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 King of the Nerds is a reality competition show on TBS in which 12 "nerds" of various disciplines compete for the title of King (or Queen, seeing as both of the previous winners were women). It's hosted by Curtis Armstrong and Robert Carradine, who are probably best known for their roles in the Revenge of the Nerds films. It really sounds like it would be a pretty ridiculous and insulting show for anyone who actually considers themselves nerdy, but personally I've really enjoyed both seasons. I don't generally like to watch reality tv, but this show is actually a lot of fun. They keep it very light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek, resulting in a reality competition that is really unlike any other. The show has suffered from having both a controversial finale in season one, and a lackluster winner in season two. Despite this, it's still worth watching. The season premiere is officially on Friday, January 23rd, but Twitch hosted a sneak preview of the first thirty minutes. It appears to be gone now, unfortunately. But I think it's already better than the first episodes of the previous seasons. Things are switched up for the better. They just jump right into the competition, instead of wasting time picking teams. Also Booger is naked at one point. The Contestants  Ori, 22 – "Larper" – Silver Spring, Md. – Ori puts in 110% to all of his nerdy exploits, with a primary focus on live-action roleplay, mentoring robotics teams and trying to survive as a mechanical engineering student. He also watches "a metric crap-ton" of anime and enjoys excessively bad puns. Lily, 22 - Cosplayer Lily has a degree in developmental psychology and elementary education. While she is a proud trekkie and browncoat, Lily thinks Westeros and Middle Earth are pretty shiny, too. The perfect "girl nerd next door," she enjoys tabletop tournaments, marathons of PC gaming, competitive cosplay and conventions. Kaitlin, 26 – "NASA Engineer" – Redwood City, Calif. – Kaitlin is a native Californian who loves the outdoors, the sunshine and the beach. While those aren't usually appealing to nerds, Kaitlin makes up for it with a doctorate in mechanical engineering, work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a voracious reading appetite. Jonathan, 28 – "Mathematician" – Tempe, Ariz. – Jonathan is a professional mathematician, with a PhD in Industrial Engineering, who uses his analytical skills to save businesses millions of dollars. In his spare time, he plays board games and video games. He's also married to a fellow math addict. Jacob, 25 – "Quiz Master" – Oakland, Calif. – Jacob is an avid devourer of all nerdy media and is especially passionate about comic books and speculative fiction television. He participates in comedy shows all over the Bay Area and professionally writes bar trivia. His other obsessions include animation, comedy and finding good karaoke bars. Heather, 24 – "Neuroscientist" – Denver, Colo. – Heather is a neuroscientist by day and fandom queen by night who prides herself in being well-versed in many areas of nerd culture. Having entered the online fandom for Harry Potter over 15 years ago, it remains a central part of her existence. Additionally, she runs a critical television analysis blog, participates in the international competitive scavenger hunt GISHWHES and spends all of her free time and money on attending conventions and constructing costumes. Colby, 30 – "Jeopardy! Champ" – Chicago, Ill. – Colby is a world history teacher and quiz bowl coach. He's also a big-time Jeopardy! champion who took home $375,000 for two tournament wins on the series. Ben, 29 – "Marine Biologist" – Los Angeles, Calif. – Ben is a postdoctoral researcher studying microbial genomics in deep-sea environments. He considers himself a super nerd whose hobbies include competitive and non-competitive tabletop games. He also has a Star Wars-themed kitchen and Harry Potter-themed bathroom. Amanda, 24 – "Bookworm" – Gilbert, Ariz. – Amanda is a paralegal who enjoys steampunk, debating and playing the flute. She also has her own book blog and sells comic book-inspired apparel through her successful online boutique. Plus she's married with two kids. Thomas, 21 – "Brony" – Huntington Beach, Calif. – Thomas is a Brony, the term for a guy who is a fan of My Little Pony. He's also Star Wars junkie with a fairly large Lego collection that takes up a good amount of his living space. In addition, he's into video games like Star Wars: The Old Republic, StarCraft II and Fallout. And he's an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. Raychelle, 27 – "Gamer" – Springfield, Mo. – Raychelle, the self-proclaimed master of all things nerdy, is best known for her works with cosplay and video gaming. Her passions also include anime, manga, comics, horror, Disney and Nintendo, as well as science and math. She also does a mean Predator imitation. Todd, 26 – "Comic Book Nerd" – Pittsburgh, Penn. – "Todd the Bod" is an inquisitive digester of comic books and pop culture. He is the life of the party, generally putting himself in awkward scenarios for all to witness. He also enjoys gaming online with friends, discussing the latest issues of Green Lantern and building Magic the Gathering decks. The cast seems pretty entertaining, judging by the first episode. Also, if you remember Moogega from season 1, her boyfriend created a fake episode of the show, complete with a cameo from Curtis himself, to propose to her. It's pretty cute.
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Jan 21, 2015 07:26
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Ori is a strange name for a Mennonite. Calling it now, Amanda is this year's angry bitch character. Rooting for Ben because he's the only one who doesn't look like he's missing a chromosome.
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Jan 21, 2015 11:17
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So I found the preview of the first episode, Twitch made it hard to find. Skip to 20 minutes in.Irish Joe posted:Ori is a strange name for a Mennonite. Now I want to see a show about Jewish Mennonites.
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Jan 21, 2015 19:37
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I hate the chick with the cat ears on that picture alone. I can see Raychelle being annoying as hell, too. I predict these two will hate each other.
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Jan 23, 2015 07:01
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KilGrey posted:I hate the chick with the cat ears on that picture alone. Raychelle is dressed as a video game character for her promo photo, so I think that puts her ahead in the "worst" category.
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Jan 23, 2015 07:33
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Vanderdeath posted:Raychelle is dressed as a video game character for her promo photo, so I think that puts her ahead in the "worst" category. Rikku from final fantasy X... a little ashamed i know that, only ff game I ever played though.
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Jan 23, 2015 09:27
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6-year plan man posted:Rikku from final fantasy X... a little ashamed i know that, only ff game I ever played though. Suuuuuuuuuuure it is. 
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Jan 23, 2015 11:25
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Vanderdeath posted:Raychelle is dressed as a video game character for her promo photo, so I think that puts her ahead in the "worst" category. She's dressed up like a pony in her video and talks about how all the bronies treat her like a queen. That's like being king of poo poo mountain.
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Jan 23, 2015 19:09
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The Predator noise is extremely my poo poo.
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Jan 24, 2015 03:04
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Based solely on pictures and those brief bios I'm picking Colby and Kaitlin as the two people who I end up rooting for because they're "nerds" because they're just really, really smart and not people who define themselves by obsessive hobbies and are way off. Thankfully the good thing about this show is that half of the nerds always end up surprising me by being really decent and seemingly adjusted people beyond one really glaring eccentricity.
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Jan 24, 2015 03:07
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Edit double dumbfuck posting
TheHoosier fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Jan 24, 2015 |
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Jan 24, 2015 03:09
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A.... Brony...STAC Goat posted:Thankfully the good thing about this show is that half of the nerds always end up surprising me by being really decent and seemingly adjusted people beyond one really glaring eccentricity. I've always been pleasantly surprised by this. Except that gangly, spergy gently caress last season who was obsessed with WoW and was a living Sheldon-esque caricature
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Jan 24, 2015 03:14
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I love this show. Can't wait to see who the socially awkward mini-Hitler of this season is!
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Jan 24, 2015 12:26
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Hedrigall posted:I love this show. Can't wait to see who the socially awkward mini-Hitler of this season is! All of them.. Can't wait for them to attach the word "nerd" to everything and sound like the stereotypical nerd that talks about "sports".
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Jan 24, 2015 12:57
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GaussianCopula posted:All of them.. Kinda surprised there hasn't been a sports-crazy math wiz yet who can pick the absolute best fantasy baseball team solely on WAR. Are they not nerds?! TheHoosier fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Jan 24, 2015 |
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Jan 24, 2015 15:27
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I can understand them not wanting to blur the lines between nerds, dweebs, enthusiasts and losers any further.
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Jan 24, 2015 15:34
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TheHoosier posted:Kinda surprised there hasn't been a sports-crazy math wiz yet who can pick the absolute best fantasy baseball team solely on WAR. Are they not nerds?! The definition of a nerd on this show is "sci-fi/fantasy (aka middle ages)/comic enthusiast + either STEM job or something gaming related (video or table top)". It's also important that you are totally into bright colors, have a personality disorder of any kind and can tell us how the other kids bullied you because of your nerdism. It's also necessary that you accept to actor's that played "nerds" in four movies to be the symbols nerdism and that "nerdism" or "nerdom" actually are well defined things.
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Jan 24, 2015 16:11
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Holy poo poo i played against Colby in quizbowl when he was at Northwestern. He really wasn't all that 
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Jan 24, 2015 16:46
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The SituAsian posted:Holy poo poo i played against Colby in quizbowl when he was at Northwestern. Sounds like you should apply for season 4. Anyway, glad this show has gotten another season. Most of the people seem pretty cool and even that awful crazy person they had on last season was entertaining.
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Jan 24, 2015 19:38
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That episode was overall pretty entertaining. The whole stomp Tokyo challenge was ridiculous in the best way. The show doesn't take itself seriously, and that's one of the things I love. Too bad Jacob got sent home. As another trivia geek, I was pulling for him. Ori seems to be very not self aware. I totally would have guessed King Kong too.
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Jan 24, 2015 21:50
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I go by the "When in doubt always pick C" philosophy so I would have gotten that one. Then again I have absolutely no idea what any of the other questions were. Thank you, King of The Nerds. You're back to remind me I'm really not very much of a nerd. The editing on the show totally sucked me in. Jacob was clearly stepping up as one of the most adjusted and easily rootable players and had a couple of funny lines as the show's narrator. So doop, there he goes. I was mildly embarrassed for not seeing it coming when he was chosen and but knew he was gone from that moment on. Ah well. I have no idea who will step up as the rootable players now, but there were a bunch who seemed like they might be fine and reasonable folk. Ori, Kaitlin, and Todd were the obvious people throwing up red flags but this show always proves to redeem a lot of the people who make bad first impressions. Could we all pretend I never picked Kaitlin as an early favorite as an adjusted person who doesn't fit the negative "nerd" stigma? Because... yeah. And yeah, I love the over the top nature and silliness of the show, as always. The fact that they wrote in not only a backstory for last season's winner leaving the throne but then a story for the season? Its just silly fun. And the Tokyo smash was great. Underrated Nerd Moment Of The Night: When that one cosplayer told the True Blood guy he was her "hero" and his "Uhh... thank you" sounded just a bit like "Uhhh, why? Should I be scared?"
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Jan 25, 2015 04:10
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STAC Goat posted:
More than that she fits the cutthroat reality competition person thing that this show has managed to avoid pretty well. Last year there was also one epic case but he was also super nerd.
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Jan 25, 2015 04:26
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STAC Goat posted:I have no idea who will step up as the rootable players now, I wouldn't want to root any of them.
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Jan 25, 2015 06:26
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I like Ben, the marine biologist guy. He's actually a decent looking guy and I think if his path went just a fraction of an inch in another direction he could have been one of the popular attractive kids at school. Ori is creepy. He has those black, soulless eyes.
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Jan 25, 2015 11:29
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Great cast and first episode, and looks like they've got some excellent comps and guest judges lined up this season. But I hope someone reminds Dr. NASA that in ST:TOS episode Space Seed, superior intellect did not lead Khan Noonien Singh to victory. AlliedBiscuit posted:So I found the preview of the first episode, Twitch made it hard to find. Skip to 20 minutes in. The whole feature is pretty good.. GaussianCopula posted:The definition of a nerd on this show is "sci-fi/fantasy (aka middle ages)/comic enthusiast + either STEM job or something gaming related (video or table top)". It's also important that you are totally into bright colors, have a personality disorder of any kind and can tell us how the other kids bullied you because of your nerdism. It's also necessary that you accept to actor's that played "nerds" in four movies to be the symbols nerdism and that "nerdism" or "nerdom" actually are well defined things. You seem to have forgotten the lesson from one of those "nerds" in the original movie. Around 4:20 in this clip.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_4G449s1SQ
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Jan 25, 2015 12:45
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KilGrey posted:I like Ben, the marine biologist guy. He's actually a decent looking guy and I think if his path went just a fraction of an inch in another direction he could have been one of the popular attractive kids at school. That basically sounds like me in high school. Most people are surprised by what a giant geek I am, because I actually learned how to dress and got in shape. If I went on the show people would probably call me a poser, too. That's when I hit them with Simpsons, Power Rangers, and wrestling trivia. And Ben also seems, from what I can tell, to not be taking it too seriously and having fun. Raychelle gets some support simply for being a Missouri girl. Also, looking at photos from the show's premiere party (I was bored, ok), and former UFC champion Randy Couture was there for some reason. Maybe they're doing a show about training nerds to be MMA fighters. I would watch that.
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Jan 27, 2015 07:21
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liked the first ep so went back and watched a bit of season 2; that purple haired girl what a babe with a bomb rear end crow marionette
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Jan 27, 2015 10:34
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appropriatemetaphor posted:liked the first ep so went back and watched a bit of season 2; that purple haired girl what a babe with a bomb rear end crow marionette The best youtube edit of that season was the one that dubbed the Linkin Park's "crying in my skin!" song over all her lines whenever she had a minor disagreement with anyone else on the show.
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Jan 29, 2015 18:09
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Anonymous Zebra posted:The best youtube edit of that season was the one that dubbed the Linkin Park's "crying in my skin!" song over all her lines whenever she had a minor disagreement with anyone else on the show. Yeah, that was Katie. Every contestant feared her because she was a legit science wiz, handy, and super artistic. She just was super super sensitive. This next episode is Cosplay, again. But fricking Billy Boyd is a guest judge, along with Tara Strong and Yaya Han. Pippin has one of my favorite accents ever. Does anyone have any favorites yet?
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Jan 29, 2015 21:53
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AlliedBiscuit posted:
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Jan 30, 2015 11:44
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Man, after tonight's episode, I have a feeling that Todd is going to spark out hard down the line. That whole crying scene after the competition gave me a really weird vibe from him. 
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Jan 31, 2015 05:02
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Generic American posted:Man, after tonight's episode, I have a feeling that Todd is going to spark out hard down the line. That whole crying scene after the competition gave me a really weird vibe from him. There's a lot of crying in general this season. Lily seems to cry whenever she sees a bag blowing in the wind. I wonder how long those skits actually were. They were cut in a way that made it seem like they were REALLY long. I'm sure Pippin was enthralled the whole time. They get props for really going all out with the Monty Python outfits. That was pretty awesome. Poor Brony Boyscout (Bronyscout?), I suck at riddles too.
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Jan 31, 2015 07:47
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good to see some smart social scheming this time around. doubt the alliance lasts long but it is a smart play in the current format.
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Jan 31, 2015 18:24
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I found this amusing: I like the tongue-in-cheek nature of this silly little show.
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Jan 31, 2015 20:31
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AlliedBiscuit posted:I found this amusing: It seems like they have fun with it. I don't know if the hosts want to kill themselves or not but the show has a great tone. There isn't enough social trainwreck yet for my taste, though. The mathematician is quite the ladies' man...
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Feb 1, 2015 03:53
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TheHoosier posted:The mathematician is quite the ladies' man... Edit: Oh wait, was thinking of the wrong nerd. Got Math-guy mixed up with Brony-guy. lummawks fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Feb 4, 2015 |
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Feb 4, 2015 22:47
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Ah yes, the famous myth of Prometheus giving bone fishhooks to humanity...
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Feb 8, 2015 07:07
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Hedrigall posted:Ah yes, the famous myth of Prometheus giving bone fishhooks to humanity... Because the second I heard Prometheus I went immediately to "tied to a stone and the birds pecking his insides out for eternity." I had forgotten that giving the commoners fire was what got him to that fate.
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Feb 8, 2015 08:44
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He was obviously throwing the challenge after he was ostracized by his team. They told him before the nerd war that he was going to be the person they nominate and than did it. Overall I have to say that this season is by far the worst. You have the "cool kids" creating their own club ("secret 6 alliance") which goes completely against the spirit of the show in my opinion, because this is not Survivor. They all talk (and get the edit) about acceptance and how bad bullies are, but in the end they are the bullies in contrast to Todd who acted out because he was pushed out. It's sad that the show does not give them the edit they deserve (a bad one). As for the Nerd War, the correct strategy would have been to not built boats but floating devices and just jump in the water from the start. Swimming should be much faster than their "boats". The math problems were all very rudimentary, so its a big surprise that they seemed to have problems with them, probably nervousness. Let's see what next episode gives us. Either the secrete 6 is over, which would be great because it makes the show sucks, or team smash loses but than it's probably over too, because the other team should understand that they have nothing to gain by sticking to it.
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Feb 8, 2015 09:27
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GaussianCopula posted:They all talk (and get the edit) about acceptance and how bad bullies are, but in the end they are the bullies in contrast to Todd who acted out because he was pushed out. It's sad that the show does not give them the edit they deserve (a bad one). A valid point. I would think now would be the time for Kaitlin to realize that there are obvious forces against her, win or lose in the Team Nerd War. She was very quick to dismiss alliances because "they are dumb" so one developed right under her horsey face **cue whinny** Team Smash needs to take a hit next week so when Kait's attempt at team voting strategy is usurped by the whims of the Sekrit 6 she'll open her eyes. She may need 2 more episodes to really have it sink in but by then it'll be too late.
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Feb 8, 2015 10:08
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