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avelera · 2 months

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"The Regime" (starring Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts) Episode 2 Review

So last week I gave my review of this first episode of this.... rather perplexing show. And this week, mostly out of morbid curiosity, I tried out episode 2 and thought I'd share my impressions of it.

Once again, let's start with the good:

Matthias Schoenaerts (aka, Booker from The Old Guard) is acting his face off in this. So is Kate Winslet.

That said, they are acting their faces off in completely different shows.

But it kinda works?

Hold on, wait a minute, let me start again, because like this show, I'm immediately completely muddled by how I feel about all this or what the fuck is going on.

Let me put it this way. I thought I was signing up for a sort of "Death of Stalin" political satire, with fictionalized object lessons that clearly applied as cautionary tales to modern political issues like Trump, or Putin, or the Royal Family or whatever, using a heaping side helping of comedy.

That's not quite what we got. And I think the people who signed up for that are going to be... at least a little disappointed. The comedy is absurdist and definitely relies on the cringiness of the big personalities involved. But for me, at least, there wasn't quite enough comedy to say this is, well, a comedy.

If you have historical familiarity with various historical regimes and dictators, you'll definitely get a "Where's Waldo" of traits and idiosyncrasies of various dictators all blended together into Kate Winslet's character as she portrays this fictionalized regime head. You'll get your standard cast of various Political Advisors all tutting over her actions and which way this fictional country should go.

But since it is fictional (it seems based heavily on Moldova as of this episode?) a lot of the political clout, to me, didn't exactly land because again, it's not based on real events so I really don't know where any of this is going or which decisions are actually good or bad in the long run.

And if the show was just going to be about that, I definitely would have quit out of it by now, pending good reviews of the finale somehow pulling everything together.

But now for the really unexpected bit.

Because if you signed up for a dark romance between an absurd, psychologically irregular, frankly bizarre would-be dictator who has the occasional moment of pathos, as played by the stunning and talented Kate Winslet, and her psychosexual relationship with her violently masculine, brooding, and supremely fucked-up self-appointed guard dog with the occasional moment of pathos, as played with dark and terrifying intensity by Matthias Schoenaerts, holy fuck do I think you're about to have the time of your life.

Like, I think the show wants to resonate with Veep audiences who are here for a cringey absurd political comedy, but I think the people who are actually going to be absolutely frothing-at-the-mouth obsessed with this show are like... your Reylo shipping Dark Fucked Up Romance people and Tumblr fandom in general who would really enjoy Villain/Sidekick or Villain/Bodyguard romances as seen when this Possibly Evil Dictator and her Possibly Evil Guard Dog/Advisor are being completely obsessed with each other, all with a rather small side of absurdist comedy as things continue to spiral and get gradually more fucked up.

Now, this is just my review as of 1.02. I have no idea if that's where this show is going because the problem I have with this episode is kinda just a slightly lesser version of the problem I had with 1.01, which could be a matter of taste, in that I really have no fucking clue what this show is going for or what it's trying to accomplish. It's not really laugh out loud funny. It hasn't really said anything political yet. We can't really tell yet what cautionary tales we're supposed to take away, if any?

But in the meantime, there's Winslet and Schoenaerts performing in completely different genres being darkly obsessed with each other and, y'know what, I might stick around just for the slow-motion-trainwreck fascination with whatever the fuck they've got going on.

#the regime #kate winslet #matthias schoenaerts

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literary-illuminati · 10 months

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Book Review 28 – Finna by Nino Cipri

This was another slim book I picked up basically blind entirely so I had something fast on hand to read. Unfortunately, didn’t work out nearly so well for me as most of the other’s I’ve read. Which is a shame, because the fundamental idea behind it is incredible, or at least seemed like an excuse for a kind of ridiculous pulpy adventure that was just made for me.

So, the story’s about a pair of 20-something queer dead-enders working at a bigbox furniture story that is similar to but legally distinct from Ikea. The Monday after they broke up, they find themselves both working a shift at the same time. And, even more awkwardly, after a transient wormhole forms and a customer wanders into a parallel universe’s not!Ikea, the two of them are volunteered to go rescue the wold woman. From this follows adventures through wild and deadly alternate realities, self-discovery, realizing how much there is out in the world, post-breakup reconciliation, a moment of dramatic self-actualization-through-heroic-sacrifice, and so on and et cetera.

Now, there are good qualities to this book, but I will be honest that the weeks since I’ve read it have dulled my memory of everything except the petty annoyances. So this review is basically just going to be complaining about what I thought didn’t work or irked me out of all proportion to its significance. Okay? Okay.

So fundamentally this feels like this could have been a fun, cheesy absurd comedy about some #relatable millennials trapped in retail purgatory and all its kafkaesque upbeat cheer. Tragically it was written by someone whose memories or ideas of what that’s like were warped by too many years on twitter and around people being professionally writer for the book to ever really ring true (to me, at least).

Or, possibly better put, it felt like the book was trying to tell me what sort of story it was and what emotional journeys its characters were going on and what it was trying to satirize more than it ever followed through on any of it? Which is pretty unhelpfully vague as a complain, I’m aware.

More concretely, the emotional arc of the two leads just felt incredibly rushed – these did not feel like two people who had had a messy breakup after an incredible hurtful argument three days before! They were, at most, slightly awkward around each other, and inside of fifty pages they were friends again. Which was just deeply emotionally unsatisfying for what the back cover sold the book as, or for my own desire for my messy drama generally. More generally, they both theoretically have flaws, but you only know this because the narration keeps explicitly saying what they are and how they’re growing past them instead of them ever really, like, meaningfully fucking them over or causing them to be unsympathetic.

Our protagonist also just had an utter surfeit of self-knowledge – her internal monologue sometimes reads more like the author’s notes on the character’s passions, neuroses and flaws than anything anyone would actually think about themselves. Especially someone in her position. And all the therapy-speak just really made me grind my teeth (not least because whatever the book says, there’s no way she’d able to afford the regular therapist sessions she apparently has on regular retail wages. Which is a minor thing but a) it really does annoy me, and b) it feels telling.)

And, fundamentally, the book just kind of took itself too seriously? Or, more properly, given how utterly absurd the premise and most of the set-pieces were, it just wasn’t nearly funny enough. Or horrifying enough, if you wanted to go the other way – there’s the raw material for some decent creepypasta style horror there, but that would kind of undercut how wholesome and uplifting nad etc the narrative’s clearly supposed to be.

So yeah, ended up using some amazing conceits and occasionally great visuals to construct a pretty tepid adventure story around an emotional core that didn’t feel real to me. What a pity.

#book review #nino cipri #finna #sff #novella

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autolenaphilia · 1 year

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Beneath a Steel Sky

Beneath a Steel Sky is a point-and-click adventure game, developed by Revolution software and released in 1994.

It is set in a dystopian cyberpunk future, where cities are ruled by corporations and what lies in-between is a wasteland called The Gap. The player character is one Robert Foster, a child who lost his mother in a helicopter crash and was instead raised by an aboriginal tribe living in the wasteland. His adopted tribe is destroyed by security forces from the nearby Union City who kidnap Foster and bring him to the city.

The world of Beneath A Steel Sky is a dark one, inspired by the then-popular cyberpunk genre. Union city is a polluted dystopia ruled by the eponymous corporation. The manual explains it has dispensed with things like “labour representation and social benefits”. Instead there is a severe class stratification, with people’s station determined by their “LINC status” (named after the supercomputer that controls the city) which is basically a social credit system. This status determines where you get access to the city’s three levels, with the poorest ironically living at the top level and the richest at the bottom. A low enough LINC status means you get to work near a nuclear reactor without a radiation suit.

Yet the game doesn’t feel depressing, because the writing handles pretty much all of this with comedy. It is mostly a black comedy game, and a genuinely funny one, thanks to the excellent dialogue writing by Dave Cummins. he game’s criticism of corporations and capitalism don’t feel heavy-handed (even if they are obvious) because it is all delivered in the form of dark satire.

This satire of corporate capitalism hasn’t dated at all, even if things in the rest of the game has. People still use VCRs in a future city controlled by an evil A.I, for example. The dark comedic tone helps in general smooth over the game’s use of what is now cyberpunk clichés. For example, the game has of course a psychedelic virtual reality, accessed via an ethernet port straight into your brain, called a Schriebmann port. It works because the game acknowledges that it is kinda silly. Foster jokes that he needs one of those ports like he needs a hole in his head, and the other character Anita answers that it is literally a hole in the head. He eventually gets one installed by a delightfully over-the-top surgeon, who wants Foster’s testicles in exchange, and is meanwhile casually doing open-chest surgery on a person who is still conscious. It’s all very funny and makes the game’s storytelling work in a way a straight take on this trope would not. And it furthers the story’s theme of humans being made into machine parts both figuratively and literally to serve some dubious greater purpose.

It is just a fun and well-written game overall. I have to especially praise Foster’s sarcastic robot sidekick Joey. You carry around a motherboard with “his unique personality” on it, and can switch it from robot shell to robot shell, and Joey’s transformations are a large part of the game’s humour. He is a funny and loveable character, and a stand-out.

The game does a serious plot-line too, and it is testament to the quality game’s writing that it manages to shift tone convincingly, partly because the comedy is rather black to begin with. The game’s gallows humour about its dystopian world is able to convincingly turn into horror. I won’t spoil the game’s finale, but it treats a theme that was earlier treated jokingly in a more dramatic fashion and it just works.

And while I mostly described and praised the game’s writing so far, I think the gameplay is rather good too, and outstandingly kind to the player by early 90s adventure game standards. The puzzles generally make sense and are not that absurd, and while you can die easily there were no dead-ends that I could find. In fact the deaths are often rather funny, and it is from situations that a clever player can avoid. I especially love the death that comes from opening the door to a nuclear reactor without a radiation-shielding suit. It’s both funny and fair because it’s such an obviously stupid thing to do. I saved beforehand and did it only because I wanted to see what happened, and got rewarded with a particularly amusing death animation.

The game used Revolution software’s virtual theatre engine, which enabled NPCs to move of their own accord across screens following a rudimentary AI. They actually move across screens even when the player character isn’t there. Characters and objects also occupy space, and the player characters and the NPCs can’t stand on the same spot. It was probably very impressive for the time period, and does still make the world feel a bit more alive. Granted, their simple walking patterns are sort of noticeable and in practice you have to sometimes wait for them to show up. For example, to get Foster’s robot sidekick Joey to go up or down an elevator with Foster, you have to wait until he enters that screen. His AI is programmed to make him follow Foster around from screen to screen, but he does so slowly in a meandering fashion. That means you can move Foster across multiple screens in a quick amount of time, leaving Joey a few screens behind, and you have to wait for him to catch up.

The presentation is fine, especially for the time. The game’s art was done by comic book artist Dave Gibbons (of Watchmen fame), and while the game itself is pixelated, it’s rather nice pixel art. The animated cutscenes that introduce and end the game are granted kind of clunky, but Gibbons’ art is nice. I highly suggest you find a scan of the comic book version of the opening cutscene (it is included with the GOG version at least) to appreciate it in full.

The comic book inspiration actually influenced the game’s subtitles in a weird way. These have random nouns written out in ALL-CAPS quite often, like anglo-american comics often have. The game was apparently meant to feel like an interactive comic book.

I don’t know if Beneath A Steel Sky really suceeds at that, but it is damn fine adventure game, and one of the best cyberpunk games I’ve played. And recommending it today is easy, because it is nowadays completely free. The game and its source code was generously made freeware in 2003 by the developers. The release of the source code enabled it to run in emulation via SCUMMVM, enabling it to run easily on most modern systems. It can be downloaded along with SCUMMVM from their website, it is also available from GOG and Steam also for free. And since it is from 1994, even very low-end computers from today can run it easily.

It’s a really good game, and you can easily play it for free, what more can you ask for?

#beneath a steel sky #my writings #point and click adventure

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twistedtummies2 · 1 year

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Top 6 Easter Bunnies from Movies & TV

Happy Easter, everybody! In honor of this special day, here’s a list that I’ve been sitting on for a good long time. It’s time to talk about Easter’s favorite mascot, the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny is sort of an odd duck when it comes to the mythical icons of various holidays. On the one hand, I think you could argue he’s the most popular after Santa; unless you count Jack Skellington or the Great Pumpkin (and I don’t), Halloween doesn’t have any one wrote mascot to speak of, and I’m not sure if Leprechauns count when it comes to Saint Patrick’s Day. And there are dozens of other holidays that don’t really have mascots, either: essentially, it’s always been Santa and the Easter Bunny, at least in American culture. The weird part of this is that, between the two, you’ll find the Easter Bunny tends to get the short end of the stick. There are dozens of books featuring the character or about him, but none are as popular as the Christmas books, and when it comes to movies and television, the Easter Bunny has precious few cinematic outings, and most of his TV specials are less successful than the ones released at Christmastime featuring Jolly Old Saint Nick. Why this has occurred is likely a discussion better suited for smarter folks than I, but with that in mind, I think it’s high time everyone’s favorite rabbit got at least a little time in the spotlight. Finding good Easter specials and great takes on the Bunny was more difficult than I thought, but I think I’ve managed to narrow down my personal favorites nicely. So with that in mind, sit back and enjoy some chocolate eggs, whilst I present My Top 6 Favorite Easter Bunnies from Movies and Television!

6. Rabbit, from Winnie-the-Pooh.

Confused? Then you probably haven’t seen the special “Springtime With Roo.” I don’t know the special is called that, incidentally, since the main character of the film is actually Rabbit; Roo is really just a supporting player. But I guess Roo was just more marketable. (shrugs) Anyway, “Springtime With Roo” is, weirdly enough, an adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” but with an Easter theme and featuring the characters from Winnie-the-Pooh. The story features Rabbit as our Scrooge surrogate, as it’s revealed Rabbit is actually THE Easter Bunny…but because of past events, he’s decided to call the holiday off. In Dickensian fashion, adventures through the past, present, and the future all give him a chance to change his ways and bring Easter back to the 100 Acre Wood. This is a surprisingly clever, sweet reimagining of the Carol story, and the idea of Rabbit BEING the Easter Bunny is kind of cute to me. I felt it would have been cheating, though, to place Rabbit in the Top 5, hence why this only gets an Honorable Mention.

5. Todd Tolces, from Claymation Easter.

“Claymation Easter” is a somewhat forgotten special nowadays, created by the mighty Will Vinton: a legendary animator most famous for his work with stop-motion, and the creator of various animated mascots for advertising products, including the California Raisins, the Noid for Domino’s Pizza, and the M&Ms (no, I’m serious, he made the M&Ms, too, look it up). In 1992, Vinton directed and co-produced an Easter Special made in his signature style, which featured Todd Tolces as the Easter Bunny. The plot tells the story of a villainous pig, Wilshire, who plans to take over Easter as part of an elaborate money-making scheme. Simple enough, but what makes the special so…well…special is its style of comedy and its animation credit. The special has a very absurd, bonkers sense of humor, riding a fine line between playfully whimsical and satirically mean-spirited, which gives it a unique identity among specials for this holiday. There’s also an underlying current of a theme of tradition vs. expansion: the Easter Bunny in the story is an upholder of old standards and ideals, while Wilshire is a villainous cad who uses massive machines to get what he desires, and speaks with a lot of modernized lingo and subtle innuendos and jokes. In the middle of all this Spike Rabbit, a psychologist who becomes the true hero of the story, and essentially plays the role of the middle ground: he’s got more modern sensibilities than the Easter Bunny, but he’s nowhere near as diabolical as Wilshire. Whether you see it as just a silly romp or something more, “Claymation Easter” is a hidden gem, and it’s Easter Bunny one of the more interesting and integral parts of its story.

4. Bob McFadden, from The Berenstain Bears’ Easter Surprise.

This is one of three Easter specials I used to watch all the time as a kid (the other two will come later), and it’s still got a special place in my heart. Featuring the classic Berenstain Bear Family, the story of this special focuses on Boss Bunny - the Easter Bunny himself, voiced by Bob McFadden - deciding to retire, and calling off Easter for good. This is a problem, because in this universe, Easter is also the beginning of Spring: if Boss Bunny doesn’t do his job, winter will go on forever. When Papa Bear’s plans to replace the Bunny and save the holiday fail most spectacularly, Brother Bear takes it upon himself to try and convince Boss Bunny to go out once more. What’s interesting about Boss Bunny’s role in the story is that he’s the only Easter Bunny I’ve encountered who’s outright an antagonistic presence: he’s grown tired and bitter, and wants to call off Easter not so much because of any philosophical issues, but simply because he feels overworked. He feels he’s doing a thankless job, being taken for granted, and he’s so old and worn out he’s not sure he has it in him to continue doing the job. Of course, in the end, good sense prevails for the old timer, and he gets back to his regular duties…and it turns out chocolates and colored eggs aren’t the only surprises Brother Bear has to look forward to on Easter Morning…but I mustn’t say more, or I shall spoil the rest of the story.

3. Hugh Jackman, from Rise of the Guardians.

I don’t know what crazy person came up with the idea of the Easter Bunny as a fluffy boomerang-toting Crocodile Dundee action hero voiced by freaking Wolverine…but whoever decided that was an awesome idea deserves ALL of the candies this year. (pauses) That’s it. I’ve…I’ve got nothing else. This one speaks for itself. Moving on.

2. Skip Hinnant, from The Easter Bunny is Comin’ to Town! Both of my top two choices are the creation of Rankin/Bass; they’re the other two specials I used to watch every year as a kid, and these two I actually make a point of STILL watching every year. Easter just wouldn’t feel complete without them. The first up is the sequel to the popular Christmas Special “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town,” and in many ways, this Easter-themed follow-up is sort of the same basic story. It chronicles the origins of the Easter Bunny - voiced by Skip Hinnant, and named Sunny - from his birth to his role as the icon of the holiday, explaining how many of the Easter traditions were born in the process. While it follows a lot of the same beats from the previous special, it changes things up enough to still have its own identity, and Sunny is a wonderfully fun, sweet, smart character. It’s just as good as its Yuletide predecessor, in my opinion; if you haven’t seen it before, take a peek.

As much as I love sweet little Sunny, however, there’s one Easter Special - one Easter Bunny - I like even more…

1. Casey Kasem, from Here Comes Peter Cottontail!

Rankin/Bass actually made three Easter specials, and of the three, this one is the most popular, and my personal favorite. In this story, we don’t just focus on ONE Easter Bunny, however…we essentially have a story of SEVERAL. The tale takes place in April Valley, which is basically to Easter what the North Pole is to Santa Claus. Here there lives an entire species of talking rabbits, who all work to make Easter run smoothly; the Chief Easter Bunny is the leader of them all, and the one responsible for delivering all the goodies on the big day. One year, the old Chief - Colonel Bunny - decides it’s time to retire, and chooses a young upstart, Peter Cottontail (voiced by Shaggy himself, of all people, Casey Kasem) to be his successor. Peter is a boastful, rash, and occasionally prone-to-fib bunny, so others doubt he’s suitable for the job, but the Colonel sees himself in Peter, and it becomes clear that, for all his faults, Peter does have his heart in the right place. Unfortunately, his main rival does not: the villainous Irontail (voiced by Our Lord and Savior of Villainy, Vincent Price) decides to challenge Peter to a contest…which Peter, thanks to his laziness and Irontail’s scheming, loses. With help from a time machine (yes, a time machine, just run with it) Peter decides to go back and try to find a way to fix things, and in the process, learns to shape up his act and become a responsible Rabbit. All three of the main bunnies in the story are wonderful (especially Irontail, mostly because this is Vincent Price at his absolute hammiest; he is to Price what Dr. Mystico is to Tim Curry, in my opinion), but Peter is the main character and obviously our Easter Bunny Prime for the purposes of the tale. It’s a very fun special, one of Rankin/Bass’ best productions, in my opinion, with great music, charming characters, and glorious voice acting. While I’d be lying if I said Peter is my ideal Easter Bunny (that honor actually belongs to a book, and that’s rather a different story), this is, without a doubt, my favorite Easter Special, and Peter, by extension, my favorite take on the Bunny from onscreen outings. He is more than deserving of my number one spot.

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popolitiko · 2 years

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‘Birds Aren’t Real’ Is the Conspiracy Theory Mocking QAnon In an age where outlandish theories command national attention, members of Generation Z have turned disinformation into performance art. Kelly Weill

Some people believe Earth is flat. Some people believe the Trump administration is using a seedy internet forum to send coded messages about Satanic pedophile rings. Now a movement of young memers is parodying more established conspiracy movements with an outlandish claim of its own.

The U.S. government eradicated all birds in 2001 and replaced them with surveillance drones, the Birds Aren’t Real movement alleges. The movement (which conveniently sells merchandise) is thriving off young people’s sense of the absurd in the Trump era, the movement’s founder said.

It’s disinformation as performance art. And it’s only half as ridiculous as some earnest conspiracy theories.

Peter McIndoe, 20, says he’s completely serious in his belief that birds are actually inorganic machines designed to surveil and police Americans. The movement, which he started last year, has spiked in recent weeks, after it caught the notice of popular YouTubers and meme accounts. “The higher ups were so annoyed that birds had been dropping fecal matter on their car windows that they vowed to wipe out every single flying feathered creature in North America,” and replaced them with robots from 1959 to 2001, the group claims on its website.

But in interviews with The Daily Beast, McIndoe and four regional Birds Aren’t Real leaders all took jabs at other conspiracy movements, with some regional chapters outright admitting that the whole thing was satire.

“I do get asked a lot ‘is this satirical? Is it a joke?’” McIndoe told The Daily Beast. “Frankly I think the concept of it being some sort of socio-political satire, or the thought of it being an observation on the post-truth era through comedy, I think that’s kind of absurd. I think our values and our views should be valued just as equally as any others. And I think just because we’re saying ‘birds aren’t real,’ that should be true with the same respect as when people say birds are real.”

Earlier in the movement’s history, McIndoe was more upfront about its satirical nature.

“i made a satirical movement a few months ago, and people on instagram seem to like it a lot,” he posted on Facebook in November 2017. “now there's a facebook so the moms of the current ‘bird truthers’ can be in on it too.”

Now, a year into the movement, he distanced himself. “That was actually by a staff member who has since been removed,” he said of that old Facebook post.

Birds are real. This is demonstrably true, and has been since before the dawn of humanity. The Audubon Society, a non-profit for bird conservation, documented the meme earlier this month, and declared it to be a joke.

“Wow—we sure hope so,” an Audubon Society spokesperson told The Daily Beast when asked whether birds are real.

But the joke, and an online shop that monetizes it, surged in popularity in late October. That’s when YouTuber PieDiePie featured the meme in a semi-credulous video that racked up more than 4 million views. A number of the movement’s most vocal backers got involved around the same time.

Unlike QAnon, which draws a large middle-aged fan base, Birds Aren’t Real is popular with Generation Z.

The “Birds Aren’t Real Ohio” Instagram account is run by a college student who bought the movement’s merchandise then realized the fake movement had no Ohio chapter. Last month “I [direct messaged] the ‘official’ Birds Aren’t Real Twitter account and asked if I could run the Ohio chapter and they said yes,” the student told The Daily Beast via Instagram message.

“For me personally, the Birds Aren’t Real movement is more of a satirical approach to counteracting such far-fetched conspiracies (such as flat earthers),” Birds Aren’t Real Ohio said. “When making my posts, I try to make them humorous but still serious enough to make people think. This is a fun challenge for me, and I hope at least mildly entertaining for those that follow my account!”

An Instagram account for “Birds Aren’t Real NY” said the operation was a parody of “other conspiracy theories since the idea that birds aren’t real is just as outlandish as the earth being flat.” The satire had flourished on Instagram, where anti-bird jokes can be grafted onto “trending memes since they usually all have the same setups.”

Austin, Texas’s “Birds Aren’t Real” Instagram account insisted they sincerely believed in the movement. But even this chapter said some of their work was in satirizing other conspiracy movements.

“While we like to poke fun at other conspiracies, the majority of what I make” is serious, the group claimed. (They conceded that some Austin-based bird truthers believed chickens are real.)

McIndoe, who denied that the movement was satirical, acknowledged that it would be a good satire of recent conspiracy theories like QAnon. That theory, which falsely claims President Donald Trump’s opponents are Satanic pedophiles, has seen true believers descend ever deeper into a social media-fueled falsehood. Rather than abandon the theory when its predictions ring false, adherents have entrenched themselves further in Facebook groups and forums full of other believers.

If it were satirical, those are probably movements I’d be making a satire of,” McIndoe said of his conspiracy movement. “But being that it’s not, I would say those people, I think, are very grounded in their beliefs. Because they’re in a community or in an echo chamber with people confirming their beliefs and telling them what they think is true, I think it’s grown to the point where it’s impossible for them to see it any other way. Because really we’re living in a time when we can craft our community. My Twitter feed is only the way it is because of who I follow.”

The person behind the Instagram account “Birds Aren’t Real Charleston” identified as a 19-year-old College of Charleston student, who said the movement was something of a joke between friends at the school. Together, they distributed anti-bird literature at a public market, where “one lady said I was ‘scaring the kids with the flyers,’” the student said.

McIndoe speculated that his movement might resonate with young people’s feeling of instability in the Trump era.

“I think they can relate to that feeling because so much of what we see in the daily news cycle is so absurd. I see so much in the news these days that’s a headline I never would have believed five years ago. I think because it fits into the absurdity of the everyday news, it makes Birds Aren’t Real special because our movement special.”

Meme historians have previously linked political chaos to a rise in absurdist memes. A Washington Post column on the topic became a meme, itself, with digital content-makers photoshopping the article into oblivion.

A number of regional Birds Aren’t Real pages link to McIndoe’s website, where he sells stickers and apparel. The movement’s New York chapter said it didn’t really mind that it was helping McIndoe push merchandise, since “I just like the punchline of the joke so I don’t spend much time thinking about that.”

It’s not the first conspiracy to hawk merchandise. QAnon believers can lose their money on a range of QAnon jewelry, clothing, and car decals. The conspiracy news outlet Infowars does a brisk business selling supplements that will supposedly save buyers from a variety of government control programs.

McIndoe guards his movement’s merchandise carefully. When the internet culture database Know Your Meme added an entry about Birds Aren’t Real last month, McIndoe left a comment about a Birds Aren’t Real T-shirt pictured in the article.

“The wrong shirt is on here- that’s a rip-off,” he wrote, adding that “the real shirts are on” his website.

Like QAnon and Chemtrails before it, the fake conspiracy had attracted real grifters, out to make money regardless of whether they believed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/birds-arent-real-is-the-conspiracy-theory-mocking-qanon?utm_source=pocket-ff-recs

#Disinformation

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the1975attheirverybest · 5 months

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sorry, not to be obnoxious but I'd like to point out that the Adam Friedland show uses satire NOT humor. Satire and humor are very different things. And that is the main reason why people have struggled so much with it. Satire uses irony, exaggeration, parody, innuendo, offensive language etc. to expose or criticize political or societal issues. The most famous example is "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift. It’s written like an economic treatise suggesting that poverty (caused by the potato famine) could be ended by simply selling/ eating the babies of the Irish. (Seift ofc didn’t mean/ condone that) Satire requires people to have background knowledge and the ability to understand CONTEXT, subtext and nuances. That is why it’s often misunderstood (or simply disliked). It’s not used to entertain and make people laugh (like humor does)

Fair enough. A lot of satire hinges on taking things to the extreme that nobody could possibly thing they’re being serious. Which is why there’s such a genre as “satirical comedy.” The problem when it comes to The Adam Friedland show is that we all know guys who think in those extreme ways and not as a joke/ to be subversive/ satirical/ ironic etc. like they play “characters” that follow that line of thinking to its natural conclusions and the more they commit to it the more absurd it is. And one’s natural reaction is supposed to be “well that’s just ridiculously nobody is gonna think that” however in this day and age when there are people who do genuinely think that, it ceases to be a subversive approach.

More to the point though, comedy/ humor isn’t limited to laughter and entertainment. It’s also a political tool. Plus, they literally do stand up specials. So, it’s humor. Even if it’s satirical.

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lizzarrocks · 7 months

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Here are some tips for creating an effective dark comedy that takes place in hell:

Use absurdity and irony. Hell is an inherently absurd concept, so take illogical premises to their extreme for dark humorous effect. ironic twists work well too.

Explore taboo topics. Hell gives the freedom to explore dark urges, sexuality, violence and other edgy themes in an exaggerated way. Lean into these for shock value.

Create colorful, flawed characters. The denizens of hell likely won't be wholly evil; give them depth via sympathetic backstories, moral contradictions, etc. Complex characters allow for more nuanced comedy.

Use exaggerated physical comedy. Hellish injuries and violence can be taken to silly extremes. Creative use of blood, gore, demons, torture devices, etc. can heighten the dark humor.

Employ cynical, dry wit and tone. Gallows humor and biting sarcasm work well for dark comedies. One-liners, cutting remarks and dismissive attitudes all fit the hellish setting.

Contrast gross/crude humor with more sophisticated jokes. Mix intelligent wordplay and high-brow references with low-brow, profane humor for tonal dissonance.

Break taboos but stay grounded in characters. Shock value alone won't sustain laughs. The comedy should stem from the flawed but relatable characters and their reactions to the absurd hellscape.

Use visual motifs and stylized editing. A hellish atmosphere can be accentuated with specific colors, wardrobe, music, lighting, skewed camera angles, choppy cuts, etc.

Make hell a bureaucracy. Having demons navigate hellish bureaucracy complete with paperwork, rules, and incompetent management can lend itself to dry, absurdist humor.

Play with time. Given hell is eternal, time could work differently. Jokes can be made about characters experiences being repetitive, being stuck in loops, not remembering how long they've been there.

Go for occult subversion. Take typical portrayals of demons, possessions, and rituals and give them a comedic spin.

Explore flawed sinner archetypes. The greed of a ruthless CEO, gluttony of an overeater, wrath of a hothead - have recognizable sinful archetypes play against expectations.

Give the setting a grimy, lived-in feel. Portray hell as a run-down, graffitied, seedy place that's been around forever and feels past its prime.

Include power struggles and satirical commentary. Demon lords vying for status and backstabbing allows for incisive satire on politics and society.

Contrast irreverent characters with the dire setting. Having obliviously upbeat characters bounced against the harsh realities of hell can work comedically.

Use cringe humor. Awkward, embarrassing situations are ripe for comedy and feel right at home in a hellish social setting.

The key is maintaining a balance - go far enough into the dark/absurd side for it to be humorously exaggerated, but still maintain some grounding in relatable characters and storytelling.

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henlp · 1 year

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2017-2021 Show Round-up

.Spectacular Spider-Man - One of the best iterations of this IP, and a wonderful example of writing doing proper set-ups. Yes, I’m sad it didn’t get its full run. No, I don’t want it to continue, even if everyone involved were to come back;

.Futurama - Latter seasons are a bit poopy and less imaginative, but everything pre-movies is top notch comedy and sci-fi storytelling;

.The Batman - The first three seasons are fantastic in establishing Bats and how he handles the job and the Rogues Gallery. Has a weird thing where either character designs or their personalities don’t work too well, and the quality drops hard in the last two seasons.

.Johnny Bravo S2 & 3 - Still fucking hilarious, every single episode. S4 was dogshit, so don’t watch it, but S1 might be okay, I didn’t bother;

.Wakfu - Watch the french dub. Transitions between each season is a bit lacking, I bet they tried to tie the show to the game. Characters are loveable, animation is great, story beats a bit 'ehn’ when it comes to powers and reveals;

.Samurai Jack S1-4 - A lot of leniency has to be given to style, but most episodes work really well. One of those shows where it felt like it told every story it could, but hadn’t outstayed its welcome (pre-S5);

.Ben 10 (2005) - Fuck everything besides the original series. Has a great blend of all things paranormal, and a kid hero who’s properly characterized as a little shit with a heart of gold, learning and training to be a hero;

.Kim Possible - Surprised how decent the characters are, for teen caricatures. Not all episodes work, and some villain confrontations become slightly repetitive;

.Codename: Kids Next Door - Very absurd, especially watching it now, but the world is consistent for the most part. Worst episode is unquestionably the mini-golf one;

.Megas XLR - Pure satire of mech/kaiju/sentai media through an all-american lense. A good enough serving of what we get;

.The Mummy Animated Series - Alternate reality version of 'The Mummy Returns’. Less funny than the film, but the first season’s pretty decent;

.Jackie Chan Adventures - Outside of its finale, S4 is the best, S2 is horrible. The show itself is not good, but entertaining. Shame its namesake is no longer with us, RIP;

.The Mask Animated Series - … it’s so fucking bad. Not just from the writing, but also from the horrendous pacing and low quality animation in a lot of instances. Don’t suffer like I did, just stick with the Jim Carrey movie, because the show isn’t worth it;

.Freakazoid - The gags and the actual plot for each episode are erratic at best, and perpetually clashing at worst. Furthermore, it does NOT do a good job with presenting the titular character as an over-charged loon, both from an animation perspective and character writing. To its credit, gets better as it goes on, but not enough to recommend;

.There’s one more thing, which I’d consider one the best shows of the previous decade, in spite of its flaws. However, out of principle and spite (30/70 split), I’ll never mention or acknowledge which show it is.

#show round-up #2017 #2021

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attemptsonherlifepdf · 3 years

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bojack horseman and bo burnham: the art of acting like you’re acting and the comedy of misery

at the core of bojack horseman, raphael bob-waksberg’s 2014 comedy, is a story about the relationship between performance and depression. the protagonist of this renowned tragicomedy is best described as a sympathetic villain; he is shown to clearly be in the wrong across various events of the show, and is explicitly referred to as a bad person, but the audience is granted deep access to his personal struggles, resulting in some portions of the audience finding themselves on bojack’s side. the duality of his character is complex, but can be broken down into some core components, that all stem from the impacts of stardom and performance. the standup comedy of bo burnham arguably echoes this sentiment in real time. having been a performer from a young age, burnham creates work that serves as a satirical commentary on the life of entertainers. he uses original songs to explore the reliance upon and resentment for his performative nature both onstage and within his personal life. both the comedian and the netflix show are widely understood to be thinly veiling their critiques of the entertainment industry behind a particular brand of witty and absurd humour.

both bojack and burnham’s content openly criticises their audiences and explicitly states the manufactured nature of the narrative the audience is fed. in the fifth season of bojack horseman, the show satirises itself by having bojack star in a police procedural drama, parts of which are actively written by other characters to reflect events of bojack’s life. the titular character he plays, philbert, is the epitome of selfish male angst, and an example of what bob-waksberg’s show could have been; another story about a sad and angry man whose guilt supposedly makes up for the people he has hurt. according to bojack, philbert teaches us ‘we’re all terrible, so we’re all okay’, an interpretation that is harshly disputed by diane: ‘that’s not the point of philbert, for guys to watch it and feel okay. i dont want you, or anyone else, justifying their shitty behaviour because of the show.’ this moment is a direct reaction to some of the online reception bojack horseman has received. various circles of the show’s fanbase have found themselves relating to the protagonist to the point of defending his untoward behaviour, a response not intentioned by the show’s creators. this is not the only example of bob-waksberg’s ability to make his work self-evaluative. in season six’s exposure of bojack and sarah lynn’s problematic relationship, characters question their sexual encounter from the first season. the writers use this as a way of examining their own choices, and the harmful tropes they played into when using this exploitative sexual encounter as a gag. this self-evaluative quality is what sets bojack apart as a show that assesses the performance it participates in, much like the comedy of bo burnham.

bo burnham is known for directly addressing his audience, particularly in terms of discouraging idolisation and parasocial relationships. some examples of this manifest as responses to hecklers rather than a planned bit in the show, for instance:

heckler: i love you!

bo: no you don’t

heckler: i love the IDEA of you!

bo: stop participating!

he actively addresses the issues posed by being an entertainer, and encourages the audience to understand and recognise that his onstage persona is just that: an exaggerated persona. not once does burnham claim to be fully authentic onstage, and even moments of authenticity we see in his latest special, inside, are staged. we make the assumption that having the physical setting of a stage stripped away grants us a more personal look at the entertainer’s life, but he makes it clear that even in his own home we still see the aspects he has carefully constructed rather than the full truth. arguably though, parts of the show really are authentic; in his monologue during make happy, bo deconstructs his own show in a way that is similar to bojack horseman’s later seasons, admitting that all he knows is performing and thus making a show about the more mundane and relatable aspects of life would feel ‘incredibly disingenuous.’ in his attempts to separate himself from this onstage persona he actually manages to blur the lines between what is acting and what is now part of his nature as a result of his job. this notion is echoed in bojack horseman as bojack’s attention seeking nature is attributed to his years acting in front of a camera every day.

bo suggests that the era of social media has created a space in which children’s identities mimic that of an entertainer like himself, describing the phenomenon as ‘performer and audience melded together.’ in this observation he criticises the phenomenon. bo attempts to force the audience to recognise the ways in which their lives are becoming shaped by the presence of an audience and to some extent uses his own life as a warning tale against this. he points out the way in which the ‘tortured artist trope’ means that your cries for help or roundabout attempts of addressing mature themes such as substance abuse, mental illness and trauma become part of that on stage persona and therefore become part of the joke. both bo and bojack address these topics in more discrete manners earlier in their careers, but this eventually becomes expected, and thus they are forced to explicitly detail their struggles with these topics in order to be taken seriously. even then, portions of the audience are inclined to see it as part of the persona or as something that fuels the creators creativity and thus does not need to be addressed as a legitimate issue. the emphasis on creating a character or persona promotes the commodification of mental illness: any struggle must be made into a song or a joke or a bit, must be turned into part of the act in order to have value. this actually serves to delegitimise these emotions and create a disconnect between the feeling and the person, as it becomes near impossible to exist without feeling as though you are acting. even when an artist’s cries for help become blatant, they continue to go ignored because now they serve the purpose of creating content that criticises the industry they stem from. online audiences can be seen as treating bo burnham and his insightful work as existing to demonstrate the negative effects entertaining can have, and because this insight is useful or thought-provoking to audiences, he is almost demanded to keep entertaining and creating. in response to this demand, his work becomes more meta and his messages become clearer, and the more obvious his messages, the more people he reaches. this increases audience demands and traps entertainers in a cycle fraught with internal conflict.

during bojack’s second season, bojack’s date asks him, ‘come on, do that bojack thing where you make a big deal and everyone laughs, but at the same time we relate, because you're saying the things polite society won't.’ this moment exemplifies how aspects of his genuine personality have now become a part of his persona and this is demanded of him in genuine and serious situations, undermining the validity of his emotional reactions. he immediately makes a rude comment to the waitress at the restaurant they’re in and satisfies his date by performing that character he has set himself out to be. some circles of the fan base have argued that bojack is written as a depiction of somebody with borderline personality disorder, offering a psychoanalytical lens through which to view this notion of performance. a defining symptom of borderline personality disorder is a fluctuating sense of self; having grown up on camera, being demanded to perform to others as young as six years old, bojack’s sense of self will have been primarily dictated by the need to act. whether this acting is for the sake of comedy, or as a representation of masking his mental illness, when they need to act is taken away bojack entirely loses his sense of self and relapses into his addictions: ‘i felt like a xerox of a xerox of a person.’ burnham’s depictions of depression run along a similar vein; in his new special he poses the idea that his comedy no longer serves the same personal purpose it once did for him. he questions ‘shit should I be joking at a time like this?’ and satirises the idea that arts have enough value to change or impact the current global issues that we are facing. burnham’s ‘possible ending song’ to his latest special, he asks ‘does anybody want to joke when no-one’s laughing in the background? so this is how it is.’ implicit in this question is the idea that when the audience is taken away and there is nobody to perform his pain to, he is left with his pain. instead of being able to turn his musings and thoughts into a product to sell to the public, he is forced to just think about them in isolation and actually face them, an abrupt and distressing experience.

the value of performance and art is questioned by both bojack and burnham, particularly during the later years of their respective content. burnham’s infamous song, art is dead, appears to be a direct response to the question ‘what is the worth of art?’ he posits that performing is the result of a need for attention (‘my drug’s attention, i am an addict, but i get paid to indulge in my habit’) and repeatedly jokes throughout his career that the entertainment industry receives more respect that it deserves (‘i’m the same as you, im still doing a job or a service, i’m just massively overpaid’). his revelations regarding the inherent desire for attention that runs through all entertainers is frequently satirised in bojack horseman. bojack is comically, hyperbolically attention hungry and self-obsessed, and the show has a running gag in which he uses phrases along the lines of ‘hello, why is nobody paying attention to me, the famous movie star, instead of these other boring people.’ his constant attempts to direct the focus of others towards himself result in bojack feeling like ‘everybody loves you, but nobody likes you.’ his peers buy into his act and adore the comical, exaggerated, laughable aspects of his character, but find very little room to respond to him on a genuinely personal level because of this. interestingly, bojack appears to enjoy catering to his audience and the instant gratification it produces, whereas bo burnham becomes increasingly candid about his mixed feeling towards his audience. ‘i wanna please you, but i wanna stay true to myself, i wanna give you the night out that you deserve, but i wanna say what i think and not care what you think about it.’ he admits to catering to what audiences want from him, but resents both the audience and himself in the process as it reveals to himself which parts of his character are solely for the sake of people watching him.

within bojack horseman, this concept is applicable not only to the protagonist, but to the various forms of performer demonstrated in the plot. towards the show’s end, sarah lynn asks ‘what does being authentic have to do with anything?’ to which herb kazzaz responds, ‘when i finally stopped hiding behind a facade i could be at peace.’ this highlights the fact that because entertainers are demanded to continue the facade, they do not receive the opportunity to find ‘peace.’ this sentiment is scattered throughout the show, through a musical motif, the song ‘don’t stop dancing.’ the song stems from a life lesson bojack imparted to sarah lynn at a young age, and becomes more frequently used as the show progresses and bojack’s situation worsens.

sarah lynn is also used to explore the value of entertainers; in the show’s penultimate episode, she directly compares her work as a pop icon to the charity work of herb, arguing that if she suffered in order to produce her work. it has to mean something. she lists the struggles she faced when on tour: ‘i gave my whole life...my manager leaked my nudes to get more tour dates added, my mom pointed out every carb i ate, it was hell. but it gave millions of fans a show they will never forget and that has to mean something.’ implicit in this notion is the idea that entertainment is the epitome of self-sacrifice. there is a surplus of mentally ill individuals within the industry, largely due to the nature of the industry itself, but some may argue that the cultural grip the industry has, and the vast amounts of respect and money it generates annually, gives the suffering of these prolific individuals meaning.

the juxtaposing responses entertainers feel towards their audiences manifest as two forms of desperation: the desperation to be an individual who is held accountable, and the desperation to be loved and validated. we see both bojack and bo depict how they oscillate between ‘this is all a lie’ and ‘my affection for my audience is genuine’, or between ‘do not become infatuated with me im a character’ and ‘please fucking love my character i do not know how to be loved on a personal level.’ bojack explicitly asks diane to write a slam piece on him and ‘hold him accountable’, similar to bo’s song ‘problematic’ in which the hook includes the phrase ‘isn’t anybody gonna hold me accountable?’ for his insensitive jokes as a late teenager. their self-awareness is what enables their self-evaluative qualities, but self-awareness is its own issue. bojack grapples with a narcissistic view of his own recognition of his behaviour before settling on a more nuanced, albeit depressing take. originally he makes the assumption that in recognising the negative aspects of himself, he is superior to those who behave similarly: ‘but i know im a piece of shit. that makes me better than all the pieces of shit that don’t know theyre pieces of shit.’ eventually, during his time at rehab he is forced to reconcile with the fact that self awareness does not, to put it bluntly, make you the superior asshole, it just makes you the more miserable one. the show does, however, make a point to recognise how the entertainment industry protects ‘pieces of shit’, prioritising their productive value over how much they deserve to be held accountable, demonstrated using characters like hank hippopoalus. the show itself obviously stems from the entertainment industry, as it is a form of media produced by netflix, one of the most popular streaming platforms available. bojack horseman and bo burnham represent the small corner of the industry that is reflective enough to showcase the damage it inflicts. this is powerful in terms of education and awareness, and urges audiences to question their own motives and versions of performance, but the reflection alone is not powerful enough to help the artists in question. burnham’s candid conversations surrounding his mental health continue to reveal a plethora of issues somewhat caused or sustained by the nature of his career. within bojack horseman, bojack is only able to stop hurting other characters when those characters construct a situation that forces him to face consequence, his introspection alone is not enough. while bojack ends on a message of hope, suggesting to the audience that reverting back to the status quo is not the only acceptable way for events to end, it leaves stinging lessons and social commentary with the audience regarding the unnatural and damaging narrative that performers live through. on a similar but markedly different note, bo burnham’s work and personal progression is playing out in real time, and not in a way that is as raw and genuine as it appears. each bit is planned, even the most vulnerable moments that appear unplanned and painful. his latest special is not entirely devoid of hope, but does translate to audiences as a somewhat exaggerated look around the era of social media and the development of performance, using himself as an example.

the absurdist humour that often acts as a vehicle for poignant statements or emotionally provocative questions is very specific to each media creator. bob-waksberg’s use of puns, tongue twisters and entirely ridiculous circumstances served to simultaneously characterise his points as an expected part of the show’s style of humour, similar to bojack’s emotional instability, but also to make them appear gut-punching in comparison to the humour. burnham’s work is similar in that poignant but blunt statements are often sandwiched between absurd and exaggerated jokes, making them stand out via contrast but not giving the audience too much time to dwell upon them as they are said. performance art is second nature to entertainers, and is presented a an issue that is infiltrating the general population via social media rather than solely affecting the ‘elites’. bojack horseman and bo burnham present the duality of artists simultaneously attempting to level the playing field and increase their chances of survival in the industry, and encourage audiences to know that everyone is bluffing and you’ll never have the right cards anyway.

i.k.b

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roxytonic · 2 years

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what is the mangoball "cheater cheater" fanfiction? (a personal overview)

hi everyone,

lately a very specific social media AU DreamNotFound fanfiction on Twitter has been making the rounds. i'd like to make an introduction to the work based on my observations--i don't think we've seen anything like it so far, barring highly textual chatfics and the like.

at the time of this writing, i've caught up to entry #108. the author is prolific!

so what is this fanfiction?

the fanfiction is called "Cheater, Cheater" and is written by the ostensibly single author, mangoball (mangobaii in typing). it revolves around George as he breaks up with Sapnap and hits a rebound and potential relationship with Dream. it includes plenty of side characters, including but not limited to, Karl Jacobs, Quackity, Corpse, Wilbur Soot, and Tommyinnit.

you can find it on twitter here, but i highly recommend using the ThreadReaderApp page instead for full-size images:

what works about the fanfiction?

unofficially categorized, the story itself is a comedy-satire slice of life with a few blips of absurdity. off the top of my head, mangoball writes in references to DreamSMP and surrounding MCYT, and there are some fourth wall breaks, which are all framed in an absurd way.

in the story, the side plots corresponding to the side characters are just as vibrant as the one around George's fallout with Sapnap and his later rebound to Dream. not spoiling them, but they're fun. the story events themselves are moderately simple--the bulk of the work is made up of character interactions, which, as we find, range from globally yassified characters to complete divergence from individual personalities.

i think the reason why the mangoball fic works is because it's a nice convergence of comfy things under a very thin, easy-to-read format. if we actually go to the thread, we see that it's 100% composed of phone-sized screenshots of messages. there's not much text with each tweet in the thread, so it's short and digestible.

therefore, both the form and the function of the story work together to create a double-whammy of a very light read.

what does it's potential categorization as a light read pose for it as a work?

i don't think there is any problem with light reads in the fandom. it's optional reading, and if you do wind up reading it, you'll blitz through it easily. stan twitter will obviously take well to it since the characters are yassified, though budding readers might find it accessible too.

however, there are a few flaws i want to point out:

1. it's vaguely formulaic and/or familiar to me. i mean, given enough time and effort, i could deconstruct the humor (absurd claim to another person + agreement from the other person? further OOC-ness?) but generally speaking it's content and tropes don't "feel" new. i don't know what specifically i've read that would cause this familiarity, though. (on the other hand, this means that it's going to be a safe read.)

2. i feel like i have to suspend my disbelief a bit higher. this is more of a personal issue, so you might fare better than i have, but generally i feel like i'm a fly on the wall looking in. i haven't felt that in a while so it took me a few minutes to settle into the groove of it and start rolling.

3. this somewhat ties into point #2: the author needs to be very judicious about how they use the fourth wall break and self-references to absurdity. off-hand jokes are super obvious, because there is such limited text/narrative bandwidth to the individual screenshots. fourth wall jokes can tire out quickly, and at worst, fail to suspend the reader's disbelief.

i remember seeing one character call attention to their collective habit of narrating what they're doing ATM (because there's no italicized text or stage text in the work, it's all dialogue). it's funny for sure, but it drags me out of the story because it's too true. suddenly i'm thinking, "wait. why isn't there flavor text and italicized descriptions and videos of things happening IRL?" (there is some audio and a few pictures but that is not the bulk of the work.) if the characters know their narratological limitations, it becomes uncanny.

4. you're probably not going to find powerful themes and motifs. we have no idea what's intended or not. on the other hand, if you're going by "Death of the Author", then all bets are off.

note that i said "themes and motifs"--things we can extract and synthesize from the text. the wonderful @bothersome-edgar has made some great strides on identifying and categorizing key aspects of the characters, and i highly commend him for doing so. check out his work here: https://bothersome-edgar.tumblr.com/post/669498983742324736/putting-this-here-so-i-know-what-to-write-tomorrow

what other thoughts do i have?

i really love BadBoyHalo and Quackity in this story. i totally relate to BadBoyHalo's awkwardness when interacting with people online (i don't sound like i'm 50 years old though!!!) and his latent craziness, though i'm not violent. Quackity is the anchor that keeps the story and character interactions from flying apart from the absurdity of it. he's realistic, and reacts to the craziness in the story realistically.

Karl is growing on me and George is just really fluttering around. like a moth. and Dream is a lit Ruben's tube matched to dubstep. love is in the air, i suppose :]

#gin and roxytonic #mangoball #cheater cheater #mcyt #mcyt fanfiction #mcytblr #<- if this is too many tags lmk.

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henpendrips · 2 years

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2021 Retrospective

Thought that 2021 was as bad as 2020, if not more so? Don't worry, things WILL continue to get worse. Predicting 2028 will be peak Clown World Decade, starting out seemingly okay but going max bonkers past half-time. Precedent's been set, after all.

Now that the doom and gloom's out of the way: without repeating anything I said in previous yearly retrospectives, 2021 wasn't that eventful for me. Probably the biggest blunder might've been not using the Huion Kamvas that I got last year, even though I got it working properly in January. Not a single drawing was done with it, so a waste of money; and I had no excuse, I was locked in the house for the first half of the year, I had plenty of time. Also, my movie list being empty for the first time in over ten years was quite the bummer.

Instead of more demoralizing drivel, figured I'd just recommend some of the cartoon shows that I've (re)watched in recent years which I find to be worth a damn. Maybe if more people watch decent shows from yesteryear, they'll realize why all the horseshit 'content' that's been coming out is fucking atrocious. Not all of them are good, and they're not properly ranked in terms of quality or preference, but here they are:

.Spectacular Spider-Man - One of the best iterations of this IP, and a wonderful example of writing doing proper set-ups. Yes, I'm sad it didn't get its full run. No, I don't want it to continue, even if everyone involved were to come back;

.Futurama - Latter seasons are a bit poopy and less imaginative, but everything pre-movies is top notch comedy and sci-fi storytelling;

.The Batman - The first three seasons are fantastic in establishing Bats and how he handles the job and the Rogues Gallery. Has a weird thing where either character designs or their personalities don't work too well, and the quality drops hard in the last two seasons.

.Johnny Bravo S2 & 3 - Still fucking hilarious, every single episode. S4 was dogshit, so don't watch it, but S1 might be okay, I didn't bother;

.Samurai Jack S1-4 - A lot of leniency has to be given to style, but most episodes work really well. One of those shows where it felt like it told every story it could, but hadn't outstayed its welcome (pre-S5);

.Ben 10 (2005) - Fuck everything besides the original series. Has a great blend of all things paranormal, and a kid hero who's properly characterized as a little shit with a heart of gold, learning and training to be a hero;

.Kim Possible - Surprised how decent the characters are, for teen caricatures. Not all episodes work, and some villain confrontations become slightly repetitive;

.Codename: Kids Next Door - Very absurd, especially watching it now, but the world is consistent for the most part. Worst episode is unquestionably the mini-golf one;

.Megas XLR - Pure satire of mech/kaiju/sentai media through an all-american lense. A good enough serving of what we get;

.The Mummy Animated Series - Alternate reality version of 'The Mummy Returns'. Less funny than the film, but the first season's pretty decent;

.Jackie Chan Adventures - Outside of its finale, S4 is the best, S2 is horrible. The show itself is not good, but entertaining. Shame its namesake is no longer with us, RIP;

What I DON'T recommend at ALL: The Mask Animated Series... it's so fucking bad. Not just from the writing, but also from the horrendous pacing and low quality animation in a lot of instances. Don't suffer like I did, just stick with the Jim Carrey movie, because the show isn't worth it. And Freakazoid, to its credit, gets better as it goes on, but not enough to recommend. Sucks that both of these toon-type hero shows don't work out.

Lastly, there's one more thing. One that I probably would consider one the best shows of the previous decade, in spite of its flaws. However, out of principle and spite (30/70 split), I'll never mention or acknowledge which show it is.

1And that's about it for my once-a-year vent session. See you in 2022, only 200 years for the roulette to pay off.

#henlp #text post #yearly retrospective #2021

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buryme-makeoutcreek · 3 years

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Best shows I watched in 2020

I wanted to look at some shows I watched that I felt had some of the best writing. Most of these shows did not come out in 2020 but are shows that definitely deserve some attention for their masterful writing. Minor spoilers below.

1.Succession

This show took me by complete surprise. While I love stories about complicated, and darker characters I went into this show expecting it to be a classic story about power dynamics among the rich. And it is but the show is really about cycles of abuse and trauma and how that relates to a capitalist system. The show follows the children of billionaire Logan Roy as they continuously jostle for power within the family company, it’s very Shakespearian in nature but also one of the most absurd and hilarious shows on.

The writing on this show is very interesting because none of the characters can actually say what they want to say, it is all disguised such as a politician’s word choices would be. And bringing that veiled rhetoric into a family dynamic makes for an exploration of power and manipulation. The writing is also significant for doing something called by the cast, “the language of strength” which is using aggressive and sexually charged language frequently, this is used both in the company and within the family as both intimidation and to show off. There’s really a lot to dissect in word choice and meaning in this show and for that reason it is fascinating.

2. Hannibal

This was another show I didn’t expect to like but was pleasantly surprised by. This show ended its series in 2015 but it has always been a cult favorite and has been receiving renewed attention as of late and all I can say is thank god. This is a brilliant show both visually and story-wise. As I watched the first season I felt like I was stepping into a different world of just complete madness, and the show is really escapism in that way even though it features horrific deaths every episode. While I don’t think this is the best written show out of all the ones listed here, and I do think it expresses itself more through visual prose rather than words it is still reminiscent of a dark epic poem.

The show follows FBI consultant Will Graham as he investigates a series of grisly murders and comes across the path of notable psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (also notable cannibal and serial killer). The writing is very interesting due to it’s plentiful of metaphors. In regards to the main relationship between Will and Hannibal the distinctions between wanting to “eat” one’s love and wanting to be with them are really interesting and the word choices made can only be called poetic.

3. Atlanta

I went on a Donald Glover kick after finishing Community and I’m so happy I did because it led me to this show. Many have called this show “what TV could be” and it really is. This show starts off simply enough with the story of Earn trying to become a music agent for his cousin, the rapper Paper Boi. But the show delves deeply into the surreal in order to illustrate its points about poverty and being black in America.

The writing on this show bucks traditional story structure completely with each episode being more of a “day-in-the life” rather than a continuous plot driven towards a goal, this allows for much more experimentation but also the feeling that no matter what the characters do they’re going to get weighed down in some way or other. This disregard for classic show structure also bleeds into the genre, it’s hard to solely classify this show as a comedy because there are so many elements of horror, drama, and satire within it. The writing is overall beautiful, heartbreaking, and hilarious. This show is a must watch as it is probably the best thing on TV right now.

4. Ramy

This show is the spiritual successor to shows like Atlanta and Fleabag who have paved the way for this new brand of comedy show, often focused around a single character as they try to better their lives. Ramy is a show about a Muslim- American milennial who is trying to get more in touch with his religion, thinking that it will help him to get his life on track. While the humor can be brass and the story lines can get pretty weird and disgusting the first word I think of with this show is delicate.

Especially in its second season, which has moved away from Ramy’s perspective to focus on the rest of his family. The writing in this show can swing from a really fragile sense of beauty to super crass and sexual in the blink of the eye, which makes it so hilarious and interesting to watch. The writers have complied a series of character studies under the guise of a TV show, and watching this family deal with issues of assimilation, lost dreams, religion, and loneliness makes the watcher feel deeply connected to them.There’s a lot of stuff happening in this show that is very fragile but very moving and also hilarious.

5. The Great

This show is chaos embodied. From excessive violence, sex, and rampant and ridiculous abuse of power this comedy which is extremely loosely based on Catherine the great’s life is a real ride. It was created by the writer of The Favourite and interacts with absurdity and power in similar ways.

The writing is really interesting because it is so crass. In that way it is meant to be humorous but also terrifying. Many things in this show act in more than one way- Peter (Russia’s emperor) is terrifying, ridiculous, and lovable sometimes all within a single scene. And this ability to be all of these things makes this a very good examination of power.

6. Veep

This is how you do a villain arc. Perhaps the best and most honest show about American politics Veep focuses on Selina Meyer, the first female Vice President who is surrounded by the most competent incompetent people and virtually powerless and unfulfilled in her job. Throughout the seven seasons we follow her through presidential campaigns and personal woes all in classic dark comedy style. While this show is first and foremost a comedy it is not afraid, as it’s ending shows, to dig into dark themes and character exploration of a narcissist with a bottomless thirst for power going after the highest office in the country.

This show predates the Trumpian era America currently finds itself in but much of it’s subject matter and even specific plot points have come to be echoed in our current history. Such as an election depending on the results out of Nevada and a politician’s base protesting to “Count the vote” and “Stop the count”. This just proves that the show is so in-touch with the reality of American politics (even when the show was just a satire rather than the bleak truth). This is a perfect dark comedy with excellent, well-crafted characters, and solid plot points. Definitely a must watch for anyone.

#best shows 2020 #hannibal #veep #the great #succession #ramy #atlanta #ramy fx #atlanta fx #writing #screenwriting #tv shows #best tv shows #power

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dramaticviolincrescendo · 3 years

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How would describe shameless to someone who never heard of it? How would you describe the specific characters?

I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve these super fun asks, but thank you so much! :D It’s funny that you sent this because I did actually describe the show to someone not too long ago, and I didn’t like how I did it in hindsight. I felt like I didn’t do it enough justice. So, I get a second chance to try again!

“How would you describe Shameless to someone who never heard of it?”

Shameless is a show about how life doesn’t always go our way, we don’t always do the right thing, and we’re all imperfect beings—but we still deserve a chance regardless. The Gallaghers begin the series nearly at rock bottom, doing anything they have to for their literal survival, but also to keep their family together. Sometimes that means supporting each other when they’re in a difficult spot, banding together to help their neglectful father even though he doesn’t deserve it, or even committing petty crimes to sustain their meager way of life. As they get older and have more agency in and control over their lives, the nature of their problems shifts, and they learn from their own mistakes rather than reacting to their parents’. The same trends unfold for the people and families in their orbit, showing that various trials and tribulations can impact anyone of any social standing. Not everyone gets a happy ending; not everyone gets what they want. However, they grow and learn how to manage both the hand that they’ve been dealt as well as the bed they’ve made for themselves. That, after all, is life.

Shameless is a “dramedy” where the comedy elements utilize primarily satire, which sets it apart from the popularity of slapstick and dry comedies over the last decade. By nature, the show therefore addresses difficult, uncomfortable, and controversial topics in manners and utilizing methods that are designed to make us laugh at the absurdity while forcing us to think about these topics in ways that we may have avoided otherwise. This format has been established since the pilot episode and certainly is not to everyone’s taste. I wouldn’t recommend this show to anyone who prefers that such issues be addressed with a deeper analysis on the part of the characters rather than the audience, which is the general tendency in drama pieces rather than shows of this genre.

“How would you describe the specific characters?”

For this, I’ll focus on the main Gallagher family, Kev, V, and Mickey, as they’ve been the constant presences on the show since the start. I’ll also keep it relatively short since I could write essays on each one, and that would bore anyone who hasn’t heard of Shameless (and 95% of those who have) to tears.

1. Frank Gallagher is the stereotypical “deadbeat” who plays the system for every penny so that he doesn’t have to work, choosing to fund his addictions rather than support his family. He will go to any lengths if it means preserving this lifestyle—mild, absurd, and even heinous. He functions as something of an anti-hero, being more a threat to the family’s stability in early seasons than a boon and gradually sinking into obscurity because of his children’s growing indifference as he burns one bridge after another with them. Frank prides himself on espousing only the values that will get him what he wants in a given circumstance. In specific instances, that has meant showing a measure of love and affection for his children that evidence has proven exists deep, deep below the surface. In others, he’s a wild card. Frank’s various fatal flaws have included arrogance, addiction, selfishness, and an avoidance of any and all responsibility.

2. Fiona Gallagher is the eldest and began the series as the rock of the family because, to put it simply, she was the only person able to do it. She selflessly cared for her younger siblings so that they wouldn’t be scattered into foster homes or adoption thanks to her parents’ neglect, even to the point where she gave up portions of her life and blurred the lines between her roles as sister versus caregiver, which became a sticking point in later seasons when her siblings didn’t need or want a mother-figure anymore. While Fiona was initially very responsible with regards to raising her siblings, she therefore sacrificed a lot of opportunities that were important for her development as a young adult and exhibited an immaturity typical of people her age that impacted other arenas of her life, especially relationships. As her role as caregiver dwindled, that immaturity and the norms prevalent in her environment became more pronounced with her newfound freedom, and she struggled greatly in the face of what she viewed as making up for lost time. Fiona’s various fatal flaws have included ambition, a “martyr complex,” and viewing her family as an impediment to her ambitions later in life instead of a support system.

3. Lip Gallagher is the oldest son. He began the series with a hefty chip on his shoulder. Intelligent, quick-witted, and calculating, Lip was constantly referred to as a sort of diamond in the rough and clearly came to believe it. This led to a very fascinating dynamic within the family and his other interpersonal relationships as his love for and desire to protect his family was balanced by a sense that his way was the best way—the only way, really. A combination of poor choices and unfortunate circumstances beyond his control resulted in a very real “fall from grace,” by South Side standards, and Lip has worked hard to claw his way back from where he was in the middle of the series. Where Fiona spiraled further as she withdrew from her family, Lip leaned on them and others in his support system—and it saved him. Lip’s various fatal flaws have included arrogance, contempt for power structures in which he is not at the top, and trying to solve other people’s problems at the expense of dealing with his own.

4. Ian Gallagher is the middle child and something of an outlier in his own right where his family is concerned. He began the series seeming to have his shit together: he balanced school, ROTC, and work, excelling in all three at just fifteen years old. He was plagued by his status in the family at times, not old enough to have more control over his situation while not young enough to shrug off a lot of it on Fiona and Lip, and wanted something for himself more than anything. It’s that combination that put him in an extremely vulnerable position, because while he was the picture of responsibility and didn’t orchestrate as many scams as his siblings (though he was involved in plenty—he is South Side and a Gallagher, after all), it gave him—and his family—the false impression that he was more mature and in control than he was. Multiple older men preyed on him because of that, and in his thirst to find something that was solely his and someone he could care for outside his household, he viewed them as relationships rather than abuse. Like Lip, Ian truly hit rock bottom in a different manner, although the causes of his descent were more heavily skewed beyond his control. In true Ian form, however, he remains driven to find the straight and narrow—and stick to it as much as he can. Ian’s various fatal flaws have included ambition, a “hero complex,” compartmentalizing to the point of narrowmindedness or naïvet��, and ignoring his own needs in pursuit of fulfilling others’.

5. Debbie Gallagher is similar to Lip in that she has always been clever, cunning, and driven to get what she wants. Debbie began the series in a difficult position, going to school and contributing to the household while ultimately not in control of anything that was going on. From the start, all she wanted was a functional family, and it colored her behavior throughout the first six seasons of the show. In many cases, that meant doing whatever she could to hold everyone together: investigating Fiona’s lying boyfriend, running a daycare so that Fiona could work all night and still find time to sleep, prompting Fiona to more actively worry when Ian ran away and helping Lip locate him, and caring for Liam a lot of the time while he was a baby. Over the years, as the dysfunctions racked up, she sought an escape through boyfriends and a baby of her own. The means by which she attempted and ultimately failed to achieve these goals were at times reprehensible and spurred on by both her immature ignorance and the culture in which she was raised. Debbie’s various fatal flaws have included self-centeredness, envy, manipulative tendencies, and not thinking or caring about the implications and consequences of her actions for herself or the people involved.

6. Carl Gallagher began the series as a real mess. The word “sociopath” comes to mind. He was the stereotypical “wild child” whose behavior embodied the dysfunctional nature of the family and their environment. He destroyed toys for fun, tortured animals, physically bullied children at school, and was held back multiple times for poor academic performance. Carl was never as academically bright as the other Gallagher siblings, but his street smarts were nigh unparalleled and, like Lip, he could probably survive anywhere. Over time, Carl underwent a remarkable transformation: embracing the negative stereotypes of his environment, he dove towards rock bottom with gusto only to realize that the thug life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Once again, he paralleled Lip and Ian’s trajectory in leaning on his family when it became too much, and he’s turned his entire life in the opposite direction to pursue a path that he hopes will lead to helping people rather than hurting them for his own gain or reputation. Carl’s various fatal flaws have included lack of foresight, a penchant for violence, and ignorance.

7. Liam Gallagher is still very young and therefore tougher to fully characterize as his development isn’t as extensive. Right now, he’s the same age Debbie was when the show began, and we’ve seen just how far she’s come. So, for the time being, Liam is extremely bright and has grown up with a great deal more privilege than his siblings. He doesn’t remember saving for the squirrel fund with fears of not being able to eat all winter in mind. He doesn’t remember what it’s like to worry about Frank or Monica’s actions having an enormous and lasting impact on them. He doesn’t remember Lip dropping out of school and moving out of the house, Monica’s actions at Thanksgiving, Fiona crying over crumpled bills from working at the sport bar, Ian going missing for four months and coming home a different person, or Debbie lying about Patrick just so they could keep a roof over their heads. Liam didn’t grow up with those things, and so he has the luxury of being a kid a bit more of the time. However, because his parents aren’t around and Fiona left the house a long time ago despite being his guardian, he has matured quickly in lieu of any real supervision.

8. Kevin Ball and Veronica Fisher have been the Gallaghers’ closest allies in the neighborhood all this time. Kevin isn’t the brightest academically or in terms of common sense, but he has a good heart and makes the best decisions when he uses it. He has been through a lot, between foster care as a kid, a crazy ex-wife, trying to keep the Alibi afloat, and raising twin daughters that they definitely didn’t have the means for when they discovered that they were expecting two kids. And Veronica… Well, she’s quite literally his other half. She’s savvy and smart, intelligent and assertive—they complete each other. They began the series as an established couple experiencing some growing pains, especially when Veronica was giving the Gallaghers everything from use of their shower to their toaster while Kevin insisted that they needed to focus on themselves before they could help Frank’s kids. (He talked a good game, but when the chips are down, Kevin has always been there for them too.) They’re good people who’ve been given a few bad shakes and taken a few wrong turns, but their love for each other, their kids, and the Gallaghers has made them a surprisingly strong heart of the show. Kevin’s various fatal flaws have included lack of foresight, ignorance, and not standing up for himself. Veronica’s various fatal flaws have included avoiding communication about her feelings and indecisiveness.

9. Mickey Milkovich is the stereotypical personification of their environment. He began the series as a poor thug—and a dirty one, at that—who exuded such a presence in the neighborhood that he instilled fear at a mere glance. His family functioned as a foil to the Gallaghers, perhaps what they would have been if Frank had been a different person or they’d fallen even further. Mickey didn’t benefit from an emotionally supportive family that banded together to provide for more than merely monetary concerns, not to mention that his father was openly and violently homophobic, so it took a great deal of time and overcoming numerous internal and external hardships for him to come to terms with who he is on many levels. Over the years, Mickey was self-employed or acted with his family as a drug dealer, a pimp, and a prison hitman; worked for a drug cartel; and has engaged in any number of other scams and illegal activities in order to make ends meet—and he has been quite happy to keep doing so as it plays to his strengths. Mickey is remarkable, however, because he has always been a multifaceted character whose problematic decisions, abrasive mannerisms, and questionable lifestyle didn’t and don’t negate that he cares very deeply and will do literally anything for the few people he allows to get close to him, specifically Ian. Mickey’s various fatal flaws have included lack of foresight, avoiding communication about his feelings, and not reaching out for help when he needs it.

~*~

That was quite a bit longer than I initially intended, but I had a great time putting this together. Thank you again for the ask!

#shameless us #gallaghers #you asked #this was so fun #shameless #shameless meta

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vanishingpod · 4 years

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We took a little break last week from our Podcast Rec Sundays because production stuff took over our lives a bit, but we’re BACK with four shows we think you should check out!

The Amelia Project: With season 3 right around the corner, now is the perfect time to jump into this dark, British comedy headfirst like we have. The show is set at The Amelia Project, an agency where people go to disappear--if their story and reason for disappearing is deemed interesting enough by the staff. Every episode tends to take the format of a client making their plea to be disappeared, including the planning stages...at least, to begin with. The amazing thing about this show is how it slowly escalates and spins out in absurdity, without ever feeling like it’s made a huge leap out of the world it’s set up. It’s a world where a woman wanting revenge for a cheating husband, a cult leader in over his head, an advanced AI, a self-aware fictional character with an existential crisis, and the Loch Ness Monster, all end up seeming pretty much par for the course, and the genre can swerve from comedy to satire to conspiracy to meta-commentary to mystery in the blink of an eye. We couldn’t recommend this more--oh, and you’ll want cocoa on hand. Trust us. (Find them @ameliapodcast)

Seren: If you’re looking for a sci-fi exploration story about the human spirit, this is where you go. We start the story, and spend most of the run time, with Seren, our protagonist, who has been sent on a single-occupancy spacecraft away from her home to join a colony on a distant planet. Not much more is known about the situation than that at the outset, and we are only slowly revealed more through the audio logs of Seren as she makes the journey, cycling through boredom, fear, desperation, loneliness, regret, and hope as she parses through her life up to this point and what she thinks she’ll be heading towards. An incredibly intimate story set in the vast of space. Seren is bold yet subtle, bleak yet hopeful, incredibly lonely yet inspiring immediate connection with the protagonist. The design, production, acting, and writing are all gorgeous, paced beautifully, and deeply felt. This is a show that always feels like it is barreling towards something but isn't afraid to let you live with Seren for a bit, feel what she's feeling, breathe with her, care for her, become her for a moment--it's an incredibly cathartic show in so many ways. (Find them @serenpod)

Valence: Alright, who wants some urban fantasy? We certainly do! Who wants a ragtag bunch of characters? We also do! Who wants to do crimes, but like, for the good of humanity? WE DO! There’s a level of tense glee throughout Valence. You could attribute it to the hyper specific and all-enveloping soundscape that bring the world of New Candler to life or even the excellent vocal performances throughout that make this heightened sci-fi/fantasy world feel grounded and navigated by flawed, 3-dimensional characters. Whatever it is, Valence presents a full experience. Through the story of Liam Alden wrestling with his birthright as a Magic User (‘muse’ in the show) there is a palpable sense of us vs. them, science vs. magic, industry vs. human interest, haves vs. have-nots, that make the story feel relevant and accessible. Honestly I found myself thinking a lot of the Uncanny X-Men and Mr. Robot as I listened to the storylines involving tech heists (HEISTS, we LOVE heists) and assembling a ragtag group of outsiders (again, we LOVE a ragtag bunch!) who are all galvanized to action against a technology conglomerate set on making life easier for some, by jeopardizing it for others. It’s a grand adventure, a call to action, and a fuck you to capitalism, and who doesn’t love that? (Not on tumblr, but you can find them on Twitter here.)

The Godshead Incidental: It’s tricky to put The Godhead Incidental under any one genre because it juggles a little bit of everything while also subverting a lot of the expectations of the genres it uses. It’s a sitcom, but also a conspiracy drama, a slice of life story that also features a world filled with literal gods, a workplace comedy and an emotional dramedy that deals with stuff like agoraphobia and millennial ennui. Also, there are pigeons, just SO many pigeons. We got sucked in by their amazing cover art and stayed for the instantly lovable, vivid cast of characters. Some of our faves are Em, our protagonist, a perpetually Over This advice columnist at the titular publication; Lorem Ipsum (a particular fave of ours), a mysterious, fast-talking thief that takes over every single conversation; and Tervis, Em’s agoraphobic landlord, who has a backstory that is both incredible and underwhelming all at once. The show is brilliantly produced, beginning to end, and is SO easy to immerse yourself in--we really don’t see any way you wouldn’t like it, to be honest. (Find them @godsheadincidental)

If you love any of these shows, please consider leaving them a review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or wherever you listen to podcasts--you can also (depending on when you’re seeing this post) nominate them for Audio Verse Awards!

Previous recs: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

#podcast recommendations #audio drama #podcast #the amelia project #seren podcast #the godshead incidental #valence podcast

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purgatoryandme · 4 years

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Hey! I can't seem to find the post you made with all the books references in Illuminate Me and the reason behind it? Is it deleted?

I know that there is an incomplete one floating around in my reply tag, and it should be in the Illuminate Me tag, but tumblr’s search features are so bad that I went back to the original word doc of the complete list, so prepare for that particular storm lol. Quoted/Referenced Reading List (In Order of Appearance) Shakespeare: Macbeth I opened on a Macbeth quote (‘When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lighting, or in rain’) because I wanted to start with something immediately relatable. Most readers were introduced to more ‘dramatic’ plays through Macbeth. Beyond that, they were introduced to the concept of pathetic fallacy, which I think plays nicely with Tony as a character (a man who is CONSTANTLY imparting emotion onto inanimate objects…and then actually giving them their own emotions) and with one of the core problems in IM, which is deciding the emotions of others for them. I was hoping to get the ‘feel’ of that without having to lean too far into the actual concept.

Bonus: I picked this quote in particular because of the importance of threes in Tony’s life (his core group of friends, iterations of the reactor, number of times reborn, his bot children VS his AI children, the number of lovers or almost lovers he has in the fic, etc). Milton: Paradise Lost ‘What is dark within me, illuminate!’ is a modernization of the original Milton quote ‘what is dark within me, illumine’ for readability. I actually feel a bit bad about changing this considering how many people think this is the original quote now. This wound up being a central (and title) quote somewhat by accident. I’m fond of it because of how much I liked a different one that I had originally wanted for Tony’s thoughts of the reactor: ‘yet from those flames, no light, but rather darkness visible’. I had originally wanted to start off on a sadder note, one that showed how much Tony hated losing his humanity, and so the flames of Hell and their physics-bending concept seemed thematically appropriate. I had always intended to eventually invert the imagery – instead of Extremis being (to Tony) flames capable of extinguishing light, the reactor would become a water-like blue light that couldn’t be choked or recreated by any of the shadows that pursued Tony in his life. I picked Milton SPECIFICALLY for the imagery of light and shadows.

But, man, listen. Darkness visible is a great concept, but it’s also tired. It has, as you’ve noted, been discussed to death. So as I was reading ‘Milton’s darkness visible and Aeneid 7’ to refamiliarize myself with some of the broader themes attached to that particular piece of imagery, I wound up thinking about how to invert the darkness itself instead of the overall concept. The flames of Hell extinguish light instead of having to exist away from it. It is a bad that cannot be penetrated by good.

Instead of chasing away shadows, which would be implied by shining a light ON them, the request Tony makes here is to actually invert the darkness - to have it illuminate in and of itself. It’s becoming something better instead of being removed or forgotten. On the flip side of that, the darkness within isn’t growing as light weakens, but rather under its own force. Two forces equal in nature and origin in a person. It’s a different take on lighting than the one most critics hammer home. Long ramble is long, but this was the basis for using that quote. It grew from there to have many different meanings, however the core has always remained. All in all I’m pleased with it.

EM Forster: A Room with a View Very forgiving even in its satirical takes on human nature. A lot of passages are very therapy-quotable in their urging to accept the inevitability of causing some harm in life. It plays on a lot of the same concepts with light being obvious metaphor for good and evil that Paradise Lost does, but softens them into more realistic shades of human existence. Isaac Asimov: Foundation Continuing on with themes of rigid morality vs the flexibility and romanticism of humanity, we have Asimov, master of machines and the three rules of robotics! There are lots of quotable epigrams in this beast. The quote pulled from this has two readings depending on what you assume of the man who has said it. If you see him as manipulative, there’s an insidious underpinning of killing off your own morals. If you see him as a kind man, then you could read it as foregoing morals in place of empathy. Tony’s therapist loves a very specific brand of double speak that lets Tony work through the conversation purely through interpretation. Tolstoy: Anna Karenina Tolstoy’s prose is lengthy...so so lengthy, but Anna Karenina is worth the read as long as you relate to at least one of its major characters. Frankly, I think you can choose to read a single character’s plot arc and leave it at that. It’s mostly a novel that is interesting, not because of its plot, but because of its study of relationship dynamics. Tolstoy was really invested in picking apart the idea of what makes a ‘family’ and, beyond that, what makes a class. It’s refreshing to see so much of the critique occurring within the lived experience of the characters instead of through a narrator or outside punishing moral forces. Baudelaire: Windows and Benediction I cannot recommend enough reading multiple translations of Baudelaire poems (fleursdumal.org has a wonderful array available). Benediction is a personal favourite. I love me some malevolence wrapped up in religion. Dante: The Divine Comedy There’s a lot of bleak humor in Dante if you look for it. Several interpretations insist of making each piece excessively grim dark, but faithful translations tend to have a hint of humor in them. It works well for engraving War Machine’s spine - a benediction and a mockery of human limitations. I try to pick quotes that not only fit the scene, but would still fit into the context of the grander themes from whence they came...unless I hate the author. Tennyson: The Lady of Shallot “I am sick of shadows” vs “I am half-sick of shadows”. Tony’s expressing more frustration here with being alone and his passive involvement in that loneliness. Another quote I feel vaguely bad about changing, haha. The Lady of Shallot is a very nice classical piece that I’m sad isn’t taught in schools alongside Hamlet. There are some nice Ophelia parallels here. I wanted a feminine influence on Tony’s loneliness and one that is somewhat youthful despite his age. Yeats: Vacillation I fucking hate Yeats as a person. That said, the man can write. The man can REALLY write. His pieces are almost always layered to the point of absurdity and he’s perfect to swiping quotes with multiple meanings. Definitely Tony’s kind of author. Goethe: Faust Speaks for itself and in the author’s notes on its reference. Dostoyevsky: The Brothers Karamasov IMO a book that deserves all the acclaim of Anna Karenina and then some. Very VERY Russian in its ethical debates of, as always, religious morality vs free will. Also dips into familial struggles and patricide, because it wouldn’t be a Russian classic if it didn’t contain some deeply buried bitter resentment towards paternalism. I’m going off-script here, but this is a fucking excellent book. I don’t really have words for how much I enjoy how Dostoyevsky explores the concepts that he does. Shakespeare: Julius Ceasar Shakespeare: Twelfth Night Twelfth Night deserves more credit for its development and maintenance of an enigma. Twelfth Night has charisma in spades both because of and in spite of the exceedingly petty actions of some of its characters. It is also a refreshingly simple take on love for the sake of it. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Stephen King: Lisey’s Story I consider Lisey’s Story to be the best of King’s work. The man has his obvious writing ticks and his even more obvious issues as an author. Lisey’s Story contains many of them, but navigates them far better than any of his other work. The monster here is all in the mind and is too vast to truly see or understand. It’s perfectly representative of a creeping sense of inescapable horror. It was fun to flip it on its head with a reference here – Tony isn’t terrified of dying, but he is terrified of his inescapable enjoyment of Bucky’s company. Maria’s family saying is inspired by Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass Armitage: The Death of King Arthur A genuinely fantastic classic tale of heroism, filled with all the drama, tragedy, and sacrifice that you’d expect with strongly feminine undertones. I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. TS Eliot: The Wasteland Excellent piece of poetry with many layered meanings and dual interpretations. I can’t really articulate my thoughts on The Wasteland, but I reference an essay at the end of this list that does that for me. Oedipus Rex Rupert Brooke: Safety Not directly quoted but obscurely referenced through Bucky and Tony’s war conversations + Bucky’s conversation about, you got it, being ‘safe’ with his therapist. His poetry is about WWI and is, largely, idealistic. Safety is…not quite an exception to that. His other poetry contains a certain sense of honour and duty, whereas safety, maintaining a seemingly light tone, has nothing of the sort. It is safety in the soul – something untouchable by the horrors of war or death. It treats that as a ‘house’, which leant itself to the article Tony send Bucky. Armine Wodehouse: Before Ginchy Not directly quoted but obscurely referenced through Bucky and Tony’s war conversations + Bucky’s conversations with his therapist. This is also WWI poetry, though far darker than Brooke’s work. It discusses the parts of the heart and soul soldiers lose. It is an extremely good piece AND references Dante’s Inferno. I had to work it in somewhere even if I didn’t want to directly quote it. Meyer and Brysac: Tournament of Shadows Referenced several times over in discussion of war, the great game, and British military history. Beautifully self-aware account of Britain’s insistence on rewriting history after the fact and the tiny hilariously embarrassing moving pieces that shaped what is often considered the heyday of espionage. Murakami: Kafka on the Shore I love Murakami’s response to questions about understanding the novel as a whole. There are no solutions, only riddles presented, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes place. It’s a great lens through which to view the book and individual passages taken out of it. Reminds me of The Wasteland having to be read in totality before you can begin picking it apart, after which each individual piece can be read of its own. Kafka on the Shore, with its musings on the uncertainty of fate and redemption, was the perfect book to outline Tony’s horrifying realization, which he is desperately suppressing, that he might be coming to accept Bucky’s feelings. This quote in particular, while I would’ve used it anyway, is also a great callback to the first chapter and its storms. Chapter 29 is a turning point. Beyond it there are some intentional quote contrasts that are probably more easter eggs than they are anything else. Yeats: A Dialogue of Self and Soul Great contrast with Vacillation. Some parts of self and soul are used in that poem and thematically they are connected and contrasted - self and heart vs self and soul. The symbolism and imagery in Vacillation is really on point and layered, but Self and Soul is peak Yeats for its reversal of the typical ‘the soul is pure and bluntly honest and the body is tainted and bad’ in Christian works. Also Self and Soul’s broader context is scrumptious considering the debate poems history of relying on divine forgiveness and lack thereof instead of on forgiveness of the self.

It was fun to give this poem a double meaning in IM as both hugely ominous and ultimately pointing to the later forgiveness Tony receives from himself through the divine (if the soul stone can be called that) in the heavens (space!). There’s also another fun twist to ‘who can distinguish darkness from the soul’ in its contrast with ‘what is dark within me, illuminate’. To take that a step further, Vacillation was the beginning of the path of forgiveness for Bucky (understanding Tony’s heart…somewhat literally as he slowly gets closer and closer to the reactor itself), while Self and Soul is a final step (re: Bucky being presented the final hurdle of Tony deciding to move forward alone). Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha Hesse is wonderfully blunt at times. I gotta admit I love German takes on spiritual self-discovery because they always seem to tend towards much more straightforward answers than other countries. Hesse’s relationship with Buddhism in literature vs his lived experience is also really intriguing. Anyway, Siddhartha, in its humanizing of Gods, is wonderful contrast to the consistent imagery of the untouchable and unknowable forces of good and evil in previously quoted works. It has stopped bringing humanity to the divine and has started placing the divine within humanity. Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey One of the ultimate poetic epics. Now that we are nearing the end, I’m going overtime with making the grander themes of this whole piece hit home. A lot of IM was built on a foundation of poetic epics, of heroism, and a bit of Greek tragedy. The Odyssey embodies all of those things beautifully. It also suited Thor too well to pass up. Yeats: An Irish Airman Forsees His Death Ah, Yeats. Very blatant foreshadowing here that is keeping with the foreshadowing from Self and Soul. Fate has, up till this point, been a bit of a question. It has been ‘when will it come to me’ and ‘how will I avoid or overcome it’. Now fate is a set point. It is knowable and present. ‘I know I shall meet my fate, somewhere among the clouds above’. This goes for the true onset of Infinity War and for Tony’s feelings towards Bucky – when he had no one, he allowed Bucky in after essentially promising himself he wouldn’t. If that’s not an accidental admittance of love, nothing is. Henley: Invictus Absolutely fantastic poem. Continuing with the heavy fate themes coming into this climax. Now that Tony knows his fate, truly knows it, he is choosing to take it on directly. Agamemnon (Anne Carson’s Traslation if you prefer a more modern language approach, Lattimore is you prefer a classic) Agamemnon is forgotten all too often in the world of poetic epics and it’s a damn shame. I cannot say enough good things about it. I always wanted to use lines from Agamemnon in a Tony fic because the Cassandra parallels were too perfect to resist. The chorus in this play was also a perfect narrative device for interacting with something of a hive mind. Yeats: The Wanderings of Oisin Another poetic epic. Nice contrast with The Odyssey, The Death of King Arthur, and Agamemnon. Here the dialogue is between an aged hero and a saint looking into the hero’s past. It has the kind of reflective and aged mood necessary for this stage of the story, but is actually a poem I sortof hate. The line ‘And a softness came from the starlight, and filled me full to the bone’ is absolutely gorgeous, though. Some final inspiration pieces:

The Penelopiad

The Iliad

House of Leaves (for surrealism in the final chapters)

Dante at Verona (used in an author’s note as an intentional jab at the dull uninspired nature of the this particular take on Dante. Repurposed quote, essentially)

a broke machine just blowin’ steam by themikeymonster (great character study of Bucky)

Frank Kermode’s essay “Eliot and the Shudder” (inspiration behind Tony’s entire interaction with literature)

#long post #reply #illuminate me #literature references

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