u/Wonderful-Ideal-8099

>!I consider this scene to be one of the greatest in modern literature. It's Lestat sitting in an 18th century parlor with Marius, discussing the nature of good and evil. It represents the core of Anne Rice's philosophy and what she was trying to impart to the reader with her books. I feel robbed that we didn't get to see it. The series doesn't feel right without it. The whole setup with Akasha is wrong. I wanted to see where Marius lived and the shrine he built to those who must be kept. Instead they gave us this cheap set and what feels like a knockoff vampire queen. To their credit though there are a few lines referencing the philosophy from the book. !<

I got an invitation email for a job, and it was basically a promotion for a new company called Lifted. They say it's part of Upwork. Is it? Did I read it wrong? What do you know about it? What's it for? Is it worth creating a profile? Does it have enough work to make it worth the effort?

I don't think it's like Doordash. It sounds like they review everything. I need money this week and I would prefer to avoid the 105 degree weather (I'm not kidding.) But I don't want to get paid too late to pay the things that need to get paid.

On the days that I drive I would usually walk away with a hundred after cigarettes and gas. Now it's around 85-90 but not every day. Sometimes it uses even more gas and it's been slow because of the school year. This is complete bs.

What are your theories? No wrong answers. For a while I thought for certain she'd be Janine. Now I think she might be Daisy's mother. I knew she was going to get a backstory.

Edit: Years before the Testaments came out I had a theory that Janine would stay on with Aunt Lydia, become an aunt, and take on the name "Estee." But that didn't happen.

This is a larger question of course. Most people smoke for the same reason: because they have cigarette cravings. But why does he have to be a smoker? Why does he have to be a guardian? Why does he have to have connections to the underground?

Why are there so many similarities between Garth and Nick? It's not an accident and we all know it.

After years of hardcore analysis--and I'm talking deeeeeep dives--I've started to recognize a few of the tricks Miller has up his sleeve. One of his favorites is repetition. He uses it a lot. There are a lot of reasons for it. I won't go into them. But it's there. It's a thing. He did use it to show us, just like Atwood did, that everything comes full circle. That became a major theme as you all know.

I've never really been able to get into Miller's head. He seems like the type of person that likes to keep you guessing. That's a sign of a good storyteller But I do think the whole full circle thing is part of the reason why there are so many similarities between Garth and Nick.

I also think Miller is going to use Garth to play mind tricks on us, fake us out and surprise us. Maybe he's trying to give us a certain impression of Garth and make us think he's good or bad, then surprise us later.

Watch what people say about him. You might notice the handmaids tale had a way of gauging the audience and responding to our feedback. They'll probably do that with the Testaments as well. It happens more often than you think. That's how you tell a good story.

I love Rita. Who doesn't? She always makes me smile. >! But according to the handmaids tale she was studying to be a realtor. Now she's claiming she's going to culinary school. Before when she announced her intentions to Moira I think they were trying to show that she was moving forward with her life. It showed that June couldn't. I thought it fit. I'm not so sure about culinary school. I thought she was getting away from all of that and learning to do what she wanted instead of serving others. What do you guys think? Oh, and I noticed a contradiction. Lydia told the girl she was mentoring in the time before in THT that she was married but it was a mistake. In the stadium Judd said she wasn't married. What is that all about? !<

One of the things that I immediately loved about Handmaid's Tale was their depiction of brainwashing. Not many people understand how it works. Some people don't think there is such a thing, but there is a diverse range of techniques that can be used to convince someone the sky is red, and we're susceptible to them.

They did show several different methods. Lydia herself said no small effort was made to bring June to heel. My favorite trick was the blame circles (her fault, her fault, her fault.) I forget where it comes from, but it was a modified version of a real practice.

The problem is that they never went through the whole process. It was just an intense experience June and the other handmaids went through. Most people don't even catch on to what's happening.

>!That's why I loved the Testaments so much. The mechanics of brainwashing are difficult to describe. There's a whole theory behind it, something to do with altering one's sense of self because it's tied to their core beliefs and their ego. There's also an element of Stockholm mixed in--a loyalty towards your abuser. That's what we saw with Lydia during her time in confinement. She was torn down to nothing and made anew in Gilead's image. It was spectacular. I was furious that they didn't portray that properly in the series. It was shortened. They cut out the best parts. We certainly didn't feel it. And it's total bs because Bruce Miller knows how to create those scenes. We've seen him get dark and instead he decided to water it down. It was sloppy. Give me the pens. Give me the dogs barking and flickering lights. Where's that music that makes your skin crawl?. This is unacceptable. I thought there was going to be a level of contrast between the daughter's sheltered world and the reality of Gilead. I need that intensity. !<

She's stunning! And I feel like she's multi-faceted. Right now we see young and naive. But she's capable of so much more.