Holden's characteristic

Trance music is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged in the 1990s. It is characterized by a tempo of between 125-150 BPM, repeating melodic phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track. The name "trance" refers to the hypnotic, euphoric state that this music tries to evoke in listeners.
Some major subgenres of trance include:

• Classic/Pure Trance: The original style of trance with minimalist arrangements, atmospheric pads, arpeggiated sequences, and emotive melodies. Artists like Paul van Dyk and Armin van Buuren pioneered this sound.
  
• Progressive Trance: A more driving, beat-heavy take on trance with massive breakdowns and anthemic leads. Pioneered by artists like Sasha, John Digweed, and James Holden.
  
• Uplifting Trance: Focused on grand, emotive melodies and breakdowns designed to "lift" listeners. Artists like Above & Beyond, Andy Moor, and Rank 1 helped define this style.
  
• Psychedelic/Goa Trance: Inspired by the Goa region of India; trippy sounds, ethnic samples, and hypnotic beats define this style. Popularized by artists like Astral Projection and Infected Mushroom.
  
• Tech Trance: Incorporates more mechanical, robotic textures from techno. Artists like Markus Schulz, John O'Callaghan, and Sean Tyas produce this sound.
  

The repetitive, hypnotic nature of the beats, basslines, and melodies are essential characteristics of trance music. The combination of soaring emotional melodies and steady rhythms can induce a trance-like state for listeners, especially in the context of a dance music party or rave.
Trance originated in the early 1990s as DJs like Paul Oakenfold and Sven Väth started playing long, eclectic sets of dance music at underground raves and clubs in Europe. Over time, trance coalesced into its own unique genre, spreading internationally by the late 90s. Major trance hotspots included Goa, India and the island of Ibiza. In the 2000s, trance became one of the most popular forms of dance music worldwide. While its popularity has ebbed and flowed, trance continues to have a devoted following today.

Sorry in advance if this is disorganized or overly long - I wanted to put it out there ahead of tonight's episode so I haven't had much time to work on it!
Big disclaimer that Inuit cosmology and folklore is new to me, and I don't intend to speak with any authority on these topics. Most of this is summarized from Wikipedia deep dives and I've also learned a lot reading others' analyses here. I've tried to include links to everything that contributed to this but I may have missed something (I've read so much the last few days it's hard to keep track of everything). Stars seem especially relevant this season and I have a longstanding interest in things like cosmology and astrology, so my intention of sharing is to encourage discussion about how these aspects of Inuit culture may have influenced the show - especially as I felt this particular topic hadn't been covered yet.
Anyway!
There's been some ideas floated to explain Annie's star-shaped wounds from a forensic perspective, but I wanted to consider the symbolic significance of "32 stars".
This post discusses star-shaped wounds as being a reference to H. P. Lovecraft's In the Mountains of Madness, which is hard to deny given the similarities and the fact that Lovecraft is a known reference for quite a bit of Lopez's stated inspiration for this series.
Black and white stars were also a motif for darkness and lightness in the first season. Per Lopez, this season is meant to be a "dark mirror" of the first and she has full leaned into that duality with Night Country, which is so named for the polar night experienced by the Earth's poles. During polar night, the sun never rises above the horizon. This is due to Earth's axial tilt, but has some implications from a cosmological perspective as the horizon is frequently regarded as a boundary between our world and the underworld. For example, there is a myth of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar visiting and escaping the underworld - likely based on her association with the planet Venus, which appears to dip beneath the horizon due to its proximity to the Sun.
This is also true in Inuit cosmology, where the skies are regarded as the realm of the dead (Qilak) and each star represents a departed soul. As a result, stars and other celestial objects are personified over constellations. There are 33 stars, 2 star clusters, and 1 nebula named in Inuit astronomy. I'm only going to cover some of the more noteworthy ones in our context here.
URSA MAJOR: This constellation, also known as the Big Dipper, is featured all over in the show as well as on Alaska's state flag. It is made up of seven stars (number of scientists in the corpsicle). The Inuit name for this constellation is Tukturjuit, meaning caribou (plural - with each star representing one individual).
HYADES:) Hyades is a star cluster in the western constellation Taurus. It is also the location of Carcosa in Lovecraft's and others' works. The Inuit name for Hyades is Qimmiit, meaning dogs, who are said to have cornered another star in Taurus called Nanurjuk, which means polar bear.
PROCYON: Procyon is a star in the Canis Minor constellation. Its Inuit name is Sikuliarsiujuittuq, which translates to "one who never goes out onto sea ice" (foreboding) or "murdered man". Tales of his fate vary but always end the same: he falls through the sea ice to his death, sometimes chased and corraled by his brethren for his thievery.
SIRIUS: Sirius is a star in the Canis Major constellation, and to our eyes the brightest star in the night sky. The Inuit name for Sirius is Singuuriq, which means flickering or pulsating. It may get its name from the fact that it lies very close to the horizon at high latitudes, creating atmospheric refraction. Canis Major is one of the only constellations with 32 stars, and it also contains the brightest source of extreme ultraviolet radiation - 38,700x the Sun - in the night sky, Epsilon Canis Majoris.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Inuit peoples use the moon and stars for timekeeping. The "moon month" for the polar night is "the great darkness". Polar night also has an inverse where the Sun never sets, referred to as the midnight sun. One thing of note is that during either, a period of twilight is still experienced at midday. Twilight is almost universally regarded by human cultures as a time of heightened spiritual sensitivity and activity - a thinning of the veil between this world and the spirit world, which is rooted in its liminality (e.g., The Twilight Zone), something Lopez has directly referenced in interviews about this season. Purgatory is type of liminal space. Adlivun is the similar to the concept of purgatory, a space beneath the ice and sea where the departed dwell before being guided to Qilak by the hunting goddess Pinga. As some users have already mentioned, Pinga is sometimes associated with caribou. Additionally, in some cultures Pinga and Sila are one and the same. There is a fantastic post about Sila connecting her to the caribou we see in the opening scene, which you can read here. Pinga's association with Sila and caribou, and her role as a psychopomp, only reinforce this connection.
Hunting is extremely important in Inuit culture for obvious reasons. Like most other cultures, some folktales are intended as cautionary tales for children living in a dangerous environment. Many of the rest revolve around hunting or punishing those who break hunting taboos. I really cannot overstate how central hunting was in their lives. Because they were highly dependent on the hunt, they also have an interesting relationship with other animals. Unlike the Christian dominion/domination model, Inuit peoples believed other animals were ensouled and therefore that their spirits would avenge themselves if disrespected. According to Wikipedia, they have a saying: "The great peril of our existence lies in the fact that our diet consists entirely of souls." From what I can gather, the breaking of a taboo resultingly had severe consequences for the entire community and so keeping taboos was a collective responsibility. This echoes an analysis I made in a comment here. As has already been pointed out, there is also a polar bear deity called Nanook that is said to bestow his blessing to hunters or punish them for breaking taboos. This gives Hyades more of a sinister vibe than a heroic one for me, even from an Inuit lens (as it reads as being related to a tale of taboo breaking). However - big caveat - I wasn't able to find any in-depth storytelling about their astronomical objects so it's pure speculation on my part.
Liminality shows up again in Inuit folklore about Ijirait, shape-shifting spirits that roamed too far north and got caught in the space between worlds - a place where all are doomed to being lost. This reminded me of Bryce, the teacher, speaking of Tsalal: "No one came in and no one came out." We now know that was not true in a literal sense, but it does harken back to the meaning of Tsalal being something like "to submerge in darkness", and the ideas discussed in another great post here about Tsalal and the mining company being avatars for environmental devastation, and a nightmarishly poetic eco-catastrophe of plunging the world into a permanent darkness. Linked in that post is this page, which describes some physical characteristics of Ijirait and offers a less condemnatory view of the spirits as misunderstood messengers. This would fit nicely with the researchers, who are outsiders and harbingers of climate catastrophe. Another detail from the Wikipedia article is the theft of children.
There's also the Taqriaqsuit, shadow people. Wikipedia interestingly notes that they cannot be seen when looking directly at them unless they are dead, but that they otherwise live like humans. This struck a chord in me about people living on the margins of society (there's that liminality again), who are mostly invisible to us. It immediately reminded me of MMIWG, which is obviously a focus of the show. This page mentions Taqriaqsuit leading people to their world, which reminded me of Rose's comment about the different types of ghosts. Other than Holden and Travis, which have had a less sinister vibe to them, all the ghosts we've seen have indigenous women who died tragically.
Other miscellaneous things:
* Another interesting tidbit mentioned on a couple of the Wikipedia articles linked above is the belief that departed loved ones can be seen in the aurora borealis (especially those who died of blood loss, childbirth, or murder). I don't have much to add in the way of analysis there but maybe something to look out for, perhaps?
* As hunting companions, dogs are greatly cherished and respected. In general, dogs are seen as friends and protectors to humans. This is almost spiritually embedded, probably because we brought dogs into being and they have evolved alongside us ever since.
* Wolves are different, of course. They are often regarded as tricksters (Little Red Riding Hood, "wolf in sheep's clothing", etc). Inuit folklore echoes this sentiment as well with Amaguq. Unfortunately, I can't find much more about this.
* Regarding the "supernatural" elements of this season, this Wikipedia article provides some insightful context. Of note: "Non-angakkuq could experience hallucinations, and almost every Alaskan Native can report memories of ghosts, animals in human form, or little people living in remote places. Experiences such as hearing voices from ice or stones were discussed as readily as everyday hunting adventures. Neither were ecstatic experiences the monopoly of angakkuit (reverie, daydreaming, even trance were not unknown by non-angakkuit), and laypeople (non-angakkuit) experiencing them were welcome to report their experiences and interpretations." It's also worth mentioning that Lopez is Mexican, and Mexicans have a very different relationship with death and spirits than western cultures. Dia de Los Muertos is one of their most important holidays, during which ofrendas (offerings) are prepared for the departed including photos, their favorite food and drink, marigolds (the scent of which is said to lead the spirits home), and other miscellaneous things pertaining to that person and their life. An important component is storytelling, due to the belief that the act of remembering keeps the deceased's spirit alive. It is extremely likely that this cultural perspective toward death influenced her understanding of Inuit spiritual beliefs and practices, and how those things were ultimately portrayed within the show.
* A lot of chatter about why Rose was gutting a wolf. I don't think this will be the reason, but it's super interesting to think about so I wanted to bring up haruspicy which is a divination practice using the entrails of animals. Rose gives me witchy vibes (crone, herbalist, chill with ghosts) so this seems up her alley.
* Don't know if there are any direct connections but this Wikipedia article has more helpful context about spirituality and taboos.
Since this is already super long, I will post my predictions in a comment.

Crossposting audience: This is a new subreddit at zeronarcissists, the first anti-narcissism subreddit based on scientific evidence as far as I can tell. Please give us a follow at the original sub! We are new and growing.

1. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0091026019900355

Agentic Narcissists Take Pride in Self-Aggrandizement; Communal Narcissists Are Narcissists That Proclaim Other-Orientation, but Whose Actual Behaviors Include Abusiveness, Self-Aggrandizement with Exploitative Features, Stealing Ideas, and Especially Abusing Younger Employees to the Point They Permanently Leave the Community Due to These Abuses.

1. However, PSM’s prosocial bias often discounts self-interested and mixed-motive interests. Unlike agentic narcissism, in which self-aggrandizement is more apparent to others, in communal narcissism, self-aggrandizement is hidden by a “saint-type bias” and self-proclaimed other-orientation.

Most communal narcissists are found in the nonprofit sector.

1. . In addition, PSM positively relates to the nonprofit sector and mediates indirect, positive relationships between communal narcissism and the nonprofit sector

Public service relies on and attracts altruists, prosocial agents, and those capable of intense inner commitments

1. ), altruism (Perry, 2010, 2014), and prosocial behavior (Coursey et al., 2008). “Consideration of another’s needs rather than one’s own” (Piliavin & Charng, 1990, p. 30) and a “desire to expend effort to benefit other[s]” (Grant, 2008, p. 49) perhaps embody Perry’s (2010) public service ethic. Furthermore, public service expresses “the notion of duty as an intense inner commitment to a cause that extends beyond the exigencies of the moment” (Gawthrop, 1998, p. 74)

The communal narcissist is in a state of mimicry; they are not any of the above, but rather self-aggrandizers exploiting the good social credit of public service work.

1. Using personality psychology insights, this research explores communal narcissism as a possible dark side of PSM. The duplicitous nature of communal narcissism might mimic motivation toward public service by providing an outlet for self-aggrandizement.

Communal narcissists are usually very exhibitionist about their self-sacrifice, but they exploit others to gain recognition for their humanitarian deeds. They are defined as duplicitous due to their mimicry of traits which they do not possess or exaggerate the presence of.

1. Although many administrators possess genuine interest in promoting others’ welfare, some are paradoxically charismatic in their self-sacrifice declarations, but exploit others to gain public recognition for humanitarian deeds. Furthermore, self-interested intentions are initially masked from others, eliciting heightened backlash once the hypocrisy is revealed (Malkin, 2015). Communal narcissism fits the duplicitous personality described above, often defined as a “saint-type bias” in self-perception (Paulhus & John, 1998), exaggeration of compassion, commitment to humanitarianism (Gebauer et al., 2012), and “self-sacrificing self-enhancement” (Pincus et al., 2009) strategies.

There is a real need to examine institutions for the presence of the communal narcissist, especially in the nonprofit sector.

1. necessitating examination of the sectors and/or occupations that tend to attract these individuals.

Grandiose narcissists encompass both agentic and communal narcissists. Therefore, most communal narcissists fit the grandiose narcissist category.

1. including honesty-humility, self-deceptive enhancement (SDE), and impression management (IM) scales. In addition, grandiose narcissism encompasses two positively related constructs, that is, agentic and communal narcissism (Fatfouta et al., 2017; Gebauer et al., 2012), thus, controlling one form when examining the other ensures that outcomes of communal narcissism will not be spuriously caused by agentic narcissism (Paulhus & Williams, 2002).

Communal narcissist use nonprofits for supervisory and leadership roles. They cultivate a cult of personality that results in the cronyism of “Founder’s syndrome”.

1. Specifically, communal narcissists held leadership roles with supervisory duties and served in protective occupations in Study 2. Understanding their impact on organizational oversight, discretion, subordinate well-being, and possible perpetration of “Founder’s Syndrome” is important. Human resource managers may offset negative behavior by developing consensus-building and power-sharing models to harmonize communal narcissistic needs for approval, tendencies to employ IM strategies, and “flexible” empathy propensities.

Learning how to detect truly altruistic, committed, and prosocial motives in future research is key for early detection of communal narcissists

1. Literature gaps pertaining to affective motives like altruism (Bozeman & Su, 2015), a normative commitment to public values motive (Anderson et al., 2012), and a general prosocial bias in PSM research (Ritz et al., 2016) provide the impetus for this research.

Communal narcissists self-report as altruistic, prosocial, or committed, but as is typical of all narcissists, their self-enhancement in this regard fails to be checked when faced with evidence they do not in fact possess these traits. In fact and rather ironically, this may be when they are the most aggressive and antisocial.

1. Such narratives challenge PSM conceptualizations as completely other-oriented, warranting investigation of hubris, and a type of narcissism that may mimic other-oriented service, namely communal narcissism. Self-interested or overzealous intentions may be temporarily masked by self-reported humanitarian motivations (Fennimore, 2017b).
2. Communal narcissists engage in self-serving behavior, while presenting themselves as compassionate and self-sacrificial, or altruistic

Communal narcissists seek self aggrandizement in communal domain

1. Differing in domain specificity (Paulhus, 2002), agentic narcissists seek self-aggrandizement in an agentic domain, emphasizing self, while communal narcissists seek self-aggrandizement in a communal domain, emphasizing self within an interpersonal circle of others (see Gurtman, 2009; Leary, 2004). Domain preference is influenced by genetics, environmental exposure, and espoused value/belief systems (Luo et al., 2014).

Measurement

1. Measurement: Narcissistic personality index (NPI) versus CNI. The NPI (Pincus et al., 2009; Raskin & Hall, 1979) was developed to measure pathological agentic narcissism (Emmons, 1987),

Hypothesis of the study

1. Hypothesis 1 (H1): Communal narcissism, as compared with agentic narcissism, is more likely associated with PSM, particularly, the self-sacrifice, compassion, and commitment to public values subscales because the CNI measures self-reported perceptions of self-sacrifice, compassion for others, and commitment to humanitarian/communal values.

Tests

1. Communal narcissism predicts subjective prosociality assessed through self-reports (Barry et al., 2017; Nehrlich et al., 2019), and strongly influenced by self-enhancement strategies (Paulhus & Holden, 2010). To examine traits implicated in narcissism and PSM, this research tested honesty-humility, a dimension of HEXACO-60 (“honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience”), and BIDR-16 (Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding–Short Form), as possible antecedents of relationships between CNI and PSM.

Honesty-humility, reciprocal altruism are associated with high performance in caregiving roles and have an antithesis in malevolence.

1. . Honesty-humility predicts job performance in caregiving roles (Johnson et al., 2011) and measures prosocial, morally relevant, and reciprocal altruism (Ashton & Lee, 2007) as well as criminal or risky decision-making (Van Gelder & De Vries, 2012; Weller & Thulin, 2012), especially among malevolent personalities (Međedović & Petrović, 2015; Paulhus, 2014). Psychological antecedents of PSM have demonstrated positive associations between honesty-humility and affective PSM (compassion and self-sacrifice) and between openness to experience and nonaffective PSM (attraction to policy making and commitment) (Van Witteloostuijn et al., 2017).

Altruistic Traits

1. Sincerity, fairness, greed avoidance, and modesty

Measure of narcissism

1. The BIDR-16 examines traits and tendencies toward socially desirable responses on the SDE and IM dimensions. It reflects aspects of true personality (Kam, 2013) like narcissism (Paulhus, 2002) and has been utilized in cross-disciplinary studies examining PSM’s cultural antecedents (S. H. Kim & Kim, 2016).

Changing personality to mislead others for goal achievement is called “intentional misrepresentation”.

1. In contrast, IM represents a conscious social “chameleon” strategy to mislead others for goal achievement (Holden & Book, 2012), or to successfully adapt to social settings using a self-control strategy (Kam, 2013). In PSM research, IM relates to collectivist societies, and SDE relates to individualistic societies (S. H. Kim & Kim, 2016; Riemer & Shavitt, 2011).

Intentional misrepresentation is a communal trait and Chinese government officials scored higher than the students they attacked and spoke poorly on for communal narcissism, as a combination of inaccurate self-report with stronger communal ties.

1. Similarly, Paulhus (2002) discussed SDE as an agentic trait and IM as a communal trait. Relating this to communal narcissism, Gebauer et al. (2013) found that in China, government officials scored higher than students on the CNI, attributing the result to stronger collective ideologies among older generations.

Communal narcissists are expected to act like agentic narcissists and act with excess aggression to ego threats, wreaking havoc on their organisations

1. Agentic narcissists have wreaked havoc in organizations (O’Boyle et al., 2012), aggressively reacting to ego threats (Jones & Paulhus, 2010), prompting similar concerns for communal narcissists. Gebauer et al. (2012) reported that ego threats lead to passive aggression, such as gossip.

Once found out, people often can’t believe how a communal narcissist can be so unsympathetic. There is a tendency to deny or victim blame until the understanding “communal narcissist” is made.

1. Malkin (2015) asserted that acquaintances of communal narcissists find it difficult to explain how a “pillar in the community” can behave unsympathetically, but communal narcissists do not acknowledge, nor are they necessarily aware of their unsavory behavior toward others

Communal narcissists decry and self-report compassion, while in actual behaviors exploiting them.

1. As discussed earlier, communal narcissists may be attracted to organizations with latent religious affiliations to fulfill self-enhancement strategies (Gebauer et al., 2013). Compared with private sector organizations, public and nonprofit organizations in related occupations might especially appeal to communal narcissists who proclaim an “other” orientation and possess a saint-type bias toward creating a personal vision of public-spirited compassion, while exploiting those around them.

Communal narcissists genuinely believe they are prosocial, and show no ability to take down their inaccurate self-concept, which is congruent with the findings on how narcissists do not change their behavior even under intense social accountability.

1. : Nonprofit and public employment sectors (X) might appeal to communal narcissists (Y) because their self-reported self-sacrifice, compassion for others, and commitment to humanitarian/communal values relate to PSM features (M), which is also predicted to describe employees in public and nonprofit sectors; thus, communal narcissists will more likely work in the same sectors that foster PSM

Communal narcissists are ironically hypercompetitive about being seen as self-sacrificing, and often try to outwork people, or be seen as receiving less pay than others (though they receive it under the table or through design, in most cases) and lead to a culture of burnout and over-engagement.

1. CNI was highly associated with the self-sacrifice dimension in this research. Interestingly, S. Kim and Vandenabeele (2010) considered the self-sacrifice dimension a central motive for desiring government and nonprofit sector employment, further proposing its representation as the foundational concept of altruistic or prosocial origins of PSM. This recommendation is problematic if communal narcissists claim higher self-sacrifice than others in an organization, creating competition to trump coworkers, and possibly promoting over-engagement and burnout among employees (Jensen et al., 2017).

Communal narcissists participate in prosocial activities to speak on it and only do so as long as they must for self-aggrandizement; they do not actually do it to benefit others.

1. t describe communal narcissists’ inclination to join in public participation activities to self-aggrandize, rather than to benefit others.

Compassion is not as attractive to the communal narcissist as self-sacrifice and being seen participating publicly. When analyzed, communal narcissists show a flat affect and little to no empathy.

1. The compassion dimension relates to empathy (Andersen et al., 2011), gauging identification motives (S. Kim et al., 2013). In general, the results on the compassion. subscale positively correlated with the CNI, suggesting communal narcissists may possess “flexible” empathy depending on the situation. However, compassion did not resonate to the same degree as self-sacrifice and attraction to public participation. Perhaps compassion is not a representative measure of affective motives (Moynihan & Pandey, 2007; Wright, 2008), contrary to Van Witteloostuijn et al. (2017). Or, if analyzed as motivational intensity, communal narcissism may describe a “flat affect” or low motivational intensity.

Communal narcissists are the most likely to feel entitled to act immorally, aka “Look at all the good I’ve done; I’ve earned a crime” type thinking or, “The ends justify the means.”

1. e, Sachdeva et al. (2009) emphasized the opportunity for individual interpretation, hence, those with strong moral identities may feel entitled to act immorally, consistent with Miller and Effron (2010) and Bolino et al. (2013). Communal narcissists may not consider ethical behavior a necessary means for achieving their goals. At least two theoretical arguments support a “means justify the ends” explanation. Calhoun (2004) described tendencies for administrators to follow Machiavellian approaches to governance, sacrificing morality and leading to scenarios in which “dirty hands” (Sartre, 1948/1989) become commonplace (Fennimore & Sementelli, 2019).

Communal narcissists are less likely to be modest. They are more likely to brag, more likely to steal, and more likely to cheat.

1. In contrast, communal and agentic narcissists negatively correlated with modesty, also consistent with the literature (Paulhus, 2014). In this study, the modesty subdimension identified both agentic and communal narcissism. Interestingly, fairness positively associated with CNI. This subdimension focused on antipathy or proclivity for stealing or cheating, thus, the communal narcissist’s antipathy may indicate IM strategies.

The costs of having a communal narcissist are huge long-term. They deliberately mislead others and destroy the credit of other-serving motives who come to associate nonprofits with these exploitative experiences at the hands of communal narcissists.

1. . The consequences of an exceptionally adaptive malevolent personality is an increased possibility of long-term organizational damage (Fennimore & Sementelli, 2019; Fennimore, 2017a), or overzealousness (O’Leary, 2013). An ability to consciously mislead others, or subtly nudge their decisions, poses challenges for distinguishing self-serving from other-serving motives.

Nonprofits have missions are congruent with what they aim for. This is why they are targets; narcissists possess a fundamental mismatch between self-concept and behavior. They are attracted to what they lack.

1. . The service-oriented missions and values of many nonprofit organizations are perhaps congruent with compassion, self-sacrifice, and commitment to public interest dimensions (Word & Carpenter, 2013)

Agentic narcissists are expected to predict communal narcissist behavior; therefore, both narcissists establish dominance via the most vulnerable in their hierarchies.

1. Agentic narcissists retain their dominance by selecting lower status, younger, and less experienced employees who remain reverent and dependent on them (Chatterjee & Pollock, 2017). Might communal narcissists use the same employee selection criteria?

A communal narcissist will swiftly diminish public service aspirations among junior employees just out of ego threatedness and establishing dominance which is misplaced in the cooperative, nonprofit sphere. This minimizes over and over the amount of individuals who want to help the older generations…ironically due to abuse at the hands of the older generations.

1. A communal narcissistic leader may also swiftly diminish public service aspirations among junior employees. Unfortunately, toxic leadership may not be effectively addressed by senior executives or board members, in line with the “Founder’s Syndrome” phenomenon.

Founder’s syndrome

1. Founder’s Syndrome occurs when organizations operate according to a prominent person’s personality, rather the organization’s mission
2. n. Similarly, Block and Rosenberg (2002) referenced the “one person [who] inherently holds privileges and power only a few individuals will experience: the founder of a nonprofit organization” (p. 353).

Knowing better than the community what the community needs for itself is a signature of the communal narcissist

1. threatening accountability and endangering sustainability beyond the founder’s tenure. Sustainability threats may also arise when founders create organizations based on a perceived need, rather than a formal assessment of the community’s needs (Carman & Nesbitt, 2012).

Communal narcissists stifle junior employees and create stressful work environments

1. s. Such practices include “totalitarian decision-making, lack of delegation, micromanagement” (Justice, 2010, p. 3), stifling contributions from junior employees (English and Peters, 2011), and creating stressful work environments in which employees experience burnout (see Jensen et al., 2017, for a discussion on PSM and absenteeism).

Succession

1. autocratic leadership and longevity in office were common characteristics among nonprofit founders (English and Peters, 2011; Santora et al., 2013), both of which may impede an organization’s survival (Block and Rosenberg, 2002). Instituting strong governance systems (Carver, 1992; English & Peters, 2011), and operational means to limit founder influence (Huff, 2003), identifying appropriate long-term roles (Huff & Pleskac, 2012), and espousing a stewardship paradigm to ensure the founder’s altruistic intentions continue (Hayek et al., 2015) to have been recommended for successful succession (Santora et al., 2013; Singh, 2008).

Narcissists are not able to readjust their self-concept when faced with the inaccuracy of their self-aggrandizing lies if it means less narcissistic supply to them

1. Recommendations have been offered for rehabilitating malevolent personalities in organizations (see Paulhus, 2014). However, narcissism is a difficult personality type to realign with organizational goals as narcissists tend to believe their own self-aggrandizing lies (Paulhus, 2014).

Solutions

1. Interestingly, both communal and agentic narcissists are motivated by power. However, power validation prompts communal narcissists to behave agentically, by displaying less willingness to help others and less communal self-enhancement strategies (Giacomin & Jordan, 2015). Thus, consensus-based governing, or power-sharing models among employee groups, is perhaps a viable solution.

Employees with strong communal motives do best working directly with those they help. This is not something you will see a communal narcissist doing outside of publicity, and then, only as much as they have to.

1. Studies on task significance suggest that employees with strong communal motives may be more responsive to relational job design features because contact with beneficiaries of their work fulfills and cultivates their motivation to make a prosocial difference (Grant, 2007). This appears to be an accurate assessment based on education and social service occupations rating among the top three occupations in this study. PSM as a communal based scale might inform job design features that better align with the normative, affective, or instrumental motives of public service.

Narcissistic CEOS will produce more narrative artifacts.

1. narcissistic CEOs are likely to produce a greater number of narrative artifacts, compared with nonnarcissistic leaders.

Communal narcissists are overly confident, overestimating their skills and abilities

1. Finally, self-reports are subject to response bias in general, and more especially for agentic and communal narcissists who tend to present themselves as overly confident.

Overlooking the intense damage of the communal narcissist is the creation of the toxic organizational environment, and finally the lack of public trust, and with that, public funds. The solution lies in individual analysis to examine the signs for a duplicitous personality who mimics certain behaviors they don’t actually possess to achieve self-aggrandizing goals.

1. Potential consequences of overlooking individuals who mimic PSM qualities is the creation of toxic organizational environments and possible loss of public trust in government (Fennimore & Sementelli, 2019), possibly amplified by those in supervisory-level positions. The solution for overcoming PSM’s optimism does not mean embracing pessimism. Rather, it requires adjusting PSM’s lens to look at the individual level of analysis and examine the effect of a duplicitous personality.

Tl;dr
Communal narcissists are narcissists usually grandiose in type who are not agentic (individualized) but seek supply from a whole community. Chinese officials who attacked Chinese students such as those in Tiananmen square are much higher in communal narcissism than the students they decried as such. In general, communal narcissists mimic caring about the community when in fact, none of their behaviors are congruent with people high in behaviors observed and connotated with those they claim to be high in. They do this mimicry to achieve ends to self-aggrandize. This usually is a means to the end to get them to positions of leadership, which, once achieved, they abuse. This includes abusing the weakest and least experienced members to achieve and demonstrate dominance, stealing, cheating and other toxic behaviors. Unchecked, the damage a communal narcissist can do is intense. It can lead to not only the permanent loss of public trust, but the complete defunding of the institution on the basis of stolen funds and fraud. Once found out, communal narcissists are especially hard to stomach for they will show complete lack of empathy once held accountable which is disturbing for those who were genuinely convinced by their mimicry and chameleon-like camouflage. But once the understanding that the individual was a communal narcissist is understood, agencies can then do individual analysis to find duplicitous behavior in individuals very early on in the presence to never let it get that far again.

1. Navarro - What the fuck is this curse shit? The likelihood of Navarro, Julia, and their mother ALL being schizophrenic is pretty low I feel. I know it is genetic to an extent, but 3/3 is a crazy good batting average. - Why is Navarro's ear bleeding? Perhaps residual damage from getting her ass whooped? Something crawl in there? She have some kind of whacky tumor? - Why was Navarro's reaction to her sister dying so bizarre? She irrationally blamed the registration clerk for her sister's death, KNOWING she had just admitted her to a voluntary facility...Also, why were all of her reactions after that initial outburst so muted? Felt very odd, then just straight back to work. Never even really clocked out. Was I the only one? Worst part of the episode for me.
   
2. Julia - I guess people who kill themselves often don't give people around them those impressions. But going from working fairly normally as a waitress, to having daily episodes, to committing suicide all in like 48-72 hours seems pretty wild doesn't really do a good job of demonstrating the lifelong struggle of coping with schizophrenia and hallucinations. I feel like she would have needed to have been shown a lot longer on screen suffering from this for her death to land. To me, it didn't make a lot of sense. Especially when I'm trying to watch a fucking murder mystery. Don't see how it helped. Had a slight effect on Navarro and we moved on. I felt 0 emotional impact from her death really other than that she had a nice booty.
   
3. Liz is a mess. It's interesting to hear her get dressed down by Connelly. It's the first time I think anyone has said Holden's name out loud to Liz. Connelly had said Jake's name before, but not Holden's. She has got some serious shit going on that they've already 100% missed the opportunity to expose at this point. Wouldn't matter if they did now. They'll tell us how Holden and Jake died and it will likely be stupid and have nothing the fuck to do with anything else going on, like most of the threads this season. She is incapable of showing anyone just simple kindnesses and considerations and it makes everyone hate her. That's rubbed off on Leeah, who now treats her exactly the way Liz has always treated her. Like a burden, with contempt and exasperation. I basically see her as a villain. He redeeming characteristic seems to be that she is a woman and/or a cop...which are neutral characteristics...and therefor aren't redeeming at all. One of the most punchable, selfish, disrespectful people ever. If she dies, the species would probably be better off. Not something I could honestly say about Marty or Rust. I don't think she's evil. I just think she's a scumbag. You don't have to throw acid in someone's face to spread a tremendous amount of misery around.
   

Side note: I just realized in writing this that there have been about 20 scenes of people having half a conversation and then either because of the smallest pushback, or just random silence, or a random scene switch, or no reason at all, the conversation ends. We get one character asking another a question and then the second character refusing to answer directly (or at all) the question posed. So we get 0 exposition. We know Navarro's mom was abused by her father, had schizophrenia and maybe a drug issue, fled back to Alaska and then got murdered. That's not actually a lot of info to try to sus out the nuanced ways a troubled parent can impact the adult child character we're trying to learn about. They've fucked around entirely too long with dead-end conversations and dramatic/ominous dead-end looks at the camera without dialogue. They have wasted an impossible amount of time IMO. Especially when you're only doing 6 damn episodes.

1. Pete - Idk if he wants to quit his job or get divorced. But the fact that he went from getting a handy on sight when he stepped through the door to "No, Pete I can't give our son a bath for some reason while you solve a once in a decade crime" to "You ruined my life and I didn't even want our 4-year old child." IN 72 HOURS?! That's a Kim Kardashian level marriage collapse. I think hers lasted like 11 days or whatever. They are both crazy or this writing is dogshit. Not sure which.
   
   1. Hank, fuck that psycho. I'm glad he got catfished. I hope he sends more money to the point that he loses everything and has to go live in an igloo. Even then I hope he gets bullied by the indigenous who survive easily up there.
   2. The mine lady is actually pretty chill considering all circumstances. But she might also be a crime boss ordering peoples' deaths...
   3. Qaavik needs to get away from Evangeline. She's crazy and toxic as hell and he is very kind and open and stuff. They are very different people. He can try to fix her if he wants, but that usually ends in heartache. But he seems like that kind of dude, so... Sad. Also, did Navarro leave that rock at Qaavik's? - Or did he take it? If he did, why would he? Is this just a plot device to give us a reason to go back to Qaavik's to retrieve it and maybe find him dead or something?
   4. Leeah needs to grow the fuck up and get some perspective. It's difficult for any 17 year old to fully understand the sacrifices our parents make for us. So, due to her age and poor role model in Liz, she gets a pass.
   5. Kayla is a bitch. I know she works and studies and spends a lot of time with that kid, so I don't want to call her lazy. But she does seem to be like unreasonably frustrated over her husband having to work long for literally 2-3 days. Like - bitch, just give the kiddo a bath. Darwin is 4. I have a 4 year old boy myself. Throw some toys and bubbles in there and I guarantee you he forgets quickly how much he cared about who scrubbed him down. I get Christmas Eve is a big deal, but so is a sextuple homicide, a manhunt, and your husband's job...Like..how about some fucking grace, patience and objectivity here?
   6. Otis Heismann was a fucking investobusinessman/venture capitalist right? Why is he "hiding" in an abandoned dredging machine in an Alaskan wasteland doing heroin? Maybe I am misremembering that part of the episode. Who set up the Christmas tree? Who prioritizes a Christmas tree over a space heater? I'm a drug user. We do weird stuff sometimes, but not that type of weird. So, that's not why. Especially if you're using heroin. You're not doing much of anything if you're on heroin.

So, unless they do some truly impressive stuff in episode 5 and 6, I'm gonna have to stamp this one as "barely watchable" like season 2 and 3. I haven't posted anything at all about this season until now. I wanted to reserve judgement. But at 2/3rds complete, I can now definitively say the pacing of exposition is entirely too slow. The misdirects, symbolism, and dead-ends are too many and the actual clues (they can be obscure, or circumstancial IDC! But at least give me some leads, dude). Not 1 more word about Tuttle United since it was name dropped. Not hanging my hopes for the season on the tie-ins to season 1, but Chekhov's gun, y'know? Why bring up that they funded Tsalal if it's irrelevant?

Hello everyone!
Before beginning, sorry if my English is not perfect as weel as for this post. I made it in emergency and English is not my native language. My goal is not to judge the work of writers, and I'm nobody to tell "Well, this lore is now very bad, what a shame", just giving my opinion on how the lore and story can be improved.
With the last post about the idea of a For Honor TV serie and a comment of myself about the fact that the writers team have actually expand the world of For Honor (after the coming of the Wu Lin and some of the armors of the Gryphon who have confirmed that ancient China, Mongols, Greeks and Koreans have survived to the Cataclysm, Year 6 and now 7 have proof that it was the same for ancient Egypt, Arabian peninsula (and so Arabian civilisation even they have melted many Eastern cultures with the Afeera (Mameluks, Persian...)) and Aztec lands), I have decided to make this post.
Extend the universe of For Honor it's really cool, but, in the other way, like it was said, the story behind the Outlanders (outside Pirate) are the same (someone goes to the land of the new Outlander, make something bad and return to Heahtmoor, follow by the leader of the new warrior's order where come the new Hero).
Year 7 is very strange for my in the narrative way. The first Season was pretty interesting and well find (consequences of the discover of the Relics who have created news cults because of the stories (and revelations for somes) that they brought) and then it is pretty strange: Ocelotl made rampage on one of the fortress of the Order of Horkos and want revenge for what it was done to their civilization? Astrea doesn't seem to mind and go the Wu Lin land for make a great fest with the Aztec gold and... decide to go to Valkenheim for the next part of her evil plan when the things goes wrong on the Wu Lin side.
this is the reasons for me what the lore is really strange this year and what the lore is inconsistent:
1- the game is now a live service-game, each Season must have it's theme, so writers must find ideas for the context and story of the Season, even if this last are really different of the universe of For Honor in term of thematics;
2- the writers really seems to doesn't have plan, so they write what they have planned for one year, and this at each year. Maybe I have wrong on this point, but this is what I think.
This strange way to tell the story made me realize that the one of Year 4 is really well built (Draconite effects (outside the ones of poison and healing) was the real problem of the lore for the Year for me): Season 1: Peace between factions; Season 2: arrival of Horkos and beginning of Tyranny; Season 3: birth of the Resistance; Season 4: first great contre-offensive againt the Order of Horkos by the new name of the Resistance, Chimera Alliance
Year 8 (if the game is still support in 2024) seems to be the Year of Chimera, and, Year 10, for me, the final fight between the two Covenants and their possible annihilation. If the game have additional years of content and support, what can be the stories?
I have some idea about this.
If Year 10 is the end of Chimera Alliance and of the Order of Horkos durin their ultimate battle, where Holden Cross and Astrea will kill each other, we can imagine Ayu, Stigandr and Daubeny (now former Lord Warden) -- if the three are still alive -- try make peace once for all after years and years of war and unite all peoples of Heahtmoor in the case were news threats will coming from seas or land. But dissensions between Knights lords (mentioned by Apollyon during the intro of the Campaign), Vikings clans and Samurais houses will create wars not only within the factions but also between the factions because of the old rivalries (some Knights will remeber the Vikings raids, some Vikings will remember the invasion and the famine caused by Apollyon, and some Samurais will do the same for what the Great Raid made to their civilization and the elimination of the Imperial family by Apollyon). In this news factions war, all of the three factions can be engage as mercenaries Wu Lin and Outlanders. In this chaos, some members of this factions can try to made survive the ideals of the Covenants and provoke (intentionally or intentionally) more chaos. During this mess, Gao Lei return to Wu Lin homeland and rebuilt an army to make their conquest dreams a realities and go to Heahtmoor. All of this provoke a big chaos of war and violent acts during decades.
This is just fews ideas of what can be happened in the futur. But this is the context and the general story because I also think that some themes can be discussed or in the center of Seasons about the three original factions and their characteristics:
- the Empire where the Knights come from and the differents Knights Legions,
- the Great Viking Empire of Valkenheim, the travel of the Vikings on the ocean and their return,
- and the Samurais's exile and the environments and cultures that they encounter and crossed during their exodus.
For finish this post, I will giving my personal thought on the next Viking Hero. We know that many players want an axe and shield Viking based Hero, more or less visually inspired by Gudmundr. I have thinking that the leader of the new Hero's order can be the great-daughter of Gudmundr. Gudmundr was pretty old during the campaign and because this one lasted 10 Years, in addition of the Years between the death of Apollyon and now (15 years for the Truce of Wyverndale), we can presume that the great-daughter of Gudmundr (if the new hero is related to them) was aged of 40/45 years old. Maybe she was too young to remember of what it's happening with the Blackstone Legion, but some Vikings (and living members of her family) have talked to her of the invasion, death of many of them by the blades of the Blackstone soldiers (including her grant-father) and the famine, created in her mind a fierce spirit of resistance and protection of the Viking's people against all invaders, especially related to Apollyon. So, when the Order of Horkos's troops will coming in Valkenheim, she can lead the attack and the offensive against Horkos and it's machinations with her axe and shield.
What do you think of all of this? Thank in advance in you have read all and for the answers. :)

I’m sure this idea has been previously brought up, but I’ll throw my two cents (or Ceres new Yen).
Aliana Tanaka appears to me as the antithesis of Bobbie Draper.
When it comes to physical characteristics, Bobbie is bulky and has “muscles on her muscles”.
Tanaka has a rather slender frame, but she still possesses a high strength considering that.
Tanaka appears to be almost the same age that Bobbie would’ve been, meaning that the former MCRN colonel defected about the same time our beloved Marine was still clinging to her love for Mars (also taking up lesser jobs at home instead of leaving to other worlds).
Bobbie “doesn’t use sex as a weapon”.
Tanaka is having intimate relationships with her underlings, and it’s implied she had this habit for a long time. This secret of hers is supposed to be the only thing that helps her remaining sane within an authoritarian regime like Laconia and she’s thrilled by it. At least, up until the melding of minds threaten to expose her…
Bobbie Draper grows and diversifies her inner life, she gets to respect and love people she was previously programmed to hate (Avasarala, Holden, Naomi, heck, she even becomes a bigger sister to Claire Mao).
Tanaka seems to be an eternal self-satisfied automaton, literally despising everything she wouldn’t fear.
Among the similarities:
They are both beautiful women, and both have a certain exotic je ne sais quoi about them:
Bobbie is described as a big and aesthetically pleasing Samoan woman, while Tanaka is implied to be a stunning Japanese lady.
Both Bobbie and Tanaka have rather heroic last stands and tragical deaths: Bobbie is compared by Alex to a Valkyrie/Amazonian spirit, while Tanaka is furiously beating the shit out of a protomolecule demigod formerly known as Winston Duarte.
I’m sure the comparison can be continued further.
What do you think of this view?

When I first watched Heathers: The Musical, believe it or not, I fucking hated Heather Duke. My favourite character back then was Heather Chandler, because she’s a mythic bitch. Then, I realised I hated Heather Duke because she was too much like me.
But that’s not the point. My point is, Heather Duke is considered by many to be an extremely hatable character. The purpose of this essay is not to convince you to like Heather Duke more; it is just to defend some of her actions, as stated in the title. Though many of Heather Duke’s actions were inexcusable, she is ultimately one of Heather Chandler’s victims; an example of the victim becoming the bully. Most of this essay is written with the Off-Broadway production in mind, as well as the movie.

Heather Duke has a personality

Let’s start from the very beginning. While it is true that we have about 2 hours of musical content and 1 hour and 44 minutes of movie content to go off of, as well as deleted scripts, much can be gathered regarding Heather Duke’s personality.
Veronica describes Duke as having ‘no discernible personality, but her mom did pay for implants’. It is proven further on in the musical that yes, Duke does have a personality; a personality is defined by the Oxford dictionary as the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character. Duke is far from having no discernible personality; hell, you could even argue that Duke is the most in-depth character in Heathers.
The most prominent example of this is Duke’s interaction with JD before ‘Kindergarten Boyfriend’, Duke immediately knowing that “I now know thee, thou clear spirit” is from Moby Dick, and that’s not even the whole quote. Duke is shown to be an avid reader in the movie as well; reading Moby Dick even while playing croquet and in early drafts of the script, referencing The Catcher in the Rye (“Yeah, you know Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye wouldn’t put up with their bogus nonsense.”).
I read The Catcher in the Rye recently, and it’s a coming-of-age novel from an unreliable narrator perspective. The main character, Holden Caulfield, has a very warped worldview, classifying people as ‘phonies’, smoking and drinking while underage, his most notable trait being his red hunting cap; a physical manifestation of his different thinking and uniqueness from others. I interpret Duke liking this novel as her relating heavily with its themes of angst and alienation, often picturing herself as being alienated from the Heathers; with Chandler shown to treat McNamara better than her, and even treats Veronica better than her (to an extent). And as another Reddit user mentioned, curiosity is a sign of intelligence; her willingness to seek new information such as books makes her an extremely intelligent character (even managing to find a quote from a book with 135 chapters immediately).
I almost forgot to add how Duke runs the yearbook; and running a yearbook committee requires qualities such as good leadership abilities, good teamwork skills as well as a high level of creativity. High schools do not just let random people run their yearbook committees; unless Duke bribed the faculty to give her the position or intimidated the student body into electing her as yearbook committee head. In the movie, there’s a scene that Dennis, Peter and a random girl are discussing the yearbook regarding Chandler’s suicide, and the fact that Duke is allowing it to be included in the yearbook (as the head, despite not being in the scene itself) shows that not only is she a somewhat competent head, she also knows what’s best for the yearbook and what isn’t.
Duke comes up with many snarky remarks throughout the musical, some taken directly from the movie version of Chandler (“What? It’ll give her shower nozzle masturbation material for weeks!”) which implies how she models her behaviour after her though she does come up with her fair share of snarky remarks herself (“We all didn’t kiss on the kickball field!”, “Here comes the cootie squad! We should-“, et cetera).
Duke is insecure, described in the Off-Broadway script as being ‘the whipped beta dog of the three Heathers. Deeply insecure.’ A good example to show her insecurity is in the OOBC bootleg of ‘Beautiful’ on YouTube (Alice Lee is an amazing Heather Duke), when she tells Veronica “Of course, you could stand to lose a few pounds.” she grips her stomach area, heaving deeply as if she’s disgusted by herself, reflecting her insecurities on Veronica, but regains her composure quickly. Another Reddit user pointed out how Duke seems to adjust the bottom of her blazer after being placed in a situation out of her control; and control is a very important aspect of her character, which I will also be going into when talking about her eating disorder. After Duke gets SA’d by Ram in ‘Big Fun’ and suspended by Mrs. Fleming after ‘Lifeboat’, she readjusts the bottom of her blazer, and I do think this is symbolic; reminding her that after everything, the one thing she has control over is her body and her weight, which is why she specifically readjusts the area of her blazer covering her stomach.
Lastly, Duke is the only character in canon confirmed to have a disorder; bulimia nervosa. While some of you may argue that “JD has antisocial personality disordePTSD!” or “Veronica is depressed!” they are not confirmed. The diagnostic criterion for bulimia nervosa in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-V) are:

• Recurrent episodes of binge eating
• Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behaviors in order to prevent weight gain (like purging)
• The binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviour both occur on average at least once a week for 3 months
• Self-evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weight
• Disturbances do not occur during episodes of anorexia nervosa

While Duke’s bulimia is mentioned only once throughout the whole musical in ‘Beautiful’, and twice in the movie where it is shown that she started to make an attempt to normally after Chandler’s death (no, you can’t recover from bulimia instantly), it shows a lot about her character. The act of binge eating itself has a sense of lack of control, as stated in the DSM-V. It goes so far that during binges, individuals tend to eat foods they would otherwise avoid; continuing until they are uncomfortably full. The DSM-V states that experiencing multiple stressful life events can precipitate onset of bulimia, and bulimics tend to be ashamed of their eating problems, which can be triggered through multiple factors like interpersonal stressors, negative feelings related to body weight and body shape, boredom, et cetera.
Why am I telling you all this? Because Duke’s bulimia is a product of her insecurity. Heather Duke hates the way she looks; if she didn’t, her mom wouldn’t have paid for implants. Also, the minimum age to get breast implants in the USA is 18; implying that Duke’s mother and Duke got it through illegal means. Heather Duke mafia arc?! Bulimia is also seen by bulimics to be a way to maintain control over their own body. They believe that even if they can’t control anything else around them, they still have complete control over their own body; which is what leads to the development of an eating disorder. Duke wants control; shown by her jealousy of Chandler as well as her taking initiative to obtain the red scrunchie in the musical after Chandler’s death. When Duke doesn’t have control, she uses unhealthy coping mechanisms like her bulimia and phrases to reassure herself (like when JD blackmails her, she says “Nobody cares about the past. Nobody cares about Martha Dumptruck.” and it has a vengeful, angsty intonation to it; as if she’s saying it to reassure herself, perhaps?).
In conclusion, Heather Duke has a personality. She is highly intelligent, snarky, insecure, aching for control over her own life and the lives of others’. Which leads me to my next point.

Heather Chandler’s abuse

Many people speculate that Chandler is an asshole to Duke because she knows that Duke will go batshit crazy on McNamara if Duke gets the power (like she did after ‘Lifeboat’) and hence keeps Duke on a tight leash. In actuality, she does not just keep Duke on a tight leash. She abuses Duke, both physically and mentally. Chandler’s physical assault is shown in ‘Candy Store’, before her riff where Duke wails vocal ad-lib and Chandler fucking pushes her. It has come to the point where people don’t compare how good each individual Chandler’s riff is, rather, people compare how far each individual Duke gets pushed. Under no circumstances should you ever push someone to the ground, let alone your friend or someone who is part of your clique. That’s called bullying.
And if I could list every single instance that Chandler mentally/verbally abuses Duke, I’d be here all day. Which I already am. Some examples include:

• “Grow up, Heather. Bulimia is so ‘87.” Not only does Chandler not show a conscious effort to help Duke recover from her eating disorder, she mocks it, ridiculing Duke for being immature (as implied by Chandler’s words) in front of McNamara. Also, fun fact, excessive purging can lead to death. Either Chandler is extremely indifferent and couldn’t give 2 shits if Duke died or is ignorant of what bulimia is. In which case she is still an extremely shitty friend for not trying to help Duke.
• Chandler tells Duke to shut up a total of 4 times in the musical (first time in ‘Beautiful’, “How about prescriptions?” “Shut up, Heather!” second time before ‘Candy Store’, “What? It’ll give her shower nozzle masturbation material for weeks!” “Shut up, Heather!” third time during ‘Candy Store’ before the riff, “Woah! Honey, what you waiting for-“ “Shut up, Heather!” and last time during ‘Big Fun’, “Here comes the cootie squad! We should-“ “Shut up, Heather!”). And Chandler is alive for a grand total of 42 minutes. Notice that every time Chandler tells her to shut up, Duke always replies with a meek “Sorry, Heather…” (except for during ‘Candy Store’ because Duke’s on the floor but there’s a recording of Jessica Keenan Wynn, Elle McLemore and Kristolyn Lloyd performing the song at a Barnes and Noble where after Jessica as Chandler tells Kristolyn as Duke to shut up, she replies with a hasty “Sorry, Heather!”) which shows how Chandler has basically beaten this poor girl down into submission, silencing her and giving her no right to speak or even have an opinion. Which brings me on to my next instance.
• “You’ll need something to write on. Heather, bend over.” Chandler literally makes Veronica use Duke as a table. In the movie, there is literally a table right behind them; and in a deleted script, both McNamara and Duke bend over, and Chandler makes Duke go back down. The fact that in both the movie and the musical, Duke does it with zero protesting shows that she was acclimatised to her position as Chandler’s metaphorical (and literal) punching bag.
• “I am talking to my friend.” This is in the West End production, where Chandler directly addresses Duke after she says “You were totally throwing your panties at him!” to Veronica. Even within the Heathers, there’s a hierarchy at play; Chandler’s tone of voice is extremely condescending, addressing her as if she’s a dog or an insolent, disobedient kid. Which Duke immediately ‘steps back in line’ and responds with a “Sorry, Heather…”
• During ‘Big Fun’, after Veronica saves Duke’s ass (both metaphorically and literally) from Ram, Duke approaches Chandler who throws her hands up and gives her a patronising look. Even after being sexually harassed by Ram, and even after calling out (“Quit it jackass, get off of me!”), Chandler refuses to offer Duke help; leading to her responding to Veronica’s offers of help with spite and anger from being thrown aside by Chandler (“I didn’t need your help.”).
• “Heather Duke was such a sad little poser. Veronica, tell her to stop touching my stuff.” While this is arguable because this is Chandler’s ghost and it’s implied that Chandler’s ghost is a manifestation of Veronica’s guilt, it shows that even Veronica would subconsciously know that Chandler would say this about Duke. Chandler’s treatment of Duke is so bad to the point of Veronica knowing exactly what Chandler would say about Duke in that situation.

This is way too much for a 17 year old to handle. When Chandler says “Grow up, Heather. Bulimia is so ‘87.”, it’s also implying that they knew each other since/before 1987. Which is even more fucked up considering Duke has been constantly taking abuse from Chandler for 2 years or more. The worst part is, if Duke wants to remain a Heather, she can’t do anything. And she’s not allowed to do anything. Or she’d become an ex-somebody, and we all knew the consequences of that in the actual musical. After 2 years (or more) of suffering, what do you think Duke would do? It’s human instinct to feel like shit if you were abused like this. And instead of getting swallowed up by her pain like McNamara did, what did Duke do? Lash out at others. But before I go into that, I’ll go into a small sub-section.

Heather McNamara’s ignorance

Heather McNamara is not an innocent cinnamon roll. She is equally as bad as every other Heather; just that she is redeemable. As Janis Ian/Sarkisian once said, “There are two kinds of evil people in this world. Those who do evil stuff and those who see evil stuff being done and don't try to stop it.” And it is safe to say that McNamara falls under both categories.
She doesn’t try to stop Duke or protect Veronica when Duke spreads the rumor that Veronica had a threesome with Kurt and Ram; instead, she actively encourages it! In Blue (Reprise), she sings “I hope she rinsed it!” and actively joins in the singing in the West End production’s ‘Never Shut Up Again’.
Heather McNamara is a follower. She’s a lot like someone I know; she follows what the most influential person wants, and goes with it. After Chandler died, it was Duke. And before Chandler died… you guessed it!
You may argue that McNamara told Duke “Maybe you should see a doctor, Heather.” but that is kind of a given…? Someone with bulimia, as stated earlier, would not be open about their eating disorder at all. That is extremely shitty advice to give someone. She could’ve agreed with Duke, could’ve stood up for her or at least tried to interact with her or help her up when she was pushed down; but she didn’t (I think in the West End production she did? I’m not sure either; it looked more as if she was pushing Duke into place which is an even more asshole move to do). Naturally, Duke would associate McNamara as one of the people who wronged her, as well as Chandler. And when McNamara poured her heart out to TV cameras during ‘Lifeboat’… well…

Justifying Heather Duke’s actions

…Heather Duke was not having it. Many people take notice of the “And every morning on the bus I feel my heart beating louder and faster and I’m like ‘Jesus, I’m on the freaking bus again because all my rides to school are dead…’” and then they look at Duke’s line in ‘Candy Store’ (“And get in my Jeep!”) which could be interpreted many different ways. And I like to think that Duke walks to school because bulimics tend to overexercise in order to lose weight (especially considering Heathers occured in a relatively short time frame), but as I said, it could be interpreted many different ways. Bulimics typically have to go through cognitive behavioural therapy (or they can just… recover from their own, but it takes time) but that’s not the point. My point is, Duke didn’t necessarily refuse to pick McNamara up. It’s just a theory. A musical theory.
After ‘Lifeboat’, where McNamara is stuck in a trance-like state, Duke rushes towards her, confronting her. And here’s where everyone forgets that the TV cameras are still recording; why would Duke yell at someone who is suicidal on TV cameras? She wants control. She craves positive attention. The last thing that Duke would do would be to make herself seem like an asshole on national television. The whole sequence seemed as if it was out of rage and pent-up anger more than anything; it was almost immediate after ‘Lifeboat’ ended. Her tone was not dissimilar to Chandler’s before ‘Dead Girl Walking’; both extremely indignant. And here’s where some people also forget that ‘Shine a Light (Reprise)’ happened in McNamara’s head and Duke didn’t actually tell her to go kill herself. I interpret ‘Shine a Light (Reprise)’ not just as McNamara imagining Duke telling her to kill herself, but subconsciously encouraging herself to kill herself. Why would Duke use Mrs. Fleming’s song? In essence; Duke lashed out at McNamara in rage. It seemed more of an outburst rather than a premeditated action.
Sure, I can’t justify Duke spreading the rumor about Veronica having a threesome. I admit that Duke is an asshole for doing that. Which is why I like her. What I can somewhat justify is Duke usurping Chandler’s position as head bitch.
Duke had always been in Chandler’s shadow; and in this case, always been beaten up by Chandler. Naturally, what she’d want to do is issue a final “fuck you” to Chandler by firstly, usurping her position, her red scrunchie, raiding her locker, and blowing her boyfriend (I believe that’s in a deleted part of the movie script where she blows David. But people with EDs typically don’t participate in sexual activities because of their body image issues). Duke wanted to take what Chandler didn’t give her, and she wanted to make others feel how Chandler made her feel. Her actions were out of vengeance and rage.
After ‘Kindergarten Boyfriend’, Duke attempts to get Veronica and McNamara to sign the petition, and when Veronica tells her that “We were avoiding you.”, Duke lets out a gasp of bewildered betrayal. This implies that Duke didn’t understand the consequences of her actions (which again, I can imply that Chandler did it to her so many times that she thinks it’s okay) which is so fucking sad. Which also further leads me to believe that Duke lashed out at McNamara out of rage.

Conclusion

The saddest thing about Heather Duke is that in the Off-Broadway production, she does not achieve a happy ending. She is the only living character in the musical to not have a happy ending (JD reunited with his mom in heaven, Veronica, Martha and McNamara reconcile, the school as a whole reconciled) and instead goes back to being a nobody. She joins a random group and sings with them, showing how it’s so tragic that she didn’t even get to keep what she wanted for so long. Though, in the West End production, she reunites with McNamara and Veronica. But I don’t really like that ending because after what Duke did, I wouldn’t see McNamara and Veronica forgiving her, especially since Duke said that Martha was “Just another geek trying to imitate the popular kids and failing miserably.”
Heather Duke’s actions can’t be fully excused, but she isn’t inherently bad; I believe that her actions were mostly out of vengeance. And that is so relatable. What the fuck.
I like to think that after the events of Heathers, Heather Duke and Heather McNamara went to therapy together, explaining their actions and pushing past their past grievances and turning their trauma bond into a true friendship. But again, it never happened. Unless I write a fanfic about it.
If you’re reading this, thank you for coming to my TedTalk. And I’m so happy you managed to read through my Heather Duke essay. She just like me fr

*** ALL SPOILERS ALLOWED ***
I am reading through the books for the second time and have just started Caliban's War (Yay! I remember this one being amazing)
One of the details that really pops out at me in the books compared to the TV show is the description of Belters. They are much taller than Earthers, and they have larger heads, all from a childhood in a low or null gravity environment.
Leviathan Wakes tells us that Naomi is a head taller than Jim. Ditto for Miller when compared to the righteous Earther. So, while I'm reading, I imagine that difference in height whenever the characters are in the same room.
That obviously is not the case with the TV show. While I understand the showrunners' reasons for not trying to make Belters look like they do in the books, I can't help but wonder if it can be done.
The main reason I would like to see this portrayed onscreen (besides my belief that source material should always be respected) is because of the importance of Belter physique when it comes to the story. You can begin to see the reasons why they are treated so badly by the Inners. It's a modern (200 years from now) version of racism. It helps the audience understand why the Earthers look down upon Belters.
We all have our own understanding of what it means to be normal, usually based on what we experienced in childhood. When we see someone who doesn't look like what we're familiar with, we start to make hasty, fearful, and irrational assumptions. Due to our fear of the unknown, we assume that the "different" people don't share our values and morals, meaning they might be a threat.
The differences between Earthers and Belters are so much more prevalent than the differences between races on Earth today. That is why the racism in The Expanse is so realistic and helps to explain why the situation in the Belt is so dire for so many. It's easy for Earthers to see Belters as "not human" and justify their cruelty towards them. Not only is it realistic, but the racism towards Belters is a key part of the story throughout the books.
Now, back to the show. Belters are usually shown to have tatoos, have hair that stands up, and shaved sides of their heads. They also have their own language. That does make the audience see a difference, but it's nowhere near the difference described in the books. In fact, there are many scenes in the show where you cannot tell if someone where someone is from. E.g. Doris, Prax's friend in Season 2, who stayed with the injured botanist after the first battle of Ganymede. I assumed she was a Belter until she said, "I'm going back to Mars. I still have family there." She was also spaced with the rest of the Inners who were onboard the refugee ship. So ... apparently, she's Martian. I had no idea because she doesn't look any different from Prax, who's only Belter characteristic is his hairstyle.
Overall, I feel like the show is missing a key component of the story by not having the Belters share the physique of their book counterparts.
I'm curious to hear from others on whether or not you would try to make Belters realistic on-screen and also how it would be done. CGI? Prosthetics? Any other techniques?
This discussion is for both the current show and a hypothetical future reboot of the show.
Thank you for reading. I hope this opens up a good discussion. Have a wonderful day!
TL;DR - Belter physique is vital because it helps explain why they're so oppressed by Earth. It's the same racism we've always seen. The show lacks this element. Would you change this and how?
Tenye discussion gut, beratnas!
As always, peace, love, and respect ✌️
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Express-Welder9003 --- Maybe if they re-do the series in animated form they can then give everyone their proper size. They can also do the final trilogy and re-cast Alex so that they don't have to cut him out of the story.

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Express-Welder9003 --- ... that would likely add a lot to the budget and the show is already quite expensive to make. I'd like to see it though, right now the Holden/Naomi relationship is just two conventionally attractive people falling in love with each other. Giving Naomi a proper Belter physique would better highlight that while Holden is good looking he came to love Naomi based on who she is and not how she looked.

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schwarzekatze999 --- I mean, they could just get Doug Jones to play every Belter, I guess. They could purposely choose shorter actors to play Earthers to make the Belters look taller in comparison. It would probably be pretty easy to do that with bit parts and extras, but it might be harder with main characters. Belters could wear heeled shoes and tighter clothes, while Earthers wear looser clothes and flat shoes, to further fit the description. I dunno about the large heads, though. That would just look odd. Prosthetics would work in theory but then they'd probably all be looking like Odo or something.

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I've seen the show and read all the books and stories and at the end of it all I'm left with random questions that of course are open ended and would make great fan fiction or discussion on possible scenarios.
Did the people with shared consciousness ever recover? Especially the young children, such as Alex's grandson. What if that event spawned a whole generation of extra empathetic youth? How would that affect their society?
What happened to Amos, Xan, and Cara over the long run? Clearly Amos was on earth at the epilogue of the final book but what more did they learn, if anything? How did their knowledge help Earth? How did he get to that position? Did they share any connection with others back on Laconia who at some point maybe went through the same thing they did?
Laconia: Knowing what the repair dogs can do, do you think there were more Amos-zombie type folks created, either intentionally to study the effects or on accident? How do you imagine their world functioned after? I believe Admiral Trejo was in charge but wasn't Drummer left there as well? How great would a rebellion story be on Laconia post ring gate? Their society could go so many ways.
We see the beginning of a reuniting of the planets through new technology at the finale. In the same way the Belters and Martians adapted to their planets, wouldn't there be the same adaptations happening throughout the new planets? Slightly different gravity, different days, years, etc. Without Earth to be their home base a day or a year could take on a whole new meaning. Societies could be so many different things. So many stories could come out of this! Different techs, even different physical characteristics.
And last but not least if they continued the TV series as a mini series to wrap up the last three books, I would love to see Avasarala's grand daughter as a larger character and a replacement for her character. The brief bit she has with Holden in the books points to her being every bit as formidable as her grandmother.
Thanks for reading my random thought/questions.

In some of the interpretations I know about the nature of Judge Holden, something leads me to assume that he is not thought to be a real entity. It is thought to be a kind of "representation" of different dimensions or human aspects (death, war, money, etc.). I think that Judge Holden is a real entity, like the rest of the characters in the book, but of a different biological nature. It could be an entity from a civilization of explorers with a warlike temperament, sadic to human parameters and extremely long-lived. Its origin is possibly in the interior of the Earth or on other planets.
What leads me to think about this is the following:
1. The Judge has no hair, but sweats and has different elements that characterize him as a biological entiety. Does not the fact of having hair and having a massive body mass account for an organism adapted to conditions of gravity and temperature different from those of Earth?
2. The Judge is always linked to elements of geological nature, speculations or scientific facts about chemistry. This is more than evident in the passage told by Tobin about the elaboration of gunpowder.
3. When the gang crosses the Malpais, Tobin speaks explicitly about entities that "arose from the interior of the Earth." It is not a metaphor. He claims to have seen footprints of these creatures: "... Where for aught any man knows lies the locality of hell. For the earth is a globe in the void and truth there's no up nor down to it and there's men in this company besides myself seen little cloven hoof-prints in the stone clever as a little doe in her going but what little doe ever trod melted rock? I'd not go behind scripture but it may be that there has been sinners so notorious evil that the fires coughed em up again and I could well see in the long ago how it was little devils with their pitchforks had traversed that fiery vomit for to salvage back those souls that had by mis adventure been spewed up from their damnation onto the outer shelves of the world. Aye. It's a notion, no more. But someplace in the scheme of things this world must touch the other. And somethin put them little hooflet markings in the lava flow for I seen them there myself" (X: 115).
4. The Judge is a strange creature and everyone who encounters him senses this "non-human" characteristic. However, none of them can decipher it as such. Despite encountering a multitude of believers (basically 98% of the book's primary and secondary characters), none of them react to him as if he were a "demonic" entity.
5. His taxonomic fixation, his obsession with human technological artifacts and linguistics. He is a sort of zafari "humanist".
6. There are changes in his physical appearance, so we could assume that he is a slowly aging organism. For example, when The Kid meets him in the saloon at the end of the book, he states: "He wore a round hat with a narrow brim and he was among every kind of man, herder and bullwhacker and drover and freighter and miner and hunter and soldier and pedlar and gambler and drifter and drunkard and thief and he was among the dregs of the earth in beggary a thousand years and he was among the scapegrace scions of eastern dynasties and in all that motley assemblage he sat by them and yet alone as if he were some other sort of man entire and he seemed little changed or none in all these years" (XXIII: 274).
I know this is a somewhat superficial and biased interpretation, but it has been obsesed me for some time.
What do you think?

Wanted to share some passages from Oswald Spengler's "Man and Technics" that seem pertinent to Blood Meridian. McCarthy was apparently a reader of Spengler in general, and I think these passages represent something very accurate to Judge Holden's creed and the greater meaning of the book.
p. 13:

"MAN is a beast of prey. Acute thinkers, like Montaigne and Nietzsche, have always known this. The old fairy-tales and the proverbs of peasant and nomad folk the world over, with their lively cunning: the half-smiling penetration characteristic of the great connoisseur of men, whether statesman or general, merchant or judge, at the maturity of his rich life: the despair of the world improver who has failed: the invective of the angered priest — in none of these is denial or even concealment of the fact as much as attempted."

p. 14:

"The animal of prey is the highest form of mobile life. It implies a maximum of freedom for self against others, of responsibility to self, of singleness of self, an extreme of necessity where that self can hold its own only by fighting and winning and destroying. It imparts a high dignity to Man, as a type, that he is a beast of prey."
"Cleverness in the human sense, active cleverness, belongs only to beasts of prey. Herbivores are by comparison stupid, and not merely the “innocent” dove and the elephant, but even the noblest sorts like the bull, the horse, and the deer; only in blind rage or sexual excitement are these capable of fighting; otherwise they will allow themselves to be tamed, and a child can lead them."
"In itself every being lives in Nature, in an environment, irrespective of whether it notices this environment, or is noticeable in it, or neither. But it is the relation — mysterious, inexplicable by any human reasoning — that is established between animal and environment by touching, ordering, and understanding, which creates out of mere environment a world-around."

p. 15:

"But the eye of the preying animal gives a target. The very fact that, in the great carnivores as in man, the two eyes can be fixed on one point in the environment enables the animal to bind its prey. In that hostile glare there is already implicit for the victim the doom that it cannot escape, the spring that is instantly to follow. But this act of fixation by two eyes disposed forward and parallel is equivalent to the birth of the world, in the sense that Man possesses it — that is, as a picture, as a world before the eyes, as a world not merely of lights and colours, but of perspective distance, of space and motions in space, and of objects situated at definite points."
"The eye of the beast of prey determines things according to position and distance. It apprehends the horizon. It measures up in this battle field the objects and conditions of attack. Sniffing and spying, the way of the hind and the way of the falcon, are related as slavery and dominance. There is an infinite sense of power in this quiet wide-angle vision, a feeling of freedom that has its source in superiority, and its foundations in the knowledge of greater strength and consequent certainty of being no one’s prey. The world is the prey, and in the last analysis it is owing to this fact that human culture has come into existence."
"The soul — this enigmatic something which we feel when we hear the word used, but of which the essence baffles all science, the divine spark in this living body which in this divinely cruel, divinely indifferent world has either to rule or to submit — is the counter-pole of the light-world about us, and hence man’s thought and feeling are very ready to assume the existence of a world-soul in it. The more solitary the being and the more resolute it is in forming its own world against all other conjunctures of worlds in the environment, the more definite and strong the cast of its soul."
"But the less one needs others, the more powerful one is. A beast of prey is everyone’s foe. Never does he tolerate an equal in his den. Here we are at the root of the truly royal idea of property. Property is the domain in which one exercises unlimited power, the power that one has gained in battling, defended against one’s peers, victoriously upheld. It is not a right to mere having, but the sovereign right to do as one will with one’s own."

p. 16:

"Such is the difference between the destiny of herbivores and that of the beast of prey. The one destiny only menaces, the other enhances as well. The former depresses, makes mean and cowardly, while the latter elevates through power and victory, pride and hate. The former is a destiny that is imposed on one, the latter a destiny that is identical with oneself. And the fight of nature-within against nature without is thus seen to be, not misery, as Schopenhauer and as Darwin’s “struggle for existence” regard it, but a grand meaning that ennobles life, the amnor fati of Nietzsche. And it is to this kind and not the other that Man belongs."

I think these passages shed quite a lot of light on how the Judge views the world and where his beliefs might come from. Obviously there's no direct bridge between these authors, but Spengler seems to be commenting on the urgent ideas emerging from his time in history, writing between the World Wars when civilization itself is slowly being superseded by our more rudimentary nature. We see here references to a "divine spark" of some kind, the philosophy of the genius predator, the position of mankind in the world among "dumb animals." It may be that McCarthy wishes to depict mankind as the dumb animal, compared with the Judge who is the true human, ruled by the basic fact of dominance. Other creatures must look at mankind in the same light. And his description of prey is also illuminating: most characters are driven by reason or values, and are trapped in their feats of logic and sensibility. Only the Judge seems to maintain the primacy of our organic machine, whereas others seem to seek reasons to limit what we do. I dunno -- some thoughts. Enjoy!

This is just my personal interest to killing my time, but anyone know any classroom which is huge and tends to include many students, so the teacher doesn’t notice if I'm here or not?
I want to take random classes to meet some stimulation.
​
Huge classroom lists
Wells
B115 - (EC, STT, PSL, IAH)
B117 - (MTH, ANP, CSE, ISP, ACC)
B119 - (MTH, ECE, CE, AFRE, KIN, CSE, ENE, HDFS)
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Eli Broad College of Business
N100 - (CSUS, ACC, PSY, FI, BUS)
N130 - (SCM, MKT, MMG, ACC, IBUS)
​
Anthony
1281 - (BMB, STT, ANS, MMG, HDFS, PKG, CAS, CSE, AL, CE)
1345 - (CHE, STT, ECE, ENT, EC, ME, SCM)
​
Chemistry Building
C138 - (CEM only)
​
Biomedical Physical Sciences
1410 - (BMB, MMG, PHY, ME, ISP)
​
Psychology Building (\Default Capacity is 100)*
118 - (PSY, IAH, CJ)
​
Natural Resources Building
158 - (BMB, ENE, ME, CE, BE, ISP, ADV, PHM, ISS)
​
Old Horticulture Building
206 - (ISS, EC, CMP, IBIO)
​
Veterinary Medical Center
E100 - (MTH, COM, STT, BS, SOC, PLS, PSL, MMG)
​
Communication Arts
147 - (ADV, COM, DS, SL, MI, JRN, CAS)
​
STEM Teaching and Learning Facility
1130 - (MSE, BS, KIN, ISB)
​
Life Science Classroom
A133 - (PSY, HDFS, IAH, MI)
​
Akers / McDonel / Conrad / Bessey
137 - (ISS, STT)
C107 / Kiva - (SOC, CSE, ANP, PLS, ISS, MKT)
102 - (OST, ISS, ADV)
108 - (MTH, STT, IBIO, AL, SL, PSY, CJ, CAS)
​
Wilson / Wonders
C102 - (IAH, MTH, EGR, EPI, HDFS, ISB)
C100 - (IAH, ISS, STT, ADV)
​
Holden
G8 - (PLB, ME, MTH, CSE, PR, ISS, ADV)
​
Erickson
103 / Circle Shape Kiva - (KIN, CSE, ISS, BS, NEU)
​
Giltner
146 - (IAH, PSY, HA, EC, PLB, GEO)
​
Characteristics of huge classroom
Multiple doors (Usually sets of doors)
Easy to access (not underground)
Max Capacity: 225~
​
(It's the capacity of the classroom, and it's not the size of the class)
(For example, there can be a max capacity of 250 for 60 people class)
(So check before you go)
​
*According to 25Live Pro, biggest class is Wells Hall B115 for the capacity of 622
*Natural Science (326) and Kedzie (N101) are currently unavailable
​
For search: Big, Massive classroom
https://25live.collegenet.com/pro/msu#!/home/search/location/list

This wasn’t a bad book but it tried to take me on an emotional journey and I just kept tripping over bad cliches and shaky plot decisions.
Issue the first: what kind of god damn therapist would suggest a teenage girl write to a teenage boy in juvie? Who set that up??

1. There was discussion about why he didn’t want her to visit him in prison but why didn’t they call each other?Furthermore, why didn’t she call the prison when she was concerned for his safety?
   
2. This is more a general complaint but I’m already not a big fan of BDSM to start. So I understand I’m all kinds of biased but what is with the “my trauma informs my kink” idea? And it’s always a kink. It’s never “I’m traumatised so I need you to be gentle” because I guess that’s not as sexy? Also we got all the specialness of her taking his virginity (boo virginity) but none of the awkwardness of him not being good at sex because he was repeatedly sexually assaulted?? Feels like having your cake and eating it too. He also amazingly had no issues with sex despite the VERY RECENT assaults?
   

3b. Quote “I hate how the once confident alpha-type man who bossed me about and dominated me in all aspects now stands shorter, anxious, and subdued.” Dominated me in all aspects? Firstly, he didn’t. Secondly, that’s not healthy sis??? I can deal with (almost) any sex stuff but why let it bleed into regular life? Her rationale for her wanting to be “submissive” was about quieting her mind. If he dominates in all aspects, does that mean you don’t have any thoughts??? Also she confessed to being submissive when she was like 15 which was unsettling.
3c. Just saying a character has a characteristic doesn’t make it so. He wasn’t really dominant. She wasn’t really all that brave either? Also some of her thinking was inconsistent like how she was so shaken by how violent Holden was towards Owen. Owen, who Holden had already told her drugged and raped women. Owen, who had previously (and apparently without punishment) drugged her. Owen, who was at the time threatening and groping her?? “I love how possessive he is” to “wow I can’t believe her was going to kill the guy that tried to rape me”

1. It was all a bit TOO convenient. I can get on board with 💫 the universe 💫 bringing them together. And about how he was involved in her accident. But the fact Owen was there too??? That’s too far. Even for me, an alien enthusiast. Also for some reason EVERYONE at her high school turning on her for getting facial scarring?? Wild. But it made it so she was self conscious enough to think he’d think her face was gross but not so self conscious that she wouldn’t immediately mount him in his car given the chance.
   
2. So much OTT poetry, metaphors, euphemisms, the works. Which maybe would have been fine if the whole book wasn’t so outrageous.
   

Hello!
I'm back, with a part two to my previous post, found here. I'm a new fan to The Expanse, fast-burned here from the Mass Effect fandom, going through the books and short stories prior to delving into the TV show.
It's been just over a week since my previous post, and I've not managed to keep the same pace thanks to the end of the Christmas holidays. I've managed to complete Caliban's War and Gods Of Risk, and wanted to note my thoughts before eagerly jumping into Abaddon's Gate.
Caliban's War
Well! This one was excellent. I do believe it was better than Leviathan Wakes. It had double the amount of POV characters, now with four instead of two. I listened to the audiobook when commuting and read the paperback when not, and really quite enjoyed Jefferson Mays' voices for each of the characters. Bobbie and Alex having the texan drawls is something mentioned in the story, but having him do the voices really made them stand out, so kudos to him. Oh, and his interpretation of Avasarala's caustic wit was excellent, too. ...Also, I learned I was mispronouncing 'Rocinante' - I was pronouncing it 'rocky-nanty' the whole time!
So, we still have Holden, paragon of virtue, except now he's wrestling with himself for the most part of the story, having adopted more of Miller's characteristics than he'd anticipated. I wasn't fully sure about his arc in this novel, when it began it sort of seemed like the crew of the Rocinante had a bit of an 'after-the-end' problem from the first novel; like they had their big-damn-heroes moment in the climax of book 1, and their narrative is just trying to catch up and keep the hooks in. Ultimately, the Rocinante crew is just blowing on the currents pushed by other POV characters in this story, which is a shift from how they drove the story single-handedly in the first.
While reading, I couldn't help but think that the Rocinante crew reminded me a little bit of the crew from Futurama. You've got the a-bit-naive protagonist Fry Holden (or if I'm being cruel, Zap Brannigan), the very-capable-XO Leela Naomi, the unpredictable lovable violent hedonist Bender Amos Burton, and... well, I can't fit Alex in, but three out of four ain't bad!
I think my favourite chapter of Holden's has to be with the monster in the cargo bay. In fairness, I could award the same thing to the equivalent Prax chapter, which sort of brings me back to what I was just saying.
Praxidike Meng is a character I have to say, whom has one of the most space-age names I've ever heard. Very well-written, I guessed early on that he was written by whichever of the authorial duo wrote Miller, as he used that metaphor about 'probing a sore tooth with his tongue' for both characters. Regardless, he was very well-written. Much like Miller, he wants a girl found, but in Prax's case, its very personal from the beginning, whereas with Miller it sort of grows on him. His absolute desperation to find Mei was palpable, the author did a fantastic job. I was right alongside him when he lucked into bumping into the Rocinante crew on Ganymede, to getting the charity drive rolling, to the horrible character assassination his ex-wife went for, to finally finding Mei alive and well on Io. Fantastic stuff. I think I had head-cast Benedict Wong as Prax, but only very loosely. On the other hand, if he were a Futurama character, he'd be Zoidberg.
My favourite Prax chapter can't be anything other than one of his final ones, where he reunites with Mei, and hugs her and never wants to let her go.
Avasarala was a character a lovely commentor from my previous post had mentioned, and I was aware from being in the Mass Effect fandom that she's played in the show by Shohreh Aghdashloo. This sort of coloured my expectation, and also didn't - as, in Mass Effect, Aghdashloo plays Tali's kindly auntie, who's never seen without her space-helmet. So I had the voice in mind, but no idea on the face. Given her position, my mind sort of settled on some kind of fusion of an old schoolfriend's Indian grandmother, and Mon Mothma from Return Of The Jedi.
Anyway, I really enjoyed Avasarala's chapters too. I'm pretty sure she shared an author with Prax, but I could be wrong. I really got the sense of her being a multi-faceted character: the shrewd diplomat, the doting grandmother, the loving wife, and the dry, caustic boss. She started out in her element, but gradually saw her chesspieces removed from her board without even realising. There was a kind of echo to Miller there, when she realised she'd been taken out of the game, an echo to when Miller realised he was 'that guy' in the department. I'm glad Avasarala didn't come to the same fate; or not. What on Earth is that epilogue scene about? Is Miller really back?
Favourite Avasarala chapter? Hmm... It's difficult, she didn't exactly have many action-packed chapters, they were all slow-burn diplomatic sequences. Maybe the chapter where she realised Soren was lying to her, and summarily fired that little weasel.
And so, we move on to the next POV character; I saved my favourite for last. As a card-carrying member of the Amazon Appreciation Society, I was more than a little thrilled by Bobbie's inclusion. I was terrified for her at the beginning and at the end, knowing that these lovely ladies have an unfortunate habit of being killed off quickly.
Bobbie was inspired by Samus Aran, and you can't convince me otherwise. The physical description is similar to Super Metroid-era descriptions of Samus, plus the red power armour with in-built arm-mounted cannon, busting alien monsters single-handedly? Very Metroid. I have no idea who they'd get to play her in the TV show; she's got a very unique description, I'm sure it would be difficult. As I recall, she's described as polynesian, >2 metres (>6'6"), >100kgs. I think Gabi Garcia has those measurements, or slightly less. That's... a whole lotta woman...! If she doesn't look something like that, I'm finna riot.
Anyway, I digress. Bobbie's chapters were great; combat as bookends to her fish-out-of-water story, or rather, soldier-in-politics story. Her best chapter was either the one where she single-handedly faced down the monster on Io, or the one where she single-handedly commandeered Mao's private ship. I had this playing in my head while she stormed the place, it was fantastic.
The protomolecule creatures were intense, in my mind they looked somewhat similar to the Reaper's 'Brute' creature in Mass Effect 3. Obviously, probably more human than turian, but, you know.
I'm very interested to see what happens next - what with the protomolecule making... something... emerge from Venus, and with Miller showing up again. Looking forward to the next one! Avasarala being at the top of the Earth foodchain is certainly something that's going to be important, and this makes the second government top-dog the Rocinante has worked for after Fred Johnson. Is Mars next?
Gods Of Risk
This was an interesting short story! At this stage, I'm not 100% on how it connects going forward, but that'll be something to keep an eye on! Focusing on Bobbie's drug-cooking nephew was interesting - if a little frustrating, seeing the world through the eyes of a fifteen-year-old - and I wonder if his character is going to return, or if this story is just an impetus chapter to show Bobbie moving on with her life. Either way, it was good to get a ground-level view of Mars. I don't think we've had one since Solomon took his yacht out for a never-ending cruise a century or two prior. We got a time-skip at the end there, so I guess we know that whatever emerged from Venus didn't immediately go on a system-wide killing spree.
Anyway, those are my thoughts! I loved Caliban's War, I'm looking forward to seeing where Avasarala, Bobbie, and the Rocinante's stories go next!
No untagged spoilers in the comments, please, or I'll tear myself in half and throw myself at you

When thinking about Gaylor evidence, I often try to contextualize it in the sphere of other popular artists - how Taylor's music, public facing persona, PR, etc compares to other's, or if there's any similar themes. In the case of openly gay artists, similarities lend strength to the evidence. In the case of straight artists, it can provide some nuance to consider- maybe when looked at in a vacuum this seems to point to Taylor being gay, but in the context of pop culture at the moment, it's less potent evidence. And because I'm a huge Carly Rae fan, when it comes to straight artists, my thoughts often go to her. It turns out, she's an extremely interesting foil for Taylor's shenanigans.
Before I go on: I am not pitting the queens against each other; if I seem to lean more to talking about Carly it's only cuz I know you all already know Tay well enough. I am also NOT trying to disprove Gaylor, nor do I want to try and imply I think that Carly Rae is gay (I don't think she is, and I actually think it's important to keep that in mind when reading this!). I just keep getting hung up on some of the parallels between the two, yet the differences regarding how they're viewed by LGBTQ fans/through an LGBTQ lens. I want somewhere to get all my thoughts out about this incredibly niche preoccupation, and I think you all are smart and would have some cool input!
Namely, it's interesting to me that despite the fact that Carly is very intertwined with the gay community and outspoken about LGBTQ causes, and otherwise extremely campy and loved by gays, there's no controversy over her sexuality; she has not said she is gay, and everyone is satisfied with her straightness. I have never once encountered anyone, online or otherwise, who was convinced that Carly Rae Jepsen is gay/closeted, or who was even mistaken that she had come out as gay, despite her status as a "gay icon". Yet for Taylor, a whole subset of fans, us Gaylors, exist who are pretty confident that Taylor is in some way not straight, and many people in the GP seem to be surprised when they learn she is at least publicly straight/has never come out. I want to go over some similarities and differences between the two queens, including some possible interpretations on how these similarities and differences interact to result in the strange case of Tay and Carly's status in gay pop culture.
So, here it is...Taylor Lore (Gaylor specifically...dare i say Gaylore?) vs. Carly Rae Lore (Raelore? Gaelore?)
AREA: BEHIND THE SCENES

• SIMILARITY: Jack "particularly gay women" Antonoff
  • Please see this interview snippet if you're not aware of the background
  • I found this post which provides some context regarding Jack's gay women:not gay women ratio
• DIFFERENCE: PR Strategies
  • Releases:
    • Compared to Taylor's meticulous release strategies, which although at sometimes surprising or frustrating are still planned and structured, Carly has a habit of releasing a single months before any official album announcement, leaving us to wonder if it's an actual single or just a one-off track.
    • Carly's songs leak ALL THE TIME.
  • Easter Eggs:
    • Taylor's Easter Eggs of course began with encouraging us to speculate about the subjects of her songs. The closest thing Carly will get to an easter egg is using the lyrics from an upcoming track as her bio on twitter or the caption for an Instagram post (and then sometimes that song will get get scrapped anyway ).
  • Public Relationships:
    • Carly has never had an A-List boyfriend, a girl squad, or anything like that. Not entirely sure but I can't remember the last time I saw a pap photo of her alone, let alone with someone.
    • Carly posts about her boyfriends on Instagram as if she were your friend from college that you keep up with sometimes; she'll start with the soft launch of a pic of them together on vacation, and then eventually she'll post a photoset of them and call him her boyfriend. (and then you'll get mad that she's with him and not you and...)
    • I just found out today that Carly has in fact made public who some of her songs were written about. It seems this info is relatively easily available, but also not of much interest to her fanbase.
  • Aspirations
    • We know that our Capitalist Queen not only loves to write our favorite little songs, she also loves to break records. Meanwhile, Carly is more than happy to just make music she loves and coast by on Call Me Maybe royalties and tour profits. "I’ve never been attracted to the celebrity side of being an artist. I do it for the fun"
    • This difference in aspirations means the stakes are lower for Carly not only in appealing to wide markets, but also when it comes to image control.
• INTERPRETATIONS/DISCUSSION
  • The levels of fame that these two Goddesses strive for and experience are markedly different.
    • Taylor has for better or worse wrapped up her personal life into her music and branding, which means that her personal life (or at least how it appears to the public) has to stay under control so her music can keep selling, which she desperately wants. It also means that things may not always be what they seem, either for the fact of hiding undesirable information, or to stir up hype for some new project.
    • Carly's relative obscurity means that she doesn't have to worry about being caught doing something "bad" by the public, and even if she did ostensibly have to worry about that, she likely wouldn't, as she isn't so concerned about her public image as much as she is making music and making a living. Also her life seems pretty boring ngl.
  • Coming out for Taylor would be a much bigger ordeal than it would be for Carly. The flip side of that is that there is much more Curiosity regarding Taylor's sexuality than there is for Carly's.

​
AREA: CREATIVE OUTPUT

• SIMILARITY: Queer Subtext
  • We all know about queer interpretations of Tay's lyrics, but I'd actually assert that Carly's lyrics at time offer themselves up just as or even more easily to interpretation through a queer lens. Many (most? keep reading) of her songs deal with unrequited love that has to be kept a secret.
  • Good articles that includes discussion of Carly's music's relevance to LGBTQ community
    • The Brilliant Queerness of Carly Rae Jepsen - Key excerpt: On "Run Away With Me," for instance, Jepsen sings about a don't-tell-your-family sort of love. "Baby, take me to the feeling / I'll be your sinner in secret," she pleads over a sultry saxophone ... There’s also "Body Language," an angst-filled tune about investigating whether someone likes-likes you. "I call you my lover, you call me your friend / I'm keeping it secret, yeah, even from you," Jepsen sings on the opener, following it with an equally anxious chorus: "Body language will do the trick / If you stay with me tonight, then we'll talk it over / That's the danger with missing it / I just think we're overthinking it." This concept of "looking"—for acceptance and affection, among other things—is an essential element of the queer experience.
    • The queer cult of Carly Rae Jepsen - Key excerpt: But Carly cemented her queer icon status for me with the song "I Didn't Just Come Here to Dance," a bonus track on the deluxe edition of E•MO•TION. Over a house beat, the track tells the story of CRJ going to a club with the intention of catching the eye of her crush and leaving with him. "I didn't just come here to dance, if you know what I mean," she sings. "Do you know what I mean?" I think queers, in particular, know what she means.
  • Both artists often default to he/him pronouns to describe the second party in songs related to romance/sex. We know the exceptions (which are many) when it comes to Taylor. Off the top of my head I can't think of any where Carly uses she/her, except in Boy Problems
  • I am not knowledgeable enough about flagging to tell if what is discussed above in Carly's lyrics could be called "flagging"; I also don't know if there are any of the more overt flagging instances like "hairpin drop" in Carly's songs. Would love if anyone had any input on this!
• EDIT - SIMILARITY: Friendship and Love
  • I realized I forgot to include the topic that made me finally decide to write this post in the first place - the frequent mention of friends to lovers and/or being friendzoned in Carly's music
  • Taylor has this theme as well: "I don't want you like a best friend" in Dress, "Feeling like I just lost a friend" in Breathe, "I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this" from Paper Rings, INTHAF in general; etc.
    • For Taylor, it seems like she sings mostly about friends to lovers, or a complicated friendship where the lines are blurred with romance.
  • Examples of Friendship and Love in Carly's songs include going from friends to lovers, being friends with benefits, being friendzoned before a relationship starts, or staying "friends" after a relationship ends
    • Very Best Friend - an unreleased song " written about her relationship with ex-boyfriend James Flannigan, as the pair were best friends for a year before eventually deciding to begin a relationship."
    • Fever - A song about being friendzoned and stealing his bike (really)
    • ^{Don't tell me this is how it endsI burn with fever that I caught from youMy breath was lost when you said "friends"Well, that could work, but I'm still hot for you}
    • Your Type
    • ^{I used to be in love with youYou used to be the first thing on my mindI know I'm just a friend to youThat I will never get to call you mine}
    • Feels Right
    • ^{We know timing isn't right (Maybe one day})^{'Til then, steal me a free weekendYou're my complicated friendI'm just keeping the dream alive}
    • Let's Be Friends
• DIFFERENCE: Breadth of Song Themes
  • Although Tay has famously been criticized for 'only writing about' 'boys', love, exes, heartbreak, etc, Carly admittedly is way way worse lol. She writes a LOT about love, sex, breakups, flirting, crushes, etc.
  • See: unhinged and questionable, but in many ways accurate, interpretation of Carly's entire body of work through a lens of obsession, secrecy limerence, and unrequited love
    • Above link is for a 30 minute video, which serves as both a summary and an updated version of the original 150 page essay PDF
    • Key excerpt: At first, playing endlessly on loop in my car, what I’d come to recognize as something much larger appeared as a pattern of things Carly Rae DIDN’T sing about on Emotion. I thought it was funny that I noticed that every song was sung in second person, communicating ideas and emotions to a single audience, a “you"...Carly Rae Jepsen does not sing about sex or seduction for the thrill of it...does not sing songs of vengeful condemnation nor open rejection...In my office in Vancouver, I ran through the album on my head, and realized one final addition. That, perhaps most startlingly for a pop star: Carly Rae Jepsen does not sing about being in reciprocated love*.*
    • The guy who wrote this isn't a great human but I thought this essay was the best way I could drive the point home that Carly really does have a penchant for a particular type of song.
• SIMILARITY: (Questionable) Inclusivity in Music Videos
  • Call Me Maybe's gay guy bait and switch
    • The straight actor playing the gay lead regrets being part of the project.
    • It could also be argued the music video makes a joke out of gay men.
  • YNTCD features many LGBTQ celebs, but queerbaiting or not, still reeks of rainbow washing.
• SIMILARITY: Forays into Musical Theater
  • Gays love musical theater.
  • Taylor: Cats.
  • Carly: Starred in Cinderella on Broadway, Frenchie in GREASE
• UP FOR DEBATE: Camp and (Queer) Influences
  • Camp is inextricably related to queer culture, campiness is what a gay icon makes. Let's talk about non-lyrical characteristics of their creative output that resonate or don't with the gay community.
  • This is totally, subjective, but Taylor's brand of humor is more 'millennial cat lady humor', and Carly's brand is 'your liberal aunt who overshares could be unintentionally funny' humor. Up to you which one is closer to camp.
    • Ex: "Karma is a cat" vs "I'm sure it's nothing but some heartburn baby"
  • Carly has been compared to/inspired by/grouped together with:
    • Robyn - "One of Robyn’s acolytes this decade, Carly Rae Jepsen, says the singer is among her favorite pop artists ever."
    • Cyndi Lauper - she's a fan of Carly!
    • 80's icons in general - "Really it's a combination of other, less-defined qualities—like the breathy repetition that picks up where '80s queer icons..."
  • Taylor has been compared to/inspired by/grouped together with:
    • The Chicks - from her inspiration to her friends
    • Paul McCartney - her role model
    • Joni Mitchell - amidst some controversy
• INTERPRETATIONS/DISCUSSION
  • While Carly's songs occupy a limited number of thematic universes, these themes, by happy chance, are all rife for queer interpretation and identification. Meanwhile, Taylor's songs cover a wider variety of themes, some of which lend themselves easily to queer interpretation, others which do not.
  • However, given Taylo'rs PR strategy of encouraging speculation about subjects of songs, even Taylor's songs that are less so outwardly queer can be identified as in fact being about a woman, due to the relatively wide look Taylor gives us into her personal life and her real-life relationships with women.
  • As Gaylors, we tend to find songs like Dress wherein Taylor blurs the line between friends and lovers as proof that the subject of the song is a woman. Yet, Carly's songs are almost certainly at least mostly about men, and she sings about the concept of friendship as a beginning or end to love a lot. How does Carly keep getting in these situations?! Is Carly a "I'm not like other girls" gal who tends to favor male friendships? Do we need to reassess how we view women and men being (or at least starting out as) platonic friends?
  • Both Carly and Taylor have a certain je ne sais quois that lends them to be adored by the gayz, but Carly's appeal is more couched in a classically queer sensibility.
  • That being said, Carly's position of "gay icon" is markedly different from Taylor's. Carly, together with her predecessors and contemporaries, occupy the role of a certain type of Gay Queen, wherein their LGBTQ status is not the key factor - it is their comforting, lovable, electric and eccentric ability to make us gays laugh, cry, and dance. Taylor, on the other hand, with her diverse influences, does not fit into this mold. She's most often referred to as something like The Biggest Star of This Generation, rather than a queen of any particular subset, gay or not.

​
AREA: PUBLIC IMAGE

• DIFFERENCE: Fan Base
  • In terms of numbers, Taylor beats Carly, point blank.
  • Carly's fanbase is undeniably predominately made up of gay men. Taylor's fanbase is largely women.
  • Sexuality amongst T Swift's fanbase
    • LGBTQ swifties may or may not be gaylor, they may be any gender, they may identify as any type of queer. This is the same for Carly's fanbase of course, but the sheer number of Taylor's fans means the fanbase is going to be more diverse.
  • Fanbase attitudes:
    • Carly fans can either be desperate to spread the gospel of Carly, or be hellbent on gatekeeping her, specifically from "straights". We love when she releases music and hate when she releases music and then disappears. As far as I can tell, there's no big controversies within the community.
    • Swifties want the queen to sell no matter what. We love finding easter eggs. Infighting abounds.
• SIMILARITY: "Ally"/Don't Say Straight
  • (Quotation marks around ally as if you're gay yourself you're not an ally 😏)
  • Both Carly and Taylor speak out regarding gay rights/show support during Pride month.
    • Carly performed at Pride in Toronto wearing a rainbow dress, alongside queer singer-songwriter Jordan Alexander, whom she gave a verse to sing and featured in this video. However, she HASN'T performed at Stonewall, like a certain Ms. Swift has...although people like to joke that Carly threw bricks there....
  • It's not hyperbole to say that Carly's fanbase would collapse without her gay fans, and Carly knows this. She hasn't outright said it, but she gives them credit and thanks them for their support often, and even says that being named a 'gay icon' is "the gift of [her] career."
    • She also invited this amazing dancer and Instagrammer to perform his very rainbow, very gay choreography to her song Cut to The Feeling on stage with her
  • When remarking upon their Ally status, the gals had this to say
    • Taylor said - I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of
    • Carly said - "I’m definitely passionate about any support I can give towards fighting the good fight, and love is love, and I’ve had friends since childhood who’ve gone through some pretty severe experiences that have enriched me enough to make it a calling of mine"

INTERPRETATIONS/DISCUSSION

• What are appropriate ways for straight artists to support gay rights?
• I've seen discussions around the appropriateness of wearing a rainbow dress at pride as a straight performer. I'm exhausted now and I can't remember the context specifically or what the discussion was like, but I personally don't believe that it is inappropriate, at least in the context of Carly's performance above. But, putting aside the tea sipping tiktok, if Taylor had worn the rainbow Christian Siriano dress at Stonewall, would that have been different? Is it the setting of Stonewall itself? I also think that a bi pride color scheme is different from a rainbow, for what it's worth. I don't believe Carly has ever worn bi or lesbian colors so loudly.
• Taylor's flipflopping on being involved in activism in general, let alone gay rights related activism, makes it impressive that when it comes to all of the different types of people in her fan base, she at least somewhat consistently shows support for us. but it doesn't, and possibly can't, have the closeness that Carly has with her gay fans.
• From my perspective, the attitude amongst us Jepsies is that being a fan of Carly and being queer are intertwined; it's not that we like Carly and happen to be gay, it's almost like that liking Carly necessitates or at least assumes that you are gay. On the other hand, queerness and swiftie-ness can interact in any number of ways, depending on the individual fan, or just exist independently. how does this effect what our views are regarding our favs sexualities? since queerness is such a big part of Carly's fandom, why don't we care as much about her sexuality?
• You will notice that Carly, like Taylor, has not explicitly stated "I'm straight" when discussing her allyship. However, unlike Taylor, Carly's fans don't demand this of her. Is it because we don't care either way, that's not what we're here for? because she hasn't given us any reason to assume she isn't? or because we aren't used to speculating about Carly's life that way? If we did ask her, would she tell us?
• Of course, us Gaylors want a straight (ha ha) answer, but Tay isn't looking like she is gonna give it. Is it somehow related to the size and diversity of her fanbase? does she regret letting us get such a long look into her private life, and is now trying to reclaim it as much as she can? is she allowing this to continue as part of her easter egg PR strategy, stringing us along with "will she/won't she?"
• Most importantly...will our queens ever collab? 🥺😈

Well, what do you think? Any thoughts spurred? Any other artists you can think of that exist in this weird queer liminal space? is this all Jack's fault?
half my post got deleted when i was 75% done my eyes are bleeding please at least comment "NICE!" even if you have nothing else to say. goodnight T_T