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queenharumiura · 7 months

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Zodiac Fun -Drabble

@whiskeysmulti I got inspired to do a small thing so here we go summary: her classmates are reading into zodiac sign compatibility and they know she has a crush on a certain someone. word count: 1,097

Haru talked to her friends about all sorts of things, and she sometimes realizes that maybe it’s to the extent it could be bad—and yet, she still talks. It’s the power of ‘girl talk’ she usually bemuses.

Her friends knew that recently she had prepared something for a friend of hers for his birthday. With knowing the general timeframe of when that was—it put him down as a Virgo.

“Hey Haru, you’re a Taurus, right?”

“Hahi? Ah… yeah, I am…” Haru mumbles quietly. There was a time she followed those zodiac things. She knew it wasn’t a real science and it was a silly thing, but she did love to read them a few years back.

[One of the stronger relationships within the zodiac is that of Taurus and Libra]

She wasn’t very interested in zodiac nonsense anymore, so she started to zone out. Haru was going over some things in her textbook, studying as her friends were chatting about zodiac signs and compatibility charts.

There was a time she read that and felt it was fate dictating that her bond with Tsuna-san was unbreakable. That they were such a great match for each other. Of course, after she’d moved on from her one-sided feelings, she stopped paying attention to the Western Zodiac.

“That guy you like, he’s a virgo, isn’t he? It says here that Taurus and Virgo are perfectly made for each other.”

Sitting upright, she turns in her seat and engages in the conversation. “What else does it say?”

“It says here that you share many of the same essential values as you’re both earth signs. You’re steady, grounded, patient, and devoted. You both take love seriously and give your hearts to people who you see a potential future with.”

“It may not be scientific, but that has you written all over it.” Sora chuckles.

“It also says that Virgos are worriers and Taurus are the experts as soothing.”

Haru could see that, but her mind drifts and thinks about two others whose birthdays were around hers. Yamamoto was fitting the ‘soothing’ epithet, but Hibari-san? Unless killing someone counted as soothing, Hibari-san had to be an outlier.

“It says here that Virgos are caring signs, so they make good partners for everyone.”

The girls all turn to look at Haru who only had a smile on her face, but they knew how to look past that façade. It wasn’t like they didn’t know her for years, after all! Haru was upset.

Her mind wandered to the fact that Gokudera had a fanbase full of girls who wanted him. If he could be a good partner for everyone, that meant he had a lot of options to choose from and BOY did he have options.

“You can create a robust and deep emotional relationship if you aren’t stiff and afraid of getting hurt. If you open up for too long you can easily develop a connection with no passion and be unhappy for years.”

The idea of being afraid of getting hurt kind of stung. Who didn’t feel some fear over being hurt? Gokudera probably had his reasons to feel afraid of opening up to someone, just like she had her own reservations about getting into a relationship with anyone in the Vongola for… obvious reasons.

In her case, she was more afraid of Gokudera being hurt because of her. The reputation that she had because of her failed first love. There was no telling what people would have to say, but she could hazard a guess on some of the things people could say:

He was just a replacement for Tsuna-san.

Though, the alternative is that he stole her from Tsuna-san, which also wasn’t a very good reputation to have as a righthand man.

There was the chance that people would doubt her sincerity and claim that she was unfaithful. If that starts going around, then it makes him the poor sap who was being cuckolded.

Lost in her thoughts, she can think of more things that can be said about them if they were to ever get into a relationship together. If that were ever a reason for him to start doubting her or resenting her, Haru knew that she wouldn’t be able to handle that.

It would break her and it would be so difficult to pick up all of the little pieces to build herself back up again- if she ever could build herself back up, anyways.

“Because of their slow and deliberate approach to love, it may take some time for them to proclaim their feelings for each other, but they have what it takes to make a marriage relationship last.”

The girls stare at Haru again. It was a while back when Haru randomly announced one day, “I think I’m in love with someone else now. I’m in trouble, he’s the right hand of the person I just fell out of love with.”

She stares back at them, “He doesn’t like me like that. I’m probably a nuisance that he tolerates at best. I can just breathe and he’ll start getting mad at me.”

Exchanging looks with eachother, they can recall a time when Haru and Gokudera had fought each other on the streets and their bull-headed friend had stormed off angrily. Haru didn’t see the look on his face then, but they did.

The well-accepted theory among them was that he did like her but was somehow unable to do so. They didn’t know what the hang up was, but when he fought her, he probably didn’t do so out of ill-intent. The look they saw then wasn’t from a person who disliked their friend.

Maybe it was jealousy? Maybe he was one of those acclaimed Tsundere’s who simply didn’t know how to express themselves in any other way than with aggression.

Something told them that it may be the case of ‘the ones involved can’t see it but everyone else in the world can see what’s going on.’ The two like each other but aren’t acting on it.

“Well, maybe you’ll be surprised. He may like you more than you think. It may not be science, but it says here that you’re compatible. Put faith in this silliness and go for it.”

A tiny chuckle, and a dismissive hand wave. It couldn’t be that simple. She returns to her book, but the tiniest of smiles is on her face. It’s somehow endearing that a silly non-science zodiac can say that she’s compatible with Gokudera.

She thinks so too, but theory is sometimes different from reality.

#Neo drabble #Whiskeysmulti

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rochey1010 · 4 years

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Ok this is my final post, and i really need to shut up after this. 😄

So i was convinced for a long time that Benny.Taxi would be revealed to be Daphne or Bas. But as we're reaching midway into the 4th episode. I've changed my mind and actually think it's gonna be Eliott. That last movie reference Max and Mary sealed it for me. Like my thoughts are all mixed so i'm gonna just list them as best i can. Here goes:

▪︎Benny.Taxi is an account that Lola converses with. Lola confides in and trusts Benny. We haven't been told how long she's been talking with Benny but we'll assume it's some time. Benny gives lonely Lola comfort, and she hurts when Benny is distant. So Benny is like an online penpal for Lola.

▪︎Benny represents a dual or hidden personality. The avatar is Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks. By day she was girl next door but by night she was a wild child in the seedy underbelly of Twin Peaks. Drugs, sex, deliquent behaviour, she did it all. She was dead in the pilot episode and the mystery was basically 'who killed Laura Palmer' you could almost say by dual personality, a bipolar personality.

▪︎Benny tells Lola they'll be with her at the funeral. Eliott is at the funeral and is the only one who sees Lola and reaches out to her.

▪︎Lola breaks from her eulogy and tells the church all the dirty Lecompte secrets. She runs from the church. Everyone is outraged at just what happened, except Eliott. His reaction is one of " shit i recognise this, here we go" and yeah we assume Eliott understands just how deeply hurt Lola is and he relates to that pain. But what if it's actually Eliott reacting to that specific story Lola told and realising he knows this story. And he's heard this story. Benny heard this story and now Lola is telling this story. And holy shit this is his online friend.

▪︎Benny is distant after the funeral and Lola is hurting over the silence. We assume Daphne's angry so won't answer. What if Eliott won't answer because he's freaked out about Lola being his online friend.

▪︎Eliott confuses the hell out of the fandom and posts an obscure movie Night of the Ghouls by Ed Wood. The girl in the clip is hysterical and distressed over the ghosts outside. What if this is Eliott freaking the F out because the ghosts of the past are on his doorstep. And Lola is the ghosts.

▪︎Benny sends Lola a picture of her and Lamifex in encouragement of her new group. The post now shows that Benny knows what Lola looks like. At the party Eliott talks to Lola about him being happy she has a new friend group. He also says "you and me, we are the same" showing heavy identification with her. Benny knows all Lola's secrets as Benny is Lola's chosen therapist. Eliott knowing his online friend is Lola could be also acknowledging their deeper connection.

▪︎When Thierry gives Daphne the family heirloom gift and talks about the generations in the family and Daphne being a part of that. Eliott looks over towards hurt Lola as he seems to be the only one that remembers Lola's pain in the church over being another man's child. The rest with the insulated nature of the group focus on Daphne only, and coo and aww at how sweet the gift is. They were in the church too, and once again along with the dad, show a casual indifference to how hurtful this must be for Lola. Eliott the lone wolf. Part of the group but not insulated, again sees the bigger picture and recognises Lola's Pain AKA an outlier connection.

▪︎Lola after Thierry's reveal about Daphne, leaves the party to go on a bender. Very soon after Benny contacts her asking what she's up to. Lola doesn't respond. We assume with Daphne's message wondering where she is that she switches over to Benny and tries to reach her. But Eliott was at the party too and showed twice that he was aware of Lola's presence.

▪︎the next day Eliott reaches out casually saying that they didn't see her leave and he hoped she was ok. He tells her he told lucas the truth about urbex. Eliott seeing the bigger picture would have seen her leave. He also showed that he listened to her words about lying to his boyfriend. She hasn't replied to Benny yet. Eliott sends a concerned text and then he follows her on insta.

▪︎Lola says at one point to Benny "ya know you can confide in me too, i'm here to listen" and Benny replies to her concern with "I'll get by" this could possibly be a low mood for Eliott. As he has frequent depressive spells with his bipolar.

▪︎Maxence said in an interview that "Eliott uses his past to help the main" this season. And Eliott plays a very important role and will be seen a lot. We will also get deeper insight into Eliott too. And Eliott has a beautiful evolutional arc according to Maxence too.

▪︎ MAX AND MARY - jesus where do i start here. This is practically a confession. It's a penpal friendship based on being 2 lonely souls. A outlier connection. Both with mental health problems. And there being an age difference between the 2. And the connection is innocent and platonic. They've been conversing for years and Mary grown up with a baby comes to meet Max but just misses him as he has died. Eliott being Benny, but has moved on to a better place in his life and has put his past demons to rest. And then they knock on his door.

So that's what i have so far that makes me convinced that Eliott is Benny. Now Why is Eliott Benny?

Honestly i don't want to entertain some fans saying it's creepy or predatory because i think they're forgetting that it's Eliott we are talking about here, and he is none of those things. If you think that then you really never understood Eliott. Ok, so we're gonna get deeper insight into Eliott through Lola and their connection this season. But we never have heard about Eliott's past. I suspect we are gonna though in the coming weeks.

When Eliott shows up in S3. We know he's coming from a huge crash and it caused him to start again. We later learn that it was so painful for him that he never told his best friend Idriss that he was bipolar, and he severed the friendship and ran. Lola told Maya her problems started 3 years ago. And she was put in the hospital within that 3 year time frame. We'll assume she'd been cutting for some time before being exposed. So let's say she was put away within the last 2 years. Eliott has been with lucas over a year now. So we'll assume his issues were also within a 2 year timeframe too.

What if Eliott was hospitalised after his crash to balance himself, or if the bipolar was newly diagnosed to get him used to his routine and meds. I'm just gonna assume for a second that Eliott undiagnosed got up to some chaotic and wild shit e.g. drinking, drugs, sleeping around, wreckless behaviour etc. All things that tend to happen before a diagnosis during a manic episode. Like i said i'm just making an assumption here as i do think Eliott gonna start revealing stuff the fanbase has suspected of his past.

So anyway, what if that's how he bonded with Lola. They were friends in the hospital. But hear me out again. What if they never saw each other and conversed through notes, or had adjoining rooms that they would talk through. Like the notes and sending messages are Eliott's thing. And i suspect those doodles are coming back too. Then Eliott left first but maintained contact with his friend. And then showed up to S3 as the new mysterious 3rd year that falls in love with Lucas. But he kept Benny hidden because Benny is his bipolar and past, and Eliott has a lot of shame, embarassment and self loathing in himself connected to his bipolar. So he's starting a new life but holds on to Benny because it allows him to keep contact with his friend who helped him in the hospital when he was at his lowest, lonely and hurting.

Or it's not that deep 😄 and Eliott simply became Benny through an online outreach. A forum, message board, something for therapy purposes. And now the ghosts of the past are actually coming to his door. And those ghosts are Lola. And they will reconnect and help each other. As Flavie said she helps him too. And they will put the ghosts of the past to rest finally and move forward. Her with Maya, and him with Lucas. Thank you for coming to my rambling word salad Ted talk. 😊

#skam france #eliott demaury #skam fr s6 #skamfr

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annakie · 4 years

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An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Five

Will we make it off the Citadel in this update??

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Flux is my favorite bar in all of the first game, I know there’s not many to choose from, but I like the music best, everybody’s clothed, everyone’s having a good time, there’s slots upstairs for entertainment, there’s dancing, and plenty of space to chill out in. Also the color scheme is great. It looks particularly great now with the graphics mod improvements.

Doran gets a nice glamour shot here.

I’m a tattle tale who always turns this guy in. I agree with Kaidan...

Also I really love Rita’s quest with her sister. She loves her sister, Jenna wants to be helpful, even Doran’s like “Hey I’d love to give her her job back.” Everyone here is pretty wholesome. And Jenna gets one of the best surprise appearances in ME3 if you do things right. ME1Recalibrated fixes the bugs with her quest, too!

Speaking of bugged quests, Hello Conrad! ME1Recalibrated fixes Conrad’s bug, and even if it doesn’t, ME2Re does. The only bad thing about that is it makes his apology for accusing you of something you maybe didn’t do make no sense.

Everyone else was sure Conrad would turn out to be evil, too, right? Instead making him into just a big lying dummy with an advanced degree was a great move. I was kinda hoping he’d show up in the Citadel DLC.

Harkin is JUST the FUCKING WORST. I’m always tempted to let Garrus cap him in ME2 because what a waste of air he is and doesn’t learn his lesson.

This is also maybe the most overt place where FemShep experiences sexism. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s some pretty shitty sexism sprinkled throughout the games (as discussed a bit last post) but ugh this guy, if I could shoot him this game, I might. At least on renegade playthroughs.

Speaking of Garrus...

Finally, an alien who wants to hang out with us.

As primarily a Kaidan-romancing gal, who tends to keep up with the Kaidan Alenko tag, especially back in the heyday of tumblr, for a while, loving Garrus was... difficult.

In October, when I was finishing up my latest ME3 playthrough and also cleaning up my blog, and also rewatching Doctor Who and thinking a lot about Rose Tyler and Martha Jones, I posted a long thing in a post about Kaidan and Garrus and badly behaving fanbases, which I don’t feel like typing again. Here’s the whole thing, but I’m going to pull a part of it into here.

I love Garrus, so much. And I was thinking with this whole parallel DW rewatch / Mass Effect replay think I’m doing right now how both Rose Tyler and Garrus Vakaraian are characters that were ruined for me for awhile due to their respective… overly enthusiastic fanbases who a small percentage of were dicks to people who loved other characters. The Kaidan tag (and from what I understand Thane got some of this too, but not nearly as bad) was a pretty hostile place for awhile (and yeah I used to regularly check the Garrus tag too and there was a small amount of tag-invasion there but uh, like 5% of what the Kaidan tag got) which made loving the character of Garrus a lot harder for awhile. But when actually watching seasons 1 & 2 / the end of 4 of Doctor Who, or actually playing the ME games, those characters are awesome.

Fanbases can be amazing or terrible, and time and time again I think you start to realize that no matter how great a fandom is, there are going to be a few people who can only enjoy themselves by feeding on drama, or on lifting up what they love by stomping on other people/characters/plotlines.

It’s not fair to characterize everyone who loves a popular thing as someone who does this. It’s also hard to avoid completely because there will always be jerks, or young/new people who don’t realize what bad form they’re showing. I did learn by trying to fight it for a year or two, that responding might help that one person not do it again, but it’s not going to stop overall.

Anyway, don’t be a dick about the things you don’t like.

It’s sad that even thirteen years past the release of ME1 and eight years past ME3 some people still need to have this fight online. It’s basically impossible to enjoy like, any non-curated Mass Effect space online because of pissing contests or people spouting the same boring opinions. Which they’re entitled to. I’m just real tired of “Kaidan is boring!” “Ashley is a racist!” etc with no further depth of thought being given.

The ability to mute / block people and get away from the worst of it is one of the reasons I’m still on tumblr. Especially always mute/block “confessions” blogs. Yeesh.

---------

I’m glad Garrus is here, and I’m glad he’s on the team. What’s funny though, is that people tend to forget that Garrus like, wasn’t really all THAT popular of a character before ME2. I know I was only in the fandom for a year before ME2 but I dug in pretty deep in that time.

It wasn’t until he gets his face blown off and starts talking about Old Times that a lot of people started to REALLY like him. He’s still great in ME1, but not like, elevated to god-tier that so many people did post ME2 release. But in ME1 he IS neat because he’s really malleable. Probably the companion who can have the biggest personality shift depending on your choices.

Also, I remember a time when the people who wanted to romance Garrus were like... outliers? I remember thinking “GARRUS? As a romance? That’s... weird. Who would do that!?”

OH HOW I WAS WRONG. But that was before reach and flexibility.

Hey I even have a Shep that romanced Garrus in ME2 and ME3. And I loved it!

Were I to replay a different Shep, she’d be my first choice.

So yeah, I love Garrus, I keep Kaidan in the squad all the time in ME1 and the other spot I try to rotate everyone else somewhat evenly, but you’ll see plenty of him. Then ME2 he’s by my side most of the way. And an awful lot in ME3, too. But I’m happy for him to get crushed on by Dr. Michele and glad to see him and Tali find happiness in ME3. SO that’s the path we’ll be going down if we get that far here.

I love the Destiny Ascension flyby moment on the Citadel, and it’s so easy to miss. Also really hard to get good screenshots of. Thanks Flycam. Don’t pay attention to the untextured wall in the first pic, just look at the pretty lights!

Let’s go get another squadmate! This time, a not-as-initially-friendly alien!

What an amazing entrance for Urdnot Wrex.

“Do you want me to arrest you?”

“I want you to try!”

Hell. Yeah.

Here’s where the somewhat in somewhat evenly comes in. I probably do favor Wrex and Ashely in the squad in ME1 a little because... well you know what’s coming for Ash and Wrex you get the least amount of time with by far of the other companions. Also, he’s just... great? A tank, with some biotics and a shotgun... okay well so am I as a vanguard, but Kaidan has just enough tech powers for us to muddle through where we need to when Wrex is in the squad and he’s so much fun to have around. His “Fuck you, I don’t care” attitude is great, and his growth story throughout the trilogy is one of the best arcs a character gets, imho. I just really love Urdnot Wrex.

This is a real nice flight control office you’ve got here, C-Sec. It would be a shame if someone planted a bug in it later, since literally anyone can just walk on up here uncontested.

This entire area really is so pretty though.

I always pump points into Paragon as much as possible from as early on as possible, and saving these poor guys’ lives is one of the big reasons. They don’t need to die.

Ash usually still stays in the party up to this point, though sometimes it’s Garrus. Fist is still a dick in ME2 but he doesn’t need to die here, sorry Wrex.

...raise your hand if you still occasionally forget to pick up Emily Wong’s evidence and have to reload. I remembered! ...once I was almost out of Chora’s Den and had to turn around this time.

Kaidan? Kaidan my love? My darling... perhaps YOU shouldn’t be the one standing in the middle of the corridor with no barrier or protection? (I suppose I could scooch over but then I’d look less badass for these screenshots. Naaah.)

It’d be a shame if someone properly lit the corridor so we could see what’s going on.

But hey... TALI! Tali Tali Tali! The first quarian we see, and only one for... awhile? Is there another quarian in this entire game? I’m trying to remember and seriously can’t think of one.

Anyway, I love Tali, but another character you really need to ignore their most rabid fanbase portions of. Yikes, Talimancers were really something back in the day. The biggest problem I have with Tali being in the squad is that normally she’s REALLY useful against Geth and... not so much against just about anything else. She gets sidelined on my team more than I wish she would. Especially since she doesn’t show up until very late in ME2 and late-midway through ME3.

Finally, the proof we need. And the game continues to introduce new concepts to us with the Conduit and we hear the word Reapers for the first time. We also get a loredump on the quarians and the geth.

Tali’s voice doesn’t have quite as heavy of an accent in ME1 as it does in 2 and 3. I guess we can assume she’s lost part of it while on her pilgrimage? Picking up the local dialects a bit? The next two times we see her she’s just spent a lot of time with her own people.

Tali’s suit and omnitool look SO GOOD with the updated textures.

I swap Ash out and Tali in at this point, and usually finish up a few more quests along the way.

Ah, Septimus. You lovesick fool.

Honestly, the very best thing with Septimus is to bring Garrus here if you’re gonna romance him, have Garrus laugh at him for coming undone for love and then... well, ME2 and especially ME3 happen. But still. Septimus... always needs a kick in the pants but will get around to doing the right thing.

Hey here’s a cool thing ME1Recalibated does -- Morlan carries a Squad Iconic Armors stock, so you can always find tier-appropriate default look armor for you and all the squad. Very cool of you, Morlan. You are currently my favorite store on the Citadel. Now stop sending me spam, I didn’t sign up for your mailing list.

Look, I have questions about what exactly Xeltan told the consort and how... all that... works... but... I don’t think I actually want to ask them. Just.. let’s all shut up about all of it, it’s over now.

BTW, according to one of the novels, Councilor Anderson finds Ambassador Cayln super annoying. I need to re-read that book.

OK fine... I’ll go talk to the Council.

Coming at ya with Actual Proof and a quarian tagging along to back up the claims, the Council is ready to listen. And while not surprising that it’s finally time to become a Spectre, the actual ceremony is really well done. With the swelling theme music blaring, and all three councilors stressing what a big deal this is and what will be expected of you, you really feel the weight of this moment. People take notice. Although apparently later, Kaidan or Ash get an entire televised event around becoming a Spectre, I guess there’s no time for that right now.

It definitely feels like the game so far has been building towards this moment, not only with POUNDING it into your brain about who Spectres are and why they’re so important and letting you know you’re being evaluated... but it feels like there’s been a shift in the game after this moment. It’s A Big Deal.

I didn’t finish all the sidequests on the Citadel yet, they can wait, I’ve been here long enough. Let’s go check out the new cool stuff we can buy.

ME1Recalibrated adds in this Spectre Armor. Eeehhhhh... no thanks. We’ll stick with Onyx.

I did cheat myself in a bunch of credits and picked up Spectre weapons though. This ain’t no tryhard playthrough.

Well OK, we can finish ONE more quest. Thanks, startlingly loud and triumphant music queue that’s never used again!

Man, this would be SUCH a good pic of the Normandy if... the airlock didn’t go straight through the ship.

We’ve got a ship of our own! And most of our squadmates to put on it!

Sucks for Anderson to be sidelined, though. We already love you, Anderson!

It’s cool to get a bit more of the Saren & Anderson backstory here for real. Still, I enjoyed the book more. Maybe I’ll do a re-read of all the ME books here soon.

Udina... just keep being you, I guess.

WE HAVE A SHIP!!!

Okay, whew... we made it off the Citadel. Now I gotta actually play some more to have more updates to post. Might be a few days. Have to actually go back to work tomorrow. :p

Let’s probably do like one sidequest then go get us an Asari!!

#mass effect #bioware #kaidan alenko #garrus vakarian #urdnot wrex #tali'zorah #annakie's mass effect stuff

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arethereanyoriginalusernames · 5 years

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Old Critiques Discussed: The strange case of a favorite character

Hellooo...

It would seem AreThere cannot come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, because they're dead! I kid, I kid. But nonetheless, they are... temporarily absent.

Who am I? I suppose one could call me the Ghost of Critiques Past. Considering the time of year, my presence is perhaps unsurprising. Or maybe it is. I have considered Christmas to be a more fitting time, but I prefer not to dwindle away another two months doing nothing of importance.

Now now, do not fret. AreThere will inevitably return, much to my chagrin. They, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you see it), have come upon a frightful opponent. Writer's Block. Oh, how the very mention sends a chill up my nonexistent spine.. I am unsure if anyone would like them to return any time soon, but they certainly would like to. But sometimes, the best cure for something such as this is to look to the past. What are you proud of? What do you regret most dearly?

I doubt a single soul will remember a post made roughly the year past. Well... except perhaps a certain Australian who seemed oddly surprised by the length of said post. To that individual, I say "Don't you test me, mortal. " See, AreThere has a little series known as "Character Spotlight". Peculiar name choice, but that is not the target of my contempt.

Hidden in the dark depths of the Vivziepop fanbase, wisemen tell tales of a story lost to the ravages of time and an everlasting hiatus. Zoophobia. A beautifully flawed creation packed to the brim with faults to present and a multitude of characters to inspect with a keen, critical eye. And AreThere, the poor fool, tried to criticize a certain "Damian Beelzey". Their favorite character, if I am not mistaken. One they called "One of the best written characters in ZP".

Oh AreThere, how very, very wrong you were...

Firstly, I say we discuss the concept of this character, for, as I will hopefully help you see, this is a case of an idea good in theory, but flawed in execution. Damian Beelzey is the antichrist, the son of the devil himself. He is presumably meant to be a member of the "main cast", or, at the very least, an important character. He has certain undesirable traits, such as his immature, brat-like behavior and a mischievous streak. Fortunately, he has a heart of gold lying buried underneath, a heart that is haunted by loneliness. He desires close accomplices, but his horrid ways force certain others to keep their distance, namely his cousin.

Already, this concept has much potential. Perhaps, in order to fulfill his desire for companionship, Beelzey must be forced to examine his flaws and decide if and how he must change his ways. Perhaps, since he is the antichrist, one could even examine how much of his behavior comes from his nature, and how much of it developed due to how others see him. There is also the fact that he is considered to be of royal blood. Beelzey is the prince of hell, and strangely enough, he has been dubbed "the dark prince" or "the prince of darkness". As the modern masterpiece, "Six the musical " has proven, royal life is not always luxury and gold, and it is possible to make those in high political power sympathetic and worthy of pity. One could explore how royal life may have influenced Beelzey, and if his behavior is a result of nature or nurture.

Problems arise, however, when the story introduces the idea of a discrimination allegory with the demons. In the second chapter, an act of discrimination is committed by a catholic priest against Beelzey, who makes some speech about how the priest does not know him. This is followed by mild police brutality, and the idea of Safe Haven being unsafe for demons is hammered over our heads by the dark lord himself.

Six also had themes of discrimination, but they were used in direct connection into why the queens ended up in a state of misery. As women, they had little control over what the men in their lives did, thus resulting in their unfair treatment. Meanwhile, I must ask what this form of discrimination serves? It appears to be vaguely applied with little thought other than to make Beelzey win sympathy points. Perhaps this could be used to emphasize his feelings of isolation and arise internal conflict within him regarding Safe Haven. Sadly, we cannot be sure of this, and that idea is purely speculative.

Another complication arises in Beelzey's relationship to the rest of the main cast. He does not appear to be acquainted with Vanex, Spam, Taylor, nor Penelope. Those he is acquainted with, Jack, Zill, and Kayla, strongly dislike him. While there is no issue with having an outlier in the group, with this setup, any scene that requires Beelzey to interact with these characters will likely be unpleasant. The other characters dislike him, thus the audience may be swayed to dislike him, causing annoyance to arise from his presence. Perhaps Beelzey will mend these relations in the future, but from what Ms Vivz is setting up, early interactions will cause difficulties in rooting for Beelzey.

Finally, there is the issue of him having "a dark side." From what has previous been observed, one would question if Beelzey requires a dark side. Why not just have him reform from his own flaws instead of some bizarre "side" of him? If the online graphic novel were to be used as an indication, this is so Ms Vivz can have him torture his family members and still remain sympathetic.

Question professor, how much blame do we shift on to his dark side? How does it work? From an old post I assure you I will make AreThere reblog, one gets some idea of what this dark side is. Ms. V mentions that Beelzey is "not himself" in this state. This would suggest an alternate personality, him having naturally evil instincts, or him going into some emotionally unstable mental state. This dark side also does some... interesting activities. Such as "forcing himself on to others"... which is a phrase I rather not touch on, thank you very much. He also has a tendency to be handcuffed to things whilst not wearing pants. This brings one singular word to mind. Kinky. But "strange" as well, I suppose.

I can only imagine that Beelzey will inevitably have to confront this dark side, which has also been shown to be capable of harming him. But why is this here? To generate more pity?

Ms V appears to have had an issue showing the more morally questionable aspects of Beelzey in her online graphic novel, but for the sake of my sanity, I must continue this in another post.

And you thought AreThere wrote long posts.

Unlike AreThere, I do not apologize for anything. Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful night mortals....

I will see you all soon enough

#zoophobia #zoophobia damian

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mitchellkuga · 2 years

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How Rina Sawayama Turned Pop Inside Out — And Built One of Its Fastest Growing Fanbases.

This story originally appeared on the June 2021 cover of Billboard Magazine.

With her genre-obliterating sound and gripping lyrics about identity, Rina Sawayama became one of the most exciting queer voices in pop. Now she’s making room for anyone else who feels like an outsider.

A few years ago, Rina Sawayama was starting to wonder if she was unsignable. There was the casual racism, like the time she found out that a senior record executive jokingly referred to her as “Rina Wagamama” behind her back. Or that time a major-label A&R executive backed out of a deal at the last minute, leaving her scrambling to cover lawyer’s fees she had planned to pay for with her advance.

Her infraction? The demo for “STFU!,” a thrashing, nu metal romp that sounds like the reincarnation of Limp Bizkit if Fred Durst were JoJo. The song’s chorus — “Shut the f–k up,” intoned over and over again in a feathery singsong — was both absurd and intimate, aimed at the very sort of person in the industry who thought replacing Sawayama’s name with that of a Japanese-inspired British restaurant chain was funny. From the label’s perspective, though, “STFU!” was too stark a departure from the R&B-inflected minimalism of RINA, her 2017 EP. She remembers feeling “devastated” when the deal fell through, looking around the Los Angeles studio she was renting for the month and wondering how she was going to afford it. But at no point did she ever question her vision.

“I was like, ‘F–k off,’ ” Sawayama, dressed casually in a gray hoodie, says over Zoom from her London flat on a recent afternoon, her laughter revealing a sliver of blue braces. The Japanese-British singer, 30, had spent her 20s toiling independently in London’s underground music scene, playing small clubs and fine-tuning what would become her boundary-pushing approach to pop. So by the time she started pursuing a record deal, she knew she was on to something: “I think that’s the benefit of me waiting so long. Had I been younger, I might have been like, ‘Oh, no. I need to change my sound.’ ”

Then she took a meeting with British independent label Dirty Hit. Founder Jamie Oborne had a different reaction to “STFU!”: He couldn’t stop laughing. “It was bonkers,” says Oborne. “It was such a collision of different cultural elements, of genres.” He also knew a thing or two about developing misunderstood acts. When he launched Dirty Hit in 2009, his first band was pop-rock powerhouse The 1975, which “every label in the f–king world seemed to pass on twice,” he says. Sawayama signed to the company in 2019 — and became the pop-star outlier among a rock-leaning roster that now includes Pale Waves, Wolf Alice and Beabadoobee.

“I often say there are two types of artists: artists that have to do it and artists that want to do it, and Rina is the former,” adds Oborne. “She can’t be anything else other than Rina Sawayama.”

“STFU!” became the lead single from 2020’s Sawayama, her debut album and one of the most critically lauded releases of the year. (It appeared prominently on over two dozen best-of lists last year.) It felt like the foundation for a new kind of pop star: unabashedly queer, unapologetically Asian and completely unconcerned with genre conventions. Sawayama’s identities don’t just inspire her music — they permeate its DNA. On “Chosen Family,” a shimmering, gospel-tinged ballad, she sings about finding solace in queer friendships, especially in the face of rejection from loved ones. On futuristic tracks like “Tokyo Love Hotel” and “Akasaka Sad,” she explores her relationship with Japan as a U.K. transplant — her family emigrated from Niigata when she was 5 years old — who feels both protective of and disconnected from her culture.

Her material is often dark and deeply personal, but she wraps each song on Sawayama in the pageantry of pop music. “Rina is a pop-art chameleon,” says friend Elton John, a longtime fan who duetted with her on a new version of “Chosen Family” in April. “Her debut album is a clever and confident kaleidoscopic odyssey that zips and zooms through a compendium of pop music genres. She exuberantly changes gears from track to track and keeps the listener guessing where she’s going to go next.”

Genre fluidity is essentially the norm today, but Sawayama takes the concept to dizzying new heights: She’s less interested in blending sounds than in pushing each to its extreme. Throughout Sawayama, she pivots with ease from New Jack Swing to stadium rock to slinky club beats. Time-stamping it all are influences from the Y2K days, back when Korn and Britney Spears vied for the top spot on MTV’s Total Request Live. “I love the chaos of that era,” says Sawayama, who in conversation is enthusiastic and quick to laugh, usually at herself. She stresses that her affection for these sounds is in no way ironic. “I always get asked: ‘Who are you listening to at the moment?’ I’m like, ‘Kelly Clarkson? I don’t know if you’ve heard of her? Um, Katy Perry’s first album?’ ”

There’s an exhilarating whiplash in hearing her go from “Dynasty,” an Evanescence-inspired rock anthem about intergenerational trauma, to “XS,” a snappy critique of consumerism that evokes Spears’ frothy collaborations with The Neptunes. In less skillful hands, the transition would crumble into mere pastiche. Sawayama’s approach, however, feels reminiscent of code switching, something many queer people — and more specifically, queer people of color — know intimately: the ability to flit between presenting queer and straight, constantly modulating identities depending on circumstances. “That’s part of the magic of Rina, the fact that she was able to stitch it all together,” says Dirty Hit A&R manager Chris Fraser. “Her identity brings it together. She wants to exist in the mainstream world, but on her own terms.”

Sawayama has yet to produce any major hits, but her music has turned her into the rare artist equally adored by underground auteurs and A-listers like Elton John and Lady Gaga, who will feature Sawayama on her upcoming Chromatica remix album. Sawayama won’t spoil what song she’s on, though as a longtime Gaga disciple, she was hardly picky. “If they said, ‘You need to cover ‘Chromatica I,’ ” — the first of the album’s instrumental interludes — “I’d be like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it!’ I’ll just sing the whole orchestra: dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum!”

Like Gaga and her Little Monsters, Sawayama has been intentional about cultivating her passionate fan base, the Pixels. On her 2018 tour, she offered special wristbands to audience members who had come alone so they could find one another and build community. She’s also a savvy creator on YouTube, where she posts not just behind-the-scenes footage and performances but also guitar lessons and makeup tutorials, all branded as “RINA TV” with algorithm-friendly, vlogger-style titles like “How to make a MUSIC VIDEO in 5 STEPS.”

“Showing the creative process can be really exciting for people who, like me, had no idea how to do this,” she says. “I learned so much from being independent, but I really wished I knew so much before. It would have saved me a lot of time.”

The conversations she fosters in her music — what it means to be queer, what it means to feel torn between homelands — are ones she continues outside of the studio, too. Last summer, she signed an open letter asking the U.K. government to ban conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth. More notably, her criticism of the citizenship requirements for some U.K. honors, including the BRIT Awards, has inspired new eligibility rules that recently opened up nominations to musicians like her — immigrants who have spent much of their lives in the United Kingdom.

Sawayama makes music about feeling like an outsider and fighting for agency; that she wields it back at the music industry, making room for other outsiders in the process, cuts to the heart of what makes her so exciting. It shows in the video for “STFU!,” which begins with Sawayama out to dinner with a white guy. As he stabs at his sushi, he unleashes a string of microaggressions, from comparing her to Asian actresses to expressing surprise that she sings in English. At one point, he asks, “Have you been to that Japanese place… Wagamama’s?” Every remark is something Sawayama has heard before from real-life dates, strangers or, yes, label executives.

The freedom to make such artistic decisions, says Sawayama, makes her feel “really lucky that [I’ve been] able to do me, 100%. Because if I wasn’t, I don’t think I’d be proud of where I am now.” Which is a fairly unique position: She’s a kind of cultural critic embedded in the front lines, a pop scholar using the diva playbook to punch up at the industry that has tried to pigeonhole her.

It’s a role that’s unlikely to change, even as she enters the next phase of her career and advances toward pop’s molten center. Sawayama is working on her second album, which she promises will mine even more left-field references from decades past. In the fall, she’ll finally embark on a rescheduled tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland, playing some venues that are double or triple the size of those she planned to hit pre-pandemic. (A North American tour, originally scheduled for later this year, is now booked for next spring alongside other European dates.)

“I feel like Rina is going to explode once people start going to shows and seeing her,” says Oborne, adding that her success has played a big role in the label’s recent expansion, with new offices in Los Angeles and Sydney. She’ll also make her feature-film debut in 2022, starring alongside Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 4.

Sawayama’s rise has even inspired those who didn’t get it to reach out to congratulate her — including the A&R executive who pulled the plug on a deal after hearing “STFU!” It felt good, says Sawayama, but it wasn’t quite good enough. “I was like, ‘Next time I see him, I’m still going to demand that money,’ ” she says with a laugh.

Rina Sawayama had two goals for her U.S. TV debut, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, in October. She wanted to convey a sense of stakes: At that stage of the pandemic, remote performances often felt as slickly produced as music videos — so instead, she designed a performance that relied on a few camera cuts to capture the feeling that anything could happen if the viewer stuck around. “Rina was like, ‘It has to be live, but it has to be capital-L live,’ ” says Tom Connick, product manager at Dirty Hit. “ ‘You have to really hear my vocals — I don’t want it to be super polished.’ ”

Her second mission: “I’m going to try to get the straights and the locals,” she recalls thinking — in other words, win over the masses. “And then I came out with that f–king outfit.” She’s referring to her Marie Antoinette-goes-to-the-fetish-shop number: a red leather bodice and garter-style harness with opera gloves and opulent costume jewelry. “My entire team was like, ‘Babes, I don’t think you’ve nailed the brief,’ ” she says. “It was so high drag.” Vogue called the look “a performance in itself.”

Sawayama traces her sense of theatricality to her days at Cambridge’s Magdalene College, where she studied politics, psychology and sociology while singing in a hip-hop group called Lazy Lion. “I thought we were the second coming of Black Eyed Peas,” she says. “I wasn’t nearly as iconic as Fergie, but I was trying.” At times, however, she struggled. She has called the university culture of Cambridge “horribly patriarchal” and felt isolated and stereotyped as an international student during much of her time there. But in her senior year, she fell in with a group of queer creatives, including the drag band Denim, which gave her a much-needed sense of belonging. Sawayama, who has been open about her experiences with depression, credits that scene with saving her life.

Their sensibility — proudly camp with an academic twist — has become a defining feature of her music. “I’m inspired by drag because people wear their trauma and insecurity and celebrate it or make a character out of it, and that’s really what I wanted to do with the album,” she says. “I wanted to talk about these things that have caused me so much pain — so much expensive therapy bills — and make it into something that just sounded like a pop song, to make people want to really listen over and over to what was being said.”

After graduating, she worked a series of odd jobs in London, sometimes two or three at a time, to independently fund her music: selling ice cream sandwiches out of her friend’s truck, working as a nail technician at a high-end salon, logging a few months at an Apple Store before she got fired for modeling in a Samsung ad. Pursuing music full time often felt like a distant dream. “When I started out, I was like, ‘What do you do as an artist?’ I had no idea how to release things or why it’s important to release songs or albums,” she says. “I didn’t grow up around the music industry. I have no connections.”

A photographer friend introduced Sawayama to Will Frost, who had worked in music publicity and now manages her along with day-to-day manager Caspar Harvey. At the time, Sawayama was content to just put out singles. Frost, she says, stressed the importance of planning for a larger body of work and thinking long term.

“Even when the money was running out, I had such belief in how successful Rina could be that we had to just keep going independently and not make any decisions that didn’t feel right,” says Frost. “It shows now in everything she does, whether it’s the fearlessness in the music or being outspoken on any topic she is passionate about — they’re all possible because of those formative years and the resilience she developed.”

Frost connected her to Adam Crisp, the singer-songwriter and producer who works under the name Clarence Clarity. Though it took a while for them to click — “The first song he did was ‘Alterlife,’ and I remember being like, ‘Ugh! That’s too much!’ ” — his maximalist tendencies turned out to be a perfect match for Sawayama’s instinct to, says Crisp, “blow the lid off everything” as a performer. He ultimately co-produced all but two of Sawayama’s 13 tracks. “He always brings a slightly cooler reference,” says Sawayama, “which is helpful, because I’ll be like, ‘Remember Avril Lavigne’s fourth track when she did this?’ And he’ll be like, ‘Yeah, but did you know that’s a rip-off of Radiohead?’ ”

Instead of sanding down her influences into one neat package, Crisp helped her embrace their contrasts. “We’ve got a running theme of face-melting guitar solos that pop up all over the place and really audacious, ridiculous key changes,” he says. “That’s the kind of stuff we both like, particularly Rina: putting things in places that have no right to be there.” In the end, he notes, “the most ridiculous idea wins.”

Plenty of pandemic albums sounded like queer dance parties incarnate, from Dua Lipa’s disco trip Future Nostalgia to Gaga’s ebullient Chromatica. But Sawayama felt the most purely communal: a celebration of all the ways queer bodies can come together in their own hallowed spaces, whether that’s moshing to “Dynasty,” strutting down imaginary runways to “Comme Des Garçons (Like the Boys)” or swaying sweatily side to side, with interlocked arms, to “Chosen Family.”

That has made the lack of live shows as tough for the artist herself as it has been for her community. “I think a song is complete in terms of its writing when it’s performed and fed back to you through the audience, when you hear them singing it. It’s almost like a comedian testing their material,” she says. “For me, it’s important how people’s bodies move to the songs because as a pop writer, you’re essentially carrying people on this journey.”

Still, Sawayama never considered pushing her album back. So during lockdown, she focused her promotional efforts on social media, pivoting her album-launch event to a last-minute YouTube party and releasing new episodes of RINA TV. “We had to be super adaptive with the album coming when it did,” says Connick. “Especially when we went into lockdown, a lot of our marketing ideas were shelved and canned pretty much overnight. So we had to very, very quickly figure out what it was we wanted to do.”

Sawayama has learned what many pop stars have in the streaming age: The albums that make the biggest impact are the ones you can keep breathing new life into. In December, she released a deluxe edition of Sawayama featuring live versions, remixes (including one with Brazilian drag superstar Pabllo Vittar) and the dopamine-spiking dance-pop single “LUCID.” For the one-year anniversary of the album in April, she put out the new version of “Chosen Family” with John. (“Will was like, ‘We should get Elton on a song,’ ” recalls Sawayama, “and I was like, ‘You’re f–king insane.’ ”) The same month, she also filmed a Tiny Desk concert for NPR, which felt like a counterpoint to the bombastic Fallon performance: a stripped-back showcase for her operatic voice.

Not everything on her wish list went according to plan. In her first meeting with Dirty Hit, Sawayama said it would be her dream to receive the prestigious Mercury Prize, which is awarded to a single album each year. But last summer, she realized she was ineligible for both that honor and the BRIT Awards, the U.K. equivalent to the Grammys. Both are run by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade group, which at the time required solo artists to have British or Irish nationality. Sawayama has spent most of her life in the United Kingdom but is not a citizen — she’s on an Indefinite Leave to Remain visa. There are pathways to citizenship for those with such visas, but she would have to give up citizenship in Japan, where her parents now live and which does not allow for dual citizenship.

Realizing she was locked out was heartbreaking. “When you’re an immigrant, you kind of move through life being masked and shielded to the fact that not everyone is welcoming of you,” says Sawayama. “And that was a moment when that veil came off.”

One phrase in particular kept running through her mind: Am I not enough? “I’ve lived here for this many years, I went to Cambridge, I pay taxes here, and I’m still not good enough,” says Sawayama before backpedaling — as if realizing she has boxed herself into the model-minority myth. “You can still be an amazing person and belong to this country without those things, too. But I think I’ve conditioned myself to believe that I’m not deserving if I don’t have those things, which is the reason I work so hard.”

After waiting a bit to gauge whether she had been truly snubbed — “Can you imagine if my album was s–t and no one was talking about me, and then I was like, ‘Excuse me, I should have been nominated’?” — she did an interview with VICE calling attention to the eligibility requirements, which she labeled a form of artistic “border control.” A day after the article was published, the hashtag #sawayamaisbritish started trending on Twitter in the United Kingdom.

Eventually, BPI chairman Ged Doherty reached out to Sawayama to explain that he didn’t realize how restrictive the rules were, she recalls. (“Rina is an incredible artist, and we are grateful to her for raising her concerns,” Doherty wrote in a statement to Billboard.) A few months later, in February, the organization announced some changes: Any musician who has been a resident in the United Kingdom for at least five years is now eligible. Soon after, Sawayama was shortlisted for the BRITs’ 2021 Rising Star Award. “Telling my mum was amazing,” she said in a teary-eyed video responding to the nomination. “She was so proud.”

She ultimately didn’t win, but getting a seat at the table was its own kind of victory. In April, Sawayama attended the 2021 BRITs ceremony in a purple Balmain couture gown with an impossibly long tulle train, looking every bit the belle of the ball. On Twitter, she posted a photo of herself on the red carpet with the caption: “sawayama looking v british tbh !!!!”

“Ri-na! Ri-na! Ri-na!”

“Who’s Gonna Save U Now?,” a crunchy, ’80s-style rock jam on Sawayama, opens with the sounds of an imaginary crowd chanting her name. Even before she released an album, Sawayama always had grand visions for her live show. Her first official concert, celebrating the arrival of her 2017 EP, was at the 150-capacity East London venue The Pickle Factory. As she listened to fans singing along to her music, she recalls, “I literally thought I was selling out a stadium.”

“She only ever thinks in mega pop-star terms because that’s the world she grew up loving,” says Frost. “When she was playing to 300 people, it was always outfit changes, choreo, drama — how can we make this tiny venue with this small fan base feel like they’re at an arena?”

On her tour this fall, Sawayama won’t be playing arenas, but she will perform at her biggest venues to date. She’s relishing the creative opportunities that come with a larger stage and hopes her show will offer a safe space for a fan base that spans a diversity of backgrounds. “I feel like my entire live team is queer. It’s like a lovely queer family,” says Sawayama. Directing the tour is her friend Chester Lockhart, the musician-actor who also directed her Tiny Desk performance. “Me and Chester always talk about live shows — we’re obsessed with iconic shows of the 2000s.”

In the meantime, Sawayama has been back in the studio with Crisp recording her second album, which she says will explore other influences from the Y2K era and beyond, including ’90s rave music, The Cardigans, No Doubt and Bon Jovi. “That’s what’s so fun about music from the ’90s and 2000s — it’s so broad,” she says.

At first, writing new music felt terrifying: “I was like, ‘I have f–king nothing to say, I haven’t lived life, I haven’t met people.’ ” Not being able to tour the first album also made it hard to start thinking about the next. “Mentally, as a songwriter, that’s hard,” she says, “because I haven’t gotten [Sawayama] out of my system.” But after getting into the studio with Crisp earlier this year, Sawayama slowly found her voice again. In two weeks, they cranked out 14 songs. A writing trip to L.A. is also in the works.

The staff at Dirty Hit believes that, with the right timing and positioning, this next album could finally push her into the mainstream. But they’re not in a rush. “We haven’t taken anything to radio in America yet for a reason: I want to build an undeniable foundation first,” says Oborne. “I feel like we’re almost there.”

For now, they’re letting Sawayama lead the way. “We’d love for her to become a Main Pop Girl,” says Connick. “But I’m trying not to focus too much on any particular model or existing success story and just continue what we did from 18 months ago, which was to facilitate Rina being Rina.” It’s a common refrain among her team — “Let Rina be Rina” — that speaks to both her singular artistry and the general strategy at Dirty Hit. “We’re not really selling music,” says Oborne, “we’re selling identity.”

A few years ago, Sawayama contemplated going simply by the name Rina. “I’ve always been conscious that my surname is an inconvenience,” she says, recalling her earliest days in British school, when staff would regularly butcher her name. “I would be in floods of tears. That anxiety of someone trying to say my last name as a 5-year-old was the most excruciating thing.”

In the end, after talking it through with her team, she decided to keep it. “I think it’s important for people to instantly recognize that it’s a Japanese or Asian-sounding name,” she says. “But in the future, I’m definitely not counting off dropping the surname — if I become iconic enough.” For Sawayama, maybe the question is not if, but when.

〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️

Published by Billboard Magazine. Photo by Zoe McConnell.

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guest4 · 4 years

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So...Misfire is forged and Ravage is cold-constructed? I always thought it’s the other way round because beastformers were a rather low class of the society at the time right? I just thought maybe people back then think beastformers are useless products of the mother nature or something, like, double bold letter typical racism. Constructing more beastformers in a society like that is just so wrong. And Misfire? I mean sure, he’s not one of the Starscream repaint but look at his frame? He’s close enough. I’m definitley not the only one in the fanbase always registered him as a seeker. Aaaand all seekers are cold-constructed, right? Then I realised, Skywarp is an outlier, right? And outliers are forged. So there are forged seekers, too? Wait a sec...Bomshell said Thundercracker was reformatted to look like Starscream, right? So....forged seekers just, keep the uniform?

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ponyregrets · 7 years

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No One Told You Life Was Gonna Be This Way

Kabby social media AU, 3200 words, T

did u know that 1. it is @kane-and-griffin‘s birthday 2. she accidentally went viral for ranting about Friends and 3. once I start thinking about how A Thing (random example: Marcus Kane writing viral Friends tweets) would go down I cannot stop until I just write the thing

anyway happy birthday claire!!

Marcus Kane is, unfortunately, very familiar with the Nice Guy phenomenon.

It's an occupational hazard of writing science fiction, especially in the internet age; all he has to do is look for his most obnoxious fans, and he finds an unfortunately loud contingent of entitled mostly white men who believe that the world owes them women and happiness without any effort on their parts. It's something he tries to combat as much as possible, wherever he can, and he knows it works in some cases. For every reader who's turned against him for being an SJW cuck (whatever that means), he has another who's expressed appreciation for his opening them up to perspectives they hadn't considered and broadened their empathy and understanding.

That's what sci-fi should do, as far as Marcus is concerned. The heart of science fiction is acceptance and unity.

Which is why he tells Bellamy, "I need you to do one of those Twitter threads for me."

"For what?" Bellamy asks, wary. As Marcus's assistant, he seems to think his most important duty is talking Marcus out of interacting with social media. And he may be right.

"Ross Gellar."

It takes him a second. "The guy from Friends?" he finally asks.

"Yes. I want to explain to my followers why he's bad romantic lead and role model."

To his shock, the response is instant. "Okay."

"No arguments? No lecture on how that isn't what Twitter is for?"

"No, fuck Ross," he says. "What do you want to say? I'll make it happen."

Marcus clucks his tongue. "I'll write up a statement."

* Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Last week, while ill, I watched Friends on Netflix for the first time. So, a thread on friendship, romance, Joey Tribiani, and Ross Gellar.

O @o-so-cool reblogged Sometimes my brother's boss is pretty okay.

raven @queenreyesthefirst reblogged brb adding @kanemarcus to non-sucky white dude sci-fi authors and shipping him with @scalzi

Finn Collins @finnishfirst reblogged this is kind of interesting but way too hard on ross. he does a lot of good things! see thread

Bellamy @bradburybell reblogged this is not nearly hard enough on ross

Clarke Griffin @clarkegriffin reblogged Relevant to your interests @ark-abby

"So here's what I think happened," says Bellamy. He's brought Marcus a coffee without being prompted, so whatever it is must be bad.

Marcus takes a sip of the drink. "When?"

"With your Twitter rant."

"Ah. I assume there are a lot of protests from the louder, stupider portion of my fanbase about how I've allowed the liberal fake media destroy my mind and masculinity?"

"Yeah, there are some of those. But, uh--it went way past your fanbase."

"Excuse me?"

"This is your most retweeted post ever. Not even close. It's viral. You've got people fighting you, people telling you it's a revelation, and about a thousand new followers already. In the last day."

He frowns. "Is Friends really still that popular?"

"Apparently." He shrugs. "Clarke says you made Buzzfeed and a couple of the other aggregator sites too. She and Raven have been texting me updates. They think it's hilarious."

"What does that mean?"

"Honestly? I don't fucking know. I told you when you hired me I'm not actually good at this stuff. I tried to warn you."

"You did." He takes another sip of coffee. "So, what do you think happened?"

"My sister retweeted it, and she spends about ninety percent of her time thinking about her social media brand, so she's got a ton of followers. Then Raven picked it up from her, her tech friends got a hold of it, and after that--" He shrugs. "You got out of your niche and into broader Twitter, and I'm not going to be able to find anything useful in your notifications for weeks. It's all Ross/Joey shipping discourse. Clarke's words, not mine," he adds.

"Should I be concerned?"

"I don't know. I guess we'll find out if it actually sells more books. And Clarke thinks we should try to leverage it into more publicity, she's got an idea for that."

Marcus hasn't actually met most of Bellamy's friends, but he references them enough that he knows who they are. Octavia, sister, Raven, ex-girlfriend, Clarke, current girlfriend. He also knows that all of them are more familiar with social media than Bellamy is, so he's not surprised that he consulted them.

Mostly, though, he still can't believe anyone really cares about this.

"An idea to leverage the Friends discourse?"

Bellamy shrugs. "Apparently this fit into an ongoing conversation she's been having with her mother. Abby Griffin? She writes for Ark AV. She did that think-piece about what mainstream science fiction gets wrong about female characters."

"Ah," says Marcus. He remembers the article, which had been harsh but ultimately fair, and an interesting take, once he'd gotten over the initial hurt of being used in a not entirely positive light. "I didn't know that was Clarke's mother."

"Yeah, I figured I'd tell you later. Once I didn't think you were going to call her up and argue with her about how much better you've gotten."

"And now you don't think I will?"

"Honestly, I don't care. I just want to see you guys fight about Friends," he says. "That sounds awesome."

"So, you have no ulterior motives here. Just looking out for my best interests."

"Obviously."

"If she's Clarke's mother, I assume she's local? Or will I be fighting her on a podcast?"

"We were thinking Starbucks on Saturday. Caffeine and lots of witnesses."

Marcus finally lets himself open up Twitter, now that he's had enough coffee. He almost always has some notifications when he looks; he's a public figure with a passionate fanbase, he's used to people trying to talk to him on Twitter. That's why he has a Twitter in the first place. But the number of notifications has never been so high, not in his memory. And, as Bellamy said, it really is a lot of passionate Friends discourse, both for and against his opinions. It's an overwhelming amount of love, hate, and passion. Like discovering an entirely new world.

He thought he understood fandom, but apparently he has a long way to go.

"Starbucks would be fine," he tells Bellamy, a little faintly. "I'd enjoy that."

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus A lot of new followers today. Here are a few notes for you:

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus I am a published science fiction author. Those of you telling me to just write a book instead of many tweets, I have written many books.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus You can find the link to purchase them in my header.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus I have never claimed to be an expert on Friends. This was my first time watching, and these are my impressions based on one viewing.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus My opinion on the Friends canon does not invalidate yours. Yours is as valid as it ever was. But if you feel threatened, examine that.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus My ideas may have merit you're reluctant to fully accept because of your own perceptions of how things should be in relationships.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus If you followed me for more Friends content, please be aware this is an outlier. I usually talk about science fiction.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus On that note, would anyone like to discuss the Hugo Awards?

Masper @gogglesdonothing Replying to @kanemarcus ross/rachel is forever tho

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus and @gogglesdonothing I'll take that as a no.

Jonty @themediumgreen Replying to @kanemarcus and @gogglesdonothing I'm so sorry Mr. Kane just ignore him I want to talk about the Hugos tell me all your favorite winners do you like Chuck Tingle

Jonty @themediumgreen Replying to @gogglesdonothing I CAN'T TAKE YOU ANYWHERE

Marcus will admit he does not feel broadly prepared to seriously enter the Friends discourse. He is, after all, a neophyte. If there are scholarly works on Friends, he has not read them. If there's any academic discussion of these issues, he is not familiar with it. His knowledge is vague and still forming, but for some people, this show was a huge part of their development. It matters to them on a deep, personal level.

For him, it was a decent use of his time while he was sick and confined to his couch. He had a fever for most of the first season. He's not sure he's prepared to fight anyone about it. Based on his mentions, he has many, many fewer horses in this race than other people. But maybe that's a good thing. Maybe his perspective as an outsider is valuable.

Or maybe he just wants the chance to sit down with Abby Griffin. Because instead of spending the past week either working on his next book or even familiarizing himself with Friends and the criticism surrounding it, he's mostly been researching Abby Griffin herself. He'd done it some after the first article Bellamy sent, curious to see her other work, but he'd been busy with a deadline and hadn't really had much time for that, had barely scratched the surface of this woman.

He doesn't have time for it now either, of course, but it's at least relevant to something in his life. And, as Bellamy and his friends have pointed out, this is at least good publicity. It's not a complete waste of time.

The Abby Griffin stalking might be a waste, but he can't help it. She's interesting. The pop-culture writing is, apparently, a side job, something she never intended to get seriously involved in. The website had been her husband's, and when he passed away, Abby and Clarke had taken over its upkeep, and Abby had started producing content when she had time. Given her full-time job is as the director of internal medicine at the hospital, he's frankly amazed she has as much time for content as she does.

And it's good content. She and Clarke have a weekly column where they discuss a movie they went to see together, and the female characters in science fiction piece was apparently part of a series. Her taste is good and her opinions are interesting, and by the time he's meeting her, he has one big question, and one only.

They get through introductions and are settled in at the table before he finally lets it out. "Honestly, I don't understand how you can like Ross."

She lets out a surprised laugh. "Excuse me?"

"Bellamy said he was looking forward to us fighting over Friends, but I have trouble believing you disagree with my opinion of Ross. I don't know what we'd be fighting about."

She smiles into her mug. He'd known she was beautiful from the picture he found on the hospital website, but it's different to see in person, and more awkward. Bellamy and Clarke are hanging out at their own table, pretending not to eavesdrop; it's not an ideal time to be caught staring. "I don't know what he told you, but I didn't disagree. It was an impressive rant. Well reasoned and accurate. I was more interested in discussing why you posted it and the reactions you got. I saw it wasn't popular among some of your readers."

"To say the least."

"One of the things I've been curious about since getting involved in online fandom is what counts as acceptable ways to interact, especially for those of us over thirty or so. I saw a lot of people asking why a heterosexual man in his late forties would care this much about Friends at all. As if that was the problem."

"Judging from the angry responses, plenty of heterosexual men are very invested in Friends. Although I'm not sure how old they are," he grants.

"Age is the biggest issue, in my experience. You'd been participating in an acceptable way, as a creator, but once you show yourself to be invested in Friends shipping--"

"I stepped into the wrong part of fandom."

"That's my thesis, yes."

He considers. "Am I on the record?"

"I'm not a reporter, Marcus," she says, sounding amused. "I'm not trying to trick you into saying something I can use against you. But if you'd like to officially be off the record, we can say that you are."

"My hope with that post was that it would make some of my readers rethink their attitudes towards women and romance. The number of responses I got to Valena's story in Bright Sky Morning that boiled down to her being wrong for not returning Pavel's feelings even though he'd been so devoted to her was--staggering. And depressing."

"Did your female readers appreciate it?"

"They did. Apparently Jin was a much more appealing partner."

Abby smiles. "I certainly thought so."

It's not his first time meeting a fan, of course, and she might not even be a fan, in the sense they're talking about. But she's read his work and has opinions on it, and that's always a little bit flattering. Especially when they align with his. "I'm glad. I was hoping he would be." He clears his throat. "So, you'd like to talk to me as a forty-eight-year-old man who publicly had opinions on shipping."

"And to get your thoughts on Monica and Chandler," she says, all innocence. "If you don't mind."

He can't help smiling himself. "Not at all. I'm all yours."

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Expanded my horizons this weekend with the High School Musical trilogy. A curious cultural phenomenon.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus I appreciated that Troy and Gabriela didn't go to the same college, but still stayed in the same general area.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus I still don't think the couple has much of a future, but in an unrealistic movie, I appreciated that nod to practicality.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus Very disappointed about the last-minute attempt to cement Ryan's heterosexuality. Let children have LGBT role models.

Murphy @firstnameredacted Replying to @kanemarcus If you're seriously going to be talking about Disney movies from now on I'm unfollowing you, I don't give a shit about this

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus and @firstnameredacted Please do.

"Look," says Bellamy, two months after the first Friends rant, "I'm not going to pretend I'm good with crushes, but it would be a lot easier to just ask Abby if she wants to get dinner off the record instead of coming up with new weird shit to have opinions about on Twitter every week."

"I assume the timing of this isn't a coincidence," Marcus says. He was just getting his coat on to go meet her.

"You've already got a standing coffee date. Turn it into a real date. I'm begging you."

"You don't enjoy my opinions on the High School Musical series?"

"I actually do, I'm just getting tired of blocking people. Also, I don't know if you're aware, but dating is awesome. You should try it."

"I appreciate your concern. You don't think it would be weird for you if your boss was dating your girlfriend's mother?"

"No weirder than whatever's actually happening right now. And don't even try to tell me you're not asking her out because you're worried about how it would affect me."

It does sound absurd, when he puts it like that. "No. That wasn't a major factor."

Bellamy rolls his eyes. "Just ask if she wants to come check out the Descendants franchise with you next weekend. Definitely a solid pickup line. Chicks dig it."

"The what?"

"It's like the spiritual successor to High School Musical. I'll send you a link. You should know this stuff if you're really going in on this."

"I should give you a raise."

"That too. Say hi to Abby for me."

It's not entirely accurate to say that he thinks about what Bellamy said as he walks over to his weekly meeting with Abby. Every time he walks to her favorite coffee shop near the hospital, he's thinking these same kinds of thoughts, so it's not really Bellamy's fault. He enjoys Abby's company company and would be happy to see more of her. He already knew that. But it's been a long time since he navigated anything like this.

If only Friends had prepared him for this kind of romance.

"Marcus," says Abby, giving him a smile when he sits down across from her. As usual, she's surrounded by papers, and he sometimes doubts that she'd even have time for a relationship. She does keep herself busy. "I enjoyed your meditations on High School Musical."

"I'm glad to hear it. Bellamy says it gave me a net loss of followers, but not as much of one as he thinks I deserved."

"I'm not surprised." She considers him. "I didn't mean for our friendship to hurt your career."

"I don't think it is. Plenty of people just read my books and never even find out I'm on Twitter. It's not a large percentage of sales. You're blaming yourself for the High School Musical tweets?" he adds, curious. They are her fault, broadly speaking, but he wasn't sure she knew.

"If you don't keep coming up with hot takes, we don't have much to talk about."

He laughs. "I hope we'd come up with something."

"I hope so too."

The conversation lags, but it's not a bad lag. It feels like she's given him an opening, and it's his job to figure out how to take advantage of it.

The easiest way would be to simply propose a dinner date, as Bellamy suggested. But he's never been good at simple.

"You know, you never told me your favorite relationship on Friends."

"I didn't?"

"No, we usually talk about my opinions."

She levels her gaze at him, considering. "Do you know what I think when I watch Friends now?"

"No."

"They're all so young. And don't get me wrong, I met my husband when we were young, and the two of us were happy, but--sometimes it worries me how much emphasis we put on meeting people early in life. The younger you are, the more romantic it is. And that's one kind of romance, but it's not everything. It makes me want to shake all these kids and tell them that life doesn't end at thirty, or forty, or fifty. You'll keep on meeting new people, and you can still be happy."

He lets himself reach for her hand, and relief floods him when she lets him take it, even turns it over so she can squeeze his fingers. "So your favorite relationship on Friends is the one Rachel has when she's forty-five and Ross is dead?" he teases.

"I hope you're not comparing my husband to Ross."

He has to laugh. "No. I would never."

Abby's smile is warm, and it's suddenly so easy to not be nervous at all. "Good. Because the rest of that was right."

"Good," he agrees. "I was hoping you'd say that."

Sky Crew Reviews @kaneandgriffin New list from @kanemarcus: top 10 YA sci-fi books for adults! Up next, top 10 adult sci-fi books for teens. Age is nothing but a number.

Murphy @firstnameredacted Replying to @kaneandgriffin I will pay you to stop

Bellamy @bradburybell Replying to @kaneandgriffin and @firstnameredacted when are you actually going to unfollow like you keep saying you will? asking for a friend

Murphy @firstnameredacted Replying to @kaneandgriffin, @firstnameredacted, and @bradburybell I keep hoping I'm going to come back and he'll be normal again

SJW Cuck @kanemarcus Replying to @kaneandgriffin, @firstnameredacted, and @bradburybell Don't hold your breath.

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miragablog · 7 years

Text

Madoka Magica isn't a deconstruction

As a subject, Mahou Shoujo is, in my opinion one of the most misunderstood and yet widely adopted genres in anime.

Being a regular fan, you can know about its presence like that of Super Robot and Battle Shounen- and yet have no insight into its role as one of the eldest genres on the scene.

Many viewers simply don't find interest in watching a feminine, almost voyeuristic take on dramatized child adolescence, which is totally fine. (Doesn't make you any less of a fan of the genre either if you’re of the male persuasion and aren't there for those themes. All power to you!)

However, when it comes to analyzing such genre steeped shows, like that of Sailor Moon or Little Witch Academia- those without the wide understanding for which their structures are based can make unfair or miscalculated conclusions of what those stories communicate.

This is the exact quandary that Madoka Magica poses for such analysis and why I don't consider it a deconstruction of the Magical Girl genre.

Mahou Shoujo, or Magical Girl is a term assumedly coined by that of Mitsuteru Yokoyama and Fujio Akatsu-ka, creators of Mahoutsukai Sally and Himitsu no Akko-chan; firsts of the genre, bench marking its creation in the early 60’s.

(I say “assumedly” as I can't find anything divulging the cut and dry fact. Hit me up if you have the actual source with citation.)

The genre has many subsets, but for the sake of your time we’re going to focus on the most popular and prolific of the Magical Girl Sub-genres, Magical warrior. There are some key components that make a show “magical warrior”.

1.) Have the protagonist or other female characters gain/have the ability to transform into an alternate, enhanced version of themselves.

2.)The presence of a magical companion, whether that be a animal or object that accompanies the protagonist in her magical endeavors.

3.)Items that assist in either the transformation process or battle for the protagonist

4.)An adversarial force threatening the lives of the protagonist, their friends, society and or existence itself

Its is of note that while a transformation is a must for this sub genre, the other factors can be all present or sparsely.

In Cardcaptor Sakura for instance the main character, Sakura Kinomoto doesn't traditionally transform but rather changes her clothes. However she still uses a magical item, is accompanied by Kero and works towards a goal that threatens the lives of those around her or her way of life.

(Arguably Sakura's “transformation” is just that because she transforms her mindset when changing outfits to better suit her magical endeavors.)

Along with those structural linchpins, Magical Warrior-centric shows are known for their glamorous, long-winded transformation sequences, teenage leads, handsome love interests, revealing outfits and normalized use of cute, bright and feminine iconography.

On the subject of how Madoka supposedly “deconstructs” these shoujo conventions common to the genre, with its “dark” tone and DEATH and despair- it simply doesn't work because modifying elements of a genre and subverting audience expectations doesn't mean your critically taking apart the framework.

But you must be asking by now “well Mirage, if twisting elements of a genre isn't Deconstruction then what is?”

Jacques Derrida was an accomplished french philosopher of the early 20th century. You can see his fingerprints all over, influencing how we study subjects embroiled in the arts and social sciences. He found that the meaning many authors and scholars claimed to see in stories were inherently arbitrary or transient.

Generally speaking, Derrida’s theory of deconstruction, (or post structuralism) deals with the mental form of which meaning takes- form. Although we perceive meaning in a text such as, let's say Evangelion or Welcome to the NHK- such meaning isn't structurally sound. A lot of deconstructive analysis focuses on the words and language we use in describing- communicating those thoughts and how they are, in their own form- failures.

Tim Nance has a fantastic video on explaining in laymen’s terms what the act of deconstruction is, I highly suggest you pop over and listen to his video. For now I will simply relay that of his points on the process of which someone deconstructs a text.

Find meaning

Identify tensions

Identify the ways that those tensions seem to be unified by meaning

Deconstructing the tension

Then unity falls apart

Then the meaning doesn't mean anything anymore.

So a Hypothetical; Hameru is chasing Kyuubei down a corridor.

Cornering the demon rat creature, she pulls a gun from her shield.

Before Homura can muster the greatest of head tilts, Kyubey yells “Homura, no matter what you do magical girls and their wishes cannot exist without the creation of witches and their curses!”

However Hameru being the dimension-skipping cynic we all know and love doubts this, arguing that “you can't know the intent of which causality occurs, Incubator. You may think that being a magical girl ultimately means being a witch but you can't know that for sure because hope is not guaranteed to falter to despair.”

Kyubei asserts to Homura that its is impossible for witches and Magical Girls to not exist together through the Cycle of Entropy, forwarding their meaning in the knowledge perceived. Homura then identifies the tensions of such a statement, and their unity.

She understands that Kyubei believes the two to be omnipresent however questions if it's necessarily true, stating that hope doesn't necessarily need despair.

By deconstructing the tension, the structure of Kyubey’s statement falls apart and loses its meaning.

When I refer to Madoka as not being a deconstruction, its as a genre deconstruction. Instead of words, we cut down to a set of trappings and conventions that cement the subject and go about playing those elements as they would in the real world, then commenting on the genre as a whole.

While undoubtedly Madoka uses the ingredients of Mahou Shoujo, it doesn't necessarily comment on the way in which those trappings are when deconstructed. Rather it simply changes the shades of pink and white to purples and blacks.

It points out that the form the genre is known for is problematic and pushes the shape of events to a far darker place. But it doesn't take that point any further than that, focusing rather on its themes of selfishness vs selflessness.

In the case of deconstructing the genre what conversation does that start?

If it was as deconstructive as people claim, Madoka would’ve elaborated more on, lets say its themes of utilitarianism through Kyubei or Feminism regarding the witches as a whole.

Madoka has a female cast, a mascot character, transformation items and weapons, a cosmic big bad and trucks full of cute, fairytale imagery paired with its stark depictions of despair and death. It's not an outlier for its themes but rather the boundaries it's willing to push.

I think this issue is less of a problem with the show and more its fanbase. Madoka isn't deconstructive, its subversive, turning the expectations of common viewers upside down. (Again, note i’m saying subversive and not subversion.)

When ads started popping up on social media in 2011, not many people were expecting anything other than that of the “standard fair”. They were fairly innocuous, toting typical character slates and a new ClaRis song. Nobody seemed to care all that much outside of magical girl trash like myself. Then when fans of the genre saw the cool direction the show was heading as it aired, they shared it with others. Eventually a swath of anime fans Came to sing Madoka’s praises.

But as the internet is, when communities started coming together to dissect the show somebody threw the word deconstruction into the mix and now we’re here.

One thing people bring up in defense of the deconstruction argument is that Madoka features a collection of irrevocable character deaths, not recouped by the power of friendship. And while this is technically true I don't understand what makes this qualify as deconstructive. Many of the deaths in Madoka end up just as friendship fueled, and arguably less meaningful in context of the multiple universe dilemma.

For better or worse you get it; But still may be asking- what's the problem with Madoka being considered a deconstruction in the first place?

This is a rather daunting question because while it seems to be a non-issue, it affects not only the way we perceive deconstructions but that of the shows titled as such.

I want more people to get into Magical Girl-centric anime but those who label Madoka as superior to that of its predecessors stop potential fans from being created.

Believe it or not Mahou Shoujo is a much more flexible genre than it looks, capable of tackling difficult themes like that of abuse, love, identity and growing up.

Saying Madoka is contrary to the genre as a whole rather than being a darker take greatly limits what Magical girl as a concept is able to be. It harmfully obscures the shows that have celebrated and deconstructed the genre while simultaneously denouncing the messages they convey as “frivolous girly redundancy”. And that's the last thing Mahou Shoujo is.

youtube

#Madoka #Miragephan #puella magi madoka magica #mahou shoujo #analysis #anime #magical girl #deconstruction #Jacques Derrida

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idolizerp · 5 years

Photo

LOADING INFORMATION ON POIZN’S LEAD RAP, MAIN DANCE OH TAEHO...

IDOL DETAILS

STAGENAME: N/A CURRENT AGE: 27 DEBUT AGE: 18 TRAINEE SINCE AGE: 13 COMPANY: 99 ent. ETC: this member is a rap/performance soloist

IDOL IMAGE

At first, it’s easy to promote Taeho mostly because he does all the job himself. When POIZN debuted Taeho was 18 and hungry for fame. He’s known as the sarcastic one, the one who’s always taking a jab on all the members while on screen (always followed by laughter, a hug that’s a little too quick, a little too rough, but people are quick to say that’s just the way he is). He’s known as the 4D one, always doing weird things while on TV, always going a little too far on interviews. But at first that was funny, refreshing.99 entertainment was known for being the outlier, the one company that allowed that sort of thing. And POIZN was supposed to be like that. They were supposed to be hard-hitting, to portray the wild and young sort of image and Taeho fit the whole concept well. And maybe too well. Quick-witted and provocative, he did well in variety shows in the beginning of their career.

But the years passed by and things were changing, little by little. What once had been Taeho’s forte became his downfall as his career went on, and scandals started finding him as if he was made for them. The first time he said something insensitive in a variety show, got some backlash. Then he got flack for being too explicit in the lyrics he made for a “free-style” rap he was supposed to play with in another show. Then some pictures of him drinking underage leaked, rumors about him in high school, all of them true, of course. None of those had a huge impact, until something bigger exploded. It was a stupid move, really. Some pictures of him in the VIP session of a club emerged, a joint in his mouth. 99 tried to twist the narrative in their favor, bought journalists here and there and in the end the narrative was ridiculous: he didn’t know what it was, thought it was a real cigarette. Taeho vowed to reflect and was pulled from any solo activity he had back then. And that was he became a dangerous choice for bookings, shifted his image from the illusion of a bad boy to a real bad one. And people don’t want real bad boys, they want to be lied to. And Taeho wasn’t lying, never. Instagram posts got him into trouble, snippets of his real self that he wasn’t smart enough to cover up. Soon enough his fanbase was divided: between the people who believed him it didn’t matter what, and the ones who would use who he was as leverage.

And it’s funny that people started hating him for those small things because it’s almost just a tiny fragment of what he is like in real life. It’s not that the parts that they love aren’t true - Taeho is, indeed, a very extroverted man, funny, captivating in a first meeting. He enjoys seducing, being loved. He basks in the attention and he can be quite pleasant when in a good mood. He’s the sort of person people are drawn to but once they’re too close they get burned. Because he’s not pleasant, then. He’s egocentric, focused on himself and on his own pleasure. He’s obsessive, prone to obsessions, prone to doing shit without thinking, without caring if it’ll hurt other people. And it’s not that Taeho is manipulative, it’s not that he fakes the brighter, larger side of him. This mess, it’s all him. The laughter, the insanity, the intensity, the anger, the fickleness, the ambition, the narcissism, it’s all him.

As of now, in this very moment of his career, Taeho is still trying to find ways of breaking free. His solo did well enough last year and his image is on the rise again after his scandal, something that he didn’t see coming. And that scares him, almost. Taeho is not used to it, almost forgotten how it felt like. But he holds on to it, tries for something new, the image of a man who regrets what he did, renewed, reborn. All he has to do is to pretend it well.

IDOL HISTORY

He’s six year old and he wants something.

“I want that,” the six year old says, pointing to the expensive robot on the shelf. He doesn’t even notice the stern look his mother sends to his father because he’s focused on the robot. The little lights turning on and off on his chest, and all those buttons. He’s so focused that he doesn’t even notice his father scratching the back of his neck on that old habit of hisz doesn’t even notice him looking back at his mother while she silently pleaded at him. He also didn’t see him shaking his head sadly.

“Sweetheart,” his mother starts, kneeling by his side, “I don’t think we can buy that one.”

“Why?” he asks, his bottom lip already starting to tremble. He’s just five year old but this seems like such a common place already. He’s been here, and his mother already been there, kneeling by his side. “But I want it.”

“I know, babe,” she says, looking around. Then she lowers her tone. “But we can’t afford it. I’m sorry.”

Taeho looks down to his shoes, feels tears coming to his eyes. His father squats by his side too.

“Son, listen. We’ll get you one of those one day, okay? But right now we can’t.”

“But I want it,” he tries again, not understanding why he can’t have one. All the kids do, right? Why they can have it but he can’t? “That’s not fair.”

“Yeah, you got that right,” he says and his tone is grave, “life isn’t fair.”

“Honey…”

“Come on, kid, let’s go. You can get one.of those little cars, what do you say?”

Taeho stares at the toys his father is pointing to. They don’t have buttons. They don’t have flashing lights. They are not a robot that he can show all the kids and play with them. But his mother is staring at him, and his father is waiting and he just nods, still crying but now in silence. Quietly.

He never plays with that car.

He’s thirteen years old and he’s anxious.

“What do you think?” He asks after finishing, and his older sister leans against the wall, thoughtful.

Taeho waits. He had just finished showing her his first ever self-composed rap, just something he’s been working on over summer break. True, he should be studying and working up his grades but who needs that when they have raw talent, right? He’s not like the rest of the kids in his school. He’s not like them at all. Taeho is only thirteen but he knows he’s so much more.

“Hmmm,” Jinhee says and Taeho straightens his back, almost ruining the piece of paper he’s holding. Most of the time he doesn’t care much for the opinions of others. He doesn’t give a shit. But Jinhee is different. She’s the one who made him like music, who showed him songs, who introduced him to American hip-hop. She’s the one who took him to music classes, she’s the one who takes him there every day. She’s paying for everything with some part-time job, he doesn’t even know. He only cares for her opinion, nothing else.

“It’s good,” she says, finally, and Taeho smiles wide, bright and full of shit. She raises an eyebrow. “For a thirteen year old, I mean.”

“Shut up!” He shouts and she laughs. “I’m much better than any of your stupid idols!”

“Oh Taeho!” She shouts back and quickly enough Taeho is running out of her room, his mother screaming for them to stop.

It’s good, she said. It’s good.

He already knew it, though.

He’s fourteen and he’s keeping a secret.

She’s the one waiting for him outside his room when he got the call.

It’s been a long year. For whatever reason Jinhee actually succeeded in making him think becoming an idol would be a good thing. “Look at him”, she had told him while pointing at some pretty guy rapping on TV, “He used to be an idol, you know.”

It seemed easier, that’s true. In a company he’d be able to get rapping classes for free. He would need to learn how to sing, dance and all that stupid shit but he could do it, he knew it. So he went and auditioned to a bunch of companies, spent the whole year training, dancing to stupid choreography, looking like an idiot while doing so. But it was an easy path to stardom, it would give him fame and money to invest in a solo career. Taeho wanted an easy path. So he trained, and auditioned, and trained. It felt like a eternity.

“I’m in,” the smile that comes to his face is cocky and the sort that usually would make Jinhee be pissed at him, but she smiles wide and bright, shouts, hugs him. Taeho is not all that surprised, if he is completely honest.

He knew he could do it.

He’s seventeen years old and trainee life in 99 Entertainment is not like he thought it’d be.

And it’s not about it being hard. Taeho knew it would be hard, he wasn’t clueless when he joined back when he was fourteen. He wasn’t naive. He knew what he was getting himself into and he had prepared himself the most he could.

But still, after three years, it’s not like he thought it’d be. There’s something missing, something lacking, something that makes him hollow and numb.

And what’s so different is Taeho himself. Because when he joined he thought he’d charm his way through the company with his easy smile and charming personality. He thought he’d awe everyone with his rapping abilities at such a young age, just like he did in his audition. He thought he would reign absolute, the best in all categories. And that’s not what happens at all.

He’s always lacking, lacking in skill, always second best. He’s dancing is not all that good, his expressions are too much, his personality needs to be toned down. Even his rapping is criticized, analyzed, put under a microscope and torn to every piece. You need to enunciate more, your flow isn’t good, your style is too western.

“Maybe you’re not meant to idol life,” a trainer once told him, “And it’s okay, you know. Being an idol is not for everyone.”

Nothing, nothing is ever good enough.

And like every reckless seventeen-year-old Taeho starts acting out.

He starts smoking. He starts drinking. He goes out after practice to do stupid shit. The competition gets to him and he starts bullying the other trainees, using them, using his own place in the hierarchy to his own means. Trainee life in the dungeons of 99 entertainment shapes him in this horrible way and he doesn’t even notice. He charms his way through the company, all easy smiles, alluring, engaging. He gains his share of popularity, makes a name for himself as he gets better and better, sharper and sharper, harder and harder. It’s not what he wanted but he feels like he’s a weapon, getting sharper and sharper, ready to cut. To hurt. To kill.

He’s eighteen years old and he finally makes his debut as the lead rapper and main dancer of the group POIZN.

A dancer, hah. Who would’ve thought? And Taeho had chuckled when people told him that hard work paid off, but guess it did. He’s not all that excited about it, though.

He knew he could do it.

“How is it like?” His sister asks on the phone right after his first music show recording and Taeho pauses, looks through the window of their packed van. There’s a number of things that run through his mind: that the dressing room smells like foot all the fucking time, that he’s fucking pissed he got so little screen time, that all those flashing lights fit him just fine.

And that it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough. Just a little taste and he was already starving.

But what he says is, “It’s easy,” and his sister chuckles, “Not that big of a deal.”

There was a second of silence. “Jesus, I knew you’d say that.”

He’s twenty-three years old and he’s amused.

“Dear God,” his manager is saying, running fingers through her hair, “Jesus, Taeho, one day you’ll have to pay for all the meds I have to take because of you. My ulcer-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, you can name it after me,” he jokes, smiles at her. She’s overreacting as usual but Taeho won’t say that out loud because she’ll flip even more. The POIZN manager is a tiny frail thing but she hits like a wrestler. “It’s nothing.”

“They have pictures, Taeho.”

“It’ll pass…”

“You’re drinking!”

“I was eighteen!”

“That’s underage!”

“Not in every country-”

“WE’RE IN KOREA! YOU WERE UNDERAGE IN KOREA.”

He pauses, takes off his sunglasses. The two of them are in 99 Entertainment cafeteria, the place she chose for their “emergency” meeting. As if he didn’t know what it was about as soon as he got her text, everyone was talking about his pictures that leaked on Pann - pictures of him drinking and smoking while at a party with friends, all from his trainee days. If Taeho it honest he was actually relieved when he saw the pictures, from the tone of her text he thought it could’ve been way worse. And it could’ve been way worse. He has done much, much worse.

But it’s not his first time on a scandal and he’s sure it won’t be the last. Five years in the industry were enough for him to have his share of missteps. Nothing too big, though. Nothing too awful. Thankfully 99 is always all over the place covering all of his shit, cleaning his mess. Which is sort of fun to watch, truth be told. And honestly, he thinks he deserves praise, because a man like Taeho having just some scandals here and there was already a victory when you lead the sort of life that he does.

Because fame charged its price, and Taeho paid it well. And to deal with it he resorted to all kinds of shit. He cheated, drank, smoked, did everything he could do and all that he couldn’t, and he didn’t care much. 99 would be there to do what has to be done if he ever was caught. Fame took the horrible things that were already inside that child asking for a robot toy and shaped him into the person he’s now. Fame took the competition from trainee days, the ruthlessness, the ego and made him how he is now - crooked, perverse, self-absorbed. Because that’s how he learned to be, how he has to be to survive. Or maybe he was always like that. Who knows, now? And it’s not like he cares.

Taeho loves himself just fine.

“It’s going to pass. In our next comeback, if they ever give us one by the way, they won’t even remember it. Just like last time when you were having a fit because of something I said. I don’t even remember what it was,” he says, taking a sip of his drink, and the look she sends him is deadly.

“Last time you told me there wouldn’t be a next time and now here we are,” she buries her face on her hands, exasperated. Taeho chuckles. Cute. “God, you’re a terrible person. You know that? Doing that to my poor heart!”

“Oh, come on,” he pouts jokingly, “Don’t be like that. Seriously. Get me some spot on a variety and I’ll cry a little and it’s over. It’s not like I was caught dating someone-”

She glares at him. “And that’s because I’m damn good at my fucking job! Also, you broke up with that girl, didn’t you?”

He nods. “Sure, sure.”

“Taeho!”

“I did!”

“I hate you. I hate you so much,” she closes her eyes, drinks her milkshake in one go. Taeho smiles in a cocky way.

“No, you don’t.”

He’s twenty-seven and he’d had it.

“You said a mini album,” he’s saying as he follows his boss through the corridor, the old man basically giving him the cold shoulder. “For fuck’s sake, it’s been almost ten years. Is this still because of that damn scandal?”

The man turns around, looks at him. He doesn’t reply to his question. “It’s a single or nothing, Taeho. And you should be thankful.”

Taeho pauses and it takes him a lot not to scream, not to break everything on that damn corridor. It’s been years since his debut. He has danced and rapped to every single one of POIZN’s songs like a good boy. He has taken a step back after the whole scandal, played the nice boy role. He has played his part. Okay, he may have screwed it up once or twice but he deserves this. He’s good at it. He’s fucking good at it. Music has been his life for years now, and the only reason he even joined this fucking group was for a shot, to be able to write one day, to have his own thing. And he has endured. He endured every comeback, he endured living in a fucking dorm with people he can’t stand, he endured the fucking fans and stalkers. But they won’t even give him a chance.

“This isn’t fair,” he grunts. He shouldn’t be talking to chairman like this and he knows it, but there’s very little that Taeho cares about now. They allowed this to happen. Allowed him to grow reckless, destructive. Allowed him to be spoiled, a petty child in a grown man body. And they’re saying no to him. They’re taking the robot toy away from him once he finally fucking got it. “This isn’t fair and you know it!”

“Life isn’t fair, kid,” the chairman says and Taeho shrinks. Him, of all people. Him, who was larger than life. “It’s a single or nothing. You have your choice.”

Taeho can’t believe he ended up with the car toy again.

It’s pathetic, really. He thought now things would be different.

#id.bio #id.99 #id.poizn #id.song mino

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chorusfm · 6 years

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Adam Turla of Murder By Death

Writers, much like normal human beings, have a bucket lists. The difference is, our bucket lists contain people – personalities, creators, and yes, other writers that have inspired, comforted, and confounded us with their talents. Many of these them will likely remain names on our lists until the day we type our last words, but occasionally, we’re lucky enough to spend a little time with the artists who have influenced us most. Murder By Death, the Indiana-based kings and queen of gothic folk-rock, have been on my bucket list since I first discovered their catalog a decade ago. I was 14 then, a freshman in high school stealing his older brother’s CDs based on album artwork alone, and the idea of an album telling stories about devils and deserts was already inconceivably cool to me; the fact that this same album featured guest vocals from both Gerard Way and Geoff Rickly only cemented its importance in my mind. Now, nearly 20 years into their career, Murder By Death exist in the kind of vacuum that contains a dedicated fanbase and a fearlessness to tell any tale they can conjur. It was then my great pleasure to speak with frontman Adam Turla about his penchant for Western-influenced storytelling, the band’s songwriting process, and of course, Murder By Death’s eighth, glam-rock inspired space opera (of sorts), The Other Shore. Did you start writing The Other Shore knowing you wanted to follow 2015’s Big Dark Love with a concept album? No, definitely not. It starts with me kind of collecting over the touring cycle of the album before, just taking notes for songs, ideas I have that I’m not necessarily sure what I’m going to do or how I’m going to approach them, and we just end up sort of trying them out. I wait to see what happens, what directions they’re going to go in, and then, if there seems to be a common thread, you start pulling on it and follow it. In this case, we found that there definitely was a thread. I had presented a bunch of songs to the band, and we had been rehearsing them, and I told them, “Oh, I’m kind of thinking about this as a theme, it might be a concept record, it might be a longform narrative,” and they were like, “Yes, yes, yes…” [Laughs] They liked the idea, and they liked the songs that pushed in that direction, so ultimately, it just went that way. It was a happy accident because I think if you try to force something — like a concept record — it’s gonna stink. [Laughs] And you’re no stranger to concept records, but this one varies slightly from the gothic storytelling of the band’s early catalog. Were there certain things that inspired the space-centric themes of the new album? Yeah, I think that we all have an interest in science fiction, and we’ve always had a bit of a spacey element to some of our songs, but we’ve never really played it up fully. So when you’re writing your eighth full-length album, as a creative person, you’re always trying to find new ways to express what your style is. We started to put these ideas together, and I’ve always had a huge love for David Bowie and 70s glam, so I was trying to say, how can we use elements of that through our Murder By Death filter and make it feel natural, and these songs are the result. And basically, the reason I think it works is that we overwrote. We wrote way more songs than necessary. [Laughs] And then there were ones where we’d say, okay, this song’s fine, but we need a song that pops more, we need a song that sounds really spacey, or we could say, that song’s too spacey, or that song’s too glammy. We just kept adjusting until we found the right collection of songs that told the story that we wanted to tell. Something that interests me when I’m listening to the album is that, despite space playing such a large role in it, a lot of the instrumentation is still organic. I think there’s a juxtaposition there that really makes it work. Yeah, there’s a lot of thought that went into that. We’re not trying to reinvent our band in a completely new way and throw the past under the bus, you know? We’re trying to expand on the universe — pun intended — for the opportunity to give a new look to something we’ve been doing for a long time. One of the ways we approached the record, and one of the ways it’s sequenced, is that the album starts on Earth, so the first four tracks are way more rootsy, and they start to introduce themes of spacey instruments coming in as a metaphor. And then, as it goes on and on, the record tends to use more keyboards, there’s more open, longer instrumental parts to simulate the idea of a journey, and the ‘being alone’ quality of the narrative. And so we were each talking about, like, what does this song mean, what’s happening in the story, what is this person feeling as the narrator, what are they trying to accomplish. Honestly, we do that partially so it has continuity, and is good, but also, it’s fun. It’s a fun way to write. Do you feel your storytelling has been a reflection of the kind of film and literature you enjoy? Yeah, I think so to some extent. I think part of it was just that, when we started the band, I hadn’t really thought of myself as a songwriter yet. We were so young when we started the band that I just wasn’t sure what my role was, who I was, what I was good at, so I learned how to write along the way. And I think what happened was that I just knew I didn’t want to write pop songs. I just don’t care about pop music, I don’t care about “the hook.” That music just…when you approach it from that angle, it just feels so unimportant, and it feels like you’re trying to write something just so it will get popular. So for me, it was like, how do I write something that makes me happy, and in a lot of ways, it was the idea of writing a longform story where each piece matters, or the idea that a song is a vignette, and it’s a fable, where hopefully there’s a lesson, or maybe there’s growth in the song. So the important part for me is, maybe this song can help someone by presenting a difficult circumstance and giving it some hope. Do you happen to remember the first song you wrote for The Other Shore and whether it set a tone for the songs to come? That’s a great question! So the thing is, I had been writing a bunch over the span of two years, and I just started taking notes on my phone where I’d have a vocal melody, and I’d have maybe a couple words, but not a lot. But I do know that for the song “New Old City,” I had a couple of lyrics, and I had the basic melody for the keyboards inside of my head. And at the same time, I had the song “I Have Arrived,” and that was the song that blew it wide open because the whole story was kind of told in that song. That song is definitely the pivotal point where…it’s the most narrative. The other ones are a little more subtle in their delivery of arc, and “I Have Arrived” is just like a punch in the face. [Laughs] It’s definitely an outlier. It’s the most upbeat song on the album. Oh yeah. My goal was to write something manically happy. One of my favorite things The Cure does is that they write those songs that are dark, but that are so freaking happy that you’re worried about the singer. [Laughs] So I was going through that. There’s a little glam rock there, and I’ve always loved The Velvet Goldmine soundtrack, so I was thinking about those two things when I was working on that one. I love the delivery of the story through this glossy-eyed narrator. Earlier, you mentioned presenting songs to the band. Is that how the writing process usually goes? How collaborative is it? I would say it’s collaborative, but I definitely present [songs]. I have, like, printed out chord sheets, but the thing is that anything can change. I have a pretty big start where I write a song and play it for them, but then sometimes we’ll cut huge sections, or we’ll replace sections, or we’ll change the time signature, you know what I mean? It can change a lot when you try to fill it out with the band. So it’s important to note that I can have something and play it for them, and the first time I actually hear it out loud, it’s like, “Well this isn’t right,” and we’ll completely modify it. You’ve been using Kickstarter to crowdfund your records since Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon. What is it about the platform that works for you and how do you feel it has affected the band’s dynamic with fans? Honestly, it’s fun and it works. That’s why we keep doing it. There’s something exciting for both us and the fans to watch it grow and give it a little transparency. It’s a little crazy because it’s very out of context. When you see those huge numbers, there’s no way that any person looking at that number understands what goes into fulfilling [rewards], so it’s a little skewed, but that being said, we don’t really get negativity from people. The fans just seem happy that we are still doing this, and that they can be a part of it, and that they can contribute to the art. I like it because…you have to sell records, once the record’s out, one way or another. And that’s what records are, they’re a way of funding an act so you can move forward. But I think the positive is that this makes it a little more interesting. There are options that are a little outside the typical fulfillment realm, and I think that’s what makes it a little more exciting than just saying, “Okay, it’s on sale now.” I see Kickstarter campaigns for musical ventures all the time, and it really seems like you have a lot of fun getting creative with those rewards. I think that shines through and allows fans to really feel like they’re bringing the album to life. Yeah. And by the way, we’re actually filling orders as we speak. You can hear the tape guns in the background. Our house is just a fortress of boxes. [Laughs] Some bands have a tough time revisiting their early work, even if it has a cult following. How do you feel about the band’s first few recordings, and do you ever revisit them? Well I don’t listen to any of our records because, you know, we play them. [Laughs] But…I’m actually really proud of everything we’ve done. I don’t really think we have a record that is a stinker, because honestly, I think we’ve just always tried hard. And some work better than others, but we never just phoned it in, and we never just tried to write singles. I think the records that end up being bad records are usually when a band tries to go for it, so to speak, and like, get that record that will take them to the next level. And then, they thought they wrote singles, but it just turns out they wrote boring songs. [Laughs] We’ve never tried to do that. Instead, we would always just be like, “What’s interesting to us? I hope it’s interesting for other people!” And that’s worked for us. In that case, having released eight studio albums, is there a period of the band that is your favorite? Or an album was most fun to write, record, or tour on? Hard to say because they’re such different points in my life. I mean, we were just talking today about when we first started this band and how we toured in the beginning. And it was just comical. I mean, we were in a mini van with a cello between our legs, resting between the two front seats. [Laughs] It’s ridiculous. It was not a comfortable thing. It was outrageous, but we just didn’t care because we were young and we were on the road and it was fun. Like, it was a totally different time than it is now, but the nice thing about doing something like this is that you do have a lot of different experiences. I’ve had a great time playing a basement with 50 people in it, and I’ve had a great time playing Red Rocks to 9,000. I like them all because they’re different. There are no salad days; they’re all salad days. Something that’s always fascinated me as someone who plays music and writes about music is the relationship between artists and journalists. Do you care about reviews of your own work? Do you ever seek them out, or are they something you avoid? I usually read the first couple, just to make sure that somebody said the right thing. [Laughs] [To make sure] somebody understood it or listened to it for real, but as long as a couple people put the time in to not just search for a single or a summer jam…we’re hoping someone actually listens to it the way you should listen to something. We have a funny critical response in that, we’ve never been, like, critical darlings, but we don’t really get panned either…we just have fine reviews. It’s kind of funny because it’s what I expect. A great compliment we get all the time is that nobody sounds like us. We’re a unique band and we just do our own thing. And I like that. Some reviewers, we’re their favorite band, they just don’t notice us because they’re looking for something else. And we don’t expect more. We don’t need more. Do you have a favorite song from The Other Shore? That’s tough. I really like this record. This is kind of a favorite from the band’s perspective, everyone’s really excited about this one – I love the song “Only Time.” I really like how it came out. I like it because when I first wrote it, I was trying to write it to be almost like a Bowie song, and then we totally changed the way that we presented it. And I basically dropped the vocals down an octave, and we just said, “What if it never gets big? What if it’s just slow and sort of a slow burn?” And we thought it had sort of a…Leonard Cohen vibe. And suddenly it just became this really beautiful little moment on the record. I think that might be my favorite. You’ve played in caves, haunted hotels, and boats. If you could play anywhere else in the world, where would it be? You know, I wanna do more international right now. I think that’s sort of where I’m at right now, that I want to get to the places we’ve never been. We really want to get to South America. I’d like to get to Japan and Australia. We’ve never done those, and so many bands do. I think being sort of…not a genre band, it’s a little harder to promote. [Laughs] We’re sort of just this weird band. Right now, my sights are set on getting out to new places. Like, I have never been to Japan. I would love for the band to take me there. [Laughs] I really like Japanese food. I go for the food. It’s all for the food. Countries are great, but…I’m there to eat. What artists have been catching your ear recently? Saint Seneca. I really like their new record. They’ve been stuck in my ear for a while. Thanks again for taking the time to chat about the new album. I think the second review I ever wrote for AbsolutePunk was for Like The Exorcist, But More Breakdancing, and it’s still one of my favorite albums. Is there anything else you’d like to add? Woah. [Laughs] Thanks a lot, man. I think that’ll do it for me. The Other Shore will be released on August 24th via Bloodshot Records. --- Please consider supporting us so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/interviews/adam-turla-of-murder-by-death/

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flauntpage · 6 years

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Your Monday Morning Roundup

The Flyers held their own… for about five periods… before everything came crashing down in game six.

Let’s start with Friday. With Michal Neuvirth in goal and Sean Couturier back after a one-game absence, the Flyers squeaked past the Penguins 4-2 thanks to a game-winning goal by Coots.

Game 6 was expected to be a treat for fans and it gave them some hope that the Flyers could force a Game 7, even though it was expected the Pens would win.

At first, the Flyers came out strong, as they have in nearly every other playoff game. But this time, they actually scored from their early pressures, thanks in part to Couturier. But Michal Neuvirth couldn’t find his Game 5 form and gave up seven goals on 28 shots as the Penguins took the series with an 8-5 win.

Pittsburgh got themselves two goals in under a minute in the first to take a 2-1 lead before Andrew MacDonald (!) tied the game late in the first. As he did in the opening period, Coots scored early to give the Flyers a 3-2 lead and more momentum on a spectacular goal:

Sean Couturier, likely playing hurt, with a filthy move to give the Flyers the lead pic.twitter.com/pO13Nwcz0S

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) April 22, 2018

Scott Laughton extended the lead to 4-2. For some time, there was the thought that maybe the Flyers would force a Game 7.

But that’s where Jake Guentzel enters the picture. Just over a minute later, he assisted on Patric Hornqvist’s goal to cut the lead to one before scoring the first of four straight goals with 54 seconds left in the second. Pittsburgh took the lead again thanks to Guentzel 30 seconds into the final frame before he scored goals at 12:48 and 12:58 into the third. His hat-trick goal may have killed any chance for a Flyers comeback, especially since the refs missed an obvious trip on Coots by Kris Letang:

Letang trips Couturier, no call, and Guentzel scores. pic.twitter.com/RYodiRG5aT

— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) April 22, 2018

There’s no reason why that shouldn’t have been called. It pretty much signaled the end for this team, even though Coots did get a hat-trick late in the game.

Five of the six games in the series were won by the away team, with Game 1 being the only game won by the home team. Five of the six were blowouts, with Game 5 being the only outlier.

After the game, Couturier revealed he played with a torn MCL, which takes about four weeks to recover from. After fighting back tears at the end of the game, Ivan Provorov told reporters “As long as my arm was attached, I was playing.”

The season is over, and I think the loss showed what the face of the Flyers looks like – a 25-year-old center who had a breakout season and is a Selke Trophy finalist and a 21-year-old defenseman who should be a Norris Trophy nominee in the very near future.

The pressure is on for Dave Hakstol to use his rookies in a much larger role. The same for Ron Hextall to make this team better via trades, the NHL Draft, and free agency. There’s a lot of people, myself included, that have been very frustrated with the direction, or lack thereof, that the organization has taken. This team has been very inconsistent, and almost didn’t make the playoffs with a very hot Florida team right behind them. Let’s hope some moves excite this fanbase going into next September’s training camp.

Before we continue, a word from our sponsors:

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The Roundup:

Check out the latest Crossing Broadcast to start your day. For you soccer fans, we also have a new Crossing Broad FC ready to go.

After The Worst of Philadelphia went well, we now have The Not Worst of Philadelphia!

Moving on to a team that’s actually doing well in the playoffs, the Sixers! After a Game 3 win against a chippy Heat team that got their payback for late layups, the Sixers were sloppy in Game 4 with 26 turnovers, 25 of them in the first three quarters.

But they won. This team is now winning games they shouldn’t be, and that’s a huge step in the right direction. JJ Redick had 24 points, but Ben Simmons recorded the team’s first postseason triple-double since Charles Barkley in 1991 with 17 points, 10 assists, and 13 rebounds. He also became the first rookie since Magic to record a triple-double in the playoffs. And some people think he’s not the Rookie of the Year. Lol.

Game 5 is Tuesday night at 8 PM. There’s gonna be excitement in the Wells Fargo Center once again for a winning team.

The Phillies are…good? Not like lucky good, like actually good?

After Jake Arrieta took the first game of a four-game series against the Pirates Thursday night, the Phils took a 2-1 win Friday night thanks to an Odubel Herrera triple in the eighth. They followed that up with a 6-2 win Saturday thanks to another outstanding performance by Aaron Nola and Rhys Hoskins hitting a three-run homer.

Then on Sunday, Aaron Altherr, who’s hitting .157, came up clutch. Entering the game in the seventh, he got three hits, including the game-winning RBI in the 11th for a 3-2 win:

sWWWWeep#RingTheBell | #BeBold pic.twitter.com/zyksPYGEmy

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) April 22, 2018

A four-game sweep. Good pitching from players other than Aaron Nola, especially from Nick Pivetta. A 9-1 record at home, the best since the 1964 season at Connie Mack Stadium. A 14-7 overall record, which is…A HALF GAME OUT OF FIRST IN THE NL EAST! Is Gabe Kapler good at this?!?

Probably a little early to think that they could make the playoffs, but there’s definitely some hope.

“We’re having a lot of fun. Keeping it light, we laugh in the dugout. I hope you guys are seeing that. A lot of smiles and a lot of laughter, and after the games, we’re having a great time in [the clubhouse]. We take it seriously and we prepare like animals, but we also enjoy each others’ company and we’re laughing a lot.”

The team is off today. They’ll start a three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks tomorrow night.

Nick Foles got a reworked contract Friday afternoon. It’s pretty much him getting a bonus for winning the Super Bowl, as he should get. There’s also an option for 2019 and other playing incentive bonuses, if Carson Wentz isn’t ready to play or gets hurt again.

Another player got a restructured contract. Right guard Brandon Brooks:

Source: the Eagles created $6.37M in cap space by reworking the deal of Pro Bowl G Brandon Brooks. He converted base salary into bonuses, dropping his cap number to $4.768M for this year.

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 23, 2018

Brooks pretty much confirmed the restructured deal. Because he wanted to give more money to Foles for winning the Super Bowl:

If your wondering about the restructure I get 4 mill now 4mill by sept 1 with a couple hundred thousand over the season. The reason I did it was bc the FUCKIN SB MVP DESERVED MORE MONEY @NickFoles . Love you bro #WhateverItTakes

— Brandon Brooks (@bbrooks_79) April 23, 2018

God I love this team.

As for the NFL Draft on Thursday, the team could be trading down.

32. PHILADELPHIA—CONNOR WILLIAMS, G-T, TEXAS

But I think the Eagles are much more likely to deal this pick; I just don’t know to whom. They’re seeking a trade—that I can tell you. Philadelphia has no pick in round two or three, and the Eagles don’t pick till the end of round four. So as of now, they go from 33 to 129 without a pick. That’s why they’ll be trying to deal all night Thursday. If they stick … The Eagles have a 35-year-old left tackle, Jason Peters, coming off major injury, and starting guards (Stefan Wisniewski and Brandon Brooks) who will be 29 this season. Connor’s the perfect pick for them, in the unlikely event they stick.

Before Thursday night, enjoy the team’s self-produced 2017 yearbook documentary.

Another match, another loss for the Union. They fell to FC Dallas 2-0 Saturday night to fall to 1-3-2 on the season. They’ll host D.C. United Saturday at Talen Energy Stadium.

In other sports news, let’s take a look at the NBA and NHL playoffs:

Game 4s for Houston-Minnesota and Oklahoma City-Utah are tonight on TNT.

The two remaining Eastern Conference Game sixes are tonight as well.

Oakland A’s pitcher Sean Manaea had the first no-hitter of the 2018 season.

Brandon Belt had a 21 pitch at-bat. It lasted 12 minutes and 45 seconds.

Brandon Belt set the MLB record with a 21-pitch at-bat that lasted nearly 13 minutes.

We got it down to 50 seconds for you. pic.twitter.com/hwfb6S1qzM

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 22, 2018

Look at Jay Feely as a nice dad celebrating her daughter going to prom with her boyfriend and he’s got a gun:

Wishing my beautiful daughter and her date a great time at prom #BadBoys pic.twitter.com/T5JRZQYq9e

— Jay Feely (@jayfeely) April 22, 2018

He later apologized.

In the news, the search for the Waffle House shooter in Nashville continues. But James Shaw Jr. is a hero for stopping the rampage.

Southwest Airlines is cancelling 40 flights a day after last week’s accident.

EDM DJ Avicii and actor Verne Troyer both died over the weekend.

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