#I thought it looked cool with the subset shining on it

[lourdesdeath]

Pov: you've got some children you need to make into corpses

#gravity falls #bill cipher #fanart #my art #I thought it looked cool with the subset shining on it #also of course this bitch is too wide to fit on my watercolor paper

[theophagie-remade]

Spiritually succeeding this other post, I'm here once again to go on and on about some things I see outside my little protective bubble, and while the language barrier prevents me from knowing bnha's actual target audience's (i.e. young japanese men) thoughts on things, as always reading those of its western equivalent is... an experience

I always go back to this BUT the fact that Midoriya can (and will) bring himself to the extreme should he believe it to be necessary has always been a recurring theme, and his "recent" rogue arc is something that encapsulated this very well. And it was incredible [with negative connotations] to see readers rejoice for it, and complain when class 1A intervened to get him back on track again

Whenever Midoriya got like that, Horikoshi made it a point to highlight how irresponsible it was, how unfair to himself he was being, and up until that arc everyone had agreed. So why is it that him destroying his body made him a dumbass who needed to get his shit together, but then suddenly him isolating himself and shutting everyone out made him cool and badass?

And in general what I'd like to do is grab these guys by the shoulders, look them in the eye and just. I promise you that masculinity is not just red meat, muscles, and sweat. Midoriya is a Boy and he's Sensitive and Awkward And That's Okay, any other man who likes bnha and isn't as insecure as you are has no problem with this, you are making up a Flaw to be angry about

Then there's Bakugou, a character whose arc has been incredibly emotion-driven, which isn't as common for male characters in shounen, and what made it stand out even more is what kind of emotions it has involved and towards whom, which again is something that sets him apart from the usual "bad boy who eventually turns good" archetype

Many guys dislike Bakugou because his current relationship with Midoriya betrays any "bullied person never forgives and/or takes revenge on they bully" power fantasy, but I recently read a comment that brought up the similarities between these people's attitude towards him and the one that they have towards female characters from other shounen manga (calling him a bitch, commenting on the way his development has taken place for how unusual it has been, arguing whether he's actually important or useful to the story), which I know may sound absurd at first, but it did get me thinking

God knows I simply refuse to entertain any thoughts™ on what Horikoshi has in mind, but narratively speaking - especially lately so - his role has been one that's stereotypically associated with female characters more so than with male ones* (love interests specifically, but again: you will never have me, Hope) (always worrying for the protagonist more than anyone else, evoking protectiveness and possessiveness from the protagonist, the protagonist acting and reacting to what is said and done to them specifically, being individually targeted for their closeness to the protagonist, etc), and after having read that comment it has been interesting to notice a small but still very real subset of dudebros, not that it has been a good thing

[*: obviously it's very misogynistic that the things I listed are almost exclusively associated with female characters to begin with and that it's surprising for a male character to be put in that spot for once, No One Is Arguing Against This. If anything, this shines some light on the fact that the world of shounen manga (and not only that tbh) would benefit from novelties like this one since people are acting like clowns over it]

While most of them (dudebros) still refuse to acknowledge how close Bakugou is to Midoriya, there's a minority that... has a funny way of indirectly acknowledging this, because of a combination of see: above reasons and see: homophobia. I don't really think that it's a coincidence that whenever something bkdk flavoured becomes popular, among the various kinds of hate comments, a number of people always comment that Midoriya isn't gay. Midoriya, not necessarily Bakugou as well

Horikoshi managed to go beyond quite a few stereotypes with Bakugou's character arc (ironic when you compare it to someone else's but I digress, this conversation specifically isn't about her), so it is sad to see people turn it into a chance to be bigoted towards other fans, because obviously all the comments they make aren't merely in "defense" of the characters themselves, but they're meant to be read by and hurt the often queer fans who share their theories/headcanons/interpretations etc

#studying so many of the cishet men who allegedly read and enjoy bnha as if they were microbes in a lab #bnha #animanga #mytext #char tag #midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #bakudeku #long post #salty

[hintsofhoney]

alright, *cracks fingers*. so. I’ve written up a transcript just to lay it all out for myself and get the most important parts. listen, everyone. for all intents and purposes and legal reasons, THIS WAS A DREAM. alright? I dreamt this. and he is literally the nicest human being ever so I don’t want to just like... put our whole convo out there like that, but I think he said some stuff that was important for people to hear so... here we go

my *dreamt* zoom call with thee crowley below the cut

The first five minutes (of my dream) was just a bunch of introduction stuff and talking about my favorite Supernatural seasons which eventually led to him telling me how they filmed the Season 8 finale (which they did over the span of three days, and in between takes the crew members were like dead silent, as to keep the moment going, which Mark thought was really cool. Said it was one of his favorite things they did on Supernatural.) Anyways, he eventually asked me if I had any questions, so, I’ll start there.

MARK: So, do you have any questions you want to ask me about aaaaaannyyyythingggg? 

ME: Um, I guess the number one thing I wanna know… um, so, I know you can’t speak for Dean and I don’t want to talk about Dean because you’re not Jensen, but, there’s like a lot of questions I guess or subtext or whatever concerning Dean’s sexuality and what not, but I want to know about demon Dean and Crowley’s relationship and if there was, I don’t know, anything like, any implied –

MARK: Well I think – I think you’re talking about… there’s a massive difference between sex and love. There’s a massive difference between, um, well, they can intertwine perfectly, that’s not the issue, but I mean you would believe with all the things that Crowley did for the Winchesters, that he was – that he very much loved Sam and Dean or loved who they are or what they are. To reduce it to, you know, a crush, or to something that – I mean, I don’t know, I think Crowley is very probably pansexual more than anything else; I don’t think anything phased him. I think, that’s why the whole stuff with Lucifer and licking the floor was kind of really stupidly boring for me because Crowley did weirder and crazier things on his own. I mean, it became this joke of trying to humiliate somebody who can’t be humiliated. There’s nothing you can humiliate Crowley with. So, that never sort of made sense, that was just a sort of writer’s glitch of thinking, “oooh, this would be funny to knock him down into subservience” and that’s what he does on a Wednesday, I mean it’s like the most un-inspiring thing. I think so much is projected onto the relationship between, certainly the four main characters, um, and, you know, look, getting comfortable with one’s sexuality and one’s identity is a massively complicated things, and if you want to live vicariously through what you believe people’s identity is and you can relate to that, great!  Who cares? I mean, can I be absolutely honest? Apart from – what I do care about, you know, don’t ever take this and piece me or misquote it, because it’s very, very specific – um, somebody stopping somebody being able to express their own identity or whatever is an issue for me. That will always be an issue for me. Um, we should all be treated equally, and we all have the rights to believe and follow those things that we wish to follow, but to project relationships onto characters is an odd thing to do. I mean, it’s wishful thinking in a lot of ways, I mean, actually it’s quite… it’s quite reasonable because in the past if you think about it, if you ask your parents or anyone else, the only way sexuality was used was to, uh, literally demonize somebody. It was only ever used to say somebody was bad because this who they’re in love with. You know, that’s, that’s the thing. And it’s a massive change in the world that we’re moving towards, I should say, uh – a lack of consequence for who one loves, apart from the obvious consequences of human nature. You know, political consequences for who one loves – I’ve just watched Pete Butteigieg being, you know, sitting in congress with his husband there with him; that’s the first time that’s ever happened in United States congress and I’m so proud of that. Not just because the man is gay and happily married – that’s not even the issue for me, it’s because he’s the best man for the job and one of the smartest people on the planet. You know, it’s like using sexual templates, as they were, or gender templates as they are, or orientation templates as they are, we always use to disclude people from things. They were always used to discriminate. You know, labeling somebody was a way of discrimination. And where as labels are very important, to ones self, and they’re very important politically and they’re very important socio-economically and they’re very important in all those aspects, I yearn for a time when nobody gives a damn. I really do. But I mean, we have to go through so much to get there. I mean, let’s be honest, you can’t, you know, right the wrongs of hundreds of years of oppression in 20 minutes by saying, “let’s all move forward”. It just doesn’t work that way, it never has. But there’s a responsibility there, that if you’re going to represent, that you represent all. That you don’t just represent you. So, one has to be careful with a television program or, or, you know, Misha or myself, or, not speaking for the boys, but just generally, um, you have to be careful that what you advocate is inclusive, not disinclusive. Not excluding people... and it’s so hard to frame these conversations, that they’re equitable, it’s so hard to do that. And so, you know, we spend years pointing out the inequity and the injustice and the unfairness of the whole situation, and… I don’t know if the trick is to rise above, or, uh, maybe it’s as simple as love and coming together as a human race and make it very difficult for people to discriminate and exclude based on gender, race, color, religion, any of the subsets of humanity that we’ve decided we have. So, I think personal responsibility is the most important thing, but if one is in a position of power on a TV show, you got to remember what you’re representing, that you have a, you know, you have to cover all or cover none. So, you know, but if you stick to a story and you have a story about a person or two people and their journey, that’s shining light on things. If you try to advocate for all, I think it becomes a little more complicated. Does that make sense?

so, i just feel like he said some important things there, but like I also don’t really understand what he’s getting at really, y’know? oh! also, he didn’t watch the finale lmao 

also! there’s this:

MARK: Because if you come down on one side or another, you’re admitting the sides, and that has its own political ramifications. If you push the ball up in the air and say, “you decide”, I don’t think that’s copping out. I think that’s, maybe not fulfilling everybody’s expectations, or not fulfilling everybody’s hopes, but at least you’re getting the question asked. You know, at least you’re getting the question asked. At least people are relating to it and going, “well, what if?”. Because it’s all “what if”, I mean, it’s a TV show, so it’s “what if”, you know? It’s not Misha being in love with Jensen, I mean as much as he loves Jensen, I don’t think that’s his thing – I mean you never know – but I’m saying yet again, I don’t exclude anything from anybody (I LITERALLY CAN’T BELIEVE HE SAID THIS LMAO). But to force my opinion or my identity belief upon a situation has a cost. It may be right, it may be absolutely right, and it may be necessary in many, many cases. But, in that circumstance, I think… there are a lot of people in the world that say that Jesus, for example, was anti-homosexual and that he was – and none of that is true, and none of that is provable in the New Testament, and I’m not talking about Leviticus and I’m not talking about early Bible and I’m not talking about the fact that more than 25,000 words have been changed in the King James edition and all of this stuff, but these things that people hold so sacred, the confusion that arises from that is being told that a man loving a man or a woman loving a woman or a man loving a man and a woman or whatever combination being there is either right or wrong because you’re being told by a pastor or the leaders of your church, is a very difficult thing to break down. I think what you have to do is at least put it out there so it’s visible, and so it becomes less and less deniable. And you know, people change over years, that’s the trouble with youth, is shit doesn’t move fast enough. “I need a decision now!”, and unfortunately, when you’re dealing with centuries of prejudice and centuries of un-enlightenment, I think that sometimes the best thing to do is reach as many people as possible and pose the question. And sometimes it’s essential to make a statement, absolutely, no question. It is essential to make a stand, in some circumstances. But to polarize a TV show, can be very disingenuous to those who need to go ask their own questions, who need to go say, “well, where does Jesus say this is wrong?” you know, if that’s your beliefs.

he also said, when we went off on a tangent about doom patrol:

MARK: There are issues that are being addressed here [on Doom Patrol] that are not being addressed on other shows, and yet again, we have the format, and I don’t know that Supernatural ever had the format because it was on the CW.

anywho, in conclusion, fuck the cw.

also, again, for all intents and purposes this was a dream I had :)))))))

[starryknight09]

Hidden hurts

Febuwhump Day 13: hidden injury

Read on AO3. 

________________________________________________________

“We got it!” Sam announced over the comms.

“Great.  Now let’s get out of here.” Clint chimed in.

“You heard the man.  Everyone back to the Quinjet.  We got what we came for.” Steve said.

“Yes!” Peter celebrated, not over the comms, but to Mr. Stark, as he pumped his fist in the air.

“Come on kid, let’s skedaddle.” Mr. Stark said, and even though Peter couldn’t see his expression behind the Ironman mask, he could tell the man was amused by his antics.  There was an odd tension in his voice as well, but Peter ignored it.  He figured his mentor was just stressed.

“Aye aye.” He mocked saluted and turned around so they could start making their way back to the Quinjet and out of the weird ice fortress.  They hadn’t encountered any bad guys in the last ten minutes, so he was hoping they’d be able to slip back out the way they came without any resistance.  He was a little disappointed they hadn’t been the ones to find the stolen alien tech, but it was still cool to be on an Avengers mission.  His first official one.  If he wasn’t counting the whole Thanos thing when he followed Mr. Stark to Titan and then came back to fight the purple guy again, until Captain Marvel came from the sky and took the glove from Peter, snapped it, and ended everything once and for all.

“That was fast.” Peter said, trying to fill the silence.  “Don’t you think that was fast?  I mean, are missions always over this fast?  I thought we’d be here a lot longer.”

Mr. Stark hummed instead of answering.  Peter glanced over his shoulder to see that he’d fallen behind.  He stopped and waited.

“Am I going too fast for you?” He joked, but as he studied Mr. Stark he felt a twinge of worry.  Usually Ironman didn’t move so slow, and it almost looked like he was trying to mask a limp.

“Are you ok Mr. Stark?” He asked.

“Tony.” The man reminded him.  Right.  Ever since Peter had returned from the snap, Tony had insisted Peter call him by his first name instead of Mr. Stark.

“Are you ok Tony?” He asked again.

“I’m fine kid.” Tony answered, but the tension that’d been there throughout the mission remained, and now Peter was starting to see it in a different light.  Instead of being tense because Peter was there, maybe it was something else.  Peter looked the armor up and down and didn’t see any marks or damage over it, but it was nanotech, so even if something had happened, it would’ve fixed itself instantly.

“Ok.” He said but let his skepticism shine through.  When he went back to walking, he slowed his pace slightly, and when Tony didn’t call him out on it, his concern increased.

They continued through the ice tunnel in silence.  Peter could almost imagine they were in some kind of fancy glacial themed hotel instead of a Hydra subset hold out in except for all the fighting they’d had to do to get in here and all the unconscious or dead Hydra soldiers scattered about.  

“Hold up kid.” Tony said and Peter paused, watching as Ironman got down on one knee to pick up a blue glowy knife thing next to one of the fallen soldiers.  Peter had seen some of them carrying similar weapons but he hadn’t thought much of it.

“Collecting souvenirs?” He asked.

Tony grunted as he straightened and simply said, “Research.”

Peter didn’t ask any further because he got the sense that Tony didn’t want to elaborate on it at the moment.  The man had been oddly quiet, not that he was ever a motor mouth like Peter, but usually he talked more than this near silence.  It was odd because he’d been talkative enough on the Quinjet ride here, but at some point since they’d stormed the ice castle, he’d grown quiet.

“Lead the way Pete.” Tony prompted and Peter realized he’d been staring at him.

“Right.” Peter gave him a nod and continued on.  Tony was allowed to have an off day.  Peter didn't need to overanalyze it like he always did with everything.  

When they finally made it up the ramp and into the Quinjet, Peter noticed they were the last group to arrive.  All the other Avengers sat scattered around, besides Clint, who was in the pilot’s seat up front, ready to take off now that they were all accounted for.

“Hey guys.” Peter greeted them, pulling off his mask.

“Hey pipsqueak.” Sam said with a smirk.

He rolled his eyes at the teasing, but when he noticed Steve frowning at him, he frowned back, wondering what he’d done to put that look on Captain America’s face.  As uptight as Tony joked about Steve being, Peter didn’t think he’d have a problem with a little eye rolling.  But then he realized Steve wasn’t looking at him, but past him, to where Tony stood.

“Tony.” Steve said and Peter turned around, his own eyes widening at the sight.  Tony had retracted the nanotech of the helmet, so Peter saw his face for the first time since they’d started the mission, and he looked terrible.  He was white as a ghost and his hair stuck to his forehead with beads of sweat.

“Are you all right?” Steve asked, quickly crossing the distance between them so he was beside Tony in a few steps.

Rhodey perked up at that, turning from where he’d been talking to Scott to take in the scene, brow furrowing.  “Tones, you ok man?”

Rhodey started toward them and Tony waved him away, but the next second his knees buckled.  Steve grabbed his arms, easing him down to his knees so he didn’t hit the ground too hard.

“Tony?” Steve repeated, concern clear.  Rhodey rushed over, kneeling down on Tony’s other side.  

“What happened?” Rhodey asked, directing the question toward Peter.

Peter shook his head.  “I don’t-I don’t know.” He wished he did, but he had no clue.  Besides being slower and quieter than usual, Peter hadn’t noticed anything else different about Tony.  Certainly nothing to indicate there was something seriously wrong.  He hovered behind them, wanting to help, but not sure what to do or what kind of help was even needed.

“What’s going on back there?” Clint called from the front and Peter vaguely registered the feeling of the Quinjet taking off.

“Not sure yet.” Sam answered since Rhodey and Steve seemed otherwise occupied.

Tony still hadn’t answered any of their questions and now his breaths seemed to be coming in short little gasps.  

“Tony, take this off.” Rhodey ordered, tapping at the armor that still covered his body.  “Where are you hurt?”

Tony shook his head, not answering, but the nanotech started melting away anyway, revealing the flesh and bone underneath.  Nothing became immediately obvious once the suit disappeared, leaving Tony in his regular clothes.  Peter let out a silent breath of relief.  Whatever it was couldn’t be that bad then.

“Tony,” Steve said in his Captain America voice, “tell us what’s going on.”  

Peter watched as Steve put his hand on Tony’s back in a gesture of support only to pull away as if he’d been burned, holding his hand out to stare at it.

Steve’s hand was red.  Peter stared at it, seeing but not comprehending.

“Shit.” Rhodey swore the instant he noticed the blood painting Steve’s hand.  The two of them shared a look over Tony’s head and in the next second they were both moving quickly, in unison, turning him to examine his back.

And that’s when Peter saw it.  The entire left side of Tony’s shirt was soaked in blood.  The world around him seemed to tilt and twirl.  Nothing made sense and yet it all made an exact scary kind of sense.  The reason for why Tony had been acting the way he had been clicking into place.  He’d been hurt and hiding it from Peter. But when?  And how?

As soon as they saw the blood soaked shirt, Rhodey and Steve pulled it up, revealing a three inch gash over his left lower back.  No.  Not a gash.  A stab wound.

Rhodey swore again and before Peter could even blink, Steve had gathered Tony up in his arms, carrying him toward a bed surrounded by medical equipment in the back.

“Sam.” Steve beckoned the other man over, and they rolled Tony onto his side, Rhodey putting pressure on the wound as Sam and Steve worked to hook him up to machines.  

Peter watched, feet frozen to the ground, his entire body numb beside a weird tingling in his fingers.

“It’s ok.” Wanda said, suddenly at his side.  He’d been too distracted to even hear her come over.  “Let’s go sit down.” She nudged him toward a bench nearby and somehow his feet managed to unstick and make it over there, his eyes locked on Tony the entire time.

“Peter.” Wanda said as she crouched in front of him, breaking his sight line to Tony.  She squeezed his tingling hands.  “Can you breathe with me?”

It was only then that he noticed he was taking in short harsh staccato breaths like he couldn’t get enough air.  He didn’t even have the breath to answer her, so he nodded, trying to gain control.  He did his best to mimic her as she mimed breathing in deep, holding it and breathing out slowly.  Eventually, he managed to bring his breathing back under control, but he had no clue how long it’d taken.

“Sorry.” He mumbled, feeling embarrassed that he’d lost it so completely in front of an Avenger.

“It’s ok.” She smiled kindly at him.  “It’s not a weakness to care.”  Her eyes saddened after she said it, but Peter could see she meant it.

He nodded, sneaking a glance past her to Tony.  He had an oxygen mask on now and IV lines in place.  Peter couldn’t tell if he was conscious or not but at least he was alive.  For now.  It only brought him a small comfort because Peter knew better than anyone how tenuous a hold life had on a person.  A vision of Ben, sprawled out, bleeding on the ground intruded into his thoughts.

Wanda gave his hands a firm squeeze again, and he swung his gaze back toward her, trying to give her a thankful smile but failing.

How had this even happened?  And how Peter not noticed?  Tony had been in the armor.  He hadn’t taken it off.  How could he have gotten stabbed?  

Research.  

The word popped into Peter’s mind along with the image of Tony crouching down to pick up that weird knife. Where had it gone?  Peter searched the floor and noticed it over by the wall where Tony had been standing before everything had gone sideways.

The blue glow seemed to taunt him.  It all made an awful sort of sense.  The blade must’ve pierced the nanotech armor.

But how?

#febuwhump2021 #febuwhump #irondad

[beyond-far-horizons]

Rhythm of War reactions so far (half way through.)

I caved despite mountains of work and I’m half way through Rhythm of War! So many cool things so much I could scream about, so many cosmere links! Bit right now I’m just gonna throw it out there that I think Thaidakar is a dragon like Hoid’s friend. No idea if this is true (and don’t confirm or deny til I’m through the book please.)

Spoiler reactions for RoW so far and rest of Cosmere Book (poss) so far under the cut. If you do respond please don’t spoil me for the rest of the book!

KALADIN!!! My baby! My boy! Someone help him! Someone give him a hug! But he is doing so well and I love his solo quest/Die Hard in the Tower at the moment. I loled officially at Kaladin Stormblessed the Psychiatrist who discovers group therapy! It’s a little on the nose to be honest but I still liked it.

F*ck Moash #noredemption. Although LOL that Kaladin is officially a thorn in Odium’s side (payback time pal!) and yeah I BET you want to turn him. I admit I loved this section. Enemy/hero connections are always so interesting to me and the metastory with the Shards is the most interesting part of any cosmere book to me apart from maybe Kal-centred stuff. I love seeing the hints of how the emotions/properties of the Shard play out in the narrative/characterisation as it’s one of the main themes in my own WIP and magic systems. Odium seems to break the power of Shards by targeting their main Intent (as someone else suggested). I predict Kaladin will stick with Honor and conquer the Hatred in his heart as Dalinar did. Also ‘Son of Tanavast’...I don’t think Kaladin is physically Tanavast’s son but I think spiritually he is, which is why he suffers so. He’s def key to something, protected from harm but for a better reason than he is led to believe. We’ll see. 

Poor Shallan! This book is heavy on the mental illness although I am glad it is being addressed in Epic Fantasy and Sanderson’s integration of it with his magic systems is inspired. I really hope Shallan can get through this, she deserves it. PATTERN WTF??? Please no.

I’m much more of a Shaladin/Shalladin (official ship spelling please?) fan and tbh that put me off reading this book at first because I felt really betrayed about how things were developed in OB. I felt it cheapened the deep connection they made in the chasms in WoR to have it as a ‘passion’ thing from Veil etc. Having said that Adolin and Shadolin really shine in this book so far and Shalladin would be a bad choice for both of them right now. (WoB states he developed the love triangle as an echo of a previous thing - most likely Gavilar/Navani/Dalinar and rereading WoR, OB and the start of RoW underlined that both Navani and Shallan commenting on Kaladin/Dalinar’s intensity.) That said I’m really warming to Adolin. I really hope he resurrects Maya and the scene with him demanding a trial with the Honorspren was great. PheonixWright!Adolin (Objection!) Nale can be the lawyer for the opposition.

WHIMSY. INVENTION. MERCY. VALOUR!!!!!!!! Also Harmony getting on the scene! Go Sazed. My first thought about the sword he mentions was Kaladin who keeps fighting with the protect/kill thing throughout the book and series but he’s not connected (Connected) to Scadrial (yet). Same for Nightblood and Szeth so I’m not sure. Also I feel and hope that Sazed is a lot wiser a Vessel than many of the originals. Who knows as we mostly haven’t seen them esp in their original uninfluenced selves. Also what’s the issue with Mercy? I get a really creepy feeling from that tbh. It’s interesting how a supposedly wholesome Intent could be twisted.

Talking about that...Rayse/Odium...I like that we are getting hints of more human feelings from him but I’m still not convinced by the whole Passion/Hatred thing. His Shard’s name is Odium - Hatred. That is a very specific emotion. From WoB it’s indicated he might be lying to himself but he doesn’t seem that hateful to be honest and neither do a lot of his forces. I mean I was expecting Dark Lord levels of torment. It makes it more interesting, but I’m a little concerned the concept of ‘Passion’ being tainted by this association in a meta way. Unless Odium used to be Passion and it got twisted by Rayse which is possible but the text at present doesn’t really support that...hmm. Looking forward to the showdown between him and Dalinar/Kaladin and Hoid - yesssss!

Also Hoid....WTF is going on with Jasnah??? I mean I could ship it but...yeah what is going on? Also this frustrates me because Brandon is being very coy with Hoid’s knowledge here and I feel this doesn’t work in the narrative and characterisation. I feel we need a scene establishing Jasnah/Dalinar trying to force Wit to say what he knows and him establishing to them (and us) that he can’t be forced. Because right now he’s just blithely being allowed to waltz around wisecracking with cosmere-saving knowledge in his head that could be vital to Jasnah and Dalinar and...they are just letting him? Bit of a stretch. I know they likely can’t force him and need to keep him on side but we need to see that. 

Ghostbloods!!!! I confess I like Mraize far more than I should. Until he hunted Lift and then I wanted Kaladin to kick him off the side of the tower. That was a shame to me - there are so many possibilities to a book (like Atium I guess) and one I was really hoping for after the shock/horror of the attack of Urithiru was realising there were some seriously powerful people there who could combat the Fused - Kaladin, Lift, Mraize and Zahel. I just really want to see Zahel let go and kick some ass properly and tell everyone his secret. Still it makes sense that Mraize would play both sides and I guess it’s more interesting that way but still screw him! (Pun intended because I still like sexy bad guys.)

Navani - the engineering sections can be difficult to get through but I’m so here for her arc and her scholarly battle of wits with the Lady of Wishes. (Again with the complex enemy/protag dynamics). I LOVE that there are so many multifaceted women (and femalen) characters at all levels and esp a STEM older female character. I hope she becomes the new Bondsmith of the Sibling although it’s again a little on the nose considering she is married to the first one.

The Singer stuff is interesting to a certain extent and Leshwi in particular is cool but I admit I’m just not as invested (lol) in them as I am in the rest of it. Fingers crossed for Venli and Rlain to win the day though (also again I love the genderflip of those two and her having to pretend to want him as love-slave which is usually what happens the other way around. Brandon is getting really good at this stuff and I appreciate it.)

I’m sad we missed some key development in the timeskip but I guess for pacing this was important. Some of the casual language still annoys me esp when Brandon’s worldbuilding is so interesting as it just seems lazy and out of place. I know some people like it but it’s my opinion that seeing things like ‘neat’ and ‘teenagers’ brings me straight back to 21st Century America when I had just been in a world of Stormlight and Greatshells. There’s better ways of conveying those ideas than reverting to our slang developed from a specific subset of our world. Anyway....

Overall enjoying it much more than I though. Onward!

#stormlight archive #rhythm of war #spoilers #brandon sanderson #shalladin #kaladin #shallan #I can't tag them all but you get it #don't comment on anything beyond C64 please

[distortstep]

let’s! talk! about! religion! in sinnoh!

or, at the very least, my interpretation of it. before i start, i have to state that it would be wrong for me to pretend that sinnohian lore has no connection to christianity. however, i do think it’s important to note that in japan, christian imagery is used in the same way that ancient greek imagery is used in a lot of western media - that is to say, for the aesthetisim rather than a deeper meaning. ( “Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious. […] we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool.” - Assistant Director of Evangelion. ) as such, i don’t think it’s very fair to base the sinnohian religion directly off of christianity when it ignores a lot of cool lore !  sorry for the length in advance bc oh my god.  tl;dr: sinnoh religion is based in the belief that arceus created the universe and that the difference between people and pokemon is artificial. rather, people and pokemon used to be interchangeable, and humanity should strive to repair this severed bond with pokemon and become one once more as arceus intended.  ( if you only want to read a section, skip down to ‘practice of believers’ ) 

the basics: while you can debate whether or not all of this is true, this seems to be how sinnoh folklore, and hence the main religion, perceives all these beliefs.  when there was nothing, arceus, the original one, was born from an egg. the shards of the universe became each of the typing plates that arceus wields. the power of these plates are shared among all pokemon. arceus then created dialga, palkia, and giratina, though giratina had been forgotten through history. from these three, matter and antimatter are made. to bind space and time, azelf, uxie, and mesprit are created, and of them spirit is created. with the universe now made, arceus went to slumber in the hall of origin, only to be awoken by the azelf flute.  this is probably the most basic and well known understanding of the religion in sinnoh both in universe and out of universe, give or take a few things. however, once you go into the sinnoh folklore stories, i think a bit more detail of the religion and beliefs shine through! some of these might be a stretch but bare with me.

folklore and belief:  the connection between pokemon and people as with little separation is heavily emphasized in sinnohian folklore, with variation moving to the idea of evolution of humans from pokemon or, what will be argued here, that pokemon and people are no different at all. “ There lived a pokemon in a forest. in the forest, the pokemon shed its hide to sleep as a human. awakened, the human dons the pokemon hide to roam villages. “ - sinnoh folk story 2  “ People and Pokémon, too, were but the same presence. As I understand it, people and Pokémon shared the spirit and awareness. They should have understood and accepted each other then. Because they shared the same spirit, people and Pokémon intermingled. People took the place of Pokémon, and the opposite also held true. “    - hiker, arceus triggered event in pokemon platinum.  however, the most obvious example of this is in sinnoh folklore 3. though it was changed in localization, i’ll be using the original japanese to emphasize the point.  “ there were once pokemon that married people. there were once people that married pokemon. this was a normal thing because long ago people and pokemon were the same. “  followers of sinnoh’s religion not only believe in the creation of the world through arceus’s hand, but that there serves no meaningful distinguishment between humans and pokemon. this would explain a seeming ability for the people of folklore to be able to communicate with pokemon, and why it is heavily believed that ghosts of people can turn into pokemon. the spirit of the two are the same, and the connection the two had as one has been lost in the current day. practice of believers:  this is mostly headcanon stuff, but when you enter the cathedral, an older woman and a child both speak about the connections of people to pokemon - with the former, it’s about how pokemon and people both should be judged on character rather than weakness and strength, and with the latter, if humans and pokemon join hands, the world will be one.  followers of arceus believe that humans and pokemon were the same in the past, able to not only work together, but trade places in the world. this is the ideal state to create peace in the future and must be strived towards. however, through the hubris of humanity, people to begin not only see pokemon as separate from them, but as their inferiors. using pokemon as tools, hurting pokemon, treating them without care for their own benefit, it came to be that the spirit of humanity and pokemon was severed.  in order to create a future in which pokemon and people are the same once more, just as arceus intended, Their followers believe that the bonds between pokemon and people must be strengthened so the spirit can be reforged. once this ideal is recreated, true peace and happiness of all will be obtained. some followers of arceus believe that once the bond is fixed, arceus will awaken from Their slumber and return to bless the world. others believe that arceus will awaken and return only to cast judgement upon the world - not based on those who follow the world of arceus, but rather smiting the wicked who harm pokemon. the topic of the morality of trainers is somewhat contested - some followers believe that to catch pokemon is not only unnatural but puts humans in a ‘ master and slave ‘ situation with their pokemon; hence, trainers and all others who catch pokemon are only causing harm. this belief is only popular among a small subset of followers, however. most commonly, it is thought that through the catching and raising of pokemon, the bond of people and pokemon can be properly rebuilt. in this understanding, the capture is not forced upon a pokemon, but rather a willing action from the pokemon to fix the spirit from their end too.  if you are to love and see a pokemon as your friend, your family, your child, and if your heart and just and true, your spirit will have been permanently welded with the spirit of your pokemon, and the two of you are as one, inseparable even after death. this is the ideal of a trainer and what will bring the world back to its roots. it is said that those virtuous who have seen legendary pokemon, let alone interact with one, have have met this ideal, and are viewed very highly by the followers of arceus. 

#im actually gonna ask if you see this tag and read through to maybe like this post #its ok if you unlike it im just gonna be embarrassed if i put so much dumb effort into this and no one read it kawheakwehwajkeaw #i feel really silly bc most of it is repitition of just game stuff but whatever #ANYWAYS plat is a follower of arceus so yeah it does effect her potrayal #religion / #♡「 hc.」 #though shes of a very small subsect relating to the forgiveness of giratina

[grimelords]

I’m all caught up and presenting my August playlist just in time for September to end! Disco! Italo-pop! 90s gangsta rap! 3 hours worth of music for everyone!

Good To Me - THP: The most surefire way I’ve found to track down a great song you’ve never heard before is to look up every single sample on the Duck Sauce album. It has quite literally not failed me yet. This song is great, and being so used to the sped up sample in Goody Two Shoes this song sounds like the expanded chopped and screwed version to me which is even better.

Who Do You Love - THP: The other thing about THP is they’re extremely hard to search on Spotify because it thinks you’re trying to type ‘The’ and suggests 'The Beatles’ which is helpful.

Beleriand - The Middle East: I started rereading The Lord Of The Rings this month, and even got so deep in it that I started reading the Silmarillion for the first time and I suddenly remembered the time The Middle East wrote a song about Melkor and Angband and all that. Maybe the best Lord Of The Rings song I’ve heard almost exclusively for the drum work in the intro before it really settles into its Tolkein vibe.

Dead - San Fermin: I love this song but god I wish it were louder and more out of control. The sax sounds great but every other part isn’t nearly as turned up to 11 as it should be. The problem is that everyone in this band is such a professional they don’t know how to play like the maniacs this song deserves!

Tuesday Fresh Cuts - Bree Tranter: I’ve been looking up what all the members of The Middle East have done since they broke up and the best thing I’ve found is Rohin Jones writing music for a Dulux Paint commercial after the verse in Ninth Avenue Reverie about the guy who sniffs paint every night and dreams about being dead. Anyway as far as I can tell Bree Tranter is the one that’s had the most consistent and normal output since they broke up. This song is very much an ultimate night driving type song, except the lyrics are really not great but you can ignore that for how great it sounds, especially near the end when it really gets into a meditative state.

Ted, Just Admit It - Jane’s Addiction: Continuing my Jane’s Addiction phase, I really love this song. This is such a great brooding piece of music before it finally explodes into the declaration that sex is violent. Kind of a shame that it’s a serial killer song because he’s right about everything. Sex IS violent, the tv DO got them images, etc.

Fire Back About Your New Baby’s Sex - Don Caballero: I think this is probably Don Caballero’s most popular song, and with good reason. It’s among the most straightforward of their backward-ass songs and gives you a good grounding in how to understand the total chaos that is everything else they’ve done.

Ballad Of Circling Vultures - Pageninetynine: The entire last half of this song, when it slows down, is one of the best things I’ve ever heard. It feels like the entire mix begins to close in around you as it gets darker and darker before a door slams and you wake up somewhere else entirely.

You’ve Never Been Alone - Andrea Balency: I was watching this live video of Mount Kimbie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6co64HYurg and they’ve got like a full band now! They’ve been slowly expanding from a duo and I suppose it makes sense because their last album really sounded like a band playing in a room rather than two guys on computers. Anyway it turns out the woman in their band is Andrea Balency and this song of hers is very beautiful and you can see exactly why they asked her to join.

The Conspiracy Of Seeds - 65daysofstatic: I was going through Circle Takes The Square’s performance credits on discogs (very cool hobby) and found out they’re credited on this 65dos song and was shocked that I didn’t know that already. It feels like they pretty much split the song down the middle and did half each, which is great!

Spanish Sahara (Deadboy remix) - Foals: This song isn’t on Australian spotify as far as I can tell, so if you’re in the UK I think you can listen to this. Otherwise it’s on youtube for everyone here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk24ujPN4Lo This is probably one of my favourite pieces of music ever, it’s such a beautiful remix even though it’s not particularly far from the original. It just does the work of focusing the vibe down to a laser point. I love how mechanical every part of it is contrasting against the dreamy vocals and organ, until it almost feels overloaded with hats and clicks in the highest points before it focuses down again and introduces the bassline alone. Then the last section! The stabbing insistence of the synth driving the whole thing to a fever pitch.

T69 Collapse - Aphex Twin: I’ve never been huge on Aphex Twin because all his songs sound like you pressed the demo button on a keyboard and then turned the tempo way up but I really like this one, almost exclusively for the bassline the comes in in the second half after the big space-out breakdown. It’s groovy! It’s the most I’ve ever liked the evil man!

Kansas City Star - Kasey Musgraves: The Kasey Musgraves album everyone was going wild for didn’t really do much for me but this cover is so fantastic, the slight melody change she’s done to the chorus is such an improvement and really makes it soar. Also google is good because right now the 25th image result for 'kacey musgraves’ is a deviantart pic where someone’s photoshopped her to be extremely obese called Kollosal Katy. Not really related to the song but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Pyramids - Frank Ocean: A big group of friends and I went to karaoke a couple of weeks ago and the version of Pyramids they had didn’t even have the second half! If I can’t subject everyone to ten full minutes of me doing it badly then what’s the DAMN point?

Aqua - Eurythmics: I heard this song on NTS and was instantly in love with the lyrics. Don’t touch me, don’t talk to me, throw me in the water, watch me drown! It’s that simple!

gonk steady one - Autechre: I went and saw Autechre when they were here a few months ago and I’m still thinking about it because it was like a multiplayer dream. They insisted on total darkness and everyone just kind of stood still or sat down for the whole show in the dark while an endless wave of sound from another dimension washed over us all. Then eventually the music stopped and the lights came on and I never actually saw Autechre the whole time I was there. I’m still working my way through their fucking 8 hour long new album but this is an early highlight. I don’t know how to explain this but it sounds good. It sounds like music by and for aliens that we can listen to and understand a small part of.

Poor Kakarookee - Venetian Snares: I was listening to this song and thinking the other day there’s a certain subset of Venetian Snares songs that sound like that bit from Parks and Rec where Adam Scott is like 'could a depressed person do THIS?’ and is holding up his deformed little stop motion figure from the deformed little stop motion movie he’s making. This is absolutely one of those songs. It’s a great song but it’s one of those songs.

Future People - Alabama Shakes: For a long time the only Alabama Shakes song I’d heard was Don’t Wanna Fight because it was just so good I figured there was no need to go further, which it turns out was extremely wrong because this whole album is completely killer. I just can’t believe her voice. The album version is great but the live version really shows it off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbR999N5MiALa 

Mia Mania - Giani Morandi: I rewatched all of Harvey Birdman a couple of weeks ago and finally looked up what the song is in this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xkhqce43mA because it gets stuck in my head all the time, and the only version I could find is this one with vocals which sounds even better!

Capriccio - Gianni Morandi: Then I dug deeper and started looking up the rest of this guy’s songs and totally loved it. There’s nothing better than digging around and finding what you think is some obscure artists before looking them up and finding out they’re incredibly famous and like the Italian Neil Diamond.

Parli Sempre Tu - Gianni Morandi: This is my favourite of his just for the insane pitch shifted vocal at the start, what an insane piece of sound for 1964! I’m desperate to know how they made it.

Forgotten Children - Mouse On The Keys: I suddenly remembered Mouse On The Keys the other day and thank god. They’re an instrumental band that’s two pianists and a drummer that looks like its jazz because of the instrumentation but is really more like post-hardcore in execution.

Can’t Get Right - Ghost-Note: I normally don’t go in much for this sort of drum clinic type music for musicians only but the central groove in this is just so good. It feels like two completely different songs playing at the same time, except if that sounded good. I found it because the bass genius Mono Neon played on it, watch the video and see if you can tell which one is named Mono Neon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVw1b4gVYrU Also one of the guys seems to be playing a vibraphone that is a midi controller which I have never seen before in my life.

Shoot Myself - Venetian Snares: Venetian Snares has such a great melodic sense and it feels kind of underappreciated just because of how much his percussion is at the forefront of every critical appraisal. In songs like this where the drums are more restrained you can really feel the melody and harmony shine through, the layers of cascading synth lines piling up louder and louder before returning to the jazzy organ near the end is just such a beautiful moment.

Bad Boy - Den Harrow: This song sounds like an 11 year old wrote the lyrics and I absolutely love it. The best and most sexy lyrics: “Some dress Valentino, others wear t-shirts to show what a shapely bust they’ve got.”

Summertime - Barney Kessel: Barney Kessel the jazz guitarist that I only found out about this month did a bossa nova album when bossa nova was the biggest thing in the world and it’s so so good. He also does some very interesting playing on it that’s a lot closer to surf rock and rock n roll than anything else I’ve heard of his. This is also a good example of that thing when Stereo sound was brand new where every single instrument is panned hard left or right which is a treat in headphones.

Slice Of Heaven - Dave Dobbyn: It’s kind of a shame that this song never really gets better than the intro but when the intro is this good it’s fine. I remember this song from when I was a kid because it’s on the soundtrack to New Zealand’s first ever feature length animated film, Footrot Flats which I watched a lot.

Sailin Da South - ESG + DJ Screw: The hardest part about putting any one song from 3 N Tha Morning Part Two on a playlist is they’re not designed for that and it sounds awful and cruel to cut them off like that. So really instead of listening to this song listen to the whole album and turn purple.

Right Action - Franz Ferdinand: I think Franz Ferdinand deserve better than the sort of one hit wonder status they’ve got, because they’ve got a lot of great songs and this is one of them, and probably the danciest summary of the Noble Eightfold Path I’ve ever heard.

The Thing That Should Not Be - Metallica: I have done zero research but to me the 80s feels like the decade when HP Lovecraft and the Cthulu mythos really hit the mainstream. Dungeons and Dragons and all that. Anyway apparently Cliff Burton was a huge Lovecraft fan and they would all read his stories in the tour van which is a funny thing to imagine. Metallica have five or six Lovecraftian songs and the bulk of them were written after Cliff Burton died which is sort of touching in a way. Paying tribute to your friend by invoking the nameless horror that sleeps in R'lyeh.

Waters Of Nazareth x We Are Your Friends x Phantom - Justice: Justice’s new album is so good because it’s sort of halfway between a remix album, a live album and a Best Of. It’s essentially a studio live album, or maybe just a live recording straight from the soundboard with no crowd noise. Either way it’s great and leads to incredible three way mashups of their best songs like this one.

Mr Ice Cream Man (feat. Silkk The Shocker) - Master P: I was thinking about how you don’t really hear about Master P these days, but according to the first result when you google 'richest rappers’ he’s doing fine with a net worth of $227 million, which is more than Eminem. So good for him. Even if his music hasn’t really lasted I’m sure his many, many business dealings will leave him in good stead for the rest of his life. I’m just going to copy and paste some phrases from his wiki article here because it’s truly ridiculous: “He has since parlayed his $10,000 initial seed capital investment into a $250 million business empire spanning a wide variety of industries” “As a businessman, Miller was known for his frugality and keeping business expenses down and profit margins high” “He has since invested the millions of dollars he made from his No Limit record company into a travel agency, a Foot Locker retail outlet, real estate, stocks, film, music, and television production, toy making, a phone sex company, clothing, telecommunications, a jewellery line, auto accessories, book and magazine publishing, car rims, fast food franchises, and gas stations.” “Miller also has his own line of beverages, called "Make ‘Em Say Ughh!” energy drinks" “first rapper to establish a cable television network.”

The Party Don’t Stop - Mia X: Anyway via Master P I found Mia X, who sings the hook on Mr Ice Cream Man, and her album is actually good as fuck for an 80 minute No Limit album, mostly because it’s so packed with guests (it feels like everyone else on No Limit is on here, including guys with great names like Mo B. Dick and Kane & Abel, but also Mystikal and Salt N Pepa are here!) that you never get tired of the flow, and the production is nicely varied too.

Shut Up - Stormzy: This is like Stormzy’s biggest song and I’m dumb as fuck because I haven’t heard it until now when I was listening to Functions On The Low and found out he used it as the beat for this song. What an absolute thrill to see this perfect beat back in the limelight thanks to the man bringing grime back to the limelight!

All N’s - Mia X: I wanna talk about the beat on this Mia X song because it’s incredible front to back. (Lyrically this song is fucking great, especially the chorus) but the vocal synth bass sound is just amazing, and the hook melody is the damn 'there’s a place in France where the naked ladies dance’ melody. Every part of it’s insane.

Milk - Kings Of Leon: I got into a real groove this month and learned how to play this whole Kings Of Leon album on guitar for some reason. So now I’ve got that knowledge. But I forgot just how incredible this song is. It’s a testament to how if the music is good enough and the performance is good enough the lyrics can be absolutely anything. By the time he says “she’ll loan you her toothbrush, she’ll bartend your party” I’m already crying.​

listen here

#playlists

[rozegolden]

Probably an unpopular opinion (what else is new) but....

I think it’s problematic that a lot of people, the moment a tragedy occurs, you look for celebrities to speak on things via social media almost instantly.. im not sure what you think that will accomplish but it’s problematic for 3 big reasons:

1. There’s a subset of people acting as if nothing will get done until an influencer/celeb speaks on it because they “have a large platform” (as if y’all dont get things trending on twitter or wherever by your damn selves on the daily as a collective). You don’t need a celebrity to spread awareness. The amount of energy y’all put into spamming about how xyz didnt post on SM about it couldve went toward Y’all collectively uplifting and trending actual activist that are on the ground putting in actual work since you want to shine a spotlight on someone. Then if the celeb does do something you spend more time praising them instead of those doing the actual heavy work.

2. The issue of people not feeling motivated to do something until their fav says something about it. Thats not the problem of the celebrity. Thats the problem of the individuals idolizing the celebrity. Normalizing the stunt of people not jumping unless their fav says to jump aint it. If that is the case (as I’ve seen with the many performative stunts that occurred this summer) the celebrity worship is too much at that point and self reflection is heavily needed (but no one wants talk honestly about that). No celebrity should have the power to sway you like that. You shouldn’t care about situations just because a famous stranger speaks on it. You do not need a celebrity in order to find out about things either. The same app you use to follow/stalk them is the same app you can use to check what’s trending or to see what the people you follow are talking about. (If you’re looking towards SM to be your main source of whats going on in the world that is a whole other issue in itself.)

3. The assumption of not seeing a person post on SM about something = them not caring. You guys begging someone to speak on something makes the act from them seem a whole lot less genuine but y’all still eat it up? If the person did it on their own accord, cool, but if they weren’t gonna post about it... also cool. You don’t know what they do behind the scenes but your initial thought is to look for a hashtag of some sort. But overall it’s not needed. It shouldn’t be needed. Can they bring funds? Yes. It should be up to them to donate and not have it be a source of good PR while trying to please the masses.

This isn’t me caping for celebs at all, but it is me saying people need to be more accountable and selfaware of their own personal actions a hell of a lot more. It’s also me saying celebrities need to be taken off of their pedestals and not to be looked to for guidance and the sort and seen as holding more power than they actually have.

#personal opinion #i have my own other seperate thoughts on the narcissistic tendencies of plenty celebs too but thats another post #i just am tired and bored of seeing a travesty occur and it’s immediately followed by some unrelated celeb #its a weird thing to do and i feel like im the only person who sees it as such sometimes

[scuttleboat]

Review: Thor Ragnarok

(no plot spoilers until the replies/reblogs)

I've seen Thor: Ragnarok twice now, and my head is buzzing with all the things that I wish this film could have been. It's good but it's not great and that comes down to needing a portion---just a PORTION---of restraint.

I'd give it a B. Very rewatchable, fun action, winning performances, highest Cool Factor of the Thor films so far, and fabulous music, art, and CGI.

And yet, it had some problems. First off: 30% less comedy. Just cut out a third of the jokes right off the bat. Sure the movie is hilarious but it's often trying so hard to be funny in moments when humor is unnecessary, that it completely undercuts the impact of its own story. The tonal shifts in this movie are jarring, and much of the drama around Asgard feels empty and unimportant because the movie is so careless about it.

My big gripe is that they used the same style of joke--undercutting the tension--on EVERYONE. They used it with the heroes and the villains, the supporting characters and the leads. It quickly became a thing where that style of delivery had a dulling effect on me. You just... That's not good, guys. Humor should come from characterization, so a joke about Thor should be presented differently from a joke about Loki or a joke about Hella. Now, they DID manage this with Banner; most of the humor around him had a character-centric tone, and wasn't just about taking the piss out of everything all the time. The humor around him was mostly about the ways that Hulk is inherently a funny concept. The only moment with Banner that I didn't like was his "you're just using me, you're not my friend, thats gross." Like... Too on the nose guys. Taking the joke and pushing it too far until it's out of character. Since when does Banner care about people being his friends? Especially someone he's got the least relationship with on the Avengers. His character has run away from friendships and relationships so many times in the MCU that it doesn't work for him to be complaining about it, it doesn't come off as something he'd say. That line is just so... parody. Cut it. Let it go into the bloopers.

The undercutting style of humor worked best with Valkyrie--whose character is naturally positioned in the plot to undercut Thor anyway--and with the Grand Master, who is baked from Jeff Goldblum already. But even with the Grand Master, there were moments when it was too much, laid on too heavy. Ex: the aside about interrupting, about prisoners with jobs. Both went on too long. But overall, this style of humor was best suited to Sicar and the characters on it, because it was already a strange and absurdist place. Thor as a character shined nicely there, and a lot of his humor worked too, as part of that world. Chris Hemsworth has fantastic comic timing, and he sells ANYTHING. The most over the top stuff, he sells it. The movie does good with that, but... again, they abuse it. They undercut too much, too often, and some for the jokes come off as just things that the director thought would be funny, rather than jokes that work for Thor himself. The tone was a little to SNL or sketch comedy sometimes. Character sacrificed for a pithy line.

No plotline was more impacted by this creative over-indulgence than Asgard. Start off with Hella: great character, convincing threat, and fabulous headdress (my favorite CGI in the movie). If her character is going to be effective, you get ONE JOKE with her. ONE joke in this undercutting style. A character like her, so full of flair and drama and camp...you've got to treat any jokes around her like precious gifts not to be given lightly. She has to remain the "straight" character int the comedy flow, so that it contrasts with the Sicar stuff, and so that when you do get ONE JOKE, it will be by comparison the best fucking joke in the movie. But taking little asides to make her funny is just... no no no. T whole subset of jokes about her as a disappointed boss to Scourge... no. Ugh, why. It doesn't fit. Stop it. And the stuff in front of the crowd, so tonally wrong. Stop trying so hard with her! The best stuff from Hella was with the two princes and when they do or don't look like dad, which barely qualify as jokes and thus WERE MORE EFFECTIVE. There were so many compelling things about her character, but when the script or director applies this flat undercutting humor to her, it completely saps away the cool and the interest. Ugh...you can sap the cool away from your protagonists, but you don't want to take a single ounce of cool from the villain. Once you do that, nothing in the film has any stakes. At that point, we might as well be watching another post-Avengers SNL skit.

Also, let's talk about Korg for a minute. The rock guy. I...did not like that joke. His whole premise was not inherently funny to me, and then they OVER USED HIM. So much, all time. God, he would not go away. The director Waititi was way too indulgent with his self-insert part. Much too often the Korg character was there just to say a "funny" line for the sake of it, not a line that fit the story. And about half of his lines fell utterly flat with me. Again, he's a character type that should have the most humorous impact when he is used judiciously.

I had a few other complaints, mostly about the static natural of some of the characters, but the comedy balance was my big issue with it. It needed 30% less humor, and needed for more of the humor to come uniquely *from* the characters themselves, not just from the director's personal comic style. If they cut down a portion, then the humor would have landed with a lot more richness, as would the drama. They basically used this movie to make a parody of the MCU, and while I love parodies, that doesn't mean I want one of the films in the MCU to become one. That's what a blooper reel is for.

I really like this movie, but it's a B grade. 8/10. And that's too bad, because with the little bit of editorial oversight, this could have been an A.

and for God's sake, did Loki need THAT much makeup?

#thor #thor ragnarok #thor x loki #thor x valkyrie #chris hemsworth #tessa thompson #cate blanchett #tom hiddleston

[doycetopia]

The Real Dark Side of Star Wars: Spoilers

[This is a repost of a post I wrote about two years, which has inexplicably disappeared from the site.]

I need to talk about something pretty shitty, but it requires a little background information, first.

Many of you probably already know this background info, but some of you don’t, so I’m filling it in for them; everyone else, please bear with.

I doubt it will surprise anyone to know I’m a long time Star Wars fan boy.

Am I the biggest Star Wars fan boy who’s ever lived? No, most certainly not.

In fact (and this bit will shock the less-super-nerdy out there), there are groups of folks out in the world who, after examining the extent of my exposure to Star Wars “stuff”, would decide quite seriously that I’m not a real Star Wars fan at all, or at least not a serious one.

The funny thing is, it’s hard to even explain this without getting at least somewhat nerdy, but I’m going to try. (In my head, as I write this, I’m talking to my sister, which is how I approach more posts than anyone would imagine.)

Now, a lot of people – most people – who say they like Star Wars mean they like the movies, because that is literally the only Star Wars thing they know about. I’m going to call these folks “mainstream fans.”

Obviously (because as a species, we really can’t leave this kind of shit alone) there is a lot more Star Wars stuff out there – more stuff than you’d readily believe. Games, of course. Comics – fucking walls of comics – and enough novels to fill a library.

Collectively, all the stuff that isn’t the movies has been (until recently) referred to as the Star Wars “Extended Universe” or “EU”. The quality of the stuff varies, and by “varies” I mean some of it is pretty good, and some of it is pants-on-head fucking idiocy that makes Jar Jar Binks look as cool as Chewbacca, by comparison.

How does stuff like that get the official stamp of approval? Pretty simple: George Lucas really likes making money, and people are willing to pay him a whole shit ton of money to play in his backyard, so he lets them write novels with Force-nullifying space-sloths (yes, seriously) and puts the Official Rubber Stamp on it, because (a) he got money and (b) he knew if he ever came out with a movie that contradicted stuff people had written, his version would invalidate all the drek he’d authorized in the past, so who cares?

In general, I don’t follow the EU stuff, and (with the exception of the first Star Wars roleplaying game that anyone licensed) don’t know much about it.

The quick summary: there is miles and miles of EU stuff, set anywhere from 30 thousand years before to several hundred years after the movies ‘mainstream fans’ know; the whole thing is an virtually unchartable hot mess…

And there are fans out there who know every single inch of it. Or most of it. Certainly more of it than I do. I’ll call them super-fans.

Now: I have no beef with those super-fans. None.

Okay so far? Good.

Now: Enter Disney.

A few years ago, Disney acquired the rights to the Star Wars intellectual property and announced they were going to start doing stuff with it, and that George Lucas wouldn’t have very much if anything to do with it. (Which, after the prequels, was kind of a relief to hear.)

And Disney took a long look at the Extended Universe stuff and, after some thought, said “Yeah that’s… nice and all… but… yeah. None of that shit is official anymore.”

Basically, they boiled down “Official Star Wars” to the movies, the Clone Wars animated series that ran a few years ago, and whatever stuff they make from here on out (like the totally amazing and fun Star Wars Rebels show, a couple new novels, and of course the new movies coming out).

All that EU stuff? It’s not the “Extended Universe” anymore; it’s “Star Wars Legends” which, honestly, I think is a great name – it implies these are stories about the Star Wars universe (which they are, of course) but just that: stories. Unverifiable. Unverified. Unofficial. Enjoy them if you want – please, by all means – but know them for what they are.

Most – and I do mean most – super-fans were fine with this: they get to keep the stuff they’re into, and they get the biggest pop-culture engine in the world cranking out new Star Wars stuff until the heat-death of the universe finally invalidates Disney’s copyrights.

Some of the super-fans are not happy, and have decided to be unapologetically shitty human beings about the whole thing. I will call this small, vocal-like-a-screaming-howler-monkey subset of super-fans the “spoiler fans,” and here’s why:

These people have decided that it’s not enough that they have this stuff they like. Because Disney has said it’s not official stuff anymore, that somehow makes it impossible to love that stuff as much as they once did – their love is somehow capped by its lack of an official stamp, and this cannot be allowed to stand.

What do they want? This is pretty funny, actually: they don’t just want Disney to go back and say “okay, that stuff is still at least as official as it was when George Lucas was taking your money and planning on invalidating anything he felt like, whenever he felt like it” – they (apparently) want Disney to keep making EU stuff, in addition to the stuff Disney is already making.

“Well, that’s nice,” you might say, “maybe they want a pony, too?”

And yeah, it’s kind of funny, until you realize the internet has allowed shitty people to be shitty on a far greater scale.

See, they’re trying to hold Star Wars hostage to get Disney to do what they want.

How? They have vowed that they will spoil each and every spoil-able moment in the new movie as loudly and as broadly as possible (which, today, is pretty loud and pretty broad), if Disney doesn’t cave.

You’ve probably seen those image memes on Facebook or whatever, asking people not to spoil the movie. I have, and thought “yeah, it would suck to be spoiled ahead of time.”

Because that can happen by accident. Well-meaning, happy, enthusiastic fans can get on the internet and broadcast out to their friends, joyfully exclaiming about all the stuff they loved about the movie, and accidentally spoil something for someone who hasn’t seen it yet, because how have you not seen it yet?!?

This isn’t that. This is not an accidental thing. This is not your friend loving the movie so much he spills something.

This is a guy standing outside the movie theater before The Empire Strikes Back, waiting for the line to form, and then telling every single person in line “Darth Vader is Luke’s dad.”

Except the guy has a megaphone the whole world can hear, if they aren’t careful, and he shouts the message at unexpected times.

I’m telling you about this, because it already happened to me, and I don’t want it to happen to you.

I leaned about this little movement of spoiler-fans via a friend’s post on Google+.

The very first comment to that post was one of these guys, and all he posted was a spoiler, and I am pretty sure he spoiled probably the biggest plot twist in the movie for me.

Now, obviously, I haven’t seen the movie yet, so how do I know?

Let me put it this way: if that guy who came up to you in line at Empire Strikes Back had said, perfectly straight-faced “Darth Vader is Luke’s dad,” would you have believed him?

Maybe you think about it a bit, and it syncs up with everything you know about the movies thus far, and it syncs up with what you’ve seen in the trailers, and it just seems like a very Star Wars-y plot twist.

Maybe you don’t believe it, completely and totally, but you believe it enough that you will sit down in the theater and, basically, spend the whole movie waiting for that moment to come. Or not.

Even if it doesn’t, you will not have enjoyed the movie as much as you might have, because you were distracted. And if it does happen just as that guy said? Well.

That’s the kind of thing this guy posted. One line. Ten words, and there goes my 100% unmitigated enjoyment of the new movie.

Now, shut up: this isn’t about me. Yes, you’re very sorry about this happening. Yes. I love you. Thank you, now shut up for a sec.

Listen.

These fuckers are out there. They are doing this on purpose. They’re enjoyment of their pile of stuff has been somehow – idiotically – damaged; Disney made their Masters-level knowledge of a made-up universe less important than it already was, so they have decided to shit on every other person who wants to enjoy the new movie, because (apparently) “Fuck anyone who is enjoying themselves, if I am not.”

I don’t care about me. I’ve watched Empire Strikes Back probably thirty times, if not more, and I know – know I will enjoy it when I watch it again, because I’ll be watching it with my kids, and the shine hasn’t come off for them.

Because of that, I know I will enjoy this new movie when I watch it, because I will be watching it with my kids and even if I don’t feel the same sense of surprise and wonder as I might have, they will, and I will still get to feel that, through them.

And I know they will get to feel that, because I’m going to protect them from these… infantile man-children and their shit-spattering temper-tantrum.

Now: why did I write all this? Because I want to try to protect you, too.

When you see spoiler warnings, heed them. Stop thinking of spoilers as “that one little thing my super-happy friend let out after he saw the movie” and start thinking “halitosis-reeking stranger who wants to dip his filthy index finger in my morning coffee.”

From here until you see the movies, absolutely avoid comment sections on any Star Wars-related post on any kind of social media.

Just… for a few days, expect people you don’t know to be kind of shitty for no good reason.

I realize that’s kind of a downer message, but seriously: I want you to enjoy the movie.

And also, yeah: I want those petty fuckers to lose, because fuck them.

(Comments on this post are disabled, for obvious reasons.)

original post

#crosspost #randomaverage

[krestmarketinggroup-blog]

Learning to Re-Share: 4 Strategies to Renew, Refresh, and Recycle Content for Bigger Reach

Posted by  jcar7   In the nearly three years the MeetEdgar blog went live, we’ve published more than 250 posts, written over 300,000 words, searched for hundreds of .gifs, and used our own tool to share our content 2,600 times to over 70,000 fans on social media.

  After all that work, it seems silly to share a post just once. Nobody crumples up an oil painting and chucks it in the trash after it’s been seen one time — and the same goes for your content.

  You’ve already created an “art gallery” for your posts.  Resharing  your content just lets the masses know what you’ve got on display. Even if hundreds or thousands of people have seen it all before, there’s always someone new to your content.

  In a social media landscape that’s constantly changing, building a solid foundation of evergreen content that can be shared and shared again should be a key part of your social media strategy.

  Otherwise, your art gallery is just another building in the city.

  But wait… aren’t we supposed to be writing fresh content?   Yes! One of the biggest misconceptions about resharing is that it’s a spammy tactic. This is just not true — provided that you’re resharing responsibly. We’ll explain how to do that in just a moment.

  Resharing actually does double-duty for your brand. It not only gets the content that you spent your valuable time creating in front of more eyeballs (and  at optimal times , if you want to get fancy), it also frees you up to have more authentic, real-time social interactions that drive people to your site from social media — since you’ve got content going out no matter what.

  Did we mention that  resharing is good for SEO ? Moz Blog readers know that the more people engage with a post, the better your blog or site looks to search engines. And that’s only one facet of the overall SEO boost (and traffic boost!) resharers can see.

  How resharing impacts SEO   Big brands are probably the most prolific content resharers. Heck, they don’t even  think twice  about it:

     BuzzFeed is a perfect example of the value of repeating social updates, because they don’t necessarily NEED to.

  So why do they do it anyway? Because it gets results.

   Social sharing  alone has an impact on SEO, but   social engagement   is really where it’s at. Quality content is totally worth the up-front time and cost, but only if it gets engagement!  You up your chances of engagement with your content if you simply up your content’s exposure. That’s what resharing does awesomely. 

  With literally zero tweaks to the content itself, BuzzFeed made each of those social posts above double in value. Chances are, the people who saw these posts the first time they were shared are not the same people who saw them when they were reshared.

   But simply resharing social posts isn’t the only way to get more engagement with your content.  This post covers how companies large and small do resharing right, and highlights some of the best time-saving content strategies you can implement for your brand right now.

  1 - Start at the source: Give old posts a new look  Lots has changed in five years — the world got three new  Fast & Furious  movies and LKR Social Media  transformed  from a consulting service into social media automation software.

  We’ve done the math: three months is one Internet year and five years is basically another Internet epoch. (This may be a slight exaggeration.) So when we transferred some of our founder’s older evergreen blog posts to the new MeetEdgar blog, we took stock of which of those posts had picked up the most organic traffic.

  One thing that hadn’t changed in five years? A blog post about how  Vin Diesel was winning the social media game  was still insanely popular with our readers:

      Writing blog posts with an eye toward making them as evergreen as possible is one of the smartest, most time-saving-est content marketing strategies out there.

  There weren’t a ton of tweaks to make, but we gave this popular post some love since so many people were finding it. We pepped up the headline, did a grammar and content rundown, refreshed links and images, updated social share buttons, and added more timely content. The whole process took less time than writing a brand new post, and we got to share it with tens of thousands of followers who hadn’t seen it when it was originally published.

  So... check your metrics! Which evergreen posts have performed the best over time? Which have lots of awesome organic traffic? Make a list,  do a content audit , and start updating!

  2 - Find your social sharing “sweet spot” by repackaging your content   When you read studies that say many social media users reshare social posts  without ever clicking through to the content itself … it can be a little disheartening.

  Okay, a LOT disheartening.

  You’ve probably spent tons of time creating your content, and the thought that it’s not getting read NEARLY as often as it could be is a recipe for content marketing burnout. (We’ve all been there.)

  But it’s not all for naught — you might just need to experiment until you find the “sweet spot” that gets people to read and share. One way to do that is to simply repackage content you’ve already written.

   The tried-and-true “best of” post offers a reprieve from the content-creation grind while still delivering tons of value to your fans and readers. 

  Repackaging is best when it  reframes your content  with a new focus — like rounding up similar posts based on a theme. (You can do this  in reverse , too, and turn one great post into a bunch of fresh content to then share and reshare!)

  If you can get people to your site, a “best of” post encourages readers to stay longer as they click links for the different articles you’ve gathered up, and engage with content they may never have thought to look up separately.

  Most fun of all, you can repackage your content to target new or different subsets of your audience on social media. (More on that in the next section.)

  3 - Social shake-up: Reaching and testing with different audiences  “What if the same person recognizes something that I’ve already posted in the past?” you might be asking right about now. “I don’t want to annoy my followers! I don’t want to be spammy!”

  Forget about people resharing social posts without reading the content behind the links —  most people  don’t see your social posts  at all in the first place. 

  This is just one of those uncomfortable facts about the Internet, like how comment sections are always a minefield of awful, and how everyone loves a good startled cat .gif.

  That doesn’t mean you should repeat yourself, word-for-word, all the time. Chances are, you have more than one type of reader or customer, so it’s important not just to vary your content, but also to vary  how you   share it on social media .

  Savvy marketers are all over this tactic, marketing two sides (or more) of the same coin. Here are a couple of examples of social sharing images from a  Mixpanel blog post :

     Option A

     Option B

  Both Option A and Option B go to the same content, but one highlights a particularly juicy stat (problem statement: “97% of users churn”) and the other hits the viewer with an intriguing subheader (solution statement: “behavior-based messaging”). In this way, Mixpanel can find out what pulls in the most readers and tweak and promote that message as needed.

  Pull a cool anecdote from your post or highlight a different stat that gets people excited. It can be as easy as changing up the descriptions of your posts or just using different images. There’s so much to test and try out — all using the same post.

  4 - Automate, automate, automate  Remember,  your best posts are only as good as the engagement they get.  That fact, however, doesn’t mean you have to keep manually resharing them on social media day in and day out.

  Unless, of course, you’re into that boring busywork thing.

  Automating the whole process of resharing evergreen content saves tons of time while keeping your brand personality intact. It also frees you up to have real-time interactions with your fans on social media, brainstorm new post ideas, or just go for a walk, and it  solves the time crunch  and the hassle of manually re-scheduling posts, while actually showcasing  more  of your posts across the massive social media landscape. Just by spacing out your updates, you’ll be able to hit a wider range of your followers.

  (This is probably a good time to check whether your social media scheduling tool offers automatic resharing of your content.)

  Now, social media automation isn’t a substitute for consistently creating great new content, of course, but it does give your existing evergreen content an even  better  opportunity to shine.

  Win with quality, get things DONE with resharing  It’s noisy out there. The law of diminishing returns — as well as declining social reach — means that a lot of what you do on social media can feel like shouting into the void.

  And there’s not a huge ROI for shouting into voids these days.

  Responsible resharing is an important part of your overall content marketing strategy. As long as you keep your content fresh, create new quality content regularly, and talk to your fans  where and when they’re most active , chances are people won’t see the same thing twice. The data shows you’ll get more clicks, more traffic, and better SEO results — not a bad bonus to that whole “saving lots of time” thing.

    Sign up for The Moz Top 10 , a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

http://bit.ly/2v1RsPQ

#smallbusinessmarketing #huntingtonbeachseo #lagunabeachseo #internetmarketing #linkbuilding #articlewriting #blogpower #socialmediamarketing #contentwriting #leadgeneration

#smallbusinessmarketing #huntingtonbeachseo #lagunabeachseo #internetmarketing #linkbuilding #articlewriting #blogpower #socialmediamarketing #contentwriting #leadgeneration

[izzyovercoffee]

Su'cuy, vod! I read through basically all your Mando'a posts and had some thoughts I wanted to share. I semi-actively work on a Mando'a-English-German dictionary, which opens a whole new chest of translation problems, but you gave me some great ideas, so I incorporated them into the dictionary. For example that whole sheath thing, for that I added a remark to the original word, to warn about it's connotation (didn't remove it, because 'real' dictionaries include slurs sometimes as well) 1/X

Only thing, where I differed from your idea on this was cab'gam, I used this as ‘protective case/cover’. Now some other things I thought of: On colours - you pondered about the connotations of yellow regarding ‘just/barely alive’ and its comparison to gold. I thought maybe it’s about flames/light - like a bright vivid flame is a bright gold, while the flame, when it’s only small and ->barely alive

Woo this is a long ask. I’m so sorry I’ve taken so long to get around to answering this, I’ve been very busy!! Also, I think I’m missing part 7? But I think I can extrapolate what was in it, unless you’d like to send it to me again if you still have. I’m so sorry again anon!

I’m good w/ defining cab’gam that way too, maybe as a general term for protective case, since we do technically need a general/generic word for that. So cool, that def works !! I’ll go back and note that on the original post.

Also, yeah. YEAH! You know, when I was working on that post, I didn’t even consider that it might have been referencing intensity of light/fire? But the way you put it, that may actually make more sense than the direction I was going in. I was definitely perplexed somewhat, like I was missing something. This sounds like what I was missing.

That could also apply for the heat of a flame, too. Like, referring to the intensity of the light, or the intensity of the heat, or both, depending entirely on context.

I’ll notate that in my personal references. I’ll probably come back to this in the future if/when I put one long complicated color references/resources post together again. 

Thank you for bringing that up, truly.

Meanwhile I also really like your thought and explanation on yellow and orange maybe being the same for Mandalorians. Another thing I wanted to tell you is sth you already found yourself, that saviin sounds a lot like Sabine, which seems very very likely to me, considering the long i (or rather e - from an anglophone perspective) and that [v] and [b] are very similar sounds, so maybe Sabine is like a basic transcription or a dialect form of Saviin. Regarding the meaning of the colour/name 3/X 

My etymology for it would be the following: “viin”/“bine” being a degenerated/shortened form (or even the root?) of kebiin - blue connected with “sa” - as, like, it gives “sa viin” - “like blue”, what is kind of a good description for purple/violet, implying the standard shade in mandalorian perception would be a darker bluish purple ALSO implying that the concept of purple cam up comparably late in the language, similar of the color orange getting it’s name rather late in germanic languages 4/X

Ohhh that’s such a good point! I was going color by color so I missed the connection in the effort to complete the post, which was an oversight by me sadly. But that’s such a great point ??? 

If anything it might also then directly connect the connotations of blue (reliability) with purple (adaptability, survival in adversity). They who are reliable can be depended on to adapt and survive adversity, or so on, kind of like orange (lust for life) from yellow, as thought about from above (the intensity of the flame). 

(lmao this is so awesome tbh thank you for mentioning both !! I’m like vibrating from excitement from these two points !! is that weird to say lmao let me make this hard to read so I don’t embarass myself too much)

Then I wanted to ask where you got the words cingaanar and din'waadar, as they aren’t included in the dictionary I have, what confused me little, as I also only got search results linking to your very post about it. In another post you questioned the missing of a word for child of parents sibling or was it child of sibling? Anywy, I’d say the explanation is for both rooted in the way Mandalorian society is made up. As we know the ideal is a big clan living together kinda like a commune…. 5/x

so the words cinargaanar and din’waadar were pulled from mandoa.org dictionary, which is the most popular resource. it’s also in one of the editions of the mando’a dictionary that was released via spreadsheets back in the day from Karen Traviss’ site. It looks like those spreadsheets are no longer available to access, so take that with a grain of salt, but essentially mandoa.org was/is the most comprehensive of “canon” mando’a we have to date in easy access to the general person.

Going along the common phrase “it takes a village to raise a child” any capable adult is expected to participate in bringing up the kids, so while it’s known who’s whose child it doesn’t matter enough to be shown in language. So your parent-sib-kids are just your vode (remember, vode an!) and your sib-kids are “ade” as well as your own children, it’s consens that mando'a relies heavily on context, so speaking family internally context tells who your own childs are and who aren’t. Aruetiise.. 6/X 

view about love. For Mandalorians love isn’t really an emotional thing, that’s also why we shouldn’t take “kar'taylir darasuum” lit. as “hold sm. eternally in the heart”, but rather just as “knowing someone forever”. Knowing someone for so long (or so good/deep it feels like forever) that you can unconditionally trust them and you have a strong bond with each other, that’s the mandalorian meaning of “love” With having “love” as such a hard-to-achieve state of sentiment it isn’t surprising… 8/X

Okay so it looks like I’m missing part 7/X and I’m so sorry if you don’t have it around anymore. I think I can extrapolate the meaning/context though. Again, I’m so sorry for the delay in responding.

wrt children of my siblings, I can see what you mean by that for sure. If anything, maybe instead of inferring them as vode, maybe the “proper” way is to refer to them as if they are your own children? As you mentioned “it takes a village to raise a child,” I’m wondering, now, if it’s more like … because mandalorians are so community-centered / focused, if the polite thing is to indicate that these children are “your” children, as they’re just as much an aunt/uncle’s responsibility as anyone else.

We certainly see Kal Skirata refer to all children as kid/s, or his kids even if he has no intention of adopting them. Since he’s supposed to be a representation of appropriate parenthood (all of our issues regarding him notwithstanding), perhaps niece/nephew isn’t a specificity that is seen as necessary — maybe it’s considered an unreasonable boundary specifically when it comes to children. Notsomuch the adults, as mandalorians can divorce authority, but children are sacred and unnecessary boundaries may interfere with that?

It’s something to think about at least.

edit:: with some mulling over w/ @cassiansfuzzyjacket I’d like to note that it may be inappropriate to claim that one’s sibling’s child is “your” child, as a child’s parents still inhabit an entirely different role and space than aunts and uncles. it’s more likely KT never thought about it and thus that’s why it’s missing, but ultimately YMMV. 

wrt love, that’s definitely a possibility. I feel like love and its interpretations is contingent on … cultural … interpretations? Notsomuch in-universe as the general audience (like you and me) and what we bring from the context of our lives and perception and place upon difficult concepts such as love.

I’m definitely informed by my experiences, and so how I view love is dramatically different than maybe how you do (or the same!). and I feel like when it comes to defining love from a mandalorian point of view, we need to get into the perspective as its available to use.

what I mean is that I agree with you, when you put it that way. At least, for a good subset of mandalorians if not all of them, love may then require trust, or knowing not as knowledge but deeper than such, exactly as you said. 

it’s certainly how I’ve personally come to view love, and love as a bond that requires a foundation of trust and reliability as opposed to passion that may not be entirely well placed despite best intentions … but then again I have a difficult time myself with the conceptualization of love so I might not be the best person with which to develop words for it. 

It also concerns me bc mandalorians may have this deep difficult and complicated understanding of love, but then also culturally expect people to marry young and stay together … and we’ve seen many, many instances where this often leads to unhappy marriages, or even dramatic power imbalances within the relationship, maybe even rendering them inescapable. So how does one bridge these dramatically opposing ideals?

I mean context and culture already has, as divorce is a clearly supported thing across different power differentials so maybe the expectations aren’t restricted by law. Something to think about, in any case.

Thank you so much for your thoughts! You’ve given me a LOT to think about and mull over, and I deeply deeply appreciate it. Thank you. Vor’entye.

#mando'a #mandalorians #Anonymous #long post for ts #izzy talks mando'a #replies.txt #meta #meta: mandalorians #meta: mando'a #v: star wars #Izzy talks mandalorians

[doycetopia]

The Real Dark Side of Star Wars: Spoilers

[This is a repost of a post I wrote about two years, which has inexplicably disappeared from the site.]

I need to talk about something pretty shitty, but it requires a little background information, first.

Many of you probably already know this background info, but some of you don’t, so I’m filling it in for them; everyone else, please bear with.

I doubt it will surprise anyone to know I’m a long time Star Wars fan boy.

Am I the biggest Star Wars fan boy who’s ever lived? No, most certainly not.

In fact (and this bit will shock the less-super-nerdy out there), there are groups of folks out in the world who, after examining the extent of my exposure to Star Wars “stuff”, would decide quite seriously that I’m not a real Star Wars fan at all, or at least not a serious one.

The funny thing is, it’s hard to even explain this without getting at least somewhat nerdy, but I’m going to try. (In my head, as I write this, I’m talking to my sister, which is how I approach more posts than anyone would imagine.)

Now, a lot of people – most people – who say they like Star Wars mean they like the movies, because that is literally the only Star Wars thing they know about. I’m going to call these folks “mainstream fans.”

Obviously (because as a species, we really can’t leave this kind of shit alone) there is a lot more Star Wars stuff out there – more stuff than you’d readily believe. Games, of course. Comics – fucking walls of comics – and enough novels to fill a library.

Collectively, all the stuff that isn’t the movies has been (until recently) referred to as the Star Wars “Extended Universe” or “EU”. The quality of the stuff varies, and by “varies” I mean some of it is pretty good, and some of it is pants-on-head fucking idiocy that makes Jar Jar Binks look as cool as Chewbacca, by comparison.

How does stuff like that get the official stamp of approval? Pretty simple: George Lucas really likes making money, and people are willing to pay him a whole shit ton of money to play in his backyard, so he lets them write novels with Force-nullifying space-sloths (yes, seriously) and puts the Official Rubber Stamp on it, because (a) he got money and (b) he knew if he ever came out with a movie that contradicted stuff people had written, his version would invalidate all the drek he’d authorized in the past, so who cares?

In general, I don’t follow the EU stuff, and (with the exception of the first Star Wars roleplaying game that anyone licensed) don’t know much about it.

The quick summary: there is miles and miles of EU stuff, set anywhere from 30 thousand years before to several hundred years after the movies ‘mainstream fans’ know; the whole thing is an virtually unchartable hot mess…

And there are fans out there who know every single inch of it. Or most of it. Certainly more of it than I do. I’ll call them super-fans.

Now: I have no beef with those super-fans. None.

Okay so far? Good.

Now: Enter Disney.

A few years ago, Disney acquired the rights to the Star Wars intellectual property and announced they were going to start doing stuff with it, and that George Lucas wouldn’t have very much if anything to do with it. (Which, after the prequels, was kind of a relief to hear.)

And Disney took a long look at the Extended Universe stuff and, after some thought, said “Yeah that’s… nice and all… but… yeah. None of that shit is official anymore.”

Basically, they boiled down “Official Star Wars” to the movies, the Clone Wars animated series that ran a few years ago, and whatever stuff they make from here on out (like the totally amazing and fun Star Wars Rebels show, a couple new novels, and of course the new movies coming out).

All that EU stuff? It’s not the “Extended Universe” anymore; it’s “Star Wars Legends” which, honestly, I think is a great name – it implies these are stories about the Star Wars universe (which they are, of course) but just that: stories. Unverifiable. Unverified. Unofficial. Enjoy them if you want – please, by all means – but know them for what they are.

Most – and I do mean most – super-fans were fine with this: they get to keep the stuff they’re into, and they get the biggest pop-culture engine in the world cranking out new Star Wars stuff until the heat-death of the universe finally invalidates Disney’s copyrights.

Some of the super-fans are not happy, and have decided to be unapologetically shitty human beings about the whole thing. I will call this small, vocal-like-a-screaming-howler-monkey subset of super-fans the “spoiler fans,” and here’s why:

These people have decided that it’s not enough that they have this stuff they like. Because Disney has said it’s not official stuff anymore, that somehow makes it impossible to love that stuff as much as they once did – their love is somehow capped by its lack of an official stamp, and this cannot be allowed to stand.

What do they want? This is pretty funny, actually: they don’t just want Disney to go back and say “okay, that stuff is still at least as official as it was when George Lucas was taking your money and planning on invalidating anything he felt like, whenever he felt like it” – they (apparently) want Disney to keep making EU stuff, in addition to the stuff Disney is already making.

“Well, that’s nice,” you might say, “maybe they want a pony, too?”

And yeah, it’s kind of funny, until you realize the internet has allowed shitty people to be shitty on a far greater scale.

See, they’re trying to hold Star Wars hostage to get Disney to do what they want.

How? They have vowed that they will spoil each and every spoil-able moment in the new movie as loudly and as broadly as possible (which, today, is pretty loud and pretty broad), if Disney doesn’t cave.

You’ve probably seen those image memes on Facebook or whatever, asking people not to spoil the movie. I have, and thought “yeah, it would suck to be spoiled ahead of time.”

Because that can happen by accident. Well-meaning, happy, enthusiastic fans can get on the internet and broadcast out to their friends, joyfully exclaiming about all the stuff they loved about the movie, and accidentally spoil something for someone who hasn’t seen it yet, because how have you not seen it yet?!?

This isn’t that. This is not an accidental thing. This is not your friend loving the movie so much he spills something.

This is a guy standing outside the movie theater before The Empire Strikes Back, waiting for the line to form, and then telling every single person in line “Darth Vader is Luke’s dad.”

Except the guy has a megaphone the whole world can hear, if they aren’t careful, and he shouts the message at unexpected times.

I’m telling you about this, because it already happened to me, and I don’t want it to happen to you.

I leaned about this little movement of spoiler-fans via a friend’s post on Google+.

The very first comment to that post was one of these guys, and all he posted was a spoiler, and I am pretty sure he spoiled probably the biggest plot twist in the movie for me.

Now, obviously, I haven’t seen the movie yet, so how do I know?

Let me put it this way: if that guy who came up to you in line at Empire Strikes Back had said, perfectly straight-faced “Darth Vader is Luke’s dad,” would you have believed him?

Maybe you think about it a bit, and it syncs up with everything you know about the movies thus far, and it syncs up with what you’ve seen in the trailers, and it just seems like a very Star Wars-y plot twist.

Maybe you don’t believe it, completely and totally, but you believe it enough that you will sit down in the theater and, basically, spend the whole movie waiting for that moment to come. Or not.

Even if it doesn’t, you will not have enjoyed the movie as much as you might have, because you were distracted. And if it does happen just as that guy said? Well.

That’s the kind of thing this guy posted. One line. Ten words, and there goes my 100% unmitigated enjoyment of the new movie.

Now, shut up: this isn’t about me. Yes, you’re very sorry about this happening. Yes. I love you. Thank you, now shut up for a sec.

Listen.

These fuckers are out there. They are doing this on purpose. They’re enjoyment of their pile of stuff has been somehow – idiotically – damaged; Disney made their Masters-level knowledge of a made-up universe less important than it already was, so they have decided to shit on every other person who wants to enjoy the new movie, because (apparently) “Fuck anyone who is enjoying themselves, if I am not.”

I don’t care about me. I’ve watched Empire Strikes Back probably thirty times, if not more, and I know – know I will enjoy it when I watch it again, because I’ll be watching it with my kids, and the shine hasn’t come off for them.

Because of that, I know I will enjoy this new movie when I watch it, because I will be watching it with my kids and even if I don’t feel the same sense of surprise and wonder as I might have, they will, and I will still get to feel that, through them.

And I know they will get to feel that, because I’m going to protect them from these… infantile man-children and their shit-spattering temper-tantrum.

Now: why did I write all this? Because I want to try to protect you, too.

When you see spoiler warnings, heed them. Stop thinking of spoilers as “that one little thing my super-happy friend let out after he saw the movie” and start thinking “halitosis-reeking stranger who wants to dip his filthy index finger in my morning coffee.”

From here until you see the movies, absolutely avoid comment sections on any Star Wars-related post on any kind of social media.

Just… for a few days, expect people you don’t know to be kind of shitty for no good reason.

I realize that’s kind of a downer message, but seriously: I want you to enjoy the movie.

And also, yeah: I want those petty fuckers to lose, because fuck them.

(Comments on this post are disabled, for obvious reasons.)

original post

#crosspost #randomaverage

[doycetopia]

The Real Dark Side of Star Wars: Spoilers

[This is a repost of a post I wrote about two years, which has inexplicably disappeared from the site.]

I need to talk about something pretty shitty, but it requires a little background information, first.

Many of you probably already know this background info, but some of you don’t, so I’m filling it in for them; everyone else, please bear with.

I doubt it will surprise anyone to know I’m a long time Star Wars fan boy.

Am I the biggest Star Wars fan boy who’s ever lived? No, most certainly not.

In fact (and this bit will shock the less-super-nerdy out there), there are groups of folks out in the world who, after examining the extent of my exposure to Star Wars “stuff”, would decide quite seriously that I’m not a real Star Wars fan at all, or at least not a serious one.

The funny thing is, it’s hard to even explain this without getting at least somewhat nerdy, but I’m going to try. (In my head, as I write this, I’m talking to my sister, which is how I approach more posts than anyone would imagine.)

Now, a lot of people – most people – who say they like Star Wars mean they like the movies, because that is literally the only Star Wars thing they know about. I’m going to call these folks “mainstream fans.”

Obviously (because as a species, we really can’t leave this kind of shit alone) there is a lot more Star Wars stuff out there – more stuff than you’d readily believe. Games, of course. Comics – fucking walls of comics – and enough novels to fill a library.

Collectively, all the stuff that isn’t the movies has been (until recently) referred to as the Star Wars “Extended Universe” or “EU”. The quality of the stuff varies, and by “varies” I mean some of it is pretty good, and some of it is pants-on-head fucking idiocy that makes Jar Jar Binks look as cool as Chewbacca, by comparison.

How does stuff like that get the official stamp of approval? Pretty simple: George Lucas really likes making money, and people are willing to pay him a whole shit ton of money to play in his backyard, so he lets them write novels with Force-nullifying space-sloths (yes, seriously) and puts the Official Rubber Stamp on it, because (a) he got money and (b) he knew if he ever came out with a movie that contradicted stuff people had written, his version would invalidate all the drek he’d authorized in the past, so who cares?

In general, I don’t follow the EU stuff, and (with the exception of the first Star Wars roleplaying game that anyone licensed) don’t know much about it.

The quick summary: there is miles and miles of EU stuff, set anywhere from 30 thousand years before to several hundred years after the movies ‘mainstream fans’ know; the whole thing is an virtually unchartable hot mess…

And there are fans out there who know every single inch of it. Or most of it. Certainly more of it than I do. I’ll call them super-fans.

Now: I have no beef with those super-fans. None.

Okay so far? Good.

Now: Enter Disney.

A few years ago, Disney acquired the rights to the Star Wars intellectual property and announced they were going to start doing stuff with it, and that George Lucas wouldn’t have very much if anything to do with it. (Which, after the prequels, was kind of a relief to hear.)

And Disney took a long look at the Extended Universe stuff and, after some thought, said “Yeah that’s… nice and all… but… yeah. None of that shit is official anymore.”

Basically, they boiled down “Official Star Wars” to the movies, the Clone Wars animated series that ran a few years ago, and whatever stuff they make from here on out (like the totally amazing and fun Star Wars Rebels show, a couple new novels, and of course the new movies coming out).

All that EU stuff? It’s not the “Extended Universe” anymore; it’s “Star Wars Legends” which, honestly, I think is a great name – it implies these are stories about the Star Wars universe (which they are, of course) but just that: stories. Unverifiable. Unverified. Unofficial. Enjoy them if you want – please, by all means – but know them for what they are.

Most – and I do mean most – super-fans were fine with this: they get to keep the stuff they’re into, and they get the biggest pop-culture engine in the world cranking out new Star Wars stuff until the heat-death of the universe finally invalidates Disney’s copyrights.

Some of the super-fans are not happy, and have decided to be unapologetically shitty human beings about the whole thing. I will call this small, vocal-like-a-screaming-howler-monkey subset of super-fans the “spoiler fans,” and here’s why:

These people have decided that it’s not enough that they have this stuff they like. Because Disney has said it’s not official stuff anymore, that somehow makes it impossible to love that stuff as much as they once did – their love is somehow capped by its lack of an official stamp, and this cannot be allowed to stand.

What do they want? This is pretty funny, actually: they don’t just want Disney to go back and say “okay, that stuff is still at least as official as it was when George Lucas was taking your money and planning on invalidating anything he felt like, whenever he felt like it” – they (apparently) want Disney to keep making EU stuff, in addition to the stuff Disney is already making.

“Well, that’s nice,” you might say, “maybe they want a pony, too?”

And yeah, it’s kind of funny, until you realize the internet has allowed shitty people to be shitty on a far greater scale.

See, they’re trying to hold Star Wars hostage to get Disney to do what they want.

How? They have vowed that they will spoil each and every spoil-able moment in the new movie as loudly and as broadly as possible (which, today, is pretty loud and pretty broad), if Disney doesn’t cave.

You’ve probably seen those image memes on Facebook or whatever, asking people not to spoil the movie. I have, and thought “yeah, it would suck to be spoiled ahead of time.”

Because that can happen by accident. Well-meaning, happy, enthusiastic fans can get on the internet and broadcast out to their friends, joyfully exclaiming about all the stuff they loved about the movie, and accidentally spoil something for someone who hasn’t seen it yet, because how have you not seen it yet?!?

This isn’t that. This is not an accidental thing. This is not your friend loving the movie so much he spills something.

This is a guy standing outside the movie theater before The Empire Strikes Back, waiting for the line to form, and then telling every single person in line “Darth Vader is Luke’s dad.”

Except the guy has a megaphone the whole world can hear, if they aren’t careful, and he shouts the message at unexpected times.

I’m telling you about this, because it already happened to me, and I don’t want it to happen to you.

I leaned about this little movement of spoiler-fans via a friend’s post on Google+.

The very first comment to that post was one of these guys, and all he posted was a spoiler, and I am pretty sure he spoiled probably the biggest plot twist in the movie for me.

Now, obviously, I haven’t seen the movie yet, so how do I know?

Let me put it this way: if that guy who came up to you in line at Empire Strikes Back had said, perfectly straight-faced “Darth Vader is Luke’s dad,” would you have believed him?

Maybe you think about it a bit, and it syncs up with everything you know about the movies thus far, and it syncs up with what you’ve seen in the trailers, and it just seems like a very Star Wars-y plot twist.

Maybe you don’t believe it, completely and totally, but you believe it enough that you will sit down in the theater and, basically, spend the whole movie waiting for that moment to come. Or not.

Even if it doesn’t, you will not have enjoyed the movie as much as you might have, because you were distracted. And if it does happen just as that guy said? Well.

That’s the kind of thing this guy posted. One line. Ten words, and there goes my 100% unmitigated enjoyment of the new movie.

Now, shut up: this isn’t about me. Yes, you’re very sorry about this happening. Yes. I love you. Thank you, now shut up for a sec.

Listen.

These fuckers are out there. They are doing this on purpose. They’re enjoyment of their pile of stuff has been somehow – idiotically – damaged; Disney made their Masters-level knowledge of a made-up universe less important than it already was, so they have decided to shit on every other person who wants to enjoy the new movie, because (apparently) “Fuck anyone who is enjoying themselves, if I am not.”

I don’t care about me. I’ve watched Empire Strikes Back probably thirty times, if not more, and I know – know I will enjoy it when I watch it again, because I’ll be watching it with my kids, and the shine hasn’t come off for them.

Because of that, I know I will enjoy this new movie when I watch it, because I will be watching it with my kids and even if I don’t feel the same sense of surprise and wonder as I might have, they will, and I will still get to feel that, through them.

And I know they will get to feel that, because I’m going to protect them from these… infantile man-children and their shit-spattering temper-tantrum.

Now: why did I write all this? Because I want to try to protect you, too.

When you see spoiler warnings, heed them. Stop thinking of spoilers as “that one little thing my super-happy friend let out after he saw the movie” and start thinking “halitosis-reeking stranger who wants to dip his filthy index finger in my morning coffee.”

From here until you see the movies, absolutely avoid comment sections on any Star Wars-related post on any kind of social media.

Just… for a few days, expect people you don’t know to be kind of shitty for no good reason.

I realize that’s kind of a downer message, but seriously: I want you to enjoy the movie.

And also, yeah: I want those petty fuckers to lose, because fuck them.

(Comments on this post are disabled, for obvious reasons.)

original post

#crosspost #randomaverage

[doycetopia]

The Real Dark Side of Star Wars: Spoilers

[This is a repost of a post I wrote about two years, which has inexplicably disappeared from the site.]

I need to talk about something pretty shitty, but it requires a little background information, first.

Many of you probably already know this background info, but some of you don’t, so I’m filling it in for them; everyone else, please bear with.

I doubt it will surprise anyone to know I’m a long time Star Wars fan boy.

Am I the biggest Star Wars fan boy who’s ever lived? No, most certainly not.

In fact (and this bit will shock the less-super-nerdy out there), there are groups of folks out in the world who, after examining the extent of my exposure to Star Wars “stuff”, would decide quite seriously that I’m not a real Star Wars fan at all, or at least not a serious one.

The funny thing is, it’s hard to even explain this without getting at least somewhat nerdy, but I’m going to try. (In my head, as I write this, I’m talking to my sister, which is how I approach more posts than anyone would imagine.)

Now, a lot of people – most people – who say they like Star Wars mean they like the movies, because that is literally the only Star Wars thing they know about. I’m going to call these folks “mainstream fans.”

Obviously (because as a species, we really can’t leave this kind of shit alone) there is a lot more Star Wars stuff out there – more stuff than you’d readily believe. Games, of course. Comics – fucking walls of comics – and enough novels to fill a library.

Collectively, all the stuff that isn’t the movies has been (until recently) referred to as the Star Wars “Extended Universe” or “EU”. The quality of the stuff varies, and by “varies” I mean some of it is pretty good, and some of it is pants-on-head fucking idiocy that makes Jar Jar Binks look as cool as Chewbacca, by comparison.

How does stuff like that get the official stamp of approval? Pretty simple: George Lucas really likes making money, and people are willing to pay him a whole shit ton of money to play in his backyard, so he lets them write novels with Force-nullifying space-sloths (yes, seriously) and puts the Official Rubber Stamp on it, because (a) he got money and (b) he knew if he ever came out with a movie that contradicted stuff people had written, his version would invalidate all the drek he’d authorized in the past, so who cares?

In general, I don’t follow the EU stuff, and (with the exception of the first Star Wars roleplaying game that anyone licensed) don’t know much about it.

The quick summary: there is miles and miles of EU stuff, set anywhere from 30 thousand years before to several hundred years after the movies ‘mainstream fans’ know; the whole thing is an virtually unchartable hot mess…

And there are fans out there who know every single inch of it. Or most of it. Certainly more of it than I do. I’ll call them super-fans.

Now: I have no beef with those super-fans. None.

Okay so far? Good.

Now: Enter Disney.

A few years ago, Disney acquired the rights to the Star Wars intellectual property and announced they were going to start doing stuff with it, and that George Lucas wouldn’t have very much if anything to do with it. (Which, after the prequels, was kind of a relief to hear.)

And Disney took a long look at the Extended Universe stuff and, after some thought, said “Yeah that’s… nice and all… but… yeah. None of that shit is official anymore.”

Basically, they boiled down “Official Star Wars” to the movies, the Clone Wars animated series that ran a few years ago, and whatever stuff they make from here on out (like the totally amazing and fun Star Wars Rebels show, a couple new novels, and of course the new movies coming out).

All that EU stuff? It’s not the “Extended Universe” anymore; it’s “Star Wars Legends” which, honestly, I think is a great name – it implies these are stories about the Star Wars universe (which they are, of course) but just that: stories. Unverifiable. Unverified. Unofficial. Enjoy them if you want – please, by all means – but know them for what they are.

Most – and I do mean most – super-fans were fine with this: they get to keep the stuff they’re into, and they get the biggest pop-culture engine in the world cranking out new Star Wars stuff until the heat-death of the universe finally invalidates Disney’s copyrights.

Some of the super-fans are not happy, and have decided to be unapologetically shitty human beings about the whole thing. I will call this small, vocal-like-a-screaming-howler-monkey subset of super-fans the “spoiler fans,” and here’s why:

These people have decided that it’s not enough that they have this stuff they like. Because Disney has said it’s not official stuff anymore, that somehow makes it impossible to love that stuff as much as they once did – their love is somehow capped by its lack of an official stamp, and this cannot be allowed to stand.

What do they want? This is pretty funny, actually: they don’t just want Disney to go back and say “okay, that stuff is still at least as official as it was when George Lucas was taking your money and planning on invalidating anything he felt like, whenever he felt like it” – they (apparently) want Disney to keep making EU stuff, in addition to the stuff Disney is already making.

“Well, that’s nice,” you might say, “maybe they want a pony, too?”

And yeah, it’s kind of funny, until you realize the internet has allowed shitty people to be shitty on a far greater scale.

See, they’re trying to hold Star Wars hostage to get Disney to do what they want.

How? They have vowed that they will spoil each and every spoil-able moment in the new movie as loudly and as broadly as possible (which, today, is pretty loud and pretty broad), if Disney doesn’t cave.

You’ve probably seen those image memes on Facebook or whatever, asking people not to spoil the movie. I have, and thought “yeah, it would suck to be spoiled ahead of time.”

Because that can happen by accident. Well-meaning, happy, enthusiastic fans can get on the internet and broadcast out to their friends, joyfully exclaiming about all the stuff they loved about the movie, and accidentally spoil something for someone who hasn’t seen it yet, because how have you not seen it yet?!?

This isn’t that. This is not an accidental thing. This is not your friend loving the movie so much he spills something.

This is a guy standing outside the movie theater before The Empire Strikes Back, waiting for the line to form, and then telling every single person in line “Darth Vader is Luke’s dad.”

Except the guy has a megaphone the whole world can hear, if they aren’t careful, and he shouts the message at unexpected times.

I’m telling you about this, because it already happened to me, and I don’t want it to happen to you.

I leaned about this little movement of spoiler-fans via a friend’s post on Google+.

The very first comment to that post was one of these guys, and all he posted was a spoiler, and I am pretty sure he spoiled probably the biggest plot twist in the movie for me.

Now, obviously, I haven’t seen the movie yet, so how do I know?

Let me put it this way: if that guy who came up to you in line at Empire Strikes Back had said, perfectly straight-faced “Darth Vader is Luke’s dad,” would you have believed him?

Maybe you think about it a bit, and it syncs up with everything you know about the movies thus far, and it syncs up with what you’ve seen in the trailers, and it just seems like a very Star Wars-y plot twist.

Maybe you don’t believe it, completely and totally, but you believe it enough that you will sit down in the theater and, basically, spend the whole movie waiting for that moment to come. Or not.

Even if it doesn’t, you will not have enjoyed the movie as much as you might have, because you were distracted. And if it does happen just as that guy said? Well.

That’s the kind of thing this guy posted. One line. Ten words, and there goes my 100% unmitigated enjoyment of the new movie.

Now, shut up: this isn’t about me. Yes, you’re very sorry about this happening. Yes. I love you. Thank you, now shut up for a sec.

Listen.

These fuckers are out there. They are doing this on purpose. They’re enjoyment of their pile of stuff has been somehow – idiotically – damaged; Disney made their Masters-level knowledge of a made-up universe less important than it already was, so they have decided to shit on every other person who wants to enjoy the new movie, because (apparently) “Fuck anyone who is enjoying themselves, if I am not.”

I don’t care about me. I’ve watched Empire Strikes Back probably thirty times, if not more, and I know – know I will enjoy it when I watch it again, because I’ll be watching it with my kids, and the shine hasn’t come off for them.

Because of that, I know I will enjoy this new movie when I watch it, because I will be watching it with my kids and even if I don’t feel the same sense of surprise and wonder as I might have, they will, and I will still get to feel that, through them.

And I know they will get to feel that, because I’m going to protect them from these… infantile man-children and their shit-spattering temper-tantrum.

Now: why did I write all this? Because I want to try to protect you, too.

When you see spoiler warnings, heed them. Stop thinking of spoilers as “that one little thing my super-happy friend let out after he saw the movie” and start thinking “halitosis-reeking stranger who wants to dip his filthy index finger in my morning coffee.”

From here until you see the movies, absolutely avoid comment sections on any Star Wars-related post on any kind of social media.

Just… for a few days, expect people you don’t know to be kind of shitty for no good reason.

I realize that’s kind of a downer message, but seriously: I want you to enjoy the movie.

And also, yeah: I want those petty fuckers to lose, because fuck them.

(Comments on this post are disabled, for obvious reasons.)

original post

#crosspost #randomaverage

[doycetopia]

The Real Dark Side of Star Wars: Spoilers

[This is a repost of a post I wrote about two years, which has inexplicably disappeared from the site.]

I need to talk about something pretty shitty, but it requires a little background information, first.

Many of you probably already know this background info, but some of you don’t, so I’m filling it in for them; everyone else, please bear with.

I doubt it will surprise anyone to know I’m a long time Star Wars fan boy.

Am I the biggest Star Wars fan boy who’s ever lived? No, most certainly not.

In fact (and this bit will shock the less-super-nerdy out there), there are groups of folks out in the world who, after examining the extent of my exposure to Star Wars “stuff”, would decide quite seriously that I’m not a real Star Wars fan at all, or at least not a serious one.

The funny thing is, it’s hard to even explain this without getting at least somewhat nerdy, but I’m going to try. (In my head, as I write this, I’m talking to my sister, which is how I approach more posts than anyone would imagine.)

Now, a lot of people – most people – who say they like Star Wars mean they like the movies, because that is literally the only Star Wars thing they know about. I’m going to call these folks “mainstream fans.”

Obviously (because as a species, we really can’t leave this kind of shit alone) there is a lot more Star Wars stuff out there – more stuff than you’d readily believe. Games, of course. Comics – fucking walls of comics – and enough novels to fill a library.

Collectively, all the stuff that isn’t the movies has been (until recently) referred to as the Star Wars “Extended Universe” or “EU”. The quality of the stuff varies, and by “varies” I mean some of it is pretty good, and some of it is pants-on-head fucking idiocy that makes Jar Jar Binks look as cool as Chewbacca, by comparison.

How does stuff like that get the official stamp of approval? Pretty simple: George Lucas really likes making money, and people are willing to pay him a whole shit ton of money to play in his backyard, so he lets them write novels with Force-nullifying space-sloths (yes, seriously) and puts the Official Rubber Stamp on it, because (a) he got money and (b) he knew if he ever came out with a movie that contradicted stuff people had written, his version would invalidate all the drek he’d authorized in the past, so who cares?

In general, I don’t follow the EU stuff, and (with the exception of the first Star Wars roleplaying game that anyone licensed) don’t know much about it.

The quick summary: there is miles and miles of EU stuff, set anywhere from 30 thousand years before to several hundred years after the movies ‘mainstream fans’ know; the whole thing is an virtually unchartable hot mess…

And there are fans out there who know every single inch of it. Or most of it. Certainly more of it than I do. I’ll call them super-fans.

Now: I have no beef with those super-fans. None.

Okay so far? Good.

Now: Enter Disney.

A few years ago, Disney acquired the rights to the Star Wars intellectual property and announced they were going to start doing stuff with it, and that George Lucas wouldn’t have very much if anything to do with it. (Which, after the prequels, was kind of a relief to hear.)

And Disney took a long look at the Extended Universe stuff and, after some thought, said “Yeah that’s… nice and all… but… yeah. None of that shit is official anymore.”

Basically, they boiled down “Official Star Wars” to the movies, the Clone Wars animated series that ran a few years ago, and whatever stuff they make from here on out (like the totally amazing and fun Star Wars Rebels show, a couple new novels, and of course the new movies coming out).

All that EU stuff? It’s not the “Extended Universe” anymore; it’s “Star Wars Legends” which, honestly, I think is a great name – it implies these are stories about the Star Wars universe (which they are, of course) but just that: stories. Unverifiable. Unverified. Unofficial. Enjoy them if you want – please, by all means – but know them for what they are.

Most – and I do mean most – super-fans were fine with this: they get to keep the stuff they’re into, and they get the biggest pop-culture engine in the world cranking out new Star Wars stuff until the heat-death of the universe finally invalidates Disney’s copyrights.

Some of the super-fans are not happy, and have decided to be unapologetically shitty human beings about the whole thing. I will call this small, vocal-like-a-screaming-howler-monkey subset of super-fans the “spoiler fans,” and here’s why:

These people have decided that it’s not enough that they have this stuff they like. Because Disney has said it’s not official stuff anymore, that somehow makes it impossible to love that stuff as much as they once did – their love is somehow capped by its lack of an official stamp, and this cannot be allowed to stand.

What do they want? This is pretty funny, actually: they don’t just want Disney to go back and say “okay, that stuff is still at least as official as it was when George Lucas was taking your money and planning on invalidating anything he felt like, whenever he felt like it” – they (apparently) want Disney to keep making EU stuff, in addition to the stuff Disney is already making.

“Well, that’s nice,” you might say, “maybe they want a pony, too?”

And yeah, it’s kind of funny, until you realize the internet has allowed shitty people to be shitty on a far greater scale.

See, they’re trying to hold Star Wars hostage to get Disney to do what they want.

How? They have vowed that they will spoil each and every spoil-able moment in the new movie as loudly and as broadly as possible (which, today, is pretty loud and pretty broad), if Disney doesn’t cave.

You’ve probably seen those image memes on Facebook or whatever, asking people not to spoil the movie. I have, and thought “yeah, it would suck to be spoiled ahead of time.”

Because that can happen by accident. Well-meaning, happy, enthusiastic fans can get on the internet and broadcast out to their friends, joyfully exclaiming about all the stuff they loved about the movie, and accidentally spoil something for someone who hasn’t seen it yet, because how have you not seen it yet?!?

This isn’t that. This is not an accidental thing. This is not your friend loving the movie so much he spills something.

This is a guy standing outside the movie theater before The Empire Strikes Back, waiting for the line to form, and then telling every single person in line “Darth Vader is Luke’s dad.”

Except the guy has a megaphone the whole world can hear, if they aren’t careful, and he shouts the message at unexpected times.

I’m telling you about this, because it already happened to me, and I don’t want it to happen to you.

I leaned about this little movement of spoiler-fans via a friend’s post on Google+.

The very first comment to that post was one of these guys, and all he posted was a spoiler, and I am pretty sure he spoiled probably the biggest plot twist in the movie for me.

Now, obviously, I haven’t seen the movie yet, so how do I know?

Let me put it this way: if that guy who came up to you in line at Empire Strikes Back had said, perfectly straight-faced “Darth Vader is Luke’s dad,” would you have believed him?

Maybe you think about it a bit, and it syncs up with everything you know about the movies thus far, and it syncs up with what you’ve seen in the trailers, and it just seems like a very Star Wars-y plot twist.

Maybe you don’t believe it, completely and totally, but you believe it enough that you will sit down in the theater and, basically, spend the whole movie waiting for that moment to come. Or not.

Even if it doesn’t, you will not have enjoyed the movie as much as you might have, because you were distracted. And if it does happen just as that guy said? Well.

That’s the kind of thing this guy posted. One line. Ten words, and there goes my 100% unmitigated enjoyment of the new movie.

Now, shut up: this isn’t about me. Yes, you’re very sorry about this happening. Yes. I love you. Thank you, now shut up for a sec.

Listen.

These fuckers are out there. They are doing this on purpose. They’re enjoyment of their pile of stuff has been somehow – idiotically – damaged; Disney made their Masters-level knowledge of a made-up universe less important than it already was, so they have decided to shit on every other person who wants to enjoy the new movie, because (apparently) “Fuck anyone who is enjoying themselves, if I am not.”

I don’t care about me. I’ve watched Empire Strikes Back probably thirty times, if not more, and I know – know I will enjoy it when I watch it again, because I’ll be watching it with my kids, and the shine hasn’t come off for them.

Because of that, I know I will enjoy this new movie when I watch it, because I will be watching it with my kids and even if I don’t feel the same sense of surprise and wonder as I might have, they will, and I will still get to feel that, through them.

And I know they will get to feel that, because I’m going to protect them from these… infantile man-children and their shit-spattering temper-tantrum.

Now: why did I write all this? Because I want to try to protect you, too.

When you see spoiler warnings, heed them. Stop thinking of spoilers as “that one little thing my super-happy friend let out after he saw the movie” and start thinking “halitosis-reeking stranger who wants to dip his filthy index finger in my morning coffee.”

From here until you see the movies, absolutely avoid comment sections on any Star Wars-related post on any kind of social media.

Just… for a few days, expect people you don’t know to be kind of shitty for no good reason.

I realize that’s kind of a downer message, but seriously: I want you to enjoy the movie.

And also, yeah: I want those petty fuckers to lose, because fuck them.

(Comments on this post are disabled, for obvious reasons.)

original post

#crosspost #randomaverage