#greg paul

Allosaurus from the 1996 softcore porno Dinosaur Valley Girls.

The Samara is a vast network of fern prairie, grassland, and savanna that makes up much of the Democratic Republic of Samaraland. When I began writing the first Gondolend story that would go through entirely more rewrites and permutations than necessary and eventually become The Beasts of Kulig County it was mostly based on the flat open prairie of northeastern South Dakota, where I grew up.

But as time went on, and I fleshed out the area and its culture more, it became more inspired by parts of sub-Saharan Africa like Botswana and the Masai Mara.

There's still a bit of South Dakota there in how a lot of the local economy is based around ranching and agriculture, but now it has a much more African vibe.

The indigenous peoples who call the Samara home are also largely inspired by various sub-Saharan cultures.

Since I think body art is cool, a lot of Samara tribes practice various forms of traditional tattooing, scarification, and body painting, which combined with their often elaborate and colorful styles of clothing makes a visit to Samaraland a very visually interesting experience. Sort of like Wakanda from the MCU, but with more of a mid-to-late '90s technological level.

In terms of wildlife, a lot of the Samara's native fauna is based on the Jurassic Morrison and Tendaguru formations, with some Cretaceous animals thrown in as well.

(Art by John Conway.)

(Art by Greg Paul.)

(Art by Emiliano Troco.)

Of course, centuries of human habitation have taken their toll on the Samara's native wildlife, with many species being seriously threatened; in particular the kifokubwa, Torvosaurus, is almost extinct within Samaraland, though OutBarrier populations are, as far as anyone knows, doing just fine. In many parts of the Samara large theropod populations have been so severely depleted that the ratanga, a species of landcroc growing up to seven meters in length, has begun to occupy the niche of top predator.

Okay I’m gonna start by saying I’m shit with words and my brain may scatter so if everything seems unorganised in this, then uh, my bad guys.

Now, at the beginning of the series, I didn’t have much of an opinion on Jake Paul. I heard a few stories about him from them trending on social media but I never watched his videos or kept up with his drama. So needless to say, I was able to be pretty unbiased about the series.

Now, at the beginning Shane was learning about what it meant to be a sociopath. He was joined by Kati Morton who I genuinely thought did a horrendous job at explaining the symptoms. Not only did she come across extremely vague to a point where basically anyone could be considered a sociopath, but she also used words like “icky” and “gross” to describe them which was extremely unprofessional of her. Now, I understand she meant that empathetic people would hear about those traits and think the traits are gross but either way, as a professional she shouldn’t be offensive like that about mental disorders. If memory serves correctly, she did end up apologising but her apology, to me, seemed very forced and just not genuine at all. Anyway, you get the point. I don’t agree with the way she came across at all in the situation. As for Shane during that episode, he definitely put a horror vibe into things which didn’t bother me at all. He treated the series like he would any other series of his. I respect that. It made things more entertaining for those who have a hard time focusing and he meant no harm by it. Shane definitely got sociopaths and psychopaths mixed up a lot which is honestly something stupid for people to be mad about. It’s so common for people to mix those two things up and you could definitely tell Shane was doing his best to understand things.

Moving on, his interview with Nick Crompton. I have so much respect for that video. There were funny parts but it was serious when it needed to be. Nick was extremely respectful which I didn’t expect. He’s a very genuine and kind person. You could see that he was trying his best to word things properly and stay honest and respect privacy when needed. I don’t have too much to say about that video. Very professional and respectful.

Alissa Violet. She’s definitely one of the people I had the biggest problems with. She was hurt by Jake repeatedly. That’s undeniable. Their “relationship” was toxic and unstable and a majority of it was Jakes fault. However, one thing that annoyed me the most about her was when Shane asked her if there was anything she might have done wrong in the relationship. If there was anything that she did that could’ve harmed Jake or been toxic/unhealthy. Alissa completely avoided the question by immediately attacking Jake even more. I in no way think Jake is innocent and I’m not trying to justify his actions but Alissa definitely played a part in things that she just completely avoided. She was extremely unhelpful during the entire interview. She made herself seem 100% innocent and blamed alcohol on her actions which is just childish in my opinion.

Moving on to Ericka Costell. I think she is an amazing influence in Jakes life. I think she will be very good to him and make a huge impact on him in the long run. I don’t think she’s completely innocent either. She was friends with Alissa and when Alissa left, she started to date Jake which can cause problems for the friendship. I’m not saying it’s completely wrong to do that but I do think there should’ve been some communication to understand everyone’s feelings about that. Also, I think her song talking about how she isn’t “her”, which I assume is meaning Jakes ex, just seems super petty and immature. I think it was completely unnecessary. Other than that, I think she does her best to be a good person. She’s a little cocky but nothing too extreme.

This part of my opinion will probably upset a lot of people, but I in no way think Jake is racist. His drama with the Martinez twins is just super over dramatic and unnecessary. The Martinez twins never bluntly stated that Jakes jokes were upsetting them. They may have dropped hints about it, sure, but they never bluntly stated that that specific word was upsetting them. Don’t make racist jokes if you can’t handle people making racist jokes back. Don’t expect people to pick up on hints and then get mad when they can’t read your mind. The Martinez twins should have acted like adults and physically stated that the jokes were upsetting them and they shouldn’t have made racist jokes back. So in my opinion, they have no right to call Jake racist for jokes if they were doing the exact same thing.

Oh man, now moving on to Logan Paul. Logan overall was extremely disrespectful. He didn’t act professional. He also felt the absolute need to include himself in one way or another in the series which I just deemed as completely childish. I do NOT think Logan is a sociopath, not at all. I think his environment growing up playing a huge role in his mindset and attitude. I also think he got much more attention and got away with a lot more growing up so he no longer thinks that anyone has a right to tell him what is/isn’t okay. Overall I just think he’s an asshole who knows he’s an asshole but just doesn’t care as long as he’s deemed better than Jake. I believe Logan is extremely narcissistic (not NPD, just very cocky. I’m not sure what other words can describe him besides narcissistic and cocky).

Greg Paul. The father of the boys. He is DEFINITELY the worst person in this series. He is supposed to be an adult and a role model for his sons. He’s supposed to teach them right from wrong and never make one boy feel more loved than the other. I think he’s a terrible father. He supports his kids bad decisions and acts more childish than either boy. He raised his kids to be unhealthily competitive and, in a way, punished the kid who always “lost” in competitions which unfortunately just happened to be Jake. There genuinely way too much to even explain about Greg. He disgusts me as a human being and his kids deserved to be raised in a much better environment than what they were.

Jake Paul. Our main boy. I think Jake has done a LOT of horrible shit. Some of which can never be forgiven. The dead body? Unforgivable. The abuse? Unforgivable. Some things are just incapable of being forgiven. However, holding a grudge isn’t good either. He may not be forgiven for those things but they do not define him as a person either. I think Jake is super oblivious to A LOT of things. I don’t think he genuinely grasps the concept of right from wrong. I think over time he slowly becomes more aware and learns but not unless someone points it out to him and thoroughly explains it. There’s also no denying the fact that Jake is desperately trying to improve himself as a person. He hasn’t quite learned how to word things properly which seems to upset a lot of people but he’s doing his best and I respect that. Jake didn’t defend his actions and instead, he explained his mindset and took blame like an adult. He may not have worded it properly but the intention was obvious that he was trying to own up to his mistakes. I think overtime he will improve a lot in life and become a much better person, I just hope he gets more positive influences in his life and I hope one day he is capable of understanding his dad and brother are toxic to be around and Jake needs to express boundaries with them. I may not be overly fond of Jake but I respect the person he’s trying to become.

Shane. I can’t believe I even have to talk about Shane in this, but apparently he’s getting a lot of hate as well. First and foremost, SHANE DID NOT CONDONE RACISM. Shane made the series to get everyone’s point of view and let them tell their side of the story. He has no intention of attacking anyone or invalidating them. Anyone who is mad saying Shane was allowing racism, you’re being over dramatic. Shane let Jake tell his side of the story. Shane wasn’t there to be biased and rude. Jokes are jokes. Offensive or not, that doesn’t make them “not jokes” just because you don’t find them funny. In multiple videos, Jake AND the Martinez twins made racist jokes towards each other. I dont want to hear any “you can’t be racist towards white people” shit cause that’s just plain ignorant and annoying. You can be racist towards any race. Shane had pure intentions and meant no harm by anything. He has my full respect and he put a lot of time and effort into making this series. He doesn’t deserve this unnecessary hate people are giving him. I have no respect for those who create drama in their minds just to pretend to be oppressed.

This episode puts a lot of things into persepctive with as to why Jake is the way he is.  It shows that Logan and Jake’s rivalry has been ingrained in them since they were young and they were taught that competition is what makes you stronger.   Their rivalry is aggravated by the fact that they have the same job and all eyes are on them constantly.  Maybe Jake feels inferior to Logan as Logan always seems to get the spotlight regardless of whatever reason.  Logan does have a tendency to make things about him.  He made a response to Shane’s series, in which he was very hypocrtical by saying Shane is scaring his fans even though he filmed a dead body and pretended to get shot in front of his fans and even contradicts himself.  He DMs Shane telling him he thinks the series is incredible but then goes on a rant about it in a video.  Logan just doesn’t seem to be able to let things be and just let Jake have a moment that’s just his.

As for the boy’s parents.  It seems that Greg is very over bearing and gets too involved in his sons’ lives.  Pam is more of a wild card because either what Shane said about her wanting to just have “a thing” is true or she is very aware of how her videos are perceived by the public and doesn’t care.  There are two big things that were brought up in this video I want to mention though.