#s7 was so focused on markets like. so so much

[single-malt-scotch]

i kno theres a lot of comparison for Good Season between s9 and s7 and i love them both bc they really have entirely different vibes. they cant be the same. i dont think its fair to say why one was better than the other but rather recognize what is different about them and think about the numerous things done and why they worked well, potentially thinking about what would be nice to see going forward.

s7 was interesting bc it isnt unlike s9 in having some kind of central location and then hermits spreading out from there, as well of the numerous 'events' that occurred.

i think a central area is key... not just spawning in the same place together, but spawning there and establishing something there. s9's spawn blossoming in that spot with everyone's small starter homes was lovely because it basically made a small neighborhood. it seemed natural to make a little starter base to prepare and live in before going off to build a potentially bigger base imo. my favorite thing about s9 (kind of s8 simply because of proxy voice) is the excitement and chaos of starting and everyone bumping into each other and poking fun etc and i think spawn is a key part of that! its what i look forward to most for the start of a season.

in terms of events, its something the hermits were very good at in s7 and naturally did in s9 again. events are good. they allow collabs between bigger numbers! i cant even count all the events on each season but i realize i feel there is like... a 'roleplay-ish' event and some kinda game event lol. and strangely we had two events that had to do with controlling a district/server etc (s7 mayor and s9 king). which is just coincidence. but, this kinda back and forth of funny 'lets play pretend" to some degree can be amusing to watch and i dont mind it, but its the way that its played out that matters. s7 mayor was pretty simple and didnt effect other people too hard (it was on a much smaller scale tbh), whilst ren's king arc was incredibly involved!! and that is NOT an insult (i think it was done decently in a way where ppl not involved did not have weird video situations of being confused or left out-- they could ignore it easily).

it is just wild to see the progression of work done between these events these ppl created. honestly no matter the ups and downs of the king arc i cannot applaud ren enough for everything he did, it was insane. this is to say-- i wouldnt doubt a pattern potentially coming through-- playing pretend in a way thats a bit more than just a prank war, and obviously making silly games. games are really The staple of the server and the way people get together to have fun. my only wish would be to not have another mayor/king/etc arc lol. i dont think thatll be an issue.

i think what stands out for both season are the things some hermits make that arent mini games or just a little play pretend, but the long going events that get people involved for a longer period-- s7's button, tag, head games, decked out or the base trade. s9's decked out, tcg, mumbo's new button, ren's quests, etc... and i imagine they will all come up with new things again. s9 at least to me felt like it lacked some of that but its probably more because the ones that did come up lasted a long time inbetween giving hermits more time to work on their builds. but they all came in waves that felt fitting. let a thing happen for a while, it slows down, people spend time more specifically working on their base. rinse repeat. i guess in some ways it felt 'organized' but i can see how it maybe didnt work for some people-- some didnt like watching tcg and when it was the main focus, some people didnt watch. same goes with decked out.

and of course, across both seasons, its always a toss up on how "complete" is feels. and my prespective is less of who completes what, but instead how the season potentially affected their ability to work on their stuff. of course there are all kinds of irl things that affect them too so i cant judge this as if i know everything. s9 felt kind of linear? again, in the sense of how larger scale events were spaced out. and i feel like ppl were given good spans of time to work on their stuff. really, it just seemed like irl things is what slowed some people down towards the end, especially when the pauses between things like tcg and decked out were spent dealing with irl, and then returning because of those events. at least from my perspective, s7 felt a bit more chaotic in terms of this pacing due to the randomness of events and the fact they would often take them away from their bases. i dont actually feel like anyone worked less on their bases in s7 than s9, but the big things that happened were not at all paced the same way as they were in s9 (it sometimes made me feel like they werent making much progress at all even though they were lol).

it is interesting taking a look at these two seasons because i think they had a lot of the same stuff, but both went about it differently. i think these two seasons define the hermits very well-- the kinds of stuff they do, the stuff they enjoy, and what they tend to keep doing. assuming s10 doesnt get some kind s8 treatment i can only see this one going forward just as well as the previous. and i hope as well to see some very interesting new ideas from after the insane massive works like tcg and decked out 2.

[ooops-i-arted]

Hey! I found your blog the other day because I was salty and looking through fandom opinions to make myself even saltier. You said something about Ahsoka that made me stop dead. I had to read it several times just to be sure and even then I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was alone in not liking Ahsoka - this entire fandom is set on making her out to be this ✨Super Awesome Special Best Girl Who Does Everything Right All The Time✨ and those are literally the only opinions you hear about her. But right from her introduction I didn’t like her. That’s a rant for another time, but I’m just going to leave it at how I’m so confused by her personality. She grew up in the Temple, right? So why is she so Rebellious™️? Why does she wear a crop top and mini skirt? Why’s she so sassy and rude to people? That’s not normal Padawan behaviour no matter what anyone says. They were just trying to find a marketable character for a children’s show and gave her the personality of every Nickelodeon American Teen Protagonist!

Welcome to the fold, new sibling. Have some candy, we like to share here in the Ahsoka Haters Club. >o<

I think you hit the mark on focusing on making her ~relatable to the Youths~ in her intro more than making sense for her character/how a real teenager would act. (Sabine and Ezra felt much more natural to me in that aspect.) I also think part of the issue is something soooo many female characters are forced into - male-dominated fandoms like this tend to be hostile to women (see: Ahsoka's debut period, Rey, Rose, Cara Dune before those types realized the actress was One Of Them, the Kotor fans who are intensely against female Revan or sexualize Mission, etc) so the creator(s) go overboard in trying to make them appealing to that particular loud section of fandom. So Ahsoka wears age- and character-inappropriate clothes*, she's snarky and sassy and "one of the guys." And in this rare case, it worked. She was eventually assimilated. Notice how she's replaced Padme in 99% of official and fandom merch? Padme, a character who is reduced to "sadness" or "fashion icon" (neither as easy to box up and tie with a neat Girlboss bow despite her demonstrated political activism and combat prowess) aka has actual character traits and flaws, reacts to things in a not-always-appealing-to-fandom way but in a way that makes sense for her character, is written to be multifaceted and not just designed to appeal to the common majority? Huh.

(Leia's "she's not a princess anymore she's a general" thing also felt that same way to me and rubbed me the wrong way, but Leia largely escaped Girlbossification because she was already a fully realized character in her own right, and also being created before the internet-style fandom probably helped.)

*Apparently we can lay that at the feet of George "there is no underwear in space" Lucas though. Once Filoni took over Ahsoka started wearing MUCH better outfits. Credit where it's due. (Ripping off Gandalf for your shitty oc still sucks though, let's be clear. But contrast her Rebels and TCW S7 looks with her tube top or cocktail dress for example. And as someone who had boobs about Ahsoka's size at her age, a tube top wouldn't cut it for marching band let alone lightsaber combat. Her first look was AWFUL.)

[thelovelylolly]

Not all the same

Request (by @emilaa2001​ ) : Oh god, I loved what u did with my last request! Could you do Anakin x reader (I feel the need to specify that I want tcw Anakin, since movie one is different) where reader's parents were killed by Jedi (by accident, similar to what happened to ahsoka's friends from s7) and she doesn't trust them. However Anakin is stuck on some planet with no signal and any living inhabitants and tries to convince the reader to help him, thank u UwU, if u don't want to do it it's okay anyway ❤️❤️❤️

Summary : You were only 13 when your parents were killed by jedi, so you had to grow up doing everything yourself and surviving alone. Everyday, your hatred for jedi grew. You had a grudge against them for what they did to you, but you lived on a remote planet that was rarely visited by jedi so you couldn’t take out your anger on them. Until one day when a jedi knight became stranded near your home.

Warnings : Mentions of minor of injury, but it isn’t much. Also I used Y/N in this

Notes : First fic for Anakin!! Thank you for sending in the request!!!! Of course I’ll do it! I hope you like it

Your life, for the most part, was very quiet and peaceful. Ever since your parents were killed when you were just a teenager, you’ve learned how to survive by yourself. But they were killed by jedi, the people who were suppose to be peacekeepers and kind and protect others. You used to live on Coruscant, you were born and raised there. You planet hopped after your parents were gone until you found your current home. 

The planet was quiet, not much activity with the war and all. There was one major city but it would usually take half a day to get to from where your home was. You had a decent sized farm so you could feed yourself and sell at the market to make some credits. Your actual house was small. There was one main room with a kitchen and sitting area, a bathroom and a actual bedroom. Beside the house was a shed where you would store food, tools, weapons and more.

You had just arrived home from a day at the market in the main city, tired and ready to hit the hay. But first you had to unload your speeder and put everything away. You groaned as you unmounted your speeder and started to grab your things off of it. 

After putting your tools, weapons, and stand items away, you went inside and quickly got ready for bed. You made yourself a quick meal, changed into something a bit more comfortable then immediately went to your bedroom. In your bedroom, there was a decent sized window that faced a large field being framed by mountains. You pulled your curtains closed and turned off your lamp, slowly drifting off to sleep.

A loud noise coming from outside woke you up. You quickly opened your curtains and saw a ship wrecked in the middle of the field. You grabbed a weapon just in case, went outside and mounted your speeder, speeding off to the wreck. 

You reached the ship after a few minutes. There was a small fire near the engine but everything else was fine. You spotted the pilot in the cockpit and ran over to get them out. You pried open the cockpit and pulled the pilot out, dragging him over to your speeder. He looked like he was only knocked out with a few bruises so you loaded him onto your speeder and went back to your home.

---------------------------------------------------------

 Anakin opened his eyes slowly, blinking a few times. His head hurt and his body felt slightly sore. Last night his ship ran out of fuel mid flight and he had to crash his ship on a planet. Now he didn’t have a way to contact his master or anything. Anakin groaned and sat up, looking around. It was a small room, enough for one, with a window on the opposite wall.

You pushed the curtain that separated your room and the main area aside, some water in your hand. “You’re awake. I went to check your ship and if you go to the main city, you can get it fixed. Here’s some water.” You said, handing the man the cup.

“Thank you. How far away is the city?”

“A half day’s trip. What’s your name?”

“Anakin. You?” 

“Y/N.” You replied. A growl came from outside, causing both of you to look at the window. “Oh great.” You said sarcastically, grabbing your staff and going outside. 

Anakin followed you outside where he saw you standing in front of three weird creatures. He stepped in front of you and activated his lightsaber, the blue light and the noise scaring off the creatures. But it didn’t scare you. 

You hit Anakin in the back of the head with your staff, causing him to hit the ground. “Why did you hit me?! I was trying to protect you!”

“You’re a jedi. Your kind killed my parents.” You spat, going back inside.

“Wait, wait, wait! I didn’t kill your parents, and I’m sure the jedi who did, did it accidentally.” Anakin replied, following you inside. You pushed him back out.

“Go away. I don’t want you here. You can have fun trying to get back to your war.” 

“Please! I need your help!”

“Anakin...Anakin Skywalker right? The supposed chosen one and fantastic pilot? I think you can fix your ship yourself.” You said, leaning against your door frame.

“Please. I’ll do anything for some help.” Anakin begged. You looked at him and rolled your eyes.

“Fine. But I’m not gonna be nice.” You said.

---------------------------------------------------------

You actually found some tools in your shed and the two of you went over to Anakin’s ship. The two of you began working on repairing the ship in silence.

“Were your parents good people?” Anakin asked out of nowhere.

You sighed. “Yes, they were so caring and kind. I watched them get killed. A jedi was deflecting some blaster bolts and two of them hit my parents.”

“I’m so sorry. My...my mother died in my arms.”

“And your dad?”

“Never knew him, or had one. My mother said the force gave me to her.” Anakin answered. Silence sat between you two again, focusing on the job at hand. It wasn’t much work, just some rewiring and other things.

Until you heard speeders approaching. You and Anakin turned around and saw some bandits park their speeders a few feet away. “Looks like we struck a deal, a ship to loot and what looks like a fight.” One said.

Anakin stood between you and the bandits, igniting his lightsaber. “And a jedi? Today just keeps getting better and better!” The bandit from before added.

“Leave us alone. We’re just trying to fix my ship, this is none of your business.” Anakin said.

“You made it our business when you crashed in our valley, pal.” Another bandit spoke up.

“This isn’t your valley. I’m the only one who lives here, if you have a problem you can bring it to me.” You chimed in, readying your staff for a fight. The bandits laughed at you while pulling their blasters out. 

“You have a staff, we have blasters! What are you gonna do?” 

“This.” You said, jumping into action. You ran past Anakin and started to attack the bandits, using your staff to hit the blasters out of their hands. The other bandits started to shoot at you, causing Anakin to block the blaster bolts with his saber. You pressed your backs together, fighting off the bandits.

Eventually, the bandits ran away. You cheered in victory, laughing and giving Anakin a hug. Anakin hugged you back, deactivating his lightsaber and placing it on his belt. You came to your senses and pulled away.

“Umm, sorry. Your ship should be ready to go, just enough fuel to fly a little bit more.”

“My commanding ship shouldn’t be too far away, I should be fine. Thank you, for all the help.” 

“No problem. Maybe....maybe not all jedi are the same. I’m sorry for holding my grudge against you, even though you did nothing but be nice to me.”

“It’s fine, I understand your anger.” Anakin smiled at you, causing you to smile back.

“You should crash here more often, it gives me something to do.” You said, causing you two to laugh.

“Maybe I will.” Anakin replied, getting into the cockpit of his ship. As he took off, you waved until he couldn’t see you. You watched the ship leave the atmosphere then began to walk back home.

[feliciamontagues]

My Ranking of Every Hercule Flambeau Episode (S01-S08)

There are some spoilers for S7 and S8, but they are fairly vague and pretty much the sort of thing that you might see on the official press release. So not true spoilers as such. Also this is totally subjective and the result of my own personal biases. It’s also behind the cut because it’s looooonnng. 

8. The Two Deaths of Hercule Flambeau (s06e10)--

So, this episode is *fine*. It’s hardly the worst episode of the show, but it’s easily the weakest of the Flamby eps, despite their being a few isolated moments I enjoy. (Hercule getting a long overdue bedroom scene for one :P)

My main gripe is with this episode is the uneven way Lisandra Flambeau is written. The script seems to flip-flop over whether we are supposed to find her sympathetic or not.  On one hand,  many scenes imply that she genuinely loves Hercule despite them having a shotgun marriage after only a few days of knowing each other. On the other hand, she does not hesitate for a minute before poisoning an innocent (Fr. B) for no other reason than to hurt Flamby, which makes her lose a lot of sympathy points.

And as a result, it seems to make Flambeau seem like more of arse than normal for betraying her, while somehow also absolving him of responsibility for doing so, because she turns around and does *THAT.*

And ngl, it does make me a little uncomfortable that while the character of Lisandra (as an Italian) is possibly not meant to be interpreted as a POC, the actress portraying her definitely is. (Sara Martins is of Afro-Portuguese descent).  Which makes the uneven characterization (and underwritten-ness) seem even more glaring, especially  when compared to that of the other (white) women in Flambeau’s life (his first love Rebecca and his daughter Marianne, arguably Lady Felicia as well). It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth even if  in all likelihood, the part wasn’t written with Sara Martins in mind.

I think a much more interesting approach to Lisandra would be to have intending to betray Flambeau all along. Maybe she had her own agenda for seducing Flamby, meanwhile he thinks he’s the one using her for his plan. Maybe she does develop some feelings for him along the way, but it only makes her hesitate for a moment before going ahead with her original plan. That way, she keeps her agency and isn’t reduced to the “woman scorned” stereotype while also leaving the writers free to ship Flamby with others in the future without seemingly endorsing guilt-free adultery .

Other random note: I can’t take  parts of this episode seriously because the “Crown of Lombardy” is very obviously Guinevere’s crown from BBC Merlin with no attempt to alter or disguise it. 

7. The Daughter of Autolycus (s04e05)--

Not gonna lie, I am not really a fan of “character has long lost relative that we’ve never heard of until now” plots. And that goes double when said long-lost relative is a child or sibling. As such my low ranking of this episode is partly due to unconscious personal biases against that trope.

That being said, if we had to get a long-lost relative that we’ve never heard of until now plot, I’m so glad we got Marianne--even if it takes her another episode to really live up to her potential. 

I have to knock off a few more points for Nero Hound as a villain. For one thing, he was played by Nancy Carroll’s real-life hubby, but they didn’t let let him interact with Lady F at all. Such a *waste.*  Also Nero Hound is far too similar a name to Nero Wolfe, and I’ve definitely confused them on more than one occasion). He’s also rather generic in my opinion, even compared to some of Flambeau’s other “generic mobster” rivals/associates like the ones in S8.

However, there are some moments in this episode I genuinely like--particularly the theft “imagine spot” and Flambeau’s bishop disguise in general. Plus, the scenes where Flambeau and Marianne appear together are excellent, as are the hints that Marianne will become a redemptive trigger in Flambeau’s life.

6. The Judgement of Man (s03e10)--

Again, the low ranking of this one may be due to personal biases.  In this case, I’m still low-key bitter--five years later-- at the BBC marketing department for baiting me with the idea of Flambeau actually interacting with the rest of the squad (esp romantic tiems with Lady F)  and then giving me the absolute minimum of Felicia/Flambeau flirting and no Flambeau/Sid and Flambeau/Mrs. M interaction.

But there are other reasons why this is in my bottom 3 Flambeau episodes. 

Honestly, I feel like an equally compelling episode about the Vatican’s complicity in Nazi art theft could’ve been made without having to insert Flambeau in it. I mean I suppose it does make sense to have the art thief character  in the art episode, but still I feel like both Flambeau backstory and important historical lesson about Nazis, the Church, and Jewish art suffer from being crammed into the same episode. 

That being said, Mrs. McCarthy’s duchess disguise in this episode cleared my skin, watered my crops, etc, which is why I’ve ranked it higher than the previous two. 

5. The Folly of Jephthah (s08e05)

It loses a few points because I got very exited about the idea of Marianne becoming Bunty’s thief gf cool new friend, and yet in the episode itself, they only shared one scene and didn’t really interact much in it. That being said, I did like like that Bunty and Mrs. M had a bigger role in this episode than the squad usually gets in Flambeau episodes. 

Overall, I feel this episode works a lot better than most of the other “backstory-heavy” Flambeau episodes, because we’ve already gotten the Marianne-related exposition out of the way and can focus more on allowing her character, Flambeau’s and their relationship with each other to develop.

I’m also a bit smug in that I predicted (or at least hoped for) this exact character arc for Marianne within a few weeks of “The Daughter of Autocylus” airing and that my hopes came to fruition so beautifully.

It doesn’t particularly impact the ranking too much, but I do feel like this episode deserves a special shout out, because it has established a (hopefully-continuing!) pattern of Father Brown calling Flamby  almost exclusively by his first name, which is a major significant step in their bromance and deserves recognition as such. 

4. The Blue Cross (s01e10)--

As someone who was first exposed to Father Brown through reading the stories for a college course, I always find it especially interesting to look at the episodes that were adapted from Chesterton. 

This episode is neither the most faithful book-to-show adaptation (which is probably “The Three Tools of Death”) nor is it the best (imo “The Sign of the Broken Sword’) , but it is arguably the most significant. “The Blue Cross” was the first ever Fr. Brown story and is probably the most well-known. It’s also the first real look we get at the character of Flambeau, who (in the stories and arguably the show as well) is probably the closest thing we get to a clear character arc.

The show keeps some of the important elements of the short  story: Flambeau’s clergyman disguise, the switching of the packages. But it also has the challenging task of upping the relatively low stakes of the story, as well as introducing a major recurring character that resembles his book counterpart but remains distinct enough to justify the fairly different direction show canon is taking him. 

The show does this reasonably well--if not particularly imaginatively. I do enjoy some of the touches (I’ve written an entire meta before about Flamby’s reading material on the train and how it relates to his character)--particularly the show’s choice to have Flambeau fixated on religious art specifically (RIP for Flambeau’s Dairy Company though. It will always live in my heart).

Unfortunately in the adaptation, loses a few points for not really using the show-original characters particularly effectively. It loses still more for Flambeau’s characterization in this episode . He comes across as much more  serious and menacing in this episode than in all the others. It works okay when we consider this as a standalone episode but provides some glaring Early Installment Weirdness when we compare it to other episodes. 

3. The Penitent Man (s05e15)--

So as the rest of this list  will testify, I have strong preference for the “fun” Flambeau episodes over the more series ones. This is the exception that proves the rule--the  serious, cerebral, melancholy episode that simply “works” for me in the way that some of the others have not.

A lot of it is due to the more-intense-than-usual Flambeau character focus that goes into this. Sure, we’ve met his (presumably ex-by-now) wife, his daughter, and his first love by this point, but all of those episodes focused primarily on Flambeau as an extension of the relationships with others. (”The Judgement of Man”  in particular is far more Rebecca’s story than Hercule’s.)

Whereas this episode is very definitively focused on Flambeau himself and allows more nuanced exploration of two of the most defining facets of Flambeau’s character:  (1) his fascination with religion--and spiritual salvation in particular--  as  something he seems to resist and crave in near equal measure  (2) his almost masochistic streak of recklessness.

Even though Flambeau’s supposed “piety” is revealed to be all part of his heist plan, there are strong hints that his desire for redemption and atonement are at least somewhat genuine, even if he is not  ready to pursue them just yet. 

Off topic, but a few random things of note in this episode: this episode all-but-confirms bi!Flambeau, wet!Flambeau at the end is extremely relevant to my interests, Father Brown attempts to smuggle Flamby a lock pick from the beginning and has the audacity to say “ I only use it when I get locked out of the presbytery.”

Also, it has this iconic exchange:

Goodfellow: What is that awful smell?

Father Brown (covered in sewage): It’s me

2. The Honorable Thief (S07e10)-- So nearly all of the Flambeau-centered episodes from S3 on  have been a little preoccupied with filling in some of the gaps in Flambeau’s backstory, which is *fine*, but honestly, I feel like in doing so, they’ve really lost sight of why we fell in love with the character in the first place. 

 He’s vibrant and clever and funny and over-the-top. But most importantly, Flambeau is a lot of fun. Therefore, it follows that episodes that feature him should be a lot of fun too. 

And well... they are all fun in some way,  but they aren’t as fun as they really could be. John Light is insanely charismatic, but charisma can only go so far when the episode in question is a downer.

Fortunately, this episode is the furthest thing from a downer imaginable. It’s absolutely delightful from start to finish. The plot is serious enough to keep things engaging, but also light enough to keep us from getting too distracted by angst. 

I’m also incredibly biased in favor of this episode, because it finally gave me the Felicia/Flambeau ship tease I’d been passionately hoping for (if not really expecting to get after “The Judgement of Man” disappointed me). But it was so much and so good, and I wasn’t ready for it.

In a broader sense though, this episode really delivered with Flambeau/squad interaction in general--which was a key component that has been missing from most of the other episodes. And the Father Brown & Flambeau interactions were also has heartwarming and funny as they always are.

If I have one tiny little gripe with the episode, it’s that Daniel is not Sid. He has enough broad similarities with Sid that I can’t help but wonder if the episode was originally written with Sid and then hastily re-written when Alex Price couldn’t return. That being said, he was a likable enough guest character in his own right, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him again.

1.  The Mysteries of the Rosary (S02e05)-- Perfection. Not only is this THE definitive Flambeau episode, but is also one of the best episodes of the show overall. It has everything: the birth of bearded Flamby, bromantic road trips, a treasure hunt, great guest turns from Anton Lesser and Sylvestra Le Touzel.

I think part of the reason this episode resonates so strongly with me is that it’s really the first proper sense that we get of Show!Flambeau as a character. Sure we officially met him in “The Blue Cross,” but considering he didn’t show up until halfway through the episode and was in disguise for most of it, we didn’t really get much of a sense of who he is.

This episode changes all that and sets Flambeau up as the character we will know and love for the rest of the series--charming, urbane, funny, passionate, a carefree carpe diem exterior masking (or overcompensating for?) a sense of uncertainty and conflictedness.

Somewhat off topic, but as great an episode as this is for Flambeau’s character, it is nearly as wonderful for both Sid and Father Brown’s characters. We get to see Sid’s  ease with Father Brown, the casual camraderie that the two of them have--as well as Sid’s protectiveness (and jealousy) when Flambeau decides to gatecrash their bromantic road trip. 

Honestly, there are so many things that are great about this episode that I don’t think I could possibly list them--but one little detail that really struck my the last time I watched was that the first proper glimpse we see of Flambeau in this episode (we see him in shadow in a flashback before) involves him  saving Father Brown’s life.  Whereas the last proper glimpse we see of Flambeau is after Father Brown has saved Flambeau’s life.  Thematic reversals. Cinematic parallels. We love to see it. 

[obstinateduck-blog]

Resources for Keeping Current on Emerging Technology

The purpose of this blog is to provide resources on how to keep up with emerging technology.  Technology changes and grows everyday. People are contently trying to find new ways to better the environment, society,,healthcare and so much more. A great way  to keep up with new and emerging technology is through Technology News websites.

1. The Verge website like most tech news sites has reviews of technology, science, art, and culture. Here is  article about Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus. The review is mostly about the screen. https://www.theverge.com/21356094/samsung-galaxy-tab-s7-plus-test-tablet-features

2. Engadget.com is a website that is all about technology old and new, it even covers the occasional enterprise development. Here is a review about how blackberries are making a come back. https://www.engadget.com/blackberry-onwardmobility-5g-smartphone-2021-133919589.html

3. Tech meme  provides the top news about tech companies like Apple.  For example, Apple crosses $2 trillion market cap as world’s most valuable company, here is the article link below https://venturebeat.com/2020/08/19/apple-crosses-2-trillion-market-cap-as-worlds-most-valuable-company/

4. Ars Technica Is the first tech news site I came across does reviews on gaming and cultures. There is an article  about the menus on Xbox Series X if you want to know more the link is provided below.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/08/menus-on-xbox-series-x-will-look-a-lot-like-those-on-xbox-one/

5. Android Authorit  this website focuses on Android News blog dedicated to providing expert tips, news, reviews, Android Phones, Android Apps, Android Tablet, Rooting and How-tos However not all articles seem to focus around android. I found an article about the prices of the new PlayStation 5, link is provided below.

6. PCworld , this website covers everything from laptops to smartphones, I found an article about Instagram. It talks about the feature  “Suggested Posts”link is below https://thenextweb.com/plugged/2020/08/20/instagrams-new-suggested-posts-feature-will-keep-you-scrolling-forever/

[incarnateirony]

You analyzed audiences in the past, right? Is it true we're hitting the lowest ratings ever in these recent episodes or it's just an exageration? I know ratings seem to be a science on themselves so I would like your opinion on the subject. Also, is there somewhere I can read that "Profound bond" book? Or at least part of it? I love GA stories.

Oh god here we go. And that’s not at you, it’s “Shut the fuck up Cereal Club, you’ve already had literal executive producers explain this shit to you and you deny it” – not your fault but it sure is theirs for continuing to circulate it.

Okay so first note – I’m going to be shorthanding this. ALL RELATED DISCUSSIONS AND CHARTS CAN BE FOUND ON THE #RATINGS HASHTAG.

TLDR: It only sucks like that if you think *literally the entire television universe is collectively having the lowest ratings ever*

TV has been on the decline since… like, TV started. Because one channel became 2 and then there was about 50/50! And then 2 became 4, and it was 25! And then 8! And then cable! And the 2008-9 digital mandate enaction Misha somehow kept this show from falling in the toilet over while show cancellation rates doubled in that period while TV figured out what the FUCK was going on and why THEIR ratings were falling. That’s HOW Supernatural vaulted so much and finally entered top like, 100 discussion on the regular and very quickly by S5 top 50. And then DVR! And then digital! *Digital doesn’t even track by Neilsen methods*

Here have a chart of nielsen ratings average since TV started.

Why yes, there WAS a time when Nielsen was regularly clocking a 40.x average. By the time people were watching TV around Y2K it had dropped beneath 10. By 2005, 10 was a hit. And so on. Q3 of 2010 with the digital boom/smartphones, you name it.

The unilateral ratings collapse is so bad that some networks have *said they’re going to stop reporting Live+SD ratings on certain slots or products by 2020*. CBS has had pissing matches with Nielsen over if their services are even worht putting money on anymore. The average ratings on thursday nights across the board in the general primetime slot, if you remove sports which the nation still DOES watch live, is averaging like a 0.7 right now. 

That may sound like greek, but basically, the average back when SPN started was like… 6. Which is why the show was in so much jeopardy all the time.

In terms of performance with the rest of the world, S15 I don’t have an average on yet and I’m just far too tired to go through that before even midseason, but I can get you a chart of the last 14 years as compared to the rest of the world’s loss, including from other shows in the same time period.

Obviously follow the legend at the bottom.

CW has always been a small network. The above works on making aggregates of all TV ratings by year and using it to make a median of what qualified as average performance on the year. But the thing is, you go look at Grey’s Anatomy? It started at was a 9.x. It’s now like “YAYYYY WE MADE A WHOLE 1.2 TODAY GOOD WORK GUYS T_T” -- and if you haven’t noticed THEY ARE ONE OF THE LEADERS IN LIVE RATINGS RIGHT NOW.

SPN looks stable from this size, but when we come to realize that it’s USED to running about ¼ the ratings of other shows, let’s like, take this into perspective without being shrunk by Big Brother Networks

SPN’s performance currently is *roughly* in the areas of seasons 4, 5, 8. And frankly, this was almost a matter of time thing with fewer and fewer people willing to hop into a show this late.  The amount of “high” Dabb has managed to keep SPN riding, which since S11 has been at performative base with the high buzz premiere season (that… quickly dropped as you can see). There’s also that S9 success bump I told you about, and LOL S7. You’ll notice it inarguably still performed better than S2, 3, 6, and 7 (and frankly, the back half of 1, but that’s rounded up due to Shiny New Show Buzz early before the ratings dropped in half)

If you explore my ratings tag, you’ll see a lot of talk about this history, be it on the show or just general ratings worldwide. But if you google something like “TV ratings falling” you’ll easily come across things like THIS (x)

There’s expectations that we’re going to lose 55million+ people from the TV universe by 2022 right now, or at least live TV, because digital. Also, as just about every historic projection since 2010 has been wrong and they’re like “EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS” that could very easily end up being like, 60+ million. Cuz. Boomers+ that don’t use their phones and get confused by computers are kinda dying out, and numbers rarely calculate like “rate of death of people confused by gmail”. To put that into perspective, Nielsen TV universe estimates 305.4 million heads across 119.9 million houses. That not-quite-3-heads-per-home base right there, we’re talking about like 1/6th of viewership, entire homes are digitizing, fuckin’ smarthomes are being built with walls that are TVs that don’t hook up to fuckin… Charter unless you LITERALLY are part of their desperate marketing where they’ll literally fund a smarthome renovation JUST to keep you in their TV universe. 

Nah fam. Alexa turn on Netflix alexa play supernatural *washes dishes to imax shit*

Anyway, back to center (because yes, this still IS the shorthand version, if you wanna find the source material, you can navigate the years of posting)

If we were to take seasons 1-14 and modulate them in reverse to the rest of the TV universe curve, S1 etc would look like this in order:

The highs and lows are part of the respective average performer across networks. 100 is always “average”. However, “Average” on the CW is always a different affair.

25-34: Marginal for CW35-44: Solid for CW45+: Hit for CW

So… lowest ratings ever? Lmao no not unless you yell that at the whole TV world. But declined a bit in scale? I mean, yeah. Live, mostly. Digital calls, AFAIK, are still doing fine.

Even still the live ratings dropping that sliver wouldn’t… dramatically… matter. As you’ll find if you actually do dig back in my blog, on average performing TV shows, digital and +3 DVR viewing is already more than 4x the volume of any given show’s ratings on *average*

And… SPN isn’t average. It’s been in the top 20 digital leaders in the likes of Walking Dead and Game of Thrones and a bunch of DC properties since about S11~ (positions 19, 18, 16 S11, 12, 13 – I haven’t dug up 14′s yet but I HIGHLY doubt their digital call just *STOPPED and bounced 100% in reverse* lmao)

Realistically, the volume of SPN’s calls puts its digital audience S11-13 at about 20x the mass of its live viewership. Netflix, hulu, amazon, the CW app, *gestures off into the distance* Digital ways to make ad revenue that aren’t clocked by nielsen, but are measured in other ways. So for every 0.3 you see in a live rating, there’s basically a 6.0 equivalent running online. Whereas the average show, even if it has a 1.0 rating it’s managed to hold onto (which is something literally even the biggest shows have to fight to break past these days), it’s more likely to be closer to a 4.0 equivalent online. SUPERNATURAL CRUSH SUPERNATURAL STRONK.

CW has been AGGRESSIVELY marketing to convert people into their digital universe, because they’re digitally focused. Whether that holds out now that the Netflix deal broke, we’ll see.

Accessory reading:“Parrot Analytics’ Global TV Demand Report Finds Netflix Captured 62.6% Of Worldwide Demand For Digital Original Series In Q2 2019“

[leoninaiart]

Last season. Good or bad?

 So, i see a lot of different opinions here. The two main ones are: “S8 is trash and i want to die” and “s8 is great and this fandom is trash”.

These two opinions are very extreme. Yeah this season is NOT good. Not because they didn’t make ur OTP ship canon. But it’s connected to that point. Klance.

Think about it. They never denied it. They keep making jokes and references to it. They even said they liked it. A LOT of the fandom is here thanks to Klance. And they KNOW that. They USED it for marketing. They used us. It was just a big selling game, they didn’t care about how the fandom was feeling. How excited, how happy, how dedicated to the show they were. 

I’m not exaggerating anything. I studied economy. Marketing is one of the subjects there. I know how this works. I know because the same sick strategies are written in the books. And i knew they were using us. But i didn’t think they’d blame us. We are NOT a new fandom, they KNOW how we react, they did this INTENTIONALLY . 

Now, now. Let’s focus on the main point. Season 8. The previous season was...bad. The series keep focusing on Keith, Shiro, Pidge, and from time to time Allura. Coran, Lance and Hunk were just... not included. Then Hunk started getting more development. He joked with Keith, spent time with Pidge (Punk :p) and was relaxed and confident. Coran was closer with Lance, but both of them remained being comedy relief mostly. 

But what happened to Lance and Hunk? Well, the S7 main focus was Sendak and the Earth. So, what character did we see talking a LOT about his family? Hmmmm. LANCE. FUCKING LANCE. And what did we see? Focus on the young Hunk and HIS family. It was out of nowhere. Had no context. And it did NOTHING to the main story. But okay, at least he got something haha.

Then Allurance happened. 

Okay. I’m NOT an anti-allurance. I’m fine with everything to be honest because i love all the characters. But when Allura discovered that Lance really, REALLY liked her. She was NOT happy. It wasn’t the look of interest for someone. She loved Lotor. Lance was NOT an option. She looked at Lotor like he was her world. Then the Big Fight happened and...he died. 

Now, the weird part comes when Allura starts being nice to Lance ¿? and she blushes ¿?¿?¿? whaaaaaaaaaaat. Girl u just killed the man u loved wtf. I think...she never saw him with the same eyes. Lance loved her with everything. But i really think she didn’t. 

(It’s my opinion but i think she needed support. She needed something to hold her. Someone who loved her. Because she just killed the man she loved. And she was in such a difficult moment...)

Allurance is a good ship. The writers ruined it. What was the message to the kids? “Oh yeah, if a girl doesn’t like u, just keep waiting for her because she will love u one day haha good luck!!”

Let’s talk about Lance. He was always insecure. But then...he stopped flirting. He stopped joking so much. He spend a lot of time alone. He got yelled and treated like he was useless and dumb. They NEVER said “oh sorry” (just Shiro did, and he was a fucking clone COME ON). Then he gets a sword that he use ONE (1) TIME, GREAT. Allura never treated him the same way he treated her in S8. She never told him she loved him??? or why she was in love with him? wth. And then his end...just...the worst. He, who wanted to be a great pilot since he was a kid. Always tried to be the best. Ends up...in a farm...”obsessed” about Allura. Alright.

???????????? 

So what’s the final point in this?

We have the RIGHT to be mad. We can be mad and we SHOULD. Because this is WRONG. This is not RIGHT.  Do NOT shut up, do NOT let them laugh at us while they enjoy how good ratings the show had. 

We have to be together in this. This is no longer about ships, it’s about how we feel as a fandom.

[thelawyerthatwaspromised]

Just How In Love With Daenerys is Jon Snow?

If you’ve read any of my posts you probably already understand that I believe Jon’s interactions with Daenerys are motivated by his duties to the North and his behavior in Season 7 can be easily explained with the fact that he’s trying multiple approaches to try and change her priorities.

So many times, the contra opinion has been “No, Jon is definitely in love with Daenerys. The cast and crew says so. The marketing says so. The show runners say so.” 

Ok, among the myriad of reasons why I think this is a terrible argument is that;

1) The same people swore up and down that Jon was dead forever;

2) The same people blatantly discussed some deadly rivalry in S7 between Sansa and Jon

3) The script page cited as “he realizes he’s fallen in love” did not initially leak with all of the other script pages that proved to, more or less, true...so someone needs to show me otherwise in the first place;

BUT the most important thing I’d use to examine this is;

“Ok, well what does Jon Snow say throughout Season 7?”

Post continued under the cut...

I noticed such a different pattern of behavior with Jon when it came to how he privately spoke with Daenerys and how he spoke about Daenerys with other characters.

I operate under the assumption that the creators put scenes into their own shows on purpose (revolutionary, right?) and I just can’t escape the conclusion that Jon Snow is two different people in Season 7: the laser-focused, big-picture, intelligent hero of the story AND on the other side the love struck, flattery-extolling, miss-the-forest-for-the-trees, dopey lovable hero.

I’ve already written previously about the way Jon dresses up his language around Daenerys, particularly after he observes Jorah interact with Daenerys in e5. 

I’ve now concluded that’s only half the story...because maybe you could argue that he just started seeing what Jorah and Tyrion and Missandei see in Daenerys.

If he really sees this greatness, strength, and worthiness in her, surely he would indicate to SOMEBODY else how strongly he feels about Daenerys.

I can’t even find ANY room in Jon’s interactions with other characters where they discussed Daenerys to support that he loves her or even finds her particularly “good” in any way.

I’ll go clip by clip.

Jon’s Motivation for Leaving

Now it would be unfair for me to say that this clip shows anything about how Jon feels about Daenerys because he doesn’t know her yet.

What it does tell us is that Jon’s mission is to get a powerful ally to come North to fight the Night King.

It also tells us Jon already knows he’s going to need to “persuade” her.

Alone, does this tell us anything necessarily? No...but it tells me that Jon has a clear objective in going to Dragonstone, he has a very specific goal in mind, and he knows he will have to work to persuade her.

First Meeting / Talk With Tyrion

Jon learns pretty quickly he needs to change tactics. I’ve gone over this before...but I really want to focus on what Jon says ABOUT Daenerys in these interactions...because it’s projected to us, as the audience, that Jon is falling in love with Daenerys and it’s so heavy-handed about telling us this fact that I would imagine his feelings would leak through when speaking with others...

I can’t even cite anything about what Jon says to Tyrion about Daenerys except for one thing (later) because that conversation seems to only set up Jon trying to do some research on the Dragon Queen to figure out how to convince her more effectively.

Davos

Jon’s asked multiple times during the season what he thinks of Dany and each time Jon gives a rather bland answer or chooses not to talk about her in any meaningful way on a personal level.

This is the first occasion. Jon initially doesn’t realize Davos is asking about Daenerys. Maybe you can argue he’s playing coy, but then when Davos really asks him, he says something that basically amounts to “well, she doesn’t seem to be a bad person.” Ok...not much revealed here...

But there clearly ARE things about Daenerys that have already rubbed Jon the wrong way...how do I know this?

Missandei

Jon and Davos happen upon Missandei. Jon prods her a bit about who Daenerys is and what Daenerys believes. Missandei predictably tells Jon how wonderful the Breaker of Chains is and how much she believes in her.

Davos notes how Missandei was “freed” by Daenerys only to serve her in a way that doesn’t differ terribly from her previous state. Missandei grows irritated and says she serves Daenerys because she chooses to serve Daenerys.

Right away alarm bells are going off in Jon’s head. He poses a pretty damning question:

Pretty simple...oh...can you really leave?

“Yes, of course!” claims Missandei.

Jon gives her this incredulous look. “You really believe that?” He asks. Missandei responds “I know it!”

Now as viewers, are we not able to see through exactly why Jon is asking this question. He’s not asking Missandei because he wants to know more about Daenerys...he’s asking to test Missandei and her followers.

How do I know this?

BECAUSE JON JUST POSED HER THE EXACT SITUATION HE FINDS HIMSELF IN AND KNOWS WHAT THE REAL ANSWER WOULD BE IF SHE WAS HONEST ABOUT DAENERYS.

How can anyone take this scene to seriously mean that Jon learns more about Daenerys. My contention is this is Jon’s attempt at learning about the Cult of Personality surrounding Daenerys. This is why I think Jon is learning much more about the people around Daenerys than he is learning about Daenerys.

So Jon doesn’t tell anyone anything particularly meaningful about Daenerys while on Dragonstone. Ok, maybe you could think “well hey he’s guarded while on Dragonstone but by the time he leaves he’s really falling for her” so let’s look at the dialogues AFTER Jon leaves. (Hint: Jon gets more frank and demonstrates a pretty good understanding of what it is Daenerys wants)

Wight Hunt

Jon has a few conversations about Daenerys while on the infamous wight hunt. A few preliminary observations: he doesn’t distinguish Daenerys from Cersei in any meaningful way, he doesn’t initiate Daenerys as a topic any of the times he talks about her, and each time his comments only reflect that he knows her political ambitions and he knows what she wants him to do in order for him to gain her help with the Night King.

This is sort of a funny quote so I’m actually leaving that out because I think it distracts from the real content of the conversation.

1) Jon apparently hadn’t told Tormund that the wight hunt was for CERSEI...just for the two queens. So he didn’t distinguish Daenerys already before the dialogue starts. He still sees Daenerys and Cersei as squabbling children who are complaining that the game isn’t fair. His attitude about their conflict hasn’t changed since 7x03 in his first meeting with Daenerys. Only his approach has changed.

2) This would have been a great time to show Jon saying “well they’re nothing alike!” or “I hate Cersei but it must be done” or “Daenerys will help but we still need Cersei on board”. Instead we get none of that. Jon still knows he’s going on this stupid mission because, primarily, Daenerys isn’t committed to the cause. Why do I conclude that it’s about Daenerys? Because Jon never mentioned ONCE a desire to get Cersei’s support and he never agreed with Daenerys that a ceasefire was particularly important. He only knows that he can’t get Daenerys unless Cersei sees a wight and agrees to a ceasefire.

Again, Tormund starts this exchange by asking a pretty simple question.

“So you met this Dragon Queen....and?”

This continues the pattern of people asking open ended questions to Jon fishing for how he feels about her personally...and again Jon demonstrates a laser-like focus on his overall mission that he needs her to fight with the North and what he needs to do in order to get her to commit to doing that.

I think it’s important that Jon is asks about Daenerys this way: open ended, leaving him ample opportunity to say SOMETHING about personally. Time after time, Jon...just...doesn’t...care.

He is still only viewing Daenerys through the scope of what she can do for him with regard to the war with the Night King.

THIS IS THE SECOND TO LAST EPISODE OF THE SEASON. WE SHOULD BE SEEING SOMETHING FROM JON APPROACHING AFFECTION.

Beric

Later on, we have Jon asserting once again that he serves the North. His entire S7 arc is about serving the North, even if it leads to his scorn, it’s not about Jon falling in love and giving that kingdom away. 

I also enjoy the subtlety of Jon looking over his shoulder before he says he serves the North. Probably doesn’t mean anything narratively, but this isn’t the behavior of guy falling in love.

Maybe this is cheating...but I’m including what Beric says because it’s the first time in a very long time that the viewers got to see Jon connect with another person about his “purpose” since he left for Dragonstone.

How long has Jon been waiting for someone to say something that makes sense to him? Tyrion tells him he’s not a prisoner; he’s just not free to go. Daenerys tells him not to hold her accountable for her father’s crimes but demands he be held to the vows of his great x900 grandfather and also tells him she believes him about the NK so that must mean he should be more than willing to bend the knee. Missandei tells him that she knows Daenerys would let her leave for Naath if she asked for a ship WHILE JON IS BEING HELD PRISONER AND PREVENTED FROM GOING TO HIS SHIP. 

But what Beric says triggers Jon in a positive way. It confirms what we all should know: Jon doesn’t care who sits on the Throne. He just doesn’t. He’s trying to navigate this entire situation so that he can defend his home and his people.

Theon

So Daenerys saves Jon. Now people argue that this is the point that Jon fell in love with Daenerys. I’m going to again argue otherwise because of what I see...

Beric talks about someone sitting the Throne whom he barely knows and not caring about that; Jon tells Daenerys before leaving for the wight hunt that he’s asking her to trust him, a stranger. I think it’s reasonable to say that, given the total lack of any personal exposition given by Jon to Daenerys, given the total lack of positive reaction to being asked questions ABOUT Daenerys by other characters, and given the striking similarity between Jon’s stranger speech and Beric’s quote to Jon, Jon still sees Daenerys as a stranger when she comes to his rescue North of the Wall.

And this is supposed to be the moment Jon falls in love with Daenerys? Wow, if that’s the standard, I guess it’d be really hard for anyone to argue that Jon isn’t already in love with Sansa then, right? Of course that’s not the case. At the point of the wight hunt, Jon still shares no particular warm feelings regarding Daenerys. If the foundation of their love is that she saved him after he didn’t express any fondness to anyone despite weeks (months?) together on Dragonstone, I’m wholly unconvinced.

Which brings us to the scene with Theon. How anyone can see this in any way other than foreshadowing (or even a semi-reveal) of political!Jon is still beyond me. What other narrative purpose for Jon saying “it might LOOK LIKE I’m doing the right thing but I’m REALLY NOT” other than to show that there’s more to this Northern Fool than meets the eye. The same one who suddenly was placed on a pedestal for his apparent incapability to lie.

Folks, Jon is saying there’s more to him under the surface than he’s showing outright.

If this is how Jon Snow acts when he’s in love, then Kit Harrington did the worst job conveying love of any character on a TV show that I can recall seeing. Because I will agree he shows a measure of seduction with Daenerys in his conversations with her through the season. But that simply doesn’t explain his behaviors with other characters.

He acts dopey, honest, and impulsive with Daenerys. He acts laser-focused, driven, and pragmatic with the other characters.

Jon Snow is two different characters in Season 7.

The proof is right there in the show screaming at you.

Shouldn’t this be enough to convince you that political!Jon is possible if not probable???

Aye, maybe that’s enough.

[littlemisssquiggles]

Voltron Musings: I think some Voltron fans are missing the point.

A lesson to be learnt for all potential series creators. Never used LGBT representation or the promise of it as part of a marketing tactic to get your fans excited for an upcoming instalment in your franchise. You can have representation; yes most definitely, but never let your fandoms know of it prior to the story. Let the show reveal all instead.

Because if you do and fall short on those expectations, the repercussions can be profoundly damaging. No fandom has taught me that lesson better than Voltron Legendary Defender.

If I have ever been more disappointed in the Voltron fandom or needed any justification to prove the toxicity of some of the members of its community, then the reception for its most recent season has given me clear reason. After reading some of the posts from fans in the #VoltronLegendaryQueerBaiting tag on Twitter, I am saddened.

I get that folks are upset but the levels this has reached is beyond astounding. There are folks who are going so far as to call VLD it ‘a bad written show’ or even make talk about getting Netflix to take it down.

First of all, that’s kind of impossible right now. As far as I know, Voltron has already been greenlit for its eighth and final season. S8 is scheduled to premiere later this year and it will be the season to wrap up the story, from what I know.

This is exactly why I used to stay out of the Voltron fandom and enjoy it on my own terms. It’s upsetting to hear some of the things being said. After 7 seasons of telling a quite compelling story with a great cast of characters, it’s displeasing to see all that great work being bashed now. And for what?

All because the showrunners didn’t live up to something they promised…or did they? The jury is still out on that, at least for me.

Do I think S7 queerbaited anyone? Well…honestly, in some ways it might’ve unintentionally did so and in other ways, it definitely didn’t.

Did Voltron reveal a main character’s sexual orientation only to have his love interest be killed before they can get a chance to reunite? Yes. They did.

I have to be honest here folks. I didn’t care that much for Adam’s character nor did his death scene have any sort of impact on me as a viewer. This had nothing to do with the fact that he’s gay or POC but more so with the way how he was introduced into the current story. How am I supposed to care for a character who I only met for a few short minutes and whose personality and bond with one of the main characters wasn’t honestly established in the best way possible.

There are Voltron fans making the current argument that I should care more about Adam and Shiro’s failed reunion than the successful reunion of Pidge’s parents. There are actually fans contesting that the only reason that Mr. and Mrs. Holt received a proper reunion and thus, an entire episode dedicated to them is ‘because they’re a heterosexual couple’.

Nevermind that part of the episode which was the two-parter: Episodes 7 and 8 “The Last Stand” additionally brought up Mr. and Mrs. Holt desiring to reunite with their children and establishing that Voltron is alright in order to help protect the Earth from the Galra invasion.

Nope, that episode was mostly about the Holts, a hetero-married couple and them alone, right?

To the fans making this debate, guys, be reasonable here. It’s not because they’re straight. Seeing this couple unite has nothing to do with their orientation. It’s because their relationship and their desire to see each other again was something established since the first season.

Unlike Adam, the audience has known of Pidge’s parents since the season one. Since the get-go, part of Pidge’s development and character arc has focused on her reuniting her family---finding her brother and father; then helping her father to get back to Earth so that he can meet their mother again and let her know that they’re all alive and safe. When Mr. Holt arrived back on Earth and gets to see his wife again, you actually want to see these two reunited because you genuinely get the desperation. This is a couple who haven’t seen each other in over a year or more where one of them was believed to be dead. You care about them. You want them to have this moment to themselves and you feel happy when the series takes its time to highlight it.

Something that I unfortunately cannot say the same for Shiro and Adam and their relationship since, until S7, we never even knew Adam existed. His entire presence was something added in at the last minute as part of Shiro’s past and development.

If anything, if the series had given Adam and Shiro an entire episode devoted to them reuniting, it probably would have appeared forced since we never knew Adam until S7. There was never any mention of him in prior seasons either.

Shiro didn’t even ask about Adam the first time he returned to Earth. Adam was never a factor for the past seasons because he was never a plan. He was added in later which regrettably, placed him in the pile to be expendable.

I wish the writers hadn’t introduced Adam in the first place. If they wanted Shiro to have a husband/fiancé who was deceased, they could’ve done the same thing but have Shiro be a widower with Adam having passed away prior to the series.

It would’ve given Shiro more leverage to go on the Kurboros mission. They could have had Adam pass away before he got the chance to see his beloved fulfill his dream of going into space. So the reason Shiro went on the mission against all odds is as a promise to his fiancé. There are other ways the series could’ve handled Adam’s existence and his connection to Shiro than they did. Instead we got what we got and I don’t blame the fans for being upset.

But the arguments. The things fans are saying. It’s horrible.

Fans are arguing that Adam was killed off because of his race and sexual orientation. Y’know, the show creators killed him purposely because he’s a gay POC character. Again, this is ridiculous and I honestly wish fans wouldn’t say things like this because it sounds so unintelligible. A character being LGBT and/or POC doesn’t expunge them from death. In terms of the Legendary Defender storyline, the characters in Voltron are fighting a war against a tyrannical alien race and in war; there will be casualties and deaths.

Adam wasn’t the only character to die in the line of duty while defending the Garrison. There were other soldiers who went down too but unfortunately no one cared about the rest since Adam was the only one with ties to a main character.

For me, Adam, a confirmed LBGT POC, dying in the line of combat wasn’t the issue. My problem with that more stems from the show just introducing this character and the fact that he had an intimate past with one of our main heroes only for him to be axed off before we can even get the opportunity to know him better as a person or learn more of his and Shiro’s relationship. That’s the real zinger.

Adam died as he was created. Short with me barely getting the chance to learn more about him. Not sure if we’ll get more flashbacks of Shiro and Adam for S8 but…I think by now, the damage has been done.

People have already begun to forget that Shiro is still around. Shiro was revealed to be LGBT. He’s gay. Shiro was already a great and well-fleshed out character from the start. So the show adding the fact that he’s also LGBT just elevated him even higher because the LGBT community now has that representation. They have a character on the main cast of Voltron who they can look to and say, that character is representing us.

LGBT Voltron fans, no offense but you wanted a character to represent you and the show gave it to you. You have a character---a main character. One of the best well-written and well-developed characters in the show in your court. But folks are too busy fussing over Adam dying and Shiro not getting to mourn a character we didn’t realize was special to him until this season started to see that. Even when the show writers give you what you want, you still find some way to get upset.

I might get shit for saying something like that but hey, my post, my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt. My goal here isn’t to insult anyone but I still feel the need to express my blunt honesty in what I’ve seen going on.

The writers didn’t even need Adam. At least, not in the way he was written for this season. As I mentioned earlier, they could have revealed in a flashback that Shiro had a fiancé/boyfriend who had passed away before he left on the Kurobos mission and that would have been enough to sell that he’s LGBT with a former lover who died fighting for the Earth. They could have done the exact same story only better and the fandom might not have been this mad…probably.

As a matter of fact; the sad truth is, if Adam wasn’t revealed to have any ties to Shiro at all as his former companion---If Adam was only shown as a former colleague of Shiro who lived with him as his roomate then no one would’ve cared that much whether or not they reunited.

People saying that Shiro only got to mourn Adam for 5 seconds. Well to be fair, Voltron had been gone for 4 years. Adam died long before Shiro returned to Earth. We got to see Shiro mourn Adam for a scene after learning that he died in the line of duty and thanks to Josh Keaton’s great voice acting, we actually got to hear how pained he sounded over it.

But at the end of the day, even if Shiro wanted to assume the fetal position and bawl his eyes out over losing Adam, he wouldn’t have been able to as much because there was a war that needed to be fought.

This is just me trying to make sense of the writers’ decisions. I don’t agree with all that they did for the Adashi relationship but that doesn’t mean I’m going to burn everything the show has built for both this season and seasons before it just because one of the show’s confirmed LGBT characters (yes there are more now) didn’t get to see his lover again.

A lover that was foreshadowed from the start to not be there when he returned anyways. Adam did tell Shiro don’t be surprised if he wasn’t there waiting for him once he returned from space---which I guess made his death even more heart-breaking given that those were probably the last words he said to him.

Speaking of more LGBT characters in Voltron, S7 also revealed that Ezor and Zethrid are an item. That’s kind of cute since they have always shared the closest bond of Lotor’s former generals. It’s interesting that the show took them down that route but of course; there are the fans complaining because  Ezor and Zethrid, the show’s canon lesbian couple, are villains.

So…what? How is that a problem? Firstly, Ezor and Zethrid have always been evil since their debut. The fact that they’re now an alleged couple was something only revealed this season highlighting that they became an item within the 4-year time jump. I just don’t see why two lesbians being villains is problematic. What? LGBT characters can’t be villains now? First LGBT characters aren’t allowed to be killed off, even if it’s in a scenario where they can realistically die, now they can’t be villains.

I…I don’t get some of the complaints I’ve seen. I think part of S7’s problem is that it tried too much to cater to the desires of some of its fandom. Seriously, the Voltron team really shot themselves in the foot this season with the LGBT representation. This is sad since it started off on such a positive note with it.

As for the shoehorned hetero-ships of Allurance and Kaxca. Whelp, I already shared my two cents on that in this earlier post but I guess I can talk about them again since they’re also a major issue with S7. Not that I blame em.

Do I think Allurance and Kaxca were shoehorned in at the last minute? Yes I do.

But here’s the odd thing. Just because the series hinted at signs of these two ships doesn’t necessarily make them canon. Neither does it reveal that Lance and Keith are straight either.

Call me in denial but this season spent more time denouncing Allurance and Kaxca with both Lance and Keith as much as it did to the introduce it. It is here lays the conundrum.

They had two characters call out Keith and Axca’s potential romance  yet we get no real reaction from either of them. We get another character tease Lance on Allura. Though he blushes and reacts startled, Lance basically brushes off the idea of Allura liking him.

As I said in my last Voltron Musing, if another character teased Lance about the slightest inkling of Allura liking him back seasons ago, he probably would have jumped for joy and go sauntering over to her all suave and shizz.

Instead Lance denies the possibility. I have no idea what the writers are doing but the impression I’m getting is that they might be setting up for something important with Lance and Keith in respect to their ships.

Yes we got Allurance and Kaxca but there were quite a number of Klance hints sprinkled all throughout S7. Not to mention, the frigging ‘The Feud’ episode. The two voted for each other to be saved if one of them had to.

The fact that Lance picked Keith over Allura still astounds me. Why do I get the feeling that the series is setting up to dissuade Kaxca and Allurance ships but fans are two angry to see the signs? I could be very much wrong but I’m going to wait til S8 to see.

I don’t know what the show writers are doing but one thing’s for sure, I’m not done with Voltron.

Like Shiro and Keith’s relationship, I haven’t given up on the series. I’m not going to start a stupid campaign to get Netflix to shut down the series or any of the other silly things I’ve heard some fans doing.

I still love Voltron. I still think it’s a well-written show with great characters I’ve come to adore. As I’ll say here, despite all the weird shipping hints, I really enjoyed S7. I thought it was another great season for the books.

While I didn’t like the way they crammed in Allurance and Kaxca, that’s still not enough to kill the show for me. It’s upsetting how fragile people’s loyalties are to a franchise they claim to like just because it doesn’t give them exactly what they want.

But as for me, I’m still here and I’m looking forward to seeing how S8 wraps up the series. I’m even amusing myself at the thought of, ‘Watch the haters bitch about Voltron for the minor hiccups in S7 and then come crawling back to eat their words when S8 ends giving them everything they ever wanted and more’.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)

[lizacstuff]

Anons 7x06

Lots of anons in my inbox, a few under the cut. The tone of most asks is not complimentary towards the season or episode, you have been warned. 

Anonymous said:Seems like there must not be a lot of Regina fans out there, despite the ER making a lot of noise. Demos held steady. 

I wouldn’t count those numbers before they’re hatched.  Sound like the show was preempted in certain markets (Boston, a huge DMA, for one) so the numbers should be adjusted for that when the nationals come out on Monday. Right now OUAT is getting credit for whatever replacement programming the affiliate put in it’s place. 

Anonymous said:I'm seeing that for some areas the episode got pushed back till early Saturday morning. Do they take into account when figuring out the ratings? I'm already seeing ERs complaining about it and saying if the ratings are bad that's the only reason why. 😒

See above. The overnights (today's ratings) include viewership for whatever aired in OUAT’s place.  Monday they should adjust to reflect more accurately how many people watched the actual episode. They are right, though, in it negatively impacting the live numbers. However, it shouldn't really impact the L+3 or L+7 numbers. 

Anonymous said:Is it bad that I laughed outloud when I saw that Regina gave everything Ivy she needed to cast her curse? Just like the time Regina pushed Lily too far and she turned into a dragon and endanger the town? Or the time she told Zelena to go after Hades and change him and refused to listen to anyone's concerns and everyone almost ended up trapped in Hell? I'm surprised the writer's still don't see the pattern like fans do.

Even without malicious intentions, she’s a disaster who ruins everyone’s lives. It’s bizarre that the writers continually follow the pattern, but never have Regina question her own judgement when she’s doing it. Whatever else happens, Regina makes emotional, unilateral decisions that usually end up biting other people in the ass. 

Anonymous said:Why would Regina stop henry for having a tlk with jacinda to break the curse? they don't have chemistry but they have been written as tl, at least make them kiss to destroy this stupid season one for all

Because Ivy did something, that Regina remembers, that will put the people that Regina “loves” in jeopardy if the curse is broken.  We don’t know who is in jeopardy or how. 

Anonymous said:So the reboot it's all Regina's fault? Why am I not surprised? Having Henry all for her and without snowing and captain swan, obviously a villain like her was behind this

Regina isn’t being purposefully villainous, but her stupid choices have landed them in this position.

Anonymous said:So regina thought she never adopted a child and its now forced to live with him not knowing her and can't break the curse?? Also her soulmate still dead and she is away from sb and her "family"&"friends"? Hahahahahaha karma is a beautiful thing!!! So she is alone and miserable and childless? Jefferson, snowing of the early seasons and the whole ef1 is laughing and partying

I suppose she is getting a little bit of karmic retribution, but I wouldn’t consider her knowing Henry is her adult son, and still being close to him even though he doesn't know, as quite the same thing as orphaning Emma and Snowing missing out on raising her or knowing her for 28 years.  

Anonymous said:Its weird since I thought Shoe Believer had an okay start in the beginning. It wasn't anywhere near CS or Snowing but they were still okay. With every episode they just feel more and more dull and forced.

I always thought it was forced, particularly in the pilot, but I thought it might grow as the season progressed. I’m not feeling it.  They are telling us it’s true love, not showing us.  Unlike CS, Snowing or RB where we saw those relationships develop over time, this feels completely unearned, and a TLK would be like  Zades or Red Warrior where it feels like complete out-of-nowhere nonsense.  CS had to go through multiple seasons of trials and tribulations, both proving they would go to the end of the world or time for one another, before the show would even whisper True Love at them.  The writers have lost their mojo when it comes to writing a love story.

Anonymous said:After this weeks episode I'm more thankful than ever that Regina is far away from Captain Swan and everyone in storybrooke. They don't need to suffer the consequences of someone who has failed as a queen and a mayor.

Honestly, it being canon that Regina and Rumple are out of Storybrooke, is the silver lining to S7.  

Anonymous said:I’m kind of confused , since 7x02 I’ve been trying to keep up with show . But I haven’t been paying that much attention ( I usually just put it on the tv while I’m on my computer or something, so it’s really just background noise ) but I do have a question, who is that hag in lady tremaine’s basement thing ? And also ..... can you list the people who are aware that there was a curse / who’s now awake . Cuz I can’t keep up

That’s the witch.  Right now I think the only characters awake are Ivy, Regina, and sometimes Alice when she isn’t on medication.  I could be wrong though, because my ability to stay focused during this show has not been great. 

Anonymous said:I stopped watching s7 after 7x02 but as someone who still watches it/keeps tabs on it do you know if the timeline is explained like now that Lucy is born and is 10 years old does that mean captain swan's child is around that age or is Emma still pregnant cause time moves differently?

They haven’t really answered that question yet as far as I know. My gut is that very little time has passed in Storybrooke and as we speak Captain Swan is preparing for their baby. But that’s my gut, not fact. 

Anonymous said:I'm so mad - this was the last drop for me with this show. I have been watching S7 for Colin (I'm a Nielsen family and my viewing does count for the ratings) but what they had Henry say last night was the last straw. Swan Believer and their amazing dynamic in season 1 was what kept me watching the show (until CS came along ) and to have to see the writers IGNORE what was once the backbone of the original show (Emma/Henry) to prop an abusive mother/son relationship is absolute bullshit.

cont - previous ask about Swan Believer. I feel sorry for Colin and for the cast and crew, but from now on I will not be watching the show anymore. Nothing about it excites me/makes me happy. It feels like a chore. And these writers do NOT deserve to get renewed nor to get anymore chances to ruin their own canon of what was once a beautiful show.

Describing it as a chore is pretty spot on. I understand you wanting to watch for Colin (especially as a Nielsen household) but you gotta do what’s right for you.  That line seemed completely unnecessary. There were a lot of ways they could have had a nice mother/son moment without going there. 

Anonymous said:I just saw a gifset of Regina waking up from the curse. So that's really the reaction she chose to go with? She really hasn't seemed to grasp the subtleties of acting, has she?

No, she has not. However, I have to say that Lana’s acting as Roni in Hyperion Heights this episode was the least of the episode’s problems. 

Anonymous said:Did you see any of Lana's answers to her fans on Twitter? Besides laughing at the idea of her wanting to do a remake of Silence of the Lambs and play Clarice, when she was asked what she's learned from Bex she said that red heads have more fun than blondes. I imagine in this situation you answer these questions quickly and don't contemplate on your answers, but wow did that seem like a dig. And if you look through the comments all of her rabid fans seemed to think so too and were loving it.

I thought a more accurate tweet would have been  “Red heads kiss my ass better than blondes."  ‘Cause Bex has had her lips permanently affixed to her ass for years now, just the way Lana likes it. 

Anonymous said:I'm indifferent about Wish Hook, and I wouldn't mind if his daughter was Alice and they got a storyline together, but they got nowhere in this episode? And going by the promo, the mess of the wish realm strikes again as Wish Hook was realm-traveling apparently. How did a non-wish Rapunzel from a separate realm come across someone who didn't exist until present-day 6x10? This is unexplainable.

Do we know that Rapunzel is from a separate realm and not from the Wish Realm?  It would be unbelievable to think that WishHook left the WISHAU before it was created with EQ’s “wish” in 6x10.  I think looking for any sort of logic or even in-universe fairy tale logic to make sense of anything to do with the WishRealm, including WishHook, is an exercise in futility.

It simply doesn’t make sense, and each episodes they change the rules to accommodate anything they want to do.  Of course I think it’s nonsense, but I’d still rather this and have CS safely tucked away from this ridiculous season, than have them using the real Hook this season.  Because honestly I don’t care about the integrity of the storytelling in S7, I only care about CS. (though that doesn’t stop me from poking fun at it.)

Anonymous said:I honestly was not one bit surprised when Colin said he was still under contract this season, but at the same time I do believe he enjoys playing this character and I'm sure he feels loyal to the show, it has been his big break. But I have to believe with the storylines and the material he's given, if not already, then by the end of filming he'll probably be in the same mind frame as Bobby. 100% only there for a paycheck. I just hope his agent is actively seeking better opportunities for him.

We really don’t know what he’s thinking or feeling, but low ratings have got to affect things on set in some way, so it sucks if he’s in any kind of stressful environment.  Even if it’s just them getting pressured to send out scripted PR tweets for each episode. On the upside, other than 7x02, he’s been in these eps so rarely, that I’d guess he’s not working more than 1-2 days per episode, which probably means a lot of time that he can be home with his family and newborn.  It might be a blessing for them right now. As I said we can’t know, but I just wish the best for him and his future career.

Anonymous said:Was there something wrong with the Rogers' scenes? I thought they were pretty decent, especially his interactions with Alice.

To all my anons wanting to know about Rogers scenes, you’ll have to come off anon if you want to chat about it. 

[abangtech]

Pocketnow Daily: Apple’s iPhone 12 BEST and WORST Leaks Confirmed? (video)

We get new discounts on Apple’s 11-inch iPad Pro and more

Deals. We have some more deals we left out yesterday on Amazon, especially on iPads. Starting off with the latest 2020 12.9in iPad Pro which is $250 off, leaving the 1TB of storage variant for $1300 shipped. B&H also has that same $250 discount on the 2018 variant but it actually comes bundled with the previous Magic Foleo Keyboard, leaving the 256GB of storage variant for $1200 shipped. B&H also has the 2018 11in iPad Pro for $100 off, leaving the entry level variant for $699. The Moto G8 Play is also $70 off, leaving it at $130 shipped. We also have more deals on headphones, TVs and more in the links in the description and make sure you check Pocketnow.com over the weekend for 4th of July deals.

Google is finally implementing 64-bit architecture for Chrome on Android

Yes, there is no denying that Chrome is the most popular web browser in the world.. I mean hey, it’s even got its own operating system. The problem is that it’s not necessarily the most up to the latest standards. 64-bit architecture on Android was announced pretty much half a decade ago and well, let’s just say it’s still something Google hasn’t really handled well. We know that Chrome has been stuck on 32-bit but it looks like they’re finally ready to move on. Android Police just spotted that the Chrome 85 and 86 dev build that they are listed as 64 bit apps. Thing is, there’s a catch:b it will only be available on devices running Android 10 and later. Google announced last year that they will be phasing all of their 32-bit apps by August 2021 and this just shows that they’re on track.

Samsung briefly listed the upcoming Galaxy Tab S7+ 5G on its official website

Like seriously, if there’s someone I trust when it comes to Samsung leaks, it’s Samsung. At this point we’re not really surprised when Samsung leak their own products through their European websites. This time, Samsung Germany listed the Galaxy Tab S7+ 5G on their website and as per usual, it was quickly pulled. Other than that this listing didn’t reveal much but we did get some leaked specs for the S7 line last month and they included a 12.4in AMOLED display, the S Pen will now be magnetically attached to the back and it will be aligned with the new dual camera module. On the front side, it looks kinda similar to the latest iPads and the selfie camera has been moved to the side so you can use it while the tablet is on landscape mode.

LG could give us the first rollable smartphone next year

LG has been reluctant to hop on the foldable phone trend and have opted to go for dual-displays instead. Now, it looks like the company is finally ready to join but in a different way. Last year we got some patents of a roll-able phone and according to a new Korean report, LG is working on bringing this device to the market in early 2021. It’s currently called Project B and the prototype is already under production, but get this.. They’re using a BOE display. The report also mentions that LG might release their phone as they have been losing money on their mobile division and some innovation might help them get out of this slump. We’re expecting LG to release this phone, a “horizontal device codenamed Wing” and a “traditional looking” flagship in Q1 of 2021.

Here’s an official sneak peek at the OnePlus Nord’s design

We’re expecting the OnePlus Nord to launch some time next week so naturally, the hype is ramping up. OnePlus just put out a new teaser on their Instagram account and we get to see the actual phone. The trailer focuses on the past and staying true to who you are, probably hinting to OnePlus going back to their roots with their “New Beginnings”. Then towards the end of the video you can see the phone going into a pocket but if you freeze it we can see the camera module which looks pretty much like the renders we got months ago. It has the OnePlus logo in the center and it comes in that Blue color variant we’ve been expecting. There’s another picture where you can see the front of the phone but we can’t really see the dual selfie cameras but we saw those a couple of days ago in the other teaser. Here’s the thing. Regardless of the teaser, can we just give props to OnePlus for this marketing campaign. It’s totally achieving the interest they’re look for.

Apple wants to know what you do with “in the box” iPhone chargers

The iPhone 12 could feature Largan camera lenses

And finally, the hottest news today have to do with Apple. So Monday we talked about the lack of a Charger, and Tuesday we talked about the camera.. Today, we have a couple of confirmations, so let’s begin with the later. We have new Ming Chi Kuo report where he claims that the iPhone 12 will bring some new “high-end” 8-element lens arrays to improve image quality. These premium camera lenses will be supplied by company called Largan and will start shipping in a couple of weeks. Production has reportedly been delayed by 6 weeks, meaning we’ll see production reach its peak by September-November instead of the usual August-October. Anyways, as for the second topic, if you wanted any confirmation that Apple is removing the charger on the iPhone 12, wait no more. Apple is sending out surveys to people in Brazil on what they do with their older chargers,.. yeah you heard that right. Now, so far the survey has only been found in Brazil so it may be limited right now, or it might be a regional thing, but it asked what the user did with his previous iPhone 7 charger, asking if he recycled it, gave it to a family member or friend or if he still has it and uses it. Now, we’re not 100% sure if Apple will remove the charger this year but if this survey is real, it looks like it’s happening. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/pocketnowsub http://pocketnow.com Follow us: http://flipboard.com/@Pocketnow http://facebook.com/pocketnow http://twitter.com/pocketnow http://google.com/+pocketnow Source

The post Pocketnow Daily: Apple’s iPhone 12 BEST and WORST Leaks Confirmed? (video) appeared first on abangtech.

from abangtech https://abangtech.com/pocketnow-daily-apples-iphone-12-best-and-worst-leaks-confirmed-video/

[awed-frog]

Hi, so whenever I read destiel meta, or anything destiel related I always see someone mentioning "cas falling for dean"(not as in falling in love with him but like from heaven)and I'm really confused because I don't remember that happening. Do you know whats going on? Thanks!

Hi there! I can’t speak for other meta writers, but what I mean when I’m talking about that is the moment when Cas turned his back on Heaven and chose to side with Dean back in S4, and maybe that doesn’t sound like ‘Falling’, exactly, but the thing is, we don’t know what Falling is and what it means, do we? Like, what we do know is that Metatron’s spell caused the angels to Fall, and that meant 1) burning their wings off (which, as far as we know, merely means annulling their capacity to move around quickly in time and space) and 2) locking them out of the Gates of Heaven (which, ???). However, what was never clear to me is that Cas didn’t go through this process, because Metatron cut his Grace off him before going through with the spell - and yet, when Cas powered up again, his wings were shown to be broken all the same. And another point: as much as I love the wings symbolysm, it’s a bit flimsy because the most famous of the Fallen angels (both in the SPN universe and in theology) is Lucifer, and his wings work just fine. In fact, we know that he and Michael are now the only angels capable of flight.

(In our world, that is. The AU world will likely have different rules.)

Now, as far as I know, the idea of Falling, and, more specifically, of Lucifer falling (because in theology I don’t think that we know of other angels who Fell for their own reasons after him) is not so much about going down as it is about going away - being banned from God’s presence, being excluded from, and deprived of, His love - however you want to put it, that’s what Falling is. So, as you can see, the problem in the SPN universe is that Chuck never left much in terms of direct orders or instructions, and didn’t seem to care about the angels at all when he came back, so - technically - this means that either all of the angels Fell when God first left (simply because He left) and/or that they can never regain their previous status until He says they can. I know I wasn’t the only one to feel slightly, or a lot, disappointed in how Chuck’s return was handled and how much it focused on Lucifer and Dean to the detriment of everyone else -

(Because come on, Sam needed his moment with God after all those years he spent praying to the guy, and Cas - for fuck’s sake, don’t get me started on Cas, but also - all those other nameless and faceless angels, what about them? They are Chuck’s kids, same as Lucifer and the other archangels, and He created them without Free Will, completely dependent on Him, and then He buggered off and when He came back, He never even went up to visit? I’m surprised the place hasn’t turned into a den of depression and alcoholism, to be honest.)

- because the fact is, whatever Metatron’s spell was about, Falling is something that’s between God and the angels. Furthermore, we know from Hester’s words, back in S7, that Falling is maybe - a sort of process? Remember what she says to Dean and Cas? “When Castiel first laid a hand on you in hell he was lost!”, “You have fallen in every way imaginable.” - that seems to imply that there are different ways to Fall, and, okay, some of it was a big subtextual wink and basically Sera Gamble shouting, ‘Don’t go anywhere, shippers, now comes the good stuff! Or soon, anyway!’, but it also made sense textually: we know there are many ways for angels to walk away from Heaven, or be forced out, and all of those could be considered a kind of Falling if we go with the show’s definition of it and take Chuck out of the equation. So - in a way - Gabriel having sex with horses and pretending to be dead is a sort of Falling, as is Balthazar having orgies and selling goods on the black market, and also what happened to Anna, and even what Ishim did: Falling is about developing your own emotions and desires and thoughts, and thus straying from the path God has decided for you. And Cas - I think that, from the point of view of the angels, Cas Fell when he turned his back on them in the most critical moment of their history and chose to help Dean instead, and we know he never truly came back from that - that’s when he started to not be at peace with himself, after all.

(Of course, that’s not the first time Cas rebelled, but he doesn’t remember about the other times, does he? And I’m hoping being dead for good will help him there, because without those memories, I’m not sure he can ever forgive himself - or Dean.)

And if you think about it, it makes sense, because that was a huge breach of - everything. Cas owed his kind obedience and devotion and instead he sided with a human he’d known for, like, ten minutes; and as an angel, he’s supposed to respect the fundamental Virtues of Christianity, and he lost all three of them: his love for God, and his hope and faith for His plans. No wonder he’s broken, because if that isn’t Falling, I don’t know what is. 

[ceciliatpyb662-blog]

The Twelve Worst Types Showbox.Apk Accounts You Adhere To On Twitter

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[jbuffyangel]

Arrow Moves To Thursdays

Woke up to this article today and my TL looked like:

Arrow is moving to Thursday nights at 9 pm next fall for their sixth season. Reactions varied from chill to... not. Do I think this is a bad thing? No, I don’t. 

Allow me to preface this post by saying this: I’ve been talking about Arrow’s ratings and The CW network since I started this blog. Long before there was ever a ratings drop, my opinion was that The CW has a different business model than the other networks. If you cannot accept that The CW’s profitability is not based on live ratings, then this is not the blog for you. You don’t have to take my word for it. Stephen Amell confirmed it at HVFF Chicago. Mark Pedowitz has spoken about it.  I’ve done my research on this folks. They are structured differently than the Big Four. It’s just facts. (X) 

Yes, I was surprised by the move mostly because I had grown complacent about Arrow on Wednesday night. Wasn’t expecting it. I am no expert, but I’m happy to share my thoughts. I’ll talk about what I like about the move. Then we’ll shift to concerns.

What I Like

The 9 pm slot

Praise Jesus! We are on at a later time. THIS IS FABULOUS. Arrow has always been a darker and grittier show, especially when you compare it to The Flash and Supergirl. A 9 pm slot loosens the grip Broadcasting Standards and Practices has on the show. It can be more violent and sexier simply because the kiddos go to bed. I sincerely hope Arrow is able to push the envelope more, even if it’s ever so slightly.

Supernatural Pairing

I do not watch Supernatural, but I am THRILLED Arrow was paired with it. These shows were paired before (2015 Arrow S4/Supernatural S11) and I believe it was successful. Supernatural and Arrow have very similar demographics, so they’ve always seemed like a natural fit to me.

Honestly, how The CW pairs their shows has always been quite a head scratcher to me. Arrow and Frequency? HUH? The pairings for next year’s fall line up feel the most logical in years. The only one I’m really side eyeing is Valor after Supergirl (Really?). All the other show pairings feel similar in demographic and content, which just makes more sense to me if you are trying to maintain/build on audiences.

Supernatural is a strong show. It’s been on 12 years. It’s moved 8 times. I think if God invented an 8th day and The CW moved it there but didn’t tell a soul, the Supernatural fans would find it. This fandom is as loyal as they get. Their ratings have held pretty steady over the course of 12 seasons, which in of itself is impressive. A move is always tough on any television show, simply because your audience needs to follow it to the new night. So, I am extremely happy Arrow’s lead in is an anchor show for the network, who has already proven themselves on Thursday nights, and comes with a built in audience that is similar to Arrow’s.

Thursday Night

This is primarily for selfish reasons. I teach faith formation on Wednesday nights, but I am wide open on Thursdays. So, Arrow on Thursdays just works better for my schedule. lol I can live tweet more.

The Concerns

This Is Us

Yes, I am well aware that This Is Us is moving to Thursdays at 9 pm. This seemed to be the primary concern. That the live ratings mammoth that is This Is Us will send Arrow into a ratings death spiral and it will get canceled. Sigh. No. Just... no. 

Name one show on The CW that is in the ballpark of This Is Us numbers? Name one show on The CW that is in the live ratings ballpark of any show that airs on the Big Four? See, this is where this whole “How in holy Moses is The CW profitable?” question really starts to matter. It doesn’t matter what show The CW puts in that time slot. They’ll all get creamed. lol The CW isn’t concerned about Arrow going head to head with This Is Us. They don’t operate on a mano e mano strategy for live ratings... because they lose.

This Is Us has to prove successful on Thursday. There can be a tendency for hit pilot shows to suffer a sophomore slump in ratings. This Is Us is moving to the toughest night on television. It has the break to contend with too when NBC starts airing football. I’m not really worried about any of this. I think This Is Us will do great and kick serious ass. I’m expecting every show that goes up against it will take a live ratings hit.

Is This Is Us going to take enough of Arrow’s viewers to send it into some ratings death spiral so The CW is forced to cancel because it’s become abysmally unprofitable? Doubtful.

I do think the shows target different demos as Mark Pedowitz said. Now before you start screaming at me, “I WATCH THIS IS US AND ARROW” that’s great. So do I. I love them both. Except, I’m not a Nielson family so it doesn’t really matter that I watch both. 

The CW’s demographic is primarily female. The reasons why Arrow and The Flash were so appealing to to The CW was because it allowed them to branch into the other half of the population more - the male demo. That’s who The CW needed to target for their market to grow. Now, before you start screaming at me, “WOMEN WATCH ARROW AND MEN WATCH THIS IS US” yes thank you. I am aware.  I am quite sure This Is Us will take some of Arrow’s audience, but this is not new territory for me. Blindspot was up against Arrow this year. It had to lose some audience to Blindspot given how similar the demos are. I’m not certain the demos are as different as Pedowitz claims, but he’s probably got numbers I don’t. The question is how much will This Is Us take? That is the X factor. I don’t have male/female demographics on either show, so how the shift all shakes out is unknowable.  Am I worried? NO.

As I discussed in my most recent ratings post, I don’t know what the live ratings/profitability ratio is for The CW but even with a 30% drop in ratings Arrow is nowhere near their danger zone. The Originals is averaging a .30. It’s going into Season 5. Reign was at the same average when it was renewed for a fourth and final season. We've got a long ways to go. Arrow is still the #4 performer for the network.

The CW is focused on streaming. Netflix kids. That's where they make their money. The more seasons they have to sell to Netflix the more money they get to make. This includes complete series that viewers can binge start to finish. They also want their series to hit 88-100 episodes. They aren't trying to make money off the live broadcast run. They are focused on syndication deals. Arrow has a syndication deal with TNT. This all means The CW is focused on LONGEVITY.

Even if This Is Us sends Arrow into another ratings dive – I don’t think it goes anywhere. Stephen Amell is signed for 7 seasons. I feel confident we’re going 7 folks. Whether or not we go longer remains to be seen, but I think that has a lot more to do with Stephen Amell than it does with This Is Us. If Arrow ends in S7, I'm not remotely prepared to call that a series failure. Nor should you.

The CW is trying to kill Arrow

There seems to be a concern that The CW is trying to kill Arrow by moving it to Thursday and putting it up against This Is Us. 

Thursday is not the night shows go to die. That would be Friday. (Jen pats Blindspot). Although, even that mentality is starting to change. I think The CW would rather move a low rated show to Friday, especially if it has a loyal fanbase and strong social media presence, instead of cancel it. Friday keeps many shows alive, which means more streaming opportunities!

I guess the thinking on this one is because Arrow suffered a 30% drop The CW wants to cancel it and this is how they push it out. Again, I disagree. This is The CW not Fox. They try to keep series going, not intentionally torpedo them. 

Also, Marc confirmed that their streaming is UP. So, it’s possible whatever loss Arrow is suffering in live they are making it up in streaming. The audience is just shifting. We don't have any specific numbers, but for all we know, this could be a wash. My bet is The CW is nowhere near as unhappy with Arrow's numbers as people presume they are. Especially, if their numbers are up in the medium The CW is TARGETING.

Thursday

So why is Arrow getting moved off its comfortable Wednesday night show to one of the toughest nights in TV?

The Vampire Diaries was The CW's Thursday solid 8 pm performer for years. They've always struggled to find a solid 9 pm. Nikita, The Secret Circle, Beauty and the Beast, Reign, The Originals, Riverdale – none of them cut it. Then once TVD moved to Fridays, Legends of Tomorrow failed to gain traction in TVD's old spot.  You know what's moved back and forth to Thursdays a lot over the years? SUPERNATURAL. Something I noticed - each one of these failed Thursday night shows were pretty buzzy their first season. Arrow generates buzz.

Look guys, they had to put something there. The CW doesn't have a lot of new shows this season which means one of the returning series has to move to fill up the slots. Supernatural proved successful this year on Thursdays. So, if you look at the board – Arrow makes the most sense to pair with it. Also, after 5 seasons, Arrow is still one of their strongest performing series (#4 ain't bad). I think The CW put two of the longest running series, with a loyal fan base, to a night where they've been looking for two solid performers for awhile.

I also don't think WHEN The CW schedules their shows matters as much as other networks because, you guessed it, streaming.

That said, Arrow did suffer a 30% drop this year. That's not insignificant. Meanwhile, Supernatural had a minimal drop. Maybe the time has come for Arrow to stop being the lead in series and get a little support. I'm okay with that. Its certainly carried their own weight.

Why not just put Supernatural on Wednesday like they did last year? Well, that still leaves Thursday as wildly problematic, but maybe the answer is Fox? Fox went with soapier programming this year on Wednesday with Empire and Star. So, I think The CW answered with Riverdale and The Dynasty reboot. That’s that's just a guess though. I also think they wanted a new night for Riverdale. They seem invested in that series, the network just made an Archie comics deal, and probably wanted to find a more successful night for it than Thursday. Supergirl is a solid Monday performer. The Flash/LOT pairing is working great on Tuesday. That leaves Wednesday. And... Arrow suffered a drop. The door was open.

Supernatural makes a bad lead in

Ehh... I just disagree with this. 12 years is a long time and I don't have enough knowledge about Supernatural. I certainly understand if fans prefer Supernatural at 9 pm, but I think it has switched between 8 and 9 just as much as it has moved nights. I think Riverdale was sighted as this example. Honestly, I think that has more to do with my previous complaint about The CW's penchant for terrible pairing. What on earth do Riverdale and Supernatural have in common? I’m not surprised the audience didn’t carry over. I don't lay the blame at Supernatural's door. I stand by my positives for Supernatural being the lead in.

The Crossover

This move breaks up the crossover. Honestly, I don’t think a network can plan their entire schedule around one episode a year. Also, I think the fanbases for the DC shows are pretty loyal. They’ll follow the crossover conclusion to Arrow on Thursday night. I don’t see a day drastically changing numbers, but I guess we’ll see. Even still, one episode a season does not make.

I'm sure I've missed other concerns, but I took my best shot. My advice would be to stop worrying about Arrow's cancellation and just enjoy the show - no matter what night it is on.

[un-enfant-immature]

eBay launches Instant Selling, a new trade-in service for smartphones

eBay today launched a new service to help users unload their old smartphones on its online marketplace. With eBay Instant Selling, as the service is called, consumers can list their device info, add images, then receive an instant voucher that can be used towards the purchase of a new device from eBay. They’ll also receive an eBay shipping label to send their old phone to eBay.

The company claims it will offer a higher return than competitors’ sites, like Gazelle or EcoATM as well as carriers’ trade-in programs like those from AT&T and Verizon, plus Apple’s own Give Back program. It says that standard programs tend to offer 40 to 50 percent off the average market selling price, but eBay will provide up to 40% higher than trade-in values, on average.

Currently, eligible smartphones include Unlocked, Verizon and AT&T, Samsung Galaxy S7 to S9 + and Apple iPhone 6S 16GB through iPhone X 256GB. In November, eBay will add T-Mobile, Sprint and Google Pixel and select LG products to that list, it says.

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because eBay has tried its hand at similar services in the past – repeatedly. In 2013, it shut down an older “Instant Sale” service that focused on reselling consumer electronics, then returned in 2016 with a trade-in site called “Quick Sale.” However, Quick Sale relied on another shuttered eBay service, eBay Valet, which involved having eBay top sellers handle the device sales.

To use the new Instant Selling service, consumers can visit ebay.com/s/phone, then enter their device info and upload photos. After accepting the terms, they’ll receive their instant quote and can opt to print the shipping label to turn in their device to eBay.

The company was unable to provide more information about the revenue sharing portion of the program, as it’s in the quiet period in advance of earnings.

It did, however, provide a comparison chart of top devices and how they would sell on competitors’ sites.

“Millions of Americans have unused phones in their homes and simply don’t realize how much their devices are worth, probably because trade-in values are typically so low,” said Alyssa Steele, Vice President of Hard Goods, eBay, in a statement about the launch. “With Instant Selling, people can find out exactly how much their phone is worth, and sell their phone within a matter of minutes to immediately help fund the holidays, or maybe something off their personal wish list,” she said.

[muenchkevin]

Smartphone with 100MP quality camera is Gionee’s next flagship

The never-ending debate about smartphone camera vs DLSR continues to rage on but with future developments, don't be surprised if the former manages to upstage the latter. Few years back, Nokia brought different camera dimensions to smartphone with its 41MP powered Lumia 1020 Windows phone. Cut to circa 2015, we might just catch glimpse of first phone with 100MP imaging power and this time it's going to come from land of China.

Gionee is one of the many handset makers, focused on selling products in markets like China and India among others and their latest flagship is rumored to be announced shortly at a global level for the time being.

Currently, Gionee's flagship credentials are held forth by Elife S7 but soon that could be displaced by Elife E8, which is expected to come fitted with a 23MP rear snapper that according to leaks will be equipped with capability to click pictures of 100MP quality and shoot 4K videos.

We would like to remind you that Gionee's Elife E8 has been much delayed smartphone. At the Gionee Elife S7 launch, when he had quizzed India Head Arvind Vohra about the same, he had mentioned that they wanted the device to stand out and were working on various aspects, which is causing the delay. Could this be the reason what has caused the delay for the Gionee Elife E8?

It's hard to go by the company's claim or rumoured revelations right now, so it's better to wait it out and watch Gionee has to say about the device in question. But do we really need 100MP quality and that on a smartphone? Stay tuned, more on the phone in will be shared soon.

source https://www.techradar.com/news/smartphone-with-100mp-quality-camera-is-gionees-next-flagship/ from Blogger https://ift.tt/3veWGp1 Source Link Smartphone with 100MP quality camera is Gionee’s next flagship