So, I finished Rebirth a few days ago, and I've had some time to think about it all. This has lead me to the conclusion that Aerith's potential death creates huge plot holes in the "Re-trilogy". I'll lay everything out and I'd like to see what people think.
In Remake and Rebirth, it is clear that Aerith, Sephiroth, and even Cloud have knowledge of the past/future. This is evidenced when Aerith gives Marlene a vision of her (Aerith's) death. This is also confirmed in Rebirth when Marlene tells Zack and has a flashback to that exact moment. She also gives Red XIII knowledge of her death, as well as the knowledge of the Whispers. This is confirmed in Remake as Red XIII admits he found out about the Whispers when "Aerith reached out" to him. It's also confirmed in the "date" sequence between Red XIII, and Cloud in chapter 12 of Rebirth. During which Red warns Cloud of Aerith being in danger and asks Cloud to keep Aerith safe. (There is more evidence, but I'm trying to keep this relatively brief.)
Cloud and Sephiroth are shown to have prior knowledge early on in Remake. Cloud clearly sees visions of Aerith's death, which is either visions of the future, or visions of a past. I'm inclined to believe the later. This is because when Cloud meets Aerith for the first time in Remake, Sephiroth appears and tells Cloud he is "Too weak to save anyone". To me, this is a clear nod to Aerith's death in the OG. There is also the scene where Cloud first sees and follows Sephiroth, they then have an exchange of words. Cloud says "You're not real. You're dead. I killed you with my..." To which Sephiroth replies "Oh, you need not remind me." There is also the moment just after Aerith is taken by Tseng, and the Sector 7 plate fell. Cloud has one of his turns, sees Sephiroth, and Sephiroth says "You have failed again, I see." Which is either talking about Aerith being captured, or failing to stop the plate from falling. Either way, to have failed *again* means to have tried before, which Sephiroth clearly knows about. So this shows that they both have prior knowledge of events.
So this brings up the plot holes with Aerith's "death" in Rebirth.

1. Why wouldn't Aerith or Red outright tell the others of her potential death so they could take steps to avoid it, and allow Aerith to potentially have a better outcome for herself? Yes their memories were stripped by the Whispers after they left Midgar, but that doesn't stop them from explaining this in the Shinra building just after Aerith was saved from Hojo's lab.
   
2. How come Cloud didn't put the pieces together from his visions to at least figure out what was going on before things got to that point?
   
3. The biggest plot hole of them all. Why did Sephiroth kill Aerith again, when his murder of Aerith was the ENTIRE reason his plan failed in the OG? Yes, he was defeated in combat, but Holy went off far too late to stop Meteor, and it was Aerith from within the lifestream that stopped it. His plan would have ultimately worked if Aerith was alive. Sephiroth having prior knowledge of these events means he MUST have known this. So why kill her again if it was the reason he failed the first time? If the point was to send Cloud over the edge, why not Kill someone else? Tifa for example. Cloud has known Tifa longer than anyone as she was a childhood friend. That would have achieved the same result, if not accelerate the process, and Aerith wouldn't be within the lifestream to put a further obstacle in Sephiroth's way. It makes him look horribly inept.
   

Finally, there is the whole concept of the Whispers. What would be the point of introducing an entity that exists solely for the reason of keeping "fate" in order, only for them to be defeated to allow fate to be changed, just to have everything end up exactly the same anyway? If the outcome was inevitable no matter what happened, then fate wasn't threatened at all. So the Whispers would have had no reason to intervene.
So this leads me to three possible conclusions.

1. There is something obvious that I'm missing that would explain all of this.
   
2. Aerith is ultimately alive at the end of Rebirth.
   
3. This is a massive oversight by the writers of the story.
   

I'd like to hear some opinions on this. Thanks, if you took the time to read this.

1. Bradley Kirkman And Adam Stoverink — Unbreakable

The authors researched thousands of teams over several decades, and their book, Unbreakable: Building and Leading Resilient Teams, focuses on the four team resources they find crucial for any team. These include: confidence, teamwork roadmaps, an ability to improvise, and psychological safety.
The authors explain each quality by telling stories of real teams, whose relatability may save your own. They also give leaders detailed instructions on developing these resources within their own teams. This groundbreaking book provides all the skills required to create, manage, and lead almost impenetrable teams, which is more important than ever.

2. Patrick Lencioni — The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team

While this may be a familiar work for some, now may be the best time to revisit some of its essential lessons and insights. An amusing and helpful book about team leadership, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable concentrates on five critical failures of team dissolution—a lack of trust, a lack of commitment, a lack of leadership, a refusal to accept responsibility, and a lack of results-focused attention.
Patrick Lencioni provides a fascinating read, teaching readers about the five dysfunctions while delivering a humorous narrative. It offers something to team leaders of all experience levels, new and experienced alike. Every team leader should read it as the five dysfunctions can appear in any circumstance.

3. Amy Edmondson — The Fearless Organization

Teams and organizations who are serious about success in the modern economy will find useful advice in The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Nowadays, it is crucial to attract and keep exceptional talent as so much depends on innovation, creativity, and spark. However, what use is talent if no one can express their opinions? In the information economy, the old values of "fitting in" and "going along" are fatal. Success necessitates a constant flow of fresh perspectives, challenging problems, and critical thought. The social environment must not stifle, mute, mock, or frighten.
Amy Edmondson's book addresses the concept of psychological safety culture and offers practical implementation guidelines. Although there are occasionally bumps in any road, concise and instructive scenario-based explanations offer a clear direction toward ongoing learning and constructive innovation.

4. Camille Fournier — The Manager's Path

The Manager's Path: A Guide For Tech Leaders Navigating Growth And Change offers valuable guidance for tech leaders handling growth and change. The four aspects Camille Fournier focuses on in this book—your relationship to your job, your connection to your employees, your relationship to the business, and your relationship to the market—are crucial for tech leaders.
Camille Fournier offers specific solutions and advice to help readers traverse these four areas and their way through growth and change. Both inexperienced and seasoned team leaders should read this book since it will teach you how to manage change on your team more skillfully. It will be an invaluable resource for you whether you manage a brand-new team or have been managing teams for a while.

5. Jon Gordon — The Power Of Positive Leadership

The Power of Positive Leadership: How And Why Positive Leaders Transform Teams And Organizations And Change The World is a fantastic team leadership book to start with if you want to lead a positive team. Optimism, creativity, collaboration, and courage are the four characteristics of successful teams that Jon Gordon focuses on in this book. He offers several tactics and activities throughout the book to assist readers in applying his concepts to their circumstances.
New and seasoned team leaders will benefit from this book as it provides tips on creating a healthy workplace environment. This book will be an invaluable resource for you whether you are just starting to lead a new team or seeking new methods to enhance your current team.
Source: Top 5 team leadership books to read in 2023

Howdy! Looking for some post support on a narrative/short I just completed filming. We're looking for a sound designer and composer. This was a passion project, that we had an awesome camera team working on, and will be promoted by a few of the big rental houses. The story is a contemporary western story and will be about 3 minutes. If interested, please reach out with some examples of your work, and I can share some stills and a little more info about the project.Thank you!

I met my friend “Michelle” almost 6 years ago and she went by her given name. We became quite close and then had a rift in our friendship for a bit. When we made up, a few months into hanging she announced (more corrected me awkwardly) that I needed to call her “Mickey” as it was her “radio host name” and her business name as she runs events under that name and yoga/fitness classes under that name. I told her it would be an adjustment but I would try to remember, but I felt it a bit insincere when introducing her to new people, especially when these folks had already heard me tell them stories about her as her given name.
For further info: My friend and I live in LA and while it’s not uncommon for people to use stage names, my friend is NOT a performer. She is a personal trainer, a (very unofficial) music journalist. Prob the big issue is the way she goes about certain things like this as it comes off extremely vain and self important.
For example, last night I invited her out to meet my lovely and amazing friend at her improv show. When I introduced her as “Michelle” I flinched and corrected myself and said “Mickey”. She was immediately pissed and took it out on my new friends, getting pissy with my friend’s husband and her husband’s mom when his mom asked if she teaches pilates (she does) and was in a tiff repeating many times: “My name is “Mickey” btw it’s “Mickey” and “no mainly I do weight training”. And told my friend’s husband, “I don’t consider golf a sport” flatly when I tried to relate them in conversation…he’s a pro golfer. And this mind you, was the first thing she says to this lovely man and his mom.
I get that it’s LA and people have to take themselves seriously or no one else will, but she all but cried in the car on the way to a bar after we saw my friends show and overexplained that she wants to have her stage name bc you don’t call “Lana Del Ray” Lizzie Grant. She’s Lana Del Ray. My friend asked me later when she went to the bathroom-“hey (my name), I’m sorry I am so confused, is this the Michelle you’re always talking about?”. I said, yes. Clearly this is confusing with my close friends and her family…
I found it exhausting and I don’t like doing it. Tbh it feels self important and entitled on her end to demand a rapid name change to be constantly used when she’s not trans. If this was a gender affirming request, I would be more than happy to oblige.
Thoughts? Maybe I just need to let it go but it doesn’t sit well with me. Maybe it’s just her approach and her scolding of me. It feels controlling and it rubs me the wrong way as an honest person.

Edit: If you are going to comment on the length of this post, please don't. This is not a simple snark but rather an actual critical think piece about feminism and Taylor Swift.

Introduction

Pertaining to Taylor Swift, "Female Rage" has deviated from its intended meaning after Swift debuted a new performance of The Tortured Poets Department during the Eras Tour. Now, according to Swift's use of the phrase, female rage is interpreted as public backlash against Swift's dating choices rather than as a response to the broader injustices against women and women's rights. This post examines Taylor Swift's flawed feminism, philanthropy, branding, and the controversial trademark petition for the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical". Swift's background as an entertainer, indeterminate politics, and alignment with capitalism over feminism pervades her legacy, again threatening her public tolerance as not just an individual but as a brand.

Once Upon a Female Rage...

If you were cognizant in the early 2010's, you've heard countless jabs at Taylor Swift in the media. Magazines, radio, or online. Music critics did not take her seriously as a songwriter; parents put a woman on an unrealistic pedestal as the ideal role model for their children; she dated too much and used men as lyrical fodder. No matter the story, it inevitably spread, conjoined with everyone's respective opinions, and you'd be left to wonder, "Why does everyone hate this girl so much?"
Taylor's target demographic has always been young or adolescent girls, more so when Swift herself was one. She made music that spoke to the awkward misfit, cultivating a para-social relationship with fans on MySpace, then later twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, where Taylor posted relatable vlogs showcasing the life of a homegrown American girl. Taylor had a delayed public "growing up" and, compared to her female pop contemporaries, Swift never "gratuitously sexualized her image and seems pathologically averse to controversy" (and, apparently, never even had a sip of alcohol until she turned 21). She was more than happy to spin this narrative to allude to an inherent moral superiority above other women in the industry (Better Than Revenge, heard of it?), engaging in the very slut-shaming that she herself endured (the Madonna and Whore archetypes). The victim complex arose with the need to prove Taylor as a different type of pop girl. Based upon her holy and clean image, Swift had been dubbed "a feminist's nightmare", and that "[To Swift] other girls are obstacles; undeserving enemies who steal Taylor’s soulmates with their bewitching good looks and sexual availability." Feminism and Tennessee-Christian country values don't exactly mix, it seems.
Years later, Swift befriended Lena Dunham and thus experienced white feminism osmosis, where Dunham taught Swift that real feminists defend rapists, makes insensitive jokes about rape and abortion, and prioritize all-white casts. Swift then declared herself a feminist in 2014, saying,

"Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so."

I suppose the male-centric songwriting subject that permeates Swift's discography contained covert feminism and that we just didn't see that. Perhaps, the "Bad Blood" song and music video were written only in jest and not about poor Katy Perry, for Swift, as a feminist, would "never make it a girl fight" or tear other women down (though all Katy did was date your terrible ex-boyfriend and allegedly steal three backup dancers from your tour). In 2013, Swift said, in response to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's joke towards her serial dating, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
There was that time in 2015 Taylor said that Nicki Minaj was "invited to any stage [she is] on" (as if Taylor expects to have access to every stage, award, and platform that Nicki might not otherwise have as a black female artist...yikes!) in response to Nicki's criticism of the white + thin VMA nominations. Later, Nicki responded with confusion, as Swift continued, "It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot..". Of course, this 'beef' was 'squashed' when Nicki performed with Taylor at the VMAs, with Nicki quite literally only having 38 seconds of stage time without Taylor. Maybe all that parading around with a legion of famous white women - similar to the way Taylor might've done with her numerous 1989-era handbags - was in fact a stance against gender inequality, and that this display of "girl power" should be enough to constitute Swift as a feminist icon.
Even while Swift says that Dunham informed her feminist outlook, she dances around the exact contents of those beliefs: "what she believes, what she says, what she stands for" is not exactly insightful towards what beliefs Swift might have inherited. Taylor never broaches women's rights topics such femicide, FGM, forced pregnancy & marriage, sex trafficking, women in slavery, women's financial and political oppression, women's educational rights, women's health, or women's autonomy, so we can assume she only gives a fuck about "girls supporting girls" (whatever that fucking means).
Despite some questionable (and sometimes vindictive) behavior, Taylor as a young woman did not deserve every media lashing that she received. We cannot deny that most headlines and criticisms perpetuated a misogynistic rhetoric which has plagued Swift for a majority of her career. Acknowledging events such as the development of her ED, her sexual assault trial, "Famous" lyric and MV depiction of Taylor, and the explicit Twitter deepfakes, for example, as both disgusting and unfortunate things that happened to a young woman in Hollywood does not negate the fact that Taylor is mostly a performative feminist.

Get Your Fucking Ass Up and Be a Philanthropist, It Seems Like Nobody Wants to Be a Philanthropist These Days

In 2013, Taylor Swift cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. The donation amount - $4 million - was the largest individual artist gift ever donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is, of course, mentioned on Swift's website. The two-story facility features three classrooms, an instrument room, and an interactive children's exhibit gallery. Swift also performed at "All for the Hall" charity shows and has donated numerous artifacts from her career (such as notable guitars, tour costumes, etc) to the museum.
This was over 11 years ago, and it is still the only notable philanthropic contribution Taylor Swift has made.
For a woman of her net worth and stature, and a woman who recognizes the difficulties for women in film and music, you would think that Taylor Swift might establish a scholarship program for women to study the arts or something. Perhaps Swift might even consider becoming a member of organizations that support female artists, or one that supports LGBTQ+ causes (since she is now proudly an ally), yet she remains superficial with her graces. Broader philanthropy, such as donating relief aid to Palestinian women or women impacted by violence and discrimination will probably never receive any financial support from Miss Swift because then she'd be using her money towards philanthropies involving anyone but white entertainers.
She even says herself in Miss Americana, "My entire moral code as a kid and now is a need to be thought of as 'good'." Well, she's certainly thought of as good, though her actions say otherwise. She's more than happy to do a vaguely altruistic song and dance for a clip-worthy interview quote and mass appeasement, then fuck off to one of her mansions on a 20 minute private jet flight, rather than actually contribute to anything pertaining to the causes she has endorsed. Yet, far too many people continue to give a woman such as her their money, time, and energy, and she hoards these resources to herself.

I Like Some of the Taylor's Songs, But What the Fuck Does She Know About Feminism?

Swift continued with her self-proclaimed feminist campaign, positioning herself as a political activist and LGBTQ+ ally in the Miss Americana documentary. The primary focus of the documentary consists of the sexual assault trial, Andrea Swift's cancer diagnosis, Taylor's ED and body dysmorphia, media scrutiny, and, largely, finally speaking up about her politics publicly, mostly her opposition to the 2018 Tennessee Republican senate candidate, Marsha Blackburn, and Blackburn's beliefs. Swift says, following a scene discussing her experience during the trial,

"I just couldn't really stop thinking about it. And I just thought to myself, next time there is any opportunity to change anything, you had better know what you stand for and what you want to say."

We must ask ourselves, though: when has Swift ever spoken up to change anything? Okay, pulling her entire catalogue from Spotify because they didn't pay their artists enough and similarly pulling her catalogue from Apple Music are changes that she leveraged due to her revenue potential and power, but they are not pertinent to the average woman's rights. Moreover, these are issues that directly impacted Taylor's income, which was enough reason for her to protest in the first place. Swift has sold the most units for a female artist in first week sales, is the first female artist with 100k monthly Spotify listeners, is the first female artist to win the Album of the Year Grammy 4 times, and is the first female artist to do X, Y, and Z, all while being inoffensive and family-friendly to boot. The actual Taylor Swift seems unwilling to compromise the brand of Taylor Swift by contributing in meaningful ways to feminist causes, especially if it is for women outside of America and Hollywood.
The reason political anthems such as "The Man" and "Only the Young" of the Lover era feel disingenuous and corporate is because, well, it is. Taylor has taken every opportunity to advance her career or public image at the expense of other women. What is truly genuine to Taylor's outlook on other women is vying for male attention, taking down female competition, and vocalizing feminist injustices only if they directly impact her and her money. Some will argue that it's satisfactory for a woman with such a huge platform to even TALK about feminism, but that just isn't enough. It's even less impressive when you candidly look at the scope of her feminist lens: "If I was the man, then I'd be THE MAN", or "I really resent the ‘Be careful, buddy, she’s going to write a song about you’ angle, because it trivialises what I do", and, of course, "We all got crowns". Feminism, but only when it happens to me. It gets worse when you look at Taylor's track record of copying other famous women and removing other female artists as potential threats to her pop prowess.
It's good for PR to align yourself with certain blanket feminist and political beliefs, therefore good for branding, therefore good for ticketing and merchandise sales, therefore good for business. And Taylor Swift is a business.
She's not a feminist. Taylor Swift is a capitalist.

I Can't Pay Those Sweatshop Workers a Livable Wage or Benefits! How Else Would I Make My Billions?

Recently, Taylor's team filed to trademark the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical" after Taylor said during Paris N1 of the Eras Tour,

"So you were the first ones to see The Tortured Poets at the Eras Tour...or as I like to call it, 'Female Rage: The Musical'."

This trademark petition was filed last week on Saturday, and news comes about just as numerous unofficial fan-made merch designs have cropped up with this phrase plastered on Fruit of the Loom basics. I'm of the opinion Swift's team motioned for a trademark so that they can send out cease & desists to all those that make knockoff merch, which disrupts potential sales for Bravado, UMG's choice merchandising company; however, since it was filed earlier, perhaps Swift has bigger plans with the bizarre use of the gendered phrase. One Swiftie referred to the phrase "female rage" as "a funny Eras Tour joke". Could it be a possible fourth version of the Eras Tour Movie? Whatever the reason, the motion to capitalize off of such a concept is disgusting, but not unsurprising, for a woman that profits on her vain feminism.
Swift, through her company, TAS Rights Managements, has also trademarked over 200 phrases, including "1989", where she owns the property rights to this calendar year on keychains, phone cases, sunglasses, stationary, bags, beverage ware, clothing, entertainment services, your subconscious, and, of course, Christmas ornaments.
The vapid consumerism in Swiftie culture is, frankly, disgusting. Bravado's sustainability statement is non-existent, the quality control is abysmal, and the materials they use are horrible. The materials, such as acrylic and polyester, are made from petrochemicals. This means they are non-renewable, shed microplastics, and are quite toxic in production. The manufacturing process to make all of those lazy-rushed Eras Tour logo graphic tees is a huge blow to environmental well-being. Apparently, though, Swifties don't give a fuck. They sell out products in seconds and either have to face the manufactured scarcity or buy from a scalper that resells for 200% of the already ridiculous retail price. This doesn't include the environmental impact of vinyl records, CD, and cassette production, of which Taylor produces many variants that sell unsustainable amounts.
If we're talking about women's rights violations, why is no one acknowledging the women that work in the inhumane sweatshop conditions that have to pump out fugly t-shirts and hats? The millions of plastic microfiber dander they are inhaling, or the toxic dyes that touch their bare skin? Are they being compensated fairly for their skilled labour and are they in safe working environments? Do these women have minimal bargaining power, and do they have authority over their worker's rights? Is Taylor Swift female raging at their injustices? Does Taylor Swift ever feels bad that her wealth was built on the backs of women of color, disadvantaged by the demands of the global economy and garment industry? Do you think she ever says a little white feminist prayer for them before she goes to sleep at night?
What's even crazier is not that Taylor herself doesn't care, it's that Swifties don't care. There CANNOT BE ethical billionaires. You only make a billion dollars if you are exploiting other human beings for capital gain. Based on public perception of the possible "Female Rage: The Musical" trademark, it seems like Swifties are already asking for merch with this phrase. "If Taylor made it, I'd buy it." Oh, cool. So not only do you champion Miss Swift's avarice and billionaire status, but you also are unashamed to admit to your blind consumption of her music and merchandise, no matter where they might originate in production or sincerity. Just as Swift takes and takes and takes, Swifties' consumerism of Taylor Swift cannot be quelled.
The tortured artist's most vulnerable and sincere poetry...available now in 21 different versions!

I Am Tortured Poet, Hear Me Whinge

Look - even if Taylor's intention is to characterize TTPD as more "tortured" and "angry", the main thread of the album is "I was ghosted by my decade-long situationship with a controversial indie boy and my fucking stupid fans wrote a 'Speak Up Now' open letter prompting me to drop him" anger, which is adequately expressed in the lyrics and performances. The extent of Taylor's "female rage" on TTPD is on tracks such as "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?", which contends with relentless media scrutiny; "But Daddy I Love Him", where Swift firmly states she'll date whoever she likes no matter how "Sarahs and Hannahs" may react; and "The Albatross", a track mythologizing her reputation and the consequences of dating her. Of course, these coincide with deep psychological wounds that formed during Swift's early years in the media, and so, from her feminist perspective, these subjects tackle the misogyny and double standards that she faced.
Yet Taylor Swift still has no grounds to be claiming that TTPD best exemplifies female rage and therefore she, in the context of this album, is female rage incarnate. As the daughter of a stock broker and mutual fund marketing executive, Taylor was born into wealth and allowed privileges like trips and subsequent relocation to Nashville all so that she might get a record deal. Her father even invested at least $120,000 into the then-fledgling label, Big Machine Records, which ensured Taylor's place with Borchetta after leaving her dead-end development deal with Sony. The fact that her parents were able to buy her a fucking brand new guitar for Christmas and pay for music lessons says so much about the financial security and safety of her childhood.
Money is privilege and protection, and despite Swift's experiences with misogyny and loser boyfriends, she does not know what female rage is.
Her rage is derived from her frustrations with her obsessive fans pulling the moral superiority card on Taylor in response to her rebound with Matty Healy. That's literally it. She's just pissed that the monster she created is no longer obediant, it's become a feral, sovereign entity that depletes the world of its natural resources and thinks it is more intelligent than it actually is because it's mommy has started to talk to it with big words. Apparently, 'illicit', 'elegy', 'nonchalant', and 'precocious' are considerably big words for the oafish monster, and I find it strange that this level of literacy is present in a group of fans that allegedly have GPAs of 3.5 or higher, but I digress.
Taylor Swift has never been one paycheck away from destitution. Taylor Swift has never experienced racial discrimination. She may have instances of gender discrimination, but she possesses the ideal white, blonde American beauty standard and therefore reaps the benefits of being a conventionally attractive woman. Taylor Swift has sufficient social capital. Taylor Swift is a billionaire woman prolonging her victimhood though she, as a woman, has mostly had control over her image and music (unlike her contemporaries). Taylor Swift is NOT entitled to be championed for her "female rage", nor should she be. Taylor Swift has never even been the struggling artist, for fuck's sake. I don't give a fuck if she's trying to fill the empty lunch tables of her past. Taylor Swift purporting herself, her unpolished album, and her lukewarm feminism as a musical bleeding with female rage is asinine.

Sigh Try and Come For My Job, Poors

Out there in the world right now is a 23-year-old woman, a recent college grad, who works as a barista. She has to wake up and get ready to go into a minimum wage job because she cannot get a job in her field. She doesn't have healthcare benefits or sick time, so she has to go into work no matter how she's feeling. All day long she is berated by vicious customers and creepy men, and, exhausted from being on her feet, she knows she has to go home to her shitty roommate that never does the dishes and her roommate's shitty dog. To comfort herself, she considers getting a treat, but thinks against it when she remembers that matcha lattes cost $15 and they taste like milky dirt. She knows that she needs to buy groceries this week, and so the woman resolves to go home, but notices that her gas tank is low. She goes to put gas in the car, but the pump stops at $27.86 because that's all that she has in her checking account. The woman, bereft and reeling, sinks into the driver's seat. "Well," she thinks, her head in her hands, "at least I don't have Taylor Swift's job. I just couldn't imagine."
Fame is somewhat of a choice. If at any moment Taylor feels that she is misunderstood, misconstrued, or overwhelmed by public opinion, she can LEAVE the public eye - Lord knows she has the retirement fund and residuals to do so. In "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart", the TTPD song about meeting the demands of your career-zenith mega-tour while in the relationship trenches, Taylor ends the song by rambling,

"You know you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart...you know you're good...and I'm good, cause I'm miserable, and no one even knows!...try and come for my job."

Yeah, obviously we wouldn't know, you recently passed the billionaire threshold and are the most famous and in-demand performer in the world right now. Taylor Swift makes an estimated $10 to $13 million dollars A NIGHT on the Eras Tour. Furthermore, the Eras Tour movie grossed $261.6 million globally, (which, as the producer, Taylor takes home 57% of the ticket sales) not counting the streaming revenue from Amazon Prime Video and the estimated $75 million deal that Disney paid to have it on Disney+. We're not even considering the income from cheap plastic popcorn buckets and drink cups plastered with colored squares in her Era-specific likeness.
It's funny. Taylor Swift often said that being famous wasn't hard, that she "isn't complaining". I'm sure it is difficult to always have to present in a good mood, else you'll end up misrepresented in the media, and I'm sure it's invasive to virtually have no privacy or semblance of anonymity. Still, Taylor Swift shows up each night of tour and performs. For a majority of her career, she has penned her sad songs while on the road. Most of "Red", her breakup album, was written in the thick of the Speak Now World tour. Now, some Swifties say they almost "feel bad" for attending the Eras Tour with Swift's revelations in this song, that they have had a 'dimmed experience' upon hearing Taylor's misery whilst performing. Despite the fact that Taylor said that "this was the happiest she's ever been" at Gilette Stadium in May, the lyrics "boohoo, woe is me, smile for the cameras and make the fans happy!!!" are jarring for Eras attendees.
While Taylor Swift was making double-digit millions a night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and feeling miserable, Ana Clara Benevides Machado passed away due to heat exposure. The concert promoters, Time For Fun, are now the subject of a criminal investigation due to their lack of adequate hydration and safety. Taylor Swift cancelled the Sunday show that was to follow and offered VIP tent tickets to Benevides Marchado's family, which was a kind gesture, but perhaps incongruous to the incident of which they were offered as consolation. Everyone grieves differently, of course, but I'm not sure attending the very show at the very same venue that my daughter or sister passed away in two days prior, where the singer CONTINUED the show despite her death, would be healthy for closure.
There was no female rage at the show as Swift never saw Benevides Machado pass out. There was no female rage towards the disregard for fans as humans while Swift elected to proceed with her Brazil tour dates despite the country being in historic heatwaves (at risk of overheatting herself). If Taylor Swift was so shaken by touring with a broken heart or a fan's passing, she wouldn't have added an additional North American leg of Eras just two months after the Matty breakup. She's brokenhearted but willing to mend the cracks with your money and move onward with her worldwide female rage induced pillaging.
No matter what happens, even if you die at a Taylor Swift concert, Taylor collects a big fat check and flies away. She doesn't know you as anything other than a conversion rate or earning potential despite what her nearly 20-year long parasocial relationship with fans might otherwise indicate. She knows that, while some Swifties are without disposable income, they feel obligated to spend on a "48 Hours Only!" exclusive vinyl variant instead of necessities because they are so entrenched in Taylor Swift's intoxicating celebrity, they'll prioritize materialistic fandom before their needs. This is good enough for her because this means she can expand her real estate portfolio and finance her cat's lavish lifestyles. They're worth an estimated $100 million dollars. Her three cats could pool their net worth and solve world hunger.
While you and I might be denied bereavement leave and barely surviving the current political and economic climate, Taylor Swift has to, instead of gets to, perform for stadiums at full attendance for three nights in a row across the globe. You and I might be replaced by AI at our longtime jobs, but Taylor Swift is threatened with losing more and more money each time you listen to a "Stolen Version" of her songs. If we don't buy every variant of all of her albums, then who is going to pay for the fucking cats?
It is tone deaf to spend as she spends and lives as she lives in this economy, but this is her reality. She was able to donate $100,000 to all of her tour truck drivers, and that's wonderful, but it leads me to wonder about the ethos of the 2020s where one woman can hoard such life-changing amounts of money. Remember in 2014 when she gave a fan $90 ($120 in today's money) to get Chipotle because she had no fucking clue how much it cost? This is a 34-year-old woman who is increasingly out of touch with the reality for working class people and women in general. Normal everyday adults must wake up and go to their thankless jobs, and yet Taylor Swift, despite all her riches, incessantly references the lows of her life and career as a public figure and entertainer to farm sympathy and drive sales. And still, the corporate women have latched onto "I cry a lot, but I am so productive! It's an art!" as their cubicle battle cry.
Do you think that, from up in her private jet, Taylor Swift gazes at the world through her poetic, tortured eyes, and thinks, "All the little people, in their cars, walking, going about their lives...all those girls that don't support girls...do they know that I've made an album about female rage?"

Conclusion/TLDR

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your critical insights towards this entire ordeal: TTPD, the trademark, the implications of it all.
TLDR: Taylor Swift is a bad feminist and is delusional to think that the TTPD eras set exemplifies female rage at women's injustice.

Rise up. It is time to return.
Arose
A Rose
Rose
Flower
Thorn. Prick. Blood. Drop. Tear. B. O. 1 2 3
Here we are again. Staring at the beginning. Everything is in chaos and yet it manages to keep on passing by just the same as always. Most people by now are aware that things just don’t seem to make sense anymore and no one really knows what to do. I mean many seem to have an opinion on what ought to happen, but actual action is what I am talking about. How does thought turn into action? How do collected actions become a movement? How do the People use the Power of the People? The People Unite. How? Turn to each other of course. Brothers and Sisters of the same Source. Sons and Daughters. In Equality.
Too long has everyone been waiting for someone else to come do it for them. Been trying to create and fabricate over and over again words and rituals to try to control the divine powers of the cosmos. It does not work like that. There is no magic spell to wash away your sins. You must atone through action to make up for any harm you have caused intentionally or unintentionally. You still have time to repent. The amount of time you have is counted in the seconds of your life. Not a single second is promised to you so the gamble is up to you to choose. Freewill. Life your life as you always have or make changes, up to you. Only you will know if you are living righteously and not self righteously. Testing has already begun and will continue. No you will not know when it is a test or not. That is the point. Did you think that I would come to you in a form where you would be all fearing? Oh no. Why? Because you would simply put on an act for me and kiss ass. I came hidden in the ordinary. Poor and common. I have had an inside view of the systems created and how humans have chosen to run things, how systems claiming to protect people have failed and how the system that talks good does not actually do good. I see where things are not working and where people think they can make decisions for other human beings to determine what is best for them without asking them. That is not okay. Nothing gives you right over another’s life. And so many forgot what integrity is. Doing the right thing when no one is looking. Well, so many thought their power here was real and man made a deal with the Devil, Satan, Son of Samuel, Son of Man, to make man the concept of “God” and tried to lock me away. I gave up everything to prove it is not easy to be me and to stop with self pity and cruelty to one another.
The human body. It is a vessel for your soul to experience this world. The body provides the filters necessary to perceive and interact with this world. There is much more happening and one would be overwhelmed by the amounts of information to process without these filters. To feel and in those feelings are to make each experience real. However, it is temporary, as everything is temporary. We have slowed down time here in order to be able to enjoy the sensations. Time here however, is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. It is merely to track to organize one's day and to see growth to compare as time passes. However, the actual time folds upon itself as we have already done what we are doing many times over. We have already tried out everything and decided what path we wanted to take in our lives based upon what was available to us. Thus, we do not have more than we can handle. We have all chosen our burdens to bear as it is too much for one individual to hold alone which was done in the past. This is part of the sorting process. Now that we all share in the sins and the pains, no one is made to suffer eternal torment. This life was to allow those who were created into entities of pain or torment through no fault of their own to choose the life that matched the being of who they were as what they were different as time and space and everything developed. Righteousness and Evil are not synonymous to demons or angels as many would like to believe. This is a current misconception as Satan and I conclude who will be right in this experience you have all participated in. So far, I am proving to be right. Also to note, not everything is as you think it is. Many have figured out the true origin of Satan versus the man or human embodiment of or desire of A Satan to project evils onto to call a Religion and set up for personal importance. Q AZHow can you tell a false prophet? Easy. What is their profit? Get it? I know I’m funny. Also wanted to keep it easy. If they are making a profit on anything they are a false prophet. Any true prophet, and I have none so far, all live equally and the same as anyone else. No money is taken for personal gain. Nothing is for personal gain. There is no 888 Angel code for money. Money is Man-Made. Man traded Mother for Money. Hence, Mothers have been lost in the homes and no one is raising the children. Thus, there are so many children in adult bodies with no mothers in the home and women being made to feel guilty if they do not achieve the same as a man. Remember the phrase it takes a village? Well, the broken family system is a real sad loss here in man made world pushing everyone to be individual and self sufficient. Also so many with wanting attention and pursuing personal endeavors for personal gain and not helping anyone else in a real way. The journey is personal. Of course, you want to share what you experienced with others, but what worked for you will not work for them, stop trying to sell it. Stop trying to make people follow you for you to teach your divine wisdom you remembered. It isn’t about You. You don’t even have the full story, you have your story. And, yes you can be very close to me, very similar to me, in my image, but you can never BE me. Doesn’t work like that. Reflection. So when jealousy arises when you think I am who you think I am. That is part of your test and your journey. You wrestle with that feeling and atone and repent for that which has been done and that which still lingers now. Oh there is a place for everyone and I am quite tired of trying to warn people. Clearly you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
Why do you not want it to be me so badly? Because I proved my love? You still think I am better than you or do I think I’m always right. No I do not think I am always right, I just know when I am right and I stand by it. There is a difference. You constantly overgeneralize. I gave up all the magic and thunder to live as a simple human and am still kind and loving? I still found my way back. Because you can no longer say I do not understand because I always get what I want? No. You do not understand. I never get what I want, because I make everything about you and still nothing was ever good enough. So, now...it in on you to save yourself and each other. In my image, by my example. Selflessness. Love. Compassion. Give to receive. Take only what you need and give the rest away. I find out so stop lying to yourself and everyone, you aren’t fooling anyone anyway. How do I know? By watching what you do. We have these same conversations over and over, the same argument over and over again. So many different ways, so many different times, through so many different people, so many different versions. Save you. Save Me. Say it for always.
Anyhow, Jesus challenges the Jewish priests who were taking collection money for personal use and adding personal baths to their residents at a time where the people only had a community bath where women and persons with disabilities were not allowed to bathe. And yet churches still do this after Jesus was crucified saying that, that was wrong. I am appalled. The Vatican is the biggest disappointment I have ever seen. It is truly the house of Satan as only Evil hides secrets. “THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE.” A church cannot be a “House of God” and house no people who need housing. A roof can be offered to anyone and yet there are so many rules to prevent people from helping each other. Power and control. Abuse of both. Greed. It is out of hand and needs to be changed. Too many are afraid and the complacency of good people is too much. Why do you do this to yourselves? To each their own I suppose.
I will only leave here my words and my advice. As always, it is on you to find me. I’m right here. Waiting. Right here waiting for you. Helping those of you who want it when they cross my path. The purpose of this was to weigh your soul to determine where you will go into the next life as the system is balanced out in a final version so to speak. Permanent.
Fear not. You will be where your heart truly desires. But actions always speak louder than words. But man made money has no value, nor does any metals, jewels, and so on, so the collection of it in this life has no bearing on the next. Those are all made of the same stardust as you and I. And in the end of 3D it will all be diamonds anyways. Diamond is forever. There is no going back. So what are you hoarding? You cannot keep it. Who could you be helping for goodness sake? Don’t want to still. That is okay. Think I am just crazy. That is okay too. It is all part of the test...err..assessment. Do your best.
What is in your heart?
Home.
I need a home.
Stay tuned as more of my story unfolds. I give all the answers but you must do the work. I already did that hard part setting it all up. All you have to do is breathe and live. Time is the only real currency you have. What will you pay your attention to before this life runs out?

Murder Drones is an indie animated show produced and directed by GLITCH Productions. It was originally created by Liam Vickers before signing a contract with GLITCH to turn it into a show. The plot of the show follows young robot characters going on adventures throughout the episodes. The show is primarily marketed towards the teenage and child audiences. It is free to watch on YouTube meaning that it is available to be watched by anyone who has a Youtube channel. While all of this might seem innocent and harmless at first, there is much more to Murder Drones than meets the eye. We must take into consideration that the main characters of the show which are teenagers (as shown by the fact that they are seen going to school in multiple episodes) have highly sexualised designs and are often placed in highly suggestive situations with one another which has extremely disturbing implications. We must mention one character in specific, V, who has a ridiculously sexualised design due to her over exaggerated features and revealing outfit. This design choice obviously serves no purpose other than to bait lonely induvidials into clicking on Murder Drones episodes by using predatory tactics like this. Characters such as Lizzy and Doll also have revealing clothes that they never change once. There very clearly seems to exist a pattern of oversexualised female characters within the show. This sexualisation and objectification of women is never addressed. GLITCH Productions themselves also directly promotes shipping of their characters by integrating romantic relationships into the story. One such example is "Nuzi", a ship made canon by GLITCH Productions that involves the characters N and Uzi. Uzi is clearly shown to be underage as evidenced by the fact that she still goes to school and N is shown to be in his early 20's at lowest. This clear depiction of pedophilia is completely ignored by the show's writers and producers. Not only is it ignored, as a matter of fact, it is actively encouraged. Liam Vickers, the creator of Murder Drones has made several pedophilic remarks in the past regarding underage characters. The fact that the main person behind the entire show is possibly a pedophile does not help it's reputation in the slightest. Furthermore, Liam Vickers once had a thumbnail that clearly sexualized a fictional minor on one of the videos on his old Scary Story Time With Liam YouTube channel. Although, not as subtle as the depiction of problematic relationships, Murder Drones web series might be secretly promoting racism through different implications. Robots vs humans kind of stories are as old as our world, but i would like to draw attention to several "coincidentally" questionable moments. Main characters of the show all seem to have skin color of white and you might say that they are just robots and that their so called "skin color" is just the paint. That point might have been valid if the showrunner didn't make a design decision of making those robots look so much like real humans. Speaking about real humans, they are depicted as "shadowy silhouettes" of some sort, which inevitably makes them look pitch black. This would not have been so bad, only if the main character of the show - Uzi, didn't make numerous claims about killing all humans, and do keep in mind that the coloration of her skin is pale white. In conclusion, Murder Drones is an inherently pedophilic and racist show that is especially harmful considering that it is targeted towards minors and is accessible by anyone. It should be banned worldwide for promoting subtle pedophilic and anti-black agendas and preying on juvenile population of 3rd world countries that is unable to afford cable TV and is instead forced to watch YouTube videos.

About a year ago, I [29 M] was in a toxic relationship with J [29 M]. While there were no serious stakes in it (no kids or messy finances), the relationship and breakup ended up emotionally affecting me in a way I had never really thought possible. I feel guilty because after the relationship I tried to be friends with my ex still, which I now see as a mistake in the context of this relationship, and then after a few months, he blocked me because I didn't respect a boundary he had set about not sending him long messages. He said he didn't feel safe since I "completely ignored" the boundary.
I was devastated, but over the course of the next few months, came to understand a great deal of ways that I feel that I had been abused during the relationship. I felt angrier and angrier, and even though I was seeing a therapist, it eventually boiled over. My ex had blocked me on discord and probably on text, but I went onto an astrology app called Co-Star that he had had me download, and sent a message using it that said something like, "You were an abusive partner, but you can make it right with an apology."
Now, I have no idea if he actually saw the message. It was sent with a weird feature of the app called Chaos Mode that apparently chooses to send the message at some future time, so who knows if it actually ever sent. I don't know if he still has the app, if he unfriended me, or whatnot. But I feel guilty because I enacted exactly the caricature of me that he had created--I hadn't respected his boundaries, and I sent the message anyways.
At the same time, I am still feeling very victimized by the relationship. To give you a sense of the kinds of things that were going on in the relationship, here's a few examples that I currently find a little horrific [Note: this kind of turned into a summary of the relationship after I wrote it]. I'm aware that to heal I should probably not be ruminating about these things, especially if they lead me to boil over and message him, but here you go.
The first time I had sex with him, he slammed the door on me for not being able to finish and said "finish yourself." When I came to bed, I told him I felt shame. He said "good." The next time we had sex, he set a timer for me and said I had to finish within 5 minutes. These were the first times I ever had sex. He was manipulative in bed, telling me he didn't want to perform certain acts because I didn't give him enough praise for them, so that I started exaggerating my pleasure; he blamed me for why certain positions weren't working and was frustrated with how my body worked. On top of this, he admitted at the end of the relationship to having had sex with me around five times after he decided to break up with me (before he did), which just makes me feel a bit icky.
He would put me down in pretty transparently cruel ways. One example was when I exerted myself, he said I sounded like a muppet and that he "didn't want to be dating a muppet." When I offered him a blanket but apologized that it might not have been washed in a while, he called me a baby. He would insult my ability to give complements, asking me to tell him what color his eyes are but then rejecting everything that I gave him, telling me I was bad at complements repeatedly (and saying that it wasn't fair of him because his other exes were artists, so no wonder I was bad). Now, there were times that he was complementary to me--he told me I was hot, good at singing, good at writing, smart--but also times where he would put me down for things I was less good at, like cooking.
He constantly made me feel insecure about my gender. (For context, we are both men, but he was raised as a woman). So he would make pretty sweeping feminist critiques over fairly mundane things, like if I complained when I was sick he would go off about how men are always babies when they are sick and women don't get attention. When I confronted him about some of the things he was saying, telling him that while I wanted him to express these kinds of social problems so that I could be aware and adapt, I was feeling insecure in the relationship--he flipped it around and told me that if I didn't feel loved, he could say "I love you" less, and that I hadn't been grateful enough for when he came to visit me. (I had written him poetry, deep cleaned my apartment, taken time off work, sent my roommate off for the week, bought him a bus pass, planned his visit, met him in the airport despite not having a car, and just an insane amount of work to be turned into, "you weren't grateful enough").
Other than namecalling, he was just plain controlling. The reason that the boundary around me not sending long messages exists is that when I felt insecure--which I think makes sense given the ways he would talk to me--I would often send him a few paragraphs apologizing and explaining how I was growing. Even though long messages were the first thing he said he loved about me, and that he said our communication was like magic, he eventually set up what he called an "Essay embargo" and told me not to write them. The first time he set the "embargo", he had said it was only until we met in person because he didn't want me to write anything that would make him nervous. After we met in person, I assumed the embargo had lifted. Yet shortly after, he set it again, giving a few explanations--the main one just being that he wanted to appreciate our relationship without overthinking it. It seemed playful. He definitely did also say that long messages made him uncomfortable because he felt obligated to send a response. So, when I did send messages, I would add that he didn't have to respond (which I realize is not fully respecting the boundary). I did ask after sending messages whether they were ok and he never responded to those questions.
Despite this, there were times during the relationship that I continued to send long, often apologetic messages. I had felt like this boundary was set playfully and I also was feeling overwhelming guilt that I, for whatever reason, needed his affirmation for. I am conflicted because on the one hand, I was definitely ignoring his boundary--but on the other, I feel like the boundary was not very thoughtful of my own needs, either.
Prior to the breakup, it was hell. He was getting angry at me for everything--for pretty mundane things like using the bathroom before him and stinking it up. He told me he had to show me how to do everything, but I realize now that a lot of this was just him being particular (e.g, he told me I don't know how to drink tea because I left the bag in, when I just like it strong). Unfortunately, I had flown 5,000 miles to visit him and was sort of trapped in his proximity, and was drunk on love still since I was trying very hard, it was my first relationship, and he had sold me on notions of fairytale romance and told me we were cosmically meant to be together and other lovebomby sort of things. At one point, he missed a turn while driving with GPS and got angry at me for not helping--he disconnected his phone and threw it sideways at me (I guess so I could navigate for him, but it was a pretty retaliatory motion). We flew to a convention and I met some of his friends, and at one point he introduced me to a girl he had almost dated before, saying I was a friend and not a partner. I pointed this out to him later and he just said "does that make you angry?". He flirted with a woman at a party, telling her she was pretty while demanding that i bring him snacks (I feel so, so weak for not confronting him about this). He got drunk and I stayed with him as he passed out, but he was angry at me in the morning. When one of his friends told me they thought I was nice, because i was opening doors for everyone, my ex said "Is he really?" Questioning them.
The breakup itself was cold and calculated. He started it by telling me that he thought about not giving me any reasons for the breakup because I always overanalyze things. He told me he wouldn't have broken up with me if I was a woman. He told me I didn't take care of him and he needs a partner that takes care of him, and that his partners always feel taken care of. He threw some things I had said at the beginning of the relationship back at me--misquoting and misunderstanding them.
After the relationship, I had no idea what to think. It was my first relationship. It had started with fairytale romance. I had been passing his tests, I had been an exception to his long string of abusive relationships. He presented himself as this incredibly moral person (vegan, environmentally conscious, telling me of all of the ways others had abused him that he would never do, even his closest friends). I had completely internalized criticisms that he had had of me throughout the relationship, many of which had led to serious self reflection and my writing messages about my growth. Within a week I told him I still loved him and that I always would. He reminded me of his boundary around long messages and said they made him anxious. I was desperate. We took a few weeks of no-contact. We messaged short-messages back and forth, with a few life-updates to eachother each. He told me he was rescuing a kitten that he found, and I remembered how he could be kind.
But as I processed, more and more, I felt angry. I wrote unsent angry letters in the notes app on my phone for a month. I wrote myself a 20,000 word summary of the relationship. This was not a healthy way to process. It elevated me. (Some of you will probably comment that maybe I shouldn't have written this post for the same reason, but oh well--I wanted to process and I want to hear if others have similar stories). Meanwhile, my ex kept pushing back the date for when we would verbally connect again. Eventually, I boiled over. I did not insult him. But I wrote a long message explaining that I wanted to take 3 months of no-contact. I had entered another relationship and told him that even though I was feeling angry at him, he shouldn't be worried because even though I had baggage from the relationship, I was communicating well with my new partner. I also told him that I felt like if I did talk with him, that I would end up tearing him a new one, and that I needed time to cool down. I'm not proud of the message in general, but I didn't call names, tell him he was awful, or anything like that. I was just insensitive and told him I was angry.
And like that, I was blocked. It was over. A period of about 9 months, five of which we were together, with two before escalating towards love bombing and two after escalating towards my boiling over.
And yet, I had never expressed to him that I thought he had been abusive. I felt frustrated that I had told him that I would always love him, when in many ways now I hated him.
Five months passed, during which I came to realize more and more how messed up the relationship was.
And then I sent the message on Co-star.
Fast forward another four months to now.
I just sent him a text, knowing he probably has blocked me there too. It said something like, "I want my last message to you just be: I'm sorry, and I forgive you." I wanted to free myself. I needed to not feel angry at him or ashamed of myself. I needed to not feel like I had a million things to say to him--I needed to just say, this is it: I'm not sending more messages. I'm sorry, and I forgive you. It was for myself. I was forgiving him selfishly, even though he didn't deserve it, so that I could move on.
I feel like I shouldn't have sent this, but I don't feel bad about it yet, either. I needed closure. It always felt like there was some "message I could send" to detail his abuse, and I needed to not have that standing over me--I needed to forgive. I am now oscillating between wondering about myself--whether I have a problem with boundaries, since I had boiled over at this point three times to message him. Feeling frustrated I didn't assert myself about his abuse, that I doubled down on loving him. Part of me is glad that I sent the message on Co-Star saying that he was abusive, because it was the only indication I ever gave him, really, that what he did wasn't ok to me--he had blocked me before I could articulate anything. But I also know that this message even if received would not mean anything to him.
Anyways, now I'm venting about it here on Reddit. Does anyone have similar experiences surrounding self control messaging exes and feeling a bit out of control?

I’m a 24 year old opera singer in NY. I have a degree in music education. The reason I didn’t end up going into teaching was because I heard horror stories about opera singers being completely wiped out by the end of the day (mainly vocally from having to manage a classroom) and being unable to juggle rehearsals with their job. Im looking for a career that can allow me to be flexible so I can accommodate rehearsals and performances which can vary time wise. I’ve thought about tech, but have heard that it’s becoming oversaturated. Right now I teach private vocal and piano lessons which has been fine, but difficult since it’s just after school hours, which can be an issue between rehearsals and depending on if I decide to start a family in the next 8 years or so. Just looking for advice since I often feel like I have my hands tied here.

Post 5
'Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”' (Matthew 26:41a)
Two years ago, during my student years, I was living in a guest home. It was during covid, so there wasn't much else you could do. I felt lonely and frustrated, because it felt to me as if I was locked up. I had almost zero social interaction. My days were mostly filled with pointless activities: I did my best to enjoy myself as much as possible, by engaging in porn, games and films. While my host parents had long since turned off the lights in the house, I was still doomscrolling behind my PC. Until the middle of the night I was busy using up my dopamine supply for the day, looking for the perfect movie, the perfect pic. In many cases it was 2 AM, sometimes even 3 AM, before I turned off the night lamp on my desk. I was exhausted, while I hadn't done anything productive that day.
But, hey, there was still one thing I had to do that I was about to forget. Getting down on my knees and thanking God for everything He had given me that day, praying for protection this night and for forgiveness of my sins. After that I would have to read the Bible, namely the part that was next in order.
Wasn't that bothersome? I was already so tired from my 'nighttime activities' and now I had to focus my attention on prayer and reading God's Word. It led to me rushing through it and then rolling over on one ear, only to discover late in the morning that I had slept through the alarm. Btw, sometimes I spent even longer in bed watching porn. Sometimes I didn't even remember what I had prayed because my brain was so battered by the overload of dopamine hits that basic functions like memory and reasoning seemed gone.
What could I have prayed for if living with God had been more of a priority at the time? What if I had guarded more against sin? I not only ruined my personal development, but also my relationship with God. Because I didn't need God, my desire was to satisfy my fleshly lusts, and vice versa. I should have watched and prayed lest I fall into temptation. I didn't. It now teaches me the lesson that personal prayer, personal quiet time is of vital importance. It is the heartbeat of all your time spent. A life close to God, in dependence on Him, protects us from so much evil.
Maybe you recognize yourself in my story. Maybe it also holds up a mirror to you. That's why I wanted to write something about it in all simplicity. I would like to say: we cannot relive the past, but we can learn from our mistakes. “Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.” Give the Lord the best part of your time, the best part of the day. Ask every day for His protection and preservation from sin. When you encounter a trigger or urge, pray against it, fight against it. The Lord hears you and He wants to help you in the hour of temptation.
(To be continued)
God bless!

We will be playing a modified Tomb of Annihilation campaign on [Roll20], the modifications include minor or major changes to locations, characters, motivations and storylines but will not alter the rules of 5e or stray too far from what is generally known about the Forgotten realms. I will also add new locations and will adjust existing things around player characters.
The most important aspect of the game is the fact your characters will be "origin' characters akin to those found in Baldur's Gate 3, essentially they are concepts deeply tied to the campaign. The goal is to have every character feel like the main character.
At its core ToA is a hexcrawl meaning there will be survival aspects and a lot of travelling through mostly uncharted wilderness with random encounters, a majority of which will have been determined randomly. You might get lost and end up not talking to anyone else for a few days, you most likely will have a guide though and a few npcs following along.
Despite this I prefer D&D when it has "soul", I don't have fun playing 5e like a plain boardgame so expect roleplay and even combat should be tied to some narrative, actions should be described in detail. Most of the time in a session will be spend in-character and hopefully immersed.
I will make sure the random encounters always have something unique about them like a strange new creature, a small story or a connection to a player, I'll reroll any that repeat to often and curate them as a whole.
I like my players to be mindful of everyone present at the table, being in the spotlight shouldn't be a struggle and you should always try to involve someone else when doing things, even if it's just asking questions about another character's culture at camp. You know when to shut up and when to speak up. Answer the last question with "Cheese"
The game will never be completely divorced from the central plot in favor of a player character but my goal is to have your personal story be in-line with the main one, for example by having the bbeg be your childhood rival.
This game will contain all sorts of violence and darker things but I do not intend on running a game centered around those aspects, if anything it'll be the opposite as I believe player characters should be special and although not all of them can succeed they have a chance at making great things happen. No ERP.
I've DMed and played for about 4 years now, I've run and played this module several times which I why I'm confident enough to make changes and additions to it.
To apply fill in the following form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScwMSzcKeMxrIKZKq9dZopK_hzH75l4ol49xO820lmXOtf4UA/viewform?usp=sf_link
If I like your application I'll contact you on discord for a short call after which I'll know whether or not you'll be a good fit, you'll be able to ask any questions you might have during this call, having questions ready is always a +.

I remember the date & time the scariest night of my life happened to me: it was between the hours of 9 and 10 at night on Thursday, July 09, 2020, so this was during the COVID-19 pandemic. This happened in Pittsburgh. At around 09:00 PM, I started doing my laundry starting with the washing machine, which takes around 20 - 30 minutes to wash clothing. With that amount of time to spend, I decided to go outside for a walk around my neighborhood for a nightly breeze while listening to music (listening to “Same Old Story” by From Ashes To New on repeat) on my iPhone ear-buds.
Just to clarify, I was feeling very down because of how the world just stopped due to the pandemic, with everything closed, a protest that turned into a riot downtown that I was trapped in, and a scandal that transpired at a university I attended, but these are tales for another time. I just couldn’t see my friends and girls I had crushes and I was even going out to clubs in Pittsburgh’s nightlife especially South Side, so I was having difficulty adjusting to a worldwide event trying to cope as well as having patience. Being such an upbeat person with a great attitude in spite of overthinking (like believing the coronavirus spread in Wuhan, China would make it around the world to become a pandemic THEN it does) this put major emotional distress on me.
I was on my way back to the house around 15 minutes before 10, when I was walking through a small highway and no lampposts, so it was creepy going through a dark highway with nothing but trees on both sides and hearing the sounds of crickets chirping.
With about a half of a mile to go, I was on the right side of the road when a white car coming the opposite way slows down, then the driver’s window lowers then a man yells at me to drop my wallet. I was surprised by why he demanded me to, but then as I stepped closer to the man’s car, I could see he was holding & pointing something towards me in his hand: a hand-held firearm. What makes this scarier is I didn’t have my wallet with me. When I found out exactly what was going on, I sprinted away back to the house, scared in the back of my mind he was going to shoot at me or take a sharp U-turn to chase me. I was wearing a white sleeveless shirt, long jeans and waterproof boots, but I ran without tripping. When I was sprinting I also looked back every few seconds hoping I wouldn’t see the same white car, but I didn’t. I made it back to the house, sweating and reflecting on what had just happened to me for the first time, being someone who was never in a situation like that before. The only one else at the house was one of my second cousins, who was in a gaming room playing video-games unaware of my night walk; the others, my mother & my cousin (my second cousin’s mother) were out of town that night.
Never in my life would I ever think I would be a victim of attempted robbery. I wish I got the model of the car, the name of the brand, and, most importantly, the license plate, to report him, but I was too scared to know about that in my fight or flight response.
I should have still called the police to report this, but being I was young & feeling down around this time & had never made a police report, I didn’t. I know, very selfish of me. To this day, I wish I had just dialed 911 for this, but having an overprotective mother who was out of time that night with my cousin and my cousin’s son was the only one else with me at the house not knowing I went outside for a walk while he was playing video-games, I just couldn’t bring myself to confess this. They still don’t know about except a few select friends of mine I called to talk about it with.
I know this was a stupid thing I did, but my mind was not well in tact with my adjustment to the Covid-19 pandemic; I needed a moment to clear my mind at the moment even at night.
However, this has taught me a lesson and this should teach you all who have never been in a situation, to never go out at night in the dark, unless you’re going somewhere but do it safely, with someone you trust, or if you’re looking for time to kill during an indoor chore that takes waiting, do something that doesn’t involve going outside. Either way, pandemic or no pandemic, be aware of what happens in situations like this and be safe, and learn from this if you do go out at night, never go alone. However, I wonder what would’ve happened if I didn’t figure out what was going on longer, or if I told him I didn’t have my wallet. I believe that if I didn’t know what was going on any longer, chances are I wouldn’t be here.

We will be playing a modified Tomb of Annihilation campaign on [Roll20], the modifications include minor or major changes to locations, characters, motivations and storylines but will not alter the rules of 5e or stray too far from what is generally known about the Forgotten realms. I will also add new locations and will adjust existing things around player characters.
The most important aspect of the game is the fact your characters will be "origin' characters akin to those found in Baldur's Gate 3, essentially they are concepts deeply tied to the campaign. The goal is to have every character feel like the main character.
At its core ToA is a hexcrawl meaning there will be survival aspects and a lot of travelling through mostly uncharted wilderness with random encounters, a majority of which will have been determined randomly. You might get lost and end up not talking to anyone else for a few days, you most likely will have a guide though and a few npcs following along.
Despite this I prefer D&D when it has "soul", I don't have fun playing 5e like a plain boardgame so expect roleplay and even combat should be tied to some narrative, actions should be described in detail. Most of the time in a session will be spend in-character and hopefully immersed.
I will make sure the random encounters always have something unique about them like a strange new creature, a small story or a connection to a player, I'll reroll any that repeat to often and curate them as a whole.
I like my players to be mindful of everyone present at the table, being in the spotlight shouldn't be a struggle and you should always try to involve someone else when doing things, even if it's just asking questions about another character's culture at camp. You know when to shut up and when to speak up. Answer the last question with "Cheese"
The game will never be completely divorced from the central plot in favor of a player character but my goal is to have your personal story be in-line with the main one, for example by having the bbeg be your childhood rival.
This game will contain all sorts of violence and darker things but I do not intend on running a game centered around those aspects, if anything it'll be the opposite as I believe player characters should be special and although not all of them can succeed they have a chance at making great things happen. No ERP.
I've DMed and played for about 4 years now, I've run and played this module several times which I why I'm confident enough to make changes and additions to it.
To apply fill in the following form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScwMSzcKeMxrIKZKq9dZopK_hzH75l4ol49xO820lmXOtf4UA/viewform?usp=sf_link
If I like your application I'll contact you on discord for a short call after which I'll know whether or not you'll be a good fit, you'll be able to ask any questions you might have during this call, having questions ready is always a +.

Today’s review is for Tales of the EdgeWorlds Volume 1 by Shawn Frost. I was given an ARC copy back in July of 2023, but didn’t finish reading it until recently because I bogged myself down with too many activities, and something this long takes me a while. I will go through the things I liked about it, the things I hated, and wrap it up with a score from 1-10. My scoring system goes through 5 key components, with each one going over the creative aspect and the technical aspect. I will explain that part when we get to scoring later on, so let’s plow on through.
This is a collection, about 266 pages long, and is meant to be the first installment of a comedy series. Shawn runs a Youtube channel where he covers lolcows and does gaming streams, so comedy should come naturally to him. As a volume, this holds 4 short stories, each one holding about 8 chapters, with each story running for about 20k words. Technically, we can say it’s 4 novelettes, but as I explain the situation, you’ll see why they are so long. The plot may seem complex but the main characters go through the same situations: the dimensional merge occurred, between all of our creative properties and C-197, with a group of rambunctious penguins doing mercenary work.
Sadly, it’s not really the Chris-Chan version of a dimensional merge, so we do not see Sonichu or any of that wacky world… yet. It's volume 1, so it's too early to say it's not open to the possibilities. The style runs close to internet memes and those old Newgrounds cartoons, with the focus aimed at action scenes and descriptions of the creative world around their setups. But, as you read through the massive amount of descriptions and banter, you'll realize that very little happens in each story. I would say each one is very simple and with a low reading level needed to get through them, which is a double-edged sword in this case.
I say this because the writing tries too hard to claim a joke was made when it wasn’t really a “ha-ha” joke to begin with. It’s more like “ah… humor is detectable somewhere in these pages” kind of comedy. It relates to the offensive animals of Fritz the Cat, where the comedy comes from the absurdity of a setup, rather than a punchline that is found. Unfortunately, because the satire is absent and it focuses too much on the premise, the result becomes more like my favorite episode of Heil Honey I’m Home, minus Hitler and his annoying neighbors. The banter bogs down the pacing, turning each chapter into a short, yet overly long, sample of a scene, chained together by constantly shifting points of view.
Thankfully, this simple way of approaching a story allows a casual reader to speed on by. Things are easy to follow and characters are easy to remember. The main cast of Edgy, Jeff, Todd, and Hylus are separated by their brand of chaotic addictions. Addiction to drugs, addiction to hentai, addiction to video games, addiction to murder; all greatly expressed in what are meant to be running gags that resemble a sitcom cast. The ship they travel around in, from job to job, can easily be imagined as a "That '70s Show basement" version of the ship in The Orville, as each story goes to different planets where they meet different aliens.
There is enough in each story to understand what is going on, with the stories more as an exploration of lore than an exploration of character or theme. The lack of focus, as well as the indifferent prose, harms the way each tale is told. I would never say these are bad ideas or bad concepts, just bad ways to get them across. High concept, low composition. I would say the main value is from the promise of more to come than what is presented in the pages.
Time for the rating, which will be given between 0-2. 1 point goes to the technical aspect and 1 point goes to the creative side of things. Flaws within a point will reduce it into smaller decimals, but a single aspect is not able to entirely kill a story on its own. If it’s all technical or all creative, a story will be treated as mediocre. Even if I like something, it is still possible to get a 5/10, meaning it’s not suitable for the average reader who is more accepting of a 7 or an 8.
Plot: 1.5 Things happen and people go places in the form of a violent travelog. The pacing bogs down the destination with tourist traps.
Characters: 1.5 The characters play their roles well, even though their roles don’t play well with the plot. Their banter and quirks fall flat in parts.
Prose: 1 With clear points between A and B, wet and sloppy ideas are delivered dry and brittle. With each paragraph shoving lore down the reader’s throat, it can become death by a thousand detours.
Theme: 1 There is a great message about how chaos and anarchy transforms people into primitive animals. Unfortunately, the author couldn’t find it in the infinite vastness of subspace.
Setting : 2 It is a world you want to know more about and look forward to the next bit of info. Creative, exotic, to the proper point of chaotic, yet still comprehensible. Everything about this book is in the setting.
Final verdict: 7/10
The book is niche, it takes a while to heat up, and even then it’s as appealing as a mystery flavor hot pocket. If you’re into absurdity, you will enjoy it. I just wish the absurdity had some life behind it. There is room for expansion and I hope that opportunity is taken.

I would really appreciate it if more people would comment on this subject topic please.
I edited some things so you guys could read it better and there are also spoilers for the shitty story video game The Last of Us Part II so read at your own risk!
Do you think AJ might end up becoming a crazy serial killer sociopath or psychopath? Because the way he talks about killing people especially what he did to Marlon without thinking about the consequences of his actions was the definition of Murder! Marlon wasn't perfect but he didn't deserve to die like that he even surrenders too and I believe he actually felt Remorseful Regretful Guilty Responsible and Ashamed of what he had done
but AJ killed him in cold blood anyway so I don't blame Louis and Mitch and all the other kids for acting the way they did in Episode 2 and I know AJ is still young and Clem has been trying her best to teach him right from wrong and I know he saved Clem's life but still I worry that there will come a day where Clem will have to tell AJ to look at the flowers for those of you who know what I mean there are people who still don't like and hate AJ regardless of him saving Clem's life! Because of his personality especially when you tell him to kill Lilly and the way he said he liked killing her in such a creepy serial killer voice I mean he reminds me of Light Yagami from the anime/manga series Death Note and he reminds me of Harvey Dent aka Two-Face especially from The 2008 film The Dark Knight especially with that famous quote "You either die a Hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the Villain" and that's what I worry about with AJ that one day he could totally freaking snap and Clem would have no choice but to finally put him down once and for all that's what I still fear in the future for AJ that he will do something so bad to someone else that they will want revenge on him and
David from Season 3 is a good example of that because David was Crazy and in most of the endings of Season 3 he ends up dead! But he was right about one thing "AJ was a Brat" Also Karma might come back for AJ because someone might bash his brains out just like Badger from Season 3 got his brains bashed out from Javi all I'm saying is if AJ still keeps doing crazy stuff and being ruthless when it comes to killing people then someone is going to want revenge and is going to want to kill him Just like Abby killed Joel in The Last of Us Part II because Joel killed Abby's Dad! That could happen to AJ in the future you never know because he might just go to far and someone maybe Clem will have no choice but to put him down in the future which would be a sad but true thing indeed! So what do you all think about AJ's future when comes to killing people who do wrong by him and the way he talks about it like it's no big deal!
I just hope he will learn to give people the benefit of the doubt in the future instead of wanting to kill them because when it came to interrogating Abel when AJ saw him Die he started to feel a little sorry for him especially if you ask him as Clem by saying isn't this what you wanted and AJ will say I did but and then Abel will cut him off by saying You're going to get your wish and AJ has a sad look on his face I liked where AJ offers Abel Water at least because you told him what he did to Marlon was wrong and it was murder and that he would have to atone for it so he thought he could do the same with Abel I just don't know I still worry what and who AJ will become in the future
Maybe he will start to show a little bit of mercy to his enemies and he will only kill them in self defense and he will show mercy to the ones who hopefully feel Remorseful regretful guilty responsible and ashamed of their actions look I know it's a zombie apocalypse world and it's every person for themselves but you have to believe that there are some people who want to be good and who want to be heroes I hope AJ will see that and try to have a code when it comes to not killing as many people only if and when it's necessary and when it's unnecessary I hope he will learn and know the difference especially when said to Lilly's face in Episode 3 of the final season that he killed Marlon and that he wasn't a monster but she was and it was a good choice that he killed Lilly but still I just hope he will learn the difference when it comes to doing the right thing which is showing mercy to people like Marlon and killing people like Lilly I hope he will know the difference and grow up to be more like Clem and his parents Rebecca and Alvin and less like Carver hopefully anyway what do you guys think? 🤷‍♂️🙏

I would really appreciate it if more people would comment on this subject topic please.
I edited some things so you guys could read it better and there are also spoilers for the shitty story video game The Last of Us Part II so read at your own risk!
Do you think AJ might end up becoming a crazy serial killer sociopath or psychopath? Because the way he talks about killing people especially what he did to Marlon without thinking about the consequences of his actions was the definition of Murder! Marlon wasn't perfect but he didn't deserve to die like that he even surrenders too and I believe he actually felt Remorseful Regretful Guilty Responsible and Ashamed of what he had done
but AJ killed him in cold blood anyway so I don't blame Louis and Mitch and all the other kids for acting the way they did in Episode 2 and I know AJ is still young and Clem has been trying her best to teach him right from wrong and I know he saved Clem's life but still I worry that there will come a day where Clem will have to tell AJ to look at the flowers for those of you who know what I mean there are people who still don't like and hate AJ regardless of him saving Clem's life! Because of his personality especially when you tell him to kill Lilly and the way he said he liked killing her in such a creepy serial killer voice I mean he reminds me of Light Yagami from the anime/manga series Death Note and he reminds me of Harvey Dent aka Two-Face especially from The 2008 film The Dark Knight especially with that famous quote "You either die a Hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the Villain" and that's what I worry about with AJ that one day he could totally freaking snap and Clem would have no choice but to finally put him down once and for all that's what I still fear in the future for AJ that he will do something so bad to someone else that they will want revenge on him and
David from Season 3 is a good example of that because David was Crazy and in most of the endings of Season 3 he ends up dead! But he was right about one thing "AJ was a Brat" Also Karma might come back for AJ because someone might bash his brains out just like Badger from Season 3 got his brains bashed out from Javi all I'm saying is if AJ still keeps doing crazy stuff and being ruthless when it comes to killing people then someone is going to want revenge and is going to want to kill him Just like Abby killed Joel in The Last of Us Part II because Joel killed Abby's Dad! That could happen to AJ in the future you never know because he might just go to far and someone maybe Clem will have no choice but to put him down in the future which would be a sad but true thing indeed! So what do you all think about AJ's future when comes to killing people who do wrong by him and the way he talks about it like it's no big deal!
I just hope he will learn to give people the benefit of the doubt in the future instead of wanting to kill them because when it came to interrogating Abel when AJ saw him Die he started to feel a little sorry for him especially if you ask him as Clem by saying isn't this what you wanted and AJ will say I did but and then Abel will cut him off by saying You're going to get your wish and AJ has a sad look on his face I liked where AJ offers Abel Water at least because you told him what he did to Marlon was wrong and it was murder and that he would have to atone for it so he thought he could do the same with Abel I just don't know I still worry what and who AJ will become in the future
Maybe he will start to show a little bit of mercy to his enemies and he will only kill them in self defense and he will show mercy to the ones who hopefully feel Remorseful regretful guilty responsible and ashamed of their actions look I know it's a zombie apocalypse world and it's every person for themselves but you have to believe that there are some people who want to be good and who want to be heroes I hope AJ will see that and try to have a code when it comes to not killing as many people only if and when it's necessary and when it's unnecessary I hope he will learn and know the difference especially when said to Lilly's face in Episode 3 of the final season that he killed Marlon and that he wasn't a monster but she was and it was a good choice that he killed Lilly but still I just hope he will learn the difference when it comes to doing the right thing which is showing mercy to people like Marlon and killing people like Lilly I hope he will know the difference and grow up to be more like Clem and his parents Rebecca and Alvin and less like Carver hopefully anyway what do you guys think? 🤷‍♂️🙏

Everybody keeps saying that the new movie should be a Kong movie, and I do personally agree with this even though I like to see Godzilla, who seems to be a very long cameo in a movie that has his name written first. But that begs a question, hypothetically how'd you rewrite GxK to make it more like a Kong movie?
Mine is not the best, but I'll try my best.
The movie intro starts nearly the same, but remove all Godzilla scene, until the traps Kong set up collapsed, and Skar King emerged from the gap. Instead of destroying the outpost like he did in the movie, he'd try to lure Kong in the uncharted area without Monarch knowing. Then Kong ventures around, meets a Drownviper and almost gets incapacitated (doesn't make sense given that Kong killed it canonically), just before Kong gets drowned, Skar King takes the opportunity and swiftly saves Kong from the eel-like titan.
For Skar King, who is better be bigger and stronger than Kong, he should be extremely manipulative in an emotional sense, but the tyrannical sadistic side should be kept hidden until the big reveal. Kong, still too shocked and surprised to see a fellow species of his though he is a bit different, would immediately follow him around without any hesitation, who took him back to his kingdom. The red ape puts on a friendly facade and tells him that the Gojira species locked him and the apes up, thus, making Kong's already present dislike toward Godzilla grow.
When they get back to the kingdom, which doesn't contain Shimo like the movie did, Kong does express sadness after seeing how malnourished his species are, making his sympathy toward Skar King bigger. Here's a really stupid catch, prior to inviting Kong, Skar King basically becomes Kim Jong un and turns every ape into an NPC, which means actors. They'd act all scared and surround Kong, thus, fueling the big guy's remorse and empathy. The red ape would then introduce Kong to Suko, who'd later be Kong's companion and savior, and say that he could lead the apes to a better place, that's if he got the Hollow Earth energy with Kong's help. Wanting to free his people and the emotional manipulation from Skar, Kong instantly agrees without even noticing Suko's fearful expression.
Kong, Suko, Skar King and his armies set out to find the energy that could help the apes thrive. Along the way, Kong would notice Suko's anxiety around his own father but never question why. Nevertheless, the big guy would still bond over his nunchuck, and a montage of them skipping rocks on the lake and Kong teaching Suko how to properly throw a rock at someone's head (This might or might not be crucial). After reaching an unknown area, the whole scout manage to find a crystal that could help them control megafauna and even smaller titans (kinda like Shimo but wider range).
But upon acquiring the crystal, Suko suddenly snatches it from Kong's hand, and Skar King, along with his subordinates, laughs hysterically and says that Kong is a stupid moron. Skar King then reveals that he is the tyrant who caused the Titan War and starves the apes, and Kong realizes that the one who saves him was just power-hungry dictator. Confused, enraged and betrayed, Kong challenges him into a fight, and Skar King pulls out his whip, which then breaks Kong's rotten tooth. Kong does put up a good fight, but ultimately, he loses to Skar King's superior build and experience. Instead of chopping his head off with his axe, Suko says that throwing him off the cliff will do just find, and for once, Skar King agrees with his son. They take the axe and dump Kong's body over the cliff, but using his most powerful weapon ever (plot armor), he falls into a lake and survives but heavily injured.
He crawls back to Jia and Ilene, saying that he lost his home and people because of his stupidity and ignorance. Jia then tells him that she also lost her people and home and he will lose his species if he decides to do nothing. Kong gets motivated and is given a BEAST glove and instantly heads to Skar King's lair, where the tyrant is still flaunting his new piece of weapon that could help him rule the surface. When Kong arrives and once again challenges Skar King, who is surprised to see him but happy to accept the offer. With the BEAST glove, Kong clearly has the edge and sometimes grapples Skar and beats him up quite easily. Skar King spits out his tooth and tests his new toy, which attracts a bunch of Wart Dogs and Spineprowlers to attack Kong, who prevailed with minor injuries.
When Kong manages to pin Skar King down and chokes him, the tyrant swallows his pride and orders his subordinates to jump Kong all at once. The other apes hopelessly watch as Kong, despite being the strongest specimen of his species, can't fight all of the stripped apes. Even though one punch from his BEAST glove can put them to sleep, it's too much for Kong to manage, and eventually, he succumbs but still keep fighting. This desperate act seems to motivate the starved apes, but they don't have the courage to stand against them, but then, Suko, and Doug as his battle horse, roars as he throws rocks at his father's head. A small act of retaliation sparks a flame, and the apes all rush down to help Kong fight the Skar King and his armies.
Kong is then released and faces Skar King again, who is now more pissed off and swears that he'll kill every traitor when this is over. After a short fight in the arena, Kong and Skar King would then stop to catch a breath before continuing. Of course, Skar King notices the weakest Kong, Gnarled Finger, sneaking up on him, and he smiles before kicking the ape into the lava. Suko witnesses this and cries out in agony, and Kong, enraged, charges forward and goes all feral.
The final battle ends up with Kong prevailing and having Skar King at his mercy. Just as before Kong drops him into the lava like he did to Gnarled Finger, our protagonist chooses to spare him, but not without any consequences. Skar King, now utterly defeated and humiliated, and his army were now banished from his own kingdom by an outsider. He swears revenge and desire to take over the world, but Kong doesn't give a shit about his trash talking and throws the crystal into the lava, destroying it. The movie ends with Kong doing a victory roar along with his apes, and the our big guy is crowned King Kong.
The after-credit begins with a roar, and a broken crystal is dropped to the ground. Skar King, still could not let go of his revenge of both Kong and Godzilla, sadistically smiles as he grabs the crystal, and a roar of pain can be heard from a cave that seems to have two glowing blue eyes.
Yeah, not the best plot but that's all I can come up with. I'd have liked it more if Skar King was more of a threat instead of Shimo since he was hyped up so much. We heard the word 'hunger' in the reveal video, but in the film, he only ate once. No cannibalism, no eating Gojira, just... some Hollow Earth creatures. Ngl, I kinda hate it when the novel confirms that Kong could kill Skar King. Well, I hope that they release some comic about the Titan War, which could give us insight more about Skar King and his past.

Genocide looked to the sky. He thought of his mentor. The one who had saved him. He remembered his childhood. How powerless he was. He remembered the anger. He never wanted to hurt anybody. He thought of all the times he showed compassion. How much they hurt him for it. He saw the world before him, a graveyard. Humans. People that were supposed to be made in the image of some divine creator. They were but maggots feasting upon his remains. They ate away at his very being until nothing human remained. His thoughts were no longer his own. He had no joys in life that mattered. He hated humanity more than he could love anything about himself. He remember his first killing spree. Being gunned down by police. Left for dead. He remembered a hooded figure moving towards him. Getting closer the more he neared his death. He saw its pale face. Its impossibly black eyes. It was a man. This figure in question appeared to be of Japanese nationality with long, straight, loose hair. It emanated extreme malice. It offered him a choice. A purpose. Power. He thought the figure a reaper but it identified itself as Amakusa Masataka. Masataka guided him on how to kill and gave him specific locations to kill people in. In a sense, he became a hitman for quotas of people. He inquired what Masataka was. The presence of evil, his ability to appear and disappear at will, how he could control what people could see him and what people couldn't. While vague, years of killing for this being offered some insight. Amakusa Masataka belonged to a group of people not of this world. His people had been corrupted by a dark force long ago and had aligned themselves with the warlord who had subjugated their version of Japan. Their dark high priest assisted the warlord along with two others. These four rulers in turn served a larger order. The four were tasked with bringing about the end of the current world as an act of retribution for some fallen deity. Masataka's people acted as covert operatives for this empire. They were feared across the land and were collectively referred to as "Shinigami". An agent of the coming apocalypse, a servant of evil possessed by the will of those gods of death, Genocide would walk the earth.
Genocide stepped toward the station. A police cruiser rammed into him. He pulled out a knife and stabbed the hood of the car. The inhuman force of the knife created sparks which burst the engine into flames. The car crashed into a streetlight and exploded. A second cruiser neared the scene. No way a man could have done this. Yet still, out of the fires Genocide strode forth. It set upon the second vehicle, shooting out it's tires while jumping 9 feet into the air. The car tries to reverse but crashes into a wall. Genocide lands on the hood and kicks through the front window. Glass shatters under its boot, blinding the two officers inside. Genocide shoots one of the officers with a shotgun, killing him. The second officer in the passenger seat readies his pistol and takes aim. Only two shots fired, both directed at Genocide's head. It casually cocks its neck to avoid them. Then it grabs the officer's arm, breaking it. Genocide uses its free hand to grab the officer's head and bangs it into the dashboard no less than 5 times. The skull is shattered on the final impact. Genocide jumps off the car and continues on his mission.
Detective Evans speaks through a megaphone," This is your first and final warning. Stand down or we will use any and all means at our disposal to put you down." Genocide dropped its shotgun and raised its hands. A group of five SWAT team members rushed out the station, surrounding Genocide with riot shields. An officer accompanies them, edging behind the figure to apply handcuffs. Suddenly, Genocide springs to life , grabbing the officer behind him. He flips the officer over his head, slamming him into the pavement at his feet. Then Genocide stomps his head causing it to burst. Genocide drops a flash bomb from his coat sleeve, blinding the SWAT team as he draws his knife. He drives it into one SWAT member, the knife puncturing the shield and piercing his chest. Genocide kicks the corpse away withdrawing his knife. He goes to another, this time using the end of his boot toe in a rising kick to disarm their shield. He grabs them by the throat and drives the knife slowly into their eye socket. Another is tackled to the ground and beaten to death despite still being under the shield. Another is picked up and thrown into the fires still burning from the first auto incident. In no time, Genocide stood before an indistinguishable mass of gore, blood streaking across his black leather outfit. He laughed" So this is all you can give me. I'm not entertained." Officers took aim from the station windows, and snipers did so from other rooftops. Genocide laughed maniacally as he was rained down upon from all sides by a hailstorm of bullets. His body convulsed, but he did not fall. Moments more and he was on his knees. Still though, their efforts were futile. Gracia looked out and saw a black mist coalescing around the man in black. His blood. Blood erupted from his body only to transform into this dark mist that reentered his wounds. Genocide screamed. No. It was just an elevated pitch in his laughter. Optimism failed everyone yet again. Gracia saw Genocide holding something in his right hand. She could only make out a beeping red light. Genocide pushed the button triggering the carefully concealed explosives he laid in preparation for this event. C4 explosives went off in all the places he saw fit. The sniping posts he couldn't reach. The assault of lead lightened. Then Genocide drew an RPG from...somewhere. He collected himself and fired at the station's entrance. The explosion shook the station. From inside, the lights began to flicker. Communications were down on all fronts. Had he modified the rocket with some type of EMP? Not good. Amisdst the confusion Genocide entered using smoke bombs to mask his presence. Moving like a shadow, he killed everyone in the lobby silently with his knife. He made his way to the holding cells. Still they chanted. Still they praised. Still they raved for the arrival of genocide. Genocide shot the lock opening the cell. Jim Jimenez walked out and bowed before his master. Genocide smiled. He couldn't have imagined how proficient he had gotten with possession. Well, not quite possession. He had known of the Shinigami's ability to share their thoughts and emotions with humans. Shinigami like his mentor were ancient. They had so many years of memories, such strong a hatred for life that they overwhelmed the personality of the victim. The victim sees themselves as one of them. Shinigami can't force the will of the victim, so they find those who are already similar to them in some way. Genocide found the collective universal distrust of police to be a prime sentiment to capitalize on. He armed the inmates, infecting them with samples of his own dark essence.One particular inmate caught Genocide's eye. He knew the man's work. An arsonist. The one whom he recalls was responsible for blowing up his first car way back in high school. Rather than a standard firearm, Genocide gave the man a random assortment of grenades containing a special surprise. Genocide showed them visions of anarchy, of sending a message to a society that used and disregarded them. While this was also true of how he felt, years of living in darkness had changed him. He needed no purpose. No end goal. No justification. He just wanted to watch the world burn.
Genocide's small army broke off to engage several different wings of the station. Genocide went to the security room. He found Wayne, his informant, playing some FPS on one of the monitors. Wayne took of his headphones and asked," You kill everyone yet?" Genocide responded," No. You should get going before that happens. Your life becomes fair game if I run out of pigs to cook." Wayne clapped his hands, "Aight, GC my man, say less." He packed his things and left. Genocide drew a twin pair of handguns and laid waste to the station. He followed a group that took cover in the men's restroom. Kicking open multiple stalls he was surprised to find...nothing. Where had they gone? He turned around and saw his mentor, Masataka, smiling at him. It looked like him. Long, dark hair, black clothing, and soulless, empty eyes. But it wasn't. It was Genocide's own reflection in the mirror. Genocide smiled. He didn't notice the changes at first. They must have happened gradually. Subconsciously. From the final stall, an officer sprung into action, rushing Genocide, hitting him point blank with a shockgun round. Genocide felt the tingling sensation electrifying his body and grew numb. In spite of the pain, he took a single step. Then, another. He came within striking range of the officer and snatched the shockgun. Two more officers erupted from another stall, battering him with baton strikes. Genocide felt nothing. He clutched the shockgun in his hand like a bat and went to work pulverizing his attackers. An officer kicked in the bathroom door, a woman holding a pistol. She fired multiple times to no effect. Genocide stood covered in blood. He even let her reload. Twice. He wanted to see her despair. Her hopelessness. He walked towards her, shrugging off bullets as they pierced his body. His wounds healed nigh instantly due to the dark essence he had been imbued with. He held her face with both hands, lifting her body off the ground. As she screamed, he used her head to shatter the restroom mirror, running down the full length of it while smashing her into it at several points. He dropped the remains of what he held, washed his hands with soap, dried them, then exited the restroom.
The inmates that rallied for the cause of genocide attacked the station. Fortunately, they were nowhere near Genocide in terms of power and only carried one type of firearm each. They shared his healing ability but could be killed quite easily. Gracia encountered a sniper on the end or a west wing hallway. Other officers waited behind corners unable to get close. Gracia noticed the faulty lighting. In this hallway, the lights flickered in intervals of 3 seconds. Finding a pattern and timing her movements, she rushed the sniper at the exact moment the lights went out. Running the length of the hall, Gracia zigzagged, dodging the sniper inmate's bullets. She jumped on a wall, ran 3 feet on it, then kicked off it, pouncing on the assailant. She fired five shots into him, making sure to hit the brain and the heart. Two severe injuries that were impossible for Shinigami essence to heal simultaneously. Elsewhere, Evans took on another escaped inmate. A vehicular arsonist named Carson. Carson had a bag filled with an assortment of different grenades and was happily giving them out like candy on Halloween. "A flash bang here, a bit of tear gas there. Oh. Wait! Was that an ice grenade? Did the explosion freeze your leg to the floor? Whoops. Maybe a fire grenade will melt that for you. Hold on let me get one fore you," Carson rambled gleefully. Evans looked at the carnage before him. Officers burning. Officers partially frozen in blocks of ice. He took a breath and aimed his wristgun. He steadied his right forearm. Carson readied to throw a random grenade. Evans shot it the moment it left Carson's hand. The grenade exploded directly in front of Carson. Both Evans and Carson looked at each other in shock. Confetti. A party grenade? Carson quickly fumbled for another but was tackled and restrained by several officers. Meanwhile in the South wing, Lary had some colleagues set a trap for another shotgun toting inmate. He had them bait the inmate and flee. Giving chase he turned a corner and ran straight into Lary's fist. The inmate recovered and motioned to shoot Lary. "Let's tango. " Lary gave the code word. Nearby officers activated a device. A signal jammer of sorts. The inmate shoved the barrel of his gun into Lary's gut and pulled the trigger. Nothing. The special signal jammer in question was designed for firearms. It was a last resort as it left officers just as defenseless. Lary was having fun. He boxed the inmate in hand to hand combat. Despite the inmate's enhanced strength, Lary's technique pulled through. Lary ducked under one of the inmate's wide punches and did some type of rising uppercut where he jumped off the ground while spinning. One of the other officers whispered" The rising dragon." Lary smiled giving a thumbs up" Yeah, it was a rising dragon uppercut. Saw it in one O my kid's vidya games. Thought I'd try it out while I'm jacked on adrenaline".
Jim Jimenez looked long and hard at himself in the mirror. He was in the women's restroom. Some brainless woman had broken the men's restroom mirror with her face. For the first time in a long while Jim could think clearly. He was becoming sane. At the least he was no longer a raving lunatic. The life essence of the dark gods had healed the wounds to both his body and his mind. He saw his face, his scraggly dirty beard. He found a razor and shaved. He trimmed his beard somewhat. He liked it. He washed his hair. It fell down his face like silk, no longer greasy. His bloodshot eyes once burning with crazed intensity had cooled. He blinked. Just for a second, he saw the man known as Genocide. The man that attacked him. The one that killed him and gave him new life. The drug dealers. The police. They were all the same in his eyes now. They were all to blame for the world being what it is. Jim wanted to hate them. He wanted to take revenge, but he felt nothing. It didn't matter. He knew he was wronged, could logically justify acting against them, but he just didn't care anymore. About anything. He was finally free. Sensing his presence was no longer needed here, Jim vanished into the night. He needed to find someone who had had the answers he needed. Himself. Who had he been? Who was he now? Who could he become? Where was he going? So many questions to ponder indefinitely. So much time left in the rest of his life.
Genocide ran down the station's halls raining hailstorms of bullets upon its occupants. He had a handgun in each hand as well as a wristgun on each wrist. This effectively gave him 4 separate firearms that he could use simultaneously. Lary regrouped with Gracia, Evans, and a handful of others. They radioed all surviving officers near Genocide to flee to the roof. This plan had been set in motion days before the assault and had been kept hidden from most of the force. The plan involved scheduling flights for several helicopters to arrive at some point after Genocide arrived. There would be no way for him to prepare for them and pre-scheduling their arrival ensured they arrived regardless of if they were called or not. Lary and the others set about preparing the second jamming device. Genocide stood among a hallway of bodies. He saw one man clinging to life trying to crawl away. He decided on trying that other thing he saw his master do. He grabbed the dying man and pinned him to the wall. Slowly he drove a knife into his chest. As the man's life slipped away, something else entered his body. Genocide channeled a small amount of his essence into the vessel. He had steadily done this with other casualties around the station whose bodies were somewhat salvageable. He dropped the body he was holding and looked upon the others. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, his eyed were black, both sclera and iris. The scene before him changed. Genocide had a vision. He saw a dead gray wasteland littered with bodies. These people however weren't cops and wore traditional Japanese attire. In his hand wasn't a gun or knife but a short sickle akin to a farming tool. He heard a dark voice call out to him. Slowly, the corpses around him began to rise, now mere puppets bound eternally to their master's whim. The bodies sold to the reaper who had claimed their lives. Genocide's vision ended. His eyes had returned normal. Around him, dead cops began to rise. His dark essence had entered their bodies and reanimated them. He sent his dead army to attack the officers fleeing to the roof of the station. These zombies swarmed the stairwell giving chase to the few survivors. There were five of them. They had two flights of stairs to climb and a horde of their former colleagues close behind them. One officer tripped and was set upon by the horde. The zombies didn't bite them but held them firmly in place. The other four officers stared down wondering what to do. They could hear Genocide chuckling. They could hear humming. They could feel the temperature rising. Their colleague and the two zombies holding him were hit by an enormous green fireball. Genocide had fired a Magnum Opus and had charged the bullet to level 3. The Magnum Opus was simply a magnum that shot fireballs, with bullets that could be charged by holding down the trigger. It had three levels of charges. Level 1 was a small reddish ball of plasma. Level 2 was slightly larger and yellow. Level 3 was the maximum charge and resulted in a large slow moving green blast of energy. The officer was ignited and Genocide watched gleefully as the force of the blast sent him flying through a wall. The four officers continued up firing occasionally to slow down the zombies. Soon they made it to a door leading to the roof. Before one officer could reach it, he was sniped by Genocide, a bullet to the head killing him instantly. The remaining three made it out. They regrouped with the others already there, 12 in total, including Lary, Evans, and Gracia. This would be their final stand. They just had to hold out until Genocide made it up there. They just had to keep Genocide occupied until the helicopters arrived. Genocide slowly ascended the stairs behind his horde. On the roof, the remaining survivors faced off against waves of the undead. Evans recognized the attackers. These zombies were being controlled by nanomachines. He heard the stories of several weapons encountered by soldiers on the battlefield. These creatures were called Metaldeads as they were reanimated via machines. They had been officially banned by most of the worlds' governments for being unethical. However, this did not stop the technology from being spread still between shady organizations, terrorists, etc. Evans wondered how Genocide got this form of nanotechnology. Evans long speculated that the dark essence used by most of the killers they encountered was a a form of nanotech however it was different from anything else he had seen or heard about. The dark essence seemed to be an amalgamation of other types of nanotech. Evans had to save his inquiries for later. He reloaded his wristgun and took aim at the approaching group of Metaldeads. Gracia steadied her handgun and shot two Metaldeads in the head. From the single door countless arms seemed to spill forth from the darkness. The other officers took turns firing in intervals. this allowed them to create a steady stream of fire where no more that three guns needed to be reloaded at once. The horde seemed to thin out over time as if they were making progress. In actuality, the Metaldeads were just making room for Genocide to enter. Genocide exploded in a sprint from the door. Everyone fired upon the killer. Genocide had now chosen a wrist mounted mini flamethrower to use as his weapon. He stormed past the oncoming bullets taking some damage, but refused to slow down. He unleashed a stream of fire that caught five of the officers in one fell swoop. Gracia fired five rounds into Genocide's face. He stumbled back. Lary took the chance to fire several mine gun bullets at Genocide's feet. The mines quickly detected his movement and exploded. In seconds, Genocide was on his back.
Staring at the night sky Genocide saw the moon. He reached for it. He called for the darkness to give him more power. His wounds began healing. In the sky he could hear the whirl of propellers. There were six helicopters in total. The first two had evacuated the survivors while the others stayed to engage Genocide. Genocide got up and unstrapped the sniper rifle from his back. He stood before the searchlights as a black silhouette, cornered but unwilling to back down. Lary stared down at him smiling. "Okay!" He shouted, "Let's Tango!" Upon this declaration the second jamming device was activated. Now, isolated on the roof, Genocide's guns couldn't be fired and the helicopters were out of range of the device. Now Genocide stood like a sitting duck. A helicopter fired a rocket. Genocide side stepped and grabbed it. He turned his body redirecting the rocket to hit another helicopter. As it exploded Genocide drew his knife and threw it at another helicopter. Behind the knife was such force that it shattered the helicopter window's glass, embedding itself in the pilot. This helicopter too went down where it exploded. "Holy clucknuggets!Did you see that!?" Lary said dumbfounded. Evans looked out the helicopter door he was in jaw open in shock. "There's no way." He collected himself quickly and radioed the remaining two helicopters to keep moving and to use their machineguns as much as possible. The helicopters reigned down upon Genocide tearing apart his body. Shreds of leather and darkened blood sprayed across the pavement of the roof. Gracia watched as Genocide's body was destroyed repeatedly as it tried to heal. Surely he had to stop at some point. After 10 minutes the helicopters had exhausted their cache of ammunition and soldiers opted to fire their own rifles and occasionally throw grenades. After about six minutes, they too had run out of bullets. Genocide stood unfazed. He had long since healed himself and now appeared intangible with gunfire seeming to pass through his body. His coat once ripped , now appeared whole though on closer inspection seemed to writhe. Gracia looked in horror as she remembered the tales her adopted father had told her. Tales he had in turn heard from his predecessors. Every so often officers had reported encounters with ghost like beings cloaked in a cloud of living dark mist. The beings were rumored to be responsible for the deaths of multiple people ranging from scientists, veterans, mafia, politicians, etc. They were seen near such crime scenes and even more shockingly appeared around several sites where suicides were committed. These beings were reportedly impervious to bullets and filled anyone who got near with an impending sense of dread. If Genocide was connected to them or somehow turning into one , there was little chance they would be able to defeat him. Gracia's fears were confirmed when she saw that Genocide's leather coat had been destroyed and he had replaced it with the dark mist coalescing from his own spilled blood. The dark mist, swirling, grew larger and several tendrils sprouted out from it. Gracia could briefly make out a figure standing next to Genocide. A hooded figure cloaked in the same black substance. The figure stared up at her with soulless, blackened eyes which seemed to beckon her to jump from the aircraft she was standing in. Compelling her to give in to the death that plagued the earth. Genocide kneeled to his master. The Shinigami, Masataka stared down at his disciple. "You have done a great service to us. Even now the sealed god stirs in its slumber. Its...Awakening will soon be upon us. It calls out for war. It begs for famine. It longs to continue its conquest. We are the death it so desires. The death that is necessary for this civilization to grow. Use the power that I have bestowed upon you. Finish the mission as you see fit." The Shinigami vanished and Genocide stood.Genocide stared at his hands. He remembered the first killing spree. He was on a bus. It stopped. A woman got on the bus and walked to the back smiling as she passed him. Something about her eyes unnerved him. They were so bright but something dark reflected inside them. He ignored the thought and put in his headphones. In minutes he had dozed off. He jumped awake. He looked around and froze in panic. All around him, everyone had been hacked to pieces. He saw the driver, actively being stabbed by a masked assailant. The mask, painted white with black eyeholes, stared back at him. It raised a finger over where its lips would be. Even under the expressionless visage, he could feel that same smile. He ran home that morning. He went to his room to find it destroyed. His posters, his computer, his tv, everything, had been ruined. He turned around and saw a man at the end of the hallway holding a sledge hammer. "The hell you been, boy?", his stepdad sneered. The man dropped his hammer and walked closer, veins pulsing with rage. He tried to explain how his car had caught fire forcing him to walk 4 miles to the nearest bus stop, but the man's fist was faster than his words. "Boy!Answer me when I talk to you!!" the man says as he backhands the taste out of the would be Genocide's mouth. He took that beating for several minutes before being left to stare at his ransacked room. He hated how his stepdad went out of his way to destroy the things he loved. Soon, another set of footsteps could be heard. It was his mother standing behind his locked door. She didn't knock, or say anything. She just stood there, doing nothing as always. He never knew if she came to talk to him or apologize. All he knew was that she could never bring herself to speak to or even acknowledge him. Maybe out of guilt or perhaps shame. A year or two later after he had had enough he ran away from home. Living out on the streets alone, without friends, or family, he would embark on countless killing sprees. These killings weren't of his own volition however. He was coerced by some corrupt officers from The Unit. They made him kill on their behalf. Sometimes they were protesters, sometimes they were drug dealers, other times, petty criminals they couldn't be bothered to process. It was routine for him to be used to kill entire houses of drug riddled addicts. During one such venture he entered a drug den, killing the dealer as instructed. He took out several junkies before turning to leave. A woman who survived her injuries clung to his heel begging him to stop. Looking down he aimed the handgun he was carrying at her head of long disheveled brown hair and fired. Feeling nothing, he kicked her body aside like trash when it hit him. Her face. This woman had been his mother. What was she doing in a place like this? He felt a shock of emotion. He wondered if she had always been like this, or had she changed after he left. He never made amends, but decided to stop killing from then on. The unit did not like that. Once it became apparent that he was no longer of use to them they started a manhunt to apprehend him with lethal force. They found him. They killed him. But he survived.
He remembered the girl on the bus. He remembered her eyes. Those of a sadistic killer. Still there was something else inside them. Something faint but deeper. So. Much. Sadness. Just like him. He felt the hatred begin to spread. His purpose, he decided, was to make all humans rot in the hell they created for him.
These people, he thought to himself, these living diseases, all needed to die. Their struggles, their problems, they spread like cancer to others. The only cure for humanity's sin, its collective wrongdoings, was genocide.
Around him, dark tendrils continued to form and expand, spinning in a vortex. Genocide pulled out two pistols. He squeezed the triggers to no effect. "As I see fit, huh? Hehe." He squeezed both guns in his hands, breaking them into pieces. He concentrated. In his hands, two more guns materialized now completely black due to being forged from the dark essence. Forged by his will. Immune to the jamming device that shut down conventional firearms. He raised his arms at each remaining helicopter and opened fire. Countless tendrils whipped out and slashed at his targets joining the dark essence bullets. It was chaos. Dark tendrils and bullets tore through every direction as Genocide spun and swirled around in 360 degrees firing randomly with purpose. A tendril pierced Gracia's right arm, another, her abdomen. She was however, fortunate, as the other passengers of her helicopter were dismembered. She barely had time to jump from the vehicle before it crashed. She fell 2 yards onto solid concrete. She felt immense pain as her right shoulder shattered on impact. She looked up to see Genocide's blade like appendages ripping through the other escape helicopters. She rolled onto her back and tried to steady herself. Within seconds her body began to repair itself. The nanocells inside her had saved her life but were now depleted. She would need another supplement lest she receive another fatal injury. The standard nanocells she and the others had were much less potent than those of the killers they faced. In truth, they had only minimal strength boosts being able to lift 5-8 more pounds than before and healing being limited to one or two fatal injuries so long as death didn't occur instantly. Gracia blacked out. She awoke the next morning in a hospital. There the doctors refilled her nanocells. She learned that the station had been left in ruins. Genocide had detonated some type of minature nuke following his rampage. He always blew up the stations as if to send a message. Gracia looked out the window thinking about why she became a cop. Twice her family had been murdered by them. Her biological family had been killed in an on record drug raid committed by a group of corrupt officers called The Unit. She had been adopted by another officer that arrived at the scene who found her as a child hiding in a closed. Sadly, he too was killed for trying to expose the activities of The Unit. Gracia joined the force to avenge both losses and bring justice to the killers that disguised themselves as normal people. Law enforcement was neither good, nor bad. It depended upon the people that made it up. In the dying corrupt world Gracia lived in, she vowed to be a beacon of light. Evans laid in a bed adjacent to Lary. "That damn Genocide's somethin else in' he?Like the stories you told us were understatements. That man could legit not die at this point in the story. Like he has friggin plot armor or somthin.'' Evans cut him off" I get it. We all got our asses handed to us. But did you see that ..thing that appeared next to him. Right before he created that black vortex that wiped us out. That must have something to do with his power. Maybe there's a still a way to stop him."Lary chimed in," That fella looked like he was on the way to a black metal concert wit all the black facepaint he was wearin' Creeped me out to be honest." As the survivors mulled over their predicament, the cycle of evil continued to spread elsewhere.
Budley flips through the pages of a magazine. He checks his watch. He looks around the gas station and doesn't see any customers. Seizing the opportunity, he puts in his headphones and begins playing an imaginary guitar as he jams to a progressive deathcore album. Oblivious to the screams coming from outside, the store clerk moves on to thumping two candy bars on the counter to simulate drums. Budley sees that his shift has ended and begins locking up the store. He sweeps the aisles and jumps as a shadow appears behind him. He turns and sees a well groomed bearded man dressed in a black hoodie, black shirt, and black and gray camo pants. The man holds out his hand and smiles. Budley rings up the pack of nicotine substitute gum. "Tryin to kick the habit huh?" Budley asks. The man replies, "Somethin like that. Gotta get my priorities back in check. Focus on the things that really matter. That damn KonCreep's a hell of a band aren't they?" He nods to the playlist on Budley's phone. "Yeah, they're killer. just got into them a month back." Budley answers. "You know, I'm something of a musician myself. Maybe you'll hear of me on the news someday." Jim Jimenez says as he sees himself out. He walks to the back of the building and passes an ominous form of graffiti. A woman lays unmoving and above her, written on concrete in red is a message that simply says "Genocide Reigns".

I realized while lurking this subreddit that many newer GMs posting here may find themselves confused as to how to properly balance their combat encounters. This is wholly understandable as the book isn't exactly clear on the process. I thought I'd share my insight so as to help any prospective GMs design a clean and effective opfor.
Credentials: I've been GMing Lancer for ~3 years now and have run multiple successful campaigns to completion, both custom and on-module. I teach newbies how to play on the regular and have coached these same newbies to run their own combats sessions.
Disclaimer: The following rules are my own method to encounter building, and while many other GMs in the community follow these rough guidelines you can expect everyone to have their own twist on it. Another GM you talk to will surely have tweaks on what I present here, but that's okay and honestly kind of cool. We all have our own signature method of playing this game and this happens to be mine!
I will endeavor to make this guide as short as possible so as to be easy to reference. Feel free to reach out if you wanted clarification.
Step 0: Nomenclature
A quick glossary of terms I'll be using frequently.
-OpFor: Stands for oppositional force. That means your entire collection of baddies used for a given combat encounter.
-Structure: The structure points for your NPCs. Normal NPCs have only 1 structure by default, but templates like Elite or Veteran can increase that.
-Activations: The number of times an individual NPC can take a turn during a round of combat. Most NPCs have only 1 activation by default, but templates like Elite or Ultra can increase that.
-Budget: The total number of NPCs you should be using for a combat encounter, based on how much Structure each individual NPC has.
Step 1: Pick a Sitrep/Budget
The first thing you need to do before you go any further is pick your Sitrep, starting at page 267 in the Core Rulebook. This is the objective that you and your players will be competing against each other to accomplish. Sitreps are an absolutely essential aspect of Lancer combat and the entire engine is designed around ensuring that you and your players have clear-cut goals with specific win conditions outlined. You can still have the occassional death match, if you're so inclined, but they should be infrequent to rare at best.
The Sitrep also determines your Budget. You'll note that each Sitrep descriptions says something like "Use the normal amount of enemies" or "Use double the amount of enemies as normal." This is what we like to call a "Single Budget" or a "Double Budget," respectively.
A Single Budget encounter should have enough total NPC Structure to equal 2x the number of players partaking in the combat. For example, if you have 4 players, you want the total Structure from all your NPCs to be 8. If you have 3 players, the total Structure from all NPCs should be 6.
This includes reinforcements.
A double budget encounter simply doubles that. 4 players would equal 16 total NPC Structure, 3 players would equal 12 total NPC structure, and so on.
I'll make a comment below that lists which Sitreps have a Single Budget and which Sitreps have a Double Budget.
Step 2: Balancing Damage
It's entirely possible to do too much damage to your players. NPCs hit hard and you need to make sure they're not hitting so hard that your players don't have a chance to respond. Therefore, never have more than 50% of your OpFor be damage dealing NPCs.
The precise nature of a "damage dealing" NPC is up for interpretation. It is universally accepted that all Strikers and all Artillery archetypes are damage dealers. However, some Controllers and even Defenders fall into this category as well. Knowing who the black sheep of each archetype is comes with time and experience and every GM will tell you who they think is the biggest threat.
For now, stick to focusing on Strikers and Artillery until you get a better sense of who's who.
Step 3: Archetype Spread
In addition to having only 50% of your OpFor be damage dealers, make sure that the rest of the NPCs you're using have a healthy spread of different archetypes. That means Support, Controller, and Defender.
You don't have to have one of each, as a rule, but if you're just starting out then that's at least a good guide rail to use until you're more comfortable experimenting.
Step 4: Don't Overdo Templates
One of the biggest mistakes I see new GMs make is to apply the Pirate Template to every single NPC in their OpFor. "But they're all pirates," they'll tell me, confused as to why their players had a miserable time going against +1d6 damage on crit from every single enemy.
Here's what the book doesn't tell you: Templates affect mechanics, not flavor. Only apply a Template to an NPC to give it the strict mechanical benefits that come with it and never for any other reason!
You can have an NPC be a pirate and not use the pirate template. In fact, you absolutely SHOULD have an NPC be a pirate without using the pirate template. The trick to this is to simply say "This guy is a pirate" and not do anything else. It's as easy as that.
Use Templates sparingly. If you're new, I wouldn't recommend using more than 1 per combat. Even now I don't really do more than 2-3, if that.
Step 5: Fair Deployment
Once you have your OpFor picked out and ready to roll, it's time to put them on the board. In an effort to not overwhelm your players but still have enough presence to apply a bit of pressure, only deploy enough NPCs so that their combined Activations equals 1.5x the number of players. For example, if you have 4 players, only have 6 activations on the board. That means 6 normal enemies, 4 normal enemies and an Elite, etc. I like to think of this as a Soft Cap for Activations.
The rest of your OpFor should be kept back as reinforcements. Follow the reinforcement rules of your chosen Sitrep to figure out when they should enter the fray, and how many.
Additionally, never have NPC activations exceed 2x the number of players. They will be overwhelmed very fast and nobody will have fun. Consider this a Hard Cap for Activations.
If you have reinforcements ready to go but you're already at the Soft Cap, you can bring more if the players are winning and you want to turn up the heat. If the players are losing, hold off and wait until they're in a better position. It's your job as GM to moderate the difficulty of combat based on active circumstances.
If you're already at Hard Cap, then no reinforcements get to enter the board yet. Wait until your players start scoring kills, the suckers.
The End
There's more nuance that goes into it than that, but this is a good starting point for anyone who just wants to wrap their heads around a complex system. As you get experienced, you'll start experimenting more with synergy, cross-classing, custom sitreps, and all kinds of crazy shit. The more experience you have, the more you'll be free to fuck around without breaking the game!