#I absolutely don't believe the council is evil or even acts in bad faith

[oldfashionedhand]

Council Posting 1

Maybe I’m just getting cynical in my old age, but as time goes on, I find I have less and less patience with the Citadel Council.

My issue isn’t even with the individual councillors per se (though they certainty have their own problems I want to address at some point), but the system of the Council itself.

You have unelected representatives of just 3 species making decisions which impact maybe 80% of known sentient species in the entire galaxy. Sure, they don’t have any “official” power, but its made pretty clear that in practise standing against the Council will turn you into a galactic pariah.

So you’re a Council member species. Maybe you’re barred from joining the executive committee but you still have some kind of say in the decisions, right? Think again, friend. The council might decide, if you’re lucky, to grant your species an embassy. This will give you the great privilege of putting an item on the meeting docket, after which you have no control over what decision the Council might come to or whether they’ll even bother to address it all. Lucky you.

OK, so being a member species isn’t great. How about you try and join the Council. You might think, going by the message the Council itself puts out, that you join by being patient and proving yourself worthy. 

Again, you would be very wrong.

If you want to join the Council, the best approach is by being too powerful and therefore too much of a threat to ignore. Do you think the Turians had to wait around 2 millennia like the Volus before joining. Haha, fuck no. Din Korlack might have a bit of a chip on his shoulder, but frankly I can fully understand his resentment (also I’m  still a little bitter they made him a traitor in ME3).

Same with Humanity, its pretty clear that a major part of the Alliance’s rapid ascension was how potentially dangerous they were. Which is why a lot of the politics in Mass Effect 1 is the Council working out how to co-opt humanity into their system, trying to find a balance between keeping them invested but also not granting them too much power.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think saving the Council provided a lot of goodwill and also reassurance, as it proved the Alliance would work to protect not dominate the Council and member species. But I don’t think the offer would have been made at all, if the Alliance were not already in a position of strength.

And don’t get me started on Avina. Just the way its been programmed to dodge any potential criticisms of the Council as even the most milquetoast enquiry is met with a regretful apology that such a question is outside the scope of its programming. Or the sheer unchecked arrogance of the statement about it being “unfair” to make the Volus a Council species as it would place an enormous burden on a “lesser species”.

My Shepard will still always save the Council regardless, as the solution definitely isn’t keeping the same broken system but just a bit worse, with  1 species, humanity, dominating rather than 3. However, I’d like to imagine there was some sweeping institutional reform once the Reaper War was over.

TL;DR: The Council needs to get off their high horse, take a good look at themselves, and reform to become an *actual* voices for the species of Citadel Space.

[yellowocaballero]

Thoughts on the Obi-Wan's mindset during the whole Boba thing? The end of the Fishhooks sequel especially felt so bad when he took Boba's agency away. Like he NEEDED to try and figure out what was happening, but oof.

S weObi-Wan was seriously just meant to be a narrative tool for an actual action scene and someone to fight Jango, but his thematic significance ended up ballooning. It also made me realize that the absolute best canon Obi-Wan is a supporting character, there to solve every problem in 2 minutes and be as annoying as possible.

As is obviously evident, Obi-Wan catches one whiff of the situation and over-commits HARD. He doesn't even know what's going on, he just knows that these kids who act and feel like babykin and Anakin need rescuing (Please ignore Bad Batch: Omega looks exactly like a slightly younger, blonde Boba from AOTC, because pre-pubescent boys and girls are a little indistinguishable). He misinterprets the situation due to his personal biases, convinced that he can use this to change the past, but what stopped him in the past stops him again. Like Jango, his past freezes him.

By the end of the story, Boba admired Obi-Wan in a strange way: Boba's practical life has no room or allowance for kindness, and Omega needed that practicality to protect her. But practicality without kindness results in cruel and cold people, and Boba's glad that Obi-Wan can provide the kindness and gentleness that Omega needs (that Boba & Kamino can't provide) if she wants to grow up into a strong, kind person. Boba's glad that Obi-Wan was there, even if he is technically his enemy.

Anyway, Obi-Wan never forgives himself for the rest of time. Knight Guilt Complex NEVER gets over this. He's failed again. He's failed Anakin, again. Obi-Wan believes so strongly and uncomplicatedly that the Jedi code is always good, that it always results in the right thing, that being a Jedi always helps - and this moment really damages his faith in that. He's never thought of kindness and strength as mutually exclusive, and this is his first mega failure.

Two years later, we and Obi-Wan see the full picture and exactly how bad the situation is. You can pretty safely assume that during the Kamino tour, Obi-Wan interprets the situation as him not having failed two kids, but two hundred thousand kids. The Jedi Order has fucked up. Canon Obi-Wan doesn't react nearly this strongly because he doesn't really get the reality of the situation, but Canon Obi-Wan has not had a clone niece for two years! He's overwhelmed, horrified, disgusted, and confused. He's also doubting Omega, who has kept silent about all of this for 'Sith Lord in the Senate' reasons. You see him fall back strongly on the Wise Jedi :) thing here, but you also see it visibly crack way more than it probably ever has. He's never forgiven himself for the thing with Boba, and he feels like he's seeing exactly how badly he's fucked up.

Or, more precisely, how evil Jango Fett is he fucking HATES the man he is the WORST Jedi don't hate they DETEST they LOATHE Do as I say not as I do Anakin. It's heavily implied that the entire Council know about Obi-Wan's weird-ass conspiracy theory about Jango Fett and clones and pepe silva boards and god, please just focus on your mission, and why do you keep disappearing once a week, where do you even go. Hilariously, it's double implied Jango is the same way. The homoeroticism thing is a joke they just genuinely detest each other and everything the other represents. Obi-Wan thinks Jango is a far worse person than he actually is and Jango thinks Obi-Wan is literally out here trying to steal his baby. Babies. No, baby. Babies but only when you want her. Just baby otherwise. Okay well FINE you want her so bad you can HAVE HER Jesus who CARES I know objectively she's probably exactly as sentient as Boba is and I've never really been comfortable with that so if she's gone and happy then everybody wins. Are you happy now Boba? Boba? Boba are you happy now? :c

From then on, because the continuation is much less complicated than Fishhooks lmfao, Obi-Wan's just a foil for Jango. I believe firmly that foils should be the opposite and the same. He's all heart and no hardness (except for when he is); he cares deeply about the clones and wants to see their human sides (completely unknowing how to actually interact with them); he cares a lot about Boba's happiness and safety (that gets a little forgotten in favor of complete sniping). And, obviously, at the end, he's come down to Jango's level. No other choice.

I think I read a quote by perhaps glucas somewhere that 'the minute the Jedi agreed to fight they lost'. Obi-Wan choosing to become just like every other adult who took advantage of Boba, abandoning his rigid Jedi integrity for practicality, is the moment when the Jedi agreed to fight and the moment when the Jedi lost. His Jedi values that he treasured so much, that formed such a huge core of who he was, were why he couldn't save Boba. He compromised those values for the greater good, as all Jedi will soon learn to do, and he is now just like everyone else.

But also like he downloads the secret Kamino files, gives them to Omega, she discovers the chip conspiracy, yay happy ending clones all free galaxy dance scene droid head bongos etc.

Whew that was long. Please imagine all of the adorable cool cousins Anakin and Padme adventures (Padme shows up earlier because Anakin discovers that Obi-Wan has sex, I wrote this out but it sucks so I haven't posted it), the extremely bedraggled Uncle Obi-Wan adventures, and Omega mining bitcoin adventures. Obi-Wan is 5x as terrified of Cody as he is in canon, etc, thanks for reading!

[honhonluigi]

I'm curious. You've said you dislike religion (which is valid as fuck and I have the same opinion), but if that's the case then why is Angie one of your favorite characters?

(I don't mean anything offensive or anything by this, by the way! If it makes you uncomfortable feel free to delete it.)

No, no, man, I totally get it. I’m sure it looks confusing from the outside. I can explain myself no problem. 

I guess it’s probably important to give a little explanation of why I hate religion so much, because it’ll make more sense then. I don’t hate religion because I’m an atheist. I am an atheist because of evidence and facts. Because I want to draw my conclusions based on fact and evidence. If I saw what I thought was undeniable proof of any god’s existence, I’d change my mind. Nah, I hate religion because I was raised in a cult. Not like a “my parents were heavily evangelical/strict” way. My parents were actual official members in an actual cult, listed as a cult by government officials (though they’re considering removing it from the list which would be a supremely bad idea.) You look up all the fucked up things that cults do? Those lists of “How To Tell If You’re In A Cult?” You’re describing this religion to a tee. It gets an A+ in every aspect of cultism. It wasn’t a cape-and-fire-chanting-in-the-woods cult. Those aren’t real. This was a Christian-based cult. (Most real-life cults are. Aside from like...Scientology maybe?) But they weren’t just Christians who took it seriously, like I said. It was a separate cult religion and the entire religion is officially cited as a cult. It was just Christianity-based. See if you can guess what it is. Based on the clues I gave I’d say there’s like...two choices. 

Anyway, that’s why I hate religion. Because I’ve seen and suffered first-hand all the damage that religion can cause innocent people. Not just in religious wars and acts of prejudice, but just in individual thought and life control aspects and so much fucking trauma. In torment and guilt and wasted years. In passed opportunities and ended relationships and sexual repression. Religion sucks. (In my opinion, all religions are fundamentally cults at their core. Or they would be, if the worshippers actually adhered strictly to the rules that they made. Which they usually don’t, hence why most mainstream religions aren’t thought of as cults.) I hate religion for the core principles of ‘sinning’, hell/heaven/paradise, good vs evil, thought-crime, religion-over-family, faith, not thinking for yourself, and believing whatever you’re told. That’s so damaging. But I don’t hate religion just because “lol it’s so stupid, I can’t believe people believe that shit!” or “religion is just too mainstream for me!” I can see why people would believe that in the old days, when things couldn’t be explained by science. I hate all religions, even the non-mainstream ones like wicca and shit. And I actually think studying ancient religions is really interesting. It’s an aspect of culture, and I can respect that. 

What does this have to do with my opinion of Angie? A lot, actually. I didn’t just go off on a religion rant for no reason. 

So, for starter’s, I don’t hate religion because I think it’s “too stupid to be believable” or that being religious is “too mainstream”, like I said. I don’t look down on religious people for being stupid, gullible, or trend-followers (more on that later.) That means that I can still respect Angie as a person, even if she’s religious. That’s important to know going forward. 

But the main reason is, I hate religion, not religious people. I hate the institution of religion, any religion. I hate the ideas that it carries and the practices it puts into play. But Angie is not any of those things. She’s just a person. She’s not responsible for any of the things that any religion, including hers, will do. She just believes in it. She, as a person, is not the thing that is doing all the damage I hate so much. Maybe her religion is, but she as an individual is not. 

Religious people are victims. I know. I was there. 10 years ago, I was an indoctrinated, god-obsessed homophobe, shivering in anticipation of a doomsday when god slaughtered billions of sinners. I won’t say I was different, and I always knew something was wrong about religion. No, I believed like everyone else. I was indoctrinated as much anybody. Religious people can’t help what they believe. They are the victims of peer pressure, cultural expectations, propaganda, lack of information/education, deliberate thought control, family pressures, and many other factors. Trust me when I say: they really can’t control what they believe. That’s why it’s pointless to argue with them. Their beliefs don’t come from logic. They are all victims. And I see everyone in my former cult as a victim, not an enemy. They really can’t help it. I can’t express that enough. 

So it’s not Angie’s fault that she’s so deeply ingrained in a religion. It’s not a character flaw for her, and it doesn’t make her evil or bad. In fact, it makes me like her more. I feel sorry for her. I sympathize with her. I was exactly where she was when I was 13. I know to everyone else, Angie’s religion is just a caricature or a joke. But to me, it makes her character deeper, more interesting, and sadder. 

Also, Angie’s not a cultist. Oh, this one makes me so mad. Everyone who says “Angie is in a cult!” or “Angie became a cult leader!” has absolutely no idea what an actual cult is like. The DR writers don’t know. The fans don’t know. It’s nothing like what Angie does. She never becomes a cult leader. Trust me. I would fucking know. 

When she becomes Student Council President or w/e, the Student Council has nothing to do with her religion. She’s doing that because she believes she knows what’s best to stop people from killing each other. She’s not doing it because “my religion is right and you all need to convert!” Otherwise, she’d have done that at the start. The rules she makes, like the night time curfew, have nothing to do with religion. (Also, her rules about flashback lights and night time curfews were completely correct and were good ideas, but go off I guess.) Yeah, she might say “Atua told me to do this!” But all hyper-religious people credit their creativity, ideas, or achievements to god. Whether or not those had anything to do with religion. She’s doing it because she has ideas that she thinks can help, not because she wants to push her religion. 

Case in point: in order to join her Student Council, you don’t have to believe in Atua. You don’t have to convert. K1-B0 and Himiko make that choice, but Tsumugi and Tenko don’t. And Angie doesn’t care. You’re allowed to be one of their group without sharing Angie’s religion. And once Angie’s Student Council is in power, then what? Fucking nothing. She doesn’t force anyone else to convert to her religion either. Even the people who didn’t join the student council. They’re allowed to not believe. She never approaches them being like “you have to join my religion now that I’m in power.” And she still treats Shuichi and Kaito as politely and friendly as always. (Not Maki and Kokichi, but for obvious reasons. She was right not to trust Maki, after what they learned about her.) Angie not once ever uses her power to push or pressure or threaten or force anyone to worship Atua with her. It doesn’t happen. She’s not a cult leader. If she was, it wouldn’t be optional. There would be grotesque amounts of threats, social isolation, pressure, etc even to those in her own student council if they didn’t believe. I won’t go into detail here, but trust me, it would be so fucking different if her little group actually followed the criteria for being a cult. Even when Tenko goes behind Angie’s back and escorts Shuichi into the school after dark, Angie doesn’t threaten her or oust her. She forgives her. She doesn’t say “no one is ever allowed to talk to you again” or “you have to do a horrible punishment” or “you have to die”. She just...forgives her. Yeah, she insults her a little, but she has a right to be angry after being lied to, betrayed, and used by Tenko. Still, she forgives her. Also: Tenko being in the school after dark and Angie being upset at that has nothing to do with Angie’s religion at all. The rule of not being out after dark doesn’t either. 

Also, her actions before her rise to power weren’t culty either. Angie never pushed her religion on anyone. I hate people like that. People who want to force others to believe the way they do. They’re the fucking worst and the scum of the earth. Some of the worst, most evil people alive, in my opinion. Angie’s not like that. She only talked to people about her religion if they asked her. As she explained to Tenko “I wasn’t brainwashing anyone. I was just answering questions.” Himiko, Gonta, and K1-B0 asked her questions because they were curious about her religion. She answered them. When they showed interest, she kept talking to them about it. They were the ones who said they wanted to convert. She never even asked them. And then when they wanted to, she welcomed them with open arms. They approached her. All she did was speak openly and honestly with them. She never forced anyone to convert to her religion. She never even forced anyone to listen to her talk about her religion. When Kaede and Shuichi got uncomfortable about it and changed the subject, she let it fucking go. She stopped talking about it. She never made the first move when talking to someone about Atua. They always approached her first. That’s definitely not culty. That’s just a religious person being honest when they’re asked questions, or getting excited when someone shows genuine interest in their beliefs. Of course she would be excited. These are her friends, and she truly believes that her religion is correct. She would be happy to see them safely in it. In her eyes, it’s the only place where they’re safe. Also, if she was truly a bad religious person, she would think that everyone who didn’t convert to her religion deserved to die. Mark of cults. But she doesn’t. She loves all her classmates, tries to keep them safe, and prays for them when they do die. Also, she believes that they get into Atua’s kingdom simply for being good people, even when they don’t believe in him. That’s definitely not culty. A cult is like “everyone who doesn’t worship like you is always evil, and they always deserve to die, and if they don’t convert then they are not worth saving. If you don’t believe in our religion you will definitely be killed at judgement day no matter what.”

But, most importantly: Angie’s religion is not the only aspect of her character. Angie’s religion actually has nothing to do with my opinion of her. I like her because she’s cute, bright, hopeful, happy, and persistent. She’s kind and selfless and she tries her best to keep everyone happy. She’s confident in herself, even if other people ridicule her. She’s got an interesting twisted side to her, with her composure in the face of death and her desire for blood sacrifices. But that doesn’t stop her from being kind and friendly to everyone. And she’s surprisingly smart, in her own ways. And appropriately ruthless when going after her goals, which is always something I admire. (I loved that she was willing to turn on Himiko when it seemed obvious that Himiko was the culprit, instead of obnoxiously ignoring facts like Tenko. Um, hello? If Himiko is the culprit, you all die? And if she’s the culprit, she’s trying to kill everyone, which kind of gives Angie the right to revoke her friendship from Himiko, yeah?) Angie’s character goes so much deeper than her religion. As far as her religion influencing my opinion of her, it...doesn’t. I pretty much just ignore it. I love her for who she is, not what she believes.