#“sure this is ultimately subjective but also: i’m right and i will fight you about it”
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look i know the ending of nope is purposefully ambiguous but also i will fight people in the parking lot because i am a full-on oj lived truther
#it’s the opposite of the set of gordy’s home#one survivor/one dead#also i refuse to live in a world where em ended that movie the lone haywood#“sure this is ultimately subjective but also: i’m right and i will fight you about it”#the philosopher’s battle cry
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hello!! came across you recently and read a bunch of your posts, and I’m really impressed with the way you always keep focus on how [x subject] relates to material reality and action/goals. if you don’t mind answering, I was wondering what kind of actions (besides debating/critique, which is what I’m able to see from Social Media Site) do modern day communists do to build revolution? I’m sure this varies wildly, but it’s hard for me to imagine when imperial power is so strong. thanks!
yeah, so obviously--as you said--this varies. there's no universal answer to this one, because what tactics are effective and possible for a revolutionary organization vary immensely. like, there are places in the world right now where people are still fighting protracted people's wars--the EZLN in mexico, Naxalites in india, and the NPA in the phillippines, etc.
assuming, however, that you're talking about an imperial-core or a semiperipheral perspective--there are a lot of things that communist organizations can do. obviously, revolution isn't in the cards for the near future, any basic analysis shows that very conclusively. the main things that communist organizations can do in these circumstances is build class consciousness.
now, a lot of groups think that this means simply 'disseminating critique and newspapers', but i think that's an un-marxist understanding of class consciousness. you cannot persuade the working class into going from zero to revolutionary, no matter how effective your propaganda. you have to help people organize and help them fight for causes--people are only going to believe in the possiblity of mass action if they live class struggle, if they get actual experience of engaging in political struggle and making real change in the world.
alright, so what does that look like? first of all, it doesn't look like supporting bourgeois parliamentary parties. they are a black hole that sucks up working class organization and uses it to sustain a cottage industry of wealthy legislators, lobbyists and consultants.
things that i've personally seen happen include:
giving out free food/hygiene products/other necessities
contributing to and organizing mutual aid networks
rebuilding and renovating defunct community buildings
counterprotesting fascists trying to intimidate refugees
mobbing immigration police to prevent deportations
showing up to picket lines and anti-austerity/solidarity protests
scanning and uploading previously unavailable socialist writing
establishing and aiding copwatch networks
and to be clear--these are tactics! they are not an end goal--they are not part of the world we ultimately want to see--doing these things does not take us along a path to socialism. there is the difference between participating in reformist struggles as a tactic for building class consciousness and being reformist--the latter means seeing these things as ends, doing them with the belief that they can be permament solutions--the former means seeing this things as means, things people can get involved in and gain a genuine and personal understanding of class struggle.
ultimately i think the #1 job of any serious revolutionary organization is to build class consciousness and solidarity. and while i do think that leafleting and stickering and putting out pamphlets and newspapers and essays and yes, even silly little posts on my silly blog, can play a small role in that--ultimately most people will not become communists unless they see communists making real change in the world around them.
(addendum: in addition to all this, many revolutionary communist organizations often also do the sort of thing that it's not advisable to talk about online)
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The Thing About Redesigns, Rewrites, and Reimagines…
(Part I: Broader Discourse)
To those of you who’ve been keeping tabs or maybe seen my posts floating around the tag, you might recall me mentioning that I felt a bit of hesitancy toward the prospect of joining in on the recent wave of redesign/rewrite content. In the more likely scenario that you haven’t or do not know what the crap I’m talking about, that’s fine lol. Understandable. It was a little thing I had written into my first rewrite/redesign post about Charlie. In a short aside, I explained that it was because I’d felt “bad about tinkering with someone else’s work like this”, and then I’d left it at that. So… yeah. Why am I bringing it up now?
Well, I don’t think I need to tell you that this fandom is… a lot. Y’know people have been talking…discourse is being had… heated, moral arguments are being hurled left and right. And in light of all the growing, reactionary accusations, I…found myself starting to feel bad again.
My initial issue, the reason why I didn’t immediately jump to sharing my ideas was that, for all her faults, I empathize with Viv as a creator and didn’t want to feel like I was disrespecting her, her characters, and her vision by reworking it to suit my own. I had frustrations and criticisms, but I never wanted to make it seem like I was trying to ‘fix’ her work or her style. I really didn’t want to be one of those pretentious dipsh*ts (the kind that take a piece of art, digest it through their own preferences and biases, then spit it back in the artist’s face with a, “There. I made it better”). In the end, I went through with it because I had a small hyperfixation and a tendency to project my own issues onto characters I love (I’m sure some of y'all can relate). And also, I was having fun. But… then more discourse poured in, and I saw all the concerns I expressed reflected in the arguments presented by other fans and artists.
And well… That made me feel like I was doing something wrong, like perpetuating and becoming the exact problems I had wanted to fight against. So, I took a step back. I reevaluated.
Now, I have thoughts (shocker!).
And they are conflicted.
On one hand I agree with the idea that redesigns/rewrites are not inherently bad or disrespectful things when it comes to productions like Hazbin since Viv is not a small creator with no power. She and her team have ultimate authority over the show’s events, and those plans will not be derailed by what is basically some random tumblr artist’s fanart/fanfiction.
In regards to the critical side of things, that kinda comes with consuming and digesting the messages and presentation of a work of art. Ideally, it should get people to discuss in this capacity, especially when it deals with such sensitive subject matter as Hazbin does (and especially when it is executed with evidently problematic notions which do bleed into the designs at times).
Still, I do think this trend can be disrespectful if the intention and presentation are made with an aggressive holier-than-thou attitude which explicitly seeks to one-up the creator. Though I understand where it comes from, I think that can be just straight, undiluted maliciousness with a generous helping of pretentious, self-appointed superiority. And I don’t think it’s necessary to pick apart the style itself. You don’t have to like it, of course, but I feel like stating your preference for one way of drawing over another and asserting it as if it were some objective truth antagonizes the entire point of individual artistic expression and personal taste. Criticize the lack of diversity (something which, I’d like to add, is not actually unique to Hazbin) and potentially problematic aspects, but not the style. Even then, it’s important to be constructive not destructive.
That being said, I don’t expect everyone to agree with me (especially if anyone who’s a die-hard fan finds this) Whether you do or not is on you, and that’s okay.
This is more a snippet of my thoughts than a fully developed rant. I just wanted to share where I’m at right now. There will be a part 2 to this expanding some of my feelings while also outlining where I might go from here because things are going on in my head, and I don’t actually know whether I will continue or not with this project. Right now, it feels like it’s drifting toward a more original direction (Charlie feels like an entirely different yet vaguely similar character and dang it I’m attached…It’s kinda weird lol) so….anyway—I digress.
Thank you for reading.
#hazbin hotel critical#hazbin hotel criticism#hazbin hotel redesign#hazbin hotel rewrite#hazbin rewrite
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Honestly my brain was racing yesterday after seeing the reveal of Zoro‘s bloodline. Instead of making Zoro‘s lineage to the Shimotsuki clan the subject during the actual Wano arc, Oda decided to reveal zoro‘s linkage to the Shimotsukis only in the SBS 105, but you would assume that a character like Zoro, who is immensely popular among the fans would get a proper reveal or arc like many other of the straw hat pirates. But instead, Oda handles this subject of Zoro‘s bloodline like he handled so many other questions he received during all those years. It‘s not that Zoro being related to the Shimotsuki clan is such a big surprise, right? Oda has been dropping hints left and right, and it’s also common knowledge that Ryuma was kind of like Oda’s first ever created character in the One Piece universe (iirc) who was basically the model for the Zoro character. Of course it's a bit wild to just relate everything samurai to Zoro, but that just underlines that Zoro is being a part of the samurai order and closely related to it.
What we don't know is how old the question about his family actually is, we also don’t know why Oda or his editorial team decided to answer this question by the time they did. I like to think that all of this timing happened for a reason bc Zoro being a Shimotsuki descendant isn’t the big surprise here - it's his mother that causes some questions. Oda revealed that his mother was the daughter of a criminal. It would be interesting to know if we've already seen her father, if we will ever get to know him and if this criminal is important to the story.
As for his father Roronoa Arashi, what Oda told us that he also was a swordsman and maybe he inspired Zoro to be a swordsman as well. Why Arashi would be involved with fighting against pirates is another interesting subject. It kind of serves my personal headcanon I’ve been having for years that Zoro became a pirate hunter because his family was attacked and / or killed by pirates. (I wonder what happened to Arashi’s sword after he died?) It would also fit to my headcanon in terms of Zoro’s motif to become stronger, as we’ve seen him practically storming into the Dojo of Shimotsuki village, yelling „who wants to fight me?“ and then challenging the other combatants. Becoming stronger has been Zoro‘s main motivation since he was a child and I’ve always been wondering why that is, assuming it must have something to do with his parents or their destinies/ fate. My headcanon was that he was present when his parents got attacked by said pirates, but he was too small and too weak to do something against them and could only hide and witness how his parents were killed and so he decided two hunt pirates to avenge his parents, and because he hasn’t been strong enough to protect his parents or his mother, it became his ultimate goal to become the strongest person known to man so he would never lose someone because of his personal weakness ever again.
Would also be interesting to know when his parents died, how old he was. What his relationship was to them. What happened to him after his parents died. Where he has been grown up. If he had to provide for his own. Or if he had a place to go to. I always assumed that Koushiro was kind of a father figure to Zoro in his early years just as Mihawk probably was when Zoro stranded on Kuraigana Island.
Zoro being of Shimotsuki heritage probably won‘t be revealed during the actual One Piece manga, and I’m not even sure how Zoro would find out about this as he has left Wano without anyone recognizing him, of course, and none of the citizens could have provided him with this information. The only other person around I can imagine to have knowledge about Zoro‘s lineage with the Shimotsuki clan would be Shimotsuki Koushiro, whose father was the brother of Zoro‘s grandmother if I’m correct? Which would result in Koushiro being Zoro’s great uncle and Kuina his second cousin?? (wow) If Koushiro knows about Zoro’s heritage, there has to be a reason why he (or Zoro’s parents) never informed Zoro about this since Zoro seems to be completely unaware of this, which Oda confirms. You would assume that the Shimotsukis would be closely connected to each other and know the families of one another. But Zoro not only seems to be unaware of being partly a Shimotsuki, he also seems to be unaware that he is distantly related to both Koushiro and of course Kuina.
Probably the most interesting reveal about the Zorro lineage is Kuina‘s mother who Oda didn’t even tell us her name. My guess is that either she plays a bigger role in the future or is simply unimportant enough that Oda couldn’t even be bothered to think of a name for her. 🙈
Personally, I would like to prefer if Tashigi was not Shimotsuki as well, but given that there are still like 15 Shimotsukis who left Shimotsuki village and went somewhere else, I do consider it to be a possibility. Plus she’s a swordswoman. I would prefer that they wouldn’t be related as well, not only for shipping reasons (😅) but given her resemblance to Kuina, I’m practically waiting for that reveal. It would be nice for Zoro though if he would meet another member of his family (even if distant) since he's one of the straw hat pirates with no close or distant relatives or adopted family at all. (except for Koushiro) As for the other Shimotsukis on Wano, we can’t safely assume that they’re related with Zoro. I’m also not sure how those clans work, if sharing a clan name means that everyone is related in some way or if they’re not and just sharing the clan’s name?
So far, Zoro‘s theme is all about loneliness and that he had to care for himself and to live on his own, that he doesn’t want to form bonds with anyone out of fear of losing them, it‘s what he's used to and who he is and how he decided to live like after losing Kuina, until he met Luffy and the others in the „found family“ way that he did, but personally I like the idea that Zoro found this new new family with the Straw Hat pirates and therefore wouldn't be alone any more, no matter how the crew will proceed endgame. Like „So far away, but always close“. I do think, though, that there has to be a reason why Zoro and Tashigi run into each other when they do, and I’d like to think that it‘s some kind of destiny (also Zoro’s theme) we don't know about yet that connects them and that they are unaware of as of now, a connection that is going to unfold as the story goes on and we are closer to reach the final arc. I plan to make another post on Zoro‘s and Tashi‘s relationship and their connection, just wanted to add my two cents to the Zoro bloodline being revealed, hoping it’s not toooo confusing lol.
I have to admit that I’m kind of salty that Oda chose to tell us about Zoro’s family in an SBS instead of doing it in the actual storyline, because this way we will never get to see Zoro‘s reaction to everything of it, we will never hear him talk about his parents and how he had to live as a child (or will he?), although personally I’m convinced that it’s nothing he would ever talk about on screen, not even to his friends from the mugiwara pirates and I‘m not even sure if any of them, not even Luffy, knows about Kuina and the promise he made to her. I can imagine that Zoro dodges each personal question and there’s not willing to talk about his past, either because of trauma that he has not been able to solve or because he doesn’t want people to be worried about him. That way, Zoro will remain the mysterious person he's always been, I guess it’s just Oda’s move to show us that it’s not important where he came from or what he has been through, it’s important where he is now and where he is going to be.
Doesn’t exactly help my personal feeling that the reveal of zoro‘s lineage does kind of feel cast aside in order to reveal this for the sake of it being revealed at all. I think also that Oda doesn't have neither the time nor the opportunity to introduce Zoro‘s family via the storyline, but he still wanted to share this information so I guess giving us Zoro’s origin family via SBS is better they're not giving it us at all (why did it take you so long though Oda why). Maybe Oda’s only intend just was to show us that Zoro absolutely has no idea of his Shimotsuki lineage. Doesn’t change that he was and ever will be a Roronoa, not carrying or passing on the Shimotsuki name. Also RIP to my headcanon that he had a fake name to hide his true lineage and the name Roronoa Zoro was just made up lol (which he didn’t know about either)
Also Pinzoro. WHAT A NAME
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Are there any OC ideas you have that didn't make the cut for any of the stories you've written or are planning to right? Like you want to write about the but due to the way the story's gone they just wouldn't fit.
There’s a lot actually and I’m glad someone asked. This will be long.
The scope of Rosebud got away from me really fast and then life happened. I still want to make a proper story. That’s why the one before it is called Rosebud Prep. This AU has the most cut stuff and spur of the moment additions. For example
I had an OC named Walter. He would’ve been the divorced kid of Neptune and Weiss; also he’s 14 and pretty strong due to both his parents having hereditary semblance. Essentially he still follows normal glyph rules, but when it comes to water and ice he doesn’t need Dust. I made a water bender.
Another OC in that au would be girl on Menagerie that was close with Kovu. She would be a Crosshares kid. Additionally, I wanted to write more about Carmine’s normal school experience since she does go to a regular public school but it never really seemed to fit. In a sense, she’s like a casual superhero who will show up late because she decided to stop a robbery.
Another thing I will actually circle back to but just haven’t yet is why is Carmine bad at school terrible with maps, doesn’t drive, and would rather tell Garnet a bedtime story than read one. Carmine is dyslexic and simply refuses to tell her friends because she finds it incredibly frustrating and embarrassing. Jaune knows and though she made him promise to tell nobody, he obviously told Ruby. Ruby doesn’t bring it up because she was the number one person Carmine didn’t want to know. Jaune helps her when he can but the girl is barely home and prioritizes other things.
I wanted to write a short story of Dustin growing up under Cinder and Neo but that seemed needlessly depressing and better left as moments to learn in the main story.
xxxxx
I think I’ve mentioned this before but originally I messed around with Valerie’s internal conflict stemming from the idea she wasn’t sure if she felt like a girl. But after a lot of reading and videos I decided I most likely wouldn’t be able to write such a topic with the necessary amount of care to the standard I would be okay with. It’s a touchy subject and I felt ill equipped.
Another idea I want to write is a Snowflakes sequel where the crew is on summer break and find themselves on a voyage to Vacou. It would explore the new dynamics the group have after Atlas and focus more on Veronica’s mental state and an b-plot with Eliza learning more about her mother.
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For those interested in Lasting Embers, the sequel I’ve been actively posting lately has given two more OCs recently named Lilith and Marcus. Lilith was actually brought up in the original story and Marcus as an idea has been around just as long. Feels great to finally realize them.
I actually wanted to do more meaningful things with Yang and Adam during their mission but time constraints got in the way. Other than that I’ve mainly been able to set up a lot of what I want.
In the original story however, instead of Jael fighting those cult members in the desert, I had Adam come home already and the two of them went into town because she wanted to see the festival with him. Eventually she’d go off to get food and notice suspicious behavior; which leads into the cult fight and ends with her own the ropes before Adam shows up. It would be the first time she really sees how dangerous her father could be. I ultimately changed things because I wanted to introduce her older sister as well as keep the idea of Jael hearing/reading about who her father used to be but only seeing the kind dad he is now.
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Premonition is more or less the same. I have an outline for a proper story that’s smaller scale than the others and more slice of life vibe. It’s mainly about Lucas and Serenity meeting and what happens when their unique situations of future and fate collide. I did want to do more random prompts but most of them are pretty redundant despite being cute.
I’m sure there’s more stuff I could add to this post but I’m blanking right now.
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Milf, I am watching atla for the first time! I’m on the first season and am… dubious of the Jet episode. Have you any thoughts on the way the show positions Jet and his group of freedom fighting radicals as terrorists?
honestly whenever jet comes onscreen i just black out bc i find his vibes so rancid. i do think that he had the potential to be an interesting character, and he is vaguely interesting insofar as he informs katara and sokka's characters, but i just hate his vibes so much that i find it impossible to engage with what his character is communicating/the work he is doing within the text. i will say that i normally hate the trope of "guy with radical politics who wants to decolonize his land (etc etc) is secretly an evil sociopath who loves killing babies for......reasons, so obviously his ideology is also bad #centrismwin" because it's so prevalent and obviously reactionary (lok, atla's sequel which you shouldn't watch, does this a lot because it is stupid liberal-brained shlock).
however, i can somewhat forgive atla for employing this trope (although there's a later episode where something similar happens and i feel much more strongly about that because i also happen to care more about the character being presented in that scenario), because it's more like toxic leftist infighting than liberals defeating the evil radicals. like, katara is just as radical as jet is. already by the time we meet him we see her get arrested so as to infiltrate a prison labor camp and start a revolution (at which point they literally leave the warden and all the fn soldiers to drown at sea, not very #centrismwin of her). she drowns a bunch of other fn soldiers later. and she is literally an ecoterrorist (spoilers i guess). katara mostly gets mad at jet because jet straight up tries to kill her brother, and then lied to her about it. she's mad that she got played by a smooth, manipulative guy, she's mad that sokka was right about him all along (sokka being right?? the horror!!), and she's mad that he lied to her to use her in a project that she morally objects to.
i see jet's character primarily as an attempt to illustrate how the desire for revenge is dehumanizing, not only towards others, but also towards oneself. it's a core theme of katara's arc, and how she sees the world through a very black and white framework of heroes and villains, victims and perpetrators. i'm not going to spoil what happens to jet, but the ultimate tragic irony of his arc reflects a path that katara could easily go down and ultimately finds the strength not to. so i'd definitely object to jet more if he was in, for example, lok, but since his political and thematic function here is really to mirror katara as a sort of cautionary tale for what happens when traumatized colonized subjects prioritize self-destructive vengeance over self-affirming revolution, i think he does his job. i wish he was written better for sure (again, he's just so annoying i feel like it undermines the potential complexity of his character) but on paper, his character serves its purpose as it informs katara and sokka, who are the specialest characters ever, so there.
#the thing about jet is that he would suck even harder if katara wasn't the main character#like he sucks but because katara is the main character i get why he's there and i'm ok with it#basically i just love katara so much that i can find it in my heart to tolerate jet#but also hama does it better :)#ask#anon#o.tv
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> Madot-Awl and A1
Your name is Madot-Awl and the robot that serves you is called A1, named after a particular brand of sauce you fancy. As it was stated you are an engineer, specifically a literatech engineer. One that focuses on the type of machinery powered by this highly volatile substance extracted from the Spine itself: Gutter.
A1, the robot that follows you is a Bound Machine Instigated by Literature, your BESTIE. She is quite useful if you can ignore her curiosity and eagerness to question your orders.
Your companions can never agree where to go, so you quickly detached yourself from them when you arrived in the town Maladapted Malaise and prowled towards the nearest library to see if there was anything interesting in here.
You fear they may be such, but not that you learned that from any books.
You fear calling A1 inside may have been a mistake as the concerned citizens inside may use it as a justification to call law enforcement. You need to see if you can get any information now and get out of here.
You Gather Information.
Gather Information
When you go to a library, museum, relevant place or simply the internet to gather information about the place or situation you’re currently in: roll with Mind.
On a 10 and above: You learn useful information about the place and situation you’re currently in. Gain a resource.
On a 7 to 9: The information is incomplete, ominous or someone will bother and follow you the whole time. Gain a resource and tell what goes wrong.
On a 6 and below: You have a miss. The information you’re looking for has been purposefully hidden or someone takes action to stop you from reaching it.
You roll a 6 and a 2. Combined with your +2 to Mind that is a total of 10, a full success.
You’re not an idiot to look at books when all the information you need is right in front of you: your beloved audience.
They’re afraid of you, afraid to be next to you, like you’re hazardous and being too close to you could burn their skin.
You weren’t even that surprised when someone started recording A1, she is a novelty to a many, but what interested you was the fact that only about 15% of the people present had phones to begin with.
And lastly, many shelves were empty of books and full of dust. You don’t need a degree in literatech engineering to figure out the result of the sum of these variables, but you do have one, and the result is exactly the following number: Tyranny.
You get +1 resource.
MADOT: A1, we’re leaving.
A1: Are you sure? You didn’t finish your book.
MADOT: The plot was boring and I already figured out the ending.
A1: Your intelligence always amazes me Madot.
A1: You could even find a plot in an encyclopedia about local birds!
A1: Is the fact we’re leaving by the backdoor related to that?
MADOT: Yeah, that encyclopedia just made me want to see things in a different perspective.
A1: Does avoiding the hero that will enter the library in a minute is related to that?
MADOT: I’m sure they’re also just very interested in local birds.
MADOT: Since you brought up the subject, tell me if any other heroes are close by.
A1: Of course Madot. May I ask why?
MADOT: It’s just that the bird I’m looking for hates heroes and will fly away if it sees one.
A1: Fascinating! I don’t remember seeing that one in the book you were reading.
MADOT: You gotta learn to read between the lines.
MADOT: See the statements absence makes.
A1: Hmm. My vision can be hundreds of times better than the average person, and yet I don’t remember seeing any ink between the lines.
MADOT: Maybe once you can see a thousand times better you will understand what I’m talking about.
As you walk forward you think about the fact that those who defend the law have called themselves many things over the ages, but in the modern era of the Unfamiliar Imagination chapter they call themselves heroes. The ultimate protectors of the status quo, those who fight so things may remain as they are, and so that the power of tyrants may remain absolute.
There are laws, and those who break the law must be punished. Now just try to pretend that laws aren’t most often made by those in power so that they may remain in power.
Your mouth waters. Deposing tyrants is one of the most common ways adventurers become stars, and who doesn’t want to be a star?
What do you do?
Madot still needs to do another downtime action before proper play can start, for reference, this is the list of downtime actions. As much as she loves research, she cannot go for any more information gathering.
Go For a Drink.
Gather Information
Make Connections
Go Where You Shouldn’t.
Visit a Shrine
Go Shopping
Read from the beginning.
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This post will be continuously updated with more information, so keep an eye out. Other stuff such as pinterest and playlists will be added soon, but for the meantime, here are some details I can share about the ROs!
E. ALONZO (M/F/NB)
“I live for the people I failed. For the people who once cared... And for those whom I love like no other. That should suffice for now. I will live, and I will fight.”
Age: 30
MBTI Personality Type: ENTJ
Birthday: November 20 (Scorpio)
Ethnicity: Agta-Tagalog
Appearance: Has thick, black straight hair reaching the end of their ears and with sharp curly ends—several strands falling in front of their eyes. Their skin has a deep brown color, scars and calluses filling their hands and tattoos surrounding their right arm, and they always wear a black silk glove that covers up to their left hand’s wrist (which happens to be their dominant side). Alonzo also has a flat nose and hooded dark brown eyes that seem to appear tired most of the time; their glares tend to be the nasty kind. Tall with an athletic body, they give off an imposing posture, coupled with a clothing choice that mostly comprises of wearing long coats and turtlenecks of dark colors.
Distinctive Traits: Highly rational (except when it comes to the Ripper), ultimately caring for other people’s lives, and will actively seek for justice to protect the people around them. Family is a sore subject for Alonzo, and probing too much into it would not be advisable. Still, despite the hatred they show for the Ripper and the distrust that does not seem to go away, there is respect beneath all of it, and they will ensure that the MC will remain alive. For now.
Disabilities: Hard of hearing (right ear); has PTSD
Random fact: Very sensitive to perfumes. Secretly loves wearing shades.
F. WESLEY (M/F)
“We’ve done it all so wrong, you and I. When will you stop pretending otherwise? When will you see that we’ve never been who we once thought we were?”
Age: 24
MBTI Personality Type: INFJ
Birthday: June 28 (Cancer)
Ethnicity: Polish-Australian
Appearance: Has short light brown hair with styled smooth waves (some strands barely touching the upper jawline for Finn when let loose; reaching the shoulder for Faye). Their uncallused fair skin easily burns whenever exposed to too much sunlight for too long, though they do use clothes that cover much of it anyway. Wesley also has almond-shaped hazel eyes with soft-arched eyebrows, a sharp nose, and has an average weight with average height. They mostly wear a calm expression that doesn't betray much of their emotions, accompanied with a habit of showing off confident smiles when in public—mostly facades. Comfortable using clothes with long sleeves and scarves, complemented by a perfume.
Distinctive Traits: Though normally seen as outgoing and charming, both Richard and the MC are aware that Wesley is most definitely the opposite. What is visible to people’s eyes are simply what they have been taught growing up, but behind all that lies a person so uncomfortable in their own skin, which eventually led to Wesley basically forming the trio with the other two—an attempt to change the city they’re currently living in. It is, however, the idealism they have that slowly took away everything Wesley has.
Random fact: Not a fan of pets, especially dogs. Doesn’t really know what they’re doing most of the time.
JADE STEIN (F)
“Do you think it’s foolish of me to love this city to this extent? To want change and be afraid of it at the same time? To be so confused I’m no longer sure what I can give away for that?”
Age: 23
MBTI Personality Type: ESTP
Birthday: April 18 (Aries)
Ethnicity: Sinti-German
Appearance: She has long wavy auburn hair reaching past her shoulders, a delicate nose, and sharp protruding brown eyes bearing promises of danger. Her skin is of a russet-brown complexion similar to her brother Richard, though she is definitely much shorter with a toned build. The practical style of clothing Jade adapts (though she is also a fan of plaid shirts) lets her blend easily among the crowds, and her knowledge of the most obscure paths within the city has repeatedly allowed her to hide from suspecting eyes.
Distinctive Traits: Very impulsive. Jade used the strength of rumors for some time before to destroy politicians, an act that has tremendously backfired. She still remains the blunt, no-nonsense person that her brother has raised on his own, and returning to the city will only make that fact apparent, but perhaps unbeknownst even to her, there is now hesitation in her moves. Taking care not to make the same mistakes she once did. Eager to protect the only family who will always be there for her no matter what.
Random fact: Utterly bad with kids. Pissed off with every other RO. Morpheus’s royal pain in the ass.
OWEN RUSSELL (M)
“You don’t have to do this alone. Let me help. Let me stand beside you and do what has to be done. Take the risk, and trust me this one time.”
Age: 26
MBTI Personality Type: INFP
Birthday: March 1 (Pisces)
Ethnicity: Welsh with Bajan roots
Appearance: Owen has short black hair (reaching just above his ears) with thick, soft curls that his sisters have always loved messing with. He has a dark brown complexion, a round nose and likewise round blue eyes. Taller than Wesley but shorter than Alonzo, his broad shoulders can give off an intimidating impression, though his frequent smiles offset this. Sweaters are his go-to for clothing as he gets cold quite easily, and he does wear his prescription glasses when at work.
Distinctive traits: Owen came to the city knowing his ideals will be tested and that people may view him as a naive outsider, but he aims to keep his priorities straight, strengthened by the events he had seen prior to the suspension he went through. Although it may be unexpected of him, Owen will stand against the most powerful people in the city if it means fighting for the right thing, which will certainly have its own consequences, to him and to the secrets he’s trying to protect.
Random fact: Hates anything with ketchup or tomato sauce. Has some issues with Wesley.
#interactive fiction#hollowed minds series#hollowed minds#f wesley#e alonzo#jade stein#owen russell#character profiles#interactive novel#choicescript#writing
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Okay thinking about it more…If someone from an alternate timeline showed up to the crew of our Enterprise and was like???everything here is so bad? You still have racism?! The romulans aren’t part of the federation yet? You still have famine and war and incurable disease? Something clearly went wrong in your timeline and I’m here to fix it…surely our crew would be like buzz off. La’an even says as much to Alt Kirk.
Expanding on what I said in the previous post about how destroying Alt Kirk’s timeline is a eugenicist way of thinking…like Kirk and La’an make the decision that people suffering through war do not have the same value as people presently free from war. (If this scenario happened even like 5 years earlier during the Klingon war…would La’an still fight for her timeline? Would Kirk be able to convince her that his was as worthy?) That people experiencing hardship are less “valuable” or worthy of living than those who live in a utopia…
Which brings me back to that Omelas episode from last season. A utopian society that flourishes through the suffering of just one child. Which Pike and crew are against but ultimately cannot stop and do not try to further put an end to. They acknowledge that what the people of this planet are doing is wrong and horrific and yet when faced with a similar decision…to allow thousands (or millions idk what the canon is now for eugenics war) to suffer and die in order to maintain their utopia, they side with the society they previously condemned, except to a greater extreme.
-well was La’an even in that episode? Don’t remember. Would Pike make the same choices if he was the one to go back in time, probably but we can’t really know.
I saw a bit from an interview I believe with Paul Wesley but I could be wrong, that said that Kirk always fights for what he believes is right/for those who can’t fight for themselves and sometimes has to resist the instinct to protect the one at the cost of the many…which is ultimately the choice La’an makes. Protect Khan at the cost of all the people he will cause to suffer and die. It’s also the inverse of what that planet decides, cause one to suffer to protect the rest.
What does this mean for La’an’s character? We’re meant to understand that she makes the right choice because she returns everything back to normal but was it really the right choice? How will this choice affect her in the future, affect her relationship to the Gorn?
I’m hoping that she will have a change of heart. Something like “I made a decision once that caused a lot of people to suffer. It benefited my people in the long run. Seems like the Gorn are also making choices that benefit them. Maybe evil isn’t inherent. Maybe evil is subjective. Maybe they think they are doing what’s right. Maybe we all think we’re doing what’s right. Maybe the Gorn aren’t so different from us after all. Maybe we’re all monsters, or maybe we’re all people faced with choices.”
I just have such major issues with the way the gorn have been presented and I think if the storyline were to resolve along those lines all my complaints would be erased lol. I’d eat my own tail for being so wrong, and I hope that that’s how it goes!
This post is all over the place lol. But I also think SNW is all over the place.
Lmk what you think!
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Hi Disko, what do you think of the non-binary Joan of Arc play? I confess I'm a little conflicted on the subject. On the one hand, yes Joan dressed like a man during her campaign, on the other hand, was she supposed to go fight in a skirt and corset? I understand that this is a historical story and no one probably knows the whole truth now, but it sounds to me a bit like people telling me that Lincoln was a Buddhist. Theoretically, that may be true, but it sounds kind of weird. Then there's the thing that it's theatre and there's no limit to creativity, right? Plus, it points out the problems in our current society. But why therefore rewrite the life of one of history's very important woman? Why not write something new and provocative instead of a controversial rewrite of someone's life? I think the thing that probably bothers me the most about this is that it seems like they need to somehow jazz up their play and come up with the idea that she is non-binary, but that is something that only the author can say with absolute certainty. I'm sure it will be a play that a lot of non-binary people will enjoy, but it will also probably be a play that pisses off a lot of women (and maybe historians). I don't know what to think about the whole thing. It's something that's going to be debated quite a bit in my area, and you have to have the right opinions to not get talked down to. (I'm joking. Although not really). So is it a progressive work or an offensive work? Can the two exist together? For example, my sister is going to love this play and I'm glad for it. On the other hand, the more I write about it, the more I'm inclined to think that I'm not entirely comfortable with this depiction of Joan. It's just that saying something like that out loud seems almost like a social death sentence. And maybe I'm just over thinking this. We don't have to agree on it and as long as there is no hate, every reaction to it is valid, right?
Well... This was a a reall thought journey. I'm still kinda interested what you think about the play.
DW:
I think that it’s great to see a new perspective on the way Joan has usually been presented. I also think that it’s worth remembering that this is a play, not a historical study. It’s an interpretation of Joan of Arc, not a biography.
Was Joan non-binary? She probably would have said no, but then again, what else could she have said, given the time she lived in. While non binary people have of course always existed, it’s only in recent times (historically speaking) that we’ve had the language to express such a concept. It’s a little bit like the arguments for Alexander the Great being gay or bi. We define him that way, but those terms didn’t exist (at least in the same way we understand them now) in his time. If Joan or Alexander were transported to modern times, it’d be interesting to see what labels they would choose, but those labels are modern inventions and the product of a modern mindset.
I think that ultimately, it doesn’t matter if Joan is portrayed as non binary in a play -- at least in the sense it doesn’t diminish her historical story or her myth. (And I’m using the word “diminish” in the sense that I think you’re worrying it may be taking something away from an important woman in history, not in the sense that being non binary is lesser.) I get where you’re coming from, because Joan is a feminist icon -- the suffragettes used her as a literal poster child! But I think that her positioning as a feminist icon is as anachronistic as attempting to label her gender identity, ultimately. So if she’s a feminist icon, even though the concept of modern feminism would have been entirely foreign to her, then why not be a non-binary icon as well?
When I say that I think it ultimately doesn’t matter if Joan is portrayed as non-binary, I’m talking in the historical sense, of course. A play doesn’t change Joan’s history. But in the sense of the importance of seeing non-binary representation on stage, I think it’s wonderful that this play exists. I think it’s wonderful for non-binary people, and I think it’s wonderful to get a new perspective on an old story. And of course it’s always wonderful for art to challenge the status quo!
Historically, we can never really know how Joan would have identified if she’d been given that option. But when it comes to the myth of Joan of Arc, I think she’s more than strong enough to handle some different interpretations.
Myths grow and change, and I think if you remember that they don’t have to bear much resemblance at all to the historical person, that’s fine.
We can have both, and we always have!
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Artist log
StarDate: September 21, 2023
Subject: using mid journey , also America is a sinking ship
Currently, I am learning to utilize mid journey, AI. I was completely, and I totally against using AI art, however after seeing the abundant posts on Etsy of unedited six fingered stock art of pictures made with no editing that are actually selling …my frustration as an artist pretty much exploded. I made a clip art pack sometime ago that has never sold but once and see that people are with no artistic Ability ( and by ability I mean, they never worked at it therefore they can’t )throwing together these packs and selling them. It’s not to the similar from how I can’t sell an actual original acrylic painting mind you , well painted because people would prioritize a $30.00 pizza over a painting that last forever. So being a stay at home mother, and not have currently having a job because daycare cost as much as anything I can earn where I live., I’ve decided screw it I’m going to be using the AI to make clipart, but I sure as well I’m gonna be editing it. In this process I feel like in many ways it might overall be better to paint over all the original drawings over the AI rather than touching it up. I think AI as a resource used much like stock images are is perfectly OK and doesn’t conflict, too much on my moral compass. However, I’ve already started my first pack with just touching up the images. Mind you a lot …. So my first clipart pack for Etsy be of the AI I’ve touched up, I do believe I’m going to have to find a way to sync all the colors together, more seamlessly with some color touchups, and don’t get me started on having to individually crop them and put them into a file that is 600 dpi and more or less 6 inches for each file. That’s gonna be a real pain but ultimately I am learning from this experience. I definitely will be using the  Artificial intelligence as a tool to quickly make initial drafts for damn I’m not going to just touch it up because it needs to be redone entirely. That said, how are use AI for fanart is a whole different story since I won’t be making profit off of fanart , I’m gonna be abusing the living $hit out of it while I use the AI to actually learn from as I touch it up. I think I can study many different techniques that I prefer as a touch of these images. I would never probably use the AI for any of my own personal works that I would wanna make a profit from but since I have a one year old and I have never been able to make a profit off of my artwork that point is moot. I hope I can make some money off my Etsy store that for god sake, because groceries in America are ridiculous, almost all of the paycheck goes to the important bills we need and then we spend the rest of it on food? Like really? America is absolutely in the dump right now scratch that it is at the dumpster on fire part of me just wants to move to Scotland or Germany, because they at least treat their people better. it’s kind of ironic that we were Germany which we fought in and World War I and World War II is slowly becoming the new country of the free while America is enslaving their people with corporate bullshit. and we really don’t have that much in the way of fighting it either because we’re all poor and just trying to survive. I do think the people want the guillotine back though . I hope my fellow Americans learn to rise up to the power but right now we’re trying to get bread that is a moldy. Well, no more political thoughts they just spin me into a dark spiral.
Conclusion still mixed feelings about artificial intelligence art I do think it’s evitable though.
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So I would rather you didn’t publish this, bc I have really mixed feelings on Israel stuff but I just wanted to say on one hand there are the awful people you mention and the government is horrible. Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is real and awful. But most brown and Black Jews in the world live in Israel and have very different political opinions from me (tend to lean right) and while I don’t agree with them I have a lot of concerns with the way a lot of western Jews treat them, either disregarding their views entirely and pretending they don’t exist or acting really patronising and acting like they don’t understand the situation. Like their views aren’t mine at all but I do worry about how some western Jews try to be anti racist but erase brown and Black Jews the minute they have views that don’t fit a western paradigm. Just something to think about.
Unfortunately since this is on anon I can’t reply without publishing it. I have to say that I’m not really sure what your point is here. Being a person of color doesn’t guarantee that you have expertise in a subject. It’s also highly, highly dependent on where you live. For instance, I remember when the live action Ghost in the Shell movie was coming out. A lot of Japanese people in Japan did not care at all about Scarlet Johansson being cast, whereas Japanese-Americans had very strong feelings about it. This is because the United States as a whole has a very heterogeneous population, and so it’s guaranteed that if you live in a metropolitan area, it’s going to be very multicultural. The bigoted history of the US towards Asians also plays a large role in people’s experiences too. Obviously, what mattered most here was hearing out the various communities of Asian-Americans on this one.
This argument sounds a lot like someone telling me “well, we need to listen to the opinions of black women, so stop invalidating Candace Owens” who is a person whose actions have been overall detrimental towards fighting racism. We could maybe use her as a case study, and ask ourselves why she ended up the way she is, but her opinions are not compatible with the world we need to build. The fact is, BIPOC are going to have every possible opinion under the sun because nobody is a monolith. The question I use to guide myself is “who within the topic of X is doing good work representing this subject?” And then I’ll go seek out indigenous anarchists to listen to speaking about their perspective, for example. This way I am tending to the concerns of my own political community by making myself aware of them, without getting completely lost in the sauce.
I feel unfortunately that it is a necessary assumption that most (but not all) holders of right wing beliefs are misinformed in some capacity because those political beliefs require a level of misinformation to work. It’s a system of belief with a strong emotional bias that does not want to replicate the efficient fairness that leftism is so fond of. They have a much lower burden of proof than properly left wing beliefs, which everyone on all sides will (rightly) demand citations for. This is why leftists do not shut up about reading theory.
Ultimately, for me— I still do not believe that Zionism is compatible with leftism. I am much more concerned with my people being welcome and safe universally, rather than trying to maintain a monopoly of force over a piece of land. And that’s how I feel about everything in general. I feel like it’s a dangerous path to walk and we don’t get an exception or pass on that regardless of our circumstances. In this case, what I am going to care about most of all are the opinions of my fellow Jewish anarchists— which is going to naturally include Jewish anarchists who are black and brown.
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Bi-erasure – A Rant
I am a (somewhat) middle-aged, cis woman.
I am also queer (and no, you don’t get to decide whether l am allowed to refer to myself as "queer" or not). I am in what, quite frankly, should be considered a queer relationship because it is not heteronormative, no matter how much people try to assert it is: I am a cisbi woman married to a cishet man. A man who knows I am bisexual, a man who knows about my past romantic and sexual relationships with both men and women. A man who fell in love with me like I fell in love with him. Two people who connected on a deep level. Simple, isn’t it?
Maybe not that simple: Because I happened to choose him as the partner I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, l am automatically seen in a heteronormative light: I surely must be a straight woman if l am married to a man, even more so since I popped out a child along the way, right?
That’s a whole lotta assumptions right there, and honestly, it’s about time we stop having one glance at people’s relationships and then pretend we understand what they are, or indeed who they are.
I wouldn’t even say anything if I weren’t so fucking used to (and pissed off by) bi-erasure for as long as l can remember. And I dare say from both inside and outside the LGBTQ+ community.
My most common experiences (disclaimer: The irony of having to label people in this post to describe my experience or to make a point is not lost on me)?
Some cishet men looked at me through what can only be referred to as the “male gaze”: There is an idea that getting off with another woman is “hot”. They might even propose a threesome (they’re just curious, you know?), but ultimately, they have you down as straight (potentially “bicurious” at most). When it came to longer romantic relationships, their fragile ego often started to show, and they felt threatened by someone (a woman) they thought they couldn’t “compete” with. Yes, even if there was absolutely no romantic or sexual interest present (in said woman).
Some cishet women (sort of passive-aggressively, of course) assumed I was a slut, even if they knew feck all about me. Because if you are sexually attracted to both men and women, you surely must be insatiable, right? Or they thought I might be hitting on them just because I’m bi. I hate to break it to you, but I’m not sexually or romantically interested in everyone who walks on two legs (are you?), so calm the fuck down.
However, what always stung most was the bi-erasure from inside certain parts of the LGBTQ+ community.
I have to admit that most of my gay or trans friends and acquaintances were never much of an issue (notable exceptions aside, but I’m talking about trends in my community). They were, by and large, either supportive or simply not interested. And I actually somewhat like the latter because it just gives me permission to be (not that we should need anyone’s permission) and sees me for what I am: Human.
Radfem and/or TERFy lesbians (NB: I am not saying all lesbians, just to preemptively prevent those with poor reading comprehension from suffering a heart attack) were often a different subject altogether. I could tell you stories about trying to claim me as “one of us”, saying I was betraying who I truly was (a lesbian, of course. Yeah, but no), insinuating I was “fucking the enemy” (I kid you not), and other niceties. All wrapped up with a massive bow of radical feminist bullshit to thinly veil their hatred of men (that included trans women and gays, who were either all considered rapists or pedophiles. Sure, sure…). Or not to veil it at all, but to actually justify it.
I have always considered myself feminist. I have a daughter who is truly deserving of everything good the world has to offer, and I fight tooth and nail for that, but labelling whole groups as “enemies” is just… nah, I won’t even go there.
Long story short:
We do exist.
We’re not “confused” or “just curious”.
We know what we want.
We aren’t any less bi if we happen to choose a life partner that makes our relationship look outwardly “heteronormative”. That’s just love – it hits you randomly in the gut.
We don’t go: “Well, I’m bi, but I better make sure my partner doesn’t make me look straight so I don’t lose my street-cred.”
We aren’t interested in your agendas. They are yours, so stop claiming us as something we are not to further your ideas or ideologies.
Stop bi-erasure…
#bisexual#bi erasure#lgbtq+#cisheteronormativity#heteronormativity#personal rant#stop bi erasure#queer#queer community#bi and proud
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Do you think the Jedi had any flaws that you think should have been fixed? People like to say that the Jedi order should have been more loving and should have shown more emotion. And I also heard someone say that they were kinda flawed in a way at the time of the Clone Wars. Some I'm just wondering what do you think? Should the Jedi have changed things a little bit, or were they perfect the way they were? (Fyi I love the Jedi so please don't take this the wrong way)
This is gonna be a little repetitive because I have several asks along those lines, but if I started sorting them out I'd never get to answering them. (And don't worry, I'm not taking it the wrong way at all! Even if we disagreed, you'd have to be downright rude for me to be annoyed by an ask.) I kind of already stated my position on this a while back but it doesn't hurt to clarify again, so here:
I don't think the Jedi were 'perfect' the way they were, because there's no such thing as perfection in nature. I can make a list of flaws that individual Jedi had, if you want (Quinlan is rude, loves to show off, is a pain to work with; Ki-Adi comes off as haughty, he can be ruthless; Qui-Gon is impatient, stubborn, somewhat short-sighted; Jocasta is proud; Obi-Wan has a blind spot the size of Anakin and can be a bastard; Yoda can be too vague, Ahsoka too caught up in her own emotions, Mace and Adi too serious - etc. etc.) but that really wouldn't be the point, because the question is more regarding the Order's flaws.
"And I also heard someone say that they were kinda flawed in a way at the time of the Clone Wars"
Lucky you if that's all you've heard, ah ah, because the criticism is usually much more specific and often in terrible faith. But 'kinda flawed'? Sure the Jedi were. Everybody is kinda flawed, and every culture is kinda flawed, that's never up for discussion. But what those specific flaws are and how you fix them in a society is really the question when dealing with large groups, and we don't have the answer.
My own take is: no, I don't really think they should have 'changed things a bit.' As in: I don't see one or more big specific problems within the Order that are easily identified and fixed, and that, if fixed, would have made the Galaxy an unquestionably better place with no drawbacks.
Were they 'too cold' and needed to show more warmth? That's horribly subjective, but here's my (very outdated) masterlist where I delve a lot into Jedi culture in general, and here is a series specifically showing how free they are with physical displays of emotions, for example. Not loving enough is definitely not a Jedi problem!
Is it bad to take children away? It probably creates a lot of messy situations that I'm happy to explore, but it is ultimately the parents' choice + there is plenty of indication that the children are not entirely cut off from their birth heritage, and Lucas explicitly said that being raised communally was the best thing for anyone aspiring to the Jedi path. We have no indication that making the Order into a sort of boarding school would have been better.
Should they have been less involved in politics? They seem to get shut down more often than not. Should they have been more involved in politics? There's not even a consensus on that.
Should they have been spending all their time freeing slaves? Now that's not fair, because there is no realistic way for them to be doing that.
Were they too strict on Anakin, or not enough?
Should they allow for open romantic relationships? (which they more or less already do, because we have no indication that they explicitly forbid romantic connections and enforce that ban, just that they highly encourage their Knights not to commit to a relationship when they're already committed to the Order - can't be married to two different things, essentially) We have absolutely no indication that this would have a positive effect on the Order, or even that it's what most Jedi would want.
For the most part we don't even know the exact policies, Code, traditions and rules of the Order, so we have very little to go on from for practical things they could 'fix.'
Sure I'll admit that it was messed up to have Padawans fight a war, or to essentially torture Bane to get him to tell where he had hidden the holocron with the list of Force-sensitives kids, ignoring the irl and in-universe context around these things. Sure the war wasn't as clear cut as the good Republic and the bad Separatists. Sure the Jedi did unethical things throughout canon (little known tidbit: as did every single character in Star Wars, which isn't to say that criticism is meaningless, but that it always need to take context into account).
Maybe the Council should be bigger. Maybe they should have worked with non-Jedi more.
But I don't see big systemic issues in the workings or the culture Order that directly stem from malice, incompetence or unforgivable ignorance, and that could or should have been 'fixed' for the Jedi to be 'less flawed' as a group, because that's a big claim to make about any culture, even a fictional one.
People get to tear Satine to shreds for removing violence from Mandalorian culture after a civil war that shattered a planet, glassed their homeworld and decimated them, because she dared to go against the Mando beliefs and traditions, so I similarly reserve the right to defend that the Jedi's lifestyle seems to work well for them, and that we are never shown or told what precisely it is that they should have done better, and how they should have done that. I don't see that there are any drastic changes they would have needed to make to deserve to be recognized as good. As for changing just a little bit, there would be no consensus on what those little changes should be, because little problems are subjective, hard to determine, and every time you fix one little problem, you create a new little problem, and there'll never be a way around that.
tldr; Sure, the Jedi are plenty flawed, y'know, like people, but I don't think we can pinpoint one or more precise things they should have changed to be 'better,' being flawed doesn't in any way negate all the considerable good they did, and it's kind of a moot point anyway, because they all died through no fault of their own (Palpatine couldn't have given have a kriff about their philosophy, beyond the part where they were against murder and wouldn't let him be king of the whole universe, the bastards - Order 66 would have happened regardless of the rules about attachment). Basically, I can make a list of shitty things individual Jedi did or said, but nah, I wouldn't change the Order.
#ask#long post#meta#my meta#the order's flaws#anonymous#jedi order#jedi culture#jedi council#jedi positivity#obi-wan kenobi#mace windu#yoda#anakin skywalker#sheev palpatine#darth sidious#order 66#sw talk
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I've always wondered this, but what do you think the Cullen's political viewpoints would be, given their individual backgrounds? if vampires don't change after they turn, then surely they would all be extremely racist (especially Jasper). would this not come up at some point? they aren't like the Volturi because the Volturi are too old to care, but the Cullens are young enough that they have been brought up with opinions on stuff like sexism, racism, homophobia and the like.
Oh fuck.
You get an early answer because otherwise I'll just chicken out and delete this one, pretend I never saw it.
UMMM.
Since I'm guessing you meant American political viewpoints, we need a disclaimer. I am not American, and not too knowledgeable about your politics. Not just in the sense that I don't follow the day-to-day drama, but as I am not an American citizen there are several things I don't know, can't know because I've never lived in your country and therefore can't know what the effects of living in a country ruled by American policies is like. What I do know is based off of the news in the foreign section, social media (by which I mean tumblr posts), and Trevor Noah's Daily Show.
I am an outsider looking in.
Which is really rather appropriate, since the Cullens are too.
The Cullens go to high school and college, Carlisle works, they pay taxes, they own real estate, and submerge themselves in American culture. Esme, Edward, Rosalie, Emmett, and Bella are young enough that this is in many ways their world, and apart from timeouts they've more or less spent their entire lives, human and vampire, integrated into American society.
Not fully integrated, mind you, they do what they need to to fit in and get to school or, in Carlisle’s case, to work. They go no further. No extra-curriculars for the kids, no book clubs for Esme, no game nights for Carlisle. They walk parallel to humans, not among us.
In addition to this they're obscenely rich, which puts them another thousand miles from the experiences of your average American. They won't deal with the health system, which means healthcare is a non-issue, they're not going to need welfare or other social programs, unemployment is another non-issue. Name your issue, and the Cullens don't have personal stake in it. Even the climate crisis won't be a problem for them the way it will for us.
What I'm trying to say is, American political issues are a concept to them, not a lived reality. Just like they are for me. So hey, you made a great choice of blog to ask.
I'll also add here that you say the Volturi are too old to care, and I agree- from an ancient's point of view, racism is a matter of "which ethnicity are we hating today?", and it all looks rather arbitrary after a while. Same with every other issue - after a while it all just blends together into "what are the humans fighting over today? Which Christian denomination is the correct one? Huh. Good for them, I guess."
I can't put it any better than this post did, really. The Volturi are real people, humans are nerds and tumblr having Loki discourse. Aro thinks it's delightful and knows entirely too much about Watergate (and let's be real, Loki discourse as well), but the point I wanted to get at is that politics really don't matter to vampires.
And I don't think they matter to the Cullens either.
So, moving on to the next point while regretting I didn't put headlines in this post, I'll just state that I don't think vampires' minds are frozen. Their brains are unable to develop further, and they can never forget anything, but... well, this isn't the post for that, but in order for this to be true of vampires they would barely be sentient. They would not be able to process new impressions, to learn new things, nor to have an independent thought process. Yes, we see vampires in-universe (namely, Edward, who romanticizes himself and vampires) believe they're frozen and can never change, but there is no indication that this is a widespread belief, or even true. Quite the contrary - Carlisle went from a preacher's son who wanted to burn all the demons to living in Demon Capital for decades and then becoming a doctor and making a whole family of demons. Clearly, the guy has had a change in attitude over the years. Jasper, in his years as a newborn army general, slowly grew disenchanted with his life and developed depression. James initially meant to kill Victoria and hunted her across the earth, then became fascinated and changed his mind about it.
Had these people been incapable of change, Carlisle would still be hating demons, Jasper would be in Maria's army, and James would still be hunting Victoria.
It goes to follow, then, that they are able to adapt to new things.
The question is, would they?
Here I finally answer your question.
So, we have these people who don't really have any kind of stake in politics, who keep up to date all the same (or are forcibly kept up to date because high school) and are generally opinionated people.
Where do they then fall, politically?
(And this is where you might want to stop reading, anon, because I'm about to eviscerate these people.)
Alice votes for whoever's gonna win. She also makes a fortune off of betting each election. Trump's 1 to 10 victory in 2016 was a great day to be Alice. MAGA!
The actual policies involved are completely irrelevant, she does this because it's fun. Election means she gets to throw parties. Color coded parties for the Republican and Democratic primaries, and US-themed parties for Election Night! (Foreigner moment right here: I at first wrote "Election wake" before realizing that's not what y'all murricans call it.)
Alice loves politics. Doesn't know the issues, but she sure loves politics.
Bella votes Democrat. She actually knows about the issues, and cares about them. This girl is a Democrat through and through.
Carlisle doesn't vote. I can't imagine it feels right. Outside of faked papers he's not a US citizen, this is meddling in human affairs that he knows don't concern him.
More, this guy has never lived in a democracy.
In life, Carlisle lived under an absolute monarchy that, upon civil war, became an absolute theocracy. From there he learned that vampires live under a total dictatorship.
For the first 150 years of his life, democracy was that funky thing the Athenians did in history books thousands of years ago, no more relevant to him than the Ancient Egyptian monarchy is to me. Then the Americans, and later other European countries started doing this.
Good for them.
There's this mistake often made by those who view history from a... for lack of a better term, a solipsistic standpoint. A belief that the present day is the culmination of all of history. “My society is the best society, the most reasonable society; all the others had it backwards. Thank god we’re living in this enlightened age!”
The faith in our current system of government is one such belief. We (pardon me if this doesn’t apply to everybody reading this post) have grown up in democracies, being told this is the ultimate form of rule, and perhaps that is true - but remember the kings who have told their subjects they had were divine and the best possible ruler based on that. Remember also that most modern democracies haven’t actually been democracies for very long at all, America is the longest standing at some 230 years (not long at all in the grand scope of things) and they have a fracturing two-party system to show for it.
Every society, ever, has been told they’re the greatest, and their system of government the most just. Democracy is only the latest hit.
This is relevant to Carlisle because he’s immortal and decidedly not modern. Democracy has not been installed in him the way it was the rest of the Cullens, Jasper included. To him- well, it’s just not his world. He has no stakes in our human politics, and as he is older than every current democracy and has seen quite a few of them fall, he’s not going to internalize the democratic form of rule the way a modern human has.
I think the concept of voting is foreign to him.
It requires a level of participation in human society that he’s simply not at. He does the bare minimum to appear human so he do the work he loves, but nothing more, and I find that telling.
As it is I think he'd be iffy about his family doing it. He won’t stop them, but in voting they’re... well it’s kind of cheating. They’re not really citizens, none of this will affect them, and by voting they’re drowning out the votes of real human voters. He does not approve.
Edward votes Democrat. He's... well he’s the kind of guy who will oil a girl’s bedroom window so he can more easily watch her sleep without being discovered, justifying it to himself as being okay because if she were to tell him to get lost he’d stop immediately. Same guy is so sure that he’d leave and never return again if she wanted him to, except this is the man who returned to Forks to hang around his singer, knowing there was a significant chance he might kill her. To say nothing of his Madonna/Whore complex, or of the fact that he tried to pimp out his wife twice, and was willing to forcibly abort her child.
This guy is very much in love with chivalry, with being an enlightened and feminist man who supports and respects women, while not understanding the entire point of feminism, which is female liberation.
He votes Democrat because he’s such an enlightened feminist who cares about women’s rights.
Emmett doesn’t care to vote, but if he has to he votes Republican. The guy is from the 1930′s, and has major would-be-the-uncle-who-cracks-racist-jokes-if-he-was-older vibes.
Esme doesn’t vote, that would require getting out of the house.
More, I just... can’t see it. I can’t see her being one to read up on politics and The Issues, period, but if she has to then I doubt she’d be able to decide.
Jasper doesn’t vote. Alice can have her fun, he does not care.
There’s also the whole can of worms regarding the last time he went to bat for American politics.
I imagine he stays out of this.
Renesmée doesn't vote. She has no stock in the human affairs. Who would she vote for, on what grounds? When Bella tries to pull her to the urns, she points out that she's three years old.
Rosalie, guys, I’m sorry, but that girl is definitely gonna vote Republican. Perhaps not right now as it’s become the Trump party of insanity, but the Mitt Romney type of Republicans? Oh yes.
And for the record, yes I imagine she does vote. To step back from politics would be another way she was relinquishing her humanity, and that’s not allowed to happen. So, yes, she goes to the urns, less for the sake of the politics involved and more because like this, she’s still a part of society in some way.
Now, onto why I think she’s Republican, I think it’s both fiscal and social.
This girl was the daughter of a banker who somehow profited off of the Depression, and who then became part of a family with no material needs that would soon become billionaires thanks to Alice. Poverty to Rosalie is a non-issue, as it is I imagine she views it as a much lesser issue than what she’s had to deal with. The humans can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, Rosalie’s infertility is forever.
Rosalie’s empathy is strongest when she’s able to project onto others, and she won’t be able to project onto the less fortunate at all.
Then there’s the fact that the Republican party is all about traditional family values, and pro-life.
Rosalie, a woman from the 1930′s who idolizes her human life and who‘d love nothing more than to get to live out this fantasy, is down for that. And as of Breaking Dawn she’s vocally pro-life, so there’s that.
This all being said I don’t think Rosalie cares to sit down and fully understand these politics she’s voting for, the possible impact they’ll have- that’s not important. What’s important is what voting does for her.
TL;DR: I bet anon regrets asking.
#long post#twilight#twilight vampires#twilight meta#twilight renaissance#politics#history#twilight history#carlisle cullen#alice cullen#bella swan#renesmée cullen#jasper hale#rosalie hale#emmett cullen
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Line Without You (Gar x reader)
Warnings: Violence, guns, gangs, illegal human experimentation, killing
Genre: mixed (not really sure lol)
Inspired partially by Line Without a Hook (by Ricky Montgomery)
a/n: I don’t think this needs a part 2 but I’ll do one if requested
I don’t really give a damn about the way you touch me
when we’re alone
3 hrs before
“Stop it! I swear if you- Ah!” You giggled playfully as Gar smacked you with a pillow from the couch. You had been trying to play a game with your best friend and you were midway through explaining the long list of rules when Gar had decided to start smacking you with a pillow. He was being such a goofy dork (as usual) but it was one of the things you loved about your bestie. There was no way you were going to get to read out the whole list of rules but you weren’t going down without a fight. You picked up the pillow nearest to you and began playfully smacking Gar with the pillow.
“Last time I checked, that wasn’t a combat skills training exercise” Dick joked as he walked into the living room, where you guys had been at war for the past 5 minutes. Dick chuckled before a more serious expression came onto his face, causing you two to stop and realise something serious was happening.
“We’ve received intel informing us that a gang that’s been wanted for months is going to be attempting to blow up a large building that’s hosting am event tonight. If they are to succeed, over 900 would be dead, 200 of those being government officials, military leaders etc.” Dick explained.
“I’ll see you all back here, suited up and ready to go in 15 minutes” Dick said before leaving. You and Gar wasted no time in suiting up, despite your unfinished battle.
2 hrs before
“hey y/n, I need to talk to you for a minute” Dick said while you all were in the back of the van, on the way to the building that you were supposed to prevent from blowing up. You leaned in closer to Dick to hear what he was saying.
“I’m worried about Gar... He’s not exactly low profile, he’s a green tiger. Our source says that 30 of the 50 gang members there will be armed not only with tranquiliser darts, but darts with a poison in them deadly to animals. When I tell you to, I need you to persuade him to get out of harm’s way when the time is right, until we’ve taken those 30 people out. If he refuses to do that, I need you to use your abilities to bring him into a state of unconsciousness and get him out of there. We can hold on with him gone for a while, we’ll be ok” Dick said, dead serious.
You didn’t want to use your abilities on Gar like that. But you knew that it would be worse if you failed to get him out of there and he ended up dead. Gulping, you nodded. You had two different types of abilities, some you were born with, the rest you gained after becoming a trained assassin and being a test subject for the academy that took you in and made you the assassin. The abilities you were born with enabled you to feel exactly what another person could feel- their pain, their happiness and all. If you really concentrated, you could manipulate them, but that was becoming easier now. It also meant that you had elevated senses, you could see, smell, hear much better than the average human, almost twice as much in fact. You were also more sensitive to touch and could feel the slightest motion and shift in temperature around you. It was almost impossible for someone to sneak up on you. As for being a fully trained assassin... well you became that at the age of 13, but you left that life behind when Dick had scouted you on one of your missions 2 years after becoming fully qualified. You didn’t want to be a mindless killer anymore, so you forced yourself to get a handle on it before running away to join the Titans. It had literally taken you two hours to explain the medical procedures and modifications that had been made on you as an experiment to turn you into the ultimate weapon. This was all very very illegal of course, you didn’t even get a say in whether you went through with the medical procedure at the Academy.
><</p>
You had all been told that this was a very prestigious event, and you were forced to wear a dress. A dress. You were not the type of person to wear a dress, not ever, you just knew how inconvenient they were and hard to move in. Luckily, you had your suit on underneath so you weren’t itching too much from the unfamiliar material. Gar had teased you about it all the way into the building.
“ And you claim that you hate dresses, look at you now wearing one! You’re actually kinda cute when you’re mad” Gar had giggled. It only made you dread what you might have to do to your best friend who you were hopelessly in love with. Yes, that’s right you were another victim to falling in love with your best friend. But Gar had an utterly charming personality, heart warming smile and he was just so sweet in general. And lets not talk about the fact that he has stunning dark green hair...
>< </p>
Dick had hacked the system to get you all on the guest list beforehand. You all entered the building to find that all the guests were dancing. It was the formal kind of dancing though, something you had never done before.
Alright everyone, disperse through the crowd and keep an eye on things. Let the team know through the earpieces if you see any of the suspects we mentioned earlier” Dick said before disappearing into the crowd. You were taken aback when Gar grabbed your hand.
you can hold my hand
if no one’s home
“Be my partner, y/n?” he asked.
“Fine, but I can’t dance” you responded
“I’ll teach you” said Gar as he led you into the crowd.
1 hour before
You got the hang of the movements pretty quickly, and Gar was a good teacher. You made sure you stayed near an exit so you could get Gar out when Dick instructed you to.
“y/n, time to get Gar out, we’ve spotted a suspect” came Dick’s voice through the earpiece. You had been dreading this moment.
“Gar, do you trust me?” you asked.
“Of course,” he replied.
“Then I need you to get out of here and wait outside for a while” you said, careful not to let your voice waver.
“What? No- I won’t abandon the team” he said, sounding almost offended.
“I just need you to trust me and do it” you begged
“No,” Gar said firmly. This is exactly what you were dreading- how had it all come true so fast?
“Then I’m sorry” you said, your voice devoid of emotion as you brought unconsciousness upon him using your abilities. You could feel his shock and... betrayal. You ducked out the exit and lied Gar down in the van before returning to the building.
Do you like it when I’m away?
If I went and hurt my body, baby
would you still love me the same?
30 mins before
Dick informed you that almost as soon you left with an unconscious Gar in your arms, the gang members began to disappear. Not leaving, just slowly falling out of sight, most likely preparing to place the bombs. Then you heard it- the sound of a gun’s safety being clicked off.
“Everybody get down!” you shouted just as the sound of a gunshot rang through your ears. A sound that you were used to after becoming an assassin.
“Dick, the gunshot came from someone in the corner furthest from the entrance” you said through your earpiece.
“Got it, get everyone else out, y/n” Dick replied. You discarded the dress, it would only restrict your movement.
><</p>
All the guests left without a struggle, all eager to get out of there as fast as possible. Only about 50 people remained, excluding the Titans. You could feel them, shifting, readying weapons. You felt someone coming at you from behind. In one swift movement, you connected your fist with his face, rendering him unconscious. You found these strange darts filled with a blue liquid attached to a belt on the member you knocked out. One sniff and you knew it was an animal poison. Now that you thought about it, there was a strange smell in the room the whole time. You informed Dick that you had identified the animal poison and began taking out the gang members with the darts on them.
><</p>
I can feel all my bones coming back
and I’m craving motion
mama never really learns how to live by herself
Gar woke up, confused. How had he ended up in the back of the van? Then he remembered. Had y/n really used her abilities to knock him out? Oh god the rest of the team... Gar hoisted himself up, determined to go in to see if everything was ok. That’s when he heard the gunshots. Things were not ok, and he decided that it was best he leave the formal attire behind.
1 Minute before
Gar burst into the building in the heat of the moment, pushing the doors open with such force that they banged against the walls behind them. The noise was enough to distract you for just long enough.
It’s a curse
and it’s growing
you’re a pond and I’m an ocean
Your ears were still ringing and you only just heard the gunshot, but you couldn’t hear where it came from. You knew though, when it hit you in your neck. You couldn’t even make a sound before you crumpled to the ground, warm crimson blood trickling from your neck. The shooter moved forward to deliver the final shot. No, no, no, no I can’t go yet, there’s still one person with the darts standing. Suddenly all you could smell was the iron of blood.
“No you don’t” said Donna as she took out the shooter.
“y/n!” called Gar. Oh no, you didn’t want him to see you die. You never got to tell him that you love him.
Oh, all my emotions
feel like explosions when you are around
black spots clouded your vision, slowly taking it over completely.
“y/n, no!” Kory screamed.
“No, y/n. No, no, no, no” Rachel screeched. Now you were completely numb... very slowly drifting away...
and I’ve found a way to kill the sounds, oh
After
You were drifting in and out of consciousness.
“Today’s not the day to die, kid” said Donna. She was trying to be strong but she was biting back tears. You remember Kory murmuring something... or maybe she was quietly crying. You remember being lifted out of the van but blacked out after that, the only lingering thought in your mind was about how you weren’t ready to go.
><</p>
Oh baby, I’m a wreck without you
“He hasn’t left her side for more than 15 minutes for two days” said Kory.
“She was his best friend. And he blames himself” Dick explained. They had all been checking in on Gar who, as Kory said, hadn’t left y/n’s side for more than 15 minutes for two days. She had taken a bullet in the neck, it severed some major veins and possibly a nerve. She lost a lot of blood. They were all almost sure she wasn't going to make it. All they knew was that she hadn’t been moving at all after she was shot. Gar had also barely slept, he seemed very stressed, borderline paranoid. Kory worried for him, you couldn’t put him to sleep now. How long until he could sleep soundly again, Kory wondered.
I need you here to stay
The first thing you could hear was a heartbeat. You couldn’t determine who’s it was, your mind too foggy and the pain searing throughout your body burning you from the inside out. The next thing you could feel was something soft...
Your eyelids fluttered open to a sterile room, all white except for stunning green resting under your hand. You recognised that green. It was Gar’s hair. He was sleeping, resting his head under your hand.
><Gar became aware of someone running their fingers through his hair. It all felt very vague and dreamlike. He waited for it to pass but it didn't. Could it be…He opened his eyes to see you awake with your hand running through his hair.
"Y/n!" He said, overjoyed. He wanted to wrap you up in a tight hug but was aware of your fragile state. "I'll go get Dick and Kory," Gar said, ducking out.
><
Once Dick and Kory had left, you pulled Gar in for a hug with the arm that didn't have tubes running in and out of it. He hesitated but eventually slipped his arm behind you and held you close. He was impossibly warm, a luxurious sensation compared to that of the burning pain.
"Did we win?" You asked wearily.
"We did, but it wasn't worth you almost dying. But it was my fault if I had just listened to you I" he was cut off by you pressing your finger to his lips.
I broke all my bones that day I found you
Crying at the lake
Was it something I said to make you feel like you're a burden?
"Hush, it wasn't your fault. And I'm alive now, aren't I? You said as you pulled him closer, to that he sat on your bed next to you. You wrapped your other arm around him and brought the one without the tubes in it up to his hair. You felt him slowly relaxing against you. You could see that he was sleep deprived. Within no time, he was in a sound sleep. You didn't even have to use your abilities on him. Soon, you drifted off next to him. His soft, dark green hair soothed you as you ran your fingers through it and his impossible warmth so comforting. You wanted to freeze this moment in time, to never move on. You could feel your unwavering love for Gar, your best friend grow even more. It was like the world shifted slightly when you were with Gar.
Oh, and if I could take it all back
I swear that I would pull you from the tide
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