#also yes this is an only women of fantasy poll

[sbbarnes]

#I got POLLS #tamora pierce #mercedes lackey #dianna wynne jones #naomi novik #if you pick naomi novik you are potentially very young #also yes this is an only women of fantasy poll #because it is my poll #fantasy

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

some preliminary statistics

(based on the first 102 polls)

general

we’ve had 10 majority-YES results so far

the highest result by far is J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (76.5% YES), followed by Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys (60.4% YES) and Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal (59.5% YES). this mirrors the pattern of overall results by age demographic.

publisher

there is a clear and dramatic divide between books published in English by Big 5 imprints, which have an average YES rate of 21.3%, and books published by independent publishers, academic publishers, self-published books, or books not published in English (average YES rate 3.1%). this is unsurprising, considering the market dominance of Big 5 publishers, especially in fantasy and science fiction.

age demographic

adult books

there have been 70 adult book polls so far, of which 4 have had YES results (5.7%). the average YES rate for adult books is 13.6%, the lowest for any age demographic — unsurprising, I think, for a number of reasons.

teen/YA

there have been 14 teen/YA book polls so far, of which 2 have had YES results (14.3%). the average YES rate for teen/YA books is 20.4%, ahead of adult and behind children’s. this makes sense to me, since tumblr users mainly came of age during the YA boom of the 2010s.

children’s

there have been 17 children’s book polls so far, of which 4 have had YES results (23.5%). the average YES rate for children’s books is 24.5%, and it’s being dragged down by a) Frances Hardinge’s books, which were mostly published a little late for the tumblr userbase, and b) a bunch of non-anglophone children’s books that either haven’t been published in English or were published in English a little late for the tumblr userbase. if we exclude non-anglophone children’s books the average jumps up to 31.4% (even with the loss of Tintenherz / Inkheart), and if we exclude Hardinge it jumps to 41%. I expect this trend will continue at least for anglophone children’s books published before ~2010.

publication date

average YES percentages are on something of a bell curve centered on the 2000s (’m excluding everything before the ’70s because there’s only 1 book for each of the earlier decades):

1970s: 8.5%

1980s: 12.2%

1990s: 18.5%

2000s: 21.2%

2010s: 15.4%

2020s: 10.7%

this also makes conceptual sense to me but I can’t explain why.

race

sadly but unsurprisingly, books by white authors have an average YES rate of 19.7%, versus 4.8% for non-white authors. I expect this trend will continue — if N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season, one of the most highly acclaimed books of the last decade, can’t get a majority YES result (which it’s currently not on track to), I doubt anything else will be able to. the one other thing that seems possible to me might be Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s webnovels, which have been submitted but aren’t yet queued. we’ll find out eventually!

gender

books by men (17.9% YES average) are slightly more likely to have been read than books by women (15.9% YES average). there are two few data points for nonbinary writers for that average to be meaningful as yet.

geography

books from the Europe (read: almost exclusively the UK) are slightly more likely to be read than books from North America (read: almost exclusively the US) — average YES percentage 20.5% for Europe vs. 16.1% for North America. the average for the rest of the world is 5.6% — no other single continent has enough data yet to really be meaningful.

this attests perhaps to the relative prestige of British fantasy — the percentages are being skewed upwards by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Diana Wynne Jones.

language

books originally published in English have an average YES percentage of 17.9%; books originally published in other languages average 6.5% (2.2% excluding Tintenherz / Inkheart)

#not a poll #statistics

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 1, Wave 5, Poll 5

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and prior here.

Mille Roper-The Arcadia Project

Qualifications:

She has BPD, which is a rarely represented disorder as it is, and is also a quadruple amputee, and she's one of the best characters with BPD I have ever had the pleasure of reading about. She is also canonically bisexual!

Propaganda:

GODDDDDD Millie she is one of my favorite bisexual, borderline, and amputee characters ever and when it comes to bi and BPD rep, she reminds me frankly of myself....I love her so much I need to reread borderline

Wen Kexing-Faraway Wanderers / Tian Ya Ke

Qualifications:

1. The LGBTQ+ part: he is canonically a gay man. (Though he does not identify by this specific word due to being from, yknow, fantasy ancient China, he is very vocal about only having interest in men / not having interest in women.) He is also one half of the main (canon, mlm) couple in the book. 2. Disability part: he has complex PTSD, with dissociative symptoms being most prominent. It's not articulated as clearly as the gay part, but there's a lot of textual evidence. For example, for his bouts of dissociation, he has a clear trigger - thinking or talking about personal loss (mostly his initial traumatic event, brutal murder of his parents when he was a child, but at least once it was fear of losing his partner), - and there's a very distinctive way the author describes it: "far-off gaze", "blank" expression or eyes, being "in a daze"/"dazed" were all words used more than once in those situations. He also exhibits symptoms of depersonalization, especially in contexts of violence. The one that made it click for me was a moment when someone was striking to kill him while he couldn't defend himself, and he was described as being calm "as if the one about to die was not himself", but there are also smaller hints, like several times he is described as 'fighting as if he doesn't notice pain and exhaustion' - which I would not take as evidence on its own, but tied in to other dissociative moments of his... yeah. 3. Last thing, in case you aren't sure PTSD/dissociative disorder should count as a disability, I want to make my argument that it should, as it noticeably impacts the character's quality of life. Both continuously (he mentions, for example, sleep problems/insomnia - that clearly stem from his traumatic experiences) and at specific moments (like that time he started dissociating in the middle of the battlefield, nearly resulting in him getting killed........)

Propaganda:

Okay, imagine a classical Chinese martial arts story. Young orphan meets a mysterious master, who imparts all his knowledge upon him; the boy trains hard and challenges various villains, until making it all the way to the final boss who was behind everything. Now, imagine if, in the very beginning of this story, the final boss accidentally ran into that mysterious master. And became suspicious of him. And began following him under pretense of falling in love with him at first sight. And then fell for him for real. And then they had adventures and also started co-parenting that young orphan.

THAT is the plot of Tian Ya Ke. And the final boss in question? Well, that's Wen Kexing I'm submitting! And yes, Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu - the aforementioned mysterious master and the main character of TYK - are a canon couple. Wen Kexing in particular is very, ah, out and loud gay. Gay and making it everyone else's problem even. So that's the LGBTQ+ part. (Also they are SUCH a couple. They're so funny! The whole circus! And then they do something and you are like oh yeah right. each of them is a villain of a different story. Good thing they decided to play house instead.) On the disability front, Wen Kexing has mental health stuff - to be specific, complex PTSD with signs of dissociative disorder. I'm not gonna describe his wide array of traumatic experiences on the form because it needs SO many trigger warnings, but the important part is how those impacted him. For example, he mentions having sleep problems/insomnia due to fear. (Which made the fandom lose our shit once we connected it to the earlier moment where he, in a vulnerable state, drags himself to Zhou Zishu's side and falls asleep on his lap. The! Trust! That! Shows!) He also dissociates frequently when thinking/talking about his initial traumatic event. Which is my favorite part of the portrayal of his PTSD because... you know how there's this trend in media with superpowers/magic when the character's trauma response is portrayed through their powers, like their powers going out of control? And TYK went 'yeah, no, when /our/ OP final boss has a ptsd flare up, he just dissociates like a normal person'. (and I, a normal person who also copes by dissociating, was like 'i owe u my life'.) Also, I think it's great that not all of his episodes are plot relevant. Like, in four out of five cases it's just something that happens (the narration / pov character makes note of it), and then the scene moves on - so it feels like a feature of his character, as opposed to a plot devise for creating situations. And the one case where it does happen in an action moment - when Wen Kexing gets revenge on the person responsible for his initial trauma and promptly starts dissociating in the middle of the battlefield, and someone else has to step in to prevent him from getting killed by other enemies - kinda highlights the disability aspect, imo. Like, it shows that PTSD creates barriers for him where a person without it wouldn't have any.

Anything Else?:

1. It's a Chinese novel, so character names are written down with surname first. So Wen Kexing = surname Wen + given name Kexing. 2. There's a live action adaptation of this novel, called Shan He Ling / Word of Honor, but it's uh. well. The portrayal of Wen Kexing's trauma and PTSD in it is. Bad. 'Completely butchered everything I thought was refreshing about it in the novel' bad. (please understand i hate everything about the adaptation and am barely refraining from infodumping about how much I deplore it here) So if WKX makes it into the tournament and none of the images I sent work for u, pls at least don't use the live-action version? He is practically a different character there!

#polls #poll #disabled characters #lgbtq characters #disability #lgbtq #lgbtq dcs round 1 #lgbtq dcs wave 5 #mille roper #the arcadia project #wen kexing #faraway wanderers #tian ya ke #id in alt text

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

preliminary stats

based on the first 114 polls.

general observations

we’ve had 9 majority-yes results so far (7.9% of the total)

highest result to date is Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth at a whopping 69.4% yes, followed closely by Martha Wells’s All Systems Red

there are some interesting similarities and some interesting differences between this and the fantasy blog

the fundamental truth that everyone thinks their taste is universal and everyone is wrong remains.

publisher

as with the fantasy polls, big 5 imprints are significantly more likely to have been read — 20.1% yes, vs. only 8.8% yes for other publishers. this difference is currently slightly less pronounced than for the fantasy polls, but also non-big 5 books are less than a quarter of the polls to date. I anticipate with more data it will probably align with the fantasy polls at around 5% yes.

age demographic

we don’t yet have enough data for a meaningful average for either teen/YA or children’s books. the average yes rate for adult books is 16.9%.

note that of the only 6 children’s book polls so far, 2 (33.3%) have been majority-yes. that said, I think that percentage is very unlikely to hold if/when more children’s book polls finish — there are plenty of children’s sci-fi books (I read many!), but there seem to be few that are widely read/beloved.

publication date

these are allllll over the place. the average publication date for the first ~250 submissions to this blog skews significantly older than the fantasy blog (1990 here vs. 2001 there), which initially, frankly, I kind of thought was people posturing by showing off that they’ve read The Classics. I now think it may reflect, rather, a divide between people who follow this blog (or see its posts reblogged) and people who submit books to this blog. the former are perhaps newer sci-fi, or newer adult sci-fi readers, who mainly read/have read things from the last decade; the latter are long-time sci-fi readers who grew up reading classics.

the result of this is a more scattered chart of decades, only some of which have enough submissions for a meaningful average:

1810s: 1 book

1860s: 2 books

1890s: 1 book

1930s: 3 books

1940s: 1 book

1950s: 3 books

1960s: 8 books

1970s: 11 books (average 9.6% yes)

1980s: 16 books (average 12.9% yes)

1990s: 13 books (average 12.4% yes)

2000s: 3 books (???????)

2010s: 35 books (average 20.1% yes)

2020s: 16 books (average 13.2% yes)

where’d the 2000s go???? funny little not-actually-bimodal distribution. as more polls come out I suspect this will probably settle into something a little more regular (maybe an actual bimodal distribution? lmao), and I expect it will continue to be skewed towards the 2010s.

race

this is a nice difference from the fantasy blog! while the number of submissions to this blog is even more overwhelmingly white than the fantasy blog (almost 86% here vs. about 82% there), the read rates are not actually that different: average 17.7% yes for books by white authors and 15.2% yes for books by authors of color.

gender

the gender demographics are the exact opposite here of the fantasy blog: where the fantasy blog’s submissions are about 60% women and about 35% men, the submissions here are about 35% women and about 60% men. and, for some reason, the averages are also reversed: books by men average 15.5% yes and books by women average 19.6% yes.

geography

North America (mainly the US) is at an average of 18.0% yes, and Europe (mainly the UK) is at an average of 14.9% yes. this is again the opposite of the fantasy polls — something about the relative dominance of American science fiction writers. there’s not yet enough data for meaningful statistics about other continents.

language

finally, as with the fantasy blog, the average for books originally published in English is substantially higher (18.5% yes) than the average for books not originally published in English (8.7% yes; 4.3% yes excluding Le Petit Prince). this is similar to the fantasy blog, and I imagine it will stay that way, although it’s possible Liu Cixin and some others will help keep the number a little higher.

#not a poll

[lexa-griffins]

Can you break my heart and make me cry today? I wanna know about the major angst involving Bedwarmer Clarke and Lexa's baby from the poll we did

😈😈😈😈 there are two plot points of angst.

One of them, I won't say much - i will say there were two babies, and now there's only one. They didn't know there were two babies.

For the second point:

They are pretty far off in the pregnancy by now. Lexa has been trying to take it easy but she's still heda and she also has a small toddler to take care of so she does move a whole lot and assists with training and refuses to slow down to much even if Clarke thinks she should.

She's adamant that despite everything she is not at risk during the pregnancy, the midwives have told her she is healthy and should be perfectly fine to go about her business - as so many women do on the ground. Clarke wants to disagree, but the medical training she got on the ark barely touched pregnancy and childbirth and sometimes she really wished her mom was alive to go and ask her for advice but without her all she has is her medical instinct and a sense of doom.

That night, Lexa wakes up like usual, the baby making her go to the bathroom is by now a fairly normal occurrence at eight months. She waddled her way to the bathroom, trying to be quiet with Madi asleep with them in the bed. She's half asleep, not paying much attention to anything until she sees it. Blood, in her underwear.

No. No no no. Not now. Not this time. Not again, please no.

She wakes up Clarke to tell. Lexa feels horribly calm too. Perhaps she already knew it was going to happen, had accepted it long before it happened. When Clarke wakes up at first, she assumes Lexa is in labor but Lexa tells her no, she's spotting and they need to go to the midwife.

Madi half wakes up in the commotion of them asking a guard to watch her, and Lexa only starts to choke up when the little girl calls her over and kisses her tummy because she "wants to say bye bye to her baby sibling". She says it all the time when Lexa leaves in the morning, she doesn't mean anything by it but it feels far too real this time.

When the midwife tells them she cannot be sure and that they will have to wait to see how it progresses, Clarke feels the urge to kick the old woman. What the fuck does she mean they have to way and see?! Thats their baby! If she was in the ark, if if Clarke had managed to help, if her people hadnt been so fucking stupid maybe theyd have their technology and theyd be able to know if the baby inside Lexa is still alive or not, they could just remove the baby instead of waiting to see if her wife will have to give birth to... she cant even think about that.

They go back to the room. Clarke cannot stop pacing as if trting to remember anything that could help them right now. Lexa seems to barely be aware of anything around her, staring ahead, hands in her stomach hoping to feel a movement, a hiccup, something. But the baby is awfully quiet and still, Lexa can barely remember if she felt them move at all through the day and shevstarts to question if there is something she could have done today, yesterday, at all to save their baby. Maybe she could have done everything different. Or maybe she could have done nothing at all because this baby was just a wild fantasy that was never to be.

Madi is asleep next to them. So sweet and small. She's been so excited for a sibling, she already adores Lexa so much and had been so affectionate towards Lexa's bump over the past 3 months (yes, only three. Lexas eight months pregnant, that is not a typo 👀). It breaks Lexa's heart even more, having to explain to her where the baby has gone.

At some point, they fall asleep. Neither have cried yet because despite all of their sureness in the end of this dream, neither dare to acknowledge it might be over.

Lexa wakes up with a pain on her side. She groans at it. She does not want to wake, she does not want to face the day knowing she might be less whole by the end of it.

The pain again. She swats at whatever is making it but catches nothing.

And again.

"Nomon."

"Madi baby shh"

"Nomon."

"Hmm"

"Nomon, baby want you to wake up."

"Not yet Madi."

"Baby kicking nomon. Up! Befast!"

#letter opened #bedwarmer clarke #was that angsty? or angsty enough? :D #this is not the /major/ angst #that one... is heavy and not easy #im.not sure if thay was enough to make you cry tho #*that #hope it made you feel something tho 🤔

[peachsayshi]

Too shy to reblog your poll and put that in the tags so: yes we love the girls getting attention!! I love them all but honestly I need to change panties just by hearing Mei Mei talk, so for sure she would make me cum 10x harder than anyone else and then I would immediately cum again when she calls me good girl, teases and humiliates me about how needy I'm for her. I need her in way that puts new sin in the bible. I just want to be her sugar baby and her girltoy. No shame on my end 😤 She is the dom I need.

(Ps: your blog is literally my safe space for anon thirsting over jjk women 🥹. Also I'm outing myself here as the anon who has ruined you multiple times with putting horny stuff about jjk women in your inbox, but I know that you'll understand me with my thoughts of them)

aksdlkj nonnie, darling, you took the words right out of my mouth 😩 I honestly would be the subbiest sub for mei - it isn't even funny lol I'm simply there to service her at that point 🙇‍♀️

but also -- ahhh!! can I give you a proper hello!!! and also ask if you think it's necessary to wreck me in this way?? (the answer is always yes, please don't be alarmed by question hehe)

honestly, I feel so honored that you feel safe coming onto my blog to share your thirsts 💝 sexuality is such a sacred, personal journey - I explore so much of my own fantasies/kinks when writing fics, and I do try to make sure that nobody feels judged for their preferences/kinks etc. I can only hope to continue making this a fun and safe space for you & everyone else who stumbles on my thirsty ass blog hehe xoxo

⥽ ask 💌  

#> secret mail 💌

[asafeplaceforus112]

I'm honestly really fucking sick of going on Pinterest and seeing cringe / rage posts about the boyfriends webtoon... I just??? What??? Why??? So much energy to have so much rage! And the shit the say??? Like??? What??? It is a cartoon character???

Okay so some specifics because fuck me I need to get this out.

* I keep thinking about how people are complaining about specifically the voice actor for Felix aka goth being like "oh my god of course the trans man is wearing the girl clothes and is voiced by a girl". Ugghhhh to my knowledge I haven't seen him dress up as a girl, the one that wears skirts alot is Nerd who is a gender fuck identifying kinda character! Also bitch I'm pretty sure the voice actor is a non-binary masc that goes by he/they! Sit yo fuckin ass down, hatred for a cartoon does not mean you can misgender people!

* "it's not realistic!" It's a story about four stereotypes of webtoons and such falling in love as a polycule rather than falling for the heroine that we cheer on. Tldr it's a webtoon! It ain't gonna be realistic

* "I hate nerd! He's sexualised!!!" YES THAT IS THE IDEA! Nerd is being the stereotype of the pervy anime character! But if you'll notice, it's only with his boyfriends and small fantasys about others that he keeps to himself. Considering the fact that women kind everywhere wear fucking bras because we allow patriarchy to control us and infantilise men to the point that them staring at our nipples is a normal fucking thing? I THINK HE CAN FANTASIZE ABOUT HIS BOYFRIENDS WHO HE IS IN A MUTUAL CONSENTING RELATIONSHIP

* "the profile pics are cringe" oh yeah and how's your Harry Potter oc going?? Like??? Fuck off! It's a thing that people enjoy and is obviously something that brings a joy to them. You can think a fandom is bat shit and still respect them as human beings.

* if I hear one fucking person suggest that people who like boyfriends is faking a mental disorder / illness etc etc. I will actually get UPSET Upset. GODDAMN you do not have any fucking right to suggest that a person's status is faking or not. If you actually gave a shit about the community rather than using a persons status as vulnerability points or as a way to demean a person than you would realise how fucking damaging that is and I hope you fuck off and do not interact with us!!!!

Yeah I've calmed um theres probably more but I'm good for now

Because I accidentally pressed the button have a poll

#boyfriends #negative rant #rant #boyfriends rant

[worldofwardcraft]

And they’re off and running!

July 18, 2022

With the 2022 midterm elections a mere 16 weeks out, we're already seeing the media disseminating the lazy prediction that the out party (i.e., the Republicans) will gallop to an easy victory because, well, that's what always happens.

However, this lethargic analysis conveniently ignores some of the daunting disadvantages the GOP must struggle against. For a start, consider their deeply unpopular policy positions. Like destroying our democracy, turning women into second-class citizens, doing away with Medicare and Social Security, and championing the nation's lethal gun culture. Republicans are also hamstrung by the glut of comically unfit candidates they've put forth. Plus, they must contend with how Donald Trump's increasingly obvious criminality is poisoning the attitude of voters toward the Party.

Still, one narrative the media continue to push is that Republicans will without a doubt regain control of the US Senate. But as recent polling indicates, that's several furlongs from a foregone conclusion.

Wisconsin: MAGA Senator Ron Johnson, who somehow can't keep from publicly displaying his stupidity, already trails three of the four Democrats running in the August primary.

Pennsylvania: Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman currently holds a six-point lead over TV huckster Mehmet Oz, per a recent AARP survey.

Ohio: Public polling has Democrat Tim Ryan leading his GOP challenger 44-41% for the open Senate seat.

Iowa: Dems have a strong candidate in former Navy admiral Mike Franken. Plus, an earlier poll showed only 27% of voters wanted the 88-year-old Chuck Grassley to run again.

New Hampshire: The YouGov poll has incumbent Senator Maggie Hassan ahead of her Republican opponent by nine points.

Nevada: Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is up over former Republican attorney general Adam Laxalt 46-43%, according to Change Research.

Georgia: Both Quinnipiac and Change Research have Senator Raphael Warnock comfortably ahead of the self-admitted mentally ill Herschel Walker.

Arizona: Ex-astronaut and senator Mark Kelly has a six-point edge over illegal 2020 Trump elector Jim Lamon.

Both of the YouGov generic ballot polls in June gave the Dems a stunning seven-point lead over the Republicans. Here's MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Scarborough to explain why.

Republicans are so extreme they’re chasing voters away who don’t consider themselves Democrats. This 2022 election is far more competitive at this stage than it should be.

So, yes, it's still a long way to November, and anything can happen. But as the candidates round the clubhouse turn, the media's ballyhooed "red wave" looks to be more fantasy than fact. With the Dems in the above Senate races appearing to have the inside track.

#democratic candidates #midterm elections #republican unpopularity

[sleeplessandstubborn]

Emily in Paris episode 3 or it’s still more accurate than American media recent coverture on France.

Ah, I had to write that title. And I am not even talking about American Twitter. But yeah. Feel better. Somewhat I have the impression that this is going to substitute the still a better love story than Twilight in my mind. But, I’m sorry, Stephenie Meyer, I am not here for that but to make a belated, totally improvised, not at all completely planned recap of Episode 3 of Emily in Paris, your favourite Instagram version of the French capital.

So episode 3 starts with our heroine running, as she usually does every morning. Why this Paris is more empty than the town where I live which has like 25,000 inhabitants? So many questions about where did people go. The case is her boss in Chicago calls. Yes, the one who speaks French and should be now best friends with Sylvie but it’s stuck in Chicago with her pregnancy.

I know, Madeline, I know. It would be frustrating for me too that the main trait of my personality was I’m pregnant and on my bed. They both exchange about how now that Doug dumped her Emily’s life is full of croissants and sex, when actually is about sex. Also Emily meets street furniture. As does Madeline, too. I guess that’s not the kind of idea she had of meeting French men. Thanks Anne! Hidalgo of course.

Madeline is sending Emily the corporate commandments for Savoir. Yikes, I thought again, a cultural clash is coming and what are corporate commandments anyway (I don’t know, sounds tacky, I’m just a puzzled European), but for now there are another problems to solve. Emily’s shower breaks, the building manager only speaks French and of course our leading lady is still struggling with understanding it. Also, sidenote: manager building is right with Miss Cooper. Only problems.

Fortunately Gabriel exists and he helps her to break the language barrier. But this isn’t going to magically repair her shower and so Emily has to wash her hair in one of humanity’s wonders, one apex of civilization, the bidet. It’s supposed to be a bad hair day for her afterwards but... Does she look that different? Well, not for me! Discuss:

This shows... A character development! At last! Emily is trying to learn French, and even if her beret isn’t going to help in the task, is good to see she’s trying to adapt. Still, she’s overdoing a bit with that Gioconda bag.

I mean, girl. Relax. In order to improve her knowledge, she tries to trick her teacher - who considers a working place full of French people must be an interesting environment where to study the behaviour of the Emily Cooperius Chicagoensis but refuses the pleasure of her company if there’s not a 50 euros banknote in between. Business is business after all. Cut to Emily reuniting with my adored godess Sylvie, whose elegance and beauty only can be matched with the flag of the twelve stars in the background. Ah, Freude, schöner Götterfunken/ Tochter aus Elysium,/ Wir betreten feuertrunken/ Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

Well, the case is they are going to film the advertisement for De l’Heure today and it’s an important thing Emily keeps her mouth closed and unsmiling because she looks stupid, at least in Sylvie’s opinion. I’d say more scary but well.

Luc and Julien receive them with the enraged face of every European citizen who just met an aggresive attempt  of being forced into the American Way of Doing Things. Which they refuse naturally. Madeline just sent the corporate commandments and everyone is pissed at nonsense like giving praise in public and critizising in private. But off to filming the spot for the perfume. The location is the Pont d’Alexandre III that has featured in like 20,000 advertisement for fragrances. Here they met Antoine and Emily has the twentieth humiliating experience with languages telling she’s horny out of a sudden when she wanted to mean excited.

Emily meets the model, a Serbian blonde beauty that doesn’t speak French, that’s her personality trait. Our heroine seems rejoiced to find at least a kindred soul but we won’t have more time with the model, whose task is to walk across the bridge naked - or wearing the perfume, Antoine says - , while surrounded by men in costumes. The campaign Dream of Beauty, in short. Emily’s reaction is this:

Antoine argues this is meant to represent the woman’s fantasy, to be desired by all these men. Emily doesn’t think this is going to be appreciated by women at the other side of the Atlantic ocean and says the idea is sexists rather than sexy. Filming stop for they to debate, which seems expensive. Stopping, not debating. Without entering on what fantasies are valid or not and who actually pays attention to advertisements for fragrances - I am not one of these people - we don’t get to learn if Emily knows who Cocteau was.

The following morning the plumber can’t fix Emily’s shower. His gestures are pretty easy to understand, as it’s an universal fact that often the pieces needed to repair are not immediately available. Anyway, Emily asks Gabriel to help her with translation again. She must pay him or something. The thing doesn’t get to be fixed and Emily gets to shower in Gabriel’s appartment.

Maybe he has a fantasy of some sort here? Who knows. At the office and after her class, Emily’s first conversation of the day with Sylvie goes, as usual, for a rocky start. She has made lost money and time to the company, her boss argues, and on top of that she’s the prude police. The final straw for Emily immediately after that is that someone (called Luc) drew a dick on the Sacred Corporate Commandments. Having forgotten the fact that drawing penises is part of the human nature since the dawn of times, Emily doesn’t take well the profanation. It’s too much so she goes to lunch with Mindy.

Mindy - who is celebrating a party later and invites her - rolls her eyes at the corporate commandments and more or less say she deserves the hate because she could not expect French people were going to receive that gladly because they are against all. Well, it’s one of their multiple charms. “People like me! That’s my thing!” , Emily argues. Oh my sweet Summer child... Once back at the office, the commercial is as nonsensical as your average perfume commercial. Emily suggests a poll on Twitter to decide if it’s sexy or sexists. Bad or good, they’ll have publicity. Sounds about right?

One day I want to be Sylvie when she answers, after Emily invited her to Mandy’s party: Sorry, I’m busy. Also when she goes on with a mini the reason you suck moment: “You come to Paris. You walk into my office. You don’t even bother to learn the language. You treat the city like it’s your amusement park”. Apparently Emily can’t wrap her head around the idea of not everyone liking her and that you don’t have why to be friends with your bosses or workmates. Girl, just a civilized relationship with them is enough. Anyway... Emily does invite her, incapable of taking a no for an answer.

As predictable - don’t say you didn’t predict it - the party is a bit crowded and, leaving aside Mindy, Emily doesn’t know anyone there. Because, Sylvie knowing better, she didn’t show up. Well done Madame. Out of water again, Emily finds an apparently cute boy who engages in a conversation with her. With hand kissing at the balcony at all.

All it’s very romantic until, when they are strolling the streets and after flirting a bit, Fabien I think was his name - sorry, not checking again - tells her he likes American pussies. This is too much information all of a sudden for Emily - even if it could lead her to learn another the meaning of a new French word, equally related with felines - and storms off to Gabriel’s restaurant. Why is a thing the chef is there, available to serve her a glass of wine, I don’t know, I didn’t write this thing. But finally, finally, FINALLY our heroine says she’s going to stop trying being liked by everyone. Thank you Paris, you inspired some adult realities on Emily’s brain. It’s also a productive night after all because Gabriel says he likes her. So... yay? Since many of you have already seen the complete season, you know that things are... more complicated than that.

Of course the last three minutes of the episode are reserved for Emily Was Right After All moments. The poll is a success even if the commercial is not universally liked - but as Emily has learn this is not that important anymore -, she takes revenge on Luc bringing a dick shaped bread, or cake - I don’t know exactly what it is - which is a funny and irreverent way to respond him aaaand... finds a present from Antoine on her desk, lingerie from La Perla. Which is, ew, a bit creepy.

Aaaand that was all. I had to rewatch it because it had been eras since I last wrote about this series. I promise to be more disciplined with the next ones. Until then.

P.S. Down with Corporation Commandments.

#emily in paris

[ryanhaucklikestoshout-blog]

Stop Listening to Lanae Erickson. The Base Matters.

Lanae Erickson, the senior vice president for Third Way’s Social Policy & Politics Program, in Politico yesterday beseeched Democrats to “Stop Obsessing Over Base Turnout. Remember 2018?” I would like to take this opportunity to remind Erickson about the danger of failing to turn out the base. Remember 2016.

Erickson points to a Catalist report that found that 89% of new Democratic voters in 2018 were voters who did not vote for Hillary Clinton and that 40% of them in fact voted for Trump. This is, of course, not an indictment of left-wing policies, but rather a reflection of Hillary Clinton’s deep unpopularity and the unpopularity of her uninspiring platform and establishment ties. There is no fantasy shared by Bernie supporters or left-wing voters that a left-wing candidate, by electrifying the base, “won’t even have to talk to a single Trump voter.” (Admittedly, it’s rich watching Erickson raise this strawman in defense of a Democratic establishment which believed they could write off an entire⁠—ultimately vital⁠—state.) A genuinely left-wing candidate can and will speak to the disaffected masses that fled to Trump far better than a Hillary redux ever could. 13 of the 22 states Bernie Sanders won in the 2016 primaries went to Trump in the general. Several of these states had long traditions of overt socialism before the Cold War and socialism-in-all-but-name before the Reagan realignment. If a self-described socialist can speak past the propaganda and scaremongering hurled at voters by both the Republican and Democratic establishments, they can make the case for their platform as the best solution for the economic despair that plagues Trump Country.

Yes, “only a third of the candidates” supported by Our Revolution or Justice Democrats won their 2018 primaries. But Erickson acts as if this weren’t an incredible rate of success for a fresh insurgent movement. Even more staggering than the number of primary victories they celebrated were the races in which they prevailed. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated the presumptive future Speaker of the House. It’s amazing that Erickson could watch a figure like Joseph Crowley go down in flames and pretend that the Democratic establishment has a winning strategy. The Democrats Erickson singles out as examples to follow in 2020⁠—Abigail Spanberger, Colin Allred, Sharice Davids, and Xochitl Torres Small⁠—all campaigned in deeply conservative districts. Their victories are a sign that, in this current climate, conservative voters are increasingly receptive to candidates who are more liberal than their constituencies. In an election that turned on the conversion of Republican-leaning districts, of course the victors are going to trend more moderate. We should not look to their success as a sign that a Democrat competing nationally must emulate their ideology. Flipping seats in a viciously gerrymandered House is not the same as winning statewide contests in the Electoral College.

The fact of the matter is that the 2020 presidential election isn’t going to be won in Kansas. 2016 ultimately came down to three states Trump won by razor-thin margins: Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. If it weren’t for the lack of Democratic enthusiasm in these state’s largest cities, there would be a Democrat in the White House today. Roughly 35,000 voters in Philadelphia who turned out for Obama in 2012 stayed home on Election Day in 2016. These lost Democratic votes alone amount to 60% of Trump’s margin of victory in Pennsylvania. (I should note that part of the reason for this decline falls not upon voters but upon restrictive state laws that turn legitimate voters away from the polls. Frankly, Democrats⁠—and democrats⁠—should be protesting in the street everyday that these oppressive policies remain in place.)

The voters in these cities are not looking for a return to the status quo. They are concerned about the spiraling costs of housing, healthcare, and education, and they’re disillusioned that the Democratic powers-that-be have the ability or the will to help them on these fronts. Towards the end of her piece, Erickson exclaims that Gretchen Whitmer won the Michigan gubernatorial election “not by promising to usher in a socialist revolution but [by promising] to ‘fix the damn roads’” -- arguably a socialist project in and of itself. The voters of Flint will be desperately looking to a candidate who is willing to expend the resources to fix their damn water. Too many of the residents of these cities are experiencing or at least witnessing firsthand the devastation caused by long-term widespread poverty. So, too, are the rural voters in these states. The only candidate who stands a chance of winning these rural voters’ support away from Trump is one who will stand up for the rights of the working class, who isn’t beholden to corporate donors, and who doesn’t represent the much-loathed coastal elites of the Democratic establishment.

The United States, as Erickson admits verbatim, is in the midst of a crisis. When has a crisis ever been solved by refusing to rock the boat, and when have Americans ever turned to a run-of-the-mill candidate in the face of a crisis? In 1860, as America was lurching inexorably toward disunion, Abraham Lincoln was elected in the face of universal opposition in the South. It’s hard to imagine any of his three competitors⁠—two of whom defected to the Confederacy⁠—prosecuting the Civil War with anywhere near his resolve, moral authority, or far-sightedness. Without the election of a man who was rightly considered a radical in his time, it’s not difficult to imagine slavery persisting for another century. Nor did a freshly-elected Franklin Roosevelt respond to the Great Depression by heeding the establishment’s “common sense” calls for austerity. Rather he unleashed a sweeping series of government programs and expenditures in the face of widespread conservative opposition in both parties. His efforts undoubtedly saved the American economy. 

Even Barack Obama, whose 2008 victory remains the best showing by Democrats in over two decades, faced skepticism of his electability based on the color of his skin. Twelve years ago naysayers were insinuating in hushed tones that, after the Bush years, returning a Democrat to the White House was too important to risk on an pie-in-the-sky attempt to elect America’s first black President.

On that subject, Erickson repeatedly and insultingly references the racial, sexual, and gender diversity of the candidates she counts among the moderates in the 2018 elections, as if the candidates backed by Justice Democrats and Our Revolution did not also represent an unprecedentedly diverse class of candidates⁠—to say nothing of the untold number of queer voters, women voters, and voters of color who backed them and their genuinely progressive platform. Similarly, she describes successful Democratic candidates as running on “kitchen table issues like reducing the cost of health care, raising wages and cleaning up corruption in Washington” as if these weren’t three major planks in Bernie Sanders’ platform. In any event, campaigning on these issues won’t win you the election if voters doubt your sincerity. Lest we forget, Hillary Clinton paid lip service to all three in 2016.

I agree with Erickson that voters watching tomorrow’s debate “should pay attention to the candidates that are talking about issues that unite a wide swath of gettable voters—like expanding economic opportunity, making work pay and reducing the cost of health care[.]” I would also encourage them to play close attention to the candidates they believe will actually pursue and succeed in implementing the programs necessary to address these issues. In 2016, I listened as people like Lanae Erickson told us that Hillary Clinton alone could attract enough voters to defeat Donald Trump. No one should listen to them ever again.

#lanae erickson #politico #2020 election #2016 election #democratic primaries #democratic debates #democratic base #socialism #socialist #electability

[cinenthusiast]

Previous Top Ten By Year lists:  1935, 1983, 1965, 1943, 1992, 1978, 1925, 1969 1930

Previous Top Ten By Year: 1949 Posts: Top Ten By Year: 1949 – Poll Results 100 Images from the Films of 1949 What I’ll Remember About the Films of 1949: A Love Letter #10. The Queen of Spades (UK/Dickinson)  #9. Rendezvous in July (Becker)/Au royaume des cieux (Duvivier) (France) #8. Too Late for Tears (US / Haskin)  #7. The Heiress (US / Wyler)  #6. The Set-Up (US / Wise)  #5. Caught (US / Ophüls) #4. The Passionate Friends (UK / Lean)  #3. Puce Moment (US / Anger) #2. The Third Man (UK / Reed) 

For those unaware of my Top Ten By Year project:  The majority of my viewing habits have been dictated by this project since September of 2013. Jumping to a different decade each time, I choose comparatively weaker years for me re: quantity of films seen/quantity of films loved. I use list-making as a way to see more films and revisit others in a structured and project-drive way. I was sick of spending too much time trying to decide what to watch, or watching films just to cross them off another dumb canon list. I wanted to engage. I wanted films to be enhanced by others, by looking at a specific moment in time. I wanted something that led me to seeing or revisiting things I might not have gotten to otherwise. Lastly, my lists are based on personal favorites, not any weird notion of an objective best.

This is the first year I’ll be doing separate posts for each film. #9 will go up Monday. After that, one will go up each day until the end. Then I’ll post them all together so they are gathered in one place. There are a lot of films I loved that did not make the cut. In particular, Flamingo Road, Such a Pretty Little Beach, On the Town, Inspirace, The Reckless Moment, Reign of Terror, The Rocking Horse Winner, and Samson and Delilah are all films I thought at one point would be on here. Of all of these, Flamingo Road was a sure thing until it wasn’t at the very last minute. Please go watch it.

#1. Bitter Rice (Italy / De Santis) (first-time watch)

Two women and two cultures intertwined.

There are two sides to Bitter Rice. One has neorealism, Silvana, and Italy. The other has film noir, Francesca, and America. When all is said and done these two women will have swapped places, for better and much worse. And when Italy’s other neorealist filmmakers see Bitter Rice, they will take it as a betrayal of truth and the political. In short, they hated it. In this time of crucial political upheaval when neorealism carried legitimate cultural cache, director Giuseppe De Santis had made something too slick, too tawdry, and too American. The message was tarnished by the method. But De Santis was a Marxist who happened to admire and study John Ford, King Vidor, and the visual patterns of Hollywood studio filmmaking. He saw mass appeal as a way to both entertain and denounce, and made a film in which neorealism is hijacked and reconfigurated to be a noir melodrama.

Bitter Rice has a lot of recognizably neorealist markers; location shooting, a focus on labor and economic struggle, the tactile particulars of rice worker life, and the use of the specific cultural practices such as the choral Coralita. The sound of women wading through water, the way it would around their legs, and the strain of being hunched over day after day — it’s all made vivid. But it is easy to see why Bitter Rice would seem a betrayal. Its mutinous synthesis of “authenticity” and artificiality was a signpost towards neorealism’s end. Soon there would be stars, genre, production in the Italian film industry.

The synthesis is clear from the very first scene. The authenticity of the mondine (female rice workers) is introduced with grandiosity and sweep. There are no docu-elements here, but plenty of elaborate tracking and crane shots to go around, the kind of gradually encompassing images you’d be more likely to find in a DeMille epic. Watching the very first scene I thought: “Wait — what am I in for?”. All preconceived notions were immediately scrapped, and I realized my trip to the rice fields of Po Valley would be a very different one indeed. Then, a couple carrying stolen jewels are chased into the station waiting to transport the workers to the fields. Their arrival feels like an alien invasion, as if some freak chemical accident at the film lab spilled one film into another. This dichotomy plays throughout with electric and arresting cohesion, making it so distinctly unlike any other film from its movement. 

While De Santis was inspired by the Hollywood narrative format, he also uses American culture’s insidious postwar presence to illustrate the dangers of breaking from solidarity for hollow (the fake jewels!) individual gain. This is done using the two incredible and complex women of Bitter Rice‘s center. After Francesca the Moll (Doris Dowling, an American actress) is forced to assimilate in the rice fields, she finds purpose among the mondine. In order to stay in hiding, she has to advocate for the rights of her fellow non-contract workers. But this is never done as a means to an end. Francesca never schemes to stay on; she is always shown as sincerely leading the protests for the group. Life becomes bigger than herself, and she learns to stand both as her own woman, and as part of the mondine.

Francesca also begins to see her personal life more clearly. You get the sense that despite loving Walter (Vittorio Gassman), she is not blind to how reprehensible he is (I mean, in the first scene he literally used her as a human shield so….). But she had nowhere to go, and no strength to pull away. Life in Po Valley gives her that strength. The value of the collective is present throughout, with choral scenes, aerial shots showcasing the lines of working women linked together, and fragments of peripheral characters and their various troubles. They push themselves to the brink under oppressive conditions just to make it to the next job, and there is power in their (at times friction-filled) solidarity (I was also reminded of last year’s Support the Girls, also about a community of women united by unforgiving labor).

Then there is the shrewd but naive young Silvana (Silvana Mangano, who I’ll talk about later), a peasant that dreams of wealth. She is seduced by all things coded America and money (she should talk to Caught’s Leonora!). We first meet her doing the boogie woogie (she does a lot of dancing, employed for seduction and statement). In this group of women, where everyone is introduced as part of a whole, she immediately stands out as modern. She chews gum, loves big-band, and is seen reading photo-romances, the then-popular prepackaged fantasies that were read by lower and working class Italian women. Silvana wants out; she longs for adventure, riches, and a certain kind of romance. But the way out that presents itself is a different kind of way out, and she is too blinded by inexperience to understand it.

The camera links Francesca and Silvana all the time. Whether in two-shots or individual spaces, there is an invisible tether between them. Their lives and fates take part in a film-length body-swap. Silvana talks about fate a lot, but is seen making deliberate choices towards certain doom. She can’t see Walter for what he is — an exploiter and a monster. But Francesca gives her an out, replaying about her life with Walter and the terrible things he has done. She tries to take the abuse and hardship she lived through and save someone else from making the mistakes she did. But Silvana can’t see past the jewels and the suit. There is only the potential for excitement, for something that is not this. After all, Walter “looks like a gentleman” (aka a hotshot gumshoe); so he must be, right? While Francesca’s transformation is one of victorious camaraderie, Silvana’s (both actress and character) is altogether much murkier; one marked by punishment.

Silvana Mangano never wanted her body to represent the whole of Italy, but it did. Audiences were scandalized just seeing the unapologetically full female form (au natural, code for Armpit Hair), the kind that becomes sexualized simply by existing. She was the prototype of the “earthy women” that would cause such a stir overseas (later embodied by Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren). She started out by winning Miss Rome, a post-war contest that further enhanced the idea of body-as-nation, and an honor that became synonymous with future screen tests. Unlike Lollobrigida and Loren, Mangano didn’t cash in on overseas notoriety for a Hollywood career. She became resentful of her image, and of fame, eventually giving herself a drastic reinvention (her figure was now svelte and arch, her look cold) and starring in art films by Pasolini and Visconti in the late 1960s and 1970s (and Dune!).

The camera doesn’t ogle Mangano Tex Avery style; this isn’t Jane Russell in The Outlaw. But it aims to stay back, taking in the whole of her whenever possible. And you can’t help but take part in that — I love looking at her. She is the textbook case for why the male gaze is not an open-and-shut. For all its appallingly absolute authority on the almost-whole of filmic language, women enjoy it too! One of the great joys of watching films is watching bodies, both male and female. I am hypnotized and, yes, completely turned on by Silvana Mangano in Bitter Rice. The camera may not be that Tex Avery wolf, but I’ll admit that I am. 

Critics felt her body, and Bitter Rice’s eroticism as represented by her, cheapened the film and nullified its political message. Yet a crucial part of its political message is the punishment her and her body endures for betraying the homeland (a tactic that opens up a whole other can of worms). She is eroticized, symbolic, made into a cautionary tale. Her final fugue march is just like Ann Todd’s in The Passionate Friends. Claude Rains gets there in time. Francesca cannot.

(TW: rape)

She is raped. It is a rape that takes away her body. We don’t see much of it after that. In those last thirty minutes she is made up of haunted black pupils, lit like she’s telling a ghost story. She is immediately ostracized by the filmmaking, quarantined off in shots of the mondine in ways you feel more than see. It’s not obvious, but intrinsic and heartbreaking. The most startling example takes place immediately following her assault. It is pouring out (during these scenes a stunning rain shower falls right in front of the camera like a curtain) and the women have banded together, refusing to let the weather set them behind schedule. Silvana walks in a daze, confused and in shock. Ahead, a sick woman who shouldn’t be out in her condition begins having an attack. She howls out, and begins writhing in pain as the women surround her and hold her down. They begin to sing in an attempt to calm her (they are all one). Silvana looks on in horror. This is a mirror image of what she just went through, her trauma reflecting right back at her. She is watching herself. She begins to scream. She is drowned out, not part of the coralita, not part of anything anymore. Her cries go unheard.

The meat locker finale is one last compare-and-contrast session. Both women have guns. Both women have a man beside them. One is shaking and shaken. The other is determined and resolute. Francesca is still trying to save the other end of the tether. There is something so moving and uncommon in Francesca’s committed efforts to protect Silvana despite the harm she causes and rivalry she insists on. It’s hard to put into words how much I love these women, these characters, these performances. Bitter Rice pays such close attention to how women communicate with each other (in both speech and body language, the silent glares and stares may as well be full conversations), and to the breadth of female experience, struggle, and loyalty. We see how hard it is for Francesca to break away from Walter. We see that Silvana’s sense of right and wrong are muddied by what she wants out of life. We see that Silvana’s actions are not unfeeling; there is such pain on her face as she undoes the mondine’s hard work. The list goes on as more layers are pulled back. 

Watching Bitter Rice is that all-too rare sensation of not knowing where a film is headed, or what story it will tell (unless you’ve read this before watching). Francesca and Silvana are often hard to read. By the end, that body swap trajectory is clear, but only at the end. And despite the larger-than-life symbolic statuses they represent, they are two of the most layered and human women I’ve ever seen onscreen. They don’t fit into any neat box — not within neorealism, and not within noir. Francesca and Silvana are with me now, and I’m the better for it.

Top Ten By Year: 1949 #1 – Bitter Rice (Italy / De Santis) Previous Top Ten By Year lists:  1935, 1983, 1965, 1943, 1992, 

#bitter rice #doris dowling #giuseppe de santis #Italy #neorealism #silvana mangano

[pup-play245]

1

. Women have the power

“Women have the power. When we decide to castrate you there’s no doubt you’ll lose your balls.”

—Colleen

2

. I would love to castrate my man

“I would love to castrate my man, and you can bet I would beat his balls for days before cutting. And the cutting would be without painkillers. After his balls are gone I would make sure his puny little penis would also be cut off, and that he had to pee like us girls. He hasn’t made me happy for years sexually, intimately or anytime. I won’t divorce him, either, just to mess with his mind. I enjoy bringing home my boy friends and having sex with them while my husband is watching TV.”

—Nancy

3

. I use the testicles as earrings

“I have castrated many men, by cutting off their balls and even by biting them off. I believe it is a woman’s right to castrate men because women are superior to men. I use the testicles as earrings to show that I am proud to be a castratrix.”

—Linda

4

. castration is something to be enforced eventually for all men

“A penis is a rape device; as domestic violence statistics reveal, men are the evil virus problem. Given sperm may be created without use of a man, and women have well proven themselves even more capable then men, castration is something to be enforced eventually for all men. A peaceful and productive future depends on real vision and executing a plan that cuts to the core issue here. Castration is the cure. Stop the Rape!”

—Beth

5

. Testicles just get in the way of a man’s true function, which is to be subservient to women

“I would castrate my male slave. Testicles just get in the way of a man’s true function, which is to be subservient to women, to do the heavy lifting and to pleasure us without all that randy thrusting behavior. I would remove his testicles along with enough of the scrotum so that it would be obvious he had nothing there. Then I would have laser hair removal of his pubic hair so that everyone could see his pitiful, limp penis. He would then pleasure me and my girlfriends with his lips and tongue as ordered, but would have no interest in his own pleasure. If by some chance we wanted him to have an erection, that would be done by injecting Trimix into his penis.”

—Alice

6

. Why risk pregnancies or aggressiveness?

“I got pregnant before getting married, and with logical thinking, I did have my new husband castrated. Nothing painful or bad, just an honest way of permanent birth control. Everything else on him works and it seemed like a fair and caring solution. Just a thought—I see no reason that these days, that moms couldn’t or shouldn’t have their boys’ balls removed, too. Why risk pregnancies or aggressiveness? If they marry and want children, the woman in their lives can easily find someone to get pregnant with. Castration doesn’t in any way have to be cruel or painful, just a simple procedure with a local anesthetic, then life gets better.:) I hope to hear from other women about this.”

—Diane

7

. Taking a hammer, I drive the nail through his cock into the wood

“Here is my real castration fantasy. A man has raped me or my daughter or the daughter of someone close to me. We capture him. We tie up his arms so he is hanging by the wrists. He is sitting on a large piece of wood. Pegs are driven into the ground so his legs are spread. His cock and balls are on the piece of wood. I take a nail and place it on the head of his cock. Taking a hammer, I drive the nail through his cock into the wood. When the nail reaches his flesh, I pound it on in, crushing the head of his cock. Another nail at the base of his cock brings more screams. Then I do the same thing for each of his testicles, driving nails through them and crushing them. Then I untie him and leave him nailed to the piece of wood.”

—Alice

8

. CONSIDERABLE SHRINKAGE

“I have participated in a castration and it was very personal, sexual, pleasing, empowering … It isn’t always just about the pleasure (or pain) the man gets from this … There were 2 of us females there and we may have enjoyed it much more than the guy. We all came up with a plan for what to do with his nuggets after he was cut… He wanted to flush one or have us impale it with our stilettos!! We chose stiletto thigh high boots after removal we just threw it on the floor & stabbed it with a 6in heel and modeled it for a while & took pictures. The 2nd is in a jar of formaldehyde because it is mine to keep forever!! We recorded everything for him to keep & watch. This was over 2 years ago and all is well. There was considerable shrinkage (7 to 4) I know there has been a lot of questions about shrinkage.”

—PrplGal

9

. I would bite the sucker off and spit it across the room

“I would never castrate a man for a crime; I would leave that up to the law. But!!! If I was ever forced to suck his little man, like in a rape situation, I would bite the sucker off and spit it across the room.”

—HHC

10

. I believe all men should be castrated at some time in their life

“In my opinion I believe all men should be castrated at some time in their life. Between the government and their mothers, wives, sisters this should become a law. I also believe all penises should be circumcised. I am one female who has had the opportunity to be part of a castration procedure, and I believe more women would agree if they were given the chance to assist in one. Castration is so easy to perform and to control the male’s sex drive and the hardships males can cause women. Unplanned childbirth would be totally removed, and most important child and female rape would be a thing of the past. A man’s balls cause this, so why not ‘cut’ right to the problem? Let a man have his penis, to show he was once a male. In fact have a holiday celebrating, know as CASTRATION DAY. Permit men to be naked that day allowing all to witness their loss and celebrate. I know all men and some women would disagree with my thoughts on this, but in my opinion it would be a better world. Is that not what we are working for?”

—Sue

11

. let’s start making the world a better place

“I am sure castration will become commonplace in years to come, especially as sperm counts fall and scientists pioneer somatic cell division allowing women to become pregnant using cells from any part of a mans body, or another woman’s for that matter! Rendering the testicles if not the whole man redundant. So I agree with you Sue, although I don’t think we’re close to celebrating ‘Castration Day’ any time soon. But like you say, I’ve heard that removing testicles does make a male far more placid and I would like to think ‘obedient.’ So I agree, let’s start making the world a better place.”

—Julia

12

. quickly slicing through his testicles for my ultimate satisfaction

“My ultimate fantasy is drugging a male, seducing him to climax, then once he is done, quickly slicing through his testicles for my ultimate satisfaction. Are you up to that?”

—Anonymous

13

. go all the way

“Each time we met I would tightly tie off your balls. At the same time I would stimulate your small unit slowly allowing you to ejaculate once you were excited the discomfort in your balls would be forgotten. It would then be up to you the more I satisfied you the greater chance of your balls shrinking and being useless. Do it only once or twice nothing happens other than you getting off. I think though you will want more and more and go all the way.”

—Sara

14

. Make your man a eunuch

“I castrated my husband many years ago when we both decided his sex drive was out of control. The castration made him very happy and me as well. He is now very faithful…loving…calm…and a fantastic lover. My husband benefited from the castration with the best orgasms he ever had. Women do not cut off the penis…Remove the testicles….Make your man a eunuch….Don’t make him useless by cutting off his penis…You will truly enjoy him as a eunuch.”

—Cynthia

15

. I have saved three sets of balls that are on a shelf in my home

“Hi my name is Terri, and yes I fantasize about castrating a man. I ride horses and have witnessed several castrations. The vet has even allowed me to assist him. The idea to me about taking away such a powerful force to a male excites me. I realize there is a big difference in castrating an animal to a man. But really a man is an animal in many ways. The vet has allowed me to slice open the sack, reach in and pull out the balls. With only the cords (which are very long) holding the balls inside, it’s quite easy. After cutting the cords, cauterizing the ends its over. Seeing the empty ball sack and realizing what I have done really turns me on. Stitching up the empty sack, the procedure is over. I have saved three sets of balls that are on a shelf in my home. My girlfriends agree seeing a set of naked balls excites them, but I think most would not say this.”

—Terri

16

. I think castration is a beautiful thing

“I think castration is a beautiful thing as it gives women a sense of safety and to whoever is doing it empowerment and for the guys it really is like your girlfriend said sweetie the older a guy gets it’s a 50/50 chance of something happening sorry I don’t like saying you know what word, but you like being with out them I know I just sound like a sicko but my brother had a accident a few years ago and he had to have one removed it really up set him at first but we was all there for him so were his friends. Since then he met his wife and she’s a very kind person so not all of us are evil as this poll might think also he is a lot less angry as he use to be.”

—Sally

17

. I have seen some horses castrated and it turned me on

“I have been fascinated by thoughts of castrating a man. I have seen some horses castrated and it turned me on. There is a man I know that I would like to cut. He is older and he said he would love me to cut him. I think I will do it. I will post more when I do it.”

—Shelly

18

. just feed him female hormones

“Girls, it’s easy—just feed him female hormones. Small doses at first. Once you see his boobs develop just gradually increase the hormones. My husband can’t get it up and my girlfriends with their strap-on vibrators give me orgasms that no man can equal.”

[thezodiaczone]

June Forecast for Pisces

Ease into summer with an extra dose of self-care, Pisces. The Sun is in Gemini and your domestic, emotional fourth house until June 21, putting you in the mood to nest and rest. Lighten your social calendar—and your workload, if you can. Even if your job is hectic, slow down and add a personal touch to everything you do. This is a better time for building bonds than locking yourself away to beat an insane deadline. You need (and deserve) some extra support, especially since your feelings could fluctuate hourly during this emo time.

With the Sun moving through the bottom of your solar chart, focus on fortifying your foundations, especially with home and family matters. Spring-clean, declutter and redecorate Chateau Pisces. Let your creative and crafty side come out, in the kitchen as well. Find some healthy but nourishing summer recipes that you can make in 15 minutes or less (Pinterest’s visuals will get you inspired) or check out meal-delivery services with organic ingredients. With chatty Mercury also in Gemini until June 12, your home could be a revolving door of guests, from visiting relatives to friends who stop by and end up gabbing with you for hours. This month was made for movie nights and potluck dinner parties. Think: cozy and casual camaraderie FTW!

The June 13 Gemini new moon opens a new six-month chapter for home and family. If you’re considering a move, this is the perfect day to begin a serious search, put the word out for a roommate or to list your property with a reputable agent. Set your sights on the corresponding October 23 Gemini full moon, as seeds planted today could take until then to fully manifest. The fourth house rules women and mothers. A key female or a maternal figure could play into events now, perhaps opening doors for you or sparking up an important conversation.

Father’s Day is June 17, and if you’re celebrating a favorite father figure, keep the plans simple and practical. The moon will be in Leo and your sixth house of service and health. Opt out of the decadent brunch that puts everyone into a cranky food coma. Instead, get out in nature for a hike or picnic, or help him with a household task that needs to get done, like gardening, organizing or walking the dog. Spend time doing simple activities—preferably outdoors if weather permits—then maybe put something on the barbecue and serve it with a big salad or grilled seasonal veggies.

The second half of the month slows the action even further, as Neptune and Mars turn retrograde, bringing the total retrograde planet count to five since Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto are already in reverse. Neptune, your ruler, will be retrograde in Pisces from June 18 to November 24, prompting an internal review. With the foggy planet making a U-turn in your first house of self and identity, you might (rightfully) question the trajectory you’ve been taking this year. Examine everything from your priorities to your appearance to where you’re spending your time. Are you getting the ROI you want? If not, Neptune retrograde could deliver a wakeup call. As the planet of sacrifice, Neptune can tempt us to give too much of ourselves to others. But there’s a limit to your compassion, especially if it starts leaning toward codependence. If you’re feeling tapped out while everyone else is thriving, put your own metaphorical oxygen mask on first.

You’ll need to, because from June 26 to August 27, energy planet Mars will turn retrograde, spending the bulk of its backspin in Aquarius and your twelfth house of rest, healing and closure. Your vitality could be especially low, as Mars turns your attention to processing some heavier emotions or dealing with a transition of some kind. This summer could be powerful for deep work with a therapist or healer, as your subconscious will be especially active and the retrograde will focus your attention on the past. Where are you holding onto resentment, fear or anger? It’s time to finally let that go by getting down to the root of anything traumatic or scarring. If you’re dealing with health issues, explore the mind-body-spirit connection rather than just treating the symptoms, as they’re likely to have a strong emotional component.

Heads-up: With stressful Mars in your sleep sector, getting a full night’s rest could be a challenge. Your mind will race, and you could toss and turn, perhaps even having a few nightmares. The best antidote is an evening ritual of self-care. Take a small walk, meditate, hop into the tub (the twelfth house rules water) and put any backlit devices away a couple hours before you hit the pillow.

One day to rally is June 28, when the Capricorn full moon illuminates your eleventh house of groups and networking. Get out and hit an industry party. With status-driven Saturn hovering near the moon, you could mingle with some VIPs tonight. A team effort might come together triumphantly. If you’re launching anything, especially a digital endeavor, this tech-savvy full moon will give your efforts a viral boost. But make sure you’re fully prepared before you make any big debuts. Better to do it right the first time than rush something mediocre into the public eye.

Love & Romance

For the first half of the month, ardent Venus is sashaying through Cancer and your amorous, glamorous fifth house. Until June 13, your tempestuous temperature may be hotter than the mercury outside! Allow yourself to revel in the attention, and, if you’re single, to follow your bliss wherever it leads you. You’ll be feeling attractive and sexy, eager to flex your flirting muscles with anyone who might be an eligible contender. One of the best days is June 2, when the cosmic coquette forms a beautiful trine to fantasy-spinner Neptune, which is heating up your sign. But watch for jealousy and possessiveness to raise its green-eyed head on June 5, when Venus swings into a testy opposition with control-freak Pluto.

Meanwhile, lusty Mars is lingering in Aquarius and your twelfth house of daydreams and deep inner feelings. If you let yourself—and let’s face it, you don’t need much encouragement—you could really be feeling those flames of desire. Enjoy the fantasy but make sure the object of your affections is trustworthy under these illusory beams.

The red planet in your confusing twelfth house can add some disruptive energy, like digging in his heels when the better course of action is to let someone go. One of this month’s attractions might be someone who isn’t available—or might that person be you? Stress can mount when you’re keeping secrets, so think before you act. This is a great time to acknowledge any codependent behavior, and to start to cut the cords when Mars turns retrograde from June 26 to August 27.

On June 13, Venus will enter Leo for three weeks, lighting up your sixth house of organization and healing, dialing the wild party vibes down a notch and pushing you to prioritize a more practical and reliable side of love. And since all love starts with self-love, give your body some TLC!

Venus will clash with three planets before the month is out. First, on June 14, she’ll square erratic Uranus in your security sector, driving up worry and doubt. A week later, on June 21, she opposes Mars in your subterranean zone, possibly bringing some old buried emotions to the surface. And finally, on June 25, she’s at loggerheads with expansive Jupiter, which could make you feel pulled in too many directions. When all else fails, Pisces, climb under the covers with a good book and escape the madness.

Key Dates

June 14: Venus-Uranus Square Control is a turn-off any day, but as Venus clashes with liberated Uranus, the slightest whiff of it will send you running. Avoid playing life coach with your love interest. You don’t have to “fix” each other or give unsolicited advice. Whatever happened to just having fun?

Money & Career

Take it slow, Pisces. Not only is the Sun in Gemini and your homey fourth house until June 21, but go-getter Mars is powered down in its sleepiest position, traveling through Aquarius and your twelfth house of rest and closure from May 16 until August 12. Pace yourself and be careful about burnout, which is a danger during this powered-down time. Focus on finishing what you’ve already started instead of overloading.

With Mars and your ruler Neptune turning retrograde at the end of June—joining three other retrograde planets—you’ll want to be highly selective about what you say “yes” to now. Mars in your twelfth house of hidden agendas could bring mixed signals and even conniving coworkers who are jealous or not above-board. Watch out for resentments and rivalries brewing—and keep firm boundaries so you don’t end up as the target of someone’s misplaced wrath.

The June 28 Capricorn full moon spotlights teamwork and technology. This is the one day to come out of your cocoon to network or launch something viral online. Take a disco nap then head out to that rooftop midsummer mixer where you might bump into an influencer or run into an old contact who could make a helpful introduction.

Key Dates

June 27: Sun-Saturn Opposition Close the opinion polls—and your email and social networks—and affix your nose to the grindstone. You love your friends, but under today’s grating opposition, someone may cross a line and say something hurtful. Keep your personal life private. And you definitely don’t want to be talking about this at work!

Love Days: 15, 19 Money Days: 26, 8 Luck Days: 23, 6 Off Days: 17, 21

#pisces #Monthly Forecast #astrology #horoscope #zodiac #pisces monthly

[littlemisspascal]

I tried readin the deadline article but my phone kept loading ads on top of ads so I could only get so far.

But the demographic bit… makes no sense?

Massive Talent is a comedy.

The Northman is a historical action piece.

Maybe they put them next to eachother demographic wise because I saw the article describe the Northman as “art house” a few times. And when you’ve got an “art house” film going up against a Nic Cage staring satire in which several of his movies are referenced, they probably were thinking “ah yes, the film buffs will be lining up for this!!!”

Also, men age 18-34? In this day and age that’s too vague! What are the tax brackets? How often do these ppl go out to the movie theater? Do they usually go alone or with friends?

The group you’ve sampled is too broad for the sort of micro targeting you’re attempting here.

And then they didn’t seem to consider the fan base for their lead actors either!!!

Many if not most of P’s most active fans are women, how many ppl do you know who thirst watched Narcos? His filmography def implies a more male fan base, action movies, big crime docudramas, STAR WARS!!! But I’ve encountered very few (cis/straight) men in my time as a Pedro fan, even in passing.

The Northman is a violent historical fiction with a lot of blood and an extremely desaturated color palate, it’s catering to male power fantasies.

They need to update their polling practices is what I’m saying

You make a lot of good points too!

#i love getting messages #the unbearable weight of massive talent

[whimsicaldragonette]

Blog Tour and Arc Review: One For All by Lillie Lainoff

Welcome to my stop on the One For All book tour with Colored Pages Tours. (This blog tour is also posted on my Wordpress book blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

Tour Schedule

Book Info:

TITLE: One For All AUTHOR: Lillie Lainoff PUBLISHER: Feiwel & Friends RELEASE DATE: March 8, 2022 PAGES: 400 GENRES: Young Adult Historical Fantasy

Goodreads

Blackwells

Amazon

Book Depository

Barnes & Noble

Bookshop.org

Synopsis:

An OwnVoices, gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love.

Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone in town thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl”; even her mother is desperate to marry her off for security. But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father—a former Musketeer and her greatest champion.

Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school. It’s a secret training ground for a new kind of Musketeer: women who are socialites on the surface, but strap daggers under their skirts, seduce men into giving up dangerous secrets, and protect France from downfall. And they don’t shy away from a swordfight.

With her newfound sisters at her side, Tania feels for the first time like she has a purpose, like she belongs. But then she meets Étienne, her first target in uncovering a potential assassination plot. He’s kind, charming, and breathlessly attractive—and he might have information about what really happened to her father. Torn between duty and dizzying emotion, Tania will have to lean on her friends, listen to her own body, and decide where her loyalties lie…or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted.

This debut novel is a fierce, whirlwind adventure about the depth of found family, the strength that goes beyond the body, and the determination it takes to fight for what you love.

Click "read more" for author info, my review, and favorite quotes.

Author Bio:

Lillie Lainoff received her B.A. in English with a concentration in creative writing and distinction within the major from Yale University. She currently is studying for her MA in Creative Writing Prose Fiction at the University of East Anglia.

Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry has been featured in The LA Review, The Washington Post Outlook, Today’s Parent, via the Disability Visibility Project, Washington City Paper, and The Yale Daily News, amongst other places. She’s received recognition from Glimmer Train and The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and is the 2019 Winner of the LA Review Literary Award for Short Fiction. She was a featured Rooted in Rights disability activist, and is the founder of Disabled Kidlit Writers (FB).

As an undergraduate, Lillie was a member of Yale’s Varsity Fencing team. As a senior, she was one of the first physically disabled athletes to individually qualify for any NCAA Championship event, and helped her team to an end-of-season 10th place ranking by the National Coaches Poll. She still fences competitively and coaches. In 2017, she was named a recipient of the inaugural Spirit of Sport award by the US Fencing Association.

Website

Goodreads

Twitter

Instagram

My Review:

★★★★★

I loved this book. I mean, I went into it knowing I would because, genderbent Musketeers? Everything I ever wanted. And I did love it for that, but mostly for Tania. She is *such* a great MC, not least of which because she lives with debilitating chronic illness AND IS ALSO a great fencer and a Musketeer. This book does an absolutely amazing job driving home the point that yes, you can be disabled AND competent -- AND that competence *does not make you any less disabled.* This is maybe the only book I've read that makes such a clear point of this. Disability does not equal incompetence. Competence does not equal a lack of disability. They can both be true. Tania's illness is never far from her. She never takes a breath free of the dizziness, and we never lose sight of her struggles or her determination. Her illness is threaded through every scene, every moment of the story -- but it does not define the story, and it does not define her. It does not truly limit her, not in any way that matters or that she and her sisters in arms cannot find a way to overcome. Aside from that, I love the way Tania and her sisters in arms grow closer and come to trust and rely on one another. I love that they are trained and trusted to go on missions to protect the king, even if they are denied official entry into the Musketeers. I love that they use every means at their disposal to complete their missions -- and are also relatable teen girls. Another thing I absolutely love is that the four girls' names are clearly related to the original Three Musketeers (and D'artagnan), and that they also share some of the same personality traits as their namesakes. It's such a clever and subtle nod to the original. I love how Tania's father steadfastly believes in her and teaches her to fence despite her mother's worries and despite her illness. And that his lessons give her tools to combat the dizziness she feels. I also love the musing about others like her, reduced to begging and being disbelieved. About how there are so many words for disbelief that a girl can be having the physical symptoms she complains of. About how it's the poor who suffer during a regime change. This book has a lot of really powerful passages that hit hard and don't shy away from ugly truths. And yet it still manages to be fun and empowering. Empowering is actually a great word to describe how I feel about this book. As someone with chronic illnesses myself, I really deeply felt Tania's frustrations and rage at being disbelieved, mocked, treated like a delicate object, not seen. Her journey is uplifting and empowering and I am so glad that I read it. And even more, I'm so glad Lillie Lainoff wrote it, that it will be available to future "sick girls" who secretly yearn to be Musketeers and save themselves for a change. I also had the chance to listen to the audio arc and I have to say that I wish the narrator had done more justice to this story. She spoke at a reasonable speed but left long pauses between sentences sometimes -- maybe between paragraphs? -- which made it difficult to pay attention no matter what speed I tried. She also didn't really distinguish very much between character voices which made it difficult to follow different speakers. She also had a little bit of a monotone quality to her performance which meant my mind tended to wander while listening. *Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Recorded Books, Colored Pages Blog Tours, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing an e-arc and audio arc for review.

Favorite Quotes:

When was the last time we’d touched when she wasn’t providing support for my wavering legs? When was the last time she’d reached for me and it wasn’t because I needed help?

---

Now, whenever I had a good day, people were quick to assume I felt better. It was hard enough living with the knowledge that if I felt healthy, it didn’t mean the next day would be the same. Being reminded of that fact by others was a painfully close second.

---

Men wanted quiet wives, quiet wives with quiet nervous habits. Not even our bad traits, our unconscious traits, belonged to us.

---

If I’d known the directions, if I could’ve drawn her a map, I would have done it in an instant. I would have ripped up the precious books in my room for paper and used my tears for ink.

---

This Paris was nothing like the Paris of my hazy dreams.


It was loud and people-full and the smell stuck to the inside of my nose and grime was everywhere and oh, it was beautiful.

---

We are not the ones who are written into history. We are the ones who ensure history exists to be written.

---

But the party was still a crashing wave that broke at my ankles, the clash of music against voices, against laughter, against clinking glasses and the susurrus of shoes against marble.

---

And even though dizziness lingered at the edges of my vision, even though my toes were clenched tight within my slippers, I was gliding across the smooth surface of a stream. It was just a bout without the swords — a bout that I would win.

---

…all those years of doing my best to pretend nothing was wrong had stitched a permanent mark into my skin.

---

That’s what Musketeers did. Earned their wounds.

---

I wasn’t any less dizzy than before, any less sick. But my legs were stronger. They were fighting for me. All the same symptoms, but no fainting.

---

They may not be the Musketeers I’d imagined. But they were better, because they were mine. And I knew, as I looked at them and saw the cold steely resolve inside me mirrored in their eyes, that I was theirs.

---

It was just like what Papa told me. Yes, I was dizzy; yes, his body swayed before me like the rocking of a ship; yes, my legs felt as if they’d collapse at any moment. But I knew the rhythm of this bout. It was in my bones, in the throb of my wounded arm, in the beat of my heart.

---

Being sick meant, at any moment, the people I cared about could decide I wasn’t worth the trouble I put them through.

---

The entries were tedious. Descriptions of medical theory, the four humors, hypochondria, so many different words and entries for women in pain that wasn’t believed.

---

“The three of you made me realize that whatever this dizziness is … well, maybe it’s never been the real problem. It’s horrible and it hurts and it makes me feel fragile in a way I never wanted, but it’s not the thing that tears me apart. The problem, the real problem, is the people who decide I’m unworthy because of it.”

---

“Fight me!” I shouted. “I am not the fragile, breakable thing you’d have me be. I am a Musketeer.”

#lillie lainoff #one for all #sisterhoodofthestabstab #colored pages tours #OneForAll #blog tour #netgalley #shilo reads #arc review #chronic illness rep #POTS rep #three musketeers

[usashirtstoday]

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Syndication service later onand Mr Jack Douglas who produced Johnand Yoko Ono’s current album double fantasy who was with Johnand Yoko shortly before his tragic death here in New York last night I would be right back to run the 1975 interview with John Lennon after these announcementsand I hope that you will stay with us we back in about two minutesand seconds John Lennon in a Best Dad Bod Ever Since 1965 Vintage Father T Shirt little bit later on in the program will talk about the possibility of us having to leave the United Statesand at that time his attorney Mr Leon Wilds will join us to make certain that John or I make no mistakes in the legalities but I welcome you hereand I’m glad that you’re here as I said at the outset the back in 1964 by after the cataclysmic arrival of the Beatles here in the United Statesand the great popularity had on the Ed Sullivan programand others there were many people who did not really understand what you were doingand and they thought then that your hair was longand that you looked might. They can escalated to a vaccine invention so is very important that we resist this mashup not only is truth on our side the Constitution and the law on our side but logic and common sense is on our side and a lot more people out there that are frustrated with this mask shipping you think they just don’t know the lawn he don’t have the intimate knowledge about what’s really being done to us like we do there pushing the coalition shut the schools down and the church is why because schools and churches aware boating happens if they can shut down a bolt of the polling places guess what happens mail in voting Horowitz study of our thousand hundred UK schools show very little evidence that the virus is transmitted in school you know why because everybody has tested positive is asymptomatic the CDC and the World Health Organization already said asymptomatic people do not get the do not. Like John Snow Amy’s motivation is drivenand the nonsense in the service of keeping him sympathetic relative to Dragon Lady bad we know what kind of a guy Jamie is based on his actions so for him to say even really giving us a why only serves as a cheap twist surprising but not unexpected isn’t it after all he’s explaining his motivation with wordsand motivations are explained with words that means a defect to make telling the audience the thing makes sense with your dialogue while not supporting the thing with the characters actions is kind of the trends in the last season game of thrones Thursday one of the greatest villains not just in TV history but arguably all of literature she she didn’t have much to do battyand there did she all of tearyand stupid mistakesand wildly out of characterand unmotivated sudden trust in his evil sister serve the purpose of keeping Circe in the game optional remember I chose to help promises or assurances which feels even more insulting given that Circe closed lowing up that faces no consequences nor has a secret evil plan beyond staring on a balconyand glowering over my domain with a glass of wine which I get it that’s my usual Friday night but all she in season eight is a scene of the thing was not to be the most in the show makes Circe sympathetic but it’s like in the most condescending way possible be characters somehow just go she just got he says come when the plot says so Circe’s armies instantly crumbleand she dies a weirdly sympathetic death in Jamie’s arms who is here for some reason in a rocks fall everyone dies situation that feels more on par would like a your Disney movie is in line with someone who once said how or how this is important to look at Circe for who she is presented as a monarchand what the show built her up to be before dinner is torched King’s Landing elements multivitamin will take off the big thing hereand I mean big scene as a defining actionand Circe’s rule is are effectively blowing up the in universe equivalent of the Vatican as a means to wipe out her enemiesand flex on how many foxy gives which is zero is the scene was awesomeand yes it feels like something someone as recklessand vengeful as Circe would do when pushed to the editor Brink but prior to season for most of the plot of game of thrones is centered around the direct consequences of one guy Ned start getting his head lopped offand what pretty much everyone who wasn’t a child who ordered it even Circe felt was a massive dick move meanwhile postseason six Circe not only blew up one of the largest buildings in West Rosen wiped out a decent chunk of the faithand its leader but also decimated one of the most powerful wealthyand well liked familiesand mistress with a lot of loyal Bannermanand apart from a few stray remarks from other characters you sister this major act of mass violence just kind we just move on it nobody cares there are no consequences for this she is crownedand life goes on the only person opposing her is Dragon lady who would have invaded no matter who is on the throne so let’s break this down why in God’s name when they set up Circe finally exacting revenge on the faceless masses that through literal feces on her during the walk of shameand weeding out religious extremism with impunity only to conveniently forget the internal logic of much smaller scale political issues like that starts execution causing massive upheaval dimension again wasting someone likely entities talent’s well here is why because of how season eightand this one act necessitates that yes Circe would be considered an unparalleled top tier Megatron grade tyrant she couldn’t have wiped out all of the faith militant or even most of them let alone the countless followers of the seven in West Rose who would feel understandably very pissedand personally attacked by this maneuver is also to say nothing of all people who saw her as 100 illegitimate or believe that her children were inbred pastors or who would want revenge on her for what she did the house Tyrell to the dumb dumb throated juicy situation which in theory could have led to some of the best acting from one of the most talented players but the problem here is that it would have revealed her as a tyrant leading to a situation where literally anyone with a claim to the throne would be looked upon by the people attend landing as a liberator which leads us to the person who at least far as everyone knows has the best claim to the throneand wouldn’t you know it has already defined herself as a liberator so Dragon lady shows up writing some dragons like okay hi I’m here to liberate y’all on the breaker of chains love me please it’s fair to say that DD created a situation where I actually does a pretty great for the small book of Kings Landingand the vast vast majority of the nobles who already support herand pretty much everyone who is in the iron Bank of bravos to whom the Lancers a lot of money can count on the back support our students to go should they wrote a situation where there’s no way Circe would be able to maintain power after her move with the septic without being a complete totalitarian who stomps out dissent before it even manifests she created a situation where she had no choiceand she is a personality to relish that sort of thing like oh God yes revenge please I live for thisand I remember the face of every peasant who flung shit at meand I will pull each of their fingernails out myselfand on a related note you really expect me to think alike Circe’s good I like be upset that the nurses murdering that the innocence of Kings Landing after what they did to her she should be like go girl so the only way to deal with the fallout of Circe’s actions while still barreling full steam ahead to this predetermined ending is to ignore them altogether the show must maintain that the people of Kings Landingand help greater West Rose are never affected by their monarchand that they don’t care that social trends do not apply to the rabble or the common folk even though that was a huge chunk of the Kings Landing plot for seasons six that yes the machinations of the powerful do have effectand politically savvy nobles like Marjorie Tyrell have sound methodsand this development in later seasons especially with Circe kill me because what set game of thrones apart for the first few seasons was how it was so conscious of the house that intrigues a magical or otherwise have realistic consequences that affect not only the lives of the major characters but also the culture of the world itself like in season seven during the latrine attack dinners recklessly burns all that food from the reach that surely should have some consequences right may be set up a touch of the old starvation but like the destruction of the set they wrote a situation that should have had consequences but didn’t that the existence of a gun create a situation where it makes perfect sense not only for the people of West rest to reject an heiress for her own sense of entitlement to make her descent into power up session makes sense only based on the situation but also based on the character that we know unfortunately that is not the situation at the Chapel Road facility with the nearest nurse came to power effectively from nothing not only because of an important nameand some dragons but because people believed in her once so it was like the service provider leaving with whom I know a lot of people problematic writing or no sacrifice a lot because they believed what she believed this isand then she went some more crimesand you didn’t even see it coming because she pretty don’t you feel stupid

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