#wow the way i was absolutely NOT expecting to be destroyed quite so brutally!!!

[thechekhov]

sorry if the question seems stupid, but my family keeps on saying it's the protesters that started the fights and that it's wrong of them to use violence against police and steal from stores. they completly ignore police brutality and tell me that i can't say all cops are racist and violent. but wasn't it the police that turned peaceful protests into riots? i read that on social media, but i have no evidence and idk where to look. i want to explain the situation properly so they understand.

I’ll preface this with saying that if you expect to change anyone’s opinion, you must first lower your expectations.

Unfortunately, direct debate RARELY changes anyone’s mind. RARELY. Most of the time, it just gets people to dig their heels in more and refuse to listen and stick to their guns. The truth is, human beings HATE to lose face and look like they were wrong. This natural phobia often prevents even level-headed, intelligent individuals from coming to logical conclusions. 

So what you need to do first is just take a step back, breathe deep, and form a strategy. 

First of all, your goal is not to change your parents’ minds - the first step is EXPOSURE. You just need to get them to at least CONSIDER other avenues - get them to look at other sources. 

I can’t believe you’ve got me quoting My Big Fat Greek Wedding but there’s a lot of truth in the tactic of ‘you’ve gotta make it seem like it’s their own idea’. People are a lot more likely to change if they do it on their own, so you have to just give them the information and take your time and ask leading questions

Let’s start gentle:

THIS THREAD has a TON of examples and videos of police using violence and directly attacking media - who have every right to be at the protests! If you want to change the framing, you can make it easier for your parents - slide into their narrative! Ask questions instead of forcing your own opinions. ‘Wow, I think the tensions are making them act quite irrationally. Don’t they WANT the media to see what a good job they’re doing? Why would they hurt media reporters?’ 

Now, if you want to go further, here is a full list of some direct videos related to the brutality - and links to them!

Warning - some of these are more graphic than others. I’ve tried to provide descriptions as much as I remember the content. If you reblog, please tag appropriately!

. . .

A family trying to protect their store was attempting to flag down a police car driving by to get their help - the police turned around, came back.... and arrested them instead. 

This one just speaks for itself really.

Protesters kneeling and chanting DON’T SHOOT - and the subsequent firing on them immediately afterwards. 

Video of a side by side comparison of the full clip of police vehicles accelerating into unarmed civilians vs the one aired on television that decidedly CUTS that clip short to paint the police in a better light.

More general videos of police being completely unable to tolerate it when people are protesting without instigation - and immediately breaking the crowd violently and swinging at unarmed civilians. 

This is the couple that were recorded being violently pulled from their car. They were returning home and were right behind another car with a white couple - which was ignored by the 5+ officers who instead surrounded the couple’s car and began screaming at them to get out all the while clocking them inside the car. They tazed them several times before bodily dragging them from the car with no provocation.

Yes another example of excessive force - man approaches the line - immediately gets maced. He turns AWAY from the police, does not instigate and immediately gets a tear gas canister fired short-range at his HEAD. 

There are several videos of this but the clearest one is the virds-eye view where the protestors are once again NOT instigating - just holding the line. Police begin to suddenly fire tear gas canisters into the crowd.

Police have been targeting medical treatment areas and places where people stockpile water- and destroying water bottles! 

Not explicit violence but this is one of the MANY examples of police trapping people with no way to escape BEFORE curfew even takes effect and then effectively waiting until curfew hits and then doing mass arrests. 

People were protesting on the highway, not obstructing traffic, when police came at them and without warning or demands to disperse began to fire tear gas and flash bangs. They trapped them against a fence and continued to fire despite there being absolutely no way for the protesters to escape. 

Recent video that was on the news - the boy standing in the top right corner is a 16 year old. He is standing with his hands in his pockets not moving, and suddenly is shot by 3 different police officers unprompted.

Old video, time-stampted about 2 years ago, but nonetheless important - police taze and drag a disabled man from his vehicle even after he clearly offers himself to be cuffed and states clearly several times that he cannot get out because he’s paralyzed. 

Police fake kneeling for protestors, so the protestors approach and start clapping - and using this to their advantage, the police fire tear gas.

And as a dessert, THIS ENTIRE THREAD! It’s a compilation of police violence and excessive force from this week alone. 

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

"Remember when you told me that Demetri was always going to be your only friend?"

Her tone was sharp and Eli felt obliged to avoid her gaze, staring at his hands instead.

"I do."

"Yeah well, Demetri's mother called me to tell that someone broke his arm and she doesn't know who did it."

His silence was almost as loud as a scream.

"I know who did it. I didn't know the reason though, but then I saw those Cobra Kai kids with you outside and I put it together. You have a bunch of new friends now, don't you?"

Eli glanced at his mother and regretted it instantly, she almost looked as if she was talking to a stranger. Like she didn't knew him.

"Well, Demetri isn't your only friend now, is he?"

No.

"Was it worth it?"

No.

God, no.

Hey wow look never in my life have 142 words CRUSHED MY SOUL FASTER

This drabble punched me in the gut, grabbed my wallet, looked through it, snatched all my $20s, and then ran away mercilessly.

Legit though, it never sat quite right with me when Eli was venting to his mom in that one flashback and he just wails out “I’M NEVER GONNA HAVE ANY FRIENDS BESIDES DEMETRI!” like it’s some like...goddamn death sentence or something. Like yeah, Demetri is far from the perfect best/only friend, and he can certainly be an insensitive ass at times, but like...yo, the boy is LOYAL AF, he’s stuck with your ass and been your best friend through YEARS of bullying and tried to protect you from getting hurt, in his own little way (even if some of his efforts are kinda misguided, as they basically boil down to “just avoid engaging bullies if at all possible” and “don’t try any new activity (i.e. karate) that could cause even slight pain or discomfort and rock the boat” lol) and tried to make you laugh with dumb jokes about you being the homecoming king when NO ONE ELSE would bother, and you clearly just DON’T appreciate him??? Like the way Eli’s like “I’m never gonna have friends...besides Demetri, obviously” just reads like he’s absolutely just taking Demetri for granted and it PISSES ME OFF. Then again, I think it might just strike a nerve with me in particular, since I remember all too well being a ragingly insecure, introverted child watching my friends make other friends besides me and just being so confused and hurt, like “...am I not good enough for you?” Of course, now that I’m older I see that it’s valid to want more friends while keeping the ones you have, obviously, and I don’t think Eli was inherently wrong for wanting to expand his social circle or anything, but the way he’s just...so dismissive of Demetri’s friendship and instead focuses on crying about all the cool friends he doesn’t have just PEEVES me to no end. Like ffs, some of the kids at that school who get bullied probably have NO friends and have to tough it out alone, so maybe be like...a little more appreciative of the fact that you have a BEST FRIEND who clearly cares about you??? Again, it’s valid for Eli to want more friends--I imagine you’d get tired of only having one person your age to really talk to--but the fact that he kinda phrases this in a way that makes it sound like Demetri and their friendship is dismissable and trivial and not all that important to him has always bugged me a lot. I mean, Eli obviously DOES care about Demetri and Demetri’s opinions of him, as we see several times in the show, but like...hearing him say “I’m never gonna have any other friends besides Demetri” still makes me wince every time. STOP TALKIN BOUT MY BOY LIKE HE DOESN’T MATTER 

Yeah yeah yeah I KNOW I’m reading way too much into a simple comment okay but this statement has implications and I DO NOT like them

“Someone broke his arm and she doesn't know who did it." Oh yeah, Demetri absolutely did not tell his mom Eli broke his arm. Given how smothering and overprotective she seems (I mean, she gave him a note to take to a KARATE CLASS excusing him from EXTENSIVE ARM AND LEG MOVEMENT even though that’s ALL KARATE IS), she’d probably NEVER let Eli near him again if she knew--hell, she might even get a restraining order or make Demetri transfer schools or something. And Demetri definitely doesn’t think that’s her decision to make--and he ain’t about to give up on Good Old Eli just yet, even after everything that’s happened. Perhaps against his better judgement, he still has hope for his old friend. He just tells his mom his arm got broken by one of the newer Cobra Kai recruits, some burly thug guy he’d never seen before. He didn’t get a good look at the guy, naturally, since he was pinning his face to the ground and fled the scene almost immediately after the arm-snapping.

And oh my god how I WISH we’d gotten a scene in Season 3 where Eli’s mom just brutally calls him out like this, because god knows he needed it and it could’ve been THE wake-up call (or at least one of a few big wake-up calls) that shit...he’s getting farther away from the person he’s always been than he ever has before, and maybe...maybe it’s not a good thing after all. Maybe it’s not a good thing if his own mother barely recognizes him, if his own mother is maybe even a little scared/wary of him and what he’s become. I mean I get there was a lot going on in Season 3, and there probably wouldn’t have really been room to bring back a character as minor as Eli’s mom, but I would have loved to see her reaction to all the shit he was pulling throughout the season. She highkey seems like a helicopter parent if she’s willing to call the school over Eli being bullied, so there’s no way she was just suddenly completely disinterested in everything he was doing after school and that she didn’t at least suspect there was some sketchy shit going on. (I mean...the boy presumably came home with a MOTORCYCLE one day??? Isn’t she gonna wonder where on earth he got that??? Y’all don’t expect me to believe SHE got it for him, do you???)

Also, Demetri and Eli’s moms are absolutely friends!!! Speaking as someone who had the same group of childhood friends for like 12 years, your moms can’t NOT be friends when they’re forced to see each other that often XD It’s kinda depressing to think how much it must have hurt their moms too when they started fighting, since these women would presumably have been good friends for years at that point and now have to watch their sons, who used to be best friends, just constantly be at each other’s throats :( I love how quickly Eli’s mom puts two and two together and figures out Eli broke Demetri’s arm. Eli can’t hide SHIT from his mama haha

Also wow it’s so fucked and depressing to think that maybe, in the heat of the moment, Eli broke Demetri’s arm to LITERALLY shatter the notion of Demetri being his only friend and try to DESTROY that time completely with that arm break so he could fully embrace his new, “improved” identity as the “cool badass” with lots of awesome and formidable friends who were obviously far superior and much better for his image and his intimidation factor than nerdy little Demetri...ouch.

"Was it worth it?"

No.

God, no.

JESUS I’M SOBBING

AS SOON AS ELI HEARD THAT BONE SNAP AND SAW DEMETRI CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR CRYING HE REGRETTED ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING I AM HERE TO TELL YOU

IT WAS A BAD DAY FOR EVERYONE AND I AM GOING TO MURDER JOHN KREESE WITH MY BARE HANDS FOR SLOWLY MINDFUCKING MY BOY ELI MOSKOWITZ INTO THINKING BREAKING HIS CRUSH’S ARM WAS THE MOVE

[mewtonian-physics]

my ranking of the alex rider original series (stormbreaker through scorpia rising) from ‘book i least enjoy rereading’ to ‘book i most enjoy rereading’ let’s goooo

spoilers for all 9 books under the cut

9. Ark Angel

...He went to space. He went to space. Also the entire plot could have been avoided if Drevin had actually bothered to provide a photograph of his son. I’m sure he had one. I still like this book but it’s literally so insane that I just don’t know what to do with it. 

It is however really funny that Webber just goes and gives a speech insulting this super high-profile ecoterrorist group and acts like it’s no big deal and then they kill him. Shock of shocks.

8. Skeleton Key

Okay, points to this book for terrifying the shit out of me. God damn it does that shark scene scare me. Also, points for making me feel a little bit bad for a man who wants to nuke his own country because he thinks it will fix the place up. I’m still not entirely sure how that’s supposed to work, but that’s probably a good thing. I feel like understanding his thought process would say bad things about me. Still, I actually did feel sorry for him, if only a little. Dude was clearly mentally unstable and I doubt his son’s death helped at all. I also got sad about what happened to Carver and Troy. (Yeah, yeah, I’m a cringe fail American who has the American release. So sue me.) What a nightmare that must’ve been to endure... Otherwise, though, I’m not super into this book. The opening is just kind of meh and the way it leads into the rest of the plot seems a little bit unbelievable. Also, this might be an unpopular opinion, but Sabina annoys me. I would not get along with her at all and I can’t imagine her as a girlfriend. Skeleton Key does, however, absolutely excel at the emotional scenes. 

Also, why are all the spy agencies so comfortable with sending in a 14-year-old? Especially when they outright admit that the other attempts have all died horribly? Bureaucracy’s a bitch.

7. Point Blank

Boo, Dr. Grief! Boo! We hate your white supremacy! I’m so glad you got a snowmobile to the face, you deserved it. (Perks of books written by Jewish people--we aren’t afraid to give the neo-Nazis an unpleasant death.) Anyway, this book definitely isn’t bad, but I wouldn’t really say it stands out in the series. It definitely does hammer home the point of just how trapped Alex is, since MI6 isn’t going to just let him go after one mission, and let’s face it, the plot with the clones is creepy as hell, if highly improbable. But I’m largely just here to see the neo-Nazi get snowmobiled. That’s right, I just completely changed the definition of a pre-established word. I’m a rebel.

Also, I hate Fiona Friend so much and overall think she just didn’t need to be in the book, but the line about ‘I’d rather kiss the horse’ made me laugh so hard. Alex, you sass.

6. Snakehead

Okay, let’s talk about how genius the plan in this book is. I love it! I love how Yu wants to kill the people involved in the peace conference without making them into martyrs, so he comes up with this whole elaborate plan to stage a natural disaster. It’s incredible. This dude was thinking so far ahead. And he would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for that meddling kid... But anyway, I don’t see a lot of books where the villain really acknowledges that killing their enemies could just cause more problems for them via turning them into martyrs for a cause. Also, the way he’s so polite and soft-spoken while also being a complete monster... This book genuinely gives me chills. Extra bonus points for the part in the hospital, the absolute nightmare of having all your organs slowly removed and sold off and everyone around you is being so nice about it? ‘Oh, don’t worry, Alex, it won’t be so bad. Here, take your medicine. Do you need anything?’ Literally just. What the fuck. 

Also Ash can fucking fight me. You put your own godson in horrible danger on purpose! You killed your best friend! Bastard. 

...And just in case the book wasn’t disturbing enough, Yu’s fate at the end lives in my mind rent-free and I think about it on a concerningly regular basis considering that the chances of that happening to me are so low they’re practically in the negatives. Damn you, Horowitz.

I would also be remiss if I did not mention just how much I love the tagline ‘once bitten, twice spy’.

5. Crocodile Tears

Ah yes, the book that kickstarted my drift away from the church... I kid, of course. I drifted away from the church for completely separate reasons. But Desmond McCain is always going to scare the shit out of me. The ability to kill countless innocent people while blissfully quoting Bible verses (that he takes wildly out of context and uses for his own self-serving means) is... well, I could actually say a lot about what that reminds me of, but I’m here to rate books, not religion. Moving on. This book has some really stellar antagonists, and the plot is chilling in a way that feels a lot more realistic than most of the other books. Even if some of it is a bit farfetched (sabotaging a nuclear power plant? Really?), the idea of using disasters for your own profit... well. I’m sure I don’t need to elaborate on why that is so believable. The Poison Dome is also a really cool and chilling scene--even Alex, who has the luck of the devil, can’t get out of that one unscathed. Further scares come in with the fate of Harold Bulman--imagine having your entire existence wiped and your identity changed while you were asleep! The breakdown he has over it is almost enough to make me feel sorry for him, even though he was ready to exploit a teenager and make his life a living hell just to turn a profit. Note the word almost.

Also. The opening makes me cry. Specifically the line talking about how Ravi’s kids would ‘never meet Mickey Mouse’. I lose my goddamn mind every single time I read it. That little personal touch turns the scene from a statistic to a tragedy. Once again: Damn you, Horowitz.

4. Stormbreaker

Yeah, this one gets the special cover shot. And why not? What we are looking at here is the birth of a legend. Move the fuck over, James Bond, Alex Rider is on the scene now. Anyway, yeah, this book is pretty damn spectacular. It has its stumbles, but as the first book in a series, that’s to be expected. Still, it pulls you in from quite literally the first line and keeps you going right up until the end. (If you came here from my post of memes, you know how much the line ‘Killing is for grownups, and you’re still a child’ destroys me.) It has the debut of much-beloved characters such as, of course, Alex--but also Jack Starbright, and of course, the best MI6 agent of them all, which is to say Smithers. Hell, even Yassen Gregorovich, especially once you get through Russian Roulette... Man, that was a rough one. 

Seriously, though. This is a really good book. The scene with the Portuguese man-o’-war still gives me the chills to think about. (Have you ever looked up pictures of those things? They’re beautiful, but holy shit will they make you regret being born. Nature is funny like that.) 

We also get the introduction of, of course, Alex’s patented sass (his response to Sayle saying he relates to the man-o’-war is HILARIOUS) and we get the inherent humor of Alex screwing up an alias one time and then just going by Alex for the rest of the series so he doesn’t do that again. Really, kid, I know you’re not a trained spy or anything but did you never play pretend growing up? Ever? You can’t pretend your name is Felix for a little while? That sounds like a you problem.

3. Scorpia Rising

I distinctly remember when this book came out, actually. I was on vacation at the time, and I remember my brother annoying the hell out of the poor workers at a bookstore we frequented there to see if/when they were going to get it in. They did, finally, and we bought it immediately, and I was of course absolutely desperate to read it. He got to read it first, though. -_-

This is a great book, an absolute emotional rollercoaster all the way through. The way Blunt tricks Alex back into service by staging a shooting was exactly the kind of cold, brutal behavior I’d expect from him. Seeing Julius come back was shocking, but very exciting, too. And Razim makes an incredibly chilling villain, with his absolute disregard for human life and his desire to measure pain. Also, seeing Smithers’s house was so much fun. Smithers in this book was just really fun in general, but he’s really fun in every book, so... nothing unusual there. But also, I want an unwelcome mat. Please?

2. Eagle Strike

‘But Penny,’ you might ask, ‘why is this book so high on your list? It has so much of Sabina in it, and you said she annoys you.’ That is true. What does not annoy me, however, is basically the entire rest of the book. I love the tense opening, and then reading through Alex’s real-life ‘playthrough’ of Feathered Serpent is still one of my favorite scenes. Cray is absolutely incredible as a villain, with the way that he truly believes in his cause--which is undoubtedly a good one! Yet the extremes to which he will go for that cause, and the fact that he very nearly succeeds, are what elevate him to one of the most dangerous villains in the series. That scene with Charlie Roper and the nickels is something I can never seem to stop thinking about. Actually, I think about it basically whenever I think about large amounts of money paid in small increments... 

Also, I really enjoy how he gets into the whole plot in the first place, and I really enjoy Smithers saying ‘ah, fuck it’ and helping him out anyway. Go, Smithers. You once again prove me right in saying that you’re the coolest adult in MI6.

The revelation that Yassen knew Alex’s father is one that absolutely blew my mind first time around. The way his life was threaded into the lives of the Rider family--he worked with John Rider, was saved by him, killed Ian Rider, and then died for refusing to kill Alex Rider--wow. Wow. It gets to me. It really gets to me. This book is a masterpiece. I heard that it’s going to be what the second season of the TV series is based off of, and I’m so hyped for that. We love to see it, we really do.

1. Scorpia

I don’t believe anyone who says this book didn’t get to them at all. I just think they are lying. I don’t think it’s humanly possible to not be affected by this book. God. Just thinking about it reminds me of why I don’t think it’s possible. I mean, come on. We get all this backstory about Alex’s parents, we get tricked along with him into thinking MI6 killed his father, then bam, that was a lie, and Alex may have just fucked himself over big time. Also, that plot is terrifying! (And I bet anti-vaxxers had a field day with it, huh.) Julia Rothman is a really great antagonist, one of the only ones who didn’t go and explain her plan in great detail to Alex--the fact that she didn’t actually being a plot point was something I personally found pretty clever. In general, this book is... I tend to hate when people say they ‘can’t put it down’ because it’s usually an obvious exaggeration, but that really is how I feel reading it.

And again. If that ending didn’t get to you... Well, I just think you are lying.

[tfw-no-tennis]

ani....morphs.....

ok so picking up after the david trilogy, which hit hard as FUCK, we have book 23, which basically was a semi truck that ran over my corpse, jesus christ, they really followed up the david trilogy w/all that....

23 was so so good and also painful. its the culmination of a lot of tobias’s characterization in the series thus far and also we finally get the reveal we’ve been waiting for about elfangor....ooooh man 

and there was a lot of painful stuff in this book but the worst imo was tobias wondering if it were possible that somebody wanted him and would take care of him, only to have it all come crashing down in the worst way when it turned out aria was visser three in morph, ouch. 

that was so brutal augh. and when he figured it out and just crash landed and kept thinking about how he wanted to die and how he was stupid to think he could have a home...bro get these kids some THERAPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

so yeah that book was absolutely brutal but also so good...and it further fleshed out the animorphs working as a near-flawless team, w/the whole setup of tobias meeting w/the lawyer being so airtight and well-planned 

also more free hork bajir!! its cool that there's stuff happening w/them offscreen, I like that 

I literally had to take a break from reading the books bc the david triology + 23 was like so much, and also bc the olympics were on and all my time got dedicated to watching those, but then I opened 24, not sure what to expect, and BAM it was the helmacrons lmaoooo

I don't even remember the helmacrons but ig a lot of people hate them? lmao so that whole reputation preceded the book and I was like oh wow time for a change in tone

which wasn't wrong but also I liked that book?? I was never bored, even tho the whole thing was patently ridiculous and also had very little bearing on the overarching story

but I think it would be a standout if it were a TV episode w/a good budget - the visuals were amazing even in text, and I can imagine all the cool shrinking/growing/cellular stuff would be WICKED cool visually (ideally 2d animation but an ant man-esque live action adaptation wouldn't be terrible if they had the budget for it)

whatever let me dream. so yeah I didn't hate the helmacron book even tho the helmacrons themselves were...sure something. lmao I think they come back? that should be interesting

next book is the arctic one, we have yet another alien of the week style adventure - I liked this one too, it felt like more plot-y stuff happened since they destroyed the base, and marco’s POV is always fun 

I do find it funny/interesting how sometimes when the animorphs do something - like in this book, destroying that base in the arctic - it doesn't really seem to impact the yeerks much/it doesn't get brought up much after that. and then other things like them destroying the ground-based kandrona get mentioned a lot (that example is understandable tho bc that WAS a big deal). its just hilarious to me how blowing up entire building complexes has become so routine that it isn’t even worth mentioning at this point

Also I adore when they meet other random people/kids and are chill w/them, like w/that kid they met in the rain forest earlier on w/the time travel 

the descriptions of the brutally cold weather were great. I hate the cold so I was like oof this is a nightmare lmao

also ig that was the first ghostwritten book and I did kinda notice it was slightly different than usual? maybe? I could be imagining it tho 

okay but book 26 tho...BOOK 26. bruh 

that was SO good and I really didn’t know what to expect - but when we finally revisited Jake’s dream w/crayak I knew it was gonna be good (but I didn’t expect it to be a chess game war epic..!)

basically I loved it. SUCH a good Jake book - I really appreciate his character now as opposed to when I was 10 and often overlooked him (sorry jake).

similarly, when I was a kid and read these I sympathized a lot w/the chee and felt bad for them towards the end of the series when they had to get more involved in the war (genuinely don’t remember what they even do but ik I felt bad) 

but now I've basically 180′d and I'm like damn those chee sure are hypocrites huh. 

like they could solve So many of the animorphs problems but their stringent adherence to nonviolence leads to them actively getting in the animorphs way sometimes? and obviously pacifism is a complicated topic, but in this case it also intersect w/the whole ‘child soldier’ thing, and as beings who are insanely old and wise, the chee probably shouldn't just leave all the dirty work to a bunch of literal middle schoolers

aaaaanyways. there’s so much I love about this book. the iskoort! they were sure something. and the ‘plot twist’ that they are actually 2 beings, the Isk and the Yoort - and the Yoort are essentially Yeerks - that slapped. the symbiosis of it all! 

I loved the part where they all realize what this means, that this is why Crayak wants the iskoort destoryed - because someday the yeerks might come across them and realize parasitism is not the only way. I love it! 

alas I don’t recall the iskoort returning in the story (but also my memory is terrible so who knows?) but still that would be cool

basically I feel like this is the book where Jake Truly comes into his own as a leader, in every sense. he outmaneuvers Crayak, and even the ellimist, who’s yanking them around in his own way

the scene where jake shoves the howler off the cliff and jumps off and morphs and acquires the howler...that was fantastic and tense. 

also the murder is definitely becoming more overt. I mean, it has been for a while, but it isn’t really pointed out as much anymore. oof

more on the chee - as Jake points out in this book, and other characters point out in other books - the chee could have saved the pemalites, but instead just stood by while their creators were slaughtered. on the other hand, jake says, what do the chee do AFTER they’ve killed the howlers - where to point them next? when is the end of their violence? 

buuuuut also standing by while atrocities occur is pretty damning, as is frequently mentioned in this series - from the very beginning, when marco initially doesn’t want to get involved in the war at all, and the other animorphs basically tell him that turning his back on the war and acting like he doesn’t even know it’s happening would be immoral and cowardly (which imo this reaction helps to push marco in the direction he ends up going, but I digress) - this topic comes up again in 19 when cassie quits the team and rachel is upset bc she sees it as cassie elevating her own feelings above the greater good (as in, as long as cassie feels good about how she acts, it doesn’t matter how much preventable evil the yeerks are committing while she turns away). etc etc. but that’s essentially what’s happening w/the chee - even tho they help w/intel, the lack of any sort of Action on their part means that they’re essentially allowing awful things to happen when they could prevent them. this is rambly but basically...animorphs deals so much in grey areas, and the chee are noticeably black and white in their actions, despite falling, in a meta sense, in an extremely grey area. its such good, thought provoking writing!

anywayssss I keep talking about the chee lmao what else was there. oh YEAH jake and cassie kissed for the first time awww that was super cute 

and ofc immediately marco teases them as asks jake if he’s gonna kiss him next, and all I can say is...marco is a bicon 

also I love the background worldbuilding w/the iskoort, how they have all these groups and guilds and stuff - its not dwelled on much, which actually works really well to give the world/species a sense of lived-in realness 

okay oh man and the reveal at the end that the howlers were just like...children who thought the whole thing was a game...AUGHH man that’s sooo fucked 

like, when jake morphs the howler and has rachel ready to knock him down in grizzly morph if he gets out of control due to the howler’s murderous instincts, and he morphs to find that the howler is...playful, like a dolphin morph. SUCH a good fucked up sense of dawning horror there 

and the fact that as far as I can tell the chee KNEW this, but wanted revenge anyways, so they let the animorphs assume that the howlers were Evil On Purpose

also I love smaller moments, like jake seeing that ax is ashamed for briefly running away during one battle w/the howlers, and then entrusts him w/an important task bc he knows that ax will see that as redemption - and when everyone thought jake was dead and were so happy when he wasn't (they all love each other so much im gonna cry about these child soldiers augh)

basically that book was so good

man one thing I absolutely love is that the longer the series goes on the more obvious it is that andalites, despite inventing morphing technology, barely use it themselves 

like, most of the andalite characters we see barely morph. its kind of a last resort to them, as they’re already plenty dangerous in their regular forms 

meanwhile for the animorphs, that’s all they have to fight with. that’s their only weapons against the yeerks, and its so fun to see them use the power in so many varied ways, and so creatively, while the andalites have barely scratched the surface of their own technology

its also interesting to contrast against the yeerks who start out w/absolutely no technology, and the andalites share some but not all of their technology w/them...its too bad that morphing technology was just starting out cause that would’ve been interesting

like imo a lot of the conflict w/the yeerks could’ve been avoided if they could just nothlit into better forms - of course, there’d still be plenty of yeerks who want to go start wars or w/e, just like pretty much any species in the series, but a lot of yeerks would probably be like ‘yeah I'm good’ and just chill out as nothlits

also people online love to talk about how humans are alienfuckers and would definitely have sex w/sentient aliens and whatnot, and while I'm not saying that's untrue, its just funny bc in animorphs the truest alienfuckers are definitely the andalites

as of the hork-bajir chronicles, we now have a second instance of an andalite morphing another species to be in an inter-species alien romance (and eventually have kids) 

speaking of, I don’t think I’ve talked abt the hork bajir chronicles yet??? even tho I read it a while ago lmao 

HBC was great...I honestly haven’t really run into an animorphs book I’ve actually disliked at this point, I’m sure it’ll come w/all the ghostwriting and whatnot, but I’ve liked at least some aspects of every book

anyways HBC was great, and it’s funny bc I remember that I read this book as a kid, and yet rereading it now I didn’t remember a single bit of it lmaooo

I really liked the framing device of the free hork bajir telling this story to tobias. I also liked how we know from the beginning that this story wont have a happy ending - we know all the hork bajir end up enslaved by the yeerks, but it’s still somehow hopeful at the end? I think this is largely due to the framing device tbh. 

also I love toby, and I love that the First free hork bajir named their kid after tobias ;_; 

and oooh mannn I LOVED the different POVs from this book. all the characters were so interesting! aldrea was fascinating - I really like the increasingly negative view of the andalites that the readers are getting, all while maintaining the sense that they aren’t like, actively evil, just that they have their issues - like aldrea’s arrogance, and the general andalite arrogance which lead to the loss of the hork bajir. also, who knew andalites had their own brand of sexism? Ls

I did like getting a female andalite tho, that was cool. and dak was really cool, he was such a good, compassionate character who was able to maintain his morals in an interesting way throughout the story

and VISSER THREE...or should I say esplin 9466, because he’s not visser 3 yet...getting his ‘origin story’ was excellent - I really like how we’re learning about visser 3 backwards - we start off the series w/him as the main villain, and he’s campy and menacing, and then we see him in the andalite chronicles as a power-hungry sub-visser trying to climb the ranks and eventually getting alloran as a host, and then back even further here, w/the start of his focus on the andalites and the beginning of his ambition. its been very cool and interesting to see

plus, the beginning of the yeerks as we know them! seerow! alloran! it’s a party and nobody is having a good time, except for some of the yeerks. 

I like how it’s pretty obvious that the andalites are well-meaning with their interactions w/the yeerks, but go about it the wrong way - they give them enough technology that the yeerks realize there’s a whole world out there to experience, and then they blockade the yeerks on their planet and tell them they can’t leave. nnnnot the best approach imo

again, as I said above, I’m interested in how things could’ve gone if the andalites had given the yeerks morphing technology early on - could a lot of the conflict have been avoided, or would it have been worse? the yeerks seem pretty evil in this book, immediately jumping to enslave anyone they can. otoh we hear from esplin that not all yeerks like having host bodies, and find it overwhelming, preferring to swim around in the yeerk pool as a slug - I assume as host bodies became more available this type of thinking was probably stamped out in yeerk society or w/e, but there are a lot of interesting what-ifs in the situation 

I loved the scene where esplin first experiences having a host, and immediately knows he can’t go back. there are a bunch of great sensory descriptions, and it’s a nice scene to pinpoint as a foundational moment for the visser three in the current story, who spent a lot of time and energy getting what he sees as the best possible host body, an andalite

I find it interesting how much visser three clearly respects the andalites, even while constantly deriding them. and you can see the origins of that here as he immediately focuses in on the andalites, working to become an expert on them in order to make himself useful enough to move thru the ranks

another thing I like is how esplin seems a lot more crafty and ambitious than the visser three from modern times - I would guess that reaching his goal (andalite host body) and being given all that power was detrimental, playing on his weaknesses instead of his strengths. basically, I don’t think it’s ooc or anything, I can see how HBC-esplin became animorphs-esplin, especially w/TAC in between

as for seerow...poor dude. you really do have to feel for him, because you get the sense he really did just want to be kind to the yeerks, but it was borne from a place of pity, and he (and the other andalites) consistently held too much power over the yeerks for the species relations to ever be truly equal and functional 

AUGH I have so many thoughts about alien space politics. omg. I need to talk about the actual story lmao

so yeah I also feel for aldrea, she had a rough time, watching her entire family die and being thrown into a hopeless war

and then the andalite council or w/e not listening to her bc she's a girl AND seerow’s daughter...oof

also, I really really liked the running theme of the andalites - specifically aldrea - looking down on the hork bajir as ‘simple’ and constantly underestimating them, especially dak

and I like how this is portrayed as a bad attitude for aldrea to have, and she still remains and interesting and sympathetic character even while having obvious flaws. it’s about being 3-dimensional baby!

and oh man I love that dak realizes that aldrea looks down on him, and his entire species, but he can see that that’s how the andalites are, and it all connects back to the beginning of the story w/the yeerks, bc the andalites looked down on the yeerks and treated them with pity and kept them pinned under their proverbial thumb ‘for their own good’ and look how that turned out 

but dak is wise and kind enough to not hate aldrea for this, even acknowledging when she’s using him, but not pushing her away because he recognizes good in her too - and she ends up changing, partially because of his faith in her

and I feel like it can all be compared to that scenario of like - a hypothetical creature that lives in a 2D world suddenly being thrust into a 3D world, and comprehending what its seeing, and understanding that there’s so much more out there outside of the flat lines of its world - and then its dropped back into 2D-land with the knowledge of all the stuff its missing out on, and no way to get back to it or explain it to anybody else

I loooove that ‘trope’ or w/e you wanna call it, and it’s done beautifully here w/the yeerks - whos the say they wouldn't have been fine in their pool swimming around; as esplin said, a lot of the yeerks were terrified of having a host, it was only from the andalites’ perspective that their lives were sad and pitiful, and the andalites showed them what the world could be like, and then said ‘no, you can’t travel the stars like we do, you have to stay here on your planet and do what we say.’

and then again, w/the hork bajir - dak talks about how, even though he drinks up the knowledge that aldrea gives him, in the end it might have been better to just have lived peacefully, not knowing what was in the sky or the Deep - as aldrea says: “It was too late for Dak: he knew that the stars were not flowers.” 

plus the hork bajir having to go from a completely peaceful species who don’t even understand the concept of violence, to a bunch of soldiers fighting a war...oof 

basically everyone in this story uses the hork bajir. the yeerks use them as hosts, the andalites use their planet as a convenient place to dump seerow and then take their sweet time coming to help, and the arn created them as means to stabilize the planet, but block them off from their society and refuse to help when the yeerks come

like, the arn modifying themselves to be un-infestable by the yeerks and then being enslaved for physical labor instead? oof guys. if they had teamed up w/the hork bajir resistance things might have gone better, but probably not 

more on aldrea - throughout the story I was always thinking ‘how am I supposed to see her? as a good person, or as a bad person?’ 

as a POV character, especially a ‘good guy’ andalite, you just start off automatically thinking of her as a good person, but as the story goes on, she starts getting lost in revenge and begins using dak and the hork bajir, and you’re left wondering if this is a story about her slide into darkness, and then towards the end of the story her character development culminates in her making the decision to stay w/the hork bajir, and the be with dak, and that’s about when I went ‘ohhh right this is animorphs so every character is pretty much gonna be grey’

I feel like that moral grey-ness was on full display w/aldrea, and I really enjoyed that. I love so much when characters who are good do bad things, for good or bad reasons, especially in media like animorphs that’s aimed at kids. it’s so compelling. 

oof, and the ending when aldrea convinces dak to mobilize the hork bajir and teach them violence...and dak asks her if she’s ever killed another andalite, and she’s horrified, and says of course she hasn’t, and he says that that’s what she’s asking him, and all the hork bajir, to do - to kill their own people, even if they are being controlled by the yeerks. biiiig oof. I love that dak can keep up w/aldrea and her andalite supremacy attitude - it seems that the non-andalite characters who get along best w/the andalites are the ones who wont take their bs 

what else happened....oh my god how could I forget about alloran, and his quantum virus. oooof. I like how we find out about alloran in parallel to visser three, in the same backwards way - in animorphs he’s the tragic host of visser three, in TAC he’s the disgraced but still semi-respected war-prince who becomes the first ever andalite controller, and here he’s the guy who decides to commit some war crimes because, hey, we haven’t tried that yet 

but yeah that was fucked up, I love it. I’ve said it before I think but I like that alloran isn’t some perfect martyr tragically taken by the yeerks - it’s a lot more compelling that he’s a very flawed person who was taken as a controller partially due to his own bloodthirstiness. 

but yeah, the part where aldrea morphs alloran and ‘sneaks’ into that room was great. aldrea’s dedication to disposing of the virus is a great indicator of her character development - it really feels like the straw that broke the camels back w/re: to the andalites not being what she thought they were, w/their tardiness coming to help the hork bajir planet and the way her father was treated being the precursors to this realization. it all culminates nicely in aldrea saying ‘fuck this actually’ and nothlit-ing into a hork bajir.

and it’s really tragic but realistic that even though aldrea and dak end up seeing eye to eye at the end and getting together, the virus ends up being released anyways (and fails in its objective to stop the yeerks from using the hork bajir - the whole thing was p much a lose-lose situation oof), and aldrea and dak still die fighting a hopeless war 

but then we have the free hork bajir on earth, including toby, who, like tobias, has andalite ancestry, but no DNA to show for it - I like that they have that connection as well as tobias being her namesake

so yeah I enjoyed that one and its many-layered themes

WOW this got long uuuuuhhh ok I think i’ll leave this one off here. at the time I’m actually finishing the writing and editing, I’m on book 35 lol so I have some backlogging to do. never fear, I have a lot to say....

[tunehummed]

OVERBOARD. — 140 sentences from polygon’s board game series overboard, specifically episodes 12 and 13 where they play coup, anomia, and skull! change pronouns as needed.

COUP.

‘‘ ten minutes is not late. that's on time! ’’

‘‘ and we're here in… space? ’’

‘‘ the space is different from space. ’’

‘‘ so let's get machiavellian. ’’

‘‘ cool, cool, cool, cool. ’’

‘‘ so we've learned nothing. ’’

‘‘ like most politics, some stuff has happened and we're not quite sure what it was. ’’

‘‘ i want the money! ’’

‘‘ in what way? ’’

‘‘ oh, it's my turn! ’’

‘‘ that was a perfect turn of phrase. ’’

‘‘ that's the coward’s way. ’’

‘‘ the pussy’s option! ’’

‘‘ please no! please no! ’’

‘‘ i thought we were going hard! ’’

‘‘ you’ll pay for these transgressions. ’’

‘‘ i'm a man of my word. ’’

‘‘ i'm a man of my word. in fact, i'm TWO men of my word. ’’

‘‘ in fact, i'm TWO men of my word. ’’

‘‘ can i have that back? i’m sorry. ’’

‘‘ wow, so you’re all fucking lying! ’’

‘‘ i could make up anything. ’’

‘‘ this is a classic romance novel conundrum. ’’

‘‘ i know one of these gentlemen is lying. ’’

‘‘ we're not board game professionals like [name]. ’’

‘‘ there's a lot of parallel realities i'm trying to balance in my mind right now. ’’

‘‘ it is gross. i’m sorry. i didn't like saying it. ’’

‘‘ yes, i'm choosing to call you on your shit. ’’

‘‘ you're fighting awfully hard for somebody. ’’

‘‘ is that a direct threat? ’’

‘‘ but tell us how you really feel, [name]. ’’

‘‘ well, you've made a powerful enemy. ’’

‘‘ you're a COWARD, [full name]! ’’

‘‘ i would never expect a favor from someone who i'm in direct competition with. ’’

‘‘ so my dear ally, [full name], i’d like to turn it over to you. ’’

‘‘ however, if you would like me to destroy [name], i’d be happy to do that. ’’

‘‘ however, if you would like me to destroy [name], i’d be happy to do that. but i want to involve you in my decision making. ’’

‘‘ but i want to involve you in my decision making. ’’

‘‘ this is a weird energy. ’’

‘‘ oh, because you resent me, that's why. ’’

‘‘ you're saying i should call [name] on his shit? what if somebody else took that risk? ’’

‘‘ i don't believe it! show me the proof! ’’

‘‘ perhaps this is where my goose is finally cooked… or perhaps not. ’’

‘‘ you turned on me. you turned on me! ’’

‘‘ i'll stay at the table and just watch as this burns. ’’

‘‘ a whole deep, deep pile of mess. ʼ

‘‘ and [name] is just a wildcard in my opinion, in most things. ’’

‘‘ i'm not acting according to any logic. i only have loyalty towards [name]. that's all i have. nothing else. ’’

‘‘ that's great. you could do way worse. ’’

‘‘ everyone sings the song of the victim after their schemes have been thwarted! ’’

‘‘ don't listen to his lies. ’’

‘‘ don't listen to anything he says right now! ’’

‘‘ i’ll do fucking anything. ’’

‘‘ that was effective communication. ’’

‘‘ that's just toxic masculinity, baby! ’’

‘‘ oh, this is insufferable! ’’

‘‘ tfw someone has you dead to rights. ’’

‘‘ we're all stuck in a no money situation at the moment. ’’

‘‘ you remember what you did to me, right? ’’

‘‘ fairweather friends united only by their hatred for a shared enemy. ’’

‘‘ seems the monkey’s hand is caught in the vase. ’’

‘‘ alright, this fucking continental bullshit! ’’

‘‘ you say that now, but we'll see. ’’

‘‘ no one is sorry for what they've done to me. ’’

‘‘ here's the thing, i WILL win that! ’’

‘‘ i can't believe how perfectly this is happening. ’’

‘‘ pull the trigger, piglet! ’’

‘‘ that's the problem with being honest! ’’

‘‘ that was expertly, expertly done. ’’

ANOMIA.

‘‘ so let's get to the yelling. ’’

‘‘ okay, i just gotta remember all these things. ’’

‘‘ oh no. panic. ’’

‘‘ this is also a lying game! ’’

‘‘ this is the worst thing. ’’

‘‘ women helping women, that's what that was. ’’

‘‘ take it! take it! take it! ’’

‘‘ this is a nightmare. ’’

‘‘ i walked so you could run. ’’

‘‘ now that's women helping women. ’’

‘‘ thank you, mom! ’’

‘‘ the hell is a marsupial? ’’

‘‘ fair. well-defined. ’’

‘‘ fuck, FUCK! ’’

‘‘ if you go deep into lore, you can't prove there's not a star wars character called vango bango. ’’

‘‘ if you give a thousand monkeys a thousand typewriters and tell them to write star wars novels, one of them is going to write one about vango bango. ’’

‘‘ i’m too frail for this. ’’

‘‘ i'm just not ready to do a thing right now. ’’

‘‘ i'm panicking about edible plants. ’’

‘‘ [name], you're gonna die. ’’

‘‘ the standard is not can it go in your body! ’’

ʻ i can eat it, i just won't survive it! ’’

ʻ edible is not a word meaning a challenge. ’’

ʻ fucking anything is edible if you don’t quit! ’’

ʻ say that at my funeral. ’’

ʻ i feel like this is like a rorschach test for words. ’’

ʻ let’s be on a really safe footing. ’’

ʻ every name is unisex, alright? fuck you, gender norms. ’’

ʻ i’m getting lightheaded. ’’

ʻ goddamn, this is pathetic. ’’

ʻ i would name any child please no. ’’

ʻ why is [name] talking in a scottish accent all of a sudden? ’’

ʻ why is [name] talking in a scottish accent all of a sudden? you know what, actually, there's too much going on and not enough time to adequately probe this question. ’’

ʻ you know what, actually, there's too much going on and not enough time to adequately probe this question. ’’

ʻ i didn't wanna sound judgy, so i didn't wanna say anything. ’’

‘‘ that's some fast guns there, guys. ’’

SKULL.

‘‘ but you're not going to win without taking a few risks. ’’

‘‘ it's time to put up or shut up. ’’

‘‘ you definitely don't want to be stuck with it. ’’

‘‘ too rich for my blood. ’’

‘‘ pass. ’’

‘‘ oh, i don't like that now. ’’

‘‘ you played me like a fiddle, [last name]! ’’

‘‘ that was so coquettish. ’’

‘‘ he's playing the himbo of the team. ’’

‘‘ first time i've ever been described as a himbo. ’’

‘‘ starting to feel our oats here. whatever that means. ’’

‘‘ okay. that's fine. i got you. ’’

‘‘ death herself over here. ’’

‘‘ this stew is a simmerin’. ’’

‘‘ i should know what i'm doing. ’’

‘‘ shit. fuck me. ’’

‘‘ fuck me, i’m an idiot. ’’

‘‘ oh, i don't like that. i don't like that at all. ’’

‘‘ sorry, i didn't know if my body language expressed how i felt. ’’

‘‘ i'm just going to go this way. ’’

‘‘ good luck, buddy. ’’

‘‘ loved your energy though, going into that real strong. ’’

‘‘ face death and walk backwards into hell. ’’

‘‘ i think you've got this. ’’

‘‘ i plan on never winning. ’’

‘‘ maybe i should try a different strategy. ’’

‘‘ i mean. it's working for somebody. ’’

‘‘ AHHHHHHHHHHHH! ’’

‘‘ i started hard, i started high, and i was gonna get screwed over so badly. ’’

‘‘ if only they all knew [name] was a safe bet… ’’

‘‘ absolutely brutal. you hate to see it, folks! ’’

‘‘ are you gonna fuckin’’ do it? ’’

‘‘ holy shit. i can't count. ’’

‘‘ oh my god! do you believe in miracles? ’’

‘‘ who do you think you are? ’’

[throne-of-games]

Thoughts on 8x03

We start off like Sam here, hyperventilating, shaking, wondering how we’re gonna survive this. Right there with you buddy!

All my babies on the front lines...good lord in heaven

Here comes my bitch Melisandre

God damn she really is gorgeous

Highkey thought Davos was about to strangle her for a hot minute

Welp there goes the Dothraki. Look at that. The majority of Dany’s army was absolutely zero help and in fact gave the AoTD more bodies. Who would’ve thought?

GHOST NOOOOO

I have to admit, the subtle extinguishing of the flames was terrifying, like I was kind of shitting bricks at this point

Okay here’s Jorah that’s great I don’t really care WHERE’S GHOST

Honestly who planned this? Jon, Dany, their advisors? Whoever it was really dropped the ball because this is the stupidest fucking plan I’ve ever seen. If the dragons are so god damn important why don’t you fucking use them to thin out the herd first before sending half your god damn army out to get slaughtered. Idiots.

First ten minutes of the actual fighting, can’t see shit

Holy fuck when I saw Brienne go under I FUCKING SCREAMED

And for most of the battle, the dragons can’t see shit. So they’re pretty much useless. Awesome!

This Sansa/Arya scene gives me LIFE. Sansa not wanting to abandon her people (she really is the people’s princess) Arya being concerned for Sansa’s safety, STICK THEM WITH THE POINTY END! I CANNOT

Oh Edd, can’t really say we didn’t see that coming. So long partner

It wouldn’t work between us, that’s my girl destroying Sanrion yaaaas

 Missandei sweetie, I love you but right now you’re hiding out in Sansa’s basement so let’s put some respect on her name, hmm? Besides your qween ain’t doing too hot right now so stick a pipe in it

That “home” speech Bran gave was to Theon and not Dany as the antis claimed, shocker. Her home is not the North, never has been and never will be.

The noises I made throughout this episode were ungodly. Like a wounded moose or something

I really liked that it was Arya who pulled the Hound out of his fire induced terror especially after his “I fought for you, didn’t I?” line last episode

Oh shit, wight Wun Wun

Oh little Lyanna Mormont. That was brutal. But at least she went out like a badass.

This scene with Arya in the library felt very The Walking Dead to me

The shot of Beric holding off the wights was pretty cool. He looked like Christ on the cross, it was all very martyr-y. 

Ah so Beric’s purpose was to save Arya, huh? Interesting

I’m kind of here for an Arya/Melisandre tag team tbh

WOW DRAGONFIRE DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO THE NIGHT KING, COLOR ME SHOCKED!

Not gonna lie, I was kinda feeling his smile right then lmao

Lmfao Dany saw that spear and high tailed it the hell out of there

Alright I know the Night King is like, dead and evil and dead but...is it just me or is his swagger kinda hot? *insert eyes emoji*

Nah nevermind. Wight Lyanna and wight Edd? Fuck you Night King

I didn’t see the Sansa/Tyrion scene as romantic, I saw it as being similar to her scene with Theon, two people with a complicated history taking solace in one another right before what they think is their deaths

FUCK YOU VISERION STOP DESTROYING WINTERFELL I’LL WRING YOUR LITTLE LIZARD NECK

Theon’s death was heartbreaking but perfect. Bran telling him he’s a good man, Theon knowing he’s about to die but still charging the Night King head on to protect Bran...Ugh poetic cinema. I couldn’t have asked for a better death for him.

Okay so I’m conflicted here because I actually do really like the idea of Arya being the one to kill the Night King but like it just doesn’t make sense. So what was all the whoopla about the PTWP prophecy then? What was the point of Jon being a Stark/Targaryen? What was up with the long ass look the Night King and Bran shared? What the hell was Bran doing all that time? Just warging around the Night King to see what he was up to like some weirdo outside your window with binoculars? What was the point to Bran’s entire arc? You’re telling me he went through all that crap to become the Three Eyed Raven so he could what? Become bait for the Night King? No way, I call bullshit.

But with that being said IT WAS A STARK THAT ENDED THE NIGHT KING AND I AM VERY HAPPY ABOUT THAT

Lmao Bran’s blank stare, like no good job Arya or anything? Talk about tough love

Damn I think this is the most emotion we’ve seen from Dany ever throughout the course of this series

So after years of listening to all that the dragons are their only chance bull, it turns out that in the end they actually did very little. Not really surprising for the people who were paying attention. They didn’t light the trenches, they didn’t protect Bran, they didn’t kill the Night King, they didn’t kill any White Walkers, they didn’t kill Viserion and half the time they were flying blind so they couldn’t see much going on on the ground. Vindication?

Overall this episode was pretty disappointing. I expected the Night King to go down but I didn’t expect it to be quite so easy. I guess we’ll have to see if this really is the end of them or if there will be some kind of bomb dropped later on regarding Bran’s role or possibly Jon’s. 

Lastly, WHERE THE FUCK IS GHOST?! WHERE IS HE?!

[zhouxuns]

thoughts on the finale

overall, s3 was quite good. but the finale makes it all feel pointless. and not just s3, but s2 and s1 as well. and i know the line about “the universe acknowledges you” was because of what was to come and was supposed to be some sort of comfort to the audience, but it wasn’t. at least not for me. legion never stuck the landing for their finales so this doesn’t surprise me. but i’m gonna rant anyways.

several things i didn’t like.

1) no acknowledgement whatsoever of the hallers who gave david a loving life. they retconned the hallers’ existence this whole season to push the idea that david never received love in his childhood and didn’t grow up looked after. despite the fact that we’ve seen throughout s1 how dearly important david’s childhood was and how important mama and papa haller were to him and how much he loved them and vice versa. i mean really, no acknowledgement of amy haller at all? the woman he cared about most besides syd? his sister? who was so important to him, we got a multiverse episode about how key amy was to david’s lives? not even an acknowledgement towards lenny when she killed herself inside amy’s body? and even worse, we’ll never know precisely why the xaviers gave david to the hallers in the first place. i found this retcon extremely insulting to david’s character, but to adopted families/foster families.

2) farouk’s redemption. how utterly insulting to the audience’s intelligence to redeem farouk with no recognition for his insidious actions and unrelenting vile choices. he possessed a baby, terrorized it for fun, abused a child, he sexually molested david every time david was frozen with fear to further suppress him, he raped lenny, a lesbian, whenever he felt like it, he stole people’s bodies because he felt like it, he killed endless amounts of people. and then they have this same farouk ask his younger self if he was really that hateful and petty as if the audience is supposed to forget that just a year prior to that conversation, that this same farouk brutally murdered an innocent amy haller to get at david and, as lenny said, raped her whenever he wanted. the same person who continued to plant the ideas in david’s head that he’s god and doesn’t have to regard the lives of other people. the same person that kidnapped syd and manipulated her into turning against david before he even betrayed her. like, for real? just retcon all of that to pretend like farouk had a change of heart and always loved david and wants world peace? all it takes is to share beer with your old enemy despite the fresh blood on your hands? wow. how embarrassingly bad is that on the writers’ behalf.

3) syd. not only did syd have a mere handful of lines in this episode, but yet again, it’s as if the writers changed their minds about syd’s feelings/characterization. she’s got to be one of the most jerked around characters on this show. she used to be consistent up until the latter half of s2 when the writers decided to make syd ooc for the sake of plot (you know, the david is evil crap). syd just episodes prior expressed that she felt it was worth it to have been with david and that she wouldn’t change it. she didn’t regret their love, she regretted their downfall. in her final moments, she’s back to bitter snark, borderline defeating the whole empathy episode. i loved the bit about saving baby david, but loathed the “i am” in response to david saying she’ll be extraordinary without him around. it retcons the entire value of syd’s history, her life choices, her self perception. syd, who ALWAYS believed she was extraordinary, given by her famous quote “who teaches us to be normal when we’re one of a kind”, suddenly will be a “better” person w/o having known david? when it was through him she found summerland, found mutant allies, found freedom, found a second childhood. and then what is the purpose of saying her new life will be distinctly amazing if we don’t even get to see it? not even an epilogue paragraph of what syd became in her new life? it felt like such an impersonal send off for her. she’s the female lead but yet again she ends up on the reduced end of things.

4) no consequences. the entire theme of s3 was, time traveling can change the past, but it can’t change who we are. there were no consequences in sight for any of these people. all those awful things david did, murdering and orphaning people, causing his best friend/sister’s suicide, drugging those hundreds of women, none of it mattered when legion pretended like it was supposed to. we didn’t really see david grow. we didn’t truly see him redeem his self. we didn’t see him express any true regret or remorse for all he did on the way there. right up until he end he remained in his entitled tantrum state. all it did was justify everything he did. because the past got rewritten. david got his second life and the people he sacrificed to do it don’t matter. and really? “sorry” was all he could say to the woman he raped and hurt the most? big yikes. legion’s faux commentary on make entitlement and sexism went absolutely nowhere. it’s absolutely bull crap. further proof that rape should’ve never been part of this show, let alone trying to do commentary on rape culture.

5) disjointed elements. switch turning out to be a time god felt so last minute and so lazy. she suffers and endured all this abuse from david because she was meant to “grow up” into her celestial clock form. sure it’s better than just her dying, but it feels as if her screentine was dedicated for a disappointing surprise. given how much screentime switch took up, i expected better. this is my main problem with shows adding more characters to the main plot. it causes the original characters to be neglected which results in less screentime for the originals (syd and the loudermilk twins) or being killed/written off (lenny, ptonomy, the birds) and usually the pay off isn’t good.

6) the severe lack of follow up. we will never know what oliver’s 1 + 1 plan was. we will never know what ultimately became of the birds. what became of ptonomy, who they turned into a flash drive and gave all of 3 lines to for the whole season, we’ll never know what the 3 years from now event change ptonomy calculated turned out to be, or what became of summerland or division 3. we’ll never know why they showed 616!legion in the desert. we will never get a true apology from syd to david and vice versa. we will never get an actual explanation for why farouk was allowed to roam around freely and unchecked despite him being the root cause for david’s demise.

7) the impersonal approach to mental illness. what’s the deal? legion had such a sensitive despite clinical approach to mental illness in s1. they handed the diagnoses with such care and the themes involved with it. in s2 it’s all but abandoned, and in s3 the theme returns, but with no personal touch whatsoever. ah gabrielle has the sickness, it runs in the women in the family, okay mental illness is hereditary for david, understandable. how come this is something david never reconciles his self with? how come they never give david’s true diagnosis? we know he has dissociative identity disorder, but david doesn’t. david is expressly in denial about being mentally ill, even saying he’s not “crazy” to his mother. yet he has a system of alters he works with. they all say “i am legion” which we know is what his collective of alters are called, but that’s it. one of the things david wanted to change was his mental illness. is he ever going to learn he can’t change that because he was sick all along because of his mother? his mental illness is such a huge aspect to her character yet in s3 it just feels like a post it note stuck to his chest. no one regards it with sensitivity. no one accepts responsibility in exacerbating his condition. nothing. legion used to be about mental illness. then they shed it for social commentary which held no weight, and destroyed the characterizations for an outcome that was ultimately inconsequential.

overall, this just proves to me that legion needed more than 3 seasons. easily 4-5 seasons would’ve worked better for this. legion doesn’t even leave things up for interpretation, it just leaves most of what they set up unanswered. i felt since s2 that it had been too soon to develop the story they were developing and i was right. choosing a 3 seasons arc where 2.8 out of the 3 seasons the male lead is a sympathetic and genuinely good character to make him evil and narcissistic and apathetic? makes no sense. or when the female lead used to be this complex morally grey character and at her last hour becomes isolated once more and is quoting things straight out of 2014 tumblr? i mean really? wtf.

the other characters didn’t get to do enough across these seasons. they were cannon fodder for david’s story/development (or lack thereof) more than anything else. once they were less proximal to david, they were less relevant to the writers too.

syd and david’s relationship didn’t last nearly long enough before they were thrust into ghastly new territories. and the same goes for everyone else’s dynamic on the show. far too much offscreen development occurred. farouk having a change of heart? you truly couldn’t pinpoint any point where farouk ever felt sorry for david or cared about anyone else but his self. he’s been nothing but condescending, sadistic, manipulative, and countless other atrocities. d3 and the summerlanders being comfortable with farouk with no mind control at play at all? get real. kerry and syd’s friendship was nice tidbit but we didn’t see it develop at all. it would’ve been important to see these female mutants develop a relationship. it’s the most frustrating thing aboutall of this. clearly more time was needed.

we needed more time for these things to feel truly earned. but noah was way in over his head because of how busy he became by the time s2 swung around and decided to cut the show short. i don’t buy for one minute that 3 seasons was the plan all along. everything about legion’s story progression beyond s1 screams improvisation and a messy one at that. there wasn’t enough time for these characters to breathe, too much characterization and story had been retconned to get the ending over with, and legion choosing to end where it began, except all the characters we loved are gone, all the things that made the show most important to us are gone, feels more depressing than i thought it would.

it’s going to be difficult rewatching the show especially from its flawless premier season, knowing none of it happens at all. it’s literally unfathomable to think that 3 years later this is where we’d be. i’m so disappointed.

[mrnerdteacher]

4 Reasons Why “Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy” for the Switch is a Trip for Millennials

It’s been a rough year two for Switch owners, but for me personally, I’ve been looking forward to this title for months. Here are 4 reasons why this little cartridge will blow your mind if you’re an adult gamer like me.

#1) It’s Crash Bandicoot, and it’s on a Nintendo Console

Most kids don’t think of Crash Bandicoot as a Sony exclusive title since he’s been appearing on multiplatform games since 2002, but for folks like me who still remember those hilarious mascot-suit commercials, it always seems a little weird to see the big orange doofus venturing outside the Playstation. I was SO jealous of my PS1 owning friends every time these ads interrupted my Saturday morning cartoons.

#2) It’s Crash Bandicoot, and it’s Portable

The game works remarkably well as a handheld title, largely because of the way the levels are either side-scrollers or confine you to navigate one narrow lane or path at a time. This removes the need to constantly adjust the camera with the right thumbstick, which always felt a little unnatural to me in handheld mode. Plus, considering the size of 90’s era televisions and o.g. Playstations, it still impresses me to have it all in my pocket at a moment’s notice.

#3) It’s Crash Bandicoot, and It Looks as Good as Your Imagination

Back in the day, game programmers were limited to rather simple polygons and limited draw distances, often asking the player to imagine things like Crash’s fur or a foggy jungle scene. However, Vicarious visions has done an amazing job not just updating the graphics, but improving the animations and aesthetics without sacrificing an ounce of that Crash charm. Impressive on its own, but downright jaw-dropping as a portable title.

#4) It’s Crash Bandicoot, and It’s Way Harder than you Remember

I have beaten every Dark Souls title. I dashed my way to the end of Celeste and blasted the devil to bits in Cuphead. I like hard games, but nothing, NOTHING prepared me for the insane challenge of the original Crash Bandicoot.

Die-hard fans have lamented that the collision detection and jumping controls are a bit more finicky than the original, but what really makes this game an exercise in frustration is just how brutal and unfair the design is at its core. Let’s bullet point them super quick.

1) One-hit kills. Games used to do this all the time.

2) Even if you have a shield, getting hit still knocks you backward, usually off a cliff.

3) The floor of most levels are over 50% bottomless pit, with platforms as narrow as your foot.

4) Most jumps require maximum distance and perfect timing, often two dozen times in a row.

5) No double-jumps here, which means mid-air steering is at an absolute minimum.

6) The game only starts giving you extra checkpoints after you have lost over 5 lives. Each level starts with you 4, which means if you can’t find a bonus life or collect enough mangoes, you’re on your own.

7) Attacking a power-up can accidentally destroy it. So cruel.

8) Bottomless pits and other hazards are often hidden behind scenery or off-screen, and you can’t adjust the camera.

9) No stopping a level partway through. It’s one and done or none, son! (sorry)

10) No skipping a challenging level. The in-game “map” is a straight line, like it or not.

11) No in-game tutorials or hints pointing out a boss’s weakness. This is a relic from the days when you would learn tricks by reading the manual, skimming through a magazine, or calling a help-line.

12) At the end of the each level, the game literally beats you over the head with all the secrets you missed, because you suck.

Games just used to be harder. Decades ago (wow), video games were not quite the multi-billion dollar juggernaut they are today, so the industry hadn’t quite figured out that making a game that’s easy to beat is more lucrative (because people are more likely to buy the sequel if they’ve finished the previous release). This also predates DLC or online multiplayer, so the only real way to inject longevity is to actually make your games longer (and harder). Levels in Crash seem to last about 5 times longer than you expect, but the flip-side is that beating one feels OH SO SWEET. It’s a euphoria that actually, somehow, makes it all worth it.

Hopefully I don’t snap my Switch in half in the process. Cloud saves are still a few months away, right?

FINAL GRADE: B+

[obaewankenope]

The Gospel of the Anakin Apologist + The General Rudeness of Unrelated Comments on a Post

So @stonefreeak had an anon show up and whine about Padme. I and @sanerontheinside added our two cents in then *waves hands* SOME ASSHOLE shows up and wants to play ‘Anakin is a victim and Padme is a stupid ho and Obi-Wan is to blame for EVERYTHING EVER’ on the post even though, amusingly enough, it has no bearing on the discussion in the slightest.

Ergo I got vexed.

Actually all of us did bc wow stupid much.

The rest is under a read more because wow this got long and salty.

Also I’m tagging people so they can share the salt: @meabhair, @kyberpunk, @maawi, @markwatnae, @lilyrose225writes, @knight-kennedy, @punsbulletsandpointythings, @deadcatwithaflamethrower, @myurbandream, @jhaernyl :)

You see, we were discussing Padme as a female character and the double-standard around female characters being expected to be perfect and male characters essentially being able to do whatever the fuck they want so long as they’re pretty (pick a fandom, any fandom, you’re guaranteed to see the same dichotomy in treatment of male - female characters).

Apparently we can’t do that shit tho bc ‘oh no you’re blaming my bae!!!’ like wow, really fucking stupid much.

Anyway, to explain why I’m raging (why all of us are raging actually: it’s glorious to behold and I feel so blessed to experience the righteous fury of my spouses and friends) I personally feel like this particular person has literally pulled the embodiment of that “she doesn’t even go here” meme because whoa boy, their reblog does not belong here.

Now, in general I’m usually quite happy to let the morons roll on by like the sad little tumbleweeds of ignorance they are. But not when it’s on a post informing others of the behaviour and perception of gender/sex relations and treatment of characters in fandom. When you show up here and want to blame a single character who is flawed, especially just to venerate and excuse the behaviour of another flawed character... well, then I feel obligated to respond.

It’s not personal it is it’s just in my nature.

Okay so, first paragraph of their reblog (and subsequent stupid dialogue included) sums up the situation on Mustafar as ‘Padme should have been a good wife and sided with her genocidal husband who just helped wipe out thousands of lives (including children) bc she’s his wife’ and that ‘Obi-Wan is responsible bc he tried to do his duty as a Jedi’ and apparently that’s wrong as according to the Gospel of the Anakin Apologist.

Of course, they make a general, sweeping statement about Obi-Wan, describing him as a ‘fantastic space cop but an asshole friend and a person in general’ which, as I’m sure you’re all aware, shows a typical lack of understanding of what the Jedi are in universe, and also the background of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s interaction.

This isn’t unusual and I’m not gonna berate people for not knowing about the EU (Extended Universe) materials, or those damned benighted Junior Apprentice (JA) novels about Obi-Wan’s padawanship (and Anakin’s later on). The thing is though, there is plenty of information available about Obi-Wan, his background and so on on various websites -- Wookieepedia, to name but one -- so I don’t think it’s fair to be so quick to judge a character, any character, without understanding their background.

Even if this blogger is uninitiated into the ranks of SW lore and such, even if they only have the movies to go on, I still consider them to have a shockingly particular mindset and perspective of the relationship between the three protagonist characters.

So, here’s the thing, the below is a direct quote from their post. As you can see it’s... a particular perspective.

Padme should have sided with Anakin or Obi-Wan clearly when Anakin confronted her about Obi-Wan being on the ship, Obi-Wan killed Padme by appearing while they were talking, Padme might’ve been able to talk some sense into Anakin or join him, i guess Obi-Wan was afraid Padme would flip sides and decided to burst out with his “hello there” bullshit, if i was Padme i would have immediately said            “that fucker snuck on my ship i had nothing to do with this, take care of him my love!” or “oh shit, well i didn’t plan this Obi-Wan tag in!”            i know she was shocked and all that jazz but lady think on your feet, you went to meet your fugitive husband who just killed a academy full of space coplings on isolated planet and a space cop popped out of your trunk, use your words and use them quick! Anakin choking his wife in anger is understandable when you think of it from his perspective,           “ok im on the hide from the law(Jedi), ill contact my wife and get her to safety” “hi love i came alone as you asked”            “oh thank god for a moment i thought you might sympathize with the corrupt jedi” *Obi-Wan dumb ass pops out of the shadows* “hello there bitches!~~”            “wtf Padme?! you brought a cop to our meet out?! you do know i am wanted dead right!? You little bitch! i did this all so i could keep you alive and this is how you repay me? i killed younglings to get this power Padme fucking younglings! you ungrateful little bitch ill kill you!” “hey bro let her go you said you wanted to save her right? kind of doing the opposite right now”            “… god damn it i hate it when he is right, lets fight!”

First of all, they’re working on the assumption that Anakin was hiding from the Jedi. Second of all, that he was hiding from the Law(Jedi). Perhaps their memory has failed them, but I’ll provide a little breakdown of how the third movie actually went so they can understand that their initial narrative is... well, to put it plainly, ‘wrong and really wrong’.

1. Separatists vs Republic battle with Obi-Wan and Anakin going after Dooku. Dooku dies by Anakin’s hands after being disarmed (this is murder btw, rules of war mean that if your opponent loses or surrenders, then you don’t kill them -- this is generally considered a war crime). 

2. Obi-Wan and Anakin talk about stuff and then Obi-Wan heads off to chase Grievous alone. This is after Anakin has been put on the Council by Palpatine even though he’s only been a Knight for a while. The Jedi do not approve, Obi-Wan is cautious and advises Anakin to be careful (Anakin ignores him by the way and continues to be friendly with Palpatine).

4. While Obi-Wan is off after Grievous, Anakin has Palpatine’s identity revealed to him. Gets played into saving him from Mace and co in order to keep Padme alive (even though she isn’t dead by the way). Anakin then goes to the Temple with a collection of Clones and helps murder every Jedi there. He purposefully murders the children in the Council chambers. 

5. Obi-Wan is nearly killed after defeating Grievous because of Order 66. He escapes and hides. Meets up with Yoda and Bail. Goes to the Temple. Finds out that Anakin killed Jedi and is heartbroken by this fact. Then he goes to Padme after being tasked by his superior to go and defeat Anakin. He tells her the truth and she refuses to believe him.

6. Padme goes to meet with Anakin who is on Mustafar, drowning in his angst-ridden guilt of now having become an accomplice to genocide. Obi-Wan tags along, knowing that Anakin and Padme love each other so much that both would forsake their duties. He hides and Padme doesn’t know. Anakin doesn’t notice.

7. Padme rejects Anakin BEFORE Obi-Wan shows himself, because she realises he’s literally gone crazy. Then Anakin turns on Padme and chokes her into unconsciousness, even though she’s heavily pregnant and he ‘loves’ her. Obi-Wan gets Anakin to focus on him and they fight.

8. They fight to the point where Obi-Wan has the high-ground and Anakin does a stupid and gets his limbs cut off. Obi-Wan leaves him to burn to death (brutal) and goes to Padme. He takes her for treatment and instead watches one of his oldest friends die while her children are made into orphans.

9. Movie ends with Anakin becoming the giant suit version of Vader and Obi-Wan on Tattooine delivering Luke to his aunt and uncle.

Anakin isn’t evading the law, aka the Jedi, he’s killed them. Obi-Wan is the one evading the law because it wants him dead. Anakin is on Mustafar because Sidious told him to take out the Sep leadership. Padme meets him there after hearing the truth from Obi-Wan and only believes it when Anakin admits it himself. Then she rejects him. Obi-Wan does his duty as a Jedi -- sworn to destroy the Sith -- and the end is that Padme dies because Anakin loses his temper and lashes out at her.

I may be Anakin apologist but considering his situation he didn’t act out of character, id be pissed off too if i contacted my wife when i am in hiding and she brings a cop there (it seemed like that to Anakin since he didn’t know Obi-wan snuck on board) before i can explain myself to my wife

Firstly, you are an Anakin apologist and he did act out of character. His behaviour after discovering Sidious’ identity and stopping Mace from killing a Sith Lord is out of character. Anakin is a bright, kind and friendly child with a temper issue. Anakin is someone who hates injustice and despises the way some people are treated by others for no other reason than because of where they were born or who they were born to. He was a slave and then he became a Jedi; he went from victim to protector. His final character jump sent him from protector to oppressor. That’s not in character, that’s specifically cultivated and justified behaviour because he puts his own needs above absolutely everything else.

He also had the chance to explain to Padme. He didn’t deny what he did and Padme actively rejected him when she realised he wasn’t sorry for what he’d done ‘in the name of love’. You’re justifying abuse and don’t even realise it.

Think of it like this, in a galaxy where there are force powers etc shit you keep seeing horrible nightmares of your wife dying, your mother gets kidnapped by space isis and killed,             you butcher the village in retaliation and tell your wife about it, after which the greatest political figure of your “country” tells you that there is a way to save your wifes life from the faith that seems foretold (like someone offering you a cure for cancer when you think your wife has cancer),            the old dude tells you you have to do something to get the cure (equivalent would probably be extracting stem cells from kids spines or something lethal), well you love your wife and can’t let her die because love,            well you go and do the dirty deed like a loving husband would can’t let your honey bun die, now you’re kind of in hiding waiting for your old dude friend to wipe out the cops (rought shit but it will all be worth it when i save my wife from certain death),            you contact your wife and tell her to meet you in some backwater planet where you two can talk it out, you can tell her why you did it and you can finally save her from her faith, your wife finally arrives the joy we are finally together, listen wife the reason i killed the younglings is “Everybody down on the ground, the Jedi man has arrived!”,            all your efforts to get the cure, all you did in the name of saving your wife and she brings a cop to execute you (that’s what he thought and can’t blame him, how the fuck did she not know Obi-Wan snuck on board?)

Firstly, Shmi Skywalker was kidnapped and tortured by Tusken Raiders on Tattooine, not ‘Space ISIS’. The settlers on Tattooine are the proverbial invaders of a planet where the Tuskens are the natural species. So your metaphor is inaccurate and shows but a lack of understanding and also a clear desire to produce extreme sympathy for Anakin. We don’t know why the Tusken’s took Shmi but it’s generally considered unusual behaviour. We do know that they have attacked farms on Tattooine before and that they have been united by an ex-Jedi at one point when Obi-Wan was in exile. This is all we know. So you’re making an assumption that they’re evil terrorists when you don’t even have the material to back you up. 

Anakin killed an entire village of Tuskens, including women and children. There is no excuse for that. Unless you think it would be acceptable for a US soldier to execute the children in an Iraqi village because some of the inhabitants were part of Al Queda? 

Obi-Wan had already informed Anakin in Attack of the Clones that ‘dreams pass in time’ referring to Anakin’s recurring problems with his dreams about his mother. Anakin didn’t inform Obi-Wan of anything after that and so Obi-Wan has no knowledge. He tried to help, in his own way. Anakin’s behaviour and fear of what he dreamt about Padme drove him to extremes of behaviour -- the love he held for her is what destroyed him because he was so selfish as to refuse to let her go.

The dangers of attachment isn’t of falling in love, it’s in that love turning into obsession which is what happened with Anakin. Palpatine used Anakin’s fears of losing Padme to sway him into his service and with Mace’s death, sealed his fate and that of Padme. 

Do you honestly think Padme would have died had she not been choked into unconsciousness by her ‘loving’ husband on a boiling planet of death, after the revelation that her husband had willingly committed genocide because of his love for her? 

If you do then there’s no hope for you.

The dialogue of the Mustafar scene is below, read it and perhaps recognise that Anakin admits to having become obsessed with power and paranoid. Perhaps also recognise how Padme only rejects him after he says he’s going to overthrow the Chancellor and together they can rule the galaxy.

Padme: Obi-Wan told me terrible things Anakin: What things? Padme: He said, you’d turned to the Dark Side. That you... killed younglings? Anakin: Obi-Wan is trying to turn you against me Padme: He cares about us Anakin: Us? Padme: He knows. He wants to help you... Anakin, all I want is your love Anakin: Love won’t save you Padme, only my new powers can do that Padme: At what cost? You’re a good person, don’t do this! Anakin: I won’t lose you the way I lost my mother. I am becoming more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of. And I’m doing it for you. To protect you Padme: Come away with me. Help me raise our child. Leave everything else behind while we still can! Anakin: Don’t you see? We don’t have to run away anymore. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the Chancellor. I- I can overthrow him. And together you and I can rule the galaxy. Make things the way we want them to be Padme: [backs away, shaking head] I don’t believe what I’m hearing. Obi-Wan was right, you’ve changed Anakin: I don’t want to hear any more about Obi-Wan. The Jedi turned against me, don’t you turn against me Padme: I don’t know you any more. Anakin... you’re breaking my heart. You’re going down a path I can’t follow Anakin: Because of Obi-Wan?  Padme: Because of what you’ve done! What you plan to do! Stop! Stop now! Come back! I love you! Anakin: LIAR! Padme: No! Anakin: You’re with him! You brought him here to kill me! [Starts choking HIS WIFE] Obi-Wan: Let her go Anakin!

The end of this interaction is that Padme rejects Anakin for going power-mad, Anakin admits he’s become a stranger to her and then attacks her over a perceived betrayal -- out of character for someone who at the beginning of the movie thought Padme might have been cheating on him and then APOLOGISED for thinking such things in the first place. 

In conclusion to your post that I’m not going to ever reblog, but will link here so others can read it in full, I have to say that your ending paragraph is... well, a fantastic example of selective thinking and something I daresay several of my friends from my psych classes would have had a field day with the dispositional and situational bias you exhibit.

who nearly killed Anakin and Padme? Obi-wan freaking Kenobi, well done douchebag, be sure to lie to his son that Vader killed Anakin to pit a son against his own father, Obi-wan was a fantastic space cop but an asshole friend and a person in general, dude is the reason Luke’s father is a space cyborg and Padme is a corpse, but that’s not all let’s turn their son into a space cop and tell him to kill daddy cyborg, he’ll never know it was his father, if he did this could really backfire but who gives a shit ill probs be dead by then

[patrickalleneck]

A Trumpistan Carol

A True Story Based on Truly Alternative Facts ———————-/———————— A gold-crusted LED flickers on. The sound of cheetos crunching between sub-satisfactorily hygenic teeth is quickly overtaken by the murmuring ruminations of a Fox News pundit.

“Republican congressional investigators expect a potential “smoking gun” establishing that the Obama administration spied on the Trump transition team, and possibly the president-elect himself, will be produced to the House Intelligence Committee this week, a source told Fox News.”

“Ha! Now I’ve got him!”

Donald J. Trump slumps forward in his chair to cough out a cheeto that he began choking on somewhere between “Now” and “I’ve got him”.

“Fuck! Fucking cheetos. That hot-tittied maid laced them with concrete to make them impossible to swallow. These liberal whores are out to kill me!”

Trump fumbles sideways over himself to pick up a gilded phone.

“Yeah? Robert? Get me the head of the lady who brought in those fucking concrete cheetos. Yeah! The one with the hot tits! I want her head, and I want her dead!”

“Sir.”

“What is it Robert!?”

“Sir, are you certain you wish to kill her and decapitate her?”

“What? Not decaspimate! Just cut off her head!”

“Sir. Just to remind you, she is the granddaughter of Esperanza. Esperanza brought you up, sir. She practically raised you with her children. One of their children is Julia, the woman you wish to kill and have… her… head… displaced…”

“Huh? Julia, eh? Man, did she grow a set of tits! I always told you she would, didn’t I Robert?”

“Yes sir. You did. Ever since she was 5.”

“Well, ain’t I a modern day prophet, or what?”

“Sir, you paid for her breast enhancement surgery three months ago, after telling her you always imagined she would have great big tits, and when she told you she did not feel comfortable working for you anymore, so you told her she would never work anywhere else again and that you’d fire her grandma too unless she let you buy her tits. She very reluctantly succumbed to your command.”

“Serves her right. I guess I did. Well, they turned out great. Tell you what? Why don’t you send her back so she can give me head, then I’ll have her head later. And bring me her grandma’s head too. That’ll show them.”

“Sir. Are you completely sure you wish to have all of these commands fulfilled? Isn’t it quite enough to have intercourse with her and let it be at that?”

“What are you trying to say, Robert? That sex with me is a big enough punishment?”

“No, sir, it’s just that I thought it might not settle well with the rest of the family, who have long been, well, like family to you.”

“You know what, Robert? You’re right. You’re always right, right? I mean, nobody’s always right like me, but you’re pretty right, alright?”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Ok, is Tommy around?”

“I believe so, yes, sir.”

“Ok, great, put that old dog Tommy on the phone right now.”

“Ok, thank you, sir.”

“Hey sir, Tommy here.”

“Hey Tommy. I have something I need you to do. Robert is getting all ethical-smethical on me. I want his head. And when you bring it, bring that maid with the hot tits. We’re going to celebrate a little tonight, you and me? Big stuff.”

“Yes, sir.”

Trump slams the phone down and slumps back over, with his hand falling back into his bag of cheetos.

He keeps eating.

“Fucking Obama. Fucking liberals and media making me look like a real jerk sometimes. What the fuck is wrong with them?”

He stands up and paces around the oval office. There are portraits of him all around. There are also many mirrors.

“Fuck! Where’s my goddamn cell phone. I’m going to tweet the shit out of this good news!”

Trump fumbles around his desk for his phone. He finds it under a TeenBop magazine.

“Stop. Right. There.” Steve Bannon’s tinny, scratchy, impotent voice reverberates throughout the room.

Trump drops the cell phone and cringes his nose.

A brownish cloud starts emanating from behind the desk.

In a puff and swirl of smoke, a massive, steaming pile of shit starts piling up from the floor up to about Trump’s shoulder height. A bubble boils up and bursts from the top of the pile, releasing a pack of flies. The flies move in unison towards a latch in the wall, using their collective force to pull it down.

A panel in the wall opens up, revealing a mold of some sort. The giant pile of shit oozes over to the mold and piles in. Trump is watching the entire spectacle with the same dumbfounded face you will find him wearing whenever he is asked anything serious.

The mold closes shuts, a siren buzzes, a flash pours out, temporarily blinding Trump, who winces and rubs his eyes to see the panel open again. A bald Steve Bannon walks out. He grabs a chunk of hair from Trump’s head and places it on his own.

Before sitting behind the desk, Bannon pulls his pants down and takes a massive shit. That massive shit moves over to the panel, the same sort of show ensues, only this time Steven Miller comes out. Bannon puts his feet on the desk. “Donald. We’ve been over this a thousand and a half times.”

“Bannon, you smell like shit. You too, Miller. But I love you guys. You guys are great. What’s up Banny?”

Bannon does not look amused. “Donald, if you want to accomplish the agenda we have been working so hard on, you have to reign in your Twitter use. You have to also stop being such a stupid fuck up.”

Trump frowns. “You know, if you weren’t such a piece of shit, I’d have your head for talking to me that way.”

Miller decided to chime in, “Isn’t it convenient that we’re both giant piles of shit? For us, that is.”

“I never liked you Miller. I only tolerate your shit because you’re basically the same shit as Bannon, and neither of you are me. So let’s just leave it at that. What the hell are we having a meeting for anyway? I have a plane to catch. Got a hot date with the Turkish whatever the hell Turkistan has - president, premiere… nobody even knows these things. Anyways, last time the Turkey people came to Mar a Lago they had a hot interpreter. Set of legs you wouldn’t believe. Fantastic. Amazing. Out of this world.”

“That’s exactly why we’re here. Well, to discuss what you’ll discuss with Erdogan. We also came to stop you from being a fucking Twitter troll.” Bannon was consistently unamused with everything in his life.

“Fuck you, Banjo. I do what I want.” Trump grabbed his crotch and stuck his tongue out at Bannnon.

“That’s fine, sir. But make sure you read this to Erdogan before going to play golf or chasing his interpreter’s legs. Just make the point clear, then you can go do whatever your deviant ego wants you to do.” Miller was similarly disenfranchised with anything that didn’t make him look like the absolute pile of shit that he is.

Bannon and Miller simultaneously started emitting shit fumes. They spoke in unison: “We will now retreat to our lair to plot further domination of the world. White power, motherfuckers. Oh yeah, and Trump - sign those executive orders we left on your desk. Deus Vult!”

Steve Miller melted into a giant pile of shit again, while Bannon pulled his pants down. The Miller shit pile proceeded to inject itself back into Bannon, which was the only effective trigger in cracking anything close to a smile across Bannon’s ashy face. After Miller reinserted, Bannon melted into a pile of shit, then the shit pile dissolved.

“Those guys are really big pieces of shit. My kinds of people!”

Trump picked up his phone and began writing a tweet.

‘Obumer is such a coward. He wire tapp my phone…’

Before he could finish typing his incoherent excuse for a thought, smoke began filling the room again.

“Dammit! What do you and Miller want this time, Bannon? I thought you guys were done making me think and stuff?” Trump turned his attention away from his phone expecting to see the shit pile developing.

To his shock, the shit pile was far from there.

Instead, Trump was face to face with the ghost of none other than Martin Luther King, Jr.

In a very oratory style, Martin let it out: “Donald J. Trump! I had a dream, and you made it my nightmare. I had a plan for equality, and you are helping to extinguish it for good! What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Wow! I never thought you’d have the opportunity to meet me! I mean, you did a lot of things, for my African Americans, and all that, but you didn’t ever crack a billion buddy. And, you died. Come on, man? Really? Sad! How are you doing, though? Bet you’re excited to meet me? Did you know I am president now?”

King’s facial features went flat. So did his voice. In very plain speech, he commented, “You know, if it wasn’t for the fact that I realize you have the mind of a spoiled 5 year old bouncing around in your cranium, I might have taken layers of offense to just about everything you said. But I don’t think you even understand what I just said, so we’ll just make this easy.”

“I like easy. Tell me more, my new famous black friend. Man, the people are going to love this!”

“I am Martin Luther King, Jr. I am your ghost of the past. You are a modern day Scrooge, and you are destroying civility and society because of your unchecked, rotten, greedy ego. I am going to show you the damage that was done in the past, that you are now not only repeating, but making worse.”

“Hey, hey, hey, take it easy. I’ve only been here a couple days. You sound like fake news to me, buddy.”

“So, I’m just going to ignore pretty much everything you say, which I’m sure you do to everyone, anyway, and just show you what I’m talking about. Come with me.”

King raised his arms up, shot them downward, and in a flash, him and Trump were on the frontlines of a civil rights march taking place in King’s era.

Tears filled King’s eyes as he re-witnessed police brutality; German shepherds biting protesters; batons cracking against the skull of peaceful marchers; and firehoses knocking women and the elderly off of their feet.

Weeping, King turned to give Trump a lecture on the traumatic legacy these acts left on generations of Americans who had to reconcile with the fact that this was actually a part of their recent history - a part that was currently not very different.

When he looked over, he saw Trump cheering alongside the police officers and trying to take a turn spraying the hose.

“I should have taken him to the part where I got shot and let him stand in my place…” King lamented, shaking his head in disbelief.

“What? I’ve been working hard these days. I deserve to have a turn playing soak the spooks.”

“You know, I have a million things I’d like to explain to you, but I’d rather we cut this nonsense about you realizing some sort of lesson out of this and I’ll toss you to the ghost of the present.”

In a burst of smoke, they were back in the Oval Office.

“Well, that works for me, because I love presents. You are quite a guy. I am going to be happy to share with my people that I have a new black guy on my team, and his name is Martin King, Junior.”

“Don’t use my name, mother fucker. I am not your guy. Any person who thinks they can take advantage of the phenomenon that has become your repugnant, racist populism by showing support for you, like that urban cowboy Uncle Tom David Clarke, can shove a rake up their asses. If they can’t figure out that they are disgracing their people’s legacy by making nice with your clear idiocy and your team’s abject bigotry and hatred of all things off-white and non-wealthy, then not even I feel sorry for them. They can all file themselves into the halls of shame, right alongside you. I’m out of here.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. then left the oval office, unceremoniously, through the garden door. “Who the hell is David Clarke? What the hell was that guy’s problem anyway? I wonder when I get my present?”

The door to the Oval Office opened up on it’s own, slamming against the wall.

Bernie Sanders walked right in and up to Donald Trump.

“I’m the ghost of the present. Yeah, I’m alive and all that, but here’s your present, you moron.”

Bernie bitch slapped Trump across the face, knocking his stupid toupee off of his head.

“Stop robbing poor people and killing the planet. Bitch.”

Bernie slapped Trump across the other side of his face.

Trump fell to the floor, sobbing like the bitch that Bernie accurately described him to be.

“That was not nice!”

Bernie left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Trump continued crying like a giant man baby, which is what he is.

The door opened again, causing Trump to sit up and hide behind his desk.

Bernie popped his head back in, “Get ready to meet the ghost of the future, you affluent fuck.”

He slammed the door behind him again.

“Whew. That hombre is nasty.”

Smoke began filling the Oval Office. It got so smoky, Trump couldn’t breathe.

“Is this the shit circus again or another ghost? I’m getting tired of this and ready for some golfing in the shadow of the Orange House - Mar a Lago.”

Plumes of smoke continued to engulf the room, to the point where visibility was completely masked.

“Donald J. Trump does NOT like it when he cannot see what’s going on? Do you hear me? I do NOT like it!”

At once, the smoke cleared, revealing that Trump had transported to the speaker’s podium in an extremely large stadium. He was surrounded by Trump regalia, and every single person in the audience had a MAGA hat on. They were all silent.

“Well, hey now, Donald J. Trump wasn’t planning on blessing his people with a rally, but who am I to turn down the opportunity?”

“Well, Donald, that’s a great question.” The voice of Barack Obama startled Trump to the point where he dribbled a little bit of shit out of his loose rectum.

Donald spun around, holding his anus, angry. The ghost of Barack Obama was standing there, cheerfully nodding his head from side to side.

“What brought you to my rally, you Kenyan Muslim Antichrist?” Donald grabbed the mic and brought it to the crowd’s attention. “Can you folks believe the nerve of this guy? I could literally shoot Obama in front of all of you, and I wouldn’t lose a single voter!”

The crowd did not react.

“Geez… tough crowd tonight. I thought you guys’ woulda loved that one. How about this: I am going to put this Barry guy into jail for a long time. He messed up, bigly, with my tapping my wires, and other things that I have read, because I like to read and my brain is so powerful it doesn’t really need reading, but I read anyway because I watched it on Fox News about Obama put the wires in my walls and microwaves himself. Let’s say it together: Lock him up! Come on, everyone! Like the good old days on the election trail! Come on folks! Show me the love!”

Trump started to notice the sheer size of the crowd.

“Jesus, how big is this place. Barry, get a load of all of those people. They all love me! They’re all here for me!”

“Donald, Donald, Donald. They are here because of you, but they are not here to love you.”

“What do you mean? Check out all of those hats they got on! I must have had a billion made in Pakistan for pennies each while I was asleep. I’m really good at business and stuff like that, even when I’m not awake, you know?”

“Well, Donald, if, uh, you didn’t get the picture from Mr. King, Jr., or from Bernie, then I guess I will be the one to put it to you bluntly.”

“Alternative fact alert!”

“Donald. I was the president.”

“Lie! I have always been the president.”

“Ok, I, uh,I can see, uh, where this is going. Let’s break it down. You see, Donald, those people out there, those fans, they did love you.”

“Whaddya mean ‘did’?! They do love me. Look at them! They’re here, ain’t they? This must be the biggest rally ever held!”

“You’re right, Donald. It is.”

“What?”

“You are right. It’s me, Barry Obama, saying you, Donald J. Trump, are correct about something.”

Donald grabbed the mic, “You hear that, folks? We got him! He admitted I’ve been right all along!”

“Let me give you a quick history lesson and a quick future history lesson. You see, every president, Donald, is very different from many of those people out there in the crowd.” “Well no shit! None of those losers is me!”

“And, you see, uh, well, most of those people… most people, really, don’t have to build the ghost rallies that we, as presidents, construct for ourselves.”

“I know all about construction. Nobody knows construction like me. The wall, people, the wall!”

“When I say ghost rallies, I mean the rallies we attend at night, when we are supposed to be all alone and away from the toils of the planet.”

“Whaddya mean? I’m alone most of the time, except for when shit Bannon or shit Miller want me, when the press is bothering me, when I’m making deals with the captains of whatever industry, or when I’m molesting a girl of really any age group.”

“You see, Donald, you are getting off the topic, and I really think that, uh, now is a good time to, uh, pay attention.”

“Ok, fine, Barry. Hurry up, I’ve got a load of small minds to stimulate out there!”

“I made decisions, as president, that cost people their lives. It might have been a bomb I dropped, a drone strike I authorized, an increase in private prison spending, a failure to produce a single-payer health care option, or simply the inability to disconnect the government from the invasive lobbying arm of the defense industry. Whatever the case may be, I, uh, made choices, and, uh, people, good, bad, and downright nasty, died because of them.”

“People, we have the smoking gun! You hearing this guy? He’s confessing to murder!”

“Donald, as president, your choices, your words, they can affect society in a way where people actually die. They die by your action or inaction. Their blood is inescapably on your hands. And you still have to go to sleep at night. When you sleep, you attend your ghost rallies. I attended mine diligently until the day I died, you see.”

“Wait a minute, you’re dead?”

“I am the ghost of your future, so yes, I’m dead. And the reason I’m at this rally, as well as all of those billions of people you see out there, is because of choices you made. You chose to remove people’s health care. You chose to plunge the minorities and disenfranchised classes (your main base of support) into the fire of economic inequality. Poverty and lack of healthcare caused a wave of plagues that wiped out huge chunks of society. Rolling back the EPA and regulations allowed tycoons to destroy the planet for a buck or two, exacerbating the problem of the plagues, causing displacement, famine, hurricanes, and other wild temperature patterns. Food shortages turned into global starvation epidemics. Things got, uh, pretty nasty. You chose to go to war. With everyone.”

“Barry, honestly, I didn’t ever really think you were that bad an hombre. What happened to you? Why are you dead?”

“Well, you tweeted about how the smoking gun about your wire tapping claims should be the one that’s pointing at my dead body, and, well, uh, one of your fans listened to you. Imagine that. They got my family, too.”

Obama pointed out his family, sitting in the front row.

“So all of these people are dead, because of me?”

“Like I said, you did hold the biggest rally ever. You killed more human beings than any other human being in history. And they’re all here, and none of them love you. In fact, the point of ghost rallies is for them to demonstrate how much they hate you.”

“What?”

“This is a dream, so ghosts can’t kill you. But we, uh, can sure as fuck fuck with your head. So I’ll get started.”

Obama grew to be 20 feet tall, then he stepped on Trump, flattening him into a tiny disc. He reached down, grabbed him by the mop, and pulled him back up into his proper, sloppy form.

“Ok, who’s next? Everyone line up for their turn!”

Every ghost in the crowd stood up and began to file into line.

“I hoped you packed your golf balls, Donald. It’s going to be a long night.”

The next person in line was Arnold Swarcheneggar.

“Arnold? What? What did I do to you?”

“Dah-nold! It’s me! Ah-nold! Did you really think that you, the compilation of every cheesy 80s action movie villain I ever had to slay, would get away with destroying the planet, without hearing a perfectly placed one-liner before I kill you?”

“Well, I don’t really ever think. And besides, Barry said you can’t really kill me, so do your worst, Robocop!”

Arnold tossed Trump a book. Trump picked it up.

It had a picture of Donald on the cover, with a Hitler mustache. The title of the book was Mein Drumpf.

Donald opened it up, only to see the same words sprawled across every page:

Open your eyes.

Donald flipped through the pages and saw that every page had the same words.

He looked up.

“What is this?”

Arnold smiled.

“I’ll be back.”

Just then, Donald was startled awake by his television set. Fox News was still on.

“In a massive disappointment, Donald Trump has pulled the plug on the GOP effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. To say this is a failure does not do justice to the immensity of this defeat. Donald Trump made a promise to the people who voted for them, and he failed in every sense.”

“No!”

The door to the Oval Office burst open with the kick of a muddy commando boot.

Arnold, smoking a fat cigar, came into the office through the open doorway, holding a giant gatling gun.

“Hey Dah-nold.”

They made eye contact. A tear formed in Donald’s eye. Arnold blew out a giant puff of smoke, into Donald’s face.

“You’re fired.”

The gatling gun ripped Trump to shreds, as well as the massive pile of shit that tried to escape through the back door.

Donald Trump then woke up on the floor of a hot cave. He was now a ghost.

Martin Luther King, Jr. helped him off his back.

“One man’s hell, is heaven for many others.”

Martin waved his hand forward and showed Donald the line of ghosts waiting to take their turns enacting revenge, from then until eternity, on the man who made their realities miserable, for as long as he was allowed to leave his stain on the planet.

“You have a dream to fulfill, and it is not at all like mine.”

The End

[surrealitykrp-blog]

hello listeners —

today we’ve received a notice about song nari, the 20 year old college student and pt radio bang employee. you might have seen her around riverside when she’s not being a photographer for uprising! the podcast. if you haven’t, fear not and stay tuned for the briefing.

                                       and as always, welcome to iri

—  and now, the profile

faceclaim: stephanie lee oc name: song nari age: 20 positive traits: clever, creative, resourceful neutral traits: stubborn, meticulous, ambitious negative traits: sardonic, volatile, insensitive occupation: college student and pt radio bang employee housing: riverside affiliation: photographer for uprising! the podcast

— and now, the development

THE MYSTERY OF IRI:

unfeeling is how they see her – at this point is must be a fact,  unfeeling is how they see her. it must be – no, it’s definitely something in that cold gaze of hers, that unwavering expression of disinterest and disconnect, how her body language seems to say just please, anywhere but here. song nari is unapproachable, a notion that many seen to accept. unwelcoming is the feeling she gives, an unsettling sensation that settles in the pit of your stomach and grips your heart in a cold grasp. do not cross lest you wish to die; put in much simpler words, song nari is a total bitch.

and maybe they’re right. she’s not once made any attempt to stop them. they’re all dunces for the most part, but sometimes a particularly courageous one would step forward, only to be met with silence. but silence means yes, doesn’t it? so maybe the lack of response means that she agrees with them, that she herself believes that she truly is unfeeling, genuinely as cold as they believe her to be.

and maybe it’s when she gently takes hold of mr. choi’s shoulders and pushes him back in his seat, his most recent email still on full display in front of her now dead professor. SEND TO FIVE OF YOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS OR DIE A BRUTAL DEATH, it reads. something like dread weighs upon her chest like lead – fear, perhaps? or maybe that’s just how someone would feel, sitting next to a corpse and all.

she gathers her things, wondering if she should delete the essay mr. choi had just assigned them that day. it almost disturbs her how she worries more about the deadline than her professor’s dead body, but oh well. there’s not much she can do in a situation like this.

she greets the librarian on her way out, but makes no mention of professor choi.

they’ll find his body sooner or later.

(later that day, a cacophony of police sirens can be heard throughout east iri. all lee ilsook college students receive a message explaining the “unfortunate” situation, and are asked to dress in mourning-appropriate clothes the next day.)

THE DUALITY OF MANKIND:

ambitious. everyone knows that she is, the disgraced will always be vengeful to some extent. but is it vengeance, or simply character? who knows. but it can’t be helped, not when the taste of dirt slowly becomes familiar and they can no longer make ends meet. han seulgi didn’t teach her to be like this, never allowed her to settle like this – so she works and she does. these days all she knows is the endless climb to the top and the thirst for more, more, more. and it’s all good, it’s all perfectly good, but she can see the way her father looks at her, can hear him praying to whoever might bother listening to please, help my girl, she’s losing herself and i’m afraid she’ll end up like her so please, help her – it leaves her restless, eyes burning, heart aching and she supposes that, maybe, this is what disappointment feels like.

— and now, the biography

SEVEN RUMORS

1994, han seulgi is the sole heir to han family’s enormous wealth, an exquisite beauty with unparalleled charm and wits; song haneul is a young businessman whose fortunes are built upon the vast farms that surround iri. the ladies say he’s quite the charmer, dashing good looks and all; the men say he’s ready to conquer the world. everybody thinks they’re a match made in heaven but what do they know?

1996, han seulgi and song haneul get married after over two years of dating and three months of engagement. the ceremony is nothing short of touching – you can clearly feel the love between these two! the bride looks absolutely stunning, by the way, and – oh! the groom is just to die for, isn’t she? god, can these two get any more perfect?

1997, han seulgi gives birth to a healthy baby girl named nari – wow, she’s a beautiful one, isn’t she? she has her mother’s eyes, yes? there’s no doubt she’ll grow into a beautiful woman, i mean, have you seen her parents? they look like a family of supermodels, and the baby’s not even a year old!

2004, there have been quite a lot of rumors circling the song family nowadays, isn’t that right? yes, indeed. there have been numerous reports of a conflict between the song family and the authorities in town. apparently song haneul strongly opposes the mayor – but why? nobody knows for sure, but according to a reliable source mr. song seems to believe that the mayor is incredibly corrupt! what a bastard, eh? i’m sure his wife must be sorely disappointed in him. i always thought mr. song was quite admirable, but now i just think he’s an idiot.

2005, it’s strange how we haven’t seen song haneul for quite some time now, no? i heard he took his family to the mountains – why? his business went bankrupt, since nobody wants to buy produce from him anymore. he could have just opened up a new business, but i’ve heard people talking about how he’s lost all his money, too. how could that have happened, though? nobody really knows, but i guess that’s karma. yeah, maybe – that could be it. maybe if he didn’t go after the mayor, this all wouldn’t have happened.

2006, is that han seulgi? is she with that man – whoa! did they just kiss? man, i never pegged her for someone who enjoys pda! doesn’t the guy look too old for her, though? isn’t she married to song haneul? last i checked that man didn’t look like…a leathery old prick. true, true, but maybe she’s left him for good? her husband – ex-husband? whatever he is, did bring shame to the han family as well. maybe this is han seulgi restoring her family name? could’ve chosen a better partner to do that with, i guess, but a person must make do with what he has.

2010, apparently the man han seulgi was last with died recently? yeah, i’ve been hearing about that, too. looks pretty strange, doesn’t it? last i heard the man was itching to get out of iri. was he really an outsider? i’m not too sure myself, but I would assume so. i don’t think i’ve ever seen him before news broke out about him and ms. han. but he really was wealthy, wasn’t he? he really was. it’s all with seulgi now, though. i saw her the other day, looked pretty distraught. i guess she really loved him, eh? for some reason, i believe that’s debatable.

FOUR YEARS

three, song nari finds herself in her father’s study, sobbing and wailing and gasping for breath. he waits, patiently, for her to collect herself. but why do the other kids get to attend school together? why do i have to stay at home and study here when i can just go with them instead? please, mother, i want to go with them! she had begged, crying and moaning all she’d liked that morning whilst her mother had been around. han seulgi had called her a brat, an ingrate who should learn to be more appreciative – as if she were doing her some sort of big favor. this is a privilege only people like them could afford, she had said, but her daughter could not comprehend how spending her days inside this too-large house could be called a privelege when it felt more like punishment. your mother doesn’t like to associate with…other people. father explains when she’s regained some semblance of calm. father’s face is kind and gentle but even she can hear the way he seems to choke on his words, can see how hard it is for him to talk about this. she does not understand this, too, how father always seems to struggle with his words when it comes to mother. but she is a child and they expect her to understand, somehow, so she says she does.

seven,  the cracks begin to show. nari has always known about her father’s opposition against, the mayor, though she never really knew why. of course this didn’t sit well with mother, who’d always been used to him caving in to her desires. this time, though, that was not the case. black was the color she’d known best, then, as it was all she’d see when she closed her eyes at night, when the screaming and breaking and shattering would reach its peak in the dead of the night. she does not remember anything like this, did not know that sadness could cut her as badly as this.

eight, an interlude. father’s failing business eventually hits rock-bottom, and the mountains are where they seek refuge. she quite likes the view up here, and judging by the elation in father’s eyes, he does agree. mother looks anything but, however – again, she does not understand.

nine, her mother eventually leaves. father looks broken all of a sudden, as if he’d come across something he would have rather not. it bothers her but he tells her nothing, offering only a crooked smile and ruffling her hair. he tells her not to worry so she tries not to. but there is no hiding secrets from the night, and he hears him whispering sometimes, something about han seulgi being a traitor, a blind wench devoured by her own greed.

TWO FACTS

HAN SEULGI TOLD ON HER HUSBAND

this, she learns eventually, from an old lady selling vegetables just on the outskirts of iri. it may sound suspicious, sure, but she knows her mother enough to be sure that she would have done this, that han seulgi resents her father enough to bring him to his ruin. and in truth, she really did – called for an emergency meeting of sorts and destroyed her husband without remorse. she might have exaggerated, just a little bit – nonetheless, it worked well in her favor, and maybe earned her some points with the mayor (but who knows).

NARI’S GLARE DOES NOT KILL MEN

some people seem to think song nari is some sort of evil witch – and perhaps in a city as strange as iri one cannot help but assume that they do exist and she is one of them, especially when she lives far off into the mountains and is just outright cold. this notion became somewhat widely speculated amongst a number of underclassmen after mr. choi’s death, when someone thought it would be smart to voice their observation on how hard she was glaring at the teacher just hours before his death, when he’d given them the two thousand-word essay due by 11:59 P.M. of course, there is no solid evidence to support this case, so it seems she won’t be called to the precinct anytime soon – for this reason, at least.

ONE GOAL

success. sounds rather vague, doesn’t it? this could be interpreted in a number of ways, but with song nari, no one can really tell: graduation, maybe? yeah, sure. but when she’s constantly topping exams and keeping a relatively clean behavioral slate, it seems this girl’s all good to go. restoring her family name? no one knows for sure, but it would be reasonable – the scorned will always thirst for revenge, or whatever. maybe that’s pushing it too far. perhaps she wishes to ruin her mother? now that’s something i wouldn’t mind seeing. as i said, though, when it comes to her, nobody really knows, so maybe it’s not as deep as we’d like to think. maybe, possibly, conceivably – but really, who knows.