#she was an obvious grifter

[tariah23]

I’m not rooting for Candace Owens just because she spoke out about israel and Zionists, man.

[xoivy]

most of the time i don't have a damn clue what pearl davis is talking about and frankly i don't think she does either. who is "they"? who are "the people at the top"? where is she getting her stats from? she's really just saying anything nowadays honestly

[achillurrito]

How long do we think it's gonna be till James Somerton turns right-wing grifter? The people he stole from will likely never see a single cent, but his career is fucked. Within a month, all he'll be left with is name recognition and the fact that a ton of leftists hate him. He could just take the money and run, but given what he was willing to do to get this far, I get the feeling he'd rather not lose his fame.

Let's look at Rowling for a moment. She had all the money she could ever hope to get from her books. She could have simply taken the money and settled down, but she didn't want to. She wanted relevance. Before she started hanging out with fascists though, she tried to become a celebrity of her idea of the left.

Remember those couple of years where she was constantly announcing random characters were gay? The obvious pandering to the left? The "at least one Jewish student at hogwarts"? The weirdly graphic description she gave of Dumbledore's gay sex life despite never even hinting at it in the books? Making Hermione black despite specifically writing her as white?

What I'm saying is, she tried to pander to the left and it failed because everyone could see it was pandering. So what did she do? She started pandering to the right. The right is fine with pandering as long as they're the ones being appealed to. And look at her now, we can't go a week without hearing about some fucked up thing she did, and the right loves her for it.

All of this is to say that Somerton is gonna have a realization that he's been grifting the wrong audience. His one honest trait is his hatred of women and that'll work perfectly for appealing to incels. Just watch as he spins this as the left turning on him and pushing him to the right. He's gonna join the Blair White school of being "one of the good ones"

[toothwormfactory]

[ID: A two panel digital comic of Jude Perry and Jonathan Sims from The Magnus Archives. Jon’s speech bubbles are green and Jude’s are orange.

In the first panel, Jonathan Sims asks a smugly laughing Jude Perry: “Something funny, Ms. Perry?”. Jude replies: “Uh, yeah.” Jon asks: “Care to share?”, and Jude responds: “I think it’s pretty obvious.”

In the second panel, Jon is wearing a bright, holographic puffer coat with several patches on it, including three cat patches, a What the Ghost patch, a Ghost Hunt UK patch, a Welcome to Nightvale patch, a The B-52s patch, a Grifter’s Bone patch, and a one with the bisexual flag. He has an irritated expression on his face and his hair is tied back into a ponytail. He says: “Look, I lost my normal coat, and i-it’s cold. Some of us actually feel it, you know?” /End ID.]

Jon "Soggy Academic Wardrobe" Sims vs Georgie "One Million Articles of Clothing with Cats on Them" Barker

Bonus:

[ID: A digital sketch of Jonathan Sims and Georgie Barker from The Magnus Archives done with blue lines. Jon is showing Georgie his bandaged hand and Georgie is concernedly looking at it. Jon says: "...So I found her and the first thing she did was laugh at your coat." Georgie responds with a frowning emoticon. Jon continues: "Don't worry about the hand or the neck." /End ID]

[whereismywizardhat]

Saw Glass Onion, and I cannot help but think about what the movie is trying to say.

Spoilers Ahead, you have been warned

The most obvious (and considering how November went in the year 2022) is the dismantling of the myth of the Tech Billionaire.  Miles Bron is a obvious Musk/Zuckerburg stand-in, with the former’s charisma and energy industry connections and the later’s assorted former business partners.

Miles surrounds himself with “The Disrupters” aka the shitheads.  Lionel the engineer, Duke the alt-right troll, Claire the politician, and Birdie the fashion model.  Science, Media, Politics, and Entertainment, four pillars of society each dependent on the smooth talking grifter with the pile of money for their own continued success.  Like with Knives Out, the politics of the four doesn’t particularly matter: Claire is mentioned to be a liberal politician, while Duke’s MRA talking points barely can escape his garage without being called out by his mother and Birdie mindlessly repeats slurs on social media with such regularity her assistant micromanages her phone.  Class solidarity matters more, 5% will protect the 1%.

Miles surrounds himself with these people, but he has no loyalty to them.  He powers his home with an unstable energy source that his engineer is sure is dangerous (because it’s hydrogen, the most explosive element), he has already convinced the politician to back his dangerous energy source, he assists the far right media guy in getting a new platform but does not platform him on his own network, and he intends to allow the fashionista to take the fall for their sweatshops.  

Coming out in a year where we have watched billionaires throw good money after bad in such ventures as “Worse VR Chat” and “Let’s Burn the Bird Site to the Ground”, it has never been more obvious the mediocrity of tech billionaires.  And here comes Glass Onion, which presents it’s Ersatz Zucker-musk as the most mediocre of them all: seemingly only having the talent to steal ideas from others and force others to repackage them.  A man so utterly devoid of creativity or talent that naturally everyone thinks of him as a genius.  A Cave Johnson level Moron.

The fifth guest, Andi, Mile’s former partner, represents Business but she’s also a black woman who was the true brains behind the operation, and thus was first discredited then murdered.  The Andi we meet is actually her school teacher twin sister, Helen.  Education, another pillar, and notably the only one is not beholden to Miles.  Tech Billionaires aren’t even beholden to Capitalism, but they are beholden to people educated enough to see through their snake oil.

And finally there is Benoit Blanc, our beloved detective.  He represent justice (notably, not the police), and notably while he solves the crime he cannot touch Miles.  White Privileged Billionaires never have to worry about Justice reaching them, they are insulated from it.  The only thing he can do is encourage Helen.

And Helen burns it all down.  No justice can be extracted from Billionaires, but we can burn their houses down, their own hubris practically guarantees that they will have left fuel everywhere.  After all, they are morons.

[bignickrgxa2]

Alright Mag fam holy shit

1800's? Merchant selling evil artifacts? A murder instrument that turns any event into a death disco? A new voice on the PC's?!

So much going on!

I've been very vocal about trying to approach Protocol as a clean slate, basically just to not travel down alleys of pointless speculation based on events that, as far as we know, didn't happen in THIS timeline. However, saying that...

That was BIIIIGGGG Slaughter vibes huh? Grifter's Bone is almost begging to be the pull here. I think it's safe to say that there will be some overlap with some aspects, I mean otherwise why even connect it to the Magnus universe to start with if not? Hmm.

Augustus? No clue. I deffo thought it was motherfucking Jürgen Leitner at the start, but I kinda lean towards to Jonah Magnus theory already. Would be fun.

Klaus? Pfft fucked if I know.

Why is Alice so stressed about anything Magnus related? Perhaps she was one of the message boarders mentioned in ep2? Or she just knows shit. Tbh, it wouldn't surprise me if she somehow turned out to be a bad guy. Throwing a Bouchard in almost feels TO OBVIOUS?!

I'm just so happy to be here at THIS stage of Protocol. I got to Maggy Narchive after it was already over, so any conjecture I had was basically kept to just me spouting shit at my partner who'd already completed it.

[daydreamingupandaway]

Omg HEYYYY folks! So i don’t know if y’all know this.. if you do IRL you definitely do, but I’m a HUGE Magnus protocol Fan! And of course I ADORE The Magnus Archives.

Well- I just listened to episode 15 and I want to talk about it! SPOILERS AHEAD

————————————————————

Last warning!

HOLY FUCKING SHIT TWO ENTITIES SPOTTED KFKSFKSKCMSKKFDMCMMGJSOFNDN

HAPPY STIMMING

My ass could NOT have gotten through this episode without the handy dandy transcripts. They’re easy to find, just look them up lol. Like oh my GOODNESS this episode was a treat!

So I think we can all agree that Lady Mowbray is an avatar of the hunt, right? RIGHT?! Like that is so obvious!! We love to see the hunt again, really it’s just nice to see something familiar again! She seems really interesting, and I found Celia’s interaction with her… interesting. Like my girl Celia INSTANTLY knew something was off, and I think she handled it nicely… maybe TOO nicely. If you know you know ;)

And is it just me, and I might be a little silly here.. but did the Caterer sound familiar? At first when he was kinda panicked he sounded like Tim but then not… thinking back on it doesn’t he sound like the vampire hunter guy? Trevor Herbert? Or is that just wishful thinking?

Now onto Alice and the victim- MY BABY ALICE HAS HER FIRST ENCOUNTER!!! Yay!!!! I always knew she’d be one of the first to get an encounter. I feel so bad for her, she’s so traumatized. But when you belong to a Rusty Quill production, you’re bound to be!

The victim? I’d say probably something to do with the vast, since the vast can be represented in the ocean as well. Though the ocean was a very under utilized vessel of the vast in TMA. Though I have heard some folks saying that it is possible TMAGP has new entities? Who knows!

I heard a few people say some interesting things about Luke and the band he was performing with, saying that they might have had something to do with the victim? I don’t know about that. I guess I didn’t really pick up anything sketch from them. At least it wasn’t Grifters Bone lol!

In any case I adored this episode! Had me sitting on the edge of my seat! I really have to start dedicating more time to my TMA relisten so I can have better theories.

Would anyone like me to start drawing the TMAGP cast? Or TMA cast? I’ll see if I can cook up designs with those lads.

Oh, one final thing… Cheshire Bouchards? What does THAT mean? Is Elias a big figure here? I’m not British, but I’m fairly certain Cheshire is somewhere in England, right?

Anyway I’ve seen Alice become a fan favorite and I have to agree! I love her so much.

[nocaffeineforlevi]

TMAGP 15

WHAT JUST HAPPENED

Okay okay okay. Rich people hunting caterers for sport alright yeah I can see that.

Pretty sure the lady is the one from the ARG and cast list that hadn't appeared yet okay stuffs happening.

Celia knowing too much yup that's pretty normal.

"Gwen BOUCHARD? Like the Cheshire Bouchards?" "Oh, well actually- [Door slams and cuts Gwen off]" (not direct quote I'm doing this from memory not transcripts) IM REALLY HOPING SHE KNOWS THAT NAME BECAUSE RICH PEOPLE AND NOT BECAUSE ELDRITCH HORRORS. PLEASE. (No actually I do want it to be because of Eldritch Horrors. The obvious fear-related tie would be because of the Elias Bouchard we know and loathe, but also how wild would it be if in the Protocol universe there are more families that dedicated themselves to a specific fear like the Lukases did in Archives. I know it's unlikely but like. That was such a good idea and I know the reason the Lukases were the only ones we knew of was because it's difficult to start a family line dedicated to a specific fear yadda yadda. But STILL.)

Hearing Alice's brother's voice and a concert woo! Not the second coming of Grifter's Bone (yet) woo! Kinda sad that this discounts that one crack theory I saw that Needles was Alice's brother bc I thought that was wonderful but yknow.

And then Alice encounters the Horrors. Love how quickly everyone is getting in too deep this time around. Also just shout-out to the voice actors real quick especially for this episode, this was like professional audio drama level stuff honestly.

...I had a final thought and I can't remember it. Oh yeah uhhh:

We haven't heard from Colin recently.

Right anyway that's my thoughts happy Magnus Thursday everybody!

EDIT: WAIT THE DROWNING LADY HAD A TAPE RECORDER??? I DID NOT REALIZE THAT AT ALL H U H?

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

The thing that makes me the most sad about how many people fall for radfem ideology on this website is that many of them genuinely think that they are fighting for liberation, and have various levels of class consciousness. Especially when it’s young people.

This is why I talk a lot about both the online rabbitholes/pipelines that pull people into terf circles and also the I would estimate somewhat smaller one that funnels into the whole ‘anti-shipping’ community. They both often have people in them who claim they are against overt oppression in other forms.

The terf pipeline in particular is functionally the same as the inverse blackpill ideological rabbit hole which targets young men: the incel pipeline. Both are reflexively reactionary ideologies that respond to the promises demands and expectations of cultural patriarchy. And both in the end, serve white supremacy and capital.

Terfs are so focused on violence against women that it is truly the only violence they see. And of course finding an easy scapegoat who is already disempowered under patriarchy is easier than confronting the complexities of the underlying social issues. Such as plainly acknowledging that trans feminine people, particularly black and native trans people, face the most intensive mysoginistic violence of anyone, and that all queerness and gender noncormity is counter to the rigid gender expectations of patriarchy and thus under threat of patriarchal reinforcing violence.

So rather than fighting for women’s liberation in any actually meaningful way, which would mean acknowledging that anyone who betrays gender roles is harmed by patriarchy, they rely on an outdated model of biological essentialism which hasn’t been relevant to thoughtful feminist critique since second wave feminism. We have fifty years of further gender theory in academia that they will ignore in favor of a 6th grade level basic and also plainly incorrect understanding of genetics. And in so doing they, usually unwittingly and unintentionally, fall for obvious white supremacist grifters like that woman who had a milkshake thrown on her and is Jo Rowling’s new best friend who has straight up said MANY times that ‘we need to abandon feminism’ and that she herself is not a feminist. Yet she’s one of the main and most popular speakers driving “radical feminist” ideology.

There is a REASON why terf thought leader speeches are protected by groups of Proud Boys.

Similarly the anti-shipping rabbithole also reinforces christofash puritanical sexual morality while claiming to fight sexual violence and be a liberatory movement.

If you are falling for these regressive ideologies, you are not fighting capitalism. You are not fighting racism. You are not fighting sexism.

You are falling for white supremacist christofascist recruiting schemes.

You are falling for the oldest trick in the book, blaming other members of the working class for your own oppression instead of acting in solidarity to fight for systemic change.

[pixeljade]

Okay im CAUGHT UP with the magnus protocol now! Some thoughts:

Obviously we know who Norris and Chester are, and its almost certain that leaves Augustus as Jonah Magnus. The question is, are they really "them"? Or have they simply manifested in this universe as voices, echoes of who they were beyond? If they do have agency on any level, what level would that be?

Everyone seems to be trying to categorize the new statements with the entities from before. And while we see fragments of them, let us not forget: the entities are more like colors, blending into eachother. Its entirely possible this world has a different set of obvious colors, based on the fears of its inhabitants

We've heard the Magnus Institute namedropped, as well as obvious references to Grifter's Bone. Are these statements confirming that both entities exist in this world as well? Or perhaps these statements arent actually from this world, but leftovers from World A? We never did get confirmation that all the statements back there got read, and thus far the only confirmed supernatural thing in World B is the bizarre nature of FR3-d1.

There's no way that Gwen Bouchard's last name is a coincidence, nor is her desire to climb to the top of this bureaucratic structure. That said, reminder that Elias Bouchard before his possession by Jonah Magnus was described as "something of a stoner", so the characterization of Gwen doesnt match TRUE Elias, but the possessed version of him. Still possible it is truly Elias unpossessed, but the harrowing experience he went through made him more serious. And also somehow forcefemmed him? That or its someone just related otherwise to Elias.

If the Magnus Institute and Grifter's Bone DO exist in World B, how much else exists here? Clearly there's SOME similarities, but are there perhaps alternate versions of people here? The hints toward Grifter's Bone in particular would seem to hint precisely that fact.

The Magnus "Protocol" makes it sound like a contingent plan Jonah Magnus came up with in the event that someone would do exactly what happened at the end of TMA, and if so, that scares me immensely. If Jonah Magnus can see all, even with the blindspot and secrecy, he likely knew that the blindspot could be a way to another world. This could be all according to keikaku for him.

Sam's connection to the Magnus Institute has me worried. It reminds me of how Tim became so fixated on the Stranger because of past trauma. And Tim...well. We remember how that story ended.

Alice says this shit doesnt get to her, and yet she's afraid, constantly. I dont think she's being completely honest, she KNOWS there's a darkness there. She may refuse to look directly into the abyss but the very fact that she sticks with a job where she knows the abyss lives...I think she saw something she can't walk away from. She also reminds me of Tim, hiding behind jokes and pretending to be fine.

Colin clearly knows the most about the truth. Maybe he's pulling a Gertrude, trying to keep it disorganized to prevent what he views as an evil plot? Or maybe he's just a bid mad because of it all. But I think he's got interesting character potential.

Anyways thats my thoughts so far. God its good, feels like the original series never ended! When the reveal that the painter in episode 2 was editing *her own flesh* instead of the artwork with her palette knife I gasped audibly. Great stuff

[sassyfrassboss]

Yesterday we briefly talked about how Meghan was known to be charming towards men. Here's a video I recently watched on YouTube. It's by HG Tudor, and he describes the first time he met meghan, in 2016, and what he thought of her at the time.

https://youtu.be/Norru-2HByk

(hope the link works here. There's a series of about 8 videos, and there's more to come)

This first meetingwas in 2016 pre-harry. She was still looking for British men to date and in this video HG describes how he met her at a famous bar frequented by posh celeb and artsy types. She was with another lady journalist friend of hers who was a mutual aquaintance with Hg. And Meghan was quite keen on being set up with him. But her fake persona put him off.

HG is a self confessed narcissistic, who has never revealed his real identity to the public. So make of this video what you wish, but whats interesting to me is-

- the fake, over confident way she puts on her femme fatale persona.

- the vocal fry, which I'm assuming is her version of a low, deep, sexy but uncaring voice.

- how fixated she seemed with her suits character and her monologues about Rachel Zane's fashion.

- her utter desperation at being introduced to HG and if he wasn't interested, then to get an intro to 3/4 friends of his.

- the strange hold she has on their mutual friend Suzanna, who is acting as her match maker.

- the way she gets touchy feely with someone she is trying to seduce.

- how she fake laughs, and uses exaggerated hand gestures to attract attention of this random man (HG) from across the room once she decided that she wanted to get to know him/his circle.

I'm now guessing that she was like this towards most men she met with, if she decided she wanted to impress them. William, Charles, Harry obviously, Jason knauf, prince Phillip maybe. And this demeaner is very obvious to someone like William (or Charles and Phillip) who has been trained his whole life to spot a grifter. Or rather, someone who has been warned his whole life to stay away from spongers and users.

That's why William, even Catherine and the queen could see through her. Harry, who had his own agendas, didn't care.

If listened

There were times she was making eyes at William. In public. It was obvious that she wanted his attention. Even more obvious she hated Catherine because of William.

Thanks for the link! I am going to watch these tonight.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

The Spectator. Tim Dillon says Madame is one of the great con artists of our time. by u/Von_und_zu_

The Spectator. Tim Dillon says Madame is one of the great con artists of our time. Tim Dillon, your tour guide to the end of the world. The comedian on Meghan Markle, Vladimir Putin and running for the governorship of CaliforniaThis is the part on Madame. Grifter = con artist. Well spotted Tim. He’s also a fan of people he deems to be rogues – Meghan Markle, for instance. ‘I like her now. I fully like her. As soon as she launched her lifestyle brand, I liked her because it all became apparent and obvious, and it became very funny. I would have lunch with her. I think she’s a great con artist and I respect the great con artists. She’s one of the greats – one of the great con artists of our time. To leave a country because you’re concerned about racism and because everyone’s being racist, and it’s not fair and there’s privilege, and then to come and live in the wealthiest town in another country, which is Montecito, Santa Barbara. To live in that town and then to launch a lifestyle brand called American Riviera Orchard is truly one of the funniest things I have ever seen. It’s absolutely hilarious. It’s a level of shamelessness to be commended. Meghan is a Hollywood actress. If you think the royal family is cold, if you think the royal family is calculating, you’ve never met a Hollywood actress.’ https://ift.tt/DohdN2X post link: https://ift.tt/y1DPEO4 author: Von_und_zu_ submitted: March 30, 2024 at 04:27AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[brbsoulnomming]

Last snippet for WIP Weekend - my as of yet untitled Leverage AU!

(I ended up finishing the next part of Tell Me Sweet Little Lies from this, so I'll be posting that later tonight instead of just doing a snippet)

-----

Steve's been a grifter his whole life.

It's called something different, in the circle the Harringtons walk in now - called being a salesman, a businessman - but his mom had always just laughed, said she called it like it is.

She was a grifter long before she met his father, long before they settled down and she retired from her trade.

Well.

Semi retired.

His father was something of a mastermind. He'd tried to teach it to Steve, but Steve didn't have the knack for it. Steve wasn't cold, or calculating, he couldn't wrap his head around the big picture and plan for every outcome. He just knew people, could figure out what they wanted, play into their expectations. He was much better suited for his mother's trade.

Former trade, she'd always insist, even as she brought him along on a little side trip, just a quick detour. Just to show him how she used to do it.

In case Steve wanted to find himself, before joining his father's firm.

Steve's not sure about finding himself, but who cares about that when he found Nancy Wheeler instead?

He didn't find her right away, of course.

It was natural to hook up with Carol and Tommy first. Mrs. Perkins and his mom went way back - best friends or rivals, it was like they never really could decide. They always had thinly veiled barbs for each other, but he knew that if his mom needed support and his dad was busy, she'd always call Mrs. Perkins. Tommy's parents went way back with his dad, though Steve was never sure which side of his dad's business they worked in.

He guesses it doesn't really matter.

Carol was too cutting to make a really skilled grifter, but she was a damn good thief. Tommy was a hitter, through and through, and if he veered too heavy into violence, if he tried to take it too far, Steve and Carol were always there to rein him in.

Steve kept them both in line, guided them to more appropriate targets, and it worked fine. He could play the mastermind at least that much.

Then they met Nancy and Barb, and Nancy - God, she was brilliant. Her mind worked in ways that Steve wasn't sure he could ever keep up with, but it didn't really matter as long as she let him try. He softened her edges, got her to loosen up, and she slipped right into the crew like she was made for it.

Or she almost did.

Barb hadn't really wanted to join up with them, that was obvious. He and Carol and Tommy had already built a reputation for themselves, already had word spreading amongst others in their line of business, calling them the Royal Court. Nancy and Barb liked to keep a lower profile - then again, they could afford to, with how good of a hacker Barb turned out to be. But for a while, they made it work, and it was good.

[magnuscomedybracket]

Semifinals Match 1

087 Uncanny Valley vs. 042 Grifter's Bone

Propaganda under the cut!

087 Uncanny Valley

Guy cleans out flesh from a drain without a blink and nikola has to invite him back again with Jude because he wasn’t scared enough the first time because of obliviousness

Besides the obvious bit of Guy who Doesn’t Realize He’s In A Horror Story, imagine this from Nikolas perspective. Like “oh shit lol this guys name is “skinner” I’m gonna mess with him for shits and giggles… Ok he didn’t notice any of my spooky bullshit, wild! I threatened to butcher him and he was Not Paying Attention! Jude! Hey! Come check out this idiot man!”. Also implication that Jude and nikola hang out being shitty together. I support women’s wrongs.

"Megan" tries to expose this guy to The Horrors and he's so focused on his job that he just doesn't notice. She's so shocked by this that she calls him back and still has to literally force him to notice

The world's most oblivious plumber somehow doesn't notice all the creepy stuff going on and just does his job like normal. It only gets funnier when you consider it from the Stranger avatar's point of view.

Nikola Orsinov trying so hard to scare the least observant man you've ever seen. Whispering in his ear about flencing while he hums noncommittally and pulls a wad of meat from the drain of her spooky factory in the middle of fuck-all nowhere and then he just gives her the invoice and walks out??? Like it's a normal job? And when she calls him to come back the next day she has to dress up in a clown costume to get his attention and grab his head to make him look at The Atrocities that he just entirely missed the day before. I love Sebastian Skinner so much and I wish only the best for him

#I really just want to point out that they're trying to scare a plumber. #A plumber!! #do you think this is the first time this man has had to clean skin and hair out of a drain? #do you think he's never seen blood before? #like yeah it's objectively funny from the Horror's point of views but for him? It's a tuesday #Like that isn't even the weirdest thing he's seen that week #'oh they threatened to butcher him' yeah? what makes them special? #this guy probably deals with 20 different avatars a week by necessity #no amount of 'his name is skinner let's fuck with him' is going to be worse than service work in people's homes (via @/childoferebus)

#the only reason we know what's happening for half the episode is taht we know this is an horror story #and how things usually go. #dude spends half the episode going 'just a normal job. #house in the middle of nwohere. weird smells and textures #*shrugs* just anotehr day on the job* (via @/monstersqueen)

042 Grifter's Bone

A band so bad it kills people

"I've been watching Martin. He's been very attentive to my needs and recovery since I returned to work, almost to the exclusion of his own tasks. [...] Is he playing the fool? Purposefully failing in his tasks to delay or hinder my investigations? [...] I’m glad he’s moved out of the Archives, as it gives me a chance to work here without his constant presence. [...] if his style wasn't so obviously enamoured with Keats,[...] I will keep my eye on Martin." the keats part included because wow jon. strong opinions on martin's poetry here (via @/monstersqueen)

[itsraining-pebbles]

combining both my special interests by assigning qsmp characters to the tma entities

Badboyhalo: End because grim reaper + edgy as fuck, BUT he is still very Eye aligned because all of the ordo is, but also hes paranoid and keeping a man in his basement for information with are very eye coded things to do

Cellbit: f!cell was probably under the influence of the Flesh bc cannibalism but q!cellbit is so very Eye coded. this man is the definition of an Eye avatar. the only thing more Eye than q!cellbit is the Eye itself

Roier: Web

Hombre Mysterioso: Dark bc like his name literally has mystery in it so its a lil bit obvious

Jaiden: Lonely marked in the saddest way possible. especially after bobby died, shes isolated herself a lot and she hasnt strongly connected with many people, and she feels like she can only really trust herself bc of everything with the federation

Foolish: Vast. hes a shark with lightning (also immortality in general is very vast coded)

Bagi: VERY Eye coded. probably hates the Flesh too

Etoiles: Hunt and the whole thing with his arm getting all weird is just him getting so deep into the Hint that its started changing him

Baghera: Eye avatar

Forever: Hunt bc wolfboy. but the Happy Pills were a Spiral thing

Pac: Lonely. like look at his whole arc rn. Lonely

Tubbo: i cant explain it but he gives off Buried vibes. like its not because of anything, he just seems like a Buried guy

Slimecicle: Spiral bc hes insane + funny

Philza: End. this man is literally the angel of death and his wife is the goddess of death. i dont think i need to justify it

Wilbur: Slaughter bc music and lovejoy as grifters bone would be great and no i dont care that wilbur doesnt fit the actual Slaughter qualifications because he fits the aesthetic and thats all that matters to me

ElQuackity: deffo Stranger bc ElQuackity is basically just a Not!Quackity

Federation workers: Stranger. its literally a bunch of ppl without faces idk what to tell you

Federation: Web or Stranger i cant decide

Ordo Theoritas as a whole: Eye coded

[eyesfromhell]

The bad sweet ending of Leverage: Redemption S2E7 "The Big Rig Job"

If you don't remember the episode, here's a summary:

There's a trucking company run by Nick Stewart who was a Santa guy, who loved his workers and every Christmas donated toys to orphans.

Fast forward a few years later right before Christmas, Nick is long dead and his children run the company, doing bad labor practices and running guns for the mob. The Leverage crew learn this and try to squeeze in a job right before their Christmas plans - Harry going on vacation with his daughter and Breanna and Parker going to visit Nana.

During the job they meet Janice, Nick's lover who still donates toys to orphans and dislikes Nick's children's treatment of the workers.

The job takes too long and they decide to spend Christmas eve together as a Family instead of on a plane going to see their families. They also send the bad guys to prison and make Janice into CEO of the company, so she can treat the workers well. The final shot of the episode is of the crew entering a building together as Family with Christmas cheer.

I have two problems with this ending, that requires you to agree to three points:

1) the ending is supposed to be a good and sweet ending - it's easier to watch the final 2 minutes of the episode than to read the explanation, but basically Janice and the Victim are grateful to the crew, and then there's a shot of Sophie smiling and Parker and Breanna skipping, with a backdrop of Christmas lights.

2) the problems in the episode were created by the good owner's death - it's also pretty obvious from the text. Nick was a good owner, he died, his children inherited the company, and they turned it shady.

3) it's good for the crew to be with their family - this one I have to prove, but you might not agree with me. Lots of episodes end with the crew hanging out, because they're Family and they love each other. But the characters should also make time for their loved ones, right? I'm not saying the crew hanging out during Christmas or Thanksgiving is bad, but this episode specifically said they're together instead of their original plans to be with their families. There are two empty seats at Nana's table and Harry's daughter probably expected her father to snowboard with her. You could argue that Nana sent them pies and they'll see her at New Year's Eve, and that Harry was joining his daughter on her vacation instead of taking her on vacation, but I still think a good ending would've been them going to see their families.

My first problem is this: they didn't solve the problem in the episode. Janice will one day die and her successor could once again hurt employees and smuggle guns. Not only that, this episode specifically says a good boss doesn't prevent problems. Unlike other episodes with a Bad Boss&Good Employee, where by the end the Boss goes to jail and the Employee becomes boss, where you're encouraged to assume it's good that the Employee is in charge, here the text of the episode says it's not the end, and yet there's a heartwarming ending. They delayed the problem by a few years and have the Christmas equivalent of walking into the sunset.

My second problem is they missed seeing their family on a major holiday to spend time with their co-workers. The good ending of them hanging together forgets how excited Parker was to see Nana and how Harry really wanted to snowboard with his daughter. There isn't much to add beyond what I wrote in (3).

This episode is just very emblematic of a big problem with Leverage: Redemption - they are aware the systems aren't good, with how many corrupt CEOs and politicians and grifters they take down, and their constant talk about how the System failed the Victims and allowed the Bad Guys to continue their bad behavior, but they can only take down one Bad Guy at a time and can't change the system. Most episodes pretend to have a good ending when the episode's problem could just happen the next day. The characters know there is a problem, know what the problem is, want to help and have the ability to help, but the show can't let them.

(Leverage was also very aware the systems aren't good, but they were led by Nate who hated Bad Guys more than he liked helping people, so the problem didn't exist as much)