#same with the depiction of AB's for all its flaws even

[fideidefenswhore]

It’s a watchable piece of faux history, but the movie does not know what to do with its own heroine, content to leave her to the clutches of its villain: Henry.

yeah, i don’t think i’m going to be a fan of this one. 

[mademoiselle-cookie]

Let's talk about « The Princess's Jewels »

I saw a lot of people (rightfully) criticizing "The Princess's Jewels" but at no point did I see people WHY the young girls who read it love it (far too ready to insult them).

Do people really wonder why some people are able to look past the heroine's flaws?

She is not a shy and fragile little thing who allows herself to be mistreated and erased by the male characters. She knows what she wants and does everything to get it, she assumes her sexual desires without any shame, she is strong enough to beat the shit out of all her opponents while still being feminine...

Conversely, in how many fictions have you seen useless and/or weak female characters, completely overshadowed by the guys? Can we talk about Ochako, who, since realizing her feelings for Deku, sees her character revolve solely around him? About Sakura, the example of useless female characters? About the thousands of works where women are harassed or even sexually assaulted without it being questioned?

For once, it's a fiction where it's the girl who has the power. She is the one who uses, possesses and surpasses the male characters. For once, it's the men who are reduced to the status of objects and used to make women shine.

Even in reverse harems, men are not entitled to the same treatment as women in classic harems. I haven't read many, but I don't remember any panty shots about little boys or arguments about who has the biggest (boobs) dick. They're generally treated with a lot more respect and not just as boobs with legs (or in this case, abs with legs).

And it’s not just a story of “revenge” (big quotation mark, I don't have a better word). It is also (mostly?) a question of identification. Girls know that they are not potted plants, uninteresting holy of holies destined to have their lives revolved around a man.

In this webtoon, the heroine has desires without being demonized, she is manipulative and intelligent and is celebrated for that, she's physically strong and can talk a good game instead of being a dullard who can't put her feet up...

The representation problem can be very effective in hiding problems in a work. Some even use it intentionally, in order to have a fan base in desperate need of representation, and to be able to call the critics haters *cough* Little Mermaid live-action *cough* (not to say that haters will not indeed come after representation of minority).

A quick thought about this comment from a black reader who was so thrilled to see a black character in an important and positive position. The character in question is owned by a white woman and is the only one of the "Jewel" group to wear a dog collar (he is also a werewolf. The only werewolves depicted are members of his family, also black. No black people exist outside of this family).

So for those complaining that no one criticizes this webtoon, two things:

not true, people criticize it. I discovered its existence because of the numerous videos criticizing it on YouTube. Even in the comments, readers pointed out the flaws in the writing or the horrible behavior of the heroine (even in the advanced chapters where everyone who didn't like it has already left). Here an exemple

If more people criticize Redo of Healer, it may be because a manga popular enough to have an anime adaptation, thus making it even more famous, attracts more people likely to criticize it than a not very popular webtoon. known.

Of course, this does not prevent us from criticizing this work.

This obviously does not prevent the heroine from being a selfish, self-centered, hypocritical, fatphobic daddy's girl Mary-Sue who has no respect for her poor fiancé and who succeeds in everything because she "is so beautiful” and that she “smells good” (no joke).

This does not prevent her half-brother (supposedly a villain), despised for no reason by his father, physically and psychologically abused by his mother, who is absolutely right about the MC and who does not get everything by snapping his fingers unlike her, is a character a thousand times more appreciable (the fiancé too).

But when you're an adult, you don't insult teenage girls for liking poor quality works.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

This Needs To Stop.

Trigger warning: Sensitive topics, p*dopilia, grooming, mental health and r*cism. 

Ok so this is a bit of a rant so apologies for that, I usually try to stay away from sensitive or controversial topics but this is something that I am passionate about and that I think is important. Also I just want to say that I am in no way directing this to the entirety of the M*lina fandom, I know most are just enjoying their ship, but there are those few who are deliberately seeking out darklina posts or are cross tagging and coming into darklina’s asks and just generally harassing the fandom which sadly I am seeing happen more and more often. Also I do feel like this can apply to all fandoms not just exclusively shadow and bone/ grishaverse, its just this is the one I am experiencing it in right now.   

I’ve seen antis call darkling/darklina fans many problematic things, delusional, mentally ill, ab*se apologists. They also like throwing around words like grooming and p*dophile. The thing that makes me angry about this is that they are taking sensitive topics, topics that many users have been effected by and they are using them to attack shippers merely for liking a character or ship that they don’t. What is even more frustrating is they seem to be throwing these words around without evening fully understanding what they even mean. For example the claim that the Darkling is a p*dophile because Alina is only 17 in the books. Well p*dophilia is a psychiatric disorder where adults are attracted to children and in order for it to be classed as p*dophilia the child involved has to be 13 or younger. A 16 year old can be diagnosed as a p*dophile if they become attracted to a child that is five years or more younger than them. So the relationship between the Darkling and Alina does not meet the criteria to be categorised this way as Alina is over the age of 13. As for it being a case of Alina is underaged, well, for one that depends on where in the world you are. This is based on imperial russia, in russia the age of consent is 16. This means that a 16 year old can have a sexual relationship with a 30 year old, a 70 year old or a 500 year old immortal and in a court of law it is still legal, whatever your own moral issues around age gaps might be. Even then it can be argued that it is irrelevant because, as with most historical literature where young girls marry older men, you cannot put modern day concepts onto them. Like I said this story is based on Imperial Russia, the life expectancy of a person in that time was around 30 years old. That means a 15 year old girl is already half way through her life, she is literally middle aged. It is at this point usually that girls started to prepare to get married and have children and yes sometimes it was to an older man because men were expected to provide for their wife and family which means having a house and job and means to support a family which an older man was more likely to have. My point is a 15-17 year old in say Imperial Russia is not the same as a 15-17 year old in modern day therefore you can’t take modern day laws and morals and place them onto that situation, it doesn’t work, they lived completely different lives. In Alina’s world, she is at the age where girls might get married and her being courted by a man of the general’s status would have been a normal occurrence, for her to have caught the attention of someone with his standing would have been considered very advantageous for her. I mean she literally gets two marriage proposals in book 2, where I believe she is still 17, and Nikolai is talking about how if she marries him it’ll be in name only and they can make Mal her guard so she can do the horizontal tango with him whenever she feels like it, so clearly the characters themselves feel like Alina is at an age where she can, one get married, and two be engaging in a sexual relationship. 

So why does all of this matter? Well it matters because people reading these posts, asks and comments left on posts, may be victims of p*dophilia and grooming. A lot of these comments don’t have trigger warnings and when you are talking about sensitive and triggering topics like this you need to be careful and when you are talking about them without even really understanding them, and where they can’t apply to the characters you are talking about anyway, then you are potentially triggering someone needlessly because you didn’t need to be talking about it in the first place, I hope I am making sense there. I am not saying don’t talk about these subjects if you do think they are relevant, I am saying make sure you do the research, that you understand the subject you are addressing and when you do talk about it do it in a respectful manner, don’t throw it out there in an angry spew accompanied by alot of other derogatory words because that won’t help anyone.     

Another subject I want to talk about is I am also seeing a lot of posts about how darklinas must be delusional or mentally unwell. This, again, is hurtful and harmful. Mental illness for a very long time has had a stigma around it, one that makes the person suffering from it feel weak and ashamed. There was always the attitude of if you are mentally ill then there is something wrong with you, or the attitude of oh just get over it, cheer up, think a different way. But mental illness isn’t just a state of emotion its often caused by hormonal imbalances and chemicals. Genetics can also play a part. There is nothing wrong with someone who is mentally ill their brain is just wired a different way. I also find it problematic when people throw around the word delusional. Maybe its nothing to you, just a word, but alot of mental illnesses have actual delusions as one of their symptoms. These can be scary and upsetting and are outside the control of the person experiencing them. Making the suggestion that liking a particular ships means you are delusional is potentially very triggering to those who do battle delusions and have fought to overcome them. The stigma around mental illness has prevented alot of people suffering from mental illness from seeking help out of shame or embarrassment or even out of fear of being judged and although I do feel like as a society we’ve become alot more open about mental health and alot more accepting there is still a long way to go. When antis start saying things like ‘I can’t believe people ship this, they must be mentally ill,’ or ‘they must be sick in the head’, or ‘if you like this ship than you must be delusional’ not only are they being incredibly prejudice against people who have mental illnesses but it is also so harmful because if there is someone reading that post who is struggling with their mental health and are considering seeking help then you’ve just made them feel more ashamed, more like there is something wrong with them which will make them even less likely to seek out help and as I said before there isn’t anything wrong with a person who has a mental health condition they are just different from you. That doesn’t give you the right to make them feel like they are less capable of deciding what they do or do not like or even what they should or should not like to be classified as a ‘normal’ person. 

The most latest problematic statements I’ve seen have been those accusing Darklina’s of being r*cist. This one I found a bit funny in a it’s not funny kind of way. I just don’t think there is much logic behind this view point. I’m not sure I understand the antis reasoning here. Mostly because I’m pretty sure the majority of the Darklina fandom comes from the books where Mal is described as being a white, brown haired, blue eyed guy. Funnily enough the Darkling is described as being able to pass for Shu, though to be clear it isn’t confirmed that he is a POC, but out of the two in the books the Darkling is more likely to be a POC than Mal. On top of that whilst many darklina fans have made it clear they are not a fan of Mal in the books many have said they like the show version of Mal who, as we all know, the actor Archie is a POC. So by anti logic darklinas are all r*cist because they don’t like book Mal who is depicted as white but we do like show Mal who is a POC. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I do understand that there were some ‘fans’ who made inappropriate and r*cist comments to some cast members including Archie and I would never ever condone that no matter who I ship. But you also can’t condemn an entire fandom just because of the actions of a select few. I don’t judge all M*linas for that one fan who accused Ben of being a pr*dator and p*dophile because of his friendship with Jessie. Once again my point is r*cism is a serious topic and not something someone should use as a retort or comeback to someone not shipping your ship. When we use these words casually it makes it less likely that they’ll be taking seriously when they really do need to be taken seriously, when they really are relevant to what is happening. If we keep using them so casually then when we really do need to talk about them, when it really matters, people will just shrug and go ‘its just antis being antis.’ 

I think it is possible for people to like different things, to debate and analyse different relationships and characters and talk about what flaws they may have in a respectful manner. I wouldn’t say I am anti m*lina but at the same time there are things about them that I find problematic but when I talk about those things I hope I do so in a way that doesn’t demean those who do like the ship. I understand that people will have a different interpretation than me and whilst I might not understand where their thinking comes from or why they have a particular opinion I would never make the assumption that they are mentally unwell or make judgements on their character or morals. I try to think about the words I am writing. I know how easy it can be to just throw a word out there without thinking about it. I used to use the word delusional to describe fans of certain ships, but when I recognised how damaging and problematic that was I stopped and I changed my behaviour because it was never my intention to hurt others. I guess the main message I am trying to convey here is we need to be careful with our words they’re not as insignificant as we might think.                

[kendrixtermina]

Since you seem to enjoy analyzing stories I was wondering if you have any advice on what to do when your mind narrows in on critical aspects? I usually really enjoy analyzing media but recently I found that my mind tends to hyper-focus on aspects that I don't like even when I'm actively trying to ignore it and focus on what I do like. So I was just curious if you have tips for dealing with it and/or getting out of this mindset. Thanks and I apologize if this isn't the right blog for this!

Ugh. This is a big question and I’m not sure I’m qualified or immune to complaining. But I consider myself honored, I’ll try my best to answer it. 

There’s three things you can do here

a) Try to find out where it’s coming from. 

Cross-examine yourself active listening wise. Your reactions can generally come from two places: What you’re actually looking at, or yourself. 

Is everything annoying you as of late because you are angry? Are you having a bad week because of something in your private life? Are you sensitive because some larger tendency in RL/society is pissing you off? Is it even anger? What are you feeling and why? Does it really have anything to do with this movie etc?

Or is it something about the work itself? Does it remind you of something that happened to you? Does your displeasure come from a value that is important to you or a pattern that you believe to be a bad influence on society. 

Really try to put into words what it is that makes you feel this way while keeping in mind that your feelings, your reaction to the work and the work itself are separate entities. 

I’d remain open to the possibility that you have a legitimate gripe here. If you personally can’t enjoy a work either because a subjective factor or an objective flaw that’s a dealbreaker for you, you shouldn’t force yourself to like it because your friends do or because it didn’t do anything “unforgiveable”. Deciding that it’s not your cup of tea needn’t be a moral judgement on everyone who made the work or everyone who likes it. 

On the other hand you might find it easier to enjoy it if you acknowledge the flaw and put it into definite words, tell your inner critic that you heard them and then continue. If you try not to think about something you automatically end up thinking about it. 

b) Keep in mind that there are many valid stories and that all of them are worth telling

A lot happens on this green earth. Consider the following cases:

A1: A small, lithe person is mistreated by a big strong one

A2: A small, lithe person mistreats a big strong one and pretends to be the victim appealing to their small ness

B1: An eccentric kid is labeled as disordered just for being eccentric and because the teachers don’t want to deal with her 

B2: A serious-minded kid has an actual anxiety disorder and experiences stigma because of it and people not understanding that it’s real and debilitating

C1: There is a socially awkward, nerdy character. She is eventually revealed as autistic and her friends accept her just as she is. 

C2: There is a socially awkward, nerdy character. She comes out as aroace and all her friends support her. It is emphasized that she is actually as affectionate as everyone else and preconceptions to the contrary were just bigoted misunderstandings. 

C3: There is a socially awkward, nerdy character.  She finds a significant other who loves her even though she is socially awkward, and her love leads her to discover more communicative passionate sides to her personality. 

Clearly, for each of these scenarios, there are going to be people who relate to some but not to others. If you’ve got an anxiety disorder you’re going to relate to the story with the anxiety disorder, and if you were mis-labeled by incompetent teachers you’re gonna relate to that. But both actually happen in real life. B1 is me B2 is one of my sisters. You might even say they’re caused by some of the same intolerant attitudes. 

So ask yourself:  Is any of these intended as a “fuck you” to the people who would rather have the other ones? If in one particular story the character was mistakenly labeled by incompetent teachers and never had a real disorder, it it saying that no one has real disorders? If the small and lithe character turns out to be the victim, does it mean that big and strong characters are never victims? No of course not. 

 - You can criticize it if the story outright makes such statements and it is vital to do so (see next paragraph), but if the point in the story is just that this particular character was wrongly labeled, or this particular small character was the victim, then it’s simply telling a different story, not at all making a point about whether real disorders or big strong victims exist. 

What’s cathartic or empowering or meaningful to people is as different as people themselves. There’s a good chance that there won’t be an exact match between you or any given authors. 

Often the problem is not the stories that are there, but the ones that are missing. It’s not per se bad to have “girl gets rescued by prince” stories, it’s only bad if they’re the ONLY stories. The solution is more stories. 

Obviously there are exceptions to that like stuff that outright includes negative stereotypes or unquestioned bad behavior treated as good, 

c) Focus on constructivity and context instead of loaded labels

The above was more about perceived flaws this one is about real indisputable flaws. Flaws that are important to point out.

The number one goal here, if you really care about stopping harm and not anyones egos,  should be to get people to stop doing it. 

Sometimes in extreme cases making someone out to be a bad person and warning of them is exactly how you stop harm, but often time its not and getting obsessed with “punishing bad people” while losing sight of “preventing harm” does zero to help the people actually being harmed. Or worse than zero, if you associate a worthy cause with frivolous squabbles. 

Some people just don’t care and will never change their ways but you won’t ever convince those. You need to convince everyone else. All the ones who are maybe just ignorant and didn’t know better, or never had to form an opinion about this. Even if the maker themselves won’t change opinion, you can sway those. 

Imagine a bigoted religious person. how are you more likely to convince them? Get them to stop being religious, which is probably a part of their identity? Or try and argue that equality is, in fact, compatible with their religion? If you step on people’s egoes they will be attacked and block/dismiss all you have to say. Not only will they not change, they’ll dig in their heels. In the worst case, they’ll now start thinking that your Reasonable Position is incompatible with their identity. 

Again some people are determined to have their egoes stepped on and will be insulted no matter what, but those are not the target. 

This isn’t about appeasing assholes, it’s about creating change, because that will stop harm. So instead of throwing negatively changed emotional labels at people (which activates the ego and the emotions) try talking about cause and effect and consequences, to talk to their reason. Explain how the consequences happen. 

For similar reasons, try to think of solutions. You don’t want to destroy the work, you want to make it a better work that more people can enjoy without being distracted by unnecessary flaws. 

Avoid: 

“X is a [negative label] who [buzzword] a [sympathy-drawing label]!!! Why are [entire social group that contains people you want to convince] like this?!”

Instead:

“I know that this was probably supposed to express [intention], but it comes off like [unfortunate implication] and given [harmful social tendency] it might have been better to do [alternate redendition] “

Example #1: “The intention in scenes like in the original Blade Runner, several James Bond Movies or in the Original Star Wards trilogy where the original male characters was probably that these protagonists being suave guys know that the girls really want them to screw/kiss them. The authors know this because they created the characters, but IRL you cannot actually read anyone’s mind and what often happens IRL is that person A proceeds without really making sure that the other person is comfortable, and then they freeze up in fear though they don’t want to have intercourse, and ends up horribly traumatized. There’s not enough general knowledge about the “freeze” part of “fight-flight or freeze”, or good consent education and it would be irresponsible to make this worse. 

All it would literally take to fix it is to have the girls explicitly show that they want to kiss/have sex.”

Example #2: “A lot of horror fiction slaps the names of real diagnosable conditions on what are basically violent monster villains. It’s only natural to wonder what’s going on in the minds of killers and monsters and try to want to contextualize this, but it is vital to keep in mind that there is currently a lot of stigma against people with mental ilnesses, and that depictions like this can make it worse and make it hard for actual real-life people to get jobs and housing. 

If you’re going to use the names of real-life diagnosable conditions you should be committed to researching them and writing the characters realistically while being mindful of the stigma and the social impact that wrong renditions would have and not make a freakshow out of it. 

Alternatively, if you just want to do an unrealistic horror movie killer, don’t use the names of real conditions that real people have.”

d) Refresh Button. 

Especially because you’re saying that this isn’t your default mode and that it feels like some recent thing that you don’t really want. 

- take a break, busy your mind with something else, give the subconscious time toprocess and old perceptions time to settle. Then come back to it. 

- Try sort of looking at it from a new perspective, to deconstruct it from the bottom. What dothing really mean? What are we really told about the characters and events? Try processing it all new from the ground up without “common widom” 

- Things that aren’t explained on screen aren’t necessarily plot holes. There’s a difference between a contradiction, something that can’t fit together, and something that can fit together you just don’t know how. Deduce. Speculate. This is where your logic and imagination come in. 

- Maybe watch a new person react to it for all new input like a reaction vid on youtube

e) Outside Data. 

Same as above - People are basically really sophisticated Boltzmann machines/ statistical learning algorithms. I#m the least to want to admit that but to a degree we’re all influenced by the Data we take in. 

If you’re surrounded by a lot of material and soucres that pick apart every little thing in media, it’s natural that it would arise as a thought. 

If you don’t really want that in your life, filter it out. 

I hope this was of some sort of use. But I stress again that I’m no kind of authority on any such things and that many others might pick this apart as blasphemy. 

[gchoate17]

I barely watched television as an adult at all until last year when I was limited in the activities I could participate in with a sleeping baby on my chest. But now it seems I will also spend my free time watching television. This year I watched 33 seasons of television shows, one season more than last year. I found them all on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. I ranked those seasons and made a few comments about them, should you care to know what influenced the season’s place on the list.

I also rank books and movies, but for whatever reason, I am much more critical of those mediums. With television, I found something to love in everything I watched. I even liked watching the show at the bottom of my list–a show that basically stars genital warts and lopsided breasts.

Patriot: Season 1 – Smart, subtle humor. Great writing, great cast, great aesthetic, great control of the balance between all the emotions.

The Vietnam War: Season 1 – One of my greatest memories of TV is of watching with my parents Ken Burns’s The Civil War as it aired on PBS. The Vietnam War made me nostalgic for that time, but it is also an eye-opening look into the bullshit politics and egos that cause war. In-depth and well done, and as with any Vietnam-centric film, the soundtrack was stellar.

Vikings: Season 4a  – The characters have flaws and weakness in a way that hurts, but makes them better characters. They are actually changing over time in the way humans do. The strategy of primitive war is still central to the story, and still fascinating.

The Man in the High Castle: Season 1 – A look at what would have happened had we lost WWII. The characters are conflicted, the fascination of life inside the Reich, the beauty of the period. I haven’t read the book the show is based on, but there are hints of some kind of time travel element and that will ruin things for me. I have my fingers crossed.

The Man in the High Castle: Season 3 – The “other worldliness” factor came to full fruition, but they faced it head-on—something they probably should have done in Season 2. Good character development and plot progression.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 1 – A lot to love about this show—above all its fast pace keeps me on my toes. So much chaos all the time. The long cuts that feature the entire ensemble on screen are particularly impressive, and I appreciate how well defined and consistent the characters are. Abe is fantastic.

Jack Ryan: Season 1 – The Jack Ryan movies always did it for me when I was a kid. They’ve always done a good job of pulling in current events to make everything feel like something real is happening. It was strange to see John Krasinski all buff and kicking ass, but he was also believable in the role.

Suits: Season 1 – Beautiful people pretending to be high-powered, nearly invincible attorneys with quick wits.

Vikings: Season 3 – Storylines continue to improve and the final three episodes—the attacks on Paris—were the best of the show so far.

Ozark: Season 2 – Better than the first season.

The Man in the High Castle: Season 2 – It feels like they aren’t sure how to explain the traveling between other worlds yet and that detracts from the storylines. Or maybe they aren’t sure of the rules of traveling between the worlds yet. They need to figure it out. But still, the whole concept—the Axis powers winning the war—is so intriguing that the show remains fascinating.

Wild Wild Country: Season 1 – A fascinating, in-depth look at the rise and fall of a cult that made national news through its controversial interactions with the rest of society.

Vikings: Season 2 – It’s like they realized non-stop violence wasn’t sustainable and so they focused more on creating storylines. Good move.

Vikings: Season 1 – I think I could watch a show where Vikings just sail around for an hour per episode. Some of the events of the show seem implausible in that if they behaved in the depicted manner, their colony would die out, but because it’s produced by the History Channel, I give them the benefit of the doubt.

All or Nothing: Season 1 (Michigan) – I understand they had time constraints to deal with and it would have been a lot to focus on more players, but I felt like there were some key components to the team that should have been obvious characters to follow from the beginning. There were also some seemingly large gaps in the season/games. All that said, it was nice to get to know some of these players and coaches and have a better idea of what’s going on behind the scenes in a top tier college football program.

Vikings: Season 4b – Still a dynamic show with dynamic characters, but the loss of a protagonist is tough to recover from.

GLOW: Season 2 – Bash and Sheila became the best characters, even though Maron was still solid. 

The Wire: Season 3 – I miss season one. The political angle isn’t doing it for me.

The Wire: Season 4 – The kids felt fake in the beginning. The back half of the season was better, but the finale seems to be focusing on setting up for next season more than it cares about bringing any sort of satisfactory closure.

The Wire: Season 5 – I liked the newspaper angle, but the police department seemed too far out of control for even the writers. Tying everything up happened too quickly.

Suits: Season 2 – This season was a little cheesy in a TBS way, but Louis has become my favorite character, surprisingly.

Vikings: Season 5a – I didn’t buy the lack of loyalty between the characters.

Sneaky Pete: Season 2 – Most of the season tried to give the characters some much-needed depth, but it finished in that terribly predictable “and yet another twist!” fashion.

Sneaky Pete: Season 1 – Fun, but a little too cutesy. Most of the plot twists were predictable.

Seven Seconds: Season 1 – Characters were clichéd and the overarching messages were ridiculously overt, but the drama and Michael Mosley pulled it through to the end.

Evil Genius: Season 1 – Started out fascinating. Ended with a fizzle.

Suits: Season 6 – The prison and the legal clinic give the show a more dynamic backdrop that it needed. I feel like Louis became a good character in Season 2, so they decided to focus on him in Season 3, but then he lost his charm. Creating “The Donna” is having the same effect on Donna.

Suits: Season 5 – Finally, they show some vulnerability in their professional abilities.

Homecoming: Season 1 – Artistically/aesthetically pleasing, but the narrative left me wanting. Take away all the gimmicky storytelling and the story itself just isn’t that impressive.

Suits: Season 3 – They’re running out of unique legal maneuvers to write about, and every poker game that happens in the show—which is a lot—feels like it was written by someone who has never played the game.

Suits: Season 7 – The characters are starting to feel more and more disconnected from each other, and every scene starts with someone saying, “[Name], whatever it is, I don’t have time for it right now.” But then of course the thing is so important that they do have time for it. Every single time.

Suits: Season 4 – Mike leaving the firm and then facing off against his former boss and his girlfriend? I feel like we’re headed toward the deep end. The only thing that holds the show together at this point is the witty banter and the beautiful people.

Embarrassing Bodies: Season 1 – This show is ridiculous, but I’m also fascinated by it. It’s amazing to me that they have these people on TV and willing to show the world what has to be some of the most embarrassing moments of their lives.

See last year’s list here.

[headlesssamurai]

Your thoughts on the new Star Wars?

[Disclaimer: The following is sarcasm targeted at social trends and contrarians the world-over. If it offends you, buck it up and have a fucking sense of humor.]

A Completely Serious Breakdown OfStar Wars: The Last Jedi

by Anita Sarkeesian & Rachel Maddow

To begin, let’s just say the best format in which to write anything on the internets is by breaking it down into a comprehensive list for no goddamn reason, other than maybe the idea that lots of people like to read lists or something because it feels a lot less like reading, and lots of people dislike reading. Right? Right.Thus, the following is a list of reasons why Star Wars: The Last Jedi is an atrocity bordering on Nagasaki levels of horror.WARNING: The following will contain spoilers and angsty disappointment.

1. Not enough transgender charactersThis one is clearly a no-brainer. Every respectable sell-out of a Hollywood screenwriter ought to know by now that their movie should contain at least one transgender, one gender-fluid, one gender neutral, and one tri-sexual character, if not more. And this is especially true in bombastic, overblown blockbusters. It disgusts me to see them disregard such a large percentage of their viewership. I know they tried to placate us with the pink-haired drag queen admiral who takes command after Leia is incapacitated, and the Asian kid who is running around with Finn the entire movie, but these characters seemed more like afterthoughts than anything else. To see them be so cavalier and conservative with their dramatis personae is just shameless.

2. It supports animal murderRight off the bat, we’re treated to a horrific scene in which Luke Skywalker, previously a shining beautiful example of a peaceful pacifist Zen master, is shown violently murdering an innocent fish with a barbed spear, then casually carrying the poor slaughtered animal back to his hut like a caveman. If that’s not enough, we later see Chewbacca, previously the most non-violent and docile character in the entire franchise, roasting a poor decapitated penguin on a spit over an open fire like some uncivilized neanderthal. Did he skin the creature while it was still alive? Perhaps we’ll never know, but it was clearly murdered with an intent to eat, and the Wookie carelessly roasts the creature’s remains in full view of its mournful cousins who must be wondering which of them will be next for bloody execution. This blatant disregard for the lives of the magical, peaceful animals of nature is truly horrifying. I can’t imagine how the filmmakers could be this vulgar. For achieving such advanced levels of technology, the people of this galaxy sure behave like feral savages.

3. Not enough wacky comedyI know there was a scene in which a confused elderly woman plays the general of an army, a riff on Karate Kid, an awkward reference to deep throating, a robot doing its best Solid Snake impression, a little kid getting mercilessly whipped by a character from a Pixar movie, Yoda acting like a weirdo again, furry anime creatures making cute noises, a guy getting unexpectedly electrocuted, enough bad dialogue to fill a Star Destroyer’s cargo hold, a fucking prank phone call scene in a Star Wars movie, and Benicio Del Toro’s face; but still. This movie could’ve used more comedy. This is made by Disney, after all, the same studio who gave us Guardians of the Fallacy, I mean every gag in that movie is just such a fucking knee-slapper, you know? Goddamn.

4. Too much explicit sexualityI was very glad to see that in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens Disney decided to completely sever all of the vulgar and explicit sexuality depicted in every previous Star Wars film, particularly making certain this new portrayal of the galaxy was as sterile and sexless as a Dominican cloister. However, they’ve decided to flush that newfound dignity down the fucking toilet with this film. You all know what I’m talking about. There is a single scene in this movie where one character kisses another character on the lips. I know it’s just a little peck, but that’s just too much. This movie is vulgar, kids should not see it. Don’t even get me started on Kylo Ren’s sexy shirtlessness, Snoke’s pervy sex offender vibes, and all of Rey’s wet t-shirt scenes.

5. Not enough Han SoloHan Solo isn’t in this movie. ‘Nuff said.

6. Female heroine needs a manRemember Rey? That amazing, strong feminist icon from Episode VII who could do anything, fix a ship, fly a ship, shoot a gun, wield a laser sword, speak any language, and conquer anyone who stood in her path? Yeah, that girl decided to take a nap in this movie. You guessed it, she’s all fire and energy, yet the moment she sees Kylo Ren’s sweaty shirtless abs this new Rey can’t resist and falls head-over-heels for a guy who tried to slice her in half the first time they met. I mean, nothing comes of it, thank god! But seriously Disney? This is just lazy writing, and feminists everywhere should boycott this movie and fire-bomb any theater still showing it, along with all the homes of those who buy tickets to support it.

7. Too much talkingAgain, this movie was made by Disney, right? So why the hell is all the talking filled with so much boring character-driven dialogue, and not a goofy joke or lyrics in a sing-a-long? I cannot imagine how they expected to tap their drooling Marvel MCU fanbase with this many narrative-relevant scenes of people talking which don’t include funny gags or nerdy references from a Tony Stark-esque character. What a disappointment.

8. Not enough racial diversityI know there’s a Spanish-Puerto Rican man, a black man, a Guatemalan man, two Vietnamese women, a few white people, another black guy, a Wookie, the previously mentioned drag queen, a Mon Calamari, some other aliens visible when they go to Monte Carlo, and whatever alien that one dude was; but still. That’s only representing a few out of, like, hundreds of thousands of other ethnic groups all over the planet, not to mention the millions if not billions of alien species throughout the galaxy whose children have no characters to look up to in this movie. The distinct lack of Jews was most jarring for me, and I wouldn’t hazard to call this film anti-Semitic exactly, but it does make you pause for contemplation.

9. Glorification of violenceDo I really need to say this out loud? Holy shit. There is so much violence in this movie it makes me nauseous. People blowing people up, decapitation and dismemberment, savagely beating each other to death with clubs, animals being whipped, children being whipped (even if it’s funny, it’s still violent), casino patrons being violently trampled to death by stampeding anime creatures, bodies being engulfed by fiery explosions, explosions engulfing explosions, and at least two cases of fanatically intentional suicide which result in the violent death of hundreds if not thousands of others. All told, it’s one of the most violent movies released this year, with a body count that likely surpasses Man of Steel and the first Avengers film combined. How can audiences be this bloodthirsty? It’s just, I don’t know, sickening. You fandom kids should renounce yourselves and practice self-flagellation, as far as I’m concerned.

10. It supports child slave soldiersIn the very first scene, the character Poe Dameron supports a group of Resistance bombers who are trying to destroy a First Order dreadnought. We see the flight leader protecting the bombers is a young girl who couldn’t be older than twelve piloting an A-wing fighter and mercilessly blasting TIE fighters out of the sky. Forgetting the fact that war is already traumatic for fully grown adults, how is the Resistance okay with putting a child in harm’s way like that? I’m astounded. This is so controversial, I can’t believe it isn’t being hotly debated by mouthbreathers all over the internets.

11. Not enough lightsabersLikely the film’s biggest transgression of all. It’s a well-known fact that the mindless drooling fans who attend the cult gatherings known as Star Wars Celebrations and sew their own costumes to wear to premieres (only to turn around and hatefully review the film later on YouTube) only really want to see one thing: lots and lots of lightsaber battles. That’s the only thing Star Wars has going for it these days, after all. And this time nobody bangs a lightsaber against another lightsaber even once. Not once in the entire movie! Jesus, Joseph, and doggy-style Mary! What pointless drivel. I’m considering petitioning the studio for a bid to get my money back after seeing this farce. Don’t they know anything about what makes Star Wars great?

Parthian shotsDespite all of these many, many flaws, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is not entirely without merit. There are some cool CGI effects in almost every scene, for one thing. Throughout the film we also learn some very valuable life lessons, such as:- Anime creatures have invulnerable faces that can smash through anything without the slightest injury.- Shields work best when gunfire is coming from very far away.- Any man in a position of power is either irredeemably evil or an impulsive and weak-willed incompetent fool.- All roads lead to failure.- The best way to be good at something is by sucking at it.- It’s okay for bystanders to be violently trampled to death so long as they’re rich.- All law enforcement officers are evil corrupt bastards.- Freeing captive animals is more important than freeing the slave children who tend to them.- And the only way to win a war is through the magical power of love, even if the enemy is in the process of blowing up your friends while you’re deliriously saying so.

   Huzzah.

       侍   headless

[mrsmess]

Brutal Binaries: Characterization in Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Books and literature are important in Amy Sherman-Palladino’s stories, if not as interests among many of the characters then as a system for references. In Gilmore Girls, literature is painted as being Rory’s biggest interest, and Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead is featured as one of her favorite books. Rand’s ideas of strength and weakness appear in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel too and is partly crystalized through Abe Weissman’s line, repeated by Midge in the pilot: “Don’t pick a weak husband!” making it clear that strength of character is an important indicator of value in these stories. It seems fair to assume that there’s an idea of what weakness consists of for contrast. This text is meant to explore what ASP’s definition of those terms might be, using her characters as material.

ASP’s main female characters share or have many overlapping traits: They are charming, not too concerned with propriety, and those who are seem to be in a habit of dominating those social games. They are all flawed in their separate or collective ways but sympathetic, both in the eyes of the viewer and the surrounding characters. They are loved.  

The male characters generally serve as the more destructive or distractive forces in these stories. When the male characters make mistakes, they will normally have more trouble than their female counterparts recovering from them, having their arcs end in tragedy or villainy. Mind you, these terms are used loosely as this kind melodrama rarely plays out in full in ASP’s worlds. She writes the folly of everyday life, will normalize even the darkest narrative turns with humor, and her capacity for writing humanity makes you feel for characters even when you as a viewer long since have lost the will to sympathize with them, and that is a great feat. It is clear that she loves her characters, even the undeserving ones. All the same, ASP often uses binaries, scales, to measure how worthy a character is. Strong or weak. A character might possess strength and be forgiven for a whole bunch of other flaws, but a character being a particular brand of weakness will be unredeemable.

For reference: Rand’s definition of weakness, at least in The Fountainhead, is the lack of self. Keating’s weakness is not that he’s unsympathetic - even if he is, just like Roark – but that he has no vision, no personality of his own, he is defined entirely by others’ expectations and opinions of him. Roark is the polar opposite, he needs the approval of no one, is pure drive towards his visions which generally no one gets but him. It is worth noting that him being wildly unpopular affects his ability to make ends meet, while Keating gains success.

Most of ASP’s heroines are portrayed as naturally possessing strength with a few anomalies, they make mistakes, have to complete their learning curves, but in the end, get back on the right path. The right path is the one leading them to themselves, allowing them to fulfill their visions or individual narratives. To live one’s own life, not someone else’s, is imperative to these characters’ stories. Often the heroine’s journey will be one of choosing between what is right and what is easy. She will occasionally choose wrong, which will be illustrated by her incapacity to maintain her decision, she cannot hold back her inner strength, its tide will rip her from what’s easy, from the status quo, and funnel her closer to what is right.  

There I go, using over-dramatic terms again, not necessarily applicable on ASP’s particular brand of drama; What is right does for instance not necessarily mean morally or ethically right, even though it will often host an aspect of those, but mainly it’ll mean what is right for the character – what enables her to fulfill her true potential. 

These binaries; right and easy, strong and weak, will have representation in the shape of other characters. In MM the scale is made up of Susie, representing what is right, and Joel, representing what is easy. The same parallel can be drawn to GG’s Lorelai, who’s binary consists of Luke and Christopher, and many will argue that Rory’s would be made up of Jess and Logan. The contrast also exists in many other characters, and is sometimes fluent, depending on comparison and on whether they’re main or secondary characters.

The comparison holds more water when we look closer at the different characters. The traits shared by the “easy-path-characters”, henceforth known as EPC’s, are: privilege, playfulness, charm and wit to match the lady’s, impulsiveness and to different extents thrill seeking behavior, while at the same time avoiding confrontations with the heroine. The wealth or materialism is important because it provides the comfort of the easy existence available to Midge, Lorelai and Rory, but there are always strings attached, usually a demand that you compromise part of yourself.

The EPC’s might have an inflated ego or at least a sense of entitlement, paradoxically paired with a low sense of self. This seems to derive from being raised in the lap of luxury while being treated like a mere part of a fancy exterior. They are tied up in tradition, family, and walking their own paths, would be at the expense of their privilege. They have been taught that they are nothing without it which leads to a perpetual sense of being worthless outside that very specific context. This makes them incapable of fully appreciating the impact they have, or could have on the heroine’s life which means that they instead wind up failing her in some way.  

All EPC’s also supply gateways to tradition via marriage. Something the female leads share an aversive attitude towards, for different reasons, in this respect Midge is something of an anomaly because she starts out exceedingly happy in her gilded cage, but outgrows it as the series progress. The marriages depicted as positive or lasting in the stories always consists of a careful and complex balance between the spouses, and is not static, but a living, breathing, changing thing of its own.

Let’s take a look at the other end of the scale, the “right-path-characters”, henceforth known as RPC’s. Their shared traits are anti-social behavior, different degrees of unpopularity, low social status and lack of wealth, or in Luke’s case an unwillingness to flaunt it. All of these “lacks”, self-chosen or otherwise, signals an indifference to public opinion, that in turn may be translated to strength, or ASP’s idea of it, a form of incorruptibility. They share harsh backgrounds, with absent or incapacitated parental figures forcing them to make their own way from early on, and to protect, sometimes viciously and unwarranted, themselves. Their personal integrity is strong, their endurance high. They are aware of how little they matter, their insignificance, in the grand scheme of things, but know, or learn, that they at least can change things for themselves and for the people they care about. 

And that’s another thing: words and actions. The RPC’s will use words carefully or remain silent, they will often let actions speak for them instead – making them an interesting contrast to the always chatty heroine. Honesty is important, even when it’s harsh. These characters make it clear that the approval of others doesn’t matter, meaning that the things they do say can be trusted.  

“You have to pick your friends as if there’s a war going on!” Abe says moments later in the aforementioned scene, another testament to the choices ASP might have her heroines make at the end of the day. Trust is vital, and betrayal is unacceptable. But not that our heroines don’t try to accept, forgive and love. We, as viewers do that too. We try.

Lorelai’s and Christopher’s backstory is the very thing that both makes you root for them and simultaneously see how hopeless it is. On paper it looks great, same wit, same world, a child together, and you could base the fall of Christopher on plenty of things from the original show, if you wanted to. But I won’t get into those now, mainly because the ship has sailed, or sunk, if you will, before we even meet him. He’s not around, he hasn’t been around, and even though he has a good enough excuse - he was a kid – he is a father that in a best-case scenario will have to play the role of step dad to his own child, because he wasn’t there. The last we see of him is in the revival; He’s been swallowed by the business he didn’t want to go into, by a family he didn’t want, and by oblivion, when his daughter asks him not to come to Lorelai’s wedding. It is sad.  

Looking at Joel: He’s a klutz, not realizing what he has in his great wife, taking out his failings on her, he’s ignorant as to his role and responsibility in his own life, and lacks the ability to foresee what his actions will do to both him and his family. None the less, we as viewers see him with the eyes of Midge and might find him endearing. However, the match is impossible. The balance between them is off. She’s so much, as Joel himself notes, he is so little, because of the rash, and childish decisions he’s made so far, and the only redemption arc available to him is realizing and accepting that he is inadequate. He and Christopher have an eerily similar arc in that respect.

The strength it takes to go out on your own, to follow your own path, is a reoccurring theme in these shows. Independence is paramount but not an easy choice, all our heroines face this, as well as the EPC’s, and RPC’s, but with different results. 

It is worth noting that all of the EPC’s double as romantic options, whereas the RPC’s don’t, necessarily. Even though Luke is endgame, there’s a romantic history with Jess, and a hinted undertone romance with Susie (people referring to her as Midge’s boyfriend, as well as season one’s final show-down being between her and Joel), the RPC’s mainly supply support in areas where our heroines doubt or have lost confidence in themselves, functioning as guides of sorts allowing the heroines to thrive from the interactions.  

The point might be that women often are taught define themselves from their romantic lives, something men are rarely expected to do to the same extent, and that the only way to be whole is to figure out who you are, and what you’re capable of without some other half. Seems basic enough, but it is a lesson worth repeating. And if you should opt for the romance after that, ”you want a husband who’ll take a bullet for you!” Abe says. 

[inkabelledesigns]

Therapy for Alice

The mood just kind of struck me, so I decided to try and write something for the heck of it. It’s a short little sequence, haven’t edited it yet, but I hope you like this “what-if” scenario.” 

            Alice sat on a busted-up shay within the murky depths of the studio. How many years had it been? Two, ten, maybe decades at this point, time seemed nearly infinite when there was no way to gauge where the end would be. But there was one thing time couldn’t do: ease the pain. Ever since coming out of those disgusting soggy puddles, Alice found herself still weeping internally from what happened from before. Within her most inner caverns, she had very few comforts. The room held some of her old merchandise, posters that depicted how beautiful her character was. She kept three plush toys on her little couch, one of each character. Despite her malicious actions, there was a soft spot in her heart for plush dolls, and seeing a little Alice separated from a fabric Bendy and Boris felt wrong. She didn’t like the thought of them not being together, but the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to choke that little Bendy doll and chuck it across the room. She reached for it, holding it her clawed fingers tightly, squeezing it like a stress ball before throwing it as far as she could. But then, she snapped out of it, her mangled eyes widened in horror as she ran off to rescue it from the depth. Thankfully it hadn’t gotten into any tainted ink, and she cradled it all the way back to the shay. She was all alone, having left Boris in the other room while she contemplated the best way to go about opening him up. She certainly didn’t want to waste this opportunity, he was the most perfect model she’d ever come across, one she could not mess up on. Her hands shook slightly as she held the doll close to her chest, giving it an eyeful.

            She sat back down, legs crossed all lady-like, sighing as she hugged the doll close to her chest. Living in the crumbling studio was worse than any hell, worse than working there. It wasn’t really living, it was hardly surviving, there was no world to describe it other than “existing.” No one wanted this, no one wanted to live their entire life imprisoned. It gave a person too much time to dwell on things, and after a while, they’d begin to lose hope, becoming unsure if there was a way to move on.

            But Alice wasn’t truly alone. There were eyes everywhere, she knew that, no way to relieve herself, no one to open to. She set the Bendy doll down and picked up the one that bore her likeness, brushing its tender curls around gently. Those sweet little cheeks, surely there had to be some little girl out there who would kiss them and hold her tightly. Or maybe a little boy, both could want to re-enact the old episodes. But she feared for what they might’ve thought, in a ‘could-be would-be’ sort of way. Seeing this character, seeing her, the expectations that would bear, the expectation of perfection, the idea that an angel had to be perfect, that they defined perfect…. It brought her a deep sense of failure. An angel wasn’t perfect, no matter how hard she tried she had never been perfect for Joey. She never would be. What was the point of this endless slaughter, what was the point of carrying on? Why not just let herself rot away with the rest of this horrible labyrinth? She closed her eyes, unable to cry, for once wishing that she had tears to shed again. Ink dripped all around her from the pipes above. The pitter patters of the drops were enough to make what was left of her heart sink. She set the doll down, shifting her broken body and staring at her tiny feet, hands folded in her lap.

            “Hey, chin up! It’s not so bad!”

            The sound of a sudden voice made her jump, whipping her head around frantically to find the source, her vision coming up empty. It was then that she felt a tug on her skirt. Looking down, she found the Alice doll she’d just been holding trying to get her attention. The doll waved and tried to climb its way onto her lap. Alice just sighed and shook her head, holding the deformed part of her face in her hand. I’ve officially lost it, now the dolls are talking to me too. Ugh, someone just end this nightmare.

            “Hey, I heard that!” the doll yelled back. She sassily put her hands on her hips, standing in Alice’s lap, an eyebrow raised and a smirk on her face.

            “You’re not going crazy honey, I promise I’m real, and I’m here to help.”

            That voice, that belonged to a much younger Susie Campbell. My how times had changed. Alice didn’t know what to think, much less what to say.

            “What could you possibly do to help me?” Alice retorted in disgust. She wrinkled her nose, turning away with a pouty face.

            “You can’t hide how you feel from me honey, I’ve been in that headspace of yours for too long. We need to talk.” The doll put her tiny hands around one of Alice’s, holding it with great care and comfort. “Please don’t be so hostile. We can’t keep going on like this. Talk to me, what’s really the matter?”

            Alice bit her lip, looking away. She didn’t want to let her guard down, she couldn’t. What if he was watching? She couldn’t risk it. But she knew full well why that little voice was doing this. In her head she could push it away, but it was much harder to do so outside of it. The doll hobbled over to Alice’s waist and gave it a big hug. Alice didn’t understand it, why was she being so nice? After all these years of being stuck together, why would she be kind to her?

            “I’ll wait as long as you need me to, we’ve got all the time in the world here.”

            “Alright, fine, you persistent little pincushion…” Alice gritted her teeth and balled her fists, looking away from the doll. “I just…I’m still not over it.”

            “Not over what?” the doll asked curiously.

            “Not over what…what he did, all those years ago. I just felt so…so invalidated? I’m not sure if that’s the right word, but I felt betrayed, and hurt. He just went and replaced me without a second thought, like I meant nothing to him!”

            “Why do you think you meant nothing to him?” the doll inquired.

            “Because he never said he was sorry, he was never satisfied with my performance, never gave me any credit when I was working as hard as I can. His visions were absurd, he was impossible to please! Oooh just the NERVE of that vile, disgusting, venomous man! What I wouldn’t give to rip him apart!”

            “Now now, that’s a little too far,” the doll said as she wagged her finger, “If you’re really going to be Alice Angel, you can’t keep ripping people apart.”

            “I AM Alice Angel, and I can do whatever the hell I want! Why shouldn’t I? They all deserve it, no one ever had my back, all of them were just pitiful kiss-ups! Next to Joey, Sammy had to be the worst of them all, he practically became-”

            “Ab-bubup. Shh.” The doll had jumped up and put a finger over Alice’s lips, clinging to her cheeks for dear life so as not to fall. Alice immediately silenced herself, raising an eyebrow in confusion at the plush toy.

“No judgements. This is what we call twisted thinking. I know you Susie, you’re not a bad person. But the fact is, they’re all human. Humans are flawed, it can’t be helped. We have to be loving and accepting of that and do the best we can to help them.”

“But what good will that do? None of them deserve it.” Alice’s eyes trailed off, staring at the ink puddles below, resting her head on her shoulder.

“None of us deserved any of this. Alice honey, what Joey did was inexcusable, my friends and I all agree, but nothing is going to change if we’re all stuck in the past.”

“But nothing had changed in all the time we’ve been here. It’s an endless cycle of falling apart and putting myself back together, I’m never going to be perfect, I’ll-”

“Is that really what you want? To be perfect?” the doll asked, “You may be picking your body back up, but you haven’t picked yourself up mentally in all the years I’ve known you. It’s the same routine every day, all the same negative thoughts.”

“I just want to forget it all…”

“You can’t. We can’t ever escape what’s happened, but we can move forward.”

“He deserves to pay.”

“We have to accept that it isn’t our place to take vengeance. Alice, fate will be much crueler to us if we keep on this path.”

“I just want closure, I just want to be free of this awful feeling.”

The doll sighed, “You got your closure the moment he did this to you. He doesn’t care about what happens to us Alice, even if you were perfect, it would never be good enough for him.”

Alice holds her decaying face in her hands, sniffling, crying. No tears were there, but no tears were needed to show how she felt.

“I-I won’t ever be good enough…He’ll never think I’m good enough, no one will.”

“Now now, I never said that,” the doll said as she plopped back down in Alice’s lap, “You are plenty good enough! Honey, look at you, you’re the bee’s knees! You’ve got a beautiful voice, a killer personality, and you give everything you do a hundred and ten percent. There’s so much about you that people love, and I know deep down you know that too.”

“But-”

“No butts about it! Just because one person doesn’t see you for who you really are doesn’t mean you should think any less of yourself. You’re brighter than any halo could ever hope to be, and I mean it!” The doll balled its tiny fists and grinned with encouragement, throwing her tiny hands in the air. Alice had to chuckle, this was the sweetest thing her better self had ever done.

“Thank you, Alice. This is why I loved voicing you back then.”

“Yeah, sure does bring back some good memories, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah…” The deformed angel looked up to the ceiling, silently praying to herself, as ironic as it was. “Do you think…do you think we’ll ever fix this?”

“Fix what?” the doll asked. She looked confused.

“Fix well…this.” Alice gestured towards her broken body.

“I think we can make it happen. The thick ink’s been helping quite a bit, as have the hearts. It still breaks mine a little bit though, I don’t like doing this…”

“It’s a necessary evil, if we don’t we might cease to exist.”

“At least it’s better than Norman.” The doll shuddered at the thought of the old projectionist. “Poor fella.”

“He slowly lost his sanity, as did Sammy. He used to be great, we’d have coffee every morning. I still remember, two sugars, but otherwise black, because-”

“Heaven forbid we add milk and clog up the vocal chords!” The two said it together in their best impression of the slightly pompous composer. They burst out laughing, holding their sides as the sound echoed through the room. A genuine laugh, now that was something neither had done in a very long time. Alice giggled as she covered her mouth slightly, petting the doll on the head with her other hand.

“Thank you, Alice. I needed that. I’m sorry for pushing you away all this time.”

The doll waved her hand and laughed, “Oh it’s quite alright, you just weren’t ready to talk about it. These things take time, and they also take friends.”

“That’s true. I just hope it’s not too late for us.”

“It’s never too late to start the healing process. There are gonna be days where you feel like everything is broken, we all have ups and downs. But at the end of it all, you’re gonna be okay. I promise, I’ll take care of you for as long as you let me. Now come on, we’ve got work to do.”

“It doesn’t feel right at all doing this,” Alice said, her head hung low.

“No, it doesn’t,” the doll replied, “Maybe we should take a break instead, have a little girl time.” I know where we could find some of Henry’s old art supplies, we could draw for a little bit!”

“I-I’ve never been much of an artist really…besides, I know that fall in the elevator couldn’t have killed him, he’ll still be looking for us, as will-”

“Aw come on, angels don’t have to be so uptight ya know. They’re gonna take forever to find us, and besides, the supply closet isn’t that far away. Let’s go!”

“Okay okay, calm down.”

The doll had a tinkling laughter as Alice picked her up and carried her towards the door. The two left the room to good search out the forgotten pencils and paper.

But the minute they left, the remaining two plush dolls perked their heads up, looking towards the door. They had to wonder, what now? This changed everything.

[xxntigo]

Final Essay: PPP Film / Cinemalaya Film

As Philippine cinema celebrates its 100th year anniversary, more and more diverse films are emerging in our local industry. Let us take a look at three films from this year's Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino and see how our movies have been performing so far.

      From young love and pursuing your passion; being in love in an open relationship; and a story about life and death; these are the main themes in the three movies we have watched from this year's Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino.

      First is LSS or Last Song Syndrome is  directed by Jade Castro. LSS is about the story of two young adults named Sarah and Zak. Sara, played by Gabbi Garcia, is a struggling musician trying to have a successful career and at the same time making ends meet and trying to send her brother to college. Sarah is able to inspire the audience by being able to speak her mind and be firm about what she really wants in life. She would never sacrifice her dreams, her own happiness, or her sanity in order to stay in a relationship. Her story gives the audience an idea of what we should realize and that there are certain things that matter more than love.

      Zak on the other hand, played by Khalil Ramos, is a web designer with a single mom, who appears to have issues with his dad and is in love with his best friend for many years but cannot seem to confess it to her. Zak can be described as a typical torpe. Zak give the audience a deeper meaning of how we look for love; commitment not rushed. Because of his uncontrollable feelings to her, it gave this immaturity and unwillingness to settle or express how he feels, he is in turn causing women to engage in questionable behavior. Most of us spend at least some time doing things we love. It may just not be feasible or possible to do it for a living for Zak, but he can still find the joy and passion in the times when he does those things. And many of us spend a lot of time doing things we don't necessarily love most of the time but know they're useful in some way. It may take time and effort to work through these issues, but giving the family this priority can be one of the most important steps he takes to strengthen his family.

      Zak and Sarah meets in a point to point bus in the middle of the EDSA traffic through their love for music. Though it appears that Zak and Sarah may have been brought together by fate, they actually in most parts of the movie, they were actually in separate situations and are dealing with their own individual paths after their meeting in the bus. This is a great feature of this film because even if it appears that this film maybe about love, it actually shows that life is not always about that and that romance is only part of our life and the way we lead and live our lives should not be entirely shaped or run by that one magical moment when we meet someone. The film’s catch would be that each character is so relatable that even if romance comes along the way, the responsibility the character has for their family and being able to prioritize what really matters on top of their own dreams is one thing inspiring. The character of Sarah is someone who is positive, a fighter, a responsible sister who can sacrifice her innermost longingness for her siblings. On the other hand the way how Zak perceive love is not rushed as how he would pleased but shows a different side of it, ideally directs to commitment. Contradictory to what the world sees how to pacify self by rushing things in accordance to one’s desires, the two character was able to see the beauty of love in a way by not neglecting their own commitments and responsibilities in the family and in other aspects of life.  As how destined it may seem their meeting up again gives a stronger impact to the audience as how they were able to handle the romance, enjoying oneself without compromising and neglecting the reality of their lives. 

Though there are parts when the characters are singing, the movie is not really a musical but the way how the songs are induced in parts of the movie makes creates an interesting flow for the story to run. This was made possible by using songs of the band Ben&Ben.

      Director Jade Castro relate us in our realities in life. Having that feeling inside, growing and learning, it leads, and it’s done so effectively and tremendously because there’s a connection and relation to it, which lifts the film’s genuine intention. Once you do find love you will realize that even though it is great, it is not all that it's cracked up to be. We will realize how important we are in our relationships and in this life such as focusing on ourselves, where the only things we have to compromise are ones we want. He created a film that gives a fresh, inspiring and feel good vibe to the audience where they will not be overwhelmed by cheesy cliche story about love but just the right combinations of an inspiring life story of two young individuals who have different passions in life and just somehow met along the way towards their own goals. A refreshing and pure view of love that makes it even lovely as the two characters find themselves as individual beings having the drive to take their own ways and journey and having been rewarded with meeting up again and as if they had been taking the road together from the first time they met. 

      From a young and fresh film, let us move on to a movie with a more mature storyline with the movie Open. Open is a movie produced by the newly established and self-proclaimed auteur-driven production Black Sheep who is actually a division of ABS CBN's Star Cinema.

      Open tells the story of long term couple Ethan and Rome who has been together for 14 years, who decided to pursue an open relationship to bring the spark back in their relationship as initiated by Ethan. In this part, we can see how the couple is struggling despite their long term relationship out of wedlock. Rome is somewhat expectant of a commitment only she is hopeful for. In contrast with the first movie LSS, Open depicts couple who are dependent to one another wherein Rome puts all her world to Ethan. Ethan on the other hand seemed to be distant in the commitment and find himself seeking of more gist in the relationship. However, as boldly portrayed by JC Santos, his fulfillment in finding the excitement in the relationship is driven by lust and temporary self gratification.  Hence, Ethan suggested an Open relationship to Rome, after finding out that his best friend and his girlfriend are in an open relationship even though they are actually engaged to be married. Rome, with all her intentions to keep the 14 year relationship go on agreed with all trust to Ethan. There is only one catch in Ethan and Rome's agreement, they cannot sleep with people that they already know, they must do it with total strangers. Ethan broke this rule and slept with his much older and attractive boss whilst Rome still appears to be uncomfortable with their new setting. Instead of focusing on seeing other guys, Rome started to do the things that she loves such as painting. Hence the loyalty of Rome is clearly defined, her love is driven only with her eyes on Ethan.

Soon enough, she finds out about what Ethan did and eventually decided to break up with Ethan and take up a job offer in Singapore. The film ends in Rome walking away from a regretful and crying Ethan. 

      In the beginning of the film you can see that Rome and Ethan's relationship goes way back since they were really young so they have really grown very comfortable with each other. However, you will notice how Ethan tends be controlling over Rome and appear to be possessive and insensitive of Rome's feelings. This can be seen at the part when they were having dinner and Rome discussed about her job offer in Singapore and also during the moment he brought up the idea of open relationship. All throughout the film, Ethan's character really seemed unlikeable and at times irksome because of how greedy, clueless and controlling he became over his relationship with Rome. Rome on the other hand, is much more understanding and has patience over Ethan. But her flaw in the beginning was she was too sheltered and dependent on Ethan and she has hew world wrapped out around Ethan that she kind of lets him decide and not let her voice and how she feels be heard especially when she agreed to the open relationship even if she clearly is not comfortable with it. But what is great about the characters is the shift or development in their attitudes. The open relationship magnified the greediness of Ethan in the beginning then later on showed that he was actually the one who became frail when he realized his mistake and his girlfriend's worth. Rome suddenly opened herself to a new possibility and start to work on her real passion again while his boyfriend enjoyed temporary pleasure. In the end the open relationship both taught them of the importance of self-worth, trust, and feeling secure in one's relationship.

      Another noticeable feature of the film besides the story is its aesthetic and overall look. The film is produced by Black Sheep and so far, we have noticed something common in the romantic films that Black Sheep has produced so far; they all have this warm hue aesthetic look. Black Sheep claims to be a production that offers something different to millennials besides the cliched mainstream movies we normally watch in the past. Open offers an insight on the pros and cons of being in an open relationship. But in this films it only briefly showed the pros side with Ethan's best friend Archie and it did not really show how their relationship worked out contrary to Ethan and Rome which is understandable since this is Rome and Ethan's story. Also, the writers were able to show through the story one thing that a lot of people in relationships forget, that there are two people in it and they are not acting as one. Basically, it is the importance of individuality despite of relationships we are in. Rome, being wrapped up in Ethan in the beginning, realized her self-worth and thought that her opinions and voice also needs to be heard that is why in the end she expressed to Ethan what she really wants and how she really feels and then left and pursued what she loves and left the toxic relationship.

      Besides that, the mood, lighting, and occasional zoom ins in the characters faces during intense scenes of the film also created added feel for the audience. A notable part was at the ending scene when Rome cried and walked away from Ethan and finally realizing her self-worth.

The actors were also effective in portraying their roles. Anyone who watches the movie can feel like they are in Rome’s shoes who has experienced the downside of being stuck in a situation. 

  It is good to know that the idea of an open relationship is unusual and even more, should I say daring to be released in the cinemas. But the director has his own way of defining relationship in a diverging society where love, commitment, relationships are getting more complicated. Yet, the balance of how the director handles open relationship with its cons and pros is clearly seen. Somewhat, the outcome is also boldy depicted, hurtful but real as how it would end for the two. The concept of an open relationship may be new to many audience or even unreal for the older viewers but the feelings as a result of this is so relatable that even if it is not labeled as an open relationship we can see how hurting it is for two people who desires contentment and happiness in relationship from something that is not even tangible, the search for it becomes so selfish that it ended up losing instead of gaining. What is even more hurtful is not being able to recognize the people who really truly loves usl neglecting them trying to find something more from other things or people we may think would fulfill us but losing the people who truly loves us. As for Rome, she discovers that there is more outside of her relationship, as if she comes out from the cave and discover her worth as an individual and a human being an idea suitable to uplift women’s capability to shine on their own beauty.

      Finally, let us move on with a much deeper story about life and death. Its complexities, and the realizations of an aging lady in the character of Lola Igna.

 Directed by Eduardo Roy Jr. is Lola Igna. Lola Igna, played by veteran actress Angie Ferro, tells the story of a 118 year old woman living in the rice fields of a rural barrio who suddenly became a somewhat local celebrity when her granddaughter and the local mayor suddenly tells her that she might potentially be the world’s oldest living grandmother. With this in mind, people around her does everything to keep her on her feet alive and kicking to seek after the possibility of receiving an award and annual benefits if so happen her life goes beyond the record. The contrast of contentment in life and greediness by the “director-as-author”  Roy, as what we can define auteur theory, has been depicted clearly in the story as how lola Igna prepares herself to the next life while the others expectantly awaits for another year to add to her life.  Because of this, people started to go and visit the quiet and sleepy barrio to witness Lola Igna and have her interview or a picture with her. Another contrast is shown here; the simplicity of life Lola Inga is enjoying in the dirt of her field while the technological life the so called “selfie” generation is now living who captures her as a subject.

 Among the local tourists flocking to the lola’s small hut house is apparently her great great grandson Tim who is an aspiring vlogger. Tim decided to live with his great great grandmother and record his moments with her. We can see how the director was able to combine the contrasts of simplicity of old life to the technological advancement of the present generation and the gap between the two generations, in the person of Tim, thus, being able to remove the wall between two opposite characters. As a result and soon enough, the two started to get closer and start bonding together. Roy, wittingly advanced the movie with its ideas of the theme without disregarding the heart in it and the values of family in the Philippine culture depicted in Philippine cinemas. 

It may have started with the realization of  lola Igna, people of her age would finally think of; death nearing. It was one ordinary night, lola suddenly wakes up and noticed a shadowy figure in the rice fields, she went to the fields and sees her dead husband Carias and all the other dead loved ones she knows. The director was bale knot only to inculcate the values of traditional Filipino family but the culture of old beliefs we still have nowadays. In this scene, Lola Igna took this vision as a sign that Carias and the others are trying to tell her that her death is upon her. With the thought of death nearing, the next succeeding days, lola begins preparing for her death staring with her ‘kabaong’ and asked Tim to help her do so. 

The story of Lola Igna explores the complexities of life, death, aging and abandonment. As a 118 year old grandmother living alone in the rice fields, lola seemed to be doing okay on her own but soon after the unexpected death of Mang Gusting, whom she actually help delivered when she was a midwife, she pours her heart out at the wake and expresses how she feels abandoned by the people she knew and that made it clear that life seems odd for a certain purpose. Roy was able to depict the reality of an old aged person’s developmental stage as how Erick Erickson presented it; Ego Integrity vs. Despair. Somehow,  Lola Igna’s contentment in life and how she fiercely lives it despite all the hardships she encountered her in her youth created a contend and mature character in her yet the realization of fear of the present life she is having started not being able to recognize the people in the town, began pushing her to face the end. 

The end of the story may have given the viewers their own conclusion when in a seemingly quiet but meaningful scene of Lola Igna cradling a baby upon helping a mother give birth to a new life. She gives a meaningful look at the camera expressing fright and exhaustion. Alook that might give an ending to continue or not? To give up or to give in?  Like anybody else, when one seems to retire but have no choice but to live on, the sight Lola igna gives in the part of this film is deep. Indeed, the movie Lola Igna is one wittingly and heart melting depictions of life’s complexities, divergence and realizations one must give credits to.

The Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino to include these three movies;  LSS  Last Song Syndrome is  directed by Jade Castro, Open produced by self-proclaimed auteur-driven production Black Sheep, and Lola Igna directed by Eduardo Roy Jr.  gives the Philippine Cinema a different face; daring, unusual, yet meaty and sensible. Beyond the simplicity of its production, the auteur inspired movies has gotten its way to the next level of portraying themes that tend to break the usual flow in the Philippine cinematic world. Refreshing, bold, and direct, each movie has its own light to depict so relatable to the present, humanely with the emotions and touching and moving through its values for realization of the audience. 

It is agreeable that the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino is achieving its mission that is to recognize Filipino artistry in films, to promote our country and its talents globally, to protect our film cultural heritage and to empower Filipino through film development and education. Indeed the evolution of the norm in Philippine cinema has gone to another level focusing on the value and the quality of its content rather than just being entertaining. The paving of its way to attract young artists in film making is recognizable as to see such young artists stepping forward to showcase their talents and skills. It is also obvious that such theme arose from the perspective of the younger generations, the so-called, the “millennials”. With the changing worldview in the aspects of love, relationships, commitments, life, death and more, these film artists never fail to uncover the reality of each aspect brokennes, failure, acceptance, responsibility and more. Though it catches the younger viewers interest it still depict the values and the consequences of the story characters choices and never fails to depict the picture of life in the real world. Such as with LSS perception of romance and responsibility, on which took the romance in a different light to consider the responsibility in the family the character has. It is also relatable and funny in a way when the first meeting happened in the middle of a traffic in Edsa, which obviously everyone can relate. As with Open, it can be observed its view of commitment and love where the pros and cons of Open relationship is highlighted and even more the consequences of losing someone as a consequence of the characters’ choices. Though heartbreaking on the side of Rome, hope is still elicited when she finds herself moving on to something that would uplift her self worth and abilities as an independent woman, contradicting to what  Ethan ended up after his search for his own desires in lust with somebody else, a message more suitable to those in their marrying age. And lastly, as with Lola Igna’s view of life and complexities of death. It is also recognizable how the two generations symbolized in the character of Tim and Lola Igna can be joint and how the relationship between the family is depicted. Though in seemingly slow and light pictures, scenes such a how lola Igna stares to the coffin for herself and the scene she looked at the camera portrays a lot of emotions, realizations oozing in such simple scenarios.    Issues that are presented in a simple but detailed way, values that had not gone overlooked and the relatability of each story to the lives of each Filipino that gives each other more weight. 

The aim of Pista ng Pelikulang Pilino in the reservation of our own culture and values is also seen in these three movies. From the setting, the characters, to cultures and beliefs depicted in each. In the cinematic world where superheroes gains much attention to viewers young and old, the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino has paved way to its own definition of filmmaking. Experimental as how it seems, yet the aim of delivering quality filipino movies beyond just the purpose of entertainment is still being achieved.  Meaty, as how it can be described the wittiness of each film makers is outstanding plus the craft of each actors and actresses.  In the movie LSS, the aim to promote talents and skills is clearly seen where the involvement of Ben and Ben is recognizable. The movie itself did not just showcase the talent of the film makers, and of the actors but of the new generation of Filipinos in the world of Filipino Music. In the movie Open, it portrays the mentality of our country men finding opportunity abroad such as in OFW. however the idea of an open relationship is unusual in a Filipno setting, yet the values of what love really means is still preserved. In the case of Lola Igna, we can see the face of poverty perfectly played in the role of Lola Igna. from the past she had in her youth, to the details of her usual lifestyle in the present  and the realization of death derived from Filipino beliefs, this movie is a packaged of a glimpse of our culture and hardships as Filipinos.  

In the idea of auteur-theory, it is obvious that Filipino films nowadays has truly evolved from a usual flow of cinematic aspects to a more diverse kind. The idea of the auteur theory can be clearly observed in each story as how the author-director turns to life the script into motion pictures. The director achieved its role as a powerful creative source to deliver the message of the film in different angles achieving its goals capturing the audience with the content, especially the reflection of the lives, culture, and values of Filipinos, relatable in almost all areas and not on the idea of entertainment alone. 

As how Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino envision that is to teach every Filipino to create a thriving and self-sustaining film industry that contributes to the cultural and economic development of the country, and how it is proven in the emerging quality films such as LSS, Open and Lola Igna, we can say that the Philippine Films has gone to another level and is gaining credits on its own globally. The vision of Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino is something to look forward to. The vision that is slowly taking its way, truly Filipino films is gaining its own distinction in the film industry worldwide. The creativity of each Filipino director and artists and the recognizable contributions to Philippine Cinema is truly a talent we Filipinos should be proud of.

[one-more-miracle-gatsby]

I just finished Impyrium by Henry H Neff and I’m gonna talk about it because I have a lot of feelings so spoiler warning

-I completely forgot the demon’s conditions for the Red Winter Treaty so I saw the Prusian Sea on the map and I was like “huh I wonder what the crafty bastard did to get an ocean named after him” and then I got to the line about underwater demon kingdoms and I was like THAT’S RIGHT THEY BANISHED HIM TO THE SEA and of course he still managed to go make himself a successful kingdom like ffs Prusias just enjoy retirement.

-Sigga Fenn is my new favorite character. What a bro. I mean yeah she played Hob like a panther stalking a rabbit and absolutely would have killed him in an instant and we don’t still know what her exact orders are but there are times when she does seem to be as sincere and friendly as she can professionally be and like honestly it’s nice to have such a chill agent. Disguising herself as the old lady was hilarious like that was so unnecessary Sigga you didn’t have to steal her dessert

-I love the dynamics between the triplets. Isabel is great.

-homunculus breeding is fascinating oh my god

-”Hazel saw that Harkün had also drawn a dagger with a wavy black blade” TFW you’re such a die-hard Cooper fan you can recognize his weapon 3000 years later

-speaking of the devil, I hope that Mystic with mismatched eyes was a descendant of who I think she was because please imagine Hazel Cooper’s reaction to finding her greatx3k granddaughter gambling with a domovoi

-Like. I know Prime is not going to turn out to be Cooper but there’s a tiny part of my sappy fangirl heart going, “if anyone were to volunteer themselves to be turned into a statue for all eternity to protect Rowan it would probably be him”

-Hob’s sass is beautiful can he give me lessons

-THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SHROPES COOKING AT ROWAN

-I love the quotes at the start of the chapters, not only did they bring more meaning to the chapters but they also provided some context and backstory, like how old David lived to be.

-Honestly Hazel’s mentality was so unapologetically realistic like she was so innocent and oblivious but then she started learning things and I love her revelations that she can take control of her own life. But like she was still allowed to be delicate and cry and sleep with a stuffed giraffe and it wasn’t depicted as weakness.

-I will be forever be impressed at the all the political webs Henry weaves

-Montague’s character development

-I wonder what Ember really did with Mina like did he really eat her or is she chillin in his mouth under the sea

-The two perspectives were so great and it was awesome because you can’t trust the Fellowship and you can’t trust the royals, you can only trust that the main characters themselves will see the faults of their respective sides and make the right decisions. I love how they opened each other’s eyes to new things.

-It’s so cool because The Tapestry was so heavily based in Irish mythology and now Impyrium is based in Tapestry mythology like the original series became the mythology of the new series, which means that our world is part of that mythology. I remember Henry saying something about how The Tapestry was partially a story about human perseverance and that really spoke to me in some parts of this book too. That ancient, scratched-up, barely-working Disney film was so unsettling but so wonderful. Burke’s line about “would you believe we lowly little humans once walked on the moon?” The part where the Fellowship is explaining about how humans once built flying ships and split matter to its smallest components without any magic, just with the sheer power of their minds. It’s inspiring. And it was interesting seeing that different perspective of the destruction of the Book of Thoth, like we were just starting to explore the heavens themselves and then that technology was taken away from us. But like it said, at least we’re still walking on the Earth. It’s surreal reading this and realizing that in this book we are the ancient civilizations. Much of our history is either not known at all or considered a nonsensical fairy tale. But Disney films and the Brothers Grimm tales still exist. Stories persevere, no matter how rare or expensive or illegal they may become. Getting even more meta, it’s just like the stories of the original series becoming the mythology of this one. Stories stick around, no matter how much they may change, and apparently the same applies to humanity.

-I would love to talk to someone who read Impyrium without reading The Tapestry first and find out what that realization was like, when it suddenly dawned on them that this had once been our world.

-It’s also really interesting and kind of funny seeing the empress and the princesses have the whole week-long pilgrimage and put themselves through such physical and mental duress to go worship this mysterious scary god-king from another world when those of us who have read The Tapestry know that this all-powerful warrior is the same guy who got repeatedly bossed around by a talking goose and once used magic to leap 20 feet in the air because he got startled by a robot centipede. The Hound of Rowan, everybody. One thing I always admired about Max’s character was that no matter how much he grew and changed the core of his personality, his kindness and his humor, stayed the same (and even when he went full supernova god in the Workshop he was still able to keep from destroying everybody because of the love he felt for his friends). And I’m glad that even just from that little glimpse we got of him we can see that he still holds that same personality, that he was so eager to help this teenage girl that he forgot about the FATAL WOUND that would literally kill him if he went through the gate like Max never change

-I was not expecting this story to give me so many Max feels like I thought I was over the end of The Red Winter but apparently not. I actually laughed when they brought out the lyrmrills as offerings because it was so beautifully nostalgic and sentimental but also like, what else would it be? The man loves his lymrills.

-Speaking of Max getting bossed around by Hannah I seem to remember her saying she was immortal at the end of The Red Winter so are she and her goslings still wandering around the Direwoods oh god

-Again it must be such a different experience reading this without the context of the first series because that whole Direwoods field trip was kind of a punch in the gut. I remember in The Hound of Rowan reading about the abandoned charges wandering the Sanctuary and forgetting that humans ever cared for them and I thought that was so sad and now the entire Sanctuary is like that. The Sanctuary was such a beacon of hope and peace and now it’s just a creepy haunted forest where little rich kids are afraid to get their feet dirty. Who knows how long selkies live, that could have been Frigga or Helga in the lagoon being so glad to have some humans to play with again. And the ruins of the Warming Lodge and the dvergar brother’s forge. Dude that one classroom had Nile Croakers and domovoi and stuff in cages and the selkies were described as “water beasts” like that was so sad it feels so wrong and it’s such a good representation of how the culture has changed

-Like honestly it’s just such a message about the nature of history. It reminds me of Church’s monologue from the end of season 13 of Red vs Blue, where he talked about the hero never getting to know if his sacrifice was worth it. Max didn’t know what became of his friends or the world he left behind presumably until David’s death (and don’t think I don’t have a fanfic idea about that), and then Max and David and everyone presumably don’t really know what became of their world 3000 years later, like they know the gate and the dragon exist and they know about the Faeregines coming on pilgrimage every few years, but I guess they probably don’t know much beyond that. They never get to see the long-lasting effects of their efforts, and they don’t get to know the perspectives with which people view them and the legends they’ve become. They didn’t want Rowan to become a place for snobby elites, and they didn’t want nonmagical people to be discriminated against, but they can’t do anything about it. Because we can act to change our history, but in the long run we never know how our stories will end up being told. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take action to better our world for the present and the foreseeable future.

-I love all the subtle parallels, intentional or not, between this story and The Tapestry. Kids sneaking out at night for a sleepover on a ship, kids sneaking out for a duel. A man losing his face. Workshop specimens getting stolen. Being betrayed by a friend (honestly, I didn’t suspect Viktor at all until he suggested that they collect firewood and then my mind immediately went to Rolf and Connor for some reason even though there was no real connection). The illustration of Hob outside Hazel’s tent with the House Blade next to the fire reminded me so much of Cooper sneaking into Max’s tent with the poisoned Atropos blade, and it was Scathach the shadow who saved Max and Sigga the shadow who saved Hazel and Hob. History repeats itself. No matter how much some things change, some things still repeat.

-Olly was such a great character, like he had flaws but he acknowledged and apologized for them and he was so great. Sniff.

-Seriously Sigga is that teacher who’s like “I know you’re going though a lot so I’m going to conveniently forget to close the submission box until a while after the due date so I won’t know if you turned the homework in late but if I do catch you turning it in late I gotta fail you sorry”

-Also can we talk about the fact that Ember apparently fell in love with Astaroth’s hell dragon that he conjured from dead people like oh my god Ember plz you guys almost killed each other

-I feel like remember Henry saying something about us eventually getting to hear more about the grymholch from Prusias’s arena and the world it was from and I hope that happens

[codeexerciseblog]

Search Engines Crawl Systems Solutions and SEO Guide shallow

Search engines crawl the web to understand the process helps clarify the SEO work direction, this article will and other resources, and personal understanding to explore and search engines to crawl process for SEO guidance.

First, a brief look at the process of search engine spiders, as shown:

The figure depicts a brief SE crawl principle, although there is communication between distributed information gathering needs in reptiles, but the process will be for a single reptile probably as shown, do the following for each analytical steps:

A Total Link Library

The total inventory stood links crawling reptile had been URL and the time the new URL , controlled by the scheduling system to extract the new URL , or need to re-visit the URL by crawling reptiles. The total link library stored URL is unique not repeated, thus ensuring no repeat reptile crawl to avoid falling into the trap cycle.

Fetching Strategy

What’s new with respect to the entire Internet, SE resources are limited. Full crawl is impossible, you need to SEwith minimum cost to crawl the most significant portions of what it would need to crawl priority deployment strategy. Scheduling system, to be crawled URL into a queue structure, fetching strategy will play a sort of these queues role.

Many reptiles crawl strategy, but its goal is to give priority to important pages crawled . Common example: breadth-first traversal policy, depth-first traversal strategy, PR priority strategy, anti-chain priority strategy, OPIC strategy, major stations priority strategies.

Breadth-First Traversal Policy

Breadth-first traversal policy refers to grab a starting page, all links within the page into the crawl queue until the end, not a page’s importance rating, according to the order crawl, as traversal path: A BCDE HFG ;

Depth-First Traversal Policy

Depth-first traversal policy refers to a crawl after the start page, choose one of these links to track crawl crawl until completed, the next start page, continue to follow the crawl, traverse the path shown: AB CFG D EH ;

PR Priority Strategy

In this refers to incomplete PR strategy, because PR is a page for all the algorithms, and reptiles crawl collection process only for a web page PR terms, it is called incomplete PR priority strategy. In this strategy, according to the queue to be crawled URL or imperfect PR value to determine the crawl order. Of course, the PR value is not calculated once every crawl a page, but a certain amount crawl as X pages later, all the download page again recalculates a new non-complete PR value. According to the PR value that determines the queue to be downloaded URL to download the order. Without crawling to X before a page, a new page in the extracted crawl URL importance may be higher than the previous URL , these URL to PR to 0 at the end of the queue to be downloaded is inappropriate. At this point, it is necessary to calculate a provisional anti-chain based on this page for all PR , inferior race to be downloaded into the queue;

Anti-Chain Priority Strategy

means the number of pages to be linked to other pages to determine the queue to be crawled URL crawl sequence;

OPIC Strategy ,

Online Page Importance Computation computing, online page importance. This strategy is similar toPR priority, in essence, is given to the page of the “quality points.” Before the beginning of the algorithm, all the pages given to the same initial “cash” (Cash) , when a page is downloaded, the page will be their “cash” equally among all the links page, and empty their cash. To be crawled URL , based on the amount of cash the importance of sorting crawl.

Dazhan priority strategy means to be crawled URL , sorting through its ownership of the domain name in accordance with the priority to be downloaded download URL and more number of links.

Other strategies, such as based on URL of the target level, URL suffix and URL strings, etc. to determine the crawl ordering.

In actually captured in a variety of strategies are often used in combination. Above strategies for SEO to improve the collection there are a lot of significance, such as: the number of control into the chain, the chain control number, structure and control of the site outside the chain of weight (quantity, quality, Nofollow , etc.), adding new content update frequency.

Reptiles

Crawler is based on the specified URL to download a program or script web content, general search engines are used in a distributed architecture reptiles. Distributed crawling by data centers, distributed crawling servers, distributed crawler composed by more than one data center servers crawl, crawl on each server can host multiple crawlers.

Common distributed architecture has a master-slave distributed reptiles and reptiles on the distribution of the equation .

Master-slave distributed crawlers only the equivalent of a URL assigned server, the whole of the Internet URL is assigned to several crawl server download. This architecture significantly on URL distribution server performance demanding, large face of the Internet data, it is prone to system bottlenecks.

Peer to peer distributed reptiles no URL assigned servers, each server is responsible for a particular domain name set to crawl under the URL to crawl. Internet domain diversity by modulo hash or hash consistency :

Hash modulo means for n sets crawl server, first hashed domain, the value obtained for the n modulo, get the remainder shall be allocated to the domain server number. For example, suppose there are five sets of crawl server, the corresponding number is 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 value after the domain name hash calculated 16 , 16 to 5 modulo remainder get alower, namely the domain URL should be referred to a number of servers crawl. However, this model is flawed, in a station crawl server downtime or due to URL leads to increased server load average increased need to increase the crawl server, modulo n we need to change. This means that the entire system should be re-allocated, will lead to a waste of resources.

Consistent hashing refers to hashed domain, mapped to an 0-2 32 between a number, the hash range end to end, that is considered the value 0 and 2 32 overlap, can be into a hypothetical ordered loop sequence, each server is responsible for a certain value segment, as shown below. Assuming the site domain hash fall after 2 No. server performs crawl, andtwo No. server goes down, you continue to find clockwise, the URL of the server by the first encounter, namely 3 No. server until 2 No. server back to normal.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Due to the distributed crawler structure, so the same site will be a lot different IP spiders crawling record, this collaborative crawling system is normal. Part SEOer think different IP segment means different weights of spiders, a field in which the IP is right down the spider spiders. Crawling system might URL weights were assigned, in order to determine the order crawl. However, the weight value is only used for crawling system, web crawlers ordering more complex weighting rules. So, say a spider down the right set up.

Download

Spider browser download process is similar except that the spider only download HTML file, the file does not render the picture is not loaded, Flash , etc., under normal circumstances is not loaded JS .

Spider in the acquisition of the site will consider network load information website, according to the website of the network bandwidth to control crawl. Under normal circumstances, the load is based on IP control. Therefore, increase the bandwidth the site is beneficial SEO ‘s. Of course, if it is a shared IP ‘s website, this is difficult to control.

The download process can be divided into four steps: DNS resolve , TCP connection , server computing , HTMLdownload .

DNS Resolve

Major with DNS server performance, and the other with the analytical approach also has a certain relationship. For SEO is concerned, you can choose a professional test DNS service providers. In the case of this step is the most prone to spider operations shielded IP , because the process is very similar to a spider crawling DO Sattacks. Benniao operations where the company had appeared shielded Google spiders cause the disappearance of the event included Google, once a famous domestic IDC service providers have no intention of operations shielding Baidu Spider, led to the use of the IDC server Baidu included a large number of site conditions appear to disappear.

TCP Connection

speed depends on the Web server can quickly access request, in general, when the server at the same time will have access to a large number of cases of congestion request information or refuse access, the greater the amount of access TCP connection speed is slower. Of course, with the selected WEB server program (such as IIS , Apache, Nginx , etc.). For large sites, the problem can be solved by increasing the configuration. Using shared server mode for small sites, to avoid Sheremetyevo and forums, download station, etc., consume large bandwidth site shared server.

Server Computing

speed depends on the program website architecture, the efficiency of database programming language efficiency (for dynamic content), while the amount of parallel processing and so on. In this process, the most common problem is the low efficiency database, which will result in site speed reduces errors when the page is accessed even. Benniao server where the company would often visit the same time as the emergence of excessive database error, the other person is depressed. The process is optimized for operation of the main things, either for good or change the program a little bit better engineer.

HTML Download

speed is mainly depends on the file size and network bandwidth (for large sites more visible), forSEO is concerned, can HTML code optimization. Many websites HTML code lengthy problem exists, and even throughout the code and the text is only a very small part of it. Benniao part of the page where the company also have this problem, had used a page function, after removing the remains of code, or a “More” button to hide all of the links of the function (embodied in HTML , the content and even exceeds the amount of content body of the page!). For HTML optimization, see the source code is a good habit.

The Total Page Library

To crawl to the site for storage, allowing SE quickly create snippets in search results, you can save SE of CPU and network resources, you can extract the information for subsequent indexing, sorting, etc. (eg extract anchor text) to provide support. And these must support large-scale data storage smooth storage, random access and sequential access, large-scale updates, which requires a lot of technical support, but this piece of content and SEO basically irrelevant.

URL Extraction Update

This step extracts caught webpage URL , and the URL to re-conduct, norms and other treatment, and URL database to communicate, do not repeat the new URL , remove the expired page URL so on. For SEO , the part has to crawl and rank the value of a page can not properly Nofollow , giving a new page, it is important to take the opportunity to crawl more pages and weights.

from Code Exercise http://bit.ly/2MLQw9t

[trendingnewsb]

Trump’s congratulatory call to Erdogan is revealing

(CNN)It’s a haunting image. A basement space with blacked-out windows, crowded with camera equipment and journalists who were assigned to cover the Leader during the state visit of a foreign dignitary but were not allowed to look outside.

Was this Vladimir Putin’s Russia, or perhaps the Turkey of Recep Tayyip Erdogan? No, it was the Trump National Jupiter Golf Club in Florida, three weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration, as depicted by White House pool reporters Jennifer Jacobs and others on Twitter. (Jacobs tweeted during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit, “Trump’s press corps has been placed in a basement suite at Jupiter golf club. Black plastic over windows to give Trump privacy as he golfs.”

In this case, the blacked-out windows merely hid a golf game. Yet the model of media-government relations they conjure — a press that’s blinded, and cut off from knowledge of what’s going on and who’s doing it — is not so dissimilar to those put in practice by both those other countries.

Those pictures returned to mind when I heard that President Trump had called President Erdogan to congratulate him on his victory in Sunday’s referendum, which has been widely interpreted as clearing the way for an expansion of his personal powers. We can learn a lot from Turkey’s journey to repression under Erdogan, not least what could be in store for America if Trump decides to go down a similar path, even in a very mild fashion.

While international observers sharply questioned the fairness of the vote in Turkey, claiming the opposition had been muzzled, Trump became the first Western leader to congratulate Erdogan. And he took this step even though his own government, in the form of the US State Department, issued this comment: “We look to the government of Turkey to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all its citizens — regardless of their vote on April 16 — as guaranteed by the Turkish constitution and in accordance with Turkey’s international commitments.”

Trump has never hidden his love of strongmen. Moammar Gadhafi, Vladimir Putin, and even Saddam Hussein have all come in for praise by him for their decisiveness and take no prisoners attitude toward their enemies.

Erdogan certainly fits the bill. He’s been in the news for some time as a prime example of the new wave of strongmen who operate in a context of nominal democracy but engage in authoritarian tactics to consolidate their power. His defeat of a coup attempt in July 2016 (which some believed Erdogan staged) allowed him to further accentuate his crackdown on the usual targets of such leaders: the media, the judiciary, immigrants and political opponents.

Trump has acted according to type in singling out these categories, too, for his hostility, to the point of calling the press “enemies of the people” and calling for the imprisonment of his political rival, Hillary Clinton, an idea he has returned to from time to time.

Turkey shows us what can happen when rhetoric passes to action. Let’s take the example of the media and higher education. Over 100 news sites have been closed, and over 100 journalists have been imprisoned; Turkey is now the country with the highest number of confined journalists in the world. Many university professors, accused of anti-government sentiments or insulting the leader, have been escorted out of their homes and workplaces in handcuffs, as though they are criminals — which, for Erdogan, they now are.

WH congratulates Erdogan as State criticizes him

Replay

More Videos …

MUST WATCH

Add to that a thin-skinned personality who bears a grudge — a former Miss Turkey endured an “insult trial” for posting a satirical poem about Erdogan on Instagram (she received a 14-month suspended sentence) — and you have a society that lives in fear, never knowing who will be his next target.

It’s rarely a good sign when an authoritarian leader calls for a referendum. Such popular votes are invariably used to justify a new round of repressive measures, since the ruler can now claim he’s acting according to the will of the people. In this case, Erdogan was seeking support for a new constitution that, over time, will considerably weaken the power of the legislature at the expense of the executive.

Erdogan will never do away altogether with democracy: It’s not in his interest. Keeping a semblance of democratic norms can be useful to the ruler; it allows him to refute any charges that he’s a dictator. “Here we have a ballot box,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson and James Masters. “It’s what we call national will.” His opponents, who have called the results fraudulent, beg to differ. We can expect that some of them will soon be deprived of their right to free speech.

Join us on Twitter and Facebook

Some readers may think that speaking of Trump in the same breath as Erdogan is ridiculous. Trump likes winners, so what if he called the Turkish leader to congratulate him on this victory?

Yet Trump’s public support for Erdogan is a serious thing: It’s another nail in the coffin of America’s prestige in the world as a beacon (no matter if flawed) of freedom. Trump’s seeking out the favor of Erdogan, like his shameless courting of Putin, should startle Republicans out of their favorite recurring fantasy: that Trump will go “mainstream” and support democratic norms in America and elsewhere.

It’s doubtful that Trump will engage in mass imprisonments of journalists, judges and professors. Even Putin doesn’t do that; the Russian leader prefers to make an example of certain people.

Yet Trump has been inciting hatred against the press (to continue with that example) since the inception of his candidacy, singling out individuals like NBC’s Katy Tur for heckling; confining the press to pens, like caged animals, and inciting enough hatred that double layers of security were required for pool reporters by the end of the campaign.

Trump went out of his way to build a bridge with a repressive leader who deals with opposition and criticism by silencing it and putting it in prison. It’s the spirit of someone who designs a blacked-out room for the press on a Trump property. Are there other such rooms in our future?

Read more: http://ift.tt/2oLVXcs

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2pApoOV via Viral News HQ

[harryorsborn]

1C: Looper (2012) Review

Looper is a 2012 sci-fi thriller from writer-director Rian Johnson. Taking place in the year 2044, the movie depicts a world in which hitmen, named loopers, dispose of targets sent to them by the mob from 30 years in the future. A looper reaches the end of their contract when they close the loop: the target they are sent to kill is the future version of themselves. The plot of the film revolves around a particular looper named Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) whose existence is thrust into chaos when the time arrives for him to close the loop but his future self (Bruce Willis) has a plan of his own.

I’ll cut straight to the chase: this movie blew me away. It really did. For a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, this is a wholeheartedly original sci-fi movie and it’s quite brilliant. In a landscape of blockbuster franchises and sequels, it’s always refreshing to see something that takes you by surprise and pulls you on a journey you’ve never been on before. And that’s a promise this movie really delivers on. At no point did I feel like I was watching an echo of something I’d seen before. The movie takes a fantastic concept and constructs something wholly unique out of it. But even better than that, it works. This is an example of a work of science fiction that uses its potentially farfetched premise to tell a very human and relatable story (not too dissimilar from Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, released a few weeks ago). It still contains a healthy dose of action and a few cool special effects sequences, but this is actually a rather thought-provoking experience. There’s a brilliant quote in this movie from Jeff Daniels’ Jack Abe Mitchell that I think sums this point up rather well: ‘The movies that you’re dressing like are just copying other movies. These goddamn 20th century affectations. Do something new.’

The film’s narrative itself largely works really well. The plot is engaging from start to finish and goes down some interesting and unexpected routes. It’s been pointed out that there are some lapses in the movie’s time travel logic, but the audience is asked to suspend their disbelief and focus on the story at hand. The movie prevents itself from getting bogged down in complex explanations of the science behind the fiction and instead puts a focus on its characters and story. And this works to great effect. There are still some exposition heavy scenes but the movie manages to not get caught up by this. By suspending our disbelief and not worrying about the specifics, we are rewarded with a rich narrative that explores some interesting concepts. The plot has some great twists and turns and a strong tension is kept throughout. Almost every moment feels important to the story being told and that story is incredibly thrilling and engaging.

The movie also bolsters a great score from Nathan Johnson (which I’m actually listening to as I write this). There’s nothing particularly iconic within the soundtrack, but it accompanies the movie well. As any good score should, it heightens the emotional beats of the movie without ever becoming too noticeable. It’s especially great as the tension starts to ramp up and the thrills increase. It utilises some unconventional sounds to really add to the futuristic atmosphere of the movie and heighten the sense of a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

Cinematographer Steve Yedlin also adds great style to the world of Looper. The movie is very well shot and the cinematography helps give it it’s feeling of realism and keeps the futuristic tale grounded. The streets of Kansas City feel grimy and uninviting while the vastness of the corn fields feel largely peaceful and isolated. The cinematography isn’t anything particularly mind-blowing, but it’s pretty damn great.

The movie has a cast featuring some top-tier actors whose performances do not disappoint. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great here as our lead, successfully portraying this hardened hitman. He adds a layer of humanity to this character and keeps him grounded. Bruce Willis, playing Gordon-Levitt’s older self, also gives a great performance. Similarly to the young actor, he portrays the character with the tough-guy persona we’ve come to expect but also brings an emotion and rawness to the character. Both actors collectively do a fantastic job of playing the character and compliment the character arcs wonderfully. It’s also worth noting that through their performances it’s easy to believe that they are two versions of the same person. Gordon-Levitt actually wears prosthetics in the movie to make him look more like Willis. It’s a brilliant effect and, while it is a little noticeable at first, it quickly disappears into his brilliant performance. Emily Blunt also plays a significant role in the movie and does so well. She’s also playing an American here and her accent is so great that, I kid you not, I spent a good half an hour of the movie trying to work out if it was actually her. And then there’s Pierce Gagnon. This kid is fantastic! A different actor in his role could have completely derailed the entire movie. He’s a terrific child actor and he really brings his character to life. Other supporting actors include Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano and Noah Segan, all of whom do a great job. The entire cast of this movie are really great and bring a lot of believability and emotion to what could otherwise be a rather unbelievable movie.

As I mentioned earlier, while this is a rather thoughtful piece of sci-fi it also has some great action. All of the action sequences are well directed by Johnson and feel appropriately tense and exciting. These sequences also feel important. There aren’t scenes where hundreds of extras are killed, every piece of action has a weight to it and advances the story, making them all the more enthralling.

The movie balances this out with a lot of great character moments. Every character feels well fleshed out and developed. Characters have clear motivations and it is often these motivations that cause the audience to pause and think. All of the main characters here feel like human beings and that is something that makes this sci-fi tale all the more compelling.

As a movie with a fairly modest budget for contemporary sci-fi, there is a clear lack of crazy visual effects sequences, which is part of the reason the movie works so well. The majority of the things we see within the movie are physical, keeping the movie grounded and believable. This crafts a world that actually feels as though it could be the future of our planet. However, visual effects are certainly present and they are largely used very well. When they are used, they are used to create things that seem believable for the vision of the future the movie is presenting to us. There is one particular use of green screen, however, that took me right out of the movie. And it involved a hoverbike. In fact, the hoverbike itself took me out of the movie a little bit every time it made an appearance. This film feels so gritty and has such a strong sense of realism, that I just didn’t feel this hoverbike really fit in within the film’s vision. Everyone else is driving cars in the movie so having this one futuristic vehicle just felt odd to me. It also shows up in the climax and I found it a little jarring then too. It’s obviously not a major flaw with the movie, but it felt slightly bizarre to me.

As I mentioned, the majority of this movie is created practically and the production design is really great. All of the sets feel like something that might exist within a futuristic crime circuit. Some feel dirty and unpleasant while others feel cosy and stylish. The production design for the exteriors of the city is also fantastic. We see a world shrouded in poverty and crime. It feels like a realistic prediction of where our world could be headed and never takes the audience out of the movie which, had the sets been designed in a more traditional sci-fi style, could have easily been the case.

Looper is a brilliant piece of sci-fi with an engaging and thoughtful narrative, pulse-racing thrills and well fleshed out, interesting characters. The film is technically great and features great performances from its a-list cast. I cannot wait to see what Johnson is going to bring to the Star Wars universe next December. Bring it on!

Rating: 9/10

[trendingnewsb]

Trump’s congratulatory call to Erdogan is revealing

(CNN)It’s a haunting image. A basement space with blacked-out windows, crowded with camera equipment and journalists who were assigned to cover the Leader during the state visit of a foreign dignitary but were not allowed to look outside.

Was this Vladimir Putin’s Russia, or perhaps the Turkey of Recep Tayyip Erdogan? No, it was the Trump National Jupiter Golf Club in Florida, three weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration, as depicted by White House pool reporters Jennifer Jacobs and others on Twitter. (Jacobs tweeted during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit, “Trump’s press corps has been placed in a basement suite at Jupiter golf club. Black plastic over windows to give Trump privacy as he golfs.”

In this case, the blacked-out windows merely hid a golf game. Yet the model of media-government relations they conjure — a press that’s blinded, and cut off from knowledge of what’s going on and who’s doing it — is not so dissimilar to those put in practice by both those other countries.

Those pictures returned to mind when I heard that President Trump had called President Erdogan to congratulate him on his victory in Sunday’s referendum, which has been widely interpreted as clearing the way for an expansion of his personal powers. We can learn a lot from Turkey’s journey to repression under Erdogan, not least what could be in store for America if Trump decides to go down a similar path, even in a very mild fashion.

While international observers sharply questioned the fairness of the vote in Turkey, claiming the opposition had been muzzled, Trump became the first Western leader to congratulate Erdogan. And he took this step even though his own government, in the form of the US State Department, issued this comment: “We look to the government of Turkey to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all its citizens — regardless of their vote on April 16 — as guaranteed by the Turkish constitution and in accordance with Turkey’s international commitments.”

Trump has never hidden his love of strongmen. Moammar Gadhafi, Vladimir Putin, and even Saddam Hussein have all come in for praise by him for their decisiveness and take no prisoners attitude toward their enemies.

Erdogan certainly fits the bill. He’s been in the news for some time as a prime example of the new wave of strongmen who operate in a context of nominal democracy but engage in authoritarian tactics to consolidate their power. His defeat of a coup attempt in July 2016 (which some believed Erdogan staged) allowed him to further accentuate his crackdown on the usual targets of such leaders: the media, the judiciary, immigrants and political opponents.

Trump has acted according to type in singling out these categories, too, for his hostility, to the point of calling the press “enemies of the people” and calling for the imprisonment of his political rival, Hillary Clinton, an idea he has returned to from time to time.

Turkey shows us what can happen when rhetoric passes to action. Let’s take the example of the media and higher education. Over 100 news sites have been closed, and over 100 journalists have been imprisoned; Turkey is now the country with the highest number of confined journalists in the world. Many university professors, accused of anti-government sentiments or insulting the leader, have been escorted out of their homes and workplaces in handcuffs, as though they are criminals — which, for Erdogan, they now are.

WH congratulates Erdogan as State criticizes him

Replay

More Videos …

MUST WATCH

Add to that a thin-skinned personality who bears a grudge — a former Miss Turkey endured an “insult trial” for posting a satirical poem about Erdogan on Instagram (she received a 14-month suspended sentence) — and you have a society that lives in fear, never knowing who will be his next target.

It’s rarely a good sign when an authoritarian leader calls for a referendum. Such popular votes are invariably used to justify a new round of repressive measures, since the ruler can now claim he’s acting according to the will of the people. In this case, Erdogan was seeking support for a new constitution that, over time, will considerably weaken the power of the legislature at the expense of the executive.

Erdogan will never do away altogether with democracy: It’s not in his interest. Keeping a semblance of democratic norms can be useful to the ruler; it allows him to refute any charges that he’s a dictator. “Here we have a ballot box,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson and James Masters. “It’s what we call national will.” His opponents, who have called the results fraudulent, beg to differ. We can expect that some of them will soon be deprived of their right to free speech.

Join us on Twitter and Facebook

Some readers may think that speaking of Trump in the same breath as Erdogan is ridiculous. Trump likes winners, so what if he called the Turkish leader to congratulate him on this victory?

Yet Trump’s public support for Erdogan is a serious thing: It’s another nail in the coffin of America’s prestige in the world as a beacon (no matter if flawed) of freedom. Trump’s seeking out the favor of Erdogan, like his shameless courting of Putin, should startle Republicans out of their favorite recurring fantasy: that Trump will go “mainstream” and support democratic norms in America and elsewhere.

It’s doubtful that Trump will engage in mass imprisonments of journalists, judges and professors. Even Putin doesn’t do that; the Russian leader prefers to make an example of certain people.

Yet Trump has been inciting hatred against the press (to continue with that example) since the inception of his candidacy, singling out individuals like NBC’s Katy Tur for heckling; confining the press to pens, like caged animals, and inciting enough hatred that double layers of security were required for pool reporters by the end of the campaign.

Trump went out of his way to build a bridge with a repressive leader who deals with opposition and criticism by silencing it and putting it in prison. It’s the spirit of someone who designs a blacked-out room for the press on a Trump property. Are there other such rooms in our future?

Read more: http://ift.tt/2oLVXcs

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2pApoOV via Viral News HQ