#I cannot emphasize enough that this is Equally bad as the previous situation if not actively worse

[chiropteracupola]

So come fill up your glasses of brandy and wine / Whatever it costs I will pay / So be easy and free, when you're drinking with me / I'm a man you don't meet every day...

[grison-in-space]

*points* this is why I'm being pretty quiet right now, because this situation is quite fucked up enough without trying to stick my dick in it, too.

I make one exception, which is to flip off the British--because the mess surrounding the Balfour Declaration, in which within three fucking years the British promised the region to both Arab-nationalist groups within Palestine and to Jews and also, secretly, declared its own control over the area while partitioning up the Ottoman Empire with France. At no point did it actually tell any of these parties what they were doing or communicate directly about any of the others. Essentially, what it did was lie to Arab nationalist groups about its intentions to hand the region over to them in exchange for WWI support, secretly claim to a peer and ally that it intended to retain control over the region, and then seize on the area as a great place to stick all those inconvenient Jews without having to, like, keep or aid any of them itself.

I cannot emphasize enough how incredibly at fault the British Empire is for huge swathes of this mess as it relates directly to Palestine. (I also cannot emphasize enough how much the British Empire lying to other groups in similar ways when it was convenient to themselves outright created helpful little imbroglios like the Rwandan genocide later on. And that was in a region where there weren't hugely long-standing conflicts or massive bad feelings between various parties before the British Empire swanned on in.)

It's not so much that that fixes things now, you understand. It's not as if England the UK has exactly covered itself in geopolitical glory in the subsequent century or anything. But while we're arguing about who is colonializing whom and why, I do think it is incredibly important to understand and recognize that there is in fact a single group who took this incredible powderkeg of a situation and made it unspeakably worse as a direct function of their colonialist interests and project, and I think we should also be keeping that in mind. Decolonialization doesn't mean that we all just immediately forget about previous colonial occupation and let the literal colonial powers get off without comment.

(Also to the influence of American Dominionist conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists making absolutely everything worse in perpetuity, because it suits their apocalyptic vision of heavenly rapture to see Jews entangled in perpetual war in the Middle East. I am not joking about this, and this group has also been directly inflaming tensions in the region for decades.)

You know how they say, in a chaotic, tense situation, look for the helpers to understand what to do? Well, I think it is fair to insist that anyone who wants to declare the obvious answer to Israel/Palestine relations also look for the harm sources closer to home and start interrogating what we intend to do about those, too. If the solution to Israel and Palestine is so easy and clear, surely resolving Dominionist theology and its direct impacts at home should be equally clear and obvious. Right? Right?

Conversation between me, and another high educated Jewish women whose opinions I respect

Her: What's missing here are the facts. If we stuck to the facts there wouldn't be so much intensity surrounding this issue. Me: But you and I are both highly educated Jewish women, and we can't even agree on the facts regarding the history of Palestine as a place name, ethnic identifier, and nation. If we can't even agree on those facts, how on earth can facts help anyone move forward?

There's the question. Not just for Jews, but for everyone involved in, or concerned with this conflict. How do we move forward if multiple sides of the room dispute the veracity of such basic statements as:

-Jews are a globally oppressed minority ethnic group, the hatred of which is deeply embedded in Western thought and rhetoric.

-The Naqba was a period of ethnic cleansing in which the government and military of the new State of Israel expelled Palestinian Arabs from their homes and property; a dispossession and a series of events which continue to traumatize and negatively impact the lives and livelihoods of Palestinians.

-The Holocaust was a traumatic event in the history of the Jewish people, the legacy of which is embedded in the psyches, world views, and collective trauma of the Jewish people, and invariably impacts how this group views global issues.

-Palestinian Arabs had a full developed sense of identity and statehood before the British Empire fucked off, and made their discomfort with increasing Jewish emigration clear to the British before the outbreak of the Second World War.

-Jews had nowhere to go before, during, or really, after the Holocaust; and the governments of many Arab States ethnically cleaned their own ancient Jewish communities in retribution for the creation of the State of Israel.

-The State of Israel does not exist because the Holocaust happened, or as an "apology" for said event.

THIS POST COMPRISES A SERIES OF RHETORICAL QUESTIONS MEANT TO MAKE US APPRECIATE THE DEPTHS OF THE DISCURSIVE PROBLEMS HERE; NOT A POST FOR "DISCOURSE" AND HATEFUL, AGGRESSIVE SHIT.

If you feel you have to do that, copy & paste into your own separate post.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Rhythm of War Review

PART 1

It feels a little separate from the rest of the book to me at the moment because I read it pre-release, but I think it did a good job setting up the rest of the plot. I greatly enjoyed Navani’s perspective and ideas throughout the book, and the first section established her much more firmly as a character than any of the previous books; her couple of chapters in Oathbringer were more focused on politics and her relationship with Dalinar, so it was great yo see much more of her scientific side.

When I first read Part 1 it felt very Kaladin-heavy, but after completing the book I see how it was necessary to establish his burnout in order to set up the rest of the plot. And Chapter 12 (A Way to Help), in addition to being our only chance in the book to see our trio together, did a great job setting up Kaladin’s later work with mentally ill people, both by establishing the need and showing what kind of help was needed. I was nonetheless quite frustrated by Kaladin reacting to Shallan’s DID with “that would be nice...”. She’s having serious problems, Kal! She’s your friend and could use support, not you regarding her issues as a neat way to take a holiday from one’s own brain! Kaladin’s very kind and caring with those he chooses to protect, as we see with Bridge 4 in TWOK and the mentally ill people in Chapter 25, but sometimes I think he’s not a very good friend. I know he was not in a good place, but in Oathbringer when they were in Shadesmar Shallan had just had a complete breakdown and she still went out of her way to emotionally support Kal, so it would be nice to see his friendships become a bit more two-way. (For similar reasons, I liked seeing the moments of Shallan-to-Adolin emotional support in Shadesmar in ROW, because a lot of their relationship in OB was her relying on him; it felt balanced in ROW as both supported each other.)

PART 2

I loved the Shadesmar arc! The emotional arcs for both main characters were very strong - I had been looking forward to seeing Adolin’s reaction to (in-universe) Oathbringer, and it did not disappoint; the conflict between genuinely loving Dalinar and being unable to forgive what he’d done was well-drawn. I was so pissed off at Dalinar in that last conversation! You burned his mom to death, you do not get to take the moral high ground and lecture him. And I do see a difference between killing innocents, as Taravangian does, and killing someone who’s effectively declared war on you and has a history of treason.

I also liked Adolin’s sense of being generally at sea with his purpose in the world. He’s been trained primarily as a warrior and general, and his combat skills have been made virtually obsolete by the Radiants. And at the same time, the reader can see what makes Adolin special, and it’s not combat skills - though those do give him a big heroic moment in a pinch - it’s his care and compassion for others. The way he interacts with Maya and slowly brings her life is absolutely beautiful. Chapter 35 was such a wonderful Shadolin moment (and starspren are amazing!); he really gets her and understands what she needs. Chapter 24 was sweet too, though super cheesy.

I spent the entire Shadesmar arc side-eying Veil and Radiant, especially with Veil’s takeover stunt at the start, but in the end they genuinely were supporting and helping Shallan. So in retrospect I do like scenes like the one with Veil trying to draw Shallan out by drawing Adolin badly.

Spoeking of drawing, I love the spren art, it’s some of the best art so far, and fascianting to see how they all look!

Kaladin finding non-violent ways to protect, culminating in pioneering Rosharan therapy - and Teft insisting on staying to support him - was everything I wanted for him. His arc could have just been that, and I’d have been perfectly happy. Chapter 25 (Devotary of Mercy) is still my favourite in the entire book.

Unfortunately, then Odium’s forces had to show up and SPOIL EVERYTHING. I’m rather appalled by how quickly Urithiru fell - the enemy forces were literally in the pillar room by the time anyone noticed them.

PART 3

Part 3 was a real slog for me, partly because it is a slog and partly because I hit it at the height of my sleep deptivation. (It’s really...not a good thing to be reading on zero sleep at the literal darkest-hour-before-dawn.) Kaladin’s arc in Urithiru is just so exhausting; he’s so clearly worn to the boneand everything feels so hopeless. Kaladin’s had bad times before - Bridge 4 in TWOK, for example - but then the reader could see progress even if Kaladin couldn’t. (Kaladin: I’m getting nowhere and failing at everything! Everyone else: Kaladin, you were literally just miraculously resurrected.) Here, though - well, I genuinely spent the whole book from Part 3 through to the climax thinking that they would lose Urithiru.

Navani’s arc, and Venli’s, I did enjoy.

The other section of Part 3, in Emul, just felt rather disjointed. It had some interesting moments, but it didn’t have a sense of cohesion or of where it was going. I was entertained by Dalinar’s musings on the merits of despositism and the need to free Queen Fen from having - horrors! - a parliament. (I wonder if the Fourth Ideal will be something like “I will recognize that it can sometimes be beneficial to have people oppose my decisions.”)

PART 4

Again, adored the Shadesmar arc. Really strong character arcs for both Adolin and Shallan, combined with excellent plots and a strong sense of momentum. I was pretty sure Maya would be crucial in the trial, but that didn’t make the moment any less powerful (though Sanders probably shouldn’t have tried quite as hard to replicate his “You. Cannot. Have. My. Pain.” moment from Oathbringer). I need to put together a proper post on the theme of choice in Oathbringer, because that moment - combined with Kaladin’s fourth ideal and the conflict with Lirin over the way he’s inspiring the resistance - really crystallized it for me. To treat a person’s choice and sacrifices as something done to them is to devalue their volition, their agency. Maya is put in the horrifying situation of being used as a prop and treated as evidence of a point that she is diametrically opposed to and turned into a weapon against someone she loves, and it’s enough to drive her to regain her voice and speak for herself. I am very curious to know what specifically led the spren to agree to the Recreance!

I did not remotely guess what Shallan’s secret was, even though in retrospect the Cryptic deadeye should have made it incredibly obvious. I think her fear that she’d lose Adolin if it came out was overblown - he already knows she killed both her parents, he’s not going to be fazed by “I was so distraught over having to kill my own mother in self-defence at age ten that I broke my Radiant oaths”. But obviously it’s not something Shalkan would be able to consider duspassionately. Her arc was rather terrifying once I realized that Formless was, well, basically her, but more specifically, Shallan’s idea of the monster that she was, and her breakdown was driving her to “accept who she was” as being that monster. I like Shallan and was never that into Veil - though she was fairly good in this book and went out well - so I’m not sad to see the back of her.

I haven’t managed to work through all the espionage/mole elements. Yes, Pattern used the box to talk to Wit, and Radiant killed Ialai so Shallan wouldn’t, but who’s Mraize’s spy close to Dalinar?

This arc ended too abruptly. I think Sanderson could easily have traded a Kaladin chapter in Part 3 for an extra chapter wrapping up events in Shadesmar; maybe one where Shallan first goes to see Testament.

I enjoyed the Urithiru arc in Part 4 as well. Switching to Bridge 4 points of view other than Kaladin was a good move - we already know he’s worn to ribbons, so we don’t need to be inside his head to see it. “The Dog and the Dragon” was amazing, and the most appropriate story ever for Kaladin. (I get how Wit’s schtick of telling incredibly topical stories and then saying “no, I don’t have a point, what point?” would be really aggravating in person.) It was nice to see him be gentle with Kaladin for a change, the way he is with Shallan - his two previous encounters with Kaladin read as rather baiting, which annoyed me.

Dabbid was - I don’t know quite how to say this, but his inclusion struck an amazing balance in this book. Navani’s arc is all about two amazingly smart people doing science and making incredible breakthroughs, and that is sincerely valued and given importance by the narrative, and then you get chapters like Dabbid’s and one of Taravangian’s emphasizing that a person’s value and ability to contribute is not determined by their intelligence.

Navani’s arc continued to be excellent. All of her research, and the way the story took you through the process, and her complex relationship with Raboniel, was great.

I loved Venli’s character development, and growing willingness to take risks for the sake of others. To me, her arc parallels Dalinar’s in the last book in some ways. If we can love the story of a bloodthirsty conqueror growing to become a good person, why can’t we equally love the story of a coward coming to become a good person? There seems to be a tendency to be more drawn to strength, even in its most terrible forms, than to weakness. To me, Venli’s confession to Rlain and acceptance of his disgust at her was one of the book’s great moments. (And I can’t understand people saying her arc took up two much space. She had 5 chapters in Part 3, and 4 in Part 4. That’s not very many! I’ll grant that the flasbacks packed less punch than some earlier flashback sequences because we already knew the main events - Brandon acknowledged that even before the book came out - but I still liked them well enough, and Venli’s present-day arc was excellent.)

Anyway, the amount of space I’ve spent on this section relative to Part 3 is another strong inducation of the differences in how I feel about them!

PART 5

I should probably start this section with a discussion of Moash. I’ll try to keep it summarized. here - I could, and may, write a short essay on his development through The Stormlight Archive. The first thing that jumps out about Moash’s arc in this book is his reaction to Renarin’s vision in Part 1. I think that vision is showing Moash who he could still be, in a similar way to Shallan’s inspirational drawings of people - both use the Surge of Illumination. So it’s not that Moash is irredeemable; Renarin is specifucally holding out to him the possibility of redemption.

And Moash’s reaction is to run away in terror. Because he desperately wants his decision to be irrevocable. He desperately wants there to only be one possible path forward for him. Because if there are alternative paths, it means he can choose them, and that would mean facing guilt, facing the fact that his past choices were wrong, and his current choices are wrong. And that is exactly what Moash sought to avoid by giving up his pain and sense of guilt to Odium.

Moash is, nonetheless, very much Moash and not Vyre, as evidenced by his continuing obsession with Kaladin. As with his above need to not be wrong, here he needs to feel that he’s right, and the only way he can feel that he’s right is if Kaladin - whom he still deeply admires - makes the same decision as him, and if Moash can convince himself that he’s doing Kaladin a favour in driving him to that point. It’s ironic that he’s given up almost all feeling abd become almost enturely detached, but his worst actions are driven by his attitude towards the one person in the world who he still does have very strong feelings about. By the end of the book, he’s comprehensively broken, to the point that even when his ability to feel is restored he’s unable to even feel genuine remose over the cold-blooded murder of a friend. I don’t know where he’ll go from here - it would be ironic if he was only ever really appealing to Rayse-Odium, and Taravangian-Odium found Moash too much of a flat villain for his purposes and cast him off.

As the plot climaxes go, I thought the ones for Navani and Venli were excellent and very satisfying. I enjoyed Kaladin’s as well and found it cathartic, but it a was moment we all knew had to come, so it didn’t have quite the kick of some of Kaladin’s other big moments. I did love his reconciliation with Lirin. One of the themes of the book was finding common ground despite deeply felt disagreements - with Navani and Raboniel, with Navani and the Sibling, and with humans and singers/Fused more generally - and Kaladin and Lirin’s reconciliation fit well with that. I am far more favourable to Lirin than most people - if you’ve lived as a pacifist in storming Alethkar, which values the lives of its people slightly more than it does crem, you’re going to have been right a solid 95% of the time, where everyone else was wrong. I can make allowances for the other five percent, especially when Lirin’s life lesson from the last five or so years has been “resisting oppression and standing up for what you believe in will destroy everyone you love”.

And on the topic of finding common ground, Leshwi’s reaction to the revelation that Venli was a Radiant was one of the single most beautiful moments of the book, and one of my absolute favourites. It’s gorgeous and moving, and at the same time rather tragic, because - what might have bern different if Venli had revealed herself to Leshwi at the start of the book? How much of the conflict could have been avoided. Singers don’t appear to attract spren as strongly as humans do, which makes Leshwi drawing joyspren particularly powerful. And then the bittersweet note from “My soul is too long owned by someone else”. (Come to think of it, this is another inverted paralell to Moash. This is someone realizing “I was wrong about everything and I’m so glad about that because it means I have a chance to be someone better than I was.”) Oh my goodness, I would love a Leshwi chapter in a later book, just to check in on her and see how she’s doing in her new life with the Singers.

I also loved the climax of Navani’s arc, and was so relieved, because up until that very moment I wasn’t sure if the Sibling would survuve uncorrupted. I know that some people weren’t pleased because the Sibling didn’t even like her, but to me that became a core part of the story, like I said above - people who deeply disagree finding common ground and common cause. That is a key element of being a Bondsmith - the process of bringing people together in spite of their differences - and something that fits Navani so well given the rapport she found with Raboniel. (Though I was conflicted about the latter. On the one hand, she made amazing discoveries that enabled her to save Urithiru. One the other hand, she...kind of collaborated with the enemy and gave them terrible weapons out of intellectual curiosity and a desire to prove herself?) I will grant that it makes the series, and the characters with the most crucial importance to Roshar, rather Kholin-heavy.

For Taravodium, all I can say is - YIPES. I have no idea how to process the implications of that, but I feel like it will be bad. Really really bad. (Taravangian is probably my least favourite character in the entire Stormlight Archive. The attitude of “I am so brave and selfless for doing evil things and look at how wonderful I am for sacrificing my own morality for the benefit of all, you petty selfish people wanting to be good could never make such a grand sacrifice” drives me absolutely nuts. It’s a complete inversion and twisting of morality, and intensely arrogant.)

Dalinar’s encounter with Ishar was fascinating, and I’m very curious to see where this goes. The spren experiments were deeply creepy! And the way Radiant Oaths can temporarily restore a Herald’s sanity was fascinating - I’m very eager to see where this goes in the next book. I suspect that Dalinar may have made a very serious mistake with regards to this trial my combat, and I have no idea how/if they’re going to fit Szeth’s whole arc into the ten days before the duel. I’ve been eagerly anticipating Szeth’s arc ever since The Way of Kings!

[potteresque-ire]

(I wrote this as a response to another post. It got long, potentially upsetting, so I decided to move it here.)

(TW: Criticism of Draco Malfoy under the cut.)

I think the best analogy I can come up with for Slytherins in an Americanized Hogwarts is if they are the children of the tech giants (Hello Draco Bezos) and multi-company conglomerates, the top-earning Wall Street hedge fund managers, the property moguls like the Trumps and the Bloombergs, and the legacy politicians like the Bushes and the Kennedys. This would be a fairer comparison to the social-economic power of Slytherin families in the books because conservatives in the USA mostly do not come from privileged homes. And I suspect even this American analogue may pale to its UK counterpart, for it lacks the centuries of practice ("tradition”) as a convenient excuse for continuing its underlying bigotry.

Draco Bezos or Draco Trump or Draco Bush has as little choice as being of these surnames as Draco Malfoy. The members of the Americanized Slytherin house, likewise, don’t deserve to be seen as all evil, and maybe — and very likely — they’re not. But consider what Americanized Ron would think about the Slytherins as a group, bearing in mind that the books are written in the POV of Harry, a child himself and Ron’s fierce friend, if…

(Under the cut, for I’m VERY talkative today ...)

- If this Americanized Draco still buys his way into the Quidditch team with a Nimbus 2001. The obvious bribery aside, everyone in this Slytherin team can readily afford the same thing, and likely already has, at least, a Nimbus 2000 in possession.

- If Americanized Lucius also interferes with school policy with connections to Washington; he rubs shoulders with Secretary of Education Umbridge, who he got to know back when they were lobbying together in the capital.

- If the execution weapon of choice for Buckbeak is a golf club, a gift from the President Goyle of MACUSA. Walden McNair, former Slytherin, has just received a medal of honour for being able to wield it with style. This is a tale retold by a very bitter Theodore Nott, whose father owns the golf course resort where President Goyle plays but Nott Sr. only gets to keep the hamburger wraps of the President’s lunch. The other regular attendee of these lunches is the landowner of the entire Hogsmeade, who happens to be Gregory Goyle’s father.

And speaking of Hogsmeade...

- If Goyle Inc. hikes the rent of the town after every visit by Hogwarts students. Prices of items sold in Hogsmeade shops hike accordingly to deflect the cost. The Weasleys haven’t been able to afford anything there for years.

Goyle Inc. has also been looking to invest in Ottery St Catchpole, re-develop the area into one with ... farmer’s market. Lots and lots of farmer’s markets where a loaf of bread costs $10.00 apiece.

- If American Hogwarts is also free but God knows for how long. Its profits from the previous years — sorry, not profit, but endowment as should be referred to for non-profit organisations — has been channelled into the stock market and the stock market hasn’t been doing so well. Mrs Zabini, the manager of the fund, still gets her commission even if Hogwarts goes bankrupt. In fact, a volatile market with high trading volumes is a godsend for her income, and her yearly bonus is large enough to run Hogwarts for a year. She’s very generous, however, and donates 1% of it to the school, which gets her name engraved on the Gryffindor-Zabini Tower.

Meanwhile, if the Weasleys go home every summer not knowing if they can return to the same tower on September 1st.

- If Skelegro and other potions in the infirmary are rationed due to high cost and every time a Weasley find themselves injured in a Quidditch match, the Malfoys, father or son or both, would remark on the Weasleys having more children than they can afford, and recommend the school board that these potions should be rationed by surname as well. The Slytherins have no such concerns of course; the Parkinsons are heads of an international potion conglomerate and they can always import extra potions from Brazil, which are sold at a small fraction of the cost they sold to Hogwarts (yes, they have the licence and patent to produce the Skelegro. Why did you ask?).

…

Perhaps -- assuming my understanding of UK’s class system isn’t too off the mark -- these if’s can provide a sense of Slytherin’s privilege in canon to the American audience, and related to this, how Draco’s prejudice towards Ron cannot be put on the same moral scale from Ron’s prejudice against Draco. I’d also like to emphasize this: I haven’t touched at all, on this list, on Voldemort’s reign of terror. I haven’t touched, at all, on the fact that Voldemort’s war had been spearheaded by the parents of many current Slytherin students, and this war had only been suspended -- not ended -- for just short of a decade when the Class of Harry Potter entered Hogwarts. The wounds were still fresh. Arthur and Molly could’ve easily suffered similar fates as the Potters and the Longbottom’s. The bigotry of the Slytherins, and of the Malfoys, wasn’t merely a suspected thing in the canon years, like how we feel about a celebrity who’s made a questionable tweet. Not only was their bigotry a fact in the canon years, but it was also a real, ongoing threat that, if permitted to run its course, could and would ruin the lives of the Weasleys.

Ron seeing the Slytherins as a threat arguably served the dual function of keeping him safe -- perhaps not at the moment, but in the future. Draco, on the other hand, had nothing to fear about Ron and above all, the socioeconomic class that the Weasleys represented.

They never stood on equal grounds.

And here’s the thing I don’t understand. Or I think I understand it, having seen this Ron-is-as-bad-as-Draco-and-Slytherins-are-victims-of Dumbledore’s-prejudice debate in various forms over the years — this isn’t new or controversial, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this has become the dominant view within the ship — and I’m not sure I can get myself to face what I’ve understood, because what this is is worrisome for me.

Please hear me out.

The Drarry fandom on Tumblr has, in my observation, always taken a very strong, hardline stance against prejudice. The post that says something along the line of 10 people who sits with a Nazi makes a table of 11 Nazis get numerous likes and reblogs. And yet in this situation, we have a boy, Ron, who is directly affected by the prejudice, who’s familiar with the connections between his Slytherin classmates and those who have not only worked to make their brand of bigotry the law but helped murder those who do not agree, and his distaste for these oppressors as a group is somehow seen as equal as his likely future oppressors’ disgust at his presence.

The reason given is inevitably a variation of this: Draco was a child. He was parroting his parent’s beliefs. He was too young to be responsible for his words, or his actions. He was a victim.

I’ve not seen this defence offered, not even once within the Drarry circle, for a real-life bully. Tumblr’s user base is young, and many have a history of being bullied due to their race, gender, sexuality, disability, socioeconomic class. After a bit of subtraction (Young Age - Bullying History in Years), I’d take that many of these RL events happened when the victim and the perpetrator were about the age of Ron and Draco in canon. And yet, not once have I seen a shipper on my dash suggest the bully was a victim, or that they weren’t at fault because they were only parroting the prejudice of their conservative families, their schools, their religion etc. That maybe they didn’t mean what they were saying or doing.

This is a (very) good thing. But it also makes me wonder: defenders of Draco and the Slytherins do know, deep down, that the excuse they’ve offered Draco isn’t nearly good enough to exempt him from his behaviour.

Draco might not have understood the greater political ramifications of his bullying, but he knew he was hurting Ron. Bullying cannot a be mindless act; it cannot be a passive reflection of one’s lessons from school or family for It’s a pre-meditated, targeted behaviour, and a good bully like Draco — he came up with a bullying chant that the whole school knew in the end — tailors his acts to serve a specific purpose of hurting the victim. Draco might not have known that calling Hermione a Mudblood could devalue her life enough to make it ripe for elimination when Voldemort came to power, but he knew perfectly well that the term was derogatory. This is especially true if one agrees with the common headcanon that Draco was second only to Hermione in marks in school, that he was no Crabbe or Goyle and he was intelligent.

Our ship celebrates Draco’s sharp tongue, but that tongue was used exclusively to ridicule, to bully in canon -- it’s fandom that has given it a better / higher / romantic purpose. His father’s tongue spoke the language of bigotry to the ears of the Ministry; this was the Malfoy’s weapon of choice and Draco was forging his own in the books. His bullying ways in canon was written with humour, with Weasley is Our King being the epitome of the laughs. I don’t believe it was JKR’s intention for her readers to fall in love with Draco via his bullying style, however. The HP world was built as a mirror of our own (rather than as a manual of what an ideal world should be, as many in fandom has seemed to assume), and Weasley is Our King showcased how easily bigotry can creep into our day-to-day language when it’s masqueraded as a joke (Even Luna was singing it at some point):

Oh, relax! It’s perfectly fine for everyone to know the Weasleys were born in a bin, into poverty! Funny, isn’t it? HAHAHAHA!

Imagine seeing this kind of behaviour on Tumblr. Imagine trying to defend this kind of behaviour on Tumblr.

I have faith that most of my Drarry friends cannot, will not do the latter.

So please, please reconsider what you’re really saying when you call Draco the victim, the vulnerable one, when you insist that he and the Slytherins had been wronged. I don’t mean to start another debate and I don’t plan to engage in one; this isn’t a call-out post either, I enjoy reading all the opinions expressed and I understand many of the sentiments I’m questioning comes from a place of love. I just hope that everyone who’s reading (thank you) can sit back, think a little. Imagine for a moment that table with the Nazis. Even if, at the table, there’re actually 10 Nazis and 1 who isn’t, who is more vulnerable? The non-Nazi sitting with the Nazis? Or the person who refuses to sit at the table and makes a bad judgement call on the 11th sitter by assuming they are a Nazi as well? Who is more the victim, or more likely to become one? The 11th sitter who’s wrongly labelled? Or the standing person who is being eyed by the 10 Nazis with disgust, the 10 Nazis who already have a family history of hunting down the standing person’s family and friends?

Or does the answer -- and this is the understanding I’ve got but haven’t dared to face -- does the answer depend on if he character in question had white-blond hair that glinted so beautifully in the sun? Is that the reason why Draco Malfoy, bigot, bully, has been given this special treatment, this carte blanche in the sense that he’ll always remain on our good side, be exempt from our moral judgement regardless of what he did, because his physical description doesn’t contain a single hint of melanin?

[worldismyne]

Analysis: Warrior's of Hope (Peds Psych 101)

SPOILER WARNING FOR DANGANRONPA ULTRA DESPAIR GIRLS

This post will look at the Warriors of Hope as a group. Now since we are talking about the Warriors of Hope, we will be discussing child abuse. So if at any time you feel things are getting to you or need to decompress after the essay, feel free to click this link.

What is a Paragon?

To start, we will be focusing on the paragon trope, defined by Overly Sarcastic Productions as a hero that is both righteous and charismatic; your "do no wrong" hero, if you will. They do what is right all the time because of their personal beliefs. Protected by a heavy coat of plot armor, they gather a small group of companions who learn through their example to be better heroes; and together they overcome evil and spread peace throughout the land. That’s the basic formula of a paragon hero, if you want or need  a more in-depth explanation, I would strongly suggest watching OSP’s video.

In the first game, we follow Naegi, your textbook paragon hero up against Junko Enoshima, the queen of charisma. I feel it important to mention that Junko, while almost a paragon in the way she gathers her followers, is missing the key ingredient of knowing she’s doing is right, because she admits to the opposite. She’s doing the wrong thing on purpose to see what will happen and how far she can take it.

While in the second game you look at Hinata (our paragon hero) up against Komaeda; someone who believes wholeheartedly they are right, but lacks the charisma to rally allies in-universe. You can love Komaeda all you want, but no one during the game's central plotline seems to particularly like him or want to follow him. Which makes Junko and Komaeda foils of each other in a way, each consisting one half of the paragon trope.

So what does this have to do with Another Episode? Simple, the dynamic is flipped. The Warriors of Hope are each paragon’s in their own right, varying on the scale of righteous and charismatic. But what makes them villains is that what they believe to be right, is in fact horrendously wrong. Their righteousness and charisma become their greatest flaw when pointed at the wrong enemy. It showcases how this type of character can be equally dangerous on the “wrong side”. We see this especially in Nagisa, who has openly convinced himself the ends justify the means. A place where children can be safe is the top priority, nothing can stand in the way of this ideal, not even the lives of other humans.

Additionally the real heroes of this tale are two halves of the paragon hero, like Junko and Komaeda. We have Fukawa; hideously unliked by everyone around her but righteous to a fault, and Komaru; an ordinary girl who appeals to everyone, yet has no strong beliefs outside of her need to feel safe. We are reminded throughout the game over and over again that the reason Komaru was picked as the heroine was not because she wanted to help others, but because as an ordinary girl. And this isn't portrayed as a bad thing. When teamed together, Fukawa and Komaru formed a paragon duo strong enough to overcome the obstacles before them. The game flat out states they are meant to work together, in order to make up for each others shortcomings.

So it is here we see the typical dichotomy of Danganronpa flipped in Another Episode. In which two character types that were typically used for villains are up against a group of paragons set on a path of destruction. Bringing to question, if someone like Naegi were to be sent on the wrong path, could they be redeemed and change direction?

And the answer the game gave us… was no.

At both the end of the game, and the end of the anime we are left at a standstill where neither side will move. No outside force can change how a paragon thinks other than the paragon themself. Sure outside circumstances may kick-start introspection, but they can not change the way this type of character progresses by force. Not to say that change is impossible; but that journey would take more time then both the anime and game could allow, especially if we were to cover all five characters. But further discussion on the matter should be left on a character, by character basis.

Age and Developmental Stages (Time to Get Scientific)

As a BSN with a particular interest in pediatrics and psychology, a great deal of my analysis’ will refer back to my classes. Writing characters under the age of eighteen can be really difficult for writers, especially if they are not in constant contact with at least one individual from the age group they are trying to portray. Often times in media, we find child characters to be annoying, grating, and unrealistic; because on an instinctual level, we understand that's not how children that age typically act. You won't see an eight year old acting like a teenager, or six year olds throwing tantrums.

This is especially important, because children are not bound to the same rules as adults when it comes to understanding the world around them

According to Kotoko's mother, Kotoko was still 10 years old while she was alive. And while we can't determine when exactly her murder took place, we can say it happened shortly after the despair incident but before Junko was locked in the school.  Since the children still refer to themselves as Super Elementary School Levels, they can be no older than 13 based on the Japanese school system making them range anywhere from 10-13. So what does this tell us about how they should think?

Erikson’s theory of child development indicates they are just now gaining their own sense of identity outside of the roles they had been assigned. There is pressure to look to the future and what they want to be when they grow up. If they don't see a place for themselves in society or dislike the role they've been forced into, they will be more likely to rebel and cave to peer pressure. We see this especially with Nagisa who struggles between his role as the new leader verses his previous role as the dutiful son. If they are on the younger side, their sense of self worth relies heavily on the praise of their peers and mentors, seeking approval of their accomplishments. They define themselves through peers and test values/belief systems against society.

Above all else is an inherent inability to understand abstract concepts, or ideas that extend beyond where they are and what they know. Simply put, they cannot understand why adults are bad or that someone may have an ulterior motive. They know that their parents were bad, so all adults must be bad. This idea is reaffirmed when their peers share the same conclusion.

Everything is black and white, good or bad, right or wrong. They are just beginning to understand that an idea, such as freedom, means something different to everyone. Until they fully comprehend this, they are unable to fully empathize with individuals that don't share their viewpoint. When it comes to things that are not physical like love, empathy, morality, justice; they simply can’t understand it the way adults do.

In their mind, their view is right because they are good, anyone who disagrees must be wrong and therefore bad. This is not a moral thing, it’s how they cognitively process the world.

This is in no way saying their actions were justified. Simply, that they were just beginning to understand that there are things outside of what we see/say/do. The idea that someone can be both good and bad, nice yet dishonest; was not something they knew before Monaka betrayed them.

Coping Mechanisms in Children

When it comes to abusive situations, a huge emphasis is placed on power and control. Children in these situations will do anything to seek the control they do not have. This can include laying low, people pleasing, hurting themselves or others, aiming for over-achievement or perfectionism. It's not entirely uncommon to see children using multiple coping mechanisms at once, jumping from one to another until they regain a sense of safety and stability.

In times of stress, children will exercise their ability to control their perception of what happened. This can include denying the effects of trauma (Masaru),  detaching their emotions from what happened (Kotoko) and failure to see that something can be positive and negative at the same time.

Children may also try to change or justify their situation. They can try to rationalize, or explain why something bad happened to them, even if the explanation is not grounded in reality (Jataro). Or they may try to please/appease those who hurt them by seeking approval (Nagisa).

I cannot emphasize enough the importance power and control has over children in these situations. Power is safety, exercising that power is a reminder of that safety.

Building the Children's Paradise has less to do with recreating Lord of the Flies, and more to do with creating a place where they have control over everything in their environment (rules, peers, and who is allowed close to them). Anything that threatens their position of power is an immediate and personal threat to their own sense of safety. For example, the peers they consider friends are brainwashed into doing exactly what they say. The only adult allowed near them acts as a slave to be manipulated and mistreated.

The Influence of Role Models and the Importance of Subjective Information

We know very little about their parents from a omnipotent view. With the exception of one letter from each parent, all information comes from their victims. However, there is still much we can determine about them, in how the children themselves behave.

According to the "Identification" theory; a child's behavior patterns, beliefs, and values are greatly influenced by their parents. And not because it was something that was taught, but it was something they saw routinely growing up and adopted themselves. While this does not eliminate their ability to make their own choices, a great deal is to be said about learning through example. Self destructive behaviors like substance abuse, low self-esteem, and violent behaviors are often traits learned by watching their parents. We know in great detail about what the parents did to their children, but very little about what their parents did to themselves or peers.

Likewise, the kids have an opposite view of Junko which is equally as biased and inaccurate. According to the Warriors of Hope Junko is sweet, caring, and blameless. As someone who met one of their most neglected needs, she represented a sense of security and love they never had. But we all know Junko's true nature and how manipulative she can truly be. The children actively deny any accusation against her because she became, essentially, their surrogate parent. It's not clear how involved she was with them, but we are given a sense that at face value, she took care of them the way a big sister ought to. Once again, an example of this black and white thinking still held by the children, it also gives us insight on the validity of their information.

Questions like "Why does Junko want to destroy the world?", "Why is my dad an alcoholic" or "Where’s the rest of my family?" may not have occurred to the kids as important, and certainly were not included in the original narrative. With no intent to excuse the abusive behaviors, it's important to keep in mind we are given a very narrow and subjective view of their home lives that purposefully excludes any positive redeeming aspects. This is all by Junko's design; as a way to keep them in a traumatized, despair-induced state that would facilitate the killing of adults.

We know this, because several rules of the Children's Paradise Commandments expressly forbid remembering the past and emulating the behaviors exhibited by their parents (including Nagisa trying act as a competent leader). Any positive influences their parents (or any other adults) had are actively being repressed to perpetuate the massacre of Towa City.

Cultural Considerations

If you're reading this, there is a high probability that you live someplace other than Japan. Your views on everything are influenced by the culture you grew up in, and just because we can relate to other cultures, doesn't mean that we completely understand them and the issues their country faces on a daily basis. The best we can do is look at the window they provide us.

In Japan mental illness is a taboo topic to discuss publicly. It's seen as something to be ashamed of or suffer in dignified silence to protect the family's reputation. Equally taboo is the discussion of child abuse, with the Japanese government only starting to track of cases in 1990. 50% of all sexual abuse cases go unreported because of Japan's cultural stance on upholding strong moral values closes off the discussion, in a “it could never happen here” sort of way.

Foster homes in Tokyo are packed to capacity with kids that were taken from their abusive environments with nowhere to go. Not because people don't care, but because culturally, the discussion of abuse and having an adopted child are not embraced the same way as in other cultures.

In fact, both Kotoko and Nagisa point out that the surrounding adults wouldn't help them. It's not entirely unthinkable, given Japan's history, that they had tried to reach out for help; only to be let down by a system that was still adapting to discussing the topic. The revolution of reporting and advocating for children's rights is still a new and growing practice in Japan.

When Danganronpa Another Episode released in Japan, the number of child abuse cases were the highest ever, surpassing 70,000 reported cases for the first time and has been rising since they first started reporting cases. This isn't to say people were abusing their children more over the last few decades, but that people's stance on reporting abuse has drastically changed and continues to improve. Games like Another Episode not only champion the cause of child advocacys among newer generations, but spreads it to a wider audience, including people who will form and change the governmental and social aspects of Japan's culture in the future. Games like Another Episode provide an important platform to discuss societal issues that have for years been ignored because talking about them was 'uncomfortable.' To unironically quote G.I. Joe. "Knowing is half the battle."

Abuse in DR

The topic of child abuse is not a new one to the DR universe. In fact several characters share similar childhoods and have spoken quite openly about them.

(Masaru: Oowada, Kazuichi)

(Jataro/Monaka: Fukawa, Mikan)

(Kotoko: Sayaka, Hiyoko, Akane)

(Nagisa: Togami, Ishimaru)

What separates the Warriors of Hope from the other characters, is their age and proximity to these negative events growing up. We closer see the impact of what these things to do to their personality and worldview because they're still children. It's all the more heartbreaking because we understand, while dramatized, it is something very real and in some cases, relatable. Seeing their stories play out, makes us uncomfortable, because we know that there are children out there that experience similar pain and there is very little we can do about it at the very moment we are reminded these things exist.

However, it is important to acknowledge the things about society that upset us, as it is a crucial step in orchestrating change.

I'd like to end by highlighting charities and organizations working to fight child abuse in my own country. If you do not live in the United States I would highly recommend finding reputable charities in your area that are working to help, if you are interested in volunteering or donating to the cause.

Thank you so much for reading this crash course through child psychology and I look forward to seeing you in the next analysis.

http://www.ylc.org/

https://promisehouse.org/

https://lnfy.org/

[prorevenge]

Buddy, You Picked the Wrong Person to Harass

The year was 2014 (or maybe 2013? who gives a shit?), and I was a freshman in high school. On a general basis it sucked. I mean, it was an American public high school with literally thousands of kids, it's a given that it's gonna blow some major balls. One thing in particular that made it extra sucky though was gym class. Specifically, this one guy in gym class.

This dude's name was Jack A. McGee, the 'A' of course being short for 'Ass'. As the name would imply, he was a jackass.

At first, it was pretty standard "high school guy in gym class"-level of obnoxious prick. You know the type: overly loud, unreasonably aggressive during games, bossy, tossing the collective brain cell back and forth between his two equally ape-like buddies. The usual.

I don't know when, exactly, it happened, but he developed a sort of... eye for me, after the first couple of weeks or so. He started asking me bizarre questions that I now believe may have been some sort of innuendo, sitting uncomfortably close to me, resting his hand on my gym shoe- general creepy behavior.

He once blocked a doorway with his body (this dude was massive), forcing me to literally squeeze my way through and crawl over him. He then tried to grab me and pin me to him once I was almost through, but I'm very good at dodging physical contact whenever possible, and dipped on him before his giant gorilla arm could catch me. I still shudder thinking about it. I cannot emphasize enough how terrible this dude smelled.

But the true breaking point came during the peak cruelty of this school mandated sadism: gym swim.

Before anyone asks, let it be known that yes, I did try to tell someone about this. I told my gym teacher first semester, really early on, that Jack was making me incredibly uncomfortable. The gym teacher waved it off, saying he was "just playing around" and that "it's probably because he likes you". His suggestion was basically to just put up with it and wait it out, because he was sure Jack would lose interest soon anyways.

Spoiler alert: he didn't

Second semester rolls around, and the four week period of gym swim descends upon us like the bloated carcass of a catapulted whale, crushing us beneath its wet, foul smelling body. 40 some odd adolescents forced into a cold, overly chlorinated pool for 50+ minutes, adorned in swimsuits determined to crawl up into our assholes like Antman himself.

It was hell on earth, basically.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I am autistic, so the echoing sounds, reflected fluorescent lights, pungent odors, slimy floors, and assorted BS made the situation even worse for me. I wasn't officially diagnosed yet, so my complaints were written off as me being whiny, and I was told to shut up and deal with it. So I did. I think I had more meltdowns in that four week span than I've had in the past two years combined, but whatever.

On top of the sensory overload, there was Jack.

I think something about being allowed to go shirtless and stare at the nearly bare asses of girls for an entire period emboldened him, because Jack promptly lost whatever semblance of restrain he'd had until then.

He made frequent attempts to grab me, trying to hold me against his bare skin, which was disgusting, and I spent most of the class trying to evade him. The swimsuit I was forced to wear fit a little awkwardly around my chest, which he delighted in pointing out to his buddies, staring unabashedly at my breasts. He managed to sneak up behind me and snap the strap of my swimsuit, even trying to pull it down off my shoulder, but I jerked away fast enough to prevent that. I was furious at this point, but I'm like, 5'2", maybe, whereas he was easily over 6'5", probably 300+ pounds, and I'm not stupid.

While all of this was happening, my new gym teacher, (they switched every semester), was busy trying to keep a couple of the other guys from drowning each other. She was one adult forced to watch over 40 rowdy ass kids in a swimming pool; she was a bit preoccupied.

The final straw came one Wednesday afternoon, the event that finally pushed me off the edge of the rationality I'd been clinging to and sent me plummeting into full on bloodthirst.

There I was, paddling around, minding my own business, when Jack and his two goons manage to corner me. I'm immediately suspicious, hackles raised, as they ask me fairly banal questions about how the pool is today and the like, sniggering the whole time. I give short, terse answers, trying to see if I could maybe slip past them. I spot an opening and bolt for it, but Jack was apparently expecting this.

As I swim through the narrow gap between him and one of his friends, he stretches his arm out, and actually manages to slip his hand under my suit to grab my breast. I froze for a moment, the delighted giggling of him and his friends echoing in my ears as if from a thousand miles away.

The next thing I knew, I was out of the pool, being held back by the gym teacher, and Jack had a bloody nose. He was shouting angrily at me, calling me a "crazy bitch!!" as his nose gushed blood into the water. There was mass confusion among the class. I was told to change quickly and sit in the hallway.

Apparently, the gym teacher had heard me screech like a banshee, followed by a number of shouts, and had looked over to see me wrestle out of Jack's grip, jump on his back, and throw him off balance enough to smash his face into the edge of the pool wall. I remembered none of this, but I did find a few chunks of greasy brown hair clenched in my fist that I'd evidently ripped from his scalp when the teacher pulled me off. I washed my hands thoroughly.

It was decided that I'd go in early to school tomorrow to have a little talk with the Dean. They would've just sent me there straight away, but gym was my last class of the day, and the Dean had already left by then for whatever reason, so it had to be postponed a little while. It was pretty heavily implied that I was going to be suspended, quite possibly even expelled, for what had happened.

I was furious. Not only had Jack made my life a living hell, but his horse shit was now going to be the cause of my expulsion?!? I wasn't about to go down without a fight, but I realized that I'd have to play this pretty smart if I wanted to weasel out of it.

The next morning, I did two things: I put on mascara, and I made a superficial, but rather painful incision on my right thigh, high enough so as to be covered by my shorts.

Normally, I hate wearing makeup, because I don't like the way it feels, but I'd worn mascara before and noticed the interesting effect it had on my appearance. Specifically, I already have pretty long, pretty dark eyelashes, so adding mascara draws a lot of attention to my eyes and makes them look huge. Like, total Bambi eyes- wide, innocent, naive, harmless.

I sat down in front of the Dean at 6:40 a.m. I didn't need to fake the fear in my expression, but I made sure to throw in something that could be interpreted as guilt, too, bowing my head and twisting my face in dismay.

Needless to say, the Dean was pretty pissed.

"Do you know why you're here, young lady?" he said

"Yes," I said softly.

"And you know that what you did is very serious?"

"Yes," I said again, making my voice tremble.

"Care to explain yourself, then?"

"I..." I began, my voice shaking. "I just wanted him to stop..."

"Stop what?" The Dean prompted, his eyebrows furrowed.

"I just wanted him to stop touching me!" I blurted. As I said this, I reached my hand under the table where he couldn't see it and dug my finger into the cut on my leg, causing me to lurch forward as if in a sob, my other hand covering my face as my eyes watered from the pain.

"Touching you?" The Dean asked, his brows now on a collision course for Mars.

I spent the next several minutes divulging all the shit that had happened to me that year, digging into my injury for some tears whenever necessary, and by the end of it the Dean looked horrified. He reaffirmed that no, I shouldn't have attacked Jack like that, but that they'd have to investigate the matter further.

I basically got off with a slap on the wrist, and after multiple testimonies from other girls, Jack got suspended for two weeks. I wasn't satisfied. They hadn't been able to expel him due to "lack of hard evidence", but I was out for blood.

He returned to school two weeks later, and I was ready.

One of his friends had a little brother in my bio class, a fairly chill dude named Owen, who I had worked out a deal with. See, Jack had been very vocal about his displeasure with me to his friends, which made its way to Owen, who, for the low low price of bailing his dumb ass out in biology, was more than willing to share that information with me. I had a direct pipeline.

Anything Jack shared with his friends made its way directly to me via Owen, and, as it turns out, this dude didn't keep a whole lot to himself.

There was a lot of shit I was tempted to nail him for. For instance, I found out he was selling drugs (mostly adderal and some occasional weed) from his locker, and had been cheating his way through most of his classes. However, I knew how suspicious it would look for me to report something like that so soon. It'd probably just look like I had a grudge, (which I did), and was trying to get even, (which I was).

He slipped up really, really bad about a week after his return, and that was when I struck.

See, he hadn't been subtle about his displeasure with my retaliation, and spent most of gym class sending really ugly looks my way. The gym teacher kept us as far away from each other as possible, but he managed to track me down in a passing period one day and rant at me about how I had screwed him over and that I was a lying little bitch, yada yada yada, and that he'd make me regret it. Funny, stole the words right out of my mouth.

I found out from Owen later that Jack had been bragging to his friends last night about the switchblade he'd stolen from one of those hunting stores downtown, and promised he'd show it off to them later that day.

I seized the opportunity.

I took a few seconds in the bathroom mirror, scratching at the scab on my leg until my eyes were teary enough to really sell the "terrified victim" look, then bolted down to the Dean's office, stuttering and shaking, crying out for help. The front desk lady was understandably startled by the sight of a seemingly panicked freshman girl bolting into the office, and called the Dean out right away. His face grew serious when he saw me.

"M-Mr. Dean, please help! He's gonna kill me!" I cried.

"Now, slow down," he said. "What happened?"

"Jack!" I said, resisting the urge to grin maniacally at the hardness that appeared in the Dean's eyes. "He, he cornered me in the hall! He called me a bitch and said he was gonna make me regret telling on him! H-he's got a knife!!"

"He what?!" The Dean barked.

Everything moved very quickly after that. The security guards were told to search the kids locker, while a couple other security officers were called down to get Jack out of his classroom and take him to the office. I was told by the front desk lady, who had heard the whole exchange, to hide with her in the copier room so Jack wouldn't see me.

They found the (stolen) knife in his backpack, and the drugs in his locker. That, combined with his previous charges, was enough to get him not only expelled, but arrested. I never saw him again, which is probably a good thing because I'm still mad and would probably try to kill him if given the opportunity.

TL;DR: Guy sexually harasses me in gym class, I give him a bloody nose, a two week suspension, an expulsion, and a criminal record, all in that order.

(source) story by (/u/FeralTaxEvader)

[mst3kproject]

802: The Leech Woman – Part III

I’ve devoted a review to the terrible characters in The Leech Woman and another to its nasty misogynistic ‘message’, what’s left?  As it turns out, plenty.  The next layer down in our Leech Woman Tira Misu of badness has several ingredients that just wouldn’t fit with the themes of either of the previous installments.

The script frequently feels a need to explain what’s happening on screen, which is sometimes helpful but equally often kind of insulting, since characters are telling us things we can clearly see for ourselves.  A Nando dude has his face pushed into a pot of misty stuff and is then dragged stumbling over to the sacrificial block, and David declares “he’s drugged!” as if we wouldn’t be able to tell.  Moments later, the man’s pineal gland is carved out – this does require some narration, since the visuals aren’t self-explanatory, but the “he’s adding the pineal hormone to the Naipi” a moment later really doesn’t need to be there.

The intense use of stock footage is also a form of this.  We know that the characters are going to Africa, and we see them hiring a guide and tramping through a jungly-looking set, only to also be shown reams of animal stock footage that has basically nothing to do with the story.  The only time it has any bearing on the plot is with the leopard that supposedly follows June.  The rest is padding, there to emphasize (as Crow observes) that we are definitely in Africa, as if the audience couldn’t already tell.

A few bits in this part of the movie are shot outside, pretty clearly in California rather than anywhere near Africa.  Others are obviously in ‘jungle’ studio sets, and you can really feel how closed-in and artificial these spaces are, especially when contrasted with the wide-open savannahs and broad skies in the stock footage.  I guess I can say in the movie’s favour that it looks more jungle-ish than Jungle Moon Men did, but there are places in Canada that look more jungle-ish than that, so it’s not really saying very much.

The most egregious use of stock footage in The Leech Woman is in the Nando village, where we see some shots of people dancing in Real Africa before cutting back to extras in Hollywood Africa.  The two sets of footage look nothing alike.  The people in the documentary shots are dancing in a practiced, purposeful fashion.  The ones in the stuff filmed for The Leech Woman are just kind of flailing and bouncing.  The juxtaposition is kind of like splicing shots of trained ballroom dancers in with video of the junior prom and pretending it was all part of the same scene. This extends to the costumes, with the ‘real’ dancers wearing elaborate ceremonial beadwork and the actors in crummy kilts and geographically inappropriate tiger skins.  The latter still look nothing like the shower curtain Malla’s wearing when she reappears.  The only costume that had effort put into it is that ridiculous tusk headdress the high priest wears.

The Nando themselves are a plot device, rather than a people. They are Privy To Wisdom the White Man Hath Forgotten, but they’re also very much superstitious savages, with their regular human sacrifices and habit of killing anybody who tries to talk to them. None of them have lines and except for Malla and the high priest they are basically indistinguishable from each other – this keeps us from feeling sorry for them when their village gets blown up.  The only ones we see up very close are Malla, whom we will soon learn is planning to kill the heroes, and the priest, whose face is hidden.  They are dehumanized and, with their job of introducing June to the Cure for Old done, they are dismissed.

That would be pretty standard for a fifties jungle movie, but there’s one rather out-of-place bit that seems to be there just as gratuitous racism.  When David goes back for the dynamite, under the pretense of giving Malla a necklace, one of his guards takes a moment to steal some of June’s other jewelry from the luggage.  Why?  What value does it have to these people who live in the middle of nowhere and don’t appear to trade with the outside world? The event never has any impact on the plot, even though June later uses jewelry to entice her victims… come to think of it, why did she have that stuff with her on a safari anyway?  If this isn’t just a throwaway moment of lol, black people are thieves, it seems to just be a little reminder that the Nando cannot be trusted and that we shouldn’t worry about David blowing them up. Doesn’t quite work when he also steals their stuff on the way out, does it?

And of course, the ending sucks.  Rather than facing any sort of consequences for her crimes, June simply throws herself out the window, leaving Sally dead in the closet and Neil and the police wondering what the hell just happened.  The withered corpse we see under the window is obviously a mannequin, and doesn’t even look like June.  And as with far too many movies of this vintage, there is no denouement. We don’t know if Neil ever understands that June and ‘Terri’ were the same person, or why Sally was killed.  We don’t see him realize what he’s lost by allowing himself to be dragged around by the dick.  The movie just ends.  They couldn’t have spent two minutes on that instead of on random animal footage?

After going through all the many ways in which The Leech Woman is a terrible and frequently offensive movie, how it hates men, women, black people, white people, and anybody stupid enough to watch it, I guess it needs to be asked: why do I enjoy it so much?  I think partly it is because it’s so non-denominationally misanthropic – it hates everybody, and while it saves special venom for unattractive women, nobody else comes off well, either. Another, as previously mentioned, is how it doesn’t bother to have any ‘good’ characters.  The protagonist of the movie, as in the person through whose eyes we watch it and whose arc we follow, is June – and she’s an insane, selfish murderess!

I do tend to like movies that focus on a villain’s journey.  There’s Lady Frankenstein, for example, in which Tanya Frankenstein carries the whole movie despite the fact that she’s evil to the core, and in the end is destroyed by her own creature as he realizes that he, like everything else around her, is just a tool she’s using to further her own sense of self-importance.  There’s the similarly-titled Countess Dracula, which is what you might get if you imagine a version of The Leech Woman that actually tries to convince you Neil is the hero but still doesn’t have him actually do anything. And there are Hammer’s Frankenstein movies, which are all about Peter Cushing’s Victor Frankenstein with the inconsequential ‘heroes’ simply revolving around him.

Why are these characters so much more interesting than the heroes who are trying to defeat them?  I think it has to do with the fact that these villains are proactive – they are taking steps to go out and get what they want.  Victor Frankenstein wants to prove his latest theory, June wants to watch men fall at her feet when she smiles at them, and they both believe the means justify the ends.  The ‘good guys’ of the movie, on the other hand, are merely reacting to the evil plot they’ve discovered.  In light of that, it’s also interesting to ask why it’s so often women who take center stage in this kind of movie: as well as June, I’ve mentioned two examples in the previous paragraph, with Tanya Frankenstein and Countess Elizabeth. This is probably because women in movies of this era are not supposed to be proactive in getting what they want, or even to have wants at all besides to kiss the guy at the end.

This type of movie also suggests that evil, being intrinsically selfish, will ultimately destroy itself.  The good characters, where they exist, are victims or completely irrelevant – the closest things The Leech Woman has to ‘good guys’ are Neil and the detective, the former being helplessly in June’s thrall and the latter not even showing up until the movie’s almost over and then having his job done for him by her suicide.  Since these characters don’t try to do anything about their situations (Neil doesn’t even realize he’s in one), they’re not at all interesting, and the villains command the movie all the more.  This would lead one to think that the ‘message’ of the movie is the same as the one I pulled out of Outlaw, that bad things will just go away if you wait long enough.

In some cases that’s probably true (it’s going to work for the Earth – us humans will kill ourselves off soon and the rest of the biosphere can get back to business), but The Leech Woman also serves to emphasize that letting evil destroy itself will cause far more damage than if somebody tackled the problem before it got that far.  If Neil had actually cared that ‘Terri’ was destroying his relationship with Sally and tried to leave her, he might have saved himself a lot of trouble.  In fact, what would have happened then?  Would June have gone off to find another victim, or would she have become more aggressive in her pursuit of him in particular?  Would he have maybe cottoned on to what was happening and come back to save her next boyfriend from suffering a terrible fate? Oh, hey, look – I just wrote a better movie in three sentences, again.

I think that’s about as much Leech Woman as I can take.  See you next week – I don’t actually have that many more of these to do, do I? Thank you all for hanging in there with me.  We’re on the home stretch now!

[oharaisbaee]

Former Sky Blue players, staff lash out over poor playing, living conditions

NEWS

Former Sky Blue players, staff lash out over poor playing, living conditions

By John D Halloran, Dan Lauletta, and Allison Lee

July 17, 2018

 On July 7, former Sky Blue FC forward Sam Kerr returned to her old stomping grounds at Yurcak Field for the first time since leaving the club in January. Now playing for the Chicago Red Stars, Kerr scored a hat trick that night against her former team.

However, the striker’s celebrations were muted, almost apologetic, and after the game she explained how she’d nearly been in tears at some points during the game.

“If I’m honest, I didn’t enjoy it,” Kerr told reporters after the match. “I wish things were better here, and that I could stay. It just sucks that that’s the way it had to be.

“I wish I could take every single one of them with me,” she added, nodding in the direction of the Sky Blue bench area, “but that’s not the way it is.

“I’m just going to say the girls deserve better, and leave it at that. These girls are great girls. They give everything for this club and this league, and they just deserve better. I scored a hat trick, but I wasn’t myself today. I feel sick playing against these girls.”

Since then, The Equalizer has spoken to a half-dozen people affiliated with the club, some of whom requested to remain anonymous. All shared a bleak picture of life at Sky Blue beyond the club’s current winless season: stories of poor housing situations, poor facilities, and broad mismanagement.

Caroline Stanley, who played for the club in 2016, knew from the first day she arrived at Sky Blue that something wasn’t right.

“The first day I actually got there, I landed, checked my phone, and had an email saying the place they told me I was living had been changed,” she told The Equalizer.

“It was Day 1, new team, moving across the country, the place I thought I was living I’m no longer living and it’s just kind of ‘To Be Determined.’ The comfort, and the management of off-the-field quality of life was just really poor and unorganized. I ended up getting shoved into a really tiny little house in a beach town with four other girls, and it was two sets of bunk beds.”

MORE: Sam Kerr’s unhappy hat trick

“Last year housing was a disaster,” said former assistant coach Dave Hodgson, who left midway through the 2018 campaign. “Like one of the houses that players had to live in just should have been knocked down. Plastic bags for windows, sheets of cardboard for windows, comforters stuck in holes in the wall. I’m not exaggerating. Stuff like that’s horrific.”

General manager Tony Novo said that housing is a challenge in New Jersey where cost of living is high and beach front property is at a premium in summer months, but said the only player who was shuttled around this season was one who chose to arrive late.

“Especially over the last three years—’16 to ‘17 and from ‘17 to ‘18—we’ve made it better,” Novo said. “More housing and better housing for our players. We currently have three, three-bedroom apartments that are very nice—I’m going to use the term plush for those apartments. Those are the more senior by age players. Then we have a five-bedroom house that is five blocks from the beach that is furnished. I can clearly say that our housing has gotten better over the last three years.”

Novo said the rest of the players live with their families in the area or with host families plus one player who has elected to go on her own with a friend from outside the team.

While Hodgson conceded that housing for some players has improved in 2018, two former players said that some other players have lived in five to seven different locations in a single season. Multiple sources also said that players currently with the club were relegated to sleeping on couches in other players’ apartments, and that housing for the players on the bottom tier of the roster is as bad as before.

“We have never made anybody sleep on a couch,” Novo said.

Multiple sources also told The Equalizer that in a previous season some players were forced to live with an elderly man who repeatedly made inappropriate comments to the players and made them feel uncomfortable. When the players addressed their concerns to the team, the players were told they would have to find alternate housing for themselves. Other players who addressed concerns regarding housing were told the same, and multiple players did arrange their own living arrangements when those provided by the team were unsatisfactory.

On the house with the elderly man, Novo acknowledged that particular house did not work out as planned and was dropped after a season but added that when asked, only one of five players said she wanted to move out and that her request was granted.

Complaints about the training facilities and the team’s home field at Yurcak are also common.

“When there are no showers in your stadium locker room, you don’t feel like a professional. When you don’t have an equipment manager and you show up to practice in your training gear—you don’t have a locker room—you throw your crap on the side of the field like it’s club practice and then leave in your nasty clothes and wash it yourself, you don’t feel like a professional. You cannot perform under those conditions.” – Caroline Stanley

One training facility is referred to as “The Jungle,” and multiple sources confirmed that the team’s training facilities have no locker rooms, no running water, and no bathrooms absent a porta-potty.

“They don’t enjoy being the red-headed stepchild of the league,” said Hodgson. “They don’t enjoy having Rutgers as their home, because it’s crap. I mean, there’s literally a hill on the side where there should be bleachers. There’s no showers—there’s no showers. The two-time World Player of the Year [Carli Lloyd] has to get an ice bath in a 50-gallon trash can. It’s ridiculous.”

Novo explained that the team began the season training at indoor turf facility Sportika Sports Complex and then moved to Rutgers where bathrooms and showers were a short walk away. With Rutgers sports in need of their field back, training has now shifted to a field in Jackson which, according to Novo, was to be supplied with portable bathrooms and showers this week. As of the start of training on Tuesday, they had yet to arrive.

Besides the lack of proper ice baths—or in some cases, ice itself—players also noted the lack of basics like ultrasound equipment, stim machines, and leg recovery systems.

“When there are no showers in your stadium locker room, you don’t feel like a professional,” said Stanley. “When you don’t have an equipment manager and you show up to practice in your training gear—you don’t have a locker room—you throw your crap on the side of the field like it’s club practice and then leave in your nasty clothes and wash it yourself, you don’t feel like a professional. You cannot perform under those conditions.”

Multiple sources also complained that the lack of training gear provided, combined with the lack of laundry services, meant players would sometimes have to wear dirty gear during practice sessions.

“We are given two socks, two shirts, two shorts for practice gear for six months,” said one former player in an email. “We get one pair of cleats for the entire year. We use this gear every training and some days, multiple times.

“We do our own laundry. One player was given children’s cleats to play in. Some of these seem insignificant but we are talking about a professional organization and professional athletes.

“At least in college we are given enough gear to wear so we don’t have to re-wear our sweaty gear for a double day,” she later added.

Novo said that in the past, so few players took advantage of the laundry service that it became pointless to keep it, and emphasized that game uniforms are washed and returned to the players on match days.

“Sky Blue has always been unfinished projects and broken promises,” said another former player. “Each year it’s been less of a progression and more of a digression.”

Complaints about travel were also common. To save money, multiple sources told The Equalizer that the team does not reimburse the players for baggage fees, finds cheaper travel by forcing the players to take very early and very late flights, provides per diems on the road that often don’t cover the cost of food, and has, at times, stopped at gas stations and fast food restaurants for meals on the road.

“Just every single trip is a debacle,” explained Hodgson. “It was a debacle last year. Our first trip to North Carolina this year, the credit card didn’t work. There was no money on the credit card. We couldn’t hire any vans. Our players were sitting at the airport for two hours. Just a debacle.”

“When we travel for one, two, or three days, most of the players bring a carry-on.” Novo said. “We provide them with team bags where they can put their personals, and then we carry all of our equipment. I haven’t been asked for a big need for checking bags.”

The GM added that per diem meal money is in line with league standards with team meals excluded from the day’s total. Continental breakfast at hotels is in lieu of breakfast money for the players.

Medical bills for injuries sustained while playing for the club have also been a problem for some players. Stanley says that while playing for Sky Blue, she was injured in a match against Portland and needed multiple doctor visits to deal with a separated shoulder.

“I just received a call from collections a couple weeks ago,” said Stanley. “I had no idea. I had my credit dinged pretty hard for a $50 doctor’s visit that wasn’t taken care of by the organization.”

“The girls that are scared to use their voice because they fear losing an opportunity—I will do it for them. I have nothing to lose.” – Caroline Stanley

Other players have told Stanley that they’ve had to “hound” the organization to take care of similar situations. Novo acknowledged that, on rare occasions, medical bills have slipped through the cracks. He attributes this to players not using the club’s mailing address during doctor’s visits and Sky Blue not seeing bills in a timely fashion. “We would never purposely not pay a $50 bill.”

The team, for its part, has repeatedly told players and coaches that things would improve, including a move to better, permanent training facilities and a new stadium. However, multiple sources confirm that the new training facility has not materialized this season, as promised, and there is little faith left that the club will live up to its promise of a new stadium.

“Sky Blue has always been unfinished projects and broken promises,” said another former player. “Each year it’s been less of a progression and more of a digression.”

“There’s the old saying that a fish rots from the head down,” she added. “For Sky Blue, this is where it is. It’s that the owners are not invested, they’re not. I haven’t seen them invested in any year and the owners are in charge of the GM.”

Stanley says that the current players are afraid to speak up, worried that doing so could harm their career prospects going forward. She says that’s why she’s decided to come forward.

“The girls that are scared to use their voice because they fear losing an opportunity—I will do it for them,” she said. “I have nothing to lose.”

“I want my friends’ quality of life, who play in the league, to be better,” said Stanley, who now coaches at Tulsa. “If they don’t have people standing up for them, I’ll do whatever I can. It’s been crazy how many girls have texted me this week and called me about this whole situation.”

Multiple sources explained to The Equalizer that Sky Blue has become a way station, of sorts, for the players. The players themselves widely believe that the ownership views the club simply as a “tax write-off” and, stuck in a difficult situation, the players hold out hope that a trade, a move abroad, or new team ownership might improve their situation.

“The players really want to be bought out by owners that give a damn,” said one former player.

The poor conditions around Sky Blue are not only a major factor for large amounts of roster turnover between seasons, but also for the team’s 15-game winless start to the current season. As Stanley said, it’s hard for the players to play at an elite level “when your quality of life is so poor.”

Several sources expressed concerns that the off-field conditions surrounding the team coupled with its on-field performance this season have put the team’s future in jeopardy.

“My concern is I don’t want the team to fold because I care about the team and the past organization that has built my career,” one former played explained. “But it’s something that I cherished and my friends are involved in, and I love that. And I don’t want a Boston to happen or a Western New York to happen. But it’s like, how do we prohibit this?

RELATED: When Sky Blue nearly joined Red Bull

“I don’t think that there’s any pressure. Again, this is the NWSL’s fault because they’re not involved, they’re not harping, and if they’re not harping, then the owners feel like they can get away with stuff.”

Sky Blue co-owner Steven Temares declined to be quoted for this story, but made it clear that the team’s ownership remains committed and that Sky Blue will be part of NWSL for the 2019 season and beyond.

Numerous sources close to the team also told The Equalizer that the league and NWSL Players’ Association are aware of the problem, but that the players have given up hope after being ignored for so long.

“I think it would just be best for everybody if they dissolved as a club. Their owners can find a new tax write-off,” said Stanley.

“Something has to change. To me, I don’t know how it would happen internally. I really don’t see how you could turn that club around at this point, unless it was bought out by somebody else.”

[goodguyjean]

(1/11) Hi! I’m the same anon who talked about Jean and revenge in the anime. I wrote out my response and it ended up being so long. But I don’t have a tumblr so I can only respond about 90 characters at a time. Please feel free to ignore me b/c I think this is the most obnoxious thing I’ve done on the internet. But I love your metas and opinions so much I really want to share and get your thoughts!! I’m going to try to keep it organized as possible. So for starters, Uhm thank you for answering

[The rest of the ask is under the cut because of length! This post is primarily an analysis of Jean’s character development and Marco’s death]

Hi anon, thankyou for sending me this response! I’m happy you’ve enjoyed my metas and that they’ve inspired you to write meta about Jean; as I said previously, please get a tumblr and join the meta community! Your ask is thought-provoking and well-reasoned and I enjoyed it a lot!

Your reading of Jean’s character developmentis great—I think it is a coherent assessment of his portrayal in the manga thathits on several really key points about Jean’s empathy and how it stems fromhis ability to personalize loss (or, I should say, to feel it on a personallevel). I think you’re right that the loss of Marco is personal for Jean, and Iadmit that perhaps I push back too hard against this idea in my previousanalyses of their relationship. They do have a meaningful relationship, and Ithink Jean is closer to Marco than many of the other recruits—even if hehimself doesn’t realize it, or their friendship is still under development.While I do think fandom often overstates their closeness and it is played up inthe anime, in the manga Marco is the person who puts up with Jean the most(apart from long-haired guy; who is he and where did he go?!) and who actuallymanages to understand something important about him that almost everyone else(Eren, Reiner, Sasha, even Armin) misses. Heck, even Jean doesn’t understandhis potential as a leader until after he gets thrown into the thick of thebattle for Trost, yet Marco hits on something crucial in Jean’s characterbefore he’s ever even tested.  

I have a fewfollow up points that I have been thinking over this past week based on yourexcellent analysis here (and, again I am so sorry for the delayed response!). Thefirst is that while I agree with your assessment of Jean’s characterdevelopment in the manga and the role that Marco plays in it, I still thinkthat the anime portrays Marco’s death and his camaraderie with Jean in such away as to turn Jean’s decision to join the Survey Corps into a much greatercharacter metamorphoses than it is in the manga. My second follow up comes backto what exactly is happening in that “charred bones” quote; I talked to myfriend @mirandafandomette​ about it, and we discovered that the official Frenchtranslation is quite different than the English one, further muddying in thewaters about what exactly Jean is trying to communicate here. Neither of usread Japanese, but the discrepancy in translation makes me think that Jean’swords are not particularly clear here—he’s speaking in some kind of riddle,perhaps!

To speak to thefirst point, I think I have understated the relationship between Marco and Jeanin some of my previous metas (I will admit to this!) because both the fandomand the anime paint Marco’s death as a catalyst for a huge character“reversal”, when I think what happens to Jean is closer to what you’ve laid outabove—he realizes the full extent of how much he cares for his comrades andcomes to the conclusion that the only he way he can ensure their safety is byjoining the Corps and attempting to fight the titans properly. His mind turnsover both Eren and Marco’s words to him over the course of his trainingdays—and even though he knows he is most likely going to end up dead, hedecides it’s the only thing he can do in good conscience. In the manga, Ithink, Jean’s previous cynicism and defeatism contextualizes this moment ofshifting from self-centered cynic to responsible-moral-bedrock-of-the-series,because it explained Jean’sself-preservation instincts. He has kind of always cared, it’s why he became socynical in the first place; he cares about the reason given for the “operationto retake Wall Maria”, he cares about the rhetoric of “heroic citizens” who areactually shunted to the front lines to serve as bait for titans, and he caresabout Eren’s friends and Eren leading people to their deaths. In the manga, hisdecision to get a spot in the MP is born out of his certainty that everyone isgoing to die anyway—to get invested in others at such a point in history is toinvite despair. It’s a horribly bleak outlook on life that even Jean can’tmanage to maintain. He cares for Eren’s friends enough to lecture Eren abouthis responsibility towards them, and the battle of Trost really tests hisnihilism: can he actually give up on humanity? Apparently not. Marco’s encouragementcombined with Eren’s instance that the only way out of this hell is to fightpushes a reluctant Jean to first see his natural talents and then use them,although Jean cannot ever quite bring himself to put his full faith in a militaryorganization like both Marco and Eren initially do.

So, to sum up: Idon’t think Jean’s entire characteralters at this moment by the pyre. The groundwork is already there, he just hasto do something with it. However, allreferences to Jean’s extreme defeatism during the training sequence are removedfrom the anime, so I think there’s more pressure put on this scene as“transformative” for Jean—he’s been a selfish asshole, but know that he seeshow bad the titans really are, he must step up to the plate. To be fair, themanga also styles Trost as a “wake up call” for Jean, but there it’s more of a “thisis what I always thought would happen and now I realize I can’t accept it”versus an “actually, the titans are going to get us” moment.

Really, it’s aslight shift in framing but I think it does have quite a large impact on thepresentation of Jean in the anime. Without developing Jean’s cynical lifephilosophies and establishing his rivalry with Eren as actually quite equal (asit is in the manga, which I discuss a bit further here), Marco’s death just hasto do a lot more “work” in explaining why he joins the Survey Corps, so hisfriendship with Marco has to be emphasized in this particular way; Marco’s notthe loss of a good comrade that shocks Jean into realizing he cares, it’s theloss of his best friend which can handle the weight of Jean transformation.

Added dialogduring episode eight. Marco’s inspirational speech to Jean is moved to themiddle of Trost, and Marco emphasizes that Jean’s leadership saved Marco personally during the fight. In addition to putting extra weight on Jean and Marco’s friendship and emphasizing how effective Jean’s leadership is, this shift highlights how much Trost changes Jean. But it also means that Marco doesn’t see Jean’s potential before they run into the thick of it, as in the manga.

So while the lossof Marco is always personal for Jean in both the manga and the anime, I agreewith you there, that personal element to it takes on extra weight in the anime.

As for my secondpoint, I agree with you that Jean is trying to live up to the potential Marcosaw in him, and that this idea would make sense of a version of the dialoguefrom chapter twenty-three where Jean says he doesn’t want to disappoint thecharred bones—which may indeed be an accurate translation, and is supported bythe guidebook! The official English translation is a bit more ambiguous: ituses the word “face.”

Chapter 23.

And you’re rightthat this echoes the English dialogue for Marco in chapter eighteen!

Chapter 18.

So in thisversion of the story, Jean reflects on his experience at the funeral pyre,remembers Marco, and then tries to live up to Marco’s assessment of him—I thinkyou’re reading of that moment is excellent!

However, I waschatting with MirandaFandomette about why Jean would refer to Marco as a pileof charred bones in this moment (because it still puzzled me), and theycross-referenced the official English translation with their French copy. Theofficial French version reads:

C'est juste queje n'ai plus envie de me recueillir impuissant devant un misérable tas decendres inidentifiables qui appartiennent à je sais même pas qui. En tous cas,la situation exige qu'on agisse, c'est évident ! On savait à quoi s'attendrequand on s'est engagés pas vrai ? Alors Hardi les Gars !

“It’s just that Ireally don’t want to grieve helplessly in front of a miserable pile ofunidentifiable ashes who belong to I don’t even know who. In any case, thesituation demands action from us, obviously! We knew what to expect when we gotinvolved, right? So [military slogan I can’t translate into English]!”

This version ofthe text (in addition to being a REALLY interesting thing for Jean to say; somuch to unpack! But I think I’ll leave that to MirandaFandomette) is closer tomy original reading of the infuriatingly ambiguous “face” in Englishthan the idea that he’s trying not to disappoint Marco. Jean doesn’t want tolose anyone else, he doesn’t want to grieve any more soldiers or potentialfriendships. Additionally, there’s not a direct echo of Marco’s words from chapter18 in the French version. In chapter 18, Marco says, “Tu sais toujoursexactement quelle est la réaction adéquate à adopter” which is “You always knowexactly what the right reaction is.” As you can see, it’s quite differentphrasing from what Jean says later—I’m not sure which one is closer to theJapanese original (and, in fact, MirandaFandomette says they think the Frenchversion might be extrapolating a lot from the original text, interesting andcompelling as their decisions are, though perhaps their use of the passivevoice is closer to the Japanese original … if anyone knows Japanese, I’dlove a side-by-side comparison of all three!)

However, the ideaof Jean promising not to disappoint Marco does come up in the Frenchguidebook’s interview with Jean and Marco’s ghost, just as in the Englishversion, even though Jean doesn’t appear to make any such promise in the Frenchtranslation of the manga … and perhaps the guidebook is closer to theoriginal sense of the words in Japanese, in the end. What I like about theFrench translation is that it explains why Jean refers to Marco as charred bonesrather than by name, although the English verb “ to face something” itself canmean “disappoint” or “grieve/deal with” depending on the situation.

Additionally, Itake your point about the timing of the guidebook’s publication vis-à-vis theanime. It would appear that the guidebook does not reflect a retcon based on theanime, although its insistence that Marco and Jean are best friends does seemlike a stretch to me based on what little is present in the manga’s canon.Besides that fact that their relationship is not particularly well-foregroundedin the early chapters of the manga (at least, not as much as in the anime),Jean hardly ever mentions or thinks about Marco after this moment in the femaletitan arc. Certainly he never names him. I confess that I don’t think Isayamawas particularly invested in Marco as a character—which may explain why we alsodon’t get much of a sense in the manga about Marco truly doubting the king.There’s a flash in chapter 18, sure, but it’s small.

Chapter 18. Marco admits he’sstrategizing like he’s actually going to fight the titans, then wonders a bitat himself.

Perhaps therecould have been a more nuanced portrayal of Marco’s development and the effectof his death on Jean, if Isayama had had more time (I would like, for example,to know why Marco is potentially changing his mind in the panel above . ..  especially because chapter 18 is aflashback to before their graduation party, where Marco still declares himselffor the king … sure, Trost might have changed him, but we’ll never know)!Unfortunately, most stuff about Marco appears in extra material, which,although it may be overseen and approved by Isayama, does not make it a part ofthe manga canon, according to a very narrow definition.

Thanks once againfor the note, anon! It’s been interesting to think through this stuff andagain, I really think you should get a tumblr and write meta! I’d love to readmore of your thoughts on Jean and talk further with you. These asks you sent mewould make a very good post! Also, thanks to MirandaFandomette for all their help!

[danetrainblog-blog]

A Beautiful Maui - The Truth Behind Moana - DaneTrain

New Post has been published on http://www.danetrain.com/movie-reviews/a-beautiful-maui-the-truth-behind-moana/

A Beautiful Maui - The Truth Behind Moana

On the surface, Moana is about a reluctant chief-in-training who struggles to rectify the expectations of her people with her own wants and dreams. Chief Tiu (Moana’s father) believes that no good can come from ever leaving their island paradise. Even when vital resources begin dwindling, Tiu remains firm in his convictions that all boats are evil, and while preserving his uncomfortable adoration of coconuts. Nevertheless, Moana embarks on an epic voyage to save Motunui, and does so with one of the very boats that enrage her father so. Thus, Moana restores life to her island and reinstates her people’s previous livelihood of voyaging the open seas.

Moana’s right-hand man throughout her journey is the demigod Maui. And he is awesome. The Rock totally delivers, and his performance is one of the highlights of the film. The problem with Maui – arguably the only problem with Maui – is that he is completely unnecessary. SPOILERS AHEAD. Maui steals the heart of the goddess TeFiti, a rock with the power to create life that is vital to sustaining life on Motunui and the surrounding islands. Yeah, I don’t really get how it works either, but that’s neither here nor there. This vandalism upsets the natural balance, putting Moana’s home in danger of becoming the next causality. According to Grandma Tala, the only way to stop this systematic destruction is to retrieve Maui from his banishment so that he can restore the heart to the goddess.

As the circumstances play out, though, Moana restores the heart all by her onesies. Yet, the majority of the film is spent locating Maui, convincing him to help, apprehending his missing fishhook, and helping him to overcome a variety of personal insecurities. Sure, he tries to help along the way, but upon discovering that Te ka the lava monster is actually just a royally PMSing TeFiti, Moana is easily able to diffuse the situation.

I can actually relate to Te ka a lot right now. Except my fiery rage is paired with chocolate.

Cool. Another girl power Disney flick determined to upset their legacy of less-than-impressive heroines, right? Well, yes. But there is a little more to it than that. It’s really weird that Maui is such a big part of Moana, but he doesn’t really contribute anything. After all, the guy’s built like an ox and just so happens to be a shape-shifting demigod. Maui’s utter uselessness makes no sense, unless . . . get ready for it . . . Maui only exists in Moana’s mind.

I know, I know, Just hear me out, ok?

Maui is the physical manifestation of the part of Moana that she has been forced to suppress, as he embodies key aspects of her personality and culture. For starters, Moana has been exposed to stories of Maui and his exploits since before she could even talk. Maui is apparently one of Grandma Tala’s favorite conversational topics. Coincidentally, Tala is the only person in Moana’s life to encourage her need to be on the ocean. Tala sings that her granddaughter must not ignore what she feels: “And when that voice starts to whisper / To follow the farthest star/ Moana that voice inside is who you are” (“Where You Are”). The “farthest star” sounds an awful lot like that last star in the fishhook constellation. You know, the constellation that leads to the exact island where Maui has been stuck for the past 1000 years? Yeah, that one. So if the “voice inside” is telling her to go to the “farthest star,” that voice inside might just be Maui. Or she named him Maui to feel better about talking to herself all the time. Regardless, once Moana reaches Maui Isle, she is away from Motunui and is fully on her own. She needs inner strength – or, if you will – inner Maui.

Maui shares some noteworthy similarities with Moana. Like her, he just wants to find a boat and sail away. He is a master wayfinder, something that Moana hopes to become. He is rejected by his parents, and although Moana’s parents are quite loving, they strongly disapprove of her connection to the sea. In fact, Moana’s struggles with her parents and her looming chiefdom are precisely exemplified during “You’re Welcome,” when Maui parallels the Chief’s coconut toss from “Where You Are.”

Aladdin does it with an apple. This is the only GIF I could find to demonstrate what the heck I’m talking about. Of course, why Chief Tui and Maui replicate this Aladdin-patented move is an analysis for another day.

This deliberate correspondence only furthers Maui’s role as Moana’s inner voice. She cannot escape her father’s insistence that she stay trapped on Motunui. In “How Far I’ll Go,” Moana laments: “I can lead with pride I can make us strong / I’ll be satisfied if I play along / But a voice inside sings a different song / What is wrong with me?” There’s that voice inside again, voicing Moana’s fear that in accepting her role as chief, she will only be playing a part and denying her true self. She finally succeeds in leaving Motunui and locating Maui. Then, with the chuck of a coconut, he traps Moana on his island. But she proves that nagging interior doubt wrong by ultimately escaping and rejoining Maui. This victory is pivotal; not only does she abscond the cave, but she also sways Maui’s opinion regarding her quest. This is later reflected in the film’s conclusion when Chief Tui finally embraces the sea.

Moana is clearly oblivious to the fact that Maui does not actually exist. As far as she is concerned – and as viewers are concerned, for that matter – she is actually travelling with a demigod. You see where I’m going with this. Think Life of Pi meets A Beautiful Mind. Maui is basically Russell Crowe’s roommate. If you haven’t seen the film – and if this is the case, shame on you – Crowe’s John Nash heads off to university and meets his wonderful new roommate, Charles, and the two maintain a close bond throughout college and beyond. Until Nash is diagnosed as schizophrenic. He hears things that aren’t there. And sees people that don’t exist. And one of those people is that oh-so-loveable roommate. It is a mind-blowing moment in a damn good movie.

Through some complicated technological methods, I edited this image to emphasize my point.

I don’t think Moana is schizophrenic, but there are similarities between her interactions with Maui and Nash’s with Charles the roommate. For instance, there is no one to verify that Moana and Maui ever hung out, let alone saved the world together. I mean, unless one would count the legendary creatures that Moana defeats along the way, but the only person to see those guys and to make it back to Motunui to tell the tale is Moana. Grandma Tala witnesses the ocean interacting with her granddaughter, but Tala is also the village crazy lady. And dead. Both of which work against her credibility.

While these exchanges with the demigod are reminiscent of A Beautiful Mind, the reasoning behind having an imaginary sidekick is closer to that behind Pi Patel’s hallucinations. While the conclusion of Life of Pi is arguably ambiguous, I’m of the camp that Pi’s lifeboat was actually not full of circus animals. However, that was the reality that Pi’s mind generated in order for him to survive that ordeal. Similarly, Moana is alone at sea for a long time. It makes sense that her mind would conjure up this familiar companion to help see her through her journey.

If Maui is himself a projection of the internal Moana, it stands to reason that at least portions of the voyage depict her interior battles. This notion is furthered by the types of villains that she and Maui encounter along the way. After retrieving Maui – or shall I call you CHARLES THE ROOMMATE – the first obstacle they meet is a violent tribe of bloodthirsty coconuts called the kakamora. Yeah. Like hundreds of evil little coconuts on these floating warships. Coincidentally, one of the big problems for Moana’s island home is that the coconuts, their main resource, were rotting from the inside out. There’s an entire verse of “Where You Are” dedicated to coconuts, and Tui is super psyched to sing about them. Seriously. The look on his face is one of pure joy.

Pictures of Tui are hard to come by, but these villagers are equally pumped regarding the existence of coconuts.

So Motunui’s coconuts go bad. And then Moana has to defeat bad coconuts. And while Maui displays some stealthy techniques with steering the canoe, it is Moana who reclaims TeFiti’s heart from the kakamora.

Next, Maui teaches Moana how to sail as they travel to the lair of Tamatoa, the greatest character with the greatest song in the entire movie. There is very limited merchandise available pertaining to Tamatoa. I can’t be the only person lamenting this fact, can I? This is entirely unrelated to my argument, I just felt that someone needed to be aware of the problem.

Seriously – this is the best GIF I could find. For Tamatoa. The David Bowie crab. Come on, where’s the love?

Anyway, this gigantic, human-hungry crustacean is obsessed with his physical appearance. He loves all things sparkly, and advises Moana that she should do the same: “Did your granny say ‘listen to your heart/Be who you are on the inside’? / I need three words to tear her argument apart: / ‘Your granny lied’!” (“Shiny”). Tala is Moana’s only source of support regarding her love of the ocean, so it makes since that at some point, Moana may doubt herself and her mission. This doubt is personified (…crabified?) in the bedazzled Tamatoa. If one looks attractive and is “shiny” enough, he or she will be admired. Remember “How Far I’ll Go,” and the lyric “I’ll be satisfied if I play along” – Tamatoa wholeheartedly agrees . He tells Moana that “fish are dumb, dumb, dumb / They chase anything that glitters – beginners / And here they come, come, come to the brightest thing that glitters.” Play the part and people will follow. Moana is a reluctant chief, but perhaps she should just go back and lead her people through a glittery façade.

And of course there’s the whole reason that they go to see Tamatoa in the first place, which is to retrieve Maui’s fishhook. Maui tries repeatedly to obtain it, but in the end, Moana who tricks the crab and gets the hook.

At some point somewhere within the realm of Moana, Maui probably did exist. In the film’s introduction, Tala tells of how TeFiti’s heart came to be stolen and how many monsters were eager to get their hands on this powerful stone. Pictured are the kakamora, Tamatoa, and of course, Maui. Moana was raised with these legends, so they obviously factor prominently into who she is.  The  larger than life persona of Maui is that of a fearless and essentially benevolent demigod, and this is the guy that Moana needs to get her through a very scary, very solitary journey. The chicken just didn’t cut it.

So Moana reaches within herself to find the Maui that she needs, allowing her to face ominous obstacles, save her people, and restore the opportunities of sea travel to her island. However, there is another explanation that gives our heroine a more conniving role. Moana has injected herself into legends that are integral to her island’s culture. Her epic voyage will become her legacy, and the magnitude of her adventure guarantees that she will become a legend in her own right. She will be the next leader of her people, and this story makes her significantly more “shiny.”

Her people all know the legend of Maui, and that’s why he plays so prominently into her story. Moana not only aligns herself with one of the most recognized (albeit fallen) heroes of Motunui culture, but she also restores him to his former glory. Inspired by the tales from the “village crazy lady,” Moana crafts an intricate fiction, casting herself as the heroine. This will strengthen her persona and the surrounding mythos when she leads as chief.

After all, Tamatoa does have a point. It’s important to “be who you are on the inside,” but a leader needs to look the part as well. And that’s what can be achieved with the story that Moana has to tell, and will undoubtedly be told about her. Her people are afraid of the sea, but Moana knows that they must at least occasionally leave to keep the island afloat, so to speak. Her entire island is against ever leaving Motunui for the entirety of the movie. However, the second Moana triumphantly returns, these same people are dragging the canoes out of storage and ready to voyage on the high seas, the coconut-loving chief included. Moana’s story deeply resonates with all of them, which ultimately gets her exactly what she wanted – for both herself and her people.

I don’t want to say that Moana outright lies in order to manipulate her people into capitulation…but Moana outright lies in order to manipulate her people into capitulation. Or it’s all in her head. You decide. You’re welcome.

  *A very special thank you to my Bestie for her encouragement and mad proofreading skills, and to Steve for being my sounding board for the last two months.

*All GIFs via GIPHY

*A Beautiful Mind image obtained from:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vdw544M7lF8/VPgXX-L-huI/AAAAAAAADLs/JLToNWxpN_Q/s1600/nash%2Band%2Bhis%2Bprodigal%2Broommate.jpg