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lawrenceop · 3 years

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HOMILY for 5th Sun after Pentecost (Dominican rite)

1 Pt 3:8-15; Matt 5:20-24

“Love the brethren”, or “be lovers of the brotherhood”, says St Peter in today’s epistle. Hence the Gospel today condemns anyone who is angry with a brother, calling him raca, meaning someone who is inferior or stupid. Doing so would violate, it seems to me, the fundamental equality of brothers. Indeed, mindful perhaps of the tense history of brothers in the Old Testament, Jesus points out in the Gospel that at the root of such anger between brothers is a hatred of the other that could potentially lead to murder. For it was between the first pair of brothers that the first murder in history was committed; and the sons of Jacob would gang up in an attempt to kill off their brother Joseph, and they eventually sold him as a slave, an inferior, mere chattel. So, the propensity to hate one’s brother, and to dehumanise him, and to even kill him is as old as sin.

Christ, therefore, comes to redeem this fallen and divided world, and to heal with his grace these wounded and fractured relationships. Indeed, Christ wills not only to heal that which nature provides; to heal not only our blood relationships, but he goes beyond that: his supernatural grace elevates our relationships making us, sinful men, to become spiritual brothers to one another, bound together by his Precious Blood which has been shed for us and freed us from sin; making us, indeed, through baptism, to become his ‘blood brothers’, so to speak, through the adoption of grace into the household of God our common Father. Hence St Paul says: “those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren.” (Rom 8:29)

So, when St Peter speaks of the brotherhood, and when Our Lord speaks to his disciples and tells them to be reconciled with their brothers, he is speaking of the Christian family, of all who have been baptised into Christ, and who are thus to become conformed to his image – all who, by grace, are to become sons of God in and through and with the Son of God. The effect of holy baptism, therefore, is to make us truly children of God the Father, and therefore, just as truly make us brothers and sisters to one another. And so we are bound to God and to one another, united through charity.

Thus Jesus teaches us, his disciples, to pray to God and to address him with these words: Πάτερ ἡμῶν, it begins. Or Pater noster, our Father. Much attention is paid to the fact that Christ the Son confers upon us the privilege of adopted sonship so that we have the grace to call God Abba, Father, just as he, by his divine nature, being consubstantial with the Father, is entitled to do. However, Benedict XVI rightly observes that we could benefit from paying more attention to the fact that God is our Father because the Fatherhood of God is not communicated to us individually but only through the Body of Christ, which is his Church. So Benedict XVI says: “The Christian prayer to the Father… is bound to the community of our brothers, together with whom we make up the one Christ”. That phrase ‘one Christ’ is redolent of St Augustine’s beautiful term for the Church, which he called the totus Christus, ie., the entire Christ: Jesus the Head together with us the members. So, the Lord’s Prayer opens by reminding us of our communion with one another which is a principal fruit of holy baptism.

For this is what Christ has come to effect: he has come to heal the wounds of sin, to overcome the divisions and suspicions between men, to calm the murderous hatred that would well up between brothers if they were to live without grace. Hence St Peter says: “have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart and a humble mind.” For these come from the Holy Spirit, and they build up the brotherhood of Christians, humbly united in love to Christ, under God the Father. However, division, arguments, quarrelling, name-calling, and gossip against a brother all comes from the Devil, the Father of Lies, whom Jesus has called a “murderer from the beginning”. (Jn 8:44)

Therefore, Benedict XVI says that “Christian belief in God the Father… necessarily involves the affirmation of our brothers, the brotherhood of all Christians”, for we have been instructed by Scripture to “love the brethren.” Thus St John says: “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 Jn 4:20). This connection between our love for our fellow Christians and our love for God is intrinsically connected, such that Our Lord tells us in today’s Gospel: “if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Mt 5:23-24) Because the Holy Mass, this Eucharistic assembly, is where we gather as brothers and sisters. It is here that our communion with one another is meant to be expressed; here that our love for one another is made manifest to the world, so that non-believers can see that God is our Father. In the 2nd century, Tertullian thus observed that pagans looking at Christians should be able to say: “Look . . . how they love one another (for they themselves [the pagans] hate one another); and how they are ready to die for each other (for they themselves are readier to kill each other).”

My brothers and sisters: Can this be said of us today? Do we actually know one another who come together to this church to gather around God our Father? What more can I do for you to help this Eucharistic assembly become better practitioners of brotherly love? Moreover, I ask: what do people see when they look at our interactions with one another, especially online – on social media when we Christians talk about and with one another? Occasionally I do see the deep care that Catholics have for one another, praying for one another, giving support, encouragement and sound spiritual advice. But very often I see much that saddens me. As Pope Francis says in Fratelli tutti, “Even in Catholic media, limits can be overstepped, defamation and slander can become commonplace, and all ethical standards and respect for the good name of others can be abandoned”. How can this contribute to the fraternity that our common Father asks of us?” (§46)

This year, as you’ll know, the Dominican Order celebrates the 800th anniversary of the heavenly birthday of St Dominic. And one of the things that has been reiterated about St Dominic is that, according to the earliest writings about him, Dominic wished to be known as Brother Dominic. Hence, his Order is called the “Ordo Fratrum Prædicatorum”, an order of preaching brothers, and the earliest stories of the Order are compiled in a book called The Lives of the Brethren. So, you might think that we brothers have something to say to the wider Church about how to live as brothers, how to love the brethren. I don’t say I am an expert in loving my brothers, but I can say from my own experience that we Dominicans suffer as a brotherhood if we don’t talk to one another, if we don’t listen to one another, if we don’t spend time together getting to know and understand our brothers and their viewpoints. If I only talk with those whom I like and whose views I share, then the temptation to call my brother a fool, or even to hate him increases. Now, the Lord has warned us against this.

The current Master of the Order, therefore, reminds us Dominicans that we must make time and space “for mutual listening and learning, as brothers”. And this advice, I think, holds good for all of us as Catholics. Thus the Holy Father Pope Francis warned the Church against “the media’s noisy potpourri of facts and opinions [that] is often an obstacle to dialogue, since it lets everyone cling stubbornly to his or her own ideas, interests and choices, with the excuse that everyone else is wrong. It becomes easier to discredit and insult opponents from the outset than to open a respectful dialogue aimed at achieving agreement on a deeper level.” (Fratelli tutti, 201) This is the way of the world. But Christ has come to redeem the world; his grace elevates Christians so that we can become a light to the nations, showing the pagan world how we can love one another. Thus Pope Francis says: “Together, we can seek the truth in dialogue, in relaxed conversation or in passionate debate. To do so calls for perseverance; it entails moments of silence and suffering, yet it can patiently embrace the broader experience of individuals and peoples.” (Fratelli tutti, 50)

So this is the challenge laid before us today. In a noisy world full of prideful opinions, can we mortify ourselves and keep silent? Can we charitably listen and seek the good in what others say and do? Can we, as St Peter says, have “a tender heart and a humble mind… [And] do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless”, which means to speak well of the other. (1 Pt 3:8,9)

#charity #brotherhood #Christian brotherhood #solidarity #love #fratelli tutti #Dominican #listening #jubilee

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creepercraftguy · 4 years

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TenMiko isn’t canon dumbass. Himiko’s feelings were out of regret on treating Tenko terribly. Not because she’s in with her. Not to mention Himiko’s canonical straight, she fantasizes herself being surrounded by men, blushes when Kokichi flirts with her and flirts with Shuichi. She shows no reaction when a girl compliments her. If you want Tenko to be happy, ship her with someone who she naturally develops a relationship, not forced herself. Don’t treat survivor’s guilt as romantic feelings.

Now it’s pretty rare that I get comments like this. I was honest to god a little confused when this arrived in my message box out of nowhere, but while I really would rather just ignore this, I cannot let this comment stand. At no point did I ever say that Himiko’s feelings were survivors guilt. At no point did I say the two of them were canonically in love. All I did was talk about what it would be like if they WERE romatically involved. However, this anon here seems to think shipping Tenmiko is completely impossible, and that you’re only allowed to ship a ship that is canon. Is that true? Far from it, obviously. About 95% of Danganronpa ships aren’t canon. About 95% of ships from any series aren’t canon. However, it seems you don’t understand my reasonings for enjoying a ship such as this one that really deserves to be enjoyed. So while I wouldn’t want to do this, you’ve forced my hand, so let me tell you

Why Tenmiko is a valid ship

To start off with, let’s get one thing out of the way. I can totally understand not shipping these two. Tenko’s strong feelings to Himiko are mostly one-sided, and she gets way too attached to the point where she’s a creep. Also, for a large chunk of the game, Himiko seems to like Angie a little more. However, Tenko’s obsessiveness is all just to make Himiko impressed, because she admires her and wants her to notice, and Himiko is VERY obviously upset when Tenko dies. Also, while some may say that Himiko hated Tenko, I don’t believe that for one second. I think Himiko really DID care for Tenko. I know it seems a little weird that she only realised how much happiness Tenko gave her AFTER she died, but personally, I get the feeling that Himiko always valued Tenko's company and simply didn't realise it. In fact, I've been through something similar in my life. I have a close friend, who initially tried to insert himself into my friend group on his own, and at the beginning, he annoyed us and most of us rejected him. I look back and realise that that person was about 80% of the happiness in my life by that point, and somehow he's still one of my best friends today. I can never forgive myself for treating him the way I did, and I'm pretty sure Himiko felt the same. What I'm saying is, on a spiritual level, I understand Himiko's complex emotions in this chapter, and I feel that she is redeemable, which I will stand by. This does not mean I’m translating it as a romantic attraction. Don’t you dare say I’m treating someone’s death as a romantic subplot, because that’s not the case. Also, Himiko’s canonically straight and Tenko...I think is Bi at least? But tell me this anon? Give me one good reason why I should give a fuck? Hajime Hinata seems to be canonically straight, particularly during Chiaki’s FTE’s, when she falls on him, he specifically states that his heart starts beating really loud. But is Hinanami the biggest ship involving Hajime? No! Komahina is! Shuichi and Kaede have a lot of romantic chemistry during the first few chapters. Are they a huge ship? No! Not as big as Oumasai! A ship and a character’s sexuality doesn’t have to come into play AT ALL when it comes to shipping. If you seriously think that, then you’re clearly new to how ships work. The very idea of shipping is that you take two (or more) characters, that can be of any gender, age, race, or even franchise (Nagito X Sans) as an example and pair them together romantically. THAT’S how ships work!

Also, I know they don’t outright say it, but the Anon who sent this to me specifically says that “Himiko blushes when Kokichi compliments her” or something, so in a way, are you trying to say that Oumeno is a more wholesome ship than Tenmiko? I’m sorry but...there’s literally only one way I can describe that. Complete and utter bullshit! To start off with, the only reason that happened is because they needed a bit of comedy, and Himiko is kind of the one comedic character that makes it this far. In general, and I’m not here to knock on Oumeno or anything, but Kokichi and Himiko’s relationship is probably the MOST toxic relationship Himiko has. There are only two big moments these two have together that could mean anything. One is the one I just mentioned, with that stupid “Maybe you like me?” joke in Chapter 5, and the other is how he tells her not to lie to herself and let her emotions out at the end of the Third Case. Generally though, Himiko dislikes Kokichi, like most of the other killing game participants do. Not only that, but in the very least, Tenko never bullied Himiko. There’s a point where Kokichi insults Himiko for having a flat chest, which is an insult I think that is SO dated, but this is not the setup for a healthy relationship. Tenmiko is genuinely a much more healthy relationship, even if it’s not romantic. On top of that, it is never ever confirmed if Kokichi actually said that. It was KAITO in the exisal at the time, so HE’S the one who said that. Whether it was part of Kokichi’s script or if he adlibbed it, since he states he had to adlib some parts, it is never known.

The big issue many people focus on is Tenko’s obsession with Himiko, but when it comes to knocking on this ship, that is literally all people focus on, because they don’t want to admit that is literally the only major thing that is anything close to wrong with it. I honestly think this is just biased. Himiko and Tenko actually have a pretty strong, solid and healthy relationship for the most part, and most people just don’t seem to understand that. In Kaede’s FTE’s with Tenko in the first chapter, she states her attraction towards Himiko is because she admires how she’s a showperson as well as how she has a thing for magical girls. Alongside that, she says that she loves small cute things, and that is exactly what Himiko is. Tenko does not obsess over Himiko, more than she obsesses over how small and cute she finds her. I guess you could say she’s a lolicon in a way, but let’s just...not talk about that. People say that Tenko’s obsession becomes borderline creepy and stalkerish, and while I understand that, I think I should remind everyone what “obsession” actually means. “An obsession” is to be in the state of being obsessed with someone or something. I could say this much that most people love the people in their family, and they have pretty happy and healthy relationships with them and spend a lot of time with them. This. THIS is an obsession. If you think obsessions to people are unhealthy, then that means your relationship with your whole family is unhealthy, in spite of how happy you are. Before anyone outright says that obsessions and love are different, I KNOW! Tenko isn’t a fucking yandere! People think obsessions to people are bad because of yandere tropes, but it can actually come in many different forms, and genuine care and affection is one of them, which is exactly what Tenko tries to show Himiko.

When Tenko and Himiko first met, I don’t doubt Himiko was scared and a bit weirded out by her, but Tenko was nice and encouraged her, and I think Himiko took it the wrong way. Himiko isn’t the type of person to avoid girls so much as she’s the type of person to avoid people in general. She was bullied in her old school, and I think the immense encouragement and support of Tenko would be a bit of new ground for her. As of such, she probably just thought Tenko was strange, because all of this were strange things to her. Himiko pushes Tenko away frustratingly because she thinks she’s simply trying to manipulate her, but the irony is that in the process of trying to avoid being manipulated by Tenko, she basically gets brainwashed by Angie. When ANGIE dies though, Himiko seems to realise what’s actually happened since then, and she realizes that because of all that happened, Tenko didn’t get any of the affection that she was genuinely trying to put on Himiko. When Tenko dies immediately after, Himiko is the first to lift the cage and calls out her name in panic, realizing that Tenko’s affection was not only genuine, but also returned, and she never ever got a chance to thank her for trying to make her a better person. And I genuinely believe that Himiko and Tenko make each other better people for sure!

As for any other reasons why I ship these two, I think their parallels are really interesting. To start off with, their general colorization is a frequently used parallels for duos. Himiko has a red skirt and red hair, as well as a red underside to her cape in her promo art, and Tenko’s outfit has a particularly outstanding blue theme to it. Another parallel, and I actually found this out while browsing, is that Hat’s and Headbands are parallels of each other, and each of them wear one (Himiko’s wizard hat and Tenko’s pinwheel headband) Lastly, there’s the contrast in personality, and this is the main reason why I ship these two. I love it when two people can have romantic attraction despite being almost opposite in nature, because their two personalities can collide, and it makes each of them better people. This is not only the case for Tenmiko, but also the case for Shuichi and Kaede, and also Kaito and Maki, AKA two ships that are basically canon (for the most part) so I really don’t see why Tenmiko’s lack on canonicity makes it a bad ship anymore, when it’s basically the same dynamic as these two. Tenko is quick, energetic and aggressive, while Himiko is slow, lazy and weak willed for a big part of the game, and I think these two counteract each other pretty well. It’s not the greatest group of parallels, but in this case, I think the opposites certainly do attract.

Tenmiko is a healthy, strong, fun and valid ship, and there is nothing you can do to change my mind. I will be supportive of this ship for a very long time from now.

#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #tenko chabashira #himiko yumeno #tenmiko #tenmiko is valid

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wheelygoodteddys · 5 years

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I don't want to do this!:

I absolutely hate writing about religious discrimination!

Frankly, I wish that I wasn't putting fingers to keyboard about any discrimination.

I also desperately don't want the focus to be on discrimination against everything Islamic and Muslim.

However, sadly, it's the most venomous hated that I have ever encountered, second only to racism against the black human beings of our world.

All my life I must have lived under a rock, maybe I live under a rock now, yet the vileness and outright lies that come out of those obsessed with hating all Islam and Muslims, plus anyone who stands up and says this is wrong, is obscene.

I am disgusted in the way these people respond.

I have had differing opinions with both Muslim men are women yet been addressed with respect and politeness. They are peaceful and not intimidating in any way.

Speak to a person who is anti Muslim, they refuse to listen to anything that may contradict what they want to believe, they will call you a liar and slander you. They intimidate and bully, call you names, question your mental stability, stalk your FB and target your children. The insults and illogical reasoning is unbelievable.

I am horrified that there are people like this in the world!

More horrifying still is for once I can see the appeal in hating the West.

Imagine a young Muslim man, born here, and rather then allowing him to explain what his religion means to him, to try and teach people, that hate everything about him, that he deserves to be not discriminated against, he gets told what his religion is, he is called a murder, a terrorist, a paedophile, a Mysoginist, etc. His sister is spoken to about her husband beating her, being oppressed, asked if she still has her clitorus, threatened with physical abuse, has her hijab torn off, threatened with rape, told she is a bad mother because she sells her baby girls to be raped by old men.

And no matter what they say to try and explain their actual beliefs the abuse flows. And this is from their own countrymen.

Mate, I would want them all gone too! Be honest, who wouldn't!?

Yet if they report abuse or complain about their treatment they are accused of wanting to change things. "They come here and try to change everything", is the cry from the haters!

1) There is NO law that insists that ALL women wear a Burqa in Saudi Arabia: Hijab is only compulsory for Muslim women. Anything else is a choice for those in a practicing Muslim family.

2) Women are not allowed to get an education in Saudi Arabia: I urge you to look up any TV broadcast from local Saudi Arabia telecasts. Women, in hijab, reading the news. This suggests an education. However, both men and women are encouraged to gain knowledge in Islam.

3) WTF does Saudi Arabia have to do with every other Muslim world wide, especially in Australia?

4) FGM (female genital mutilation) is an Islamic practice: Far from it! The Islamic religion urges that both men and women enjoy sex and that a man sexually pleases his wife. FGM is a tribal practice. However, MGM (male genital mutilation) has and still is widely practiced in Australia.

5) There is NO "no go" zones in Australia!: This urban myth was started by a female, Canadian Islamphobe. It was said to be proved when the police removed her from Lakemba for disturbing the peace. The police weren't working for the Muslims to enforce their "no go" zones! How ridiculous. Others tell totally unbelievable stories about women walking there and being spat on for not wearing hijab. Firstly, not all Muslimah wear hijab, even in Lakemba. Also there are numerous non-Muslims that go to these fabled areas to eat, visit, shop, do business, etc. This rumor is absolutely ludicrous!

6) Muslim women are oppressed, even here in Australia!: It is naive that there is no abusive people in any religion or walk of life, however, Muslimah are not oppressed as perf the usual course. Quiet the opposite! Historically, and as it is today, Muslimah have the freedom to do and be whatever they want, just like Muslim men. There is no distinction between what male and females can do. In fact, men are encouraged to wash their own clothes, cook and do housework. Also the Qur'an makes it very clear that the mother is the head of the household.

7) It is always claimed that Muslims want to change things: Yet, the question, "what have they actually changed?", goes unanswered. Muslims are required to live by the laws of the land, and as such, really don't want to change anything but the way they are treated. Especially how the women are treated. Our hero Islamphobes always target women and children because Muslimah are more recognizable.

8) Why are these people so threatened by the hijab or niqab?: For fuck sake it's a piece of material! It's not what's on a woman's head that oppresses her. However, who are those that want to oppress Muslimah? Muslim men or the Islamphobe? I say without hesitation, the Islamphobe! They don't ask a Muslim women how she feels, they don't ask what she may want to wear. They rarely comprehend the meaning of the hijab to a woman but rather try to twist it into some sexually perverse. They proclaim that Muslim women shouldn't wear a head covering. As Australia is a free country, with a freedom of religion and freedom of lawful individually, the real oppression and discrimination, is telling Muslim women what to wear.

9) Telling Muslim women what they are: The idea that, to Islamphobes, Muslim women are stupid and therefore, don't know that they are oppressed, would have to be the most Mysoginist slap in the face ever! All I can say is, "at least Muslim men know a woman's worth is awesome".

10) Muslim men marry girl babies of 5 to 6 years old and Muslim mothers allow it: Firstly, American is the place booming in child brides at the moment. With some states having no minimum age for marriage and also no divorce for women. Compared to Malaysian Clerics, years ago, raising the age of concent to 18. Also contrary to European/western/Christian culture, women have been granted divorce since the 700s in Islam.

11) Women wear the Burqa in Australia: This is actually one of those urban myths, started by Pauline Hanson. To see a Burqa in Australia would be very unusual. Most Australian Muslimah are from cultures that don't don the Burqa. The Burqa is an Afghan tradition and is very rare in Australia. Then why fight "ban the Burqa"? In one word, principle! It is against a woman's basic rights to tell her how much she can or can't wear, within the laws of public decency. There is also a security argument, as a Burqa is rarely worn that argument is rather moot.

12) Muslim men have lots of wives and children and just live on welfare: This is so silly that it's laughable. Once again, it is rare for Muslim men to have more than one wife these days as it is financially impractical. Also most Muslim men prefer one wife. In Australia, on average, the Muslim family consists of 2 children. With all this being said, usually Muslim men and women are educated and professional people. If not they strive to own businesses. The stupid welfare claims are unfounded and actually go against most Muslim traditions and cultures that have a hard work ethic.

13) They come here are get more welfare than Australians with no waiting period: This information can be researched on government websites. There is a waiting time for new Australians, Muslim or otherwise, which often means charitable families that sponsor them and take them in during this time. When they do receive any benefit, before getting on their feet, it is no more or less than anyone else.

14) They receive a thousand dollar iPhone and designer clothes as soon as they arrive: Is this one even worth answering? I just shake my head in disbelief!

15) Muslims have been Australians for generations: It amazes me how many people actually believe that no Muslim is Australian born. The history of the Islamic people in Australia predates white colonization. Islamic men from Indonesia travelled down and through Australia. There was intermarriage with the Indigenous peoples and even revertion to Islam by some. A more constant move to Australia, by those of the Islamic faith, started in the 1800's.

16) All Muslims are the same because they read from the same book: this is like saying that all Christian denominations are the same because they read from the same book. Most know that this is not the case.

There are many different varieties of Muslim. Yes they have the Qur'an yet addition books vary between the sects.

There are 72 different sects, numerous sects within the main sects, different traditions, different cultures, different regions, different regions, different countries and different families.

As for the Qur'an: there is the subject context, further context, overall context, historical context and spiritual context. Then all the different ways it is interpreted. Also interpretation can be manipulated and cherry picked to suit an agenda or bias. This can be said of the Bible also.

Where interpretation is important is in the understanding of Arabic. To translate a language as complex as Arabic into simple English leaves the meaning truly lacking.

For example: Islam is a very sexually moral religion. Men and women are not meant to sexulise each other, There is no unsupervised dating and dressing is modest. However, it is commonly thought the men will receive a bus load of virgins to have an orgy with in paradise. However, "virgin" more correctly translates to "pure". This is a "spiritual" context and "heavenly beings/angels is probably a better translation into English.

17) Muslims want to kill all Jews and Muslims. The Qur'an tells them to kill all Christians: Unfortunately people are so off the mark on this one. Islam actually says that Muslims cannot destroy a place of worship nor hurt religious "ministers". The Qur'an refers to Christians and Jews as the "people of the book". In fact, the only other women a Muslim man is permitted to marry is either a Christian or a Jew. The wives of these two religions are also not expect to revert as they are seen as sisters to Islam. Christian and Jewish men and women are thought of as brothers and sisters to Muslims.

There is a long list of urban myth, propaganda, rumors and out right lies that are used as ammunition against Islam and Muslims.

The arrogance of the Islamphobe is to tell a Muslim what their faith is! With no other religion would a person, outside that faith, verse another in their religion.

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prorevenge · 5 years

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B!7ch of a friend insults me over dead uncle, gets exposed for all the shit she did

So, long-ish one here, and it’s been some time so I don’t exactly remember the dialogue.

So, as a backstory this happened when I was in the equivalent of Junior year of high school. I became friends with a girl one year older than me and soon we grew to be like sisters, doing shit together all the time and being generally like sisters. Might I also mention that at that time both of us were into shit like Reiki and weird sorts of spirituality and the occult and shit like that, and me being the edgy teen I was at that point was incredibly happy to have someone share my interests.

When my junior year started she was a senior and met a guy at college admissions prep who she apparently immediately fell for. Of course she introduced him to me and him and I took to each other almost too well.

Bf is the boyfriend, D is my friend.

Bf and I started to get along marvelously and being the stupid kid I was of course I fall for him hard, but I hid it and decided that I would be the better person and eat my feelings since he was her boyfriend. So I kept it friendly and basically developed an iron control on my emotions (which to this day is both a good and a bad thing for my mental health).

Over the next 6 months D had become obsessed with him, increasingly jealous and manipulative with both of us and was basically making both our lives hell. She was calling me for hours sometimes just complaining about how Bf has the emotional range of a teaspoon, other times raging and crying, and at that point I was stuck mediating between D and Bf on a daily basis, almost to the exclusion of everything else. I recognize now, years later, that she was incredibly emotionally abusive to both of us. While being a generally abusive twat and psycho bitch she was also very very horny and flirty and about a couple of days before shit hit the fan she made out with a classmate of mine in front of me while asking me not to tell her boyfriend.

One day soon after BF calls me pissed off beyond belief because he and D got into one of their arguments which after half a year of relationship became explosive in nature. He wanted to leave her since he was tired of her bullshit and she threatened to kill herself. I don’t remember exactly what had triggered the argument but what I do remember was that I was feeling so damn guilty about not telling Bf what I had seen. He was one of my best friends after all, and I was put in the situation of either covering up her cheating or risking a big meltdown. I chose to tell Bf that I think she’s just crying for attention since she made out with So-and-So the other week and he went mad. Like seeing red kind of mad. He thanked me for telling him what happened and said he’d go to her house and break up with her and that he’ll keep me posted.

An hour later I get a string of angry texts from her that I betrayed her and that I should stay away from them and all sorts of belittling things. Bf also blocked me on her request and told me to stay away and so I ended up the “villain” and feeling like I wanted the earth to swallow me whole.

After a few days of being miserably depressed, a few girls from my class approached me at a party I couldn’t dodge out of and asked me what’s wrong. After telling them what D had done they were the ones who convinced me I did the right thing and that I wasn’t the villainous bitch she made me look like. You can imagine how fucking pissed I was after giving my all to her and getting jack shit in return so I started plotting revenge. The first step was contacting her ex who I knew she hated, going out with him but bailing like a chicken because I was still feeling guilty. That didn’t work, I was a weakling and made up with her and suffered a few more months until summer came and the three of us went on a seaside vacation where shit REALLY hit the fan. I booked a couple days extra after they were supposed to leave and on their last evening, while at a restaurant, I got a call from my parents telling me to not come home early because my favorite uncle had died and they were going to his funeral. I was distraught and went to my hotel room while D said they’ll just drop by their room and come stay with me since I wasn’t feeling like being alone. Guess what: she got horny and had sex for 2 hours while I sat alone crying my eyes out. When they came D wanted to do some drugs, got incredibly high and started arguing with me and Bf about some stupid spiritual shit she saw while on her trip. Bf was already pissed with her since on our second night she got shitfaced drunk and flirted with everyone in the club, so him and I decided we wanted to go to the beach and see the sunrise. She came too, arguing with Bf and me the whole time until these stupid ass words left her mouth:

D:”Bf, I cannot believe you are arguing with me and you(me) - stop whining, it’s just some dead guy, get over it already!”

What. The. FUCK. Did. You. SAY?!

I stormed off in a rage, with Bf running after me afraid I’d do something stupid in my altered mental state and she kept sneering and complaining. I can honestly say I blacked out out of rage at some point because I can’t remember what she said that made me punch her square in the damn face.

I got home the next week and started looking for a way out of this sham of a friendship. D didn’t even apologize for the shit she said and I had had enough, so when a mutual friend reported that she was making out with some guy at a party I immediately reported it to Bf and the same thing as before happened with both of them blocking me.

Fuck you and good riddance, I thought, but boy oh boy karma served me a true opportunity to wreak havoc not long after.

Fast forward 6 months I was in my senior year, kept my side of mine and D’s mutual friends and was dealing with what I know now is my still severe depression when guess who calls? You guessed it, Miss D sobbing on the phone because Bf “wrongly” accused her of cheating with a friend of his. Oh but of course I’ll help, I say, not mentioning that I’ll help get her exposed if anything.

I wheeled and dealt, called favors, pretended to be friends to people and generally was a manipulative ass bitch until I got the information of what exactly she did and wasn’t telling me: that she actually cheated with SEVEN fucking blokes. Seven. Not one, not two, seven. I was flabbergasted to say the least.

Through a bit of clever usage of computers I even got convo transcripts and made sure Bf found out everything - ie I told him every single dirty thing she did with a grin of satisfaction on my face and then as the “nice” girl I was held him back so he wouldn’t kill her. I do believe my thoughts were on the line of “nobody kills her before I can make her suffer.” Just peachy, I know. I somehow convinced him not to kick her ass into kingdom come and instead arranged a meeting in the KFC next to our school where Bf wanted to “make up with her”. I told D that I had convinced him of her innocence and he agreed to get back together and she was “soo relieved I worked my magic again”. Little did she know I didn’t have to drop by the post office when I told her I’ll go ahead, run an errand, and meet her there, but that I went ahead, got all of our friends there to witness and plastered a whole section of KFC with screenshots of her lewd conversations with various blokes. Bf was also there, almost murderous, waiting for her to arrive.

After a bit of a wait I had the honor of witnessing the most glorious sight ever: D walked in, all happy and hopeful in her tiny cheater soul, and her face instantly dropped when she saw me, her now ex boyfriend and everyone in her group of friends from high school waiting for her surrounded by proof of her shenanigans. That was not the only thing that dropped though, since as I was reveling in the look of utter betrayal on her face she proceeded to pass the fuck out.

I didn’t even care what happened after; it was enough that she saw me there, looked at the predatory grin on my face and knew I was behind it all and had robbed her of the one thing she cherished most: her Bf. It was worth the almost full year of abuse and the couple of months of manipulation and lies to see her fall.

Years after she even apologized sincerely when she realized what drove me to this revenge plot and now we’re civil, but now she knows she should NEVER. Ever. Cross me.

(source) story by (/u/AliTheMadWarlock)

#prorevenge #by /u/AliTheMadWarlock #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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sharpen-jadescythe · 4 years

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Sharpen tries to pick up Rexxar

((Like actually Rexxar. I know, but don’t facepalm quite yet. Sharpy may surprise you!))

Sharpen, “So, Rexxar! Now that you’ve agreed to come on and adventure with me--”

Rexxar, “We non-player characters actually prefer the word quest.”

Sharpen, “Huh? Why get so hung up on that?”

Rexxar, “It’s more professional.”

Sharpen, “Oh, of course. This is totally professional.”

Rexxar, “No it’s not. I saw that selfie you took with me. And, yes, I do have Tumblr.”

Sharpen, “Oh? Heh. Oooh so you then you saw my art--”

Rexxar, “I refused to look at your art.”

Sharpen, “You sure? They say art imitates life, you know.”

Rexxar, “You’re pretty much using that phrase wrong, and I don’t even really understand how you thought that line would work.”

Sharpen narrows his eyes, “Last question before we head out. If you’re on Tumblr, where the HELL do you keep your scrying orb, then? I’ve got plenty of gear, but you only have a bear and a loincloth.”

Rexxar, “Okay, sorry I insulted you, Sharpen. You win that round.”

Sharpen, “Oh, are we keeping score? I do intent to win every round.”

Rexxar sighs heavily, “From now on, I am only answering questions you have about this specific quest.”

That night...

Rexxar, after ignoring Sharpen for most of the evening, “We’ll leave in the morning, Sharpen. Try to get some rest. Uh, and can you move your bird over some? I can’t really lay down with him standing right there, on the bearskin.”

Rexxar, “You might also put out that torch, Sharpen.”

Sharpen, “Irewing likes you. Also, I thought we’d stay up and play strip Hearthstone.”

Rexxar, “Trust me, that doesn’t exist.”

Sharpen, “I bet you played it before with Misha.”

Rexxar, “Wow. Two hours in and we’re already on the Misha jokes, are we?”

In Stormheim...

Rexxar, “Now, Sharpen. I’m not saying we’re lost in Stormheim, but we’re pretty lost here in Stormheim.”

Sharpen, “I was following you--you’re the master tracker.”

Rexxar, “Huh. I assumed that was just you checking me out. How did we get our wires crossed so badly? Oh, I see. I was following Misha, really.”

Sharpen, “HAHA!”

Rexxar, “Come on! I don’t make my own Misha jokes. Why the hell would I?”

Sharpen, “Bwahahahahahah!”

Rexxar, “Sharpen, shut UP!”

Later...

Sharpen, “Sir, I hate to do this, and thank you for the drinks, but we really only visited you because we need to ask some directions. We’re looking for a huntress. I think you guys are in the same tribe... Her name is Kavi. She’s tall, blonde.”

Old Man, “Oh my, yes. I’ve been searching for her, myself.”

Rexxar, “Sharpen, can we speed this up? This is a very important quest for the Unseen Path. Lives are at stake.”

Sharpen, “Will you stop talking over me, Rexxar? This man just now said he knows who I’m talking about!”

Rexxar, “He’s clearly just wasting our time! I told you not to drink whatever he was offering, we’ve been stuck here for hours now.”

Sharpen, “Sir, I’m sorry for my rude friend here. But, as her kinsman, can you give us any clue where Huntress Kavi may be? We’d be happy to track her for you, even.”

Old Man, “Pah! I was speaking generally. Aren’t we ALL looking for a tall, blonde woman, who’s good at handling a wild beast?”

Sharpen, “Damn, that’s a good line.”

Rexxar, “Sharpen!”

Old Man, gestures at Rexxar, a stein in his hand too, “And that one treats you like you two are married. I’d watch out for ‘im.”

*Rexxar snatches the Night Elf’s beer away, throws it on the ground, kicks Sharpen into motion.*

Dear journal,

Well this is awkward. I went off on my own because I’ve just been waiting here for them to finish talking. Rexxar’s actually said a lot more to Kavi than he’s said to me this entire trip. He absolutely has a thing for her.

I don’t wanna say I’m annoyed but. Yeah, I guess I am. I flirted a lot at the start. At least I think I did? My character art should have been the clincher. And I’ve been wanting him to make a move back, but... But I guess Rexxar isn’t that kind of guy.

Maybe the problem is me. I pegged him for a rough sort, so I started making these stupid, obvious jokes. But Rexxar is actually very intellectual, very spiritual, even. He cares a lot about people, too. I thought he’d abandoned the world of mortals, you know, to focus on nature. I suppose I even thought he’d be craving a silly flirtation, a fling. He is a hermit after all.

But Rexxar has a rich perspective and a full life. And Misha and him have this unbreakable bond. It’s terrible that people tease him about it. He’s like... a scholar. If he’d been born a Night Elf, he would have been made into a druid. Heck, I can only imagine what they would have done with him in Malfurion’s time, you know the early days? Rexxar could have given the young Malfurion competition for Shan’do... Okay, so I admit to being smitten, but at least I can see it.

Wait, I’m being called. Better wrap this up. Guess Kavi-Rex are ready to move on now that they’ve finished snogging spiritually, or whatever the heck--

No, that’s unkind of me. Well, I do hope Rexxar finds someone special. But it won’t be me. All I managed to do was irritate him and then give him the highest praise I’ve given any man--in journal form. And then there’s me and my goofy personality. That’s not the way to pick someone up, with weird... exclamations. Where was my class, my finesse? I swear, he’s so famous--I mean he’s Rexxar! That guy makes me so nervous!

It all fizzled. How lame is that?

Sharpen, “Well, Rexxar. We found Kavi and sent her on her way back to Trueshot Lodge. Everything else pretty much sucked, but hey, this amazing view of Stormheim is a nice surprise.”

What? Really? Now he’s giving me the silent treatment ontop of everything else. Piece of work this guy is.

*Rexxar silently slips Sharpen’s journal back into his bag, after reading it.*

Sharpen, “Alright, Rexxar. As luck would have it, this guy has two flying mounts we can both grab. If you’re ready to get rid of me, I guess we should part ways now. So...”

Rexxar, “...”

Sharpen, “Nice... questing with you. Thanks for your help.”

*The Old Man eyes Rexxar knowingly.*

Rexxar, “Look. Don’t take the Kavi thing personally. I mean she’s alright...”

Sharpen, “Ugh. You were eating her for breakfast, brul. I saw you. Anyway, this is a poor time to make up for whatever is you... you think you’re making up for--”

Rexxar, “Brul? What did you just call me!”

Old Man drawls, “I thought hunters were meant to be patient. Young one, let him finish.”

Rexxar, “Sharpen. Going to be direct as always. I read your journal. We’re running late on this mission anyway, so... why not camp out for a few more days together. See what this thing is.”

Sharpen, “...Yeah?”

Rexxar, “As you said, I’m not an idiot. People like to judge me so easily but... I’m not about to turn down a good-looking Night Elf who’s ready to make me into their Shan’do, am I?”

Sharpen grins, “Good call.”

Rexxar, “And that’s how romance is, I never... created a safe space for you to at least try. I did feel attracted initially, I should have... bent in the breeze. Forgive my uh, hermit tendencies.”

Sharpen, “Hey, no offense taken. It can’t be easy being Rexxar.”

Rexxar, “And nice booty art by the way.”

Sharpen, “I KNEW IT!”

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mysterylover123 · 5 years

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BNHA Rewatch: Episode 27 “Bizarre! Gran Torino Appears!”

mysterylover123

The Internship arc starts off with a bang! Let’s see that Full Cowl, Deku!

SORA NI UTAEBA! While the song in this intro is kinda meh to me, the visuals are amazing. I love the symbolism for all the events of the ep - tho not gonna lie, this core’s ED is better than the OP. Anyway tho, go punch that wall Deku!

We start with Gran Torino pretending to be crazy. I’ll admit, I’m kinda eh on this bit, though I love Gran. It’s probably because I found it annoying when Yoda did it, so I find it annoying here as well. (It’s really just my inner fangirl talking. Nobody makes Deku unhappy except Kacchan. Who can get away with it.)

But actually, this sets up an interesting difference between Deku and Luke, though admittedly situation isn’t the same because Deku knows Gran is Gran. But Deku’s response to this is to call All Might to tell him Gran’s gone senile. He’s so empathetic Deku why aren’t you real? (no shade at Luke there,e I love him too. Just not as much).

“I don’t have time to mess around.” Deku did not come to play.

New costume! It’s incredible how much better it is than the old one. Like, not even funny how much better. Day-um, Deku.

Pfh Gran knows exactly how to piss off Deku: Insult All Might. You clever little scoundrel.

So onto Deku’s character flaws: 1. He’s overly analytical. Deku doesn’t know how to act quickly, partially due to circumstance, but partially that’s just how he is. Hesitant. Over-cautious, over-thinks things. He needs to learn how to take action - and in this arc, he does indeed do so without hesitation, and saves Iida’s life by so-doing. Box 1 checked off.

2. Deku admires All Might too much. Like every MC in BNHA, his Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Tragedy (insert me telling you to read that essay again). It’s a problem because he doesn’t believe in himself. So he needs to learn not to imitate All Might and be his own hero. That one doesn’t really sink in until the PLE arc. But check.

3. Deku is insecure. He has a massive inferiority complex (which fits nicely into his foil’s inf-sup complex, wouldn’t-cha-know) and doesn’t believe in himself. So he needs to learn to be more confident. (Is it wrong that I want this to end with him breaking through Instrumentality to a chorus of his friends saying ‘Congratulations’?)

Gran is my favorite Teacher, as a teacher, in BNHA. I’m a teaching-major, and I kinda aspire to his techniques. What I love the most is helping students figure it out themselves. Just telling someone the answer doesn’t help them. It’s so satisfying seeing a student make that breakthrough thanks to your guidance.

Now we’re cutting away to Iida’s internship to remind you Iida Wants Revenge. This is a little exposition-y, let’s cut somewhere else.

OK good, the villains! Right off the bat, we’ve got some great Parallels with the Heroes, as Tomura decides to basically Intern with a Pro-Villain. He even calls Stain a pro. Tho Tomura really needs to work on his recruitment strategy. “Stain join us. Cause.” “Bakugou. Join us. Cause”.

I want Deku and Tomura to build a grand Hero-Villain rivalry. Tomura basically hates him for no real reason right now, and I want there to be a good reason. Other than “He’s All Might’s successor”. I want them to be the Joker and Batman of BNHA with a real complex hero-villain rivalry, where one reflects the other. They’re getting there but I want more.

“Bloodlust without conviction is meaningless.” Ooh I love me some Stain. He really elevated this series’ philosophical side with his ramblings on heroism and villainy.

OK am I creeped out by the fact that All for One just said the same thing I did about learning? A little.

Deku is so brilliant and such a fast learner tho. It doesn’t take him long to put it all together. And Gran actually really admires him for that - I enjoy their mentor dynamic a lot, since Gran has some real respect for Midoriya in a different way from All Might.

Bakugou with Best Jeanist! OMG the comedy gold of this. Though I just want to take a sec to gripe about a change from the manga to the anime: Manga! Bakugou does not charge at Best Jeanist and yell at him. He’s not dumb enough to try that on the #4 Pro Hero and his teacher. He sits still and listens to Jeanist’s lecture. The only Bakugo line here that’s from the manga is “Didn’t you make an offer for me?” This completely changes the way we perceive Bakugo in this scene, and in general. Bad change.

But in Good Storytelling-ville, I like the continuing parallels between the Wonder duo this creates: Izuku interns in a rundown neighborhood with an unlisted hero, Bakugo in Tokyo with a top pro. Izuku needs to learn to control his power and believe in himself. Katsuki needs to learn to be kinder and more humble. Izuku learns his lesson her, Katsuki doesn’t. Parallels!

Kirishima and Tetsutetsu again! 4th kind is ok. He’s probably the least memorable of the internship pros, since his gimmick is simple and his design kinda dull.

Uraraka and Gunhead! I love how well they get along. He’s kawaii and she’s a hardcore badass. Don’t you forget it!

Now for more of Momo’s arc. The Uwabami internship is usually dismissed by fans as Just Fanservice, but think about it in context, and it becomes really interesting. One, the Hero Killer arc is about Stain protesting the commercialization of heroism, so we do need to have a Pro-Hero demonstrate the problematic nature of that commercialism. Uwabami does just that. Two, we need to have Momo’s internship be unfulfilling to her, to complete her downward trajectory (before the Final Exam arc can bring her back up), so it’s useful for further embarrassing and developing her character. 3, it sets up Momo and Kendo’s future rivalry.

I’ll take more about it in future eps where it appears.

Izuku practicing and constantly hitting his face on the wall is one of those things that makes me wonder if either a) he has a secret endurance quirk or b) OFA just naturally ups your durability. How does he still have a face after that.

Here’s a hot take: Izuku with his face smashed up from spending a night with no sleep training in garbage all night is still prettier than any other guy in this series.

One of the reviewers I follow made the comparison between All Might vs Deku’s using of OFA and Korra vs Aang’s role as the Avatar. You know, All Might and Korra, both master the power pretty quickly so they get to be strong fast but lose out on the spiritual connection a bit, while Deku and Aang take their time learning ofa/the four elements, but get as a tradeoff more of the spirit-y side...(ATLA & BNHA. My 2 favorite shows, alongside FMA. I swear these are like, three sides of the same show).

While I’m watching in the Sub this time around, i wanted to note a dub-ism in this scene: it’s localized to ‘hot pastries’ instead of taiyaki. There’s a lot of bits like that, where they take Japanese food and translate it for us dumb Americans. But well, maybe that made sense in the 90s, when there maybe wasn’t as much cultural crossover, but...even I knew what mochi were before watching BNHA (Uraraka’s fave, and the dub always localizes it to ‘sweets’) and everyone has google if they’re confused so why not just say ‘Taiyaki?’ Ah well, it’s a stupid nitpick but still.

Gran’s metaphor here is so great. As a teacher I aspire to learn from this man. Teach me your teaching ways.

“THIS TAIYAKI IS ME!!!!!” Another dub-ism has him say “I’m not really a dessert” I saw a reactor once comment on this ‘Yeah, but you are a snacc, Deku.’ I wholeheartedly agree.

FULL COWLLLLLLL!!!!!!! FYEAH!!!!!

OK so there are a lot of reasons I love Full Cowl. it’s one of the series’ finest moments, emblematic of what makes it cool. And what makes Deku cool. He’s smart, and has to work his way around problems, and this solution was just...it was there, for us and Izuku the whole time, to finally sit up and take notice of. It’s about applying power in a different way. About taking what you can do and doing the best you can with what you’ve got. A big central theme for the series.

Also dayum that slow pan up Deku’s entire body as he activates it...he just looks good in this arc. Actually, post-cavalry battle Deku in the sports festival arc always looks weird and odd (because he’s beat up and in pain, duh) and prior to that he was mainly just adorable...this arc, however, is his official transition into Best Boy for Reals. He’s just...swoony. and also really cool, smart, and all sorts of great fangirl-y things.

We end on a confident Deku smile and Daiki’s adorable ‘hai.’ Basically, i really enjoy this episode. A little slow at the beginning, maybe. But that conclusion is amazing and so worth the payoff. It’s even got this amazing rhyme and rhythm to it, cutting back and forth between the different students and teachers and just having themes echo between each other like poetry. It love it.

To close off: ED4, AKA BEST ED EVER!!!! This is seriously, no sarcasm, best ED. So for those of you who don’t know, the story behind ED4 Datte Atashi no Hero is, 1: The Fantasy AU theme comes from the second popularity poll, which came out around Chapter 120/Episode 61 (yes, THAT one) and for which Horikoshi drew the top 10 in fantasy garb. 2: The Song was written by LiSa and was explicitly stated by her to be effectively about Izuku’s feelings towards Kacchan. I wrote a post analyzing it. It is, basically, the anthem for...

BKDK CORNER

“Loose…” Guess who the first person Deku thinks of to create Full Cowling is? If you sad Kacchan, ding-ding-ding!

On an analytical note, I think it’s very, very significant that the first real breakthrough Deku makes in handling his power comes by observing Kacchan and imitating him. This is one of my Top 20 Favorite BKDK moments, even though it’s completely indirect, because of how important that is in the long-run. But what about the Imitation theme? Why is it OK for Izuku to imitate Katsuki, but not All Might? Well, first of all, he does use Gran Torino’s moves as well, but mainly, I think the series is saying with this distinction that it’s OK to imitate someone if you see their flaws and acknowledge them, but if you hero-worship them and see them as perfect, you’re only going to screw yourself over. This is why Iida imitating Ingenium, Shoto imitating his mom, Deku and Kacchan imitating All Might, and yes, Uraraka imitating Deku, are all so bad for them. If you see someone as perfect, and want to imitate them, you’ll never achieve that in your mind, because you already view yourself as imperfect. So Deku can imitate Katsuki because he thinks he’s a jerk, but also an amazing fighter, and Gran because he thinks he’s weird, but tough.

Also Deku just automatically thinking of Kacchan first is so damn shippy.

BEST GIRL OF THE EPISODE: Uwabami!

RANKER: Ranking the Internship Pros, least helpful to most.

10. Uwabami

9. Mt. Lady

8. 4th Kind

7. Endeavor

6. Death Arms

5. Manual

4. Selkie and Sirius (anime only)

3. Gunhead

2. Best Jeanist

1. Gran Torino! (Deku lucked out)

#my hero academia #episode 27 #season 2 episode 14 #bizarre gran torino appears #midoriya izuku #gran torino #katsuki bakugou #momo yaoyorozu #katsudeku #bakudeku #be prepared for lots of gushing #my deku bias is strong with this one #everyone has their fave #i'm glad mine's the mc #sometimes anyway #come s5 he's gonna be like #barely around for a whole damn season #anyway so glad to be at the Hero Killer arc #let's go!

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go-diane-winchester · 5 years

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Why Misha's fans behave so cult like

Thank you so much for the ask. And don't apologize. It is a very legitimate question. First of all, I did a post of this subject as to why Misha's fans behave the way they do. Why are they so willing to go to such extreme measures for a fictional ship? Why don't they think twice before sending a death threat? I hypothesized that Misha has the personality of a cult leader and he uses sympathy to gain support and devotees. How was it that Misha managed to amass the support of a group of people with such similar personality types. The only thing they haven't done for him yet is kill themselves for him. Well, that is because they exhibit a group of personality traits that makes cult leader types like Misha prey on them.

1. They want to feel validated.

They are looking for approval. They want to be accepted. They want to be part of a group. What a cult does is that it welcomes you and immediately you feel like you are no longer an outsider. The majority of people in Misha's destiel fan base are young people. Teenagers feel very out of place. School is a horrible social concept. And most kids suffer throughout their entire schooling career, because they want to fit in rather than find at least one true friend and stick with them. They don't realize that the whole school doesn't need to like you. As long as you find one friend to care for you, you are fine. The prettiest girl in you school [you know the one that has that handsome jock boyfriend - every school has one] also feels out of place. If she has one little zit, she freaks out. She managed to become popular and now if she gets toppled from the top, she will be a loser and it scares her. So you see, it bothers everyone, even the popular kids. Sometimes, I like being average. Because even if you fall, you don't fall very far. In the destiel cult, whenever one of them does something wrong, others clamour to explain the action and make excuses for each other. They protect their own. Even if the person is wrong. They validate each other.

2. They seek an identity.

There are people who feel like loners. Like they don't belong. They will be in a crowded room and still feel lonely. They want to find their place in the world. They want a group they can clique with. With Misha, there are two groups. The slash fans and the LGBT. Slash is a personal thing. When I was young and into slash, only a few girls in a chat room spoke about it. They all were likeminded because they all liked slash and it was enough for them. They never fought over ships. When actors where asked about ships they were part of, they would just make a joke, smile and more on to the next subject because that is the right thing to do. What Misha did, was speak openly about destiel. So suddenly destiel had a ''platform''. Instead of saying that slash was a personal thing, Misha said that slash was a taboo subject, and that he and the hellers were ''breaking the norm and making it acceptable''. He also made it about the LGBT, who are an ostracized group in many social circles. Certainly in a school environment. So they started to feel that the destiel group was the only one that will ever welcome them. That is how he recruits. And that is why he speaks about destiel even when nobody asks him about it.

3. They are followers, not leaders.

These are people who want to look up to someone. In this case, the cult leader. They want to be told what to do, and they are very good followers. They cling to every word that comes out of his mouth. They will quote him, because to their ear, everything he says is quote-worthy. In Misha's case, it is not just things that he says but also lines of dialogue that are written for his character. Because the words came out of his mouth, they are significant. In Misha's case, he doesn't give instructions directly. What he does is, he plants a thought seed in their mind and from there it grows until the hellers take action because of that thought seed. When he wanted his minions to fight off the girl whom he wanted a threesome with, all he did was tell his friends he was mugged and then tweeted to his fans that he got a few scrapes but that he was fine. They just took it from there, stalking every social media account that the girl had and even following her onto Tumblr.

4. They seek meaning.

This ties in with looking for identity. Every human being wonders what their purpose is. They want to look for meaningfulness in their lives and their actions. Some people do good deeds. Some people look for faith and spirituality. Some people indulge in an art form. Slash fiction is an art form. But what Misha has done, is he has overemphasized it so much, that now the hellers feel that this is their purpose. They want destiel to be canon. They want their hard work of fighting for it to be validated to achieve fruition. And they will do anything to make that happen. If it doesn't happen, the almost ten years of hard work that they put into campaigning for destiel will go down the gutter. They don't want the ship to be canon because it deserves to be canon. They want it to be canon, because they want to be right. They want to tell people ''I told you so''. I theorize that some of them don't even like destiel. They just want to belong somewhere and fight for a cause. It gives them purpose. There are some people who identify as destiel positive.

5. They have schizotypal thinking.

Schizotypal thinkers are people who always have the most fantastical take on anything. They don't think like other people. If an incident happened, like a picture frame falling on the floor, logical thinkers will say ''maybe a gust of wind dropped it when someone opened the front door''. Schizotypal thinkers will go for every out of this world, paranormal reason rather than the most common sense one. They don't really have mental illness. They just have colorful imaginations bordering on stupid. There are cults out there that center their entire thinking around a particular fantasy or nightmare that these types of people have in order to attract them. For people who feed on meta and headcanon, this cult chose destiel. They want to theorize and speculate about a scene rather than accept it at face value. Although I have noticed that seeking validation for Castiel and proving his importance is also something that they tend to do. I hope you have never read destiel meta because it will mess you up. Destiel meta is so over-reaching and shocking to logical thinkers because they dodge what would actually make sense, and go straight towards something that is nonsensical and ship friendly. In fact, most of their posts are about really stupid, debunkable meta, because they want to prove how right they are about destiel. They are not enjoying their ship. They are suffering from it.

6. They are highly suggestible.

They are very gullible people. When they find a cult leader, they believe everything he says. Even if he has a sad excuse for doing something wrong, if he gave the excuse, then it is good enough for them. They will accept the excuse. I have seen Misha insult them to their faces and they just laughed. That is because Misha has put himself into such an authoritative position that, they cant even dream of questioning him, and they will tear apart anyone who dares speak up against him. Anyone who leaves the cult, has to do so without announcing it, because if they are stupid enough to announce it, they will be harassed, or a group of devotees will try to re-indoctrinate them. Sort of like a therapy session to keep you in the group.

7. They constantly blame others.

This is fairly self-explanatory. They don't take responsibility with they mess up. Even as a group, they will put the blame on other people. I have seen hellers pretend that death threats were never brought up in a conversation. In fact, you have to remind them ''hello, I was talking about death threats'' to which they answer usually is ''we are not all like that''. They literally don't recognize that they are causing damage here. They think they are the victims. They are they are being bullied because nobody wants to recognize their brand of truth. They do that with their cult leader, Misha's behavior as well. He can do no wrong. One heller is currently making excuses for why he was leering at children through a school fence. There is one more frequent characteristic I have noticed about them. They ''misunderstand'' the argument being made. I used quotation points, because they do it on purpose. It is their way of throwing sand in your eye to confuse you so you wont know which way the argument is going.

8. They are always angry.

These people get angry at the drop of a hat. They get defensive and are argumentative. I theorize that social justice is very cult-like too. Because social justice warriors get offended for everything. These people have angry energy in them and they look for ways to expend their angry energy. Sometime they will join groups that allow them to stay defensive over the imaginary injustice that they are suffering. In the case, of destiel, they treat it like an ideology instead of a ship. Because Misha Collins ''himself'' spoke up for destiel, it is worth fighting for. Misha gave them half of their validation. Canon will give them their other half. Destiel shippers get so angry if they hear that someone hates their ship, its almost like you kicked their puppy or something.

9. They have very low self-esteem.

These people don't have any personal value. All the value they have is attached to how they can contribute to the cult. Misha have high level minions that he is in contact with, like Melanie aka mishasdiary. She actually has fans of her own within the cult. Can you believe that? Misha puts the shippers down, but throws out something shippy, like bait to keep them hooked. Its their drug so he dishes out liberally. For example he will make a sexual remark about Dean and call the hellers perverts in the same conversation. The high level minions will give the hellers a chance to earn Misha's respect by giving them tasks to do, for example voting for Misha, his character or destiel when need be. Or perhaps fighting Jared for making a joke that ''offended'' them.

As far that that girl is concerned, sweetie, I think its safer for you to just stop talking to her. Don't debate with her. Don't reason with her. She is not going to listen to you. If she persists, just tell her very nicely that you would rather not talk about that. The problem is not her death threats. The problem is your immediate safety. Hopefully, she will take the hint and leave you alone. If she doesn't, then I think you might have to get an adult to intervene, like the school counsellor. Don't confront her yourself. The best bet is to go out of your way to avoid her as much as humanly possible. I wish you the best of luck and let me know if that tactic worked.

https://www.bustle.com/p/if-you-exhibit-these-9-personality-traits-youre-more-likely-to-join-a-cult-9432374.

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theculturedmarxist · 5 years

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Hi there, fellow leftypol dirtbag. Might I ask, what was your journey into leftism?

I grew up in a conservative household. My parents were (and still are I suppose) two Reaganite Republicans and I absorbed all that shit as a child. I supported George Bush 2 and Iraq War 2. I believed all that bullshit about hard work and boot straps, you know, the old fantasy about employers rewarding hard work with commensurate compensation, etc. I wasn’t very sympathetic for black people, the poor, queers, or any of the other people on the Rep’s shit list.

That began to change when I changed high schools. Instead of the upper-middle class, mostly White school I had been going to (and been miserable at), I transferred to an early college. It was a school for kids that, like me, didn’t fit into the regular school system for one reason or another. There were kids there like me who had various social or emotional dysfunctions, but also kids that were there because of who and where they were. It might shock you to find that queer kids and black kids didn’t have the easiest of times in the public school system of the Southern United States.

It was a slow transition, but my views changed. At first I had those idiotic, bigoted views, like that gay guys were a threat to me physically or sexually on account of their orientation. I thought it was morally wrong, blah blah blah, all that ridiculous rigamarole. Then I met some of these people and learned how foolish that kind of thinking was. These people were intelligent and kind, inventive, interesting, and not at all the kind of people that I felt I needed to be worried about. It wasn’t an immediate transformation, but it was the first step in my “deprogramming.”

Looking back, I’m not even sure I would describe my feelings towards these people as “hate” or “fear” so much as “resentment.” I was still trapped in the false mindset of the “just world” fallacy. I was miserable with myself and my place in life, and deluded into thinking that if there was a problem then it was either inherent in myself or because I wasn’t behaving in the right way. At the time I had at least some idea of the oppression and persecution homosexuals and Blacks (for example) experienced. I was starving myself with self restraint, and spiritually mutilating myself in trying to “fix” what I thought was wrong with me. If I was unhappy or unsuccessful or whatever, then it must have been my fault, and if that was the case then it was on me to change myself, “correct” my behavior, and get right with God (literally and in a manner of speaking). Applying that same logic, the problems Blacks and Gays were experiencing were their fault as well, for insisting on being Gay, “out and proud,” or “actin’ Black,” or whatever, instead of how they “should” have been acting. It felt like an insult. Here I was, drowning in my own suffering and misery, and trying like hell to purge whatever defect I imagined was the source. There they were, embracing what I imagined to be the source of their own oppression, and treating the world like it was what needed to change. At the time, there was no way I could comprehend all of this. Even if I could have understood it intellectually, I doubt I would have been able to see it through my ideological delusions.

My ideological development after high school was halting at best. I wasn’t in any shape to live and function on my own, and my first stab at university didn’t go very well. Eventually, I moved back home and got a job, which is what had the most significant effect on me I think. All the nonsense I’d been fed about the fairness of competition and workplace ideals quickly went out the fucking window. I had worked some while I was at university, when I naively thought that student employment at a school would emphasize the student over the employment part. Through the alchemy of Republican logic, it wasn’t the work or employer that was to blame, but the fact that the school effectively had a monopoly. If the Free Market™ was able to decide, no doubt I’d have had a fairer boss and better pay and so on.

But that job wasn’t an anomaly, and neither was the next one, or the next. I had been brought up being taught that hard, honest work would be rewarded with good, honest pay, but no matter how hard I worked or where, it was always the same shit: minimum wage, %2 pay raise, shitty schedules, worse managers, awful bosses, and customers that were just the worst. You didn’t matter. It didn’t matter how you were being treated or mistreated, the customer was your master and you better remember to smile while you’re licking their balls.

Still, even with all of this, I bought the lie that it was just the type of work that was the problem. Retail work is for kids, right? They aren’t serious jobs. I saved up some money while taking CC classes, and eventually went back to university. The second time things went better. Somewhere along the way I’d graduated from Republican to Libertarian™, but that was starting to lose its appeal as well as it became apparent that it was functioning on the same defective logic as its Republican counterpart. I didn’t have any faith in Obama or the Democrats, and being an ignorant American I thought the three were my only options.

My family was what would be described in American terms as “mid-to-lower-middle class,” or you could probably say “comfortable.” Both parents worked, and while we were never “rich” I don’t recall ever having to go without anything essential. My parents were both Baby Boomers, and their parents all more or less came from nothing. To their credit, my parents worked hard to provide the things for me which they didn’t have as children themselves. They did everything they could to help me succeed, but they could still only help.

Paying for school was something that fell mostly on me in the form of loans and grants. Classes were going well for the most part, but my expenses were outstripping my aid. I got a job, but it didn’t help matters much. The pay was lousy, and the hours were from six at night until two in the morning. It started killing my grades and ruining my health. The stress of school and work and financial concerns started to get to me physically.

All while this is going on is the backdrop of the financial crisis. The banks that were responsible got billions of dollars of taxpayer money, while those same taxpayers were getting foreclosed on by those same banks. State services were getting slashed to the bone left, right, and center. There was suddenly no money for unemployment insurance or health benefits for those that needed them, no money for teacher training, or grants for students. There was apparently virtually unlimited cash for the military and the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that dragged on and on. There was plenty to go around to these wealthy executives that created this financial crisis that lost regular people hundreds of millions of dollars in their life savings and retirement plans. This paralleled the situation at my school. The university was flush with cash. Tuition was higher than ever. They had just finished a multi-million dollar building that served no purpose other than to serve as a fancy amenity to lure in out of state students. They’d even invested millions of dollars into their football program and completely renovated the athletic stadium. The chancellor lived in a mansion on campus and drove a convertible sports car. They weren’t hurting for money.

I was, though. I came to the conclusion that I’d have to take classes in the morning and work in the afternoon, and so I went about withdrawing to make space in my schedule for it. Come to find however that you’re only allowed to drop three courses in your educational career, which no one had bothered to tell me. I was able to drop one class, but I had ignorantly spent my other two mulligans the previous semester. No problem, the Registrar tells me, just get your professor, chair, and dean to sign off and you can drop the class. Okay, swell. Professor signs off, department chair signs off, and then it takes a week for the dean to get back to me. Financial hardship isn’t a compelling reason to drop the class. Sorry! I try to explain to her my situation, that if I can’t start making money then I’ll be out on the street, and she tells me to go pound sand. I’d busted my ass working to “get my life back on track,” to go back to school, get an education and all that, like I was “supposed to.” The school didn’t give a shit. I was nothing to them. They had no interest in helping me out or seeing me stay. And why would they? Sixty percent of incoming Freshmen left after their first year, and that was their target demographic. Entice out-of-state students, get them to dump a bunch of money into the school, then kick them to the curb when they can’t for one reason or another hack it. There’s more and more desperate kids every year trying to get that diploma and the golden ticket it promises them. If they don’t like being farmed for revenue, then fuck ‘em.

It was around this time that I got involved with Occupy Wall Street. It was there that I met for the first time actual Communists, and was introduced however superficially to Marxism and Anarchism. It wouldn’t be until afterward that I would get my real education on them, though. I guess I kind of conform to the cliche of becoming a college Communist. A professor of mine knew about my difficulties and my developing political views, and asked if I’d be interested in borrowing his copy of the Manifesto. I did, not knowing what to expect. Then I read the words that changed my life forever:

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.”

It struck me like a bolt out of the blue. I’d always been interested in history, but I treated it as just a long, interesting story. It had always puzzled me because there were innumerable instances of illogical or just plain stupid behavior in the people we studied in school. Things just happened the way they happened, because... well, that’s just how things were, or people are. Every war, injustice, and atrocity in history was because of faulty human nature. People struggle because of the inherent evil inside all men. You know, more ideological bullshit.

Suddenly, though, everything made sense. It was like all the pieces had been in place, but it wasn’t until that bit of context was added that it made anything like coherent sense. It wasn’t only history, but modern politics, too. I couldn’t understand what made Republicans do the objectively awful things that they were doing, or why, or the apparent idiocy of the Democrats, and why they couldn’t seem to do anything right however obvious it might have appeared to do so. Marx shined a light on everything for me. It was like the world suddenly shifted into focus.

After this, for various reasons I left school again, ended up moving back home and getting another job. During this time the political awakening I’d experienced lay dormant for quite a while as I dealt with other developments in my life. Actually, it was Gamergate that was the impetus to get deeper into Leftism. I was still frequently visiting 4chan at the time and watched as the drama developed. I didn’t like Moot banning the topic of Zoe Quinn etc, and ended up migrating to 8chan, which briefly exhibited a sort of Renaissance of the sort of board culture that had either been dead or dying on 4chan at the time. It didn’t take long for the nazis, racists, and other brands of /pol/cuck shithead to drive off anyone decent though, and every board just became a different flavor of /pol/. Complaining about it naturally elicited a chorus of “go back to /leftypol/.” I didn’t have any interest in /leftypol/ at the time and actually mostly avoided it. Online politics at the best of times is hardly enjoyable, and I wasn’t very interested in any kind of /Xpol/, using my impression of the original as a guide.

I had dabbled somewhat in online Leftism previously, exploring labor-related subs on Reddit, like r/iww, r/socialism, r/communism, etc. My experience with r/soc almost turned me entirely off of Leftism, though. I got banned for calling Hillary Clinton a cunt, which only seemed to confirm that SJW/Demcuck reputation that followed other self described “socialists.” I didn’t want any part of a group that would either defend Hillary, or try and control what I said or how I said it. I’d just about written off Socialism entirely when on a whim I decided to take a look at /leftypol/ just to see what all the fuss was about.

I can’t help but feel kind of silly attributing such a major, life-changing moment to going to an obscure image board on such a skeevy site, but it did. It had the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of 4chan in its day as well as a substantial number of posters that knew what the fuck they were about. For a while I was simply hooked. Every time I f5ed, I learned something new about Socialism and Communism. There were in depth discussions on Communist theory and its various theorists and proponents. Not only where there mainstream anarchists and marxists, but representatives of (or simply people knowledgeable of) different currents, traditions, and theories. Posters busied themselves making reading lists and sharing links to resources and ideas. Back when there was still a solid core of /lit/ refugees and philosophy majors, there were constantly discussions on Zizek and Chomsky, Stirner and Nietzsche, Proudhon and Marx, Lukacs, Baudrillard, Gramsci, Bordiga, and on and on. The notion that “socialist” just meant “hardcore Democrat” was instantly and totally obliterated, and I knew that I was a Socialist and would be until I died.

And here I am, still trying to learn and educate myself, and help others with what I’ve learned, for whatever it’s worth.

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wumblr · 6 years

Text

All of the allegorical chapter intros from Warped Passages

Entryway Passages: Demystifying Dimensions

“Ike, I’m not so sure about this story I’m writing. I’m considering adding more dimensions. What do you think of that idea?

“Athena, your big brother knows very little about fixing stories. But odds are it won’t hurt to add new dimensions. Do you plan to add new characters, or flesh out your current ones some more?”

“Neither; that’s not what I meant. I plan to introduce new dimensions--as in new dimensions of space.”

“You’re kidding, right? You’re going to write about alternative realities--like places where people have alternative spiritual experiences or where they go when they die, or when they have near-death experiences?* I didn’t think you went in for that sort of thing.”

“Come on, Ike. You know I don’t. I’m talking about different spatial dimensions--not different spiritual planes!”

“But how can different spatial dimensions change anything? Why would using paper with different dimensions--11″ x 8″ instead of 12″ x 9″, for example--make any difference at all?”

“Stop teasing. That’s not what I’m talking about either. I’m really planning to introduce new dimensions of space, just like the dimensions we see, but along entirely new directions.”

“Dimensions we don’t see? I thought three dimensions is all there are.”

“Hang on, Ike. We’ll soon see about that.”

*Questions I’ve actually been asked.

Restricted Passages: Rolled-up Extra Dimensions

Athena awoke with a start. The previous day she had read Alice in Wonderland and Flatland in order to seek some inspiration about dimensions. But that night she had the strangest dream, which, when fully conscious, she recognized as the result of having read the two books on the same day.*

Athena dreamed she had turned into Alice, slipped into a rabbit hole, and met the resident Rabbit, who had pushed her out into an unfamiliar world. Athena had thought it a rather rude way to convey a guest. Even so, she had eagerly looked forward to the upcoming adventure in Wonderland.

Athena was in for a disappointment, however. The resident Rabbit, who was fond of puns, had sent her instead to OneDLand, a strange, not so wonderful, one-dimensional world. Athena looked around--or, I should say, to her left and right--and discovered that all she could see were two points--one to her left and another to her right (but in a prettier color, she thought).

In OneDLand, all the one-dimensional people with their one-dimensional possessions were lined up along this single dimension like long, thin beads strung out along a thread. But even with her limited purview, Athena knew there must be more to OneDLand than met her eyes because of the outrageous din that met her ears. A Red Queen was well hidden behind a dot, but Athena couldn’t miss her strident yells: “This is the most ridiculous chess game I have ever seen! I can’t move any pieces, not even to castle!” Athena was relieved when she realized her one-dimensional existence shielded her from the wrath of the Red Queen.

But Athena’s cozy universe did not last long. Slipping through a gap in ONeDLand, she returned to the dreamworld’s rabbit hole, which had an elevator that could take her to hypothetical, other dimensional universes. Almost immediately, the Rabbit announced, “Next stop: TwoDLand--a two-dimensional world.” Athena didn’t think “TwoDLand” a very nice name, but she cautiously entered all the same.

Athena needn’t have been so hesitant. Almost everything in TwoDLand looked the same as in OneDLand. SHe did notice one difference--a vial labeled “Drink me.” Bored with one dimension, Athena promptly obeyed. She quickly shrank to a tiny size, and as she became smaller, a second dimension came into view. This second dimension was not very big--it was wrapped around in a fairly small circle. Her surroundings now resembled the surface of an extremely long tube. A Dodo was racing around the circular dimension, but he wanted to stop. So he kindly offered Athena, who looked rather hungry, some cake.

When Athena ate a morsel of the Dodo’s dreamcake, she started to grow. After only a few bites (she was quite sure of this, as she was still rather hungry), the cake very nearly disappeared; all that remained was a very tiny crumb. At least Athena thought there was a crumb, but she could see it only when she squinted very hard. And the cake wasn’t the only thing that had vanished from view: when Athena returned to her usual size, the entire second dimension had disappeared.

She thought to herself, “TwoDLand is very yodd indeed. I’d best be getting home.” Her return journey was not without further adventures, but those will be kept for another time.

*Or perhaps this story is a result of my having begun my education at the perhaps questionably named Lewis Carroll School, P.S. 179, in Queens.

Exclusive Passages: Branes, Braneworlds, and the Bulk

Unlike the studious Athena, Ike rarely read any books. He generally preferred playing with games, gadgets, and cars. But Ike hated driving in Boston, where the drivers were reckless, the roads were badly signposted, and the highways were invariably under construction. Ike always ended up stuck in traffic, which he found especially frustrating when he could see a nearly empty freeway overhead. Though the empty road would be tempting, Ike would have no way to quickly reach it since, unlike Athena’s owls*, he couldn’t fly. For Ike trapped on slow roads in Boston, the third dimension was no use at all.

[*nb: owls are mentioned in the chapter body:]

When you peg someone as one-dimensional, you actually have something rather specific in mind: you mean that the person only has a single interest. For example, Sam, who does nothing but sit at home watching sports, can be described with just one piece of information. If you felt so inclined, you could picture this information with a one-dimensional graph: Sam’s proclivity to watch sports, for example. In drawing this graph you need to specify your units so that someone else can udnerstand what the distance along this single axis means, such as the number of hours Sam spends per week watching sports on TV. (Fortunately, Sam won’t be insulted by this example; he is not among the multidimensional readers of this book.)

When we describe most people, however, we usually assign them more than one, or even three, characteristics. Athena is an eleven-year-old who reads avidly, excels at math, keeps abreast of current events, and raises pet owls. You might want to plot this too (though why, exactly, I’m not really sure). In that case, Athena would have to be plotted a s point in a five-dimensional space with axes corresponding to age, number of books read per week, average math test score, number of minutes spent reading the newspaper per day, and nubmer of owls she owns. However, I’m having trouble drawing such a graph.

“Hey, Athena, is that Casablanca you’re watching?”

“Sure is. Want to join me? This is such a great scene.”

You must remember this, A kiss is just a kiss, A sigh is just a sigh, The fundamental things apply as time goes by.

“Hang on, Ike. Don’t you think that last line’s a little weird? It’s supposed to be so romantic, but it almost sounds as if it’s about physics.”

“Athena, if you think that’s strange, you’ve got to hear the opening verse of the original:”

This day and age we’re living in, Give cause for apprehension, With speed and new invention, And things like fourth dimension, Yet we get a trifle weary, With Mr. Einstein’s theory...

“Ike, you don’t really expect me to believe that, do you? Next thing I know you’ll tell me Rick and Ilsa escape into the seventh dimension! Why don’t we forget I ever said anything and just sit back and watch the movie?”

[nb: actually true]

Relativity: The Evolution of Einstein’s Gravity

Icarus (Ike) Rushmore II couldn’t wait to show Dieter his new Porsche. But as proud as he was of his car, he was even more excited about his Global Positioning System (GPS) that he had recently designed and installed himself.

Ike wanted to impress Dieter, so he convinced his friend to drive with him to the local track. They got in the car, Ike programmed in their destination, and the two of them set off. But to Ike’s chagrin, they ended up in the wrong place--the GPS system didn’t work nearly as well as he had thought it would. Dieter’s first thought was that Ike must have made some ridiculous error, like confusing meters and feet. But Ike didn’t believe he could have made such a stupid mistake, and he bet Dieter that wasn’t the problem.

The next day, Ike and Dieter did some troubleshooting. But to their dismay, when they went for a drive, the GPS was even worse than before. Ike and Dieter searched again for the problem and finally, after a frustrating week, Dieter had an epiphany. He did a quick calculation and made the startling discovery that without accounting for general relativity, the GPS system would build up errors at the rate of more than 10 km per day. Ike didn’t think his Porsche was fast enough to warrant relativistic calculations, but Dieter explained that the GPS signals--not the car--travel at the speed of light. Dieter modified the software to account for the changing gravitational field the GPS signals had to pass through. .Ike’s system then worked as well as the readily available commercial variety. Relieved, Ike and Dieter began to plan a road trip.

Quantum Mechanics: Principled Uncertainty, the Principal Uncertainties, and the Uncertainty Principle

Ike wondered whether Athena was making him watch too many movies or Dieter was talking too much about physics. But whatever the reason, the previous night Ike dreamed he met a quantum detective. Dressed in a fedora, a trench coat, and with a stone-faced expression, the dream detective spoke:

“I knew nothing about her except her name, and that she was standing there before me. But from the moment I set eyes on her I knew Electra* would be trouble. When I asked her where she came from, she refused to say. The room had two entrances, and she must have come through one. But Electra whispered hoarsely, ‘Mister, forget it. I’ll never tell you which.’

“Although I saw that she was shaking, I tried to pin this lady down. But Electra paced frenetically when I started to approach. She begged me to come no closer. Seeing she was agitated, I kept away. I was no stranger to uncertainty, but this time it had me beat. It looked like uncertainty was going to stick around here for a while.”

*The name refers to the electron, not the character in Greek mythology.

The Standard Model of Particle Physics: Matter’s Most Basic Known Structure

Of all the stories she had read, Athena was most thoroughly perplexed by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea.” The story tells of a Prince who searched unsuccessfully for a suitable princess to wed. After he had searched in vain for weeks, a potential princess arrived by chance at his palace, seeking shelter from a storm. This soggy visitor thereby became the unwitting subject of the Queen’s litmus test for princesses.

The Queen prepared a bed, which she piled high with mattresses and eiderdown quilts. At the very bottom of the pile she placed a solitary pea. That night, she showed her visitor to the carefully prepared guest room. The next morning, the princess (as indeed she proved herself to be) complained that she had not been able to sleep at all. She had tossed and turned the whole night, and found she had actually turned black and blue--all because of the uncomfortable pea. The Queen and Prince were convinced that their visitor was truly of royal blood, for who else could be so delicate?

Athena turned the story round and round in her head. She thought it fairly ridiculous, even the most sensitive of princesses, would ever have discovered the pea by lying passively on top of the pile of mattresses. After many days’ deliberation, Athena found a plausible interpretation, which she rushed to tell her brother.

She rejected the common interpretation that the princess proved her royal nature by demonstrating delicacy and refinement with her sensitivity to even something as minor as a pea under a pile of mattresses. She offered an alternative explanation.

Athena suggested that when the Queen went away and left the princess alone in the room, the princess threw decorum to the wind and gave vent to her boisterous youthful nature. The princess ran around and jumped up and down on her bed until she was exhausted, and only then lay down to try to sleep. Through her rambunctiousness, the princess compressed the mattresses so much that for a brief moment the pea stuck out like a sore thumb and gave her a small bruise. Athena thought this princess was still rather impressive, but found her revisionist interpretation much more satisfactory.

Experimental Interlude: Verifying the Standard Model

Ike once again dreamed he met the quantum detective. This time, the sleuth knew what he was after--and he had a pretty good idea where it should be. All he had to do was wait--sooner or later, if he wasn’t mistaken, his quarry would appear.

Symmetry: The Essential Organizing Principle

Athena uncaged three of her owls and let them fly around. Unfortunately for Ike, he had left the top of his convertible down that day and the curious owls flew right in. The most mischievous of the owls pecked at the car’s interior and ended up tearing it a little.

When Ike saw the damage, he stormed into Athena’s room and demanded that she watch her owls more carefully in the future. Athena protested that her owls were almost all well-behaved and she need only keep an eye on the bad one. But by that time the owls were back in their cages, and neither Ike nor Athena could identify which one was guilty.

The Origin of Elementary Particle Masses: Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and the Higgs Mechanism

The stricter enforcement of speed limits made long-distance driving a nightmare for Icarus III. He longed to race as fast as he pleased, but police pulled him over nearly every half-mile. The cops never bothered with dull, neutral cars, but harassed only the lively, turbo-charged vehicles, like his own.

Ike resigned himself to driving only short distances, since that way he could avoid the police altogether. Within the half-mile-wide region around where he started, police never interfered and he could always drive impressively fast. Though the Porsche engine’s force was unknown outside his neighborhood, closer to home it became legendary.

Scaling and Grand Unification: Relating Interactions at Different Lengths and Energies

Athena often felt like she was the last to be told anything interesting. She didn’t even hear about Ike’s adventures with his car until after he had owned it for over a month. And she didn’t learn them from him directly--she learned about them from a friend of hers who had heard about them from Dieter’s cousin’s brother, who had learned about them from Dieter’s cousin, who had heard about them from Dieter.

Through this indirect route, Athena was told Ike’s remark, “The influence of forces depends on where you are.” Ike’s uncharacteristic pronouncement completely mystified Athena until she realized that the message must have been distorted along the way. After thinking about it for a while, she decided that Ike’s real remark must have been, “The performance of Porsches depends on the model of the car.”

The Hierarchy Problem: The Only Effective Trickle-Down Theory

Ike Rushmore III came to an ignominious end when he drove his resplendent new Porsche into a lamppost. He was nonetheless happy in Heaven, where he could play games all the time. He was a gambling man at heart.

One day, God Himself invited Ike to a rather strange game. God told him to write down a sixteen-digit number. God would roll the heavenly isocahedral die. Unlike a normal, cubic die with six sides, this die had twenty sides, with the digits 0 through 9 written twice. God explained that He would throw this die sixteen times and construct a sixteen-digit number by listing the results, one after the other. If God and Ike came up with the same enormous number--that is, if all the digits matched in the correct order--God would win. If the numbers weren’t exactly the same--that is, if any of the digits failed to match--Ike would defeat God.

God began to roll. The first side that came up was the number 4. This agreed with the first digit of Ike’s number, which was 4,715,031,495,526,312. Ike was surprised when God rolled correctly, since the odds were only one in ten. Nevertheless, he was pretty sure the second or third number would be wrong; the odds of God’s rolling both numbers correctly in succession was only one in a hundred.

God threw the first die for a second and then a third time. He rolled a 7 and then a 1, which were also correct. He kept rolling until, to Ike’s astonishment, He had rolled all sixteen digits correctly. The chances of this happening randomly were only 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000. How could God have won?

Ike was a bit angry (one can’t get very angry in Heaven) and asked how something so ridiculously unlikely could have happened. God sagely replied, “I am the only one who could expect to win, since I am both omniscient and omnipotent. Howeer, you must have heard, I do not like to play dice.”

And with that, GAMBLING FORBIDDEN was posted on a cloud. Ike was furious (of course, only a little). Not only had he lost the game, but he’d also lost the right to gamble.

Supersymmetry: A Leap Beyond the Standard Model

When Icarus first arrived in Heaven, he was directed to an orientation seminar where the authorities explained the local rules. To his surprise, he learned that right-wing religious groups were essentially correct, and family values were indeed a cornerstone of his new environment. The authorities had long ago established and traditional family structure premised on the separation of generations and the stability of marriages; a top would always marry a bottom, a charmer would always align with a strange bird, and an uptown girl would always marry a downtown cool cat. Everyone, including Ike, was satisfied with the arrangement.

But Ike later learned that the social structure in Heaven had not always been so secure. Originally, dangerous energetic infiltrators had threatened the hierarchical foundation of society. In Heaven, however, most problems can be solved. God had sent everyone a personal guardian angel, and the angels and their charges had heroically worked together to avert the threat to the hierarchy and preserve the ordered society that Ike could now enjoy.

Even so, Heaven was not entirely safe. The angels turned out to be free agents, with no contract binding them to a single generation. The fickle angels, who had so bravely rescued the hierarchy, now threatened to destroy Heaven’s family values. Ike was appalled. Despite Heaven’s well-advertised attractions, he was finding it a surprisingly stressful place.

Allegro (Ma Non Troppo) Passage for Strings

Fast forward a millennium.

Icarus Rushmore XLII was trying out his new Alicxvr Device, Model 6.3, that he had recently purchased from the Spacernet. (Icarus III’s interest in speed and gadgets had apparently been passed down through many generations.) The Alicxvr was designed to let the user view things of any size, from the very small to the very large. Ike was pretty sure that most of his friends who had purchased the Alicxvr Device would first try the large settings, of many megaparsecs, so they could see into outer space beyond the known universe. But Ike thought, “I know just as little about what is happening at extremely tiny distances,” and decided to investigate a miniscule scale instead.

However, Ike was an impatient sort. He couldn’t be bothered to read the extensive instruction manual accompanying his device and instead decided to plunge right in. Blithely ignoring the red indicator overlapping the smallest sizes, he adjusted his dial to the 10 -33 cm setting and pressed the button labeled “Go.”

To his horror, he found himself space-sick in a wildly oscilllating, precipitous landscape filled with strings. Space was no longer the smooth, anonymous background he was accustomed to. Instead it was jiggling rapidly in places, heading into pointy sections in others, or wandering off into loops that pinched off or later rejoined the surface. Ike fumbled desperately for the “Stop” button and only just managed to press it in time to return to normal with his senses intact.

After recovering his stability, Ike decided he probably should have read the manual after all. He turned to the “Warning” section and read: “Your new Alicxvr Device Model 6.3 works only for sizes larger than 10 -33 cm. We have not yet incorporated the latest string theory developments, whose predictions physicist and mathematicians connected to the physical world only last year.”

Ike was very disappointed when he realized that only the newer Model 7.0 included the latest results. But Ike then caught up with the most recent string theory developments, souped up his Alicxvr, and never got space-sick again.

Supporting Passages: Brane Development

Ike Rushmore XLII decided to dive down once again to the miniscule Planck scale. Happily, his souped-up Alicxvr worked perfectly and he smoothly arrived in a ten-dimensional universe filled with strings. Eager to explore his new environment, Ike cranked up the hyperdrive attachment he had purchased from Gbay. He watched with fascination as strings collided and tangled in mesmerizing ways.

Although Ike worried that the Alicxvr might break down, he was curious to learn more about this novel world. So he increased the pressure on the hyperdrive lever. At first strings collided together even more frequently. But when he cranked up the lever still more, he entered a new, completely unrecognizable environment. Ike couldn’t even tell whether spacetime was intact. But he kept cranking up the hyperdrive, and, strangely enough, emerged unscathed.*

However, his surroundings were now quite different. Ike was no longer in the ten-dimensional universe he had started off in. He was instead in an eleven-dimensional universe filled with particles and branes. And, odd as it seemed, nothing in this new universe interacted very much. When Ike looked back at his controls, he discovered the hyperdrive lever had mysteriously reset to low. Confused and rather exasperated, Ike cranked up the lever once again, only to find himself back where he started. When Ike checked thee controls, he discovered that the hyperdrive lever was once again back at low.

Ike thought his Alicxvr was probably malfunctioning. But when he checked his up-to-date manual he discovered that his device was operating perfectly--high hyperdrive in ten-dimensional string theory was the same as low hyperdrive in an alternate eleven-dimensional world. And vice versa.

The manual didn’t say what should happen when the hyperdrive wasn’t very low or very high, so Ike entered the spacernet and put himself on the wait-list for an improved version that would solve the problem. But the Alicxvr designers promised only that the release date would be some time within the millennium.

*Actually, according to the duality we learn about in this chapter, even the probes used to study a given version of string theory change character when the coupling becomes strong. So if Ike really was part of the string world, he, too, would change.

Bustling Passages: Braneworlds

Icarus III was becoming increasingly disillusioned with Heaven. He had expected it to be a liberal, forgiving environment. But instead, gambling was prohibited, metal silverware was forbidden, and smoking was no longer allowed. The most restrictive constraint of all was that Heaven was stuck on a Heavenbrane; its residents were forbidden to travel into the fifth dimension.

Everyone on the Heavenbrane knew about the fifth dimension and the existence of other branes. In fact, the righteous Heavenbraners often whispered about the unsavory characters sequestered on a Jailbrane not too far away. However, the Jailbraners couldn’t hear any of the slander that Heavenbraners spread about them, so all remained peaceful in the bulk and on the branes.

Sparsely Populated Passages: Multiverses and Sequestering

Despite its explicit prohibition on the Heavenbrane, Icarus III ultimately returned to gambling. After ignoring repeated reprimands, he was sentenced to confinement on the Jailbrane, a distant brane separated from the Heavenbrane along a fifth dimension. Even after he was sequestered on the Jailbrane, Ike doggedly tried to contact his former buddies. But the distance between their two branes made communication difficult. He was reduced to flagging down passing bulk mail carriers, many of whom ignored his entreaties altogether. The few who did stop always conveyed his messages to the Heavenbrane, but at a frustratingly leisurely pace.

Meanwhile, back on the Heavenbrane, disaster loomed. The guardian angels, who had so bravely rescued the hierarchy, had no respect for the other residents’ family values and were on the verge of creating intergenerational instability. Heaven’s fallen angels considered all pairings acceptable and encouraged everyone to mix with a trophy partner from another generation.

When Ike learned of the threat, he was aghast and he resolved to redeem the situation. Ike realized that by using the slow and deliberate manner with which he was constrained to communicate with the Heavenbrane, he could judiciously feed the massive egos of the unruly angels living there. Thanks to Ike’s helpful intervention, the angels stopped threatening the social order. Although Icarus III still had to serve his sentence, the relieved residents on the Heavenbrane honored him forevermore in urban myth.

Leaky Passages: Fingerprints of Extra Dimensions

Athena had to admit that she missed Ike. Even though she had often found him annoying, she was pretty lonely without him. She was looking forward to spending time with K. Square, an exchange student who was planning to visit. But she was appalled by the closed-mindedness of her neighbors, who were all apprehensive about K. Square’s arrival. It didn’t matter that he spoke the same language and behaved the same way as everyone else. In the current climate, K. Square’s foreign origin alone was enough to make them wary.

When Athena asked her neighbors why they were so anxious, they replied “What if he sends for his heavier relatives? What if they’re not so well behaved as he is and stick to their foreign laws? And when they all arrive together, what will happen then?”

Unfortunately, Athena heightened their suspicions by telling them that K. Square and his relatives couldn’t possibly stay long in any case, since they were all very unstable and the K. Square family could visit only during the commotion of energetic gatherings. Recognizing her unfortunate choice of words, Athena reassuringly added that the foreigners would stick to local laws during their brief and exciting visits. Convinced, her neighbors then joined her in welcoming the K. Square clan.

Voluminous Passages: Large Extra Dimensions

Now that K. Square’s visit was over, Athena spent a lot of time at the local Internet cafe. She was exhilarated by her recent discovery of some mysterious new websites, the most intriguing of which was xxx.socloseandyetsofar.al. Athena suspected that these suggestive sites were a consequence of the recent AOB (America On Brane)/Spacetime Warner multimedia merger, but she had to go home before she had time to investigate.

When Athena arrived at her house she rushed to her computer, where she once again sought the exotic hyperlinks that had been so readily accessible at the Internet cafe. To her frustration, however, CyberNanny prevented her from reaching the forbidden dimensionally enhanced sites.* But by cloaking her identity with her secure alias, Mentor, Athena vanquished her cybercensor and succeeded in finally returning to the mysterious hyperlinks.

Athena secretly hoped that K. Square had sent her a message that was hidden in a webpage. But the sites were not easy to understand, and she managed to pick up only a few potentially meaningful signals. She resolved to study their content some more and hoped the merger--unlike the other merger with a similar name--would last long enough for her to figure them out.

*Physicists post their papers on a website that begins with “xxx”: check out xxx.lanl.gov. Internet filters have occasionally forbidden access to this site as well.

Warped Passage: A Solution to the Hierarchy Problem

Athena awoke with a start. She had just revisited her recurring dream, which had again begun with her entering the dreamworld’s rabbit hole. In this episode, when the Rabbit announced, “Next stop, TwoDLand,” Athena ignored him and waited to hear the choices that remained.

At the three-spatial-dimensional stop, the Rabbit announced “If you lived here, you’d be home by now.” But he refused to open the doors, despite Athena’s pleas that she did indeed live there and very much wanted to return home.

At the next stop, uniformed six-dimensioners tried to enter. But the Rabbit took one look at their inordinately large girth and abruptly closed the doors, saying that they couldn’t possibly fit. They quickly departed once the Rabbit threatened to cut them down to size.*

The elevator continued on its extraordinary journey. When it stopped again, the Rabbit announced, “Warped Geometry--a five-dimensional world.”** He gently pushed Athena towards the door, advising her, “Enter the funhouse mirror--it will take you home.”

Since the Rabbit had mentioned a fifth dimension, Athena found this highly unlikely. But she didn’t have any choice but to enter and hope the tricky Rabbit was right.

*As we saw in Chapter 18, extra dimensions can be uniform, large, and flat. The Rabbit is skeptical about this idea. **This counting includes a dimension of time.

The Warped Annontated “Alice” ¹

Athena stepped out of the dreamworld’s elevator into the warped five-dimensional world and was astonished to see only three spatial dimensions. Was the Rabbit playing games, pretending to take her to a world with four spatial dimensions when in fact there were only three? What a funny way to travel to what looked like an ordinary world!²

With great gallantry, a local received the puzzled new arrival. “Welcome to Branesville,³ our glorious capital. Permit me to show you around.” Athena, who was tired and confused, blurted out, “Branesville doesn’t look all that special. Even the mayor looks completely normal,” although she had to confess, she wasn’t entirely sure as she had never seen a mayor before.

The mayor to whom Athena referred had arrived accompanied by the Cheshire Fat Cat, his Chief Advisor. The Cat’s job was keeping tabs on everything in the city, which was greatly facilitated by his skill at catching people unawares--especially surprising in lgith of the Cat’s enormous bulk. The Cat loved to explain that he owed this skill to his ability to disappear into the bulk, but no one ever understood what he meant.⁴

The Cat materialized next to Athena and asked if she would like to accompany him as he made his rounds. He warned her tha she had better be comfortable ith bulk, to which Athena eagerly responded that her favorite uncle was in fact very, very fat. The Cat looked skeptical, but agreed to take her along. He offered Athena cream cake with butter frosting, in which she happily indulged. And off they went.

Athena wondered what it was she’d eaten. She now appeared to be on a four-dimensional slice of a five-dimensional world, and as far as she could tell, she was no thicker than this thin four-dimensional slice. She exclaimed, “I am like my paper doll! But whereas Dolly has two spatial dimensions in a three-dimensional world, I have three spatial dimensions in a four-dimensional world.

The Cat grinned sagely and explained, “You are now conscious of what I like to call The Bulk. You are still in Branesville, but will be leaving (and growing) momentarily. Branesville is in reality part of a five-dimensional universe, but the fifth dimension is warped so discreetly that Branesville residents are completely unaware of its existence. They have no idea that Branesville is the border of a five-dimensional state. You too mistakenly concluded on your arrival that there are only three spatial dimensions. The new Athena, untethered from the brane, is free to travel out into the fifth dimension. May I suggest for our destination another village called Weakbrane, at the other edge of the five-dimensional universe?”

What a strange five-dimensional journey it turned out to be. After leaving Branesville, Athena found herself moving in another dimension, and growing as she did so.⁵ When the observant Cat noticed the confused look on Athena’s face, he reassuringly explained, “Weakbrane is close by and we will be there very soon.⁶ It’s lovely, but don’t be alarmed when you see that, like the Branesville residents you encountered, Weakbrane residents scoff at the notion of four spatial dimensions. You, who can see out into the bulk, will see a huge shadow on Branesville, ten million billion times bigger than the one with which you started. Almost everything else will seem to you and to them to be entirely normal.”

But upon her arrival in Weakbrane, Athena noticed one other thing. The four-dimensional graviton had quietly accompanied the travelers on their journey and was softly tapping on her shoulder. He touched her so extremely gently that she had barely noticed.⁷

But she couldnt’ ignore the graviton when he launched into a litany of complaints. “Weakbrane would be so exciting, were it not for the superior influence of the entrenched hierarchy. The strong, weak, and electromagnetic armed forces on the Weakbrane permit me only the most feeble strength.” The graviton whined how everywhere else he was a force to be reckoned with, especially in Branesville, which is ruled by an oligarchy with comparably strong forces.⁸ Weakbrane, where gravity was the most suppressed, was the graviton’s least favorite place.⁹ The graviton turned to Athena in hope of enlisting her in his plan to wrest power from the reigning authorities.

Athena thought she had better leave immediately and looked around for the rabbit hole, but couldn’t find it. She did find a white rabbit, whom she expected to be an efficient guide. But the Weakbrane rabbit had an alarmingly sluggish gait, and kept repeating how happy he was that his date would wait.¹⁰ Athena realized that this rabbit wasn’t going anywhere, so she found a more anxious rabbit she could follow, and worked her way back home. Once she understood the physics implications, Athena enjoyed her dream enormously--though it should be noted that she never again ate cream cake.

¹ This title borrows from Martin Gardner’s delightful Annotated Alice, in which he explains the wordplay, math riddles, and references in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. ² The brane itself is large and flat and has only three spatial dimensions. Only gravity makes contact with the additional dimension. Remember that the five-dimensional space has four spatial dimensions (and one of time), whereas the brane has three spatial dimensions. I’ll still call time the fourth dimension, and I’ll call the additional dimension the fifth. ³ Branesville is the Gravitybrane. ⁴ The Fat Cat, unlike Branesville residents, is not confined to the brane. ⁵ Everything is bigger and lighter near the Weakbrane. Athena’s shadow over Branesville grew as she got closer to the Weakbrane and further away from the Gravitybrane. ⁶ The fifth dimension does not have to be very big in order to solve the hierarchy problem. ⁷ Gravity is feeble on the Weakbrane, where the graviton’s probability function is so small. ⁸ On the Gravitybrane, gravity is no weaker than the other forces. ⁹ The petulant graviton is complaining that on the Weakbrane, gravity is much weaker than the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces. Gravity would be much stronger (and have a strength closer to that of the other forces) closer to the Gravitybrane. ¹⁰ Things are bigger and time is slower on the Weakbrane. The rabbit’s laxness is accounted for by rescaling time.

Profound Passage: An Infinite Extra Dimension

Athena woke up with a start. Her recurring dream had once again taken her down the rabbit hole. This time, however, she asked the rabbit to take her straight back to the warped five-dimensional world. Athena arrived back in Branesville (or so she thought). The Cat soon appeared, and she eagerly turned to him, anticipating her dream cake and a delightful excursion to the Weakbrane. She was sorely disappointed when the Cat told her there was no such thing as Weakbrane in this particular universe.*

Athena didn’t believe the Cat and thought there must be another brane further away. Proud of herself for understanding how, in the warped geometry, further-away branes had weaker gravity, she decided it was probably called the “Meekbrane” and asked the Cat whether she could go there.

But once again she was in for a disappointment. The Cat explained, “There is no such place. You are on the Brane; there are no others.”

“Curiouser and curiouser, thought Athena. This clearly wasn’t exactly the same space as before, since it had only a single brane. But Athena wasn’t ready to give up. “May I see for myself that there is no other brane?” she asked in her sweetest tone.

The Cat strongly advised her against it, warning, “Four-dimensional gravity on the brane is no guarantee of four-dimensional gravity in the bulk. Once I nearly lost everything but my smile there.”

Athena was a cautious girl, despite her many adventures, and she took the Cat’s warning to heart. But she often wondered what the Cat meant. What did lie beyond the Brane, and how would she ever know?

*The geomery of this chapter is warped, as in the previous ones, but now there is only a single brane--the Gravitybrane. Although this means that there is an infinite fifth dimension, this chapter will show why this is perfectly fine with the warped spacetime.

A Reflective and Expansive Passage

Ike XLII as ready to live large. He wanted to test the Alicxvr’s ultra-high settings of many megaparsecs, with which he could explore places beyond the Galaxy and the known universe and experience distant regions no one had ever seen before.

So he was thrilled when the Alicxvr took him to distances 9, 12, and 13 billion light-years away. But his excitement diminished when he tried to go farther and his signal strength fell precipitously. When he aimed for 15 billion years, his exploration aborted completely: he no longer received any information at all. Instead, he heard, “Message 5B73: The Horizon customer you are trying to reach is beyond your calling area. If you need assistance, please contact your local long-distance operator.”

Ike couldnt’ believe his ears. It was the thirty-first century, yet his Horizon service still provided only limited coverage. When Ike tried to contact the operator, a recording said, “Please stay on the brane. Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received.” Ike suspected that the operator would never respond, and was wise enough not to wait.

Extra Dimensions: Are You In or Are You Out?

Athena’s dreams about OneDLand, branes, and five dimensions were passed down for generations. When Ike XLII heard them, he wanted to check whether there was any truth to her stories. So he took out his Alicxvr and went down to a very small scale--not so small that strings would appear, but sufficiently small to check whether there was a fifth dimension. The Alicxvr answered Ike’s question by sending him off to a five-dimensional world.

But Ike was not completely satisfied. He remembered the bizarre things that had happened earlier on when he had fooled around with the hyperdrive option. So he once again cranked up the hyperdrive lever--and once again, everything changed drastically. Ike couldn’t identify a single familiar point. He could tell only one thing: the fifth dimension had disappeared.

Ike was mystified, so he searched the spacernet to see what it could tell him about “dimensions.” He waded through numerous sites that he recognized from his more embarassing spam, but soon realized that he’d have to refine his search. When he still couldn’t find anything definitive, he conceded that he wouldn’t know the fundamental origin of dimensions any time soon. So he decided to turn his attention to time travel instead.

(In)Conclusion

Icarus Rushmore XLII used his time machine to visit the past and warn Icarus III of the disaster that awaited him should he continue driving his Porsche. Ike III was so astounded by his visitor from the future that he heeded Ike XLII’s warning. He traded in his Porsche for a Fiat and subsequently led a full, contented, and slower-paced life.

Athena was ecstatic to be reunited with her brother, and Dieter was happy to see his friend, though both of them were confused since it seemed as if Ike had never left. Athena and Dieter realized that the time travel that Ike reported to them was pure fiction. Even in dreams, the Cat never looped through time, the Rabbit never reached a stop with extra time dimensions, and the quantum detective refused to contemplate such odd behavior of time. But Athena and Dieter preferred happy endings. So they suspended disbelief and accepted Ike’s fantastic story all the same.

#lisa randall

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leviticus101st · 5 years

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Heroes in Crisis Critique

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13409994/1/Heroes-in-Crisis-Critique

I wrote a critique on the garbage Event Comic Heroes in Crisis. I wanted to post my critiques here.

Ch.1

Let’s just jump to the basic story issues.

1: The Pacing

The storyline was originally supposed to be five issues and it got stretched out to nine issues. It should have stayed at five, probably less than that.

Out of those nine issues, only three of them actually matter to the plot. Issues 1, 8, and 9 are the only issues where the murder mystery plot goes forwards. (I feel like I’m being generous with issue 8, because that one just reveals that it was Wally who did it and that Booster cloned him…..I don’t know how he did that, but he did it.)

All the other issues? You can just skip them. They mean nothing, kinda like this story in general now that I think about it.

2: The Artwork

Much like RWBY with it’s animation, this is one I’m sure some people will disagree with me on.

The artwork for HiC was done by Clay Mann and it’s highly moody and detailed. The problem with it is how the women are drawn.

I briefly went over this in my ‘If Dragon Ball was a comic book’ story, but comic books have a problem with making women look as skimpy as possible. That is especially evident here.

The women’s outfits (Except for Wonder Womans.) look like they’re squeezing into every crevice of their bodies. Batgirl’s costume is especially bad in that regard. (Her confessional has her showing her skin. To be fair, she was letting out how the Joker shot affected her, but that’s not much.) Other than the women’s tight outfits, the artwork is pretty good.

3: The Mystery itself

HiC is a mystery story, but you could be forgiven for thinking it was trying to be a buddy cop movie. This is part of the pacing issue. While the plot will advance eventually, the mystery is not what does it. It’s just wacky circumstance. A good mystery story gives both the heroes and the audience the clues as the story progresses. Leading the hero to the most logical conclusion and the audience can have fun trying to put the pieces together.

HiC does not do that. As I said, most of the issues don’t push the plot and we don’t get clues to the fact that Wally West is the killer.

The reveal of Wally West being the killer ruined any chance of this story being taken seriously. There was NOTHING foreshadowing it and the one clue that was found doesn’t match up with it.

They say Batman couldn’t identify the wounds on the corpses because they were inflicted post mortem. Post mortem wounds are easy to identify because those wounds don’t bleed. This is ignoring actual facts!

4: Shock Value

Lots of good characters are dead by the first issue. This ruins any illusion of tension. Moving on.

5: Character Assassination.

I’ll get into specifics a later chapter, but everyone in this story acts nothing like the characters they’re supposed to be.

7: Wally West’s plan

Step one was to mail Lois Lane tapes that has tons of personal information of other people to upload.

Step two was to use the Speed Force to resurrect Poison Ivy.

Step three is to place himself from somewhere in time where everyone he accidently killed everyone.

Step four was to kill himself.

It feels like a spiritual successor to Identity Crisis alright. Accidental murderer with the dumbest scheme and dumb retcons along for the ride.

These problems are pretty bad, but if it weren’t for what I’mma talk about next chapter, I would just think it was bad.

Ch. 2

(Disclaimer: This will be a very angry analysis. This issue spikes a lot of anger in me. So this will have a lot of anger and swearing.)

Mental health is important. I’m not going to lie about that. People go through their struggles in life and they have their own issues to go through.

That is the reason that this story exists. Hell the title itself, Heroes in Crisis, is reflective of that. It’s Tom King saying that heroes have their own struggles and that they should get help for it.

If I could ask Tom King one question. Just one. It would be this.

HOW THE FUCK DO YOU MISS THE POINT THIS BADLY?!

This story does an atrocious job of portraying mental health. To understand what I mean, allow me to discuss what Sanctuary does for its patients.

In my story, I went out of my way to show therapists in the story to show that the heroes were getting real help. That is not how the actual comic does it.

The AI in the story I showed briefly to make sure everything was okay? In the comics, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman created it using their best personality traits to help the heroes.

If that AI was made of their best traits, I’d hate to see their worst. The AI? It insults the patients of the Sanctuary, constantly belittling them for not ‘getting over’ their traumas and pain.

Any actual therapists will tell you that is a very terrible idea. I know WHAT King was going for, tough love, but that is not how you’re supposed to do it. You’re supposed to be supportive of the patient, let them ease into their treatment. YOU DON’T INSULT PEOPLE AND TELL THEM TO GET OVER THEIR TRAUMAS! It’s wrong!

I wish that was all I could talk about with this, but there is so much more stupid shit in this regard.

You see the AI’s treatment for the patients is to force them to relive their most traumatic moment.

Do I need to explain why that is the dumbest fucking thing for a therapist to do? I feel like it would be an insult to you guys if I explained how fucking stupid that is.

YOU DON’T JUST FORCE PEOPLE TO RELIVE THEIR TRAUMATIC MOMENTS! ‘I have an idea! Let’s make our patients go through the very thing that caused them to need us!’

You can’t even make the argument that it’s a form of Immersion Therapy, because you don’t just throw the thing that causes a person's traumas in their faces! Let’s do an example real quick. Let’s say you’re treating someone who was traumatized by their abusive parents, then you invite the parents. Needless to say, it won’t end very well.

There’s another big problem in the mental health aspect. The other treatment.

Another thing the heroes do in the Sanctuary is a confessional booth, where the heroes confess their problems to a camera. One big problem with this.

People don’t just confess their troubles like that unless it’s urgent and it’s usually to another person. They don’t just speak out their traumas to a camera. It requires a lot of probing by the therapists. What’s sad is that problem is the least terrible about that, but it does lead to another massive issue.

A big plot point is that Lois Lane got some tapes from Wally. Lois being a very kind soul respects the privacy of the heroes and-NAH! She uploads them to the Daily Bugle.

You do not do that! Uploading someone else’s private information like that without their consent is wrong. Especially here, where they’re superheroes with secret identities. They’re loved ones are now in danger because of this.

It’s even a plot hole. They state that the tapes will be destroyed after they’re made (Let’s ignore how pointless that is and how some therapists keep tapes for future reference. Why would you record it if you were just going to get rid of it afterwards?) and Wally got the tapes that were destroyed somehow. I don’t get it either.

That’s all those issues from the actual story, but now let’s talk about a little something King himself said in regards to the killing at the Sanctuary. He stated that the killing was supposed to reflect school shootings.

For the sake of fairness, I know what he means. He’s referring to the tragedy itself.

Now to piss on fairness, because seriously, what the actual fuck?! First of all, Wally killing the heroes WAS AN ACCIDENT! Mass shootings are never accidents, they take someone holding a gun to a school and willfully opening fire.

Secondly, it’s highly distasteful to pull that shit for this story. Especially now, when there are so many mass shootings in the US.

Third, there’s a bullshit assumption that mass shootings are caused by the mentally disabled. The truth of the matter is that mass shooters are either self entitled assholes, racists monsters, or both. So this comparison is total shit and completely harmful in this age of mass shootings and attention to mental health problems.

Fourth, and this one is one that many people have pointed out, it’s really dickish to say that you’re going to die or become a mass shooter because you’re metnally disabled or someone trying to get help for your problems.

Lastly. If this story was about mental health, the issues people face because of mass shooting misblamed, then this would be the most relevant and important comic of our age. But it's not! It’s a poorly put together mystery story that barely touches on mental health.

And you want to know the most fucked up thing about all of these things I’ve discussed?

All of the horrible things I’ve talked about or portrayed as good in the story. Uploading someone’s private info, torturing them with their own traumas, and not doing any real work to help the mentally unwell. It’s portrayed as the right thing in the story. I can’t begin to think about how this hurts people who actively seek or attend therapy.

What was King thinking?! And before you say the editors and executives messed him up, Tom King himself has openly admitted that the only thing he didn’t decide on was what characters would be the focus of the story. Everything else? All him. This is how he thinks mental health should be handled.

I’m frankly very disgusted with this story and I pray to God that nothing like it ever happens again.

Take care of yourselves.

https://www.mentalhealth.gov/get-help/immediate-help

Ch. 3

I wanted to use this last chapter to give my final thoughts and a chance to talk about things I haven’t had a chance to talk about.

Overall, HiC is terrible. Character work on the whole is terrible. The pacing is absolutely atrocious. And it’s just a distasteful mess.

One thing that always baffles me is the choice of characters for the story. Booster Gold, Harley Quinn, Batgirl, and Blue Beetle. These characters have nothing to do with mental health, so why have them? Harley is the closest to that, but she got over the Joker long ago.

The comic also suffers from the humor. It’s terrible and does not fit with the comic’s tone.

The story relies on retcons to a character’s history. Roy Harper is the best example. Roy got on drugs because of his depression and parental neglect, not injuries. I don’t know if that fits with his New 52 and Rebirth characterization.

One scene that captures the sheer stupidity of the comic is the scene where Harley Quinn(Who I feel the need to stress is a normal person with a baseball bat.) is able to single handedly fight off the Trinity. I’m dead serious.

Another Harley Quinn scene that is terrible is the one where she attacks Booster Gold while Batgirl and the Ted Kord Blue Beetle (BOOSTER GOLD’S BEST FRIEND!) watch as the crazy lady with a murder history attacks the good guy who’s been friends with them for years. Ted Kord says that he’s projecting a forcefield to protect Booster, so Batgirl (Who is part of the Batfamily who don’t kill unless necessary.) knocks him out to disable it and the whole thing is a joke. Lol look at that crazy lady try to kill the superhero.

Incase the last two paragraphs didn’t make it clear, I’m not a big fan of Harley.

First reason is that I find her annoying. She just yammers on and on and it distracts from the story.

Second, she’s a mass murderer who gets off easy because she wanted to impress the wrong guy. I know it was abusive, but she still choose to kill people and smiled about it.

Third and this one is kind of petty, but it kind of annoys me that there are so many sympathetic and kind villains who deserve redemption and a happy ending WAY more than she does and they don’t get it. She gets off easily because she was in an abusive relationship, even though there are other villains who have been abused and they don’t get redemption or a ‘Worth so much more than you think’ speech. She wasn’t hypnotised or converted against her will to be evil, she didn’t grow up with parents who gave her a twisted perception of the world, she didn’t grow up in an abusive household to make her snap, her life was fairly good until the Joker came along. Hell, you can’t even make the argument that the Joker made her crazy. All he did was spout some obvious bullshit and she fell for it.

I’m sorry that I went off on that tangent. It just makes me made that so many other villains deserve a happy ending and don’t get it, but Quinn, who I feel the need to stress has a body count, gets one. Yeah.

Let’s talk about Booster for a bit. Booster Gold doesn’t have psychological issues, so he’s out of place here. I’ve read some of the stuff that built up to this and it doesn’t give the impression he got some, just that he’s kind of an idiot. (Also, couldn’t he have just time traveled to stop all of this or find something out?)

Wally being the killer was a terrible decision. He just came back and he’s made into a villain. For some reason, DC doesn’t let him be happy. (Again, favoring the psychopath who murdered lots of people have a happy ending.) They hate him for SOME reason, though nobody can figure out why. He’s brought back just to suffer in this crapfeast.

Another problem with Wally here is how out of character he is. Wally has shown to be one of the nicest guys in the entire DC Universe and he pulls the crap he does here. As I said, him killing the heroes was an accident. He puts together a plan to make up for it, that requires him to have computer skills he’s never been established to have.

The act that made him kill the heroes was a mental trigger of his family. (We’ll ignore the fact that that’s not how the Speedforce works.) He spent five days getting tapes to Lois (Guess being as fast as a dude who can outrun an instantaneous teleporter makes it hard to be a delivery boy.), teams up with a past/future version of himself, and then tries to kill himself. (For those of you who didn’t get my Identity Crisis joke, Jean had a smiliar stupid plan for a stupid reason.)

Oh and after the heroes talk him down from killing himself, Harley knees him in the nads. (The mass killer gets a happier ending than the guy who wants his family back.)

The Trinity are morons in this story, they don’t do anything that a smart person would do, can’t tell when a person dies of electric shocks or when wounds are afflicted after a person dies, and get curb stomped to make Harly Quinn look good.

Let’s just finish this. This story just sucks. The only redeeming thing about it is the artwork, even then, the females are drawn like they’re weird aliens who want to conquer us all.

This story is a pathetic, distasteful, harmful piece of shit. I don’t want to say ‘I hope everyone forgets it’ because we need to know just how garbage this kind of thing is. We need to know just how wrong something can be.

Take care of yourselves everyone. If you need help, go find some real help. Whatever you find will be better than HiC will ever do for you.

#Heroes in Crisis #critique #my fanfic stuff #DC Comics

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semi-imaginary-place · 5 years

Text

fe3h blogging 3 because i have no self control

wah. I don’t want to start BL because that would mean leaving Edelgard and Claude. I don’t care about dimirti as much. part 1 dimitri is so earnest though

i think blue lions was written first. 1 the two monthly missions that have to do with students’ families are both in BL (Ashe and Sylvain). I didn’t notice this at first because for some reason I got it into my head that one of them was in the black eagles and so i thought every house would have a “welp and now we kill your [insert family member]”. 2 two fairly important side characters at the monastery are related to BL students (Annette and Mercedes). Chapter 3 actually provides a intro for all the lords in their respective routes. Edelgard’s scene is serious but not especially sad, instead you can feel te fire burning within Edlegard and the scene shows how she’s willing to sacrifice the lives of those under her if she believes she is doing the right thing. Claude’s is actually quite light hearted in tone after the first few lines and it highlights the mystery surrounding him and makes him seem very sketchy. Chapter 3 in Blue Lions though is really sad. Ashe my baby boy. Here there is a sense of tragedy in the post battle scene.

My opinion of Gillbert slowly plummets as my opinion of Annette continues to rise. I mean absentee emotionally distant father? He doesn’t deserve Annette and her mom. Ok during Dimitri and Annettes C support about how being siblings would be nice, I’m like ummmmm you two are less than half a year apart. Annette is just small not young. its actually off putting to see Sylvain act like a decent person in Dedue’s supports. Underneath all that philandering and shitting on women, he’s actually a good dude and pretty smart, but wow I want to hit him sometimes. wow Felix is actually nice* to Annette. *well nicer anyways. He’s not mean to her. the “fight” Annette and Mercedes have in their B support is so stupid and now I need to get to the timeskip for it to resolve? wow.

I think Dedue like trauma latched (is that a thing???? I should go look up ptsd sometime) on to Dimitri. Like found the first person that showed a bit of kindness for him and clamped down. He sees himself as a tool of Dimitri, his entire existence is for the sake of another person. He hates Faergus for what it has done to Duscur but instead of helping to enact meaningful resistance against Faergus, he latched on to the first person that didn’t treat Duscur like scum. That’s not rational. Come to think of it everyone in blue lions need therapy like more so than the other houses (who could also use some)

And here I thought Sylvain was the one with self-worth problems, turns out Dimitri’s a part of the gang too. Its like he can’t see any good parts of himself. He is very earnest and straightforward. Also “you didn’t appear to be suppressing you emotions” huh really. not a topic you’re familiar with yourself Dimitri? Can’t remember if I’ve said this or not but why is Dimitri the only one to have a modified armored uniform.

Edelgard: tower, fortune, emperor. Linhardt: hermit. Mercedes: high priestess, strength. Ashe: star. Dimitri: moon, justice, devil?. Claude: sun, hermit?. Seteth: hierophant. Felix: chariot, emperor. Lysithea: magician. Flayn: lovers, priestess. Manuela: empress. Marianne: fortune, priestess, sun? death?. Ingrid: Emperor?. Bernadetta: hermit, moon. Dorothea: lovers, empress. Ignatz: hanged man. Caspar: justice, chariot

Ashe is such a good boy TT^TT

I always thought it hilarious that Lonato got Catherine’s name wrong, but no there was more to it than that.

Also I don’t get why Annette or her mom couldn’t just go to Garreg Mach. She didn’t need an excuse to visit a place, its not like you need a visa to enter. The school of sorcery and then officers academy sounds like such a roundabout way of doing things

I wonder what name Claude ascends the throne under. He likely only took up the name von Riegan upon entering Fodlan and probably used his father's family name before that. I wonder if Claude has an Almyran given name. If he tried to claim the throne under the name Claude von Riegan it’d kinda be an insult like spitting in the face of his people and that wouldn't gain him any favor in Almyra. But would he go under a fully Almyran name? He would be a more popular king showing himself as one of the people. However, I imagine that he'd keep the name Claude. Maybe he grew up with his parents calling him that maybe its important to him now that he's lived under it for ~7 formative years of his life. Coming to fodlan marked the beginning of claude carrying out his plan's to achieve his dream. Its also a period where he is devoid of his parent's guidance and presence. I'd also just say 16-23 is a pretty important period of identity building in a person's life. Its under the name claude that he finds people he wants to walk down this path with. Its an acknowledgement of both sides of his heritage. I wonder if his choice would be different in a non Verdant Wind route.

What if timelines get mixed up and 23 year old felix gets sent to right before glenn dies. 23 yo felix get teleported to an alternate universe or something and meets 13 yo felix. Felix angsts that glenn seems so young and how he's now older than him, maybe yells at his dad a bit and has a chat with 13yo felix.And then idk gets teleported back? Or worse gets trapped so now there 2 felixes running around and i dont know how thats going to affect the time line

Ashe would make the perfect court asassin. He has enough rank/political clout to get access to targets and its not suspicious if he is in proximity to them.But he's not important enough that anyone would pay attention to him. He's a knight and the lord of castle gaspard at most. He's like a minor lord not a duke or anything. Ashe has enough social and emotional intelligence to navigate social situations. He's easy to get along with and has that harmless sweet boy demeanor to him. He already is good at lock picking, sneaking around, and bows. All he need is some training from Shamir and Claude and Ashe would be unstoppable. The only thing stopping this is that Ashe is a genuine good sweet boy and hates deception. My boy is going to be a knight!

You know what Dimitri needs? A Raphael. Put the one who cant deal with his own emotions next to the emotionally mature on and maybe Dimitri will finally get the help he needs. They can train together too

Dimitri: Kill them all. Don’t let a single one of them escape. Sever their limbs and crush their wicked skulls.

Me: how about no. Kids, don’t do that.

(later) Dimitri: I will search for survivors

Me: Yeah the ones you didn’t kill

The more I learn about Dimitri’s childhood the more I’m like what the hell is wrong with Faergus??? The lifting rocks makes sense because Dimitri is ridiculous strong, but having a kid run all night in heavy armor, or waking an 11 year old up in the middle of the night and having them catch deer. ????? Also Flayn’s cooking and Dimitri’s taste buds are a good match. “Look at that young maiden wielding a giant lance. How adorable!” I mean that does sound pretty adorable actually.

Sometimes I think about how the officer’s academy is run as an institution and then I get a headache. The player character students we have number around 25 but you see npcs everywhere around garreg mach and there’s enough of them to fill a ball room. In talking to the students, a lot of them imply this is their first year at garreg mach which would imply that the officer’s academy’s course is 1 year long. This is also supported by the age range of the cast from 15 to 22 with most at 16-17 at the beginning of the year instead of having the younger and less experienced students at a different grade level. With a multigrade system unlikely though, how can we explain the number of students? There are 3 possibilities. First is that the class sizes are huge (conservative estimate is like 60/class, probably more based on cut scene estimates) with full day lecture classes. second is that there are only half day classes with half the students in morning class and the other half in afternoon class. Third is that there are actually more professors than shown.

The Central and Western Churches use the exact same rhetoric as shown in the Ashe-Catherine and Flayn-Seteth paralogues. We are divine and just and you are all heathens and sinners. Goddess this Goddess that. And both of them claim justifications for invasions under this rhetoric. Oh its not that you are politically inconvenient to me its that the Goddess says you are evil and I can’t argue with the Goddess so I have a moral obligation to strike you down. I wonder how many of them are actually delusional religious and how many are just using it as an excuse/cover.

I was thinking star or sun for claude because despite/because of everything he's an idealist. Like the sun guy in p3 akainori??? He take all that pain and tries to make the world a better placeInstead of a picture book though claude tries to revolutionize the worldAhhhhh I love this. theres so many narrative you can pull from these types of thingsDevil is like struggling with vice. Hubert's character arc deals withhis trouble connecting with people, his loyalty to edelgard, and what he has to do. Maybe justice? Rationality, jusgement, and themes of what is justice. Especially his convo with Hanneman that calls into question the execution of his fatherSeteth is probably hierophant as he's that one strict follow the rule book teacher we'vr all had. He also repeRepresents the chuch, authority, and the establishment (initially)Mercedes is a nurturing motherly type person with fits empress well. I take back the priestess statement from earlier. I think mercedes struggles are more external than internal (priestess is like more personal relationshio to spirituality and intuition). Wheel of fortune is an option? ?? Mercedes was born with a crest the her house fell and her step dad only wanted her mom for thr lamine crest. Then the church. then her adoptive dad wanting her for political gain theb the academy. A lot has been outside her control. Byleth is another good option for obvious reasons Edelgard is another good one given what happened in her childhood. If thing had been different she would be living a different life. Emperor could be another good one fore her since its about imposing your will on your surroundings

Dimitri’s stupid. I mean he’s using reasoning, but he’s jumping to conclusions when equally or more probable options are still there. I wouldn’t exactly believe Edelgard’s words either, but its clear Flame Emperor and TWSITD have their own separate agendas. Dimitrii’s “edelgard is the root of all my sufferings” is like the same reasoning as edelgards “the church and its systems are the root of all suffering in Fodlan” but worse, at least Edelgard is half right.

Its honestly disturbing how willing Dedue is to erasing his autonomy and personhood.

timeskip time~ JP dimitri speech tone is much more calm it makes the dissonance with what he is saying all the weirder. He just making up excuses for his bloodlust now. “they” are “evil” so its ok to slaughter them. also yay monarchists, is gilbert actually relevant in this route???. Fleche and Randolf are actually relevant in this route???? I really hate Faergus. why are all of you following dimitri on his suicide run. why would you let the man clearly not in a good mental place decide the course of the army????

ch14: I mean getting ready to torture someone is one thing. but actually threatening me? You’re on my shitlist dimitri. Boy. You dare threaten me.

Woooowww its like watching a bunch of lemming run off a cliff

Rodrigue gets a bad rap in fandom because its true he’s not a great dad, but I don’t think he’s rock bottom either. He and Felix have different world views and he just has no idea how to deal with Felix. I’d be quite funny if it wasn’t so sad.

Dimitri doesn't have a rational bone in his body

In other news I'm getting kind of annoyed at everyone in azure moon. Like heyyy maybe monarchy is a bad idea???

I read an interesting thought on why the prologue happened the way it did. tldr: smear tactic against the church. It'd look bad if bandits even got close to the nation's heirs. And even worse if they got injured or killed. If one of them died, edelgard could get an advantage

hot take: Claude is naive in the same way Griffith is naive

another hot take: Claude is Buddha. or maybe Claude AS Buddha. Specifically the birth prophecy thing of kingdom vs all of time space

oh to clarify its about how Claude wants to change not only Fodlan and Almyra but the whole world. The Buddha thing is that there was a prophecy that he would either be an excellent king or like a spiritual leader whose teachings would echo through time around the world. so I want an AU

me finding out about dorothea's and mercedes backstories: who do I have to kill

Its implied in the hanneman supports that hubert’s dad might have been a part of the insurrection to protect hubert

I was imagining Ferdinand and Sylvain interacting and Sylvain probably hates Ferdie's guts and then in got dark first Ferdinand dislikes nobles that aren't noble so he'd probably disapprove. sylvain would see sheltered ferdinand and want to make him suffer as he has. not to mention Ferdinand ... always looks forward, he's always trying to improve himself and I can see sylvain resenting that and himself. on the flip side both hold the chavalier position in their house, and they both appreciate the fine arts. like ferdinand is out here being an obnoxious good boy championing everything sylvain hates

me looking at all the dudes Mercedes can A support: none of you deserve her. what are you bringing HER in this relationship

the only thing i likea about faerhgus is their flag. which is just so aesthetically pleasing

petra and edelgard are foils for each other. they are princesses from opposite sides of a past war. both are dedicated to their nations and seek to become the person their country deserves. both are very driven. each was for a period of their life removed from their home country. but their positions are very different from one another. edelgard and petra also have a low key friendly rivalry where they motivate each other to strive for more. they should have had an A support

I've been avoiding jeritza because his character concept seems like an edgier dimitri. So I'm just here to say i like his deaign. Partly covered face + long hair? Its like the devs are out for me by pairing that with a personality I don't get along with

Unpopular opinion but ignatz's part 2 haircut is super cute

i know someone here was plotting out a persona 5 cross over, but the more I think of it, dimitri belongs in persona 4. that game's all about facing the parts of your personality that you don't want anyone else to see. I mean feral dimitri is basically his shadow, that part of him that he rejects

A supports/total supports Claude: 10/13 Sylvain 4/16 So here's a comparison of how their trust issues affect their relationships. Claude might be incredible closed off and even in his A supports, still be with holding important information, but given enough time he can still potentially bond with a great number of people. While on the other hand Sylvain has destroyed his ability to form meaningful connections with people, so half of his A supports are people he already has a bond with. Sylvain is a bitter resentful boy and its getting in the way of his life. oh those supports are excluding byleths

Sylvain is deliberately stupid which makes him the true idiot here

i've been wondering, does dimitri's super strength randomly activate or is he like that all the time

Dimitri and sylvain. When 1+1=0

Chess club edelgard, hubert, sylvain, claude

Edelgard assumes there will be costs and doesn't try to find a way around it. That sort of glory in being killed is faerghus' thing

I really wish I could expierence the game in its full state. What we have in yhis reality is like a shadow of what it could have been. I just want cf and vw to be their complete, best selves. Of all the routes, AM was written first and the only one that was completed and reached its full potential. VW and SS feel like half a route with of the other routes patched in to fill the gaps. all of byleths lines in VW are suspiciously about rhea. In some of the cutscenes theres graphical errors where the soldiers are wearing chuch colors instead of alliance. Some parts of VW were clearing written fot SS and shoved in last minute. Like the Edelgard scene. That scene makes mire sense in SS where byleth was her house leader, but not as much is VW where you barely talk to her. which is a shame because that’s one of my favorites. Byleth's lines make sense in SS which is about rhea and saving the churcv but not in VW which is about whats really happening and Claude. The same of course applies to SS, where seteth just says Claude's lines, and its so weird. And yet VW and CF are the strongest conceptually for me (or at least tickle my personal preferences). I also don't think any route should be seen in the absence of the others. Its is all 4 route together that show what the game is about. Focusing in on any one route is an incomplete picture. Verdant Wind was so good and yet it could have been so much better. That gap between the potential and the actual both angers and saddens me. Also VW is the most big picture of all the routes. Instead of diving in, it takes a step back for perspective. You can see the war as a whole instead of just what's happenibg with faergus or adrestia. You see what's actually happening. That its not adrestria vs faregus but the remnants of an ancient war still affecting modern politics from the dominance of the churcv to the agarthans who gave been stirring up shit for centuries. Despite all its flaws Verdant Wind is also my favorite. Its not better than the other routes... but its spirit managed to reach my crusty old heart. Its like an ugly puppy. I just see all the places it could be better... (gronder field, and that ending??)

Hanneman legit reminds me of some of my professors. Well intentioned very nice people who are just incredible nerdy. A cute old man.

for all that many of Petra's ending end up in Nuvelle, its not actually all that close to Brigid. Seems like a mistake to me

claude badgering seteth to help him with his translations of old books

also its nice that 3h does not have the male as default thing and there are female background characters. Watching the starwars movies its weird that like every mook is male

dorothea and leonie co-chair the let's-eat-the-nobles club. claude and petra are both like fodlan nobles are weird and helpless with goofy dances

Ingrid and raphael competing at an eating competition. Lysithea joins in because she wants cake

I have been overcome with the sudden urge to bully sylvain. I want to see him make the sad pouty face

ferdinand is a good boy

I like to think that Agartha while progressing in some aspects, has also lost a lot of their technology in that they can still use it but no longer understand how it works

I want more ignatz supports. I can see him bonding with ferdinand and dimitri strangely enough

Also claude and linhardt and claude competing for who can turn their room into a library first is so great

Again... still wondering what the climate and biogeography look like. Tall trees tend to be in wet temperate with good soil. We knoe faerhgus is cold but not how cold. All we know is that duscur ans sreng are cold and arid/semi arid. We'd need some interesting wind patterns for fodlan to be temperate. If the northern coast is arid. The only way the interior is temperate is if wind is goinf north to south and gwtring trapped by tje central mountain range. I dont think garreg mach is up in the himalayas

Sothis poorly grandmafriending byleth. Excellent

Playing AM and wow I forgot how much I want to punch dimitri I just want to off gilbert

I watched one of gilbert and annetes supports and wow I want to beat him into the ground all over again. Gilbert doesnt deserve a family

Ahhhh why did I play azure moon again. I'm stuck with gilbert the rest of the route!

i got a birthday letter from gilbert... i dun wan it

Linhardt really just does not care. Not about your "traditions" or "laws". He only sort starts caring about "morals" after remire

Count Dominic: i have made the perfect crest bearing knight's daughter Me: you fucked up a perfectly good person is what you did. look at her. she's got anxiety. Me: prepare for pain.

Time to go beat up annettes uncle for giving her anxiety. now I know where annettes fear of failure comes from... Annette deserves so much better

Sothis really is that gremlin living in the attic

I cant believe the reason dimitri made it past gronder was that his actions were so insane that so one could plan for them

I didn't expect ashe to be my mvp this time round... but he is. Byleth and dimitri both have good strength but are squishy. Ashe's range is insane. He gets that skill that expands range + longbow + deadeye + horse + ring. And if thats not enough canto gets him back out of range. He crits on every other hit and has like a 60% crit rate with a killer bow. He kills everything in one turn. Armor units? Magic bow. Anything else he doubles and crits.

Alao update on the cornelia conspirqcy theory: busted

She just built firdiad a functioning sewer system

Back onto the debunking of the cornelia conspiracy theory yeah she totally got replaced

Why am I playing azure moon.... I miss Claude

So the derdriu chapter in AM.... claude isnt as heartbroken aa in CF but he's not in a good place. I think he's mourning/coping with loss (the loss of possibilites, future, what could have been etc.) just like he was in CF. It also makea me think he's planning on invading fodlan in the future. I will need to think over this.

Gautier territory is a cold steppe and known for their horse breeding. Those hairy horses have to come from somewhere

Interestingly dimitri is 3/10 strongest in the army despite being a couple levels higher than everyone. So much for that Blaiddyd strength

Flayn is scared of being forgotten isn't she

Sylvain really takes care of dimitri huh

ahhh yeess claude in a poofy sleeved white shirt

Literally dimitri: no i dont "need rest". I have a headache but thats just from lack of sleep

Rodrigue and lambert ditching class getting high on the monastary roof

Faerhgus really is one giant death cult huh

Oh wow ingrid is like unhitable. High speed + evasion ring + avo+10 +alert stance+ + defiant avo

A-after many years I have finally finished azure moon... I think part of why I don't like azure moon is that it wasn't able to sell me on the rightful king narrative. And I CAN be sold on that as both Tolkien and Claude prove. That and the continued existence of gilbert. My loathing for that man is beyond expression

#fe #fe3h

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fyeahbatcat · 7 years

Note

Not batcat related but what did you think about the Wonder Woman movie? I love your blog btw!

Thank you!!! I haven’t seen Wonder Woman yet. I have tickets for tonight :)

Edit 6/30/17

Sorry I meant to give you an update right after I saw themovie but then the proposal happened the next day and it shifted my focus for awhile. Anyways, last year I was kind of asked about my thoughts on the thenupcoming Wonder Woman movie and I outlined my concerns about the potential forlightweight feminism, portrayals of violence, and the representation of theAmazons and everyone I am happy to say that I could not have been more wrong(for the most part). I’ve been begging the powers that be at WB for a WonderWoman for years and I fully intended to catch an advanced screening since itwas announced in 2014, but I was away on vacation that week so it didn’t happenand I had to do some extreme internet acrobatics to avoid spoilers. Between that,the letdown that was Suicide Squad,and the pressure of having the first *real* superhero movie starring a woman I thoughtthere was no way it would live up to my expectations.

That said: I am a changed person having now seen Diana ofThemyscira grace a giant plasma screen in her own movie. Watching Wonder Woman was a spiritual experience.In response to my own concerns about:

1. The trailer looking too violent

It’s not that I expected there to be no fighting or violencein a multi-million dollar action movie I meant more along the lines of WonderWoman was created as a foil for violent hyper-masculinity and a symbol ofpeace. A lot of these themes have become very muted over the last severaldecades by mostly male writers who interpret Wonder Woman’s strength as coincidingwith traditionally masculine ideals when William Moulton Marston created WonderWoman as a symbol of feminine power. Because it was very clear that PattyJenkins and the DCEU is taking the recent New 52 daughter of Zeus origin story Ithought that they would mostly be relying on more recent versions of WonderWoman which, in my opinion, strayed too far from Wonder Woman’s importantlarger themes (until Greg Rucka, God bless him, came back to the series).

The ending completely shattered my expectations and I amhappy to report that I was wrong. The movie was all about Diana’s destiny andhow she became the hero that she is. By the end she decides that she wants tobe a hero that believes in the power of love. That’s exactly who Wonder Womanis. This was a feminist movie through and through.

2. The diversity of the Amazons

You can read about what I had to say about the initial promoshots of the Amazons in my previous post: but what it came down to is the factthat diversity among the Amazons isn’t just a meaningless gesture of diverserepresentation or just for optics. It’s essential to Wonder Woman’s characterbecause she stands for equality among all women and intersectional feminism.People expressed concerns over how the first images of the Amazons were of allwhite faces and Patty Jenkins said was just Diana’s “immediate family” and the restof the Amazons would be diverse. It was a pretty unsatisfactory placation, buton that end Jenkins did hold up her promise. My exact words last year were:

So diverse like WOC will be playing actually namedcharacters who contribute to the plot and/or Diana’s development? Or diverselike they’ll all be in the background swinging swords, thrown a few tokenlines, and will be credited as “Amazon” #4? Because those are two verydifferent ideas of diversity?

Spoiler alert: it was the second one (though I think some ofthem had names, not that you would’ve known). It’s hard for me to criticize thedecision to cast Robin Wright as Antiope because my goodness she was born toplay that part. It was so thrilling to see an actress in her fifties in actionsequences and woman fighting as warriors free from the male gaze, but it justas well could’ve been Phillipus that also had a hand in training Diana. Evenafter viewing the movie Jenkins reasoning strikes me as defense for casting allwhite actresses in the most prominent roles for the Amazons, which is prettyexpected by Hollywood standards. There wasn’t even any need for Diana to havean “immediate family” as it didn’t contribute to the plot in any way.

Stray thoughts:

Okay I anticipated the “twist” but that didn’tstop me from thinking “If they make her the daughter of Zeus Patty Jenkins isgonna catch these hands” the entire time. I’m willing to overlook it but thatdoesn’t mean that I liked it.

Omg Diana’s characterization was so friggingood. A lot of writers make Wonder Woman too severe and serious, but Diana wasa character that was full of joy and humor. One of my favorite moments in theentire movie was when Diana swoons over the baby (“A BABY!!!!!!”) which wasadorable because they don’t have babies of Themyscira so it’s something thatshe didn’t take for granted. Also I loved it when she tells the ice cream manthat “you should be very proud.” It was just little moments like that you gotto see Diana’s human side and that she was a joyful, loving person.Also the scene in NML when Diana is socompelled by human suffering to cross the trenches and put an end to theviolence once and for all. This is the moment that she becomes Wonder Woman.I also think that they did a really greatjob of conveying what it’s like to be in a foreign place. Some of the mostinsulting stereotypes in media are that foreigners are just stupid and don’tunderstand anything (see Starfire). Dianacan speak dead languages and knows about literature. Diana wasn’t dumb by anymeans, but she didn’t quite know all of the cultural cues. Like when she didn’tknow why her and Steve couldn’t “sleep” together which Steve assumes this meansthat she doesn’t know what sex is and Diana matter-of-factly informs him that she’s“read all twelve volumes of Cleo’s treatises on body and pleasures.” And whenshe tries to hold Steve’s hand because “they’re together.” Cultural norms areregion specific so of course anytime you venture to a place unknown you, youdon’t know everything about there is to know about how to socialize with the peoplethere. The film did it in a way that was funny and honest without beingcondescending.

Gal Gadot and Chris Pine had some of the bestchemistry I’ve ever seen on screen. They were both so charming and funny. Evenmy mom liked them and she hates superhero movies.

“I wish we had more time.” I’ve never sobbed somuch from one line before.

Best universal human theme since The Dark Knight. Wonder Woman was allabout Diana’s journey of self-discovery. When she first leaves the island shenaively believes that all of the violence and evil in the world is a result ofAres’ influence and once she destroys him it will magically end. Before sheleaves she asks Steve if he’s typical representation of mankind. Sure Steve Trevor was a genuinely good guyand that probably got her expectations a little too high, but he points outthat even he’s not a saint. No one is. When she first kills who she thought wasAres and nothing changed she became immediately disillusioned by mankind andrealizes that people are pretty shitty and it wasn’t just because of Ares. It’sSteve that brings her to this realization that: yeah we suck, but that doesn’t meanthat we’re not worth saving.

Steve got hella fridged. Well sort of. Steve’sdeath is really what motivated Diana to destroy Ares and continue to mentor theworld through love, so it’s a rare example of a male character’s death beingused as motivation for a female character. However, Steve was given much moreagency in his death than a female character would’ve been given. Steve died onhis own terms in a way that was really, really heroic and sacrificial. It’s almostthe way Batman went out in The Dark Knight Rises and how Steve Rogers “dies” inCaptain America. Compare that to GwenStacy’s death in Amazing Spiderman 2 whoseneck snapped in the last ten minutes just to make Peter all sad and angsty. Ithink that writers still have more expectations for male characters to beactive and think that it’s more acceptable for female characters to be passiveso in terms of gender representation in Hollywood there’s still a long way togo but hey it’s a start.

Scene that had me laughing even days later:

Diana, who has neverseen a man before standing in front of a bare ass naked Steve: What’s that?

Steve:

Steve: This is awatch.

Bottom line: I loved this movie. I LOVE THIS MOVIE. I’mgoing to go see it again this weekend.

#ask #anonymous #not batcat related #personal note #wonder woman spoilers

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