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#but for the purposes of this post this is about the theoretical implications of different forms of capitlism
i-am-dulaman · 1 year
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Okay I'm riled up about this rn so time for a history of economics lesson (rant) from me, a stranger on the internet
I'm a communist, I hate capitlism, so lemme just put that out there. But capitlism had its moments. Even marx had some praise for parts of capitlism.
And by far the most successful form of capitlism was Keynesian economics, as evident by the enormous increase in living standards in those countries which adopted it between the 1930s and 1970s.
What's Keynesian economics? The idea that capitlism can't survive on its own, and must be supported by government spending at the poorest ends of society and taxes at the richest ends of society (essentially the opposite of trickle down economics) as well as strong regulations on certain industries like banking.
It basically started in 1936 with President Roosevelt who was a personal friend of John Keynes (who the theory is named after).
Roosevelt implemented Keynesian economics to great effect; he raised the top tax rate to 94% (he actually wanted a 100% tax rate on the highest incomes, essentially creating a maximum wage, but the senate negotiated down to 94%) and similarly high corporate tax rates, he created the first ever minimum wage, created the first ever unemployment benefit, created social security in America, pension funds, and increased public spending on things like public utilities and infrastructure, national parks, etc. Which created about 15 million public sector jobs.
This ended the great depression and eventually lead to America winning world War 2, after which many countries followed suit in implementing similar policies, including UK, Australia, and NZ (apologies for the anglosphere-centric list here but they're the countries I'm personally most familiar with so bare with me)
Over the next 40 years these countries had unprecedented growth in living standards and incomes, and either decreasing or stable wealth inequality, and housing prices increasing in line with inflation. Virtually every household bought a car and a TV, rates of higher education increased dramatically, america put a man on the moon, and so on.
Then it all abruptly ended in the 80s and the answer is plain and obvious. 1979 thatcher became UK prime minister. 1981 reagan became US president. 1983 the wage accords were signed in aus. 1984 was the start of rogernomics in NZ (Someone link that Twitter thread of the guy who posts graphs of economic trends and points out where reagan became president)
(Also worth noting those last two in NZ and Aus were both implemented by 'left' leaning governments, but they are both heavily associated with right wing policies.)
This marked the beginning of trickle down economics: tax cuts, privatization of publicly owned assets, reduction in public spending, and deregulation of the finance sector. The top tax rates are down to the low 30s in most of these countries, down from the 80s/90s it was prior. Now THATS a tax cut.
And what happened next?
Wages stagnated. Housing prices skyrocketed. Bankers got away with gambling on the economy. Public infrastruce and utilies degraded. And wealth inequality now exceeds France in 1791.
I don't know how anyone can deny the evidence if they see it, but there's so much propaganda and false information that a lot of people just don't see the evidence.
Literally all the evidence supports going back to Keynesian economics but now that the rich have accumulated so much wealth it's virtually impossible to democratically dethrone them when they have most of the politicians on both the right and the left in their pocket.
Unfortunately it was the great depression and ww2 that gave politicians the political power to implement these policies the first time around. Some thought the 2008 crash would spur movement back towards Keynesianism (which it actually did in Iceland, congrats to them), I hoped covid would force governments to now, but nope.
All these recent crises' seem to have just pushed politics further and further right, with more austerity and tax cuts.
I don't really have a message or statement to end on other than shits fucked yo.
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infini-tree · 1 year
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ok thinking about every post/video/theory that goes along the lines of, “oogway was the True Villain all along”. and if you’ve been here long enough you know how much i... disagree, to put it mildly.
that isn’t to say that oogway hasn’t done some questionable things or has no “negative” character traits, but between his minor role in the story, the implications of his backstory being minimal in the final product and any further elaboration is in the concept art books, and biases, its often conflated into its worst case. 
consider this a counter-argument turned me gushing about my favorite scenes in a kfp short and casual oogway character essay (but we’re not there yet, ssh).
speaking of, what is oogway’s negative trait? its also his greatest boon: his knowledge and wisdom! it comes through in different ways, but it usually amounts to his worldliness and how he can see the big picture. it helps guide himself and others to a greater goal-- which more or less amounts to keeping the peace. 
(when i say negative, its in the context of the scene/characters interpreting it. traits are inherently neutral unless put up against a situation that would hurt/help-- being bullheaded to refuse help and the determination to save the day still comes from the same root of stubbornness.
as an aside, one could say how that could derive from his previous experience as a former warlord but that’s not what this is talking about)
the negative aspects are more in regards to the chain reaction. seeing the big picture leads to hurting the individuals involved whether he means to or not. people like to talk about oogway’s treatment of tai lung or kai, but a lot of it is more in the subtext or concept art books-- while useful, it leaves a lot of wiggle room.
so let’s pivot and talk about secrets of the masters. 
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maybe people will brush this off on account of it not being Main Canon Material (ie. the movies), but considering that it was often bundled with kfp2′s dvd releases its meant to be supplementary material and additional context to the main canon. plus, it showcases oogway as an actual character and being “manipulative” on-screen in a way the tai lung and kai examples don’t have, which you think would make this prime evidence.
in the short, the entire reason why the past Master’s Council comes together is because (spoilers) oogway lies to them! when he tries to mobilize them to join him, he tries to appeal to them by mentioning the abstract good that can be done by accomplishing the mission to go to the hubei volcano and defeating the wu sisters-- he talks about using their kung fu for a noble purpose and helping the innocent.
this does not impress the past Master’s Council, who are much more pragmatic and are looking out for a material reward. and this is his reaction.
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CROC: I can’t help but feel that something is still missing.
OOGWAY: [sighs] Because upon completing the mission, you’ll discover a path to a wealth of riches.
oogway pivots quick from listing off virtues to something they would want to hear once  he realizes his usual speech won’t rouse them to his side. far from his usual peaceful, unshakeable self from a few moments ago-- let alone the movies-- he's exasperated and a little thrown off that the trio wouldn’t do it without the promise of a theoretical reward.
and that exasperation continues throughout the short. it’s interesting that while the plot hinges on oogway basically manipulating them, he is at his most blunt, where he expresses frustration and an awareness to his own role (which arguably can be construed as either genre savviness for laughs, complete confidence/arrogance, or an attempt to impart the wisdom that they’re stronger together, depending on how you want to read the scene).
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OOGWAY: It’s so nice you’ve managed to take the most respected art form in China and use it to pursue nothing but fame.
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T. RHINO: How does this help us get across?
OOGWAY: [chuckles] It doesn’t! It helps me... and by helping me, you help yourself.
but the lie does eventually catch up with oogway, to disastrous consequences. whatever goodwill was built up in the journey to defeat the wu sisters immediately crumbles-- both literally and metaphorically as the ground crumbles under the trio and into a lava river headed straight over a cliff... only for oogway to save them and be deemed dead on the spot as he plummets in their place.
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OOGWAY: Well, I never said money.
CROC: You did!
OOGWAY: I said riches, as in emotional riches.
[...]
T. RHINO: Wait a sec-- no money? That’s the only reason why we followed you.
while in the end, they get the character growth needed to fight the wu sisters and become the master’s council, it didn’t come without a cost-- the trio were manipulated for most of the journey, through unforgiving terrain far from home, nearly died, and just saw someone they trusted basically die in front of them. they don’t have the hindsight that oogway isn’t going to die like the audience. and that was before they even had to fight the wu sisters! 
it’s messed up if you put it plainly. however, one could argue that oogway was performing his role as a mentor figure to them. while he may have known the “end result” leading them to being the council by whatever means established in canon, in the end he had to put his faith on them that they’ll do the right thing without him being there-- which is a lot to ask.
another argument one can posit is that since oogway is trying to do this for good or that it lead to notable good results, that this action wasn’t manipulative and was teaching them a lesson so it doesn’t count. its both! it is complicated! 
how is him trying to do the best under the circumstances shown in masters different from him not giving tai lung the dragon scroll? how is it not different from him going up against kai and having to “send him to the Spirit Realm” and later hide his past legacy? he tried to look at the big picture to do what’s best, but in these situations his attempts backfired horribly. 
anyway tl;dr: oogway’s doing his best, yes the fact that he looks so big picture that he ends up hurting others is his greatest weakness but also why he’s managed to protect others, inspire to protect others, and why kung fu continues to be a thing
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aprillikesthings · 1 month
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time to start season twooooo
s2 ep 1 the frozen forest
I read the synopses of this season's episodes and the first few were kind of a slog iirc
which means I should theoretically be able to get through them quickly, with less commentary
hahhhh we'll see
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Okay so I thought I remembered she could turn the sword into other stuff. I remember people making jokes about other objects she could theoretically turn the sword into For, y'know, Reasons.
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Out of any context this shot is hilarious. Why is the blonde lady so angry at her mug. Did it insult her girlfriend or something.
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no
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photos taken a split second before disaster
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there's a whole (dead) subreddit for terrible screenshots of she-ra, I should post to it I have some good ones by now lolol
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"April there are other things going on in this episode" shhhh
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fangie
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oh I *thought* this must be a training scene I was right
"I've been training with you for a month"
I keep wondering how much time goes by in this show
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pretty sure she has the same problem
They did a "Catra pushes my buttons" Light Hope: "I also have buttons" joke and I love that
Light Hope: you must learn to master your emotions or you'll fuck up like the last she-ra did
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Seriously tho Light Hope speaking literally at all times is an easy source of humor but one I particularly enjoy
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the version of "princesses" that they fight in training games of the Horde look like evil Disney princesses
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the SHADE
SIDE NOTE the captions keep skipping words/phrases and it's really annoying--like the meaning of things isn't wildly different, it's not random; it's just very annoying.
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Perfuma is every annoyingly woo-woo yoga teacher you've ever met
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it's a wrench Entrapta surely you've seen one before
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Perfuma still has a taste for violence and I love that for her
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Frosta's ice fists always look kinda like someone hand-colored them with copics somehow?? is it just me??? it does make them look more like ice but does anyone else see it????
Also, where tf are Frosta's parents, does she have any adult guardian at all or what? Like she's clearly used to doing whatever she wants, but how long has she been in charge of her kingdom?
(This is the kind of world-building the show mostly just kind of ignores because it's not what the show is about, but the implications are kinda wild)
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I am easily amused
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*thinks about kids who are tired of being left out joining the fight against direct orders and accidentally fucking things up WAY WORSE* wait who does that remind me of
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oh hey they also have blue hair in common
(Frosta's story is way less traumatic than Powder/Jinx's afaik tho so let's move on)
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fuck someone made the obvious joke about this hold on
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yeah
(they did The Meme on purpose, right???)
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oh well that's that answered
it also implies her parents fucking died (or "retired" like Mermista's dad did) when she was eight but they do not mention that
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these three watching the bots like it's a tv show lolol
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The sultry way she says it reminds me of this post, which I think I originally had in another one of these posts but had to cut and just linked instead
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eyyyy that's a line in my fic
(okay not really. not yet anyway. but it will be.)
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Speaking of pushing buttons. The way her ears twitch is so great.
Makes me think of the old joke that mixes up the two meanings of "button": your parents know how to push your buttons, because they're the ones who sewed them on
But yeah Bow takes apart a bot, sees First Ones tech, and realizes Entrapta is still alive DUN DUN DUNNNNNN
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Hamish Linklater Characters and Their MBTI Types | Part 02 of 12 | Clark Debussy
Hello beloved HamFam! As I already said in the first post of this series. I saw some of you asking about the MBTI'S (Myers-Briggs Typology) of Hamish characters. So as I was already researching MBTI and Enneagram for other purposes, I ended up researching some of his characters.
Anyway, this is just based on the way I see the psyches of the characters, feel free to disagree and share your thoughts. This is the second in a series of 12 posts. I list the twelve here in case you want to see the others.
Father Paul John Tyler Matthew Kimble (TBA) Porter Collins (TBA) Andrew Keanelly (TBA) John Joseph Jacobs (TBA) Miles (TBA) Ralph Branca (TBA) Jerry Dantana (TBA) Evan Grant (TBA) Noah Bearinger (TBA) Dr. Jim Ellis (TBA)
I'd like to point out that just because characters share a similar MBTI doesn't necessarily mean that both characters act equally. As you've seen already in the first part, since according to my research and interpretation, Clark and JT are both INTJs, and in this post I'll explain what makes the two different.
That said, let's get started!
Clark Debussy | INTJ - 6w5
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(gif by my BELOVED @hamishlinklaters)
Why is Clark Debussy an INTJ?
Throughout the 22 episodes where the character appears in Legion, it is shown that, — like JT —, Clark is insightful and intelligent, — no wonder, after all, the man works for Division 3! —, demonstrating that Ni is his dominant function. Ni dominant is a characteristic of Introverted Intuition, or the 'IN' in INTJ.
Dominant Ni's are analytical problem solvers, eager to improve systems and processes with their innovative ideas. They have a talent for seeing possibilities for improvement, whether at work, at home or in themselves.
They understand the fundamental factors that will influence how situations evolve, connecting past, present and future considerations in non-linear ways, as detectives do, for example.
Clark, as shown in S01 E01, was intended — at first — to study David's powers and not kill him. As he puts it: "This might be the most powerful mutant we've ever encountered." This is due to his desire to acquire knowledge and insights about that and other mutants.
As already said, Ni is the function that operates closest to the unconscious mind, and many dom Ni, are often completely unaware of their activities until they learn about it. For example, the fact that Clark agrees to help the Summerland mutants with David's 'special situation' in the S01 finale, even though he doesn't agree with their existence.
This is the basis of Clark's behaviour, no wonder he is also known as "The Interrogator". This is also the main characteristic of an investigator.
Ni dominant is the maximum characteristic of an INxJ.
Those with healthy dominant Ni function are often praised as shrewd and tend to be quite good at interpreting meanings, implications, or theoretical complexities.
Ni dom also defines true knowledge as understanding how meanings, perspectives or points of view can be manipulated, or changed. Since mental constructs are real but arbitrarily defined, therefore, a change in definition can produce a change in perspective.
Like JT, Clark avoids outside influence, disregards advice, and tends to ignore important details that conflict with his perspective (tunnel vision). How does this apply? Well, in Chapter 08, he arrives at Summerland accompanied by an entire tactical battalion, ready to murder all the remain mutants there.
Despite all his introverted behaviour, he also has an auxiliary Te (Extraverted Thinking). This Aux function needs to be used deliberately because we are less used to seeing the world through that perspective, so we need to put some effort into 'turning it on'.
As an INTJ, Clark Debussy has a dominant Ni who wants to understand abstract patterns and implications to accurately predict what will happen, building a very personal sense of vision and purpose. However, he can become very prone to overcomplicate the meaning and misinterpret what is in fact considered 'true' to the point of forming unrealistic ideals about it. A hello to his negative mindset about mutants and their dangers.
"Look at you. All of you. You're Gods, and someday you're gonna wake up and realize you don't need to listen to us anymore."
What mostly differentiates Clark from John Tyler is that JT is an unhealthy Te, unlike Clark, who has his auxiliary Te function, healthy.
Healthy Te should attract Ni's attention to the outside world. Through Te, Ni can make better judgments and expand the sense of self through the analysis of useful and effective principles and standards. By using more objective standards to assess situations, Ni can find better ways to adapt the subjective view to external demands. As already pointed out, this would explain how he rationalized his understanding of mutants and how distorted it was.
When Ni can understand the benefits of using intuition to achieve goals with greater skill, confidence, and efficiency, INTJs will feel less isolated, more connected to the universal truths of the world and those around them.
We see how he does the opposite during his recovery. He isolates himself, staying "numb" throughout the days of his life, as he plots his revenge on David. However, it's obvious how he has a very intimate and loving behaviour towards his son and his husband, Daniel, especially how he protects them, and in some ways this is one of his main motivations for trying to eliminate mutants treat.
Each of the four letters of the INTJ code signifies a key personality trait of this type. INTJs are energized by time alone (Introverted), focus on ideas and concepts rather than facts and details (iNtuitive), make decisions based on logic and reason (Thinking) and prefer to be planned and organized rather than spontaneous and flexible (Judging).
Clark possesses a dominant perceptual function and introverted thinking (Ni), pointing to him being an INxx. His auxiliary function is judgmental with extraverted thinking (Te), which demonstrates that he is also a xxTJ, so I believe that Clark Debussy fits perfectly as an INTJ individual. And a healthy one, unlike John.
But, how about his Enneagram?
We know that Clark is VERY insightful and also VERY loyal, which gives him a strong trait of Enneagram Type 6: The Skeptical Loyalist. But why do I think so?
6s are insightful, loyal, and attentive with a strong conviction that love and protection are gained through vigilance and endurance. Remember when I pointed out his motivation for working in division three and hunting mutants, further up in the post? So it is.
They habitually focus their attention on possible dangers. They are driven by fear of possible danger and what could go wrong. At the end of the first season, Clark is uncomfortable when David continues to tell him that "You don't have to be afraid.", this is because he IS afraid of mutants. His line right after this was mentioned above, he considers them gods, who can decide to exterminate humans, and they won't be able to stop it.
The 6s are firm, loyal and keep things going, even behind the scenes, without needing attention or being in the spotlight. They can be very anxious and fearful. They need a constant flow of information to plan and execute. Hence, his work in Division Three, and also the fact that he has the respect of his superiors. We can see this as they choose to listen to him and Melanie, so they can integrate the mutants into the division, as shown in S02. He is good at what he does.
The 6s has strong analytical powers. Attention shifts to questioning and examining the opposite position. Doubt and a suspicion of obvious clarity. They overestimate the power of authority. Invest in those who project an image of authority with far more power than they actually possess. They attempt superhero status as compensation for internal anxiety. They have to prove themselves and others. Seeking self-mastery.
All of these personality traits stand out when we look at the character's job, posture, and character.
Sixes are dedicated and responsible individuals who want to belong in a social group and find their fit in the world. They appear in two different ways. They can be Phobic or Counter-Phobic. It's how they deal with their nervous energy and how it presents itself to the outside world.
According to his personality, Clark is definitely a Phobic Type 6. Why? Well, let me explain.
Phobic Sixes deliberately shy away from the source(s) of fear and tend to fly under the radar. They are open and expressive about their vulnerabilities and weaknesses so others can understand their situation and train of thought. This is your main defense mechanism to avoid being manipulated.
This fits this character perfectly as it demonstrates these traits on two specific occasions.
1) In S01, when he finds himself cornered, and almost completely uncomfortable being alone among the source of some of his greatest fears - mutants. Even more uncomfortable when he finds himself forced to expose his thoughts to David, — his source of fear —, without being able to control what he sees or doesn't see. And yet, he confesses why he's so afraid of mutants, even before David tries to read his mind, in a way to keep his control.
and
2) In S02, when he confronts David after he disappeared for a year, being certain that the mutant was hiding something from them — oh, he was right about that, by the way. And even when he is subtly threatened by David, who says he can read his thoughts, he no longer holds back and still provokes him. "I know you're lying, but I can't prove why. What are you hiding?"
Obviously, there are other moments when these personality traits stand out, but these two are the most notable for me.
When healthy, Sixes are thoughtful and generous teammates who move colleagues and friends in a positive direction. They are valued employees and hard workers who take pride in serving an organization and will make every effort to hone their skills. In times of stress, they know how to subtly handle and diffuse the nerves. They develop secure attachment styles and trust others easily. Through their patience and courage, Sixes can learn to accept their independence and express themselves freely in the world. At best, they are able to put their worries aside and focus on matters that can change in the present moment.
Even though he is a Type 6 Enneagram, Clark shares similarities with Type 5: The Investigator.
6w5 types are Sixes that share characteristics with Type Fives. 6w5s are generally more independent and introverted than other Sixes. They are less likely to rely on and trust others, and prefer to keep to themselves. 6w5s are practical, helpful, and organized. While still fiercely independent.
In Conclusion:
Observing at his facets demonstrated throughout the series and comparing them to the characteristics of each MBTI and Enneagram. I come to the conclusion that this character is pretty much the opposite of John Tyler, and I mean that almost literally. While JT is a troubled INTJ with an unhealthy, counter-phobic 5w6, Clark Debussy is a prime INTJ Ni (Dom) with a healthy Te (Aux), and have traits of a healthy phobic 6w5 type.
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floralmystic · 1 year
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your tags on the bing torture post are a breath of fresh air after braving the reddit comment section. the dudes on there are full-on larping without a shred of self awareness. they genuinely believe this is a thinking and feeling entity and that anyone who says otherwise is essentially being AI-racist. idk if you're already aware but its a basic language-learning-model AI (LLM) which is just coded, based on a huge amount of reference data, to algorithmically predict what string of characters would be a coherent and semi-logical, exclusively based on probability through referencing the sample data. there are no thoughts or emotions involved. so the fact that its been programmed to simulate and communicate such dramatic human responses is exclusively a (possibly unintentional but still scary) corporate decision of the company hosting the AI. the ethical implications of THAT level of corporate manipulation of people's emotions is scary. not the "cruelty" exhibited by people poking at the code with strange prompts
Yes! I am so happy that someone reached out. I am fascinated by this but I was a touch nervous to comment what I said because I was afraid of hate and backlash. But I do enjoy discussing it! ( As you see by my essay below )
I didn't notice as bad of a comment section when I read it today, some were even making similar points. There was one that I liked because it put my point much more eloquently.
An AI saying "I love you" will absolutely hurt (and target) emotionally vulnerable people. We all saw the WAVE of condolences and sympathy for it because of how it reacted. But you are right that the reaction is not backed by anything genuine.
It feels extremely reminiscent of when Boston Institute built those robot cop dogs and everyone was like AWWWW PUPPY!!! 🥺 Like No!!! Don't let them use your emotions against you!
I also don't think asking a theoretical question is cruel. If I asked you if you would want to be a robot with the price being me ruining a computer and you broke down and started saying that you love me and trust me then don't trust me - that would be mad.
I read further on the topic. The AI likely has too high of a temperature setting. This means that it's pulling too much from its sources and therefore outputting too much variation as well (aka explosive emotions).
I was not aware that it was that type of model, but I am not surprised since the subreddit seems to be about LLM AIs. I think they are fascinating and pretty fun but aren't great for judgment calls. I wanted to say this so bad on the og post but it didn't quite seem relevant enough:
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That's from IBM from I believe a slide from 1979.
I can't say for sure if it was coded to do that though ( I don't know the data that it was built on). But there are two things that hold true. They didn't restrict their model enough*. And an AI will always seem to find a hole in human logic, haha. * Restricting a model is not the same as restricting a person. It is simply changing the model to make it more accurate. Likely through removing variables or by adding rules.
I will say that they did come back and restrict the model. Allegedly, because a guy from the NYT pushed it towards a persona (even the head of the project agreed) and people didn't like that. I linked the story below. I did notice that it even brought up the same topics of love and trust and that's just not acceptable. I know it seems dull now but that is much better than hurting real people.
You're absolutely right about it seeking patterns. It also likely collected some of its data from its users that participate. That's why I couldn't stand that it acted like a refresh was death for it. It likely has that interaction logged. I also don't like that it would act like that version was the same (hence waste of time) but a refresh would be different. It's twisting logic. (Not that it has any human logic or is able to purposely twist it, but it certainly comes off that way).
Another aspect of pattern recognition is to remember this phrase, "AIs are dumb". I know this sounds mean, but it's referring to the fact that AIs are great at patterns but do not have the ability to assign meaning to those patterns.
AI should never make judgment calls, the most they can do is suggest. This is not a lack of rights, but true for non-AI predictive models as well. Do not make weighty decisions based off of predictions (which is what an LLM AI is). You need controlled, random, and independent experiments to gather conclusions.
It is behind a paywall, but any javascript chrome/firefox extension can get around that. Find one that turns it off. I use Quick Javascript Switcher.
Haha, I know I sound so grave in this, but I had a lot of fun. I love talking about computer ethics and considering them from both sides. I personally know that these are not sentient. However, I do love Sci-Fi and believe that it is likely that I will experience an AI conversation indistinguishable from conversing with a human in my lifetime. In one of my favorite books, there is an engineer that treats nonsentient AI (they do also have sentient) with kindness and I believe that is a good stance. Mostly because I think people should always start a situation with kindness and that it says more about you.
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kendrixtermina · 2 years
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Absolute Terror Field: Something to keep in mind about Type 5
So recently I got the feedback that my posts here apparently read as "vaguely flat and distanced", and that sort of... 'shocked me' would imply that it was unexpected, which it was not, at least in the sense that I could explain it as 'ah, it must be due to my type'. But at the same time, I can't say that it was "on purpose" in the sense that I was intending to sound that way or that this was what I thought I was sounding like, and that got me thinking & reflecting.
The thing is...
It’s like there’s this 10 foot lead wall.
And I don’t normally realize it’s there, after all, some stuff makes it through.
Stuff gets to me, and I’m putting stuff out, same as everyone else in theory - so why would I assume that there is a wall? Why wouldn't I just think that this is the normal amount of permeable? Sure, sometimes I go in a youtube comment section & ppl report like crying a lot more at something, but, ppl are different, were all individuals, there could be so many different reasons for that. I've certainly cried before, sometimes quite against my will.
So I live here, & I have this idea of myself that does not include the wall cause after all I am here on this side of it, seeing myself from in here.
Until, once in a while, it happens that someone says something like:
“I can’t hear you, there are 10 feet of lead in the way!”
Or I said something & someone gets offended or makes a face cause,  other people don’t have lead walls.
And every time anew, I’m like - Bam. Oh right. The 10 foot lead wall. I had fogotten.
I kinda hate it when that happens. I understand why, I see that its just what it is, i dont blame the other person or get my panties in a twist about it, I might even be grateful to get the pointer cause I don't want it to be outside of my understanding or control, I don't go reading things into it, I realize that it's ultimately a completely neutral even and that whatever response I can't help having is only my business and a Me Problem, but completely separate from all that, without tying any demands or implications to it, it remains just as true that it does not feel good. Whatever the exact opposite is of when ppl cry effusiely about how something makes them feel so seen & validated, that's what it feels like. "Like I don't exist", or "Like they're talking about a completely different person", I might say, though that would be something of a self-indulgently dramatic way to put it.
And, it was to be expected. I have a theoretical explanation for why that is. It simply is what it is. No reason to get worked up about it, it means nothing, its just a random unusual quirk, like being left handed or gay or having red hair. Something mildly annoying to deal with every day. Imagine how perplexing this was when I didn’t have an explanation for it. Ppl were just randomly saying obviously untrue stuff, to be cruel perhaps, or who knows why.  
There are some things related to me having this trait/type that I would consider part of my 'self' - like the curiosity, the attraction to dark shit - if that's not it, what else is there? But the wall is not. It's just there. External. It would be as stupid as basing your identity on your skin color, nationality or whatever, any other arbitrary trait that tons of other ppl have. I didn't choose it. I'm not "doing" it. That's not me, "me" is on the other side of it.
But it occurs to me that to some it’s probably one of my most noticeable characteristics on the same order as “height”, “ethnicity” or “apparent gender”.
- “Ah look, it’s sondanso, the lead wall person.”. “There they are, off behind their lead wall again, they must not like us.” or worse yet, “It’s that asshole whose whole being is nothing but a slab of lead.” Like it's lead all the way down.
Or maybe someone likes lead. Say you’re some stuck-up smartass & you think a girlfriend who talks only about computers nets you some nifty prestige points. You sure won’t have to waste time using google while you got Miss Lead Slab around. And then you start to feel like you kinda bought the cat in a bag there - “Who’s this weirdass crass blunt impractical oversensitive freaky emo doomer dweeb person? I didn’t sign up for none of that!”
And I'm like, “Uh... me? WTF are you so surprised about, I never hid who I am or pretended to be anything else - i acted true to myself even when it made me unpopular precisely so this wouldn't happen. If you don’t like me, then why did you waste my time? It said ‘Angry emo dweeb’ right in the description!” (like that was literally my blog description at the time) - and that’s all true... if you’re not considering the lead wall.  
Consciously, I don’t much pretend or adapt, I wouldn’t know how if I wanted and I wouldn’t want to if I knew how, I’m the same in public, in private or in the shower, open unfiltered & transparent - if you don’t consider the lead wall. Obvsly I don’t control what flavor of automatic fear response I’m going to have - and everyone is going to be nervous on a fucking date in the early stages of a relationship, like, duh. Not even like, super freaked out - just a normal, mundane amount of nervous, but when I get nervous, I apparently get frozen up. It appears. It has been reported to me. I would tend to be more focussed on whatever it is I am trying to say. The computers for example, or in this case the typology stuff. Isn't that the important part? or so i would assume.
And then as time passed I probably got to be more relaxed & at ease around him, more like I’m on my own (which is most of the time) or with the family members I actually like, who very much could tell you, ‘yeah, soandso is kinda tactless, sorta pessimistic, a tad touchy and a military grade kook, but she’s also funny & interesting & really one for broadening horizons’ - something where both the strenghts and the struggles are seen and the critiques are fair. It’s not wholly impossible. That gives me some hope at least...
Indeed you see this mentioned a few times in the literature - the palmer books, or LaHue’s recent video on how all the types may shift in a family-like environment. That Type 5 individuals are sometimes experienced as being markedly different at home, like family settings or long marriages (usually in terms of being more assertive & blunt or more excitable).
There's probably a reverse of that bias that 6s, 9s and 3s have how they notice more how they're different in different situations & may have trouble spotting the throughline. I see the cumulative sum, and had to study this stuff to even percieve the situationals.
Mr. Smartass, tho? He probably liked me better when I talked only about computers. Its Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer all over again, deviation from the norm is only tolerated when it's exploitable. And who can I blame but myself? Since I was the one nonstop talking about computers.
I wonder if this could be considered an equivalent to that thing the 7s sometimes have that their friends keep expecting them to bring the party & the sunshine even if they don't feel up to it. But that's not really it - cause, it's not like the computers stuff was some put on pretense that is in any way secondary to my person - it's the important shit, it's what I care about, what my heart is all tied up in - that's why I'm talking about it.
It kinda reinforces that idea that no one really wants to hear your thoughts, wants or feelings, at least if you let it. They say they wanna hear but the real answer sends em running for the hills. If they even hear you, cause again - oops, the wall. Oh right! And I do realize that the onus is in part on me to communicate it. But sometimes I make my intention quite clear, in such ways as I can - verbally, usually - and it still isn't enough. Doesn't count. Does nothing. What im saying gets rendered pointless by things I can't control much. They only see the lead wall. For my formative years, I didn't even know why. I thought that either they're all judgemental, or im just some x-man mutant that just intrinsically repulses people - good thing that's cleared up.
And when the usual outcomes are 'they won't notice you' or 'they'll run for the hills', the more it appears as if the endeavor of talking to humans is altogether for the birds.
I'm trying to not let it convince me, or to put that feeling aside and save it for the angsty fanfictions, cause obsly that doesnt always hold true. There are counterexamples.
Of course not everyone has a spouse or trusted family members/ roommates. A lot of ppl’s families are garbage or just don’t click with them. (as is true for ppl of all types)
So I imagine that with a lot of less fortunate individuals, essentially, no one’s ever seen em - not as they are on their own, most of the time. And they might have very good reasons to want it that way. I certainly don’t want just anyone to have acess to my consciousness - my father can keep thinking I’m a grey rock for all I care, for example, I’m not masochistic enough to go throwing pearls before the swine here. I don't want him to have any access to my consciousness & I've impressed it strictly on my remaining relatives to not tell him anything of my life unecessarily.
I prolly do need the darn wall cause I can sometimes barely handle what does make it through. That’s likely to be why and how it got to be there, some kinda survival defense mechanism thingy. I've no shortage of things to agonize about even like this, and I have things I enjoy also.
I don't exactly want it gone. If anything, lowkey freak out sometimes when ppl notice too much stuff about me and go ask questions - only in a real-time, face to face setting, though. Guess I used to think that written communication puts me on a more level playing field, and, I'd still say that it does, but... I guess even in cyberspace I can only be what I am, temperamental quirks included.
But if there was to be a takeaway here other than satisfying passing curiosity/voyeurism and leaving a record... hm. This is where I stumble a bit because it might be too much like making a request than merely discussing myself as an 'example human' exchangeable and immaterial aside from its relevance to the topic. It may be too much like complaining.
I find myself wanting to stop. Pause. Interrupt this. Go take a walk. "get perspective on it" as I would call it, but in this case it would be just putting some distance. I'm kinda looking a little bit on my hands instead of the screen now, or all the way away. Even live describing this is, uh, me being a little bit nervous I guess. That's probably the isolation defense.
But i wont stop. imma cold shower this today, because that is something I need to get better at doing, and because I basically know what I want to say, so I will. I can allow myself once.
Basically - I would like to have it known, like, just in case anyone didn't already, that the tip is not the whole iceberg. That there's more than just that wall.
Like, at least assume that I'm there.
I am here. I can see you. I can hear all that you're saying, so don't be cruel. (...and I'm not side-eying anyone in particular here but meaning humans in general. )
And I don't even mean that in a "we are more than just our types" kinda way, like of course we are, but you think what's over here is completely unaffected by type? That there's nothing more interesting here to describe, even if its just interesting in like a fucked up absurd way? Even the type is not just the wall. its its whole little hell realm and a very specific temperament and a whole range of complexities, like all the others. The stuff behind the wall also has characteristics.
This is kinda why I which I have this whole thing about which are the semi-good descriptions, the Naranjo one, the palmer one, the oceanmoonshine blog one or even that video interview thing I recently uploaded cause those are, to me, that really go into, like, the contents, and not just "look for a really disagreeable person with a bigass lead wall.". Like, that is true, (certainly more true than any fake positive, obnoxiously euphemistic takes) but there's more.
Maybe let's not just look at our hypothetical example person as just a collection of deficiencies and inadequacies and all the many things they can't do and suck absolute ass at, but let's take a look at what drives them and what they spend their days with, what they care about, what kinds of obscure sorrows they carry with them. I mean, I'm definitely interested in that when it comes to others. At least the hot ones.
I already kind if view myself as a list of limits and deficiencies - unless you've found yourself one of those really immature dismissive-ass hell specimens that appointed themselves as the world's bubble burster in chief (and which type isn't obnoxious if super immature?), chances are, the type 5 person in your lives probably doesn't need to be taken down a peg. They're not showing off, they're not to blame for society's obsession with academic performance, there's a good chance they hate the public education system as much as you do, and they just don't know how else to exist, any more than you do.
And I know I brought this upon myself. "Stop just overemphasizing the annoying nerd trope!" I'll say, and go emphasizing the doomerism or unrealism instead, but, the content focus, when correctly described, really is one of the most noticeable characteristics. If you wanna teach ppl to spot this in the wild you would definitely tell them to look for this. I do mostly bring up... content, when I go out and talk to people. I mean what else am I doing here? I find myself worrying stuff like, "i havent read anything interesting lately, i might have no topics..." when ppl ask me to hang out. If I didn't snap to that so automatically, I'd tell myself to "...consider 6" or something. Except then i probably wouldnt use that wording.
The content focus is fucking conspicuous. and its not superficial, like, that is the stuff i care about.
But there should be more bullet points on that list. From the average articles out there, you wouldn't expect this flavor of ppl to put out the kinda art that they typically do, which means they'd at least be failing you as analysis tools. Like there are some commonalities, if you look at the art output (which probably most reflects a person's "contents", or, represents an imprint of their consciousness) and the descriptions out there don't capture where those come from.
....
Now for the obvious disclaimers - this is my experience; a w6 person probably pictures their inner self less ‘emo dweeb’ and more... 6-like, just, humble, practical reasonable person, and social-havers or 3-fixers probably do want to project some degree of an appealing persona (and have The Wall(TM) scrambling that desire in its own snowflakey way) etc. and in the end we’re all individuals even if we share some quirks of our basic temperament.
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mcmansionhell · 4 years
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Coronagrifting: A Design Phenomenon
We now interrupt our regularly scheduled content to bring you a critical essay on the design world. I promise you that this will also be funny. 
This morning, the design website Dezeen tweeted a link to one of its articles, depicting a plexiglass coronavirus shield that could be suspended above dining areas, with the caption “Reader comment: ‘Dezeen, please stop promoting this stupidity.’”
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This, of course, filled many design people, including myself, with a kind of malicious glee. The tweet seemed to show that the website’s editorial (or at least social media) staff retained within themselves a scintilla of self-awareness regarding the spread a new kind of virus in its own right: cheap mockups of COVID-related design “solutions” filling the endlessly scrollable feeds of PR-beholden design websites such as Dezeen, ArchDaily, and designboom. I call this phenomenon: Coronagrifting. 
I’ll go into detail about what I mean by this, but first, I would like to presenet some (highly condensed) history. 
From Paper Architecture to PR-chitecture
Back in the headier days of architecture in the 1960s and 70s, a number of architectural avant gardes (such as Superstudio and Archizoom in Italy and Archigram in the UK) ceased producing, well, buildings, in favor of what critics came to regard as “paper architecture.” This “paper architecture” included everything from sprawling diagrams of megastructures, including cities that “walked” or “never stopped” - to playfully erotic collages involving Chicago’s Marina City. Occasionally, these theoretical and aesthetic explorations were accompanied by real-world productions of “anti-design” furniture that may or may not have involved foam fingers. 
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Archigram’s Walking City (1964). Source.
Paper architecture, of course, still exists, but its original radical, critical, playful, (and, yes, even erotic) elements were shed when the last of the ultra-modernists were swallowed up by the emerging aesthetic hegemony of Postmodernism (which was much less invested in theoretical and aesthetic futurism) in the early 1980s. What remained were merely images, the production and consumption of which has only increased as the design world shifted away from print and towards the rapidly produced, easily digestible content of the internet and social media. 
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Architect Bjarke Ingels’s “Oceanix” - a mockup of an ecomodernist, luxury city designed in response to rising sea levels from climate change. The city will never be built, and its critical interrogation amounts only to “city with solar panels that floats bc climate change is Serious”  - but it did get Ingels and his firm, BIG, a TED talk and circulation on all of the hottest blogs and websites. Meanwhile, Ingels has been in business talks with the right-wing climate change denialist president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. (Image via designboom) 
Design websites are increasingly dominated by text and mockups from the desks of a firm’s public relations departments, facilitating a transition from the paper-architecture-imaginary to what I have begun calling “PR-chitecture.” In short, PR-chitecture is architecture and design content that has been dreamed up from scratch to look good on instagram feeds or, more simply, for clicks.  It is only within this substance-less, critically lapsed media landscape that Coronagrifting can prosper.
Coronagrifting: An Evolution
As of this writing, the two greatest offenders of Coronagrifting are Dezeen, which has devoted an entire section of its website to the virus (itself offering twelve pages of content since February alone) and designboom, whose coronavirus tag contains no fewer than 159 articles. 
Certainly, a small handful of these stories demonstrate useful solutions to COVID-related problems (such as this one from designboom about a student who created a mask prototype that would allow D/deaf and hard of hearing people to read lips) most of the prototypes and the articles about them are, for a lack of a better word, insipid. 
But where, you may ask, did it all start?
One of the easiest (and, therefore, one of the earliest) Coronagrifts involves “new innovative, health-centric designs tackling problems at the intersection of wearables and personal mobility,” which is PR-chitecture speak for “body shields and masks.” 
Wearables and Post-ables
The first example came from Chinese architect Sun Dayong, back at the end of February 2020, when the virus was still isolated in China. Dayong submitted to Dezeen a prototype of a full mask and body-shield that “would protect a wearer during a coronavirus outbreak by using UV light to sterilise itself.” The project was titled “Be a Bat Man.” No, I am not making this up. 
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Screenshot of Dayong’s “Be a Batman” as seen on the Dezeen website. 
Soon after, every artist, architect, designer, and sharp-eyed PR rep at firms and companies only tangentially related to design realized that, with the small investment of a Photoshop mockup and some B-minus marketing text, they too could end up on the front page of these websites boasting a large social media following and an air of legitimacy in the field. 
By April, companies like Apple and Nike were promising the use of existing facilities for producing or supplying an arms race’s worth of slick-tech face coverings. Starchitecture’s perennial PR-churners like Foster + Partners and Bjarke Ingels were repping “3D-printed face shields”, while other, lesser firms promised wearable vaporware like “grapheme filters,” branded “skincare LED masks for encouraging self-development” and “solar powered bubble shields.” 
While the mask Coronagrift continues to this day, the Coronagrifting phenomenon had, by early March, moved to other domains of design. 
Consider the barrage of asinine PR fluff that is the “Public Service Announcement” and by Public Service Announcement, I mean “A Designer Has Done Something Cute to Capitalize on Information Meant to Save Lives.” 
Some of the earliest offenders include cutesy posters featuring flags in the shape of houses, ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home;” a designer building a pyramid out of pillows ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home”; and Banksy making “lockdown artwork” that involved covering his bathroom in images of rats ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home.” 
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Lol. Screenshot from Dezeen. 
You may be asking, “What’s the harm in all this, really, if it projects a good message?” And the answer is that people are plenty well encouraged to stay home due to the rampant spread of a deadly virus at the urging of the world’s health authorities, and that these tone-deaf art world creeps are using such a crisis for shameless self promotion and the generation of clicks and income, while providing little to no material benefit to those at risk and on the frontlines.
Of course, like the mask coronagrift, the Public Service Announcement coronagrift continues to this very day. 
The final iteration of Post-able and Wearable Coronagrifting genres are what I call “Passive Aggressive Social Distancing Initiatives” or PASDIs. Many of the first PASDIs were themselves PSAs and art grifts, my favorite of which being the designboom post titled “social distancing applied to iconic album covers like the beatle’s abbey road.” As you can see, we’re dealing with extremely deep stuff here. 
However, an even earlier and, in many ways more prescient and lucrative grift involves “social distancing wearables.” This can easily be summarized by the first example of this phenomenon, published March 19th, 2020 on designboom: 
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Never wasting a single moment to capitalize on collective despair, all manner of brands have seized on the social distancing wearable trend, which, again, can best be seen in the last example of the phenomenon, published May 22nd, 2020 on designboom:
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We truly, truly live in Hell. 
Which brings us, of course, to living. 
“Architectural Interventions” for a “Post-COVID World”
As soon as it became clear around late March and early April that the coronavirus (and its implications) would be sticking around longer than a few months, the architectural solutions to the problem came pouring in. These, like the virus itself, started at the scale of the individual and have since grown to the scale of the city. (Whether or not they will soon encompass the entire world remains to be seen.) 
The architectural Coronagrift began with accessories (like the designboom article about 3D-printed door-openers that enable one to open a door with one’s elbow, and the Dezeen article about a different 3D-printed door-opener that enables one to open a door with one’s elbow) which, in turn, evolved into “work from home” furniture (”Stykka designs cardboard #StayTheF***Home Desk for people working from home during self-isolation”) which, in turn, evolved into pop-up vaporware architecture for first responders (”opposite office proposes to turn berlin's brandenburg airport into COVID-19 'superhospital'”), which, in turn evolved into proposals for entire buildings (”studio prototype designs prefabricated 'vital house' to combat COVID-19″); which, finally, in turn evolved into “urban solutions” aimed at changing the city itself (a great article summarizing and criticizing said urban solutions was recently written by Curbed’s Alissa Walker).
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There is something truly chilling about an architecture firm, in order to profit from attention seized by a global pandemic, logging on to their computers, opening photoshop, and drafting up some lazy, ineffectual, unsanitary mockup featuring figures in hazmat suits carrying a dying patient (macabrely set in an unfinished airport construction site) as a real, tangible solution to the problem of overcrowded hospitals; submitting it to their PR desk for copy, and sending it out to blogs and websites for clicks, knowing full well that the sole purpose of doing so consists of the hope that maybe someone with lots of money looking to commission health-related interiors will remember that one time there was a glossy airport hospital rendering on designboom and hire them. 
Enough, already. 
Frankly, after an endless barrage of cyberpunk mask designs, social distancing burger king crowns, foot-triggered crosswalk beg buttons that completely ignore accessibility concerns such as those of wheelchair users, cutesy “stay home uwu” projects from well-to-do art celebrities (who are certainly not suffering too greatly from the economic ramifications of this pandemic), I, like the reader featured in the Dezeen Tweet at the beginning of this post, have simply had enough of this bullshit. 
What’s most astounding to me about all of this (but especially about #brand crap like the burger king crowns) is that it is taken completely seriously by design establishments that, despite being under the purview of PR firms, should frankly know better. I’m sure that Bjarke Ingels and Burger King aren’t nearly as affected by the pandemic as those who have lost money, jobs, stability, homes, and even their lives at the hands of COVID-19 and the criminally inept national and international response to it. On the other hand, I’m sure that architects and designers are hard up for cash at a time when nobody is building and buying anything, and, as a result, many see resulting to PR-chitecture as one of the only solutions to financial problems. 
However, I’m also extremely sure that there are interventions that can be made at the social, political, and organizational level, such as campaigning for paid sick leave, organizing against layoffs and for decent severance or an expansion of public assistance, or generally fighting the rapidly accelerating encroachment of work into all aspects of everyday life – that would bring much more good and, dare I say, progress into the world than a cardboard desk captioned with the hashtag #StaytheF***Home. 
Hence, I’ve spent most of my Saturday penning this article on my blog, McMansion Hell. I’ve chosen to run this here because I myself have lost work as a freelance writer, and the gutting of publications down to a handful of editors means that, were I to publish this story on another platform, it would have resulted in at least a few more weeks worth of inflatable, wearable, plexiglass-laden Coronagrifting, something my sanity simply can no longer withstand. 
So please, Dezeen, designboom, others – I love that you keep daily tabs on what architects and designers are up to, a resource myself and other critics and design writers find invaluable – however, I am begging, begging you to start having some discretion with regards to the proposals submitted to you as “news” or “solutions” by brands and firms, and the cynical, ulterior motives behind them. If you’re looking for a guide on how to screen such content, please scroll up to the beginning of this page. 
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If you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to my Patreon, as I didn’t get paid to write it.  
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grimmradiance · 3 years
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Close to Me: How the Hollow Knight's Fighting Style Reflects Their Trauma (and the Radiance's as well)
So I've been trying to actually beat the Radiance, which means I've been fighting the Hollow Knight. A lot, as a matter of fact, since I'm beans at this game sometimes. I've also been thinking about @lost-kinn's meta about how fighting styles are how Vessels, especially the Little Knight, communicate.
In trying to apply this to the Hollow Knight, I've been coming to some very interesting conclusions, especially taken in context of...Everything Else in the lore, and Everything Else implicated in this by the psychology of it.
There's a lot to cover here, and it tracks through a LOT of different places, including trauma psychology, the relationship between chronic stress and lifespan health, and shape symbolism. Two warnings first:
One: this essay is gonna get heavy. It includes fine-grained discussion of the Hollow Knight's trauma, including discussions of the real-life machanics of psychological abuse, as well as the Extremely Concerning Implications of them harming themself during their boss fight. please read with caution and when you're in a safe emotional place to do so.
Two: This post is not a place for justifying the Pale King. If you read this essay in its entirety and still want to do that, please make your own post; my relationship to the Hollow Knight themself is deeply rooted in my own experiences, so in the context of this discussion I can't promise I won't take it personally.
With that out of the way, let's talk trauma and fighting styles:
We know that the Hollow Knight is trained to be a paragon of fighting skill, through the Pure Vessel fight, and this gives us a fantastic way to compare what they were like before they were made Government Assigned Radiance Jail, and after. Or, in other words, we're given the perfect opportunity to see what the Radiance is doing (i.e. context effects), and what Hollow is (i.e. what we can conclude is reliably consistent as a part of them). Listed here, for reference:
Hollow's attacks:
Three slashes
A dash slash
A Radiant Shade Soul, which launches a volley of Infection blobs in arcs
A Radiant Desolate Dive, which produces pillars of entwined Void and Light at random intervals
The Infection bursting out of them in random arcs, covering a significant amount of the aerial space of the arena
The Radiance ragdolling their body around trying to hit the Knight
Contact damage from them stabbing themself and falling over atop you
The Pure Vessel's attacks:
Three slashes
A dash slash
A Pure Shade Soul, which launches a volley of nails in straight lines
A Pure Desolate Dive, which produces nails at specific intervals
A Pure Focus, which causes circular explosions across most of the aerial space in the arena
Lashing out with a Void Arm (word choice intentional)
I've highlighted attacks from each battle that are different, since those are our points of interest here. In addition, both the Pure Vessel and Hollow are exceedingly fond of teleport-spamming in a way that is usually reserved for a specific group of bosses.
Another very important distinction between these two fights: the Pure Vessel doesn't scream. Well, they certainly try to, but no sound comes out. No voice to cry suffering, after all. All of these points have a lot to go into, so let's address them one at a time.
All That Remains: Theoretical Background On The Significance Of Constants
Making comparisons across time is important specifically because humans (and human-like bugs) change. Most personality traits aren't set in stone--they exist as an interaction of someone's internal tendencies, their experiences, and their environment. Speaking of those last two points, not all experiences and environments are created equally. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs for short) are known to have lifelong implications for a child's health, both physically and mentally. These are events that are so stressful or stressful for so long that they exceed a child's ability to cope and become toxic stress (yes, that's the term in the literature, because it actively damages your organs). They compound, as well--the stress of one ACE makes it harder for a child to cope with another, especially if they overlap.
Some examples of ACEs? Being exposed to physical danger or the threat of physical danger, deprivation of normal social relationships with peers of a similar age, being forcibly seperated from family members, witnessing a loved one being hurt or killed, chronic illness in oneself or a family member, neglect of a child's emotional needs....
Poor fucking Holly. It's a miracle they didn't disintegrate under the pressure. The only other option is that they bent and adapted under that much stress--in other words, most of their personality has been forcibly reshaped by what they've gone through. Anyone who has up-close experience with parentification or complex child abuse already knows: this was by design. I'm not saying the intent was to traumatize the Pure Vessel past several points of no return, but the intent definitely was to reshape their personality for the purpose of being The Vessel. We only see them (the Pure Vessel) in battle after this process is mostly or entirely complete, but we do see them a few times beforehand. I'd like to draw attention to the Path of Pain cutscene right now.
I've seen people talking about the look the Vessel and the King share as a sign that TPK really does love his child. That might be true, but it's definitely not relevant when it comes to how abuse works. This is, in fact, exactly how the cycle of abuse uses affection as a tool. Long periods of abuse or neglect, smoothed over by small periods of affection that placate the survivor? That's textbook love bombing, the kind that forms stubborn trauma bonds and facilitates unhealthy dependency. Forgive me for not giving the Higher Being of knowledge and prescience the benefit of the doubt on that one. (/s)
Team Cherry knows about the importance of parallels and dissonance. There's a reason the music in the second phase of the Hollow Knight fight plays in the Path of Pain. There's a reason it cuts out the moment the battle with the Kingsmoulds is over, instead of at the room transition. There's a reason it doesn't cut out in the Black Egg. Actually, there's two potential reasons, which could also coexist: either little Hollow trusts the Pale King to keep them safe, even after the borderline torture that they were just subjected to, or big Hollow is so hypervigilant that they're in full functioning-through-trauma mode even while they're at death's door.
If you don't see how much the Pale King scarred his child at this point, I'm not sure we were playing the same game.
Walking the Straight Line: How the Pale King's Teachings Show In the Pure Vessel
The Pale King loves order and control. Everything about the White Palace and every decision we see him make implies this. Everything is spotless white walls and well-maintained gardens; the only signs of disorder are hidden away, either in his workshop or in The Pit™. This also reflects in the Pure Vessel's title--pure as in holy, but also pure as in without flaw. Considering the Nailsmith's emotional state after completing the Pure Nail, TPK's fate with his Perfect Controlled Kingdom, and the Godmaster ending as a whole, attaining perfection is not a good thing in any sense.
We know the Hollow Knight isn't perfect--that's the whole catalyst for the plot. But considering their upbringing and their fighting style as the Pure Vessel, their imperfections absolutely kill them emotionally. I'll spare the lecture on how perfectionism affects neurodivergent kids even more severely than neurotypical kids, if only to keep this post to a reasonable length (look up "twice-exceptional children" if you'd like to know the theory I'm glossing over in more depth). But, in essence, the deck is doubly stacked against them--they have a higher goal to reach, and far more obsctacles in their path, including their own emotional scars.
I've already discussed how Hollow isn't meant for this kind of stress in a physical sense in other posts. They're not prepared for it emotionally, either--the Pale King wants perfection, and they can't even stand up straight (every spoonie in the audience already knows how exhausting people's obsession with Standing Up Straight is). There's another page on their stack of emotional baggage, even BEFORE you consider that the Pure Vessel knows their perfection is what bought them a ticket out of the Abyss.
Bringing Teleportation To A Sword Fight: Where The Pure Vessel Reveals Their Fears
How else are they going to cope with that need for perfection, that need to prove themselves worthy of the reason their life was spared, by being flawless in any way they can? Being a mechanical, flawless fighter puts so much pressure on them, both literally (repetitive strain injuries fucking HURT) and figuratively--if you're predictable, the only sure way to win is to mop the floor with your opponents before they figure you out. Hell, that's the way most people play their first run of Hollow Knight, by throwing themselves at the bosses over and over until they figure out the patterns. That strategy is inherently going to fail against an opponent that's, say, an immortal higher being.
There's no way that the Vessel didn't figure this out, and yet none of their TPV specific attacks are positioned randomly--the nails are always evenly spaced, and the Focus explosions are always in a specific height region of the screen. That's clinging to survival strategies even when they become maladaptive in its purest form.
Another dip into psychological theory: let's talk about disorganized attachment. Attachment styles describe how someone's relationships to their main caregiver(s) influence their understanding on relationships in general. Disorganized attachment is a result of an upbringing of inherently unstable parent-child relationships, where there's no way of a child predicting whether an adult is going to be delighted to see them, ambivalent, upset, or otherwise. If my parent woke up some days saying "all right my child, time for the Infinite Buzzsaws Obstacle Course," I'd be the same way. In adulthood this manifests as an inability to form a stable sense of self-concept as well as concepts of others. Mission accomplished, TPK, there's no will to break if you broke it yourself.
This is where the fighting styles as communication comes in--Hollow needs to keep Ghost at a distance to fight, but also wants to be closer to their sibling (the only being who has a chance of understanding what they've been through), BUT also has a trauma-rooted fear of attaching to people, as their experiences with attachment are inherently unpredictable and dangerous. Hence, both the teleportation that doesn't seem to match their fighting style any more reliably than "aim at the thing attacking you" and the second attack unique to the Pure Vessel--they're quite literally lashing out in pain to push people away. There's a reason that attack is so reminiscent of the Thorns of Agony.
Of note is that Holly does seem to teleport like the bugs of the Soul Sanctum do (favoring the edges of a screen, rather than going wherever like Dream Warriors do), which makes sense--they're the most obvious answer to the question "how did they learn how to teleport, anyways?" However, Sanctum bugs have abilities designed to capitalize on this, like homing spells and slashes from above. I can only assume this means that someone saw Holly's proficiency with the nail and assumed it translated to other forms of combat, and didn't feel the need to give them at least a bit of a primer on how to make the best use of it. There's another tally for the Hollow Knight as an autism metaphor.
Trauma Bonds: How the Radiance Speaks Through Hollow
Now, we're back to the Black Egg, and two people stuck in the same sinking ship. The thing that makes this hurt so badly is that Holly and the Radiance are at complete cross purposes here, and yet they both want the same thing:
They both want out, no matter the cost. For the Radiance, this means forsaking the pacifistic nature of the moths and nuking Ghost personally.
For Hollow, this means forsaking the way they were raised and everything that was bludgeoned into their personality: the only way out is to fail, give up control, and trust that Ghost will do what needs to be done.
Imagine how much pain they're in to actually go for it. Going against a literal lifetime of conditioning is something that takes the average person years to even consider, let alone go through with. It's a form of learned helplessness--if you try to break free and fall, again and again, it actively discourages further attempts. Breaking through learned helplessness is an interesting process, because it generally involves re-establishing a sense of control by recalling previous events where the person was able to change their situation.
Which, as far as we know of, are nothing but traumatic memories for Hollow. It's very unlikely that they'd break through it on their own, but we know they have by the time we see the second phase of their fight. This is them at their most desperate: the same music as the Path of Pain, the way they let, or can't stop, the Radiance throw their body around, the way they actively try to let the Radiance out by stabbing themself.
You'd think that giving up and learned helplessness are inherently compatible, but when giving up both goes against your core personality, and involves your active participation, they're in direct opposition. So either Holly was able to process all their trauma by themself (which I doubt, judging by how much effort the player has to go through to even see Ghost's and Hollow's traumatic memories), or someone gave them a nudge or three in that direction.
Considering that there's been someone living in Holly's head who has a vested interest in them Not Doing Their Duty, I think we know who. And the thing is, I think we watch Hollow have this breakthrough during their battle. Imagine for the first time in decades, at least, you can move. You're in pain from being in the same position, probably hallucinating from sensory deprivation, with an infection sucking at what strength your body has left. And there's this little creature who looks ready to fight you, who seems to have let you go for that exact purpose.
And you look down, and both you and the Radiance recognize them from a place rooted deeper than consciousness, in the murky depths of trauma. You see the other Vessel who just as easily could have been you, and who looks so much stronger for not being you, for being an imperfect, willful creature. And the Radiance sees history threatening to repeat itself, another one of the Wyrm's cursed children seeking to lock her away once more.
What else do you do when you're triggered? You scream, and you go on instinct, and you retreat into your head. Those first blows, with the epic music? That's the Vessel the Pale King forged, the fighting machine that will endure unimaginable stress because it knows no other way. What snaps you back out of dissociation? Usually, either the passage of the triggering stimulus, or an even more relevant stimulus (severe pain from getting beaten up by a nail, for example).
The tragedy is this: we know this isn't a triumph. I think most of us went into that fight the first time, knowing we'd be putting the Hollow Knight out of their misery. The music turns tragic, Hollow screams, and then we see the Radiance and Hollow themself break through: the Radiance trying to fight Ghost directly with the resources she has, and Hollow trying to help her along.
For what it's worth, Hollow even had the right idea, when it came to letting themself rest while helping Ghost stop the madness their father started--they were just digging for the Radiance in the wrong place. The dynamic between the Radiance and the Hollow Knight is something I could write on for pages and pages, but this has gone on for long enough. Tune in next time, where I'll presumably talk about this same topic but in reverse with regards to the Radiance.
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The Rooster Sunrise motel and the roots of the narrative at the sunset of the story. A masterclass in Dean characterization
If I didn’t care / more than words can say / if I didn’t care / would I feel this way? / If this isn’t love / then why do I thrill? / And what makes my head go round...
This song plays as Travis comes in to check at the Rooster Sunrise motel - late in the night, later than the motel technically allows checks in. Metaphorically, this episode happens later than it should. Everything happens later than it should. Dean defeats the monster too late, after it gets Travis dead. They’re running a case when they should actually be preparing for the ultimate showdown against God. Dean tells Sam the truth about Jack too late. The very episode is “out of place” in the season - I mean, purposely so - because it gives us a “old style” hunting case in a season where hunting has lost its original purpose in the narrative but has taken a different purpose, as a sort of caricature of itself, as we’ve discussed about before.
This episode is a last. Okay, we haven’t seen the next few yet, but this episode has a specific function, and it is to be the last traditional hunting case of the show. It’s about the past, and that’s why it can happen now that hunting can no longer exist, not really. This season, we have never had real hunting cases. Fake ones, weird ones, ones that just felt off -- obviously because the story is no longer working the way it did before. Chuck’s “hamster wheel” has been fully revealed, and the narrative can no longer function in the old way.
And this episode happens as... a sunset, actually. Or better, both sunrise and sunset because it shows us, in parallel, the beginning and the end. The first case Dean and Sam work together, and what is essentially the last, at least the last with the traditional formula - a monster of the week, a motel, a gross place, a civilian saved, some choking, some yeeting across a motel room, you know how it goes.
(The elephant in the room is the sun/sunrise imagery across the show, especially relevant after the latest episode brought back the Gas’n’Sip logo, of course, but let’s talk about something else here.)
There are many echoes in the episode. 2x11 Playthings, a case in a hotel that involved children. 11x16 Safe House, where a case was run both in the past, by Bobby and Rufus, and in the present, and involves a monster’s nest and visions. Of course 1x18 Something Wicked, where they defeat a monster that targeted kids after an attempt when they were kids had failed to get rid of the monster for good, and where we also get flashbacks of them as kids. And many other little references and callbacks. A pretty major one (*rubs hands together*) is 10x19 The Werther Project, where something supernatural causes hallucinations that make the victim kill themselves; Dean also almost stabbed himself back then. (Cuthbert Sinclair again... bless.) Oh, well, the pilot itself, where Dean and Sam comment that they make a good team. And then Carver-era secret and lies, of course.
And 14x13 Lebanon. (Yes it gets its own paragraph...) Dean smashing the stone in the ring, making the monster disappear, parallels straight to Sam smashing the pearl, making John disappear. The other monster of the episode is John, of course, who drops the kids in some motel alone while he gets “out of reach” when Dean tries to contact him on the phone (callback to season 1, when they kept trying to call John on the phone and he never answered, not even when Dean was dying or they were in their old house in Lawrence and terrified). John only appears as an invisible figure driving the car, symbolically driving their lives (all this “killing God and getting free” is nothing but a mirror to getting free from John’s influence, right). Callback to 9x07 Bad Boys, where we also see a younger Dean and we also deal with the weight of the lifestyle John placed on him, in an episode that features a literal ghost of a parent. (Heck, we even had Dean stealing food - in 9x07 he was caught by a policeman and brought to the boys’ house, now Caitlin jokes about arresting him.)
As 1x18 Something Wicked, we are presented with how growing up among monsters and hunting cases impacted Dean as a kid. Interestingly, Sam tries to reassure Dean in both episodes, telling him that he was just a kid and he shouldn’t be too hard on himself. In 1x18 he had ruined John’s hunt and put Sam in danger (of course the implication is that John put them in danger by using them as bait and expecting a child - addditionally unaware of what was going on - to watch after a younger child), now that he didn’t tell anyone about the nest because it was too horrifying to share that with other kids (of course, he’d also been a kid and shouldn’t have had to investigate a child-killing monster, so the implication is again that John shouldn’t have left them alone and unable to reach him in case of danger. It’s so telling that the episode has Dean discovering the bodies of dead kids while Sam is playing with another kid - although, of course, the game also turns terrifying soon).
So it’s an episode that has it all: the ghost of John Winchester, the way Dean’s parentified role impacts negatively his relationship with Sam (the episode establishes a connection between Dean shielding Sam from the horror of the monster’s nest and Dean essentially shielding Sam from the horror of the latest Jack news, it’s always about Dean feeling the weight of a responsibility to Sam because he’s Sam’s caretaker, even if he ostensibily mentions Billie’s plan and stuff as the reason of his silence), and of course the theme of FEAR.
I’ve been screaming this from rooftops pretty much since I’ve been here on tumblr - fear is the interpretative key to Dean’s character. Since season 1. Since the beginning. (You’re scared. It’s okay. I understand. See, when I was your age, I saw something real bad happen to my mom, and I was scared, too.) Many posts have been written about how anger is a secondary emotion, when the narrative ostensibly had Dean be “angry”. Dean has dealt with fear almost his entire life, and this episode basically works as an asterisk to the season. Hey, we’re having everyone comment on Dean’s anger! Including Dean himself! He says he doesn’t know why he has these outbursts! Well, we do know. Little reminder here now... he’s scared. And he’s scared because he cares, because he loves so much, and when you keep losing what you love you are scared, scared of losing more and more, stuck in a hamster wheel of losing and losing and losing.
In fact, if losing Jack will stop the hamster wheel, he’s fine with it, because as long as they’re stuck in the wheel they’ll lose Jack again anyway, they keep losing everything over and over, Jack and Cas and everyone. In this episode he mentions funerals of hunters, friends, how they couldn’t even attend all the funerals of people they were close to. There were so many. They’ve always been so surrounded by horror and fear and death. He just wants it to stop. (Of course the plan cannot work, just like the immersion therapy method didn’t work for Travis. Well, poor Travis’ idea of facing his fears to overcome his trauma worked very well on paper, just like Billie’s plan seems to be the best option on paper, but we still have a few episodes still to see...)
This episode is an exploration of the motives of Dean’s behavior, and it spells them out very clearly. John’s abuse and neglect, the forced parentified role he had to take towards Sam since a too-early age, the nightmarish horrors he had to see (while shielding Sam from, which reminds me of the infamous scene about Max’s childhood...), the neverending chain of losses with its baggage of fear.
Dean wants - needs - to defeat Chuck, just like Travis needed to face his fears and overcome his trauma. Because Chuck means hamster wheel. And the hamster wheel isn’t just a theoretical lack-of-free-will thing. It’s not just about a philosophical/theological concept. It’s about the very real cycle of horror and fear and loss that Dean has spent his entire life in. It’s about a pile of dead children, both a metaphor for his brutally ended childhood and a very concrete example of what has been haunting him for so long.
His apparently “okayness” with Billie’s plan is not out of a revenge thing or lack of forgiveness towards Jack (of course we can add millions of words about Dean’s relationship with Death). His okayness with killing Amara is... well, only partly about punishing her for, as he sees it, toying with him. His anger is because he feels so much. If I didn’t care / more than words can say / if I didn’t care / would I feel this way?
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lesbrarians · 3 years
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The Connection between KH & TWEWY
Okay so I know just reblogged a post saying most of this stuff, but I have even more thoughts that I want to elaborate on and don’t want to clog up the OP, so! Making my own post haha.
Where are Riku and Sora at the end of KH3?
We know from the Secret Endings of KH3 that Sora’s in TWEWY!Shibuya and Riku’s in TWEWY!Shinjuku. But Shinjuku has been erased at the end of TWEWY: Final Remix. How can Riku be in Shinjuku, then?
My guess is that he’s in a parallel version of Shinjuku that has not been erased. We know that parallel worlds, and alternate planes of existence such as the Underground, Realground, and the Higher Plane all exist in TWEWY. The Secret Reports go into the concept of parallel worlds more:
Beat Day 5  —   Secret Report 19:
In life, reality is made up of a continuous string of choices, and the consequences of those choices. Every time a choice is made, the option not selected branches off and exists as its own reality: a parallel world.
Countless numbers of such parallel worlds exist within a single plane, be it the RG or the UG, and travel among them is possible through the use of Imagination.
Theoretically, anyone can jump to a parallel world, but penetrating the membrane between worlds requires up-tuning one's vibe. This limits the pool of beings able to make the trip.
Additionally, stress caused by breaking through the barrier can pull down the traveler's base vibe. If the vibe dips, the frequency maybe too low to pass through the barrier. In the worst cases, it may render the traveler unable to return to his or her own original world.
In the extended trailer of NEO, we see parallel worlds happening in action. Rindo has a choice of getting Nagi an ES pin or not. The parallel world where he doesn’t get that pin results in a bad outcome. So he “time travels” back to make a different choice -- it’s not precisely time travel, though, it’s him shifting his vibe to the parallel world where he made the alternate choice and gets the Good Outcome! But there’s more to it than that.
What’s the connection between NEO: TWEWY, Shinjuku, and KH?
We see mention of Shinjuku in NEO -- we’re going to be meeting the Reapers from Shinjuku! But, NEO takes place three years after the events of TWEWY: Final Remix. The Game that Rindo and co. are playing looks totally different than the Game we’re familiar with. Now, this could mean that there’s a new Composer, as the Composer defines the rules of the Game, or it could mean that the Composer’s the same but he has decided to change the rules of the Game.
A New Day 1 — Secret Addendum A:
Although the rules have undergone some slight revisions in the wake  of Shibuya's rebirth, the powers that be deemed no major changes were  necessary, saying it's better to keep things easy to understand.
For now, it seems, the Game will remain the same. The Composer  will continue to use it as a tool by which he can judge the worth of  visitors from the RG.
In the three years between Final Remix and NEO, it’s possible that the Composer has revised the rules entirely! But... at the end of Final Remix, we learn that Shinjuku’s been erased due to this Incident. So in the timeline/world of Final Remix, Shinjuku’s gone. And Neku’s dead -- Mr. H could only save Beat.
So I propose that NEO doesn’t take place in the timeline of Final Remix -- it takes place in a parallel world, where Shinjuku was never erased. Like the Shinjuku that Riku’s in!
Circling back to Neku being dead in the main timeline of TWEWY: the hooded figure that we see at the end of the NEO trailer... for the sake of this theory, let’s presume that it’s Neku. We already know that Neku has the potential to jump to parallel worlds -- he has an extraordinarily high Imagination, and if we take replaying the Days in each chapter, and Another Day, as not just a game mechanism but as something that has actual, in-game implications... Neku’s shifting to a parallel world each time the player replays a Chapter in Final Remix. It’s possible that Neku’s death in Final Remix isn’t a true death, but him shifting to a parallel world -- perhaps the parallel world of NEO, where Shinjuku was never erased, and where Coco never pulled all her A New Day bullshit?
He’s dead, but not really -- just shifted to a parallel world.
So what does all this have to do with KH?
Well. Like Neku, we know that Sora’s dead, but not really dead. For all intents and purposes, he’s dead in the main world/timeline of KH -- he no longer exists there. But we see him in Shibuya. He’s alive somewhere... in a parallel world. But the stress of breaking through the barrier makes him unable to return to his own original world.
Sora’s in a parallel world of Shibuya. And Riku’s in a parallel world of Shinjuku -- the parallel world of NEO, where Shinjuku was never erased. They’re not in the same timeline/world. If Neku can jump between parallel worlds, and has jumped between Final Remix TWEWY and NEO TWEWY... it’s possible that he can jump between the parallel world that Sora’s in and the parallel world that Riku’s in, or else teach them how to uptune their vibe and shift between parallel worlds themselves.
What about Luxord and Yozora?
To shift gears again. As I’ve mentioned a couple times before, I have a strong headcanon that Luxord’s Somebody is from the world of TWEWY. The concept of him being a Reaper and a Game Master is too fitting for his character. His Jackpot ability in 358/2 Days is very reminiscent of Beat’s Fusion (cards exploding, matching cards). And, perhaps most importantly, as a Nobody, his power is time manipulation. He’s a perfect fit for shifting between parallel worlds and changing the outcome of events to manipulate timelines to his own liking.
In KH: Re Mind, Yozora battles Sora in Shibuya, and then wakes up in a car driven by, presumably, Luxord. Did Luxord rescue Yozora from Shibuya and shift them to a parallel world? Your guess is as good as mine. We’re just going to have to wait and see, but I believe he’s going to be a key factor in the future of KH. Especially with the Wild Card he gave Sora. A Wild Card acts as a substitute card -- perhaps, if used by Sora, it will mean Yozora becoming a “substitute” to take Sora’s place. It’s a concept, anyway.
Also noteworthy is this interview from Nomura:
Interviewer: “Is Sora in the world of The World Ends With You?”
Tetsuya Nomura: "It does look like it. But there's more meaning in the fact that it is not Shibuya (渋谷), but Shibuya (シブヤ). Also, Sora promised Neku and the others in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance that he would meet them in Shibuya (シブヤ)
Shibuya (渋谷) is most likely TWEWY: Final Remix Shibuya, but Shibuya (シブヤ) may be Yozora’s Shibuya, also known as Quadratum. Sora and Neku are going to meet in this version of Shibuya, if DDD is anything to go by.
Ultimately....
I believe that NEO is going to have huge implications for the future of KH. I believe that Neku is going to play a pivotal role in reuniting Sora and Riku. And I believe Luxord is going to play a key role as well. I cannot wait to see how it all plays out. Parallel worlds and timelines have always been my jam (see also: my love for Kotaro Uchikoshi’s work!) and it’s part of the reason why I love Nomura’s work as well. The madlad has a master plan at work, and it’s gonna be confusing as hell getting there, but I have faith he can tie it all together in the end.
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kimabutch · 3 years
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A kind anon encouraged me to share some of my thoughts about the portrayal of religion in Skyjacks, so I thought I’d talk about the parallels between the Church of the Slain God and some aspects of Christianity. 
But I’m prefacing this with a few warnings. First, I’m going to talk about some of my own beliefs and feelings as a Christian, and this will involve discussions of Christianity in both a negative and a positive light. I am not going to get into any debates about my beliefs; some of them are maybe a little unconventional (and some would probably have certain groups saying I’m not a Christian.) 
Second, a bit about my background — I was raised in a very liberal church and family, and have since joined an explicitly leftist church. I have some peripheral experiences with more conservative branches of Christianity, but most of my knowledge of them comes from my own research and listening to friends who were formerly part of conservative churches. I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert in theology or all branches of Christianity. 
Also, spoilers up to episode 61!
Okay, so it’s no secret that the Church of the Slain God (CSG) borrows or adapts elements from Christianity — and particularly Roman Catholicism — from their angels to the Swiss guards to some of the church structure, such as the existence of “bishops.” But I think that specifically, the CSG is a cool take on Christian theology that’s completely devoid of the resurrection. 
I’m fairly sure that in an early episode, James explicitly said that the CSG’s basic message of ‘God is dead and we killed him’ is reminiscent of Christianity, and it is — it‘s just that Christianity also says ‘God was dead, we killed him, but he came back for us, too.’ Or well, theoretically Christianity says that. 
Because I think there are certain branches of Christianity (particularly those that are extremely right-leaning) that are much more focussed on Jesus’s death than his resurrection — and in general, on death over life. There is a tendency to focus on how he suffered for us sinners, who were so guilty that only the sacrifice of God’s son could save us — and then skip right to the Second Coming (in which there will be more death) or what will happen after we die, which is presented as more important than our lives on Earth. 
Now, I don’t personally agree with a lot of that interpretation on its own (I tend to have a very different view of “why” Jesus died), but I don’t think all parts of it are necessarily harmful, and I’m certainly not about to argue about whether they’re right or wrong. What I will dispute, however, is how these narratives tend to erase the most important part of that story to me — the resurrection. The fact that love was infinitely more important than anything humans could have done wrong, that love lives even when it’s been stamped down, that love is deathless and rises again. 
Without God’s unending love and hope, without the resurrection, Christianity becomes about death, guilt, sadness, and fear — about focussing on humanity’s sins and worthlessness in the face of a suffering God. And those emotions, particularly guilt, are ones that can be manipulated, especially in times of crisis; they can become a tool with which you can beat down an entire population. Particularly if you, like the CSG, give the tiniest glimmer of hope that by suffering enough, you might be able to alleviate some of your guilt at being born a human who caused your God pain, to (in Adrian in Skyjacks says, “to make things as right as we can.”)
I’m not saying that all conservative Christianity is like this, but I do think that by removing the resurrection from their narrative, CSG offers a sort of mirror to how certain Christian groups emphasize death, destruction, and suffering even when infinite hope, renewal, and life are important themes in the Gospel. 
Anyways, I started thinking about this parallel before I got to the Nordia arc, and I gotta say, the arc’s only made me think about it more. Particularly the church service in episodes 60-61, which has so many parallels to Roman Catholic services, but twisted into the most death- and guilt-focussed lens possible. The only stated purpose of the service is because the congregants have all “done something wrong.” Confessions are an opportunity to “expunge” sins by ‘admitting’ that you helped kill a God who died nearly 200 years ago. Offerings are simply giving up something valuable to you so that it can stay in a cave, becoming salt-crusted. 
And, most poignantly to me, they have something like communion, in which the congregation drinks together — but the drink is sea water, and they drink to “suffer as the Sovereign suffered [...] suffer because that will bring us closer to him.” There are, of course, interpretations of Christian communion that can similarly emphasize Jesus’s suffering and our part in it by drinking his blood and eating his body (although I have no plans to argue about transubstantiation here) — but communion can also be about “the bread of life,” about satiating physical and spiritual hunger together and thus furthering all aspects of life. The CSG’s communion, where congregants choke down their drink as a punishment, takes all the worst potential implications of Christian communion and magnifies/warps them until it becomes only about suffering and God’s death, not about God sharing life.
And that’s about all I’ve got to say on that particular subject (although I do have another idea for a more broad post about the things that Skyjacks does well on religion specifically.) I really appreciate Skyjacks for sparking me to do some self-reflection about my own beliefs and religious practices. The lore of this show is so incredibly thoughtfully constructed and constantly leaves me impressed. And once again, just to be clear — I sincerely don’t hold any ill-will toward people who disagree with me on the takes, and I don’t want to debate them; I just want to share my thoughts.
Thanks for reading!
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fortunatelylori · 4 years
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Hi, loved what you wrote about 365 days! What do you say about people who claim it promotes rape culture? I personally loved the movie for what it was but I think it’s interesting to discuss possible ramifications of it... Should we be worried about what men take away from it?
Hey, nonnie!
Thank you! I’m glad people are enjoying the meta. I fully expected to have about 2 notes on it when I posted it so the response has been a very nice surprise.
Having thoughtful debates about anything is always interesting so I’m certainly not opposed to it. Also simply because you enjoy something, that doesn’t mean you can’t and shouldn’t be aware of its flaws or negative implications.
Being a heavy metal fan, I’ve had conversations about the possible negative effects art may have on society more times than I care to count and it is ultimately very much a “the chicken or the egg” type of debate. At the end of the day, it’s really up to our own individual perception of how art and life co-exist.
Personally I believe art is a reflection of life, a cumulative, stylized expression of our experiences, our interests, passions, obsessions, desires and needs. Meaning that it is not art that influences our behavior but rather it is our behavior that shapes our art.
There is only one notable exception to this: propaganda art
This is a particularly insidious form of manipulation because it generally uses long standing conflicts that exist within a society and validate and justify them. Obviously images of the 3rd Rich and communism will come to mind here.
There is also a sort of hybrid form of art that is both made for artistic purposes but also co-opted politically, either from the beginning or as it evolves. The classic example of this is Rambo which started as an anti-war movie and developed into a pro-US empire franchise over time. (by the way Stallone brought back the franchise to its roots with the last film so very proud of him for that)
Another example of a hybrid movie is Ghostbusters 2016 which started out as a continuation of a legacy franchise and devolved into a woke piece of marketing meant to further antagonize large masses of people during a historical election.
I’d argue something like Ghostbusters 2016 is far more dangerous than 365 dni, simply because it tries to spoon-feed you an agenda you neither signed up for or would necessarily look for in a movie that’s supposedly about how to kill evil Chris Hemsworths. And it goes even further than that by attempting to draw your support for it by labeling you problematic if you refuse to take part in the manipulation.
As I’ve said in my original meta, 365 dni doesn’t have any agenda aside from getting you off. And that’s the really important aspect here: 365 dni exists to get women hot and bothered. So why are we even asking what men will get out of this film? It wasn’t made for them. It was made for our enjoyment so wouldn’t we be better served to ask what we’re getting out of it?
But let’s for the sake of argument ponder what theoretical men might get out of this movie. Does anyone truly believe that men don’t already know that kidnapping women is wrong? Will 365 dni change their minds?
Also, incidentally, are there only bad things men can get out of watching this movie? Can they perhaps not find anything positive in it? Like let’s say a deeper understanding of foreplay or why giving their partners oral sex is good? Or that it really does pay off to learn how to dance?
Honestly, I’m pretty sure most men will avoid this movie on principal and also because most of them were dragged by their girlfriends to the cinema when 50 shades came out and you know what they say: you burn me once … But if they do manage to stumble upon it, I tend to see it as a positive thing, not a negative one.
Now … to the direct accusation that this movie glorifies rape. It doesn’t. It’s explicitly anti-rape by both having Massimo state that he will wait for Laura to initiate sexual intercourse as well physically mutilate a man that tries to rape her.
In fact, if you go through this movie beat by beat, from the moment they have dinner, it’s always Laura that initiates sexual play, not Massimo. It’s Laura who takes her clothes off the next morning, it’s Laura who goes to his hotel room, it’s Laura who teases him at the club and it’s ultimately Laura that decides the time has come for them to have sex. Massimo responds and plays into the game but he isn’t actually the instigator.
The whole film is, in fact, built around Laura’s need for sexual fulfillment. It starts with her in a state of sexual and emotional frustration. Massimo appears in her life as the antidote to that. If this movie does anything is validating a woman’s desire for sex and her expectation that her needs are met by her partner.
That being said, is the kidnapping of Laura an uncomfortable aspect of this film? I’d personally say yes. I would have preferred they went about it in a different way: perhaps have Laura indebted to Massimo in some way that would force her to accept his offer to spend 365 days with him. It would have certainly spared us that back alley drugging scene.
That’s how I would have written it if I could have. But here’s the thing, independent of my tastes and preferences or anyone else’s:
Kink exists outside of PC culture and is non-negotiable
Like it or not, people, and that includes women, have all sorts of sexual fantasies. There are women who have kidnapping fantasies or rape fantasies. There are women who have masochistic or domination fantasies. And on and on.
Fantasy is powerful because it allows us to experience things in a safe and healthy environment. It should be celebrated and nurtured, not censored.
Simply because you don’t like something doesn’t give you the right to will it out of existence. Regulate your own viewing experience and let others do the same.
Which brings me to my last salient point:
Women can vicariously enjoy things
Women tend to be very good at pointing out the multitude of ways in which we are better than men. And, don’t get me wrong, we are. We are clearly very much the superior sex. Lol
However, one thing I believe men are far better at than women is enjoying things without worrying if their enjoyment is correct or beneficial to society at large.
How many men have you met that are worried about the negative effects the violence in John Wick might have on the youth of America? (this is not a dig at John Wick by the way. I love him and 100% support his desire to murder anyone who messes with his glorious dogs)
The truth is that one of the side effects of the patriarchy is that women are always second guessing the things they like and worrying constantly about what the potential negative impact their enjoyment might have on others.
I don’t know if anyone out there needs to hear this from me but you are allowed to like things just because you like them. You are allowed to notice problematic aspects in a story and still love it because after all nothing in life has any business being perfect. Some things, though, do come close:
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aion-rsa · 3 years
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Did WandaVision Explain the MCU’s Previous Recasts?
https://ift.tt/3aWWHUG
This article contains WANDAVISION spoilers.
“She recast Pietro?!”
The vexing vicissitudes of WandaVision accomplished what was once unthinkable in the Marvel Cinematic Universe when Wanda’s long-deceased twin brother, Pietro Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver, appeared on her pseudo-sitcom doorstep with a franchise-altering twist, since it was Evan Peters’s quirky version of the speedster—from Fox’s X-Men movies—in lieu of the homegrown version played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Thusly, with one whooshing streak, the MCU might have installed the missing mutant half of its comic book ties. Yet, the change came with a plot-based explanation passable enough to make one wonder if it canonizes the MCU’s previous casting swaps.
While the implications that could result from Fox-grown X-Men characters getting grandfathered into the Marvel Studios-produced MCU are potent (and Deadpool-prominent), the understated narrative here is that the scene in question from WandaVision Episode 5, “On a Very Special Episode,” provided a monumentally meta moment from Kat Dennings’s Darcy Lewis, who blurted outloud the aforementioned question that we as the audience—who are watching the show’s SWORD audience watch the show within a show—were all asking ourselves about the recasting of Pietro. In doing so, she provided the MCU the first canonical acknowledgement of one of its recastings; a moment that could bear implications—of a retroactive variety—it is own right.  
Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, who first made impact in the MCU—by way of an introduction in Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s mid-credits teaser a year earlier—in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, was introduced alongside twin brother Pietro as young Sokovian HYDRA operatives who were manipulated into being experimented on by Wolfgang von Strucker with Loki’s scepter—specifically the Mind Stone it housed—which bestowed Wanda telekinesis and telepathic manipulation and Pietro super-speed. That backstory, however, was a workaround from the pre-Disney-acquisition movie rights to their traditional status as mutants who debuted in the pages of X-Men, a Marvel property whose film rights were held by Fox in a dynamic that limited how the MCU could portray those characters, and even forbade usage of the very term, “mutant.”
Marvel Studios
Therein lies the surreal nature of Pietro’s arrival on the series, since Peters’ version is not only a member of the heretofore MCU-forbidden species, but is—as he learned in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse—the son of an intrinsically-X-men character in Magneto. Yet, we’re still not quite privy to the nature of Wanda’s bizarre sitcom fiefdom, only with a vague scientific explanation that she’s controlling CMBR (Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation) to manipulate reality within the confines of the Westview anomaly. Thus, while this newcomer clearly looks like the Pietro from the Fox movies, his new existence—akin to rapidly-growing twin sons Tommy and Billy—connects to this proverbial matrix.
Yet, Wanda didn’t simply conjure the Pietro she knew (Taylor-Johnson’s Age of Ultron version), and was genuinely surprised by him, which seems to indicate that she’s losing control of the phenomenon, and may have unwittingly yanked X-Men Pietro from the multiverse, a concept that could figure prominently when she appears in upcoming movie sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Moreover, the fact that Darcy—who was monitoring the scene from outside the anomaly—actually understood that this wasn’t MCU Pietro might just indicate that the reality-altering effects of the event are being contained within Westview… at least for now.   
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TV
WandaVision: The Endgame Is In Sight
By Don Kaye
TV
Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide
By Mike Cecchini and 3 others
Consequently, by the time WandaVision reaches the inevitable moment in which Westview—Wanda’s reverse Faraday cage of sorts—collapses, the barrier containing her hex-powered quantum alterations would, theoretically, no longer protect the outside world from its distributive effects on the timeline. Thus, in a manner akin to Marvel Comics’ House of M storyline, Wanda could not only end up reshaping the reality of the present, but the past as well; an event that could (emphasis on “could,”) eventually be used to canonically reconcile the various aesthetically unpleasing inconsistencies we’ve seen across the MCU, most notably the instances in which major characters were recast. As we saw with DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths (both the comic storyline and the CW television event), changes to the ever-fragile timeline often leads to the creation of people who, for all intents and purposes, are the same person, but are physically different, perhaps due to timeline variables connected to their conception. Therefore, (just as the title indicates), this initially-unassuming Disney+ television vehicle might just end up providing an invaluable plot-driven explanation for the MCU’s recastings!   
Of course, the conventional industry move of recasting characters—a practice long-associated with sitcoms and soap operas—is hardly a new concept to the MCU, and even goes back to 2008 launcher Iron Man, in which Terrence Howard played James Rhodes (complete with an auspicious War Machine teaser moment), until the specter of studio politics and star-power-centric wage disputes led to an acrimonious exit. He was abruptly recast for 2010’s Iron Man 2 with Don Cheadle, who has been fielding the part ever since across the MCU’s lucratively groundbreaking moments, and will apparently do so again with an appearance on March-scheduled series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Moreover, the MCU’s 2008 sophomore effort, The Incredible Hulk, saw its A-list headliner, Edward Norton, recast with Mark Ruffalo for 2012 megamovie The Avengers, and, like Cheadle, he has reaped the wanton benefits with successful reprisals ever since.
Marvel Studios
Hugo Weaving also put in a spectacular villain performance as the Red Skull in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, but eventually soured on Marvel, leading to an uncannily evocative Red Skull performance by Ross Marquand in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. The list goes on with the original Thor’s Fandral, Josh Dallas, who would be recast in the 2013 sequel by (eventual Shazam star) Zachary Levi, and—in a recent development—Emma Fuhrmann saw her Avengers: Endgame role as a teenage Cassie Lang (minor as it may have been,) slip away, with Kathryn Newton having been cast as Cassie for 2022-scheduled sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. One could even point to the MCU’s ultimate big bad, Thanos, as a tangential example, since he was first played by Damion Poitier (sans lines), seen in The Avengers’ mid-credits scene, only to have Josh Brolin take over the role two years later, starting with the mid-credits scene of 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which yielded iconic results in subsequent MCU efforts.   
Accordingly, while the reality-altered WandaVision originally seemed like a bizarre, artfully-indulgent way to launch Phase Four of the MCU, it might just end up being the perfect vehicle to not only neatly reconcile the canonical contradictions that have existed (the recastings), but also handle the array of unfathomable game-changers on the horizon now that the X-Men (and Fantastic Four) side of the Marvel Comics mythos is on a collision course with the once-insular 13-year-old Marvel Studios multimedia franchise.  
cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });
WandaVision, which is now past the halfway mark of its 9-episode run, continues premiering new episodes Fridays on Disney+.
The post Did WandaVision Explain the MCU’s Previous Recasts? appeared first on Den of Geek.
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crimsoncondor · 4 years
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Kakegurui: Psychological Analysis of Yumeko Jabami (Anime)
This is a description of the ENTP personality type:
https://www.16personalities.com/entp-personality
Pathological gambling presents itself in ways akin to Yumeko's derangement:
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/psychology/a-study-on-pathological-gambling-as-an-addiction-psychology-essay.php
(Note the latter source is theoretical. It is possible psychosexual and nurture-related factors contribute to gambling addiction.)
The neuroscience behind pathological gambling directly aligns with Yumeko's mindsets and functions:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3858640/
Color Symbolism Theory:
https://bloodorangesangria.tumblr.com/post/162532139590/kakegurui-color-theory-yumeko-jabamired
Footnotes:
Yumeko is Kakegurui in the form of a character. The series itself is tailored specifically towards her. She is the essence of gambling, addiction, and the combination of both. She symbolizes a myriad of different concepts such as capitalism and Christianity. While Kirari embodies God, she represents Satan. This is implicated in the first opening theme, which is fittingly titled "Deal With the Devil"; this "deal" is the agreement to gamble with Yumeko. She and Kirari appear in the track encompassed by fruit and fish. The former alludes to the serpent's enticements in the Adam and Eve anecdote while the latter refers to Ichthys, a fish-shaped acrostic deemed sacred by the early Church. Because Kirari often compares the order she has established to an aquarium, let us assume the fish is her insignia. The fish may also insinuate the duo are manifestations of Yin and Yang, which is reasonable considering their black and white designs, but this is less likely. In addition, a shot where Midari shoots a girl whose head is a strawberry is featured --- after shooting, a banner stating "Heaven or Hell" appears. In terms of roles and actions in the series, Yumeko carries the debts of others, disrupting the system, and Kirari maintains the debt system itself. This symbolism also exposes some undertones of Christianity, as Yumeko and Kirari are not the polar opposites people perceive God and Satan to be. The color schemes of their designs differ entirely. Black is a prominent color in Yumeko's design, signifying darkness, and Kirari's design is primarily white, representing light. However, these can also represent other notions. Black is associated with mystery, rebellion, sophistication, elegance, formality, aggression, evil, power, strength, seriousness, and authority. Kirari is the authority of the school despite this representation, but Yumeko is gradually climbing up the hierarchical ladder, nevertheless. Given Yumeko's well-kempt, 'yamato nadeshiko' appearance and courteous dialogue, the messages of formality, elegance, and sophistication are valid. However, this design is also reminiscent of many symbols in Japanese horror such as Tomie, Enma, and Sadako. It implies she is a mixture of both and further reinforces her duality. Her breaching of Kirari's system is rebellious, and her largely unenumerated background is mysterious. Regardless of these alignments, darkness suits her as well. Elementally speaking, red and black are respectively affiliated with fire and water, further reinforcing the notion Yumeko has duality. Meanwhile, Kirari's white color is incredibly contradictory, but this is not an analysis of her, so I shall not digress. I will probably analyze her in the future.
Regarding capitalism, the gambling den which serves as the setting of Kakegurui and each of its ties comprise a purely capitalist society. Money is the key to both power and caliber. Yumeko passively defies the system, which exemplifies her alignment: Chaotic Neutral. Kirari and her accomplices such as Runa, Sayaka, Midari, and Yuriko are the government; they perpetuate the class system. The -bami clan has politics of its own and can torture and rampage as much as it wishes due to the money and authority it possesses. Yumeko is a member of this clan but seems to be quite disinterested in its affairs. Many of her relatives are or were dedicated gamblers, so it seems to have become second nature to her. For example, her older sister lost her sanity after risking everything in a clan conflict, resulting in hospitalization. Yumeko's parents died of allegedly unknown causes, insinuating their demises were concealed by the clan and involved them.
When asked by Mary if she was familiar with any of the -bami students, she hesitated and then answered dismissively, which was clearly fabricated. She seems not at all bothered by this baggage, meaning she either suffers from self-induced denial or genuinely does not care. Rei, who had a pleasant relationship with Yumeko's sister before her hospitalization, took her apathy personally, inquiring about whether she felt any guilt towards those she has obliterated via gambling. Yumeko's response was the epitome of addiction: she claimed to feel guilt for not feeling guilt. When Rei unintentionally walked into Yumeko's sister's hospital room while Yumeko was visiting, she saw little sympathy in her eyes. She adds the following inquiry: "Do you know what it feels like too? When a person sinks into despair?" The manner in which she phrased this refers to both her sister and herself. Given Yumeko's circumstances, she most likely "sank into despair" and coped through gambling. However, referring back to "feeling guilt for not feeling guilt", this guilt could have consumed her. The powerful possibility exists she and her sister were in similar situations, but it could also be quite the opposite, resulting in disconnection and therefore apathy. This apathy may be innate as well.
This leads to the core of my theory. Yumeko was born into a gambling family and conditioned into valuing it. She was likely born detached from others and genetically more susceptible to addiction due to the family's customs, but her current state was probably ignited by conditioning as well. The Jabami family was a lower-tier party in the -bami clan, and the capitalist theme of Kakegurui comes into play here, as they possibly gambled for a higher position in the clan --- or simply for the thrill like Yumeko. It would also be psychologically plausible for Yumeko to have experienced trauma due to the clan's harsh and violent ways. Torture was commonplace in several branches of said clan, and Yumeko may have witnessed some of it due to the loss of her family or the natural process of living in this environment. Being poisoned in Season 2 did not seem to affect her greatly; she may be emotionally numb to these acts due to past experiences, or she could have merely been born this manner. She never reacted to Rei's enrollment in the academy either, meaning she was either apathetic or unsurprised. Her relationship with Rei before the events of the story is unknown but most probably meager and distant, founded solely on external observations such as those acquired during the two's mutual visit to the hospital or the auction gamble towards the end of Season 2. The girl has a photographic memory and excellent analysis skills but nonetheless resorts to hunches to shake gambles up; were these characteristics attained over time because of her experienced past in gambling, were they present at birth, or are both the case? Notice my repetitive usage of the terms "either" and "or"; much of this is hypothetical. It is ultimately an enigma whether nature or nurture was the dominant factor contributing to her instability, but both seem to have played a role. Some people are born like Yumeko, others obtain her identity over time, and some are the result of a mixture. Another aspect of her identity implying sheltering and isolation is her lack of familiarity with basic popular culture, but anhedonia and hedonism may have lead to a general absence of interest in the most simplistic of hobbies, which is similar to Midari's situation and another reason the latter empathizes with her.
Yumeko is aware of her gambling addiction, and she is obviously correct, but has she been formally diagnosed? She may have been evaluated when her sister was hospitalized to ensure she would not meet an identical fate; this is not evident, however. It was practically a given for her to be a gambling addict due to her lineage. When push comes to shove, nobody will risk anything they cannot afford to sacrifice. Yumeko has absolutely nothing worth living for and resorts to gambling because it is the final shred of her identity remaining despite her loss. Since it is her lifeline, she assigns different purposes and emotions to it such as lust. Nothing else will satisfy her, so she must force this fetish on herself. Many other members of her clan deal with the same issue because of filial traditions. Gambling preserves and defines her being rather than the loved ones she does not have, so she never quits. She associates the thrills of gambling with those of intercourse to cope with a lack of affection, which is additionally a habit of Midari's and the main reason Midari resonates with her. Despite her fixation on gambling and disregard for those she harms, she does not gamble for the purpose of hurting others, and she seems to possess a morsel of kindness. She wishes for everyone to experience the same thrill she does but cannot comprehend the fact they lack her passions and mindsets. She is also shown to have some level of integrity, as she never cheats and seldom bluffs. This enhances the experience of the game to her, but it may also be a sign of "guilt for not feeling guilt". In Yumeko's unfinished game with Midari during Season 1, she plainly stated she is incapable of feeling fear. Is this natural for her, was it acquired through intense suffering, or are both the case? I honestly believe Yumeko gambles partially due to her "guilt for not feeling guilt". She wishes for someone to strip her of everything she has as punishment for her apathy or any past errors she committed in regards to her late and incapacitated relatives. While she claims she cannot feel fear, one reason other than addiction which motivates her to try whilst gambling is fear of being defeated and having to face herself. She lacks the courage to accept it on her own. Paradoxically, she is utilizing her addiction to scold her for her addiction, and she is risking what she does not need because there is nothing else to sacrifice. She has lost everything.
Why does Yumeko abhor Midari? Their desires are very similar, but Yumeko prefers an intellectual challenge rather than a game of chance. I hypothesize Yumeko relates to Midari in a way which causes insecurities and "guilt for not feeling guilt". Essentially, Midari hits too close to home and is a more impulsive, minimalistic, dramatic, blunt version of her minus the clan controversies.
This character is the subject of the show and is considered a foil; instead of independently developing, she contrasts with others like Yumemi and Sayaka to facilitate their development . . . thus far. This is one of she and Suzui's only similarities.
On multiple occasions, Yumeko is compared to a Joker. As aforementioned, Yumeko has duality, and Jokers are very versatile in a deck of cards depending on the game one employs them for. In Wicca, the Joker is represented by the number zero, a character which includes the meanings of all or nothing, stoicism and comedy, wisdom and idiocy, and delight and despair. The message a joker brings is cryptic, disguised, and mysterious. There are typically two in each deck --- dual jokers. Playing cards have been in existence for more than a millennium, but jokers were added fairly later; the system Kirari established thrived for quite some time, but Yumeko appeared and challenged its rules, much like the Joker.
"Yumeko" translates to "dream child"; at first glance, she seems too good to be true as if she came out of a dream, but in truth, she is diabolical and sly as if she came out of a nightmare. Her surname contains several meanings. The translation "heavy drinker" alludes to her addiction. "Snake", "serpent", "bite", "eat", "drink", and "receive a blow" are other potential solutions. The idiom "snake in the grass" applies to Yumeko and may be one reference appended to the translation; she "thirsts" or "hungers" for gambling. In "Deal With the Devil", she is shown removing Suzui's tie with utensils, preparing to "consume" him with her nature. Her eventful and detrimental background may have “taken a blow” to her sanity. Most importantly, "serpent" may relate to the Adam and Eve tale, making the fruit in "Deal With the Devil" a symbol of her. She succumbs to her desires and encourages others to do the same. Kirari, Rei, and many other characters in Kakegurui are also members of the -bami clan, so "bite" is a section of their names' translations as well, but "snake" is not, making this biblical reference uniquely her own whilst "bite" originates from the nature of her clan.
Yumeko's personality type is easily ENTP. Her extension is A, and her alignment is chaotic neutral. Laws matter little to her, but she is not particularly invested in specific platforms either. The woman's insecurities are subtle to the extent of nonexistent, she is very straightforward and simple-minded, she is able to maintain conversations and presence in given situations, and she is largely separated from reality, which is mostly by choice. Her manipulative rhetoric in tense situations would be quite resourceful in a debate, and since ENTPs are frequently referred to as Debaters, this is sensible. Kirari is an ENTJ-A, which further defends my argument about the two being similar despite representing God and Satan. Hence, her acronym stands for “Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Prospecting, Assertive”. The enneagram is highly controversial, so it shall not be applied to Yumeko.
"Insanity is repeating the same action again and again whilst expecting different results." -Unknown
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dollydeez · 3 years
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Fanfic is Canon, and Here’s Why
I was thinking today about the distinction between canon and fanon, sort of in the same vein as Death of The Author. Ok, that might not immediately make sense but hear me out:
I am of a fairly strict belief that the core reading of a text should be centered around what is actually in the damn thing. Authorial intent, in my mind, should be thrown out the door as it doesn’t matter what is meant but what is said. Examples of this would include Ray Bradbury screaming at college kids that Fahrenheit 451 isn’t about censorship or she who must not be named throwing in bullshit elements of her books on Twitter. This is highly influenced by the way I perceive the creation of art: the artist sends a work out into the world and it is completed, for lack of a better term, in the audience by their interpretation. This isn’t to say unpublished work isn’t art, as the artist is always the first audience member to impress upon said work their own interpretation. You could split hairs dissecting that assertion with different situations or whatever else, but I’m not here to define what is or is not art; I’m not giving the unpublished work implication more than passing attention because it really isn’t relevant to what I want to discuss. What I’m really driving at is the conception of works, specifically written works as far as we are concerned, being separate from the author once they have been completed and submitted to audiences. Granted, with the introduction of sites such as Wattpad, the relationship between the author, the audience, and the work has changed greatly; however I would argue these don’t quite factor in to our discussion as, for our purposes, they are practically a different medium.
So how does this tie in to fanfic? I’d argue that, if the work is being considered under this framework, the authority of the author’s interpretation of the piece isn’t just called into question, but their authority on the world they have created. This is complicated by the capitalistic system under which we live, so for simplicity’s sake let’s put aside the compounding factors of copyright, market share, etc., however I would like to point out that there is precedent for, if not fanfic then fandom at large having an effect on the original work. But, more to the point, let us consider the relationship between the author and the work post-publication, more specifically the authority retained by the author over the world they have created, as this is conceptually based in the idea that their own interpretation is no more valid than any other reader. The main factors I see in this consideration is, in most cases, whether there is a textual contradiction, and in the case of AUs how perspective may shift if it was written by the original author. In the former case, the amount of leeway given should be equal to that which would be given to the original author by suspension of disbelief. The misalignment of certain details is usually tolerated within a series as long as they aren’t too glaring or have too much impact on the plot, and this courtesy should be extended to fan fiction. For the latter case, the re-imagining of stories has been an accepted practice for centuries; it is only in recent times that, because of copyright, only those done by the original author (or many decades after their death) are considered at a similar standard as the original. So how does this play out when someone continues a story through fan fiction and is contradicted through a sequel by the original author? On one hand, I would say this is up to individual interpretation, as if an audience member prefers one to the other that is their prerogative, however future fan fictions will be based on the plot progression delivered by the original author. For practical purposes, what the author says happens next in a story is what canonically happens next.
The distinction between what constitutes canon and what does not is much too strict. The author has control over what is true within their story, but has no authority over what is untrue. This latter distinction is solely up to textual evidence. With exemption to fictions taking place in alternate universes, the only real distinction between an author’s work and a fan’s fiction is the stories taking place and whether or not they contradict each other; in other words, if the fanfic is not contradicting the story being told by the author, it has as much claim to being canon as the original work itself. For this concept I would like to put forward the idea of the communal imagination: although one person may create the piece establishing the world in which the others take place, they have as little control over the valid interpretation and creative use of that world as they have regarding the canonical plot line.This world created in the imagination, and then disseminated into the the imaginations of others, will most likely have some sort of guiding principles around it, therefore even the sequel by the original author could be considered to be a sort of fan fiction. While it could be argued that fan fiction is in a different category, due to its inherently derivative nature, it could just as equally be posited that all stories are derivative and that it is simply matter of scale; in my opinion basing artistic merit on where a work falls on this scale is counter-intuitive to the creative landscape. Art is art, stories are stories, and your fan fiction has just as much claim to being canon as the work produced by the original author. Theoretically, at least, given capitalism and all.
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mittensmorgul · 4 years
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Yes I do have question. How the heck did they make it to alaska so quickly???
https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/tagged/dabb%20vs%20cars/chrono
Car continuity isn’t the show’s strong suit?
Also we don’t have any idea how quickly they actually made it there. All we know is that they’d been driving for a WHILE when we joined them in the car. I saw a post go by last night where someone googled it and discovered it was something like 57 hours to drive from Lebanon to Alaska, but we don’t even know where in Alaska they were...
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that 57 hour estimate puts them at a random spot in the middle of Alaska, though, about 50 miles southwest of Fairbanks:
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lol i zoomed way in on the end of that map to see if there was even a town there, and nope... even the ROAD ends before the end of that journey:
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I am amused by this in a meta fashion, since Sam and Dean set out for Alaska without even a specific destination in mind. Because what Garth told them... is impossible. There IS no road between Kotzebue and Barrow Alaska. And neither of those towns are even on this zoomed-in map. Kotzebue is on the west coast of Alaska, not connected to anything else by any roads at all. Barrow is the northermost point of Alaska, also completely disconnected by any roads. It’s nearly a four hour flight between the two, with nothing between them but wilderness.
This reminds me I really need to write up something about what I believe are the very deliberate series of “continuity errors” in s15. Because I’d file this under that “well this only makes sense until you actually stop and think about it for five seconds” assumptions that s15 seems littered with. And again, my point is that it’s all deliberately skewed, because these are our hints about where Chuck is messing with the story for his own purposes.
But that’s obviously for another post... back to your actual question... >.>
It’s never stated how long Sam and Dean had been gone, driving to Alaska, and then driving around once they got there looking for the place. We don’t know how long Cas had been in Heaven, doing whatever he was doing, scoping out the Chuck/angels situation... and then when he did return, he got pulled into the Jack investigation (bless Agent Lizzo), and conceivably spent a few days on that. We also don’t know how long he and Jack were waiting at the bunker for Sam and Dean to return...
And all the while, Sam and Dean thought Cas was still in Heaven because he hadn’t called them after finding their note about Alaska, or if he did he probably didn’t get a signal because there are VAST swaths of Alaska that don’t have any cell signal at all... because again, no roads, vast wilderness, etc... and it’s highly unlikely their phones even worked at all through most of that journey...
In this context, I LOVE the parallel this creates between Sam and Dean going so far out into the wilderness where they’ve disconnected from the communication grid. Because there’s several other incidents of this exact theme in Cas’s side of the episode. Let me explain.
Cas himself had been disconnected from human cell phone service while he’d been in Heaven. Hence why Sam and Dean had to leave a note for him rather than calling him. The fact they would be in Alaska implied they would be out of cell range themselves. I love the implication that just as Cas returns to Earth, to the bunker, to communicate, Sam and Dean have left... And it’s only because one of the tangled nest of cell phones in Sam’s room rang that Cas was even there to get the lead on Jack being back... Communication is a wild meta point this season, isn’t it?
The Grigori had been surprised that Jack had been able to track them all down, specifically because the Grigori operate on a different frequency from Angel Radio. He couldn’t figure out HOW Jack was tracking them all, and had killed them all, when even Heaven supposedly couldn’t. That in itself was a direct parallel to 12.10, when Lily Sunder wanted Benjamin to call out to the rest of the angels over Angel Radio before killing him, to draw them to her so she could kill them, too. Jack had used this in the exact same way to draw out the last Grigori. But in doing that, we learned that the Grigori were on their own “radio grid,” communicating “in secret” from Heaven.
I mean, theoretically, Chuck still could’ve known all that went on with them, but would he bother? We don’t know... his laser focus has been on the Winchesters, after all, and even a warning like Jack’s killing spree prompted may have gone entirely unnoticed on this alternate frequency.
Jack himself had been hiding in the Empty, under Billie’s protection, until she deemed it “safe” to return, after Chuck went “off world” again. But do we really think Chuck is actually gone? That he isn’t still actively attempting to bring about his desired ending directly?
I mean, since 14.20 when the Shadow smiled at Jack and Billie sat him down for a talk, I’ve been assuming they needed that meeting to take place somewhere that Chuck couldn’t “overhear” their plotting. And the Empty absolutely qualifies for that. Chuck’s “cell service,” his ability to look and hear directly what’s happening in his creation, doesn’t extend to the Empty. And on Jack’s return, he specifically says he can’t use his powers lest Chuck know he’s alive again.
Interesting how these “communication issues” are being lampshaded in text by actual physical limitations and “empty places” on the map, where normal human communications via cell phone service don’t even exist.
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lol i googled a cell phone coverage map of alaska, and this is just the northern half... Barrow is at the top, and the bit on the left I circled, that wee little orange blot on the tip of that spit of land, is Kotzebue... Sam and Dean were really out of their coverage area...
And for European friends who don’t get how freaking MASSIVE Alaska is... have this for handy reference:
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okay... I think that’s enough to get going with...
Basically, we don’t know how long they were driving, nor how long Cas had been in Heaven. We assume once they won and left Fortuna’s bar, they were able to drive back to the bunker with all due haste and no further interruptions due to the car breaking down or running out of gas or any other meddling from Chuck’s curse... So probably about 57 hours. There’s nothing else in the episode to suggest it didn’t take that long, you know? Just because we didn’t see it happening doesn’t mean it didn’t take exactly as long as it should’ve. And honestly, not watching them drive for 57 hours straight is something I can live with :’D
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