#this is mostly anti james but sure why not

[moonlightdancer26]

Hey, I just saw a Marauder stan claiming that James has changed because he apparently plans to make Snape the godfather of his second child. Like... what ?? Do you know where this is coming from ?

*laughs in day 3760 of dealing with Marauder stans’ fanon bullshit*

Aight, let’s get to work:

That claim is a completely unfounded fan-theory that makes no sense whatsoever. This theory/whateverweshouldcallit was presented as one of Jowling Kowling Rowling’s headcanons/unpublished ideas, but it did not originate with her.

There are so many things wrong with this fan theory, including the fact that:

Lily was not pregnant with a second child and even if she was I highly doubt that she and James would pick Snape as a godfather. Peter is right there [a) I’m not counting Sirius because he’s already Harry’s godfather so let’s assume they’ll want to pick someone else b) I’m not counting Remus because we were told that they suspected him at that time]

They didn't know that he already was on the good side at the time and probably haven't even seen him for years.

Even if they knew, James most definitely would not pick Severus as the godfather (no matter how much he supposedly changed), and hell, I don’t even think Sevy himself would want that. Jimothy and the leapfrog would probably pick Sirius again, or perhaps Peter, whom they trusted oh-so much? (😏)

As far as we know Sevy and the deadhead redhead never crossed paths once during the war. They were on opposite sides of the war and Lily got married to James. It’s more than likely they never crossed paths after graduation. Even when Severus had begun operating as a double-agent for Dumbles—which was before Lily died, mind you—the Order was completely unaware of it.

To even get remotely close to the sort of scenario, this would mean that:

— Severus and Lily would need to have rekindled their friendship.

— James and Sev would have needed to make peace with each other.

— Dumbledore would’ve had to reveal Severus’s position as a spy to the Order—whom he knew included a traitor (oh god.. Marauder stans bouta have a field day with this)—which was extremely risky.

^^ And I don’t doubt either of the first two points I listed above would have taken a much longer time than a year/year and a half. And besides, in between Sev switching sides and the Potters dying, James and Lily would access the privilege of seeing Severus only at Order meetings… which a) they did not b) wouldn’t have been enough time to get that close to someone to the point where you’d want them to be the godparent of your child. Plus, there’s a chance that James and Lily didn’t even attend any Order meetings whilst they were in hiding.

So yeah, not only is this very much not canon but it also ignores most of what’s established in it.

To expand this a bit more, you say this Marauder stan used this as proof of James’s apparent growing up? Well, let’s debunk that, shall we?

It isn’t canon. Boom. Argument completely debunked. It ain’t canon = don’t use it to defend your non-existent faves. <3 Piece of cake.

You can’t use “oh well it’s possible that James would have matured/matured” or “it’s possible he would’ve made peace with Snape,” those are mere what if’s. What if’s are not arguments. It’s ridiculous how this is such a simple thinking process but these arguments have been going on for such a long time. It appears the logic is unable to continue logicing in the Harry Potter fandom.

Story time:

I remember a year ago I dealt with this idiot on YouTube who used this exact argument. (I remember cause 1. holy shit time goes by fast 2. I got a notif for someone complimenting me for my responses 😌 3. around a month ago, I argued with someone in that same comment section.) And I of course corrected them and wrote most of the arguments I’ve written here. They got super pissed and kept on telling me “shut up you stupid Snape apologist,” “fuck you,” “James actually grew out of his bullying ways,” “most of what you said are lies and exaggerations about James (💀💀),” etc. I will legitimately NEVER get over the fact that that person actually said “I guess it’s one rule for Severus Snape and another rule for everyone else,” like sir… do you not know how ironic that is coming from a Snape anti? 😭😭

Anyway, I hope I answered your question, anon! Have a nice day.

[ellena-asg]

I'm thinking about that moment in Tortuga where James says to Joshamee "So, do I make your crew or not? You haven't said where you're going. SOMEWHERE NICE?!". Yeah, I know he is irritated, bitter, sarcastic, unhappy and 100% a mess after losing his job and everything he had. But...

He is also drunk. Very drunk. And very... alone. What if alcohol makes him more open? What if James' question is, yes, bitter but... also sincere? What if the bitterness is in that moment caused by the bigger pain? What if frustration is caused by jealousy and loneliness?

Yes, I think that James may be jealous (but not in negative way) and damn lonely. Just look at his life portrayed in both: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Sins of the father (cause this book adds so much to James' bio).

His father was like "Pirates are the worst and you have to be anti pirate. If you are anti pirate then you are a cool kid". His society is like "We are noble, we are right, we have money, we serve the king, we obey the rules, we are cool". So James serves and obeys, he (unlike Lizzie) lets society to completely devour him, he has his career and place amongst the people but... not really.

Father abused and didn't really care about him. People respect him mostly as an officer and "fine gentleman". We see no friends around him. Gillette, Groves? Their relationship with James is shown as rather professional. Lizzie? At the beginning of the first movie they don't have any bond with each other. There is mutual respect and kindness but there's no friendship yet. Papa Swann? He is kind to James, sure. But James seems to still feel alone. He looks terribly lonely (shout out to amazing Jack Davenport). In so many scenes we see him standing in Dramatic Pose and looking at other people with these Sad Sad Eyes.

We see him working and working and working. Serving and obeying. Being many people's dog. Still feeling like "not enough" to some of them. Even his love for the sea (and him being a sailor) is somewhere in the background.

And then there is his proposal. He sees that Lizzie is very nervous but instead of "she doesn't like me in romantic way" he seems to have some hope that she will say yes and that he will finally have someone to love (and who will love him back - maybe). But soon he loses that hope. Lizzie falls, he meets Jack again, Will pops up too, pirates now are everywhere...

And what do James' eyes see? Jack isn't like those pirates from Norrington Sr.'s horror tales. Jack isn't evil. Jack has good manners. Jack is clever. Jack has his charm - and it works even on anti pirate people! (Groves and his "Best pirate I have ever seen OMG", Murtogg and Mullroy and their "Why won't we listen to Captain's advice and..."). Oh, for sure he has it. Joshamee Gibbs, a decent person and once a Navy's man joined his crew! And mr Gibbs seems to be happy with his new life. William Turner, the biggest cinnamon roll in the town - he met Sparrow and five minutes later they're best friends forever! And they have fun together. They have adventures together. They do friendly things for each other (Will defends Jack, he is ready to die for and with him!!!). Elizabeth Swann, the sweetest and wisest girl James has ever met, she... she is Jack's friend too! And she loves Will (a pirate!), she's going to marry Will! She is amongst pirates. She seems to be safe and happy with them. Papa Swann, even Papa Swann is now like "Err... I love Lizzie and Lizzie loves Will so I should love Will too, I guess. By the way, James, you can try to hunt Jack Sparrow and his pirates but Lizzie won't be happy, just saying".

Jack, Joshamee and their crew, Lizzie, Will... They all have now what James never had and what he still secretly wants (oh, I bet!). They have each other. They have friendship. They have love. They go where they want and do what their hearts want. They have freedom.

They are like found family having adventures, seeing places and sometimes being heroes to other people (being heroes without being someone's dogs). Being there for each other. Even when they lose something, they still have each other. They are brave in a way James can't be (oh, not yet). Strong, full of hope and so free. Always so free. Always so ready to fight.

They have it all. James at the end of COTBP has only his job and, still, his bitterness for pirates (so as always, nothing nice). James at the beginning of DMC has nothing. He lost ships, he lost career, he lost home and he's alone.

James' father and his society always were like "Pirates are outsiders, you are with us so you're a cool kid". But what if... when James looks at Lizzie, Will, Jack & Co, he thinks "No! THEY are cool kids and I feel like an outsider"? What if such thought hits him hard when he sees Jack's crew in that tavern? When he sees them again, after all what happened to him (and because of them). He sees them and they are like always: together, okay with their life no matter what, so damn strong and prepared for the future. They lose - they try again - they win. He always loses. He's always alone. What if that damn hurricane was a sign?

What if, when he sees them doing their things and when he's so alone and lost and so drunk... what if something inside him finally breaks?

And what if he joins them not only because of Lizzie wanting to help him and finally being his friend but first and foremost because he finally can do what he wants? He's free now (from his duties, from his father's ghost, from his society). He doesn't have to hunt pirates. Maybe he doesn't have to be so salty... He's lost. And he wants to belong. What if he can belong to their pirate pack? Oh, alcohol makes him very open.

So, do I make your crew or not? You haven't said where you're going. Somewhere nice?!

Somewhere nice would be great. Right, Jamie? You crave for nice things in your life. Being part of the pack would be nice, right?

James: Do I belong or NOT?! 😭

(but oh, soon he is sober and he looks like an outsider again, he watches Lizzie interacting with her pirates and looks like "How do they do all that friendship stuff? And... sea turtles? What sea turtles?! What are they talking about? They're so... I can't. I don't belong, I'm afraid. I'd better go back to previous life and..." 😢)

[fandomhype]

Plagiarism Somerton

I obviously didn't watch the new James Somerton apology video ON his channel because I did not want to give that man the views and you shouldn't either! It has been re-uploaded and summarised elsewhere so that he doesn't benefit if anyone wants to see it.

The original hbomberguy video was wild to me because of all the stealing, I found it highly entertaining, loved all the Memes and it honestly did my imposter syndrome wonders! but then I watched the Todd in the shadows video and it really upset me.

He didn't just steal from other LGBT creators he lied to his mostly young LGBT audiance who were looking to an elder gay for guidance and to learn about their history.

Todd's video starts with a clip of James lies being spread by another person on a podcast, there's clips of people discussing his made up gay nazi fanfic he has presented as hard facts. He actively harmed his own community for cash! There are young gay men bringing that subject up in conversation being laughed at for falling for it and that leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

Now I'm not a part of that community but a lot of people I love are so that angered me a lot.

...and then he comes back with another apology video, conveniently within the three months he would have had to post something on his channel to retain his monetisation status weirdly?! In which he blames both a head injury and his ADHD for his theft - at no point does he address the lying in either apology video or any of the apology posts he made that I could find.

I have combined ADHD, when I was first diagnosed the NHS referred to it as ADD with Hyperactivity element but everyone seems to have gone back to calling it ADHD and that is the term used most commonly online so that is what I refer to it is as.

I am medicated but there has been a world wide shortage of my medication and I was without it for some time over winter, which was HELL! I got nothing done.

I am in no way a big creator, Youtube for me is a fun wee hobby that will hopefully grow and allow me to collaborate with other people with similar interests but ADHD is for sure a large part of my journey as a creator.

I've published like 7 videos and currently have around 10 being worked on because, you know... ADHD! *siren noises*

I know that I am forgetful sometimes, just for the record I also had several head injuries and concussions as a child because Lil undiagnosed at the time me truly had no fear of climbing or other dangerous activities so I have my script (because free talking a subject with this brain would be nearly impossible) open in one google doc and my research open in another. It's not hard.

That's the way it was at school, college and Uni too. James claims he went to Uni to do business. Every university uses anti-plagerism software for essays and has done since like the mid 2000's? so he knows not to copy pasta. He's straight up lying there.

Another thing he's lying about is his ADHD making him forget he copied things. Now if you tell me a joke that I like it'll stick in my head and I will straight up tell it as my own later, I've been called out for this many times! But entire articles? whole sections of other peoples videos? (he also flipped a fan Vid he had ripped off of another YouTube to avoid detection and tried to pass it off as his own) No that's not something you can accidentally do even with a swiss cheese brain like mine.

Weirdly all the the paragraphs James claims he accidentally copied were also edited to remove aspects of the Trans, Bi and Ace experiences that James markedly does not believe exist. Strange considering he accidentally copied them and assumed they were his own words? Imagine going back through a paragraph you think you wrote yesterday in the edit the next day and finding swarths of things you don't agree with there?!

Why am I telling you all this? Well because I wanted to put my two cents in as a creator with this condition, partly because I felt it was somewhat of an attack on us!? He's put it out there that ADHD creators are liable to steal from others and that's not ok by me. Also I just really like the sound of my own typing!

TL;DR : James Sommerton is a suck ass liar and he doesn't get to use his disability as an excuse for what he did! and...

****** ADHD DOES NOT MAKE YOU STEAL SHIT!!! ******

Also watch Todd's Vid, everyone saw the Hbomberguy one but this one goes deeper:

[lurkingteapot]

2023 post round-up/summary

Lovely @twig-tea tagged me here, so I'll try my hand.

I'd abandoned tumblr for about 4? 5? years 2016ish through 2020, had a short stint with it again in 2020, took peeks and vehemently disagreed with much of what I saw in 2021-2022, and grudgingly settled back in in 2023. I wasn't going to interact. I wasn't.

Jan-April: *crickets* I was being strong!

Then, I saw people moaning about how they'd learn Thai if only it was on Duolingo, and you know how spite can be funnelled into positivity? I did that! Result:

May

Popular: Free Thai Language Learning Resources, most popular by a landslide. This pleases me greatly, as I put a lot of work into it and always hope more people start picking up this language.

Favourite: maybe my thoughts on Ming, piggybacking off @kenmakaashi's post?

June

Popular: my musings on translation and how it relates to fannish reception of media, which was my most popular post of the year and 'broke containment', if only in a very small way. Some of the additions in the tags and reblogs are fantastic, do go have a look if you like!

Favourite: toss-up between my attempt at showing a parallel between a silly moment in Our Skyy 2 x BBS and a scrapped shot from BBS proper and this rant about Romanisations of Thai and why G**gle translate is the devil (that bit is in the conversation downthread), which let me meet @plantsarepeopletoo.

July

Popular: Summary of James Welker's 2006 essay "Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: “Boys’ Love” as Girls’ Love in Shōjo Manga"

Favourite: the offerings are slim here … let's go with the one in which I once more was salty about the way folks talk about BL

August

Popular: Only Friends' Ray isn't just The Drunkard, but also The One Who's basically Given Up On Himself, as per his title card (this one was so popular it got stolen and reposted – without credit or permission – to twitter 🙃)

Favourite: Thinking about Drama, the Romance genre, and tropes, and how those relate to our perception of BL (good additions from various folks in the notes; conversation with @visualtaehyun in reblogs and @twig-tea in the replies).

September

Popular: IFYLITA Ep 6 poem context notes

Favourite: toss-up between complaining about badly machine translated content in Love in Translation and musing on the name of Khun Yai's favourite bar

October

Popular: my long-winded answer to @zimmbzon's ask "Hi, how would a non-binary person (me) get around the binary gender rules and vocab in Thai?"

Favourite: uhhh … maybe my musings on honorific translations in kimi ni wa todokanai? (yes, technically a reblog from sideblog, shh)

November

Popular: most popular was this throwaway therapy vent containing food for thought and while I guess this meme is mostly fannish I'm linking it anyway because it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to (or something)

Favourite: when I called out the resemblance between the Last Twilight trailer and Intouchables (2011). Literally no one cared, but then @my-rose-tinted-glasses independently came in strong with receipts as soon as the actual first episode aired and made me feel validated af.

December

Popular: Why I'm pretty sure Last Twilight's "fried rice/false rice" joke was funnier in Thai

Favourite: the saga of the songs in Ep 4 of Last Twilight

I didn't do any round-up posts, but I'll include the other category @twig-tea added:

Five other posts that I want to highlight because I can:

BL Favourites Tag Game (July 2023)

Link to fujoshi.info with information on WHY you should check out that site if you're interested in having an informed opinion on BL and the genre's history.

contemporary issues in Thailand as mentioned in Only Friends ep 1

Thoughts on code-switching in Step by Step

Reply to @mynameisnotthepoint's comment-via-ask on my anti viki rant

I'm not going to tag anyone because I'm completely lost – I was mostly off tumblr for nearly three weeks; if you made a post like this you'd like me to see, please link me/tag me! <3

[blitheringmcgonagall]

Thanks for tagging me @enbysiriusblack @squintclover and @mppmaraudergirl 💕💕💕!

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

33 (I had more, but every few months I delete 1-2 things I’m not mad about so it doesn’t grow?)

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

612,715 🥰🥰🥰

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Only the marauders era HP

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1 - We Can Be Heroes : my canon marauders fic (Jily and Wolfstar) with the ending they bloody well deserved

2 - it was A Little Risk which is a 1930s murder mystery/Anti-fascist AU but I’ve taken it down!

3 - Boys Don’t Cry: the prequel to We Can Be Heroes. A prank fic mostly from Sirius Black’s POV (pre relationships).

4 - Maybe I Waited Too Long - a doctors!marauders AU with Wolfstar and Jily. I had a laugh writing this one.

5 - This Is The Way The World Ends - it’s heartbreaking and a canon divergent Wolfstar AU about Remus getting bad news…

5. do you respond to comments? why or why not?

I always usually do, it’s one of the main reasons I love writing fics!! Without the interaction I wouldn’t bother posting istg!! People can be so kind and generous 🥺❤️

6. what is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably number 5 because it has MCD and apparently made people cry? But equally, I did write 3 short fics about 31st October 1981 from Jily, Sirius and Remus’ POV and that was pretty heartbreaking/ ugly crying stuff.

7. what is a fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my fics have happy endings it’s probably a toss-up between We Can Be Heroes and Have Yourself a Merry Little Wolfenoot

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

Nope! All mine are either T rated or fade to black

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

I’ve only ever written one, a LOTR/Marauders crossover, and I actually had great fun trying to write it in LOTR style? Wolfstar are Éowyn and Faramir. It’s called Ithilin and Silmë (only wrote it because @therealrjlupin wanted it 💙)

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know!

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

I did! It was a Jily celebrity AU translated into Chinese that I thought wasn’t any good and have since deleted 😂😂!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

Once. It’s a WIP crackfic called One Line At A Time written with @mppmaraudergirl @theresthesnitch @missgryffin @mabeltothknows and @maraudersftw and it still makes me laugh, it’s bonkers I love them <3333

14. what's your all time favourite ship?

I’m sorry it’s so weird but I insist on putting Wolfstar and Jily/ Jily and Wolfstar tied for top spot, I just love these two couples so much <3333

15. what's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I don’t keep WIPs that I’m not planning on finishing (I delete or orphan those), but the one I’d like to finish is BLAME (a what if…? First war AU)

16. what are your writing strengths?

I have zero clue sorry you’d have to ask someone who likes my writing. I mean I’ve made people cry so there’s that?? 😬🤣

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Again, v hard to be objective aside from vague “it’s not great” stuff? I think it has improved with writing practice and with time.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I’ve done it in We Can Be Heroes - James speaks fluent Italian and Sirius speaks fluent French. As I can speak the languages it was ok, but I had to check with @constancezin to be sure the written French was ok!

19. first fandom you wrote for?

HP marauders

20. favourite fic you've written?

A Little Risk is the favourite thing I’ve written but I’ve taken it down, so my favourite marauders fic I’ve written and is still up is We Can Be Heroes or This Is The Way The World Ends.

Tagging @engie-ivy @mabeltothknows @therealrjlupin @annabtg @maraudersftw @greyeyedmonster-18 and anyone else who wants to <33

[noras-dc-shenanigans]

Distant Relatives | Engrave

Daniel James Fenton

1990-2004

He will forever remain in spirit.

“Seriously?”

Sam leveled a flat look at her boyfriend, who grinned proudly back as the headstone was fully settled into the ground. On his other side, Tucker exchanged an exasperated look with the goth and spoke in a tone to match.

“Ya know, I’m pretty sure designing your own headstone isn’t supposed to happen until, like, a lot later in life. And I’m also pretty sure you’re not supposed to plan, attend, and give a speech at your own funeral. And come on, man, really? ‘Remain in spirit?’ That’s the best ghost pun you could come up with?”

“Hey!” Danny exclaimed, affronted, “I was going for subtlety. And if the Justice League is offering to give me a proper grave for me to get gifts at, I’m gonna do the whole shebang! And it’s not like I’ll ever get a real funeral, anyways, so I’m gonna make the most of it!”

While intended as a joke, the last sentence instead reminded everyone of exactly why they were doing ‘the whole shebang’ in the first place. As of the week before, it’d been five years since Danny had died and resurrected at the safe time, and turned him into a rare Halfa.

In that time, Danny had, accidentally, won the title of Ghost King during a fight with the previous holder. That had subsequently caused him to spend every single Saturday in one of Clockwork’s Time-Out bubbles, learning how to be king.

Occasionally, that had involved CW sending Danny to shadow (heh) other ghost leaders such as Princess Dora, Frostbite, and Pandora. Other times, it was lessons on the Ghost Zone’s history and all the different afterlives it contained. And yet other times, the Master of Time would decide that a practical lesson in using what Danny had learned would be best.

That had meant that, once a month or so, Clockwork would drop Danny into a random city, tell him who/what to look for and/or what to do, and then disappear.

(Danny still wasn’t sure if he’d ever actually left or if the old geezer had just hidden somewhere to watch and laugh.)

That had led to Danny, age 17, accidentally bumping into Batman, Robin (the sword wielding one) and Wonder Woman, who had been looking for the same magical, time-messing-up artifact that CW had sent Phantom after. It was… not a great start, as they’d found him intangibly retrieving (stealing from a museum case) said item, Robin had attacked, Phantom had still been intangible, and Robin had gone straight through him and smacked into the wall, knocking a portrait off and setting the alarm ringing.

That had set them all fleeing for the exits, as they were in an ~Unnamed~ country that would not appreciate people stealing their shiny, new, (blackmarket stolen) exhibit.

Luckily, they’d made it out without being seen, and had been able to sort out the ah, situation. They’d come to an agreement that he would take the piece, as they hadn’t actually been able to come up with a way to contain its magic, and Phantom would also take a League communicator, so that they could coordinate if they wound up after the same thing again.

Over the next few months, one thing led to another and the Justice League discovered that the GIW was blocking anyone in Amity Park from calling them for help. They dug deeper, discovered the Anti-Ecto Acts, and suddenly every major newspaper in the country was writing a story on the ‘Ecto-trocities’. The government, called out about the violations against the Meta-Human Protection laws, were forced to abolish the Acts and disband the GIW.

Shortly thereafter, the League had approached a freshly-18 Phantom about joining up, he’d agreed with the ‘I’m-still-a-dimensional-ruler-though-so-I’ll-mostly-be-available-for-emergencies’ stipulation, and badda-bing badda-boom!

Phantom was officially a member of the Justice League.

Now, obviously, the whole ‘dimensional ruler’ thing had to be explained, especially after they learned the while Halfa situation, and one day, outta the blue, Batman had asked if Phantom had ever gotten a proper burial.

This of course had led to Phantom having to come clean about his Danny Fenton half, and that no, he hadn’t, and even though graves and final rites were considered very important in ghost culture he wasn’t really dead so he couldn’t have a funeral and getting a headstone seemed weird on his own ya’ know?

And… well. Apparently, he hadn’t come off as casual as he’d been trying to, because a week later he was offered an official funeral service and a grave stone in a high-securing cemetery reserved strictly for heroes, to prevent grave robbery and desecration.

So here Danny was, watching a gravestone that he’d designed being placed under a tree, as without a body they didn’t have to worry about roots. Sam and Tucker continued to nag him about his engraving choice, all the way through the funeral, and Danny’s speeches, and also their own speeches, as they were the only ones ‘in-the-know’ that had been invited. He was still working up the courage to tell his parents, and Jazz was present but declined to speak, citing some psychological mumbo-jumbo.

All in all, it was a fantastic funeral, if Danny did say so himself, and he got some awesome grave gifts! His favorites were the gold drachma from Wonder Woman and the moon rock from Superman.

Later that night, alone in the dark, thankfully still-mostly empty cemetery, he stood gazing down at his own grave, and the gifts, and the engraving, and smiled.

————

A day late due to having to deal with car issues, but still done! I have the start of a different route I was taking for this but couldn’t get to finish, so I might post that at a later date.

[neverenoughmarauders]

Marlene McKinnon - but a bit different

Personally, I've never believed Marlene to be Lily's age to be consistent with the canon. Not that it matters or that it has ever bothered me. It's just not my headcanon.

Why not?

Lily's letter to Sirius is weirdly dispassionate if she's actually describing her best friend or Sirius' girlfriend or whatever. Yes, Lily cried all night when she heard about the 'McKinnons'. But that's just it... I mean, I usually don't describe my best friend that way nor the ex- or current girlfriend of who I am writing to. Sirius almost always refers to Lily and James, rarely 'the Potters'. Lily cried, sure, they were in the Order together so they must have known each other AND it's Marlene's whole family being killed. That's tragic beyond words in itself.

Plus, I am a bit weird this way, but I am not at all sold on the idea of half the Order being in the same year at Hogwarts...

My headcanon

I thought I'd share my headcanon for fun - I am always curious to hear others!

Marlene was muggle-born (and McKinnon was not her maiden name). Marlene shared a dormitory with Molly Prewett and they were practically inseparable. Upon leaving Hogwarts, Molly married Arthur and not that long after Marlene married her husband - also muggle-born - let's call him Husband McKinnon.

Molly had Bill in Nov 1970, and in the summer the following year, Marlene had a daughter Mary (which is a version of the name Molly and also starts on M like Marlene). Molly and Marlene immediately became busy plotting the prospective marriage between Bill and Mary, who would be in the same year at Hogwarts. Marlene had one more child, a little younger than Charlie, called Marcus.

Because Marlene was muggle-born, she struggled getting back to work after her pregnancies in an increasingly anti-muggle-born world. Her husband still had a job, but they were both aware that the situation was dire. With her children off to muggle school (before Hogwarts), Marlene, who was super talented and brave, started engaging with the Order of the Phoenix.

Mary McKinnon and Bill Weasley were best friends, just like their parents had hoped they would be (though FWIW I don't think they'd ever end up fulfilling their parents wish of marrying, had Mary lived). However, Bill was frustrated that Mary was so obsessed with Egypt. When Mary and her younger brother was murdered alongside her parents, Bill swore to go to explore Egypt in her memory.

It's just my headcanon, but I like it because it further explores:

Another reason why Molly is so scared of the second war. On top of having lost her brothers, she's lost her best friend;

I don't like that Voldemort seemed to mostly murder prominent pureblood families; it'd be good if one of the families listed were actually muggle-born;

Another reason why Molly thinks Fleur isn't good enough for Bill, when she compares her to someone more down-to-earth like the ten years old Mary McKinnon;

Another reason why Molly is so overprotective with her children and easily assumes the worst; she's lived through the murders of her best friend's children;

And just for fun, a reason why Bill went to Egypt (and another reason why he was so keen to join the Order)

[mysterious-prophetess]

Yesterday Afternoon-Evening, I watched the James Cameron Avatar 2 movie.

Spoiler free thoughts first:

It was fine.

I was expecting something trite but it was mostly fine.

It was WAY too long. Like, James, buddy, I know you’re one for “epic movies” but over THREE HOURS is just too much. There were times when I was checking my silenced phone to see what time it was so I could keep track of where we were in this movie.

Pacing was very stop-start.

I personally think this should have been a mini-series. Three episodes around an hour, or so, each and you’d have achieved much of the same effect. Or broke this into two films to be released back-to-back. Or, edited some of this monstrosity DOWN.

As we say in writing, kill your darlings, James.

The children characters were fine. I’ll touch more on them in the spoiler bit.

The fictionalized science was plausible but I do have a hole or two to poke into the plot/motivation of the bad guys I’ll save for the spoiler filled part.

It, of course, looked GORGEOUS. The music was also well done.

It was a well put together movie. I can see why it cost so damn much.

Rumor has it, it has to make 2 BILLION to break even.

idk that it will in this economy BUT it does have the fact that it’s mostly being shown in 3D to help bolster that number for the ticket sales and a lack of any sort of real competition.

I mean it’s Disney so I really DON’T care if it does.

So, Tl:Dr for this section—If you have the patience, this is a fine movie to see, and drop-dead gorgeous. Just don’t expect a masterpiece. This movie is a solid B+ (it earned a lot of extra credit from its visuals).

Spoilers ahead!

This movie really ran the gamut of rehashing movie one to Moby Dick IN SPACE.

Don’t get me wrong—when Pikon (Picon?) the lone space-killer-blue-whale showed up and kicked ass, it was pretty epic, but it was the most epic part of the movie and it took nearly three hours to get to that.

Of Jake and Ney’tiri’s four kids, only two really had any sort of personality: the second son Loaq and the adopted daughter Ki’ri (sp? Na’vi names are friggin’ weird). The youngest kid was just a kid. She really only acted as designated hostage most of the movie and she even complained about it when she got tied up, again.

The oldest brother was dutiful son and I was like 50% sure he was going to end up dying from the beginning.

Loaq reminded me the most of Jake—which was likely done on purpose with his writing.

Ki’ri—Grace’s biological child—was the most interesting character.

There is a way this is actually plausible. It’s a process called “parthenogenesis.” Parthenogenesis tends to happen in reptiles. Essentially, she is a clone of Grace’s avatar body.

It’s pretty damn obvious her other parent is Eyowa since she seems to be constantly surrounded by all sorts of critters and such and her whole glowing fish thing at the end of the movie.

The epilepsy thing sounds like it is going to either be a limit to what her body can handle or a side effect of being a clone offspring of Grace’s Avatar.

Loaq and his space-killer-blue-what friend were also an interesting part of the movie.

Of course where the film veers into Space Moby Dick is where I have a nitpick of the badguys.

In movie one, they wanted some rock with a stupid AF name “unobtainium.” In that case, it made sense they had to be there to get it because you can’t make more of a rock.

However, with them being after spermaceti-er I mean amoretia I have a bone or rather a brain to pick with them.

Instead of wasting money on a Aussi space Ahab, why don’t they use their seemingly miraculous cloning tech to just CLONE THE SPACE-KILLER-BLUE-WHALES. Or, better yet, JUST MAKE A BRAIN FROM TISSUE SAMPLES!

If we, in the current non-sci-fi tech level Earth are close to tissue cloning, then that lot capable of inter-stellar travel should be able to EASILY pull it off.

And if they can deal with Na’vi DNA to make human-alien hybrids, then they should be able to handle Space-Killer-Blue-Whales DNA.

Safer. Likely cheaper. Especially if it yields that anti-aging hormone.

Also, I didn’t think that in the year 2022 of our lord I’d be watching a movie with a SAVE THE WHALES message.

Second Bad-Guy nitpick—Why are they fucking around on a moon whose atmosphere is unbreathable to humankind and filled with forms of life HOSTILE to human when Mars is RIGHT next door, and doesn’t have angry native life forms (or any life at all).

Their tech means they’d have an easier time than we —at current tech levels— of Terraforming Mars and while humanity lives on Mars, they can also un-screw-up the Earth and also make cloud cities on equally unpopulated Venus and the unpopulated moons of Jupiter.

Likely, less time in transit, less time spent FIGHTING, and a better investment in the long run. These bad guys are just dumb and spiteful.

As for specific plot gripes: A good HOUR of this movie could have been removed since the kids who ended up kidnapped in the beginning (prompting Jake to move the family and lead to the movie 1 rehash section) end up kidnapped AGAIN at the climax with the addition of Water guy’s daughter.

As pretty as everything looked, a large part of this movie felt like padding.

Everything pre time-skip. Cut. Hell, everything pre-joining the Reef people. Cut it and use flash-backs to explain. Maybe in a nightmare sequence.

Do more montages for the adaptation to the Reef People way of life part and maybe show hints of Ney’tiri not adapting as well.

Just THREE FRIGGIN’ HOURS MAN. Too much!

I’d hate to see the extended cut.

Something that bothered me was, while Jake was lecturing his sons when he was scared to lose them he NEVER mentions his identical twin brother at all.

You know, the one whose semi-cloned body he’s walking around in, the one whose death led to him being on Pandora in the first place because they were Identical Twins? That twin? Not a mention.

Did James Cameron forget?

Maybe it bothered me because I’m a twin. It’s not something you forget.

We’re not even identical twins. We’re not even close.

My father had a twin sister.

I’m just saying. It was a plot point in Movie 1 and since Movie 2 was about family—largely—this seems like something Jake should have told his sons about.

Idk a “I’m rough on you because I had a brother and I lost him.” would have been nice.

Spider saving the hybrid clone of his bio-dad is a thing that may or may not bite everyone in the ass, but it shows that Spider is a good person. I do wish his character design didn’t have dreads, though.

As for Clone Quaritch and his blue-squad, I’ve actually read fanfictions that semi-predicted that so that was interesting to see.

If I was team bad-guy and I had access to DNA samples and shit from the old base, I’d clone JAKE and force him to fight himself. They had brain scans of Jake to synchronize him with the Avatar. They could sci-fi BS stuff and basically make a copy Jake.

I’m also going to call it now: Ki’ri is going to be some sort of chosen one. After all, she’s kind of Eyowa’s daughter.

Of course, this movie needs to NOT crater like a friggin’ pancake if the sequels are to happen at all.

So. Leaner plot. Less fluff. More action.

[goldenagenonsense]

Action Comics No. 2 [July 1938]

And we're back for the second exciting installment of Ant-Man - (furious whispering from the backstage) - wait, I mean Superman. Sorry, got confused after all the insect comparisons last time. Abet I could have fun with calling him a 'young grasshopper' and being pseudo-accurate; I mean, if the authors themselves compared him to one, why can't I?

No cover sharing this week, since I don't think it's related to the Superman story. Interesting image though, gives me kind of a Jame Bond feel, you know?

Flipping to the first page of the story, I am immediately slapped in the face with the art change. Or maybe it's an issue of scan quality? (double checks) okay, I think it's scan quality. Ah well, it's still readable, and that's what matters.

We return where we left off: Superman psychologically tormenting a man into spilling his secrets. As one does. 👍

Honestly, the fact that Greer has neither passed out nor ruined his pants yet is incredibly impressive, I know I would have done both, especially with my mild fear of heights. Still, like, what the FUCK, I knew JJ Jameson was onto something when he warned us about the dangers of vigilantes.

When they hit the ground at last, both the pavement and Greer break. When Superman suggests they do it all again, Greer gives up the information Supes wants - the man behind the war is Emil Norvell, a munitions magistrate. He’s got an estate in Lexington Park. With that information in hand, Superman leaves Greer behind, hopping to the top of the Washington Monument to get his bearings before taking off to Norvell’s estate.

Meanwhile, a still disheveled Greer calls Norvell to warn him of the danger approaching, calling Superman ‘the most dangerous man alive.’ Norvell mostly dismisses the danger, stating that there’s no need to worry, he’ll just take some precautions to make sure Superman doesn’t remain alive for long.

I imagine after this, Greer got himself absolutely plastered and refused to leave his house for weeks, just in case. No one believes his drunk rambling, since Superman’s still so new and relatively unknown, but one day he’ll have the last laugh. One day…

After five minutes, Superman lets himself in through the window into Norvell’s study. He tells Norvell he’s coming with him; Norvell refuses, and discretely pushes a button hidden behind him on his desk. Superman notices too late to stop him, but still demands it be handed over. Norvell instead tells his guards to let him have it.

Guards used Machine Guns! It had no effect! Superman used Quick Attack! It was super effective!

It takes no time at all for Supes to toss all dozen guards out the window, their own machine guns wrapped around their necks. He then proceeds to threaten Norvell by bending an iron bar in front of him, explaining how that could just as easily be his neck if he doesn’t agree to come with him. Norvell, valuing his life, agrees quickly.

A few minutes later, Superman and Norvell are at the port. Superman points out a large steamer ship - the Baronta - that is due to leave for San Monte the next day. If he doesn’t find Norvell aboard it when it leaves, he swears he’ll track the man down to whatever hole he hides in and tear out his heart with his bare hands. Norvell, valuing his life, agrees.

Holy death threats, Superman! I know you aren’t the same as your modern counterpart, but hearing you threaten the lives of people three times within one page is just. I would be pissing myself. What the FUCK. This just really highlights the difference in culture and overall heroics eighty years ago. A Superman like this today would be a major anti-hero.

We hop to the next day, where an odd variety of passengers are boarding the Baronta: Clark Kent and Lois Lane, the latter having been assigned to accompany him to the war zone and send back dispatches with her distinctive feminine touch; a group of toughs who possibly intend to enlist as paid mercenaries; Lola Cortez, woman of mystery, an exotic beauty who fairly radiates danger and intrigue; and Emil Norvell, who immediately confines himself to his cabin once aboard.

Gotta love how her whole description is literally just 'look at this mysterious woman, she's so ~very mysterious~ hoo hoo hoo.' Truly she's ready to star in some shipboard murder mystery event.

Soon enough, the ship heads out to sea, destined for a strange voyage. Which you would think would be the build-up to a murder mystery or something, like for serious, I swear I’ve seen this exact set-up for like a dozen of them.

That night, Norvell paces his cabin. A knock comes at the door, and when he answers it… Superman is there! He makes another lowkey threat by ‘complementing’ Norvell showing up, then leaves. Not long after, Norvell sics the nameless toughs on him, promising fabulous rewards if Superman dies. The tough promises it’ll happen.

I love how, after directly witnessing Superman tank machine gun bullets, turn machine guns and bar iron into pretzels, and then literally run them across the city in a few minutes, he still goes ‘oh yeah I can totally sic these random dudes on this caped man and make him dead!’ Villain logic! Truly a timeless classic of comic books.

Superman has decided that, instead of returning to his cabin as Clark Kent and lying low, he’ll just stand at the rail admiring the moon. He whirls at the sound of footsteps, but it’s too late - he’s surrounded by toughs. When he braces himself against the rail, his strength causes it to break, sending him flailing into the ocean below.

The thugs report back, demanding their payment. Norvell dismisses them rudely, stating that they’re too trusting, and that they should feel lucky he didn’t turn them over to the police. Again, what the fuck has to be going through this guy’s mind when he pisses off the people who just dealt with the guy who, again, bent iron into pretzels in front of you. Villain logic.

Meanwhile, Superman’s fine! He’s just casually swimming fast enough to catch up to the steamer - and then blows right past it, swimming off into the distance and leaving the ship behind. He even gives the ship a jaunty wave, not that anyone can see it.

Man, really makes you wonder how he explained himself to Lois when she couldn’t find him on the ship the next day. Then again, considering that she’s likely still giving him the cold shoulder, she probably is just relieved to have a day without him hovering around and bothering her.

Anyway. We have a time skip to the next evening, when the ship has just pulled into port. Norvell is, shockingly, ambushed by all the thugs he stiffed, almost like they’re holding a grudge for a rich guy using them to do their dirty work and then refusing to pay them. Weird, that. Fortunately for him, Superman shows up once again, this time to beat the snot out of the thugs who pushed him overboard.

Gotta love that magical disappearing bowler hat. I know it's a coloring error, but the idea of it disappearing back to a different dimension rather than facing Superman is wildly hilarious to me.

The thugs flee into the night, and Norvell asks him why he saved him. Turns out, Superman’s not being benevolent - being beaten up and/or killed by those thugs is a pleasant fate compared to what Supes has in store for him. Norvell doesn’t like the sound of that, but Superman assures nothing will happen to him - so long as he joins the San Monte army.

Norvell later paces his hotel room, desperate to think of a way out of this mess caused by ‘that inhuman creature.’ He eventually gets a brain blast - join the army, then run at the first opportunity! Sadly, this plan is ruined when he enlists and Superman happens to be there as well, wearing a uniform. He declares he just couldn’t bare to be parted with Norvell.

Supes. My dude. My main man. You have got to stop psychologically tormenting these people. Supes. Dude. Why this. I don’t even have the words.

The new recruits get sent to the front. Norvell wonders whether Superman is trying to get them both killed; Superman plays coy and doesn’t give anything away. He then states he doesn’t understand why Norvell makes weapons when it means that thousands will die. Norvell’s reply? Men are cheap, munitions are expensive!

A shell flies overhead and explodes. All the soldiers drop flat to avoid the fragments. Norvell, sweating, states that this is no sane place for a man, and that he’ll die! Superman, in full sass mode, notes how when it’s his own life at stake, his viewpoint changes.

Honestly, I’m coming around to Superman’s idea here. Why don’t we just make all the people making money off of weapons go to the front lines? Senators and other people of power included! I, for one, definitely think that it would go a long way towards maybe cutting back on our stupidly large military budget, which could be put into more valuable things like, uh, pretty much anything besides the military.

Soon enough, the troops are making camp and settling in for the night. The sentries are puzzled by a dark shadow, but ultimately dismiss it as a bird. Turns out, it was Superman, out of his uniform disguise, speeding off towards the enemy camp!

The enemy officers are discussing how impenetrable their lines are, just for Superman to peek his head in with a camera in hand, asking them to smile for the shot. He then disappears again, leaving the officers to rally the guards to fruitlessly search for him.

Not too much later, Clark Kent is in the local post office, sending a package off to… the Evening News in Cleveland, Ohio? Not the Daily Star? I suppose if he didn’t want Superman tied to Clark Kent, then he’d be careful to not have the image he took as Superman tied to the place where Clark works… but then how does he explain where he got the pic? Did he just send it anonymously? Then again, this is well before social media made information sharing easy and instantaneous, so like, it’s not like the enemies would be able to tell anyone that it was a weirdo in spandex and not a generally shy, wimpy reporter who somehow snuck his way in, got the shot, and got out.

Man, I wonder how Lois would feel if she saw that snapshot and thought Clark got it. We know she thinks he’s an absolute wet rag of a man and can’t imagine him taking a risk a day in his life, but that shot? That’s the kind of shot she would get. Or at least, later incarnations of her, wherein she’s willing to throw herself off of buildings in order to get her scoop.

Speaking of Lois! We shift our scene over to the hotel where both Lois and Lola are staying. Lois is trying to chat with Lola, but Lola is being carefully uninformative. And can I say here that I love how their color schemes are completely inverted to one another? I mean, I know old comic books had limited color palettes to print in, but still, there’s definitely enough color that the choice made here was deliberate.

Army officers enter the hotel, the owner quickly meeting them. He asks what’s wrong; they state ‘official business.’ At that moment, Lola, suddenly panicky, slips into an elevator, and hides a document in Lois’ room. Which, like, either means that door security isn’t a thing in San Monte, or Lola slipped the door key from Lois (and then returned it??), or she could have lockpicked her way in, I guess.

I know, trying to logic out a comic book bit, I’m a dumbass. You all should have known this already, I’m willing reading and liveblogging golden age comics.

The officers explain that an important document has been stolen, and that they need to search the rooms. The owner gives them permission, and soon enough, all the rooms are being methodically gone through. Lola makes sure to come off as annoyed and unaffected while talking to the officer in her room.

As to be expected, the document is found in Lois’ room. The officers place her under military arrest, despite her protests of knowing nothing about this. In what seems like no time at all, she’s put before a judge and found guilty, with the punishment for espionage being an execution at dawn.

Clark overhears the news while in disguise at the military camp, nearly at the same time Lois is being brought out for the execution. Lois, even facing death, is protesting the whole thing and proclaiming her innocence.

Superman rushes across the miles, almost faster than the eye can see. The officer in charge raises his hand to order the troops to shoot-

And once again, in the nick of time, Superman saves Lois Lane from the machinations of others. When the guards stop shooting, Superman lifts Lois into a bridal carry and leaps over the wall. The troops, baffled, tell him to stop, and that this is impossible. Superman snarks his thanks for letting him know.

Lois, meanwhile, is in shock - she’s once again been saved by Superman! Superman jokes with her about his still playing the role of gallant rescuer. She asks him what manner of being he is, and he tells her to stop asking.

Like, dude, my man. This is Lois Lane. I know that this is very, very early Lois, and that this is the 30s, but like. You have to realize that you just gave this woman a rawhide bone to chew on named ‘Superman’s mysteries,’ and by hell or high waters, she WILL get to the bottom of this.

Anyway, Superman briefly stops in order to handle a torturer mid-inquisition. How he handles it? By bodily picking up the man, hoisting him overhead, and throwing him like a javelin into the distance. The man's protests are shut down with Superman telling him to go to hell, calling him a devil; as he’s tossed, all he can do is wail piteously as he disappears into the distance.

That man is dead, you fucking know it. And like, it’s not like I personally care, but then again, I’m pretty sure this is like the dozenth death threat so far, and we’re only on issue two! Superman, what the FUCK, my dude?

Superman unties the captives’ bonds, taking their profuse thanks with grace. He wishes them luck, then gets back to getting Lois to safety - which, like, she had to have witnessed all that, right? What in the world did she think in seeing all that? What would her article even look like if she published? How is she STILL wearing her heels despite the past, like, handful of hours or whatever?

All mysteries we may or may not have answers to one day soonish.

Superman eventually sets Lois down near the Baronta, advising her to return to America. She asks when she’ll see him again; he replies that he doesn’t know - perhaps tomorrow, perhaps never.

Based on what I know of comic books, Lois Lane, and Superman comics in general, I’m leaning a bit more towards ‘probably every issue from here on out.’ But, you know, that’s just my guess.

With all that side plot out of the way, we return to our main story, the tormenting of Norvell. Only, as it turns out, exciting developments have occurred while he was away! And by exciting, I mean the anti-air guns are going, due to an enemy aviator harassing the camp. Which, what, no backup? I don’t know much about aviation between WW1 and WW2, but I feel like flying solo is not the safest decision, especially with one hand holding a fucking shotgun while the other is steering. But what do I know? Comic book logic.

Also, as an aside, I am laughing because I can’t believe the issue cover is somewhat relevant after all - there is, in fact, a plane involved in these shenanigans! Truly inspiring.

Anyway, Superman leaps to the attack! For the first time in all history, a man battles an airplane single-handed!

The plane crashes into him and, unsurprisingly, loses. The airplane falls to its doom. Meanwhile, Norvell has seen the crash and is convinced that this is what finally killed his nemesis. Which, once again, have to admire the sheer confidence this man has in the worlds’ ability to kill this inhuman fucker. Truly the model on which all future villainous delusions are based off of.

Sadly (for Norvell), Superman comes in for a landing right after, spooking the hell out of Norvell. Much like Greer before him, he’s cracked - he wants to go back to the US, he’s grown to hate war! Superman agrees - so long as Norvell stops making weapons.

Norvell presumably agrees, since he’s soon out of uniform and back on the Baronta for the return trip. He vows to himself that the most dangerous thing he’ll make from now on will be a firecracker.

Superman is pleased with his progress; only one more thing to do, and his mission in San Monte will be finished! He then proceeds to kidnap both the commander from the military he was with, and the head of the opposing army. They’re confused and scared, and demand to know what he wants from them. He tells them he’s ending the war by having them fight each other. When they try to protest, he tells them to fight - or else he’ll take care of both of them.

I think that’s another death threat, so the total count is like… an even dozen at this point. Christ, OG Superman was a feral bastard. Probably something to do with being raised in an orphanage instead of with kindly old farmers in Kansas. Man, what an Elseworlds concept to explore…

The commanders are baffled - why should they fight> They aren’t angry with each other? When Superman asks why the armies are battling, neither of them seems to have an answer, which like. I know it’s supposed to be a commentary on all war being pointless and stupid, but them not even having a flimsy excuse is another level of wild. Superman decides to give them an answer - they’ve only been fighting to promote weapons sales. So why not just shake hands and make up?

They do so (I would argue under some duress), and the war, presumably, comes to a halt. Incredible. Wonder how long that will last.

Clark Kent soon after returns to the office and reports to his editor. The editor informs him that, while he’s been gone, there’s been no Superman sightings. Maybe he’s retired? Clark disagrees, saying that he has a hunch Superman will make an appearance again - soon!

With that, the second issue ends (or at least, the Superman part of it. Anthology comics are a bit wild, but they were the norm back then, so.) What a ride. Gotta love that whole ‘fuck war and everything to do with it’ mentality that went into this story. Considering this is before WW2, I have to wonder now how things will change when that particular conflict kicks off in earnest.

As a fun little ending bit, we have an advertisement to end off the page!

Wow, it’s like steroid ads before there were plentiful steroids! Incredible. And sadly, it’s working, less because I want the physique, but more because I want to know whether there’s actually any kind of exercise routine / recommendations, or if it’s just a tease for some kind of storyline.

Anyway, that’s a wrap for that. Next time, the ongoing adventures of Superman. How many death threats will there be? Even I don’t know.

[pbandjesse]

So I came home. I wasn't planning on coming home. But honestly I'm glad I did because I did not feel good today and my neck hurt and I was just kind of having a bad time. Not that it was a bad day but body wise no good.

I didn't sleep terribly last night, falling asleep was hard, and waking up was worse. I woke up because it was raining and then it was loud and then I wanted James to hold me but my neck was in a weird position on the pillow and I was too tired of fix it and that ended up hurting me all day. Like I couldn't bend my neck very much in either direction without it just really hurting but I think I finally worked that pain out but I was dealing with that literally all day.

And honestly I just felt very unwell in general. Enough that James said when I got to camp I should go talk to the nurse. I didn't have a fever or anything I just had radiating pain kind of in my arms and legs coming from my stomach. I would almost describe them as like cramps but they weren't cramps. It was like waves of bad feelings. Hard to describe.

But I would get up and I will get dressed and things would be okay except for I didn't feel good. I packed some food and made a lemonade and hugged on James because they were going on their very long bike ride today. And I just wanted them to be safe. But they were biking all the way to Philadelphia and that's so far! But thankfully Lane was going to act as kind of a relief driver and I knew that she would keep them safe.

So I left the house in the rain and I drove to camp and it was honestly pretty scary at times because it was really really strong rain. But I made it to camp a little after 8:00 because of an accident off the highway. And the rain was gone by the time I got there. So that was good.

And then I just got to work putting things away and getting set up. I had brought a bunch of paint from home because we have no yellow or blue or white that I've now discovered. But I was able to just kind of get myself together and then I walked down to the nurse.

Nurse Becky is very sweet and she had me sit down and she took my temperature even though I didn't eat it. And a little boy that was in there was like why is the art teacher here?? And it was very sweet. And I told her that I think it's from my IUD and she said that she's a pediatric nurse so she doesn't exactly know but she says that my assumption sounds correct and that if I'm supposed to get my IUD out soon it could be a hormonal thing. Makes sense to me. She said she didn't really know what to give me and I said I don't really want to take anything I just mostly wanted someone to know. In case I fall over later. And she said please don't fall over.

I went back up to arts and crafts and I ate my breakfast and that helped me feel a lot better. I let myself have two sodas today. And I think the caffeine helped. I've kind of been on a anti-soda kick. Not that I haven't been drinking soda But it's turned into much more occasionally than constantly. Like last year I was going through a case of soda a week and now this year I had the same four cases the entire time and they're not empty at all. And really I've just been wanting to drink lemonade and that's it. But the caffeine helped for sure.

Tyler came over to borrow materials and we talked for a while. I told him about how we're going to Uganda now and how I'm nervous but he said it sounds incredible. And I just got ready for the day. And it would be a really good day. I miss Tatiana but it was nice to be alone. Love being alone.

I was nervous about this project because it has two parts. But so far today the overnight kids are doing amazing. Day Camp is mixed but everyone really likes the drawing game and I'm really excited about that. The rock painting part is a little I think two amorphous for some of them. And I'm going to try to do better about explaining. But I think that the drawing game, exquisite corpse, is really going to take off at camp and I hope that they use it in their toolbox as counselors too.

like I said though my first two groups did such a good job and they made really cool rock pieces. And then it was lunch time. And I had brought food so I didn't have to go anywhere and I decided that I would take a little walk and collect rocks and eat my pizza and my salad and it was just really nice. I read my book a little bit but I felt a little distractible. And I kept getting up and sitting down and doing stuff and putting things away and then I went through my clothes and I picked out everything I hadn't worn this summer to bring home. And it wasn't bad at all it was just not as restful as I might have wanted.

My daycamp group after lunch did okay. They struggled but they enjoyed the drawing games and they were fun. And then we had some time outside and hammock time once the hammocks weren't too damp. And then I had my half hour break.

because I'm alone this week I was able to have my clothes the door turn off all the lights and sit in my hammock time. Which was excellent and made me feel so much better. Annabelle ended up knocking on the door a couple minutes before the end of the break because she was having a hard time and needed some materials and also just need the vent for a second and I was glad I could be that year for her. I hate that she's struggling with people not being helpful and honestly if Tatiana comes back I might suggest she goes and helps Annabella bit. Because I think she might need it more than I need it for this project. I hope Tatiana comes back or I hope another YLP wants to help out at a program like that because it really can be invaluable to have someone like that.

My bontkirchen group was great. Eva was so excited when I said that we were doing metal casting and hers came out really good! She wanted to make a bubble letter e in her first one was too sharp so we melted it back down and she carved it more in the second one came out great and she really enjoyed filing with my very expensive file from when I took jewelry classes. And I enjoyed talking to the girls and a bunch of them made really interesting pieces and it was a lot of fun. And we honestly didn't use that much metal in the end. A few of their pieces were too thin and so we just would melt them back down but I had a blast and I hope they did too. Because it really seemed like everyone was having a great time. They really didn't want to leave and I had to kind of kick them out at the end.

Because I had my last day camp group and it was Day Camp 10 which I had high expectations for but they struggled a little. They did grade with the drawing game but their rock paintings were mostly just fine. The girls that were doing it this morning were like actually drawing faces and parts and the day campers were kind of just slapping paint on the rocks and being like I'm finished I'm like I don't think you really did the spirit of the project so much. And that was not to say that everyone did that but more than I wanted to and that kind of made me annoyed. It's fine. Doesn't actually matter. The way I'm going to be framing the rock painting is an optional part of the project because I can't collect as many rocks as we would really need and having them go out and find rocks takes a little bit more time than I would like So it's kind of going to be a mix between like the drawing game and then now that we finished the drawing game let's do this painting and if they really like the drawing game maybe doing a second round of it. So we'll see what happens. I'm really glad that I got to introduce this game to them though because it's one of my favorites.

Once the kids were done they helped me clean the trays off that I had used for paint today. Which worked much better than I thought it was going to. It's always a struggle to make sure that nobody's wasting buckets of paint when they only need dots. And so I had the first group put paint on trays and then throughout the day we just used that same paint over and over and over again. So at the end of the day we didn't have a ton to wash off and we weren't wasting much. I will try again tomorrow and see if it continues to work. It did take a while for the kids to clean off the trays and they ended up only doing some of it so I had to spend a few minutes finishing it. But I didn't mind. It was nice to have a task.

But I still felt pretty unwell in my neck hurt really bad and I just wanted to go home. James had only gotten to Philly a little while before I was done for the day and they threw up apparently and I was not thrilled about that but I was glad that Lane was there for them and making sure that they were getting hydrated and getting somewhere safe. Specifically their friend's house. I think they're at Dante's house but I'm not positive.

I put a poll in the group chat asking if I should go home and Yes got two votes and no got one vote. Celia was the one that voted no and she only voted no because she wanted to show me a picture of a frog before I went home. Which was fair. I walked over to the office to see if they needed me for anything tonight and CJ was there so I sat with her and accidentally knocked over a whole bunch of tambourines which was very comedic. Just causing a commotion. And we talked for a few minutes and then she said that Celia wanted to show me a picture of a frog. I had left my phone up in the arts building so I said goodbye and told everyone I was going home and went back up there.

And honestly pretty solid frog. It was super tiny. She also found one that only had one eyeball. And that was neat. And I showed her the mushrooms that I had taken pictures of earlier in the day. After my second program I had gone to go fine two mushrooms specifically that Chris had told me he had seen. It was very nice of him when he came up halfway through the morning to let me know about them because I had not gotten to go on my mushroom walk this morning. And they were some excellent mushrooms. I found three in all. Two from him and one that I found on my own. The two that he saw were very bright and it was very cool. I sent him the pictures as well.

And then it was time for me to go home. I got my stuff together and I ate my second piece of pizza while I was driving. And it was honestly a pretty easy ride for leaving that late. Usually I would hit traffic if I left at 5:00 but I guess I lucked out. And I got back here pretty quickly. And as I was driving through the neighborhood I saw someone putting a table tray in the trash and I was like I'm going to go get that table tray. So once I parked and brought everything upstairs I immediately headed back out to go find it. And at first I thought that someone had beat me to it but I found it around the corner and I was very excited. I took it home and cleaned it up. On my walk back lots of people were smiling at me and that was nice. And I was just in a really good mood and while my neck hurt I knew that I had made the right choice coming home and I was just feeling really happy inside. Even though I was missing James and worried about them being dehydrated from their ride and throwing up. I was feeling good.

I think the trash got left open or something because it smelled horrible in our entryway so I lit a candle and cleaned a little bit. I cleaned the table tray that I got from the trash and put some other stuff away. And then I got to work on my evening project. Which was attempting to put all of the clothes I own Sam's bottoms and sweatshirts and sweaters, onto hangers to look at all of it and decide if I can get rid of anything. This did not work as well as I was hoping because it turns out I did not have enough hangers. But it was still fun to kind of go through stuff and I refolded everything in my storage box and there wasn't anything that I was like I don't really wear this I should get rid of it. So I felt like I'm at a pretty good place with my wardrobe which feels nice. I miss a lot of my fall and winter clothes though so I'm excited for those seasons but I'm going to try to enjoy the clothing options I have right now. And I redid the closet a little bit. I took all the shirts out of the box I was keeping them in because I felt like I was never utilizing because I can't see them. And I put that box in the studio for now and then I put all the shirts in my hanging box thing shelf thing. I don't know what to call it. And I think it's going to be a better system for a while. I hope someday I have a bigger closet again. I've had walk-in closets twice in my life and it's been excellent both times and I really hope that I can have a walk-in closet again.

Once I put everything away and made the space clean again I took a bath and that was really nice. I did the dishes and I went through our cabinet and chose plates that I thought we could get rid of. We have a whole set of plates that I have no idea where they came from. And I don't think we've ever used them. They're nice but we have too many plates! We're only two people. We don't need like 40 plates. That's exaggerating it's probably like 25 but still.

And I've just been hanging out since then. I had chicken nuggets for dinner. I watched videos. I hung out with sweetp. I continuously checked up on James because I was worried about them. Lane sent me a couple pictures letting me know that James was okay. And I've been just chilling. I had ice cream at one point. I checked on my aquatic friends. I painted my toenails. It was just a really excellent afternoon and evening. I'm hoping that it fixes me.

I used to this neck stretcher thing and it really did help my neck pain. I iced my neck first and then I used the stretcher thing and I wish it pushed my shoulders down a little bit more because I can definitely feel how tense they are but it helped the stiffness. So I think I'll be able to sleep a little easier.

And then I'll be going back to camp in the morning. Me and James were supposed to go see a movie tomorrow night. Specifically the Barbie movie. But I don't know if we're going to be able to do that if they're not feeling well still. So we'll see what happens But I am hopeful that it will be a very nice day. I hope that my groups are sweet and I hope that we just have a lot of fun.

I hope that you all sleep great tonight. I hope you take care of each other. I hope you're staying hydrated. Watch out for bikers. Good night everybody.

[greatwyrmgold]

Avatar 2: Avatarder

Wait, is there actually an Avatar sequel coming out? Like, James Cameron's blue Avatar, not the elemental Avatar people care about. I expected it to be the Half-Life 3 of film at best, but it's coming out in theaters tomorrow?

I'm not going to watch it, of course. I mostly care about blue Avatar But I did read the Wikipedia plot synopsis. Thoughts:

Apparently Grace's comatose avatar body had a kid??? (I'm pretty sure Grace is the human scientist lady.) I have so many questions that I'm afraid to ask.

RDA is back, complete with the same colonel who was last film's Big Bad. He's a clone. Also, he apparently had a son on Pandora who Jake and Neytiri are raising? When did he become a father? Why did he name his kid Spider?

There's a new MacGuffin this movie! RDA doesn't just want superconducting minerals, they're whaling because space whale brains produce anti-aging enzymes. Part of me hopes this plot point is introduced as abruptly in the film as it is in the Wikipedia summary, which mentions this after the colonel commandeers a whaling ship. Also, the whales are sentient.

There's mention of Jake befriending "the reef people" and learning their ways. Kinda like he did with the Na'vi in the jungle, except saltier, and it seems like an Act 2 B-plot thing at most. The movie ends with the reef people accepting Jake and his family as one of their own, though, so it was obviously Important.

Jake and Neytiri's kids, a mixture of adopted and natural-born, are extremely important to this film. The girls and Spider get captured by RDA/the colonel and used to track their family, one son gets a heroic sacrifice, the other seems to do more in act 2 than Jake does. Jake's still the protagonist, though.

Looking forward to a bunch of YouTubers who subjected themselves to this film explaining the ways it's identical to or distinct from the original. Also to Avatar 3: Oh Hell No!, where Jake goes to the arid highlands of Pandora to meet another native tribe who he befriends and joins over the course of a weekend.

[grandhotelabyss]

Heh, it’d be interesting to see the thought you hinted at a while back about how Red Scare-ism can never really be properly TERF-y written up in some moderately disreputable rag.* Incidentally about the hippie/fascist thing I was just commenting something similar to a leftie associate, adding to the point about Morrison et al that of the great *leftist* American novels are secretly libertarian (some Hemingway, Dos Passos, much of what passes for leftism in PKD) as well. Underlying reaction is a disposition of the profession I suspect. Forget women, if civilization had been left to novelists we’d all still be living in grass huts!

* I won’t share my own thoughts on this atm (although my gut mostly agrees with you!) because much like the thing about Chu being dishonorable I almost have too much to say. I won’t do it, but it would be a fascinating project to try to do “an intellectual history of the red scare girl” from the 2014 Lana del Rey fan to the present.

I nominate Pariah the Doll to write up the anti-convergence of Red Scareism and TERFism. (Somebody should commission me to be a commissioning editor. Who commissions the commissioners?)

I never know if I should make a bigger deal about it or not, and I'm sure you know this, but I literally wrote one of the first "Lana del Rey is right-wing—and that's pretty much fine" essays, and got it published in a mainstream left-lib literary journal in 2014. This would have been impossible after 2016, though it's probably doable again, if not in that precise organ.

(Alex Perez said that middle-aged conservative or conservative-adjacent men's obsession with Lana seems forced and pathetic. I see what he means, but I think it's partly because she's one of the only post-monoculture stars who actually has a universal appeal, has something to say—or different but equally vivid things to say—to 45-five-year old men and 15-year-old girls.)

Agreed on novelists—but maybe just American novelists. There's that Dick quote—I came upon it in this book—where he calls himself a fascist but says he's trying to teach the fascist worldview to the masses, to everyone; but since the fascist worldview involves subjecting reality to one's will (he cites Mussolini to this effect, but it could be Nietzsche or Crowley or for that matter Emerson, and in any case Mussolini liked William James) then fascism for everyone is just anarchism, i.e., anti-fascism (since for Mussolini fascism was also a collectivist cult of the state and not a billion proliferating individual micro-realities). I didn't read and don't necessarily endorse the whole book, but the occultist John Michael Greer's political tract The King in Orange essentially ends by saying that American ethnogenesis is not yet complete—the true American has not yet been born—and this bone-deep libertarianism seems to have something to do with the ongoing nascence of this novel humanity. It's why I prefer outré neo-pronouns to "they" and am somewhat wary—this will irritate people, too, I'm sure—of gun control. We're running a very particular experiment here; maybe we'll all die, but still, let's see how it plays out. As our girl sings, "And if you don't like it you can beat it, beat it, baby." Of course I have other days where I think completely otherwise; I am only one generation out of Europe on my mother's side after all. Woodrow Wilson, however, did say in a speech delivered to newly naturalized citizens—I only read this because it's in the back of the Norton Critical My Ántonia—that their very desire to come here in the first place meant they'd been Americans all along.

[gamora-borealis]

I don't know why the tweet got too deep for some people. I dont think Gunn is saying that Gamora doesnt consider Peter, Nebula, and the others something especial, this part might be a me thing but I think she considers them a family that loves her, she is just not in the same level as them but its fine cause she will make new experiences with them assuming the will work again in the future. She was running away from them the whole time but then she spend more time with them and saw how great they are, I think her arc consists of not being afraid to see why she loved them and why its not bad if she reconnects with a group of people who loved her and dont have expectations on her anymore. I am sure Gamora visits the guardians and Nebula above all, I mean why would Gunn not want that to be the case? He cares about the sisters and they still cared about each other. Did I miss something on why some people are saying they are not sisters anymore or why some people say that her going back to her real family according to Gunn means that she doesnt consider Nebula family despite that quote in the movie? Or why she is not a guardian or part of the guardians family despite understanding Groot? Or why do people think she is not coming ever to visit despite facing that fear she had and doesnt have anymore because she doesnt have a reason to avoid it and cut ties with them at this point?

Gunn is vague when it vomes to answers on his social media, he doesnt provide detail at all like in a script. Now when he does the directors commentary and the script is published we might get more insight on what he thinks.

Yeah I totally agree idk why people took it that way either, besides the people who were worried that maybe he was agreeing with or feeding the weird anti-Gamora/anti-Guardian!Gamora sentiment floating around (though I don't think he meant it like that). Maybe the MCU just attracts shallow fan interpretation (which like, GotG has always kinda been out of the MCUs league lol). Like James Gunn isn't perfect by any means, and he can't necessarily dictate anything outside of the movie itself. He probably could have worded it better, but like you said it wasn't an essay about it. I think the way some people interpreted that tweet probably shows that they misunderstand how he set up family dynamics in GotG in the first place, and they are using one vague tweet to justify some weird bias they have. Luckily I've avoided most of this negativity around Vol. 3 Gamora (besides the valid criticisms of how her and her arc were treated IW to now, which I've appreciated). I've mostly just seen commentary on this discourse from the people in my inbox and on my mutuals' blogs who are all rightly pro-Gamora and pro- her still being a part of the Guardian family (extended family, at the very least).

[popentertainment-moviereviews]

ARMAGEDDON TIME (2022)

Starring Banks Repeta, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Anthony Hopkins, Jaylin Webb, Ryan Sell, Tovah Feldshuh, Dane West, Landon James Forlenza, Andrew Polk, Richard Bekins, Jacob MacKinnon, Domenick Lombardozzi, John Diehl, Jeb Kreager, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Lauren Sharpe, John Dinello,  Griffin Wallace Henkel, Jen Weissenberg and Jessica Chastain.

Screenplay by  James Gray.

Directed by James Gray.

Distributed by Focus Features. 115 minutes. Rated R.

Screened at the 2022 Philadelphia Film Festival.

Sometimes you see a movie which is so obviously a labor of love, a story in which an artist is allowing some personal glimpse into their own past, that it’s sort of strange to acknowledge that the story is nowhere near as important to you as to the person who made it.

In theory, Armageddon Time should resonate for me. It’s about growing up an artistic Jewish outcast with a big, eccentric family on the outskirts of a big city (in this case, in Queens, New York), in the early 1980s. I know kids like Paul Graff (Banks Repeta). In many ways, I was a kid like Paul Graff.

So why doesn’t Armageddon Time really work for me?

I’m not sure exactly. Perhaps it is the fact that the film is very oddly paced. Perhaps it is because much of the acting is mannered and a bit over the top. Perhaps it is because the story doesn’t really have enough meat on the bones to intrigue. Perhaps it is because the lead character does some really stupid things. Perhaps it is because its moral is heavy-handed and not particularly surprising or insightful.

Perhaps it is because despite the fact that they did a good job with era-appropriate props and wardrobe, it never really feels like it is taking place in 1980. Perhaps it is because there is absolutely no reason for this story to be called Armageddon Time other than the fact that the filmmakers wanted to use the Clash song of essentially the same title (“Armagideon Time”) in the soundtrack – which I suppose may be a good enough reason. Perhaps it is because there are two unnecessary cameo appearances by actors playing members of the Trump family. (More on that later.)

Whatever it is, I wanted to like Armageddon Time much more than I did.

The movie was written and directed by James Gray (whose last film was the similarly underwhelming sci-fi drama Ad Astra) and is apparently loosely based on his life.

It is a story of racism, anti-Semitism and white privilege in a highly WASPy section of Queens at the literal birth of Reaganomics. (The 1980 presidential election is a constant backdrop for the action and a late scene has the Graff family mournfully watching Reagan sweep into the White House with a landslide victory.)

Paul is one of the few Jewish kids in his school. His best friend Johnny (Jalyn Webb) is one of the few Black people. Both deal with discrimination throughout, and yet in the long run Paul is at least partially shielded by his white privilege to the point that he mostly gets away with things that Johnny often gets blamed for. This is doubly concerning because often Paul is the instigator of the trouble, but Johnny seems to be the one always getting punished.

Not that he is completely blameless either. In the early 1980s if some student told his teacher to fuck himself – twice – in the course of a class like Johnny does here, he would at the very least be suspended. However, in Paul’s constant attempts to escape his family life – a life that is mostly pretty cushy, to be honest – Paul keeps coming up with wild schemes and Johnny is the one who inevitably pays.

Yes, Paul stands out in his horribly white bread neighborhood, a haven of class and snootiness, but he can basically blend in. Johnny has no such option.

Of course, Gray has found an odd way of demonstrating the small-mindedness of the neighborhood, arguably the best-known inhabitants of the borough, the Trumps.

Strangely, they found it important enough to get an A-list actress like Jessica Chastain to do a single cameo scene – playing former judge Maryanne Trump, of all people. Adding to the craziness, Chastain was a replacement, apparently Cate Blanchett was originally tapped for the role but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. That’s two Oscar-caliber actors who were going to be brought in for a single speech – a nice enough speech, I guess, but still…

Not only that, but John Diehl also has a few scenes as family patriarch Fred Trump, oozing unctuousness and malice. Luckily, son Donnie was nowhere to be found. However, even if Gray did grow up amongst Trumps, which I assume is the point of this little side venture, it leaves an oily sheen on the film.

It’s just one of many misfires which makes Armageddon Time a disappointing indulgence.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2022 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: November 3, 2022.

[nonbinary-sticks-the-badger]

id like to start this post with a link to a fundraiser masterpost and a reminder to do your daily clicks.

as i mentioned in my last post, i probably wont be posting about anything scu-related in the future, at the very least not anything praising it. if i reblog shadow referencing a keanu reeves role, my bad, ive only seen so many things with him in it. if i reblog scu art that i think is just mainline, my bad, i wasn't thinking. im gonna be honest i dont even think ill do little things, like stobotnik but in mainline context, though i will say, stobotnik mainline au may be like. the 1 exception??? because i do like the ship??? but thats the complete extent of what ill post, if that.

a part of me wants to say "but this is spoiling other people's fun!" and then the other part of me says "by not giving a platform to actors and a company that is complicit in genocide" and it shuts up the first half pretty easily. remember that considering everything, while yes it's likely to have very anti-military, anti-us themes, there is a chance both knuckles and sonic 3 will contain hidden pro-israel propaganda. if it wasnt obvious, i don't want to post about israeli propaganda.

for anyone who knows me personally, or at least messages me, im more likely to be more leniant seeing as. well. it's not public. but im still not sure if ill talk about it unless it comes up in conversation???

ik i have a handful of people here who are mostly scu fans, possibly even scu exclusive. ig im sorry??? i can understand why theres a lot of scu fans, so i suppose if you like scu but you also want to stop posting about it, may i recommend some OTHER things to try (this is a long list so buckle up:

hop (2011) has a similar plot to sonic 1 and has james marsden (who is also not a good person but i dont think even universal would care if youre pirating hop (2011))

a really good place to start is honestly the snapcube dubs!!! you might get a few spoilers from context clues but theyre a really fun way to get to know games a little bit! obviously, theres a big barrier of there only being 5 dubs of 4 games, but i feel like once youve watched the dubs you can sort of get into the rest of her videos from there (theres also. theres this one. this one series. that people like. btw.)

while yeah i recommend the games, theyre sort of hard to know where to start. all i can really say is, dont start from forces or frontiers, at least know the plot of sa2 and thats basically it. ig if you want to play EVERY game, you dont really need to play anything before sonic 3 & knuckles and even then you can still start from sonic adventure and learn the plot of s3&k

NiGHTS is fun but also youll learn nothing about sonic i just wanted to mention it

if youre more into the action, i recommend sonic prime (and also, a few fix-it-fics or rewritten endings)

i recommend sonic boom if you want the comedy* and the characters living (mostly) normal lives. also you can literally watch most of sonic boom for free on youtube idc if im biased i will die on the hill of it being the best sonic canon. yeah im even including rise of lyric. no i have not played rise of lyric. do not mention the wasted potential of the concepts or i will explode.

*no offense but sonic boom is way funnier. idc if im biased because the sonic films are honestly only a step up from mcu humour most of the time, if that

if you want lore, i recommend the comics rather than the games, seeing as its slightly daunting where to start with the games. for a slightly more sanitised and. ig "normal" experience, read either idw or post-reboot archie. but if you want things to get a little wild theres pre-reboot archie. the only archie comics ive read are sonic boom and NiGHTS, so im not speaking from experience. but. wow. theres a lot to unpack there

if for whatever reason you just want sonic thats completely different to the games, i recommend sonic the comic and any of the 90s cartoons!!! theyre honestly really fun and because theyre so early on in sonic history (?) theres so many inconsistencies

sonic the fighters is fun but also you literally will never have to play that ever and its hard to find anyway

im pretty sure ive mentioned every canon there??? and a few things i dont need to lol. but the point is, if you are a fan of scu, you arent immediately a bad person! BUT (and here's the bit you actually have to listen to): if you are posting and praising the scu, particularly the upcoming projects, you are giving a platform to a large chunk of zionists.

[torkragnarok]

Elwynn James, Tails Gets Trolled and the Growing Genre it Created, Crossovers, and Monkees AUs: An Essay by torkragnarok

I'm going to preface this by saying I have a neutral opinion on most of the subject matter of this essay, and I do not mean any ill will towards the people and stories mentioned in this essay. Please do not assume I am pro- or anti- anything here. I just find the subjects of the essay fascinating.

The trolled-like genre is a fascinating crossover genre, and one that is growing slowly, but surely on the internet.

The main big stories of the genre are the genre's originator, Tails Gets Trolled, as well as its similar, more "Learning with Pibby"-like cousin, Scoob and Shag.

There are also a few other stories in the genre, most notably Mr. Boop, as well as the Elwynn James (nesmithplaza/grendolenz) and Jessica McKinney (cashewstar/nuttystar/felineofallstars) fanfiction, and the only non-comic format story in this genre thus far: Crossover Chaos.

Crossover Chaos was not originally part of the genre, but was retooled into it when Scoob and Shag was becoming popular on the internet.

WHO ARE ELWYNN JAMES AND JESSICA MCKINNEY?

Elwynn James is a Korean-Canadian gay transmasc fanfiction writer, known only for Crossover Chaos, Sailor Moon Primordial X-Storm (if you've seen the Fanfiction Wiki, that's the articles that are summaries of a fake anime saga with the paragraph-long titles, usually mentioning Sailor Moon, Kingdom Hearts or Bakugan), and the drama he's gotten himself in (see the cannedtins/swagfacechild drama, as well as the trigonal drama. the latter is archived on deviantartdramanow, and is still ongoing).

Elwynn is very anti-modern fanfiction (he loves the mission of AO3, but hates the content on it, as he considers the coffee shop AUs and omegaverse a/b/o fics bland, and wishes the fanfiction world would shift back to crossovers, more specifically surrealist crossovers like his own, for the reasons of 'making it unmarketable for capitalist purposes', which is an interesting reason).

Elwynn is also schizophrenic, and, as he says himself, is 'hanging on the ledge of my grip on reality at this point'. His surrealist sense of humor may arise from this, as well.

Jessica McKinney is his co-writer, an American asexual fanfiction writer, known for Unity Hearts, Crossover Chaos, and her fursona, now open-sourced for other peoples' use, Trippz Grissom.

Jessica is an odd duck among the modern fanfiction community, as her sense of humor, and ways of writing, seem to be stuck in the era of 2008 to 2014 type of fandom. This is apparent in Crossover Chaos, her Deviantart status updates, and some of the jokes she may make.

She is also on the autism spectrum, and may be undiagnosed bipolar(? some of her behaviour online leads me to this conclusion, i'm not self-diagnosing her).

This fanfiction writing duo has been writing the Crossover Chaos saga for about a decade or so. The story is mostly on Deviantart, but currently, the newer stories in the saga are on a private forum.

WHY ARE THE MONKEES RELEVANT IN THIS ESSAY?

The story, as it currently stands, currently stars a heavily changed version of Michael Nesmith, as the story revolves through main characters, depending on whatever show or celebrity Elwynn and Jess are obsessed with.

(Side note that has some relevancy to both essay and fandom: Elwynn is a Mike stan, Jessica is a Peter stan. This may explain why Mike is the Crossover Chaos lead right now, and why Trippz is paired up with Peter. Elwynn has also made jokes about Mike and Peter girls being hostile to each other in the fandom, saying, that 'Mike and Peter girls can get along'. Moving on)

Crossover Chaos is a crossover saga of thousands of series put together in a lore and worldbuilding heavy alternate universe, and originally started out as a "Fanboy and Chum Chum in Equestria" story, believe it or not.

The 'Mike era' of the saga, as Elwynn calls it, started approximately around November or December 2021, around the time the real Michael Nesmith died.

Elwynn, doing as Elwynn does, was enamoured with Mike to an obsessive degree, and made him the lead character of the story, dethroning the then-current leads, Socks (Mission: Magic!, a 1972 Filmation cartoon starring Rick Springfield, Socks is the Jughead-like character in it), Elaine (Digimon Adventure 01, a transfem axe-wielding aged-up version of Joe Kido that is basically the story's equivalent of the Doomslayer from id Software's video game Doom), and Kaz (Chaotic, a 4kids-made card game show that takes big inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons, as well as Lord of the Rings, Kaz is the nerdy best friend character of the lead in this show).

MIKE NESMITH, AND HIS TREATMENT IN THE STORY

The most relevant, plot-wise, in the Mike era of the story, are, as previously mentioned, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork.

All four of them feature in the story, but Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz are in supporting roles compared to Mike and Peter.

Mike Nesmith is the lead character, and Elwynn gives him a lot of qualities taken from the stock isekai harem protagonist.

This leads to Mike being more powerful then most other characters in the story, excluding mainstays such as Valo (a petty caricature of Funny Music Project musician, known for the comedy song 'Grease Wars', and Mighty Magisword storyboarder and voice actor, Luke Seinkowski, notably open-sourced for all to use), Floofty Fizzlebean (a heavily AU version that ascended 'beyond godhood' due to mad science never truly explained), the Colmares (one of them being Puggsy from the Ruby-Spears cartoon 'Fangface', a Scooby-Doo-a-like where the Shaggy character is also the Scooby because he's a werewolf, Puggsy is the sidekick character in this one), and the head honchos of the setting, the Pokemon Legendaries (Arceus' power level and 'One True Arceus' storyline is blatantly stolen from fellow deviant simbiothero's crossover AU 'Crossverse', as Elwynn is incredibly petty, and likes his characters being at the top of the fanfiction power level food chain).

Mike, in this AU, is not only hyper-powerful like the typical stock isekai light novel or anime protagonist, but also has other 'power fantasy' traits from the trope, such as starting out 'average', the fact he got taken into the world of the story by his death (stated in the story to be his own real life death, this is also the same for Davy and Peter), as well as having a 'harem', consisting of his own bandmates, characters from other series, as well as Elwynn and Jess' original characters.

Mike is heavily sexualized in his designs in this story, but never dehumanized like the other three (Micky and Peter are especially given that treatment, sometimes Davy, too).

Mike is also written less like actual Mike Nesmith in the story, and more like a 'self-insert' for Elwynn, taking on many of his personality traits, and even having the bleached fringe that Elwynn has in photos of himself.

Basically, Mike Nesmith in this story is just Elwynn James, if he had Kirito from Sword Art Online's post-isekai life, and wore the nudie suit, to put it plainly.

PETER TORK, AND HIS TREATMENT IN THE STORY

Peter Tork is the second-most relevant Monkee in the story, as he is Jessica's favourite Monkee.

Peter Tork in Crossover Chaos is often portrayed as Mike's narrative foil in the story, being his closely allied friend, and, often, second in command.

Peter fills in the story's 'Lancer'-style character trope, as Mike is very surly, analytical, and sarcastic, and Peter is more cheerful, peaceful, and optimistic.

He sticks to Mike's side often, tried and true, and will lay down his life, often, for Mike.

Peter is often highly sexualized, and almost dehumanized in terms of his physical description in the story, however, and this is highly reflective in the clothes he wears in the story, often wearing next to nothing, and that next to nothing is usually mesh and/or tight leather. Considering Peter was a nudist and also, later in his life, into health foods and fitness, they are taking traits he actually had, and heavily sexualizing it, and heavily dehumanizing him for it, for the sake of their own personal titillation.

Peter's autism is brought up frequently, but always, concurrently, with the mentions of his physical attractiveness, or his sex life.

It is never mentioned without those being mentioned, making him seem like Jessica and Elwynn consider him a sex object, and little more.

DAVY JONES AND MICKY DOLENZ, AND THEIR TREATMENT IN THE STORY

Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz, in the story, are often considered characters that 'revolve' around Mike and Peter in the story.

Micky Dolenz is transfem in the story, and is, basically, just there to be the sexy big anime titty girl character, as well as the character that spouts the currently relevant funny meme of the week from her mouth, which may date this story in 10 to 20 years.

Davy Jones, in this story, is meant for comedic relief, and is very much comparable to Mineta from My Hero Academia, in which he is a misogynistic pervert, though Davy goes, often, after men (a cruel take on the gayvy jones joke in the fandom, as Elwynn has stated its referencing that), and really, really hates women.

Micky, in the story, is in a relationship with Mike, and most of her character in the story beyond what has been said previously, revolves around her relationship with him.

Davy is also slightly a fetish object in the story, as Elwynn has a very specific fat fetish, for men under 5'7", and that's why Davy seems to get fatter as the story goes on.

Micky is often sexualized to hell and back, and dehumanized because of her role in the story, and Davy less so, but it still happens.

CROSSOVER CHAOS, AND THE TROLLED-LIKE GENRE

Crossover Chaos shares the surrealist humor of everything else in the trolled-like genre, and, also, many of its problems, too.

Tails gets Trolled, the comic the genre came from, has many homophobic, misogynistic, and otherwise not very great jokes ('Can you put that on a coaster', anyone?), but shines in its surrealist vibe, mushing series together in a way that makes sense, and makes it a fun, surrealist ride.

Crossover Chaos, is similar with its problems (Davy is a huge example of that, as well as many, many other problems), but also has its own share of problems different then Tails gets Trolled.

One of them being that the story has an oddly Evangelical feeling, without mentioning Christianity nor any of the characters within it, nor God himself.

Instead, the story mentions, in its place, "trans rights", as well as many trans people, the most common being Marsha P. Johnson, and the characters are sometimes even shown praying to her.

The story, even though it seems very LGBT-friendly on the outset, is heavily steeped in gender roles, and what its like to be a good "trans person", which is also very much steeped in Evangelical morals, while also putting in slight bits of queer theory, highly misused to seem more 'progressive'.

Another problem is the unauthorized use of other people's fanfiction, because Elwynn, again, is petty, and likes having his fanfiction characters at the top of the fanfiction power level pecking order.

(The man even destroys the Protectors of the Plot Continuum and its universe, citing the excuse of the people writing the universe "not being good queer people because they critique bad writing", and the Keys to the Canon, called the Four in All in the story, are unceremoniously absorbed by Nesmith, and added into his already overpowered powerset.)

Elwynn has also targeted Loud House Revamped, ShakespeareHemmingway, and the Shared Crossover Universes, as well as many fanfictional imperial power fantasies, as well, just so Nesmith can destroy them, take everything they have, and become the god of fanfiction, so to speak.

IN CONCLUSION

I'm not saying Crossover Chaos is a bad story, but it's definitely not a good one, and it definitely needs to be criticized as a fanfiction, because many of the elements within it are... not palatable to many people.

I'm saying, also, don't send Elwynn or Jessica any death threats, doxxes, etc., because this story has piqued my curiosity, and I am, unfortunately, very obsessed with it, and all of its oddness, and I'd hate to see it gone from the internet.

Elwynn and Jessica are flawed people, yes, but that doesn't mean they aren't people just because they write 'problematic' fanfiction.

And that's why I find it all amusing.