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maydayparkers · 2 years

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The interesting thing to me when it comes to Raimi!Doc Ock being turned into a generic fandom baby is that THAT version of Doc Ock is ALREADY a lot nicer and less flawed (minus the hubris) than the comics version (which is fine), or even most adaptations, including the Insomniac game where he is comparatively more sympathetic than usual, and NWH smoothed him out even further by going even harder on the 'tentacle AI made him evil' thing while removing the arrogance that shouldn't have been easily fixed by a 'cure' - so it's like, how much more flattened and woobified can fandom even make him?! Fandom!Otto is basically a cardboard cut out to project the same generic fandom tropes onto, and he's not even interesting.

Note: This specific gripe i'm about to bring up has less to do with the fandom treatment of these characters as much as the mcu's use of them but

I really do find it so telling that you can seriously pinpoint the difference in willingness to deliver character depth of an mcu spider-man movie compared to previous adaptations just from the way that the villains are treated.

Yes, nwh acted as much needed course correction for the franchise but i'd argue that their use of villains has only been going down in quality since hoco and it took a massive dive in nwh.

They got characters that came PRE-LAYERED and PRE-DEVELOPED INTO COMPLEX PEOPLE and made the choice to frame their actions as being entirely out of their control, they weren't themselves. It doesn't count that they committed atrocities willingly and with their eyes open.

It was the poor abusive war profiteer that was the victim of the big bad goblin that materialized out of nowhere and is not at all a representation of norman's worst traits and impulses. It's not like Otto Octavius was an already sympathetic villain and a grieving man desperate to make his wife's death have meant something more than a fiery failure of an experiment and tentacles that had a mind of their own yet still kept Otto's ability to know right and wrong intact.

No, no it's a problem with a clean and clear cut solution that can be done within a day. There is no mess left behind in the aftermath besides the destruction that the Bad Sides(tm) left behind. We don't have to wonder about the moral implications. If the world would be better if they weren't here and if that even matters because people's lives' are not Peter's to take even when they will still continue to cause so much pain for others. All wrapped in a pretty and shiny boy for the consumer to enjoy and not question.

Yes, with Norman and Otto there was always an element of an Other within them taking the reign and pushing them into the darkness but it was never a matter of being puppeteered the way nwh showed. I'd go so far as to argue that to take that away would not only flatten them both down but it retroactively undermines any agency they might've had throughout their initial appearances and kind of turns them into the "batman beats the mentally ill" of spider-man.

Now back onto your actual (correct) point the fact that fandom itself went a step further and quite literally tuned him into just some guy devoid of any notable characteristics, the tentacles aren't even portrayed as something noteworthy about him which is actually really interesting, considering that would imply that the interest in him comes from his actual personality but as you stated above, it's just a caricature of a generic fandom blorbo. IN A LOT OF THE CONTENT YOU COULD SWITCH HIM FOR JUST ANY TUMBLR FAVE OF THE WEEK AND IT WOULD WORK JUST THE SAME FOR ALL INTENT AND PURPOSES

#also i'm not knowledgable enough about the topic but the gobling being a separate personality altogether instead of a persona feels kind of #disrespectful for people with actual DID?#not a fan of a major blockbuster playing into the evil personality trope #but again i am a dumbass so if i'm talking out of my ass here do let me know and i'll delete it

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

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skysybil · 4 years

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Penumbra Superlatives: Most Likely To Be A Dark Matters NPC

The people demanded it, and I am indeed a magnanimous conspiracy theory machine, so here is my incredibly ridiculous reasoning behind my “who is in the dark matters simulation and who is fake” ranking, found here. Thank you to my partner for listening to me yell about this for 24 hours straight now. Man, I am gonna look like an idiot if this isn’t a Dark Matters induced simulation or dream in the end with how all-in I’ve been going with this.

Also, if you guys ever want me to lay out every fucking tiny detail I’ve seen that I think points to it being a simulation, I’ll do that too. Please validate me.

This is insanely long, it’s like two to three paragraphs for every member of the space family. This is kind of shameful, I almost feel bad. I’ll be your best friend forever if you read it all. Also, I’m putting it below the cut for everyone’s sanity. Anyway, let’s go lesbians, let’s go!

First, in the “definitely an active participant” category: Rrrrrita!

I’ll admit, it’s genuinely really hard to tell what discrepancies in the story are suspicious simulation details and what is just Rita being a particularly unreliable narrator. However, my first general point towards Rita being an active participant/player/whatever you want to call it is the fact that we’re experiencing this through her perspective! I think it would be really cool to tell the story from the perspective of a caricature puppeted by Dark Matters, but I feel like it would be way more obvious in gaps in her thinking patterns if she was fake. Honestly, I personally think it would be impossible to run it from the perspective of one of these NPCs (as i’m calling them) anyway, because... you know, they probably don’t have much in the way of thoughts in the first place.

Plus, out of everyone in the group, she is most likely to be plucked out of a group of criminals by Dark Matters to recruit. Sasha knows her (or at least knows of her) and how good she is at her job. I’m sure she’s got a target on her back as someone that’s too powerful (seriously, I pray for the universe the day Rita realizes just how quickly she could take over the world--see: my THEIA Rita AU that i came up with this morning which I might post about later), but I’m also pretty sure killing Rita would be seen as a wasted opportunity. This could just be another test, just like Day That Wouldn’t Die but in an even more controlled environment. The perfect trap, the perfect test--hopefully for perfect results. And with how she tends to get caught up in glamour and drama or get distracted so easily, she’s one of the easiest members of the group to trick into not questioning the little discrepancies that comes from living in a lie.

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Next, Vespa. Love of my life and the only other member of the Carte Blanche crew that I’m almost totally sure is sharing space in this simulation.

She’s in a similar position that she’s a valuable asset for Dark Matters to try and take on--especially if they can use her past debts as blackmail or something along those lines. She’s a damn good assassin and they tend to specialize in making people disappear. Why wouldn’t they seize the opportunity to test her and see if she could truly work for them? Dark Matters also seems to lack an ethical core, to say the least, and if they consider her past trauma and her illness to be an issue, I’m sure they wouldn’t be against trying to “fix” her in their horribly scummy ways just so she could be a better killer for their organization. It could also be related to her skills as a doctor with the crew, to be fair--while Rita is off building robots and trying to break into a super secret base, Vespa is repairing the entire medical wing, an incredibly suspicious task when apparently enough of the ship survived that Rita’s computers are okay, the entire crew is unscathed, and the Ruby isn’t a warped hunk of metal.

Though she is also very likely to be nabbed by Dark Matters as an opportunity, the main condemning thing against Vespa being an NPC is the conversation we overhear with Buddy. No one else knows that Vespa considered or decided on leaving the crew. We can’t say that’s a part of Rita’s mind affecting the simulation around her because Rita doesn’t know, and it’s not information that could be hacked, either. It was just in her mind. Unless Dark Matters has their hands on new mind reading technology (oh god, not this shit again), there’s no way that the scene with Vespa and Buddy could exist unless Vespa is also inhabiting the simulation. Every scene they choose to include is deliberate. To rule Vespa out of the plan, all it would’ve taken was likely just Vespa being her normal defensive self. Why would they include a scene with a look into that vulnerability if it didn’t matter?

Speaking of the Vespa and Buddy scene--but why would Vespa snap at Rita that badly if she’s real, you might ask. You’re right, Vespa is aggressive but not that aggressive normally, and it stood out in the few interactions we saw. In Vespa’s defense, if she is participating in this simulation, she is understandably freaked the fuck out. Vespa spends every day of her life hyperaware of what might be real and what might be fake around her. She’s most likely to figure out that something is very wrong first simply because of that trait. How much of her mind is Dark Matters manipulating? Would DM have to simulate her hallucinations, or would that come naturally along with her mind being stuck in this simulation? I imagine that for every discrepancy we’ve picked up on, she’s picked up on six--but she no longer has the explanation of it being a hallucination. I imagine it’s frustrating and terrifying for her. I’d be on edge, too!

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Moving into our next category: “probably in the simulation”, with our only candidate Buddy.

Buddy is my question mark character. We barely interacted with her this episode. From what I can tell, most of what we saw from her seems in character, and she had some wicked fucking lines. I’m sorry, I refuse to give Dark Matters credit for the line “If you imagine all that could go wrong, all you’ve done is drag yourself through a thousand disasters. And even in the worst-case scenario, you will only need to live through one.” Because it genuinely made me feel better in real life, goddammit.

Buddy is mostly in this category for lack of evidence, both with the lack of interaction and with how Rita kind of glazed over the family meeting with her distractions. So, it’s hard to say. I’d love to hear others’ theories on Buddy’s place in this.

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Now, we cross the threshold into those that are probably not in the simulation, or are acting incredibly suspicious: the “on thin fucking ice” category. First, Peter.

Can this bastard decide on his personality for two whole minutes so I can get a handle on the little intricacies of the new Ransom persona? No? Goddammit. It’s hard to tell how much of the way he acted was genuinely suspicious and how much of it is the mask he’s put on for Peter Ransom. While he’s adopted the old name, he hasn’t adopted his old personality, so it’s near impossible to get good points of comparison on this new view. We’ve seen inside his head with this persona, sure, but we can’t compare the way he spoke and acted in his head with how he holds himself in front of Rita--he’s always going to choose his level of vulnerability based off of the least trusted person in the room. He’s not to that place with Rita yet. He’s going to have walls and facades up that he won’t have in front of Juno, or in front of himself. He can’t make it easy on him.

But that does not mean I can’t be suspicious of him, because I am. Fuck you, Nureyev, I’m still coming for you. Mainly, I’m squinting at his reaction to Rita’s plans and his lack of reaction to her openly talking about the two of them in an established relationship. We know damn well that Peter and Juno are not at that place yet. Why, do you ask? Because I trust that Sophie and Kevin wouldn’t take that moment from us. We’ve had three and a half years of slowburn buildup on Jupeter! We would not skip from “tentatively talking and trying to learn communication through ‘’’’’’poetry’’’’’’ and shit” to “established lovey dovey relationship” without being let in on it. I doubt Peter would let comments like the ones Rita made really slide in front of Juno--after all, the last time he admitted he was in love, Juno fucking left, and I bet there’s a lot of reluctance or trauma surrounding that. Yet he let it slide anyway.

Still, because Peter is a wild card, there’s still a possibility that his non-reaction was a defense mechanism or part of the Ransom facade (after all, he had to pretend he was in better standing with Juno than he actually was at first to keep his place in the family). The most suspicious thing he did in that conversation, in my opinion, was agree not to let anyone else know about the plan. He knows damn well that he is on thin ice with everyone in the crew except for Juno and Rita. Trust is in short supply for him and keeping his position in the family is incredibly important to him, both so he can find a way to pay off his debts and so he can pursue this shaky relationship he’s started to piece back together with Juno. Yet he hops right in with barely any pushback when it comes to keeping this Incredibly Vital And Important Plan a complete secret. Plus, you know, he supposedly couldn’t even stand, yet walked all the way to the computer cave. Sure, maybe Juno carried him, but I’d fully expect something like Juno picking him up to be a joke written into the script. I feel like it was deliberately left out.

Still, the only real glimpse of Peter that Dark Matters has ever had was of Rex Glass, and Peter definitely isn’t acting like his Rex persona, so how would they really know to get his personality around the Aurinko family to where it is? I suppose that could be attributed to Rita, Vespa, and/or Buddy shaping the simulation around them.

Tl;dr on the Peter section: He’s almost definitely an NPC but nothing is certain with a man whose entire sense of self is based off of an elaborate web of lies and inconsistencies.

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Also probably an NPC, but I’m not sure, thus on thin fucking ice: Jet.

You cannot tell me for one fucking second that Jet doesn’t know the Ruby 7 inside and out. That car is his baby. He’s torn the car apart and repaired it more than anyone else, and you’re telling me he doesn’t understand the core functions of the car--the engine, the fuel tank? No fucking way. I don’t have 3.5 paragraphs of speculation for Jet, I’m just so hung up on the fucking car thing. His personality fits well, which is the one string I’m holding onto that makes him maybe possibly an actual human being, but I feel like Dark Matters fucked up by trying to fill in the blanks on the Ruby 7. That’s where I think the issue comes from--the reason there’s a part in the Ruby that Jet doesn’t understand is because DM doesn’t know how the Ruby works, and they tried to put in what they imagined could power it or fuzz over the details. But I will cry if the Ruby was actually destroyed in the crash, there’s no recovering from that.

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And finally, if you’ve made it this far and not left after whispering to yourself holy shit, she’s insane, she’s absolutely insane, how much does this woman talk, we have the final category: unfortunately an NPC. And holy shit, is Juno 100% not in this simulation or being almost entirely puppeted by Dark Matters.

I genuinely can’t get into all my reasoning behind Juno being a puppet here without going on forever and doubling the length of this post, and I’ve put you through so much already. But every inch of Juno is suspicious, down to his tone of voice. Look, I’m happy to see him happy. But it just seems like a jump--just like as I discussed in the Peter section with the Jupeter relationship. It feels like we skipped something, or missed something. This is my theory: Juno has been crafted based off of how Sasha Wire knew him when she saw him last. He doesn’t have reactions that are quite right to the computers, to Peter, to anyone, really. Everything felt just a little off--until he got frustrated. Then he became more realistically Juno. I think this might be because Sasha is basing a comfortable and happy Juno (the one she assumes he must be around the people on the ship, especially Peter if she knows they’re romantically involved) off of the Juno she interacted with when they were younger, which is just off in comparison to the Juno we know now. She can build a more three dimensional Juno in the situations she’s familiar with, like a bored Juno, a frustrated Juno, or an angry Juno. She’s got the one-liners down, I’ll give her that.

I’m also just in general not surprised if Sasha is just keeping him separate from the rest of them. Possibly to try and talk him out of the family, get him untangled from the Dark Matters mess? Plus, he’s incredibly perceptive, and might be considered a risk to the simulation if he was in it.

Also, the out-of-universe evidence: I am 100% convinced that the reason the episode script came out late is because it had to be edited to remove some of the directions, possibly suspicious things like “too cheery”. Specifically, I think one of Juno’s significant directions is missing. It’s hard to put exactly what kind of direction is missing into words because I don’t know anything about script writing, but I just... I have a feeling. Trust me on this. I’ve seen other people on Twitter talk about it too, I’m not the only one. I stand by it.

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Anyway, since I want to keep my Juno-specific speculation as short as possible, that’s all, folks. If you stayed this long, genuinely I love you so much and I would give my life for you, message me or mention it in the tags that you made it all the way and maybe we could be mutuals or friends!! I love to ramble about this kind of thing. Follow me for more aimless speculation, hopefully not 2.5k words next time. If you have any questions or other stuff to discuss also mention it and I might post about it later!

Update: If you’re interested in the simulation theory, here’s the link to a post I just made laying out all my conspiracy theory evidence for it.

#holy shit i am SO SORRY this is so long #this is a lesson in being careful what you wish for #tpp #the penumbra podcast #tpp spoilers #tpp s3 #tpp s3 spoilers #s3 spoilers #tpp junoverse #simulation theory

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danse-or-farkas · 3 years

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Character Descriptions

•Describe your oc's physical description in whatever way you want. It can be for any fandom.•

Tagged by @rakimaiirisa a few days ago. I did it much the same way you did, with a quick bit of writing. This is for Adrian of Jehenna and Gero of Evermore, set somewhere after the fic they’re in Rise and Fall.

Adrian of Jehenna; Dragonborn, former Companion of the Circle, slayer of the World Eater, and champion of the Infinite Library, was reduced to being a barely kept problem, his wide array of skill ignored in favour of having him stand about stirring soup in the company of rebels. Likely they just wanted him somewhere close enough to watch, far enough to feel safe.

He stirred the soup again one last time, setting the ladle down carefully.

How Gero even thought it possible to blend in amongst them he could never fathom. Sheer force of stupidity would be his first guess, the one trait his estranged brother had in abundance.

He was stood some distance away in an ill fitting Stormcloak uniform, woad blue paint splashed across his face, the exact measure of closeness to his commanding officer that he was allowed. Gero could hide in Ralof’s shadow, a half head shorter than even the runtiest of the Nords present, that he had been a mage once clear in how small he seemed amongst men and women who could break him like dried kindling. Adrian was much the same, though he still practised his magicka along with the sword.

His stony expression, a bad caricature of a stoic warrior of Skyrim, was often practised and still flawed enough for Adrian to see him stealing glances at Ralof like a lovesick puppy. He would tell them to get it over with and bed each other if he cared any for either of them. He had briefly entertained the idea his brother might be more bearable, or at worst a measure less uptight, if he were getting regularly bedded, deciding he preferred the bastard pining and miserable. At least he had company that way, Farkas several Holds and a last threat away.

The Stormcloaks were almost all fair of skin, hair of ashen blond or earthen red. Both of them by contrast were black haired, skin not so much fair as pallid in the way only the old noble houses of the Iliac could be. The few Stormcloaks that chose to shed their uniforms had turned summer sunlight into bronzed complexions, if either of them dared try it would end raw and delicate.

Gero had thought himself brilliant by dyeing his hair with lye soap, citrus, and sunlight. It would almost be believable if his roots were not so stark in contrast. The only thing naturally golden about him was his eyes, brightly glowing with mer blood and so terribly Altmer even for a Breton. Adrian had lost some of his own glow not too far back, one of many scars left by the loss of the Daedric magic he had been siphoning. He had thought it his own will, his own choice, finding little by little that it was something much stranger. In his youth his eyes had been blue, growing lighter and brighter with every year approaching adulthood. Now there was inky black spots in the whites but only sometimes, worse when or where Oblivion reached close, pushed back by the reflective flash of moonlight behind them that made the broad circle of teeth mark scars on his shoulder hurt. He had let his hair grow out again, having terribly little choice in the matter finding it was growing faster since he had been ‘gifted’ the beast blood. It was a careful balancing act, giving enough to Hircine to deny Mora without becoming a feral thing.

The soup boiled up, bubbles rising and turning to watch him as if aware he had been thinking about them. Too many eyes, green and judging, growing from nothing then popping back into the black. He picked up the ladle and struck at the image, the heavy clang of metal against metal scattering the vision away. He could still smell brine water and ink even as that little half moment of unreality faded back to the Library. It was just rabbit and carrot soup, and had always been rabbit and carrot soup, and if he kept telling himself that he could pretend he had not felt the icy touch of Hermaeus Mora reaching up out through the cracks in the skin of the world to swallow him whole.

Gero must have sensed something, for even as dull as he was these days he had once been a conjuror with a deep connection to Oblivion. He had rushed over, staying just far enough away to should anything be wrong he could draw his blade and strike.

“You can deal with this.” Adrian handed him the ladle, barging past him. “I need to be anywhere else.”

Gero made no protest, simply shaking his head and leaving his brother to his irritable mood.

#ask meme #skyrim #fanfic #adrian of jehenna #Gero of Evermore

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mark-xeen · 6 years

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5 Things I’m not going to miss in the IDWverse

Since last week’s list was about the 5 things I’m was going to miss in the IDWverse. I’ve decided to a list about the opposite. This list will focus on the concepts, moments, and characters I despised in the IDW Transformers series. Stuff I will no doubt be glad are ending and hopefully remained in the old IDW Transformers continuity. And remember these are just my own opinions and if you like them that’s good. It just means that we have different opinions

1. Neutral Cybertronians (N.A.I.L.s)

· The Neutrals are the worst group of characters in IDW. They are arrogant, irritating, shallow, hypocritical, and only exist to give Autobots problems and conflicts. From the refugees to the Circle of Light, they all act so similar to one another, I only remember a few by name. The majority of them act more like plot devices than actual characters. This becomes more apparent when just about every time an Autobot shows up they treat them like monsters while the Decepticons, who have caused the majority of the damages and deaths during the war, are treated with less hostility and disdain- with the leader of the faction even deciding to befriend Starscream, you know the universe’s biggest backstabber at the time, because he believed Starscream was just misguided and misunderstood. With only a couple likable exceptions that act like actual characters, the majority of the Neutral Cybertronians are just flat self-righteous and holier than thou caricatures so unsympathetic that I will not miss any of them.

2. No Females on Cybertron/Arcee’s Origin

· I don’t know what it is with Transformers comics, but they seem to hate gender. In Spotlight: Arcee, the story is about how Cybertronians are normally genderless and a mad scientist, Jhiaxus, attempts to introduce gender by forcefully altering Arcee physically into a female. Besides the messed up implications, this story practically erased female Transformers from the continuity as well as placing an embargo on them for future appearances. Which was a stupid thing to do because female Transformers have been a thing since the second season of the original Transformers cartoon. While Barber, Roberts, and Scott have retconned it and changed Arcee’s character since then, things still haven’t been the same. Some of the female characters that finally made an appearance felt more like name-slap characters due to how different they act, and the amount of retcons that were done just made things more confusing; how was gender erased in the first place and what did it? All in all, can the next IDWverse not try to erase gender from Cybertronians or create an unnecessary explanation about it in the first place?

3. Bumblebee’s Leadership

· Before I start, no I don’t hate Bumblebee as a character. I just hated his leadership of the Autobots during IDW. Due to the powers of Hasbro and IDW, Bumblebee became leader of the Autobots on Earth after Optimus left (the first time) and he was awful. He was a doormat that every other bot either disrespected him or did things behind his back, and all the praising he was given no matter how bad he screwed up made it even more jarring. Then came RID, when he got put in charge again and to me it was even worse. While outside forces like Metalhawk and Starscream didn’t make it easy, Bumblebee’s bad traits from earlier are still present but were cranked up to eleven as well as treating his allies like dirt. He practically sabotage himself and the Autobots’ efforts almost single handedly.

4. Antagonistic Organic species

· When I mean organic species, I mean humans, Galactic Council, Solstar Order, etc. I know the 4 million year war between Autobots and Decepticons would leave a negative impression on some alien species, but come on! During all 4 million years, with a few individual character exceptions, barely anyone could distinguish or realized there were different factions with one of them being somewhat nicer than the other. But what was truly aggravating were the ones that did know the difference but continued to treat the Autobots even worse than the Decepticons. It wouldn’t be so bad except, similar to Neutrals, all their complaints and arguments against the Autobots felt like the organic characters were reskins of each other rather than actual individual characters. Also the sooner IDW Spike Witwicky is gone the better- that character was an awful evil action hero wannabee.

5. The antagonistic adaptations of Japanese Transformers characters

· Another thing I never understood with the writers in IDW is their constant need to turn every major good guy from the G1 anime series into antagonists with the only exception being Headmasters’ cast (but they all had Western appearances through the Marvel comics). Every main good guy from three of the Transformers G1 anime has been turned into a hypocritical critic at best or a psychopath at worst: Metalhawk and Dai Atlas constantly condemn and criticize the Autobots, yet do little to no help until it’s almost too late, with the former sometimes even manipulating others in order to make the Autobots look bad; Star Saber, on the other hand, is a religious zealot who murders anyone he believes is an atheist or evil and will betray his allies if he feels they are unworthy. The characters who used to be kind hearted, reasonable, and honorable figures are turned into these dishonorable, overly biased, and, in Star Saber’s case, psychotic holier than thou look a likes. If any of them do make a return in the new continuity I would prefer it if they act more like their cartoon selves, because at least those versions were entertaining to watch.

#transformers #idw #lost light #optimus prime #exRID #TAOO #goodbyeidwlist

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jonboudposts · 4 years

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1990s

My reasons for hating the 1990s as a decade are intertwined across a number of fields; the personal, the political and the cultural sum it up best as categories.

On the personal note, this was a time that gave me a great deal of mental trauma that I have never really fully reckoned with.

On a cultural note (and also a personal), I thought the culture of much of the 1990s was dire (and for sometimes/always deeply political reasons). Even the alternative was always trying to prove itself; how clever it was written and underappreciated in it's smartness – like Brian the dog from Family Guy, a classic 90s archetype who is 'smart' for no reason, as it does not change anything.

On the political front, we saw the take over of our daily lives by management culture. There was no more ideology we were told; just 'what works'. This showed itself in the crushing of working class representation and power and all that would happen now is the present order would be managed in mildly different ways, which were in fact only surface value. Politics became a performance that you were excluded from and had no ability to influence.

To protect from this political wasteland, irony became a weapon and a shield of protection. Individuality was emphasised but the removal of real creative opportunities and no alternative to the economic status quo meant everybody became the same. Today, we see a virtual inability to produce anything original; everything is a variation of the same in culture and until the recent resurgence of the left (and vicious attempts to suppress it), in politics and power. This suppression and attack is characteristic of the left overs from this era; claiming to be beyond ideology but seeped in it to the point of immobility. Their hatred of the left so severe they character assassinate one of the most moral politicians Britain has ever seen; their inability to see their times have passed, they live in constant nostalgia.

Everything in the 1990s was managerial and performative and carried no real power. Feminism became corporate on one end and reduced to behaviour traits on the other; individualised in other words. Now you could drink and fuck like the boys but still lack economic independence or fair pay. Neo-liberalism dominated and destroyed everything. Now Blair could display a half-female cabinet to the press, but they were all ideology-checked so none were going to cause him problems and little interest was shown in real equality, just representation. Exploitation was not challenged; public participation shrunk; unity was cheapened at best to 'patriotic' crap that gave us nothing.

Now how you chose to review this time can be varied – you could just put it down that this was a decade full of shit music, smarmy culture (smarmy because it was powerless) and things that look like no one bothered while slapping themselves on the back for their originality and cleverness. There was still great stuff and artists who knew how bad it was; many produced art that reflected and satirised this; low-stakes action by people unlikely to last into the next era, if there was one. But certainly it was not universally embraced, but resistance was mostly de-toothed. The everyday reality culturally in The End of History was we ground to a halt and slowly rolled backwards.

Britain in particular acted like it really had reached the end of everything, so the only thing to do was pilfer the past and present it in flashy ways like you invented it. The 1960s was raided to prop up the present times and hope no one noticed how little was happening. While there was still possibilities for working class people to get a foothold, this era laid the groundwork for our times now where we have been all-but removed completely from cultural production that is allowed entry into a wider sphere. Meritocracy was sold; you could only get to the top if you tried hard enough and harder than the next bloke – and if you changed that accent, kept your opinions to yourself if they did not fit the mainstream and made sure you embraced a notion of manners that must never, ever be broken.

The 1990s seemed to be the first decade of over-educated people working in crap jobs at best and feeling rather lost and wasted in their educational endeavours. This is something that has been normalised today. Also the notion that working class people were well represented in the 1990s is a lie. At best people were laughed at (Lad Culture, the emergence of the nasty 'Chav' caricature). At worst, we had middle class people pretending they knew what hard times were and dressing in expensive copies of cheap clothing, while everyone pretended to be hard.

From the 1980s until around five years ago, we have been subject to the complete hegemonic dominance by one way of life, with no options to break the stranglehold. Our ability had been removed from us and the culture reflected that. The 1980s was the assault; the 1990s was the cementing of the damage done; where the vicious abnormality of the previous decade was solidified, made the only reality. Disagreement and protest was dismissed, could be dismissed and overlooked. The 1980s made it possible to remove so much history of resistance and alternative, but not everyone was willing to go quietly. The 1990s used all these new cultural powers to wipe out even the resistance you had lived through and commodify the output.

The last meaningful youth culture was (still is) rave, which had upset the establishment to the point of making laws against it. Of course, they realised it was better to take it indoors and charge a fee, then let a gaggle of record flippers become 'superstars'. This de-toothed manner ran into politics, where everything became too much of an ask, even basic needs and decency. Our working rights were curtailed and our lives sold the the lowest corporation to abuse at will.

The 1990s was so intolerant of difference and ruthless in attack that it became difficult to even like the good stuff while it was happening; instead feeling in a constant state of siege. In the early 2000s, I was only just getting into Elliott Smith and realising that Public Enemy's Muse-Sick-N-Our-Mess-Age was actually a really good album (where it had sounded tired in 1994 to those of us suffering the dredge of the decade). For all the new film makers of the 90s I loved, it was still their older work or older film makers I loved more (and return to occasionally today).

That state of siege I describe culturally is now the economic life of the majority; zero hours nowhere-life of bullshit jobs that make it impossible to even build the most basic human needs (like housing) or desires (like bands worth listening to that get played somewhere that allows you to find them). It seemed like at least the terrible decade had a little less of the intense stifling of the 'end of history' but again, this is a product of that time – not the good, but the less-terrible.

Not everything I did like then I hate now however, nor is diving back into older culture – like musicians you missed the first time perhaps because you were not born – is inherently bad; far from it. It has as much relevance as anything that can still inspire someone to make great work themselves and is just plain enjoyable, which is never a bad thing. I also enjoyed loads of stuff at this time. I watched a lot of films, listened to quite a bit of music (again, mush of it old).

I must admit that many things from this time do have a triggering effect on me. The 'wrong' song can send me into a spiral that effects my mental well being for some time. I forget so much that has happened since this time; forget I have managed to keep employed for twenty years or have maintained some meaningful relationships. I immediately return to being the unemployable loser from suburbia who knows nothing of any worth and cannot function properly.

This was the decade directly after the working class had seen a terrible war waged upon us. Deindustrialisation was so extreme there is a case to argue it caused PTSD to entire communities. The places referred to in Britain as 'left behind' were purposefully deconstructed and desecrated.

In the US, the deindustrialisation was no less savage. Bill Clinton sided up to Newt Gingirch in the House and they preceded to cut welfare, attacking the poorest and most vulnerable people. They bragged about kicking so many people off the welfare roles, while no one seem to ask where they went next.

They privatised the airwaves, giving us a model for endless terrible music to be pumped out all day with no alternative. This was a model wholly embraced by Britain, where today the majority of radio pap is an endless cycle of shit (and cheep) songs from the 70s, 80s and 80s and 90s that attempt to lull you into a living coma. This is the sound of the end of history; Heart FM and Magic tell you there is nothing better, so just put up with this.

The 1990s was a decade of self-aggrandisement and ignorance; looking back and failing to look forward. The arrogant ruled with zero talent and this was reflected in what was produced. Nothing was ever really new – even the good stuff. Everything was horrible, yet was determined to force you to see it all as 'nice'. All of this is true and yet most of it can be over-ridden and ignored.

We get lost in a downward spiral and cannot moor ourselves with the one identity that best described us all in some way – class identity; because it was eviscerated during the 80s and 90s while everyone was telling you to have a good time. Now when a white cis man gets angry about his life, he has less options to turn to except those on the right doing the worst kind of performative politics – pretending to be the victim when they have all the power; pretending to be the outsider when they are the centre.

The 1990s was a decade that denied the future. Everything we suffer from today comes from the great terror of the 1980s and the inertia of the 1990s and 2000s. Britain is a moribund culture and while it seems to be the opposite of the times I discuss here, Brexit makes perfect sense as the final conclusion to all this. A country ignoring it vile history and puffing itself up as the great imperial power of a new era, while in fact it is a broken, bitter land of spiteful failures incapable of imagining the future.

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