(no subject)
I love Christiane Amanpour. She is wonderful.
Also; stop what you are doing right now, and go out and buy The Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Someone else has reviewed it far better than I could on Amazon. Read this book. Even if you don’t know anything about Africa or African history, or if you think any book pertaining to Africa is too heavy or depressing for you, read this book. Seriously. It is important that you read this book.
When you’re done reading that, go buy The Gone-Away World for a palate cleanser. Is awesome, is fun. Yes.
When the circus comes to town
G1 cartoon
Watching Thundercracker give a speech is something else, and explains quite a bit about why Megatron keeps him around.
H’s got the Lower Western Cybertronian accent that makes all this words seem slow and thoughtful to anyone who isn’t from the Western region. His face isn’t as handsome as Skywarp’s but it’s compelling. His face isn’t as expressive as Starscream’s, but his words sound so sincere that no one notices. Even though the audience is entirely Decepticons, and they all know he’s lying, they don’t care. They appreciate someone who can lie so well. Posterboy Thundercracker, perfect mascot. Not a god-figure like Starscream; not a third-rater like the Coneheads.
His voice wavers as he talks about their future generations. It cracks when he gets to the part that he and Skywarp spent all last night writing up; all about the galaxy’s endless beauty, and how it should all belong to them. Nothing substantial. These are grunts, not politicians. Just more warbling about the strength of the Decepticon spirit, how they shine as an example to all other races, and, of course, all that glory that the Decepticons just keep on and on accumulating.
It’s brain candy to listen to. The only person Skywarp knows who can do this better is, believe it or not, Frenzy. Except he pulls it off with an Eastern regional accent, and a scarcely-daring-to-hope, c’mon-guys-let’s-do-this voice that makes everyone in the audience want to cuddle the destructive nutbucket. Megatron never sends him out to motivate the Seekers, because only other Seekers (and Megatron) can motivate Seekers. But Frenzy’s the media darling of anyone who never got lucky enough to have wings; the short-but plucky, determined little spitfire who never gives up and always gives his all for the good of the empire, by golly.
And when Frenzy’s speechifying, Rumble stands at the back, just like Skywarp is now, and fills the roll that Skywarp is filling. Smirking. Glowering. Stretching to expose his long, gleaming guns, or, in Rumble’s case, long, gleaming pile drivers. He’s the bad cop, crowd control. His job is remove from the ranks of the living anyone who raises a question, shouts and insult or tries to leave before Thundercracker is done talking. Such people are weak of conviction, empty of the true Decepticon spirit, and they’re all better off without them.
Most of the crowd hasn’t even noticed him yet. They’re too captivated by Thundercracker.
It is all very droll- ironic, he thinks, because he tries to follow their leader's example in all things- because Thundercracker believes barely a word of what he’s saying.
And Skywarp loves him like a brother, but he will shoot him like a dog if any of that comes through before the weekly rabble rousing is over.
Untitled
Armada
Smokescreen hates that Scavenger turned out to be the good guy. He doesn’t hate that Scavenger turned out to be an Autobot; if Scavenger hadn’t turned out to be an Autobot, they would all be in very hot water.
But he hates that Scavenger turned out to be a brave, trustworthy, forgiving guy. It’s playing hell with his preconceptions. In Smokescreen’s world, spies, mercenaries and moles aren’t good guys.
But he’s apologised, and he means it, so he tries to make up.
When he tries to polish Scavenger’s Minicon for him, he gets told to ‘Leave Rollbar alone, he’s only letting you do that to be polite.’
When he tries to tidy Scavenger’s quarters for him, he gets told, “No, I do not want you touching my things. They’re private.”
When he tries to fix Scavenger’s leg after battle, he gets told, “Thanks, but I can do that myself. Yes. Really.”
But when he gives Hot Shot a smack on the head and says ‘Listen to your teacher! What are you, stupid?’ he gets a smile, and he thinks he’s figured Scavenger out.