#mikes words of wisdom

[snake-in-your-garden]

ABOUT ME!

(please read before following & like once read!)

USED TO BE: mikeyswackystuff-> snake-in-your-garden

my name is Mikey! but you can also call me Charlie or Zira :)

I use any pronouns at all, and i’m aroacespec, and bisexual <3

i’m autistic, white, and a minor (VINE BOOM)

intrests: DOCTOR WHOO, good omens muppets, ride the cyclone, tmnt, h2g2, and lots more :3

before you interact: i use lots of tone tags, i reclaim the f slur and i listen to weezer

if you ever need anything specifically tagged don’t hesitate to ask :)

that’s it!

#mikes words of wisdom #pinned post!

[portkill]

hay I watched the entirety of breaking bad + whatever better call saul has out rn + tha movie one after every day until I was done I am sick in the head and I have several diseases

#my art #brba art #brba #breaking bad #jesse pinkman #saul goodman #breaking bad fanart #my goober peanuts + pretend mike is in there. he is my favorite of all time #the song i was listening to on loop #while drawing the jesse was #dogma by kmfdm its very good #grandpa's words of wisdom: listen to kmfdm

[northwoodsfan]

Grace Nugget for 3.2.23

Grace Nuggets: Simple reminders of God’s great love for you.

View On WordPress

#Built with Grace #courage #Daily Devotional #Daily Encouragement #God #God&039;s love #God&039;s promises #God&039;s Word #Gods protection #grace #Grace Nuggets #Holy Spirit #Jesus #Jesus Christ #Joshua 21:45 #Mike Fisk #second chances #Wisdom

[motivateandinspiretoday]

Mike Tyson Words of Wisdom #wisewisdom #selfconfidence #motivation #sel...

Mike Tyson is a former professional boxer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight champions in the history of boxing. Born on June 30, 1966, in Brooklyn, New York, Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion at the age of 20. Known for his aggressive fighting style and powerful punches, he became the undisputed heavyweight champion by unifying the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles.

#youtube #Mike Tyson #Boxing #Words of Wisdom #Champion #X

[silentencryption]

Sometimes I get in my head and think I'm somebody, and then I'm easily offended. But when I know I'm nobody, I could never be offended.

Mike Tyson

#mike tyson #quote #words of truth #words of wisdom #life quotes #stoicism #reflection #humility

[completeandrandomshit]

Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but do it like you love it.

Mike Tyson

#celebrity quotes #celeb quotes #mike tyson #words of inspiration #words of wisdom #words of knowledge

[therainscene]

It’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but the Alan Turing poster really tells us so much about Will that I consider it to be a significant piece of foreshadowing for S5.

First, let’s dissuade ourselves of the notion that Will chose Turing for his hero project for nerd reasons -- Will’s preferred flavour of nerdery is escapist fantasy, not computer science. He doesn’t know what an IP address is and the first thing he thinks of when he hears modem noises is a movie he likes.

No, he chose Turing because he admires him for being a gay man who accomplished so much in his short life.

On one hand, that’s pretty heart-warming -- the fact he’s willing to identify with other gay men and look up to them as role models shows us he’s making good progress in accepting his identity. On the other hand, it’s heart-breaking, because Turing’s story is not a happy one -- he was caught having a sexual relationship with a man and forced to choose between jail or chemical castration. He chose castration.

I remind you: Will identifies with this guy.

Will is growing up under the twin specters of AIDS and homophobia and likely assumes he’s destined to die young too. He’s been abused and bullied so much, I imagine he’s heard and internalized it all: that he deserves to die, that he’s disgusting, that he’ll never be fulfilled in life.

So when puberty begins crawling its way inside him and implants those shameful desires that make gay men so worthy of abuse... he chooses castration.

For all the sad pining he does in S4, we never really see Will express desire for Mike -- he never checks him out or shows signs of nervousness when they touch. He behaves with perfect platonic decorum at all times...

...unless we consider That One Scene With The Hose.

Sexual interpretations of this scene are controversial, and I can understand why; we’re so used to seeing Will as this innocent, immature little boy that it's shocking to catch him fantasizing so lustfully, even though these sorts of thoughts are pretty normal for a 15 year-old. But I think that’s the point. We’re supposed to feel uncomfortable about this, because Will feels uncomfortable about it too.

He’s done well in accepting his identity, but he’s an absolute repressed mess when it comes to accepting his sexuality.

So, that’s what the Turing poster tells us about Will. Here’s where the foreshadowing comes in: Will is not the only queer-coded character to have been metaphorically castrated.

Henry’s experience bears striking similarities to Turing’s: he too was caught engaging in a natural but forbidden behaviour and forced by his government to undergo a medical procedure to suppress that behaviour.

His villain speech to El in 4x07, which is ostensibly about his powers, also reads very strongly as a scathing criticism of heteronormativity, and it’s covered in rainbow motifs.

The metaphor here is obvious: Henry’s powers are a manifestation of his homosexuality.

Which implies that Will’s homosexuality can also manifest as powers. They’re repressed because he’s repressed.

It’s not a coincidence that the sexual tension was through the fucking roof in the infamous sauna scene. Every time Will’s supernatural ability to sense the Mind Flayer triggers in S3, Mike is also nearby.

What’s interesting about Mike is that his queer acceptance issues mirror Will’s: Mike has a healthy relationship with his sexuality (he casually checks guys out and plasters his bedroom walls with posters of buff dudes) but he just can’t bring himself to accept what this implies about his identity.

Always with the symmetry, these two. They complement each other perfectly; one’s hang-up is the other’s strength. They have a lot to teach each other about being queer.

And as repressed as they are, I think they want to learn from each other -- Will lets himself get flustered when Mike flirts with him in his bedroom, and Mike hangs on to every word of wisdom Will shares with him in their heart-to-hearts.

Internalized homophobia is a powerful force, but their bond is so strong that it empowers them to fight back.

Henry’s powers symbolize his anger at being mistreated and his desire to take that anger out on the world... but Will’s powers symbolize self-acceptance and love.

So he isn’t just going to defeat Vecna with his powers, and he isn’t just going to get the boy: these two things are one and the same.

#stranger things #will has powers #byler #will byers #mike wheeler #henry creel #my analysis

[meatychunks]

Conan the Barbarian and how it correlates to Mike's inner struggles

I know the topic of Mike's bedroom has been talked to death, whether it's the one-way sign or the buff dragon with nipples poster. However, rarely do I ever see talks on the Conan the Barbarian poster or even on the film itself, which is properly due to the film being somewhat notorious for its terrible treatment of women.

Whenever I do see it, people usually stick it up to being a part of his gay sexual awaking, which was sprinkled throughout his introduction in this season. And while I agree that's a part of it, I believe that they choose this film specifically rather than its sequel (which was only two years old in 86') for its depictions of minorities and masculinity to perfectly sum up his struggles with not only conformity but also toxic masculinity of the 1980s.

A HEADS-UP WITH TALKS OF SEXISM, RAPE, HOMOPHOBIA PLUS BREIF NUDITY.

Let's start with how it portrays sensitivity among men. Right off the bat, we see the film favours traditional masculine values with a conversation between Conan and his father shortly before the massacre of his tribe by the doom cult, with him telling Conan not to trust anyone and allow himself to be vulnerable, only trusting the steel of his sword which, in the film's own words, was founded by men.

Rather than this being a critique on how men are often been forced out of emotional availability by generations before them, it's taken as words of wisdom that Conan takes to heart as we see him from a scrawny kid that lost everything to a muscular killing machine, stripped from sensitivity and is seen by other characters as the prime specimen of man.

Male sensitivity is often depicted as a weakness and is unsurprisingly lumped with homosexuality as something to be ridiculed. We see this as Conan tries to sneak into the temple of the cult by pretending to be a shy and nervous bystander while wearing flowers (to which he says "for a girl" when being asked the purpose of them the scene prior), this attracts the attention of a priest who makes suggestive comments about his body all while caressing his chest. He asks to continue their discussion in private, an obvious implication of a hookup, and ends up getting killed by Conan.

Not only it's presented as something antagonistic with the act of desiring another man seen as something perverse, but also, the implications of GNC men shouldn't be taken seriously and only seen as a target for sexual assault.

Traditional masculinity carries into how women are represented. With it not only their screen time is few and far between but also only serve as sexual reward to male characters or to show off their power, women who don't fall into this category are usually ridiculed by our main protagonist, often being called sluts or hoes. They are disregarded shortly after their introduction by being killed and/or raped (including a woman being raped by Conan during his montage to power).

The only recurring female character is Valeria (we only find that's her name in the film's credits, so take that what you will) who gives the illusion of a strong character with being able to fight aside the male characters and her snarky attribute during her introduction, but ultimately ends up being a tool for Conan by falling into the wife role with her never being able to have true goals of her own. She disappears from narrative, only to show up towards the end for a tiny bit to meet her demise.

The poster reflects her role in the narrative with its composition, with her kneeling down so the viewers' eyes lead up to the main piece Conan, just an add-on to show his power.

Now that's not to say it doesn't cater to female viewers (and unknowingly to queer men) by taking full advantage of the female gaze with multiple lingering close-up shots of Conan, some framed in suggestive angles and even scenes only exiting just to show off Arnold Schwarzenegger's muscular frame (take the random sex scene with the witch for example). And while there is female nudity, like women in this film, it's treated with a lot less care with being in wide shots and going just as quickly as it appears.

Which finally brings us to this film's queer coding. It's common for macho action films to fall into homoerotic undertones due to their misogynistic tendencies, this film being no different with it being parodied in other media, even during its initial release, particularly in underground comics.

An example I like to bring up is Conan's "first time" in a fight. He's confused and nervous as he's thrust into battle bare apart from a loin cloth and is attacked by his opponent, but as the fight progresses, he gets more confident and begins to relish in it.

Overall, the film does serve escapism for it's male audience with its power fantasy elements, but rather of it being done through our main protagonist, it's done through the world where the narrative inhabits with it taking pride that worth is achieved through physical strength, wealth and sexual conquest. And while the narrative is the classic trope of the underdog going against a figure of high power, even they can't help finding his lifestyle appealing.

Now....

What does this tell us about Mike?

Well, we know that his family often emotionally neglect him and encourage him to give up vulnerability (i.e., making him give up his childhood toys that have emotional value and viewing his outbursts as just "delinquent behaviour").

His poor treatment towards El starting when they are together at the start of season 3. Starting off somewhat small with implicitly being disinterested in her when they are actually alone, take their conversation during his bike ride to the mall during his introduction or him jumping on the first chance he got on reducing their time together when Hopper stepped in (despite going against his wishes when it came to looking for Will in season 1).

However, when she starts to gain some independence through Max and stops being "his pet", rather than admit his mistakes and apologise like how Lucas does with Max or how he does to Will shortly after upsetting him, he starts using sexist language and starts to get controlling when said independence is applied to her use of powers.

His implicit homophobia during his projection, when Will (Who is canonically considered GNC during this time) implies his changed in behaviour as something negative.

And this might be a stretch, but maybe him tying his self-worth to whether or not he is able to provide and protect is also due to the societal pressures of gender roles and him feeling inferior to El could possibly be a hint of jealousy due to her being able to fulfil said roles despite her gender.

And we all know he has a certain type when it comes to men.

#stranger things #mike wheeler #gay mike wheeler #byler #it's impiled so it counts #less of an analysis and more of a ramble after rewatching one of my gay awakening films after like five years #conan the barbarian #st #character analysis #Had to rewrite this three times due to tumblrs dogshit layout #This post is a bit all over the place so let me know if anythings confusing

[user4207292926282]

growth spurt pt.2

summary: teenage boy - 0 ┃boobs - 1

mike wheeler x fem!reader

part 1

it was only two weeks into school and mike was already hardcore avoiding you. he was thankful he only had two classes with you, but it was still too much. he spent most of the classes he had with you hiding in the bathroom. the rest of the party had already figured it out, easily taking notice of his behavior around you.

eddie was the first to notice, just happening to catch wheeler’s face when you walked in the first day with a short skirt swaying atop your thighs. mike would’ve fainted if eddie hadn’t subtly caught him and swept him away into an empty classroom nearby.

‘are you kidding me wheeler?” eddie whisper yelled holding mike by his shoulders against the wall, ‘you can’t even look at her in a skirt without your knees buckling?’

mike just stared wide eyed, a part of his brain still thinking about your silky thighs

‘jesus christ kid. you gotta get it together.’ eddie let go and started to leave the classroom. ‘you are in for one hell of a school year kiddo’ and with those wise words of wisdom bouncing around mike’s head, eddie left for his first class.

but that was ancient history. now everyone knew about mike’s major feelings towards you. now you were seated next to him at lunch, wearing that skirt again, your plush thighs pushing up against his. mike was shooting daggers at the rest of the group who had coincidentally taken up every chair except for the one closest to him, leaving the seat for the last one at the table. which was always you.

mike thought everything would be fine, he could ignore your thighs. yeah it might take all of his brainpower to do it, but he knew he could.

then you asked if he could help you with the latest math homework, his strongest subject. your worst.

he reluctantly obliged, happy to help you- just afraid of embarrassing himself. he sat and watched as you reached over to pull the work out of your bag, giving him the most perfect view of your tits sitting so pretty in your tiny shirt, threatening to spill out. he quickly looked away, not wanting to be creepy, trying to push out the dirty thoughts that began to fill his brain… oh the things he could do to those perfect fuckin tits. looking up- his eyes met dustin and eddie’s, both of them sitting across the table snickering at their little plan working just as they knew it would.

mike only looked back at you when you gently tapped his arm. his eyes dragging over to you looking up at him with those eyes. fuck.

‘are you sure you want to help me mikey? you don’t have to, i can go ask someone from my class if you don’t wanna’

‘nononono i wanna help i swear’ mike replied, his voice a little higher than usual.

‘i just zoned out for a second that’s all’ he smiled, looking down at her paper to begin to help.

he made it through two questions before he got a boner. all you’d done was put your hand on his thigh and compliment him on how well he did at explaining to you a simply question. his cheeks flared pink and his smile spread in a thin line across his face as he turned away. he then made it through questions three and four.

‘ohhh!! now i get it mikey! oh i’m so stupid.’ you pouted, erasing your previous equation and replacing it with the correct one mike just helped you come up with. you were the only one who called him mikey. he blushes every time you say it.

‘oh shut it y/n you’re literally perfect in every way’ he mumbled, going grab a pencil he dropped seconds prior. you look up at him with a grin so big you looked like a kid on christmas morning. you didn’t reply, deciding to simply kiss his cheek as a thank you.

he then promptly ran from his chair in the cafeteria to… literally anywhere you weren’t. he claimed to have forgotten to grab something from his locker, but everyone at that table knew that was the biggest fucking lie of the year. he avoided you for the rest of the day, thankful your two classes together were both before lunch. he skipped meeting everyone at eddie’s car after school for one last conversation before going their separate ways, instead just hopping on his bike and speeding home to… think about things. definitely not masturbate to the thought of you kissing his cheek, slowly trailing down to his neck. slowly sucking and biting his cheeks and mouth while you rode his rock hard di-

‘knock, knock. mike? you in there?’ your voice came from outside his door.

‘uh yeah! one second!’ mike yelled while trying to pull his pants fully up and cover his massive boner with his blankets and pillows.

‘come in?’

he watched as you slowly opened the door and stuck your head in, checking to make sure everything was okay before fully entering and softly shutting the door behind you. you stood by his door for a moment before slowly climbing in his bed to sit on the headboard next to him. he sat and watched, praying you didn’t notice his heavy breathing and blushy face. you obviously noticed, but decided not to question or comment.

‘uhhhhh. is there a reason your here?’ mike asked softly, trying to seem as nice as possible while also trying to get you to leave as fast as fucking possible. feeling himself get impossibly harder as he watched your face focus, sweat still shining from your bike ride over. and still wearing that skirt.

‘yeah. there is.’ you said. instead of turning to look at him you looked forward, not even looking in his direction, but you could feel his eyes on you.

‘you’ve been avoiding me so much lately. and i don’t know if it’s purposefully or not. but i just wanna know why mike. i didn’t get to see you all summer and now that i’m here you rarely speak to me. and what the actual fuck happened at lunch today? just running off like that? you could’ve just said you didn’t want to help me or-’

‘i like you.’

you froze. silence filled the room, you looked over at mike and now his face was away from yours.

‘i can’t think around you. that’s why i’ve been avoiding you. i just can’t handle being around you and not being able to stare and admire you without hoping you don’t catch me. i want to hold you in my arms. i can’t even tell you how many hard-ons i’ve got from you just saying my name. i can’t function around you anymore. you’re just too perfect.

mike looked at you, trying to gauge your reaction. you were beaming. your cheeks were red from blush and your eyes squinted in that cute way they do when you smile at something genuine.

and with that you simply kissed him.

his eyes closed with the kiss and you felt him melt into your touch. pulling away he looked at you. his big doe eyes looking straight into yours, foreheads touched together as you breathed in each others air. you gave him one last peck before moving to rest your head on his shoulder.

‘i like you too mikey.’

a/n I FINALLY DID IT HERE U GO

i tagged all the ppl who commented/reblogged part one so here u go!! :)))))))))))

hope u like it and lmk if u see any mistakes !

tags !!

@ymylu @heartsfordeftones @navarrocat @spencerstits @ykyouluvme @ravenclawprincess33333 @obsessed-with-a-fictional-man @nevillescomslut @shrimpfalls @w33pingcats @leah-the-hufflepuff @jasminelust @irinity

#mike wheeler x fem!reader #stranger things #mike wheeler #cutie #mike wheeler x reader #fluff #stranger things x reader #pt.2

[snake-in-your-garden]

i need a new father figure is gabriel utterson adopting

#plEASE SIR #gabriel utterson #mikes words of wisdom #fatherless but my bio dad is just infuriating

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

they managed to massacre Aang's character and all the struggle and importance of his choice in the finale in a SINGLE page, and yet there are people who think the comics are good

and of course Katara's would have nothing to say on the matter, toootally in-character

Not to mention: yes, Zuko is right that a lifetime of indoctrination won't magically stop affecting him just because he's aware of it now, but the way the comics really said "If you're not perfect, you deserve to die. Not rehabilitation, not even incarceration despite it being an option, just straight to violent, lethal punishment" is horrying.

And lets not forget the blatant abuse apologism of having Zuko, the kid who was told by his abusive parent that his disfigurement and banishment was "for his own good" after he made one "mistake", turning to his closest friends and asking them to be his "safety net" by MURDERING HIM IF EVER STEPS OUT OF LINE - and said friends then agree to it.

Are you fucking kidding me? The real Aang would have double-down on the "You're NOT your father" bit, and the entire friend group would have been super concerned about Zuko because a victim of abuse saying they're as bad as their abuser thus deserve to die is one hell of a red flag as to how their mental health is going.

Speaking of mental health: I talk a lot about how Azula was constantly being abused by the supposed heroes in the comics, and how the justification of it is rooted in ableism, but this nonsense with Zuko asking to be put down like a dog is also peak victim blaming, and one of the few moments in which one can actually feel bad for comics!Zuko.

And it ties into a disturbing pattern I noticed among Avatar fans - and mainly Zuko fans. They don't truly understand that what Ozai put his children through was wrong, they simply think he chose the wrong kid as the escapegoat. They think Azula should have been the one that is constantly punished just for existing, while Zuko is the golden child that can do no wrong - or else.

This moment right here? With the people that he trusts agreeing to inflict violence on him if he ever makes a mistake? This is that "or else". This is literally the same mentality that led to Azula's breakdown because NO ONE CAN SURVIVE UNDER THAT MUCH PRESSURE.

And that leads us to the main reason why the comcis suck: Yang was using Zuko as a self-insert.

"Zuko‘s relationship with Ozai is something we – Mike, Brian, Dark Horse, Nickelodeon, and I – talked about extensively when we first started working together. There’s this strange thing that happens to people in power. The pressures of power often blur the lines between enemies. That’s part of what happens to Zuko here. Ozai is the only one who knows what it’s like to be Fire Lord, the only one who has the wisdom of experience. I also looked at my own life. I used to clash with my dad quite a bit when I was a teenager. However, as I grew up and found myself in roles that he used to have, I began to understand more and more of his decisions. My father isn't thoroughly evil, of course, but I imagine Zuko feels a little of the same pull."

Yang. My guy. My dude. The words "Ozai" and "wisdom" should NEVER be in the same sentence. Every single action of Ozai's as Fire Lord was based on him being an abusive piece of shit that finally got access to absolute power. He is not a stern dad, he is abusive. He's not misunderstood, he needed to be stopped and locked away. He is a human being with feelings and motivations, yes, but he is WRONG ABOUT LITERALLY EVERYTHING EVER. He NEVER had a point. Zuko has nothing to learn from him except what NOT to do. That's why he looks like an older, unscarred Zuko. A version of Zuko that never changed.

This is the core issue of the comics, and why it had so many moments of unintentional abuse apologism: they say Ozai is a villain, but they're going out of their way to constantly make the characters come dangerously close to saying "Maybe he had a point." That's why they have Zuko turn to Ozai for advice despite claiming he wants to avoid becoming like him - because the guy writting them couldn't understand that the bad guy was, in fact, bad and in the wrong and has no wisdom to offer to anyone.

Avatar, the series, is about the world moving past from the sick mentality people like Ozai had, and about his son realizing that he did not deserve to be abused. The Avatar Comics are about telling Zuko (and others) "Ozai isn't wrong actually, you'll understand when you're older."

No, Yang, they won't. Because there's nothing to "understand" here other than THE GUY THAT ABUSED HIS CHILDREN AND COMMITED GENOCIDE WAS WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING, YOU DUMBASS!

Saying "the villain had a point" does not make a story better unless it is true - and in Ozai's case, it simply isn't. Insisting otherwise doesn't make the story and characters more mature, it just means you couldn't understand a cartoon aimed at 7-year-olds despite being a grown-ass man.

And I won't even get into Bryke approving of this bullshit otherwise I'll start tearing my hair out in rage at how badly they seem to have lost touch with the message of their best work, so let me just use a simple statemet to make everyone understand just how much of a disaster this is:

Even M. Night Shyamalan didn't misunderstand ATLA to the point of thinking Ozai wasn't actually wrong, but Bryan, Mike and Yang did. The comics understand the show less than M. Night Shyamalan did.

I rest my fucking case.

#atla comics #the comics suck #zuko deserved better #azula deserved better

[kiirotoao]

Byler and Confrontation 1.5: The Importance of Season 4

Byler being immediately comfortable with each other in season 4 would have been too easy. Too obvious. No other pair is as close as Byler, and if they kept in contact, their relationship’s progression would have been so clear that it wouldn’t even be interesting, and that’s why I think that Byler is plainly intentional to end up together in slow burn fashion.

Imagine the airport scene but they hug with all the emotion of true best friends (which, they are, and that’s a canon fact that Mike asserts and Will agrees with in s4e4, but I digress-) meeting again, crashing into each other, joking right off the bat, being comfortable like they easily could have been. Will comments on Mike’s ridiculous outfit and Mike defends himself and Will laughs and Mike’s forgotten how much he missed hearing that laugh. Then Will would give him the painting and Mike would be blushing, and the story’s over! Even if they dance around their feelings for the rest of the show long, they could have instantly recognized that something’s changed and yet stayed the same, and they’d be a unit again. Or should I say, a team?

I feel like there’s no other way to treat Byler other than subtly vying for each other’s attention (Will looking at Mike longingly, Mike turning to Will for wisdom) or blatantly vying for each other’s attention (Will the Wise, Mike Wheeler in general), and to go full blown best friends attached at the hip from day one in California would have been way too romantically charged. Not necessarily openly, but just in the way it’s easy to doubt, to have brows raised.

And what good storytelling would that be? To just seal the deal the second they meet? We know that they miss each other. Will was ready to give him that painting. And yeah, it takes Mike a whole business day to realize how much he misses Will, too, but that type of love that reaches out doesn’t originate from only that business day. So do they just flat out hug and say, “God, I missed you so much” ?? Of course not! Because that’s immediate intimacy. That’s honesty with no side effects, and that’s something that doesn’t happen in any well-created nor real life love story.

Once upon a time, the end? There’s no way! No one would be as invested.

And I’m not saying that I don’t want Byler to be so strained, or I don’t want them to be happy. I want them to be so happy. And seeing their mistakes and growing through them only makes that happiness more and more apparent whenever they come around. Because they find each other, in the end. They forgive and work through things and their chemistry abounds through tough moments, and that’s what makes them amazing to me. Literally look at every other ship in the show. Jopper fought all season long during season 3 because Hopper was jealous and Joyce was a stressed-out boss ass bitch. Jancy fought in seasons 1 and 3 before and after they learned more about each other and worked through their biases. Lumax had that fight at the arcade where Max didn’t believe what Lucas was telling her.

Anger often breeds hate, but sometimes, it creates something beautiful in people who, deep down, want to figure something out about each other: steadfastness.

Simply put, their story grows.

Which is why they couldn’t hug. Which is why they barely spoke. Which is why they lashed out at each other. Which is why it took a whole business day to rejoin as a team. Which is why their forgiveness is all the more sweet. Which is why their relationship is all the more sweet. Which is why they prove to know each other. Which is why they’re so good together.

Look at them!! Look at Mike, chuckling at five damn words. And this was BEFORE they truly amended fences!!!

I love how hardships bring Byler together. I don’t know about you, but I’d want a partner who doesn’t avoid the rough patches but strives to love me through them - because they will happen! No one is perfect! And no, I don’t mean fight and you will find love. But when you love, you will fight. And that’s what I think is what happens when Byler fight.

So I can’t wait for it to happen one more time, probably about the lie of the painting being commissioned, for everything to fall apart only to come back together because they realize it’s all one giant story of misunderstanding and internalized homophobia and repressed feelings - a final and urgent fight that demands them to let everything out in the open and truly realize that they are the love that each other seeks.

And, I mean, I don’t know, I think that it would be pretty cool to write a slow burn romance amidst all the love triangles and love-at-first-sights and tragic losses. With bonus unique notes of being childhood best friends with deeply-explored queer coding. Just saying.

#byler #byler analysis #Byler brainrot #lowkey shitpost #I feel so bad for cursing on this blog idk why but I was impassioned so. oops #hehe #thinking about their fights again #stranger things analysis #BYLER IS ENDGAME #special thanks to Conan Gray’s the final fight for putting me through this lmao

[northwoodsfan]

Grace Nugget for 12.1.22

Grace Nugget for 12.1.22

Grace Nuggets: Simple reminders of God’s great love for you.

View On WordPress

#blessings #Built with Grace #Christianity #God #God&039;s Word #grace #Grace Nuggets #Holy Bible #Holy Spirit #Jesus Christ #Mike Fisk #Psalm 103:19 #relationship #Wisdom

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

Why Nikki Haley’s answer omitting slavery as a cause of the Civil War matters.

What happened.

At a campaign event in New Hampshire, a member of the audience asked Nikki Haley to identify the causes of the Civil War. She gave an evasive answer that omitted slavery as a cause of the Civil War. She said,

I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do.

Haley was immediately attacked, mocked, and condemned for failing to identify slavery as a cause of the Civil War. During a Thursday morning interview, she attempted to walk back her prior answer with an equally offensive and unconvincing answer. As described in Forbes,

During the Thursday morning interview, she said the goal of the Civil War was to ensure each person has their freedom, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the “freedom to do and be anything they want to be without anyone or government getting in the way . . . Yes, I know it was about slavery. I’m from the South, of course I know it’s about slavery.”

Why it matters.

Haley has a history of minimizing or dismissing the role of slavery in the Civil War. The incident on Wednesday is merely the latest episode that reveals her willingness to cater to white nationalists in pursuit of elected office. As former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said,

She's smart and she knows better. And she didn't say it because she's a racist. Because she's not. I know her well and I don't believe Nikki has a racist bone in her body . . . the reason she did it is just as bad, if not worse, and should make everybody concerned about her candidacy. She did it because she's unwilling to offend anyone by telling the truth. If she is unwilling to stand up and say that slavery is what caused the Civil War because she's afraid of offending constituents in some other part of the country, if she's afraid to say that Donald Trump is unfit because she's afraid of offending people who support Donald Trump, . . . What's going to happen when she has to stand up against forces in our own party who want to drag this country deeper and deeper into anger and division and exhaustion?”

Christie is right that Nikki Haley is afraid to tell the truth. But she is also a reactionary conservative posing as a moderate. As the NYTimes noted, her failure to include slavery threatens to destroy her image as someone attractive to moderate Republicans and independents. Per the Times,

Ms. Haley’s appeal as a candidate of moderation is mixed. As governor of South Carolina, she signed some of the harshest immigration and anti-abortion laws in the country at the time, as well as a stringent voter identification law that required photo ID at the ballot box.

But Haley’s omission of slavery was not merely an act of cowardice on her part. She was promoting a dangerous revisionist history of the Civil War that has taken root in the former Confederate states. Haley is promoting the myth of the “Lost Cause” of the South—a romanticized transformation of the brutal practice of slavery into (in the words of Haley) “traditions that are noble — traditions of history, of heritage, and of ancestry.”

I highly recommend a thoughtful and detailed discussion of Haley’s dangerous answer by Joshua Zeitz in Politico, Opinion | Why Was It So Hard for Nikki Haley to Say "Slavery"? Civil War History Has the Answer.

Zeitz writes,

The Lost Cause mythology was more than bad history. It provided the intellectual justification for Jim Crow — not just in the former Confederacy, but everywhere systemic racism denied Black citizens equal citizenship and economic rights. [¶] With GOP presidential candidates waffling on the Civil War, rejecting history curricula in their states and launching political fusillades against “woke” culture, it remains for the rest of us to reaffirm the wisdom of Frederick Douglass, who in the last years of his life stated: “Death has no power to change moral qualities. What was bad before the war, and during the war, has not been made good since the war. … Whatever else I may forget, I shall never forget the difference between those who fought for liberty and those who fought for slavery.”

Nikki Haley wants to forget “the difference between those who fought for liberty and those who fought for slavery.” In pursuit of the presidency, she recasts “fighting for slavery” as “noble traditions of history, heritage, and ancestry.” Shame on her.

Haley is telling us who she is. We should believe her.

Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

#Robert B. Hubbell #Robert B. Hubbell newsletter #Nikki Haley #the civil war #slavery #the old south #White supremacy #The Lost Cause #Mike Luckovich

[flanaganfilm]

Hey there!

I’m a new writer-director finishing up film school and I keep getting into little spats with some of my instructors over my characters talking too much/for too long.

My stock response at this point has basically become “Well, it works just fine when Mike Flanagan does it.”

I don’t know if it’s because I come from a theatre background or what, but I really don’t like the seemingly common wisdom that characters talking—actors orating—is boring for audiences. That you have to have Something Happening all the time, and that characters “just” conversing or telling a story doesn’t count, as though “to speak” isn’t a verb.

Since you tend to have characters speak at length and it turns out riveting—I’m thinking specifically of the confetti speech from Hill House and Hassan’s speech about being a Muslim cop in NYC from Midnight Mass—I was hoping you could share some of your thoughts on balancing action with conversation, giving actors room to “just” talk, and keeping lengthy oration engaging.

Thanks!

I also come from a theater background. I wouldn't be too hard on your instructors - in fact, they sound like they're pretty in sync with a lot of executives in the industry.

I received similar feedback when I was a film student. My first few student features were very talky. We were studying the breakthrough work of Kevin Smith, Spike Lee, and Jim Jarmusch. The indie movies that were selling at Sundance and hitting theaters were The Brothers McMullen and Chuck and Buck. Tarantino had hit the scene and his characters were dropping pages and pages and pages of thick, unhurried dialogue. Reservoir Dogs posters were hanging on every dorm room wall on campus, and that movie was essentially just a long conversation. We watched My Dinner With Andre in class. So yeah, most of our student films were emulating that.

I have always loved a monologue. Going back to Robert Shaw's hypnotic story in Jaws, to Harry Dean Stanton's jaw-dropping monologue in Paris, Texas. It's an art form. Giving actors room to speak, to find music in dialogue, to transport a viewer just with mere words... that's an incredible feat, I think. It's some of the oldest magic left.

That said, I've always tried to balance that out. It's a visual medium, after all, and whenever I've found myself leaning too hard on the words, I've tried to counterbalance that was a very ambitions visual sequence, a long unbroken camera maneuver, or something else that honors the difference between filmed entertainment and theatre.

One of the reasons I made Hush was to challenge myself to eliminate words from my arsenal and focus on visual storytelling.

I take a fair amount of flack for my monologues and dialogue, first from studio executives and then from a small percentage of viewers whose attention spans are being challenged. The most common note I get on any project is to take out talking. It can be disheartening, but I'm always trying to be fair about it, and to be sympathetic to the fact that a lot of movies and television have actively tried to shorten viewers' attention spans for decades now. Audiences are being trained for things to happen faster, louder, shorter. What good is your amazing 6-minute monologue if people changed the channel two episodes ago?

There are times when it is more important to me than others. I dug in hard on Midnight Mass, where the words and ideas in those soliloquies are a big part of the point of the show... but on The Midnight Club, I didn't push for it. I kept scenes relatively short, and there isn't a monologue to be found.

But my overarching feeling is that an artfully written and well performed monologue is a gift, and a dying art. It celebrates great acting, it requires great trust of the performer and of the viewer, and it has the power to transport us with one of the oldest magics human beings ever discovered - the spoken word.

Storytelling began that way: monologues around a campfire. Over the millennia, we've harnessed that campfire light, we've even learned to paint with it, to pull our dreams out of our minds and put them onto giant screens, so the whole world can dream together... but the real magic still starts with the words.

Which is my long-winded way of trying to encourage you to make your films the way you want to make them. Make the films you want to see. And if you love words... that's a great thing. Try to find a balance, never lose sight of the visual medium, and if you're going to drop a big chunk of words in there, try to earn it with something visually challenging as well.

Or, just tell your instructors you'll make it shorter, and then cut out ten frames of air. ;)

#monologue

[half-an-hour-hence]

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is: what if Robin is destined to stay at Button House forever? What if he’s physically incapable of moving on? What if it’s meant to be like that because he’s been around since the beginning of time, because he’s adapted and is knowledgeable about the history of the house, and the stories of those who have moved on? Is he truly only there to offer words of wisdom and reassurance and to bond with others just to have them move on without him? Like…imagine if all of the ghosts move on and he’s left by himself in the hotel. And now Mike and Alison have gone too. He’s like the bridge between the afterlife and whatever comes next. He’s so close to finding peace but something tells me that it just won’t happen, that he’s fated to wait until other ghosts come along and the same thing happens.

#idk man it just makes me sad #I guarantee that this man will never move on. ever #bbc ghosts #robin ghosts #robin the caveman #larry rickard #six idiots #them there #robin bbc ghosts