#jeff bezos life story

[reallytoosublime]

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has indeed been involved in an extraordinary journey from building Amazon to venturing into space travel with his company Blue Origin. In this video, we'll discuss the story of Jeff Bezos and his extraordinary story of how he founded Amazon and helped to launch the space race. 👉 Subscribe to our channel to stay tuned: https://www.youtube.com/@LimitLessTec...

Jeff Bezos, born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a well-known entrepreneur and the founder of Amazon.com one of the world's largest and most successful online retail and technology companies. His life story is one of remarkable innovation and business success. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, initially as an online bookstore. His vision was to create an "everything store" where customers could find and purchase any item online. Over the years, Amazon expanded its offerings to include a wide range of products, services, and technologies, becoming one of the world's largest and most influential e-commerce companies. In 2000, Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin, a privately-funded aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company. Blue Origin's mission is to make space travel more accessible and affordable. The company focuses on developing technologies to enable commercial space travel and exploration.

[thealogie]

You go to your friend’s house and Jeff Bezos is there. You’re like “are you insane? That’s Jeff Bezos, he’s evil, we need to throw him out” and your friend tries to convince you that no poor Jeff Bezos has amnesia and is in a lot of trouble so you have to help him. This is insane to you but you’re in love with your friend so you’re like okay…and then Jeff Bezos regains his memories and runs off to live out his queer love story. You’re like “well that was INSANE wasn’t it? Let’s go do boozy brunch to get over it and also I might be in love with you”…..but your friend/love of your life is like “this is awkward but I’m actually the new CEO of Amazon”…….that would be terrible wouldn’t it? Well something really similar happened to my good friend crowley

[amitb0130]

Story Of Successful People

Jeff Bezos Life Story | Success Motivation

Make Money With Crypto

[bethereasonyousucceed444]

MY LONG AWAITED SUCCESS STORY PLUS RANT/YALL NEED THIS STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND READ

First things first

I’m tired of being nice

I have took time out of MY day to help you guys

EVERY DAY

I have given tips methods

Advice answered questions

Replied to countless amounts of DMs

Etc etc I’m not providing false hope here I AM trying to help you guys

I’m getting so many different suggestions and asks

Let me say this

STOP

from now on

No more questions

If it’s urgent

Like you really wanna know something

DM me

I WILL respond

No more questions asking how to enter the void

My account is literally talking about HOW TO ENTER THE VOID STATE

Are instructions not clear?????

Get off your butt and fucking do it!!!!

Stop procrastinating stop being lazy stop asking questions you spreads know the answers to

And for the love of God

STOP ASKING ME TO ENTER FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!

I’m doing what I can to help you all manifest

But it’s YOUR job to make it happen

Y’all used my kindness against me and it’s pissing me off I’m tired of people not even asking anymore

Just begging me

I AM NOT A MAGICIAN

I was literally YOU

not too long ago

I am a nice person but I am at my limits

Stop repeating questions

Look at my page for the answers you need

Stop asking me to enter for you

If it’s not happening

DM me for ADVICE

I used to be the kid that got asked by others to do their homework for them

If I didn’t put my foot down

Y’all were gonna drive me insane

Literally

I love y’all but stop depending on me

Just ask

For advice

But stop treating me like a Genie

And I manifested for someone and it doesn’t work

Then what

Am I a liar now???

Am I fake??

Like are you serious

Bruh I’m serious when I say

I’ve had enough

Read this story to see how YOU CAN ALSO

Transform your life

I literally went from

TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️

I went from slitting my own wrists and going in my closet trying to hang myself EVERY FUCKING NIGHT

I used to stare in the mirror

Crying about how my body looked

I used to go to school scared because I was getting abused by guys there and bullied by girls

All my friends turned their backs on me and I literally said

FUCK IT

I don’t deserve this fucking life so you know what I did????

I changed it

It’s so easy it’s insane

I too over complicated it

I too was desperate

But your desires are yours

They just are

Ignore them MF negative thoughts

Matter of a fact don’t even call it that

You are giving your “intrusive” thoughts power by saying they are negative

Don’t label them as intrusive thoughts

THEY DO NOT EXIST

THEY WILL NEVER MANIFEST

And I’m not just saying that it’s true

It’s soooo fucking true

By labeling them as “intrusive” or “negative” you’re giving them power

To take over and control your life

When this is not what you want

Don’t fear your own head

Bitch it’s YOUR BRAIN

It can’t NOT listen to you

Change your goddamn assumptions

You are a bad bitch you’re hot beautiful

You’re THAT bitch

Bad bitches don’t beg we make shit happen

Get off your cute ass and go get your dream fucking life

Bitch you can have it all

You can marry Shawn Mendez

Be the sexiest model on the planet (but you’re only 5’3) OK ANDDDDD

Marissa Rose is the first 4’11 runway model

You mean to tell me it’s not possible???

They have plus size models

Shirt models

Models with tig ol biddies

Models with tattoos models with piercings models with scars etc

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE

You can get a call back from that job

Better yet fuck 9 to 5s

Bitch YOU ARE RICH

You are literally Jeff Bezos

Don’t manifest “small shit” cuz if you can get an apartment and a job

You can also manifest $100 million and 2500 square feet mansion

You can have superpowers

You can be a master manifestor

You can become a celebrity and overnight

You can meet your favorite celebrities at awards shows

You can sit next to Ice Spice at the Grammys

EVEN SHE MANIFESTED HER DREAM LIFE

There’s proof in her old tweets and in your interviews

YOU CAN HAVE HARRY STYLES TICKETS FOR WHENEVER HE DECIDES TO DROP AN ALBUM

YOU CAN BE THE NEXT BEYONCÉ

YOU CAN MEET OR EVEN PERFORM WITH TAYLOR SWIFT

YOU CAN HAVE ALL THE MONEY YOU WANT

YOU CAN SHIFT TO ANOTHER REALITY AND MEET MICHAEL JACKSON

YOU CAN HAVE THE SINGING VOICE OF AALIYAH OR MF MARIAH CAREY

YOU CAN MANIFEST THAT YOUR DOG NEVER DIED OR THAT

YOUR EX STILL MISSES YOU

KANYE WEST MANIFESTED KIM K

TOM HOLLAND MANIFESTED ZENDAYA

YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU CANT HAVE

MICHAEL B JORDAN WAITING ON YOU HAND AND FOOT????

YOU CAN ENTER THE VOID MANIFEST YOUR Sp

AND WAKE UP NEXT TO YOUR CRUSH

YOU CAN MANIFEST BEING IMMUNE TO BAD SHIT BEING A GODDESS BEING SO BEAUTIFUL THAT PEOPLE FORGET MEGAN FOX EXISTS

YOU CAN MANIFEST LOOKING LIKE MARILYN MONROE

OR MADISON BEER

YOU CAN MANIFEST TALENT

BITCH ITS ALL POSSIBLE

You OWN THIS SHIT THIS IS YOUR LIFE BOO

Go fucking get it!!!!!!!

SUCCESS STORY

I was tired of own shit so I used the method that I created

I already posted it

Go read it

Here’s what I manifested

1. SP

I manifested a girlfriend because I’m bisexual asf

And I created her on my phone

Just write if list of what she looks and acts like

I manifested my dream career

I manifested platonic SPs

As in friendships

Money

A strong intuition

More knowledge

A better self concept

Immunity

The ability to hypnotize with my eyes(OK I HAVENT TESTED THIS OUT BUT IM EXCITED TO)

Meeting a celebrity

Can’t say who but I manifested it for the future

I even got pets now!!! A puppy two kittens and two snakes!!

I manifested lots of cool talents

I improved my dancing!!!!!!

I was insecure about my voice

So I changed it

Deadass I sound kinda sexy now

I wanted a whispery ass voice😭😭

So I got oneeee

I also manifested a LOT of personal stuff that I won’t share

Unfortunately I’m SUPER protective of my soul and just overall self

And I’m not posting a face reveal

This might seem surprising to most

My passive aggressive behavior but this is literally how I am daily

I really am nice but y’all just make me ANXIOUS

But still

I love you darlings soooo much

Like for real

But please just pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Don’t make me your wish granter

Make your own wishes come true

If it’s cool with y’all

I’ll manifest tonight

That entering the void will be easy for you guys

But you HAVE to do it yourself I can only guide you

You got this babe

If you got offended it’s working

That means you needed this

Take this tough love and go use it for good

I better see some goddamn success stories this month or we gon fight

(Not literally that’s just my humor talking)

Love you bitches

Now go meditate before I appear under your bed tonight and yank yo shit

Love youuuu💗💗💗💗💗

[writingwithfolklore]

When Your Antagonist Isn't a Person

Last time I talked about how to character create an antagonist (check it out here if you missed it!) but what happens when your antagonist isn’t a person?

                Antagonists don’t necessarily have to be another character (or even one singular character). Rather, an antagonist is anything that raises the stakes and creates conflict for your protagonist. You will likely find this antagonist in your worldbuilding.

1. What your world may say about your antagonist

                In a survival story, your protagonist will likely be out in the wilderness alone—thus, their antagonist may be creatures, starvation, dehydration, exposure (freezing, sunburn). Or something like a giant storm, or other natural phenomenon/disaster.

                In an urban setting, the antagonist may be the ‘system’ itself; politics, institutions, a way they’ve been disadvantaged or otherwise put down by their world. (Often these systems can be represented by a person, if you so choose).

                And a futuristic world opens up to technology being an antagonist; things aren’t working as they’re meant to, AI has gone wrong, or it’s gone too right—the technology is taking away from what the protagonist wants.

2. Goals and Motivations

Your non-human antagonist may not have goals or motivations, or very basic ones. Does a nasty storm exist to destroy humans? Probably not, it just is as it is. A creature’s goal may be to eat, it’s motivation being that it’s hungry.

However, a system or institution may have deeper goals/motivations. For example, Amazon is a company built to make Jeff Bezos money. Your institution may have a goal it presents to the public, and a true goal (usually monetary, but could also be religiously or politically motivated).

3. Additional sources of conflict

Sometimes non-human antagonists need some extra support to make your character’s life suck. A dangerous storm brewing in the distance is great, but you may also need some additional sources of conflict to keep your character moving until it reaches them.

If your character is taking down Amazon, they may be targeted by police, or drones with guns, or people who live off an Amazon salary, or require the convenience of it.

Often stories without one human antagonist tend to have multiple little antagonists. Survival stories are great for the amount of different conflicts you can throw at a character. You may even introduce small conflicts between other characters, even if those characters aren’t fully antagonists.

Next time I’ll talk about character vs. self, what do you do when your antagonist is also your protagonist?

[deep-sea-scholar]

Okay I need to rant about Glass Onion for several paragraphs

WARNING: SPOILERS!

Glass onion is phenomenal, and I personally enjoyed its themes more than the first Knives Out movie.

Now don’t get me wrong, Knives Out is arguably the better film, but its strengths lie in the complexity and brilliant execution of its core mystery.  It’s a fantastic self-contained story about a shitty rich family and the people they directly affect.  The members of the family range across the political spectrum and all express different ideologies, but the moment a migrant working-class woman has a legitimized shot at their inheritance they band together to prevent her from improving her life.  It's interesting commentary on how wealthy people can talk a big game about helping others and being good people, but ultimately fall morally short when such actions threaten what they feel they “rightfully deserve.” But that's arguably the limitation of the film as its focus is entirely on the interpersonal conflict between the Thrombey family and Marta.

Glass onion isn’t limited by that.

The entire thematic core of Glass Onion concerns the damage that the rich and powerful can do to the world if they aren’t supervised, criticized, or limited. 

Aside from our lovely detective Benoit Blanc, the murdered Andi Brand, and her twin sister Helen, all of the characters are shitty people that are damaging the world in a uniquely horrible way as a direct consequence of the unchecked power and wealth they wield.

To start we have Governor Claire Dubella.  Her success in her political career has relied almost entirely on monetary support and influence from the films big bad and Elon Musk/Jeff Bezos analogue Miles Bron. Her platform has good objectives, and she’s passionate about hard topics like climate change, but her ability to act is entirely limited by the influence Miles has on her.  If Miles wants her to do something, she feels like she has no choice but to, which results in her greenlighting an experimental powerplant that Miles wants built to advocate for his new fuel source.  It’s untested technology, it’s volatile and dangerous as fuck, and Claire feels like she has no choice but to go along with it because if she doesn’t Miles will withdraw support from her career, or worse, support her opponents.  She likens it to selling her soul, and it really is.  She willingly undermined the health of her constituents for the sake of saving her career, and the shitty part is that Miles only controls her because she lets him.  She could deny the power plant, or leave Miles, at any time, but she doesn’t because she perceives the personal risk as to great.  She is a politician that won’t stand up for the people she represents, and no one calls her out on it.

Next, we have Duke Cody, the Alpha male men’s rights streamer who is just like, the absolute worst person in this film.  His views and opinions are incredibly toxic, his actions and beliefs directly hurt the people he influences through the hurtful products he promotes, and thanks to Mile's wealth and influence both he and his terrible, terrible, terrible opinions have official backing and some form of legitimacy.  He’s almost the direct inverse of Claire, being someone who really shouldn’t have support, but is getting it anyway because he’s Mile’s friend.  And because Miles doesn’t care and is giving Duke support and helping him dodge legal trouble, he enables Dukes terrible opinions and lets them influence and hurt people.  

Then we have Birdie, my personal favorite of the disruptors.  She is a fashion designer, media star, and breathtakingly, beautifully, stupid. She’s not actively malicious like some of the other characters, but she is just so fundamentally incapable of thinking things through. When paired with her wealth and influence, this results in horrifying real-world consequences.  She has her iconic fashion line of sweatpants made at the most infamous sweatshop in Bangladesh not because she doesn’t care, but because she thought a sweatshop is just a shop where you make sweatpants.  She’s just very stupid, but at the very least has the decency to be aware of it.  She even decides to own up to her Bangladesh mistake of her own volition, independent of the plot.  The problem is that no one corrected for her, or guided her, or worked to influence her decisions.  Miles just cared about what her brands could do for him and was perfectly willing to throw her under the bus to preserve his image.

Last of the four Disruptors is Lionel Toussaint.  Not much to say about him actually, he’s fairly straightforward.  He works directly under Miles as a scientist and is a parallel for the people that want to have confidence in tech ‘pioneers’ like Elon Musk.  After all they’ve been successful, and things have worked out in the past, surely, we can give them leeway with new technology development.  But there’s a reason why technology is prototyped and tested, and that’s because things always go wrong, and you need to take time and care to figure out how to ensure new technology is safe.

Which leads us to this asshole.

Miles goddamn Mona Lisa Burning Bron.

The absolute, motherfucking, shithead moron directly responsible for everything bad that happens in this film.

I lied about Duke Cody because this absolute buffoon is the actually the worst person in this film.

He manipulates politicians into endangering their constituents for his own gain, he enables the absolute worst and most toxic people by giving them legitimate platforms, he promotes influencers without caring for what their unchecked actions result in, and he deludes the people that work for him and want to believe in him with self-assured delusion.  This man is arrogant, an indiscribable moron (worse than Birdie because at least she acknowledges her failings), dangerously delusional, obsessed with control, and most damning of all, unchecked.

Miles Bron is a direct look at how too much unchecked power, wealth, and influence results in unmitigated disasters.  He doesn’t care about helping people, because he doesn’t take the time to make sure untested technology is safe for the public, handwaving legitimate concerns with denial and false assurance.  He doesn’t care about his friends, because he murders two of them the instant, they become a threat to his control.  He’s not smart, because all of his genius is the result of other people, he’s just skilled at advertising it as his own to get the credit.  All he cares about is doing what he wants and being in control, because his opinion and self-worth and legacy is more precious to him than any other thing in the world.  The man is a lie so absolute, so convoluted, and so stupidly straightforward that the slightest piece of truth will bring the facade of his existence crumbling down.  And it’s hard to acknowledge something like that in the real world because someone that successful being that malicious and dumb sounds incredibly stupid.  It’s an easy lie to buy because it’s more believable than how stupid the truth is.

Anyway, ultimately my conclusion is that we see a strikingly accurate portrayal of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in this film, and it was very cathartic seeing their hopes, ambitions, and house burn down around them.  Because billionaires like them are shithead morons that lie to and manipulate everyone, and their arrogant and harmful self-delusions compound through the people they manage to influence.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[isildur-apologist]

You don’t hate Amazon you hate the Silmarillion: a genuine review of Rings of Power

It’s no secret that overall I liked RoP. I watched it with my roommate who gets very hyped about stuff like that and it made for a really exciting viewing experience, instead of the more bitter perspective I might have taken if I watched it alone. But, I also know there are some real faults with the show, I never thought it was perfect and know it’s not on par with the the LOTR movies and I never expected it to be. But, the fault for that is not on Amazon.

(I want to note that I am not defending Amazon. I hate Amazon. Jeff Bezos can catch this guillotine. I am, however, defending the creative team behind the show, which is how I will refer to them from here on out, I only called it Amazon to grab your attention. )

Here’s my point though, almost every (valid) critique I see of this show isn’t a problem with decisions the creative team made, it’s an inherent problem in any adaptation of the Silmarillion (and associated works but I’m just going to refer to the Silmarillion for brevity’s sake).

The Silmarillion, as full and detailed as it is, is a shit story. The events of the second age do not fit neatly into a clean story structure the way LOTR does because it’s not supposed to. The Silmarillion isn’t a story, it’s a history, and history is never narratively satisfying. Tolkien (Jirt, not talking about Christopher here) didn’t publish the Silmarillion in his lifetime, he only even published LOTR and the hobbit, everything else attributed to him was published after his death. He had no intent of making the other works anything other than a comprehensive history of the world he made for documentation’s sake, never with intent to publish. He didn’t even compile all the writings, Christopher did.

Because if this, the Silmarillion is really hard to adapt for a number of reasons:

1. Elves aren’t good main characters.

Elves aren’t supposed to be relatable characters, they’re aloof and static and inherently non-relatable (There are exceptions but they’re usually not regular elves. Elrond is half elven, Legolas is very young). Humans and hobbits are the relatable characters through which we view the world, because they can have human flaws and conflicts, which makes for a very human story. To make elves the main characters you need to make them interesting characters, and elves aren’t supposed to have human flaws, and so you either stay faithful and they don’t feel relatably human, or you change their to be more human and it feels disingenuous to what we know elves to be like. It’s a lose lose.

2. Middle earth is not supposed to be pretty.

A huge part of LOTR is realizing every place they visit is either the ruins of a past, much larger civilization, or a city that is a fraction of what it used to be (Gondor in lotr is NOTHING compared to what it was in the early 3rd age, or Arnor and definitely not Númenor, Rivendell is a pebble compared to Lindon and Eregion, we only ever see Khazad-dûm as a decrepit tomb instead of the most prosperous mine in all of middle earth is once was). This juxtaposition is integral to the main themes of lotr and is imperative to the story jirt was trying to tell. A story set in the 2nd age cannot have these ruins because IT IS THE RUINS. It cannot “feel like lotr” because it is what will make lotr lotr.

3. Characters (individuals) are of little importance in the Silmarillion.

As important as Elendil and Isildur (and even Anárion) are to the plot of literally the entire 3rd age, we know little about their own narratives. They are names for the people that did these important actions and that’s it. Again, the Silmarillion is a history, it’s not going to say what Elendil and Isildur’s relationship was like in excruciating detail or what Isildur wanted to do with his life before sailing to middle-earth and becoming a king. You have to write these characters a good story if you’re adapting the Silmarillion and sometimes there isn’t space to write a compelling journey in the space Tolkien left. Because they don’t have a character, any character you give them will seem “out of character” to many people.

Basically my point is that before you go and say “well this is weird or I didn’t like this choice” think about what the creative team had to create to make an interesting show out of a story not designed to be told. Sometimes they didn’t make the perfect decision, but if you were tasked with adapting something unadaptable do you think you would do it perfectly?

[jonasgoonface]

Happy anniversary of Willem Van Spronsen's attack on the Tacoma ICE detention center. Here's a thing I drew a while back. Here's a manifesto that he wrote, it's v good. ------

What follows is the written manifesto of Willem Van Spronsen:

there's wrong and there's right. it's time to take action against the forces of evil. evil says one life is worth less than another. evil says the flow of commerce is our purpose here. evil says concentration camps for folks deemed lesser are necessary. the handmaid of evil says the concentration camps should be more humane. beware the centrist.

i have a father's broken heart i have a broken down body and i have an unshakable abhorrence of injustice. that is what brings me here. this is my clear opportunity to try to make a difference, i'd be an ingrate to be waiting for a more obvious invitation.

i follow three teachers: don pritts, my spiritual guide, "love without action is just a word." john brown, my moral guide, "what is needed is action!" emma goldman, my political guide, "if i can't dance, i don't want to be in your revolution."

i'm a head in the clouds dreamer, i believe in love and redemption. i believe we're going to win i'm joyfully revolutionary. (we all should have been reading emma goldman in school instead of the jingo drivel we were fed. but i digress.) (we should all be looking at the photos of the YJP heroes should we falter and think our dreams are impossible, but i double digress. fight me.)

in these days of fascist hooligans preying on vulnerable people on our streets, in the name of the state or supported and defended by the state,

in these days of highly profitable detention/concentration camps and a battle over the semantics, in these days of hopelessness, empty pursuit and endless yearning,

we are living in visible fascism ascendant. (i say visible, because those paying attention watched it survive and thrive under the protection of the state for decades [see howard zinn, "a people's history of the united states.") now it unabashedly follows its agenda with open and full cooperation from the government. from governments around the world.

fascism serves the needs of the state serves the needs of business and at your expense. who benefits? jeff bezos, warren buffet, elon musk, tim cook, bill gates, betsy de vos, george soros, and need i go on? let me say it again: rich guys, (who think you're not really all that good,) really dig government, (every government everywhere, including "communist" governments,) because they make rules that make rich guys richer.

simple. don't overthink it.

(are you patriots in the back paying attention?)

when i was a boy, in post war holland, later france, my head was filled with stories of the rise of fascism in the 30's. i promised myself that i would not be one of those who stands by as neighbors are torn from their homes and imprisoned for somehow being perceived as lesser. you don't have to burn the motherfucker down, but are you just going to stand by?

this is the test of our fundamental belief in real freedom and our responsibility to each other. this is a call to patriots, too, to stand against this travesty against everything that you hold sacred. i know you. i know that in your hearts, you see the dishonor in these camps. it's time for you, too, to stand up to the money pulling the strings of every goddamn puppet pretending to represent us.

i'm a man who loves you all and this spinning ball so much that i'm going to fulfill my childhood promise to myself to be noble.

here it is, in these corporate for profit concentration camps. here it is, in brown and non conforming folks afraid to show their faces for fear of the police/migra/proud boys/the boss/beckies... here it is, a planet almost used up by the market's greed.

i'm a black and white thinker. detention camps are an abomination. i'm not standing by. i really shouldn't have to say any more than this.

i set aside my broken heart and i heal the only way i know how- by being useful. i efficiently compartmentalize my pain... and i joyfully go about this work. (to those burdened with the wreckage from my actions, i hope that you will make the best use of that burden.)

to my comrades:

i regret that i will miss the rest of the revolution. thank you for the honor of having me in your midst.

giving me space to be useful, to feel that i was fulfilling my ideals, has been the spiritual pinnacle of my life.

doing what i can to help defend my precious and wondrous people is an experience too rich to describe.

my trans comrades have transformed me, solidifying my conviction that we will be guided to a dreamed of future by those most marginalized among us today. i have dreamed it so clearly that i have no regret for not seeing how it turns out. thank you for bringing me so far along.

i am antifa, i stand with comrades around the world who act from the love of life in every permutation. comrades who understand that freedom means real freedom for all and a life worth living.

keep the faith! all power to the people! bella ciao

don't let your silly government agencies spend money "investigating" this one. i was radicalized in civics class at 13 when we were taught about the electoral college. it was at that point that i decided that the status quo might be a house of cards. further reading confirmed in the positive. i highly recommend reading! i am not affiliated with any organization, i have disaffiliated from any organizations who disagree with my choice of tactics. the semi automatic weapon i used was a cheap, home built unregistered "ghost" ar15, had six magazines. i strongly encourage comrades and incoming comrades to arm themselves. we are now responsible for defending people from the predatory state. ignore the laws of arming yourself if you have the luxury, i did.

[lolotheparagon]

You are given the chance to completely revamp one (1) DC character. You may change whatever you want about them, along with their relationships with other characters, but only they and their relationships change. All other aspects of other characters, minus their relationship to the changed character, remain the same. Who do you change, what do you change, and why?

Bruce Wayne/Batman. Since he’s DC’s biggest character, outside of his Batman alter ego, he has a lot of elements that have been unchanged since his inception in the 40s. From his dead parents backstory, to being a Gotham billionaire, having a butler as his surrogate father and being a playboy in his civilian life.

I want to change the Bruce Wayne, since I believe Bruce should be a reflection of Batman, not a distraction from Batman. People these days really divorce Batman from Bruce Wayne entirely cos the idea of a playboy billionaire nowadays is just alienating to a lot of people. Maybe in the 40s this was acceptable but this is 2023. Bruce Wayne’s character really needs an update, since we need to feel like Batman is Bruce Wayne under that mask, not a completely different person wearing the cowl.

First off:

I would make Thomas and Martha Wayne neglectful parents. Keep the dead parents backstory, that’s important. But I like the idea of Bruce believing that his parents always loved him and puts them on way too high a pedestal. Like he would recount all the times his father took him to the local comic book store or his mother would shower him with hugs and presents. This is why Bruce holds them in such high regards and did crimefighting in the first place.

But during the first couple years being Batman, Bruce developed an obsession with keeping his parents’ memory alive by keeping his parent’s old bedroom just the way it was before they died. And he would often cry himself to sleep in the living room whenever he had failed to stop the Joker or any supervillain he had trouble dealing with.

Per Alfred’s request, Bruce goes into therapy. This is where we meet Leslie Thompkins (a recurring character in the Batman story) as his therapist where she helps him realise a lot of things. Bruce realised that whenever he remembered his stories, his view of his parents was always a blur and and aside from his stories, he didn’t know his parents that well. We realised from his repressed memories that it was actually Alfred who cared and raised Bruce since childhood. Alfred was just a butler for the Wayne’s but quickly became a surrogate father to young Bruce.

We (as the audience) finally see Bruce’s childhood, Thomas and Martha were actually neglectful towards Bruce. Sure they were respectful people in the Gotham community, but they were rich and constantly bought Bruce’s love with presents. They only saw Bruce as a future heir to Wayne Enterprises and a meal ticket. The only reason they went to the theatre with Bruce at all was because his fave movie was showing and he wouldn’t stop talking about it.

Alfred always wanted to tell Bruce it was he who actually raised him all this time but kept quiet cos Bruce always looked so happy talking about them and he was fighting crime everyday for them. But as soon Bruce realised who the actual parent in his life is still with him and has been with him all along, Bruce encourages Alfred to stop being his butler and be his full-time dad. To which Alfred replies: I always have been…Bruce.

Boom. You get an infinitely sadder and more sympathetic reason why Bruce is so obsessed with making his dead parents proud and you get him recovering from his neglect and being with a parent who has always loved him.

Next:

I would make Bruce Wayne a well off businessman instead of a billionaire. In light of billionaires like Andrew Tate and Jeff Bezos being scummy towards their employees and people setting up guillotines outside their mansions, it’s really not comfortable to show a billionaire in a positive light anymore, even if he’s progressive. Again, this isn’t the 40s anymore. It might have been quaint to see a billionaire actually care about the common people but after the two CEO twats I mentioned above, try telling a modern audience that you can make a billionaire sympathetic.

I feel like we need more suave businessman side of Bruce Wayne. Outside of the BTAS and the 60s Batman show, we don’t see a lot Bruce being a cunning yet reasonable and tactical guy. I know his alter ego is the World’s Greatest Detective, so he can’t be too smart to give the game away, but at least have him roasting the hell out of greedy corporate bosses and giving his employees good pay and advocates against sexual/racial harassment in the workplace. I know it’s a romanticisation of businessmen and bosses but hey it’s better than romanticising the morbidly rich. Just write a good businessman who cares about his employees and respects women.

You can still have Bruce well off in terms of wealth, just not isolated mansion with 100 acres of inherited land levels of rich. Heck, you can just have the Batcave be a hidden cavern Bruce found nearby when hiking and spends a good chunk of his inheritance building it. Maybe it would be an abandoned railway which would be how the Batmobile would find a connection to the main roads of Gotham.

Maybe he can give the rest of his wealth to charities, the city so they can refurbish the more worn down streets. I’m just spitballing here

Finally:

In terms of personality, I liked Bruce Wayne in the early seasons of BtAS or the Batman 2004 series. Snarky, witty and playful as Bruce, but is cunning and serious. He does have that brooding energy when he’s donning the Batcape but he’s not an angsty asshole (cough cough unlike the TNBA Batman cough). Maybe this is why, as Batman, he’s always very moody and stoic. Because he knows that he became Batman in the first place to avenge two parents who didn’t even love him in the first place and now has to live with this being his second job because he’s saving people and that’s what matters to him. He’s very kind and caring to everyone (this ties into him caring for kids who are orphaned like him like Tim Drake or ones who are abused/neglected like Jason or Barbara.) but carries off this mysterious vibe.

I like the idea of Bruce being very cool and suave to the public, but is still a loner and even his employees don’t know him. He wants to open up to people but after how his parents treated him and doesn’t have that many people in his life, he keeps people away in fear of rejection and abandonment. (Even in childhood, Bruce never had friends that stayed longer than a day, cos they were all paid to play with him.) He has very nerdy side he doesn’t show to a lot of people. He reads old 50s comic books, he even has lunch that Alfred always makes him. Cos why bother with high class cuisine when you can have your dad’s home cooking?

Also have Bruce be a friend to all animals. I want him to adopt a bunch of bats he found in the cave and he names them after all his fave comic book heroes. Also have him be in a romance with Clark Kent. I need my Superbat

And finally: Make Commissioner Gordon Bruce/Batman’s rival

I know Commisoner Gordon is Batman’s ally and all that but I always thought he was just Alfred 2.0 and it’s not fair that a lot of the interesting stuff regarding Batman’s care and concern for others always falls to Gordon or his daughter when you got Bats’ surrogate dad standing RIGHT THERE. Also much like with romanticising rich people, Commissioner Gordon isn’t helping with his whole “NOT ALL COPS ARE BAHHHD!!” schtick when the GCPD is the most corrupt police force in all of fiction.

So I would have Gordon be like the J Jonah Jameson of Gotham. He hates Bruce Wayne for being a spoilt brat busybody and constantly makes fun of him. He knows he can’t arrest Bruce Wayne without good reason but that doesn’t mean he won’t give him parking tickets for no reason or rant about him on Twitter. Bruce in public would shrug and be above it all. But when the cowl comes on…shit goes down.

Gordon doesn’t know Batman’s identity so Bruce can intimidate him as much as he likes and can get away with it. Gordon can’t refuse Batman’s help cos he needs him to take down the supervillains. So it’s wonderful catharsis for Bruce.

Heck, Bruce can learn about how neglected and miserable Gordon’s daughter Barbara is and inspires her to take up a course in coding, which leads her into become Oracle (her lone hero identity when she’s old enough would be Batgirl)

I could go on forever about all sorts of changes but those are the main ones I would change to make Bruce Wayne a more interesting character, so when he puts on the cowl, we don’t just see Batman, we see Bruce Wayne

[newt-with-a-big-hat]

SHAKING MY FIST IN A SOMEWHAT ANNOYED MANNER AT NEIL GAIMAN

I just watched Good Omens season 2 and I'm gonna be ☝🤓 about it for a second bcuz none of my friends watched the show and I cant rant at them (exploding them with my mind rn)

obviously spoiler and unhinged tirade warning

and no im not proof reading any of this

So I got really into the books before it was a show (Im not like other Good omens fans ok) *gets shoved into a locker* So I was pleasantly surprised with the first season because I thought my annoying grinch ahh would hate it. It was faithful to the original but it still made it new and interesting. The themes, story and the vibe was the same. They did put more of a focus on Aziraphale and Crowely and made them slightly softer but it worked and was swag. I also liked what they did with the ending even though it wasn't in the book.

So when season two was announced I was hopeful but also really nervous. The story had come to a logical end (Ig it could continue with a war between humanity and a heaven hell alliance and the end of season one basicallly implied that that would happen but STILL) and then the other writer for the book, Sir Terry Pratchet passed away (SIDE NOTE: i hate when people only mention Gaiman in regards to Good Omens, put some respect on my man Pratchet). I thought a lot of the humour and charm the book originally had was very Pratchetesque and it just wouldn't be the same without him . (no shade to Gaiman btw but yk what i mean)

I found out later (two days ago) that they the two authors had actually discussed a sequel previously and it would probably follow the plot of that heaven/hell vs humanity war, but past me didnt know that ok? my point about it not being the same still stands.

When season 2 came out i didnt watch it for a month bcuz i didnt have amazon prime. But when I eventually BOUGHT MY OWN SUBSCRIPTION AND GOT IT 100% LEGITIMATELY, JEFF BEZOS IF YOU'RE READING THIS PLS DONT COME BEAT ME UP, i finally had no more excuses to put it off.

In the begining (BIBLE REFERENCE?!??) i was really getting into it. Gaiman was POPPING off with those jokes. The naked Gabriel thing was an interesting premise. It was silly, cozy, and comfy.

and then it sort of stayed like that?

Like in Season one the main threat was the literal world ending. In season 2 it was Shaz standing menacingly outside the bookshop? And I know there was the whole threat of them being erased from the book of life, but that was mentioned once and then not really brought up again until the end where all the threats were just resolved in like 15 minutes? In season 1 Heaven and hell were a proper threat, but in season 2 they felt like submissive Beta males for some reason. it just felt kind of low stakes and too easily resolved.

OK so my next part might make some ppl mad (pls dont be mean to me ill cry) so I will preface this with saying: I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST A ROMANCE BETWEEN AZIRAPHALE AND CROWELY HAPPENING IN SEASON 2 lets be honest they were basically married in the book anyway so  💀

However it kind of overpowered the rest of the season. while season 1 was focused on a lot of different characters and plot happening, most of season 2 seemed to focus on their relationship. I did like some of it (that magic show episode was a banger) but no real plot actually happened during that time ( I straight up forgot Gabriel existed).

I also wasn't overly invested in the other romance between Maggie and Nina. It was cute, but it didnt hit like Newton and Anathema did. Gabriel and Beelzebub was cute (should have been me not Gabriel tho), but it was all smooshed into the last episode. It was a bit of an information dump.

The season felt like a different genre, with different stakes and a different overall vibe. Im gonna be honest, at some points it felt kind of... fanfictiony? if thats a good way to put it? It became more of a character driven show.

While I was doing some serious academic research (reading other tumblr blogs) I found out that this season was meant to be more relaxed and a smaller scale compared to season one and an eventual season 3. It was meant to be more focused on characters relationships and getting everyone where they need to be for the final season (which i assume is going to be like the sequel that Pratchet and Giaman planned ages ago). And it was also filmed during the Pandemic which explains its smaller scale.

I have mixed feelings on it. It was an enjoyable season, but it just didnt feel Good-omens-esque, and the fact that Im a ☝🤓 and grew up with book means I cant enjoy it as much as I want to. Im hoping season three will bring back the originals vibes and redeem season 2 for me.

Ok so aside form my main critisim, I also wanna talk abt the charactarisation of Aziraphale and Crowely and the Themes. This ones less of a problem for me but someone pointed it out and now its bothering me a bit.

When I watched the ending I was ready to throw hands with Gaiman himself because I didn't realize that there was gonna be a season three where the conflict was resolved. After I found out I was fine again UNTIL someone pointed out that they felt Aziraphale leaving for heaven was kind of out of character. The main message of season one is that neither heaven nor hell is good and both Aziraphale and Crowely are on their own, and humanities side. Both of them realize that, and theres a whole scene where they make a toast to the world. The fact that Aziraphale suddenly goes all "I can fix him" on heaven seems a bit odd. I've got mixed feelings on this becuase on one hand it is an interesting conflict to have, but it does sort of seem ooc for him to do. Im deciding to rationalize it by saying Aziraphales gone a bit silly and goofy from all the stress thats happening.

Someone else pointed out that the fact that Aziraphale and crowely met when they were both angels kind of ruins the significance that they became 'friends' despite being on opposite sides. I kind of see this point too, and I did prefer their first meeting being in the garden of eden (mainly becuase it was funnier) but im choosing to interpret this as they were aquintances as angels and only got to know eachother later.

Im just putting my trust in Neil Gaiman and Season 3

OK ITS OVER. Most people probably dont care all that much because they touch grass and go outside, but I just wanted to rant becuase something about it was really bothering me. If you actually read this far im giving you a gold star and a platonic forhead smooch. ALSO PLS FEEL FREE TO BULLY ME FOR MY TAKES BCUZ I REALLY WANT TO ENJOY THIS THIS SEASON AND MAYBE A DIFF PERSPECTIVE WILL HELP. OK BYE

[girlbob-boypants]

still in the midst of it but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the stupid nanamo shit if you feel like expanding on it

GOD. GOD!!

Okay this is gonna go under a readmore but holy fuck that entire questline really highlights everything I fucking HATE about StB and Ul'Dah

FUCK that Godfrey guy for bragging that he's a good person for EXTORTING REFUGEES because it gave them jobs and earned him money

AND THEN THE GAME SAYS SHE LEARNED THE RIGHT LESSON AND I GET TO SIT THERE AND WATCH A WHITE #GIRLBOSS WORK WITH ANOTHER CAPITALIST TO EXTORT A NATION RECOVERING FROM AN OCCUPATION SHE BENEFITED FROM BECAUSE OF THE RRFUGEE LABOR

At least when Gridania is like "well our religion says we can't even provide medicine to outsiders" they're ACTUALLY treated like that's bad by the game!!!

And this just. AGHHHHHH. the fact that you spend all this nonsense time following her around and get to have no opinion?? Like at this fucking point in the story we could've just had Alphinaud BUY the salt harvesting gear AND establish trade routes with Ishgard who would desperately need salt for food preservation given how fucked their life is by eternal salt. But noooooo. We have to watch a child shaped national leader learn she can help Jeff Bezos get richer by putting a group of oppressed people in a position where they have to give up a portion of their work forever if they want to ever recover.

At least Alphinaud was there to make sure the contract wasn't extortionate. Something Nanamo didn't care about because her entire goal was to prove she could take care of herself. The fact that she openly extorted her alleged best friend's people and didn't even check to make sure that guy wasn't going to make the contract fucked up is so???

I wish I did poison her actually. Then I'll blender the entire council of rich fucks after. Bahamut nuke.

ALSO THE FACT THAT THIS IS ACTUALLY RAUBAHN'S STORY BUT IT FOCUSES ON A WHITE WOMAN LEARNING TO EXTORT PEOPLE TO PROVE SHE CAN BE SELF SUFFICIENT JUST SO THEY CAN PUT HIM IN THE ROLE OF CITY STATE LEADER AKA SIDE CHARACTER WHO ONLY SHOWS UP DURING SCENES TO BE REALLY BORING AND GO "You have my support" OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

Welcome to Stormblood where the people who should matter and get character arcs don't but we'll sure as fuck make sure Fordola, Lyse, and FUCKING NANAMO are all treated as sympathetic characters you want to see succeed.

[reallytoosublime]

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has indeed been involved in an extraordinary journey from building Amazon to venturing into space travel with his company Blue Origin. In this video, we'll discuss the story of Jeff Bezos and his extraordinary story of how he founded Amazon and helped to launch the space race.

From Earth to The Stars: Jeff Bezos Extraordinary Amazon to Space Travel Story

[simplytolkien]

One last post about Rings of Power. Last defense post anyway. Any other posts about it will just be normal posts from someone enjoying a tv show. Well, this post really isn’t about Rings of Power. It goes beyond that. I never ever intended on being one of those people who paste their opinions all over the internet just because I have them. My first post about RoP was just because I don't know anyone else who is even interested in a Tolkien show, so I just wanted to say something here on my humble Tolkien tumblr to people who would know, maybe have a little dialogue with people who love Tolkien. But geez, the messages are stupid. And oh my word, I should never have scrolled through the Rings of Power tag that one time. People are losing their minds over something that is happening with every other show they watch and love. Look, Amazon isn't MAKING Rings of Power. They are FUNDING Rings of Power.

This is how the entertainment world works, since so many people don't seem to have a clue: A person or people have an idea and would love to make a show or movie. They are usually not the people with the money, and since they need this money to create their project, they approach studios with their pitch as to why this project is a good investment. If all goes well, the studios agree that yes, this is a project people will be interested in and will, therefore, make us a lot of money. If the creators are fortunate and multiple studios are interested in the project, they get to pick the offer they prefer. The studio then gives the creators the money, and the creators take it and make their idea a reality.

That is why every studio invests in every project ever. Period. Because they can make money from it. Amazon is just doing what every other tv or movie production company does. They put in the money but aren't working on the project. The actual people behind the show are doing it because they love Tolkien. Yes, people can quibble about this all they want, but if you want to make a movie or tv show of a book you're not actually legally allowed to use, then you'll find that you have to change some things that you probably don't even really want to change. I am impressed with what they've been able to do NOT being able to use any of Tolkien's books besides LotR and The Hobbit. It's pretty creative. I’ve worked on screenplays for projects I would love to see made purely to the book, and I was shocked at how much harder it was than I thought it would be, even without the limitations of copyrights or the difficulties of stories that span thousands of years.

My first thought when I heard that Amazon was funding this project was, 'Hey, they'll have the budget to hopefully do justice to it.' And who on earth could refuse such a budget when they have the dream to bring Tolkien’s big, rich, lush world to life on the screen? Yeah, they're doing a great job. No, it's not always perfect, but again, there are usually compromises somewhere. Every project has its weak spots, but there are a lot of strengths so far. Off the top of my head, that scene where Míriel has the dream about the destruction of Númenor was awesome. Just incredibly beautiful. Númenor itself is just beautiful. Among other beauties. And I'm looking forward to what is to come. 

Yes, Jeff Bezos is evil. Yes, he is a crazy narcissist completely out of touch with reality. Yes, all of the criticisms about Amazon are real and valid, and I agree. But Amazon isn't doing anything that just about every other company does, even the ones who charge $3000 for a freaking pair of shoes. And Amazon only recently started actually selling their own brand. All these years they’ve simply been a platform where other companies could sell things. All these years the other companies you have shopped from have used these evil production/selling methods while those of us protesting were thrown in the corner as loonies. No, none of these injustices should happen in any society EVER, but it does, and unless all of you 'activists’ are making the huge massive effort and financial investment it would take for an American to NOT rely on companies who exploit workers and destroy the environment and all that really crappy evil stuff (hint: it’s all of them who sell you anything you want unless you’re making your own {but then where do you get your supplies?} or only buy locally-made products {but then where do they get their supplies?} or from small companies who still have ethics. but can you buy locally-made cars or tvs or computers or smartphones or name-brand clothes? no. and do all the companies you buy your stuff from make efforts to have a much more environmentally-friendly fleet of transport vehicles? no.), then you can criticize Amazon all you want, but you're just being a hypocrite sitting there in your name-brand clothes and mainstream personal grooming products with your fancy new cars and electronics watching all the other shows and movies that come out from all the other studios while you eat genetically-modified foods thinking up your next ‘activist’ tumblr post just because Amazon is funding a Tolkien project. Yes, you’re right about Amazon to a point, but follow your arguments all the way to their ends and you’ll realize we’re all part of the bigger problem no matter how much noise you make about one part of it. 

I do subscribe to Amazon. It took me a while to do it, but I finally had to because I had to move to a small town in Texas due to health issues that hit my life like a nuclear bomb, and being an organic vegan who only uses 100% natural (truly 100%, not the marketing crap so many pull), cruelty-free, sustainable products and has to do it on a tiny budget, it is now almost impossible for me to support companies with an ethos I believe in unless I buy online. And because my budget is so small while I rebuild my life, the free shipping without having to spend $50 or more per order to qualify for it helps me massively and saves me enough money to be able to feed a good-quality food to a TNR colony of 40 homeless cats that was starving and reproducing until I stepped in.

I also would prefer to buy, for example, from a company that pays women in disadvantaged countries fair-trade prices to beautifully craft sustainable wooden knitting needles so that they don't have to succumb to prostitution to feed their families rather than go to the only store I have here in town that sells them, Walmart, and buy crap plastic ones that benefit no one. So until the day I can afford options that aren’t evils, I'll weigh all the info and pick the lesser of the evils for my situation and order my knitting needles or whatever from ethical sellers who sell on Amazon. And if I ever find a less evil option that tics all of the boxes I have at the moment, I’ll jump right on it. I live by a mantra from Maya Angelou: ‘I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.’ Many times in my case I have to change it to ‘I did then what I could afford to do. Now that I can afford better, I do better.’ And I will continue to know better and do better and hopefully afford better until the day I die.

Here is an E.M. Forster quote that sums up my take on it as someone who can’t afford to live 100% according to her ideals at the moment: ‘We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth facing the sunshine.’

So again, why all of this has to be said in a post about a tv show is insane. All of the big studios are backed by deep pockets who are evil and corrupt and don't care about you and are invested in companies that would surprise you. If this is your gripe with Rings of Power, you had better cancel your Netflix, Hulu, Disney, etc. subscriptions too! Bezos just has the disgusting arrogance to do it openly and publicly.

[safesthavenoutsideofexistence]

I get more just cause i want more. I'm such a gem. They stay up at night stressing over me. They realize they gotta crawl back to me. They know they need to do the walk of shame back to me. They know to meet my needs and make me feel appreciated. No one compares to me. When i expect it it naturally comes. I'm rigged to never judge myself. They're scared to have missed their chance with me. Late at night I'm devastatingly on their minds so much. Like they don't even want to use social media for any other reason but for me. My Magic is rigged to work in the future too. My Magic is rigged to work in future tense too. My Magic is rigged to work in past tense too. My Magic is rigged to work in the past too. Everything is rigged to not be able to get past me. I'm grateful the real deal of my desires always comes. Bugs die within a mile away from me, never entering my vicinity. I'm very grateful I'm rigged to have full control over portals, dimensions, realms, perspectives, infinity and beyond, my within, other people's within. I'm very grateful everyone who's around me I'm rigged to be in automatic charge of their within. My life is rigged to be blue skies. The real deal is rigged to always come. I'm very grateful I'm rigged to be so spot on i immeasurably surpass spot-on. I'm rigged to be there for my desires right on time. I'm rigged to never miss out on my desires. I'm rigged to always be at ease. The manipulated others cannot manipulate me nor affect me literally. I'm rigged to inexhaustibly have my desires from absolutely all angles, traveling forward to the future and back in time collecting absolutely all unsurpassableprofound satisfaction I want and need.antonellamania number. I'm grateful I'm rigged to not have waiting rooms. I'm grateful behind the scenes their imagination is rigged in my favor. I'm grateful behind the scenes their feelings are rigged in my favor. I'm grateful behind the scenes their thoughts are rigged in my favor. Every inner work i do is rigged to never be in vain exceeding my own standards and expectations immeasurably. I'm very grateful their minds are incredibly easy to manipulate around me. I'm grateful I'm naturally my validation. I'm grateful I'm naturally my own confirmation. I'm very grateful I'm naturally convincing and persuasive. Everytime i collect evidence within i only gain more and more validated psychic and energetic power. I'm rigged to be too sharply aligned with what resonates with me. Im rigged to talk to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates on their level of unhingedness. I'm rigged to talk to them on their level of unhingedness so they effortlessly get me (chills). It's my timing and the energy built behind it as well as my own tangible gravitational pull. I'm rigged to continue to be the person who ALREADY has it. My self validation changes reality. My self-validation is rigged to change reality instaneously. The way reality changes is too razor-sharpestly aligned with my self-validation that's approved by me. My desired intentions are nailed to the version of itself where only my desired intentions goes through. My life is filled with astonishingly amazing stories. My life is rigged to be an astonishingly amazing story. My aura is rigged to be an astonishingly amazing story that's exceedingly and immeasurably beyond Godtier superior. God is rigged to favor me. God is rigged to choose me. God is rigged to love me. God is rigged to do mindblowing miracles for me. God is rigged to change my life and surroundings completely in such a way that brings me unmatched exhilaration, freedom and satisfaction. I'm rigged to only get more and more infinitely ultraformidably powerful. I'm rigged to only get more and more infinitely unbeatably powerful. I'm rigged to only get more and more infinitely insanely powerful. The Vortex is rigged to unsurpassablyprofoundly satisfy me. In my presence they're rigged to be inexplicably enchanted. I'm rigged to trust my Magic that's already working. I surpass first place because i got this i don't give a fuck type of energy.

[sweepseven]

Cirque du Soleil: Echo review

Another glorious visit to Montreal, this time marked by my ideal lineup of events: Odesza one night and Cirque the next. This was also my first time seeing a Cirque show in its infancy, and though the act quality was incredible and the show was packed with rare acts any GC audience is lucky to see, I regret to report that Echo has a very long way to go before it can be considered anything close to an effective show.

Evidence of its troubled development abounds. There is no unifying theme - despite what marketing materials would have you believe - and the show's utter lack of direction is made worse by deliberately muted costuming. Recognizing any but the main characters is not just impossible but an actively, maybe even deliberately pointless effort. The three main characters (though only two of them could really be called "main") are given so little room to grow and breathe that they could be eliminated altogether with no impact on the show whatsoever.

In its current state, Echo bears the combined flaws of Kurios and Volta. Like Kurios, it is a collection of unrelated acts taking place simply because they look cool. But Kurios' greatest strength is the clarity of its setting and aesthetic: it makes sense that there is no larger story there because it exists purely to have fun in a fun world, and it succeeds wildly in its effort. Kurios knows exactly what it is. Echo does not. And like Volta, it is trying and failing to tell a human story. But where Volta was strengthened by exceptionally emotional acts and memorable characters, Echo chooses to obscure emotion at every turn by dressing dozens of artists identically and covering their faces for the majority of the show.

So not only does Echo lack identity, it lacks any emotional depth. Fatal combo. BUT there are still plenty of interesting details to share, such as how this is the most racially diverse Cirque show I've ever seen (possibly to an uncomfortable degree...read on), the remarkable quality of the acts, clowns brought to you by Jeff Bezos, and a few ideas for what this show might become if it develops the way I hope it can. I want a Kooza glow up for it, not an Amaluna tornado of confusion. I fear we'll get the latter, but again, it's only two months old.

Act by act beneath the cut, juxtaposed with the official descriptions of each because the reality is so detached from the stated vision of the show.

Animation: Two identically dressed clowns get the crowd clapping. That's it, that's what ya get. Closer to the start of the show, the Cartographer walks onto the stage and looks around as though taking stock of his surroundings. At this early point I'm thinking he might be some sort of architect or guide-like character - his costume suggests something like schematics, and he moves like a very thoughtful, mature, deliberate character. I would soon be proven very wrong. Apart from this - clapping clowns and a wandering Cartographer - there is no other lead-up to the show.

Opening: Future plays fetch with her dog, Ewai, with what appears to be a doll version of the Cartographer (??? zero reason given for this). While playing they stumble upon the cube à la 2001: A Space Odyssey and it comes to life at Future's touch, rippling and reverberating thanks to some frankly stunning projections. Throughout the show the projections would prove themselves to be remarkable, however somewhat hampered by the uneven surface of the cube itself. Overall the opening is reminiscent of Kooza's, though abbreviated and utterly lacking in characterization apart from "this girl is friends with her man-dog."

Cube suspension: Official description: Animals hang in a vertical position on the CUBE, performing an acro-dance routine where we see them meeting each other as animals who share this world, discovering life, and living in harmony.

Actual experience: projections take the lead while animal-masked artists swing on cables in a performance anyone in the audience could achieve themselves given the right tools. Think Ka's Battle scene, but slower and with way worse choreography. The projections and music make it feel pretty epic and cool, but linger too long on what's actually happening and this act reveals itself to be a rather weak opening, and probably the weakest act in the whole show.

Bungee aerial straps: Official description: As the CARTOGRAPHER flies into the story, light projections track his every movement, leaving behind marks that influence the world. The animals move away from him, not knowing his intentions, but his energy and presence demand the respect of the stage.

Actual experience: a pretty standard aerial straps act until the end, when they lean more into the bungee element and it becomes cooler. It made me miss Alegria's flying man, and then Luzia's straps. It was just blank in terms of setting or emotion. The Cartographer himself carries what looks like a giant protractor or some other tool with him, so as soon as he arrives you're like wow, he's probably going to map out Future's journey to come or something! No. He leaves after this act and does not come back until the finale. He has ALL the markers of a strong guide character, and if not that, at least a recurring theme or motif. Despite having one of three unique character designs in the entire show, Echo does nothing with him. Utter waste of what could have been a cool character bearing important narrative weight.

Icarian games: Official description: Two dizzying performers come to the stage in an act of flipping and rotation that spins the story forward. Their motion acts as a machine to help DOUBLE TROUBLE extract boxes from The CUBE, moving faster and faster to speed up the process of extraction.

Actual experience: who knows or cares what the clowns are up to because these two are on absolute fire. This act blows Varekai and certainly Ka straight out of the water. The crowd was wild for it and the artists' enthusiasm and fun was infectious. ZERO notes on their performance - it was vibrant, electric perfection. I would have put this act second to amp up the energy before proceeding with the rest of the first half. The official description betrays a classic failure of this show: why is the cube a machine now? Ten seconds ago it was a geometric map, and before that it was Animal Planet. What are we "extracting"? Are we commenting on industrialization now? There are two little set pieces that lend themselves to some sort of reference to an assembly line, but they're out of place and ultimately pointless.

Double hair suspension: Official description: When some troubling questions arise, the lights reveal two FIREFLIES, beautiful artists who soar through the air suspended by their hair. Their grace and power inspire FUTURE and the DOG, giving them hope that the world can be rebuilt.

Actual experience: Wait, is the world in trouble?? Suddenly it needs to be rebuilt?? Future and Ewai seemed to be doing a-okay this entire time, and at no point was any degree of peril implied. Whatever, this act is heavenly. And I mean that literally because these artists invoked galaxies more than fireflies, in my opinion. I'd never seen a duo like this before and the audience was floored. Really really incredible. My favorite part - and the most magical part of the entire show imo - was that drone fireflies flutter out over the crowd before this act begins! It was SO enchanting!! It was a touch of the innovation and modernity I expected of Echo, and utilized to exactly the right extent. Also one conked out and fell into the audience lol.

Banquine/Korean cradle: Official description: The COLOR PAPER PEOPLE come together in a thrilling mix of banquine and human cradle acts. With the help of the CUBE and the encouragement of FUTURE, they learn to collaborate and realize the importance of having fun in a dizzying array of stunts.

Actual experience: I don't think these people needed any help or encouragement having fun, because they were up there with Icarian games for most incandescently happy artists onstage. Energy: infectious. Skill level: pinnacle. Crowd: losing it.

However. And this is weird. But I felt some kind of way about the particular brand of smiling in this act. I mentioned before that this was the most racially diverse show I've ever seen from Cirque, which I love. This was an all-Black banquine team, which I also love. But thus far the show had been very emotionally hollow, and though this was a fun, high energy act, something about the utter lack of emotional depth made their smiles look exceptionally fake, sometimes to the point of desperate. And every artist wasn't smiling: most of them were, but then you'd catch one or two that were utterly stony-faced. It makes the audience too aware of what has to be a directorial choice, one that some artists deliberately chose to ignore. The music for this act is kind of early to mid 20th century-ish, as is the choreography for the dance breaks, so in a very strange and particular way I could not get the idea of minstrelsy out of my head. I don't know. It's very very difficult to explain without seeing it in person, but my friend and I both felt an instinctual little prickle of "uhh" at some of this act's choices. I wondered how many of those choices actually belonged to the performers themselves. I would love to hear other people's opinions on this, because I know describing it here feels like a stretch.

Transition to intermission: CUE MEAT MAN. That massive ugly red puppet bursts from the cube and towers over the stage in a display that seems like it wants to be inspiring, and failing that, maybe even frightening. Instead it is neither, because the only reaction one can possibly have to seeing this is "what the fuck." The puppet itself is stunningly operated, though he is weirdly disproportionate. Why is he here? Why was he in the cube? Is it bad that he was in the cube? Has he destroyed the cube to get out? What are his intentions? Why is he business formal? These are questions whose answers will forever be unknowable to mankind. Future (remember her? she's in this show! ha!!) seems okay with him though, and hops onto his hand and up to his shoulder. And it's pretty! She does it delicately! Are we about to say something?? But by this point any attempt at theme is lonnng gone, and I became resigned to a fully meaningless show. If we knew even one single, solitary thing about Future as a character we might have an idea why any of this is happening or matters. But we don't. We had a whole 45 minutes and we didn't get there. Boom, end of first half.

Transition from intermission: Really really cool cello solo. More on the band later. I just want to remember that this part existed because it was fucking great.

Slackwire: Official description: Smoke billows from the floor, flames break out within the CUBE, and a tense double slackline act ensues, as two animals stand on a line between life and death. They will give everything they can to survive as long as they both have each other.

Actual experience: are we in survival mode? Is it Meat Man's fault???? I don't know and I don't care to find out because this was my favorite act of the night. Finally we are using the cube as something other than a projection screen, finally we have an act with any sense of gravity or depth. Animals parade behind the cube as it takes center stage, some of them carrying other seemingly dead animals on their shoulders. The artists' masks look like skulls as they slowly discard them. They walk in constant balance with one another, almost intersection, almost disrupting one another, but they never do. There's tension and stakes and, had Echo accomplished anything in its first half, potentially some meaning. This act should be the framework for rebuilding this show from the ground up. I was so impressed. No flames tonight - not sure if they were just out or if they've been cut, but I didn't feel like the act was missing anything in their absence.

Flying poles: Official description: This flying poles act features a first-of-its-kind pole apparatus named Chrysalid that is semi-attached to the stage floor. This groundbreaking performance requires exceptional strength, and signals the rebuilding of The CUBE.

Actual experience: first of its kind? Groundbreaking? Bitch this was in Volta, it was just shaped a little different. And it accomplished the same task too: showing unity between apparently disparate groups. Insects fly at the top while propelled by animals and business people in red Meat Man bowler hats. Evolution, supporting one another, coming together for a common goal, okay, we get it. I still don't know why this matters because we are an hour in and no meaning has been conveyed. More weird forced smiling that at this point I cannot keep from distracting me.

Diabolo (in for juggling): Official description: In an act of love and gratitude, the DOG breaks into a fascinating diabolo manipulation act that catches the eye of an unseen character. The FOSSORIAL appears above ground, approaching the DOG with caution and curiosity, and pushing him to be more and more creative with his flicks and tricks.

Actual experience: is juggling actually in this show? I feel like I only ever see diabolo. Either way this was pretty true to its description and it's a fun act with an incredible showcase of skill. The diabolos light up! And we get to see Ewai's face!! For a whole five minutes! And then the mask comes down again and he's gone. Whoops, close call, we almost connected with him for a second there. Wouldn't want that to happen.

Contortion/dislocation: Official description: The FOSSORIAL puts his flexibility and adaptability on full display in a contortionist act that will leave audiences stunned when the artist dislocates his limbs to maintain his loving embrace with FUTURE and Ewai The Dog.

Actual experience: apparently the Fossorial is supposed to live under the stage and always be reacting to the actions above it because "what happens on earth impacts his home below." Like, okay, fine, he does poke his head out a couple of times throughout to mess with Ewai, but much like every other character in the entire show he never seems impacted by that or anything else. I didn't spot much loving embrace either. What I DID see was a really cool act that should have made the audience deeply uncomfortable and instead takes you on such a whiplash journey you don't have much time to feel anything but amazed. This artist is remarkable in every way. Right up to the line without crossing into body horror territory. Very very cool and unique - a real standout.

Washington trapeze: Official description: When FUTURE looks up to see the final missing box flying in the air, she realizes it’s up to her to place the missing piece back into the CUBE. The Washington trapeze descends towards her in a poetic moment, as the animals return to stage to orchestrate her flight.

Actual experience: literally did not know we were rebuilding the cube until she put the final piece back in. Didn't even know it needed rebuilding. Kinda thought it just changed and adapted to fit whatever needed to happen onstage. Also very unclear on why the animals are at all invested in Future's flight, but regardless the choreography is very beautiful and it's just a treat to see this act at all. Future's artist is a fantastic aerialist and though there wasn't much swinging back and forth like we see in O, the diversity of the tricks is much wider and she uses the apparatus in ways I'd never seen before. Very strong act.

Teeterboards: Official description: In a high-flying performance, the paper animals celebrate connection and coexistence through an exhilarating triple teeterboard act. As the playful birds take flight from their teeterboards, they inject a palpable energy into the air, overjoyed by the feeling of togetherness.

Actual experience: cool that there's three, but otherwise there isn't really anything unique about this teeterboard act. A pretty bland finale act. I think the artists were having a bit of a rough night - there were some timing issues and redos, but that's circus baby, that never bothers me.

Finale: The cube takes center stage again and the animals parade around it, and slowly it revolves to reveal a kind of tableau of all the artists and animals together inside of it like a frame, which is a very cool visual. Music swells, we're all happy, and then it's over. Unfortunately this is the only Montreal Cirque performance I've seen where the cast didn't get a standing ovation from the entire audience.

Clowns: weird. Like they were fine, they got some laughs, but they neither reflected on the show nor seemed to meaningfully exist inside or outside of it. Like everyone else in the show, they were identical to one another. Both of their acts had to do with stacking boxes - which like, we get it, cube, boxes, okay, fine - but what got me was the very deliberate line of white packing tape across every box they used. In a show ostensibly about humanity's future, all I could think was Amazon Amazon Amazon. Had the show conveyed any sort of meaning, this might have been an interesting contrast to an environmentalist message. Maybe an actual commentary! Instead it just felt tacky and wasteful. Like we just watched all these animals we're supposed to care about, and now we're hefting around a dozen delivery boxes filled with nothing. I don't think this is wholly the artists' fault. Had they been given more substance to work with, they might have had a really interesting impact on the show.

Band: Beautifully featured! Gorgeously, androgynously costumed! Four vocalists! Four!! And some of the least memorable music I have ever heard from Cirque ever. Not a single song stood out, not a single one lingered in my head after it ended. They were so ancillary to the story, which might have been fine but they kept coming out onstage as though strictly to remind us that they existed in the first place. A shameful waste of immense talent.

Odds, ends, and final thoughts:

It may seem unfair to hold every act against its official description since so many successful Cirque shows and acts differ hugely from their marketing materials. But I do so here to highlight how Echo tries desperately cling to a message and theme, then abandons it at every turn. I don't even know if I would say the bones of a good show are there because I'm not convinced they are. Every element feels like it was salvaged from Under the Same Sky's scrap heap and retrofitted with just enough time to make Echo's premiere date. You couldn't make a show this disjointed. It's actually impossible. You would have to ignore every reasonable edit. But that's exactly what happened: they didn't make a new show. They just recycled an old one.

Great example: Ewai's name. "Ewai" is the first word in the only song we ever heard from UTSS, interestingly titled "Future." It's also the apparent first word of Echo's opening song, which has the same general melody as "Future" and is now called "Echo." So what, they just took a word from an existing and decided to name the dog after it? The alternative - that Ewai's name is the actual first sung word in the entire show - doesn't make sense, because Ewai has no connection to any sort of theme or journey. The only conclusion that makes sense is that he's just there, like every other detail, cherrypicked.

For real, what is the cube. It is utterly baffling to me. Is it good? Is it bad? Neutral? Did it break? Does it just transform? If it did break, are we meant to conclude that Meat Man is responsible and is a bad actor intent on destroying nature with his overtly capitalistic ways? If yes, why does Future seem to like him? If we see Future slide in the last piece, when did the cube's rebuild begin? Why have we centered a show apparently about unity and growth around such a static, angular structure? We should call the cube what it is: an UTSS holdover cum excuse not to build an actual set.

The costumes fail in exactly the way I feared during the show's development. There is no connecting with the artists because we almost never see them. Those that we see are dressed identically. Those that stand out are not given personalities or impact on the story.

Recommendations for fixes: redefine the Cartographer as a guide or architect. Position Future as a more powerful character, an instrument or inspiration for change rather than yet another stranger in a strange land. Ditch the fucking meat man, my god. Give artists unique costumes. Show artists' faces. Give us a moment to breathe and understand and enjoy.

I'm sorry for the negative review. Despite my tone it really doesn't give me much pleasure. I love Cirque and want their shows to succeed, but Echo is the kind of perfect storm I go nuts on: a wellspring of missed opportunity and untapped potential. I want to take the creation team by the shoulders and shake them until I understand how they thought this was a finished show, how they could claim to be proud of it. I'm honestly not convinced they are.

I was considering going down to DC to catch this again if I liked it, but I think I'm gonna hold off until it turns a year old or so. We saw radical transformations for Kooza, Volta, and Amaluna, all to varying degrees of success. I'd like to see elements of all those shows' developmental journeys in Echo one day, and I hope the artistic team takes the time to make the investment.

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I am not going to read the Vogue piece, but I thought this essay on it was pretty funny -

It will never cease to morbidly fascinate me how the ultra-wealthy, despite having every resource at their disposal, will never be able to buy Authentic Coolness. We are so normal, this story’s subjects seem to be yelling, look at us in our normal 400,000-acre ranch in West Texas drinking margaritas, talking about our blended families and our friendship with the Kardashian-Jenners!

The patina of normalcy and chillness does not, shockingly, last much longer than it takes to read the story. Because all the while they are talking about driving their kids to school, attending work meetings, driving down to Tijuana for supposed philanthropic endeavors, and calling their siblings, we, the people who live in the real world and not a universe in which there exists a “salt genie” (read the story), cannot help but think, this man owns Amazon Web Services, a platform that hosts not only companies but major governments, their agencies, and financial institutions around the world; this man owns the Washington Post, one of the most widely-circulated newspapers in the country, in a continuing conflict of interest to which the government did not see fit to object; this man is not an insignificant enemy of the rising labor movement in America; and this man pays a lower tax rate than most of us. And somehow, despite all this, he and his fiancée are the recipients of Vogue puff pieces.

No? Apologies, maybe that’s what I was thinking as I absorbed these words and pictures. It is so nakedly needy, this contradictory yearning both for recognition as a Titan of Business and as One of the People. It is almost too revelatory, like we’re reading Jeff and Lauren’s journals (the ones they get to “like, three times a week”) without permission. I can picture their publicists meeting with Anna Wintour, convincing her — as they clearly did — that this would be a marketable love story. And to be fair, we are talking about it, but God, at what cost? Why be so public? Why, when even among your cohort of billionaires, you are particularly problematic, would you call so much attention to yourself? Much like we’ve all noticed with Elon Musk and his parade of mistakes, it is evident that there is no one in the Bezos-Sánchez circle to shake their head when they spout off insane and damaging-to-the-brand ideas. They either haven’t a clue how they are perceived or they simply do not care. I’m not sure which is worse.

There were so many insane quotes in this story, I almost blacked out while reading it. My brain could simply not catch up to or even fully compute what my eyes were seeing. You should absolutely read the full story, which naturally serves as a very thinly-veiled advertisement for Bezos's and Sánchez's many brands and enterprises, if only to see the below quotes in context — context that does not, I promise you, make the words any more sensical.

“… The phrase “Love you to space and back,” a favorite saying between Sánchez and Bezos, embroidered in her lilting cursive.” (The couple’s focus on space is both childish and almost mind-numbing, as if, by their calculations and without acknowledging their own role in its destruction, earth is already lost and no longer a concern of theirs.)

“Sánchez uses a mug Bezos got her from Amazon, with the words “Woke up sexy as hell again” splashed across the side.” (In another life, Jeff Bezos was a TJ Maxx mom.)

“Sánchez is also a big audiobook fan—she’s deep into Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great.” (About this, what can I tell you that you are not already thinking?)

“On the weekends Bezos makes churros in his deep fryer, a recipe passed down from his Cuban grandfather. ‘Abuelo made churros whenever we were with him,’ says Bezos.” (Not Jeff Bezos remembering he’s Latino!! Not this! Amigues, we do not claim him.)

“Collins counts Sánchez as a close friend (they have a pickleball crew) and describes how in “deep COVID” Sánchez called her at 6:20 a.m. wanting to help.” (If a so-called friend called me at 6:20 a.m. claiming to want to help, the first step towards that journey would be deleting my number.)

“‘I made her vulnerable and soft,’ says Bezos with more than a hint of pride.” (Reader, I gagged (derogatory).)