sansphilautia

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Today is saturday, there’s a UFC pay per view on in a couple of hours. called my friend

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previous model

Skull knight is an earlier model Griffith time/dimension traveling as a previous chosen one who fell from favor. The ruin of his empire AFTER he had conquered the realm is  due to the fact that he wanted to rule justly  and perhaps become a just god himself. We dont know if the idea of evil created other bloodlines and chosen ones in the past to reshape the world in his image. My opinion is that the skull knight is a dog biting the master that spawned him to begin with, he has only the personal powers that he is bestowed with but not the favor of the idea of evil, causality, the other god hands, etc. He was somehow able to retain his godlike form in the physical world and works as a guerilla agent to disrupt the flow of events that made him their first experiment. He knows the lore but not the full storyHe has supernatural abilities that could make him just as effective as Griffith in the field of battle, but not the rng luck and behind the screens string pulling to enable him to rise to power. Gaiseric and Griffith even shared the animal themed helm and symbolismGaiseric was a lion, mightiest in the land but bound to the earth on which he walked.Griffith is a falcon who can stretch his wings and fly over the land, free from earthly limitations. Gaiseric's fangs can never reach griffith directly because although he has retained at least a part of his personal power Griffith is the one who is being favored by "fate".

Following these assertions allow us to unearth deeper, corroborating standpoints from existing facts in the lore. 

King Gaiseric lived when many small warring kingdoms scattered the land, none being strong enough to win completely in an endless cycle. Gaiseric was able to subjugate all of the kingdoms with an army that was “raised seemingly out of nowhere”. Because there had never been a ruling kingdom to unite the land his dream was to have an army strong enough to perform this previously impossible task.

Griffith exists after Gaiseric, Griffith's dream is to take a country as his own, to have the ultimate kingdom, he was given powers but upon his manifestation on the land, he had a brief history writing period of making his comeback seem even greater than his initial reign as a prominent figure in world events at the time.

His “out of nowhere” manifestation is his kingdom of falconia. 

I don’t believe the final battle will be between Griffith and Guts, in order to fight against the system and the power that dictated both your tragic fates you have to target the system itself, not each other.

I believe the appearance of the skull knight in the domain of the Elf King will be akin to America finally choosing to take part in WW2 when they themselves had finally become targets of a threat they had been forewarned of, and were watching wreak havoc.

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Griffith had no other choice.

The Berserk fandom is so desensitized to violence, gore, and misfortune, that they casually gloss over what a “year of non-stop torture” can really do to someone. First off, I don’t know either because even if that amount of damage could be done to a human, even if they did survive, what are the odds that they held a brief survey afterwards? Please choose how you feel about this statement “cutting off my skin repeatedly and eating it in front of me was uncalled for” - strongly agree.

I’m not going to delve into any fantasy speculations, we saw how griffith reacted to having to have sex with lord genon, he was using self harm as a coping mechanism for whatever negative thing he was feeling. He gained a great amount of wealth from doing that, got closer to his dream, got to take better care of his allies. 

Now that same guy, just lost his most useful tool, lost a swordfight, got stripped of all his titles and power, thrown in a dungeon for the foreseeable forever, and tortured by some deformed midget every day. Throughout this ordeal he’s visited several times by the godhand, he’s shown visions, told of prophecies. His only tie to the outside world 

im too high its too late i do more later remind me about the alpha and utility and communication shellbroke husk

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Bad Lieutenant (Unedited draft)

In this essay I will be referring to the character of LT using the name of the actor who portrayed him, in the movie Bad Lieutenant, Harvey Keitel.

First off, I don’t think Keitel was as far gone or close to the edge as the movie and reviewers made him out to be. He had a steady and large enough income to be sending a few kids to school and have non-immediate family members live in his large house. He was making some good money on the side with all his betting and using the drug smuggling from crime scenes to soften the blows he’d take on losses, he knew what he was doing.

The other detectives, out of towners or different bureau if I recall, defer to his expertise on sports and make some very large bets, and he’s such an old hand at sports gambling that he’s using their bets to make his own, contradictory bets and pay them back from his winnings. He’s got them so convinced with his one man shows championing the Mets, that this can’t possibly be the first time he’s done something like this.

He has several mistresses so he’s letting off plenty of steam whenever he wants and affords their goodwill with the drugs he supplies. He’s got a way to offload the drugs for cash and has a very trusting relationship with his middle-man. He’s a beloved figure in a god-fearing household for letting a young man become a much-needed pillar of the family, doing the best his circumstances He has an emotional out from every bad thing we see him do early on.

In brief flashes, we see Keitel exist around his family. He goes to church with them and keeps up appearances, he drives his sons to school when he’s overworked and busy. Even when he crashes on the couch, the family continues their lives around him. In fact, the drug addled incomprehension period during which Keitel comes back to his senses, barely gets acknowledged.

This man has a system and it doesn’t matter what we think of it because only he knows the full story and he’s made his peace with it.

High wire acts of both personal and professional come crashing down, each bringing some other integral part of another act on the’ way down. Too many sources of stress and easy access quick fixes mixed into a fatal spiral which left Keitel dull, when he needed all his edge.

Yet, during a lot of things going on in the movie that I can’t possibly fit into this essay, he solves the case. You remember, he’s a cop, a good one. He rose to the rank of lieutenant and he’s possibly still climbing. Being good at his job is what allows him to get away with all the things we see him doing. Our first exposure to this character establishes that he’s bad and one could argue that parts of the movie act as a documentary to fill us in on just how bad.

His senses dulled, his mind wrought with a mixture of paranoia and justified fear, (and may i add, sleep deprived and malnourished) and his penultimate act is to solve the case. Not only does Keitel find the men who raped the nun, he caught them with absolutely no help from the victim in identifying the assailants. A police officer, with no surveillance footage, cooperating witnesses, DNA evidence, or fingerprints, caught 2 rapists , got a confession and has evidence. That’s damn good policework.  

After apprehending the rapists, he chooses to respect the wishes of the victim and forgives them like she did. Perhaps forgive is a strong word, but he certainly acts as an instrument of her will, he let them go and he kept it off the books. Coming back to the real world for a second, he also gave them thirty thousand dollars of his own money when that cash could literally have saved his life in bargaining with his debtors. He went above and beyond to give power back to a woman in a situation in which she was so barbarically stripped of it.

He would have had a fantastic life, a sweet financial setup and a happy retirement getting high and living his best life if only strawberry could’ve hit the damn ball.

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Nic cage was high-key in shape by 1997 standards, he had  the guns, the delts, there’s even beginnings of traps underneath the mane. Con air would have had a chance to be taken seriously, if he was just allowed to go bald. Sadly Die Hard 3 had come out 2 years prior and Bruce Willis was still trying to have hair with the same hairline. Balding white men's salvation would be put off another untold number of years. It wasn't fully OK to be fully bald yet. To these men, their image was-and remains- a part of their livelihood. Would their level of Fame allow them to be fully bald and still get the roles that they wanted? You might be scoffing at Ron Pearlman getting action roles well into his late 60′s but the whole premise of a 65 year old action hero would be a lot harder to sell if Pearlman didnt have all his (or someone else’s) hair.

Stigma around being a bald white man was one even millions of dollars couldn’t overcome. No one had done it successfully yet, no one had started with hair and continued to enjoy the same status after being bald. Elton John abused his scalp for years using primitive hair restoration procedures, Captain Kirk was famous for his hair piece, these were men with unimaginable financial means who had to suffer going bald in the limelight, and they fought every step. Being bald was associated with being older, weaker, perhaps sickly. The worst of it however was being a young, in-shape bald man, if you weren’t a skinhead what were you? Who else would willingly be all bald? Where was the white Michael Jordan, who could be all man and all bald? Who could finally normalize the bald white guy.

The late 90s and early 2000s were a dark time for bald white men, George Costanza did more damage to their cause than the 9/11 attacks did to my Turkish family’s permanent resident applications. He was funny sure, but he was also a failure, a boob, he had difficulty finding a mate, he was short, he was bald, and he was just so goddamn visible. Seinfeld is still one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time and widely regarded as the greatest sitcom. Everyone knew who George was, and subconsciously or not, we associated the rest of George’s failings with the way he looked. In one of Kramer’s most iconic scenes. where he drinks a beer while simultaneously smoking a cigarette, the actor opposite him in the scene has a long bald mullet. He looks absolutely ridiculous, he’s overweight but carries it well, with a different hairstyle he could have a powerful stocky look to him, but the hair just makes him look so....inferior. Just as he was an extra on Seinfeld you feel that he’s an extra in life just looking at him. All because of that ridiculous bald mullet, but what else could he do with a completely barren top, how could he fashion that into an acceptable hairstyle that made him look and feel good?

Contrary to popular belief, Bruce Willis was not the pioneer of the shaved white head. Willis was the most visible and successful star at rocking the full bald as a white guy early on, but he wasn’t the first one to make the full transition. Willis’ hairline had long thrown in the towel but his hair was still hanging on in Sin City. By the time he let it all go for Live free or die hard he was simply riding a trend that someone else had bravely started. That someone was Jason Statham

The transporter released in 2002 and we saw the first full white guy who could do non-corny martial arts, have muscles and sport that forehead, the one that says “I’ve made my peace with my hairline, and I’m man enough to still beat your ass and be a sex symbol” (the accent helped his image obviously, this is over a decade before brexit when Americans began finding out Brits aren’t actually smart). Statham continued his crusade with a series of transporter sequels and other action films well into the 2000s and now has a place on the Mount Rushmore of action stars that Stallone rounded up with his Expendables series.

There were other notable contributors to the cause, NBA hall of famer Jason Kidd was fully shaved in 2002 and got all the way to the finals to fall before the Lakers threepeat dynasty, but he wasn’t a star, he wasnt a physical man, he was quick, smart, slick even, but not dominant. Speaking of basketball even Kobe Bryant had to hold out till mid/late 2000s to finally embrace his fate and he was the most dominant man to ever touch a basketball since MJ (Shaq did nothing on his own, Wade carried him in Miami).

Men like Patrick Stewart had an air about them where we accepted them bald, but would we have accepted them going bald? If Jason Statham opened the door for bald white men, The Rock going full shaved head was the Kool-Aid man busting through the wall. The Rock is a hero to everyone, beloved by all, he has no faults, he makes wholesome movies and no one thinks he's corny, he seems like a genuinely good dude, you’re happy to see him succeed. He can be funny, he can be an action star, he can be intimidating, he can even wrestle! Also the rock isn’t in “entertainment” shape, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnsons is a big man who can generate kinetic force at a level that is beyond the comprehension of most people. His alpha status is lifelong, he can rest on his laurels for eternity. If he wanted to, he could bring back the Hitler mustache and play a villain in a Disney movie at the same time. That’s how bulletproof he is, so a hairline malfunction was nothing to him.

Finally white men could feel secure, if it happened to him it can happen to anyone, there was light at the end of this lifelong tunnel of flailing to stay relevant and sexy. The Rock, along with many names both mentioned and omitted from this piece, helped usher in an era of prosperity for the bald white men of the world.