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starshipsofstarlord · 3 years

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Stuck in 1903

Part Two

Masterlist

Summary: Damon and Bonnie had come to your rescue, or so you thought, but it is Kai’s every intention to get close to you again

Pairing: Kai Parker x reader

Warnings: angst, smidge of fluff, mentions of smut, mentions of death, mentions of murder, bad friendships, mentions of poison, swearing

Word Count: 2052

Find Part One Here

divider by @firefly-graphics

If the Other Side continued to exist, then you would be there rather than this subordinate prison world which had been designed for one bad witch. Kai's own kind feared him, you had experienced him mentally draining your energy, he was a chore to put up with, but he could do much more than that, you had learnt from Bonnie. He fed off magic, physically stealing it from bodies and items that harboured any of it, which had poisoned his mind to hunt for power. Your friends had informed you that he had murdered his siblings, well some of them anyway, and had attempted to do so to more of them. And now you knew, with supporting evidence, never to trust Malakai Parker.

Without Damon and Bonnie you had to resort to fending for yourself, which was not at all difficult since this version of Mystic Falls that you were trapped in was quite literally a ghost town. The forever enveloping silence was torture, though the method of ignorance had not been designed for you; it was all for Kai, and that unsettled you. There was one more thing that you had been dreading - the possibility that you could not escape from the remote isolation without the aid of the guest starring siphon himself. This hell was built to contain him for eternity, but now there was magic that he could use to his own advantage nearby.

Your cheek rested upon the side of your hand, mushing the flesh whilst your elbow was poised upon the countertop of the kitchen island in the Salvatore house. All of your concentration validated your deep thoughts, of which you were broken from as a plate was placed directly in front of you, a pancake decorated with chocolate chips and syrup to form a smiley face. Damon was the culprit as he threw a tea towel over his shoulder, expectedly looking at you.

"I'm not hungry." You informed the vampire, who simply frowned at your lack of an appetite. "I ate yesterday, which was technically today." Beneath the table, you crossed your ankles, as you earnt a sigh from your well aged friend; he clearly was not impressed by your behaviour. But you didn't know what he had expected from you, you had been trapped here for longer than you could remember, and alone until you had discovered the man that had been outcast by his own family. At the time you had not known of his murderous tendencies, and had wanted nothing more than to get away from him, and you wouldn't like to admit it but you even missed him a little.

He was annoying and cocky, and withheld crucial information from you, though there was something that contradicted that all. Whenever any one of your friends had suffered the fate of death, they were always attempted to be brought back to life against the natural order of things. It made you wonder and doubt a little if they had even tried to resurrect you. In this separated reality, there was no jurisdiction so that you could know, though each time that either Damon or Bonnie looked at you, you could swear that there was guilt written in their gazes.

"Look I knew being stuck here with Kai must have fucked you up-" he should have bit his lip, his assumptions were anything but correct. And that was proven as you defensively darted out of your seat and jabbed your finger in his face, making him pivot his jaw back. There were many things that were 'fucked up', and supposing that you were one of them because you had died after sacrificing yourself to ensure that they all continued to live just didn't settle right with you. The context of the morbid situation did not help with condoning any reassurance at all, in fact, it gave a spine to your lack of faith in him and the others in the first place. Out of everyone, it was inherently worse to be here with Damon, all he had cared about was his precious Elena as well as himself, and after existing for well over a century, that was insurance that he was never going to change.

"It wasn't him who did that to me, it was roaming this damned place by myself, I had no one. And as crazy as it sounds, I think spending time with the notorious Malakai Parker helped me keep what was to spare of my sanity. If I'm not wrong, I may even say that I've found more being here than dealing with the bullshit y'all cause back home." Perhaps your words were a tad harsh, if Bonnie were in the room you were sure that she'd have a somewhat understanding of what you were saying. Though she was not, and thus you had to deal with the harshness of her best friend all by your lonesome. And it seemed that you had rattled him, apparently he couldn't handle the truth.

"Then why don't you run back to the sociopath? When we discovered that you were here, we found the pair of you attached to the hip anyways. And with him inside of you, I'd never seen you so darn happy, better here with him than tempting me to drink bleach from the way that you constantly complained when you were alive; I swear you were worse than Donovan." It was on your mind's own command for you to take a step back, and away from the toxin that Damon had so cruelly spat at you. Ans the way that he compared you to Matt made you angry; it was though he were ignoring that there were valid reasons for the blond to be the way that he was - after all, the monster before you had practically killed his sister. A laugh renegaded out from your mouth as you realised that you had been right all along, none of them cared. You were just a burden that stopped them from having a perfect life together. If this were a book, then this would be the beginning to your villain arc, and ironically enough Damon saw himself as one of the good guys. Now that was utterly ridiculous after every reckless thing that he had ever done!

"Have it your way then bloodsucker." All along, you should have trusted your guy, and from now on you knew that you would listen to it. And strangely enough, it was calling you to Kai, maybe it was because he was your last resort to escaping this imprisonment that had been meant for him alone. Turning on your heel, you heard Damon flop the towel down on the side and sigh, though you continued to walk, appeasing your better judgement elsewhere. "Wait." He tried to convince you to stay, belatedly understanding the mistake that he had made, but it was no use, you were already on your journey of getting as far away as possible from him.

The Mystic Grill, it remained to be familiar in your eyes as you entered. It was empty and void of drunken assholes and narcissists that you had wasted too much time on. The only person that you missed in the modern alternative was Matt Donovan, he was the only person that didn't treat you as though you were invisible or a nuisance. You wondered how he was coping with your absence, knowing him, he was probably relieved that Damon was gone. But you weren't, because he was here with you instead. Trailing your fingertips over the counter of the bar, out of the corner of your eye you saw a lonely glass of bourbon that was sat there as though it were lamenting you with mockery. You tried to hold your sentimental sob inside, but it was practically impossible. It tore through your body, bellowing out from your mouth as you stifled and fought through your tears.

A hand caressed the landscape of your back causing you to jump and flinch from the unexpected contact. One thing that you had learnt from evading and eventually experiencing the qualms of death, was that you could never be too careful. For no more than a second you had predicted that the intruder to your pity party was Damon, that he had followed you as you tried to distance yourself from him, but alas it was not, instead of being greeted by a fretless vampire, you were condemned by the sight of a powerless witch, of whom had purposely interjected your moment of cracked emotion and wore a brave smile for you. Wiping your eyes with the back of your sleeves, you couldn't help but snap at him. "If you're here to finish what we started then tough luck Parker, you've been here long enough and you have two hands, figure something else out."

His tongue darted out to swipe at his own bottom lip, as he raised his hand, showcasing his offering to you. "I was only going to see if you wanted a pork rind, you look like you could use one." Sighing, you dug your hand into the pungent packet that was littered with dust and crumbs, retrieving a few treats for yourself as you placed them in your mouth. "And now should be when the poison kicks in..." With your hand, you gave him a little shove as you tolled your eyes at his homicidal comedy. "Come on, that was funny! I'm funny!"

"If you say so, there's not very many people around to give you an honest opinion." It was true, the only other human like lifeforms impartially close by were Damon and Bonnie, and well, you weren't going to scurry back to them anytime soon. "And if you had poisoned me, then you would know that I would be fine and dandy in not so long, It wouldn't make a difference if that wasn't the case either, I mean I'm already dead, what could be worse than that?" Kai looked at you with shock; he didn't know that about you, that you had actually suffered a final breath. Now he thought about it, the grand scheme of things he didn't know much about you in general, though he was prepared to learn. He had often found death to be fulfilling, satisfying even, but he'd never thought about its victims being so beautiful. Yet here you were before him, by chance the one force that could motivate and help him find a way out of this jarring hole of reaping misery.

"You're here, that's all that matters." As soon as those words fled from his lips he realised exactly what he had said, and a blush framed his features. "I um - that wasn't what I - you know, yeah..." He scratched the back of his neck as you shook your head at this new side that you were seeing of Malakai. His parents called him Malakai, of course he was going to become a killer, but right now you saw nothing more than an embarrassed boy whose skin had flushed as an affect of his own words. From your experience, everyone was either the killer or the killed - you two were one of each. Like ying and yang, you fit perfectly, it was a balanced divide that was settled on whichever rhythm played out in the air. And to correspond with that thought you walked over to the jukebox, a song beginning to play which made Kai want to cover his ears. "I hate this song." He told you; he really did, if he could murder it, he would without a doubt.

"Then don't listen, just dance with me." You extended your hands out to him, to which he begrudgingly reached for. And as he snapped his eyes open, he realised that was all a memory, and that goddamn song was still playing. All he could think about was you, he had seen how upset you had been to die, and yet you were gone again, and it was all down to your so called friends. One was standing before him as he sat in chains, imprisoned against a chair. "Are you here to punish me?" He asked Bonnie, wanting nothing more than shut his eyes and see your face again.

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gofancyninjaworld · 4 years

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watching ONE write women

One of the joys of following a writer for a while is that you get to follow how their ideas develop. One of the things that ONE brought up in an interview (annoyingly I’ve lost the link) was that he didn’t think that he wrote women particularly well.

I was thinking about that. When ONE says that, what comes across to me is that he has no problem writing a female character as an individual rather than a role. All the girls and women he’s written so far have their own voices, own their problems, and have something to do within the story that would be noticeable if they weren’t there. Quite frankly, that alone is over and above what various tests of representation (such as the Bechdel test) ask for.

What he’s not so good at is appreciating what being female brings to a character’s experiences and outlook. But he’s not just left it at that. More on what he’s been doing in a bit (and under the cut).

“...the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges...” -- Anatole France

With his sharp eye and talent for exploring the implications of whatever he posits, ONE has brought up some issues are not inherently gendered, but usually are.

A: Childcare

Metal Bat appears to be the main, if not sole, carer for Zenko. How it affects him is fascinating. He’s one of the longest-serving heroes in the Hero Association, being there before Class S was formed, literally within the first six months of its establishment. He’s been extremely loyal and is highly trusted by the HA -- they put Narinki’s life into his hands without fear. His battle strength is literally praised to the heavens.

Metal Bat makes Zenko a priority, structuring his availability around her school schedule and being present in her life. He gets very angry if these times are threatened without overwhelmingly good cause. His reward is to be perceived by the Hero Association as less committed and so they under-recognise him in terms of ranking, and since rank and pay are linked, under-pay him as well. It’s a story all too many women can relate to. But that’s not all.

Because ONE writes so simply yet conscientiously, something else comes up and has a peek: intersectionality. It’s the concept that we often have multiple social disadvantages that interact and compound our problems. The first is sexism. Regardless of whatever childcare policy the HA has, the sexist assumption that only women care (for the record: this is bullshit) makes it unlikely for them to ask Metal Bat. Second, social capital. The fact that he’s Zenko’s sole carer means that he has low social capital, that informal network of people around you who can help out -- or tell you where to find help and what things to say in order to get that help. [Aside: this is why programmes to help people, unless they reach out aggressively, tend to disproportionately attract those who need it least.] Metal Bat doesn’t have the knowledge. The third is the challenge brought by his being a 17-year old boy. He’s quick to perceive challenge as threat, and threat as something to be met by anger. Witness him threatening to smash the HA headquarters if it turns out that he’s missed Zenko’s piano recital for nothing -- completely not useful to anything. [Another aside: the importance of learning to disambiguate emotions and do useful things with them even if it means being vulnerable as a part of growing up as a man is the whole point of Mob Psycho 100.]

What do the Neo Heroes do? They ask Metal Bat if he wants help with childcare AND HE JUMPS SHIP PRONTO. If that’s not an indictment of the Hero Association, I don’t know what is.

B: Emotional Labour

Saitama has been delegating more and more of the day-to-day work to Genos. What started as an act of service to express his gratitude, respect and love for Saitama is increasingly turning into a second job for Genos. It’s not just the cooking and cleaning and the shopping and the bailing Saitama out if he’s forgotten his wallet again, it’s also the worrying about Saitama, sometimes at inappropriate times. Has he drunk enough water? Has he clean clothes in good repair? What sales is he looking forward to? Have they been marked on the calendar? It’s honestly not doing Genos any good, and it’s one of those things all too many frustrated wives and girlfriends can relate to. This doing the practical and emotional work for another is not intrinsically gendered, but funny how often it breaks that way.

It’s not doing Saitama any good either. He’s using this freed up time to fritter his life ever more aggressively away, playing games with King and finding pointless competitions to enter, all while complaining about feeling less and less connected to anything (if you don’t address the problem, it doesn’t get better, duh!). Worse, he’s started to take that gift of service for granted, witness him airily telling King how he’ll just have Genos go clear up the mess of monsters he’s left outside the flat. I was heartened to see what happened when Saitama went a little too far and asked Genos to go cook and instead of jumping up, Genos gave him the the evil eye and let the awkwardness hang there. That was good -- there’s hope for this guy yet.

Speaking of Genos, he also over-functions for something else Saitama struggles with: advocating for himself. He tends to have Genos be the ugly one so he doesn’t have to be. You can see just how bad he is at self-advocacy when Forte and friends could invite themselves into Saitama’s house at will despite his protests -- and it stopped the instant Genos showed up.

In a sense, it’s not surprising that Genos can do that. When you’re differently-abled (and for once, this is not a euphemism) as he is, being able to clearly ask for what you want and need is life-and-death necessary. If Genos was shy about it, he’s long since had to discard that. But! Let me point to a nuance the story touches on. How pushy you can be without being punished for it depends a lot on who you are, intersecting strongly with race, gender, social status, etc (remember my mentioning intersectionality before). What’s called assertive in a man is called bitchy or sharp-elbowed in a woman. Even taking gender and race out of the equation, there’s still a noticeable difference in the way the world treats Saitama and Genos. You don’t need to be Sigmund Freud to understand the way the short, ugly Dr. Kuseno sweats making sure that Genos positively radiates youth, beauty, wealth and power. That’s part of his right to ask and be taken seriously. You can see how drastically different it is for Saitama, even from his middle school days. Genos notices, and makes sure to leverage his social power for Saitama.

What I love about these examples are that by not automatically heaving a woman into these characters’ roles, ONE’s brought a less frequently seen angle that illustrates the problems they deal with are not ‘womens’ issues per se but are rather inequities that disproportionately affect women -- which is at the heart of what feminists keep saying. When you read Makai no Ossan, you can appreciate that ONE could have gone with female characters and done a great job, but his choosing not to has brought a very welcome dimension to the story.

Women proper

“I’m not like other girls”

Still, bit by bit, ONE has been working more women into his stories. After his interview, the next thing he worked on was the single-volume sequel to Mob Psycho 100, Reigen. He took his challenge head-on by making the POV character Tome and putting her in an all-girls’ high school.

Throughout the story, we see Tome thinking of herself as special, better than her fellow classmates, whom she sees as vapid and shallow. The denouement comes with Tome being humbled as she gets to know her classmates better and realises that they pursue interests just as varied and weird as hers -- only they’re also practicing being socially adept on top of that.

It’s a gentle story, but it’s still a great side-swipe at self-internalised misogyny, the idea that it’s shameful to be like a ‘girl’ and it’s something to distance oneself from. Fortunately, Tome can laugh at herself and grow up.

“Ha ha ha”

For a long time, the only (named) women we had in OPM were Tatsumaki and her younger sister Fubuki. We’ve gotten more women both good and bad: in particular, it’s been very gratifying to find that one of the most dangerous, story-shaping villains in the story is Psykos.

In the webcomic, ONE’s pushed even further. A recent Tweet featured him talking about how hard he finds it to draw women. And he’s added several. No same-face for him! I’ll talk about the new heroines he’s added, but first, let me draw your attentions to something most artists don’t realize they do: massively skew the gender distribution of crowds, even when it is incredibly illogical to do so. With ONE, even drawing the crowds at the fair who gaggle at Amai Mask, he’s got a far more even balance of women and they’re not all young and pretty -- which is much more true-to-life. He’s in the business of drawing people.

ONE has featured microaggressions before, particularly in the way Fubuki can have perfectly sound things to say and be totally ignored, but he brings it properly to the fore with Suiko. No one calls her incompetent, but the little put downs she gets when she puts herself forward for the hero test in lieu of her brother, oh they’re well-observed The look on her face just makes it. I love the way she shut the recruiters up subsequently.

Let’s conclude this tour with a look at Webigaza’s lonely figure. We have another mono-manically focused cyborg in the story. Genos has been called a lot of things -- determined, obsessive even, but crazy? Never. Notice who it’s been reserved for instead. It’s no slip of the tongue.

Wrapping Up

I’m of the impression that ONE really wants to try to capture as much of the human experience as he can in his stories, however whimsical or fantastical the stories themselves are. I’m disarmed by his humility in accepting that he’ll never have the lived experience of half the world’s population but he sure as hell can put some effort into learning how to to writing well-realised, believable, female characters.

I watch ONE’s continued development as a writer with interest.

#OPM #Reigen #ONE #meta #long #women #female characters #I like that ONE treats women not as creatures whose problems and experiences can't possibly be understood #but as people first and foremost #perfect? No and who is #ongoing and adding to his understanding -- yes

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amedetoiles · 4 years

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give me a character meme! wwx please!!

[All gifs made by me. No stealing or reposting, thank you. ♥︎]

★ How I feel about this character

I love wwx so much and he deserves so much!!! My feelings for him can be summed up by my first ever meta in this fandom, this half-crack half-shitpost, and the many many meta tears scattered across all the tags on my page that various people have yelled at me for. I love him. I love him, I love him, I love him. No character has wrecked me as much as this stupid chaotic ass, who is so inherently good and selfishly selfless it fucking hurts. Yet, for all the love and care he gives freely to everyone else, he can’t for the life of him compute any that others have given to him. He tries so hard to be good, to make the right choices even in impossible, horrendous circumstances, and it’s excruciatingly painful watching him realize again and again that even good choices paved with good intentions can cause destruction. He suffers so much because of it. He suffers before we even really meet him. @cangse-sanren wrote “Your parents were bright smears of color and laughter to you, but little more” in this beautiful fic, and I still weep about it daily.

I love how immensely protective he is of both his siblings. He just tries so goddamn hard to be what everyone needs. I could and have and will continue to cry about him every day. How his pathological tendency to repress all things that hurt him, to cover up his pain in humor and obnoxiousness and bravado, and his internalized belief that he is worth much less than everyone else, all converged into the most awful way possible. How despite losing his sect, his siblings, his friends, he was still trying up until the very end. God, what a fantastically complex fucking character. To watch him bloom again after that deluge of rage and grief and insanity 13/16 years later was the most satisfying journey anyone could possibly depict. To know that he has the chance to heal, to recover, to grow with all the different parts of his family he once thought lost forever now back in his reach (yes! even our angry grape!!). Truly amazing.

★ All the people I ship romantically with this character

WangXian!!!! These kids who came out of endless tragedy and trauma to find a love, a trust in each other–theirs is a love story that truly extends across space and time. It warms my heart to watch them rebuild their lives together into something warmer, and brighter, and happier than either of them ever grew up knowing. To watch them shed the psychological trauma on what it means to love and be loved given to them by their terrible parental figures and say, “No. We’re going to be better than that.” I love how they complement one another. How loudly and quietly they love each other. How in the warm security of each other’s embrace, they are each able to work through their own internalized traumas without judgement. Lan Wangji’s uncompromising devotion. Wei Wuxian’s fierce protectiveness. It’s hard to say who else could fit together so perfectly. What a joy it is to watch Wei Wuxian realize that he is no longer alone, that Lan Wangji is and will always be standing beside him. What a joy it is to watch Lan Wangji realize that this is not the dream he’s spent years suffering through, that Wei Ying has returned to him against all odds. What a fucking joy it is to watch them both learn to trust happiness, to trust love, to trust each other. GOD. *wails*

★ My non-romantic OTP for this character

YUNMENG SHUANGJIE. YUNMENG SIBS. YILING SIBS. A-YUAN AND HIS TWO DADS. All the different found families that permeated the story was just breathtakingly beautiful. They all fucking gutted me. It all at once makes Wei Wuxian’s story that much more beautiful and that much more tragic. For a child who lost his parents before he even had time to remember them, who then had to rebuild his family again and again, only to lose them each time in increasingly horrifying ways–it truly fucked me up. Wei Wuxian stood on that cliff in Nightless City, and it was visibly clear that he wanted nothing more than to join all the families he loved and watched die (because of him).

The beauty of his story of course is that for all the tragedy that he is subsumed by, for all the ways that he is wronged and has wronged, there are equal, if not more, number of ways that he is lifted, is healed, is shone a light through all the darkness. In the end, his families return to him. Wen Ning, who lived despite it all, carrying the memory of his sister, the best doctor in the world. His shijie shining through his bratty nephew’s heart of gold. His very own A-Yuan, kept safe and protected all these years by his soulmate, his zhiji. His angry grape of a little brother who can’t say I forgive you but tosses him Chenqing that he’s kept safe all these years and says I trust you. They’re all a little broken, a little worse for wear, but there’s something extraordinarily beautiful about these families who find each other again through the bridges they rebuild towards something better.

★ My unpopular opinion about this character

Oh man, I’ve seen a lot of debate about wwx that I try not to get into (I type this of course as I ready myself to do exactly that). Probably the most unpopular opinion (possibly?) I have is that I don’t personally feel like the addition of a second flautist and expanding Jin Guangyao’s villain-ry in CQL detracted or reduced Wei Wuxian’s complex morality–one of my favorite and best parts to his character. I still think he is very gray. His tragedy is still contingent on his naive idealism and his willful blindness that a person only needs to be righteous and honorable regardless of reputation and politics. This clearly isn’t the case. Not just for him, but for all the characters. You can do everything right and still be punished. You can do everything right and still cause others pain. You can be the most hypocritical, loudmouthed piece of judgmental shit and still remain unpunished and available to share your stupid ass ignorant opinions on matters that have nothing to do with you. (Whoops that got away from me.) Wei Wuxian learns this repeatedly. It’s excellent and heartbreaking.

The thing about Wei Wuxian is that for all that he has imposter syndrome, for all that he is unable to see that he is a person worthy of the love he receives, he is still not only extremely confident in his own abilities and in his beliefs of what is right and what is wrong, but also that he is the person who can decide that line between justice and evil. An arrogant assumption, and one that causes not only him but the people he strives to protect a significant amount of pain. This wasn’t lost in CQL. While the plot technically does absolve him of all of his crimes on a surface level, it’s clearly not as simple for Wei Wuxian himself. In the Ancestral Hall, Wei Wuxian stares at the names of Jiang Fengmian, Madam Yu, and Jiang Yanli, whose lives are heavily felt on his shoulders, and he tells Lan Wangji, “After all, the Stygian Tiger Seal was created by me. Whether Jin Guangyao was there or not, that fact can’t be changed.” The show despite its censorship still asks the audience to evaluate his actions and the role he played, both willing and unwillingly, in the deaths of so many people.

It is also shown clearly that the cultivation world only stops trying to kill him because there was now another target, another scapegoat to blame. This is something that Wei Wuxian knows and expresses on multiple occasions on the show. For all that the show may have change things, I don’t think it’s necessarily correct or fair to say that it completely washed away the nuance that was present in the novel. The overarching conflicts and questions are still there. What is moral and what isn’t, what is justified and what isn’t, who is at fault for unforeseen consequences and who isn’t, and the role of external factors and circumstances in all of this. As someone who watched the drama first, I didn’t feel that the complexity of all the characters and their decisions was lost at all in comparison to the novel I later read. The show was honestly superb and still the best version for me overall. (Please don’t send pitchforks.) I have so much more to say about this, and Jin Guangyao still being a great nuanced character foil, but alas, this is already too long.

Other things: Wei Wuxian is a good brother actually, and he knows Jiang Cheng very well. He tried his best under the worst possible circumstances, and it was a great big shit show. I hate discussions where people try to hold one brother more responsible than the other. They both very nobly (and very recklessly) sacrificed a great deal for each other, and they both, frankly, fucked up. They’re Twin Idiots, and I’ll love and drag them both equally dammit! With that in mind, Wei Wuxian’s happy ending isn’t just him joining GusuLan sect, novel be fucking damned (yes, I said it!). His home can be in Gusu and Yunmeng. *SLAMS FISTS* Let 👏 Wei 👏 Wuxian 👏 go 👏 home 👏. (Talking to you, my grape guy. Jin Ling is going to show up in Lotus Pier one day with his da-jiu, and you’re just going to have to deal with it.)

★ One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

WEI WUXIAN PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HUG YOUR DIDI. Jiang Cheng has been waiting 16+ years for your hug, and he damn well deserves one, especially since he gave you such a great octopus hug, all limbs and burrowed scrunchy faces. Like, I know, I know, you were distraught, and traumatized, half-beaten to death after three days of intense surgery, then reaped by ten thousand undead souls calling for revenge, but guess who told your favorite (only) angry grape little brother that in the next life, let’s be brothers again okay? GUESS WHO IS LIVING HIS NEXT LIFE??????? Bruh. Chop chop. Hop fucking to it.

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itsclydebitches · 4 years

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Hello again, everyone! This is a long one so let’s dive straight in.

We open up on Fox who, like everyone else in this novel, is upset about one thing or another. In his case it's that he wound up watching a club/gambling house (the exact nature of the establishment is murky) with Coco instead of patrolling the more lively restaurant and club district (even though this place, as said, is referred to as a club at time). Which, to be fair to Fox, is a legitimate complaint when you're blind and can't really do the whole "watching" part of the activity. Initially he believes that Coco must have a good reason for choosing him... “Unless he’d done something to get on her bad side."

In fact, this is such a likely possibility that Fox begins questioning Coco on where everyone is (a convenient way to let the audience know too), what they were assigned to do, and whether that assignment came about due to petty revenge. He complains that Team SSSN has gotten all the "fun stuff"—are you doing a job or goofing off, Fox?—but Coco reassures him that they're not being rewarded and he's not being punished. It's just that any other combination didn't sit right with her. Would Fox have enjoyed going off with Sun? No. If Sun was paired with another would they have wanted to watch Neptune? Not really. Does Fox even trust Sun? Not as of yet:

"I don’t know Sun yet. Not really. I guess I don’t trust Team SSSN to not mess things up for us. They’re sloppy and off-balance right now.”

Coco follows this up by saying that Scarlet and Sage get to guard the Academy wall because she doesn't want Scarlet near Sun after their argument at the group therapy meeting, and he himself is "too zealous" about protecting the Academy. So it's just easier not to fight him. “If we don’t want them to get in our way, or worse, raise a big enough stink that we can’t continue our investigation, it’s better to keep them involved in a limited capacity.”

Now, there's a lot to unpack in that statement and I'm not particularly impressed with any of it. First, it bears repeating that we're now four chapters in —about 60 pages in my PDF—and we're still dragging Team SSSN to the shattered moon and back. I'm not claiming that, as Fox says, they're not dealing with stuff right now, or that their emotions are clouding their skills and perception (I called Sun out for that just last chapter), but I certainly question the "friends" who discuss those problems in such a smug manner, rather than wondering if and how they might help. Thus far, the criticism of Team SSSN serves only for Team CFVY to continually paint themselves as the superior group. They assume that, unless handled delicately, SSSN would inevitably "mess things up" because they, at their core, are a worse team than CFVY. These comments exist only to boost CFVY's ego. Thank the gods we're not like that.

This is the same Coco who thought that she knew something about regaining the trust of her team. But does she extend any sympathy and understanding here? Nope. It continues to amaze me how often RWBY writes characters going through very similar, difficult circumstances and yet so few of them admit to those similarities, let alone act on them.

Second, in a franchise rife with themes about earned trust and manipulation, it's worth acknowledging that Coco moves everyone around, including her own team, based on pretty unsubstantiated emotions rather than logic. As someone who has done nothing but insult Sun to his face thus far, she hasn't exactly earned his trust either, yet she's willing to prioritize this assertion that he'll "mess things up" over the best choices for this mission. Meaning, Fox initially thinks that Coco, as a brilliant leader, has a persuasive reason for giving him this task. We learn she doesn't. He then thinks Coco gave him this task as a form of punishment. She didn't. So what are we left with? Coco claims she gave her orders based on her and Fox being able to chat (yay telepathy), but her explanation says it’s really about what she thinks SSSN might do, rather than what she knows her own team can do. At the end of the day (or night in this case) we've got the blind guy on stakeout using his telepathy to keep her entertained, rather than taking the mission he's both better suited for and enjoys more. Coco spouts a lot of stuff that sounds like leader-ly strategy, but in the end she made these calls primarily because she doesn't like SSSN.

So why are they working together again? Because the plot demands it? I wish the novel had done more to justify this partnership other than, 'If we don't let SSSN help they'll rat us out because they're terrible like that.' If the teams hate one another this much just let them work apart. Otherwise, please start the process of having them grow and begin to appreciate one another. As it stands, we have a few buddy-buddy moments that imply they’re “really” friends when the rest of the novel has done little to demonstrate that. It’s confusing at best and uncomfortable at worst, in the same way that watching the group happily invite Oscar to the movies after volumes of ignoring/attacking/using him as an Ozpin scapegoat is uncomfortable. It’s weird. I’m glad it exists, but how did we get here?

However, this growth isn’t going to happen tonight because Coco likewise ensured that no one is mixing. As Fox points out, "conveniently enough, this way you don’t have to break up our team, or mix them and us.” Nor has Coco broken up the usual partner teams of Sun and Neptune, Scarlet and Sage. Anyone who follows my other metas know that I'm waiting for the webseries to mix up RWBY and JNR more (thank you, Volume 8 preview), or at least have Blake work with someone other than Yang and Weiss work with someone other than Ruby, so I was disappointed to see this same trend not only repeated here, but celebrated by another character. Though not as overt as some of the problems in Volumes 6 and 7, this is what I mean by RWBY introducing conflicts but doing little to resolve them. It's a decent setup to pit SSSN's problems against CFVY's bias—When will Sun apologize to his team? When will Coco acknowledge that her intense criticism of him is born far more from assumptions than proof? When will both teams extend a hand to one another that isn't done in the name of self-preservation?—but thus far it's nothing but setup. And the longer it goes on the less a single scene of growth can stand up against that. The less space we have for that growth, period. This is my problem with many villain redemption arcs: a few episodes of contrite behavior cannot emotionally outweigh whole seasons of horrific actions. It's a presumed redemption based on audience expectations, rather than something we see earned throughout the course of the story. For me, there has to be a certain amount of time and effort put into that change. The worse the actions, the more time and effort needed to, if not absolve them, at least get everyone to a point where they can be set aside. Before the Dawn feels like a very mild case of this, in that I'm wondering how long everyone is going to act this way towards one another before things start getting better. The longer it goes on, the more I expect of the story in order to dig the characters out of it. Though serviceable, a scene like "Then Sun realized he was pushing everyone away and Coco realized she'd been too hard on him, so they both decided to change. Maybe for persuasive reasons, maybe not. The end" isn't emotionally engaging. The disagreeable characteristics across this cast are numerous, yet RWBY doesn't feel like a story where I'm suppose to dislike everyone in an entertaining way—a la Mean Girls.

Thus, I'm wondering when we'll actually start the work of getting me to like this group more/getting them to like each other more, as well as how much of that work we’ll see overall.

Right, I've blathered on about this quite enough. The story (unconsciously I assume) continues to emphasize how expected it is that Coco would give awful jobs to teammates because she's annoyed with them, which doesn't say great things about her leadership, but that at least is something I could easily see a teenager with that kind of power doing. She and Fox round out the list of bad jobs by mentioning that Velvet and Yatsuhashi got stuck with grimm watch, "the duty of the low-rent Huntsmen who worked loosely with local law enforcement to help keep the peace." Given how they discuss this, the implication seems to be that this is an insulting job to give their teammates, which is hilarious considering that these four aren't even huntsmen yet. They're second years! 'What'd they do to deserve a job for low-rent huntsmen?' asks the guy who isn't a huntsmen at all yet.

We learn though that there has been a rise in grimm across the city. How did Coco get that information?

Coco laughed. “I snuck into [Professor Rumpole's] office.”

“Coco!” Fox said.

“Don’t lecture me, Fox.”

Fox smiled. “How dare you do that without inviting me,” he sent.

I get it. I honestly do. It may not seem at times that I understand that a story about a bunch of students has to find a way to get those students involved, or that these students, as teenagers, will do stupid things, that as humans they’ll even do horrible things... but surely there's a way to achieve all this without having our heroes constantly treat their allies in such a callous, disrespectful manner. Breaking rules is not inherently a bad thing. Some rules are unfair and upholding them does more harm than good. Some rules, while important from one perspective, can be broken without any serious repercussions. I never had a problem with Harry, Ron, and Hermione constantly breaking their curfew because kids sneaking out of bed isn't hurting anyone (overlooking the potential of the magic castle hurting them, but I digress). The rule exists for reasons like "You need enough sleep and are unlikely to get that unless we make you" and "A bunch of 11-year-olds shouldn't be left unsupervised in the magic castle" and "Learning how to follow some simple rules and listen to your guardians helps build basic skills needed for adulthood" but really? At the end of the day the Trio breaking that rule—particularly for good reasons like "We suspect nefarious Dark Lord shenanigans are afoot"— is far from the end of the world. Harry Potter also has the added benefit of making the adults actually useless and/or indifferent a lot of the time. We had a story where the kids, more often than not, were the last line of defense.

Rumpole? She is not useless or indifferent. Two chapters ago we established that she is conducting an investigation, Team CFVY just decided that wasn't enough because they want to be involved. And breaking into her office to snoop through her desk? That's not a harmless crime! Beyond the fact that Coco is looking for info she's not allowed to have and finding additional information she's not supposed to have, that's a serious breach of privacy. Clearly neither of them have enough respect for Rumpole to care about that though. Casual rule-breaking like that should be reserved for characters who have failed to earn the respect of the characters or the audience, demonstrating a lack of ethics that (arguably) justifies whatever they get. Basically, the Umbridges and the Lockharts of the world, not the Rumpoles who—far as I have seen so far—have done nothing but take their students seriously and adhere to not unreasonable expectations like, "Please don't get involved in something that might get you killed [cough-Sun taking on three goons-cough] and/or don't ruin the investigation I've already started." Or, at the very least, have the characters feel contrite and guilty about what they felt they had to do.

Why do I like these characters again? It would at least be more satisfying if the story acknowledged that the vast majority of our cast has turned into anti-heroes. I'm fine with that story! But not the one that claims it's "necessary" that our "classic" heroes pull stunts like breaking and entering, theft, lying, etc. without actually providing compelling reasons for those actions. Let Coco break into Rumpole's office, but do the work first of convincing me why she should be involved in this in the first place, why this info is necessary, and why doing that to an ally is necessary too. Kindhearted heroes should have a different reaction to unnecessarily breaking their instructor’s trust than laughter and jokes.

In considering how Before the Dawn intersects with the main webseries, I think it's also worth highlighting that casual line about how more grimm are getting into the city: "There’s been a rise in incidents of Grimm wandering into the city lately." That was one of the major conflicts of Volume 7 and one of the things the fandom uses as a means of mapping Ironwood's downfall: grimm were getting into the city and he failed to stop it, ergo he's a terrible leader, ergo he’s a terrible person, shooting Oscar is something I’d expect of him. Yet the same thing appears to be happening in Vacuo and, thus far, the story isn't interested in giving it the same gravitas. How are the grimm getting in? If the situation is bad enough that Theodore is sending both huntsmen and students to deal with it—“So that’s why Theodore’s been sending more students out lately, clearing the immediate area of Grimm"—isn't he a failed leader as well? Either one of these perspectives work, just not both at once. Either grimm attacks are an inevitable result of living in Remnant and the people deal with them without assigning undo blame, or both headmasters should be facing heat for failing to keep this from happening. So I'll be interested to see if this comes up again and, if so, how. Because right now Coco and Fox are treating it like a casual occurrence, whereas Volume 7 painted it as a serious failing.

We finally learn that Coco and Fox are watching this club because there are two huntsmen gambling inside instead of out doing their job. Except maybe they're off and just like gambling? How do they know there are huntsmen inside to begin with? Or, if they're unsure of that, why are they staking out this specific club? Did they pick one at random because clubs have been associated with the baddies? I feel like I'm constantly playing catchup with this novel. Details are mentioned like Meyers introduced them earlier (he didn't) but then those details still fail to help me make sense of the scene or the characters’ motivations. As I mentioned in the last recap, I never have both pieces of information: what exactly the characters are doing and why they're doing it. Fox and Coco's entire conversation revolves around Fox not know why they're here or what anyone else is up to, but instead of answering his questions we get pieces of information—huntsmen, clubs, grimm attacks, the Crown—that don't easily fit together but are presented as if they do. Then the plot just lands in their lap. Meyers never needs to explain why Coco took the time to stake out this particular club out of an entire city's worth because, of course, it just so happens to be the club where something nefarious is going on. Once they're chasing two baddies it's too late. We've moved on.

Before we get into that chase though, I'd just like to point out the exceedingly odd anti-huntsmen sentiment in this chapter. subtle, but there. As mentioned previously, we have a potential dig at low-rent Huntsmen and the kinds of jobs they do. Then we're told that

"Nothing much happened in Vacuo, and when there was an argument or a crime, people tended to sort things out on their own—with their fists. But when it came to Grimm, Vacuans depended on Huntsmen to fight their battles for them."

This one is admittedly me reading into things a bit (in case anyone missed it: I don't hold this novel in particularly high esteem lol) but "fight their battles for them" is usually a phrasing meant to carry another subtle insult. You need someone else's help and that's bad. Which makes a certain amount of sense for Vacuo's focus on strength, but I wonder why the huntsmen are getting brought into this for... doing their jobs? The explicit purpose of huntsmen is to fight grimm, so it's pretty weird to have a line that implies any negativity for them doing that. Oh, you need huntsmen to fight your battles? How horrible. Even though the huntsmen as an institution exist to fight those battles. It's like saying the first department has to “fight your battles” because you’re not capable of putting the fire out yourself. It carries an implication that, ideally, huntsmen wouldn’t be needed at all. Not because grimm go away, but because people would be able to fight grimm... even though, again, that fantasy already exists within the huntsmen. It’s just weird.

Finally, Fox outright theorizes that maybe there are more grimm because “the Huntsmen are getting lazy" and I'm just ????? You want to be?? A huntsmen??? What is this characterization? At best it reads like Meyers forgot that this group playing detectives are training to become a part of the institution they're criticizing. At worst it reads like the team simply believes themselves to be better than other huntsmen for undisclosed reasons. Like there are normal huntsmen doing grunt jobs and being lazy, and then there's Team CFVY who experienced A Battle and consider themselves vastly more experienced as a result (despite others like Scarlet trying to remind them that they're still only students). I doubt Coco and Fox will come to realize this, not unless something in Before the Dawn really knocks them down a peg, but I honestly wonder in these recent installments why most of these characters want to be huntsmen at all. It’s a job that requires adhering to a hierarchy of authority, obeying the laws of the kingdom you're in, and working closely with what allies are available to you. They don't seem to want any of that, but nor do they frame this as a flawed institution that they hope to improve: “Huntsmen do have a reputation for being lazy, but we’ll fix that once we get our licenses.” As it stands, they want to be vigilantes, getting praise for their deeds but being able to break the rules whenever they please.

Their theorizing is interrupted though when two huntsmen exit the club. How does Coco know they're huntsmen? Huntsmen don't wear uniforms and lots of non-huntsmen folk carry weapons... I simply don’t know. But these two offer to walk one of the gamblers home, considering he's won a fair bit of lien that night. Fox gets interested because their auras are bright enough that he can see them and they're identical, which isn't normal.

But wait. Back up.

Can everyone see auras? Obviously we as the audience can, but the RWBY folk in-world potentially can't, not if Coco doesn't see how "vivid" these auras are herself. Fox is the one providing this information and Fox is the one who needs to track the huntsmen when they flee. This ability seems to be unique to him.

Why can Fox see auras then? That's not his semblance and, far as I can tell, it isn't logically a byproduct of telepathy (like how healing is a byproduct of Jaune amplifying aura). Honestly, it feels like 'The blind character has a special way of seeing the world' trope without actually explaining what that special way is or where it came from.

Why is Fox emphasizing that he can see the auras? The implication is that they're so powerful he, the blind guy, can actually see them... but how is he 'seeing' them the rest of the time? This isn't the first time Fox has been aware of someone's aura because he informs Coco that they're not normally the same color, but if these auras are unique because he can see them, what's happening every other time he comes across non-identical/powerful/weird auras? Does Fox just feel them somehow? Is it a non-visual sense and strong/weirdo auras propel it into sight as well? I'm very confused by all of this.

Regardless, it quickly becomes clear that these huntsmen are actually kidnapping the guy. Fox uses teamspeak to call everyone to him... including SSSN. So much for this remaining a secret until Fox trusts them! It would be one thing if Fox was forced to cast a wide net, but far as I can tell there's nothing stopping him from taking an extra two seconds to just contact his team. In the span of about a day in-world we're given two different explanations here. First it's

Velvet whispered a description of what they were seeing to Fox, avoiding teamspeak for SSSN’s benefit. No one found out about Fox’s Semblance until he trusted them enough to let them in on it.

then it's

Velvet jumped in. “It’s Fox’s Semblance. He’s telepathic. And he likes surprising people with it.”

So which is it? Does Fox treat his semblance as a closely guarded secret in an effort to protect himself, get an edge in battle, all that jazz, or does he just like waiting to spring it on people as a practical joke? Because if it's the former, Team SSSN haven't done anything in the last couple of hours to suddenly earn Fox's trust. Nothing we're shown, anyway. Rather, we just finished a conversation where Coco basically goes, 'You trust Sun?' and Fox's response, though somewhat noncommittal, basically amounts to a, 'Nah.'

Well, SSSN knows now. Everyone starts heading Fox's way while Coco interrupts the two huntsmen in the midst of their kidnapping. The kidnapee, a merchant, blurts something about not being helpless and Coco threatens to leave him.

"Coco had a real sadistic streak sometimes. Just one of the reasons she and Fox made great partners."

Hello, friends, family, and people of the internet: am I insane for thinking this is not how you write heroes? It's one thing if you're using "sadistic" as an obvious exaggeration—Coco playfully teases Velvet about her supposedly awful clothes. She's got a real sadistic streak—but threatening to leave someone to be kidnapped because, what? People need to act helpless enough for her to deem saving? Who writes their supposedly classic hero like that and then makes her partner go, 'Haha yeah she's mean. That's why we're friends :D'

Real badasses are kind and I stand by that.

Of course, the merchant immediately backtracks and Coco demands his release. Sun and Neptune arrive, recognizing the two huntsmen as the goons that Sun fought. There's some talk about a "She" who they're expected to deliver the merchant to and Velvet—again—brings up the rescue.

“You mean the ones we rescued Sun from?” Velvet asked. “Come on!” Sun sent.

Recurring jokes like this are only good when 1. The characters are established as actually liking one another (otherwise they're not jokes) and 2. It doesn't come up every other chapter. When the chapters are roughly ten pages each.

Before a fight can start though the goons give up, dropping the merchant and making a run for it. Fox is sent after them. He uses his ADA machine to navigate his surroundings, which is a detail I really like and appreciate. He's blind. There's no reason why he wouldn't use accessibility tools to assist him. So well done there.

The goons disappear into an abandoned building that ADA identifies as a former dust refinery. There's also a comment about how tall it is compared to the other buildings in Vacuo. Fox loses them because of the number of people inside—all those auras blending together—and, like the goons themselves, a lot of those auras "seem the same." Velvet and Yatsuhashi arrive to assist Fox... but their assistance amounts to Yatsuhashi trying and failing to cut down the door with his sword?? Then all those potential baddies know they've found the super secret hideout. Well done.

They're lucky they just asked for a password. Which, of course, the group doesn't know.

With more time to observe the mass of auras, Fox drops the bombshell that he thinks one of them may be Professor Rumpole's. The group quickly decides that she must be conducting her investigation, but the other obvious possibility that they don't seem to realize (yet) is that she's working with them instead. If Rumpole does end up evil or something I just want to say that my previous points still stand. It’s not okay for the group to twist her 'Don't get involved' into a 'Well, she just doesn't want us to get caught.' Not okay for Coco to sneak into her office and snoop on official reports. Sometimes people will retroactively absolve characters of bad decisions because much later the person who bore the brunt of those decisions turns out to be bad... but the characters didn't know that at the time. The Lockhart and Umbridge examples above work because they were introduced as terrible people who were then later revealed to be even worse than the characters previously knew: Lockhart moves from an inept, overbearing idiot to a con artist erasing others' memories; Umbridge moves from a cruel instructor to a torturer whose rhetoric aligns with the Dark Lord's. Rumpole? Far as the group knows she's done nothing but assist and teach them.

So the three are just standing around, wondering what to do and what it all means. Coco calls Fox only for Fox to immediately hang up on her because everyone is already using teamspeak. Why bother to call in the first place? I don't know. But they fill Coco in and she decides not to ruin Rumpole's (presumed) investigation. Which is good! Yes, Coco does it partly for self/team-serving reasons

Coco shut the idea down quickly. “If we interfere in her investigation and blow whatever she’s doing, we’ll get worse than detention. She’ll probably kick us out of Shade. And we’ll have ruined the usefulness of the information she’s gathering. I say we give her time to do her thing.”

but if fear of expulsion gets them to make a smart call, I'll take it. Besides, as Coco herself points out, they now have some leads to follow. They can continue their investigation without diving headfirst into the danger pool. Like Yatsuhashi apparently wanted to do. Attacking the door with his sword.

(Seriously what was the plan there? Cut open metal, barge your way inside, and take on a massive group yourselves—two of which you already know attacked Sun? It's an Experience™ to be in the heads of teens who think they're hot shit, but act so, so dumb. Admittedly this is something to praise about Myers' writing: of course the personal PoV of these characters is going to contrast reality. What they think they’re like and what an outsider sees will often differ.)

Coco goes on to reiterate that the merchant was "rude" about being rescued, threatening to “report us to the headmaster, once he found out we’re only students, not licensed Huntsmen." Which yeah, that's a dick move. Coco was awful for threatening to leave him, but if a bunch of kids saved me from a kidnapping I wouldn't threaten them with punishment because they're not the police. The implication is that he's xenophobic, given that he was a little too interested in how they're from Beacon/Haven and would only talk to Sun. Coco is "smug" about it.

Note the pattern again: Coco threatens something horrible, later the guy is revealed to be an asshole for unrelated reasons, so she's smug about her actions. See? He deserved what he got. But that's not how this works. If I walk up to someone and randomly punch them, then it's revealed they’re a criminal, I don't get to act all pleased that I spotted an asshole and took action early. I still punched someone without provocation. For anyone, but especially for a hero, ‘They were vaguely sort of mean/rude to me’ is not a good justification for objectively cruel acts. I’m looking at you, RWBY and Witcher.

More important for the plot, Coco reveals that the merchant doesn't have a semblance and the club owner claims the two goons really are huntsmen—though who can say for sure. With little else to do, Coco makes plans to return to Rumpole's office tomorrow.

“And snoop around some more?” Fox asked.

“No,” Coco said. “I’m going to ask her some questions.”

I suppose that's an improvement? I cannot possibly express how not engaging this mystery is though. It's vaguely confusing and feels all-around cobbled together. Every action the group has taken so far hasn't just been unnecessary (I prefer heroes who have a good reason—or at least perceive they have a good reason—for getting involved when others are already working to solve a problem), but it’s also dependent on coincidence to a frustrating degree. Even in a story where I know and accept and welcome some coincidence to move the plot along. But this? Sun gets involved because he follows a woman when he doesn't actually know if she's in trouble or not, but of course she is. Then they stand around a wall until the story drops a crying girl in their lap, because of course a person will have gone missing the second they need a lead and are in the perfect place to receive one. Then Coco seems to pick a club at random to stakeout, because of course that will be the one club where our two huntsmen/goons will be trying to kidnap someone new. None of their intellect, knowledge, or skills lead them to the next phase of the investigation, with the exception of Coco breaking in to steal info about the case. Obviously RWBY is not meant to be a classic mystery, but as a massive Sherlock Holmes fan this is a slog to get through. We have no compelling reason why the group is investigating and the investigation itself isn't teaching us anything compelling about them. This could have been the place to demonstrate how a huntsmen's skills go far beyond just throwing a punch. Instead we see... what? That Yatsuhashi can try to break down a door and say "Ow" about it? At least the webseries gave us two faunus donning grimm masks to sneak into the extremist, faunus-only meeting. Comparatively that's a leagues better investigation than the one we’re getting here.

Am I surprised? No. Do I still hope that this book will improve? Always. We'll see what Chapter Five gives me.

Until then! 💜

#rwby #rwde #BTD Recaps #Before the Dawn #mymetas

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locktobre · 3 years

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you know what’s funny is that when Mint says that Eric was “reckless” and “useless, lazy, and irresponsible,” the defense that Candy comes back with is that Eric was his friend. not that he was the prince, not that he was inherently deserving of respect bc of his position, he was Candy’s friend. and I can’t decide if that says more about Eric or Candy, bc like... does Candy agree with Mint here? does he think that Eric was all of those things, but also maybe don’t be so harsh on him when he isn’t even here to defend himself? (lol) or is it another indictment of Eric’s character, that the only nice thing Candy can think of to say about him was that they were friends?

and for that matter, I still wonder how Candy and Eric became friends, bc however old Eric is, Candy is certainly older than him so they probably didn’t, like, go to school together. I’ll probably stick with my assumption that Candy was his bodyguard (or perhaps just one of them), but it would be interesting to know what the intent was there. I don’t think Mint was (since I have a different headcanon about how he knew Eric), but I think it fits Candy pretty well, and it would definitely give them the opportunity to be buddies even with Eric being a complete tool before. I also wonder if Candy ever tried to like... turn Eric around at all, or if it was like a “princes will be princes” situation.

anyway Eric himself says “I didn’t want to be the prince when I had the chance,” and that put together with what Mint says--and Candy not even denying it--tells me that Eric must have just been totally... I guess spoiled is the word I want? does whatever he wants, doesn’t take anything seriously, doesn’t care about ruling, doesn’t consider his people’s future (humans or mice)... I wonder if he was arrogant, and thought that he would be a good king anyway, bc how hard can it be/I can do anything/whatever. was he surprised when his dad passed him over and gave the throne to the Mouse? did he even care about that, or was it kind of a relief bc he didn’t care about it anyway, so why not let someone else do it?

and yet again, I wonder if the Mouse King ever had noble intentions. he was the previous king’s advisor, so unless that king was an idiot (unlikely, bc he was beloved) or the MK is a brilliant actor (unlikely, just bc... look at him)... he was probably decent at some point, right? did he just think he could do a better job than Eric? Eric, who cared about nothing, whose own friend could barely say something nice about him? I mean, who would want that guy to rule, anyway? shouldn’t he just stay in power, since he’s already doing a good job with it? and who would even miss Eric at that point...? ironically, the MK is one of the least sympathetic villains we have, and yet there’s still so much to wonder about, there. endlessly fascinating.

#mel irl #barbie babbles #brilliant echo: bittersweet #long post #i did not watch this movie 20 years ago but it still feels like i did

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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@lwoorl

indigo-glasto Fuente: bigskydreaming so what you're saying is next time i write dick under the influence of fesr gas i should make him see himself killing his family or maybe just believing that if someone touches him they'll die and then running away from everyone so they dont get hurt noted

Copying your tags for this post since they spell out one of the exact scenarios I default to for this, lol.

I mean, pretty much the latter is how I tend to view it, yeah. Like, I think when he was still growing up, there was a lot more variation and he saw y’know, people falling, or various villains that had been responsible for his traumas, like a lot of other people do under the influence of fear gas. But by the time he’s an adult, most specifically at any point after Blockbuster/Chemo, I think this pattern has recurred enough in his life that its kinda crystallized as what I laid out there. And so as an adult, I think his standard reaction to fear gas is like....a fucked up game of Keep-Away, where he’s desperately intent on getting and staying as far away as possible from his family, friends, innocents, etc....until the effects of the gas wear off.

Problem is, without having the specifics of what Dick’s seeing and why he’s reacting the way he is....its absolutely understandable that the rest of the Batfam, based on their own various reactions to fear gas, would likely assume that he’s running away from them because the fear gas is twisting how he sees them. They assume he’s viewing various villains or dangers in their place, and that’s what he’s running away from. So it might simply just not occur to them that he’s the threat, the danger, the problem that has to be isolated....to protect everyone else.

Something somewhat tangential to this, but still related, is the fact that there’s canon references to Dick having at one point been a candidate for Hal’s Green Lantern ring. And a central part of the Green Lantern mythos is that Green Lanterns aren’t chosen because they don’t feel or experience fear, have nothing they’re afraid of....rather, they’re chosen for their ability to overcome fear, to not be motivated or driven by it.

So in a way, I still see that as somewhat relevant to Dick’s characterization here.....because obviously Dick has fears, beyond just what I’ve outlined in my headcanons here...but to me it makes a certain kind of sense that like Green Lanterns, Dick’s primary response to fear gas isn’t even just a reaction/him being motivated by fear itself.....his reaction is the bone-deep desperation to protect people from what it is he fears....himself.

And theoretically, this opens up a lot of opportunities to explore his character and his relationships with the rest of his family in other ways too. For instance, all it really requires is one occasion where one of his family, while pursuing him to try and contain him or give him an antidote, ends up in the right place at the right time to hear him say something or react to them in just the specific right way - that it clarifies for them that all these times, he’s not running away from them because he sees them as a threat to him, he’s running away because he sees himself as a threat to them.

Because suddenly that casts a whole lot of other things that they tend to assume about him in a totally different light. For instance, various characters in canon often point out his constant relocations, especially right after a trauma, crisis or conflict of some kind, and condemn this as his habit of ‘running away from his problems.’ But looked at through the lens of ‘he views himself as the problem, the single common denominator at the root of all these various traumas/conflicts that hurt others as much if not more than him (in his POV)’.....and suddenly everything flips. Because if Dick’s true greatest fear is that he himself is the problem in everyone’s lives, the thing that doesn’t fit, the gum in the works.....then his constant relocations aren’t him running away from his problems, they’re him running away from whomever he thinks he’s a problem for.

Its always struck me as odd that people so habitually refer to Dick as a people person and someone who seeks and takes comfort from others, being surrounded by people he cares about.....and yet default to viewing every time he isolates himself from those very same people as somehow an inherently selfish act (ie ‘running away from his problems instead of facing them like an adult’).

That doesn’t really track to me, because if being surrounded and comforted by people he loves and values is what’s ideal for him, what he truly needs or craves....then how does removing himself from their presence so many of the times he’s hurt or traumatized or struggling....make things better for him? IMO, it doesn’t....its just I don’t think that’s what’s actually driving his thought processes at those times, what he’s prioritizing. He’s doing it because he’s more focused on doing what he thinks is best for them.

And to be clear, I’m not suggesting all of this as evidence that Dick is just so inherently noble or more selfless than other characters and blah blah blah, lol, since that kinda would defeat the whole point of that post I made yesterday about how I’m not a super-fan of emphasizing his innate goodness as like, what ‘defines’ him.

All of this, to me, has just as much to do with a lack of self-esteem/insecurity about himself and his own worth comparative to what he feels his loved ones deserve. If you look at the pattern of Dick’s conflicts with his family and friends over the years too, in addition to this, one of the most common denominators that pops out there is that a huge underlying source of conflict for him.....is literally just...his insecurity about how they see/value him, his place in their eyes/lives.

Him not knowing where he stands with them, basically, and so defaulting to assuming the worst and operating based off that assumption. Hence why Dick equates the two times Bruce didn’t want him as Robin anymore as being the same thing as Bruce not wanting him around at all, Dick’s need for a tangible sign of how Bruce views him via an official adoption, how he retreats when family or friends he’s reached out repeatedly to keep rejecting his help or contact....its not necessarily ‘sulking’ so much as insecurity as to whether their rejection stems from not seeing him or his help/contact as worth anything, etc.

Dick, IMO, is someone who deep-down values being needed, just, in any way. Like, I think he’s literally internalized that as being a big part of his purpose, or just his very reason for existing. He doesn’t see a scenario, a life path for him that isn’t about helping other people....being of help to other people....because you gotta remember, this is a guy who since his literal formative years as a child, has defined himself by his vigilantism, by his service to others, his protection and guardianship of others.

But the inevitable flip side of that, to me, is that when he doesn’t see any indication that his help is wanted or needed or valued by the people he most wants to value it, the people he most wants his presence to be a help to.....that’s when he starts to flounder, to spiral....because it makes him doubt what he’s even doing there...and if he’s even wanted there, or should even be there. And when nothing changes or something else happens to make him conclude that he shouldn’t be there, that he’s become more hindrance than help.....he goes elsewhere.

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mysticdragon3md3 · 4 years

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Reacting to last few episodes of Nippu Sentai Hurricanger.

4:07 PM 8/1/2020 Nippu Sentai Hurricanger ep49; last scenes.

Why is this tragic music playing during Shurikenger's battle scene?

Oh no...I just remembered that Super Sentai Hurricanger is a "ninja story". We know what's the most common trope in a story about ninja... Ninja sacrificing themselves. ;~~; . . . 4:13 PM 8/1/2020 ep50

Wait. Is Gozen dead too? Why did she appear in that flash of remembering Shurikenger being dead? Is that why Shurikenger sacrificed himself? Gozen was already dead?

I think I remember these antagonist ninja girls from Gokaiger. Ever since I started catching Hurricanger on Tokushoutsu, I've been wondering how these 2 kunoichi end up either surviving or defecting away from the villains' side.

And of course the villain in a ninja story is the one who betrays their master. Sandaaru.

Wait. Why did Ikkou and Isshu's mecha blow up? Did they do that cliche where you stab through yourself to get the enemy? Haven't seen that since Jin. I guess we gotta have more ninja sacrificing themselves before the series ends. ~.~; I want to go on about how "cliche" it is, but only to blunt the blow of the tragedy. Because honestly, these tropes really do hit me in the feels! ;o;!!!

Oboro and the Headmaster god killed to?!???? Jeeze, how much tragedy does this story need?!? ;O;!!! ...Oh, yeah, I forgot: This is a "ninja story". Tragedy and everyone dying is kind of the prerogative.

Wait. Why aren't they getting into their mecha to fight? Oh yeah. First gotta have the unmasked character introduction kata/mie pose sequence at the start of the series' last battle. I loved that in Gokaiger! (I'm going to refer to Gokaiger a lot. It's the only Super Sentai series I've finished. I barely started with Shinkenger before my source for episodes dried up.) . . . 4:30 PM 8/1/2020 ep51 "Final Scroll: Wind, Water, Earth".

Oh, yeah. Even though the lead Sentai is red like fire, there is no Fire in the Asian fundamental elements set---noWaitaminute! Yes thre is! Wind is the one that's missing! If anything, Wind is considered Ki. If Fire is there then why isn't the red Sentai representative of Fire? Is this a ninja thing? Ninja and the wind? Probably. lol

Tau Zant is back?! O.o?! Well, I guess building him up as the final boss, all season, and not giving him the final battle would've been disappointing.

Oh, wait. He's a conglomeration of all the villain's evil wills? I thought that trope was only for yokai stories... But I guess ninja stories do use a lot of magic and blur the line with the yokai genre.

I like that they won the mecha battle by pretending to be beaten. They used both the tropes of "an enemy is the most dangerous when about to be killed with a final blow" and "a ninja's primary weapon is deception", to get to Tau Zant's forehead weak spot. And I also like the trope of "the villain makes an obvious fatal flaw" during battle tactics, rather than just the plot. I know all these tropes are cliche in Japan, but I re~ally like them~! ;u;! It's so weird that at the hint of a cliche trope from American/Hollywood media, I get kind of bored, but I love all these Japanese pop culture tropes from anime, manga, and tokusatsu. ^.^; But I guess some things just speak to you, and some things don't. lol

The villains have a combined attack "canon" now? lol "Falling back from the exploooooooooooooosions!" LOL

WAit. Ikkou and Isshu are still alive? Well, it is nice to soften the blow of death for a kid's show. ^.^ And more importantly, they get to fight in the final final battle. If a series finale battle lacked in fanservice, like the fanserive of seeing all the main characters fighting together, then I'd be disappointed.

Now that they're doing their poses with minimal costuming, I can see more clearing that they're doing actual kabuki mie poses. ^o^ I love it! ^o^

Of course, Oboro and her dad turn out to still be alive. LOL I'm sorry, but I feel RELIEVED! ;u;!!!!!! All those tragic deaths, from the previous episodes, all at once, was too much. ;o;! I mean, it was really effective for The Feels at the time, but damnit, I watch fun kid shows to get away from my anxiety/depression! Later, some jerk always comes out of the fandom woodwork to complain about "undoing character deaths is cheap" or "it cheapens the story". Blahblahblah. I'm sorry, but if you can't retain the lessons/emotions/revealations you learned when you *thought* tragedy happened, unless the tragedy stays, then I've got to question your ability to learn from events and not take stuff for granted! All these crybaby fanboys complaining about the effects of a death not staying unless the death stays...I don't think they even got the important effects of a death. I don't think they really learned what's important. When a character dies, it's supposed to bring to mind all regrets left unresolved. And then, more importantly, the surviving character(s) is supposed to resolve to change themselves to not make those same mistakes. Not the mistake that specifically got the other character killed in their death scene, but the mistakes of all those everyday things that were left unresolved, out of an assumption that there would always be more time with that killed character. I personally think that striving everyday to guard against making those same mistakes is a whole other, brand new battle, that needs to be taken on everyday. To me, that's a whole new world of tension and drama that doesn't get erased when the "killed" character returns from the dead. When the "killed" character gets resurrected, that's the START of a brand new battle, a battle that the surviving character has already proven to have LOST BEFORE. That's why it became a regret---Though a regret unnoticed until the "killed" character died. The "killed" character's resurrection inherently has drama because the surviving character might fail again, might prove that they either learned nothing or more tragically, are unable to overcome their everyday flaws, to avoid repeating that same regret. That's a whole lot more tragic to me than a character staying dead. (When [spoiler] returned from the dead at the end of Kamen Rider W, I ranted so much against those fanboys complaining that his resurrection "ruined" everything. Urrrrgh!!! https://mysticdragon3md3.tumblr.com/post/111356254057/spoilertastic-rant-warning-for-kamen-rider-w)

But yeah, Gozen and Shurikenger remaining dead works. I didn't watch many episodes of this season, but there was a lot less connection between the audience and those 2, compared to with the other Hurricanger.

Is that a persimmon? He better be eating a persimmon! ^O^ Can't have a ninja story without eating persimmon! LOL

Wait. Did PlutoTV just cut off the last scene of the last episode?!?!?! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, good. Tokushoutsu came back. I wonder what all that back to back loading was all about?

I just realized "Ikkou" and "Isshu"... Doesn't that mean "Let's go together"? ;U;!

Aaaaahhhh! Another trope I love! Catch something from the master to complete your training! ^o^

Are they seriously intercutting between this graduation fight and their future careers? lol I guess it makes more sense

Big Shurikenger cameo at the end. lol Nice to get all the actors together. I did like that joke about never really know what Shurikenger's real face was.

Ah~ I didn't watch the full season, but Super Sentai finale episodes are always satisfying. ;u; . . . 5:02 PM 8/1/2020 I guess PlutoTV/Tokushoutsu is starting again with episode 1.

It was a persimmon in the final episode! ^o^

Wait. So the only reason this trio became Hurricanger was because they were the slackers playing hookie while everyone else was attacked?! LOL I love that trope. lol

But wait... So did all the other students DIE?????????????? ;O;!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaugh! O~O!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Omg. They just rushed into battle, all at the same time, with no cover, and all obvious moves... They really are idiots. lol I love them. ;u; Well, I love knowing how much they're going to grow from this low level. . . . 5:28 PM 8/1/2020 So I went on YouTube to try to find Power Rangers Ninja Storm episode 1, just to compare how they handled their character introductions. And OMG. I'm sorry, I hate them. ~_____~;;;;;;;;;;;; Everyone is snarky, disrespectful in ways that imply a lack of common compassion, and they're too much dialogue like "dude, I don't get this because I'm totally stupid". Uuuuuuuuuggh~ ~o~;;;;;;;;;;;;;; See, this is what I mean by how astonished I am that get sick of American fiction tropes so easily, but inexplicably just eat up those J-pop culture tropes. ~_~; . . . 5:31 PM 8/1/2020 Hurricanger ep2

Oh, these are the jobs that tied into the final episode's montage. I like the lesson about not forgetting the "important Fight in your heart" even while you're doing everyday mundane life.

Sorry, I'm not paying attention, but I've got stuff to do. ^^; Well, looks like Tokushoutsu is ending their Hurricanger marathon block, so I'm going to switch to some studying concentration ASMR.

Wait. Gotta listen to Kamen Rider Ichigo's opening theme! ^O^!!! "Rider jump! Rider kick! Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider! Rider! Rider!" ^U^!!!

#reactions #md3 watches hurricanger #nippu sentai hurricanger #super sentai #tokusatsu

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years

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Episode 110: Onion Gang

“No more weirdo friends.”

There have been a handful of Steven Universe episodes that I only watched once, didn’t like, and didn’t watch again until reviewing them for this project. Time has been kind to many of them: I’ve come to appreciate Ronaldo (especially in Rising Tides, Crashing Skies, which I was super down on) as well as Say Uncle and The New Lars. I don’t necessarily love all these episodes now, but they’re a lot better than I once thought.

But yeah sometimes my first impression is right on the money.

Onion Gang is the most boring episode of the series by a country mile. The show has meandered before in the likes of Cat Fingers, Steven’s Lion, and Open Book, but these stories at least resolve in interesting ways. Looking forward, Escapism has even fewer words than Onion Gang, but it’s designed to simultaneously add to Steven’s many ordeals and act as the calm before the storm (and it’s also, y’know, watchable; silence can be a good thing, ask any episode of Samurai Jack). But Onion Gang is relentlessly uninteresting throughout.

The glacial pace isn’t helped by comedy bits falling flat at a rate that’s almost impressive. I try pretty hard to find things I like in episodes I don’t, but there’s literally nothing here for me. That is not easy. Especially considering how much of a sucker I am for Onion, slapstick, and weird goofy side adventures. This should be right up my alley, but hoo boy is it not.

Still, I’ll give it a try: the most generous reading of Onion Gang is that it focuses on Steven misunderstanding Onion, and if you squint, you can draw a parallel between his assumptions about Onion and his assumptions about Rose (both silent, mysterious figures in his life) being proven wrong. False narratives are a recurring theme in Steven’s arc, and another one pops up here. But even if that broadest of strokes is an intended connection, it doesn’t stop Onion Gang from being a catastrophe.

The only Onion Pal that leaves any impression is Garbanzo, and the impression is that Garbanzo is the worst character the show has ever produced. Villains like Kevin and Aquamarine are horrible, but that’s the point. Irritating secondary characters like Ronaldo and Lars have actual depth, and otherwise further the plot and are reliable for decent humor at times (it’s a shame that only one of them grows, but still). Garbanzo is a kid who shouts the word “Garbanzo” as if this is inherently amusing, and uh that’s it. The joke isn’t funny the first time, and doesn’t become funny through brute force repetition. It’s just annoying.

Squash, Soup, and Pinto are...there? They mostly exist for the gag of Steven naming all of them, a continuation of his unusually domineering presence in Onion Gang. Because oh yeah, on top of everything else this is a dreadful Steven episode. It’s not Sadie’s Song, because his presumptuous attitude doesn’t cause actual harm, but this is a bad look on a hero whose powers are supposed to be based on empathy. His narration of Onion’s actions mostly acts as another gag, and like Garbanzo, it’s not a funny one, but that doesn’t stop the episode from repeating it ad nauseam.

Steven’s weird behavior doesn’t stop there. The overlong go-kart scene ends with Steven seeing Garbanzo spray ketchup on himself, then instantly forgetting he saw this and openly wondering if Garbanzo is hurt. Which makes this the dumbest Steven has ever been. It makes zero sense that he would be bamboozled by something he saw faked with his own eyes, to the point where the gag itself becomes confusing: this would be like if he saw Amethyst eat his dinner then asked where his dinner went, it requires Steven’s intelligence to plummet so perilously that it confounds what we’re supposed to find funny about the joke in the first place.

But the most bizarre misfire by far is Steven declaring that he’s “the lonely boy with no friends his age” when Connie Maheswaran exists. She’s busy (as is the underused Peedee), but our hero makes the flying leap that this means he’s utterly friendless. This is a kid defined by his ability to make friends. He saves the ocean once and the planet twice by making friends. The entire show hinges on his fundamental friendliness. This plot point is ludicrous, even when we take into account that Steven is being annoyingly melodramatic.

A nitpick, but one that fuels the Ronaldo-level conspiracy theorist in me, is that Connie was prepping for school in Buddy’s Book and is attending school in Mindful Education, so if she’s shopping for school supplies in Onion Gang then either she’s doing it super late (which doesn’t sound like something she or her mother would ever allow) or this episode, which mind you is stated to take place as summer ends, should've aired between the two Connie episodes. The conspiracy theory is that Onion Gang would’ve looked even weaker when shoved between two episodes about what good friends Steven and Connie are, so it got moved to settle between two Crystal Gem stories.

I think that it’s theoretically possible to make a good episode that evokes unambiguous pathos from Onion. But considering the character works because he’s this strange, menacing force of nature in an otherwise pretty normal population of humans, I’m not sure he’s a character that needs the depth. Onion Friend hit a sweet spot of making him grow a little, but maintain his creepy charm. Onion Gang goes further, but in doing so removes everything interesting about Beach City’s resident weirdo. Gone is the kid who two episodes ago was robbing the arcade with a crowbar and a bandit mask. Here instead is an odd but sensitive kid whose mischievous friends somehow render him less mischievous than usual. It’s bad enough to have a boring episode, but a boring episode with Onion as the focus? Again, it’s almost impressive.

There’s no reason to watch this episode instead of any other Onion-centric episode if Onion is your jam. There’s no reason to watch this episode instead of any other Steven-centric episode barring Sadie’s Song if Steven is your jam. There’s no reason to watch this episode instead of rewatching Last One Out of Beach City if being charmed by friendship is your jam. There’s no reason to watch this episode instead of Buddy’s Book if thematic resonance in regards to false narratives is your jam. There’s no reason to watch this episode instead of any episode of Craig of the Creek if kids playing outside is your jam. Only watch Onion Gang if you’re a glutton for punishment.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Part of me wants to rank this higher than Fusion Cuisine and House Guest, where I find more insulting mischaracterizations. But both of those episodes have enjoyable elements that are weighed down by lousy depictions of Connie and Greg; Garnet’s a riot in the former, and there’s a sweet song in the latter despite being muddled by context. Whereas there are no real bright spots in Onion Gang. It’s an unbearable eleven minutes that I’m never going to watch again.

Sadie’s Song is worse because it’s the worst Steven episode in the series and it misses the mark so much, and it’s important to Sadie’s arc so it’s harder to skip, which makes me resent it more. Island Adventure is worse because its moral is that abuse is a reasonable method of communication. But that’s all that’s stopping Onion Gang from reaching the very bottom.

The good news is that this is it for my No Thanks list, and while I might’ve had a bit of fun dissecting why I dislike Onion Gang so much, it bears saying that 6 stinkers in 180 episodes and a movie ain’t shabby.

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

When It Rains

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

No Thanks!

6. Horror Club 5. Fusion Cuisine 4. House Guest 3. Onion Gang 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#onion gang #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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transmxnfenris · 5 years

Text

My Discourse Thoughts

I know I speak out against antis a lot but I just wanted to specify I’m not an anti-anti either. I just think antis cause more harm than anti-antis but tbh this is my Middle Ground opinion. I don’t like either groups. I think this discourse is not as black and white as people make out. Before you start, I am saying this as an incest, rape, child porn, and abuse survivor. So. Yeah, my feelings aren’t about something I’m not aware of. It’ll be kinda focused on written stuff, because I’m a writer, but I try to be inclusive. I’m mostly writing this so I never have to say my opinion again and can just link it here.

Yes fiction can affect reality, of course it does. See the Jaws affect and discussions about representation of marginalised groups for evidence. So, artists do have to be careful and try to do better in terms of bigoted stereotypes and stuff like that. But. But. This is kind of like the “murder played violent video games and became a murderer” thing. Violent video games would only cause someone to become a murder if that desire is already in place (this is what the trauma control model says. - info on that from adopduction.) Abusive relationships only normalise abuse if they portray the abuse as normal. So like, 50 Shades of Grey - that portrays abuse as romantic and fun. That’s normalising abuse. Running with Scissors is a book that very much shows the abuse as clearly really bad. It doesn’t explicitly say it, but it assumes the reader knows that these abusive acts are horrible and wrong. Which is a fair assumption. I don’t think people should create things that suggests bad things (abuse, rape, etc) are fine and even normal, I don’t think that means we shouldn’t have art about these topics, we absolutely should. For one thing, it’s therapeutic for a lot of people to get the dark things out of there head and into the art their creating / consuming, for another - spreading awareness isn’t normalising. Books talking about things that really happen is showing you that people are capable of awful things. Their reaching out to survivors and validating them, and sometimes their helping everyone see the signs. Books like Haunted show that anyone can be an abuser, and that’s important. If we think of the perpetrators as monsters, then it makes it difficult to believe someone we know is an abuser or rapist - that’s how we get the “but he seems like such a nice guy!” Defence.

So in terms of subjects discussing dark topics - I think people should absolutely be able to. I think people should stick to things they have experience with (eg Chuck Palahniuk got the idea to write fight club because he got beaten up on a camping trip by homophobes and when he went to work the next day people said nothing even though he was visible beaten up) but I’m not gonna police people - so long as they do their research and are being respectful it’s fine (besides, saying only survivors can do it says people have to open up about their trauma even if their not ready and that’s not cool.) I think as long as people aren’t normalising these topics it’s fine but by normalise I mean 50 Shades of Grey style stuff. Writing about them isn’t inherently normalising them. A general rule I use to see if someone’s normalising something is is it tagged or classified as abuse? Or does it explicitly say abuse? If so, it’s not. 50 Shades of Grey doesn’t ever say it deals with non-consensual BDSM, stalking, and abuse because those are awful things as everyone knows. So, if an Ao3 fic is tagged ‘abuse’, ‘pedophilia’, or ‘rape’... it’s probably not normalising it. It’s classifying it as a bad thing. I think a fic is normalising pedophilia when it’s got a seventeen year old with a thirty year old and saying it’s fine because it’s legal in the U.K. thus they don’t tag it. Like, that’s a creepy age gap your normalising. It may not technically be pedophilia, but your pulling a Call Me By Your Name, it’s kinda normalising grown adults grooming kids. However, if a ship is about the same thing but the adult is the villain, the creep, the ‘everything is done to show their a bad guy’... That’s not normalising anything. I write about incest, because I’m an incest survivor, so I have some incest ships - none are healthy. I could go on, but seriously. So long as they’re not showing how incestuous relationships are healthy and fine, who cares?

In terms of ships... Oh boy, this is a tough one. I live by Don’t Like Don’t Read and Live and Let Ship. I think shipping adult characters regardless of whether people think it’s bad or abusive is fine. It doesn’t mean I like all ships. For example, I do not like the ship Reylo, but I have friends who ship it. I have it on my blacklist. I don’t care that they ship it. It doesn’t remotely affect me. I only really see it when people are complaining about it. I think in this case it’s also important to note shipping and fanfiction aren’t mainstream, your fanfic on Ao3 won’t have much of an effect to any mainstream audience. If you identify as a woman and love m/m fics? I don’t care. I’ve seen amazing fics and art by women of m/m ships. Hell, the community is what helped me realise I’m an mlm trans man. Do I get a bit skeeved when homophobia and fetishisation happens? And transphobia and intersexism? And racism? And ableism? And bigotry in general? Yeah. But why don’t we just, approach them in a civil manner because it may be by accident. A lot of people like that apologise then improve if you’re nice about it. Do I like women getting off on mlm? Erm, I don’t care. So long as their not homophobic and weird about it. Final note: shipping doesn’t always mean “I love, approve of, and want this ship to be canon.”

That being said... NSFW art between kids if you’re an adult is weird. I do actually have ships with under 18 characters, and I don’t care if anyone else does. Ships aren’t inherently sexual. But I’ve never written porn or anything sexual for them. Because the thought makes me feel sick. If you’re a 15 year old writing about two 15 year olds that’s totally different and of course you will, but I would strongly suggest fans like that be careful because weirdos might get ahold of it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people creating art with underage characters in these situations if they are in them, but be careful. I’m going to specify at this point I mean smut and porn. Stuff written for actual sexual purposes. Not all art involving sex is like this, I’m ace as hell, and I’ve... Never really written sex for that purpose. I explore power dynamics because it’s interesting, and dark topics because it’s therapeutic. I don’t ever write actual sexual (abusive or otherwise) scenes with anyone underage because it skeeves me. I just imply it. So I think underage ships are a grey area... but porn involving kids and teens is really weird. And hand drawn porn of kids is illegal in the U.K. even if it isn’t in the US so don’t rely on that if you do draw it. I’m gonna specify though, I mean kids who are like, actually under age definitely children, not ageless figures in an anime who’s age you only know if you research the background bit they all seem like adults. This isn’t about porn with the guys from Voltron, it’s about porn with like, Dipper and Mabel. Another shipping trend that skeeves me is real life people shipping. It just crosses a consent line for me, I particularly started to dislike it when my abusive ex’s friend wrote a fanfic of my ex-girlfriend with another person. It fucking sucked. Now, if someone explicitly says “write about me in weird sexy ways if you want” fine, but like... Otherwise it’s fucking creepy.

To expand on that, I really don’t think “do what you want” is a good rule. For example, erasing representation is a shitty thing to do. Dorian Pavus of Dragon Age fame, has an entire backstory dedicated to being a magical conversion therapy survivor... so let’s not make a “bi Dorian Mod”. I don’t like that. And as I said, I don’t like child nsfw stuff, and lolicon, and babyfurs, and whatever else. It’s creepy. Basically my opinion is “do what you want, just don’t be bigoted or a fucking creep.” And... maybe don’t invest your time into being angry about it. It’s not healthy. If you see something bigoted or creepy, report it, block the person, and move on. If you see something you personally don’t like, but isn’t bigoted and isn’t harming anyone (like, whether you think Reylo or Kylux are abusive or not... it’s not mainstream, it’s not harming anyone really) maybe you should just. Leave it alone. Block the tag, and move on. This whole, deciding what harmless ships are bad and good and causing witch hunts is fucking conservative, cultist bullshit.

Tl;dr:

Don’t like, don’t read and ship and let ship are good rules. Within reason.

Let people create art and write about whatever they want. You don’t know their life, you don’t know who benefits from it, and art deserves freedom. Within reason.

But. We shouldn’t let bigotry and weird creepy stuff get a free pass though. But sometimes people don’t mean to be bigoted so try being nice and explaining stuff before abusing.

But also... witch hunts are like, bad?

#long post #my discourse opinion #fandom discourse

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enfpurplekitti · 5 years

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Coming up with The Fairy Game Mother

I'd like to tell you about how I came up with my new original series, The Fairy Game Mother. Fully conceptualized in November 2018, its roots go back over a decade when I wanted to write and illustrate a manga series about four video game players who are inadvertently trapped inside a collection of video games after using a faulty game cheating device. I set it aside for other pursuits because, at the time, I recognized that I was not yet ready to work on that series. I knew that my skills in drawing, writing, and other areas needed a lot more development.

Over the past two years or so, I was knocked down by severe depression caused by a series of life events, which both paralleled and resulted in worsening health, together which caused a painful cycle of one feeding the other and back again. Through this period, my ability to work on anything creative became harder and harder until I reached a point where I felt like all of my creative ability had been turned completely OFF. However, there were a few rare moments where I was able to create, and in those "upward" moments, I watched as my art skills advanced greatly, as well as a better understanding of theme and structure in writing. I dabbled in various ideas here and there, but could find nothing I was able to commit to, being unable to bring anything COMPLETELY to life. There were ideas, but most were without much substance and I couldn't create anything usable.

Over my life time I have written and illustrated more than 20 manga - mostly original stories, but a couple of fan fics were included. I started many more manga series and one-shots, few of which survived the initial stages of ideas, partial storyboards, etc. There were two problems which plagued me the entire time, and that was my internal conflict caused by having great ideas, a tremendous ability to create compelling characters and story concepts, but also recognizing the many areas which I lacked significant understanding or skills. I could rattle off a long list of my artistic strengths, balanced by an equally long list of my artistic weaknesses and struggles. Though I received a lot of encouragement for my art talent, few people understood how VERY seriously I took my craft, nor the fact that I cannot simply write and draw manga and just post or sell it as-is and expect to be taken seriously.

I did a good bit of research on the comics and manga industry, and one of the top complaints of publishers about North American manga crafters was the lack of understanding of their own craft, often caused by a lack of EDUCATION in their craft. Assumptions are made that manga is somehow either inherently "inferior" or inherently "easier" than the comics that Americans are used to seeing cranked out by Marvel and DC, but these assumptions are complete myths. Worse than that, it seems the primary basis of education for American manga artists and writers come from the likes of Christopher Hart (don't get me started on him) and other how-to-draw-manga books, which are - even in complete collections - woefully lacking in any education of real substance. I have quite a stack of those books, and while I am able to glean a certain amount of wisdom or ideas from them, they almost all say the same thing, and teach the same "things" about drawing (here's how to draw eyes, here's how to draw mouths with different expressions) over and over again. They also basically fly through a decade or so of learning and craft crammed into 160 or so pages, which, after removing all the redundant lessons I mentioned above, reduces their "learnable" content to what I estimate to be about 15 or so pages. And just to kick you while you're already down, these books are NOT suitable for beginner artists, regardless of the fact that that is how they are marketed. There are so many things you need to learn about drawing before picking up one of those books to be effective. And after learning whatever they present in their "chapter 1", there is a lot to learn between that and their next chapter. So much information is missing, and it's no wonder so many aspiring American manga artists are unable to fulfill the basic requirements for publication!

Anyway, as I touched on before, I knew - I readily accepted - even long before I began my research on the industry that I had a lot of work ahead of me in terms of learning and development before I was ready to publicly release and monetize my manga. Somewhere around summer to autumn of last year, after my depression had made a great improvement, I was reviewing where I began and where I currently stood in terms of my skills and abilities, and it dawned on me that I was READY. I can DO this. There are, indeed, many more things I still need to learn about, but I am ready to put something out for public consumption now.

From October to November of 2018, I thought carefully about the most promising stories I had prepared, from character development to setting and genre to plot to theme. That old idea about the game cheating device floated up into my mind, and initially I rejected it. It wasn't developed enough, I didn't have a good villain, I didn't really even have well developed protagonists. But it didn't like being ignored, I guess, and it continued to pester me until suddenly I had a villain. I was impressed, but a villain wasn't enough - I still needed, well, everything else. But my mind was already at work on this, and after considering the traits my villain had, her background, her desires, one by one came the traits that my group of protagonists would require in order to counter her. Jasper came first, whom I initially labeled as "Overly Extroverted Gamer". He's a collection of many gamers I have known in my life (myself included), as well as ones I've seen on YouTube. He's loud, he's jumpy, he's impulsive, he's impatient - and he's bossy. He has many other characteristics as well, which will be revealed throughout the series. I'm also proud of the work I've put into the other three players, Lita ("Highly Empathic Gamer"), Margaret ("Super-Attractive Grrl Gamer"), and Wade ("Troll Gamer"). With this team, I found a very promising, workable manga series. I set the due date of the first chapter, World 1-1: Please Select a Player, to be March 1, 2019, in time for Agamacon, as an independent, self-published work. I had plans to print out some copies, as well as to print a few pinups to sell at a table, but unfortunately I won't be able to able to attend Agamacon this year. :( Though I have fallen behind schedule, I'm still keeping the (tentative) date of March 1 as its completion date.

I already have a collection of drawings of my characters, a few of which I have uploaded on Tumblr, Facebook, and DeviantArt in the past week. I'm finished with all the pre-production work, including script, I just have to draw the actual pages. It's going to take a lot of concentrated effort to get them all done in time, and... yes, sadly, I do anticipate missing my deadline if my body chooses to conk out and betray me again. T_T But I'm going to give it my best.

Wish me luck, you guys, and keep your eyes open for further updates - most of which will occur on my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/PurpleKittiArt/ - because it is the easiest for me to access on my phone on a fairly pitiful wi-fi signal. @_@

#The Fairy Game Mother #purple kitti #enfpurplekitti

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51kas81 · 6 years

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Why Spike ruined “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”

(I know it's a pretty old article but I didn't know it yet and I have to say I agree in many points. If you are a Spike fan and can not stand criticism then please do not read.)

Like Fonzie before him, this too-cool thug in a leather jacket has diverted a good show from its original mission: To celebrate the uncool outcasts of the world.

Jaime J. Weinman

May 13, 2003 7:00pm (UTC)

A once-good show becomes a bad one through the unexpected popularity of a posturing, vaguely thuggish minor character in a black leather jacket. In television, as in life, events tend to repeat themselves. First there was "Happy Days," where a charming show about growing up in the '50s was revamped to focus on the Fonz. And now there's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," which has been all but destroyed by the Fonzie of our time: Spike.

As "Buffy" comes to an end, its fans are debating where to place the blame for the mediocrity of this season. Was it the introduction of a team of Slayers in Training, all of them so annoying that fans were happy to see some of them get killed? Was it the overemphasis on irrelevant new characters like Kennedy and Principal Wood? Was it the decision to build the season around a villain (the First Evil) who can't touch anything or do anything at all except talk and talk and talk? Well, that's part of it.

But the problems with this season can be traced to a moment at the very end of the last good episode, "Conversations With Dead People." That's the moment when Buffy found out that Spike, blond vampire, attempted rapist, and current possessor of a soul, had somehow been killing people despite his souled status. From that point on, the show has no longer been about Buffy and her friends, or Buffy and her mission, or anything that used to be interesting on this show. It's been about Buffy and Spike. And that's about all.

Look at the record. The next two episodes after "Conversations With Dead People" involved Buffy trying to find out why Spike was killing again, following which she spent two more episodes focusing her attention on freeing Spike from a dungeon. Since then, we've discovered that a new character (Principal Wood) has a vendetta against Spike, seen an entire episode devoted to filling out Spike's back story, and sat through various other plot threads about Spike. Even when Spike isn't on-screen, characters are talking about him.

Meanwhile, the characters who used to matter on this show -- Willow, Xander and Giles, who with Buffy formed what is called the "core four" -- are getting nothing storywise; Willow gets a token lesbian relationship, Xander gets his eye poked out, and Giles gets to look like a bad guy for wanting to kill Spike (which, on the contrary, made some of us love Giles even more). In the words of "Sep," who recaps "Buffy" episodes for the famously snarky Web site Television Without Pity, "Watching episode after episode about Spike's journey when Giles has become a prick and I don't know a goddamn thing about what Willow or Xander are thinking, or even who they are anymore, and will likely never find out, breaks my heart."

It would be less of a problem if Spike were getting brilliantly fascinating stories, but he isn't, despite the potential inherent in the story of an evil creature trying to reform. At every turn, the "Buffy" staff has copped out on Spike's story, whitewashing his past (a flashback in a recent episode shows that even when he was turned into a vampire, he wasn't initially a vicious killer -- something that contradicts all the previous vampire mythology on the show) and making no attempt to show that having a soul has changed him one way or the other. By the evidence of this season's episodes, Spike is still a wisecracking punk who likes to hit women (he's hit Buffy, Anya and Faith so far this year) and isolate Buffy from her friends, yet we're still somehow supposed to sympathize with him, because ... why? Because he got a soul in the hope that Buffy would forgive his attempt to rape her and sleep with him again. Except for a couple of throwaway lines, Spike has never been made to seek redemption for his crimes; he doesn't even apologize to Principal Wood for having murdered his mother. The assumption appears to be that Spike doesn't need to atone because having a soul makes him a different and better person. But the writers haven't shown us that; all they've shown us is the same Fonzie figure from Seasons 5 and 6, only without the viciousness that made him moderately interesting.

And when they write a decent Spike scene, it gets cut. The second episode of this season, "Beneath You," was originally supposed to end with a scene where Spike expresses guilt for his past crimes, admits that he got a soul for selfish reasons (he thought Buffy would love him if he had a soul), and arrives at the realization that having a soul hasn't made him good enough for Buffy ("God hates me. You hate me. I hate myself more than ever"). But creator Joss Whedon rewrote this scene so that Spike talked mostly about the fact that Buffy "used" him for sex -- just another attempt to create unearned sympathy for Spike and deemphasize his past role as a killer and sexual predator. And James Marsters, a good actor who has shown himself capable of the kind of underplaying this show used to thrive on, made matters worse by playing this scene as an over-the-top fit of lurching and moaning, like one of William Shatner's lesser method moments on "Star Trek." (The gratuitous shirtlessness just adds to the comparison.) Any interesting stories about a vampire with a soul have already been told on "Buffy" and "Angel"; with Spike, all we've been getting is a lot of half-naked posturing.

But it's not just the overemphasis on Spike that's the problem; it's the way this emphasis has betrayed one of the most appealing themes of the show: that it's OK to be uncool. "Buffy" began with a high school girl, formerly cool and popular, who discovers that she has a destiny that will prevent her from ever having a "normal" life. But she finds some comfort when she befriends people at the school who are social outcasts for other reasons: Willow, a shy computer geek; the loyal but socially awkward Xander; and Giles, head of a school library that none of the other students ever seem to visit. The bond between these four characters was the heart of the show for the first four seasons, more than anything else, even romance (there were many episodes where Buffy's love interest, Angel, didn't appear or was relegated to one or two token scenes). Every week, these characters proved what we'd all like to believe when we're outcasts in high school: that the uncool kids, the ones no one takes seriously, are really the coolest and most heroic of all.

To make this clear, the monsters on the show were often portrayed as the twisted embodiment of high school coolness. In the pilot, Xander's friend Jesse goes from "an excruciating loser" to an effortlessly cool bad boy after he is turned into a vampire. Another episode, "Reptile Boy," made frat boys the villains. And Spike, when introduced in Season 2, was exactly the kind of smartass punk who makes high school a miserable place for geeks: Arrogant, cocky and contemptuous of anyone who wasn't equally cool, he was a superficial, self-confident Fonzie type who deserved to get smacked down by our awkward heroes.

With the transformation of Spike into a lovable antihero, "Buffy" has stopped celebrating the uncool outcasts; instead, it celebrates the cool punk, the guy who would push the first-season Willow or Xander out of the way in the school halls. And it's not just Spike. Willow's new love interest, Kennedy, is a confident loudmouth with a privileged upbringing, who obnoxiously admires Willow not for her intelligence but for her power. Spike's nemesis, Principal Wood, is described in one of the scripts as "The Coolest Principal Ever." And Andrew, the show's answer to "The Simpsons'" Comic Book Guy, is constantly mocked for his geekiness, because a show that was once on the side of geeks now portrays them as buffoons or villains. And whereas the early seasons usually showed the characters learning how to defeat monsters by researching them in Giles' books, they now find everything they need on the Internet -- a far cry from Giles' wonderful first-season speech about the superiority of books over computers. It seems that on a show where an unrepentant mass murdering monster can be a hero, there's no more room for a celebration of the power of book learning, or the nobility of uncool people.

Which brings us back to "Happy Days," and the Fonz. Just as "Happy Days" went on for years with Fonzie even after Ron Howard left the show, there are rumors that the character of Spike may go on after the end of "Buffy" -- perhaps moving to "Angel," or perhaps to a spinoff. The character is popular; cool characters often are. But "Happy Days" was a better show in the first two years, when it was just about the uncool Richie Cunningham. And "Buffy" was a better show in the first four years, before Spike fell in love with Buffy, before Spike started taking his shirt off in every episode, and when the focus was on four uncool people and their quest to rid the world of ... well, of characters like Spike.

Jaime J. Weinman

#btvs #btvs meta #anti-spike #anti spike

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john-carter-was-here · 6 years

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Excerpts from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Stolen from: Time Enough For Love by Robert A. Heinlein

Always store beer in a dark place.

By the data to date, there is only one animal in the Galaxy dangerous to man – man himself. So he must supply his own indispensable competition. He has no enemy to help him.

Men are more sentimental than women. It blurs their thinking.

Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet, you can’t win.

Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.

Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.

Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect.

There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it?

If it can’t be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.

It has been long known that one horse can run faster than another–but which one? Differences are crucial.

A fake fortuneteller can be tolerated. But an authentic soothsayer should be shot on sight. Cassandra did not get half the kicking around she deserved.

Delusions are often functional. A mother’s opinions about her children’s beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.

Most “scientists” are bottle washers and button sorters.

A “pacifist male” is a contradiction in terms. Most self- described “pacifists” are not pacific; they simply assume false colors. When the wind changes, they hoist the Jolly Roger.

Nursing does not diminish the beauty of a woman’s breasts; it enhances their charm by making them looked lived in and happy.

A generation which ignores history has no past–and no future.

A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.

What a wonderful world it is that has girls in it!

Small change can often be found under seat cushions.

History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.

It’s amazing how much “mature wisdom” resembles being too tired.

If you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people.

Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate–and quickly.

A motion to adjourn is always in order.

No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and, in the long run, no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: “Come back with your shield, or on it.” Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome.

Of all the strange “crimes” that human beings have legislated out of nothing, “blasphemy” is the most amazing – with “obscenity” and “indecent exposure” fighting it out for second and third place.

Cheops Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.

It is better to copulate than never.

All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can–and must–be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a “perfect society” on any foundation other than “Women and children first!” is not only witless it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly–and no doubt will keep on trying.

All men are created unequal.

Money is a powerful aphrodisiac. But flowers work almost as well.

A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate.

There is only one way to console a widow. But remember the risk.

When the need arises–and it does–you must be able to shoot your own dog. Don’t farm it out–that doesn’t make it nicer; it makes it worse.

Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.

It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier.

One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh.

Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it’s more sanitary.

Men rarely(if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.

Never appeal to a man’s “better nature.” He may not have one. Invoking self-interest gives you more leverage.

Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse.

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.

Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry. N.B.: Circumstances can force your hand. So think ahead!

Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

An elephant: A mouse built to government specifications.

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded–here and there, now and then– are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as “bad luck.”

In a mature society, “civil servant” is semantically equal to “civil master.”

When a place gets crowded enough to required ID’s, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.

A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living in a dreamworld.

The second best thing about space travel is that the distances involved make war a very difficult, usually impractical, and almost always unnecessary. This is probably a loss for most people, since war is our race’s most popular diversion, one which gives purpose and color to dull and stupid lives. But it is a great boon to the intelligent man who fights only when he must–never for sport.

A zygote is a gamete’s way of producing more gametes. This may be the purpose of the universe.

There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who “love Nature” while deploring the “artificialities” with which “Man has spoiled ‘Nature.’” The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that man and his artifacts are not part of “Nature”–but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers’ purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purpose of men) the “Naturist” reveals his hatred of his own race –i.e. his own self-hatred. In the case of “Naturists” such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate. As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me I like being part of a race made of men women –it strikes me as a fine arrangement and perfectly “natural.” Believe it or not, there were “Naturists” who opposed the first flight to old Earth’s Moon as being “unnatural” and a “despoiling of Nature.”

“No man is an island–” Much as we may feel and act as individuals, our race is a single organism, always growing and branching– which must be pruned regularly to be healthy. This necessity need not be argued; anyone with eyes can see that any organism which grows without limit always dies in its own poisons. The only rational question is whether pruning is best done before or after birth. Being an incurable sentimentalist I favor the former of these methods – killing makes me queasy, even when it’s a case of “He’s dead and I’m alive and that’s the way I wanted it to be.” But this may be a mater of taste. Some shaman think that it is better to be in a war, or to die in childbirth, or to starve in misery, than never to have lived at all. They may be right. But I don’t have to like it – and I don’t.

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.

Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let’s play that over again too. Who decides?

Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not insure “good” government; it simply insures that it will work. But such governments are rare – most people want to run things but want no part of the blame. This used to be called the “backseat-driver syndrome.”

What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what the “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.

God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent – it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these diving attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash and in small bills.

Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. (He is also a fool.)

The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of “loyalty” and “duty.” Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute– get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed.

People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy by half a slug who must tighten his belt.

The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa.

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathes, and not make messes in the house.

Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as “empty,” “meaningless,” or “dishonest.” and scorn to use them. No matter how “pure” their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, built a wall, set a bon, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

The more you love, the more you can love – the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just.

Masturbation is cheap, clean, convient, and free of any possibility of wrongdoing–and you don’t have to go home in the cold. But it’s lonely.

Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.

If tempted by something that feels “altruistic,” examine your motives and root out that self-deception. Then if you still want to do it, wallow in it!

The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expense of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.

The second most preposterous notion is that copulation is inherently sinful.

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of – but do it in private and was your hands afterwards.

$100 placed at 7 percent interest compounded quarterly for 200 years will increase to more that $100,000,000 – by which time it will be worth nothing.

Dear, don’t bore him with trivia or burden him with your past mistakes. The happiest way to deal with a man is never to tell him anything he does not need to know.

Darling, a true lady takes off her dignity with her clothes and does her whorish best. At other times you can be as modest and dignified as your person requires.

Everybody lies about sex.

If men were the automatons that behaviorists claim they are, the behaviorist psychologists could not have invented the amazing nonsense called “behaviorist psychology.” So they are wrong from scratch – as clever and as wrong as phlogiston chemists.

The shamans are forever yacking about their snake-oil “miracles.” I prefer the Real McCoy – a pregnant woman.

If the universe has any purpose more important than topping a woman you love and making a baby with her hearty help, I’ve never heard of it.

Thou shalt remember the Eleventh Commandment and keep it Wholly.

A touchstone to determing the actual worth of an “intellectual” – find out how he feels about astrology.

Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.

There is no such thing as “social gambling.” Either you are there to cut the other bloke’s heart out and eat it – or you’re a sucker. If you don’t like this choice – don’t gamble.

When the ship lifts, all bills are paid. No regrets.

The first time I was a drill instructor I was too inexperienced for the job – the things I taught those lads must have got some of them killed. War is too serious a matter to be taught by the inexperienced.

A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealous in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.

Money is the sincerest of all flatter. Women love to be flattered. So do men.

You live and learn. Or you don’t live long.

Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, “equality” is a disaster.

Peace is an extension of war by political means. Plenty of elbowroom is pleasanter – and much safer.

One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering. “Supernatural” is a null word.

The phrase “we (I) (you) simply must –” designates something that need not be done. “That goes without saying ” is a read warning. “Of Course” means you had best check it yourself. These small-change cliches and others like them, when read correctly, are reliable channel markers.

Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.

Rub her feet.

If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you’ll abort it if you do. Be patient and you’ll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.

Never crowd youngsters about their private affairs – sex especially. When they are growing up, they are never ends all over, and resent (quite properly) any invasion of their privacy. Oh, sure, they’ll make mistakes – but that’s their business, not yours. (You made your own mistakes, did you not ?)

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

More from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Always tell her she is beautiful, especially if she is not.

If you are part of a society that votes, the do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for … but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you rarely go wrong. If this is too blind for your taste, consult some well-meaning fool (there is always one around) and ask his advice. Then vote the other way. This enables you to be a good citizen (if such is your wish) without spending the enormous amount of time on it that truly intelligent exercise of franchise requires.

Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriages: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity.

Those who refuse to support and defend a state have no claim to protection by that state. Killing an anarchist or a pacifist should not be defined as “murder” in a legalistic sense. The offense against the state, if any, should be “Using deadly weapons inside city limits,” or “Creating a traffic hazard,” or “Endangering bystanders,” or other misdemeanor. However, the state may reasonably place a closed season on these exotic asocial animals whenever they are in danger of becoming extinct. An authentic buck pacifist has rarely been seen off Earth, and it is doubtful that any have survived the trouble there . . regrettable, as they had the biggest mouths and smallest brains of any of the primates. The small-mouthed variety of anarchist has spread through the Galaxy at the very wave front of the Diaspora; there is no need to protect them. But they often shoot back.

Another ingredient for a happy marriage: Budget the luxuries first!

And still another– See to it that she has her own desk – then keep your hands off it!

And another– In a family argument, if it turns out you are right – apologize at once!

"God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends.“ This may not be true, but it sounds good – and is no sillier than any other theology.

To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.

Does history record any case in which the majority was right?

When the fox gnaws – smile!

A "critic” is a man who creates nothing and thereby feels qualified to judge the work of creative men. There is logic in this; he is unbiased – he hates all creative people equally.

Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash.

Never frighten a little man. He’ll kill you.

Only a sadistic scoundrel – or a fool – tells the bald truth on social occasions.

This sad little lizard told me that he was a brontosaurus on his mother’s side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply.

In handling a stinging insect, move very slowly.

To be “matter of fact” about the world is to blunder into fantasy – and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange

and wonderful.

The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning, while the other subjects merely require scholarship.

Copulation is spiritual in essence – or it is merely friendly exercise. On second thought, strike out “merely.” Copulation is not “merely” – even when it is just a happy pastime for two strangers. But copulation at its spiritual best is so much more than physical coupling that it is different in kind as well as in degree. The saddest feature of homosexuality is not that is “wrong” or “sinful” or even that it can’t lead to progeny – but that it is more difficult to reach through it this spiritual union. Not impossible – but the cars are stacked against it. But – most sorrowfully – many people never achieve spiritual sharing even with the help of male-female advantage; they are condemned to wander through life alone.

Touch is the most fundamental sense. A baby experiences it, all over, before he is born and long before he learns to use sight, hearing, or taste, and no human ever ceases to need it. Keep your children short on pocket money – but long on hugs.

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.

The greatest productive force is human selfishness.

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors – and miss.

The profession of shaman has many advantages. It offers high status with a safe livelihood free of work in the dreary, sweaty sense. In most societies it offers legal privileges and immunities not granted to other men. But it is hard to see how a man who has been given a mandate from on High to spread tidings of joy to all mankind can be seriously interested in taking up a collection to pay his salary; it causes one to suspect that the shaman is on the moral level of any other con man. But it’s lovely work if you can stomach it.

A whore should be judged by the same criteria as other professionals offering services for pay – such as dentists, lawyers, hairdressers, physicians, plumbers, etc. Is she professionally competent? Does she give good measure? Is she honest with her clients? It is possible that the percentage of honest and competent whores is higher than that of plumbers and much higher than that of lawyers. And enormously higher than that of professors.

Minimize your therbligs until it becomes automatic; this doubles your effective lifetime – and thereby gives time to enjoy butterflies and kittens and rainbows.

Have you noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely!

Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so.

Never try to outstubborn a cat.

Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills.

Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.

Waking a person unnecessarily should not be considered a capital crime. For a first offense, that is.

“Go to hell!” or other insult direct is all the answer a snoopy questions rates.

The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts :“Of course it is none of my business but –” is to place a period after the word “but.” Don’t use excessive force in supplying such moron with a period. Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about.

A man does not insist on physical beauty in a woman who builds up his morale. After a while he realizes that she is beautiful – he just hadn’t noticed it at first.

A skunk is better company than a person who prides himself on being “frank.”

“All’s fair in love and war ” – what a contemptible lie!

Beware of the “Black Swan” fallacy. Deductive logic is tautological; there is no way to get a new truth out of it, and it manipulates false statements as readily as true ones. If you fail to remember this, it can trip you – with perfect logic. The designers of the earliest computers called this the “Gigo Law”; i.e., “Garbage in, garbage out.”

Inductive logic is much more difficult – but can produce new truths.

A “practical joker” deserves applause for his wit according to his quality. Bastinado is about right. For exceptional wit one might grant keelhauling. But staking him out on an anthill should be reserved for the very wittiest.

Natural laws have no pity.

On the planet Tranquille around KM849(G-O) lives a little animal known as a “knafn.” It is herbivorous and has no natural enemies and is easily approached and may be petted – sort of a six-legged puppy with scales. Stroking it is very pleasant; it wiggles its pleasure and broadcast euphoria in some band that humans can detect. It’s worth the trip. Someday some bright boy will figure out how to record this broadcast, then some smart boy will see commercial angles – and not longer after that it will be regulated and taxed. In the meantime I have faked that name and catalog number; it is several thousand light-years off in another direction. Selfish of me –

Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.

Take car of the cojones and the frijoles will take car of themselves. Try to have getaway money – but don’t be fanatic about it.

If “everybody knows” such-and-such, then it ain’t so, by at least ten thousand to one.

Political tags – such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth – are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from the highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.

All cats are not gray after midnight. Endless variety–

Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful – just stupid.)

Being generous is inborn; being altruistic is a learned perversity. No resemblance –

It is impossible for a man to love his wife wholeheartedly without loving all women somewhat. I suppose that the converse must be true of women.

You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being too trusting.

Formal courtesy between a husband and wife is even more important than it is between strangers.

Anything free is worth what you pay for it.

Don’t store garlic near other victuals.

Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.

Pessimist by policy, optimist by temperament – it is possible to be both. How? By never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing risks you can’t avoid. This permits you to play out the game happily, untroubled by the certainty of the outcome.

Do not confuse “duty” with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect. But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants “just a few minutes of your time, please – this won’t take long.” Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time – and squawk for more! So learn to say No – and to be read about it when necessary.

Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for live and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don’t do it because it is “expected” of you.)

"I came, I saw, she conquered.“ (The original Latin seems to have been garbled.)

A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain.

Animals can be driven crazy by place too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animals that voluntarily does this to himself.

Don’t try to have the last word. You might get it.

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ouathinktank-metacommentary · 7 years

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As OUaT comes to an end (?) one can’t not wonder where did all go wrong? Was it you who criticized parallels with BTVS/JaneE transferring her penchant for writing/promoting abusive relationships and violent sexist “badboys” and their ships ruining female characters? Because Kitsowitz’s Hook boner ruined OUaT the same way Marti/Jane E’s boner for shirtless Spike ruined Buffy. And it’s sad, because both used to be shows about “strong female characters” and ended up as odes to manpain. (cont)

All that we’ve sorely missed on our TV? Riiight. As if. We’vebeen promised a “modern” fairytale, and we’ve been naïve enough to hope thatthe story about Saviour and the Evil Queen, redeemed through the power of love,family and hope would be it. Naïve to think that “Jane E was a part of Buffy,they gave us Willow/Tara, the first great non-fetishized love story between twowomen”. But all we got was queerbaiting, heteroenforcing and Hook, Hook and moreHook. (cont)

To the point of Emma Swan, former “strong female hero” being disfigured beyond recognition and fading into nothingness. And yeah. Six years of our lives called Once Upon a Waste of Our Time, while at least in Buffy we had five great ones, you know? :(

Not really sure that this is the end of OUaT, but generaluncertainty (the negotiations, as well as talks about a ‘reset’ and the needfor change they’re evidently desperately aware of) is a clear indication how much of a deep shit they’re in. And yet when it comes to reasons, they remain either oblivious orcareless? But speaking of those stolen borrowed things that came from BtVS… well, I am not sure. Wedid compare ships in terms of how they’ve been portrayed (Spuffy allegedlydeliberately as negative and harmful, while CS openly and directlyromanticizes same things) but… it’s true. The very same can be said about both, concerning the impact ofan unexpected popularity of a posturing, vaguely thuggish minor character in ablack leather jacket, turning a once-good show–into a really bad one. Because in television, as inlife, events tend to repeat themselves, but as proven so far–Brothers Dimshowed very little originality apart from the general idea (and S1, which Istill claim–was stolen and bleached bones of the original author are goingto resurface in Nevada desert at some point) and hence we got a whole premiseruined by Spike #2–Mr. quasi-redeemed-ex-rapist Killian Jones?

Because where elsedo we place blame for general mediocrity? Was it the onslaught of random “whichiconic character do you want to see next” episodic storylines that, instead ofconnecting things from the background/flashbacks–only fragmented everything?Was it the overemphasis on irrelevant new characters, love-interests as well asvillains-de-semiseason–that they never developed enough for us to give a damnabout? Was it the decision to build entire seasons around different Disneycharacters/realms while putting on hold (at best) and backtracking on anddirectly contradicting (often even retconning, yes) the main characters that wefell in love in the first place–by creating complex convoluted storylines thatmade less and less sense? Well, that’s only part of it. Because we all agree,things were much better before that point when everything started evolving around Hook, his quasi redemption and his obsession and pursuit after Emma Swan. Which is now history repeating itself,like in BtVS where all problems could be traced to the moment when Buffyfound out that Spike, attempted rapist and current possessor of a soul, hadsomehow been killing people despite his souled status–and from that point on,the show has no longer been about Buffy and her friends, or Buffy and hermission, or anything that used to be interesting on this show–it was about Spike. It involved Buffy trying to find out why he was killing again, then she spent several pointless episodes focusing her attention on freeing Spike (instead on the impending apocalypse), then a new character had a vendettaagainst Spike so we got an entire episode devoted to filling out Spike’s backstory… and we sat through various other plot threads about Spike. Even when Spikeisn’t on-screen, characters were talking about him, so it was ALL about him. AndBuffy, indirectly, through their (fucked up, for her–character degrading) relationship.And that was about all.

Sounds familiar?

(cut, because we don’t pull parallels and metas with pretty gifs–but cold hard facts and words, which means–long textpost ahoy :)

So, yeah. The comparison… is there. Evident. Starting with potential, and… actual result. Because nothingwould’ve been as problematic if Spike got any brilliantly fascinating stories,but he never really did–despite the potential inherent in the story of an evilcreature trying to reform. Because at every turn, writers copped out on hisstory, whitewashing his past to the point of retconning with contrived nonsensethat directly contradicted all the previous vampire mythology on both BtVS andAngel (like, even when he was turned into a vampire he allegedly wasn’t initially avicious killer) and making no attempt to show that having a soulhas changed him in any way. So ‘souled’ Spike is still a wisecracking punk wholiked to hit women (he hit Buffy, Anya, Faith) as means of foreplay (he ‘pined’ after Buffy, had sex with Anya, flirted with Faith to make Buffy jealous) and isolate Buffy from herfriends. And yet we were still somehow supposed to sympathize with him, because…why, he got a soul in the hope that Buffy would forgive his attempt torape her and sleep with him again? Because except for a couple of throwawaylines, Spike has never been made to seek redemption for his crimes, he nevermade an attempt to even apologize to anyone… for anything, really. Not thatapologizing would ever go with his character (the one he had, previous to his Buffy obsession) but the assumption appearedto be that he didn’t really need to atone because what, having a soul made hima different and better person? But the writers haven’t shown us that, all they showed us was the same ‘cool punk’ frombefore, only without the viciousness that made him moderately interesting.

Same goesfor Hook. He could’ve had fascinating stories, but he isn’t because all that heis–is a selfish douchebag who is now trying to be a ‘hero’ because he sees Emma ashis reward, his happy ending. And as BtVS did, at every turn OUaT cops out onhis story–whitewashing his past (it was always an ‘unfortunate set ofcircumstances’, not the fact that he was spoiled privileged daddy’s boy whobecame pirate out of… spite, really?) and making no attempt to show us thathe’s really trying to redeem himself, that he wants to. You know, the way they showed us that they can write redemption storylines–on Regina’s example? So he’sstill doing things behind everyone’s back, especially Emma’s (the shears) andof course lying (yeah, omitting to tell the truth is still lying–and not a solid foundation for a well-balanced relationship, but tell that to Tweens and Twimoms) andisolating Emma from her family, her son, her friends, her destiny… by means of emotional blackmail, via suicide attempts toget her to ‘save’ him–all the way to leaving her now to show that he ‘feels’ theweight of the ‘guilt’ and… yet we’re still somehow supposed to sympathize with him, because… why?Because he didn’t hightail in order to leave the site of his devastating loss, not to punish Emma–but he… went on aquasi-quest (that he didn’t really want to go on, it was a childish ‘twist’ tokeep them apart) just to realise that he didn’t really want to leave her? Lol.Ooo-kay. But hey, when he comes back (by means of some random MacGuffin of sortsthat will inevitably happen) he won’tcome back as a changed man, he’ll still be the same self-serving douchebag who,except for a couple of throwaway lines (to… Belle, only? Because they made themsuch ‘solid’ friends too, at the cost of her intelligence–trusting him and all,to further whitewash him) has neverbeen shown to seek redemption for his crimes, he doesn’t even apologize fortrying to kill ANY of them for cryin’ out loud, let alone… persistently endangering Henry? The assumption appears to be that he doesn’tneed to atone because… being with Emma apparently makes him a different andbetter person? Only, we haven’t been shown that either, all that we keepgetting is the same self-serving pirate, only without gang/rape jokes, beatingwomen up and shooting them, which… made him moderately interesting because assexist/misogynist as it was–he was a villain with some personality, after all?

And thoseare only some parallels. Captain Swan gaveus absolutely nothing that we haven’t seen eleventy kazillion times before. Samelike any interesting stories about a vampire with a soul have alreadybeen told on both Buffy and Angel, and with Spike all we got is a lotof half-naked posturing. Like Killan Jones gave us only… quasi brooding and love shown as obsession.

But it wasn’t an overemphasis on Spike (as a character, or aLI… no matter how wrong and fucked-up as their ship has been portrayed, because‘feminist’ Whedon gave us a story of an abusive relationship meant to be assuch–only it supposedly wasn’t sexist and misogynist because Buffy was ‘abusive’ towardsSpike, too?) that was the problem. This was brought up numerous times before, it was the way this emphasis has betrayedone of the most appealing themes of the show: that it’s OK to be uncool. It wasabout social outcasts fighting symbolic representations of twisted embodiment ofhigh school coolness, because monsters on the show were often portrayed assuch. While Spike, the way he was introduced (as villain, mind you–before beingshoehorned into a role of a hero, never meant for him) was exactly the kind ofsmartass punk who makes high school a miserable place for geeks. Arrogant,cocky and contemptuous of anyone who wasn’t equally cool, he was a superficial,self-confident and deserved to besmacked down by awkward heroes–who arereally the coolest and most heroic of all? And similarly in OUaT, with the transformation of Hook intoa ‘romantic hero’ (not even a ‘lovable antihero’, like Spike) they stoppedcelebrating female empowerment, strong self-reliant women who despite comingfrom an extremely broken and fragmented past… showed us how to punch back andfight for ourselves. Strong individuals with a lot of self-integrity, asdamaged as they were? And the show started celebrating the cool pirate with‘roguish charm’, rape-culture personified who gets what he wants, because he’shandsome and white, and… needs to be saved from himself by the love of a ‘good’woman–Christian Grey style?

Bringing us back to the original point we’ve all been repeating ad nauseam. Watching season afterseason about Craptain Swan and Hook’s warped journey of ‘redemption’ where Emma has become a selfish arsehole who blatantly disregards even her son, where Regina became a trusty sidekick whose only role is to follow Emma to hell and back, repeatedly (and quite literally, what subtext has been abundantly abused for, too?) to help her “get her pirate back”, and I don’t know agoddamn thing about what Snow or Charming or Henry are thinking, or even who they areanymore, and what the ever loving fuck is Rumple doing now, chasing the new son because he lost the one everything started with because of Hook, again, and… we will likely never find out, and it kind of breaks my heart. The bond between these characters, as FAMILY was supposed to be the heart of theshow, more than anything else–wasn’t it? But now it seems that on a show where an unrepentant self-serving prick can be a hero, a ‘romantic’ hero at that–there’s no more room for a celebration of the power offamily, love, hope–or the nobility of strong female characters who didn’t need men to find their inner strength or sense of identification.

So, yes. Buffy was a better show in the first four years, beforeSpike fell in love with Buffy, before Spike started taking his shirt off inevery episode, and when the focus was on four uncool people and their quest torid the world of… well, of characters like Spike. Same like OUaT was a better show when it was about mothers and daughters, about finding your family and coming back home to it. And I daresay that yes, it was an infinitesimally better show when we had a glimpse of hope that it was going to be that ‘modern fairytale’, about two mothers being connected through their love for their son. But again… tell that to the two idiots.

#anti captain swan #anti killian jones #emma swan #deserved better #swan queen #will always be better #but tell that to the two idiots #hook vs. spike #cs vs. spuffy #btvs parallels (or theft if you will)#ouat shitty writing #anon #replies

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nyshadidntbreakit · 7 years

Text

In light of Sean Spicer’s fucking travesty of a comment on Syria, I’ve seen and heard a lot about anti-semitism lately - more than usual, I mean - and one thing I’ve read has stuck out to me. I’m gonna divorce it from its context to make a point, just to make it clear that I’m not disagreeing with what the (presumably Jewish) author meant when they said it.

And that was - when there’s a discussion about Hitler, don’t say that he was only human. I can imagine the kind of comment this is referring to: Hitler was just a human, he was deeply flawed like we all are, he made terrible misjudgments... etc. That kind of utter wank.

But from another perspective: I think it’s incredibly, incredibly important to recognise that Hitler was just a human. He wasn’t a member of another species. He wasn’t a comic book villain. There is nothing fundamental that separates me and Hitler, Sean Spicer and Hitler, Geert Wilders and Hitler. I feel a little like JK Rowling here, but what separates me and Hitler is attitudes and beliefs - some deliberately developed, some inadvertently absorbed - and decisions.

I think that a lot of people subscribe to a huge myth of impotence. We tend to conceive of ourselves as inherently limited, fundamentally incapable - not morally incapable, but incapable in a practical sense - of bringing down horrors on other people. I can see the benefit to that - perhaps if we all believe that no matter how much we hate queers we’ll never be able to systematically murder them, then no-one will ever bother to try, right? But we know that doesn’t work.

And it leads to recklessness. It leads to people doing incredibly harmful things, because they can’t conceive of the possibility that their actions will have meaningful consequences. It leads to “just their opinion” culture, because what mere human could actually cause suffering and death on a large scale, right? The fact that everyone who has ever orchestrated or participated in a crime against humanity was a mere human, is forgotten.

I would like to see us all move towards viewing ourselves as being potentially dangerous. I would like us to assume that our actions will lead to their obvious, straightforward consequences, instead of counting on our own impotence to protect other people from us.

I would like everyone to ask-

If I’m voting for something, do I actually want it to happen? Or am I counting on the assumption that my vote won’t count, in order to escape moral responsibility?

If I’m saying something, perhaps about a group such as Muslims, or immigrants, or disabled people, do I actually want everyone else to believe what I say? Or am I counting on my words remaining largely unheard?

If I’m suggesting an action or a policy, do I actually want it to happen? Or am I counting on my urging being ignored?

And I would like us to hold others, especially public figures, to the first standard. Take them at their word.

I think the world would be a better place if we all feared ourselves a little more.

#there is a lot to say about the role of disempowering social economic and political systems in this #but it's late

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apocalypticvalraven · 7 years

Text

Just as reading the fiction makes me even more sympathetic of Liliana, it makes me hate Gideon even more.

Gideon Jura is a manipulative bastard.

He doesn’t realize how manipulative he is, which is his one redemption, but he’s every bit as manipulative as Liliana, possibly more, because Liliana has to think about manipulating people while Gideon manipulates unconsciously through his magic.

Lets start with Catching Up, where it starts becoming really clear that Gideon is manipulative and a bit of an asshole. He barges in on Jace and Liliana’s not-date, where Liliana is apparently genuinely asking for help, at least as much as she can after 4000 years of using manipulation and power to get what she wants. She understands, however shallowly, that she does need to change, especially if she wants help. She takes faltering first steps, and doesn’t reach the point of asking for help, still just assuming Jace will help, but for someone who’s been manipulating for 4000 years, I’m willing to give her a gold star for trying.

Gideon somehow figures out where Jace is (probably asking around), and just strides in, taking advantage of his Boros insignia to make the Maitre d’ assume it was actual guild business, and while he does ”ask” Jace for his help, not a single part of the encounter actually plays as a request. He uses his physical stature, he uses the knowledge of other planes to interrupt another’s conversation, he uses his knowledge that Jace is a problem-solver who probably can’t help himself (putting the pieces of the Hedron Network and the Leylines in front of him), and finishes by saying “I now you’ll do the right thing,” framing what he wants Jace to do as the unambiguously RIGHT thing to do, and everything else, from Jace’s responsibilities on Ravncia, to Liliana’s needs, as the unambiguously WRONG thing to do. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gideon’s Hieromancy included some ability to sense guilt and know that Jace feels guilt for the Eldrazi. Liliana, for all her manipulation, for all her assumption, for all that she came to Jace all tits and old emotions and a tantalizing puzzle to be solved and playing, as much as Liliana can, the damsel in distress, was presenting Jace with a choice. And was likely on her way to actually asking Jace for his help, genuinely asking. Again, 4000 years of doing things with manipulation. If Gideon had not interrupted, Liliana probably would have explicitly asked Jace for help, even if it had been due to Jace prompting it.

Gideon does the same thing with Chandra in Offers to Fire, but Chandra knows Gideon and so is resistant to his manipulation. Gideon barges in on Chandra’s life, unconcerned that she has more personally important shit going on, and says that Zendikar needs her, expecting her to drop everything to do what he wants. Again. To his credit, he doesn’t realize how manipulative he’s being, and he acknowledges that if Regatha needs her, then she should stay, but he doesn’t truly care about what’s going on on Regatha, he doesn’t care that he interrupted Chandra being asked to be the new Abbot, he doesn’t genuinely think Regatha needs her, he thinks that Zendikar trumps everything, and while I can be sympathetic to what’s going on on Zendikar, and the millions of lives being lost there (millions? Planes are a lot smaller than Earth, so I’m not sure there have actually been more than a million Zendikari lives lost there at that point). But Gideon is heedless of what other planes need because he has friends dying. Gideon’s own guilt is driving him to guilt others into doing what he wants.

Finally, because its as far as I’ve gotten, we look at Slaughter at the Refuge. Gideon is at perhaps his least manipulative as far as stories where he’s manipulative go, but his manipulation is at its most explicitly magical.

"It's all for nothing if you die trying to find her in a city teeming with Eldrazi."

"Jace." Gideon put a hand on the mind mage's shoulder. "Look at what we've done today. Greater deeds lie ahead for both of us. Trust me."

Jace squirmed out from under his hand, stepped back out of reach, and met his gaze. He opened his mouth to speak, then paused.

"Trust me," Gideon said again.

"I do," Jace said, with a touch of wonder in his voice. "I still think it's foolish, but I do."

Gideon’s magic is manipulating Jace to believe what he says. Jace knows, intellectually, that Gideon’s proposed course of action is stupid. He knows the danger of the Eldrazi. He knows that as formidable as Gideon is, he can be worn down, and that if he had not made the man see a healer before returning to Zendikar, Gideon would probably be dead at that moment. He knows what a long shot finding Jori En is, and that if anything, it’s probably better for them to get ahead of the Eldrazi, to a leyline and some Hedrons, and let Jace start puzzling things out. And yet his knowledge is overriden by Gideon’s white magic, making him trust the stupid words and plan coming from Gideon.

White Magic At Its Worst

In Magic’s nearly 25 year history, it has had comparatively few White villains. Because for all the talk that White “isn’t inherently Good,” lets face it, because of our cultural milieu, because of human prejudices, because of color psychology, because of the muddy beginnings of the color pie, White is pretty much The Good Guys, and it seems very hard for Creative to focus on the bad sides of White. But White has plenty of bad. White is about Organization, Community, and Peace. But White also believes “suffering is a by-product of individuals not prioritizing the good of the group.” IE, “people are suffering because they’re just selfish.” White wants peace, but it doesn’t really care how it gets that peace, and its just as likely to obtain peace by killing everyone as by arresting the offending party, or the party white finds offensive, anyway. Just because White has mostly desirable goals doesn’t mean its above offensive means. At its best, White is about cooperation and community, but it’s just as easily about coercion, oppression and conformity. White believes its way is best, and that individuality and passion are dangerous at best (hence why its enemy colors are Black and Red). It is much more at home with Dharma (the principle of cosmic order in hinduism, and the best way to describe Green’s philosophy) and perfection (Blue’s shtick).

As the White planeswalker, Gideon sees himself as always being in the right, as doing what is best for the whole multiverse, but he does so by bending others to his will, by coercing them, by removing others’ choice even as he believes and makes them believe that he is offering them a choice.

To be clear, I’m not saying Gideon is a villain. This isn’t a head canon about that. It’s not a head canon about Gideon really being evil (though Gideon becoming the next villain would be interesting). This is purely about how Gideon’s really no less manipulative than Liliana, except that he doesn’t realize he’s manipulating people.

Remember, “the ends justify the means” is not a philosophy people generally regard as praise-worthy.

#Gideon #Gideon Jura #Jace #Jace Beleran #Liliana #Liliana Vess #Chandra #Chandra Nalaar #Planeswalkers #Magic the Gathering #Zendikar #Ravnica #Regatha #MTG #Gideon Sucks Fanclub

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