#like frankly that's netflix's fault

[florallylly]

anyways i know this is a stranger things blog and maybe i've said this before but i'm not watching season 5 regardless lol

[gotskamstuff]

Can I also shed light on something that is so problematic in the OBX production?

How did they manage to get THE BIGGEST plot point ever of the entire show in 5 years of work… leaked like that on the same day they filmed it? (‘cause boy there rumors we didn’t want to believe have been here since the cast was still in Morocco)

The unprofessionalism clearly is rampant in the entire production ‘cause that is insane, we’re not taking about a small independent production, this a massive Netflix production that should have a certain level of secrecy, this is honestly one of the reasons why at first I found it hard to believe those rumors, how could they possibly know? IT’S NETFLIX!

When I started to believe the rumors and A LOT of people were coming forward saying they knew it from reliable sources, I legit thought that it was because the scene was shot in front of quite a few background actors, around people in Morocco who could’ve seen it with their own eyes.

When I tell you my astonishment as I realized in the past few days that the scene was actually shot in what seems like a secluded location with only the main actors and main crew on set. It’s crazy to think that for this to have been leaked so quickly and rampantly it means that it got out from someone working very closely in the production of the show or someone very close to the ones who do, who else could’ve known?

Some people are going around saying “Rudy told everyone in Morocco he was leaving”…but quite frankly if you believe that you are Boo Boo the fool, I know we’re mad at him at the moment but this is an insane speculation and incredibly hard to believe, who in the right mind says something like that to strangers? He would’ve been fined by the network for probably 10 times his paycheck.

The fact that someone working on the show or someone close to them was able to leak something like this so quickly and freely is so problematic. What other big Netflix production has ever had any massive plot like that leaked like this? None.

This show has been fumbling BIG TIME for so many reasons also revolving the production and this post is already long enough as it is, but maybe I will explain another time how much I believe that even a lot of the bullshit and drama happening behind the scene with the cast was to some degree the producers fault for how they handled things from day one.

They always treated this massive Netflix production as if they were working on their independent college project with their friends.

[anidaladefencelawyer]

I know its vogue to hate on Filoni nowadays but frankly I feel that he's honestly been overhated and outright scapegoated in some cases. Ok, I acknowledge he may have gone too far with Anakin to the point of appealing to the Prequel haters or failed to strike a balance with some of the existing characterization(to the point where we get these Jedi uncrit accounts trying to make him overtly despicable with how he behaves in TCW) but this dosen't make TCW this uniquely bad with characters going OOC. There have been far worse cases of rampant retconning in media(cough*Warcraft*cough, and even that isn't the worst) and preexisting canon in media with multiple writers contradicting each other is as old as DC and Marvel comics not having any strong canon and even the EU being somewhat loose with canon given the number of stories there and the need to constantly make adjustments to the films, which itself took a broad stokes/sliding timescale approach to things.

And in some cases it escalates to him being blamed for things he arguably had little say on or shares the blame with others. Lucas was just as much as "EU only counts when I say so" as him, perhaps even more so. The idea that "Lucas was pro EU and Filoni destroyed it" is a myth perpertuated by some diehard EU that wants to paint Lucas as entirely flawless(and this is even considering the fact that there were some legitimately baseless claims against Lucas like the idea that Kurtz and Marcia are the only reason the OT--meaning Original Duology, not Original Trilogy, was good). While Filoni isn't blameless, he isn't some hack who sabotaged Lucas from behind and ran SW into the ground(I'd honestly say Disney as a whole deserves that dubious title).

I know EU fans bring up the chips as an example of him destroying the EU and "taking away Clones agency and the more interesting implications of the Clones willingly choosing to serve as fascist enforcers", but a case can be made that Lucas was more responsible for it; Katie Lucas wrote that episode, not Filoni, and there is some evidence that the entire plot point goes back to Lucas. On top of him holding TCW to a higher level than the EU, at the end of the day, Star Wars was a critique of US imperialism, the Vietnam War. Back then, the draft was paramount, men were drafted to fight against their will regardless of if they wanted or not. Given how that era shaped Lucas, and how the republic is supposed to parallel the US in that time, it is honestly not THAT much of a stretch to argue that maybe Lucas was influenced by his lived experiences and how he perceived the draft as something forcing men to do things against their will.

I am well aware that the discourse around veterans have in recent years gotten much more critical on the left, but George Lucas isn't someone who keeps up with every sociopolitical trend, and the left back then likely had a far different view of veterans as potentially "victims of imperialism themselves" over being "complicit war criminals more prone to far-right ideology".

In additin, frankly I find blaming him for the current state of Star Wars kinda overblown, whatever faults the Sequel Trilogy has is much more systemic and baked into late stage capitalist hollywood than something he cooked up. JJ Abrams was just as much responsible for rampant fanservice as he is and frankly, take Filoni out of the picture, and someone else will take his place. In fact, name one large scale cultural media that isn't dominated by rampant fanservice in the world of late stage capitalism. As long as the socioeconomic stranglehold over entertainment exists in its current state, they will ALWAYS fall back on fanservice and the "Netflix model of binging and cancellations". Even Andor, constantly held up as an alternative, had its fair share of fanservice and references to the past.

You have every right to not like TCW, Rebels or find it overrated, but I honestly think that Filoni has been overtly scapegoated here by a vocal chunk of the fandom. While it isn't entirely undeserved, it also isn't entirely warrented.

[blueikeproductions]

Welp EarthSpark is officially done in Japan via the latest Figure King magazine.

Sorta rubs the Nucleon in the Energon wound that the news of cancellation comes in a magazine celebrating 40 years of Transformers, with a cover drawn by the Kiss Players guy no less, huh?

It’s also looking more apparent EarthSpark is finito in the States too. And some staff of the show are looking to blame fans for being the b-word and the p-word. Look fella, those words lost meaning just as much as “woke” did, just take your lumps like the rest of us and admit your show didn’t work because people simply had no interest in it. Also just terrible, TERRIBLE writing and pacing. I can forgive Rise of the TMNT’s faults due to Nick not knowing what to do with it and giving the staff unhelpful feedback that kept changing it (the Netflix movie finale was a much better look at what the show was trying to be and could’ve been, but alas), but EarthSpark I have no such compunction.

Hasbro was allegedly pretty hands off and was fine with what they were doing (at least at first) so the blame can only land on the writers who clearly misunderstood what they had. I detest modern shows that have uneven pacing, tone and characterization. It’s why I don’t look fondly on Adventure Time the moment it stopped being a goofy kids show and started being some college art student’s angsty wet dream.

Clearly something changed for EarthSpark internally, and I can’t help but think Hasbro and Paramount looked at the abysmal launch of the first batch of episodes and told the staff to drastically change the story for S2. That the trailer is a more traditional Autobots vs Decepticon conflict with them hunting for Emberstone pieces ala Transformers Animated and most importantly having evil Decepticon Terrans (something fans had stated as happening in some form from the start), shows they wanted to make this into a better boy brand thing again.

The first season overcompensates by focusing too heavily on the female cast, most of them bordering on obnoxious, while making most of the male characters into morons, again Robbie dying for contrived reasons but the Maltos instead choose to love up Mo while Robbie lays there clinging to whatever life force he has left at that moment.

Instead Robbie seems to be the primary focus, with a b-plot about him having a crush on someone. I’m guessing this is where the rumors saying Hashtag comes out as gay comes from as I suspect Hashtag remarks on Robbie’s female crush being adorable and tries to be his wingman (with probably the same results when she tried helping Jawbreaker).

I feel like the intention may have been to have Mo be the focus of S1 and Robbie for S2, but it doesn’t fully come off that way as the focus is too rambling on top of trying to focus on the Terrans and Bumblebee in an RiD15 style role again.

Also what the slag is this?

If there’s one thing I hate more it’s lazy photoshopping.

Not only do they just swap Bee and Prime’s renders around, they just crudely put the kids heads on these altered bodies from their preexisting stock art… Like no Quintessons or Terracons or nothing. Nothing to make you more legitimately excited for something new. Just the same Autobots and the kids in ReBoot Guardian Code suits, ick. It’s a bit of a downgrade compared to the Prime Apex Armor suits the toys use.

Despite the cancellation, the Japanese magazine refers to a “Slash Malt”(o). Presumably this might be a Terran version of the Dinobot Slash, whose only proper media presence has been a minor cameo in Japanese manga as the kid sister of the Dinobots and a supporting role in Rescue Bots Academy.

Frankly becoming a Terran might be the best thing for Slash, and it’s something I’m surprised toy wise wasn’t attempted anyway with characters like Lightbright, Lickity Split, Rubble, Gauge, Nightscream, and others.

So once again, what comes next? We don’t know still as of typing. Skybound is still knocking it out of the park with its Energon Universe, with the Joe portion moving on to Destro and Scarlett after having wrapped up Cobra Commander’s miniseries. Of note on Destro is the possibility MASK might be getting another go again, as what appears to be Miles Mayhem, the leader of the villainous VENOM faction, makes an appearance. The MASK and VENOM teams tend to be depicted as off shoots of Joe and Cobra in modern material, and with the pitch of the EU mentioning Energon being able to power machines, the transforming vehicles might be among the first specially designed vehicles developed to combat the Decepticons… Especially since Destro took interest in the idea of a transforming jet when he learned of Starscream.

The next cartoon is being worked on now, but we don’t know yet what it is. The easiest assumption is it’s a spin off of TFONE like how Mutant Mayhem has Tales of the TMNT, but it may be something else altogether. Barring anything TFONE does, EarthSpark was the last hold out of IDW’s post war ideas, and with Autobot Megatron mark II being viewed like this:

I think Autobot Megatron is largely done as a concept and with how merciless Skybound Megs is shown to be (though interestingly he did spare some Cobra-La guys when they told him what he wanted to know after stepping on one), I think we’re gonna be back to a traditional Megatron.

People are still not really feeling TFONE via recent upload on a TF fan convention YouTube channel, calling it terrible and cringey, so at this point I’m honestly just writing it off now (even though I’ll personally like it fine like the new Garfield Movie).

I stand by a new TF anime with a fun Mini-Con like gimmick built in the story is the way to go, because this incessant need to reject its toyetic roots is aggravating. At this stage I say let Skybound do the comics, and let Japan handle the cartoon, because clearly most people working now can’t write a decent TF cartoon without getting out of their sanctimonious way.

It’s time to Transform and Rise Up from this nonsense, and hopefully One helps with that more, but atm it’s all on Skybound until the next cartoon is ready. No pressure.

[captainnightflare]

Character Dive of Wednesday Addams, The conflict of Purposeful Miscommunication

So I had a college assignment about conflict and the questions ranged from the problem to the resolve. I choose the character Wednesday Addams as the subject of this because quite frankly she was the first to come to mind. If you guys would like to discuss this further I'm more than happy to (I literally rewatched Wednesday for the 4th time for this assignment to make sure I covered my bases :) please enjoy) P.s. I also just wanted to write about Wenclair :3

What is one example of a conflict situation you have seen in films, television shows, or books?    I live by the old saying, ninety percent of problems are caused or indirectly caused by miscommunication. There is so much truth to that statement. One of my favorite conflicting scenes in media came from the Netflix show Wednesday. The show follows Wednesday Addams, from the Addams Family, as she navigates through her journey of murder mysteries happening around the school and newly discovered abilities.     Wednesday is an interesting character to say the least, she’s portrayed as this very stoic and standoffish girl. Deeming emotions as nothing but a liability. While we follow the strange murders of a monster, we see Wednesday get increasingly driven to solve who is behind them. She’s stubborn and prideful, not wanting to let anyone have a one up on her.     Where this all comes to a head and where a lot of her inner conflict begins is when she tricks her roommate, Enid, into going to investigate a house that might have some clues. Both girls get ambushed by the monster while investigating, nearly getting killed. Obviously, Enid is angry by the events. Sparking an argument between the two, Wednesday not seeing the problem as they both made it out alive, causes Enid to snap at her. Telling her that she has tried so hard to be her friend, support her, stick up for her, and be there for her when she needed someone, but Wednesday is never going to understand that. So, Enid leaves, telling Wednesday that if she wants to be alone so badly, she can be alone.    

How could you apply restorative practices in the situation?    Luckly for Wednesday she does begin to see her mistakes, even if she is very reluctant about it in the beginning. Enid, luckily being the more emotionally inclined girl that she is, does go out of her way to still check on Wednesday. Knowing that the stoic girl tends to sulk in her solitude, more so now a days with that monster coming around. Although both are still angered with one another they we can see that being away from each other is getting to them.     The girls up to this point have built a friendship between them, a trust that quite frankly Wednesday isn’t used to. That’s why it takes her almost losing another person close to her to realize that she needs people in her life. She cries, something she hasn’t done for years because that fear became so real then. She does care about the people in her life, she is just very reluctant to let them in. At one point the girls do resolve their issues, Enid taking the first step after hearing of the unfortunate events. She moves back in with Wednesday and the two talk about their differences as individuals, contrasting each other but do accept one another as friends. Slowly taking down those invisible barriers, one duct tape at a time.        

How could being vulnerable, having an open mind, and considering others help with navigating the conflict identified in the situation?    In this instance we had a case of purposeful miscommunication, which is equally if not arguably worse than accidental miscommunication. The root of the problem though comes from a seed of mistrust in people that the person of target had no fault in. And that is just life sometimes, we carry bad experiences with us into new stages of our lives and hurt the people that try to help us. Having the chance to be vulnerable though and open to new ideas of repair with the right set of people could be a solution for the miscommunication.     This idea does tie back to opening that wound of mistrust, of being honest with the feelings that were buried so deep. It is hard for some people to achieve these steps, but they just have to see that there are people out there willing to take that extra for them. Whether that stems from respect or love, those people are going to be there for them, no matter what mistakes they make, no matter the type of person they are. But you have to meet halfway. Compromise, and respect one another’s individuality for we each have our own strengths in different categories of life.      

[simplyalexeiofficial]

To be clear, I don’t think any sane can blames the actors striking for the delay and/or complete lack of Bridgerton season 3 content. If I recall correctly, the production company had already completely finished filming and editing the show before the strike even began (if not very soon after) and by that point we still did not have any actual updates anyway.

Frankly, what I’m sure we all suspect is that said production company sees all the fandom complaining and thinks that by withholding already completed content that said fandom will turn on the actors like it’s somehow their fault that, unless their in the top nth percent of A-list celebrities, they’ve been overworked and underpaid for ages because studios could get away with it due to the illusion of glamour and wealth that comes with the profession.

Anyway, I stand with the acting strike AND think the only thing stopping Netflix from promoting and/or posting season 3 is that they wouldn’t get “as much” profit from overworking their actors for cheap promotion with locked in contracts that didn’t account for people knowing their own self worth.

[ignitesthestxrs]

I may have missed it but did you watch Shadow and Bone on Netflix? What were your thoughts on it?

i watched the first season! i think i have spoken about it on here before but i didn't tag it because i wasn't very nice, and i didn't want to like, spring that on the greater fandom tag lol

uh overall i think that the show flattened a lot of the things that i enjoyed about the books, and did not improve on anything i disliked from them.

the way the show engaged with race was deeply performative and one dimensional, like, jump-scaring the viewer with ISN'T THIS RACISM SO BAD AND AWFUL in a way that seemed intended to induce the viewer and the show itself to feel good about having noticed that they just got punched in the face.

like right before six of crows came out, i did Representation Math to figure out who was going to die lol and i was Correct and that's the kind of ethos that the show persisted with. coupled with the vibe from the books that has been increasingly sinophobic, i just uuuh Didn't Like It, it left a bad taste.

(obvs i am White and it is not my job to claim Good or Bad Job overall, or assign myself Progressive Points for having this take, but it is the way it hit me at the time of watching and after discussing with friends who are better positioned than i am to comment)

the casting of nina really bothered me, and bardugo's open support of it, while i get that it was probably a sensible choice for her, REALLY bothered me. like if you're going to create characters based on which Diversity Niche they fill, then it's incumbant on you as a creator to hold firm to that vision and use your power and your voice to push back on attempts to uuuuh hollywoodify fatness. like it was just a fundamental betrayal that...sure, i get, that's hollywood, but also this character was explicitly created as a balm to the hollywoodification of fatness, and the response to her casting was basically 'well so long as she's plus size that's what is important'. idk like this is not the fault of the actress at all, but it is: tiresome. the actress is not Fat.

also her costuming was terrible in a very un-nina way that felt like it was trying to disguise how unfat she really was/frumpify her

but aside from That Stuff, i also think that the show misunderstood the fundamental point of two of the core Alina relationships in a way that was deeply boring and in fact more of a problem in the case of the darkling in particular.

like a thing that the books does really well actually is the arc of mal and alina's relationship? in which they start off with a fundamental misunderstanding of what they mean to each other that results in them growing further apart to the point where they both have to change who they are as people to actually fit together properly again. it's a really good example of like, puppy love not working out because values and life circumstances change, but then character growth enables the characters to come together as new people with a different perspective.

because the show starts mal off in his Clear Devotion phase, it makes a lot of the potential growth in that relationship way less meaningful? lol i know a lot of people don't like book malina and...whatever to that, frankly, but from a Craft Perspective, they gave this man his character from the Third Book without giving him any of the Growth Triggers that got him to that point. i only care about I Am Become A Blade mal because he had to fight to get to that point.

re: the darkling on the show lol the show has this weird ethos that their relationship is somehow more ethical if the darkling is Really No For Real In Love With Her from the beginning, which is just SO off base with what the actual problem is with that relationship. the show tries to girl bossify Alina by have her take the darkling off guard/having him experience Real Emotions For Her without considering the fact that this just means that,,,someone who loves her is using her? that's not better! she doesn't have More Power in this relationship because she's shown to be more proactive in the romance side of their relationship, because he's still using her! she hasn't won something from him by making him experience an emotion or desire, she's just wound herself deeper into his web - but the show presents these moments as though she has gained some kind of control over a situation that she literally cannot have control over.

like the whole point of the relationship in that first book is that alina is being groomed, but instead of showing that, the show said 'oh grooming is bad, alina should have more agency!' and shot a situation where she literally cannot have agency because vital information is being kept from her, as a 'yas queen make him obsessed with you!' kind of situation. he's already obsessed with her! because she's a tool to him! it's not agency to make a man want you when he is already using you for his own purposes, it's being groomed!

i need shows that are engaging in depicting problematic relationships to fucking lean into that rather than wriggle out of it. because when they try to wriggle out of it, they always, always end up depicting something that's still fucked up, only now the narrative doesn't seem to be aware of its fucked upness.

anyway uuuuh those are my main thoughts on show, i did not watch the second season and probably never will lol

[chaosthatsmellsgreen]

Netflix's Avatar The Last Airbender thoughts part 1/5)

so... atla live action, huh. after finishing season 1, here are my thoughts in bulletpoint format; it's very long and most of it is spoiler-y, so it's under a cut. (and also in 4 more posts after this). fun fact i spent most of my day writing this, clearly ATLA is very important to me

my general opinion is pretty much "not as bad an adaptation as it could've been but not all that much to see here, on its own OR as an ATLA adaptation"

this is also obviously biased, i'm watching as someone who adores the OG ATLA, but in my comparisons, i'm trying my best to stay away from "they didn't did it the same way = bad" and compare the two in their intentions and execution in what they were trying to do and how they made me feel, but i may fail at that here and there because i have strong feelings.

visuals: this is the easy thing to praise; other than the nighttime scenes, the visuals are pretty well done. i mean... it's a lot of cgi, and it looks like cgi. but, well, i haven't seen big panning shots of fantasy cities done irl since LotR, and i'd be proper shocked if we ever saw them being done again. i thought the cgi was alright, the big shots of the cities were pretty. i really liked the bending as well, it had impact, both the moves and the visual effects of it were reminiscent of the animated show. also also, they did the thing!!! in the siege of the north!!! with the fish and the red and the blue and Yue's eyes!!!! yes yes. made me very happy.

tone: as expected, they went for a darker tone; it's the same fallacy as it always is: making something sadder, edgier and more brutal doesn't actually make it more grown-up. we all know how this one goes, and NATLA is no exception. it's a shame, since one of the greatest strengths of ATLA was that it could maintain a balance of being silly, heartwarming, tragic and epic at the same time. this show does have some great moments of levity, and there is definitely a heart that shines through, despite this being a lot heavier in tone, but it's not quite as well balanced as the OG

starting on "100 years ago": while i'm of the opinion that we didn't really need to see any of this, i think it could've been a great choice if used in the right ways; that is to show how Aang's life used to be joyful and carefree, by showing him having fun with other kids instead of being very much either alone or with Gyatso. as it stands i think they focused a little too much on showing the war itself as opposed to Aang and the airbenders

battle of the air temple: i liked the whole "comet festival" idea - i think it's a good way to explain how basically nobody escaped the genocide. i know the comics also give a good explanation, i'm frankly okay with either. the one thing i didn't love about the battle is what i usually don't love about battle scenes these days, even though it's a small thing: in the beginning we're only shown the airbenders winning and then it's suddenly flipped and it's only the firebenders winning. i wish more battle scenes showed changing odds, like we see both sides winning encounters up to a point and then it starts becoming obvious who's faring better. it's a small point but it would've made the battle far more interesting. it is also a questionable decision to make it a battle specifically, even though we know the air nomads were peaceful people - if Aang is to serve as an example, perhaps to the point of fault. however, this didn't bother me as much as i've seen it bother some other people

Gyatso: i loved him. we saw more of him now than we have before, and i thought he stayed very true to who he was shown to be in the original series. i adored his interactions with Aang. the spirit world stuff was sort of a cop-out; i think i wouldn't have minded it as much if it happened later, but part of the tragedy of what happened during the comet is that Aang doesn't get to talk to anyone he lost, he doesn't get to be told that he's done nothing wrong and be forgiven, he has to forgive himself and process his guilt without being able to talk to the people he's "let down". regardless, Gyatso was a very good mentor figure and the show does a good job of showing just how tragic his loss is to Aang

"we want GoT fans to like this": watching some of the scenes in this first section is ringing "we want fans of game of thrones to enjoy this show" bells, i mean i generally don't mind graphic violence much, i just don't super vibe with it in an ATLA adaptation, and they hold no punches here. also it's so. fucking. dark. in the sense of lighting? hello??? can i see the show i'm trying to watch??? pls??? i lowered the blinds and put my monitor on max brightness and i could still barely see details in nighttime scenes, throughout the whole show. very GoT, good job /s

animal companions: Momo is still nightmare fuel. i'm sorry. he's not cute, he's TERRIFYING. and seeing how he's barely in any scenes, at this point they could've just left him out and spare us the nightmares. tbh Appa has the same problem, but Appa looks much less like a sleep paralysis demon and has more cute moments, even though he's criminally underused.

acting: i'm pretty happy with everyone. i'm not saying they're all putting forth the performances of their lives, but they're all serviceable, i see problems in performance as being more in the exact script and direction than what the actors are doing. my favourite by far though is Ian Ousley's Sokka. very well done young sir, good job!

Sukka: i really enjoy 99% of Sokka and Suki's scenes together, they have a good chemistry, they're both so awkward and clearly have no idea how to talk to each other. however, i hate the little interaction where Sokka is cleaning himself up and Suki is like... creeping on him, idk, that one felt uncomfortable. every time i see a scene like this i kind of consider hey, what would people be saying if the gender roles were reversed? well we all know that. anyway, other than that, i loved watching their awkward teen mutual crush. i also loved watching them fight together against the fire nation soldiers. i actually thought they had more chemistry here than they did in the Kyoshi Island episode in the OG show, i always felt that Suki's interest came out of nowhere at the end of the episode in ATLA, and that they only really hit it off from book 2 onward

the state of the world: i like that there is more of a distrust of strangers in this adaptation - these are people who've lived their entire lives in a war-torn world, used to danger closing in from all sides, they'd be suspicious of any outsiders, and a lot of them would be vary, similar to Suki's mom, to the danger that harbouring the Avatar could bring. i also like how they used the situation to emphasize how Aang is pretty much the only person left who knows what it's like to live in a unified, peaceful world, where people travel and know other cultures

PART 1/5

START // NEXT

[vf-thompson]

Book Review: Content Warning: Everything Will Fuck You Up and It Will be Your Fault

It seems odd that i'm sitting down to write a perfect review of a book that has, as far as a book can screw up a life, sent my own careening wildly off track.

My introduction to Emezi was the diabolical little YA spec fic Pet, which was assigned reading in my Transgender Literature class i took a few semesters ago. i was struggling with my academic workload, and admittedly only read pieces of that book, enough know what was going in class discussions, but shelved it to finish later. i did not realize at the time that i had one of the writer's other books in my possession already, a threatening little collection of poems that my best friend had gotten me for my birthday right before beginning the semester.

It sat on my shelf patiently, biding its time, dreaming its sick little dreams, until i needed it.

i can't tell you how the explosion happened, only that it did. Call it a gas leak, maybe. Entropy did as entropy does. i was separated, overnight, from everything smelling and tasting of home, born on Christian hands and pagan winds into the wild to be taught the true ways of the world. Apotheosis knocked for the third time in my heathen life, and this time i let the sonuvab!tch inside at last to make herself at home.

i found myself in a hotel room, on the other side of a bombing, stranded. This book was in my hands, had made it instinctively into my bag as i escaped the slithering fire that consumed my house and my life. i read the title, read the author's name, realized i had heard the name before. i ached for familiarity, and opened the book.

Everything was inside waiting for me inside, as Emezi warned. i blundered into the bloody-berry red thickets of their serpentine prose, joining them in their dirty, dismal trek up the Holy Mountain. i found, immediately, in their words, a kindred spirit, crimson as my own sin-stained soul. i can only be frankly honest: the poems in this collection seemed to resonate with my own life and its events to a degree that is uncanny, almost abject. The second poem, "christening", tore me open, and i understood, feverishly, wrongly: i too could speak the truth.

i took to my notebook, trying to put my frayed and desperate grief into words, grief at my sudden exile from Eden, using Emezi's words as model. i crafted my own imitative poems in the key of confession and launched them into the sky like a rocket, hoping to explain away the pain with meter and meaning. But like our viperous little narrator, the ouroboros sharing their tale with us, i swallowed myself with my own words, burned up in my own stomach acid, vomited myself out somewhere worse than before. My confessions did not cleanse me; they branded me Barabbas. My attempt to reach for the sky left me falling back towards earth, landing in a black muddy river, washing up somewhere by Bethlehem with venom in my eyes. As the book warns at the top, the urge to explain can often only make things worse when you see the world wrong.

It has since taken me five months to finish a book that is 45 pages long. i can't blame the book. It told me its mission on the front cover, warned me as well as a book can. It told me what was waiting inside: Everything, undiluted, unadulterated. This book blew my mind in the worst kind of way, which is of course the best way, which is of course the only way. Books are here to challenge us, to change the way we see. There is nothing comforting or safe about the work here, blowing past trigger warnings in a way that no edged-out Netflix comedian could hope to touch.

If you can handle it, allow Emezi to take a scalpel to your life, as they did mine. Inside you will find ruminations and meditations on what it means to be a pagan, to be spirit, to be of any faith or no faith, to be less than a man and more than a god and to do-se-do around the black heart of a dying, diseased brain. Big thanks to the bitch who bought it for my birthday, who read it and decided i should too. She's never let me down with a recommendation, and i'm happy to say this book continues that trend. It has been a campfire to sit beside in one of the darkest periods of my life, throwing shadows of hope against the wall even as the cave threatens to collapse down on top of us all.

[malstermonkey]

SYD jet-lag

I’m amazed at my brain: how the frikking hell did it develop this capacity for “selective amnesia”? In the main I pride myself on my capacity for recalling stuff and, secondly, for the fact that I reckon I’m both balanced and thoughtful and rational -- yet everytime it’s a new experience this radical North to Southern Hemisphere jetlag? Having scored yet another free seat I spread myself handsomely across 2 business class seats (laptop for Netflix binge on the generous fold out table of the seat next door, which also doubles as storage for my hand luggage & also all wiring (for charging laptop & 2 phones) went through the other seats plug) -- put my seat on lie flat and used it (and pillows from the other seat as a form of Ottoman: frankly if I had had a sparkly turban I would have come across as some fat ‘n happy pasha...........this excess of space meant that I only dozed a little through the flight which saw me arrive squirly brained and seeing virtually double at my hotel: unpacked thoughtfully, showered, drank water planned my coming work days and held off going to bed till 11pm (local time) -- let;s just end this somewhat whingy para by saying that I reckon I’ve had 3 hours sleep, the rest was tossing, turning, making lists (eg How many houses have lived in? Which are the 10 places do I need to visit b4 I carc it? What are my Top10 favourite sports? Can you remember the names of all your girlfriends ever (and rank them from favourite down)? Best jobs? And so on......). Nothing much worked.

Now watching a gentle Sydney sunrise and wondering whether I really want to be seeing all the people who want to see me? This arvo is dedicated to daughter (who is now scratching a living as a cyclist) who is off to do the European “season” on Friday. So that one is easy, YES, but thereafter?

Having not so long ago left this Continent you’d think I wouldn’t feel the place to be as alien as it does -- it really does feel like it is an insular bubble somewhere at the bottom of the world: and, for the sake of clarity, Australian is a sophisticated modern Nation, yet..............mmmmmmmm.

I’m afraid my mind is well foggy, so no insights of any real clarity and sharpness, the last leg of this journey was uneventful, so no pithy stories, save to say that my case was the last on to the carousel (had to wait 30mins all up) which had me concocting allsorts of conspiracy theories about what might be happening to it (yup, your fault that one -- I’ve never worried about my case ever before?).

[terresdebrume]

Well, now Daredevil is apparently ending I guess I can get to watching it.

[wrens-wramblings]

A massive problem with how fandom - particularly queer rep - is going right now on this website is how quick people are to jump ship onto the next thing and then immediately start trashing the everliving shit out of the old thing.

Steven Universe (not a perfect show by any means) while it was coming out was celebrated constantly. The Garnet reveal? Pearl being in love with Rose? The Rupphire wedding? SU was revolutionary and has been quoted by cartoon creators now for being a big reason people are allowed to bring their stories to life. Say what you want about the show, but it broke boundaries and set precedents for a lot of the shows that you now love. And the show's plot lines regarding the diamonds has been taken in completely bad faith - do yall really think the half Jewish queer person meant for you to get "Let's all forgive Nazis" from the Diamonds redemption arcs??

After Steven Universe ended a large majority of people jumped to She Ra and the Princesses of Power and when they mentioned SU at all it was to put it down as a show with terrible representation and all round bad writing.

During SPOP's run it was massively popular, with a lot of buzz around the main ship, Catradora. I know this is gonna be taken in bad faith so a quick note - while I do like Catradora, I do feel that there should have been another season for Catra to properly acknowledge the harm she did to Adora and actually grow as a person before entering into a relationship. Catra was forgiven too easily, but that was in part due to Netflix not wanting to give the show another season to properly flesh out the redemption arc. The final season was rushed as all hell, and so many story points would have been better with another season to flesh them out further.

But I digress - during the show's run it was constantly talked about for it's representation, having multiple queer characters, including a nonbinary character.

The show ends and again, the fanbase jumps. This time, it's to the Owl House. People start talking about how SPOP was actually horrible representation and, my personal favourite, they "added gay people as a cash grab."

Yeah okay guys, I'm sure a queer nonbinary creator is writing about queer people because they actually dislike the gays and want to wring money out of us. That is definitely the situation here.

And now I'm worried that in a year or two we'll have the next big queer cartoon and the posts will start popping up -

"Amity Blight is the mean lesbian stereotype."

"Raine and Eda's relationship is problematic because-"

"Amity and Luz started out as rivals, which is toxic because-"

"The romance didn't start until later in the show, it was added at the end for a cash grab."

Again, I'm certain there's gonna be bad faith takes on this -- I'm not saying these shows are perfect. They all have flaws somewhere. No media is completely without it's faults and its good to recognise those faults, that what critical reading is. But calling someone an abuser for enjoying SPOP, or a Nazi sympathiser for liking SU (actual accusations I have seen on tumblr.com) is frankly a little ridiculous.

As for the bad rep argument - every show on this list has one thing in common: a queer creator. No one experiences queerness the exact same way - the only thing that harassing queer creators for not showing your experience does is make other queer creators... not want to write queer characters. No one wants to receive death threats because, for example, they based a character with their sexuality off of how that actually affected them and someone on the Internet decided they were feeding into a harmful stereotype.

[myimaginarywonderland]

I am going to make this as clear as possible:

F1 as a sport would have died a long time ago had they not used modern media and had they not tried to actually show the people who are driving.

F1 over the years is becoming more and more inaccessible, more and more elite.

Starting with how hard it is for any person to even become a driver, to even get to some Form of formula racing let alone even make it into F3.

How linear the path for drivers has become because of the restrictive super licensing system.

How often drivers are genuinely tossed aside and shine in different series making you wonder if it truly is the drivers fault or maybe there is a fundamental problem.

How hard it is to understand F1 once you get into it because nowadays there's no explanation, nothing to clarify penalties etc.

But not just for drivers.

As fans you have to watch it on Sky. I know there's countries where there's still another option but coming from Germany where our beloved public broadcast was canceled (these were people who had been in the world of F1 for years and whether you liked them did a great job explaining it) and F1TV is also no longer available, there's no option for you to watch F1 without getting Sky. And for me, as someone whose other sports I am interested in (other racing categories) are available easily to watch, there's no way I am paying 30+ € a month just to watch maybe 2 races and qualifying because the Free Practices times are even harder to catch if you are anyone really (most people have school or work, pick one.)

As a viewer F1 is becoming more and more inaccessible and frankly, had I not started being a fan when it still was accessible even great racing wouldn't have made the troubles worth it.

But I am going to be honest here.

I became a fan over 4 years ago problem because the younger generation of drivers was actually more than just that.

They were people.

They were allowed to be silly, to do their own things, to be 20-year olds who just lived their lives having fun.

The first driver I ever came across (of course I knew drivers and the sport in practices but I wasn't actively engaging with it) was Lando.

And for younger fans there's probably a large percentage who see the younger generation because of social media.

And there's nothing wrong with that!

In fact social media is one of the main reasons it's so easy to learn about the sport now.

There's older fans to ask when you don't know anyone close to turn to, there's young people explaining the sport, there's videos to watch from fans telling you about the rules and teams history etc.

The only reason why F1 was able to even keep being popular is because not only the drivers but also fans decided to be out there.

Where would some of us be if they hadn't watched a cute edit of a driver?

Or if they hadn't stumbled across someone one Twitch?

Or if they hadn't seen Drive to Survive on Netflix?

Or if someone who you followed didn't just randomly post this picture of some white dude on here and made you curious where he came from?

Regardless of how older fans want to deny it, social media has opened the door that was firmly being shut more and more and allowed fans for so many reason to come to learn to love racing.

Because in the end that's what we stayed for.

We stayed for the racing, the action, the potential of someone getting their first win or podium and the hop that our favorite driver would do well.

And because this door was opened in this day and age of time, another box that was firmly being shut was opened as well, the box being the things in F1 no one wants to talk about because people would be seen differently.

Things like how dangerous the weight restrictions actually can be.

Things like how awful teams can be and seriously affect your mental health to the point where the drivers stops being a driver and just becomes a broken person.

Things like how there's a huge amount of racism and how easily it's brushed off.

Things like how female racing fans will never get the same treatment as male ones and will always have to prove themselves, to earn some sort of right to be heard.

Things like how incredibly damaging the lives of the mechanics are being away from their family for longer periods of time each year.

Things like how a driver would never be allowed to come out because they would never be seen the same and they could lose their job.

There's so much more that is in that box. But it's open now and drivers now have social media the same way we do, the same way other team personal do and now they could talk.

They could address the heavy weights, finally open up in the hopes of change.

Drivers could just be themselves. They could take silly pictures, have fun with friend, show the fans how much more there is to them and how much more goes into the driver we see on track.

But with the silencing we are right back to the point where F1 was before.

Hell it's even worse now.

Because we have seen what can be, we have seen the problems and by silencing the drivers they still aren't stopping.

By clearing social media there's a promise there.

A promise to make this worse and worse until there will be a point of no return, until something so bad and big happens that there is no way to stay quiet.

And I fear what that thing will be.

And I hope that when it comes every single member of the FIA, everyone who approved the silencing, who dismissed ours and the drivers voices, who didn't care about any of the burden put onto the team personal, I hope they all feel the heavy weight and responsibility of their actions.

I hope they see what they will have done.

[unpopularly-opinionated]

Alright so I'm gonna cop out and say that I'm not in the right headspace to continue arguing this, so instead I'm going to kind of cede victory to you, while still mentioning a few quickfire points I had when trying to respond to this that'll make it sound like I'm not ceding victory to you at all.

I think this boils down to a generational dispute. You've mentioned two actors who I've frankly just never heard of, which doesn't mean they're nobodies, but I do think it points to the larger issue that you and I are simply just watching different things. So in the case of who is "memorable" is largely subjective.

Speaking of being memorable, several of the actors you've mentioned, I believe you're remembering them for completely different reasons than what I'm remembering them for. For example: Rosario Dawson, while she was likely famous long before this, I had no idea who she was until 2015's Daredevil show came out on Netflix. Just to speak to the generational dispute.

I don't know how you can argue that 28 is anything but young, especially in an industry where most of its notable talent are in their 40s and 50s, and the age they make their breakout performances are so arbitrary. Seriously, if Zendaya was like 35-40 then I'd be like sure her career is doomed, but she's still got a fair while before I'd be waving the white flag. For example: Zoe Saldana's breakout role in Avatar was when she was 31.

While I agree with you that Zendaya hasn't had any stellar performances yet, that's mainly due in large part to the fact that she hasn't been given any opportunities to. In her three most recent and most noteworthy roles in the Spider-Man films, Challengers, and Euphoria, she essentially plays the same character with very minor differences.

4a. You mentioned Charles Bronson and specifically called out his lack of range and how that worked out for him which I find kind of comical because that's essentially what you've argued is wrong with Zendaya. Being able to pull off one type of role, so long as it isn't too niche, can make a career. Sure, it might not be a terribly fun career, but it's still a career. I mean if Charles Bronson can do it, why can't Zendaya?

5. I don't actually understand your point about Tessa Thompson. She's been pretty popular for the past 8-9 years or so and hasn't really lost any steam on that popularity yet. Sure, Love and Thunder sucked, but that was far far FAR from being her fault. Her best role, that I've seen, was in Westworld. I won't lie, you can probably argue that she's also a typecasted actor. She's really really good at playing the "badass bitch in charge" role, which she kind of plays similarly in the Marvel movies, but with maybe a more comedic edge to it. Since then, she's been in the Creed movies, a cameo in The Marvels, the What If...? show, etc. They're smaller roles, sure, but I guess the point I'm making is that I don't think enough time has passed to definitively say she's "vanished".

The overall TL;DR of it all I think is that who gets remembered, and for what roles they're remembered for, is a generational dispute, and despite what you say, 28 is definitely still young for a career, and while she hasn't had a breakthrough yet, one still might come for Zendaya.

I must've missed something bc can anyone tell me why everybody's talking about The Odyssey lately

[heyassbuttlmao]

okay this has been going on for months but it's starting all over again and I am going to SCREAM so y'all. y'all. look. I too am pissed that they cancelled first kill. and it is absolutely fucking because it's about queer girls, one of whom is black. like that is absolutely the issue I am not denying that

but y'all what good does it do to pit two queer shows against each other

it is nOT heartstopper's fault that first kill got cancelled? and also they . . . have nothing in common? like they are queer and they are about teenagers. what good does it do queer rep if we are instantly fucking pitting any two queer pieces of media against each other???? like ofc it's a gender and race issue but you also cannot realistically compare two shows that are,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, in entirely different genres. and both happen to be gay. and expect the results to only represent people's attitudes toward fucking queer rep

like, first kill probably needed a bigger budget. heartstopper does have some animations and shit, but otherwise needs a lot less effects and shit because it's not a fantasy show. not to mention heartstopper is about 60% of the length of first kill, so it presumably took less time (and therefore money)

the difference in time spent viewing it . . . can also be explained in part by the difference in length. first kill may have had double the hours spent, but that doesn't mean people watched it twice as many times. it's nearly double the length.

I'm just saying like,,,, if you want to compare it to something heartstopper is literally just not a good comparison? because aside from being gay they have literally nothing in common! compare it to a show that's actually a similar genre for christ's sake. gay is not a genre.

and also just like. yeah, there is absolutely a problem with sapphic shit and qpoc rep getting ignored for white gay dudes. I am not denying that. trust me it pisses me the fuck off. but that is a systemic issue, not the fault of any individual show about white gay dudes. blame netflix. stop acting like it's heartstopper's fault

y'all the goal is to fucking have more of all sorts of rep, not to tear down the rep we are getting. please stop fucking tearing down the rep we are getting

disclaimer I know some people are genuinely just comparing stats, this last part is not about you (although see: I still think it's an unhelpful comparison bc genre and shit matters way more here practically than. having gay rep). but the amount of genuine shitting on heartstopper over first kill I have seen is frankly ridiculous

[gossip-eye]

Frankly I don't see Beholding as a Fool as much as an Apathetic Hedonist. It just takes what it wants for the sake of having it. As long as it's having fun and is filled, it's fine. I also think Web calling Eye a fool is more of a personal thing since the Web doesn't really understand the point of having something for the sake of having. For Web everything can be and should be a tool to be used otherwise it holds no value. But hey it's just a theory, a podcast theory!!

Darling, you get me. The Web’s been slinging shit my way since time immemorial, but it never really stops to have any fun. Always scheming, always wanting to be ‘one step ahead’ and going on about ‘world domination’ like a half-baked Disney villain. We get it, enough already! Sometimes a bitch just wants to Behold, alright? All you guys get is the tapes - and you know whose fault that is? The Web. I get everything live and in HD, baby. I’m the Netflix of Horror with a whole genre dedicated to Jonathan Sims and captions that spell his name correctly. Lo-fi has its charm, sure, but you haven’t lived until you’ve witnessed an eye grow out of a man’s shoulder in 4K Ultra.

If that makes me a fool, I’ll happily be your jester ;)

gossip eye  👀