#the order of the phoenix is a cult
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‘I agree,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘And in any case, it is not true to say that Dumbledore never envisaged a situation in which Hogwarts might close. When the Chamber of Secrets reopened he considered the closure of the school – and I must say that Professor Dumbledore’s murder is more disturbing to me than the idea of Slytherin’s monster living undetected in the bowels of the castle …’ (HBP, Chapter 29 – The Phoenix Lament)
Sometimes I wonder why people don't comment on how cult-like the Order of the Phoenix is. At least people like the Malfoys, Snape and even freaking Bellatrix doubted Moldy Voldy at some point. The OotP treat Dumbles like a god, following orders like blind believers. It's disgusting. They act like how pop culture thinks Christians act - brainless puppets. Jesus Christ had more resistance from his disciples than Dumbles ever does from his! And Jesus is God! Let that sink in. Ok, mini Christianity rant over :)
Also, people bash Snape for being a terrible teacher while worshipping 'Queen McGonagall'. She has her moments but she's a crap teacher too. Honestly, as far as I am concerned she's WORSE than Snape. Because just like many other Gryffindor characters, her faults are never acknowledged.
Good to know, Minerva, that a monster threatening the lives of your dear students is less disturbing than an old man being murdered. You certainly have your priorities straight :). With the way how this woman fangirls over Dumbles, if I did not know better, I would believe she had something happening on the side with the old geezer.
Hogwarts truly does not give a single crap about students.
#anti minerva mcgonagall#half blood prince#harry potter series#severus snape#albus dumbledore#the order of the phoenix is a cult#order of the phoenix#anti order of the phoenix#anti gryffindor#hogwarts teachers#anti professor mcgonagall#anti mcgonagall
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I think one of the most fascinating aspects of Joshua's character is that he was raised by a cult that worships him and it shows.
The game is very unsubtle in depicting the Undying as a cult, if a benign one whose goals are largely aligned with Clive's: the way it recruits from the disenfranchised dredges of society, the way it isolates it's members from the outside world, and associates devotion to their deity with worth as a person, even glorifying self sacrifice even past the point of reason- something Clive and Cyril butt heads on repeatedly.
And you can see the way that both being raised by them and being their messiah has impacted Joshua: the way Joshua feels that he can and should be able to do everything on his own (rebuffing Jote's efforts to help him even with small matters, avoiding Clive in order to 'protect' him), the way he's feels a right to order the lives of others around his own wishes (his meddling in the politics of each Kingdom, especially Sanbreque), even the subtle hint that he's given up on trying to persuade the Undying not to sacrifice their lives for his gain (and the even more subtle implication that he's maybe accepted that self sacrifice is a good thing, given his own self-sacrificial tendencies for Clive).
Their's this big gap after the reveal Joshua is alive where you wonder: how did he get from where he was Phoenix Gate (the shy innocent boy who wanted to do his duty more to make his brother proud then for it's own sake) to where he is at Drake's Spine (confident, mysterious, cold blooded in his pursuit of his goals), and the game answers that so effectively in the introduction of the Undying. This is where he learned it, this is what shaped him after everything fell apart and he went into hiding: a cult that all at once was trying to parent and worship and aid a 10 year old messiah whose only real desire was to save his brother from the monster that tore them apart.
#FFXVI#Final Fantasy XVI#FF16#Final Fantasy 16#FFXVI Spoilers#FF16 spoilers#joshua rosfield#The Undying#cyril#jote#clive rosfield
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abditory;
"forgive us now for what we've done."
☆ EVENTS ☆
'tis the damn season (closed)
you can meet me at the hotel; (closed) [kinkotober masterlist]
put your life out on the line" (closed)
got the wine for you; (closed) [false god (masterlist)]
maybe it's a blessing in disguise; (open)
✧ ONE-SHOTS ✧
Peppers
Sirius Black X Reader.
Fuck buddies to lovers. Modern AU!. 18+ content
Delicate
Sirius Black X Reader.
Friends to lovers. TW- Self harm, angst, hurt/comfort, fluff.
Night We Met
Sirius Black X Reader
Set During Order of The Phoenix. Mention of major character death(s).
New Year's Day
Sirius Black X Reader
Set during Order of The Phoenix. Fluff and low humor.
Cardigan;
Sirius Black X Reader.
Hurt/Comfort.
Sure Thing;
Sirius Black X Shy!Reader
Fluff.
Oh Children;
Sirius Black X Reader
Angst.
Million Dollar Man;
Sirius Black x Camgirl!reader
18+ content, drinking.
Daylight
Flowerist!Sirius Black X Barista!reader
Fluff.
Consume;
Dark!Sirius Black X Muggle!reader.
18+ content, cemeteries, dark themes.
Born to die
Cult!leader Sirius Black X Reader.
Mentions of murder, gore, dark themes.
Afterglow;
Felix Catton x Reader
Hurt/Comfort.
Dancing with our hands tied;
Sirius Black X Reader.
Hurt/Comfort, injuries, blood. (potential part two)
Maneater;
Neighbor!James Potter X Reader
18+ content, stalker behavior, darkish themes.
She just hit my heart;
James Potter X Reader
Fluff.
Don't blame me;
Priest!Remus Lupin X Reader
Alludes to sex, dark themes.
ψ SERIES ψ
The Seven Lives;
Please read chapter warnings on top of each chapter.
Status- On going.
⨴MOODBOARDS⨵
Poison Ivy
From my fall event (close)
Heartbeat;
From 'the seven lives' series.
§ ASKED AND ANSWERED §
Call It What You Want
Sirius Black X Reader.
Post Azkaban Sirius. Hurt/Comfort. Fluff. Touch sensitivity.
Indentation in the shape of you
Sirius Black X Reader.
Post Azkaban Sirius. Fluff, bad humor.
Now I'm Covered in You
Sirius Black X Reader.
Post Azkaban Sirius. 18+ Content.
From my fall event (close)
Trying To Keep The Water Warm
James Potter X Reader.
Professor James AU! Fluff.
From my fall event (close)
Dark Red
James Potter X Reader
Set during the Marauders era.
18+ content.
Womanizer
Sirius Black x Reader
Set During the Marauders era.
Angst, 18+ content, drinking, hints at sexual assault.
Meddle About;
West Coast;
FDad!James Potter X Reader.
18+ content, mentions of alcohol, age gap.
Maroon
Sirius Black X Reader
ex to lovers, drinking, alludes to sexual assault, hurt/comfort.
The great war;
Sirius Black X Reader
ex to lovers, angst, hurt/comfort.
Part two to Maroon.
Do I wanna know?
Rockstar!Sirius Black X Reader.
18+ content.
Dusk till dawn
Sirius Black X Lestrange!Reader
Hurt/Comfort, dialogue heavy.
Smoke on my clothes;
Rockstar!Sirius Black X Popstar!Reader
Fluff, 18+ content, use of y/n.
Into You;
Ron Weasley X Reader
18+ content, porn without plot.
Wherever I go;
Remus Lupin X Reader.
Making out, suggestive, fluff.
Blue Jeans;
Professor!Harry Potter X Reader
18+ content.
Getaway car;
Sirius Black X Desi!Reader
18+ content, sexual tension, substances.
I think he knows;
Ron Weasley X Reader
18+ content, mentions of war, fluff.
Gorgeous;
James Potter X Reader
18+ content.
House of balloons/glass table girls;
Sirius Black X Reader
18+ content.
You're in love
Policeman!James Potter X Baker!Reader
Fluff.
❁ ODE TO FANFICTION ❁
Hall of morals;
#harry potter fanfiction#harry potter#marauders#sirius black#sirius x reader#sirius black smut#the marauders#sirius black imagine#sirius black x reader#marauders era#kinkotober#james potter#james potter imagine#james potter smut#james potter fic#james potter fanfiction#remus x reader#remus lupin imagine#remus lupin smut#remus lupin fanart#remus lupin#sirius black x remus lupin#remus loves sirius#james & peter & remus & sirius
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TIME FOR MY FAVORITE, LETS GO BABY!!!
OK SO ZANE IS COMPLETELY REWRITTEN UHH
Garte DIES a few years before the events of s1 in this, which sends Zianna spiraling and ... uh.. she maybe joins a cult <3 and also makes her son part of the cult (cult pope) <3 He gets to wear a pretty veil and a very creepy mask to hide his face <3
Zane (actually named Zuwellyn, Zane is the Irene equivalent of a baptismal name) is consistently being manipulated by the older cult members AND his mother (he's a mama's boy, ok?) from a very young age. A lot of the "random" evil stuff he does is either retconned or explained as him following his mother's orders to gain more power for O'Khasis (i.e. him giving Aaron's son that amulet that just kinda killed everyone).
He still officiates Donna and Logan's wedding, where he then meets Kiki, and they actually hit it off - they spend a lot of time together where Kiki starts to kinda get concerned about some of the stuff Zane says about the church of Irene and the members.
He lingers around Phoenix Drop for a while because of Garroth (who he confronts at some point for running away and just completely abandoning him and their mother along with dumping all of his responsibilities onto Zane).
A lot of the stuff isn't written out yet because I need to yap about it more to my friend so I can figure out what sounds good.
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oh. hm. i wonder if dark made grimm by himself because light refused to participate in creating anything destructive again after the jabberwalker—certainly it seems telling that in the myth, light creates a vast monoculture lawn and then declares that dark’s contribution of a moon and new biomes and plate tectonics is “spoiling” it; the myth flows from light’s presentation of himself to ancient humans and if he saw any value in these things he would surely have claimed them as his own—and then there’s the brother-cult framing that humans were given the capacity for evil (destruction) and good (creation) and the free will to choose which path to walk, always with the underlying premise that if humankind chooses wrong then they will “destroy themselves” (by earning annihilation at the final judgment)
this is in stark contrast to the narrative treatment of destruction as hunger and as an agent of change, and creation-without-destruction as, well, a vast monoculture lawn. sterile, stagnant, artificial, unalive.
(<- not a euphemism for “dead” and i resent that the word has those connotations now.)
to create is to destroy; paint, for example, is destroyed by the act of painting. you can’t ever use it as paint again. eating a meal is destructive—both in the sense that something living has to be killed, whether plant or animal, and in the sense that the food itself is destroyed. but this is the basis of all life. one eats to stay alive, to grow.
so in light’s view grimm are evil abominations because his brother made them to be destructive; to dark the grimm are embodiments of natural forces whose churnings keep the world forever in motion and therefore alive. jabber came out wrong—brutal, but effective, the blacksmith says—because light’s misapprehension of destruction influenced his nature. the grimm, created by dark alone, turned out right.
are they good? are they bad? they just are. the tides, the mountains, the deserts, the storms, earthquakes and volcanoes, the grimm.
meanwhile humans were given destruction by darkness and creation by light—the separation and recombination into one being was probably necessary to avoid a repeat of what happened with jabber—and then taught, by light, to understand their natures as a moral conflict and a moral challenge to rise above ‘evil’, i.e. destruction.
this is, of course, why light is so set on the necessity of permanent death: in his afterlife the dead are unaware and unalive, existing in everlasting stasis, and so nothing can ever be destroyed. darkness, who has never feared destruction, allows salem to glimpse the truth that life and death are a circle. and then he burns it all down and leaves her alive in the ashes, the wellspring of primordial destruction there for her to do with it as she will. and she does, and that is how mankind returns to life and how the faunus come to be.
which is the whole point. the grimm represent and embody pure destruction, hunger and change, which the brothers’ humans were taught to abhor as unnatural, evil abominations. salem becomes grimm and in doing so stakes humanity’s claim on destruction as darkness understood it, rejecting the false moral dichotomy light imposed on her generation. remnant is set free, and humanity rises phoenix-like from the ashes, unbound by death.
the brothers’ humans rebelled in order to claim the powers of their creators and perfect their own design. and she did.
#thematically speaking i do think dark ascending after departure from the last world is#a lot more cogent than the idea he’s still around but separated from his brother#the moon—his creation—shattered by him. he was broken when he left; and salem had shared a piece of her heart with him#through her empathy with his loneliness. he realized he needed to go home#everything we know about how afterans ascend fits the pattern of dark’s character in the lost fable
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do I believe any character's trust in Dumbledore could potentially be broken? yes. have I ever seen anybody write it in ways that make sense for those characters' unique perspectives and personalities? no.
and a lot of times it's still compelling as hell when the most devoted characters start seeing cracks early or when they fight for something else in the first place, not regarding Dumbledore as their guiding light at all. it turns those characters into different people though.
but what strikes me more is the immediate shift of the atmosphere of the first war and everything that happens throughout.
because when I think about the first Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore, my first association is, surprisingly, cult of personality. USSR cults, specifically. they were sort of unique, initially crafted to give more power to the Party instead of the Leader.
Order is similar, in a way. on the surface it's just resistance. an organised war effort. a mishmash of people from different backgrounds uniting to fight for personal reasons. James fights for the greater good and his righteous ideals. and James fights for Lily. Lily fights for herself and those marginalised like her. and Lily fights for her muggle family. Sirius doesn't fight for, but against - against his blood family, against Slytherins, against everybody like them. and Sirius fights with James. those 3 are simple. what about others?
Remus doesn't fight for or against. Remus fights with Dumbledore. because Remus' world revolves around Dumbledore and when he says "go die in a war" - Remus goes, no questions asked. he owes Dumbledore that much. Peter doesn't fight for or against. Peter fights with Dumbledore. because Peter wants to be safe and Peter wants to win. Dumbledore promises a win. Peter believes him until he doesn't.
but James also fights with Dumbledore. because Dumbledore is the greater good personified and shares James' righteous ideals. Lily also fights with Dumbledore. because Dumbledore fights for marginalised the loudest. Sirius also fights with Dumbledore. because Dumbledore fights against everybody who's like Sirius' family.
Dumbledore, Dumbledore, Dumbledore. the centre of it all, the bonfire of hope, the beacon of light, the daimon of good. Order is Dumbledore, first and foremost - not Moody, Alice, Frank, Dorcas, Marlene, Prewetts, Caradoc, James, Lily, Sirius, Remus or Peter. not any of the others. it's Albus Dumbledore and the blind, the devoted.
it doesn't fall apart until it's too late. it's only Sirius who gets a chance to notice but he promptly denies it, locked up in a cell for 12 years, carefully tucked away by Dumbledore. he trusts Dumbledore.
he trusts Dumbledore when he escapes, he trusts Dumbledore with Harry, he trusts Dumbledore when he tells Sirius to hide at Lupin's, he trusts Dumbledore when he locks Sirius up in his childhood house of terrors, he trusts Dumbledore when he assembles second Order. he joins Dumbledore, he fights with Dumbledore again, even locked up and angry, and the only time he doesn't trust Dumbledore with either Harry or himself he goes, and fights for Harry, and dies.
others are dead, or tortured, or new, or Remus. Remus who is the blindest and the most devoted. Remus who owes Dumbledore, believes that he owes Dumbledore everything and more. the new don't know any better yet, but Remus does and ignores it. he trusts Dumbledore. trusts him with Harry, and with Sirius, and with himself.
Remus joins Dumbledore, fights with Dumbledore again. sees Dumbledore destroy Sirius - looks the other way, sees Dumbledore destroy himself - deifies him even more in his death, sees Dumbledore's ghost destroy Harry - wants to join him to be destroyed too. because there's nothing left - Dumbledore gifted him his heart at 11, and it died piece by piece in the span of 16 years, and then Dumbledore dies himself, and he can't gift Remus another heart, another life. so Remus blinds himself some more, fights with Dumbledore's ghost and dies. probably for Dumbledore too.
and if all of that can happen when a small group of people simply trusts one mortal man, it's going to take a lot more than a wayward thought in one of those devoted heads to see the cracks. it's going to take a lot of thoughts, a lot of heads, a lot of cracks. a lot of discussions and a fair share of arm-twisting and change of faith. it surely must be a group effort in one way or another, preferably with the help of those who aren't as devoted. if there are any.
because as lovely and as gratifying as it is to read about Remus or Sirius or even Minerva blowing up at Albus - if you don't write them getting to that point after deconstructing their prior canon beliefs... then those characters aren't really Remus, Sirius or Minerva. especially not Remus who was always the most devoted of them all.
#albus dumbledore#anti albus dumbledore#i'm sorry man it wasn't my intention but i gotta tag this now#remus lupin#sirius black#james potter#lily evans#peter pettigrew#order of the phoenix#harry james potter#minerva mcgonagall#marauders#marauders era#the marauders#the marauders era
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Fantasy High Good Place AU
I am very happy that y'all voted for this, because it's been living in my brain rent-free for the past couple weeks.
So, right off the bat---this is partially self-indulgence, and partially a little exploration of what the Bad Kids would be like as adults if they hadn't found each other... and, well, if they were living in a more mundane world. And, of course, I had to combine and add a couple roles, just to make everyone fit.
Fig: She's in the Eleanor role as the main POV character, and as the first person who decides to learn how to be better. In life, she was a twenty-seven-year-old musician living in Phoenix, Arizona who was still trying to find her big break, and got by via drug-dealing after a string of shitty service jobs. Fig hasn't spoken to her mom in years, even after both Gilear and Gordie (aka Gorthalax) have both died, and she put up a front of selfishness and constant lies due to not trusting anyone and being afraid of being vulnerable. But when she dies and supposedly gets mistaken for a pro-bono death-row lawyer, she realizes that she's gotta ask for help...
Ayda: She's in the Chidi role---a high-strung ethics professor who devoted her life to figuring out the deep secrets of the universe, often at the cost of her own mental health. She's not as indecisive as Chidi, but she's very much of the mindset that ethical standards should always be upholded, and she initially sees nothing wrong with the points system. As Ayda becomes closer to Fig, she starts to pick up on how the system doesn't count for extenuating circumstances, and how much of an actual minefield ethics is... and she starts to reflect on her own life, where she never knew how to connect with others and stayed in her comfort zone of academia. Throughout bonding with the others, she slowly learns how to let her walls down and challenge the system.
Fabian: He's in a Tahani role, as the upper-class socialite who pretty much bought his way into "heaven" and definitely has a bunch of narcissistic tendencies. Unlike Tahani, however, he's very much aware of his own failings, and he constantly stresses about how fragile his standing and happiness is---though, he's become incredibly good at hiding it. Fabian's pretty much been living in the shadow of his late father's legacy for his whole life, and he spent most of that life trying to be just as good, if not better, than him... so, when he supposedly gets into the "Good Place," it's essentially proof that he did everything right. Of course, that still doesn't keep him from feeling like there's something amiss, especially since there's some issues with his assigned soulmate...
Riz: In life, Riz was a P.I. who mostly did petty work for rich people and got used to doing things that were vaguely shady in order to get by. By the time he died, he had a very low opinion of people in general, and had a "dog eat dog" mindset... which was immediately blown out of the water the second he realized that he'd been mistaken for a brilliant secret agent, and he was going to spend his afterlife with a self-centered rich boy as romantic soulmates. Riz being Riz, he immediately started to figure a way out of this situation, eventually finding out Fig---and one other person---and agreeing to take Ayda's ethics lessons if it meant he could earn his spot in the Good Place... though, of course, he's still subconsciously picking up on the little hints that something is off.
Kristen: She's in the "Jason" role... sorta. When she was alive, she was a former member of a conservative Christian cult who left when she was nineteen, spent the next five years trying to find another truth to pursue, and spent the last three years of her life partying her problems away and living high on nihilism. So it was quite a shock for her when, after dying, she supposedly got sent to the Good Place... and only because they thought that she's a humanitarian pastor, and straight to boot. Kristen initially doesn't want to waste time with ethics lessons, but as more and more things start to go wrong, she reluctantly agrees---and ends up reconnecting with that curious, searching part of herself that she thought she'd left behind, over and over again.
Gorgug: When he was alive, he was a physicist who made a lot of impressive discoveries---many of which had the potential to really help people---but due to the fact that he had a lot of issues with standing up for himself and believed himself to not be as smart as he actually was, he tended to let himself get taken advantage of and have other people take credit for his work. Getting into the Good Place kind of confirmed Gorgug's belief that keeping your head down and being humble would pay off eventually... until his assigned soulmate immediately told him that she was a) gay, and b) here by mistake. The two of them do become pretty good friends, and Gorgug even sits in on some of Ayda's ethics lessons, learning a bit about himself as he does.
Adaine: She's Janet---or, rather, an "Oracle," one of many informational assistants made by the Good Place (the Bad Place has Informants, while Accountants have Librarians). Every Oracle is given a name upon being activated in order to distinguish her from others, and, well, hers is Adaine. She starts off as your typical cheery, happy-to-help living Siri, but as time goes on and she gets rebooted over and over again, she starts to form genuine connections with the humans, and with connections come actual feelings... including the rise of mild anxiety. Adaine's grateful for that, though, as she sees becoming more human as an incredible experience.
Aelwyn: Honestly... there was no other character who was bitchy, multifaceted, and weirdly loving enough to be Micheal. At first, underneath her quirky and "cool older sister" angel persona, she's every bit the callous, vindictive, and cruel demon who only lives to torment human souls and prove her worth to her boss. But reboot after reboot, she fails, the humans become closer and figure her out... and she's eventually forced to cave. Aelwyn never fully loses her bitchiness and slightly amoral nature, but she does develop a heart and self-awareness as she becomes friends with the humans---and as she forms a sisterly connection with Adaine. Even a demon can learn to grow.
I have more thoughts, but I've spent a lot of time figuring out how to make this coherent, so... yeah!
#dimension 20#fantasy high#the good place#fig faeth#ayda aguefort#fabian seacaster#riz gukgak#kristen applebees#gorgug thistlespring#adaine abernant#aelwyn abernant#figayda
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recommendations of visual novels on sale for the steam winter sale 2023
steam's winter sale just started and will run for the next two weeks, so if you're looking for a new visual novel to try (or want to get into them), here's a lot that I've played that are on sale on steam.
umineko when they cry
the ushiromiya family returns to the family head's home on an isolated island for their annual conference with the intention of settling how his vast amount of wealth is divided. instead, though, a letter is left from someone claiming to be a "witch". with the ushiromiyas dropping left and right, the mystery behind everything remains to be solved.
I can't make a recommendation list without mentioning umineko. it's life changing. it might even trans your gender. it's hard to describe umineko, but just know that it's absolutely deserving of the "cult classic" tag.
notes:
kinetic/linear - no choices
VERY long
divided into two games on steam - Questions Arcs is the first 4 episodes and Answers Arcs is the last 4 episodes (8 episodes in total, play Questions Arcs first)
created by Ryukishi07, creator of Higurashi
fantasy mystery
ace attorney
follow phoenix wright as he embarks on his career as a lawyer to help people. meet a variety of clients and prove their innocence by collecting evidence, interviewing witnesses, and exposing lies in court.
ace attorney is one of the classic mystery visual novels, being a blend of point-and-click elements via investigations and visual novel storytelling. the steam port is a massive collection, combining the first 3 games (the original phoenix wright trilogy) as 1 game.
notes:
investigative gameplay segments, a good chunk of the story is point-and-click parts
VERY long for the whole trilogy- each game is around 20 hours long and the steam edition is 3 games
modern mystery with supernatural elements
ai: the somnium files
play as detective kaname date as he hunts down a serial killer using a cutting-edge technology which allows him to "psync" with a person, diving into the memories of others to solve crimes in a limited amount of time with the help of his AI assistant/eyeball Aiba.
aitsf is a lot. it's probably the raunchiest non-eroge game I've ever played and despite my low tolerance for dirty jokes I found most of it to be laughable and a fun experience, though I did play this with friends. if it's a miss for you, it's gonna miss you by a wide margin, but if it's a hit for you, you're going to be recommending it nonstop. either way you'll want to hit kaname date with a car.
notes:
long, around 25-35 hours
this game heavily relies on going back to prior choices via their branching menu to try other options in order to get the full story (and true ending). there are several endings to this game but you're meant to play through them all, not just one or two.
a lot of gameplay and interactive segments
sci-fi mystery
english voice acting
witch on the holy night
aoko aozaki is a highschooler who has to balance her class president, perfect grades life with her secret afterschool life of being a mage—a secret she has to keep at the risk of death. keeping this balance already isn’t easy but one day she gets a wrench thrown into it with the introduction of a transfer student, soujuurou shizuki, a country boy so out of touch that he’s never seen electricity before.
I love witch on the holy night so, so much. it's one of the most beautifully directed visual novels ever made with so much love and care put into each frame. the cast is wonderful (touko my beloved) and it's a must-read for anyone who likes modern-ish fantasy.
notes:
kinetic / linear - no choices
long, around 25-30 hours
originally written by kinoko nasu, one of the co-founders of type-moon and creators of fate/stay night. has some relation to tsukihime and garden of sinners but you don't need any knowledge of those going in
modern-ish (1980s) fantasy with lots of talking about magic
ghostpia
a snowy town filled with "ghosts" is where the young woman sayako finds herself trapped, feeling like she doesn't belong and wants to leave this town where no one dies.
it's hard to describe ghostpia. it's a surreal-ish story about "ghosts" where every character is quirkier than the last but every part is made with so much heart behind it. you never really know where the story is going, but unfortunately only 1 season is currently out on steam.
notes:
medium length, around 10 hours
very innovative and unique use of visuals and paneling
surreal-ish (sometimes violent) fantasy
please be happy
as a shapeshifting fox called a "gumiho", miho has traveled the world in search for a traveler who showed her kindness many years ago. afraid of sticking around in one place for too long, miho has never stayed anywhere for more than a few nights- but all of that changes when she arrives in wellington, new zealand and meets the barista/writer aspen and the vampire archivist juliet.
okay okay I had to recommend at least one visual novel I worked on. please be happy was a labor of love for our team that took over 3 years to make and is a slice of life story about love, trust, and what it means to be human.
notes:
medium to long, about 20 hours
2 romanceable ladies, aspen and juliet, and a plethora of side characters to meet via a map system
modern slice of life fantasy
english voice acting
WE KNOW THE DEVIL
find yourself back at summer camp with all the queer religious horror of it.
WE KNOW THE DEVIL is a short, atmospheric and slightly surreal story about 3 teens at a religious summer camp waiting for the devil. if you want something that feels familiar and otherworldly at the same time, this is right up your alley.
notes:
very short, about 2 hours
3 endings and 1 true ending
isolation, psychological horror
------------
this is just a handful of recommendations of visual novels I've played and enjoyed that are on sale right now on steam.
some of these titles, like please be happy and WE KNOW THE DEVIL, are also available on itch.io which is a website for indie games! they're also currently having a winter sale so a lot of indie visual novels are on sale over there too, if you want DRM-free versions of games while also giving a better revenue split to devs.
#visual novel#visual novels#visual novel game#game recommendations#game recs#I wanted to rec more indie stuff but the ones I like either aren't on sale or they're free or they're not on steam at all#so that'll be for another time...#also this didnt end up as giant as i was thinking it would be bc i didnt want to do multiple in a series like higu and dai gyakuten
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The IRS will do your taxes for you (if that's what you prefer)
This Saturday (May 20), I’ll be at the GAITHERSBURG Book Festival with my novel Red Team Blues; then on May 22, I’m keynoting Public Knowledge’s Emerging Tech conference in DC.
On May 23, I’ll be in TORONTO for a book launch that’s part of WEPFest, a benefit for the West End Phoenix, onstage with Dave Bidini (The Rheostatics), Ron Diebert (Citizen Lab) and the whistleblower Dr Nancy Olivieri.
America is a world leader in allowing private companies to levy taxes on its citizens, including (stay with me here), a tax on paying your taxes.
In most of the world, the tax authorities prepare a return for each taxpayer, sending them a prepopulated form with all their tax details — collected from employers and other regulated entities, like pension funds and commodities brokers, who must report income to the tax office. If the form is correct, the taxpayer signs it and sends it back (in some countries, taxpayers don’t even have to do that — they just ignore the return unless they want to amend it).
No one has to use this system, of course. If you have complex finances, or cash income that doesn’t show up in mandatory reporting, or if you’d just prefer to prepare your own return or pay an accountant to do so for you, you can. But for the majority of people, those with income from a job or a pension, and predictable deductions, say, from caring for minor children, filing your annual tax return takes between zero and five minutes and costs absolutely nothing.
Not so in America. America is one of the very few rich countries (including Canada, though this is changing), where the government won’t just send you a form containing all the information it already has, ready to file. As is common in complex societies, America has a complex tax code (further complexified by deliberate obfuscation by billionaires and their lickspittle Congressjerks, who deliberately perforate the tax code with loopholes for the ultra-rich):
https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/11/the-canada-variant/#shitty-man-of-history-theory
That complexity means that most of us can’t figure out how to file our own taxes, at least not without committing scarce hours out of the only life we will ever have to poring over the ramified and obscure maze of tax-law.
Why doesn’t the IRS just send you a tax-return? Well, because the tax-prep industry — an oligopoly dominated by a handful of massive, ultra-profitable firms — bribes Congress (that is, “lobbies”) to prohibit this. They are aided in this endeavor by swivel-eyed lunatic anti-tax obsessives, like Grover Nordquist and Americans for Tax Reform, who argue that paying taxes should be as difficult and painful as possible in order to foment opposition to taxation itself.
The tax-prep industry is dominated by a single firm, Intuit, who took over tax-prep through its anticompetitive acquisition of TurboTax, itself a chimera of multiple companies gobbled up in a decades-long merger orgy. Inuit is a freaky company. For decades, its defining CEO Brad Smith ran the company as a cult of personality organized around his trite sayings, like “Do whatever makes your heart beat fastest,” stenciled on t-shirts worn by employees. Other employees donned Brad Smith masks for selfies with their Beloved Leader.
Smith’s cult also spent decades lobbying to keep the IRS from offering a free filing service. Instead, Intuit joined a cartel that offered a “Free File” service to some low- and medium-income Americans:
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free
But the cartel sabotaged Free File from the start. They blocked search engines from indexing their Free File services, then bought Google ads for “free file” that directed searchers to soundalike programs (“Free Filing,” etc) that hit them for hundreds of dollars in tax-prep fees. They also funneled users to versions of Free File they were ineligible for, a fact that was only revealed after the user spent hours painstaking entering their financial information, whereupon they would be told that they could either start over or pay hundreds of dollars to finish filing with a commercial product.
Intuit also pioneered the use of binding arbitration waivers that stripped its victims of the right to sue the company after it defrauded them. This tactic blew up in Intuit’s face after its victims banded together to mass-file thousands of arbitration claims, sending the company to court to argue that binding arbitration wasn’t enforceable after all:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/24/uber-for-arbitration/#nibbled-to-death-by-ducks
But justice eventually caught up with Intuit. After a series of stinging exposes by Propublica journalists Justin Elliot, Paul Kiel and others, NY Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of AGs from all 50 states and DC that extracted a $141m settlement for 4.4 million Americans who had been tricked into paying for Turbotax services they were entitled to get for free:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/turbotax-to-begin-payouts-after-it-cheated-customers-new-york-ag-says/ar-AA1aNXfi
Fines are one thing, but the only way to comprehensively end the predatory tax-prep scam is to bring the USA kicking and screaming into the 20th century, when most of the rest of the world brought in free tax-prep for ordinary income earners. That’s just what’s happening: the IRS is trialing a free tax prep service for next year’s tax season:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/15/irs-free-file/
This, despite Intuit’s all-out blitz attack on Congress and the IRS to keep free tax-prep from ever reaching the American people:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/20/turbotaxed/#counter-intuit
That charm offensive didn’t stop the IRS from releasing a banger of a report that made it clear that free tax-prep was the most efficient, humane and cost-effective way to manage an advanced tax-system (something the rest of the world has known for decades):
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5788.pdf
Of course, Intuit is furious, as in spitting feathers. Rick Heineman, Intuit’s spokesprofiteer, told KQED that “A direct-to-IRS e-file system is wholly redundant and is nothing more than a solution in search of a problem. That solution will unnecessarily cost taxpayers billions of dollars and especially harm the most vulnerable Americans.”
https://www.kqed.org/news/11949746/the-irs-is-building-its-own-online-tax-filing-system-tax-prep-companies-arent-happy
Despite Upton Sinclair’s advice that “it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it,” I will now attempt to try to explain to Heineman why he is unfuckingbelievably, eye-wateringly wrong.
“e-file…is wholly redundant”: Well, no, Rick, it’s not redundant, because there is no existing Free File system except for the one your corrupt employer made and hid “in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.’”
“nothing more than a solution in search of a problem”: The problem this solves is that Americans have to pay Intuit billions to pay their taxes. It’s a tax on paying taxes. That is a problem.
“unnecessarily cost taxpayers billions of dollars”: No, it will save taxpayers the billions of dollars (they pay you).
“harm the most vulnerable Americans”: Here is an area where Heineman can speak with authority, because few companies have more experience harming vulnerable Americans.
Take the Child Tax Credit. This is the most successful social program in living memory, a single initiative that did more to lift American children out of poverty than any other since the days of the Great Society. It turns out that giving poor people money makes them less poor, which is weird, because neoliberal economists have spent decades assuring us that this is not the case:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/16/mortgages-are-rent-control/#housing-is-a-human-right-not-an-asset
But the Child Tax Credit has been systematically sabotaged, by Intuit lobbyists, who successfully added layer after layer of red tape — needless complexity that makes it nearly impossible to claim the credit without expert help — from the likes of Intuit:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/29/three-times-is-enemy-action/#ctc
It worked. As Ryan Cooper writes in The American Prospect: “between 13 and 22 percent of EITC benefits are gulped down by tax prep companies”:
https://prospect.org/economy/2023-05-17-irs-takes-welcome-step-20th-century/
So yes, I will defer to Rick Heineman and his employer Intuit on the subject of “harming the most vulnerable Americans.” After all, they’re the experts. National champions, even.
Now I want to address the peply guys who are vibrating with excitement to tell me about their 1099 income, the cash money they get from their lemonade stand, the weird flow of krugerrands their relatives in South African FedEx to them twice a year, etc, that means that free file won’t work for them because the IRS doesn’t actually understand their finances.
That’s a hard problem, all right. Luckily, there is a very simple answer for this: use a tax-prep service.
Actually, it’s not a hard problem. Just use a tax-prep service. That’s it. No one is going to force you to use the IRS’s free e-file. All you need to do to avoid the socialist nightmare of (checks notes) living with less red-tape is: continue to do exactly what you’re already doing.
Same goes for those of you who have a beloved family accountant you’ve used since the Eisenhower administration. All you need to do to continue to enjoy the advice of that trusted advisor is…nothing. That’s it. Simply don’t change anything.
One final note, addressing the people who are worried that the IRS will cheat innocent taxpayers by not giving them all the benefits they’re entitled to. Allow me here to simply tap the sign that says “between 13 and 22 percent of EITC benefits are gulped down by tax prep companies.” In other words, when you fret about taxpayers being ripped off, you’re thinking of Intuit, not the IRS. Just calm down. Why not try using fluoridated toothpaste? You’ll feel better, and I promise I won’t tell your friends at the Gadsen Flag appreciation society.
Your secret is safe with me.
Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!
If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/17/free-as-in-freefile/#tell-me-something-i-dont-know
[Image ID: A vintage drawing of Uncle Sam toasting with a glass of Champagne, superimposed over an IRS 1040 form that has been fuzzed into a distorted halftone pattern.]
#pluralistic#earned income tax credit#eitc#irs#grover nordquist#guillotine watch#turbotax#taxes#death and taxes#freefile#monopoly#intuit
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Why do so many people use James maturing to defend him?
Alright, I get that he matured. But just because a bully stops bullying others, does not mean they suddenly become a nice person. Maturing is the minimum a bully can do. It is enough to say they are self-aware, but not enough to call them nice.
Did James apologize to his victims? As a former Marauders stan, I actually used to think that James bullying Snape was justified, and the height of cool. I too became like him for one absolutely cringeworthy year. And like James, I matured. But the thing is, I actually made an effort to mend things with my victims. James never did that, not with Severus, not with Bertram Aubrey, not with ANY of the thousands of kids he hexed for fun. Hell, I know he could not have apologized to all the kids he bullied, but he could have made a speech in apology.
Another thing people use to defend James is that he joined the Order of the Phoenix. That is because he was raised in a cult that worshipped the Light, which also gave a damn about him. He is basically Draco Malfoy but raised in the Light, while Snape is a Harry Potter who was indoctrinated towards the Dark. Both ultimately did the right thing, but like Draco and Harry, Snape was braver than James.
#anti snaters#pro snape#anti marauderfen#i stand by what i said#snape fandom#Snape supremacy#Ima tag this pro marauders and pro james just to upset marauderfen lol#pro james potter#pro marauders#anti snape#jily#anti snily#pro snily#anti jily#I also tagged this in the jily tag just to piss james's fanfemales and fanmales off lmao#I am gonna enjoy this war
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I say it again because I like repeating myself.
Evil!Albus doesn't make sense. Even worse, it actively destroys HP's story.
If Albus wanted... Idk, to kill Harry? He would have done it.
If he wanted control of UK he would have entered in politics.
If he wanted to destroy magic world's traditions he would have done it, and instead he's one of the most powerful and knowledgeable wizard alive, and he deeply respect magic culture.
If he wanted muggles to conquer the magic world, he would have helped them to.
If he wanted to rule muggles, he would have allied to his husband.
Like, I feel like not even writers who write bashing fics with evil!Albus know what they want him to do. They just want a cardboard villain for LV to destroy, no question asked, not answers given.
And that's a damn shame. Because LV and Albus have such an interesting relationship. Like, LV hates Albus, but he also respects him because he respects strength (he only understand brute force?).
Albus admits that Tom was the best student ever in Hogwarts, and he still doesn't want to kill him.
And the Phoenix core! Albus' Phoenix.
Also, they are both incredibly powerful half-blood in a world where pure bloods (more often than not inbred and variously ill and cruel) hold political and financial power and despise the not-pure ones . And still, against all the odds, against all the prejudice, Albus and Tom rose to highs no one wouldn't have ever believed.
So much alike. But no matter, it's their choices to be dramatically different.
And Albus intimately knows Tom. He knows how his incredible but twisted mind works. He knows that under his supervillain title, his edgy cult, his monstrous mask he's still the hurt angry manipulative boy who enjoyed hurting people. Who was rejected and abandoned by everyone, who reacted to suffering with violence, unable to heal himself. Who hated the world enough to be willing to see it destroyed. Who killed without an ounce of remorse, because human life is nothing for him. Who didn't stand for any ideals, just his power.
I really would like to praise how well Albus anticipated Tom's moves and manipulated him, and in the end defeated him from the grave.
1- he knew Tom was not dead, he knew he would have tried to kill Harry as soon as possible. So he protected Harry with the only magic Tom didn't disturb himself to learn. And it worked, as confirmed by LV himself in GoF.
2- he knew Tom wouldn't have been able to resist the call of the philosopher's stone and Harry in Hogwarts. He also needed LV to see the devastating effects of Lily's protection. He needed Harry to defeat him. Everything in order to push LV to desire Harry's blood for his great resurrection. It worked.
3- as he thought, LV went to insane lengths to use Harry's blood. And this was the only way possible for Harry to live. He needed to die for the horcrux to get destroyed. But lily's protection, now living in LV too, would have protected Harry even more formidably. Harry couldn't die until LV was alive. What a genius move!! The only way to save Harry, damned by the prophecy, and to defeat LV.
4- Tom was obsessed with fate, destiny. He truly thought he was chosen by higher forces to rule. And so Albus knew he would have wasted many energies to hear the damn prophecy. And LV did. And in doing so he made stupid mistakes such as appearing personally in the Ministry. It was stronger than his rationality (already compromised by his edgelord lifestyle).
5- he accurately guessed the identity and the location of most horcruxes.
6- he anticipated LV's plans: allying himself with creatures despised by Wizards. Because LV, in spite of his so-called ideology, doesn't really care who you are, just if you can be useful to him.
7- he knew well the neuroses and the twisted way of thinking of LV. He knew he wouldn't have researched on Lily's love sacrifice to better understand the implications of his rituals. He knew he wouldn't have reflected on domestic elves' unique magic. And this was his downfall.
8- in the end, everything worked out. Harry was saved. LV got defeated (mostly by his prevedibile mistakes).
I think Albus' genius in dealing with LV and still saving Harry is not recognized. Like, never? When it's one of my fave things in the series.
When Albus cries after Sirius' death? He admits his mistake: loving Harry. Because if he hadn't loved Harry, he would have killed him. One horcrux less. But he couldn't, he didn't. And he was right.
When LV possesses Harry and tries to tempt Albus to kill him? Foreshadowing. This was the path Albus was tempted (supposed?) To take. One life to save thousands. But he resisted temptation, and he was right in doing so.
Awesome. Inspiring. Such a great character. Such a great foil to LV. How I wish I could meet real Albus more in fics!!! He would enrich immensely Tomarry stories.
And not let me start on GGAD. What a great addiction to him being a foil to LV. The fact that GGAD and tomarry are not often paired together is a betrayal.
Last but not least: he never kills on screen. The implication is that he never killed. Fantastic!!! In fantasy story often the general idea is that a Real Hero/Man Kills. Albus doesn't, and he teaches Harry not to do it. And they still win.
Albus was an internationally renowned, admired, feared wizard. Tom was a genius, but he mostly funded his fame on his ability to murder people. Wow. Like, Tom was clearly able to do other things, not just murder and torture. He invented the incredible magic that allows you to bloody fly. But not, almost all his fame is funded on "great but terrible" things like murdering and torturing people. What a waste.
I think Albus pitied this broken beautiful cruel brilliant boy. And he was right.
#grindeldore#ggad#tom riddle#lord voldemort#harry potter#albus dumbledore#riddledore#tomarry#not really but you know
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A phoenixflare idea I may or may not explore in fic at some point: Joshua falls first.
By, oh, give or take 20 years or so.
It’s hero-worship when they meet as children. Joshua is painfully aware that Clive is the one the Phoenix should have chosen, while he’s a frail pile of embers terrified he can’t live up to expectations. Dion, meanwhile, is the strong, brave, perfect heir, who bears Bahamut’s strength so easily, so chivalrous and noble. Everything Clive should have had, everything Joshua wishes he could be - and yet beneath it all, the compelling hint of a loneliness and uncertainty Joshua knows well.
Then, Phoenix Gate. Joshua loses everything. He spends his adolescence being raised in secret and shuffled around by a cult that worships him as something close to a god. Even his closest companion cannot treat him as an equal. I’m sure he’s lonely, and as he learns more of Ultima, I’m sure he longs for someone else to share the burden.
Imagine Joshua drinking in every story he hears of Dion the Bold. Maybe he daydreams about the handsome prince sweeping in to take him away from this stressful, secretive life. Maybe he imagines them joining forces to save the world. Maybe as he gets older, other thoughts creep in, fuelled by everything he hears about how handsome Prince Dion is as an adult.
(Maybe he hears rumours that the prince does not care for women, and maybe it makes his heart flutter with ridiculous hope.)
(Maybe he also has some fairly intense thoughts about what a man with a body like Dion’s could do to him in, on, or anywhere near a bed, but let’s keep this relatively PG.)
Imagine Joshua nursing this crush for years, for more than a decade. Clinging to it like a long-lost keepsake, finding it changes with him as he grows: from something innocent to something heated to something complicated and deep.
Because when he’s old enough and strong enough to travel on his own, of course his ears still prick up at every mention of Dion’s name. The battles he’s fought for the Empire. The orders he’s been given, sometimes less than honourable. The Empire’s growing greed, first glimpsed in the treachery at Phoenix Gate, now writ large in its annexation of Rosaria - then later in the invasion of the Crystalline Dominion. The people all say Dion is a good man, a thoughtful leader, a true prince. Is he uneasy with the change in his country and his father? Does he see the shadows lengthening too? Or is he complicit, no longer the shining idol of Joshua’s youth?
And Joshua is smart enough to doubt his own motives. He wants to approach Dion as a potential ally, but can he trust his own judgement? Does he really believe, in objective terms, that Dion will help him - or is he still in love with the stories he told himself all those years?
(And can he bear it, if it turns out Dion isn’t who Joshua wants him to be?)
So he hesitates. He waits. He waits until events make it clear that the Emperor intends to pass over Dion in favour of Olivier. Joshua knows then that whatever else, Dion is not a part of his father’s scheming. Approaching him is a risk worth taking now, as long as Joshua can put aside his childish daydreams and unrequited longing, meet the man as he truly is, see past the fantasy.
No wonder he’s tight as a wire when he steps into that tent. No wonder he keeps his hands gripped out of sight behind his back. No wonder he moves like every step, every breath, every word, is one he considered beforehand. No wonder he buys himself a few seconds picking up the fallen flower, restoring it, keeping his eyes off Dion as he fights his pounding heart.
And no wonder Joshua blames himself, after the fall of Drake’s Tail, that he didn’t go to Dion sooner.
#phoenixflare#tldr version: if valisthea had cameras teen Joshua’s room would be wall to wall Dion posters#maybe he collects woodcuts instead#no one carries a torch like the phoenix#ff16#ffxvi#joshua rosfield#dion lesage#headcanon#fic thoughts#final fantasy 16#final fantasy 16 spoilers#ff16 spoilers#ffxvi spoilers#final fantasy xvi spoilers#dion/joshua
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Yu Gi Oh GX and Alchemy: The Albedo
A continuation of my previous post taking a deep dive into the alchemy symbolism in Yu Gi Oh GX. Yu-Gi-Oh Gx Season 2: Society of Light Saga introduces several new ideas at once into the spinoff's storyline. Tarot Symbolism, a battle in the universe between creation and destruction which flips the usual symbolism by making the light / white coded force the light of destruction which is in opposition to the righteous darkness, and the Neo-Spacians to Judai's deck. While these ideas may seem all jumbled they actually connect back to alchemy (and Jung) and continue Judai's arc as an apprentice alchemist.
THE LIGHT OF DESTRUCTION
The main antagonist is Saio Takuma, a host of the Light of Destruction a universal force of destruction that wants to bleach the world white. In case you couldn't pick up on the subtle color symbolism there, the second season corresponds to the second phase of alchemy Albedo, symbolized by water and the color white.
The goal of alchemy is to create eternal life by creating the philosopher's stone which creates a ripple effect affecting the entire world, as above, so below. However, Alchemy is more about the process than the end result, mixing metals together through different stages again and again to purify them, the same way Judai fuses new heroes for different situations in his duels. That process is Black -> White -> Yellow -> Red.
After the nigredo stage where the stone is boiled and putrefied until the solution turns back, in the alcbedo stages is a purification referred to as albutio - the washing away of impurities. This phrase is conerned with "bringing light and clarity to the prima materia (The first Matter). The first matter being the starting material that eventually gets turned into the philosopher's stone.
As mentioned above the antagonist for this season Saio Takuma host to the Light of Destruction takes this step of the process too far by seeking to bleach the planet entirely and wipe out all life. Considering the villain is called The Light of Destruction and the main villainous force is The White Dorm this season is RIFE with color symbolism.
A trend I've noticed for villains in both the first and second stages is that they threaten to trap Judai and the main characters in that stage. In Nigredo, by dueling the Seven Stars in Yami no Games Judai risks being trapped in the darkness. When duelists lose to Saio Takuma or one of his possessed victims, they are purified completely of all individuality and join his cult. Alchemy is a violent process... in order for a union to occur these opposing forces must clash with one another.
“Looke well upon these two Dragons for they are the true principles of the beginning of the Philosophy…. the wingless dragon is sulphur because it never flies away from the fire. The winged serpent is quicksilver… these two must be united.” Their union, however, is “a most violent and bloody copulation.”
Which is why GX chooses to represent these alchemical steps as antagonistic forces, because alchemy requires two opposites to continually clash (chemical wedding fire and water, earth and air etc. etc.), and just like in alchemy in real life you must sometimes clash with someone who's your total opposite in order to more closely understand yourself.
Vs. EDO PHOENIX
Judai starts to drown in these waters of self-reflection after he faces, and loses to the first shadow archetype the anime throws at him Edo Phoenix. We'll cover Edo more later on in this post, but Jung considers the shadow to be the repressed, unseen part of the psyche. Edo represents the shadow of Judai in a lot of ways, most obvious he's the dark-hero to Judai's idealsitic hero. He's the only other hero archetype user in the anime, but unlike Judai's super sentai and ultraman inspired elemental heroes, his Destiny Heroes are all based off of anti-heroes in british pulp fiction (such as Jekyll and Hyde). In fact Destiny Hero Double Dude, clearly based of Jekyll and Hyde is the quickest explanation for the relationship between a man and his shadow.
"With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.”
-Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Jung divides personality into a split consciousness model, the persona which is the mask we wear in our everyday life to face the world, and the shadow which consists of everything hidden under the mask that we don't show to the world.
Jung equates each stage of alchemy into different archetypes of the unconscious.
Nigredo - The Shadow
Albedo - Anima and Animus
The Wise old Man
Rubedo - The Self (Indviduation)
A duel with Edo Phoenix for Jason is much like his confrontation with Darkness / Fubuki a deep dive into the Nigredo stage, except this time for Judai the duel is personal because Edo has things to say. He's here to call out Judai Yuki (or Shmaden Shmuki in the dub). Fubuki really wasn't a personal foe for Judai (yes he's Asuka's brother, but Judai didn't know that at the time) he just represented the first time Judai had to duel with stakes on the line instead of just for fun.
Edo has a few things to say on judai Yuki, someone who so far has been talked about over and over again as having a "pure" heart for dueling. Edo is the first to suggest (and other characters will follow up on this later) that dueling for nothing more than pure enjoyment might not be a good thing. Edo also specifically uses a deck that has been touched by Sartorius's darkness during his first duel with Judai, to further the Nigredo symbolism.
Judai and Edo mirror each other all throughout the first part of the duel. Edo shows that he can create different fusion monsters using the exact same elemental heroes as Judai as material - when he fuses featherman and burst lady he creates destiny hero phoenix guy. There's a bit of symbolism here starting with his name - Edo Phoenix. Phoenixes are traditionally considered the "ying" to the "yang" in chinese alchemy. Destiny Hero Phoenix Guy is made from the same materials as FlameWingman, which features the head of a dragon as one of its arms. Phoenix Guy's effect is that it can't be destroyed in battle by monsters with the same attack - when it clashes with Flame Wingman it can't be destroyed much like it's impossible to destroy the shadow part of your personality.
Edo's callout to Judai is similiarly something that cannot be something that can be ignored or dismissed, it must be reoncicled with.
This is fun to you? Don't make me laugh, Judai! There's nothing fun at all about the fate of heroes who have to fight. The weight of the crosses that heroes bear, the suffering and hatred they endure. Can you even fathom that, Judai?
Suffering and hatred?
Those are the strengths that support a hero! People like you, who only see heroes as cool or inspirational make me sick. I actually need them - I need real heroes so that I can live!
Once again this callout of Judai's behavior is echoed again and again in season 3 because this show has good foreshadowing - but Edo is specifically calling out Judai's shallowness, Judai admires heroes like a child watching television without acknowledging the hurt and suffering that heroes go through. Edo needs to believe the fact that heroes and justice both exist in order to live, because he's still grieving the loss of his father at a young age and he copes by telling himself he's on a dark hero who will solve his father's unsolved murder and avenge him.
Judai is also similiarly adopting a mask of being a hero in order to cope with a lonely childhood marked by tragedy, it's just he chooses a different mask. Edo pretends to be a dark hero, and Judai a carefree pure-hearted Shonen hero. When confronted with the similarity between himself and Edo, Judai loses the duel and immediately after Nigredo we see Albedo - Judai's cards all dyed white.
THE WASHING OF THE MUD
Albedo is sometimes referred to as the "washing of the mud" the constant process of scrubbing the soul after the soul has been putrefied and its darkest contents brought to the surface in Nigredo.
Altogether, the divine water possessed the power of transformation. It transformed the nigredo into the albedo through the miraculous ‘washing’ (ablutio); it animated inert matter, made the dead to rise again, and therefore possessed the virtue of the baptismal water in the ecclesiastical rite.
- C.G. Jung, Alchemical Studies, CW 13, par. 89
Similarly in Yu-Gi-Oh Gx, after a crash course in Nigredo brought to him by his darker half Edo, the dark hero to his pure-hearted shonen boy protagonist - unable to see his cards anymore Judai leaves Duel Academy Island for the sea. Not only is this a direct parallel to Manjoume's journey in Season 1 (losing to a dragon (Misawa's water dragon) -> going to the sea -> washing up on North Academy a tundra that's all ice and rebuilding his deck from scratch.
Each of Judai's friends along with being characters in their own right also represents stages in alchemy, Manjoume who wears black is nigredo and similiarly experiences most character development in season one, Asuka who wears white is albedo and serves as his anima counterpart (more on that later), Misawa and Kenzan both wear yellow for citrinitas and guide him with wisdom (Kenzan is the only one not swayed by Saio's mind control, Misawa appears to Judai when he's lost in the desert dimmension in season 3 as a wiseman).
Manjoume represents Nigredo so of course, Judai parallels him after enduring his own Nigredo stage through his collision with Edo. Of course you might ask if last season was Nigredo then why is Judai going through it again you might ask. Well, Alchemy is a process of continual death and reverse, dissolving and coagulating over and over to refine into a purer material. It's not really a one and done thing. Symbolizing this, the one who hands Judai his defeat that sends him soul searching is Edo Phoenix, once again Phoenixes are important to Alchemy because they too dissolve into ash and die only to be born again.
Saio also draws the death card diagonally, neither upright or reversed to symbolize how Judai is actually going to experience both, he must endure a symbolic death first in order to be reborn. The Death Card isn't so much about permanent death, but rather the death of old ideas that's required for change.
Judai wakes up on a beach after traveling on a boat out to see (similiar to Manjoume), not only does this symbolize the "washing of the mud" referred to above, but water is also the element associated with Albedo. Judai first sees a flaming meteor and when it strikes him he's transported to a beach on an alien planet, Fire (Nigredo) -> Water (Albedo). The first Neo-Spacian Judai encounters is a water attribute monster to, Neo Spacian Aqua Dolphin. In fact, just like the elemental heroes all Neo Spacians are marked by their associated element because they too represent the mixing of elements Judai uses i his deck to perform alchemy. Aqua Dolphin, Air hummingbird, Grand Mole, and Flare Scarab.
When he wakes up on the beach the first thing Judai assumes is that he has died (symbolic death). Then he asks if he's in heaven or hell, only to find he's on an alien planet. There's a special significance to Judai's new "Neo-Spacian" cards being associated with the universe, and "Neos-Space". It's not just that Neos himself is a reference to Ultraman. It all ties back thta fundamental rule of Alchemy: As above, so below.
Quod est superius est sicut quod inferius, et quod inferius est sicut quod est superius.
That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.
Everything in the universe came from one material which divided again and again and differentiated, and therefore everything is connected. The microcosm (the small world, the human being, the miniature universe) is connected to and affects the macrocosm (the great world, the universe as a whole). If everything is connected then the changes you make and the actions you take will inevitably radiate out into the world.
You could say thatlight and dark use our universe as their battlefield. Put a different way, consider it a world where good and evil duel perpetually. The universe was a world of gentle darkness - one which nurtured life. However, this universe is on the verge of ruin by the Light of Destruction. We have searched for someone who is able to fight that light with the power of righteous darkness... and we happened to find you.
In terms of Yu-Gi-Oh GX, the basic worldbuilding and lore is that the universe was first one substance and then it divided into two forces the gentle darkness that nurtured creation and the light of destruction which destroyed. Balance between these two forces must be maintained, but when the light of destruction gains an edge the Neo-Spacians appeared before Judai to call him to protect Neos-Space with the power of the gentle darkness.
In other words, Judai facing Saio on earth (the small world) will radiate out and prevent the destruction of Neos space in this battle between universal forces (the great world). Judai saves the universe by playing card games, it sounds silly but symbolically it just means that once again that you're connected to the world around you moreso than you realize and your actions will inevitably have a ripple effect and effect the world and people around you. Judai symbolically saves theuniverse by beating Saiou in a duel, but in the world of human beings his actions save both Saiou and Edo's friendship.
In GX worldbuilding terms as well, Neos-Space is an alternate dimmension one of twelve inhabited by duel spirits who are real, sentient creatures who's powers are called upon with the magical cards. When Judai saves his world, he also saves Neos Space because their two worlds are connected.
A lot of shows have "the fight between the forces of light and darkness never end" but GX reframes the never-ending fight as the process of alchemical refinement. It also flips the traidtional light and dark associated symbolism so light represents destruction and Judai needs to tap into the power of darkness in order to fight it.
Furthermore, Judai harnessing his iner darkness is Jungian symbolism. As stated above, Jung divided personality into perona, shadow and the further into anima and animus. A person goes through the process of individuation in order to grow up into a well-rounded human being, and this process requires incorporating all the different parts of your personality into your ego. The pure-hearted Judai however, has a dark shadow and we'll learn in season 3 part of that shadow consists of the memories of Yubel he repressed when he abandoned Yubel. However, because Yu Gi Oh GX is a series with bad pacing but excellent foreshadowing - Judai flashes back to his childhood when he notices something is missing and he can't remember the reason why he's been dueling.
Why else would Edo's challenge to Judai disturb him so much if there wasn't something missing, something he's not quite remembering about the reason he started dueling something hidden in darkness.
The origin story we eventually get for Judai in season 3 is actually give to us slowly over time in three parts - because Judai himself takes that log to remember it due to his repressed memories. In season 1 he remembers that at one point he was able to hear the voices and card spirits when he was younger, but somehow lost that ability for a long time until he met winged Kuriboh. In season 2 - Judai remembers the Kaiba Corp contest that launched a satellite into space where his drawings of Neos and the Neos Spacian were eventually infused with the power of darkness. By recalling his memories and remembering that part of his childhood he gains the powers of the Neo-Spacians (having done the work of exploring his shadows).
However, Judai's origin story is only 2/3rds complete and the last missing piece will come with Yubel's introduction in season 3 who serves as Judai's literal shadow.
Judai doesn't completely integrate his shadow here, but once again alchemy is a process, so he'll have to do more work later. However, he's confronted his shadow enough to make the difference during his rematch with Edo.
VS ED - A NEW POWER! AQUA NEOS
I'm skipping Manjoume's duel with Saio, because I'm putting all the tarot stuff in another post. Which gives us more time to talk about Edo, Edo's flashback shows his first meeting with Saio in the rain. Saio the leader of the white dorm, white, rain/water, all symbols of Albedo.
Edo also represents Albedo, he dresses in a silver grey / white suit, his hair is similarly silver and gets bleached white at one point, his closest connection to any character is to Saio, his defeat of Judai starts the alchemy process for Judai, and his defeat of Kaiser Ryo sends him spiraling into reverse alchemy (more of that later).
Now back to Judai - before facing Edo he has to claim the rest of the Neos Spacians from the elemental plains where they reside, such as going to a magma pit to claim flare scarab. Fire, wind, water, earth, elements, alchemy....(kronk voice) it's all coming together.
Anyway, Judai worries all of his friends by telling them about how he was abducted by space aliens and the duel begins. This time Edo is the one who loses and it all has to do with the work Judai has done confronting his past which Edo has not. The biggest foiling point between the two of them is that Edo and Judai's hero worship comes from their inner child. Their desire to be a hero is childish and immature, as neither really knows what being a hero is yet, but also pure.
Aster: Judai, are you... that happy to be showing off your heroes? Still, I won't stand for any heroes unburdened by destiny!
Judai: Listen... What happened to your dad was really sad. But... doesn't it just pump you up to meet some new heroes? You would know, wouldn't you?
I bet your dad did - he must've made your D heroes so that seeing them would make you feel happy, not sad!
It's a collision of opposites once again, Judai looks too much into the light but here Edo's been stewing in his own dark feelings of mourning his father, and a desire for revenge for so long he's forgotten happy memories of his father.
Edo's not wrong that heroes have to carry burdens, it's more foreshadowing for lessons that Judai has to learn in Season 3 but there's a difference between carrying your burdens and drowning because of them. Later on in the Saio portion of the fight it's shown that Edo's time has stopped completely just like his signature card the clocktower, Edo is still a child, the same way Judai is still a child.
Edo who isn't aware of that yet loses to Judai who's at least recovered some memories of his childhood. In this instance Judai is the catalyst which makes Edo change.
Of course Judai's arc pretty much stops here, as I said Judai's characterized by stagnation through the first two series. That's not to say he doesn't change at all, in Season 1 we get the speech where Daitokuji asks him what he's gained over a year and Judai says he's gained friends. Not only does he have friends, but it's the season where he first takes up the burden of dueling with his life on the line to save other people so he can protect those friendships. Which seems like standard shonen fair but is deconstructed in season 3.
Season 2 is where Judai is first seriously questioned on his lack of reason for fighting, and his lack of any burdens. While Judai doesn't really change because of this question, his lack of change is indicative of something missing in him.
Arguably, a lot of problematic behaviors of Judai's in Season 3 start in Season 2, they're just not immediately called attention to. We'll talk about them now in the White Arc.
The White Dorm
Alchemy is heavily associated with color symbolism, Albedo is symbolized with the color white so of course one of the main antagonistic forces this season is the white dorm.
I'll touch more on Manjoume's role as the main head of the cult for most of the season in my upcoming tarot post, but Judai's friends being integrated into the white dorm means they are experiencing Albedo right alongside of him. However, in this case they experience a dissolution. Each of his friends dissolves entirely and experiences a death of personality, making them puppets for Saio / The Light.
In each duel, Manjoume, Bastion and Misawa the Light preys upon one flaw in their personality. For Manjoume it's his inferiority complex and his desire to beat Judai (a rivalry he takes much more seriously than Judai), for Asuka it's her emotions that people are constantly telling her to calm down so she can conform into a more feminine role, for Misawa it's the fact everyone in the school just decided to start ignoring him after they found out he was a furry.
(On a more serious note a lot of people think the show dropped Misawa's arc entirely, but I'd argue there is a three season arc there and that it mirrors Judai's. In season 1 Misawa is an obsessive perfectionist duelist considered one of the two rivals to Judai, and like many students there doesn't think of much of his future but becoming a pro duelist. However, the encounter with Tanya shakes him by waking him up to a desire for love in his life and Tanya disapepars. In season 2, Misawa's failed to live up to his potential as one of the higher ranking duelists in the show and kind of washes out like Hell Kaiser Ryo did when he figures out he wasn't as great as everyone at the school told him he was. Saio compounds on this by ignoring him, which on top of his friends all deciding to ignore him makes him vulnerable to being recruited to a cult. Misawa's the only one who joins willingly if you think about it, which shows how unloved he feels in season 2.)
Aster's speech on the matter is revealing in regards to the loneliness Misawa feels.
Misawa doesn't actually want to get better - he just wants those around him to see him as being good. Being a true duelist is lonesome. Even without attention from others, they'd just follow their own path with faith in their deck and tactics. Results and praise just come after the fact, but Misawa is different. All that lies deep in his heart is an idiotic elitist desire for the ability to be noticed by others.
It worries you does it not? It pains you does it not? That others will not acknowledge you.
In the end he'll lose faith in himself. Something like that can't become a true duelist.
There is a reason for this brief tangent with Misawa in the Judai's friends section, in that the friend group's collective decision to ignore Misawa probably because they assumed he was an elite duelist who could take care of himself shows that their friendship is not as strong as it seems.
The cracks are already starting to show in Season 2. Not only does everyone collectively neglect Misawa, but Judai as a whole lets each of his friends be taken by the light, and he's either not around or doesn't lift a finger to stop it. Asuka and Manjoume spend weeks being brainwashed and Judai feels no urgency to reach out to them and fix it. This is even something commented upon by Judai himself when he finally goes to face Manjoume.
What this means in alchemy terms is that these bonds are broken, and reforged by necessity in order to be forged into healthier friendships. Judai's friends experience a dissolution in season 2, and Season 3, before he's able to forge a much stronger connection in Season 4.
Judai's friends who are dyed white also each represent a personal flaw of Judai's that he needs to be cleansed of. For Manjoume, it's Manjoume's general stagnation which Judai reflects because Judai is a stagnant character for the first two seasons. Part of the reason Judai is stagnant is because of the codependent friendships he forms with others, Judai and Manjoume are characters who both struggle to stand on their own two feet.
As mentioned above, Judai is also someone who tends to have his emotional needs neglected by others the same way Misawa was because everyone assumes Judai can take care of himself.
THE WHITE QUEEN
The last and probably most important is Asuka who I've mentioned in my last post is an anima, or a female Judai. Now, I'll elaborate on that point.
The Anima and Animus are what Jung terms "Sygzy" a term used y Jung to mean the union of opposites. Similiar to the Taijitu or Yin and Yang symbol. The feminine Yin and Masculine Yang each tcontain a taenite, a dot that represents the yin (feminine) within the yang (masculine) and vice versa.
What it means essentially is that every single person is a collection of what we traditionally consider "masucline" and "feminine" traits. Of course those definitions depend on culture, but gender is like money. Yes, Gender is completely made up, but I can say things are masculine and feminine and you'll know what that means the same way that money is made up but I have to pay five dollars for my boba tea.
Of course Gender isn't split down a male / female dynamic either but this is really old psychological framework we're working with.
Even Jung however as old was onto something when he observed that the way men are socialized especially growing up (with gender roles being as rigid as they are) leads to them having underdeveloped or even suppressed feminine traits.
Jung believed a male’s sensitivity is often lesser or repressed, and therefore considered the anima (the unconscious feminine side) to be one of their strongest sides. Ergo, men are more likely to repress their feminine sides, and at the same time the only way to develop those sides is to seek out femininity and interact with it. That sounds like basic rules of human interactions, the only way you can learn to have healthy relationships to other people and how to show your emotions in healthy ways is by interacting with people.
Which is where the chemical wedding comes in. The Sygzy is the union of opposites fanima and animus) formed by a chemical wedding between the two.
Men usually progress through four stages when it comes to integrating their anima (in other words they mature in the way they perceive and relate to the women in their life). These are represented by four archetypes, reoccurring characters and symbols in fiction. Jung believed the reasons archetypes kept showing up in different stories is because they symolized something deep within our own subconscious.
These four archetypes are:
Eve (mother)
Helen (romantic interest)
Mary (religious devotion)
Sophia (wisdom, guide to inner life).
Asuka serves as Judai's anima for the first two seasons, and vice versa, but I'd argue they never pass the first two stages.
My reasons for arguing this is number one, Judai and Asuka only have two duels against each other in season one and two. Number two, Jung marks Albedo as the stage of integrating your Anima. Asuka wears primarily white, she's basically female Judai sharing his love of card games, and their final duel happens in season 2.
Judai doesn't view Asuka as amother figure per se, but when he first meets her he is a child as their first duel takes place in the third episode. So she is someone who 1) nurtured his growth, and 2) could have been a possible romantic interest for the first two seasons.
I think Judai and Asuka's two duels however are an example of a chemical wedding that turns out to be non-romantic. As Asuka is basically replaced as Judai's potential love interest by Yubel or arguably Johan too. Also the fact that they are basically set up to be love interests only to have that set up subverted is the point here.
The strongest connection between Judai and Asuka, and the reason they serve as each other's anima and animus for a time is thatthey both don't really fit into the roles society assigns them. Especially their gender roles, Judai is a subversion of the hot-blooded shonen boy protagonist and Asuka a subversion of the female lead character always being the love interest.
As stated in my previous meta, Asuka is very like Judai in the fact that her first love is dueling. Therefore she doesn't fit into the mould of what a lot of people consider to be feminine, despite being the 'queen' of obelisk blue. This post goes into a lot more detail on the relationship between Asuka and Gender.
Asuka seems to be written as a response, or maybe even a correction of Anzu Mazaki from the first anime. A character who while important, suffered from what many consider to be female shonen character syndrome they mainly exist to be an emotional support to the protagonist and lack flaws / ambitions of their own. I guess the english word for it would be chickification.
Here let me cite the scholarly resource known as Tvtropes:
You have an Action Girl, who may also be One of the Boys. She rocks.
But she's probably the only female in the main cast, or at very least, the most openly tomboyish in the female cast. And it doesn't seem to be playing well with the 18-35 male demographic. So the writers, either on their own or because of Executive Meddling, soften her tough edge. Gradually, the Action Girl starts seeing significantly less action. She exchanges her armor for outfits that show off her figure. Her plotlines become increasingly centered around romance, dating, and fears that she isn't married yet. She gets easily turned into a Damsel in Distress by the same villains she would have handily thwarted previously just so the male characters can save her. The character who was once comfortable and competent has been Chickified.
This is about maturity being equated with passivity, with "girls/women can't", rather than just learning to make wise choices or cope with challenges.
To simplify, the predominant trend in Shonen manga is that men are allowed to be active characters with agency, and female characters are always reduced in agency and independence, usually defined by their relationship to a male character to the point where femininity goes hand in hand with passivity.
The main problem with this is it doesn't allow female characters to have thoughts and feelings of their own, outside of either the roles they play to the men in their lives, or just them being reduced to their gender, in the friend group they're just "the chick." A lot of manga authors even admit to throwing in female characters just to have a female character without really thinking of their role in the story.
Asuka is a deconstruciton of both the way female characters are treated in this gnre, and also she as a girl has to deal with the expectations to perform femininity from everyone around her.
Asuka is feminine, she's considered the "pride of the Blue Girls", at the beginning of the show she's well-respected, popular with the girls and also incredibly detached and bored. She basically extorts a duel out of Judai just to find a challenge. It's easy to see where this dissatisfaction comes from, not only is duel academy weird about women, a lot of the men Asuka is forced to interact with reduce her to her gender.
A common Asuka filler / solo episode usually follows this formula, "A man with a crush on Asuka challenges her to a duel with a condition that she'll date him or is otherwise trying to coerce her into doing something else she's uncomfortable with."
A nice subversion to this formula is early on in the dub where Judai and Tennis Guy compete to be Asuka's "fiance" only for him not to know what that even means, and Asuka to just say it means "friend."
Which just might be what makes Judai so unique to the point where Asuka starts to consider him a romantic possibility, because he is the one exception, the person who only ever regarded her as a duelist first and a girl second. As Asuka is feminine, but she exists in a world where she's not allowed to be feminine and still retain her activity and agency at the same time.
Manjoume and his two duels against Asuka could be seen as a metaphor for the way the world, and especially boys in Asuka's life impose femininity on her and expect her to conform to gender roles / their gendered expectations of her. Manjoume duels her twice, both duels resemble chemical weddings of a sort with the goal of getting Asuka to accept his feelings towards her.
When he beats her in the second duel look what Asuka's basically reduced two, the queen at his side, the second in command of the white dorm, and most of all, the elegant, refined, cold-hearted girl. She has ceded all agency due to the fact she's being mind controlled, she's also lost all of her emotions to the point where everyone describes her as being "like ice" in order to conform to a role given to her by a man.
When Judai and Asuka duel a second time, it is another chemical wedding, and one necessary for Asuka's development as a character but it's decidedly non-romantic. It's also a re-creation of this Splendor Solaris plate, a meeting of the solar king and lunar queen.
Judai: The sun will rise high in the sky! So open your eyes already!
Asuka: Impossible, right now I am my true self. There's no need for me to awake.
Judai: Then, I'll have to force you awake. I attack White Night Dragon with Flare, Neos. Let everyone's fiery feelings reach her! Melt it! Melt Asuka's frozen heart! Burn it to ash!
The episodes are called "A White Night Duel" associating Asuka the queen of the obelisk dorm with night time, and the moon. The first duel with Judai and Asuka took place in the moonlight as well, and it took place on water.
The duel also marks them as a pair of elemental opposites. Asuka's brother Fubuki uses snow character in his name. Asuka's swapped out her cyberladies deck for an all-ice deck.
Judai's commonly associated with the sun. Before this Fubuki stated that Judai was riling her up and igniting her flaming spirit. His winning the duel is using Flare Neos a fire attribute monster to defeat the "White Night Dragon".
So Asuka's in a state where she's finally been forced to conform to everyone's expectations as a girl, and given up the struggle of trying to be herself and as a result all of her emotions have shut down. Judai manages to excite those feelings inside of her once again by reaching out to her, not as a love interest might (this duel is way, way different from the way he tries to save Johan from Yubel's possession) but as a duel rival would by trying to reignite their rivalry.
Judai doesn't even say that it's his burning feelings that reach her, but rather everyone's. Manjoume and Fubuki try to reach out to Asuka in the duel by giving Judai cards to play, as a love interest, and a brother, but they both also have trouble seeing Asuka for who she really is from time to time which is why their cards don't work. Judai reaches her because he's not trying to be a love interest in this duel, or anything other than a friend.
This duel I believe solidifies what they are to each other, which is why Judai integrates Asuka as part of his anima and they have no further duels after this.
As to what Asuka exactly provides to Judai after going on this long rant about how Judai and Asuka's friendship is unique - well, Judai doesn't really conform to gender roles either.
If Asuka is the typical girl in Shonen Manga given more depths, and burdened by the expectations everyone holds towards girls around her, Judai too suffers from those expectations. The manga reaches a point where Judai is just expected to be the pure-hearted shonen hero who tackles everyone's problems.
Judai isn't allowed to be vulnerable or feminine because a lot of masculine roles get pushed onto him, he has to be Sho and Kenzan's big brother, he has to be the protector of everyone, he has to be the leader because he's the best duelist. In late season 3 he's forced into the role of being king by Yubel's manipulations.
On top of that there's the subtext that Judai doesn't conform to heterosexual and cisgendered norms, like is two other possible love interests are Johan a dude, and Yubel a nobinary dragon. His Jungian shadow is also yubel, a nonbinary dragon so what does that exactly say in regards to Judai and his own gender.
Asuka even builds up one sided feelings towards Judai that could be seen as the typical shonen main character guy and girl relationship that happens in almost every manga - except Asuka lets go of those eventually, because in letting go of that she gives Judai what he really needs a friend.
Asuka and Judai's friendship is important because they both don't fit in with what everyone else expects them to do, and want to be seen for their skills as duelists first before their gender. That's what they give each other through their chemical wedding and having gained and solified Asuka's friendship, Judai integrates his anime and moves to the next step of alchemical refinement.
HELL KAISER RYO / NIHILIXIR
So I'm going to address Hell Kaiser in one go, because I love him and also he represents an example of reverse alchemy or the nihilixir. Usually death and rebirth is a good thing and necessary for alcemical refinement, but sometimes instead the process makes you degrade into something impure, descending into baser instincts.
The transformation Hell Kaiser undergoes in season 2 and onwards is an example of something which resembles alchemy (for instance you could say his descent to the underground dueling arena, and his climb back to the pro leagues resmebles the drowning king where the king simultaneously drowns and rises) however instead of the death and rebirth leading to a more refined version of himself he just gets worse.
The catalyst for this arc is of course Edo Phoenix, but also a very true to life problem of a kid who's always been told he was going to be number one, going out into the world and finding out he's a small fish in a big pond. I'm going to steal Kate's post here because she's my Daitokuji-sensei. Here they use Salem from RWBY as an example of reverse alchemy, mainly the inability of an immortal character to grieve and accept death means they cannot move forward and instead move backwards and experience nothing but negative character development.
It's not just that Hell Kaiser lost to Edo Phoenix (a symbol of death and rebirth), it's that he can't accept the loss specifically because he's been told all of his life he's a winner. Hell Kaiser is such a perfectionist (he even told Judai that he thought his perfectionist tendencies held him back from true growth whereas Judai represented limitless potential) that he cannot accept or cope with the fact that he lost. He can't see that he might not have been as good as everyone always told him he was, and he starts to spiral.
So Hell Kaiser experiences a journey where he descends to the underworld (underground duels) and comes back, hence the name Hell Kaiser because he's been to hell and back but he doesn't change as a result of that journey. It's a false rebirth, rather than becoming something new he just doubled down on who he was before.
I don't care how, but I want to win and defeat you. I get it now, I finally do. I've lied to myself ever since my match with Ed... I duel by respecting my opponent. I thought winning or losing wouldn't matter if I did that, but I was wrong. I thirst for it - for victory! ANd if I have to steal victory from your hands, I will!
Hell Kaiser's original philosophy is a "respectful duel" which is just a duel where you try to understand your opponent and what they're thinking. However, after his duel with Edo his perfectionist tendencies win out against his desire to understand his opponents and he becomes obsessed with victory.
If Salem goes in alchemy in reverse because she won't accept grief, Ryo goes through reverse alchemy because he won't accept the prospect of losing or that he might be wrong. Alchemy is also primarily about changing into a new substance, a person who won't admit they're wrong and doubles down can't change.
Ryo goes one step back in alchemy by changing his outfit from white (albedo) to black (nigredo). Everyone treats this as a big change / rebirth from him, but in their duels against him Fubuki his rival, and Sho his brother both say the opposite.
Fubuki calls upon the darkness to try to match Hell Kaiser's deck with his red eyes deck, believing that Kaiser must be lost in darkness or otherwise be possessed to be acting the way he is.
Only to have it confirmed twice this isn't the case, Ryo hasn't changed. He's stayed the same person he was at season one and his so called dark turn is actually character regression because he refuses to adapt to new circumstances. Even the way he's depicted in fire is once again, a reference to nigredo because he's taking one step back while everyone else is in the albedo stage.
Of course being obsessed with winning seems like it's not the worst thing in the world, until Ryo's obsession with chasing the thrill of victory leads to him not only nearly killing his little brother with the same electrodes he was shocked with in the underground arena (remember in season one where he lost a duel on purpose to camula to protect Sho's soul) and then in season 3 developing a heart condition because he kept using the electrodes during underground duels.
Ryo also descends into death by embracing the cyberdarks deck, a deck which primarily uses graveyard effects to make his monsters stronger. Nihilixir comes from resisting change, loss, grief all of these things which are inherent to life, and therefore leading to stagnation and death.
I spent so long on this section because one - this is GX's primary example of negative character development, but also because this too mirrors eventual growth Judai will have in season 3. Ryo is a foil and rival to Judai, and there will reach a point where Judai too much like Ryo rejects grief, and doubles down on power, becoming obsessed with victory. Judai goes through some major character regression before he can grow again.
EDO PHOENIX
This post, much like GX Season 2 has put off Edo's character development for long enough. Judai and Edo for all of their differences have one thing in common that they're both trapped in their childhood.
They are both lonely children who leaned on stories of heroes in order to comfort them. Edo believes in dark heroes that would avenge the death of his father, Judai believes in heroes who save others. They both play hero to cope, Edo plays a hero on a quest of revenge, and Judai plays hero to all of his friends, taking on their burdens as his own.
If anything a lot of cracks in Judai's behavior show in season 2 and become a problem in season 3 because he failed to address or fix them. Neglecting his friends his friends until they all get brainwashed and become victims of the main villain? Happens again in season 3. Judai being told he can't keep dueling for fun and will have to eventually accept responsibility? Happens in season 3. Judai realizing being a hero means carrying brudens that might crush you? Happens in season 3.
Saio is kind of a silly villain, he's possessed by evil space rays that made him try to use a satellite to destroy the earth. However, symbolically with the light of destruction as a force of too much light that wants to wipe out the dark I think the season achieve a lot in Jungian terms. There's an entire monologue in the Manjoume vs Judai duel episodes about how the light of destruction wants to banish all shadows, which is evil, and blocks the light.
Calmly close in your eyes a pure-white sun shining in the sky as it iluminates a flat-pure white land. Let us assume that something now sticks out on the land. It creates an evil - darkness. Which is evil and blocks out the light. We must take all those who bring forth the darkness... and eliminate them until they are no more!
This and many monologues from the white dorm / saiou hint that maybe, purity.... is a little bit bad. Alchemy is a process of balance by two opposing forces meeting in a chemical reaction, but the light just wants to bleach everything.
This season if anything sets up the idea that purity isn't that great... after all the light monologues about wanting to wipe out shadow, but it's impossible to get rid of your shadow in a Jungian sense.
So we have the start of the purity = bad symbolism, right next to Judai who is a character who's still constantly being lauded for his "purity" his "pure childlike heart" and so on and so forth.
Now is Judai pure because he's confronted the darkness, and come out on the other side of it, or is he pure because he's just... not even looking at or acknowledging the dark. After all Judai's shadow isn't here, Judai's shadow is Yubel and Yubel doesn't turn up until season 3.
Yu-Gi-Oh GX season 2 is paced badly, but there's also something to be said about the way it's structured. Judai basically remains a passive character all throughout, the only time he journeyed to find something is when his cards were bleached white. Judai only ever responds. Judai's friends are kidnapped and he goes to save them.
There's a scene where Judai is sitting in his room with Kenzan and Sho, and then someone walks in and says "Judai, I need you to save the world, someone is going to use a death ray satellite in order to wipe out humanity."
And Judai's response is appropriately: "What?"
Which once again, bad pacing because the main character is almost entirely uninvolved in the conflict, but it also sets up the idea that Judai is once again the designated hero. Does he seek out and try to solve problems, or does he just end up getting problems dumped into his lap?
Of course this parallels him with Edo, someone who not only wants to be a hero (to the point where he dresses up and beats up thieves), sees himself as a person on a heoric quest for revenge, but is obsessed with the concept of Destiny and the idea that he must be a special, chosen hero.
The plot takes these two characters, one who is actively trying to be a hero, and one who is just forced by circustmances and his friends into the role of hero and then suggests they are the same.
The introduction of the DD episodes, and the duel against DD and Bloo-D establish that Edo's quest for revenge was pointless from the beginning. The person who killed his father has always been - right next to him, watching him flail around in the dark.
Believe in your D-Heroes power over the future all you want, but the time within you has been paused this entire time. From the moment your father died... you haven't changed at all - you haven't grown up at all. You're the same kid you were back then.
If Edo, the proffesional duelist, who puts on all these airs about maturity and constantly lambasts Judai for not understanding the sacrifices that heros make, the burdens they care and the responsibilities they have is just a child - then what does that say about Judai?
Edo Phoenix, the character that's supposed to represent the phoenix, death and rebirth is a character that's been stagnant all along just like Judai. Death is a part of alchemy, but as I went to great lengths to establish with Ryo's section, in alchemy stagnancy is DEATH.
DD possessed and corrupted by the light, spouts words that are eerily similiar to what Edo says.
Self-interest? Not quite. I wanted to know ehther or not I was the chosen one. Just look at history - all the greats who seized power would always commits some number of crimes. In killing your father, I became great myself - and I proved my status as a chosen one.
DD rants about being a chosen one, but what does being a chosen one mean? He's possessed by the light who saps him of all free will just like Saiou. Season 2 constantly talks about destiny and destined heroes, and for the longest time I thought it was just speaking lipservice. That typical "We the heroes can change destiny if we just believe enough" until I remembered my favorite Jung quote.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will rule your life and you will call it Fate.”
CG JUNG
Edo's obsession with destiny comes from not wanting to confront his past and his inner wounded child. If he believes he's a chosen hero on a quest for revenge, he doesn't have to confront what DD pointed out that he's still the grieving child who lost his father.
Since Edo ignores the unconscious, he is for most of the story a pawn in some way or another. He's a pawn to Saio believing and following his prophecies, he's a pawn to DD who killed his father never once suspecting him. The other characters who refuse to make the unconscious conscious become pawns of fate as well.
DD becomes split seeing himself in the mirror, before the voice of the Bloo-D card whispers to him and controls him. Saio becomes split as well between the version of himself Edo grew up with, and the one completely possessed by the avatar of destruction. Saio makes a case for being helpless to destiny since he was just possessed by evil space rays, but even Saio admits while ranting that he always hated the fact that people shunned him for having supernatural powers.
So purity = bad.
Not acknowledging your shadow = being controlled by fate.
Then we have our willfully ignorant hero Judai who shows up to save the day as always.
Edo is the one who's actually gone through the process of alchemy and change in order to face this duel against Saio. Edo confronted DD, on a boat which burst into flames (fire) on top of the ocean (water). He basically speedran through Nigredo. He even killed his father in order to move forward through time again.
Edo also having gotten his revenge in the most empty way possible (not only does he find out his adoptive father was using him all along, and that his quest for revenge was pointless because the culrpit was right next to him, but also he has to kill his father's soul trapped in the card in order to win the duel) has no realized that his desire isn't to get revenge or even to defeat evil but to save Saio.
I'm sorry, Ed... I didn't mean to drag you into this.
What are you talking about? You're my friend aren't you.
[...]
It's not fate I'm believing in. It's you, Saiou!"
He realizes this while finding Saiou's soul trapped in a recreation of their memories where they first met, when Saiou offered him an umbrella under the rain. Rain = water = albedo and Saio is wearing white, alright I'll stop now. The rain also scrubs clean his soul as Saio lets go of anger, and frustration and revenge ideas he had tied up into his dark intrepretation of heroism and focus on a friend.
My point is in order to duel against the light of destruction and try to reclaim Saiuo's soul, Edo gives up the satellite key and puts the world at risk in order to save one friend.
Edo Phoenix has finally experienced a death (the death of his father and adoptive father in flames, and the death of his original purpose of revenge) and rebirth. His new purpose becomes not to be the hero, but to hold out the umbrella and shelter Saiou from the rain the same way Saiou did in the past.
He also puts emphasis on his desire to connect with Saiou, and that being more important than any destiny or fate. Edo is trying to connect and collide with others again, and is finally starting to grow and change.
When Judai steps in he has practically no emotional investment, besides you know, not wanting Edo to die, and not wanting the world to get destroyed by a death laser because he lives there. Edo abandons the idea of being a hero, lets that dissolve and does something genuinely heroic in saving a person. Judai plays the hero again, but because he has no personal connection to Saio, practically everything he says about friendship, allies and fate is lipservice.
Edo is propelled by circumstances he thinks are fate the entire time when it's really just him failing to make conscious of the unconscious. However, he confronts his darkest self and then gains the ability to choose - and then confronts Saio by choice. Judai is still being thrust into the position of hero by destiny by the end of Season 2.
Judai ends season 2 not having changed. Since stagnation is death in any alchemy themed show, the show does not frame this as a good thing. Saio uses his ability to show Judai his future in episode 103 in an effort to intimidate him into giving up hope and accepting destiny.
After all this you still try to defy my wheel of fortune? In that case, I shall use my ability of foresight. You shall wallow in despair, and detest your own fate.
Saio not only shows Judai a preview of what will happen in Season 3 when Duel Academy gets teleported to another dimmension, he gets confronted with... bum, bum, bum HIS SHADOW!
Everyone say hi to Yubel!
A horrifying vision which Judai responds to with more lip-service. "I think our fates can be changed!" That's typically what the hero says in this situation.
However, you could also see this as another instance of Judai being forced to look at his shadow, only to choose to look away again. Because he looks away and fails to make the unconscious, conscious, everything that Saio and this vision predicts more or less comes to pass.
So Saio screams a lot about destruction, how inevitably everything will be destroyed in this duel, and it seems like generic doomsday villain stuff but it's right. Destruction is inevitable. Judai has a similair vision to the one Saio showed him in season two, at the beginning of season three of all of his friends dissolving into sand, a symbol of dissolution and that vision comes to pass too.
Death, and destruction are part of life, and alchemy is a process of accepting these things in order to dissolve and be reborn into something stronger.
Solve et Coagula (dissolve and coagulate) except Judai through two seasons, doesn't dissolve, and therefore doesn't come together and change into something stronger.
Judai is like peter pan a boy without his shadow, and without the ability to integrate his shadow he can't grow up. Which leads directly into all of his difficulty into season 3. Judai has a pure heart, but how does a pure heart that's never been dirtied (nigredo) and then scrubbed clean (albedo) know how to handle it when it starts to loser its purity? What about all of Judai's friends who value him for his purity and never look at his flaws, how can they cope with that fact when he starts those how those flaws?
As I said Ryo has a lot to do with Judai's season 3 arc by demonstrating the dangers of resisting change. Ryo becames unable to accept any loss and needs to always win. What happens when the invincible main character of the story Judai, the invincible ero starts to lose and doesn't know how to cope with the loss?
I'm sure he'll handle it much better than Ryo did.
(I'm just kidding, he doesn't.)
Anyway, to the five Yu Gi Oh fans who read all this look forward to the second part of this post where I describe tarot symbolism.
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"But they weren’t giving him all their money or thinking he was a god."
Cmon now Lilly. I loved this chapter and I really feel for poor Alphard he’s going through it, and poor Lilly.
Are you going to expand upon the cult of the Order of the Phoenix or can you say some more about it here ?
The Man Who Would Be King by me and @therealvinelle
Everyone's having a terrible time.
As for the cult bit, it may be expanded upon shortly in the fic, but I can circle back with what we see in canon (HBP is a real doozy)
#harry potter#the man who would be king#alphard black#lily evans#praise#vinelle#therealvinelle#emmatk1
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who are your ttrpg blorbos i LOVE hearing abt ttrpg blorbos...
omg ok im gonna try to keep this short or else ill write a whole novel but
In Monster of the Week:
Sunny (Sunsheighne Lydeighah Suarez) is a Monster of the Week character. She's 22 and bubbly and petty and and so, so, so, so, so, so stupid. Barbie Girl without the Barbie Accomplishments. Sunny started out as the Spooky playbook but has since migrated to the Chosen playbook - she's got the Green Dragon Crescent Blade and is maybe sort of the antichrist a little bit. She takes Every Drug. She's Mexican-Chinese and grew up in a trailer in Texas. She's so good at magic and hitting things, and so bad at thinking. She has phoenix ancestry and also was cursed. Normal girl things.
One of her moms is a failed country rock star and the other is a dragon. One of her dads is a cranky old monster hunter who turned into a god, and her sort-of other dad is a lich. Her brother has anxiety and is also a dragon, but is actually just a stressed college student with a band.
Sunny is engaged to a fae who is also Bees. She also has a girlfriend who is a crack shot and who enjoys accounting, and who we just unbrainwashed from a vampire tree. Sunny also has So many phone numbers.
Right now she's road tripping with her family (blood and adopted) across America as they break into the library of congress, try and fail to rob banks, and blow up a water tower to flood a town.
Sunny's ex-girlfriend was Audi Mercedes Windsor. Audi died, but Audi's fetch - her death omen, basically, like a changeling/copy only meant to survive til the original's death - survived, and got named Mercy Benjamin. I'm also playing Mercy - she's the Monstrous playbook.
Audi was the adopted daughter of an extremely rich film director, and most of Audi's life was filmed as she was trained very carefully to be picture perfect onscreen, and was exploited as basically a show dog. She was actually a mean selfish bitch, so Mercy is too - but Mercy is currently learning how to be a person and not an asshole. Audi was also in Sunny's brother's band, and Mercy in some canons is tentatively as well. She's roadtripping with the others, trying to avoid being noticed that she looks just like the dead rich girl splashed across billboards and magazines.
Jaime de Villiers is also one of my MotW characters in another campaign. They… are sort of three people fused into one. One of their component parts is a demon general named Kokabiel, who was the only true death in the war between heaven and hell. They wanted to be a perfect soldier and stand up for what they thought was right, as well as avenge their dead human spouse and child, but jumped in front of an attack meant for their commander and died, and became a ghost until summoned by their second component part by accident VERY long after, and the two fused.
Second component part is [redacted].
Their third part is a fae Spanish / French pirate from 1700's Spain, named Jaime de Villiers. The original Jaime served as first mate under the Kokabiel Fusion, they fell in love, and terrorized the coasts, but eventually Kokabiel Fusion and Jaime both nearly died and fused in order to save their lives. Now they are One Person with some very weird life experiences.
They've spent most of the last few thousand years at sea, trying desperately to be alone and Not Exist. Now they've been dragged kicking and screaming into a weird small Michigan town full of cults and secret police and monsters and witches and more, to be with their family (original Jaime's grandmother is a vampire and has a whole line of descendants who are wonderful and insane) and Be Helpful. Jaime is bearing the company and forced morality as best they can, and to their immense horror is actually starting to have a good time and learn to be happy again bc of their family. They accidentally stabbed their beloved cousin in the chest when they tried to kill The Actual Devil, but it's okay bc their cousin just became a goddess. Also they're now dating their old commander they died for, which is cool.
Another MotW character is Hector Carnage, who is a butch drummer in the up and coming band Bubblegum ☆ Carnage. She used to be a hockey player until a permanent hip injury screwed her out of her contract and now she's living her best life with her three insane bandmates. They’re about to play the weirdest craziest concert ever.
My last MotW character is Crescendo ‘Cres’ Flair, a.k.a Woebegone Lightfoot, a.k.a Harmony Caravaggio, a.k.a Beowulf Sublime, a.k.a Ophelia Divine, a.k.a - you get it. They go through new names every few months to Avoid the Government. They're a genderqueer Flake who uses they/he/she. He's also a sixty year old full out victorian goth with garrote wire and some wild conspiracy theories. Right now a hunter-for-hire, basically. She grew up on a dairy farm in Iowa.
Other than the MotW characters I'm playing now, I do have a scattered few others but I never did use them a whole lot. Here's a few,I can't remember all of them right now.
Daisy Smith is a fallen Aasimar who is sworn to defend all retail workers, is overly emotional and naive and genuinely kind/sweet, and also is a scary as hell warlock. Her patron is an eldritch horror of luck who looks like a bowling alley carpet.
Umami is a half-orc ranger with a panther familiar who I wanted to develop more but got shafted in the short campaign I got to play her and I'm still bitter about that.
At one point I had a rock dwarf who was a rockstar but I don't even remember her name. But I did love the concept.
And finally. Deco is my Baldurs's Gate character. Because I started playing Baldurs's Gate a week ago (no spoilers, please). That's basically a ttrpg. They're a Seldarine Drow, a druid from the circle of the spores. They became a druid because of the beauty they found in the Underdark nature, and because of their views on the beauty of death as a part of the circle of life and nature. Deco also is a decent leader, very forward, a little violent, and striving for true neutral if they can't hit neutral good. And they are absolutely going to smooch the shit out of Karlach.
Sunny (the second piece is a parody of Mucha's 'The Moon and the Stars')
Mercy (another Mucha parody piece)
Jaime (the second piece is a parody of Klimt's 'Water Serpents I')
and finally, Deco!
…that was kind of a novel. Sorry 😭
#m text#SO SORRY im putting this under a readmore. theres just way too much. u absolutely did not ask for this much#if anyone who i play with now or used to play with sees this. hello i love u all.#clare on god i will finish a campaign with you one day. I don't even remember my water genasis name but i had fun#sunsheighne#mercy#jaime#crescendo#<- i sometimes tag stuff with their names for the Vibes#ANYWAY THANK U SO MUCH FOR ASKING
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The Strange Claims of Svali, the Fake Illuminati Defector
For anyone who happens to be new here, Svali is a fake ex-Illuminati programmer who claimed that she was part of a global conspiracy that was deliberately inducing dissociative identity disorder in all of its members. If you've ever heard of stuff like color/metal/gemstone programming, or fictive programming, that comes from Svali.
I have an update on Svali's own sources of inspiration, though - a lot of the stuff I initially thought that she'd come with herself appear to be sourced from How The Illuminati Create An Undetectable Total Mind Controlled Slave by Fritz Springmeier and Cisco Wheeler. This book proposes that the Illuminati is deliberately creating alters in people for the purpose of turning them into perfect slaves, and claims that modern media is used in the process.
My general statement that the conspiracy theorists in the DID community are sourcing their info from Svali is still accurate, because it's clearly quoting directly from her rather than from Cisco and Springmeier's much longer, more elaborate work. However, a lot of stuff that I initially believed came from Svali is definitely sourced from this book, which taking a glance at it, is even more ridiculous than the shit Svali claims. (And yes, she clearly got the idea that autism is caused by SRA from this book, which claims that autism is increasing because SRA is increasing. Fuck you, Fritz Springmeier and Cisco Wheeler.)
And once again, Svali's claims are also clearly influenced by discredited people such as Mike Warnke and Lauren Stratford. At the core, she's pushing the same Satanic Panic bullshit Evangelical Christians were cooking up and pushing in order to demonize anyone who wasn't a conservative (and particularly Evangelical) Christian, and scare people who already were conservative Christians into remaining such. Most of the claims were basically repackaged antisemitism and witch panic, just updated to be more plausible and relevant to audiences of the day.
In part six of the second part of her... interview, I guess? She claims that Bohemian Grove is an Illuminati thing. For those who don't know, conspiracy theorists basically believe that satanists perform human sacrifices to Molech there, whom they claim the giant owl represents. As far as I can tell, a lot of this goes back to a man named Paul Bonacci, who claimed to be a victim in the Franklin child prostitution ring allegations, which was purely a product of the Satanic Panic. Bonacci apparently claimed that he'd seen a snuff film made there. Worth noting, the Satanic Panic was big on the idea that all of these snuff films were being made, but there is literally zero evidence of such a thing.
Svali complains about people refusing to believe that SRA is real and dismissing the "evidence." For example:
You can show them a site with pentagrams, buried bones, and other evidence, and they would say, "Oh, that is just teenagers playing around".
Uh, yeah, Svali, it probably is just teenagers playing around. Teenagers do that kind of thing. Also, if the Illuminati was so good at covering its tracks, why would we find evidence like this? Seriously, why would a hypercompetent global cult leave such a mess?
Didn't think this one through, did ya?
In part seven, Svali talks about alleged Illuminati symbols. She claims that phoenixes and eagles (especially the German eagle) are symbols of the Illuminati, and claims that phoenixes symbolize the resurrection rituals where members' hearts are stopped and restarted with CPR, then told that Baal or another demon brought them back.
Next she claims that butterflies symbolize monarch programming. For those who don't know, a lot of conspiracy theorists believe in Project Monarch, which allegedly evolved out of MK-Ultra. Conspiracy theorists claim that any time you see a picture of a model or a celebrity wearing a butterfly, that means they're under monarch mind control, because they believe that the Illuminati has some weird spiritual obligation to tell the public what they're doing, even if it's not in a way the general public will understand. Or they supposedly do it to mock so they can giggle at them for not understanding the symbols they allegedly put "in plain sight."
Either way it's really ridiculous, and basically comes out of conspiracy theorists making something out of nothing. Since there's never any real evidence for these conspiracies, they have to fabricate it by claiming that things you can find anywhere are actually secret conspiratorial symbols.
She also claims that the Great Seal of Solomon is used at the "highest rituals" to invoke the demonic. Which, I mean, this is a symbol used in the context of demonolatry, but like, it has nothing to do with any kind of conspiracy, and much less originates from a global satanic conspiracy cult.
She claims that earth, wind, and fire (but somehow not air?) are Illuminati symbols?
Earth, water, and fire: these three are used in a lot of ceremonies. Check out how many Saturday a.m. cartoons use this concept. You'd be amazed. In fact, "The Fifth Element" movie was based on it.
Ma'am, you're gonna be shocked to learn that the classical elements were literally just what people used to reckon the natural world was made out of. It's been part of culture outside of occult contexts for thousands of years now.
She claims that the Illuminati is big on Greek and Roman symbols like... lightning bolts. Like uhhh yeah Zeus is associated with lightning bolts, but since when are lightning bolts, per se, a major Greco-Roman symbol? I dunno, this is very ridiculous and thank goodness we're getting closer and closer to the end.
Next she claims that the Illuminati runs the porn industry and produces CSEM, and claims that, "If a profit is being made off of human suffering, you can trace the chain back somewhere to these people."
She claims that they have money and lawyers for years and have infiltrated the governments and the media, and that they "run our financial institutions." Ma'am you're literally just spreading repackaged antisemitism here.
Oh and of course they're working on bringing in the Antichrist:
They are working towards bringing in a new leader, who will usher in a Luciferian reign of joy, prosperity, and rewards to the faithful. Almost an Elyssian type paradise. Of course, the brutality would continue, and those who oppose his reign are to be hunted down and converted or destroyed, but the followers will be so happy and content that they believe these holdouts will want to come over to their side. Sounds unbelievable, but true.
But she claims that they can be defeated because they are arrogant and believe they can overcome God. And also because a lot of them really don't like all of the abuse they're doing and can be persuaded to leave by telling them that they don't have to hurt people anymore.
In part eight, she claims that another name for the New World Order is "the Fourth Reich." So basically she's proposing that everyone who isn't a conservative Christian is secretly a Nazi, or might as well be.
Bluhhhhhhh.
Anyway we're finally getting to the more entertaining bits of this e-book - the demonic shapeshifting. Hang in there, it's coming next post.
#svali#satanic panic#sra#satanic ritual abuse#conspiracisim#conspiracy theorists#conspiracy theorist
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