#we're here; aren't we? || in medias res

[tea-with-evan-and-me]

hey tweam, i know it's a bummer but it's time for a pinned announcement post due to the insane amount of hate messages i am receiving daily regarding natalie. if you're a normal, decent person, feel free to scroll past, disregard, and tumblr on…

RE: NATALIE AND EVAN

since some of you non-tweam members like to thrust your ugliest inner musings anonymously into my ask box and seem to think that's okay, let me make one thing clear: i don't tolerate hate. and i won't tolerate unfair criticism and negativity towards natalie, because up to this point, not one of you have brought forth a legitimate critique. no, natalie posting evan on instagram, going with him to events, just publicly existing as a couple.. is NOT ''using him for fame''. that's called being his girlfriend, and those are all normal things for couples to do. you wanting evan to either not date at all, or do so in utter secrecy to protect your jealous heart is NOT a legitimate reason to dislike natalie. if she does something problematic, then yes, you have every right to voice your feelings and i would absolutely allow that (civil) conversation - until then, i suggest that you print your message out on the thickest, roughest card stock you can find at your local office depot, wipe your ass with it, and then throw it in the trash where it belongs as i won't be entertaining you.

i remember all too well the slippery slope with frances, and the way people justified terrible behavior towards that woman by pointing to perceived ''wrongs'' that apparently meant it was okay to bully her, not just on here, but on her own social media. was there some fair, due criticism somewhere underneath all of that? absolutely, but it was never truly about that. some ''fans'' simply want evan to date villainous women so that they can ''legitimately'' hate on them without being called a hater - and if the woman isn't an actual villain, they will create a narrative that paints her as one. that's why they have all this smoke for fran, haley lu, now natalie.. but it's crickets for emma, who is well-known for being awful. even gftwd, who would've told you frances was satan incarnate, defended emvan. why? because deep down, they like evan with emma because she's an overtly bad person and they could hate her freely if emvan got back together. oh, they'd change their tunes quick.. but they aren't together, so they focus elsewhere. yet fran, whose worst offense was being an internet troll and edgelord, had multiple hate blogs, discord servers, instagram accounts, etc. all dedicated to tearing her down and actively encouraging other people to join in. and that's exactly what some of you unstable weirdos are preparing to do to natalie, which i can't stop you from doing - hell, rosa already posted the address to a place natalie was staying and endangered her safety and potentially evan's. once you cross a certain line, good luck going back. some of you never learn.

we're all here because we are fans of evan, not fans of the women he dates. you are not obligated to like natalie and talk about her, not with me or anyone else. in fact, i encourage discussion that deviates from the relationship chat and my hope is that as evan and natalie settle into a long-term relationship, a sense of normalcy can begin to form where people do not feel so tense about something that really should not be our concern. it can be background noise. if he's happy, she's not causing problems, and they appear to have a healthy union.. what's there to hate? we're here to support the man, not tear him down. this is a major reason for the disdain i have for the tarot blog(s) currently running - your sole purpose for being on this app and engaging in fandom should not be to incessantly, repeatedly, multiple times a day be putting out undeserved negative commentary about evan, his relationship, and the woman he is dating. how would YOU feel if, completely unprompted by any controversy, someone decided they were going to make it their job to obsessively post negative things about YOUR relationship? hell, at least be fair! if any of you just need an outlet, idk, maybe start shit talking the woman evan dated for nearly a decade who has shown herself to be a literal demon instead lmfao at least she is deserving of your ire. i understand that this is a gossip and discussion blog, and by default, it can turn intrusive in nature. but it does not have to be negative in nature.

again.. can you imagine if you were just minding your own business, living life, dating someone.. and a stranger who has no reason to speak out against you decides to take offense to another person calling you gorgeous, to the point they have to log onto tumblr and anonymously message a blog to announce that they think it's ridiculous someone has called you attractive.. oh, and by the way, your current boyfriend's ex? now, SHE'S gorgeous! not you though, you're mid. yeah, i'm pretty sure you would realize real quick just how fucking uncouth that message was.

anyway, if this miserable behavior happens to be your jam, your IP address will be blocked from sending me messages and any that i do receive will be promptly deleted unless it's juicy enough that i will derive pleasure from roasting your ignorant ass.

to all the truly funny, kind-hearted, intelligent folks who frequent this blog and brighten my day with your messages and discussions.. love ya.

[crispy-kitten-princess]

If i ever were able to list all the things i dislike in Magisterium series, this post would've been endless. Instead, I'd mention smth i love so much that it makes me re-read the series for the fifth time and gives me inspiration for new drawings and playlists

The first one is aesthetic. I don't think I've ever read a YA book with the death and necromancy as the main lore theme. Also, the first book in series is so sweet and innocent compared to the fourth I can't believe it lol. Corpses. So gothic. So edgy. Love it

The second is very similar to the first - chaos magic. We come across elemental magic in all sorts of media, but they don't usually have the 5th element, or if they have it's more likely to be electricity or smth. Not ACTUAL NECROMANCY omfg... I love it. Also Makars being able to manipulate not only chaos (the void itself) but the soul.... Cute

So next. The main character ofc. Callum Hunt. What can I say he is such a cinnamon roll hating himself for what he is not. Screaming, crying, throwing up. I can feel his pain with every fiber of my soul he's so relatable. He is a type of chaotic neutral main character which is rare I guess, and at the same time he doesn't act like a total jerk and piece of shit. Can't name some other like him, idk. He's sweet but also edgy. His self-confidence is below the surface of the earth. He's just like me frfr my poor little meow meow. Also he is disabled and it influences the events of the book. Sometimes. Cool, representative. Not a disabled person myself but can appreciate it

Another reason for me to love the series is the changing of Call's secrets idk how to call this. The structure of his character lore. His secrets and abilities, they're layered.. you know... And every book one by one uncovers these layers: 1 - he uncovers that he is the reincarnation of Constantine. 2 - he gets his powers (which made Constantine evil at the first place). 3 - he learns more about Constantine's family, and the whole world finds out that he "is" the Enemy of Death. 4 - omg how much he uncovers here lol i can't. May be my favourite book thanks to its maaad vibe. Everything he learns here makes him closer and closer to Constantine. 5 - i know that most of the fandom thinks it was stupid to make Constantine himself a reincarnated thousand-years-old evil Makar. And i may agree. But in the moment of reading this it was so impactful for me idk why.... I literally cried idk!!! Lol. Love the moment where Call opens his memory to help his friends to fight wolves or smth, and PASSES OUT. KING. So, the other secret is uncovered here. Everything he learns makes him understand Constantine's/Maugris's motives, but he never ever becomes anything like them nor wishes to follow their path. Pretty symbolic and meaningful

Upd. SOME MOMENTS ARE FREAKING HILARIOUS

So what can I say? Every series has it's weak and strong points. Some of them become classic literature, some are forgotten in the abyss of YA books. I understand why Magisterium's place is with the second type of series, and it's not even saddens me anymore (we're so underground teehee). But i see many posts where the series is shitted over, and not much of posts appreciating the things that we actually love in it. Aren't they the reason you started and finished it sometime? So I'm here spreading positivity! And also because I'm so tired of being a fan of this shit so i tried to acknowledge all that i love, and why am i here in the first place

I think it's all for now, maybe I'll come with more ideas later

Fandom are you alive? Heh am I a Call kinnie to the point that i become necromancer?...

P.S. sometimes i think I'm so cringe to be periodically obsessed with this STUPID POOR-WRITTEN CHILDISH BOOK ABANDONED EVEN BY IT'S OWN CREATORS BUT I CAN'T HELP IT...... AND THE WORST THING IS THAT I DIDN'T EVEN READ IT IN MY EARLY TEENS (except the 1 which i read when i was around 13. Read it twice in one week so maybe that's the moment my brain was damaged) I READ IT WHEN I WAS 16 ALREADY aaarrrhh I'm so cringe. Why obsession why why why why why why i hate this but this is literally the only book which makes me cry and scream and feel every fucking time i re-read it even when i know EVERYTHING THAT'S GONNA HAPPEN LITERALLY EVERYTHING reading it all again for the 6th time FOR GODDESS SAKE WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME

[savelockwoodandco]

Hi! Do you think the show has a good chance of being saved? It's been a month and 11 days since the cancellation and everytime I rhink about that it drives me crazy

Hi Anon, thanks for the question!

We've said a few times our feelings about the timeline, so I won't go super into-depth here, but we do want to reiterate that a month and change is not at all a long time for a show not to be picked up. Short of B99, shows just aren't picked up in their first month of cancellation, nor announced to be picked up.

This is going to be a months-long -- emphasis on the plural -- fight, but we are still fully confident that we're going to come out the victors. We haven't even hit a month and a half yet; these are early days. Let me state clearly again: we think the show has a great chance of being picked up, "even" at this stage.

However, we get that it can be discouraging, especially since in current culture there's a sense of "if it doesn't happen immediately it won't happen at all" that's rather pervasive, only getting more intense the younger the person in question is. That can make it hard to work towards a goal that doesn't have an end date and that'll take months.

So here's a fun little tidbit to keep our engines revved and moving: CF has been very, very quiet this last week.

Why is that a fun fact? Well, because CF has been relatively aware after the first week or so of the campaign with us fans.

On their Twitter -- which we know some people (Tumblr Mod included!) aren't really involved with -- CF tweeted the phrase "Nice Things" (their capitalization, not ours) with a piece of fanart. Afterwards, a tweet went around praising CF for their use of coded messages in Tweets -- which CF liked. Previous to this, CF had tweeted that they wouldn't try to trick us or falsely build us up, so this like had a number of heads scratching.

And since then, CF has been quiet.

There are so many reasons for a business to be loud on twitter -- it helps build their brand, they enjoy engaging with fans, they're having time between projects, etc etc. For a company as small as CF, it's likely that, unlike Netflix and other Giants, Someone from CF actually is in charge of the twitter, rather than a faceless intern. Many fans have theories on who it might be, but it's not the purpose of this post to speculate on that.

The important thing to note is that while there are many reasons to be loud, there's really only one reason to be quiet: they're busy.

Which is something very much in our favor.

We know that media business isn't something that everyone's interested in, so here's the facts: signing contracts for a show takes a long, long time. Signing contracts for renewing a show takes a long time as well. Meetings are scheduled, meetings to discuss those meetings are scheduled, both sides have to have separate meetings within their teams, then between teams, then company-wide, and then schedule follow-ups with the other party. It's a process and even if both parties (CF and whoever picks it up) agree immediately on terms, which never happens, contracts still have to be drafted, considered, debated, re-drafted...

It's a process, and we don't get to see any of it. Lucky for us, honestly, because it'd probably drive us crazy. The only thing we get to see is the end result -- the show being saved -- popping up like a bolt from the blue.

But we have to remember it's not from the blue, it's from weeks and weeks of hard work and negotiation. If CF is smart -- and CF is very, very smart -- talks of saving the show will include the ability to tell the whole story, whether that's negotiating for 2 more seasons, or for 1 season of ~16 or so episodes.

We have no say in contracts or anything like that for S2. What our presence does have a say in is helping out CF with negotiations. The louder, more passionate, more demonstrative, and yes, more consistent we are, the more negotiating power CF has. They have great numbers to present for the show itself, growing every day, but because of LockNation, they can demonstrate the ongoing market appeal of Lockwood & Co. That translates to the opportunity to earn more money and clout for whoever it is picks us up, and that puts CF is a very good position.

We're of the firm belief that the best mindset going forward is not "it's already been X amount of time", it's instead "it's only been X amount of time".

It's only been a month and 11 days.

The things we do help. The things we do matter. They will continue to matter as long as we do them.

So let's help our show out as best we can, and be cheerful about it. Take breaks -- please, please take breaks, or you'll go crazy -- and take care of yourself.

Good things are coming. Or, to use CF's words, Nice Things are coming.

[brehaaorgana]

You still do not understand the point. You are not Black. Therefore your analysis of the situation is not warranted or needed. You should instead, reblog Black bloggers, repost (with credit and links) from Black users of other social media and donate to Black people in need. Adding another non Black voice on the topic of antiblack racist violence is never helpful. You are not the exception.

Okay, so first, I think this is inherently going to be a difficult conversation since you're anonymous.

second, I think we're talking past each other here, and genuinely, I'm not really sure why you think it's unhelpful for me to tell non-black people to stop and ask themselves some questions about a call by a non-black person to go watch a black woman be murdered by the police. I didn't make a huge callout post or demand anything or insist anything.

this is i guess point three, but: in all my time in the world thus far, it has been understood that I, as a non-black person, should tell my fellow non-black people when they don't have the right to decide something or say something or demand something regarding antiblackness or black people.

Like...genuinely, did we stop doing "Somebody come get your cousin?" on the social justice internet in the last decade for some reason?

Was I NOT supposed to say anything when fellow non-black people were trying to make choices/claims/whatever that aren't theirs to make, because we're not black? am i not, as a non-black person, supposed to speak up if i see something potentially problematic about non-black people's behavior towards violence against black people, particularly police brutality and murder, and ask them to THINK ABOUT IT?

also this is just....a Real Take. Like.

i've had my literal (mexican-american, cop) uncle blocked on facebook since Freddie Gray was murdered in 2015 because I told him he was being antiblack, which he was.

was i supposed to just phone a black friend to do the emotional labor of telling him he was being antiblack since non-black people can't speak on the topic of antiblack racist violence? That's sort of what you're implying here.

anyways anon i edited my other post, so here you are:

Black Voices on the topic of Viral videos of Police Killings of Black People:

PBS: White people don’t understand the trauma of viral police-killing videos by Dr. Monnica Williams.

Al Jazeera: Videos of police brutality can perpetuate Black trauma — The wanton display of footage of violent Black deaths re-traumatises Black communities and promotes racist tropes.

Sage Perspectives: When Black Death Goes Viral: How Algorithms of Oppression (Re)Produce Racism and Racial Trauma

Jstor Daily: Viral Black Death: Why We Must Watch Citizen Videos of Police Violence

This whole book: Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism

What to Consider before Watching Videos of Police Brutality

the New Republic: What Does Seeing Black Men Die Do for You? (Apparently re-titled as: Videos of Police Killings Are Numbing Us to the Spectacle of Black Death)

NPR's Codeswitch: A Decade Of Watching Black People Die

hope that works.

edit -- also for context my full comments:

brehaaorgana

2h

Genuinely (as someone who has handled graphic original photo print documentation of genocide/war crimes before)*** I don't see a reason to make a spectacle of a video recording of a black woman's murder by cops in order to understand what happened. It's just not necessary to do. Being a direct eyewitness to this kind of thing is not always necessary or even something desired by surviving family/community/friends.

bolding my own. Generals and specifics my own.

Someone replied:

I mostly agree with you, but I do think there's something to be said about how disconnected most of us feel from these issues, I think sometimes it does help to actually see it, if you can handle it, and if it's done respectfully with intent to educate. I have a lot of thoughts on this that won't fit in a reply.

My response:

that's fair, I also have a lot of thoughts that won't fit in a reply. Another (less about ethics) concern I had was jury contamination when this goes to court. But in general I think it's not…great to encourage people to make a spectacle of black people being murdered, especially in the US, & especially given the horrific history of using black murders as a recreational visual consumption activity by non-black ppl in the US. basically I would say there's a lot of questions I believe ppl need to ask of themselves if they do this. "who decides if, how, and when it is respectful for you/me to watch someone's murder? How does seeing it in the wild on the internet ensure an educational understanding? How is watching a black murder today different from when people made souvenir photos of black lynchings in the past? What makes it different? Does watching murder teach me something new? like ultimately I don't need an answer from anyone or even your answer specifically. That's all hypotheticals. but there's a huge amount of labor, ethical & legal guidelines, praxis theory & usually multiple degreed people that goes into things like "presenting [community traumas and state violence] the Atlantic Slave Trade or Holocaust or Trail of Tears in meaningful, educational, and respectful contexts" and ppl encouraging folks watching a horrific murder online aren't…engaging in any of that.

Someone else just replied to me:

@brehaaorgana thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in such a thoughtful, understanding, & appropriately serious manner. You never admonished but you certainly didn't mince your words/hold back from implying that this is anything but superfluous, unnecessary, and garish. Watching is nothing but gawking, when details and precise relaying of the event exists. One doesn't need to watch to understand that the cop is repellent & unqualified to be armed w/ authority. I don't care how much it helps you to "engage"; you've now admitted that you're watching the butchering of a human life for a self-serving purpose, even if that purpose is part of an otherwise commendable effort to remain informed and critical.

idk i feel pretty okay saying i, personally, am wary of personally making a spectacle of black people being murdered by police.

***I've obviously been to holocaust museums, native american museums, black american history museums, and so on, but I am referring specifically here to personally handling albums of photos taken and developed by Japanese soldiers during World War II while working in a museum research context.

[littlesislovesyou]

I'll thank you anyway because you deserve it~ And fuuuck I need you to be the one to give me that release...I need it so badly. 😩 And you deserve it just as much <333

Oh yeah we'd be all over each other. We'd be the type to be too horny to wait until we get home. We be fucking like animals feral and desperately in heat in the alleyways, blind spots in parks or even in the car. We don't care about anything else but making each other feel good and cumming for each other~ I love having a dangerous hold over your pussy, it belongs to me too after all...it's only fitting that I do <3333

I'm happy it does. I am an overthinker and perhaps worry too much about others than I do myself lol but you being safe or fine matters to me first and then anything else can come after. And don't feel bad. I'm glad to have moments of your time devoted to me. You should do what you enjoy and what makes you happy. Take breaks from Tumblr or any social media cuz that's normal and honestly healthy lol. Movies sounded fun I'd wish we could do a movie night XD and I'm happy you read them as soon as you can. Sounds like you look forward to seeing them and that makes me happy 💕

Oh trust me I am enjoying this as much as you...I think that's why our reactions are very similar when we both tease too much 😌 and if I'm ever uncomfortable I'll promise to tell!

Well I think we both hinted at that a while ago when I was being vulnerable lol I didn't want to assume though. But yessss we'll be insane and horny for each other and together always~ 🖤🖤🖤

I look forward to that day...and I'm excited to dm you too! I just wanna make sure I've got all the stuff bothering me done and dusted so I have not as much plaguing me and preventing me from talking. I feel really safe and comfortable with you at this point lol

And I'm gonna kidnap you one day and we're gonna have a session where I make you hump my leg or thighs and my cock while I go through all the fucked up shit you get off to and mocking you for being such a pathetic, perverted freak that can't help herself like the needy puppy you are...maybe I'll finger your cunny while I scroll and show you and see what makes you the horniest based on facial expressions, reactions...how soaked you become~ Helping you masturbate until you cum all over my fingers while my teeth are marking all over your neck and collar~ 🤭🔪

Oooh I like the sound of that...and trust me I always am thinking about you after I like your naughty posts~

You are an mischievous little thing aren't you...? Well if it was...and you confirmed that you were thinking about me when you reblogged it with your own irresistible, pretty lips...I'd probably cum then and there all over the pictures you have on here immediately after jerking off for a few hours 🥵

Anyways this'll be the last response for now cuz I gotta catch up on yesterday's too. But I'll be lurking for a while longer and then hopefully finally passing out lol

I hope you have a wonderful night and sleep well and have wonderfully lewd dreams (while I use your holes in your slee- I mean cuddle you; why not both? <3333) Take care of yourself and we'll talk more I hope as days get better!

Aweee aren’t you so sweet, already so addicted to me hm? ☺️💗 aghhh just the visual of us not being able to keep our hands off each other and not being able to wait till we got home, just pulling me into an alley because you’re throbbing for me<3333 pressing me against the brick of a building and bending me over, just to have me wrapped around you then and there🥰 going at it without a second thought<333 just giving pleasure to each other, all the time💗💗

God you seriously do 🥺💕 my pussy is just yours~

Hehe 💓👀 I won’t lie it took me a moment to answer because I’ve just been re reading it over and over again, especially the last one you sent;’) 💓 I have never rubbed my little cunt so much to something<333

And of course! Take your time<3 I just like reason you about it;’) just because I know I would probably be teasing you as much as I can in dms💕💕

I’m really glad you feel comfortable with me! I have to admit I do with you as well 🥺 and just so you know, you were the mutual;’) 💓💓 I was hinting at it but maybe I should’ve just told you were 👀💓

Ughhhhh listen if you jerked off to my pictures I’d probably marry you lmao<3333

WHY DO YOU HAVE TO TURN ME ON SOOO MUCH 🥺💗💗💗 god how much I would love and give to be your slutty puppy<333 fingering me while you read all the dirty posts I like and share<3 or maybe even reading some of the dms I get to me, telling me how much all these older men wanna fuck me<333

Also ps- I missed you💓💓

[kaurwreck]

Seeing people talking badly about bsd anime make me sad sometimes because as a bsd manga reader, the thing that make me read it now was the anime back then. I know the anime adaptation doesn't always follow the manga and novels but i always assume it to be something like, "Here is another scenario/possibility of what could happen this scene/moment." Another way to explore the character more instead of, "We're changing this because fuck you that's why."

Animation and print publication are also completely different mediums, with different considerations and constraints, distributed through different channels, and operating within different regulatory regimes. The implications and considerations for mangaka re: pacing, narrative tools, page space, labor, content restrictions, skill constraints, time for creation, process for revisions and iteration, distribution channels, and stakeholders are not the same as the considerations and implications undertaken by studios animating a television series.

I'm not sure why it's so difficult for people to conceptualize that print and animation are not the same anymore than sculptures and paintings. Or text and successions of images manipulated to create the illusion of movement overlaid by audio.

Thoughtful adaptations are also addressed to both existing and new audiences, the latter of which is further split into those who may engage with the original version and those who won't. Adaptations need to capture the original story enough to make sense and maintain the story's essence for those who aren't going to engage with the original material, without neglecting the audience that has experienced or may follow-up with the original material.

For example, I came to the manga from the anime and would have become bored and likely not finished reading the already animated volumes of the manga if not for the variations between the manga and anime. An adaptation risks becoming parasitic to the original material if it strips incentive to engage with the original material.

Also, the choices made in bsd's adaptations are made under the creative direction of the original material's creators, who are being given additional narrative tools (timing, sound design, animation) to manipulate under different constraints (studio oversight, different content regulations, 20-minute episodes, number of episodes per season) with other collaborators who offers additional and divergent expertise, skillsets, expectations, incentives, creative input, resources, and experience (animators, directors, producers, voice actors, sound technicians). Like, why constrain them to the version of their story where they didn't have any of those things, and why dismiss what the adaptation's other creators have to offer the story?

The audience is interpreting and engaging with the story with limited information in isolation. We are not in a room bouncing ideas with Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa; we are not negotiating timelines and publication schedules and budgetary constraints; we do not know th3 details of the licensing agreements or the prospect of renewal for additional seasons or movies; we do not have for reference the outline of the plot and impending arcs or the intended themes or the full context of the characters' backstories and relationships. The vast majority of the English speaking fandom doesn't even have the relevant cultural and historical context foundational to the story. So, on what basis can the audience justify relying on our initial impressions and knee-jerk reactions to the choices made in the adaptations?

Like, this isn't to say we can't make reasonable criticisms or contribute valuable perspectives, nor is it to say that there aren't layers to stories beyond the creators' intentions or that foreign media can't reverberate cross culturally.

But it does mean any bitching and moaning made in willful ignorance of the bsd anime's creativity, constraints and context is worth less than the electricity consumed to publicize the same on tumblr.com.

[degloved]

we're never getting reputation (taylor's version) and here's why:

1. the color-coding

taylor's discography is very obviously and deliberately color-coded, each album strongly associated with a particular color or shade. although there is some overlap (1989's light blue vs midnights' dark blue), the variations are distinct enough to avoid any confusion between them. in that sense, b&w is an extremely inflexible color assignment, on account of not being... well, not a color. b&w is b&w (not to be confused with folklore's grey; monochrome ≠ b&w), there aren't exactly many (or any, as it were) ways to stretch that palette to the extent it'd successfully take on an identity (album) of its own. which i believe blondie is aware of, and on that basis i believe it was a deliberate choice. and why? it's not as though she'd exhausted all of her options. there are colors she has yet to use, as well as different shades, tones, and tints of already used colors that would've been just as viable. why take this extremely particular and inflexible palette and, essentially, risk shifting that association from one album to another? unless she wasn't risking anything.

2. the pre-ttpd announcement period

as is customary for her, in the weeks before the official announcement of ttpd, all of taylor's social medias began taking on a b&w color scheme. the same had happened with purple and speak now (taylor's version), with light blue and 1989 (taylor's version), so on and so forth. a kind of unique mass-hysteria ensued as all signs pointed to reputation (taylor's version.) as it turned out, every last one of us was wrong in that assumption. if reputation (tv) were to drop, she'd have to go the b&w route again—which, for one, would in this case be predictable (we got bamboozled once, no way is it happening again) and that's very much not her style; and for two... there'd be no novelty. doing the same bit twice, really? not her!

3. the themes of reputation

reputation centered two core concepts: joe & falling out of public favor. a "good" thing and a "bad" thing. this would remain true for several years after the fact, yet no longer is—instead having turned into two "bad" things. i would not blame her if she chose not to return to this notably awful period of her life by way of re-recording, especially given the fact that the thing—person—that was once a shining star in all that proverbial darkness simply blends into the void with the way things are now. and while, yes, she had re-recorded songs about her exes, she'd only done so after a long while has passed. not only was this the longest relationship she's ever had and therefore likely uniquely devastating, the breakup itself is also very recent.

4. the contrast and the timing

and continuing the last point, only last year she'd dropped a couple devastating songs about this relationship on midnights, followed by more than a fair share of them on ttpd. doubtless she's still moving on/healing (judging by ttpd); i simply do not see her delving into an album that'd dredge up all those memories of the good times, the better times—not to mention that ttpd and rep are as antithetical to each other as it gets. if she'd recorded lover any earlier and had no ownership of it, for very similar reasons i wouldn't believe she'd re-record that one either.

4. the ttpd logo (NOT!!! my finding!)

now i never put much stock into this when i first saw it, as whoever had found it had taken it to mean "yay reputation (tv) soon!" and i simply did not agree. i actually thought it was a really freaky coincidence. bc, c'mon. let's be serious. however, i did realize it sort of fits remarkably well into my "ttpd is replacing rep because ttpd is reputation (taylor's version) in fewer words."

5. thanK you aIMee

kim? we're talking about kim now? who was maybe relevant around the year 2017? around the release of rep? oh. okay. i'm sure that means nothing

but that's just a theory... a game theory.

[popculturebuffet]

Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space Retrospective: Night of the Raving Dead

Happy halloween all you happy freelance police. I"m jake and my Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space retrospective continues as Sam and Max fight a guy who sucks just in time for spooky season.

Chapter 3 gives us a fun spooky good time as we have zombies, frankenstines and vampires as our dynamic duo have to beat a club hopping german vampire before his army of the undead conquer the world. So a normal tuesday really. Can our heroes save the world.. again? Will we have to see a lot of pierced vampire nipples? Is Lincoln still the worst Short answer, of course, just look at the article image, and i'm still in cringing agony so.. can confirm. Long answer is under the cut!

Night of the Raving Dead begins In Media Res and milks it for all it's worth: Sam and Max are in a soul sucking machine, at the mercy of Jurgen, a european vampire who never wears a shirt but does gladly show off his pierced nipples. Still better than bebops. Firm 6/10.

At any rate pierced nips aren't the issue as the threat here is your old fashioned spike wall style trap I know just the man for the job but sadly he's was a bit busy with his own spiked wall issues

So instead we flash back to the start of this tale.

And to my delight our heroes continue to pile up junk in their office. Sam has now added a holy urn and is still high priest seperation of chruch and state kneels before god emperor priest president Max!

Our heroes have a bit of infestation though in their office there's something all too familiar

These are not greasy teen zombies or greasy gnomes or even the dreaded Crombie, but European Zombies! So it's up to us to talk to everyone and find out why. In an intresting reversal this time it's Bosco whose closed, while Sybil's reopened her place, because we psychologically tortured him into disappearing.

Sybil meanwhile is looking for love in all the wrong places as after her relationship with Abe Ended she's restarted her dating service.. but just for her. After the obvious sex work joke because this is the 2000's, Sybil is basically screening dates... and is currnetly screening a moleman.

But after he failed we're left with Harry Moleman. Whose back for some reason. Gotta reuse those models I guess. He has aboslutely no shot and Sybil is being just polite. He also has a choclate heart we'll need later and a fear of zombie's we'll exploit later

Moving over to Stinky's her latest special is a gooey cake/chekov's gun, while her latest item we can grab is a sunlamp bulb since even she has no idea why it's there, but the plot does. The plot sees all.

Anyway abe's also there.. .and still the worst as he blames Sybil for the breakup, is stalking her and won't shut up

Yeah I liked Abe at first.. but in a record TWO episodes he's gone from endearing into the hall

It's a shame too as I really DID like abe in season one and the first episode of this but this gag, ESPECIALLY wiith how the sybil plot concludes, really dosen't work.

Thankfully we move on to our boys the C.O.P.S. who have decided to captalize on this to sell internet to zombies, via online trial discs. For those too young to know what those are

For now though we can't get any of those future coasters, but we do found out poor bluster has some brain damage which was also funnier at the time. We do find out the source of the ZOmbies: the zombie factory in Stuttgard, Germany. And to my shock Stuttgart is a real place. I would've asked my german friend , but she needs sleep and isn't awake till midnight like moi.... am I a vampire? ... no. No I love garlic bread too much to make that sacrifice. Then again It'd also make it easier to meet Matt Berry.. dammit this is a dillema.

While I mull this over we move on to Stuttgard. I didn't ask said friend, @galaxysupernaturalstuff because again, asleep.. and because I forgot earlier. Though I probably DON'T need an actual german to tell me "yeah Stuttgart isn't a small villiage with a giant castle in the middle of it. "They thankfully don't do too many german stereotypes about the country as a whole, the only gags they do being the fairly innocent beerstein and the fact Midtown Cowboys is big there. It's done more in a tounge in cheek way than anything genuinely offensive.

Turns out the Zombie Factory is both your standard spooky hammer horror style monster castle.. and a club, and to get in we need to get past the bouncer, good old superball.

Yeah like the Bosco scremaing thing this is a runner nad a truly great one. Also unlike that one it's both nonseical and you can't get punched for it. He's working for Jurgen, our big bad, because his doors are rich fine mahogany.. and he needs SOMETHING to do after the divorce. He was married. I'd.. genuinely forgot that.

To get past him we once again have to do something that's likely to get me sent to hell for playing this game: take a brain from a fresh corpse

Then we throw it to a gargoyle which suprisingly ISN'T alive, nor voiced by keith david despite it being night, allowing us to cut the line.

It's inside we get a ZOMBIE DISCO BITCHES. We meet our arc villian and the mastermind behind this half baked scheme, Jurgen. Jurgern.. is a deliglight: he's basically every 20 something trying to seem cool by clubing distilled into a vampire and given a german accent and nipple rings. And he is glorious. The fact his plan is just "Conquer teh world with zombies" jah helps. our heroes just try to go for the head.. but Jurgen can teleport so we need to take the source of his powers: his...

And it's fun too as each one is simply hitting him with his vampire weakensses.. and the how, as usual is fun and redicuous. That being said actually solving these puzzles.. is a lot. I ended up hitting a dead end: I figured given the tropes at play that the key was to trigger some type of hidden entrance to get up to the balcony to replace the bulbs in the spotlight with the sunlamp. And it is.. btu the how is INCREDIBLY overcomplicated. While the writing couldn't be stronger this chapter and where your supposed to go MOSTLY straight foward, the actual puzzles are often overcomplicated. The ones in the Zombie Factory itself rely HEAVILY on a dj soundboard , which you have to put the right words from one of jurgen's poems into, without it being clear which words in the poem are a clue. Also solving the spotlight DOSEN'T fix the problem and you still have two other things to do to him, only one of which is pretty easy to figure out since after Jurgen mentions he's a huge midtown cowboys fangboy, a new area unlocked announcment shows up. As it did with the COPS when this castle unlocked. Both a great gag and a nice bit of gameplay magic to make this easier.

So yeah.. I used a guide for most of this. This is one of the trickier ones gameplay wise and if you don't adventure game often or have a lot of patience

It can be maddening. There's also another "pick a random dialouge option fo ra song" puzzle like last season, which just.. isn't fun. Picking various options is only funny if there's multiple jokes, like the cooking without looking segment from last game. Basically asking "PICK RANDOM DIALOUGE FOR US FEASANT" isn't fun it's just keeping me from having fun with the part of the game I actually like.

So with that we an shine a little sunlight on Jurgen's life, causing him to freak out and loose a little respect of his fanbase. Like any influencer in embyro, just one stab to his rep isn't going to do it but it's a start. Next it's time to return to Midtown Cowboys! Their probably hiding a cow. Midtown Cowboys have been saved from cancelation baby! See back then Networks actually.. payed attention to things like audience numbers or dvd and digital sales instead of guarding the numbers like a cave troll so they can cancel whatever they want whenever they want. Gee I wonder why the actor's strike has taken 105 days with that kind of job security.

As it turns out Midtown Cowboys is HUGE in germany, with WARP having converted to just shooting Midtown Cowboys and spinoffs. Hey at least they beat Disney+ to the punch with that model. Turns out the statoin lady's been TRYING to get our heroes back in they've just been busy and such.. and max also deleted her messages because he be like that.

We also reunite with my boy Mr. Featherly, who legally changed his name from Philo Pennyworth. While he DID go back to theater even he can't resist the siren call of "buy your own private island fortress" money. Max naturally signed away those rights without thinking. They lost 4 executives that day..so you know it's not all bad.

We can still use the broadcast to our advntage though, stashing some garlic cigarettes from outside the castle in Featherly's bag as a prop. What follows.. is comedy gold. While we sadly don't get a cookin without lookin sequel, I wanted to use baboon hearts, what we do get is just as funny as we get a very special episode, the kind sitcoms used to do to tackle the heavy issues instead of just weaving them in if it fits the tone.

The cowboys hold an interviention for mr. featherly, who finds out they were indeed hiding a cow but he has his own cow.. a smoking addiction. Even Bessie is disapointed. It then quickly turns into an add for smoking and why it's totally rad and you should all do it as their sponsor.. is garlic clove cigarettes. It's so fucked and I love it. IT's a simple idea i'm genuinely suprised I haven't seen elsewhere and genius.

So with that we just have one last thing to destroy this man's career: we need a man of the faith to bless some water bottles we got at the club. But since Shelby isn't around, we'll have to make do with max, dunking the water bottles in his sacred urn while he gives us the sacred rites

The problem is as seen with the cigs, while Jurgen is many things, a hipster, a scene kid, a goth, a tool, a vampire, a mild german sterotype, a dracula, an emo, a direct to video sequel to Dracula 2000, a nipple piercing sorta guy, european, german, big dicked, bad at poetry, a plagarist, a mad scientest, an outer god... he is not dumb enough to let people carry in his weaknesses. Dumb enough to keep some of them in his private lab as we'll see, but still not dumb enough to let vampire hunters right in.

So to get it past we have to have max drink the holy water. You'd think this would mean max would get set on fire, another vampire weakness but it just give shim a halo. I guess his own religion can't cast him into the firey depths.

It's a once again limited time thing.. though I don't get WHY in this case. I get having it wear off to show it has to be used IN the castle.. but why does it wear off on the dance floor.

Anyways to beat jurgen we have to out out emo him with lyrics about darkness, no parents, continued darkness, and of course

We DO basically win, but normally jurgen would copy us. I know because I did this puzzle before knowing the solution. He drinks max. Thankfully his drinking Holy Water makes him need to go potty. You know if I had a nickle for every time we had to defeat one of our foes by making him need to go to the bathroom i'd have three nickels.. which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened thrice.

So we follow Jurgen to his lair but given we've only done three puzzle's we're not done yet, two act structure and all as SAM AND MAX ENGAGE IN THE MOST THRILLING BATTLE OF THEIR CAREERS... bringing them to the trap.. which thanks to Sam being busy recapping, works and swallows our heroes souls. Jurgen goes.. somewhere, leaving us in his study. We find some useful junk, including a stake, and a monster.

This is Jurgen's Monster, who like his master I dearly love, a poetic beast whose mad you brought him to life as he's so lonely. Can relate dude, can, relate.

Helping him win a date with Sybil is our main quest from her eon out as she has a soul mater, a weird horrifying eldrich device she dosen't know how to use, so her finding her soul mate means we can have it. Which is good because Sam and Max's souls don't want to go back after how their bodies have misused them, waiting to go to the next life. To put a stop to our souls going to hell a few chapters early we need that soul mater.

What follows is a LOT of stuff since we don't have just 7 days to make jurgen a mannnnnnnnnnnn. We can't get him pink and quite clean but we CAN get him a brain via our old friend Flint Paper and the Zombie of Abe LIncon. Yeah turns out Abe was buried in Stuttgart and thus we meet the real abe whose loyal to his dead wife and actually likeable. Sadly he's brutalyl murdered because Flint Paper is on the warpath. He wants to kill us because "THey'd rather be dead than undead!" Sam and Max don't remember making him promise that and thus use another hidden passage to knock him out and get the brain.

Next we need a proper hand. Thankfully the zombie from the intro stole jessie james hand, which is now alive and holding up girl stinky. To get it we need to trick it and this puzzle is clever: the hand hops every time it shoots. So we simply have to make it get all the way to girl stinky, then put his attention her so it goes the other way.. straight into the goey cake. We got our HANNNDDD BACCCKKKK.

We now need to give him some heart. This one's a tad overcomplicated, even by this chapter's standards: first we need to play the cops game for this chapter, distrubing internet demo disks paperboy style. This game is tricky, but unlike the difficulty in this chapter, it's a fair kind once you figure it out. You have to move your car to be in the right position to hit the zombies with a disk. It's still hard, but it's the fun kind of hard

With that we have a big anetna we can bolt cutter off the car and use to power up Jurgen's alchemy machine.

To get our final body part though we need to play the dating game against featherly and harry moleman

Harry is just hopeless and Featherly is pretentious: LIncoln's brain is the only thing Sybil liked about him, and the hand has jurgen spell out I love sybil. Awwwwww. We just need a heart of gold as the ones we have are a clock and plants that make us into mr. van dresen. I mean .. you'd think playing a good rendention of lesbian segull would woo her but I guess it's not her thing.

No we need a heart. Luckily Harry takes his time answering a question and has a choclate heart, and even more luckily this time ruining his life dosen't feel bad as he's tried to murder us, sybil and really had ZERO chance before shouting at us.

With that we can be in it to win it, using the science and the alchemy to give us a gold heart and winning Sybils. Unfourtnatley the game then makes a pretty bleh error in judgment, as Sybil realizes she still wants abe and.. runs off to apologize to the bastard

Yeah this joke is all kinds of messed up. I get her going back IS the joke, that he's bad for her.. but it just comes off stupid, and mildly sexist as it feeds into the old "oh women like jerks" sterotypes instead of "abusive relationships happen". I mean it's a lot to ask sam and max to be realistic, so i'm fine with that but it's not a lot to ask them to actually be funny if their going to do something this annoying.

So on that sour note the climax. We get our souls back and fight jurgen, who has a plan.. of.. some sort. Anyways we can't stake him because we're too slow, so we toss the soul mater to jurgen's monster pull the lever kronk and swap bodies, using his to finally put this chapter to it's eternal rest... but not before flint comes in and tragically jurgen's monster dies.

I'm.. still not over it but i've been asured he returns somehow. And there's no time to punch flint for this as it turns out the reason he dived in guns a blazing to see us earlier is that he needs our help: bosco isn't just missing... he's NOWHERE ON EARTH

Night of the Raving dead is one of my faviorite chapters writing wise, with lots of clever jokes, an all timer villian and tons of my faviorite characters.. and abe. The abe stuff drags it down slightly, but everything else is so good this is easily my second faviorite chapter of the games thus far behind Save the World's The Mafia, the Mole and the Meatball.

It still suffers from some of this games overarching issues: the puzzles are more obtuse, the writing can be a bit mean spirited, and I don't have a third thing. Beyond Time and Space thus far isn't BAD, and has legs up on it's predecessor with gorgeous environments, but it still feels a bit of a step back from the previous one. It's got a bigger budget.. but it's just not as fun as the later chapters of save the world. It's not a bad game, the writing is as sharp as ever and most of your terrible actions are too over the top to not be funny, but it dosen't have quite the charm the first one did.

Next Time: I .. genuinely dont' know. The descrption for this one is more vauge. the only thing I know for sure is we'll finally meet THEM

Thanks for reading

[faggotry-enjoyer]

I didn't want to re-reblog and clog up ppls dash, but I saw what you put in the notes and we're 100% on the same page.

So many people will say "criticizing Israel isn't antisemitic" while like... actively denying Jewish ties to the Levant or saying that we control the media or something else stupidly antisemitic (theres been... a lot of blood lible thrown around lately).

Criticizing Israel isn't inherently antisemitic. It just seems that most people aren't capable of actually separating the two.

the notes being referred to here:

#when people are like "you can't criticize israel without being called antisemitic" it's like #yeah #because *you* are incapable of criticizing israel without being antisemitic #not everyone #you #<prev #criticizing israel isn't *inherently* antisemitic but that inherently is an important fucking part of the sentence #95% of the people who pull out 'criticizing israel isn't antisemitic' aren't even engaging in meaningful critique #just sweeping generalizations and double standards #you're not criticizing israel you're just hating israel and those are two very different things #the former? fine and good. the latter? is antisemitism dressed up in progressive talking points #and if you didn't know that on some level you wouldn't be so pre-emptively defensive #’i'm not antisemitic' is the refrain of antisemites and cowards

[emmashouldbewriting]

I agree that the days of 300+ patronages are no longer viable, but on the other hand, we have social media and are more connected with each other than ever. KP has a terrible habit of forgetting about their socials during their breaks, and having a few extra patronages where they can fill that time isn't going to kill them. Honestly, the sooner we all admit that they just don't want to have a heavy workload, the better we'll all be for it.

Not only are the days of 300+ patronages gone, but so are the years of 300+ engagements and rosters with 15+ royals. Neither William nor Kate broke 200 engagements in a full year of being Prince and Princess of Wales, and that's frankly a bit appalling.

IMO, KP needs to come out with a strategic plan. An actual strategic plan that gets updated every 5 years that presents "these are our objectives for modernizing the monarchy and this is how we're going to do it" because right now, no one has any idea what the hell is going on.

(5 years because Version 1 gets us through the kids being in boarding school, 2024ish - 2030ish; Version 2 sees the children through university years, 2030ish - 2035ish; Version 3 sees the children through military careers and part-time status, 2035ish - 2040ish, so on.)

"Keep calm and carry on" isn't cutting it anymore, not when:

3 out of 6 senior royals are on medical leave (Charles, William, Kate),

3 out of 6 senior royals don't want to travel (Camilla, William, and Kate),

3 out of 7 Counsellors of State aren't qualified to work (him, him, and Beatrice),

2 of the harder-working royals appear more and more fragile each time we see them (Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra), and

The King is 75.

The public needs a plan. If KP wants so badly to be in charge, then make the fucking plan. If they want to be "the firm" and implement solid business practices (and they do, because they want a CEO instead of a Private Secretary), then they need to actually implement solid business practices, like having a publicly-available multi-year strategic plan, not just borrow impressive-sounding names because that makes them no better than Archewell and the Sussexes.

*rant over. here's your soapbox back*

oh. *cuddles the soapbox* tell me how you really feel, anon

kidding aside, you're totally right. the fact that the royals available to do work has cut down to a pitiful level should be more than enough to tell the new generation that they need to do better. 200 engagements in a year really isn't a lot when you consider tours/mini trips/the fact they can do more than one locally. i always said i wouldn't judge until we had a full calendar year, but now we have one.

but honestly, 5 years is too much for KP. they're so bad at maintenance that 3 years is the max they should be scheduling out. not to mention that if this keeps up, the Wales kids can't even afford to be part time royals - there won't be anyone else to do it in 15 years. nobody will be there to pick up the slack like there was for W&K. that said, Charles also needs to get over his distaste re: the York girls being working royals - Bea should be part time at least.

it really is time they stopped using their privilege as an excuse and started doing the work we expect of them. that's what it comes down to.

[inchidentally]

tricky asks below! pls do not rb as that removes the readmore for some reason and I want to keep these out of tags <3

the fact that we're having to to discuss friendzoning about two friends anon we're really in it now aren't we

I want to take a moment direct ppl to this interview if they like Carlos tho bc his interviews are always so intelligent and thoughtful. you also get a much more authentic persona out of him when he speaks in Spanish. there are more videos on that account from that interview too.

I love that he listed Checo and Fernando so highly bc of course he gravitates toward ppl he can speak to in his born language. the three of them personality wise are pretty different but whenever they move toward each other you can tell they're in compatriot mode.

but yea what he said re Lando and racing is exactly what Lando says - and what nobody ever wants to post except begrudgingly. the 'bromances' are dressed way up by fans and media but there is no deeper narrative and it's not that serious. when they're driving, all friends disappear bc winning is the only reason to even be in F1 let alone the only way to stay in it for certain. even the comments on videos like that are next to nothing bc they're not "shippy" videos. but it's authentic and true that these guys are F1 drivers first and foremost and wayyyy after that it's nice to have some regular buddies to hang with. we should all be able to put shipping aside and appreciate the actual drivers these guys are and the fact that they can put aside their intense competitiveness to be so friendly.

asgfkasgfksag I love that last part anon. fr I've found it so funny that the larrie carlandos class Oscar in with all the women they despise bc it threatens their ship. it's like sexy Brazilian woman, sexy European woman, sexy IG Baddie, and... Oscar.

that's wild though about lestappen having their own larries. how in the hell do ppl look at Charles and Carlos and even bother pretending they dislike let alone hate each other. we literally have real life F1 examples of teammates who are neutral/uninterested in each other w KMag and Hulk and teammates who bitterly hate each other w Ocon and Gasly. if Charles and Carlos were even in a dislike/disinterest category we wouldn't see them giggling and touching right up to the last day at Abu Dhabi this year. and side note but we also wouldn't see their gfs enjoying spending time together during races and events either, which Alex and Rebecca do.

I've seen that too it's insane. when has Lando NOT considered Silverstone the most important race on the calendar for him?? and nothing will beat his high over that podium until his actual win, nothing. (the fact that he kept saying how Oscar deserved to be up there with him was just the icing on the cake)

and like can they please just remember here that Lando was excited and happy on that podium in Singapore for himself as well???? that his own result meant more to him than a Ferrari driver?? yes he was happy for Carlos but Lando is sort of an actual F1 driver and if he could've knocked Carlos' ass aside and gotten that top spot for himself he very. much. would. have!! and that the double podiums that followed meant more to him bc y'know the team he drives for get more points?? carlando is a miniscule part of Lando's F1 career and Carlos is less a part of his life than Max V in terms of drivers who spend non-driving related time with him. after that being George, Alex and Daniel. and then Carlos.

yea honestly I'm not sure if the larry element has always been in carlando fandom and the latest Netflix/Liberty Media commercialization of the ship has just amplified it or if these are a bunch of new ppl who only go for the unhinged accounts. but that side of the ship literally view Lando as someone who responds to Carlos and does nothing else so huge shock that they try to override his actual choices and his actual race weekend with Carlos literally years after Carlos left him for Ferrari.

I'm guessing it's enraging watching Carlos do with Charles all the jokey sexual/romantic things they kept wanting him to do w Lando but sorry folks for all that we slow down certain moments and obsess over them sharing an umbrella to walk down the pit lane it's literally brotherly behavior. I've got another anon who brought up my tags of carlando being Charles and Arthur and it straight up is. all the physical carlando stuff is what they do. and I say this as someone who fully does twist all those carlando moments into something romantic/sexual lol. but gotta be able to keep that line between reality and fantasy.

fortunately Lando is chronically online enough to brush this crap off and Carlos just sees the carlando fan stuff as decent publicity. but fingers crossed it doesn't escalate even further to Sky Sports or F1 pushing it and fans getting so crazed that Lando or Carlos has to put their foot down. if it's already swamping McLaren social media and Lando's fan accounts then expect it to get even worse.

the lack of Oscar's presence in all of these places is probably the lamest thing bc good lord the guy has a long term gf can they all admit that as Lando's ACTUAL teammate he has more relevance to Lando's career than any former teammate? and can McLaren please get their act together next season and bring back Unboxeds and stop splitting up Lando and Oscar content when they never did this with Carlos or Daniel?? sorry Oscar ain't a wacky character but we all happen to love his dynamic with Lando.

you just answered that question anon and it's exactly why I can't believe they want carlando back as teammates. as things are we get to have a nice sprinkle of carlando content throughout the season and no drama! do they truly want silly challenges videos so badly that they want to watch the entire friendship sink like a stone now that Lando would be challenging and beating Carlos AND that now it would be Lando as first driver and not Carlos? the Sainz family's warmth is there bc they never had to see Lando as a direct competitor or hindrance to Carlos' success. they'd turn on him in a fucking second when Carlos didn't get an update and Lando did or Carlos wanted to change the car but Lando didn't or Lando was the reason why Carlos missed out on a podium. the main reason why Charles and Carlos work so well through the drama is that they're such similar people and can keep a level head and distance from it all. Lando is n o t h i n g like Charles' personality. Lando cannot translate frustration and misery into anything, it just sits with him until he does better. Carlos literally said he didn't know what to do with Lando when he'd get into those funks. imagine all the god awful repeats of that carlando "breakup" clip from 2021 bc Lando can't hide anything on his face and he'd be fed up with Carlos or his family or himself and christ.

it would be so. so very bad. can they at least be happy that Lando's got a nice placid easygoing guy in Oscar as a teammate and carlando content still rolls in.

I could def see the fact that Oscar is neither older brother or younger brother age for Lando and they do all the same gen z references and the same hobbies is probably part of whatever they perceive as a "threat". like it's still such a reach but it would explain the way Lando fan accounts try to post as little Lando with Oscar as possible but dredge up 2019 slowed down Carlos shoulder bumps and shit lol.

truly I personally don't know if the Oscar and Carlos dingdongs play much of a part for carlando fans bc honestly Carlos has quite a few regular enemies on the track alsgfjlsagf. by this time they've got to know that. Carlos sometimes can't drop the red mist even hours after a race so Oscar just happens to have come in for a share in his rookie season! but especially with how much Carlos has actually seemed to chum around with Oscar before and after drivers parades etc (even ignoring Lando a couple times to do so !!!!!! gasp horror etc)

side note that I'd honestly be glad if Oscar chose never to get into golf bc ohhhhh the shit fit if he went golfing at the same time as Lando and Carlos. even though Lando golfs with tons of people and they always play in fours anyway.

I still personally think that the mostly straight women who buy into the bromances to the point of thinking this is how gay relationships actually look are pretty cold toward Oscar bc even Lando has said that Oscar's brought out a new level in Lando's driving and that he likes how calm Oscar is. so the fact that Oscar and Lando aren't fake gaying it up and they're also not doing a bunch of physical touch that can be edited and slowed down to look gay to those women has got to look like Lando being I guess unhappy or like they have no chemistry. so they'll allow that Oscar can be cute sometimes and maybe sometimes he can be cute with Lando. for a treat. but that in their mind Lando is meh about Oscar and is just dying to have the guy back who... actively chose to leave ??

I never saw that cartoon but I remember one from the summer that had Lando and Oscar together in a boat - SHIP CONFIRMED???? CARLANDO OVER??

jesus christ thankfully the drivers never see these comments.

and yikes at the meltdowns over that Carlos trip to Monaco bc he was with Rebecca the whole time and rumors were that they were looking at apartments. I do hate myself for liking gossip but it's literally in a sit back and enjoy the madness way lol.

askfgakg anon are you by any chance part of the sainz family?

(if I didn't answer your ask here it's probably bc it's something I'd rather discuss privately/don't want to stir up in fandom. feel free to message me tho <3 tumblr may also have devoured it bc it still does that sometimes)

[positivelybeastly]

If you could make movies about Hank, how many would you do and what could we see in them? Like an origin story, specific storyline etc. Would it be live action or a cartoon/animation, if live action who would you cast as Beast?

Now this is a fun thought experiment!

So, I actually think that if I was going to focus specifically on Hank, I would want multiple series, each separated according to decade or periods of his life, as it were, and we're going to mix media a little bit. Bear with me. This is probably going to be a multi-part series, so, here's the first part.

60s/First Class

So, we start off with a live action series that begins in medias res - alarms are blaring, people are rushing through corridors, klaxons are bathing corridors in red light. Through it all, a young man with a frightened but determined look on his face fights through the tide until he reaches a room full of radiation suits. He pulls one on, takes a few deep breaths, and then pushes through into a reactor room that's clearly going critical.

No music. No dialogue. No sound, except for the thumping of a heart beat and the sounds of this intricate mechanism being cajoled, being calmed, being put right again, until eventually the alarm lifts. Now it's just the sound of heavy, panicked breathing, and the man keels over at the railing nearest to him as a group of men in identical radiation suits rush to him. He blacks out.

When he comes to, he smiles at the woman sitting beside his bed, and moves as if to kiss her, but she smacks his arm, before embracing him and kissing him. A doctor moves in to talk, but there's still no dialogue, just soft music. A small montage of people in suits, offering the man in the bed a lot of paperwork that he signs. Before long, he's well enough to leave the hospital, and he and his wife drive to a farm. They stand on the outskirts, arms wrapped around one another. Camera pulls back, revealing the name on the mailbox.

McCoy.

Cut to the intro, which is nuclear flames, genomes shattering, a mysterious, animalistic figure gazing out of shadow with yellow eyes that turn into spotlights, revealing the title of the show.

'X-MEN: BEAST - FIRST CLASS'

17 YEARS LATER

A young man who's the spitting image of the man we saw in this prologue sequence is being harassed by a young woman with blonde hair. They're talking about the last quiz they just had to take in Biology, and the young woman tells the young man that he needs to stop hiding who he is. How brilliant he is. He tells her that he's on the high end of normal, and she scoffs. They walk by a football tryout, where the coach is harassing his team, telling them that any old nerd could do better than them.

"You, McKay - over here, show 'em what I mean."

"It's McCoy, sir, and I don't know quite what you mean?"

The coach becomes ever more insistent. McCoy shrugs, shaking his head. He kicks the ball. It sails clean, hits the goal - at the other end of the pitch. The coach is flabbergasted. He wants McCoy for the team, but McCoy is uncertain - until the team kicks off, saying they don't want this gorilla on their team. One of them, identified as Janssen by his jersey, is particularly venomous, and McCoy gives him a coldly furious look.

"Coach, what position does Janssen play?"

Smash cut to the same number on the team, but with MCCOY on the back. Sports montage, naturally, with MCCOY as star player, intercut with the occasional side-eyed look from a parent or onlooker whenever he does something a little too amazing.

Jen is the love interest of the movie. She's great.

Final game of the season. Crowds are roaring, full football Americana experience. MCCOY is in full swing, but we aren't seeing things from his perspective, we're seeing things from somewhere up in the bleachers - from some kind of scope. It zooms in hard on MCCOY, a finger tenses, squeezes - misses. Screaming, hysteria. The scope view panics as MCCOY comes charging towards it, and we zoom out to see Janssen as McCoy clambers up the side of the bleachers with unnatural ease.

They fight. McCoy knocks the rifle away, but he's a little too strong, and Janssen nearly falls over the edge, and it's quite the drop. McCoy grabs him and stops him from going over, but he can't use his other hand to hold on to the bleachers and Janssen at the same time. He knocks off his shoe, and we get our first look at an oversized foot that looks to be as dextrous as a hand. McCoy moves to use this odd limb to help Janssen up.

Janssen hisses. Says he'd rather die than get help from a filthy stinking mutant that crawls all over human girls like he's a real man. He smacks McCoy's hand away, drops. We don't see the impact, but McCoy does. His eyes widen. He yanks off the football helmet and throws up, staggering as he climbs back up, just in time for the officials to come storming in. He looks red-faced, shaking. He looks guilty.

We cut to the farm. The McCoy family are quiet, withdrawn - worried. The parents keep looking outside, where their son has taken to disassembling and reassembling every piece of farm equipment available to him, as if that's going to make him feel any better. Edna and Norton talk, and they feel guilty, Norton especially, about the legacy they've given poor Hank, as we pan up over the kitchen counter and see a newspaper headline exclaiming about the mutant panic taking over the nation.

A knock at the door. Norton looks pale, so Edna answers - to a man dressed like some kind of Conquistador, which he identifies himself as. He brings out a sword and seems to cast some form of electricity with it, striking down Edna and Norton, drawing their son back to the house with a speed that defies thought, and it's only this lightning sword that stops him from bowling the man over right there and then.

The Conquistador wants this young man, Hank, to do him a favour - use his father's ID card to steal some specific components from the nuclear power plant he works at. He looks basically identical to him, he shouldn't even be questioned. His sword twitches in the direction of Hank's parents, and his jaw sets. He agrees.

A short, tense sequence at the power plant. Hank does the deed, but it's dangerous and it goes wrong, the alarms are sounded - but he gets away. He escapes to a warehouse where his parents are being held by the Conquistador's men, and the man is raving, rambling.

Hank trounces them, effortlessly. It's superhuman to watch, and Edna and Norton are wide eyed as Hank frees them, all of them silent. Norton opens his mouth, apologises. Hank doesn't understand, apologising for what? Norton gestures at Hank's obviously overgrown hands and feet. For that. That's his fault. Hank's expression darkens, and Norton realises what he's said without thinking, and he looks to Edna, but she doesn't know what to say. Behind them, the Conquistador is getting back up, pulling up his sword, aiming it at Hank's back.

A ruby red beam comes out of nowhere, blasting it away, and Hank turns around, to see . . .

The Professor explains who he is. What the people with him are, what Hank is - a mutant. Hank already knows, and the Professor smiles a little, because of course Hank does. The conversation continues, and Hank is interested, intrigued, even - he keeps glancing back at his parents, but they look very uncertain, even as they do their best to give him smiles and make sure he knows they're okay.

"There will be sacrifices, Hank. This won't be an easy life. But it will be a worthy one."

Hank agrees, but before he walks off with Xavier and the other X-Men, he embraces his parents one more time. He's holding them tighter than they are him when he lets go.

The series then adapts some 60s X-Men, some First Class stories - I'd definitely want to pull in the story where Hank and Bobby first becomes friends during a vacation road trip across the US; the Unus the Untouchable arc, where Hank becomes a wrestler; a momentary flirtation with Jean Grey, before he realises who she's pretty much destined to end up with; the beatnik foot cult; Magneto.

Costumes change, villains go by, and Hank is enjoying himself, growing, but as he grows older, he seems less satisfied.

Especially since we find out that Xavier wiped Jen's mind, and she no longer remembers Hank. For their safety. Hank is. Not pleased. It's the first wedge between him and the Professor, and they paper over it, but. It sticks.

Towards the end of the series, he receives a letter in the mail, and when it comes time to do Danger Room exercises, he's conspicuously absent. Xavier is oddly reticent to talk to him, and instead suggests that Scott, Bobby, Warren and Jean talk to him instead. Hank is in his room, the letter in his hands, and seeming torn. They all talk.

Hank wants to leave the X-Men. The very concept shakes them a little - the last time this happened, Unus attacked and they were nearly defeated - but the newfound confidence of having done this for a few years now means that they understand why Hank wants to move on. Everyone's been thinking about it, actually, Hank's just the first one to have a place he wants to go to rather than just 'not the school.'

They embrace. Bobby in particular takes a little longer than everyone else to let go, and it's clear it's killing him a little that Hank is going, but he does let go.

The final scene of the series is Hank in civilian clothes saying his final goodbyes. There's not a dry eye in the house. Jean kisses him on the cheek, Bobby hugs him way too hard, Scott clasps his shoulder, Warren gives him a fistbump. The Professor shakes his hand. They're all sad to see him go, but this is for the best.

Hank gets into his car, and starts it up. He looks back at the Mansion, the X-Men, wistfully, thinking, for a moment, that he should stop and go back. But in the end, he puts the car in gear and drives. As he leaves the Mansion, he adjusts the rear view mirror.

For the audience, Hank is replaced by something wearing his clothes. Dark furred. Monstrous. Unfamiliar. Familiar. Yellow eyed.

End credits. End of the series.

To be continued.

I actually have no idea who I'd want to play a young Hank, I'm not as up to date on young actors as I'd like, but I've been recommended someone called Noah Centino for a 17-20 year old Hank, so, sure? Whoever they are, they need to be able to pull off Hank's distinctive Superman curl.

I'd definitely want an almost sort of 'The Incredibles' tone to the X-Men sections of this series, where it's all deathly dangerous but the X-Men almost don't seem to realise until they do. Michael Giacchino does the score, because the man can do no wrong.

[neonscandal]

Just see this in twitter by someone : "I'm starting to think maybe people should read actual BL manga. perhaps considering manga written with actual gay characters in it in addition to shipping m x m from whatever battle shounen you're into."

Like because of those subtext, there can be fanfics and fanarts, right? And then I decided to come here, your blog is really one of my comfort place....

Comfort place!? This makes me want to carve out time to post infinitely more. 🥹 Even though it feels a bit aimless, I’m glad I could cultivate that for you and hope I can continue to do so.

RE: twitter, without context, it's hard to tell whether this person is earnestly recommending people to expand their interests into BL or if they're dumping on people who tend to support and identify queer shipping across other genres.

On the one hand, heavy agree that if you appreciate queer pairings of any kind to absolutely find media and stories that shows healthy (and authentic, if possible!) representation of whatever you're into. I feel like sometimes in BL, specifically, there’s a lot of toxicity or violence passed off as romance which is why I recommend being discerning. Here are some green flag recommendations and I kind of touch on the importance of identity through engaging with queer content by way of BL's featuring fudanshi's there. Isn't always the case, but it's a storyline I appreciate.

If the poster was side eyeing queer ships in "mainstream" or shonen stories... they should grow up. I've been in and out of fandom for like.. 20 years. There have always been people who recognize and popularize queer ships. Back in the day? Characters didn't even have to share the same show, universe or genre to end up in a crossover slash fic on Fanfiction.Net.

Don't get me wrong, I've definitely needlessly explored several crack theories or made off-base assumptions about a story for the sake of trying to guess at where it’s going. But I sometimes question people's competency for reading/watching comprehension when a particularly shitty hottake is making its rounds on social media. Like are we not watching the same thing?

Subtext does exist. I don't know that all authors are as elegant or intentional in its execution but if you're not bothering to consider the possibility, you're potentially missing out on critical pieces of a story you're choosing to invest hours/years of your life into! This isn't simply as it pertains to shipping but also picking up on critical exposition (Attack. On. Titan.) or even questioning whether the information we're getting as the reader or viewer is conveyed with any sort of narrator bias. Yes, this is absolutely a My Hero Academia call out. ✨

Queer coding does exist. Tons of reasons why queer characters aren't always explicitly identified as such. More often than not, there's some form of censorship. Whether at the editing level during manga production or when it comes time for manga/shows to be approved for international distribution (re: information that's lost in translation vs outright decisions to alter the flow of the story). Most glaring example of this that comes to mind is Haruka Tenou or "Sailor Uranus"/Michiru Kaiou or "Sailor Neptune. In addition to gratuitous name changes when Sailor Moon was pushed abroad, several countries would rather portray the two as unusually close relatives despite the clear romantic undertones exhibited whenever they were on screen together. Also, IDK why, but pretty sure I'd seen somewhere that, initially the creator of Naruto did want to canonize Sasuke/Naruto but, truth be told, I've never watched the series and that could have been a fanon theory I'd seen.

Overarching messages exist. Similar to the first point, a story is seldom just a story. More often than not, you're looking at some sort of social critique or opinion that's being expressed or explored through the story. To not bother thinking critically about what you choose to spend time in enjoying is a pretty bland way to miss the point of it.

When all else fails, it's not our fault that the only relationships most shonen mangaka focus on developing is the one between "rivals". That's it. If there were more dynamic characters or literally any consideration toward the depth of intimacy between the main character and whatever tritagonist female lead the male lead inexplicably ends up with (aside from the simple rationale that "she is the girl 🎀"), then maybe fans won't have to hone in on how the only agency, equality and intimacy is between the only two characters of substance. That was a mouthful but so are the overly poetic soliloquies shonen rivals inevitably share about one another.. ✨

I'm guessing this question might be related to the last anon ask about fanfics? I agree regarding the fact that subtext allows for a richer selection of fan art and fics. I think, depending on content, the motivation for reading fics will subsequently differ. For instance, I'm less likely to read fanfics for a romance series even if I sometimes write for them because the source material generally satisfies what I wanted from them. But fix it fics, angst and romance fics for shonen/seinen series'?? I'll definitely pick them up because, 1) there are usually unexplored relationship dynamics in the source material, 2) there are alternative domestic/fluff storylines you'd never see because the genre doesn't allow for it, 3) the canon plot is usually so devastating *cough, JJK, cough* that I need a respite, and/or, 4) the developing plot tends to have a lot of holes that writers can explore to craft uniquely compelling AU's and alternative plotlines that I wouldn't imagine.

Man, it's been a while since I nerded out and really took the time to bang out a rant. I've had so many thoughts bouncing around but just zero time. Thank you for your ask and the reminder that there's someone else out there in the shipping trenches. Stay safe out there, anon!

[mothmvn]

uuuugh intellectual property rant i think about a lot because i can't bear to try the Artist career in current conditions

unfortunately digital media reality interacts really stupid with the concept of "intellectual property"

we can often secretly agree intellectual property is a bad thing because sharing and iterating upon ideas is a good thing, because for eons and eons that's been living creatures' method for moving forward. however, since you cannot actually own a digital or online object (it gets reproduced! that's how it's viewed on a new device! it exists by being copied and re-shared!), the intellectual property becomes the only thing underpinning the collection of pixels produced in digital art shared online

so then generally left-wing people still end up arguing for their inherent, capitalism-given right to restrict access to new or unique ideas. because this is already a system they exploit for money. not necessarily in a malicious way, but like, they have already built their careers on the current legal/tech platform, which depends on the idea that humans are not just legally, but morally wrong to steal and re-publish information. in a world where "information gets duplicated for free for the person to view your work" is the bones of the main communication system. am i going crazy here

idk, like it's difficult for me to even argue that people producing digital items have a property-like right to them. you have a layered PSD or Premiere file or whatever that you don't share (on some level this is "the artwork" in ALL its dimensions), and you share thousands of flat copies you can't claim to own (you hand them over to apps and websites). in practice, you "own" the right to sue someone else, if they use one of the many auto-generated copies in a way you personally dislike (e.g. they earn money that you believe you would have earned otherwise)

which like. that's still not "owning your art", in my understanding. what you "own" is the right to link endlessly multiplying copies to yourself - much like a book author over all copies printed anywhere and everywhere. but book copies are solid objects that can be stolen, at least! this falls apart with e-books just like it falls apart with digital artwork! we're all trying to fake some kind of monetisable scarcity with digital files!! ! am i going crazy here!!!!

(and the only way you can logic your way into scarcity is by believing in your own legally-reinforced superpower of Intellectual Property, an ephemeral flavour you create that no one else has the right to replicate. how recently in history did we invent this authorial overreach vs how long have we been iterating on shit in spite of our friend saying loudly in the background "Hey What the fuck I painted that kind of thing first")

so like, the entire argument put forth by anti-AI digital artists completely falls apart for me if i level with it morally, genuinely

i can't stop mulling this over because i Hate that the premise of "art for fun, for me" as a career, its financial security, is staked on me becoming a digital cop. i dont want to do that! and non-digital materials aren't the medium most actual art Work is done in (because again, that work takes place in the realm where we practise monetising IP & being an e-cop about people re-using my art). so the only role i can see art playing in my life is a hobby.

and i guess on an interpersonal level it sucks that I'm separated from most "real artists" just by this refusal to utilise "IP powers" in real life. refusal to rely on money i "should have earned" from someone else's re-iteration or re-share to a different audience. god just saying that makes me feel nasty - yeah, i the original artist coulda done that hypothetical re-iteration too, but DID I?! isn't that the argument we use to value art - "you coulda done it but DID YOU" ?!

i dont know. am i going crazy here.

[lotus-sunn]

okay so some people write dialogue sort of like ping pong where there is little narration or description inbetween each sentence (makes me think of scripts)

A says, "Ugh, I'm so tired! I want to go to sleep."

B replies, "But we're at school so we have to stay awake."

(And if you continue in the back & forth dialouge you won't always have to say B or A everytime. They will remember the order of speaking and understand what's happening.)

"But I don't want to be here! We aren't learning anything anyway!"

"It's not a choice, A. We have to be here."

This style of dialogue works well for a fast paced story or scene. For example if the two characters are witty & are debating something.

How I write dialogue is descriptive so lemme show you some examples of how I write lmao:

After dressing, you crept out of Rowan's bedroom. Your heart fluttered with excitement when you saw your knight standing protectively by the door.

"Good morning, my queen." Piper said, a smile tugging on her lips. Subconsciously you were aware your knights shouldn't be this friendly with you, they shouldn't treat you like a friend rather than a protectee.

See how I am described thoughts and actions, with dialogue inbetween? It is a lot more spaced out and works better for narrative heavy story and if the pacing of the story is slow.

"Oh this looks quite fun." Piper hummed behind you, gorgeous eyes scanning the perimeter, "Do you mind if I join?"

You turned to see her, having taken off the top of her protective metal armor now wearing chainmail over a black tank top. The first thing you noticed was how muscular her arms were, tanned and toned.

Piper was still awaiting your answer, making you shake your head and try to quickly answer, "Yes! I mean that would be alright."

Here is when I have more of a conversation going but it is still much more descriptive. That style might not work for you and that's okay.

Implementing dialogue is not as scary as sometimes it might seem. Even if it is narration heavy, a character approaching and starting to talk is not as jarring as it could seem.

A way to start stories is called media res which starts in the middle of a scene which makes talking a lot easier. You can start in the middle if a conversation or a battle or anything really.

Hopefully this helps 😭

Thanks pookie i was DYING WHEN I HAVE TO DEAL WITH Diolouge putting this on my writing tips notes :D

[watcherwiki]

What do you guys think about the changes? What was your reaction and how will you be moving forward now that new content is locked behind a pay wall? I can’t find any personal accounts linked, otherwise I would just ask directly.

Thanks for the message. Sorry we didn't get to it yesterday, because well, *waves hand*. Reaction amongst the mods has been mixed, so coming to a consensus on a few things is still in development, and might change as we receive any updates from Watcher's social media.

We're excited to see what the new content could be, but also sympathize with fans who feel priced out or unable to pay because they live in a country that doesn't have a usable payment method or high conversion rate. That's something we hope Watcher is able to see through all the other messages and address soon.

This announcement might hinder some additions we wanted to make to the wiki, but it's not a resource the fandom is utilizing (as far as we know). We'll probably continue to track a few things for the shows over there, as far as listing episode titles or adding details to our maps. Luckily, all the existing YouTube Playlists will still be available for re-watches. Watcher's Instagram stories will continued to be archived here on tumblr. But we won't be sharing full streaming episodes or things like that on this blog.

We are privileged enough to be able to subscribe to Watcher TV, and fortunate enough to share among the mods. Hopefully fans who want to see the upcoming content, but feel it's outside their budget, will be able to share or get a gifted sub. We know that's not a cure-all solution, but trying to stay somewhat neutral as this situation develops. As you mentioned, our personal blogs aren't attached to this one. That's so we have an outlet to talk about how we feel and process our emotions without it getting in the way of what this blog is - an archival tool.