#off tv because... mysterious reasons in that a guy who claimed he's not injured is on the injury list somehow | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

macgyvermedical · 5 years

Text

An Environmental and Public Health Review of 1985 MacGyver’s “Bitter Harvest“

Let’s face it- everyone’s doing medical reviews these days. It’s about time someone realized that public health is in all your favorite TV shows, lurking in the background, just waiting to be reviewed...

And by favorite TV shows, I mean 1985 MacGyver. Cause damn could this show roll out the public health storylines.

If you haven’t seen the episode “Bitter Harvest”, its a pretty social justice heavy one:

Mac ends up stranded in a town of agricultural laborers who suspect that the company employing them is using unsafe pesticide applications in their vinyards, causing elevated rates of cancer, mystery illnesses, and birth defects. When a prominent figure in the community is killed over his workers’ rights protest, Mac decides to go undercover as one of the workers, finding that the company has been using an illegal plant growth regulator they suspect is behind the illnesses. The episode deals with issues of environmental and occupational health, worker’s rights, and the social determinants of health overall.

This post will cover all the public health related knowledge you can stand about the potentially illegal chemical application, the social determinants of health, and of course, the many, many, many times Mac gets sick or injured during his 4-day stay in Kasabian, CA.

Skip to “The Medical Review Part” if you’re just here to watch Mac suffer.

My previous MacGyver (2016 and 1985) reviews:

Awl - X-Ray + Penny - Duct Tape + Jack - CD + Hoagie Foil - Guts + Fuel + Hope - Wilderness + Training + Survival - Father + Bride + Betrayal - Lidar + Rogues + Duty - Nightmares - Seeds + Permafrost + Feather - Friends + Enemies + Border - Mason + Cable + Choices -

Note: listen, guys, I was really trying hard not to make this into another 3000-word post... but I did. This literally took me weeks to research and write. For ease of scrolling, I’ve put a read more here. Enjoy!

Agricultural Chemical Application

In the episode, residents of the town claim they’ve been illegally exposed to agricultural chemicals. Various characters tell stories of being forced to work in fields too soon after pesticide application, and of the illnesses or birth defects they and their children have suffered because of it.

The application of pesticides, fertilizers, and in certain cases plant growth regulators, are vital to modern agriculture operating at the scale necessary to support a nearly 8-billion-human planet. Due to the fact that many of these chemicals will eventually enter human bodies, great effort has been made over the last century to create chemicals that function to kill pests and increase crop yields while posing as little harm as possible to the humans who may also be exposed to them.

The episode features three very different agricultural chemicals- Captain, Methomyl, and 4-CPA. The first two, Captain and methomyl, are both pesticides. Pesticide is an umbrella term for any chemical that kills an unwanted animal (i.e. a rodenticide), insect (insecticide), fungus (fungicide), plant (herbicide), microbe (microbicide), or algae (algaecide). Pesticides are often necessary to control populations of animals and insects that would eat the crop, control fungus and algae that would spoil it, and control the growth of plants that would compete with the crop for nutrients.

Pesticides (and many other agricultural chemicals) are regulated in the US under a law called FIFRA- the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. FIFRA is enforced by the US EPA, who generally details where, when, how, and how much of an agricultural chemical can be used, as well as how much of any agricultural chemical can be left on the final crop (this is usually a very small amount).

Captain is a blend of copper-based microbicides and algaecides. Copper-based pesticides have been around since the 1700s. They’re used on almost every conventional food crop in some form to prevent fungal and bacterial infestation, as well as to prevent the growth of algae in standing water. Generally, they can be pretty irritating to eyes and skin and toxic if swallowed at high concentrations, but they’re pretty safe in the dilute amounts routinely used.

Methomyl is a carbamate insecticide. Many forms of insecticide, carbamates included, work because they prevent the breakdown of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine in the insect. This causes an overproduction of acetylcholine and the death of the bug. Since humans also produce and break down acetylcholine in a similar way, carbamates are also toxic to humans. In fact, they’re extremely similar to the chemical weapons known as nerve agents.

Why would we spray nerve agents on food? Well, carbamates and organophosphates (another similar pesticide) are actually pretty nonpersistant, meaning that they rapidly break down in the environment and become non-toxic long before the end consumer is exposed. This is good for humans, because it means we can spray them on food, kill the bugs, wait a certain amount of time, and then we can re-enter the fields or eat food without being poisoned.

Toward the beginning of the episode, Mac is knocked out and left in a field, where he is sprayed directly with some form of agricultural chemical. This leaves him generally weak and coughing for the rest of the episode. While never really explained, if I were to give my best guess as to what was sprayed on him based on what is shown in the episode, methomyl would be it.

Weakness, coughing, nausea/vomiting/diarrhea, excessive salivation, sweating, blurred vision, and constricted pupils are all symptoms of exposure to carbamates, organophosphates, and their earlier and significantly more persistent (and therefore toxic) cousins the organochlorines. Fortunately for Mac, acute (one-time) exposures to carbamates like this don’t tend to have long-term consequences once the person recovers.

The last chemical mentioned in the episode was 4-CPA, referred to in the episode as “fix”. 4-CPA is a plant growth regulator (basically a synthetic plant hormone) that restricts root development in some plants and increases fruit yield in others. In the episode it’s treated like it’s some super toxic, illegal pesticide that would be outrageous and reckless to use on your grape crop. In reality, it’s not really dangerous to humans at all (it can be irritating to skin and eyes, but its non-cancer-causing, non-birth-defect-causing, and generally not even that acutely toxic), and the US uses so little of it as a country (about 20lbs total per year) that just in quantity it’s probably not a threat to the general environment either.

At the time of the episode 4-CPA was only approved for use on tomatoes and mung beans, meaning that the episode’s assertion that it was illegal on grapes is technically true (why Mac knows this off the top of his head is beyond me, but here we are). I’m not sure what, if anything, would happen if you put it on grapes, but I get the sense it either wouldn’t do anything, or wouldn’t do enough good to justify the expense. Today, it’s just approved for mung beans (and either way, it’s not sprayed, the mung beans are just washed in a really dilute solution of it before they’re allowed to sprout).

If you’re like me, you’re wondering “so why use 4-CPA as the big bad chemical at all when there are clearly more dangerous, more illegal agricultural chemicals to choose from?” I had 2 ideas:

4-CPA has a really limited market. Even if the episode launched some kind of investigation into it, it wouldn’t disrupt any significant amount of agriculture.

Mac needed to be able to identify the substance with limited resources, and 4-CPA just happens to have an obvious “melting crystal” structure that can be seen with a homemade polaroscope (I don’t know this for a fact, but since that’s how Mac identified it and there’s not really any other reason to use it, there might be some scientific truth to it).

4-CPA’s toxicity wasn’t actually relevant plot-wise, they just needed something illegal Kasabian was doing that Tony could have used to open dialogue about a union contract. This gets some mixed-signals throughout the episode because they seem to use it interchangeably with “toxic pesticide”, but it could have been the initial intent.

At the end of the episode it is revealed that Kasabian (the character) has ordered that all grapes treated with 4-CPA to be destroyed, voluntarily submitted his fields to outside testing, and decided to stop using “Tox 1″ pesticides. This is in reference to the chemical’s US Toxicity Class. The most toxic are “Toxicity Class 1″ which are fatal if less than 5g of the substance is ingested. The least toxic is “Toxicity Class 4″ which is entirely non-fatal and non-toxic at most reasonably ingest-able doses.

For reference, 4-CPA is a “Tox 4″, while Captain is a “Tox 3″ and methomyl is a “Tox 1″. So basically the ones Mac brushed off as “legal” are way, way more toxic than the one they make a big deal about.

(I did try to figure out what the heck dynaset (dinaset? dynacet? idk?) was, but came up empty. If you know what the heck Alex was talking about with his story about the guy who died from dynaset exposure, please let me know!)

The Social Determinants of Health:

In the episode, Carmen and Mac have a discussion about why Carmen’s daughter Natalie was born with a limb defect. Mac asks if she thinks it has to do with pesticide exposure, but while Carmen endorses having worked in the fields until well into her 3rd trimester and was certainly exposed to agricultural chemicals, she is hesitant to agree, stating “we are poor people, Mr. MacGyver. Many things contribute to birth defects.”

While Carmen may be curbing her language out of fear in this scene, she’s not wrong in suggesting that her socioeconomic status may be just as important a factor in her family’s overall health outcomes. More broadly, this concept is known as the Social Determinants of Health- the idea that while access to healthcare and general health choices are important, factors like economic stability, education/language/literacy, built environment, food security, and social support actually have a substantially greater impact on overall health.

This is a massive topic, and not one we can completely cover in the post, but know that this is a thing that we think about extensively in both the medical and public health worlds:

Consider that the children of Kasabian are growing up in poverty and possibly food insecurity, reliant on local-tax-funded public education that may or may not be provided in an appropriate language, with parents who work long days in the field and carry home pesticide residue on their clothes, whose drinking water is likely contaminated with the same pesticides, and who primarily receive healthcare from a free clinic (mentioned in the episode).

Contrast this with a child who grows up in an affluent, safe, suburban community with an affordable super market within driving distance, reliable and flexible transportation, a well-funded school system with classes taught in their primary language, with clean tap water, consistent healthcare, and whose parents work in low-physical-risk occupations and can afford to spend time with them without a life-altering reduction in income.

Could both of these children grow up healthy? Sure, but even if the Kasabian child’s parents are careful to take their clothes off before hugging them, install and maintain filters on their taps, give up sleep to tutor them, and obtain healthy food from some other source, these activities would cause a significant burden to the family and the environment itself would still put the child behind. Even in the best of circumstances, with parents who are both creative and really, really trying, the child growing up in Kasabian is still going to be exposed to higher levels of pesticides, have a lower quality education (and therefore lower health literacy), lack appropriate healthcare, and get less sleep, all of which together contribute to statistically worse health outcomes.

Now, I did a quick lit search to see if anyone had found an association between limb defects and parental occupational (work-related) exposure to agricultural chemicals. In the several studies I looked at, (1 based on data from the 1980s), there was either no association or a very weak association between parental pesticide exposure and limb defects. This means that her mother’s pesticide exposure was likely not the cause of Natalie’s birth defect (common causes of limb reduction defects include thalidomide, misoprostal, or anti-convulsant exposure, certain viral infections, and folic acid deficiency, though many times the reason is unknown).

Had it been the cause, though, consider that Carmen likely felt compelled to continue working her manual labor job where pesticide exposure was likely because she had no other choice economically. If she didn’t want to starve in the weeks of income loss after Natalie’s birth, she had to work for as long as she could. In a more affluent household or an area less reliant on agricultural work, she may have been able to afford to take the time off or work a different job during her pregnancy, which might have prevented the birth defect.

The Medical Review Part

I said this was going to be a public health review, but let’s also face it- Mac was arrested, in a car accident, knocked out, poisoned, forced to walk 20 miles in the sun with no water, nearly suffocated, and thrown through a plate glass shower in this episode, so we’re still going to talk about medical things (but relate them back to public health, of course!).

The first thing is that car accident. After being released from jail, one of the organizers, Tony, offers Mac a place to stay for the night. On the way back to Tony’s house, his car is run off the road, resulting in what was essentially a front-end collision with a ditch. The pic below doesn’t look too rough, but that car was airborne before it face-planted into that dirt, so... it was bad.

Tony’s car is a 1973 Chrysler New Yorker (thanks to @thefirstusernameithoughtof for the ID). The 1973 New Yorker did have 3-point seatbelts, and we know from the screenshot below that both Mac and Tony were wearing them correctly (this show is so good at role modeling, even the little things, man I love it). However, like many 70s vehicles, it did not have additional safety features like airbags or a crumple zone.

This would be in accordance with the law at the time- although seatbelts were mandatory as far back as 1968, front airbags wouldn’t become mandatory until 1998 (based on a law first introduced in 1991), and “crumple zones” (the front portion of the vehicle that “crumples” to absorb force in an impact to avoid crushing the occupants), while standard today, has never been made legally mandatory in the US. Without this technology, I think its unlikely Mac and Tony survived this crash without very serious injuries.

Despite this, they appear to be unharmed (those sure were some great seatbelts), and after surviving the accident well enough to get up and then run from the scene, Mac is incapacitated by the comparatively minor insult of a 2x4 to the face.

And I will say, it would have been totally realistic for Mac to get a mild-to-moderate concussion resulting in him being unable to fight back or get up for several minutes, giving the bad guys a chance to escape and for Mac to be sprayed with pesticide.

If you remember from earlier in the post, out of the pesticides mentioned, I think methomyl is probably what Mac gets sprayed with. Throughout the rest of the episode, we see him weak, coughing and sweaty, which line up well with the symptoms of carbamate pesticide poisoning (in case you skipped the first part of the post, other symptoms include blurred vision, constricted pupils, excessive salivation, and nausea/vomiting/diarrhea, which I suppose would be difficult to show on family-friendly TV).

Even though he is grossly decontaminated (washed off) by Carmen, as someone recently concussed and poisoned, Mac probably should have sought some form of medical attention. He didn’t. Instead, two days later, still reasonably sick, Mac decides he needs some answers and goes undercover as one of the laborers. He’s not doing too great, and has to work all day in the hot sun. With the extra sweating, salivation, nausea and diarrhea from the aftereffects of the pesticide, Mac would have had to be really, really careful to stay hydrated.

And, I suppose, he tries. In terrible Spanish, Mac asks if there is any water, to which a woman points him to a spigot.... about thirty feet from a latrine. He, I think reasonably in the moment, chooses not to drink it.

Being that the field was 20 miles from town, I have to assume that the water coming out of the spigot was from a well. And since we have to assume that this well provides drinking water to more than 25 people more than 60 days per year, it is legally considered a public water source, and thereby beholden to the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act. That means that in order to be in compliance, the water coming out of it either had to be regularly tested to ensure that it naturally met maximum allowable standards for various contaminants (like... human waste and pesticide runoff), or it had to be fitted with a filter or other means of reducing those contaminants to maximum allowable levels.

But that’s legally. The EPA, who would be enforcing that Act, probably wouldn’t come in and ensure that testing was being done unless someone complained, and given the other things that have happened in this episode that haven’t been reported (like, you know, the murder), Mac has every right to be suspicious of that water source.

The fact that there are workers in a remote field without a clean water source is also probably several OSHA violations, but we don’t have time for that right now.

Given that Mac was soon after discovered and forced to walk the 20 miles back to town, it might have been worth it to get some of that contaminated water. Since he made it back to town at all, I have to assume he found a surface water source and a way to clean it (he is MacGyver, after all), between the fields and the town, otherwise, considering that he’s in rough shape already, that very well could have been death number 2 for him this episode.

The next day, somehow still upright, Mac goes looking for proof that Kasabian was violating the law. He ends up finding it, but is interrupted, punched multiple times, and thrown through a sheet of glass not once, but twice, thus earning his 3rd, 4th, 5th, and probably 6th concussions of the episode. So at this point he really, really should be seeing a doctor.

Instead, he goes to a funeral.

R E F E R E N C E S R E F E R E N C E S

#MacGyver #MacGyver Classic #bitter harvest #medical review #public health #public health review #whump #EPA violations galore

24 notes · View notes

ifeveristoday · 5 years

Text

team Slow Burn/Burn it All Down

“Real monsters don’t announce themselves or present opportunities. Not here. They enter your head, your heart, tear at you from within.” -- Angel, Hellmouth #2

Are we talking about the demons underground or the demon walking around with Angel’s face?

Hellmouth leans heavy on foreshadowing and having unspoken/underlining meanings that differ from the actual words on the page. It continues using elements from Egyptian and Roman/Greek mythos but the main draw of this issue - and I’m assuming the rest of the series, is the reluctant partnership of Buffy and Angel. I don’t agree with the criticism that taking Buffy and Angel away from their respective apocalypses ruins the flow of the overall arcs. It’s a vast story to tell and the pace of the reboots (which is something I have criticized) makes it difficult to include in the main storylines without sacrificing important character development. There are just so many characters, especially in Sunnydale. Jordie’s writing excels at the character and emotional beats rather than plots, and while we have had some great strides in Willow, Xander and Jenny’s personal journeys, there remains some distance from the namesake characters, which I feel like it was intentional to get to the place that Hellmouth occupies.

Love it or hate it, the Buffy and Angel relationship is a huge part of both of their stories and character developments and we’ve had inklings of how Buffy is going to change/possibly wreck Angel’s life in Angel, but he’s remained a shadowy figure in Buffy’s story. Hellmouth changes all of that while retaining some of the original canon’s flaws/trademarks but also poking gentle fun at them.

Spoilers from Hellmouth #2 below the cut.

Buffy and Angel are slightly different from their canon selves - Angel is independent of Buffy’s journey at the very beginning and already has his purpose set in Los Angeles. Buffy is a newly minted Slayer, living with her secret for a whole three weeks before wacky Slayer hijinks puts her in the path of Willow and Xander. Their initial meeting/relationship is reminiscent of the very early episodes of Season 1 Buffy - with a reasonable amount of wariness on Buffy’s part and Angel’s dry/slightly cocky attitude with a 2019 update of their anxieties. There’s also a flip in roles as Angel asks Buffy how she’s feeling and what she wants to do in the future at the start. It’s just the feeling of a connection with no romantic overtones.

The comic recognizes the fucked-upness of Buffy being a child and fighting the forces of evil and sympathizing with her via the character of Jenny. While there is an obligatory nod to Buffy’s desire to be normal, it also makes a point of isolating her from the Scoobies and her frustration at knowing how to be the best Slayer she can be. Giles tells her that he’s to direct her, but not tell her explicitly what she has to do sounds an awful like parents preparing their children for adulthood. There is no handbook. While Buffy is welcomed into Willow and Xander’s circle (and that’s another flip - it is Willow who reaches out to Buffy first and invites her into being social), they’re very much a unit while Buffy sort of floats between their friendship. But I feel due to them being so young, it’s easy to claim best friendship, because - the intensity of feelings and hormones.

This makes Buffy’s character kind of harder to read, and less sunshiney than her OG counterpart. But it’s a shared facade - TV Buffy just hid it better underneath girliness and bouncy hair, while Boom! Buffy is focused, for better or worse to her duty. This is a Buffy that hasn’t quit Slaying before, who gets slightly conflicted guidance from her Watcher and who needs Willow and Xander more than they possibly need her to be a connection to being sixteen. Everyone has their own stuff to deal with.

Hellmouth gives Buffy the spotlight and also drops her into an immediate partnership with Angel. It very pointedly is not a romance - they both get on each others nerves actually, and it inspires A+ bantering while revealing the most of each character so far. Buffy’s venting to Angel (Buffy #8/Hellmouth #1) implies that she’s worried about her friendships and failure to connect, that she’d rather tell a complete stranger this than confide in her friends/Watcher.

Angel listening and not judging shows an immediate empathy for her - and his actions during Hellmouth show a more vulnerable/less closed off Angel. He doesn’t occupy the same caretaker vibe he has with Fred and Gunn that he does with Buffy, namely because Buffy refuses it. She calls him out on trying to be the mysterious weight of the world Loner who takes on all of the responsibilities.

Angel quickly realizes he just can’t be That Guy with Buffy, and it makes his character hilariously resigned/looser in response. He warns her about dangers in the Hellmouth but accepts Buffy’s way is different from his, but that doesn’t make it wrong. He’s willing to admit he might have been wrong about demons being upfront when the slithery shapeshifter demon confronts them - and Buffy’s snarky response “Cool, cool. Won’t rub that in.” lightens the tense moment.

Notably, Angel is the one that gets injured/dragged by the demons while Buffy runs to save him. The fighting sequences are highlighted and Buffy’s scenes, in particular, are very smooth and highlights her Slayer grace. They fight beautifully together and despite their prickly banter, feel a shared responsibility to each other’s well being. Their separate confrontations with the shapeshifter shows their fears - Buffy ‘abandoning’ her family and friends and failing to protect them, Angel seeing the ghosts of the people he’s failed to save. Buffy reacts strongly to how her family and friends need her, while Angel angrily tells the shifter to stay out of his head and that it doesn’t know anything about him. Circling back to Buffy saying she doesn’t know what she wants, the Ominous voice implies Angel doesn’t really know what he’s doing and who he is.

Ah, vague accusations of something evil and upsetting, how I haven’t missed you.

After Angel demands to know who’s blood is needed for the further escalation of Evil Plan, and the Voice doesn’t reply, he immediately realizes Buffy is in danger and runs to find her.

Buffy’s still fighting the shifter and it mentions she could put an end to her family and friends’ suffering with her sacrifice - namely, that her blood will save the world.

While Buffy logically knows that the shifter isn’t her mom (because of course, the shifter would take on the form of Joyce), this emotional blackmail breaks her out of the illusion and she kicks it’s ass. Almost punching out Angel in the process.

Angel is less emotional about his ordeal and Buffy lets him have it again, telling him that it's unfair that she’s the only one being vulnerable - “I opened up because we need to work together, and you haven’t said a thing.”

Instead of being defensive and defaulting to Sir Mopes a Lot - Angel sincerely apologizes and tells her that his fears were also centered around his friends and him not being able to save them in time.

And it’s Buffy’s turn to reassure him/pass on wisdom - she realizes that the Hellmouth wants to separate them to make them weaker and that Angel deserves a little more empathy from her.

THEY’RE COMMUNICATING THEIR FRUSTRATIONS AND CONCERNS WITH EACH OTHER, Y’ALL.

Angel does have a moment of saying, “Silent suffering is more my cup of tea,” and Buffy’s quick response of “And how’s that working for you?” showcase their differences/similarities nicely. Angel despite making friends doesn’t tell them what he’s thinking because he’s used to being alone, Buffy with her very loud opinions isolates herself (un)intentionally because she’s new to Slaying and being a teenager at the same time. They can’t talk to the people who care for them--- but they can talk to each other.

When they face hurdles, they take turns reassuring/pointing out the Obvious Evil, and then a tiny moment - Angel adds onto Buffy’s observation of not getting surrounded by the demon horde by saying, “Just like Thermopylae.”

As with each issue of the Boom!verse, when names I don’t recognize I obviously google them - and Thermopylae is a reference to both the battle of Thermopylae (think the 300 comic and uh, history) and the “Hot Gates,” and is the cavernous entrance to Hades.

Is my theory/wish that there’s going to be Persephone/Hades parallels and Eurydice/Orpheus vibes in this story going to play out? God, I hope so.

Anyway, back to the moment - when they inevitably get surrounded by the demon hordes, Buffy remarks, “Well, there goes thermometer.”

The. Classic. Buffy. Malapropism.

My heart.

Angel gets slashed in the fight, and Buffy worries about him, but there’s a bigger problem -

narrated by the Voice - “Are you sure everything is as it seems? You’ve been wrong before.”

“Blood is spilled...vessels are filled...every pretender killed.”

Shot to Drusilla as Prometheus in chains, spouting some of the worst “Dru-esque” dialogue I’ve read. Sorry Jordie, this is up there with the clunky faux Whedonisms of the early issues.

So Dru isn’t the major Big Bad, but rather the unseen Voice, who we, of course, don’t know.

Is she ultimate sacrifice, the vessel (after all she is of Angel’s bloodline) and oh, Angel Still Hasn’t Told Buffy He’s A Vampire which...

Boo.

All of the voice overs hint that the confession when it happens is going to cause Buffy Big Mad - after all, Angel knows more about her than she does of him, AGAIN.

The art and coloring is stunning as ever in this issue - Carlini really knows how to draw action sequences, and the varying light/color schemes really make the sense of Buffy and Angel descending into the Hellmouth feel vivid and real.

tl;dr I loved this issue and each issue the stakes definitely seem higher. The bantering and a slow reveal of their personalities are also excellent. The foreshadowing/double meanings of the dialogues.

The stuff I don’t like - the Dru dialog at the end, Angel being secretive about his Vampire self.

#hellmouth #thoughts and reactions #reactions and reviews #my review #buffy comics #angel comics #boom! studios #boom! verse #disaster grumpy bats #the ballad of buffy and angel #buffy summers #angel

13 notes · View notes

fortey · 6 years

Text

4 Rejected Articles (at one low price!)

These were 4 pieces rejected from Grunge. I was told if they needed too much work to get them up to publication quality they wouldn’t be used, so here they are in their terrible, unusable form. No pictures!

#1 Unsolved celebrity deaths that will keep you up at night

There is something about a mystery that is just incredibly compelling and irresistible to people. Maybe it's the puzzle, the need to find a pattern in chaos that drives human minds to try to answer an unanswered question, to try to solve it at any cost. Whatever the case, unsolved mysteries are absolutely fascinating to most people. That's why we had a show called Unsolved Mysteries!

While law enforcement officials do their best to piece together clues and unravel those mysteries that pop up now and again, some just seem to be unsolvable. We'll probably never hear about even a fraction of those, either. When the case involves a celebrity, however, especially a celebrity death, or even a murder, then that's the kind of thing that can haunt a person. People just crave celebrity news and gossip, look at social media on any given day. We can delve into the details of these things for years trying to figure out what went on. Who knows, maybe someday one or two of these ones will be solved and the whole puzzle can be put to rest. Until then, there are entirely too many mysterious celebrity deaths to drive yourself crazy trying to figure out.

Jack Nance was beaten by mysterious strangers

The image of Jack Nance from the poster for David Lynch's Eraserhead is iconic at this point. A favorite of Lynch, Nance appeared in not just Eraserhead but Lost Highway, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks amongst numerous other roles. On December 30, 1996, he was found dead in his South Pasadena home. The official cause of death was subdural hematoma cause by blunt force trauma, according to Premier Magazine.

The mystery around Nance's death starts the day before he passed. On that day, the actor went out to lunch with two friends. When he arrived to meet them, one noticed a bruise under his eye and asked him what happened. According to Nance, he had been punched in the face after mouthing off to some kids on the street. His friends thought the story was a little fishy, but left it at that. The next day, Nance was dead on his bathroom floor, his injuries consistent with the blow to the face he said he suffered.

No one was ever caught for the death of Jack Nance, even though it was treated as a homicide, according to E Online. There were never any suspects identified and Nance's friends never believed his story, either, feeling it was inconsistent since the older and frail Nance claimed he had scrapped with guys in their twenties and held his own. The mystery of what happened may very well have died with Nance himself.

David Carradine's death was labelled an accident

For most modern audience, David Carradine will always be known as Bill from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. But part of the reason he even got that role was because of his incredibly long run as Kwai Chang Caine in the TV shows Kung Fu and Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Kung Fu saw Carradine rise to fame as a star in his own right, carving a niche for himself from the famous Carradine acting family.

In 2009, Carradine was in Thailand shooting a film. A maid at the hotel discovered him in his room's closet with a rope, possibly from the curtains, around his neck, according to ABC. It was quickly linked to the practice of autoerotic asphyxiation, and as ABC later noted it would be difficult to determine if it was accident, suicide or murder.

A year after Carradine's death, his ex-wife Marina Anderson wrote a memoir in which she concludes that Carradine had to have been murdered. She contends that while Carradine did enjoy things like asphyxiation, she never knew him to be the sort of person to do it alone. She believes another person must have been in the room when he died.

Based on the conclusions of the coroner and the fact Anderson has no idea if it might have been a stranger, someone Carradine knew or perhaps someone he hired, it's unlikely the truth will ever be fully known.

George Reeves was shot at a party

Superman has been portrayed on screen by numerous actors at this point, from Henry Cavill to Dean Cain to Christopher Reeve. But the first on-screen Superman dates all the way back to 1951 when actor George Reeves took on the iconic role. As the Telegraph details, Reeves was not entirely thrilled with the part. He felt trapped by it more than anything, and was typecast in a way that seemed to ruin his career. He was literally cut out of From Here to Eternity because they didn't want to be associated with Superman.

On June 16, 1959, George Reeves died of a gunshot wound to the head. He'd been injured months earlier in a car accident and had been taking a lot of painkillers, as well as drinking on the night he died. Though there were several other people in the house, the official ruling was that Reeves had died by suicide. That determination has remained controversial since it happened.

No one checked the gun that killed Reeves for prints. No one checked his hands for gunshot residue, or even the distance at which he'd been shot to determine if it could have been self-inflicted or not. Worse, the actress who played Lois Lane got a call the night of the death from one of the people in the house saying it was a murder.

There were a number of suspects, but nothing ever came of it and to this day, no one is entirely sure what happened.

William Desmond Taylor was shot but not robbed

William Taylor was one of the early stars of Hollywood. He directed 59 films in the silent era and was also an actor in some as well. On the morning of February 2nd, 1922, Taylor was found in his Los Angeles home with a bullet in his back.

As the Guardian points out, when Taylor was found, there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle. Nothing of value was taken so it was clearly not a robbery. Something else was afoot.

Based on the placement of the bullet holes in Taylor's jacket, the coroner concluded his arms had been raised when he was shot, according toBuzzfeed. So it wasn't a surprise, someone held him at gunpoint from behind. This happened only months after Fatty Arbuckle had been arrested for rape and murder, and Hollywood was primed to keep the scandal ball rolling.

Word is that police didn't arrive until 12 hours after Taylor had died, and when they got there studio bosses from Paramount were already on the scene, burning papers. The press had a field day with the story and it became such a circus that in the days afterwards, over 300 people confessed to the murder. How could anyone have hoped to solve the case with that working against them? It would have been, and was, impossible. The crime was never solved.

Jam Master Jay was shot in his studio

Jason William Mizell was better known to most of his fans as Jam Master Jay, part of the legendary hip hop group Run DMC. He was an amazing musician, SPIN ranked him at number 10 in their 100 Greatest Guitarist of All Time, and even had his own label.

On October 30, 2002, Mizell was in the studio working on a new album. An unknown assailant entered the studio and shot both Mizell and his friend Uriel Rincon. Rincon, who survived with a shot to the leg, insists Mizell must have known the killer, according to an article reprinted in XXL. Rincon said he'd been hanging out with Mizell who had been armed that night. Mizell's phone rang and when he got up to retrieve it, footsteps alerted them to someone's presence behind Rincon. He never even saw who shot him. All he saw was Mizell take a bullet to the head.

According to Rincon, Mizell would have used his own gun to defend himself if he thought whoever took the shot posed a threat. That means, in Rincon's opinion, Mizell knew the shooter. But since Rincon never saw them, there were no definitive suspects. No one has ever been arrested for the crime.

Actress Barbara Colby was shot on the way to her car

Barbara Colby had barely begun to make her mark in the world of acting by 1975. A veteran of the stage who had done work both on and off Broadway, Colby had been in episodes of Columbo, Gunsmoke, Kung Fu and The Mary Tyler Moore Show amongst others. Her role in Mary Tyler Moore impressed the producers and they brought her character, a sassy prostitute, back for a second episode. The initial episode even won an Emmy. Later, Colby was given a co-starring role in The Mary Tyler Moore Show spinoff Phyllis. She only filmed three episodes of the show.

On July 24, 1975, Colby was leaving an acting class with a friend. According to The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes, Colby and fellow actor James Kiernan were on the way to her car when a pair of gunmen opened fire. Colby died instantly while Kiernan lived long enough to make a statement to police before also passing.

Kiernan had said he didn't recognize either shooter, and neither he nor Colby had been robbed. With no other witnesses and no motive, police were stumped. They chalked the crime up to a potential thrill killing and left it at that. No one was ever arrested and the crime remains unsolved.

Bob Crane was bludgeoned to death

If you ever saw the classic TV show Hogan's Heroes, you know Bob Crane. Crane's role as Colonel Robert Hogan netted him a couple Emmy nominations and made him a household name. Even though he never achieved that level of fame again after the show ended, he was still a recognizable personality and very much a part of TV's golden age.

In 1978, Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his apartment. A friend of his named John Carpenter was arrested and initially let go due to lack of evidence. The case was reopened however and Carpenter went on trial for the crime in 1992. He was ultimately acquitted. Along the way, the story took a number of bizarre twists and turns that made it the compelling mystery it is today.

Blood found on Carpenter's car is what implicated him in the first place, and it was type-matched to Crane. In 1994, it was DNA tested and proven to not belong to Crane. More exciting to the media was that the investigation revealed Crane had a habit of filming his sexual encounters with women, according to People. The Phoenix New Times pointed out that defense attorneys for Carpenter suggested a woman fearing blackmail or any number of jealous husbands could have been the real killer. No weapon was ever found, and with Carpenter exonerated, the case remains unsolved.

B.H. DeLay's plane may have been sabotaged

The name Beverly Homer DeLay is not well known these days, but once upon a time DeLay was an absolute boss of a stuntman. A pilot by trade, DeLay performed stunts during the silent era in dozens of films. He even opened his own stunt pilot school to train others in the fine art of doing crazy aerobatics. He revolutionized movie effects by demonstrating a real pilot could crash a real plane and survive, replacing the old and unconvincing method of using a fake model plane.

During a 4th of July show in 1923, DeLay was flying stunts before a crowd of thousands. He was flying a plane called a Wasp that had two sets of wings for use - one for stunts and one for cross-country flying. For some reason, the cross country wings had been installed on the plane that day. As DeLay took the plane in for a dive, the wings tore off and the plane crashed, killing DeLay.

During the subsequent investigation, it was discovered that the bolts used to secure the wings were the wrong size. According to the book The Crowd Pleasers: A History of Airshow Misfortunes from 1910 to the Present, this lead some to speculate foul play. There was no good reason for anyone to have used the wrong bolts, which were too small for the job. No one was ever caught, however, and the case is unsolved to this day.

David Bacon crashed his car after being stabbed

In an age when characters like Deadpool and Iron Man dominate the box office, it's good to look back at the roots of superheroes and appreciate the classics. If you go way, way back you'll discover a character named the Masked Marvel, a superhero portrayed by Tom Steele in 1943. David Bacon played Bob Barton, one of the Marvel's side kick characters. Bacon's story is as mysterious and bizarre as any comic book.

It was September 13th, 1943 and David Bacon's sports car was seen driving erratically down a road in Santa Monica, California. He the road and plowed through a bean field. Bacon staggered from the car as rescuers came to his aid, and collapsed on the ground. According to the new England Historical Society, his car was soaked in blood, though he'd hit nothing with the force that could have made him bleed so much.

The ensuing investigation showed that Bacon had been stabbed in the back with a 6-inch blade. The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes notes thatBacon was discovered wearing only a swimsuit. His car contained an unidentified wallet and a camera. The camera film had one image - Bacon smiling on a beach. Police figured the killer had snapped the photo.

Bacon's wife would later suggest Howard Hughes as a suspect, admitting she was a lesbian and Bacon was gay, their marriage merely a sham to protect them both. She believed Hughes and Bacon were having an affair, but nothing was ever proven.

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was attacked with a machete on her porch

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was something of a renaissance woman known for a variety of things including modelling, dancing, activism and for hosting the game show Winner Take All. In her neighborhood she was also known for having a standing feud with a man by the name of Alan G. Stanford Jr.. According to the Constantine Reporter, Stanford had an issue with 6 stray dogs Lindsley had taken in that barked incessantly. This would be used to establish motive after Lindsley was attacked on her porch by a man wielding a machete. She was hacked repeatedly and nearly decapitated.

Neighbors heard the screams but were unable to accurately identify the assailant, though one saw someone and assumed it was Stanford. For his part, Stanford was arrested, put on trial and acquitted of the crime. Lawyers claimed there was no way the jury could have even properly reviewed the evidence - they only spent two and a half hours deciding the case and that included having lunch brought in. The police were also accused of doing sloppy work on the case, deciding right off the bat that Stanford was their man to the point that they didn't even investigate Lindsley's husband.

In the end, with Stanford's acquittal, any leads in the case ran dry and no one else has ever been brought to justice.

Venus Xtravaganza was found strangled under a bed

In the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning, audiences are introduced to "ball culture," an underground scene in New York City where gay and transgender performers were able to take the stage and walk in front of a crowd looking as glamorous and powerful as they possibly could. It was a competition where the winners took home trophies, admiration and validation. One of the performers in the film was Venus Xtravaganza.

Venus had been a performer for years but struggled to make ends meet. Rebel Circus delves into how, in the documentary, she hints at the idea that she's been escorting to pay the bills, which was obviously a risk. She said she was a hustler, and men would give her gifts and money for spending time with them. She also admits to prostituting in the past, and how she'd had her life threatened by clients when they found out she was still biologically a man.

The documentary took several years to complete. During that time, on Christmas Day in 1988, Venus Xtravagaza's body was discovered in a hotel room. She had been strangled and stuffed under the bed, her body had been there for perhaps four days at that point.

Because of who and what she was, it's alleged perhaps the police were indifferent to the murder and put little effort into solving it. No suspects were ever named, no one was ever arrested.

#2 The saddest on-screen deaths that shook us to the core

(This one originally had a video embed for each one of the scene in question. I like the idea it was unusable because. Research? It’s an opinion piece, so who knows. Typos? You let me know, I didn’t edit this any more after they rejected it)

Every so often a movie comes along that really hits you in the feels and you can't help but get wrapped up in the drama of it all, even though you know it's just a piece of fiction played out by actors. Aristotle once wrote that the purpose of drama is to arouse the feelings of pity and fear in an audience. You purge these emotions through the process of catharsis and end up emotionally stronger in the end. Drama, and feeling what the characters go through, makes you a stronger person. At least, that's the idea.

Now obviously everyone is different and some of us don't seem to be affected by tearjerker movies and their attempts to get us emotionally invested. But man, some movies try really, really hard. Sometimes the writing and the acting is just so powerful that even though you know it's not real, when a character dies in front of you on screen, you can feel yourself being emotionally destroyed. It's not every movie death by any means, some of them don't have that gravitas to them. But the best characters, the best actors, can make an onscreen death hit you hard and leave you feeling like a wreck. It's not a weak thing to feel that way. It's just a sign you have a capacity for empathy and that you definitely need to put on a good comedy after you watch these scenes.

Ellie in Up

Everyone loves Pixar movies, a fact born out by the incredible success of literally every single film Pixar makes. Even an unsuccessful film by Pixar standards is an incredible achievement in any other terms. Their films are incredible displays of animation technology with great storytelling and voice acting. If you need proof of that, you need look no further than 2009's Up, a movie that gutted its audience in the very opening sequence in a way few other movies would dare.

Up tells the tale of Carl Fredrickson, an elderly man who has lost his wife and plans to honor her by literally flying their house to South America. But it's the opening montage in which we meet a young Carl and his future wife Ellie, and follow their romance and life together that takes an emotional toll. We go from childhood through adulthood and into old age until Carl finally loses the love of his life. Even though it's only a few minutes of screen time, articles like this one in The Guardian are quick to point out just how impactful that scene is. You become a part of Carl's life, you see how and why Ellie meant so much to him and you feel her loss as she dies. It may be "just a cartoon" but the emotion is raw and real and is reduced many an audience member to tears.

Thomas in My Girl

After his big break in the movie Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin really branched out with a lot of roles, some of which showed an incredible diversity. The most famous of these was arguably the 1991 coming of age drama My Girl.

The film follows the life of an 11-year-old girl named Vada who lives in a funeral home and has a bit of a death obsession. Her best friend, played by Culkin, is a kid who is allergic to pretty much everything. They're both outcasts in their own way and their relationship is a sweet, innocent one. It also punches you in the gut when it comes to an end.

Culkin's character Thomas is trying to do something nice by finding Vada's lost mood ring in the woods, which she lost track of earlier in the day. As he does so, he runs afoul of a nest of bees, to which he is allergic. Our final images of the character are in the woods, swarmed by the insects, alone and terrified as he dies. The next time we see him is at his funeral service when Vada breaks down upon seeing his body, wondering where his glasses are because he can't see without them. It's absolutely heartbreaking.

John Coffey in the Green Mile

Generally speaking, when you think of Stephen King, you don't think of emotional impact and any deep feelings. He's a man famous for terror, not tears. But that's just the usual, not the rule. As King proved very well with The Green Mile, he can make you care deeply for a character.

The Green Mile is the story of a man named John Coffey, imprisoned for murder in 1935. As the story progresses we come to learn Coffey was wrongly convicted of the crime. He's a simple man with a sweet disposition and a desire to help people, which he can do with an amazing, supernatural power to take pain and illness from others into himself. Played perfectly by the late Michael Clarke Duncan, the character of John Coffey was railroaded because he was found with the victims and, being a physically imposing black man with two dead white girls at that place and time, his guilt was presumed.

Duncan's performance sells the role of John Coffey so well. He's so sympathetic and so likeable that seeing the injustice his character faces being played out is a visceral experience. And when the inevitable happens, when Coffey is taken on the walk down the green mile to his execution, it's brutal to watch and will leave you reaching for a tissue.

Glenn in The Walking Dead

Television's ability to make you care about a character is often underexploited. Unlike a film with a finite timeline, since TV shows can go for years, producers are often reluctant to kill off a character unless absolutely necessary. They're especially reluctant to kill a fan favorite character. That's not the case on The Walking Dead however, where it's a given that every character's days are numbered. Knowing that your favorite character could die at any time doesn't make it any easier to watch, though. Just ask fans of Glenn Rhee, played by Steven Yeun. Glenn lasted for 7 seasons on the show until he ended in the most traumatic way imaginable.

Glenn had been a staple of The Walking Dead since very early in the series. His character was funny, likable and heroic. He was one of those characters you can imagine yourself being friends with in real life, a testament to Steven Yeun's ability as an actor.

When season of the Walking Dead ended, the villainous Negan had just swung his baseball bat Lucille at an unseen victim. Rumors circulated that Glenn would be the victim, and when season 7 premiered audiences discovered it was Abraham. But then, in a cruel twist, Negan turned his rage on Glenn and in a brutally violent scene that even Yeun admitted was too much according to ComicBook.com, beat him to death also in a scene you may not want to watch with kids in the room.

Bambi's mom in Bambi

Few deaths are more iconic and more disturbing in people's minds than the death of Bambi's mother. It's not that it's drawn out or gory; it's the opposite in fact. We never see what happens to Bambi's mother, we only hear it. A single shot in the woods, with an extremely heavy implication. She's been felled by a hunter leaving the little fawn alone.

The reason the death of Bambi's mother elicits such a visceral response from audiences is very much about context. Bambi came out in 1942, it's one of Disney's earliest hits. It also means nearly everyone alive today experienced Bambi's death as a child. The memory of that deer dying is very much tied to your understanding of it as a child, and for a lot of kids it's one of their earliest experiences is seeing death on screen. The movie is very innocent and inoffensive, a perfect film for children of any age. The death is a hard one to shake because of it, and it sticks with audiences for years.

Some may ask why so many Disney movies include the death of a parent, and Buzzfeed spoke to Disney producer Don Hahn, who offered up an incredibly heartbreaking possibility. After Walt Disney achieved a measure of success, he bought a home for his parents. The heater malfunctioned however, and though his father survived, his mother died of carbon monoxide poisoning, in the gift he had bought for them.

Han Solo in The Force Awakens

It's no secret that Harrison Ford famously disliked being in Star Wars and was no fan of his character Han Solo. As Screen Rant points out, he'd been arguing that Solo should die for 30 years, since all the way back in Empire Strikes Back. Not necessarily because he hated the character, but because he thought it was just better storytelling to have his character die of. It'd lend some emotional weight to the movie. But marketing trumps emotion, and Solo lived on for decades.

It wasn't until Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens that Ford finally got his wife, his character dying at the hands of his own son. Many would argue that the Star Wars films have always been lighthearted, effects-laden adventures meant to do little more than entertain, but there is more to it. You can't deny the cultural impact of these movies. They're a legitimate phenomenon. Whether Harrison Ford intended it or not, his portrayal of Han Solo was iconic. He was a hero for more than one generation. And his death was likely welcomed by no one. To be sure, it added depth and gravitas to the story, but that doesn't mean it's fun to watch. It's seeing a legend pass on, in many ways, and that's a hard thing to do. To understand that a story has well and truly ended is something no fan wants to experience.

Mufasa in The Lon King

Disney's ability to make you care for a character is unparalleled. That they can so quickly get you emotionally invested in the life of this creation, even an animated one, is nothing short of remarkable. And make no mistake, they are well aware of that power. It's used very well to give serious emotional weight to stories like The Lion King. Simba's father Mufasa's death is so impactful it's actually been named the most iconic death in cinema, according to Metro UK.

Mufasa only has a very short amount of screen time in The Lion King before his brother Scar murders him, but it's such a powerful scene. We watch Simba practicing his roar which leads into the wildebeest stampede from which he needs to be rescued. Mufasa risks his safety to rescue his son and then just as it seems like he might make it to safety, Scar betrays him, casting him to his fate. The layers of emotion pile up fast - Simba's panic and feeling that he is to blame for his father's death, Mufasa's selfless bravery and Scar's evil betrayal all run together. It's no wonder people recognize it as a gut-wrenching scene that haunts audiences long after the movie ends.

Marley in Marley and Me

In a very weird way, some people are more able to connect with animals than humans. Maybe it's the idea that any animal is inherently pretty good and innocent while humans don't always get the benefit of the doubt. Whatever the case, if a beloved pet dies on screen in a movie, it's almost always tough to deal with. The movie Marley and Me hits you right in the chops with that idea, showing you the life of a family from the time they get a puppy to the dog's old age and eventual passing.

Even though Marley and Me is ostensibly about a couple finding their way and building a family together, the dog Marley is used as a conceit to tie the themes together. In many ways Marley represents the chaos and uncertainty of trying to establish your life, your career and your family, as well as the joys of all of those things as well. Marley is the cornerstone of their lives, and when he grows ill the movie refuses to shy away from the one final part of life that we all must deal with - death. Knowing that Marley is ill, and cannot be saved, adds that one extra emotional layer to the whole ordeal, as his owners must choose to do what they can for the dog, and euthanize him to save him from more suffering, something any pet owner knows is utterly devastating.

Hodor in Game of Thrones

While it's a joke at this point that no one is safe on Game of Thrones, the remarkable cast and the engaging writing has ensured that when those deaths do happen, they're going to pack an emotional punch. What's surprising is just how the show manages to make it so much worse than you could imagine sometimes, as was the case of the unexpectedly tragic death of Hodor. Even if you went into the episode knowing he was going to die, when you see how it happens, how Hodor's entire life lead up to that moment, it's as jaw-dropping as any sequence from television can be.

Throughout the series, Hodor is often little more than a background curiosity character, the gentle giant who can only say his own name. In season 6, his tragic story is laid out for audiences when we learn that the character of Bran, who is able to warg into simpler life forms to control them, does so to Hodor and in doing so travels back in time inside him. The stress of being overtaken by Bran, through time, while undead White Walkers close in for the kill, retroactively destroys Hodor's mind in the past. His final act is holding the door so the others can escape, cries of "Hold the door" becoming compressed as he repeats it again and again until he can say nothing but "Hodor."

Joyce Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The episode entitled "The Body" in season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a standout episode for any number of reasons. The choice to cut music entirely for the duration offset it from every other episode right away, but it's the story that elevated it to something more. While Buffy was routinely chock full of death and mayhem, it was always that violent, action-movie style chaos. It was the entertaining violence audiences crave. "The Body" was different.

The episode opens with Buffy coming home to find her mother dead on the sofa. No monsters, no fight, no tragically heroic send off. Joyce Summers had died of a brain aneurysm; a real world horror played out in the fictional universe of terrors. And for all of Buffy's heroism and power and bravery, this was a thing against which she was powerless. Watching a character audiences had come to admire rendered so shattered was brutal. The hero of the show is left a shambles. Seeing the cornerstone of the series, The Chosen One as she was so often called, made as human as all the rest of us is heartbreaking. And because it's a situation we all have to deal with in time, the all too real death of a loved one, it hits home even more.

Wolverine in Logan

Who could ever have imagined that a character most famous for having knives in his hands that he uses to slash and kill his enemies would have such an impact on audiences? That's the reality behind Wolverine, also known as Logan. Hugh Jackman had played the character through 8 films over a staggering 17 years and brought him to life as much as any character possibly could be made real.

Jackman's final turn as Wolverine in the darkly serious Logan has been considered the best portrayal of the character and elevated it beyond the previous films which always had a sense of goofy comic book fun to them. Logan was something more, an oddly human tale about an oddly human character, in a sad and lonely future. Building off of all of Logan's backstory, we see him as a broken man who has one last chance to make a difference and one last chance at the family he seemed to always want to be a part of.

The addition of the X-23 character, thrusting Logan into a fatherhood role he never really wanted, contrasted with his own father/son-like relationship with Professor X, creates more drama than superhero movie audiences had ever seen before. Logan wasn't a superhero in this film so much as just a hero,an admirable man whose death before the eyes of the daughter who grew to love him cut as much as any adamantium blade.

Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street

Few things in this world are more wholesome and admirable than Sesame Street. While it seems like just a kid's show on the surface, the service it has provided for years now is remarkable. The constant effort to entertain, engage and teach children is so much more than what the vast majority of television does. It has been a part of many lives over the years, and many people all over the world have grown up experiencing its messages of kindness and understanding.

While the Muppets like Big Bird and Cookie Monster have long been the stars of the show, the human co-stars have made their own impact and been just as important. So it was stunning for a generation of children to learn one day that the beloved Mr. Hooper had died.

Played by actor Will Lee who passed away on December 7, 1982, Mr. Hooper's death was addressed on air over Thanksgiving of that year. The producers had decided the best course of action was not to ignore Mr. Hooper's passing, recast the role or say he moved, but to address it in a real way that children would understand, according to the AV Club. Big Bird is the character who represents the audience in the scene, and he learns not just that Mr. Hooper is gone, but why he's gone and what it means going forward. Even though he's just a big, yellow puppet, the emotion conveyed is raw and real.

#3 Adored reality TV stars outed as terrible people

It's very hard to put your finger on the origin of what you might call "reality TV." No doubt it became very popular in the 1990s when shows like Survivorbecame the biggest thing on TV. In many ways that time period is considered, at least informally, the beginning of reality TV as we know it. Realistically, reality TV, which is anything unscripted and supposedly just showing life as it is, is about as old as TV itself. The news is reality TV. Game shows are reality TV. There were hidden camera and talent shows as far back as the 1940s.

The modern era of reality TV has one pretty significant difference from older forms, and that is stars. We have recognizable reality stars these days. These people are, at least as audiences are lead to believe, just real and unscripted and showing their lives on television. They can become as beloved as any actor in some cases, just look at the Kardashians, the Osbournes or the Real Housewives of Fill-in-the-Blank. These people can be huge. And as the old saying goes "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." Sometimes reality stars turn out to be much worse than their TV personas lead us to believe. Some of these people are damn near monsters.

A Sons of Guns star was guilty of rape

In 2011, Discovery premiered a new reality series about Red Jacket Firearms, LLC. The company made custom firearms for places like law enforcement and private security as well as individual collectors. They called the show Sons of Guns, because if your show doesn't have a clever name, it's not even worth airing.

Sons of Guns aired for five seasons and followed shop owner Will Hayden and his adult daughter as they crafted weapons and demonstrated them, sometimes unsuccessfully. The show tried to balance firearm safety with an interest in responsible gun ownership and the appeal of seeing cool, unique weapons . But there was more going on behind the scenes than audiences realized.

In real real life, not scripted reality life, showrunner Hayden was less an admirable advocate of gun ownership than he was a reprehensible monster. In 2017, as People explains, Will Hayden was convicted of two counts of aggravated rape and one count of forcible rape. He had been tried and found guilty of sexually assaulting two preteen girls, two decades apart.

Hayden's arrested in 2014 was what actually what ended the show, and it took until 2017 for the trial to wrap up. The aggravated rape convictions carry with them mandatory life sentences. In total, Hayden was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences plus a consecutive 40 years. He'll never leave prison alive.

Dog the Bounty Hunter uses racial slurs

For a while in the early and mid 2000s, Duane Chapman, better known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, was one of the biggest reality stars on TV. The show, featuring Dog and assorted family members hunting fugitives from justice, was huge. His life outside of the show has been riddled with controversy, however.

Prior to ever being a bounty hunter, Duane Chapman served time in prison on a first degree murder charge back in 1976. That conviction has been the reason he can't carry a firearm and the UK won't let him into the country, according to The Guardian. Chapman has never hid that part of his past and has tried to be an inspirational story about turning your life around. In 2003, Dog captured Andrew Luster, the infamous Max Factor heir and serial rapist, propelling him to international fame.

Based on his recognition from the Luster case, A&E gave Dog a show that proved very popular - Ozzy Osbourne even sang the theme song. But by 2007, things had taken a bad turn. Audio tape of Dog using racial slurs was released by The National Enquirer. On the tape, Dog can be heard using the N-word in a discussion about his son's girlfriend, who was African American. Dog later apologized, according to CBS, but the damage was already done at that point since Chapman had made it clear that he uses the word frequently.

Pawn Stars' Chumlee was arrested on drugs and gun charges

Pawn Stars premiered on the History channel in 2009 and quickly became their biggest hit, the number one show on the network in fact, according tothe Las Vegas Sun. The show mixes some family drama with the oddly appealing world of pawn shops, where people bring in some of the craziest most unique items you could ever imagine to find out what they're worth. It's like Antiques Road Show with some attitude and a goofy family backdrop. One of the stand out stars on the show is the man known as Chumlee.

Chumlee, whose real name is Austin Russell, was a childhood friend of Corey Harrison, whose family owns the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop. On the show he was often depicted as a bit of a lummox, kind of a goofy, comic foil for the other characters who slowly grew to be a trusted and reliable employee.

Off camera, Chumlee has run afoul of the law when his home was raided in 2016. Police found crystal meth and Xanax as well as about a dozen illegal firearms, according to Global News. Thanks to a plea deal, he managed to avoid jail time but will be on probation for several years.

Alaskan Bush People's Matt Brown was arrested for a DUI hit and run

Alaskan Bush People premiered in 2014 and offered viewers a unique and cool look into the world of some people who seemed to live totally off the grid and were independent and self-sustaining. The illusion was not long-lived however. In Touch Weekly has a rundown of a number of scandals that have come up in the show's history including word that much of what goes on is faked and the family never really lived full time in the woods.

More egregious than reality show fakery was the story that broke in 2015 about star Matt Brown. The oldest son of the family, Brown had gone out for a night of partying in Juneau, Alaska. Brown chose to drive home after too many drinks and, according to witness testimony, plowed into a parked motorcycle in a Wal Mart parking lot in the middle of the night. Instead of staying where he was, Brown drove off leaving the scene.

According to Radar Online, Brown was arrested on charges of both DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. The officer who pulled him over said Brown smelled and was acting weird, but denied being under the influence of anything. Instead, he offered up Attention Deficit Disorder as an excuse for his behavior. The police weren't buying it, and Brown failed a field sobriety test as well as a breathalyzer, and was taken into custody.

Joshua Tel Warner of Deadliest Catch robs banks

Deadliest Catch has proven to be one of reality TV's most enduring and curiously engaging shows. Depicting the lives of crab fishermen, it's a mixture of drama and real-life danger as these boats face off with extreme weather and the unsafe waters of the Bering Sea to haul in crabs that can be worth a fortune.

While the show has been a success since 2005, it's not without some danger and drama on the land, too. Joshua Tel Warner joined the crew of The Wizard, one of the crab boats featured on the show, back in 2009. He was a greenhorn on the boat, a rookie, and he quickly gained attention for all the wrong reasons. Warner had joined the crew after committing a bank robbery, and then proceeded to commit two more after he was featured on the show. Surveillance footage ensured he was an extremely easy suspect to track down since he was on one of the most popular reality shows on television that you better believe law enforcement officials were also watching.

In 2010, as Oregon Live reported, Warner was sentenced to 9 and a half years for his crimes, leaving audiences to wonder how he thought he'd get away with it if he was on TV.

Ducl Dynasty's Phil Robertson made homophobic remarks

Few reality shows have achieved the fame and notoriety as A&E's Duck Dynasty. In 2013, the season 4 premier became the most watched non-fiction show in cable history with nearly 12 million viewers, according to E!. It's safe to say that, for a time, Duck Dynasty was absolutely the pinnacle of reality TV success. Unfortunately, that success came with some controversy as the Robertson family at the center of the show began sharing some unpopular opinions.

Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the family featured on Duck Dynasty, was interviewed by GQ back in 2013. It was in that interview when he made some extremely controversial comments about homosexuality, including basically equating it with bestiality and terrorism. He calls it a sin numerous time and tries to explain that he's not judgmental in any way.

There was an initial backlash against Robertson's comments with A&E actually suspending Robertson from the show for a brief time, according to FOX News. The family stood by him and there was a counter backlash of support that ended up getting Robertson back on the show within 9 days. As the NY Post pointed out, the network did try to distance itself from Robertson's specific comments, suggesting that he was just one man amongst many on the show and his views are solely his own.

Mama June rekindled a relationship with the man who molested her daughter

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo was a cultural phenomenon, an icon of cringe TV that showed up in 2012. The title comes from the nickname of child beauty pageant contestant Alanna Thompson, who became an instant star after showing off her frenetic and bubbly personality on the show Toddlers and Tiaras.

Honey Boo Boo and her family consisting of dad Sugar Bear, Mama June and sisters Chickadee and Pumpkin were the ultimate in trash TV. They were as rough around the edges as humanly possible - in one episode Mama June makes a dish called "sketti" which was spaghetti noodles slathered in copious amounts of melted butter and ketchup. But there was also a real sweetness to them at the core that kept audiences interested, or at least it seemed that way for a time.

Eventually Mama June and Sugar Bear went their separate ways and June did the unthinkable - she rekindled a relationship with a man named Mark McDaniel. McDaniel had been convicted of molesting Chickadee 10 years earlier, causing Chickadee to cut ties with her mother, as TMZ reported. June denied getting back together with the man after he was released from prison, but TMZ had photos to prove it. The blowback was swift and TLC cancelled the show as audiences were absolutely disgusted that a woman would do that to her own children.

Toby Willis sexually abused his children

Piggybacking on the success of show like Jon and Kate Plus 8 and 19 Kids and Counting, The Willis Family was a show on TLC that chronicled the lives of a very large, very close knit family. Like both of those other shows, the happy face put on for the cameras hid a very dark secret when the cameras were off.

The Willis Family, who performed as a musical group called The Willis Clan, consisted of mom and dad Brenda and Toby, and their 12 children. They appeared as an act on America's Got Talent, presented as a family rooted in Christian values and wholesome entertainment. In 2016, that was exposed as a lie.

TLC cancelled the show in 2016 when Toby Willis was charged with four counts of rape. In Touch Weekly details the story of eldest daughter Jessica opened up about what she had endured at the hands of her father. Toby Willis had abused his own children, when they were between the ages of 9 and 12 though Jessica said she could remember it happening much, much earlier in her life. Willis plead guilty to the four counts he was charged with according to the Tennessean. He was handed four concurrent sentences which will see him spend 40 years behind bars.

Swamp People's Trapper Joe committed domestic abuse

There's been a tradition in reality TV to showcase the lives of people who are outside the mainstream, who live lives that are maybe more simple or rustic or old school than folks in cities. You can see it in things like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Duck Dynasty and, of course, Swamp People. It's a show about people who hunt alligators for a living. That's definitely a slice of life that's unique and interesting to most of the country.

Swamp People premiered in the year 2010 an has been fairly popular ever since. One of the show's stars who went by the name Trapper Joe was doing more than hunting gators, however. Back in 2012 Joe, whose real name is Noces Joseph LaFont Jr., was arrested on charges of assault and battery, according to TMZ. Witnesses saw LaFont and his girlfriend arguing and then LaFont punched her.

In 2015, LaFont was arrested again on the same charge. The Times-Picayune referenced the 2012 charge and also another 2013 charge, against for the same thing, but noted they couldn't find out if they were ever pursued. In 2015, however, a judge order LaFont to stay away from the victim after breaking two of her ribs.

Jon and Kate Gosselin turned their family into a circus

Jon and Kate Plus 8 was a massive hit for TLC back in 2007. It featured the titular couple plus their 8 children - twins and sextuplets - and the everyday aspects of their lives. It was instantly something appealing to a wide audience. But the parenting skills of both Jon and Kate has been questionable for years.

Jon and Kate Gosselin's troubled relationship became tabloid fodder incredibly quickly. By 2009, the couple had filed for divorce. Even from the beginning, the couple were at odds over who even wanted the divorce. Jon laid the blame on Kate, according to CBS, while Kate said Jon forced her into it, according to People.

Word broke that Jon had started a relationship with the 22-year-old daughter of his wife's plastic surgeon, as detailed in People. Then arguments over the kids resulted in cops being called in 2009, something that was still happening as late as 2017, as E! News reported.

In 2016, In Touch Weekly reported Kate was accusing Jon of dealing drugs in a report to the police, as well as kidnapping one of their daughters. Some of his children said they hadn't seen their father in years, which he again blamed on his wife, as detailed by NBC. In the end, it's clear this couple has had years and years of bitterness between them with little regard for the effect it might have on the kids.

#4 False facts you always believed about World War II

There's no denying the impact World War II had, not just on the world at the time, but the world that survived and grew out of it. The toll to humanity from the acts committed during those few years, from camps in Germany to the bombs dropped in Japan to the soldiers landing on the beaches on D-Day, was staggering. The world changed; the way wars were fought changed and the way we treated those who fought wars changed as well.

Since the war ended, our culture has been utterly fascinated with the history and stories about what happened. From the grand scale battles to the personal tales of soldiers and civilians, it seems like we can't get learn enough. You just have to look at this list of hundreds of World War II films compiled on Wikipedia to appreciate how much the war is still a part of our conscience and identity. And yet, despite the abundance of information in the form of books and essays and films, there is a ton of misinformation. There' a good chance that what you think you know about the war isn't really what you know. Some of the most commonly quoted facts aren't actually facts at all.

The French didn't give up without a fight

It's a great disservice to the people of France that they've long been saddled with the reputation of being cowards. Pop culture has really run with this idea; the Simpsons even included a joke once about the French being "cheese-eating surrender monkeys." Removed from the reality of what happened a generation ago, it can be seen as funny, but it's not as true as a simple joke makes it seem.

While France did surrender under the German assault, the reasons behind it are often overlooked. The most important thing to consider is the nature of the war being fought. Germany brought the blitzkrieg- the lightning war- to France. France simply had no defense for the new tactics; they were outmatched by the Axis forces.

Germany moved quickly into France with armored vehicles and superior strategy. France was literally using couriers to send messages to and from those in charge, while Germany was communicating by radio. The French Commander-in-Chief General Gamelin didn't even have a radio in his headquarters, according to the book War Made New. How could France have ever hoped to keep up?

In the end, the Germans lost over 150,000 soldiers, 800 tanks and 1,300 aircraft in the month-long push, as noted on Second World War History, but they succeeded and France surrendered after being completely outmatched.

Hitler didn't become the leader of the Nazi party by one vote

If you have a friend or relative who likes to forward sourceless chain emails or make posts on Facebook that list quirky facts, you may have seen one meant to encourage you to get out and vote. This particular list goes into detail about the difference one vote can make and is supposed to be inspiring. It tells, amongst other things, of how Hitler was voted into leadership of the Nazi party by one single vote. If only anyone else had stood up and said no, maybe the Second World War would never have happened! It's terribly untrue.

Mythbusting site Snopes looked into the popular forward which also claimed that English became the official language of America over German by one vote, and that Texas was brought into the Union by a single vote. The so-called facts have been spread by Ann Landers in newspapers and even in a speech by Jesse Jackson.

While all the stories in the forward are fake, as it relates to the one vote victory of Adolf Hitler, it's not just wrong, but the complete opposite of what happened. Hitler didn't get a single vote victory to lead the Nazi party, he had a single vote against him. 553 party members did vote for him to lead them, however.

The SS weren't all Aryan

The Schutzstaffel, more commonly known as the SS, were some of the elite troops of the Nazi military. The regular German military were a separate entity. The SS were the more feared force; their subgroups included the Gestapo and the Waffen SS amongst others. They ran concentration camps, enforced Nazi policy and fought in armed divisions. Despite their reputation as policing and enforcing the racial policies of the Nazi regime, not all members of the SS were Aryan.

The Blue Division were a group of Spanish soldiers who fought alongside the Nazis against Russian forces. Also known as the Wermacht 250th Infantry, they took part in the battle of Leningrad and suffered massive casualties, according to Historynet.

The Tiger Legion, also called the Free India Legion, was a 3,000 strong force of Indian soldiers who aligned themselves with the Nazi party against Britain. The force was part of the Waffen SS, the armed division, and ended up retreating through France along with the rest of the German forces on D-Day, according to the BBC.

Other forces aligned themselves with the Nazis as well when the SS started foreign recruitment. Divisions existed from all over including Bosnian Muslims in the 13th Waffen SS Mountain Division, the Free Arabian Legion made up of African and Arab troops and the Ostlegionen which consisted of soldiers from places like Azerbaijan, Armenia and Ukraine. When it came down to the wire, the Nazis weren't committed to any principles.

We held Axis soldiers prisoner on US soil

Though the war was fought in Europe and no enemy force ever landed on US soil, it's not entirely correct to say no enemies ever ended up in the United States. In fact, quite a large number of German and Axis soldiers found their way to America as prisoners of war. From 1942 to 1945, as Allied space was running thin over in Europe, the US took on over 400,000 Axis POWs. The men were shipped stateside and held all across the country in army bases and rural areas. Many of them ended up working on farms, harvesting corn or baling hay. Others were put to work in factories and mills. Since so many laborers had been lost when US soldiers went to war, this use of POW's to bolster the labor force actually helped out the American economy.

The Smithsonian relates a number of stories from people who were just children during the war, who recall these POW laborers in their communities. Some worked together on farms, one person even recalls how POW stonemasons build his family a concrete garage that is still standing today.

The prisoners were held in camps, hundreds of which were constructed through the Southern US and the Midwest. They were fed and clothed and put to work and, by all account, treated as well as any prisoner could hope to be treated. Some even returned to the US after the war to become citizens.

The bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima weren't the worst ones in Japan

One of the most terrifying events of the war was the deployment of the two atomic bombs. Never before had the world seen such destructive power and to this day the fear of nuclear war keeps many countries' aggression in check. It's no wonder then that so many people believe those bombs were the most destructive part of the war. But they weren't, at least not at first.

The blasts that laid waste to Nagasaki and Hiroshima should never be minimized, and their effect over time has been terrible, but it's also worth noting that the US attack on Tokyo was actually more devastating and caused more damage at the time. On March 9, 1945 leading into the morning of the following day, US forces firebombed the city of Tokyo and razed nearly half the city to the ground. The death toll was over 100,000 while one million were wounded and a million more homeless, according to ABC.

Bombers dropped 500,000 cylinders of napalm and petroleum jelly on the center of the city. The intent was to force Japan's surrender and to seek revenge for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The effect was something beyond a nightmare, with one witness describing seeing melting bodies piled as high as a house amidst a storm of fire that was hundreds of feet tall. They called it the "Night of the Black Snow," in reference to the ash that fell in the aftermath.

The German Spandau machine gun was actually awful

If you're a war or history buff, you've probably heard of the German MG 42. Also known as the Spandau machine gun, it was a widely used weapon by German forces. Sometimes called "Hitler's Buzz Saw," it could cut through soldiers at a rate of 1,200 to 1,800 rounds per minute. Medium wrote a profile on the deadly weapon expressing just how bone-chilling it must have been for Allied forces to come up against one. But were they really that terrifying?

On paper, the Spandau was a force to be reckoned with. In practice, things were different. For one, the rapid rate of fire caused incredible problems with overheating. Soldiers were told to not fire in bursts of more than 250 rounds, a far cry from its reported ability to fire over 1000 rounds per minute according to War History Online.

Author James Holland wrote about his misconceptions of the weapon, once believing it to be the best machine gun from the War. He was schooled by the head of the Small Arms Unit at the British Staff College. The gun, as it happens, was not particularly accurate. It was over-engineered yet lacking basic functions that could have made it easier to use in battle. The insane amount of ammo users had to carry made it unwieldy and, by the end of the war, there were apparently very few soldiers on the ground who had any idea how to operate one.

Japan didn't surrender because of the bombs

It was August 6th, 1945 when the first atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The world had never seen anything like it before and no one has dared do anything like it since. While Japan surrendered shortly after the bomb at Nagasaki, it has been widely assumed the reason was solely those atomic bomb attacks. Historians, however, have a different interpretation of events.

The director of Asian Studies at Tokyo's Temple University stated to ABC that the bombs would not have had the effect American forces believed. The American forces had already destroyed 66 cities by firebombing, so these new attacks made little difference overall. No one at the time knew of the long-term effects, after all. In fact, what tipped the scales for Japan was not America at all but the Soviet Union.

Just after the bombing, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. As Foreign Policy argues, Japan was considering surrender while the second bomb was being dropped but days after the first. It was the Soviet declaration of war that tipped the scales. Japanese historian Yuki Tanaka said the fear was that the Soviets would overpower the weakened army and kill Emperor Hirohito. The Emperor of Japan was regarded as divine, so to lose the Emperor would have been such a blow to Japan as to be unthinkable. So they surrendered.

Hitler would not have been defeated without the Soviet Union

The combined might of the Allied forces was absolutely integral to the defeat of the Nazis. Every one of the countries who sent soldiers into that war played their part. The contribution made by Russia, however, is often overlooked or minimized in the West when compared to America and Britain's involvement. The fact is that the Soviets were absolutely integral to the defeat of the Nazis and they suffered far greater losses than any other force during the war.

While Stalin was no hero by any measure, his forces on the ground made an incredible sacrifice in fighting Hitler. As the Washington Post points out, the Soviets lost upwards of 11 million soldiers in the war. What's more, 26 million Russian civilians also lost their lives. British historian Max Hastings put it this way - the Red Army suffered 95% of the military casualties endured by the three major Allied forces.

What was paid for with all those Russian lives? The German suffered three-quarters of their wartime losses at the hands of the Soviet army. This included the battle at Kursk, which was the largest tank battle in the history of the world. The Russians caused irreparable damage to the Nazi war machine and allowed the rest of the Allies to overcome them in the end.

September 1st 1939 wasn't necessarily the start of the war

It's hard to discuss an event without having any clearly defined boundaries for it. You want to know when something started and ended to get a grasp on it and that's part of the reason why most history books will tell you that World War 2 started on September 1st, 1939. On that date, Germany invaded Poland which in turn caused Britain and France to declare war on them. That seems like a pretty solid "Oh crap, war!" moment. But it's not the only one.

There were numerous acts of war committed in the lead up to the generally recognized start of WWII in 1939. On September 18th, 1931, the Japanese army invaded Manchuria. They took over the region despite Chinese protests, installed a new government and went on to clash with China over the ensuing years. By 1937, a clash at the Marco-Polo bridge near modern-day Beijing kicked off an undeclared war between the nations, according to the BBC.

Elsewhere in the world, fascism was gaining the upper hand in Ethiopia when Italy declared war and invaded in 1935. Though the League of Nations was not a fan of this, they were also powerless to stop it, which resulted in Mussolini and his Hitleresque views gaining some legitimacy, according to Britannica. This lead to increased tensions across Europe and bolstered the Axis nations. It was a series of events, not just one act, that lead to war.

The Frence Resistance wasn't as effective as Hollywood made it seem

Looking back on the war, especially in films, there's a recurring theme related to the French Resistance. After France's surrender, there was naturally a movement within the country to stand against the Nazis and the Resistance has been heavily romanticized in film and novels like Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and even Inglorious Basterds.

Post-war, France declared they had been liberated from within but many historians are quick to arch an eyebrow over the claims that the Resistance was a massive, effective anti-Nazi machine. Most stories of the resistance come from France, the very country reeling from the humiliation of surrendering during the war. They needed to save face and would readily give in to exaggeration about the accomplishments of the Resistance in the face of the enemy. According to The Telegraph, the most common train of thought in France at the time was to just wait and see.

Historynet points out that most of the French population wanted nothing to do with any war and upwards of 90% of them either supported the regime collaborating with Germany or, at the very least, were too scared to do anything about it. Those that did resist were disorganized and lacked military leaders. They were intellectuals who opposed the regime through publishing propaganda and using their words - still bold at a time when such things would get you murdered. But they weren't Tarantino movie heroes either, for the most part.

Carrots did not actually improve the vision of WWII pilots

Did you ever learn in school that eating carrots will help improve your night vision? As the story goes, those carrots are chock full of vitamin A and vitamin A will give you the eyes of an eagle if you get enough of it in your diet. Vitamin A is so good at improving your vision, pilots in the Second World War used to eat carrots like it was going out of style to give them the edge over their adversaries at night. It's a cool story in its way, but it's also completely fabricated.

The truth was that the Royal Air Force in Britain had just begun using on-board radar technology which was cutting edge stuff at the time. To hide the secret of why their pilots were so effective during night time fighting, the Ministry of Information released a bogus story about the efficacy of carrots in improving night vision.

The curator of the World Carrot Museum, which is actually a thing, told the Smithsonian magazine that he has no evidence this ruse duped the Germans in any real way. That said, he is aware that the myth is extremely pervasive in Germany as well, and there are unverifed claims that pilots in Germany gave it a try. So even if the government didn't buy it, they were very well aware of it, and so was everyone else.

6 notes · View notes

itsaudreyhornebitch · 7 years

Text

Total Knock Out

*cheers excitedly* I'm so happy you're taking prompts! I had this idea for an AU where: Frank’s a famous boxer and Karen the sports reporter gets to interview him on live tv after his win and no one knows that they’re dating until he kisses her right before walking off for a shower (or smth) :') ♥♥

@frank-kastle

Karen looked wildly out of place—she was well aware of this fact. In truth, she’d gotten quite used to it; to sticking out like a sore thumb in a sea of inebriated, sweaty men, all yelling and jumping and carrying on like teenagers. With her pencil skirt and patent leather heels, she seemed like she belonged in a board room, not shoving past sloppy, drunk frat boys on her way to the locker room at Barclays.

In her early years working as a sports reporter for CBS NY, she had tried to blend in with the crowds: baseball cap, jersey, sneakers, jeans. She’d done the beer-in-the-hand, locker room talk, eating hot wings, ‘just one of the guys’ bit (as most female sports reporters do when they are just beginning), mostly in the hopes of gaining a little bit of respect. Of being treated like an equal, by fellow reporters and athletes alike. But she’d quickly learned that it didn’t matter how she dressed—or how competent she had proven herself to be, time and again—because as long as she had a pair of tits, respect was really out of reach. Despite her near-encyclopedic knowledge of sports history and statistics (baseball, basketball, football, boxing—you name it), she was still a woman. A tall, attractive, blonde woman; and that, apparently, outweighed every other fact about her. She was, she’d realized about a year into the job, no more than the “hot chick from CBS with the killer legs” (a direct quote from one of the players for the Mets who hadn’t realized his mic had been on).

So eventually she’d said “fuck it”—fuck all of it. Trying to dress the way she thought she should; trying to play the part of the “cool girl”; trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator, who wouldn’t even show her basic human decency. She was a professional—one who was fucking great at her job—so she was going to dress like one. Silk blouses, red lipstick, and an elegant updo. And fuck anyone who tried to demean or devalue her talents.

“Woah, woah, woah. Watch the equipment there, sport.” Foggy Nelson, who had been Karen’s camera man for the past five years, bumped into her side as he tried to avoid a man stumbling around with Frank Castle’s face on his t-shirt. “Fucking hate this part, walking through the crowds. It’s like nobody respects an expensive Hasselblad around here.” He cradled his camera close to his chest, protectively.

“Who could’ve possibly guessed that boxing fans weren’t all secretly AV equipment enthusiasts?” Karen threw over her shoulder sardonically, side-stepping a puddle of what looked suspiciously like vomit. She swatted at a hand that tried to grope her ass in passing, biting down bitter words.

“All I’m saying is that boxing matches are the worst. The crowds are always rowdier. And way drunker.” Foggy shook his head, trailing Karen in the path she was cutting through the mass of bodies. “Why couldn’t you cover something nice and mild? Like golf? Or badminton? I love badminton!”

“Because there’s no glory in being mild, Foggy.” Karen navigated them to a quiet hallway off to the side of the main lobby, slipping behind a door marked “Employees Only.” Foggy hesitated for a moment before following her—Karen always knew the back ways and secret passages in every arena and stadium they visited, though he had never asked how. Part of him liked to imagine that she spent her evenings poring over blueprints like a bank robber planning a heist. “You know the saying, Fog,” she ducked under a velvet rope clearly meant to keep people out, “no guts; no glory.”

“Yeah, but why does the guts part have to be so fucking literal?” Foggy grumbled. He hated boxing—hated it. The blood and the bruises and the teeth flying. It was all a little much for him. He preferred the quiet sports, like tennis and baseball, where the chances of someone spitting blood on the camera lens were far less likely.

Karen, on the other hand, lived for it. Had grown up watching boxing matches with her father and her brother; even took classes at the gym. So every time there was a big WBA event in need of coverage, Karen was the first to volunteer, dragging Foggy along for the ride.

And tonight’s match…well it was one for the record books.

Frank “The Punisher” Castle in a comeback match against Matt “The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” Murdock. As soon as the event had been announced, pay-per-view numbers had shot through the roof. Tickets to the live show were selling for the thousands; people who didn’t care about boxing were amped for the match. Even Foggy had been less reluctant about taking on the assignment than he had been with boxing matches in the past. It was that big of a deal.

Five years ago, Frank Castle had been the name on everyone’s tongues—a pure powerhouse of a boxer who could take a hit like nobody’s business. Classic slugger—unpredictable in the ring—lacking finesse, sure, but overwhelming in his ability to apply constant pressure to his opponent; unrelenting in the offense and impenetrable defensively. He’d seemingly come out of nowhere (though some sources claimed he’d worked his way through the underground circuit, which could never be conclusively proven), and brawled his way to the WBA’s number one spot, pound-for-pound. It was a meteoric rise, which Karen had followed obsessively.

Until three years ago, when he’d been injured in a shoot-out in Vinegar Hill. The story that had circulated for months after his injury was as follows: Frank, walking home from the gym one night, sees a young boy being mugged by a group of gang bangers. Having a touch of big-fucking-hero complex, he decides to intervene. Manages to take out three of the assailants before another crew of gang bangers shows up—the boy being mugged apparently one of their own. Guns are drawn—shots are fired—Castle ends up in the hospital with a bullet in the brain and three in the torso.

Three years in recovery—three long fucking years of physical therapy and re-training his body and itching to get back in the ring—all because he had decided to play vigilante. There were rumors that he would never fight again; that his body was beyond repair. But Frank ignored them all and set his sights on the impossible. Someone told him to stay down, and you could guarantee he wouldn’t listen. So he worked hard—and smart, with the help of his trainer, Curtis Hoyle—for three years, knowing that the world hadn’t seen the last of The Punisher. Not by a long shot.

In the meantime, with Castle out of commission, there had been a power vacuum in the world of NYC boxing. A number one spot in the WBA sitting empty, waiting for a new challenger to claim. Enter Matthew Murdock: an out-boxer with enough dexterity and agility to more than make up for his lack of pure voltage. His ascent to power had been much slower than Castle’s—he didn’t have the raw brawn that had made The Punisher so devastating in the ring. But he did have technique. A style of fast-paced, defensive fighting that was damn near impossible to copy. And soon enough, he had claimed the number one spot in the WBA, a new kind of champion.

Until tonight, when a returning Castle had gone 10 vicious rounds with Murdock, defeating him at the 40 minute mark with a brutal TKO, the likes of which the boxing world had never seen before. Murdock had been carried out on a stretcher.

It was the fight of the decade, and Karen was eager to get her interview with Castle, for more reasons than one.

They took several sharp turns, down one deserted hallway after the other, before suddenly emerging at the entrance to the locker room marked “Frank Castle,” which was being guarded by a brawny man in a tight, black t-shirt that read “Arena Security.”

Karen flashed her press badge as she approached the door.

“Sorry ma’am,” the guard shook his head. “No press for another half hour, at least. Castle’s recovering.”

“Oh, uh—” Karen flipped over her badge so that her name, in large, bold letters, was visible. “I’m Karen Page.”

“Oh!” The guard made a surprised little noise, and stepped to the side. “Sorry, Miss Page. I didn’t know it was you.”

“Quite alright,” Karen shook her head, reaching for the door knob. “Thank you.”

Foggy hoisted his camera on his shoulder and shook his head. It was another one of Karen’s little secrets—how she was mysteriously able to weasel her way to early access with some of the athletes. Frank Castle, especially. Every time they’d worked together to cover one of his matches—in the early days, before his injury—Karen found a way to get them into the locker room while other reporters waited behind in the press line. But he wasn’t going to question it—his job was just to point and shoot.

Frank looked up from his place on the bench as the door to the locker room opened; he squinted hard in an attempt to see through his left eye—the one not completely swollen shut. It had been about ten minutes since he’d stepped out of the rink, bloodied and victorious, which meant that it was still too early for press. For endless interviews and answering asinine questions, all while dreaming of a hot shower and a cold ice pack.

“Good showing out there, Castle.”

Frank grinned (in spite of his badly split lip) as soon as he heard her voice—Miss Karen Page, his favorite reporter from CBS NY. He managed to focus his good eye enough to get a look at her, pristine and lovely in her high heels and pressed blouse. Golden hair falling out of a sophisticated twist. Damn, but she looked like a dream.

“Well hello there, Miss Page.” He smirked, leaning back against the lockers, his head making a soft thudding sound as it hit metal. “First one on the scene, as always.”

“You know me,” Karen shrugged with a grin. “Gotta get first blood.”

“Well,” Frank spread his arms wide (and Karen couldn’t help the way her eyes darted to all those sweaty, glorious muscles on display), “plenty of blood to go around.”

“I can see that. You gonna get a medic in here for that eye? Looks like you broke the socket.” Karen took a step forward, raising her hand as though to reach out and touch his face. Thinking better of it, she let her arm fall to her side.

“You know me,” Frank mimicked Karen’s statement. “I’ll just rub some dirt on it.”

Foggy cleared his throat from the doorway, eyes flitting between the two with amusement. Frank Castle was notoriously difficult to interview; laconic, dismissive, and grumpy—getting him to answer a question with more than one sentence was like pulling fucking teeth. With everyone else but Karen, that is. As soon as she strolled onto the scene, all of the sudden Frank was a fucking professional, giving multiple-sentence answers and smiling at the camera like he was goddamn Regis Philbin. Foggy had seen enough painful, awkward footage of Frank shutting down interviewers to know that the way he acted with Karen was far outside the norm. And part of it was clearly due to Karen’s skill—that woman could get a Cistercian monk to talk—but part of it was due to the obvious affection Castle had for her. An affection that—again—it wasn’t really Foggy’s place to question.

“Oh, you remember Foggy?” Karen pointed at the disgruntled camera man, wearing his uniform of baggy, khaki cargo shorts and graphic t-shirt (this one had an image of Princess Leia doing the Rosie the Riveter pose, with the words “We Can Do It” over her head).

“Hey.” Frank grunted, bobbing his head in recognition.

“We’ve only got a minute before we go live, Kare. How do you want me to set this thing up?” Foggy removed the cover from his camera lens, squinting through the eye piece.

“Uh…” Karen glanced around, hands on her hips. “We can get it in front of Frank’s name on the locker. That okay? It’ll be a short interview—just a few questions—so you won’t have to stand for too long.” She looked at Frank, head tilted to the side.

“You can put me anywhere you want me, ma’am.” Frank suppressed a grin at the blush that began to creep its way up Karen’s neck.

“Uhm yes.” Karen cleared her throat, gesturing for Frank to stand. “How about right here?” She moved into position, smoothing a hand down her skirt.

Frank rose with a deep groan, feeling his body protest at the movement. Karen’s eyes immediately shaded with concern.

“You sure you’re okay? We can postpone for a bit if you need an ice pack or something.” This time she did reach out to touch him, putting a steadying hand on his arm as he sidled up next to her.

“Nah, I’m good.” He let his gaze dart down to her pale, delicate fingers on his skin, and felt the heat of it blaze a trail down his spine.

“Okay. But you pass out during this interview and I’ll never forgive you. It’s live, so we can’t edit it out.” Her voice was stern.

“Would make for great T.V. though.”

“True.” Karen pretended to consider for a moment. “Never mind. If you do pass out, give us a little warning so Foggy can get it all on tape.”

Frank snorted, then groaned again when his split lip began to throb.

“Sorry, sorry.” Karen hid a chuckle. “Won’t make you laugh again. I promise.”

“Okay, okay.” Foggy cut into the conversation, having finished setting up his equipment. He reached into his bag and tossed a microphone Karen’s way. She just barely managed to catch it. “Karen, turn that ear piece on.” She reached up to flick on the audio feed in her ear. “We’re rolling in 5, 4 , 3…” he trailed off, mouthing the last few numbers. Karen raised the microphone to her lips.

“Good evening, New York. I’m Karen Page for CBS NY, here in the locker room at Barclay Center with Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher, just minutes after his unbelievable victory over Matthew Murdock.” She shot a grin his way. “So tell me, Frank, how does it feel to be back in the ring after such a long recovery period?”

“Well, Karen.” Frank put a little something on her name—something that felt like affection. “Feels real good. Like coming home.” He shifted on his feet deliberately until his arm was brushing against hers. She raised a subtle eyebrow at the move.

“You certainly looked at home in the ring.” Karen turned her body toward him just a touch more, and Frank bit back a smirk. “Were you at all nervous about going up against Murdock’s singular brand of defense? Facing such an unfamiliar out-boxer with your style of slugging must have been a challenge.”

“Nah—wasn’t nervous.” Frank shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. It was a move that made his muscles bulge, and he counted it a victory that Karen’s eyes darted quickly—almost imperceptibly—to his pecs. “Curtis had been training me like the devil leading up to the fight, so I was really prepared for anything Murdock could throw at me.”

“Speaking of Curtis Hoyle,” Karen tucked an escaped strand of hair behind her ear, and Frank’s eyes tracked the move. He was a sucker for all that blonde hair. “I heard that he was instrumental in helping to speed along your recovery, after the unfortunate incident three years ago.”

“Yeah, definitely.” Frank bobbed his head in a nod. “Curtis kept me thinking about the future—focused on recovery. Worked with my physical therapist to create a training schedule. Brought me tapes of matches to study. A lot of Murdock’s matches, actually.”

“I’m sure it was difficult being bedridden while Murdock climbed the rankings. Do you think the idea of facing off against him kept you fighting to heal?”

“For sure.” Frank dropped his arms again, letting the right one lightly skim down Karen’s side as he did so. Her delicate shiver was glorious. “Thought a lot about getting to reclaim my title while I was training. Also thought a lot about all the people I missed seeing while I was out of commission—the fans, my favorite reporters,” the quirk of his lips was entirely too charming, “my fellow boxers. Focused on them and it made recovery a lot easier.”

“Well, we certainly are glad to have you back in the ring.” Karen’s eyes flicked to Foggy, who was giving her the 30 second signal. Time to wrap up the interview. “We’re going to let you hit the showers, now. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us at CBS NY.”

Frank couldn’t help it—he really couldn’t help it. Karen looked so damn gorgeous in her work clothes, with that serious expression on her face and her lips painted red for the camera. And he’d had enough of light teasing; of brushing against her like that was all he was allowed to do. He knew he wasn’t supposed to do it—that they were keeping their relationship under wraps for just a little bit longer—but he was helpless. When she turned those big, blue eyes on him—damn it—he really was a fool.

“Sure thing.” Frank smirked. “I’ll see you at home, sweetheart.” He ducked his head quickly, before Karen could react, and captured her lips with his own. She made a surprised squeak, hands flying up to press against his bare chest, before melting into the kiss ever so slightly.

“What the fuck?” Foggy’s whisper echoed in the quiet locker room.

Frank released Karen’s lips with a smack, winking at her devilishly before turning to head for the showers.

“I—uh—” Karen stuttered, turning to the camera with wide, dazed eyes. “I’m Karen Page and this is CBS NY sports.”

Foggy gave her the signal that they were off air, and they stared at each other for a long time. Speechless. Foggy looking bemused and Karen looking shell-shocked. The sound of the shower turning on in the background shook her from her brief catatonia.

“Uh…I can explain. We—he—uh,” She fumbled for words, but was cut off by Foggy.

“Oh my GOD, Karen Page! You are seeing The Punisher!” He laughed, slapping his thigh in joy. “Good on you!”

“Yeah, I…” Karen grinned. “Good on me.”

#kastle #karen page #frank castle #the punisher #request

79 notes · View notes

wellimaginethat · 7 years

Text

Safe Haven Chapter Two

Title: Safe Haven Chapter Two (Chapter One)

Pairing: John Wick x (female) Reader

Word Count: 2196

Author’s Note: I’m so sorry this took so long! I was having some family issues, so I had no time to write and only came on tumblr to look at cute things and do some reading. But, finally, here is chapter 2 and I have good news, which is chapter three is already in the works and should be posted within the next couple of days (maybe even tonight if nothing comes up) I’m not sure how I feel about the ending of this chapter, it kinda ends abruptly, I just knew that if I continued writing it would be 6k+ and I don’t really want any chapters over 3 or 4k, if it was a one shot that would obviously be different.

Trigger Warning(s): Heavy mentions of death, depression, leukemia, car accident, reader’s family is dead (sister’s death is why she is in the support group), suicidal feelings, drunk driving, and self harm. And this chapter includes the mention of the jerk of an ex that left reader after her sister died. So you've been warned.

Disclaimer: I do not own John Wick nor am I in any way involved with the franchise. I do not run a support group called Safe Haven, and I am not sure if there is one named Safe Haven, if so; I am not involved with them and never have been. I obviously don’t own you cause you’re your own person.

Summary: He’s joined the group, but he never imagined that he would make friends there. Now the only reason he continues to go is because of someone special.

Y/N = Your Name Y/S/N = Your Sister’s Name (the deceased sister in the fic) Y/EX/N = Your Ex Boyfriend’s Name (because I’m obviously not creative enough to come up with one) Italics = Flashbacks

Third Person POV (whole chapter)

He’d been attending the meetings for a few months now. He was still trying to figure this out, it wasn’t like how support groups seemed on TV, all sad and depressing. It was actually very light and open, everyone was kind to each other and genuinely seemed to care for one another, and they’d welcomed him immediately, despite his dark and mysterious aura and his less than willingness to share.

But eventually, he did share. And it actually made him feel a little better, being able to talk to people who knew what he was going through, who had gone through the same thing or something similar.

He even made friends with some of the other attendees, Fred (who was friends with practically everyone), Janice (which honestly shocked most, because she wasn’t one to warm up to people, probably due to people treating her like shit for most of her life) and you. He was still trying to figure you out. He’d figured out everyone else. Becky, Fred, Matthew, even Janice, and she was a helluva character.

Becky was a widow and mother of two, having lost her husband and oldest child, a son, in a car accident years ago and had started the support group to cope. Her daughter was part of the support group in the beginning, but eventually gotten married and moved away, leaving Becky all alone. She seemed happy though, like she had come to peace with her misfortune. She said that she still kept in touch with her daughter, who visited multiple times throughout the year with her husband and children, and that she had Dave.

Dave was the man who’d answered the phone when John had first called the support group, they had met his second meeting. He’d lost his mother when he was young child still, and his father passed when he was a teen. Leaving him all on his own until he met Becky through some miracle, as he called it.

Fred, on first glance, seemed like a typical sports dad. He had three kids, a boy and two girls, all in some kind of sport. His son played football and basketball, and his daughters played soccer and softball. But, if you looked deeper, talked to the guy, you’d find out that he had four kids, until his oldest took her own life. After that, everything started to spiral out of control, his wife left him and the remaining three kids. His son quit playing sports and almost dropped out of school. His daughters were too young to really know what was going on, so he thanked God for that. Eventually he started to put things back together and what was remaining of his family was working through it.

Matthew was mourning the loss of his fiancee, who died suddenly a week before they were supposed to get married. Luckily, his wife’s family still treated him like he was family and that helped him some, but he still grieved, so his mother in law suggested the support group.

And Janice, probably the toughest nut in the whole group, besides John himself. Was grieving the loss of her girlfriend. They were all each other had, and she had been stolen from her by some drunk who wouldn’t give up his keys after having too much to drink. Now, all she had was the group.

Finally, you. You’d been going to the meetings for about six months when he started attending them. Your uncle had practically forced you too, being the only family you had left he kinda kept an eye on you, which you appreciated. You’d lost your parents when you were young, leaving you and your little sister to live with your grandparents until you had graduated college and gotten a job so you could get your own apartment. It was three years after you and your sister moved into your own apartment that she got the heartbreaking news that the leukemia had come back, and she survived two years before it stole her from you. Leaving you on your own, now the city that you loved so much, the one that held so many great memories, also held so much pain and you just wanted to leave it all behind and get a fresh start.

John could understand why you’d want a fresh start, and he could understand that you were torn because even though this city held so many happy memories, it held so much pain. He was felt the same way at times, wondering if he should just pick up everything and disappear from the city, start over somewhere else.

-----

You weren’t dense, or stupid, quite the opposite actually. You could tell that John wasn’t exactly who he claimed to be. You could sense that he was hiding something. You’d seen, over the course of a few weeks, a couple of meetings, that he’d changed slightly; in both appearance and attitude. The first meeting, he was distant and somewhat cold, he’d told you all about the loss of his wife, but he didn’t mention her name or how long they’d been married, not that either of those things really mattered, but most of you would talk about your loved one and the time you’d spent together. He seemed to want to give as little detail as possible.

“So, John, would you like to share with us your loss?” Becky asked in that gentle way that reminded you of a grandmother comforting her injured grandchild.

John seemed to be frozen for a moment, not out of being put on the spot or nervousness about speaking in front of the group (like you had been the first time you spoke). It seemed like he was contemplating whether this had been a good idea, coming to the group. Like he was almost regretting his decision in that moment. But, then he glanced around and took a deep breath, running a hand over his face before staring down at the floor.

“My wife…” He started out lowly. “She was sick, for a long time, before we got together. She knew she would end up...passing...but I...I actually had hope that she’d overcome it. That we’d grow old together...that I’d go first.” The last part was so quiet you were certain that most of the group hadn’t heard him.

Now, it was different. He had slowly began to open up more to the group, slowly became more comfortable. You’d also noticed he didn’t wear as much black. It was like he was just now coming out of his mourning period, slowly but surely. In the last few weeks, you’d learned more about him. His wife’s name was Helen, they’d been married for six years before she passed away, and it had been two years since then. You found out that before she died, she had arranged for a puppy to be delivered to him, and that it was delivered to him a few days after her funeral. Only for the puppy to suddenly die, he didn’t tell you how. And that he’d gotten himself a new dog, adopted it from a shelter.

Slowly, you’d started to befriend John. It started with you running into him and spilling a cup of water all over him.

You had to walked to the meeting again because your car was an unreliable piece of junk, and you were thirsty as hell. You just managed to get there five minutes before the meeting was going to start, ‘better the being late’ you thought to yourself as you walked over to get a cup of water.

As you walked you took notice of who was there and who wasn’t, everyone there had been there before, the group hardly ever got new members. John was the newest member, and before him you held the title of ‘newest member’ and by that time you’d been coming to the meetings for a good six months.

You took your attention off the group as you walked to the water cooler and took one of the small paper cups there. You didn’t know if it was because you were so consumed in your own thoughts, or if he was just a super sneaky guy, but you didn’t here him come up behind you to wait to get a cup of water and you end up running right into him, managing to spill the water on him and yourself.

“I’m so sorry!” You exclaimed immediately, not noticing all the eyes on you. “I didn’t hear you come up behind me and I am so sorry!” You spoke quickly, starting to ramble out an even longer apology.

“It’s fine, really.” John assured you as he began to dab some of the water off his shirt. “You don’t need to be sorry.”

The rest of the night you couldn’t even look at him because it made you want to apologize for spilling water on him, and you tried to avoid the eyes of the other members because you were embarrassed by your clumsiness.

It was after the meeting that he caught up with you and you’d tried to apologize again, only for him to again tell you it was fine and say something about him being ‘too quiet’. When he saw that you didn’t have a ride home, he offered to give you one, but you turned him down saying you didn’t mind walking, when in reality you were still too embarrassed from earlier.

You didn’t know when it happened, but soon the two of you were pretty good friends. You two had an odd friendship, it started suddenly and it almost felt like you’d known each other for longer than four months.

You’d take turns going over to each other’s place to have dinner, you’d watch movies and talk about random stuff. And slowly, you found a reason to stay in New York.

Going to the meetings had been helping you, you knew that, you could feel it. But befriending John had helped you as well, it brought you back to life in a way, you’d even started hanging out with some friends you’d been neglecting since your sister’s death.

“Earth to Y/N.” John waved his hand in front of your face. “Where’d you go? I lost you for a second.”

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something.” You mumbled, you’d actually been thinking about your ex, who’d recently tried coming back into your life. Saying that ‘now you’ve had time to grieve, we can start over’. You honestly hadn’t noticed how lonely your life had become until after you’d actually started doing things again, things instead of go to work. It’s like you had been on autopilot since Y/S/N’s death. You would wake up, go to work, go home. You were sure you’d eat sometime throughout the day, but you honestly couldn’t remember exact events during that time. It was after you started hanging out with John, and your old friends, especially Y/EX/N, that you had realized that you had actually been in a depression. How you didn’t noticed it sooner was beyond you.

“You wanna talk about it?” John asked you, pulling you further from your thoughts.

You let out a slow sigh as you thought if you wanted to tell him, it seemed silly to you that you were even thinking about going back to your ex, he had left you in your time of need, after all. “My ex boyfriend called me yesterday.” He waited for you to continue and after a moment you did. “He wants to get back together.”

“Okay...I’m not sure I’m following.” John wasn’t about to flat out say that if he was an ex there was probably a good reason for it.

“I’m not sure how I should feel about it, because we had been together for a long time, almost three years...but he also left me when I needed him most.” John raised a brow, but he was certain he already knew when this jerk had left you. “Right after I buried my sister, he waited until after the funeral, and told me he did so because he didn’t want to seem insensitive.”

John snorted and went back to stirring whatever food he was making tonight, you’d been surprised when you found out that not only could he cook, but he could actually cook really well. “Doesn’t seem like the kind of person going back to in my opinion.”

You sighed. “I know...but when I heard him...it was like he actually regretted leaving me.” You were honestly torn, and you hadn’t felt this down or confused in a while. It should have been a sign right then that your ex wasn’t worth it, already dampening your finally improved mood.

John gave you a serious look, which wasn’t much different from how he usually looked because he just had a seriousness about him. “If you honestly feel like he regrets what he did, and you want to give him a second chance, then you should.”

#john wick x reader #reader x john wick #John Wick #john wick imagine #imagine john wick #tw cancer #tw self harm #tw leukemia #tw car accident #tw suicidal thoughts #tw depression #tw drunk driving #story: Safe Haven

37 notes · View notes

adambstingus · 6 years

Text

5 Reasons Wrestling Fans Are Giving Up On The WWE

In the late 1990s, something weird happened that made everyone suddenly start giving a crap about wrestling. It was called “The Monday Night Wars,” and it basically boiled down to this: Two wrestling programs went head-to-head every Monday night in a battle to nut-slap each other out of existence. What made it so damn addicting was that you could watch these organizations being pricks to each other in real time. They poached each others’ stars on a regular basis. WCW would announce WWF spoilers live on the air to prevent people from switching over to their show (which was taped). Hell, at one point, WWE sent a group of wrestlers to interrupt WCW’s live broadcast, which was being performed in the next town over.

Eventually, Vince McMahon won. He bought WCW, and that was that. Unfortunately, ratings have been dying ever since, and they recently admitted during an interview that they don’t know how to fix it.

I do.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’ve never worked in the industry. The only people I’ve ever wrestled didn’t know it was going to happen until I pounced on them. I don’t know how contracts work or the process they use for creating an episode of RAW. But I do know what made me start watching wrestling, what made me continue watching wrestling, and what eventually made me say “Fuck wrestling.” And I know a whole titload of people who feel the same way. The short version is that WWE has lost sight of what makes a TV show (not just a wrestling show) interesting. The long version is a lot more complex. So for the people who aren’t afraid of words, let’s break that down …

#5. The “Creative Department” Basically Doesn’t Exist

Some time around 2008, the WWE switched its content from beer, cursing, blood, and ass to a TV-PG rating. Wrestling fans love to speculate as to why that happened, but there’s no single underlying reason. You could easily write several books on possible causes, ranging from the double-murder/suicide of Chris Benoit the previous year to an attempt to clean up so they could sell more toys and video games. They’re a publicly-traded company with stockholders to protect. So be it. But there’s a reason I’m bringing this up, and it’s a pretty important point.

When fans talk about how the Attitude Era was so much better (and they talk about it constantly), they often attribute its high ratings to the adult-oriented content. While I’m sure that cursing and titties did play a role in its popularity, what they forget to factor in (aside from the fact that the Monday Night War itself was a huge selling point) was that in that era, every major character had a storyline. Stone Cold was fighting back against a corrupt boss who was actively trying to keep him from becoming the face of the company. The Undertaker had a dark secret from his past: a little brother, whom he thought had died in a fire, was found to be alive and coming for revenge. Mick Foley was slowly going insane and developing split personalities. He was easily manipulated by Vince McMahon, and was being used as a pawn in a greater plot.

Nobody does a “fuck your mother” look quite like Vince.

It sounds silly, doesn’t it? Then again, Star Wars was about a boy with space magic and a sword made out of light who defeated his robot father with love. The point is that everyone had a deeper motivation than just “I want to be the champion.”

I can’t remember the last good storyline in the modern era of wrestling. They’ve started a few, but it doesn’t feel like anyone in the company knows how to follow through and deliver on them. For instance, they created a mysterious redneck cult called “The Wyatt Family” who are super creepy. They often speak in vague, ominous riddles, which is pretty cool, because it makes you want to stick around to see what it all means. For months, the WWE built up their coming debut, and when they finally arrived, it was pants-shittingly awesome:

So they’re coming after Kane? Awesome. Why? What do they want with him? In the following weeks, we’d find out that they were going to show him the true meaning of the word “fear,” and they were going to turn him into the demon that they know he is. Even more awesome. So they’re going to recruit him into their cult? Turn him to the Dark Side?

Nope, they had a match, and after the Wyatts won, the plot was over. Kane didn’t join their cult. The Wyatts didn’t progress into a bigger, better story. It turns out that Kane just needed some time off to go film See No Evil 2, and having the Wyatts “injure” him was a means of explaining his absence from TV.

Keep in mind, this is the most interesting story they’ve had in several years. The majority of the others boil down to, “I want to win this match because I can wrestle better than you.” They set up a match between The Rock and John Cena one year in advance, based entirely on the storyline “John Cena talked shit about me.” That’s not an exaggeration. That was the whole story: a “meet me in the playground after school” beef. And what that tells us as fans is, “If these two extremely popular guys wrestle each other, you will buy tickets or subscribe to our network, no matter what.” I’ve put more effort into wiping my ass than the “creative” team put into that booking, and that’s become par for the course in the WWE.

So how do they fix that? A good start would be to come up with defined stories for every single person who enters that ring. Give them a reason to be there. Hell, give us a reason to be there — make us come back next Monday because we have to find out what happens next. This isn’t some radical idea. This is TV 101. It’s something they understood back in the Attitude Era, and I’m blown away that they don’t understand it now.

#4. There Is No Longer Any Suspense Or Surprise

In the industry (and for hardcore fans), championship titles mean one thing: This is the person the WWE has marked as the company’s highest standard. For most other fans, it is a prop. It’s the reward that a hero receives for overcoming the odds and defeating the villain, or the trophy a villain receives for being extra good at evil. Either way you look at it, whoever holds that title is the good guy or the dickhole, as both a performer and a character.

There’s a very simple formula that all of wrestling has used since the invention of pay-per-view, and it goes something like this. Good guy wrestles bad guy every week for a month. He loses most of those matches because the bad guy is a cheating asshole. They then have a match at a pay-per-view, and the good guy finally wins the title. The audience feels vindicated. Now, you either up the ante for their story and take it to the next level, or that match becomes the ending point to their feud, and you introduce a brand-new story with a brand-new dickhole.

And you know his name is Chad.

It doesn’t always play out that way, but that’s the general idea. It’s Pavlovian; you feel good when the hero wins, so you keep coming back for that payoff. It’s emotional heroin. It’s a way to coax people into buying tickets, and it totally works. If you’re going to see a title change hands, you’re going to see it there, so you might as well buy a ticket and see it firsthand, right? Actually, it’s not quite that simple.

Let’s go back to 1999, when WWE hit their highest ratings. Because of the Monday Night War, both companies had to constantly surprise the audience. They were forced to do something every week that, if you missed it, made you think, “FUCK! Why did I pick that night to feed my kids?!” The easiest way to accomplish that was by throwing away the old pay-per-view payoff format and make new champions on the totally free TV show. That year, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship changed hands 12 times. Six of those times happened on regular TV.

In 2015, the title changed hands four times (two of which happened in the same pay-per-view). Of those four, exactly one happened on RAW. In fact, if you don’t count the one time they held a tournament to claim a vacated title, the last time a heavyweight championship was “legitimately” fought for and won by a challenger on regular TV was November of 2010. Before that, June of 2009. Before that, July of 2006. Before that, September of 2003.

And the belts are really weird-looking now.

But that’s the big title, right? What about the Intercontinental Championship? It’s not as important in the eyes of regular fans, so there should be more flexibility in moving it around. In 1999, that one changed hands 10 times (technically 11, but that’s the year Owen Hart died, so there was a special circumstance involved). Five of those were on TV. In 2015, it happened five times — only one of them wasn’t on a pay-per-view.

So what am I tuning in for, exactly? There aren’t any compelling storylines, so it’s definitely not for that. I’m not being surprised by an underdog coming out of nowhere and upsetting the champion. Any time they introduce a match and say, “This is for the title,” I can say with near-certainty that the title is staying right where it is. You can predict the outcome of those matches before they even start. It takes away 100 percent of the suspense. At that point, I’m just watching two guys pretending to fight … and that’s just kind of weird.

If the WWE wants people to start giving a crap again, they’re going to have to reintroduce the element of surprise. If not with the championship titles, then at least with some good old-fashioned heel turns (good guy suddenly turns bad) or face turns (bad guy suddenly becomes good). That used to be a weekly occurrence back in the height of wrestling’s popularity, but now they follow the same rules as title switches, which is “NOPE! If you want to see that, you’ll PAY for it, fucker!”

#3. There’s Something Modern Wrestlers Don’t Understand About Their Roles

One of the most valuable assets in all of wrestling, regardless of the company, is a good heel. Someone the fans genuinely hate. It’s a lot harder than it sounds, because a lot of guys who try end up sounding like an actor who’s playing the role of a villain, instead of a man with genuine disdain for the audience. The person who can do that is vital because when he finally gets the shit kicked out of him by the hero, the audience feels retribution. His defeat is their reward for tuning in week after week. He is an emotional catalyst.

But there’s a second part to that role. Given enough time, most heels will inevitably develop a following. Or another wrestler will need to take over that spot in order to prevent the show from becoming a bucket of dead squid. At that point, the villain needs to flip and turn into the hero. Very few people are able to do that.

For example, here’s what Alberto Del Rio looks like as a heel:

Every part of that is fucking vile. Not just his actions — beating up a lowly ring announcer — but also the look on his face, the sound of his punches and kicks, the way he smugly holds up his belt to the crowd as if to say, “There’s not a goddamn thing you can do about it.” Watching that makes you want to hurt him.

That is what Alberto Del Rio was born to do: Be a remorseless punching machine. He plays the part of an evil turd perfectly. Here’s what he looks like as a babyface:

Every part of that is fucking vile. Not just his ridiculous “I’m a good guy now” speech, but also the way the words unnaturally flop out of his stupid suckhole. The fake gas station manager’s smile. Trying so hard to convince us that he’s on the level. He wasn’t trying to trick the audience there — he’s just that bad at playing a babyface. Watching that makes you want to hurt him.

Now I want you to take a look at Stone Cold Steve Austin as a heel:

That’s a pretty damn good heel. It feels like he’s going to come right out of the screen and kick your ass, just for having the gall to watch him on TV. Let’s see what he looks like as a babyface:

Oh. Well, hell. It’s almost like he kept the same exact ass-kicker attitude, except he pointed that aggression toward established heels instead of established faces. Huh. That’s weird. I thought that when a wrestler went from villain to hero, he had to put on a big-ass smile and give everyone an enthusiastic thumbs-up. I mean, I know that Stone Cold became one of the biggest stars the WWE has ever seen, but surely he was a fluke, right? Nobody else could make that work …

This is why people have a hard time accepting guys like The Big Show, Roman Reigns, and John Cena as babyfaces. When they’re playing heels (or at least thugs), all three of those guys can pull off “scary ass-kicker.” We know that when they enter the ring, someone’s getting skull-fucked. But when they switch roles and become babyfaces, they turn into smiling, thumbs-up, pandering jackasses, and it’s embarrassing. It’s not that the audience doesn’t believe in them as good guys. It’s that we don’t want them representing us.

Let me put it this way, because this is a huge topic of debate among wrestling fans:

The hero in that ring represents the audience. He or she is a projection of who we want to be. They’re not just defeating the villain for their own purposes … they’re saving us from his bullshit. When we see ourselves projected into the spot of the good guy, we want that representation to be badass. We don’t want to be Superman. We want to be Wolverine or Deadpool or Punisher. Sometimes, Bugs Bunny:

The people who want to see John Cena turn heel aren’t just saying it because they’re sick of him playing Superman. That’s a big factor, but it’s not the whole reason. A huge part of their argument is that they know what happens when you take a stale, played-out babyface and inject him with ruthless brutality and anger: He becomes unpredictable, he becomes a threat … he becomes interesting. Then, after a year or two, when you finally switch him back to the hero role, he keeps that ruthless attitude, and we back him 100 percent. Every guy in the videos I linked above has gone through it, and it made them better characters.

But what you don’t do is start high-fiving audience members and sucking their assholes for cheap pops. Am I right, people of beautiful NORTH CAROLINA?! The second a babyface starts doing that is the second we start firing up the “boooooring” chants.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/5-reasons-wrestling-fans-are-giving-up-on-the-wwe/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/174253353677

0 notes

allofbeercom · 6 years

Text

5 Reasons Wrestling Fans Are Giving Up On The WWE

I do.

#5. The “Creative Department” Basically Doesn’t Exist

Nobody does a “fuck your mother” look quite like Vince.

#4. There Is No Longer Any Suspense Or Surprise

And you know his name is Chad.

And the belts are really weird-looking now.

#3. There’s Something Modern Wrestlers Don’t Understand About Their Roles

For example, here’s what Alberto Del Rio looks like as a heel:

That is what Alberto Del Rio was born to do: Be a remorseless punching machine. He plays the part of an evil turd perfectly. Here’s what he looks like as a babyface:

Now I want you to take a look at Stone Cold Steve Austin as a heel:

Let me put it this way, because this is a huge topic of debate among wrestling fans:

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/5-reasons-wrestling-fans-are-giving-up-on-the-wwe/

0 notes