Featherhat

I know this is from a while ago but this is how I feel after seeing so many twitter and tumblr feeds. The first time Ren took off his mask and showed us his face I audibly groaned and thought to myself "Loki Fangirls dream" and I was right. Even if the fact that they are likely to be closely related is set aside, why should Rey have to shoulder the "responsibility" for bringing" "Ben" back to the light just because he's a "cute" screwed up poser?". Even Vader didn't want to be Vader in a mask, that was because of his horrific injuries, he'd have preferred to be Vader with red and yellow eyes looking like old Anakin. And he's worshiping a twisted mask that is the thing that proves Anakin ultimately chose his son over Palpatine and knowingly died a Jedi, whining that he's "feeling a call to the light". I want Leia to have a happy ending but otherwise I see nothing remotely interesting about this teenage snit that he should have gotten over. Snokes "more actively involved Thanos" act didn't make me curious either.

Sure, but it has actually been an issue over the last couple of years that the Queen of England would very much like to remain the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Of course in this show's alternate universe the rest of the UK probably declared independence a long time ago and got the hell out of dodge. I mean all monarchies have "colourful" history , but these guys.........nah.

Grandmama Levinson (Like Grandmama Violet) has the "don't care what you think" personality to get through it, but Edith turning up with her daughter/"ward" in Chicago or New England might have been better than London and very hopefully better than Downton, but the types she might naturally have felt comfortable mixing with (high society) as a whole aren't going to be all "oh isn't your little daughter adorable" at least publicly. Even Cora's father was desperate for High Society or he wouldn't have signed away Cora's dowry on the "hopefully" that they would have a son. His wife isn't like that but lots of their friends were.

The police put so much time and effort into Green's (possible) murder that I assumed we were going to find out that A) He's the illegitimate son or brother of someone very powerful/important. B) He was a spy assigned to Gillingham for some reason and they thought he had uncovered important information and been killed for it or C) Someone in the government/police was determined to embarrass or shame the Crawleys and the Bates's presented themselves as the most convenient way. But apparently not. As for why Edith hasn't fled to London with Marigold and declared her her daughter. Well she did still value her reputation and her standing in her current society and being shunned by many in her current circle, even if that circle is moving into a less publicly formal style (she's allowed to go out with men and eat in public and go to Jazz clubs etc. She's not a open "I don't care what you think" Bright Young Thing like Rose who wants to cause a fuss by marrying a black jazz musician or who has no qualms about marrying Atticus (although I don't think Edith would mind that either) or otherwise rushing headlong happily into scandal. Nor did she develop into a literary and political bohemian deliberately casting aside previous mores and niceties. She basically wants to have her cake and eat it too. Marigold at Downton but with the polite ongoing fiction that she's a ward (which sooner or later even everyone outside her family and close friends will take as understood) so Edith can carry on with her current life, going between Downton and the magazine. And the magazine readership might prove somewhat scandalised when they started reading out this in other papers, it's not a given that they'd keep reading.

Please let it not be a rape. So very few shows do the follow up well and I wouldn't trust Grey's within a 10 foot barge pole with that. On PrP it wasn;t the worst way its ever gone but I didn't think it was great. Even a just plain brutal non sexual attack I'm cringing at for the sake of a VSE. I'd have preferred an exploding ambulance.

Well I don't know if they were dressed any more weirdly than any other Renaissance family in Florence, but the Medici were rich, powerful, infamous and had ridiculous plot twists within the historical record (as far as that is reliable). Add to that the rumours and conspiracies that all that naturally creates combined over the generations and with a dash of Royalty, Popes and Da Vinci....It really isn't surprising. And I believe they were seen as some what of an upstart family in many places (including France) which always adds to spite and scandal.

It would still be considered somewhat "eyebrow worthy" in many parts of the UK today. The BCP has been mentioned but would the Catholic Church also not have co sanguinity rules (not to mention marrying an Anglican?). Add in the fact that Tom was a scandalous choice for Sybil anyway and you've got a lot of complications before you consider the emotional ones. I suspect that unless there was a pressing need, pregnancy, securing money, securing children already born etc then a lot of people finding themselves in that position would simply have had an affair for years. Tom and Mary could have worked, but I'm glad Fellows never went their since I'm not sure he would have explored any of the meaty areas.

Maybe Strallen had more up to date experience? I know Robert and Bates were together in a war (Boer War?) but maybe Strallen served longer/had more useful knowledge/was less "important" (artisto-wise) than Robert.

I think it's inevitable once a show goes into a certain number of seasons. The "mythology" often becomes so dense it's difficult for new viewers to pick it up. This even applies to a certain extent to shows like "Castle" which are supposedly serialised but have a lot of background plots. OUaT did a huge effort to bring in new/returning viewers with Frozen last year, it was a big campaign and succeeded for a small handful of episodes before those who came only for Frozen got bored (or those that came for everything else got bored of Frozen) and ratings headed south. Now they're pretty much writing for their regular viewers (not just internet fans note) and any popular storyline or character that attracts people is a great boost but yeah their last mad dashes for viewers and visibility including the three Big Iconic Villains have had decidedly mixed to not great results. The Merida promo stuff (and storyline) was surprisingly subdued considering that she is such a recent and fairly popular Princess, although I wouldn't actually want to see much more of her in this incarnation. Emma as "Dark Swan" made a half hearted attempt to be interesting and turned out to be a convoluted damp squib, so yeah it's an aging show that currently still works in its slot and the writers are doing what they want. That won't stop ABC/Disney going all out if there is another ICONIC CHARACTER that comes along but they've done a lot of them right now. Unless there is some kind of "All Star Prince/Princess Final Battle" Final Season.

My personal feelings for Thomas is that he should have tried to find work in a city with a (still mostly closeted) but "active for the 1920's" gay scene. In some places they were actually very active. Having said that he did genuinely seem gratified to be Butler. No he wouldn't ever be a "Lord Carson" presiding over 50 staff, but he gets the respect he's craved for so long and seems to have made his peace with service (even if it wasn't always convincing). Maybe he's just one of those people who always talked the talk about leaving a job but never did for various reasons, whilst those like Gwen, who did actually put their money where their mouth was, succeeded. And if/when Downtown has to jettison the butler position, many of the American faux aristocracy or Hollywood moguls would be interested (a real Earl's old butler etc). Tom being the advise columnist instead of Spratt has me in fits of laughter. Yes.

I did assume that the Gillingham/Blake/Mary "triangle" (such as it was), was because Fellows was hedging his bets but assumed one of them would come out the better choice. Tony has it all on paper, Blake is the "love/hate guy" at least one of them should be a clear chemistry favourite right? Not really, although individual viewers might prefer either. I thought MD and AL had great chemistry. I just re watched Rose's wedding and all their scenes are golden. She's unhappy that he's going away, he acknowledges that and they talk about the unlikeliness of their friendship and Sybil, but he refuses to apologise and gently points out they'll always have their memories. Mary knows this but can't stop from being upset that he's leaving. They know and respect each other down to the ground and are equally matched. That said its great as a platonic scene for me, they both needed a confidant and fellow single parent at to have their backs. It was beautifully played by both of them. I was never really on board Tom/Mary as a romance (too many emotional minefields) but if JF had pushed the issue it might have worked. I don't hate Talbot but it does read slightly like Fellows went "Mary's getting married again, come what may". Not being particularly subtle, even for him. MG wasn't great, he didn't seem particularly inspired or inspiring. I just picture the meeting in his agent's office: "So they're looking for another love interest on DA, English and bland. Interested?" "Yeah, why not. You can do those scenes in your sleep and the family will get to spend a year back home." Although I do like that she didn't marry a title, something that was vitally important when she was younger. It's only one above from an Earl I believe which is 3rd, although there are/were more Earls than Marquees. That said I've more often heard it referred as "one step down from a Duke" than "one step up from an Earl". Edith did indeed finally get a "(society approved) catch" but they all married interchangeably anyway. Shrimpy is a Marquess.

Really, that's what your take is after only two people had more than a second of screen time? Not particularly sure I want to see this at all but give it more than 1.30 mins before claiming it's racist.

The sad thing is Farrah may actually have had a horrible time dipping her toes in the adult entertainment industry and legitimately have been harassed/taken advantage of or even drugged and abused as she claims. But because of her previous antics she comes across as less than credible and attention seeking or bandwagon jumping in the case of James Deen. If she'd just admit that she made an adult movie or at the very least negotiated with a company to release a "souvenir" for money and that she now regrets that/ doesn't regret that because she provided for her daughter (that would have to be her line for mainstream magazines probably)people might take more notice of what she said re James Deen, who doesn't have a shortage of people willing to line up and call him an abusive asshole.

It’s 2015 most people would say Edith absolutely should not “settle” for Strallen, but at least some of the characters should have been more agreeable to the idea of Edith marrying him. The fact is that a lot Edith’s after WW1 had very limited options. “Settle” and marry the person who offered or spend their days living as lifelong dependents on their father/brother/uncle/nephew. It was almost still Charlottle Lucas 100 years on for many “gentlewomen”. Realistically the family should have been pleased. Neither Cora nor Robert ever thought she would marry even *before* WW1 and here she is married to a local Baronet with a large house, no other heirs (as far as we are aware away) who whilst he has an injury has less of one than many in Edith’s own generation (see Fatrick, Mattthew originally) and can afford nurses and doctors so she isn’t his drudge. And she claimed she really did care for him and want to marry him all the better. And if he really is as ill as all that, then he’ll die and she’ll be a rich widow. Which is not always the best thing but is a darn sight better than a spinster. They didn’t know the roaring 20’s were around the corner. I mean its good that they (apparently) now care for her emotions but very few would actually have been going “don’t marry him” even at the altar. Strallen fleeing Edith at the altar would create more gossip that Edith was so unmarriageable that a man as “honourable” as Strallen was forced to break the engagement and *not* give her space to find someone better. Of course this being TV she found love again asap but it would have been a huge scandal IRL.

Could be, but I think its more likely to be someone like Nora Zehtener who's character was literally shot point blank between the eyes with no fanfare or Intern Charles in the same season who's death was all about Bailey. SR may have had disagreements with PD in the run up to his exit but at one point she really seemed to adore him. t

Per their book Kody not only talked to his Dad but also to Meri's (polygamist) Dad about taking more than one wife. That's a lot of pressure to accept his "testimony of the pants". They *say* that they love their "bonus kids" as much as their own but most of the documentaries on polygamy I've seen end up with each mother advocating for her own kids, which seems natural when there are several women fighting for resources and attention. Fictional Barb on "Big Love" was the only one who truly seemed to think that bonus kids were the best thing about reluctantly agreeing to share your husband for his "Principle". Of course on this show its well documented that Janelle and Christine worked out an apparently mutually beneficial system for several years but like most of the possible "positives" of this family, that disappeared from the screen when they left Lehi and became completely full time reality "stars". I do think Meri and the others would have gotten on better if she'd had more kids but OTOHshe's now free to spread her wings and the others aren't yet. I do remember Robyn claiming she and Christine had become closer because they had kids of similar age, but we never saw much of that onscreen, and its very clear that Sol is King Sol and Truly gets scraps if that since Kody can't pretend to stand to be around Christine anymore. True but especially in this religion when having babies basically *is* the woman's version, I can see why she would have fought tooth and nail against not getting a McMansion in the cul de sac (which they all felt entitled to regardless of whether any can afford it)or getting an equal share of the wives spending money, it is selfish but would have felt like even more punishment. Since they had such disparity in number of kids a fairer way would have been to separate out the wives and kids money. Each wife gets a housekeeping/personal allowance which is equal and the rest of the money is divided up per child. Then no wife has more to spend personally (pleasing Kody) and the kids are less short changed. I suspect one reason why they didn't was because Janelle would have said "hey I earned % of the money, I should get a bonus for that", Christine would have said "I looked after 12/13 kids whilst everyone else worked, what about my bonus for that (and Janelle should give me a portion of her food money) and Meri went "I work too (on and off) and it's not my fault I didn't have more kids" etc and it would have been more complicated.

Holy shit is right. Jesus never said anything at all like that. He distanced himself from Old Testament Legalism. Paul has many, many issues but didn't go that far WTF? I read bits of "Under The Banner of Heaven" but didn't realise this was at one point actual doctrine.

The tenant of their religion that started polygamy was that Joseph Smith got caught doing the teenage housekeeper. The wives cope by ignoring that little fact that their husband has sex with other women. In S1 they said Kody wasn't supposed to show affection to any particular wife in front of any of the others and other things like that. I remember they y said it was hard to watch the show and see Kody interacting with the other wives one on one and realise they really did have sex and a stork wasn't involved. Christine was also distraught the Kody and Robyn kissed before marriage (a no no) *whilst she was in labour!*. And this was even when Kody was still pretending to give a shit about Christine. Now he's so over her he doesn't care that she's begging for a crumb of affection on national TV and he looks like he wouldn't care if she threw herself into the sea. As an aside, I doubt Kody was driving hours to visit Robyn when they were courting to only take tea in the palour like a Victorian suitor and I guess the other wives realised that at some point as well.

I really hope so to. To be slightly fair there are a lot of posts talking about how husbands and wives must please and belong to *each other* and communicate their sexual needs to each other before marriage (lots of advice about email questionnaires and pre marriage counselling to make sure you are on the same page even if you haven't even kissed. But yeah there are also a lot of total D bags on the site who think only women should "take one for the team" or else they are being hard done by. This all started as a way to say that fundiedom isn't all missionary with the lights off and that Jessa is well aware of that. She probably is and good for her, she'll need it going forward with her 20 year old husband who has no other pay check (together with her) other than more babies. No it isn't a parody site it's a Christian (married) sex website which has been around a long time. Incidentally if you do to the "registration page" it asks which gender you are "he" "she" or "they". Seriously. Maybe they were trying to be inclusive and failed at the first hurdle?

A number of men and women have discussed "having" to use dilators (a little like a speculum crossed with a dildo) to prepare a woman for sex on or after the wedding night because PIV wasn't working otherwise was pretty weird. Then there were such charming posts as "why won't my wife let me play with her nipples even though it is painful to her?" http://www.boards.themarriagebed.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=50721&hilit=nipples A lot of it is patriarchal in the extreme and some of it is plain silly but it does show that many fundie Christians believe that whatever floats your boat *after* marriage is perfectly fine. I don't know what Gothard himself preaches about this but I hope at least some of his followers have found this. That pic with the mag is actually cute. I'm never a fan of Jessa's expressions but it does prove she can have fun with herself doing that. She's making fun of trashy headlines whilst still making double publicity off them, girl has her eyes on the TLC/People prize.

That site is insane. On one hand its good there's a place for conservative/fundie Christians can get some advice on sex and first times etc, but the shear number of people who claim to have had to crank open their new wife's genitals with medical equipment freaked me out first time I went there. That and the fact that a lot of the explicit "advice" seemed to be a way TMI outlet for not being able to read any steamy novels or porn scenarios in many threads.

At this point if "Sam" announced gravity was a thing I would seriously doubt her. That said it's certainly highly possible that Meri and/or TLC milked a stomach ache for ratings, wouldn't be the first time. However the change in Meri is troubling and it really does seem to come from the time of the "legal restructuring" and subsequent catfish shenanigans. As for Aurora, I think a lot of her behaviour is on Robyn. She was clearly pushing "Kody as Dad" is the second His Douchiness decided dating a divorced woman with kids was ok because she was younger and thinner than his other wives. It wouldn't surprise me if she had previously encouraged Aurora to screen hog and/or stick to Kody like glue as another way of erasing her past. It also may partly be her personality, I apparently went through a couple of phases as a clingy kid and it worked itself out.

I only ever briefly saw WWs story here and there so I didn't really think about it and I don't know much about any medical details so reading a post here and there didn't . So many of us can relate true "tales of woe (and drama)" that it doesn't always seem odd at first . I only came in at the end of the Razing Ruth drama when people were actively calling her out, but what finalised that lie to me wasn't the drama necessarily but that she'd supposedly been hired by one of the best Library systems in the US with just a BA and a telephone interview. Nope, sorry, not happening. People with Masters in Library Science struggle to get those types of job, no way are you getting it that easy. Funny its the little things. Then there was her "dad" who popped up in the comments every time people started asking awkward questions, who apparently accused her of fornication after her first period but when she explained what it was, became all smiles and told her to add her cycle to the family board. A Dad could be a creep either way but both extremes seemed unlikely. Not to mention that no one could find a trace of this "ATI patriarch" who knew the Duggars when he "died". No one should feel bad about wanting to help out, everyone who did so thought they were helping a person in trouble. I now have a policy of never giving money to sob stories over the internet because of things like this. But if someone said "I don't know where the next meal is coming from" I might try and offer to order a supermarket delivery (depending on area) or similar heartfelt gifts to "Maisie" etc. If a person says "I'd rather have the money you know what they're truly gunning for.

Open and honest polyamory doesn't really bother me. It's not for me personally but it works for some people. As long as people are open and honest about medical issues and hygiene that shouldn't be that skeevy if you actually want that type of relationship. As for the Browns I think the sex and "intimacy" such as it was actually wasn't really discussed between the wives pre show as they seem to have preferred to block that out and pretend it didn't exist, so yeah there was probably some subconscious horror about it (and who know if Kody bothered to brush teeth between wives).

Grey's really is impressive. If you think about the shows it debuted with-(ish) Desperate Housewives, LOST, Ugly Betty, House and others. All well regarded shows but all ended a few years ago. Of course if ABC had had other successes more recently then GA might have been cancelled sooner but they didn't and a show as old as GA matching and almost matching its creator's later "hits" week for week in a supposedly "dead" time slot is mindblowing for me because I originally had this dying at S8 or 9. Not sure where Scandal stands anymore but GA is certainly more clickbait worthy than HTGAWM.