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becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys · 2 years

Note

Sorry I was reading through the replies on that Deaf post and I saw you'd written this: "it's a university known for its pastoral care. Fully abled students are actually in a minority here." I... how? Where is this university?? As someone who had to drop out of university because my needs were unmet, that just sounds unreal. How has that even happened??

Okay this answer could get very boring very quickly so I will do my very best to keep it brief and succinct, like my patience

TL;DR: we sit in the middle of an odd Venn diagram of factors that just mean we are more attractive to disabled students (certainly more attainable in a lot of cases), and the university is increasingly trying to lean into that.

Longer answer under the cut:

I suppose it's a perfect storm of a few factors. Necessary bureaucratic background: Higher Education in Wales went through a phase about 10-15 years ago where the various Education Ministers of the day, in a fit of mid-life crisis, decided there were too many universities and they needed to be streamlined by merging with each other (WHY, CARWYN), which had... uh, mixed results. Some good, some bad. But! It didn't affect every Welsh university. The bigger more prestigious ones, older and fancier of name, avoided the mergers, and in many cases struck out on their own away from umbrella institutions (Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff and Swansea all notably left the University of Wales banner and went independent, for example. That meant there were a mere four universities still in Cardiff lol okay actually maybe Carwyn had a point)

But that left the smaller and more local unis to merge and band together to become single universities with campuses in different towns. The two big examples are University of South Wales (in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd), and University of Wales Trinity St David (in Swansea, Carmarthen and Lampeter; and yes, it is a deeply stupid name, isn't it?)

So factor number one: this is not one of the major prestigious universities with a Big Damn name.

Factor number two: this is also not a university with an obvious town/city attached.

Already, these two factors make it a bit more niche, and less likely to attract the academic cream of the crop; the little dweeby swats who live in their lockers. 18-year-olds applying to uni for the first time will not think of this one, because they haven't heard of it and don't know where it is. At 18, you're either going to look up a specific town, or a specific course, or a specific university; and if the latter, you're going to go for one with a big prestigious recognisable name. You're not going to go for University of Vaguely South Wales Somewhere, and you're really not going to go for Trinity St David in Fuck Knows Where.

...but you are if you get rejected by your first choice unis, and need to pick up a spot through Clearing, which is basically a week in the summer where rejected students cry to UCAS and beg for a spot on a similar course in a different uni that hasn't yet been filled. And our courses are rarely filled by the time Clearing happens because we get fewer applicants, so we welcome these poor rejected weeping souls with open arms.

Factor number three: you are more likely to be rejected by your first choice university if you are in some way disabled. Particularly if you have a learning difficulty. Not even intentionally, necessarily, but we all know how disability complicates academic performance.

So students applying through Clearing are much more likely to be disabled, many lacking a diagnosis (and possibly unaware themselves, in the case of neurodivergence). A huge chunk of our school leavers come aboard via Clearing.

Factor number four: while our courses are extremely academically rigorous (I say this as someone who just finished a PG Cert with Oxford University, and honestly, there was very little difference in academic quality), they tend to have more of a focus on practical applications and vocational elements. They're more hands-on, in other words. This tends to suit neurodiverse people with limited desire or ability to sit in a lecture hall and listen.

Factor number five: 80% of our intake comes from within a 50 mile radius of the campus (probably thanks to the merger, actually - no one knows where we are).

Factor number six: This campus had a fairly meteoric rise - from Institute of Higher Education, to Metropolitan university, to Major Institution in the span of about 25 years. As an IHE they were dealing with 16-18 year olds looking for vocational alternatives to A Levels. When dealing with that age group, pastoral care and support is generally much higher, because those are children. The move up the ranks to university happened too quickly for that culture of support to go away, and so it's stayed. Particularly because:

Factor number seven: a huge proportion of our students, thanks to all of the above, are people who never thought they could "do" university. Often, they were actively told by teachers, parents etc that they couldn't. Often, this is because of disability of some form, especially neurodivergence. Many are mature students, looking to go back and get the degree they always wanted. But with us, the pastoral care and support means they do make it over the finish line. Which means:

Our reputation is that our degrees are more "achievable". High pastoral support, small class sizes, personable lecturers, good disability services - it all adds up. Our students aren't just a face in a crowd. If they start to fall by the wayside, we notice. We are much more accessible than our neighbours, who will cram in 60 students to a 40 person room and make the overspill watch the lectures on TV screens next door, and will charge students £300 for an ADHD assessment that doesn't even result in a formal diagnosis.

So the result is that we're weirdly disability-friendly, and we do lean into it. We're gearing up for the next academic year right now, and the Vice Chancellor literally mentioned in his briefing this year that disability is almost a feature of our student population and that's something we need to accommodate. More than 50% have a disability of some sort.

ALL OF WHICH IS NOT TO SAY THAT WE ARE PERFECT, my god, as an institution I have definitely seen the ball get dropped from time to time. It would also vary between department, I expect. But yeah, on balance, we end up with a lot of disabled students, and the culture is one of support and accommodation for that.

As I final note, I'm so sorry that wasn't your experience, and you had to drop out. That's so incredibly unfair, and it shouldn't have happened. (And if you want to try again in an environmental course in Wales DM me lol I can hit you up)

#university #disabilities

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essayofthoughts · 2 years

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What is your take on Mr. Jaffe saying that Percy “knew he had a thing (for Vex) ages and ages and ages ago”?

There's three specific things Taliesin has said at different points that are worth remembering.

One is, as you say, that Percy knew he had a thing for Vex ages and ages ago.

Two is that Percy didn't start anything with Vex until after True Love's Crit because he knew that before it would be very unhealthy.

Three is his confirmation that Percy didn't realise he was in love with Vex til Syngorn.

The thing is, you can know you are drawn to someone long before you're ever in love with them. You can consider someone a close friend and have that "Oh" moment of realising you love them not solely as a friend but in a romantic way. You can know there's The Possibility without exploring it or admitting its extent.

Vex is pretty charismatic and we know that Percy likes her and Keyleth best of all for a long time. I think he knows he likes Vex and respects her and trusts her and is drawn to her because of how well she wields her social power and he knows too that he's set on vengeance and might not survive, and he knows he's not in a place for anything to be healthy and... well. Best not to think about it. The first time he even vaguely admits out loud there might be something he's interested in exploring is right before Marrowglade - and that's him saying that he's trying to recognise what makes him happy and move towards it. It doesn't mean he's going to make a move - as Taliesin says, Percy knows he's not in a healthy place to start something. But... perhaps he wants to try to get to a healthy place. Perhaps he wants to lay the groundwork in case the Possibility could come to something. Perhaps he just wants to see Vex happy and knows that seeing her happy makes him happy and it's something he wants to work on.

I think Percy has known he's uncommonly fond of Vex from around the Briarwood Arc. I don't think he was in a place to recognise it during the Briarwood Arc and I think when he started making arrows for her he didn't quite recognise the depth of feeling it indicated.

There's also that, of all the cast, Taliesin has at several point made no clear distinction between in-game time and out-of-game time. He gave an innaccurate timeframe for when Krieg happened as Percy and there's Watsonian reasons that can be offered for that but I think the Doylist reason is also important to consider:

The cast played Vox Machina over the course of a couple of years. One episode a week, not counting breaks. To them, events that, in game, were only a few days apart, could be months ago. Years. I think that's worth remembering.

tl;dr: Taliesin is sometimes unclear as to if he means in-game or out-of-game time, and out-of-game time is much longer than in-game. Additionally, you can know you have a great fondness for someone without realising it's full extent.

#percy de rolo #taliesin jaffe #perc'ahlia #anonymous #ask

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chiefatticcreator · 1 year

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original reddit thread here

[Comic books] That time Wonder Woman became a BDSM dictator and ruled the world, ending an entire series of comics

If I had a nickel for every time Wonder Woman launched a fascist state and took over the world, I'd have two nickels. Wait, no, there were the Justice Lords, so I'd have three. Oh, and the vampires, so four. Flashpoint also counts, so five. And I guess DCeased half counts, since she was a zombie dictator? Wait, there was also that time she became a Nazi after Hitler won...

OK, so I'd have a lot of nickels. Maybe Batman has been making contingency plans for the wrong friend.

But forget all those, because this time is special. Fascist Wonder Woman variants are a dime a dozen, but this particular one was sexy. Which apparently made it all OK, and her dictatorship was framed as a complete positive.

As per usual, I've included various TL;DRs in bold throughout in case (for some weird reason) you don't want to her about how Amazons conquered the world via hogtie. If you want to have extra fun, take a shot every time you see the phrase "submit to loving authority".

(You may have read this writeup before when I posted it in the scuffles thread a while back, because it didn't fit the requirements for a full post. I then read the rules, and realized I was a dumbass and that it did fit the rules. So, here we are.)

It takes one to Earth One

The Earth One concept was pretty simple: Streamlined, revamped versions of classic characters, given a few new twists, kinda like how Batman movies “start from the beginning” every few years with the basic stuff that everyone knows. It was a pretty clear attempt to copy the success of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, with one major change: instead of being long running comic series, they’d be full graphic novels, written and illustrated by some of the best in the business. The obvious problem with that was that the best writers and illustrators needed a lot of time to make a full book, especially given that they had a full time job with other series in the meantime. That meant that the series has been going for twelve years, with only thirteen books released over that time, and certain characters having four to six year gaps in between each graphic novel. However, the comics were a success. Not a massive goldmine like Ultimate comics, but they all had pretty solid sales, and got high critical reviews. Turns out, giving skilled writers the time and space they need to achieve their vision produces some pretty good content. Who woulda thunk?

And then along came Morrison

Grant Morrison is one of the most successful and respected writers in comics today, known for taking on more difficult or philosophical narratives. They were placed in charge of Wonder Woman’s Earth One story, which came out several years after Batman’s and Superman’s. The first graphic novel was pretty much what people expected from Earth One: similar story with some fun new twists. Diana was canonically bi with a girlfriend now, fulfilling years of coding and hinting (also, all Amazons are super duper constantly gay), as well as being the offspring of a rape by Hercules (rather than a child of Zeus). She also got a relatively regular body, with more time being spent drawing her muscles than her boobs, so that was nice. Overall, it brought back a lot of the classic Golden Age version of Wonder Woman, like the frequent bondage (SFW) and weird ideas of what 1950s men thought feminism was, but in general, it was a good comic.

Side note, which is kind of disconnected but is too bizarre not to share: Morrison explained in an interview that

Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane is now shaped like a vagina, it’s the most incredible thing. It opens up in the back and it has a little clitoris hood, everything is a female-based design. It’s all based on shells and natural stuff.

Honestly? Hell yeah. Pussy plane it is.

The real issues wouldn’t start until the second book, and would culminate in the third. Although the publishers of DC repeatedly hammered home the idea that Earth One comics would never cross over or impact one another, Grant Morrison stated they felt such a crossover was “inevitable”. That opposing idea may be partly behind the drama that unfolded next. If you don’t have the time or inclination to read all this, the best way to sum it all up is a quote from a review of it:

“Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 3" is literally the phrase "I want Wonder Woman to step on me" extended into an entire book.

TL;DR: Earth One was a series about classic DC heroes reimagined in a more modern world. It was never a smash hit, but maintains a steady popularity. Grant Morrison was in charge of Wonder Woman's Earth One version, and took her back to her 1940s roots.

The Plot (or lack thereof)

You can feel free to skip ahead past all this if you don't have the time or inclination to read. However, I highly recommend you do. Partly because it'll help you understand how truly bizarre this was, and partly because I must free myself of the curse of this knowledge by passing it on to another. And remember: no matter how crazy or wild this may sound, this recap is somehow less bizarre than the actual comic.

Wonder Woman Deuce (Both the number and quality)

The second books started off a bit weird, with Nazis invading Paradise Island, home of the Amazons. And they were lead by a weird sexy Nazi girl because of course they were. Surprising no one, the heavily militarized Amazons kick their asses using orgasm guns, and Queen Hippolyta told them that they would be taken to the “Space Transformer” where

They will be transported to Aphrodite’s world where Queen Desira and her butterfly-winged Venus Girls wait to purge them of their need for conflict. They will be taught to submit to loving authority. They will learn to embrace peace and obedience. They will be as happy as men can be.

Yes, that is a real, unedited quote. It was revealed that apparently, the Amazons had a magic butterfly black ops site where they’d be brainwashed. Not the most… ethical concept, but hey, it’s Nazis, who gives a fuck. Sexy Nazi girl then tries to take on Hippolyta, but has her entire body weakened by Hippolyta’s… aura of control? I guess? Hippolyta then gives her a magic girdle that encourages obedience, causing her to renounce Nazism, and tells her

If you truly long to be a slave to the ideas of others, well… we can find you a loving mistress to explore your desires in a healthier context.

Remember that thing about BDSM subtext from the first one? Yeah, it wasn’t really subtext anymore. Nazi lady (aka Paula) then developed an obsession with getting dominated by Diana. Remember that, because the thirsty Nazi submissive will be important later. (Sweet holy fuck above, what has my life come to? Why does this sentence exist?)

Oh, also, Wonder Woman’s pet kangaroo Jumpa was made canon, which automatically makes this the best comic of all time.

Speedrunning through the rest of the comic: Wonder Woman became a celebrity on Earth, pushing an idea of female empowerment (which included trans women because Wonder Woman is fucking based) and also encourage the submission of all men (because Wonder Woman is fucking based?). The whole thing came off as a bit “Achieve all your dreams by buying my book and following these 11 principles for life, but there were some decent messages involved.

However, Leon Zeiko (aka Dr. Psycho), the most cartoonishly sexist man to ever exist, was hired by the US government (and a guy called Maxwell Lord) to seduce Diana and take her down. The government was threatened by the military and technological superiority of the Amazons, and wanted to take them out, or seize their knowledge.

Psycho pretends to be a harmless negotiator who Diana saves, and slowly seduces and draws her in, playing up how weak and helpless he is before her, before slowly starting to challenge her ideas. Some of his points are genuinely good (like how a society revolving around an ultimate authority using mind control and eugenics is a tad evil), which are immediately made meaningless by the uber sexism he then reveals in inner monologue or to the military. To get a general picture of how it went:

Psycho: Diana, you have to understand that people are going to be afraid of a bulletproof superhuman wielding a magic sword who says she's going to tear down their society. Just... take it a little slower. Also, maybe don't kill government officials. Psycho's inner monologue two seconds later: Foolish female, as all women are. She will be a slave to me, because that's what women should be. Consent is meaningless. I'm the bad guy.

With the military, Maxwell Lord builds the totally-not-Iron-Man, aka the Armed Response Environment Suits (get it? It’s like Ares, but it’s modern and related to the military industrial complex. Subtlety of a brick.)

Also, his Dr. Psycho villain name is revealed to be his username on their version of 4chan where he posts misogynistic Andrew Tate style rants. Honestly, as much as I hate most attempts to “modernize” comics, this is absolute gold and should always be canon.

Psycho then somehow proves immune to the lasso of truth, lying to Diana and turning her against Steve Trevor and her girlfriend. He then manages to lasso her and touch her creepily while she’s tied up. Surely that straight up sexual assault will impact Diana later, right? Believe it or not, no, it's just kinda forgotten. Also, he mind controls her, because he can do that I guess. Mind control Diana punched out Steve Trevor, and called her mom Hippolyta, who gave some vague shit about Diana being a weapon and her own impending death. Also, Nazi super lady was drawing swastikas everywhere, but I’m sure that won’t lead to anything.

The swastikas everywhere lead to something. Shocker.

Two seconds later, the Nazi girl confirms her mind control was activated via radio by Maxwell Lord and kills Hippolyta. Also, Hippolyta spends half her death talking about how “all is proceeding as planned”, which will definitely not lead to anything.

Mind controlled Diana gives a speech about needing to overthrow the world of men, giving Lord the power he needs to effectively launch a coup. Diana breaks out of it, her girlfriend beats Psycho’s head in, and Diana beats Nazi girl, who reveals the whole thing was because she was super turned on by the idea of Diana enslaving all men, and wanted to kick start that by killing her mom. Psycho is sent to the magic butterfly brainwashing dimension, and Diana declares war on the world of men.

It’s good to note that this was a first for Earth One books. They’d had continued plots across books before, but generally, each story could be read on its own (given that it could be years before the next one, and they were never 100% sure if they’d get to keep writing). So a big cliffhanger and completely unresolved story were very new.

TL;DR for the second book: Lots and lots of BDSM stuff happened. Diana got dominated by a super sexist guy and used to start a war, and her mom got killed by a Nazi submissive. Diana then beat the everloving shit out of everyone, and prepared to do the one thing that the Nazi girl wanted.

The Queen is dead! Long live the totalitarian state!

The third book kicks off with a utopia called Harmonia set a thousand years in the future, with “Diana Day'' celebrations preparing. The day celebrates the end of all patriarchy, and women taking charge. Also, every man shown in it is basically what Fox News anchors think gay men look like. A hooded speaker steps up to recite their history, of how they took power.

In the past, Diana cremates her mother, then goes to get advice from her butterfly mind control aunt, who tells her that

Long, long ago we tamed the beast in man. Here, as you’ve seen, our men are pampered and subdued creatures. Domesticated, content with their privileged lives, their all-consuming hobbies … perfect submission to a loving authority.

It’s basically a Tucker Carlson/Jordan Peterson speech about masculinity, but framed as a positive. Diana is then shown the imprisoned and tormented Dr. Psycho who tells her that her black ops brainwashing island is why everyone feared the Amazons, which… honestly, fair. Again, you really hate to agree with the guy, but they keep having him make perfectly reasonable statements in between all the insane sexism.

The Amazons then set out to recruit allies in the war, revealing that their entire cavalry rides kangaroos, which makes all other issues with the comic meaningless, because it’s the best thing ever. The leader of the rebel Amazons, Artemis, points out that a monarchy is probably no longer relevant, that the war is Diana’s own fault, and that Wonder Woman’s anti-violence stance doesn’t fit much for a person walking around with a sword and massive army. Aaaaand then she goes off the rails and starts talking about killing all men. Because Kirby forbid we have a single reasonable person in this story. Diana then defeats Artemis through the power of BDSM and making out, and gains her alliance.

Also, the Nazi girl is there too, and she’s super chill now guys. Because they believe pollution is worthy of death, but an ethnic cleansing is just quirky.

The battle of the sexes

Maxwell Lord then launches all of the ARES suits, and reveals that he is Ares! Whoa! Who could have guessed. He then has all the women protesting violently attacked and imprisoned, all while repeatedly mentioning “fake news”, “deep fake liberal media”, and all kinds of other political commentary with the subtlety and maturity of a brick through a window.

Then comes the massive battle. Mechanized suits of ultimate war against ancient Greek super soldiers. A devastating battle ensues, neck and neck with neither side having a clear advantage. A vicious struggle for their home, their people, the whole world, a story that had been built up since years ago–

Oh. It’s over in like two seconds. The Amazons realize the suits are piloted by remote control and unleash their full power, with Diana destroying nearly half personally. No Amazons died, because they have insta-heal ray guns.

The world is then 100% on Wonder Woman’s side because sure, I guess America is the only country that exists. She offers complete liberation and free shit for all women. On a side note, she mentions “the women of Lysistrata”, which enrages the classicist in me. Lysistrata wasn’t a place, it was the name of the play. It felt like they googled “Greek women stuff”, and just included it without reading the full Wikipedia entry.

Oh, we're still going? There's more "plot"?

Diana then goes on a spirit quest to Hades in order to get her mom back, which immediately fails. She almost dies, but Steve Trevor saves her. They kiss (which ruins the fucking point about this version of them having mutual respect instead of romance), and then he dies for some reason. They can’t use any of their magic healing on him because… unexplained reasons. I'm gonna be honest here, it felt like Morrison realized the day before the book was due that they needed five or six extra pages to get paid and went "Shit, shit, shit, uhhhhhh... people tell her not to go to Hades, she goes to Hades, she immediately fails".

Ares then sends a second, bigger robot, which lasts about five seconds longer, and he dies in the process. Diana reveals their island is actually a flying island, and goes forth to conquer the whole world, and bring them into submission to a loving authority (there it is again). Diana goes full dommy mommy on the world, and women seize power. There’s one mention of mind controlling half the population being “problematic”, and it’s never questioned again.

Remember that initial framing device, of the future utopia? It cuts in and out, showing a “manly party terrorist” coming into the speech with a suicide bomb, talking about how the Amazon takeover and control was morally wrong. He then talks about how the superior male sex should take over again, because there can’t be a single fucking rational person in this comic. He fails, because “You just can’t get good bomb parts in a utopia”, and is arrested by the “love police” to be taken to “reformation island”. He makes very valid points about how mind control is basically slavery, and how a matriarchy isn't much better than a patriarchy, but he's ugly and cowardly, so he's wrong. It basically gets reduced to "Nice argument, but I have drawn myself as the chad and you as the soyjak"

Also, Steve Trevor is alive again? There's no explanation for how the guy they specifically said could never be brought back to life got brought back to life. It ends with Diana showing that she’d used her mother’s indestructible heart with clay to sculpt herself a mother-daughter hybrid, because why not at this point?

TL;DR: Wonder Woman kicks the entire world's ass with the power of love and BDSM. Steve Trevor dies (but not really), Hippolyta dies (but only partially), and the entire world becomes a utopia ruled by women who have fucked men into submission.

Even more TL;DR: It's 1984 with pegging.

So, what the fuck did I just read?

William Marston, eat your heart out

Marston was the original writer for Wonder Woman, and Morrison heavily drew on his views while writing Earth One. As most people have pointed out, the entire Earth One debacle is basically what would happen if DC editorial hadn't stopped Marston from letting Wonder Woman conquer the world.

Marston's views on women and gender relations... exist. They certainly are things that a person believed. This would usually be the point where I talk about how the 1940s man had some really dated views on women, but Marston's views are genuinely bizarre enough to exist in a vacuum.

He was a pop psychologist (and inventor of the lie detector), who came up with a theory about human nature and sexuality based on studies with his wife and their polyamorous partner called DISC (Dominance, inducement, submission, and compliance). His wife and their mutual girlfriend were also a massive driving force behind Wonder Woman, and their theories were heavily influential on her and the Amazon society, as you can see here. Remember that "submission to loving authority" quote from earlier? Yeah, that was a direct quote from him.

It'd take way too long to get into his views, but the very short version is: Some people are submissive, some are dominant. Society would be super-duper cool if all the submissive people just realized that the dominant people were right, and let themselves get tied up. To his credit, he acknowledges women are every bit as capable of being dominant as men, and that men can (and should) submit to ferocious pegging loving authority.

OK, but why?

The fact that Grant Morrison chose to address Marston's beliefs shouldn't be all that surprising in retrospect. They have a history of taking weird elements from decades old comics and experimenting with them. The weird part is that... there's no "Morrison twist". There's no statement on it, no parody of Marston's values, no critique of 70 year old pseudo-science which has been widely discredited, and is very dubious on consent. It's just "Hey, remember this shite? It's right fuckin' weird mate."

In an interview, Morrison would say that

It wasn’t even so much about trying to be timely. It was about trying to honor Marston’s original vision, and saying, ‘What would this really be like?’ The Wonder Woman: Earth One books are very much set in a contemporary, believable world. The simplicity here is about what would happen if Marston’s ideas were taken seriously, and some of those are very strange ideas.

Ok, yeah, but why? "The guy obsessed with bondage wanted everyone to be in bondage" isn't exactly a surprising twist. Not to mention, again, Marston's views on sexual consent really aren't great. People have also pointed out that choosing to make Steve Trevor a black American, then having Diana lecture him on how him being bound and submissive is the rightful order has some really fucking messed up implications. Finally, there's no mention of what happened to gay or asexual people. Again, while it probably wasn't intentional "gay men get sent to a camp where they're 'fixed' and are sexually submissive to women" has some... troubling implications.

Personally, my thought is that somebody snuck LSD into their lunch for months, but we’ll never really know.

(It’s also more than a little ironic that an author who is proudly and openly nonbinary created a future divided squarely between men and women, with no mention of what happened to everybody else).

TL;DR: William Marston, Wonder Woman's original creator had a bunch of views on sexuality and dominance that he included in his comics, which Morrison then picked up. However, many of those concepts are deeply fucked up, and Morrison plays them entirely straight with no real critique. The only guy who questions them is the uber-sexist who gets mocked and basically raped.

Wait, why don't people hate this?

I find it truly, utterly, and deeply hilarious that all the Gamergate and Comicsgate people who have been whining about "muh women taking over" have apparently all ignored the comic which has literal feminazis in it. There is a woman. Wearing swastikas. Who says all men must be conquered. And the edgelord crowd just kinda... ignored it.

As for the rest of fans, while a decent number of people pointed out the myriad weird shit involved, everyone else... well, it's Wonder Woman in high heels stepping on you and telling you to put on the leash and submit. It checks a lot of boxes.

And, to be fair, it had some absolutely gorgeous artwork and fight scenes, so you could just kinda skim over the pretty pictures and purposefully block out all the weird shit in the speech bubbles. There's also a decent number of people who think that Morrison did a good job exploring Marston's ideas. As you may have noticed (although it was subtle), I strongly disagree with that, but to each their own.

Finally, there are the fans who just went "Man, this is an absolutely batshit kinkfest with kangaroo armies and sororities undermining the government, hell yeah". Honestly, nothing but respect for those people. DC can often wallow in grimdark and grit, so it's nice to get a bright and fun comic that revels in the weirdness of the medium.

Goodbye Earth One

This also functionally may very well end the entire Earth One line. Green Lantern could continue in space, and they managed to squeak out the third Batman a few months later (because it was already 99% done, and they just said it was set a little while before Wonder Woman). The issue is pretty obvious: if Wonder Woman established a global utopia free of crime and struggle, there’s really nothing for anyone else to do. Gotham is a lot less dark and gritty for Batman when the Riddler is too busy putting on his catboy costume to rob a bank.

They may decide to go the same route as before, and just retcon that the Wonder Woman story takes place years after everyone else’s stories, but the future is left uncertain. The creators for Batman Earth One mentioned that they thought they were continuing the story, and had plans for the future. In a particularly shitty move, DC didn't tell them that the Batman series was canceled until after the third book was released, which may spell the end for the whole series. They had also been planning an Earth One Aquaman book, but insiders have revealed that it was most likely scrapped and repurposed for other comics. DC is keeping quiet on it, and is claiming they'll release the same Flash book they've been promising for years, but they may use Wonder Woman as an excuse to end the line.

So, I guess the moral of the story is that if you want to have a successful authoritarian state, just make all its rulers hot dominant women in speedos and people will be cool with it.

Edit: I can't believe that I almost forgot the best part of it all. This was Morrison's last comic with DC. After decades of working there, Morrison agreed to make one final comic... then went "Hey, Diana fucks now, deal with it", dropped the mic, and left.

#wonder woman #ooc #dc comics

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incomingalbatross · 2 years

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So, my thoughts about Wrath of Chaos, as promised:

This finale is something of an odd one out among the series finales, as I mention in some detail here (with spoilers for season 4), as series 1, 2 , & 4 end with something about identity, with the Librarians reaffirming their choice to be Librarians and their role. Wrath of Chaos instead ends with them forcing a human identity on Apep. So, it's definitely something I want to look into more but haven't been able to pin down a theory about it.

And just how much of the Jenkins trap was Eve's idea? How far did she play along with DOSA? I mean, she's smart, she knows they're smart, so yes, she may have made some suggestions, but did they trust that she'd really turned?

And I think it was this series that the producers described in commentaries as 'the cost of being a superhero' in terms of a personal/love life, but maybe it was season four and this one was 'the cost of magic.' I don't even remember which episode they mentioned it in.

And part of the Doylist reason Flynn is always going off and doing his own thing is that Noah Wyle was under contract for Falling Skies (at least till 2015) and wasn't allowed to be a main character in The Librarians at the same time. Then it just stayed part of his character.

Chaos vs evil, too, there's something simmering under the surface there as well, given that mundane librarians are all about order and classification.

These are good thoughts, thank you for sharing them with me!

Oh, that is an interesting point... I am definitely avoiding S4 spoilers for now, but you're right, S1 finale was about the narrative/multiverse affirming that they are all Librarians and Eve is the Guardian, while the S2 finale needed everyone to personally affirm their Library identities just to get started on saving the day. S3 finale... did not do that, which is fair given where the characters are at, but it's true that them forcibly altering Apep's nature/identity is a contrast you should be able to do Something Thematic with.

My impression really is that DOSA knew very little about the Library and its people, and that Eve had to supply the whole plan (although whether or not they fully trusted her is another matter—obviously it would have been smarter not to ;P). Remember, her objective was to be alone in the Library with just her and Flynn and Apep, so Jenkins did have to be gotten out of the way somehow if you accept the premise she and Flynn couldn't have just told him what they were doing.

(Also, tangent related to "what did DOSA know": I don't believe what the General said about having engineered Flynn and Eve's first meeting. I think she just made that up as a mindgame to make Eve feel like she had less agency. Because, looking at the facts? A) we know Eve was the Guardian in at least three other timelines and it's often implied that this was her Destiny—the Library didn't need military intervention to find her. B) Flynn had not had a Guardian for almost ten years. It was not a position crying out to be filled, as far as anyone but the Library knew! There's no reason to believe getting Eve in the same room as the Librarian would lead to her being hired, because there wasn't a vacancy. And C) the Library hires the Guardian, the Librarian doesn't—again, throwing Eve at the Librarian and hoping that gets her hired would be a dumb plan, which at best suggests they don't understand enough about the Library to know who holds hiring power.

TL;DR whether or not DOSA knew Flynn was in Munich, the Library wasn't influenced by their plans. The Library chose Eve because Eve IS the Guardian.)

Anyway. :P Theme stuff is always interesting! Maybe when I'm done with the show I'll look up the writers' comments on this.

And oh yeah, that makes total sense—I figured he had some kind of real-life obstacle to being on the show more, given his clear investment in it, and another acting commitment is a very reasonable one. Just a slightly unfortunate case of Real Life Writes The Script, as it seems like it steered Flynn into some character patterns that might have been avoided otherwise. (I was happy to see his increased screentime in this season, though! It's nice that Noah Wyle was able to increase his presence as the show progressed.)

And YES, excellent point that librarians are natural defenders of order, and that that's a fun dichotomy to play with. (I also really liked the "chaos vs harmony" dichotomy being used, and would have liked to see more of that.)

Thanks again! I'm still a little frustrated by this finale, just because I would have liked to see some of these concepts executed differently, but I like having your perspective on it. Seeing a thing's merits through someone else's eyes is always a pleasure. :)

#asks #aslanscompass #a distraction of librarians

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am-i-forgotten · 3 years

Text

Enneagram Types of TDA Characters

I'm not going to explain how each enneagram type + wing works, so if you don't know anything about the enneagram theory, this post won't make sense to you. I have a TL/DR at the end in case someone needs it. And I probably made tons of grammar mistakes.

Thank you to @thechangeling for allowing me to make this post! Make sure to check their typing too.

(These are solely my opinions and I'm open to discussions, I'd be happy to discuss, I want to discuss.)

Ty: I love how we all agree that Ty is a 5w4! His enneagram was the most obvious one thank god

+He's ambitious and really focused on his goals, so i think there's 3 in his tritype.

Emma: I've always thought that she is a 8w7 but 3 totally fits her too omg!!! Her tritype is definitely 837 or 387 (I'm not sure about the order but those three numbers are definitely in her tritype, which is funny because Jace also has the same numbers lmao)

Kit: Well... I know the song may fit (Eight by Sleeping At Last right?) but I really don't think 8 fits him.

If he was an Eight, his entire storyline in QOAAD would be... impossible? Eights are dominating, tough and they are not afraid of conflicts. They don't like to be controlled, they need to be in control and usually like being in charge. (I'm really simplifying here but you got the idea.)

So if he was an 8, I'm not sure if he would go along with Ty's plan. I think he would immidiately tell him he thinks it's too dangerous and try to stop him when Ty first tells him about the plan.

(I hope I didn't come off as rude! I'm just trying to clear out confusions.)

With that being said, I'm not sure about his enneagram at all, but for now I think he's a 6.

Sixes are the security-seekers. They are royal and want to be trusted & trust others, yet they are really skeptic of other people's intentions. They can be people-pleasers and have a fear of abandonment.

"Sixes are full of contradictions. They can be dependent on others, yet value their independence. They want to be trusted and to trust others, yet constantly test others to allay their own suspicions. They want the protection of authority, yet fear it. They are obedient yet, disobedient; fearful of aggression, yet sometimes highly aggressive themselves. They search for security, yet feel insecure. They are likable and endearing, yet can be mean and hateful. They are reassured by traditional values, yet may subvert those values. They want to escape punishment, yet may bring it on themselves."

I also relate to him a lot and I think that's because of his tritype. For now it seems like 694 to me (mine is the same but in reverse) even though I'm not sure about him being a 6 his tritype definitely has 9 and 4 in it.

(I may be biased here because I really like 6s, especially 6w7s. Anyways 7 is also possible for him)

Kieran: 4. Just 4.

Julian: HE'S THE HARDEST ONE TO TYPE OH MY GOD. He's the one that I'm the most unsure of, along with Kit.

I think he's a 9. (DEFINITELY WITH A 8 WING)

Nines are the peace-seekers and they usually avoid conflicts. I know this doesn't sound like Julian but 8 wing is the game changer here.

In order to make peace (Protecting his family in Julian's case) 9w8s can be assertive and fearless.

"Awakened Nines with an 8 wing have a modest, steady, receptive core. They are charged by the dynamism of 8 - when focused on goals they often have great force of will. Get things done, make good leaders. May have an animal magnetism of which they are only partly aware. Can seem highly centered, take what they do seriously but remain unimpressed with themselves. 8 wing can bring a strong internal sense of direction. Relatively fearless and highly intuitive. [...] Could be passively amiable like a Nine and then turn horribly blunt like an 8. One moment they are opinionated or nasty, next moment kindly and supportive. Often don't hear their voices when angry. Can have a sharp, grating edge. May be slow to anger and then explode. Or angry but don't know it; may confuse being assertive with being rude. Placidly callous - both styles support numbness. Tactless and indiscriminate and indiscreet. May be unwittingly disloyal, spilling everyone's secrets. Sexual confusion, sometimes they are driven by lust."

@thechangeling typed him as a 6 and it actually makes sense because 9 disintegrates to average/unhealthy 6 during stress. (and boy he was STRESSED)

Livvy: Not sure but I guess 7 fits her. She's fun loving and energetic (again, i'm simplifying) Doesn't seem like a w8 so 7w6 seems like the most possible type for her for now.

Dru: I'm not sure about this one either but 4w3 fits her imo.

"Fours with a 3 wing can sometimes seem like Sevens. May be outgoing, have a sense of humor and style. Prize being both creative and effective in the world. Both intuitive and ambitious; may have good imaginations, often talented. Some are colorful, fancy dressers, make a distinct impression. Self-knowledge combines well with social and organizational skills. When more entranced, often have a public/private split. Could conceal feelings in public then go home to loneliness. Or they could enjoy their work and be dissatisfied in love. Tendency towards melodrama and flamboyance; true feelings can often be hidden. Competitive, sneaky, aware of how they look. Some have bad taste. May be fickle in love, drawn to romantic images that they have projected onto others. Could have a dull spouse, then fantasize about glamorous strangers. Achievements can be tainted by jealousy, revenge, or a desire to prove the crowd wrong."

Yeah I guess it sounds like Dru.

Mark: I think his personality changes during the series, which makes sense because he was just out from Faerie in LM.

That's why I'm torn between 6w7 and 7w6. In LM he definitely seems like a 7 but in the end of the series, he seems more 6-ish..? Plus 6w7s with strong 7 wings can get easily confused with type 7, so I'm leaning towards 6w7.

Cristina: 2w1 or 9w1. I can honestly see her as both but I'm leaning towards 2w1 because she doesn't have this vision of "ideal world" like most of the 9w1s do. But extroverted and energetic 9w1s can usually get mistaken for 2w1, so I'm not sure. She's definitely one of those two types though.

Diana: Maybe 9w8 (I don't think a 9w1 would cut someones arm off) but I can see her as a 3 too?? I'm not sure.

Diego: He seems like a 1w2 to me. (I've considered 8 too but 1 is a better fit imo)

"1w2s tend to be more empathetic, compassionate, warm and overtly helpful than 1w9s. Like 1w9s, they are genuinely interested in improving the world and especially helping people. They are more willing to get passionately, hands-on involved to bring about the changes and reforms that are important to them. They are sensitive to others needs and willingly sacrifice their time and energy to be of assistance to people.[...] Some 1w2s like to get involved in politics since they have strong opinions about how to improve conditions for people, are good at debating and have a strong desire to make a big difference with their life in service of others."

Helen: 2w3. She's friendly, adaptable, charming, and good natured like a 2w3 is. I didn't type her as a w1 because she seems more outgoing and competitive.

Aline: I HAVE NO IDEA I'M SORRY

Tavvy: smol

Sorry for grammar errors!

For your information, I simplified a lot of things because a) my English is not enough, b) I'm bad at explaining my thoughts and c) this took hours to make I'M TIRED

tl/dr:

Ty: 5w4 (Tritype: 53?/5?3)

Emma: 8w7 or 3w4 (Tritype: 837/387)

Kit:6w? (Tritype: 694) (not sure)

Kieran: 4w3 (Tritype: 49?/4?9)

Julian: 9w8 (not sure)

Livvy: 7w6

Dru: 4w3

Mark: 6w7 or 7w6

Cristina: 2w1 or 9w1

Diana: 9w8 or 3w? (not sure)

Diego: 1w2

Helen: 2w3

Tavvy: too young to type

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