Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

I mean, I don't feel doomed _yet_. The impeachment hearing has a long way to go, and King Stubby Orange could still go Full Nixon. He's only got so many yes men left and he's alienating former allies left and right. An economic downshift could do him some damage, too.

But for the first time in a while, I'm genuinely scared. It is eminently possible we could have to soak up the damage from another four years.

On a lark, I poked at a couple of offshore betting websites to try to cheer myself up, after reading some headlines that said Trump might pull off 2020 through the electoral college. This was a major source of comfort for me in 2016 since they heavily favored Clinton—even though they were wrong.

Yeah. All the betting sites favor Trump. By a small margin, something like 5-4, but still. Not at all what I needed to see today.

@Soreth Gives a whole new meaning to "Be Seeing You..." 👁️

#IAmNotANumber
#IAmNotAFreeMan
#IAmAGardenFixture

@Austin_Dern Isn't it?</space_ghost>

@LexYeen@snouts.online Is this that Rodney Dangerfield brawler I've been hearing so much about lately?

Number of women aged 14-20 wearing spiky collars, ripped jeans, and T-shirts with illegible heavy metal logos on the Canal St Trolley:

4

Number of elderly women on scooters wearing helmets with skulls on them:

1

Number of times the smell of downtown New Orleans made me physically recoil:

3

Number of people who looked like dealers:

2

Number of times I got up the nerve to ask where I can score:

0

@Oneironott Oh, great, blow right past the raccoon and go straight to the persona who has ZERO resistance to flattery! Not fair! Not fair! Do some more! 🐯 😻 😻

@Oneironott I mean, what are ya gonna tell me? "Gee, Kirsch, you sure smell like the bottom of a dumpster!" "Neat, you're so crepuscular I can't believe it!" "Hey, was that YOU that picked a giant hole in my roof?" "OK, um... I'm gonna go count my silverware again, no offense."

❤️

@Leucrotta Yeah, exactly. I'd love to see a next-gen YA adventure toon have, say, 3+ factions—with one being where people who, quite legitimately, think the two main ones are crazy fanatics end up. I want there to be a place for good people who still just plain don't like our Designated Protagonists, and for the audience to look at them and go, "You know, I still like Our Heroes best, but... they've got some real good points there." Lapis & Per could've been that...

@Leucrotta Also, huge sympathy for wanting to see that general principle of "the enemy is not necessarily evil" to take root. I Have Beef against you-know-who, but still don't see them as anything worse than flawed-like-me. And Parallax is all *about* the hazards/absurdity of seeing your enemies as dehumanized, red-eyed demons who Just Up And Hurt You For No Imaginable Reason... Even Tea Party twerps have valid issues—they're just addressing them in a real, real bad way.

@Leucrotta Yeah, my ideal solution for Jasper is "OK, you're allowed to live, and you're allowed to hate us, and we totally dig why you're mad... but you have to do it from VERY VERY FAR AWAY from now on, okay?"

There's nothing wrong with a good catch and release program. Wolverines and recluse spiders aren't evil either, but I wouldn't try to explain to them that they're welcome in my house as long as they sing a song with me first. ;D

@Leucrotta Exactly, the fact villains generally have motivations and soft spots and traumas that led to their behavior is still something really *good* about SU, and I wouldn't have wanted to, say, lose the whole series just to fix the issues I have with it! Again, it's progress, it's just got its own lingering problems that I want the *next* generation of these shows to fix now that the foundation's there...

@Leucrotta Yeah, that's my issue, not just the speed of the conversions but the REGULARITY of them. Same issue I have with late-era MLP—I'd have much rather see them convert, say, ONE friggin' evil unicorn and spend 3 seasons on her progress, not CONVERT THREE OF THEM IN A ROW FFS. :) I also loved Buffy The Vampire Slayer for its "revolving door of heroism/villainy"—but in part because sometimes the door spun the *opposite* direction, and some foes were Just Plain Bad.

@Leucrotta Steven Universe has a broad lore, but they devoted it to OTHER good things which I applaud—like actually letting Steven age, which is a bit of an innovation in its own right, plus developing the whole idea that being a Big Empathy Hero... kinda sucks.

Aside from that my only real beef with SU is that Connie should be louder and angrier and have access to a time machine.</homer> O:)

@Leucrotta AT also really changed my mind about there being "not enough time" in an episode... because the amount it can accomplish in 10 lousy minutes is ASTOUNDING. Granted, it's got that veneer of comedy so it can afford that smash-cut strategy. And it has the advantage of running FOREVER, so lore is built kinda... broad instead of tall, you know? The early episodes are a lot tropier, for want of a better term. (e.g., Just Plain Mean And Crazy Ice King...)

@Leucrotta Adventure Time is still my Gold Standard, especially for YA stuff. The best thing about it is that it always _surprises_ me. There's no one way that character arcs get resolved. There are recurring themes, but everything feels so perfectly contextual and sincere and unformulaic to me. Just like in real life, "good" characters get angry and fuck up, "evil" characters get bored and go home... and sometimes you just fail and smash-cut to the closing credits. 🤷

@Leucrotta (To give a Parallax spoiler example: I've already resolved that at least one tight friendship from Ch. 1 will not survive until Ch. 5. Both characters get happy endings. They can still exchange messages through friends. But they're never going to be close again, and that IS THE HAPPY ENDING. :) Because they all go on to good lives and don't HAVE to patch things up, or give into each other's philosophies, to have them.)

@Leucrotta Most of all, if I could ask for one thing out of FiM and SU... it would be a model for what happens if you try and try and try to extend the olive branch, but the other side refuses to see you as anything but a threat—or if you come to realize that there is just no reconciling your worldviews. That sometimes you can have peace, but not friendship. That sometimes... "Leaving Each Other The Fuck Alone For Good Is Magic." ;)

@Leucrotta Sorry this was a text bomb—you didn't hit a sore spot, I just had a LOT of thoughts about the show and I'm grateful someone took me up on them and gave me a debate partner! <3

In summary, I'm still all-in on sympathy as a core value. I just wish they could focus a little more on the WORK, instead of just treating it like "magic." If communication breaks down, if you don't REALLY understand each other, if the other side won't listen--it just doesn't happen.

@Leucrotta Another thought about the film: again, might have just not been time, but I would have loved to see, instead of Spinel's IMHO really sudden change of heart, for the change to come out of a long, deep commiseration scene with Steven. I'd have loved to see more of the "yeah... um... I've suffered too, you know... and you're RIGHT, my mom kinda SUCKS... have you NOTICED she abandoned her friends here too? The ones YOU TRIED TO ERASE out of envy? They hurt too."