Things that happened yesterday when I went to a halloween haunt and amusement park for 12 hours straight while dressed as the 11th Doctor
- Many said the fit was dapper 😎
- Lady operating a rollercoaster, over the intercom, asked me and my sister “If she’s a pirate, then who are you?” I replied “The Doctor.”
“Just ‘The Doctor?’” It took me everything not to giggle. When the ride was over she asked “How was the ride, Doctor?” “Very good.” “I concur.” She was peak. Also made everyone say OOH-WHOOP every time she sent a ride out.
- The haunt starts. There are scare actors walking around. The first clown that comes up to me, asks “Are you Grunkle Stan?”
I threw my fez to the pavement laughing. I pulled a sonic screwdriver from my jacket and he goes “Oh, what are you gonna do? Erase my memory or something with that?” Me and my friends walked away giggling, while I sulked in defeat.
Right after this, we go to a haunted house and the lady at the entrance is the first to recognize my costume after being at the park for 7 hours.
My response, of course, is; “I could kiss you on the mouth right now- but I wont.” She told me about how she gave her husband a fear of statues when making him watch the show.
- We walk through a graveyard-decorated tunnel. There is an actor disguised as a statue. I dont think I need to explain what happened. But somehow, they got me.
- Going through a cornmaze. An actor in a scary corn husk costume starts making spooky noises as we walk past, but broke character and went “Oh! Doctor who!” Me and my friends cheered as we carried on.
- Towards the end, walking through the same clown area, a pair of creepy twin clowns marches past me and my sister. One jumps at us as they walk past and yells “THE DOCTOR!” and we both got jumpscared.
All in all, very fulfilling. Reminder to all nerds to cosplay the SHIT outta halloween. It was so fun. Would go back if I wasn’t poor and very tired and need to work/school.
When it was first confirmed that Joe Locke was going to have a role in Agatha All Along, most fans quickly came to the conclusion that he would be portraying Billy Kaplan AKA Wiccan which unfortunately ended up being correct.
The problem with that casting you ask?
Joe Locke isn’t Jewish and he is playing one of Marvel’s most prominent Jewish characters. Whilst many goyim (non-Jewish people) often inaccurately perceive Jewishness to solely be a religious identity which is a massive oversimplification of what it means to be a Jew. Jewish people are an ethnoreligious community which means that we’re our own distinct ethnic group and culture that have a traditional religion that is intrinsically tied to our identity and culture regardless of individual Jewish people’s levels of observance.
And because we are an ethnoreligious group, that makes the casting of Joe Locke, who is not ethnically or religiously Jewish, inherently problematic to say the least, especially when placed into the wider context of Jewish representation in the MCU.
Marvel Studios has previously been criticised for the way that it’s approached adaptations of Jewish characters for the MCU with the two main examples being casting Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, who is Romani and Jewish in the comics, and Oscar Isaac as the Ashkenazi Jewish Marc Spector in the Moon Knight streaming series and in both cases, the heritage of the characters were either downplayed or just outright erased. So for anyone who understands the issue, it should be clear that the MCU has a poor track record when it comes to representing Jewish characters and that Agatha All Along’s adaptation of Billy Maximoff/Kaplan is just another addition to the list of disrespectful adaptations of Jewish characters.
Well, in order to answer that question, the answer has to effectively be split into two parts:
In the most recent episode of Agatha All Along, we finally learn the backstory of Billy (who had previously only been referred as “Teen” due to a spell that prevented his identity from being found out) and as part of that, we are shown a flashback to the day of Billy KAPLAN’s (the capitalisation will make sense in a bit), Bar Mitzvah, a sacred Jewish ritual that marks the transition into adulthood and the responsibilities that comes with being a Jewish adult. In this flashback, Billy (who if you’ve payed attention, is being played by a non-Jew) is shown wearing traditional religious garments and handling what is potentially an actual Torah scroll.
Within Judaism and Jewish culture in general, handling a Torah and then reading from it is seen as both a great honour and responsibility for any Jew who is called for an Aliyah so seeing a non-Jewish actor who has no experience as a Jewish person and in interviews, has mocked fans who criticised his role in the show, wearing my culture and religion as a costume to advance his career just felt wrong to me. I love Marvel and I take great pride in superhero comics being an art form that was created by Jewish immigrants so seeing one of the biggest franchises in history cast a non-Jewish actor to appropriate Jewish culture just felt disgusting to me. At least with Moon Knight, all we got was the smallest references to his Jewish heritage rather than being subjected to seeing the christian Oscar Isaac partake in sacred closed rituals.
And now, moving onto the second part of the answer to the above question, after we see Billy reading from the Torah and are then shown the party following the ceremony, we learn that the flashback takes place concurrently with the final episode of WandaVision. Because of that, the party has to end early so that guest can evacuate and soon, Billy and his parents are in a car accident where Billy dies…
…until his body is quickly revived after the soul of Wanda and Vision’s artificially constructed son, Billy MAXIMOFF possesses and takes control of Billy Kaplan’s body whilst erasing everything that made Billy Kaplan who he was. The reason why this is especially problematic is because of the great importance of the soul within Judiaism. According to Jewish laws, one of the most important things that distinguishes Jewish people from goyim is a Jewish soul and in Agatha All Along, one of the main protagonist who is an adaption of a Jewish character who was created by a Jewish writer is reimagined as a non-Jewish soul that hijacks the corpse of a Jewish teenager to use as a meat puppet. It becomes even worse when later on in the episode, “Billy” is shown rejecting his identity as Billy Kaplan which effectively takes the undertones of ethnic erasure and cultural appropriation of Joe Locke’s casting and makes it an essential part of the characterisation for this incarnation of Billy.
In the Marvel Comics, Billy Kaplan is a proud queer Jewish man who was partially based on the lived experiences of his creator who is also a gay Jewish man. Becuase of that, he holds a special place in the hearts of many fans who see a piece of ourselves in him and we deserved to see the really Billy Kaplan be brought to life in a way that would honour the source material that we love and introduce mainstream audiences to a really cool and fascinating Jewish superhero who can open up so many possibilities for the more supernatural side of the Marvel Universe to be explored in further MCU instalments.
But instead, we got the bare minimum of Jewish representation followed by the complete erasure of that “representation” with the ultimate end product being a show riddled with the underlying rot of antisemitism.
Just found out one community association near me has a community toy library. Basically a community toy store where you sign out toys like you would library books.
And it really woke up how badly I want a library economy.
Cosmetic libraries in place of salons and make up stores- sign out hair accessories or jewlery, sign up for a haircut/makeup day with a vollunteer that you mesh with, etc..
Toy libraries to replace toy stores, holidays and birthdays now bring you down to borrow bikes and stuffed animals that have been loved by others, to borrow dolls and dollhouses and their endless closests and accessories.
Craft libraries filled with sewing machines and looms and supplies to make things, classes to learn how to do it, making clothes for friends never been so easy because the endless amount of patterns available. The craft clubs that would bloom from it. The ceramics and painting and welding art that could come out of it if we just all had time and access.
Engineering and woodworking libraries. We could be living in a real animal crossing Era of furniture! The weird and cool lighting and other oddities that would come from it!
Clothing libraries that are busy during the season change but also regular shopping. I dont use this dress I love anymore so I'll return it to the library and get something in this new color pallet for myself.
Kids libraries that yes, filled with toys but also cribs, highchairs, walkers, jumpers, pumps, bottles, cups, etc.. things that kids use less then a year at a time and never really get fully used before passing it onwards. Oh to be able to borrow a well loved crib or rocking chair for your newborn
“how is annabeth head of athena cabin” have you ever met an autistic 12 year old girl. she’s running that shit like the navy
Now is the time to create.
Musicians, artists, writers, use this anger and injustice to fuel your creations and encourage change.
Songs have been rallying cries, banksy's art is known all over, books and articles have told stories of rebellions
Create
ok
My friend was just telling me about how he was the head of the Jewish Student Union at his high school. And I was nodding along until I remembered-
“Josh- didn’t you go to a school where there was no other Jews??”
He then very grudgingly admitted he was both the president, student body and only member of the JSU. All because he wanted to find a way to complain about all the bullshit that was happening.
best 10th doctor description ever
Donna boo this you?