anything please feel free to ask! :)

Thanks again!

General

Q1. How would you describe your gender?

36% - Female 25.3% - Male 24% - Non-binary 8% - Prefer not to say 4% - Agender 2.7% - Genderfluid

Q2. How would you describe your sexuality?

32% - Bisexual 20% - Heterosexual 20 % - Asexual 8% - Lesbian 6.7% - Prefer not to say 5.4% - Pansexual 4% - Gay 1.3% - Demisexual 1.3% - Questioning 1.3% - Polysexual

Q3. Current age

48% - 20-24 39% - 15-19 13.3% - 25-30 1.3% - Older than 30 1.3% - Younger than 15

Q4. Age when you first became interested in Ben 10

86.7% - Younger than 15 9.3% - 15-19 2.7% - 20-24 1.3% - 25-30

Episodes and season

Q1. Which series did you watch first?

88% - Original Series 9.3% - Alien Force 1.3% - Omniverse 1.3% - Reboot

Q2. Rank the series in order of preference

[IMAGE ID: Five separate groups of five vertical bar charts. The individual columns for each group are coloured in the same order and corresponds to what ranking they recieved on that question of the survey. According to the key at the top of the image the order is; blue = 1, red = 2, orange = 3, green = 4 & purple = 5. The Y axis of the graph goes from zero to thirty in intervals of ten.

The first group is labelled ‘Original Series’ and shows that it got twenty votes in blue, seventeen votes in red, sixteen votes in orange, ten votes in green & twelve votes in purple.

The second group is labelled ‘Alien Force’ and shows that it got nine votes in blue, eighteen votes in red, twenty-one votes in orange, twenty-two votes in green & five votes in purple.

The third group is labelled ‘Ultimate Alien’ and shows that it got thirteen votes in blue, ten votes in red, fourteen votes in orange, twenty-two votes in green & sixteen votes in purple.

The fourth group is labelled ‘Omniverse’ and shows that it got eighteen votes in blue, fifteen votes in red, seventeen votes in orange, fifteen votes in green & ten votes in purple.

The fifth and final group is labelled ‘Reboot’ and shows that it got fifteen votes in blue, fifteen votes in red, seven votes in orange, six votes in green & thirty-two votes in purple. END IMAGE ID]

Q3. Favourite season (Original Series)

40% - Season 1 18.7% - Season 2 18.7% - Season 3 17.3% - Season 4 5.3% - Don’t like/Haven’t watched

Most popular episodes were Ken 10 (S4E10) & Kevin 11 (S1E7)

Q4. Favourite season (Alien Force)

52% - Season 2 28% - Season 1 16% - Season 3 4% - Don’t like/Haven’t watched

Most popular episodes were Alone Together (S2E2) & Save the Last Dance (S2E4)

Q5. Favourite Season (Ultimate Alien)

36% - Season 1 25.3% - Season 3 20% - Don’t like/Haven’t watched 18.7% - Season 2

Most popular episodes were Forge of Creation (S1E16) & Duped (S1E2)

Q6. Favourite Season (Omniverse)

18.7% - Don’t like/Haven’t watched 18.7% - Season 2 16% - Season 5 12% - Season 6 10.7% - Season 1 9.3% - Season 8 8% - Season 4 5.3% - Season 3 1.3% - Season 7

Most popular episodes were And Then There Were None (S6E1) & And Then There Was Ben (S6S2)

Q7. Favourite Season (Reboot)

60% - Don’t like/Haven’t watched 17.3% - Season 4 10.7% - Season 3 6.7% - Season 1 5.3% - Season 2

Most popular episodes were Omni-tricked (S1E37) & Innervasion (S2E36)

Q8. Which live action movie did you prefer?

40% - Alien Swarm 22.7% - Race Against time 22.7% - Didn’t like either 14.7% - Haven’t watched either

Characters and aliens

Q1. Favourite main character

45.3% - Ben Tennyson 28% - Kevin Levin 17.3% - Rook Blonko 9.3% - Gwen Tennyson

Some ‘Why’ responses:

Ben -

I know it's a really basic pick but I enjoy Ben alot as a character. Even though I feel like he took an extremely sharp turn into immaturity in the final season of Alien Force onward (from what I've heard it was due to ratings), it still fit well after a bit of time of adjustment. Him being rash and selfish at times while still having a good heart feels...very human. I'm a huge fan of flawed protagonists and Ben is a prime example of such, imo! Plus I hradcanon that he has autism and it's a big comfort for me :)

I love his potential as a character and the way he hands having such power and responsibility thrust upon him. Ben has done so much for the people in his life and the universe, and I absolutely adore him.

I think of him like a kind person who tries his best to the right thing, he's pretty chill and optimist and in my mind he's a chaotic bi and i can relate to that

Kevin -

I like that he's always been an antihero in the original series. And in the reboot I really like the direction the showrunners are taking his character. He has a different backstory, motivations and I'm really enjoying his character development. It's a fresh take on his story and they're treating it with care, which I really appreciate. His Antitrix aliens also have some really incredible designs.

Cool powers, uncommon character in children's media, especially as a primary character often cast in a good light (ex con, high school dropout, masculine, not emotionally mature). His character development is some of the best in the series.

Gods, we could be here forever... Okay, short version- 1) I can relate to him on a mental health level, especially in the OG series we seemed to have similar issues and to handle them in similar ways 2) there's a lot of depth and variance to his character, he's angry and aggressive and dangerous but also a dork, a sweetheart, and very affectionate once he lets his walls down, he loves cars and supernatural romance, violence and magical girls, he'll rescue an aggressive dog for no reason other than it needed help but also he might consider how much he could get for selling you, he's a complex character and he's allowed to be in a way the Tennysons can't because of how firmly they sit in the Hero seat 3) for all of this, we never really know all that much about him and his experiences, at least in comparison to what we know is there- we never learn about his time traveling the galaxy, we haven't heard anything about his time stuck in time, it's only in the reboot we're getting trustworthy information about his background and even then it's rare tidbits- he's ripe for exploring in fic, headcanon, and so-on 4) his powers in the OG series, his status as mutant or alien or both who knows anymore leaves a lot of doors open to play and to look at the world through different angles 5) dude has turned into six different monstrous chimera forms over the course of the franchise and honestly you have to support that sort've shit in media otherwise they might stop

Rook -

Alien catboy with a glorious voice and have you seen those arms??? And he's so polite while also being hilarious when he gets a little rude/snarky and his character development is amazing!!

While I would normally say Ben himself, Rook is his only friend that hasn't tried to kill him. Additionally, he provides Ben with guidance as well as support the Gwen and Kevin are fickle about.

Having an actual alien joining the cast and serving at Ben's foil worked well to me.

Gwen -

Smart, talented, funny, snarky, confident, and super cute. Jock-prep-nerd energy all in one. Deserves the world. Criminally ignored by the majority of the fandom. Knows karate and judo?? College at 16?? Icon.

Angel, can do no wrong, was capable of so much more than the show let her do, potential to be the most powerful member of the team if they'd just let her go a lil feral sometimes :/

She was a good voice of reason most of the time. Her powers were really interesting and overall I think she had a lot of wasted potential having to be sidelined since the series was about Ben ultimately

Q2. Favourite minor characters

40 votes - Paradox

22 votes - Max Tennyson

18 votes - Tetrax

17 votes - Argit

16 votes - Julie Yamamoto

15 votes - Azmuth

12 votes - Ester

10 votes - Looma Red Wind

9 votes - Glitch

9 votes - Kai Green

7 votes - Alan Albright

6 votes - Jimmy Jones

4 votes - Cooper Daniels

3 votes - Eunice

3 votes - Helen Wheels

2 votes - Elena Validus

2 votes - Manny Armstrong

1 vote - Cash Murray

1 vote - Driba

Other votes went to Penny Bennyson, Kenny Tennyson/Spanner, Lucy Mann, Rook Shar, Eddie Grandsmith, Myaxx and Pakmar.

Q3. Ship or Zed

64% - Ship 36% - Zed

Q4. Favourite main antagonist 

20% - Albedo 13.3% - Kevin 11 12% - Vilgax 10.7% - Charmcaster 10.7% - Zs’Skayr 9.3% - Malware 5.3% - Forever Knights 5.3% - Eon 4% - Highbreed & DNAliens 4% - Aggregor 1.3% - Servantis & Rooters 1.3% - Khyber 1.3% - Dagon & the Esoterica

Some ‘Why’ responses for top 3:

Albedo -

When I first saw him during the airing of Good Copy, Bad Copy, I was scared that Albedo might be a one-and-done evil clone that doesn't get much development. These fears went away, and I was pleased to find out about his backstory and motives, just a sour soul in an unpleasant situation. Even in Ultimate Alien with his reappearance episode, he tries to work on his own to cope in a horrid human world. He isn't necessarily malicious until Ben gets in his way, he just wants to return to his own body and leave, even stating that he wasn't going to fight Ben anymore while he had temporarily returned to his Galvan form. I know DJW stated in some interview that Albedo could never be redeemed, but I believe there's some hope if he gets help. And I'm a sucker for those redemption arcs :)

Tragic frog man that could have been helped but nobody helped him and he doubled down on his hatred which led to him getting stuck in a cycle of revenge and punishment and it's the tragedy of how much better things could have been for him if someone just helped him that I love so much!!

Kevin 11 -

He’s very dangerous and has a terrifying power to absorb electricity and living DNA to have the same powers of who he absorbed it from and even turn himself into a mutant with all those powers combined leading to destructive power 

Kevin was a good antagonist and a good protagonist, although i feel the transition was rushed. Anti-hero kevin in the reboot is great!

Vilgax -

He was always the endgame villian for Ben, despite how many battles they've had, despite countless losses, he always tried to stay one step ahead, and plan everything.

"Speak with care, Psyphon. Your counsel is valuable...not irreplaceable."

Q5. Favourite minor villains 

38 votes - Animo 20 votes - Hex 18 votes - Michael Morningstar/Darkstar 14 votes - SixSix 13 votes - Zombozo 9 votes - Vreedle family 9 votes - Vulkanus 8 votes - Rojo 5 votes - Inspector 13 5 votes - Billy Billions 5 votes - Will Harangue 4 votes - Fistrick 4 votes - Nyancy Chan 3 votes - Lord Decibel 3 votes - Simian 3 votes - Subdora 3 votes - Viktor 2 votes - Addwaitya 2 votes - Fistina 2 votes - Kraab 2 votes - Psyphon 2 votes - Steam Smythe 2 votes - Sunder 1 vote - Liam 1 vote - Ssserpent

Other votes went to Maurice & Sydney, Bugg Brothers, Alternate evil Bens, and the Mummy.

Q6. Favourite canon relationship

66.7% - Gwen & Kevin 13.3% - Max Tennyson & Verdona 5.3% - Ben & Kai 4% - Rook & Rayona 1.3% - Julie & Herve 1.3% - Max & Xylene

Q7. Favourite non-canon ship

36% - I don’t have one 30.7% - Ben & Rook 6.7% - Ben & Kevin 4% - Ben & Julie

Other responses included Ben & Rex, Kai & Julie, Looma & Attea, Alan & Cooper, Ben & Looma, Kevin & Manny, Gwen & Cooper, Ben & Ester, Max & Phil, Azmuth & Paradox, Cooper & Elena, Kai & Ester, Ben & Zak Saturday, Ben & Eddie, Ben & Albedo, Ben & Kevin & Gwen, Kenny & Devlin, OC & canon, and Ben & a therapist. 

Q8. Favourite alien introduced in the Original Series

18.7% - XLR8 17.3% - Upgrade 13.3% - Ghostfreak 10.7% - Diamondhead 9.3% - Heatblast 8% - Wildmutt 6.7% - Ditto 2.7% - Blitzwolfer 2.7% - Snare-oh 2.7% - Grey Matter 1.3% - Cannonbolt 1.3% - Four Arms

Q9. Least favourite alien introduced in the Original Series

22.7% - Eye Guy 18.7% - Spitter 8% - Articguana 8% - Frankenstrike 6.7% - Upchuck 6.7% - Stinkfly 5.3% - Buzzshock 5.3% - Snare-oh 4% - Four Arms 2.7% - Blitzwolfer 2.7% - Ditto 2.7% - Wildmutt 2.7% - Grey Matter 1.3% - Cannonbolt 1.3% - Diamondhead 1.3% - Ghostfreak

Q10. Favourite alien introduced in Alien Force

46.7% - Big Chill 17.3% - Rath 8% - Goop 6.7% - Lodestar 5.3% - Swampfire 4% - Chromastone 4% - Spidermonkey 2.7% - Alien X 2.7% - Echo Echo 1.3% - Humungousaur 1.3% - Jetray

Q11. Least favourite alien introduced in Alien Force

18.7% - Lodestar 17.3% - Brainstorm 13.3% - Alien X 10.7% - Humungousaur 10.7% - Spidermonkey 8% - Jetray 8% - Chromastone 5.3% - Goop 5.3% - Echo Echo 2.7% - Rath

Q12. Favourite alien introduced in Ultimate Alien

18.7% - Juryrigg 16% - AmpFibian 14.7% - Clockwork 12% - NRG 8% - Armodrillo 8% - Shocksquatch 8% - Terraspin 8% - Water Hazard 2.7% - Chamalien 2.7% - Fasttrack 1.3% - Eatle

Q13. Least favourite alien introduced in Ultimate Alien

30.7% - Fasttrack 18.7% - Eatle 13.3% - Juryrigg 9.3% - Chamalien 8% - Shocksquatch 6.7% - Terraspin 5.3% - Water Hazard 4% - Clockwork 1.3% - AmpFibian 1.3% - Armodrillo 1.3% - NRG

Q14. Favourite Ultimate Form

38.7% - Echo Echo 24% - Big Chill 10.7% - Swampfire 9.3% - Way Big 8% - Wildmutt 6.7% - Spidermonkey 1.3% - Cannonbolt 1.3% - Humungousaur

Q15. Favourite alien introduced in Omniverse

29.3% - Feedback 13.3% - Pesky Dust 12% - Gravattack 9.3% - Ball Weevil 8% - Bullfrag 6.7% - Whampire 5.3% - Bloxx 4% - Atomix 4% - Walkatrout 2.7% - Gutrot 1.3% - Crashhopper 1.3% - Kickin Hawk 1.3% - Toepick 1.3% - The Worst

Q16. Least favourite alien introduced in Omniverse

24% - The Worst 14.7% - Bloxx 12% - Mole-Stache 8% - Bullfrag 6.7% - Astrodactyl 6.7% - Kickin Hawk 5.3% - Atomix 5.3% - Gutrot 4% - Crashhopper 4% - Walkatrout 2.7% - Toepick 1.3% - Ball Weevil

Q17. Favourite alternate Ben timeline

29.3% - No watch Ben 24% - Gwen 10 17.3% - Ben 10,000 8% - Mad Ben 6.7% - Dimension 23 6.7% - Eon 4% - Nega Ben 2.7% - Benzarro 1.3% - Bad Ben

Misc.

Q1. Favourite watch design

37.3% - Original Series 29.3% - Omniverse 17.3% - Alien Force 9.3% - Ultimatrix 6.7% - Reboot

Q2. Favourite alternate watch design

29.3% - Biomnitrix 20% - Gwen 10 18.7% - Negatrix 17.3% - Antitrix 8% - Power Watch 6.7% - Hero Watch

Q3. Favourite planet visited

32% - Anur Transyl 20% - Revonnah 13.3% - Mykdl’dy 10.7% - Galvan Prime 9.3% - Vilgaxia 6.7% - Piscciss 5.3% - Petropia 2.7% - Khoros

Q4. Favourite locations

34 votes - Undertown 23 votes - Ledgerdomain 23 votes - Null Void 22 votes - Bellwood 19 votes - Friedkin University 18 votes - Mr. Smoothy 16 votes - Forge of Creation 15 votes - Los Soledad 7 votes - Burger Shack 7 votes - Plumber Headquarters 4 votes - Incarcecon 2 votes - Mt. Rushmore Plumber base 2 votes - The Perplexahedron 1 vote - Plumber Academy

Q5. Favourite Vehicle

33.3% - Kevin’s car (Original) 25.3% - Rustbucket 18.7% - Proto-TRUK 13.3% - DX Mark 10 5.3% - Kevin’s car (Omniverse) 4% - Glitch

Q6. Favourite Kevin mutation

40% - Original series 20% - Ken 10 future 12% - Ultimate Alien 8% - Omniverse 8% - Alien Force 6.7% - Omniverse flashback 5.3% - Reboot

Q7. Favourite Omniverse redesign

66.7% - Ben 26.6% - Kevin 6.7% - Gwen

Q8. Least favourite Omniverse redesign

76% - Gwen 18.7% - Kevin 5.3% - Ben

Thoughts

(Putting every single response here would make this insanely long so I’ve just put the most detailed/most echoed responses & include all sides of opinions when possible.)

Q1. Thoughts on the Osmosians retcon?

Okay, first up, do you know how much work I had already put into building shit surrounding those fuckers by the time of the retcons? I had been working on this crap since AF season 2! But no, they gotta go ruin that in one fell swoop, thank you, much appreciated. Second up, I wibble on it? Like, working with mutants is fun and interesting and I've done plenty of shit with them as well, but in the end I'm always going to be a pro-Ossys person. Mostly the retcons left more questions than they gave answers (how, if Osmosians never existed, did everybody and their mother know Kevin was an Osmosian? why, if Osmosians never existed, did none of the people not-involved in this whole disaster with Servantis's mindfuckery look at Aggregor being reported as an Osmosian and go 'wtf that's not a thing'? do they really mean to tell me that not only did Kevin never bother to look into his heritage, but neither did research-happy Gwen? or am I expected to believe the Rooters made enough fake information and put it out publicly that they fooled literally everyone? and if they did then why? when it would've done the same thing with less effort if they'd just, let Kevin be a mutant with a Plumber father who died) and I feel like they didn't really give enough to justify them. One of those cases of 'making your work less interesting to make it more 'accurate''. Personally, I forever keep working on Osmosians (where's the line where it just starts becoming your shit, I think I may be heading there) and I love on mutants and I flip between or combine the two as needed for whatever story I want to tell.

While the fake memories plot isn't great I think it's for the best because the original series meant for Kevin to be a mutant while UAF changed it to alien. I like him better as a mutant human. Too much alien connections in UAF.

I could scream for hours. Easily one of the worst decisions they ever made. Omniverse picks and chooses what canon to follow from AFUA + the original run and throws it in without care or concern to what it means for the timeline. Retconning something and keeping the effect it had is just bad writing. Kevin coming to terms with not being human and that’s okay was important to me when I was a kid. Knowing that he’s just been on an unending series of brainwashed nonsense all his life deprives him of his agency. I hate this decision more than several dozen essays could ever convey.

I wasn't mad about it. Mainly because I liked the idea of Kevin being a mutant than an alien. Alien Force really was pushing that aspect even with Gwen. To the point where she called her powers 'not spells' because of her heritage. Stupid that the rooters and fake memories were a thing, but necessary.

I was never a big fan of the Rooters Arc, but this doesn't bother me too much. It makes UA a little weird with Aggragor, but again, it doesn't really bother me, as most of Omniverse didn't explore Kevin (While UA Did), and was mostly about Ben.

Osmosians were such a cool idea, and it would've allowed for more exploration into what Mike Morningstar was as well, but just writing them off as mutates is so boring. As well as it makes Aggregors whole part not really make sense, like who is he then.

While well executed, it was unnecessary. You could have had the same story line where Kevin was used to mutate other kids and still had him an Alien. You could have had it where it was another alien species that used Osmosians to morph other species to theirs; a call back to the DNAliens if you want.

Q2. Thoughts on how the Ultimate Kevin situation was dealt with in UA?

Terrible. They wanted to go far. They wanted to go dark. But they didn't think their viewership could handle it so they dialed it back. I will always be curious to know what they would have written if they didn't have those constraints. Because the final product was a mess of contrasting tone and unsure footing about how far to go with questioning our hero's moral compass. They wanted to push Ben to see what he would do and apparently, we got that he would kill Kevin and maybe Gwen if she got in the way of saving the universe.... but not really because he didn't. And then the gang is happy all back together like none of it ever happened. They wanted to explore dark themes but have it leave no consequences on the characters. Also... it was so ableist and awful and Kevin deserved better than how Ben and Max (and the writers) treated him.

If they did everything the same but the argument was 'we need to capture him and lock him away' instead of 'we need to kill him'? I would be fine. It's the fact that they slipped so quickly into murder, into murder by his 16-yo bestfriend, that gets me. Like, there's apparently no space between 'recklessly risk our safety trying to talk him down' and 'Ol' Yeller his ass' and that just does not sit right with me.

Ben should have looked for alternate solutions before jumping on the "Let's kill Kevin" train. I understand why he did (this took place immediately post-Aggregor so Ben was still traumatized about having lost so many people and because he failed and "let" Kevin get turned into Ultimate Kevin, he felt as though every person Kevin hurt would be on him) but I wish he hadn't.

Pretty good actually. I like Gwen's emotions becoming a hindrance to the job, I like Ben putting on his big boy pants and I like Kevin going up to Aggregor and saying "y'know, I was a big boy villain once and I'm tried of just getting kicked around" (obviously paraphrasing)

Other than the scenario being overplayed, I think Ben was right. Kevin was eventually going to end up killing Gwen and he'd already put others in the hospital. He needed to be stopped.

Ben jumping straight to murder, yikes. Kevin dismissing Gwen to hang out with Ben almost as soon as he turned back to normal, yikes. Otherwise, it was an interesting plotline.

Really bad. Really shows how awful max and the plumbers really are. I mean , the guy saved the universe and now he clearly needs help but all they wanted to do was kill him.

it really felt like Ben just wanted to murder Kevin because he saved the universe that one time and Ben couldn't stand someone else being the hero for once

The worst, Max straight away wanting to put him down makes u wonder how long he's been waiting for that kind of opportunity.

I'm fine with it, maybe they could have spent some time dealing with the consequences of Kevin's actions, possibly even the ramifications it had on Ben and Kevin's friendship, but overall I'm ok with it.

Q3. Thoughts on the Plumbers

Plumbers ain't shit. Individuals can be acceptable or not but the organization as a whole has too much power, not enough oversight, utilizes child labor, uses a deathtrap of a hellscape dimension as a penal colony, has been shown onscreen sentencing people to imprisonment in said dimension without a trial, and I'm sorry the fact that a Plumber official could walk into a base with his team, assault several members of staff, attempt to kidnap a boy, admit to having and planning to continue to run illegal experiments on him and others, admit to having altered the memories of other Plumber officials, all in front of the entire base, and nothing was done until he tried to kill the golden child Ben 10 and failed, got his ass kicked by one of his victims, and in a place where presumably there were security cameras? And that the response was, again, to sentence him and his team without trial, take all the evidence, and peace out without so much as looking at nonetheless apologizing to his victims? Yeah, that don't fly. Doesn't sound like an organization that has it's shit together. Either the Plumbers don't have their shit together or the higher ups were in on it until it became something that could actually damage their reputation, and either way I Do Not Approve.

They're pretty cool. I know everyone's talking about how Plumbers are space cops and therefore absolutely corrupt and bad but this is a fictional universe in which corruption in organized forces isn't a necessity. Plumbers don't function the same way real cops do, they don't follow they same chain of command, they don't have the same motivations and they definitely don't have the same biases. Plumbers perform an essential function in the Ben 10 universe, which is to capture and contain aliens who aim to hurt anyone (or those who Ben defeats).

My knowledge of the Plumbers' unfortunately doesn't go beyond UA. They're not my favorite thing ever. Some of my least favorite episodes were the ones where the Plumbers or Plumbers' kids are involved, except for the episode "Everybody Talks About the Weather". The way Alan is introduced is really cool and very X Files-esque, and it ties into the DNAlien plot very well. But throughout the series I stopped caring about the Plumbers in general and I think that concept was given too much attention.

They don't do what they're meant to. They act like heros yet I don't think I've ever seen them do anything heroic. The DNAliens situation, the aggregor situation, dagon etc etc. Where were they??? Why did they leave the fate of the universe in the hands of a 16 year-old boy? Ben has the omnitrix sure , but he's still just one guy, how much can he fight? They showed up every once in a while but that's it. They were useless.

Of course the Plumbers have their problems, but looking at most characters we've met that were plumbers seem to be pretty good people. Max, Patelliday and Rook (and even Kevin, technically) are great examples of Plumbers, Servantis being a bad example of one.

Honestly liked it when it was disbanded. It’s cool they introduced Rook but like there’s so much wrong with how they run most things. My favorite version of the plumbers was tbh the first live action movie. Where it was just a bunch of old people watching out for Ben cause they actually cared about the people they protected (in this case Ben).

Q4. Thoughts on Grandpa Max

(The responses to this one were way more divided than I thought they would be omg)

He said Kevin was a mad dog that needed to put down. He's terrible. Military. Secretive. Kept his kids out of the loop and probably told the grandkids not to tell them about a huge and extremely dangerous part of their lives. Thus creating a gap between them and their parents that didn't need to be there. Child endangerment. Other than that....? He's important to Ben and Gwen so I tolerate him and he had some good life lessons to share. Also legendary adult figure in a kids cartoon who had relationships with multiple aliens.

He’s incredible, he worked in the Air Force, was going to be one of the first people on the moon (But he refused because he joined the Plumbers) had children with an Energy Being, he has a few grandchildren, and not to mention knows how to still kick butt despite him being in his 60s and was there to help Ben grow

He’s a complicated old man. Love him to bits in the original run and I love him in AF! He’s a utilitarian doing what needs to be done and suffering the consequences when need be. He does what he thinks is going to lead to the best possible outcome for the most people in any situation.

Needs to get knocked off his pedestal more often, both in and out of canon. He's got good traits, they're very nice, but there's other shit that gets glossed over, ignored, brushed aside, too easily forgiven, and just. They really needed a character who served double duty being a counterforce to him. Somebody to go 'wtf is wrong with you?' or 'yeah, no'. Ideally this would've been Patilidae, but no. We couldn't be so lucky.

Conflicted. Was he grooming Ben for plumber work, or just trying to support him in a situation he knew would be dangerous? It’s not made very clear...

I think he's got some sort of narcissistic personality disorder. I just can't forgive him for making Ben carry the burden of the Omnitrix at the age of 10 without ever explaining anything, and for not letting Ben and Gwen know he was alive after the Null Void grenade incident in AF. He clearly could have, if Helen could reach Gwen so easily. I think he views Ben more as an asset than a grandson at this point and that's really sad.

I love him! The progression from family hero to questionable old man felt kinda natural, like learning about a family member as you grow older and realizing they aren't perfect

He's awesome. He was a good role model for Ben and he was very supportive to both his grandkids. I hate that they made him mute in Omniverse and changed his design so drastically. I loved Max in every season from the original till Ultimate Alien. After that, he was pretty much just a prop.

Q5. And finally, give me your most controversial Ben 10 opinion!

It seems to be the worst thing to say that Ben isn't perfect and that Kai isn't demonic. And it's pretty standard for the women of color characters in every fandom to get the most hate so to me all the hate towards Kai when her personality is so close to Ben's AND she's also more hated than the ex-villain and the actual villains that tried to kill Ben multiple times just seems- hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. But really, and really I've needed to say this for a long time but I'm afraid of being strangled. Some fans will denounce incest/pedo shippers and people that interact with them and then reblog from a proud Bwen shipper with no self-awareness. Please I have the tags blacklisted are you safe to interact with and you just don't know? Or you're just saying you hate Bwen shippers to give yourself an out for reblogging their content????? Or are you all closeted incest shippers trying to maintain a public image???? I'm at my limit.

I do not think the reboot should have existed tbh :,D I know that it has a ton of fans and all due respect to them, but from what I've seen of it I don't think it was worth tossing away four interconnected series' worth of development and starting from scratch to end up with what we have now. I would be fine with it existing if we got an Omniverse continuation alongside it, but CN screwed OV over by the decisions they made near the end of it's run. So it's probably impossible it would return, even moreso because of the reboot already airing, and it would probably confuse younger audiences that don't know about Omniverse if two Ben 10's were running separately. I just really miss Omniverse, it had more potential and the reboot placed the final nail in for it to ever return.

The Ben 10 reboot is fun and meant more for kids rather than the ones watching for nostalgia. I didn’t like how Gwevin were sidelined and downplayed to make Ben look better. Sometimes it felt like Gwen was a bit naggy towards the two of them. I didn’t like how the fact that she was the only female lead how she had sometimes act like a parent or that they put Gwen and Kevin together just because. Their relationship felt forced and awkward a lot of the time. Omniverse’s designs while controversial were fun and unique but I didn’t like what they did with Gwevin, especially Gwen.

Kevin is totally smart enough to figure out an Omnitrix with the blueprints in front of him, we see him do amazing shit with technology- including the Omnitrix- in the OG series, people just don't notice he's as brilliant as Gwen because the show never made it as big a point that he and Ben were so very smart like it did with her before the reboot, so now they're being forced to acknowledge that Kevin might have two braincells to rub together and they're pushing against the supposed 'change'.

idk if it's controversial but there should've been way more episodes of just gwen & kevin & rook without ben or ben having a very minor role in the episode. just more time for those three to shine and show off how capable they are without ben always having to come in to save the day at the end

Gwen and Kevin aren't good friends to Ben. I mean they were initially, but once he got famous and they didn't, they stopped putting more than a half-assed effort to help him. They also don't really consider his feelings nor really care about the toll heroing takes on him.

The Reboot has the best jokes in the entire franchise and I don't why people give it so much crap.

Kai Green is an abuser and I refuse to find anything redeemable about her character. "Worthy to wield Excalibur," my entire ass. And Ben and Julie's breakup was good for them both, as people, and just as much her fault as it was his.

Ben 10 is an incredibly flawed show and people need to stop getting butt hurt when the blatant misogyny, and copoganda in the show get pointed out or when any even minority critiques Ben's character.

Ben is the worst character in Ben 10 and the whole franchise would be better off without him.

Azmuth is fine for the most part and malware was not exactly the most understanding person

I think Ben should've stayed single. Every episode where romance (or the girl Ben was dating) was the focus of the episode was pretty boring to me, personally.

Ben's parents were right to try to stop him from being a hero, so were Gwen's.

Ultimate alien force season 2 and 3 were amazing.( not comparing the OS since obviously that's the best, or omniverse since I haven't watched all the episodes of that)

Pierce deserved to die for being a boring character. I just wish his death had actual consequences.

The reboot is a genuine improvement over the original continuity in MANY ways!

Oh geez, um, Kai was a good character, just her and ben were obviously toxic. Not everyone needs to like Ben and she isn't an abuser, they just don't get along and that's fine but by God, why did the writers have to force them in a relationship? That's all I could really think of on the spot. Oh! And that the first two season of AF were a watered down version of Ben and the plot focused more on Gwen and Kevin than it did Ben. He felt like a side character and I'm not mad about that, but I don't understand why people praise that characterization of ben when I remember more about gwen and Kevin then Ben. Dude, I've been watching the show for the past week and I can name more about kevin and gwen because they're memorable.

Azmuth's hot af, but y'all aren't ready for that conversation...

----

If you’ve made it this far then thank you!

Again huge thank you to everyone who submitted a response and if you have any questions/comments please feel free to leave them in the replies/send me an ask/dm/whatever ^^

[jkflesh]

Interview with jesu January 2021 New Noise magazine #56

Read the interview by Antoine "Neredude" Duprez below:

The “Terminus” Bandcamp page states that the album was done between 2016 and 2020. That's a long period in your standards! Did you get some sort of writer's block with Jesu? Or was it because you were so busy with your numerous projects?

— I never get writers block, I just simply move on to the next thing if I’m not currently inspired to work on a specific project. Most my records, for many years, have been written and recorded over extended periods of time; I work when inspiration strikes, when it doesn’t I move onto the next thing; there’s never a block for me with creation generally, maybe just specific areas. i take large breaks for my music so as to afford some sort of distance, gone are the times when an album would be hammered out in a month!

''When I Was Small'' has kind of a Radiohead thing in the vocals, whereas ''Alone'' reminds me a lot of Sigur Rós. Are those bands part of your background?

— Ok, interesting observation, but no Radiohead is not an influence on this song, the biggest influences on the vocals were Liam Gallagher from Oasis, and subconsciously "White Flag" by Godflesh (which I only discovered after the album was complete). I do love some Radiohead though, as I do Sigur Rós, but neither band is a direct or conscious influence. Musically “When I was Small” was mostly influenced by trying to recreate a vibe of early Neil Young mixed with Oasis, in a jesu fashion, coupled with a demo production; intentionally underproduced. I’m not sure where a lot of the influence on “Alone” came from, electronic pop music for sure, short and sweet was the intention, driven entirely by the voice sample.

Regarding “Terminus,” did you set yourself a framework or musical approach beforehand like you did for “Every Day I Get Closer to the Light From Which I Came?“

— Not really no, generally when I work on a bunch of songs things will fall into place naturally, the songs become a whole and then collectively the songs will become conceptual as i write, they build their own logic, so to speak, I don’t force anything, I let things happen organically as I write and record.

I think around 2013, you said “Every Day I Get Closer to the Light From Which I Came” was going to set a precedent for the next album. Now that it's out, do you still think so? Personally, even though both records are different, I can definitely hear a connection.

— Yeah, shame it took 7 years to come to fruition! And many things changed over those 7 years, as ever. Jesu certainly documents my personal journey in life, it’s ultra personal, Godflesh is much more external comparatively. A lot to the solo jesu work took a backseat when I worked on the collaborations with Sun Kil Moon, but that was very refreshing and inspired me to take jesu further, I had notions of discontinuing the project at some point, but the collabs with Sun Kil Moon inspired me to keep pursuing jesu.

"Every Day I Get Closer to the Light From Which I Came” was inspired in great part by you becoming a father. Can you tell us a bit about what was on your mind when you wrote “Terminus?”

— That’s very true, especially the initial journey of bringing life into the/our world. everything is there in the lyrics and artwork for "Terminus" so of course, like a lot of my work, depends on the listeners perspectives, they can make it their own, make it personal. But it’s essentially about endings, and my obsession with finality, my sensitivity to it and my fear of it. There’s a line in the title song that says “my end, our end, the end, the end”, which pretty much sums it up.

The EP “Never” you released before “Terminus” is quite different and more focused on electronics. I remember you telling me that you liked going experimental on EPs, doing stuff you wouldn't do on a full length. So I figure that's still the case?

— Yeah, I like experimenting with everything, I like satisfying myself with different ideas, obviously that doesn’t suit my listeners too much, but I make this music for myself, and I’m always trying to do better. I still don’t know why I put myself through the trial and hell of releasing music, I often think about just recording for myself and not bothering with an audience, but I’m not really capable of earning money in other ways, so I have to finish music and release it, let it go. For me "Never" was just another way of interpreting the jesu mood, nothing deviates too much from the original intention of the project. It’s weird, critically, it was perceived as this big electronic departure, whereas jesu has sounded pretty much like this most of it’s lifetime! “Pale Sketches", "Lifeline" even "Silver” is all mostly electronic, save a real drum loop in the song "Silver", but this EP seemed to get this thing that its all electronic, whereas it;’s no more electronically oriented than any other jesu record I have made. jesu is a mood that can be explored and experimented with, I’m not making the first album over and over, some can’t get over that, but that was a different moment in my life which I captured, and as an artist who challenges oneself besides the audience you can never win, and one will generally never win hah. This is a new jesu, it comes with age, transitions. "Never" was intentionally idiosyncratic and deliberately fvcked up sounding, and I think by and large critically the subtleties were lost on people.

“Never” features two version of ''Never There for You'', one of them described as the ''original vision''. Can you explained how you ended up releasing two version of this song?

— The “original vision” existed like that since around 2010, I shelved it, it was to be a Pale Sketcher song, I had an album’s worth of similar songs, I still do, couldn’t decide if they should be jesu or Pale Sketcher. I sent them to Aphex Twin / Richard James because he was a huge fan of the Pale Sketcher EP “Seventh Heaven”, we were talking about a release on his label Rephlex, I had all these songs that were floating between jesu and Pale Sketcher. But then he folded Rephlex for good, a real shame, so I was left with all these songs in limbo, I still am, but at that period I shelved them all. I returned to them around 2018 and started adding guitars and vocals, thinking that they will now definitely be jesu songs. “Never There for You” was one of them, so I wanted the listener to hear what it was originally before I added more of organic me. I’m working on finalising all those songs for Rephlex into future jesu, probably an album that I hope to release late 2021, it’s not a "Terminus" though, and probably most ppl will hate it hah.

“Terminus” is the first album to feature Ted Parsons in a long while. Did you invite him because you felt these songs needed his touch?

— I wanted some live drums, 3 songs only. I was going to play them myself, like on "Opiate Sun". "Infinity" etc, but I really wanted Ted involved and see how he interpreted my drum parts, he always swings something and makes it interesting. he’s a very real drummer, and a very real human being.

When touring is possible again, would you like to tour with Jesu, with Ted on drums?

— I may tour solo, with electronics and projections. The band thing is tiresome and always just sounds like a band, bands bore me these days because of the constraints of the instruments, rock records also bore me these days; same productions, etc, very little actual aesthetic, but its popular and what do I know. But I’d rather jesu now sound hugely expansive live, not just like a rock band. But i’m still unsure. Live drums swallow my voice live, I can’t sing above them, and jesu is a tiny project, can’t play big venues with stage separation and screens around the drums, and 8 guys diving around onstage, it’s not affordable. I stopped performing as jesu for some time due to all those reasons.

You said “Silver” is probably your favourite Jesu record. Are there other Jesu albums that stand out in your mind?

— Did I say that?! Haha. I don’t recall, and that opinion changes every day I feel. I like how concise and all encompassing "Silver" is; it covers most of the ground that I feel the project should cover. But "Terminus" is my favourite jesu album, and it should be, otherwise I would not feel I was moving forward, and I feel I am, it is the best jesu album I have made.

Last year, you told Olivier ''Zoltar'' Badin that the next Zonal album would probably go in the direction of it's title track ''Wrecked''. Is it still true to this day and what can you tell us about that upcoming album?

— Well, a lot of time has passed since, but I think Kevin and I are still quite struck on that song as a template for future recordings, although everything changes all the time, of course, and time is passing fast once again, we haven’t discussed Zonal in some time.

I know you don't actually consider yourself as a guitarist. With you focusing on your electronic projects like JK Flesh and Zonal lately, do you ever get tired of guitar? I'm asking this because I recently discussed the subject with Steven Wilson. He basically told me that after 30 years writing and doing gigs with guitar, he's feeling more creative and excited when writing music on other instruments and I wondered if you ever felt something similar.

— All instruments are just a means to an end for me; a tool for the bigger job, I don’t really wish to be overly proficient at any instrument, I liked that about punk, and it’s what I’m not that fond of about overly progressive music, it’s like it’s for show, I don’t do anything for show, I’d rather be shit than great, it’s more interesting, it reflects the human condition, imperfection. I don’t wish for things to sound perfect, whatever that is, people should not come to my music for that, they probably don’t and it’s probably why my audience is so small haha.

I recently discovered that you worked with Josh Eustis with the mastering of the JK Flesh / Orphx live album and was a bit surprised. How did that happen?

— Josh is a very good friend of Dominick Fernow’s (Prurient / Vatican Shadow / Hospital Productions, etc), and Dominick is a very close friend of mine. I was aware that Josh does very good mastering besides being an extremely talented artist, so Dominick suggested josh master that collaboration, and it sounds excellent!

I interviewed Lee Dorrian some time ago and we were talking about the impact Napalm Death had, not just the band itself but all the bands who were formed after playing in that band: Godflesh, Carcass, Cathedral, Scorn... Lee thought this legacy had a lot to do with John Peel broadcasting a wide array of music on young aspiring musicians. How would you explain such creativity and versatility from musicians who all played in Napalm Death at one point?

—  Lee is absolutely correct, a lot of very young kids listened to John Peel, most generations did, his taste exposed music to many of us who were already enquiring at a young age that we would not have heard anywhere else and of course back then this centralised things, not fragmented them like the internet does; a kid now can absorb an artist entire catalog in an hour, speed listen to it all, then have an opinion, but it’s informed, no context, no history, no experience. We heard music then on Peel and then hunted it down. It took work, valuable work that paid dividends. Peel’s broad appreciation of eternally subversive music and otherwise told us that music didnt need to exist in such strict compartments, that’s it’s all part of a greater whole, so when groups of musicians collaborated even at such young ages, our tastes were informed and wide, very rarely singular.

Can you tell us a bit about you latest remixing output? What were the tracks that you enjoyed the most remixing? Those are the names I could find: Full of Hell, Oathbreaker and a lot of projects I've never heard of.

— I always and love to remix, I love the fact that I didn’t create this music but can make something new from someone else’s work. Music is endless, for me, it’s just when you wish to end it, but ultimately it can never end. I have some remixes that I love moire than others, but only over time, I never let a remix go unless I am as happy as can be with it. Sometimes I would’ve loved to have done more, my Killing Joke remix is a good example of that, I wanted to go further, but Youth of Killing Joke told me they were happy with where I was at, I think I could’ve made it much better. The Oathbreaker remix you mentioned is a favourite of mine from the last years worth of my remixes. I’ll remix anyone, if they can afford my fee and I have the time!

I'm curious, since you released some of your music with your own label with Godflesh, Jesu and other projects, did it have an impact on the revenue you got from streaming platforms like Spotify, compared to albums released on Earache or Hydra Head? I'm asking this in the light of the neverending controversy regarding streaming revenue for musicians.

— On my own label more money can be earned from these services due to no split with another label, which usually would be 50/50, but streaming is very small as is common knowledge. I never see any royalties from Earache so can’t compare their rates etc since Godflesh is constantly recouping an advance from Columbia / Sony for the "Selfless" album that Earache, contractually, can recoup from, even though they didn’t give the advance, so they’re making money from the band and from an advance they never paid, which these days you would think that besides being unethical that it would be criminal, but such were the contracts in the 80’s / 90’s. So I’ve never seen a single penny from streaming with Earache!

I know it might be pointless to ask you, since someone's mind can change with time but do you still think “Post Self” may be your last album with Godflesh? Your told us last year that you weren't sure if you had enough in you creatively to do another album and also that the constant screaming was a bit harder to do.

— Hah, the shouting/screaming live now takes its toll, it does with age, I’m unsure due to not performing for so long thanks to the pandemic how my voice would be for Godflesh now in a live setting, I’d have very little problem in the studio. I’m still struck on the fact that there may not be another full length studio album from Godflesh, I haven’t been inspired to initiate one for numerous reasons, and I don’t wish for us to repeat ourselves in any way, I do have a lot of interesting old material though, some good rare stuff, demos, “Us and Them in Dub” which is also in the works, but I work on that sporadically, when I feel inspired to do so. So there’s a lot of good stuff coming.

Last time I interviewed you in 2014, Aphex Twin was making his grand return with “Syro”. I remember you telling me that the album was still shrinkwrapped on your desk. Knowing you're a big Aphex fan, I wanted to know if you liked that album, especially knowing that a lot of fans were disappointed by it.

— Ahh it was such a long time ago now that we spoke last! I love "Syro”, but I love Aphex, and since I first heard "Didgeridoo" when it was released and then "Quoth", he will always be a favourite, "Syro" may not be an Aphex favourite for me, but it’s still amazing, he is amazing; creative, subversive and doesn’t give a fvck ultimately, he’d also never release anything if he didnt really have to, he does this for himself, for me the best art is entirely selfish and should consider no one. People are always disappointed, a lot of people just can’t live with the fact that an artist strays from their own personal conception of what an artist should be, it’s some sort of misguided entitlement, I lost that when II was around 14, a lot of people don’t lose it and now these people have the internet. No artist owes me anything, if they gave me one thing in my life then i will always respect their art, regardless of whether it works for me or not, and if I don’t like it much, I won’t be peddling that opinion on the internet in an entitled egotistical manner, I’m glad I did not know that a lot of people were disappointed, haha.

Thank you very much! Best JKB, Jan 2021

[writingpuddle]

“Don’t you ever get lonely?” Nicky asked, digging in his pack for a chocolate bar. To their left, the cliff dropped away precipitously, sheer granite cliffs like sentinels at the end of the world.

Neil stared at Nicky. “No,” he said.

“What, never?”

Neil looked out across the sweeping vista of mountains before them. A speck that could have been a hawk or a raven or a sparrow spun against the sky, too small and distant to judge. He’d stood in the middle of busy cities; he’d gone to school with hundreds; he’d even tried out for a track and field team once. He’d been surrounded by people, and he had been so ferociously lonely it had been like a knife in his chest.

“No,” he said, because he didn’t know how to explain—didn’t even want to, really. He’d felt more alone back in the so-called real world than he’d ever felt in the wilderness, miles from any other person. When there was no one around, there was no one to miss.

~~~The Long-Distance Hiker AU (A Bullet Point Fic)~~~

So after Neil’s mom died he kinda of ghosted around for a while and eventually ended up in a small hiking town in California

He met a bunch of thru hikers and figured, hey, my dad probably won’t find me if I’ve fucked off into the wilderness

So he starts hiking

And pretty soon he realizes it’s the best thing he could imagine

He spends all summer in the mountains and when winter rolls around he finds a temporary job in a skiing town working in a second hand gear shop

He’s an ultralighter in the most accidental sense possible

His gear is weird and cobbled together and his shoes are held together with dental floss

He sleeps under a tarp with a down blanket and a thin foam mat and he’ll eat the same shit day in day out without even registering it while he covers frankly obscene distances every single day

It basically gives Kevin an ulcer

Kevin’s an ultralighter, but in the stuck up, rich bitch way; his gear is probably worth thousands of dollars and he’ll lecture anyone who listens about ripstop nylon and is super snobby and elitist about who is a so-called “real” thru hiker (hint: anyone who doesn’t do it his way isn’t a real thru hiker)

(don’t worry he’ll get smacked around a little by people like Dan and stop being such a little bitch about it but he grew up rich so even though it might’ve been shit living with Riko he really doesn’t always take into consideration the context of how much fucking money gear costs when he’s preaching about ultralighting)

(yes I’m taking out my dislike for pretentious rich ultralighters on him, okay, but the difference is he’ll have character growth versus the people I met are probably still being preachy and self-important to this day)

Andrew’s like the exact opposite

His pack weighs like seventy pounds and he’ll pull a six-inch knife (a gross misuse of smart gear weight management) at anyone who comments

He has a completely contained single person tent that’s big enough to sit up in and a four-inch inflatable mattress

His sleeping bag is rated to like -20 even when he’s hiking in the summer

Nicky swears he once saw him pull a full-sized chocolate cake out of his backpack three days down the trail and everyone says that’s stupid and made up but secretly think its totally true

Andrew likes to hike alone but somehow he’s never more than a day away from Aaron and Nicky and when he keeps showing up near them it gets harder and harder to pretend like he doesn’t actually care about them

Nobody says anything, obviously, but Nicky gets a little teary when he starts to notice the pattern

It was Nicky’s idea; in this universe Erik got him into hiking when he was in Germany so he got the cousins into it as a bonding exercise and then it turned out it was the best family activity they had ever found

This is several years after they graduated and they’ve scrounged together enough time and money to hike the Pacific Crest Trail

Now the upperclassmen:

So Stephanie Walker is a trail angel: one of those people who lives near a long trail and provides snacks and rides and somewhere to stay and basically helps out anyone who comes by with whatever’s going on; she’s pulled a lot of people out of frankly dangerous situations and she’s not afraid of anything the trail has to offer

So Renee finds herself and her faith while living this life of meeting new hikers every day and it’s almost inevitable that she starts to hike and find solace in the wilderness

Allison is one of those Wild types: she’s done some hiking (much to her parents’ chagrin) but she’s never done a thru trail or even much overnighting before, but she’s ready to throw herself into it and doesn’t care how dirty she gets

She totally carries a tiny spa package though

The other women are very skeptical because they take pride in being free from societies expectations and make up and shaving but they come around after Allison pulls it out one time when they’re seven days into a ten day section and gives them face masks and they all have a little pedicure pampering session (so, so needed when your feet are being beaten and bruised by hard terrain all day)

She has a lot of new, expensive gear and is super touchy about people trying to help her (because a beautiful woman absolutely gets people trying to “help” all the time and it’s infuriating and condescending) but she learns to accept help from her closest friends

She was showing off near the beginning of the trail drinking with a bunch of guys and probably got too sloshed trying to act tough (alcohol hits you waaaay harder at high elevations dude, if you’re not expecting it you can get Fucked Up really fast)

It’s Seth who realizes things are getting out of control and pulls her out before the guys can do anything shitty which is how their friendship and eventually their relationship gets started

They piss everyone off with their constant breaking up and getting back together on the trail, sometimes hiking together for days and then splitting up and going to hike with other people but they find a lot of healing out there in the woods

Seth’s mom is totally dismissive and condescending of his hiking, she thinks it’s a stupid waste of time, but she thinks everything he does is a stupid waste of time so at least when he’s out there without cell service he has an excuse to not respond to her

Now Dan

Dan’s trailer trash, right

She’s got no fucking cash but she has this dream in her head to hike the PCT and she’s going to fucking well do it

Her gear is probably most similar to Neil’s except where his is a mess of weird priorities and held together by spit and twine

Hers is meticulously planned

It’s cheap, some of it’s over forty years old, but it’s hers

It’s probably the only stuff in the world that’s actually hers

She accumulated it over about four years, hitting all the second-hand gear events, saving up every penny, packing and repacking and writing everything out in great detail until David Wymack got wind of her plans at a gear event

He’s one of those guys who hiked the PCT thirty years ago back before anyone knew what it was except instead of feeling superior about that it means he knows exactly how much impact experiencing the wilderness can have for disenfranchised people

He approaches Dan and offers to sponsor her hike

She’s resistant at first; she planned this hike, she got all the stuff together, she was going to do it without anyone’s help

But he comes back and says he just wants her to write about her experiences and publish it on his website

He’ll pay her for the work, of course

And she wavers and finally caves because this will move her plans up by about two years if she can make money while she’s hiking instead of having to hoard up enough cash to take six whole months off

Her blog posts are a huge hit

She doesn’t preach about how the mountains saved her, or get too metaphorical about hiking or anything like that

She just talks about the real, raw experience of hiking

The friendships, the trials, the triumphs

The infuriating people whose mental image of the hiking community doesn’t include poor black girls who grew up in a trailer park, who say she’s an inspiration like they actually mean something else

She talks about the days that she flies up the mountains and the days that she can barely drag herself out of her tent and the day she realizes that Allison and Renee, these women she thought could not be more different from her, are the best friends she’s ever had in the world

And she’s takes fucking amazing pictures

She’s also very determined not to have a trail romance

That’s stupid and cliché

Look that guy Matt might be hot but she’s not interested

He’s clearly working through some stuff and she’s not here to be some guys savior or whatever

So Matt then

His mom helped him get sober a couple years ago and he’s been struggling with it ever since

She got him into hiking as an outlet and a healthy hobby and he took to it like a fish to water

He’s got legs for days and he doesn’t mind carrying a heavy pack, he can hike for hours without stopping

(The fact that he’s faster than her pisses Dan off a bit, but sometimes you gotta accept that you’ve got short legs and just hike your own hike, there aren’t any prizes for speed)

He relapsed again a couple months before his hike started and he and Randy weren’t even sure if he was going to be able to do it but he’s damned well going to try

So anyway

Pretty much everyone is trying to actually hike the PCT except Neil

He drives everyone bonkers

His motivation isn’t really about the trail so much as staying out in the wilderness where there are no gangsters to murder you

So he just does whatever he wants and keeps showing up at random points

He’s technically got one of the thru hiker permits but he frequently goes off on side trails not on the PCT and ends up hiding out in the woods so rangers won’t find him

He’ll just hitchhike straight through boring sections or anywhere that you pass through too many towns where he’d rather not be remembered

He keeps coming back to the PCT but it’s more like it’s a rough guideline of where to go than an actual route he’s taking

He’s got his natural colouring back because who’s dying their hair or wearing fucking contacts on the trail?

But also

Who would ever associate a runaway mafia kid with a guy with overgrown hair and a stained t-shirt who’s sitting serenely on a mountain pass in a photo on David Wymack’s website?

Nobody

That’s right kids, Nathan doesn’t have a role in this one because he doesn’t find Neil

Maybe he gets killed in a shoot out or something and some other gangster steps up and takes over, and in the shuffle Neil’s just kinda forgotten

Maybe he finds out months later and he just stares at the computer in shock because he should have known, shouldn’t he? He should have felt it when his father died

He should have realized that he was free

That happens later though

Who fucking cares what Riko’s doing honestly

Kevin has somehow attached himself to Andrew and is driving him up the wall with advice to improve his hiking/base weight/distance/etc and he sees this guy (Neil) who regularly covers like thirty or forty miles a day (obscene!) and is like YES this guy is my people!

Except when he starts talking to Neil he realizes he’s this total weirdo who doesn’t even have a cook set he just eats cold food (a common enough thing among ultralighters, but not like this. Oh god, not like this)

Neil’s just sitting there gnawing on a pack of uncooked ramen like a fucking animal

And he’s not! Even! Hiking! Properly!

You’ll never finish the trail if you hike like this!

Neil just gives him a blank look

He’s got no interest on getting on some “verified” list of people who hiked the PCT, he just likes hiking

Andrew likes him

I mean obviously he despises him what the hell is with that janky ass setup but also he’s so unconventional and unapologetic how could Andrew not be into that?

They’re the kind of people who give wilderness rescue personnel grey hair, but for completely opposite reasons

Neil keeps running into them because even though he covers so much ground every day, his meandering route means he doesn’t actually move down the trail very fast

They’ll be like wait weren’t you like a week ahead of us and he’s like oh yeah I heard about this cool waterfall and took a sixty mile side trail to visit it and nearly ran into a momma bear with two cubs, it was awesome

And they all start to grow on him, and each other, almost accidentally

Look none of them are out there romanticizing the trail as some kind of magical place where the problems of the real world disappear and the people are somehow more pure and true or whatever

People are people and they bring their issues wherever they go

But there is a paring down

When your daily concerns are just mileage and shoes and food and weather, a lot of other stuff fades into the background

And well the truth is a lot of people are on those trails to work through stuff

And they find each other

Gradually, without even really noticing

They team up in June, groups of three or four with crampons and ice axes to get over the Sierra’s.

Neil was planning to just do side hikes and wait for the snow to melt—he isn’t so reckless he wants to go over the ice alone, but Kevin insists he join them and for the first time he hikes in a group with Kevin and the cousins all together.

It’s weird

He’s not used to people talking to him when he’s hiking and he frequently doesn’t respond and it’s not because he’s being rude he’s just so focussed on what he’s doing and what’s around him that he literally doesn’t hear them

And then

Nicky slips

It’s not his fault, they did nearly everything right (Kevin may be a pretentious ass, but he does know his shit) but sometimes shit just happens for no reason

And they’re at the edge of the ice sheet so Nicky’s just untying himself from the rope that links them together, he’s not even moving, and the snow beneath him shifts and he doesn’t even have time to scream before he’s hurtling down the snow below the trail towards the cliff at the bottom of the ice sheet

Neil doesn’t even hesitate

He dives after him, ice axe in one hand like a fucking gladiator and gets his arm wrapped around Nicky’s waist

He slams the ice axe into the snow and it drags behind them, and it looks like it’s not going to catch, and the edge is getting closer and closer—

Until the axe catches something, and Nicky and Neil lurch to a halt, clinging to each other, hanging off of Neil’s one arm and the axe.

Neil looks up and sees Andrew, Aaron and Kevin in various places on the slope above them, their axes dug in and long gouge marks in the snow beneath their heels, strung together by a ropeline that’s still attached to Neil’s waist

That rope is probably the only thing that slowed them down enough that Neil could stop them without ripping his arm clean off

It’s hardly a by-the-book rescue, and in fact it was pretty stupid, but they’re okay, they’re okay, that’s all that matters

That night they light a fire down by a lake and Nicky cries on Aaron’s shoulder and Andrew keeps clenching his fists because he’s never felt so helpless in his life and it was Neil that jumped, not him

He knows that he was at the far end of the line and he would’ve made it worse if he had, but doing nothing while Neil risked his life to save Nicky

They don’t really talk about it

But you kind of can’t help being friends after that

And even after they’re out of the high mountains and back on solid trails Neil keeps tabs on them

And Nicky befriends the others and without even meaning to they start to develop a sort of loose trail family vibe

They’re not hiking together all the time like some of the groups they meet, but they check on each other all the time and wait up in resupply villages and bond over firepits and shitty hot chocolate mixes and swap tips on how to keep the butt-chafing at bay

Neil sticks to the outskirts, mostly, but he starts to open up a little, in fits and spurts, tiny non-specific things that wouldn’t even register to most people but that this particular group knows means more than that

He’s slowing down, too, sometimes hiking entire days with people and covering half his usual distance even when there’s no cliffs or glaciers threatening him

He likes hiking with Andrew the most, though

Because neither of them are big talkers when they’re hiking and Andrew’s pack might be absurdly heavy but he’s got legs the size of tree trunks and endurance to match, so he might not be fast but he can outwalk half the people on the trail by sheer relentlessness

They both like to camp up high, near treeline (so Neil can set up his tarp) and in the places that it’s legal they’ll start a small fire and Andrew will loan Neil his pot so he can actually cook his fucking ramen for once and sometimes they’ll watch the Milky Way rise and share secrets under the open sky, not looking at each other so they don’t break the illusion, and sometimes they won’t say anything at all but it’s okay, because they’re saying nothing together.

It’s nice

It’s maybe more than nice

The summer draws to a close and Neil is starting to realize that he doesn’t want it to

He never wants the hiking season to end but this time it’s different

This summer has been perfect

And he knows deep in his bones that once they leave the trail things will change

The others have lives to return to, and Neil…

The trail is all he has

And if he’s barely hiking alone at all these days, well, who’s going to call him out on it?

The others like having him around because he stops them from getting too fixated on the Trail to see the trail

He still takes side trips but now sometimes people will come along and he’ll stand at the base of a canyon staring up at the glossy white walls and Dan will snap a photo for her blog and smile, because the PCT is just a line on a map, but the hike is all of them; together

He’s hiking with Andrew in September when a storm hits, this time vicious

Neil huddles under his tarp in resignation

Storms suck, he always gets wet, no matter how much he lowers the tarp, but he’s used to it; he just waits it out

But it’s just getting worse

Hail lashing at the tarp and pummelling the ground and maybe for once he regrets camping so high up

And Andrew has to shout to be heard but finally Neil realizes he’s offering to let Neil come into his tent

You’re going fucking freeze, just get in here

Neil goes

It’s weird

It’s instantly weird

The tent is not built for two people, so they’re both sitting cross legged with their heads ducked to not press against the roof

The storms probably not going to let up soon, Andrew says

Yeah, Neil says.

Andrew sighs

Lie down, he says, and Neil does, and Andrew lies down next to him, shoulder to shoulder

It barely works, only because neither of them are very big people

Neil’s pack is outside wrapped in his tarp and all he has is his damp down blanket but he’s not cold anymore, not with Andrew bundled up in his ridiculous sleeping bag right next to him

The storm rages for nearly two days and what passes between them in that tent, nobody knows

If they’re barely ever seen apart after it, well. You only see people so often on the trail. It could easily be a coincidence

And if Neil doesn’t even set his tarp up on rainy nights anymore, well. They never camp near other people anyway, so who’s to know?

In early October the snow blows in, blocking the route to the finish.

They drift around a resupply village for almost two weeks, waiting for the trail to reopen, but finally even Kevin accepts that it isn’t going to

After all of that, none of them are going to finish the trail

It’s a disappointment—of course it is. For most of them, the end of their trip is now a nondescript exit into a village, no fanfare, no closure; they didn’t even know they were done for days

Still, it’s not so bad

They’re all together

Allison suggests Vegas, but they all laugh it down; they wouldn’t even know how right now, bearded and hairy and ravenous as they are

They go to South Carolina instead

It’s not really even discussed that they’ll stay together, they just all go; Allison hosts them at her resort and they laugh at the incongruous weirdness of seeing each other in real clothes, and it’s different, but it’s also okay

They stay for another two weeks, and they don’t hike another fucking inch

We should try the Continental Divide Trail sometime, Dan says

Her blog is so popular now that she’s got sponsorships from more than just Wymack waiting for her

She could make a career out of hiking and blogging and doing gear reviews and it’s a dream she’d never even realized she wanted until she had it

And if she accidentally fucked up and ended up with a hot trail boyfriend? Well, nobody’s perfect

And he has a great butt

(she has photos of it on her blog, from when they jumped into a glacier lake naked back in August)

Everyone is jealous

How about that trek in Iceland? Matt suggests

Or the whats-it-called in New Zealand, Allison says

Oh, I bet there’s some good ones in Europe! Nicky says. You guys can all meet Erik!

And it’s going to be different, but it’s not going away, and Neil feels calm in a way he never has at the end of a hiking season before

Eventually everyone has to start making plans to return to their lives, and jobs, and Neil sneaks out to the back of the house to sit in crisp fall air and watch leaves spiral down out of the trees

Andrew follows him

They sit together, watching the moon rise over the hills, and when Andrew asks Neil to come home, Neil says yes

[locoslowpoke]

My opinion on why people like and are more forgiving of the other diamonds compared to Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz

Here goes my stupid take and opinion on why some people attack and hate on Pink Diamond/ Rose Quartz compared to the other Diamonds. I’ll first start with Pink Diamond first. KEEP IN MIND, this is not a full out attack on Pink Diamond. I personally have a love hate relationship with her character and have deadass written a 3 part essay on the bad and the good things she has done, analyzing them to the best of my ability and why she is morally. Now lets begin on Pink.

One of the most obvious reasons as to why some people have taken to hating on Pink Diamond is because of the reveal that it turns out all along, she was Rose Quartz. Keep in mind, throughout the show, Rose Quartz was built up as this humble, selfless, and kind gem who was willing to fight to the death not only for the lives of humans, but for the freedom of her fellow gems. Rose was shown to have some shady little secrets, but overall we mostly believed that she could do no wrong and that if she had done some mistakes, if we considered her situation, that those mistakes would be justified. Then it all came crashing down when it turned out our hero had originally been a villain with a shit ton of skeletons in their closet. 

This reveal right here is what caused a lot of people to turn back on her and start hating her. I know that we are seeing Rose/ Pink’s development in reverse, but with seeing it in reverse, that ruins the impression we initially had of her. It’s like finding out your role model who you think could do no wrong, has actually done a lot of shitty things in his past. It totally changes how we view Rose as a whole. Before the reveal, she was a hero who had secrets and made honest mistakes, but after the reveal, she was a liar. Someone who was so willing to hide her past mistakes and identity in order to start fresh, that she swore to silence the only person who really knew who she. And that’s mostly why people in this fandom hate her. They hate her because she lied. She lied about her past and who she was to be accepted by everyone and leave her old life behind and forget it. And this is where people get a little hypocritical. Who hasn’t once told a lie in order to be seen as cool or to be accepted, not wanting the people they meet to know who they truly are? KEEP IN MIND, I AM NOT TRYING TO DEFEND HER MISTAKES OR FORGET AND FORGIVE THEM, I HATE THAT.  I AM JUST TRYING TO SEE THE REASONING AS TO WHY SHE MADE SAID MISTAKES. But this right here is her biggest fault, the lie that she was a selfless and kind hero from the beginning, when in reality, she was much more complex than that. I believe it’s the fact that she lied is what ruined her character for some people. In the end, it all boils down to the impression we had of her. We all thought she was a good person from the start, with the stories we heard from all the other gems, when in reality, she worked double time to change her ways and become the hero we know as Rose Quartz. I’m not saying we should forgive and forget her actions, just like how we shouldn’t flat out forgive and forget the other diamonds actions, but at least try to keep in mind, that she honestly thought the actions she made were because those actions were the only option. 

Now onto why I think for the most part, people are more willing to forgive and forget the other diamond’s actions. Lets start with the impression we had of the diamond’s before they were revealed. Yellow and Blue were both portrayed to be heartless, not caring about the lives of others as long as it didn’t affect them.  When we are first introduced to Yellow, we see for the most part she is what the gems say about her. A calculating warlord who will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. But as the series progresses, we see that there’s more to her. She’s still cynical and blunt, but we see that even though she chastises Blue to stop grieving over Pink, that deep down inside, she misses her too but she pushes those feelings down. Yellow even expresses guilt over Pink’s death, believing that she in some way was responsible because she let Pink have a colony when she wasn’t ready. Blue is similar in this way too. Before we are introduced to her, Garnet said that Blue is a shatterer and will shatter any gem for the smallest of mistakes. This gave off the impression that she is cruel and unforgiving in her nature. But when we are introduced to her, we practically see a shell of the formidable and unforgiving tyrant we were led to believe she was. Instead, we see a grieving and crying gem who still misses Pink and also feels guilty for her demise, so much so, that she practically dedicates all her time either crying for her or preserving her memory and legacy. Even with White, basically the worst of the diamonds, we are shown that the reasoning behind her actions are because she honestly believes that her way is the right way, that they are suppose to suppress their feelings and emotions as she believes that feelings make her weak, when she’s suppose to be perfect. All these insights and reasons basically makes our villains a little sympathetic, which in reality, are all the villains on this show. Except Kevin. That’s why we are more forgiving and understanding of them. I feel a good example of this would be like Catra. We all know Catra has done a shit ton of bad things, but when we take in consideration her past and her reasons behind her actions, we might let it slide a little bit. ONCE AGAIN, I AM NOT TRYING TO SAY THAT WE SHOULD FORGIVE AND FORGET THE DIAMONDS’S ACTIONS, ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY WERE LITERALLY DICTATORS, BUT JUST LIKE PINK/ROSE, WE CAN TRY TO AT LEAST APPRECIATE THE CHANGES THEY’VE MADE TO BE BETTER. As we all saw in the Homeworld Bound episode, the diamonds’ have made great strides in order to better themselves and change their ways. Yellow now tries to fix the gems she has shattered and experimented on, Blue is finding ways to give gems happiness instead of shattering them or making them feel sad. And even White channels other gems to better understand their feelings and what they are going through. We are seeing their character development happen in the right way, rather than backwards like Pink. This in turn makes them more likeable as we see them actively make efforts to change their ways from bad to good, compared to seeing Pink’s development from good to somewhat bad. 

It all boils down to the first impressions we had of these characters before we actually got to really know them and see the ways that they had changed. Rose was suppose to be our hero who could do no wrong and the diamonds were supposed to be evil, heartless, and cruel tyrants. Those statements are still in a way true though. The diamonds WERE evil, basically heartless, and cruel till they changed, and Rose WAS the hero, but before that, she was kinda the villain. Just as always, the true message about this show is about change and the ability to change. Whether we see it in reverse or forward, change still happens. Sometimes it seems, we as a fandom seem to forget it. 

Welp, that’s my take and opinion on this topic. Please don’t just blindly attack me as I have experienced in the past for my opinion and just kindly write a comment as to why you might disagree or what I got wrong or send me a DM. I’m pretty open to other ideas and am willing to listen. Thanks for reading!

[kariachi]

Radgit, because it's funny: 1, 14, 51

"Who would end a heated argument by defending their actions with ‘because I love you!’?"

Neither, they just are not that sort've pair. Rad comes closest with very strong 'you know damn why' vibes, but Argit will just let an argument hang in the air until eventually even he can't take it and generally that involves 1) a break from the argument followed by never bringing it up again, 2) a break from the argument followed by a random gift he found somewhere as sort've a reconciliation payment, or 3) just straight changing the topic and refusing to go back to it.

(why no, I do not write Argit as having healthy anything, I'm planning a post on it)

"How do their personalities compliment each other? How do they clash?"

Complimentary-wise, both are career-oriented so they're on the same page there (plus complimentary careers, always fun), neither's the type to just let themselves be steamrollered over- though Argit is moreso- which is trust me a good thing with them, both appreciate a good lie-in. Rad's never been good at de-escalating a conflict while Argit is a master of the art, even if it sometimes involves deflecting the problem onto somebody else. On the other hand Argit tends to just try to ignore shit until it's a tangible problem while Rad's the more proactive of the two of them. Both are seemingly allergic to properly vocalizing their emotions, which is a double-as-fuck-edged sword but on this side keeps either from pushing the other into a corner about it- and it would be into a corner. Their life experiences are similar, to a point (Argit's shit has been more extreme and Rad had a more-or-less happy homelife, but neither grew up in the best of circumstances) so there's a level of understanding there that neither would get from somebody who grew up more like the Tennysons. Neither has to really worry about the other (though both do even if they wouldn't say it) because they're both perfectly capable to taking care of themselves and while Argit is more likely to get into trouble he's gonna struggle with he also has a Kevin to back him up. Argit likes himself a man who gets shit done and whom he can feel mostly safe around, while Rad's a fan of a cunning mind and perfectly happy to have someplace he can feel comfortable just relaxing.

On the other hand. Like I said, neither of them is good with properly vocalizing their emotions so communication is, a mixed bag. Alongside Argit's tendency to let a situation boil over if it's not an immediate issue and Rad's issues with de-escalating things? They're far more likely to argue than talk something out. Talking it out means being open and vulnerable and that's just a bit too much for Rad and a lot too much for Argit. The end result being that disagreements or issues end in either one immediately giving way to the other or a full on fight with no real middle ground. Add in that Rad tend to be aggressive and Argit has his whole backstabby trust issues thing... Getting to a point where it's an entirely healthy relationship is slow going.

"What’s a non verbal way they say I love you?"

Neither one is a verbal 'I love you' type so non-verbal is pretty much all they do. It's in little things, like Argit getting him random gifts (I've mentioned in other headcanon stuff- Argit is horrible with dates but makes up for it with a tendency to just get people things at random because he was thinking of them), 'dragging' him to 'family' things, not actually holding a grudge against the man's inability to call him ahead of time, letting him stay at his place without any sort've teasing or expectation of rent. On Rad's side, meanwhile, it shows more in things like him letting himself get dragged to things, the fact he does stay at Argit's when he's in town rather than staying on his ship like he does when he's anywhere else that isn't his hometown, gifts every time he comes back to town because he as managed to learn at least one of Argit's love languages, and on at least two occasions he's gone out and threatened to blast a hole through a fucker for giving Argit trouble.

[cat-scarr]

A friend of mine highkey just fucking implied that BenKai is healthy because they "negate each other". As in Ben is the only one that can handle Kai's bitchiness and Kai's the only one that can reign in Ben's ego. Not paraphrasing. She really said that. And I was like, bitch, put it up That's Ben Tennyson abuse ma'am you're going to jail—

Oh no. No no no I hate this argument. Prepare yourself. I’m about to go off…

First of all, Ben probably has the most humble “cockiness” I’ve ever seen. 

We all know those people (or at least have run into them at some point) that act as if they’re entitled to the entire world for no reason. 

Ben actually has a reason to be proud of himself, but does he ask for any more than a little credit? No.

He doesn’t demand fame and fortune in return for risking his life everyday. He barely even demands respect (that he deserves)!

He called himself “adorable” once (he’s right) and everyone somehow got it into their heads that his “ego” is extremely inflated. 

So much so that now they think he deserves to be stepped on - metaphorically and literally - in order to be a better character somehow. It’s just as bad as people who think that Ben has to actually lose someone close to him, like Max, in order to “really” mature.

Anyway, the reason Ben can handle her “bitchiness” is BECAUSE HE’S TOO GOOD FOR HER. 

How many times has Ben had to cooperate with people he didn’t particularity like or agree with in order to reach a common goal? 

How many times has Ben forgiven others and given them second chances even when they didn’t seem deserving? 

He literally made peace with aliens who previously wanted to kill, not only him, but EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE. He even made friends with one who was spitting insults in his face practically half of “Alone Together.”

He’s all about saving lives. Do you people know what that entails? 

What do we do with criminals? 

Either one of two things: punish those whose crimes are unforgivable, or attempt to correct their mindset, outlook, and behaviour in order to reintegrate them into society. 

Considering Ben’s “second chances” philosophy, which one do you think he leans towards more whenever reasonably possible? 

(Ben 10: Alien Force - “War of the Worlds Part 2″)

What I’m saying is that proves it’s in character for him to be cooperative rather than begrudging and vengeful.

It’s the begrudging and vengeful attitude that drives his enemies to keep coming back in attempt to end him. But as we know, it’s not productive. 

Holding a grudge implies being stuck in your ways. And, because Kai’s attitude towards Ben hasn’t changed much since they were ten, even after he saved her multiple times, in a sense, she is stuck in her ways as well. She’s stubborn.

And that is another argument people like to bring up to validate this pairing - that both Ben and Kai are stubborn. They have “similar flaws”, apparently.

But Ben is a different kind of stubborn. He never backs down but he’s always fighting the good fight.

Kai, on the other hand, is fighting the good guy.

I think the silliest argument I’ve heard in attempt to validate the claim that Kai is a good match is that she “fits” into his action lifestyle. Basically, unlike Julie, Kai doesn’t seem to have an issue with Ben being a full time superhero, so that automatically makes her more “suitable.“ 

But shouldn’t that be expected of someone dating a superhero?

By supporting your significant other’s passion, you are doing what you should be. It’s literally the bare minimum of being decent.

Am I supposed to be impressed by the bare minimum??

Besides, just because two people are in the same field of work doesn’t automatically mean they have chemistry. Being in the same line of work just means they’re in the same line of work. 

And, going back to my point about Ben’s second chances philosophy, they definitely wouldn’t work together so well if Ben wasn’t cooperating in the way he always tries to. 

The argument that they "negate” each other heavily undermines Ben’s character in order to attempt to place them on an equal level. 

Did Kai ever attempt to redeem herself for her “bitchiness”? No.

It just became a character trait. 

The truth is that everyone has flaws. And that’s not inherently a bad thing. A character having distinguishable flaws allows them to feel fleshed out. Flaws are a significant feature to focus on because they often stem from something deeper. The beauty is that, through character development, having flaws gives the character something to attempt to improve when their storyline and interactions with other characters provide them with chances to do so. 

You could see this with Kevin’s redemption, for example. Or even what is referred to as Ben’s “ego” throughout the continuity. 

But when Ben continuously gives Kai chances to be better, and she shuts him down, she ignores her own flaws. 

Notice that Ben doesn’t ignore what others perceive are his flaws. 

I say it like that because flaws are arguably subjective. But regardless, all those moments throughout the OS and UAF which show characters like Gwen, Kevin, Max, and even Azmuth critiquing Ben on his character actually did make an impact. Whether I think it was right or wrong is irrelevant to the fact that, by Omniverse, we had him explaining to an imaginary crowd what it actually means to be a hero.

(Ben 10: Omniverse - “Malfactor”)

“It’s about making a difference." 

In front of nobody but himself, where he could have just indulged in the fantasy, he put his “ego” aside to display the integrity of his character development by that point. 

If his ego was really so bad that it desperately needed to be squashed, then he wouldn’t be out here believing time and time again that everyone deserves a chance to be better.

(Ben 10: Omniverse - “Parallel Paradox”)

Perhaps it’s because he has always taken that chance himself, knows the benefit of it and wants to see others improve as well rather than being vengeful or begrudging. 

Kai is a…tragic case, tbh. 

The fandom likes to daydream about her “potential” and what she could have been. But truth of the matter is that the writers chose to present her this way. If they wanted to have her some other way, wouldn’t they have done that? 

Whether it was to make her somewhat interesting by being a source of drama, I don’t know. All I know is that they crossed the line between dramatic and toxic very quickly, and possibly without realizing. 

In conclusion, it also pisses me off is that these kinds of claims just gloss over the abuse. 

It’s not something to make light of just because Ben can "handle it.” I know he can handle rough treatment. That’s what his literal job entails. 

It’s not what his relationship should entail. 

If anyone else reading this still doesn’t believe me, please. Go get stepped on and belittled constantly and tell me that shit is romantic. Because I’ve had my fair share of experience with mistreatment and it hurts terribly. I can’t imagine having to deal with that on top of all the selfless manual labour he already chooses to do everyday.

[nauseateddrive]

I ALMOST KILLED MY FURBY by Kristine Brown

"One day, you'll say, 'I want kids.'"

Surely. Pfft.

"...so keep in mind that when you do have children, you know that..."

I find that when it comes to offspring, precedents are implausible. But, go on.

"When are you having kids?"

Thanks for your concerns, people older than myself. By the way, I'm twenty and I just moved in with the guy.

* * *

Many of these discussions took place in 2012. Today, I'm twenty-eight. A generous plenty say I look seventeen, twelve on days speckled with sunshine and free of humidity. I have not seriously dated a man in more than two years. Silence is joyful, and my bank account is calm. I should also mention that my vocal chords are so much less strained because I've hardly engaged in another argument about when to get pregnant, how many times, and who would perform tasks of necessity while the other did all the indoctrination. My first relationship - the only serious one I've had - was outwardly quirky in that Wall-E and EVE sort of way, but if anyone was our neighbor, he or she would tell a different story. My live-in boyfriend had a dogged coldness resembling Kevin Lomax from The Devil's Advocate, and my meltdowns were just as grating as Mrs. Lomax's pleas to just "make a baby." Oddly enough, he was the one proposing plans for The Spawning. I just wanted him to spend time with me more.

My opinion on kids? I would make for an unfit mother. Possibly because of maladaptive behaviors, my urge to crush Pepsi cans to bite-sized accordions, a desensitization to insults my friends would classify as "bullying." I couldn't possibly impart a set of ethics to foster happiness and prosperity in the life of a child. "Oh, but that would be my job, love bug." Let's assume that besides diapering, clothing, breastfeeding, and these advanced duties to follow, I couldn't possibly have any sort of influence on my child. Doubtful.

Sometimes, whether at work or in a doctor's office, I witness an angry child thrashing a baby doll, or a careless, soporific child who drags the tiny mannequin by the hair. The parent may reprimand the child, and might even say: "Look what you did to your baby. No, don't do that!"

I can't say I've had these experiences, at least at a very young age. I never took an interest in baby dolls. Now, I do remember having multiple miniature dolls either given to me by older children or found in the clamor of Saturday swap meets. I do remember the Ken and Barbie, not genuinely Mattel but sufficiently humanoid to warrant their being called such. And with the screech of cheap Velcro, their garments were gone, and Ken slept on top. Well, I thought they were sleeping, but adults were displeased with my mission in choreography. I never saw those miniature knockoffs again. Predictably, I was supervised as I played with the Native American doll set. The male was removed, and eventually, so was the horse.

The clarity of my childhood memories astounds a handful of people, partly because of my current tendency to gloss over details and fail to follow directions. I could readily retell the plots and messages of numerous commercials in the mid-to-late '90s, the older Generation X-ers nodding and smirking in a way that asks, "Why do you know all this?" I was especially terrified of public safety announcements. "Only you can prevent forest fires" disconcerts me as much as "Hi, I'm Chucky. Wanna play?” But one campaign I couldn't tolerate was the one with the shaken baby. The teddy bear etched in stone, the infant's screams in the background, a camera in a dance of epilepsy. Then you see the whole tombstone and something along the lines of "Our Beloved Child." I think I was five or six at the time, but that was quite a horror flick.

What the frustrated adult committed against the baby, I would replicate three years later. To my Furby.

We were better off then and at this point my parents had learned the rules of Keeping Up with the Joneses. But they didn't buy the Furby. Even now, I question the merits by which he entered our home. Oreo. That's what my babysitter's older sister introduced him as, placing the box in my twiggy little arms, pinching my cheeks because that's what people do to you when you're eight, chubby, and loudly pretentious. She was fired the week after. I still remember being asked if the Furby was supposed to be paid for.

So consensus states that Furbies are Satan's little mercenaries. Infantilized Gremlins, wingless bats with beaks, sorely mutated flying monkeys. Whatever they may be, and in whatever year they were manufactured and marketed, we know that each and every Furby could use obedience classes with S.T.F.U. Consulting (I suppose we should add "LLC" to this, protecting the venture from lawsuits should the classes not work). That little gem plastered onto their foreheads? I don't believe it was ever a sophisticated camera, or a recording device. I couldn't teach Oreo anything. If I couldn't make him dance like my friends could with theirs, how could my children follow simple rules? Not that I was making this irrational connection in 1998, but my friends often joked that as much as I carried that loudmouth around, he was "kinda" my baby.

Furbies have this creepy voice a bit too similar to that of an aggressive cougar you've either known or heard of with a burgeoning case of emphysema. Yes, I also remember some graphic anti-smoking ads. I think above all demands, mine's signature croon was "Hungry." I'd press my finger on its plastic red tongue to hear those simpering "Mmmm"s and so many "Hungry"s that wouldn't cease no matter how often I fed the damn thing. Frustrated, I'd bury Oreo beneath layers of blankets, chuck him in multiple pillowcases, wedge him beneath the wall and my mattress. His nighttime cravings annoyed us all. 

There was a point where I was reprimanded harshly for walking by Oreo during his "naps." We had had it with his shit.

We couldn't figure out how to turn the fucker off. Honestly, I don't remember anyone even taking steps to activate the Furby. He came into the world as is. It's eerily similar to those robotic babies they hoist onto high school freshmen in state-mandated health class. Abstinence only, this will teach you. And in those health classes I do remember some frustrated girls perpetrating acts of legitimate mannequin abuse. Kind of like those angry toddlers in doctors' offices. Oreo once again begged for food. I couldn't quite teach him to dance on cue. He never did anything other Furbies did in all the commercials. I knew you could rub them on the tummy and all, but I thought, "What if I turn him upside down?"

And he hung from my grasp, looking very much like an obese bat that lost its wings long atrophied. Characteristically, he screamed, "Weeeeee. Fun!"

My intention was to punish him. So I shook him.

"Weeeee. Fun! Tuba, woah! Do do do do do dooooo..."

(Oreo uttered this phrase multiple times. I could never really make out exactly what he was saying, but I am certain that he did say "Tuba.")

As my hands were too tiny for one to do all the handling, I tried to spin him around. Really, I churned the animatronic butterball in multiple directions, my arms growing tired, my frustrations projected.

"Woahhh! Woahhh!"

I continued with this odd punishment.

"Woaaaahhhh! Me scared!"

The cry was loud. But that "Me scared" was a bit unsettling. It was a mix between a coo and a gasp, like he knew what I was trying to do. But I continued in my campaign to silence Oreo.

"Whooopeeeee! Fuuuunnnn!"

Blatantly contradicting the sentiments expressed immediately prior. I continued.

"Woaaahhh! Me scared! Heeeee."

That "heeee" actually sounded remorseful. I felt a twinge of remorse. But it wasn't enough, as I did continue.

Repeatedly, he would cry about being scared. And suddenly, a snorting sound. And while he hung upside down, the base of his odd little person in the clutches of my white-knuckled hands, he spoke the awaited mantra.

"Wooooo. Wooooo. Wooooo. Something something. Cocoa."

(Again, it's often hard for me to properly recall exactly what that thing said. I'm pretty confident he said "cocoa." He had some decent taste.)

And silence. For a good two years. Despite several jabs and pinches in evenings to follow, Oreo persisted in his slumber. Or coma.

Twenty years later, and I'm ordering books on Amazon to better address my anger, impatience, and tendency to seethe. Babies, and children in general, stay absent in my plans. But really, no one would take the story of Oreo seriously enough in reviewing my constant fears. That day, I became a little scared of myself.

Kristine Brown shuffles between poetry, prose, data entry, and wishing she could properly fly a kite. She photographs strangers' cats and writes poems for them. You can find these poems on her blog, Crumpled Paper Cranes (https://crumpledpapercranes.com). Her writing appears in Hobart, Philosophical Idiot, Burningword Literary Journal, among others. Her novel, Connie Undone, will be released on March 1st, 2020.

[ts-2020-olympics]

EPISODE 4 - "Tribe Swap and TBH This Couldn’t Have Gone Any Better” - Pete

Tribe swap anyone? So right off the bat, I see that Jacob C. is the tribe captain. I immediately go to him and ask him to pick me for his tribe, so that I can pick Sammy and Sammy can pick Kevin and Kevin can pick a newbie and that newbie will pick a newbie and then that newbie will pick a newbie. GUESS WHAT? It worked!!! We did exactly that, and with all of us working together to build the tribe I think I realized I can trust them for now. I still know that Sammy has an idol, and so that’s useful information. Eventually we are gonna need to get him to drain it but I think maybe it’s gone now, if he could only use it for a few rounds. That’s also probably just what he wants us to think. I also hit a bump in the road with the information I’m holding. I’m trying to play this game very game-focused and not my usual hehe social game is gonna get me there way, even though in this cast...they really don’t care so maybe social would be the way to approach it. Either way, I ended up telling Kevin what I said about Beck in my last video confessional (I know you didn’t watch it so I’ll summarize; beck wanted to exclude kevin from an alliance that was Kevin’s idea). My only regret is that it might have been too soon to plant any seeds of doubt with Kevin about Beck, and that I might be getting played by both of them. But, on the other hand maybe it was the perfect time? We are going to merge....a long time from now. Like a super super long time from now. But, I don’t know I think telling him initiates a trust between us that I don’t have with the other people in this game. I’d really like to go to the end with Jacob C and maybe a random newbie. It just feels so far out of reach at this point, theres literally like...at least 7 more premerge boots and I really hate that. I despise big casts, and especially with this twist because there’s so much time in the middle of the round where everyone is just kind of like...sitting. And I don’t do well in those types of situations. So, it’s feeling bleak right now BUT if I do make it to merge, I’ll be very happy and then if I do make it to FTC I’ll be very happy and then if I don’t win, that’s to be expected and the usual state of what happens.

This tribe has my 2 "enemies". I don't trust either, I just tried to vote out Billy again too so that's cool. I'm going to go ahead and make friends with Jordan and stoner since they are loners, and we just need one more on top of that to make a new happy family. The thing with voting me out is, when you get me going, I will demolish the game, and given I'm a lot more comfortable in a tribe of 7, it shouldn't be that hard. Taking full control premerge is one of my favorite things to do, but you need a clear cut enemy to do it effectively. I have that enemy, no one else does. Let's see what we can do here.

Alright, so here's the ordeal.   First off, Bailey got medically evacuated due to getting three strikes (which might have stated this already in past confessional, but whatever,)  and secondly, Will lost out at arena, also getting the eliminated slot.   That left 21 people, and as my suspicions were, I expected a swap to occur, and that one did.   Went in expecting probably wouldn't be one of the first round picks, but ended up getting picked on tribe quicker than I anticipated.   Anyways, I am now on a tribe with Beck, Ben, Caeleb, Juls, Karen and Tommy.   I just couldn't be more happier to be with more active people on a tribe, instead of there just being myself and two others active on my original tribe.   Now, time to hope this new tribe can end the Yushu losing streak and come out as the sole immunity winner with today's challenge.   Then, finally, in regards to the Olympic Village, four times now where I have found nothing, but I went down each end of the village, so I at least now have some sort of insight to all the paths I can take in future village searching rounds.

HELL FUCKIN YEEAAAHH TRIBE SWAP!! and tbh this couldn’t have gone any better I think. I’ve got jacob c, eve, and sammy here and if we all vote together then that’s enough to be safe. I’m also maybe forming a bond with Landen cus they seem pretty cool and maybe I might be able to land a good social position in this tribe??? Hopefully someone secretly hates somebody so i can jump on that shit to keep me safe

okay so i’m sucking ass at this maverick bird game and i’ve only really performed well in one challenge ever so i’m in danger girls. everyone else here is used to challenges and have all this experience and then there’s my dumbass who has no fuckin clue what he’s doing. i could easily be first out this tribe tonight if no one wants to rock the boat and they all just vote based off challenge strength

I hate this challenge and I hate these flash games. That is all. 🙃

so i'm gonna try to keep this short because i have lots of writing to do for a history class, but basically, i've been praying for a swap to get away from the disaster that was sonkei, and last night, i finally got my wish! I wish we had gotten a break day to talk to everyone, because those are always nice when you swap, but i think i'll be able to do fine without it. my tribe breakdown could NOT have gone better! though i didn't end up with anybody i knew particularly well, i ended up with some people i've been talking to AND getting along with. Sammy is someone i love and someone i'm even buying a shirt from lol, nothing to do with the game he just told me about some of his graphic design work and i saw his shirts and i was like... let me buy it. Jacob, i love and we have very similar music taste. Then Nicole i've chatted with a bit, we're not close or anything but i like her! Pete, Eve, and Kevin were all entirely new. I think there's a lot of potential with pete, we've already bonded over crazy people in past games and our anxiety in games. whereas with eve things started off on an... AWKWARD foot, and with kevin, well i just suck at convo and he's not great either. some people are soooo dry and i just don't get it and as far as that goes i'm honestly struggling with some of these conversations like how r ppl so dry... but that being said i get along with everyone on this team and i think it's a really strong team, so i'm hoping that when results come out in like 15 minutes, i'm not proven wrong and we win! i tried really hard on the challenge and while i like everyone on the team (Jacob/Sammy specifically may be very useful as i'm also close with caeleb and they're working together.. Could be a good lil alliance type thing, potentially. I dunno.) i'm not 100% sure how safe i will be at tribal and really i just really, REALLY want a break from tribal. i'm very much #OverIt, and at this rate i genuinely might turn into Denise like Caeleb was joking about. I'm just sick of tribal council at this rate and I really don't want to go again, the arena makes these dynamics impossible and if I'm going to keep going I'm gonna have to keep managing everyone that goes there and back too.... OH BOOM RESULTS CAME OUT DURING TRIBAL AND WE WON! Thank FUCK. But the rest of that still stands about the confusing dynamics, how things are everchanging, and how avoiding tribal... I'm happy about it and hopefully I can continue to do it? I also need to talk things over with Billy, smooth over that dynamic and get him knowing I really do want him till the FINALS. I need him to trust me and the last tribal did not work for that. So it's go time. Thanks for helping me out, Miraitowa, my bomb af run begins now.

New Yushu, new us! Honestly, I'm really pleased with the tribe, but it sucks to see one of our own go. I have to, with a heavy heart, vote for Karen to go to arena. If all goes well, and I hope it will, they'll bring home the gold for us. :) 

wooooooo i'm nervous about tribal! unfortunately tribe yushu cannot catch a break even with new tribe members. voting out karen is best for my game but i'm afraid that me pushing for them to leave shows my cards a little too much and i fear that if we go to another tribal next round i'm gonna be in a bad position. i'll do what i can to maintain the connections i have rn and hopefully keep my life in this game going!! on that note. anxiety might kill me

Well I'm so MAD I LOST THE ARENA, I WAS IN LAST PLACE LAST PLACE! Then all of a sudden I take off and I literally was in first by 10 minutes and I get STUCK on the LAST CLUE and everyone else passes me and beats me. Which leaves me with no medal. Maybe this will lower my threat level because I keep flopping in all the comps but I literally have been trying to win these challenges and I just suck. However, I did make a key social connection with Beck during my time at the arena and I think this could be a good connection for my game. Then the swap comes and I'm like :V and I start messaging Beck because it's schoolyard pick and he messages me and says "If I pick you, will you pick someone I want?" and of course in my head I'm like "Well no duh I want to be in the majority" so I agree and he says "Darcy" so I know he has a tight bond with Darcy so whichever way Beck votes Darcy may follow. Then Darcy chooses Caeleb which I thought was a bit random but maybe they had talked a little and without any hesitation Caeleb chooses Juls *side eye emoji*. Juls I get a read that she is someone who is super dangerous. She's extremely likeable and has made no enemies despite going to tribal 3 times and everytime the person voted out came back. I think she may even be my biggest threat on this tribe. I don't necessarily know if she'll come for me but I don't want to find out. Then Juls talks about bringing Landen aka her partner in crime and in my head I'm like "Please god don't let Landen on this tribe." Thankfully the tribe right before it got to us picked him and she picked Ben because we wanted challenge strength and then Ben randomly chooses Karen aka the person who I wanted out first if Shosha ever want to tribal council and who has bombed most of the challenges this season. Then to make matters worse we BOMB this Immunity, I think these OG Blue people are cursed because they have been going to tribal every round besides the first round of the game. So now my closest ally in the game on my tribe is Beck. We call and Beck tells me about the dynamic how him and Juls know each other and he backstabbed her and he thinks she may want revenge. However, I believe they are about to host an ORG together so it's going to be really hard to convince him to turn on her because then she might say something if she's voted out because they will be hosting together. At the point I was at I was fine with Karen going home over Juls first because Ben said "Let's go for Juls." Then the targets ended up switching around and now everyone wants Karen, which I was still fine with until I get a message maybe an hour later from Karen saying "I really think we should stick together." and then I'm like well I guess this means if Karen stays I'm her #1 and that's very important on a tribe that'll only get smaller, so now I don't want Karen to go home but her odds are looking so narrow that she avoids the arena. However, I think she can pull out a Gold Medal and if she does leave I hope she does come back. I kinda view the tribe as there's the three of the OG Blues (Ben, Darcy, and Beck), the duo of Juls and Caeleb, and the sorta a duo of myself and Karen but nobody really sees us as a duo. Then Juls and Beck have a strong connection, Me and Beck have a strong connection, and Beck and Darcy have a strong connection. Beck has already voiced to me about blindsiding Ben, who I don't know if I can trust but at this point I'm not against it but I rather see Juls go, she's a way bigger threat and I don't think she will return with a gold and it causes tensions if she does return between Beck and Juls and it's off of me. My plan is to just keep Beck as close as I can I need to be his #1, I'll even take a close #2. This way I'm able to secure my safety in the tribe. I'm also trying to get closer to Caeleb in the route we end up going for Juls next and she doesn't come back I think I may be able to scoop him up as a number for me while being on this tribe and developing a bond that can last a while. Ideally Juls leaves tonight however, it'll sadly be Karen with that being said my perfect scenario is Karen wins the gold medal comes back, if we go to tribal again we meaning (myself, darcy, ben, and beck possibly karen) blindside Juls/Caeleb sending Juls home and she looses in the arena, I scoop up Caeleb, keep Karen close, Beck close, and then go for a blindside against Ben using (myself, karen, beck, and caeleb) even if Ben returns I think he'll feel most betrayed by Beck, and keep my options open from there. This way I'll start taking out people I feel like are dangerous that won't be targeted and I make my threat level smaller while creating strong bonds with people, and have other people be mad at each other. Hopefully all of this while we win a few immunities so that we aren't completely decimated by the time we get to a swap.  

This swap is good, I either wanted Billy or Nik out and that seems to be happening. Nik and Sarah aren't talking to me. I'm immune. Y'all confusing

Pretty sure I sent in confessional already this round, but why not, let's send another.  I don't got too much to add since my past confessional, but my tribe lost immunity.   Seeming like the vote is going to be Karen, but who knows, could be me, or could be someone else, I am not fully certain how this vote will end up playing out.

i love my new tribe with my whole entire heart!! sm i going to tribal again? maybe so. HOWEVER, they’re all angels and i can’t wait to continue to work with them 

hello i'm retracting my previous confessional bc now i actually have a reason to vote out someone who isn't karen. the vote is flipping on ben which i'm okay with because apparently he did something that upset caeleb and i want everybody to be comfortable playing this game. so hey, at least i know i'm safe tonight

😖😖😖😠😠😠😭😭😭😭😵😵😵🤫🤫🤫🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢

Anyway so my UTR game is over and now it’s time to make a confessional! We’ve swapped tribes or whatever and of course I get swapped onto a tribe without nicole or Kevin so basically my back is against the wall /:. Anyway so I have tommy, juls, caeleb, Ben, becks and Darcy on my tribe now and they all suck at challenges apparently sjdbdjdndj like I didn’t do well on immunity but I didn’t even try which in retrospect wasn’t a good idea because now these freaks are targeting me as the weakest. So Ben and becks last night were basically like yeah we’re probably voting for you /: like first of all....fuck u, the only reason you tell me that is because you don’t think I have a chance to save myself, I don’t want your stupid pity confession, at least TRY to strategize with me. It took everything in me not to snap at them, I mean I kinda went off on becks but w/e they can’t be so naive. Anyway so I was talking to nicole and Kevin trying to save my ass and we figured out that I would have majority if I got me & tommy and the two people who were on other tribe so that was my mission for today. I think I talked enough with both caeleb and juls to convince them to work with tommy and I but I’m also a little weary /: I can’t be too sure and that scares me so anyway I’m gonna look for an idol hopefully I find something and hopefully no one is playing my ass right now or else it’s GG to me /: also becks is on board with voting Ben which like yikes if Ben finds out lol. Ben messaged me recently so I need to deal with that because I assume someone told him something ugh why do these newbies suck ):

Sooooooo I really need to keep my mouth shut sometimes. I didn't want Nik or I to go so I thought that we could avoid it, however chris didn't wanna swap. This really sucks because I didn't want Nik to go but I didn't make any effort to try and save him, which is odd for me. Had Chris and I voted out Sarah, it would've been fine. However, I'm now probably gonna be the biggest target in this tribe. BRING IT BITCHES I'M READY.

Maybe I should watch more of the actual Survivor show, but I'm now fully realizing that how well someone plays the game does not directly correlate to them winning...it's all politics and drama 🙃 

These people are literally insane. This is hilarious. I'm still on thin ice but this position is a lot better than my last one. Billy sucks. Common theme. Nik showed up at the live tribal but not to anyone's dms.

After seeing the MESSY ass tribal Sonkei just had, AGAIN, I am so glad I finally got the fuck off that tribe and onto a new one. The curse of Suckei really does exist, it's an absolute trainwreck tribe... That being said I had to laugh, and it might go down as one of the best tribes in history. Those iconic trainwrecky Survivor tribes are just.. ugh. That being said, I am SO SICK OF EMMA SURVIVING. PLEASE KICK HER ASS THE FUCK OUT OF THE GAME LIKE I HATE HER! ......Okay moving on from that outburst :) One thing this does remind me of though, is that I need to become more active in my pursuit to understand dynamics. I kinda wanted to take a step back and just observe during the swap, because usually I overplay out. And here, I just want to chill, and let people kind of forget that I ran shit on Original Sonkei. Forget that I was the leader there, who dominated everything with an iron fist (even if sometimes accidentally... Trainwreck vibes!) and just think of me as a cute derpy 16 yr old player again. That was my plan, but I'm starting to get nervous. This late in the game and I'm still in no official alliance chats, I may be losing Billy, and i'm ANXIOUS about the future. I definitely need to work harder on things moving forward, so that's exactly what I'm going to do.

IM READY TO KILL STONER AND DARCY AND BEN AND EVERYONE IN THAT ARENA EXCEPT NIK FUCK THAT TRIBE THAT VOTED HIM OUT AND FUCK THAT ARENA FUCK EVERYBODY I DONT EVEN REMEMBER WHAT TRIBE HES FROM BUT WHATEVER ITS LATE AND I WAS SUPPOSED TO SLEEP EARLIER AND NOW IMMA BE REALLY SLEEPY FOR MY ANNOYING ASS JOB THAT I KEEP DOING OVERTIME FOR CUS MY SHITTY ASS COWORKERS KEEP LEAVING EARLY I GOT OFF TOPIC ANYWAYS FUCK ARENA AND FUCK THE WINNERS AND FUCK THE RETURNEES AND FUCK SONKEI AND FUCK YUSHU FUCKIN DISCOUNT WANNABE YUJO BITCHES OKAY EVE SARAH AND I WILL GET YOUR ASSES 

psa krispy kreme is evil like they have bullshit random ass “deals” like 8 days a week for NO REASON like this one time it was New Year’s Eve so duh it’ll already be busy but corporate decided hey let’s do an annoying ass BOGO for $2 deal to torture our retail workers and I was working fucking drive thru that day and lemme tell you there have been very few times my patience and emotional strength have been toyed with by the force of god and i sure as hell wasnt prepared to have it at fucking 8 in the fucking morning i was so tempted to just tell every customer we make our donuts with bleach and orphan meat. it’s fucking 1 AM and i told myself i’d sleep at like 8 or 9 like a responsible adult but nooOOOOoo i just HAD to forget to eat so i have to make food and eat it so now i’m at midnight and gotta do this challenge or whatever so now i have fuckin 5 hours for my ugly ass to get enough beauty rest to be a lovely customer service representative of Krispy Kreme Enterprises™ and i’m gonna hate waking up i’m dreading it i have so much to do. i got off topic but yeah fuck arena fuck everyone in this game go eat a dick i’m upset and idk what else to say i ran out of angry words fuck that challenge and fuck billy dude why is he still here fuck the fuckin olympics nobody benefits from them except the greedy billionaires at the top like not even the athletes benefit that much they still gotta work average jobs like the rest of us like i always though olympic athletes were rich and shit but no they get screwed over royally and the places that host the olympics get shit on horribly it’s just an all around awful event doing nothing but spreading blind nationalism which is dangerous fuck america dude america’s a piece of shit and i’m allowed to say that i’m from florida fuck you anyways i’m tired bye fuck this  

and fuckin who the fuck is ben dude like no Nik was robbed bring Nik back fuckin ben from fuckin wannabe yujo tribe didn’t he go in a unanimous vote yikes also shoutout to whatever dumbass cancelled his vote that was a waste like why didn’t you save that shit dude fuck arena btw and fuck sonkei lmao loser ass tribe go win a challenge or something wow people are really gonna hate me when then airs but oh well i’m venting i’m at a breaking point and i don’t wanna fuckin go to work dude fuck fuckin yushu and fuck sonkei just throw the whole tribe away it’s Yujo final 3 bitches and fuck everybody else 

literally like i was added and my phone was still loading ALL the messages from all that fucking lag and already they started the round before i knew what was going on so i was just blind going in so fuckin stoner ass weee bitch got it when i wasn’t even there like ooh you won a challenge against nobody go fuck yourself by the time i could see the messages it was already over and they were like “sns you were here :/// go die i guess lmao loser” so yeah i’m a lil heated and it’s fucking 1:30 i can only get 3 and a half hours of sleep fuck this 

okay now it’s real strategy time. Nik just got robbed and I found out from Sarah that Billy’s leading the new Sonkei and wants her out next. Okay first off how the hell was he not voted out for not even doing the challenge? Second, if he’s targeting Yujo’s then he’s officially made the biggest mistake in the game. Eve and I are now on a mission to lead the Sonkei tribe to get rid of Billy as he should’ve been day 1. I think I can maybe convince Jordan and Chris, we just need 3 to have a chance. 

After swap 1

After nik got voted out

after winning arena

I’m fucking tireddddddd of going to tribal this game is not shaking out how I want it to. 

TRIBE SWAP BLESS THE TRIBE SWAP! i did truly like caeleb sammy and jacob a lot as people but like I was so going home if we lost its crazy. Now hopefully I can work with them without such tight a line keeping us together. ANYWAYS! we swap and I am in a fantastic position, i basically just took over tribe in terms of power. First thing i do is allign with stoner which is so funny to me. I realized hes someone whose general clout in the community is more disliked than me, so maybe i can make him my goat. I wonder if hes thinking the same about me. I wanted to work with billy but that guy is crazy like and that would be fine, if he was just normal crazy, but hes also the type of crazy thats like flip a vote at tribal for no reason and like I cant deal with that. I thought he had potnetial for a jordan pines minion, but sadly I think he might have to go. Anyways we lose teh challenge and em wants to target nik, em is somoene i super vibe with tbh so we get on board. HOwever she doesnt watn to tell sarah and im like OPPORTUNITY. I have had some great bonding with Sarah and think I have secured her loyaly to myself. I let her know about nik and got her to play dumb while still keeping her in the know. Now i think shes really loyal to me So after all that heres where stand. i have a 4 person alliance with me Stoner Em and Jacob which will likely take out billy if we lose again.the plan is the use sarah as a fifth on the side but my plan is a lil different. I want to keep sarah as tight to me as possible and when the time comes to take her out, do what I got to do to keep the people I think will progress me furthest in teh game. I don't think I am in danger of going this tribe swap so I need to use this opportunity to make sure I am okay for whatever comes after it.

[hedwigs-window]

@the-six-fingered-villain you can ask for WHATEVER YOU WANT, boo

Orwell:

First impression: I’ll be honest, at first blush I wasn’t really impressed with Orwell, I think maybe because he was played in such a quiet monotone and it seemed like they were almost making him intentionally stodgy and difficult to follow. I definitely dismissed him out of hand during the first viewing.

Impression now: I actually love Orwell now. He’s clearly a scholar of history but I think what’s most interesting about him is not what he studies but why. Orwell doesn’t get a lot of time in the light, I think, and what time he does have is spent (some might say wasted) in devouring as much research as he can and waxing poetic about it. I think it’s because Orwell has a lot of self awareness. He’s a philosopher. He sits in a room in a circle of chairs with a cross section of wildly different people, each scrambling for their time in the light, their chance to experience life for brief snatches at a time, living slices of a condensed human experience. Orwell doesn’t study the dates and statistics of history, he studies motivations. He wants to make sense of life, of humanity, of what binds us and drives us. He wants to find parallels between the experiences Kevin (and the alters) have had and experiences lived by people in history. All of the alters play a role in protecting Kevin. I think Orwell’s is to remind him that despite how different and alien he feels, he has common ground with other people who have lived. He helps to reassure Kevin that even if he isn’t typical, he is normal. He is human. He has not felt these things alone.

Favorite moment: Okay I’m gonna CHEAT bc it’s not even canon, but you KNOW it’s from The Multiple Peel of Oranges because that monologue was so fucking good. ‘We’re all membranes’ like please hold me I am collapsing

Idea for a story: Orwell, more than the other alters, knows how to make Casey feel beautiful. He speaks poetry to her, reassures her with no hint of an agenda that she is as strong as any man or woman in history, that her face, her hair, her body could launch a thousand ships, that she is as dazzling to him as the light glinting on winter’s first frost to Robert Snow. He spends less time alone for her, pushes into the light for her, reminding her that like Eurydice she is worth the journey through hell.

Unpopular opinion: Look I love James McAvoy and he’s an amazing actor and deserves a fucking oscar but the voice he does for Orwell is so fucking fake, like...so bad

Favorite relationship: Definitely Orwell and Kevin. I think a lot of the alters interact with each other a lot in there, but Orwell doesn’t, really. He’s kind of an odd man out, he has his personal interests and his devotion to Kevin but not a lot of other alliances. He views the Horde from an outside perspective. You can tell in the scene when he forces his way into the light to stop Casey from killing Kevin at the end of Split, it takes enormous effort for him to intercede and he refers to the horde as separate from ‘us’, meaning him and Kevin. He may get stuck in his own head sometimes and forgets that he is no more a complete person than the rest of them, but he clearly feels a strong kinship with Kevin.

Favorite headcanon: Orwell emerged as an alter early in Kevin’s life, when he was a child but old enough to read independently. He provided an escape (as they all do, but specifically) through books. In those pages Kevin found people who understood him, who were going through what he was going through, who made him feel like he could be the good guy. And when he was scared and nervous, he could repeat rote facts from his studies in his head to calm down and steady his breathing. List all the presidents. What year did the Philippines gain independence. Who invented the telescope. List them all again. Secondary headcanon: there are STRONG similarities between Orwell and Kevin’s dad. ((shit I did not mean for this to be so long! I’ll post Patricia in a minute))

[dellgirl]

Strong, Independent Female characters which I admire

Today I was asked to choose fictional people in pop culture I admire, why I admire them and how they would represent society (not verbatim) I gave about 6 females which I admire. I was then asked to narrow it down to just three. My list, which comprised of:

Wonder Woman

Captain Marvel

Lara Croft

Black Widow

Holtzmann

Hermione Granger

Luna Lovegood

I chose these because I like smart, independent types. The ones that are intelligent, independent, might be strong, not just mentally, but physically as well, who is seen as equal, sometimes better (like Lara Croft) than their male counterparts, who don't take any shit, who fight for what they believe in, (like Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Black Widow) who don't back down, who are loyal, trustworthy, reliable, friendly, professional (like Morgan and Aubrey; The Spy Who Dumped Me) and don't have to have a relationship to be successful... Who are successful on their own merits - their own achievements, their own standings, who fight hard and prove people wrong (like The Ghostbusters) time and time again.

Those superheroes (with superpowers or not) are what appeals to me; not just their looks (bonus) but their intelligence and their outstanding behaviour and the way they throw stereotypes to the ground and fight for rights and adversity.

So I narrowed it down and was presented with 4 questions, which I've tried my best to answer. It has been a while since I saw the films the first two are from, so this is from memory... Also, these opinions are my own and may or may not include canons; if they don't, please don't come at me because "you're wrong, that's not true" this is my interpretation of the characters.

The questions, as previously mentioned, which I needed to answer:

1. Define who they are. What makes them the person they are? What are their motivations?

2. If they were real, what need would they fulfill in society? How would they really benefit mankind?

3. What groups do they represent in real society (autism, LGBT, women...etc)?

4. What real life lessons can people learn from them? How can real people emulate those fictional characters to benefit society?

I have chosen three women to focus on for being strong role models and I am drawn to these three women.

Wonder Woman, also known as Dianna, is a lovely goddess from the planet Themyscira. There are no men on the planet, which means that they have to learn to be strong because women need to be strong.

WW is determined to be a good example by helping others who need it the most. She is determined to save people and do it without the help of anyone - including men (Steve Trevor in particular)

She is motivated because she is a princess and wants to prove she is fit for the role, and not just by birth default. I would say that WW is bisexual, as she lives on a planet with only women, but when she meets Steve, she experiences that side of herself. She is also a Hufflepuff, because she is caring to all and wants the best for everyone.

In real life, she would fulfil the role of peacekeeper and provide others with the ability to fight against wars and inequality and bad behaviour. She'd stop the war and get Trump out of office, and fix Brexit.

WW can teach people the need to stand up for themselves - women need to trust in their own abilities and fight for equal right, equal pay and everyone should fight for peace.

Hermione Granger is a Muggle-born witch who attends Hogwarts School of Witch Craft and Wizardry. She is a Gryffindor because she is loyal and courageous. She is loyal to her best friends Harry and Ron, but she is courageous because she helps them in their adventures, but she remains headstrong. Hermione is also bookish and wonderfully smart.

I would say that Hermione is asexual - she did kiss Harry, but it was a good luck thing, and although she danced with Viktor Krum, she has always been more interested in books than men; she does kiss Ron, but they've known each other for so long, they're more like siblings, so that kissed was forced and only given as a celebration of life over death.

Hermione, is very much High Functioning Autistic; she doesn't have sensory difficulties, as far as I can tell, but she does have other traits, such as the need to be right and social difficulties, she seems not to fit in with others, except for Harry and Ron; even being called a 'Mudblood' for being a Muggle-born and I think she has been called annoying in the books, just cos she's different. She is buried in her books and can rattle off information like nobody's business. The fact that she considers expulsion worse than death, means that she is obsessed with trying to do right and has to know everything - she has a Time Turner to attend multiple classes, meaning that she is a polymath. She struggles in social situations (but always tries) She only breaks the rules in her 5th year and explains that it feels good... Same as punching Draco because she had had enough of his belittlment, but she doesn't like hurting others.

In real life, Hermione would be a Humanitarian and she would learn everything there is to know about it to ensure that she does the best she can to help others understand what a Humanitarian is and how she can help others with things like equality and human rights.

People can use their knowledge for good and Hermione shows that being intelligent pays off, but there must be some give and take because otherwise you might become so wrapped up in your own head, that you don't have time for others. Loyalty is a huge factor in life and it pays to be trustworthy too.

And finally, I come to a character which I relate the most with - but that's not the only reason I chose her. I chose Jillian Holtzmann for a number of reasons.

I chose Holtzmann because she is intelligent and is fascinated in science things. She doesn't care that she's the odd one out, she revels in the fact. She only has three close friends, but better to have 3 close friends than 33 acquaintances. She doesn't get all social situations, but she tries to be in the conversation... Accidentally, she is sometimes the centre of attention, and yet, despite this, she knows when she needs to be quiet. She praised the girls when trapping the ghost, insofar as to tell Patty she needs to try harder, but she wants them all to do well, and she is so happy with the fact that they caught their first ghost, that she loudly announced "We put a ghost in a boooooox!" which indicates that she is entertained by the smallest of things.

Patty saved her life 3 times and she was grateful, but I know, if Erin was in the portal, she'd be in their saving her, a heartbeat; after all, that's her crush.

She's the mad scientist type - eccentric, wild, uncontrollable like a wildfire, but once she's found something of interest she hyperfocuses and gets the job done. She needs her friends for support but she doesn't need a relationship and almost mocks Erin for flirting with Kevin, comparing him to "a big ol' robot"

We know a lot more about Holtzy's sexuality and ability - she is a lesbian High Functioning Autistic with ADHD; those traits tend to go hand-in-hand. However, it appears that, despite Holtzy's high level of independence, and functioning in the real world, with little to no help, there are some sensory issues which she faces, which could adversely affect her abilities and processing skills.

We'll start with the most obvious one: the glasses. She has 4 pairs of yellow-coloured eye wear. She has her bottle-cap glasses, which are 1920s welding goggles, then she has more protective rounded welding goggles, circa 80s, and she has the big, almost pilot, almost Steampunk goggles, with loupes (double magnifying glasses) and these are the most practical of the lot. And finally, she has a pair, which are almost sunglasses, which she legit only wears for the Battle of Times Square. She needs them, especially her bottle-caps, for every day wear, due to her light sensitivity. (There is a highly interesting article, here, which explains the Autistic-ness of Holtzmann)

Whenever Patty yells, or Kevin hits the gong, she winds her neck in and pulls a face; she doesn't cover her ears like a neurotypical would, but it is evident that it is too loud. And in the Aldridge Manor, you can see the pain on her face from the APx-H shift.

Her impassioned speech, whilst heartfelt, contained physics metaphors - something which makes more sense to her, and it was very much without eye contact; something which can be uncomfortable for us Autistics, it doesn't mean we're not listening! She also seems to wear only comfy, almost loose-fitting clothing to allow for movement and comfort, with no scratchy labels. She chews her straw, sits with her feet up, or on the edge of her seat, spins on her stool and licks her guns; self-stimulatory behaviour.

Holtzmann, in real life, would obviously be a Nuclear Engineer, but we'd have to keep an eye on her so that she doesn't do any dodgy dealings and inadvertently get lead astray and into making weapons for the wrong side... Either that, or she'd go back to teaching Physics at a University.

Holtzmann is a mix of all 4 Hogwarts Houses, but the main 2 traits she has stem from Hufflepuff (her creativity and hyperfocus) and Ravenclaw (her intelligence - IQ of 163 - her multiple degrees and PhD and the fact that she is also a polymath, like Hermione - I think they'd be very good friends!)

Holtzmann would teach us about humility, courage, perseverance and finding the best of a situation and of course, the joy in the little things.

All 3 of these share similar thoughts and attributes - they're all loyal, friendly and work hard to achieve what they want. They don't need romantic relationships to survive and in fact, due to their independent nature, they would probably do better without them. They would teach others to be independent and to follow their heart, not comprising their own sense of justice or understanding of the world to conform to others. They would teach about human rights, actively focusing on diversity and equality; making sure that, as women, we don't strive for second best and that we work towards a better future, by providing opportunities and tools for the younger generation; in particular, females. All three, therefore, are excellent role models and are all unique, but also highly similar in the way they think and present themselves.

I hope this makes sense, answers the questions enough (I know they won't be answered fully as my brain capacity is limited today; infoxication and all that - and yes 'infoxication' is a real word... Click it to discover what it means!)

And I hope there are others, who may have similar thoughts to myself; I know I can't please everyone, but even if you disagree, I hope you like my writing style... Apparently, it's rather eloquent!

Also, I am sorry for the length of this post, and that, in actual fact, it is my only text post, which isn't just and agreement on someone else's post which I have reblogged.

I suppose tags would be helpful too.

#wonderwoman #strongwomen #independentwomen #fiction #jillianholtzmann #hermionegranger #charactersiadmire #marvel #dc #harrypotter #ghostbusters #thespywhodumpedme #laracroft

[fromtheringapron]

WWE SummerSlam 2016

Date: August 21, 2016.

Location: The Barclay Center in Brooklyn, New York. 

Attendance: 15,974

Commentary: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, and Corey Graves (Raw). Mauro Renallo, John “Bradshaw” Layfield, and David Otunga (SmackDown). 

Results: 

Kickoff Match: The Usos (Jimmy and Jey), The Hype Bros (Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder), and American Alpha (Chad Gable and Jason Jordan) defeated Breezango (Fandango and Tyler Breeze), The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor), and The Vaudevillains (Simon Gotch and Aiden English. 

Kickoff Match: Sami Zayn and Neville defeated The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von). 

Kickoff Match, First in a Best of Seven Series: Sheamus defeated Cesaro. 

1. Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens defeated Enzo Amore and Big Cass. 

2. Raw Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte defeated Sasha Banks (champion) to win the title. 

3. Intercontinental Championship Match: The Miz (champion) (with Maryse) defeated Apollo Crews. 

4. AJ Styles defeated John Cena. 

5. WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) (champions) via disqualification.

6. WWE Championship Match: Dean Ambrose (champion) defeated Dolph Ziggler. 

7. Nikki Bella, Natalya, and Alexa Bliss defeated Naomi, Carmella, and Becky Lynch. 

8. WWE Universal Championship Match: Finn Balor defeated Seth Rollins to become the inaugural champion. 

9. Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) defeated Randy Orton via knockout. 

My Review

SummerSlam 2016 is one long ass show. I’m aware that’s a bit of a redundant statement because, in the age of the WWE Network, every show is long and, more often than not, they’re also ass. However, the point still stands: this show is a whopping 4 hours and it’s not something you can digest in one sitting on a rewatch. For the record, I totally support making the SummerSlams and Survivor Series and so on seem just as big and important as WrestleMania. It’s fine by me for WWE’s Big 4 to feature absolutely stacked cards. Unfortunately, in modern WWE, this approach also results in the shows running out of gas midway through and some of the matches going on way longer than they should. The 2016 edition of the summer classic isn’t exactly the worst example of this trend, but it definitely shows similar signs of fatigue.

On top of that, it’s such a heel-dominated show. It’s only occasionally satisfying. In their crusade to make the audience finally embrace Roman Reigns, the WWE would pile on the heel victories in hopes the crowd would pop like crazy once the Big Dog got the W in the main event. It’s inherently flawed psychology to think the crowd is just going to accept a long-awaited face win from just anybody. That can really only work in a particular situation. Needless to say, it often failed because while Roman would get the W, the crowd still hated him. Worse here is that he doesn’t even wrestle on this show. So who was this booking supposed to benefit? I guess you could make the argument for Finn Balor, whose Universal title win remains a highlight of his WWE tenure. Even then, it was rendered irrelevant 24 hours later, as Balor would vacate the title due to injury.

With all that in mind, it shouldn’t be surprising that such a heel-heavy show ends on a rather depressing note. Brock Lesnar pummels Randy Orton into a bloody mess and that’s it. That’s the show. Fade to black. It would’ve been fine if placed somewhere in the middle of the card, but it’s such an awkward way to close up shop. They did have a pretty workable story going into the match, and I’m not gonna pass up the rare occasion to see Orton get beaten into oblivion, but talk about deflating. The whole thing winds up looking like a pale imitation of Lesnar’s squash of John Cena back at SummerSlam 2014. Oh, and there’s some drama with Shane McMahon at the end because, as we all know, that’s exactly what the WWE needs: more McMahon family drama!

The far more successful dream match is John Cena vs AJ Styles. Truly something special. It’s essentially the same finishing move and near-fall spam fest that plagues every major WWE main event, but I don’t mind it here. This is meant to be an epic blockbuster between two of the biggest stars in wrestling of the post-Monday Night War era. It makes perfect sense for both guys to throw all of their deadliest ammunition at each other right out of the gate. Styles was in the midst of one of the hottest stretches of his career at this point, but Cena deserves just as much credit here. It’s kind of amazing. For all the times he’s proven that he can rise to the occasion in a big match situation, there are still anti-Cena bros to this day who’ll deny it every step of the way. His record of putting people over isn’t perfect, especially at SummerSlam, but what he does for AJ here is pretty selfless. I don’t think even his haters can deny that.

Overall, SummerSlam 2016 isn’t a bad show by any means but, again, the length ensures it will inevitably start to drag. A shame, because there’s probably a pretty good show somewhere in here. It’s nice that the WWE is trying to make the biggest party of the summer feel important, but too much partying can make even the most diehard fan eventually feel pooped. 

My Random Notes

I can only imagine what someone like Jon Stewart really thinks of WWE’s comedy. I mean, he’s probably had plenty of experience doing his best with bad material, but you’d have to think he had to grin and bear it here at several points.

In light of Sasha Banks’ recent spat with the company, I can really see why she’d be frustrated with her booking. Would it have killed them to have her hold the Women’s title for longer than a month? I know an injury is cited as the official reason she dropped the belt here, but it’s still the first of several instances of them yanking the rug out from under her.

Man, Enzo and Cass were so frickin’ over. They’re such laughing stocks now that it’s quickly become lost to time how much the fans were digging them. Of course, they only have themselves to blame for fucking it all up, but they really did have something special there for a bit. 

Dean Ambrose in his black torn shirt gives me some serious Bobby Heenan singlet vibes.

Funny how the pre-match hype package for Dean vs. Dolph centers so much around who Dolph Ziggler is because, as I’ve stated here previously, I still have no frickin’ idea who Dolph is supposed to be. He’s some anonymous hybrid of HBK, Mr. Perfect, Billy Gunn, and an ‘80s Trapper Keeper with literally no individuality. I find it ironic that he later got into a storyline where he kept changing gimmicks only to never find anything of his own. What a summary of his entire WWE career.

Hey, Balor may have had to surrender the title 24 hours later, but at least this meant him getting another run with the belt in the future, right? Right?!?

Man, Nikki Bella was so frickin’ over. Why does it feel like I’m repeating myself? In all seriousness though, people can hate on the Bellas all they want, but in no way should it be surprising that they still get big pops. They’ve done more for WWE’s mainstream visibility than a lot of other superstars allegedly have.

Speaking of Nikki, crazy to think that she’s only one in the six-woman tag to not hold the Smackdown Women’s title.

I can’t be the only one who felt a little kick to gut when they showed fans waiting outside the now-deceased Toys R Us. I don’t need another reminder that my childhood is dead.

When did Lana drop the accent? I don’t watch Raw and Smackdown weekly anymore, but it horrifies me to know I let this travesty pass me by.

I know some people were upset they allowed The New Day to surpass Demolition’s record for the longest reign as tag champs but I’m totally okay with the decision. Sure, they occasionally get into terrible storylines like this ringpostitis shit, but they’re incredibly over, sell a ton of merchandise, and can wring out some entertainment from even the worst material. If they really wanted to insult Demolition, they should’ve given that honor to The Ascension.

[dcarevu]

Batman TAS: Heart of Steel (Part 2)

“I do wish your toys wouldn’t play so roughly with you, Sir.”

Episode: 39 Robin: No Writer: Brynne Stephens (Brynne Chandler) Director: Kevin Altieri Animator: Sunrise Airdate: November 16, 1992 Grade: A

Picking up where we left off, and things don’t appear to be off to a stellar start. Batman escaping the grabber that is installed incredibly high up on the cave ceiling seems anti-climactic. Because after that, HARDAC just gives up. Batman starts to track its location, and it disconnects from his system, ending the moment. What the hell, HARDAC. Didn’t you just have control over everything? You couldn’t have locked Batman out entirely and prevented him from even getting that far? Luckily this segment ends with a pretty funny callback to Part 1 from Alfred, and from here things are awesome the entire way. I think that the cliffhanger last time was only there to be a cliffhanger and get ratings for Part 2. I guarantee it was an afterthought. But whatever, it’s out of the way, now let’s get to the good stuff!

The previous episode was used to set a lot of things up. It had some good moments, but they held off from showing us the major excitement. This episode flies by, and it feels like nonstop action with some of the best imagery we have yet to see. I’m so happy with how well they nailed the designs of a lot of these robots, and the concept was taken to its max potential. I love the way that the robots (disguised as people such as Bullock, Gordon, Mayor Hill, etc) move around, sometimes walking and talking just like you and me, but other times they leap and scuttle in a way that almost resembles the way the little girl moves in The Exorcist or like the girl from The Grudge. Paired with their glares and those piercing eyes, and it’s easily as creepy as anything on Courage the Cowardly Dog. The most disturbing moment is when one of the robots twists its head all over the place and then follows Batman up the elevator cable. It’s a moment of tension because we know the bot will grab Batman if he doesn’t hurry the hell up and solder through it. It’s a similar feeling to being followed and trying to quickly unlock a door. After Batman solders through, the elevator falls many floors and completely demolishes the robots that were onboard, and we get to see their mangled carcasses. Like with Captain Clown from The Last Laugh, robots give the writers a lot of fun opportunities for violence that is not typically permitted. There’s an earlier scene where a robotic Bullock is thrown onto the Bat-Signal where it gets electrocuted. We see a charge running through it, its hand twitches, and it loses its skin-like shell. Seeing how willing Batman was to deliver this type of punishment to Bullock was a little bit concerning, and we even see Barbara start to cry during the aftermath before they realize that it’s not really Bullock. Beautiful stuff!

During the climax we get a lot of this type of thing all shoved together into one scene. There are explosions galore (I sorta gave up on the fire count that we had going, but if I hadn’t, you’d better believe that this episode would count toward it), some twisted imagery in the form of seeing Bullock and Gordon suspended in a tank of water for observation, and Randa gets part of her face ripped off, revealing a metal skull underneath. It makes Batman jump in fear as he turns around and sees her. While one of Batman’s major talents is scaring the piss out of the criminals he fights, as we know from Scarecrow episodes, he himself is not immune to fear. It’s nice to see him expressing this emotion without the use of mysterious gas.

HARDAC’s motives were fleshed out a lot more, and they are a little cliché. Replacing all humans, eliminating man-made flaws, allowing the world to run smoother, yada yadda. We’ve heard this before. What I find more interesting is Karl Rossum’s role in all of this. What I gathered was that Rossum designed HARDAC to replace certain human-operated functions with robot-operated functions. For example, self-driving cars. He had a daughter that died in a car accident, and so he vowed to rid the world of the possibility of this happening to anyone else. Because he…for some reason…gave HARDAC a free-thinking mind, HARDAC decided to take this plan much further than intended, considering all humans a problem period. They’re too imperfect. Ironic, given HARDAC’s quick downfall, but hey, this is the 90’s. Technology has a long way to go. Anyway, Rossum’s motives are pretty vague, though, so I could be interpreting this wrong, but I like that there are a couple of ways to take it. I can see someone else going more literal and imagining that he wanted to replace drivers with robots, or even some of the more problematic citizens. Who knows. Interestingly, in Part 1, we see Randa using a self-driving car, which I just now remembered. I thought I remembered something too about Randa being modeled after his daughter, but they never mentioned this. Head-canon I guess. I have to ask, is Rossum innocent? He doesn’t seem to be in much trouble at the end, but we have no way of knowing how far he was going with this plan. Yeah, HARDAC went further, but that doesn’t mean that Rossum wasn’t trying to go further than most sane people would, you know? I have a feeling that we’ll never see him again and won’t have to worry about it, but Batman the Animated Series has this way of surprising me.

Barbara Gordon gets more time this half hour, and she’s so rad! Her voice actress (Melissa Gilbert) plays her so well, and combined with the lines, she sounds like she’s incredibly intelligent. How love how she talks to her stuffed bear when she’s by herself, but what she talks about is how she plans on breaking into Cybertron to rescue her father. It combines cute with badass and capable, and she seems to be a strong female role model that any kid could look up to. Not to say that I condone putting yourself into the kind of danger that she did, but hey. You know what I mean. Last episode she may have been an extension of Jim. This episode she broke out of that and felt like something entirely her own. You already know that I know, but for those who don’t know what’s coming (Char), hopefully we’ll see lots more of Barbara! She did mention how much she enjoyed getting in on the action, and Batman told her that she did an excellent job. If that doesn’t sound like a recurring character, I don’t know what does!

I don’t have too-too much more to say, but this episode was way better than I remember. So far, it may even be top ten material. Char loved it too. She said that she was happy that no one died in the end, but jesus, when Possum was fried by HARDAC’s laser, I thought he was going to be left a pile of ash. Never program a super-powerful, free-thinking computer to have weapons like that… You give it a will to be free and a way, what could go wrong?

Get a load of Gordon’s tall mustache. 

Some of the animation in this one reminds me of The Tick. It’s the line work as well as the eyes. I couldn’t find any info on who did the animation for The Tick, but could it have been Sunrise?

Jesus, he’s not dead? The intensity of HARDAC’s laser blast was shocking, and it looked soooo violent.

I keep seeing a smiley face on HARDAC’s light/eye/whatever. On purpose?

Basically what I see when I go to the dentist. What creepy lighting! I like how intimate this segment was.

It must be so therapeutic for Batman to get to beat the shit out of the fake Bullock, especially after this shit-eating grin. What a great face!

Bullock’s twitching hand was super gross. Anyone else agree that this is Sunrise’s best work on the show?

This robot almost looks zombie-like, which is fitting considering Bullock’s apparent demise. 

What happened to the batarangs, Batman? 

Even when dead, those red eyes stare in such a malicious way.

“Please let go of my cape.”

Is there any reason that these guy need to have light-up eyes like this? No! HARDAC clearly installed them just for the “Holy shit, what the hell is going on” factor. 

Yes, HARDAC, humans are so imperfect. Meanwhile one of your friends lets Bruce slip away like this. 

KILL IT. KILL IT. KILL IT. 

THANK YOU. 

These trashcan robots very much look like the robots from Castle in the Sky. 

Seeing them in this kind of danger is quite disturbing. As is the fact that a computer is keeping humans contained like this. 

Up until now, we’ve only seen Randa as a drop-dead gorgeous woman. We saw the twist coming, yet it’s still quite the surprise!

A really stupid moment in an otherwise amazing half hour. A makeup mirror deflecting a laser like that felt really implausible (yes, in the face of everything else), and it also seemed like a lame way to remind us that Barbara is, in fact, a woman. 

Batman panics as his head is about to be crushed by an elevator. Batman breaks a few times during Heart of Steel. He’s sure to experience some nightmares about computers.

Bob Hastings has a tremendously good moment as he calls out the name of Jim’s daughter, thinking she’s dead. 

Char’s grade: A Next time: If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

Full episode list here!