Hello. I am a YouTube creator and a writer known as Equestria Guy. I have a YouTube channel dedicated mostly to video essays about movies, shows, video games, animation. I am preparing a special video for Pride Month (which starts June 1st). The video is going to be called “How LGBTQ+ Representation Helps People''. I want to collect real stories from real people. How representation in modern media (cartoons, movies, shows, video games, etc.) helped you to come in terms with your sexuality and accept yourself. How LGBTQ+ characters influenced, inspired, positively affected you.
Specifically for this subreddit, how representation in "The Last of Us" video game series (or TV show by HBO) helped you.
You can send me a message here, on Reddit. Or you can write to me on Instragram, TikTok, whichever option is preferable to you. I want you to share your story with me. You can share your name, city where you live, age, but that’s not mandatory. You can just share your nickname on social media and that's all right.
Send me your sincere story. You can just send a wall of text and I will voice it myself, or you can record your story yourself and I will include it in my video. Again, whichever option is best for you.
You can send your photograph or avatar in social media, or nothing, that's also fine.
My goal is to show why representation matters. How it helps people to find themselves. LGBTQ+ is still one of the most oppressed groups in the world, unfortunately. You deserve your voices to be heard.
If you have social media accounts, I can share links, so if my video, hopefully, gets popular, you might benefit by gaining more subscribers and followers.
If you want to participate, please, don’t hesitate to hit me up.
Sincerely yours,
Equestria Guy

I've new here, and before today, I never put my thoughts / opinions on where I stand in writing, but here we go....
I'm formerly Christian, now agnostic. In hindsight, I sought refuge in God because I believed my relationship with him would lead to a fruitful relationship with my mother, since she was a believer. However, I realized in time that I did not need to rely on a relationship with God in order to be on good terms with my mom. Just being by her side, among other things, was enough.
That said, I was always fearful of the idea of hell as a child, like many. I assumed God was enacting tough love, but now, I equate it as emotional abuse. People can claim that I wish for God to act based around my feelings, like a spoiled child, but this is not the case. I strongly believe that no one being should have ultimate authority over life, regardless of whether they created life. If I became aware of a being like this, I would attempt to bring them to justice, even under threat of death. I'd probably be wasting my time, but it sure would feel good to try, in spite of the futility.
The nature of God's existence and evidence supporting it are topics that don't mean much to me; I care about how all of it affects the people, specifically the origin and intricacies of religion, as well as its porporters.
Sin as a concept is utterly ludicrous. God's plan relies on the existence of sin in order for anything post-Eden to work properly (lest everyone is buried among mountains of insects reaching into the stratosphere), so it's genuinely concerning as to why God would persecute those who've engaged with the design, especially those with no knowledge of his intended graces or his plan. I imagine many people have already mentioned this, and that many have counter-arguments, just wanted to throw my hat in the ring as well. I'm open for further conversation on this bullet point.
Regardless, I take full responsibility for my actions. Blaming someone else, God or not, is beneath me at this point.
Unless it's the 0.1%, or the State.
I would argue that the observable problems in our society stem from our inability to come together in pursuit of a unified goal. The powerful elite have made it their mission to rob the commoners of their will and purpose, let alone their money. They've priced people out of their homes, and have torn apart the family dynamic that worked to nurture and prepare us for the struggles of life. Education, Healthcare costs, and poverty are skewed in undesirable directions as a result of corporate lobbying. Companies that create urgent job postings never fill these openings since an overworked skeleton crew looks better on a financial report.
It's just another step in their domain to take the world for themselves and keep us from fighting back. Even the very idea of God is used against us, tailored in a way so that we think, act, and believe according to their agenda, always changing, always re-interpreting scripture to convey an idea or argument that one would have to commit career suicide to argue against. Long-standing American values (not sure who here lives in the U.S., but I do) were established to protect against the possibility of men claiming to speak for God from directly influencing the people politically, like they do in the Middle East. No one who goes to Church every Sunday is inherently more American.
I have no qualms over whether God exists or not (as long as he's not a jerk). Personally, I hope he does, since I like the feeling of relying on somebody (again, as long as he's not an jerk). However, the idea that he expects us to worship him for eternity like how Kim Jong-Un expects North Koreans to worship him is laughable to me. Dictators are the loneliest souls to have ever existed on this planet, and a being who commands others through fear of destruction cannot possibly earn true love from those who claim to believe in him. An enlightened being would have more attachment to an agnostic who was steadfast in their principles and thought for themselves even after being cast aside and persecuted (like Jesus), rather than the believers who do not think for themselves and throw stones (like those whom persecuted Jesus).
Of course, I'm just demonstrating an example, and would never claim that anyone is throwing stones. In any case, most of our problems would be solved if housing, poverty, and the 1% elite were working at "acceptable" levels or better, in my opinion. Then everyone can come together in the unified goal of creating a better world, since everyone would know for a fact it would lead to a desirable outcome if they participated (most people are a product of environment and people around them, and desire for either good outcomes of those arrangements to continue into adulthood, or for bad outcomes to be rectified through their innate will and perseverance, ideally at least), rather than devolving into cynicism-inspired degeneracy cultivated by the downfall of housing & family dynamics. Which would in turn foster forward thinking culture, unlike what we have now (mostly). And the God that everyone worships (assuming they still do) would be one who pushes us to be better without disrespecting us (Everyone's idea of God is subjective, and is more or less an extension of their own ego). He does not have the right to ultimate power and authority over us just because he created us. It is the people's responsibility. We have judges and juries for a reason. They exist to establish objective morality without assistance from a higher being.
If 1,000 people on the jury are asked by the prosecution over whether they would be okay with their mothers being murdered if it meant that the murder would coincide with God's plan, and 999 people said that their mother being murdered in that context is inherently wrong, then it is established that God's plan would be absolutely and undeniably wrong in that situation. The people know how to decide what's right and wrong on their own, and no one man can claim they know best without input from others (that's how society functions even throughout all the craziness). Of course, this is harder if degeneracy is a factor, but not impossible (personally, I'd rather degenerates be left to figure things out on their own if that is how it must be, divine intervention will only stifle growth).
If God does exist, all he needs to do is attempt to guide us in the right direction without taking hold of the wheel, like someone with a map in the shotgun seat of a car, giving out directions while we're driving through Detroit. He must never stomp us with his feet and claim that the Devil did it. Only hypocrites use scapegoats.
However, since the 0.1% / State (and the churches they run) have no intention of altering their agenda to respect the people's will (especially since they cultivated degeneracy that no rational mind would agree warrants power), not to mention that no Church would ever alter biblical text to a degree that favors the people, it's more plausible to just accept the observable nature of reality, and communicate that which is observed to others, a.k.a. subjective morality. In any case, nothing will change until the people take back power from the elite.
If there is a God, he must be on the side of the people. Anything else is propaganda. I'll apologize or serve time in prison if I commit a crime, but no one is under any obligation to serve or burn for eternity by any means. Only dictators wish for such things, and their countries are paired with travel warnings in brochures for a reason.
An Enlightened Being would prioritize Reform over Punishment. Even in the Afterlife.

I have devised a test that will challenge nearly all writers now and hold them to their values as a writer. The purpose of the test is to both allow you, as the writer, to determine what kind of aesthetic you're going for, as well as for us to understand if we can relate to your aesthetic. This part of your writing mentality will determine everything you do as a writer, down to what you write and why. The test is simple, a series of 22 multiple choice questions where you write down your answers on your own, and then once you're done, you scroll down to the next section where each answer is explained.
If you score over 16 answers into a particular category, you are highly likely to be part of that category. Anything further mixed will cause you to instantly be a postmodernist, but in a way where your aesthetic is incoherent rather than beneficial. If there is a question that you don't really believe the answer to, just go with whatever is closest to your thought. Also if you find multiple answers that you believe are correct in a single question, just go with whatever you think is the MOST important.
How accurate is this test exactly? Well, we're going to find out!
​

1. When I am inspired by an older work, I try to:

A. Copy it
B. Subvert it
C. Expand upon it
D. Make it inclusive
​

1. I write to:

A. Entertain
B. Guide others
C. Represent
D. Learn about myself
​

1. Compared to everything else in a story, I think people should be more interested in:

A. Originality
B. The theme
C. Equity
D. Having fun
​

1. My style of writing can closely be compared to:

A. Activism
B. Pulp
C. Exploitation
D. Fables
​

1. When analyzing a story, the correct basepoint is:

A. Author's intent
B. Reader's interpretation
C. Objective symbolism
D. Sensitivity reading
​

1. It's important for my characters to:

A. Present a part of me
B. Represent minorities
C. Have fun
D. Fit an archetype
​

1. The classics of the past are:

A. Superior
B. A good jumping point
C. Something that needs to be subverted
D. Patriarchal, racist, sexist, and homophobic
​

1. I firmly believe that characters:

A. Have a mind of their own
B. Are there to represent real groups of people
C. Are archetypes in a collective unconscious
D. Can be whatever the reader thinks they are
​

1. It is important that my writing:

A. Tells the truth
B. Is creative
C. Gives a voice to minorities, especially BIPOC and LGBT
D. Is open for interpretation
​

1. To understand my work, my readers are intended to be:

A. Anyone, but mostly myself
B. Highly spiritual and simple
C. Fellow advocates of equity and marginalized representation
D. Well versed in art and language
​

1. Traditional forms of writing are to be:

A. Deconstructed
B. Used as a loose guide combined with experimentation
C. Labeled as oppressive and elitist, because they are
D. Closely followed because they work
​

1. My aesthetic:

A. Fits a particular, essential, form
B. Is known to me, but changes with the times
C. Can’t be labeled, and don’t you dare try to
D. Is part of my identity; sexually, racially, and as my gender
​

1. Everything is:

A. Subjective
B. Political
C. Objective
D. Relative
​

1. The theme of my story will:

A. Be determined before I write it
B. Be learned as I go
C. Help the marginalized be seen in a better light
D. Never matter in the scheme of things
​

1. The most important step in my writing is:

A. Sensitivity reading
B. Editing
C. Outlining
D. Act of writing
​

1. Storytelling is most important for representing:

A. Truthful aspects of life
B. Marginalized groups
C. Whatever the reader wants
D. The individual
​

1. Knowledge is gained from:

A. Divinity
B. Lived experience
C. Nothing
D. Pragmatic action
​

1. We can make the world better by focusing on:

A. Whatever you want
B. Scientific advancements
C. Equity
D. The truth
​

1. Genre is there to:

A. Tell the reader exactly what they’re getting into
B. Expand as you create your own
C. Juxtapose to play with
D. Add women, LGBT, and BIPOC to it for inclusivity
​

1. The moral of the story will resonate best with the audience when it’s:

A. Based on evolutionary principles
B. In line with the divine
C. Advocating for equity
D. Open for interpretation
​

1. The future of storytelling needs to:

A. Stop caring about quality
B. Go back to how things were
C. Have more marginalized representation
D. Experiment more for originality
​

1. The first thing to mention from a character, before anything else, is/are:

A. Their race, gender, and sexual orientation
B. A theme that ties to their purpose in the story
C. Descriptions that let us know who the character is
D. Whatever the writer wants

Answer Key and Explanation

There you go, test is over. How did you do? Are you still sweating? Just like in those nightmares where you are tested on something and you didn't study, huh? Well, the hard part is done and now we get to see the results. In the words of Filmbrain, I'm so excited.

Question 1

A. Pre-modernist
B. Postmodernist
C. Modernist
D. Woke
This question goes over how you view works that helped you get to where you are now as a writer. Where most people will make an homage to their inspirations, the postmodernist and the woke will try to use that inspiration to create their own content that is a rejection of the past. Pre-modernists don’t dare to change something that works because if it isn’t broken then there’s no reason to fix it. The modernist will find something broken and try to enhance it, usually with a dialectic(synthesize two ends to make a different idea from the base component), but they will still respect the past and things that work.

Question 2

A. postmodernist
B. pre-modernist
C. woke
D. modernist
This question goes over why they would write in the first place, meaning the purpose of their writing. This question of telos reveals one of the most vulnerable areas of a writer, because learning why you want to even begin writing might spoil the fun of it for the postmodernist and also the modernist. The pre-modernist and woke will appear more preachy and confident with this answer, but they will have entirely different intentions since the pre-modernist wants to stick to a truth and the woke wants to stick to a narrative. The difference is that the woke advocate while the pre-modernist accepts and teaches. The modernist can be seen as selfish for trying to understand themselves through an author’s journey, but the postmodernist is the most selfish with this one due to their personal conceptualization of the word “entertainment”.

Question 3

A. Modernist
B. Pre-modernist
C. Woke
D. Postmodernist
This question goes over what the entire story is based around, meaning the intended reason a reader would even bother partaking in interacting with the work. A key word for the woke is the word “equity”, meaning they want equal outcome, no matter what. This goes into media where the goal of woke media is to simply have a big name title include a person that happens to be with a group they feel is marginalized, meaning socially excluded or of minor importance. The postmodernist and modernist don't care about any of this, which is why they will appear similar, but the difference is that the modernist cares about originality like no other, especially at the cost of relatability. The pre-modernist will care about the theme because a good message causes a good argument to be had from your work, which is how a pre-modernist interacts with their readers.

Question 4

A. Woke
B. Modernist
C. Postmodernist
D. Pre-modernist
This question goes over style, which causes the writer to relate themselves to others and their inspirations. The woke is a political activist, so activism is always on their mind, and in their work, even when they claim it’s not. The modernist and pre-modernist appear similar in this department, but the key difference is that the pre-modernist will write easily repeatable stories that dwindle down into idioms over time(ex. The tortoise and the hare), while the modernist will draw out a story to have many adventures involving one single character. This question will also cause the postmodernist to become defensive because for some reason they are always insulted by the idea of their style being called “exploitation”, even though the goal of it is to exploit and contain sensationalism.

Question 5

A. Modernist
B. Postmodernist
C. Pre-modernist
D. Woke
This Question goes over what a writer uses to determine the most valid interpretation, which is now a hot topic due to people unable to agree. This is due to different mentalities determining who has the correct basepoint, and this is another area where the postmodernist and woke merge. The author is most important to the modernist because it is an individualistic position to hold and the individual author is meant to know the most about their writing, since it came from their mind. However, the pre-modernist believes that there’s something beyond the personal interpretation that is correct, so their goal is to get closer to that objective position to increase their cogency and relatability.

Question 6

A. Modernist
B. Woke
C. Postmodernist
D. Pre-modernist
This question goes over what the characters are standing for in a story. It may have caused the woke to think they are modernist, because self representation and marginalized representation are similar when the author believes they are marginalized. However this is different because the modernist form allows non-marginalized people to still represent themselves, which is why classic works have a lot of elitism from the 1800s and 1900s. Postmodernists will focus on playfulness. The pre-modernist will want their story to represent larger aspects of the human experience, as well as the things that go beyond human, such as the divine.

Question 7

A. Pre-modernist
B. Modernist
C. Postmodernist
D. Woke
This question goes over how the writer views the things people say they like and have liked for generations. When something goes beyond a trend, it presents itself as tried and true, with the postmodernists and woke determining that these things must be destroyed. Subversion is an attempt to change something entirely to then have people focus on the change, very much like a sex change. This is why the postmodernist and woke answer will appear similar, but so would the modernist answer. The difference is that the modernist answer will still show respect to the classics, just that the modernist will expand upon it, usually in a pulp form that has a single protagonist engage with a collection of multiple adventures from prior, like how sitcoms share a catalog of episode types.

Question 8

A. Modernist
B. Woke
C. Pre-modernist
D. Postmodernist
This question goes over what a character is as a form of symbolism and representation. This is where the woke and pre-modernist seem similar in their answer, but the big difference is that the pre-modernist is far more open on how something is symbolically relevant. The postmodernist will throw all of the responsibility onto the reader, whether it's due to a sort of nihilism or the absence of integrity. Modernist writers like to claim their characters are "alive", which is a first step into demanding realism that isn't really realistic.

Question 9

A. Pre-modernist
B. Modernist
C. Woke
D. Postmodernist
This question goes over what the writer puts in a hierarchy of dependency and focus, which then translates into their reasoning for why they write in the first place. The pre-modernist is the only one who will try to tell the truth in this aspect, because there is a focus on truth and objectivity. The modernist can easily set that aside in order to be creative, but will see creativity as truth, which might make their answers seem similar. This question also is where the postmodernists split away from woke, because the postmodernist will leave it to the reader, while the woke demands the reader to listen to the author’s intent.

Question 10

A. Postmodernist
B. Pre-modernist
C. Woke
D. Modernist
This question goes over the requirements a reader must meet in order to enjoy a woke, which is a barrier, not a bridge. The postmodernist doesn’t believe in a barrier, so they will believe anyone will love their work, but the work is written to themselves, for themselves, by themselves. The woke only intends to appeal to fellow allies, meaning a political barrier is created, and intentionally created. The modernist will create a sort of “elitist” barrier, which relates to the hipster movement. Pre-modernists intend on making their works accessible to anyone, since most of these works were intended to have word of mouth(memes) transfer the ideas between groups and cultures, making it the most approachable.

Question 11

A. Postmodernist
B. Modernist
C. Woke
D. Pre-modernist
This question goes over how the writer views the past, which is another question about how they treat homage and works around them. The postmodernist firmly demands deconstruction of the past because the past is there to mess with rather than respect. Modernists seem similar in their way of changing things, but they will still respect the past and instead use experimentation, which is to retain the bulk of an idea and add a few things to see what happens, like a spice being added to a dish. The woke will determine the past is offensive and this is why they want already established IPs to be changed, as well as the previous installments to be hidden from the masses.

Question 12

A. Pre-modernist
B. Modernist
C. Postmodernist
D. Woke
This question goes over how a writer views themselves. The postmodernist is highly allergic to labels, because the label presents an objective idea, where they demand everything to be subjective. This is where the woke completely contradicts the postmodernist, because the label is to be the most important thing possible to the woke, but only as self-identity, making it the most selfish of the choices. Modernists are confident in who they are, but they are easily changed, especially if they believe in a dialectic. The pre-modernist and modernist can both believe in an essential form, but modernists change with time which is why trends are constantly changing, due to the “originality” factor.

Question 13

A. Postmodernist
B. Woke
C. Pre-modernist
D. Modernist
This question goes over ontology, the nature of being. The second someone believes everything is a particular thing, they will apply that particular thing to their work. This is why woke people now say “everything is political” and then apply their politics to the work. The postmodernist is allergic to this idea, because they don’t like the label of political, so this is where the postmodernist will try to blend in with the other two. Pre-modernists will apply an objective idea to their works, which brings up their idea of truth, which brings in form, which reduces originality. This is where the relativity of the modernist will try to fill in the gap, by focusing on “originality” to counter the pre-modernist.

Question 14

A. Pre-modernist
B. Modernist
C. Woke
D. Postmodernist
This question goes over the message of a story, which relates to the telos(purpose) of a work. The woke will focus on political messaging and advocacy, with their advocacy focusing on making the groups they like feel better about themselves. The postmodernist doesn’t really care about the theme, because the message will be determined by the reader, so they don’t put a focus on that, which eventually hinders their works and prevents them from being deep. The modernist is focused on self discovery, which includes what they are saying with a work, and this is part of stream of consciousness. The pre-modernist and woke will appear similar with this answer, but the main difference is that the pre-modernist doesn’t make political or group advocacy and is higher resolution than that, which is where a lot of religious and spiritual aspects come in.

Question 15

A. Woke
B. Modernist
C. Pre-modernist
D. Postmodernist
This question goes over how a writer views the process, which relates to telos(purpose). The answer for pre-modernists results in outlining since the outline of a story matters more when you’re making sure your story both makes sense and gives a proper theme. The modernist usually gets confused between the act of writing and editing, which will make it hard for them to answer this one, but the postmodernist doesn’t care about editing since a lot of it is meant to look haggard anyway. Editing is usually related to dialectic thinking, because you take a base component and try to enhance it. The woke are the only ones who peddle sensitivity reading, because they aren’t looking for a truth, but rather something that prevents offending the groups they cater to. Although, this is a question the woke will tend to lie about because sensitivity reading isn’t as popular as they hoped it would be.

Question 16

A. Pre-modernist
B. Woke
C. Postmodernist
D. Modernist
This question goes over how a writer views their own writing in how things are symbolically represented. Part of it is symbolism and the other part is how they view the audience. Postmodernists don’t care, making them the outcasts of this question. A woke writer will confuse truth with their advocacy, depending on how sure of themselves they are, but they tend to catch themselves once they see the more specific choice, even though they will say the opposite in public. Modernists like to focus on the individual, because they view everyone as an island, which relates to this special snowflake idea that sparked with hipsters. Postmodernists can be confused for modernists with this aspect, due to that slight merge under the hipster mentality.

Question 17

A. Pre-modernist
B. Woke
C. Postmodernist
D. Modernist
This question goes over epistemology, the theory of how we gain our knowledge, with knowledge relating to what the author knows and what the reader knows. The postmodernist will try to throw all of the weight onto culture(social constructs), which is why they focus so much on mixing and appropriating media. The woke will convince people that a “lived experience” is the most important thing, which is how they convince others that only a black writer can write a black character, or only a gay writer can be trusted with gay characters. Although the woke now will contradict themselves to blend in with the postmodernist, which is where they can get confused. The modernist demands for things to be practiced, which can confuse them for a pre-modernist, since pre-modernism is about things that are tried and true. The difference is that modernists will expand their concept of knowledge to things that are practiced as an individual, which can cause forms of exclusivity and remove the essentialism that pre-modernists hold.

Question 18

A. Postmodernist
B. Modernist
C. Woke
D. Pre-modernist
This question goes over advocacy and demands for the market. The pre-modernist will sometimes be confused for a modernist here because the modernist will determine science as truth, even though science is limited and always changing(this ties back to relativism). The postmodernist is excluded from the rest as the only one placing all the burden on the individual(again), but here it is where they claim everyone is an island, which is maybe the only thing modernists and postmodernists agree with, when convenient. The difference is that modernists have faith in science while the postmodernist doesn’t, due to their hyper-subjectivity. This is how, for example, a postmodernist can believe in flat earth and a modernist doesn’t, even if both are praising individualism.

Question 19

A. Pre-modernist
B. modernist
C. postmodernist
D. woke
This question goes into aesthetics, specifically how the writer feels about the way we tell readers what’s in the book. The woke will add things to a genre that speaks to the groups they want to uplift, such as afro futurism and LGBT fantasy. This is where a pre-modernist and woke writer will get mixed, but the key difference is that pre-modernists still retain the definition of the genre and the woke will follow the postmodernist concept of stretching and subverting to be an interloper of a genre. Meanwhile, the modernist will take genres and combine them to expand upon them, like how modernist filmmakers combined German expressionism, crime dramas, and poetic realism to make noir.

Question 20

A. Modernist
B. Pre-modernist
C. Woke
D. postmodernist
This question goes over the ethics of a work, in how writers view the ethics of their readers(aka sympathy). This is the most important for the pre-modernist and the woke, but for different reasons. The woke demands for their readers to follow the same political narrative while the pre-modernist demands for the reader to be open for spirituality and religious meaning. In a way, the secular choices are postmodernist and modernist, but the modernist goes for a scientific approach while the postmodernist throws all of the burden on the reader(again).

Question 21

A. Postmodernist
B. Pre-modernist
C. Woke
D. Modernist
This question goes over the writer’s path and goal for following generations. Whichever one the majority follows will cause the trend to go along with it, which is what is later called a movement. Pre-modernists beg for a renaissance, a return to the classics, while the modernist doesn’t mind going further into new territory as long as they find it creative. The postmodernist doesn’t care about much, because they demand the highest quality to be on par with the lowest, which leaves the door open for any advocacy, which right now is the woke. The woke don’t care what the future holds in the same way the postmodernist does, but the one thing the woke add to it is the need for representation of groups they want in the media.

Question 22

A. Woke
B. Pre-modernist
C. Modernist
D. Postmodernist
This question goes over how the writer views their characters in the way they want the reader to view them as well. This is a priority of aesthetics, with the postmodernist throwing all of the aesthetic burden on the reader(again). Modernists demand the character to be very visual and “realistic” to where they can be seen as a real person, because the modernist views their character as “living” and “with a mind of their own”. The woke only cares about what group gets represented by a character, with anything else up for interpretation, which is where they merge with the postmodernist. The pre-modernist will focus mainly on themes and symbolism to have their characters make sense, which falls back to the idea of form and essentialism.

Conclusion

This test is to be used by anyone trying to figure out who they are and what kind of readers they will appeal to. Feel free to share it around, ask questions from it, expand upon it. Hell, make up your own test that is way better than this one. Again, I’m positive that if someone refuses to take the test, they are woke or postmodernist. Woke if they are too offended to take it and postmodernist if they are afraid of being labeled. I find that weird since the modernist proudly wears the badge with honor, the pre-modernist is happy to finally realize there is a label for them, but the postmodernist and woke are afraid of being found out about their intentions, as if their intentions are a bad thing when revealed.
To me, that is rather sinister, which is why the woke and the postmodernists are causing trouble in basically every forum, server, group, stream, wherever you interact with them. This wasn’t always the case. Before the postmodernists just wanted to have fun, but now they are dedicated to making sure others follow their agenda, and only their agenda, which is why postmodernists easily get mixed with the woke. There must be another name for that type of person, which isn’t woke but more like one who is egotistical to where they think it’s their way or the highway, even though they think everything is subjective. Woke is a branch of postmodernism, for sure, but the postmodernist is not supposed to take their subjectivity as objectivity, which seems to have started happening thanks to the critical theories that sparked wokeness to spread in the late 2010s.
Feel free to ask questions, let me know what you got as a score, suggest any further questions or fixes to the current ones. Remember, if you score over 16 on any category, you’re certainly of that mentality. I am also considering having it where if you score 1 on any woke question, then that means you’re instantly woke. So if you score 1 on woke but end up in another category, let me know as well to see how likely that is.
Next test I’m working on will go over your knowledge of writing, which will be 56 questions long with both multiple choice and written answers that will challenge writers on how worthy they are of being called good. I would like to have this one as a test to tell who knows what they’re doing and who doesn’t, with the questions going over:

1. Marketing
2. Theme
3. Narrative
4. Tone

I believe these 4 categories are what determine how willing a writer is to both sell a book and relate to the reader. If they get something like 80% or above, they know their stuff enough, but anything below that and they are unaware of how to sell something a person will buy.

ROSLIN

Runestone, the eleventh month of autumn.
She had been born in winter, though it was not a season Roslin could at all recall. Unlike her cousin Rodney she did not possess the same skepticism of its coming. On some level subconscious Roslin was aware that the relationship between her family and heat was as complex as the passions exchanged between her parents; her father's face, both of complexion and expression, in the firelight implied a past of pain more than had been regaled to her in girlhood. It was further a fate bygone that she was not brave enough to pry upon sensing it a subject sensitive. Yet for the cold she was utterly without context.
While she saw the excess of layers when venturing out the keep to have been a fortunate though mostly fashionable happenstance it was serving to ward away the encroaching frost. Though Ros paid not much mind to it, nor even the rosiness of her own cheeks until her mother was insisting upon a set of gloves. Half thrusting them over Roslin's wrist despite her insistence that she was perfectly able to put the pair on herself. The both of them well aware that left to her own devices Roslin would have done no more than tuck the gloves into her belt and, inevitably, complain later of aching fingers as she asked after tea. Please mum, she would say as she grasped some exposed strip of flesh to prove her point; and, were those tactics ineffective, might well repeat the insolence on little Rowena when mother had turned her eyes elsewhere.
Instead of any overt preparation by her elders that reinforce the reality of the changing seasons it was, quite simply, the wilting of the flowers on the window sill that caught Roslin's attention. That no matter the tending it was ever on its decline. Ros was not so sure of her trimming efforts, in distress for the plant she had watered it and then drowned it in attempt to offer its roots respite. All these efforts were in vain as life must subsist on sunlight and there was little of it to go around. Even when she had lugged the little vase up the steps to the fifth floor where resided raised windows on every wall--an anomaly in Runestone's design as it had only been expanded after the coming of the Andals and the instilling of the Maesters to facilitate correspondence when the bronze crowns had been broken. All the same, the life had waned from the bushel; Ros, to the deep discomfort of Maester Vorsel, did nothing to diminish the despair felt of what had transpired irregardless of the man's well meaning explanations of decomposition. Having seen the flower from seed to sapling, to bright and verdant bouquet Roslin had assumed to be perennial. No more prepared for the death of a plant than anyone was to lose their loved one; in the absence of her father who had shown her how to plant the seeds in the first place the two felt interchangeable in her ailing heart.
She had sulked for a week in full afterward. Peering from puffy, tear stricken eyes as plants all abound Runestone did dwindle as hers had done. Auntie Ayla had bid the harvest be brought in though as the year drew toward its end the quality of the crop had ventured from passable to subpar. This, too, Vorsel explained as an inevitability dictating that there was little that was able to persist in the shifting of the season; the roots embedded in the soil incapable of penetrating through the onset frost. That which was not able to be preserved would be condensed, scattered to the growing fields to act as fertilizer before snow's first fall. Mulch, her uncle Rohan called it, though it reeked as much a manure.
"When will the spring come again?" She had queried, miserably. It had summer for several years. Stretching on long enough that Roslin was able to ruminate on the spring that had preceded it, unsure of if she remembered it in full.
Unhelpfully, Maester Vorsel did no more than shrug.
Far from satisfied, Ros leered at the man with a degree of distain only a child was capable of. Tossing down her notes from his lecturing as he did aim to amble on, realizing eventually that the young Lady Royce would resist his teaching outright if he did not provide her with adequate answer lamenting his years of study in the southern Citadel where not a single soul need be convinced into an orderly curiosity.
With a breath, "No one knows in certainty," he began, gladdened that it was only the Princess Alicent's daughter in attendance that afternoon. The heir of Runestone and his suspicions bid on a task concerning his would-be-wives rather than latching to the admittance from the learned man, "Not even the Citadel, my Lady. Mind that we manage an admirable estimate of its arrival none can say until the cold winds blow and the burrows are buried beneath snow."
Roslin found this response no more reassuring than the last though she seemed accept it when prodding the Maester more elicited no retort finer than the first. Then why are we expending resources on a festival? she could not complain in the least it was only that the ominous warnings of her elders did suggest that this was an unwise indulgence. Supposing then that it was not only her parents stricken by passing bouts of insanity, as it had been auntie Eugenie to reveal that auntie Ayla was following a tradition of Roslin's grandsire who had long ago accepted the expense of supporting the fief and wider kingdom as perpetual. And necessary, as the peasants too were to be provided with sustenance and celebration their own in addition to the festival being arranged for the nobles. The Lady Royce dictating that they would feed their own for the fruit of their labours prior to dispersing their due prosperity unto friends and foreign lordlings.
Selfishly, the smallfolk felt to Ros irrelevant as her focus fell to the potential of such a gathering, "He'll come home," she murmured as she had dragged Rowena and her mother into the bailey to expend her excess energy, having in habit halted before the heart tree… or had it called to her? It stood unhindered, unlike all the other plants Roslin had been obsessing over, with white branches brimming with crimson leaves. Only some of which had shed to the flagstones underfoot. Not one of them brittle either.
There was a catch in her voice as she embraced the wierwood. Or as much of it as she was able to. Roslin felt no fear of the twisted face it bore nor found its red sap tears off putting; in fact its mangled visage was to her soothing as it reminded her of the man to whom she was alluding. She had cried many of her own tears in this place, tucked along the tangled roots of the tree in which she imagined a kinship with, "He has to," she had not the capacity to outright ask her mother as she had meant to, justifying her vision of her family despite all evidence of otherwise, "Father never misses a tournament. And… and the bones. He is fond of staring at them, along with the glitter of the scales. As I am."
No small amount of which Roslin had for herself pilfered. An act of insolence she saw as admirable, wanting for the dragon scales in those occasions only when her sire was not available to offset her distress. Of late, his absence had been extended without so much as a raven to explain. Roslin had sent one or two of her own to Ser Royland as the weeks had turned to months though no reply was returned. It must have been that the letters had not made their way to the Knight Inquisitor's desk in these few attempts as Roslin was unable to muster any adequate reason for why her correspondence was otherwise being ignored. Even when she had scrawled a little lizard on the parchment to garner his attention (as she had not left enough room to depict the wings of the dragon as she had first intended).
With a sense of looming inadequacy, Ros pressed her forehead to the alabaster bark of the heart tree. Unmoving in her prayer that had been the same for many a moon now, as like to be ignored as all the rest had been. Fearing the family she so yearned to reunite with was insufficient on its own to appease her father, that she was herself not enough.
Ros ground her cheek against the wierwood. The grit of it a distraction she was well in need of, her melancholy a miasma of late. Asking her mother, or mayhaps the Gods themselves if they were inclined to answer, "Does he not miss us, mum?" Pausing for a breath, "Is he waiting for us? If he doesn't visit, we could go to the Gates…"

Hey Advice, thanks in advance for reading this (turned out to be a long one) and for your advice! Recently, I went to visit a friend who was dog-sitting at their friend's place in town. I've got a puppy, and took him with me as he's definitely a "velcro dog", meaning his breed is one that feels more inclined to be alongside their owner most of the time. The plan was to hangout and watch an episode of a TV show we're both watching, so I figure since we'll just be couching it this should be a low key activity. When we get to the house, we entered and the dog my friend was watching (3 years old) walks up to my pup to smell him, this interaction seemed normal enough - and after that we went for a quick walk outside so the dogs could both do their business, also a very normal interaction.
When we get back to the house, both dogs are let off leash and we start setting up to watch our show. My pup goes over to the other dog's water bowl to take a drink I'm assuming (I say "assuming" because he didn't even get to that point before the incident occurred, he was only smelling the bowl at this time), when the other dog ran over and bit him on the face. This preceded no signs of angeannoyance from the other dog, no warning barks, no sign with which to warn my friend or I that this other dog would move to a violent action. My dog ran away to the corner of the room and squealed very loudly for a while, and I ran over to hold him and make sure he was okay. The bite happened very fast, I was maybe 3 feet away when this happened and my dog was at the other corner of the room before I could even process what had just happened. Following this, I took my (still screaming) dog straight to their bathroom to console him and see if there were any wounds. His face was bleeding due to a cut under his eye, and from what I could see, a tooth was dangling loose.
My friend who was dog-sitting secured the other dog in the bedroom and once that was done, I called some ER vets to see where we could take him. When we find an ER to go to, my friend comes with me to console my pup while I am driving, and she says something to the effect of "I'm surprised the other thing that happened this week wasn't so bad, and this incident was" ....................... She completely neglected to tell me that the dog she was watching had instigated aggression toward *another dog* in a public space earlier that week. Why that didn't come out until we were on the way to an ER literally because of this aggressive dog, I'll never know.
When all was said and done at the ER vet; what I thought was a small cut and a baby tooth come unloose turned out to be a deep puncture under his eye, torn gums, a cracked jaw, and multiple cracked baby teeth. All this from one quick bite really shocked me. Later that night, I asked my friend why she hadn't told me about the incident before all this happened (didn't get a great answer to that), and I also told her to have the owner reach out to me.
It's been 2 days since this incident, and I haven't got so much as a check-in text from the owner (this would be the very least amount of effort I'd expect in this situation). We've even been connected in a group chat by my friend who was dog sitting, and still no response from the dog's owner. My friend said the dog's owner is at a wedding in Portugal, but I think one would have time to check-in with me in the 48 hours that have passed since the initial incident.
Now here's where my dilemma kind of lies -- I feel it is super irresponsible of the owner to just kind of DGAF the last 2 days, in terms of this situation. I have to wonder if that irresponsibility also lies with other things, like the training/socialization of her dog (or lack thereof), and the fact that she maybe even knows about this pattern of aggressive behavior and doesn't do anything about it, just like she's chosen to be silent so far in this situation. I initially wasn't going to take any action against them besides filing a report with animal control, which I've already done. I'm not doing well financially right now and the vet bills were certainly not inexpensive, but initially asking her to pay for those bills didn't cross my mind (maybe that's just my non-confrontational side coming out). But after thinking about how negligent she's been in this situation (it doesn't take that much to send a friendly text checking in on a puppy!), and prior to that, learning that her dog attacked a different dog earlier in the week; there's a side of me that would feel validated in seeking compensation. I do also realize though that I took my puppy to her house while she was away to hang out with my friend, so I objectively hold responsibility here as well. But I also wonder if the situation was different: if owner was home, and her friend she invited over brought a puppy who tried to drink a bit of water from her dog's bowl; would the same outcome not be on the table in terms of possibilities? Just not sure if legal action feels too intense, or if I should let myself feel validated in taking that action.
TL;DR: My dog was attacked in someone else's home while my friend was dog-sitting; afterwards I learned the dog had shown aggression toward a different dog earlier in the week. The owner has not contacted me at all and isn't giving off a vibe that she cares, do I take legal action for damages? What should I definitely be doing besides filing that report?

I’m a CSA in Puerto Rico and there’s a possibility that there will be an open position for shift lead. What or where can I find to help me prepare for the interview, process or even just career development in general? I found some documents (1- 4 bullet page lol) regarding the position but that’s about it.
Thanks in advanced ;)

I live in Australia and want to read the manga but I got not idea in what order to read it and also can’t find out where to get it, any help would be appreciated.

Hi Carats 💎
I always found it interesting and very helpful reading about other people’s experiences seeing SVT live. I was super lucky to get to see our boys in Tokyo / Japan for their LOVE Fan Meeting (May 27)! I am an international Carat, European to be precise - and as Hybe keeps ignoring our continent I had to go all in to see our boys (I was lucky to see them in Chicago for BeTS last year as well)🥺 I’ll share my personal experiences and how I managed to get tickets to a Japanese show - upfront: it wasn’t easy and hella expensive!
The following text will be super detailed (and quite personal - as I texted this to my friends as well) so just jump to whatever section you find interesting 😊 disclaimer: this all is my personal subjective view, other people might have had other experiences.
Be aware there will be spoilers ahead (e.g. setlist, outfits, games) for the final LOVE show in Tokyo today!

Short summary

Most memorable: Fallin Flower, Mingyus voice in FML, SoonHoon ship and insane organisation in Japan Best performance (forever and ever): a thousand times Fallin Flower Unexpectedly seen a lot: Handsome Wonwoo Unexpected energetic: Vernon being a hype ball Songs that hit different live: My My, FML and Campfire
Only regretful things (this is me whining for no reason 🥲): Coups being out sick (get well soon leader, we missed you - but the boys covered you well ♥️), no never-ending encore song, no Super performances (but little dance challenges) and although I had an amazing view of the full stage from the upper tiers the boys were still little and hard to distinguish. I once even mixed up Woozi and Mingyu - only Dino was easy spotable with his pink head 😂 and oh… I forgot that they would sing Japanese versions of their song!

Members

S.Coups: I missed him so much! And I didn’t understand a word but I think Jeonghan said something about filling up the empty spot - cause everyone started cheering 😂 at the game section every member had a pillar that they had to fill up with hearts by winning games and it was so cute seeing Coups had all hearts right away!
Jeonghan: his hair is so curly and he really is part of the iron deficiency line - he was teamed up with Vernon, and oh boy, this guy was on fire 😂 Jeonghan was his cute usual, I’m not sure if he gave Carats sweets again for the encore but I saw him carrying around a bag!
Joshua: he was the usual cheeky, gentle sexy!! Manifesting SeokSoon as one of the funniest pairs - they were paired up for the games and just showed again that they’re hilarious together! 💯 Shua was cheeky and cheating while playing games and charming while talking to the MC! I mentioned they collected hearts to win the games - and every time the MC counted the numner of hearts, Shua popped up in front of the MC forming a heart over his head to be counted as heart as well 😂
Jun: gosh - he’s so handsome I can’t take it! 😖 And just as I perceived him in Chicago, he proved again that he’s my concert bias wrecker and he loves fooling around with Carats. Always doing hearts, winking, waving to us! He also danced a bit of limbo cause one challenge was a limbo game! 🔥 He paired up with Mingyu for the games - my personal visual death! When he changed to his 2nd outfit (the low cut silky black shirt with black pants) I nearly fainted! And he did the Cat move that Jeonghan teaches him, it was so cute 🐱 he truly is the cutest cat boyyyy
Hoshi: our tiger, our prince, our pure hypeness! Of course his introduction lasted 20 minutes again 🐯 loved his vocals in _World, Fighting was so fun and he truly is the biggest Woozidan! I’ll talk about the games section later but that was so much fun, the variety god really does Carats well 😂 besides: the way he looked into the crowed, soaking in the atmosphere and realizing that they made it into Tokyo Dome for a fanmeeting (!) - you can truly see the stars in his eyes!
Wonwoo: he is just so handsome! He was paired up with Boo for the games and they were so cute and fun together 🥹 he was in the spotlight a lot - I can’t even pinpoint a certain memory. It was just lovely seeing him!
Woozi: dudeee, he is so hot with that dark eye make up and the wet long hair! 🔥 he was paired up with Hoshi and he hated it hahahah I love how you can see, how much he loves and lives each of their songs. He sings every line with all his heart.
THE8: His hair looks great with the mullet and bright streaks in the front. He was paired up with Dino and in one game they pulled a dinosaur figure and he played around with the toy, making it sit on Dinos shoulder and biting him 🦕
Mingyu: he looked really young, the hair and face/make up make him look like his version of 2019? Boy is SO aware of the camera, it’s insane… every other minute he is looking into one camera, running towards another camera, sending kisses, winking… 😂 And of course the members teased him again and asked him to do the sexy version of that one challenge they’re all into right now! And his vocals in the beginning of FML - right after Coups intro? I got damn chills and teary eyes. He is one of the members, that I personally underestimated the most regarding vocals and rap but he is stunning live - he truly is not just a pretty face but the full package ♥️
DK: our sunshine! All of them did this challenge which sounds like a children’s song? - and DK did nothing special just his beautiful, gorgeous wide smile and wholesome eye smile and radiated pure happy sunshine and every Carat just melted - he always lighten up the place ☀️ his vocals in Campfire are insane, this boy is amazing - I can’t even put in words!
Seungkwan: uri lovely, handsome, beautiful, funny, witty, variety king BOO! He’s just so funny, he knows exactly what to do to make Carats laugh 😂 I love him so much and I hope then world treats him better and better every day.
Vernon: I’m not sure if I like the black short hair, but he looks amazing nonetheless. He was soooo hyped when playing games! 🔥 Especially paired up with Jeonghan, his hyung had no chance. Vernon was always running towards the games on the extended stages, but had to wait for Jeonghan to play, but that boy walked sooo slowly hahaha Vernons raps and vocals are so raw - it’s incredible how real this boy is! 💯 and ofc seeing him rapping in Fighting - my life is complete!
Dino: our pink Maknae! The hair is so crispy - I’m wondering why it doesn’t break and falls off. And he turned into Usain Bolt at the end! ⚡️ when they said their goodbyes, some members just went back to the main stage, sitting down - others went to each extend stage and waved to us. But Dino took it to the next level and was just running from one side to the other endlessly♥️

Performances

It was truly a fan meeting with lesser performances and more focus on games and the members themselves!
No Super stage… but it didn’t fit the vibe anyway. This was all flower boys Seventeen 🌸
They had 3 outfit changes, started with blue/white jeans, switching over to hoooot all-black black satin/lace shirts and jackets UGH I barely survived. Juns and DKs shirt was sooo low cut and Boos inner shirt was lace 🔥 and then the merch clothes as encore outfit!
My My was soo lovely! The Caratbongs were synced and for Bout You it was a lovely ocean of rose quartz/pink/lavendel light.
FML made me tear up and then they sealed the deal with Fallin Flower right after!! Woah, absolutely stunning and gorgeous 🥹 I couldn’t even see the members clearly as they performed on the main stage (not the extended one) and wore the dark outfit, plus the stage lights were pointing towards the crowd 😖 but nonetheless - I can now die in peace.
I really got teary eyes at that stage as it’s one of my absolute fav Kpop song and the most anticipated performance ever - and during the song I just continuously shaked my head in awe. I realized once again that (… Hoshis voice please hahaha) J and K Carats are soooo lucky to be able to experience this absolute master piece in real life. ♥️
All the other songs were just perfect choices of sweet SVT music (World, Oh My, All My Love and Campfire or a bit more energetic like Run To You and Fighting). Loved the setlist!

Games

I have to tell this part in all it’s lengthiness and amazingness!
So it started with solo games first. They had to answer questions with A or B and the other members could bet if they’ll be right or wrong. Every right answer gave them hearts. ♥️ the absolute highlight: the questions (mostly around GoSe) and member order is random, I believe, and Wonwoo happen to got asked what his famous word from the Insomnia GoSe was - and variety god must love us cause I freaking heard TASTY live 👅 I - and around 55k other Carats - are the luckiest people alive!!
The top 3 winner after these 12 questions got to chose the member they’ll pair up for the duo games first! For selecting there was a pot with random pickets of all members in it and Boo started and picked two out of fun, not looking at them, teasing Carats and members by playing around with his eyes closed which one he should take and blindly chose Wonwoo 😎
Then it was Juns turn and Mingyu was behind him acting all cute for the cameras while Jun draw the picket - and it happen to be Mingyu 🤞 destiny!
And then was Woozi and 55k Carats screamed “Hoshi Hoshi Hoshi” and I realized, holy shit, shipping is BIG in Japan. And then… omg… Woozi also pulled out two just for fun and he turned the faces towards the crowd and you wouldn’t believe it HE PULLED HOSHI AND HIMSELF?! like WHAT THE HELL. Whats the chance of this happening? Him picking two for fun, everyone screaming Hoshi and then he didn’t pull Hoshi next to another member but NEXT TO HIMSELF🤩 brave carats filmed and uploaded it
Remaining pairings: Funniest duo - DK Shua Hype vs non hype - Vernon Shua And Dino Minghao last, they called themselves “THE-D” (you know how the pronunciation sounds the same hahha) 😂
Trying to keep it short but there were 3 extended stages, each of them with a different game (they had to find hidden hearts - which were either hidden in balloons, wrapped gift boxes or locked cases. They had to break those cases/boxes open and find the hearts)
And it was always 3 teams against each other and DK/Shua chose first and ofc they made it fun, Shua (I think) covered DKs eye with his hand and pointed his finger in one direction (meaning to one of the extended stage with a certain game) and asked “this one?” until DK said yes.
And Hoshi Woozi were second and did the same and holy shit the crowd went feral when Hoshi covered Woozis eyes with his hand 😂 and then he pointed in one direction and as Woozi said yes the whole crowd collapsed. Cause Woozi accidentally chose the game where the members have to burst a balloon in between them 😂 he hated it so much!
Actually after the last round SoonHoon were on the last place, therefore they got an extra game and won the chance to steal points from other members. They ripped Shua apart and took all his points making them the overall winners. 😂 And they got crowned as LOVE KINGS - Hoshi living his dream! And after a lot of unwillingness Woozi completed Hoshis hand heart and the crowd went crazy again!!!
The games section was sooo fun and holy shit I didn’t know where to look, there was just SO MUCH GOING ON! I was so thankful the games were self explanatory and no language skills needed! 💯 The MC was lovely (I believe it’s the one accompanying them since their debut in Japan!) and soo humble. While they were playing games and seated on the extended stage he just sat on the floor instead of grabbing a chair. So cute 🤩

Ticketing

It’s probably well known that it’s nearly impossible for foreigners to get tickets to a Japanese concert, as it requires a Japanese address and phone number. So after checking some websites I decided to try out several proxies and only got a positive reply from this one: Tickets Galore. Filling up the form is the easy part and they replied to me within a day.
I started requesting ticket support right after LOVE was announced end of February and only got confirmation at midnight the day of the concert and got the physical ticket 2h before the show started. Midway through I already gave up several times😭
My proxy was not able to get tickets for the Lawson lottery (not a fanclub lottery but of the ticket provider which is open to public) and also not for general sales. 😭
At 8pm the day before the show they released seats with restricted view for general public but again she didn’t manage to get a ticket for me. In the end they texted me at midnight saying she found a reseller who would meet up before the concert and that’s how I got the ticket for a seat in the restricted view area.
Things to consider:

1. time zone differences and email communication only was tricky as sometimes I/her missed a mail or replied hours too late
   
2. resale fanclub tickets were available in a lot of cases but ID check is guaranteed so no chance of getting in
   
3. trusting in the reseller to be legit and hoping for no random ID check of general seats (organizer announced to check ALL fanclub seats and random general seats)
   
4. paying more and more fees for the additional effort the proxy put it 💸
   
5. uncertainty about the ticket handover (for me the reseller told the proxy where and when to meet and what they would be wearing, luckily I was wearing something bright yellow and the reseller recognized me)
   
6. lots of back and forth mails asking about updates, available tickets for higher prices, etc. - my inbox is full of her mails. ✉️
   
7. You can request a maximum budget or preferred seats with the proxy and they’ll let you know what the market offers
   

But personally all was more than worth it in the end!! Original price of the ticket was around 12.000¥ and I paid around 51.000¥ incl fees (I assume I end up at around 10.000¥ in fees for the proxy - as it was not super clear how much the ticket price was in the end).
Experience with Ticket Galore: very responsive, a bit intransparent about the actual fees and sometimes doesn’t reply to all the questions. But still highly recommendable!
——-
Thanks for reading ♥️ I'll probably come back later and add links if I come across videos or tweets. If you have any questions or just want to share your thoughts or own experience feel free to share. Horanghae!! 🐯

I posted this in a narcissistic parent group and someone tagged this group and honestly I just need to scream this whole issue somewhere bc I feel like I’m losing my mind
I (26f) went home to visit my parents this week to go wedding dress shopping. I was originally going to elope and turn the event into a wedding/honeymoon but my mom and my sister practically begged me to have a real wedding. Hey if the parents are paying for it I won’t say no. (And I would love to have my sister there) We found the perfect mother of the bride dress for my mom while we were shopping. I was really excited. Today (now yesterday) I found my dress. I was crying I was so happy!
Then while my dad was paying for the dress (they are fulfilling my grandma’s promise to buy my wedding dress since she passed of cancer and they got the inheritance) my mom was trying once again to convince me to have the wedding where they live. I’m across the country and am planning on having it near where I live. My mom is a pro at the guilt trip and mentioned if we do it where I live my grandparents and aunts and cousins (all her side since everyone on my dads side is dead now) won’t be able to come. Well after a week of this I basically told her (gently) that I really want my friends to be there, and for their safety I wouldn’t feel comfortable inviting my extended family in the first place. Especially my grandparents.
For context, my grandparents and mom are the textbook definition of Qanon trumpers. My grandma was talking all about how she supports book banning after one of my appointments and her and my mom are convinced the election was stolen. Now my friends are all very liberal people. Among the guests we have non-binary individuals, queer individuals, a drag Queen, and a polyamorous throuple. And I finally let my mom know this because it just came to the point where it couldn’t be avoided anymore. I wanted to make sure she knew to be polite around them. She looked like she would be sick. But the kicker came when I mentioned one of our guests is immunocompromised and we were going to ask people to be up to date on their shots.
Now this woman has gotten Covid and had to go to the emergency room. She had to have a respirator. She had long Covid afterwards and started losing her hair. She looked me in the eye and said “maybe I shouldn’t have gotten that dress then.”
She would rather not go to my wedding at all than get vaccinated to protect my friend from dying. She would rather not wear a mask than watch me walk down the aisle.
Luckily my dad is sane and vaccinated but he is so “don’t stir the pot” that I know he won’t do much. The whole thing killed the joy of finally finding my dress and I want to cry. My mom has disappointed me and crossed boundaries and just been a conspiracy theorist wack job my whole life but the little part of me that has been holding out hope and just wanting her mom is crushed. I wanted to cry.
This morning I told my dad that my partner and I would be willing to figure out some compromise with having her take Covid tests leading up to the wedding and he said he would bring it up, but with him and my sister being the only family basically coming that they would no longer pay for the wedding if my mom couldn’t come. Like I never said she couldn’t come I just wanted her to be aware and not potentially make my friends really sick. She’s the one choosing if she would come or not and putting it all on me. She keeps saying how much I’m upsetting her like it isn’t MY WEDDING that SHE is making all about HER! She’s the one who wants to die on this hill. She tried telling me not to invite my friends so she could go but I’m absolutely NOT going to do that bc they are close friends of ours and some are even responsible for my partner and I getting together in the first place. They are like family to us.
And my dad taking her side on the issue by basically threatening to stop funding it (the money would be up to him more than my mom so it’s really a him decision) is honestly the worst part. All these years I gave him more credit than he deserved. Up until now I always felt like he had my back when it came to my mom and that he was someone safe. I just can’t look at him the same after this.
She has begrudgingly agreed to the Covid tests (though she’s still upset bc somehow the government will track her through an at home test or some shit) and I’m guessing they are still funding the wedding now that we have come to that “compromise” but our relationship will never be the same after this. I’ve spent years trying to fix the relationship with my mom but she’s made it impossible. I honestly don’t want her to come anymore after cooling down, but I went through so much just to get a compromise out of her that I might as well just leave it so I can at least have a wedding before the relationship with my parents absolutely dissolves.
Fuck trump and fuck Qanon for making her so much worse than she was. I remember when she believed antivaxers were idiot hippies. At least that was one thing we could agree on. Now she tells me she “woke up” my friends and I are lucky our hearts haven’t exploded or some shit while my friend AND my fiancé have both lost people to Covid. And I know so much of it is fueled by extreme evangelical shit that she keeps spitting even now like there weren’t three raptures that were supposed to occur since I was in the third grade. Oddly enough I wish she was even a little like she was back when I was in the third grade. At least she wasn’t this bad.
What really sucks is IM the one who feels guilty. I feel like I did something wrong. I feel like I’m somehow the selfish one and a disappointment. I just want to go home to my fiancé and cry in bed. I feel like I mean so little to both of them right now. But like… it’s my wedding. Even if I am being selfish, isn’t it at least a little understandable? Am I somehow in the wrong here and just not seeing it?
And cutting them off completely would hurt my mental and physical health because due to a few mental illnesses I have trouble keeping a steady job and am therefor financially dependent on them, especially for things like dr and therapy appointments which I need to stay sane and get my medications.
Once I’m back with my fiancé I’m sure things will feel a little better but this pit in my stomach hurts. Sorry this turned into a big old trauma dump rant but this shit keeps weighing on me.
Sorry about format and all that shit. I’m on mobile.

Since it had its last episode in 2008, people keep suggesting Ronnie "cut a deal" or he "got a lighter sentence", while going on to suggest some of the ways such as I feel like he would have gotten a deal of some kind. And He gets a plea deal for sure.
How could Ronnie avoid execution? which Was used in California until 2019 ... Or a VERY long prison sentence, stretching decades like Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito
These explanations try to link Vic, Wyms, Aceveda , and others to crimes that Gardocki was involved in. During season 4, the final episode with Captain Rawling, she was ready to send the entire strike team to jail, and put an IAD agent on them even after she was fired.
There is a belief that Ronnie will testify against high ranking officials.. Like who? Most were mainly Vic's contacts, while I don't remember Ronnie meeting with anyone else with clout.
Aceveda was untouchable once he beat down Cruz Pezuela , and it showed that he defeated the entire Strike Team by allowing them to implode while he steadily gained political power. Aceveda knew nobody would believe a cop who covered up the murder of another cop, to avoid his own murders being exposed. As well as his biggest crimes...
Ronnie helped kidnap a suspect in Mexico and brought him back to the US hidden in the car trunk.
Ronnie is the only living member (besides the immunized Mackey) of The Armenian money train robbery, a job where 2 bodies were left.
Ronnie arranged for marked money, that he help steal from the Mafia, to be found by a small time crook. The crook finds the money, spends it, and is busted by the IRS. He is then killed by the Armenian mafia because they think he was involved in the robbery, through their moles in the IRS.
Ronnie, after helping kidnap the Armenian hitman, blasted him down in cold blood at a hotel. You may think, 'so what?, he was a fucking hitman who tried to kill Vic's family'...
So, instead of bringing in an Armenian hitman into custody, they decided to kill him to prevent exposure of the original sin, the robbery itself.
Finally, Ronnie even admits he's finished... in the last few minutes of Season 7 Ep 3...
Ronnie returns from a job explaining that a dog took a bite out of his arm
Vic: I'm sorry I wasn't there to back you up, I had no choice..
​
Ronnie: We all had choices once, and we made 'em, and now we gotta live with 'em.
​
Vic: Ronnie, we're gonna get outta this quicksand....
Ronnie: No ......we're not.. Everything we do to get out of this shit just drags us down deeper...
​
As he was burning the Armenian cash to ashes, Lem said something similar.... and look what happened to him..
Lem (burning the cash) - talking to Vic: I have always gone along with everything you ever wanted, and all its done is get us deeper and deeper into shit!
Who would want Ronnie's testimony on anything, especially after Vic's confession tape? If the city was, as Aceveda said, on a campaign to go after crooked cops and get them out the job, why would they then go easy on the only guy they have left to prosecute?

Hello. I am a YouTube creator and a writer known as Equestria Guy. I have a YouTube channel dedicated mostly to video essays about movies, shows, mostly animation. I am preparing a special video for Pride Month (which starts June 1st). The video is going to be called “How LGBTQ+ Representation Helps People''. I want to collect real stories from real people. How representation in modern media (cartoons, movies, shows, video games, etc.) helped you to come in terms with your sexuality and accept yourself. How LGBTQ+ characters influenced, inspired, positively affected you.
Specifically for this subreddit, how representation in "Adventure Time" helped you.
You can send me a message here, on Reddit. Or you can write to me on Instragram, TikTok, whichever option is preferable to you. I want you to share your story with me. You can share your name, city where you live, age, but that’s not mandatory. You can just share your nickname on social media and that's all right.
Send me your sincere story. You can just send a wall of text and I will voice it myself, or you can record your story yourself and I will include it in my video. Again, whichever option is best for you.
You can send your photograph or avatar in social media, or nothing, that's also fine.
My goal is to show why representation matters. How it helps people to find themselves. LGBTQ+ is still one of the most oppressed groups in the world, unfortunately. You deserve your voices to be heard.
If you have social media accounts, I can share links, so if my video, hopefully, gets popular, you might benefit by gaining more subscribers and followers.
If you want to participate, please, don’t hesitate to hit me up.
Sincerely yours,
Equestria Guy

I'm tired of being broken in dating apps. I'm tired living in this developing nation. I want to live completely in a different life. I can cook. I can do laundry. I'm smart. 6/10 average looking. Ugh. I'm 25.

Hi everyone, I'm going through what feels like a crisis of faith. I can't even believe I'm saying that, it's happened so gradually but now I can't call it anything else. Where before I was shocked at the even tiny hint of having doubts, now I am filled with them.
I was raised in a very Christian home and walked away from God in my teenage years, never stopped believing just stopped following Him. I came back to Him in my 20s and was filled with love for Him, He was my everything. It's been 5 years and I've spent time in the bible almost every single day. I know that nothing is more important than staying close to Him so I have made that my biggest goal.
But lately I've been struggling so much. I've gotten to the part where I realize that following Jesus is really really hard. It used to be a lot easier to deny myself and the sin I craved, but now it's way harder. I won't deny that sin has a big part in this... I let it in more than I should have. By letting it in I don't mean huge things I just mean indulging little longing thoughts. But my heart broke over this, I cried to the Lord again and again in sorrow over my sin and asking for His help. But those thoughts kept coming and I grew very weary. At times I caved in and outright rebelled but always repented. The issue is having crushes on other people, I'm married and my husband is an unbeliever and doesn't have a problem if I like other people, he thinks I'm being too hard on myself. Gradually that message has made me worn out, it seems I have to give up almost every show I love that makes me so happy because it's a temptation for me. I know that we have to give up things in our walk with God and I have done it for years, it's just gotten to be SO MUCH. And these are things that really bring me a lot of happiness.
So in addition to that - now I'm having doubts. It's like the onslaught against my faith is relentless. Where to even start? A lot of things in the bible that I just trusted commentaries on and accepted their logic seem harder to cope with now. David was a man after God's own heart but he had so many wives... Which God never rebuked him for... And yet now I have to stop myself from even the happy feeling I get from looking at an attractive person? God allowed polygamy back then even though it was a sin, but He never said anything to anyone about it? It just seems so much more plausible that these are modern ideas that people are coming up with their own explanations. If God considered it a sin, why didn't he at least give them some kind of indication that it was? God was tolerating sin?
I have had so many happy times with God where I was worshipping Him and I felt His presence... but if those emotions I felt were the holy spirit, what about people who have also thought they felt the same thing, but have different beliefs than me? My experience is the holy spirit but theirs is just empty emotions? But what if it actually feels the same? What about people who wrote beautiful worshipful songs are now leaving the faith? My faith tells me that if they leave the faith, it means they were never genuine in the first place. But what is the difference between their faith and mine? Am I really supposed to believe that someone who wrote such beautiful lyrics of worship to Jesus wasn't truly trusting in Him for salvation? But God says if we put our faith in Jesus we are saved and He will keep us from falling.
And now I've been thinking about hell. This is the biggest thing my husband brought up to me when I first came back to the Lord but in my excitement for Him I didn't think too deeply about it myself. It's like anything problematic, I just looked to see what other people said about it and accepted that. But now that I think deeper about it, it just seems SO UNJUST. I know that there are wicked wicked people in the world that deserve justice brought upon them. But the fact that billions upon billions, most of the people throughout the history of the world will end up in eternal torture because they weren't convinced, it seems so unfair. I know that our sense of justice is supposed to come from Him, so why does it seem unfair if our sense of justice comes from Him? I heard Tim Keller say that "God is more merciful than us." How can that be possible when we think about hell? He gave us our minds... Some people are more logical than others... Some people are more driven by emotion... Most people just believe what their parents and the culture around them teaches them... And God will send them to eternal torture because they were mistaken in their beliefs? Christians always say thosr people are rejecting God, but many people just don't see a reason to believe the Gospel is the truth of the world. And God gave them that mind. What about the native Americans, who lived here without the gospel, and then Europeans came with the gospel and treated them like trash?
It also just seems like Christianity doesn't work for most people. Most people are either way too legalistic and judgey, or struggling in sin all the time. Why aren't more of God's people displaying His glory and love if we are filled with the Holy Spirit and have Jesus living inside us?
It must sound like I'm convinced it's wrong, and that's not true at all. This is just me venting my fears. I'm still believing. I'm not giving up, but these are the thoughts constantly swirling in my mind, making it hard for me to enjoy my time with the Lord. How can I grow closer to Him when I'm filled with doubts? I can't give up my faith. That's a terrifying thought, because what if I was wrong? But my faith also has to be genuine so I have to get past these thoughts somehow.
I really don't want to make anyone else stumble, I hope this doesn't. 😔
Any prayers or thoughts about these points would be appreciated.

In Part Four, the comeback tour of rockstar Hiroshi Tanahashi was cut brutally short at the hands of the Leader of the New School, Zack Sabre Jr., who embarked on a quest to prove himself New Japan's most valuable gaijin. After beating back Will Ospreay for Royal Quest, he ran into another familiar face in Minoru Suzuki, almost clobbering him into retirement until Naomichi Marufuji made the save. Ending his saga with Just6Guys with a win over Maru, he placed a bow on the long-standing Blackpool Combat Club rivalry by besting Jon Moxley, cementing Sabre-Gun as New Japan's undisputed leaders... That is, without taking Los Ingobernables de Japon into account.
Since becoming one again, LIJ’s been on a tear through NJPW’s ranks this year in spite of Shingo Takagi dropping the belt and PAC losing the New Japan Cup Finals to the current World Champion. IWGP United States, IWGP Tag Team (Death Triangle have become LIJ affiliates through PAC), and NJPW World Television Championships in their grasps, they seek to round out the group by all holding titles simultaneously. But that begs the question – who’ll be going after the World Title? Though Shingo’s battle ready, he insists Tetsuya Naito take it this time, the Stardust Genius having worked his back off to rebound from Wrestle Kingdom. Failing every attempt in the past 3 years though, the question remains whether he can truly pull it off this time, or if it’s just not meant to be.
Kizuna Road - Night Four (July 1, 2024)
Sabre-Gun (Zack Sabre Jr. & El Phantasmo) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & PAC)
With Naito confirmed as Sabre’s #1 Contender for Wrestle Dynasty, SG and LIJ have themselves a scaled-down rematch from New Year’s Dash, Zack picking his trusty right-hand man ELP, and Tetsuya bringing the US Champion, knowing PAC has unresolved issues with ZSJ from the NJC. Though it drives the Bastard to work doubly-hard, especially considering how it’ll look if he pins the World Champion, it also makes their teamwork suffer, PAC becoming self-absorbed in getting the pin. Backfiring, a Sudden Death from Phantasmo knocks his lights out, SG getting their win back from NYD and putting the challenger on the backfoot heading into Madison Square Garden!
Sabre-Gun def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (16:12)
PAC appears distraught after the match, but Naito simply tells him ‘tranquilo’, not taking it personally. Though he’d hoped to use this match to get into ZSJ’s head, it appears he’ll just have to do that himself, like he’s always done.
Wrestle Dynasty (July 14, 2024)
Also on the show:
Shota Umino (c) vs El Desperado - NEVER Openweight Championship
Just6Guys (SANADA, Taichi, Ryohei Oiwa) (c) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji, Titan) - NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship
Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs Kyle Fletcher - NJPW World Television Championship
PAC (c) vs El Phantasmo - IWGP United States Championship
The Lucha Brothers (c) vs Meiyu Tag - IWGP Tag Team Championship
Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs Tetsuya Naito XI - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
In what’s been a very successful night for LIJ thus far, clean-sweeping their way through the competition, it all rests on Naito’s shoulders now to bring it home. Perhaps the most unreliable man to slot in this spot, and yet, the most beloved, MSG fully invested in Tetsuya’s chase, either the grandest of celebrations or coldest of heartbreaks will end the night! Naito keeps his cool, emanating his usual larger-than-life aura as he walks out in a pristine crimson suit, paying homage to Shingo, whilst Sabre’s cockier than ever with his recent streak of huge wins, knowing he has Tetsuya doubting himself after their tag. As he hands his title over, the two come face-to-face, SABRE SPITTING GUM INTO NAITO’S FACE, but Tetsuya doesn’t let ZSJ’s tactics faze him, having come too far for too long to let mind games be his downfall.
Circling each other, Zack lunges for a lock-up but Naito walks past, smirking and stretching in the opposite corner. Sabre rolls his eyes as Tetsuya turns around and tells him ‘tranquilo’, before going for it again… Zack snatching the headlock this time as Naito tries to repeat, but Tetsuya instantly whips him to the corner, teasing the COMBINACION CABRON as ZSJ braces himself… Naito stops in front of him and does the ‘Abre los Ojos’ taunt!
Furious, Sabre piefaces him, NAITO RETURNING A FOREARM, AND WE’RE OFF! Trading strikes, Zack rocks Tetsuya with European Uppercuts, Naito returning forearms, before a Japanese Arm Drag stops Zack in his tracks! Naito goes for another, but Zack hooks onto Tetsuya’s legs, tripping him up and contorting the foot! Tetsuya boots him off with the other, a Neckbreaker and a Somersault Senton connecting, though Sabre absorbs the latter, trapping Naito’s arm onto the mat to STOMP THE HAND!
Picking him back up, he cracks Naito with chops, before whipping him at the ropes, Naito hitting off them one after the other to build momentum, teasing the Flying Forearm Zack’s expecting… only to roll into the Tranquilo pose! ZACK MEETS HIM WITH A NECK TWIST!!! Tetsuya scrambling to the corner, Sabre steps on his throat against the ropes, BEFORE SLAPPING HIM! NAITO SPITS IN ZACK’S FACE!!! A harsh uppercut knocks Tetsuya back, a Running European following and a PENALTY KICK! Naito dodges and nails the FLYING FOREARM SMASH!
Teasing the Tornado DDT, it’s cancelled by an Enzuigiri, Zack leaping for the KIMURA- NAITO COUNTERS INTO VALENTIA!!! ONE! TWO! THR-KICK OUT!!! Sending Sabre into the corner, the COMBINACION CABRON CONNECTS! AND A MISSILE DROPKICK! Naito teases the DRAGON SUPLEX, but Sabre flips through and STOMPS HIS ELBOW! SNAP GERMAN ON THE NECK FROM SABRE!!! ONE! TWO! THR-NO DICE! Naito woozy, his head’s only further knocked around by a ROLLING ELBOW! A CORNER HIGH KNEE connects, before a Hammerlock Suplex floats into a TESCO MEAL DEAL!!!
Naito’s hand flails about the mat as Sabre keeps him grounded, no Valentia escape this time, forcing Tetsuya to work the old-fashioned way to the ropes! MSG backing the Stardust Genius, after much deliberation he gets a foot on the ropes! But Zack’s right back on him, going for a NORTHERN LIGHTS SUPLEX- NAITO STANDS HIM UP WITH A SNAP DDT! An EVOLUCION’S shut down though, Sabre hitting the brakes to nail the ARM PELE! Fishing the arm, Zack tries to float into a FLYING ARTICLE 50- NAITO STUFFS HIM WITH A GLORIA!!! ONE! TWO! THR-SABRE SURVIVES!!!
Rallying momentum, Tetsuya nails the TORNADO DDT! Sabre nursing the head, a DRAGON SUPLEX FOLLOWS!!! In the drop zone, Naito tests the waters for a RUNNING DESTINO- SABRE SHUTS IT DOWN WITH A EUROPEAN CLUTCH!!! ONE! TWO! THR-NAITO’S DREAMS STAY ALIVE!!! Getting dangerously close with the flash pin, Tetsuya throws defiant forearms, Zack catching and contorting one, but a ROLLING WHEEL KICK knocks him off! ESPERANZA!!! ONE! TWO! THR-SABRE KICKS OUT!!!
Hooking the head, Naito hoists Sabre up… ZACK WITH A GUILLOTINE CHOKE MID-AIR!!! Tetsuya’s eyes bulge out his skull, looking for the nearest turnbuckle to ram Sabre into it, but ZSJ’s quicker, yanking him to the mat and transitioning into a JIM BREAKS ARMBAR!!! Brutally bending the arm at an awkward angle, there’s a manic look in Zack’s eyes as NYC desperately cheers on Naito, who does his best to hang on! Sabre keeps tugging further and further, eager to ruin Tetsuya, but it backfires, helping him stretch his leg to the ropes!
The crowd erupts as the referee forces Sabre off, though Naito’s clearly hurting all the same, a European helping no less! Zack rallies with further Uppercuts, one knocking Tetsuya down, before firing a PENALTY KICK!!! NAITO ABSORBS IT AND ROLLS THROUGH, SABRE GOING FOR SECONDS BUT HE EATS A RUNNING DESTINOOOOOOOOO!!! ONE! TWO! THR-NOOOOOOOOOO!!! Shaking himself off, Naito attempts another, though Sabre stops it with elbows, before hopping into a REAR NAKED CHOKE!
Tetsuya tries to run forwards to free himself, though ZSJ swivels on his back into a GEDO CLUTCH!!! ANOTHER FLASH PIN! BUT NAITO ROLLS THROUGH THIS TIME INTO HIS OWN – POLVO DE ESTRELLA!!! ONE! TWO! THR-SABRE STAYS IN!!! AND AN EVOLUCION!!! ONE! TWO! THR-ANOTHER KICK OUT!!! NAITO’S GOING FOR THE SWING DESTINO!!! BUT A ZACK DRIVER COUNTERS!!! ONE! TWO! THR-NOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Slapping up Naito’s neck, Sabre dumps him on it with a TIGER SUPLEX!!! Naito woozy, Zack nails the PENALTY KICK!!! NAITO’S REFUSING TO STAY DOWN! Hearing MSG’s cries, he wills himself back up as Sabre watches in fascination… ONLY FOR ANOTHER PK TO CUT HIM OFF!!! And just like the 2022 NJC Finals, he’s going to end it here with a SECOND ZACK DRIVER- NAITO NAILS A DESTINO MID-AIR!!! HE’S STILL MOVING SOMEHOW!!! Stumbling to his feet, Tetsuya measures his man… DESTINOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! ONE! TWO! THR-SABRE’S FOOT’S ON THE ROPE!!!
Saving Naito more than once, it’s come to Zack’s aid now too! Hammering Sabre with forearms, Naito tees up another DESTINO- PELE KICK!!! Tetsuya falls forward, Zack catching him in a STRETCH MUFFLER!!! IF HE CAN JUST GRAB THE OTHER LEG, IT’S ALL OVER, COMPLETING THE ORIENTEERING WITH NAPALM DEATH!!! Zack bends Naito further and further as he tries to grab hold… TETSUYA SWINGS BACK! AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN! SABRE LETS GO!!! AND A ZACK DRIVER FROM NAITO!!!
Sabre on his back, Naito thinks about waiting for the Destino… but then he sees the top rope. The crowd cry at him not to, screwing him over time and time again, but Tetsuya can’t help it! Heading up top, the world holds their breath, NAITO SOARING THROUGH THE AIR… STARDUST PRESS CONNECTS!!! ONE! TWO! THREE!!! IT’S A MIRACLE IN MADISON SQUARE GARDEN!!! NAITO’S WORLD CHAMPION AGAIN!!!
Tetsuya Naito def. Zack Sabre Jr. (c) to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (31:18)
New York LOSES their minds as Naito’s handed the title, Tetsuya himself struggling to process what just happened! But then LIJ rush out – PAC with the US Title, Hiromu with the TV Title, Shingo, Yota, and Titan with the NEVER 6-Man Titles, and even the Lucha Brothers with the Tag Titles! THEY’RE DRAPED IN GOLD, BABY! Sharing embraces all around as a dismal Sabre trudges to the back, there’s not a single dry eye in the arena as the outcasts raise their fists to the sky with one hand and their titles with the other, golden tickertape hailing down! Naito’s on top of the world after 3 long years, and it feels damn good! Doing the customary championship edition roll-call, the show fades on LIJ holding all their gold… and PAC looking over at Naito’s.
G1 Climax 34
Entering his second of fifteen G1s as the reigning champion, Naito heads B Block opposite stiff competition. Though dispatching of Hiromu in friendly competition on Night One, the two are subsequently assaulted by KONGOH post-match, allowing NOAH’s KENOH to upset him the following night! Behind the 8-ball already, Tetsuya’s motivated to make a comeback, mowing through Narita, Tanahashi, Yota, Sabre, and KENTA to take back the lead! Suffering another surprise defeat at Jeff Cobb’s hands after multiple failed attempts from the Hawaiian Hulk to best him, it opens the door for a returning JAY WHITE to spoil his final night, wrecking Naito’s legs with a ladder, allowing Zack to advance on 14 points! As for B Block, a draw between Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada on the final night puts the Commonwealth Kingpin through, the rivals meeting one more time! Other key underlying stories see Shibata finally beating Okada, Ospreay avenging his Takagi loss, PAC beating his fellow LIJ members but losing to SANADA, and KONGOH causing ruckus throughout the competition.
G1 Climax 34 Finals (August 19, 2024)
Also on the show:
Jay White vs BUSHI
Will Ospreay vs Zack Sabre Jr. - G1 Climax Briefcase
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, PAC, Hiromu Takahashi, Titan) vs KONGOH (KENOH, Manabu Soya, Masakatsu Funaki, Hi69, Shuji Kondo)
Perhaps the focal reason for Naito not making the Finals, KONGOH’s tournament chicanery, as led by KENOH, was a masterfully crafted plan. After losing to Tetsuya in last year’s LIJ vs KONGOH series at Wrestle Kingdom 17, the thought of ruining the Stardust Genius for vengeance never left the Rogue Fist’s mind, and with his win over Tetsuya in the G1, their score is now 1-1. Reigniting the intense rivalry between the two stables, they have an upgraded rematch to their Wrestle Kingdom 16 5-on-5, both sides having greatly changed since then.
Once again, PAC’s especially adamant to claim the spotlight, the loss to SANADA making him temperamental despite having the 2nd best LIJ record in this year’s tournament. An argument breaking out between PAC and Shingo as to who should get the pin is put on ice by Naito, though it doesn’t keep Titan from eating a nasty PFS from KENOH, handing the invaders the win!
KONGOH def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (19:57)
Redeeming WK16, KENOH offers the angriest of satisfied smiles, the group cackling as they gesture belts around their waists, warning that their business isn’t yet over. LIJ left behind, there’s a sour mood in the air from the loss, though when Shingo offers a fist in apology, PAC, taking a look at a nodding Naito, ultimately returns one, showing that despite popular belief, LIJ’s still fine.
Splitting off for Shingo and co. to gear up for KONGOH’s second wave whilst Naito and PAC are scheduled for AEW’s ALL IN supershow, this time taking place in Tetsuya’s home of the Tokyo Dome, both men are set for defences on the show. In PAC’s case, it’s a rematch against J6G’s SANADA, the Bastard adamant to gain Naito’s favour by beating the traitor. As for Naito, he has Jay on his tail!
Until the recent G1, White refused to show his face on any sort of NJPW programming (including Forbidden Door) since being embarrassed at Okada’s hands and having his faction torn to shreds. Leaving Japan to join AEW, no longer having connections to hide behind nor help him, he was forced to be the lone wolf for once, becoming even more merciless, knowing he’s all he has. After spreading chaos abroad, most recently coming up short in the AEW World Championship picture, trauma from his Okada loss clinging onto him anytime the stakes are raised too high again, he decided it was time to return to his roots to clear his head and eliminate any shred of weakness left in his body so that he can claim the top prize again, and there’s no better place to do so than the building his title was taken from him – the Tokyo Dome.
The last time he faced Naito in the Tokyo Dome, he had Gedo by his side, yet still lost. Now though, he declares if he’s to have this match, he wants a compensatory factor. A means of looking out for himself, like Naito has LIJ. He’s already beaten Tetsuya thrice in singles competition, knowing he’s the better wrestler, so this time… HE WANTS A LADDER MATCH!!! Japan’s become more and more geared to the Western market, the culture shifting from traditions, so unless he’s a snob like Okada, he'll embrace the new vision and accept the challenge. Jay using the perfect words to get under Tetsuya’s skin, he accepts, looking to tear down the foundations of the Rainmaker’s regime with his reign, starting with this!
RevProxNJPW 12th Anniversary Show (August 24, 2024)
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & PAC) vs The Knight Dynasty (Ricky Knight Jr. & Zak Knight)
The night before ALL IN features a special RevPro crossover event with their partners, NJPW, the 12th Anniversary being celebrated in Japan. Naturally, Naito tags with the most RevPro familiar member of LIJ, PAC, the two champions battling the celebrated Knight Dynasty, who are considered the present and future of the promotion! What begins as a fun exhibition sees more of the differences between PAC and Naito come to light, the hot-headedness of the Bastard and the collectedness of El Ingobernable wanting different things out of the match, yet still managing to remain reasonably on the same page. A close call on a 619 from Ricky sees Naito shove PAC out the way in the nick of time, absorbing the blow himself, though without acknowledging it, PAC springs to action, a Black Arrow on Zak scoring the victory!
Los Ingobernables de Japon def. The Knight Dynasty (13:10)
As the referee approaches LIJ with their titles, PAC’s quick to receive both, Naito only recovering just in time to find the Bastard lingering for a moment as he looks between the pieces of gold, before finally handing Tetsuya’s over him and walking off, leaving the leader confused yet unconcerned.
ALL IN Tokyo (August 25, 2024)
Also on the show:
PAC (c) vs SANADA - IWGP United States Championship
The Lucha Brothers (c) vs Golden Lovers - IWGP Tag Team Championship
Tetsuya Naito (c) vs Jay White V - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship - Ladder
Stepping into the mastermind of the Switchblade, White baits Naito to play his game, the long-time rivals settling their score over a belt they both have history with. With no Gedo around, Jay’s focus is to demolish Naito’s already tattered knees with the ladder like he did to cost Tetsuya the G1, slowing down each climbing attempt bit by bit. Given the two’s creativity, it’s a sick warfare of increasingly dangerous spots, Naito taking Jay with him to neck bump city, White cruelly massacring Tetsuya’s body with reckless abandon.
White’s notably more in his element here, letting the Tokyo Dome atmosphere heal him whilst hurting Naito. A HANGING BLADE RUNNER cuts a Stardust Press attempt short, the magic only lasting once, but a ladder bridge CANADIAN DESTROYER buys Naito some momentum back! Ultimately, a war atop the ladder sees Naito boot Jay off, allowing him to unhook the gold to retain!
Tetsuya Naito (c) def. Jay White V to retain the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (25:30)
Though Naito walks out with his belt, PAC doesn’t, making the Bastard’s issues all the more prominent, taking more frequent looks over at Tetsuya’s gold, which begs the question – was there more to PAC joining LIJ than originally thought? Still, he wishes Naito good luck for Wrestle Grand Slam, telling him he wants to see the belt on him when they go England. But for now, the end of his trilogy against KENOH awaits!
Wrestle Grand Slam (September 8, 2024)
Also on the show:
Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs KUSHIDA - NJPW World Television Championship
El Desperado (c) vs Katsuyori Shibata - NEVER Openweight Championship
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji, Titan) (c) vs KONGOH (Manabu Soya, Masakatsu Funaki, Shuji Kondo) - NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship
Tetsuya Naito (c) vs KENOH III - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
For over two years, the rivalry between LIJ and KONGOH has slowly simmered to this boiling point, coming down to the leaders now to settle their 1-1 score over NJPW’s top title! With the 6-Man Titles changing hands earlier in the night, Naito must put his 200% into assuring the same doesn’t occur here, or it’ll be disaster on New Japan’s waterfront.
As two men that could not be more opposite collide, it’s an intense war over the company’s possession, everyone from fans to wrestlers on the edge of their seats as the last of the NOAH invaders try to leave their mark. KENOH shows nothing but hatred towards Naito for ruining his past chances, whilst Tetsuya savours his every moment in the Sun, having slaved away to hold this belt. A PFS almost does Naito in, whilst the DESTINO does the same for KENOH! Ragdolling the older star with Dragon Suplexes, KENOH sets up for the ENRIN… BUT IN HIS STARDUST PRESS MOMENT, HE MISSES!!! DESTINOOOOOOOOOO!!! ONE! TWO! THREE!!! New Japan remains safe in the hands of Naito!
Tetsuya Naito (c) def. KENOH to retain the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (28:33)
Offering a handshake to KENOH out of respect for their series… the Rogue Fist declines it, though from the look in his fiery eyes, an inkling of acknowledgement is there for Tetsuya. Telling Naito to keep the belt warm for him, he declares he’ll be back sometime again, and when that happens, he’s going to usurp Naito once and for all!
And as they leave with their 50/50 successes, it’s back to LIJ to end the show on their usual note… except, PAC interrupts the tradition. He’s confused, no, he’s incredulous. What are they celebrating here? Failure? Or are they calling it ‘survival’? Is no one going to point out the elephant in the room? Just two months ago they were on top of the world, all draped in gold, but now they’re left with just Naito and the Lucha Bros’s gold. And yet, they’re celebrating? He’s been out here losing sleep over his missing US Title!
If they wish to continue to be taken seriously, they need to act the part. Luckily… he has a solution. They say iron sharpens iron, so rather than fighting these large-scale wars outside their stable… why not have a ‘friendly’ within? Naito has the title and an incredible row of suitors before him, so he should pick one to defend against! Tetsuya seems perturbed by the idea knowing what almost happened the last time LIJ fought within, but as PAC insists, even pointing out how he’s the only one with a clean record over Naito… Tetsuya turns to him and raises the title! If such claims are going to be made, they need to be backed up too! Challenging PAC with his title on the line, a grinning Bastard accepts, bumping his fist!
Burning Spirit - Night Seven (September 25, 2024)
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi) vs Death Triangle (PAC & The Lucha Brothers)
Slyly manoeuvring his way into the title rematch he’s desired ever since getting a taste of the gold against Shingo last year, this is more so PAC’s chance to prove himself over the statement he’s seeming to be making. Nonetheless, with various combinations of LIJ facing Death Triangle over the Burning Spirit tour, they supposedly rely on each other to improve their own skill, these 6 especially drawing the very best out of each other. Working more seamlessly with DT than he had LIJ as of late, the freakish chemistry between the AEW lads has a Fear FactoDouble Stomp/Black Arrow combo end Hiromu, PAC grinning as he stares down Naito, the challenge growing closer by day…
Death Triangle def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (18:24)
Giving a brief interview heading into the match at Royal Quest, Naito states that he can’t be certain on what PAC’s intentions are, but all he knows is that no matter what, LIJ sticks together. If this match is what PAC needs for his peace of mind, then it’s all his. All he can hope is the Bastard has the same idea of family in mind.
Royal Quest IV - Night Two (October 6, 2024)
Also on the show:
The Lucha Brothers (c) vs United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan) - IWGP Tag Team Championship
Will Ospreay (c) vs Kazuchika Okada - G1 Climax Briefcase
Tetsuya Naito (c) vs PAC II - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
The relationship between LIJ and PAC has developed into one of the more intriguing dynamics this year, raising a multitude of questions, but now, the true light of it all will be revealed. Whether it’s friendly fire or another coup, Naito’s ready for whatever PAC may happen to have up his sleeve, whilst the Bastard lets his actions do the talking. For once, it’s an utterly no-nonsense showdown between Los members, Tetsuya taking the threat of PAC very seriously, the Jordie clearly driven to make the grand prize his. And as the match rolls on, Naito starts to see parts of himself in PAC with each cheer or cry from his home crowd.
Just like Naito, he’s the incredibly-talented misfit who was overlooked, but unlike a young Naito, PAC doesn’t realise he has the world on his side already despite his quirks. Whilst Naito had to suffer through his changes, PAC’s a made man, and with each near-fall, the crowd see it too, becoming more and more invested in him! On the cusp of his crowning moment, PAC shows no hesitation unlike the Stardust Press, NAILING THE BLACK ARROW!!! ONE! TWO! THR-BUT NAITO KICKS OUT!!! PAC may have ‘it’, but Naito’s operating on an entirely different level as World Champion, and no matter what PAC may have thrown at him, it’s not his moment just yet. DESTINOOOOOOOO!!! ONE! TWO! THREE!!!
Tetsuya Naito (c) def. PAC to retain the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (30:11)
Maybe a different day. Both men propped in opposite corners of the ring, they suck deep for breaths, PAC only taking his eyes off Naito when he spots the title bring brought over to him. That should’ve been his. He should’ve been champion right now, but… he starts tuning in the crowd again. A standing ovation for the hometown boy. Though he may not hold the title right now, he’s still a champion in their eyes… Solace. Always overlooked, all he needed was approval. And now more than ever, he feels he has it. Noticing PAC’s realisation, Naito grins and nods to him, the two bumping fists together, no sour ending on this one.
At least, not between LIJ… OKADA’S HERE!!! After shockingly beating Ospreay for his G1 briefcase earlier in the night, the Rainmaker has his sights on the Tokyo Dome main event, and if things are to be believed, it may be Naito defending against Kazuchika on the grand stage! The long-time WK rivals locking eyes, there’s a different atmosphere between the Ace and the Dark Ace now. No longer does Okada look upon Naito condescendingly, but with disgust. Though he failed to beat Shingo earlier in the night, Kazuchika’s been vocal all year about the damage he feels LIJ have caused the company.
Where he did everything to purify the promotion with his reign, beating away outsiders, Naito did the exact opposite, bringing them further into their ranks and breaking tradition with a ladder match. With this briefcase in his hand though, he has the power to change that… but so does he. OSPREAY JOINS IN!!! The man who lost his case earlier in front of his own family, he can’t even look the smug Okada in the eyes. Rather, turning to Naito, he declares his desire to return to WK’s main event to not be over just yet! Against better judgement, he gave Shingo a shot at this title last year and it cost him everything. All he asks is Naito returns the favour! Smirking, Tetsuya tells him ‘earn it’, WK’s main event scene growing all the more interesting!
Battle Autumn - Night Five (October 15, 2024)
Elimination: Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Death Triangle) vs United Empire (Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb, Great-O-Khan, Aussie Open)
Desperation drives a man to his darkest pits, and Ospreay is very much there. Banding his troops together one year on since the last LIJ/UE tag of this magnitude, the ante’s upped even higher now, needing to survive an elimination match to receive the match of his desires. Both stables going to war here, all their integrated rivalries of the past years come to a head, the one between Ospreay and Naito lying at the centre of it all. UE get a tough break to start with when Great-O-Khan hits the deck early, Mark Davis following, though a comeback removes the Lucha Bros from the equation!
Cobb goes next, before Ospreay takes out PAC, a double countout subsequently removing the leaders from the equation! Boiling down to Shingo and Kyle, the Aussie Arrow pulls out the underdog performance of his life, channelling all of Ospreay’s moves before a GRIMSTONE ELIMINATES SHINGO! OSPREAY’S HEADED TO KOPW!!! Raising Fletcher onto their shoulders, it’s a grand celebration from UE, Will receiving one last lease on life! As for Naito, he can only stand and wait, a final challenge paved in his path to the Dome.
United Empire def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (25:33)
King of Pro-Wrestling (October 27, 2024)
Also on the show:
KUSHIDA (c) vs Taiji Ishimori - NJPW World Television Championship
Sabre-Gun (Blake Christian & Clark Connors) (c) vs Catch 22 - IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship
Kazuchika Okada (c) vs Katsuyori Shibata - G1 Climax Briefcase
Tetsuya Naito (c) vs Will Ospreay IV - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
One year ago, Ospreay’s overzealousness cost him the chance to main event Wrestle Kingdom with the World Title, but now, as it all comes full circle, it’s official, the winner of this match defending against Okada! With that in mind, both men are equally ravenous to make the grand opportunity theirs! Their fourth match together, it’s rife with callbacks, Naito especially making sure to remind Will of the way he beat him in last year’s A Block Finals to get in his head.
To Tetsuya’s surprise though, this matured Ospreay is impervious to his strategies! No matter what the champion throws, the challenger always has an answer, their see-saw saga featuring plenty of nail-biting near-falls that could send either man through, but it’s a TRIAD OF HIDDEN BLADES that ultimately calls it, Ospreay finally reclaiming his throne, a date with destiny set in stone!
Will Ospreay def. Tetsuya Naito (c) to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (35:38)
Before WK though, Power Struggle is on the calendar! Featuring the likes of Death Triangle dethroning KONGOH for the NEVER belts for PAC to fully find his place in LIJ, Ren Narita dethroning Katsuyori Shibata for the NEVER Openweight Title, and Shingo Takagi taking the US Title from SANADA, it also sees Ospreay team with Catch 22 against Okada and the two men who ended Francesco Akira and TJP’s legendary reign, SHO & Taiji Ishimori, with UE scoring the vengeful win! And on the final Road To Tokyo Dome special, Ospreay finds a surprising ally in Shibata against Okada and Tanahashi in a HUGE blockbuster tag, CHAOS getting their win back here as Shibata keeps chasing down a rematch with Tana!
Wrestle Kingdom 19 (January 4, 2025)
Also on the show:
Sabre-Gun (Blake Christian & Clark Connors) (c) vs Li-YOH - IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship
United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan) (c) vs CHAOS (Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura) - IWGP Tag Team Championship
SHO (c) vs Francesco Akira - IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Ren Narita (c) vs Tomohiro Ishii - NEVER Openweight Championship
Shingo Takagi (c) vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - IWGP United States Championship
Minoru Suzuki vs Taichi - Retirement
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Katsuyori Shibata
Will Ospreay (c) vs Kazuchika Okada XII - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
Finally, this is what it’s all led to. A story set in motion from the very first moment Ospreay set foot in NJPW under Okada’s guidance in CHAOS 9 years ago. Fighting through loss after loss after loss, he finally achieved his clean win over Okada last year to reclaim his World Championship, but now, he must accomplish an even greater task – beat the Final Boss in the Tokyo Dome itself! Failing on both occasions against Okada on NJPW’s biggest stage akin to Okada’s own chase of Tanahashi, it’s his Wrestle Kingdom 10 moment now as he walks into the Dome as the reigning champion, with the Ace as the challenger! Win and he’s immortalised in history. Lose and Okada resets the company’s entire trajectory. High stakes weighing on Will’s shoulders, it’s time to elevate under pressure!
Entering with WK level entrances to boot, Okada dripping sheer gold, and Ospreay with an entire kingdom of suited individuals accompanying him, they get underway as the bell sounds! And for the first time, it’s Ospreay controlling the opening sequence with the Tanahashi-style headlock! Big brothering Okada, he doesn’t let the Rainmaker out the gates in his own ballpark for a few minutes straight… BEFORE WILL EXPLODES FOR A HANDSPRING ENZUIGIRI!
Okada dodges, going for a GERMAN, but Will flips through, nailing the HOOK KICK, an OSCUTTER coming up empty, Kazu swinging for a ducked RAINMAKER, and it’s a stalemate! Trading forearms, a Lariat dumps Okada out, Ospreay running Kazu’s routine of the guardrail whip and Big Boot, a RUNNING CROSSBODY EATING A DROPKICK! Nailing a TOMBSTONE on the floor, Okada sets up a table at ringside before rolling Ospreay in, the MISSILE DROPKICK and AIR-RAID CRASH NECKBREAKER harping on the neck! ONE! TWO! THR-KICK OUT!
Wrenching the MONEY CLIP, it doesn’t get him far, a BRAINBUSTER catching Okada by surprise! SHOOTING STAR PRESS! ONE! TWO! THR-NO DICE! A PIP PIP CHEERIO eats a BEAUTIFUL DROPKICK, before Okada whips Ospreay at the corner, only for Will to pop him up onto the turnbuckles, slamming Kawada Kicks into his face! CHEEKY NANDOS! Ospreay tries for a LIGER BOMB through the outside table, but Okada drops to the apron! Will charges for a Yakuza Kick, but a LANDSLIDE BLOCKS!!! ONE! TWO! THR-OSPREAY STAYS IN!!!
Hammering the neck, Okada lunges for a RAINMAKER, though a SNAP CUTTER blocks! ROBINSON SPECIAL! Will winds up the CHELSEA GRIN, but it receives a slap and a JOHN WOO DROPKICK! A pair of Short-Arm Rainmakers ricochet off Ospreay, but a Rainmaker is feigned for a DDT! DIVING ELBOW DROP!!! ONE! TWO! THR-WILL KICKS OUT AGAIN!!! A TOMBSTONE is countered by knees, Ospreay whipping Okada at the ropes, Kazu countering a BACK BODY DROP OVER THE ROPES!!!
Will narrowly missing the table, Okada follows with a TOPE CON HILO… BUT OSPREAY MOVES OUT THE WAY, THE RAINMAKER EXPLODING THROUGH THE WOOD!!! Shoving Okada’s lifeless body inside, Ospreay sets up a HIDDEN BLADE!!! ONE! TWO! THR-NOOOOOOOOO!!! A STORM BREAKER is blocked, Okada nailing a sick CORNER GERMAN! Dropkick rocks Will, before the TOMBSTONE connects! RAINMAKER’s dodged, Ospreay rebounding into an OSCUTTER- DROPKICK!!! AND A RAINMAKERRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! ONE! TWO! THR-NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Okada keeps the wrist, going for seconds… OSPREAY NAILS A RAINMAKER OF HIS OWN!!! Wrist still held, Will nails close-range elbows to the neck, before winding up another HIDDEN BLADE- HEAVY RAIN!!! OKADA NAILS HIS OWN HIDDEN BLADE!!! Teasing the STORM BREAKER, Ospreay spins out, dumping Kazu with a LANDSLIDE!!! AND A HIDDEN BLADE… Okada collapses! As Will tries picking him up, a DROPKICK awaits! ANOTHER DROPKICK! AZTEC SUPLEX – A LA ULTIMO DRAGON!!! ONE! TWO! THR-KICK OUT!!!
Okada decks Ospreay with a RAINMAKER, but Will doesn’t go down fully, Kazu nailing a SECOND! Going for the Ripcord this time… RAINHAM MAKER!!! ONE! TWO! THR-OKADA KICKS OUT!!! ESSEX DESTROYER!!! ONE! TWO! THR-ANOTHER KICK OUT!!! Cracking a HIDDEN BLADE off Okada’s nose, an OSCUTTER follows, before he floats into a STORM BREAKER- FALLING RAINMAKERRRRRRR!!! ONE! TWO! THR-NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Okada smelling blood, he tries for another, AND A HIDDEN BLADE CONNECTS AT THE SAME TIME!!! Keeping hold, the two knock each other loopy with one free arm… OSCUTTER’S CAUGHT WITH A TOMBSTONE!!! Okada picks him back up, going for a SPINNING TOMBSTONE- OSPREAY REVERSES INTO A SPIKE PILEDRIVER!!! Ripcord… HIDDEN BLADE!!! AND A STORM BREAKER!!! Hoisting him up for one more… A SECOND STORM BREAKERRRRRRRRRRR!!! ONE! TWO! THREE!!!
Will Ospreay (c) def. Kazuchika Okada to retain the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (40:51)
HE’S DONE IT! OSPREAY’S FINALLY SURPASSED THE ACE ON HIS OWN STAGE! No longer is Okada himself anymore, but rather the Tanahashi to Ospreay’s Okada, the cycle continuing. And like his counterpart 9 years ago, Kazu leaves as empty-handed as he walked in for the first time in a decade, the times officially changing! And as sunlight washes over the Land of the Rising Sun, a new dawn is revealed. The dawn of the Ospreay Era.
Epilogue
Heading into 2025, NJPW is rife with changes, seeing more of the once Young Lion names step up as the likes of Tanahashi and Naito begin to slow down. CHAOS features a massive shakeup the following night as Shinsuke Nakamura returns, kickstarting his road to retirement, having been vocal in his interest of facing Tanahashi, proceeding to feud with Okada over his failures. As for Ospreay, his reign runs until Sakura Genesis, where one NJC Winner Katsuyori Shibata finally dethrones him 8 years on from his loss to Okada, though Will’s time with the title is far from over yet, remaining an integral part of the picture alongside ZSJ, Shingo, and more.

I’m just guessing this turns into a bit of a rant, so I’m sorry if it goes off the rails.
I’ve been single for a few years now, and I started to turn towards the gym to feel better about myself & be more attractive. I’ve dropped 40 lbs now, and I’m even close to having abs, but I find myself looking in the mirror and fixating on the flaws I have.
Even though I’ve been told that I’m handsome/attractive I’ve literally never in my life felt attractive. I have a sunken chest (pectus excavatum for those who know), a huge nose, and fat around my stomach that just won’t go away. I sit there and look in the mirror, and I can almost feel myself crying because of how I keep preserving myself. I keep looking at myself and thinking “if only I didn’t have my chest/nose/fat I would have a girlfriend”. I’m almost 30 at the end of the year, and I think about how I’m just going to die alone, and that everything I’ve worked for will be useless without a family to live through.
I feel like if I voice this to my friends/female friends that I’m just going “ohh can you just say I’m attractive please, I need the confidence boost”
I got a compliment on a shirt that I wore literally 6 years ago and have been wearing that to every date I’ve ever had (just a plain black shirt).
I was out at a bar a while ago for a friend’s birthday, and somehow we got on the topic of being hit on. I haven’t been hit on in years. I literally can’t think of when I was last hit on by girl. It just makes me feel more and more ugly.
I keep thinking “oh, if I just get hit on/stared at I know I’m attractive”, so I hyper fixate that if I’m walking in the store, out on a walk, etc that if I find someone staring at me then I’ll feel attractive. I know that’s not the ultimate measure of how to feel attractive, but at this point I’m so desperate for a compliment that I’m just fishing out for anyone to give me a second look.
I know this isn’t healthy, but this thought of dying alone thinking “what if” is just the single scariest thing to me. What if I just keep being this ugly thing walking around in life?
I know they when I’m talking to people I’m confident and outgoing, but it just feels like a mask where all I’m doing is covering up for my insecurities.
What can I do about this? I feel like everything above just confirms that I need to see a therapist, but I have an aversion to that just from a lot of “suck it up” upbringing. It just makes me want to cry more. I have a good life on paper, friends and family that care about me, a high paying job, but I keep coming to this ultimatum that none of it matters unless I get married & have kids. At the end of the day I’m going to die anyways, so that’s the ultimate end that I’m trying to desperately run away from, knowing that it’s to no avail.

I have been casually searching for at least a year, and I can't find (cheap) cbd edibles with a precise, very low dose of thc. Google just brings you to sponsored sites, and they're all way overpriced. Most people are looking for higher doses, so it's not a big market either. I've found where to get my affordable flower on reddit, so I thought I'd ask for this too.
Tldr: I want cheap, microdose thc preferably with cbd, and I'm in the States.
Update: I found alliant hemp on this sub, and they look great for microdosing. If anyone has an even more affordable company, I'd love it 😀 but until then, I'll just shop there.

I want to make a mod for a game using madeline's spritesheet, but when I downloaded a sprite rip for the game I found out she was bald...
Anyways, anyone know where I can find a spritesheet for madeline's hair? I know it can't actually be put into a sprite, but I'm at least looking for a recreation or something like that.

Starting in the middle of last semester I started experiencing mental health problems. I have ADHD, PTSD, Dysthymia, and probably symptoms of other disorders. I go to therapy and I've tried medications that haven't helped. I have a long back story but I'm not going to get into that, all I'll say is my sister died, my dad has stage 4 cancer, and I lost the only woman I ever truly loved. The aftermath of losing my sister and my ex have taken a toll.
Besides all that, I was coping really well and trying to heal with therapy and trying to find meds that might work with my doctor. I don't know what happened but starting a few months ago I started a downward spiral into what I can only describe as a mid-life crisis and a crisis of my spirit. I am lost. When I say lost, I mean it in it's truest definition. I'm lost mentally, spiritually, physically, and even kind of geographically (I really don't feel like I belong in the place where I live).
I feel like I've only ever made people's lives worse. I feel like my family members that love me only love me because they feel obligated to. I look at the people that used to be in my life and they are usually doing better than when I was a part of their life. Especially my ex. I've realized that I really don't like myself at all. In fact I hate me, I think I'm worthless and only make things harder or actively worse. I burden everyone I come in contact with even if they don't see it.
I'm so fucking tired of having to live through these thoughts and feelings everyday. Nothing seems to help and my everything in my life is suffering. I have genuinely tried to reach out for help and prioritize my mental health. I have tried to slowly make progress and expose myself to new situations. It helped for a bit but I've fallen back further than when I started. I don't recognize myself and I don't really know who I am anymore. I know it sounds selfish but I need someone to come help me because I am not capable of helping myself right now. It can't be any of my family because not only do they have their own lives, they're also part of my unresolved trauma. I'm scared, and alone, and I just want someone to give shit about me and have a solution. I don't know why I'm even posting this because it's never helped before (because it's just a screen to me), but I don't have any options.
I feel so disconnected from my heart and soul. The few people I used to go to for advice are gone. I don't want to exist like this anymore, I can't. It hurts too much and I feel like I can't access parts of my mind. I used to believe in things, the big one being love. Now I'm 29 and I feel like I'm unlovable. People say all the time that you have to work on yourself and learn to love yourself before you can love someone else. They say once you do that you'll naturally find someone to love. I tried every way I knew how to work on improving myself in the ways I could and accepting the things I couldn't change. I tried to love myself and yet here I am broken and alone. I know it sounds opposite from what most people think, but I just feel like it would be easier to learn how to love myself if I had someone that I could love. I loved my ex deeply, even if my love for myself wasn't there. It didn't end the way you probably think.
I don't know if this post will do help at all, and I'm pretty sure it won't do anything, but I like I said I'm out of options. I hate myself and all the morals and values I grew up with don't seem to exist in our society anymore. That or our society is ignoring them and letting them die. I don't know what's next but honestly it's getting dark. I feel like I'd be doing the world a favor by dying, and I wouldn't have to feel so much pain anymore. The people I think about when those thoughts pop into my head are starting to seem like a reason to do it instead of a reason not to. They're also don't have to cope with living with this pain. The biggest thing that holds me back from doing it is my doggo. He still needs me. I know I'm probably just seeing patterns where there are none, but it seems like everytime I run into something good, something happens to take it away.
Anyways, thanks if you made it this far. The song of hope may never stop, but at this point I can't hear it. That being said, I hope someday I can write something more uplifting on here if I'm still around.