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Do you have a DVD collection?

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I Didn’t Expect Dr. Gurathin To Be My Favorite Part of Murderbot

By Leah Schnelbach

Is the “Bitter/Sweet” scene my favorite in the show? I think there are a few others that top it, but only barely. The teammates are playing a “game” where people share their memories of each other, teasing out moments that were “sweet”, but balancing them with moments that were “bitter”. This is the kind of thing only Preservation Alliance would call a game—if I was invited to their table I’d definitely go with an acid bath instead.

When it’s Gurathin’s turn, he only gives in because they chant his name loud enough that people at other tables begin to stare. It seems like he’s never played before—he checks with the others to make sure he’s doing the hand gestures correctly, and, rather than telling them about a simple moment of interpersonal connection, or like a time Ratthi annoyed him or something, he dives straight into terrible trauma. And it’s here that the season’s true critique of capitalism snaps into focus. He was targeted by the Corporation, who saw an opportunity to exploit the augments that set him apart and could be used for so much good. He was intentionally hooked on hardcore drugs, and forced to spy for the Company on pain of being refused his medication. He didn’t just join Preservation Alliance because he and Mensah were “friends” like he told Murderbot—Mensah was meant to be his latest victim. Faced with her loving personality he came clean. Faced with this broken, desperate man, she offered him sanctuary and a shot at a new life.

He tells his story in present tense. He’s telling this story to them, now, on the eve of their mission, in the belly of his personal beast, surrounded by the life that almost killed him. He ends his “sweet” memory by saying, “I see what is possible between people of good will. I break down, tell her everything… she forgives me. And I move to Preservation Alliance and here we are.” Then he flees the table rather than giving a “bitter” memory—as though there isn’t enough bitter laced into what he’s just said?

Because think about what he’s editing out as he speaks to them: escape from his corporate overlords, flight to a strange part of the galaxy, learning how to live in a society that is utterly alien to him (six years later he’s still visibly uncomfortable with it), a leap into the unknown—all of that without getting into the hell of kicking drugs that were custom-made to control him. (I’ll mention that Dastmalchian’s acting here is among the best of the series–I’ve loved Dastmalchian since I saw The Dark Knight on opening night in 2008, and watching him carve out his own fabulous goth niche alongside his work in stuff like Late Night with The Devil and Animals has made my sparkly black heart sing. And this??? I practically crawled into my TV during this scene.)

But the other thing that gets to me is just how raw it is. Not to dismiss Bharadwaj’s pain, but she’s confessing to having feelings for a coworker, and whomst among us? But when we get to Gura’s turn, he trusts them with part of the truth of who he is—a truth that could make them look at him differently, that could set him even more apart from them. He honors the conceit of the game with an offering that is as bitter and sweet as anything could be. And he does it in this glittering restaurant, in the place he hates most, surrounded by all the trappings that almost killed him. In this room filled with artifice and small talk, elites eating and drinking while indentured servants and enslaved bots provide all the labor, he cuts through all of it to get to a place of brutal honesty. Gurathin is what happens when capitalism can do whatever it wants. It latches onto a person and sucks them dry until they’d rather die than keep living under it.Again, I love it when people take big swings. This games could have happened privately in the team’s quarters. He could have told his friends his story after he was shot, to explain why he wouldn’t use painkillers. The Weitzes could have undercut it with jokes, Dastmalchian could have added a layer of irony to distance present Gurathin from his past. Instead they use the scene to get the core of what capitalism does to people: make you want more and more and more, and then hold that “more” just out of reach to control you.   He chooses to tell his friends about this now, on the eve of their mission, so they can see what the Corporation is truly capable of. He chooses to tell his friends about this now, on the eve of their mission, so they can see what the Corporation is truly capable of. This is why he’s been holding himself back, this is why he’s been suspicious of Murderbot, why he was suspicious of Leebeebee, why he snarled at her when she casually offered him speed. Where Murderbot’s greatest fear is the Acid Bath, Gura’s is falling back into addiction, being dragged back to the Corporation Rim, back to the half life he had there. This is how much he loves Mensah and the team, that he’ll come on the mission with them, because he knows he’s the only one who understands what they’re dealing with.Well, him and Murderbot. But he can’t trust Murderbot.

(read more)

[thewalrus-said]

“i asked chatgpt—”

ok well i asked the cryptic fucking dragon that was imprisoned underground 20 years ago and he told me that no one can choose or escape their destiny so. he may have also told me i have a soulmate in the guy whose guts i hate but i dont really have time to think about that right now

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I'm sure the world needs Tiger inspired by Vanessa Stockard's style

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“no one’s ever mad at me unless they tell me so” is the best assumption i’ve ever made

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The choice is yours. Will you renounce the accused you sit with and join our coven?

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE 1x07 "I Could Not Prevent It"

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#darcy caring so much about lizzie's opinion of him #he starts going out of his way to make small talk #and interacting more with people he does not know 😭 Pride & Prejudice (2005) Dir. Joe Wright

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Annual Lollapalooza Line Up Game

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no matter how hard i try i will always be that little girl wondering why everyone is better friends with eachother than her and begging to be loved

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LEVERAGE | 3.08 // 3.09

Bonus:

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[x, x]

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Perhaps a career in the theater beckons after all, Inspector. MISS FISHER'S MURDER MYSTERIES (2012–2015) — 1x06 "Ruddy Gore"

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one day the ankle sock will come back and the millennials will rejoice

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Going directly from what the average person I know in real life thinks constitutes kinky sex to what the average person I follow on Tumblr thinks constitutes kinky sex like