#"make a case-to-answer decision"

[carriesthewind]

Good evening everyone! As I said in an answer to a previous ask, there wasn't a public call-in line to listen to the Show Cause Hearing in Mata v Avianca (the ChatGBT lawyer case) today.

However, while we are waiting for a transcript of the hearing (because there was a court reporter! yay!) and a written decision by the judge, we did get this absolutely anxiety-inducing live tweet of the hearing:

(Caveat: this thread was not an official transcript of the hearing and should not be taken as such. It is possible the actual events and statements made in the hearing differ significantly from this report - i.e., take this with a grain of salt and reserve final judgement for the actual transcript.)

I'll put the full thread with some (light) commentary below the cut.* But the overall impression I am left with is that the judge seems to feel this pair of attorneys are treating their duty of candor toward the tribunal with the same seriousness with which they are treating their duty of competence to their clients. (And in this case, that's a very bad thing.)

*The full thread except for a soon-to-follow part 2 because I ran out of space for images again.

(All of the following screenshots are from the above tweet thread by Inner City Press @ innercitypress on twitter, made on June 8, 2023.)

Normally I would overlook that "you, personally," but in this case, you really get the feeling that the judge is concerned that LoDuca might just start talking about what Schwartz did again.

Establishing LoDuca's base of knowledge - he should know how to look up cases and check if they are real; he should know what a real case looks like.

The March 1 submission was the plaintiff's opposition to the motion to dismiss, where they first cited the fake cases.

How bad this answer is depends, I think, on LoDuca's wording here. Best case scenario, his statement about Schwartz was a specific statement about what inquiry was reasonable for him to do under the circumstances (which - for that first filing - I think is actually a reasonable argument. You don't expect your colleague to just make up cases). Worst case, this reads like him trying to wiggle out of his obligations. I will withhold judgement until I see the official transcript.

Rule 11, by the way, refers to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Rule 11(b) states:

(If you remember the Order to Show Cause, we are dealing with a Rule 11(b)(2) issue here. Rule 11(c) allows the court to impose sanctions for violations of Rule 11(b))

Oh no, bad answer. (If anyone reading this is good at photoshop, I cannot express how badly I want a version of the "this sign can't stop me because I can't read" meme with the sign being the quote from defendant's reply where they say, "The undersigned has not been able to locate this case by caption or citation, nor any case bearing any resemblance to it.")

Oh that is not a good way of characterizing those orders. (Those were the orders, remember, where the Court said, "By April 18, 2022, Peter LoDuca, counsel of record for plaintiff, shall file an affidavit annexing copies of the following cases cited in his submission to this Court: as set forth herein. Failure to comply will result in dismissal of the action pursuant to Rule 41 (b), Fed. R. Civ. P.")

I would simply perish on the spot.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in my original attempted summary of "Varghese" - the first paragraph states that it is a wrongful death suit by the widow of the passenger. Then the second paragraph states that the passenger was denied boarding on a flight due to overbooking and thus missed his connecting flight and therefore incurred additional expenses. The case was such nonsense that I legitimately forgot about that inconsistency by the time I got to the end.

Your honor I plead "2 stupid 2 sanction."

(I believe the "different fonts" is in reference to the April 25 affidavit, in which the case names - and some of the surrounding text - are in a different font from most of the text in the affidavit. It seems like this is because they may have been copied straight from ChatGPT. See e.g., #3 below. It's hard to tell just based on this twitter thread, though.)

A short and simple answer! You did it!

"I have all the answers I need" is not a good sentence in this context.

Very genuinely: shorter is better here. At least I don't think he hurt himself with that statement.

Judge Castel: How do you conduct legal research?

Schwartz: I research cases.

Judge Castel: Do you read them?

Schwartz: Well, I may have once upon a time, but after hearing you ask that question in this context, I have decided to retire from the practice of law forever and also possibly sink into the ground and die. Also, by answering "yes," here, I just realized that I'm either admitting that I read the cases I submitted and therefore must have known they were fake, or else I just possibly committed perjury. Oh shit oh fuck.

Oh god I'm cringing myself into a pretzel just reading this.

Hey, by the way? You can actually use google (esp. google scholar) to do legal research. (It's not a good tool and you will miss things, but it will do in a pinch.) But. Um. If you know that...why didn't you double check your cases at very least on google when you were told they seemed to be made up?

So, once again, I am going to withhold judgement until I see the actual transcript. That said, if Schwartz did say this, I would like to compare it briefly to a part of the chat transcript he provided to the court. Here is the first question asked about the Montreal Convention in the provided transcript:

"analysis"

Oh god. I can't even provide commentary on this one. I hope this is worse than the actual transcript will prove to be. I'm reading through my fingers like I'm watching a horror movie.

"Misperception" (or "misconception") doesn't work once you have evidence that should cause you to doubt - like not being able to find a case that was supposedly published in the Federal fucking Reporter.

This is overshooting "2 stupid 2 sanction" into "too stupid to function."* You either looked for "Varghese" or you didn't. If you looked for "Varghese," it is not credible that you continued to have a good faith assumption that ChatGPT couldn't lie. If you didn't look up "Varghese," you just lied to the Court under oath.

*Just to be clear: for an ordinary person, this would be a very understandable lack of knowledge issue. A lawyer has no excuse not to know this.

Judge Castel: Mr. Schwartz, I think you have the fucking audacity to try to lie to me to my face in my fucking courtroom.

Honestly at this point I'm surprised he could still talk. I think screaming, "I'm melting, I'm melting!" as he vanished into steam, leaving his crumpled suit behind, would be an appropriate response.

NO.

Oh no, oh honey.

Ok. Two options here (again, assuming he actually fucking said "They said they couldn't find them," in response to the Court asking, "When Avianca said you cited non existent cases?"):

Schwartz is once again trying to purposefully downplay what the defendant's reply brief actually said and dodge responsibility.

Schwartz honestly, truly believes that when the defendant filed a reply containing the line, "The undersigned has not been able to locate this case by caption or citation, nor any case bearing any resemblance to it," they were just asking for assistance with their legal research?!??!

I honestly don't know which is worse.

Oh no....

Oh man, I haven't gone over it here yet, but I think that "I looked up the judge" is a panicked attempt at bringing up a talking point the Professional Responsibility Lawyers raised in their memorandum of law. (Again, I'm giving this reading of his response with the caveat that it is based only on this thread, not the official transcript, which might read very differently and contain different/more info.) The Professional Responsibility attorneys noted in a footnote that two of the judges listed in the "opinion," including the "author," were actual 11th circuit judges, and the other is an actual 5th circuit judge. My read of this footnote was as an extra little detail tossed in by the Professional Responsibility attorneys to try to dress up their argument that the "opinions" had various "indicia of authenticity."

But here's the problem. If Schwartz is telling the truth - if he was reading carefully and critically enough that he bothered to look up the judge (why would you do that if you didn't think the case might be fake?!) there is no way he could have missed that the case was gibberish. Again, if this is really what he said at the hearing, he either lied in the hearing, or he must have know the "opinions" were bogus when he gave them to LoDuca to file.

"Did it cross your mind" - if the court actually said this, oh my god.

Hey, that's the point that I made in my original post(s)!

This whole thing about the "+h" to "th" with the notary date is from the recent affidavits filed on 6/6/23, you can read them about them if you want, I'll be honest, I don't really care as much about the notary stuff so I'm going to skip it for the moment.

....and I've run out of space for images again. Part II to follow shortly!

[zinya]

OBEY ME INCORRECT QUOTES #2

Hey, is your day going well? I had a question before starting: which OM character do you like the least?

This time there is no mention of blood or injury so you can read in peace

Mc- "I love you."

Lucifer-"Please don't."

Solomon who wanted to surprise MC by cooking a new recipe and ended up burning whatever this thing he calls "dish"

Solomon-"Look, I can explain... "

MC- "At this point I don't think I want you to."

Diavolo: "That's suspicious..."

Lucifer who watched MC and his family "What is?"

Diavolo:"This is the first time youve smiled in fourteen years."

Mc and Asmo who bet on who will have the most likes on devilgram

Mc-"How did you defeat me...?"

Asmo-"Because I have something you don't..."

Mc-"Superpowers?"

Asmo- "Well, I was going to say friends.. but yeah, that too."

Diavolo-"I've decided to run off and become a pirate. "

Barbatos-"But your highness, you have a kingdom to run...

Diavolo-"Not anymore!"

Mc- "Violence isn't always the answer."

Satan-"True, but it is an answer."

Mammon-"You can tell me to do whatever you want-"

Mc- "Good, because need一"

Mammon-"But that doesn't mean that I'll listen."

Mc who enters Levi's room and sees him with his sewing machine

Mc-"What are you making?"

Levi-“Bad decisions.”

Lucifer- "I have a secret."

Mc-"Then keep it to yourself. Knowing you, it's probably something that would get me killed again."

Levi- "I'm going to need a week to recover from this..."

Mammon-"We've only been outside for three minutes."

Lucifer-"And this, is exactly what happens when you don't follow instructions."

Mc- "Last time I checked, life doesn't just hand you a book of instructions when you're born."

Mammon- "Even if life did, who would actually follow them?"

Mc-"You look extremely sad."

Asmo-"Thank you."

Mc-"Well, are you alright?"

Asmo-"Yes, I'm fine."

Mc-"You have tears streaming down your face...'

Asmo- "I'm auditioning for a movie, and I have

to be able to cry on command."

Lucifer- "What is that?"

Mammon"Nothing!"

Lucifer"Well, 'nothing' looks a lot like my wallet. How did you get that?"

Mc-"NO."

Mammon-"I didn't even say anything."

Mc- "You didn't have to. That smirk said it for you."

Here are the ideas coming from: ~ThirzahWriteg~ and @Bookingitonthedaily ( Instagram)

I don't know if you like this kind of format, in any case I have a lot of fun making them, and of course sorry for any spelling mistakes you might see in the posts.

On that note have a good day, believe in yourself and do everything you can yesterday doesn't matter anymore but today does.💙

[drdemonprince]

Hi I keep thinking back to your book unmasking autism, I recently was diagnosed with level 1 by my new psychiatrist but with losing my healthcare I feel lost on how to function without medical assistance. I typically mask and been learning how not to, but it always feel at the opportunity cost of more money, overly explaining to family or grief. I’ve been in a loop of feeling I shouldn’t exist due to my disability and it a sad feeling.

I am so sorry to hear that you are going through this. I'm certain you already know this, but it's not the case that you shouldn't exist because you are disabled. The vast majority of people on this planet find it absolutely soul-sucking and exhausting to present as what gets called "neurotypical" at work. It's too many hours of pretending to be someone you are not, with no space allotted for your full humanity, with not enough energy or hours left behind to look after oneself, have nourishing authentic relationships, and ample space to recover, be playful and joyful, and dream. Every person requires ample time and space for themselves to recouperate, and to listen to the actual feelings that they have inside, and capitalism instead demands that we suppress all of it, and it can slowly eat away at us and make it difficult to access authentic pleasure or connectedness. For Autistics it's especially pronounced because we are such a bad mismatch with what capitalism demands, and because we need so much energy recovery time, but it's simply the case that you are not broken or defective for failing to fit within such an oppressive system. It is that system that should not exist, and that terrorizes everybody, to varying degrees. I bet if you look at the most "well adjusted" hard working people that you know, you see how their lives have been totally ruined by overworking and killing what's wild and free about themselves, or what used to be those things.

I have spoken to hundreds of Autistic people in the situation you are in at this point, and I have found that for the majority of us, embracing our disability and articulating our needs means that very dramatic changes have to happen in our lives. Some people have to reorient how they interact with their families, establish new boundaries, push to really educate them on neurodivergence, go no contact, or rethink what family means to them altogether. Lots of us leave careers or switch to part-time or remote work, or have to get incredibly creative and resourceful in order to survive in a way that we can stand: going on disability benefits, public assistance, living with friends, pooling resources, going off the grid in some way, finding some side hustle or scam that makes it possible to survive, doing sex work or freelance, taking on childcare or eldercare duties for a friend who is employed, or something of that nature are all options I've seen a lot of unmasking Autistics pursue. None of these options are ideal, and they all come with significant costs and risk factors. But then, so does killing oneself slowly with work.

I have a whole book coming out next year in March about these specific considerations, with lots of tools and decision trees and research and quotes from other Autistics. The book is designed to help Autistics who are in that second stage of their unmasking journey sort out what a life where it is possible to be less masked means for them. Where can they live? Who is gonna support them? What matters to them in their life? How can they reset their relationships in light of their neurodivergence? What does it mean to grow old as a disabled person? These are the kinds of questions the book will hopefully help me explore, and discover the best answers for themselves. Of course, many people would say that their only way out of this is the downfall of capitalism, but I personally am of the mind that we have to make that end happen ourselves by working less hard, consuming less where possible, leaning on other people, providing support to our neighbors, becoming less reliant upon our employers and the government, and building our collective escape from the capitalistic machine. And we can all have some small part in that, even if only for ourselves and those immediately closest to us. That's enough.

I hope that you find a way of life that is sustaining and feels whole and good for you. As neurodivergent people we do things very differently. And that is both the curse and the beauty of us. The prescribed script we've been given for how life is supposed to look is never going to work for us. Indeed, it's not working for most anybody else either. There way forward will not be easy, and the lot you've been given to deal with is not fair, but there are also millions of other disabled people just like you who are leaning on one another, slowing down, refusing to play into the existing system's hand as much as is possible for them, and making a new world. And just by pondering the things that you are, you're helping already to make that new world too.

[queerprayers]

Hello! I'm a genderfluid Christian and I'm currently trying to discern whether going on HRT would be a good idea, both in terms of whether it would be worth the inconvenience and whether it would be glorifying to God. Do you have any recommendations?

(For a long time, I was comfortable in my gender without it, but a few months ago something shifted and now I can't stop thinking about it. I would ask a pastor, but I'm between churches at the moment; the Baptist church I went to for many years, despite its many good qualities, is not at all affirming, and I'm still in the process of finding a better spiritual home, which is further complicated by the fact that I am nocturnal.)

Thank you for running this blog, by the way. It means a lot to me.

Hello, beloved! I will do my best and I'm so glad you're here.

I hope you've heard this quote from Daniel M. Lavery, but just in case you haven't: "As my friend Julian puts it, only half winkingly: 'God blessed me by making me transsexual for the same reason God made wheat but not bread and fruit but not wine, so that humanity might share in the act of creation.'"

Another quote from that book (Something That May Shock and Discredit You, which I highly recommend) that comes to mind is “Trying not to transition was the hardest work in the world. The nicest thing about transition was letting go.” I believe you that you're unsure, and I'm not trying to make your decision for you, but on the off chance that any of your discerning has taken the form of trying to convince yourself not to transition in this way, or downplaying your current discomfort, or not trusting yourself out of fear, I'd say that being trans in this world is hard enough without being on your own side.

Ultimately, you know yourself and your experience, and I'd hazard a guess that you've already decided more than you think. Often by the time I'm reaching out about a life change, I'm asking permission more than advice. If that rings true, here's your permission (not that you need it from me).

I hope you don't mind, but I checked in with my partner (a certified Transgender) while answering this, and I'll paraphrase what they had to say about HRT and inconvenience: Is the travel time to see a loved one worth the inconvenience? Ultimately, you are worth dealing with inconvenience. The happiness you could have is worth the inconvenience. Being trans is hard with or without medical transition. But sharing in the act of creation is worth it. We are all worth doing hard things for, and for some that includes fighting to get on HRT and being visibly trans in public.

You can't know until you begin a journey if it will be "worth it"—but I would imagine answering this for yourself, giving this instinct inside you a chance, would be worth it even if it's not forever. There are people who start HRT and decide it's not for them—and their lives aren't ruined. Their lives are fuller for honoring what they wanted at that point in time. Obviously regret happens—but we cannot refrain from living because of that. Your gender identity and your relationship with your body may change and grow, and all parts of that change are worth of honoring.

As to whether this would glorify God—are you honoring the person God created? If (to paraphrase St. Teresa of Ávila) Christ has no body now on earth but yours, if yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world, the feet with which he walks to do good, the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world —what body are you moving through this world with, and how will you care for it? What will enable you to live out Christ? Jesus calls us to meet every stranger as himself—what would happen if you met yourself as such, too? If everything we do to another is what we do to Christ—feed, clothe, honor—why would you be any less? Why would your body not be worthy of existence, of shelter?

If our bodies are temples to God, are they not places of worship? Of course my journey with accepting my body has shown me that we can be faithful Christians before accepting ourselves, and as we learn to care for ourselves. I don't mean to imply we cannot. But our peaceful existence in these places of worship takes work, and just as we work to make our churches more accessible and accepting, so must we work to care for our bodies and fully inhabit them as prayer. My work of love to my body was accepting it as it is, welcoming its change and faults, and also taking psychiatric medication so that I could function better. It was prayer for me, the journey to find a medication that worked and paying attention to how it was changing me, how it enabled me to better serve as a child of God.

Every trans person I know has been more fully able to love when they live as themselves—when they've had access to transition care, when they've been respected and affirmed. These were not selfish choices, they were self-honoring choices which have shone outward ever since. We can look to the Bible to see name changes at moments of God-glorifying change, and we can also see physical change—the shining face of Moses, the woman who only seeks to grasp the hem of Jesus's clothing to be healed, Paul going temporarily blind, Jesus himself at his transfiguration. We cannot serve God and stay the same.

Romans 12 tells us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice—living. Yes, we are called to be willing to die for love, but also to live for it. Preventing your flourishing because it would be scary, or inconvenient, or misunderstood, or because it may not be where your flourishing lies forever, is not a sacrifice for love. Transition, the way I've seen it in the people around me, is.

I also want to point out that you've done the work—you introduced yourself as a genderfluid Christian. I don't know your story, but I know the years of reconciling saying those words can take. You have the language for yourself. You know who you are. HRT can be a huge first step for some, but it can also be just the next part of that work. It doesn't have to be huge. For some it is simply bringing things more in line with the self they've known all along. Make it a big deal if that feels true (and it is a big deal in terms of bravery and access), but it may become just one of many ways you care for yourself. You don't have to cater to those who see it as drastic or an emergency, those who fearmonger or want you to prove you need it. You've done the work, so trust that you are capable of making this decision.

It is your God-given right to make decisions about your body. As Christians, we believe we are called to serve God with those decisions. But God gave us the reins. God gave us all different skills and stories and paths. It is not easy or obvious and sometimes we circle back or regret or repent. God gave us the capacity for those kinds of stories, too. Be human with God—our God who entered into time and space, who participated in our having-a-body-ness, who reconciled the ways his body held him back and the ways he could serve with it. Jesus's relationship with his gender/body/health is not something we're privy to but from other parts of his life we can assume it was a participation in his time and place—a 1st century Jewish man. In the communities you're a part of, with the resources you have, with the identities you have welcomed, how will you be human with him?

I don't know what healthcare is available to you where you are, but a good doctor can tell you the side effects, refer you to counseling as you make choices, give you dose and timeline options. Even if you don't end up going on HRT, seeking out trans-inclusive healthcare and community is a good choice, and I would recommend learning your options. If you can't stop thinking about this, trust that it's worth taking seriously.

I wish you all the best in finding a church/community—there are people equipped to love all of you, and you deserve to find them. I relate with the nocturnal bit—I know Catholics usually have a Saturday night service, and every so often another kind of church will. Online community can fill gaps and give us other ways of connection as we look for physical communion. I wish I could promise affirming religious spaces in every place, but I can only pray and work for that to someday be the case.

So, to answer my lover's question, the travel time to see a loved one is worth it. The journey to the you more full of love is worth it, and the journey to find a spiritual home is worth it. If we are pilgrims on this earth, may the things in our control be done with love, may our journeys be faithful, may our bodies be Christ's body, trusting in the Love greater than anything we can do. How you will be a steward of God's creation is not something I can answer for you, but I believe in your ability to sow the seeds within you. HRT may be the next part of your creation—you can give yourself some time, talk to some people, sit with the idea, consider how you would handle regret, and don't let me tell you what to do, but ultimately there is only one way to know, and waiting until we're sure is stagnation if it is not an active waiting.

To quote my Easter/TDOV post: Come to life, beloved. God sees you. The first steps out of the tomb may be stumbling, the dawn too bright, but we will meet you in the garden, where you were first created. Bring with you whatever is still bleeding—Jesus believes in you, touches the ache in your ribs. Mistake him for a gardener; let him plant you anew. Look to the wound in his side, see how it births the Church, and continues to until there is room for you. Look through the holes in his hands and see the world you were redeemed for, the self that you have already found or may only imagine. God made the grapes, and Christ stands in the winepress with you. Trample out your wine.

And lastly, to turn the patron saint of receiving sacraments presenting as God calls, even unto death, Joan of Arc's affirmation into a command (and purposely quoting an angel in the process): Be not afraid. You were born to do this.

<3 Johanna

[voxofthevoid]

I loved your answer to the Sukuita anon! I’d also like to ask for some elaboration if that’s okay: when you said that Sukuna in the manga says he finds Yuji boring but is borderline obsessed with him, can I ask how you got to that interpretation/conclusion? I myself am a MASSIVE sukuita shipper and yet sometimes I struggle w the ship because it feels like Sukunas hate for Yuji is so,,, rigid? To me it’s not just hate sometimes it borders on disdain/apathy which is a lot less forgiving than a passionate feeling like hate I think? And it narrows down the plausibility of a relationship between them (which makes me sad bc I ship these two BAAAADDDDDD 😭😭). So I just wanna know how you reconciled that aspect of their relationship.

When I ship something I don’t wanna feel like the characters would have to be OOC to be together (I’m not one of those people who can soften a char’s edges in my imagination to make it fit the ship), which Sukuita often feels like. Straight up giving me ship-imposter syndrome 😭 💀 making me ask myself am I being delulu? Do these two chars even have chemistry fr?

I think I’ve just never seen a character like Sukuna call another char BORING this much before. Like damn Sukuna can’t even say he hates Yuji 😭 he gotta call him boring 😭😭 and that makes me wanna kms 😭 😭 I don’t wanna ship a fraud ship so please help me see what you see.

I’ve never shipped something so hard while simultaneously being so confused and conflicted over shipping it.

*pats pats* I can understand that dilemma. Hate is a very passionate emotion, while indifference/apathy is defined by lack of passion. How's that quote go—the opposite of love isn't hate but indifference? I'd also find it harder to get into a ship where one party outright doesn't care about the other, while mutual or even one-sided hate are prime shipping grounds.

But in this case, without any real insight into your head, I'd wager a guess that you're experiencing this disconnect because you have critically picked up on the undercurrents of Sukuna and Yuuji's relationship but are consciously too caught up in what Sukuna says.

He be lyin' though. To himself, most of all. There's a reason I specified he must be in denial in that post you saw.

Sukuna very badly wants Yuuji to be boring. He wants Yuuji to not matter—for his ideals to be foolish, for his will to wither. Most importantly, Sukuna wants to be completely unaffected by Yuuji. He tries to emphasize this so many times in so many ways: he never calls Yuuji by name (except once at the beginning and then at the very end), he belittles and mocks Yuuji at every opportunity, and he says in a variety of ways that Yuuji's boring and inconsequential.

But look at his actions, the way he behaves. From the beginning, whenever he takes over Yuuji, Sukuna tries to do things that will not only bring him joy but also shatter Yuuji, and the degree of his targeted malice only increases as the story progresses. The devastation at Shibuya is a natural consequence of Sukuna's fight with Jogo and then Mahoraga, but that final moment where he takes care to lead Yuuji to the very edge of the crater, taunting him while making sure Yuuji will witness the full scale of the devastation the instant he opens his eyes? That's so intensely personal.

And it only gets worse after Sukuna switches to Megumi's body; there are glaring contradictions between what he tells Yuuji and how he acts/reacts. Honestly, even his interior monologue contradicts what he says half the time. Both in the last few chapters of "Cursed Womb: Under Heaven" and "The Decisive Battle in the Uninhabited, Demon-Infested Shinjuku," there's a running thread of Sukuna verbally dismissing Yuuji while actively being shocked, offended, confused, and even cornered by his actions. And whenever the battle narrows to just the two of them, you have Sukuna continuously needling Yuuji to get a rise out of him, while Yuuji's fixated on just tearing into him and saving Megumi—until Yuuji's domain expansion, that is.

The crux of it is there in Chapter 248, explicitly realized by Sukuna himself. Sharing a body with Yuuji, their souls coexisting in excruciating proximity, forced Sukuna to understand and be aware of Yuuji in a way that's deeply uncomfortable to Sukuna, both because of his character and because of how diametrically opposed Yuuji's values and ideals are to Sukuna's nature. Even the very act of understanding Yuuji discomfits Sukuna. Naturally, he resolves to shatter those ideals and Yuuji himself.

Yuuji's DE and its aftermath also illustrate this. You have Sukuna outright saying he feels "absolutely nothing" about the humanity Yuuji showcased only to become incandescently angry the instant he perceives Yuuji as pitying him. There's nothing apathetic about the way he resolves to tear apart everyone Yuuji loves before killing him; he even admits out loud that he's surprised by the intensity of his hatred.

Fundamentally, Yuuji changed him, and Sukuna fucking hated it the entire time—the premonition, the process, the result. He's so insistent on Yuuji meaning nothing because to accept otherwise challenges the very foundation Sukuna built his existence on. To him, Yuuji is an existential threat, and we see it realized in the afterlife scene, where Sukuna admits to wanting to try a kinder path in life. That's one hell of an admittance coming from him, but it's also an admittance he could only have made in death, in loss.

In the end, he died cradled by Yuuji, verbally rejecting him using Yuuji's own words while simultaneously acknowledging Yuuji by using his proper name. And ain't that sukuita in a nutshell?

Even outside of the shipping goggles, they're a central narrative-driving force in the final arc and for good reason.

I do think the development of this relationship could have benefited from (a) the Shinjuku Showdown arc having a tighter focus, instead of being so drawn out and haphazard, and (b) Yuuji's DE and the parts around it being expanded to cover a Heian era flashback as well as more insights into Yuuji's understanding of Sukuna. I read or skimmed like twenty chapters just to put this post together because while I trust my memory, I wanted concrete references, and it really showed how scattered the emotional core of the Sukuna gauntlet is.

[starlingflight]

Ginniversary Drabble 2

Prompt: B7 - All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way

This was the hardest prompt ever!

AO3 or read below:

The door to Harry & Ron's room burst open and a whirlwind of red hair and glitter flew inside. 

“Oi!” Ron sat up abruptly, glaring at Ginny. “Have you ever heard of knocking?” 

Ginny rounded on him, the gold tinsel draped artfully around her neck was at stark odds with the bleak surroundings of Grimmauld Place. 

“I'll knock when you stop taking my things!” She declared, plucking the copy of Seeker Weekly Ron had been reading while lounging on his bed right out of his hands. 

“You've already read it!” He protested, reaching for the magazine. 

Ginny practically danced out of his reach. Harry could see the indecision in Ron's face as he contemplated whether this was worth getting up for. 

Instead, he frowned at Ginny. “Why do you look like a fairy threw up on you?” 

“It's Christmas, Ron!” Ginny's tone made it abundantly clear that this blunt answer should be sufficient to explain her decision to apparently bathe in glitter and drape herself in enough tinsel to be mistaken for a Christmas tree. 

“Yeah, the season of goodwill,” Ron shot back. “So maybe you should share your magazine with me.” 

“Ask nicely and maybe I will.” 

Ron's only response to this suggestion was a scowl. 

Ginny ignored it, turning instead to Harry, who had been watching their argument silently from his own bed. 

“You live with Muggles.” 

“Thanks for reminding me,” Harry replied dryly. 

“Who's Anna Karenina?” 

“I–” Harry frowned, wherever he'd been expecting Ginny to go with her observation of his living circumstances, it wasn't this. “Why?” 

“I just heard Hermione quoting her to Sirius in the hallway… I wondered who she was.” 

“I don't think she's real,” Harry said, trying to remember why the name rang a faint bell in his memory. “She's from a book, I think.” 

Ginny snorted derisively. “Must be an awful book. I didn't have a clue what she was going on about.” 

“Why?” Ron sat fully up now. “What did Hermione say?” 

Ginny took a deep breath, standing up straighter, mimicking Hermione's perfect posture without fault. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” 

“Bloody hell, Hermione,” Ron said, voicing Harry's thoughts exactly. “That's a bit heavy; Sirius is finally looking more cheerful, he doesn't need that.” 

He was already rolling off the bed, shaking his head as he reached for the door handle. “I'll go and get her.” 

He hurried through the door without a backward glance, intent apparently on saving Sirius from Hermione's literary analysis. 

“Don't you want to join him?” Ginny asked, turning to smirk at Harry. “Aren't daring rescue missions sort of your thing?” 

He smiled, relieved. Ginny hadn't appeared to hold any sort of grudge after he'd carelessly admitted to forgetting about the unpleasant events of her first year yesterday, but he'd been expecting her anger to last at least a bit longer, and hadn't exactly sought out any conversation with her just in case. 

“I'm going to sit this one out,” Harry said, waving a hand at her glitter-covered form. “It's Christmas; I'm on holiday.” 

She laughed. “Well, I'll try not to get into too much trouble until New Year, in that case.” 

“Thanks, I'll let you know when I'm back on duty.” 

Ginny nodded, already turning to follow Ron out into the hallway. She paused at the door, turning back to look at Harry over her shoulder. 

“I'm making Christmas cards,” she said; the reason for all the glitter finally became clear. “I know it probably lacks the thrill of whatever you and Ron were doing, but you're welcome to join?” 

Harry laughed. “I'm not sure Christmas cards fall into my skill set.” 

Ginny merely shrugged. “You taught me impediment jinxes, I'll teach you proper stamp placement, sounds like a fair trade?” 

Harry hesitated for a moment more, a thousand reasons not to accept Ginny's offer running through his mind, but he really was in an excellent mood since the revelation that he wasn't being possessed by Voldemort, and it seemed like a waste of a perfectly good December afternoon to remain locked in this dreary bedroom. 

Nodding wordlessly, he climbed off the bed, meeting Ginny at the door. 

She didn't move right away. Leaning past Harry, she threw her copy of Seeker Weekly back on Ron's bed. 

She shrugged at the questioning look Harry gave her. “It's the season of goodwill.” 

[ragnarockz]

I can't remember where I had seen it but there was a quote about how the first episode of Agatha is important and contains a lot of hints so, here's a compilation of things I find odd/interesting/maybe of some note?

"You punched a suspect." "...then the chief calls and tells me hibernation is over." - we now know (so far) that Agatha was still under Wanda's spell but has she been violent to the people of Westview? The use of hibernation is interesting to me; almost like she knows she's going to snap out from the spell she's been under or some other hold of power over her.

Agatha bringing up Candy Crush and then Herb telling Agatha the victim was crushed.

"She is dead though, isn't she, Herb?" "Oh she's really most sincerely dead." "You never know." WINKS (there's already a bunch of posts on here about when Agatha is shown to wink in the show, mostly when she detects a lie/half truth/inkling of deception).

"You don't seem like yourself." "Oh yeah? And who is that exactly?"

Very possibly a picture of Nick; so far he's been tied to rabbit symbolism.

"Fancy dirt always attracts attention of the Feds." (If Rio is confirmed to be Death, that's just another nod to her - especially when she comes out of the ground in the other episode).

"What are you doing here?" "My job." "...if you want to be in control, you can be." (Once again if Rio is death; she's come for death. Is this a push for Agatha to 'claw your way out' of possibly dying? Avoiding death?).

"The secrets buried beneath it. That's where the answers lie." (goes hand in hand with the trailer/quote we get from Rio saying 'the bodies are really piling up').

This is the second time I've found dates relating somehow specifically to the Salem Witch Trials (the other being Agnes and Ralph's anniversary date in Wandavision)

Rio making a comment about how she thought Agatha would 'turn into a pumpkin that far'. Are there limits to her being bound by Wanda's magic? We know that the Hex only contained Westview in Wandavision with a strict border - does this border still exist for Agatha or is she allowed to move 'more freely' now than she was before?

"I was on a road this morning, it lead to something pretty awful."

The clock on the wall in the interrogation room with Teen never changes.

This painting, created during Zuccarelli's stay in England, represents the decisive moment when Macbeth, together with Banquo, meets the three witches who announce that he will be King.

"There are two Jane Doe's in this case." (This has literally been eating at my brain since I saw the first episode. Does this go back to the hibernation comment of Agatha coming out of the spell or...).

"You can't kill me." "You can't kill me, it's not allowed."

[kudouusagi]

Especially after the last chapter(15-2) people are confused why Souichi keeps saying they're not in a relationship. Let me tell you, it's not that he doesn't think that they are in a relationship, he just doesn't want other people to know that.

I know I've answered asks about when they started dating before but I don't think I've actually gone into detail about this so here we go again lol

They've been dating since the end of volume 8 and he is 100% aware of it. Souichi is just a lying liar who lies so he's not going to admit that to people unless it's absolutely necessary, but he knows it.

The #1 rule to remember when reading KSB: Souichi is a tsundere character.

Now let me quote from wikipedia about tsunderes:

"They usually play out as having an attitude toward the main character, either a male or a female, and often criticizing them in one way or another, until they eventually warm up to them or fall in love with them as the series progresses, though they usually find it very hard to admit it or outright deny it in some cases."

And if we look at the tv tropes page on tsundere, it even says people can be left scratching their heads if they're even together at all.

So denial is part of the formula for tsunderes and Souichi is a textbook tsundere. He's going to lie and deny it. That's just who he is.

When Takanaga was asked by fans after the series "ended" in Vol 8 if he was going to change in the continuation she said he wouldn't change that much because he is a tsundere character and he wouldn't be him if he changed that much.

In this chapter, Souichi made a big deal of saying that the rings were just friendship rings, but I think that's because he knows that if he allows Morinaga to call them something else, he'll slip and call them that around other people. He's probably right too. Morinaga has a track record.

If you want to see me go on a rant about how much they have progressed since then... keep reading.

They had the define the relationship talk in volume 8 and they have made progress in every single volume since then.

In volume 8 Souichi makes a big deal of asking him to stay by his side and saying that he's not running away anymore and they agreed that Morinaga would stay with him. (And I explained how those are ways to express love in Japanese over here in this post)

The "do whatever you want, idiot" is so tsundere it hurts lol

After this they even discussed about how the apartment was their home together.

In case you didn't know, this was the original place that Takanaga planned to stop at and so it was supposed to be clear they were together now. She had publicly announced that it was the end but then quickly realized that there was still more she wanted to write about them so Takanaga kept writing. The only reason she is still writing this story now is because she wants to.

Vol 9:

Here on the opening pages of Volume 9 we can see it saying "We thought their love story was over...?" and have a quote from Morinaga saying "You love me too, right, senpai?" (with the "love" left out but that's what it is).

Now, all Souichi does after this point is reassure Morinaga that they're together and he's not going anywhere. Yeah sure he denies it to other people, but he never does to Morinaga.

In this volume Morinaga feels insecure about leaving and wonders why Souichi likes his new helpers. Considering Morinaga had persistently bug Souichi for 2 years to even get him to remember he existed it's not a crazy thing to wonder about when it comes to Souichi.

They have a conversation about how Morinaga feels jealous and feels like the size of their feelings are different and Souichi doesn't deny that he has feelings and just tries to figure out why Morinaga feels that way. Souichi tells him not to doubt him because he came to the decision to stay with him and he's not going to change his mind that easily.

Vol 10: Souichi pushes Morinaga away in the bath and thinks he upset him so he thinks about it and tries to tell him he's not rejecting him he's just not used to all the touching. Souichi tries to make it clear that it's not Morinaga or his sexuality that he's rejecting. Because they had just been talking about Morinaga's parents rejecting him because of his sexuality. Morinaga says that even though Souichi was so homophobic before, he was never like his parents so there was no way he'd think that. (I also think the main reason Souichi even agreed to come along was because he assumed that Morinaga would want to try to visit his parents but I don't have firm proof of that besides him bringing them up)

Vol 11: Their whole problem in this volume is they're not communicating effectively. They go through the whole thing with Tadokoro only to find out that they're assuming things. Morinaga assumed Souichi would be like before and need an excuse to live with him if they didn't live together anymore and Souichi assumed they're together now so of course they'd move back in together when they could.

Of course once they decide that, Morinaga screwed it up for himself by reminding Souichi that his boundaries are different and he decides he still needs a separate room so he just stays in the apartment anyway. But they could have had that conversation without involving a third person and being messy so they're just terrible at communicating sometimes. Poor Tadokoro got caught up in their mess.

Vol 12: Morinaga finally moves out and starts his job. Souichi acts like he doesn't care and assumes that Morinaga will be back every weekend anyway so it won't be that different. Then Morinaga gets busy with training at work and doesn't come back for 2 months.

I want to point out that while Souichi throws his phone here he didn't actually write back to tell him no lol

So while they're living apart now, Souichi is trying to learn to communicate with him in ways that reassure him.

Then, Tadokoro is just trying to make conversation and brings up the house since he'd been involved in that mess and Souichi tries to deflect. Tadokoro tries to tell him he doesn't have to hide it because he knows and that just starts a whole new problem. Tadokoro doesn't know how big of a problem it is for Souichi to have other people know so that just blows up in his face. Souichi denies it only because he's embarrassed about it but not because it's not true.

Souichi doesn't tell Morinaga why he's so upset about it and stops communicating and so Morinaga thinks it's because something like what happened to him in high school has happened to Souichi because that would make him being angry about it make sense. Morinaga overthinks and gets sick and so Souichi ends up going to check on him. (I think it's really cute that Souichi has a spare key to Morinaga's place. They're husbands.)

Souichi realizes how much worrying about this affected Morinaga and then he doesn't care about Tadokoro knowing anymore. He doesn't try to correct him anymore, he just tells him not to talk about it. Tadokoro gives him an out telling him he just misunderstood but Souichi knows he knows because Morinaga told him he told him.

...Sorry, I also think there might be a missing in translation thing going on here because the word Morinaga uses to say he told him means something more like "I exposed our secret to him" but that's not the way someone would say that in English so.... yeah...

Vol 13: Souichi is getting softer and obviously misses Morinaga when Isogai visits. Isogai notices that he's lonely and offers to cook for him while Morinaga is out of town and he's there for work. Morinaga's pissed off about it but he's not actually worried about Isogai like he used to be in volumes 3 and 6 lol. Also while Souichi said he didn't care what happened when Isogai was on the phone with Morinaga he was obviously still listening because he came back and got pissed off when Isogai told Morinaga he was lonely but he didn't chime in any other time before that.

So, Isogai convinced Morinaga to call Souichi by his given name and changing how you call someone in Japanese is usually a pretty significant thing since it shows a change in the relationship. Morinaga has always called him "Senpai" which is a sign of respect because he is a younger student than him. Changing to his given name shows that their relationship is closer than that. Souichi doesn't think anything of it but then when hearing his name he found it embarrassing and it turned him on lol. But Souichi realizes that it would indicate to other people that something changed so he puts his foot down on doing it in front of other people.

Vol 14: After he finds out that Morinaga heard the girl, Souichi points out that he turned the girl down just to reassure Morinaga that he's not trying to get with anyone else. I think he was afraid it was going to a whole vol 9 scenario again but Morinaga has learned that he doesn't need to worry anymore so it wasn't a big deal. Then they have a whole conversation about how they're in a relationship but Souichi doesn't think it would affect anything if anyone found out. How you can look at this and think this man doesn't know he's in a gay relationship I don't know.

But he still doesn't want people to know who don't have to (because he thinks people knowing would mean they would know about what they do sexually because he really has no experience with relationships and the only person who knows is Isogai who saw him getting jacked off in the street lol.... you can't convince me this man has ever been in a relationship in his life before this).

When Morinaga tells him other people don't have to know anything else he's more open to it but still.... they have this whole conversation about being in a relationship and telling people. Souichi never denied it the whole time, he just didn't want to tell anyone.

And then the barrage of people come to hit on Souichi and he just wants to get rid of them. Morinaga convinces him to wear a ring to get rid of them. Souichi is socially dumb so he doesn't "get" rings but he knows it means he's in a relationship and he agreed to wear the matching rings.

Vol 15: Which brings us to now.

Now they've been together for 2 years since volume 8 and have been actively choosing to stay together because Morinaga graduated and lives in a completely different city. They're even wearing rings that definitely cost over $1000 each.

I checked and these are the rings that look closest the one ones they are wearing that I saw on the Cartier website.

So of course Souichi lied to his family. Souichi JUST said in vol 14 that his family were the last ones he'd want to tell about this and they almost found out already lol. But that's just because he doesn't want other people to know. (Souichi is lucky his family is so gullible). He's been fully committed to this relationship for 2 whole years now.

[bethanydelleman]

Here I am, reading Mansfield Park for the first time, and I'm surprised at how Henry Crawford's proposal reminds me of both Darcy and Collins. From Darcy's first proposal, we have the hero expressing his sentiments in a way that offends the heroine. From the second, there's the hero's help to the heroine's family (though Darcy tries his best to conceal his part while Crawford brags about his). And then, Henry is as certain that he will be accepted as both Darcy in his first attempt and Collins, plus about as persistent in the face of refusal as the latter. In addition, there's a heroine's relative (Mrs. Bennet and Sir Thomas) who pushes for the match with Collins and Crawford respectively to happen.

So exciting that you're reading Mansfield Park! I hope you are enjoying it.

I feel the same parallels! I think they were intentional, a doubling down if you will. I think Fanny's case is much more extreme than Elizabeth's, though they are very similar and I think Austen's trying desperately to make a point about women having a say in their decision to marry. Fanny has nothing and a far less hopeful future compared to Elizabeth, but she still says no. Elizabeth only has to withstand her silly mother, but Fanny has to deal with everyone pushing her to marry, she still says no. And as you point out, in almost a reversal of Pride & Prejudice, Fanny says no even though she feels a huge obligation to Henry Crawford for helping her family.

I really think Austen was trying to make the point that you'll probably come across soon (I'm thinking Edmund hasn't come home yet for you) that women should not be expected to accept any man who might ask them for their hand in marriage, no matter their circumstances or how amazing that man imagines himself to be. And since this is still a big problem today from what I've heard (lucky to have never experienced this myself), good for her!

I have a post about the understandable audacity though, given the historical context. Also about how Henry's proposal echoes Fanny Burney's Evelina.

The quote I'm talking about (spoilered in case you aren't there, Ch 35):

“I should have thought,” said Fanny, after a pause of recollection and exertion, “that every woman must have felt the possibility of a man’s not being approved, not being loved by some one of her sex at least, let him be ever so generally agreeable. Let him have all the perfections in the world, I think it ought not to be set down as certain that a man must be acceptable to every woman he may happen to like himself. But, even supposing it is so, allowing Mr. Crawford to have all the claims which his sisters think he has, how was I to be prepared to meet him with any feeling answerable to his own? He took me wholly by surprise. I had not an idea that his behaviour to me before had any meaning; and surely I was not to be teaching myself to like him only because he was taking what seemed very idle notice of me. In my situation, it would have been the extreme of vanity to be forming expectations on Mr. Crawford. I am sure his sisters, rating him as they do, must have thought it so, supposing he had meant nothing. How, then, was I to be—to be in love with him the moment he said he was with me? How was I to have an attachment at his service, as soon as it was asked for? His sisters should consider me as well as him. The higher his deserts, the more improper for me ever to have thought of him. And, and—we think very differently of the nature of women, if they can imagine a woman so very soon capable of returning an affection as this seems to imply.”

Mansfield Park, Ch 35

[budd-ie]

(BOOK 7/8 SPOILERS AHEAD)

Back at the end of this post I said that Mu Qing's mindset reminded me a lot of Jun Wu but didn't have any insight for why at the time. I think I figured it out now though!

To establish some context, this post explains what Mu Qing and Xie Lian's answers to the riddle reveal about them as opposites, which I believe is relevant to understand for this explanation. In short though, we know this:

Mu Qing is someone who is willing to make realistic cost-benefit moral choices for what he believes is the greater good.

Xie Lian is Not willing to make cost-benefit choices and will always try to idealistically achieve the greatest good for everyone.

Jun Wu, the crown prince of Wuyong, once wanted to save everyone, make no sacrifices to the volcano, and find that third path to victory. Unfortunately, this path crumbled beneath his feet, and in the end he gave in to choosing one path—making the sacrifices. On the first side of this, he desperately tried to find that other cup of water, and when he found none, he inevitably chose who to give it to. From this perspective, he sees Xie Lian’s moral dilemma of choosing the greatest good over his own wellbeing and wants to find Xie Lian’s breaking point. Bitterly, he wants to know if his aspiration really is impossible and if all good in the world really must die eventually, as he’s observed. Clearly, it’s impossible to give up so much of yourself without losing yourself eventually.

On the other side of this he sees Mu Qing, who isn’t afraid of the cost-benefit decision and is not only willing but conditioned to chase the greater good like jun wu did. Mu Qing is a very important character because his position compared to Xie Lian makes him the perfect manipulation target for Jun Wu. He already understands cost-benefit and holds previous grudges, so all that’s left is to further incite that hatred inside him use him for all he’s worth.

But…

Mu Qing refuses.

He refuses to be incited, he refuses to hurt no matter what kind of negative emotions have been festering all these centuries, and suffers the extreme punishment of banishment for it. Why doesn’t this incitement work? While he may be petty and spiteful, he’s never actually been malicious. Mu Qing’s resolve is extremely significant, because this is the event that sets in stone that Jun Wu is wrong. Suddenly this quote from Yin Yu becomes less incidental and much more thematically significant:

“I only wanted to hate him. I never wanted to hurt him”

Mu Qing may have held a lot of ill regards, but he himself even said he never wanted to hurt Xie Lian all those years ago on the cultivation grounds. Was he still in the wrong? Sure, the outcome was still negative, but he learned a real lesson about the two of them that day and absolutely regretted what he did. Isn’t that what matters most? All these negative emotions don’t need permanent dire consequences, and it’s okay to learn and grow after adversity, not only admitting mistakes, but accepting realities, perspectives, and choosing to move forward too. On top of that, the emotions both Yin Yu and Mu Qing felt were never even true hatred, just years of pent up frustration mixed with misunderstanding. As easy as it would be if the world was so black and white, that really just isn’t the case.

And so, all these centuries later, despite it all, Feng Xin and Mu Qing still choose to support Xie Lian. Not his highness the crown prince of Xianle, not the flower crown martial god, not the prince who pleased the gods, but Xie Lian himself. He still believed in them, and they believe in him, too. Jun Wu believed that betrayal is inevitable, but he didn’t understand that this doesn’t eliminate reconciliation. That’s why Mei Nianqing chooses to stay this time. His spirits were crushed back then, but his affection never wavered, and regret formed in the cracks, so he wants to try again. You don't have to, but as long as you want to, you’re allowed to try again.

[kaibutsushidousha]

Any piece of media you’ve changed your mind on significantly? Bonus points if the only thing that caused the change was passing of time and not other material.

I really rewatch, so I judge things mostly according to what my mindset was back when I experienced them. The closest I have to a proper answer here is how Katekyo Hitman Reborn and Fairy Tail were my least favorite manga around high school and years later I had a sudden "Oh, I understand this part now" realization about a few things a decade later.

Reborn's example is, unsurprisingly, about the final chapter. It made the extremely controversial decision of ending on Reborn musing about how Tsuna learned nothing and is still the same person he was in chapter 1, except with friends now. Everyone hated that because the overarching narrative provided plenty of evidence to the contrary and because if the statement was true, the manga would be calling itself a waste of the reader's time. That was a sentiment I shared immensely.

My random epiphany on this one was that the "Tsuna learned nothing" quote comes from the perspective of Reborn, the character who wanted to teach him to be a mob boss and a killer, so it's celebrating that Tsuna remained a good boy through and through. It's thematically consistent despite the poor communication. In hindsight, Reborn couldn't have ended any other way.

And Fairy Tail's case came from looking back at the series through the lens of its core theme of mourning. Zeref was the one character I always considered good despite the rest of the series, and his deal was ultimately that he got cursed because he failed to cope with his brother's death and the curse causes him to autokill everything around him until he learns to get over it. Throughout his long life, Zeref created many tools that were exploited by half of the villains that came before him, and looking in hindsight, all of those were tools meant to cheat and control death.

And these ideas delivered in one of the main villains are obviously reflected in the main characters as well. Gray kills and mourns his dad 3 times in addition to carrying the guilt of indirectly killing Ur because he had mourned his dad properly the first time. There's a timeskip that sorta only exists kill off Lucy's dad and make her deal with that. And most importantly to make FT feel thematically consistent, Natsu's initial goal to find his dragon dad is ultimately revealed to be a quest to finally accept he died.

Grief is a constant theme in the series, but its importance only becomes evident in the final arc. Which is not something I can complain about because the only reason I stuck with Fairy Tail until the end is because I liked Rave that much to trust it to have at least a great ending, and Rave is another manga whose main theme is prevalent but only gets super evident with the final arc. Maybe the great difference in enjoyment came down to simply reading Rave as a finished story and reading Fairy Tail as an ongoing story. Who knows?

Does that mean I like those two now? No. I never reread them, so my first experience is still what counts. But at least now I believe I have a more fair and good-faith perspective of their flaws. And maybe an interest in checking Eden's Zero after it finishes (I'm not checking if it already finished because I think this post is funnier if it already finished 3 years ago and I don't know about it).

[rainstormwrite]

Good news.

Hello, everyone! I come bearing incredibly good news…

I've finally finished writing the update.

Not only that, but I've also already rewritten POVs and adjusted clunky scenes, meaning that the update is ready to be released.

I would've probably released it without warning you all, so it would've been a surprise, but I just want to give you some heads-up.

Even though the whole project is now over 260k words, the actual amount of content that was added in terms of singular playthrough is somewhere around 15 - 25 full pages (very approximately since I've already lost count because of all that branching and re-reading the same content over and over again), depending on the route and some other variables. As you can guess, this is due to the overwhelming amount of branching, the different personalities of the MC, the changes between said personalities, and stuff like that. To add to that, a big cause for such a large word count increase is the number of times I had to copy and paste some parts of the scene to make slight changes. So, in many places, the content is not entirely new, but rather slightly altered because, at that moment, I couldn't find an optimized approach to make some scenes changeable depending on your choices without copy-pasting them.

So, this whole situation is not very typical, so to speak, because in some other cases, this amount of words would've sufficed for a whole book already. But, in my case, it's just… one conversation. Yes, you've heard that right.

Basically, all that this update contains is the encounter with the crowd that the MC sees after exiting the hut. The new content ends right after the said encounter ends.

After you choose your approach to said conversation (personality of the MC at that moment, put in other words) you then also choose one of the three routes (tell lie #1, tell lie #2, tell the truth). After that, you only get some choices when something that may compel your MC to change what they wanted to do mid-way happens.

I want to highlight that, you don't really get to decide what exactly your MC says on each page. The tone of how they speak and their opinions about subjects and people are all derived from the prior choices you made, starting from whether your MC shook Theo's hand and told the group the truth and ending with whether your MC went into the tunnel and what they thought of Philip's/Burchard death… The MC's behavior may change very drastically just because of one choice you made earlier.

I'll admit, this is a very experimental approach from my side, but that allows me to shape your MC into a full-fledged, believable character without it feeling like you don't have control over them. Maybe my words don't convey my point exactly, but I guess you'll see it with your own eyes.

There are different sets of choices to make in the routes, even though sometimes they may be similar. Each route uncovers some information that the others didn't, so it adds to the replayability.

All in all, this may be a somewhat polarizing update due to my decisions, but I fully understand that and am of course willing to hear your feedback about the new content.

Give me somewhere around 24 hours so that I can set everything up and roll out the update to you all.

Also, there were some old questions in my inbox that I couldn't answer because, quote 'your blog was restricted by our anti-spam control' (I found that out one month and a half later after sending a ticket to Tumblr's support), so here are those questions:

Yeah, I'm okay. In fact, now I'm okay more than ever due to me finally finishing writing this update.

Thanks for catching that! It's fixed now!

Sorry, you two, that I'm answering you only now.

[alexanderwales]

Disclaimer: this is a very long ask. Please feel free to ignore it if you're busy, or for any other reason - 'I love your work!' is a decent summary. Hello Mr. Wales! And belated welcome to tumblr from someone else who also spent years seeing tumblr screenshots on reddit and twitter before joining.

I read Significant Digits a while back (immediately after reading HPMoR) and enjoyed it a lot, so thank you for that! More recently, I've tried doing some writing myself, with middling success (a HPMoR, Delve, Mother of Learning and Mage Errant crossover).

One of my readers left a long and fascinating comment on my fic, in which they quoted your review of HPMoR at length: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/a-call-to-the-dark-city-delve-mother-of-learning-hpmor-mage-errant-multicross.127432/post-30801851

I found that I disagreed with your thoughts quite a bit, which surprised me! My response is in the next post in that chain, but the gist (ignoring context specific to my fic) is this exchange:

Harry does not win the climax of the fic by having overcome his flaws, he wins it through brutal murder. The biggest organic change he undergoes is from believing in the value of truth to advocating for multiple conspiracies against both the wizarding and muggle worlds, and if that's character growth, I find it ugly.

My (shortened) response:

As Alexander Wales notes, Harry *does* change in HPMOR: he becomes less open, less willing to share information widely, and shifts focus from local issues (people and ethics near him) to what he considers global risks and outcomes. As a reader, I'm not too interested in whether or not the change in Harry's character is in a 'good' direction, or whether or not he becomes a better person, or whether or not his views over time gradually approach my own. For me, the most important thing in a story is that it is *interesting* - and I find Harry's arc in HPMOR very interesting.

I'm curious about if you have thoughts on the general debate there - to what extent do you think writers should prioritise faithful simulation of characters and setting vs. giving the characters an arc with an emotionally satisfying conclusion? Or is deciding initial conditions such that accurate simulation leads to a satisfying character arc and emotional conclusion *the real puzzle*?

Thanks again - I've enjoyed your writing a lot over the years, and expect to enjoy it more soon! (About 10 of my readers have independently recommended that I read Worth the Candle based on the stories I've included in my fic, so it's pretty close to the top of my reading list :p )

(I am obligated to point out that Significant Digits was not mine. I wrote a very short epilogue here, but nothing of the length or complexity of any of the notable fan sequels.)

I've been thinking about how to answer this for a bit, but I think what it comes down to for me is that I want a story to have a clear thematic, emotional, or intellectual through line. I want a story to be about some specific thing, and then take that thing through its paces, and to have us come out the other end having explored that thing in its fullness.

To some extent, I like stories best when they're driving at some singular vision, which I know as a sprawling webfic author probably seems insane. So if the ultimate conclusion is "yes, we should commit conspiracies against people for their own good" then I would like for the early parts of the story to show us why that's the case, ideally by having some truth be put out into the world that causes damage, or by showing how a lesser conspiracy worked to protect something, or whatever else. Or contrarily, if it's the work's position that conspiracies are bad things, then it should show us how and why they're bad, and why this character is making that decision anyway. Or if the work isn't sure how it feels about this thing, I still want them to explore it, to see the different scenarios and thoughts.

I'm an avowed fan of HPMOR, and I am unfortunately the sort of fan that has a lot of critical takes about the things that I enjoy. My biggest problem with HPMOR is that it's not thematically "whole": the individual parts don't feel like they mesh that well together (in my opinion). With that said, I haven't reread HPMOR in a very long time, and my arguments are rusty, so I don't want to give them here.

I think my desire for thematic cohesion is probably work-dependent, but even so, is also probably at the far end of reader preferences. Some people are perfectly happy to read things that are more simulationist in nature: a character does things because that's what they would do, and if this doesn't build up to some grand theme or climactic showdown, so be it. I do think a lot of the trick of writing is making character stuff work in harmony with plot stuff, because you don't want people to feel like "oh, he just did that because the plot demanded it" (though they will say that about almost anything, in my experience).

I don't think that HPMOR is fatally flawed for its thematic wanderings, and I do think there's some sense in which it's best read as a you'd read a TV show with multiple "seasons" which are individually about something but don't necessarily have as solid of a through line. It's just a personal preference thing, I guess.

[twilightarc-gm]

Guidao in MDZS, Quotes

🖤 Okay so you know the discourse is hopping, now I wanted to slide in with the full excerpt from the official EN novels of MDZS. Alot has been said about the cultural nuance with how certain Xianxia cultivators treat the dead.

But I specifically wanted to address how guidao isn't about "peacefully" anything.

🖤 Here is the passage that was cited by another Commenter With Opinions. Some of the fluff pulled out (noted with [...]) and most relevant passages in bold for consideration: vol 1 chap 4

[...] There is an executioner who executed hundreds while alive. His parents and wife are alive and well. He was murdered in town, his corpse lying in open air for seven days, brewing resentment. He now haunts and perpetrates violence. What is to be done?” 

[...]  Murdered in town, a corpse in the open air for seven days—it was the very definition of a major malicious ghost, a great fierce corpse, super difficult to handle. 

[...]  “First, deliverance; second, suppression; third, obliteration.  “Confer with his family and endeavor to learn how to fulfill his dying wish; one must absolve him of his obsession in order to ensure he is released. If the attempt proves futile, then one must suppress him with decision and with force. If his crimes are excessively heinous and his resentment still does not disperse, his existence cannot be tolerated; in this case he must be eradicated. In discharging duty, cultivators must heed this ordering without error.”  [...]  Wei Wuxian said, “Although ‘deliverance’ is the first step, deliverance is often impossible. ‘Fulfill his wish, absolve his attachment’ is easier said than done. If his wish is for a new set of clothes, then sure. But if it’s to kill an entire family for revenge, then what is to be done?”  Lan Wangji repeated, “Deliverance is supplemented by suppression as required. Obliterate when necessary.”  Wei Wuxian smiled at the response. “What a waste of resources.” After a pause, he continued, “It wasn’t that I didn’t know the answer, I was just thinking of a fourth option.”  “I have never heard of any fourth option,” Lan Qiren said.  “This executioner died a horrible death, so him transforming into a fierce corpse is inevitable,” Wei Wuxian said. “Since he executed hundreds whilst alive, why not dig up the graves of those hundreds? Awaken their resentment, fuse their skulls, and have them fight the fierce corpse…”  Lan Wangji finally turned his head to look at him. His expression remained impassive, yet his brows were slightly knit. Lan Qiren was shaking so hard even his goatee was trembling.  He shouted, “Such ignorance!”  Everyone within the Orchid Room was stunned, and Lan Qiren shot to his feet.  “The purpose of exorcism is deliverance! Not only do you pay no thought to the deliverance methods, you want to awaken resentful energy? You are reversing the proper order of things, disregarding ethics!”  Wei Wuxian argued, “Some creatures are impossible to deliver anyway, so why not make use of them? When Yu the Great was taming the waters, he already knew blockage was an unwise plan and that redirection was the way. Suppression is a form of blockage, so isn’t that an unwise method?”  Lan Qiren hurled a book at him and he ducked, continuing his nonsense without batting an eye.  “Spiritual qi is energy. Resentment is also energy. Spiritual qi is stored within the dantian and can be used for great feats, so why can’t resentful qi be used the same way?”  Lan Qiren hurled another book his way and exclaimed sharply, “Then let me ask you! How will you guarantee all this resentful qi will remain under your control and not harm others?!”  Wei Wuxian ducked as he answered, “Haven’t thought that far yet!”  Lan Qiren was outraged. “If you had, then the cultivation world would have no place for you. Get out!” 

🖤 So here I think we should pay attention to how Wei Wuxian wants to "awaken" resentment, not just use what's already there.

Further as we saw with the cultural nuance posts, he wants to fuse skulls together, which... hmm not great.

Then, we see him say that such creatures are impossible to deliver anyway, why not make use of them? But the scenario Lan Qiren gave is to get rid of one (1) ferocious corpse and instead we see Wei Wuxian considering making more of them. And further, he's not really making use of the creatures that already exist, see? Otherwise he wouldn't need to awaken anything.

As we see post-rez, he comments that the eviler the better so as the Yiling Laozu he figured out how to control ferocious corpses like the executioner in this scenario.

But also there is no assumption that this is helping anyone but Wei Wuxian. "So why not make use of them?"

And I think specifically when Lan Qiren is calling out the disregard for ethics, this is mostly about the digging up properly buried corpses and awakening them. Like... as all the cultural nuance posts are trying to say, Wei Wuxian proposes and does the opposite of helping corpses/ghosts move on.

🖤And I think the most ringing argument you can really make about whether Wei Wuxian's guidao has any righteousness at all is when Jiang Yanli speaks up for him. vol 3 chap 15

[...] A-Xian used a different method from the rest of you, but it’s still a skill he cultivated on his own. You can’t write it off as ‘demonic’ just because he claimed a third of the prey that others were never going to capture to begin with.”

🖤 Which we see at Baifeng Shan he's using his ways to help Yunmeng Jiang secure prey. He played his flute and took a nap, while the corpses all ended up at Yunmeng Jiang's camp where they all use a more traditional way of dealing with corpses, i.e. obliteration. He doesn't even go to supervise.

🖤 Wei Wuxian has good in him, but I think it's better to actually look at his good deeds, no matter how selfish they are, than try to attribute inherent goodness to a path notably flaunts ethics and norms to incite yin qi (e.g. yuan qi, resentment) which is harmful to the living and resting dead. Wei Wuxian's character is a subverted villain trope, but what makes him the villain trope is the use of evil ways, i.e. the use of yin qi to seek power to use for one's own ends.

Feel free to reblog with his actual good deeds and intentions 😚

[mint-ty]

omg can you please elaborate a little on your tag about your history prof's quote? it's a very curious thought, i've always thought the opposite actually (that if all things fit perfectly into a puzzle, then the story makes sense). like not even in terms of bojere here, just in general it's an interesting take. i wonder what he meant by that 👀🔎

Sure! 💕 Basically what we were tought is that any social sciences: history, politics, economy, international relations, etc.. anything that deals with human behaviour can't have a clear answer to a question, because inherintly humans are not rational decision makers 😂 So if a question for example is "why did this country start a war?" - an answer "because people were poor and angry" would only be a part of the big picture that didn't address country's location, it's neighbours, cultural norms, etc. So for complicated questions you might have several correct answers, but all those answers have to be debatable and you always have to ask yourself if this is really correct?

And if a complicated question or a big problem has a simple straightforward answer that explains everything, for example "big pharma makes people sick so they can sell more medicine" - then it's a conspiracy theory :D

The logic behind it is that social sciences have too many variables and it's impossible to 100% accurately group everything under one theory or one answer. That answer might not be incorrect for a specific case, but it also might as easily mislead the reader.

Basically nothing ever is so simple in life 😂 And I find myself picking on it when reading fiction too. It's a bit of a pet peeve for me if characters resolve all their conflicts by the end of the story. Like, really? None of you are salty? All those years of hurt and arguments and now you just love each other and will never fall on past behaviours?.. Hmmm 🤔 Maybe it's just me but I enjoy slightly unfinished stories, it makes me feel like their lives will continue even if I, a reader, will stop here. 😁

[fandombead]

Misconception About Patton (SvS)

I think I've seen a lot of takeaways from this episode be that Patton pushed for what he wanted regardless of how the others felt. However, I believe this is ignoring first that he's a facet of c!Thomas and represents his core values and thus what Thomas ultimately believed was right as well, even if he wasn't happy about it.

Interesting quotes that I think get forgotten or removed from context about how SVS went down:

I find it interesting that people claim Patton manipulated the others, namely Roman. I dispute this because of the intent required for something to be manipulation vs misguiding someone and the word is thrown around carelessly. Janus, however, was the one to actually "manipulate" Roman to his advantage in the situation, and while you can justify it, I am simply pointing out that people do not get on his case as harshly for this thing they claim Patton did.

Patton is the product of c!Thomas's inner learned morality + his feelings, which makes the host as guilty as any of them for that representation of trying to break out of a learned mindset, which Patton is. He's changing as c!Thomas learns, and making mistakes such as not listening to the other parts of Thomas that may suggest he is not a perfect, "good" person by their original standards. Categorizing yourself as a "good" or "bad" person based on some scoring system is not something you want to do: people DO good and bad (and neutral) things, they aren't good or bad themselves.

Labeling yourself as "good" may just help you justify everything you do even when it's objectively bad because "well I'm a good person so this is good too". And labeling yourself (or others labeling you) as "bad" might just make you feel stuck and like you can never be anything more, and so you just become it with all your decisions. These are not the human experience. Nuance aside, everything is relative and you'll be picking apart every aspect of yourself trying to figure out "which you are".

Thomas is essentially trying to convince part of himself that it'd be okay to go against his morals for a beneficial reason. There was no right answer (going to the wedding or not) that would make everyone happy; Patton was doing what they asked and giving Thomas the moral answer based on c!Thomas's sincere priorities (like his friendships and being trustworthy).

(Pat's the emotional center AND the moral center of Thomas, which conflict more often than not, and are part of the reason this guy really struggled with separating the two while making his case-- he's unfortunately the holder of both.)

Where Patton was wrong was putting others first 100% of the time. Now, to be fair to Patton, he did agree that there are times when you should put yourself first, but they were circumstantial and in service to helping others more. This isn't healthy and is on the extreme end close to self harmful because you're prioritizing others even when you don't have the means to give, which can lead to burnout and neglect of yourself. The "opposite" end of this is only caring about your own means and using others as a means to an end. Both of these can lead to ruining your social and emotional connections to others.

And again, these are manifestations of the inner turmoil c!Thomas is having. These are his beliefs (read as "moral code") vs his wants battling it out and no matter what he settled on given the options, he'd have been unhappy. (note though: Roman did bring up simply asking Lee and Mary Lee about this directly and sometimes open communication is the best solution-- a lot of the time, actually)

At the end of the day in this part, Patton was defending c!Thomas ' character and relationships (which are important to them) while Janus wanted c!Thomas to not feel obligated to put his own goals behind the wants of others, especially with minimum benefit in both regards (Thomas's presence at the wedding was less impactful for them than the callback would have potentially been for Thomas, and it was a high Opportunity Cost).

Patton is essentially a representation of a religious upbringing sticking certain ideals in your core beliefs that even once you separate yourself from it, still for better or worse guide a lot about you. He's changing and evolving from that, and I do get why a character like this puts a bad taste in people's mouths and they associate him with that. That's entirely valid and I get it. This isn't about that-- I'm not over here arguing he did nothing wrong or that you can't hate him for whatever reason you want, that's not what I'm saying nor what I care about here-- I'm just clearing up what I've seen in canon versus how a majority neurodivergent fandom with certain life experiences might have warped the view of him in hindsight. This is not a malicious jerk trying to get his way and at the other extreme, he's not an innocent bean who wasn't ever in the wrong.

There ARE other examples of him pushing points associated with his roles and having to change throughout the series to this point. He just is the one looked at the hardest out of the sides (who all do this at some point in the series) because he's supposed to have all the answers when morality is one of the most difficult things you have to figure out in life. He didn't claim to have all the answers, but c!Thomas needs them from him to be the best person he can, and that will ultimately conflict and be more complicated than the black-and-white morality kids get taught and then have to alter as they grow up and see a complex world.

We all have to deal with that and it's uncomfortable to confront it. It manifesting in one character separate from yourself is easier than consolidating that that's a part of everyone, and one that isn't fun to examine all the time. I just really like how the show brings philosophies I studied into the next episode, but do think that a chunk of the audience did misunderstand / block out what Patton was actually saying/trying to do...I'm gonna rewatch the Redux episode and also keep an eye out for what people might be talking about when they specifically talk about his actions being problematic there, but I definitely believe the intent of this character (and how Thomas has presented him) does not get to the conclusion of him being willfully any more pushy or mistaken than the others at one point or another.