Books of 2023

Book 48 of 2023

Title: Gone Native Authors: Alan G. Cornett ISBN: 9780804116374 Tags: A-1 Skyraider, AC-47 Spooky, B-52 Stratofortress, FAC, FRA France, GER Bad Tolz, GER Flint Kaserne, GER Germany, GER Mainz, GER Munich, GER Schweinfurt, GER USA 1SG Academy - Munich, GER USA ARSOFE Army Special Operations Force Europe, JPN Okinawa, KHM Cambodia, KHM Cambodian Civil War (1967-1975), KHM FANK Khmer Army / Forces Armees Nationals Khmeres (1970-1975) (Cambodian Civil War), KOR Battle of Bayonet Hill / Hill 180 (1951) (Korean War), KOR Korean War (1950-1953), KOR Naktong River, KOR Pusan, KOR ROK 9th White Horse Division, KOR ROK Republic of Korea Army, Military Police, Nungs, PHL Hukbalahap, PHL Philippines, THA Bangkok, THA Thailand, US CIA Central Intelligence Agency, US CIA William Colby, US Court Martial Hearing, US MOH Medal of Honor, US USA 101st Airborne Division - 1st Brigade, US USA 101st Airborne Division - 1st Brigade - LRRP Det, US USA 101st Airborne Division - Screaming Eagles, US USA 173rd Airborne Brigade - Sky Soldiers, US USA 1st Cavalry Division, US USA 24th ID, US USA 25th ID, US USA 27th Infantry Regiment, US USA 27th Infantry Regiment - E Co, US USA 2nd Philippine Scouts, US USA 327th Infantry Regiment, US USA 327th Infantry Regiment - 1/327, US USA 327th Infantry Regiment - 1/327 - Tiger Force Recon, US USA 327th Infantry Regiment - 2/327, US USA 327th Infantry Regiment - 2/327 - Hawk Recon, US USA 34th Infantry Regiment, US USA 34th Infantry Regiment - K Co, US USA 502nd Infantry Regiment, US USA 502nd Infantry Regiment - 2/502, US USA 502nd Infantry Regiment - 2/502 - Recondos, US USA 509th Infantry Bn, US USA 58th Infantry Regiment, US USA 58th Infantry Regiment - F Co (LRP), US USA 5th Army, US USA 5th Army - Inspector General, US USA 75th Rangers, US USA 75th Rangers - A Co, US USA 82nd Airborne Division - All American, US USA 8th ID, US USA 90th ID, US USA ANG Army National Guard, US USA Army Reserve, US USA Camp Frank D. Merrill GA - Mountain Phase Ranger School, US USA Capt Joe Hooper (MOH) (Vietnam War), US USA Col Lewis Lee Millet Sr (MOH) (Korean War), US USA Fort Benning GA, US USA Fort Benning GA - Airborne School, US USA Fort Benning GA - IOBC Infantry Officers Basic Course, US USA Fort Benning GA - Ranger School, US USA Fort Benning GA - Victory Pond, US USA Fort Bragg NC, US USA Fort Bragg NC - Advanced Medical Lab, US USA Fort Bragg NC - JFK Special Warfare Center / School, US USA Fort Carson CO, US USA Fort Gordon GA, US USA Fort Jackson SC, US USA Fort Jackson SC - Moncleaf Hospital, US USA Fort Leavenworth KS, US USA Fort Leavenworth KS - USDB United States Disciplinary Barracks, US USA Fort Riley KS, US USA Fort Riley KS - Irwin Army Hospital, US USA Fort Riley KS - USARB United States Army Retraining Brigade, US USA Fort Sam Houston TX, US USA General Olinto Barsanti, US USA General William J. Donovan, US USA General William Westmoreland, US USA James Walker (101st LRRP), US USA LRRP Team (Vietnam War), US USA Reynel Martinez (101st LRRP), US USA SSG David C. (Mad Dog) Dolby (MOH) (Vietnam War), US USA United States Army, US USA USSF 10th SFG, US USA USSF 1st SFG, US USA USSF 5th SFG, US USA USSF 77th SFG, US USA USSF Green Berets, US USA USSF Special Forces, US USA USSF Team ODB-52, US USAF Eglin Air Force Base FL, US USAF General John F Flanagan, US USAF United States Air Force, US USMC 1SG Jimmie E Howard (MOH) (Vietnam War), US USMC 1st MarDiv, US USMC 1st MarDiv - 1st Recon Bn, US USMC 1st MarDiv - 1st Recon Bn - C Co, US USMC United States Marine Corps, VNM 1968 Tet Offensive (1968) (Vietnam War), VNM Ban Me Thuot, VNM Bien Hoa, VNM Buon Dham, VNM Buon Ma, VNM Buon Ya, VNM Cam Le, VNM Central Highlands, VNM Chu Lai, VNM CIA Air America (1950-1976) (Vietnam War), VNM CIA Phung Hoang / Phoenix Program (1965-1972) (Vietnam War), VNM Command and Control North/FOB-3 (Vietnam War), VNM Con Son Island, VNM Da Lat, VNM Dar Lac Province, VNM Di An, VNM Don Duong, VNM DRV NVA 1st Division, VNM DRV NVA North Vietnamese Army, VNM DRV NVA Work Site 1, VNM DRV VC 816 Main Force Co, VNM DRV VC Viet Cong, VNM Duc My, VNM Duc Pho, VNM Gia Dinh Province, VNM Hill 163 (Nui Cau), VNM Hill 488 (Nui Vu), VNM Hmong Meo Tribesmen, VNM I Corps (Vietnam War), VNM II Corps (Vietnam War), VNM Khe Sanh, VNM Lac Thien, VNM LBJ Long Binh Jail - USARVIS US Army Vietnam Installation Stockade (Vietnam War), VNM LBJ Long Binh Jail (Vietnam War), VNM Long Binh Post - Graves Registration (Vietnam War), VNM Long Binh Post (Vietnam War), VNM Montagnards, VNM Montagnards - Rhade, VNM Nha Trang, VNM Nha Trang - 5th SFG Recondo School (Vietnam War), VNM Nha Trang - Nautique, VNM Nui Dang, VNM Operation Arc Light (1965-1973) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Cattle Drive (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Crazy Horse (1966) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Leaping Lena (1964) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Wheeler (1967) (Vietnam War), VNM Phan Rang Air Base, VNM Phan Thiet, VNM Phu Bai, VNM RVN ARVN 91st Airborne Ranger Bn., VNM RVN ARVN Airborne Division, VNM RVN ARVN Army of the Republic of Vietnam, VNM RVN ARVN CIDG Civilian Irregular Defense Group, VNM RVN ARVN LLDB Luc Luong Dac Biet Special Forces, VNM RVN ARVN National Training Center - Duc My, VNM RVN ARVN Ranger Training Center - Duc My, VNM RVN ARVN RF/PF 302nd RF Co (Vietnam War), VNM RVN ARVN RF/PF Regional Forces/Popular Forces (Vietnam War), VNM RVN ARVN Vietnamese Rangers - Biet Dong Quan, VNM RVN Chieu Hoi Program/Force 66 - Luc Luong 66 (Vietnam War), VNM RVN KHM Cambodian Training Center - Duc My, VNM RVN RVNP Can Sat National Police, VNM RVN RVNP CSDB Can Sat Dac Biet Special Branch Police, VNM RVN RVNP CSDB PRU Provincial Reconnaissance Units (Vietnam War), VNM RVN SVNAF South Vietnamese Air Force, VNM Saigon, VNM Saigon - Camp Goodman, VNM Song Be, VNM Song Pha, VNM Song Ve, VNM Song Ve Valley, VNM Tan Son Nhut Air Base, VNM Tan Son Nhut Air Base - Camp Alpha (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV Advisory School - Di An (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV Advisory Team 25 (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV Advisory Teams (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV CORDS Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (1967-1975) (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV Military Assistance Command Vietnam (Vietnam War), VNM US MACVSOG (1964-1972) (Vietnam War), VNM US MACVSOG Hatchet Force Teams (Vietnam War), VNM US Project Delta - Det B-52 (Vietnam War), VNM US Project Delta - Roadrunner Teams (Vietnam War), VNM US Project Delta - RT Viper (Vietnam War), VNM US USA 6th Convalescent Hospital - Cam Ranh Bay, VNM US USMC KSCB Khe Sanh Combat Base (Vietnam War), VNM US USMC/USA Phu Bai Combat Base (Vietnam War), VNM US USSF 5th SFOB Special Forces Operation Base - Nha Trang, VNM US USSF Mobile Strike Force - Nha Trang MIKE Force (Vietnam War), VNM US USSF Mobile Strike Force (MIKE) (Vietnam War), VNM Vietnam, VNM Vietnam War (1955-1975), WW2 World War 2 (1939-1945), WWII US OSS Office of Strategic Services Rating: ★★★★ (4 Stars) Subject: Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.ARVN.PRU, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.ARVN.RF/PF, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.Specops.Green Berets, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.Specops.Green Berets.Project Delta, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.Specops.LRRPs, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.US Army.Advisor, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.US Army.Infantry, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.US Army.Medic, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.US.US Army.Infantry Year Read: 48 of 2023 Price: 8.99 Month Read: 08

Description: On his first combat assignment, Cornett accompanied the Vietnamese Rangers on a search-and-destroy mission near Khe Sang. There he gained entree into a culture that he would ultimately respect greatly and admire deeply. Cornett's most challenging military duty began when he joined the Phoenix Program. As part of AK squad, he dressed in enemy uniform and roamed the deadly Central Highlands, capturing high-ranking VC officers in hot firefights and ambushes. It was there, deep in enemy territory, where the smallest mistake meant sudden death, that the Vietnamese fighting men earned his utmost respect.While offering rare glimpses of an aspect of the war most of the military and media never saw, Cornett tells the full, gut-wrenching story of his Vietnam. He also gives an unsparing view of himself - telling a no-holds-barred story of an American soldier who made sacrifices far beyond the call of duty . . . a soldier who, in defiance of the U.S. government, refused to turn his back on the Vietnamese. From the Paperback edition.

Review: This is a book that is great in some places, less so in others. I was actually tempted to stop reading it part way through because of how the story ends, and there will be spoilers in this review.

This book is a lot about failure, and overcoming failure, and then more and more failure. So much failure. This is a dude who... fails. He also succeeds but where the heart of the story is, well it's in his failures. He manages to end up in the famed Green Berets as a medic and assigned to Project Delta/B-52 but is basically kicked out for being a liability. He ends up in the 101st with their brigade LRRP team where he finds his first home. For those of you who read a lot about the VN war, you'll recognize a lot of the cast of characters in this section, with a majority of the focus being on his relationship with Rey Martinez. He then bounces around a bit, a little time in Germany, some time training medical stuff at replacement centers, and eventually as an Advisor in a few different areas. Throughout all of this he falls in love, fucks up the relationships, gets into a fucked up relationship, does a lot of drugs, gets drunk a lot, gets in trouble a lot, and eventually marries a VN woman who he later drifts apart from even though staying close to his brother in law who he fought with. At one point he tries to kill his XO and is court-martialed for it, but somehow manages to serve his time and rejoin the army for a very long career - totally unheard of but true! The problem with the book is that it is uneven, which keeps it from being a 5 star book... his coverage of certain battles is super finely detailed whereas his court martial and time in jail is barely a wisp of text. He tells more about using drugs and drinking than he does talking about his role as a medic and the training. Overall a good book and fills in some more stories from the 101st and the 302nd RF Co. He does a great job with the other cast of characters, and their stories and it's worth it just for that.

In the newest chapter of Liege Doomveil, sinister machinations are set into motion, orbs are pondered, we review the finer etiquette of avoiding awkward workplace relationships, and generally conclude that if you kidnap someone or they want to change too much about how you dress, there's a red flag in there...somewhere.

If you want to catch the whole story, it's kept in one neat place over on this side blog and is only 15 pages! (for full context of the excess medals, see page 6 -Ed.)

I started fanart today but my thumb kinda hurts so I can't finish it so take OC art I never posted as my 'art of the day'.

Melo (mute) and Lody (can talk) are the twin advisors to the demon lord Sascha. They're probably his two most trusted demons and they adore him and respect him. While everyone in the demon army calls him "boss", Lody addresses him as "my lord" or "our lord" if with Melo.

Their pink/yellow eyes are actually a link of sorts. Whatever Melo sees, Lody can see. Whatever Lody sees, Melo can see. So they often travel apart from each other to have a wider range of what's going on in order to help Sascha determine the wisest course of action.

MHA Villain Speculation - The Curious Case of Trumpet

Now for another reason why I made this seperate blog: to post my just weird, gut feeling-ish theories concerning the Villains and their roles in the MHA series! No real evidence, just me speculating based upon how they were handled in the series.

And for our first entry we have everyone's...well, someone's favorite politician Villain! Representing the Meta Liberation Army it's Koku Hanabata AKA Trumpet...

And what I think of his weird treatment and what the 'original plan' in my eyes was supposed to be.

So I'll put it out there right off the bat: I do not think that Trumpet was supposed to live past the MVA Arc.

Now, that is a pretty big thing to claim and don't blame people for being skeptical. After all Trumpet's faction, the Hearts and Minds Party, is a major aspect of the PLF if they were to win, being the driving force to steer education, and thus the future more towards what the organization wants after Shigaraki destroys everything. It's even brought up again after his arrest and how the party was dismantled...

Yet, with that in mind, I can't help but feel this is something akin to a band-aid meant to involve someone who wasn't supposed to last as long as he did.

So why do I feel this way. Well, from the get go, MVA ends with a bit of an awkward note when it came to the MLA executive side. No matter how you slice it, the fact that Hori planned only for Curious to die out of the named five is just very weird in hindsight. After all, if the plan was for the MLA to join the LOV, then why not have her stick around as well? Why just kill one? It's just an odd detail, I'm sure everyone else would think so as well.

Well, what if she wasn't supposed to be alone? Given how much of a forefront he played in the Revival Celebration, from spurning the MLA soldiers to attack and even welcoming the League when they come to Deika City with Curious, (especially in the image above), I feel as though he was supposed to die in the event as well. If I were to be specific, I think the initial plan was for Spinner to prove Trumpet's view of him and his 'weak Quirk' wrong by using the strengths of his Quirk to get close enough to kill Trumpet. In turn, Spinner is able to lighten Shigaraki's load since Trumpet's death removes the effects of his Quirk to the soldiers of the MLA and makes them fall even easier for Twice's Sad Man Parade to handle.

But something happened. I think, ultimately, the plotline had to be scrapped as Hori went into Shigaraki's ordeal with Re-Destro. Perhaps it was to preserve the pace or maybe its because there may have been pressure from editors or the like to hurry the arc up, whatever the reason was, the fight was scrapped and Trumpet was spared as a result.

If that's the case, then it goes a way to explain the oddity concerning his placement in the PLF. Namely, the fact that he doesn't get to be a Commander of a Regiment (which is bizarre when you consider that Twice was the sole Commander of the Black Regiment, even though Trumpet easily could have been a Co-commander of it). Re-Destro made sense since he was the leader of the MLA as a whole up until Shigaraki, so he's pretty much the Vice Commander of the entirety of the organization as a whole.

But Trumpet? He just gets nothing, and while you can argue It's because he's a working politician, keep in mind Skeptic was a Commander while also being an executive of Feels Good Inc. He could certainly have been both, and likely be a good fit for Brown or Black. It's odd, but if you consider he wasn't supposed to live past MVA, then it starts making sense. He was supposed to be dead, so Hori didn't really have a set Regiment to give him, and by the time the First War came around, he opted not to really bother with it.

And on the First War? If you consider he was supposed to be dead at this point, than his involvement makes his role in it star to click...or rather. Lack of it. He doesn't do anything. Geten, Re-Destro and, especially, Skeptic had major roles to play in the War and Trumpet easily could have had a part in leading the army about or boosting them with his Quirk. Turning 16K people into a very dangerous force to contend with the Heroes! Yet-

He's taking out off-screen without affecting a thing. But why? Well, another reason I think Trumpet was supposed to be bite it in MVA, beyond giving Spinner his moment, has to do with Incite.

It's one of those Quirks that would fall into 'One-Shot Villain' tier on the latter of how tricky it is to write around. Think of Mustard. His Gas, while it worked for the Training Camp arc, would have been a nightmare to use in later arcs if he were to stick around given how effective it is as neutralizing enemies, require someone to be there with gas masks, and he can't really work with his allies since he could knock them out too - as much as I love Mustard, its very understandable why he couldn't stick around.

Trumpet also fits the bill since his Incite can very easily stack the favor in the Villains without much effort. With one speech, those thousands of soldiers can be buffed to prove an even more dangerous threat to the Heroes by being so caught in a frenzy they refuse to go down, and if worked in conjunction with Gigantomachia, I could see them even pushing back the Heroes to have even more escape!! Add that to having powerhouses like Geten and RD around, the aforementioned Giganto, Advisors (in theory), and the League (especially Shigaraki) fighting and the cards become too stacked for the Heroes to win. But if Trumpet were dead? The canon story becomes a lot more smooth as the soldiers have no one really giving them that boost to be as dangerous as they would be in MLA, and makes most of their capture make a lot more sense.

But, since he was left alive? Well, Hori's answer to that awkward fact, seemed to be just 'pretend he's dead' and just stick him in a panel for later, and be done with him. Which...was an option XD

On the matter of the Hearts and Minds Party, I also argue that the PLF could still use it even without Trumpet being around. He can just be a martyr for them to promote Liberation even more, which makes sense since Trumpet did that with Curious himself. Heck, a cool thing I think could have worked out is for both Trumpet and Curious to have successors in the MLA since their spots are vacant. For example,

Chrome and Diva, for lack of names (Hori please give these guys names), could have been selected to take up the mantle left behind by their predecessors, having been part of their party/Shoowaysha, respectively. That being said, given the PLF reshuffling, at the current moment, they were stuck as just #1 Advisors to the Commanders until a proper time to name them could be met. Give a bit of depth to them.

But that, seemingly (they haven't shown up yet after all), isn't the case! What we are left with is just Trumpet being the most 'there' Villain in the PLF until he's beat which pretty much has him at the bottom of the heap of MLA effect on the story. Yes, even Curious beats him in my eyes since her vestige/ghost still haunts Toga even in the Second War. At best, Trumpet got a passing mention of his own party being dissolved...which is even worse since now since its just confirming it can't be used any more XD

Now, do I wish Trumpet was dead in story? Not really, I wished all five of the MLA executives not only lived, but got some sort of story to head into the Second War - instead of just Skeptic (even though he is the GOAT~). There's a lot you can do with politician villains in stories, so seeing him pretty much reduced to the side was disappointing. But that's life, maybe he can appear in the jail that's holding Compress and Geten? But that's just hope on my end!

Though anything is better for Trumpet than essentially being a Walking Dead determinant character~ 'Yeah, this guy lived....but aside from some minor dialogue doesn't do much and is fated to be gone anyway'. Poor guy!

Just a small thought that popped into my head but I like to think that the advisors had some degree of trust from the League because when PLW started the electric advisor made a comment about how this happened because they were waiting for Shigaraki implying that he and by extension the other advisors knew that Shigaraki would be away for a few months and take that in comparison to Hawks where based on his conversation with Twice he didn’t even know that Shigaraki was away and I doubt the OG MLA leadership would tell anyone about Shigarakis whereabouts without the Leagues approval

Hi again, @plf-advisor-stan! Yes, yeah, absolute, I do think it’s clear that the advisors were more privy (as in, specifically informed as part of the planning stages, rather than furtively included thanks to Twice’s good nature) to the details of Shigaraki’s absence.  I don’t know if it’s a huge difference, given the way Taser Face phrases his line?  “Waiting for Shigaraki or whatever,” does not suggest Taser Face has a deep understanding of what exactly they were waiting for.

Still, even that’s enough to suggest that the League and the MLA were actively planning their assault as a group, not that e.g. the MLA planned this whole thing while the League hung around in fancy suites running up Re-Destro’s credit cards for months on end.

Taser Face is specifically Mr. Compress’s Number 1, and I can definitely see Sako being a little flippant or vague about Shigaraki’s whereabouts.  That’s not because I think Sako doesn’t trust his advisors, per se—if anything, I think the evidence favors Sako being pretty all-in on the PLF!  Rather, I doubt Sako himself is 100% clear on what exactly Shigaraki and Ujiko are doing, and I very much doubt that Sako would relish having to admit his ignorance when he could just play cagey instead.

As to Hawks's side of this, it’s a bit puzzling to me, the contrast between the idea that Hawks (+the HPSC) is able to get aaaaaall this information about the MLA—their bases, their command structure, their members, the details of their plans—and yet know so very little about what I would consider to be extremely basic information about how the League changed after Deika.

He didn’t know about Toga’s quirk evolution from Twice’s rambling or from cozying up to Skeptic, both of whom seemed to trust him fully and the latter of whom had no love for Toga that might have led to him respecting her agency in who gets to know about her powers.  Nor did Hawks find out about it from just the rank and file’s discussion of how things went in Deika—like that Toga was able to use a power she shouldn’t have had access to.  Even more egregiously, he didn’t hear about Shigaraki’s awakening, which I would certainly assume people who were on-scene were able to figure out from having to flee a rapidly expanding, crumbling crater, something that certainly doesn’t reflect Re-Destro’s power set.

If it were just the rest of the League withholding details about themselves because they were still wary of Hawks, that’d be fine, but the MLA had direct experience with that stuff, too.  It can’t really be that the League specifically ordered the MLA not to talk about them, because not only would that be banking on Hawks not being able to wheedle a single new MLA -> PLF convert into talking about it (unlikely, with how highly Hawks’ social skills are touted), but if had been the League saying not to talk to Hawks about them, Twice wouldn’t have cited Skeptic’s spying as the reason he shouldn’t be confiding in Hawks about Shigaraki’s whereabouts.  But if the MLA/Skeptic were still being cagey about what they told Hawks, how was he able to find out so much?

Anyway, sorry to derail enthusing about the PLF with complaining about writing discrepancies. Thanks for the ask!

I literally just exist and teenagers like me, because I'm nice to them without bullshit. It breaks my heart a lil every time one expresses gratitude for me just treating them like a person. Last time it was just me telling a dude on twitter to stop bullying a disabled 16yo, this time I just told a girl on reddit that I was sorry she had to deal with her brother's inappropriate behavior. I legally have a child bc when I was 20 a 15yo coworker latched onto me and I ended up doing more to support them than their parents did. A similar phenomenon happens with younger kids but I interact with them less, a former professor's toddler loves me bc I understood and respected him when I babysat. Why is everyone so shitty to children??????

Admittedly I don't know the Japanese high school sports system, but on personal experience I feel like the girls basketball teams aren't eating popcorn so much as they are fighting with the administration to not be ignored. The boys all dropped out of basketball but WE still need support! Or you go to school with one of the GoM and you're fighting to get practice time, meanwhile the stars of the boys teams sometime just skip big games because theyre throwing a tantrum.

most fucking likely. the girls want the boys dead

imagine one of them coming in to ask about sharing the gym for practice time and being assumed as the new club manager

i'd throttle a bitch, teen verm was unhinged enough for it by fridays (no fucking sleep)

should i reach out to a girl i met in an online creative writing class two years ago to see if she wants to proofread any of my work…. at the time she told me that she wanted to be a professional editor and she’d be down to read stuff of mine but that was Years ago idk if she’d even remember me and i dont want to be weird

I just picked up an old paperback copy of a Vietnam War book called SEALs: UDT/SEAL Operations in Vietnam by Tim Bosiljevac. The book chronicles the early history of the Sea, Air and Land Teams, from their founding under President Kennedy through the end of the Vietnam War. The SEALs were created to be the Navy’s superhuman version of the Green Berets: “a naval guerrilla/counterguerrilla [force] with an emphasis on direct action raids and missions on targets in close proximity to bodies of water.” I love that line, “in close proximity to bodies of water.” That could mean a puddle…or hell, when you consider that human beings are about 70% water–“bodies of water” could mean just about anything.

There are a lot of great Vietnam War books out there, mostly memoirs, as Dr. Dolan explained:

Virtually anyone who saw combat and has a decent memory can write a decent book about it — and Vietnam, a war characterized by thousands of small skirmishes, was richer in incident and gore than an inner-city basketball tournament. When next you hear that rough voice asking, “War — what is it good for?”, you tell it: “First-person memoirs, that’s what!”

…This high literary output was a delayed gift of the utter lack of strategy which doomed the American enterprise in Vietnam: a war which consisted largely of sending small contingents of infantry out into the jungle to find the enemy, usually by getting ambushed, is bound to be a military disaster — but equally bound to produce an extraordinary number of fantastic combat tales.

Unfortunately SEALs lacks this first-person immediacy–it’s a third-person history, Bosiljevic’s Navy College master’s thesis turned into a book, and unfortunately it sometimes reads like a thesis.

Still, this is Nam, Dude–and we’re talking about the SEALs here. That means page after page of ambushes and skirmishes, some of which make for some pretty amazing reading, even in the third dry person.

One such ambush stuck out–one of those rarely reported, long-rumored showdowns between our guys and the hated, invisible “Russian advisors” who were never officially supposed to be there in South Vietnam.

ou kids out there who were born too late to remember the Cold War grudges probably won’t grasp the profound satisfaction that a scene like this offers your average armchair Cold Warrior. See, one thing our side could never get over was griping about how the Soviets were somehow cheating. This scene is the sort of “This is what happens when the SEALs catch you cheating” fantasy that all the armchair Cold Warriors dreamed about. It takes place in 1967–a big year for the SEALs in ‘Nam–in a province in the southwest corner of South Vietnam. Meaning, Russian advisors were operating in our own backyard, the bastuds!:

One particular SEAL ambush in 1967 in Kien Giang Province provided a surprise to a frogman force. The SEALs had been watching a reported supply route used by enemy forces on a remote canal. Late in the afternoon of the second day of their surveillance, a VC sampan floated into the kill zone. Besides the two indigenous guerrillas onboard, a tall, heavy Caucasian with a beard rode in the bow. He was dressed in what looked like a khaki uniform and was holding a communist assault rifle. Just as the craft pulled into the area, the communists became leery, as if sensing the danger nearby. Although initially startled at seeing the white man, the SEALs immediately let the law of the barroom prevail–when a fight is unavoidable, strike first, and strike hard. The frogmen unleashed a hail of fire into the enemy force. The Caucasian was hit in the chest in the initial burst of fire and went overboard. The VC attempted to jump in and assist him. Just then, a superior Vietcong force appeared and counterattacked. Outnumbered and outgunned, the SEALs fought a running gun battle to an area where they could extract. Later, they were debriefed about the incident by an intelligence officer. They were told to remain silent about the action. South Vietnamese intelligence had reported that the white man had been a Russian. It would remain a little-known fact that the guerrillas and North Vietnamese were assisted in their Third World brushfire war by a host of foreign advisers and technicians, including Soviets, Chinese, Eastern Bloc, Cuban, Korean, and other communist nationals.

There’s a serious ethical contradiction that seems lost on the author here, a contradiction that’s built into our DNA: On the one hand, the SEALs (very wisely) attack and kill without warning on the barroom theory about striking first and striking hard. Which makes sense, but goes against the suburban middle-class rules of fighting. Real middle-class American bar fights go something like this: a lot of shouting, a lot of loud long well-telegraphed empty threats, even formal declarations marking the combatant’s geographical location (“I’m here! I’m here, mutherfucker!”), dramatic tearing off of one’s shirt, verbal commands expressed in the Imperative Mood (“Come on! Come on, mutherfucker!”)… All that pre-game shouting in American bar-fights establishes the combatant’s sense of “fair play” that suburbanites tend to vastly overrate. It’s as though everyone’s worrying about what the post-game highlights will look like, what they’ll say after  the fight–about securing your place in history, or in the homecoming king vote. I dunno. I remember in Moscow in the mid-90s watching a Russian and an American go at it, and there couldn’t have been a bigger fight-culture clash: The American, some ripped red-head, went through the whole tearing his shirt off schtick, screaming and yelling about his geographical location, calling his Russian opponent all sorts of names implying that the Russian was a cheater whereas he wasn’t…It seemed ridiculous to everyone watching, especially the Russian guy, who tagged the redhead a few more times, messing up his Tony Award-winning act.

American Cold Warriors, armchair and otherwise, always carried around this grudge about the “rules” and about how Americans are just too damn decent for this corrupt awful world. And at the top of the grievance list was the fact that Russian advisors operated with the Vietnamese. Somehow, that just…wasn’t fair. Those damn Russkies–always cheating!

For anyone interested, I found a Russian site set up by Russian veterans of the Vietnam War, which features plenty of old war photos, as well as articles and short memoirs from the Russians who served. (Click here.)

About a decade ago, I was in Vietnam with a bunch of Russian friends from my old Moscow newspaper The eXile. One day, I peeled off from the group and took a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels, the setting for one of the best of all the Vietnam War books. None of the Russians gave a shit about Cu Chi and all the stories I forced them to listen to out on the beaches–they found anything military boring, they’d heard too many war stories already from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, stories that were hard to top.

So off I went on an official Cu Chi Tunnels tour. There were 10 of us in my group, all but two Americans, including a retired couple from Texas: the wife was nervous, thin, harried; the husband one of those squat military retirees who infest the American southwest, tight shirt, large gut hanging over his belt, big fat forearms and fingers. Almost as soon as our tour started, the husband let us know that he was a Vietnam War veteran. He was a real loud-mouthed asshole–it was as though he’d practiced for this moment ever since Saigon fell. He did everything imaginable that day to reignite the Vietnam War. But our guide, a respectful young Vietnamese man, kept calm, letting the sore old loser blow off his steam. It added another layer of tension and entertainment to the whole Cu Chi Tunnels tour. Actually, just  walking around the cheap victory museum dedicated to my own country’s defeat made me feel like some neutered German tourist–isn’t that what post-war German tourists do, respectfully visit monuments to their defeat?

But the real action was the toothless rematch going on right here in Cu Chi: Old Veteran Guy  versus Young Wiry Vietnamese Guide. It went something like this: Our guide would show us some half-cheesy, half-horrifying commie exhibit on, say, Agent Orange, and our guide would say something like, “Agent Orange cause many death, many deformity for Vietnamese children, American government not recognize effects of illegal chemical war, refuse to pay reparations”…and the Texan would snarl, “Nope! Nope, nope, nope! Not true! No evidence! It’s all a crock, people, I know all about this, I was there. Agent Orange never hurt anyone–they’re just trying to get money from our government, that’s all.”

Or our guide would proudly relate how underdog Vietnamese, wearing shoes made out of torn tire treads, managed to defeat and outlast the mighty American imperial army. To which the veteran would bark, “Not true! You had the Russians backing you the whole time. You had an endless supply line of Russian weapons, Russian advisors, Russian and Chinese material. Don’t whitewash this little propaganda tour of yours, I know what happened! You cheated–you had all the help in the world!”

Or our guide would show us some of the clever ways that the Viet Cong concealed the entrances to their tunnels, and how they fooled the Americans with their earthy ingenuity; our veteran from Texas would literally walk over and stand between us and our skinny Vietnamese guide, and shout, “We could have pumped in poison gas into the tunnels, and it’d’ve all been over. I asked for poison gas, other commanders asked for poison gas too, believe me. The problem was that our side played fair–we were signatories to the Geneva Conventions. The jerks in Washington cared more about the Geneva Conventions than they cared about winning this war.”

The Americans winced and cowered. But our guide didn’t seem bothered–he seemed more worried that we would be dissatisfied tour customers. I realize now, his main goal was to make sure that the old veteran didn’t lodge a complaint.

“Our hands were tied because we couldn’t use poison gas–and let me tell you, if we were allowed to use chemical weapons or poison gas on those tunnels, we’d’ve saved a lot of lives, something the do-gooders in Washington couldn’t understand. So what could we do? We used fire hoses to pump in river water into the tunnel entrances that we found. That, or tear gas. But that was a waste of time. If we could have used poison gas on the communists in these tunnels here, it would have saved a lot of lives. A lot of lives.”

That was stunning–even this jerk had to couch his little fascist plans under the guise of “saving lives.” It crossed the line from asshole Ugly American to something almost downright impressive.

I kept waiting for our Vietnamese guide to blow a fuse or shout the old Texan down, or rip the vet’s cholesterol-hardened heart out with some Bruce Lee move and chomp it down while it was still beating, Jim Carrey-style. But our guide seemed genuinely empathetic, and genuinely worried that the tour would end badly. Maybe the guide had seen a lot of these types on his tour. Whatever the case, comparing the old loud-mouthed vet with this zen Vietnamese guide, you could see, in some small way, why and how we lost that war.

At the end of the tour, ol’ Texas veteran softened up, shook our guide’s hand, and congratulated him and the Vietnamese on their victory–a victory which, he now magnanimously conceded, they’d earned.

It was like witnessing the “25-years-later” scene of what happened to the Robert Duvall character decades after he wistfully declared, “Some day, this war’s gonna end…” Which is to say, there’s a reason why Coppola never filmed the 25-years-later scene.

- Mark Ames, “PHANTOM MILITARY ADVISORS AND “FAIR” FIGHTING.” The eXiled Online. June 21, 2011.

hmmmm REALLY thinking that Amell would be a great commander for the inquisition’s forces.

(( ...... No one on this blog has seen Miranda’s actual bed chambers in the palace.... They don’t know about the fancy gold and gems crabs she has as a cleanup crew......

Advisor (roars): Why is your army invading that filthy country? King: Because I am desperate to rule it. Advisor (shocked): You are desperate to rule it? King: Yes. I can no longer stand to see the people of that country suffer in extreme poverty.

i google "period dramas for people who hate outlander" and google gives me "10 period dramas like outlander" THATS NOT WHAT I ASKED FOR!!!! THAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I ASKED FOR

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 383: Meek Spirits

Pre-cut Positivity—

O Rule and Mount Lady are a fantastic team-up.  Mount Lady is, in general, pretty boss this week.  I want to combine this and my last fandom and give her Barbatos’s mace-chan.  I also have to admire her exercise routine, given that winging around a solid metal wrench as wide as your leg and almost as tall as you are must take considerably more strength than e.g. wielding a similarly sized spear or club made mostly of wood.[1]

O The effects of Mina's efforts on her appearance are neat. The way the blacks of her eyes melt off??  I wonder if Curious’s could do that too, under the right circumstances.  Also, her horns extending out is a cool look, one that I don’t recall ever seeing before.  I wondered briefly if it was meant to represent a quirk evolution like Koda growing in that horn, but Mina’s seem to go kind of droopy afterward, so I don’t know if they’ll be permanently different in shape the way his seems to be.

Hit the jump for the rest. Note that I have seen the leaks, but I’m leaving the writing below as written pre-leaks, if only because I am very much going to want an accurate translation before I start talking in-depth about the Machia content in 385.

On Gigantomachia and the Limits of Emergency Situation Excuses—

The bit about Machia embodying “pure psychological scarring” is very…  Like, guys, That Is A Person.  He is not a symbol, not a metaphor.  He is a human being.  Apart from being a bad look in general, it's especially bonkers to dehumanize Machia in this specific fashion—“From the standpoint of ordinary people”—when the first thing the heroes’ do upon bringing Machia, the soul-numbingly terrifying symbol of everyday peoples’ trauma, under their control is to—stampede him fifty miles back across the landscape over the same path he took before?  What are they going to do, stop to yell at everyone they see between here and Jakku not to worry, he’s working under hero auspices now, please refrain from having any PTSD-induced panic attacks!

As I said last time, turning Machia against his own is the sort of thing trial-at-the-Hague war crimes are made of, or would be if this were an international conflict.  What’s even more maddening is the stench of double standard hanging over it: when Spinner turns up intending to rescue his ally use a mentally conditioned victim as a tool, he got a moralistic scolding from Mic about how “that guy ain’t gonna be your ace in the hole.”  But as soon as the heroes find themselves in a tight spot, all concerns about not using mentally conditioned victims as aces in the hole go right out the window.

The only difference between Kurogiri and Gigantomachia that matters in this context is that the person Kurogiri was pre-mental conditioning was friends with a hero, whereas Machia, so far as we know, has always been loyal to AFO.  That’s it.  If Machia had been best school buddies with e.g. Ryukyu, we would never have seen him used like this; the heroes would never have even thought about it.  We even know that’s the case because the heroes could just as easily have had Shinsou brainwash Kurogiri to open all the portals they needed to kick off this combat; instead, they had Monoma copy the Warp Gate quirk and use it under his own power.

Kurogiri is not to be used as a tool.  Eri is not to be used as a tool.  But Machia?  Break out the psychic hammer and tongs and start beating him into shape; the heroes have lots of uses for him.

I know there’s a measure of shrugging and saying desperate times call for desperate measures out there on this topic, and, indeed, that’s the way Kirishima and Tsukauchi both frame this—a back-up plan, a massive gamble.  But the heroes of BNHA are not just any sort of protagonists; they’re called, by both the narrative and as an in-universe job title, heroes.  That carries a connotation of ideal, of role model, of a character/person viewed as worthy of admiration and acclaim for their nobility and courage even under duress.

@robotlesbianjavert reminded me of a quote by Rich Burlew, author of the webcomic The Order of the Stick, that really encapsulates my problem with the heroes’ tactics and the big shrug those tactics elicit from certain portions of the fandom.

Burlew said, “Being heroic often means rejecting some tactical options that, while potentially effective, violate your personal moral beliefs.” While he was talking in the context of D&D characters with specific moral alignments, I feel it’s applicable when it comes to superhero comics, as well. Certainly it's a plot that comes up with marked frequency in the U.S. comics Horikoshi draws so much of his heroic iconography from.[2]

If I may use a more widely recognized sentiment, “The ends don’t justify the means.”  That’s the issue with the calls the heroes keep making, over and over again.  They condone things being done to their enemies that they would never condone in any other context.  This isn’t admirable Plus Ultra determination; it isn’t heroic.  It’s pessimistic and inconstant, useful only for securing short-term victories.

By all means, that’s a valid story to tell, and heck, sometimes the short-term victory is all you can get, so you do what it takes to get it.  That’s true in real life, too.  Certainly, if the narrative just wanted its leads to be able to do whatever it takes to get the job done, it could have framed them as being harshly pragmatic, doing whatever it takes to get the job done, dirtying their hands and making hard, uncomfortable decisions in order to keep people safe.  That’s the bread and butter of spy dramas and political thrillers! Heroism, however, especially in the sense of cape comic imagery and tropes that Horikoshi is using, requires harder decisions still.

A hero is someone who doesn’t take the easy way out.  They not only have to get things done, but they have to get things done in a way that doesn't betray the ideals they uphold. That means they don’t get to use villainous tactics and still call themselves heroes.  They certainly don’t get to castigate their enemies for their methods and then turn around and use those same methods themselves.

(More on this next time.)

Moments with Mina—

You know, I thought it was a little weird, back in the Class A vs. Deku fight(‘s aftermath), that Kirishima’s “thing” he tells Deku is that he saw the news story about some kid facing the Sludge Villain.  It felt so out-of-left-field, so random—surely there could have been something more relevant to Kirishima than a callback to the Sludge Villain that he had never once indicated he knew about?  But now I wonder if the selection wasn’t about Kirishima in that moment, but rather, undercooked set-up for this one.  Bringing the Sludge Villain back here instead of any place he might confront a character he faced before just felt like such a non-sequitur, but with the earlier setting, at least there’s that tiny bit of connection.  Save that it doesn’t come to anything here, either—I don’t even get the impression Kirishima recognizes him?

Instead, we get a moment for Mina, and—it leaves a bit to be desired, I’m very sorry to say.

O Firstly, okay, Mina failed against Machia before—froze up when she recognized his voice and had a brief, vivid flashback to the fear she felt when she first crossed paths with him.  Yet here, when she comes up against him again, he’s basically incidental to her.  Which, yeah, I guess you could say is progress—she’s come so far she saves Mount Lady from Machia as an afterthought.  On the other hand, though, we’re deprived of a big moment of her facing the fear she failed against before—which Kirishima got!—and instead get her taking out the Sludge Villain, with whom she has no prior interaction, to save Shinsou, so Shinsou can stop Machia.

Not only does her action, then, come down to another example of a girl’s action being crucial to enable and support a boy’s more decisive action, but she even credits it to the training she got from two boys—Bakugou and Shouto—rather than her own efforts.[3]

O Mina being the one to talk about Midnight continues to feel a little strange.  Midnight never had a close-close relationship with any of the students, but surely both Momo and Mineta had more significant moments?  And Momo’s not here; she’s being criminally wasted on the Sky Coffin battle.  Mineta certainly is here, though, and he gets a sum total of bupkis to say or do when faced with Midnight’s killer.

O I wish I didn’t find Hose Face’s writing this week so overwhelmingly exhausting (more on that shortly), because Mina’s line to him about heroes and villains both finding strength in numbers is interesting on its own merits and would be even more so if it weren't being wasted on such a flat caricature.

It has echos of things like Jeanist calling heroes and villains two sides of the same coin and Spinner spitefully accusing the MLA of being the same as him (bandwagon jumpers).  It’s also somewhat ahistorical in the sense that the story alludes a few times to the fact that groups of villains were fairly rare prior to the rise of the League of Villains/the fall of All Might.  Hero teams were likewise uncommon until they had to start banding together to fill the gap All Might left.  The MLA has certainly been cultivating strength in numbers for generations, but it’s still a pretty new thing to both “sides” of the conflict Mina’s talking about.

Anyway, it’s interesting, but I wish I knew where it was coming from.  The closest Mina’s ever been to facing the humanity of her enemies is keeping Shouto company in the wake of the Dabi reveal.  There’s Aoyama, too, of course, but there’s been no collective effort made to extend the class’s experience with Aoyama—forced into “villainy” against his will—to empathy about other villains they don’t know personally.  So wherefore this sudden empathy with villains looking for closeness with like-minded people?

O My final issue with Mina’s big proclamation is that it carries zero weight for her to disavow revenge when she’s never been shown to have a vengeful personality.  Mina’s cheerful!  She’s upbeat!  She doesn’t hold onto anger; she doesn’t brood; she’s extremely well-adjusted in that she cries when she needs to, to get it out of her system, and then she bounces back.

If Mina had been shown to have a particular fondness for Midnight,[4] then maybe I could buy her having to struggle with a darker turn.  In the story we have, though, she lacks both: she has no personal connection to Midnight more significant than “teacher whose classes I enjoyed,” nor did the story spend even a breath of time prior to this on Mina struggling to cope with Midnight’s death.

It’s the same issue I have with, say, Deku’s “mad drive to save.”  I can’t accept the characterization of Deku’s saving instinct as so intense it’s like a form of madness when the story continually fails to treat that instinct as in any way aberrant or alien to the people around him.  Likewise, I can’t applaud Mina for overcoming her rage or desire for revenge when the story never portrayed her wrestling with either.

Way to keep forcing Shouji to be the model minority for everyone else, though.

Hose Face and the Incongruous Belief Set

The PLF material this week is mostly just sigh-inducing and difficult to muster up much enthusiasm for discussing.  To recap, though, the members of the erstwhile MLA are taking every opportunity in this second war arc to double down on quirk supremacy despite tiny little issues like the fact that a great many ranking officers and members of high command have quirks that aren’t suited to getting them ahead in a society built around quirk supremacy. 

I mean, really.  Here’re some impromptu categories and characters that fit them:

Good but unrelated to the function they actually serve in the organization/plot:

o Skeptic – Makes active use of his puppets exactly once; otherwise does nothing that isn’t connected to electronics. o Curious – Quirk has combat applications, but they have little to no relevance to her day job of running the MLA’s propaganda arm.

Okay but not so impressive that you’d think they’d have what it takes to rise to high positions in the society they themselves profess to want:

o Hose Face – His emittance lets him float, and does—what else, exactly?  It’s clearly not lethal to the touch, given that he uses it to float a bunch of his allies, so at best, I can see it giving him a bit of extra punch if he boosts his attacks with it.  Not all that impressive or stand-out compared to things that hit harder or are more versatile. o Galvanize (Taser Dude) – Lightning is a great quirk, except for the fact that elemental quirks seem to be relatively common, so you’d be up against every other asshole in your town that has the same power as you but with some barely more than cosmetic variation.  Hard to make a name for yourself that way!

Just kind of whatever:

o Slidin’ Go – If he were getting as much mileage out of a slip-and-slide quirk as e.g. Captain Celebrity or The Crawler, he’d be more famous and recognizable instead of being basically a joke. o Brand (Pinstripe Shark)– If his quirk is so impressive, why does he bring a katana to the battlefield with him? o Scarecrow and Nimble - Are their heteromorphic appearances all they have going for them?  If not, we sure didn’t see them do anything else, even in the middle of pitched combat. 

Functionally useless in an every-man-for-himself world:

o Trumpet – If he had to live in a dog-eat-dog world where only the strength of one’s own quirk, zero other factors, determined who got ahead, he might as well be quirkless.

There are other issues, of course, but another one that’s on display this week is how quirk supremacy is nowhere to be found in the words of Destro or Re-Destro.  Nowhere in any line Rikiya has ever spoken, even in the privacy of his own mind, has Might Makes Right-style quirk supremacy been in evidence; he has unfailingly thought of nothing but liberation and building a better, freer world.  Here this week, Hose Face’s flashback entails a memory of Re-Destro calling himself and whatever audience he's speaking to comrades, equals, “one and the same.”  What part of your supreme leader calling himself and you equals is in accordance with the law of the jungle?

Seriously, guys, if the MLA were actually supposed to have believed all this in such a heavy-handed way all along, why was Geten[5] the only one who actually brought it up during MVA?  MVA is the arc that introduced the CRC; surely Hori wasn’t worried about the League fighting a bunch of violent extremists!  Or is it rather that he didn’t want to show the League allying with a bunch of violent extremists, so he downplayed the truth as much as he could?

Is it doublethink/groupthink, a cult-enforced unwillingness to ask logical questions if they run you into trouble with the dogma?  Is Hori just simplifying them because he’s rushing the ending and doesn’t have time to resolve their plot lines in the way that would be necessary if they were written as having valid points?

On both the Watsonian and the Doylist levels, I’m completely at a loss.

Stray Notes—

O Hose Face’s face hose gets torn apart, and I have some seriously pressing questions about whether he just lost a limb to what was functionally a hero’s attack.  I suppose it could have been a support item, but no lines between his quirk, his briefly glimpsed fighting style, and an enormous fucking hose on his face leap to draw themselves in my mind.  Again, if his quirk is a biohazard of some kind and he needs a mask to protect him from its effects, like Mustard, surely he wouldn’t use it to float his unmasked allies around the battlefield? So what is it, just dead weight on his mask to make him look creepier?

Anyway, there’s none of the blood spray that has tended to accompany traumatic limb loss in the series to date, but I do wonder.  It would be, I think, the only instance other than All Might pulping AFO’s face of heroic action maiming a villain to such an irrevocable degree.[6]  You know, just to exacerbate the severity of turning Machia on his allies even further.  God knows Shinsou doesn’t tell Machia to hold back, and those claws were plenty lethal against heroes, as we all well know.

O Not sure why Shinsou had to base his Persona Chords arrangement on recordings from Tartarus when he could have just gotten it from the phone call to the Aoyamas.  I wonder how much time he needs to program those voices in?  It definitely drives home that the heroes had been contemplating using Shinsou against Machia for a long time, though.  Which, again, would be perfectly fine if all Shinsou were doing were making Machia stand down.  Not so much all the rest of it, though.

O Would it kill Horikoshi to stop telling us the outcomes of these flashbacks before we spend whole chapters on them?? At least when Mirio came back during the war, we spent like a page and a half on the foregone conclusion before getting on back into the swing of things. The reason the fight with Spinner at the hospital had tension is because we didn't know the outcome in advance. What exactly would have been the issue with ending Chapter 382 with Machia showing up and hurling a mountain at the combatants without revealing that the target is AFO and showing Shinsou and Kirishima?

(Tune in next time for: trying to make heads or tails of what exactly Shinsou thought he was doing.)

------------------ FOOTNOTES ------------------ [1] I’ll take Scale Considerations the Author Probably Wasn’t Thinking About for $600, Alex.

[2] Consider, for example, Bad Future Timelines where the present-day heroes have to debate and, ultimately, defeat jaded dystopian future versions of themselves. Or the perennial question, "Why doesn't Batman kill the Joker?"

[3] This after crediting her Acid Man move as being inspired by Kirishima’s Unbreakable, too, recall.

[4] And I’ll note that both times she’s brought up Midnight, here and in the war arc when Mineta is fretting, it’s in the context of going back to Midnight’s classes.  She never actually brings up Midnight as her own person, Kayama Nemuri, because Mina doesn’t know Kayama Nemuri.  It’s always and only “Midnight-sensei, whose classes I like.”  It can’t be stirring and personal when it’s so staunchly removed from being personal.

[5] The kid whose name means Apocrypha, to repeat myself for the umpteenth time.

[6] Give or take the way the heroes have been pretty openly using lethal force against Shigaraki ever since he got out of the tube.

not my dm texting me this morning to say “btw since we didn’t make it to the city, i wanted to tell you that the king’s advisor was gonna be huey” I am EXPLODING