Loquacious Sesquipedalian

  "I have no vanities, I have only my intellect which I am reluctant to relinquish. As you can see, with these looks, I have no vanity."  

[wordyanon]

Every time I stick a toe into a new fandom

I find the same levels of insanity and ignorance. It makes me fear for the world. The sheer number of excuses made for female characters who treat male characters poorly, for instance, is concerning. The number of self-proclaimed LGBTQ+ people who can't respect other people's (or characters') identities, identifiers, and privacy is concerning: okay, straight people should be respecting those things, too, but you'd think queer people would be especially aware and sensitive, wouldn't you? Nope. The inability to understand scope, context, and progression of story - let alone grammar & syntax - by "writers" is just appalling. The fact that people have no knowledge whatsoever of the past is concerning: how do you, as a self-proclaimed well-educated woman not understand that you lacked the ability to have your own bank accounts and credit cards, or once married (in some states) couldn't make your own healthcare decisions without your husband's permission (and no, I don't just mean abortions) until the frickin' 1970s? The utter absence of a sense of place and time of our own lives is utterly disturbing and frankly concerning.

[jinkieswouldyoulookatthis]

Anti-destiel Wank (sorry but I have to)

If you hardcore ship Destiel, please just scroll on by. Please.

Ok, I’m gonna get myself in trouble, I’m sure, but I gotta get this off my chest…

Keep reading

[whreflections]

Some things I would like to add to this, as someone who shipped destiel when I came into the fandom-

When I joined the fandom in 2009, it was common knowledge that it was a reactionary ship of ‘oh thank God they aren’t related’ desperation. Like, it was openly discussed/laughed about/known within the largest destiel group on lj- I know; I was there. There was very much the acknowledgement of ‘yeah this show is amazing and we really wanted something to ship and some people ship wincest and that’s great for them but we’re all people who were personally squicked by that idea but then now there’s finally Cas and holy shit we can ship something and it’s marvelous’.

Know, accepted, acknowledged- because back in 2009 while there were of course ship wars there was not the 'my ship has the moral high ground and I must find reasons that all other ships shouldn’t exist because my ship must become canon and if it doesn’t the reason is shitty writing’ fervor that there is now. Back then, shipping was shipping and canon was canon and for most ships there was absolutely no expectation they would ever become canon and that was fine. We weren’t looking to 'win’; we were looking to have a good time.

When I joined Supernatural, I was squicked out by the concept of wincest. Fully supported other people shipping it, but I was like “eh that’s one of my few remaining boundaries fandom hasn’t eroded; it’s not going to be my thing’- and it wasn’t, for the better part of a year. I shipped destiel like mad- I spent hours every day in the destiel lj group; I would skip college classes to hang out with those people and scream over those two. I wrote thousands of words of fic- I wrote what is to this day the only “long” fic I’ve ever fully finished, and it was destiel. I learned so much about writing and about myself and I was wrapped up in a ship I adored and I was having an AMAZING time- but the thing was, my favorite part of the show was still the epic love story of SamandDean. Platonic love story, but still, it’s a love story. It was and is the heart of Supernatural- it’s why I watched, and why it will forever be my favorite story of all time. They love each other beyond sense or reason and it was, for me, utterly transforming and healing to watch.

But around mid season 5, I started to see a change in the destiel fandom. Sam bashing was increasing exponentially every week, and he was beginning to be written very badly/as a 'villain’ in lots of destiel fics. It got to the point I was having to click out of most of the ones I opened out of disgust because of untagged OOC Sam/Sam hate. It was spreading and spreading, and I was sick of not being able to read fics that included the best part of the show- and that’s how I ended up tentatively reading a couple of wincest fics and realizing that oh, there he was still being written in character. There he was being treated fairly, even when he fucked up- and Dean, too.

I continued to write destiel for several months, but the writing was really on the wall. The community was changing to become more and more anti-Sam all the time, and I didn’t feel comfortable there anymore- so I kept in contact with several friends I’d made, and I shuffled myself over to wincest- and no one was incensed by that. There was no she’s become a witch; burn her it was just 'well shit we’ll miss your stories, but we get it’- and for a while, it was like that. Lots of Sam bashing, but largely still a “normal” fandom situation- And then destiel started to increase in popularity even more, and new people started being encouraged to just fucking skip or skim the first three seasons- aka the best and most critical part of the show in many original fans’ opinions. I literally have a friend that thought the show was just about Dean and Cas based on what she saw on tumblr before she watched the show. The perspective started becoming egregiously warped- hey watch this show, but skip the whole foundation, and don’t worry about one of the brothers, you only need to worry about this one brother and this other side character who was never meant to last past season 5- and then we started to have the rise of the antis, and people started clamoring that destiel would 'have’ to become canon, and they started pushing Jensen to talk about it at cons- even though he was extremely uncomfortable with that and had said that many times, and it wasn’t about shipping because he and Jared had openly talked about wincest at cons many times. It was the situation; it was the harassment. It was the fact that people were pushily demanding a fan ship be acknowledged in canon, and equating it to real life discrimination if it wasn’t. It was absolutely buck wild, and it only got worse. I love Misha, but he fed and fed and fed the madness until eventually he got a taste of how it all turned on him after he was like “I pushed to get this confession included; I thought you’d be happy”- not realizing that the fandom had ramped up to a point of escalation where they were never going to be happy with anything but full on canon, which was never going to happen. They had lost the plot completely- where subtext used to be celebrated and screeched over, it was now being tied together with a lot of red string by people in entire tinfoil body suits, screaming at the top of their lungs.

There is so much subtext to see with destiel. There’s plenty of text to see- but as a romantic ship, it is not canon, and it was never gonna be- and when it started, everyone involved knew that. It breaks my heart that that the joy of destiel as a ship got lost so completely under all the madness- because it’s a marvelous ship, when you just look at the ship.

Wincest is also a marvelous ship- and yes, the end was, in a way, a 'win’ for wincest- because the story returned to being what it had been all along, the epic love story of SamandDean- but within the confines of the show, that love is entirely platonic. Wincest fans know that. We love that. The show went back to its heart and soul- and that isn’t a romantic ship, and we’re more than good with that. That’s how it should be. Like Dean says- what’s dead should stay dead, and sometimes a fan ship should stay a fan ship. Sometimes they sail off into the sunset and become canon and that’s lovely, but you aren’t owed a canon ship just because you love it, or because it would be good representation, or because you have a whole corkboard of reasons why you believe in it. Representation is crucial; it matters deeply and it’s happening, but it’s not going to happen with every single ship you fall in love with- it won’t even happen for most of them. It won’t even happen for all of the ones that are cishet.

And that’s okay.

[wordyanon]

All of this, the entire debate, is predicated on the idea that one MUST SHIP in a fandom and if that doesn't say fucking everything about the obsession with sex in the West* (esp in the US, gotta say), I don't know what would. Every single relationship must be about sex, eventually, right? *I say West because I have very little information to hand about non-Western culture or fandom.

[wordyanon]

Students report back tomorrow

[eisforeidolon]

Do you think spn was a toxic set? Heard a lot of chatter on this recently and I’ve heard the opposite? Mark shepphard who is infamously honest and will talk about his issues with a certain power that he goes on about how wonderful the set was, so I just don’t buy it?

I don't buy it and I'd look at who is saying it and what their agendas are, because I'll bet it's single actor stans doing the whole bullshit 'my fave was so persecuted and oppressed for not being treated as the only worthy solo star featured in every shot *sob*' woobie conspiracy olympics thing again.

Sure, it's definitely A Thing that media productions pretend to be one big happy family where there's no conflicts and everything smells like roses all the time. Except a set is a place with a lot of people on it, so gossip tends to leak out sooner rather than later if it's genuinely bad. Yet we're supposed to believe the set was so very terrible it was toxic ... while the stars didn't just claim to be besties but were spotted by fans hanging out and taking vacations together, while almost every guest star still effusively praises the atmosphere as welcoming and positive, while many individual crew members chose to stay on that specific set the entire run of fifteen fucking years instead of working elsewhere? That's a long fucking time for there to be no substantial rumors of supposedly extant major disfunction.

So yeah, I'd look at who is talking and what they're trying to prove, which is generally a good idea in this fandom anyway. Especially since, so far as I'm aware, the long term direct and gossip statements about the set from people with first-hand knowledge remain the exact opposite.

[wordyanon]

I absolutely agree with this about the Supernatural set. Everyone who was actually on that set has continued - even after it is over so no hope of being invited back and the network itself is substantially cutting back - to speak effusively of their time on the SPN set. I have never heard or read a single negative experience, in fact - not from the set (Mark Sheppard had some issues with production at the end). Difficult sets leak like a sieve - both the gossip comes out and/or the crew tend to leave. Supernatural had neither issue.  I also agree with this as a warning about anything you see written by people online: who is talking (is this a primary source?) and what is their goal? If the person spreading the ‘news’ has no direct information, that diminishes the value of the ‘news’ logically. If their goal is to make a particular person look bad, that diminishes the value of their input, for another example. Thus, I take far more seriously the words of people who have interacted with these people on set for at least several days (1-2 episodes) over random online gossips with a clear agenda. Some people’s parasocial relationships with celebrities are fucking creepy: they have whole narratives made up in their head that have no relation to reality but they act like it’s absolute truth.  In short: ask yourself “how do they know?” about everything you read or hear online. How does this random ‘heller know what the SPN set was like? Answer: they don’t. 

[stagandsteer]

same

[wordyanon]

That woman’s face is just...priceless. I think I looked disturbingly like that when I realized Jensen Ackles had just walked in front of me (and I was at a con, not “in the wild” so was supposed to be expecting it!). If I saw a celebrity I recognized just like on the street...yeah, that would definitely be my face.

[eisforeidolon]

So this post about someone becoming totally convinced SPN is the D/C show from a 20 minute best ship moments compilation has been circling in my head all day like

They very effectively demonstrate how completely out of context all those moments are by how they describe them in their post. I mean, it should be obvious that thinking a shipper fanvid is giving you an accurate picture of canon is "Uh, have you actually been in any fandom for more than five minutes?" levels of clueless, and yet ...

I mean, I maybe get that when your friend is pushing 'OMG, THIS IS TOTALLY A THING!!!' you probably don't engage your brain too much in contradiction. But to just like, go around declaring to all sundry that you totes understand a show that is fifteen fucking seasons long because you watched a 20 minute, pointedly curated fanvid devoid of all context... I can't. No idea what the characters' interactions in the show are like in general - like if those types of references/jokes happen all the time between various male characters, not just Dean and Castiel. (Not even to mention all relationships in the show are built on top of how baseline insane Dean and Sam are with each other.) No idea what the context of those individual moments in the clips are - if Dean is talking up Cas to get him a date with someone else, the ship is pointedly included in the musical off-screen along with spaceships and robots in the non-canon fanfic act two, or if Cas only has a tape to return as a pretext to get into his room and steal something very important from Dean. Even if you don't consider any of that? The part where it still doesn't occur to you what a tiny fraction of fifteen years of canon it is for that load of vague implications-by-lack-of-context to be the "best" moments a shipper fanvid can scrape together? Oof.

Again, the problem isn't shipping the ship or seeing shippiness in random moments, shipping is a very personal taste kind of thing. It's this really fucking obtuse insistence this is Obviously Totally An Undeniable Thing In The Show ... when it only remotely looks that way if you remove all context and understanding of the entire rest of the show and pretend it isn't really really fucking obvious you've done so. It is.

[wordyanon]

I’m relatively sure this could be used as an example of a cult and group-think in my Sociology classes.... (Not the post, the Destihellers)

[brightlotusmoon]

[dirus-works]

@nancylou444

[nancylou444]

Yep.

[wordyanon]

It’s not just on social media. I cannot sign onto this enough times. A boundary is YOUR boundary because it’s about you. It’s not about everyone else. Boundaries are about how you act, which is all you can (or should try to) control anyway. 

[wordyanon]

For those who think teachers have summers off...

please know that my first “new school year” meeting was today. My last “old school year” meeting was in late June. So I had like...3 weeks off. By the way, I’m only paid for August to May, inclusive, so anything in June and July is unpaid work. I get a paycheck in June and July because I have money held out of my other checks to spread evenly over 12 months. I do not get a paid summer vacation. That’s not how it works. 

[whitepeopletwitter]

[angryschnauzer]

Doctors if you are a woman: You're just fat. Loose weight and it'll cure it.

[ladyoftheteaandblood]

Doctors if you're a woman How are your periods?

[wordyanon]

Doctors in RL: those tests cost a shit-ton of money, I better ask the obvious before I run up tens of thousands in bills. Let’s look at diet, weight, and other “horses” before we look for zebras in the U.S. because it’s probably the horses, not the zebras. Seriously, if you’re fat, that’s a problem. I say this as a fat girl. Forget body positivity and all that rot. I’m 5′10″ and built like a brick shithouse. I’m also fat. Guess which one is bad for my health? (My periods are fine, though)

[wordyanon]

Ah, summer vacation

Some good, some ‘bad’ decisions may have been made whilst in Las Vegas.

[wordyanon]

Every time I think the Destiel faction is the most insanely parasocial people in the world...

...something from Datalounge shows up in my thread. I won’t repeat too much, and I’m omitting names of actors involved, but damn. Random ass people acting like they know complete strangers to the level of diagnosing them with mental illnesses, calling them abusive, all sorts of really insane things that would make you think this actor is the most awful human being on the planet who just goes around “ruining” his partners - and then every interview with his actual costars indicate he’s a lovely, sweet, reserved, soft-spoken if slightly thrill-seeking sort of guy*; his costars all seem to adore him, but yes, absolutely, the random jerks on Datalounge know better. The levels of parasocial relationships people have with celebrities is just absolutely disturbing, but it also explains the Donald Trump cult. Forget evidence. Just make up the narrative you want to believe, then repeat it enough times that it becomes your incontrovertible truth. N.B. I don’t know the actor involved either, I admit. I do tend to base my summation of a person’s character on those who have actually met him or her and substantively interacted with them. When it’s basically unanimous that an actor is lovely to work with and he remains friends with costars who last worked with him many years ago...I mean, that seems logical to conclude he’s not evil. Right? 

[its-sassyboots]

This is my point though. He was ONLY brought back because of being friends and doing cons. That's my whole point. Otherwise they would have recast him. Now stop being weird super fans of Z listers especially while you're addicted to trashing Jared 24/7. It's weird.

[hippychick006]

To put it into perspective. Rich was in I think 11 episodes, I’ll be generous and say he was a focal point for about one third of those episodes (he wasn’t), he was therefore in a whopping 1% of screen time across the entire series. He. Was. A. Background. Actor. Sorry the truth hurts. And I actually liked The Trickster/Gabriel until they brought him back. His original noble ending was ruined because the Js unprofessionally put friendship above story.

[laf-outloud]

LOL! The way that averages out to less than one episode a season is hilarious to me. It's just like any other guest actor on a series show who happens to get an invite back the next season.

I guarantee that Rob and Rich have made more money through cons and other SPN-related jobs than they have the rest of their careers combined.

(And yes, Gabriel's original ending was sullied by his return - as was Castiel's, Mary's, Ketch's, I could go on...)

[nancylou444]

Rob “appeared” in 19 episodes:

Fan Fiction was a blink and you’ll miss it scene at the end. 

Rich was in 11 episodes:

And I agree, after Meta Fiction, those other appearances ruined his death in Hammer of the Gods. 

[destiel-doesnt-exist]

i’m out of the loop, what did the hangers-ons do?

[nancylou444]

From what I can understand, either Rob or Rich made some comment during their podcast about how “important” they were to the show. 

Anyone got details? 

[youmightbeanidiotif]

It’s about the JIB13 schedule, there’s going to be a Jared & Rich panel and a Jensen & Rob panel instead of their usual panels with Misha (J2 are still having their joint panel and solos). Someone complained and destihellers/AAs are complaining about the complaint lol.

The schedule:

They remain delusional about who has the power to make changes though:

I don’t know why anyone but destiellers and minions would complain about this schedule change, R2 are an upgrade from Misha lol.

[wordyanon]

I actually find Rich and Rob really funny; they’re lovely guys to fans as far as I can tell, so the quoted post about them being greedy, etc. is a bit obnoxious to me. I can’t blame anyone in the entertainment industry for making a profit when offered - it is a hard fucking career path and everyone with any sense knows that. If people are willing to pay for it, why shouldn’t they do it? They’re men, with families to support, not saints! The same person writing that probably would do the same or even worse for a profit. That’s human nature. 

Also, given it is Rich and Rob, I suspect the comment about “being so important to the show” was a joke. The fact that minions and in fact, large portions of the sub-populations of Supernatural fandom, have no sense of humor and would either miss that or ignore it is not a surprise.

[wordyanon]

Another one bites the dust...

Another school year done and dusted. If you ever want to know why there is a “teacher shortage” here’s a quick rundown. Well, let me honest, there is no shortage of capable and certified teachers. There are a lot of certified teachers - too many of them just refuse to work in education any longer. Instead, highly-qualified faculty leave to be replaced by emergency cert’ed staff (some, like a few in my school, who do not have any sort of bachelor’s degree or even an associate’s). Why?

First: real talk, the parenting today for some kids is so far beyond the pale that it is not recognizable from how I grew up a couple decades ago. No one behaved like this back then. We had kids in gangs. We had kids having sex in the building. We had drugs in the building. You know what we didn’t have? A culture of entitled disrespect and “I do what I want” that permeates the student body. It’s not my school. It’s pervasive in the U.S. The students’ behavior is intolerable. 

Second: state legislatures will not take their jackboots off teachers’ and administrators’ necks. People who’ve never stepped foot in a public school classroom, or at least not in decades, write stupid laws about things of which they have absolutely no understanding to play politics with education.

Third: We’d rather not be shot. Yes, teachers talk about and worry about it. Every day. That’s how bad the school shootings have gotten in the U.S. - teachers are just waiting for it to “happen here”. Do you want a job where you think you might at any minute be asked to die to try to protect other people’s kids? I’m not a cop. I’m not trained for that. I didn’t sign up for that. 

Fourth: Parents. To be fair, most parents are pretty great and are still on teachers’ side. The ones that aren’t are the biggest shits you’ve ever met. We have one parent - we call him ‘Angry Dad’ on campus - who has basically tried to get every teacher who gave either of his twin daughters anything less than a 100 fired: the cheer coach, a Spanish teacher, the Government teacher, the Economics teacher, the NHS sponsor, an English teacher.... (btw, as the Government teacher involved, this guy has no grounds for his harassment except that his daughters might not get exactly what they want). Last year, I had a mother send me 14 emails in one school day (so in 8 hours) because her lazy-ass son was going to be ineligible for baseball. This year, I had a mother ask me why I wasn’t giving her daughter one-on-one instruction each class period because if she (mom) can handle all her suppliers, I can handle my 200 students. I bet mom gets a bathroom break and lunch, by the way. Teachers often don’t get either.

Fifth: being the scapegoat. If I had a dollar for every time I read some idiot insisting that teachers are “grooming” kids or trying to make them all liberals (a lot of teachers aren’t even liberal!) of were at fault for their kids not knowing basic shit that is parenting, not teaching...fuck, I could probably retire. Also, we do not have three months paid vacation. We’re not paid for summer! I make 10 months salary stretch over 12 months, fucker. Also, it’s like 4 weeks in the summer by the time you account for end-of-year professional development and start-of-year training and prep. And in that 4 weeks, we’re probably doing lesson planning at least several days.

Sixth: The pay. Yeah, it only makes it to sixth. The pay isn’t great. Really, that’s probably the only part of the drawbacks of being a teacher that every one of us knew about before we started but the reality of needing a second (and maybe third) job to pay your bills while working at a “valuable” job like teaching gets hard to swallow by the time you’re in your forties. Starting pay is too high, imo, but mid-career pay is far too low. Teachers get - on average - a $500 per year raise. How much did you get last year? 2%? I got a 0.8% raise and I am “highly qualified” and ranked highly on the state’s teacher assessment program. Most teachers with 20 years experience are making just a few thousand dollars more than a brand-new teacher. 

So, what can you do to help your teachers? Vote. Vote for better school boards. Vote for district referendums. Vote for better (Democratic, Libertarian, Green, whatever - not Republican) state legislators. Vote for better governors, especially if your state has an appointed Secretary of Education. If that’s elected, your state educational board, vote for better people there. Vote. Don’t get me gifts. Vote. 

[malnourishedsamdean]

Okay I’ll take back some of what I’ve said in that even if you’re nice I won’t follow you if you think Sam’s boring and Castiel is relevant lol. You guys can fuck off because you are more boring than Sam ever was

[nancylou444]

Castiel is relevant to what? He’s a great character that got betrayed by his actor. 

[wordyanon]

I respectfully disagree. Castiel is a great character that got betrayed by writers or a production who wouldn’t let him go, very much like Crowley. Hell stopped being scary and angels stopped being impressive & intimidating because they were constantly around. They became banal. Banality is the death of character, imo, because it is the opposite of character - there is no personality really. 

[nancylou444]

True.

Singer betrayed Castiel by bringing him back with that trenchcoat scene that was OOC for Dean.

[jarpadswalker]

@wordyanon I would like to respectfully disagree. I think @nancylou444 is right. Castiel character's only drawback was the actor. In season 7, Castiel's storyline ran its course, and writers wrote him of the story ...the character was given an honorable ending, and for a while, Misha accepted it. At that time, Misha was high on his ego and thought that he would get better prospects than SPN. It was also the reason why he made statements like - He was getting stereotyped with SPN as time passed, and that statement turned into how it is difficult for him to get new projects coz of SpN. When he didn't get any new work he started throwing tantrum.

At cons, he threw the writer under the bus for killing his character. He intentionally provoked his rabid fans and psyched them on writers and producers. In order to avoid the social media slander, which was new at that time, they gave in (biggest mistake ever) and rehired Misha. Ever since then, whenever Misha felt that he is not getting what he wanted, he would arm-twist the production by pysching his rabid fans on to them. This is how he got written in the scooby doo episode and also got included in the TVGuide and EW cover shoot.

You spoke about Crowley. The biggest difference between the characters is the actors who played them. Mark is a dignified actor who loves his craft. Misha, on the other hand, is a fame whore he doesn't care for actor or his character. He himself said that the reason he got into acting is to get famous, and it shows how he treats his craft of acting. When Mark came to know that writers can't write Crowley anymore. However, it was an on paper reason. The real issue is said to be the billing issue, Mark and Misha were asked to take a pay cut and lesser screen time while staying on a regular contract so that they can accommodate Mark P and Alex. Mark bowed out as it would mean his character would get impacted, but Misha stayed on as for him it was all about money and fame. He didn't care for Character what he cared for was the con money and Gish money. SPN was the vehicle through which he can easily exploit fans for money under the name of charities. All his charities were depended on SPN.

Isn't it interesting how the number of charities from Misha has gone down ever since the SPN ended.

[wordyanon]

I stand by my opinion. Crowley sucked by the end. I have lots of respect for Mark Sheppard, but the demons and angels all sucked after years of over-use. I don’t have a ton of respect for Misha Collins, but the primary issue with Castiel is not Misha. It’s the story direction and the constant use of his character well beyond the natural end of the story or the character’s usefulness. The fact that Misha is an ass does not negate the fact that - according to your narrative - group of grown people were “bullied” into writing the character back in when the ratings had not taken a hit at all: so it is still the writers’/production’s fault. Misha was being an opportunist. So are most humans. It’s not charming or particularly admirable, but it doesn’t make the craptastic character of Castiel his fault. Castiel was a great character ruined by overexposure. 

BTW, that's also not why Mark Sheppard left, as I recall: he left because the character was tired, sure, but the key part was his screentime would be cut AND he was asked to take a resulting pay-cut. An actor of Sheppard's caliber & reputation didn't need to put up with that: him having a spine and too much pride for effectively a demotion is not the same thing as standing up for his character, per se. The fact that Misha isn't actually famous enough to walk away from a demotion does not prove your point, it rather proves mine. The issue is with production's decisions, not Misha's.

And how the fuck I'm being wrangled into "defending" Misha I will never understand. I need a drink.

[malnourishedsamdean]

Okay I’ll take back some of what I’ve said in that even if you’re nice I won’t follow you if you think Sam’s boring and Castiel is relevant lol. You guys can fuck off because you are more boring than Sam ever was

[nancylou444]

Castiel is relevant to what? He’s a great character that got betrayed by his actor. 

[wordyanon]

I respectfully disagree. Castiel is a great character that got betrayed by writers or a production who wouldn’t let him go, very much like Crowley. Hell stopped being scary and angels stopped being impressive & intimidating because they were constantly around. They became banal. Banality is the death of character, imo, because it is the opposite of character - there is no personality really. 

[wordyanon]

Amazon’s Citadel

Anyone else watch it? I didn’t love it, but that may be just that I need to see the whole first series to “get” it fully. I was the same way with the first season of HBO’s Westworld. Honestly the most distracting thing for me was Richard Madden’s American accent. He did the accent before in his film with Idris Elba and honestly, it’s not so much “unbelievable” (though odd because I’m so used to his native accent at this point - or even his Robb Stark northern English sort of accent) as it is unnecessarily jarring. Why not let him do a generic British accent? Then I realized they might think that was too close to Bond or something, but honestly, Madden’s voice goes a bit strange when he does American. He’s competent, not a lot of slips, but it feels a little forced, I think. The plot is a bit recycled thus far, but I’ll give it time. I was entertained and want to know what happens next. That’s all I’m looking for, not fine art honestly. 

That said, can I just say what I’m really fucking tired of reading already? If you want to criticize the show, fine. I’m rarely all that swayed by the “reviewers” takes from things like Rolling Stone and Variety (who hate this show, btw) not least because they often include basic errors that make me wonder how seriously these reviewers take their “job” (I mean, how many times does the show have to caption Eugene, Oregon before reviewers stop calling it Virginia? Reminds me of a reviewer criticizing Jesse Spencer’s accent on House, saying it was the worst fake-English accent they’d ever heard, to which any thinking person could respond ‘because Chase is Australian, you idiot’). That is what it is and the reviewers seem to have it out for Amazon (I’m indifferent). I’m really fucking sick of seeing what may well be just a few unemployed trolls leaving comments about the “gulf of years”/age gap between the two leads. Well, I hope they didn’t fucking watch Madden’s work in Bodyguard because he’s ten years younger than Keely Hawes (I loved Bodyguard, admittedly) and if they’re offended by his being four years younger than Priyanka Chopra Jonas I can only imagine their reaction to his scenes in Bodyguard! The blatant misogyny of these comments, like a forty-year-old woman has a “gulf” of years between her and a thirty-six-year-old guy really pisses me off. There’s plenty to talk about in Citadel’s shortcomings without devolving into cheap easy sexism.

[soberscientistlife]

I try to explain this, but the people complaining don't understand.

[wordyanon]

I’m pretty sure this also explains the teacher shortage. If you treat people like crap, shockingly, they don’t want to do the job.