#the hollywood survival guide

[iced-american0]

Quiet on Set

The documentary revealed some extremely shocking details. Personally I have felt disturbed after learning about everything that took place. How did Dan not know about Brian Peck being pen pals with a serial killer? Why did Disney hire Brian after he got out jail and how many more pedos did Disney hire??? And Penelope TAYNT?? For all these years i thought it was TATE. And all of those slang terms from iCarly and Victorious such as: Jank, Chiz, Wazbag, Gank, Grunch, What the Yuck, Hob-Knocker, Skunk bag. We all know what some stand for but now that I'm an adult revisiting all of this its actually disgusting. And Alexa Nikolas has been doing an AMAZING job exposing more predators. Check out her youtube channel she has covered so much about the documentary and so much more. She has shared her experience working with Dan and the cast of Zoey 101.

Tell me your thoughts on the documentary.

Alexa's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@eatpredators

[auras-moonstone]

YESSS I HAVE SOOO MANY IDEAA (sorry😭) I AM SOOOOO IN LOVE WITH YOUR WORK OKKK WHAT IF LIKE JACK CHAMPION AND FEM READER GO TO DISNEY WORLD AND ITS JUST SUPER CUTE!! (Or like a little bit spice🫢) BUT YES

hii! i never went to disney world so i tried my best with this one shot😬 hope you like it💖

the best day with you — jack champion

word count: 868

pairing: jack champion x fem!reader

summary: jack takes his girlfriend to disney world for the first time

Y/N COULD FEEL THE MAGIC OF THE PLACE FROM THE MOMENT SHE SET FOOT ON THE ENTRANCE. She was completely speechless by the energy and the beauty the park provided. And Jack couldn’t stop looking at his girlfriend’s profile, loving the way she took in the sight of Disney World. Her excitement was contagious.

“What do you want to do first, love?” he asked, intertwining their fingers.

“We definitely have to buy Mickey Mouse ears”

“Obviously” Jack nodded, guiding her towards the nearest gift shop. Y/N eyes widened at the variety of ears. “I’ll buy you all of them if you want”.

Y/N laughed and kissed his cheek “You’re the sweetest, but I’m going to choose one… eventually”

They exited the shop, and Jack couldn’t stop laughing “I can’t believe you spent fifteen minutes thinking just to end up buying the classic ones”.

Y/N rolled her eyes “They were all so pretty! I was about to get the Mike Wazowzki ones. But then I thought: this is your first time at Disney World, shouldn’t you go for the classic Minnie ones? And Jack should get the Mickey ones”

“That absolutely makes sense, love” he said, putting on the Minnie ears for her, and she did the same for him. “There you go, the most adorable human on earth”.

“Thank you, sir. Now, let’s get going, we have so much to do!”

“HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AMAZING” Y/N said as they exited the Avatar: Flight of Passage. “They knew what there were doing with that simulation”

“You know, there’s one more thing about this attraction. But just for you, okay?” Jack said, smirking.

His girlfriend looked at him confused “What are you talking about?”

“Well, you get a special kiss from Spider Socorro himself” he said, grabbing her hips to pull her closer.

“Oh, really?” she said with a playful smile. He nodded and leaned down to give her one long kiss “Best part of the experience”

“COME ON GRANDPA, HURRY UP. I WANT TO GET FIRST ROW SEATS FOR EVEREST” Y/N said, dragging Jack behind her as she ran. “Use your long legs!”

“I’m about to pass out, Y/N/N. How do you have so much energy after so many attractions?” Jack said, trying his best to keep up.

Y/N stopped running and looked at him with guilty eyes. “Fuck, I’m sorry, babe. You’re right, it’s too much. I guess I got way too excited because it’s my first time”

Jack frowned, now he felt guilty. His girlfriend was always accompanying him to every interview, premiere and event without complaining once. And there he was, being a baby. “No, don’t apologise. Now, let’s go before someone gets our seats”.

He grabbed his hand and together they ran towards the Expedition Everest attraction. The pain of his legs evaporated when he saw Y/N climb to the first row with an excited face.

“ARE WE GOING TO SURVIVE THIS?” Jack asked as they went to the Hollywood Tower of Terror.

“I don’t want to lie to you, we might not” Y/N responded. “I have to confess something… I really want to pee. I should’ve peed before this ride”

“Please hold it. I don’t want to be known as the actor whose girlfriend peed herself” Jack said.

“Fuck you” she scoffed.

“Give me a kiss” Jack said bending down. Y/N turned her head, so he kissed her cheek instead. “Love!”

“Nope, no kiss for you”

“Come on, we are about to die. Don’t you want to have one last kiss?” he pouted.

“No, I hope the fact that you were mean to your lovely girlfriend haunts you after we die, and you won’t be able to enter heaven”

“No, I don’t want that. I’m sorry” he hugged her from behind and pressed short kisses to her neck.

“Okay, you’re forgiven” she mumbled. Jack smiled, knowing how much she loved when he hugged her from behind.

THE ADVENTURE DAY WAS COMING TO AN END, SO FOR THE LAST ACTIVITY THEY WENT TO THE CASTLE. The vibrating colors of the castle made contrast with the dark sky, making the sight absolutely enchanting. Y/N could not stop looking at it, the fireworks reflected on her eyes.

“Do you like it, love?” Jack asked, his arms were around her shoulders, chin rested on top of her head as her back was pressed against his chest.

“It’s so beautiful, Jack. Thank you for bringing me here. I will never forget it” she smiled, and looked up at him. Jack looked down at her intensely. “What?”

“Just reminding myself we’re too young to get married. My impulses are telling me otherwise” Jack said, making her look at him with wide eyes.

“The beauty of the park is giving you crazy ideas” she laughed.

“Beauty? yes, but not the one of the park”

“Cheesy” Y/N poked him in the rib, smiling like she had won a contest.

“Beautiful” Jack replied, same smile as hers.

“I love you. I had the best day with you” she tuned around to admire him properly.

He bent down to meet her lips. The people around and the sound of the fireworks disappeared as they got lost on their kiss.

[mariacallous]

One of the many knock-on effects of Marvel making post-credit scenes a feature of the studio’s cinematic universe is that fans get a glimpse of just how many “below-the-line” workers it takes to make all that superhero movie magic. Production designers, hair and makeup folks, camera operators, the lists run on and on. Amongst them, usually toward the end, as theatergoers are eagerly anticipating that tease for the next MCU movie, are lists of the visual effects studios—places with names like Framestore, The Third Floor, Cinesite—that created all of those space scenes and Wakanda visuals. But unlike most of the other names in those credits, the ones attached to VFX artists have never been in a professional union.

On Monday, some folks at Marvel made a move to change that, with a supermajority of Marvel Studios’ VFX crew signing cards saying they want to be represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

To be clear, the Marvel team is a small faction of a huge industry and doesn’t represent all those outside VFX houses that also work on MCU films. But their move marks a huge shift in Hollywood at a time when people in other industry unions—the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)—are on strike to get better deals with the major studios. VFX workers have been talking about unionizing for more than a decade, says Bilali Mack, a VFX supervisor who has worked on everything from The Whale to The Flash. The fact that one group, albeit a small one, has taken steps to unionize is “huge,” he says.

This moment has roots in 2013, when Life of Pi won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects just as the company that worked on those effects, Rhythm & Hues, was facing bankruptcy. When the movie’s VFX supervisor, Bill Westenhofer, took the stage to accept his award he said the traditional thank yous and then added “Sadly, Rhythm & Hues is suffering severe financial difficulties right now. I urge you all to remember …”—at which point his mic was cut off and the theme from Jaws began to play.

Rhythm & Hues wasn’t the only VFX studio facing troubles. Some 21 similar companies shuttered between 2003 and 2013, due in part to production delays and the fact that many jobs were going to companies based outside the US, where tax subsidies and incentives give VFX houses a better shot at survival. Attempts to organize have been bubbling up ever since, and this week they bubbled over. “We are witnessing an unprecedented wave of solidarity that’s breaking down old barriers in the industry,” IATSE president Matthew Loeb said in a statement. “That doesn’t happen in a vacuum.”

Loeb was, of course, talking about the fact that the unionization effort at Marvel is happening amidst the SAG and WGA strikes, which may be emboldening folks in other Hollywood sectors. When the Marvel news came, I called Dave Rand. He’d worked on Life of Pi at Rhythm & Hues and had helped organize a protest outside the Oscars on the night the movie won. He agreed that the current strikes played a role but added that the VFX workers who are laid off or on hiatus amidst the strikes may be hesitant to organize because they’re worried about landing their next job. Still, he added, “it’s a step in the right direction, and it can set an example.”

Considering artificial intelligence has been a major point of contention in the Hollywood strikes so far, I asked Rand and Mack if it might be on VFX artists’ minds as well. Both agreed that it was, adding that AI can be a tool for VFX artists, but it will still always require a human to guide it. Is it possible, I asked Mack, that studios would try to create shots with AI and then have human VFX artists clean them up?

“A hundred percent,” Mack replied. “That’s a legitimate worry. Because there’s a saying in visual effects, and I think in a lot of other industries, which is that the first 90 percent takes 10 percent of your time, the last 10 percent takes 90 percent. They’re gonna spit it out, it’s gonna be a piece of crap. Then they’re just gonna be like, ‘We just want it to look perfect and feature film quality,’” and then a VFX company will get called in to spend 90 percent of their time to get paid for 10 percent of the work.

Whether that scenario plays out remains to be seen. The National Labor Relations Board still needs to do due diligence on the Marvel VFX team’s request. Only after that’s complete will all members of the eligible Marvel team be able to vote on whether they want to join the union. And only then, presumably, will it be known whether the other visual effects studios in the MCU credit sequences follow in their footsteps.

[funkymbtifiction]

the end of an era

I wanted to thank you all, not only for all the notes of gratitude, encouragement, etc., in my inbox, but for being my faithful readers over the last ten years as I blundered around, answering asks, figuring things out on the fly, mistyping myself half a dozen times, and learning by “answering.” It’s been an incredible blessing for me to be part of your lives, and now, I hope, I have left behind enough of a resource, through my thousands of answered questions, my MBTI book, and my ongoing FunkyMBTI Blog, that you can be guided to your type and start the journey of self-development.

I want to say a few more things, but first, I’ll answer the burning questions that I know are going through your mind directly.

Does this mean no more character typings? No, it does not. I will continue updating FunkyMbti.com for the indefinite future, and those posts will automatically be ported over to this tumblr page, along with posts from Sixy Pixie (which I may expand to include general Enneagram posts/information/insights).

All it means is I am retiring from answering typing questions. I will still be active in various online communities, doing research, gathering information, and sharing it on my blogs. My interest in MBTI has waned since writing my book (which I consider the “achievement” of over a decade of work/research/learning), so the best way I know of is to move forward.

Does this mean I can’t request characters anymore? No, it does not. You can always contact me through FunkyMBTI.com’s contact page to make character requests. I have an ongoing list of characters people would like to see, and I hope to get around to most of them. (Such as, people want to see The OC, The Scream movies, and more Hollywood icons, such as Natalie Wood). I also have Sanditon, more Shadow and Bone typings, etc., coming.

How can I know about your Enneagram book and/or other books? Thank you for asking! You can either stay tuned here, since any announcement posts on my blog will update here, or you can join my mailing list to receive all my updates (of reviews, upcoming books, free book giveaways, and more).

Are you going to delete Funky on tumblr? No, it will stay up as long as tumblr survives, not only as a monument to my zillion hours of work, but to the thousands of people who braved the internet to ask me questions and allowed me to showcase my “Big Sister Energy.” Ha, ha. Seriously, though, I appreciate all the questions, comments, compliments, and submissions over the years, including the gigantic assortment of characters from shows/movies I may never watch.

What now? I will stock the queue for a few months and take time off, and then hopefully dig more into the Enneagram, since I think that has real potential to change people’s lives for the better.

Final Thoughts:

It seems fitting that I close “the end of an era” (as my ENFJ friend put it, when she heard about this) as I approach the end of a “decade” in my life, and a big “0” birthday. I can’t exactly recall how my journey started. I think I took one of those MBTI quizzes, shared by a friend on some social media website, got mistyped as an INTJ, and fell down a rabbit hole that took over my life for over a decade. I went through every possible type known to man (other than SP), and can now finally claim with authority to be an ENFP.

I made all the mistakes you are going to make, if you are just starting out on this journey of self-awareness – I listened to the wrong people, I took in the wrong information, I mistyped myself and others, I had to unlearn everything that made no sense, but along the way, I learned how to introspect and be present with myself. To pay attention to what I am doing, and why I am doing it, and that is the most valuable take-away from this experience. You can either go through life oblivious to your true self, or you can go through life friends with yourself, and aware of both your strengths and your weaknesses. I recommend the latter. It's hard but worth it.

Doing that for so long, getting used to being “wrong,” prepared me to read my first book on the Enneagram. And it changed my life. I knew I was a 6, that there was nothing “wrong” with me, that other people struggled with the same things I did. And my introspection started growing deeper. There were many ego battles along the way, denial of the aspects of 6 profiles that I didn’t want to admit to, followed by resignation and self-awareness (that I do that too, and it’s revolting!). But it’s a journey that I intend to walk on, for the rest of my life, and I’m glad to know these things. I wish I had known them sooner. I would have been a much better friend.

All of my current friends came to me through Funky. My friends in Sweden and Tennessee and Idaho and India and Philadelphia and Florida and Spain and Greece. I would not know them, had they not reached out to me, asked me a question, asked if we could e-mail, or helped me figure something out. Funky has been my “social” life for a decade. Some of them are still with me, even though one of them is not – Maddie, my beloved ENTP co mod, my zany, nutty, wild-hearted 793 “DJ” who could simultaneously make me laugh until I cried and drive me insane with frustration, passed away of a heart attack during the pandemic in 2021. One minute she was in my life, and the next she was gone forever. I never told you at the time, but it seems a fitting end to my time here, to pay homage to a friend I hope to meet one day “in person” in whatever comes after this. So Maddie, thank you for everything you put into this blog with me, thank you for the hours of fun and laughter, for the many hundreds of posts that will stand as a testament to your memory. I miss you. And I hope wherever you are, you are doing something crazy.

Thank you, dear reader, for coming with me on this journey. I know we shall meet again.

XOXO, Charity / ENFP Mod / Big Sister Energy

[justinspoliticalcorner]

David Smith at The Guardian:

God’s army is on the march. And many of its foot soldiers are wearing “Make America great again” regalia, sensing that their unlikely standard-bearer, former US president Donald Trump, is once again close to the promised land. “I do not believe that America can survive another four years of Joe Biden,” Ralph Reed, founder and chair of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, told a gathering of the religious right in Washington on Friday. “I haven’t felt this way since Jimmy Carter was president.” The audience burst into knowing laughter. Reed promised they would knock on 10m doors of Christian and conservative voters in every battleground state, make 10m phone calls, send 25m text messages and put 30m voter guides in 113,000 churches, producing “the biggest turnout of Christian voters in American history”. The election result will be clear, he added. “This time there aren’t gonna need to be any lawsuits. We’re not going to have to go to court and we’re not going to have to wait until 2.30 in the morning for Donald Trump to declare victory. He’s going to do it at 9 o’clock at night!”

With Trump running ahead of Biden in many swing state polls, religious right voters scent a historic opportunity to impose a radical agenda that could ban abortion nationwide, curb LGBTQ+ rights and blur the separation of church and state. At Friday’s conference, speaker after speaker framed it as righteous crusade and the only way to resist a tide of liberal secularism sweeping America. Ben Carson, a former housing secretary in Trump’s first term, praised Republican-dominated Louisiana for becoming the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every government school classroom. “Aren’t you glad that yesterday the governor of Louisiana signed into law – put the Ten Commandments back in the schools?” he said to cheers and applause before warning of a 60-year communist project to change America by taking over schools, churches and Hollywood and removing God from the public square.

Josh Hawley, a Republican senator for Missouri, warned of a “radical anti-faith agenda” gripping the country. He said: “Who’s dividing America is the radical left and that’s why I say to you we don’t need less Christian influence in our society, we don’t need less Christian witness in our society; we need more in every part of government, in every part of society.” To approving roars from the audience, Hawley added: “We ought to take the Pride flag out of schools and put the Bible back in. You know what? We ought to take the trans flag down from all of our federal buildings and over every federal building in America write the words: ‘In God we trust.’ In God we trust. Amen.”

The couching of an Armageddon election, in which religious truth itself is at stake, with victory representing divine providence and defeat spelling total catastrophe, was crystallised by Monica Crowley, a rightwing political commentator and former assistant secretary of the treasury. She described the election as a “hinge moment” comparable to the American revolution, American civil war, second world war and September 11 terrorist attacks. She spoke of a “war” against “the enemy within” that has spent nearly half a century “infiltrating, undermining and destroying” America with “godless philosophies”. Crowley lamented that Hollywood no longer produces “patriotic films” like those of John Wayne and, extraordinarily, defended the communist witch-hunts of the 1950s. “Senator Joe McCarthy was right, and he was trying to ring the bell in the 1950s about communist infiltration in our government and the same deep state that is now going after Donald Trump,” he said.

[...] Religious conservatives’ pact with Trump appears to be holding. Some were sceptical about the thrice-married reality TV star when he first ran for president in 2016 but the concerns were assuaged by his running mate, born-again evangelical Christian Mike Pence, and by a first term that saw him shift the judiciary to the right. Not even Trump’s conviction in New York last month on 34 felony counts in a trial involving hush-money payments to an adult film star has shaken his grip on this constituency. Many who complain that their faith is under siege regard him as a blunt instrument with which to fight back against the radical left. They often rationalise their vote by saying they are choosing a president, not a pastor. Some evangelicals have likened him to Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who, according to the Bible, enabled Jews to return to Israel from their exile in Babylon.

Why is the religious right sticking behind Donald Trump, who is not a sincere Christian and has been charged with 34 felonies? They view him as an useful instrument to push their wicked far-right agenda into law: eroding the separation of church and state, abortion bans, and anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

These same folks were all “character counts” when Bill Clinton was facing sex scandals, but jettisoned them when Trump has done the same and a lot more.

[sleepisapriviligethatidonthave]

Around March I got the urge to watch G1, so I opened Youtube and started the episodes in the order in which they were listed on the official Hasbro channel.

Turns out that is not a good idea.

I figured it out around the middle of season 1 and went searching on the internet to find if someone had any idea why is that.

After a while I found a forum of people talking about how they made their own order of the episodes. After a bit of scrolling I found God.

pitt55 shared his entire reconfiguration of all the 98 episodes on the forum. You'll find his reply if you scroll down just a bit.

I used his guide and didn't have a single problem from then on, and I did make a copy of it and pasted it in my notes for easier access so I'm putting it here for anyone who wants to watch G1 and is/was as confused as me.

Season 1

[01] - More Than Meets The Eye - Part 1

[02] - More Than Meets The Eye - Part 2

[03] - More Than Meets The Eye - Part 3

[04] - Transport To Oblivion

[05] - Roll For It

[06] - Divide And Conquer

[07] - Fire In The Sky

[08] - Fire On The Mountain

[09] - SOS Dinobots

[10] - War Of The Dinobots

[11] - The Ultimate Doom - Part 1 [Brainwash]

[12] - The Ultimate Doom - Part 2 [Search]

[13] - The Ultimate Doom - Part 3 [Revival]

[14] - Countdown To Extinction

[15] - A Plague Of Insecticons

[16] - Heavy Metal War

Season 2

[01] - Autobot Spike

[02] - Changing Gears

[03] - City Of Steel

[04] - Attack Of The Autobots

[05] - Traitor

[06] - The Immobilizer

[07] - The Autobot Run

[08] - Atlantis, Arise!

[09] - Day Of The Machines

[10] - Enter The Nightbird

[11] - A Prime Problem

[12] - The Core

[13] - The Insecticon Syndrome

[14] - Dinobot Island - Part 1

[15] - Dinobot Island - Part 2

[16] - The Master Builder

[17] - Auto Berserk

[18] - Microbots

[19] - Megatron's Master Plan - Part 1

[20] - Megatron's Master Plan - Part 2

[21] - Desertion Of The Dinobots - Part 1

[22] - Desertion Of The Dinobots - Part 2

[23] - Blaster Blues

[24] - A Decepticon Raider In King Arthur's Court

[25] - The Golden Lagoon

[26] - The God Gambit

[27] - Make Tracks

[28] - Child's Play

[29]- The Gambler

[30] - Quest For Survival

[31] - The Secret Of Omega Supreme

[32] - Kremzeek!

[33] - Sea Change

[34] - Triple Takeover

[35] - Prime Target

[36] - Auto-Bop

[37] - The Search For Alpha Trion

[38] - The Girl Who Loved Powerglide

[39] - Hoist Goes Hollywood

[40] - The Key To Vector Sigma - Part 1

[41]- The Key To Vector Sigma - Part 2

[42] - War Dawn

[43] - Trans-Europe Express

[44] - Cosmic Rust

[45] - Starscream's Brigade

[46] - The Revenge Of Bruticus

[47] - Aerial Assault

[48] - Masquerade

[49] - Β.Ο.Τ.

[00] - The Transformers: The Movie

Season 3

[01] - Five Faces Of Darkness - Part 1

[02] - Five Faces Of Darkness - Part 2

[03] - Five Faces Of Darkness - Part 3

[04] - Five Faces Of Darkness - Part 4

[05] - Five Faces Of Darkness - Part 5

[06] - The Killing Jar

[07] - Chaos

[08] - Dark Awakening

[09] - Forever Is A Long Time Coming

[10]- Fight Or Flee

[11]- Thief In The Night

[12] - Starscream's Ghost

[13] - Surprise Party

[14] - Madman's Paradise

[15] - Nightmare Planet

[16] - Ghost In The Machine

[17] - Webworld

[18] - Carnage In C-Minor

[19] - The Quintesson Journal

[20] - The Ultimate Weapon

[21] - The Big Broadcast Of 2006

[22] - The Dweller In The Depths

[23] - Only Human

[24] - Grimlock's New Brain

[25] - Money Is Everything

[26] - Call Of The Primitives

[27] - The Face Of Nijika

[28] - The Burden Hardest To Bear

[29] - The Return Of Optimus Prime - Part 1

[30] - The Return Of Optimus Prime - Part 2

Season 4

[01] - The Rebirth - Part 1

[02] - The Rebirth - Part 2

[03] - The Rebirth - Part 3

[vrmxlho]

-ˏˋ SEASON OF LOVE ˊˎ- EVENT MASTERLIST

bllk, genshin, jjk, hq x gn! reader event

where i write fics for the characters you request based on predefined prompts/tropes

note: basically just send in asks with characters and the prompt/trope you chose!! i write for any character from bllk, genshin, haikyuu or jjk and it will always be x gn! reader

also note: the prompts and their dates can be modified so if you like a prompt/trope but want it a specific date just lmk

last thing: this is on a first come first serve basis, if you rlly liked a prompt/trope but someone already chose it request it outside the event

status: posting in progress!!

updates: daily (hopefully) in february

taglist: if you want to be tagged in a request please just reply with the day/character/fandom + if you want to be tagged in everything just reply + will be tagging my moots anyway cuz if this flops i’ll cry

genre: fluff and angst

feb 1 - kaiser blue lock

love flowers: a flower that symbolises deep emotions and desires, not always romantic

feb 2 - isagi blue lock

fake dating: where two people fake a relationship towards a mutually beneficial goal

feb 3 - kurona blue lock

star-crossed lovers: soulmates whose affection for each other is doomed to end in tragedy

feb 4 - xiao genshin impact

reincarnation: destined love that survives death

feb 5 - bachira blue lock

first love: the first person you truly had feelings for

feb 6 - noah noel blue lock

blind date: theoretically a date between two strangers becomes a reunion between exes

feb 7 - gojo jujutsu kaisen

a bet: love involved in a wager

feb 8 - sae blue lock

break-up bonfire: the best way to forget them is to destroy all evidence of your relationship

feb 9 - geto jujutsu kaisen

precognition: meeting the love of your life in a dream

feb 10 - otoya blue lock

bad first impression: not-so-cute meet cutes

feb 11 - nagi blue lock

guardian angel: an angel assigned to protect and guide you to your highest being

feb 12 - karasu blue lock

hollywood kiss: kissing out of obligation not out of love

feb 13 - kuroo haikyuu!!

theirs not mine: being in love with someone else's partner isn't easy

feb 14 - iwaizumi haikyuu!!

love amnesia: when you can't remember loving someone as much as the person you are presently in a relationship with

feb 15 - reo blue lock

grow old with me: nothing lasts forever except my love for you

feb 16 - gojo jujutsu kaisen

love killer: perhaps your job as a hitman isn't suited for you

feb 17 - karasu blue lock

the exception: the playboy who genuinely falls in love

feb 18 - nagi blue lock

lonely together: solitude is best when with someone else

feb 19 - shidou blue lock

love at first punch: perhaps on purpose, perhaps a mistake, there's no doubt it made an impression

feb 20 - sae blue lock

in-laws: family dinners are the best time for bonding

feb 21 - suna haikyuu!!

love is a dream: perhaps your relationship which was always well remembered wasn't as good as it seemed

feb 22 - reo blue lock

"i do": weddings are expensive, love is not

feb 23 - yuuta jujutsu kaisen

now or never: a love confession before imminent death

feb 24 - reo blue lock

rejection affection: rejection doesn't have to be the end of one's flirting

feb 25 - isagi blue lock

final moments: the last hours before you're gone, remembering the good and the bad

feb 26 - otoya blue lock

serial romeo: everyone is "the one"

feb 27 - rin blue lock

secret relationship: the good things in life are best kept secret

feb 28 - chigiri blue lock

your favourite: noticing the little things

[thatndginger]

another set of pages from the Idiot's Guide, waiting final run-through. I'm quite pleased with this little project ^.^

transcript under the cut:

SHAPESHIFTERS

What to Call a Werewolf? There’s one thing you can count on in the world, and that’s for no one to ever agree on what’s the ‘right’ thing to call a shapeshifter. Only scientists and academics use that stupid ‘metamorph’. Most people in Moressau settle for ‘were’ or ‘shifter’. If you know what kind of shifter you’re dealing with, calling them a werelion or whatever regional term you know is probably fine. Just don’t call them a beast unless you want them to act like one.

Debunking the ‘Werewolf Myth’ Because ‘shifter’ is such a broad category of supernatural, there are a lot of rumors and hearsay floating around out there. Hollywood certainly doesn’t help. So let’s get some of the worst rumors out of the way, shall we?

First and foremost, no weres aren’t controlled by the moon. They won’t uncontrollably transform under a full moon, or grow stronger in moonlight, or whatever else Hollywood has fed you. A transformed shifter isn’t a mindless animal or killing machine. There are some shifters who have trouble controlling their animal sides, but in those cases they’ll act like any other animal. Lassie doesn’t attack everyone in sight, does she? Most shifters are fully in control of their animal sides, and you’ll only have to worry about one attacking you if you’ve pissed them off.

Second, not every bite from a were will kill or turn you. Which is hardly comforting, since you won’t know that until after they’ve bitten you and you’ve spent about half an hour shitting yourself with panic. No one knows how it works, but a were has to want to turn you for the magic to take hold. That said, a big enough shifter doesn’t need to Bite you to kill you.

Spotting a Shifter There’s no one-size-fits-all way to pick out a shapeshifter in a crowd. They look like any other mundane human. Act like any other human. Until you get close enough to notice that they have a cat’s eyes, or pointier-than-normal ears, or freckles that look more like spots. Every shifter has a ‘quirk’ courtesy of their animal form, though it’s not always immediately obvious. I know a werewolf who has fangs in human form, and another who acquired a ‘birthmark’ in the shape of their wolf side’s markings after they survived the Bite. Each quirk is unique to the shifter in possession of it.

Behavior is another one of those things that is unique to each were. Some naturally take on certain behaviors of their animal form, while others will only act like an animal when they are an animal. They’re like humans that way. You can’t just shove them all into one box and expect them to act the same.

Finding a Shifter Shapeshifters don’t have a lot of restrictions the way some other supernaturals do. They can go where they please when they please. Except for the fact that most mundanes are still scared of them and keep shifters cordoned off in specific neighborhoods like Amber Wood and The Point on the north edge of the city. So if you’re trying to find some entertainment on the wilder side, start there.

The hangouts in Amber Wood tend to be the friendliest to non-shifters. Belmont’s Basement is a historic dive that’ll let anyone through the doors as long as they don’t start trouble. Then there’s Ovidia. Be warned, the music and atmosphere is quieter than a usual human club, since Ovidia caters to the sensitive senses of shifters first and foremost.

The Point has been undergoing a bit of a gentrification spell. If you think the home turf of the Montrose Syndicate can be gentrified any more. Word to the wise: stay out of Arnaud’s Run. That’s where the top Montrose brass live, and they do not like outsiders. There’s a reason we Moressans say “leave the Run to the wolves.” You’re more likely to get a set of teeth in your throat than you are to get a warm welcome in the Run.

If you want to try your luck, check out The Hunt on Starfall, or Silver Bullet lounge. But don’t blame me if the wolves take offense to strangers in their territory.

Were Deterrent? There Deterrent! Silver will mildly irritate a shifter, but it won’t kill them. That whole silver bullet thing works because, it turns out, guns kill things. It doesn’t really matter what the bullet is made out of. Wolfsbane will do the exact same thing to a shifter as it does a human: kill them. Don’t you know wolfsbane is incredibly poisonous? Just touching the stuff can kill a mundane, let alone a werewolf.

If you want to keep a were from transforming, slapping a collar made of copper and rowan branches will do the trick. It’s how cops ‘subdue’ shifters in Moressau. Why rowan? Who knows. Same reason vampires hate it, probably.

by far the easiest way to keep a were away is to smell. Like, really smell. Most weres have heightened senses and will avoid you like the plague if you stink bad enough.

Shapeshifter tag list: @sunset-a-story @touloserlautrec

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

The Sacrifice by Rin Chupeco

goodreads

An island oasis turns deadly when a terrifying legend threatens to kill off visitors one by one in this haunting novel from the highly acclaimed author of The Girl from the Well and the Bone Witch trilogy.

Pristine beaches, lush greenery, and perfect weather, the island of Kisapmata would be the vacation destination...if not for the curse. The Philippine locals speak of it in hushed voices and refuse to step foot on the island. They know the lives it has claimed. They won't be next.

A Hollywood film crew won't be dissuaded. Legend claims a Dreamer god sleeps, waiting to grant unimaginable powers in exchange for eight sacrifices. The producers are determined to document the evidence. And they convince Alon, a local teen, to be their guide.

Within minutes of their arrival, a giant sinkhole appears, revealing a giant balete tree with a mummified corpse entwined in its gnarled branches. And the crew start seeing strange visions. Alon knows they are falling victim to the island's curse. If Alon can't convince them to leave, there is no telling who will survive. Or how much the Dreamer god will destroy...

Mod opinion: I haven‘t read this book yet, but the cover is amazing and the story sounds interesting, so I‘m excited for when I get around to it! Update: I've read and enjoyed it! Alon is a super interesting character and I really enjoyed the story.

[kineticpenguin]

Fuck it, I'm gonna rant about Max Brooks and zombies again.

See, the thing about both The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z is that they're both written from the perspective of an American (specifically, Californian, of the Hollywood set) liberal circa 2002 who wants you to know he has this shit figured out when it comes to guns and zombies and shit.

That's why most of the gun shit is fuddlore. That's why there's this weird sense that the modern US military is overloaded with gizmos that would actually hinder them in a Real Fight™, but some general in a perceived inferior military (specifically India) becomes famous worldwide for reintroducing the box formation. He played Age of Empires II and found a way to be obnoxious about it. It's like this weird crossroads of Democrat schtick between the 1990s drawdown from the Cold War and the opening of the Global War On Terror.

That's also why the women featured in the books are either badass but suffering hallucinations and inadequacy under patriarchy and the stress of the apocalypse, or a Based Russian Tradwife (seriously, Russia's ending is they gloriously RETVRN)

He's basically spent 20 years being wrong in every way it is possible to be proven wrong about a completely fictional scenario, and even in some that are theoretically impossible

[renmorris]

night of the hunter is one of the most accurate book to film adaptations, like ever. with many of its most iconic shots (in a movie full of jaw dropping cinematography) personally sketched out by the author, Davis Grubb.

and there’s something absolutely irreplaceable about an author getting to guide their written vision into the physical world like that. what wasn’t shot on a sound stage was shot on location in Moundsville, West Virginia and even smaller details like one of Mrs. Cooper's girls being mixed race made it to the big screen intact.

what didn’t totally survive the adaptation process though is Ruby's story. Ruby is one of the older of Mrs. Cooper's kids. In the book she’s a tall, fat, and clumsy young teenager. she struggles deeply with traditional femininity and in her desperation for validation from men starts to sleep around town in secret.

it’s a really vulnerable portrayal of the teenage gnc experience, written by Grubb, who is believed to have been neither straight or cisgender

in the movie she’s thin and small and feminine and that’s Hollywood and the most important beats of her story remain intact (that she is never once shamed by Cooper, and is always embraced and loved by her) but I think about Ruby a lot. and how important the totality of her story is in TNOTH which so heavily revolves around the shame women are made to feel, whether it be from the church, from not conforming to gender norms, or poverty and class divides etc

[whilereadingandwalking]

Introducing my Favorite Reads of 2022! 

I chose just 22 out of the 215 I read.

Slum Virgin by Cabezón Cámara tr. Riddle - queer tragicomedy about a poor Buenos Aires neighborhood

A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Solnit - I carried this nonfiction about wanderlust all around the world

Palestine+100 ed. Ghalayini - picturing Palestine’s future through SFF

Siren Queen by Vo - silver age Hollywood with a fae twist

Yerba Buena by LaCour - a queer romance about trauma, grief, growing up

Some Desperate Glory by Tesh (Apr ’23) - a can’t-miss queer space opera

So Long a Letter by Bâ tr. Bodé-Thomas - just 99 pages & a vivid patriarchy story

The Memory Theater by Tidbeck - a fae-inspired literary fantasy

The Hurting Kind by Limón - the latest from my favorite poet

Thrust by Yuknavitch - a kinky, queer fantasy

The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck - beautiful and vividly anti-capitalist

The Undying by Boyer - gorgeous, poetic memoir about 'surviving' cancer

Lost in the Moment and Found by McGuire (Jan ’23) - my favorite Wayward Children novella yet

They Will Drown in their Mothers’ Tears by Anyuru tr. Vogel - can we avoid an Islamophobic dystopia

Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors by Sontag - she did the groundwork

A Little Devil in America by Abdurraqib - brilliant commentary on Black cultural performance

The Memory Librarian by Monáe & collaborators - just superb Afrofuturism

The Invisible Kingdom by O’Rourke - on the damaging narratives we tell around illness

Seeing Red by Meruane tr. McDowell (unpictured) - a harrowing tale of going blind

When Women Kill by Zerán tr. Hughes (unpictured) - how our treatment of female murderers reflects our misogyny

Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition Vol. 11 by Takaya tr. Drzka (unpictured) - A+ reread!

[creature-wizard]

ive seen your posts debunking monarch programming before, but does that also extend to this epsilon thing? https://www.tumblr.com/eclipse15/728391015729364992/do-you-happen-to-know-anything-about-programming

also, how did sra misinformation spread into did communities in the first place? (ive noticed it more in those who have "did system" in their bios than "osdd system" or "udd system"; i cant remember ever seeing a nontraumagenic system promote it but that doesnt mean there are none.) all of these complex metaphorical descriptions of role associations had to come from somewhere, right? theres like a whole system to how it works. who codified it? why are there so many different types?

To answer your first question: Yes, it extends to that epsilon thing.

To answer your second question, and to elaborate upon the first: It all started back when more people started realizing that DID was a thing back in the mid-to-late 20th century. Being a very poorly-understood condition, people didn't really know how it worked or how it was caused, and a number of conspiracy theorists started working it into their conspiracy theories. Since a lot of people at the time believed that you could recover memories through hypnosis, a number of conspiracy theorists had people undergo so-called recovered memory therapy, and effectively coached people into "remembering" activities of the conspiracy. Today, we know that recovered memory therapy is absolute bunk (you only have to look as far as the starseed movement to see just how easy it is to get people to "remember" absolute bullshit), but back in the day, a lot of people took it very seriously.

In 1995, Cisco Wheeler and Fritz Springmeier released They Know Not What They Do: Illustrated Guide To Monarch Mind Control. This book started introducing the idea of all these complex roles you see people talking about. They would later elaborate upon them in The Illuminati Formula Used To Create An Undetectable Total Mind Controlled Slave, and this is where the alpha/beta/gamma/delta/epsilon stuff comes from.

Cisco Wheeler is apparently a multiple system who underwent recovered memory therapy with the "help" of Fritz Springmeier. Springmeier is the conspiracy theorist who pushed the whole 13 Illuminati bloodlines thing, which is ultimately a Protocols/blood libel/witch panic redux mixed with Alexander Hislop's conspiracy theory that the Catholic Church is actually a cover for ancient Babylonian mystery religion. The pair of them claimed that a bunch of ancient mystery religions had survived in secret, and had been giving people DID for the purpose of mind control for thousands of years. They claimed that the modern Illuminati was giving tens of thousands of children DID, and also that the average mind control slave had "at least" 1000 alters. They also claimed that everything from Hollywood movies to old fairytales were intentionally created to be used for alter programming - and to hear Springmeier and Wheeler describe it, pretty much everything is an Illuminati symbol or connects to Illuminati belief somehow. And the pair of them were racist and antisemitic as hell.

The claims that Wheeler and Springmeier made in their books ranged from extremely improbable to downright impossible, and I think if more people encountered their works directly, they'd quickly realize that these people were full of baloney. Some of their bizarre claims include:

The Illuminati has mind controlled slaves with photographic memory. (Photographic memory does not exist. Pretending it does sure helps conspiracy theorists justify the supposed veracity of all these "recovered" memories, though.)

The Illuminati uses chimpanzees to torture children. (Chimpanzees are so much stronger than humans that they wouldn't just "torture" children; they'd pretty much dismember them.)

The Illuminati has been implanting two-way radio communication devices into slaves' brains since the 1960's. (This kind of technology isn't even possible right now, much less the 1960's.)

Breast implants are actually Illuminati mind control technology. (Lolwhat???)

Santa Claus is actually Satan because "Santa" is an anagram for "Satan." (Sinterklaas who?)

Depictions of the Egyptian weighing of the heart ceremony are actually about mind control.

Animism is an Illuminati belief.

The Antichrist will come into power in the year 2000.

The power of God and Jesus can save people from Illuminati mind control.

Few people encounter these people's works directly, however, and most get this stuff from people slick enough not to mention all of the ridiculous, hateful stuff they push. Around the early 2000s, a woman writing under the name of Svali started posting her own alleged experiences as an ex-Illuminati programmer online. Her material is strongly influenced by Wheeler and Springmeier's, and it's pretty easy to access online these days.

Additionally, many websites that purportedly exist to help abuse survivors repeat a lot of stuff from Springmeier, Wheeler, Svali, and numerous other frauds active during the Satanic Panic. (This is why it's important to check citations!) Worth noting, a lot of people just never stopped believing in this stuff, and I have anecdotal reports from people who say that their therapists tried to push them into believing that they'd been ritually abused.

For further research, I recommend checking out the article The Forgotten Lessons of the Recovered Memory Movement and the You're Wrong About podcast's episode on multiple personality disorders.

[letsgofullpogue]

OBX Season 3 Promo round-up

Figured I would gather all these into one place while I also clog your dashes with the individual videos =) I’ll continue updating as we get more. (And if I miss anything, please send it!).

DC Film Girl – all cast | Madison & Madelyn

The Queer Review – Madison, Madelyn, & Carlacia | JD & Chase | Austin & Drew

Bonnie Laufer/InfoMovies – Madison, Madelyn, & Carlacia | JD, Chase, & Rudy | Austin & Drew

Chris Van Vliet – Madison, Madelyn, & Carlacia, JD, Chase, & Rudy

Access Hollywood – Madison, Madelyn, & Carlacia | JD, Chase, & Rudy | Chase at the premiere | Madison at the premiere | Chase at Poguelandia | Madison, Madelyn, Carlacia, JD, Chase, & Rudy

ET Extended – JD, Chase, & Rudy | all cast

Today Show – Madelyn | Chase

Fox 5 Washington – Madison & Madelyn | JD, Chase, & Rudy

WUSA9 – Madison & Madelyn

Jake’s Takes – Rudy & Chase

Teen Vogue – I Dare You with Madison, Madelyn, Carlacia, Chase, JD, Austin, & Drew

Extra TV – Madison, Madelyn, & Carlacia | JD, Chase, & Rudy | Madison at the premiere | JD at the premiere

The Kelly Clarkson Show – JD | Madison

Kids First! – Chase & Rudy

ET Canada - Madison, Madelyn, & Carlacia | Austin & Drew | Chase & JD

Where is the Buzz TV – premiere round-up

Chicks in the Office – Austin

Vanity Fair fan theories – Madison, Madelyn, JD, & Chase | test how well they know each other - all cast

First We Feast – Snacked with Drew, JD, Austin, Madelyn, Carlacia, & Madison

American Eagle – at the premiere

The Hollywood Reporter - Madison, Madelyn, & Carlacia, JD, Chase, & Rudy | In or Out with Madison, Madelyn, Carlacia, Drew, & Austin

E! News – at the premiere | season 3 in 3 words

NewsRadio - JD & Carlacia

IMDB - most likely with all cast

KiddNation - JD & Carlacia

ETalk - all cast

The Buzz - at the premiere

District of Cinema - Madison & Madelyn

Live with Kelly & Ryan - Madelyn

The View - Madelyn

Wired - the web's most searched questions

Movie Show Plus - all cast

Hollywire - Drew at the premiere | Andy McQueen at the premiere

Condé Nast Traveler - Madelyn

Buzzfeed Celeb - Thirst Tweets | The Puppy Interview

The Jennifer Hudson Show - Madison

MTV News - Dive In with the Cast of Outer Banks

Vogue - Carlacia

Elle - all cast minus Rudy | Madelyn

Rolling Stone - all cast

Cosmopolitan - Austin, Drew, JD, Carlacia, Madelyn, & Madison

Marie Clare - Madison, Madelyn, & Carlacia

The GW Hatchet - Madison & Madelyn

BEONDTV - all cast

Cut - Truth or Drink with Madison & Madelyn, Carlacia & JD

The Nerds of Color - all cast

TV Guide - all cast | Madison & Rudy

Seventeen - Superlatives with Drew, Austin, JD, Carlacia, Madison, & Madelyn

Screen Rant Plus - Madison & Madelyn

The Tonight Show - Chase

Flighthouse - JD, Carlacia, & Madison

TV Line - Madison, Madelyn, Carlacia, JD, & Chase

NBC Chicago - Chase & Rudy | Guess the Adventure Movie

Netflix - Season 3 in 15 seconds | ASMR with JD & Rudy | Carlacia | Can the cast survive a desert island | JD & Rudy for Netflix France | Survival Test with JD, Austin, Drew, Carlacia, Madison, & Madelyn | All cast minus Rudy for Netflix Brasil | Questions from the cookie jar with Chase & JD | Austin & Drew | JD | The cast discusses the finale

[sentinelmania]

Trivia Information about Jim and Blair from episodes..

More info for writers from Robyn:

https://web.archive.org/web/20090803084851/http://geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/8097/trivia.html

Jim:

likes sushi -- The Killers

works out -- Cypher

took SenQuil, non-drowsy formula in Night Train to combat cold (bad move)

golfs -- Vow of Silence

likes to gamble -- Caesar's Tahoe comment in bus and Vegas comment at tag scene of Vow of Silence

plays basketball -- Vow of Silence and Three-Point Shot

when angry, tends to grab phone away from Blair -- Flight and The Rig

likes the music group Santana -- Out of the Past

likes to fish -- Reunion, Secret, and Poachers

likes motorcycles, used to ride in high school -- Payback

has a phobia about deep water out of sight of land -- The Rig and Storm Warning

likes poppyseed -- Blind Man's Bluff

likes buttermilk in donuts -- Blind Man's Bluff

likes to surf -- Light My Fire

hates pineapple -- Second Chance (Thanks to Gen for the suggestion.)

doesn't like horse racing -- His Brother's Keeper

rides horses well (except for the blue-screening) -- His Brother's Keeper

Jim reads books by author Jack Kerouac -- Sleeping Beauty

seems to have a thing about silverware theft -- Sleeping Beauty (locking it up) and The Girl Next Door (counting it)

likes the TV show Bonanza (has at least 5 episodes recorded) -- Vendetta

Jim's cell phone number is 555-4563 -- Poachers

reads Asian philosophy -- Poachers

cousin Rucker is a Coast Guard -- Storm Warning

plays poker -- Storm Warning

has a six-year-old niece -- Prisoner X

grew up in Cascade, rich family -- Remembrance

parents divorced, he and Steven both living with father -- Remembrance

father - William, mother - Grace (?), housekeeper - Sally -- Remembrance

got nickname of "Chief" from an adult friend, Bud, which, of course, he later uses for Blair -- Remembrance

played football, number 12 -- Remembrance

had Sentinel senses as a child (age 10), suppressed them after finding Bud's dead body -- Remembrance

father somehow knew about Jim's special senses, didn't want Jim to use them -- Remembrance

has a habit of clenching his jaw -- just about every episode!

frequents hot dog stands ("Mr. Tube Steak") -- Blind Man's Bluff, Sweet Science, Foreign Exchange

likes prune danish -- Most Wanted

Blair:

phobia about heights -- Black or White and Survival

climbs trees at Jim's request despite height phobia -- Pilot and Dead Certain

has a brown backpack he carries with him about everywhere

Blair's outfit in Siege is the exact outfit later worn by Lash in Cypher (he won't be wearing that again)

"Uh-huh, no way, I'm not going around packing. My deal is that I'm here strictly, strictly as an observer." -- famous last words by Blair in referring to using a gun -- The Killers

beginning of the great "Does he or doesn't he have a nipple ring?" debate -- tag scene of Cypher

doesn't approve of junk food -- Love and Guns, Blind Man's Bluff

plays basketball -- Vow of Silence, Three-Point Shot

ironically lacks a sense of direction despite "Guide" status -- Reunion and Survival

collects baseball cards and things relating to the year 1961 -- True Crime

likes to surf the net and is computer-savvy -- True Crime, Secret, Red Dust

mother Naomi; father unknown, maybe Timothy Leary -- Spare Parts

has an uncle who drives semi-trucks; Blair helped him drive one summer -- Spare Parts

ate a piece of contaminated pizza despite aversion to junk food -- Blind Man's Bluff

"I minored in psych." -- Dead Drop

"Spent two summers at a welding plant. Fastest torch on my crew." -- Dead Drop

started taking college classes at 16, thought he knew everything -- Smart Alec

leaves keys in bad places -- Smart Alec (in his car) and Vendetta (on top of loft door jamb)

likes horse racing and likes to bet on them (and is pretty good at it too!) -- His Brother's Keeper

stole a microscope when he was 12 (I think) -- His Brother's Keeper

has basketball card that "Orvelle Wallace" signed when Blair was in high school -- Three-Point Shot

cousin Robert is a bookie -- Three-Point Shot

has cousins in Fort Worth, Texas -- Vendetta

twelfth birthday present was an electric guitar signed by Jimi Hendrix originally given to Naomi -- The Girl Next Door

eats weird food (he calls it "experimenting in panculture cuisine") -- Foreign Exchange

doesn't like sauerkraut -- Foreign Exchange

is very adept at calling the station for backup/reporting crimes (playing "Phoneboy" as named by Moniker and Kaz) -- multiple episodes (Out of the Past, Vanishing Act, Foreign Exchange)

has an algae shake every morning for breakfast (Neighborhood Watch)

Jim and Blair undercover personas:

Blair as a social worker into Earl's grandmother's building -- The Debt

Jim as country town policeman -- Reunion

Blair and Jim infiltrate a car theft ring; Blair is semi-truck driver (and Jim is a wanna-be) -- Spare Parts

Blair pretends to be Amber's male friend, Hank (complete with facial hair, picture right) -- Iceman

Jim and Blair as Cyrus's drug dealing agents in the area -- Blind Man's Bluff

Jim (as Jim Tanner) and Elaine as poachers and contraband dealers -- Poachers

Jim as Jim Lawson - security for a mafia family and Blair as a personal tutor -- The Inside Man

Jim as Bill Murdoch from Texas, a safecracker (with a lilt) -- Vendetta

Jim as Jim Curtis, a copkiller and Blair as a creative writing teacher -- Prisoner X

Blair as a mental patient at Conover -- Mirror Image

Jim as Joe Brock (freon buyer) and Blair as Arthur Saban (freon seller) -- Finkelman's Folly

Jim and Blair as bums -- Love Kills

Jim and Megan as a married couple and Blair as Jim's nephew (by a second marriage) -- Neighborhood Watch

Jim -- Carl McQueen, hired as a bodyguard by Hydra -- The Real Deal

Blair -- Anthony, an artist, lover of Mrs. Somerset -- The Real Deal

Megan -- Mrs. Somerset, rich married woman who hires Hydra to protect her from a lover who won't leave her alone -- The Real Deal

Jim -- driver for bank robbery heist -- Most Wanted

[dotthings]

Gotham Knights ep 1.08 "Belly of the Beast" Thank you to writers David Paul Francis and Nate Gualtieri (who are on the picket lines)

This ep was so stylish and dark, in themes and in the beautiful lighting and sets.

Also Duela's gown, A+.

Harper and Cullen's sibling banter and Cullen teasing Harper about how she's softened towards Steph. I love their sibling bond. And seeing how they look after each other while they both grow more deeply attached into the Knights' circle, they have more than just each other to lean on now.

Duela and Turner seem to be trying very hard not to like each other or care too much in this episode and fail at it completely. Turner sending Duela to get away with the map while he gets captured by the Court, and Duela, who mostly operates on a basis of self-preservation, showing vulnerable cracks at the idea of not going to rescue Turner right this minute.

Carrie, with tears in her eyes, making reasonable points about why they have to wait. Caring about Turner, but also thinking of the whole group and what's at stake if they rush in to save Turner and get themselves killed. That actually had some Batman energy. The caring goes very deep, but the ability to assess the situation and hold back when necessary. They can't save Turner if they get themselves killed. They can't save Gotham if they get themselves killed. As Robin, Carrie has a bit of a leadership role--the one with experience being a vigilante, who was mentored by Batman, she's been guiding and helping the rest of the Knights since the start. They are not dying on her watch.

Duela is more in a position to act and think more selfishly (not in a negative sense, but she can afford to in ways Carrie can't right then), and showed her vulnerable underbelly.

Oh, Steph. Carrying the world on her shoulders and having to parent both her parents--her mother, spiraling down into addiction, and her father, the enabler who doesn't want to face how severe the situation is. And then blames Steph for her mother's tantrums when Steph tries to stop the cycle. Steph would be better off being a vigilante with the Knights than trying to parent-wrangle. She needs them.

It seems that it's not just Harvey's mhi issues in play. The Court (I am assuming The Court, but there could be another player on the board doing this) is exploiting his mhi it looks like. He loses time again, has a blackout. The music on the cassette player was a trigger. The subtly of the expression on Harvey's face when he heard it, the way he went unhinged, but you had to be watching closely. *chef's kiss*

Oh, I was right about Lincoln. Talon doesn't miss. That attack was staged, where Lincoln really was stabbed, but purposefully do he didn't die. So he could be stabbed right in front of Harvey.

Rebecca continues to behave like the female lead of a classic Hollywood noir or a Hitchcock thriller. While she may not be able to save Harvey, maybe she'll be the one to take down Lincoln. The archetype from film I'm thinking of may seem vulnerable and scared but are also often the ones who kneecap the villain (or are the masterminds themselves but I don't think it's the latter in Rebecca's case).

I was also right about Bruce. The changes to his will were for the good of the people of Gotham. To give them a way out of being under the thumb of The Court of Owls.

Cressida was corrupt, but she wasn't corrupt all the way through. I think she didn't have many choices and was trying to survive, not that it's the excuse, but I think her motivations were mainly about self preservation, the Court of Owls is terrifying, and the cruelty and greed she participated in must have made it hard for her to look in the mirror. So morally corrupt as she was, she still hit the wall, and the idea of Gotham forever controlled by a group of greedy, corrupt, immortal and immoral monsters, forever, with no hope for a way out, was more than she could endure. So she risked it all to stop them. I'm thinking part of her hoped that Batman would win. When Batman died, so did her hope.