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chainofclovers · 1 year

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Ted Lasso 3x9 Thoughts

This one might be tied for favorite episode of the season for me. While I’ve been mostly willing to vibe with the jam-packed episodes, I approached 3x9 with a bit of concern; if it felt like the story was getting bigger instead of smaller here in the final third of the season, I was going to start to lose my patience. (To translate: I am an impatient person but I'm also a pretty long-fused person, and me starting to lose my patience would be akin to someone with a short fuse going fucking ham on someone.) Luckily, I felt like each thread here spoke to the other threads really neatly, like watching a cohesive conversation take place in multiple rooms. Magically.

For this one, I'm gonna attempt some bullets that cover 3x9 itself, then I need to attempt to process this weird experience of MISSING TED (while also basically appreciating what he's doing, but missing him, but appreciating him, lawjefpawoijfapweoijafwepklajwef) that has me very :eyesemoji: about the next three weeks of my life.

Nate’s desire for connection and camaraderie didn’t overshadow his ability to recognize that Rupert was trying to manipulate him into a toxic night out! There will be consequences for pulling away, and he knows it, but he did the right thing anyway. I’ve seen some discussions and arguments re: Jade’s influence on Nate and whether we should attribute Nate’s backbone and ability to make better choices to the love of a woman, and whether that’s disappointing and belittling to both characters, but I think a lot of those positions (on either side) are too hard-and-fast. Nate has always valued the things he values, and his relationship with Jade hasn’t changed his values or the fundamental truth of who he is. At the same time, being physically and emotionally close to a person you trust feels really, really good. Why shouldn’t those good feelings have a positive impact on the reserves of strength you must draw on to do things like stand up to an evil asshole you hadn’t entirely let yourself notice is an evil asshole? Nate in all his multitudes has always been Nate; Nate who is in love is able to see himself more clearly. If we were all only allowed in our real lives to experience character growth purely independently, we wouldn’t get very far.

I’ve been thinking a lot about influence and obligation when it comes to Rebecca’s storyline, too. I was a little afraid, after 3x3 and the way she initially responds to Tish’s prophecies, that Rebecca would end up a lone actor, in a sense, tracking down clues and answers at the expense of fostering her actual existing relationships. While I’m still curious and nervous and excited about what all of it means, I really appreciate that Rebecca has shown up for people this season, especially here in the latter half. Rebecca is almost certainly being driven a little crazy by the unfinished parts of what Tish told her, but she isn’t isolating herself. In calling Roy out for his avoidant behaviors and lack of accountability for the press conference (and, of course, the way his work performance mirrors his decision to leave his relationship with Keeley), she demonstrates accountability as a boss and as a friend. I don’t need to see Rebecca conducting meetings or writing emails to know she’s working, but it felt really important to me to see her get upset with Roy, both professionally and personally, and break through his exterior. Ted, Trent, Phoebe, and even Keeley have chipped away at it this season, but the epiphany required Rebecca being Rebecca. And the energy between Rebecca and Roy is very !!!

I loved the way the Nate-Rupert-Jade, Rebecca-Roy, and Roy-Isaac(-Will!) interactions all reinforce the idea that no one has the full picture of what is happening in another person’s brain, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t act on truths as they are revealed, as difficult as it may be.

As a queer person who is thankfully many years removed from the most stressful coming-out experiences I’ve had (although of course there are still plenty of moments of having to explain or identify oneself to another person—it never really ends—I consider myself “out” in that everyone in my life who I care about knowing knows I’m queer, and, so long as general safety is established, I feel able to explain it to additional people in most contexts without much or any stress), I really loved and appreciated Colin’s storyline here. Very little about my identity or place in the world resembles Colins, but so much of this episode resonated. We’ve already seen Colin describe his relationship to his sexual identity to Trent, and within that same conversation he spoke about not wanting to be a spokesperson with the pressure of publicly representing gay men. I absolutely love that the framing of the locker room scene respected those desires; he tells his teammates and coaches he’s gay, but we the public aren’t part of the several seconds that the literal announcement occurs. We get to see the freedom and relief the truth brings him, but the lessons of this episode are for the people around him.

The downside of writing this a couple days after the episode airs means I’ve read a lot of discourse, but I don’t think this episode did a disservice to Isaac or Colin. The writers room in s3 included writers specifically experientially equipped to tell this story, and to me, it shows. It shows in the realism of Isaac’s well-meaning questions (which Colin wouldn’t have answered so graciously if Isaac wasn’t so genuinely curious and caring!), and the tiring ways that queer people are burdened with conversational “obligations” and explanations that are just different than what straight people deal with. Ignorance and awareness exist on an incredibly long spectrum, and for me this story was affirming, not traumatizing, beautiful, and yet it also included the exhausting imperfections that cloak even the most positive coming-out experiences.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about Ted’s speech. Basically ever since Colin said the thing about Grindr in s2, I’ve been certain Colin would come out as gay to the team and reckon with being closeted in the context of the men’s Premier League. And literally since he made that little comment, I’ve been nervous about how Ted would react. I already knew he was a politically progressive person who identified himself as an ally, so I wasn’t afraid he’d have some kind of bigoted rejection reaction. But I did worry that his reaction would be sooooo cringe and try-hard and awkward that I’d legitimately run into issues writing and posting fiction about his obvious latent bisexuality on our home away from home, Archive of Our Own. And while Ted’s seven-layer-dip Denver Broncos analogy WAS cringe and try-hard and off-base, I absolutely loved how unflinchingly imperfect it was and how, despite those imperfections, his instinct re: the point he actually wanted to make was spot on and extremely valuable. If a white, middle-aged, (past-tense-ish hahahahahahaha I’m so normal about the word “was”) straight man who’s worked in sports his whole life had figured out the perfect thing to say, I’d have rolled my eyes at the screen. It felt realistic to me that he desperately wanted to find an analogy or connection point, immediately regretted it, and still—because of who he is when the din of his thoughts gives way actual clarity—managed to articulate that it’s very, very important that Colin’s community actually cares about who Colin is and that he was able to share this information with them. It’s the difference, in many ways, between being doomed to continue to feel like you have two lives (because you’re surrounded every day by people who look past something important to you or pretend not to see the differences) vs. knowing that even if you never come out to the entire world, you aren’t splintering yourself because you’re able to be your whole self around the people who actually matter. Anyway, the speech was imperfect and unwieldy, and that was the point, and his actual message was essential for everyone in that room to hear, and that was the point, and I will be capable of continuing to write fic in which Ted is attracted to men without his reaction to Colin haunting me. (I actually already have an idea for a future fic in which he reflects more, but that’s literally a story for another time.)

At this point in the season, I feel so curious about, um. What is happening. With Ted Lasso. The guy. In both s1 and s2, I felt about a millimeter away from him at all times, even when he wasn’t onscreen. This season, he’s so intentionally obscured. Getting to go to that museum in Amsterdam with him—and, perhaps even more importantly, the Yankee Doodle Burger Barn, and perhaps even more importantly than that, the back of that bus—was a relief and a reconnection point that was much needed, but I am absolutely FASCINATED and MYSTIFIED at this point in time at just how effective and maddening it is that I’m having a lot of trouble understanding how he truly feels about himself and the people around him. Like, I would obviously love to watch him be in love with Rebecca. But I would also love to watch him be in love with a place, or with two places, or with coaching, or with his partially-lost Beard, or with the words and images that have come to him in visions, or even with the unhealthy things that pull at him, like booze and stewing and obsession. Basically every episode—at least for me—contains some glimmer of connection, to his self or to one of his friends, and it’s always fleeting, and I’m holding onto the almost certainty of the fact that the decisions he has to make are going to require some kind of visible reckoning. Most of my nerves about the final three episodes of this show as we know it are related to these questions.

As for this episode, I don’t think I’ve quite captured the FEELINGS I felt while watching it. (I also completely failed to go into Ted sharing his biscuits with Keeley and continuing his perfect streak of making it super weird whenever he shares biscuits with a non-Rebecca person. I LOVED IT.) This was the episode that made me the most audibly squeal-y this season. And the most curious about how Ted has managed to get so far into his own brain that I actually miss him on his own show! Very curious stuff. What are the next three Tuesdays going to do to my brain and heart?

#ted lasso #ted lasso s3 spoilers #ted lasso 3x9 #hot dork club #meta by me #ted lasso meta #ted x rebecca #rebecca x roy #ted x men x allyship x cringe x but not too cringe x lol #queer things

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agentnico · 1 year

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Ted Lasso - Season 3 (2023) Review

Plot: In the 12-episode third season of Ted Lasso, the newly-promoted AFC Richmond faces ridicule as media predictions widely peg them as last in the Premier League and Nate, now hailed as the 'wonder kid,' has gone to work for Rupert at West Ham United.

Ted Lasso is such a unique show that no one expected to become as popular as it did. Heck, I’m sure Apple is trying every persuasive skill possible to motivate Jason Sudeikis to make more of it even though he’s been adamant that his show would only have a 3 season story-arc. The success of Ted Lasso shouldn’t come as a surprise though - it’s a show that is so refreshing in an otherwise outside world of hate. It’s hard not to look forward every week to a new episode filled with nuanced highs and lows. There is also an unrelentless charge of optimism, especially from the titular Ted, who only wants to see the good in everyone and is adamant in bringing out that good even in the worst of people. There can be an argument made that the first season of Ted Lasso is its best, as it’s simply dripping with that overwhelming feeling of positivity, with every moment feeling like you’re wrapped in a warm blanket surrounded by love and appreciation. The second and now third season go into more darker territories, however I personally think that the show doesn’t lose its charm in the process, as the message is still there that believing in Ted Lasso’s way will in the long run result in success and redemption for all. It’s literally the perfect feel-good show, and it’s a shame that this third season may be its last, but also as evident from the finale the ending is one that makes sense narratively, even though certain characters are left open to continue in their own spin-offs. I’m certain Apple is already writing up checks to make those spin-offs a reality.

So, season 3 of Ted Lasso - does it hold up to the rest of the show? Short answer is yes. And for the most part this final season lacks that sense of finality (minus the last two episodes), with a lot of the episodes simply continuing their focus on developing all the characters in the series. It was evident from the second season with Ted himself taking a backseat, allowing the other side characters to have their moment in the spotlight. The third season puts its focus on the likes of Billy Harris’ Colin Hughes struggling with his identity; James Lance’s Trent Crimm (no longer The Independent) joining Richmond to write a book about their journey in the Premier League; Juno Temple’s Keeley having her own business and her struggles along the way; and of course Nick Mohammed’s Nate ‘the Wonder Kid’ traitorous decision to join Anthony Head’s Rupert in West Ham as their coach, and the ramifications of that decision. Heck, even Charlie Hiscock’s Will the kitman gets more moments to shine, and he’s only the kitman. Yet as the legendary Zava says to Will “I too worked as a ball-boy once for a club when I was just 11 years old. Your passion is why I play.” That reminds me - we have to talk about Zava!!

Let’s talk about Zava! So prior to this season the main narcissist of the Richmond team was the self-obsessed goal scorer Jamie Tartt (played by Phil Dunster). However through the show his character evolved and now has become a proper team-player that puts others before himself, however that means Richmond needed another self-absorbed player to fill that empty void. In cometh the one and only man, the myth, the legend John Wick.....errr...I mean, Zava (played by Maximilian Osinski)! Yes, that is his name. Known mononymously as Zava, this fictional football legend brings arrogance and swagger to the team. Upon his transfer and entrance to Richmond’s locker room, other team players are stuck starstruck as he carves out his own meditative space and shrine to himself in one corner of the room. Evidently the character of Zava is inspired by the Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is one of the most successful footballers of all time and his renowned for his inspirational quotes and attitude. Zava even shares the same hair-style with Zlatan with the pulled back slick man bun. Zava essentially is showcased as the God of football, and Osinski plays him as such, and look - everything with Zava is great! And luckily the writers don’t overuse him, he’s only in a couple of episodes but my oh my does Zava leave an impression! The one and only Zava!!

All the colourful cast return, with Sudeikis’ likeable moustachioed titular Ted a constant delight who you want to hug all the time; Hannah Waddingham (now a Eurovision presenter star) brightens the screen with her energy; Brett Goldstein’s Roy Kent provides his signature grunts throughout, and there’s a great ongoing gag this season with him screaming “whistle”. Anthony Head is devilishly evil as Rupert, and we get to see his home office that looks like the lair of Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars (which I guess makes Nate Darth Vader??). Brendan Hunt’s Coach Beard is an icon at this point, and Jeremy Swift, Cristo Fernandez and Kola Bokinni round up the colourful cast.

If you loved the previous seasons you’ll enjoy the third season of Ted Lasso. It has the same charm and DNA of the previous episodes, and is a pure delight to watch, even during the darker moments as you know that in the end everything will be set straight. Even with Nate turning into the villain - we already know he’s going to have a redemptive arc, this is Ted Lasso overall. It’s about the journey and how he gets through that redemptive arc, and look, by the end of the show you as an audience may not have forgiven Nate, and most people wouldn’t. But sure as hell Ted and his crew do. So it is indeed with great sorrow we say goodbye to Ted Lasso, at least for the time being, and we shall miss all these characters we have grown to love over these past few years. It’s a bittersweet finale, but as Trent Crimm, The Independent stated back in season 1 - “If the Lasso way is wrong, it’s hard to imagine being right.”

Overall score: 8/10

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potatoqueensays · 3 years

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Okay okay so I may have wrote an Irondad drabble. It's kinda like a character study or something, idk I just came up with it and was like yeah let's do this. I hope you enjoy!!

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My World Isn't Perfect Without You In It

3,004 words

It started as a simple feeling.

Tony was in his lab with Peter on one of their lab days, as they always were on Fridays. He would work with the kid after Happy picked him up and they would work on whatever their genius hearts desired.

Tony didn't really find himself looking at Peter with pride until Pepper pointed it out to him, she would comment on how he seemed like a Dad all of a sudden with the kid hanging around more.

He would always deny it with that Stark charm of his of course, deflecting was one of his main traits when it came to his feelings.

"Pep, motherhood may look nice on you, but fatherhood isn't kind for me you know." Flattery was said to get you places, but Pepper was known for never taking his BS.

"Tony, I can tell the way you look at him, you love him, whether you want to face it or not." She grinned at him, she was always right, even if he didn't like to admit it sometimes.

He thought back to her words frequently, picking up on how his heart swelled with pride and warmth when Peter looked at him for approval, or whenever he would get a question right, or even when Tony himself was having a bit of trouble with an equation, and he was Tony Stark, he could do anything!

The kid wormed his way into Tony's cold heart, thawed down his icy walls with a flamethrower and melted his heart into a puddle of goo.

The billionaire could never understand how he became so fond of the kid so quickly, but he always knew the reasons he liked the kid. He was so selfless, kind, and brave. A true hero at heart and much better than Tony even thought he would be, he was everything Tony wasn't and more.

He wasn't even jealous at the kid when he would steal the light, his own best friend becoming fond of the kid and mentioning how he was practically his kid.

"Platypus, he's not a Stark, in any way shape or form."

"He may not be blood related to you Tones, but he's your son in everything else, he has your brains even, maybe even smarter than you!" Rhodey teased.

"I'm wounded, Honey-Bear." He placed a hand over his heart in mock hurt.

"Oh hush, you know it better than anyone else."

And if he did, he would never say it up front.

He was proud of the kid even in his worst moments. He would try to console the kid when he came to him for help when close to a panic attack (which broke the hero's heart, the poor kid didn't deserve any of the unfair treatment the world had, it was too cruel for such a pure hearted kid like Peter.) or when he had a nightmare when staying over at the tower.

Tony wasn't always the most physically affectionate, he would give pats on the shoulder or back, arms around shoulders to keep the person close, and side hugs, even if he didn't do full ones.

When it came to Peter however, he slowly broke out of his shell of that. He kept a hand gently over the back of the boy's neck, sometimes playing with the curls that rested there, occasionally giving a reassuring squeeze when Peter seemed a bit nervous or highstrung. It always got rid of a little of his own stress when the boy would lean into his touch, side hugs and pats on the shoulder were gladly accepted.

Even the occasional hand holding when the kid was kept in the med-bay after a stressful mission or patrol, he would keep his hand over the boy's pulse point to reassure himself that the kid was alive and well. He would keep one hand over the kid's wrist while he worked on his suit, improving how he could make sure the current problems never happened again, whether it be even a scratch or a stab wound, he wouldn't let Peter get hurt on his watch.

He would always keep an eye on the kid, letting Peter know that he could call whenever he felt he needed something, maybe even just to chat, the billionaire found himself even endeared to the chatter that came from the spider-kid, it was a nice comforting constant to fill the silence in his life, even if he worked in his suits with FRIDAY blasting AC/DC, he seemed to have a better preference for the chatty kid. He would invest himself in listening to what happened in his day, to what him and Ted did over the week, and even hearing about how Aunt May burned water when trying to boil pasta.

He was fond of the kid, the feeling that was so simple at the start but steadily increasing over time and getting fiercer and stronger with each visit to the med-bay or after every movie night that eventually had the boy cuddled up to him. It grew into a surge of protectiveness, a very parental feeling and yearning to make his the kid happy.

So yeah, he was fond.

He was in too deep, as he wanted the kid by his side for as long as he could have him in fact, he begun to realize that yeah, he liked the kid and was fond of his company, but even more so.

He loved the kid.

He loved Peter.

Tony had a crisis when he was having a revelation about his feelings towards the younger hero.

He felt parental, even if he kept denying the fact when everybody knew how he felt before himself. Even if he tried to hide his grin whenever the kid's smile lit up a room, even if he kept rolling his eyes affectionately and ruffled the kid's curls when they bantered.

So yeah, he loved him.

Loving was dangerous however, loving got you in difficult situations where you don't think and sometimes your actions get out of hand with how much you care.

He cared about Peter with his iron heart, he cared about the boy so loudly in fact it would almost creep those three words up into his throat when he loved too fiercely with kid.

That's how he found himself in a very dangerous situation.

Peter was hurt, badly.

And it was his fault because he loved him, he was someone he got too close to and now it was his fault.

He stayed too close even when he should have remained at arms length, but the kid had to get close.

The bullet was supposed to be for Tony, not Peter, but the kid saw it coming from a mile away and pushed the iron clad man away from the aim of fire and taking the punishment with all the confidence of a self sacrificing idiot.

Peter was laid up in the med-bay as Cho and her helpers ran around to try and nurse the kid, while Tony was trapped in his own mind with how much he let Peter get too close, how he didn't notice that the kid obviously loved him too, so much in fact that he took a bullet for him, when Tony specifically told him not to if something like that happened.

He couldn't find it in his heart to be angry at the kid, no matter how much he wanted to be, he wanted to scream and shout and punch the walls, blame the universe for giving him someone so precious and kind that he would ruin completely, to rip apart a kid's life. It was his fault that the kid was by his side now, wanting to be an avenger because he took him to Germany just to win a fight against his own team, his own family. Or what he thought was.

He was pushed out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder, Rhodey's comforting voice making it's way to the man in armor, ridding him of the terrible thoughts and guilt that went through him.

"He'll be okay Tones, he's tough, he can handle it, he always does." Rhodey reasoned, trying to take Tony down from his tower of guilt.

"But he shouldn't have to."

"He did what he did because he cares, I know you would do it in a heartbeat if he was the one about to be shot."

"Because that's how it should be, I'm the adult, and he's the kid. He's just a child, Rhodey, a child." The older hero sighed, his face visible as his helmet was open, anyone could easily see his terror and distress. He tried to tear his eyes away from the frittering med staff, but he could only think of Peter. His Peter. His self sacrificing kid that he loved too much, and now it had gotten him hurt, the panic gripping his chest like a vice and not letting go as he feared what worse could have happened to his kid.

"Listen, he'll be okay, I know it." There was no room for argument with his tone, even if Tony wanted to, he needed to be at Peter's bedside, he was always there no matter what, even if he was mad or trying not to think about his guilt, the boy's presence always seemed to calm him.

The hero sighed softly, nodding even though panic rested comfortably in his chest.

He had cleaned himself up after the fight, after seeing Peter taken away from his side as he bled out and was in pain, even under the mask for the spider-suit, Tony could tell by the way the white eyes of the mask were pinched. It haunted him how he thought of Peter's bambi eyes shining with unshed tears and pain under that mask, those bright doe eyes filled with innocence and brilliance.

He remained stationary by the kid's bedside as he was finally left alone in his room, his accelerated healing luckily used in this moment. Helen had said the bullet hadn't hit any major arteries or organs, so that was a plus, but it still was agonizing to think of the boy in any sort of pain, or to even think of Peter leaving his side. If that happened, he didn't know what he would do. If he didn't have Pepper he would certainly lose it.

He just loved the kid too much to let him suffer.

He had his Stark-Pad resting in his lap as he held onto Peter's wrist, the feeling of the pulse underneath his fingers much more reassuring than the beep of the heart monitor. He kept his eyes focusing back between the notes he had down for what he could improve on Peter's suit and on the kid himself, eyeing his chest to check his breathing and checking the face of the boy in case he was going to wake up anytime soon.

He looked at the features of the boy, taking in the curls swept over his forehead, they were always gelled back no matter how much Tony joked about it. He never had a problem with it, but it was always pleasing to know how the boy liked a hand combing through his curls, whether it be his aunt to Tony himself. His face always bright with a smile that reached to his chocolate doe eyes, shining with talent and excitement for everything and anything. From Star Wars to how the Iron Man suit worked, he was always so smart and inquisitive. The boy was a ray of sunshine in Tony's bleak life. Yes he had Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy, he loved them all to bits and they made his life so much better, but loving Peter was different. He was his son in everything but blood, and that didn't even matter. He was a bright light that warmed up even the coldest of hearts, thawing right through to make anyone wrapped around his little finger.

Tony loved him.

He realized he was looking too much at the boy and swiftly changed to reading the schematics of the spider-suit, although he didn't read far when he heard a small sigh coming from in front of him. He looked up to see those bright and beautiful doe eyes looking up at him with that same amount of adoration that made Tony's heart want to burst, he didn't deserve the kid in the slightest, but here he was with him.

"Good afternoon, bambi." He said softly, aware of how Peter was sensitive his surroundings after waking up in the med-bay, the lights always at a dimmer power than normal to accustom to the spider-boy.

"Hi Mstr' Strk'." The boy slurred, still tired from just waking up and having pain reducing drugs in his system. The man carefully let go of the boy's wrist to hit the button that alerted Helen that her patient was awake, he almost missed the small whine that came from the younger hero at the loss of contact, it cut right through his heart.

"I'm here kiddo, don't worry." He held onto the boy's wrist again, fingers resting over the pulse point with quick muscle memory at this point.

"M' srry.." The boy mumbled, relaxing slightly as he registered the touch again, wide bambi eyes drooping sightly in relief.

"What are you sorry for, kiddo?" The man wondered. Peter always apologized, whether it be for something as small as dropping a pencil or bumping into a dog. He had such good manners.

"Ar' you mad a' me?" The boy's speech improving only a little as his enhanced metabolism burned through the painkillers.

Ah, so that explains it, he was worried the billionaire was mad at him. He gently rubbed a circle into the boy's wrist with his hand, comforting the kid into relaxing and not stressing when he needed to heal and get rest.

The man softly sighed and put the Stark-Pad away on the side table, scooting a little closer to the cot as he could look the kid better in the eye.

"No bud, I'm not mad, anymore. But you worried me a lot, I have a heart condition you know." He moved his free hand to go over the boy's front curls that hung in front of his eyes, getting to see those baby browns even better as the kid leaned into the soft touch.

"I knda' had to, you'd do it too.." The kid had a point, as it was similar to Rhodey's, even Pepper would say something like that, and she was always right, so that had to mean that Rhodey and Peter were too.

"That's different Pete. You're a kid and I'm an adult, we seniors kinda have to take the bullet. Figuratively and literally." He chided gently.

The boy let out a small huff of frustrated air, which was absolutely adorable as his nose scrunched up and he eyed Tony with what was presumably a glare that equalled the look of a puppy.

"But we gotta prtect' each other, otherwise you'd get hurt much worse." He brought up matter of factly.

"Well, maybe that's a risk I gotta take for spider-babies like you." Tony provided ruefully.

"Nt' a baby."

Well you're my spider-baby. He almost wanted to say.

Luckily he was saved by Helen Cho coming in to do a small checkup on Peter, looking over his vitals and smiling softly at her patient.

"Hello Peter, how are you feeling? Any pain?" She eyed over her clipboard presumably to check over his vitals and wounds again, being very perceptive to how Peter responded.

"M' fine, jus' a little sore." At that, Helen nodded and worked on administering a little medicine into his system, making the boy sigh gratefully at that. Both Cho and Tony knew when Peter said he felt a little pain it meant more than he played it as.

"I'll be back in a couple more hours, get some rest okay?"

Peter nodded at that and watched as she left the room, now alone with his father figure mentor once again. He looked over at Tony with a dopey smile, looking very tired now, he was bound to fall asleep. He sightly tugged on the man's arm, they both know that was to invite the man to cuddle, which they never brought up out loud, but they both knew the other enjoyed it greatly. It helped assure Tony that Peter was safe and there, while Peter got comfort and protection.

The man sighted good-naturedly as he stood up to get beside Peter.

"Alright alright, scoot over, this isn't gonna be nice on my back later." He joked. Although he said that, he would gladly take a little pain if it meant having Peter safe in his arms.

The boy obeyed and scooted over quickly, allowing Tony to climb in and get comfy, then let out a small "oof" as the kid rested his head on his shoulder and clung like a koala.

The man chuckled, a hand coming up to cradle the boy's head and play with his curls, knowing that helped Peter sleep much faster.

"Okay cuddle-bug, you heard her. It's nap time."

"Nt' a bug." Peter mumbled, blissfully unaware how Tony's heart practically melted with how easy Peter fit in his arms. He was so small. They were like two pieces of a puzzle, father and son, mentor and mentee. They belonged together and they wouldn't have it any other way as they needed the other.

"Right, arachnid." Tony corrected himself, hiding his grin in the kid's hair as Peter let out a pleased hum, slowly drifting off to sleep.

"Night." Peter mumbled, slowly lulled to sleep by the soft rumbling of the older hero's chest as he responded in kind.

"Goodnight bambino." He mumbled, pressing a small kiss to the boy's hair as they soon both drifted off to sleep.

Yeah, Tony loved him, and he needed him in his life like Peter needed him.

Thank you to @polaroid15 for reading this before hand and your lovely comments!! 🥺♥️

#irondad #irondad and spiderson #irondad fanfiction #mine #honestly this is my first ever attempt at writing fanfiction #i normally write for classes or drabbles of my own characters #but i have never done other characters #also im not that good with dialogue but I tried #i hope you enjoy 🥺♥️#tony stark #peter parker #pepperpotts #but only like quickly #james rhodes #quickly as well

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orangechickenpillow · 3 years

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Heyo, it’s me, back again to psychoanalyze a film that I have seen way too many times to only have heard of last week. This may be a long one, so buckle up my friends.

So, I know there’s been some speculation around whether or not Ezra was going to give Cee over to those people that they came across (the ones who needed a “Mother”), and I wanted to give my two cents.

He wasn’t.

Why do I believe this? Well, let me explain.

When the man gives them his offer “for the girl,” Ezra does something that he hasn’t really done much, up until this point in the film. He let’s himself slip. Ezra is a man who wears a mask -- it is the thing that saves his life in The Green. He likes to talk, and he is also known for keeping up a friendly façade, even when his life in in danger (see: the whole situation with Damon at the beginning). At this point in the film, Ezra’s life in literally in the hands of these strangers and the first aid they are willing (or not willing) to provide. So how he choses to bargain with them, specifically in an overly friendly and relaxed manner, is a crucial part in his survival.

But when they say they want to buy Cee, his response is curt and quiet. “That’s a bold offer,” he says, and for just a moment, he sounds angry. This is a man who puts high value on the way others perceive him, as it has literally saved his life. But in this moment, he can’t keep his friendly, charming mask up because of what the stranger just implied. He even looks angry

(I feel like in this second image his internal dialogue is something along the lines of “you’re lucky I’m nearly dead, otherwise I’d snap your spine right this moment, good sir”)

I feel like this is the most honest reaction we could get from Ezra, all things considered. It’s not completely transparent, but, for a moment, he unintentionally risked his carefully planned façade because of what the man was suggesting.

Next, Ezra asks what they “need her for.” To me, this implies the fact that he actually cares what happens to Cee. He is a cold, calculating murder, as we saw by the way he killed Damon without a second glance. He’s not that sentimental, as we saw by the nonchalant, almost bored way he checked to see if his ‘partner’ was alive. It would not be that out of character for him to simply trade Cee for medical supplies, telling himself that she’d be alive and taken care of and, ultimately, not his responsibility. But he asks what they want with her. He doesn’t just automatically say yes, which he very well could have, and he doesn’t just think about it, he genuinely wants to know.

And then of course, my badass girl Cee doesn’t give him the choice, and makes a run for it (atta girl!).

Then comes the scene in the tent, when Ezra and Cee are reunited. This, to me, is a crucial moment in the argument that Ezra was not going to give her away. As we all know, Ezra is a man of many, many (many many many) words, and an unnecessarily (annoyingly?) large vocabulary. Just one example of this is the way he bargains with Cee at the beginning of the film, using lots of words and arguing points to get her to agree to his plan.

But what does he say when she asks him if he was going to give her to them? A simple, quiet “No.” For someone who uses talking as a weapon, he sure doesn’t try that hard to convince her he’s telling the truth. (Not to mention the fact that he literally needs her cooperation and trust to survive, as if she doesn’t agree to remove his infected arm, he will die.) Which makes me think that it’s just that: the truth.

Now I’m not saying he didn’t think about it -- I’m sure he did. But that’s the thing. His “no” is so solemn and resigned, almost as if he’s realizing that his whole ‘bad guy’ act has officially slipped. Or, on a more serious note: that he, someone who has had to do horrible things to survive The Green, was going to risk losing life-saving medical supplies for this orphan girl that he just met.

When I first saw this scene, I read it as him maybe realizing that even if Cee hadn’t run (and therefore jeopardized any help that the strangers would have been willing to offer), things still would have turned out bad for him. Even if she hadn’t run, he still wouldn’t have gotten the help he needed because he wouldn’t have given her over.

So, in conclusion to this pages long essay about something that doesn’t even matter, I just can’t see Ezra ever selling a little girl for medical supplies. Like, ever. He’s not a great guy -- not even a good one, really, but he’s not a monster, and I think he knows that. He knows there are lines he shouldn’t cross, and endangering a child might just be one of them. So when he told Cee that “no,” he wasn’t going to give her over to them, it just seems like he’s telling the truth. There are no fancy words, no long, lyrical sentences -- just a quiet, almost embarrassed “No” from our favorite space cowboy who also just so happens to have realized he is now a single father.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk, holy shit I am so sorry if you read this whole thing.

#tw long post #long post #I am so sorry #i just love this movie #and there is so much to unpack about these characters #i love them #prospect ezra #prospect cee #prospect #prospect 2018 #ezra #cee #pedro pascal #sophie thatcher

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gillian-greenwood · 3 years

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My Episode 7 Predictions!

Mother of God! How have these weeks passed by so fast?! I've decided to share what I think will be answered tomorrow night and some of the fates of our beloved characters! The series has gotten off to an even bigger success than it's predecessor and EVERYONE'S talking about it! Without further ado, let's see what I'm predicting!

Who's H/fourth man (or woman) and will we find out?

The question that's on the nation's minds. That has been boggling us since 2017... My personal prediction still stands as CC Philip Osborne, however... I think he's purely sitting on his arse and pulling the strings, whilst others are doing his dirty work. Those people are Patricia Carmichael: who in all honesty I'm manifesting isn't actually bent but is so career driven and a bit of a lick arse that she's just taking orders and not questioning anything, plus she doesn't think much of Ted either... I have joked that she's been shagging Osborne on the side which would be quite funny. I also believe Buckells has been Osborne's true scape goat for years. Someone as laid-back and unpassionate as Buckells is easily manipulated - I mean how the hell has he become a super? As Steve rightfully says, he couldn't order a piss up in a brewery. Seeing the connections go well back into the early noughties whilst Buckells was part of an oasis tribute band, it's an easy conclusion to make. Lastly I will mention Thurwell, now I think Thurwell may have been more involved on his own doing anyway but I think he'd still been pretty busy doing things on behalf of Osborne up until his alleged death in sunny Spain (Belfast but shh). I know a lot of people still think Buckells, some reckon pas-agg Pat is the top woman... and a few still think our beloved Kate is 'H'.

Now the other part of my point is actually finding out... I think us as viewers will certainly know the identity of this mysterious individual. But, I think we'll find out in the very last few seconds and poor AC12 won't be any the wiser which will open up the foundations for a possible series 7. I think a lot of things will be answered for us viewers but not everything for the characters. I know that if they had a series 7 there would be an other primary focus but I just think it would be clever. Just like how we found out as viewers at the end of series 1 that Dot was a wrong'un.

Is Thurwell really dead?

I'm still very amazed by the whole induction of Jimmy Nesbitt as a series of photos. I know we were supposed to have a secretive guest actor appearance and I believe it was Robert Carlyle's name floating about which would have been insane! But that moment we saw Jimmy, I yelled at the screen. So, this answers the question of seeing a character that had only been mentioned previously - which has been very much hiding in plain sight. Even with a rewatch, I had forgotten about Thurwell and therefore hadn't even considered him. But, I did mention the list from series 3 which did loosely tie in. Anyway, when we learned that Thurwell and his Mrs were now dead and clearly had been for a while - it was cleverly shot so we didn't see who it was, only the Spanish Police's word. You know, I think if we were to get a series 7, Thurwell could appear and he's in fact not dead. It's very rare you get a very well known actor in for something so small without it leading to bigger things. Although, they got Andi Osho, a very much loved comedian in purely for archival photos and videos... I do feel that Thurwell could have easily been on the other end of the fake MSN, and doing Osborne's dirty work - especially with the Spanish connection. In a BTS photo we have seen a clue to a piece of paperwork regarding a time share (Spain mentioned) in front of Kate which will likely have a connection to Thurwell and Spain. I think he's possibly still alive but we'll see...

Joanne Davidson

Kelly Macdonald has been welcomed with a very warm reception. Wow, her connection to Tommy Hunter (albeit disturbing, homozygous DNA... nasty business) was not something I ever expected although I guessed very much so when we learned of the DNA match with a nominal. Would I define her as bent? I mean in layman's terms, yes she is. However each guest star has had a very complicated relationship with the definition - all have done dodgy things and usually for good reason... But I do sympathise with her because of her background, born into trouble, it was very hard to escape - even if her mum took her to Scotland for a life away from it all. From the very start of her career she was doing the OCG's bidding and it transpires she was in the police on Tommy's orders - so very much another caddy. I do feel Jo had always wanted to be a good person and do right and in some ways she did - however she's in too deep. Next I'll mention her relationship with Kate and it's something I'd never have predicted. A lot of suggestive and sapphic behaviour from the off. Now, I do think Jo cares deeply for Kate and has developed strong feelings - and I think Kate deep down has also but I don't think anything will happen sadly. And that's more for the fact that they had run out of track before they could even get going as so much has happened. Kate's gonna save Jo when her transport gets ambushed, that's a given... but I don't think we'll see anything happen that we want to happen. I hope I'm very wrong and we get something but with the hour we've got I don't think it'll be the case. And as for her fate? I think she'll survive. Guest leads usually die, eventually... with the exception of Roz who's serving time with one arm in Brentiss. Giving how unfortunate her life has been from her conception, I think it'll do her justice to escape with her life. Witness protection? Hmm perhaps... Although I think she's done enough dodgy stuff to warrant a prison stretch. Will she be instrumental in revealing who the fourth dot is? Well yeah actually, I think she grew up thinking Thurwell was her dad... and of course having connections to both Osborne and Buckells. Jo joined the force just before the turn of the millennium so would have been a copper when the Lawrence Christopher case occurred in 2003. Even though not directly working with them, I'm sure she knew what was going on and would have come across Osborne and Buckells at that time. I have a strong inkling that she knows exactly who she's been talking to and has been under their wing since the start. If she dies I will be gutted.

Kate

Where are we going with Kate? Well she's just killed Ryan (lawfully) and has gotten away with it. But Carmichael isn't thick... and nor is Steve and Ted. They all know but I think that'll be that for now. For ages I thought she was gonna D word but I think she's gonna be alright now. I hope that somehow she gets back into anti-corruption permanently because that's where she's best suited. I'm shocked that she hasn't had a glass box spectacular - my predictions for her to be accused of being bent and all that were way off the mark... and not a single mention of the two dying declarations... With only an hour tomorrow and so much to deal with, I guess that's not going to be mentioned. And Kate ain't gonna be sanctioned either. But, there's always opportunity with a series 7... She'll definitely be back in AC12, interviewing... I can't see all the BTS photos being Jed Herrings. But we'll see tomorrow!

Steve

Poor Steve eh? He's not had an easy time of it. Addicted to painkillers as I rightfully predicted, unable to trust his gaffer, torn on a transfer and a up and down friendship with his 'mate'. Oh and the car, actually let's not talk about the Mazda... Anyhow I believe that Steve will talk about his back and recent struggles with meds after a lot of emails from occupational health. Will he get pulled off the job at the last second because he didn't book an appointment... yeah I think that might happen and Kate takes his place or something. But there is a counsellor or something credited so I'm pretty certain on that. Will he lose his long overdue promotion? It's possible! I don't think the test was going to come back as a fail but more of a cause for concern - just that the levels of codeine etc in his system was higher than it should and it would be best advised to talk to someone. We haven't seen much pill taking going on since the drugs test so has Steve been going cold turkey? Or have they just veered away from that part of the story? In all fairness he's appeared fine with his back since the Windermere convoy - he ran across an industrial estate... I mean. I hope Steve gets a glimmer of hope and happiness because he rightfully deserves it. Ever since the start he's had his fair sharing of aggro and he deserves a break. I do think however he may be partly responsible for nailing the final nails into Ted's coffin - especially after he discovered the 50K up Merseyside and the truth from Lee Banks. I think he could be potentially happy with Steph, it would be nice for something to happen with them but we'll see. Steve needs a big hug.

Ted

This is going to pain me saying it. But, I don't think Ted is going to make it to the end. His retirement is inevitable. I can see the argument of the retirement being rescinded if they unmask the fourth dot etc and solve stuff but realistically, he's past retirement age. He's so focused on getting to the end of this marathon that I don't think he will see it through and know who it is - because he'll... yeah I don't need to say it. How? I've been saying his heart is gonna pack in. He's going to be in deep trouble over that 50k because Steve and Kate know the truth. But why would the likes of Carmichael find out... Well we've seen a clue of 'definate' on some paperwork - I reckon Ted by coincidence also makes this spelling mistake often as it is one of the most commonly misspelt words and therefore will be in the 'H' running again - he wont be 'H' as I reckon Osborne makes the same mistake... He alleges he misspelt it cos he studied the texts carefully but I think he spelt it how he usually would. They'll all go down the wrong path and accuse him which will lead to his ultimate downfall. Another little teaser is Steve appearing to listen to Ted's 2019 glass box spectacular however notably Carmichael says AC12 interview and not AC3... so mixing two different interviews to tease us? Maybe Ted might feel he has no choice but to sacrifice his career for the truth. However it all gets too much. Lies cost lives... I can't see Ted going on from beyond here and Ted was always supposed to be a minor character until he was very well received by the audience and he was made a main character. Realistically, his story is told and he's at his endgame. I hope he survives, by god I do... He's one of the most loved fictional characters at present. But I have a really bad feeling and I'm worried! It seems a total Jed thing to do for Ted to meet his end without ever finding the truth... seeing that's what his heart has been set on for about four years... I'm sorry to even be going there but it's what I think will happen. And I want to be wrong.

Miscellaneous Predictions

I want to round this all off with other little points. Carmichael won't be bent, maybe still involved with anti-corruption, you love to hate her, there's so much more they could do with her character. I don't think Steph's dodgy at all, she's just a widow whose been helped out by Ted in an unlawful way. I think her and Steve would be well suited. I hope Chloe will get to the end and continue on in anti-corruption, she's got a lot of potential. If Osborne isn't sussed, I reckon he'll still be CC. DCC Wise isn't bent either, just getting on with her job. But if Osborne does get caught and I'm wrong, there will be a lot of chaos for both him and Wise. Farida gets out of jail and starts afresh. Buckells I reckon will get out but won't be apart of the police force anymore. Lomax isn't bent, just a regular cop trying to get the work done. The rest of Jackie's remains will be found under the workshop floor, maybe with someone else? God knows who. Or maybe with some evidence that helps lead AC12 on the right track. Steve will still be an officer and Kate will be back where she belongs. There's probably more but my head hurts.

Will there be a series 7?

Yes.

Thank you all for reading my jumbled thoughts all packed into a text post. I'm nervous but excited for tomorrow night's finale. Let's see if I get anything right... probably not...

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politicaltheatre · 3 years

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Depraved Indifference

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's, like, incredible."

- Donald Trump, at a campaign stop at Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa, January 23, 2016

This quote didn’t find its way into the second impeachment trial of the now-former President, but it should have. In a better world it would have, but in that better world a man such Donald Trump would not ever have been elected to any office, let alone one as powerful as president. And yet, somehow he was.

Donald Trump is no longer president, something his defenders, standing before the Senate and sitting among the trial’s jury, have taken great pains to try to focus our attention on.

Note how they talk about the importance of “moving on” and getting over it, thereby distancing us and, far more importantly, themselves from what was done.

Note how they try to frame the charge against Trump - “inciting violence against the government of the United States” - as merely “partisan” and “political”, something devoid of any legal justification or standing, as if the crimes were not witnessed by billions around the world in real time.

Note how, when faced with having to face the morally depraved actions they either encouraged or enabled in Trump and those who followed him, and having to defend their own complicity in the indefensible result, they turn to not even a little bit thinly veiled threats against those daring to accuse. Any retribution, they do declare, any continuation of violence against Trump’s declared enemies, that will be on you.

This has all the subtlety and predictability of a trial in the Jim Crow South, and, given the number of Confederate flags waving inside the Capitol on January 6th, that really isn’t too strong a comparison.

Trump, as anyone anywhere in the world even casually paying attention should know, is entirely guilty of inciting that riot. He spent years cultivating doubt in the electoral system, months casting doubt on the 2020 mail-in voting results, and, finally, weeks spreading blatant lies about voting fraud, ones that he continues to tell to this day.

He did all of this while encouraging and enabling exactly the kind of violence done on his behalf that we all saw on the 6th and, as the House impeachment managers have helpfully shown at length, in the days, weeks, months, and years leading up to it.

“Stand back and stand by”, right? The Proud Boys stuck that on t-shirts.

If the videos the House managers have played have failed to persuade, we tell ourselves, perhaps the evidence of Trump’s Defense and Justice departments undermining the Capitol police and National Guard’s response will. How about a timeline of Trump’s fiddling while the Capitol burned and his own Vice President quite literally ran for his life? No? Really?

You don’t need a lot of time to prepare a case when the defendant has been caught, figuratively, thousands of times in the middle of Fifth Avenue with a smoking gun. Trump’s thumbs offered up hundreds of smoking guns to choose from. Videos of his post-election rallies do, too. The ones he posted that day, hours after the breach, calling the men and women hunting “traitors” of both parties and battering Capitol police with American flags “patriots”, well, that’s a prosecutor’s dream. Or should be.

So, yes, he is guilty. Very, very, very guilty.

Ah, but so are at least three of his jury members: Josh Hawley, James Lankford, and Ted Cruz. They all gave credence to Trump’s lies, they all gave weight to those lies by demanding that the Senate investigate them once more and yet again before confirming the election, and that day they all cynically and repeatedly called for the rejection of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Well, Hawley and Cruz did; Lankford was trying to when he was evacuated.

They were no less guilty of trying to profit from the misplaced and misguided rage of those storming the Senate chamber than Trump, and, if the rioters’ own social media accounts are to be believed, Hawley and Cruz at the very least were no less accountable for them being there. Lankford, it seems, needs to up his social media game.

Those three senators, of course, are not on trial. They are merely jurors charged with deciding the guilt or innocence of Donald Trump for doing what they did themselves. They will be joined in their guaranteed “No” votes by at least 41 other Republican senators who, like them, once again voted to claim that, despite over 200 years of clear legal precedent, this impeachment trial is “unconstitutional”.

It’s no shock that the House managers’ detailed legal history lesson fell on deaf ears, nor is it that those three and other Trump Republicans were caught “reading” during the presentation of evidence. Rand Paul, whose own ridiculous claims about the election and trial have been followed by threats of retaliation, was caught doodling like teen stuck in detention.

This, not anything said by Trump’s crack legal team, is the argument for the defense: they know what Trump did, they know it was wrong, they know what they’re doing, and they know that’s wrong, too. And they do not care. They do not care.

These aren’t stupid people, they’re just dishonest. More specifically, they’re corrupt. What they believe, what they take as a matter of faith, is that they’ll face no real consequences for anything they’re doing or anything they’ve done.

And who’s to tell them they’re wrong? What’s the worse Hawley or Cruz will face? Censure? You can’t shame the shameless. They’ll wear their censures the same way Trump would, as a badge of courage on which they can raise campaign money and, they hope, draw out votes from Trump’s millions of rabidly loyal supporters.

For Hawley, Cruz, and others already campaigning for 2024, that’s all that matters. For them, this is just an opportunity, a means to an end, as they pursue their highly profitable careers in politics. It’s just business. For them, Trump, and every other one in Congress, on TV, and on social media who chose to ignore what people might do if they lied to them and wound them up, and for all of those choosing to ignore the consequences of it now, that’s all this is: just business.

And that’s the problem.

Politics shouldn’t be a business. We know that without even having to be told. When we talk about it, we do so in terms of “service” and “doing one’s duty”, words and phrases that romanticize the selfless nature we want to see in our politics and our politicians. We don’t just do that because that’s how we’ve always heard it spoken of, we do that because we know that the ones who embody that ideal are rare. There’s just too much evidence to deny it.

Go back far as you want, there have been men and women seeking power for the purpose of defending themselves and their friends from accountability. Back in the day, they sought appointments through connections or simply joined the clergy. These days, they run for office.

The political party in this country that currently stands against accountability is the Republican Party. Sure, the Democratic Party has its own sizable share of complicity for allowing the country’s drift into right-wing aggressive selfishness, but, lucky for us, it hasn’t been able to rid itself of its accountable members the way the Republican Party has. Of course, that’s only natural, given the importance of accountability to the political Left.

The last two Republican presidents were elected in no small part because they had a background in business. Yes, they each ran their businesses into the ground, but they ran them.

George W. Bush came into office as a “corporate” president, one who would, we were assured, delegate to those more experienced and skilled in areas where he was…lacking. We waved away his inadequacies and were somehow shocked when he failed in exactly every one of those areas. Still, he and his friends made money hand over fist, so the corporate presidency was good for business, big business, in particular, which got a big bailout.

Donald Trump should have inspired even less confidence, but confidence man that he is, he played enough suckers to get him in the White House. As much pain, suffering, and death as he has caused in four excruciatingly long years, he and his cronies have made out like gangbusters, too. The government they were hired to manage, not so much.

From the start, he and his cabinet secretaries lived by the old rule, “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission”. Not that they asked for forgiveness. That’s for losers. They broke laws, fleeced taxpayers, and resigned knowing that whatever penalty they might face would pale compared to the profits they took with them.

This is the mentality that drives corporate decision making around the world. For them, the adage is a bit more like, “better to settle a lawsuit than risk profits”. They, too, avoid apologies whenever possible. That keeps the damages paid to to victims and their families lower.

Currently, there are companies selling cars, drugs, baby food, and other products that they know are defective and a threat to the people using them. They know this. They know there’s a high risk that people will die, and they do it anyway. Instead of recognizing the threat and stopping, they do cost-benefit analyses to determine the number of deaths from their products they can afford.

This, it’s worth stating, is not capitalism. We may tell ourselves that it is, but that’s just us looking for an easy answer, a scapegoat for our own failures. In fact, this pattern was just as common under communism, too; just ask anybody who used to live near Chernobyl. Mistakes are hidden, a given number of deaths are accepted, and the perception of success and prestige is maintained.

This is corruption, and deaths and suffering caused by a lack of accountability are what corruption does. A death is a symptom, a great, big red flag, something to tell you that something is very, very, very wrong, but how many of those red flags do we see and ignore before we finally stop to ask what it is we’ve been seeing?

How many smaller red flags, such as poverty, racism, anti-semitism, police brutality, injustice, and sexual abuse, do we pass because we’ve just become so used to seeing them? Do we tell ourselves that there is nothing we can do? Do we even ask if there is anything we can do? Or do we, as so many senators are now preparing to do, instead embrace corruption as a virtue.

This is the real threat, a system that accepts this and holds no one accountable, and a culture that pushes back against demands for accountability, embracing the very worst of who we are and what we can do to others just to prove that we can. The result is a flood of childish acting out and a loss of trust in products and services that we must be able to trust because they are supposed to keep us safe.

Is this as great a threat to our society as the January 6th attack on the Capitol? This is that attack. The product failures that led to the attack were political. We have watched as our political and government institutions have failed. We have watched as those entrusted to deliver a product that works and keeps us safe have, again and again, deliberately or not, betrayed that trust. As with any other product sold, each breach of trust carries over into the next, accumulating and compounding, eroding not just our ability to trust those products but all products like them.

Think of the doubts Americans have about the safety of vaccines? Sure, we can chalk that down to internet conspiracy theories and echo chambers if we like, but would they have gained the traction they have in a world in which we weren’t inundated with ads featuring paid-non-attorney-spokespersons asking us if we or a loved one took this drug or that and had experienced one or more life threatening side effects? How many of us heard about the Covid-19 vaccines and asked, How long before we see the ads for that?

For decades, we have allowed ourselves to become a nation of beta-testers, taking on the cost and burden of quality control that the companies releasing and profiting from these products, and these class action lawsuits have become big business as a result. Every new pharmaceutical product that hits the shelves, part of us is just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Time and the success of these vaccines should put an end to that, at least for this pandemic, but that we have to do so should tell us about the work we have to do to repair our society, or to build one that can exist without absolving us from being accountable to each other.

Until then, we have other kinds of corruption to face, including one that may be more destructive than anything we’re seeing in the Senate this week.

The Reddit-GameStop insurrection might have been fun to watch from the sidelines, a bit of schadenfreude for those of us on the outside of Wall Street, looking in, but the truth is the hedge fund villains still made their money, and the systemic fault lines this episode exposed should have us all scared and paying attention.

Our economy is overly concentrated in Wall Street’s product and therefore overly dependent on its success and stability. A loss of faith in its product has been underway for years. That’s how you get to day traders trying to take on hedge funds the way they did. This wasn’t David vs Goliath, this was guerrilla warfare over who gets to make the quick and easy profits.

The upside of that is that some of the “little guys” seem to win something; the downside of that is that it does nothing to fix the problems we have with Wall Street. Rather, it only makes them worse, by highlighting how easy it is to manipulate stocks and commodities and how few get to do it and get away with it.

What happens, then, when no one has any faith left in Wall Street? What happens when everyone believes it is nothing more than a casino designed to take money rather than make it?

Well, we’re almost there. We have a massive, growing online gambling industry, and with it an online gambling problem. Sports leagues, some with their own recent histories of cheaters (and worse) getting away with it, have turned their own fans onto gambling as part of the sport. How many of these people, blowing their money on bad beats, think of it as no different than investing on Wall Street stocks?

A better question: What happens to all of those stock prices when everyone, including the crooks on Wall Street, lose faith in that system, take their profits, and leave? An even better question: What happens if they do that all at once?

The answer is: Lost jobs, pensions, food and housing security, and hope.

In other words, 2020 on steroids. That’s what you get with corruption, an environment in which politicians like Donald Trump, companies willing to harm consumers, and right wing domestic terrorists thrive. As long as they aren’t held accountable, they will.

“Bad for the country”, indeed.

- Daniel Ward

#impeachment #corruption #politics #depraved indifference #aggressive selfishness #Donald Trump #josh hawley #ted cruz #james lankford #mitch mcconnell #lindsey graham #republicans #democrats #january 6th #insurrection #long reads #long read

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fatehbaz · 5 years

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Sinixt people, declared “extinct” by Canada. Traditional land partitioned by the Canada-US political border. Province of British Columbia continues to argue that Sinixt people have no land rights. Sinixt people continue to win appeals against the province, culminating in scheduled October 2020 federal supreme court arguments.

Update (23 April 2021):

Update (October 2020):

[Caption:] Virginia Redstar, center, with the River Warrior Society sings as she joins Colville Confederated Tribe members and supporters at the Boundary-Waneta Border Crossing in support of Rick Desautel's case in the Canadian Supreme court arguing for the Sinixt peoples' right to hunt traditional lands in Canada on Thursday, October 8, 2020, near Northport, Wash. [...] [T]o challenge a Canadian declaration 60-years-ago that the Sinixt people were extinct. [Photo by Tyler Tjomsland for The Spokesman-Review, October 2020.]

They got as close they could on Thursday afternoon [8 October 2020]. In a caravan of cars and trucks, they travelled north of Northport, to a bluff overlooking both the Columbia River and the Boundary-Waneta Border Crossing that wouldn’t let them – or anyone else from the United States – cross into Canada. Some 2,400 miles away, in Ottawa, Ontario, Mark Underhill, Desautel’s lawyer, argued a case in the Supreme Court of Canada that began 10 years ago this month. Many of them belong to the Confederated Tribe of the Colville Indians, and a number are descendants of the Sinixt. That tribe’s members once moved freely across this landscape, far into what is now British Columbia, into a country that considers them officially extinct. [...] While Her Majesty the Queen v. Richard Lee Desautel is narrowly about whether some 3,000 people have a right to hunt in a relatively remote part of British Columbia, the implications for not only the Lakes Tribe but also other Indigenous people with historical connections to Canada could be far-reaching. [...] [T]he Crown has been vested in appealing the case because “they have taken the view that this would be precedent setting and would set the stage for other tribes.” In its filings to the Supreme Court, the Crown’s lawyers made just that argument, claiming that “affirming that Indigenous groups located in the US are ‘aboriginal peoples of Canada’ enjoying a constitutionally protected Aboriginal right to hunt in Canada would mean that such groups may, in principle, hold constitutionally protected Aboriginal title to Canadian soil, too.” That means “not only site-specific rights like the right to hunt, but also rights to the land itself,” the filings state. [...] That could mean the Canadian government will have to consult with the Lakes Tribe on hydropower and pipeline projects, for example. And it may mean even more: that they have rights to land in Canada. [Text excerpt from: Ted McDermott. “ We’re still here’: Colville tribal member’s long battle against declaration of extinction reaches Canadian Supreme Court.” The Spokesman-Review. 11 October 2020.]

Update from May 2020: Despite BC provincial government objections, the Sinixt people are close to officially being considered “not extinct” by the Canadian federal government. The Sinixt vs. British Columbia case, also supported by the Colville Tribes, was scheduled to be heard by Canada’s highest court on 12 May 2020. But the Supreme Court of Canada has postponed the case until fall session, October 2020.

A CBC press release from 2 May 2020: The sn̓ʕay̓ckstx or Lakes Tribe is one of twelve represented by the CCT [Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, in Washington State]. For thousands of years the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx occupied a sizable territory in what is now British Columbia, and moved back and forth across what they view as an artificial boundary between the United States (U.S.) and Canada. When the border was established in 1846, sn̓ʕay̓ckstx people on the ‘U.S. side’ encountered increasing difficulties in exercising their rights north of the border [...]. Ultimately, [the] sn̓ʕay̓ckstx [...] were declared ‘extinct’ in Canada in 1956. The Court of Appeal affirmed that the rights of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx endure despite this displacement, stating: The latest Court of Appeal ruling sided with the Sinixt and against the BC provincial government, stating: “Imposing a requirement that Indigenous peoples may only hold Aboriginal rights in Canada if they occupy the same geographical area in which their ancestors exercised those rights, ignores the Aboriginal perspective [and] the realities of colonization [...].”

Update from January 2020: BC provincial government continues to lose during appeals, but the case is going to federal Supreme Court. The Sinixt case will be heard in May 2020. Excerpt: “Sinixt traditional territory straddles the U.S.-Canada border. The federal government declared the Sinixt extinct in Canada in 1956. As a result, the Sinixt, most of whom live in Washington state, have no rights, status, or citizenship north of the border. But the court decisions in the Desautel case state the Sinixt are legitimately aboriginal people under the Constitution of Canada. In response to each court defeat, the provincial government [...] appealed to a higher court only to lose each time. If the Supreme Court of Canada court sides with the Sinixt, their extinct status could be overturned.” [From: Metcalfe. “Supreme Court of Canada agrees to hear B.C.’s appeal in Kootenay aboriginal rights case.”” Nelson Star. 29 December 2019.]

Original post:

Map of traditional Sinixt land. [From Sinixt Nation online portal.]

As long as we’re talking about southern mountain caribou extinction and the traditional land of the Sinixt people in the inland temperate rainforest zone: Since May 2019, multiple appeals courts have sided with the Sinixt and against the BC provincial government. But the case also paved the way for another historically significant change: the Canadian government declared the Sinixt people “extinct” in 1956, and the outcome of this case may have laid the legal groundwork for formal recognition of the Sinixt people in Canada.

The Canadian government declared the Sinixt people “extinct” in 1956, despite the relatively large area of land inhabited by Sinixt people and despite Sinixt people living as registered members of US confederated tribes and living among other Canadian First Nations. [The Sinixt are sometimes referred to in settler-colonial texts as the “Lakes tribe.”] This current legal situation began around October 2010, when Rick Desautel - a member of Lakes Tribe of the Colville Confederated Tribes, in northeastern Washington near Spokane - harvested an elk near Castelgar in British Columbia. Since he was technically a US citizen, BC officials charged him with hunting without a license and hunting without being a resident. Desautel argues that the elk hunt was permissable because it occurred on traditional Sinixt land - a land which crosses the US-Canada border.

Map of traditional Sinixt land, from Sinixt Nation online portal:

Excerpt from Feliks Banel, for My Northwest, 8 May 2019: The decision last week by the B.C. Court of Appeal to uphold this decision is another significant legal victory [...]. More importantly for other Sinixt people, it may also mean that the Sinixt First Nation (also known as the Arrow Lakes Band) – which was deemed extinct by the Canadian government in 1956 on dubious contentions that the Sinixt people had dispersed and moved away from their homelands – might be officially recognized again.

Update from August 2019: The Sinixt continue to win the case, but now the case might be going to the federal Supreme Court of Canada because the BC provincial government is appealing the decision.

Excerpt from Bill Metcalfe, for Nelson Star, 29 December 2019: “The Supreme Court of Canada agreed this year [2019] to hear the provincial government’s appeal of a Sinixt hunting case that has been in the news for several years. The result will have major implications for the Sinixt and for aboriginal rights across the country. Successive judges in the B.C. Provincial Court, B.C. Supreme Court and B.C. Court of Appeal have all ruled that Richard Desautel, a Sinixt man living in Washington state, had an aboriginal right to hunt an elk […] But the court decisions in the Desautel case state the Sinixt are legitimately aboriginal people under the Constitution of Canada. [...] If the Supreme Court of Canada court sides with the Sinixt, their extinct status could be overturned, according to their lawyer, Mark Underhill. In fact, he says it has already been overturned.”

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shardminds · 3 years

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okay i know in the grand scheme of things it’s been about 5 minutes since i got into spn and about 4.5 seconds since i started following spn blogs on tumblr but i just want 2 share some stuff re: what i would have liked to happen in my ideal ending. spoilers below.

number 1, sam and eileen endgame. after losing her in 15x18 and trying so hard to hold it together, sam’s quite obviously devvo’d. man’s a mess but he can’t let himself fall apart. 15x19 happens and everyone chuck disintegrated faster than communion wafers comes back and the FIRST thing sam does? calls eileen. high tails it out of there. speed limits who? there’s a heartwarming moment. maybe an ‘i love you’ or maybe not but it’s touching and heart wrenching and everyone cries and it’s nice. there you go, sam winchester. not only did you help save the world, but you got a happy ending in the process. eileen moves into the mol bunker. don’t @ me. she’s also great with miracle. and, in the long run, kids.

number 2, deancas. my whole thing is, if they didn’t want canon deancas ending, why have cas confess? like i get the empty deal and i understand ‘happiness isn’t in the having, it’s in just being. it’s in just saying it’ but... if u didn’t want people to swarm on the possibility of deancas... why include it at all? especially for it to never be mentioned again. for cas, a man/angel/being of celestial intent that had spent like... 12(?) years at this point in sam and dean’s lives. you’re gonna tell me they just... let him sacrifice himself and then dip? ok. seems we have been watching different shows. or the same show from different perspectives. so, hear me out. dean says it back. maybe not in as many words or he pulls a hans solo ‘i know’. okay so they beat the shit out of The Literal Abrahamic God later to supercharge jack faster than shotgunning three monster energy mango locos ever could and leave chuck belly up in the mud like the invertebrate he proved himself to be and jack is Thee God now and dean just straight up asks. give that to me. give me the “please, jack.” and dean, so close to breaking, holding himself together with nothing but pure strength of will and residual adrenaline. give me jack’s reluctance, give me his admission of not wanting to mutate into the same megalomaniac chuck proved himself to be,using the winchesters as chess pieces in his own game. give me his humanity. the parts he inherited from kelly. give me his humanity and his grief and his loss and—castiel was his father, for fucks sake! he lost a father and a mother and he’s about to lose the only family he ever had. yes, he’ll be omnipresent—a perk of the job—but he’ll never be there in the way they want. so let him do this. there’s like a whole genesis parallel, you know all ‘the lord said let there be light, and there was light’ only not as on the nose as that. jack’s one selfish act before he himself, combined with amara, ascends. he does his whole speech. i’ll be in every drop of falling rain etc etc and then he dips. only, he’s gone and when dean turns around. cas is there. boom.

there’s no kiss. no explicit ‘hello look at this confirmed gay angel and his human hunter ??sexual friend making out’ because that too much too fast. dean has spent the past 15 seasons trying to unfuck himself from the damage john winchester left behind (the nun hunt on his 17th birthday? lebanon? i will meet john winchester in the pit.) and as close as he is to finally just allowing himself to be himself, he’s not quite there yet. but the relief on his face. the—i’m gonna say it—love in his expression. cas’s confession clearly affected him, just look at 15x18. maybe dean doesn’t know what that means yet. maybe he does. but there’s a hug. an embrace. one of those that says ‘i don’t know why or how i like you, fruity little angel man, but i do and i’m not letting go’. it lasts a beat too long. maybe there’s tears. i’ll leave that up to jackles jacting joices.

number 3, michael sacrifices himself to save adam. OKAY SO THE WHOLE MICHAEL STORYLINE IN 15x19? BULLSHIT. especially with the adamichael scene in 15x08? where it is canonically confirmed that, after spending a real life decade (which is OVER ONE THOUSAND YEARS in hell time. 4 months = 40 years so 10 years or 120 months = 1200 years) trapped in the cage together, they became friends and shared control of the vessel. michael considered adam his guide on earth. michael. MICHAEL. M I C H A E L. seeing how spn painted him as one of, if not, THE most powerful and fearsome angel? man’s whipped. and then he loses adam when chuck has his thanos snap moment. imagine sharing a vessel with someone for twelve. hundred. years. and then being completely alone in a world you don’t know. how maddening for there to be only silence in your head. the fact that they then rammed this bs of him being jealous of lucifer for being ‘daddy’s favourite’ was exactly that. bullshit. no no no, my friends. michael was playing his own game; crossing the winchesters for chuck but actually, crossing chuck for his own gain. he learns of the winchesters plan to utilise the fact that jack is the power hungry equivalent of a shamwow and uses that to his own gain. i haven’t figured out the particulars but when chuck beats the shit out of michael, he kills the angel but leaves the vessel (think like jack at the end of s14). michael the winchesters think michael died a snivelling god fearing soldier. and then, when jack does his whole thing, up wakes adam. the winchesters take him in and explain what went down when he, you know. and adam lets them know that no, michaels not like that etc etc he did it for me etc he did it to save me. michael’s fall was imperative to the destruction of god. and, for that, he will always be remembered. adam’s not a hunter, but he stays at the bunker anyway. he has nowhere else to go.

number 4, episode 15x20. what do you mean dean and sam both die? not in this universe i carry inside my head they don’t! this episode is just a bunch of scenes from throughout the years. you might think it boring but i think it’s great and this is my post so u can’t tell me what 2 do. dean opens up a bar for hunters a la 14x10 and has pictures on all the walls of all the fallen hunters and friends that have helped them throughout the years. you want a picture on the wall for a friend you lost? sure! just bring a photo and tack it on up there. out of sight, kept to the wall of the office, they keep pictures of the non-humans that helped. it’s private. a reminder. sam and eileen stop by a couple times a week if they can. jody and donna make the rounds with the girls too if work allows. or they come on their own. the girls are old enough to take care of themselves now. claire pops in when she can, always bringing a present for cas (despite him reprimanding her for doing so) and dean is always happy to see her. she doesn’t text enough.

sam sets up the bunker as a base for hunters again, trying to get a system up and running like before where hunters can check in and get help and use the weapons and resources they have for cases.

they don’t deal with heaven anymore. they haven’t seen jack since he disappeared but they also haven’t had any angel troubles either. maybe it’s because there are so few. castiel helps a lot as he still has his grace—although he’s still unable to teleport and he seems to be aging, trapped in some kind of space between. not angel and not human and definitely not nephilim. he’s powerful and powerless at the same time. he doesn’t complain about this, knowing what it means. it’s a kindness.

rowena is also on side, mostly, although she has her own gain in mind always. they have the stray demon that pops up every now and again but she– uh... prefers to make an example of them using her own methods. sam has learned not to question it. she teases him incessantly, as usual.

also, stay at home dad sam. eileen jumps back into hunting. they’ve had conversations—arguments—about it before. he doesn’t want to turn into his father, driven mad chasing mary’s ghost if something were to happen. she refuses to even entertain the thought of that. yelling “you are a lot of things, sam winchester. your father is not one of them.” and at the end of the day, there’s a mutual trust there and he knows she won’t put herself in unnecessary risk, and he 100% roped dean in to jumping on as backup if and when she needs it. the kid(s) are raised love and cherished and surrounded by family. sam also learns how to sign one handed with a baby on his hip. it’s adorable.

anyway we never have to find out about heaven because no one dies thank you for coming to my ted talk.

#spn #i don't wanna talk about it but i do #was gonna put this under a cut but am not a pussy #anyway if you can't tell im a dean coded dean girl

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paladin-lynx · 4 years

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SquipJere Week 2020, Day 1: Retro

@squipjerebmc’s SquipJere Week 2020 Day 1: Retro

Ships Involved: The SQUIP x Jeremy Heere (Technical Difficulties/Squipemy/Squeremy/JereSquip/SquipJere)

Setting: Canonverse, set in the time interval between “Loser Geek Whatever” and “Halloween”.

Trigger/Content Warnings: Non-graphic mentions of masturbation; electric shocks

Author’s Notes: Happy SquipJere Week! I meant to get these done like a month ago so I could pre-plan and not rush, but my writing motivation has been kinda low lately. But I’m still gonna try my best to get a piece out for each day! Some of these might be loosely connected – I haven’t decided yet. But I hope you enjoy!

Sometimes, teenage boys needed an escape from the crazy, loud world around them.

Jeremiah Heere had always had three main methods of just forgetting about his problems for a little while: jerking off, talking to Michael, or playing video games.

But considering with the introduction of a supercomputer into his brain the first two options weren’t actually options anymore, he had to settle for the third.

It wasn’t like Jeremy had any shortage of games to play, and it wasn’t like he couldn’t play them without a Player Two – although normally he was the Player Two. But there was definitely something bittersweet about not being able to call up his long-time friend and lose themselves together in the mindless images on the TV screen.

But it was for the best, Jeremy reminded himself. When he reunited with Michael, he’d be better. He’d be cooler. And he could potentially help his friend move up from just being the weirdo loser headphones kid at school. But for now, he needed to break the chains in order to upgrade.

So for now, to try and stave off the nerves that often decided to just rise up out of nowhere – honestly, why was the human brain so stupid sometimes? Jeremy could see why his SQUIP often got frustrated with him – he flopped back onto his bed and booted up his trusty old Game Boy Color. He was still surprised it had survived this long, but unlike other things in his life, Jeremy was actually quite careful when it came to tending to his video games and their respective consoles. Maybe he’d only started being so careful after an unfortunate accident involving a slushie and Michael’s Dreamcast, but even so – now he was careful.

He quickly forgot that anything outside of his game existed, eyes glued to the screen as he tapped away at the controls. All was peaceful for a good while before he felt a familiar buzz at the back of his head and a certain Keanu Reeves lookalike appeared standing over him, frowning thoughtfully.

“Out of all of your video game systems, you chose to play that one?”

Jeremy’s gaze swiveled over to the SQUIP. “What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s so…” The SQUIP hummed, and Jeremy could all but feel it searching for the right word to use. “…retro.”

“…Is that a bad thing?”

The SQUIP tutted at him. “Technology evolves so quickly nowadays. You may be looked down upon if you don’t keep up with it, or if you are still attached to the older, menial versions of things.”

Jeremy’s brow furrowed. “…Is that part of why Mic—” He caught himself. He wasn’t supposed to bring a certain someone up. “…uh, why people think I’m so weird?”

“A small part.” The SQUIP offered him a sympathetic smile, although Jeremy was pretty sure the look in the SQUIP’s eyes was more amused than anything else. “You do get quite a few of your odder interests from Michael. It’s another reason why we needed to get you away from him. We’re modernizing everything about you, from your fashion sense to your hobbies.”

Jeremy sat up more on the bed, setting the Game Boy aside for the time being. As argumentative as he could sometimes be with his SQUIP, he was nothing if not eager to learn and improve. It was why he asked so many questions. “But even Rich plays video games, and he’s considered cool.”

“Ah.” The SQUIP raised a finger. “But he plays recent games. I don’t believe Rich will use a system if it is more than a few years old, and he invests his money to buy new consoles as soon as they come out. Of course, he prefers ‘more mature’ systems like the Xbox, but that’s personal preference. You having an affinity for Nintendo is harmless, but it would be better for you to pick, say, the Switch over…” He waved over at the Game Boy with a slight grimace. “…that.”

Jeremy frowned, peeking down at his innocent Game Boy before looking up at the SQUIP again. “But…does it matter if I’m only playing the older stuff by myself? It isn’t like anyone will know.”

The SQUIP shook its head. “Everything you do, whether alone or with company, will somehow reflect back on you. Besides, if you have a girl in here one day, what would she think? What if Brooke ends up coming over?”

“I don’t think Brooke would care…”

The SQUIP sighed, pinching the bridge of its nose. “You’re awfully intent on this, dear. These ‘retro’ pastimes of yours are still a consequence of your proximity to Michael. If you’re truly cutting him out, then you have to give up these things, too.”

Jeremy’s cheeks warmed indignantly. “I like them for myself, not just because of him!”

The SQUIP huffed, turning its gaze unto the Game Boy, looking down at it as if it were a bug it was getting ready to squish under its sleek digitized boots. “I don’t see the appeal in such outdated hardware.”

Jeremy picked up the Game Boy and held it against his chest like he was trying to protect it from the SQUIP’s scrutiny. “Clearly you understand some appeal to older things, considering that when I first got you, you looked like Keanu from Bill & Ted.”

The SQUIP narrowed its eyes. “Only my face. The rest of me was more advanced. I tailored my aesthetics so that I’d look like someone you’d pay attention to. Someone you’d find intriguing.” It smirked slightly. “Dare I say, attractive.”

Jeremy’s face warmed again and he sputtered for a moment. “M-my point is that just because I like vintage stuff in the comfort of my own home doesn’t mean I can’t be cool!”

“I’ll say again, I can’t comprehend your attachment to such old technology. The games from those consoles absolutely pale in comparison to anything made now.”

Jeremy shrugged. “It isn’t necessarily about them being good. It’s the nostalgia of it. AotD has been out for years but w—I never get tired of it.”

The SQUIP hummed, once again looking at the Game Boy now pressed against Jeremy’s chest. “What is it that you’re even playing?” Jeremy opened his mouth to answer, but the SQUIP rolled its eyes before he could even say anything. “Hamtaro, Jeremy? Really?”

“Oh, shove off! I told you, it’s for the nostalgia!” Jeremy defended. He realized he’d raised his voice and braced himself for a shock, but all he got was a tingle of static rushing down his spine, making him shiver and blush again. He lay back down, electing to ignore his SQUIP and return to his game of, yes, Hamtaro.

He could still see the SQUIP’s tall frame out of the corner of his eye, watching, tilting its head to the side in that almost endearing way that meant it was analyzing something. But when it didn’t do anything else, Jeremy just focused on the screen before him, clicking at the controls once more.

“Up up down down left right A.”

Jeremy yipped softly as pain flared in the back of his head and he moved one hand to immediately clutch at the tender spot. He looked over to the SQUIP with wide eyes, about to demand what the hell it was doing, only to blink when he realized it was no longer standing there.

“What the fuck?” he mumbled, brow creasing before he slowly turned back to his Game Boy. However, as he pressed one of the buttons, the screen fizzled and the handheld became dangerously hot in his hands, making him gasp and drop it onto the covers beneath him. “Oh God, what did you do?”

Finally, though, the screen returned, except instead of the white-and-orange sprite for Hamtaro, instead the screen was taken over by a different pixelated hamster. This one was jet black save for the white on its muzzle, paws, tail, and tips of its ears, and its eyes were a striking, very familiar bright blue. Jeremy blinked, slowly picking up the Game Boy again and staring at the screen as the black hamster blinked a few times and looked around itself in confusion before it suddenly appeared very disgruntled.

“This is not what I intended to happen,” a text box appeared as the hamster peered up at Jeremy with those big blue eyes. Jeremy’s own widened.

“SQUIP?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“Wh—How did you—” Jeremy stumbled over his own words, staring at the sprite. “You’re a Ham-Ham.”

The hamster scowled at him – or at least, Jeremy assumed it was a scowl. It only had so many bits to work with to get its point across. “I suppose I am. I can still shock you, so speak carefully, love.”

Jeremy couldn’t help cracking a tiny smile, shaking his head and leaning back as he continued to watch the SQUIP’s new form. “What the hell were you trying to do?”

The SQUIP gave a shrug, front paws raising in emphasis. “I was trying to better understand your interest in the Game Boy Color. As well as in this game. I suppose I h—”

The text cut out there and Jeremy could all but feel the SQUIP sighing as it waited for Jeremy to finish reading before it deleted the text and continued: “I suppose I had a miscalculation about what would happen when I synced with it.”

Jeremy laughed. “I think this old-school tech is trying to spite you for insulting it.” He grinned. “You look kinda cute like that. And if you’re still in my head, can’t you, y’know, just talk to me there instead of through text boxes?”

The hamster blinked, and it was obvious the SQUIP had been so busy processing the change that it hadn’t considered that as an option, but before Jeremy could poke more fun, he felt another fizzle at the back of his head. The Game Boy’s screen had another freak-out before the game returned to normal with Hamtaro once again in his proper place within the game. Soon enough, the SQUIP reappeared beside the bed, brushing off its clothes as if it had just walked through a hall of cobwebs.

“Have a fun trip?” Jeremy teased, not even minding the warning static on his back.

The SQUIP rolled its eyes, crossing its arms. “I suppose the console is…endearingly antiquated.”

“Yeah, see? That’s the whole point of having vintage stuff!” Jeremy smiled and returned to his game, already missing the black-and-white sprite that had previously been there, as much as he adored the irreplaceable Hamtaro. “Could you change your form to look like a hamster? You really did look cute.”

The SQUIP sighed, coming over to sit on the edge of the bed and watch Jeremy play with almost timid curiosity. “…Perhaps I’ll consider it, if you behave.”

#SquipJere Week 2020 #lynx tales #mine #writing #Be More Chill #BMC Jeremy Heere #BMC SQUIP #Squipemy #Squeremy #Technical Difficulties #JereSquip #SquipJere #Jeremy Heere #SQUIP #my brother had a Game Boy Color and we got the Hamtaro game for it so that's why I thought of this lol #BMC #fic #fanfiction #i don't have a fancy queue tag

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raywritesthings · 4 years

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Renewed Faith

My Writing Fandom: Arrow Pairing: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen Characters: Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance Summary: Oliver’s a little more honest about how he feels when picking Laurel up at the hospital. 3x06 AU For @kasumikai *Can be read on my AO3, link is in bio*

Dealing with Ted Grant’s former protege had given him a lot to think about tonight. About Roy and the truth he’d been hiding from him. About Laurel and the help he had been refusing her. Both of them were struggling on their own as a result, going to other people. For all he had preached to Grant about losing faith in Stanzler, he was failing to show faith in his own friends.

He knew what to do about the former. Roy needed closure about what he had done while under the influence of the mirakuru. The latter, however, was proving as elusive to solve as always.

He never knew how to do right by Laurel. Like his father’s mission, it was a promise he had made on the island and failed to make a reality. He knew what she needed to hear: that he supported her decision to seek out training, that he knew she was dedicated enough and capable enough to take that kind of training on. But how did he say that all while knowing the thought of Laurel training, of getting in fights, of taking on whoever had mercilessly killed her sister left him waking up in a cold sweat night after night? He wasn’t sure he knew.

Oliver knocked lightly on the open door of the hospital room Laurel had been taken to after falling unconscious in the crash. She was already up and shrugging into her jacket as if nothing had happened, like it was just her average Wednesday. It basically was. Why had he thought he could ever protect her the way he wanted to?

“Hi.”

“How you feeling?”

“Worst thing about sobriety is having to pass on the pain meds,” she answered bluntly, wincing a little as a sore muscle was likely pulled. Oliver himself passed on pain meds whenever he could, not liking feeling out of control, but he could admit that the knowledge they were available to him when he needed them was a comfort at times. To have to go without not as a choice but as a necessity was far different. She was stronger than he gave her credit for.

“Right. Thought maybe you could use a ride home,” he offered, taking a couple steps further into the room.

“And an ‘I told you so’?” She guessed.

He hung his head slightly. “I don’t think that I owe you one of those.” At her surprised look, he added, “When I said I wouldn’t train you, I was trying to protect you.” He nearly started to say something about Grant, something that would probably come out unfavorable, but he knew this wasn’t really about Grant. He’d be afraid no matter how clean-cut of a trainer Laurel found. “I just… I just need you to be safe.”

She looked at him, and there was something pitying in her gaze. “Ollie, you know I can’t promise you that. When’s the last time either of us have been safe for longer than a couple weeks at a time?”

He licked his lips. “I don’t know. And it scares me that I don’t know. But what scares me worse is knowing that you might be putting yourself in even more danger soon. I get it, I get why,” he continued just as she opened her mouth. “But I can’t change that it scares me. It’s how I feel about- about you. Because I care about you, Laurel. And I’m always going to.”

She stepped towards him, her hands clasping together. “Then help me to prepare. If you want me to be safer, the more I know, the better off I’ll be.” He shook his head on instinct, and she frowned. “You can’t have it both ways.”

“I know I can’t,” he said quickly, wanting to head off an argument. He hadn’t come here to argue, but like always he was screwing this up. “I just need you to understand—”

“I understand perfectly,” Laurel said, her tone of voice the courtroom kind where she was about to deliver an argument designed to completely knock out the defense. “You’re the one who is struggling to understand that I am not helpless—”

“I never said you were,” he said, his tone rising without his consent. Why did she always pull this out of him? He couldn’t control his emotions when it came to Laurel. “I don’t think you’re helpless. It’s just that losing you—”

“--and I can and will do what I—”

“You don’t know what it would do to me!”

Silence fell so suddenly he felt stunned by it himself, despite his own words being what caused it. Out in the hallway, some machinery faintly beeped, but Laurel never looked away from him, her eyes wide.

“I—” he swallowed, and his voice came out rough. “If you were gone. Laurel, I don’t want to even think about it, that’s how badly it scares me. I need you in my life.”

“I know. I’m here,” she said, her voice soft.

It wasn’t enough. He could feel the pull, the longing that was never quite sated in him for her as surely as he had when he’d first come home, or when he’d spent nights at a time staring at her picture. Oliver moved, hands rising to cup her face and push back her hair.

“Please,” was all he could manage. “Please.”

Her lips were so familiar to him that it didn’t require a testing brush to find the right fit. They melted, melded together in a way he had missed in every other kiss he had had, though he hadn’t known what he was looking for until now. He kissed her till he needed a deeper breath than just his nose allowed. Oliver took one gasp of breath and went in again, Laurel ready and meeting him with her own mouth.

Her hands clasped his arms, ran up his back and held his shoulders, trying to steady him as he swayed into her. Oliver didn’t know what happened when this ended, though, and a part of him didn’t want to be steady if that meant it did.

“You can’t,” Laurel said between one kiss and the next, and he nearly pulled away, worried he’d finally overstepped too far. But the next breath came and so did the rest of her sentence. “—keep doing this. You’re not even supposed to be in love with me any more.”

“I know,” he breathed, his eyes closed. He had tried to move on so many times. He had told himself he was in love with other women, and tried to make them believe it, too. That was wrong. “I can’t help that I do. I guess that makes me the helpless one.”

Laurel drew away enough that there was space between them to look at each other, and Oliver slowly opened his eyes. She was watching him, her look guarded. “Loving someone is having faith in them.”

His shoulders slumped. “Yeah.”

“So do you?”

“I have faith in you, Laurel,” he replied. “I just don’t have faith in me. Every time I try, I fail.”

A little of her neutral expression cracked, just a lift of one side of her lips in a wry smile. “There’s a city out there that would say otherwise. Including me.” Her arms were still around him, and they rubbed up and down his back as she continued. “Look, let’s table this for now. We’re tired, it’s late, and someone is going to check on us if we don’t leave soon.”

He sighed and slowly lowered his own arms from where they’d wrapped around her waist. “Okay.”

Laurel grabbed her purse, then leaned in to peck his cheek. “I will still take that ride home, though.”

“I can do that.” Oliver offered his arm, which Laurel took, and together they left the hospital. He barely noticed the tiled floors or the sterile white walls; to him, he was walking through a daydream. Him and Laurel, again. He would have never imagined it possible.

Maybe he had been right in what he’d said to Grant after all. It just took faith.

#lauriver #laurel x oliver #oliver queen #laurel lance #arrow #green arrow #black canary #my writing

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heheheins · 4 years

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Life Update

Dear diary,

So. There’s been a couple updates in my life. I broke up with my boyfriend in March. Oh we went to Hawaii right before that. I paid for his airline ticket, as well as ziplining in Hawaii. We got to Hawaii and we were supposed to be staying with my ex’s brother and sister in law. But as soon as we got there they told us the news that they were getting a divorce. Not the sister in law’s idea, brother’s idea. Well that was horrible news and it kind of put in an awkward vibe. And so we got on with our vacation. But there was always that awkward environment. The brother did not even hang out with us during the whole vacation. He took personal days off “to hang out with his brother” and he actually ended up spending the time hanging out with some girl he already has been seeing. He purposely blew the news because he wanted to spend the the personal days he used to spend with her. They’re both in the navy and it would not be possible that she had that many days off together. They planned it. Anyways, we ended up spending a lot of time with the sister in law. Me and her got really close. I actually still keep in touch with her. Anyways. They’ve known about the divorce for like 4-6 months so they could have just waited until we left. The sister in law wanted to that.

Anyways. During the Hawaii trip me and the SIL got really close. And we started talking a bit and we noticed that the brothers act exactly the same when they are mad. And their relationship as a whole reflected a lot on my relationship. And it made me realize, I didn’t want to end up like them. I don’t want to get married, have a baby together and end up getting a divorce. I want a partner for life.

Anyways after a few days, I brought it up to my ex. And he wasn’t very happy with it obviously. We got into an argument. Talked it over. It’s okay now. We get to Waikiki and I get stressed driving there because honestly it seems like downtown Seattle with a whole bunch of one way streets and lots of people walking around. Then he started backseat driving and I got even more stressed and lashed out a little bit. Then we got to the parking lot and I asked him to put the parking ticket into my wallet so I don’t lose it. And he just puts it in the cup holder. Which I noticed after I parked my car. Obviously i’m like, “is this the ticket? I thought I asked you to put it in my wallet” and he thought I was being aggressive by that. Then he gets angry. We fight in the car. He keeps screaming at me saying I have been in a bad mood all day. (Which I do not think so, I was nagging because he wasn’t getting ready fast enough in the morning and I didn’t want to waste any more time). So we get into this huge argument and he pushes me into the car window. Twice. He opens the bottle of water in the car and throws it all over me meanwhile this is all happening in the car. A rental car. In my name. He’s already slammed the car door 4 times when I asked him to be careful to not damage the rental car. He doesn’t listen so I tell him get out of the car and ask his brother to come pick him up cause i’m done with his ass yelling at me and disrespecting me. So he storms off and I’m in the car crying and drive home and text the SIL i’m coming home.

At the end of the day we had to talk it out. And we did. We broke up but i’m not sure how it got to the point where we were going to be back together when we got back. I originally planned to be broken up completely. But I make bad choices sometimes. Anyways. We get back to Washington, and i’m quarantined at his house. After 2 weeks we broke up. I packed my things and left at 10pm and got home around 11pm. (we lived an hour apart).

After a couple days of not speaking I reached out saying we should remain friends because I thought we would be really good friends. Especially since he became apart of MY volleyball group and he loved playing. I did this for him. But over the course of one and half weeks, he treated me like a complete ass. Said I was a bitch during his vacation to Hawaii and that I didn’t deserve the money.. I told him if he doesn’t pay me, I would reach out to his mom. And that’s when he said I ruined his relationship with his brother and that I was going to ruin it with his mom. No, his brother did that to himself, all by himself. I just happen to point it out. I ended up getting the money from his mom. How childish and immature do you have to be to not pay someone back for something that is rightfully mine? I put it on my credit card because I knew he didn’t have the best credit limits. I did it for him so he can pay me back little by little.

It always comes back to me doing everything for him. But I needed to put myself first now. So here I am. I gave him one last chance to contact me with why he was acting so negatively and terrible towards me. I told him this is the last chance. He said he would contact me after he did some haircuts that day (he’s a barber). I waited and waited. I waited till 8pm and thought okay, I’m done waiting. It was hard first but after realizing I did everything for him and I did the best I could, I sent him a long farewell letter. To wish him the best. All positive things. To move on for the both of us. He ended up going on facebook to stream his gaming 2 minutes after I sent him the message. He couldn’t reach out to me but he has time to fucking game? Like no. I told him I took back everything I said in the farewell letter. I said fuck that, fuck you, fuck everything. And blocked him on everything and started to move on.

So here I am. Over it. Over him. Over my pain and efforts. Trying to find the right person once again. Tried some dating apps. I now remember how much I hate dating apps lol. I hate how people swipe right and can’t even hold a conversation. I love the beginning of dating where we get to know eachother. Our likes, dislikes, and hobbies. And everything. But. I guess i’m just some pretty face to swipe right on to boost someone’s ego. Sigh. Anyways. This is my life update. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

#Dear diary

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january3693 · 5 years

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Someone We Used to Know - Part 33

(This is a Marauders Era AU about what might have changed if Sirius was expelled after the Prank. Here’s the Master List if you’d like to start from the beginning or find a specific part)

Remus goes to meet Sirius two more times that week.

The first time isn’t so pleasant. They meet in the bar at Sirius’s hotel. They’re both busy and tired. Remus is coming off a surveillance mission for the Order, and Sirius has had a “day full of boring meetings” he says with a roll of his eyes.

It’s supposed to be just a quick drink, but it drags into several after Remus relays the message Lily received from Regulus.

Sirius downs his vodka tonic in a few large gulps as Remus explains James’s odd alliance with Regulus.

“And James is sure he can trust him?” Sirius asks. He’s careful to avoid saying Regulus’s name as he frowns into his empty highball glass.

“James thinks so,” Remus says. He doesn’t tell Sirius about the long, vicious argument he and James had on that exact subject.

Sirius’s lips thin as he flags down a waitress to get another drink. He doesn’t say anything else though, perhaps thinking the conversation would swing too close to the war, a topic they’ve studiously avoided since Remus stormed out of the chippy. He’s not wrong either.

“So,” Sirius says when he has another drink in hand. “My brother finally came to his senses then? Did the shock kill our parents?” He says it with a scoff, but Remus cringes.

“Er…actually…” Remus says.

Then they have to talk about the dead.

It’s a long conversation.

Sirius doesn’t give a shit that his father is dead. If anything, he seems relieved, almost happy. It’s a vicious reaction, but one Remus is certain Orion Black earned in full.

He’s sad to learn about his Uncle Alphard though. “He was one of the few good ones,” Sirius says with a sigh. Remus didn’t know Alphard, but he nods somberly anyway, for moral support.

News of Fleamont and Euphemia’s deaths hit Sirius even harder. He whispers James’s name in a strangled voice and swallows down another drink.

The Potters were always kind to Sirius, Remus remembers. More than that really. They were better parents to him in the limited time Sirius spent with them than his own parents ever were.

Remus hates being the bearer of so much bad news.

Especially when he has to tell Sirius about his cousin Andromeda and her husband.

She was Sirius’s favorite cousin, another one of those “few good ones” in the Black family. It’s especially distressing given how Andromeda and her husband died.

It was no heart attack like Sirius’s father, no potions accident like Alphard, not even dragon pox like the Potters. Andromeda and Ted Tonks had been murdered and their house burnt to the ground while the Dark Mark of Voldemort leered down at it all.

The Order got there before the Ministry. Remus hadn’t been part of that team, but Lily and Peter had been. They’d told him things Remus still wishes he didn’t know.

Remus tries to be vague when he relays the story to Sirius, but it’s hard to avoid all of the horror associated with the Tonks’s murders. Especially when the Order’s prime suspect is Bellatrix Lestrange.

“What about—they had a kid, right? A daughter? Is she—?”

“She’s alive,” Remus assures him. “She was spending the night with a friend when it happened—thank Morgana. Dorcas Meadowes is her godmother, she’s taking care of the girl now.”

“Fuck,” Sirius says, leaning back in his chair and knocking back another drink. “My fucking family…”

The second time is better. Much better.

The second time they meet, Remus brings Peter. The three of them eat dinner in a Muggle pub and drink beer, talking and laughing all the way to last call.

By the end of the night, Remus feels strange. It’s a mix of exhilaration, joy, and something else.

He always liked Sirius. They were good friends since early in first year, great friends, really, but…Well, when Remus thinks back to their time at Hogwarts, he isn’t sure he could name one thing Sirius was genuinely passionate about. There were certainly things he enjoyed, and he was always good at school, even when he didn’t put in much effort. He always seemed like he was more along for the ride than directing the broom though.

Now, however…

Now Sirius is magnetic. Enthralling.

Remus could sit and listen to him talk all day as he rambles through topics ranging from art history to magical theory to Muggle sciences.

Somewhere out in the wider world, Sirius found things to love. He found a life that challenges him and drives him.

Honestly, Remus is more than a little jealous.

He remembers having dreams.

Back at Hogwarts, Remus wanted to be the Newt Scamander of dark creatures. He wanted to travel the world, investigating and researching. He wanted to publish books that would dispel myths and propaganda and better arm people against real threats.

He wanted to change the world.

Then school ended and the real world swallowed him whole. Remus sacrificed his dreams and his passions to war and his service in the Order.

He’s not the only one either.

Lily loves her job at Hogwarts, but it’s not the cutting-edge potions research position she always wanted. Meanwhile, Peter seems to have resigned himself to living with his mother and working at a cauldron shop rather than pursuing a job at the Department of Magical Games and Sports like he dreamed of at school. James rejected several offers from professional Quidditch teams to join the Order, and even though he seems passionate about the workshop he wants to open in Hogsmeade, he’s still pushing all those plans out “until they win this war.”

It’s not that Remus regrets joining the Order. If Voldemort and his Pureblood supremacy agenda win, he (and Lily, and so many others) will lose a lot more than their career aspirations. They need to fight, and they need to win. That comes first.

Still, he can’t help but listen to Sirius and feel a prickle of envy. He can’t help but wish he could run away and find himself as well.

He imagines himself in the places Sirius describes. Strange cities, remote villages, and far-flung wilds.

Sirius is there when he imagines it all. He takes Remus by the hand like he did in the alley across from the chippy, laughing and smiling as he tugs Remus forward.

“You were right,” Peter says later when he and Remus are stumbling off to find a floo open this late. “That was nice. It’s good to have Sirius back.”

“Yeah, it is,” Remus replies. It really is.

“Too bad he’s not back to stay,” Peter says with a rueful smile.

Remus’s heart sinks at the reminder. He might be here in London right now, but as soon as his job is done, Sirius be off again. Back to France, or America, or Egypt, or wherever. He’ll be off on another adventure.

And Remus will still be here.

Stuck in a warzone.

Stuck in place.

Without him.

(Part 34)

#someone we used to know #someone we used to know story post #harry potter au #marauders au #first war with voldemort #wolfstar #sirius black #remus lupin #mentions of character deaths

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princesscreation · 4 years

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Curious George: The Final Chapter (2020)

The beginning of the movie starts with Gustavo, Ana, Isabel and Felipe were all invited to the Friendship Anniversary celebration—including firefighters; Andie, Stig, Stew, The Grocer & his son, Rodney, Mr. Renkins, Mrs. Renkins, Allie, Bill, Mr. Piccadilly, Tina, with Kayla, Layla & Tonga, Farmer Dan, Anna, The Quint Family, Mr. Quint, Mrs. Quint, Steve, Betsy, Aunt Margret, Charkie, Mr. Zoobel, Chef Pisghetti, Netti, Ivan, Ms. Plushbottom, Mr. Bloomsberry, Edu, Clovis, Sparky, The Doorman, Hundley, Mr. Glass, John the Indian Chief, Bonny Smooth, Mr. Glass, Marco & his family, Dr. Kulinda with Seymour and Strich, Andrew and Hal Houston, who all shown at the city park, meeting and greeting with each other while preparing.

Meanwhile, Ted, clearing out the bad thoughts in his mind, shows George all the memories of their friendship ever since twenty years ago (through the 2006 film, TV Series, Follow That Monkey, Back to the Jungle to Royal Monkey) until Maggie Dunlop (Nickie Bryar) had returned from her business trip and reunites Ted and George (feeling extremely delighted to see her again), telling them how much she misses them dearly after noticing Ted tripped and fell without looking.

That afternoon, while cleaning up the apartment, George, feeling dizzy after speed vacuuming, accidentally by Ted without looking, he meets a young boy: Troy (Elizabeth Daily), who almost mistaken George as his indoor-substitute teacher, and Ted kindly leads Troy up to his apartment to learn studying and bring a dazed George to his bedroom to rest. While studying, Troy asks Ted that if he has any problems with George, and Ted honestly tells him he had years ago.

Later after Troy went back to his mother and Maxwell (Jason Lee) (unbeknownst to Ted and George that Maggie is surprisingly a single mother of Troy), while Ted is preparing to have a meeting at the museum tonight, George, while waiting patiently, watches the arrival of the carnival parade, introducing The Supremos (who are Ted and George's top favorite performers) on television and grew massive excited and begs Ted that if he can go afterwards, and Ted eventually smiles at him, telling that they can go only IF George can be on his best behavior this time and George calmly accepted.

At the museum that night, George was at Ted's office, while daydreaming about the carnival parade, even though it was 2 ½ hours, but it didn’t bother him, until he sees “How-To-Dance-For-The-Parade” outside the window and follows along the dance moves for the parade, but only staying inside without causing trouble. But when learning new dance moves, George accidentally knocked the shelves and, with a very loud crash and the shatters, Ted was startled and rushed to the office and sees all the rare knick-knacks being shattered and destroyed and George, feeling extremely sorry.

After the meeting was been called back next week, a strict-up and furious Ted brings George back home and explain a conversion and canceling the trip to the carnival parade as a punishment. After Ted slamming the door, George, realizing that he should've followed the rules, brimmed in tears, decides to ban all kinds of fun and monkeying around to himself for good, so overnight he studied how to become a well-behaved-mild-mannered monkey step by step.

At the carnival parade, Master Vernon (Patrick Warburton), the owner and the boss of the parade, announced that the parade will be held after another next week due the short of money, but The Supremos; Brad (Lachlan Gillespie) and his father; Dave (Bill Fagerbakke) had a very hard difficult time and hating each other at the same time, and Master Vernon was not pleased, feeling worried that The Supremos would not be able to perform while acting like this and the parade would be shutdown.

The next day while preparing for breakfast, Ted was amazed, but puzzled at the same time, when he sees George being mild-matured and dressed matured for the first time, but wants to apologize for his behavior yesterday, but George wouldn't listen, eating his breakfast and started studying, making Ted confused and worried. During the time passed on, Ted tries to surprise George by going to Castleland (since he remembered that he had rescheduled before) with the two tickets, given by Sophie. But when the tickets arrived, George eventually refused and gives the tickets to a little girl, who turned six years old on her sixth birthday, and Ted grew anxiously upset after noticing.

At the city park, Ted tries again to make George to have fun, but after failing every twenty things around the park, Ted was trying to gain his control without losing it, realizing about the friendship anniversary celebration just after seven days and has to figure out to get George to have fun again fast, until Maggie came up to him behind, asking him if he is okay. Ted, being very honest, tells her that it is his fault for punishing George yesterday and shows her George being well-matured, and Maggie kindly explains that some monkeys, like humans, can take time to think about slowly to recognize what they done, especially Ted, also giving him information about "true love", much to Ted's blushly embarrassment, and shared a very first kiss to him, making Ted understood about love more.

While Ted and Maggie are being distracted, George meets Master Vernon, who is amazingly concern about George and tells him that Brad and Dave are not getting along ever since Dave's wife; Clarie (Lisa McClowry) has passed away years ago, to George's shock, determining to them and accepted. After Master Vernon left, and after a long kiss from Maggie, Ted walked back home to prepare dinner tonight, a breakfast dinner, but still wanting to spend time with George with some fun, but yet again, George keep on refusing, making Ted feel crazy instead of feeling impressive. During dinnertime, Ted tries again to apologize to George, who's learning studying hard as he could, but he won't take his apology from him for punishing him yesterday, causing Ted, for the first time, to lose it, having a breakdown and slaps hard George across his face. George, now feeling scared and terrified, started to brim in tears and ran to his room, and Ted, trying to apologize, feels ashamed and awful for what he has done to his monkey, knowing that Maggie was right.

In the middle of the night, while Ted is asleep, George, realizing that being very mild-matured was not enough, decides to run away to the carnival parade, not after he rip-tored a photograph of himself and Ted in half. The next morning, Ted was in a panic attack when he find out George had run away last night, and while searching for him, he then suddenly bumped into Junior Bloomsberry (reprise by David Cross); his former employee at the museum, who is now a millionaire, much to his surprise shock. At very first, Ted and Junior fight and argue about the past in fight pursues, but then Ted, brimming in tears, tells him that George, which he had mentioned in the argument, had run away all alone by himself, to Junior's concern shock. Junior offers Ted to help him find George, only if he can promise to stop blaming on him, in which Ted swiftly accepted and shook hands at each other.

Back with George, still running away from Ted, he meets Master Vernon again, who welcomes him to the Carnival Parade and makes him like his new home. George, now feeling better, but still wanted to help Brad and his father; Dave (unknown to him that they're actually The Supremos themselves) get along with love, caring and fun, chatters happily as he have fun and helping everybody in the parade prepared the costumes, the floats and the props, to Master Vernon's surprise.

Meanwhile, Ted and Junior started hiking through the forest to search for George, taking about the past, until the two fall from the giant cliff and they end up into a raging river. After a rushing ride, Junior swims out the river carrying Ted, who is unconscious. Without options, Junior opens Ted's mouth and, disgusted, tries to give him CPR. But when he is about to do so, Ted wakes up and the two get scared and disgusted, quickly getting away from each other and poorly attempting to clean their mouths, even through Junior did not got to touch his mouth on Ted's. Later, Ted is still trying to clean his mouth, with water at this time, while Junior makes a fireplace and kindly explain Ted that it wasn't a kiss, while Ted, accidentally spitting on Junior's fire and drying his hair, keeps complaining about how that was disgusting, no matter what Junior would say and feels glad and relief that it's not George doing it. When he mention his monkey again, Ted then broke down in tears.

Trying to cheer up the museum director, Junior points out that they got out from the misunderstanding view long time ago, his father; Mr. Bloomsberry told him information about friendship after saving the museum and then curiously asks what happened with George, to which Ted reveals the truth yesterday that he punished him for making his meeting called back, canceling the trip to the Carnival Parade (unknown to him that the place where George is at) and regrets everything to himself, not wanting to abandon his best friend in the whole world and wanting to surprise him with the Friendship Anniversary celebration, in which Junior devotedly says to him that they will find George before the celebration. Ted was thankful for Junior's encouragement words and believing that Junior was right. That night, Junior realizes that Ted is trembling in cold and brimming in tears about terrible things would happen to George, and paternally cuddles him to warm him up. Ted silently realizes it while Junior snuggles him to sleep, and so does Ted.

Back at Chicago, Ana and Isabel, with Felipe, both reported Gustavo, who is preparing the feast for the celebration, that George ran away, announced by Ted, and Gustavo requests his daughter, even when she is crowned since the coronation before, and Felipe to give the communication advice to him, and Isabel and Felipe agreed and rode her horse; El Fuego. Before jumping onto a horse, Isabel, Felipe, Ana and Gustavo all meet Maggie, who is worried about Ted going out all alone and then amazed of meeting a royal family for the first time. After greeting each other, Isabel and Felipe then rode off to find and then follow Ted, unknown to them that Junior was with Ted, wanting to find out they are heading off to find George located at while Maggie stands behind with the others.

The next day at the parade, Master Vernon held a Carnival Parade practice, this time with George, while Dave stays silence in his camper RV van. After the practice, Brad revealed his true colors to George as he hugs him and tearfully ran back to his own RV, in which secretly Dave hates his son being lonely (even though he hated him). George, feeling bad for Brad and his loneliness, then came up to Dave in his RV, who is doing acrobatic tricks. George joins in, racing with Dave, making each other laugh, and then, Dave tells him that the reason why he hates Brad is not only he loses his faith trust in him, but losing his wife years ago. George, remembering what Master Vernon told him before yesterday, feels sorry for him, later, Dave also revealed to George that he desperately wants Brad to forgive him and be close each other again, and George was determined to help him and Brad before the parade.

Meanwhile, Junior, slowly having a soft touch inside, and Ted were still on a search to bring George back until their journey leads them hanging onto a dwindling draw-bridge for their lives. They both link up a thick rope and climb up to the other side of the bridge. Thanks to a combination of colony of monkey tricks, they end up on the other side of the bridge and Ted, feeling surprised, then points out to Junior that they worked together. After a very short argument, Junior, even after the way he framed George so long time ago, accidentally admits himself that "even millionaires can care for anyone." He tells Ted it was a one-time thing, but Ted knows that it may happen again. Ted and Junior then shared a little laugh.

Yet again back at the parade, George and Genevieve (Traci Paige Johnson), decorating the parade floats and props, both noticed Dave and Brad are riding horses, much to their delights, and decided to join and show them the true meaning of fun by out through over the gate, which got the stuffy Brad and Dave into their first fun-loving souls inside of them. While George and Genevieve swing and climb on some tree branches, Brad and Dave, for the first time, both smiled, caring for each other and both shared a laugh. Arriving at sunset, Dave told Brad the honest truth about Claire passing away, making Brad feeling remorseful about his actions years ago. Suddenly, the cliff crumbles under Dave's feet, but Brad quickly saves him just in time by snatching him right out of the air. Brad and Dave were finally together again at very long last and they both thanked George for the help.

Back with Ted and Junior, they stopped at a huge diner for their meals, since their low-blood sugars. Because the restaurant doesn't allow the color yellow inside, Ted is disguised and pretends to be Junior's wife on their honeymoon. While Junior went to get the drinks, Ted, eating his meal, watches the news about the Carnival Parade countdown, feeling ashamed for not taking George in the first place, for a second until he spotted George on television, much to his happiness. After paying the food, outside the diner, Ted immediately reported the happy news to Junior about the location to George at, which Junior then pointed the glowing lights of the Carnival Parade behind and he and Ted both rushed to the parade, the only location left.

At the parade, the two RV's are connected and Brad and Dave celebrated George a special celebration, for helping them getting along and no longer hating each other, by having pizza and frozen yogurts. While eating, George then feels homesick and guilty about running away and divorced Ted, and Brad and Dave both cheered up the little monkey with a special song while Genevieve snuggles and hugs him, making George's heart fulfilled-flutter.

After arriving at the parade, Ted, still in disguised, and Junior both managed to pass inside and split to find George. Ted, while searching for George desperately, hid himself behind the florist wagon, as Brad and Dave, carrying George in his arm, walked through the area to get the costumes for the celebration while Genevieve prepares herself in the back. The wagon then rode off, with Ted's huge sneeze, and George and Ted, after removing the wig off of his head and revealed himself, are never felt much happier to see each other again at long last. Ted then finally apologizes, telling him that he missed him too much and promising George that things are going to forever changed, only to himself. Brad and Dave were puzzled by Ted's appearance in drags for a moment, then Ted introduced himself and revealed to them that he is George's monkey parent. With being settled and understood, Brad and Dave invited Ted to their RV's once after getting the costumes.

Inside the RV, Brad and Dave both revealed themselves as "The Supremos" to Ted and George after noticing the same-copied posters of themselves in Ted's pocket and Ted asked them, very much to Ted and George's surprisingly shock, feeling thrilled to actual meeting them undercover in their casual looks. The meet and greet moments didn't last long until when the trumpet yodeling call for the Carnival Parade countdown begins, and realizes that Brad and Dave need to be at the celebration on time. After hang-gliding down as a shortcut, Ted, George, Junior, Brad and Dave all rushed to the parade floats, but finding out that they're pulled away to the celebration. Then, Danno Wolfe (reprise by Jamie Kennedy) arrived with a helicopter and invited them aboard to take them to the celebration.

Master Vernon, while looking at the countdown timer, was just about to cancel and shutdown the parade until the helicopter arrived, with Brad and Dave; The Surpremos approaching while the audiences cheered, to Master Vernon's surprise. They both stood up to the audiences and everyone in the celebration that the parade will not shutdown because they made amends and also give thanks and credit to George as the others off-board the helicopter, and Brad and Dave both reassure everyone that their fans and their loved ones want to having fun before performing. Master Vernon eventually also give a huge credit to George for the humorous help throughout The Supremos, to Ted's proudness. The duo expresses remorse for their actions and reconcile, putting on a lively-musical show with Ted and George, who are on stage with them, while Isabel and Felipe both arrived in the crowd, watching the performance.

After the show, Ted, Junior, Danno and George all arrived back home on time for the Friendship Anniversary celebration, and all of George's old friends cheered for their arrivals, especially Troy and Maxwell. When Ted assisted to ask Maggie for her hand in marriage as he was ready, Maxwell ironically told him and George an awful sad news about her: Maggie had eventually passed away in heart failure, much to Ted and George's sad shock. Troy, on the other hand, revealed to Ted and George that he is not only a student, but a brother and a son to them, to George's surprise and much to Ted's delight, feeling happier to become a first father of a human child of his own.

The Friendship Anniversary celebration continues, The Supremos and Genevieve arrived and take the stage to thank George for saving the Carnival Parade. As The Supremos performs the reprise song, Ted, while having fun and complimenting The Supremos' display, noticed a sadden George all by himself. When reaching to him to cheer him up with his friendship reprise song, Ted says to George that, even though when friendship dies, Maggie will forever always be with them on the inside. In acceptance of Ted's honored-words, George pulls off the firework display for The Supremos' performances and the Friendship Anniversary celebration.

Long after the celebration ends, a brief epilogue shows Troy and Princess Isabel having fun riding horses, with Gustavo, Ana and Felipe, Junior and Danno both reading books about being a good take-carers, Brad and Dave teaching children acrobatic tricks, Master Vernon doing magic tricks with Mr. Piccadilly and Ted, George and Genevieve setting up a picnic in loving memory of Maggie.

All along, the story has been narrated by a warm, wise, seemingly omniscient old man who appears periodically and comments on the events unfolding throughout the story. In the final scene, the narrator reveals that he is Ted, elderly and still has George, Genevieve and Troy with him; and he has been telling the audience his own story.

#curious george

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hazyheel · 5 years

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WWE Raw Reunion Review

Ugh, of all Raws for me to have to watch late, I decided to miss this one. That is certainly unfortunate, but here I am now, reviewing the show late. Lets see how good it was.

It started out on a pretty good note. John Cena came out first. He gave Stu the camera guy his classic shout out, which I really did miss, and he ran down into the ring. He poked fun at how they never used to cheer him, but they did now. He announced that Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, DX, and Steve Austin would be there. Cena said that Raw is his home, and it always will be, no matter how long he is gone. He then threw it to the Usos, who came out to share some mic time with one of the best. They said that they could have a rap battle with Cena, which he seemed apprehensive about, but eventually decided to do it after the Usos insulted him for going Hollywood. He then said that they looked just like their mug shots when they got arrested. He then was about to leave, but Rikishi came out! That was certainly unexpected. Rikishi got in the ring, and tried to get Cena to dance. The four were about to dance, when the Revival interrupted with D Von Dudley. Then they cut away and said that there was a match between the Revival and Usos next.

Grade: B-. This segment got a little long by the time it ended, but it was great to see Cena back. His line about the mug shots was funny. Rikishi was good to see too, but it didn’t need to be as long as it was.

As the Usos vs. The Revival started out, Booker T came out to the announce team. He was actually doing pretty well early on, so that was interesting. The Revival had the advantage early on, beating on Jey, and even pushing him off the top rope to the barricade at one point. At another, Jimmy went for a crossbody to Dash Wilder, but Scott Dawson pushed him away and got hit himself. The Revival then hit an awesome european uppercut into a german suplex combination, with the pin broken up by Jey. Jey then clotheslined Wilder out of the ring, which prompted Rikishi and D-Von to argue.

Grade: C+. We have seen this match too many times for it to be really enjoyable, so it was fine. It should have been a title match, because we don’t need to see this for the titles at Summerslam. The Good Brothers and the Usos would be a much more fresh match.

Backstage, Alicia Fox talked to Dana Brooke and Kaitlyn about her hat, which was funny. Fox wanted a 12 foot tall hat. Tori Wilson and Santino then joined her, and they all were just laughing and joking around, until Drew McIntyre walked in, simply muttering “legends,” and then walking away.

Backstage, we had R-Truth and Carmella being interviewed about his time at comic con. The Hurricane showed up during one of his interviews there, trying to pin him, as did Drake Maverick. They then cut back to live Raw, where Drake Maverick’s wife showed up to yell at Carmella and Truth, but as they were arguing, Maverick pinned him and won the belt. As they all ran away, grandmaster sexay showed up and danced with Charly Caruso. How fun.

We went right into a rematch from last week. Cedric Alexander vs. Drew McIntyre. Before the match started, the two fought in the isle. Alexander actually had the advantage for much of it, but he sold his ass off when he had to. McIntyre beat the hell out of him, even giving Alexander an inverted Alabama slam into the apron. The match never actually started.

Grade: B-. This was fine, I wish that they would have an actual competitive match though. It could be great.

Backstage again, Drake Maverick was running through the locker room to get his stuff, and found that one of his bags was filled with worms, and the boogyman showed up, and Maverick fell and Pat Patterson came in to beat down Maverick, winning the belt! I’m glad they had that, it was funny.

Then they had Christian come out for some commentary for a Viking Raiders match, awesome to see him. I don’t watch his network show, so it’s been a while. Lillian Garcia came back to be the ring announcer for this match as well, nice to see her too. It was Viking Raiders vs. Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder. Hawkins and Ryder attacked right at the bell, and tried to beat down the much larger opponents. However, Viking Raiders quickly got the advantage and beatdown the faces. They quickly won with the Viking Experience.

Grade: B-. Inoffensive squash. Christian was funny on commentary.

Backstage again, Mike Kanellis was being yelled at by Maria. Eve Torres and Eric Bischoff were also there, as Maria yelled at him for not being the breadwinner and that he wouldn’t be able to care for their baby. Then Ron Simmons showed up and said Damn. I love Ron Simmons. But I hate this story.

Then we saw the Club backstage, with their new “OC” shirts on, saying that they are the original club and the only one that matters. They said that they run Monday nights, and no one else, especially not Seth Rollins. So now WWE is throwing shade at the Bullet Club OGs in Japan. God they are insecure lately.

Then we saw Gerald Brisco was shown winning the 24/7 championship, only for Kelly Kelly to win it from him. Love this. Too bad Carmella wasn’t the first woman 24/7 champion though, she deserved it.

Samoa Joe then came out. He talked about how Raw Reunion puts too much emphasis on the older talent. We need to move forward, not back, and let go of nostalgia. He basically just made a smark argument, and insulted Rikishi and the Usos, before Roman Reigns came out. The two stood toe to toe, and said that if he was gonna insult his family, then he knows what will happen next. Joe said that he knew, and they beat the crap out of each other in the ring and at ringside. Reigns came out on top, so Joe got back on the mic and said that he wouldn’t fight Reigns because he didn’t wanna give the fans what they wanted. He walked away, but Reigns called him a coward, so he accepted the challenge.

So, we went right into Samoa joe vs. Roman Reigns. Joe worked over the neck for most of the match. Reigns had a bit of a comeback, but Joe quickly put him back on the mat. Reigns threw Joe out to the floor in the finish, and then gave him a spear as he came back in the ring.

Grade: C+. Fine, but I just didn’t care. This was a classic heel dominant match into a big comeback. Not enough back and forth.

We then went right into Miz TV with Seth Rollins. He put over his show before welcoming Rollins out to the ring. Rollins made fun of Heyman and Lesnar a bit, which was funny at first but then became stupid the longer it went on. He called Lesnar a Seth Rollins wannabe. Heyman then cut a promo during the segment, and he tried to defend Lesnar, but Rollins was kinda owning him. Rollins then told him that if he was going to speak for Lesnar, he had to fight for him too. Heyman tried to talk him out of it, but ran away as Rollins started to approach him. Rollins then said that Lesnar wasn’t a beast or a conquerer, he was a man. And men can lose, just like he will lose at Summerslam. Then he mentioned his match with Styles tonight, and left.

Grade: B. Really good promo. It started out a bit shaky, but Rollins is great on the mic, and he did well to promote the summerslam match. Good stuff here.

Then we went back to the backstage party, where Charly was gonna interview the legends about Summerslam, but Sami Zayn walked up and absolutely wrecked all of them on the mic, saying that they were all just around at the right time and were pathetic for coming back for one last pop. Rey Mysterio then showed up and said that he needed to respect those who paved the way. Zayn said that he was fully willing to beat down Mysterio, when Kurt Angle showed up and basically just made the match.

Before that next match, Kelly Kelly ran around showing a bunch of people her new 24/7 championship, only to find out that Melina got her referee license, and Candice Michelle pinned her. Then Alundra Blayze showed up and tapped out Michelle, saying that if anyone had a problem with her being the champion, they should tell her to her face.

Then we went right into Mysterio vs. Zayn. Jonathan Coachman joined the commentary booth, and they were having a pretty good match. They beat the crap out of each other, with Zayn hitting an awesome blue thunder bombfor a near fall. Zayn almost got hit by the 619, and was about to walk out of the match when Rob Van Dam, The Hurricane, Sgt. Slaughter and Kurt Angle showed up. They approached him and forced him back in the ring, so Mysterio gave him the 619 and the five star frog splash for RVD and the win.

Grade: B. Pretty fun match, and I always like seeing Sgt. Slaughter. I’m shocked that RVD showed up, given his appearances on Impact lately. But the match was pretty good, and I liked seeing the legends.

The Street Profits were backstage, singing about the Reunion. Montez Ford found Angelo Dawkins putting eye drops in, asking if he was skating with the pilots (smoking weed). Dawkins responded that he was hanging out with RVD, so he was smoking weed. He said that he hung out with Mark Henry, Kelly Kelly, and Ric Flair, but they had to leave cuz the Boogyman was there. And Dawkins had to leave because the Godfather gave him a call. As he walked away, Ford looked hurt. That was funny.

Then Alundra Blayze came out and tried to drop the 24/7 championship in the trash can, but Ted Dibiase came out. He offered to buy the 24/7 championship from her. He gave her a wad of cash, and she gave him the 24/7 championship. He cackled and left. This is the best 24/7 stuff yet.

Jerry Lawler came out to commentary next. Styles had a new entrance thing, with the screen just saying “the only club that matters.” I was annoyed at first, but it really is great heat. The two started out with some striking and shoulder tackles, going back and forth in the beginning of the match. Rollins was in control for a bit, only for Karl Anderson to distract him and allowed AJ to get control. The OC’s were about to attack Rollins, but DX, Shawn Michaels and Triple H came down to back him up. As the match continued, Rollins was about to hit Styles with the stomp, but the OC’s tripped him up. They attacked Rollins, and caused a DQ. They then offered the too sweet to DX, but they gave them the suck it and brawled with the OC’s. The OC’s then grabbed chairs, only for the Road Dogg, X-Pac, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. He said that Chyna’s spirit was with them, and that was about 7. Then he said “crap, I forgot Billy” and told the OC’s that they were the OG’s, and told them to get out of here. Road Dogg then gave Rollins the mic, and he gave the suck it.

Grade: B-. This was fun. Road Dogg is still great on the mic, and even yelling at Billy Gunn, who I think is in AEW now, was funny. The Club wasn’t buried too much, and we saw a lot of people. The match was pretty good too.

Backstage, we saw the Dibiase get in a limo, where there was a bunch of commotion, and Drake Maverick walked out of the limo as the champion.

Mick Foley then came out to talk about Raw, and put the program over. As he talked, Drake Maverick and the midcard ran through, and Foley vowed to win the 24/7 championship before the night was over. He then wanted to show his favorite moment, winning the championship on the big screen, but the Fiend showed up again, attacking him in the ring. Wyatt even used the mandible claw to take Foley down.

Grade: B. Wyatt is still badass, but Foley didn’t sell all that well. I am really excited to see where the Fiend story goes from here, because there was no Finn Balor. Good stuff though, I love this revamped Wyatt character.

Then we had a moment of bliss, with Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross. They welcomed Becky Lynch as their guest. They were about to start the interview, when Natalya came out and said that Lynch should say what she needed to to here face. Bliss just kinda sat around and stirred the pot in this segment. They talked about how they had similar journey, but Becky didn’t respect Natalya at all. Lynch said that Natalya betrayed her by offering to train Ronda Rousey, but she beat her anyway. Lynch said that the Raw Women’s Championship was Rousey’s scalp, and she wont let anyone take it from her. She then said that she’d embarrass Nattie in her home country and the two brawled.

Backstage, Natalya was interviewed about the brawl. Nattie said that Becky made this personal by saying that she built the women’s evolution rather than people like Nattie.

Grade: B+. Not as good as last week, but they were still really good on the mic together. That should be a great match, and I’m really excited for it.

Maverick was about to escape the arena in a limo with his wife, but Truth pinned him right outside of the limo. Renee was holding onto the belt and keeping him standing, but Carmella kicked her and he was rolled up for the win. Truth then jumped in the limo, and they drove off. Maverick was very upset that he lost both his wife and title.

24/7 grade: A. This was everything that a 24/7 story on Raw Reunion should have been. It was funny, lots of big names. and very entertaining. This is the best part of the show tonight.

Braun Strowman came out for a quick squash.

Grade: B-. This happened, and it was fine.

And in the main event, we had a toast to Raw. Out here was Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan. All the biggest names. The rest of the legends came out as well, paying respect to flair. Also, Alicia Fox was out there with them for some reason. I really do not know why, but for some reason it was wonderful. Hogan cut a nice little promo, but Ric Flair did not. Michael Cole put over the show, and finally Steve Austin came out at the very end. Thankfully, he got on the mic and said some words. He got the what chant, but he is the only person that it is okay when they do that. He put over everyone on the stage, saying that they did everything for this business, and called them his family. He called all the WWE fans family. He gave a nice little promo talking about some nice stories from his stay. He then invited everyone to the ring to share beer. It was a nice speech.

Grade: B+. Just nice to see everyone together and talking. IT was a good promo, and a nice nostalgia ride through Raw.

Overall Grade: B

Pros: Miz TV; Mysterio vs. Zayn; The Fiend; 24/7 stuff; toast to raw; fun nostalgia

Cons: not many good matches

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