i just dont understand how any human being with a single lick of sense could like, look at hamas and.... i mean, forget the people who stan them for some fucking insane reason, or treat them as freedom fighters for even more insane reasons, like, believe a single word they're saying? accept it? do literally anything but stand against them or condemn them? treat any of their actions as legitimate or emblematic of any goal that isnt destruction? i mean, they're not only terrorists. they're the most card carrying terrorists in history or at least one of them. they say shit like "we love death like our enemies love life" on live tv. if they were a fictional organization in a fictional story i would probably consider them too cartoonishly evil to take seriously and i would probably go 'okay nobody in the real world is actually like that, stop being an edgelord, writer' except they are. exactly like that. and i have to take them seriously because of the real thing they did in real life to real people. what version of reality do you live in that they say 'we tried to negotiate for hostage release and israel rejected' and you dont see how thats obviously bullshit. i swear to god that's like reading trump tweets and thinking 'hm maybe this guy has a point'.

A review of phase 2 of the SP series in general and UtE in particular

So I finished Until the End and if I had to summarize phase 2 in one word it would be 'retcon'. 

It was clear that by the end of the last book derek had clearly stopped caring about the rules he previously established and was just bending his lore to fit the narrative instead of the other way around, which is obviously not good since it basically destroys the stakes of the story and challenges my suspension of disbelief. At this point my disbelief has plummeted to the ground and shattered into a million pieces derek, thats how suspended my disbelief currently is.

Also where's this sudden obsession with family trees coming from?! When cassion being skulduggerys son was debunked I was so relieved cause the whole concept of skul having a secret child all along was so ridiculous and out of left field it never would have been a credible plot point, you only had to stop and think about it for more than one second to conclude that that new information clearly didn't fit in with what we knew from phase 1. It seems derek sensed my relief though, and decided to spite me with this last book, so now not only does skulduggery have a secret daughter who's painfully uninteresting he also has twenty one grandkids, twenty of whom aren't even named and can hardly count as their own characters.

When I heard about phase 2 for the first time I for sure didn't expect it to end with skulduggery having twenty one grandkids he knew nothing about.

This leads quite nicely into another problem I have which is that most of the new characters introduced in phase 2 are boring at best and infuriating at worst. Omen for the most part was bearable but his classmates are forgettable since minute one. But the character that actually pissed me off was Flannery like yes mr landy I get it I get that he's trump now can you please for one page stop portraying him so cartoonishly evil?? I mean this book series has had its fare share of one dimensional bad guys that do their job in the story but with Flannery the line between one dimensional and insufferable was crossed ages ago. I GET IT. FLANNERYS THE WORST. AND I KNOW THAT FROM THE PREVIOUS TWENTY CHAPTERS WHERE HE WAS THE WORST. I DON'T LIKE TRUMP EITHER MR. LANDY BUT CAN WE GET TO THE POINT WITH THIS CHARACTER. The fact I had to deal with Flannery for five books should be illegal. Same thing goes with Sebastian btw, derek kind of dodged that bullet at the last second by revealing him to be omen but that doesn't change the fact that the darquesse subplot appears in all five of the books and only has a resolution in the last one, which means that in the other four books it's mostly wasting pages.

Some characters do have some potential like abyssinia and crepuscular, but the story introduces so many characters and plot points at once every character except valkyrie ends up spread too thin. Some cases are worse than others like with tanith or fletcher, who has been turned into a glorified taxi and no, having him complain about it in the story doesn't solve the problem. Dexter is MIA for most of the books, and it feels like Saracen was only brought back so he could die a meaningless death. Astonishingly not even skulduggery is free from having to fight for the spotlight and that's insane cause he's skulduggery pleasant. His name is in the title of all of the books for fucks sake! He should've had so much more screen time especially considering how much he goes through in phase 2 but noooo, we needed to have two dozen chapters about Flannery and a dozen about Sebastian, those characters are sooo much more interesting than skulduggery! (sarcasm if it wasn't clear).

There was a scene in until the end where skulduggerys sibling suddlenly are revealed to be back because of [insert vague explanation with no previous build up] and its obviously another of the dozens of retcons from this book alone, but one that I actually liked because it opened a door into knowing more about skulduggery which would mean more scenes with him and valyrie but then BUT THEN just as his siblings are about to air their grievances with what skulduggery just did in the story one of his sisters tells valkyrie to leave and she just agrees?! We don't get to see that conversation and its so frustrating!!

But it was clear as I progressed through the story and skuls siblings didn't reappear that that plot point was gonna be explored in a future book, so it was no surprise when I read that skulduggery would return in the last page of the story. And honestly I can't help but feel a bit annoyed that we'll have to wait for that story to be told when I would have rather read it in this book instead of the story we actually got to read. The faceless ones conflict has been resolved and resumed so many times during the course of these books it's become almost funny (almost) so I'm mostly glad that it finally finally seems to be gone for good with this book and perhaps we can focus on skulduggerys siblings in the next phase (that is, if derek doesn't decide to add a hundred different plot points that are terribly boring and makes us have to sit through them to get to the story with actual potential)

TL;DR: Derek is a known iron man fan and he most likely named these last five books as 'phase 2' as a way to mimic the phases of the mcu, but i find it ironic how his book series is also mimicking the mcu´s phase 4 in terms of its drop in quality and its overreliance on nostalgia to keep the readers enganged. I didn´t want ghastly back in the story derek, i wanted a story with actual consequences and stakes, you´re trampling all over your lore, undermining the first nine books and alienating the fans who loved those first nine books with this new direction you´re taking as a storyteller. 

5/10 and I´m being quite generous. Reread phase 1 instead. 

An Examination of Political Cartoons in the Time of Covid

This is a cartoon by artist Clay Jones, who runs a blog for showcasing his cartoons called Tales from the Trumpster Fire. This piece specifically looks to target the racial targeting involved in the collection of censuses and Jared Kushner’s overseeing of the secret coronavirus task force. There aren’t a ton of symbols in here, but we can point both to the Nazi armband on the census taker and the SS insignia on his hat as a representation for the artist’s belief that these practices are racist and totalitarian and comparable to certain nazi practices. We also have the dress shirt and tie on the father, which is meant to symbolize that he is a hard working man. This is meant to emphasize the injustice of the family being ignored and looked over by the man looking to take census information from only white people. Things are labeled for clarity, such as the word Jared on Jared Kushner’s body. His head is already exaggeratedly long with the long outward ears and big lips for which he famously has. I believe the labeling of Kushner is to let people know who it is despite the fact they’ve already done a caricature of him, only because he isn’t yet a household name, so some folks might not recognize him on appearance alone. Here, there isn’t so much an analogy, as much as there is a heavy exaggeration of what is actually happening. Jared Kushner isn’t involved in actually going door to door and ignoring the censuses of black citizens, but that is what him and his organization are doing in a metaphorical sense. They’re not literally hollering out for only white voters to complete the census, it’s just that they’re ignoring and not putting the same sort of emphasis on collecting black votes. The cartoonist is saying that this is obviously a bad thing and thinks it resembles nazi-like fascist. Even though I agree, I don’t really find this piece that persuasive, as it is both very basic, and the view it argues against isn’t one I can see many people agreeing with in the first place. There aren’t a ton of people who believe censuses of white people are more important, because most average people would see that as a cartoonishly evil view to hold. However, I can imagine that some diehard Trump supporters who view immigrants as evil outsiders, and think white is the national race of America, would take issue with the comic. I definitely don’t think those people would be persuaded, though. 

by artist Tornoe for The Inquirer

Symbols: Face mask, Phillies Jersey, Foam Finger. The face mask represents coronavirus prevention measures, the Phillies jersey and foam finger represent sports fandom.

Exaggeration: No noticeable exaggeration, other than there only being one fan in the empty stadium. Either the event wouldn’t allow an audience, or there would be more people at this event. Also it is exaggerated here that the man would have no problem going out in public to watch the sport, but he’s not willing to accept a hot dog from a worker who potentially has the virus. 

Labeling: Very limited use of labeling here, besides the Hot Dog vessel, which would be labeled in real life, as well as the jersey. 

Analogy: Not really any analogy here, it is more poking fun of the current situation by presenting us an absurd hypothetical scenario. 

Irony: I think the irony here is that the fan is so devoted that he made his way out to the sporting event during quarantine and he’s so loyal to his team, but he’s still cautious about the guy serving hot dogs. I think it could also be joking about how unsanitary the hot dogs are known for being. 

This cartoon is about the closing off of sporting events to audiences and the fans who are heartbroken by it. I don’t think the cartoonist feels any particular way about it, except for that it’s ridiculous how devoted sports fans are for their teams. I see this as a cartoon that’s more trying to find humor in a political situation than try to take down a specific figure or issue. 

by artist Loujie for Cagle Cartoons

Symbols: Steak, Statue of Liberty, Coronavirus Cells, Fat guy, Torch, Tablet from the Statue. 

The steak is a symbol of wealth, as well as the “fat cat” representing greed and wealth. The coronavirus cells represent the pandemic, and calamity affecting the people outside the window. The statue of liberty in this case representing America, as well as her torch representing freedom and democracy, and the tablet representing the Fourth of July and the declaration of independence, which the fat cat is eating his steak on. Red wine on the table also represents luxury.

Exaggerations: The fat guy is exaggerated in his rotundity and the poor people outside are exaggerated in their panic pounding at the window. The statue of liberty is also scaled down to be able to fit into the room, which is the opposite of exaggeration. 

Labeling: The Rich, The Poor.

Analogy: America bailing out the rich and doing little for the poor is like our values bending over to serve the rich. They’re luxuriating while the average person is suffering. 

Irony: The rich are comfortable and profiting more than others, while the poor are left to get sick and suffer below. It’s ironic because America wasn’t founded on those values, but Lady Liberty is bowing to the whims of the elite. 

The artist is clearly saying it’s wrong that this is happening as the average Americans build the backbone of the country. He thinks income inequality is out of control and the wealthy are controlling America to benefit them. People who disagree with them would be rich people or the poor people who worship the rich and want to become part of that class. Not a very convincing piece, more just solidifies what people already know about the upper class. 

by artist Steve Benson for Creator’s Syndicate

Symbols: Death, Grave Stone, Covid Face Masks

Exaggerations: Not everyone is going to die so the right side is a bit of an exaggeration, but the death representing America reopening represents the massive casualties that can occur from reopening early amidst the second wave of covid-19. 

Labeling: “First wave: America Shuts Down” “Second Wave: America Re-Opens 

Analogy: Opening up businesses early is like inviting death into the country.

Irony: By trying to save our economy, we’d be killing our people, and thus doing devastating irreversible damage to the economy. 

The artist is concerned about America Reopening early and believes we will suffer many casualties because of this. Opponents of this message would be conspiracy theorists, conservatives, and business owners afraid of losing profits or going out of business. I find it fairly convincing as political cartoons go, but I don’t think it’s really gonna sway anyone.

by artist Tom Stiglich for MediaNews Group

Symbols: Foxes, Feathers, Joe Biden Campaign Pin, Chickens, Chicken Coop.

Exaggerations: The New York Times, DMC, and Joe Biden have been anthropomorphized into foxes. Joe Biden is shown to be murdering chickens, which is not what he actually has done. 

Labeling: New York Times, Democratic National Committee, Biden. 

Analogy: The New York Times and DMC are in cahoots with Joe Biden aka fellow foxes, so them saying they’ll investigate him fairly, is like foxes saying they’ll investigate a chicken murder perpetrated by a fellow fox fairly. 

Irony: They all committed the crime and are covering it up together.

This cartoonist is untrustworthy of Joe Biden and the people who claim to be investigating his claims of wrongdoing. People who disagree with this would be staunch liberals, or people who like Joe Biden. For me it is fairly persuasive, because even though I am a liberal, I am wary of trusting Joe Biden, or the New York Times, or the Democratic National Committee. I think it’s a cartoon that reaches both sides of the aisle because Joe Biden is a terrible candidate, and even us liberals who are voting for him are really not happy with him as an option. I do appreciate that during a time of corona-virus, this is one of the few up to date cartoons that chooses to tackle another topic, and I applaud it’s originality while still being timely. 

I mean, this is an obviously crazy-impractical half-assed undercooked sorta-half-idea that someone threw in there as an “innovation” that couldn’t possibly be enacted (for one thing, grocery chains will have a FIT), but let’s focus on how cartoonishly evil this is:

Under the Trump proposal, which the Agriculture Department has dubbed “America’s Harvest Box,” all households receiving more than $90 per month in benefits — 81 percent of SNAP households overall — would begin receiving about half their benefits in the form of government-purchased, nonperishable food items.

Those foods would include shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned meat, fruits and vegetables, according to the USDA. The department estimates that it could supply these goods at about half the cost of retail, slashing the cost of SNAP while still feeding the hungry.

No fresh fruit or vegetables for you! No more actually choosing the food you eat, dietary requirements be damned! We hate poor families this much!