Tumgik
#the books are racist as balls!!!!
rivercule · 2 months
Text
I can’t believe I read Dark Disciple (awful book) for Ventress and Night Sister lore only for Filoni to step in and say. Well actually none of that matters. Nothing is real or true. Certainly not beautiful
3 notes · View notes
cryptotheism · 1 year
Text
A Review of The Way Of The Shadow Wolves: The Deep State And The Hijacking Of America by Steven Segal
Alleged rapist and human trafficker, cop groupie, washed-up action movie star, and personal friend to Vladimir Putin, the paradox of Steven Segal is how he manages to stick around despite being –by damn near every account– a universally unpleasant vacuum of charisma. I could go on, but I feel that no introduction of Steven would be complete without the tale of the headlock. Legends tell of Steven’s conflict with legendary martial artist and hollywood stunt coordinator “Judo” Gene Lebell. Allegedly, the two fell into an argument on the set of the film Out For Justice. The crux being Steven’s claim that he was “immune” to being choked unconscious. Allegedly, LeBell called his bluff, and put the actor in a headlock. A headlock that resulted in Steven losing consciousness, and control of his bowels. Steven denies the story. He also wrote a book.
The book is garbage, but garbage in a way that can be easily overstated. I wanted to take a page from other reviewers of this book, and call the text what it is; a fever dream of exhausting mediocrity, swaddled in delusions of grandeur. I wanted to whale on it. I wanted to denounce it like some ridiculous fire-and-brimstone preacher of internet literary criticism. But this does not capture the core, the essence of Way of the Shadow Wolves. There is a paradox at the heart of this text, a contradiction that even now I struggle to describe. Because despite everything, despite the balls-to-the-walls premise, the disastrous prose, and the buckwild plot, this book is deeply and powerfully boring. To call it a fever dream is to imply that it might be exciting. 
Some books are bad in a way that must be experienced firsthand. This is not one of those books. In a way, I feel that you’ve already read this book. You know Steven Segal. You met him in elementary school, when he told you he has “every black belt.” You met him in college when you tricked him into smoking a bag of oregano. You met him at your most recent family gathering, where you were trapped in an awkward one-sided conversation about “those people.” The bad-ness of Steven’s work is deeply familiar. 
We have our boots. We have our waders. We have our shovels. But, before we wade into the shit, there is one more thing we need to get out of the way: The Shadow Wolves are real. In 1972 the United States government agreed to the Tohono O'odham Nation’s demand that border enforcement agents patrolling their land have at least one quarter native ancestry. The result being the specialized unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers known as The Shadow Wolves. In the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film, Dr. Eggman states that they are who trained him in the art of tracking. 
WAY OF THE SHADOW WOLVES
Let us cook Way of the Shadow Wolves from scratch. Think of every dogshit C-list action movie you’ve ever seen. Ideally, you want the trash cuts of post-9/11 hysteria marbled with ex-cia heroes and vaguely arab villains. Drop it all into a stockpot. Next, roughly dice some comic books and kung-fu movies, the more racist the better. Now add some datura, it doesn't matter if it's edible or not, because you saw a native American in a movie make something like that once and you’re totally 1/64th Cherokee. Add a whole can of Qanon and a whole can of racism. Boil until you have pacing thicker than mud. 
Way of the Shadow Wolves is a police procedural meets a spy thriller, a fast-paced action drama about elite agents on the fringes of the law who have the huge sweaty meaty balls to do what needs to be done for our country. It is Steven's attempt at the action schlock he embodies as an actor. Our hero is John Gode: Shadow Wolf. Reservation-born native American tracker, ICE agent, and Kung-Fu master. I believe he might have been described at one point. If he was, I do not care. Steven does not care. It does not matter. John Gode is Steven, and he’s the most badass dude to ever not be gay. He is: Special Agent Shaman Cop. He’s gonna beat up the deep state. That’s all you need to really need to know. In fact, it is shocking just how little you need to know about this book. 
We begin in a movie theater, where our protagonist is alone, watching the end credits of a movie about the atrocious treatment of native Americans on behalf of the united states government. When the film finally ends, John says to himself “It’s about time.” He gets up to leave. The chapter immediately ends. My compliments to the chef. A delightfully bland apéritif of a character introduction. Steven uses the essential point of first contact with our protagonist to tell us vital information like “He doesn’t like it when movies are long.” or maybe “He didn’t like this movie about the trail of tears.” It is unclear. To quote English-Albanian philosopher Dua Lipa, “Go girl, give us nothing.”
I have been dancing around the quality of the writing. It seems impossible to approach without the footing of a new paragraph, an opponent that requires full-focus, an all-out assault. It is nigh-incomprehensible. I hate comparing bad writing to drugs. It feels too easy. But there is a specific air to Way of the Shadow Wolves. There is a distinct cadence, simultaneously manic and lethargic, that comes from attempting to write while day drunk on over-prescribed amphetamines. And make no mistake, if Steven was not entranced by the muse of Too Many Uppers And Downers At The Same Time, if he wrote this thing stone sober, that is worse. Small quotes will not do the writing style justice, you must see for yourself how sentences flow into each other:
“The desperado’s mind went back in time to a small town in Mexico twelve years before, where he first met his two cohorts when they were thrown together by a tragic set of circumstances. Their parents had been gunned down by a cartel who was at war with a competing cartel for control of the area, which was a pathway to the American border near Nogales, Arizona. All three had been shepherded to a local mission where they were being cared for by the Franciscans, who were becoming overwhelmed by the growing number of children left homeless due to the rampant killings by the warring cartels . . .”
Labyrinthine. A paragraph structure that would feel more at home with Calvino, or Garcia Marquez at his most experimental, though stripped of its deft control and musicality. Segal will regularly change temporal perspective in the middle of sentences. A single run-on sentence will begin in the past, have a middle clause in the present, and then return to the past by the end. There is a downright massive cast of characters for a 200 page book. Damn near every chapter introduces three or four more names, and we are lucky if Steven describes them before discarding them entirely. This book is a slog. I find myself losing patience with Steven. 
Some time has passed since I began writing this review. Originally, my approach was surgical disassembly. I was going to go over the plot, summarize its anatomy, pick apart its flaws with surgical precision. But the more I cut, the more I felt as if I was the butt of a joke. I was performing an autopsy on a clown, pulling sheets of colorful rope from its gut, and the cadaver was laughing at me. 
There is a moment, about halfway through. A woman approaches John at a bar. An assassin, who later attacks John in the parking lot with karate. A furious series of crescent kicks, effortlessly blocked by John Gode, who punches her in the ribs and knocks her to the ground. Realizing that her martial arts are defeated, she draws her gun, but John Gode is too fast. He fires his own weapon before she can get the shot off, killing her instantly. “Her round went upward toward the sky as she fell backward with eyes wide open, seeing nothing.”
This scene stuck with me. It illustrates one of the critical flaws at the heart of Way of the Shadow Wolves. Nothing hurts John. Nothing even gets close. He does not struggle. He does not sweat. He does not bleed. Steven clearly intends this scene to be badass, a moment where his self-insert hero defeats a dangerous enemy without trying. This book is an action movie, but John’s untouchability makes every action scene read as a moment of profound and boring cruelty. This was not a contest of master martial artists. This was an adult kicking a child in the throat.
I find myself losing patience with Steven. I am running out of humorous ways to describe this vapid tripe. This is, in my mind, the greatest condemnation of bad writing. There is no hell lower than being boring to mock. I see myself as a sort of sommelier of the awkward and disastrous. I will be the first to tell you “Wait! Don’t throw that out! There are things to be learned!” But Steven repeatedly proves himself to be a sort of Alchemist of Shit, capable of transmuting theoretically interesting bullshit into just fucking nothing. If this book deserves credit for anything, it is its miraculous ability to squander its own premise. 
Why write this? Any of this? Steven clearly does not read. Or, if he does, he seems to subsist entirely on a diet of comic books about monkeys that do kung-fu. Why write this? At some level it all comes down to “because Steven wanted to” right? 
Right? 
But I cannot shake the feeling. To call this book masturbatory is to imply that Steven might have enjoyed it. There is a desperation to the power fantasy here. To be feared by men, desired by women, revered by all, yaddah yaddah yaddah, all the same trite excretions of blunt masculinity. But there is something else. Steven wants the same thing that every conspiracy theorist wants; a simple world. A world he can understand. Steven is exhausted, overwhelmed with a world he feels he can neither effect nor understand. I am exhausted. 
I fear my earlier allusions to expressionist novels may have been more spot on than I imagined. Way of the Shadow Wolves has a plot in the sense that Sunny-D contains fruit juice. Its presence is a formality, a ceremonial hat worn for tax purposes. The plot is there, but it is unimportant. This is not a text that can be debated with. Because within the world of the text, politics is not complex. It is not actually a web of interconnected groups, each with their own interests, rivalries, alliances, and historical contexts. Behind all of it is two things: Good guys, and bad guys. The good guys are all working together, and the bad guys are all working together. 
I find myself losing patience with Steven. I fear my earlier allusions to expressionist novels may have been more spot on than I imagined. Way of the Shadow Wolves has a plot.
John Gode finds a human tooth in the desert. It belongs to a body, a body of a woman described in lurid detail. Nearby, he meets a young native American man, a man who calls himself Sweet Tooth. The body is missing teeth, missing hands, missing feet. A trademark cartel killing. A young native American man. “I’m gonna be like, your assistant right?” A buddy cop dynamic. Meeting the task force. Tailing an ICE van full of cartel soldiers. A hostage situation. A shootout in the desert. Far away, faceless men in suits with masonic ranks plan a mass killing. Some sounded like they had Arabic accents. Freemasonry. Interrogation with a snake. The corpse was a woman. The woman was a reporter. She had the evidence on a flash drive, evidence that proved the existence of the deep state. What if its all connected? A sex scene, or almost a sex scene. A sex scene interrupted. A shootout in the desert. Kung Fu assassins at a bar. A cartel defector. A shootout in the desert. What if its all connected. They’re working with the Jihadists. The USA is already “half latino.” The government is paying the cartels to ship Jihadists north across the border. They’re well-trained and well armed. You can’t trust anyone. A terrorist defector who hears the voice of the prophet. The ghost of John’s grandfather. The sun sets over the Sonora. A shootout in the desert. They kidnapped John’s mother. Bring them the flash drive. They’re planning to bomb the casino. A shootout in the desert. The police chief was a traitor. The Catholics are in on it. Its all connected. A shootout in the desert. Assault by night. Rescuing the hostage. A knife dipped in pigs blood. A pit of vipers in the sonora. 
Steven ends a chapter with the line. “They had functioned like a well-oiled machine that had just saved two innocent lives. All lives matter. Do they not?” 
I am tired. I find myself at a neighborhood block party, trapped in a conversation I’ve had a thousand times. This time the man on the other end is a sweaty divorcee in range glasses who looks like a sunburned thumb. Last week, it was a woman with a necklace of crystals and blonde hair bleached blonder. “Haha yeah” I say, looking down at my phone. “Burgers look good this year huh?”
Thank you to my Patreon supporters who made this review possible.
6K notes · View notes
bananapepper420 · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media
jesus christ they finally introduce a character of color and immediately describe her hair as ‘nappy’ ????
0 notes
gynoids-over-androids · 7 months
Text
I find it interesting that only when WOMEN create their single sex spaces/events like video games or chess tournaments that we see tras coming out giggling "so you think women are bad at chess/video games?? Omg terfs are such misogynists!! Lolol".
Like it doesn't happen with other groups. When transwomen create their book clubs or publishing houses no one is saying "omg so you think that transwomen can't read?? Or write good books?! Transphobes!". When ethnic minorities create associations and forums for entrepreneurs of their community, no one is saying "omg so you think that black/asian/whatever people are bad at doing business?? Gotcha racists !!". When transmen created their own football team, I didn't see ANY TRA saying "so they think that transmen are bad at kicking balls?!". Suddenly it was clear for everyone why a group would create opportunities for themselves.
No, YOU are the one to think that the only reason women and girls create female-only spaces and events because we suck. No other reason is possible. Fucking MRAs.
549 notes · View notes
violet-lavender-fem · 14 days
Note
Don't mind me just dropping receipts of JK Rowling engaging in holocaust denial~ Tee hee! :3
https://youtu.be/whJJGqVtkEk?si=aN1HXEfuR7BgxmgY
so i’m 1 minute and 16 seconds into the video and this man is saying that the fact jkr is expressing shock in the first tweet is due to the nazis burning books abt sex reassignment / gender
and not due to being basically called a nazi for being a feminist
let’s continue shall we
okay 5 minutes in and he still hasn’t proven that she was denying nazi book burning and not just ,, balking at being called a nazi, which is a serious fucking accusation
no sir (5:30) the “only good faith reading” of this tweet isn’t that she’s ignorant it’s that she’s taking offense to someone saying she follows nazi beliefs
(6:28) being opposed to the medical experimentation being performed on gnc people is not “being aligned with nazis” it’s called a nuanced issue that people come to separate conclusions on for different reasons. feminists are anti-porn bc we see it as rape on tape. conservatives hate porn bc they think women should never have sex. vaguely similar conclusions, completely different motivations and arguments.
(7:12) simply calling lgb alliance an “anti trans lobbying group” is a bit disingenuous lol
(7:59) y’all are abt to downplay eugenics and sexual inversion theory aren’t u
(8:35) yep
(8:52) still haven’t convinced me she said the book burning never happened
(9:45) a quick dig at the guy’s appearance, great, totally normal
(10:16) has this man never heard of paraphrasing as a way of making a statement more concise. jesus fucking christ
(10:30) ok the smallest possible acquiescence to paraphrasing as a concept
(12:00) yea he was definitely racist and a eugenicist :/ we’re not gonna dwell on that tho <3
(12:45) actually we’re actively going to downplay it <3 let’s just call him vaguely “problematic”
(13:32) or because he believed gay people were “born in the wrong body” — that lesbians were secretly part male (hence the searching for sperm), and the opposite for gay men
(14:09) so ur telling us what he ACTUALLY meant. like owowowoow it’s a dog whistle don’t listen i did all the thinking for u type shit
(14:51) is vaginoplasty not a form of sterilization. ur cutting the patient’s balls off aren’t u. so like. ? but i do concede to this one minor point.
(15:27) “yea he was a horrific torturing nazi. but like. not in the way u specifically said so this is all wrong.” so he was the guys coworker and he was a nazi doctor. just not this exact fucking way so it’s all moot??
(15:58) and now he’s directly comparing jkr to a real life nazi again. for making tweets he doesn’t like.
(16:40) STILL not convinced that she was referring to the book burnings as the fever dream
(17:17) THATS NOT SHIFTING THE GOALPOSTS THATS SOMEONE ELSE TRYING TO CONTINUE THE ARGUMENT AND FAILING BRUHHHHH sry someone pulled an argument out of their ass and jkr responded to that nonsense instead of the exact tweet u still seem to wanna talk abt. sorry conversations continue without u. someone ELSE shifted the goalposts FOR u.
quick timeline for ur benefit
> someone: ur basically a nazi
> jkr: what fever dream did u get that from
> someone else: yea trans ppl were literally the first victims of the nazis and every single piece of info on trans ppl was burned
> jkr: what
> someone ELSE: books on transsexuality were burned (something she didn’t deny, just put into historical context that y’all don’t like)
> jkr: are u not gonna mention the person that is doing actual holocaust revisionism here
> malcom: agreed?
(18:37) tweet didn’t say “this book burning was the first act against transsexuals” it said “trans ppl were the FIRST VICTIMS of the nazis” that’s u shifting the goalposts babygirl
(18:50) now ur claiming she said dora never died girl she wasn’t even brought UP in the CONVO
(19:21) but it is the view that this one specific person, whom jkr is specifically rebuking, holds
(19:47) girl this is what i’ve been saying this whole time. normal ppl don’t like when u call them nazis. they may even call ur logic a “fever dream.” weird huh
this is pissing me off fr how dare u call someone an actual nazi holocaust denier based on ur sickeningly bad-faith reading of their fucking TWEETS
(21:05) literally what ur doing right now
also can i point out that the reading of the tweets in such a pissy contemptuous tone of voice is of course going to make someone’s arguments sound stupid. half of ur “proof” here is her tone and what you think she’s saying, not her actual written words.
(21:31) nice actual nazi dog whistle
(21:33) i don’t trust eli erlick bc he is a rapist. he rapes fellow trans people. but carry on i guess.
(21:37) much of what ur referencing is compiled by someone who has raped trans people. great.
(21:50) transvestites are not the same as todays trans people. but carry on i guess.
this is wearing me out man
(24:47) yes absolutely visibly gender nonconforming people were persecuted and tortured and even murdered. a number of them likely experienced dysphoria and may have undergone surgery. does that mean all of those people would identify as transgender if they had that terminology? the citation continues to refer to these people as both transvestites and transgender, as if those are equivalent interchangeable terms. i don’t remember what source this is from. was this passage written by eli erlick, or by an actual holocaust historian?
(26:38) so now we’re actively equating the terms transvestite and transgender. this youtuber simply claimed that the two are the same without proof. i call presentism.
(28:47) gay men were referred to as homosexual. “Homosexuell” (“homosexual”) which is a direct synonym of gay. “transvestite” is not a direct synonym of transgender.
(29:16) miriam ezagui is an orthodox jew who describes her life and her jewishness. she has addressed the role of goblins in jkr’s works, saying that the history of them in folklore may be rooted in antisemitism, but jkr’s characters are goblins. not jews. she describes it better than i do idk find her account.
30 minutes in and we’re defining holocaust revisionism and denial. ok man
(31:32) is that a feminist or just a random dipshit on the internet
(31:43) is that a feminist or just a random dipshit on the internet
(31:46) is that a feminist or just a random dipshit on the internet
(32:27) yep
all done
not convinced. calling someone a holocaust denier is a serious accusation, and this entire video is all either actively choosing to believe she is saying something that she didn’t or taking offense at history being complicated and not fitting into your current worldview.
the nazis targeted jewish people, people of color, the romani, homosexual men, political dissidents, and people who were transvestites. likely more groups of people that i forgot to list. would some of those people identify as trans today? maybe. but you cannot decide that for them.
nazis committed disgusting atrocities at a scale that’s practically unimaginable. and to call a woman a nazi or a holocaust denier because of the way you read her tweets is sick.
68 notes · View notes
triple-mayday · 11 months
Text
There’s hella theories floating around about the reason behind Tucker Carlson’s sudden divorce with Fox News, but there’s one that I love the most.
Its the sexiest, pettiest, most delicious bullshit to ever be conceived. Behold:
We know for a fact that Tucker got bitch slapped across New York City by Rupert Murdoch himself. Not only that, but baby boy was laid off sometime on Friday and notified only on Monday, when he came to work. So, this unforeseen development was like a kick in the balls. For the uninitiated, Rupert Murdoch is the name of the demonic entity responsible for the creation of Fox News.
Tuckerson and Rupert had a special relationship. According to Tucker himself, the now ex-host was “100% [Rupert’s] bitch” (we love a proud sugar baby). Tucker was basically a glorified court jester - he cosplayed for daddy Rupert as a pro-worker, anti-elitist, anti-establishment, Christian, relatable everyman that broke republicans could relate to. That was, of course, a load of horseshit. As said by Tucker himself.
You see, back in Mesozoic Era (circa 2008-2011), our boy was an active participant in shock radio programs where he paraded himself as an open and proud elitist and a self-admitted trust fund baby.
All of this deliciousness speaks for itself. Tucker Carlson is a chameleon that changes his face depending on what’s resonating best with his conservative audience. Which brings us to the nearly orgasmic culmination of events that could have possibly led to Tucker’s current unemployment.
Tuck roleplayed as a hardcore Christian for quite some time. On that fateful Friday night, he turned it up to 100 for his speech at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation’s 50th anniversary gala. Bubba was popping off, calling abortions “child sacrifices” and demanding daily prayers. The audience loved it. Rupert? Not so much.
The thing is, for Rupert business comes before fascism. Grandpa worships money, Jesus is merely a profitable business strategy. For a businessman, the rabid fundie shit was already incredibly off-putting. And Tucker’s villain monologue just happened to be the last drop in the bucket that was already filled to the brim by Murdoch’s ex. That’s right. The chair of Fox News broke off his recent engagement because his fiancée was a Jesus freak.
Now onto the good shit. Rupert’s ex had a favorite show. Guess what that show was?
Tucker Carlson Tonight
The woman in question even had tête-à-tête chit chats with her favorite TV personality, thanks to her connection to Fox News CEO.
Tensions were rising in the Murdoch household. The ex-fiancée’s obsession with Tucker only added fuel to the fire. The woman went as far as declaring that Carlson was a messenger from God. One day, Tucker had a dinner at his boss’ estate. In the middle of dinner the Jesus lady pulled out a Bible and began discussing the book of Exodus with Carlson.
Rupert just sat there like 👁️👄👁️
In the end, the man was too freaked out by Christian fundamentalism and kicked Tucker out after his particularly awful speech. It was also a cute little fuck you to his ex cause now her favorite show got canceled
This is just one theory, but it’s my favorite, so I prefer it above all else, and now you get to experience this beauty with me
God, I adore American politics
255 notes · View notes
caputvulpinum · 1 year
Note
Ooh, do you know any good books in english about the Ainu? I really like to read more about native cultures, but finding books can be super difficult for me. Also same hat with worrying I’m being racist for seeking out japanese culture information... though usually it’s crafts that I want to find, so hopefully that’s not approprative... Have you seen kumihimo and temari?? They’re gorgeous!
I have no good sources on Ainu, but my followers might! and yes omg. Temari are basically like the Mega Evolution of rubber band balls. It reminds me of those super fancy painted eggs from Eastern Europe.
381 notes · View notes
wotw round 1
Tumblr media Tumblr media
propaganda under the cut!
wylan van eck:
Everyone turns him into a baby due to sheer ableism. He can't read, so they turn him into an uwu crybaby. Literally what the fuck. He's a fucking wizard at math and chemistry and he's literally a ball of spitfire behind a sophisticated upbringing. Guy runs on subtle spite. But since he's gay and disabled... He'S bAbY. ugh. also bonus points for everyone using him as an excuse to be racist. They'll make him cry and blame it on an Kuwei (Asian kid) and then say racist shit bc of it. Literally in canon Wylan was just annoyed about what actually happened. And mostly not even at Kuwei. No crying involved.
Listen. Wylan maybe isn’t as experienced at crime as Kaz or the others but he literally makes bombs for a living. His response to not wanting to kill unconscious men is ‘We could wake them up’. His father tried to murder him. Wylan is a badass be gay do criminal, not some cinnamon roll (is it because he’s dyslexic? Is it because he’s the white one in an interracial m/m ship? Is the fandom just bad at reading?)
wylan is unhinged her makes books bombs and loves explosives. he amazing at chemistry and math and music. he is NOT a soft uwu baby that needs saving from Jesper or kaz he can do it by himself
agent 8:
Was a child soldier, lost their memory and got trapped in an underground testing facility, had to complete a bunch of tests BY THEMSELF and collect four thangs, almost got blended after assembling said thangs, and then had to escape the facility, defeat a mind-controlled version of your character from the first game, and save the world, where if you get splatted, unlike the rest of the game, you canonically die. Yet people reduce them to "too pure for this world, needs protected." they are NOT helpless they literally have military training. It's less common now but it was a very common sentiment back when Octo Expansion came out.
105 notes · View notes
ace-aussie-asshole · 1 year
Text
Warner Bros and JKR Really Fumbled The Ball With The Wizarding World Cinematic Universe
JKR being misogynistic, transphobic, antisemitic, racist and ableist has made profiting off of the WWCU very difficult, because so many communities don’t want to support her or give her any money. My friends and I like HP, and sometimes we’ll see cool stuff we like, but my friends and I don’t buy any official stuff and I refuse to pay to read, watch or play anything. My friend wanted a time turner watch so instead of buying it they just left the shop with it, because they didn’t want JKR to get money but they still really wanted it because they thought it was cool.
They made a series of movies about Newt Scamander and the Grindelwars, and it had actually been doing fairly well up until they fired Johnny Depp and people started boycotting the series. An easy way to bypass this would have been to have some young Albus x Gellert scenes because it would have fed people’s curiosity and people would have talked about the movies more. Therefore, garnering them more support. They also made a mistake talking about changing the protagonist, because Newt Scamander’s autism coding was a huge part of why people watched it in the first place.
Then there was Hogwarts Legacy. They really fucked up with this game, because it’s blatant racism and antisemitism made people start boycotting the game (which honestly should not have been the hill to die on, she makes barely any money from that game and boycotting the books/movies would have done more). This led to a surge of JKR hate, and the game should just never have been made.
Now, because they’re trying really hard to make money off of this franchise, they’re remaking the main books into a show. This was a mistake, because it has left the fandom divided and as previously stated, people are going to be boycotting it and it’s not going to make nearly as much money as I think they want. I don’t think they’re going to make it past three seasons, the movies are already faithful enough and people are going to boycott it because they don’t want to support JKR.
If they really wanted to make money, they should have made a show about a different generation and made it so that JKR got barely any of the profits. Yes she’s still making money, but she won’t be making that much and people’s curiosity would likely get the better of them.
A show about the Marauders would likely be very popular, at first. Once we start seeing James and Sirius bullying an impoverish autistic (I am not wrong) kid for literally just having the audacity to exist, and once we start seeing James harassing Lily (a girl who will reject his advances repeatedly throughout the series in order for it to remain faithful) it will lose that draw for people. Leaving the Marauders ambiguous allows people to come to their own conclusions about the characters but a show would be forced to portray them in a bad light, ruining the characters and the series for its fans. Every character will have to be portrayed negatively because bullying and harassment is bad and they’ll have to ruin Severus to justify it. Lily will likely end up being a Mary Sue type character because they can’t change her characterisation from the books and so she will start being hated as well.
The only way a Marauders era shoe would work is one of two ways. Either the show is about the Slytherins struggling with their parents expectations or it’ll have to be a Heartbreak High meets Stranger Things type of show in order to have the characters do bad things but make it clear they’ll get better. This in the end will not work, because people want to watch the Marauders, but they don’t want to watch the Marauders do bad things. So a Marauders show simply wouldn’t work.
They can’t do a next gen show either simply because the Cursed Child exists. If they hadn’t made that play, there would be no issue, but because the play is canon the show would either have to be about older next gen characters, be an adaptation of the play, or be set after the play. The only one people would watch because the play is so hated is the one about the older next gen characters, but because the show would have to create so many knew characters and wouldn’t be able to have any action, they probably wouldn’t do it. That’s why the Cursed Child exists the way it does, because the writers wanted an action plot but didn’t want anything new.
They could adapt Hogwarts Mystery, that game was fairly popular when it was released, but because of how little people talk about it, it might not get enough viewer support to finish. Not to mention people may confuse Hogwarts Mystery with Hogwarts Legacy and boycott it thinking it’s the game everyone collectively hated. So, they simply wouldn’t make enough money off of it.
Their only options are then to scrap the main characters people are constantly wanting to get a show from, scrap the adaptation route, and use other characters. A show about Tom Marvolo Riddle’s Hogwarts experience would tickle the same fancy as Cruella had. A show or movie series about the Hogwarts Founders would intrigue people, and have enough pre-existing source material and conflict to have people knowing enough but not too much. Making a show about all new characters wouldn’t intrigue people enough, and all of my previous claims still stand.
In other words, they need to let the franchise die or do something different for once.
114 notes · View notes
napoleondidthat · 9 months
Text
Sigh.
Heavy sigh.
I haven’t stated my thoughts on the movie trailer yet. Instead I have been watching different reaction trailers and reading articles and blurbs on it. Luckily I have not ventured into the dumpster fire that is Twitter and its reactions.
But it is frustrating. This article frustrates me. I have been studying Napoleon for (ahem 30+ years) and to say that Napoleon is too often portrayed is laughable. Why does that not feel so to the Napoleonic Community? Bill and Ted’s , Night At The Museum, doesn’t count in my book because Napoleon is basically charactured.
I am not here to argue Napoleon was a saint, he was not. I am not even interested in that debate anymore as it’s been done to death. But I am also alarmed, as a history geek and as a historian, of this movement that we should only study those who are deemed “good” by society’s whims at the given moment. From some of the reactions (or over reactions) that seems to be somewhat what I hear. Or jealousy that your favorite historical whoever has not yet had a film dedicated to them. I know, it sucks and is frustrating. Napoleon scholars can sympathize.
What is also slightly amusing to jarring is the armchair commentators who know “something” but often by their commentary show they know nothing. The video yesterday I posted of the two historians commenting, albeit in pro British ways, were talking about how they knew nothing of the Survivor’s Balls that happened after the Terror. That women would cut their hair short and wear a red ribbon around their neck. This all goes to prove I guess that even the big not so accurate Hollywood movies can have their teachable moments. The Napoleonic period of course is so wide that historians focus on different areas to study and concentrate on too. Josephine isn’t an unknown character, like these commentators seemed to be suggesting, they just haven’t picked up a biography on her or turned their eye to that part of Napoleonic history.
I will close with this last example. I was watching a reaction video to the trailer where when the Egyptian scene came on the person shook their head in disgust. Afterwards they said with all the authority that their know-how afforded them: “So let me say, Napoleon was a racist. Okay? I know that. That is why he shot at the pyramids. That is why he shot the nose off the Sphinx. It had an African face with African features and he destroyed it because he hated it. “
Sigh. Okay. I get that you want to be outraged at Napoleon for political points, but at least be outraged at things he actually did, and there are a few, than made up things you have read from questionable sources. Point one, Napoleon did not shoot at the Pyramids. He did make his way to them eventually but the Battle of the Pyramids happened miles away from the location where they stand. About three hour walk or so. The Pyramids were not shot at for target practice or because Napoleon and the French Army found them repulsive. Second, Napoleon had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with Sphinx’s nose. Theory holds that ancient statues, ancient even in Napoleon’s time, weaken and one of the first places they start to crumble is in the nasal area. Napoleon did not shoot the nose off personally because he was a racist mofo who saw the Sphinx and it made him mad because it had Egyptian features.
These are teachable moments but it would be nice before you get riled up or get your viewers riled up, you at least had accurate history. Here is what Napoleon did do in Egypt…he brought along scholars and artists and they discovered new species (to them) and new art (to them) and discovered and little old thing called the Rosetta Stone that helped crack hyroglyphics. Did they loot? You bet. Did they take off with things? Sure did. That you can debate on, but not shooting the nose off the Sphinx.
68 notes · View notes
connabeth · 1 month
Note
Do you know if the kids are illustrated in the deluxe edition of TLT? Cause I swear RR has does not have the balls to depict the show trio in the books . Mainly he never once confirms Annabeth is black despite how it would shut the racists up
i don’t think so, it’s just the gods and monsters (who are depicted differently than in the show, much closer to the original art) and the empire state building. i think his whole schtick is leaving things slightly ambiguous and up to the reader’s interpretation in terms of the books and using that ambiguity to make whatever casting decisions he wants lol
38 notes · View notes
gaykarstaagforever · 1 month
Text
Well! Second DMing session ended with the guy who made me do it, who was going to "help" me, hanging up on me mid-session and texting
Tumblr media
So much for "I don't care if you don't know how to do it, I'll walk you through it," I guess.
I was very clear from the outset that I think most ttrpgs, and ALL DnD rules, are arbitrary math nonsense that you need a college course to understand, specifically created by terrible people to force everyone else to put up with their infantile, unintuitive view of the universe. I told him I hate this crap. He manipulated me into trying it anyway. Guess who hasn't changed his mind, and guess who is now throwing a temper-tantrum about it? I TOLD YOU this was a bad idea.
I read the book. The 8 books. It doesn't matter. They're math textbooks written by bad writers and my eyes kept glazing over. I don't understand why any of these rules exist. I'm just forced to memorize formulas. That I don't respect.
There is no space for reputation, or politics, or combat scenario realities, or random accidents and diseases, or genuine surprises, or living in an apathetic, living, breathing world that doesn't give a fuck about your Chosen One status. It is wizards casting fire balls, because the guy doing that hates his mom, and made up a rule set where he can play his weird stupid power fantasies. His weird, stupid, RACIST power fantasies, if this last group's predilections is any indication.
I don't have patience for this. It's arcane and unrealistic and sucks the joy out of everything and it ISN'T FUN.
If you love it, great. I'll get out of your way. But it runs counter to how my brain works and I fucking hate it. I love the idea of using dice to RP events and see what happens. But at some point of complexity you are just obeying someones precious little rule-book so obnoxious math nerds who memorized it can be smug about exploiting loopholes.
Go play a video game for that. That's not a healthy social interaction. That's yet another version of a group of fucked-up people being whiney and dogmatic about random shit they made up, specifically so they can be cool in a world they specifically designed for that purpose. And what the fuck is that? I hate them, and I hate that.
My old mantra was "nerds with math ruin everything." I was always half-joking, but only half. I have zero respect for everything this is, and what people are apparently looking for from it. It is frustrating and boring and limiting and stupid to me. I don't enjoy it. And I don't even want to ever play it again, because I dread being doomed to waste my brain power sorting out weird meta game math shit that doesn't seem to take into account any defensible simulation of actual reality.
I have spent 120+ hours over the last 5 months trying to get into this. Trying to get a handle on why people like it, to figure out the secret I am missing. I have spent stupid amounts of money on stuff, to that end.
And I either lack the 3000 IQ space brain to get it, or I absolutely get it, and I just absolutely hate it. Either way, I've had enough.
I want to do a D6 system that is just "roll against opponent, bigger number wins, DM RPs what that means." That's loose and interesting and feels like real life. The rest can go jump in the river.
"YEAH BUT THAT'S UNFAIR TO PLAYERS!"
The world is unfair to life. You're not 12 anymore. I don't get anything out of playing around in a baby world made for babies. You're just mad because it isn't going to work in your favor the way I'm proposing it.
It's like Tim Cain said about programming RNG. You give them real RNG, everyone gets mad because "it's not fair." Because RNG isn't fair. They don't want RNG, they want to be autocrats of reality, then soothe themselves that they're not in fact cheating assholes by claiming "the numbers worked out in my favor."
When the reality is that the system was specifically designed over 50+ years to give them an advantage. And that isn't RNG. That isn't playing a role. That isn't being a real hero by self-sacrificing and being randomly lucky and muddling through. It's just egotistical self-delusional nothingness.
Like, maybe these kinds of games are STILL niche things for a reason? Maybe the only really popular and profitable entries are video game and movie versions where you don't see the math, BECAUSE you don't see the math? Like I don't think I'm alone in not giving a shit about this byzantine, nerfed crap.
That doesn't make me better. Do whatever you want. But if THAT'S what you're doing, count me the fuck out.
I did my time, and I'm sick of this shit.
34 notes · View notes
crisalidaseason · 3 months
Text
Percy Jackson community, we need to talk a little.
No spoilers, just ranting about some shitty stuff. Also, If i swear, I'm sorry but I am just a raging commie and swearing is a second language for me, but I'll keep it very very minimal.
The hate towards Leah Sava Jeffries is NOT tolerable. If I see people hating on her, I'm gonna be visceral towards you. (Ya'll know I am far from a pacifist, I choose violence always). When Walker was cast as Percy, people did complain a little but I always saw the "But he will be a good percy regardless, He has all the potential" but people would not give Leah or Aryan the same chance??? Like be for fucking real. That's fucking racism and for me racist people don't deserve peace.
Another complaint is "The show is too teenager coded, too silly". THEY ARE TEENAGERS BRO. Also...have you ever read ANY Percy Jackson book? Because there are serious themes, but the silyness is also there, specially in the first book. Percy is a teen and he still acts like one despite living the difficult life of a demigod.
Also, people complaining that Rick Riordan made changes and saying "It's gonna be shit". First, you don't know that. You don't have a crystal ball. Second, authors are allowed to make changes in their stories. Authors are allowed to take the opportunity of a series adaptation to change what they feel needed to be changed. Rick took a more 2020s approach (which was needed considering they are not catering the series only to us, almost 30-year-old adults) and that's fine! I love 2005 Percy, but we can also love a 2023 Percy because IT IS PERCY, but with a few changes to match our current years.
That's all. I am not sayint that the series is perfect, I have my critical thoughts on it BUT there are many dumb shit being said and I fucking hate it.
EDIT 1: I boycott Disney plus, don't worry followers I did not bend. I am watching it illegally like the good commie I am :D
45 notes · View notes
lfc-xnda · 2 months
Text
Jordan Henderson The Autobiography - Book Review - EDITED! I'VE ADDED MORE!
FYI - This is solely my own thoughts; not trying to change anyones view of Jordan, just some insight from his book😊. My views will be written in green. ALSO - to advise, there will be trigger warnings for racism, covid-19 and possible mental health struggles.
Chapter 3 - An Audience with the King - QUICK BACKGROUND INFO At the end of his last season at Sunderland, he knew other clubs were looking at him. Jordan was aware Liverpool wanted him; his dad drove him for a meeting at Sir Kenny Dalglish's house where he was told they wanted Jordan as part of their rebuild process after signing Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll. Jordan was really excited as that meant he would get to play alongside Stevie G. Basically Jordan said he had already made his decision before even going to Sir Kenny's house. He was sold for an agreed fee of £16 mil with added extras on 09th June 2011 to LFC. FSG bought LFC in October 2010, Roy Hodgson left and Sir Kenny Dalglish was assigned as manager by FSG. 16th May 2012 Sir Kenny D. lost his job and on the 01st June 2012 Brendan Rodgers was appointed as manager. Jordan talks about the dreaded altercation between Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez who racially abused him. Jordan admits that he was wrong in just taking the side of his colleague and not understanding the whole situation. Reputational damage was caused to LFC at the time due to the boys standing in solidarity with Luis Suarez. Jordan fixed up and decided to speak to his ex teammate Anton Ferdinand - bare in mind this wasn't until YEARS later after the incident and was only because Anton made a documentary called 'Football, Racism and Me'. IMO - Jamie Carragher apologised to Patrice on behalf of the club way after the event. To me, this means jack shit. If individual people who supported a racist couldn't have the balls to admit they were dead wrong, this apology means nothing. They should have all admitted to Patrice that they were wrong. FYI Jordan didn't actually apologise to Patrice himself either. Just wallowed on about how he felt bad for wearing the t-shirt in solidarity of Luis, how he didn't actually consider implications to Patrice at all, but did say 'It's better late than never' as he has now decided to take accountability...well every POC has the right to accept whatever but if that was me? I would not accept a bullshit apology FROM A CLUB and not the individuals involved just because they knew they would receive massive backlash and reputational damage. Also, Luis Suarez was found guilty of the racism and fined £40,000 and an 8-match ban. To me, this makes a lot of sense with how Jordan has been in this here 2023/2024 surrounding him leaving Liverpool etc.
Chapter 12 - Surf's Up - QUICK BACKGROUND INFO Long story short, the first part of this chapter is all about how Trent snaked Jordan after agreeing to get a tattoo with him after they had won the Champions League😂 ALSO WE NEED TO FLOG TYLER (Trent's Brother) BECAUSE IT WAS HIS FAULT WHY TRENT COULDN'T GET THE TATTOO!!🍅🍅🍅 But what is sweet about this part is Jordan singing Trent's praises to the fullest. He really loves this kid🥺❤️ See below for yourself:
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Chapter 14 - #BlackLivesMatter Here is what I took from the chapter: Virg and Gini Wijnaldum were the only 2 from the LFC team to approach Jordan about doing something in solidarity for BLM. Jords said they definitely could! Virg and Gini said they wanted to take the knee and so Jordan spoke to the rest of the team about doing so, which we all saw in the football matches that they all agreed to do so. As far as Jordan said, there was no pushback to doing so, so I guess we can believe his words in this sense and that our team are full of decent, non-racist people at that current time. Jordan states that due to COVID-19, the captains of the Prem football teams all decided to keep in contact and set up regular Zoom calls just as check ins and all that good stuff. Also they spoke about returning to playing football. 
After the tragedy happened with George Floyd, all team captains had a Zoom call with the Premier League. They spoke about everything from their initiative which helped the NHS staff, to what logos will be on their shirts, but nothing about the issue of racism. Troy Deeney was annoyed (rightfully so!) that they were not discussing the issue. He and Wes Morgan felt that they should be doing something as a league about the issue of racism to which all the other team captains also agreed. Tyrone Mings was also a big part of trying to do things for BLM within football! (Love me some Tyrone Mings, check out his videos talking about racism in football too😌❤️) The BLM chapter was both insightful and a bit disappointing for me. It was the shortest chapter in the book with only 8 pages, 5 of which spoke about BLM and I just felt it was a bit lacklustre. Knowing how much Jordan participated in to do with racism and BLM in football from PR stuff to working behind the scenes doing things we would never have known, I was expecting more. Trent and Jordan had a whole sit-down conversation discussing racism in football and being an ally etc yet Jordan didn’t speak about it once. Disappointing when there are so many black players on the LFC team as well as previous players who are his ‘friends’. 
Also, something that annoyed me about this chapter is that it then got hijacked by talking about COVID-19 and getting ready to go back into the world of football. To me, it seemed like it was more about the things they did about COVID and not BLM. I could have written it better with the limited information I already knew about Jordan and his contribution.
My Thoughts...
So, after reading Jordan's book, it's pretty obvious the guy's got some serious self-esteem issues. Like, he keeps making up these scenarios in his head that just mess with him, even though no one's telling him he's not good enough. It's kinda sad, you know? There's this constant fear of losing his spot at LFC and within the England squad, so he's always pushing himself to the limit. Now, it's cool that he's putting in the hard work, but the reason behind it is kinda messed up. He's not doing it for himself, but more to prove others wrong, and that's not mentally healthy.
Fast forward to the present day and now I totally get why he left LFC. Jordan felt like he was getting kicked out, but really, he just wouldn't be playing as much, which happens when you're getting older and newer guys are coming in. It's this feeling of not being enough again. So, he thought he'd find a place where he could be the main guy. Turns out, that wasn't the case, so he hopped to Ajax. We'll have to see how that goes.
Now, let's talk about the bigger picture. Jordan kinda gives off this vibe of straight, white male privilege. He can pick and choose when to care about issues and seems to have a pretty surface-level understanding of systemic problems. His idea of right and wrong, both on and off the field, is a bit basic. He's lucky he can just turn away from stuff, but not everyone has that luxury. The fact that he still speaks positively about Luis Suarez, who's been racist, and does things like going to Saudi Arabia after criticising them, raises some eyebrows. Plus, he only seemed to care about BLM and racism when it was trendy and hasn't said or done much since.
I gotta give credit where it's due, though. Jordan's a good guy, a great dad, a great footballer and he was an awesome captain at Liverpool. He's clearly not going out of his way to hurt people on purpose. But, for me, there's a whole world outside of football and it feels like Jordan only sees football as his whole world. Throughout the book, he kept saying it doesn't matter who you are off the field, only what you do on it. But, come on, what Suarez did was on the pitch, so it's kinda hypocritical. He needs to figure out if he cares about these issues or not and stop being selective with his activism. Dude's got some work to do on himself and maybe needs to read up on being a real ally and understanding marginalised groups a bit better.
ALL DONE✌🏾 Thank you for reading~ FYI - I actually like Jordan as a person, just disappointed in him like most people are.
EDITED:MORE INFO AS I TOTALLY FORGOT TO ADD THIS!!
Jordan did a chapter on the Champions league final and omg...I was SOBBING. Like I cannot believe it made me cry all over again. It just brings me such happiness whenever I think about that day. Knowing the emotions that Jordan and the guys felt gave my like little butterflies. One of the best days for me as a supporter.
Another chapter which actually gave me more insight was the Real Madrid vs Liverpool final in Paris where the issues happened with the LFC fans. The recap and how the LFC players were LIED to was madness. It seemed like such a scary situation. Jordan was saying his family were there and how they told him the security were very noticeably aggressive😖. Just rereading it makes me sick and how the were gaslighting fans to hell and back to try and get out of their incompetency. I mean I guess they admitted it at the end but like Jordan said in the book, it could have been another tragedy like Hillsborough with the way the whole situation was handled. Disgracefully at that.
20 notes · View notes
leikeliscomet · 3 months
Text
For my own sanity I've blocked @/youareworldsaway bc I'm not beefing over RoseMartha for several days. I said what I said and this is not a RoseMartha safespace idgaf.
What I'm also saying is have no issue with Rose, Ten or TenRose in itself. My issue is the way the fans and shippers used those characters/the ship to not only be racist to Martha but enabled antiblackness and misogynoir towards Freema Agyeman and mixed race and Black fans. My issue is how for a long time those fan spaces were not welcoming for mixed and Black fans and how in 2023 they still aren't. If this fandom has the balls call Martha Aunt Jemima, affirmative action and every other antiblack trope in the book they can handle a fucking tumblr analysis post. Merry Christmas.
26 notes · View notes
mvaljean525 · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
. Censorship is the tool of the Tyrant, NAZI, Fascist, Racist, Rapist, Pedophile, Murderer.....
There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. ― Ray Bradbury
Book burnings. Always the forerunners. Heralds of the stake, the ovens, the mass graves. ― Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book
Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side. ― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series
“Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.” —Salman Rushdie
Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it. ― Lysander Spooner 1808-1887
The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth. ― Garry Kasparov (B.1963)
State propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect. It was a lesson learned by Hitler and many others, and it has been pursued to this day. ― Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda / Noam Chomsky (B.1928)
If you can't say "Fuck" you can't say, "Fuck the government.” ― Lenny Bruce
Behind this mask there is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea… and ideas are bulletproof. ― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will watch the watchers? ― Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires
Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.
Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people. ―Heinrich Heine 1797-1856
And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. ― George Orwell, 1984
----
Graphic - Krzysztof Grzondziel (B.1959)
38 notes · View notes