Oh damn the Catholics have joined in on the war against AI "art".
what movie are they watching? (steve’s pick)
made me think of some of you <3
Something something, Richard Harrington bribes the school so Steve would graduate on time. Steve knows this, and hates this. The night of graduation, since he has no parties to go to, his parents are gone, and has no friends over 14, he goes up to the quarry ledge to have a drink, scream out some rage, and burn the stupid diploma that he didn't even really earn.
Eddie gets there as Steve is cursing bc the wind is too high, and the damn thing won't catch fire.
I like this idea of Steve having the thing that Eddie so badly wants, and placing no value in it.
Eddie wants the diploma. He wants to actually prove them wrong and graduate. Otherwise he wouldn't go back twice to keep trying. Honestly, after his first senior year, he's been fighting uphill with his teachers. They expect him to fail, so they subconsciously lower his grades. They're scoring him harsher, even when Eddie puts in the effort. Add in that Eddie has some subjects he struggles with, and/or has a hell of a time with tests, knows that, so he's working his ass off.
I want him to have asked for extra work when he got bad test scores. I want him to have gone to teachers that hated him, and halfway to begged them for the chance to up his grade. They refuse everytime, tell him he should have studied more. He wants it so damn bad, and every denial stokes the anger at the system, and the kids with a silver spoon.
While Steve got handed it even though he did fail. Even better, Steve has changed since S1. Pre-demogorgon, he would have taken the diploma without a trace of guilt. But this is a guy who looked at his life, and started shucking off who he was, and finding who he wants to be.
He knew back in March that he wasn't going to pass the classes and graduate. Maybe Nancy had shown him how to work out the grades he needed to get to a B before they broke up, so Steve was able to do the math in February. He's got head trauma, and can't tell anyone exactly what went down. His parent know he got into a fight, but aren't home enough to have seen just how much it fucked up his head.
Reading is almost impossible for him. He gets memory gaps, struggles to find the word he needs. Even when he does know the answers on a test, he can't find the guys name, could list off all kinds of details and could sketch out the portrait the teacher showed, but the name is missing.
Steve, especially after getting closer to Dustin, wants to graduate for real. He wants to actually do it, prove he's not an idiot, and earn it.
He made his peace with needing to repeat the year, was already bracing for the fallout with his family, planning how to tell the kids without Max feeling guilty. Then his dad bribes the school. Steve gets told after.
And that pairing of emotions is interesting to me. Steve who didn't deserve to graduate, but did. Eddie, who deserved to graduate, but failed.
Mostly enjoy this because it makes for a very specific meet-ugly.
EDDIE MUNSON APPRECIATION WEEK ♦ Day One: Favorite Scene(s) or Quote(s)
↳ Dungeon Master Eddie
I think that Steve would have a harder time dealing with the fact that Nancy cheated with Jonathan than he would with the fact that she cheated at all.
He grew up with an unfaithful father. He has heard the fights and the tears, and he has watched his dad say sorry and his mom forgive. That’s what happens. That’s what always happens. It’s just what you do.
He can forgive her for cheating.
But to cheat with Jonathan?
To cheat with the guy that he thought was kinda his friend, breaks him.
They weren’t best friends but Steve thought they were friends and that’s harder to reconcile because he grew up in a house where cheating was never the fault of the cheater.
It was the fault of the person you cheated with.
That’s the person that wants to ruin everything. They want to hurt you and he… well, he thought they were friends.
His name is Chris Gatlin. He’s a Black man. AI has, for years, been worse at recognizing Black people. Black activists have been speaking up for years about how police use of AI will perpetuate racism in the justice system.
The victim repeatedly told the police that he was not a reliable witness due to sustaining a head injury from the assault. On top of this, police pressured the victim into identifying Gatlin as the suspect, even though he had already identified two other suspects. It took 17 months police to finally hand over the bodycam footage, which they conveniently forgot to say existed in the first place. The case was dismissed soon after.
FedEx: shits on my box, stomps on my box, kicks it, dumps gasoline on it, throws one of my chickens into the back of the van
UPS: whispers at my front door “is anyone home” as quietly as possible before leaving a “we missed you!” note, tries to gaslight me into thinking my address doesn’t exist
USPS: sets my package down gently where it’s not visible from the road, knocks on the door and kisses me directly on the mouth
Is this…shipping discourse?
Amazon once threw a package at my door and then took a photo while it was midair. Not sure where that fits in this schema but I did want to tell y’all about it.
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