#if they ever do become popular or gain an audience outside of like 5 people

[confinedinthisflesh]

people are gonna ha TE me

#this is about my ocs #if they ever do become popular or gain an audience outside of like 5 people #i already hate myself for the choice i made but #god why

[softprincesso]

✨HOW TO BECOME A WEALTHY MIDDLE-AGED MAN✨

PT.2: Overview to understanding different saving/retirement methods, investments, and forms of income

2.1 Savings and Retirement

Welcome lovelies to (what I hope will be) a helpful series on gaining wealth and becoming financially literate and independent!

*disclaimer: while this advice can generally apply to many it will not apply to all. Everyone is in a different situation and should do their own research before they take what ANYONE says as fact or law. This is also coming from the perspective of a young, biracial, first generation female business student following a hypergamous lifestyle and who does sw so some advice may be specific to my like-minded ladies, but for the most part I just love money and want to help others find joy in their wallets as well. I am also operating in the US so things regarding accounts, stocks, and certain laws will vary by your country. Also, this is just a fun thing I wanted to do because talking about leveling up and learning and growing and money are my favorite past times. None of these pictures are mine, however I am using some links which may compensate me in some way, but I only used links which were mutually beneficial and would help you gain something as well, they are still just actual sources I use for myself.

✨THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND✨

Financial independence is different than financial confidence.

Financial Independence: “The most common sense of the term is that someone has enough wealth to live as they wish for the rest of their life without having to work.” -Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0611/declare-your-own-financial-independence-day.aspx

Financial Confidence: “We define financial confidence as having three aspects,” says Miler. “The first is awareness of how money can be a tool for helping you reach your goals and dreams. The second is financial literacy and understanding economic factors. The third is trust and knowing where to turn for financial advice.” -Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelleyzalis/2018/06/16/women-money-8-steps-for-growing-your-financial-confidence/?sh=2175b65e2468

While the ultimate goal is financial independence, financial confidence should be the main focus. I’ll give an example why. Imagine there are two people: Rhonda and Jill. Both of them like nice things, love to shop, and participate in the occasional splurge. Rhonda works a regular 9-5 and has a decent salary. She doesn’t have much financial knowledge (translation: financial confidence), but she has a savings account at her local bank and puts a couple hundred into retirement each year and she thinks that's enough. Suddenly, Rhonda wins the lottery. Overnight she has become a millionaire, so she quits her job, moves to LA, and goes on to live life to the fullest. She would now be considered financially independent. However, Rhonda has no idea how to manage all that money. She puts a small amount into that bank savings account and takes the rest to do what she will. One day she tries her luck at a casino, in less than five hours she has lost all of her money and has to start back at square one with no job, only a few thousand to get her through, and no-good way to explain to employers that she just wasted the last 5 years spending money on handbags she now has to sell at a depreciated value. (BTW you would not last not working with only a million dollars in LA for that long)

Now, let’s look at Jill. Jill is an independent contractor and has a relatively steady income. She knows very little about finances, but she actively learns how to manage what she has and keeps up to date on the latest money news. The day that Rhonda won the lottery was just another Thursday for Jill, the only unique point for her was that she opened a savings accounts with a high APY (we’ll say 1%) and put in $5000.00. A little later she also opened a Roth IRA and puts in the maximum yearly allowance of $6000.00. Along the way she opened a brokerage account of her own and started trading in the stock market along with investing in real estate which has given her some extra income to play with each year. Unfortunately, another housing crash occurs, and all of the money Jill invested into real estate is gone. However, since Jill learned the skills behind her choices early on, she is knowledgeable and understands the ups and downs of the market and how to invest her money in other places in the meantime. And, that High yield savings account accrued around $50 more without her doing anything and she has that to fall back on, or worst case she can take out part of her principal Roth IRA contribution. 10 years from now Jill should start to see a steady increase in her Roth IRA that by retirement will be a little over 1 million and she should be comfortable and invested enough into stocks that she gains around $200-1000 extra each month.

I think you understand why you want to be Jill.

✨HAVING ADEQUATE SAVINGS = BEING YOUR OWN LIFEGUARD✨

As discussed in Pt.1 the first goal you should achieve is securing an emergency fund that could sustain you for a couple of months if things were to ever hit the fan, and starting a retirement fund should be in your top 5 goals to complete. The saying, “the rich get richer” is popular for a reason. Wealthy people know how to make their money work for them instead of them having to work for money. An easy way anyone can do the same is by opening the right accounts for your savings and retirement.

Savings: 

All of your savings should be in a high yield saving account or split between different high yield accounts. This is an account which will reward you some interest every period for having money in your account with them. This is incredibly easy to do. You can either research/ask your bank about their high yield accounts or do some googling to find some other bank. Then transfer your money and there you go! When looking at banks understand that the highest Annual Percent Yields (APY), or the interest they will reward you, are going to be from online banks because they have less operational costs than a brick and mortar, but they will also come with their own disadvantages, like less ATMs to access or the inability to use when outside of your country so make sure to look into that. IMPORTANT: Make sure that whatever bank you choose is FDIC-insured so if the bank were to ever collapse or lose your money you have insurance up to $250,000.This won't generate a lot of extra cash, but an extra $20 every year is better than $0.

Retirement:

These accounts usually go by your current situation and what you see for your future.

401K: Probably the most known (I believe it’s only in the States but there might be something close to it in other countries) and that’s just because this is what employers usually offer if they offer anything. It is a retirement fund that your employer will set up and you can predefine how much of your paycheck you want to automatically go into it every time. Sometimes, the employers will also have a match program, and if they do you better max out the money they will contribute because that is FREE money! Most advice that I have seen has said to really only focus on this fund if your employer has that match program, otherwise I would focus on one of the accounts below. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/08/401k-info.asp

IRA: An IRA stands for Individual Retirement Account. There are three kinds…

                         Traditional: This IRA lets you put in pre-tax money and lets it grow tax-free until you make a withdrawal. Once you make the withdrawal that money is taxed at the current rate of your income at the time. Your contributions are tax deductible so you can write them off of your taxable income of that year. There are limits to how much you can contribute depending on your income, status, and whether you have another retirement fund as well.

                          Roth: With this IRA your contributions are taxed, but when you withdrawal money later on it is tax free. For those of you in a lower tax bracket than you believe you will be in the future, this IRA makes the most sense as you will pay less taxes now than you will when you are 59 ½ (The official age of retirement in the States). There are limits to how much you can contribute depending on your income, status, and whether you have another retirement fund as well.

                           SEP: Simplified Employee Pension. This is also an employer-based plan and may also work better for my self-employed gals out there. I don’t really know a lot on this one so I’ll just leave a link you can look into if it interests you: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/102714/how-does-simplified-employee-pension-sep-ira-work.asp

You can have both a traditional and Roth IRA as long as you are eligible for both. Anyone with earned income (with a job or can prove a steady income) can contribute to a Traditional IRA, however with a Roth IRA, as a single you can earn up to $139,000 and contribute. Personally, if you are just getting started with all of this just set up one IRA and as you learn more you can take steps to get another or switch accounts.

https://www.investopedia.com/retirement/roth-vs-traditional-ira-which-is-right-for-you/

There are a plethora of other accounts, but they are more specialized and the top four should get you started on the right path to saving for retirement. I’m guessing that the majority of the audience reading these are women between the ages of 20-30. Trust me when I say that I love to spend money as much as the next girl, but I also would like to be completely comfortable should anything happen in my older years that screws up my marriage or job, and no one is going to secure that for you.

Also, I’m sorry this is so US-based, but once again it is all I know. I believe IRAs are more widespread than a 401K, but all that takes to find out is a Google search on your part.

Either way, make sure you have a plan going into 2021 for your savings and retirement because this economic whirlwind is far from over and there is always a chance for another recession, depression, or disaster. (Wow O, way to keep the mood light)

This was getting way too long with the investments added so look out for Pt.2.2 on the overview for investments (where the actual fun begins and I can stop being such a stick in the mud)…

VOCAB TO KNOW/RESEARCH:

Financial independence

Financial Confidence

APY

Roth IRA

brokerage account

High yield savings account

principal

401K

Traditional IRA

Once again… if in these posts I ever give bad advice, F- something up, or am just generally ignorant PLEASE call me out! Remember that just like you I am a young woman figuring everything out and while I am confident when talking about money, I am by no means a genius (only in spurts) so any chance to learn I appreciate. I hope you all learned something new today and as always…

With Love,

O

#how to become a wealthy middle aged man #wealth #money #money management #wealth management #finances #hypergamy #affluence #heauxlife #heaux advice #heaux tips #spoiled girlfriend #spoiled gf #spoiled heaux #black woman in luxury #luxury #sugar tips #oadvice #softprincesso

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

[1/?] Sorry for venting. I just saw some bad takes that gave me a lot of feelings. Personally, JC stresses me out every time he comes on screen, but I don't mind it when JC fans say fan-typical things like how they like JC because he wears purple, or is grumpy, or they think he's hot, or that they ship x*ch*ng because the cql actors have nice jawlines. They're harmless, fun takes, and while I don't agree with some of them, I see where they're coming from

Hello there anon, vent away as that is what my blog is open for as I love/hate on Jiang Cheng as he is in the plot, as well as all of my beef with what has been done to him for the EN side of the fanbase! I am more than fine listening and engaging with the unsavory "unpopular" discussions of his canon behavior and this goes for anyone of course that needs an open play area. I'll try to engage with what you have sent point by point as succinctly as I can.

[2/?] (some of these are obviously crack, and I am a fan of a few problematic faves). But then there are stans that just have to put other characters down to make JC look good. Like, I think some fans take their freedom of interpretation for granted because most of these takes aren't even labeled 'headcanon,' 'ooc,' or 'crack' anymore. Stans feel that their interpretations are valid, and while they are, valid =/= canon, and they're treating these takes as canon, which becomes popular fanon.

I enjoy Jiang Cheng for what he is, however as I had said it took me another reread to get to my stance of him being the negative mirror to Lan Wangji's positive and my comfort with that for the story once I realized what purpose he served. He is only insofar tragic in regards to his circumstances, but it does not absolve him for what he is at his core (no pun, but I can make a very nice metaphor that even with a piece of Wei Wuxian in him he is still forever unable and unwilling to stand by him equally all while stagnating where as Lan Wangji is able to flourish, grow and mature with nothing of import left from Wei Wuxian in a technical sense). As for ships, I am a little dirty Xicheng whore for fun and can say there is a sense of entertainment for me making it work with two people where one is wildly ignorant and the other wildly rabid. But that is outside of what is established as canon in the work and I always try to keep the two strictly separate due to the skew fanon perpetuates.

3/?] And now, it's not clear what part of the fanon references canon JC or the canon events of mdzs. JC is an asshole; I don't like him as a person, but I do think that he's a complex character motivated by many issues (sup, YeeZY), which makes him fascinating to explore. Unfortunately, erasing his culpability also removes his agency. JC should be allowed to be an asshole character who makes his own decisions even if they're the wrong ones. He has made his own tragedy by constantly casting Wei Wuxian as the villain of his life.

Now thanks to you I will be using YeeZY to forever and now to acknowledge Madam Yu (this is your fault for the new tag). From a standing from storytelling I agree that he is complex in the Jianghu for MDZS. Where in the usual political intrigue of Wuxia, he would be the mustache twirling villain that is outright unforgivable in narration, it is by favor of Wei Wuxian's narration that has an early steeping of empathy for him. And he is not meant to be seen as ultimately sympathetic, the work builds up his hate against Wei Wuxian who tries to rationalize it all several times until he is finally unable to. Jiang Cheng is the antithesis to Lan Wangji and the false bait to get attached to in Wei Wuxian's first life. I will make the note their meeting in Yiling is lukewarm between both as they exchange nothing really in terms of conversation and all pleasantries are left in terms of Jiang Yanli for Wei Wuxian. By this point Wei Wuxian has already switched his yearnings of platonically wanting a part of Jiang Cheng's life, to subconscious romantic inclinations about Lan Wangji and the perceived loss of being in the other's life.

The very point of Jiang Cheng as the deconstruction, is that he has no passion in life despite his apparent exploits because he put a shadow to hang over himself as an excuse to say others think he is not good enough. He has no deeper motivations than pure selfishness by the end of the work and is pure frivolity that he has built up losing the meaning of his sect as a tradition. He had his agency (more than anyone I might add in the work due to his social position) that he used to build his reputation as a passive rich sect leader that has little to do with civilian problems.

4/?] And I think a JC, somehow, that realizes that he did something wrong and is working hard to change for the better and gain self-actualization to become that UWU best jiujiu the stans want him to be, who is ready to talk (not yell at) with WWX, apologize to him, and create a better, healthier relationship with him is a much more powerful reconciliation and happy ending than 'everyone is wrong and mean and they all apologize to JC, which magically gets rid of all his issues'.

He is forced out of culpability in reconciliation because simply put, his audience do not like the reality that relationships fray and dissolve with no further resolution other than we as adults both need to move on for safety and good health. It is not acceptable in real life and fiction is allowed to place that also in it's thematic relationships. He has a small, small spark of recognition at the end of the main story, however he himself seems to choose to ignore it, as change is hard and he has never taken to that well as was foreshadowed with his dogs and the idea of sharing a space with Wei Wuxian. To write this is an awful lot of work into his psyche which is not a nice place, he is a terrible being and downplaying that to make a sugar sweet person does not work instantaneously. He is the one responsible for the entire fallout with Wei Wuxian and he hysterically realizes that even as he tries to continue to blame Wei Wuxian.

The issue that I have with his current stan culture, is that they already view him as something he is not. They play at bicycle with all of the other protagonists that have positive traits that they strip as they see fit; Good affirming loving to children adult Lan Wangji, Self-sacrificing ultimately did it all for love and care Wei Wuxian, Hard exterior but softened to who they consider an annoyance Wen Qing, Loyal as partners in their exploits on the field and always have each others back Wen Ning. They even take Jin Guangyao's persona of playing damsel and using that as a positive to soften up Jiang Cheng into something he has never been for anyone for ships.

[5/5] Also, making WWX/WN/LWJ apologize just makes them look better than JC. Like, stans supposedly love JC, so they ahouldn't be lazy and work hard to give him actual character development. Again, I'm sorry for spamming your ask. It just really baffles me about where they get these 'hot' takes (All I'm going to say is that JC was ungrateful, and WN had a reason verbally dismantle him).

They see this, but, they will spin it in any way to excuse Jiang Cheng due to the story itself showing that he was in the wrong to everyone he flung accusations at and his hate. No one but him is at fault for his spite as he had gotten his revenge on the ones that had ruined Lotus Pier and killed his parents. His own resentment pitted him against good and well meaning people that he refused to help as he mimicked his mother's words about raising their heads higher out of goodness instead of keeping low and staying self-centered. There is the underlying criticism of taking individual arrogance as self-care at the cost of others. Each point that Wen Ning makes is exactly what Jiang Cheng himself knows as he hated Wei Wuxian for being something he could not be or even wanted to be. Jiang Cheng wants kindness but does not understand that kindness to others needs to be selfless and accept the hurt that can come with that in life. He encompasses the fall from the path of buddhist lifestyle, "The Three Poisons" to Wangxian's "Without Envy" at the stories end.

[6/5] P.S. I'm not saying I want reconciliation fics, but I just feel that if stans want JC to have a happy ending, then I think that he should actively work for it. I think it would be interesting to see what force of nature would push him through a character development because throwing a therapist at him would result in a murder.

"I'm not saying I want reconciliation fics, but I just feel that if stans want JC to have a happy ending, then I think that he should actively work for it."

They do not think he has to work for it, they say his tragedy is enough, while heaping accusations against Wei Wuxian and saying his own are not enough to absolve him. Something Wei Wuxian has never denied and told all present they are allowed to forever hate him for what he had done in the past, but that they need to find a way to live in a life that is always moving on. He learned that grudges do nothing once they are absolved and it leaves you with hate with nothing else to do with it once that object is gone. In terms of reconciliation, I do not ever think that either want anything other than a distant peaceful out of each other's life set up. Jiang Cheng does not need Wei Wuxian in his life to be satisfied and never has since he used him as the handicap to hide behind to stay angry and miserable. Being without that fallback opens the world far more for him to change than him ever interacting like an old friend with Wei Wuxian ever again, if he ever had the guts to do that.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #jiang cheng #yeah I am using that tag block me if it upsets you #pokes this sorry for the length I tried #listen... only i am his trash queen

[honeyby]

There’s been a very odd resurgence in the idea that bumbleby is not a done deal lately, and I’m not talking about from the usual crowd. I’m talking about from people who either do ship it or ship other non conflicting (ie not f/reezerburn m/ono or the likes) wlw or mlm ships. Frankly it’s baffling after everything Blake and Yang have been through and how they’re being written.

But I want to talk about this idea that they aren’t guaranteed with a scenario: what does it mean if bumbleby doesn’t happen? What implications does that have?

First I want to talk about f/airgame and the accusations of queerbaiting there. There has been an attitude that just because f/airgame didn’t happen that means bumbleby is less likely. However, these are two very different ships. F/airgame existed for one volume, and not even a full volume at that. There is a level of plausible deniability that the writers didn’t realize how popular it would become and how it would be seen. I’m sure they expected that some people would ship it because this fandom will ship anything that moves (and some things that don’t), but it’s reasonable that they didn’t expect it to blow up like it did. 

And when it did blow up, there wasn’t much they could do to tone things down because of the way the show is made. Any changes to make things more explicitly platonic wouldn’t have been able to happen until volume 8 (had Clover survived). Even if they could’ve adjusted minor things in later parts of volume 7 the arguably most egregious moment happens in their first big episode together. Because f/airgame only existed for a volume they didn’t have the chance to make adjustments to their interactions based on how fans were interpreting them. Even so, the writers have still been accused of queerbaiting for how they handled them in volume 7. But any backlash they got for Clover would pale in comparison to what Bumbleby not happening would garner.

With Bumbleby there is no plausible deniability. They know exactly how their interactions are being interpreted and they’ve known that for years. And they know exactly how much it means to people. Volume 6 is where I’d argue they lose the ability say that they didn’t intend for their relationship to be read romantically. In volume 5 we have Alone Together and Yang talking through her complicated feelings for Blake as well as just how focused on Yang Blake’s reunion with her team is. Blake and Yang’s relationship is singled out, and the writers know how that was received. So they have two options going into volume 6: tone it down and make it clear they’re meant to be seen as platonic, or keep writing them in a way that’s setting them up romantically. And what we got was a combination of heartfelt moments, a lot touching, and Adam making it very clear how he views their relationship.

Volume 7 doesn’t stop there and comes after one of the writers is asked point blank if they’re a couple and doesn’t deny it. He wants us to experience it, and we get Blake and Yang constantly flirting and any pretense of their relationship being subtext is gone. When Nora says “I think there’s more going on there” it’s just straight up text. It tells us, the audience, that Blake and Yang’s interactions are meant to be interpreted romantically, especially when no one actually disagrees with her (even Ren just says “Maybe one of them feels that way but the other might be worried” which doesn’t actually deny that they have feelings for each other).

So for Bumbleby not to happen is to go back on all of that. There is no “we didn’t realize people would take it that way” because the text itself contradicts that. They have had literal years to switch gears if Bumbleby wasn’t the plan. Which means that if Bumbleby somehow doesn’t happen all of this would’ve been a deliberate and incredibly malicious deception. It would arguably be one the worst queerbaiting instances ever. So why would they choose to do that? What do they gain from it? And what writer in their right mind wants to be known as “one of the guys responsible for one of the biggest queerbaiting scandals ever”?

We’re talking about a company that isn’t a stranger to including LGBT rep and that has earned some goodwill from the LGBT community with characters like Val/entina, Ilia, May, Saphron and Terra and others. They have LGBT employees like Lindsay and Arryn and Kdin, and that’s just RWBY voice actors. RWBY especially has a massive LGBT fanbase. The idea that the writers would deliberately choose to queerbait the bees knowing all of this as well as how important it is to the community is ludicrous. I can’t even put in to words just how cruel the writers would have to be purposefully queerbait bumbleby. Especially when the only thing that could be gained from it is a few homophobic fans that were already pissed off just by the existence of characters like Ilia and Saphron and Terra. And I doubt any of that gain can outweigh the huge loss of support they’d see.

But even if you still assume Bumbleby isn’t happening I want to talk about what that would mean for a lot of the outside teasing of it from cast and crew etc. Specifically, I want to talk about Arryn. Arryn, who is an openly bi woman. Arryn, who until the end of volume 6 had always been very clear that she shipped Blake and Yang as a fan of the show and not to take that to mean anything. Arryn, who was the one person to tell us that BMBLB wasn’t something the writers knew about so that we wouldn’t be expecting something that might not happen. If Bumbleby isn’t endgame that means that either a) Arryn suddenly changed her mind and has decided that she’s perfectly fine queerbaiting people which goes against all of her previous actions or b) the writers straight up lied to her about her character, which not only could lead to backlash from her but also would affect how she plays Blake (because whether or not Blake has feelings for Yang is going to change how Arryn voices her in scenes with Yang!). Neither of those scenarios makes any goddamn sense. 

What I’m trying to say is that the idea of Bumbleby being queerbaiting at this point is ridiculous. It requires a level of pointless maliciousness from multiple people that frankly isn’t realistic. I get being cautious, I do. But at some point you can’t believe the worst in everyone, because that means believing the writers would be cruel for cruelness’s sake even when they gain no benefit at all. The writers aren’t conspiring to hurt people; they have a story to tell and they’re telling it. And that story is team RWBY saving the world and includes Blake and Yang falling in love.

#rwby #bumbleby #conciseness? i don't know her #a dash of salt #i guess #for my own use #maybe i should use a read more

[bonjourmoncher]

Introversion is a personality trait characterized by a focus on internal feelings rather than on external sources of stimulation. Introverts and extroverts are often viewed in terms of two Hamilton Lindley extreme opposites, but the truth is that most people lie somewhere in the middle.

While introverts make up an estimated 25 to 40 percent of the population, there are still many misconceptions about this personality type. It is also important to note that introversion is not the same things as social anxiety or shyness. Being an introvert does not mean that you are socially anxious or shy.

1:34 8 Signs You're an Introvert What Is an Introvert? Introversion is one of the major personality traits identified in many theories of personality.

People who are introverted tend to be inward turning, or focused more on internal thoughts, feelings and moods rather than seeking out external stimulation.

Introversion is generally viewed as existing as part of a continuum along with extroversion. Introversion indicates one end of the scale, while extroversion represents the other end.

The terms introversion and extroversion (also often spelled extraversion) were popularized through the work of Carl Jung and later became central parts of other prominent theories including the big 5 theory of personality. The introversion-extroversion dimension is also one of the four areas identified by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). According to many theories of personality, everyone has some degree of both introversion and extroversion. However, people often tend to lean one way or the other.

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LEARN MORE Introverts tend to be more quiet, reserved, and introspective. Unlike extroverts who gain energy from social interaction, introverts have to expend energy in social situations. After attending a party or spending time in a large group of people, introverts often feel a need to "recharge" by spending a period of time alone.1

Common signs of introverts Illustration by Joshua Seong. © Verywell, 2018. Causes In order to know why some people are introverted and some people are extroverted, it is important to understand the role that your body's physiology plays. The way that your body responds to the outside environment plays a critical role in determining your level of extroversion and introversion.

On a physiological level, a network of neurons located in the brainstem known as the reticular activating system (RAS) is responsible for regulating arousal levels including wakefulness and transitions between sleeping and waking.2

The RAS also plays a role in controlling how much information you take in while you are awake. When confronted by potential threats in the environment, the RAS will increase your arousal levels in order for you to be alert and ready to deal with the danger. Each person has a basic set point in terms of arousal level. Some people tend to naturally have a much higher set point, while others have a much lower set point.

They psychologist Hans Eysenck suggested that these arousal levels could be thought of as a continuum. According to his arousal theory of extroversion:

15 percent of people have a minimal set point, meaning they naturally have low arousal levels 15 percent of people have a high set point, meaning they naturally tend to be more aroused 70 percent of people lie somewhere in the middle of the continuum According to Eysenck's theory, introverts are those that have naturally high levels of arousal. Because introverts tend to experience chronically high arousal levels, they tend to seek activities and environments where they can escape from overstimulation. Because of their naturally high arousal levels, they are more alert and take in more information from the environment. Escaping somewhere to have time alone to recharge gives them the opportunity to process and reflect on what they have learned.

Common Signs Do you assume that you know who is an introvert and who isn't? While you might think of an introvert as a shy wallflower who prefers to stay home alone instead of socializing, introverts can actually come in many types with a wide variety characteristics.

There are certainly plenty of introverts who are socially reserved and who would prefer to stay home and read a book rather than go to a big party, but there are also plenty of introverts who enjoy socializing. You might even be surprised to learn that many people who you think of as "social butterflies" might actually be quite introverted.

The following are just a few of the signs that you (or someone you know) might be an introvert.

1. Being Around Lots of People Drains Your Energy

Do you ever feel exhausted after spending time with a lot of people? After a day interacting with others, do you often need to retreat to a quiet place and have an extended amount of time all to yourself? One of the major characteristics of this personality type is that introverts have to expend energy in social situations, unlike extroverts who gain energy from such interactions.3

That doesn't mean that all introverts avoid social events altogether.

Many introverts actually enjoy spending time around others, with one key caveat—introverts tend to prefer the company of close friends. While an extrovert might go to a party with the goal to meet new people, an introvert intends to spend quality time talking to good friends.

2. You Enjoy Solitude

As an introvert, your idea of a good time is a quiet afternoon to yourself to enjoy your hobbies and interests.

A few hours alone with a good book, a peaceful nature walk or your favorite television program are great ways to help you feel recharged and energized.

This does not mean that the average introvert wants to be alone all the time. Many introverts love spending time with friends and interacting with familiar people in social situations. They key thing to remember is that after a long day of social activity, an introvert will probably want to retreat to a quiet place to think, reflect, and recharge.

If having a few hours to be alone sounds like your idea of a good time, you just might be an introvert.

3. You Have a Small Group of Close Friends

One common misconception about introverts is that they don't like people. While introverts typically do not enjoy a great deal of socializing, they do enjoy having a small group of friends to whom they are particularly close. Instead of having a large social circle of people they know only on a superficial level, introverts prefer to stick to deep, long-lasting relationships marked by a great deal of closeness and intimacy.

Researchers have found that people high in this trait tend to have a smaller group of friends. While extroverts generally have a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, introverts typically choose their friends much more carefully. Their closest relationships tend to be profound and significant. They also prefer to interact with people on a one-on-one basis rather than in a large group setting.

If your social circle tends to be small but very close, there's a pretty good chance you are an introvert.

4. People Often Describe You as Quiet and May Find It Difficult to Get to Know You

Introverts are often described as quiet, reserved, mellow and are sometimes mistaken for being shy.

While some introverts certainly are shy, people certainly should not mistake an introvert's reserve for timidity. In many cases, people with this personality type simply prefer to choose their words carefully and not waste time or energy on needless chit-chat.

If you are the quiet type and a bit reserved, you probably are an introvert.

5. Too Much Stimulation Leaves You Feeling Distracted and Unfocused

When introverts have to spend time in activities or environments that are very hectic, they can end up feeling unfocused and overwhelmed. Extroverts, on the other hand, tend to thrive in situations where there is a lot of activity and few chances of becoming bored.

According to at least one study, researchers have found that introverts tend to be more easily distracted than extroverts,4 which is part of the reason why introverts tend to prefer a quieter, less harried setting.

If you tend to feel overwhelmed in busy social situations, you probably tend to be an introvert.

6. You Are Very Self-Aware

Because introverts tend to be inward-turning, they also spend a great deal of time examining their own internal experiences. If you feel like you have a very good knowledge and insight into yourself, your motivations, and your feelings, you might be more of an introvert.

Introverts tend to enjoy simply thinking about and examining things in their own minds. Self-awareness and self-understanding is important to introverts, so they often devote a great deal of time to learning more about themselves. This might involve exploring hobbies they enjoy, thinking about their lives, and reading books that explore themes and topics that are important to them.

If you feel that you are self-aware and enjoy gaining deep knowledge about yourself, then you might be more of an introvert.

7. You Like to Learn By Watching

Where extroverts tend to prefer Hamilton Philip Lindley to jump right in and learn through hands-on experience, introverts typically prefer learning through observation. While extroverts typically learn through trial and error, introverts learn best by watching.

Introverts like to watch others perform a task, often repeatedly, until they feel that they can replicate the actions on their own. When introverts do learn from personal experience, they prefer to practice somewhere private where they can build their skills and abilities without having to perform for an audience.

If you like to learn more by watching rather than doing, there is a chance that you have a more introverted personality.

8. You Are Drawn to Jobs That Involve Independence

As you might imagine, jobs that require a great deal of social interaction usually hold little appeal to people high in introversion. On the other hand, careers that involve working independently are often a great choice for introverts. For example, an introvert might enjoy working as a writer, accountant, computer programmer, graphic designer, pharmacist, or artist.

Introversion vs. Shyness It is important to note that introversion does not necessarily equate with shyness. In their book, The Development of Shyness and Social Withdrawal, authors Schmidt and Buss write, "Sociability refers to the motive, strong or weak, of wanting to be with others, whereas shyness refers to behavior when with others, inhibited or uninhibited, as well as feelings of tension and discomfort."

Shyness indicates a fear of people or social situations. Introverts, on the other hand, simply do not like to spend lots of time interacting with other people.

However, introverts do appreciate being around people to whom they are close. They find engaging in "small talk" tedious but do enjoy having deep, meaningful conversations. Introverts also tend to think about things before talking. They want to have a full understanding of a concept before they voice an opinion or try to offer an explanation.

Understanding the Dimensions of Introversion and Shyness Misconceptions In an excellent article in Atlantic Monthly, author Jonathan Rauch took on some of the common myths and misconceptions about introverts. While introverts are often labeled as shy, aloof, and arrogant, Rauch explains that these perceptions result from the failure of extroverts to understand how introverts function.

"Extroverts have little or no grasp of introversion," Rauch suggests. "They assume that company, especially their own, is always welcome. They cannot imagine why someone would need to be alone; indeed, they often take umbrage at the suggestion. As often as I have tried to explain the matter to extroverts, I have never sensed that any of them really understood."

According to estimates, extroverts outnumber introverts by about three to one.1 Introverts often find that other people try to change them or even suggest that there is something "wrong" with them. Nothing could be further from the truth. While introverts make up a smaller portion of the population, there is no right or wrong personality type. Instead, both introverts and extroverts should strive to understand each other's differences and similarities.

11 Things You Introverts Want You to Know A Word From Verywell Remember, introversion is not an all-or-nothing characteristic. People can be what you might call introverts with a capital I (aka "very introverted") or they might be outgoing in some situations with some introverted tendencies. Introversion exists on a continuum with extroversion, and most people tend to lie somewhere between the two.

If you identify with some characteristics of introversion and some characteristics of extroversion, then there is a pretty good chance that you are one of the 70 percent of people who fall somewhere in the middle. Ambiverts tend to enjoy both spending time with others and spending time alone,5 depending on the situation and their needs at the moment.

Most importantly, remember that one type isn't "better" than the other. Each tendency can have benefits and drawbacks depending on the situation. By better understanding your personality, however, you can learn how to play to your strengths.

If you are an introvert, find ways to cope if the stimulation from the outside world becomes too much. Seek out a quiet moment where you can get away from overwhelming noises and recharge.

In one study of adult introverts between the ages of 18 and 80, those who had strong social relationships and emotional regulation skills were found to be happier than those who did not have those skills. Make the most of your strengths by nurturing your close relationships in order to foster strong social connections and utilize your tendency to look inward in order to develop solid emotional understanding.

Introversion is Hamilton P Lindley perfectly normal. If you find, however, that your introverted tendencies are the result of anxiety that impacts your normal, day-to-day functioning, consult your physician or a mental health professional.

#hamiltonlindley

[diginext]

Role of Social Media in Digital Marketing

Social media is a platform which not only connects people worldwide but also serves best for Digital Marketing. Digital marketing is a practice which is usually performed to connect the target audience to the business owners. This is done to expand the business quickly and efficiently. Role of social media in digital marketing is one of the most suitable and preferred methods to generate leads.

Days are gone when people took the help of televisions and newspapers known as traditional marketing to attract people. Since technology is handy and internet connection is a necessity today, traditional methods are almost discarded. Now our major concern is how social media is helpful in digital marketing? Ever since social media has gained popularity among humans, we cannot think of promoting a brand without taking the help of social media. Connecting with new clients and expressing your thoughts become quite easy with social media.

The following points are the role of Social Media in Digital Marketing-

1. Increased Brand Awareness

Social media is one of the most cost-efficient digital marketing methods used to syndicate content and increase your business' visibility. Implementing a social media strategy will greatly increase your brand recognition since you will be engaging with a broad audience of consumers. You just need to create social media profiles for your business and begin interacting with others. Get employees, business partners, and sponsors to "like" and "share" your page. Each post that is shared will be introduced to a new network of individuals, which can lead them to become potential customers, and the more people who know about your business, the better. There is no doubt that by simply having a social media page your brand will benefit, and with regular use, it can generate a wide audience for your business.

2. More Inbound Traffic

Without marketing your business on social media, your inbound traffic is limited to your usual customers. The people familiar with your brand are likely searching for the same keywords you already rank for. Without utilizing social media as part of your marketing strategy, you'll have much more difficulty reaching anyone outside of your loyal customer circle. Every social media profile you add to your marketing mix is a gateway to your website, and every piece of content you post is another opportunity to acquire a new customer. With different people come to different needs and different ways of thinking. Syndicating your content on as many platforms as possible allows these individuals to organically reach your business. By marketing on social media, you can effectively open your business to a wider variety of versatile consumers all over the world.

3. Improved Search Engine Rankings

Although posting on social media might get your business some traffic, more effort than that is required to see significant success. Search engine optimization is very important for achieving higher page rankings and obtaining traffic to your business website. Social media platforms are getting to be vital for any business to make their presence to promote their websites since criteria vary day by day for SEO rankings, just optimization for websites, blogs may not be effective. Social media content sharing will help search engines recognize your brands for its sustainability and its integrity.

4. Higher Conversion Rates

With increased visibility, your business gains more opportunities for conversion. Every blog post, image, video, or comment may lead viewers to your company's website and increase traffic. Social media marketing allows your business to give a positive impression through a humanization factor. When brands are interactive by sharing content, commenting, and posting statuses on social media, it personifies a brand. People prefer to do business with other people, rather than companies. The better impression you make on a visitor, the more likely they When a brand is interactive online, consumers who follow your brand's accounts often begin to more completely trust the credibility of your business. People use social media platforms to stay connected to their friends, family, and communities.are to think of your business when the need for your product or services arises. Putting your brand in an atmosphere where people are sharing, liking, and talking, can only improve the conversion rates on your existing traffic.

5. Better Customer Satisfaction

Social media is a networking and communication platform. Creating a voice for your company through these platforms is important. Customers appreciate knowing that when they post comments on your pages, they will receive a personalized response rather than an automated message. Being able to acknowledge each comment shows that you are attentive of your visitors' needs and aim to provide the best experience. Every customer interaction on your business's social media accounts is an opportunity to publicly demonstrate your compassion for your customers. Whether an individual has a question or a complaint, social media allows you to address the matter using interpersonal dialogue. A brand devoted to customer satisfaction that takes the time to compose personal messages will inherently be viewed in a positive light, even if responding to a customer complaint.

6. Improved Brand Loyalty

One of the main goals of almost all businesses is developing a loyal customer base. Considering that customer satisfaction and brand loyalty typically go hand in hand, it is important to regularly engage with consumers and begin developing a bond with them. Social media is not just limited to introducing your brand's products and promotional campaigns. Customers see these platforms as a service channel where they can communicate directly with the business.

7. More Brand Authority

Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty both play a part in making your business more authoritative, but it all comes down to communication. When consumers see your company posting on social media, especially replying to customers and posting original content, it makes you appear more credible. Regularly interacting with customers demonstrates that your business cares about customer satisfaction, and is available to answer any questions that they might have. Satisfied customers are eager to spread the word about a great product or service and they usually turn to social media to express their opinion. Having customers mention your business on social media will advertise your business, and show new visitors your value and brand authority. Once you obtain a few satisfied customers who are vocal about their positive purchase experience, you can let the advertising be done for you by actual customers who enjoyed your product or service.

8. Cost-Effective

Social media marketing is possibly the most cost-efficient part of an advertising strategy. Signing up and creating a profile is free for almost all social networking platforms, and any paid promotions you decide to invest in are a relatively low cost compared to other marketing tactics. Being cost-effective is such an advantage because you can see a greater return on investment and retain a bigger budget for other marketing and business expenses. If you decide to use paid advertising on social media, always start small to see what you should expect. As you become more comfortable, fine-tune your strategy and try increasing your budget. Just by spending a small amount of time and money you can significantly increase your conversion rates and eventually get a return on investment on the money you initially invested.

9. Gain Marketplace Insights

One of the best ways to find the needs and wants of your customers instead of directly communicating with them is Marketplace awareness. It is also considered as the most valuable advantage of social media. By observing the activities on your profile, you can see customers’ interest and opinions that you might not know otherwise if you didn’t have a social media presence. As a complementary research tool, social media can help you get information and a better understanding of your industry. Once you get a large following, you can then use additional tools to examine other demographics of your consumers.

#socialmediamarketing #digitalmarketing #askdigitallynext

[corwynnasmith]

In honor of posting the first chapter of Put That Kid Down’s sequel, What You Wanted, I’m gonna give everyone what they never wanted.

Volatile, untested writing tips on making your murdery character sympathetic from an amateur! (These can also be used for making sympathetic villains, with or without murder, but I’m just going to focus here because my most morally screwed characters are usually the protagonists).

1. You can introduce the character in a non-murder, positive context. First impressions matter! Don’t start off a supposedly sympathetic character waist deep in entrails and gore. (Though you could pull that off with a joke, if you’re cool enough.) This could be through:

    1a. A #gooddeed. Help a child get a kite from a tree. Save a worm from drowning. Etc. This gives a positive impression of the character that can cause readers to forgive flaws more easily down the road. Like murder.

    1b. A relatable situation. Get stuck holding the door open for a whole line of people. Worry about what to get their never satisfied mother for mother’s day. Etc. This makes the character more human, less murder machine. People look for reasons in humans, and don’t immediately write them off just because they do terrible, terrible things.

    1c. A positive relationship & interaction. Pet the cat they take very good care of and call “Baby.” Hug a friend goodbye with a thanks for the advice. Etc. This is a Redeeming Connection that can make people look a bit harder at the character for explanation when they show their true colors, instead of shoving them in the murder box right off the bat. HOWEVER this one can backfire into making them seem more terrible if manipulation/deceit is the basis or SEEMS TO BE the basis of the relationship. (The Murder Beard Syndrome - ‘I’m not your ordinary serial killer because I have a real FRIEND’ becomes ‘they are definitely just a serial killer using that person for cover’ - so be careful).

    1d. Miscellaneous because I bet you can come up with more, am I right, folks?

2. You can give your character a plausible reason. Sure, we all want to occasionally write a rebel without a cause, but characters that murder for seemingly no reason can be a hard sell outside certain groups (know your audience lol). This can be:

    2a. An actual Good Reason. The people killed by your character are in a kill or be killed situation with no real alternative. Or they are infected with something that cannot be cured (coughzombiescough). Or they are being forced to by an outside power. Or it’s a mercy kill, even. Etc.

    2b. A seemingly good reason. This reason can be explained. It may not be the best option or the most moral option (or even a moral option at all), but it has weight. For example, killing prisoners of war. This is not good morally, but from a utilitarian standpoint, can be explained. Revenge schemes also follow this viewpoint - taking vengeance can be explained, even if it’s morally iffy to bad.

    2c. A bad reason. I know I just said MAKE IT PLAUSIBLE. I know I just said that. But hear me out. This works best when combined with (3) below, and is seen in the popular show Dexter. Your character wants to murder people for a reason, but it’s a bad reason and they should feel bad.* For example, they crave something about the murder, like it relieves a stress or gives them a sense of control. This could even be the character that just finds killing fun, though that is a thin line to tread. Maybe your character can’t stand rudeness or hears certain people’s life force like a thin, high pitched noise and is just trying to make it quiet (though that is almost 2b). So many bad reasons out there. Run free.

*Feeling bad is not actually a requirement. See Dexter again, in the beginning.

3. Give your character a code. This doesn’t have to be a moral code, but the closer it fits to the popular sense of morality, the more sympathetic your character will be. This lends itself well to vigilante killers, which tend to hover between 2b and 2c regarding motivation.

4. Remember your character needs a life outside killing / doing terrible things. In order for anyone to have a fully fleshed character, there needs to be depth. Hobbies, jobs, dreams, fears, goals that aren’t necessarily geared towards (in this case) murder. A past and a future. Relationships, good and bad. Of course, throwing in random tangents to your plot could through your readers for a loop, so it’s best to work these things in as actual plot elements. For example...

    4a. Introductions. Does your character need to meet someone plot relevant? Have them attend the same sewing circle - you know, the one they joined because they didn’t want the skills passed on by their beloved elder to go to waste! The same business meeting where you reveal your character’s work ethic / passion for their job! Speed dating to show your character’s desire for love! Etc.

    4b. Complications.** It isn’t a story if your character never struggles! Introduce a relationship as a barrier to getting terrible things done due to obligations, hilarious and inconvenient timing on the part of the loved or hated one, or simply scheduling problems where your character’s calendar is #toofullforcrime. Maybe tear your character between two conflicting goals, the first being your murder-adjacent plot and the second being a passion for a hobby/job/relationship/etc. Have fun with it! Torment them!

    4c. Facilitations!** Sometimes, things go right! Maybe your character needs to infiltrate an organization, so they use their skills gained from a certain hobby or past employment to ingratiate themselves with the target organization! Every hobby has a potential application in murder and villainy if you just try hard enough.

**If you use a hobby, job, relationship, etc. as a facilitation or complication, it is best to have it be mentioned briefly as part of a daily/weekly routine, or during the plot’s “downtime” before having it spring out of the box in its True Form as a plot element. This makes the story seem planned ahead gasp. However, having it spring out of the ether can be a good reveal for it if you’re aiming for comedy or shock value.

5. Judge your audience’s Taboo Level / know your audience. Or choose your own Taboo Level. Draw a line somewhere. This is not a line your character has chosen, or will mention, or even knows about. These are just actions your character will not be doing in the story. Some Evil Deeds are instant death for a character’s sympathy standings, based on your audience’s values. Some almost universal ones*** are:

    5a. Betraying the Connection to Humanity. Unless your story is about descent into madness / darkness specifically, your character taking the very thing that made everyone sympathetic to them and murdering/destroying/giving up on it can be Very Bad without a strong redemption arc planned. (If it is about the descent, then this is the turning point that makes your story lol) This can be played off as Very Dramatic instead if it’s for a good reason / seemingly good reason. Popular ones would be: 

For Your Own Good

Because I Don’t Deserve You

The Connection is Actually Evil

The Connection is Accidentally Killing the Character

Etc.

    5b. You- you should be able to come up with this list on your own lol Please just know your audience and also your own limits. And whether or not you’re willing to take the chance the behavior might be normalized by your depiction, too.

6. Emotions are important. What your character is thinking and feeling and telling themselves about what they’re doing are key to sympathy. If the POV permits, you can have some thoughts and feelings floating around, but it’s best to show it. Let your audience sleuth out the truth through your character’s body language, actions, word choice, tone, etc. You can, of course, explain the cues as you give them, like a nervous fidget or an impatient glance. If your readers can’t understand your character, ever, they will not empathize. They will not care. Don’t just have a string of actions one after the other - let your character react.

7. Have fun with it. If you don’t like what you’re writing, chances are your readers won’t, either. I know writing itself is hard and arduous, so maybe you won’t have fun with the actual writing, but the end story should be something you want to read. You can keep these tips in mind or throw them out the window as long as you’re writing for yourself. (But Cor, you JUST SAID- yes, keep your audience in mind for readability/understanding/values, but when it come to the actual story and its characters - those are yours).

Keep writing!

#writing #writing tips #making a sympathetic villain #making a sympathetic murderer #PTKD #put that kid down #there's a sequel lol #I just meant to announce it and I made this monster post #villains #writing villains #morally ambiguous character #unwanted advice

[jonsameta]

Hi, me again!

jesuiscommejesuis: Haha, I’m on that GoT grind and probably won’t stop until the premiere 😂. I trust your opinion so unfortunately you have to endure another ask from me. Anyway…I think that most of us have considered the possibility of Jonsa not being canon. (RIP me if that happens). But my question isn’t about whether Jonsa will be or won’t be (I’ve come to terms with the fact that GoT will end how GRRM always intended it to end) it’s about what that possibility means for all of the evidence, clues, foreshadowing, etc that we’ve gathered. In your opinion will Jonsa not happening render those clues and meta meaningless and we were all crazy after all? Or do they take on a new meaning and point us in a new direction? Idk if that even makes sense. Maybe I’m just afraid that Jonsa wont happen and I’m afraid for no other reason other than that I will have looked and sounded insane to all of my GoT friends and had nothing to show for it. Also do you know of any interviews or blog posts from GRRM possibly supporting Jonsa? Same for D&D? Or any other people on or working with the show? Thank you so much!! 💙

—-

Hi there, 

The thing about theories is they’re like Shrodinger’s cat. If you try to be objective, you have to entertain the possibility that it won’t happen, but it can’t completely be false until proven otherwise. That said, some theories are more probable than others because there’s material within the text that thematically undoes something. This is because a story’s themes (which differs depending on the adaptation but it can’t be completely divorced from the original source either) define its boundaries because they essentially make up “the heart of the story”, not the plot. They give the main characters a moral dilemma that drives their journeys. Considering the themes of the story - both bookwise and showwise - Jonsa is very probable because it answers a lot of long standing character arcs that go beyond these characters and provides a bookend that Jon/Dany cannot considering R+L=J. 

I think anything in this story has to be considered according to the politics - even the fantasy part because the personal is political. With such a spread out story only the themes and the morality dilemmas of politics that the smallest moment can have is what holds it all together. And I think the strongest argument for the probability of Jonsa comes from a structural level of gauging the politics. 

Jon’s parentage is a political game changer and the way it’s been built up it cannot just be for personal angst - especially when the element of his parentage revealing him to have a higher claim than Dany is brought up. It doesn’t just affect him or his relationship with Dany. It affects Westeros and Dany’s own longstanding goal.

Jon may not want to be king, but Dany is walking in as a very unpopular figure into the North and the way she has gone about her campaign hasn’t improved her reputation and only worsened it. And Jon himself will lose popularity after having 1) bent the knee to a Targaryen, 2) consorting with a Targaryen and 3) being a secret Targaryen. 

Dany doesn’t realise that although Jon claims to have pledged his allegiance to her, it doesn’t mean the North has fallen into her hands. He’s only lost their faith from this move so no Targaryen by themselves could claim the North. Not to mention the Vale and Riverlands are more allied to Sansa than they are to Jon. To regain faith, he’d have to separate himself from Dany and the Targaryen identity a bit and yet he would need a political statement that only a marriage alliance to Stark could give if he were to remain in power. There’s also the pesky issue of how unknowingly Sansa and the Starks have more allies than Dany (or Jon without the Starks) does as everyone comes into Winterfell. So Sansa’s constant label as “key to the North” and the importance of marriage alliances becomes very important here. He can’t become king or even gain the faith of the people (back) without Sansa. So in that case, the whole notion of the Pact of Ice and Fire being fulfilled through Dany and Jon falls apart because Jon will be seen as an outsider. @thelawyerthatwaspromised has even written a post with infographics to make it easier to understand. It’s like R+L=J resets the chessboard. Ironically, what the audience thought Jon/Dany’s union would do politically is far more possible through Jon/Sansa. 

As it makes sense as a political match, the possibility of it happening and impacting the narrative increases a lot more. The original outline also matters here because clearly the pseudo-incest tag didn’t stop the author. However, as the characters haven’t interacted in real time in the books and aren’t close, there’s not much people have asked him about it nor has GRRM has said about it unless you count his vague reply once (”I won’t say more than I’ve already said in the books”). I’d say there’s more to be gauged from what he has to say about other ships that fandom roots for, that isn’t as positive as they make it out to be - whether Jon/rya, San/San, San/rion or Jon/Dany. It’s not obvious because he hardly shuts down possibilities but there’s reading between the lines. It becomes more obvious through a process of elimination. It’s also because Jon/Sansa as a ship tramples over so many ships that fandoms have banked on that people are inclined to dismiss it rather than re-evaluate the pre-existing ships. 

On the show, people have been coy too but there’s more content to gauge as the characters have already reunited and their dynamic has become pretty pivotal to the story. Where D&D shut down Dany and Yara ever happening, in the same panel they evaded a question about Jon and Sansa being developed as a romantic relationship. Aiden Gil/lian commented on how Jon’s parentage opens up possibilities for Jon and Sansa’s relationship romantically at the end of season 6. Sophie was asked about it post season 6 and she said it was possible because it’s GOT and they’re cousins. Also, there’s Liam Cunnin/gham who once liked a Jonsa fanvideo lol and he barely has any likes. Sophie has said it’s possible, even as she joked about how it would be embarrassing to film an intimate scene. Kit has somehow avoided all questioning, but he has some pretty interesting reactions regarding Jon and Sansa’s relationship - either in the words he chooses (”She twists him like no one else”) or how over the top his reaction to Sansa is when he talks about how annoying she is to the point where he’s flushed and red and laughing while saying “I’ve gotten really animated now that Sansa has come into the story”. Bryan Cogman has a lot to say regarding this dynamic too, that he even wrote Jon leaving Ghost behind to watch over Sansa when he left for Dragonstone. 

What helps regarding the show is that it’s not just the actors or the political sense, but the camerawork and visual framing that makes their scenes very confusing because they’re shot as a romantic couple about to happen, as @trinuviel has explored in her series “All is Subtext”.  This notion that it was “framed” or “shot” that way was echoed by multiple reviewers and podcasts through season 6 and even into the beginning of season 7. 

A huge part of this was because it very subtly visually paralleled more positive romantic ships on the show like Ned/Cat, Jaime/Brienne, Robb/Talisa, Sam/Gilly, Missandei/Greyworm and even Jon/Ygritte to some extent. This is over a course of 7 episodes under 5 different directors. One of the most telling scenes for me was when they did two back to back parallels to Ned/Cat and Jaime/Brienne after Jon chokeholds Littlefinger over Sansa and they go on to give a Jaime/Brienne-esque goodbye. The same director Mark Mylod directed both the season 6 Jaime/Brienne and season 7 Jon/Sansa goodbye. Bryan Cogman even confirmed that the Littlefinger chokehold was meant to parallel Ned doing the same over Cat. 

But in my opinion, what weirdly cemented it was how Jon/Dany contrasted Jon/Sansa’s dynamic and framing. There were a lot of structural decisions made that undercut the Jon/Dany “romance” and made Jon/Sansa look more compatible and romantic, which is something I explored in my “Undoing Romance” series. Again, this is looking beyond the actors. The biggest tell for me was that they never got a first kiss so romantic tension was never released but just dissipated over plot exposition. Moreover, how is it that Jon and Sansa have more parallels with romantic ships than Jon/Dany do? Why do Jon/Sansa have more Robb/Talisa framing through season 6 than Jon/Dany through season 7 if that’s what’s happening? Why was there no passionate first kiss like theirs? We just skipped to the sex in between a montage that told us how related they are. 

Why didn’t Jon look back at Dany when Jorah did, while he looked back at Sansa? Why does Jon react more violently to Sansa’s suitors than to Jorah? Why are these characters caught in triangle with interlopers, who pose a political threat but are also interested in one romantically? Why is this dynamic given so much importance where there’s tension but also there’s emotional vulnerability that pours out contrasting Jon/Sansa’s and Sansa and Arya’s season 6 and season 7 battlements scenes respectively. Why did they reveal R+L=J at the end of season 6 - the season in which people questioned what the hell was happening in the Jon/Sansa dynamic and a whole season before Jon met Dany. Both season finales also teased conflict because of political claims that change because of R+L=J. Where his parentage reveal, relieves Jon/Sansa of the direct incest factor because it biologically distances them, it makes Jon and Dany biologically more related - especially because she’s heavily inbred herself. 

So it is a situation of “will they/won’t they?” but even more subtly because the cast and crew always skips past discussing it and with Jon/Dany happening people take it as accidental chemistry. There’s no heavy dismissal from the TPTB though when there could’ve been or laughing at it like Tormund and Brienne, which is totally for laughs and a show ship. What they do keep saying is that this relationship is key to watch and you have to wonder: why is it so important? To me it’s not about the actors chemistry or singular scenes. It’s about the story’s intrinsic narrative structure and the camera framing that makes the visual subtext convey more than the text does. 

The show frames Jon and Sansa’s relationship is odd because we know they weren’t close and Arya was his favorite and yet they take up quite an important part in each other’s arc at this point, where they both want to trust each other completely but don’t and yet their vulnerability comes out most around each other in these last two seasons. They’re being built up more slowly than Jon/Dany and more subtly so while people expect a full blown romance, I expect something more subtle, more quiet and thus emotionally rewarding for these characters individual and collective arcs. If it happens, D&D are building it up as a plot twist/game changer because it’s related to politics. But it’s not to say there can’t be emotional catharsis too because these characters have a lot of issues that they answer pretty well. 

Hope that answers your questions. 

- lostlittlesatellites

#anti-jonerys #tagged anti: for those who would want to filter it out #asks #jesuiscommejesuis #submission

[arielthemrrmaid-blog]

How helpful is Youtube?

Image by Mark Wyciślik-Wilson via betanews.com

Youtube. The place you can go to watch Tik-tok compilations and learn the entire history of the earth in a 7 minute video. If you need help figuring out how to change a tire, chances are you will find a video on Youtube to help you out. 

What Is Youtube?

Youtube is one of the most popular video sharing platforms on the internet with nearly 300 hours of video content uploaded every minute and 5 billion total views a day. The website was initially launched in February of 2005 by 3 former Paypal employees  A couple months later on April 23, 2005 an 18 second clip named “Me at the zoo” was uploaded to the platform, becoming the first public video ever uploaded in Youtube history.  

Since Youtube's early beginnings, it has grown rapidly in popularity and has become a distribution center for new and creative visual content that can be viewed all over the world. It has also created jobs for people who create videos allowing them to make a living off of the content they upload.  It has helped jumpstart careers in music and acting, and has allowed people to freely express themselves, within reason, their ideas, and their passions to the world. 

Where Else is Youtube Useful?

Overall, in the creative sense, the impact of Youtube is largely positive.  However, what about in the sense of education, business, or everyday life? Although a majority of the content uploaded onto the website is entertainment based, there is a wide variety of videos you can find that can be very useful with real life problems and situations. Nervous about an upcoming interview for a job? Watch a video on Top 10 Interview Tips To CRUSH Your Interview. Want to try and improve your math skills for an upcoming ACT? Look at someone go through and explain some of The HARDEST ACT® Math Problems. Too stressed out and having trouble sleeping? Listen to some relaxing sounds and music to help you destress and promote deep sleep. The possibilities are endless  to the things you are able to utilize in various aspects of your professional and personal life.

Benefits of Youtube in Education

Photo By globalfinaceschool via Youtube

As a student, Youtube is a life saver. Many students have encountered that one teacher that fails to explain things well and you find yourself having to learn the majority of the course content on their own. I was able to get through many of my classes by watching Youtube videos. It can help take concepts that might seem impossible to comprehend to a level that you can understand. For me the class was Physics.  If it weren’t for the many tutorials regarding projectile motion and forces, I would have easily failed the class.  

There are many ways the platform can be used in the classroom environment as well. Sitting down and listening to a teacher lecture for an hour straight can cause students to lose focus and interest, however, adding fun videos into the lesson plan can help students become more engaged. Videos can also be beneficial for students who are visual learners. An estimated 65% of the population are visual learners (“Learning styles of medical students”, 2014). In classes such as biology or literature, there are topics and concepts that are much easier to explain through visual media. For example, watching a video on how a white blood cell performs Phagocytosis on a bacteria cell can be much easier to comprehend and more interesting for students rather than just learning about it in a lecture or looking at a picture in a text book. Watching a movie of one of Shakespeare's famous plays The Merchant of Venice can help bring the book to life and bring tone and rhythm to the author's words. Channels like Khan Academy, Crash Course, and so many others, create free weekly content that can be utilized by teachers and students both inside and outside of the classroom.  There are videos that will assist you in nearly every education subject matter such as World History, Psychology, Accounting, and Health & Medicine just to name a few. 

Photo By Ariel Dixon, “Crash Course Channel” 

In 2018, videos under the category of Education grew from 3% to 9%, accounting for about 19% of Youtube's total views (blog.pex, 2018) Youtube has started to become a place where educators, institutions, and people of all professions can upload their educational matter. The site has become a valuable tool for educators and students alike.

Benefits of Youtube in Business 

The website has even established itself in the Business community. Youtube is a social media platform for videos, so similar to apps such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, you can build a following to gain potential customers. An estimated 90% of people surveyed say they find new products or brands through Youtube (Thinkwithgoogle, 2019). This platform assists in getting your product out to the public and influencing them to possibly buy it. By showing off the product and demonstrating what the product can do in a video it allows consumers to see the product in action.

Creative videos for companies can help get more exposure for the product as well. Short films, animations, or comedy sketches are all ways to give character to your business that may be better than commercials and much cheaper. Recently, the coffee company Starbucks posted an ad in the UK relating to the LGBT+ community about them being open and accepting to everyone without regard to their gender identity.   This ad was a way to show that the company is pro LGBT+  and helped raise awareness to issues faced in the LGBT community. Through this ad, the company not only educated the public but also brought in more potential customers. This strategy could be extremely helpful for companies to gain popularization of their products.

Photo By Graf Vishenka via Shutterstock 

Personally, when I don’t know how to operate something I will watch youtube tutorials on how to operate it, this could be of use to certain businesses. Videos are an easy and effective way to address customers' questions about how to operate a product. Not only this, but the site is also a way to get feedback from actual customers. Through comments and likes, consumers can communicate their opinions and suggest possible improvements to products.  

Youtube in Everyday Life

  When I am feeling a little down and need a good laugh, I will turn to social media to cheer me up. Youtube is an excellent mood booster that helps to distract from the negative periods in my life.  So much so that there are times when I can watch videos for hours on end without noticing that I’ve been staring at my screen for nearly 3 hours straight. 

The content that creators make can really help people. For some people, that once a week post by their favorite creator might give them something positive to look forward to when they're feeling down. That’s why a lot of content creators do what they do, to help people and bring joy to their day.  It can give a sense of community and belonging to those who might feel like they are alone in the world and can help people connect and inspire each other with their videos.  

Audiences can be encouraged to step outside of their comfort zones and try new things. It is a place where you can learn a wide variety of different skills, and you can do it all for free! Additionally, it allows you to learn at your own pace because you can replay videos as many times as needed until you reach the level of comprehension necessary. And who knows, maybe you will stumble upon a new passion while looking through your suggested videos.  

Photo By Ariel Dixon, “Enjoying Youtube Videos” 

Conclusion

To wrap everything up, Youtube can be of use to anyone and everyone. The website is home to millions and millions of video content, so you are bound to find a couple that are beneficial to you. Whether you are trying to learn a new skill or just trying to get a good laugh, Youtube is the place to go. It is a center for creative content, and is the future of both business and education. Because of the benefits brought by the website,  we should be taking advantage of what it has to offer as much as we can in our day to day lives. 

Sources 

https://merchdope.com/youtube-stats/

https://interestingengineering.com/youtube-its-history-and-impact-on-the-internet

https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/10/the-history-of-youtube/

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1990787,00.html

https://blog.pex.com/state-of-the-youtube-address-an-overview-of-youtube-usage-and-growth-8d562d4b7fe

https://www.educationalappstore.com/blog/top-20-ways-to-use-youtube-in-classroom/

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/youtube-strategy-to-drive-action/#/

[rwbyconversations]

Why I think some people don’t like Jaune

Jaune Arc. Jauney boy. You make very hard to like you sometimes. 

Jaune Arc is almost certainly the most discussed character in RWBY, even more so than the titular four girls. This is not a very good thing. Since the early days of Volume 1, Jaune has been derided and mocked by portions of the community, often dismissed as a poorly planned out audience surrogate, a writer-insert and/or Miles shoving in a cliche shonen protagonist into Monty’s tapestry of art. That last one is hyperbole, for the record. But regardless, Jaune is far from unanimously loved by the fandom- just go see how many RWDE posts are about him. I tried reading some of them and after I finished washing my eyes out with bleach, I found myself mildly disagreeing with their contents. 

(sidenote if anyone ever convinces Dudeblade to learn how to use italics, bold or underline to emphasize something instead of random capitalization like Baby’s First Word Doc I will actually pay you in pesos)

But while the reasons people give for hating Jaune are many, some of them have little basis in reality. Others, meanwhile, are quite painfully true and have incredibly valid criticisms that can be applied to RWBY as a whole at the core of their message. So today, I’d like to explain why I think some people hate Jaune, why some of the reasons don’t hold much weight, and why a few are quite valid.

Reason 1) “Jaune’s a Self/Author Insert!” 

Perhaps the most common and damning criticism of Jaune, especially in the earlier volumes, were claims that Jaune was just an insert character for Miles to fawn over. Miles and Kerry have themselves said that Miles has had very little to do with writing Jaune in the show proper since Volume 1, and that most of Jaune’s larger scenes were done at the behest of Kerry or Monty. Quote:

In the first few Volumes, if Jaune was in a scene it was almost always because either Monty or myself wanted him in a scene. From the very beginning, Monty was very big on having that archetype of character be fairly prominent in the show. Miles has always been incredibly hesitant to insert Jaune into scenes, to the point where he's voiced before that he wishes sometimes that he didn't voice him.

That said, this only came out in early 2018 after Volume 5 had already wrapped. In the years before then, many a fan was utterly convinced that Miles was behind most of Jaune’s more limelight-hogging scenes in Volume 1 particularly. This wasn’t helped by some quotes of Miles that got taken out of context, primarily that he based Jaune off himself as a younger teenager (the quote is in fact referring to Jaune’s voice).

Fandom also plays a purpose in Jaune gaining the inglorious title of self-insert. Jaune’s lack of a semblance, conventional attractiveness, age that put him close to the girls and vague backstory meant it was very easy for fanfiction writers to appropriate Jaune into whatever they needed, which at best included harem comedies and at worst...

Well, hell on earth. Fandom has had a large impact on RWBY, and I believe the “self-insert” accusations regarding Jaune are perhaps the most clear example of this. Some people do still believe to this day that Jaune is an SI, but I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the writing team and assume that no, any intent was not maliciously planted and it was an accident.

Reason 2) Jaune’s an audience surrogate

This one actually has basis in reality since the crew have actually said Jaune’s purpose in the early volumes was to be the audience surrogate (see above, second bolded part). To explain the term the audience surrogate is a character, usually found in fantasy or science fiction stories, who is new to the setting and its more complex rules. Thus, when someone tells this character how the system works, it doesn’t feel weird for the audience to have this information. We learn with the character, drawing us further into the setting. On the surface, an audience surrogate is not a bad storytelling device, but what it comes down to is execution, and here is where I feel that RWBY falls flat on its face in handling Jaune.

Jaune’s primary purpose in the first half of Volume 1 is largely to serve as the vehicle through which we discover Aura. Aura, the resource incredibly common in-setting and able to be tracked to an exact percentile in tournaments. In fact, Aura is so easily tracked, Remnant’s smartphones can track other people’s Auras no sweat. Most audience surrogates usually only need lore explained to them when it’s a rare facet of life, hence why it’s often seen in fantasies with magic to get the reader caught up on the rules. 

For example, in the Mistborn series, while Vin is aware of burning metal, she unlocks her Mistborn powers at the beginning of the trilogy and then has to learn about the other metals she didn’t know she possessed, and gets further training on the one metal (brass) she could burn that she thought was just her luck. As well, Vin infiltrates high society, so alongside learning about the different metals, we also use Vin’s inexperience to learn how high society works under the Lord Ruler.

For Jaune to have no clue about Aura, despite the commonality of it in-setting, is almost unthinkable and essentially requires his parents to have locked him in a basement for his entire life. While surrogates aren’t meant to know everything about a setting, it is expected that they at least know the basics- again, see Vin from Mistborn as an example of this.  Therefore, I will not deny that Jaune is an audience surrogate. However, I do believe that Jaune is a bad audience surrogate who breaks the internal rules of a character alongside the logical rules of the setting.

Reason 3) Jaune’s a cliche shonen lead

Let me rattle off a quick idea for a story, like I’m giving an elevator pitch.

Our story is about a young boy (usually with spiky hair) who goes to join a magical academy so he can slay monsters. He’s not proficient in the art of combat but he has a big heart and genuinely tries most of the time, so through outside circumstances he manages to enroll in the school. Immediately, he gets pegged by the headmaster for special reasons and develops a crush with an cold-hearted young woman who rebukes his advances. All the while, he develops a close friendship with a shy girl who is holding a candle for him but he doesn’t see her desires until it’s too late. In the meantime, he continues to train to prove himself a great hero.

Now, who did I describe. Jaune Arc? Or half of the shonen genre? There’s a reason for the popularity in the stock shonen hero cliche- it’s pretty easy to get right on the first try, makes for a mostly likable hero who the audience can get behind and root for as they aspire to become a Pokemon master collect the Dragonballs win the Battle City Finals become the greatest hero who ever lived. Jaune hits a lot of the cliches of the Stock Shonen Hero in early RWBY, and this set off alarm bells in the minds of many of RWBY’s more anime-conscious fans. The moment Jaune fell for Weiss and she shot him down, the early fanbase were on-edge about Jaune. RWBY had been advertised as four girls fighting monsters and kicking ass with great choreography. And here comes this blonde wannabe in a hoody trying to insert a love triangle into all of that? Yeah, no thanks. Again, this was likely something Monty intentionally pushed through since the AMA says Monty was big on Jaune’s archetype being in the show.

Though Jaune, in my opinion at least, did step away from these trappings later in RWBY, becoming more sullen and less focused on traditional shonen ideals, the early days played no small role in defining why people loathed Jaune in early RWBY. And once the label of “shonen lead” was plastered onto Jaune, it would prove nearly impossible to remove. 

In all honesty, this is one of the smaller reasons for people’s dislike of Jaune, but notable in that it set the groundwork- people already dismissed him as a cheap shonen lead, and that principle latched onto Jaune like gum onto a shoe. 

Reason 4) Jaune’s stealing scenes and where it hurts characters

Though Jaune has had a significantly reduced presence in RWBY since Volume 1, it seems that his primary scenes in Volumes 4 and 5 had a very unintended consequence of taking away from other characters. One of the often-cited scenes of this is Volume 4 Chapter 10, Kuroyuri.

The scene is set for Ruby to finally confront the trauma bubbling beneath the surface that had been eating at her since Volume 3- Penny and Pyrrha’s joint deaths and the Fall of Beacon, her Silver Eyes and how no one was willing to talk to her about them. And yet who does most of the speaking in this scene? Jaune. Jaune indirectly hijacks the scene away from Ruby so that instead it can become a scene of, quite frankly, platitudes that ring hollow. Despite supposedly being a scene where Ruby is being built up, despite supposedly being about Ruby,  and how inspiring she is, the active character in the scene, the one with agency and prevalent on-screen characterization... Is Jaune.

Volume 5 Chapter 11 is the other standout example of this, in what is now an infamous string of events. Jaune basically hijacks not one, not two, but three active character arcs- he again strips Ruby of her agency by going after Cinder, who also has her sub-plot of hating Ruby curtly kicked out a window because of Jaune hogging her attention, and then Weiss takes a frankly insulting dive so that Cinder has someone to spear so we have a cheap cliffhanger so dramatic tension can die onscreen so Jaune can have an excuse to pop his Semblance’s virginity. And let me stress, Ruby has about as much agency as some belly-button fluff for the rest of the Battle of Haven and by extension the entire Volume.

This is a reasoning for disliking Jaune that I fully understand and can get behind. Through a mix of tragic circumstance (the Volume 5 scene is effectively the one time Jaune takes relevance in the entire volume) and some mind-boggling creative choices, Jaune now twice in a row stripped Ruby of agency she has desperately needed, interrupted a two-year in the making subplot with Cinder, and indirectly killed RWBY’s dramatic stakes. Did you really think they’d kill Weiss in Volume 5? Exactly, no one really thought they’d go through on it, Weiss and the rest of RWBY are basically safe until the last two or three volumes. Regardless of whether or not Jaune is meant to be seen as a main character or a side, his focus scenes have the tragic mishap of constantly coming at the expense of someone else being undermined.  

Reason 5) He’s... not actually that good a strategist.

Jaune is a crap fighter, he’ll readily admit to being much weaker in direct combat than anyone else in the heroes side. So instead, he adopted the sub-trope of shonen leads, the strategist/quick thinker. Be it Izuku in My Hero Academia or many of the protagonists in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, shonen has a long history of heroes who fight as much with their minds as they do with their fists.

Here’s the problem with that. Jaune’s really bad at being a strategist. In fact, despite not even doing it since Volume 3, Ruby has displayed far more tactical acumen than Jaune.

JNPR vs BRNZ isn’t won through tactical skill beyond just throwing Nora at the problem after Divine Cindervention (compare this with how effortless RWBY make taking down ABRN look). Jaune even rips off Ruby’s idea of code-names but his attempt fails due to insufficient practice. Meanwhile Ruby says “Checkmate” in Volume 5 and despite not having trained together for months, Blake and Weiss immediately jump into action.   

Jaune explicitly quotes one of RNJR having said "you're the strategist", and is the character that gets to come up with a plan for taking down the Petra Gigas. And even though the way his plan is phrased initially gets played as humorous, his dumb strategy ultimately gets vindicated by actually working.

“Keep moving, run in a circle” is pretty poor advice (in fact, Ren had already been trying this strategy when Jaune said it and the Nuck still landed a blow on him), but in-universe it’s treated like gospel. Nobody points out how weak Jaune’s strategies are because from a meta perspective, the only way Jaune is able to stay relevant in fights in Volume 4 is to shout inane “strategies.” The issue with this is that (yet again) it comes at the expense of other characters, including (again) Ruby, who in Volumes 1 through 3 was shown as far sharper when it came to using her team and their strengths. Everyone else on the hero side has to take an intellectual dive so Jaune can take home a glorified participation trophy. 

Jaune using his greatsword for a stabbing attack when it’s built for slashing in the Haven battle. I brought this up in my “What went wrong at Haven?” post, but I thought it was worth repeating that this is a massive blunder.

Reason 6) General misc stuff

I couldn’t make full points of these, so I made bullet points for some of the smaller reasons Jaune is disliked

The Weiss obsession. There’s no real nice way of sugarcoating Jaune’s actions in Volume 2, no means no. That this came about from some glorified improv and the idea that it would be a funny idea makes my stomach churn. 

The bully arc taking so much time. Thanks to how Volume 1 cut some episodes, Jaune’s arc with Cardin took four weeks in real life to complete. This only exaggerated the issues people took with Jaune, and had RWBY not immediately come back with the fight-scene Renaissance piece that was Blake and Sun vs Roman, I can’t imagine how many people would have dropped the show thanks to an after-school special that got wedged in their fighting anime.

Jaune looking away and letting Cinder shoot Amber. Ignoring that Cinder’s Semblance can let her shoot around targets, which she does in the Pyrrha fight, Jaune never stood a chance against Cinder, and no matter what, most friends would be distracted by their friend’s agonized screams and would likely turn around in despair.

Jaune hating Qrow in Volume 4. Thanks to Jaune being the one member of RNJR willing to call out Qrow for his and Ozpin’s parts in Pyrrha’s death, Jaune got some flack from Qrow’s notable fandom. Ironically enough, people began to dislike Jaune more when he refused to ever act on these feelings after Ozpin’s return in Volume 5, with Jaune only ever calling out Ozpin after Yang did it with the Birds Reveal (I’ve written a piece before about why that reveal fell flat). His out of nowhere tepidness in approaching Ozpin regarding Pyrrha’s death was so out-of-nowhere that people were begging for Jaune to have screentime again, that’s how random it was.

To conclude, there are many reasons why people hate Jaune Arc, and the story doesn’t really help his case a lot of the time in all honesty. While some of the stated reasons are far from logical (I at least hope I’ve explained why I think he’s not a self-insert), Jaune unfortunately fails to set himself as a distinct character without it usually biting someone else in the ass. He fails to be a proper audience surrogate due to lacking essential knowledge about the setting. He has an unfortunate tendency to overshadow other characters and hijack their plots for his own scenes (poor Ruby), and he fails to even be that competent a strategist, leaving his supposed skills to be more of an informed attribute. Add in a variety of smaller reasons for his hatedom, legitimate or not, that have stacked up over the years, and Jaune unfortunately has several valid reasons to dislike him. While I still personally like the Noodle Boy, and I do hope that he can develop and grow stronger as a fighter, tactician and character in the coming future, I cannot deny that I fully understand why people would be turned off by Jaune. So much could have been done with Jaune, but much like a bad salad that comes before a great main course, you’ve already lost your appetite before the main servings arrive.

To surmise, Jaune-hate began because of a perfect storm of circumstances that would be impossible to make happen on purpose. He could have recovered from the flirting with Weiss, the Audience Surrogate/Shonen lead status, or being the main character in several drawn-out arcs, but all at once? Was too much for any one character to bear, and Jaune was unfortunately the character who had all of this lumped on him within a year of the show beginning.

Thank you for reading.

... damnit kid why do you make it so hard to like you sometimes I don’t like doing this

#rwby #rwde #jaune arc #ctrq #ruby rose #miles luna #oscar pine #author insert #pyrrha nikos #cinder fall #rwby analysis

[cyberdva]

Drummer Boy Part 7 Roger Taylor X Reader (John X Reader)

(Originally From My Wattpad Book @panicathetrash15 )

I have the flu and still procrastinated while writing this. This is also the longest chapter I’ve written for this book... wow.

Paring: Ben Hardy!Roger Taylor X Reader 

Song: I will Survive By:Gloria Gaynor

          Keep Your Self Alive By: Queen

Warnings: Cursing and Mentions Of Drinking

Words: 3k

Main Masterlist 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5 

Part 6 

Part 8 

Part 9

Part 10

Drummer Boy- Roger Taylor x Reader - Seven - Wattpad

_____

Y/N POV

_____

 "Wait, isn't the battle today?" Crap. We only had one day to practice. We are preforming,"I Will Survive," by Gloria Gaynor. We had played it previously before the competition, but it still needed some work. We wanted to fix our mistakes with the song yesterday, but Tammy was so busy with Roger, so we couldn't.

I sat right up, I buried my hands in my face, "I need to practice." I sighed. I had a cold feeling, my body ached. Last night was the first night this week I had slept. John just stared at me, "What song are you guys preforming. I just want to make sure our performances don't end up like last time."

He then sat up, his long hair was a tangled mess, "It's fine, we're doing an original song. It's Freddie's first time preforming it. He's new to the group, well so am I, but he's new to the whole preforming thing. I don't know if you saw what happened time we played. Freddie dropped the mic, Roger was pissed, I thought it was hilarious honestly."

I laughed, "Oh no! I didn't see that. I feel bad for him!" John looked over and smiled at me.

"Don't be, he's new. That performance was the first time he ever sang live. I was impressed honestly, he's got a lot of talent." I nodded my head in agreement. I then got up and found my sweater folded on the ground were I left it previously.

"Hey I had fun last night." John fiddled with his soft brown hair, he was visibly nervous. How should I respond? Is he going to ask me out? My heart fluttered at the sight, I thought about dating someone finally, someone who cared. When I pictured the image I didn't see John, for some strange reason the figment of Roger came to mind. My stomach clenched why did I think of him. I'm supposed to hate him. When I looked back up from the ground, Deaky's aura seemed to cripple. Did I do something to upset him? I then pieced it together, my face showed disgust after my inner battle with my mind. I think he got the wrong idea. My mouth formed into a smile.

"I did too! Thank you so much for having me!" He melted back into his normal self, then his face went into a state of confusion. I sat at the foot of his bed as he thought, I then slide my shoes back on, my bag was left by the bedside, so I went to go grab it.

"Before you go Y/N, I was wondering if you wanted to stay over again tonight, if you want to. I found it really relaxing having you here." His eyes glistened when he spoke to me.

"Of course! Do you want to meet up after the competition?"

"Yeah, of course! I'll walk you out." He pulled the blanket off of his body. He wax wearing a tight light green shirt with red and green flannel pants. I snatched my bag up from the ground and neatly fixed his duvet cover on his bed. We walked side by side down the stairs in silence, the only thing we hear is the sound of our own feet pattering down the stairs. We proceeded through the hallway and finally made it to his large brown door. John unlocked the door and we both stepped outside the air was crisp, the sun was still rising. It cast a beam of light over the two of us.

We both just stood there looking at each other, we both seemingly got closer to each other and soon enough we kissed. Deaky put is hands on my face, his hands were callous, obviously from playing bass. It was sweet and passionate, he meant to kiss me, his hands traveled to my hair lightly tugging it, I did the same. A minute passed and we were cut off by... Roger?

"Hey love birds! Is it ok if we borrow Deaky? We have a competition to attend to, you wouldn't know much about actually  preforming Y/N." He had a hurt look imbedded in his eyes, it dissolved as he slivered out the last part of his sentence. I gave John a final farewell and he trued to apologize, I went on my way. By John's driveway there was a van with Brian and Freddie standing outside. Brian waved at me and Freddie shouted a hello and waved ferociously at me. I waved back and continued on my way home, I could hear faint yelling from who I assume is Roger and John. I jogged home, or lightly sprinted since I had no physical stamina at all. When I was home I found a note in the table that read,

Dear Y/N,

We know you were busy with John last night... ;)

"Ew." I said aloud, I contemplated continuing the note, even with that horrid intro to the letter I proceeded.

We didn't get home until very late last night and we see why you left, or at least why we think you left the house. (If you don't know what we're talking about it has to do with Roger and Tammy.) When you get home please hurry to the practice hall. We're in Studio C today and only have 4 hours to practice. Crystal wanted us to have a simple dress code, but I didn't really fancy it. We each wear a black skirt with same color stockings and shoes. You probably have those things, but to finish off the look I left a dark blue shirt and black tank top on your bed. We're doing a color scheme to appeal to the judges, Crystal is Red, you're blue, I am yellow, and Tammy is green. Just come in the outfit so we can overpower Crystal. See you soon.

-Cynthia

I walked into my bedroom to find the blue shirt mentioned in the letter. I grabbed a few things out of my closet and put them on. I shimmed on the black stockings first, they had a tiny design of vertical lines that traveled up and down my leg. I then put on the tank top, accompanied by the skirt and then I pulled the shirt over my head, lastly I put on black combat boots I had gotten for my birthday last year. They were very shiny since I had never worn them before, I could see my own reflection just by glancing at them. I wasn't sure what she wanted me to do with my hair, so I left it in the bun I had it in, it would be best if I left it like that. If I didn't I could over heat while playing. It wasn't the most comfortable outfit, but whatever Cynth wants she gets. My electric blue guitar was hanging on the wall, this would be a good first time to use it, right? I put it in my guitar case and looked for my grey wallet and keys. Once they were located I went to the studio, we still had a good three hours to practice. The building was freezing for some reason and there was barley anyone in the building except for two people walking around and a receptionist.

I went up to him, "Hi, excuse me, Do you know where studio C is?" He looked up from the paper work he was writing on and looked at me.

"Uh yeah, it's down the hall to your right." he smiled at me and gestured to where the hallway was. I thanked him and went to where he pointed to. When I turned right I slammed right into something and of course that something was a person, and to top it all off it was the one and only Roger Taylor.

"Are you stalking me?" he smirked as he got back up.

"As if Taylor, honestly it looks like you are stalking me." I grabbed my guitar case, hoping it wasn't broken and walked right past him in a hurry. A door with the letter C painted on it crossed my eye, the door opened before I had gotten to it.

"Took you long enough, go tune up." It was Tammy, I bet she's going to go "meet up" with Roger. I did as she told and met up with the rest of the band.

Before I knew it our three hours were up and it was time for us to preform. We got the car packed and went on our way to the venue.

----

My palms were sweating as I pace backstage, we were up next and for some reason I had become extremely nervous. From the corner of my eye I saw Queen come barging into the venue, it was the least of my worries. That's what I thought until I then saw John and Roger coming up to me. I turned right back around and tried not to shake as I waited for my turn.

"You new to the whole preforming thing?" next to me stood Brian holding his red guitar, he was looking straight forward at the people playing now.

"Yeah, it doesn't help that I get anxious before too."

He hummed in response and glanced down at me, he looked away and quickly looked back.

"Hey, that's a nice guitar you have, may I see it?" he perked up.

"Of course!" I lifted the guitar over my head and handed it to him. He looked at the strings and turned some of the knobs and then set them back to how they were previously.

"What model is this?"

"It's a Fender S-1 Strat." Bri handed my guitar back and I put it back on.

"I rarely see anyone use that model, did you get it in London? I saw a lot there."

Before I could answer him I hear Roger yell something in our direction.

"Oye John, it looks like you have some competition."

Brian and I turned both turned bright red and he used that as his cue to leave and talk to Cynthia. Aren't they dating or something, she speaks fondly of him sometimes. She isn't that open about her personal life.

Before I knew it we were called onto the stage.

"Alright girls, what song are you doing today?" one of the judges spoke, her hair was cut short into a Pageboy style and she spoke with a monotone voice.

Crystal grabbed the mic, all eyes were on her, "We're doing, "I Will Survive," by Gloria Gaynor." Some audience members clapped or cheered, this song has gained a fair amount of popularity over the months.

"Ok, start when you're ready."

Crystal took the mic and went to the piano across the stage and started to play.

At first I was afraid I was petrified Kept thinkin' I could never live without you by my side; But then I spent so many nights Thinkin' how you did me wrong

And I grew strong And so you're back from outer space I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face I should have changed that stupid lock

I should have made you leave your key If I'd've known for just one second you'd back to bother me Go on now, go walk out the door Just turn around now

I stood still as I began to play, my fingers tried to remember each chord and quickly got into the song, I looked up from my hands, since I was finally comfortable with playing and saw John watching me. I smiled and looked back down.

('Cause) you're not welcome anymore Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye Did I crumble Did you think I'd lay down and die?

Oh no, not.I. I will survive Oh as long as I know how to love I know I'll stay alive; I've got all my life to live, I've got all my love to give and I'll survive,

I will survive. Hey hey. It took all the strength I had not to fall apart Kept trying' hard to mend the pieces of my broken heart, And I spent oh so many nights

Cynthia strutted towards me and we faced each other as we play, it looked like a mini battle of sorts. It was really fun until Crystal stepped away from the piano and came in between us.

Just feeling sorry for myself. I used to cry But now I hold my head up high And you see me somebody new I'm not that chained up little person still in love with you,

And so you feel like droppin' in And just expect me to be free, Now I'm savin' all my lovin' for someone who's lovin' me Go on now.. etc.

We finished the song and the crowd cheered as the judges wrote down our scores, the Pageboy judge motioned for us to go off stage and some guys came on stage to move our drums. Backstage was Roger and John, when Tammy saw him, she ran over to him, took his face and kissed him as hard as she could. Heartbreak. ̶I̶ ̶f̶e̶l̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶a̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶j̶e̶a̶l̶o̶u̶s̶y̶.̶  I was fine, I wasn't ready for their outburst, but when I saw John I gave him the biggest hug I could muster up at the moment.

"You were absolutely divine Y/N!" John hugged me again, I saw Roger look over his face faltered.  ̶S̶u̶c̶c̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶.

"Next Up is Queen."

John let go of me, "I'll see you after? Right?"

"Of course, good luck."

I stood by the stage to watch them preform, Roger glanced at me he had a cigarette in his mouth. Freddie sashayed over to the mic with a tambourine.

"What song will you be preforming." a different judge spoke up, he was wearing an ugly mustard color hat.

Brian spoke into the mic, "An original song call, "Keep Yourself Alive."

"Whenever you're ready."

"Before we start," Roger then spoke into his mic, "We have two new people we forgot to introduce last time, some people have been curious on who they were. We have a new bassist John Deacon." Many people cheered, "We also have a new singer Freddie B-Bulsara." Less people cheered, but I clapped for Freddie. My heart wrenched when I heard two or three comments insulting him. Absolute wankers. Roger counted them off.

I was told a million times Of all the troubles in my way Mind you grow a little wiser Little better every day But if I crossed a million rivers And I rode a million miles Then I'd still be where I started Bread and butter for a smile Well I sold a million mirrors In a shopping alley way But I never saw my face In any window any day Now they say your folks are telling you Be a super star But I tell you just be satisfied Stay right where you are

Keep yourself alive, yeah Keep yourself alive Ooh, it'll take you all your time and money Honey you'll survive

Freddie struggled with the microphone and people stifled laughs, he was perfect last performance. The audacity of these people thinking they know so much. Before I knew it he had ripped the microphone from the stand and had half of the mic in his hand, from time to time he beat it with his tambourine. He got so into it Brian had to remind him of the lyrics, he's a true showman. 

Well I've loved a million women In a belladonic haze And I ate a million dinners Brought to me on silver trays Give me everything I need To feed my body and my soul And I'll grow a little bigger Maybe that can be my goal I was told a million times Of all the people in my way How I had to keep on trying And get better every day But if I crossed a million rivers And I rode a million miles Then I'd still be where I started Same as when I started

Keep yourself alive, come on Keep yourself alive Ooh, it'll take you all your time and money honey You'll survive, shake

John started to dance while preforming, it was the cutest thing ever, I think Roger saw me looking at him because he started to play harder and looked at me. I started to dance along, our band should start doing some of our own songs too, the people seem to like it.

Keep yourself alive, wow Keep yourself alive Oh, it'll take you all your time and money To keep me satisfied

Do you think you're better every day? No, I just think I'm two steps nearer to my grave

Keep yourself alive, c'mon Keep yourself alive Mm, you take your time and take more money Keep yourself alive Keep yourself alive C'mon keep yourself alive All you people keep yourself alive Keep yourself alive C'mon c'mon keep yourself alive It'll take you all your time and a money To keep me satisfied Keep yourself alive Keep yourself alive All you people keep yourself alive Take you all your time and money honey You will survive

Keep you satisfied

The song finished and everyone cheered even the idiots from before. John came off stage all sweaty and tried to hug me, I squealed and tried to run, but he caught up to me. I may or may not have kissed him. Freddie found us and gawked over the fact that Deaky would "do such a thing." Somehow he also found out I was staying at John's and he turned it into a group sleepover. There goes my night and now Roger's probably going to ruin it even more.

We packed up all of our belongings and drove to John's house. After we were there for around an hour someone found alcohol and half of us got drunk. John and I were together on his couch, both covered in his blanket. Roger was drinking across the room just staring at us as Tammy was dancing with Crystal and Brian. Freddie and Cynthia were already asleep in John's guest bedrooms, he had a lot of those surprisingly. The night dragged on and by two Roger and Tammy were on the front steps making out.

John and were almost asleep, but wanted to finish the Star Trek episode we were on before sleeping. We heard the front door slam and Tammy tried to start up a conversation about the artwork in John's house, but all of us couldn't hold onto the topic. My eyes drooped and John had to rub my back to keep me awake. Once the show ended I stood up and started to clean up. John showed the pair to the room next to ours, that could be a mistake. Before I knew it I was snuggling with Deaky, what I didn't see was Roger standing by the door watching us.

Tag List: 

@onceuponadetectivedemigod @cosmiclunas

#roger taylor x reader #roger taylor imagine #rogerina #roger taylor #roger taylor x you #freddie mercury #freddie mercury x reader #queen fic #queen band #queen #queen x reader #brian may #brian may x reader #john deacon x reader #john deacon #ben hardy x reader #ben hardy x you #ben hardy #bohemian rhapsody

[paulisweeabootrash]

First Impression: Noragami

Okay, after that crappy “reviewlet” thing, I'm back with another show I actually feel like saying something interesting about:

Noragami (2014)

Episodes watched: 5.  Or... actually, 14, but this review is only based on the first 5 episodes of season 1.

Yato is a minor god.  A very minor god.  A god who has no worshippers, no shrine, and relies on doing odd jobs for people in exchange for offerings of ¥5, a service which he advertises with graffiti and hand-made business cards.  His Regalia — a human soul who temporarily takes the form of living equipment a god can use — just quit.  Things are looking down for him.

Hiyori Iki is a martial-arts-loving middle schooler who just happens to encounter Yato, whom she, reasonably, believes to be a regular mortal, on the street.  She is hit by a bus while pushing Yato out of its path and gets reincarnated in a fantasy world temporarily separated from her body.  Hiyori, understandably, has some trouble coming to terms with this, especially when Yato explains to her that she is not dead (or, not completely, anyway), but instead in an in-between state where she is able to repeatedly temporarily leave her body.  Much much more to her confusion and horror, her in-between state grants her the ability to see supernatural creatures usually hidden from humans, including Phantoms, eldritch abominations that often appear as psychedelically-colored flying sea creatures and possess humans, both living and dead, to induce them to do bad things.

Hiyori is now stuck between the “Near Shore” (the world of the living) and “Far Shore” (world of the dead) rather than a resident of either, and those from the Far Shore — Phantoms, human souls, and gods alike — will certainly notice this.  Yato and other gods frequently use their Regalia (what is the plural of “Regalia”?  “Regalias”?  That sounds wrong.) to fight Phantoms in addition to (or as part of) answering the prayers of their followers.  Since Yato needs a new Regalia, at this point, I was starting to suspect this will maybe be a quasi-magical-girl premise where Hiyori becomes Yato's new Regalia and then falls for him in a "please don't think about what is at bare minimum a several century age gap" uncomfortable romcom.  But... no.  This show goes in a more complicated and interesting direction than that.

Regalia must be sufficiently pure (and apparently fully-dead) human souls, so Yato, who seems to look down on humans even compared to other gods, simply drafts the first suitable soul he encounters.  That soul, a teen boy with no memory of his Earthly life, whom Yato names Yukine, luckily turns out to be a very talented Regalia and a quick learner, but also frustrated about his death and prone to sinful thoughts (more on that in a moment).  Hiyori takes an interest in Yukine, mainly to take care of him because Yato is certainly not doing that well, but I actually kind of get the impression she's attracted to him, especially given that, unlike Yato, Yukine is approximately her age (or was before he died... it's not clear how long he, or any other Regalia, have been dead).  She also takes an (academic) interest in the supernatural world in general, which is only partly what she expected or imagined, and she becomes a de facto member of Yato and Yukine's "team" as it were.  But also overwhelmed and mainly just wants her soul to be securely re-attached to her body so she'll stop accidentally leaving it at inopportune times — to her friends and family, it appears that she has now been having severe and unpredictable episodes and collapsing and losing consciousness since her bus accident, and she often leaves her body lying around in public without realizing it.  Or, in one case, draped over the top of a fence, which is... not an ideal sleeping location.  Yato vaguely claims he will restore her, but has no idea how to.

So far, the story has focused on the interactions between the three of them and on exploring the setting/what Phantoms are/how the gods work/etc.  This has revealed a fascinating detail which, beyond the scope of the five episodes I took notes on, becomes one of the main arcs of the first season: although the gods are amoral, or at least behave according to a totally different set of standards, they are still affected by human morality.  Morality, says Yato, is socially constructed by humans, but affects the gods vicariously by causing “blight”.  If humans decide an act is sinful, then a Regalia doing that thing causes a blight to both themself and the god they serve which must be ritually cleansed.  Yukine, despite being initially pure enough to become a Regalia, starts to cause blight to Yato because of his jealousy of the still-living and his attraction to Hiyori, and this proves to be... well... you’ll see.

We also learn from Kofuku Ebisu, goddess of bad luck and poverty, that Yato used to be a war god, with a past darker than Hiyori is willing to accept or think about.  He will grant anyone's wishes to remain relevant, and this may come back to endanger people.  Yato is also dating(?) Kofuku, and seems to have had a previous romantic relationship with a Regalia named Nora who served him and gives off a serious yandere vibe.  Or actually (spoilers), as it turns out, not named Nora.  "Nora", we learn, is a derogatory term for an entire category of Regalia: those who serve multiple gods and generally do jobs normal Regalia would refuse.  This, in connection with the whole thing about gods being corrupted by their Regalia violating human-made moral standards, raises a worrying question I hope we get an answer to: do noras corrupt their gods, or are they somehow unable to produce corruption because they themselves do not believe anything they're doing is wrong?  This is the sort of question this show raises, and it seems smart and thorough enough to try to answer it... if it doesn't, there's the ongoing manga series to turn to, and this is yet another show I've enjoyed so much that I might start reading it.

-----

Revised W/A/S Scores: 7 / 3 / 3 / !

Weeb: Pretty high on this scale mainly because of its very Shinto background, including very specific patron deities of concepts, gods physically residing in shrines, its specific forms of prayer, the dead just sort of... wandering and acting like still-live humans, and of course the presence of shrine maidens because how can you not have shrine maidens?

Ass: Occasional nudity, but not fanservicey.  Ep. 2, for example, has partial nudity in situations like contemplating in bath and locker room that are not framed sexually but probably would be in a different tone of show.

Shit (writing): I have a weirdly specific translation complaint (because of course I do).  I accidentally learned via Wikipedia that "nora" means "stray", and this seems like information that maybe should've been dropped in the subtitles at some point?  It might actually have made the reveal about what "a nora" is work better in English than in the original Japanese because this meaning would be a surprise to the English subtitle-reading audience.  Anyway, enough about that.  I find the characters enjoyable and their arcs pretty believable.  A main plot conflict between Yato and the nora is clearly forming by the end of the five episodes I cover here, and I'll cheat a bit to say that the first season successfully plays out two story threads while leaving others open for the next season, but not in a cliffhanger or "we clearly didn't know how to wrap this up" way.  An advantage of adapting a popular ongoing manga, I suppose: you can pace things better and also be reasonably sure that there's enough interest to get you another season.

Shit (other): Pretty ending, meh opening.  Great reaction faces.  Moods are accentuated well by variations in the art and animation.  I love the design of the Phantoms because I'm a sucker for surreal depictions of the supernatural.  It's not as dramatically bizarre and imaginative as, say, the witches in Madoka Magica, but still excellent.

Content warning: It is a recurring point that the gods' duties include saving people from suicide, and multiple suicide attempts are depicted (although they are thwarted by divine intervention by Yato).

-----

Stray observations:

- Yato starts out appearing to be a magnificent bastard, but it becomes apparent quickly that... uh... maybe he’s just an asshole.  

- I have no idea why, but Yato sneaking into Hiyori's house and mirroring her dad's actions is one of the funniest things I've seen recently.

- You'd think at some point Hiyori would develop a plan, or at least a cover story, for abandoning her body, even if she remains unable to control when she leaves it.  Not to mention that she'd sometimes come back to an injured body or find that someone has moved her or called an ambulance or something.

- The background music includes rap in English with autotune, which is... surprising, but neither good nor bad.

- This setting raises the same set of troubling questions about the concept of an afterlife that a lot of afterlife concepts do, since it appears that people are "frozen" at the age they were when they died but also have the ability to learn (and later, outside the set of episodes I covered here, to mature mentally at least somewhat)... do child Regalia or children's souls in general ever mentally mature in the same way that real children do as they ender adolescence and adulthood?  Are there baby ghosts hanging around with no concept that they are dead, unable to ever gain that concept because they will never age?  (I feel like this is turning into a literary criticism of religion, and that's waaaay outside the scope of this blog, so I'll end this here.)

#weeaboo trash #anime review #first impression review #noragami

[concepts-influencer-marketing]

The Concept : Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing refers to a form of marketing where marketers and brands invest in selected influencers, utilizing their social media outreach and micro-celebrity status of these opinion leaders to promote their services, products and branded content to both the influencers’ own followers and to the brands’ target consumer.

Who are Social Media Influencers?  

“Social media users who have established credibility in a particular category” that “have the power to affect consumer purchasing decisions with their authority as opinion leaders”.

Social media influencers are considered as credible experts in their chosen niche(s).

As per past studies Social Media Influencers are often referred to as a type of celebrity or micro-celebrity as they are similar in their role of endorsers of a product or service in marketing campaign.

Difference between Social Media Influencers from a traditional celebrity- reach, engagement, perception, para social interaction with consumers, content creation, delivery and the type of expertise.

The rise of Influencer marketing

Google search trend shows a comparable rise in influencer marketing at the same time as print advertising has been falling. Searches for "influencer marketing" drew ahead of those for "print advertising" in mid-2017 and have remained that way ever since.

 As per the influencer marketing hub's benchmark reports (2019; 2020) states that google searches for "Influencer Marketing" have grown up to 1500%.

Large companies have doubled the number of influencer-based campaigns, with 300% more micro-influencers since 2016.

The Influencer Marketing industry has a growth of $3.2B from 2019, and the entry of 60 more Influencer Marketing agencies took place within a year.

The average earned media value per $1 spent has increased to $5.78

1.       Nano-influencers ( up to 10,000 followers)

•       At the beginnings of their influencer careers, understanding the industry and to establish their personal brands - fewer than.

•       Followers- mostly friends, acquaintances, and others who live close by.

•        Personal accessibility and high perceived authenticity,

•       They often generate the highest engagement rates of all influencer categories.

•       Prospects for brand partners- more open to unpaid partnerships and free product samples in return for networking opportunities and increased exposure on social media.

•       Most proactive influencers, in that they approach brands to inquire about partnerships rather than being approached themselves.

2.       Micro-influencers (10,000 and 100,000 followers)

•       Successful enough to make a career out of being an influencer

•       Smaller than macro-influencers in both scale and scope.

•       Audience- more localized to their geographic base, and most of their income comes from affiliate-link programs or occasional partnerships with brands (e.g., Nordstrom, the Amazon Influencer Program, Daniel wellington, mama earth etc).

•       Often partner with multiple and diverse industries.

•       Micro-influencers usually depend upon social media videos (e.g., Instagram stories), which help them connect with their followers and heighten their perceived accessibility and authenticity.

•       Many followers find micro-influencers’ recommendations more genuine than those made by larger celebrities, whom they may view as more prone to “sell out.”

•       For this reason, marketing managers are increasingly working with micro-influencers, who harness greater authenticity and trust and often are more connected to the needs and interests of their followers (Wissman, 2018).

3.       Macro-influencers (100,000 and 1 million followers)

•       Yet to gain celebrity status but nevertheless are extremely successful.

•       Good engagement rates and can harness their large followings for substantial brand exposure.

•       Macro-influencers can earn mostly through selective brand partnerships and appearances.

•        These influencers are dominant within their subject domains (e.g., travel, food, music), and their audiences often aspire to be like them.

4.       Mega-influencers (1 million or more followers)

•       Who have created a celebrity status from an established expertise.

•       But unlike celebrity influencers, mega-influencers, are people who lacked celebrity status prior to their becoming social media mavens.

•       While they may be “internet famous,” they are typically relative unknowns outside their sets of followers.

•       In contrast with celebrity influencers, mega-influencers often align their brands more closely with paid partnerships

5.       Celebrity influencers (over 1 million followers )

•       Enjoys public recognition outside of social media and is leveraged by brands for their large follower base

•       Have been popular prior to the evolution of social media, though they now use their social media presences to support their careers and propagate brand partnerships.

•       These influencers often have and major endorsement deals with well-known brands.

•       Celebrity influencers frequently work with brands associated with their prior work (e.g., music or film), and this cultural capital lets them command significantly higher price tags than other, noncelebrity influencers. Though they tend to form weak brand connections, celebrity influencers can carry high levels of perceived expertise, which is another factor behind their high pay.

•       Relatively low engagement rates

How to Select SMI for your campaign

·         There are generally three approaches to engage in influencer marketing :

1.       Organic – You search for and build relationships with influencers yourself. You then carry out your influencer campaigns in-house.

2.       Platforms – You still run your influencer campaigns internally, but you use specialist tools to find suitable influencers and possibly other stages of the influencer marketing process.

3.       Agencies - You pay a specialist marketing agency to create and operate your influencer campaign for you, including influencer selection.

Organic  

The organic approach is manually by :

§  Search Instagram by hashtags

§  Search by location for local businesses

§  Subscribe to niche influencers.

§  Study your competitors’ advertising.

Platforms

Many business owners or marketing firms have sought to leverage the effectiveness of IM by purchasing platform access, licenses, and/or support for a variety of uses like:

•       influencer discovery- Location (where they are based), Interests, Keywords, Brands worked with and Engagement rate

•       campaign management

•       Reporting

•       Influencer payments

•       Contracting

•       Rating/ review

•       Trackable links

•       Fake follower detection

Agencies

An influencer marketing agency is an organization that works with brands and influencers to run influencer marketing campaigns, predominantly via social media. 

•       Influencer marketing agencies strategize, execute, and manage influencer marketing campaigns for their clients.

•       These can take various forms, including:

•       Product placements 

•       Building social followers 

•       Contests or giveaways 

•       Theme or hashtag campaigns 

•       Creative campaigns 

Why influencer marketing?

•       Strategic placement of products/ services

•       Ready made trust and loyalty to leverage the brand credibility

•       Use of tags and hashtags- increased search results, reach and engagement

•       Increase a brand’s social reach as they appear as mediators that engage communications with consumers.

•       The brand’s content gets shared, liked and discussed in real- time.

•       Social media influencers also strategically boost their contents for going viral that can increase a brand’s customer base.

•       Cost effective

•       Additionally, social media influencers help to maintain a brand’s reputation as with their active communication; they can turn negative perceptions into a positive one

•       Improves a brands search engine optimization – back link of endorsement thus better performance in organic search

•       Enables the brands to have better position in an industry- increased trust and loyalty.

The verification: Identifying the fake SMIs

Everyone wants to enjoy the benefits. But some do not want to put in the work to build an organic following.

•       Fake influencers are people who do not grow their follower on their own but rather buy them by using various apps, fake accounts and bots.

Thus, No real influence and No real results!

•       According to Unilever’s chief marketing officer estimates show that almost “15% of Twitter’s users' may be fake while up to 60m Facebook accounts could be automated, or bots.

The key for improvement :

•       removing misleading engagement;

•        more awareness to brands and consumers

•       improving transparency on platforms to measure the impact

How to identify them?

#1: Look for Unusually Low Engagement Rates

•       Thousands of followers but barely any likes.

•       So anything between 1% and 3% would be considered average engagement, and anything below 1% is very low.

#2: Analyse the Quality of Interactions

•       Likes and comments can also be bought on the posts, in addition to buying followers

•       Manually going through their post interactions- A lot of spammy and irrelevant comments

•       They could say stuff like “awesome,” “great shot,” “lovely pic,” etc. Or they could simply leave emoji comments that would be applicable to most pictures.

•       But every public Instagram account is susceptible to receiving such comments.

•       So unless there’s an unusually high number of these spam comments, don’t be too alarmed

#3: Examine Their Follower Profiles

•       Analyse the profiles of people who leave generic comments.

A fake account will

•       Typically leave the bio blank or

•       Include only a few details.

•       Not have many posts, and sometimes they will have no posts at all.

•       Some fake accounts may not even have a profile picture.

•       And in most cases, they won’t have a lot of followers.

#4: Analyse Their Follower Growth Rate

•       Usually have a sudden spike in followers at some point of time.

•       The growth rate will then remain stagnant afterwards since they’re not gaining any new followers organically.

•       Tools at a nominal fees may be used for this analysis

#5: Analyse Their Audience Quality

•       You could also skip the rest of the tactics and go straight to this one.

•       You will need to use a tool to run an audience quality check for potential influencers which are built specifically to analyse the percentage of real followers on Instagram accounts. E.g. Heepsy, Hypeauditor, MightyScout, Modash

•       The final calculation is based on the overall quality of the audience, engagement rate, number of followers, and other important metrics.

•        The results are generated based on their computer vision machine-learning algorithm

Type of collaborations and sponsorships

Sponsored Social Media Content

•       Most common type of influencer collaboration.

•       An influencer creates and posts content to promote your brand on their social media accounts.

Gifting/ PR

•       Gift your product samples to the influencer. You can encourage them to use your products and create content around them for your brand.

•       Works for books, clothing, makeup brands, and many others.

•       If you are simply gifting your product to influencers (and not paying them), they’re not obligated to promote you.

Sponsored Blog Posts

•       A dedicated post that revolves around your brand’s products or services.

•       The content focuses on your brand and may also include an exclusive discount code for purchases or a custom giveaway.

•       You can also ask the blogger to mention your brand in a roundup post of products or services.

•       In this case, the blog post will include a number of businesses including yours.

Guest Blogging

•       You need to identify a set of influencers in your niche who own blogs or websites that have a high Domain Authority.

•       If they accept guest blogging, pitch them some ideas for guest post topics that they may be interested in.

•       Create some well-written, informative posts that they can publish on their blogs.

•       Also, include a link back to your website that doesn’t look spammy or overtly promotional.

•       This can not only expose your brand to the influencer’s audience but also drive traffic to your site.

Takeovers

•       Influencer takes over your brand’s account and posts content on your behalf.

•       Takeovers are both interesting and beneficial to the brand since influencer content is more effective than your brand-created content.

Brand Ambassador Programs

•       Brand ambassadors use the brand’s products on an ongoing basis and continually promote them online.

•       As a brand ambassador, the influencer shares posts about their day-to-day experiences of using the brand’s products.

Shoutouts

•       A shoutout happens when you pay a user to promote your brand or product on social media.

•       They can be with or without a visual like video, images, or GIFs and can be used for any call to action (typically more sales, more followers for your brand, or more traffic to your website).

•       Paid shoutouts are a classic influencer marketing tactic.

Giveaways

•       When a brand provides the influencer something of value that the influencer can then offer to their followers through a giveaway or contest. The result is usually increased brand awareness and leads.

•       They’re short-term, usually generate lots of interest, and provide value to both you as a brand and the influencer.

Affiliate Marketing

•       An influencer promotes a brand’s product and gets a commission based on sales through the influencer’s platform.

•       This is a bit skewed in favor of brands since the influencer only gets paid for actual sales.

•       Brands like using influencers for affiliate marketing because having pay tied to production like this tends to make influencers more effusive about your product.

How much are the influencers paid?

There     are a number of factors that can impact how much an influencer charges for     their services and its rare to find an influencer who charges a flat rate.     Influencer marketing is a legitimate business and influencers set their     rates based on what brands will pay.

Things you can count on to have     an impact:

·         The influencers reach and engagement-the influencer might quote a rate based on their category.

·         The channel they use- social media platform(s) utilised- different type of content and audience.

·         Industry – Sprecialization, popular niche or niche with fewer options of SMIs.

·         How many posts you want and if they include images, videos and audio.

·         How much efforts and resources to be utilized by the influencer.

·         Influencer demand – seasonal or campaign based.

·         Usage rights – Influencers charge higher for the content which is to be reused.

·         Exclusiivity – Clause with influencer for not promoting competitors for certain period of time.

·         Agency fees (if the influencer is with an influencer marketing agency)

The KPIs to measure an IM campaign

1- Define the reach of your influencer campaign

•       Followers – how many on different platforms, match

•       Impressions

•       Engagement rate

•       Traffic- generated , tracking links

This information is accessible from your influencer’s various accounts via the built-in tools offered by most networks. You can also use specific tools that provide detailed statistical tracking of the activity on social networks.

2- Measure the engagement of your influencer campaign

•       Clicks- measure the levels of interest shown by your target

•       Likes- generates attention around your brand

•       Reactions- even more engaging than

•       Shares and retweets- creates a buzz, intention to spread WOM

•       Comments- reflects interest of audience to engage in conversation

•       Mentions- indicates discussion around your content, increases visibility

•       All these indicators enable you to calculate the Earned Media Value(EMV).  

3- Track the results of your influencer campaign

Across all networks: promotional code with each of     your influencers

On Facebook and Twitter: tracked links in posts to     track the origins of your traffic.

On Instagram: cannot contain links, look at     the popularity of your hashtags, visits to your websites or sales outlets     compared to your campaign target, and positive feedback from followers.

However, Instagram     stories can now include tracked links (Bitly or UTM)     that direct users to your website, blog or domain name,

On YouTube: tracked links, Google     Analytics is easily integrated into YouTube as both tools belong to the     same environment.

Objectives of influencer marketing

•       According to a survey of marketers by Mediakix, Influencer Marketing is effective by 80% of the marketers, and 65% of the influencer marketing budgets are expected to increase by 2019. The prime objectives of influencer marketing are to increasing brand awareness, reaching new audiences, and generating sales/conversions, respectively. And the trend continues….

If your goal is brand awareness…. Sheer numbers or a specific niche?

If your goal is conversions…..numbers or engagement ?

[aion-rsa]

My Hero Academia’s Deku and Bakugo on Season 5, Class 1-B, and Dark Betrayals

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My Hero Academia is one of the biggest anime series to come out in the past few years. It’s a delicate coming-of-age story that looks at what truly makes a hero and why it’s important to have role models that give the world hope. 

There is no shortage of superhero content out there, yet My Hero Academia takes archetypes from the genre and recontextualizes them through its heightened world of overpowered individuals. Each season chronicles the next generation of heroes’ growth as they train to become the best versions of themselves. My Hero Academia is optimistic and bright, but a dark undertone has gradually crept in that guarantees that each season is more dramatic and challenging than the last.

Izuku “Deku” Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo are two of My Hero Academia’s most important characters that both represent different extremes of heroics. Season five tests this duo in greater ways than ever before as they compete against new heroes in Class 1-B and face a rejuvenated League of Villains, while also discovering crucial details about themselves. Justin Briner and Clifford Chapin, the voice actors behind these two iconic heroes, spoke with Den of Geek about the new challenges that lie ahead this season, how the past has changed Midoriya and Bakugo, and the anime’s evolving and tricky relationship between heroes and villains. Plus Ultra!

DEN OF GEEK: This new season mixes together the students of Class 1-A with the 1-B group. How do all of these new characters change the dynamic and status quo that Midoriya and Bakugo have gotten used to?

JUSTIN BRINER: I think one of the show’s real strengths is its cast, starting from Deku and then fanning out to everyone else. Everyone is someone’s favorite out there and so any time that another character gets a moment in the spotlight is super exciting for everyone involved. You get to learn more about them, but then that also extrapolates to how they relate with the rest of the cast. I just think that it strengthens the overall bonds of this universe that they’re all living in.

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CLIFFORD CHAPIN: I completely agree. We have so many well-developed characters over the course of the show and pretty much whenever someone new gets introduced you know that they’ll get a moment soon enough where they’ll prove that they’re cool and what they can do. I’m really looking forward to seeing the Class 1-B kids show off their stuff a little more, but it’s also really cool because we had some interactions with them back in season two, but pretty minimally. So I’m excited to see those characters get delved into a lot more and see what they’re really about. 

Midoriya and Bakugo have kind of been pulled in different directions over the past seasons, but these new episodes reunite them. Has it been satisfying to get to bounce off of each other more and return to that earlier dynamic of these characters?

CLIFFORD CHAPIN: Any time that I get to be in a scene with Justin I end up thoroughly enjoying it. It’s usually a situation where Bakugo gets to express the most development. We get to see that character grow a lot more through his interactions with Deku. So any time I get to have a scene with Justin I’m excited for it because it means that we’ll get to see Bakugo push himself to the next level.

JUSTIN BRINER: It’s just so remarkable to see how far they’ve come as friends, as rivals, and every time that they get together it begs the question, “Okay, where does this go next?” I’m really excited to see how their bond further develops over time.

Why do you think their relationship resonates so much with fans? It’s really become such an important part of the show.

CLIFFORD CHAPIN: The reason that I think fans have gravitated to their relationship so much is because there’s so much to explore in that relationship. It’s a relationship where they start out as friends, then one blossoms and the other doesn’t, which creates an odd tension between them. The relationship has gone through so many different waves and forms over the course of the show and over the course of the characters’ histories. 

There’s so much to it now that it’s hard to not be invested in that growth, where they’ll end up, and if they’ll turn into the best team. We don’t know, but that’s part of the mystery and intrigue behind just how far they’ve come. It’s so captivating and I think that it keeps pulling people back into the show.

Both of your characters went through a tremendous amount in the previous season. How do those events continue to affect your characters this year?

JUSTIN BRINER: Yeah, always! Any time that there are these big, combustible plots it leads to these characters changing, for better or for worse. They learn lessons and build new goals. Especially after the events of season four, which featured these over the top and unstoppable villains. It’s exciting to see what they build towards.

CLIFFORD CHAPIN: Absolutely. Every time there’s a new scene or moment you can feel the weight of the previous moment carrying through. Bakugo wasn’t really front and center in the fights in season four against Overhaul, but he’s important when it comes to the remedial lessons with the kids when they’re trying to get their provisional licenses. Bakugo talks to the kids about how you can’t look down on others, which is a lesson that he himself has learned, and continues to carry on. So I feel like we’ve always seen that what’s happened in the past is always relevant in the present. It just keeps fueling the characters and pushing them forward.

Justin, a major component of this new season is that Midoriya gains a better understanding of One For All. Has it been exciting to finally explore such a huge part of the character and see how Midoriya’s powers continue to evolve?

JUSTIN BRINER: Absolutely. I really don’t have the faintest idea where it’s headed, but there’s been so much mystery behind the power of One For All and its relationship with All For One. Fans have been clamoring for answers, but I’m just as anxious and excited to learn more! Totally though, I’m right on board.

Clifford, Bakugo has also grown a lot as a hero and he continues to refine his Quirk. Does that pursuit of perfection continue this season?

CLIFFORD CHAPIN: Truth be told, I’m not sure what lies ahead beyond the opening skirmish with Class 1-B. I would imagine, based on how the series has gone, that we’ll continue to see Bakugo get pushed. That’s the stuff that I’m most excited to visit. I’m excited to see how his character continues to grow. We have a little bit of a hint of what lies ahead because of the previous movie, which is set a little further in the timeline. That offers a few answers, but I have no idea when the series will visit them, but I’m excited for when they do.

This season seems like it continues to blur the lines between heroes and villains. Talk a little about this grey area and why these layered characters help make the series’ villains so fascinating.

CLIFFORD CHAPIN: I think that all goes back to the writing. [Kohei] Horikoshi is just masterful in his development of the characters. No character is two-dimensional here. They all have a drive, backstory, and something that compels them to fight. We see that with Shigaraki that his story parallels Deku’s a little bit. To see one rise as the greatest hero while the other rises to potentially become the greatest villain leaves a lot to be explored. It’s exciting to see because we, the audience, are so used to getting the hero’s journey and not really seeing the villain’s. My Hero Academia is very good about helping you also explore the villains’ journey, which helps make them become more compelling in the process. 

JUSTIN BRINER: Totally. All of these characters are in a world where superheroes are honored and kind of revered, so to look at what it takes to become a villain in this society becomes a fascinating question. 

My Hero Academia has grown a lot in five seasons and it even reaches its 100th episode this year. What are some of the biggest changes that you’ve noticed since its start?

JUSTIN BRINER: I think it’s funny, especially in Deku’s case, that it’s easy to track his progress because he’s literally yelling, “5%! 10%!” Other than that though there are so many characters that have come a long way and we’ve learned so much about the world that they inhabit. I always appreciate when there’s more world building and backstory. I just think that their society is so interesting to think about.

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CLIFFORD CHAPIN: I agree. As far as outside of the series, it’s incredible to see how far My Hero Academia has come and how big that it’s gotten. I personally never thought that I’d be seeing it when I go to the store—that there are figures and memorabilia. To see it just be so well received and become popular is phenomenal, especially when you get to grow with it from the start. Sometimes I have to catch myself and be like, “Wow, this is the fifth season.” It’s crazy and we don’t  get to experience that a whole lot when working on other anime. It’s incredibly exciting and humbling to be on this ride for as long as it goes on.

On that note, I’ve appreciated how My Hero Academia gets progressively more mature with each season as these characters grow older and face tougher threats. Season four was definitely the most brutal yet. Does this direction continue in season five or does it seem like a lighter season?

CLIFFORD CHAPIN: I honestly don’t know, but that’s one of the things that I love about My Hero Academia. You’ll have a really dark moment and then you’ll have a light one afterwards to pull you out of the darkness, which I think also plays into the themes of the show, too. So much of Deku’s mission is to just bring a smile to people’s faces. I feel like My Hero Academia rides that wave really well. I don’t know if I expect it to get darker right away or if it will stay lighthearted because a lot of season four was dark and heavy. I’m eager to see because if it stays lighthearted it will be fun, but if it gets dark then I can only imagine where it will go.

JUSTIN BRINER: Yeah, exactly. It’s hard to say. Right now I’m feeling light because I’m excited that it’s back and I hope that it doesn’t get too dark too quickly. 

The third My Hero Academia movie just got announced! What can you tease about that and is it exciting to get to tell these bigger stories independently of the anime and give the fans a cinematic experience?

JUSTIN BRINER: Absolutely. It’s just a different sort of experience and vibe when watching a movie–especially when we could see things on big screens—because there’s a certain energy there. It’s different from an episode-to-episode sort of feeling. I think it’s super exciting that there’s more of that on the way.

CLIFFORD CHAPIN: We got to do the premiere last year for the second movie and just being able to be in the theater with the fans as they were seeing the movie for the first time—and we were seeing it complete for the first time—was an experience unlike anything else I can describe. Hopefully, with any sort of luck, the premiere for the next movie could be something like that again. Here’s hoping!

Finally, if you could have any Quirk from the series, which one would you be most drawn towards?

CLIFFORD CHAPIN: I’m trying to think of a character who doesn’t get enough love or exposure…

JUSTIN BRINER: I think I might go for Lunch Rush’s Quirk. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know that it’s delicious. 

CLIFFORD CHAPIN: That’s right up your alley. That’d be perfect. For me, is it weird that I like Kamui Woods’ weird tendril-y bark power? I think it’s so strange and unique. I don’t know what you’d do with it other than what Kamui Woods does with it, but I feel like it’s an interesting Quirk that we could stand to see explored more in the series. 

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The dub for My Hero Academia season 5 is currently streaming on Funimation.com, with new episodes premiering on Saturdays.

The post My Hero Academia’s Deku and Bakugo on Season 5, Class 1-B, and Dark Betrayals appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[trashartandmovies]

Berlinale Film Festival 2021, Industry Event, Day 5

With Daniel Brühl’s NEXT DOOR and Dominik Graf’s FABIAN being geoblocked away from German laptops, that left only two Competition tiles to be screened on the final day of the Industry Event. The first was Alonso Ruizpalacios’s A COP MOVIE.

I haven’t seen Ruizpalacios’s previous features MUSEO and GÜEROS, so I had little expectation going into this one. About the only thing I knew was that A COP MOVIE had already been sold to Netflix — and, given the description in the press materials, that it was, in one form or another, a documentary film.

These two details make perfect sense together. Since Netflix first gained popularity around two decades ago, the documentary film has undergone a renaissance. Films that were once (maybe) seen at select arthouse cinemas in a few cities, but more likely on public television, were now available on demand. The phrase, “Did you see that documentary on…” is now a cliché. Documentaries are so popular nowadays that Netflix announced that every controversial murder since the dawn of the twentieth century is going to get its own five-part series. So yeah, it makes perfect sense that a documentary about police in Mexico City would find a welcome home at the streaming giant.

But as you already may have heard, A COP MOVIE isn’t your standard doc (some mid-point movie spoilers follow). The film starts out as the kind of reenactment-heavy crime film that has been used to effective ends since before Errol Morris’s A THIN BLUE LINE turned it into an investigative tool. At first we’re introduced to a Mexico City cop by the name of Teresa as she’s forced to deliver a baby because all of the city’s ambulances are busy elsewhere. Then we meet her parter in both work and life, Montoya, who’s struggling to keep it together amidst widespread corruption and not drown himself with alcohol. We think these cops are playing themselves in the reenactments (though there are a few clues that this may not be the case). Then a funny thing happens. The lights in the living room go out. The fourth wall collapses. The film crew enters. We’re then introduced to the actors who played the real cops in the reenactments — Mónica Del Carmen as Theresa and Raúl Briones as Montoya — as well as the real Theresa and Montoya. The movie then steps back to learn about the process the actors went through to prepare for their roles and understand their characters. This includes attending classes at the police academy, going on ride-alongs and filming video diaries during the whole experience.

It’s a pretty neat trick. By turning the mirror on itself, the filmmakers reveal the ideas behind the movie: the public perception of Mexico City police, how police offers are represented on film, and the fuzzy nature of reality. One of the points here is nuance, which is something that people today can’t get enough of. Which is to say, they don’t get enough of. The idea that there are both good cops and bad cops, isn’t exactly mind-blowing, but it’s worth making in the context of this film. Theresa and Montoya are good cops, and because of that fact, their story doesn’t end well. There’s a glimmer of hope that good people are still showing up at the academy, as well as a sense of just how much work needs to be done before these people can make a difference. Most of all, it’s a story being told in a way we haven’t really seen before.

Over the past few years, there’s been a small increase in the market for short films on the ever-growing number of streaming platforms. Mubi makes a point of highlighting them on the reg, Netflix is hosting more of them, and the reliable short film depots of Vimeo and YouTube are now easier to stream to your television. But seeing one on the big screen is still something that happens rarely outside of a film festival, which is a shame.

Still, catching the short films at a festival like Berlinale isn’t exactly a first choice for your average audience member, or your lowly press pass holder. Given the five-day arrangement of the Industry Event screenings, I didn’t get to many short films. But I did enjoy a couple. The first of which is DEINE STRASSE (YOUR STREET), by the Turkish-Swiss writer and director Güzin Kar. At under ten minutes, it’s a briefly heartbreaking story, narrated by the German playwright Sibylle Berg. Berg describes the street to some unnamed person. It’s a street on the outskirts of the German city, Bonn. There are businesses and houses. A roundabout. We start to understand that the street is named after the person Berg is addressing. Who is it? An immigrant child who fell victim to a neo-Nazi attack in the 1990s. It’s a quietly powerful piece of work.

The last Competition screening was Maria Speth’s long-awaited return to cinema, HERR BACHMANN UND SEINE CLASSE (MR. BACHMANN AND HIS CLASS). The three-and-a-half hour film is a deep dive into a fascinating subject: a sixth-grade Wilkommen class in a small industrial town in southern Germany. A Wilkommen class is where immigrant children will go, so that they can get the attention they need to learn the language and get what they need to enter the mainstream classes with native German students. To help them achieve this, they have the remarkable teacher Herr Bachmann.

We should all be so lucky as to have a teacher who doesn’t talk down to his students, who encourages openness, honesty, intelligence, individuality, staying true to your dreams, and the power of learning an instrument and playing music in a band. This film has been gaining comparisons, at least among American critics, to the work of veteran documentarian Frederick Wiseman, but this extends to more than just the length and quality of the film. Like Wiseman did in movies like HOSPITAL, WELFARE, CITY HALL and EX LIBRIS, Speth gets herself imbedded in a system to show the difficult work being done, the frustrating limitations the workers have to contend with, and the saintly individuals who try their best to persevere. The portrait of Herr Bachmann and his class is one that says, it is possible to take a difficult situation and do exactly the right thing — this is what it looks like. And given the time the film spends with the students, you also get invested in their improvement and whether or not they’ll get the stamp of approval to move on to the next level.

Herr Bachmann is invested in his students as well. Any teacher will tell you that dealing with kids, especially sixth graders, can be exhausting. And throughout the film, Herr Bachmann doesn’t shy away from learning the details about each kid’s family, or stepping in to help steer them toward a better future. He’s not one of these teachers who doesn’t get emotionally involved because he knows he only has a limited time to spend with these students. He’s going to try to do the best, and the most, that he can do to make them see their potential, open their minds, and instill tolerance and goodwill toward others. It’s more than a moving and inspiring portrait of a guy who’s really good at his job, it also shows just how good our education systems can be if we focus on helping kids become good human beings rather than just pushing them through some standardized machinery.

We’ll wrap things up with the next installment. After Day Five, the winners of the Competition and Encounters programs were made available over the weekend. So I was able to catch up with a couple Encounter pictures and one award-winning short. I’ll also try to provide some thoughts on what I think made this edition of the Berlinale stand-out from past years.

#Berlinale 2021