#03 ed was too for most of his series but at least he grow and he's called out by the narrative

[seikyoko]

#oh no i wont work together with scar i hate him hes terrible

#oh youre obviously jealous of how we can connect with others and work together despite our differences🥺

#i liked him at the start but as the story progressed...i was annoyed by him

#i remember that i disliked how he calling heinkel and darius  as chimeras not by their names and it was played as a joke

#or how he was all like  and it was played off as a joke

#then turn around and say to envy

#i get that he has understandable reason to hate scar BUT at the same time he was shown to show some level of sympathy to other antagonists

#for gods sake he was able to look at envy (SOMEONE WHO STARTED A WAR) with pitty in his eyes when he said that speech

#return Pride to Mrs Bradley with sadness in his eyes

#BUT SCAR IS WERE HE DRAWS THE LINE

#UGH I HAVE OTHER COMPLAINS BUT I HAVENT FINISHED REREADING THE MANGA SO I WILL SHUT UP FOR NOW

#anyway fma manga isnt perfect and it has flaws and arakawa could have handled some of the stuff better

yes, i like edward elric (03)

no, i don't like edward elric (mangahood)

[jmtorres]

Writing questions thing! 1: Summarize your WIP in 10 words or less. 3: Does your WIP have a title? If so, explain its significance. If not, what are you calling it for now? 4: Describe the setting of your WIP. 13: Your characters are stranded on a deserted island. What happens? 18: What’s easier, dialogue or description? 20: Post a brief excerpt.

1. ok hmm i already did the automail dick one, let me try the other one...

roy's political conspiracy is also a polycule. ed wants in.

3. the polycule one (which is at least two long stories and a short one) doesn't really have a title yet, although I'm considering titling the part about raising hughes from the dead "The Bathtub Body" it's more or less what I've been using for a working title? Because they grow Hughes's body in the bathtub (after it gets too big for a jar. Ed, by the way, was grown in a jar. I had this idea during a conversation where Ed and Al and Izumi discussing the miracle of birth and how it happened to all of them and I was like, .....wait did it tho??? something about that struck me as sarcastic or ironic. probably not meant to be probably just izumi's resting judgy face, but I conceived, heh, the idea of Ed having been grown in a jar, like the alchemical equivalent of a uterine replicator, and some of his growth issues being related to that.) I do not at *all* have a a title for the part of the story that's Roy and Ed getting together (and Ed trying to figure out how to relate to the rest of the polycule). The inciting incident for it is something about Ed asking why sex makes people stupid, it would probably be wrong to title it something about stupidity. Ed frames his relationship with Roy largely through the lens of research and experimentation, there might be something there with like a scientific paper title? except that I'm writing from Roy's POV not Ed's, so I'm not sure that would work.

The automail dick story I'm currently considering titling Automale, for, I think, obvious reasons

4. setting--they're both FMA/B stories. the automail dick is more firmly FMAB not FMA '03 (because I decided not to try to deal with the angst of Roy having killed the Rockbells while he's receiving treatment from Winry). Timeline-wise it's set just before the main events of the series, when Ed is 14/just turned 15. The polycule one is a frankencanon (I definitely DID want to keep all of Roy's angst, plus some of Ed's--the time Ed killed Greed is only in FMA '03, in FMAB it's Bradley who kills original flavor Greed). the bathtub body part I'm trying to squeeze into the missing several months of canon between (this is arguably a spoiler, @stariceling) Ed and Al getting split up, and Promised Day. most of the RoyEd parts occur post-series (but don't really follow the epilogue timeline).

13. deserted island--arms race alchemical competition for best way to get off the island, because they'll work together eventually for bigger stakes like *other* people's lives but when it's just them the oneupmanship is out of control. (this is roy and ed. this is definitely roy and ed i'm talking about. ed is making evil grins a lot.)

18. i think dialogue is easier than description? like, i can kind of hear their voices and figuring out what the characters think and say moves the plot along fairly steadily most of the time. meanwhile with description i like. either get stuck on very dumb details, or my description is too sparse, or I'm trying to write sex positions and half the time don't manage to specify in a way that readers understand >_> most of the time i have a lot more dialogue than imagery going on, like even in the story that is half about geeking out about automail it's characters talking about how it works not prose descriptions of it.

20. haha i think everything is chatfic right now so this should be fun. Let me. go poke my outlines and see if there's a segment I'd post...

i have bits in my head where winry tells roy to go ask ed about longterm pain and recovery with automail like ed tells HER it doesn't hurt he's totally fine but maybe he'll be more honest with roy under the circumstances.

so roy is asking ed about automail pain from the perspective of you told me to get some i'm considering it, (you have to be honest now)

ed's like, so they put you under when they put the bolts in, i was totally out for that, which like, in contrast to when i got my limbs sheared off, is nothing? and like? I could never tell what pain was the original injury and what was the automail install so yeah i always said the automail was fine, there was nothing wrong with winry's work

roy comments that he's heard battlefield amputations--that is, ones without anesthetic--are among the most painful things a person can experience

ed's like i don't know about that i mean i have no idea if how i lost them compares to getting them chopped off?

but he asks if roy knows what phantom limb is and roy says yes and ed's like so i had that and uh, like when they did the nerve hookups like, it hurt? but it was also such a relief that it was something that was *supposed* to hurt and not something that was like, in my head? i mean i guess that's not relevant to you at all

and roy's like, i dunno, i wouldn't. exactly say what i have is pain. but it's. I'm not *comfortable* with *gestures* the way i am, physically. it might be a relief to get that feeling out of my head.

but like. roy asking ed if he has automail related medications (suspecting he might cop to pain pills even if he won't cop to pain outright)

ed has like, a muscle relaxant because his weight distribution is off and his muscles sometimes bunch up trying to compensate, "I usually take that at night, if I need it, so I can sleep," he says, but also adds that he thinks roy wouldn't have that problem since his proposed install is symmetrical?

also he has like, kind of a basic cream to apply around the joins because like, there can be irritation with friction and motion? and like you sort of build up calluses at the edges, which helps with keeping irritation from breaking skin, but you still want to use the cream on the calluses to keep them smooth because that means less irritation (I am imagining ed pulling stuff out his bag to show roy and roy's reading the contents being like anti-inflamma... ah this *is* a pain relief cream i wonder if he knows that and is downplaying it or if winry lied to get him to use it at all)

[insideanairport]

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam’s Psycho-Nationalism

❍❍❍

Beyond the tremendous amount of media generated around Iran, and aside from Trump's maximum pressure policy, white America’s Muslim ban, and the Coronovirtus pandemic, Iran has been making headlines internationally more than most other nations in the Middle East in 2020. Amid one of the biggest modern pandemics, economists demand Trump to immediately lift the sanctions against Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, so these countries are able to get Medical supplies to their peoples. (1) These are sanctions that some politicians describe as “economic terrorism”. While Iran is one of the major countries hit by COIVD19, the Trump administration seems to be weaponizing the Coronavirus against Iran. (2) 

Similar to every other nation-state on earth, Iran is also not bulletproof against nationalism. Yet, it is not only nationalism that Adib-Moghaddam is interested to talk about in this book, but its the type of state-generated nationalism that he is interested in. He introduces the term “Psycho-nationalism” in order to connect the Iranian identity to its complications in the global context. 

The language of the book is quite academic and neutral. The idea of Psycho-nationalism between the two periods of pre- and post- Islamic Revolution might sound very identical to an external reader not familiar with the culture and history of Iran. The external reader will most likely assume that currently there is an Iranian nationalism “continuing” from the nationalism that existed during the Shah era. However, to a person living in Iran, the comparison of nationalism in pre- and post- revolution Iran might seem like comparing apples and oranges. There is also a mild differentiation between the anti-colonialism of Mohammad Mosaddegh, with that of Ayatollah Khomeini’s. This comparison seems to be oppositional rather than a gradual continuation. 

Ayatollah Khomeini

Adib-Moghaddam emphasizes on the concept of Velayat-e-Faqih (ولایت فقیه) or Supreme Jurisprudence. Reading through the book you might find out that Velayat-e-Faqih is a big deal for the whole concept of Psycho-nationalism. It shows itself the best at the heart of the book in chapter 2 “International Hubris: Kings of Kings and Vicegerents of God”. Adib-Moghaddam has already worked on Khomeini’s intellectual and revolutionary work, on a previous book: A Critical Introduction to Khomeini.

(Page 50)

The trajectory of Iranian postcolonial Nationalism

Maybe It would have been much easier to read and understand the particular nationalism that Adib-Moghaddam is trying to elucidate regarding Iran if he would have articulated it from a subjective point. I would love to read an anti-imperialist work in this area, especially when it comes from a non-majority Persian (فارس) Iranian. Although there have been a few good works on Iranian Nationalism from different positionalities, such as Iranian-Afghanistani, Afro-Iranian, Kurdish-Iranian, transgender Iranian, etc.. However, Adib-Moghaddam’s academic task requires him to talk about the issue in a “universal” academic (objective) way. 

Part of the idea is that Iranian identity continues to exist even without the nation-state or outside of it. Regarding this, at least, by now we should have already learned from the indigenous peoples of the world, that peoples and nations exist even without the nation-state. In future, I would like to read more of his work especially if it analysis Iranian nationalism or “Iranian white supremacy complex” (’Iran = land of Aryans’, and ‘Iranian = Persian/فارس’)

The book seems to be written for the non-Iranian and maybe Western audiences. Exhibiting the notion of Psycho-nationalism before and after the Islamic revolution, Adib-Moghaddam is scratching the surface of nationality and religion from an Iranian perspective. He is also preoccupied with the “meaning of Iran” or “Iranian identity”, which is equivalently associated with the idea of Psycho-nationalism. Yet, from my personal experience of growing up in Iran until the end of my public education, I remember the absence of such questions in Iranian public discourse. It is a type of question, that is desired by numerous Persian-Iranian youths inside Iran. 

On page fifteen, he is talking about the Iranian superiority/racial purity complex common in pre-revolutionary politics, yet he seems to be a bit too pedagogical to bring in Western writers such as Freud and Hobsbawm to connect with his point.

(Page 15)

I am not sure if Adib-Moghaddam is bringing down the Islamic Republic to the level of Shah’s nationalism to disregard its revolutionary aspects, or if he is presenting post-revolution Iran as a new form of nationalist state? Hassan Taghizadeh is a good example here. Taqizadeh was the most influential person in Iran who supported the interests of the German Empire against Russia and Britain between the two World Wars. So he was part of the severe Westernization process that accrued in Iran during the time of Reza Shah. He identified Shahnameh as the source of purified national pride and consciousness. Adib-Moghaddam appoints Taghizadeh as a Psycho-nationalist.

(Iranian nomad women forced to wear Western clothes during the Westernization process under Reza Shah’a Kashf-e hijab, source chamedanmag) 

Adib-Moghaddam is also employing a series of academic vocabularies such as “Politics of Identity”, which doesn’t decenter the dominant canon. However, Adib-Moghaddam knows that talking about nationalism in a universalist (objective) way would result in further conversations about history in an analytic and nationalist way. 

What I have enjoyed the most about the book is the amazing articulations of Adib-Moghaddam regarding theories of sovereignty and what legitimizes a sovereign power. In my view, page 51-55 are the most important part of the book where it focuses on the history of Iranian Westernization during the Pahlavi era, which created a white-supremacist complex in the Iranian psyche and ultimately paved the way for the Islamic Revolution of 1979. This Iranian White Supremacist complex still carries on today in many different oppositional groups such as the monarchists, MEK, and Iranian Renaissance.  

There is another important point in this section, which I believe is central to Adib-Moghaddam’s theory of Psycho-nationalism. On page 51, he argues (in regard to the post-revolution Iran) that in order to legitimize your self-designation claim as the regional/global Islamic power, you need the international recognition through a series of events and campaigns. Current Iranian revolutionaries express solidarity with all anti-imperialist activism around the world. Adib-Moghaddam skillfully brings the example of street names in Tehran. If you live in Tehran, you might come across a few streets that are named after white anti-colonial activists such as Bobby Sands, or Rachel Aliene Corrie.

The only time the book mentions Edward Said is on page 74, where there is a vivid example of Orientalism by the liberal white English politician Thomas Babington Macaulay. Lord Macaulay was a racist academic and educator. There is a quote from Macaulay, in which he argues: “a single shelf of good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabic”.(1)

There is another clever comparison in the book where he compares two Iranian masculine icons: Rustam and Imam Hossein followed by a comparison of Giuseppe Mazzini and Garibaldi. Towards the end of the book, he mentions the right-wing and white supremacist Iranian nationalism, which is to some degree an Orientalist creation. As an example, Adib-Moghaddam uses Arthur de Gobineau and Ernest Renan. They both said at some point that Persians (Iran’s ethnic majority) are racially superior to Arabs and other Semitic people due to their Indo-European heritage. (2)

Shah’s royal family before the 1979 Revolution (Photo: AP, source: ynetnews)

Thomas Babington Macaulay (left) and Arthur de Gobineaut (right)

Bib. 1. Johnson, Jake. Economists Demand Trump Immediately Lift Iran, Cuba, Venezuela Sanctions. truthout. [Online] March 19, 2020. https://truthout.org/articles/economists-demand-trump-immediately-lift-iran-cuba-venezuela-sanctions/. 2. Conley, Julia. 'Literally Weaponizing Coronavirus': Despite One of World's Worst Outbreaks of Deadly Virus, US Hits Iran With 'Brutal' New Sanctions. Common Dreams. [Online] 3 18, 2020. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/18/literally-weaponizing-coronavirus-despite-one-worlds-worst-outbreaks-deadly-virus-us. 3. A minute to acknowledge the day when India was 'educated' by Macaulay. indiatoday.in. [Online] 2 2, 2018. https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/a-minute-to-acknowledge-the-day-when-india-was-educated-by-macaulay-1160140-2018-02-02. 4. Renan, Ernest. What Is a Nation? and Other Political Writings. [ed.] M. F. N. Giglioli. s.l. : Columbia University Press, 2018. 9780231547147. 5. Bogen, Amir. 'In a future Iran, Israel will once again be an ally'. ynetnews. [Online] 2 12, 2019. https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5462253,00.html.

[zetalial]

FMA 03: Fathers

Okay, I thought I’d do a post about Father’s in FMA 03 like I did with Mother’s in this post and...

Ha, Ha, Ha. Fathers are terrible in FMA, aren’t they? There’s like one bright spot. I will be speaking mainly about fathers in regards to the Elric brothers.

Regardless...

I’ll start with episode 1. We’re introduced to someone called Father Cornello. Of course, it’s a title to indicate that he’s a holy man rather than seriously meaning a paternal figure. If it is in any way an intentional theme (given he does want to present himself as a caring man who can take care of Liore) well soon enough his true nature as a fraud who’s really interested in power is revealed.

His falseness can be contrasted with Rose who is later given the title Holy Mother - she didn’t seek the title herself and her care for Liore and its people is genuine. Where Cornello makes great speeches full of lies, Rose is mute and yet honest in her intentions. But I digress.

Moving on, Ed and Al do not have a father. Their father abandoned them at a young age and all they remember of him is his absence. Likewise, both of Winry’s parent’s are dead and they grow up without any sort of father figure. I like the phrasing of the dub here. “I wouldn’t say I hate him, I don’t remember him enough.” 

With the death of their mother this morphs into a firmer dislike from Edward (Alphonse still wants to know their absent father). Despite their father’s absence they take after him, learning alchemy from his books including the forbidden stuff. Their attitude can be contrasted with the Tringham brothers in episode 11-12 where their father is dead and they’re learning alchemy in honour of his memory and to be like him. It’s why they’re so motivated to save Xenotime such that they’re convinced to use insidious methods. Ed meanwhile hates to be compared to his absent father.

The one exception to the absent or terrible fathers is, of course, Maes Hughes who seems to genuinely care for the brothers. He helps them for no other reason than that he cares for them. He is great. He throws Edward a little birthday party, sits and talks with him at meals, gives him help and advice, sends Armstrong to tail them as protection. They have a great relationship. 

In the above scene, Hughes decides to tell Ed that Scar was responsible for Nina’s death rather than deciding to keep the information from him. Even when Maria Ross suggests its too dangerous for the Elrics to continue searching for the stone, Hughes continues to enable them while giving them protection as he knows that otherwise the boys would just strike out on their own. Edward in turn opens up to Hughes, deciding to tell him about the homunculi behind Lab 5. Obviously, he is not just fatherly towards the Elrics but dotes on his own daughter and loves his wife. So of course the homunculi kill him.

Hughes great family can be contrasted with Shou Tucker and his daughter. Tucker welcomes the Elrics into his home and soon becomes sort of like a father to them, providing them support and a home while they prepare to join the military. He’s kind and offers them advice where he can, even recommending they stay away from the military. He seems to love his daughter Nina too. But just like with Father Cornello, it’s all a facade. Just as Cornello made chimeras that sounded like real people to maintain his illusion of power and respect, Tucker turns people into chimeras in order to keep hold of his life as a respected State Alchemist.

Tucker turns Nina into a monstrous chimera in some misguided attempt to retain his old lifestyle showing that at his core he is awful and selfish. Just like that, Ed and Al’s replacement home has been destroyed as thoroughly as their initial home. And it was a home for them. That’s partly why the reveal shakes them so much. Their worst fears confirmed in the worst possible way.

I guess they do still have Sig Curtis. I mean, they’ve been avoiding him and Izumi for years but when they are with him its okay. He’s nice and cares for the boys though he’s ultimately a pretty quiet person who tends to follow his wife, Izumi’s lead. Maybe he could be a good father but we never see any moments of the Elrics bonding and looking to him for advice unlike Hughes or Tucker. We never see him show any care towards Wrath in the series either. Mostly he’s just there for Izumi.

I haven’t mentioned Mustang, have I? That’s because he an absolutely terrible father figure as well. He does care for the Elrics but that’s really not enough. Upon seeing an unconscious crippled 11 year old Edward, he... recommends they join the military. Yeah. Become a child soldier and leave what’s left of your childhood behind.

His amazing ability to show he cares continues when he tells a crying Edward to just get over Nina’s horrific death and move on with his life. Upon learning about Liore he decides not to tell Edward in order to protect their innocence - this just ends up backfiring, He also keeps Ed in the dark about Hughes’ death. Edward ends up furious that these were kept secret from him. Seeing Ed is in a bad mood after his fight with Scar and he’s missing his arm while Al’s armour is wrecked, Roy decides to make fun of him in an effort to get a rise out of him. Truly it should come as no surprise that Edward does not trust Mustang. Ed is surprised to learn Roy cares at all when Mustang finally opens up in episode 43. Yeah, Mustang could be an alright friend to the Elrics - they do have a fun, teasing dynamic - but he makes a terrible father to the Elrics.

And finally, Hohenheim. He is absent for most of the story. When he finally does show up, he doesn’t offer any excuses for his behaviour, doesn’t really offer them anything at all. When Al is interested in getting to know him, he does spend a bit of time with him, only to leave once more in the middle of night.

Hohenheim is pretty aware of his failings and does attempt to do the right thing in confronting Dante. It goes badly. We do learn that he’s been equally terrible towards Envy, creating the homunculi and then abandoning him to Dante presumably because he saw Envy as a pale imitation of his long dead son.

At the end of the series, Ed is with Hohenheim and he’s forgiven him, it seems. He’s been pacified with the revelation that Hohenheim did love Trisha and is saddened by her death as well so Ed’s let go of some of his hate that was the result of blaming him for Trisha’s death. They’re an odd pair but Hohenheim is trying to at least give Ed the needed support in the new world. I doubt they’re truly close, it’s more that circumstances have pushed them together. Still we do see him giving Ed some advice and encouragement while letting him go seek out his own answers.

And that’s basically all the Fatherly figures in the series barring, like, the innkeeper from Yousewell who was an alright guy, I suppose. And there’s Pride who I guess is a bit of a fatherly figure to his soldiers. Very friendly and personable with that sort of Grandfatherly persona. Yet again, it’s all fake though. He has cultivated this image with a perfect-looking family but he won’t hesitate to strangle his son and start wars.

Er, maybe Armstrong could be read as fatherly? He is kind to the Elrics, taking care of them and worrying over them. I always struggle with Armstrong, I’ll be honest. 

-

Yeah and that concludes this post. We’ve got absent fathers and people who pretend to be fatherly and people who fail at it. And we’ve got Hughes who is wonderful. And dead. 

Maybe I should’ve done this post for Brotherhood instead? Mustang and Hohenheim are more fatherly and there’s a villain called Father. Eh, but then they do less with Hughes and Tucker. I don’t think anyone would want to hear me talk about Brotherhood anyway.

[winrystan]

Haha, thank you! You should add to your critique! (And just a forewarning I'll likely be all over the place because I'm not used to "talking" for this long lmao) Its important to recognize the flaws of the media you care about and be able to accept them, which I think is hard for fans. I don't think it's a matter of recognizing these flaws, but rather the series being so important to so many people that's it's a whole lot easier to accept it rather than recognize that its flawed and kinda,,, yknow, gross at times to be blunt? Regards to the relationships, you're really right. As much as I do want them to happen, at this point, they won't. There's also a huge power imbalance imo and the fact that just. They're portrayed awfully? The only "relationship" we see that maybe be true would be Brosh and Ross, honestly. I haven't seen the series in a while, but I don't think it was forced.

I was a little iffy on that as well. Trisha definitely loved him, but I'm not sure on him. I think there was something there, because you don't have a child with someone if there is, but it's kinda just. I'm certain I didn't like him in this one. He felt like an empty character, honestly. Just there to push the story forward and add some drama and cause problems.

The Rose thing abosluely made me mad tho. She was a strong character who could have made change, and I would have loved to see how she'd deal with everything and hoped to see her grow and become stronger, and make a parallel to the beginning of the series. But she just got reduced to being a love interest with kind of a "oh I love you unconditonally ed uwu love me." And that set her up for manipulation in the show. I just hate what they did with her, but at least in the end she's become more of the character I hoped her to be. And the Noah/ed/rose thing was just kinda rushed to me? Like I think its great they used a minor character for something instead of never addressing her again, but its kinda. But what they used her for is gross, and I can vividly remember being disgusted by what they did with her and why she became important. I agree with you 100% that they should have given her her own arc, which applies to most of the female characters. The only thing I think I like about that first episode regarding ed is that his actions have consequences.

The Barry the chopper thing absolutely confused me and pissed me of, honestly? Like Ed gets to be this tragic hero and angsty which is understandable, but tbh? Winry was kidnapped and held hostage and likely was told she'd be killed, or see Ed killed. She was also about 12, yeah? Ed is, understandably scarred and out of it. Winry should be too, logically. If I recall, the next episode just has her, ed, and al going around buying things and Ed's brooding and shes just fine? And instead tries to made Ed feel better later on? Like, when something traumatic happened to either of them in brotherhood it was handled a whole lot better, and it was less of Winry being a healer for Ed and more of a source of support for him and someone who generally cares for him and those feelings were returned. You're right, though. Ed just doesn't seem to think about or accept the rockbells, and its honestly sad. I'm not sure how to phrase how he seems to view them. In brotherhood, he cared about them the most and made sure they were safe when he learns that they could be used against them. I think in 03, Winry doesnt tell Ed about Hughes death because she wants him to carry on, because its what h he'd want, and he shoves her against a table? Like??? She was looking out for him, and yes, it wasn't the right move, but christ. She's done everything for him and he seems generally ungrateful. Yes, you could say he didn't want them to get involved with all the crazy military shit, and in that way he succeeded, because none of them were hurt but jesus christ.

I love this show to pieces and it establishes its goal of telling a good story and representing a lot of vast and unique topics, to the point that I bought it and the movie, but it's kinda sad. It's a sad ending for everything it is. I love brotherhood/the manga because it gives us what we wanted and what everyone deserved, and there's just so many arcs? And everyone is so wonderful? I could never dream of analyzing 03 or brotherhood well, I'm just some teenager on the internet, but I'm sure you could. If you continue your critique, I'd love to read it, because both series are drowning in representation and little things that even the more intense fans such as myself have missed.

Just prefacing this with the fact that I love both series

Small brain: 03 Roy is a good character and Winry is annoying

Large brain: in 03 roy is an asshole and they did all the women dirty

Cosmic brain: the manga is best.

[auburnfamilynews]

Hidey-Ho from the SOL, as apparently you guys enjoyed me subjecting myself to watching some of Auburn’s worst wins in its storied history. So what’s say we do it again! If you missed last week’s stink burger, you can check that out here, but this week’s selection is a nasty piece of cheese that reminds us why Auburn needs a quarterback of the dual threat variety, why we can’t stand Rod Gilmore and, while we have the Coach O now, how much we really miss Les Miles coaching decisions. Let’s head in to the theater and dissect the 2016 Auburn vs #18 LSU game!

PREGAME

Auburn had…struggled let’s call it…out of the gate with a powerful win over Arkansas State but stumbled against #2 Clemson and #17 Texas A&M (all 3 games at home). The natives had become restless and a movement was building to force Gus out should he drop another home game to another ranked team.

On the other side of the field, LSU had started the year in the top 5 but dropped its season opener to Wisconsin at Lambeau and then ho-hummed their way past Jacksonville St and Mississippi State. Like in Auburn, the natives were restless as the storm clouds built around this ball game. So with all that in mind, let’s hit play.

THE GAME

With the history of this game, you would expect ESPN to have the voices of a generation on the call for this one. I mean hell! This is the spot that Ron Franklin and Mike Gottfried had for almost 2 decades. Children will grow up, wanting to emulate the two people that they hear on the call for a game like this!

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ALMIGHTY! WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS TO ME!!!! MARK JONES AND ROD GILMORE!!!

Ok…ok…at least there is an Alyssa Lang, Olivia Harlan, Laura Rutledge or Kaylee Hartung on the sidelines to help me get through this one…

DAMN IT ALL TO HELL! It’s like James Carville and Scut Farkus from A Christmas Story had a baby and threw him in a Joseph A Bank shirt!

*gulp of Woodford*

Brown Party Liquor, you have to get me through this one on your own.

And we begin with Auburn taking the opening kickoff and racing for 9 yards before a punt where LSU see’s their 3 and out and calls for their own 3 and out. Auburn, not to be out done, counters with this…

In fact, Auburn has somewhat mastered this play so far in the early season

Shockingly, Auburn would punt after that and give it back to LSU. As we come back from break, Rod Gilmore is less than impressed with Auburn’s pregame ceremony.

YOU BETTER GET THAT EAGLE TO KILL A LIVE MOUSE ON THE FIELD TO MAKE ROD GILMORE STAND UP AND PAY ATTENTION! Meanwhile, apparently, LSU has somewhat forgotten that they have Leonard Fournette as he has only gotten a couple of carries for a few yards, but Auburn has clamped down on him for the most part, but LSU has been attacking from the air!

I mean, sure, there was a guy in a white jersey there, and sure, normally if the ball is in the air with Auburn corner’s around, there is a good shot the other team is going to come down with it. However, Auburn has three secondary defenders around the receiver….Etling definitely does not ‘HAVE A GUY’, Mark…

LSU would punt and give it to Auburn at their own 48. Note the 1st down play…

This is the first play of the drive and Auburn has their FG Line Target on the screen. This should have been a heads up of what we were in store for. Auburn would pick up a few yards but…say it with me…would settle for the Field Goal from the MVP.

Auburn would kick it off, so LSU from the 25, and all the sudden the ground game got going.

Derrius Guice gets the big pickup and that would set up LSU to get their first points of the day…maybe.

I mean…I am no expert, but who was more in the endzone…Foster Moreau here or Aaron Murray in 2013?

Cause I say neither…ANY WHO…LSU takes the lead 7-3. Auburn would take the next drive and drive down deep in to LSU territory to…settle…for a….Field Goal.

Again….

LSU would look to answer and took it from the 25 down in to Auburn territory before Mr. Lawson would apply the breaks to the drive.

Which directly led to…

So, Auburn would have it from their own 34…and would wiggle their way down…into….LSU…territory...

9-7 Auburn takes the lead. LSU would take the ensuing drive and would have to punt it away, to the Auburn 19. Auburn would begin a march to finish the half and had it 4th and goal at the LSU 1.

And that’s how the half would end at 9-7.

After a fruitless drive to start the half, LSU would punt and Auburn took it from their own 14. Some nifty run and pass plays get Auburn down for yet another…

Auburn takes a powerfull 12-7 lead over LSU. And it’s time for the kickoff…

IN THE FACE!!!!! Yup, this is the game that led to a Tosh.0 episode for that young lady. I also love how Mark and Rod both completely missed what happened even though there is an audible gasp from the crowd…way to watch guys.

LSU would take it from the 25 and got some good chunk plays to get close enough for a field goal.

Mark it up to a 12-10 Auburn lead. And as long as the defense stays up and the offense can keep from making mistakes…

Well damn it. LSU gets it from the 16 but dang if that defense doesn’t tighten up and holds LSU to another FG attempt.

WHAT IS TOUCHDOWN? WILL I EVER SEE ONE AGAIN??

Auburn would start the series from the 25 and would begin the march down the field to try and take back the lead. It would come down to a 3rd down play to extend the series.

And Auburn went with the Field Goal…again.

Laugh at it or not, Daniel Carlson is a man and that he never won the Lou Groza Award is a damn travesty.

LSU would get it from the 25 and move right down the field before

Etling would apparently forget you have to hold on to the ball BEFORE you hand it off to Forney.

Auburn would get it at their own 31 and look to put this one away. Three plays later they would puntto the LSU 30. LSU wouldn’t be out done and would punt 3 plays after that. Auburn then took it from the 37 and march past they 50 which meant they were in Carlson’s range.

Auburn takes the lead 18-13 with a couple minutes left.

LSU has to score on this drive and, for it, I can sort of tell how a drive is going to go by the first play.

Well that looks like it will go well. That was like a 3 year old saying no to a plate of broccoli!

Against all odds though, the boys from Red Stick would march down inside the Auburn redzone to try and get the clinching TD. What happens next is too much for me to describe…so here it is in its entirety.

So yeah….it definitely made up for the prior 59:45 seconds but I really want to dive it to one part of that if we can.

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING AT ROD! YOU CAN’T TELL IF THE SNAP IS OFF BECAUSE HE’S UNDER CENTER?! Look at the center’s arm when the clock is at 0:00…has it moved? No? Then the game is over. I hate to bring up Nick for the second week in a row (no I don’t) but this a perfect example of what LSU needed to do here…the whistle blew…they waited…then snapped and the game is over. Against Alabama, Auburn heard the whistle, snapped right then, Field Goal is good. ESPN, can we please get Rod off calling football games. Please…I can’t take that anymore. Have him do Slippery Stairs contests or the Electrical Workers National Championships…Anything but meaningful football…especially games I will be watching. Please.

THE AFTERGLOW

Following all that, Auburn would find its identity offensively in the person of Kam Pettway as the Tigers reeled off 6 straight wins, including the LSU win. Pettway would get banged up in the Vanderbilt game and Auburn would finish the regular season off with 2 SEC losses. They would however get to the Sugar Bowl against #7 Oklahoma and drop that one 35-19 to finish the season at 8-5 and ranked 24th in the country. While Auburn stumbled at the end of the season against its two biggest rivals, the power that be would decide to hold on to Malzahn after going to the Sugar Bowl.

LSU, on the other hand, would fire Les and OC Cam Cameron the day after this game. In his place, the Tigers would put Ed Orgeron and we all know how that’s going. In 2016 though, LSU would go 6-2 under Coach O with losses to only Alabama and Florida and would cap off the season with a victory in the Citrus Bowl over #15 Louisville as the Tigers ended with an 8-4 record and finished ranked 13th in the country

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2020/3/30/21198213/auburn-football-theater-2020-9-2016-lsu

[hellcatpress]

This was an article I wrote for the Ladies of Comicazi’s blog.

I was a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable for seven years. It was a creative outlet for me. The group has put out a dozen anthologies, and I’ve been featured in nine of them.

In the years leading to my departure, the BCR had a handful of incidents involving sexism. These incidents caused at least four women to quit. No one wanted to take action. When I spoke up, I was told it wouldn’t happen again. Problematic members were valued; the women they bullied into leaving were told, “you aren’t welcome here.”

In the midst of this, I pitched Dark Lady, an all-female horror comics anthology. I wanted to bring women back into the group. I wanted to show them that they were valued by giving them a creative outlet. But I had never put together an anthology so I assumed I would need someone with experience to guide me.

I pitched Dark Lady in December 2014. I stood up during a meeting and said, “I’m putting together an all-female horror comics anthology. Horror is a very male-dominated genre, and women are often under-represented – ”

“MARY SHELLEY!”

I was interrupted by one of the group’s senior members. He continued to yell Mary Shelley’s name, growing louder as I attempted to keep talking. I looked over at the man who was in charge. He did nothing.

I’d had numerous discussions about the problem of sexism in the Boston Comics Roundtable with the group leader. When I told him that women were leaving, he admitted that he didn’t want to get involved. When I told him that he had a responsibility to take action, he always assured me that he would, but never actually did. It shouldn’t have surprised me when he didn’t come to my aid.

I persisted, nearly shouting to be heard above the cries of “MARY SHELLEY! MARY SHELLEY!”

“Does anyone have any questions?” I asked.

The man in charge raised his hand. “Yeah,” he said, “but what if I collaborate with a woman?”

The other men in the room asked questions. Unfortunately, none of them were serious.

“What if I use a female pen-name?”

“What if I write about a female character?”

“What if I just don’t tell you I’m a man?”

“Will you be asking for proof of gender?”

“What if I get a sex-change?”

None of the women in the room asked any questions.

It was an infuriating and dehumanizing experience. When I expressed anger over my mistreatment, I was told by both men and women that I was over-reacting, that I should quit, and that I shouldn’t talk about my experience because it would make the BCR look bad. Needless to say, I severed ties with the group.

I focused on putting Dark Lady together. I had initially thought that I would require the BCR’s help; after all, the group’s senior members knew how to put an anthology together and self-publish it. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was too stubborn to give up. I wanted to prove the group wrong.

I posted a call for submissions online. A few days later, I received an email from a woman in Finland. She told me that a friend had shown her my website and that she wanted to submit a horror comic. The idea she pitched me was disgusting. It was the perfect example of gross-out body horror. I loved it. I needed it. Dark Lady wouldn’t be complete without it.

I took out my calendar and mapped out a schedule. October seemed like an ideal time to publish a horror comics anthology, but if I was able to get it by late September, I’d be able to sell it at Hartford Comic Con. I would need the final artwork from contributors no later than August 1. That would give me a month to format the pages and get them to the printer.

At the time, I was working at a textbook publishing company. I knew that the most vital part of any publication is its schedule. I broke Dark Lady into a series of parts (cover art, promotional art, creator info, etc) and then painstakingly worked out a schedule for when I wanted to receive those parts.

More women contacted me with pitches, artwork, and scripts. I reviewed everything and sent out feedback. I researched the best printing deals and calculated the amount of money I would need to get Dark Lady printed. I raised the money at Boston Comic Con by selling decoupaged cigar boxes. I purchased a bar code and an ISBN, and set aside money to pay my contributors.

I was actively promoting Dark Lady on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. I now know that I wasn’t doing enough. I learned that when self-publishing, no one was going to promote my work for me. I would have to put myself and Dark Lady into the public eye. I was extremely lucky in that a handful of bloggers saw my Facebook posts about Dark Lady, were intrigued by them, and reached out to contact me. These wonderful people helped me promote Dark Lady before she was completed, and I am eternally grateful to them.

After finally receiving all the files, I was able to send Dark Lady to the printer right on schedule. She made her debut at Hartford Comic Con.

I soon realized that I wasn’t done with Dark Lady. It was not enough to get my anthology printed. I needed to continue to promote her. I spoke with local comic shop owners and sold them copies of Dark Lady for their shelves. I searched out bloggers who review comics and contacted them. I provided them with free PDF copies of Dark Lady in exchange for honest reviews.

Dark Lady has gotten an overwhelmingly positive response from everyone except the Boston Comics Roundtable. When I tell the story of how they rejected her, I’m met with face-palms and groans (and, from men, the occasional apology on behalf of their gender). So far, every man I have discussed Dark Lady with has reacted positively. Male horror fans have told me that they’re excited to see women interested in their favorite genre.

Nothing about Dark Lady was easy, but publishing her has been the most rewarding experience of my life. Dark Lady is the only all-female horror comics anthology that I know of. She has received praise. She celebrates women in horror and in comics.

I took my experience with Dark Lady and published a co-ed anthology about the Seven Deadly Sins, Simply Sinful. Simply Sinful held its own set of challenges, but I took everything I had learned with Dark Lady, and the production process was smoother and more efficient.

I’m currently putting together a third anthology, Tales from the Public Domain, and have set up a Patreon page to fund the cost of printing, an ISBN, a bar code, and to increase the creators’ payment. Please consider helping put Tales from the Public Domain on shelves.

[zetalial]

Roy Mustang - a military man.

Hey, my lovely friend @prettywitchiusaka asked me to do a post all about my interpretation of Roy Mustang so here it is!

This post is all about the Roy presented in the 03 anime for the record. (Roy’s character is quite a bit different in Brotherhood. A little more heroic and a little less broken and a little more consumed by revenge.)

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Let’s see... Roy is part of the military. That is his most significant characteristic. Yes, the military defines him. The military is a pretty messed-up institution in the world of FMA. The country is always at war and it will slowly be revealed that there’s no good justification for it. Wars have been happening because people want to obtain the forbidden power of the Philosopher’s stone. 

Roy’s arc throughout the story is all about coming to understanding how broken this system he’s dedicated to is even while his life is completely tied up in the military. All his friends and companions are his fellow soldiers and Roy is rarely ever shown wearing anything but his uniform. The military defines his life -he’s been part of it for a long time - and it is hopelessly corrupt. 

The first eye-opener for Roy was the Ishval war. He sees great atrocities committed... and he participates in them, following the orders of his superiors. He’d likely believed all the lies he’d been told about his ‘enemies.’

He hates himself for it but Roy is a dutiful soldier in Ishval. (The only exception we see is helping Dr. Marcoh to escape.) We specifically see him blowing up a young boy with a gun (in a PTSD flashback) and his execution of a pair of (Amestrian) doctors. He confesses to Hughes to killing a lot of people in Ishval.

For his work, he is rapidly promoted through the military and we meet him as Colonel Roy Mustang, the Flame alchemist and hero of Ishval. At first he seems like an arrogant, teasing person with a goofy side around his close subordinates. Towards Ed, he really gets under his skin with his smirking knows-everything attitude.

Secretly, Roy is filled with self-loathing and drinks and even considers killing himself. He makes a promise to himself to fix the military, aided by his closest friend Maes Hughes. Of course, Roy wants to reform the system from the inside and to achieve that he aims to become the Fuhrer - that’s his goal for the series. He feels its the only way he can justify living and making up for his sins. (Also, as he expresses to Winry later, that he wants to be in a position where he’ll never have to follow unjust orders again.)

While he may have done terrible things, he is not a bad person. At least, that’s not how others see him. He has a loyal team surrounding him who want to help him to achieve his goals. Havoc, Breda, Fuery, Falman and, of course, Riza Hawkeye. They all greatly respect him. Riza makes it very clear that she is aware of the things he’s done in Ishval and chooses to follow him anyway. She does not condemn him.  Besides them, there’s also Armstrong and Hughes. 

Roy tries his best to be good, to improve the world even as he’s trapped by his own demons. He’s given up his innocence to get into a high-up, influential Military position. It’s not easy for him, we really see his struggles and we’re slowly shown that, yes, the things he has done are awful and he can’t necessarily expect forgiveness. 

Roy is a people person who can be very charming. He goes on lots of dates with girls and has been very good at becoming a rising threat in the military as he works his way up the chain of command. He is seen as power-hungry by many who don’t know him well. (Sheska views him this way for much of the series given his inability to open up to her when she wants to help.) These relationships are fleeting things compared to the trust of his team however. 

That brings us to Edward and Alphonse. Roy’s relationship with them is quite unlike anyone else - they aren’t Military, they’re still (clever, somewhat jaded) children. While Ed does join the Military on Roy’s suggestion, he keeps it at arms length. Edward never wears a uniform and makes it very obvious that he sees joining the military as a means to an end - he’s only after the stone. The Elrics have never experienced war and Roy wishes that he could make it so they never will. To that end, he’s protective of them, keeping them in the dark about Liore and about Hughes’ death. While he’s caring, he has the inability to be very effective about it. He’s a soldier who struggles to relate to the boys.

After the Nina tragedy, and facing a crying, distraught Ed in an alley, Roy is harsh and tells Ed to just get over it and move on. This disconnect resulting from alternating between being overprotective and treating Edward like one of his men is partially why the two have a rather strained relationship throughout the series. (And why I don’t much care for a parental!Roy. It’s not that he doesn’t care but that he doesn’t care successfully.)

Their relationship is further complicated by how they’re both basically using the other for their own goals. Ed only motivation is fixing his brother and he’s joined the military for its resources so he can search for the Philosopher’s stone. Roy is sympathetic, of coursem but his discovery of the prodigy Fullmetal alchemist for the military definitely earns him some points in the eyes of the higher ups. Additionally, Ed is reporting to Mustang - he can find all about the Philosopher’s stone through Ed; he knows it is somehow connected to the military as he used an incomplete stone in Ishval. The information that Ed is seeking out is valuable to Mustang. Later, it will be Ed and Al who will tell him that the Fuhrer and his secretary are both Homunculi and that they have been causing wars purely because they have been after the stone this whole time.  

In the first half of the series, Roy is motivated by guilt over his actions in Ishval. He believed he could fix things by gaining power. But things change with the death of his dearest friend Maes Hughes. It’s at that point he begins to realise how deep the corruption in the Military goes. Hughes’ research into the Ishval war led to his death. Working to slowly reform the military from the inside is starting to look more and more like a hopeless dream when it’s hiding so much evil - such as the fifth laboratory and their special ops soldiers they turned into chimeras after they started a war. (The Ishval war, naturally.)

The Fuhrer’s genial demeanour had fooled many soldiers into maybe thinking he might be what he appears to be - a kind grandfatherly sort of man who cares about the military. It’s only a closer look that shows that he’d been constantly throwing the country into pointless wars in order to gather ingredients for the stone and to cause people to lose everything and become desperate enough to seek it out. (Mustang and his team talk about it in episode 44). It is at this point that they are growing aware that the Fuhrer who they have been serving is their true enemy.

In the above scene, Riza describes how Mustang can use his destructive flame alchemy to prevent a riot breaking out. Despite Mustang’s best efforts to be a soldier who can keep the peace and protect others though, he isn’t able to prevent Liore from turning into another Ishval. He wasn’t able to protect his best friend, Hughes. Ishvalans are still being persecuted by the military. He can’t even protect the Elrics from war.

That’s why he ultimately has to give up his dreams. He wanted to become the Fuhrer to fix the military and prevent all the unjust suffering and the deaths of innocent people but his plans of reforming it from the inside are too slow and they aren’t working. Maybe they’d never work if it’s been the Homunculi ultimately pulling the strings this whole time. Whatever the case, he decides he can no longer justify his position as the dutiful soldier. 

He decides instead to assassinate the Fuhrer. Yes, it’s about avenging Hughes but it’s also about justifying his own existence and doing what’s Right. Standing idly by as more wars are started would be selfish in his mind; even his dream to become the Fuhrer would have become selfish. 

He and Edward cross paths once more. Edward is on his way to fight the Homunculi because he cannot stand by either. His goal of fixing himself and his brother is now secondary to stopping evil. Likewise, Mustang’s new motivation is to stop the evil corruption that plagues the country at the source. 

It is only now that the two of them can come to an understanding. Right as both of them go their own separate ways to potentially face death. I like how in the above scene, Mustang initially thinks to give Ed a military salute but then changes his mind and offers him a handshake instead. A nice little symbol showing how they’re a bit closer and also how their not tied to the military anymore. (Ed goes for a handclap because he’s contrary and it lightens the mood.)

Roy’s loyal men are staging a coup for him, directly waging war against the corrupt military. Meanwhile, he and his closest companion Riza sneak over to the Fuhrer’s home alone. (I like how he’s not in his military uniform in this final fight.)

It is fitting that Roy has to face Pride at the end because he has had to let go of his pride, his dreams, to come here. Ed explicitly states that he’ll never be able to become Fuhrer if he goes through with this. His whole identity as a military man is being thrown away here and he is at peace with the thought. 

The Fuhrer’s last actions involve taking an innocent child down with even as the innocent boy leads to his own defeat. It is not a perfect, bloodless victory.

Interestingly enough, it is Archer who takes out one of Mustang’s eyes. Archer operates as a foil to Mustang, a man who was jealous of Mustang’s prestige from Ishval and wanted Liore to be ‘his’ ishval. Archer is cold but clever; most people can’t stand him but he nevertheless rose to power following Hughes’ death. Yeah, a good man like Hughes gets replaced by a power-hungry snake such as Archer. While Mustang is a military man, he does not enjoy and embrace it as Archer does.

Archer was described as the ideal soldier because he is a man who likes war. His most faithful man was Kimblee (who loves to cause chaos and suffering). It’s a pretty good symbol as to how much Mustang messed up in his relationship with Ed when Edward decides to willingly turn himself over to Archer’s command rather than stick with Roy (who was being controlling). By the end of course, Archer has been turned into a crazed half-machine and he’s killed by Riza, who was defending Roy. 

But in the end, when Roy has finally killed the Fuhrer and finally given up on the military that has so long defined him? When’s he severely injured?

Well, they’ve finally reversed the Ishvalan policy and the finally reforming State is actually helping them to rebuild.

Riza is closer to Roy now that they’re both out of uniform. She’s taking care of him and letting her hair down. They were always very close in the military but there was a wall between them. It seems to have dropped.

Things are still imperfect, Roy acknowledges as much. The world is beautiful for it’s imperfections, he says.

Roy? He’s happy now. 

----

And that concludes Roy’s arc in the series and some of my thoughts on his character. Like all characters in the show, he’s pretty defined by past tragedies. He’s one of the most complex characters I think, so I tried to keep this pretty focussed. I see him as the main character after Ed and Al so we see a lot of him in the series. His relationships between the various characters is pretty varied and I didn’t want to go into every one in depth but I hope this works as a good overview.