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scribblinaway · 2 years

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ok so here is a thing that is terrible, but then there’s maybe a silver lining, but then the silver lining somehow reveals even worse things underneath, but then that somehow has managed to create a new silver lining, maybe, but people are terrible and I don’t even know?

anyway, this is an extended ramble about rape culture in hockey and the ongoing Hockey Canada scandal and all the players’ questionable public statements in advance of the next set of parliamentary hearings next week.

So. Okay. Rape culture has been a big problem in hockey for a long time. It's something that we've started to see get addressed more and more on high school and university-level hockey teams over the last ten years or so, I would guess as part of overall campus strategies on this issue. I think the NHL's kinda come-to-Jesus moment happened last year, when a lot of information came to light about the Chicago Blackhawks covering up a sexual assault of one of their own players by a member of coaching staff, and the extremely terrible flow-on effects of that action. But change takes a long time, and other levels of hockey haven’t necessarily had this kind of shake-up.

Now: The Junior World Championships (aka World Juniors). At least in Canada, it's probably the biggest non-NHL hockey event other than the Olympics. (I'm hoping the Women's World Championship will surpass it though.) It's fun to watch for a few reasons: (1) It normally starts on Boxing Day, so everyone is at home doing the holiday thing with their families and it's nice to have something on TV; (2) You get a preview of a lot of the exciting young talent coming up in the sport, including prospects your fave NHL team has drafted; (3) You get to cheer for your country, which is often fun ( although admittedly less so lately); (4) They tend to be very fast-paced and kind of aggressive games. Like, these are 17, 18, 19-year old boys. They are extremely talented athletes, they have a LOT of testosterone and adrenaline going on, they haven't necessarily learned to control their emotions during/after a game yet, and they really want to win and to prove themselves on TV. Some of these players will go on to great NHL careers and win Stanley Cups, and some of these players have just hit the apogee of their hockey careers at a very young age.

I am describing this both so that you will understand why this competition is a big deal and so that you will have some perspective on the kinds of dynamics or attitudes you might find on such a squad.

So: in January 2018 Canada won the World Juniors. Hip hip hurray, etc. In June 2018, Hockey Canada, which is the governing body for hockey in Canada, held a gala celebrating the win. After that event, a young woman went to the hotel room of a Canadian Hockey League player (i.e. player in one of the major junior leagues in Canada) and engaged in conensual sexual activity with him, after which she alleges that seven other CHL players, including members of the 2018 junior team, entered the room and sexually assaulted her. (According to their lawyers, the players involved maintain that the whole thing was consensual, and furthermore that not all of the eight players who entered the room were involved in this encounter--some came in and then left.) Among other things, at one point they got her to film herself saying she was sober enough to consent.

The day after the incident, the woman told her mother, who called the police. The player she initially went home with texted in a panic asking her not to make trouble. She told him that she had called the police back and said it was all a mistake, but she and all the players did eventually end up cooperating with police. The police investigation concluded in 2019 without further consequences, with the lead detective apparently saying that there were not enough reasonable grounds for a charge of sexual assault.

This April, the woman sued Hockey Canada, the CHL, and the eight players (anonymously, as John Does) for 3.5 million dollars (Canadian, which is about 2.7 million USD) for damages related to the PTSD and other after-effects she suffered. As part of the lawsuit she claimed that Hockey Canada was aware of her allegations in 2018 but did not investigate them and allowed a culture of sexual assault to go unchecked. In May, Hockey Canada settled this suit for some unnamed amount of money--I guess to make it go away, because that is a very short turnaround time for them to have done any kind of due diligence.

Of COURSE, this came out in the media, which raised a lot of questions! It kind of started with wanting to know who the players were and if Hockey Canada did actually investigate, and then where the money came from, and the House of Commons committee on heritage & sport called in Hockey Canada executives to explain themselves as the GOVERNING BODY OF THE SPORT.

Also, many of the players on that 2018 roster are now successful NHL players, some of them big fan favourites, so, like, THAT doesn't feel great.

So, terrible thing, right? The silver lining, such as it is, would be that people are taking it seriously, so that’s good. Unfortunately, this has managed to uncover that this is all EVEN WORSE than we thought???

Some of the things that have come out SO FAR (mostly from the House of Commons, some of them from player representatives or investigative journalism) include:

Hockey Canada did investigate the incident back in 2018, but did not require anyone to participate in the investigation. There were no consequences for those who refused to participate.

This investigation was never completed and the report never filed. It was paused to let the criminal investigation play out and never resumed after the police concluded their investigation--the law firm in charge of the investigation says because the woman at the centre of the case did not want to talk to them.

While the law firm that investigated knows the identities of the eight players involved, Hockey Canada does not. It's unclear to me if the identities would have been revealed to Hockey Canada officials had the investigation and report ever been completed, or if it was a willful ignorance kind of situation. Even after paying out this settlement on their behalf, Hockey Canada STILL does not know their identities (and apparently didn't even bother asking before paying out the settlement, which AT BEST implies that they agree to the lawsuit's claim that they didn't investigate properly and AT WORST suggests that it didn’t matter because they assume any CHL player would in fact do this).

Hockey Canada did not inform anyone else, such as the Minister of Sport or the NHL, about the incident, the investigation, or the lawsuit, until they became aware that a news outlet was going to run a story about the settlement.

Hockey Canada also did not inform the players or any of their representatives about the lawsuit or the settlement in advance of the media report. (They claim they told the players' lawyers, but the lawyers say that isn't true. In fact, the players' lawyers maintain their clients' innocence and say that had their clients known they would have preferred to go to court rather than settle, because the settlement implies wrongdoing.)

A Hockey Canada official said--kind of casually??--that they see one to two sexual assault allegations EVERY YEAR (!!!!!!)

A big worry was that the settlement was paid using government money. BUT what actually happened is: Hockey Canada keeps a semi-secret fund for expenses that insurance won't cover, including background checks for coaching staff, and this is the fund they used to pay out the settlement (and, it seems, have used for similar payments before). The money from this fund seems to come from registration fees from players at all levels (again, this is the governing body of the sport, so that includes everything from Timbits leagues to beer leagues). They call it the National Equity Fund (!!!!!!!), which makes me want to punch something.

But, these terrible revelations have kind of resulted in actual consequences, so I guess that’s a second silver lining? Some of the consequences SO FAR include:

The Minister of Sport has frozen funding to Hockey Canada pending the results of an independent investigation into their practices.

Gymnasts across the country are now asking that a similar investigation be done of their governing body, which they claim has also covered up a lot of sexual assault allegations over the years.

Starting with Scotiabank, numerous sponsors have backed out of supporting the World Juniors this year (which were postponed due to the December-January Omicron wave and are set to take place in August). Scotiabank is putting some of that money towards the Women’s World Championship.

Hockey Canada is reopening their investigation, now with mandatory participation and consequences for those who refuse. The NHL will also do their own investigation.

The police are doing an internal review into the criminal investigation.

Hockey Canada has promised to stop using that fund for sexual assault payouts.

So that all sounds like cause for cautious optimism, I guess? But now that the investigations are reopened and the House of Commons is looking into it, and the media is reporting on it, the pressure is on the players who were part of it and any players who knew something.

While we know that the eight men involved in the incident were CHL players in 2018, we don't know how many of them were on the 2018 World Junior team. However, all the players on that team are now under a certain amount of scrutiny. A few of them have released public statements, either personally or through their agents, saying that they were not involved and had no knowledge of the incident at the time. A few more had their agents release public statements saying things like "they participated in the initial investigation willingly" or "they weren't involved in any wrongdoing", which... uh... is not exactly the same as not being involved in the incident???? especially since as previously mentioned the players maintain they weren't doing anything wrong???? and the police didn't charge them in the end????

And on top of those guys “no wrongdoing”/”participated in the investigation” guys,, there are also a few players who haven't made any kind of comment (maybe because their lawyers have told them not to, with the currently reopened investigation, but it sure doesn't look great!) Two of the players who haven't made any comments are on my team, and one of them has been a big fan favourite, which makes the fan base understandably really uncomfortable right now--the prospect that maybe this guy we've all been cheering for and making memes about etc. might be a rapist, or might have known about this incident and not said anything--but also there's still a possibility that he wasn't involved and just doesn't want to make a public comment at this stage? Ugh.

There’s also a sexual assault trial going on right now in Vancouver for a former Vancouver Canuck who was dropped by the team after he was charged, in which there is some MAJOR BULLSHIT coming out of that, so that just kind of adds to the general air of UGHHHHH

I mean, frankly, I don't think a lot of junior-level hockey players (or pro hockey players generally) have a very strong concept of consent. Not just sexually, but in general. If they're very talented players, they're putting themselves in the hands of their coaches and trainers from a young age. Their bodies are performance tools. At 17 or 18 they're doing the NHL Combine, going through a series of physical fitness tests and medical examinations while grown men stand around and film them and take notes and make decisions that will decide their futures. This sort of thing contributes to players themselves being preyed upon by, e.g., coaches (see: the whole Blackhawks debacle) or other players (e.g., hazing) but also I think that it contributed to them not really thinking about other peoples’ consent? On top of that there is the usual entitlement of being a white male hockey star, and a lot of our narratives about hockey players and their sex appeal (around, for example, the idea of puck bunnies throwing themselves at the big stars) play into that, and the fact that Hockey Canada and other orgs are so willing to just go in and clean up after them really leaves the impression that there’s nothing wrong with doing this, so they don’t take it seriously? I mean, hockey in general has had a TERRIBLE culture of conformity with a lot of hazing, bullying, racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. that is only just now being addressed. And when you’re that good of a player, hockey is basically your whole life from at least your preteen years. What a toxic stew to grow up in.

Ugh, this sounds like I’m trying to excuse their behaviour, and I’m really not. What I'm trying to elucidate here is that an understanding of consent isn't particularly intuitive to these young men, and on top of that they’re probably pretty self-centred, and on top of THAT the people around them are sending signals that none of this is important. But those seem kind of like problems that could be fixable with education? Like, not to get into the details of this case beyond the video of her saying she was sober etc., but these eight guys' actions seem to betray a very surface-level understanding of consent. To what extent were they intentionally violating this woman’s consent, to what extent did they just disregard it and not consider whether it mattered, and to what extent did they really believe that she was consenting (or consenting enough)? Between these eight guys there’s probably varying levels of all three. I think when we talk about rape and when we talk about rapists we are often talking about the first one--an intentional violation of consent, a power thing, a person who gets something out of humiliating/degrading/subjugating another person, and I don’t know that education can help with that. But rape culture means that there’s a whole lot of rapes and rapists with incidents involving the other two options--not caring or not understanding. And education and training could definitely help there. Not necessarily with everyone but with some of them. And isn’t that what we need? More guys who know this is wrong and are confident it’s wrong, not only so that they won’t do it, but also so that they will speak up if others do?

SO, idk. It does sound like Hockey Canada wants to do more of that kind of education, now. So if they can so that and prevent more incidents like this in the future, maybe that’s a final silver lining? Idk idk idk. I keep going on these like waves of being cautiously optimistic followed by waves of being just disgusted and disheartened.

#rape culture

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sole-cuore-amore-e-droga · 3 years

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Croatia brings no men in a hamster wheel to Rotterdam 2021

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Now could this be the teddy bear uprising invasion Muse has warned us about 12 years ago?

And LITERALLY, these review series make me feel like Croatia is openly taunting me - I watch the days go, I’m losing track of time, and when another day comes, I’m screaming “oh no I forgot to publish a review sooner than wanted!!”. Guess I’m for one glad there’s a time related song this year, hum?

ARTIST & ENTRY INFO

Repping the Adriatic coast nation that got all the sea instead of Bosnia & Herzegovina is some 22 year old Albina Grčić, who first popped up on X Factor Adria back when that was a thing, and got lumped into a girlgroup in later stages, but to that she said “hvala ne” and moved on with her life, getting eliminated just like that. Queen <3 She did get her second chance to compete as a soloist and make a more prominent mark on her career when she ended up on The Voice in Croatia. She did well, placing third overall in the season, but somehow, during the duel stage, her coach initially favoured her fellow Dora 2021 contestant Filip Rudan:

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Her Voice success landed her a record deal with the Croatian division of Universal Music, she released a debut single, sometime later ended up on Dora, and here she is now, on Eurovision.

“Tick-Tock” is the song, a standard upbeat pop song, and one of the ones that talks about a girl leaving a terrible relationship and being so well over it that she “found [her]self and [she’s] finally free”, and the “tick-tock” here is used to represent the time passing by, not the sound of her heart, unlike a fellow ESC entry of a similar title. The tune (or its lyrics only) is co-authored by some dude you might’ve heard of from France’s 2018 preselection Destination Eurovision, and that is Max Cinnamon - some half-English guy with a half English song about love (”Ailleurs”) that did moderately averagely in the final... I don’t even know if his influence shows, I just love how 2021 has sort of become revenge of the NF flops but they’re writing other entries instead (Suzi P, “Adrenalina”).

REVIEW

I often don’t really fully vibe with female bops in Eurovision as much as I want to, like, for the most part they’re overhyped, and I let the “yass queeeeen” audience gorge on the everything their favourite bops give them. But this year there are plenty of great ones to choose from, as I think that it’s safe to say that most, if not all, are tucked in somewhere inside my top 20, top 25 at the very minimum. Croatia managed to even do the impossible and land into my top 10.

Why?

Well, the answer is that the song is just so damn good.

I mean, what’s NOT to like about it? It’s a catchy and upbeat song that incorporates xylophones (or whatever is it that sounds like them), guitars and synths; has a good bassline in the chorus; and it’s just... a very good composition overall, like, all the instruments in it are just in their right place and uplift the song massively. I also like Albina’s performance on it, both live and studio, it clearly shows that she’s a very good singer (also shown on her cover of the scandalous Oscar award snubbery “Husavik”). Sounds like a song a common pop loving Eurofan could gear themselves towards. Besides, it also has possibly my favourite pre-chorus section of the 2021 year? Oh wait, there’s also Switzerland, scratch that. “Tick-Tock” has one of my favourite pre-chorus sections of 2021. It builds up so well instrumentally and the way Albina sings it is even better. I obviously like to believe Albina heard those voices from far away that helped her to escape, has found herself, and she’s finally free from her “partner’s” bad lovin’ and restraint. Yas queen go be free you didn’t deserve his tomfoolery anyway! 👏 (Also I admire a section that’s not quite the pre-chorus but is still before the 1st chorus, the one that goes “If you pull me down then I'll come around” - literally just a lot of the parts of the song are full of nice vocal performance and I don’t regret ranking this in my top 10 not a second.)

If it has any drawbacks, it’s just that it gets a tad too repetitive after the halfway mark... like, the pre-chorus before the second chorus is the one to be repeated once again, and no new verse, nothing - but it does launch itself into something extraordinary, and that is a chorus in Croatian, which I assume she would perform in Eurovision because there’s no Eurovision version on the song promo bundle, I suppose. Comparatively the Croatian chorus is not as complex in lyrics as the English language one, and flows slightly differently too. But the song still has a long chorus by the end, and song with too many choruses is never a good sign for those that look for a song that’s constructed well, but I guess it’s a good factor for those that value the song’s catchiness. I guess that’s what one of the two Eurovision 2005 hosts valued the most when writing the Ukrainian 2006 entry “Show Me Your Love”, which if you ask me, is straight up 75% chorus, lol.

So yeah my verdict is that almost everything about this song, I like. I’m just a little devastated that in a usually very easily gorged on category of female bops, this just tends to lag behind in love, like a fellow song I really like this year, Israel. Instead people tend to prioritize Cyprus (which I get because they’ve established themselves as a girlbanger nation since Fuego swept Eurovision) and... probably even Azerbaijan? (which I might also get because Eurovision rarely has this thing called an ethnobop anymore, and it has more ethno than “Cleopatra” did, but still unnecessarily underwhelming lol.) Well then, in a year of female bangers, I would just like Croatia to not be swept under the rug come semis I guess. Yeah “Tick-Tock” may not sound like it brings something totally never seen before in a Eurovision environment (foreign language lyrics, themes about a break up, hell even her dancers looked like they were wearing the same hats as Tamta’s dancers), but you got to have a lot in you to sell a worn out idea to the new heights, and Albina does exactly that in my eyes.

Approval factor: Yeah! There is a lot of it in here for me. Follow-up factor: A great follow-up, not so great in regards to panini but musically it’s just going up and up from what we had in the past few years. I’ve actually not minded “The Dream” for the most part but I knew it was a chanceless plodding ballad and Roko harboured heaps of wasted potential working with Jacques Houdek and having wings as part of his performance, uff. *_* And then there’s “Divlji vjetre” which I also like a lot - a much better male ballad winner choice! If the Dora re-up winners keep being decent imo just like this, I have a feeling I will follow it a lot more often than I did just this one time this year. I am just saying that panini-wise, it was a sucky move from HRT for not allowing their last year’s winner promote his new song with Tijana (from Serbia 2017) on the Dora night, so we sadly only heard a pre-recorded opening version of “Divlji vjetre” to start off with :( Otherwise I think it’s not Dora’s fault in itself that Damir himself chose not to even submit an entry this year because he hadn’t found a good one - much like with Diodato for Sanremo (he was NOT rejected, if you think he still was, shush). But aside that, musically, it just keeps going up for me. Well done Croatia, for you’ve used to be a Eurovision country I don’t necessarily care about, that you brought two pretty damn good entries in a row. Qualification factor: I can absolutely trust in Albina bringing in a little bit of her charisma and well-likedness, and on top of that, a great vocal performance, in Rotterdam. Don’t ask me why, I just do. She doesn’t really perform her song live on pre-parties as much as I’d like to hope she would, but you heard girlie on the national selection, she didn’t win for nothing. Yeah yeah there might as well be female uptempo songs hungrier for the last spot, but I’d like to think Albina is one of the ones ready to devour than to be devoured. Go girl! Take us all dancing!

NF CORNER

To be honest with you, “Tick-Tock” winning Dora caught me by surprise. Ever since its re-up, the last two editions were kind of won by male ballads, and maaaaybe the dancey females were doing moderately well enough for themselves, but not overall? But look, juries were very keen on Albina, probably because she can SANG and she creates one hell of a fancy presence on her performance. And somehow she ended up snatching a win out of the hands of 5G conspiracy theorist 2016 representative Nina Kraljić, who was at first too drunk to care, but too unexpectedly sober to yell all over the soc. media how she was robbed and how the contest was rigged against her with her being on first and all that. Which is a shame that she is one of THOSE people, because her NF entry “Rijeka” is kinda nice? We did have the Balkan-esque ballads coming from Croatia in recent memory, but we haven’t had a truly proudly folksy one at that from Croatia for a long while, if not ever. Nina could’ve very well brought that to Rotterdam (and another mismatched wardrobe choice oops). But instead she was the one screaming “oh no, oh no, oh no”.

Actually I regarded Nina as one of my faves pre-show, and Albina was on her way, though she didn’t really cement the personal fav status until after all performances, thus making Nina and Albina switch spots for me. But truly, the one song that was my top favourite, iiiiiiiiiiis

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GIMME AN OCEAN! OF LOVE!

2021 made me realize that damn, maybe anything that’s funky is my favourite music genre afterall. Up until then I vibed with entries like “Tonight Again” and “What’s the Pressure?” that had this sort of energetic flair and very rhythmic kinda sound to it, but 2021 just simply cemented it to me that my music world has probably been about nice and smooth and funky all along. I owe so much gratitude to ToMa first and foremost along the lines of more to have come in this year’s lineups - I just can’t not want to dance to “Ocean of Love”, and ToMa is quite alright at selling it live as well. There are small gripes with some instrument usages but that doesn’t detract from the fact that I love love LOVE funky guitar tunes.

Aside from that, I can give shout outs to Beta Sudar, whose song not only was underrated, but also had an underrated meme format throughout its performance:

My other props go to Bernarda, who not only competed in a national selection singing a song about seeing “Colors” while blind (and ironically there was a song called “Blind” in that same NF sung by a well-seeing guy!!), but also for finally putting this every country’s reject to rest. Seriously. That particular song was passed on to everyone in need of a competitive Eurovision bop, from Poli Genova to Helena Paparizou as of recently. Oh well, at least the song died a honourable death - well performed slice of good typical Eurovision pop (maybe even overperformed a little towards the end), that got a good rank with the regional juries, but somewhat murdered in televote, fellow Boris Milanov composition “Chameleon” style.

This one Mia Negovetić chick was promising too! Her song was written by the Debs and you might be tired of them trying to continue infiltrating Eurovision at this point, but a lot of their Eurovision songs are usually something I enjoy, “She’s Like a Dream” is no exception. Nothing but 3 minutes of pastel-dressed Croatian Ariana Grande doing what she does best <3

Oh and also some dudes tried to play chess on stage too I guess. But their song is not worth looking into, because one of the acts on it is apparently also a conspiracist, and maybe because oft this their entry is aptly titled “Sing, for the freedom has arrived!” lol I wonder what exactly is the kind of freedom you’re thinking of my guy

Was this the “better mood game” Laura was warning everyone about? Beats me

NF CORNER (NON-COMPETITIVE)

• It’s still hilarious to me as to how one of the acts this year, Brigita Vuco, was planning to bring in backing dancers, only for them to show a fake COVID test or something and outright BARRED from coming with her on stage. <3 Whatever she intended to do with them dancers, I have absolutely no idea, but at least she committed to her song being about drunken nights visually by having all these blurry shots

• Nina Kraljić’s greenroom shenanigans, from the “1-2-3, 1-2-3, drink” to numb the sadness over some results (and the 8 she got from the region Rijeka for the song “Rijeka” lmao), to whatever she saw on the phone that made her smile or go neutral

• Greenroom reactions in general. I swear, this year had cameramen in every single corner everywhere just to make sure something covers up for a human audience instead of severals of Zoom screens permitted to act as an audience. Random people in greenrooms were doing some sort of emotions after random acts, and also randomly they ended up pointing a camera towards an act that lost, but the act didn’t treat losing as if it were such a big deal <3

• All the other memes the Croatian Twitter might’ve noticed me for:

seriously Bernarda was locked in a bluelight mathematical dice contraption. how fucking cool is that

ANY LAST WORDS?

I just fucking hope that Albina shatters any doubts that people have had about her song come rehearsals, and somehow Croatia AND Israel slip through, because never too many female bangers I appreciate in the final, if they all are the bangers I appreciate, lol.

#eurovision #eurovision 2021 #rotterdam 2021 reviews #croatia #Albina Grčić #albina #tick-tock

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years

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Survey #336

"get back, you’re never gonna leave him / get back, you’re always gonna please him”

What were your favorite things to draw when you were a lil kid? When I was a very little kid, idk. But once I got into meerkats... I drew them like crazy. Do you think there is something with or around you, like a spirit, angel, ghost or something else? How does this make you feel? No. Imagine you’re a stranger looking at yourself. What things would immediately catch your eye? Ugh, let's not. When did you feel the most confident in your life? Probably my senior year of high school. I was happy with Jason with plans for the future together, I was doing excellently in school... I thought I was really going to go somewhere. Do you think love is needed to have good sex? For some people, no. For me, loving one another is an absolute must. Do you think, or want to, die in the city you currently live in? Fuuuuuuuck no, I hate it here. What is the strangest thing you have ever encountered? Probably when I was otw home from my doctor appointment and we passed a random guy in drag walking on the side of the street... That guy is an icon. Favourite soft drink? It's really strawberry Sunkist, but I love it to a degree I don't even allow myself to drink it, because I will fucking destroy that shit so quick. So I tend to just say Mountain Dew Voltage is my fave. What do you like to put gravy on? I hate gravy, period. Have you ever gone canoeing/kayaking? No, but it sounds fun. What is one thing you know about your family history you’re proud of? Uhhhh idk. Who depends on you the most? My snake. Are you related to anyone famous or historical, if so who? Yes; William Clark and Queen Victoria or Queen Elizabeth, idr which. Would you ever donate a kidney to anyone, and who? Mom. She only has one kidney, so, y'know. She kinda needs at least one. I wouldn't even hesitate. What is the main quality you think makes a great parent? Unconditional love. What three things do you think of most of each day? My weight is #1. Every second of every day, it, as well as Jason, are somewhere towards the front of my mind. The final is financial and job-oriented stuff. Does/did your high school have pop machines? It did. Do you know anyone who’s won the lottery? No. Have you ever slept in a water bed? Yeah. How often do you use Flickr? I pretty much abandoned my account; nowadays I only occasional check my friend's profile who works at the Kalahari Meerkat Project because she uploads wonderful pictures of the 'kats as well as gives interesting info about them! Who is the last child that you took a photo with? Mom took a picture of me holding my youngest niece Emerson because it surprised everyone; I NEVER hold babies. She crawled over to me and reached up though, so of course I was going to pick her up. How often do you wear hats? Never. Would you ever get a nature tattoo? Sure! Idk what, but I'm rather sure I'll get at leaast one. Is anyone in your family sick at the moment? No. Where do your siblings work, if anywhere? My older sister is a mammographer, and my younger sis is a social worker. Where is your favorite place to buy groceries? Wal-Mart, I guess. Who do you generally talk to the most? My mom. Is anyone saved in your phone under a nickname? Mom is "Mama Bear," and then my siblings are "Little Sister" and "Big Sister." Whose birthday is coming up? My lil sister has her birthday in April. Have you ever ordered from an informercial? No. When, where, and why did a needle last pierce your skin? I needed to get blood drawn for some testing. It was drawn from my inner elbow, obviously at the doctor. Have you been to an escape room? Was it a success? I never have, but it'd be fun. I enjoy puzzles. How many followers do you have on Instagram? I don't feel like checking. What’s the most recent music video you watched? Thoughts? "Mutter" by Rammstein. I picked a screenshot from it to draw, so I rewatched it to select one. It's a beautiful video, but also strange, which Rammstein is great at. Have you ever recorded a cover of a song? No. What makeup products are your go-tos? If I wear makeup, the bare minimum is black eyeliner. Are you going to school this year? No. I gave college as many shots as I could handle both sanity-wise and with finances in mind. I do NOT want to even ATTEMPT to imagine the debt I have after going to three different colleges and dropping out each time. What is your favorite water activity? I enjoy just kinda swimming around aimlessly, relaxing. What are your favorite video games? Okay, I talk about SH2 and SotC enough on questions like this, so I'll mention some others I really enjoy as well: the Silent Hill franchise in general, Spyro games, The Last Guardian, both The Evil Withins, The Last of Us, some Resident Evil games (the 4th in particular), etc. etc. I just love video games. Do you like jello? I enjoy the flavor, but the texture makes me squirm. When was the last time you gave someone "the finger?" Probably while riding in the car with Mom when a dumb motherfucker swerved into our lane. Or something like that, idr the exact occasion. Have you ever held a snake? Yesssss, I want to hold all the snakes. ;_; Most unique place you’ve ever been to? Uh. I guess maybe the Whirligig Park/"Acid Park" nearby us? It's just this large expanse of unique architecture that are mostly, as you guessed it, extravagant whirligigs. You've got to see it if you come to the town. I have some pictures on my deviantART if you wanna see a few pieces. If you were a superhero, what color would your cape be? NO CAPES! Have you ever slept out on your porch all night? Oh fuck no. I'd feel way, way too unsafe. Do you like horror movies? Yeah! What’s your favorite Coke product? Just normal Coke. Watergun or water-balloon war? Watergun. I don't like being hit with stuff. Do you know anyone that’s afraid of elevators? I kind of am. Is there anything in your room that belongs to a boyfriend, or a friend of the opposite sex? I have three plushies from Jason, Tyler, and Girt. My Marilyn Manson poster is also from Juan. Who’s your favorite Beatle? I don't know; I was never a big fan, so I don't know any of them as people well at all. Have you ever texted an ex whilst drunk? How’d that go? I've never been drunk, but no, I've never texted an ex because I was drinking. Do you have to stand on your tip-toes to kiss your boyfriend? I don't have one. The only instance where I had to do that was with Girt. Tall motherfucker. Have you ever been tackle-hugged? Yes. Those are the best. Have you ever rejected someone’s kiss before? Girt once tried to make out with me and I noped the fuck outta that situation. It was so fucking awkward. Is your mood or the overall tone of your day often affected by the dreams you had the night before? My nightmares definitely can. Do you think that there are any positive aspects or outcomes of suffering from a mental illness? If you have a mental illness, do you think it has changed you for the better in any way? I definitely believe my mental illnesses forced me to mature faster and also instilled a great sense of empathy in me. And don't forget emotional endurance. What is your opinion on celebrity culture and celebrity worship? Have you ever been guilty of putting a celebrity on a pedestal? Do you think it’s somehow more acceptable/understandable to obsess over certain types of celebrities (musicians over YouTubers, say) than others? At what point do you think an obsession like that crosses the line? It's dangerous and can be very blinding. An outsider could say I put Mark on a pedestal, but I've always been very aware that he's not perfect and really just another human, I just happen to love him a lot for the human he is, haha. As time's passed, my vision of him has become healthier though (not to say it ever reached the "unhealthy" threshold); it's gotten easier for me to judge him and stuff like that. I think an obsession crosses the line when you put on rose-tinted glasses to look upon someone and entirely ignore their flaws, or if you try to invade their personal lives, ex. being one of those creeps that loiter outside their houses and stuff. If you were to pursue a career in photography and had the opportunity and means to photograph whatever you wanted, what would most like to photograph? Ah, livin' the dream. If I had to choice and would be paid well regardless of focus, I would absolutely travel and photograph the local nature/wildlife. Is there a certain type of clothing (outerwear, activewear, loungewear, etc.) that you enjoy shopping for more than others? Shirts, 100%. Are you ever afraid to post your ideas, artwork, photography, etc. online for fear that they will get stolen or not credited? When it comes to OCs, yes, given that things have been stolen from me before. Photography doesn't worry me much because I don't think I'm good enough for someone to possibly want to steal it (and besides, I use a watermark), and I do the same for drawings. It's the unique characters I make I worry about being stolen if I share them. When is the last time you did something sexual? A few years back. Who is the last person you showered with, if anyone? I haven't showered with someone since I was a little kid and my younger sister and I would to conserve water. What do you think when you see roadkill on the side of the road? It really makes me genuinely sad, and I always wonder if it could have been avoided if the driver was more alert, slower, and thinking about more than the damage it could cause to their car... I enjoy photographing roadkill, brutal as it may be, out of respect for them and the desire to make their individual stories known and just kind of like, raise awareness of it. Too many people are just annoyed by hitting an animal versus more concerned. "Stupid deer," stuff like that. I sometimes worry that doing so can be interpreted as disrespect, to photograph and publish pictures of their corpses online, but I sure hope not. It's the least of my intentions. I just want people to see and care. Have you ever had an ex that just didn’t understand that it was over? Biiiitch I was that ex, 120%. But besides my situation with Jason, this was how Tyler was. I had to tell him about five thousand times to stop texting me. Are your fingernails currently short or long? They're always pretty short. Would you rather have big or small dogs? I like medium-sized dogs most. I'd have to pick large dogs between the two, though. What is your favorite sports drink? I'm not a fan of sports drinks. What was the last compliment you gave a guy? Yesterday, a guy in PHP shared two poems he wrote while hospitalized, and they were wonderful, so full of passion and emotion. I sure as hell told him they were amazing. He's going for his Master's for poetry, so he knows what he's doing for real. Does your jaw ever crack, pop, or lock? It's popped on very, very few occasions. Have you ever thought of how you would give your kids “the talk”? I don't want kids, so no, I've never thought of this. I certainly wouldn't wait for sex ed in school, though. I feel like it's a bit late. I feel children need to know what it's about at a younger age with how disgusting some people are... I want them to be informed on what consent and molestation are so they know to let Mama know so I can punch someone's face into a whole new galaxy if they're ever violated. Do you ever feel like you’re missing out on something? Oh, always. Do you ever write/draw on windows that are fogged up? I did as a kid, sure. Not so much now. If you were married, and your spouse’s parents became ill, would you let them move into your home? If they were truly sick enough to need assistance but not actual hospitalization, yes. I'd want my spouse to do the same for me. Have you screamed in a pillow before? Yyyyep. What do you like more, acoustic or electric? Electric. Did you actually have a cookie jar? We have a Santa one, though I don't even know if we ever used it versus just having it as a decoration. What’s worse, having someone mad or disappointed in you? Disappointed. What do you bite on more, your tongue, lip, or nails? Bottom lip. Do you think that knowing when and how you’re going to die would ruin your life? "Ruin" it seems a bit extreme, but I definitely wouldn't like it. Do you have a favorite bromance? From TV or a movie. Not really, if we're only talking those two options. Do you find flea markets and thrift stores enjoyable? Yeah, you really can find the coolest shit for great prices. What color is your wallet? Mostly red and white; it's a Harley Quinn design. Have you ever been somebody's photography subject? No. Nicki Minaj fan? I believe she's a very talented rapper, but I don't enjoy her actual music. I just don't like rap. Have you ever seen the Niagara Falls? No, I wish tho.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''angel with the scabbed wings'' by marilyn manson

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5secondsofdrama · 4 years

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Sierra Getting Signed

This was something I knew would eventually happen. One way or another, despite the massive screwup that happened in 2018, I felt like she would still get signed somehow. Back in 2018 when she tried to release music as a solo artist that for me is what really solidified my belief that this whole “relationship” was just a setup to get her noticed more. That none of it was real.

Looking at the IG post that Unknown Music posted there’s a lot about the caption that just feels fabricated to me. I’ll use screenshots to show my point. And we will break the post down by paragraph as well seeing as she got two paragraphs. And out of all the posts made on August 14, 2020 she was one of 5 that actually got two paragraphs. Makes you wonder why she’s so special? Because personally, I don’t think she is.

We will start with the first paragraph and basically go sentence by sentence. The first sentence is pretty basic. We all know she grew up in Florida, but she was actually born in Philadelphia. Remember this for later, because there is a sentence within the second paragraph that is vastly misleading. We also know that she and Alex did move to Los Angeles after winning the X-Factor show in 2013. Most people don’t even know who Sierra is to begin with, let alone that she was a winner of the X-Factor US Show. Simple Google searches cover that if someone were really that curious. Basically, I am saying she is an unknown artist. So, maybe being signed to a label titled Unknown Music could potentially be beneficial. I don’t know.

Moving on to sentence three where it talks about her touring. According to concertarchives.org she and Alex did a whopping total of FOURTEEN concerts. That doesn’t really equate to four plus years of touring in my personal opinion. But you can all be the judge of that. But if you look at songkick.com at their past shows it states that they had tours going as far as a February 2017 and started in 2012 before they even won The X-Factor US season 3. However, some of these dates don’t even seem to be plausible with how extensive being part of a national televised contest like the X-Factor really is.

The final sentence claims she wants to pursue writing songs for other artists under a multi-award winning, multi-platinum selling American Songwriter named Ross Golan. Who, by the way if you simply look at his song writing credits on his Wikipedia page states that he wrote a song for the self-titled album 5SOS released. That’s right, he wrote the song Mrs. All American for 5SOS. So, it’s quite interesting that she would be signed under this guy. But not really. She can’t do anything without it being connected to 5SOS in some way.

Above, you’ll notice the second paragraph. It starts off with yet again mentioning her stint on The X-Factor US. Bringing it back to something that was done 7 years ago. However, looking at past episodes of their season Alex and Sierra didn’t even win on their talent. They simply won because they were “a cute couple”. Each and every performance they ever did all the judges could do was mention “how cute they were”. Not a single judge ever mentioned their vocal range or their “talent”.

We all know that Alex is the reason they even won because he basically carried them both through the whole show. He’s the one with the natural talent. He’s the one who has successfully released EP’s for his solo career post Alex&Sierra Era.

The second and third sentences go hand in hand because they both talk about her song writing abilities. Personally, I don’t think she’s that talented at it. She’s mediocre at best. She doesn't know how to write those smashing hits. It’s basic stuff. “Little Do You Know” is a song that I highly doubt would make anyone shed a tear. Now, I did have Red look up the song on Spotify, and for whatever reason it really does have slightly over 400 million streams. How or why? I don’t know.

“She’s a Vietnamese woman” is an honest to god lie. And no, I am not erasing the fact that she is a Woman of Color/Person of Color. Sierra IS NOT a straight up Vietnamese woman. She was NOT born in Vietnam. She was born in America. Which makes her heritage HALF Vietnamese. It honestly seems like she’s trying to erase the fact that she was born in the US. This should have been written like this: “She’s of British and Vietnamese decent, because I do believe her dad was born in England and not America, but I could be wrong. However, she is American because she was born in America.

Moving on to her “College” experience. Whether she was actually going to college with the intent to be a doctor is uncertain. From everything I have seen about her “college” experience she went into college for Public Relations and not to be a doctor at first. I get the feeling this was added in to maybe bring up the fact that her older sister happens to be a nurse.

Finally, the final sentence. She grows her own food and plays too much video games. Sierra has never once ever expressed ANY interest in video games or growing her own food until quarantine happened. So, this whole thing feels like a fabrication to me. Just to make her sound “relatable” or “well-rounded” I guess. Maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe I’m not. I know interests change and people change. But overall, she’s never struck me as the type to ever be interested in those things.

And finally, we’ll take a look at the publishing partner Kobalt Music because honestly, I found this to be very interesting indeed. Recently, I took a look at the 5 Seconds of Summer BMI page again. And I looked at all the songs from the CALM album. 7 out of 12 songs from that album were published under Kobalt Music. It’s a bit strange to me that 5 Seconds of Summer would be affiliated with Cobalt right around the same time that Sierra gets signed. Again, it brings me to the conclusion that she can’t do anything on her own. She’s been handed opportunity after opportunity since being associated with the band and essentially squandered it all until now.

She can’t do anything on her own merit. She can’t do any heavy lifting on her own. Something or basically EVERYTHING has to have some kind of affiliation to 5 Seconds of Summer somehow. I mean Unknown Music Publishing was founded just this year by Ross Golan, again someone who wrote a song for 5 Seconds of Summer in their early careers. Not a coincidence in my opinion. Overall, this just seems a little convenient but definitely something that was in the making from the moment she started becoming more known within the 5SOS “circle”.

#piper #08/27/2020

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duckball · 3 years

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The sound of K-pop is in the air as we enjoy the last few minutes before the season begins and we meet the Houseguests for the very first time.

Julie is rocking it in Red, and the front of the house has a purple and pink vibe, and the “windows” are different.

Beauty shots of the house, the 94 cameras and 113 microphones get their big moment. They say it’s a new Era of Big Risks, Rewards, and the biggest cash prize ever huh?

Okay the empty studio is a little bit creepy still.

We’ve got a group of men first, Travis, Xavier, Frenchie, and Derek F.

Travis says he’s up at 4 am, off work by 1:30 in the afternoon.

Derek F is going to build overall on my dad was a boxer bit.

Frenchie is off on the farm, he’s a superfan, says he’s a strategist, and has a notebook of what he would’ve done.

Xavier a college basketball player who had to get a real career. He’s going to try and avoid a showmance but will flirt.

Julie is giving them the same old song and dance about how one wrong move could end their game.

They all hang around for a moment, shake hands, they’re a pack. Meet the all guys alliance of BB23 guys. You’re thinking it, I’m thinking it.

Competition time right off the bat.

We also have some pre-show diary room/interview things spliced in. Those are…odd.

They’ve got posters and they have to rearrange the poster, so it matches the one behind them. The first one to buzz in wins the kickoff competition.

I legit just realized I’m spending my time, recapping, grown men putting together a puzzle on TV. It’s too early in the season to be questioning my life choices.

Frenchie wins. He’s eligible to play in the HoH later.

Azah, Britini, Alyssa, and Whitney.

Azah is a Pastor’s daughter, maybe a little boy crazy, and says no to showmances. So Azah and Xavier, right?

Britini, is our overachiever. She’s autistic and now I get her a bit more.

Alyssa is our swimsuit girl; she has a brand. She wears her emotions on her face, girl I feel you.

Whitney is a makeup artist, with two kids and is a single mom! Her oldest wants her to win so they can get a dog. She’s not looking for a showmance, but she’ll find one. I can tell you that.

Julie asks if they’re gamblers. None of them says yes.

The girls dressed up for this, while the guys before did not.

The girls are doing the BB Backdoor puzzle.

Whitney has won and will move on to the HOH competition later tonight.

Brent, Christian, Derek X, and Kyland.

Kyland works in sales, does lots of volunteer work.

Christian, lives with his parents, and something about him is giving me flashbacks of McCrae.

Derek X helps influences create meal kits and he’s a frat boy.

Brent, flight attendant, travels the world, he reminds me of someone…can anyone guess who?

Again, the guys are not as dressed up as the girls.

I will say I like the DR background this year.

This group of guys have the Get a Target on your back puzzle.

Lots of different techniques here.

Christian won, gets a chance to play for HoH.

Final four, Hannah, Claire, Tiffany, and Sarah Beth

Sarah Beth is that cosplay nerd girl.

Hannah is a grad student, dancer, and into fashion. She plans to tell them she’s a college student, she wants to be evil.

Claire is an AI engineer. She’s the coder and loves the strategy of BB. She wants an all-woman’s alliance, she’s bisexual and is down for the showmance for strategy.

Tiffany is a CEO of her own business where she goes to people’s homes and takes their blood. OMG she’s hitting a tire with a sledgehammer.

The girls have a quick group hug by the door.

Betray Showmance poster for this group.

Claire wins!

Julie reveals to us they’ll draft teams next.

Now it’s time for them to find out about teams of 4. The superfans are like cringing out loud.

Frenchie, Whitney, Christian, and Claire find out they’re a captain. A slot machine will give them two HG’s and then pick who they want.

Every team must have two men, and two women.

Frenchie is captain of the Jokers.

His options are between Hannah or Azah. He picks Azah.

Whitney is captain of the Aces.

Her options are Brent and Travis. She picks Brent.

Christian is Captain of the Kings.

His options are Alyssa or Tiffany. He picks Alyssa.

Claire is Captain of the Queens.

Her options are Kyland and Xavier. She picks Kyland.

Frenchie is up again and it’s between Sarah Beth and Britini. He picks Britni.

Whitney must pick between Derek X and Derek F. She picks Derek X. We all knew this choice was coming.

Christian gets Xavier (who is saving himself for Zing Bot) and Derek F. He picks Xavier.

Claire’s second turn, she gets Sarah Beth and Tiffany. She picks Tiffany.

Frenchie must pick between Travis and Derek F. He picks Derek F.

Whitney must pick between Hannah and Sarah Beth. She picks Hannah.

Sarah Beth goes to the Kings.

Travis goes to the Queens.

Jokers are Frenchie, Azah, Britni, and Derek F.

Aces are Whitney, Brent, Derek X, and Hannah.

Kings are Christian, Alyssa, Xavier, and Sarah Beth.

Queens are Claire, Kyland, Tiffany, and Travis.

Time for the HOH competition.

Anytime a member of your team becomes HoH the entire team is safe for the week.

“House of Cards”

A puzzle, balancing game with cards that fall from the “sky”.

Last place team will become have nots.

I hate the have not aspect of this game. Let’s just never bring it back ever again. Can we try that next year Grodner?

Frenchie is the first HoH, the Jokers won.

Queens are in second place.

Christian’s puzzle keeps tumbling over.

Aces are in third place, and now the Kings are Have Nots.

Julie is letting them know that this summer, they’ll be playing for $750,000. Can’t make it a million, can you?

Tonight, someone might get a prize.

Julie is making him a double or nothing offer. How does 2 weeks of safety sound?

All he must do to get a second week of safety if he gets both die on the table. He’ll be HoH and his team will be safe this week or next.

If they die don’t stay, he won’t be HoH, and his team is able to be up for eviction.

Frenchie has decided not to play, he’ll keep the HoH. Julie is going to try and get him to toss the die anyway.

Wild Card Competition on Sunday, Thursday is the first eviction.

If you haven’t gotten your subscription to Paramount+ yet, what are you waiting for?

You get movies, TV shows from CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, and more. So, you know when we get stuck on the stars for hours on end you’ve got something else you can check out. I personally use Paramount+ multiple times of the week, all year long. In fact, I got to go get caught up on the new iCarly right after I post this.

#BB23 #Big Brother #BBUS #Move In Night #BB23 Primier #23x01 #Episode Recap #Mod-Kat

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wehavethoughts · 4 years

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Prison Playbook (슬기로운 감빵생활) Review!

Prison Playbook (슬기로운 감빵생활)

Dark comedy

Originally aired on tvN (2017). Distributed by Netflix in the U.S.

Written by: Jung Bo-hoon (정보훈)

Directed by: Shin Won-ho (신원호)

Rating: 2.5/5 Hotteok’s

This post CONTAINS spoilers for Prison Playbook.

Content Warnings for Prison Playbook: violence, rape/sexual assault, homophobia, drug addiction, death penalty (mentioned)

Summary: Kim Je-hyuk is a talented baseball pitcher who recently signed a contract with Major League Baseball in the U.S. With his departure to Boston imminent, he witnesses a man attempting to sexually assault his sister. He confronts the perpetrator and saves his sister but is convicted of assault and is sent to prison. It follows Je-hyuk’s eventful journey as he tries to make a new life in the prison. The show also revolves around Je-hyuk’s cell mates and the correctional officers at the facility.

Earlier this year, I watched Hospital Playlist and absolutely loved it. I enjoyed how the show focuses more on telling the stories of the characters rather than solely being focused on the plot. Then I learned that Hospital Playlist is a second show in the Wise Life series, and there is a show called Prison Playbook which is the first in the series. (Prison Playbook and Hospital Playlist’s Korean titles, 슬기로운 감빵생활 and 슬기로운 의사생활, mean Wise Prison Life and Wise Doctor Life, respectively.) While I wait for Hospital Playlist’s second season to come out next year, I decided to check out Prison Playbook, also directed by Shin in 2017.

Kim Je-hyuk (김제혁) is an extremely famous and beloved baseball player (baseball is very big in South Korea). He finds himself in jail overnight, after he attacks a man who attempted to sexually assault his sister. Against the public’s assumption that he would be released on the grounds of self-defense, the court convicts and sends him to prison. He has to learn how to live a new life in the prison, on the verge of losing everything.

How Je-hyuk makes his comeback despite all of the struggles, is quite an amazing story. Additionally, similar to the structure of Hospital Playlist, Prison Playbook also invests a lot in telling many different characters’ stories, rather than focusing only on Je-hyuk. I enjoyed this format that lets you get to know each character more in depth. And the show does a good job with its dark comedic components. It manages to talk about prison life with levity, humor, and warmth. I think the main story that they wanted to tell is that a life in the prison may not be so much different from our own lives, in a way that you can grow through the relationships you build with people around you. And it does send this message well. But even though I binge watched the show, I’m only giving it only 2.5 out of five hotteok’s, mainly because of how it handles its female characters, drug addiction issues, and homophobia.

I guessed that the show would be heavily focused on its male characters because we are following a cis-gendered male character in the South Korean prison system which still operates on the binary gender system. But I was still disappointed in the roles that the female supporting characters had in the show. Kim Ji-ho, Je-hyuk’s girlfriend, is a typical ‘good’ girlfriend. She supports Je-hyuk throughout his baseball career and his prison life. Not that she shouldn’t, but she does everything that is expected from a good girlfriend/wife in the Korean society. There is even a word for that in Korean: 내조, which literally means the wife’s help (from ‘inside’, as her place is to be at home) for her husband so he can succeed (in the outside world, where he belongs). And a woman is often praised or criticized for her good or bad 내조, especially when she is in a relationship with a public figure. While the male characters go through their own redemption or reconciliation, there is not much of character development for Ji-ho. The only main struggles that she faces in the show are (temporary) break-ups with Je-hyuk – the first time because he is too busy playing baseball, and the second time because Je-hyuk tries to let her go after he goes to prison. And while the set-up that they knew each other for most of their lives and how Ji-ho is the daughter of Je-hyuk’s baseball coach who passed away, is supposed to make everything more meaningful and sentimental, can we talk about their age difference? To some extent I do believe that age is just a number, but it also seems like Korean shows and movies are usually too okay with telling stories about a man who falls in love with a younger, underage woman, waits for her to turn 18 to start dating (ex. Parasite, and many more). To be fair, it seems like Je-hyuk starts to have feelings for her only after she goes to college maybe? But the flashbacks showing how Ji-ho was a little kid when Je-hyuk was about to go to college did make me feel a bit uncomfortable. And there are also Je-hyuk’s sister and mother, and Kim Min-chul’s daughter, who do not deviate at all from the roles that they are expected to play as good sister, mother, and daughter.

How Yoo Han-yang’s character, who is a gay drug addict, is portrayed is another issue I had with the show. There are multiple scenes where they mention that Han-yang’s drug addiction is due to his lack of will to stop using drugs. And his addiction is portrayed as evil. The show really let me down at the end when Han-yang is finally released from prison, but there is his seller waiting for him, and Han-yang gets high and gets caught by the police right away. (It was a setup by the police to tempt him to use drugs again so they can take him back.) His story ends with his parents and boyfriend waiting for him in an empty restaurant. I really don’t understand what message they wanted to tell with this ending for him.

I was quite surprised to see Han-yang and his boyfriend in the show, since the Korean media often avoids anything that are not patriarchal heterosexual relationships. But even though the show had a chance to contribute to normalizing LGBTQ relationships, all it does is explicitly show the society’s bigotry and prejudice towards LGBTQ members. For example, Yoo Jeong-woo, one of Han-yang’s cell mates, accepts Han-yang as a friend but says that he cannot accept or understand Han-yang dating a man. One could possibly argue that the show attempted to show the ugly side of the Korean society as criticism, but to me it did not seem that way and the show did a poor job with their only queer character.

Overall, if you would like to watch the show, I would not stop you from watching it, but I will not actively recommend the show to people. It has a compelling storyline and it will make you care about each character by the end of the show. However, I cannot ignore its bias and prejudice against its female and LGBTQ characters. It also has an uneducated and quite hateful stance on drug addiction issues.

- CoreaMod

#prisonplaybook #prison playbook #kdrama #tv show #tv review #WHT!#wehavethoughts!#CoreaMod #prison playbook spoilers #spoilers #drama #prisons in media #LGBT themes #drug addiction in media

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photolover82 · 4 years

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The Masked Singer Season 4 Episode 5: Last but not Least, let's (finally) meet Group C! (Commentary and Guesses)

Hey fellow Masked Singer fans! Welcome or welcome back to Ana’s Masked Singer recap, where I, Ana, recap every episode of the Masked Singer. I am so happy to be back after a short break after the World Series (thank God for the Dodgers). If you don’t know how these recaps go, first of all hi, feel free to follow me if you want to see more of these. Anyways, so how these work is that I first talk about who gets eliminated, give my thoughts, and then give my guesses and commentary for the remaining contestants and their performances. I also try to back up my guesses as much as I can by using the clues... even though I guide myself with the voice of the individual contestant. Anyways, having said that, let’s jump into it:

Warning ��️: If you haven’t watched the show yet, there are spoilers below, so read at your own risk.. this is your official spoiler alert warning. Don’t say I didn’t warn you...

With this episode, we met our last group of contestants, Group C, which consists of 5 masked characters, Squiggly Monster, Mushroom, Jellyfish, Lips, and Broccoli. Overall, to me, they are the weakest group vocal wise, but they were still fun to watch.

Alright, so let’s talk about the eliminated contestant, who was...

*DRUMROLL PLEASE*

Lips 💋

Performance: Alright, so she sang “Native New Yorker,” by Odessy.... and I really try to be as kind and constructive as I can with these recaps especially when critiquing their performances because being rude really doesn’t solve anything and I want you guys to understand why I don’t like a performance if I dislike a performance (so we can start an open dialogue you get me?) ... but I am so sorry, this lady can’t sing like at all. Oh and I knew exactly who she was (haha insert Ken’s voice into that phrase lol) the moment she opened her mouth. The thing is she is talking and she messed up in the middle by laughing/snorting in the performance, it was kind of hilarious not gonna lie... it made me laugh, which I guess is a good thing, but like yeah it’s kind of obvious why she left first, because she (I mean no offense to this.. well maybe I do because I am not a fan of the person under this mask like at all since she ain’t kind and civil like at all) blew it, like it kinda felt like she messed up on purpose or that she is actually horrible at singing, which is ok because she isn’t supposed to be a professional singer and that’s fine. All that to say Lips made me laugh and I appreciate it but I am kind of glad she was the first one to go....

Anyways, she was revealed to be (to no surprise of my own) controversial talk show host...

Wendy Williams

Whoop whoop, I got it right (as did like everyone who knows who she is because her voice is that distinct... oh and also she spoke during the song so it was kind of obvious, but I am still claiming my victory: Gotten 3/5 correct so far and I am proud of that number)! Anyways here are the clues that pointed to her:

Shock= she says very shocking things on her show and is a pretty polarizing figure, you either love her or hate her (I am not fond of her myself but whatever I guess)

“Speak my truth”= she’s known for stating her mind and is unfiltered with her thoughts on things

West Wing= her initials WW

Fire= Hot Takes is a segment on her show and also a reference to her book Wendy’s Got The Heat

Alright, now that we have finished with her, let’s talk about our remaining 4 masked contestants:

1. Squiggly Monster 👾

Performance: I really liked his performance of Have You Ever Seen the Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival. He did super well, like I really liked it, I had low expectations because of the costume (it’s kind of creepy looking ngl) but I was pleasantly surprised. Having said that, the moment I heard him, because of his tone, I knew exactly who it was (again insert Ken’s voice here)...

So, for my guess, I think it is Full House actor/comedian:

Bob Saget

Ok, so besides the voice, lemme give you why I think that clues wise (credit goes to this Screen Rant article for the details idk on my own):

Penguin visual in the package= he directed a parody nature documentary called Farce of the Penguins

Father and a scoundrel= father part due to him actually being a father to 3 girls/his role on Full House as Danny Tanner (a single father of 3 daughters which I think is wow funny) and the scoundrel part referring to his raunchy/dirty comedy

Cookie clues= nod to Michelle from Full House and her love of cookies

“Breaking News” and him on a news show kind of thing= reference to his Full House character Danny Tanner being an anchor for Good Morning San Francisco

He also was on the show as a shrimp cocktail as the friend for the Taco aka Tom Bergeron! So it makes sense for him to come back this season which I am all into

2. Mushroom 🍄

Performance: Ok, so this is like the most confusing, is it a he or is it a she? That’s the biggest question, my money’s on a boy... so my guess is going to be male (I am gonna call Mushroom a he because of that so I apologize if I am misgendering them, I just need to narrow it down somehow and I am gendering them based on who I think it is, and I feel like he is the correct pronoun). Anyways, I love him, he’s my favorite Group C contestant, and his performance of This Woman’s Work was amazing, people said it was not good, but I really enjoyed it because I am a sucker for a good falsetto and this guy was almost all falsetto, I was feeling it. Having said that, maybe I like him so much because I feel like it is someone I adore, like if I meet him, I will faint status...

Having said that, I think it is Broadway star, heartthrob, actor, singer, adorable human...

Jordan Fisher

Omg he is so cute... sorry I am gonna stop being 😍 for him I promise. Anyways, big clue was a video of him singing this exact song (I think it sounds so similar, but you guys can judge for yourselves), here it is: https://youtu.be/3lzRsMl8M8Q

youtube

Apart from that, here are some actual clues (with a bit of help from this Screen Rant article) that got my mind thinking it is him:

WAITTT 🤔... before we get into that, what I found interesting is that he tweeted and I quote “Seasonal tweet to let everyone know that ____ on the masked singer is once again not me 💜” and THE MASKED SINGER RETWEETED IT... but also I just checked and this is the first time he’s ever had to clear that up... soooo maybe he’s a liar (bc of an NDA ofc you cannot really spill the beans.... but let’s go with he’s a liar)... a cute liar... but he’s lying.

Ok, now onto the clues:

A lot of Hamilton clues= “a healer and a scholar,” “young, scrappy, and fun-gy,” “shroom where it happens” = he replaced Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton in the Broadway musical Hamilton (and also can reference his Broadway roots in general like being on Dear Evan Hansen)

Started at a “rat race” and Men in Black were mice= could be a reference to his start on Disney (Liv and Maddie and Teen Beach Movie)

A shot to turn a hobby into a career= reference to him streaming video games on Twitch

Stars clue with audience= he won Dancing with the Stars back in 2017 and also hosted DWTS Junior

3. Jellyfish 💚

Performance: I really liked her performance of Big Girls Don’t Cry by Fergie even though I felt like she was holding back a bit (I can kind of say the same about Mushroom... but I still enjoyed it). I am really curious to see what she can really do, because I felt her nerves in the performance and like she can do more. This one’s killing me because I feel like I have heard that voice but I can’t put my finger on who it could be

So, with that said, I have no idea who to guess:

But I do know that it isn’t ✨Billie Elish✨

No, but like seriously, that ain’t Billie Elish even tho a lot of people are guessing it, I am not buying it... you’ll see why in a second, here are the clues:

The Little(ish) Jellyfish title on a book

Reigned supreme in an underwater kingdom

Fans, Tiara (“princess”)

Angel Fish

Flower Crown

Missed out on normal girl stuff like parties and making friends

Billie Elish “Bad Guy” lyrics in the background= that’s way too obvious for it to be Billie Elish

4. Broccoli 🥦

Performance: His performance of House is Rockin’/Whole Lotta Shakin Going On by Stevie Ray Vaughan/Jerry Lee Lewis was not what I expected to be honest. I thought it was going to be someone younger or a rapper, but it was an older gentlemen, and he was rockin, not gonna lie. I really liked it, not my favorite though I don’t think he is bad by any means. Anyways, I feel like I know who it is... maybe I am getting this from another person on YT’s guess who I really liked (Shoutout to them idk their user sorry)

So, for my guess for the Broccoli, I think it is legendary singer...

Paul Anka

The reason why is because of the following clues:

Can of Soup= he won a Campell’s Soup competition and that jump started his career

Tik Tok reference= his song Put Your Head on My Shoulder went viral on Tik Tok

Also, the letterman jacket is very 60s which is his era I guess (my mom knows more ab it than I do)

Anyways, that’s it, guys! I hope you enjoyed this recap, I apologize for how long they are, it’s kind of my thing lol! Don’t forget to comment your guesses (do you agree with me? Disagree? I wanna know below... especially Jellyfish guesses bc I have no idea who she can be), like, and follow for more Masked Singer content. I’ll see you all next week for the Group C Playoffs! Bye guys! 👋🏼

#the masked singer season 4 #the masked singer #themaskedsinger #celebrities #hollywood #movies #music #tv series #tv shows #wendy williams #lipsmask #bob saget #jordan fisher #paul anka #performance

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dwellordream · 4 years

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I'd love a directors commentary for all of "my heart is a fist of barbed wire", but there's so many chapters (really, really good ones gah) so chapter 32 "ring" would be fascinating to hear your take on, it really ties into the last couple chapters and is still so shocking?! I really enjoyed it, thank youu!! ♥️

thank you! i remember going into chapter 32 i was just so worn down from the fic (as much as I enjoyed writing it) that I was kind of dreading having to wrap up so many major plot points in just one chapter. the chapter ended up being nearly 10,000 words, which at that time especially was brutal for me to try to get through, so it was kind of tiring to get through, but I ended up being pretty satisfied with it. I wrote it in parts and spent about a day on each ‘section’ since it’s divided by months. I still feel like the pacing is pretty uneven, but it got across Amy’s rapidly evolving emotional state as she figures out what she wants to do with her life. ‘August’ was interesting because this is where Amy takes her first real step towards actively deceiving Tom; we see her come to a series of conclusions pretty much all at once. she knows he is going to find out that she came looking for him in Knockturn Alley. either she can confess that she followed up on the Riddles and knows what he’s done, or she can hide it. her decision to hide is largely due to the fact that she’s now realized this is the *only* advantage she has over him. he’s committed a serious crime- murder!- and is convinced he’s getting away with it. the only way she can keep this leverage over his head is to feed into Tom’s sizable ego and play up his cunning and charisma, convincing him that he’s ‘won her back’. fortunately for Amy, she is perceptive enough to realize that she needs to go about this in a manner that is convincing. he has some massive blind spots, but she knows he will be suspicious if she suddenly seems completely forgiving and accepting of his bad behavior once again. with this in mind, Amy comes up with a haphazard plan to reel Tom back in; she’s going to play coy and distant, feed into his desire to ‘prove himself’ to her, and let him do a lot of her work for her. Tom is very smart but he’s also used to being right, and he relies on a ton of assumptions to live his life. his #1 assumption is that no one is cleverer than him or more cunning than him, and Amy is not an exception to this. he might respect her obvious wits and determination, but he certainly doesn’t want to acknowledge that it could ever be used against him, personally. therefore when Amy is reunited with Tom in ‘August’, she puts on a pretty good act, pretending to slip up and reveal that she still cares for him and his well-being; Tom is only too eager to fall for this, and leaps at the chance to convince her that he’s back on his best behavior; when he wheedles her into a date, she lets him, albeit pretending to still have her guard up. one interesting note about ‘October’ is that despite her obvious animosity and desire to get away from Tom, Amy still worries that he might be drafted after he’s turned eighteen. I think it just speaks to her overall compassion. she has plenty of reason to hate him, but she still wouldn’t wish the war upon him. In ‘December’ we see that Tom and Amy are back to their own tricks; on friendly enough terms to exchange holiday gifts once more, albeit in private. Amy is forced to remain back at Hogwarts for the break due to Wool’s closure, leaving her extremely isolated and vulnerable. Tom, of course, senses an opportunity here and presents her with a very expensive gift of pearl earrings (which Amy infamously speculates over the origins of). there is a whole lot of fucked up stuff wrapped up with this present exchange. Amy bakes Tom cookies almost as a ‘test’ experiment to see how trusting he is of her: the answer is ‘very’. he accepts her gift without question, almost as if it were expected and prompted by him. he presents her with what would ordinarily be considered a very serious and romantic gift; genuine pearl earrings (or really any expensive jewelry) was a major status symbol gift in the 1940s. no normal teenage boy would have been giving a girl he wasn’t even ‘going steady with’ such a lavish present. it would have been more in line for a married couple. this is some obvious foreshadowing of what’s to come. the very first thing Tom does after giving Amy this present is not ask if she likes the earrings or tell her he got her them because he cares about her and knows she’s fond of pearls, but instruct her to put them on. I think this is such a textbook example of his controlling and possessive behavior. it pops up throughout the fic and we certainly see it when he has Matthew attacked out of jealousy and a desire to make Amy suffer, but it’s just super blatant here. it’s almost like he doesn’t really care whether Amy likes the earrings or not. what he cares about is that she is willing to put them on, even if only temporarily, thus demonstrating (in his view) some level of devotion that he’s going to rely on later. in his mind, if she can accept the earrings without rejecting them (or him) she can accept something more serious. we then see him immediately try to kiss her, something he hasn’t done in over a year at that point; they’ve had pretty much no physical contact whatsoever since the Matthew Fiasco. what’s also disturbing here is that Amy senses he’s about to kiss her and decides to ‘let it happen’, without much regard for her own consent. she doesn’t seem to care whether or not she actually wants Tom to kiss her- he wants to, and she’s decided that it’s in her best interests to keep him placated. compared to her earlier trend of usually taking the initiative in their romantic relationship and being very clear about what she wants and doesn’t want, I think this is really sad and concerning. what surprises Amy (and maybe the reader) is that when Tom does go through with it, he almost immediately realizes that she’s not into it, at all, beyond just not reciprocating right off the bat, and backs off. there’s multiple ways to interpret this. we could argue that Tom still cares about her consent and has no interest in kissing someone who clearly doesn’t want to be kissed. we could argue that Tom realizes it’s in *his* best interests to try to *prove* he can be understanding and patient and so he reluctantly backs off. we could argue that the tender and sweet nature of the kiss itself shows a ‘soft side’ to Tom that is really desperate for love and affection, as opposed to him trying to bully her into reciprocating. in the end, this is from Amy’s POV, and she just doesn’t know. what she does see is that Tom seems visibly disturbed by her lack of reaction, and is genuinely concerned she’s about to cry. he then apologizes (or as much of an ‘apology’ as we might ever see from him in Barbed Wire) and seems to remind himself that she asked him for some space and time. Amy latches onto this, and tries to reassure him that she, too, wants things to go back ‘to the way they were’. but the cold reality here is that there is no going back. Amy *can’t* go back. the real dysfunction here is Tom’s insistence on trying to turn back time- to him, the reminder that they are graduating and will soon ‘leave behind’ their school social circles is a comforting one. the irony of course is that literally none of that happens. Tom has no intention of moving on with his life or dropping the fairweather friends he’s cultivated at Hogwarts. he intends to exploit as much as possible from them and the reputation he’s built up as an aspiring pureblood elite. nothing really changes for him, but everything is about to change for amy. finally we get to ‘May’ and ‘June’. I seriously debated giving ‘June’ its own chapter and ending 32 on ‘May’, but I decided at the time it would give readers a false impression of the direction the fic was headed in. I figured there were enough twists already without convincing everyone that we were about to have an ‘unhappy happy ending’ or I guess ‘happy ending for Tom, mediocre ending for Amy’. in ‘May’ of course comes the Proposal. I really debated combining this with ‘June’ and having Tom propose right before Amy springs her trap, but it ended up working out better this way. Amy and Tom yet again meet up in secret, this time above the dueling gallery, and they almost seem to have fully reconciled- Amy enthusiastically reciprocates his kiss, and he presents her with yet another gift: an unexpected letter of recommendation from one Oliver Parkinson, a successful healer guaranteed to ensure her a prosperous career at St Mungo’s straight out of graduation. I think kind of the crux of Amy’s character is her reaction to this gift. even while pretending to be won over, she cannot hide her distaste for this method; she doesn’t want anything she feels she hasn’t earned. to Tom, this is a pointless (if endearing) waste of her pride. he is really patting himself on the back here, going, ‘look how enlightened I am, not only being tolerant of you wanting a career of your own, but going to all this trouble to set it up for you!’. but that’s not what Amy wants. she wants a partner who is going to encourage her to forge her own path, not do the work for her. she doesn’t want an easy life, she wants a meaningful one, and her and Tom’s definitions of ‘meaningful’ just don’t align. it also has to do with his own pride- in Tom’s mind, if they’re going to be engaged, *of course* she needs an illustrious career, especially since Amy has no ‘good breeding’ or lovely country estate to fall back on. he knows it will be much easier to work her into pureblood society if she is a respected protege of a man like Oliver Parkinson; than he can arrange for people to conveniently forget about her wild school days and her muggleborn background, and really shape her into a woman he feels will best suit his goals in life; someone successful in their own right, but still owing it all to him and his connections. he then almost immediately shoots himself in the foot by bragging about his blackmailing of Atticus Greengrass to secure his own career prospects, and then, of course, unveils the fateful Ring, the same Ring Amy immediately spotted on him way back in ‘August’, which has conveniently fit very well into her plans. Tom still can’t be bothered with a more traditional propose, and launches into one final sales pitch to Amy. a lot of people have commented on about how earnest and genuinely compelling they found his speech. I felt like it had to be in order to sell the moment. he needs to *believe* in what he’s saying. it has to be the most open and vulnerable moment of Tom’s in the entire fic for it to seem plausible. he puts it all on the line for one split second of faith... and of course it blows up in his face, but the point is that he seeded his own destruction, more or less. had he been like this with Amy from the start, maybe they could have built a much more positive and open relationship, instead of a dysfunctional mess. “you’re alone,” Tom tells Amy, more or less, “you’ve always been alone, and you will always need me to make you feel less alone” but we know that’s just not true. Amy isn’t alone; she has real friends and passions, she has so much to look forward to, an entire life ahead of her. Tom is the one who’s alone, in the worst possible way. the one person who made him feel less alone, he ended up pushing away with his poor choices and selfish desires. he brings up her background in this ‘gotcha’ moment- but the joke is that Amy doesn’t care! she’s always known, and she doesn’t care. it’s painful, yes, and she acknowledges that pain, but she has moved on from that part of her life. she holds no rage or even resentment towards her mother for giving her up. she doesn’t resent her mother for being an impoverished sex worker with no means to care for a small child. she has no desire to find out who her father was or ‘confront’ her mother- that doesn’t matter to Amy. where she comes from, her origins, they don’t matter. she doesn’t give a damn about her heritage or ancestry, she just wants to move forward. and now the only thing standing in her way is Tom. I think ‘June’ pretty much speaks for herself, but I will say this; when I wrote I didn’t really feel any vindictive sense of ‘ah, she’s getting her revenge on him now!’, mostly just sadness. It’s really sad that Amy ends up feeling the only way she can even have this honest talk with Tom... is with him incapacitated and literally unable to respond. she identifies herself as being selfish, and I think this is a good example of selfishness not always being a bad thing, which I think is very important, especially for girls! (not that I’m condoning drugging anyone or blackmailing them, etc). but learning to put yourself and your wants and needs first is important. Amy is mature enough to realize that this relationship with Tom and her cannot work. she cannot be his moral compass, and she cannot turn a blind eye to his actions. his speeches about ‘letting her win’ and them being happy together are pretty and persuasive but ultimately hollow. there is no happy ending for them. he ruined their chances of that a long time ago. she’s not his enemy- he is. and I think her parting of “I love you” just really speaks to who she is as well. it’s really hard to recognize that someone you love isn’t good for you, that not all loves are necessarily good things. being with him might feel right in the moment, but in the long-term she knows it would be the exact opposite. she’s able to honestly acknowledge her feelings while still finding the strength to walk away.

#ask #anon #ask game #barbed wire

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kwispayne · 5 years

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The Top 10 Films Of 2019

Sadly my keep up with film this year wasn't as active as I would have liked it to have been. But I did see a lot of great films. Maybe none that will be in my century list, but there was some great moments throughout. Hopefully I can keep up better this year, but here is my opinion on what I did see

So here is some rules

1.Technically some of these movies have been released in 2018, but some where only released at film festivals or had overseas release. I usually go by the rules of if it was released in cinemas, Netflix or DVD in 2019.

2. This is a personal list. So some opinions are biased and selfish.

3. I haven’t seen every film from this year sadly. So any recommendations or even your top 10 lists would be helpful. I always want to watch more and I have an odd fetish for lists and stuff, so if you have any send me links and stuff.

10. Dragged Across Concrete (S. Craig Zahler)

S. Craig Zahler's films in the past few years have only just keep getting better and better. Also how this guy was able to give careers back to Vince Vaughan & Mel Gibson is a feat if extraordinary skill too. Dragged Across Concrete is a complex story, with a lot of interesting twists and turns, but one of the best skills that Zahler has as a film maker is his ability to set up scenes. He never spoonfeeds his audience, and gives the characters dialogue and scenes that are very lifelike. While this may be his least bloodiest affair, it does have some rather upsetting moments in it which leave a bigger lasting impact than a bloody gore fest.

9. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)

I was a tiny bit let down by Tarantino's last film The Hateful 8. Overall it wasn't the worst, but there was a lot of padding. But, this film has a lot of padding too. But it's padding which I deem necessary. In fact, this level of padding I haven't seen Tarantino do since Jackie Brown. But overall, the film, even though it is slightly based on true events, constantly has the audience guessing what is going to happen, leading to an incredibly leftfield and satisfying climax. The dialogue throughout is at times Tarantino by numbers, but at times he does verge away from what we are used to, which I've got to admit, is an impressive feat by Tarantino so late into his career. Also, big props to Leonardo DiCaprio who deserves an award for his performance in this film.

8. Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (Chris Smith)

The movie which launched a thousand memes. Back in the day, documentaries used to fill my lists, but that has died down, because they've been so saturated since the rise of Netflix & Amazon. But, I'm glad to say that this is the example of one that has slipped through the cracks, mainly because the story of this documentary is so insane. A failed music festival that was doomed from day one, spearheaded by a rapper with a lot of hubris and a pied piper entrepreneur. In many ways this movie very much is the perfect parable of today's obsession with capitalism. It's all glitz with no results. Netflix, you've done it again.

7. Lords Of Chaos (Jonas Åkerlund)

Being a fan of metal, the story of this film has been among the metal lore for the past few years. Now...do I believe everything the movie is portraying...no, but the movie does claim that it is based on lies too. But at the heart of it all, I think Åkerlund did get a great theme going. That at the end of the day, the guys involved in this whole affair were just kids. This is a controversial choice I know, but I genuinely loved the choice of shots in the movie, the aesthetics used and I thought out the dialogue throughout was very strong and acted well. So as a film, it's great. As a piece of metal history...not so much.

6. Fighting With My Family (Stephen Merchant)

After being blown away by Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth, I was surprised to hear that her next project was a comedy film about wrestling. But then I saw that Stephen Merchant was directing and writing it, and my mind was put to rest. Personally I think The Office & Extras are 2 of the best TV shows ever made, so I knew that Stephen could pull of a big Hollywood comedy. But...this has such great British charm in it, that whenever I wasn't laughing I was nearly in tears with the drama. The screen play in this film is fantastic, but Stephen has always been a brilliant writer. The cast in the film is fantastic, but Florence Pugh just blows everyone out of the water. I will talk about her more later.

5. Vice (Adam McKay)

After being shocked by The Big Short, Adam McKay again proves that he has a certain style which was only veily shown in his earlier comedy films. The comedy of this film comes from the twist of what we usually except with films of this calibre, but behind the veneer of Cheney himself, this very much adds to the tone of the film. The obvious elephant in the room is Christian Bale's performance and the changes he made to become the character, which are insane as always, but the actual performance and manner of Cheney is perfectly modeled and may be one of his greatest performances, although I hope for his benefit he just sticks to a fat suit and make up next time he needs to play an older large man. Now this movie isn't the most factually accurate from what I gather, but if it is...wow...McKay has given life to an absolute monster.

4. Midsommar (Ari Aster)

Ari Aster has now made 2 of the best modern horror films. Hopefully he can make it a hat trick. This film blew me away. The psychedelic cult aspect of this movie was dripping from the screen, but it was done is such a bright and vibrant way so it seems to be safe, but it's actually very dangerous. A fantastic cast also drives the film, but Florence Pugh shows up again to prove that she may be the greatest actor that we currently have working at the moment. Jack Reynor is also fantastic in the film and I really hope he gets more work because he is fantastic (he's gorgeous too). Warning to anyone about to watch this film...it gets very freaky.

3. Avengers Endgame (Anthony & Joe Russo)

Ok...again this is mainly just for my own satisfaction. I have been following the Marvel films for a long time, and some of them have actually been able to get their way into my top 10 lists, but this one is different. This movie never would have worked if the studio didn't take their time. And the arc that they have told over the past few years with specific characters in general has come full circle, and the pay off is glorious. Now when it comes to the actual plot of the film and the time travel stuff...yes it is a bit silly, but the concept itself is silly too, so I take it with a pinch of salt, and I only focus on the story we are given. The best performance though comes from Robert Downey Jr., who I believe deserves some sort of award not for this film but for all the Marvel movies he took part in. The build up to Josh Brolin's Thanos is also a fantastic performance. And the climax of this film is one of the most grandiose and epic closers of any superhero movie that we have ever seen.

2. Us (Jordan Peele)

I felt that Get Out was a movie where the concept was brilliant, but the actual execution was lacking. I still enjoyed it, but it was one of those films where people enjoyed it a lot more than I did. But when I saw the trailer for Us, I became very excited, because the trailer made it seem overly creepy to the point where I didn't understand what was going on. So I went in knowing nothing and coming out completely blown away. To think that Jordan Peele directed this, the same guy that made me laugh from his sketches on Key & Peele has directed an incredibly smart, funny and interesting horror film. I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone (obvious joke alert). But this movie would be nothing without the stellar performance from Luptia Nyong'o. This lady deserves a lot of awards and recognition for this role, and I hope she works with the horror genre again, because he is a fantastic scream queen.

1. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)

Yorgos Lanthimos' films have been an interest of while. With his directorial debut Dogtooth, I was blown away. It was so unique that no one could follow this incredibly odd turgid and absurdist style. He then came back with The Lobster, which I found the idea of more enjoyable than that actual execution of the film itself. And he got closer with The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, but it didn't fully stick to landing. But this is his biggest film. A weird one to chose foe a style of his calibre. A period piece focusing on feminism. How could he keep his style without it distracting the audience too much with the story. But thankfully he found the perfect marriage between the 2. Now, his style did get watered down a bit, but thankfully his absurdist approach hasn't fully evaporated, with some very odd but brilliant use of shots. Acting wise, the film has a fantastic cast, and obvious props should be given to Olivia Coleman who won her Oscar for this role, but Emma Stone & Rachel Weisz also give fantastic performances too, and should be recognized too. I'm glad to see Lanthimos making his acclaimed masterpiece, and am looking forward to his next artistic endeavor.

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survivormontenegro · 5 years

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Episode 1: "I'll either flop hard or finally fucking win so let's see how this game plays." - Ian

season starts in t minus eleven minutes and I'm SO READY TO FLOP WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

give me an idol thanks

Hi!!! Im back on tumblr survivor omg I thought I would never return cuz I am so inactive on skype but here I am with the best hosts ever seamus and drew even tho seamus bullies me... This time now that I actually have some experience I hopefully wont be first boot and can play better rather than be a sheep LOL

So far I like my tribe, Ali and mitch are prob my favs so far both kings

The only people I have ever heard of before is willow one of my bffs from FB orgs and jones bc shes jones but both on the other tribe so hope I can meet them at swap or merge!

But apart from that no clue who these ppl are, kinda nice tho and refreshing since on fb its always the same people so this should be fun

Bro we got 2 sandwich artists. And a sandwich related challenge. If we don’t win I’ll be mad

Okay so right now I don’t know anyone or anything what the fuck. This is so different from zwooper everyone is here to play. Right now I’m getting good vibes from Caleb and I think I’m gonna make him my go to. I know Noah on the other tribe but I know he doesn’t like me and I really don’t like the way he plays games. I heard Jamarcus was in this game but I guess not :(. But yeah so this is gonna be one wild ride!

submitting this before i forget/decide not to do a video on it:

http://bit.ly/2ZoKSiK <- Jason’s First Impressions

Hie Montenegro,,, im here,,, and full of existential fear!! I wanted to do a full video cast assessment but my phone storage truly sucks on this night at 3:00 am and I have shit to do tomorrow so :) gotta write!! Myfeelings!!!! David - has said Hewwo when we were revealed and vanished. Hopefully he can deliver in a comp Bc rn he’s kinda irrelevant :( holding out hope tho Willow - queen of being busy,,, we talked in pms but for like a minute,, she knows some of my friends from an FB game I watched her play tho! So that’s SOMETHing, but not a lot. I’ve heard not the greatest things about her social game in the past tho, so I’m not shocked rn Evan - I think I’ve actuallh played w him before assuming this is the same Evan from erinsborough? Big shrug, he was inactive that game tho and would’ve striked out if we didn’t vote him,,, hopefully things are different tho? His picture is Gavin from DP and I appreciate it greatly,, Tom - I just got off of a 5 hour call w him and he seems really chill!? Haven’t talked in pms yet or anything so hopefully we can do that soon? But he seems like a great dude!! His dog is super fucking cute too. JJ - I think of my entire tribe, he’s the epitome of extra. He has 50 fucking sugar gliders like??????? Ma’am?????????? Also he’s from tengaged and MORE IMPORTANTLY he knows keaton apparently!! So,,, probably a crackhead knowing my luck w Keaton. He’s very outgoing and friendly tho and definitely seems like someone i COULD work with,,, but I wanna see how everything plays out, Caeleb - adopted him as my grandson. Bc he called me his grandma. He seems like a sweetie pie it’s his first org ever though so go him!! Hopefully grandma can take him under her wing hehe Mo - literally one of my first close friends in the community,, an angel whom owns my heart, I feel like he’d wanna work w me but I’d never know fully until we prove our loyalties yk? So I’m also holding out hope for him,,, king. Alex - I love him!!!? So much???? He said he stans me I love him sm Bc I remember stanning him when I first started playing Bc he’s all I’d heard about art in the community lolol but I’m v excited to actuallh play with him I fucking called him being here :) Jules - my love my light we just clicked real quick, she’s legitimately an angel whom I adore??? It’s her first survivor game I’m rooting for her. But ya I’m exhausted so that’s it for now UwU gn bois

okie I feel like I should do a cast assessment of my tribe, just as a starter. my opinions will like 1000% change so this is by no means final but woo I'll go with this!

In general... this cast is... pretty good? Like I was very very worried since I'm so annoying that everyone that hates me would reappear for this season, but I think(?) only like... one person in the cast would dislike me/gun for me for preseason stuff. Anywho:

Benj: Okay he seems super super nice! Like he seems really friendly, we have a lot in common already and I think since we are both in weird timezones we could work really well as allies! He seems super like chill and would work with just people he seems to get along with, so I feel like... that could be a real potential alliance in the future ahhh!

Ian: Ian I haven't spoken to all that much yet (he was towards the end of the cast reveal) but he seems really really chill! He has also come 2nd twice which is something I can relate to, so maybe we will be on a similar page as players?

Jared: Okay first fellow newbie. We haven't spoken much or had the chance to really like have a good conversation so far! I feel like since its 12-8 for newbies, maybe its a good idea for us to group up tho, idk if it can happen since at least for me, I haven't really connected to the newbies as much?

Jason: He is so so fun! Like I've really liked talking with him so far, he was on the CAH call yesterday and was getting along with Julia which is really good too, since I defo wanna work with them both!

Julia: A QUEEN. okay I was very worried seeing her on the cast reveal since both times I've played with her, I've voted her out very very early.... BUT, she seems interested in wanting to work with me and I'd love to because such a wild time, and I feel like... me and her strengths/weaknesses can kind of counterbalance in a way that'll work really well! She could always be playing me, but tbh... its what I deserve anyway, and I'd LOVE to see her do really well this season.

Madeline: I really like her! I've spoken to her probs the most of the newbies and she seems really nice and social which is super good! I feel like she'll fit in for a while and have quite smooth sailing

Michael: I'm sure he is great, but we haven't really.. been able to talk all that much? I feel like if I had to predict who would go if our tribe lost, I'd... probably say him?

Mitch: omg this cast is so big I'm not even through my tribe AHH. anyway mitch was on the first cast reveal like I was. I get ok vibes from him, he seems like... he is here to play the game hard which makes me nervy, but hopefully I can like fudge that to my advantage?

Noah: okay he is super fun, I feel like... our conversations have been very dry, but also that its 100% my fault. idk the ability to be interesting just kind of _dropped_ out of me but I'll try and redeem that today

okay the other tribe I'll just skim through and do the ones I know:

Alex C.: he seems like a king! I've been in VLs for seasons he has been in, I feel like he will not like me but I'd love to meet him!

David R.: okay he will 10000% not remember me, but he was in my first season ever! he was very inactive and his only like... confessional was about me being annoying KJSLDAD which is maybe a.. bad sign! lets see how it goes this time

Jones: She seems SO nice! I have been in VLs with her before, and she seems so so so nice! I'd love to play with her down the line, but I think she is also probs here to WIN which is scary.

Jules: A LEGEND! I love Jules, would love to work with them if possible! They're probably the person I am closest to pregame but can hopefully keep that hush hush...

Mo: a king! I hosted him for his first season, and he was SO much fun. I feel like he has gone off me, but I'm super excited to see how he does!

Tom: he is... probably the biggest problem for me in the cast? Like he was in the only season I won, and saw me play a snake game which I do not intend to play like this time? But I feel like if he still dislikes me (which he might), he could like... tell people how snakey I was! I would love to like work with him if he wants, but I feel like he wouldn't trust me at all KASDLF

Willow: A queen! I haven't spoken to her in ages but used to around her first season a lot! so so nice.

Yeah so overall thoughts on each tribe:

Durmitor: Almost everyone I knew preseason was on this tribe, which is probably to my advantage, that'll hopefully help out in like... a swap situation? Worried about Tom but am cautiously optimistic about Willow/Mo/Jules! I feel like this tribe is gonna do very very good on challlenges which... AHHHH i don't wanna go to tribal

Budva: Okay I really like my tribe! I get the best vibes from Benj, Julia & Jason who are all people I'd love to work with! I think(?) I could be okay for now, like I feel like I've already got some good ties, and that there are other people that would go... before me... maybe? Its probably only like 2 rounds on these tribes so I maybe don't even need to last that long aksfda

Ugh honestly why am I back and like... I DON��T ANYBODY HERE? Nicole G is my spirit animal.

Well except for Jason and Julia. I do know them as well as Alex and Rob. Basically I don’t know anyone post chamonix and I feel like a fish out of water. I’ll either flop hard or finally fucking win so let’s see how this game plays.

My tribe is idk, quiet? But like we called and played cards against humanity which was fun but like idk Anau and Monte Rosa were just more active and fun and all.

Julia - fellow oldie, I might work with her since she’s quite social and all. Witchcraft and all.

Jason - I wanna work with him because 1) oldie 2) fellow runner-up and 3) he knows josh. And if my TS career hasn’t proven me wrong, people who I play with who know josh are a huge BOON to my game so yeahhH

Benj - he seems nice. He lives New Zealand so we will probably be the only ones awake at our respective time zones so that can be grounds for something :D

Ali - seems nice as well. We talked about the weather and all so that was fun.

Mitch - we had a short convo so idk him very well to get a good read on him.

Jared - We only started talking now so we will see hmmm

Michael - I’m 50% sure he’s a robot. Just because he sends messages like a robot but I could be wrong. Idk it’s hard to get a read on him but we talked some and I hope he is good at challenges

Madeline - She told me she was a returnee but the wiki says she ain’t? What is the truth. Seems nice?? Idk

Noah - we haven’t talked

Tbh this is probably the most quiet starting tribe I’ve been on. Nicole G is my sprit animal btw

(hi plss add this to the first confessionals i sent) Asya - haven’t talked to her as well. But she did briefly joined the tribe call

Here's a Video Confessional that details what’s on my mind:

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America I think I fucked myself over on this one. I told JJ and Tom last night that I got 155k in sandwich stacker the last time I played it and now I think they’re expecting me to recreate that score?? And like,,, do better?????? But it turns out I’m unexpectedly very busy today and I can’t even do it when I get home Bc I’m not gonna have a laptop to play it on,, so I fucked myself over on this one chief. Not only am I most likely not doing this challenge, but I set myself up to look like a challenge threat!! When I can’t even back it up???? Love that for me :)

okay so I've now had a chance to talk to pretty much my whole tribe more which is fun. I LOVE THEM ALL AND REFUSE TO EVER. GO. TO. TRIBAL.

So my favourites atm are defo Julia, she is SUCH a legend, and her hex powers will carry us to success. I'm also really liking Benj & Jason on a personal level, they are super fun, and like chill on a game level which I really like!

Of the rest, Jared approached me to work with me which AHH exciting! But it was kind of unprompted and outta nowhere, so I'm worried he could play a bit too hard too fast, so will try and keep an eye on him. Madeline is super fun, I'm really liking talking to her, and I'm more reassured about working with my fellow newbies now, since Jared/Madeline I'm really liking! Michael is super sweet, he sent me this long nice message about how to pronounce my name which was super sweet, I haven't spoken to him too much yet! Noah I've spoken to the least, he is my biggest ??? so far, which ahh but I'll figure that one out. Mitch is quite quiet but I really like him! Ian is a king!

AHH I LOVE EVERYONE THIS IS A PROBLEM. I always do this where I make friends with everyone and then have to betray someone every round. I'm determined to pace myself this time. Julia is my Number #1 rn, she approached me first and I think we are a great balancing pair. I also really like Benj/Jason, would love to maybe be in a bigger alliance with them? Jared I'm like... apprehensive that he is gonna play really hard, but also wanna work with him. Those are probably my top four rn? I'd then put Madeline/Ian on the next level, Mitch the level below and Noah/Michael on the bottom level as my biggest unknowns!

otherwise this challenge is so demonic, and one day I will get revenge on seamus for making us endure this. I think I'm doing pretty good, and like... can't face the bread anymore, so will probs stick with my score. I really don't wanna go to tribal so hope my tribe can pull this out wooo!

Hi it’s Mo, I’m the dumb bitch who thinks he needs a Gatorade after walking up a flight of stairs. At the moment I’m feeling very distressed because I sat outside for a good hour or so and some mosquitos decided to take it upon themselves to go to town on my legs. But game-wise I’m feeling very comfortable on my tribe. I think I made some good connections on the tribe call last night and I got to know everyone really well and literally I have no complaints about anyone at the moment. They’re all super chill. My biggest fear is letting them down so I’m doing my best to get a good score on sandwich stacker.

Wow It's great to be back and not know like a single soul! I will kms because of that! Also wow my boss sprung a double on me today so I didnt get to talk to anyone! In the first 24 hours! I love this for me! Im on call right now so hopefully I can do SOMETHING and get good with people!!

So I have yet to do a formal confessional but let me just tell you my tribe is so cracked and I love it. I'm gonna give y'all my thoughts on the players of my tribe because why not. Ok so first off we have Julia. Julia is so cracked but I LOVE HER. She is the good luck charm of the tribe because she is involved in witchcraft and honestly I find that hilarious. Then we got Ali. He seems super sweet but I have yet to get to know him well. I think he has been in the tumblr community for a while but I'm not sure because im not in that community (whoops). Jason and I have meshed pretty well together over the love for the cowboy emoji, Madeleine seems like an easy number for me, and same for Jared. I think if we ever go to tribal I might try to connect us three with Benji who I also think I can trust really well. Then we have Ian and Noah. Honestly my conversations with them have been pretty awkward??? Idk if that is just because they are busy but like I don't rly mesh well with either of them. Then there is Michael who literally talks like his username: A Big Blue Robot

someone literally said they were worried that me being so into astrology would influence how i viewed other people and i told them that it wouldn't but the tea is it will, try to stop me

Heya its me. Rookie here on survivor Montenegro. Never played before. Kinda nervous. I'm trying to keep it light and airy with my chats with all the tribe members, because I don't want them thinking I'm trying to create drama too early. They seeeeem to like me and I think I really like them too. Evan kinda has latched on to me, and I like having an easy go to for talking shoppe, but he's super paranoid and thinks he has no shot at this. Even said that everyone else is fully bonding without him. And thats fine of course, I can handle supporting him especially if it seems like a surprise friendship, but his scaredyness might be rubbing off because its making me a little afraid that people are talking shoppe much more than they're letting on with me. Alsooo, low key a tiny bit annoyed with how much we love to call. Like y'all are nice but it seems to be the same person (eyooop) every time and the same person talking in the tribe chat. hehe peace out

hi okie i would've filmed a video confessional, but i look DISGUSTING so you will have to settle with type type typing!

so lots is happening REAL fast and my head hurts so i need to talk it out. We won reward which WOO, and the reuben sandwich also gave me 3 free checks for bridge steps for the idol so GOOD NEWS. I also used it to build trust with Benj & Julia, and told Jared who kind of put me on the spot and asked me about it (more on Jared later).

So I now have my chart to map idol progress titled 'Bridge to Terebeth-idol' and I'm using all the info I get to slowly get an idea of idol progress, the idol is MINE and I'm determined to play it WRONG. otherwise, I'd love to see Benj or Julia get it, love 'em both.

Anywhomst back to Jared. he is VERY forward with game stuff and is like... going 0 to 100 waay too quick, and its making me and Benj nervous. We are both going to keep an eye, I could see Jared burning out quite quick akdlfas. For the rest of the tribe, I really really like Jason he is such a king, Madeline is super nice but I think quite quiet so could potentially go if we lose. Michael is great at challenges, but his social game is a bit ahh (he like.. told Julia she would be a target for making a mistake in the challenge akjsdfaslfladfjla). Noah I really like, but we are kinda out of sync with timezones which is no good. Mitch filled in for me in teh challenge so I owe him bigtime.

ANYWAYS. this is already waay too long, the summary is WOO JULIA AND BENJ, woo (at a slightly lower volume) for Jason and Jared. Love the hosts, loving this game so far, only thing I'm not loving is sandwiches (unless they are reuben sandwiches asjdklfa).

Okay so little recap of the first night on Montenegro Durmitor Beach.... I really felt worried! Like from the first impressions and the intro's I thought okay i have nothing in common with any of these people, this is going to be so hard to get in a safe spot and go far in this game!

After jumping on call with the likes of Jules, Jones, JJ and Mo I felt a little bit safe as they were laughing at some of my jokes and i felt like i could contribute to the conversation which is nice. I really tried my best in this sandwich stacker challenge to show the tribe that i can perform in flash games and help win immunities for future rounds so it gave them a reason to keep me and potentially the stronger players on the tribe would want to add me to an alliance...well i mean that didnt happen but hey who knows its only day 2

So i recognised that JJ was from Tengaged and i had played with him a little bit whilst on that site so i tried to connect with him and make conversation with him and that dramatic little boy decided to drop his vocabulary and use his silly little boy one word responses which wasnt very uhm reassuring. HOWEVER I feel like over the past 2 days JJ and I have formed some sort of bond and i believe its mutual that we want to work together and help each other out in this game. MY ONLY CONCERN about working with JJ is that I dont want to be seen as in a duo with him so him and me need to stop bullying each other on calls and staying on tribe calls when no one else is on them. He helped me out in the idol hunt as well so he is already giving me some information showing he is down to work with me

Okay so overall i feel like my tribe is full of very big personalities and thats concerning a fight will be had for majority i reckon.

Jules: She is so nice, and we connect pretty good, i know she is one bad ass game player though and definitely a threat down the line so keeping her on my side is beneficial for now and hopefully if she does become seen as a target i can use that to my advantage and she can be a meat shield.

Mo: Mo is cool and chill to talk to, we dont really speak that much on pms however i want that to change i get a very loyal vibe from him so yeah something i am willing to explore

Willow & Evan: They both have similar standings with me in this tribe, i feel like they both want to work with me, Evan has said he does and that he gets a good vibe and wants to work with me which is good and i feel like willow is also leaning towards that as well. The only issue with working with these two is they arent very big personalities so i will be targeted before them however i feel like they could be very loyal. Its going to be hard to integrate them into a large alliance unless one of them start because others will be closer to people that isnt them.

Alex: So Alex is a weird one for me, he seems super emotional and honestly someone i just cant really relate to or connect with. I may be wrong but thats my first impression of him, he seems to be all up in Jules/Jones grill which is something i will have to keep an eye out for.

Jones: Jones is a big big big big threat i think everyone on this tribe can already tell this woman will be hard to get out, socially she is impressive and she said she is pretty good at challenges as well so........i'm just going to try and act really dumb around her and make her believe that im willing to work with her till the end as a loyal sheep. However for now i would like to work with her (even though probably everyone does)

David: Well i mean he is like not active very much, he came on call and i have a fear of drag people and he is a drag people so i hope he doesnt rock up to tribal in drag because it is a serious phobia..... wouldnt mind if he went first just because we dont really talk!

JJ: already spoke about him

Caeleb: Everyone is very nice in this cast but i feel like caeleb is a little bit uhh reserved, i feel like hes a little shy at the moment but i think he can be a gem to work and play with. Idk what type of player any of these people are so just gotta test the waters.

All i know is that this tribe is ready to play....and play hard so survivors ready: game on bitches! #STAYLOWANDGOGOGO

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Oh wow this twisty twist twist, hate it!! So anyway now that we have to go to tribal Idk who the heckie to choose to vote! The only people I feel like I have absolutely no connection with so far are Evan and Caeleb, everyone else ive at least talked to a bit?? Jules is cool (also havent talked to her that much) Mo and Jones are the people ive talked to the most so far and I really wanna work with them I think, we will see DREW YOU HAVE MESSED ME UP

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This twist is very fiendish and I love and hate it!! More stress ensuing the more fun for drew hmmm

Anyway, right now I want Madeline gone. I feel she’s not putting her all into this game and in the challenges. Plus she told me she was a returnee but the wiki says otherwise grrrr

For now I think I’m gonna work with Julia and Jason. Might also wanna work with Benji and Ali. Ali is very intuitive because he noticed that it’s important to keep any voting plans under wraps because if word got out of the plan and we’re not actually going to trial, oh hell will be loose!!

So far Julia and Jared are eyeing Madeline as a target and I am here for it! She may have sealed her fate by like going to sleep at this hour but let’s see! She might be faking it lol

Okay fuck you guys for this twist my anxiety is running RAMPANT I know everyone is gonna wanna Vote me for being the youngest I hope you all die and literally choke on your own liver. Anyways my day has been GREAT, thanks for asking!! I feel confident with my comp performance, so hopefully they choose to keep me in?? If not it was nice knowing you guys except Johnny

Oh this- this is terrible. I did so bad on my sandwich tray thing even though at the time I was like IM FUCKIN SPEEDY GONZALEZ WERE GONNA WIN and I scored like 48 but then I find out that everyone else scored somewhere in the 90’s and now it’s just kinda... fuck.

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Blind Tribals? What kind of tomfoolery is this. Im surprised my tribe came up with a consensus of voting off someone this early even though we still have a full 24 hours. I was fully prepared to take charge but I guess I don't have to anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cax7k6-mA-A

^ Video confessional not letting me post tho

So everything has been like a legit clusterfuck and I see this tribes dynamic starting to play out. I think socially I have done my job and excelled. I would say I feel as if I have established a good personal relationship with most of my tribe members except two of them- Madeleine and Michael. Both of them talk very little and it's honestly very frustrating for myself. Not to mention Michael last night sketched me out very bad after we had finished playing the role call part of the immunity. So I had found an error that I had made, and it scared me and I thought I could talk to him about it. I was like, well I hope this doesn't put a target on my back. He responds with this: we can make sure you won't be. will just take some work. Hold the damn phone. It will take some work? Why would it take work period? It just freaked me out so I went to Jason and I told him about it. Jason made me feel more comfortable and I decided to tell him that I trusted him and I was on board with him. So after immunity is done, and the whole blind round twist is revealed I decided to go and talk to basically everyone on the tribe. But Jared stuck out the most to me. He is playing the most aggressive game at this point which I respect. Also, forgot to mention, I trust Ali the most. 100% Ali will be my ride or die person this game. So nothing will come in between the bond we share. Jared decided to throw out Madeleines name out. And I am totally okay with this. He also subtly hinted that Michael would be a good option. But lets be real, I am not a fool and I will not make a big move this first round. This is a tribe of 10 people, not 6 like I'm used too in my prior TS I have played. It is more difficult to rally all the numbers. So this would be the exact reasoning behind my social game I am playing at the moment. I have Jared than tell me he wants to work with Ali, Benj, Himself, and I. This, I can enjoy. I don't have to struggle to protect from this alliance I knew Jared was bound to create, and I didn't have to suggest to include Ali, possibly exposing my relationship with Ali to Jared. On the other hand, I have Ian and Jason who I feel like I can trust in this game. I proposed to Ian I would not vote him out this round, and he said he would do the same for me. I tell Ian that I trusted Jared and we could possibly work with him, and that Madeleines name is being thrown out as the vote. Ian was vague with answering me about working with Jared which sussed me out. But Ian later tells me he wants to work with Jason, Himself and I. So this puts me in TWO potential alliances already in this game. Literally fuck this twist. I am glad my social skills have finally paid off and I am seriously learning from prior mistakes I have made in my orgs from being too abrasive, being too loud, being rude. I had such little self awareness of the way I communicated with people. I would talk and be this extremely social girl but I always left a bitter taste in people's mouth because of how I said things and I had no clue. So I am playing this better game and it is totally opening up new opportunities and all these people I can work with but on the other hand, puts me at a serious disadvantage. If this tribe will be an ultimate flop tribe which I am seriously hoping is NOT the case, I am going to disappoint someone. And that is how you become a target and lose all the hard work you have built up. So even though socially I am totally preforming beautifully compared to my prior three tries at TS, and strategically I wouldn't say anything about that I mean.... it's the first few days of this game. I would say competition wise, or the more physical part of the game I need to get it together. I'm hoping I can motivate this tribe into playing extremely hard for the immunity wins because who freaking knows what could happen? In the best case scenario, I would love for immunity to be brought to my tribe. This would mean that for the next round the target would probably remain the same, and I don't have to get so worked up about who is the new target of the tribe.

https://youtu.be/qsjQtYfiCec <- Video Confessional; Not letting me post

Editors note - I think I’m 80% sure my name’s not going around Bc I think everyone’s under the impression I got us the win for the flag making? Big shrug

Damn this twist has really screwed things. At this point in the game I have some strong (I think) alliances. I'm worried that I have put a target on my back for playing too hard though, and it might be all for not if we find out we won immunity.

https://youtu.be/RR4BRMFKjDU <- Another video confessional that won’t embed lol

What the fuck is this twist like okay sure, tumblr survivor is generally fucking stressful like a pig getting choked im always trying to gasp for air.....this season i am the pig on the spit roast just deceased. I'm a nocturnal pig throughout this game i guess because tribal planning starts like 6 hours ish before tribal and the last 2 hours is the most important and that would be from 4-10am so no sleep for the weak i came to win

https://youtu.be/sarbjplslHk <- Another video confessional that won’t embed

SO I think at the moment my closest allies are Tom & JJ which is a relief because I was intimidated by the two of them at first. The plan for now is to vote for David due to him being the most antisocial out of the bunch. He’s talked to me quite a bit actually but apparently he hasn’t talked to some of the others that much.

The first few days of this game has been really fun. I'm enjoying to get to know everybody, and just dicking off on tribe calls all the time. So far I've really enjoyed looking at Tom & Alex, they're definitely the tribal eye candy.

It seems as though I've gotten myself into a really cute alliance consisting of Alex, Jones, and Jules. A group I've definitely enjoyed talking to the most. I think it'll really work in my favor.

Tom is really fun to talk to, he's giving me truthful information on what planks have been good and bad in the idol search. Which is nice, but it might be a cultural thing, but I can't tell if he likes me or not!?? There's too much sarcasm in his voice.

Mo & Caeleb are really nice, they've both talked to me on a pretty shallow level so far, but I'm enjoying them a lot.

Evan, David, and Willow have been fairly MIA. Evan is on a vacation, so I'm impressed by how much he truly has been able to contribute to the tribe.

As far as the vote goes, I'm debating between Willow, and David. Alex, who I'd really like to work with, really is pushing for David to go home, but David is better at comps, and a less dangerous social player, he hasn't talked to anyone. Whereas Willow is being a social butterfly in everyone's PMs. Seeing that she made runner up in one of her seasons is also a little bit scary.

This twist is scary, but considering my last ORG, its exciting. I felt like my downfall was not being able to forge game relationships with people because I was the last person to attend tribal. Winning every tribal immunity all the way up to the final 13 / 21. Once the merge hit, every time I tried to talk strategy, the person I was talking with would run, and tattle to the person I was trying to target instead of listening to what I was saying, because they had forged game relationships at prior tribal. Being forced to go to tribal regardless of the outcome of immunity should help me solidify game relationships much easier.

I have one question for the twist. WTF DREW???

Right as we found out that both tribes had to go to tribal, Evan was immediately concerned that his name was being thrown out. The boy needs to calm, but I think our connection is really strong and honestly he's fun to talk to. Today though, most people I have been talking to have said David which is perfectly fine, he barely had talked to me at all so I am happy to be a tribe player and vote him tonight if nothing changes. I think people are starting to make connections all around. I really like Willow and have like an on and off thing with Mo and Jules. Tom is the first person to let me in on the vote, and JJ said he'd work with me and not vote me tonight, BUT Tom and JJ and Jones are always in the calls and that's making me nervous they'll have a longterm close bond that could be disastrous if it turns into a Monica, Jervase, Tyson type thing. Also I don't fully trust JJ he's good at talking to everyone. I have my eyes and ears open and I'm just trying to get as much information as I can at this point in the game.

okay I have thoughts and they are 100% NEGATIVE.

so dua lipa cave can CHOKE, i hate this twist so muchhhhh, its gonna give me an aneurysm. I just feel bad, I don't like voting people out and this makes the process so weird and awkward.

Okay like tonight, Madeline is... seemingly going home? And I'm so so sad, she is super sweet, but I think everyone was reluctant to throw out names except Jared who was super, super gung ho about Madeline leaving? Jared is stressing me out akjsldfaf, he is so forward and aggressive as a player, and I can kind of see him burning out and dragging me down with him asdfklaf.

Otherwise, I'm really liking working with Julia, she is super fun and a really savvy player, I hope our alliance can do super good long term! Otherwise, Benj is SUCH A KING, he is so friendly and fun, and we are like really on the same page for game stuff? Those are the only two who its not negotiable, on my watch they are going NOWHERE.

for the rest? I really like Jason, he is just super mellow, like I think if I had to make a winner pick for the season, I'd probably say him? I vibe with him on a personal level woo, could be an ally down the line. Michael I tbh expected to maybe be first boot, but he seems to have unexpected connections! I really like him tho, he is super sweet, its no biggie that he is staying? Mitch/Ian kind of fall into the same category, I really like them but I've not spoken to them... all that much, but I really like them!! Noah I really haven't spoken to too much, and if we do go to tribal tonight, I'd probs want him to go next (Mitch also threw his name out for this round, so it seems I'm not alone on that?).

I feel REALLY REALLY bad about Madeline JKLSADFLSAJFA, like already our tribe is being meninist we do not stan, but also she is so nice. I feel bad and kind of blame Jared for her going grrrr.

Okay I'm gonna wrap this up, hope we don't go to tribal tonight, Madeline stays and we WIN till merge WOO WOO WOOOOOO!

omg also julia is already at #46 for the idol her MIND! i hope she gets it, that'd be iconic. I feel like she must be working with someone to get that far already, maybe Jason? like the host, i need to (nancy) drew and investigate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRd_z6-ycno <- another non embeded video confessional uwu

Lol idk where this girl came from but Madeline’s a mess.

She vanished after the twist reveal because her “WiFi getting shit down” then suddenly she’s strong arming me to vote Mitch

Sweaty, compared to you I’ve actually interacted with Mitch over the course of this 4 days unlike you.

She claims she’s got Julia, Jason and Noah but I know where they’re really at. If we are going to tribal Madeline’s gone!!

okay tribal is (maybe?) in 6 minutes and I have THOUGHTS:

1. Madeline is make me so nervous, she like says things in the tribe chat and its like AHH idk how to respond, I'm being so obviously shady and its INCREDIBLY clear I voted for her, but idk what to do or say asdkjflsafafjdaf

2. Benj is a king, we are like... on the same page a lot, and someone I wanna go super far with!

3. Madeline gunning for Mitch is weird because... she is targetting him for past placements, when... Ian literally made FTC twice akjsdfslafsa like wut? Also I am screaming at her like saying Mitch isn't denying that she is going home in the tribechat, when she is voting him? I'MMMMMM

4. If I go home, it's been super super fun, and first boot is a cute placement! Benj & Jason have both been first boot before, and I love 'em both, so am joining a great club!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgF_VAczF2g <- Another non embeded video confessional

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minghoy · 5 years

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Biggest Loser

The office did a 'Biggest Loser' contest the first quarter of 2019, right after Christmas. I caught the tail end of it this month when I re-joined the workforce, people walking around talking loud about how they've lost a kilogram or horrified mumbling about how they've gained a pound—a whole pound!—and today they announced the winners, two teams that collectively lost 9.78% and 7.23% of "body percentage." I think they mean body fat percentage, though I can't be sure. Maybe someone lost a limb. A kidney. Their appendix. Something they won't miss very much but is worth less than the cash the 'Piggy Wiggy Team' won for second place.

That's what they called themselves, The Piggy Wiggy Team. As if joining an office Biggest Loser contest wasn't humiliating enough. Anyone who's over an 18 BMI I've noticed likes to make other people very aware that they're aware they're a little goopier around the waist than they should be. I do it, too. A lot. As if we get points for self-awareness. I think there's this fear of not being in on the joke, and if you're laughing at yourself the same time as everyone else is, then maybe you're less of a punchline. You've got comedic ownership. You know, like, "I meant to do that." I meant to eat all that food. I meant to get this fat.

Anyway, an office Biggest Loser, as if offices aren't toxic enough cesspools in which eating disorders breed like petri dish viruses. Ditto schools. Ditto everywhere else. This is just the world we live in. The setting. Now the plot, the characters: the office Biggest Loser, and the woman I heard purging in the bathroom stall today, a woman on team Piggy Wiggy—beautiful, stylish, overall pretty classy and bougie, well-to-do, and apparently from an old-rich family, one of the five families that were here when this city mushroomed out of the sea.

She's in her mid-thirties. Let's call her Miss L. Miss L's one of the women the younger girls call "titas"—a group of women who torture themselves with keto diets and trendy fasts, who do yoga every other day and have motivational quotes in their cubicles, loud laughs, big hair. They love themselves. They want you to know they love themselves as they gorge on cake, pizza, garlic bread on birthday-month team feeds, and then always have cake in their cubicles for some reason, and they grab at anything that gets passed around the office, free or otherwise, with a hunger that I recognize in myself. So of course it's gross to me. It's horrific. It's like staring at your reflection at the bottom of a deep, dark well.

Our office has this quasi-open workspace thing going on: one wide floor but cubicles and wall-to-wall depression-blue carpet, blank white walls that reflect the depression-blue, and six windows that are never open. Sometimes it gets so loud I can't hear myself think. Even if I put headphones and brown noise on, I can still sense the conversations and the whine of workday stress going on around me, which is like tinnitus but with words. That's when I take my book and sit on the toilet for a while. It's quiet in there, and the people who clean it do a very good job of it, and there's even a nice green plant so it's this oasis of quiet in the middle of the workday if I can't get away from work for more than five minutes. (I get why people have beautiful bathrooms in their homes now. One day I'm going to have a beautiful bathroom with white tiles, a window, and a writing desk.)

I heard Miss L walk in, and then the gagging started, then that chunky, gloopy splash of solid food that's become so familiar and dear to me it sends a frisson of recognition through my spine so strong it makes me want to hurl, too. Except I haven't done that in a month. (There's a sign on my forehead: It's been 27 days since our last episode. This soon changes to 0 days, barely two weeks later, after I ill-advisedly weigh myself on a Friday night while I'm PMS-ing.)

I sit and listen to her purge. I listen to her purge. This woman is purging. I have this really vivid daydream about about kicking the door in and holding her head in the toilet to teach her a tough-love lesson about self-love. I imagine that I'm not sitting here and really I'm the one purging and someone else is listening to me purge. Listening to her purge is making me dissociate, and I can't sit here anymore so I flush the toilet to announce that someone else is there and get up to wash my hands. I wash my hands. She's sitting in there, trying to be quiet. She shuffles her feet.

How many times have I been this woman? I spent a lot of time getting acquainted with the toilets at the last office I worked in. This was at the height of my bulimia, when I was bingeing and purging two, maybe three times a day at work. McDonald's, corner store bread, cookies and milk, the latter so much that I developed a sensitivity to dairy and caffeine, which sucks because I love dairy and caffeine. My cheeks were always swollen. My eyes were always red. I was always in a shit mood. I didn't think anybody noticed, but of course they did, and when I finally told K, an ex-coworker, about what was then my bulimia, she said she guessed that I was doing something like that in there, and that she wasn't sure what to do—if she should talk to me about it or not.

(You can bet she talked about it with other people, though.)

Like most people beset by eating disorders, my complicated relationship with food started when I was very young. My grandmother and my great aunt expressed their love with food, and food shut me up when I was throwing tantrums and being a generally shitty, angry little kid and when I was a shitty, angry teenager. It shuts me up as a shitty, angry young adult, except these days I'm starting to understand that I'm probably trying to fill up a different kind of void. Not that knowing why you do something makes it easier not to do it.

My partner, who in my eyes is the most understanding and intelligent person in the world, doesn't get why people do things that upset them. I wish I had an satisfying answer for why binge eaters binge eat, or why anorexics can't just eat a burger and be okay with it, or why drug addicts keep doing drugs even after they've ruined their lives and alienated themselves from their entire families because of them.

If it were that simple, the economy would crumble. Self-help magnates and motivational speakers would be out of jobs. The diet industry would vanish into thin (ha) air. Every marketer in the world would starve.

The ugly truth is that like most people, and like Miss L, I'm probably always going to be dieting, always going to be trying to lose weight, always going to be unhappy with the way I look, am, feel, etc., and even if I were to recover from my eating disorder I know there'd be times where the angry baby brain-monster tantrums in its cage and kicks up such a fuss it's easier to just give it what it wants rather than to sit there and endure the noise.

I don't know why there are so many of us like this, why we're so dissatisfied with ourselves.

If I were to find a purpose, if I were to find something else to obsess over, something that I cared about more than what I looked like, would I be able to forget about my obsession with food and the way I look? If Miss L, who's a mother and a career woman and in all other aspects successful still hasn't gotten over this obsession with food and looks, do I even stand a chance? Do any of us?

If this were a story I could give it some kind of resolution, or some kind of confrontation that has all the twanging of hope. Miss L and I could lock eyes on our way out of the bathroom stalls, exchanging looks that said, 'I see you. I understand. You're not alone.' In the real world we don't talk to each other unless we need to, and we hardly ever need to, and when I walk past her cubicle I try not to make eye contact because I'm afraid she might see that I know what she's doing when she ducks for another mouthful of the slice of carrot cake she keeps on top of her computer tower. I try not to listen to her talk to the other titas about "gaining all the weight back," and I don't say a word to her unless I need to. I don't make eye contact. I'm afraid she'll see the hunger in me, too.

#eating disorders #weight loss #weight loss competition #office biggest loser #biggest loser #diet culture

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atopearth · 6 years

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Shall we Date? Wizardess Heart Part 16 - Klaus Goldstein Sequel

Ooh so Klaus’ sequel is set two years later as they’re preparing for his graduation ceremony! Is this also the start of the change in art with the soft and fluffy tones since Al has appeared? Btw, it’s really cute how just like the heroine, Elias is kinda sad that Klaus is graduating as well, since he really wanted to strive to work hard and best him in the same place. Such a cute brother hahaha. Omggg I didn’t expect Klaus to be the one to instigate the exchanging of gifts (legend where if a graduate and a student exchange gifts, they’ll be together forever) and it’s even a handmade star-shaped lantern!! It’s so beautiful and sweet of him! Dangg, it even has a magical stone in it that shows all their memories together, like whaaaat, that’s the best present ever, Klaus is so thoughtful, I would cry loll. He even called her beautiful, Klaus is so honest😍 I’m loving this route already, Klaus is so honest about his feelings of uncertainty as well since they’ve always been together in this academy for two years, so just like her, he’s also sad that they won’t be able to be together every day anymore, so he wants to give her that lantern so whenever she’s sad about that, she can think about all those memories they’ve shared together.

Seeing the heroine confidently use her magic alongside Klaus to fight the Chimera was really cool, made me happy to see that she has truly grown as a person and as a wizardess. The present she gave Klaus in exchange was perfect. Not only is it a rare and beautiful crystal flower, but the petals also reflect their memories from her perspective, and thus with the two presents combined together, their memories are perfect, whatever one can’t remember, the other will, they really are such wonderful presents. Looking forward to Klaus finishing his Ministry of Wizardry training and becoming a professor~ So cute that the flower means eternal love as well~~ Btw, Taffy crying and saying congratulations to Randy graduating is the funniest and cutest thing ever lmao. What?! The headmaster is leaving the academy too?!

Kinda crazy to think that after Klaus graduated, the heroine actually became top of her class and has new freshmen reading her the thesis on speaking to plants and animals saying they want to be a great wizardess like her lol. Although I have to say, the heroine is a great wizardess now because she studied hard and put in a lot of work and effort, but we’ve also got to remember that her latent magical powers etc are very strong as well, in a sense, she probably fails a lot because she didn’t know how to control her powerful magic. So really, her situation is special and maybe different from these freshmen, but oh well, guess it’s good to give them hope that hard work solves everything too. I mean, you’ve gotta at least have hope that you can improve and change.

Wow that the heroine can apply for an advanced graduation exam for her to graduate early. Guess she really does want to catch up to Klaus as much as she can so they can be on the same level. Well, the headmaster said he’d teach her everything he knows about magical creatures so I guess she’ll be very capable in the future~ It was obvious that Klaus would be the new professor-in-training at the academy but it was kinda cute that he wanted to surprise her so he didn’t tell her and instead kinda hinted it to her when she wanted him to tell her through the phone that he loves her, but he said he’d rather tell her in person haha, silly heroine. Not surprised that Klaus suddenly appearing would cause her to be distracted and mess up her magic spell haha. Even the most capable wizards mess up every now and then XD

Tbh, I’m not that impressed with the heroine wanting to be a professor, not because it’s not a good profession but because it seems more like she’s doing it just to be with Klaus. She’s supposedly smart, can achieve a lot of things and had a dream but I feel like she’s kinda compromising just to be with him. It’s true that the path you choose can change and what you initially wanted to do may be different from what you choose to do as a career, but I don’t feel like she’s ever been really interested in teaching others. I feel like it’s more one of those, I can do it, I can spend time with Klaus and be on the same wavelength since we’ll be doing similar things so why not. Oh well, it was pretty cute when he kissed her when she thought they won’t have the chance to be intimate since he’s a professor in training and he even suggested about going further soon hahaha.

Also, considering that the heroine has the gifted ability to talk to animals, it’s such a waste for her to not be like a vet and take care of animals etc. Just because she could successfully teach one student doesn’t mean she’s good at teaching a whole class, but whatever lol (why am I still whining hahaha). I can’t believe the chimera was capable of stealing Klaus’ magical power, now he’s just another human that cannot use magic? How can that be… Klaus is so strong to think that he won’t give up on his dream of becoming a professor and that instead he’ll be a professor at a normal academy. He really does like this job, huh? Defeating the chimera may restore his magic back to him, huh, if I was the heroine, I’d try and take it down too, regardless of the consequences. It’s nice that Vincent told Elias to watch over her, knowing that she’d probably go and fight the chimera, but Elias after all is Klaus’ brother! He’s always admired and acknowledged how great Klaus is and has always believed that he’ll achieve great things, so how could he not go along with the heroine and take the risk to get his magic back? Klaus is very gifted and very smart, he’s still so young as well! He’s got a great future up ahead of him, so really, you can’t blame them for risking their lives to do this for him. Good thing is that two people are always better than one, so at least now, they can watch out for each other :)

I think it was really cool to see that despite losing his magic, Klaus can still fight with a sword alongside Elias and the heroine. Not sure what the chimera meant by it’ll take their most precious possession but they’ve won for now so yay? Her memories? Is that her most important thing? The good thing about the heroine losing her memory though is that now we can see Klaus chasing her instead of her always chasing Klaus hahaha. I think it’ll be nice to see. I always love how great of a friend Amelia is though, to cry over the fact that her memories are gone but also be positive enough that no matter what, their friendship will remain the same because the heroine is who she is even without her memories of the past two years she came to this academy. Even if you can’t remember, those feelings still remain with you, so it’ll be okay. It’s kinda like a walk down memory lane of Klaus’ route and it feels so nostalgic and heartwarming to reminisce about it all~

Klaus’ declaration of love was so sweet and touching. When he said that he didn’t want anyone else but her and when he told her that even if she were to never remember or if she were to fall out of love with him, he still would never give up and continue to love her, it really made my heart warm to see him care so much. The lantern and the flower really were the perfect gifts for the both of them, huh? Best way for her to recover her memories XD Lmao at Schuyler saying that he’ll probably never see a student as bad as she was and become as good as she became hahahah.

It was really nice of Klaus and Elias to gather all the guys and Amelia to have a makeshift graduation ceremony for the heroine (since early graduations don’t have ceremonies). Really goes to show how many bonds she’s made and how many people are fond of her. Aww, Klaus proposed to her with a diamond ring! Sweet! Lmao when the guys noticed and the first thing Randy asks is how many layers will their wedding cake be🤣🤣 And after many years, she and Klaus are both respected professors with students coming to this school because of them~

Overall, I enjoyed this route. Klaus was sweet, cute and kind and I guess we could finally see more of Klaus’ feelings and how much he loves the heroine and hopes to walk towards the future with her. Also cool to see that she’s caught up with him and that even though she shows the most affection, you can tell that Klaus loves her just as much. It was a nice little sequel to see how highly Klaus regards her in his life and a very sweet story I guess hahaha.

#wizardess heart

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worldwrestlingfanatic · 6 years

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Classic Review: Royal Rumble 2006

This is definitely a "spur of the moment" idea for me to review. I have no idea what brought me to wanna watch and review this pay-per-view. As I'm watching the intro while typing this I dont remember any of the feuds or big matches going into this event so I've got an open mind going into the pay-per-view.

Kid Kash (C) vs. Funaki vs. Jamie Noble vs. Nunzio vs. Paul London vs. Gregory Helms

This match feels so weird. A match name so complicated and long I didn't even bother including it in this review, its pretty much just a six man free for all with the first person to score a pinfall or submission winning the match. To me it kinda just feels like around this time the cruiserweight title picture didn't have much going on but WWE still wanted to include all these guys so they were just all put together last minute to make this match. A few quick notes, Jamie Noble looks a bit odd to me in any attire other than jean shorts and it's insane to me how Paul London wasn't better utilized. Hes easily my favorite in this match and arguably the most talented. That being said, Paul London did attempt a shooting star press off the top rope into the crowd of opponents and he kinda just missed everyone and landed face first on the outside of the ring. Another quick note, does anyone actually remember Kid Kash or anything he did in WWE? I knew of him before watching this but other than this match I can't name anything he did during his time with the WWE. Gregory Helms ended up winning by pinning Funaki. The cruiserweight championship, a smackdown exclusive title was won by a Raw superstar. Not only that but he kinda had the lowest amount of impact in this match. He hit a neck breaker on Paul London off the top rope but other than that he was kind of a nonfactor. Last quick note, on commentary they mentioned that Gregory Helms used to be the Hurricane. That's crazy to me, that's like if WWE referred to Stardust as Cody Rhodes. Weird way to start the show. Not boring, not overly exciting, just... weird.

Odd Rant: I dont typically speak on backstage segments in these reviews but watching Vince McMahon interact/touch on the "Divas" was pretty uncomfortable to witness, I feel the further I go back to do these reviews, the more common stuff like this is going to be and I'm not looking forward to it. But in this same segment we got to see a young Randy Orton and that's always great.

Mickie James vs. Ashley - Special Referee - Trish Stratus

Ah yes, the storyline of unrequited love between Mickie James and Trish Stratus. Not too sure what role Ashley plays in this storyline but I'm guessing it isn't because she was super over with the fans at the time considering the crowd was pretty silent as Ashley made her way to the ring. I was confused seeing Trish be the special referee of this match since at the time she was the womans champion. Just odd to see a champion at a ppv with her championship but not defending her title. Mickie James gets the win and immediately tries to celebrate with/hug Trish but was just met with Trish not wanting anything to do with her. Neither Mickie or Ashley were really.... the greatest wrestler at this point in their careers to say the least.

Odd Rant: its increasingly getting more uncomfortable to watch Vince interact with the "Divas". If we're going to keep cutting here between matches I'm pretty worried how far these segments will go

JBL vs. The Boogeyman

The man who ate worms for real for the sake of the character who gave me creeps as a kid taking on the corrupt wall street millionaire. Wrestling has certainly given me plenty to talk about over the years. I cant even imagine how people who faced the Boogeyman planned for these matches. "Oh you're going to spit a worm into my mouth at this point in the match, okay sounds good". The Boogeyman was more entertainer than wrestler. A guy that wasn't very diverse when it came to in ring talent and was very reliant on his gimmick to get him over. Boogeyman wins in a pretty uneventful match. His finishing move was a pump handle slam and just one was enough to put away JBL which is odd because I've seen this man bleed buckets in an I quit match against John Cena so I guess Boogeyman and his pump handle slam was just that damn strong.

Royal Rumble Match

Weird that the selling point for this pay-per-view takes place less than half way through the event but like I said, I don't know any of the matches going into this show so maybe they just have a big main event planned. As I'm watching I'm now a little more than half way and this certainly isn't a very star studded rumble match. Out of the 17 entrants so far the only notable superstars have been Triple H, Rey Mysterio, Big Show, Kane, Chris Benoit and Bobby Lashley. Not even surprising returning legends its just been some mid carders who aren't too great and jobbers like Simon Dean. RVD now comes in at number 20, hopefully this is a sign of things starting to pick up. Matt Hardy is now being dry humped by Viscera in the middle of the ring and before I could even finish typing that sentence Viscera eliminates Matt Hardy. I just felt that was a notable highlight to add. Now that I've seen all the entrants I feel like I can now fully discuss the match since I already know the winner. Rey Mysterio wins if you don't know. The lack of star power in this match caused really legitimate possible winners to be a bit of a short list. It's very disappointing that it took the death of Eddie Guerrero for WWE to give Rey Mysterio a title run. A pretty forgetful title run but a title run nonetheless. The match wasn't really much to talk about until we hit the final five. I do wanna add that I appreciate that this match was also treated as a Raw vs. Smackdown event. I mean, it was everyone for themselves but on commentary they frequently added who in the match currently was on which brand, which makes sense because Raw and Smackdown are competing against each other and whenever theres a match where superstars from both brands are present, on commentary at least, it should be treated as a competition. Just something I wish WWE would do more of today, I hated when Raw was just one big "supershow" I prefer the brand split, but that's a different topic for a different time. Overall the match did feel like a bit of a chore to get through but in the grand scheme of things I did appreciate the story they told of Rey Mysterio overcoming all odds with the deck stacked against him to make good on his promise that he dedicated a victory to his best friend, Eddie Guerrero.

Edge (C) vs. John Cena

John Cena came to the ring in what Joey Styles called a "Spaceship Catwalk" and I cant really think of a better name for whatever this was so I'll just go with that. Cena isn't even the champion and he got a wrestlemania style special entrance and Edge didn't. It was such an odd touch, could've went without it but at least it looked cool I guess. Edge was such an absolute heat magnet, he knew what to do and what to say at all times to make the crowds boo him it was a bit of disappointment to see Edge drop the title in this match. I understand that in the long run Cena winning was probably the smarter move but if their plan all along was to send Cena to wrestlemania as champion I wish they didn't tease us with an Edge title run. I mean, in 2006 everytime Edge won the title, he beat Cena to get it and everytime he lost it, it was to Cena. Edge had a nice title run as world heavyweight champion on smackdown years later but in relation to this event, that smackdown title reign felt like it was an eternity away. If nothing else this WWE title run turned Edge from a midcarder to a main event talent and he was deserving of it. All in all, I just wish Edge had a more lengthy run with the title instead of losing it in a month after being the first superstar to cash in money in the bank.

Kurt Angle (C) vs. Mark Henry

Listen, I get it, Mark Henry is a cool guy, but he isn't really an amazing athlete. Maybe its just me but I've never been able to get behind anything Mark Henry has been apart of, besides the hall of pain storyline but doesn't have for another few years. I don't know the story going into this match or the full smackdown roster at the time but I just feel like this match shouldn't have main evented. After seeing that this was the match they picked to go on last I wish they would have just saved the royal rumble to be the main event, they would've sent the crowd home happy with Rey Mysterio winning. I know we got a surprise Undertaker return at the end and that made people excited but looking back, Undertaker vs. Mark Henry at wrestlemania wasn't really all that great. Kurt Angle is fantastic but he cant carry everyone to a good match. Angle retains but other than that there just isn't too much to say about this match, it was slow paced and just didn't pack any real punch for me.

I cant really make a pros and cons list for this event, nothing was overwhelming entertaining and nothing was offensively bad. It was just a pretty "meh" event. Rey Mysterio won the royal rumble and Kurt Angle did an interview that made me laugh a little bit before his match and those are the highlights for me. The real lowlights I guess would be just how underwhelming this event was and how bland everything felt. Say what you want, I love womans wrestling today but watching the story progress between Mickie James and Trish Stratus was mildly entertaining too. I'm really reaching here.

2/5

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dekuthedork · 6 years

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Au where Izuku is dead/gone before yuuei/doesn’t exist/etc

- another kid in class 1A to fill the class, likely someone from 1b?

- Mineta expelled

- Yaomomo is class president, iida vice.

- tsuyu alone in USJ and gets hurt. Alternatively, she's with the main group, assists in getting iida out, and help comes sooner

- Aizawa likely to get more severely injured in the attack

- All might slightly stronger than canon*, gets rid of noumu slightly quicker. no Izuku=it's kinda moot

- *assuming he hasn't passed OFA on. He's kinda pushing it.

- The class as a whole lacks the "worst wonder duo" + their 'dynamic' to push them forward = less drive for sports festival

- no rival for todo, no todo development, no fire. Rip.

- (oh trauma ?)

- Either Baku or todo would've won the first round. Probs baku.

- = different teams. (At least slightly.)

- Hatsume might not have made it to third round = less advertisement opportunity for her babies n career

- Baku still wins. Less development for the boy

- Iida dies. Or, if he's fuckin lucky(?) he is permanently injured/physically disabled. Ouch.

- again, trauma. and less character development and also end of the ingenium name

- Uh, definite eventual class 1a shinsou, except it's REALLY FUCKIN SAD AND NO ONES VERY HAPPY

- Exams: baku and sero probs put together? Idk I have to think about the matchups more. they aren’t super important for overall plot, just individual development..

- Depending on the au (did Deku ever exist, did something diff happen to prevent him from meeting all m and getting OFA, is it a ‘sludge villain killed him’ au, is it an au where he decided on smth else he wanted to do, was there a katsuki-izuku (healthy) friendship before he didn’t go to UA, etc) baku's character is gonna be different to some degree. Bc no matter what, no Izuku at Yuuei = different baku.

- Izuku inarguably drives baku’s character development to some degree, so bkg develops less.

- Ojiro and shinsou work together in the exam, if shinsou gets in 1-a early

- (IDK ABOUT THE MYSTERY KID OK THEYRE COMPLETELY HYPOTHETICAL AND MAY HAVE CALLED IT QUITS AFTER THIS SEMESTER OF HELL AT YUUEI, OR ARE FROM 1B IN WHICH CASE IDK WHO THEY ARE)

- shopping occurs, shigaraki probs shows up, may or may not make contact. No major repercussions apart from possible paranoia for class 1a. Depending on why Izuku Isn't There, baku might be present at shops.

- OH YEAH THIS MEANS TODO WONT SEE HIS MUM AGAIN DD:

- Asbsjksjilrwf at this point this is. Getting very canon divergent but at the training camp they'd probs get baku + tokoyami and also maybe kill Izumi DDD:

- Very canon divergent by this point, uh.. AFO vs OFA fight goes differently, All M is at least a little stronger (bc whether or not he has given away OFA, it would've been done later, and he wouldve strained him less/less often, hence at least a bit more power?) Baku might get more caught up in it all.

- More trauma for Bakugou and less character development! :/

- If a 1A group still went to rescue 'em without Deku, well.

- I feel like shinsou and or the mystery kid (if they hung around ua after All That Bullshit) would be there, maybe. Kiri would definitely wanna go. Todo might not bc the alley shit never happened. Iida is dead/injured, so he's not there. Yaomomo might go? Who knows lol

- baku, regardless of most of the variables, would 100% feel WORSE than in canon.

- All Might might still have his tru form revealed, but either way he'll be injured and it'll be sad

- By this point the changes will be huge and I can't really guess exactly what would happen.

- I think less students would pass the provisional licence exam, and the eri rescue arc would end with eri going without rescue.

- Assuming no one goes thru the necessary sequence of decisions and has the right timing like Izuku, the cultural festival would be cancelled thanks to gentle n la brava, who’d consequently both be arrested.

- Endeavor redemption/him realising he’s shit n trying to be less shit would happen different bc of todo’s stage of development, and his noumu fight would prolly end Worse.

- BASICALLY, NO SUNSHINE CHILD = NO HAPPINESS FOR ANYONE

- BASICALLY IZUKU IS KEY TO THE CONTINUED HAPPINESS OF ALL YOUR BELOVED BNHA CHARACTERS

thx for coming 2 my ted talk

#bnha #mha #izuku midoriya #midoriya izuku #long post #i made this ages ago n briefly read over it it may not b v accurate but anyway #i post things

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fadedtoblue · 7 years

Text

Overall thoughts on Jessica Jones S2

So how about that S2 huh? I finished it Sunday night but found that I really needed to take some time to sit and try to destruct all of the emotions I had over it. A good conversation with a friend the other morning helped me get a better grasp on my feelings regarding this season. Specific thoughts below the cut...

Clearly this season has been a divisive one amongst the fans...mostly that it imploded a lot of things / characters who were well loved and didn’t live up to what it was in S1 -- to a certain extent that might be true. I’ll say that I understood what they were trying to do with this season but I don’t think they were able to bring it altogether with the execution. Nothing wrong with trying to do something different but when the final product doesn’t feel like the best outcome, it’s difficult to not be disappointed. Anyway, I’ll try to break down what I liked and didn’t like.

The good stuff:

Seeing these characters in this world again. Coming off of Defenders, I was most intrigued to see Jess, Trish, and Malcolm and well, if that’s what you’re looking for you get it in SPADES. Everyone plays a crucial part in season 2.

Character driven stories to the max. If you enjoy character driven stories, then you’re in luck, as this is essentially the majority of JJS2. Any of the good stuff that happens is purely on the character level -- whether’s it’s shading in more sides of Jessica’s personality and messy internal conflicts, or showing Trish’s steady and frustrating decline, or introducing new side characters to drive home the crux of each character’s central conflict...this is where the show really made sure to take their time. Everyone has their own moment to drive the narrative forward, though some are able to do it with more purpose than others.

Exploring new relationship dynamics. This will probably also end up being in the bad category lol, but generally speaking, I liked that they tried to show our primary characters in dynamics that felt different from last season. It made me feel like the world had continued moving, and the characters were growing, which was cool. And I realize I may be in the minority but I actually ended up liking Alisa and the surprise twist that she was Jessica’s mom actually worked for me?? I wasn’t sure what they were doing with her, as I found her to be frustratingly one-note when they first introduced her -- like, okay, she’s just going around killing people involved with IGH? What’s the point? But the reveal that she was actually Jessica’s mom made it all click for me. Sure, it still skirted the line a bit between drama and flat out soap opera but I think this was one of my favorite new dynamics. It was a hot mess in a lot of the moments, and it really shouldn’t have been one of the main drivers of conflict in this season, but I’m sympathetic to the messed up mother / daughter connection and seeing Jessica fall apart and not know what the hell to do about this woman.

Malcolm. Special shout out to Malcolm who was truly the MVP of this season. He also goes through his own shit but he is probably the one who manages to come out of it in better shape than he went in. It was sad that the trust was so broken by the end between him, Jess, and Trish, but I think he needed to mature beyond the naive idealist who idolizes Jessica and find his own footing.

The bad stuff:

Too much character focus, not enough of anything else. They threw a LOT our way for all of the characters. Jess dealing with her family’s deaths. Jess dealing with her trauma at IGH. Jess dealing with her relationships with Trish and Malcolm going down the shitter. Jess going apeshit on the competition and going on probation and to anger management. Jess dealing with her mom being alive and being a scary ass murderer. And oh wait, Jess also randomly kills a guard and has a dissociative episode where she imagines Kilgrave around every corner. And this is just Jess! It’s incredible that for all of the things I listed, which I think worked in that they contributed to Jessica’s gradual breakdown over the season, it really felt as if we were treading water most of the time narratively. Because every time something bad happened, or she made a bad decision, or whatever...nothing happened. Nothing got really resolved or truly broken until the end of the season. And the thing is, I 100% track with why Jessica keeps flip flopping around. I absolutely see that she’s barely hanging on and she literally can’t deal with it all and especially WHY she can’t deal with it. But it could have been more to the point and still driven us to larger, more important story details. This feeling of nothing happening also applied to Trish, who had a story line I appreciated on paper -- showing just how hard a person can spiral downward, especially someone who used to be an addict and now isn’t just dealing with street drugs, but ridiculous power-inducing shit -- but my god, this woman has this awful fall off the wagon, pretty much blows up her life, career, relationships, also nearly dies in her quest to gain powers from the mad doctor, but still manages to bounce back enough to snipe Alisa with a handgun from 50 feet and deal with zero consequences. I’m not going to list out every storyline for every character, but while these character building moments work to a point, the lack of balance and payoff make for difficult TV watching. Also Jeri’s storyline started out intriguing when there was still a connection to IGH but once that went out the window, it just felt like it should have been on another show altogether.

Too many plot contrivances. This was a point of conversation I had with my friend and like, nothing wrong with plot contrivances to create moments for our characters to DO something but I think a better written show could have created these moments more naturally. And maybe the problem was that some of these moments felt contrived because things were getting dragged out and it was hard to ignore the moments when they happened.

Bad overall plotting of the storylines. So the weird thing is that I pretty much got why everything happened the way it did. But literally every storyline could have been condensed by 2-3 episodes. It was as if this stubborn dedicated to driving the story purely by character also meant to the writers that they needed to slowly draw out each detail and reveal. No, not really. With each delaying tactic that kept us from getting to the next point in the story, it killed any momentum that was starting to build up. I have no expectations that JJ should be an action driven show, but if you’re going to go full tilt into the psychological slow burn, there has to be a balance somewhere. If it’s not going to be some overarching villain, then it should be a better mystery. You know?

Lack of payoff with IGH. Listen, I don’t know what’s up with TPTB and if there’s something preventing these creative teams from writing compelling shadow organizations or whatever, but we’re 0/2 now and that’s so majorly disappointing. To find out that IGH was ultimately just one somewhat well-intentioned dude who got a little carried away with human experimentation...really?! That was something that majorly deflated my sails as it could have been exactly the kind of grounded connective thread that could’ve being pulled across all four shows. This is where the separate but connected universe really bites these shows in the ass because obviously, they all exist in the same time and place and share characters but because they also need to stand as individual shows and be able to pursue their own creative agenda, the choices made by one show inevitably affect the others show that could’ve used IGH.

Random stuff:

As much as Tennant’s Kilgrave (and his crazy good screen presence) was missed, I think it was ultimately the right choice to keep him limited to an episode. My husband was griping about how they could have integrated Kilgrave’s over the shoulder taunting throughout the whole season instead of saving it for the end, but I disagreed. The way they set up his reappearance made a lot of narrative sense to me -- that her accidentally killing the guard, on top of the incredible stress she’s under to take care of everyone’s shit, is what makes her temporarily dissociate and conjure up this vision of Kilgrave. The shtick would have gotten old quickly if he’d be present the whole season, and it would have severely undercut her progress from last season, at least the aspect where she was able to face her abuser and take back her life. I guess you could have done some version of PTSD and that’s why he’s in her head, but I think it would have been a distraction.

Trish is an interesting pickle for me. I am not that emotionally invested in her as a character so for me, the shift in direction doesn’t devastate me as much as it seems to have done for a lot of people I know. And honestly, I think the point of her storyline was to make her this awful and unlikeable. There was already a kernel of the competition and jealousy that existed in her relationship with Jess, but her idealism and compassion for her sister usually won out. And I think it’s also worth noting that she was already pushing Jessica’s boundaries way too hard, even before she falls off the wagon, but obviously falling back into drugs exacerbated a lot of the things that were already lurking under the surface. Also, I don’t think I was even bothered by the fact she’s the one who killed Jessica’s mom, but as I briefly alluded to earlier, it really bugs me that she didn’t reap the full consequences of her season long arc, especially since she still gets to become Hellcat at the end. That being said, karma has a way of coming back and biting you in the ass. If Jeri had to reap the karma of her craptastic behavior of S1 this season, then I fully expect Trish to face it in S3. Ideally we’ll see her attempt to be the hero she’s always wanted to be and crash and burn in spectacular fashion. There’s a reason why our heroes are the heroes and while I don’t think it means Trish will never get to be a hero, being a hero for the wrong reasons doesn’t make you a hero. And this is a tough lesson that I really want to see Trish learn.

Alright, I think I covered most of it. Apologies for any errors, I try to edit my word vomit but I’ll usually miss something :p. And if you want to chat / vent about particulars, I’m all for it! Hit up my asks or send me a message!!

#jessica jones #trish walker #marvel's jessica jones #jj s2 #meta #my thoughts #p talks about stuff #jj spoilers #jessica jones spoilers

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