u/oohoollow

I was just thinking about it, and I feel like a lot of like "prestige" TV dramas or whatever, are almost like too good to have character arcs or storylines for their show, like the Sopranos typically doesn't really have much of an overarching story and is just like presenting the life of this guy without any kind of story structure framing it.

But honestly I have no taste and whatever so to me there actually being like a crunchy elaborate story structure with character arcs and a sort of escalating plot just feels better and more fun and engaging idk.

Like everything in Season 2 feels deliberate, all the seeds planted end up mattering in cool unexpected ways, for example the whole Mo storyline is set up as early as Episode 3 when it saves Greg from being found out, and then it continues on to episode 4 with the Mo funeral, and you think that's it but it actually comes back during the Congress hearing, and in fact it's basically the central final conflict. So what you think is just a joke ends up being central to the story.

I just find that so much more rewarding then like the way I feel a lot of S3 and S4 was written where things kinda go nowhere. It's just such a bummer, and I guess part of it is the point with just the fact that Kendall destroys his one chance to get back at Logan because of his own ego, like that's great but just idk there's something about S3 and S4 where it sort of sinks into this status quo, where stuff just happens and there's not much of a connected narrative?

Idk I have this weird feeling or pattern that I've noticed with TV Shows that are good, where the first Season is typically good but a bit shaky, and then Season 2 is this huge ambitious thing that elevates everything to a higher pitch. But then later on the seasons that come after it's a bit more comfortable, a bit more of "we know what we're doing" type of thing. I feel like Breaking Bad is like that Season 2 is this huge ambitious thing with a big plot and everything planned out, and then S3 and S4 are good but a little more repetitive and they kinda meld together. And I feel like Succession is like that with S3 and S4 where there's a lot of great stuff but I guess the whole is lesser than the sum of its parts and with S2 its the opposite where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I find this episode interesting because it's one of the few where the focus is the work that the characters do. We see Tom start his work at ATN we see Roman and Kendall trying to fix Vaulter but all that they end up doing is gutting it. Tom's whole thing is just looking for people to fire and Kendall ends up firing everyone in Vaulter. Like that's sort of what they do they just fire people. I just found that amusing. I guess basically that's what Elon was trying to do with the US government, apply the same idea of trying to fire as many people as possible. It's like the only thing they know how to do

Nobody wants to get his butt blown off in some damn explosion.

I'm asking this because Roman brings up the "ScoobyDoo defense " to Logan in Season 2 and then Matson also does indepednently and like is that a real thing or did the writers just think it was funny to use the same idea twice

I was thinking about the way Police "negotiates" with hostage takers. It's not a real negotiation, there can't actually be any kind of Deal between the Police and a Criminal on the run. THe police merely pretends to be striking a deal in order to get the upper hand, in order to calm the criminal down, etc, but there is no room for any sort of negotiation. And compare that to negotiations between two countries, here it's a different story, an actual deal can be formed, one country can say "If you do X I will realize this threat, if you build nuclear weapons I will put sanctions on you" There's actual real negotiation. I just find that interesting and just a very classic example of "The State"

The State is that which doesn't negotiate with its subjects. The State simply already takes you as already belonging to it and subservient to it. Different States have deals with one another sure, but never with people they rule over, there's no such thing as a social contract that you can negotiate it's a complete fabrication.

I feel like this distinction, the way Police "negotiate" with a hostage taker, and the way Trump negotiates with Putin seems to me to be a very clear and sufficient example of a difference between what falls under the purview of State and what doesn't? Am I wrong here?

EDIT: Obviously there's definitely "deals" in Legal proceedings, but I would say Law, and Laywers and judges and all that is sort of not fully "of the State" in the Deleuzian and Nietzschean sense, if we take the State as this violence that appears pre-accomplished, magic violence that is already decided in advance, then the Laws and deals that are built on Top of it are sort of different from States but also they presuppose the assumed pre-accomplished violence of States

Idk P-2 release just had infinite good time energy I don't know how to describe it- Fraud is good but I still can't play it properly on my archaic machine so it's inevitably a bit of a letdown. And maybe even beyond that P-2 just has so many positive memories associated with it, the Panopticon, the Tenebre Rosso Sangue the two mindflayers... I mean this is just probably a standard case of associating positive things to when life was nicer, but I genuinely can't remember any time In my recent history when I wasn't utterly miserable so Idk. Anyone else feel this way

I just can't tolerate the fact I'll never have what I want. I'll NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER be percieved as feminine. I won't ever have someone look at me and see someone feminine. I won't ever have someone think that transitioning suits me in any way. That it's in any way good that I transition. That it's anything other than a grotesque display of ugliness.

But is it immature to be sad about this? To burn with jealousy that people, other people, get to have this? They get to have others see them and think they are feminine. I just feel like I'm so close to that feeling I can imagine it. I can imagine it being me somehow. Because I'm delusional. But i guess I have a strong imagination.

Any kind of happiness any kind of feeling that the world or life was good essentially came out of being able to momentarily believe this delusion. It all came from me forgetting momentarily what I look like. But other people out there can have that full time- it's like immesurably unfair to me.

BUt is that immature? To be so desparate to have something others have this specific thing that you don't? Idk I feel like society doesn't look too kindly on that. Our society doesn't like to focus on the fact that we are not equal. That some people just have stuff others CAN"T EVER have. But if someone cried and whined about not getting to be a billionaire, or being born rich, we would not entertain that. Idk why. It feels like something to be sympathetic towards no?

I guess because most people are unhappy? But I really truly feel the highest that I ever do, the most excited the most energized when I experience the ever and ever more rare moment of delusion that I could look feminine.

Why can't I just treat that as a real injustice that the world has done to me? Or a real bad hand that fate has dealt me that it is okay to despair over. I just want to be allowed to say "so this is the end of the world for me" "this is a dealbreaker for me" But people would consider it too small. That I should be happy with what I have. And I am "happy" but I'm not AS happy as when I feel that brief delusion that I could have what passing trans women have

I'm rewatching the show and it's striking how vicious Logan gets in Season 2. He's fully in his element recovered after the stroke, and fighting to keep his company afloat against the rising tide of tech and other threats to it. Basically he's saying that he'll fight to have Waystar Royco be the one last old media company left standing. So he clearly cares about longevity and legacy etc. But by the end of S3 he's ready to sell and seems to be tired and just ready to die, and basically has a nihilistic view of death where it's just void and nothing matters, and once he dies it's all nothing. So at what point did he lose steam like that? Was it after his kids disappointed him one too many times? Cos at the end of Season 2 he was excited to fight Kendall seemingly. BUt it's like over the course ofSeason 3 stuff just fizzled out, Kendall's attack, the Sandy takeover fell through, Cruises turned out to be nothing everything just kinda grinded to a halt and Logan was basically just completely out of steam

I'm not talking about the themes or quality of writing or even necessarily the subject matter- I mean specifically the style, the look of it even down to the way that the episodes are titled "Prague" "Austerlitz" "Argestes" "Chiantishire" Etc. These fancy rich sounding titles. I guess that's sort of what I'm looking for- cool wealth stuff presented in the way that Succession presents it, as this cold glamorous, members only type of thing, like getting to see into this world of wealth that you normally can't. There's something so entrancing about watching people who are SO rich and the way they carry themselves. And like the way Succession does parties is so cool, everything is this sad electronic music luxury that is invokes in me an unspeakable ecstasy.

I know this is a totally embarassing question because I bet that this is a whole genre and there's infinities of this type of content out there the thing is I don't know where. I only got a taste for it from Succession and I got to Succession because it's a good TV show, like the Sopranos or Game of Thrones, but those shows aren't wealthy and pristine like Succession is, they're not spending all of their budget on real luxury that exists in our world. And like on occassion I see glimpses of that Succession type style, in certain Fanfiction like people choose titles of Chapters in ways I feel are evocative of Succession episode names, simple almost clinical names...

Anyway High chance of this appearing as total rambling chaos and that's fine but I felt like I may as well ask here, why not.

"I was waiting for you to return and take over."
Idk that somehow made it all click. Like it made the whole idea of the Syndicate fall into place and what the anime is trying to do with it.

Basically it's trying to give you a sense that the story of Bebop is all happening in the background of this greater story involving the syndicate, If this was a different kind of story Spike's life on the Bebop would be the stuff that is typically skipped, and that's how Spike views it, the stuff on Bebop, which is every day life, the ordinary minutiae of living, is just the filler meaningless empty time taking place in the meantime between the important parts of his life that he has allotted meaning to, mainly Julia and Vicious and all that.

So when Shin says that Spike was supposed to return to "Take over" you really get the sense of this sucking gravity well, this whole other entire story and lineage that Spike REALLY belongs to is reclaiming him back, it's like Spike is finally returning to the "Main story" from the filler arc on the Bebop, but because this show has reversed that perspective, flipped it around so that the main part is the Bebop and the secondary part is the backstory of the Syndicate, him returning to the main story is indistinguishable from a coffin closing around him.

And it ties back to the overall aspect of Shin and Lin dying "for the order" as Vicious puts it. Their lives come second to the order of the Syndicate of this greater story that they belong to, and Spike's does too. But because of how the story is framed we are stuck in the meantime, in the crossroads of all these stories.

I always see this idea in the context of this movie- where people like it but feel the need to excuse the stuff that is not in line with the comics or whatever. Like the idea that Bruce Wayne is an emo loner that is more like a sulky spoiled prince than a rich play boy type. Or that his suit looks the way it does all bulky and weird looking. Like I understand that I mean probably he will be more like the comic Batman in the sequel but everything about this version just seems like its own take on the Batman that is really interested in doing something different and unique, as opposed to being interested in a super close adaptation. I mean look at their Joker for example he's not anything like the comic, they're clearly having a new idea with him. It just seems to me that we can expect more of a cool unique take on the Batman IP rather than like "the most comic accurate Batman" that everyone wants it to be

Here's what I'm talking about. There's this idea of like "Imagine if you were born 50 years ago, how would you feel?" Type of thought experiment. And like, my response to that is always "well I can't imagine that because I WOULDN't be born 50 years ago, because my birth could only happen in the moment it did like my parents would have to be there, and their parents and it's an ubroken singular chain" Yet at the same time, it's not hard to imagine, being "transposed" into a different time period.
Like somehow "You" being taken out of your time period and placed into a different one. Even though it would be contradictory, but in the way that like, idk some other Historical events wouldn't be easy to transpose. Like you can't say "Imagine if WW2 happened during the 19th century" Like it wouldn't be the same WW2 and yet it's very easy to imagine "Me" being transposd in the 19th century.
Is this the fault of the Strata? Like the fact that Me can be this stable thing that is seemingly protected from the external influences? Are all Strata like that? Like the Biological Stratum, wherever an Animal is it's protected it carries its genes inside itself and always has the same genetic matterials. Idk. Where it's always the SAme Duck that is created no matter what point on earth, because Genes can be moved? Idk am I getting anwyehere with this?

I was thinking about how Gay people are depicted in Cowboy Bebop and it's very much like the straight person's outside in view of queerness, like there's a ton of gay/trans characters in there, because it's like Cowboy Bebop is all about the diversity of people that are out there so it would be weird if there weren't any, but it's definitely looking at them from the outside in, like the gay characters are mostly humorous with a lot of like No Homo jokes there, like Spike being hit on by a cross dresser in Jupiter Jazz or whatever and making a funny "ew" face. It's not like hateful but it's definitely treating being gay or queer or whatever as a kind of curiosity like a freak at a circus, and in a way in that time period that's what it was, it was a separate community, separate minority.

But I was just thinking how different that is from like, what we have now where like everyone pretty much is "gay" or "queer" in some way it's totally breached containment and it's just the default now. Like sure there's homophobia but it's homophobia that everyone gets to experience because everyone is gay now pretty much, if you're Leftwards politically 9/10 you're gay or queer in some capacity. So it's just fascinating to consider I guess

I just found this to be a really cool concept for a short level, making a large set of rooms where shooting weapons attracts enemies from the other side of the room so you have to time it right to get a full combo, of course the different masks can help with doing a better job, but I enjoy how tight the time window is to get a full combo. I was thinking of adding a second floor but the nature of multiple floors makes the level have fewer strategies to get a full combo because you can't just finish it at any point in the map. Idk I thought it was fun