Ok, So I Watched Through Lucifer During Quarantine, And Here Is What I Don't Understand: What The Hell

My favorite part of the movie was when Liam and Theo decided not to participate in it and instead spent their honeymoon in Japan, where they met Hikari - a friendly ramen shop owner - and Liam went full-on history nerd mode, talking about Japanese culture, trying his best with foreign terminology. The museums? Kira's cameo? Perfect sequel, guys, we keep winning!

Shawn: gus, do you want to help me commit a felony?

Gus: What? Shawn? No!

Shawn: Oh, my apologies.

Shawn, leaning in and whispering: Do you want to help me commit a felony?

Gus, whispering: Of course! What do you need?

The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.

Seattle Public Library is doing this awesome program called Books Unbanned that allows teens and young adults (ages 13-26) access to their collection of e-books and e-audiobooks from anywhere in the USA. All you need to do is fill out a simple form and you get their Books Unbanned card. Please share this information far and wide. I know they're not the only ones to have done this, but the more the merrier!

Book Jessica x Leto <3

I think one of my favourite things about Jessica x Leto in the Dune book is the fact that they are so secure in their love for each other:

You have Jessica; who is a very well trained Bene Gesserit, who can control every cell in her body, that when it comes to Leto instinctually let's herself feel and emote naturally. (Conceives Alia out of "instinct", cries/breaks down when Leto is in danger/dies, visibly gets upset when people ask her about them getting married etc.)

But Jessica is also very secure in her knowledge that Leto loves her and only her, she says to Hawat that "he'll not marry anyone else, not as long as I live." And she is very confident in that which suggests through words/actions that Leto has assured her of this before.

Similarly with Leto, he's very secure in knowing Jessica loves him and he doesn't consider even for a minute that she is the actual traitor. He says "she's opened/showed her heart to me" and that he "knows her", he also tells Paul himself that he'd sooner distrust himself than Jessica.

And so I think that while we didn't get a lot of them speaking directly to each other in the book, the conversations they have with other characters about their relationship is very telling. There is a sense of communication and deep understanding between them, whether it's verbal/non verbal/physical, that they love each other very much and that they are it for each other.

Then there's an aspect of their relationship that is a bit more tragic to me;

From the start of the book through to the end, even after Leto has died, there is this sense of defence that is constantly surrounding their relationship.

It starts with the Reverend Mother accusing Jessica of having a son purely because of Leto and Jessica has to defend that decision.

Then it's everyone thinking Jessica is the traitor and Leto has to defend her (obvi he gives into the plan for his own schemes but anyway).

Jessica has to defend her love for Leto to Yueh, Hawat, and eventually Gurney later on in the novel. She has to fight off all these accusations and questions about why she hasn't married him or why he didn't marry her.

Paul has to defend his parents' love as well to Gurney when Jessica can't convince him she's not the traitor. (Gurney was a real one for wanting to die for doing that lol.)

And it's really sad that that was something that consistently happened, like after 15/16/17 years they were still having to defend what they had. They were probably very private people and while they did have their own love and understanding of each other, other people just didn't get to see that and so there's this constant sense of protection for both of them for who they love and their family.

And especially for Jessica, who at that point had betrayed the Bene Gesserit more than once, being accused and having to defend her loyalty when everything she had done was out of love for Leto.

There's something so visceral about their story and the way they love each other that really resonates with me idk

A gothic horror story where a gentleman from a good family gets haunted by something monstrous, which follows him around and keeps killing people around him at utter random, in cruel and horrifying ways. Specifically within circumstances where the protagonist has no alibi, and everything indicates that he committed the murders.

But the real horror is not that he would find himself accused of the murders, but that the people around him naturally assume that he did do it, but genuinely do not care, because the victims are never people that the society around him considers "important". The scullery maid of his household is found brutalised beyond recognition in a room where even the ceiling has been splattered with blood, and a constable of the local police brushes it off as a case of household discipline gone wrong, being horrifyingly casual with the assumption that the protagonist severely beat a girl in his service to death, and will dismiss it as an accident. The street urchin that the protagonist was seen talking with - wanting to help this poor little orphan - is found decapitated, severed head in the protagonist's fireplace. This, too, is calmly swept under the rug.

After every horrifying murder, the protagonist tries to seek help, to present the crime to authorities in hopes of getting some semblance of help, or at least clearing his own name of this, but every time it's brushed off. "These things do happen", he is reassured, like it's perfectly normal that a mansion of that size has a secret garden of unmarked graves in one shady corner.

The real horror is the ever-encompassing implication that this is perfectly normal.

so i’ve been binge-watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine all day and I am totally on board with the “John Mulaney should guest star on the show as Jake’s high school best friend/lowkey boyfriend” idea, but I raise you

Once everyone putting it together that they weren’t “just friends”, Amy (out of confusion more than anything) asks “Wait, Jake, you dated John Mulaney in high school?”

And just as Jake is responding “Uh, I guess so?”

John Mulaney says “Wait, your name is Jake?”

Turns out John Mulaney spent the entire time thinking Jake’s name was John (and, of course, this is at the end of the episode, and John Mulaney has only ever referred to Jake as “Peralta”).

John as in “Salt & Pepper Diner” John. As in “Scatter” John.

As is “Jake Peralta has been featured in half of John Mulaney’s best bits over the years, but nobody put it together because of wild misunderstandings”

I miss early seasons of sunny.

And not really the type of jokes— I think dark humor is hilarious (duh) but some times they were a bit much. But I miss the dynamics. I feel like it’s even stretched up to s10 but the past few have felt so different. They felt out of character even though it’s still the same writers and the same characters and what not.

I guess I just miss when it seemed like The Gang actually cared about each other a bit. As much as they could, anyway. They’ve always been pieces of shut but they’ve always been each others pieces of shit, and it was special.

Even if they were doing something for their own gain, there was always a hint of them doing it for each other. Like, for example, Charlie Got M*lested. Dennis and Dee went full on private investigator, and sure they were only trying to “help” their their own ridiculous ego-centric/competitive reasons, but the factor the matter is they were still trying to help Charlie. In Charlie Has Cancer it seemed Dennis was truly concerned when Charlie told him, if not a bit uncomfortable. And I feel he only acted so weird because the way the Reynolds household worked when they were little. That’s a whole other post in itself, however.

In Dennis And Dee Get A New Dad, Charlie tagged along with Mac to visit his dad— and sure it was because the idea that Mac’s dad could be like a father figure to Charlie as well, but he was there to support Mac at the end of the day. As well as the fact they were so ready to beat the shit out of D&D’s biological dad for Frank.

In Dennis and Dee Go On Welfare, the twins hung out and acted like actual siblings. There was bickering and arguing sure, but that’s just how you act with your sibling. They hung out, they enjoyed each others presence, and it didn’t always have to be some huge joke about how everyone hates everyone.

Charlie Gets Crippled— when Dennis hit Charlie with his car it was real concern he had seeing Charlie in the hospital. As well as in Gun Fever when Dennis accidentally shoots him. You even see Dee talking to Colin about Charlie— letting him know Charlie’s okay. Like a friend does. Like you do when you care about someone. They even say they’ll help Charlie out with his rent!

There’s many more examples so I’ll just breeze through them here so this post doesn’t get too long. Dennis checking on Charlie and helping him write Dayman, Dennis knowing exactly how to calm Charlie down in The Gang Gets Extreme: Home Makeover Edition (and The Gang Goes to Hell), Sweet Dee Gives Birth, Dennis is a good brother. We see him being a good brother. And it’s not for any reason other than to care for Dee while she’s having her baby. Sweet Dee Has A Heart Attack, Dennis and Dee bond like actual brother and sister and he’s concerned about her well-being— actually concerned. In The Gang Wrestles For The Troops we see Charlie Dennis and Mac enjoying being together. We hear about them wrestling and having fun with one another and they stick together in those goofy fucking bird costumes. Macs Banging The Waitress: call it selfish desire or extreme attachment issues and an insane ego, but Dennis was troubled when Charlie and Mac agreed they were bffs and not him, he tried everything to get Charlie to change his mind. Charlie Kelly: King Of The Rats— I could write a whole essay on this episode alone. Dennis Dee and Mac went above and beyond for Charlie. Just to make his birthday special. Mac And Charlie Write A Movie: again, they just act like friends. Real friends. It’s obvious they cared for each other. In Charlie’s Mom Has Cancer they all try and figure out a way to help. And yeah there’s that whole subplot of Dennis not feeling anything, but I feel like that makes it matter more that he wanted to tag along to find a “cure”, whatever that cure may be.

And there’s so many more instances of them just…. Enjoying each others company. And I’m not saying it doesn’t happen anymore, I’m just saying it doesn’t happen nearly as often as it used to. It feels like now they’re just a group of ex-friends that all resent each other just below the surface. They had selfish reasoning, they always did, but they also cared about each other. The things they did, they did to try and benefit each other. And maybe it’s just because their characters are being flanderized, maybe I’m insane, I dunno. I just miss old Sunny.

Keep seeing posts in solidarity with the WGA strike that say things like “no one cares about your favorite shows” and “fuck your tv show. I hope it gets canceled” and while I understand and agree with the underlying sentiment, which is clearly “Real people are more important than fictional ones, you dipshit” I don’t like the framing because, well, it feels shitty to dismiss the importance of the work made by the workers we’re trying to defend.

No one cares about your favorite shows more than the writers do.

No one understands the power and importance of tv and film more than the writers who created them.

No one loves tv, movies, games, and stories more than the people who fought tooth and nail in an incredibly competitive and underpaid profession for the chance to be part of it.

They know it’s important. They know it changes lives. They know it can be more than just a story, more than just a bit of entertainment. They’ve loved and respected this medium, continue to love and respect this medium, more than you ever will.

The person who wants a show to get canceled the least is the writer who poured their everything into making it good.

TV and movies are great, actually, and you are not wrong to be invested and care about them. That’s what the writers gave you. That’s what the writers wanted when they wrote it. That’s why they wrote it.

Which is why we respect them when they make the call that this strike and its demands are worth risking it.

The people on that picket line do not want their shows canceled. They want to keep writing them. They can’t, not under the current conditions.

So we accept the risk with them and support them.

But I don’t want to berate the power and importance of their work, the value they put into it and the love they have for it, in the same breath that I am defending their strike. Worthy shows will likely get canceled or derailed and that will be a tragedy worth mourning. The writers know that better than anyone.

So when they say something else is even more important, we listen. And when your favorite show gets ruined, you make sure your fully justified anger and grief is pointed in the right direction - at the CEOs who killed it.

This has got to be the funniest thing on social media right now lmfaoo