#(( because it very much differs based on which person belongs to which family line that's being married into

[royalreef]

(( Since its the dash topic right now:

Miranda has a strict regimen of birth control that she’s been placed on and will remain on until she’s been properly married and the time has come to have heirs. Until that point, she can’t go off of it, because it’s maintained by the Merkingdom and doing so before ordained by them could be seen as potentially questionable behavior that takes the rest of her rule into question.

This is primarily for the prevention of bastards — any royal that’s caught with a bastard child, had with anyone who they are not properly wedded to, is a massive black mark on their record. Other royals highly prize the sheer blackmail potential of the existence of a bastard and would absolutely use the, intentional or accidental, weakening of another noble family’s inheriting line to their full benefit. Royals are incredibly eager to stab each other in the back, and the existence of a bastard child is practically a target painted onto their back.

This is bad enough when it’s a bastard child between two royals, but it’s far worse when it’s a bastard child between a royal and a non-royal. The more powerful the royal’s station, the lesser the non-royal, and the stronger the blackmail material, and the stronger the potential repercussions of having made a bastard.

Because of this, if a royal has a bastard, chances are that they don’t know about it. If a royal does come across the information that they have a bastard child somewhere in the world, who potentially could claim inheritance of their family line but was not claimed by said family line at their birth, then their first and immediate move will be killing said child. There’s too much at risk to let them to live, and they’ll often murder the family and community of the bastard child as well, just to make sure that their tracks are fully covered and no one finds out about this. It’s too dangerous to let them live, and it’s too dangerous to let anyone know.

Because of this, if communities discover that one of the children within them is the bastard child of a royal, well...

While there are certainly communities and families that will happily welcome a child in, even a child who was born of a royal, and will swear themselves to secrecy and promise to keep them safe — they aren’t a majority, and it’s easy to see why. A bastard child puts them all at risk, implicating all of them in the political games that royals play, and the commonfolk seldom get out ahead in these games. There are other children too, other people, other lives put at risk, all because of this single action, and they all know what the wrath of a royal looks like. They all know how painful and brutal those deaths can be, and they know entire communities have been wholly wiped off the map because of this.

Oftentimes, if a community discovers one of their members has had a bastard child of a royal, they’ll turn that member and bastard child in. Whether to the Merkingdom, or to a competing royal who is all too eager for blackmail and willing to offer protection in turn, or to the royal parent themselves — it seldom ever works out as fully intended, but it’s still better than the alternative for most of the communities who do it.

Even children between two royals who are properly married to each other that aren’t fully planned out and arranged to be born ahead of their conception aren’t immune to this backlash either. The royals take the manner of inheritance and their family lines seriously, and implicating themselves as not taking their duties seriously and having full responsibility to hold onto their title is not only dangerous for what the consequences could be, but also dangerous for how other royals will react.

The hierarchy of royals within the Merkingdom shifts constantly, and holding onto what control they have is a deadly and tricky game.

[rallamajoop]

Alex Winters on Marco, David, and David/Marco

So, there's this post by @silvermaplealder that I've had in my likes for ages, featuring some very nice fanart of Marko from The Lost Boys ‒ but also the quote "Can't forget how Alex Winter said David and Marko were BDSM partners" ‒ apparently based on an interview they no longer had a link to.

So I had to go look for the source for this, and I think I've found it ‒ it's an interview Alex Winters did with Spectrum Culture in 2017.

Here's the money quote in full, because damn, it's a hell of a statement:

To us, David [Sutherland’s character] was kind of like a pimp. What I had in my head about Marko’s relationship with David was he was basically my pimp and sometimes you’re having a sexual relationship with that person and sometimes you’re not. But, there is a very bonded master-slave kind of aspect to it and then there’s a lover aspect to it. Those undercurrents are all there. They weren’t something I was going to try and drive in front of the audience, but they were fun to play with.

So the way Alex Winters actually puts it isn't exactly 'BDSM partners' so much as 'he was basically my pimp', or 'master-slave'. Which does track well with how much David orders Marko around ('Marko, food,' get the bottle, let's go for a ride, etc). But even if the sexual element sounds pretty casual ("sometimes you’re having a sexual relationship with that person and sometimes you’re not") he's very open that he was playing the role with the assumption that Marko and David probably fucked.

Doesn't sound like it was something he and Keifer Sutherland (David) talked about explicitly, but he does hammer home that none of the adults on set were unaware of what a very homoerotic film they were making. I'd already seen some interviews where Alex Winters talks about how those aspects of the film resonated with him, coming from a family of dancers and a background in theatre, and how he'd based Marko on all the queer folks he'd met doing Broadway since his childhood, but this sure is a whole level more information beyond!

But I never can resist the urge to overanalyse my favourite canons, so yet more thoughts below.

Whatever David and Marko might have going, it doesn't seem to pose any obstacle to (eg) whatever David's up to with Star, or might have in mind for Michael. And Marko sure does not seem to mind being David's butt boy (in any sense of the word) ‒ like, he does not come across as obsequious or spineless, he's not hanging on David's every word, but he seems to be 100% into whatever's going on there. It's hard to read him as bothered by the idea he might be about to lose his position to Michael either: anyone David wants is in.

But even more interesting to me is framing David as a pimp, mostly for what that implies the way he treats Star. Because sure, she doesn't get to go run off with Michael on his bike without David rolling up to remind her of her place, but (with apologies to any David/Star shippers) I can't read him as genuinely attracted to or invested in her, or not beyond how useful she is as bait. Her job is to bring home wide-eyed young men, but if she gets any funny ideas about getting attached (maybe convincing one of them to "take her away from all this"?) ‒ well, David's here to remind her who she belongs to.

Tl;dr: where Star's concerned, David reads way more 'pimp' than 'boyfriend' to me. Maybe there was potential for something else, back before it became apparent she wasn't going to make her first kill without a fight ‒ but then, Marko's not in a wildly different place himself. In fact, the biggest difference between Star and Marko might be that he likes his place in the pecking order, and is never happier than when he's covered in blood.

For context, this all comes out of the interviewer asking outright if there was something going on between Marko and David (Is there this strange, almost homosexual relationship between your character and Kiefer Sutherland’s character? […] He always asks your character to do things for him.) The tear that runs down David's face when he's chasing Sam and the Frogs after Marco's death is brought up too, though I'm pretty sure I've read elsewhere that was a lucky accident with more to do with those vampire contact lenses being horrifically uncomfortable (leaving it in the finished film was no accident though). Either way, any reaction David might have had to Marko's death ends at the cave: during the big finale, it's Paul, not David, who goes after the Frog brothers, hollering "You killed Marko!" (David's only got eyes for Michael at that point.)

To what degree David's ever been a pimp/fuckbuddy/master to Paul and/or Dwayne may be up to your own imagination, since there's just not much to go on there. But the more I think about what we see of David and Marko, the more I'm struggling to think of any time David even directly addresses either of the other two. Even in the 'Michael wants to know what's going on' exchange, it's "what's going on, Marko?" that he starts with. Heck, he even seems to be holding up Marko as a major fringe-benefit of joining them ("That's what I love about this place, you ask, you get. You'll like it here, Michael.") Which is probably not worth reading too much into (the gist and the vibes are so much more important than anything specific David's actually saying), but still, jeez, what is the message there? Join the Lost Boys, plenty of Marko to go around? Or, just letting you know how I like it?

In the same article, Winters also talks about his ideas about Marko's background:

As an actor and a director, I subscribe to the theory that you create as much backstory as the character needs in terms of what is going to be on-screen. Otherwise, you’re playing details and subtleties that make no sense to the audience and that just becomes navel gazing. With a character like Marko, who only says a couple of lines in the entire movie and doesn’t really have much need for context, it wasn’t something I was going to spend an enormous amount of time on. He was just a homeless kid who had run away. Typical sort of ‘80s story, right? Someone from a crazy, conservative part of the country who ends up running away to a warmer climate where you can survive on the street. Very similar to how kids get picked up out at the bus station in Times Square.

And yeah, Marko as a young, queer runnaway who hitch-hiked across the country, maybe discovered a real thing for being ordered around while making some cash as a rent boy ‒ that definitely works. You can so easily picture him meeting the Lost Boys, realising they were everything his conservative folks would have hated, and jumping at the chance to join them. It's almost too obvious.

All this over a character who gets like two lines in the whole film, who will be remembered by most simply as 'the cute one' (as distinguished from The Loud One (Paul) and The Quiet One (Dwayne)) and whose biggest scene is arguably the one where he gets staked while unconscious. I do like the point Winters makes that there's no point in creating more backstory for a character than you'll ever get the chance to reflect in what makes it to screen. But this is a film where even 'the cute one' gets to throw himself gleefully into the massacre scene and come out basically glowing, and the amount of subtext they managed to pack into this guy is something wonderful.

I've seen a few different takes on Marco in fic, but I don't think I've ever seen anything that delves into his subbier side, or his apparent master/slave thing with David (or David's whole 'pimp' persona, come to think of it). And I get why that might be: if you're here to ship David with Michael or Star, it's easier to ignore those kind of complications. But when all the evidence and the actor's own intentions are laid out for you like this, damn, there is a lot there I'd love to see people play with.

[tamamita]

whats the difference between the groups of Muslims? what are they fighting about.

In short, there are three major denominations of Islam, and various sub-branches, but I won't go into the latter.

Sunni, literally standing for those who follow the traditions of the Prophet, are Muslims who believe that politically, the Prophet's companions, Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman were successors of the prophet, and the ones to establish the Rashidun Caliphate. Sunni Muslims base most of their traditions on various companions of the Prophet. The concept of Adalat al-Sahaba maintains that any companion that was present during the Prophet's time is a reliable person in terms of how they narrate traditions, thus establishing a multitude of hadiths from them. Although Sunni Islam (as a separate branch) didn't exist at that time, it became the standardized version of Islam when the Shi'as and Khawarijs rebelled against the Umayyads and the Abbasids, seeing the birth of the four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence to counter their theological principles.

Shi'a, literally partisans of Ali, hold that through traditions and scriptural basis, Ali, the brother in law to the Prophet had chosen him to be the leader of the Muslims upon the latter's death, as a result of various events that took place, the Prophet's household were treated unfairly and the repercussions of these events subsequently led to their martyrdom, which is an essential pillar of Shi'a Islam. Due to their rejection of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and various other companions, they do not accept their chains of narrations in hadiths. Shi'as ultimately reject the concept of Adalat al-Sahaba, because traditions can not be accepted from unjust people. Most Shi'a Muslims (Twelver and Ismailis) put extreme emphasis on the Prophet's family and the line of Imamate through Ali and the Prophet's daughter, Fatimah, believing that only the Imams have the right to interpret the Qur'an in its esoteric and exoteric nature due to their infallibility, thus giving them absolute authority over the Muslims. Ali's tenure as the caliph saw much turmoil and ultimately led to his martyrdom. The subsequent death of Ali marked the end of the Rasidhun caliphate and transitioned into a monarchy with many of the Shi'as experiencing centuries of oppression.

Ibadism, a branch of Islam stemming from an extremist group called the Khawarij, they are a group of Muslims who did not agree with Ali's agreement to engage in arbitration with an opposing force that waged war against him over the caliphate. This led to a group of Muslims in Ali's army to defect, believing that judgment belongs to God alone, thus separating themselves from the rest of the Muslims. This group is known for their extremist approach and theology of Islam, but was quickly surpressed as they harassed innocent Muslims. The only remnants of the Khawarijs are the Ibadis and are relatively peaceful, albeit with some strict religious beliefs. They have their own collection of hadiths, but much of it is very close to the Sunnis corpus of traditions. They make up the majority of Muslims in Oman.

[atlasdoe]

so so curious as to why you dislike dora being a rosier? sorry i’m just rlly nosy and wanna know <3

HI! please never be sorry for being nosy omg i love it when people ask me questions about headcannons!!

There are many reasons why I don't like Pandora being a Rosier but the main one is that there isn't much wiggle room with it

When I first joined this fandom my hc for Pandora was that her maiden name was Jenkins because in the first fic i read that was her name (and she had a younger sister who will always remain one of my favourite characters ever) At that time not many people cared about Pandora, this was before people started headcannoning her to be friends with Regulus and the Slytherin Skittles were a thing

When the discussion of Pandoras maiden name began I couldn't really get on board with what people were suggesting, mostly because a lot of the names were names that belonged to characters we already knew, like Rosier, Lestrange, Malfoy, Ollivander i even saw a few Pandora Lupin headcanons. I didn't like having her be related to a character we already knew I kinda just wanted to see her as her own person without any resemblance to other characters (I thought the same about Alice too for a while)

I've since changed my mind on that and my main headcannon for Pandora is that she's an Ollivander. I think it suites her well and that having someone who experiments with spells be the daughter/granddaughter of a wandmaker makes sense and gives potential for Pandora to have an interesting backstory

But the death eater families I can just never get behind. It automatically gives her a storyline which is already canonically other characters. The whole growing up in a purist family and then leaving is kinda the Blacks thing and part of me also likes the idea that the Blacks are just pure chaos and can't keep their kids in line when everyone else is acting perfect

It is also very much because I don't like the idea of Pandora being the sister of Lucius or Rodophus and Rabastan and Evan

The Pandora and Evan being siblings hc I especially dislike, partly because I just don't like what it does to both of their characters. Evan in my mind will always be a complete dickhead who was always a purist and always a wanker and I cant see that when Pandora is standing by him as his sister. I see them as friends but in my hcs Pandora isn't just friends with the Slytherins but also with Edgar, Amelia, Benjy, Caradoc, Fabian and Gideon from her own year and because of that she's able to easily cut Barty, Evan and Regulus off the moment they start showing signs of acting on their prejudice, unlike Dorcas who didn't have any other friends and was really holding and hoping to the idea that they would change their minds

On top of that I can't see anything that we get from the Rosier twins that we don't get from any other siblings in the era. Like we already have the Black brother, Black sisters, Bones twins, Prewett siblings, Carrow twins, Lestrange brothers and Evans sisters who all have elements that have been ignored and given to the Rosiers. From ending up on different sides of the war, to being separated by magic, to one of them dying during the war and leaving the other, to even being low-key incest. There's nothing new that they bring to the table.

(and that's only from the cannon siblings. We still have so many characters that we know had siblings like Marlene or characters with the same last name who could be siblings like Hestia and Gwenog Jones and Olivia and Toby Gleves)

And I hateeeee what this does to Pandoras character it reminds me of how Marlenes character was created. Instead of Pandora being someone based on what we know about her in cannon (which isn't much but still) she's been crafted to best suite the men that we've put around her (Evan, Barty and Regulus) Like we don't even talk about her and Xeno anymore who she literally marrys and has a kid with

Also I cannot see Pandora as being younger then The Marauders. In my hcs Pandora is a year above the Marauders while Evan and Dorcas are in the same year as them and Barty and Regulus are in the year below, I simply cannot see it any other way

Yeah there aren't many headcanons that would stop me from reading a fic but this is definitely one of them. There is nobody I hate more then Pandora Rosier

Thank you so much for asking and please never hesitate to ask anything else :)

[mejomonster]

Okay so I've been reading Red White and Royal Blue the novel and I'm thrilled to report it IS a different experience.

I saw the movie first? Phenomenal. On its own merit, as it's own experience, hands down best movie I saw this year. And definitely one of my fave romances I've seen (along with But I'm a Cheerleader).

This book? I can see already the impression that the movie simplified, softened, and changed some things in some areas. I think the movie, based on the 100 pages I've read so far of the book, changed enough that the movie does read as different characters In The Spirit and Themes of the book. Movie Alex is like book Alex, but almost another universe of him (like Guardian Zhao Yunlan in chinese drama versus book). Henry so far reads as similar in novel to movie, but movie did not have the time to do his traits with as much nuance. Which like. I think many movie differences were made for making a concise movie length story, a slightly more on the nose story to make the main points hit audiences strong enough to get understood clearly, and to of course emphasize more of the points the movie script aimed to emphasize and focus on in that limited time.

I'm reading the book now. And delighted to say Alex's family is handled with much more nuance. Also the book is fascinating in my experience as the first fictional novel I've ever read with so much clear real life applicable casual political references. I've seen biographies and nonfiction books do this on occasion, but it's fascinating seeing a fiction novel do it. I think it's a brave and higher risk writing choice as it's both individual to author and even more so using the political as a reflection of characters, drawing concrete lines by which to judge them in the sort of terrifying "this stuff effects people's lives" way real public figures get judged. Fitting in seeing Alex and June as Public figures, but also risking as a writer your characters No Longer conforming to the "everyday man" character everyone can project onto. Bella in Twilight has a lot of Mormon related cultural experiences bleeding into how she's written, but the author didn't make her overly Mormon with a church she belonged to and overt commentary on that religious view of the world in relation to say Vampires and marriage and sex. (There are books that do tho, I've read realistic fiction like The Poisonwood Bible about missionaries which very much heavily directly discussed real religions and those beliefs effecting people's personalities and actions in the story). It's interesting to see a Romance novel go for the specific at the risk of making those characters less easy to "project" onto. I prefer this choice, the same way Fingersmith by Sarah Waters is one of my favorite romances and those two fucked up women sure aren't "everyday" average joes you can project onto. This writing choice makes the points made in Red White and Royal Blue a lot more pointed qnd with a lot more to back them up. It's interesting seeing. The movie definitely toned down things in this regard (while still including more overt politics than I've seen in many romances except say But I'm a Cheerleader with its brazen condemnation of conversion camps). I can see how the movie flattened Ellen to make her a more likable less flawed person, because it's easier to sell a loving mom President in a movie under limited time to give her no Significant Flaws. But the book has time to hammer her stubbornness has destroyed personal things, at times clashes strongly with her son who turned out so much like her (and is partly why June does not click with mom the way Alex does), how moms choices and personality were not necessarily good for June and Alex at times, how Alex clearly learned to be a workaholic qnd avoid his personal pain by being stubborn like his mom. She's someone he admires, and someone he emulates both good and bad, and someone he's infuriated that has those stubborn workaholic realistic traits he's copied. But a movie doesn't have time for the good and the bad, the realism of the damage all parents in some ways cause even if unintentional, the realism of what going through divorce means for each partner and their kids. The movie doesn't divorce them, because it's easier to sell a married mom as a positive (like the book lol comments on). I get it.

Anyway more on Alex's family. I deeply appreciate they're flawed and realistic in the book. In the movie, in its own interesting way I found it interesting to watch Alex (raised primarily with secure attachments and open loving secure support from both parents Together) with Henry who did NOT have the same emotional relationships foundation from family (only his Sister being a Safe Enough relationship to trust to emotionally rely on). Versus now the book, seeing they actually both can bond over these imperfect situations of their families. Which in its way, is realistic to many people who've found love. It gives them more to see understanding with each other in. And in Alex's case in the book in particular, his background details give us more about who he is qnd what drives him. The movie had to simplify those elements of him qnd Harry outside romance in order to tell a timely romance story. The book has more space for those individual character stories of trauma and pain and growth and connection.

[revivisection]

RT ask: 2 4 6 8 14

😁😁😁 #love#friendship#friends#loveandfriendshipwithfriends

2. What is their Origin? Who were they before they became a Rogue Trader?

crime lord babeyy. soon as i saw it, of course that was the origin i was gonna pick. cosmas formed in my mind like aphrodite out of the sea. who did i castrate to make him… it was first born out of necessity, boy’s gotta eat (and also keep the other children he was looking after alive (don’t worry about it)), but he’s also got ambitions. he may be a super smart guy who does a lot of things but i don’t know jack about shit so we’re keeping it vague 💯 he’s cold trading he’s thieving he’s making connections he’s recruiting (realizes i can’t say goon anymore) people he’s territorial he’s a businessman he’s a father figure he’s uhhhh killing people etc. it’s like rogue trader shit but illegal because he doesn’t have a warrant (yet).

4. What does their name mean? Is it significant?

cosmas means order and decency, which is kind of funny… it’s also the name of a saint. according to a quick peruse of wikipedia, cosmas and his twin damian provided medical services for free, sort of in line with rt cosmas’ iconoclast actions, and they also survived a few attempted executions before finally dying, which is like how rt cosmas viciously clings on to life. and i like the name cause it’s space-y. i don’t imagine the meaning would remain in-universe, but cosmas has gone by many names and this was the one he liked best in the end. he named himself after the universe itself, which feels right for him.

as for his last name, the game gives you one based off your origin (besides sanctioned psyker, for some reason). the one for crime lord is “stubbs” which, i don’t know why i’m mr. stubbs, but i like to imagine it’s a nickname he picked up for [reasons pending, possibly forever]. not really a surname, but you say it like one. he had an actual family name before that, but he’s long shed it.

he becomes a von valancius and uses the power of that name often to his great advantage, but he doesn't really internalize it. it's a title, it's something he can use, it's not a name name like "cosmas" is to him.

6. What is their Conviction? How adherent are they to it? Does it change at all over the course of the game?

iconoclast, which is based in me wanting to be Nice in a Video Game, and then i had to turn it into actual characterization later. i stick to it pretty closely, though i’ve made a couple dogmatic/heretic choices too. cosmas is quite resolute in his beliefs (one could say stubborn), he’s not easily swayed, especially not by the most argumentative of his companions.

encroaching on question 7 territory here i guess, but i have trouble really explaining it so this is how i gotta say it. cosmas took up/was put into a caregiver/protector/leader role early on in his life, and chose to continue to be that person rather than look out solely for his own survival. he has more care for the common people than expected of his position because he knows what it’s like, he’s been one of them, but there’s also a possessive aspect to it, everything he has investment in (emotional or material) belongs to him. he is like a livestock guardian to me. born from my own reluctance to trade my people units i guess, they’re just little stats in a menu, but some of these offers are shady as hell… what are you going to do with them… guess there’s a lot of compassion in that guy, i’m just really caught up in his personal issues that your chosen questions don’t really touch on lol.

8. What was their Triumph? Do they take pride in it?

apex of brilliance, he got his hands all over a whole star system. where exactly it is, what it or any of the planets are called, who fucking knows. maybe one day i’ll know but i am Not acquainted with the. whatever it’s called when it’s geography for space. i mean i guess it’d be astronomy but the implications are different. anyways, he’s very proud. sure his domain as a rogue trader is much larger, but it doesn’t feel like he earned it like he did with his star system. i think i picked this one in particular because of the int stat boost...

14. Who was the most important person in their life prior to becoming a Rogue Trader? Is that person still in their life now?

his right hand, his enforcer, his sister, damia (after cosmas and damian because i had to). they’ve been together since early days when cosmas had his own gang of unfortunate kids, though only he and her made it to adulthood. they’re not bio siblings but they basically adopted each other. he left her to take care of things back home while he went to the koronus expanse, so they’re cut off from each other during the game. i’d say they generally get along and work together well, but they don’t always agree and cosmas Has To Have His Way Always, which can and has caused friction. i also think their relationship was strained by [question 9 related event] which they left unresolved ^_^ he misses her but trusts her not to fuck things up while he’s gone. she’s always fallen into following him since she was the younger one, he took on a guardian role for her, she’s his best subordinate, there was a lot of potential left untapped there. maybe even surpressed. i don’t think they see each other again for a long time, a lot changes during then, damia feels sort of abandoned, but she also doesn’t want to take second place by cosmas’ side again. their reunion might not be the happiest.

before writing this my idea for damia lacked conflict, which made imagining her really boring. things can always change, and she’s still not really a character, but now that i’ve laid down some issues there i like her a lot more.

fun fact, their stupid nicknames for each other are cosy and damsy. it came to me one day and then never left my brain, so this is real lore now.

[mariacallous]

Beneath an intricate stained-glass window, I am sitting next to pastor Jeff Wilder, talking about lonely men. The clergyman is the first to say he looks a little different from your average Protestant preacher; his thick beard and arm tattoos might not instantly place him leading a flock here. But his assessment of the presidential race is insightful and nuanced – not least because his church is in Middletown, Ohio, where Trump’s vice-presidential pick JD Vance grew up.

Middletown, a small city in the rust belt, was thrust into national prominence after Vance, by then a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist, published his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, in 2016. The book would pave the way for his move into politics.

Vance is of course a polarising figure in this election, in part owing to misogynist comments targeting “childless cat ladies”. But pastor Wilder takes exception to something else, too.

“The Republican party right now is doing a really wonderful job of faking relationships,” he says. The emails he receives from the Trump campaign – which he signed up to for research purposes – often start with exuberant personal messages such as “I need you” or “I can’t do it without you”. “It’s ingenuine,” Wilder says, recognising that some in his congregation – which splits about 50/50 on party lines – have “fallen into the trap … Men’s health is something we overlook in America. Men want to be part of something – to feel like they belong.”

Increasingly, this election looks set to be defined by an entrenched gender divide. This is particularly evident, according to recent polls, among white men without a college degree, who favour Trump by a margin of 70%.

Naturally, what the pastor describes forms only a fragment of the reason white men are attracted to Trump. Some in the cable news commentariat chastise the Harris campaign for failing to connect with men, overlooking the reality that swathes of them continue to carry so much gender and racial bias that connection is impossible. Throughout this election I have heard many voters describe the vice-president of the United States with vicious misogyny, often in line with remarks Trump himself has made.

But America’s lurch into a loneliness epidemic is long established. It’s the subject of Robert Putnam’s seminal work Bowling Alone, which is set in towns not too far from here and observes the decline of the civic organisations, from bowling leagues to trade unions, that buttress a strong democracy and social fabric. Last year Joe Biden’s surgeon general categorised loneliness as a public health crisis. Vance acknowledges it in his book: loneliness, he writes, has led to “a peculiar crisis of masculinity in which some of the very traits that our culture inculcates make it difficult to succeed in a changing world.”

After my visit to Wilder, I drive towards Ohio’s border with Kentucky, along streets lined with large maple trees turning a magnificent orange as autumn sets in, for a canvassing event with a group of “Rising Republicans”. They tell me (to my relief) that they define youth as between the ages of 18 and 40, meaning they can proudly declare that Vance himself could still belong.

The gender divide that defines this election is even more pronounced among younger voters, according to recent polls. Some 67% of young women support Harris, compared with 28% who support Trump. And 58% of young men favour Trump, against 37% for Harris.

Before we set out to walk the streets, I ask the group if they think the very definition of masculinity is on the ballot this year, too. Some nod in agreement. “The conservative’s definition of masculinity is hard-working blue-collar man, who works hard to support his family, his wife, his livelihood, his home and his community,” says one young man. “Those on the left, I don’t think they know what a man is.”

I ask the group’s president, Grant Bagshaw, whether he has concerns about the dozens of women who have accused Trump of sexual assault, and of the jury decision last year to hold the former president liable for sexual abuse. “It’s an uncomfortable subject. I don’t know. I don’t think any of us know, so I won’t make a judgment on whether they are telling the truth or not,” he says, adding: “Republicans and most Americans in general �� they just don’t believe the media most of the time.”

He has a point on the last part, but neglects to mention that distrust in legacy media has accelerated in the Trump era of misinformation. The Republican campaign this year has done much to engage with alternative rightwing media targeted at young men in particular, as a range of subcultures such as cryptocurrency and online gambling bend towards conservative values. A testament, perhaps, to how Americans are no longer just bowling alone, but posting alone.

I head back to Middletown for some Friday Night Lights – a high school football match where the city’s beloved “Middies” are facing off against their arch-rivals Hamilton Big Blue, from the neighbouring town (the Middies get thumped 42-7). Given where we are, I’m expecting to hear full-throated support for the Trump-Vance ticket and its turbocharged male identity politics.

But the reality is perhaps surprising. I sit in the bleachers – cheap open-air seats – with families, couples and young adults from across the region. Many do not even know that Vance grew up here, and their political persuasions are as mixed as their allegiances to the two teams. An older man stares down our camera and describes Donald Trump as “an idiot”. A younger man says “men are the main issue” behind the political failures in the country, but says he will not vote in November.

It’s a stark reminder that while the polls may be extremely close, nothing is a foregone conclusion in this election.

[yellow-faerie]

Okay in reference to your tags on the Bode post you reblogged from me: I kinda had a theory you were the anon! And I'm honestly very glad to find someone who feels the same way about him because I haven't seen many other people (other than my sister) who do!

If you don't mind me asking, I have two questions for you: what did you think of the rest of Survivor, and what sort of Star Wars fan fic do you write? I saw you mentioned it in your bio!

Lol I do think I went through a few of your posts before sending that ask - but yes, I do agree! Bode is a lot more complicated than I think a lot of people give him credit for; he's a father and a man haunted by a lot of loss which doesn't excuse his actions, but does explain them and make me feel a good deal of empathy to him. I think there's actually a line when they're in the ISB base where Cal calls him a traitor and Bode is like...no, I'm a father

Which is really not an excuse for killing people Bode (but is a very good explanation for how he got where he is)

You said it a lot more eloquently lol

(interestingly, Bode is a sort of parallel to Anakin in some ways - killing and betraying people they see as family/very close friends for the people they love, even though it changes them into something unrecognisable that the person they love can't quite reconcile with)

I do not mind questions at all!

For fanfic, because that's the shorter answer, I write pretty much anything - legends, Kotor, swtor (to some extent, I haven't played through enough of it yet to do proper fic), og, rebels, tcw, extended universe stuff (and even a bit of the sequels although that has to be veru handpicked lol)

I have interacted with so much of the SW universe to some extent and it's such a good sandbox that I will dabble in writing anything lol

(currently I'm doing a lot of Kotor stuff as I finished survivor and decided to fill the hole with yet another playthrough of my favourite unfinished trilogy <3)

As for Jedi Survivor, Imma put my thoughts under the cut because I have...a lot of them lol (there will be spoilers)

I love the graphics, so SO much

Each planet felt different and unique and reminded me how much I loved to play JFO

Also the worlds felt a lot bigger? I think it's because I didn't really do much side stuff, just kinda beelined the plot so a lot of the side quest stuff was just kinda there as fun background NPC chatter lkl

MERRICAL! MERRICAL! MERRICAL!

It's being survivors of two separate genocides by the same tyrannical government and even when you search elsewhere, you still belong at each others side

And it's the Merrin talking Cal down when he's about to kill Denvik and it's Merrin giving Cal space to work out if he wants a relationship or if that wouldn't work but letting him know her own intentions

That moment on Jedha where she calms him down from a nightmare but then takes her own comfort just by being near?

And it's Merrin in general lol my darlingest fave <3

Also! After that kiss on Jedha after everyone has gone back in, my brother said (as a joke) "and now they have sex!" And then it immediately cuts to morning

Iconic moment

Also on Jedha - spamels! Someone out there went desert creature - so, a camel - a camel in space - so a space camel - a spamel

Which just makes me think of the tinned meat which is a...really weird thing to be thinking about

Greez opened a canteena! Monk, I love him - also Mosey

In fact, all of Ramblers Reach, I really like that they gave you a main base that's so...connected to people in this game??

Also that garden, I could spend all day in that garden

And the High Republic stuff! I still think it's weird that everyone is treating it as if it's ancient history when it's two hundred years ago BUT I really love the aesthetic and the story

I tried getting into the high republic books a while back but only managed one before I had to return them to the library, but this game has made me really excited for the high republic game and has inspired me to try and read the books again

Shout-out to Dagan Gera for being sufficiently unhinged for me to like him, and Rayvis for giving off massive Kotor!Mandalorian vibes

And Bode was a very interesting twist villain as looking back in the game, you can see it almost

(also my older brother called him being a traitor twelve minutes after meeting him which was either incredibly perceptive or he saw it online and is thing to make me think he's incredibly perceptive - either way, he got ridiculously pleased when he was proved right which did not fit with the mood of Cordova's murder lol)

And Kata! It's definitely going to be some time before she fully trusts Cal etc. etc. HOWEVER, we now have a daughter and that is wonderful (I'm living for the found family)

And CERE!

I WAS EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATED IT'S LITERALLY THE SECOND TIME CAL HAS HAD TO CRADLE THE BODY OF HIS DEAD MASTER YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH THIS HURTS ME

And it was the way Greez was so uncharacteristically ANGRY after Cere's death - and just- dhhfjebidnde

On a less devastating note - Cal, my dude, should have had to have had time to recover from both the slash wound from Dagan and the blaster shot from Bode which were both to the upper torso

Like...they caused enough damage in the fight to be a weakness but you can just walk it off apparently??

I don't think so

(I am going to write fic about this, probably)

Zee - I was so suspicious of Zee to begin with because she was so cheery but her voice kinda sounded like Nikola from the Magnus Archives and like-

Yeah I was fully expecting betrayal from Zee right up until we got back to Rambler's reach and I realised...she's just cheery, that's just her personality

I talked to her the bare minimum lol, I couldn't get creepy talking doll out of my head

That beginning sequence on Coruscant though?? That moment with the Jedi Temple where Cal realises what's happened and you can see the horror and bone deep resignation within him (and that's probably the first time that he properly starts wondering if he can do anything about the empire, after all there's that whole plot where people are like...settle down a bit)

I honestly wasn't that attached to the rest of Cal's crew who died - apart from Mags, literally JUSTICE FOR MAGS 2023, SHE DESERVED BETTER

There were so many little bits that made me genuinely laugh and feel things throughout the game and it felt a lot like Star Wars which is a big thing in its own right

Also Cordova being there threw me off but it was a nice surprise, if a bit weird lol as I was fairly convinced he was dead/in the unknown regions - but hell, I kinda understand it (even if us finding him in the last game might have made his appearance a bit more understandable)

I do have some things I'm not so happy with (some story choices in particular, and the way they presented Cal's slow descent to the dark side being the main ones) but I'm overall really happy with the game

It was the sequel that jfo deserved and it was it's own game in it's own right and I really enjoyed playing it - now I've finished the story, I'll probably stop doing such intense playing, but I do genuinely want to 100% complete it which says a lot, because I don't usually have the patience to do that

There's so much I could probably say that I can't think of now (and I don't think I've said anything about BD-1 which is a travesty of the highest proportions because my boy <3 I missed you <3 I'm so glad you're here and thriving <3) and I'm not really getting into the things I disliked because it would bring the post down (and also I need to be a bit more eloquent and a bit more awake for that one lol)

Anyway, thank you very much for the ask :D it made my evening, ngl, I love talking about star wars

[peerbear]

Cinematography Class - Exercise 1 - A Sense of Home

Am I Really Home Again?

Over the years I’ve lived in Australia, Germany and Brazil for different periods of time, but Scotland has always been a place to come back to. This is the place where I grew up. It is the place I have always called home. It is the place where I was born, but I don’t have any Scottish heritage. My parents are German and Brazilian. If you are born and grow up in a country where you are not originally from it gives you a different sense of belonging and idenitity. Because you belong to all of the cultures that you have grown up with, but at the same time you don’t belong to any of them. It can be lonely when you are unable to find comfort in a single one of them. But when you do it is very special. This sense of feelling at home and a stranger in my country and my identity is something I have always been aware of. It is always on my mind.

Home is a very emotional concept. For a long time I’ve said home is not the place but the people. Last semster I went to study abroad in Canada and since then I’ve come back to my definition of the word. Home is not a place or the people, there are always great people wherever you go. For me home is a personal feeling of comfort and belonging. I have also come to the conclusion that home can also be a lonely ‘metaphorical place’ or even state of mind and this like everything else is always subject to change. It is not something that you always share with other people, often it is something that you have to create or build on your own. Saying this right now feels dramatic as I have moved back into my family home for the time being while I wait for the flat Eva and I have lined up to hopefully move into soon. You would think this is home and that living in my parents flat, a place I have always called home my whole life would be my home still. But I don’t know that this is the case for me anymore. I adore my parents and they are wonderful to be around, but I don’t want to live in this flat anymore, that part of my life feels like its been done. I don’t feel that this is my home, it will always be a base to come back to, but the meaning of this place has changed for me. I found this so interesting as initially when I heard the brief to take photos/footage that demonstrate a sense of home, I thought I would revert to older thoughts and take photos of this space. I didnt take a single photo in the house because it just didn’t feel right.

This weekend I brought some of my close friends to my favourite beach for the first time, its called Tyninghame. I’ve been going there with my family since I can remember and its always been my favourite place. Whenever I go there I feel at ease and inspired. The ocean calms me, bodies of water ground me. For me I feel at home when I’m there in the nature. I feel like I belong. The photos I took were an exploration of me and my friends in this space where I feel at home. Here they are in greater detail:

Article from ASC:

Total Immersion for Avatar: The Way of Water

I chose this article because I am obsessed with water and I am keen to specialise in water cinematography for film. I know that is very specific, but it is something I have wanted to do since making Bodies of Water last year. As I said before water is a happy safe space for me and I feel it would be great to work in a place that offers me this kind of tranquility. Sadly, I believe this film doesn’t really offer that kind of tranquility that I am talking about. Although I have not yet seen it from what I have gathered its very much about destruction and unrest within this beautiful ocean world. The Avatar sequel is filmed by a different cinematographer to the first one, this time it is filmed by Russell Carpenter.

The article went into great detail describing lots of equipment that Carpenter used for the film, a lot of which I have not heard of. From what I gathered it mainly demonstrates how complex and difficult this film was to film. It was filmed with many cameras, mostly of two groups which were live action and 3D virtual cameras that needed to match up perfectly as moving images for the CGI animation to work.

For some of the water scenes they struggled a lot with reflections. The way Carpenter dealt with this was by using clear plastic beads layered together on top of the water to stop light from coming through this way there were no unwanted reflections. For me I would not want to hide reflections in water, I think its one of its many and most beautiful attributes that mesmerise me. I am aware that this is done to control as much of the lighting in the film as possible. However, I would find it hard to manipulate it this way. Carpenter himself says “The light should be a living and breathing expression of the life of Pandora.” From the stills I have seen he has achieved this.

Something to note is that although this film is highly technically skilled and moving the film industry forward with new technology, it is important to acknowledge that there are problems with the story - which culturally appropriates indegenious people and makes money off of a screening (eventually streaming) that is based on colonialism. This is something that the director of the film argues aganist, however, it is literally what happens in the film.

The film is supposed to be about belonging and finding where you fit in the world, which I find fitting, in spite of the plot, as this correlates to the home aspect in the first part of this exercise.

Message of the week: I have promised myself that I will be reading more this year and that I will actually contribute a lot more to my blog. This is something that in previous years I found very difficult, but while writing this post I have realised it is more fun and even therapeutic than I remember.

Stay tuned for some queer content.

[rantingoverbadfic]

'The last of my line' bullshit

I have read so many Harry Potter fics where the authors tromp around on the fact that he is the last of the Potters. The last of his family. The last of his line. And that is true, to the extent that we are making the assumption that the Potters are a patrilineal family and that wizards need one man and one woman to produce a child and the woman is expected to take on the mans name. All very boring, traditional and patriarchal assumptions, dare I even say, very muggle assumptions?

But we don't actually know whether it is just the unreliable narrator Harry who applies the metric of his very conservative muggle upbringing to all areas of the wizarding world where fact is unknown.

And in and of itself, being the last of the line doesn't mean all that much. Everyone of us who is still childless is the last of their line. I am the last of my line, because fifty isn't as far away as it once upon a time seemed and I have decided against having a kid. By that definition, I am the last of my line.

But since we are dealing with wizards - why is it even a thing that one of them needs to surrender their name upon marriage? Especially with purebloods, who are all so fucking proud of the fact that there is nary a muggleborn in their genealogy, and you would willingly give up your claim on half of your ancestry? Wouldn't you instead be proud of of the fact that your child is going to be able to proudly proclaim their belonging to two ancient lines? Though, since Draco is expected to inherit the Black title despite being a Malfoy, I suppose it is just the matter of the name that you lose, not the possibility of inheritance based on blood relation. But why do you need different sexes to have a child? They have magic, what about potions, what about rituals, what about transformation? Do you mean to tell me that in all that long time none of them managed to come with a different method of conceiving than penis and vagina? I am not even sure that wizards even have something like an in-vitro? Not even a method to recombine the DNA of more than two presumptive parents and simply using a surrogate to bring it to term?

But where it gets even more ridiculous, is those fics where Harry being the last of his line somehow means that the line of Gryffindor/Slytherin/Merlin/Arthur/what have you will go extinct if he doesn't have babies. Because he secretly is the long lost heir to those lines. Which is... absolute bullshit? Especially if he comes by that ancestry from his mothers side and your society really is of the boring patrilineal inheritance type, because in that case it already is extinct and doesn't depend on him having babies?

People don't seem to realize how few ancestors we actually have. Go back far enough, like thousand years, and if your family hasn't moved around a lot, like the majority of medieval societies (not everyone, I get that, but in general there wasn't a lot of migration over long distances, like, continent-spanning), that I can pretty much guarantee that everyone is related to everyone. The bigger problem would be to find who has the bigger claim, because at some point it is all just fractions. And considering that the wizards practice throwing their squib children into the muggle world and expecting others to take care of them, like some sort of person-shaped cuckoo, you have even more of a guarantee that there are umpteen Slytherin and Gryffindor heirs running around.

The only way you get to the extinction of a line is if Slytherin or Gryffindor died childless, which then has shit to do with Harry needing to have babies. To get a line extinct, it needs to be cut off very near the starting point or it is going to be unmanageble, and we are not even talking about all the bastards. Say, your ancestor X had one child, and that child had two children and they both died before age of ten - you better hope that the middle of the chain hasn't remarried or fucked around. At some point you need to have so many people dead before producing a child, that it would be completely ridiculous and unmanageble to get a line extinct, that nothing beyond a world-ending disaster would manage it. And if a line has persisted for thousand years for Harry to end up its last link? Yeah, he is definitely not the last of that line.

[msviscoml6]

FMP Conclusion

Sunday 7th April 2023

This blog post includes a comprehensive reflection of my final product.

My final major project at university is a time I will never forget. It was one of the hardest times of my life. My Grandmother, Brenda, and I were extremely close. She'd be the one I'd phone on my walk back from uni, telling her about my day even though she didn't have a clue what I was doing. Losing her was shocking but I'm so glad that I had the relationship that I did with her. I could blab on about how wonderful my Gran was all day because of how much I really did love her. So, basing my project on her and the family home that I lost with her, was one of the most perfect ways to grieve and express myself creatively.

From the start of this project, when I decided that I wanted to go down this route, I knew it needed to be just right. Collecting her belongings from the house made me realise that these objects were the only things I had left from her other than my memories. This sparked a creative fire inside of me, and I couldn't wait to get started experimenting.

The process of this project took endless turns. From photographs, printing, exposing, and photoshopping to mapping the items- I frankly do feel as if I tried every route I could. But it wasn't easy to come up with these experimentations. A lot of thought, reflection and emotional thinking went into all of my experimentations which I believe makes my experimentations just as strong as my final outcome. What I enjoy about the other elements I produced as a result of my project, is they're mine. The polyprint sheets I created out of my Granny's peals I think are a beautiful piece, and one I will frame and keep in my home in the future; adding another reason why this project means so much to me. There were complications in my projects, there were days where I was in a rut and did not know how to progress. But, I got out of them purely by experimenting and pushing. I think about what my project would have been if I hadn't thought of that one idea, or went down a completely different path.

I feel as if I worked well this term. Unlike other terms, I have been consistently motivated to continue moving forward. This could be down to the context of my project or my maturing as a designer. Managing and organising this project has been the best since I started uni. My Excel organisation document meant that I could see my daily to-do lists, map out my weeks and balance other projects on the side. The list also held me accountable for not finishing any work, meaning I was more motivated to keep pushing to get everything done that needed to be completed. Having a weekly roundup helped me reflect on how I had been working and what I could do better. My sketchbooks have been a great addition to my workflow. Ditching the lined notebooks to a blank page allowed me to stop being so particular about being neat and to just do it. These organisation and documentation changes will come with me as I leave university.

What was refreshing about this project was the amount of physicality there was. Apart from creating the house key, type and grid layouts for my cards and digital measurements, everything else I did was physical. As I've mentioned previously, I think this is extremely well suited to my project because of how much of a creative child I was, constantly getting my hands messy in art projects -way before I even comprehended what a computer was! My future is looking promising towards working for an agency, and in a digital era, I'm sure physical projects won't come up o often. Therefore, I'm so glad that my major project took such a physical approach.

My final outcome, on a personal level, I am very proud of. It is a representation and conclusion of the past few months, and I am so pleased to see it all come together. But, from a constructive perspective, some points need improving for it to be exhibited in the Grad Show. Such as the inside keys, for example, they could have done with tweaking to be cleaner. The vinyl on the outside of my box is very precise and modern, and I feel when you open the box, the inside box lid lets that feeling down. The vinyl isn't straight on my box, and to improve on this I intend to screenprint it in the future. My cards are a little hard to get out of my box, and some finger holes would have been a nice touch. Some of my prints, I worry, are too faded or not interesting enough to be as large as they are on A5. Using cyanotypes was a bit of a nightmare, but to improve in the future (and whist the proper sun is out!) I intend to redo my cyanotypes to make the prints more visually captivating. All of these things don't change the way I judge my project. I am still so satisfied with the outcome and I hope that I made my Grandparents feel proud of what I achieved.

This project is one I will always remember. Not only from an emotional level but from a perspective of how amazing my final term has been. I value the course and everybody I have met on it, so for this to be my last project is saddening. However, I am looking forward to the next stage of my life and I'm grateful for what Vis Com has taught me for me to be in this position.

[munchkinmarauder]

I love Magneto and I love his complicated and Interesting dynamic with the twins - when they are all treated equally as complex characters and given the same narrative weight not like they're doing now where it's all to service Magneto as a good guy to the detriment to the twins and Lorna.

Magneto is a complicated person but being abusive as their boss initially does not make things better and better wasn't only abusive as their boss (it adds an interesting layer of dramatic irony though) first because abuse is still abuse and that's wrong and secondly the twins were children and teenagers. He was their unofficial guardian so there are several layers of abuse of power here - he took these two homeless orphaned Romani kids, kept them in a place they were isolated and physically and emotionally abused and exploited them. Even before the reveal he felt a degree of ownership over them he didn't with his other minions and most significantly he only felt sorry for what he did to the twins when he found out they were his.

Even then he was abusive to the twins as their father as well. Remember we have 60 years of history we need to look at and unpack here. He felt they owed him as their father ("you must want to follow me I'm your father you must is what he tells them" and the way he announced their relationship is "this is MY granddaughter" it has subtle and different implications than saying I am your father. It's staking a clear claim and by picking up the newly born Luna - the twins hope for a better future it's a clear stake that those futures belong to him), if the twins went out of line he hit and abused them, yelled at them, he does the same with Lorna but not to the same extent. He also famously is the trigger for Pietro suggesting the creation of the HoM realty got his choice to let the X-Men murder Wanda and the trigger for no more mutants though murdering his son in an ego fueled rage.

This isn't even to mention the years he neglected and abandoned Lorna, used her as a battery and only expressed an interest in binding with her whenever the twins ceased to be an option. He treats her better than the twins but he's never been as possessive over her or as fascinated by her as he is the twins. It's an interesting idea to unpack as she's the one he designates his hair and puts the pressure on to maintain the HoM (again after she becomes his only option). It's ultimately to her benefit considering how he treats the twins but poor Lorna is his spare child (a lot of this is the writers fault for not giving a shit about Lorna mind you) her mother isn't Magda the love of his life.

Even in today's comics with the twins fighting because of the letter he sent them and talking about his abuse it's clearly all there are trapped in this trauma bonded cycle. It works much better when they are blood related than the stupid chosen family nonsense which pretends Magneto can and had done no wrong. Whatever said and done Magneto is the parent and ultimately bears the most responsibility for the state of his family. It is also very noticeable to me that Magneto does not mention Pietro at all in his wall of victims in RoM, he mentions random characters but not the fact he murdered his son. Wanda mentions the letter was no apology for Magnetos murder and while it's not uncommon for a parent to never say sorry and admit fault I personally find it hard to believe Magneto never thinks about that moment at all or feels no guilt for it. Magneto is a character defined by a lot of guilt for things he could have done and things which happened to him that was out of his control.

The retcon making Magneto the twins father was very clever. The modern Magneto we have can be owed to this retcon as the backstory with Magda and Anya was created for this plot and woven in - Magnetos looks were based on Pietro and Magda's on Wanda. Being the twins father does bring him up and tragically brings the twins down - they were on very good places on their lives - heros, married, new parents and the reveal triggers traumas in them and causes them to make mistakes (not all of which are Magnetos fault to be fajr they are adults and this point and cant blame everything on him - both twins acknowledge they use him as a crutch for their bad behaviour to a degree) and go on a downward spiral that lead to HoM that they are only now recovering from. Magneto is never the less integral to this spiral - the twins bring him up and he drags him down, they all hurt each other, there is generational trauma for days. They're trapped in a perpetual cycle. It's all very tragic and so damn fascinating and you cannot ignore the abuse and generational trauma within it. The twins break the cycle in many ways with their own children but perpetuate it in others.

Now modern Magneto is a calmer character. He got his dream with Krakoa and he's reaching out to his daughters (if that little snippet from his Email to Wanda and Pietro in the Strange Academy series - which I loved- is true he was reaching out to Pietro at one point too) but it's noticeable that when Lorna does not actively support him on something he attacks her and says she has no personality. Magneto loves his children I do not doubt that but he is such a traumatized and damaged man that he cannot truly love them the way he wants to or the way they need him too. He will always put his dream above them and now that Krakoa and his dream is gone I think we'll be seeing a return to the more classic dynamic.

Reminder of this, but Magneto wasn't abusive to the twins AS their father. He was being abusive to them in a BOSS/EMPLOYEE dynamic.

[justyvettethings]

Random astro observations 🌸 #15

I'm not a professional astrologer so please don't take this personally

Capricorn Mercuries are always prepaired for EVERYTHING. Every. Single. Thing. They have plan B for plan A and plan C for plan B. Why? Because of their unconditional sense of responsibility and reliability.

The position of the Sun can be interpreted based on it's position in the different hemispheres of the chart. Keep in mind this is very brief and general explanation.

~ Sun in the left hemisphere (around the Ascendant) is considered to be really beneficial for leader position in life. Also the person can be self-centered or even egoistic if more planets are present on the left side of the chart. The lesson here is to learn to be more open to people and the environment.

~ Sun in the bottom hemisphere (around Imum coeli) indicates later succes in life or accomplishing the higher manifestation of the soul after the 40th birthday. When talking about a woman with Sun in this position it's very likely that she'll be forced to wait for succes and form a family and home on her own first. People with shadowed Sun (Sun in the bottom of the chart) have a high chance of developing extrasensory perception in some part of their life whether they like it or not. When I say shadowed Sun I mean the fact that when a planet is positioned in the bottom of the chart, it gets "in the dark" and it's kept there until the second part of life.

~ Sun in the right hemisphere (around the Descendant) belongs to the selfless individuals. They depend on their surroundings more compared to others. This can be double-edged sword, because they will have a lot of friends and social contacts, but they also may get tired from absorbing all this energy and lose themselves in the social environment. These people are also the people helpers, they'll never reject providing help to others, but they need to learn how to help themselves first.

~ Sun in the top hemisphere (around Medium coeli) is favorable placement, because it's double the brightess for the Sun (The Sun shines bright and the top of the chart makes it shine even brighter). People with this Sun will get successful early in life with the help of good aspects, but overall my experience tells me that most of the times Sun on the top will devop earlier and faster even without any major aspects or conjunctions. Now, there's a situation where the opposite effect may occur, namely the inert Sun. I've seen it two times in the chart of older people, who haven't accomplished anything major in life and just lived day-to-day without big ambition and energy, which is typical for this position. The explanation for this, in my opinion, is harshly aspected Sun or the "extreme brightness effect", because nothing too much of something is good. Double the power of something may be self-destructive.

As you may know, Mars got into the sign of Scorpio around the end of October and the beginning of November (I can't remember the exact date). So the effect of Mars on my body and health was definitely present. Firstly, you may get horny more often than normal (I know it sounds cliché but it's true) and secondly, inflammation processes may start to happen, especially in the reproductive system and the lungs, so be aware. Also something weird, but I need to share it with you guys, avoid getting mad during this transit (although it's natural to experience angry bursts during Mars in Scorpio), because it'll be more emotional than normal and you may start to "angry cry" during arguments.

With Venus Saturn aspects, there's almost 100% chance that the person will struggle to find a partner because of the unimaginable criteria, standards or expectations they may have for others. Another important thing about the aspects is that there needs to be a line between love life and monetary needs, because people tend to mesh these two things together. For men this means that they expect women to be attracted to their money, so they start to think they need to make a lot of money and only then women will like them. Women on the other hand tend to search for partners who can provide financially and that's their number one priority. In both cases the lesson is that finances should not be the most prominent factor in the romantic relationship.

[dlartistanon]

Any thoughts or guesses about Liz's personality before she became fragmented (both mentally and physically, I suppose)? How will she interact differently with the Followers and other operators on Rhodes, if she regained her "original" personality?

This is a next-to-impossible question to answer because even with the crumbs we've been given, it's kind of hard to build off of. Any thoughts or guesses about her original personality are pure speculation.

If I had to come up with something though... she came from a distinguished family, just based on how much the importance of bloodlines is stressed in Sarkaz culture. That kind of background is really the only way I can reason how she has such powerful Arts capabilities.

So we have a daughter of a family belonging to an upper echelon of Sarkaz society. Liz could've been sheltered and had the type of manners one would expect from this kind of character. Privately educated, since it's noted she has an instinctual understanding of the human body in regards to medicine, which would also require knowledge of medical science, since I don't think that is something that could've been instilled into her via what the Confessors did. So her medical expertise feels like it was ingrained within her before... everything happened.

Demure, curious, pacifistic, soft-spoken, prone to daydreaming, perhaps even quite naive to intimacy, regardless of her familiarity with the human anatomy, based on her voice lines. Feels a lot like an ingenue.

However--Skade has this old artwork of Nightingale

And to me, it's interesting how Liz also possesses some elements of Gothic and horror imagery and symbolism (especially her Witch Feast skin), and how it feels right at home with her. So I can just as easily imagine her as a Gothic heroine (simultaneously hero and victim, threatened, spurred by an investigative spirit) if her story contains the conventionality of Gothic literature... and we know that she has a relationship with the very Gothic Confessarii.

I'm not entirely sure how her dynamic with others would change, but if it's line with the above, then she'd probably be more proactive as a heroine would be.

[lordelmelloi2]

Reines uses her unsavory jokes to cope with her history of being abused/almost killed at the hands of mage society

While we’re on the topic of Reines’ being absorbed in the Clock Tower’s politics and it shaping her entire worldview, this joke (one of many incestuous jokes she makes) is another big view into the way that she copes with it. 

Reines, who from a young age has had literally no choice but to participate in the Clock Tower politics because of Kayneth’s death, has been enmeshed in these issues from the start. The conservative notion of magic circuit distribution and treating people like simply a womb or a sire in order to better magic circuit distribution is something she’s well aware of, even more so because female mages are regularly treated like simply wombs that will help create even greater mages further in time. It is not uncommon for young mages, teenagers and adults, to be in arranged marriages to ensure political gain or for greater magic circuit count. 

I’ve spoken about it before, but Reines believes that mages are supposed to behave in a way that’s more beneficial to political gain rather than try to walk the boundary of humanity and magus. 

What this means for her, who considers herself more mage than human, is that she will readily joke from a political point of view - but more specifically joke about incestuously eloping with Waver. 

Waver, who considers all mages to be fundamentally human, is absolutely disgusted by it. And it should be noted as well that Waver also routinely teaches mages to consider their humanity a bit more as a fundamental of his practice in Modern Magecraft instruction. Waver may identify himself as a mage, but he is well-known for trying to balance what it is to be “human” with being a “mage”. He is more concerned with being effective because those he teaches are secure in themselves as people, rather than suffering under mage society’s ideologies that require one to basically consider themselves second to their pursuit of the Root or anything else. 

The issue with Reines is this, though. Why does she keep specifically joking about incest with Waver? 

Well, for a girl whose life is entirely dictated by political workings in the Clock Tower, who has exactly one person in a position of authority in her life who doesn’t believe in said politics and yet considers himself a mage, he’s an easy target. But more importantly, she wants to prove something. 

For Reines, who was almost assassinated at a young age, the notion of being protected by others on the basis of her being a human ... was basically nonexistent. She is 15. There is nobody who is stretching themselves thin to try and rescue her or even comfort her from the torment of the political workings of the Clock Tower. Her life is constantly at risk. There is no other option for her, she believes, than to consider herself a mage. 

But Waver is different. Waver, who calls himself a mage, acts so completely un-mage-like that he’s labelled a heretic. Not only that, he doesn’t hold any of the political ideology that denotes a “true mage” at all, and on top of that, he actively rebels against it, teaching the opposite in his classes. 

Reines wants a justification for the suffering that she went through. 

If she can somehow suggest that Waver is Just Like The Other Mages, she will be right, and the suffering she endured as a young girl at the hands of the politics of the Clock Tower would be justified. It would mean she could skip the work of having to ask why she had to go through any of it in the first place. It means that she doesn’t have to weep or mourn or get angry that she was almost killed, that she’s regularly almost killed, and she doesn’t have to think about how fucked up the place that she’s forced to exist in is. Reines does not have an out from mage society. She is next in line to be a Lord. For her to give that up would mean throwing the El Melloi house into even further disarray, and it might truly disintegrate the family and destabilize them enough to let them be totally wiped out again. 

She has an immense burden on her shoulders and she’s coping with it by suggesting to the only person in her life who would say “this isn’t right, and they shouldn’t do this to you” that in actuality, the people who want this Are right, and that what happened to her was simply a matter of course. 

It is very common for traumatized people to normalize the abuse that happened to them as a coping mechanism. It’s easier to normalize it than to fight against it, sometimes, because fighting against it means processing a lot of pain and having to face that the world was cruel to you. 

Waver, to her, is a figure who is in her own words “blindingly bright”. He represents a future and an existence that says that the world is not naturally that cruel, and that kindness should be the base standard of how one acts and carries oneself. 

She does not actually want to be hurt by him. But she feels, at this time, that she has no other choice than to suggest that he, too, would hurt her. Would drag her deeper into the abyss that is the political ideology that mages have - especially of the Aristocratic faction, the right-wing faction that the El Melloi family belongs to, the faction that 10 years ago told Waver that a mage’s bloodline is everything and that nothing else matters. 

One day she might find out that she’s wrong, and one day she might learn that she's suffering, and that she didn’t deserve to go through what she went through as a child, as a teen, and what she might go through in the future. 

Quite frankly, she just needs the right support, is all. And to know that she’ll be protected in the future. That’s all she really wants. It’s a very simple wish. But it would mean a lot to her, who was not protected in the past, and has to fend for herself as well. It would do her good to have the idea that a mage isn’t just a bundle of circuits reinforced to her. And it would also do her good to know that she is allowed to act like a teen girl at times, having girl’s talks with others, talking about nonsense, having fun. Gray provides her with a bit of an outlet, which is good, but really, she needs much more than this. Ideally she should be outside of mage society as a whole. But I suppose there’s a lot more work that has to be done before she can hope to be freed from any of that. 

[nicolos]

considering the position in which war (2019) places kabir and khalid both, there's something very interesting in the construction of two opposing loyalties which cannot be synthesised - especially taking into consideration the sheer dramatic gayness involved

spoilers for the film below

from pretty much the start of the film, war establishes love for family and love for country as oppositional motivations. this is true for khalid and naina especially, but also kabir and, where applicable, saurabh.

khalid's entire backstory, including his very important disability, is based in the imagined idea that treason is in the blood - as well as his insistence that it isn't. khalid's father's betrayal was met with a betrayal within the family, which he also voices pretty directly: his mother sacrificed her husband for her country.

khalid says a number of times that he's his mother's blood, but objectively he's both: he runs after saurabh and doesn't return because his motivation is not just country, though it is obviously a big part of it - it's family. it's giving his mother justice and vindication, though both khalid and the film frame that vindication as based in being related to somebody who is loyal rather than, you know, having her husband or son be alive and well

naina, in contrast, isn't here for loyalty or glory. she's here because she wants her daughter to have a good life, which is what kabir is offering her. she's the one that makes the statement here: somebody who belongs to nobody can't be trusted. if kabir wants to be a martyr, he has no ties holding him in place, but it is ironically these ties that kill both naina and khalid, and a strange parallel opposite that keeps him alive.

naina's position is fascinating mainly because her presence in the operation is just for what it gives her. the film doesn't really shy away from making broad statements about why people defect or commit treason - saurabh says clearly enough that his own betrayal is monetary, and khalid also implies that they are lacking for money at home. when kabir offers naina money and the possibility to live with ruhi, what he's offering is objectively not that different from what saurabh, rizwan, feroze or anybody else are gaining from what they do, which is - money. security. whatever.

in contrast, there is not a lot to be gained in serving one's country. the film proves this time and again: naina and khalid both die rather senselessly - even if they achieve their goals after the fact i.e. giving ruhi a ""more comfortable"" life / making the rahman family recognised for the right thing - as does every "honest soldier" in the film, barring kabir. this is a pretty common line through action or spy or soldier films, the message that serving your country is an end unto itself, and that it gives you nothing but martyrdom: this is a recruitment tactic for honour seekers. this is nothing new

but in context of the dynamic war creates between kabir and khalid, this becomes something interesting. proposing to read that as the primary relationship of the film - with added context of kabir's previous primary relationship being with "his partner", who was killed by khalid's father. kabir states himself that his only relationship is to his country; nonetheless, his motivations through the film are deeply personal, from his initial rejection of khalid because of who his father was, to his obsession with ilyasi, even to the way he kills saurabh ("you don't deserve that face"). the film tries to make a case for his being motivated by naina's death, but the fact is that his treatment of naina doesn't really offer any reason to believe he was motivated by anything but her death being because he wasn't quick enough to figure it out

in establishing kabir as a man that cares only for his nation and his team, the film makes it more plausible for him to be experiencing a partnership with khalid (or his late partner) than it does with naina, putting him in a fundamentally isolationist position.

but naina's death creates another point of contrast for him. she says pretty clearly: she has children and he does not. reading kabir as a gay man, the position she occupies is one that he can never hold himself, because the loyalties of family are impossible for him in the very country he serves. it's exactly what he says at the end: he cannot achieve within the system what he achieves outside of it, because the system has no space for him to form these loyalties outside of the bounds of service

that's part of the flawed logic of war propaganda: the message has to be that there is nothing before the nation, but the very concept of nation, safety and security are deeply tied to personal notions of kinship and oneness. we're here to defend our good people, our families. a soldier with no family to defend cannot be an effective propaganda machine, which is why ruhi is essential to introduce as soon as we switch from 'khalid's' pov to kabir's. but even ruhi is a secondary motivation at best, all but forgotten in the scenes she isn't in - in the rest, his motivation is: his team ("my team is my family. im responsible for their safety").

whatever loyalties he does have are also tested early on, with him being asked to work with the son of the man who killed his partner (even if he later proves himself trustworthy), and again repeatedly as he becomes suspicious that somebody in his organisation is responsible for the death of his team . in a film and an envt where their very presence at his side is a threat to them - and their well-beings, barring khalid, are linked to a number of others' - kabir is constantly in a position of having to defend their lives against their loyalty or see them lose it because they hold the exact ideals he does. he cannot put their lives or well-being before the requirements of the mission or the system, because the system metonymically substitutes itself for its members: betraying the mission for the sake of the people carrying it out is betraying the people carrying it out.

kabir's success at the end is in fact hinged on his relation with his team - if not the homoerotic dynamic developed with khalid early on. his trust for khalid is because of their parallel dedication to the country, which in khalid's sake is split, but not without being in the same direction as kabir's. reading "faith for the country" as just "faith to the fellow soldier" and extending that to "faith to this guy specifically" (because, let's face it: kabir doesn't trust any of his superiors, or really anybody outside his direct teammates for the majority of the film), which is a fairly obvious and direct parallel to the emotional resonance of a relationship to make, kabir first comes to trust khalid because he sees the same dedication in khalid that he experiences himself. its practically gaydar

it is this exact thing that later saves his life, too. it's not really about observational abilities, the discovery of a very personal (and very immediately relevant to kabir!) backstory that led to an invisible disability. they might as well be having sex on screen. kabir recognises the consequences of treason (the prioritising of worldly goods, as linked to betrayals for the well-being of family) in khalid and remembers them: seeing their absence is what tips him off to khalid's replacement and saves his life in the end

pls do note that i don't like the metaphor of propagandistic love for nation as homosexuality - what i'm trying to emphasise is not that these things are the same or that the film is in any way really drawing a parallel. what i am discussing here is the nature of acceptable and unacceptable motivation and storytelling in a film that depends greatly on well-utilised tropes and concepts in order to pursue the story it's telling. i am just looking at the parallels and what story they tell when examined in context of that allegory, and particularly what it means from the perspective of the position that a system like this places its participants, even its most loyal ones, in

this becomes relevant in the end, too, with saurabh, when he graduates from pawn to whatever piece he wants to be. his goals are stated directly, though vague, and he makes an oblique reference to religion but it doesn't seem to hold much even within the film - though frankly it IS dangerous (and would be irresponsible if it weren't so fucking obvious). regardless, what he values primarily seems to be his own life and [monetary] well-being, and while he recognises the value of family, falsely IDing kabir's relationship with naina and ruhi that way, he doesn't seem to recognise the value of loyalty (or its allegorical significance)

this is why it actually blew me out of the water when he attempted to stab kabir in the eye, a fantastic callback to kabir shooting khalid's father in the eyes, which saurabh probably knows fuck all about too. the whole fight taking place in a church - the film is really one about personal betrayal lol, the judas parallels are ...unexpected but strong - the stabbing through the palms, the caving in of the support structures and the roof, are all great metaphors in that direction. and kabir's parting shot!!! "you're unworthy of this face. i won't let you die with it" girl?

by the end of the film at least, kabir is perfectly aware that he cannot operate within this system. i think it's why it's relevant to show aditi at her wedding, and the little joke about her eloping with kabir. he can't accept what any of them have, and it is because he can't accept this that he can never continue within the system. kabir's actions may have been justified from his [and the viewer's] end, but they are based on the sole justification of his word and happenstance proof - and, considering the actual positions of the people who he killed, become dangerously unreliable if there were to be any degree of higher level intervention. everyone he killed could be - and were - considered important cogs of the defensive or military infrastructure, and it is only kabir's highly concentrated loyalty only to the fellow that recognises them otherwise. this is because he's the main lead, yeah, and not without help, but imagine selling that story to anybody else?

to emphasise: nobody at any point in this film is surprised at the sheer number of betrayals that happen in this film. not once! because betrayal [for whichever reason] is at the core of the understanding of loyalty in this film. yeah, why wouldn't all these people turn against each other? the only one who is questioned for his motivations repeatedly is kabir - and the moment saurabh draws the line from him to naina and ruhi, that questioning also is at an end.

i think this is why kabir allows the reality to be sublimated into a story of khalid being martyred in the pursuit of his loyalty, a story which is as much about family - as seen by the emphasis on nafisa in that scene - as it is about anything else, and which allows the entire incident to be wrapped up with a neat little propagandistic bow, a story that's easy to sell, of a boy who was punished by his father's choices and makes the opposite ones for his mother [and mother india]

tl;dr war accidentally or on purpose or both becomes a story that has fuck all to do with the country - outside of the obvious propaganda elements - and everything to do with the juxtaposition of family, i.e. motivations that the system can accept, and the un-directed loyalty that cannot and does not accept any form of betrayal as anything but personal, because it cannot be redirected anywhere but at the fellow-soldier, homoerotically or otherwise, which can never be accepted by the system because it is too undiluted by acceptable irregularities such as betrayal

war actually does something very interesting in placing family and nation as counterpoints. hold on. gathering thoughts