#INdian group sex stories

[indiandesistory]

Read full group sex stories free at Indian desi stories. Choose from a vast category of sex stories in Hindi or English.

#Group sex stories #INdian group sex stories #indian sex stories in hindi #indian sex stories #desi sex stories in hindi #hot sex stories #free sex stories

[simoneashleyedits]

EXCLUSIVE: After breaking out with her lead role in the second season of Netflix’s smash hit series Bridgerton, Simone Ashley has moved on to star in This Tempting Madness, a new indie directed by Jennifer E. Montgomery, from her script written with husband Andrew M. Davis, which just wrapped production in Los Angeles.

A first look still from the pic, marking Montgomery’s feature directorial debut, can be found below.

Inspired by a true story, This Tempting Madness is an elevated psychological thriller about a young woman (Ashley) who awakens from a coma grievously injured, memory fractured, her husband arrested. But as she puts together the pieces of her past, she starts to question her own actions — and her perception of reality.

Producers include Montgomery and Davis for their Smoke Jumper Films; Mango Monster Productions; Jessica Malanaphy and Marcei Brown for CatchLight Studios; and William Day Frank. Coming from a background as a cinematographer, Davis will also be lensing the film.

In the second season of Bridgerton, based on the hugely popular Julia Quinn romance novels, Ashley was introduced as Kate Sharma, who’s courted by Viscount Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) upon her arrival in London from India. For a moment snatching the record of the most-watched English-language series in Netflix history, with 251.7M hours viewed in its first seven days, the season was celebrated for breaking a race barrier with Ashley’s character, whose ethnicity was changed from the books so that her family would be of Indian descent.

Set to reprise the role in Season 3, Ashley has also recently appeared in Disney’s live-action reimagining of The Little Mermaid, as Ariel’s sister, Indira. Otherwise best known for her role as Olivia on Netflix’s BAFTA-winning series Sex Education, she also boasts credits including Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Warner Bros), Broadchurch (BBC America) and C.B. Strike (Cinemax), to name a few. The actress is represented by Identity Agency Group, CAA, and Myman Greenspan Fox.

Montgomery and Davis are repped by Anonymous Content.

Source: Deadline

#simone ashley #bridgerton #kate sharma #dailywoc #southasiansource #wocdaily #ladiesofcinema #wonderfulwomendaily #wonderfulwoc #femalestunning #wifesource #dailybridgerton #dailyfemale #femaledaily #dailykanthony #dailypoc #this tempting madness

[happyely2]

Pairing: Portuguese D. Ace x Fem!Reader

Rating: It will vary from story to story and I will point it out at the time (green-for-all; orange-for a mature audience; red-for adults, minors are asked to skip this story).

General Summary: Ten Different Alternative Universes In which you will experience an extraordinary adventure with Ace (plots and more details are written under the respective title). Soon they will be published one by one, for now I leave the plots in general.

General Inspired: I will write from time to time the possible inspirations that have been taken as references to write.

Let’s Meet Agian In The Next Life

[📿Exorcism!AU📿] - The spirit of the red fire

You’ve been called in to exorcise a demon that’s causing a lot of trouble for the community in a quiet country village, so you don’t expect that curse to give you such a hard time.

[📚School!AU📚] - Breaktime at school

Ace is the most popular guy in high school, he’s a senior, and he’s going to college soon, so you don’t expect him to know who you are, a little third-year-old girl who’s doing very well in school. You don’t know how wrong you are.

[👑Royalty!AU👑] - Midnight Ball

You didn’t object when the mystery knight gave you his hand to go down the garden stairs, it was your last night of freedom before you had to marry someone you hardly knew. A moonlight dance before you become the wife of the future king of the kingdom with a mysterious knight you would love in silence for years to come.

[✨PeterPan!AU✨] - Lost Girl in Neverland

Second star right and then straight until morning! But wait for the lost children are not so children but they are teenagers!? Fairies and mermaids are friendly? Indians are a rowdy group of adults who want to dance all night and pirates are not real pirates but admirals of the navy? What kind of island are you in, and since Peter Pan has freckles and black hair and calls himself Ace?

[🔮Magic!AU🔮] - Rebel

Ace never thought he’d have to ask you, a witch, for help to save his family. But he is a warrior who is willing to do anything to save the people he loves, even to come to terms with a witch like you.

[🐺Omegaverse!AU🐺] - Damn to that beta

The biggest cliché in the world? You made it happen. You always considered yourself a beta with little sex craving and always squabbling with her beta neighbor. So you don’t expect that the day you go for the analysis something snaps in you and that you’re both soul mates. In short! You can’t be the soul mate of your neighbor Beta (actually Alpha) Ace! And you can’t be his Omega.

[🏹Indian!AU🏹] - The arrow of fate

Travel to the new world! Gold, riches, adventures and new lands to explore! That’s what they promised, but now Ace was wondering how he could explain that those were really fake things and that the only thing that drew gold were the hair of a certain Indian who had snatched his heart?

[⚔️Moschettieres!AU⚔️] - Damsel in distress

"And you call that a lunge?" You shouted behind the back of the man who was fighting to protect you.

"Then fight you mademoiselles!" The Musketeer answered you by stretching out the enemy that was attacking you and taking you for life to take away. What was all that effrontery towards the poor Musketeer Ace who was fighting to save you at the behest of his majesty!

"With great pleasure!" You answered by beating your fists on his shoulder. There were no bridesmaids anymore.

[🚓Police!AU🚓] - Cat Burglar

Ace had just joined the police force when he was given a very important case by Commissioner Smoker. Catch a famous thief who always announces her shots before getting them. I mean, it seems easy, but nobody on the police force has ever done it. And the policeman Ace will have to invent one more than the devil to succeed in catching tha

[💰Far West!AU💰] - The Naked Gun

There is only one law in the bar: no fighting is allowed and as a bartender you are categorical, your rifle is ready to fire a warning shot at anyone who dares even think of trying. You just haven’t met the outlaw Portuguese D. Ace and his wacky gang of bandits.

#one piece #one piece x reader #ace x oc #ace x reader #portgas ace x you #portgas d ace x reader #portugas d ace #one piece ace #portgas ace smut #ace smut #ace op #ace of spades #ace one piece #soft smut #smut #alternate universe #crossover #fanfic #Happy_Ely🪷

[waitmyturtles]

THE MORNING AFTER: ONLY FRIENDS, EPISODE 8 ("TAKE A LOOK AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR AND CRY") EDITION

Oh my gosh, I am shaking my head and just laughing. I have no idea where to start writing this, but it's gonna be damn fun to pick this episode apart.

Because of the clues that Jojo Tichakorn (below) and Ninew Pinya dropped before and during the episode's airing yesterday, my mind was totally on Freddie and Queen. I captured the tweet below and couldn't help but think of lyrics.

And the episode was titled "Save Me"!

Before I go on, I have a little personal note. During my watch of MAME's TharnType, I talked a bit about the bigotry against the queer community that I grew up with in my Indian family. During my childhood, Freddie Mercury was -- everything. He was everything to me. A part-Indian man who blasted past any obstacles that could have held him back to become a superstar, while leveraging unbelievable talent. My dad often wanted to snap my Queen CDs in half to keep Freddie out of our house. Up until I went to college, when a new world of music awaited me, Queen was MY BAND. I'll never forget watching his memorial concert on television in 1992, watching Axl Rose destroy "We Will Rock You," and subsequently watching Axl host a Queen documentary on MTV that got repeated for years and years. This shit was formative to my childhood, and I'm gonna guess, to Jojo's and Ninew's childhoods as well. We be old bags in here.

I'll get back to Freddie in a few minutes. but besides all of the Queen themes (quick note: the dude that Sand was about to make out with was wearing the same costume that Ninew caught in his IG stories, as Freddie sang "Love of My Life"), oh my fucking god, did this episode ever touch upon ephemerality, highs and lows, change, and a resistance to change that people have unto others.

Top and Cheum -- especially Top -- were clutching their pearrrrrllllsss at Mew's changes.

Top and Cheum notice that Mew's trying on a new suit. And Mew admits it! He says to Ray in the bookstore -- after the most BRILLIANT call-out to a BL trope if I ever saw one, the CRACKING of the romantic memories montage, which, omg, are we EVER seeing in Dangerous Romance, like three times a bleeping episode, LMAO -- "I'm bored with myself."

I love -- I hate it, but I love that this episode calls it out -- I love that Top and Cheum are calling this behavior out as if it were a bad thing.

Is it?

.... is it not okay for university students to take a bump of coke if they're curious about it? Barack Obama did it -- and Obama admitted it, AND wrote about it, AND became president, twice. Judge him, I dare ya.

On another side, Nick susses out Boston, and wants to check in with him. Boston wants Nick to go bye-bye. Nick tries a guilt pull. And Boston ain't having it.

Fuck. (Side note, Boston was my man this episode.)

I'm shaking my head in wonder for Mew and Boston to be addressing Top, Cheum, and Nick in this way. We've established (here and here, cc @ranchthoughts and others) that the kind of toxicity that this OF group of friends exhibits is just -- common, and pedestrian, and awful to think about existing, but in part, it's so awful for us to be thinking about it, because actually, it's ever-present in our lives, and so many of us survive dealing with other people on a daily basis by using means by which to ignore or avoid that toxicity, like our addictions to our phones, or addictions to other vices, like sex and drugs -- which takes us right back to Only Friends.

The dynamic I saw happening in this episode was like vultures (the friends) circling their prey (their friends), but instead of the friends eating their friends -- what some of the friends are doing is trying to correct the behavior of their other friends. Top and Cheum want Mew to... go back to being the old Mew, maybe. Nick wants Boston to know -- morally, I think you're a bad person. And Boston says, I paraphrase, "see. if. I. fucking. care." and literally creates the NeoTitle ship before our eyes, lmao, all while walking silently and ignoringly away from Nick.

Top, to Mew, says, "Are you sure?" Are you sure you want to be like this now, Mew? Cheum shares with Top her concern about Mew's changes, and literally teams up with Top to bring Top back to Mew to, what, straighten Mew out?

Last time I checked, Mew's a big boy. Mew's made his decisions to be with Ray, to drink with Ray, to snort coke with Ray. Are those behaviors questionable? Sure. Are they normal behaviors for a university student who is bored with himself, and wants to try something new? 100%.

I have written before, in my review of Theory of Love, that while behavioral change can oftentimes be massively difficult, there's another side to change that needs to be considered. When one person changes -- there are many others within that person's sphere that do not want that specific person TO change. If one individual changes, within a worldview of a group -- that changes a group dynamic. People like Top and Cheum are unsettled that Mew and Ray are dating, and that Mew's getting wasted and high. Are they rightfully concerned for Mew's health? For sure. But what about Mew's agency and happiness? Are the friends understanding that this is actually Mew's choice to do these things, regardless of how the friends judge his specific actions?

The fact that Top and Cheum are questioning Mew's agency, to me, is a ROOT, a FOUNDATION of the awful toxicity of this friend group, BESIDES the general drunkenness of the group, and Ray's particularly contradictory and dangerous behavior. THERE IS NO TRUST IN THIS GROUP.

Top and Cheum do not TRUST Mew -- an adult young man!!!! -- to make his own decisions. Cheum doesn't trust Boston with her little bro (oh, woops on that, big sis). Almost no one trusts Ray, although I'm not sure about Mew on that. Boston doesn't trust Nick. The list goes on.

Without trust, without a foundation of love and respect, without an acknowledgement that individuals within a group have agency to live their lives independently -- what you get in a group dynamic is UTTER mush, just a bucket of vomit like what we're seeing here in Only Friends. I am OBSESSED that Jojo and team are picking this apart SURGICALLY, and asking US to question OUR, the viewers', judgement of all of this. These friends are contradictory as fuck. Boston was SO right to ask Nick: "who are you to judge?" Nick acted as filthily as Boston in violating Boston's privacy and rights -- TWICE, bros, TWICE.

And Top.... @lurkingshan said it the best yesterday when she made sure the girlies knew that what Top was doing TO (NOT FOR, TO) Mew at the end of the episode was not consensual. Welp. Tie up Mew's agency with a bow and throw it out into the fucking dumpster, Top.

I haven't touched as much on the Sand/Ray dynamic in this post, but of characters that are acting at least consistently to their... what, their moral judgements or ethical structures, at least Sand, Ray, and Boston remain consistent in my eyes. Anyone who was surprised at Ray's behavior in this episode -- it was bad and icky, and the episode laid it on thick, but I found his behavior to be expectedly toxic.

This was a two-steps-forward-and-one-step-back episode for Sand, as I see it, as he stepped in to try to keep Ray from going to jail (and how interesting was it that it was Top who ended up sealing that deal). One other note about Sand: the show HAS to be making fun of First's inability to sing, right? That guitar practice in 2/4, oof. And to have Sand dress up as Freddie, one of the most magnificent singers in rock -- ironic. We know that Sand doesn't aspire to be a singer; he just wants to go to festivals, and... that's the right decision, my dude.

Anyway. To bring this back to Freddie and Queen. Talk about shapeshifting. In his 20s in the 1970s, Freddie Mercury started out with long hair and flowing, robe-y costumes. As the 1980s progressed, he took on an identity of a mustachioed, slightly muscular man -- very, very closeted, but clearly gay to anyone who caught the signal.

The dude that Sand was about to make out with at the party? He made a reference to Mary Austin, Freddie's longtime companion and best friend. They were lovers for a short period, before Freddie came out to her. And they remained friends all of the rest of his life. While Freddie died with a longtime lover by his side in Jim Hutton, Mary was always present and devoted to Freddie. Mary's presence often caused consternation with Freddie's lovers, especially after his death, what with inheritance controversies. But no one ever questioned Mary's loyalty, and her commitment to keeping Freddie's identity secret and safe.

Freddie and Mary's friendship was in part a protective arrangement for his life in the closet. He only revealed he had AIDS the day before he died. But Freddie claimed the friendship, claimed agency to it, and wanted it in his life. The friendship was steady, and never wavering.

Quite the opposite of the devotions, or lack thereof, in this group. These young folks are demonstrating NORMAL resistance to watching each other change. But while that resistance is normal... it doesn't make it all the less toxic. I'm afraid that as of right now, I read that all of these friends want to sell each other out for the sake of their own selfish desires, and for the benefit of their own worldviews alone.

HAPPY SUNDAY, Ephemerality Squad, if we can be happy after this demonstration of toxicity, ha! @slayerkitty @ranchthoughts @chickenstrangers @lurkingshan @twig-tea @distant-screaming @clara-maybe-ontheroad @neuroticbookworm @elizabethsebestianhedgehog @thatgirl4815

#only friends the series #only friends #only friends meta #forcebook #force jiratchapong #book kasidet #topmew #top x mew #mew x top #firstkhao #first kanaphan #khaotung thanawat #sandray #sand x ray #ray x sand #neomark #neo trai #mark pakin #boston x nick #nick x boston #neotitle #title tanatorn #markpapang #papangmark #papang phromphiriya #PAPANG AND MARK NEXT EP YEAH BABIES #SINK THE SHIPS SINK THE SHIPS! #lookjun bhasidi #nonnie pitchaporn

[homosexuhauls]

By Vidya Krishnan

GOA, India — My niece was just 4 years old when she turned to my sister-in-law in a packed movie theater in Mumbai and asked about gang rape for the first time.

We were watching the latest Bollywood blockbuster about vigilante justice, nationalistic fervor and, of course, gang rape. Four male characters seized the hero’s sister and dragged her away. “Where are they taking Didi?” my niece asked, using the Hindi word for “elder sister.” It was dark, but I could still make out her tiny forehead, furrowed with concern.

Didi’s gang rape took place offscreen, but it didn’t need to be shown. As instinctively as a newborn fawn senses the mortal danger posed by a fox, little girls in India sense what men are capable of.

You may wonder, “Why take a 4-year-old to such a movie?” But there is no escaping India’s rape culture; sexual terrorism is treated as the norm. Society and government institutions often excuse and protect men from the consequences of their sexual violence. Women are blamed for being assaulted and are expected to sacrifice freedom and opportunity in exchange for personal safety. This culture contaminates public life — in movies and television; in bedrooms, where female sexual consent is unknown; in the locker room talk from which young boys learn the language of rape. India’s favorite profanities are about having sex with women without their consent.

It is the specific horror of gang rape that weighs most heavily on Indian women that I know. You may have heard of the many gruesome cases of women being gang-raped, disemboweled and left for dead. When an incident rises to national attention, the kettle of outrage boils over, and women sometimes stage protests, but it passes quickly. All Indian women are victims, each one traumatized, angry, betrayed, exhausted. Many of us think about gang rape more than we care to admit.

In 2011 a woman was raped every 20 minutes in India, according to government data. The pace quickened to about every 16 minutes by 2021, when more than 31,000 rapes were reported, a 20 percent increase from the previous year. In 2021, 2,200 gang rapes were reported to authorities.

But those grotesque numbers tell only part of the story: 77 percent of Indian women who have experienced physical or sexual violence never tell anyone, according to one study. Prosecutions are rare.

Indian men may face persecution because they are Muslims, Dalits (untouchables) or ethnic minorities or for daring to challenge the corrupt powers that be. Indian women suffer because they are women. Soldiers need to believe that war won’t kill them, that only bad luck will; Indian women need to believe the same about rape, to trust that we will come back to the barracks safe each night, to be able to function at all.

Reports of violence against women in India have risen steadily over the decades, with some researchers citing a growing willingness by victims to come forward. Each rape desensitizes and prepares society to accept the next one, the evil becoming banal.

Gang rape is used as a weapon, particularly against lower castes and Muslims. The first instance that women my age remember was in 1980, when Phoolan Devi, a lower-caste teenager who had fallen in with a criminal gang, said she was abducted and repeatedly raped by a group of upper-caste attackers. She later came back with members of her gang and they killed 22 mostly upper-caste men. It was a rare instance of a brutalized woman extracting revenge. Her rape might never have made headlines without that bloody retribution.

Ms. Devi threw a spotlight on caste apartheid. The suffering of Bilkis Bano — the defining gang rape survivor of my generation — highlighted the boiling hatred that Indian institutions under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, have for Muslim women.

In 2002 brutal violence between Hindus and Muslims swept through Gujarat State. Ms. Bano, then 19 and pregnant, was gang raped by an angry Hindu mob, which also killed 14 of her relatives, including her 3-year-old daughter. Critics accuse Mr. Modi — Gujarat’s top official at the time — of turning a blind eye to the riots. He has not lost an election since.

Ms. Bano’s life took a different trajectory. She repeatedly moved houses after the assault, for her family’s safety. Last August, 11 men who were sentenced to life in prison for raping her were released — on the recommendation of a review committee stacked with members of Mr. Modi’s ruling party. After they were freed, they were greeted with flower garlands by Hindu right-wingers.

The timing was suspicious: Gujarat was to hold important elections a few months later, and Mr. Modi’s party needed votes. A member of his party explained that the accused, as upper-caste Brahmins, had “good” values and did not belong in prison. Men know these rules. They wrote the rule book. What’s most terrifying is that releasing rapists could very well be a vote-getter.

After Ms. Bano, there was the young physiotherapy student who in 2012 was beaten and raped on a moving bus and penetrated with a metal rod that perforated her colon before her naked body was dumped on a busy road in New Delhi. She died of her injuries. Women protested for days, and even men took part, facing water cannons and tear gas. New anti-rape laws were framed. This time was different, we naïvely believed.

It wasn’t. In 2018 an 8-year-old Muslim girl was drugged and gang raped in a Hindu temple for days and then murdered. In 2020 a 19-year-old Dalit girl was gang-raped and later died of her injuries, her spinal cord broken.

The fear, particularly of gang rape, never fully leaves us. We go out in groups, cover ourselves, carry pepper spray and GPS tracking devices, avoid public spaces after sunset and remind ourselves to yell “fire,” not “help” if attacked. But we know that no amount of precaution will guarantee our safety.

I don’t understand gang rape. Is it some medieval desire to dominate and humiliate? Do these men, with little power over others, feeling inadequate and ordinary, need a rush of power for a few minutes?

What I do know is that other men share the blame, the countless brothers, fathers, sons, friends, neighbors and colleagues who have collectively created and sustain a system that exploits women. If women are afraid, it is because of these men. It is a protection racket of epic proportions.

I’m not asking merely for equality. I want retribution. Recompense. I want young girls to be taught about Ms. Bano and Ms. Devi. I want monuments built for them. But men just want us to forget. The release of Ms. Bano’s rapists was about male refusal to commemorate our trauma.

So we build monuments with words and our memories. We talk to one another about gang rape, keeping it at the center of our lives. We try to explain to our youngest, to start protecting them.

This is how the history of the defeated is recorded. That’s what it all boils down to: a fight between forgetting and remembering.

#rape culture #radical feminism #indian feminism #vidya krishnan #misogyny

[orangemocharaktajino]

For a show that was bad pretty much from the beginning, Beyond the Star really outdid themselves by making the final episode so much worse than the rest. This was probably the worst final episode I've ever seen (other than MODC) and that's kinda impressive.

My toxic trait is if the NC scenes are good enough, I can forgive plot holes big enough to drive a bus through.

I loved Tonnam and Phupha, especially in episodes 6 and 7. And unfortunately that's where the fun ends because this bus is just too big.

I have been known to obsess over objectively bad shows before because my main goal as a viewer is entertainment. Sometimes bad writing and ridiculousness can be their own type of fun, imo.

I initially started watching Beyond the Star only because of Willi (Kita) who I loved in another high heat show with very questionable writing, Till the World Ends.

From the initial trailer of Beyond the Star, it seemed like the main storyline would be about twins Tin and Tul (played by actual twins and not simply one actor!) fighting over a man. Now, when I say man, I mean it because another thing that I was excited about initially was this cast's ages. The average age of the main cast is just shy of thirty years old which is something I would frankly love to see more of. Kind of weird for this to happen with a story about a new boyband, but hey.

The main characters and the ages of the actors who play them:

Kita - 34

Nathee - 27

Kengkla - 27

Namo - 26

Tonnam - 27

Phupha - 29

Trin - 30

Tul - 30 (obviously)

Copper - 30

Dance instructor Kawi - 30

CEO Araya - 33

CEO Kiat - 35

I didn't include the babies of the group Mawin (20) and Mangkorn (20) in this because I feel like we got more scenes of other characters explaining away their absence than we got scenes of them. They weren't even in the last two episodes at all so their story had absolutely no resolution.

Unfortunately that's kind of the case for most of the plot lines in this show. We had way too many characters with simultaneously too much going on and not enough going on. Way too much of the CEOs plotting only for them to inexplicably team up at the end. And way too much dance rehearsal footage that apparently needed to be shown instead. The last episode was chock full of loose threads.

I have so many questions

Why so many scenes of Nathee talking about how hot Kita's dad was when he was younger?

Why did they do Willi like this with this wig?

What happened with Kita and Nathee's relationship? Why did they have zero scenes in the finale?

What happened with Film's blackmail plot?

Why wasn't Nathee in the group at the end yet and previously disgraced Kita was?

What happened with Kita and Kawi being pissed about Kita's song being stolen?

Narrator: He did not deal with anything

Why wait until the very last episode to do anything with Tul and Tin and Copper? Okay, so Tul told Tin early on that he liked Copper. Tin agreed not to pursue Copper only to then immediately fuck him the very first chance he got? They decided to have a quickie in the bathtub while Tul was running a simple errand that he would be back from very soon? Not only did they not hurry, they didn't even close the fucking bathroom door????? Tul and Tin almost immediately made up after this even though apparently they already fought over a guy in the past?

Why did Kengkla even like Namo? Bro straight up told him his religious beliefs were stupid and they never really addressed this?

Did they break Namo's glasses during their sex scene? They showed Kengkla taking off Namo's glasses and putting them on the bed beside them and then a few seconds later they seemingly rolled over on them?

What was with Kengkla's pained expressions during their NC scene in the finale? Between that and Namo's unhinged smiling paired with the throat grabbing I couldn't tell what was supposed to be happening there. Kinky shit? Does Namo use cosmopolitan magazine's 2004 indian burn handie technique? Too much teeth? The possibilities are endless

Tell me this man isn't Bajoran though with his religious devotion, nose bridge wrinkles, and dangly earrings

Why even include the suicide attempt plot line? The whole thing was infuriating but especially them patting themselves on the back for solving Tonnam's suicidal tendencies by comforting him in the hospital?

You don't have to be sad buddy, you've improved as a dancer!

Narrator: It was not resolved

Also, here's where I have to admit I gave the writing team too much credit. I repeatedly thought that scenes were surely included for a bigger narrative purpose but that was overwhelmingly not the case.

In earlier episodes they showed a hidden camera in one of the rehearsal rooms at the agency that was, unbeknownst to the boys, streaming online. When they showed Phupha and Tonnam about to get it on at the agency and Tonnam specifically said he was worried about being seen, I thought that they were maybe going to be unknowingly exposed online and cause a huge scandal. When I saw the promo for the finale where it showed Tonnam on the ground with pills all around him, I thought for sure that was where they were going. I thought it was a little late for a big plot point like that but oh, how little I knew.

Why have Kengkla asking repeatedly why they're focusing so much on singing and dancing when he wants to be an actor only to have him turn down the acting job so he can be in a different boyband at the end?

Bad writing, bad directing, bad editing, bad pacing, bad dancing (perplexingly shown in slow motion which only exacerbated the lack of sync), bad singing, no character development, way too much focus on the two rival CEOs who are the producers of the show which explains so much.

The workshops must have been good though because the chemistry was the rare positive. Kita and Nathee had a few good scenes and I loved Tonnam and Phupha (except in the finale which I'm going to forget I ever watched). The kissing in the NC scenes was good all around but the lack of direction was pretty apparent. Lots of up and down and back up kind of aimlessness with too much position switching. It seemed like the actors were giving it their best but weren't given any specific instructions and were just kind of stalling until they heard cut.

The intro was catchy but I can't say the actual group they apparently built this show around promoting (in the most roundabout weird way) doesn't leave a bad taste in my mouth because of this mess.

Don't watch this unless you want to try your hand at the world's least efficient way to learn the numbers 1-8 in Thai

Or you know, maybe you could just skip around to the good parts

May these guys find better writing in their next projects

Sadhu

#beyond the star the series

[datastate]

i don't know if i have the words to really express this, but i'll try.

honestly? it's a little disappointing seeing people, regardless of intention, always frame non-western media like it's "foreign" - even those who are a part of it have this habit of phrasing recommendations like: "check out these asian films!" etc.

and in some cases, it is nice of course. it feels like we're sharing something that's our own. but in other cases, i find the underlying tone to be othering. it feels like someone is only recommending this to "diversify" their palate, as if anything branching outside of usamerican media (as the default) is something gracious and unexpected, instead of just being... a normal thing to look for? i feel like it heightens this feeling of undue fetishism for asian things as well, predisposing them to extreme critique/praise (ie. "all anime is perverted/pedophilic" vs. "omg how dare you criticize [kpop group] for their racism! they're so innocent" or the more explicit alternative to both: "what do you mean [jpop star] was outed for sex work?! she's so innocent, she'd never!"

honestly, even within usamerican movies/shows/books/etc., it's like. revolutionary to offer forward something with "it features a black protagonist" - like anything outside of this white protagonist is "branching out" instead of something you'd expect people to casually get into. it's important if the story features the experience of a poc (ie. peele's movies), but if it's more casual representation (i believe this was the case for "the owl house"?) then it really does feel like you're peddling it as something... almost shocking.

and while i understand it's important to draw attention to stories that feature these, i also feel like indulging these sorts of stories should be a standard we hold people to anyway. it should be weird if people don't casually watch the variety of movies that are out there and offered on some streaming services (it's even legal!); it should be weird for people to label all korean music as 'kpop' instead of considering the trends of music in general (incl. studies on indian music); it should be weird to not take advantage of how connected the world now is to find experiences that aren't your own, without considering yourself 'special' or 'educated' for it...

#idk. prompted with this idea that ''you're on a higher pedestal for only watching japanese media''... #my white adopted cousin is fucking weird #jestersvaguely #negative

[burningtheroots]

Women‘s rights movement // General stuff continued 🔗 links —> Part 3

Protect your account

MADRE — a global feminist fund

Facts about women‘s rights

South Korean feminists — 6B4T

Girl Math — inspirational women

The process of male & female socialization

Things you can do to help women

Literary Resources

💫 Women‘s History 💫

Andrew Tate

Radical Action: Period Poverty

Social Justice movements from a feminist lens

Jack the Ripper victims petition

The Pad Project

Men as a terrorist group

Take care of yourselves

Barbie trumps Oppenheimer

Reasons NOT to get pregnant

The story of Franca Viola

Greed is Male Culture

Suffragette Flag

"Not like other girls" GNC perspective

Men‘s insults

Women‘s anger

OSA women

UNITE, don‘t divide

The b-slur

Socialization ≠ bioessentialism

Classic hypocrisy

Female separatism benefits all women

Pedophiles on the rise

Men don’t see us as human beings

Sex for pleasure 1

Sex for pleasure 2

Fuck conservatives

Motherhood is difficult

Misogyny by any other name (article)

"Oppression Olympics"

Damned if you do, damned if you don‘t

The reality of double standards

Don‘t bother with misogynists

Conservatives

Fatphobia is wrong

Male Collective Identity

Female reproductive anatomy

Misogyny vs. misandry

Whitefem hypocrisy

Women‘s Economic Space

Misandry ain‘t real

Usurpation of women‘s ability to create life

Men being pathetic (education)

"Progressive" hypocrisy

Women‘s accomplishments >>>

OSA separatism

Don‘t invest in men

Men are violent anyways

Megan Thee Stallion

"Man-hater" vs. woman-hater

Feminist wins/progress

Penetration & degradation

Male loneliness

"Misandry" isn‘t racism + update

Radical feminism vs. basic feminism

Small changes are meaningful

On shaving

Shaving anon

Socialization: Let‘s talk

Male approval

Don‘t fall for gaslighting

Fake accountability

"Choice" ≠ choice

Barbie isn’t "anti-men", but men‘s movies are often anti-women

Advice for dealing with men

Refuse to bow down

Advice for women with SH scars who date men

A win for female CEOs in the U.S.

More general information

Global majority women and third world countries MATTER

50:50 with men is a scam

The "bimbocore" trend

Why misogyny is so normalized

Sexualization of women in sports

Women‘s rights are for all women

Misandry isn’t real, but if it was, it‘d be a male thing

Side with women or be guilty

Men exploit women‘s empathy

Male violence is normalized, women fighting back is demonized

Which rights do women *actually* have?

Reasons to dump him

Historical feminist writings

Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians — War crimes committed by the State of Israel

Stop antisemitism — State of Israel ≠ Jewish people

Affection is NOT absence of bigotry — every man needs to be held accountable

Maternal equality is crucial for feminism

Massacres/genocide of Palestinians in Gaza

How to actively help women in Gaza with period products

Gender disparity in Indian organ transplants: 4 in 5 living donors women, 4 in 5 recipients men

How misogyny harms women‘s footballers

[beardedmrbean]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Saturday that would have made California the first U.S. state to outlaw caste-based discrimination.

Caste is a division of people related to birth or descent. Those at the lowest strata of the caste system, known as Dalits, have been pushing for legal protections in California and beyond. They say it is necessary to protect them from bias in housing, education and in the tech sector — where they hold key roles.

Earlier this year, Seattle became the first U.S. city to add caste to its anti-discrimination laws. On Sept. 28, Fresno became the second U.S. city and the first in California to prohibit discrimination based on caste by adding caste and indigeneity to its municipal code.

In his message Newsom called the bill “unnecessary,” explaining that California “already prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics, and state law specifies that these civil rights protections shall be liberally construed.”

“Because discrimination based on caste is already prohibited under these existing categories, this bill is unnecessary,” he said in the statement.

A United Nations report in 2016 said at least 250 million people worldwide still face caste discrimination in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Pacific regions, as well as in various diaspora communities. Caste systems are found among Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Muslims and Sikhs.

Proponents of the bill launched a hunger strike in early September pushing for the law’s passage. During their campaign, many Californians have come forward with stories of discrimination in the workplace, housing and education. Opponents, including some Hindu groups, called the proposed legislation “unconstitutional” and have said it would unfairly target Hindus and people of Indian descent. The issue caused deep divisions in the Indian American community. Hundreds on both sides came to Sacramento to testify at committee hearings in the state senate and assembly.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, the Oakland-based Dalit rights group that has been leading the movement to end caste discrimination nationwide, said she still views this moment as a victory for caste-oppressed people who have “organized and built amazing power and awareness on this issue.”

“We made history conducting the first advocacy days, caravans, and hunger strike for caste equity,” she said. “We made the world aware that caste exists in the U.S. and our people need a remedy from this violence. A testament to our organizing is in Newsom’s veto where he acknowledges that caste is currently covered. So while we wipe our tears and grieve, know that we are not defeated.”

The Hindu American Foundation and Coalition of Hindus of North America claimed Newsom's veto as a victory for their advocacy efforts.

“With the stroke of his pen, Governor Newsom has averted a civil rights and constitutional disaster that would have put a target on hundreds of thousands of Californians simply because of their ethnicity or their religious identity, as well as create a slippery slope of facially discriminatory laws,” said Samir Kalra, the Hindu American Foundation's managing director.

In March, state Sen. Aisha Wahab, the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the California Legislature, introduced the bill. The California law would have included caste as a sub-category under ethnicity — a protected category under the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

Nirmal Singh, a Bakersfield resident and member of Californians for Caste Equity, said the introduction of this bill “represents a shifting tide in California to understand caste-based discrimination.” Singh also represents Ravidassia community, many of whom are Dalits with roots in Punjab, India.

“The fact that caste-oppressed people were given a platform to stand up for our basic human rights is a huge win in and of itself,” he said.

Earlier this week, Republican state Sens. Brian Jones and Shannon Grove called on Newsom to veto the bill, which they said will “not only target and racially profile South Asian Californians, but will put other California residents and businesses at risk and jeopardize our state’s innovate edge.”

Jones said he has received numerous calls from Californians in opposition.

“We don’t have a caste system in America or California, so why would we reference it in law, especially if caste and ancestry are already illegal,” he said in a statement.

Grove said the law could potentially open up businesses to unnecessary or frivolous lawsuits.

A 2016 Equality Labs survey of 1,500 South Asians in the U.S. showed 67% of Dalits who responded reported being treated unfairly because of their caste.

A 2020 survey of Indian Americans by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found caste discrimination was reported by 5% of survey respondents. While 53% of foreign-born Hindu Indian Americans said they affiliate with a caste group, only 34% of U.S.-born Hindu Indian Americans said they do the same.

#nunyas news #hmmmmm

[triviareads]

ARC Review of Match Me If You Can by Swati Hegde

Rating: 3.75/5 Heat Level: 2/5 Publication Date: June 4th

Premise:

A modernized Emma set in India; Jia Deshpande is a rich Mumbaikar who writes for a women's magazine. She wants to start her own matchmaking column, something she can achieve if she successfully sets two coworkers up. Jia goes ahead with the plan despite warnings from her best friend Jaiman Patil, who has long harbored feelings for her. 

My review:

This is a charming, effervescent take on Emma set among the upper classes of Mumbai. Jia aspires to be a matchmaker and secretly gives romantic advice on her blog in direct contrast to the content she puts out through the Cosmo-esque magazine she writes for. She's pragmatic about love while still being fairly naive, thus her mostly-unfounded confidence in her matchmaking abilities. Reading her deluded attempts at match-making office lothario Eeshan and village-transplant Charu was painfully entertaining in the best way. But like any well-written character inspired by Emma, Jia is so upbeat and (mostly) well-meaning, you can't help but root for her. 

The interesting thing about this book's Mr. Knightley, Jaiman, is that he has plenty of problems of his own. He's not just Emma's paternal, perpetually-chastising friend (though to be clear, I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all); he's the owner of a struggling bar who has never quite lived up to family expectations. There's also this culinary/career rivalry he has going on with the Frank Churchill of the story (a South Indian guy named Harish who comes up with a quite frankly FABULOUS restaurant concept: Vodka & Vada). Jaiman is also Jia’s childhood friend and hopelessly in love with her. The result is a (very) slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance. 

I actually really liked that Jaiman attempted an ill-fated kiss with Jia a year prior to the story beginning, and it ended with Jia crying about not wanting their relationship to change and she refuses to talk about it afterwards lolol. I thought it was a great place to start the story because Jia isn't entirely oblivious to Jaiman's feelings, and she privately admits she’s only ever felt attracted to him, so the tension is there. That being said, the author never really developed this tension or dragged it out as much as she could have. There are multiple instances where there's great set-up, like the time Jia puts on her dead mom's wedding lehenga and Jaiman walks in on her, and she asks him to unzip her. He does, but there's minimal touching or talking, and Jaiman just walks out within the next paragraph. I felt similarly about the time they dance together, as well as the entire mystery blog correspondent subplot. 

The sex:

There are a couple kisses, mostly near the end, and there is one closed-door sex scene.

Overall:

Overall, this book was humorous and light and I enjoyed it, though I wished the romance had developed more. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a frothy, diverse romcom!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

#netgalley #arc review #swati hegde #contemporary romance #arc #romance novel #random house publishing group #dell publishing #romance novels

[adamwatchesmovies]

Massacre in Dinosaur Valley (1985)

There’s one genre of horror that feels particularly daunting to explore: the “cannibal horror” genre. Its best-known entry, 1980's Cannibal Holocaust is notorious for its real-life footage of animal killings and anyone whose interest is peaked hearing this probably needs psychological help. Then there’s the inherent racism of these stories: the plots almost always concern a group of urban people who encounter savage aboriginals that want nothing more than to butcher, cook and then eat white meat. You're curious why the genre was so prolific but you don’t want to be offended so you pick the most ridiculous-sounding entry of them all: Massacre in Dinosaur Valley. The idea is that when your hapless explorers are getting torn apart by prehistoric reptiles, it will be easy to forget about what’s socially acceptable and just laugh between the “yuck!” scenes.

Deep in the Amazon jungle live the reclusive Aquera Indians: a tribe of cannibals who have little contact with the outside world. Their territory contains the “Dinosaur Valley”, a bone-bed rich with fossils and hidden dangers. Palaeontologist Kevin Hall (Michael Spokiw), Professor Pedro Ibañez (Leonidas Bayer), his daughter Eva (Suzanne Carvalho), fashion models Belinda (Susan Hahn) and Monica (Maria Reis), Vietnam vet John Heinz (Milton Morris) and his wife Betty (Marta Anderson) are flying over the off-limits area when their plane suddenly crashes. The survivors must find a way back to civilization before they become victims of the jungle surrounding them.

Originally shot in Italian, then dubbed in English, no one - on camera or otherwise - gives a good performance. That only matters so much because you’re not here for high art. What you’re here for is the sleaze. You want nudity? Massacre in Dinosaur Valley has it in droves. We get to see the supermodels changing, Eva showering, a gratuitous sex scene that comes out of nowhere, a sadistic lesbian that can’t wait to tear Belinda’s top off and when the ladies get captured by the Aquera Indians (that’s what the movie calls them so I will too), the cannibals promptly rip off their clothes and give them new outfits that barely cover anything. The objective was to find as many ways to show the actresses barring it all - logic or tact be damned. When Eva is shown in the nude (there’s quite a bit of full-frontal nudity), she’s showering with the doors to the bathroom and hotel room wide open so anyone can walk in. When Kevin wanders inside looking for her father, he gets a nice view. He gives her a towel, but she only realizes a stranger provided the helping hand after about 30 seconds. My question is… who did she THINK was helping her dry off? Her father? Gross.

Speaking of gross, how’s the gore? Disappointing, unfortunately. With a title like Massacre in Dinosaur Valley, you expect to see the idiots who stumble into that green inferno getting dismembered, decapitated, flayed alive and otherwise brutalized before getting eaten - either by dinosaurs or racist caricatures. Someone does get eaten but it’s nothing spectacular and isn’t treated as such either, which is a letdown. By my count, there are two massacres in this movie. Too bad it’s not the people you expect that get reduced to deli meat. Most of our ill-fated adventurers bite the dust because of non-cannibal dangers, which you might not think is a big deal. It’s not called Massacre in Cannibal Valley, am I right? Just wait.

The film could essentially be split into three parts, only one of which has anything to do with that titular valley. Part one is a story filled with quicksand, flesh-eating jungle beasts and other clichés. Part two concerns the cannibals. Part three, the white slavers! Between these three hurried plots, fans of bad movies will have some laughs. There’s plenty of questionable behavior spread throughout, the gratuitous nudity is so outlandish it’s hard not to crack a smile, the body count is so extreme it's hilarious, there are plenty of ideas introduced and then dropped and at points, it’s hard to tell if the movie is implying certain things or if the filmmaking and continuity are just THAT BAD. A lot of stuff just happens because writer/director Michele Massimo Tarantini wanted it to happen. Logic had nothing to do with it.

Massacre in Dinosaur Valley is better shot than you'd think, the plot moves along quickly enough to prevent you from getting bored and it manages to be so incompetent you skip the phase where you’d be offended and go directly to rolling your eyes while chuckling at the pathetic attempts at storytelling. All this SHOULD make for a decent “so bad it’s good” cannibal film… if it weren’t for one glaring flaw. There are no dinosaurs in this movie. None! What a ripoff! (November 5, 2021)

#Massacre in dinosaur valley #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #Michele Massimo Tanrantini #Michael Sopkiw #Suzane Carvalho #Milton Rodriguez #Marta Anderson #Joffre Soares #1985 movies #1985 films

[thevindicativevordan]

I'm not sure if you've ever talked about this but what are your opinions on the House of El concept and characters that PKJ came up with in his Superman stories ?

They are among the coolest new characters created for the Superverse in recent years, a fantastic variant of the Superman Squad concept.

Some people got mad at the idea that Clark would have sex with/marry other women after Lois passes away which is insane. Neither Lois nor Clark are virgins by the time they get together, why on Earth would people expect Clark to give up sex forever after his wife passed? Maybe I just have a different perspective since members of my family have outlived their spouses and remarried, but I see no reason to deny Clark that choice. If he's going to be living for another couple millennium, still having the body of 30 year old Olympian no less, you better believe he's going to be having sex. Besides the Moses parallels PKJ has been acknowledging, this gives Superman some Abraham in that his descendants "outnumber the stars in the sky", and they become a nation unto themselves. I love that concept and enthusiastically endorse it. Plus they're just awesome, you've got Viking inspired members, Els who are royals, Els who are Lanterns, Els who are simple farmers/civilians, you've got Kara as this grand matriarch of the entire family, Warworld as their "Fortress of Solitude" base, all that is exciting! PKJ keeps teasing/saying that he wants to do more with them and that he think he will get to, I'm praying he's right because they're simply too intriguing a concept to leave on the shelf.

Only thing I'd add is establishing members of other races/ethnicities beyond just the black and white descendants we've seen. How about some Asian Els who descend from offspring of Kal and Kenan that married and added to the line? Or "brown"-coded members, whether that be Latin or Indian or Native American? We don't need them all to be stars but I would like to establish that other groups are represented within the El family, and the House of El is great way to add representation in a way that doesn't add more members than the current day Superfamily can support. More alien hybrids would be cool too, the Tamarian/Kryptonian/human hybrid Theand'r is neat, I'd love to see more in the same vein.

#superman #house of el #dc future state #phillip kennedy johnson #ronan kent #rowan kent #theand'r ban-el #brandon kent #alura-el #khan-el #pyrrhos #supergirl

[ebaeschnbliah]

The thing with the ACRONYMS ...

Mycroft loves acronyms. All the best secret societies have them, he says. The creators of Sherlock BBC seem to love them as well, because several have found a way into their story. Reason enough to throw a brief glance at some of them. :)

TBC below the cut ...

UMQRA & HOUND

On the way to Dewer’s Hollow John notices flashes of light on the nightly moor. He interprets them as morse code signals for the letters U,M,Q,R,A and informs Sherlock about his discovery. When John follows those flashes of light, some hours later, he discovers a place where people engage in car-sex. What John expected to be morse code signals turns out to be just randomly blinking headlights of rocking cars. “Don’t be alarmed. It’s to do with sex” ...

Sherlock apparently doesn’t know about John’s second discovery and the rather trivial explanation for the mysterious flashlights on the moor. He experiments with the UMQRA letters, adds dots behind each one and suddenly has a revelation. He calls John ‘conductor of light’ and explains his idea. “What if it is individual letters?” Sherlock’s thoughts though are now focused on HOUND rather than UMQRA.

In a nutshell: UMQRA is linked to secret sexual activity in a car (body). By adding dots, Sherlock draws the connection from UMQRA to HOUND. 

The monstrous HOUND, who allegedly haunts the Baskerville moore, changes into a simple dog. 

H.O.U.N.D. turns out to be the name of a secret government project that got stopped a long time ago and had been now taken up again, illegally, by a doctor who is a virologist. 

Affected by the HOUND-aerosol (love is in the air) ‘doctor’ and ‘virus’ - Frankland & Jim (’say hallo to the virus‘) - merge into one another in Sherlock’s mind. The ‘good’ doctor kills the dog. The ‘bad’ doctor dies in an explosion. Then Mycroft (the government/brain) releases Jim (’I’m Mr Sex’) from his prison. Big brother himself lets the HOUND off the leash ...

More on the same subject:  UMQRA by @bug-catcher-in-viridian-forest  -  Are you attempting to make a point? by @221brainstorming (deleted)  -  Follow the Dog Part 2 by @sagestreet  

AGRA & AM(M)O

Mary tells Sherlock and John that the letters on her memory stick - AGRA - are meant to be her initials. Later it turns out that AGRA is an acronym, connected to a team of four agents - Alex, Gabriel, Rosamund Mary (alias Mary) and Ajay. This group was once employed by the government and Mary is still secretly working for Mycroft (TAB).

A code word is linked to the AGRA acronym, uttered by an anonymous voice on a phone. First Sherlock interprets that word as AMMO, short for ‘ammunition’. Some time later Sherlock realizes that this secret code word doesn’t mean ‘ammo’ but ‘amo’ ... Latin for ‘I love’. 

Regarding the dots that accompany the AGRA acronym, there are some noticable irregularities:

The memory stick Mary puts on the table in 221b (HLV) ... A.G.RA

John shows Mary her memory stick before he throws it into the fire at the Holmes cottage (HLV) ... A.G.RA

The memory stick in the fire (HLV) ... A.G.R.A

Ajay’s memory stick, revealed from inside the Thatcher bust (TST) ... A.G.RA

AGRA acronym at the beginning of the Tiblisi scene (TST) ... A.G.R.A.

And when Sherlock first mentions AGRA in Mycroft’s presence his brother instantly brings up the Indian city of Agra. No dots at all. 

“Agra? A city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is three hundred and seventy-eight kilometres west of the state capital, ...”

THE CITY OF AGRA

 This city plays a key role in AC Doyle’s novel The Sign of Four. 

"The city of Agra is a great place, swarming with fanatics and fierce devil-worshippers of all sorts. Our handful of men were lost among the narrow, winding streets. Our leader moved across the river, therefore, and took up his position in the old fort at Agra. I don't know if any of you gentlemen have ever read or heard anything of that old fort. It is a very queer place,—the queerest that ever I was in, and I have been in some rum corners, too. First of all, it is enormous in size. I should think that the enclosure must be acres and acres. There is a modern part, which took all our garrison, women, children, stores, and everything else, with plenty of room over. But the modern part is nothing like the size of the old quarter, where nobody goes, and which is given over to the scorpions and the centipedes. It is all full of great deserted halls, and winding passages, and long corridors twisting in and out, so that it is easy enough for folk to get lost in it. For this reason it was seldom that any one went into it, though now and again a party with torches might go exploring.”

The old fort of Agra is the place where the theft of the great treasure takes place, around which Holmes’ case in The Sign of Four revolves. Somehow Doyle’s description of that fort ... fortress, palace and residence of rulers ... almost sounds like a description of a vast and convoluted mind palace. 

The great Agra treasure

This treasure gets stolen by a group of four men. They are bound by an oath - a vow - written down on paper and signed. 

In the left-hand corner is a curious hieroglyphic like four crosses in a line with their arms touching. Beside it is written, in very rough and coarse characters, “The sign of the four” ... 

A heavy iron box, made of Benares metal-work, contained the great treasure that consisted of ‘the most precious stones and the choicest pearls’:

There were one hundred and forty-three diamonds of the first water, including one which has been called, I believe, 'the Great Mogul' and is said to be the second largest stone in existence. Then there were ninety-seven very fine emeralds, and one hundred and seventy rubies, some of which, however, were small. There were forty carbuncles, two hundred and ten sapphires, sixty-one agates, and a great quantity of beryls, onyxes, cats'-eyes, turquoises, and other stones, the very names of which I did not know at the time, though I have become more familiar with them since. Besides this, there were nearly three hundred very fine pearls, twelve of which were set in a gold coronet. By the way, these last had been taken out of the chest and were not there when I recovered it.

The ‘Sign of Four’ and also Captain Morstan (Mary’s father) were later betrayed by Major Sholto, who took the treasure and ran off with it to England. And here the great treasure from the banks of the river Yamuna gets lost forever, submerged in the waters of the river Thames. 

Great treasure from the banks ... lost ... the waters ...

At this point inevitably the Waters Gang from The Sign of Three comes to mind. This episode starts with three bank robbers, masked as clowns, who commit five thefts at almost quite regular intervals before they ..... get caught?

18 MONTHS AGO - “Bank gang leave cops clueless”

12 MONTHS AGO - “Who stole our two mill?”

6 MONTHS AGO - “Police are no closer to Waters Gang conviction”

3 MONTHS AGO - “Waters Gang walk free, again!”

YESTERDAY - Apparently no good day for the Waters family ... but then Sherlock phones, calls for help and Greg leaves his post ...

Is the Waters Gang able to escape again or do they get finally caught? That’s still an open question. And Mary’s secret A.G.R.A. identity will only be revealed in the next episode ... His Last Vow.

Points or no points ... or both?

Sherlock solves the Baskerville case by adding dots behind each letter of the word: HOUND ... H.O.U.N.D. The supernatural monster-hound disappears and turnes into a man-made project instead. Strictly speaking, however, both versions - the acronym H.O.U.N.D. as well as the word ‘hound’ - are important and have meaning and both are linked to Jim ‘Mr Sex’ Moriarty. Maybe this method applies also to AGRA?

AGRA without the dots

As Mycroft explains in The Six Thatchers, Agra is ‘a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India’. In AC Doyle’s novel The Sign of Four it is the old fort of Agra that plays the key role. The construction of this fortress - palace and residnece of rulers - was commissioned by emperor Shah Jahan (meaning: king of the world). Years later, Shah Jahan was put under house arrest in the Red Fort by one of his sons until his death in 1666. He found his final resting place in the same mausoleum he’d commissioned for his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal. For eight years Shah Jahan looked out from the Red Fort at the place where his most favourite empress, his inseparable comanion, the great love of his life, had been laid to rest. 

Agra’s most prized and best-known monument isn’t the old fort ... it is the Taj Mahal ... the worldwide renowned symbol of undying love. 

The corners have been placed so that when seen from the center of the plan, the sun can be seen rising and setting on the north and south corners on the summer and winter solstices respectively. This makes the Taj a symbolic horizon. The planning and structure of the Taj Mahal, from the building itself to the gardens and beyond, is symbolic of the garden of Paradise. The sky has not only been incorporated in the design through the reflecting pools but also through the surface of the building itself.

It is said that the white symbolizes the purity of real love. The planning of the entire compound has been split into two - representing earthly life and afterlife. The plan of the worldly side is a mirror image of the otherworldly side, and the grand gate in the middle represents the transition between the two lives. 

AMO ... I love ...

A.G.R.A. or Agra - both versions finally lead to ‘love’ - just like H.O.U.N.D. and hound lead to ‘sex’. A virologist who is employed by the government but secretly works on his own project and a secretary, cleverer than most, who is also employed by the government and also does her own thing. Under the influence of the hound-aerosol the virologist merges visually with Jim and when the secretary’s secret amo-identity is unmasked, she uses - word for word - Jim’s line from TGG. Coincidence? 

Lady Smallwoods codename is ‘love’ while Vivian Norbury calls herself ‘amo’ (I love). ‘Amo’ worked undercover, betrayed the government and used AGRA as her private assassination unit. 

“Why did you betray us?” ..... “Why does anyone do anything?”

September, 2022

Thanks for reading and thanks @callie-ariane​ for the scripts.

Sources (incl. Agra pics): Agra Fort  Taj Mahal  Shah Jahan  The sign of four by ACDoyle

#sherlock bbc #the thing with the acronyms #acronyms #umqra #hound #agra #ammo #amo #the sign of four #red fort #taj mahal #metaphorical reading

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

Ten Intresting Salvadoran Novels

1. "Noviembre" by Jorge Galán

Salvadoran society lives immersed in the horror of the Civil War. One fateful morning in November, a group of armed men enters the facilities of the Catholic University and murders six Jesuits and two women in cold blood. Father Tojeira is then forced by circumstances to take the reins of the Company in those sinister days after the massacre, with the desire and obligation to discover the truth hidden behind these deaths. However, the only witness who could help solve the case is silenced by the authorities. Who are really to blame for this terrible massacre? Inspired by the tragic events that shook El Salvador and Latin America, November is an emotional and disturbing novel about fear, hatred and impunity. A book that for the first time sheds a little light on the never-clarified events of 1989 and delves into the history of other crimes, such as that of Monsignor Romero. A vindication of the need to raise our voices as the murdered Jesuits did, in defense of the most disadvantaged. - (Amazon.com)

2. "The Massacre at El Mozote" by Mark Danner

In December 1981 soldiers of the Salvadoran Army's select, American-trained Atlacatl Battalion entered the village of El Mozote, where they murdered hundreds of men, women, and children, often by decapitation. Although reports of the massacre—and photographs of its victims—appeared in the United States, the Reagan administration quickly dismissed them as propaganda. In the end, El Mozote was forgotten. The war in El Salvador continued, with American funding. - (Amazon.com)

3. "Carta desde Zacatraz" by Roberto Valencia

In 1999, a seventeen-year-old young man named Gustavo Adolfo Parada Morales, el Directo, was accused of committing seventeen murders as the leader of one of the most active and dangerous nineties cliques of the Mara la Pana Di Locos. It was written about him that he was the most dangerous and feared man in El Salvador, the monster, public enemy number one. He escaped shortly after being convicted. They recaptured him. The Mara Salvatrucha sentenced him to death. He rehabilitated himself. He regained freedom. He married. He went back to jail. He raised two children. He murdered again. He was murdered.

For seven years, journalist Roberto Valencia interviewed fifty people who knew him closely (relatives, victims, police, judges, priests, psychologists, gang members…), investigated official files and archives, and spent four afternoons with el Directo in Zacatraz, the maximum security prison in Zacatecoluca. With this information, Valencia weaves a meticulous spider web that connects—without shortcuts or exculpatory temptations—the violence of the gangs with the recent sociopolitical history of El Salvador. An obsessive and disturbing story. Without escape.

They discover the story of a journalist who has deeply studied the Directo and its surroundings, and proposes a story that connects the violence of the gangs with the recent sociopolitical history of El Salvador. - (Amazon.com)

4. "Senselessness" by Horacio Castellanos Moya

A boozing, sex-obsessed writer finds himself employed by the Catholic Church (an institution he loathes) to proofread a 1,100 page report on the army's massacre and torture of thousands of indigenous villagers a decade earlier, including the testimonies of the survivors. The writer's job is to tidy it up: he rants, "that was what my work was all about, cleaning up and giving a manicure to the Catholic hands that were piously getting ready to squeeze the balls of the military tiger." Mesmerized by the strange Vallejo-like poetry of the Indians' phrases ("the houses they were sad because no people were inside them"), the increasingly agitated and frightened writer is endangered twice over: by the spell the strangely beautiful heart-rending voices exert over his tenuous sanity, and by real danger—after all, the murderers are the very generals who still run this unnamed Latin American country. - (goodreads.com)

5. "One Day of Life" by Manlio Argueta

5:30 A.M. in Chalate, a small rural town: Lupe, the grandmother of the Guardado family and the central figure of the novel, is up and about doing her chores. By 5:00 P.M. the plot of the novel has been resolved, with the Civil Guard's search for and interrogation of Lupe's young granddaughter, Adolfina. Told entirely from the perspective of the resilient women of the Guardado family, One Day of Life is not only a disturbing and inspiring evocation of the harsh realities of peasant life in El Salvador after fifty years of military exploitation; it is also a mercilessly accurate dramatization of the relationship of the peasants to both the state and the church. - (goodreads.com)

6. "Slash and Burn" by Claudia Hernández

As a girl she sees her village sacked and her beloved father and brothers flee. Her life in danger, she joins the rebellion in the hills, where her comrades force her to give up the baby she conceives. Years later, having outlived countless men, she leaves to find her lost daughter, travelling across the Atlantic with meagre resources. She returns to a community riven with distrust, fear and hypocrisy in the wake the revolution. - (goodreads.com)

7. "The Dream of My Return" by Horavia Catellanos Moya

Drinking way too much and breaking up with his wife, an exiled journalist in Mexico City dreams of returning home to El Salvador. But is it really a dream or a nightmare? When he decides to treat his liver pain with hypnosis, his few impulse-control mechanisms rapidly dissolve. Hair-brained schemes, half-mad arguments, unraveling murder plots, hysterical rants: everything escalates at a maniacal pace, especially the crazy humor. - (goodreads.com)

8. "Bitter Grounds" by Sandra Benítez

Spanning the years between 1932 and 1977, this beautifully told epic is set in the heart of El Salvador, where coffee plantations are the center of life for rich and poor alike. Following three generations of the Prieto Clan and the wealthy family they work for, this is the story of mothers and daughters who live, love, and die for their passions. - (goodreads.com)

9. "Tyrant Memory" by Horacio Castellanos Moya

Castellanos Moya’s most thrilling book to date, about the senselessness of tyranny. The tyrant of Horacio Castellanos Moya’s ambitious new novel is the actual pro-Nazi mystic Maximiliano Hernández Martínez — known as the Warlock — who came to power in El Salvador in 1932. An attempted coup in April, 1944, failed, but a general strike in May finally forced him out of office. Tyrant Memory takes place during the month between the coup and the strike. Its protagonist, Haydée Aragon, is a well-off woman, whose husband is a political prisoner and whose son, Clemente, after prematurely announcing the dictator’s death over national radio during the failed coup, is forced to flee when the very much alive Warlock starts to ruthlessly hunt down his enemies. The novel moves between Haydée’s political awakening in diary entries and Clemente’s frantic and often hysterically comic efforts to escape capture. Tyrant Memory — sharp, grotesque, moving, and often hilariously funny — is an unforgettable incarnation of a country’s history in the destiny of one family. - (goodreads.com)

10. "The Weight of All Things" by Sandra Benítez

The last time Nicols saw his mother, she was mortally wounded by gunfire that erupted in a crowded plaza. Watching while her body is dragged away with other victims, Nicols believes that his mother is still alive and vows to find her again. Thus begins the young boys harrowing journey through his war-ravaged country. - (goodreads.com)

[shadeslayer]

and tbqh i dont think that real native sovereignty or a real #landback is going to fix much.

because most tribes that have solid governmental structures have them based off usa constitution and govt structure (because thats what legally has to be done to have your tribal govt recognized as valid by the usa) and so a lot of usa govt problems will have been ported over via that

and because a lot of tribes and tribal hiearchies are just plain shitty. no one says it bc its seen as (and in action, it often is) "opening the door" for bigoted people to claim we dont deserve anything then. but there is massive problems in tribal govts/councils/hiearchies!

nepotism is a huge one that youll see pretty much anywhere and if not nepotism then there will be at least some strong form of favoritism happening. One Man has been chief of my tribe for 36 years and his son is expected to take over when he retires. theres regular elections <3 but they mean nothing. no one bothers to run against usually, because its pointless to try! when i worked for the nation, i was told by coworkers that in other processes they had been explicitly told by their higher ups to favor hiring people with relative who already work for the nation

antiblackness is HUGE !! for people that love to bitch about broken treaties, tribes are right now today and have been for years breaking treaties just to exclude freedmen (aka former slaves of the tribe and their descendants) from anything tribal. & thats just scratching the surface of the shit that gets said and done in tribal spaces, official or unofficial.

colorism too! and it is in part that my tribe is much more assimilated than others (though i know a few tribes that are similar to mine), so my experience is skewed one way despite being involved in general spaces too and knowing others from other tribes. but there is explicit colorism happening in the nations hiring processes and elections. fullbloods and darkskinned people are heavily discriminated against and its always accompanied by people like my very pale, blonde, blue eyed, sorority girl coworker who would repeatedly complain about how she gets told she doesnt look indian enough and shes soooooo discriminated against by other natives because of it. ok bitch the only dark skinned person working for the nation that weve seen is the fucking cleaning woman who gets regularly shit on by our boss. go back to your shitty family farm and cry there

homophobia, transphobia, its all over the fucking place. "same sex" marriage isnt legal still in many tribes. my tribe straight up completely ignores queer people and in doing so is actively erasing our history. & they know what theyre doing. when theres a huge push of cultural preservation & revitalization, and you make explicitly sure that certain stories arent being included, you know exactly what youre doing. and ive seen that happen over and over again even for simple things like house names. the only reason anyone knows house names exist is because jerod forced people to know about them. the nation wants to look nice and white and normal so they wont give any information on it, even if the people working there KNOW it

and idk its just exhausting after having worked for the nation. i dont have a better solution, all i know is that government more often than not are just completely shitty. and that actively includes tribal governments. giving them legal political control of their former territories isnt going to make those problems go away, its only going to make them hurt more people

maybe the best option would be to just be a usamerican minority group. but its fucking insulting to consider and even then i dont know what that could even look like and still be compatible with tribes needs. just have to take it day by day i guess

#anompolili

[satrangee-ray]

The Queerness in the spirit of Valentines' day🌈

An analysis by me cause I love extracting gay outta everything, but if that's not your style you don't have to share my views:)

When I was at school, every single year on valentines day, our principal would take a minimum of one hour to narrate to us the story of St. Valentine during morning assembly.

Most of us knew this story by heart, and got bored because it was the same shit each year, but now that I think about it, the tale had it all: A Roman tyrant King opposed to marriage because why celebrate love when you can send people off to military warfare? And a one man army who not only encouraged but actively made arrangements to get young couples married in secret, against the unjust state laws, because human rights >>>>>> monarchist power. A fairy tale right there! Except, it was tragic. Saint Valentine was martyred on the 14th of February, 269 AD.

A real life heroic display of courage, kindness, empathy, and perseverance in the face of injustice caused a man to lose his life. Therefore, although many may say that Valentines' day is just a commercially glorified holiday to profit off a large group of targeted people (and they would be right to a huge extent), this holiday has always had a very personal appeal to a hopeless romantic and a queerperson like me.

I'm Indian, and until a few years ago it was illegal for me to exist in my own country. It is unfortunately still the case in several nations around the world, and speaking of marriage, we don't have that right in India. Several interested queer couples do not get to marry or acquire the rights to each other's medical supervision, to buy/own property together, to adopt kids, and even to donate blood! They are also often forced into toxic lavender marriages. And while a case on same-sex marriage rights is ongoing in the Supreme Court, all we're getting are multiple hearing dates and no final verdict, as the present Indian government continues to oppose queer martial rights under the guise of "preserving the sanctity of the sacred institution."

Fight maybe over for our cishet friends, but for our own sake, St. Valentines' fire must keep on burning. Gosh, the irony of a catholic school of all places teaching me the importance of using my voice! But real talk though, while we try to live through convents who teach children to fly, and then go on to cage them, or a society which insists we make a pompous show of our love, but only if it fits certain validity criteria, my fellow queer people— let's pick up our roses and teddy bears, pens and swords, and keep fighting till we can marry, or get easy access to safe transitions, or employment, but most importantly, till we can live as fearlessly as we deserve to.

#valentines day #valentines day 2023 #saint valentine #lgbtq #queer community #queer love #queer marriage #jai rainbows