#then ratio won’t have the excuse to do that lol

[genshin-hsr-rambles]

omg I just stumbled upon this account with perfect timing bc I had this wild dream last night and I need to share it with someone. It was like a fusion of HSR and genshin impact but like in a modern au kinda. And it revolved around Ratio, Aventurine, Alhaitham and Kaveh (with the obvious ships ofc bc even in sleep I’m a diehard shipper lol) but like Aventurine was the mc of sorts of the dream yknow like I wasnt seeing from his perspective or anything but it kinda focused on him. It’s so OOC that I was confused as well but it’s chaotic good.

but anyway so the dream started in what I assume was Ratio and Aventurine’s bedroom bc they were in bed and it was night n shit. for some dumb reason that I don’t remember there was a map of Florida on the wall (they weren’t in america or anything) and Aventurine was convinced that Ratio couldn’t fall asleep without looking at the map even though there was literally no reason to think that and it wasn’t even Ratio’s idea to have the map in the first place. This scene was wildly irrelevant and is only rly mentioned like once later and I find it hilariously out of pocket.

cue the next day where Aventurine and Ratio are invited over to Alhaitham’s house (and kaveh’s but they wouldnt stop calling it alhaithams) for a meal, dinner I think even though it was literally daytime? But yeah they were invited over and so they pulled up and for some reason in my mind the house looked weirdly like my house irl ig dreams are like that. Idk rly where Ratio and Kaveh go off to for a moment but they do go off somewhere whilst Aventurine climbs into alhaitham’s car.

Should probably mention Alhaitham was already in the car so the two kinda just chat for a while and Alhaitham is pretty much like “hey can you not do something stupid or be an asshole for just this one day this is important to me” and Aventurine wasn’t offended by this at all bc apparently Alhaitham was genuinely his friend?? (I was expecting Kaveh and Aventurine but my dream said no) but Aventurine is a bit confused why having dinner with him and ratio is a big deal bc it’s just like having friends over tf. So Alhaitham reaches around to the back seats of the car and pulls out this big stack of books which seems random at first but Aventurine checks all of their front covers and discovers they all say Veritas Ratio on them. Alhaitham explains that he is fascinated by Ratio’s work and was looking forwards to talking abt it so if Aventurine could behave that would be great.

Aventurine doesn’t get to reply or anything tho bc Ratio and Kaveh come along and knocks on the car window to tell them that dinner is ready (looking back on it, I think Ratio might’ve been helping Kaveh cook which is a crime that I didn’t get to see it). When I tell you I have never seen anyone move as fast as Aventurine and Alhaitham did in my life I mean they were FAST bc neither of them wanted to be caught dead by Ratio himself with those books so they just kinda shoved the books into the back seat again (blackout windows I assume?) and got out of the car.

cue the dinner which actually looked really tasty but Aventurine can’t keep his mouth shut despite what Alhaitham said and neither can Kaveh. Kaveh won’t stop complaining abt all the things Alhaitham hasn’t done bc apparently it was his turn to cook and Aventurine for some reason is determined to ruin Alhaitham’s admiration for Ratio and proceeds to bring up the Florida map thing (again, entirely irrelevant). In a moment that must be why he didn’t get into the Genius Society, Ratio decides the only way to get out of this god forsaken dinner is to literally climb out a window… Yeah. Aventurine, Kaveh and Alhaitham are all equally confused.

After much confusion Aventurine decides to excuse himself and follow after Ratio. For some reason the two of them end out in Alhaitham’s car??? And Aventurine shows Ratio THE books and they talk and it was actually surprisingly sweet n wholesome. By this time its actually getting dark tho so they go back into the house eventually to say goodbye and go their seperate ways. When Aventurine and Ratio get home the Florida map isn’ there, then I promptly woke up and was like wtf.

Very long ask and there isn’t even a question either but I had to tell someone. thank you SO MUCH

Lmao this has made my day. I wish I dreamt about HSR and Genshin Impact, that’d be so fun. This has serious crackfic potential lmao.

But you’re right, the whole Florida map thing is so out of pocket. Why do they have a map of Florida? Why did Aventurine choose to hang up a map of Florida in the bedroom? And better yet, why does he think Dr Ratio can’t fall asleep until he sees the map? This is the kind of thing only dream logic can explain. Dream logic also likes to make fictional places look like places you know in real life.

The idea of Kaveh and Alhaitham inviting Dr Ratio and Aventurine over for dinner is actually quite nice. Definitely didn’t expect Alhaitham and Aventurine to be friends, nor will I ever get over Alhaitham straight up telling Aventurine “yo can you like not be a dick for once”. Also Alhaitham having books on Dr Ratio’s studies weirdly makes sense. I too am salty that you didn’t get to witness Kaveh and Dr Ratio cooking. Missed opportunity.

After everything that’s been happening in Penacony, I think Aventurine deserves to be chaotic and determined to ruin Alhaitham’s view of Dr Ratio. Though Dr Ratio straight up climbing out the window— anon, you’re entirely right about the Genius Society. Their sweet moment makes up for all the chaos though (even if Dr Ratio would definitely still be a little pissed Aventurine was spreading misinformation about him).

And to end it all off, the Florida map is just… gone? What, did someone take it down? Or was it never there to begin with? Maybe the real haikaveh/ratiorine was the Florida maps we met along the way.

Thank you for this masterpiece.

[lonestarbabe]

I saw a blog talk about this but basically so many fans of lone star act like shipping/liking mlm relationships - TK and Carlos, for one- is the only valid thing but the minute fans want some wlw content on lone star and want Marjan and Nancy to get together or hell- Marjan and another woman, even if it isn’t Nancy- it is all of a sudden frowned upon and ‘giving delusion and seems kind of dumb?’ I literally saw a blog- not the one I mentioned above- but another separate blog saying that wlw fans or lgbt ally fans who want Marjan and Nancy to get together or just be wlw are delusional and they have had little to no chemistry. Which I mean first of all I don’t like how some fans try to gatekeep what is ‘right’ and what ‘isn’t’ - TK and Carlos ARE a cute couple they really are but why do some fans act like only mlm couples are valid? Mlm couples to me- as a wlw LGBT woman myself- are shown more in media. Of course there are wlw couples too but more often I feel like there is mlm couples which I’m not shaming but why can’t us wlw get representation too? All of a sudden when we want that, there’s a problem. It’s just not right when people say stuff like that. It’s just rude and invalidating and you don’t even have to be wlw to want to see wlw representation on tv. Good mlm relationships are nice to see of course I love the entire LGBT community and I want all of us to get that good representation but for wlw we don’t really get it as often. And when we do, it a lot of the times ends in tragedy, death or breaking up for good. So excuse me and others who just want good wlw representation where the women are in cute, good relationships where they are both thriving. Like I guess that’s too much to ask for lol. Some people really need to think about what they say before they say it. And maybe these rude fans should stop being rude to us for wanting this and maybe turn this energy towards the writers. Maybe if they weren’t all up R** L****’s ass we could get wlw representation and proper representation for the characters who are all neglected in favor of Owen, who has the personality of a wet napkin. I mean seriously like it’s not like we are asking for much - go be annoyed with the writers not us, we just want wlw representation

Righttttttt. And the thing is people ship pretty men who not only don’t have chemistry but have no personalities full stop ALL THE TIME (not talking lone star but just in general), and no one is like “bUt tHeY dOn’T hAvE cHeMiStRy.” Like it’s very transparent that wlw relationships don’t get the same treatment as mlm ones (and its a widespread thing like just looking at the ratio of wlw to mlm relationships on ao3 is shocking). I certainly love Tarlos a lot, and I think they deserve lots of love, but WLW representation is so important and if people want it, why would other people want to kill that vibe. Plus, saying that Marjan and Nancy don’t have chemistry is just wrong??? They vibe so well together and they have good dynamics in general, so even if people don’t see them romantically, it’s undeniable that they go together well.  But you’re so right with this. It’s weird to get annoyed with people wanting see a wlw ship and to give lame excuses when the same thing would never happen with two men that people throw together (like people are out there shipping fictional brothers, for example, and they often don’t get the same response????). There are definite double standards and misogyny issues associated with that kind of reaction, which can be really exhausting. That won’t stop me from loving the idea of Marjan and Nancy because I have fun, and there’s nothing wrong with it! 

[ronanvespertine]

I think what gets people about Hawks is he’s a planner- and we’re so used to merely reacting heros. There’s always the chance when you strike first that you’ll strike wrong, but the alternative is waiting until it’s too late. And isn’t that one of the huge issues people have with heros? That they were too slow and didn’t save someone who needed it? Hawks is ruthless and it’s terrifying to be on the receiving end if that. But he’s been the hero a lot of people needed

Oh my god, this.....this is a really good interpretation of him. I really like how you think of Hawks! I’ve never really thought of it that way.

I’m gonna ramble about this ask for a while, so I’ll try to put a brief answer above the read more cut. I love how you pointed out what people need/expect from heroes in terms of how they respond. The consequences of a villain attack (property damage, casualties, displacement) are what gives fuel to criticism, and heroes can’t really excuse themselves from those results because those consequences are not to be taken lightly and heroes took on the responsibility of minimizing impact. 

It’s the whole thing about “thoughts and prayers”. Pretty words after a tragedy don’t matter because they change nothing. What really matters is action—preventative measures. And that’s how Hawks approaches hero work. Preventing matters and quick resolutions to minimize impact.

And yes, Hawks’ kind of heroism is what people need in a general sense. Meticulous hard work focused around preventing villain attacks or stopping them as fast as possible. But the intensity with which Hawks goes about it is really scary—you’re right to call it ruthless. And that’s normally a good thing until you call morality into question.

I don’t really want to delve into whether his actions are right or wrong, because.....well, it’s complicated. You can’t slap a label on it. And in the high-stakes world of heroism, morality is a pretty ironic thing to emphasize. Heroes act for the “greater good”, but does that really give them the right to kill? And vice versa—is it okay to risk millions of lives for the sake of adhering to a wishy-washy ideal of no dead?

Let’s go with this: morality is meaningless. Life isn’t dictated by black and white—society is. What life is about is choices and consequences—what you choose to do and what happens because of it. (More on morality under the cut)

I tried to keep it short, but it’s still a pretty lengthy answer. Sorry about that. Anyway, under the read more I’m gonna go ramble because anon just ignited the analytics in my head. Maybe check it out, ‘cause I talk a little more about what I think of Hawks under the cut.

The difference between heroes who react (Endeavor, Miruko, etc.) versus heroes who plan (Hawks, Nighteye, etc.) isn’t something I really thought too much on. But that’s a really good way to look at heroes! In Nighteye’s case, I’d say the guy waits too much and he could possible have past incidents that would fit what you’re talking about—waiting too long until it’s too late. All Might could be interpreted as a mix of both, depending on how you look at it, but his “planning” is more an abstract ideal—establishing a Symbol of Peace that discourages crime rates.

Hawks NEVER waits. And that’s the reason why the PLF raid occurred with the heroes taking the INITIATIVE, a big contrast in comparison with other incidents in the manga. In regards to the Kamino Nightmare, UA took precautions but they fell through and the heroes reacted quickly against the LoV to get Bakugo back once they had sufficient data and forces. But later, we see this decision is touched on a little by the HPSC president when she talks about Hawks not being available for Kamino, and how heroes have been trailing after villains’ actions because no one has been doing enough intelligence gathering in advance. 

Hero society isn’t doing enough to PREVENT villain attacks. And well, that’s a big bone to gnaw on. 

We can talk about the very basics—preventing villains from being born in the first place. But that’s too expansive a task, and heroes/government can’t foresee or prevent everything. Not to mention how complicated implementing those measures will get when you start tangling with law. (If you’re from a massive country with a complicated lawmaking system and polarizing political parties, you’ll know what I mean.) 

Then if we focus on something closer to immediate—say, intelligence gathering—that gets a little murky, too. Censorship, surveillance, regulatory laws—until where do we draw the line? When do we consider those preventative measures “oppression”? People will have different opinions of that, and that’ll result in debate and gridlock. 

There’s also cultural issues—how do you mass edit a society’s perception of certain things? 

We had the issue of “villanous quirks” brought up with Shinsou and Toga. Can you change everyone’s mindsets to regard quirks as a natural gene people can’t help but be born with? In contrast, at what point do you need to start considering the evil that could be done by a quirk on the basis of self-defense? (Think about it. If someone had a quirk that made you forget being under its influence, then how would you know when to change from trusting that person to questioning them for your own protection?) 

We also have the issue of quirklessness with Midoriya and Melissa, though I don’t think it’s that complicated. How do you equalize quirks and no-quirks? In contrast, when do you need to discriminate? (It’s the dilemma of equality. Physical requirements for men and women differ because of natural differences in their makeup. It’s fair, but it’s not equal. A minor thing to point out, but you get the idea, right? If you want to take it up a notch, consider the notion of “equal opportunity”. In America, there’s a whole debate about how to raise disadvantaged groups to equal standing without compromising the ones who are already there. Especially in education. There’s this thing about “quotas” in college admissions—colleges can’t set aside a specific number of spots for disadvantaged groups because it will take away opportunities for the rest, but they can include those questions in their applications for a “holistic” process. However, it’s not a full fix. There’s still a disproportionate ratio of minority groups because it doesn’t take into account the minority background: growing up in unsafe/unequipped communities, lacking academic resources or education to compete with those of advantageous groups, family backgrounds that influence the kid’s education because of extra responsibilities, poverty, uneducated parents, cultural stigma, etc. It’s a huge, complex web of a problem that a small rule like that can’t fully encompass.)

Oh god, I got political. But you get what I mean. There’s too big of a mess that heroes/government won’t be able to address every single one of them. So, what they’ll need to do is figure out what they can do and implement it, or figure out which aspect/measure to focus energy and resources on first.

In regards to morality, I answered a previous ask about Hawks and said this:

Sacrificing another person’s life isn’t okay, period, because you never had the right/power to determine another person’s worth in the first place.

I still stick by that, but there’s something I want to make clear about what I think about Hawks. Hawks is free to choose the “wrong” decision. I’m not condoning or condemning him for it. Hell, I’m not even judging him. The way I read My Hero Academia is by watching the characters make their decisions and trying to understand what led to them. I feel like that’s something everyone should try out: just watching the characters, not judging them, but just trying to understand.

Again, morality means nothing. It’s just choices and consequences.

The thing about choices is, you should understand everything about them. And that’s what I want Hawks to build on. If he’s going to make a decision—especially a “wrong” one—then I want him to fully understand the weight of that choice. I feel like Hawks could be desensitized to the weight of life, and that’s what I’m worried about. Then again, we don’t really know a lot about what Hawks feels aside from his expressions and double-meaning dialogue. I could be wrong—Hawks could have a solid grasp on what taking a life means and feel somber remorse over it. But who knows? (I’ll love him even more than I do now if he does understand. God, I love this asshole of a bird.)

Basically, this is what I want Hawks’ approach to Twice’s death to be: it’s wrong, and he’s okay with it. He’ll willingly carry the weight of his choice so he can achieve his dream of a society without an excessive dependence on heroes.

That’s basically Hawks’ whole character. What is he willing to carry in order to achieve his goals? How far will he corrupt himself to get peace for everyone else? (Honestly, the martyr complex is hard with this guy hahaha!) I just want to make sure he seriously understands what he’s “corrupting” himself with.

Anyway, rambling’s over! Hahahaha, I literally switched from my phone to my iPad to the computer to answer this ask lol. And anon, thanks for dropping by!

[ain-t-bovvered]

15x04 Commentary

bunch of tired and caffeinated Europeans ( plus a sleepy American) scream together, and then die and try to get on with their day ( lol AS IF)

Hello and welcome:

@purpleskiesandcherrypies​  (Nat)

@dean-winchesters-bacon​  (Kat)  

@waywardbaby​  (Zee)

@ain-t-bovvered  (Giulia)

Giulia: Ok so in my haste of things i just spilled all my hot coffee on my self.  I’m burning but the ep is ready. But fuck

Kat: Oh shit. Go rinse with cold water

Zee: You alive ??

Giulia: No i burned my self with coffee

Nat : Where did you spill it

Giulia: Leg

Nat : You need a minute?

Giulia: No i think I’m good

Zee: Any blisters ?

Giulia: Well i’ll see tomorrow won’t I.  Whatever just start the episode I’m already angry. Just...start the ep so I can deal with the mess later on , can’t wait for that

Nat : ok

Nat : 3

Nat : 2

Nat : 1

Nat : go

Nat : "We're gonna be free"

Giulia: No i don t wanna see this again

Zee: Becky ?

Giulia: Gasps

Zee: Wtf?

Nat : is

Nat : that

Kat: BEARDED DEAN BEARDED DEAN BEARDED DEAN

Giulia: AAAAAAH

Nat : AHHHHHHHHH

Giulia: jesus christ

Nat : BAMF

Giulia: Yes please

Nat : I THINK I'M WET

Kat: I KNOW I AM FUCKING HOTNESS IS WHAT IT IS

Giulia: YUM

Nat : I JUST SQUIRTED?

Zee: Are you asking ?

Nat : I'M NOT SURE IT'S ALL WET

Giulia: THE FUCK THE FUCK

Nat : FUCK

Nat : I'M NOT OK

Giulia: I HATE HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS

Nat : IT'S MORE THAN I HOPED FOR

Giulia: YES

Giulia: YES SAME

Kat: SO MUCH BAMF BEARDED DEAN

it’s what we deserve

Giulia: FUCK AAAAAAH

Nat : LUMBERJACK

Kat: BBBEEENNNNNNNNYYYYYY

Zee: Benny?

Giulia: AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Nat : BENNY

Giulia: BENNY

Nat : I KNEW IT

Giulia: BEEEENNY

Nat : BENNYYYYYY

Giulia: NO

Nat : I TOLD YA

B: I'll see you on the other side, brother

Giulia: NOT THE SAME LINE

Zee: I can’t type

Nat : I'M CRYING

Zee: Bye

Giulia: FUCK OFF

Giulia: FUCKING HELL

Nat : OK BACK TO THE BEARD

Giulia: NO WHERE

Nat : THE VOICE

Kat: SAME THING HE SAID BEFORE HE WENT INTO DEANS ARM

Giulia: FUCK OFF

Nat : HE CAN LITERALLY HAVE ANYTHING HE WANTS

Nat : WHY ARE WE ALL SCREAMING

Giulia: AAAAAAH

Kat: FUCK HES SUCH A BADASS

Zee: OHHH FUCK

Nat : SHIT

Giulia: HATE THAT

Nat : CAN WE HAVE A PARALLEL SHOW WHERE EVERYONE IS BAMF

Kat: BOYKING DEMON SAM

D: What you did to them...what you did to Bobby...to Jody...

S: They tried to stop me. But I will not be stopped.

D: Sam, you listen to me.This is the demon blood. You have to fight it!

Giulia: JENSEN MY GOD

Nat : SHIT

S: Why would I do that?

D: Sammy Please

Giulia: MY GOD I CAN T

Nat : "SAMMY" I HATE IT WHEN HE SAYS IT

Giulia: SAMMY PLEASE

Nat : SAMMY PLEASE

Giulia: HOW ABOUT NO

Nat : NO

Giulia: WOW OK

Nat : FUCK YOU SAM

Kat: OUCH

Nat : Is that chucks book

Kat: And bye bye bearded Dean. Gone too soon

Already missed

Giulia: Well Sam do see his shit now

Nat : The beginning with Dean sounds like something I would write

Nat : I WANT MORE OF THAT DEAN

Giulia: Don t we all

S: Dean, you know I don't eat --

Is Sam vegetarian now?

Nat : VEGGIE BACON

Zee: VEGGIE BACON

Nat : WHY ARE WE STILL SCREAMING

S: "I don't want any of that hippie, Sarah McLaughlin grass-eater crap in the Meat Man's kitchen."

Giulia: MEAT MAN

Nat : THE MEAT MAN DOES HE KNOW WHAT IT MEANS?

Zee: ARE WE ALL GONNA BE TYPING IN CAPITALS?

Giulia: YEAH

Kat: It means he has a big dick

Nat : I KNOW, BUT HE DOESN'T

Nat : Anyway, I'm done watching am I not? That's it. That's the whole episode

Kat: My boys need hugs

D: Look, man, I get it, okay? With Jack...and Rowena..

Giulia: ARE WE GONNA ADRESS

Giulia: SEEMS NOT

Giulia: OK FINE, IT’S FINE, WE’RE FINE

Kat: What

 Zee: What?

Giulia: Nothing . We just gonna push it down in true Winchester style. 

Nat : Of course not, it's a filler episode

Kat: Oh, I think I know If it’s what I think, it’s not mentioned at all

Giulia: What else is new

S: That’s real bacon

D: You're damn right it is

meat man

Nat : Ok bye guys

Kat: SIT YOUR ASS DOWN

Nat : I WANT TO THINK THAT I SAW EVERYTHING I WANTED

Zee: No you didn’t

Kat: But it’s Jensen’s last ep. And I really like it.

Giulia: Anyway

Nat : lAcrOsS

Zee: The end of the world

Zee: He knows

Nat : The little prayer thing at half time

Kat: Ugh parents

Nat : me talking to someone

Nat : SIR CONTAIN YOUR EYEBROWS

Zee: That’s awesome

Giulia: That’s awesome

Giulia: Ok but u know what i don’t like about filler eps tho. That they are like these oases outside of everything where seems like things don’t matter .... Whatever

Nat : Gag me

Zee: Kinky

Nat : please do

Kat: What she said

Nat : SHOULDER TO HIP RATIO

Giulia: Oh the flask again.  What esle is also new, this day is already ruined anyway

Kat: So good

Nat : also it's been shot in the beginning, I hardly think that Jensen knew what happened the episode before that.

Zee: Why is dean drinking and eating all the time?

Nat : don't you do that?

I mean....same

S: We keep them from dealing with the truth, with what's out there, and we carry the weight. It's great. They have no idea What's out there.

Kat: Sammy is a little disillusioned

Giulia: OH WHAT

Nat : oh no

Zee: Becky?!

Giulia: awe

Kat: She’s so normal now

Nat : There's something wrong with Becky

Zee: Great

Giulia: No fuck off

Nat : Ah, there it is

Kat: Not with her lol

Nat : God is fucking desperate

Giulia: That’s not everybody’s else problem tho so can he fuck off

Zee: Somebody’s got a fetish

Kat: Okay Dean

Nat : Don't we all

Kat: Cheerleader fetish lol

Nat : Mine is Dean

Kat: Many

Giulia: Of course she is

Giulia: Oh becky

Nat : mY WOrK

Zee: Oh honey

Nat : A little obsessed

Giulia: Oh honOh look she is us after the show ends

Nat : What show ends?

Kat: The one you’re not watching

Kat: At least she’s not a complete wackadoodle now

Nat : A little bit of a falling out

Zee: Poor God,  Nobody wants to hang out with him

Nat : God is a fucking child throwing a tantrum

Kat: Because he’s a douche

Giulia: Awe that’s so pathetic it’s almost cute

Nat : It sounds wrong

B: I am married to an amazing man, I have two great kids,and I like myself, Chuck. For the first time in a long time, I like myself. So I don't need you.

YOU GO GIRL

Nat : you do you, becky

Zee: By Becky nonetheless

G: You don't need me. No one does.

Zee: Boo fucking hoo

G: I feel so lost.

Kat: Oh shut up with the pity party chuck

B: Then, Chuck, you have to write.

Giulia: Oh no he doesn t

Nat : Dean is eating his way through the episode

Kat: Rob plays annoying so well

Kat: thicc arms

Giulia: Sure she wants to help you lol

Kat: Dean with the slow clap

Zee: That smile

Nat : I can't with Dean's eyebrow this episode

Giulia: Felt that

Kat: I need wine lol

Nat : It's the dad?

Giulia: Wow

Nat : Anything stronger than what? Water?

Zee: What does he want with Becky ??

G: I mean, I used to be able to see Sam and Dean in my head, wherever they were, whatever they were doing. It was all just there, ripe for the picking. And now it's just gone.

Nat : oh god, chuck annoys the fuck out of me

Nat : throw him out, becks

Giulia: Hey

Zee: Fan fic isn’t the same ?? Excuse you dick

Nat : I read EXPOSE your dick

 Kat: I wish she wouldn’t push him to write

Giulia: Awe look at that maniac stare

Kat: Bad idea

Giulia: Ew no

Kat: Of course

Nat : Ah, it's both of them

Nat : Sam walks in with a puppy look

Kat: He looks like that the whole ep

Giulia: How they know

Zee: TheY seriously need to control their ducking faces

Zee: Fu

D: We're not FBI.

Giulia: Well that was hot

Nat : Where did he keep the machete

Nat : in his pants?

IN HIS MEAT MAN PANTS 

Kat: A holster under his many layers

Giulia: Not great

Nat : The way he says Sammy

Kat: JUST WAIT

Nat : But right at his ass

Zee: FOCUS

Kat: She is. On his ass.

Nat : I can't. I wanna see how he pulls it out from another angle

Zee: What she said

Nat : finger guns

B: No one even mentions Cass.

Giulia: AH

Zee: Thanks Becky

Giulia: I LIKE BECKY

Nat : Becky gets it

Giulia: chuck angry

Kat: SHUT UP BECKY

Nat : Ah no,

Giulia: Fuck. No thanks

Nat : I give you danger

Zee: Fuck you becky

NO, WE LIKE HER NOW

Nat : get off my dick god

Nat : Ah

Kat: Now you know

Nat : Well

dad: You don't have children, do you? Because if you did, you would know that to see your child in pain rips your heart out. And you'd know that you'd do anything. You'd die for them.

Giulia: AH but he does. They all do

Nat : He had a child, thank you very much

Giulia: JACK

Zee: And Ben

Nat : EMMA

Giulia: Meh whatever

Giulia: Hate this

Kat: This whole thing is sad

Nat : I mean, I kinda feel for them

Zee: The kid wants to do good

snorts.....like Jack....lol ring any bell?

*sound of someday starts to play*

Nat : AH

Giulia: AAAAAH

Zee: NOOOOOOO

Nat : SOUNDS OF SOMEDAY

Giulia: FUCK

Nat : WHAT

Giulia: STOP

Nat : MY GOD

Giulia: SOB

Nat : Great, now I will associate it with that scene?

Giulia: UGH

Zee: IM DEAD

Giulia: WOW OK

Nat : I'm sads

Zee: SHIT

Giulia: WELL OK

Nat : It's so sad

Giulia: oh no this is so sad. This shot is beautiful tho

Nat : Cuz it's true, the lengths parents are willing to go

Giulia: Chuck fuck off

Zee: FUCK YOU CHUCK

Nat : CHUCK SHOULD FUCKING GET OFF OUR DICKS

Giulia: Yeah it is dark af

Kat: IT GETS SO BAD GUYS

Giulia: Nice

Kat: HOLD ME

Zee: FUCK YOU

Nat : GO TELL HIM BECKY

Kat: Winchester 😭

Zee: WHYVIS BECKY US ?

B: You can't do this to the fans.

Nat : It's good right?  Fuck off

Giulia: I already hate this

Kat: OH NO OH NO OH NO

Nat : Ah no

Giulia: OH COME ON

Nat : WTF

Giulia: CHUCK

Nat : FUCK YOU

Kat: IT GETS WORSE

Nat : FUCK YOU CHUCK

Zee: I can’t

Giulia: Ah babe dean already did that. Remember when Dean prayed to God about Mom, Crowley and Castiel? lol Bet this fucker made the exact face , maybe munching on popcorn 

Nat : WHAT IS THIS SHIT

Giulia: and we are at 5 goodbyes . So: Kevin, Ketch, Rowena, Becky, Benny

Nat : I SHOULD HAVE STOPPED WATCHING IN THE BEGINNING AFTER THE RIDICULOUSLY HOT DEAN

Kat: See she shouldn’t have encouraged him

Giulia: With my leg burning

Zee: Shut up both of you

Nat : Go look after your leg

Kat: Now for the BM scene

Giulia: My room smells like coffee

Zee: Not bad

Giulia: Coffee i did not drink

Nat : Ah stop it Dean

Giulia: Why they look so much all over the place tho

S: we'd have done the same thing. For Jack. If we had the chance.

I can’t decipher Dean’s expression right now . idk.

D: I get it. We have lost way, way too much. And it's hard not to feel like just...cashing out. I felt like that.  After Chuck, back at the crypt. But you know what brought me back?  You did. By sayin' that what we do still matters. I mean, that's why I wanted to drag us out here  That's why I wanted to -- to work a case, to save lives, you know? 'Cause it is -- it's a -- it's a crap job.  We do the ugly things so that people can live happy.

S: lucky them

D: We still do the job. But we don't do it for us We did it for Jack,  for Mom, for Rowena. We owe it to anybody who has ever gave a damn about us to keep putting one foot in front of the other. No matter what. And, hey, man, like you said, now that Chuck's gone,

Giulia: AH THEY THINK

D: we're finally on our own.  We are finally free to... move on, you know?

Nat : Sam with his stupid puppy face

S: I can't forget any of them. Dean, I still think about Jessica. I -- I can't just let that go.

Giulia: aw sam

Kat: I still think about Jessica

Zee: Someone hug Sam

Kat: Damn it not the hearts

Kat: Sammy is broken af 😭

Nat : "I can't even breathe"

Nat : Same, Sam

Giulia: Hate this

Giulia: Hate

S : But maybe tomorrow. You know, maybe I'll -- I'll feel better in the morning.

Giulia: Can sam stop crying

Giulia: Asking for a friend

Nat : Can Sam just stop Period

Kat: Ugh chuck again

Giulia: Asshole

Nat : We all know it

Zee: I hate it

Nat : Promo?

Nat : So young,  and the way he's so full of himself "obviously", so proud

Giulia: So cocky

Giulia: Bastard

Kat: Makes me giggle bc the fandom always says he doesn’t age

Zee: I can’t wait for the million red gifs

Kat: I’ve already reblogged a few sets

Zee: I saw

Kat: And made a post about his beard

Kat: Did you look before the episode?

Zee: I can’t hear you. I’m entering a tunnel 

Why am I not even a bit surprised.

Zee: I’m talking about the gifs Giuls will start slapping us with

Giulia: Idk I don t feel like it. I’d would love to make them nicer BUT NO ONE I ASKED TOLD ME HOW so....

Nat : I’ll rewatch the first 5 minutes and keep on squirting

Zee: TMI bb?! lol

Nat : Is there anything like TMI with us?

.

NO, there ain’t

.

.

.

.

If you want to get tagged send an ask HERE or to @waywardbaby or a smoke signal, idk whatever I’m tired af.

TAGS: @wayward-angelgirl​  @destiel-honeypie​      @mariekoukie6661​      @dragontamerm​       @closetspngirl​    @rainflowermoon​     @mattiecat​       @bunnybaby121115​  @aliaitee2​    @jacks-word-of-the-day​     @4evamc​       @dammitsammy​     @legendary-destiel​   @winchesterprincessbride​    @destielhoneybee​    @castiellover20   @ravenhg​ @evvvissticante​ @emoryhemsworth​

[eremiss]

Purification

It was oppressively bright and near disastrously hot, but Thanalan was rarely anything else. Gwen had grown used to it, and preferred the heat of the desert to the chill of winter or Aldenard’s northern climbs, but sweating was never pleasant, nor were long walks in the desert. She trudged back the way she had come, soaked from the knees down with dirt caking on her boots with every step, water sloshing noisily in the buckets she carried. 

Wading out into Soot Creek had been refreshing, but the walk back in wet boots was less so. Should have taken them off… Gwen thought as the tents of Stonesthrow came into view. Reminded why she was out in the midday sun in the first place had her squaring her shoulders and pushing forward, ignoring the sweat that was plastering her hair to her forehead and the strain in her hands and shoulders.

Soot Creek’s water was fresh, but that didn’t mean it was clean. Luckily, that was a situation that could be easily rectified. Alchemists purified water with an alembic and water shards, but she and the refugees in Stonesthrow didn’t have any such device, nor did she expect them to be able to maintain one even if they did. Gwen didn’t have much knowledge of alchemical tools, but all tools needed care and upkeep, both of which, in the end, would cost money the refugees simply didn’t have. If they’d had money they wouldn’t be worrying about basic things like water. And thus she planned to rely on the experience and knowledge that she’d accrued over the years of growing up alone in Gridania.

Gwen set the heavy buckets among the other half-dozen the refugees had already brought back, taking a moment to examine the lot as she caught her breath. They all seemed clean and free of unlucky flora or fauna, though one or two had a bit of sediment gathering at the bottom. She’d waded out into the creek to try and avoid silt and sediment from the banks, but it seemed others hadn’t thought to do the same.

A handful of people gathered as Gwen a dark glass bottle from her bag, eager to learn about this trick she had told them about before requesting they help gather buckets of water. They wanted whatever they could to make their lives a little easier, and she was happy to help where she could.

Gwen didn’t know the science of it, but she did know the correct ratios and timing, and that was good enough for now. If anyone wanted to now more, they’d have to go to the Alchemist’s Guild.

“So tha’s jus…” Someone started, confused.

“Iodine,” Gwen said with a nod. She unscrewed the lid, the pungent smell immediately finding her nose.

“Jus’ iodine? Nothin’ else?”

“That’s all you need, technically speaking. It can make water safe to drink in the right amounts, and it’s healthy besides. It won’t get rid of dirt and the odd flavor or two like an alchemist’s alembic will,” she cast a glance at the buckets she’d noted earlier, “but it will be perfectly drinkable.”

Mumbles moved around the gathered folk, some of them making noises like it was a fact they’d heard before and forgotten until that point. Some sounded skeptical, which wasn’t terribly surprising. Gwen waited until they’d died down to continue, “A teaspoon and a half should be enough for one of these buckets. Or double it if the water is cloudy or dirty. Getting a more exact measurement requires measuring the water in onzes, so it’s all a bit inexact without a scale. But you needn’t worry too much. A little over is fine, but if you’re concerned you can dilute it down again. Once you’ve added it, you need to wait a full bell before using or drinking it.”

“And here I thought it was just for cleaning wounds and the like,” a lalafel woman said thoughtfully, folding her arms and watching as Gwen carefully measured the dark liquid into a borrowed teaspoon.

Teaching the refugees how to help themselves was the best thing Gwen could do for them, seeing how she didn’t have the coin or skill to help them any other way. Even with her burgeoning red mage healing she could only do so much before she’d worn herself out, and bumps and scrapes were just a fact of life living outside the walls.

“It’s useful for a lot of things,” she replied, pouring the iodine into the water and stirring it briefly. She moved on to the next bucket, “One bottle can give Stonesthrow potable water for a fraction of what it would cost to buy it outright, though I can’t promise much in the way of flavor.”

“Teaspoon an’ a half in a bucket, wait a full bell,” someone else mumbled to themselves.

Gwen dispelled any lingering doubts when she spent the next bell in Stonesthrow, passing the time playing with the children, and took a fearless drink from one of the buckets. There was nothing so dramatic as cheers or clapping, but worried expressions eased and tensed shoulders relaxed.

Purifying water was an easy solution, and she knew any further help would be a lot more difficult to manage. It was a start, at least, and Gwen contented herself with that.

Titles aren’t a thing that I’m good at, so I’m just going with the prompt titles >.> Never done a prompt-a-day thing, so I thought I’d at least give it a go! I reblogged the list I’m using earlier today.

Also I’m pretty literal. Don’t expect me to take too many liberties or get too abstract with concepts lol

I’m using it as practice to write generally shorter things, as even my short stories usually end up exploding into 10-15 pages I never even finish /cough.  I’m also using it as an excuse to make myself write some semi-slice-of-life type scenarios rather than only the big, titular scenes or fluff and cuddles and the like.

BUT I’M VERBOSE AND THIS IS HARD. 

[mulansays]

Hello, my dear readers! 

So, I’ve been a little missing in action this week, haven’t I? Well, I can’t say much on the topic without losing my job... Let’s just say, there may or may not be a debut in the works for a few of the kids at the company I work for. This means I’m spread out fairly thin and working at weird hours of the night on minimal sleep, so please be patient with me as I try and balance my job and this blog!

Enough about me. It’s been almost a week since the MGA’s episode four, and boy do I have some things to say.

Let’s start with Team A as usual. I had mixed feelings about this team, mostly because I’ve never tried to hide my disliking of a certain member here. While he turned me off of the group, I still do especially enjoy the rest of the members! In the last episode, we really got to see Jinhee shine as a dancer and leader, but with this performance, I realized that her vocal ability is really average… I guess it’s okay because she’s such an extraordinary dancer. I was shocked with her wig though; was she trying to be Hannah Montana or something? It was kind of lame. If you’re going to go for pink hair, commit to it like Junmyeon and Jonghyun did instead of doing some odd wig show. I’ll be honest, a lot of this team didn’t leave an impression on me, which is sad because last week I mentioned how amazed I was by Jeno and Hyunjin’s dancing. There was nothing special about the choreography. I have to say though, Hyunjin articulates very maturely for such a young kid. His speech inspired me, and if he were to grow older and join an idol group, that’s some leader-worthy pep talks right there. He also pulled off a tough rap decently, so I think I like this kid. I was relieved when Jeno was eliminated rather than him (sorry, Lee Jeno!) I thought Jonghyun should have been the one to go home instead, but I’m not exactly going to she tears over the decision.

Team B was… such a mess. While Guanlin was cute with his heavy accent, he impressed me with how much his pronunciation while rapping had improved. It wasn’t perfect, but it was certainly better than before (and maybe even better than my Korean had been within the first few months of moving here).  Kim Bora really deserved the leader title here, and I hate this whole “leaders can’t be repeated” because obviously, if you appoint someone who’s unfit to lead, your team is screwed. God, my blood has never boiled more than when I saw Junhoe’s attitude. Being a group leader is no joke, but he treated it as if it didn’t matter? I wanted to slap him and send him off the show. When you’re an idol, you can’t act like that, especially in the public eye. There’s a fine line between being mysterious and being a dick, and he crossed that by miles. I’m happy Bora whipped him into shape, but even then, to me it felt like he was trying to have all the spotlight. Besides that, I felt bad for Donghyun and I hope his foot is okay. He really can’t dance though, so thank God they did an easier choreography (yet he still managed to mess that up but whatever). Oh, I almost forgot to mention Wonwoo LOL! Seriously, he got no screen time and he has negative stage presence, so can you blame me? I was hoping for him to get eliminated this week, but then this team ranked 3rd… I was disappointed. I don’t think that weak performance deserved to rank that high. The song choice was fun though.

Team C… Okay, this is going to sound real bitchy, but like, has anyone else noticed how weirdly Yoongi talks? It stuns me every time, and I know it’s not his fault, but sometimes I just want to plug my ears when he opens his mouth. I was pleasantly surprised, though, to see him evolve from an awkward guy begging Hyuna for help, to a proper leader. Though, she carried him through it like a baby, but still, he was standing on his own two legs by the end. Speaking of Hyuna, can she just stick to rapping instead of mediocre singing? I know people were freaking out about it but she’s really just… LOL. I’m really glad Minhyung got eliminated this week. Compared to the rest of his team, he’s so lacking, and I hate using age as an excuse, but he was too young and immature to be in the competition. There are others around the same age, but they have mental maturity, whereas this kid runs out when he gets frustrated? He would never last long in the industry with that mindset. I hope he fixes that before trying again. Other than that, you know I just have to comment on Kim Doyeon. She looks like a natural on stage, and she really has it all: a pretty face, perfect proportions, charisma, vocal ability, and she’s a good dancer. Share that, please, Doyeon? As for Moon Bin, I think he deserved more screen time. Maybe he’s just boring, I don’t know, but I was sad. He has a lovely voice and stage presence. MNET, do the kid some justice!

You guys probably know that one of my least favourite contestants was in Team D. Yes, I’m talking about Minatozaki Sana, and this episode really didn’t give her a redemption arc in my heart. She still has an attitude about losing out to someone else on her team and doesn’t even try to hide it. It just makes the whole team atmosphere feel awkward when she sulks, and it made me uncomfortable to watch. Even when Haknyeon tried to cheer up (so sweet, by the way, and was he flirting a little or am I imagining things?) she was so… I don’t want to dislike her. Sana is a good dancer, but she just feels really fake and bratty. Pfft, and MNET tried to edit Yerim to have that personality but they edit Sana so you feel bad for her. I won’t be fooled though. This team also had another case of poor leadership. Jungkook had the title, but he treated it exactly like that—as if it was only a title and didn’t hold any responsibility. I’m pretty sure I said this last time, too, but he has no stage presence whatsoever! As a dancer, that’s so vital, and it’s probably the biggest flaw to have. I wasn’t surprised to see him eliminated. Oh, and Choi Youngjae… He’s such a good vocalist, but he can’t dance, so I wonder why the team chose such a dance-centered song. On a happier note, Longguo’s cat is so cute. Him and Haknyeon being cat ladies made me smile because it’s so relatable and their friendship is adorable. I really like Joo Haknyeon. He’s a flower, quite fitting with the concept. Not only was he a sweetheart to every contestant on the team, but he also gave his best. Even though his nose bled, he kept practicing by himself to make sure his performance was perfect. I’m amazed.

I don’t really have much to say about Team E. They barely had any screen time. There wasn’t anything memorable from these participants (whether scandalous or not), despite the fact that they chose such a powerful song. Maybe that’s where they went wrong. Choi Yoojung danced and rapped well, Kyungri held her own while dancing and singing. Lee Luda was really naive at the beginning, thinking the dance would be easy. At least she wasn’t the worst dancer in the group though—I think she’s rather average, enough to blend in. Plus, she doesn’t need to dance when she can sing like a goddess. Taehyung was really lacking. He was an okay leader, but all he can do is rap. His dancing was atrocious; why did he agree to such a hard choreography anyways? Personally, I think he should have been eliminated instead of Juyeon, because out of everyone, Juyeon was the most well balanced in every aspect. I’m sad to see him go, and I wish him the best of luck.

Can we just talk about Team F’s introduction? Ha Sungwoon called himself “bananappa” and that made me cringe so hard. Was he on crack? LOL kidding, but seriously. That’s so weird. His nickname aside, I think he made a really good leader. The thing with Sungwoon is that he really supplied a positive atmosphere with the group. Watching their interactions, you could see they were genuinely happy and friendly, whether they were practicing or not. It was quite refreshing, really, which I guess is why they gave themselves the name “Fresh and Fruity” or whatever it was. I’d like to see this group of people debut together, in all honesty. They have a good balance: Sungwoon as the main vocal and leader, Mingyu as the main rapper, Jinsoul and Yerim as lead vocals and dancers. It’s also a perfect ratio of females to males, so they could be kind of like the co-ed group KARD? Anyways, there’s not much to say about them because they were so good and I really enjoyed the performance (another story within a choreography, Sungwoon seems to be good at that). I definitely think they could have been third place; I don’t know what’s wrong with the CEO’s. The dance to Shine isn’t all that hard. Rather than being a good dancer, you just need charisma to pull off the trendy moves in the chorus, and everyone in this team (especially Jinsoul) have enough. Shout out to Yerim, though, who MNET decided not to evil edit this time, instead cutting her out completely. We see you and your hard work. All in all, I thought this team was doomed since Lee Minhyuk pulled out of the competition last minute (you’re really going to let your group members down? Okay), but they did well.

Buckle in for the wild ride that Team G will take you on. I really wasn’t ready. So, there’s an obvious elephant in the room: Lee Sungyeol. In my last post, I talked about how I thought he was too old to be an idol now, and I still stand by it. If anything, this episode only solidified my opinion. Really, what kind of an aspiring idol has a fucking kid? And he so shamelessly showed it off on television for the whole nation to see. Has anyone ever seen an idol that’s freshly debuted, have a toddler? It’s insane! If you have one, at least try to hide it. Already, his age sets him apart from everyone else, along with his lack of skill (Sungyeol is an average singer at best, he can’t dance, and he barely has stage presence). But like, dude, you really want to pursue a career as an idol when you have a kid to take care of? You’ll have no time for the kid, will barely see them, and idols don’t exactly make the most money unless you hit it big, which he definitely can’t do. You need a steady, reliable source of income or else your kid will suffer. Kick him out of the show already!

Now, we’ll tackle the next problem of this team: Kim Chungha. I was really rooting for her, but she’s not much different from Sungyeol. She so blatantly exposed her relationship with Koo Junhoe, as if she wanted to brag? I know she was crying and all, but at least call a female friend and vent! Or if it’s a male, let it be someone who’s not a contestant! Or vent away from the cameras—this is ridiculous. I’ve never been so speechless. And all this after seeing Junhoe’s slacking off makes me wonder, was he late because he was fucking Chungha in the bathroom or something? LOL! They both lost my support. Soojin was my favourite leader out of this episode; she showed dedication to helping Sicheng with his vocals, while still keeping it light and fun. She can dance and sing as well, which we all know I love a woman with many talents. Sicheng was a really good dancer as usual, and Somi too (both their vocals are still lacking though so I hope they work on that). The performance was good overall, so I’m okay with them ranking second. By them, I mean Sicheng, Somi, and Soojin: the three S’s. The other two are such a big NO from me.

I can’t dwell too much on Team H. Not only am I exhausted and sleep deprived, but my heart broke with this team (I think you guys know why). Yongsun seemed to be a really good leader. She’s very funny and likable, not afraid to make a joke out of her weakness in dancing. Plus, she���s one of the best female vocalists on this show. Her and Daniel dancing together was hilarious, I have to admit. They have good chemistry as, like, the Beagle Line of a group. I was also surprised that everyone on this team can play instruments? It’s a coincidence you don’t really expect, and the fact that they utilized this surprise is so surreal to me. I don’t know why. I think it’s because I have a thing for bassists and Kang Daniel plays the bass (what fate is this)? And the bass line for Deja Vu is so sensual—control yourself, Naomi! Can you imagine my reaction to Hyunjung and Daniel acting all cute and flustered together like some puppy love? I almost cried. Almost. Maybe if I learn to play an instrument he will love me too? No hard feelings though, Hyunjung. You’re too talented for me to hate, and you’re pretty. If you make Kang Daniel smile and I get to see that smile, that’s all that matters. Anyways lol that hug and his blush. Wow, the kids on the MGA’s are really acting wild, aren’t they? I hope they all clean up their acts, or at least make it less obvious, by the time they become idols. Overall, this team’s performance was good and faintly reminiscent of H.A.M, so I believe they deserve their title as first ranked for this week. It was something new, something unexpected, something covertly sexy that I really enjoyed (rest in peace to Minho, though, who got no screen time despite killing the rap, the dance, and being super attractive).

I guess that’s all for now, guys! I’ll try not to be as late with my next post, though I can’t make any promises with how hectic work is at the moment. This was also fairly rushed, but I hope it was worthwhile! If not… Well, then, feel free to exit my blog. To those that enjoyed my thoughts, feel free to follow me on twitter @naomiwj and send in your reactions, opinions, and/or fangirl with me !!!

Thanks for reading, fellow netizens! See you next week!

♕ Naomi Wang ♕

[worldsandcenturiesfunposting]

Late to the party: Should Video Game Journalists be good at video games?

You might have seen that cuphead video where some video game journalist spent over a minute trying to get past the tutorial and then proceeded to get railed over and over in the first level. The video is a little less than 27 minutes long and he doesn’t get through the first level in those 27 minutes. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=848Y1Uu5Htk Take note that the original title was Cuphead Demo at Gamescom: It Isn’t Easy

What you probably didn’t see was the description in the video. No one reads those but I think there’s a lot to pick apart and ramble about at 4:30 in the morning because I’m a lonely sack of shit with nothing better to do

But here’s the man himself writing to his defense: https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/08/the-deanbeat-our-cuphead-runneth-over/

My game crime: I was so bad at playing I was deemed unfit to be a game journalist. My Cuphead gameplay video from Gamescom blew up, inspired rage, and spurred discussions about the death of game journalism across Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter.

Don’t flatter yourself that much. People were talking about how game journalism was dead well before your video. Hell, you even mention GamerGate later in your article. 

It was a failure to communicate.

In the description of the video, they mention that the guy playing the game isn’t good at platformers in general and the video was uploaded as a joke. I don’t know how true that last part is, but assuming it is, they’ve apparently put in 0 effort to make that clear. No tongue in cheek title like “Let’s Fail at Cuphead!” or giving context in the description. Only after shit hit the fan did they edit the description explaining why the guy sucked so bad. 

I only wish my two books on the Xbox business generated as much attention as the Cuphead story. It is a humbling experience.

It would help if you books were available to buy at the store. I’ve been in plenty of book stores and haven’t found anything about Xbox business practices. There are ones partially written by Anita Sarkeesian though so I guess that’s close enough.

The more people looked at my poor gameplay, which I myself labeled shameful, the angrier they got. I played the tutorial so ineptly — failing to read the onscreen instructions to jump and dash simultaneously — and then went on, failing to conquer a single level. I said it was hard, and the fans saw my gameplay and decided I was a poor judge of difficulty. By a ratio of more than 12-to-1, the ratings on the YouTube video are negative. It wasn’t just the troglodytes of the internet who hated it. Most people hated it.

You failed an incredibly simple puzzle, one that literal children can figure out, and you want to throw out insults like “troglodytes” at people saying you were shit because they either didn’t see or don’t buy the “lol it’s just a prank bro” deflection.

Another game journalist (and some say “shitlord”

Including you or someone from your website in the description of the video itself:  A shitlord on Twitter also linked to this video and claimed these are the same people doing reviews. 

The guy they’re talking about is Ian Miles Cheong. Once a turbo feminist switched sides to a more pro-gamer stance during the whole GamerGate thing. Outside of that, I don’t know much about him and I don’t give enough of a shit about him to find out. 

He clipped it to the 2.5 minutes of the most damning inept gameplay, and he posted it to his followers. He used me to condemn all game journalists

The guy is literally a video game journalist though so it wouldn’t be a condemnation of all video game journalist. Just pointing out that you (and presumably others) are awful at video games despite being paid to write about them. Which is true. Like if this was a video of some 4 year old failing the tutorial, there wouldn’t be this ire. 

Raising the smoldering issues around Gamergate and its focus on game journalism ethics. His post was political propaganda for the disenfranchised gamers, the sort who went from Gamergate to the alt-right and elected Donald Trump as president.

At least you admit GamerGate was about ethics. The fact you then went on to then claim that its proponents went on to support the alt-right and got Trump elected is fucking horse shit for a few reasons. 

1. GamerGate was comprised of various people of various different political backgrounds. Yes, some members were what we’d now call the alt-right, but a lot of its members were also incredibly left leaning. A few political compass tests were taken over the course of GamerGate and it seems a huge portion of its membership were what’s described as left libertarians. 

2. Of all the reasons Trump was elected, gamers aren’t one of them. The shit system that is the electoral college. Mass propaganda efforts from Russia. A bunch of idiots who’d literally vote Republican even if Hitler rose from the dead and was the nominee simply because they’ll always vote Republican no matter what....but not a bunch of gamers upset over poor practices in video game journalism and attempts at shaming and censoring from SJWs. 

Get fucking real, Dean. You’re out of your element. 

Before he got to it, my video had maybe 10,000 views. Afterward, the Gamergaters, or hardline reactionaries — or whatever we would like to call them 

How about people who know how to play video games. I wonder if there’s a name for that. 

Crying conservative boogyman doesn’t help your own personal cause and it certainly doesn’t help your political side either. 

— believed this narrative fit into their views about game journalists just fine

That’s because even before this clip, there was a general negative opinion of video game journalists and here you are proving that it’s pretty well founded. Not only are a lot of them unethical, but some of them fucking suck at their jobs objectively. 

I despise how this was triggered by a viral post that represented the worst of fake news

Fake news is a Trump term. ALT RIGHTIST! ALT RIGHTIST! DEAN TAKAHASHI SUPPORTS DONALD TRUMP! 

Hmmmm, maybe that’s a stupid line of reasoning. Tell you what. I won’t use it if you don’t either? Deal? 

So he continues on whining about haters, giving his own life story, and he actually has the balls to say this: But during all of the time I have written about games, none of my bosses cared about exactly how good I was at playing. They required basic knowledge and competence, but not skill on an esports level.

He whines frequently about how mean people are for saying he shouldn’t be a games journalist if he sucks so bad at video games....and then goes on to say that the thing his bosses cared about was the very thing that people were pointing out he utterly lacks. 

Not a skill on an e-sports level? Nigga, you were playing a tutorial! Stop acting like people are demanding the world of you and realize that people require you have basic knowledge and competence. 

So blatantly dishonest. 

Guess what? Unskillful gaming is authentic.

That’s literally the excuse DSP uses to justify being bad at video games and leaving in all of the footage of him bumbling around not knowing that he’s doing. 

Here’s where my nonapology starts. Gamers need to stop being mean to those who aren’t skillful. They don’t need to put others down to elevate their own subculture. Games have gone viral. They’re more popular than ever, reaching 2 billion people around the world. They have become a $108 billion industry. It’s silly to look down on games.

No one’s looking down on games and no one’s looking down on people for no other reason than their lack of skill. For a lot of people if they’re having trouble, people will be more than willing to provide advice and pointers. Just ask any question about how to do something in a game on a game related subreddit and people will be perfectly fine to tell you how things are done without insulting you.

The fact that you’ve spent so much time playing and reviewing games, and it’s literally your job, is where it starts to cross the line. Games are 2 billion people and 100 billion dollar strong industry as you’ve said so clearly the ire thrown at games journalists who suck ass at their job isn’t a problem within the industry. 

That industry will grow bigger, and gamers will get better games, if we embrace the new gamers. 

You. Are. Not. A. New. Gamer. 

Stop acting like you’re defending other people getting shit when it isn’t other people who are a problem. This deflection is as apparent as it is pathetic. No one’s going after Minecraftkid2003 because he couldn’t figure out redstone when he first came across it. They’re pointing out that Dean  Takahashi, a video game journalist with 18 years worth of experience and has himself boasted he was playing video games since Pong isn’t able to figure out a simple problem solving exercise any faster than a goddamn pigeon. 

We don’t need to dumb games down. 

And then he says 

We can have adjustable difficulty, so that the unskilled and skilled alike can play. We can make tutorials even easier than the one that I failed at so miserably.

Alright, dumbass. I’m sure everyone reading this has seen the video I linked. Here’s what the tutorial required. It required you to jump on a box....and then jump in the air...and then use a dash move to get over a pillar that’s too high to jump over from the ground. 

There’s no losing conditions. Time is infinite. There’s no enemies. There’s no bottomless platforms of thing chasing you...it’s literally the easiest part of the game second to moving around map itself. How the fuck can it get easier? Does it need to outright say “Alright Dean, now comes the doozy. You need to press this button and then this button afterwords to solve the exact same problem. Here’s an animation of what it should look like. Can you follow it, Dean? I’ll play the animation over and over on the top of the screen so you can see what you’re supposed to do. If you do it, you get a gold star and Anita will give you the good boy award!”

No, I’m not blaming the developer for my own shortcomings. I respect the designers, even if I didn’t truly understand at first the games they’ve made. I would just like to make sure that they make their games for people who are new, or noobs, as well as hardcore fans.

Cuphead is specifically designed to be a challenging platformer for gamers who like more challenge. Designing it to be easier, especially a tutorial that has no losing condition, is counterproductive to what the devs want to achieve. It’s like asking Stephen King to tone down the horror in his books so that non-horror fans can enjoy them too without being too scared. 

If you want an easy platformer designed with everyone in mind, there’s plenty of great games that will fill that roll. Not every game needs to be made for everyone.

As Nolan Bushnell, cofounder of Atari, said, games should be easy to learn and hard to master. (Yes, I know Cuphead’s tutorial isn’t that hard to learn).

Then what’s the fucking issue, ding dong? 

No, I’m not celebrating mediocrity

You literally just did when you whined that Cuphead wasn’t designed for noobs in mind. Here’s one big thing though: You were’t even mediocre at it. Garfield is mediocre. You were just awful. 

like the Antonio Salieri character in Amadeus. I’m arguing that all gamers, casual or hardcore, deserve recognition.

They do, but not in cuphead. And all gamers aren’t paid to write their opinions on video games. 

We are not all going to be esports stars who rake in millions of dollars. 

You’ve been at this for 18 years and got money for it. You got to play a demo that a lot of people much more skilled and much more deserving would have liked to play and you did poorly at it because you couldn’t figure out how to do 2 step logic. 

But we’re going to be the masses of unskilled players who make the game companies, including the makers of Cuphead, as rich as they can possibly be.

If there’s one happy ending, it’s that Cuphead did do well on the market showing that contrary to what Dean believes, it isn’t a good idea for all games to be dumbed down to the point where even video game journalists are able to play. 

The rest is more sob story and personal history. 

---

So what are my final thoughts? Well first of all, if you can’t solve a simple 2 step logic puzzle in part of a game with literally no losing conditions, you really are stupid. Pro or noob, there’s some point where you have to wonder how dumb the person with the controller is. There’s plenty of cases like the previously DarkSydePhil and also this blast from the past from IJustine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkYxfjJ72k4 Like seriously: use your eyes and brain homie!

But what about being just generally bad at games or just not knowing how to play well? It doesn’t matter. Contrary to what Dean thinks, tons of people aren’t going to be major assholes to you just because you picked up a game for the first time, don’t know the ropes, but decide to record yourself playing and slowly learning them. Plenty of let’s players do blind runs where they go into a game with no prior knowledge of it and yeah, they make mistakes but people are generally cool about it. 

However, there’s a point where making these silly mistakes over and over becomes...something of an issue. I’ve been driving for several years. If I legitimately couldn’t figure out which pedal is the break and which is the gas after all this time, it would be fair grounds to call me a dumbass or wonder if there’s something seriously wrong with my brain. As people do something more and more, it’s expected that they’re better at it than someone completely new. When someone does that thing for a job, it’s expected that they’re better at it than the average joe. 

And that’s the big thing here that Dean never addresses: it’s his job. He writes more about the tech than he does actual gameplay, yes, but he still boasts in his own article that he’s been in the industry for 18 years and have been playing games since Pong. 

It’s not even the rest of the video that was the issue but instead those 2.5 minutes (which he complained about Miles Ian Cheong trimming the video down to as a highlight) where he’s unable to solve that simple two step logic puzzle in a tutorial level. I drove cars for years because I have to get from point A to point B and it’s beyond walking distance and it would already be stupid if I couldn’t figure out the absolute basics of it. If I reviewed cars for a living and drove cars for longer than most car drivers have been alive for and I couldn’t figure out the basics of starting it, that would be beyond pathetic. I don’t think there’s a word in the English language that would be able to describe that amount of disconnect between the experience I should have and the amount I display. 

He constantly hides behind the idea that we’re not all professional e-sport people and gamers come at all skill levels...but he’s not at all skill levels. He’s literally a professional. Playing and reviewing games is literally his profession just like writing code or cooking meals is a profession.

You know how on Kitchen Nightmares Gordon Ramsey gets so pissed off at people who don’t know the basics of cooking and how to handle a kitchen even though it’s their job and they should have learned that in training? It’s like that. We’re basically Gordon Ramsey here watching some guy call himself a chef and his output is microwave heated frozen mac and cheese that’s somehow still raw and yet also on fire. And he wonders why people are yelling at him over the internet. 

Should video game journalists be good at video games? Yes! Just like food critics should understand how to cook a meal or reviewers of literature should know how to read! I don’t even know why video game journalists are trying to make this a contestable point. If you suck at your job, either get better....or don’t have you job! Get another one! 

I’m aware that this whole thing is a bit of old hat and I’m rambling on more and more than this guy deserves, but it is indicative of a larger problem within the industry. Just like the Zoe Quinn thing or the doritos pope thing was indicative of issues in the larger industry. Video game journalism has an effect and if some of them aren’t able to beat a simple tutorial level and then without any hint of irony, whine that video games should be easier when people call him out on it....it’s just baffling. 

It’s now 5:45 and I still have nothing better to do lol so I guess I guess it’s time for a few final words

I don’t think this event will lead to GamerGate 2. Hell, one article defending this guy had the title that GamerGate 1 never really ended. I don’t know how true it is but it seems over three years later since it started, the issues and arguments that were the foundation of GamerGate are still a bit relevant. But now there’s a new one: Some video game journalists are not only unethical....but they’re also utterly incapable! 

Anyways, join me next time as I’m even more late to the party and write my epic response Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis followed by a point by point breakdown of Oag the Caveman’s declaration of “Fire bad!”

[loudlytransparenttrash]

The Truth About Some Of Feminism’s Most Popular Lies

I know a lot of young women are getting pumped up and becoming one with the whole feminism thing, and I get it, you want to be part of some cool sisterhood and feel empowered by believing there’s an embodiment of evil that you can unite and crush together. I get it. There are two problems here though, it’s not a sisterhood and your enemy doesn’t exist. 

Feminism does promote a cliquey, sisterhood mentality, that part is true but the moment you step out of line, come up with your own opinions or challenge preconceived ideas, you stop being a sister and become the enemy. They despise freedom. They believe women should be protected from most aspects of public life, especially speech as if women are so weak and fragile that they can’t deal with mere words and can’t face adversarial situations and challenging views without the protective arm of feminism around their shoulders. 

Instead of sending the empowering message of “a woman can overcome anything life throws at her”, they rather send the infantile message of “a woman can shut down and censor anything life throws at her”. Women should be encouraged to fight back against opposing views, to engage in political battles on the street and to win the argument, not just scream and insult your way into silencing someone who dares to argue with facts. 

Rather than assuming that all men and every aspect of society are inherently programmed to mistreat women, we need to believe that human interaction should be free from constraint. Believe in unequivocal and uncompromising freedom of speech, and the free exchange of ideas between people in order to reach a more progressive outcome. The only way to do this is through an uncompromising belief in freedom. Freedom is everything you are in the western world. You aren’t a victim and you sure as hell aren’t oppressed. 

I keep hearing these same misconceptions over and over again and as women we need to stop falling for it, we’re only making ourselves look dumb. Let’s start with the wage gap. As I’ve posted many times, if you want to be paid more, then start putting more thought into your college major. The subjects which young feminists are gravitating to in order to be seen as “good, enlightened, educated feminists” only exist to attract those who are too lazy to study a real subject, they were created specifically for young feminists which may seem really awesome at the time but it gets you nowhere in the real world. Men on the other hand, they dominate the majors which lead to the highest paying jobs, not because of sexism but because they love to be challenged and to work hard - something feminism discourages altogether. There’s nothing stopping you from taking education more seriously so let’s make that our first goal, agreed? 

The second part of this wage gap discussion is, well it’s a myth. Feminists still to this day go on about it, complaining that when we enter the workforce we’re inevitably going to be given 23 cents less to our male colleagues just because we have different genitalia. How this hysteria began was by a kindergartener’s calculation of average income between men and women regardless of job position or any other factor, they compare male surgeons to female lunch ladies and scream OMG WAGE GAP! 

It has never been a direct comparison in wages, this isn’t about two people working for the same company in the same position with the same experience and working the same hours. Paying women less simply for being a woman is illegal. If it was really happening, why aren’t millions of women taking their employers to court for gender pay discrimination and ignoring the Equal Pay Act, an enforced law to ensure pay equality? Well probably because it doesn’t happen outside of feminism’s imaginary cruel misogynistic, woman-hating world.

Now this isn’t saying that most men don’t retire with more in their bank accounts because it’s true, men end up with more money, but it’s not because they’re being paid more for doing the same job as a woman, they’re simply being paid for jobs women don’t want to do. A lot of men earn more for that exact reason. They earn it. They dominate the hard, dirty, dangerous jobs that require more hours, later hours and involve higher risks for accident and death. They are also more willing to push themselves and fight for top positions. Again, something feminism discourages as they feel like it’s automatically owed to them. 

This is only talking about men closer to retirement age. When you begin to look at younger people, there’s a funny little fact that feminists love to exclude from their victim narrative: young women earn more than young men. Women are paid more than men until they reach their 40s, according to an official assessment of the gender pay gap by the Office for National Statistics. Women in their 20s have earned more than men in the same age group for the past decade and now women in their 30s are also paid more than males. Whether it’s because far more women are attending and graduating from college than men or whether it’s the direct result of affirmative action where women are being gifted scholarships and job positions for being women, that’s up for you to decide. Either way, you won’t ever hear a feminist talk about it.

That is not an attack on women and that obviously doesn’t include all women but these are the facts. Something else to take into consideration too: not every woman wants this. Not every woman cares about ending up with 23% less than their husband in retirement because they value family life more than their hours worked and how many men they competed with, they care about having children and living a loving, relaxed and homely life and that is their choice. The extra money they miss out on, they gain in a stronger, closer and invaluable bond and relationship with their children and it’s the father who gets 23% less of a bond. It’s all about perspective and personal choices. 

It’s probably why the large majority of women aren’t feminists - in order to be a feminist, you must see your decision to be a housewife or stay at home mom as proof you’re a victim to men and you must always be in competition with men. Most women simply don’t give a fuck lol most of us aren’t batshit crazy and aren’t constantly looking to blame men and see ourselves as victims. Most women just want to do what makes them happy and it’s about time feminists stop shaming these women for wanting a “gender conforming” life. 

Let’s focus on feminism’s next excuse to be lazy and unmotivated: their excuse about it being harder for women to break into typically dominated male fields. I really don’t need to spend much time on this one because as we all know, any woman is just as free to study STEM majors and are just as likely to be employed in STEM fields, even more with a little help from our friend affirmative action where now women have a 2:1 advantage when applying for a STEM job over men. 

Let’s think about why there may be less women in STEM fields, is it sexism or do women just make different choices? According to the US Department of Statistics women in STEM switch majors at a far higher rate than men once they realize that it’s too hard for them, sometimes all females drop out until there are only men left in classrooms and feminists scream sexism. How is this logical? Where is the accountability for women? Feminists also constantly go on about these hostile, sexist environments in math and engineering but you never hear them complain about biology, agriculture, vet medicine or law where women are flourishing. Is it possible that feminism only turns on the victim switch when men outperform women but stays quiet where women succeed? It appears so. 

Women earn more PhDs than men in the humanities, social sciences, education, life sciences. Men prevail in engineering, physics and computer science. Does our social constructed gender stereotypes or the patriarchy explain these differences? Or could it just be in the pursuit of happiness men and women take slightly different paths? When men and women get asked how they like to spend their free time, more men than women say they would enjoy manipulating tools and taking apart and putting together machines. Women are more likely to say they prefer to work with people or living things. The key word here was prefer. Having different preferences which leads to different levels of performance in different fields doesn’t make it sexist, it makes it a part of life. 

Girls do better in school, go to college more, graduate more and with higher grades, and in STEM have a 2:1 advantage when job seeking over men. Yet we are told this is not enough and because there’s still more men in some STEM fields, it has to be sexism. Have we ever considered the possibility that women just aren’t as interested as men? Believing in equality doesn’t mean that we have to force women into something they simply don’t want to do or aren’t as interested in to achieve equal ratios. It isn’t sexism, it is preference. A study asked STEM professors why they believe there aren’t as many women in STEM and almost all agreed it is because differences in interest between men and women. Men aren’t keeping women out of STEM, more women simply would rather be doing something else and there’s nothing wrong with that. 

Their final excuse probably bothers me above all and that’s when they say young women aren’t as interested because they don’t have as many women to inspire them or be role models. My question is, why do we need women role models? If we believe in equality so much, why can’t we look to a man who has achieved something great or a man in power and say “wow, he has a lot of characteristics that I could strive to attain and take on board, I should be that, embody that, go for it girl and become a boss just like this guy!” Would feminism ever find it acceptable for a man to say that boys need men as role models instead of women? No. So what’s the difference? Surely this is a better approach to encourage girls to get into male dominated fields than to scream sexism and send the message that young girls can only be inspired by their own gender. It has a bit of a sexist smell about it, if you ask me. 

Honestly, I think there is a lot more equality than we want to recognize because when we recognize that we can do the same things and achieve the same potential as men then we realize it’s really our fault and there’s no patriarchy to blame for our shortcomings and laziness. Are we ready to own our shit and make changes to the way we approach life or are we going to keep blaming men and encouraging victimhood? 

Feminism isn’t setting a good example but we as women need to stay calm and don’t let our emotions get in the way of our goals. Feminism tells us that the only way to crush “the patriarchy” is to be loud and obnoxious, to put men in their place, to walk around with our boobs and ass out and to stop caring about our looks and hygiene - and then they tell us to take them seriously. Sorry ladies, the world doesn’t work that way, you simply don’t get to be a slob and a CEO at the same time whether you’re a man or woman and regardless of where you live, professionalism is the same everywhere you go. That’s something feminism hates. They believe professionalism is the patriarchy, that professionalism is rich white men in the sky controlling our bodies. Give me a break. If you want others to take you seriously, first you have to take yourself seriously, it’s really not that difficult.

Use your voice as a strong woman but please, don’t be a screeching fucking feminist. Stay professional as possible and stay focused. People don’t want to take medical or legal advice or any type of professional advice from someone who isn’t rational or smells and looks like a furry garbage can or talks like a tantrum throwing child, that only sells insecurity and distrust. 

If you want a position of power, if you want to be taken seriously - be strong, be smart, don’t ever think something is owed to you for being a woman and don’t ever believe you are a victim of mythical white men controlling your every move. That is paranoid, borderline psychotic thinking and you need to stay as far away from this mindset as possible. This is why I encourage everyone to be ourselves rather than feeling like we have to be feminists. 

[dramacravings]

saimdaaaaaaaaaaaaang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this writer fucking respects and centers women. young saimdang’s love of art, poetry, education, and travel drives her story forward even as she receives an equally compelling romantic storyline with a well-matched, caring partner who likes, respects, and supports her. modern seo ji yoon’s storyline is driven by her love of research, education, and an appreciation for art and history, and she receives undivided attention for those qualities even as a woman who is a mother and a wife. even the existence of her family and her role within her family–as a wife, mother, and daughter-in-law–was all initially part of a deal with her husband that would allow her to follow her passions and study as an adult (which puts a whole other spin on the politics of gender, labor, wealth, and marriage to add to questions asked in dramas like we married as a job and secret love affair).

[this got away from me and it’s a poorly articulated mess. now you know.]

in addition to these great lead female characters, the two women are surrounded by men and women alike who all play a role in driving the story forward, no matter their station or position in society–(an audience member posing a question to a professor’s assistant at a conference, a poor young woman learning to read, etc.). even the smallest details from episode four’s sageuk setting warmed my uptight, neurotic little heart. small things like household leaders listening in on and getting information from female servants, another young female servant (choi hwieum dang) is explicitly given a certain complexity, specific interests, and desires outside of her station and outside of her interest in saimdang’s boyfriend (i’m not even calling him a mc at this point bc…he’s not really a lead yet (i love this)). she teaches herself to read and write in the dirt, and has an appreciation for art herself. not only is there a consciousness of class in the similarities and differences between saimdang and hwieum dang–what interests they’re able to cultivate, what lives and loves they’re able to live, despite both being talented and driven–but the script actively engages you in hwieum dang’s pov, her desires, pain, and motivations. the writer (PARK EUN RYUNG) absolutely does not demonize or make her seems small or petty in her actions, even centering her narrative and pain in a moment with the male lead in which he seems distant and selfish, and what would be a moment to write off the second female love interest as clingy or selfish in another inferior drama. idk, what i’m trying to say is, in another drama you would have to read between the lines to appreciate her or not be a little annoyed by her (exaggerated) actions but this drama takes her so seriously, there’s no need to read between the lines bc the writer actually sees her as a whole person and not a(n explicitly female) lazy plot device to add drama to the story. even her feelings for saimdang’s boyfriend are complex and you have to (have to!) wonder where her own motivations and desires for him lie. he’s handsome, kind to the poor such as herself, engages her mind, but she isn’t getting that kind of attention from anyone else, and in the moment when she most needs his help he dismisses her. they’re from different worlds. it’s unfair, and she wants revenge for the unfairness of her life, for what little his or siamdang’s kindness can even be worth in her situation. i can’t wait to see where life takes her. can. not. wait.

shortly after this incident between hwieum dang and sd’s boyfriend, saimdang’s parents are trying to protect her life (not her honor) and there were just a few details that seemed strange to me bc we don’t usually get this level of awareness in drama characters, especially female characters and /especially/ female characters who aren’t leads. saimdang’s mother is afforded basic reasoning skills and notices an intruder’s messy footprints in their home even as her husband tries not to alert her to him, rather than being ~completely oblivious~ to what was going on and probably messing everything up bc of her ignorance, which is something we see a lot in other dramas and WOMEN are often the ones who get scapegoated for this lazy writing. and THEN (this made the whole thing even better), saimdang overhears her parents’ conversation in front of the intruder, meaning she isn’t kept in the dark re what what’s going on (with /her/ life), what direction the story is going in. the story isn’t moving ahead without her understanding of the larger motivations–essentially, why she won’t be able to marry her boyfriend. not only does the drama respect its women but it respects the audience and doesn’t write in stupid shit, like driving plot lines forward with character ignorance or misunderstandings. idk, i feel really weird focusing on like, her mother making a correct inference about a situation, but this really does feel very generous (and so, so thoughtful) for a supporting, older female character. maybe it’s just me but these details really get to me, i don’t think i’m making up how scarce the existence of something as small as this is in other dramas.

go hye jung, seo ji yoon’s independent, caring, smart scientist friend and colleague, also a servant (lady-in-waiting type) of saimdang’s in the past, even presents interesting parallels and highlights how women’s roles have shifted from joseon to korean society (a significant period of time yes, but not in the same forward moving progressive ideology we’re often faced with). these women play similar roles in the past and present, though we haven’t seen contemporary or older sageuk choi hwieun dang yet. a lot has changed, and yet certain details retain similar threads. we see both saimdang and ji yoon marrying as part of a deliberate negotiation they made in order to get what they want in life beyond love or financial security, specifically. young saimdang’s naive love and potential marriage match is on the surface very sweet and based on mutual attraction, while at the same time saimdang’s ability to fulfill her dreams hinges on her boyfriend whatshisname’s decision to follow through on the promises he’s made. saimdang really can’t travel without him as her escort, which soon becomes apparent when saimdang is nearly killed traveling to the buddhist temple in the mountains. ofc this trip was one she took herself and the situation that resulted was in part driven by hwieum dang, who did not deliver saimdang’s message asking her boyfriend to escort her to the mountain. he doesn’t show up and saimdang and hwieum dang go to the mountain together where they’re both injured. later, the whole household gathers to protect and heal saimdang while hwieum dang, who saved saimdang’s life, is only chastised for being absent all day and told to get back to work, her wounds ignored. this sequence of scenes to and from the mountain is focused on hwieum dang

in the present, ji yoon’s ability to follow her passion can still be given or taken away by the men in her life–namely her husband and the professor, but also in a way her son, whose presence greatly influences where her energy is spent and how she negotiates her home life and her career. here we see how her mother-in-law plays a role in this, thinking the best of her son and acting in a way that her daughter-in-law did not want to tell her about a trip abroad for work where she wouldn’t be able to take care of her son, yet she still admires and treats her daughter-in-law well. meanwhile, go hye jung, her colleague and friend has a very different experience as a modern woman than she had as a servant to saimdang. she is a scientist/lab tech/idk at a university (or some other lab?), she lives on her own in an apartment, helps saimdang solve mysteries re her research, and while we don’t (yet, hopefully,) see a lot of her life outside of saimdang (and she is sometimes stereotyped as a fat female character, more so as a servant in the past than in the future), we are able to contrast how ji yoon’s alliance with her husband and professor have have allowed her to do more than hye jung, in theory, but that those privileges come with strings that can close and open doors to ji yoon depending on how she behaves, how these men choose to react to her behavior based on their own often selfish needs and desires, which are all more complex than we initially get to see, but ji yoon is still the one paying the price and bearing much of the burden for the political and financial situations our characters find themselves in. and STILL ji yoon is the lead and it’s not all about how she suffers, still the story is about the mystery and the life of another woman, saimdang, that drives her forward and motivates her to get through the difficulties of her life. i’m bawling about it. it’s too good.

even the men are interesting and complex without these details concealing or excusing their flaws OR allowing their stories to take precedent over the women’s stories. saimdang’s boyfriend isn’t one dimensional or just handsome but neither are we required to disengage from saimdang in order to understand him or his motivations (bc he’s not the lead–i know he’s a lead but, i’ll believe it when i see it lol). he and saimdang share a love for art and poetry, yet we see more of his interest in saimdang bc saimdang’s interests and future are prioritized. when the king/prime minister(?) comes to see who gyeom is in love with (boyfriend’s name is gyeom! i remember now), his majesty meets saimdang on his own–we only know second-hand that gyeom has spoken to others about her. here, saimdang’s interaction with this man is prioritized, NOT gyeom’s account of saimdang to him.

a lot of this shit is just basic taking-all-of-your-characters-seriously and i’m annoyed that women can write woman-centric stories with equal gender ratios, prioritize women’s narratives, and STILL write men as three-dimensional human beings, but men can’t do the same. i should be used to it by now but the fact that it isn’t surprising doesn’t make it any less fucking annoying. whatever. but i mean…there are men writing politically rebellious poetry to each other and crying about it (i was moved lol) in this drama and you’d never see women doing this with the same level of care in another drama. you just don’t. whatever though! you all already know this. /i/ know this. i’ll shut up now, but i had to mention the rebellious poetry and the crying.

anyway. saimdang is an island of its own in dramaland right now. i’ve read some comments that the first two episodes weren’t really grabbing people but i had the opposite reaction. slice-of-life/drama is my favorite drama category, but it’s rare that we see a story with fantastical or political or mystery elements that really explores the lives of women like this and i couldn’t help but be drawn in by that. not /only/ that though, bc i think the story is smart and well-paced and engaging as well, and i love how the past/present parallels are being drawn, which is often pretty messy or not compelling in other dramas that try to do something similar. i’m considering checking out tomorrow with you but i just can’t imagine being as moved by lee je hoon’s time travel adventures with His Wife, who i’m anticipating will be more of a motivating factor for the male lead’s emotional development and his actions but i’ll be happy if i’m proven wrong. i do know that other writers and dramas appreciate women, it’s just been a long three-month drama dry spell, and a long year, and i needed this drama rn. i love saimdang / light’s diary / the herstory / memory of colors. kimyoungkwang seokangjoon gongyoo leedongwook flowerknights janghyuk yeonwoojin namgoongmin jisung rebelthiefguy and leejehoon can get the fuck IN LINE where they belong, as far as i’m concerned.

[iddongwoo-blog]

√ geyser.

( SKILL BUILDING PROMPT ) +5 EXP; +5 PER | 855 w. + DETAIL YOUR CHARACTER DOING A VLIVE BROADCAST 

what with all that’s been happening lately, dongwoo isn’t surprised by now that they’ve been put on the bench again. there’s still some things to do, of course – photoshoots and CFs to look pretty for. dongwoo doesn’t complain about that. he never minds looking pretty for a camera. the best kind of revenge in this industry is a good image. besides, he’s made as much peace as possible concerning that scandal, though he doubts it’ll go away any time soon. he might even be out of the business before it does. none of it stops his manager from trying to get him to maintain a better image – better now than ever, considering everything – and at this point dongwoo is starved for attention that he’d normally be uncomfortable under. there’s nothing like a good drought to make anyone appreciate the value of water.

anyone would expect dongwoo never to show his face in front of the camera again, but a strong image means that he fixed up his room and put up some posters he’d been meaning to frame from a year ago. it’s all fashion, all art. he can’t take back a ruined image. that shit stays with anyone forever, or as long as they’re under the scrutiny of the public, but the least he can do – and he agrees with his manager, for once! – is try to seem normal. good. decent.

the video counts down and clicks to start, and he flashes a smile, still hooded, but as healthy as make-up would allow him to look. instantly the hearts start flooding in. he’s not surprised by that, either. cures are a tenacious bunch, and he may have only bluffed once or twice about being grateful to his fans. he is, truly. there’s no one in this industry who wouldn’t be. they’re the reason why he still has a job, after all.

“hello – thanks for coming in.” it’s provocative, thoughtless, so he rubs the top of his head, under the hood, and mutters. “ah, that sounded weird. thanks for tuning in.”

smile. – of course. that’s important, too. god, how do people do this so often without feeling their faces crack? “it’s been a while, hasn’t it, everyone? poizn has been working hard for all of you, so please support us~”

hey, didn’t he sound like a rookie just now? LOL not surprising....bye kdruggie...

he chooses to ignore that. “the other members are doing their own stuff right now, so i got to decorate today! do you guys like it?” there’s a strategic way to showing the wall behind him while also keeping attention on him. a bit of his face, perhaps, but a good 60% face 30% background ratio always does the trick. the hood falls back again when he runs his fingers through his hair, “ah~ i bought a lot of it over the years but i never got to hanging any of them around, so it was quite fun doing it without anyone looking over my shoulder. i really like art...and i’m also starting to get into comics–,” lie. he just liked the way it looked, not the stories. heroes don’t exist. “so if you guys would like to recommend some good comics to read, that would be great.”

haha, he really is jobless now... serves him right don’t listen to them KD-oppa we love you so much get these haters outta here KD is the best icb this

he ignores it again. this is supposed to be a chance to connect with fans and maybe make new ones – that’s always the deal with these things – but now all he seems to be doing is alienating a bunch of people and making his own fans seem as delusional as everyone says they are. “ah...” his hand curls behind his neck. months ago he would have berated this kind of behaviour, played to his strengths, but now he sucks air through his teeth and swallows his pride and his words. “seems like there’s a lot going on lately, isn’t there? don’t worry, everyone. i’ve been working hard, too. i hope you guys don’t lose your way when you try to reach your dreams. it seems so cheesy. but if you work hard for it, success will come to you. look at my collection!” he smiles and gives a thumbs up, “but that’s all the time we have for today. don’t forget what i said, cures! and seriously, give me suggestions for comics, okay? i want to be able to talk about it with some of you when we meet again. thank you again!” now he waves. it hurts to keep smiling this much, but at least he’s doing it late enough at night that he has every excuse to fall asleep in a face mask.

at least now his manager won’t have anything to complain about. heck, he might even be praised for how well he seemed like a good guy today – or berated for diverging too much from the narrow poizn tightrope, and everyone’s just waiting for them to fall off, one by one.

[quranreadalong]

#55, Surah 8

THE QURAN READ-ALONG: DAY 55

Mohammed is looking fresh and feeling fine due to his success in battle, and decides that now is a good time for another rant about disbelievers.

8:26 is where we start today, reminding the Muslims how “Allah” brought them from Mecca to Medina to strengthen them. That is followed by a reminder to never betray Mohammed or Allah. Neutral, whatever. Then:

And know that your possessions and your children are a test, and that with Allah is immense reward. 

That’s fitna again--trial, temptation, test, what have you. We’ve seen “the afterlife is more important than this life” plenty of times, but I do believe this is the first time Mohammed’s brought someone’s children into it. He’s basically saying that being overly concerned with your kids can make you lose sight of the fact that following Allah’s will in pursuit of jannah is man’s ultimate duty. Pretty bad, man.

8:29 returns us back to “keep your duty to Allah” territory, assuring people that he will rid them of evil if they do so.  Allah then assures Mohammed that he is plotting against the evildoing disbelievers who wanted to kill and/or expel him from Mecca. Again, this is an odd way of framing the circumstances, but it’s neutral.

I would like to quote the next part in full:

And when Our revelations are recited unto them they say: We have heard. If we wish we can speak the like of this. Lo! this is naught but fables of the men of old.  And when they said: O Allah! If this be indeed the truth from Thee, then rain down stones on us or bring on us some painful doom! But Allah would not punish them while thou wast with them, nor will He punish them while they seek forgiveness.

The Meccans truly weren’t here for Mohammed’s bullshit and didn’t think his poetry was very miraculous. They told Allah to rain brimstone down on them if Mohammed was being truthful, like in the various stories he was rattling off (see: surah seven). Of course, Allah did no such thing. Why? Because he didn’t want to harm Mohammed and his followers, and wanted to give people a chance to “seek forgiveness” (for.... being disbelievers). But Allah didn’t seem to have a problem with destroying any cities in the various genocides of surah seven, he just ensured that the believing people were kept safe. Hmm. I suppose they’re neutral, if shitty, excuses, but like Mohammed’s shitty explanations for why Allah doesn’t let anyone else see Gabriel, it’s hard to blame the Quraysh for not falling for this.

8:34 says that the situation has now changed, though. Allah won’t forgive them for acting as the guardians of the mosque in Mecca (the sanctuary of the Kaaba... which they built...) and determining who is allowed in it when only Muslims should be allowed to do that. He also disapproves of them being so damn happy while praying there:

And their worship at the (holy) House is naught but whistling and hand-clapping. Therefore (it is said unto them): Taste of the doom because ye disbelieve. 

Kuffar hell counter: 1! And man, Islam can be so goddamn joyless. Let the damn disbelievers clap their hands, asshole. Bad.

The hits keep on coming in 8:36, where again we are reminded that the disbelievers will be gathered together and sent straight to hell.

But there is still time for them to turn back and stop “persecuting Muslims” (fitna again, testing/trying/etc). The fitna here was that they didn’t want to let Mohammed’s people back into Mecca for the pilgrimage after they voluntarily left, because they were quite understandably afraid of it being used as a pretext for taking over the city. Anyway, if they don’t stop doing that, Muslims have to fight them until only Islam is practiced among them. Look, even though Mohammed’s goddamn victim complex is infuriating, I will call the first one neutral. The last one is unavoidably bad and no, I don’t care that it says “but only if they don’t stop persecuting!” because look at what the “persecution” really is in context! Also, forcing your religion on people in any circumstance is bad.

Anyway. Allah is your friend and such. 8:41 brings up the khums I mentioned in the last section. 4/5 of the war booty is distributed among the soldiers. The remaining 1/5 is for Mohammed himself and his family and people of his clan. This didn’t just apply to currency, but anything gained from the enemy--animals, etc. (Here’s a fantastic hadith about Mohammed’s drunk uncle Hamza featuring a camel that was given to Ali from the khums). Theoretically some of it is to be given to “orphans and travelers and the needy”, though there is no given ratio for how the khums is to be distributed among the above groups. In reality, Mohammed used it to provide for his personal expenses, the households of his multiple wives, his daughters, and his more extended family. Mohammed enriching himself was not really the problem in the eyes of the Muslims, who obviously believed he was entitled to whatever “Allah” said. When people grumbled about this, the problem was more about him enriching his cousins and such.

To blunt the impact of that whole “btw this is a cult where I hand out special favors to my family while y’all fight over scraps in war LOL!” thing, he goes back to talking about the Battle of Badr, again mentioning the caravan vs army fork. That ayah tells us that both those who survived (believers) and those who died (disbelievers) demonstrated evidence of Allah’s existence. Neutral, I guess, but compare this to what happened at Uhud and you can see why surah 3 was all damage control. After that, Mohammed says that Allah told him in a dream that their enemies’ numbers would be small, which gave the Muslims hope. As in surah 3, we are also told that Allah made the disbelieving Meccans see the Muslims’ numbers as far more than they really were. (We don’t know the real numbers on either side.)

Let’s wrap this up. Allah tells Muslims to hold firm in battle in 8:45 and to obey Mohammed in the next ayah. Fair enough. What a waste of a section, really. Did we learn anything, other than the fact that Mohammed likes money? Eh...

NEXT TIME: More battle stuff!!!!

The Quran Read-Along: Day 55

Ayat: 21

Good: 0

Neutral: 15 (8:26-27, 8:29-33, 8:38, 8:40-46)

Bad: 6 (8:28, 8:34-37, 8:39)

Kuffar hell counter: 1 (8:35-37)

⇚ previous day | next day ⇛

[anoopkam]

Yesterday, I got the chance to visit the restaurant Coco Bongo at Pattom, Trivandrum… I had been seeing a bunch of posts praising the Biriyani that they serve here and so since I happened to be nearby, stopped by for lunch 🙂

For those who may not be aware, the restaurant is located right next to the gate of St. Mary’s school and it above the Chicking outlet over there… Contrary to the way leading to the restaurant, I found the restaurant to be incredibly clean and shiny with a look that reminded me of a starred place… I was alone in there as I walked in, but soon found the place to be packed with practically everyone going for the Biriyani… 🙂

Coco Bongo

Coco Bongo

Coco Bongo

Coco Bongo

The menu here definitely a multi-cuisine one with options ranging from Sandwiches and Burgers to Steaks 🙂 But as mentioned before, I was there to check out the much revered Biriyani of theirs… Also, since I was in the mood for some soup, went for their Sweet Corn Chicken Soup as well, along with their Chicken Biriyani…

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

Chicken Biriyani

So, after about 20 mins or so, I was served the soup… The Sweet Corn Chicken Soup is something I have been seeing in practically all restaurant menus throughout my life and is one of my favourites since its usually the one soup thats not spicy and rather has a pretty vocal sweet component to it… Of-course the Cream of Chicken came later 🙂 Anyways, it was light and slightly creamy, made with Chicken stock, Sweet Corn and Egg white drop… It also had some shredded chicken white meat as well in it and was served as shown in the below pics…

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

Now coming to the taste, it was indeed sweet and the flavours of the Chicken stock and the egg really came thru and the pieces of chicken in it were cooked perfectly… As can be seen fro the above pics, there is no shortage of Egg white in it… However, what I found lacking in this is the seasoning (Any Sodium Police in the house?)… I ended up having to put in quite a lot of salt and pepper from the shakers on the table to be able to enjoy the soup… Once I put in enough of those, the soup tasted excellent… 🙂

Once I was done with the soup, the Biriyani arrived… I was indeed surprised at how the Biriyani looked when it arrived… I mean just look at the pics… The shape is just perfect and smooth… To be frank, what the shape reminded me of was the stone they use in the sport known as Curling in the Winter Olympics (feel free to look it up)… Anyways, the biriyani arrived on a plate topped with some fried onions and a couple of fried cashew nuts and was served along with a small cup of the Vegetable Raita and some Pickle made out of Dates… The Biriyani was found to be made in the Malabari style with the aromatic small grain rice with the meat that was pre-fried before cooking into the Dum…

Chicken Biriyani

Chicken Biriyani

Chicken Biriyani

The Raita and Pickle

Chicken Biriyani

Regarding this Biriyani, first of all, the flavours seem to perfectly match that of the Biriyani thats sold by the nearby bakery named Square One and so I am not entirely sure if thats just a coincidence that it tasted exactly the same (only difference is in the rice used)… Maybe the owner can clarify at some point… So, basically loved the taste of the masala used and the rice was indeed of the aromatic kind… The masala was of mild spice level with a perfect sweet to spicy ratio with the tastes of the ginger-garlic paste and the garam masala (with some extra cinnamon, cardamom, clove and the maze spice) along with the taste of caramelised onions and there was a slight hint of ghee in it as well… The flavours worked incredibly well with the aromatic rice… The Chicken as I mentioned appeared to have been pre-fried as can be seen… The Raita that was served had onions, tomatoes and green chillies and the curd was indeed fresh as in, not turned sour yet… The dates pickle was awesome… Intense flavour of the date and chillies throughout making it incredibly sweet and spicy at the same time… Both the raita and the pickle worked incredibly well with the Biriyani…

Now, unfortunately I must mention the negatives as well… Regarding the restaurant service, I would suggest the owner give some training to the staff because, two things were observed:

The staff looked absolutely clueless when I walked in… Thats is, felt like they were confused and weren’t expecting any customers even though it was close to 12:30pm… [I hope it was not because of my appearance… lol… 😀 😀 😛 ]

I was never served water to drink until I ran out of patience and asked for it… This is not a good thing to do especially when you only have one customer in the restaurant… So, clearly being understaffed is not an excuse… And towards the end of my visit, when the room became packed, I looked around and observed that not a single table was served water… Not sure why this basic courtesy was being ignored…

Now coming to the food, I don’t have any complaints about the waiting time, but I did find a couple of issues with the Biriyani that I got…

The first is that as I mentioned earlier, the Chicken looked pre-fried… But the problem is that when I tried eating the chicken pieces, I found it to be overcooked, to the point of it being dry and tough to chew… Chicken when cooked properly has to be incredibly soft that at the slightest touch with a fork or a spoon, the meat has to just slide and fall off the bone… As you can see from the closeup pic below, its clear that the meat is dry and has shrunk (you can see the meat fiber curled up) which only happens when you overcook the meat… It was a bit disappointing because, the flavours of the masala and rice like I mentioned before was just perfect… The Biriyani came with a breast piece and a shoulder with wing piece… Both ended up being overcooked, with the breast piece being the worse of the two as its the part of the chicken that cooks the fastest… I seriously hope that this was an isolated incident and won’t happen again…

The other problem is that I found the Biriyani to be a bit more greasy than most of the options I have had… The pic below shows the amount of oil traces left at the bottom of the plate which should give an indication as to how much oil content was there in the Biriyani… The whole point of Dum cooking is that you get a healthy way of cooking by locking in all the steam and flavours and this doesn’t actually need any oil to be poured in… At best, you need just a minimum amount (teaspoons max) if you really want the taste of the fat being added (e.g. ghee… Can’t really understand the point of adding the almost tasteless refined oil)…

Overcooked Chicken

Oil Content

Anyways, even with the pitfalls mentioned, hoping that this was a bad day, I do hope to go back there again on a regular/good day to be able to try again… From what I understand regarding the place from a friend of mine, there are enough items in their menu which I really should be trying… So, hopefully will be doing the same soon…

Coco Bongo – First Visit – Biriyani Yesterday, I got the chance to visit the restaurant Coco Bongo at Pattom, Trivandrum... I had been seeing a bunch of posts praising the Biriyani that they serve here and so since I happened to be nearby, stopped by for lunch 🙂

[theghettoracer-blog]

Written by Frank M. Lin 3/30/2017 5:41 am @ San Francisco, California – the latest 2018 Honda Civic Type-R was unveiled officially in AutoCon in Southern California recently.  I was randomly surfing and came across a collection of rave reviews about the good old DC2 ITR.  Check them out.

  The wait has been so long that I’m not even excited about the new CTR in USA.  I mean it’s like, I’ll believe it when I actually get to drive it.  Lol lol.  But I tell you guys what I REALLY LIKE the current generation of Civic’s.  Be it the sedan, the 5 door fastback or even the coupe.  It looks impressive in every way.  I’m going to definitely R&D parts for it.  They are selling like hot cakes in San Francisco Bay Area.  They are EVERYWHERE!!  Honda sold something like 36,000 of them in January of 2017 alone.  When I stopped by the locale dealer to pick up a brochure for the new Civic they don’t even have any!!  They ran out…   if that’s not an indication of how popular the car is I don’t know what does.

    “Once every generation, one car stands out for using advanced technology to provide a new peak of driving pleasure. Our aim was to make the Integra Type R the outstanding car of our generation.” Hisao Suzuki, President, Honda Research and Development, Europe.

“Some car makers talk about building cars for road and track… but Honda went ahead and did it. It’s laid the sauce on thick, too, so the Type R won’t be to everyone’s taste.” Wheels, March 2001

“The weighting of the steering is glorious, the feel of the wheel rim superb and the chassis absolutely intuitive. It practically implores you to rip in and join the fun, allowing the driver to be an integral part of the experience. It’s simultaneously, a tool and a toy, singing its song for you alone.” MOTOR, January 2001

“Toss the Type R into even the slightest bend and you’ll feel it rotate about its axis like a true racecar. Once out, the tail is easily balanced with the throttle just as the automotive gods always intended. Absolutely awesome.” Josh Jacquot; Sport Compact Car, April 2001

“The Type R is a finely honed tool for driving fast, a car engineered in almost every detail not to coddle or insulate, but to communicate. If driving a Type R doesn’t make the petroleum in your blood boil, you should collect your pushrods and go home.” Dave Coleman; Sport Compact Car, April 2001

“The Acura Integra Type R is designed for autocrossers and road racers who revere performance and handling above all else. This car makes no pretense of being a car for the masses. The Type R was designed by racers for racers… It’s an exclusive cult car.” Grassroots Motorsports, April 2001

“The Honda Integra Type R, though, is no normal front-driver. While the bodyshell is starting to look dated (and outrageous with the Type R’s wing), the interesting stuff is all underneath. It’s virtually a road registerable club racer, with braces inside and underneath the boot, as well as across the engine bay; there’s the rock solid race spec suspension, the gun Recaro seats, the thick leather steering wheel and, the secret weapon, a limited slip differential.” MOTOR, October, 2000

“The Honda is really something to savour on a good bit of road. There’s the sensational engine note, full of menace, purpose and anger, the wonderful shift action and the instant throttle response. It’s easy to drive quickly in any weather and it gets its power to the road amazingly well. It’s a furiously busy weapon built to charge over racetracks and mountain passes time and again… if it’s reputations you want to cut down, get yourself a Type R and go hunting… It’s gallant. It’s fast. And it’s a winner.” MOTOR, October, 2000

“A really awesome car. Plenty of bang for your bucks from behind the wheel. The engine sounds fantastic and revs all the way to 9,000 rpm and the power is still there. The chassis surprised me. For a front driver it’s so user-friendly. It turns in superbly and doesn’t understeer or get tailly. It’s quite neutral. It gets a little bit nervous at the rear in the high speed stuff, but it’s very, very hard to make a mistake and get it to do anything drastic. One of the favorite for sure.” MOTOR, October, 2000

“Raw, uncompromising driver’s car that’s too much for some, but so taut, so well set-up and with such a terrific engine, you’ll be gasping for superlatives.” Wheels, December 2000

“The way the Type R’s shifter is literally perfect in throw and action are unmatched anywhere else. Shifts at redline are rewarded with immediate power delivery in the next gear, steering speed and precision are awesome and seats that actually hold you in place go a long way towards making the Type R a real driver’s car.” Sport Compact Car, November 2000

“The Type R’s chassis and power combination tends to be untouchable when tested under [winding mountain road] conditions, (at least at this price point).” Sport Compact Car, November 2000

“The Integra Type R, however, is a focused, concentrated, near-racecar environment at ten-tenths. It involves the driver more in the business of going fast, supplying keen feedback and amazing control sharpness… We like to think Sport Compact Car readers understand the merits of balance, precision and thorough sorting of a car’s chassis and engine – all of which the Integra Type R exhibits in excess.” Sport Compact Car, November 2000

“The VTEC power delivery is addictive, the chassis is razor sharp, the interior has just the bare essentials, and its one of those cars you need to drive before you die … [the Integra Type R] is one of Japan’s best kept secrets.” EVO Magazine, September 2000

“Bury your preconceptions about front wheel drive and you’ll find Honda’s Integra Type R is one of the world’s ultimate driving machines.” EVO Magazine, August 2000

“The original feisty front-drive coupe, with a jewel-like 1.8 litre VTEC ‘four’ and benchmark handling. The Type R concept at it’s very best. You would never believe a front-drive car could possess as much poise and adjustability as the Integra Type R… Honda must be smiling. It also makes the best noise of any four pot in production.” EVO Magazine, May 2000

“This [car] is the business. This does it all properly. This is a car which someone has taken the time to refine for track work. It does everything terrifically from its direct and exact gearshift to its gear ratios. Honda has done its homework with a sharpened pencil… From the form-fitting winged bucket seats, you’re very much a part of the car. It feels really solid like a real racing car. And it sounds fabulous.” Wheels, February 2000

“The Honda Integra Type R is immensely rewarding, provided you drive it with a purpose. Treated like a daily driver, the bone-jarring ride and booming cabin noise will batter you into submission. But driven hard, as its maker intended, the Type R is the ultimate drug-free high.” Wheels, December 1999

“The Integra Type R is much more than the sum of its parts. Response and reaction to driver input is almost instantaneous, endowing the pedals and steering wheel with a delightful communication. Lightning quick throttle response places a massive strain on the Bridgestone Potenzas as they attempt to disperse the power.” Wheels, December 1999

“The Integra Type R demands attention. Become distracted and you risk losing everything… This is a focused car for serious drivers; posers apply elsewhere… Every little flick of the wheel and stab on the pedal is rewarded with an immediate accurate response.” Wheels, December 1999

“If you want the closest thing to a race car for under [Australian]$30,000 then the Integra Type R is for you.” Wheels, December 1999

“With the race goggles firmly in place, issues like ride quality become almost irrelevant.” Wheels, December 1999

“The Type R surprised us with its aggression on turn-in and with the incredibly tight lines that could be held through the corners.” Wheels, December 1999

“Rewriting the rules of automotive performance, the Type R makes no excuses for its extraneous rear seats, its traditionally suspect drivetrain layout, or its quasi-utilitarian styling. Despite these “handicaps,” the Type R proudly stands out from the crowd as a brutally effective weapon of single-minded purposefulness. The Type R is a giant-killer on the track, taking on cars much more expensive. By all appearances the Type R is untouchable.” Sport Compact Car, April 1999

“Currently the car to have in this sector and a truly spectacular drive. Stripped of all creature comforts, this is a true sports car with a superb, free-revving 187 bhp engine, amazing levels of roadholding and grip with the sharpest steering of any mass-market coupe. Very tough and well-built but lacks any pretense of refinement.” What Car?, August 1999

“… I’d found it was indeed an admirable work of steely Japanese engineering.” CAR, February 1999

“Fundamentally the Integra feels like a simple, rudely mechanical car, but it’s very clever with it. It pares driving down to its raw materials – instant engine response, and a noise to match; fantastic turn-in and feedback (road surface through your seat, grip through the wheel). It takes a few miles to cut through the Integra Type R’s superficial showiness, which is all rawness and racy pretensions, but beneath that, it is an awesome driver’s car. Like the way it drives, its appeal is elemental – that back to basic, deeply psychological pleasure in pointing and squirting in a car, down roads that rip and roar like the winding ribbon of a rollercoaster… This is the pure way.” CAR, February 1999

“The truth is, though, the Integra Type R remains an enigma, titanium gear knob and all.” CAR, February 1999

“… like the off-duty competition car it is, it’s an impossible car to drive absent-mindedly without looking very amateur indeed.” CAR, February 1999

“Limited numbers. Perfectly focused. Marginal business for a major carmaker, true. The kind of product that driving evangelists drool over and marketing saps witter on about as a ‘halo product’ which ‘strengthens the brand proposition.’ ” CAR, October 1998

“… the Integra Type R is pure-bred Japanese – as seductive a reflection of Tokyo’s obsession with the mad, bad and dangerous-to-resist bits of driving as Nissan’s Skyline GT-R.” CAR, October 1998

“There are faster cars than the Integra Type R, sure enough. But few that are as unashamedly emotional in their appeal.” CAR, October 1998

“The Integra Type R encourages you, you sad car purist, to listen for the onset of serious good stuff.” CAR, October 1998

“The Integra Type R feels like it was painstakingly honed as a statement, to reposition Honda as a creator of adrenaline-soused cars.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R, more than anything else, is defiant narrowcasting. You either get it or you don’t.” CAR, May 1998

“…you feel the Integra Type R; there’s an irrefutable mechanical quality. Plunge hard and late into a corner and this car adjusts through neutral to understeer, poised, sharp, accurate.” CAR, May 1998

“There’s cleverness, too, in the way the Cocker Spaniel-on-sulphate alacrity of the engine ties in with the alertness of the limited slip differential, the fabulously tough brakes with Porsche pedal feel and perfectly weighted steering to allow you, quite simply, to get the jollies, big time.” CAR, May 1998

“…the Integra Type R propounds a strictly emotional appeal. There’s nothing rational about a loud, firmly sprung car that will annoy eight passengers out of ten. The Integra Type R exists at one remove from rational. It’s selfish.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R propounds a strictly emotional appeal… The Integra Type R is emotional like the Blues is emotional… Should you ponder if the Integra Type R be less demanding, you miss the point.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R appeals to the racing driver in you, the suppressed sliver in your soul which is obsessed with tricky bits of engineering that the person in the street is genetically resistant to, the chunk of your heart which beats faster when you’re on a satisfying road in a satisfying car, the part of you which says you will never, ever, drive a Vauxhall Vectra by choice.” CAR, May 1998

“No European car, irrespective of price, matches the sheer intensity of the Integra Type R. This car re-defines middle-management performance machinery as a product light on deportment and heavy on thrills. But beware. Integra Type R is, above all, addictive. And definitely raw.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R is as extreme a car as you can buy, irrespective of price. There are days when you will hate the noise, the rort, the big rear wing masking the rear view, a literally uncomfortable relationship with zitular road surfaces, times when the ownership effort seems too damned wearing. But those moments will be outnumbered tenfold by the sheer bonkers perfection of the thing, the way it delivers pleasure – raw, demanding, self-obsessed, techno, laugh-’til-you-burst delight – at a level other car makers don’t understand.” CAR, May 1998

“Like every great lightweight, Honda’s Integra Type R is a brilliant drive because the engineers dispensed with unnecessary luxury items, concentrating instead on honing the mechanical package to maximize the car’s performance, handling and roadholding.” Performance Car, April 1998

“In short, its one very special motor, turning even the shortest journey into a qualifying lap.” Performance Car, April 1998

“Driven as it’s intended the Integra Type R is a blisteringly quick real-world car.” Performance Car, April 1998

“The chassis is a gem, too, with amazing levels of grip and traction but retaining equally brilliant levels of feedback and throttle adjustability.” Performance Car, April 1998

“Its a magical combination of Peugeot 306 GTI 6 fluidity, Ford Puma feel and [Renault] Clio Williams balance but with an infinitely adaptable cornering attitude, from steady understeer through neutral four wheel drifts to tail-out lift-off oversteer without ever feeling twitchy or unstable. All of which goes to make the Integra Type R the most focused, best handling front wheel drive car we’ve ever driven.” Performance Car, April 1998

“Put simply, the Integra Type R is the most enthralling front drive car we’ve ever had the luck to get our sticky mits on. It’s a race-sharpened road car with a hand finished motor, stiffened body shell and Recaro interior…” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“Amazingly, the engine isn’t the highlight of the Type R. The chassis is simply spectacular. Whether you’re on the road or racetrack, you can do almost anything with it. Understeer isn’t on the agenda, even in the wet, and with a little fancy throttle work you can vary the cornering attitude from delicious four wheel drifts to lurid oversteer with a lift of your right foot.” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“The wonderful thing about this is the forgiving nature with which it lets go. With a little practice you can drive straight to 100% and then start to play.” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“Think of the Integra Type R as a sports coupe and you’ll be sorely disappointed. However, regard it as a front drive Lotus Elise with a roof and you’ll be just about spot-on.” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“… there is a deftness and dialogue between the steering wheels and the road that’s almost Lotus Elise in its purity.” CAR, November 1997

“Push your luck and the Integra Type R will let go, but it is so informative that you’re never kept in the dark about what’s coming and you can with fine steering inputs.” CAR, November 1997

“… the Integra Type R is one of those cars that you don’t want to get out of. Even after 200 odd miles, deep into Sunday night, I’m still seeking out empty back roads whacking the lights onto full beam and listening to the sound of roadside stones bouncing off of the sills, doing a Colin McRae, just driving and driving fast. This little Honda with the so-what shape has gate crashed a very select club where the only criteria for membership is unalloyed driving pleasure.” CAR, November 1997

“The Integra Type R disguises its front wheel drive layout with sensational track-bred handling.” CAR, December 1997

“Wrist-flick through the gears and extend that marvelous engine to the sort of revs that sends cranks through the blocks of most rivals and you’ll reach nirvana that you would have thought well beyond a front drive car.” CAR, December 1997

“On a racetrack the Integra Type R is the best handling FWD car any of us can remember. It steers more like a race car than a road car, turning in with a sharpness and élan that bely its streetcar disguise. And once committed through a bend, it hangs on with amazing grace… It doesn’t scrabble and scream and drift and porpoise, like many front drive cars on the edge of their abilities. It just powers around the bend in a nicely controlled drift.” CAR, December 1997

“On the track the Integra Type R kisses goodbye to understeer and marks a new benchmark for front drive precision. If it had a little more life at 7/10ths on the road, we’d be hardly able to contain ourselves.” CAR, December 1997

“If you want to know what real top-end power feels like, the Integra Type R will get you closer to [Team Honda Sport Touring Car race driver, Gabriele] Tarquini’s weekend car than anything this side of a Ferrari F355.” Autocar, August 27, 1997

“The Integra Type R is actually closer in character to a Ferrari F355 than the NSX is. If this doesn’t make it the best car ever to come out of Japan, I’m not sure what does.” Autocar, August 27, 1997

“Brilliant. Absolutely and utterly brilliant. The Integra Type R is a supreme driver’s car at a price that makes sense…” Performance Car, November 1997

“Some cars feel fast. Some cars are fast. Some cars, like the Integra Type R, are both at the same time.” Performance Car, November 1997

“Its extraordinary performance combined with its excellent chassis dynamics give the Type R enough point to point potential to embarrass supercars and makes you question the need to spend more than £20k on a sportscar.” Performance Car, November 1997

“The sensation you have is that of being in a racing car, in terms of reaction speed and aggressive driving position.” Gabriele Tarquini, Team Honda Sport Touring Car race driver.

“Incredible. The best road car engine I’ve ever driven on a race circuit.” James Kay former Touring Car Champion.

New Honda Civic Type-R and the old press quotes about the Honda DC2 Integra Type-R Written by Frank M. Lin 3/30/2017 5:41 am @ San Francisco, California - the latest 2018 Honda Civic Type-R was unveiled officially in AutoCon in Southern California recently.