#wtf are his macros looking like

[gutsygremlin]

Y’all don’t understand I have such a fascination with enormous men. Miguel being 6’9 with that muscle mass??? How much does he weigh???? Wtf does he eat? He’s literally built like a fucking Ox I need him so bad

[cheemken]

I can only imagine what the public and media are thinking. People recording the whole battle from the sky and broadcasting it, just like the Kalos incident

If this was a tournament that took place before the battle erupted then there’s probably trainers, elite fours, and gym leaders trying to get to the battlefield to help the champions. But Diantha is smart enough to get gardevoir to put up a magic room/psychic barrier so no one can interfere

When the battle was won and Cynthia, Steven, Leon, Iris, Hau, all with various stages of injury, and their Pokémon are all defeated, they have to come to terms with the fact that three people they trusted for years just betrayed them and tried killing them

Diantha is still standing on her ”pedestal” watching the three “worthless” champions try to get Iris and Hau behind them so they can protect the younger ones. All five of them having a thousand thoughts going though their heads, questioning if Diantha is going to spare them or kill them where they’re standing.

This part could be different in your AU, but I love “villain kills hero(s) and takes in their orphaned child(ren)” plots just as much as “hero is actually the villain” plots.

Diantha is smart enough to know that Cynthia, Leon, and Steven wouldn’t listen to her command without a lot of emotional and mental abuse as they’re fully grown adults with a strong sense of identity for themselves

Iris and Hau on the other hand…, they’re still teenagers and figuring themselves out about who they truly are as people. Are they Trainers? Are they good people with good intentions by fighting Diantha, the person they look up to as their mother?

Or is Diantha right and they’re

Champions.

People who are above the rest, the strongest people on earth, who have the right to decide who lives and who dies. That they should dictate the world to get rid of the worthless and make it perfect

Diantha knows that they’ll listen to her, it’ll just take a little bit of work to destroy their small sense of identity, but after that they will flourish as Champions

HOLY SHIT????? YO THATS SO FUCKING DOPE WTF CNMDBCMD

It's like five am here man I just woke up but this really woke up my soul fr hahaha

Anyways

HDMSHMSNS YES

God but y'know the way it went in my au is that Diantha does know it's being broadcasted one way or another, so w that she tried exposing the Galar League herself, since in my hcs/au the Galar League is corrupt as shit bc of Macro Cosmos'/Rose's influence

And before she actually did start to battle them, she went on about how Rose threatened each champion that if they don't lose to Leon, he'd get them killed

And it actually made a lot of people stop and rethink abt everything abt the Galar League, especially the Gym Leaders who just know how corrupt it really was, and especially Raihan who was so close to actually beating Leon a few times. Cause if the Gym Leaders were caught off guard and was too stunned to speak to other trainers when asked, then Diantha was right, that they too were threatened w death by Rose if they don't lose to Leon

It made a lot of people think differently abt the Galar League too. And idt Diantha would really initiate the first punch, rather she'd wait if someone would try to fight her first, and someone did, Rose did (he's still in my aus ofc for that buildup hahah)

But Rose didn't have Eternatus anymore, neither he nor Leon does, but Diantha? Well, Diantha has Yveltal at her command

I wanna say that Dia did kill Rose in this w Yveltal, or maybe just got him down to the point he's heavily injured but still alive and she's going on how if they try to protect him then they also follow his views that Leon shouldn't be defeated by anyone else, and he could still get away w his threats

But gjmdnfmd god yeah Dia w Iris and Hau just chmdbdkdndmddmd

Imagine the other three champions are knocked out or at least at different points at the Stadium, and then the only ones left face to face w Diantha are Iris and Hau, w Iris stretching her other arm to protect Hau

But God for Dia, it flashes back to that lil memory she has of doing the same thing w Augustine, protecting him from their father, protecting him from the "ugliness" of this world.

And she smiled at them, so genuinely soft, and so welcoming, and so sad, and so... So much like home. She opened her arms and crouched down just a bit, "my children... You needn't worry, we can all go home soon after they realize their errors."

But man they were also kinda scared, this was the same person who looked so coldy towards the other champions, the one who has no problems killing someone for their own version of justice to prevail, but just,,, it's Diantha, y'know. It's also the same person who taught them a lot of things, who was there for them when they needed her the most, gave them a home in Kalos w her

Iris and Hau hesitated for a bit, then Diantha cups Iris's face, smiling at her. "My darling, I just don't want you to become like Leon's brother. Do you know what happened to him?"

"n..no..."

"like the rest of us, he was shunned, treated so poorly, after he couldn't meet their standards. Having a champion for a siblings is hard, and my poor Augustine knows that feeling as well..."

"..."

"but he didn't do anything for him, didn't he? Instead of helping his brother pursue his dreams of becoming a champion, he ended up giving up on that. Do you want that, Iris?"

"no..."

"neither do I, my darling. I already know how much people are looking down on you, on both of you, just because you're young Champions, not knowing that the person they hail as a monarch was once your age when he became champion too."

And just ncmdnd Diantha holding Hau's hand, rubbing circles on it, and then she pulled them close, hugging the two, giving them the comfort that they needed at the moment

During that tho I wanna imagine like maybe Leon did get to stand, and called out Charizard, and tried to attack Diantha while she's still distracted, but Iris saw him, called out her Haxorus and knocked out Leon's Charizard

Diantha finally realizes what happened, looked down on Leon trying to help Charizard up, and she smirked, a low chuckle left her lips and she looked back at Iris, "very good, my darling."

[stormblessed95]

There are many LGBTQ armies on here. I am one. You are part of the community yourself, I believe. I know you probably don't want this anywhere near your blog because what this person is doing smells like a pile of burning rat guts. I know this person is sick and they are are probably loving the attention they are getting from us (hypocritical of me to say that I know). I know that this is just one troubled person. But they represent many more who think the same way. Today they are in the Jikook tag accusing Jm of SA and violence against Jk (and others) because of the hickey. THE 'EVIDENCE' IS THE HICKEY. When SA and violence are brought into the hickey conversation it is time for everyone aligned with this person to take a good look at themselves.

At what point is 'free speech' and 'being against cancel culture' a deflection against being held accountable for doing something dangerous? At what point is something a homophobic attack?

This is a violent and dangerous level of homophobia this person is putting on the table. It presents something that Jk was speaking about affectionately (his hickey) as him being SAed by an evil sexual predator. This is not the first time this kind of language has been used on their blog. The words they used today were 'sexual assault' 'violence' 'dirty' and 'disgusting'.

This is the kind of homophobia that gets people killed. I am dead serious. Don't sleep on this one. It is framing intimate contact between consenting adults of the same gender as sexual violence when it obviously is not.

Gay people don't need to be out here getting told we are dangerous if we show affection.

Gay people don't need to be out here being called abusers for doing close and intimate things with the people we love.

If anyone thinks it's cute to defend what this asshole is saying as 'freedom of speech', then you are contributing to a broader system of hate and homophobia that makes the world unsafe for people like us. I am old enough to remember Mathew Shepherd. Please look him up anyone who doesn't know.

Us getting mad about it is what this person wants. But I think it could also be a good example for people to take away about how dog whistling works and how it escalates. This individual's blog and that idiotic twt thread they posted is full of homophobic and mysogystic dog whistle attacks. And sometimes it is just plain accusations. And yeah, it would be good if we just starved them out of attention because clearly they have no conscience and are very disturbed. But it is important to know this is bigger than 'anti' behavior. Accusing a public figure of SA when we all saw the footage and can clearly read the tone and context, is an example of how lies and hysterical language can be used to put forth falsehoods. And if society wasn't already brimming with homophobia, both on micro and macro levels, EVERYONE would be able to see how wrong it is. All I can say is these trolls must have a very sad existence.

And that's that on that as far as I am concerned.

I'm assuming this is in regards to this blog sent from this ask:

I TRULY hope no one took this as me saying pretend it doesn't exist. When I say don't give them attention I mean, don't send them asks even to try to prove them wrong or to tell them off. They don't care. Don't comment on their stuff. Don't call them names, even though it is deserved. They don't care and they thrive off that attention and "angering" people.

What I mean is absolutely cancel the fvck out of them. Report them daily. Report them to Bighit and Hybe for slander and defamation. They deserve to be blacklisted and sued. This website has a tutorial up for step by step instructions on how to report an account or a person to BHM/Hybe:

I agree with absolutely everything you have said here. This is an ignore and not give what them the satisfaction of seeing you pissed off, but don't ignore what they are saying and please take action against it type of thing. People like this are vile.

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequence. There is a difference.

[imakeficrequestsandthendisappear]

The post where I try to fix Klaus’ arc in TUA season 2

(((I guess I just am an umbrella academy blogger now)))

OKAY, so we all can agree that Klaus’s arc in season 2 (mostly with dave) was....not great. the intentions i think were good, but misguided. It started pretty good, the acting was great, but it didn’t have the lasting power. Here’s 10 things the writers should have done differently, or should do in the future (as told by me, a nobody). Yes most of this is a long Klaus x Dave shitpost 

1. Learn Basic Math:   Idk why this is so hard to fucking grasp, but Dave’s baby-faced teenager age doesn’t make any fucking sense. according to the wiki, he was born in 1939, so in 1963 he is 24 years old. the actor who played young Dave is currently 20, so was probably 19 when they filmed. 

Why? why. *instert why vine*

like yeah he’s younger, but he doesn’t need to look like a infant. The baby-est gay that ever did baby gay. it puts a weird dynamic into the whole season with Klaus. and it’s not like there isn’t someone else who can play dave....

2. Hire Cody Ray Thompson again:  ....like, I’m baffled. they’ve baffled me. This guy had one(1) job, fall in love with Klaus, and he did it with so much charm and chemistry that the whole fanbase is still quaking. he had like 2 lines. like less 3 total minutes of screen time. And we all fell in love with him cause he did so good. ((he’s also a klave stan check out his twitter))

Whyyyy couldn’t they just get him in for season? “hE’d LoOk ToO OlD” well the other kid looked too damn young. do his hair different, have him lose some bulk in the arms and shoulders, get him a k-pop skin care routine, I don’t care.

Imagine if he got to have multiple scenes with Robert Sheehan, when they had so much chemistry in just a short montage in season 1.

3. Knock it off with the homophobia: i’m not gonna talk about when Dave punches klaus it’s literally the worst part of the season. it’s not what i came here for. I want a refund. (see point 7 for notes)

4. Actually make the cult a useful part of the season: like we have hundreds of adoring klaus fans ready to do anything he tells them… could that have served a plot purpose at any point? Could that have been useful in a conflict, or some character development? No?

5. Establish the Ben possessions much earlier: probably one of the most interesting plot points from season 2 is that ben had more agency. And then 5 minutes later he didn’t. I know we have 7 main characters but did we need this many scenes with the Handler while Ben got diddly fuck until the last 2 episodes? 

6: Why Doesn’t Klaus see ghosts anymore?: like, he sees Ben. but, what about all the other ones? He got sober, does he just ignore them now? ((guys what if he conjured the spirit of JFK)) 

7: (this one’s long) Make Klaus’s arc about internal conflict, not an external conflict between him and Dave:  

Klaus is established in season 1 to be selfish, but in like a fun way. he thinks of self satisfaction before literally anything else. this comes to a head when he comes back from Vietnam and says “He was the only person I’ve ever loved more than myself” 

After this Klaus’ growth is kind of put on the back-burner for the apocalypse stuff. We never really get to see him put someone else first after that. Even when he gets sober to see Dave, it’s to fulfill his own desires. 

By season 2 his world view has shifted, he gets sober, but we need more actions toward change. he gets bored of the cult and ditches them, and he barely does anything for Ben.

(selfish but lovable)

Enter tall hunky texas boy Dave, (((who is an adult man))) who is in the closet from his homophobic family, but it’s not spelled out for us. It could be as subtle as a look, or saying a coded phrase. The audience isn’t interested in the macro-drama of 1960’s homophobia, we are interested in the micro-drama between these two characters.

Anyway, Klaus is excited to see Dave, and they like meet and have a normal conversation, where it is eventually revealed that Dave is already planning on joining the marines soon. Klaus wants to stop him but then he realizes (or Ben tells him) that if Klaus says the wrong thing (like telling Dave not to go to war) it would change the timeline and they would never meet in 1968. And for the next couple EPISODES i want Klaus to have to think about this, like it’s an actual hard decision to make. He’s a creature of habit, his instincts are selfish because he’s always been selfish, but he loves this guy so much. 

Maybe he tries bargaining, like maybe he can subtly tell Dave just enough to keep him alive, but not stop him from going to Vietnam. And Dave is rightfully confused that this person knows a lot about him, but also like… he’s kinda cute. I want weird coffee shop dates and long walks through the texas fields in the setting sun.  

But right at the deadline of “we gotta stop the apocalypse again” Klaus realizes that he can’t let Dave go to Vietnam, even if it means they never meet. Cause he loves dave like way too much to even risk it, even if it means putting his own happiness second. It’s the first truly selfless act of love Klaus does for someone. So he tells him everything, but it sounds fucking bat-shit insane and Klaus has to leave right then and there. Leaving Dave standing there like “Wtf”

Later on after the Kennedy assassination, klaus and all the hargreeves’ are named as suspects, so Dave wonders if he’s just been duped by a cult leader this whole time (but also is kinda sad about it). He enlists in the marines anyway, and this is where we stay on the season one timeline.

But speaking of time-lines…….

8. Use season 3 to retcon timeline issues: like obviously they are going to fuck around with the timeline, because of the fucking bird school and emo ben. So take this opportunity, dear writers, to figure out how Klaus’s (and everyone else’s) lives make any sense, and cut some stuff from the season 1 and season 2 timelines. (and no, Klaus and Dave never falling in love in Vietnam is not a valid choice. It’s a garbage way to make me cry.)

9: Set a whole (or most of an) episode in 1968 Vietnam: maybe this is when they are trying to fix the timeline. Idk it’s just for fanservice. They have a whole 10 episodes and they can’t give just one to klaus? bullshit.

10. (Fan Theory) Reveal that Dave was killed by the commission: the true tragedy of this romance is that if Dave lived Klaus probably wouldn’t have gone back to 2019. They might have actually lived a happy life together. But the timeline needs Klaus in 2019, to be part of and die in the apocalypse, so the commission sends someone (.....maybe not Five) out to kill his boyfriend. 

Anyway it took me so many braincells to write this post and i do not accept criticism for free, so dm for my paypal if you want to tell me this was stupid.

[natural-hazard]

Language games and "why do you care?"

epistemic status: wailing and gnashing of teeth The sexual tension between the terms "pragmatic" and "meaningful". We've leaned towards using pragmatic more, I believe because Spendo and Crispith love them some William James. The thing that underlies both of them is this sense of hooking in to what matters to you. I could do without the word "pragmatic"s association with a particular narrow view of what can matter ("his head was in the clouds, he had all these big ideas but no pragmatic inclinations"). I bemoan "meaningful" and "meaning"s rumored (big if true!) association with, well.... "meaningless shit that doesn't connect to real humans, and is something that people play act at". Pragmatic evokes imagery of my "no-nonsense" grandpa who worked at a glass manufacturing plant his whole life and always focused on providing for his family. Meaningful evokes my artsy-fartsy sister who's desperately trying to escape the capitalist machine by trying to become a shaman in Ecuador. Take David Chapman's post (but give it back when you're done, the internet runs out after a while) Meaningful Perception. From our point of view it could just as easily be called "Pragmatic Perception". The structure of how you perceive is shaped by the structure of how you care. When we talk about pragmatic classification systems, though I defs expect lumber-jacks to be more like my grandpa than my sister, we're tapping into the sense in which classification systems are made by people who care about stuff, and are using the classification systems to get more hooks into interacting with what they care about. As it has been, and as it shall be, talking about care can spawn plenty of strife. Because I'm not referencing the things that your self-concept or your Narrative Self (explanation needed, not forthcoming, life's cruel ain't it?) say that you care about. I don't care about what other people think of me... except, of course for all the ways that I do. Having a self-image defined via negative traits (I'm not this, I'm not that) involves paying just as much attention to how others asses you as for positive ones.

"How can you not care?!"

Sometimes it's shouted in a tone of self-righteous indignation. Sometimes it's blurted out in a confused state of reality-shock. Sometimes it comes out as barely more than a whisper, a quiet spell soaked in sadness trying to magik reality into being other than it is. Hypothetical: you and your friends have a little group where y'all get together and talk about movies. Old and new, low brow and high brow, anything that's been on a screen. You gain a reputation in your broader social network as The Movie Folk, ones who are wise in the ways of film, those of nuanced takes and discerning gaze. One day, you find out your friend Ihsmael (it's always an Ihsmael isn't it?), who by the way is one of the more respected and venerated critics in your group, has never watched any of the films you all talk about. He watched a few movies growing up, but decided he doesn't actually enjoy watching films that much and hasn't seen any since he was 8. I can image one who has righteous indignation. WTF Ishmael? The rest of us have been putting in the work for years, and you've just been reading the plot on wikipedia and mashing up takes you found on the obscure and weirdly high quality forum that no one else happened to know? You've cheated! You're a sham! You don't deserve all the adoration you get for your hot takes, I demand you immediately refund everyone who ever gave you social capital! I can imagine one who's brain momentarily glitches as they try to understand how the fuck this is even possible. Why... have you been hanging out in our explicitly movie centric friend crew for multiple years when you don't watch films? The reality-shock alternates between "this makes so little sense I most be missing something" and the existential horror of realizing another human can look at the art you prize most and only care about a minuscule superficial aspect of it (critiquing with friends). Maybe you don't see them as committing status fraud, but you can't help but think that they live in a small sad world, content with only shadows of the real. ---------------------------- Variation in what people care about is fine. Not everyone needs to love A Serious Man as much as me. What's tragic is when I see systematic forces attempting to destroy ways of caring. In one of my favorite blog posts on the internet, Ben Hoffman talks about such an experience when trying to share with a friend a new technique he learned called Goal Factoring (pick some goal you have, see if it's actually you trying to get a few different things which are actually separable as in you could satisfy each of them better by trying to achieve them in different ways)

Naturally, I wanted to share this with others. When I got back home to DC, I tried to teach goal factoring to the Less Wrong meetup there. One participant told me that they'd had a hard time engaging, because their experience with any exercise around explicitly describing goals pattern-matched to things they'd been forced to do in school. For instance, they described an exercise they'd been forced to do at the beginning of the school year. The first step was to list a goal for the year (usually for that particular class), and the next steps were about figuring out how they'd accomplish that goal. They didn't really have specific goals in mind, so they had to make something up. Usually something that they imagined the teacher might approve of. They had effectively been trained to think of reasoning explicitly about goals as something where you have to follow someone else's rules, and has little to do with getting what you actually want. It should be easy to see how this might poison the whole thing. If someone's had enough experiences like that, where something that sort of looks like explicitly reasoning about goals is forced on them in nonsense ways, they might be ruined for goal factoring – and for many other things.

This breaks my heart. The particular connection to the particular technique that is goal factoring isn't important. But the fact that a person's interaction with the school system has effectively poisoned their ability to apply the entirety of their mind the timeless question "what do I see as the good life, and how shall I pursue it?" Many moons ago, in highschool, I suggested to a group that we get gyros, which I pronounced "j-eye-rows". Some nasally voiced twerp "ummmmm AKTUALLY it's pronounced 'year-ohs'". "Great", I thought to myself, "I will now never in my life ever pronounce it the way this fucko just suggested." Many. Such. ✨Cases✨. Schools at their worst (and also at their medium) act as 12 year programs who's end result is smashing one's ability to genuinely care about huge swathes of reality. ----------------------------- Which takes us back to language games (what, you don't remember us ever being at language games? Pal, we've always been at language games). I need to go to work now, so you figure out the connection. It's something like: language games fight each other. Language games have macro-structure (The Situation you are in and it's logic) and micro-structure (how do words actually combine to mean anything?). When people care about vastly different things, it changes the relationship between macro and micro structure of a language game. Two apsie nerds discussing trains is a language game that has a macro-structure, but it's less salient than the specific details they're conveying to each other via highly systematic micro-structure. Two dudes hurling insults at each other in a bar, The Situation screens off other details. The macro screens off the micro. The point of an insult is that it peforms the Insult Move in A Situation. It doesn't matter to much if I call your dad an ass-hat or your mom a cuck. The meaning of the micro is used to understand the move in the macro, and is then unimportant (except via contributing to a certain aesthetic quality and intensity to the macro move). Some macro-structures want to destroy micro-structures that I care a lot about. I aim to do something about this.

[metametonymy]

some excerpts from the absolutely incredible spam email that landed in our queue this morning

full text below the cut

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[magaprima]

Part 2 Episode 5 Thoughts (2 out of ?)

When Adam comes in asking who that was earlier, Lilith is grading papers. Actual papers, they’re essays. And she’s actively doing it. I just love whenever we see Lilith doing actual work-work, like teacher/principal work. She actually had to read things written by mortal children and grade them, and she had to read forms written by mortal parents and mortal teachers and approve them. And they look like long-ass essays. But notice, how she only has the red pen in her hand. Lilith is a tough marker. 

Also, cute that Adam brings her her tea while she works, and just happily sits with her. This is a very contented man and he looks so proud of her and in love when she says she was helping one of her students. But when he says ‘It’s one of the many, many things I love about you’, Lilith looks so exhausted by this, that she actually stops working, and looks so tense and even mildly irritated. How often has Adam been saying ‘I love you, Mary’ for Lilith to be like ‘Again???’. As I said in my other posts and in my other episode analysis posts, I genuinely think Adam thought Mary had had an affair, or considering her virginity, at least fell in love with someone else. And that’s why she’s changed the way she looks, that’s why she’s being stand-offish with him, and I think that’s why he’s always saying how much he loves her, he’s trying to win her back. And that’s also why he suddenly says about setting a date for marriage; it’s pushing something to a conclusion. Either she’ll say yes or he’ll find out she’s in love with someone else, and either way it means the worry and second-guessing is over. 

But my God, the way Lilith looks at him like ‘wtf no’ and she immediately starts thinking about how she’s now got to deal with this. She’s been living with Adam for two weeks now, and we can see that a routine has developed; that he brings her tea and sits with her while she works (Lilith doesn’t even look up when he sits down showing that she expects it) and I think it’s very telling and very sweet how settled they’ve become in this routine, and Lilith obviously feels safe in the dynamic as she’s learned he doesn’t expect anything from her (as we now have confirmation he hadn’t consummated his relationship with Mary so would not have pushed for it from Lilith) but suddenly there’s a proposal shaped spanner in the works.

Which leads us to The Dinner Scene (Yes, it gets capitalised because it’s a significant scene ha) which I think is going to get a post all of it’s own because I might end up adding screencaps or GIFs because it is a veritable buffet of macro and microexpressions. 

[pikachu78109]

After Thoughts on Pokémon SwSh ((SPOILER HEAVY! TREAD CAREFULLY))

Okay, wow. So, I played and finished the main story in two days (I had so much free time after college classes) and I managed to power through the game in no time at all. Right now, I am doing post game, but I’ll save that for another time. For now, I want to address my overall thoughts on the main story and some of the pros and cons that this Gen has brought. Spoiler heavy content incoming!

Pros

1) The region is f*cking gorgeous!

When the Pokémon team really puts their mind to it, they create Galar to look really beautiful. From past generations, most of the town weren’t really towns, they looked like villages. And though the cities looked big like in Gen 5, 6, and 7, Gen 8 really pushed itself with its graphics and made the design of the towns and cities looks massive and eye catching. The colors pop and the things that stand out really stood out, such as MotoStoke, Wyndon, Hulbury, and Hammerlocke. These games are just so gorgeous to look at!

2) The Wild Area

Grinding as never been as fun when you’re in the Wild Area. Not only can you Dynamax your Pokémon when approaching as Power Spot, you can encounter rare Pokémon and Camp and do some serious training before the next Gym Match. I used this area a lot when playing through this game, and I have collected so many Berries and items and even battled some Pokémon to level up my team. This area has a functional use and something worth mentioning because I found this area to be extremely helpful whenever I need a bit of grinding. There are a few Trainers, heck there’s even a nursery if you want to drop off a couple of your Pokémon there, and they do sometimes give you items in exchange for Watt power. It depends on how much though, but you could get some rare items from them, if possible. Overall, a really great addition!

3) A Good Cast of Characters

Galar has so many characters and the majority of them are pretty good! While there are a few that I felt could’ve been stronger or competent even, most of the characters have different personalities and each one displays vast characteristics that make them stand out. Marnie, Bede, and Hop were great rivals and each one had a personal goal and under went character growth (Bede especially) as the story continued. Other characters like Sonia were present in the story and offered more to the plot, like telling about the legends in Galar or assisting you on your way. Leon was a character who was present most of the time and was a great Champion. Most of the Gym Leaders were unique in their own way (some more than others) and gave Gym Missions that could either frustrate you or not. It’s definitely not like Gen 7 where the cast gets involved one way or another, but in Gen 8, the cast never felt forgettable and had something to offer.

4) The Soundtrack Is Good

If I can pull a Trugreen 7 here, the music in this generation was pretty good. It brought a lot of life to the region and gave it atmospheric energy. My favorites include the Slumbering Weald, the Gym Leader theme, Chairman Rose’s theme, and Hop’s Battle theme to name a few. The Wild Area gets hit with a blast of bagpipes, giving it a distinct identity apart from the routes, cities, and towns. When the OST for this game comes out on iTunes, I’m definitely going to download some of these tracks!

5) Very Immersive

The attention to detail on the games bring out the immersion was pretty good. There’s definitely some humanity to the main character and there are a few things that accompany that. The Pokémon Camp mechanic was a great way to play with your Pokémon, make curry, and even invite other players to join your Camp. Not only that, but you could visit any nearby Pokémon Camps and interact with the Trainer’s Pokémon if you so wished. There’s a lot of upgrades to the character customization where you have a lot of options to choose from, from clothes to hair, so you could give your player character some identity that’s unique to you or look like you. The Power Up Spots found in the Wild Area invites players to join in a battle against a Dynamaxed Pokémon, so the use of teamwork and connecting with other players helps bring out more usage to the Dynamax mechanic. The region can get pretty easy to get sucked into and it shows.

Cons

So, now that I covered some of my personal favorite pros, I will now discuss some my personal cons that I have with this game. Keep in mind that these cons are of my personal opinion and maybe you might disagree, which is perfectly fine! Anyway, here they are!

1) The Story was Lackluster

As a new game on the Switch, the build to the story was something that I was looking forward to. I mean, there have been leaks about the story that were more like rumors, but they sounded really interesting and it got me hyped for the games. After playing through the story, it wasn’t much. The story, for the most part, was hardly a story. You’re just going around Galar, competing in the Gym Challenge and stopping whatever obstacles that come your way, such as Team Yell. Plot wise, there’s nothing. And when I mean ‘nothing’, I mean that the plot didn’t attribute to anything spectacular. The ending to the story felt very anti-climatic with the whole Eternatus situation and could’ve been handled better with the proper timing or with a better build up. Eternatus does not get mention much throughout the entire story and we are led to assume that Eternatus is the cause of The Darkest Day. That detail felt super unclear to me and I couldn’t tell what the f*ck was going on until the very last half of the game. I will get into more of that later, but for now all I can say is that I liked the leaked rumors more than the actual story we were given.

2) Chairman Rose Is A Weak Antagonist

Why? WHY?! As much as I like his battle theme, Chairman Rose is such a dumb antagonist! Listen, I know that villains in Pokémon can either be weak or great, but it all boils down to their motivation. Their motivations have to at least make some sort of sense, even if it is mediocre or half assed. Chairman Rose’s motive is all based around semi good intentions that can be similar to Lusamine’s from USUM. However, Chairman Rose doesn’t seem entirely aware of what he is doing and jumps into whatever scheme that he thinks might work and help all of Galar. Instead, his plans come off as lazy and last minute. We don’t get any occurrences to his antagonistic intentions because we are devoted to our Gym Challenge while Rose hides behind the shadows. To his credit, he would have to be the most sane antagonist in all of Pokémon and does turn himself in afterwards, so clearly he knew that he f-ed up. That being said, he would have to be the weakest Pokémon villain in my book and I would’ve preferred his secretary Oleana to be the villain instead.

2) Oleana Should Have Been the Main Antagonist

Like I said, Oleana should have been the main antagonist in these games. From the get go, she gave off so many red flags for being a character with less than good intentions but was actually a supposed Admin instead. I mean, she gives off so many bad vibes that I almost believed that she was the antagonist, not Rose. This was just a missed opportunity to me, because in the final stretch of the games, you get a bunch of Macro Officers who supposedly started a fan club surrounding Oleana. Like, wtf?! If you’re lackeys are going to making a fan club dedicated to you, then that has to say something. Oleana has always been a character that just had a cold expression on her face, but she’s left in a position that should’ve been rectified. Once again, this was a missed opportunity.

3) The Champion Battle Could’ve Been Better

As much as I adore Leon, the Champion battle against him didn’t feel as challenging as I hoped it would be. Instead, it almost felt like Gen 6 all over again with me almost knocking out his team completely with little to no effort involved. And he’s supposed to be the ‘undefeated’ Champ in Galar! Shouldn’t he be challenging? Shouldn’t he give me a hard time by providing moves that could put my team in a bind? There’s not much I can say about this other than the fact that this battle could’ve been better. I don’t know about other players, but from this experience, the Champion battle didn’t feel, well, Champion enough.

Final Thoughts

Okay, final thoughts. Obviously, I do have a lot more to say about Pokémon SWSH, but I didn’t want this post to become a lengthy essay. There were definitely some step ups and it’s clear to see where the steps were made to creating this game. Despite the controversy surrounding this Gen, I hope that this generation gets recognized beyond that. There are good things about this game that I pointed out, but there were also some things that felt rushed or didn’t make much sense.

I can’t say that I regret buying these games, because I am glad that I went to Galar and experienced many things from that region. Still, the things that stood out poorly really did show, which is a bummer because these were missed opportunities that could’ve made the games a lot stronger. I don’t think that Gen 8 is a bad game (heck I place that title onto USUM) but it’s definitely in a mixed bag with me.

If I were to rate this game on a scale of 1-10, I would give a 6/10, mainly because of weak story but accompanied with beautiful visuals and a decent cast of characters. The game does have some replay value but I believe that I might restart my game and play through everything all over again. That’s how I usually roll.

Recommending this game to other players would be difficult given the reputation this game has, but as a Switch game, it does an okay job. I just hope that the next games will have more effort and something to look forward to without any unnecessary drama to blacklist it. I can only dream.

[doubleddenden]

So I beat some more gyms. I think today I beat the 6th, 7th, and 8th gym, as well as the league and all that stuff. Saving post game story for tomorrow.

Some thoughts

[[MORE]]

Gordie is kinda forgettable other than his shades. I really want those. Other than that I beat him okayishly easy.

Team Yell ended up being just as bad as I thought. It's interesting how Piers, the first dark type gym leader, was the leader, but I don't feel like it was proper build up at all. Also, Spikemuth is just a hallway. Wtf??? I do like Piers tho, and Marnie is pretty likeable too. Both are reasonable people among weirdos in the pokemon world.

Plot starts getting weird here. Pokemon are suddenly dynamaxing- sure would love to see it! Why does Leon have to take care of it all? I get lore wise but from a gameplay perspective it just kinda feels insulting.

Raihan's gym battle was actually pretty damn cool. A double that makes use of weather, mixedish typings, and overall challenges. To beat his 4 pokemon, I needed 5/6 of mine, if that says anything. This was SUCH an anime fight. Duraludon gmax vs my Dmax Corviknight and my Rillaboom felt like such a ditch effort anime fight. Rillaboom goes down and Toxtricity claims victory. I really enjoyed this fight!

The semi finals were... meh. I feel bad for Marnie because I like her so much more than Hop. I beat both with the same two Graploct, Centiskorch, and for Hop I needed Rillaboom. I was vastly over leveled here and one shot so many pokemon after they both Swaggered Centiskorch.

The finals was an interesting idea executed strangely, bud Bede showing up when he did was unexpectedly cool. He looks even more like my grandma, but I do love how his character ended up. He was actually a decent challenge since most if not all of his team are both psychic AND fairy. He's strong.

Nessa, unfortunately, fell from grace. It was an amazing full circle though, since Dynamax Toxel couldn't even scratch her, but Dynamax Toxtricity totally one shot her gmax Drednaw.

Now Bea was a bit more interesting. I think I had a bit more of a challenge with her this time.

But Raihan? Boi delivered! Such a great fight! Such amazing team building around weather. In the end it was Rillaboom vs Duraludon, both d/gmaxed. I think I barely won.

However the whole Macro Cosmos thing felt like it came from nowhere. Why are they suddenly evil? Olivia was a bit of a challenge at the least. The Rose Tower was a really cool spot for a battle, but the grunts felt really tedious, especially with Hop tagging along.

The entire sequence leading up to the fight with Chairman Rose just feels so weird. Visually everything is spot on, but story and sound wise it feels so off. Very forced.

The Eternatus, Zamazenta and Zacian part, though? I have to say, that was really fucking cool. Eternatus, even though he came from nowhere, was a powerful foe and the visuals for the wolves was just breath taking. I do hate that you're forced to catch Eternatus, but overall a very cinematic fight.

Now, I was so scared that because almost every other league fight was a cake walk, that Leon would be too. Oh. Oh no. I was SEVERELY UNDERLEVELED. ABD I LOVED IT. It was such a difficult fight I had to bust out REVIVES. Sure his team is poorly balanced with two ghosts and two fire types, but the raw power makes up for it. In the end, even our dynamaxes ran out, and my Corviknight just barely survived to beat his Charizard. Such an incredible fight.

The ending credits needs some working on though, ngl. Btw, I spotted the mouse cursor. It's real. I laughed so hard. What a fail after winning me over.

I also tried to get my own gmax pokemon, but they are hard to find. I found a gmax Drednaw, but jesus christ, he's so difficult to beat when you're barely able to get 1 human player to help. He kept winning by knocking out the stupid weak ass npc's the game didn't bother scaling for the fight. God I wish I had better internet and a GMax Corviknight. That's all I really want. I still think it's so stupid you can't do something to make your hand raised pokemon like Corviknight able to gmax.

I accidentally started a bit of post game story and Hop is just. Idk. I hate how annoying he is and always EVERYWHERE. But I kinda feel bad for crushing his dreams. Fuck Sordward and Shielbert's jiggly ass hair though.

I think I can give a fair assessment of Sword. Ready?

If these were stand alone games, not at all connected to past games via transfers and the like, or if they just had the national dex built in, they would easily be pretty great. The games have AMAZING leaps for the series when it does things right. But then when it does things wrong, it does things WRONG. Like why am I seeing a huge distracting scanline in Wyndon? Why do we have poop trees in the wild area? Why is Spikemuth a hallway? Why is Hop so annoying and Team Yell so utterly pointless? Why does the mushroom forest and fairy city look so great? Why are some fights pathetically XY tier easy or amazing BW2 /HGSS tier challenging? Why are some points of the story so bland compared to others? Or forced?

It's so weird. Everything done right is 10 tier, but everything done wrong is 1 tier. It's both incredible and awful at the same time. I don't understand how. Like by being really amazing and really trash, it somehow makes this polished diamond in a cow pile average at best. Everything is either a 1, 5, or 10, and there's no in between.

I feel very conflicted here. I feel like ultimately this was purposely made controversial among fans to keep its name relevant. Because again, just slap the national dex in and it's a perfectly average pokemon game.

70 feels about right, yet not. I enjoyed it more than Let's Go, but I feel like I should rate it lower. As a 20 year pokemon veteran, I feel so confused, amazed and terrified. It's not as bad as initially thought, dare I say way better, but also far worse. Like imagine winning billions the lottery and then getting beat up by clowns after finding out you can't see your pets and friends again when you move into your huge mansion with hot service people, along with a really annoying neighbor that will not leave you alone, but a really cool one that gives you cheese cake. The best and worst day.

I am human and need sleep, so I'll finish the rest tomorrow. My e4 team is as follows

Corviknight- the fav and now in my top 5 favorite pokemon

Graploct- the baby

Toxtricity- the cool uncle

Centiskorch- the big bug I've always wanted

Drednaw- the reliable friend

Rillaboom- the drummer that's okay

I'll post more pics tomorrow

[finessepro]

hi! this is my first lifting haul (that i’ve posted) i used to lift almost every day in summer of 2018 but slowed down when school started. i also was really dumb and literally went to the same places every day with the same people lol. so i’m not sure if they knew what was going on (probably did) or they just didn’t care? anyways, here’s my haul that i got in the last few days! i stopped lifting for a while and just recently got back into it so it’s a little small but i’m proud!!

5 below/ 2 freeman’s face mask $5 each. basically the 5b by my house has no cameras and only like one worker so it’s a gold mine if it has the things you want. they carry a bunch of freeman’s shit and that’s my fav face mask brand so it’s so fun going in there.

family $/ clean n clear makeup wipes 3$ freeman’s face scrub 2$ eyebrow shavers 3$ beauty sponge 3$ basically this store is super easy if you know what your doing. mine has some cameras but no LP and barely any SAs. they also recently re arranged the whole store (i literally have no clue how ?? like every shelf was moved and new cameras were put up) so it was a new layout over all easy.

C V S/ 3 pack of hair elastics 9$ (way to over priced like wtf) scandalous mascara by rimmel 9$ the creme shop macro brow 13$ the creme shop eye brow pompom 16$ the creme shop blemish control primer 16$. i was super happy to get all of that because i haven’t bought or lifted makeup in a while. the cvs near me is kinda a shit show lol. really old security cameras (99% sure they don’t even work) and one cashier who does literally everything (stocks, cleans, runs photos, literally everything) and one person in the pharmacy who’s always playing on their phone. i almost got caught because i was in a blind spot about to shove shit in my bag and something told me not to and i looked up and the cashier was right there.

torrid/ 1st pair $16.90 2nd pair last 3 pairs were all 18.90. literally torrid is my favorite place to lift from by far because all their leggings bras and panties are untagged. some of their clothes are cute but i don’t own a magnet so i never can get anything. but their bras panties and leggings fit me so well and make me feel so confident. it’s sometimes hard to lift from there because every SA is literally up your ass but there’s no cameras and if they are busy it’s a gold mine. i did notices tho that they started tagging their braletts? i’m not sure when they started doing that because i haven’t been there in almost 8 months. but i have over 30 braletts from there (all lifted!!!) so i’m good with those.

GRAND TOTAL!! $157.60

i honestly don’t think it would of been that much if it wasn’t for those torrid panties. literally so overpriced for no fucking reason.

[navyhyuck]

hi vee 🤧🤧 could you pls give me some tips for studying for aps? your scores are so enviable!!! i took ap seminar this year and my score was not that good for my first ap :/ i’m a rising junior and i’m taking ap macroeconomics and i’m super scared!! i don’t know anything about economics or anything so i’m not sure what to expect or how to do on the exam 😥😥

hi love! i sure can try to give tips? and dw!! you too can attain scores you’re happy with! (ap and all of c*llegeb*ard is a fucking scam anyway so!! don’t fret too much if you don’t do as well as you’d like!)

adding a cut bc this is mildly long oops

for ap macro | just pay attention in class!! there are a lot of formulas in macro which are not provided on the exam aka you have to memorize them and know when to use them!! i recommend noting them all down as your teacher goes through units. my teacher gave us a print out of all the formulas on the exam, and yours may also do that! if not, you can find one on the internet as well. this applies for all the graphs too!! taking notes on important concepts is a good habit, but you don’t need to be too stressed out about note taking. you can always read through a prep book as well (i used one and it pretty much saved my life.) or watch mr. clifford’s videos on youtube (my teacher used to play them in class, like, daily. they actually help.). and lastly, just take the class seriously. a lot of people slack off in this class because they’re told it’s easy. i promise it’s not going to be easy when you open that ap booklet on exam day.

for aps in general | start early! you can adjust this timing to however your teacher’s pace is (or if you have a bad teacher and you have to reteach concepts to yourself). first, take time to pick out sections you’re the most confident in vs the least confident in. then, start off reviewing content from least to most confidence. for reviewing, i found prep books really helpful (for apush and macro), and khan academy. khan academy is good for unit quizzes/tests because their questions are pretty realistic to what you can see on the actual ap exam. most importantly, practice mcqs and writing sections!!! use old exams from the coll*geboard website! make sure you look through sample student answers!

a little disclaimer that i studied for all three of my exams in three very different ways! i took two months for apush, about a week for macro, and literally three days for bio. (as in, panic studying.) this is because i measured how much i would need to study depending on my attention span in class and the confidence i had for the content. apush was two years of a class for me, so i learned about columbus thinking america was in india in september 2019 and i knew i couldn’t remember all of that in may 2021! for macro, i did really well in the class (ended with an A+) and i paid attention throughout the year, so i didn’t think i needed that much time for studying. for bio, it was the only class i had really put in 100% effort since september, so i was generally confident i would do well. until three days before it, when i was like ‘wtf have i been doing? not studying for biology?’ i didn’t practice too many saqs or mcqs by myself, but my biology tests/quizzes throughout the year consisted of questions that were in that ‘ap style’ so i ended up doing well anyway. so!!! moral of the story: your study plans should be based off of how difficult the teacher/class is and how much material you need to know! some people study one day before the exam and do really well because they’ve been grinding since day one. other take a bit longer to study because they missed/forgot something and still end up doing well! it really depends on how you work as a person and how confident you feel with the content!!

and please don’t be scared!! just do your best!! you’re gonna do super well regardless :)

[princessofthedarkrealm]

Stroke of Midnight- Chapter 17 ~part 2~ (Pennywise x reader)

((I included links for chapters 16 and 17 (part 1) since they all tie in together. Hope you all enjoy and thank you all so much for the continued support! I appreciate all of you!!))

Chapter 16

Chapter 17 (part 1)

You breathed a sigh of relief when Roman walked through the door. You and your mom had been having a long overdue heartfelt mother-daughter talk. You had told her that you and Roman had been seeing each other and that you loved him. And of course she had congratulated you and gave you her blessing, which had made you tear up.

Your mom told the two of you that she was going to get coffee. Then she patted Roman on the arm. “Oh, happy Fourth of July, Roman. And welcome to the family.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Kenvyn,” he said.

Your mom left. Roman could tell right off the bat that something was upsetting you.

He sat on your bed. “What’s wrong, kitten? What do you need to talk about?”

You decided to cut to the chase. “I have things that I need to tell you and ask you, and… Penny, please don’t be upset.”

Roman sat on the edge of the bed. He put his hand on your arm. “This is serious. I can tell. You never call me that unless it is. What’s wrong, kitten?”

You took a deep breath and told him of your dream. Or as you had come now come to realize it was, your out of body experience. The only parts you left out was the little girl at the end and where you had talked about Pennywise’s questionable habits.

Now it was Roman’s turn to take a deep breath. “I can’t say I’m surprised. I should have known he would try to get to you like this. That he would try to recruit you and turn you away from me.”

“Who is he?”

“Maturin is an ancient being, just like me. He guards the Dark Tower. The place where you were at.”

“And what is the Dark Tower?”

“The Dark Tower is…” Roman idly waved his hand about. “It’s the center of the universe. Or the macro-verse as it’s also known. Maturin is one of its guardians.”

“And why would he be interested in me?”

Roman grabbed your hand and held it. “What do you think interested me in you? You’re strong willed. And you’re willing to believe in more than what you’re used to. Just that right there is enough to attract any supernatural being to you.”

You rolled your eyes. “Just what I need. Another supernatural admirer.”

Roman snorted. “I doubt that’s what he’s after you for. Of course you know I wouldn’t share you.” He brought your hand to his mouth and kissed it, a sly grin on his face.

Your stomach gave a lurch. Now it was time for the questions you really dreaded.

“Penny, why did you bring Chris below the Neibolt house?”

Roman lowered your hand, but he still held on to it. “I am a jealous being, Y/N. When you told me you were going to see Chris, I panicked. Just the idea of the two of you speaking together infuriated me.”

“But you told me you were fine with my going to see him.”

Roman sighed. “I thought I was. I was wrong. I am sorry.”

“And what about the floating children? Are they dead? Did you have anything to do with that?” Your voice was starting to become frantic now. Roman started rubbing your arm. “Hey, hey. Shh. Most of them are dead. And yes, I put them all there. I find...missing children... dead missing children and put them in that state.” You stared at him in horror. “But... why? Why would you do something like that?” “To spare their families. To make sure the children are at peace.”

“But their families need to know. Oh my God.” You put your hand on your forehead. You were starting to get a severe headache. “Oh my God. I can’t believe this.” You blew out a loud breath. Roman was still rubbing your arm. “Lot to process again?” You let out a shaky laugh. “Oh you don’t know the half of it. Every time I think I get used to this, it’s just... bam! My mind gets blown all over again and, oh God, Roman why didn’t you just tell me you wanted to up our relationship?” You put your head in your hands. “I mean, you made me drink your blood.” You put your hands in front of his face. “Who the hell does that shit, Roman?”

“You asked me to do it, Y/N.”

You stared at him in shock. “What? Whoa. I think I would remember telling you that, and I most certainly do not.”

“Well, maybe not in those exact words. But you at least said you wanted to be with me for however long you could have me.”

You started racking your brain. And then you remembered. The night of the play.

“Behind the Neibolt house,” you said.

“Yes. I asked if you wanted to be with me forever and you said for as long as you could have me.”

“But you should have asked me, Roman. You should have asked me if I wanted to be bound to you even more further and we already were.”

Roman bobbed his head in agreement. “I know, kitten, I know. I messed up so bad. I just…” He grabbed your shoulders. “You don’t know how desperate I am not to lose you. When I saw you on that floor tonight, bleeding and unconscious… I wanted to take it back so badly. You have no fucking idea. I hate myself for what I did to you. I betrayed your trust in the worst way possible. And I swear to you, if I have to…” He placed his hands on either side of your face. “I will spend an eternity making it up to you, but please, say you forgive me for this. For everything.”

You sighed deeply. “So what does this mean for us now? What are we?”

Roman dropped his hands. He turned away from you. “You and I are imprinted on each other. No matter where we are, we’ll be able to tell what each other is thinking and feeling. Or at least you’ll be able to do it with me now anyway. I’ve always been able to do it with you.”

“So what is our relationship status? What would you call the human version of it?”

Roman placed his hand back over yours. “Well, I don’t know how to say this, Y/N. Your blood is inside me now. And vice versa. If I were human, you and I would be-”

There was a knock on the door. You and Roman both glanced up. A young blonde nurse walked in.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m so sorry to interrupt. I’m here to take your blood now.”

You turned your head away. “At least you warned me beforehand,” you muttered under your breath.

Roman gave you a weak smile and squeezed your hand. “I’ll be outside.”

He got up and left. The nurse took your blood.

“There is a lab here in the hospital. We should have the results back in no later than two days,” she said. She started to leave.

“Hey, wait,” you said. She stopped. “Can you look for other things besides infections?”

“Sure. What else would you like us to check for?”

You took a deep breath. “Pregnancy. I need to see if I’m pregnant.”

That night you lay in your hospital bed asleep. The doctors had decided to keep you overnight for observation. You had been given a clean hospital gown and were allowed to take a shower and clean off the rest of the dried blood.

As you slept, someone entered your room. You didn’t see who it was. Or that he had come up to your bed and placed his hand over your midsection. You didn’t see him close his yellow eyes in concentration or when his eyes popped back open. You certainly didn’t see the look of shock and horror on his painted face.

Or hear him growl in hunger.

@honk-honk-bitches  @hoe-for-daddywise  @dallonweaksme  @wtf-it  @floatingwithpennywise  @fuck-the-clown  @messoria109  @sassageflair  @cassidy-157  @ichigokage  @bubblymusiclover13  @leauvel  @skaravile  @ladydragonpurplefire  @syynnaah  @darkandtwistyxox  @rougxlips  @sihakrios28  @narut0lover  @lesteefightme  @penny-trash  @guttinqteeth  @booklover2929  @red-balloons-and-popcorn  @unidash  @bill-istvan  @smileysam13579  @daddywiseskarsgard  @moonlighthope7  @apileofhappytrash @dirtydaddywiseslut

[ravenruns]

Yesterday I met all my goals. Yay!

On Friday I ignore the step goal because of weekend running. But there is yoga and strength training. So far I've also had my water, meditated and kept my calories and macros right. I've been dealing with some very minor back pain today so yoga is going to be an easy yin flow.

Since it looks like the storm, now Nate, isn't going to be as much of an issue, I'll be doing my running outside tomorrow and Sunday. The treadmill has been great this summer and has allowed me to both get my miles done and sleep in, but for long runs it is painfully, horrifically B O R I N G. I mean, dodging traffic and fending off dogs isn't great but neither is staring at the side of the garage for hours at a time.

I've so far only had one traffic incident, and that was some jerk swerving onto the shoulder on purpose to force me to jump a ditch. I thought at first he just wasn't paying attention, but it was deliberate. 🖕 It could be worse, some poor bicyclist in Jax got shot in the ass while he was out riding. WTF is wrong with people?

Ok, I guess technically it was his upper thigh, but upper thigh might as well be lower butt cheek.

I'm not sure what Mister plans to do this weekend, but I think we may go out to at least get some marine plywood for a boat restoration he's working on, and maybe stop somewhere to ease his sushi craving.

[aikainkauna]

Tumblr Goes Old Hollywood

Imagine if Tumblr fandom’s current loves were all of a sudden replaced by Old Hollywood equivalents of those actors/characters/shows/ships. IMAGINE.

-The Fred/Ginger shippers cosplaying by dancing until their toes bleed -The floods of letters to Universal asking why the “homophobes!!” haven’t made Basil Rathbone’s Holmes and Nigel Bruce’s Watson kiss on screen yet -Wild Valentino ravishment fantasy gets pulled from Ao3 to be published as worldwide BDSM bestseller -Your Fave is Problematic: Dracula, vs. the Lugosi uwu squad -The trials and tribulations of ScarlRhett shippers who are in denial about the ending but keep shipping anyway -Marx Brothers memes -Artistic gifsets with tasteful colour overlays "sorting" various horror film characters into their user-perceived occult schools, with tiny tiny lowercased captions you can’t read without a magnifying glass -Fanart of Anna May Wong doing kung fu, with novel-length quality fanfics expanding her characters far beyond the tiny niches they were given -Chaplin-themed moodboards with images of stray bowler hats, flowers and a jaunty cane, with snow effects and deeply insightful quote in the caption -Conrad Veidt’s niceness to fans and stupendous awesomehumanbeingness and his having played a relatable, hot, androgynous, magic-using villain ruins fangirls for normal guys forever @gofuckyourselfconradveidt #itsalwaysjaffar -xxx-hot-flappers-yzkj liked your post -Bette Davis/Joan Crawford enemyslash (tiny niche owned by middle-aged lesbians, all five fanfics are amazing) -Audio clip of Claude Rains reading the phone book, with 427,321 notes and screams of “UGH MY OVARIES!!!” in the tags -Hate essays on Michael Curtiz -Rebuttal of said essay by someone pointing out how stupendously slashy his films are, despite him being a dick -Straight Rock Hudson fangirls in deep denial -Fanwars over talkie remakes of silent classics–“They’re just cashing in and this Flynn guy is never going to be a Fairbanks no matter how hard he tried!!!” -Extensive gifsets of Flynn’s junk and trunk in tights (click link in caption for a Robin/Guy PWP) -Lady OCs all have bobbed haircuts with finger waves, smoky eyes and tiny mouths: -All fanart is drawn like this to the point where everyone is Betty Boop (Felix the Cat furry porn on the side) -Meanwhile in Germany, thoughtless fans show explicit fanart to actors: Anton Walbrook faints at a portrait of himself in a heterosexual embrace, plot twist in that Marlene Dietrich asks for a copy of that one where she stands triumphant in drag over a naked harem of various other actresses. Meanwhile, Conrad Veidt is equally flabbergasted by the straight *and* the gay fanart, loudly insisting he should be portrayed "doeng BOOOTH ov zemm at ze zame tiemm." -Sassy bitchy reaction gifs featuring Katharine Hepburn, Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck and Jean Harlow -Classic horror ships like Karlosi finally make it big time. Epic Gothic Romantic slash with full moons and bats and ectoplasm for lube. Dwight Frye and a young Vincent Price drop in for extra spooky orgy action -Scientific Fact Of The Day Laid Over A Photo Of Hedy Lamarr -Is It Gay Porn or Is It A Photo Of Cary Grant? quiz blog with strategically cropped images where you really can't tell the difference -Other themed blogs include yeahbogienohomo, xbettecryingbeautifullyx, jimmycagneysjaw, bazrattersbellyacting, 1esliehowardseyel4shes, bacallbrow, etc. -Wine mum macros with Kay Francis -Post with vivid and beautiful images of how great it would be to have an autumnal, melancholy Dietrich/Garbo femslash fic set in their old age; post has 1672 notes but nobody can be arsed to write it -Cheerful trolling from the Peter Lorre squad; his face appears on many a creepy ME GUSTA macro -Deep feminist/queer analysis on why the homme fatal archetype provides an escape from heteronormativity: “Valentino’s sexually ambiguous performance may SEEM on the surface to be representing masculine privilege and racism, but the deep Otherness of the Sheik speaks to deeper currents within the subtextual narrative; case in point–” -Warner Brothers baffled as the most beloved ship of Casablanca turns out to be not Rick/Ilsa but Rick/Louis. (Bonus: fandom is OUTRAGED to learn Claude Rains is, in fact, a huge ladies’ man and just enjoys playing characters as bi/gay for lols. Claude laughs all the way to the bank) -Absurdist Bob Hope quotes laid over pictures of cows becomes a successful, Zenlike meme, nobody actually knows WTF’s going on but reblogs them anyway so as to look like they get it and aren’t behind the times -Fuckyeahslashyswordfights -Blog of people posing like silent film actors, making silent acting faces -Omg That Gown By Adrian! -BUSTEROCALYPSE.

[cabinboy100]

GOTG2: First screening spoilerful appreciation…

Saw GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 tonight for the first time—woo-hoo!

I'm not gonna go into much in the way of criticism of the film here except to say that it's a rockin' good time that goes deeper on character and a little shorter on plotting than Volume 1. What I *am* gonna do is some half-baked comic book fanboy rambling and appreciation.

Gotta say, I was kind of WTF? when I realized that Sylvester Stallone's character, Grand Poobah of the Ravagers, was going by Stakar, who in the Marvel Universe is also known as Starhawk, aka "The One Who Knows." It seemed like a weird direction to take that namesake. Of course, it's still pretty much in line with Yondu's translation from page to screen, right?

I didn't think that while watching the movie, tho. What "fixed" Stakar for me was one of the end credits scenes, where we see Stakar saying how pleased he is to be able to reassemble old friends-slash-teammates, including Martinex (Stakar's crystalline right hand, Plutonian in the comics), Charlie-27 (superstrong Jovian in the comics, played by Ving Rhames), and Aleta (comics Starhawk's wife, played by Michelle Yeoh). This is Starhawk assembling a roster of the OGs, from the 30th century team of Marvel comics!

But—it's not to do any guardian-ing, but instead so they can go rob the heck out of the galaxy. Hrm…Some pretty heavy hitters—Sly, Ving, Michelle. How do they fit into upcoming MCU shenanigans? GOTG allies? GOTG imposters? Maybe their story-slash-heist unfolds in end credits scenes over a few movies? Right now they don't click in place for me.

Still, very fun to see the MCU's version of the 30th century OGs.

Tazerface! The reaction to that name in the film is so perfect! I wonder which Marvel writer created him and what s/he thinks about what's become of him? From what I remember of the comics, he was some kind of enhanced Badoon who had a personal beef w/the 30th century Guardians.

Nice to see Yondu upgrade his arrow fin tech to more closely match Marvel comics' Yondu's natural fin. Legitimately sad to see him go already, even if he did get a proper Ravager funereal sendoff. He got a pretty decent arc, and even though you could see the biodad vs. real dad conflict-slash-realization from 40 clicks away, the actual unfolding of it was pretty rewarding and okay, even a bit emotional. Nicely done, Rooker and Gunn!

Kurt Russell as Peter's dad. Kinda perfect. Ego as Peter's dad? Weird, but a good and creative answer to the question of MCU Peter Quill's paternity. I don't think comics Ego ever walked as a man, but I also don't think he was ever just a floating space brain, either. *Immediately* flashed to FUTURAMA. =)

I think I first met Ego in the pages of FANTASTIC FOUR. Or maybe it was ROM? In any case, I thought he was part of the FF's universe, so was surprised to find him playing a part in the MCU. But then I remembered that when he met the FF, he'd already encountered Thor, so he's fair game as an Avengers connection. We did get one shot of Ego the Living Planet as he looks in the comics, a giant face defined by the landscape and funky organelles of the planet. I was hoping for more, tho, and maybe some of the funky macro-microbiological stuff from the comics, too, like humanoid antibodies and freaky scaled-up cells and organs, y'know? Instead, we get some gooey energy tendrils and Ego's Kurt Russell—and David Hasselhoff!—looking host body in various states of disrepair. Not bad, but y'know, a comic fanboy's heart wants what it wants—giant antibodies! =)

It's nice to see Mantis on the GOTG roster, but her introduction seemed a bit crowbarred in. Ego keeps her as a pet and sleep aide. Her unique empathic powers enable her to help Ego sleep, because apparently he has trouble sleeping? Would've been nice to get a better explanation for her presence. Maybe she helps tame Ego's growing insanity/instability?

Huh. Ego calls himself a Celestial, and Peter immediately asks him if he means that he's a god. So, MCU spacefarers are familiar with the term? Until Ego called himself one, I thought that Celestial referred exclusively to the giant space gods, one of whom's head has become the world-station known as Knowhere.

I think in the comics, Ego is a legitimate Elder of the Universe, like the Collector and Gamemaster. Celestial as a title for him doesn't seem quite right to me, but o well…

It *does* perhaps help with the logic of Mantis attaining a title of Celestial Madonna, tho.

I wish there was maybe one or two more scenes-slash-steps to Nebula and Gamora's hatchet burying, but the arc does work quite well. Also very touching and smart to have Peter's eulogy for Yondu—the part about searching for something for so long only to realize it was next to you all the time (would getting Survivor's "The Search is Over" have been too nail on the head?)—apply both to the sisters' bond as well as "this unspoken thing"/CHEERS-Sam-and-Dianne between Peter and Gamora.

The make-your-own-family theme is pretty irresistible. For a 40-something story consumer like myself, on paper that notion can seem trite and tired, but with these characters, and this writing, it still works on me. Several crescendos really helped, I think. Peter's reaction to Ego's admission of giving his mother that tumor (that was a smart stroke, no sympathy for Ego after that). Nebula's description of the duels Thanos forced on Gamora and herself, and the price she paid for her losses. Yondu and Rocket's breakthrough therapy session.

Heh. Nice to see Stan Lee as a distinct space-suited character in conversation with the Watchers on the surface of some planet or moon in one of the stargate jumps, and then in one of the end credits scenes. The Watchers actually walk away from him as he explains that he's still got more stories for them. Very nice. =)

In retrospect, I want to say that I should've seen the Adam Warlock cocoon coming when we were introduced to the golden-skinned Sovereign, but no, there was too much fun stuff going on with them to make me think of that while watching the movie. LOVE their ENDER'S GAME-y remote control space navy action.

But, yeah—Adam Frickin' Warlock! =)

Love the sweet laser balls weapons system on Yondu's heist ship, perfect for general offense and defense, reconfigurable for drilling into the core of a living planet, as well as a Death Blossom! =)

When Howard the Duck showed up again in a space bar where the Ravagers were hanging out, the audience reaction was loud enough that I couldn't catch any of his dialogue. Nuts.

Hrm…I think that's all I've got right now. I'm a bit frazzled when it comes to processing cinema right now as I'm coming off of eight days and 21 films of festivalizing as of yesterday. If I come up with more thoughts before my next GOTG2 screening, I may add/edit to this, and if a next screening fires up the fried synapses with more thoughts, connections, and/or crazy talk, I'll ramble out a new post.

Keep on keepin' on~

[topicprinter]

Hey,I thought I was on track for a very successful startup career beginning about 18 months ago. I definitely made some mistakes, but none that i'm too deterred by. I'm just trying to figure out how to move forward.BackgroundMeI'm an econometricist by trade, worked in PE strategy for a while, took a year off to learn to code, realized I hated development, and got a job in product running the ML products at a DSP for RTB bidding on mobile advertising. I'm also very passionate about econ (macro specifically) and was an early crypto adopter (like 2011/2012).The First "Business"The DSP i worked for went bankrupt for several reasons. Whatever, I thought. As I was casting around for another job opp, a CTO of a similar company approached me, looking for someone who was familiar with crypto, economics, and the RTB market to write a whitepaper for a blockchain marketing solution. He's a great guy and very smart, and I said sure. We made a written (but not enforceable) agreement for cash / equity. I didn't really know what I was doing, that's ok. He also has an operations lackey who is basically a coat-rider and does a lot of the blocking and tackling for the CTO. He's a piece of shit who is all about his ego despite contributing little value, but it's not personal despite me never wanting to work with him again.The product was essentially a marketing product to engage with users in a P2P basis, and access users directly via the blockchain, rather than interacting with 3rd parties in balkanized silos. The idea being, "why would I give Facebook $0.10 per user on a reengagement campaign, and never see that money again, when I could just give $0.05 to the user, conditional on their reengagement, and they at least might spend it in the app again." There's a lot more to it, but that's basically the original premise.First business outcomeThe CTO was a CTO and not a CEO for a reason. I wrote the whitepaper (along with someone else the former CTO brought on). We talked strategy, implementation approach, market validation, etc. His conclusion was that this would be hard work, the project is too big, and he decided to split off on it to do something smaller and "more executable". He and his lackey have no made yet another generic DEX (decentralized exchange) which has shown basically no success, and I wasn't interested in joining, both due to the weak product strategy, as well as the lack of effective vision.The PivotI think the project absolutely has legs and I am not the tired late-30s guy that the CTO is. The CTO said he would "underwrite" materials for me, but not offer a lot of support. The other guy I worked on the whitepaper with is now my "advisor," though he isn't particularly helpful for MVP execution (yale / wharton B school grad, VC experience, is super smart, nice, and great to bounce ideas off of).I've coded up a few dappshave a basically decent whitepaper with strong economics and stakeholder incentives (although it is admittedly light on infrastructural details)Product pitch is most similar to Lisk, Matrix network, omisego (in that order).TLDRlol, sorry, wtf do i do? I've lost my "technical resources" - the former CTO / lackey combo had blockchain engineering resources we were using, but once we split off, I lost those. They were also delivering the operating costs to make that happen.So now I'm not sure what to do - I have a developed and validated idea, but I'm not sure how to start executing. Do i work iteratively with contract devs? Do i go out dating for a cofounder? Do i enroll in an incubator / accelerator? I really want to stay out of the entire VC machine, but i realize that may make it more difficult for myself. I could argue for or against any of those choices.I'm living just fine right now - crypto has done...erm... quite well since i got started, so i'm not really worried about money. But those are savings that I can't really invest in my business, beyond a few dozen thousand dollars probably this year. I really dislike the whole startup cycle, and I'm not trying to raise an asston of cash. I want to build a good product, and build it right - this isn't about ego or money.Any thoughts would be appreciated - I know i've left a lot of detail out, but trying to strike the balance between brevity and detail.