Mad Men - Blog Posts

Momento para apreciar a este hombre 🛐

(Cualquier momento es perfecto para apreciar a este hombre)

Peter is homie

Or he could punch everyone!

Controversial Post

Good morning, afternoon, or evening to those reading this.

This will be a controversial post, so please grab your pitchforks and hold on to your keyboards.

Many people like to point out fictional characters that many viewers idolize, despite the creators pointing out that said characters are not good role models. The most mentioned characters are Don Draper from Mad Men, Walter White from Breaking Bad, and The Joker from Joker.

However, movies and TV shows about middle-aged men are not the only sources of media that feature characters who are poor role models but receive a lot of worship from fandoms.(please excuse my use of passive voice). Many Disney films and TV shows, which are typically about high school and college-aged girls, feature main or supporting characters who are poor role models but are idolized by their fandoms. These are broad statements, so I will not name names. I am solely generalizing.

This was inspired by @dani-luminae 's post comparing Mal Bertha and Elsa of Arendelle. I recently re-blogged the post.

The majority of the featured characters are from films, but a few are from TV shows and TV movies. If you would like to add any more, please do so by replying or re-blogging.

At the top of my head, I have listed Mal and Audrey from the Descendants franchise.

Next, jumping to the Encanto fandom is Isabela Madrigal and maybe(emphasizing maybe) Dolores Madrigal.

So much collateral damage. Thankfully this scene takes place in a small town(nothing against small towns. I am from a small town myself), and if it took place in an urban area, the scene would look like the aftermath of an Avengers movie.

Lastly, since this post is getting too long, is another magical big sister, Elsa of Arendelle from Frozen(Same w/ the girlies from Encanto above: being a bad sister, plus, and mainly, collateral damage).

Yes, all of the ladies I mentioned above are b*d*ss*s, and do display some positive personality traits and engage in prosocial behaviors. However, despite that, they are not good role models in universe, as IRL, they would be felons, and their family members and friends may limit contact with them.

There is nothing wrong with sympathizing with any of the characters above. There is nothing wrong with relating to the characters above. There is nothing wrong with liking the characters above. However, you can sympathize with, relate to, or even like the characters above while simultaneously recognizing them as poor role models in universe and IRL.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day or night to read my very controversial post, and please be kind and polite in your replies and re-blogs.

To anyone who read my entire blog post, and have a great day or night.

Casablanca (1942) dir. Michael Curtiz

Thinking about…

Gojo has been gone on missions and such for a while. Only time he comes home is to sleep or get patched up by you so he could spend time with you. But you get tired of his absence and…

Context: Gojo is gone for weeks at a time. You’re lonely. You decide to break up with him and leave.

Warnings: angst, reader is alone a lot, brief mention of Mad Men, break ups, possessive Gojo, he a lil crazy bout you, almost car wreck??, hurt w comfort, good ending.

Wc: 1,557

A/n: it’s not as sad or wild as it seems I think. Also mad men is a dope show, but all the men in the show fucking suck?? Also. How do I make the title all colorful but like gradient like? Those are dope.

Breaking up with Gojo was not easy. You loved him so much, and he was the man you wanted to marry, spend your life with, have kids with and everything. But he was always gone now a days. Always.

For weeks, days, he was gone for three weeks last time. It was all too much. You missed him, and were tired of feeling alone.

It was lonely in his house. Always wearing his clothes because it smelt like him, burying your face in his pillow. It was all you really had.

You knew dating the world’s strongest wouldn’t be easy. But it was starting to feel impossible. You missed him so much, and half the time he didn’t even respond to your messages. Too busy for you.

You missed your job, and having to deal with shitty, annoying strangers, messy coworkers, and getting off late. At least you were busy then. Back in the earlier stages of your relationship, Gojo had begged you to quit your job so you could be with him more. He kept going on and on about how he could easily provide for the two of you, and it wouldn’t leave a dent in his bank account.

At first it was fine, amazing even, not having to work. Or get up early, stay late, deal with shit that made your mind ache. But you didn’t think about if Gojo wasn’t there.

All of the loneliness and angst that was building up in the empty space that was your and your lovers home was beginning to turn to anger. Anger and so many other negative emotions that Gojo promised you wouldn’t be feeling with him.

So after an entire pizza, a season of Mad Men, and a cup of chocolate milk, you decided it was time. It was time to leave because you were losing your damn mind, worrying constantly about Gojo, the loneliness, the having legit nothing to fucking do.

So, you began packing your things. You grabbed your clothes, your plushies, your shoes, your make up, face and hair products, even the little shit. You made sure everything that was yours was gone from his house, and packed in your car.

Glancing around, just to be petty, you deleted your Netflix profile. Gojo loved to use yours instead of his own, only god knows why. Meaning all his progress on the unfinished shows were gone.

With a huff, you wrote a note. Simply stating you were tired of being alone and feeling alone in this relationship. Ending it with an i love you, and hope you do well in the future.

And like that, you got in your car and began to drive.

Half an hour later, the front door to the house opens. “Baby I’m home.” Gojo called out, sounding tired and pretty damn drained. “You will not believe how much I fucking missed you.” He sighed, and put down the pizza he’d gotten on the way home for you both on the counter.

“Baby?” Gojo looked around, and noticed how much shit was missing. How much of you was missing. “Babe come out, I’m too tired for this, just wanna hug you.” Followed by silence.

Gojo glared at nothing in particular and huffed. Quickly, he walked into your and his bedroom, and paused. All of your stuff was gone. And there was a note on the bed.

Anger and frustration was replaced by a deep sense of fear and anxiety in the pit of his stomach. Slowly, he picked up the note. And oh, he never knew how much a few words on a sheet of paper could hurt so much.

It wasn’t just mental pain, it was physical pain. Pain that had him grabbing his chest to try and stop it. Swallowing thickly, he quickly looked at his phone, and saw that you still had your location on.

“…fuck this.” Sadness and loss turned to anger and possessiveness. “Yeah fuck this shit.”

He worked too damn hard, and spent too much time dealing with curses, elders, people in general, for the one source of his happiness to be gone.

So, he got in his car, and immediately skidded out of the driveway. No doubt breaking every damn traffic law, speeding to reach your car.

Tears ran freely down your cheeks, cliche sad music played from your stereo, a sonic blast sat in your cup holder as you ate cheese sticks and drove the car with your knee.

You felt pathetic. All these nasty thoughts nipped at your mind. You had no idea Gojo had even came back to the house. You’d expected it’d take him a few more days.

But you were NOT expecting, was a very familiar car racing up to yours and cutting in front of you, only to hit the breaks making you gasp and slam on your breaks.

You had to swerve off the road and into some empty parking lot. Eyes wide, heart racing, you noticed the other car pull in as well. Quickly getting out, you were fuming. “What the fuck is wrong with you?! Are you fucking cr-“

The front door slammed open, revealing none other than your boyfriend, or ex boyfriend rather. He looked pissed. Angrier than you’d ever seen him.

“Gojo-“ you tried to get the words out, but he’d backed you against your car roughly. Pinning you there and glaring down at you, blindfold hanging around his neck.

“Don’t fucking call me that.” He snapped, voice low. “A fucking letter? Are you serious?”

You swallowed thickly, looking up at him with wide eyes. Your heart jumped at the sight of him. Not injured, and safe from his mission but oh so furious. “…why- how did you find me?” You whispered, your voice breaking despite trying to sound more confident.

“You left your location on.” He spoke blankly, his eyes never leaving yours. “Why. Fucking explain it to me like I’m five.” Gojo’s head ducked down a bit, forcing you to keep eye contact with him.

“I-I-“ The words refused to leave. Your brows furrowed as tears began to boil up. Why was it so hard to say it when it was so easy to write it? “Y-you- I- I’m tired of being… alone. You’re always gone, always. And I’m left to worry about you.” However the more you spoke, the more those past angry feelings rose up. “You told me to quit my job for you and I did! Only for you to just leave all the fucking time! You don’t even respond half the time, and when you with me you’re always exhausted or hurt!”

Gojo felt himself pause. Sure, what you were saying was on the letter, but he didn’t process it. All he really noticed was ‘breaking up’ and ‘have a happy life.’ So hearing this from you had him pull back slightly.

He didn’t mean to hurt you, didn’t mean to make you feel alone. Gojo Satoru only thought about you when he was away, and only ever really spoke about you. He loved you, and to hear you felt like this… well… it didn’t change much.

You were still his. Yeah, his chest hurt knowing he’d hurt you. But he was not letting you walk out of his life like that. No fuck that.

“I’m sorry.” His expression softened and his hands moved to cup your cheeks. “I’m so so so sorry. I didn’t realize I was leaving you alone like that. Baby believe me, all I think about is you. Every breath I take is so I can come home to you.” His forehead pressed against yours.

Your breath was shaky as you quieted down, eyes closing as his forehead pressed against yours. God, all that anger and resentment was gone just like that. It made you want to be more angry, but you just couldn’t.

Not when he was talking so sweetly to you, body pressed against yours. You’d missed him so much, and this was the first time in a while that you two really talked. Like really talked.

“Come home. I’ll take off work. The elders can go fuck themselves and send someone else to do their shit.” He murmured, lifting his head and wrapping his arms around your waist. “Don’t leave me, please… I’ll do better, I can’t lose you.”

Your heart melted at his words and you felt yourself swoon. However, before you could even say yea, he’d picked up and thrown you over his shoulder. “Oh my god- Gojo!”

“Ah.” He huffed, and landed a harsh slap to your ass. His hand rubbed over the area he slapped however to soothe the sting. “That is not what you call me. Go on, what do you call me sweet girl?”

You felt your cheeks burn red, eyes a little wide. “Satoru…”

“Good girl.” He praised with a grin.

“Wait- hey! I didn’t say I’d come back damn it!” You squirmed in his grasp, trying to get down. He however had other plans.

“You think you ever had the choice? That’s cute babe.” He smiled, his hand moving from rubbing gently to squeezing. “You are mine, and so is this ass.”

Your relationship was by no means perfect, but he loved you. Of course, he had never planned to let you go, even if you wanted to leave. :)

Guys this was bad. Omfg I got so lost in this- but why not post it??😟…

You will be okay.

I see a lot of people talking about the Mad Men finale in a cynical sense. They see it as the punch-line culminating from seven years of build-up; one of the longest, cruelest shaggy dog jokes ever told. Without sounding too stand-offish, I think this is absolutely the wrong way to view the finale and that is does a great disservice not so much to the writers or the show itself, but to Don.

The ending is one that is immediately a little polarising, but once given time to digest most people agree that it really does just click. The reading I’m so opposed to is the idea that “after all that Don just made an ad! Haha! People never change” in regards to the series ending with the iconic Hilltop Coke ad, after Don has a huge emotional breakthrough.

The thing is, to take this view (like many people have, from random tumblr users to Wired), you have to completely ignore the kind of man Don is. The question of Don’s character has been at the centre of the show since it’s very first season, and has been examined in so many ways that it makes the conversation hard to ever really finish, and harder still to begin. However, there is one thing about Don that I will always believe, that has been supported by the show since the very beginning;

Don is a man who believes in a pure ideology. He wants to connect with people and he wants the best for them.

Now, does this mean Don is morally sound? No, he’s actually anything but. He cheats on his spouses, he’s not really a great Dad and he is prone to being unreliable. Despite all that, Don beliefs have always been idealistic, lofty and sincere. That is what makes the character so wonderful to talk about, and at the same time makes him so incredibly tragic: he is a man whose weaknesses constantly betray his own morality.

Don may be cynical, but he really, really doesn’t want to be. Rachel calls him on this way, way back in season one, when he gives his “born alone, die alone” speech. She see’s through it immediately, and it catches him off guard. One of the things I’ve always adored about the show is its incredible level of humanity, and even seemingly casual interactions can be incredibly powerful character moments when this is properly utilised.

This lack of cynicism goes doubly for advertising. Think about it; how many times has he brow-beaten Peggy (and everyone else who works under him) for being phony in her work? For not being sincere?

Don doesn’t want to sell you a product; he wants to sell you a feeling that he associates with a product. Why is Don so passionate about this? Why is this what Don wants to sell? Simply put, it’s because it’s a way to connect. Connection has always been what Don has ached for.

Why did Don leave his new place of employment? Well, because he didn’t belong there. That was a place where Ivy League ad gurus sat around a table and talked about the demographic they were after while taking notes like they were studying for an exam. It was a place where the product they were selling was their ability to sell a product.

This not the place for Don. Don, who used his own life and pain to demonstrate the value of the carousel. This is the man whose first experience with love was being given a Hershey bar, which he would eat alone in his room and pretend to be normal. Maybe this is sad to you, but to Don it’s real.

With this in mind; think about what the Coke ad Don apparently creates is about; a collection of people, of all genders, races and ages, united together by a common product. This is the image Don envisions for a product that, hand to God, used to have vending machines that said “White Customers Only” (that’s right, Coke had honour-based racist vending machines). A product that isn’t even mentioned until 20 seconds into the commercial. What Don wants to sell you is the feeling that when you sit down and drink a Coke, you’re drinking it with a million other people all over the world. There’s a reason it’s the most successful commercial of all time. It may look schmaltzy, cheap or silly today, but at the time it was something people genuinely wanted to hear. Don doesn’t want you to know how great this sugar water tastes, he doesn’t want you to know that it’s better than a competing brand, or even cheaper; he wants you to feel what he feels.

And what did he feel? Well, his epiphany in that episode came when Leonard, seemingly the opposite of Don, gave a speech that rocked Don to his core. He told a story of loneliness, or worthlessness and of the desire to be loved. And Don understood. So much so that he hugged this man, who he had never met, and wept. He knew the answer to the question he repeatedly asked Peggy only a few episodes ago. Don wants to sit down with the world and buy it a Coke. It’s really what he’s always wanted.

Mad Men was always a show about introspection. To think that the show’s final moments wouldn’t reflect this is an incredible oversight, and to think that Don changes for the worse in the very last moments of the show is doing him a huge disservice.

The Hilltop ad is about empathy. It is Don, realising that not only is he not special, but neither are his worries. The way Jon Hamm played the scene supports this; he realises who he is. He is an ad man, he is a human being, who wants to connect to other human beings, and that want is ubiquitous. Don does not just “come up with a great ad”, because ads were never that cheap to him. He finds a way to communicate the feeling of profound empathy he felt the previous day, when he and Leonard were both people, together, in the only way he knows how; an ad.

Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you're doing is Okay. You are Okay.

Goodbye to one of the greatest shows of all time, and thank you for the beautiful send-off. You are not alone. You will be okay.

LILITH VEERS

Finished watching Mad Men for the first time or as I have renamed it The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Prince

Masculine Edge

1. Craftsman 1470pc Professional Tool Set

Ferrari via GQ

Kitchen via Erin Martin Projects

Tom Dixon Lights

Miles Redd Kitchen

Todd Romano Living Room

Italian Style via The Sartorialist

Men's Dressing Room

Tom Kundig Pool and Gym via AD

Martin Gee Apartment

Office Source Unknown

1938 Alfa Romeo's Lungo Touring Coupe

Gio Ponti Blue Diamond Living Room

Denver Art Museum North Building by Gio Ponti

Gio Ponti

Francisco Costa Apartment Via AD

Miles Redd Bedroom

Mad Men's Don Draper

Pinstripe Arm Chair via Inside Man Apartment Therapy

1963 Aston Martin DB5 via GQ

Pinstripe and Silver Via Apartment Therapy

Douglas Friedman Office Space

Roman & Williams Living Room Elizabeth NYC

Roman & Williams Black and Caramel Kitchen Elizabeth NYC

Roman & Williams Office NYC

Hank Azaria Dressing Room via AD

Hank Azaria Office/ Games Room Via AD

Kitchen via Apartment Therapy

AMC's Rubicon TV Show

Rakovsky Loft via Anima

Restoration Hardware Aviator Office

Ryan Gosling via GQ

Tom Kundig Living via AD

Lane & Joan  +  t o u c h

“… I’m terribly adrift without you…”