#I do know how to cite things properly but here I cite things according to sadie style

[sad-eyed-lady-of-the-paperbacks]

Thoughts on 2.3

I can never read this chapter without tears. Zosima’s attentiveness to the concerns and the pains of common people, and of women in particular, is beautiful. It is a sad irony that although regard for women and for others who were marginalised is so striking and features so prominently in the accounts of Jesus, through the centuries, such tender concern for women has been abysmally rare amongst men—particularly those in positions of power like Zosima—who claim to be followers of Christ. Not only have such men failed to reflect this love, but they have even been some of the most zealous and hateful oppressors of the marginalised. Zosima, in contrast, is practising what he preaches. These suffering women are drawn to him for his refreshing, sincere care, and they are willing to travel great distances for the balm he offers to their suffering.

Right away in this chapter, sex and class are highlighted. It’s specifically stated that “there was on this occasion a crowd made up solely of women”, and the landowning Khokhlakovas are waiting “in the accommodation reserved for upper-class female visitors.”

There are a lot of dead mothers in this novel, but the Khokhlakovas are the reverse of this. Lise is instead fatherless, and her mother is very present.

Mme. Khokhlakova was only 28 when she was widowed, and the fact that she is widowed is the most info we ever get about her husband, as far as I recall. We don’t even know his name; later on, we’ll get Mme. Kh’s first name and patronymic, but Lise’s patronymic is never given. Of Mr Khokhlakov, all we have is a void.

Zosima walks past the visiting monk and the prominent landowner Mme. Khokhlakova and goes straight to the common people first.

I’ve linked it before, but I will once again link this source on the klikushi (warning for spoilers). A comparison is drawn between the narrator’s recollection of seeing these wailing women as a child and the horse dream from Crime and Punishment. In both cases, the child is concerned by the spectacle of suffering that is the defenceless female victim (the horse is very specifically a mare) while the adults around him are callous to it and downplay it.

Another thing from that source that is interesting is the fact that while the Freudian and Platonian models of the hysterical woman are characterised by a lack of sex or an obsession with sex, for which marriage, sex, and motherhood were supposedly the cure, this is not so with the klikushi as Dostoevsky portrays them. In their case, it is the fact that marriage, sex, and motherhood are bound up with violence and hardship which causes their shrieking. And I just have to quote this directly, it’s so profound:

In this respect, their hysteria is still related to the womb. But their hysteria is the bodily expression of the anguish these mothers feel in response to giving birth to children-to bringing them from the safety of their wombs out into a world where mothers and children suffer, into a world where God allows this suffering to happen.

Liza Knapp, “Mothers and Sons in The Brothers Karamazov: Our Ladies of Skotoprigonyevsk.” A New Word on The Brothers Karamazov, Robert Louis Jackson, 2004

A lot has already been said regarding the autobiographical inspiration of the grieving mother of little three year old Alexei. I just want to note that her name, Nastasya, means “resurrection.” And just how poignantly her grief is depicted—this is what makes me cry every time. And how Zosima validates her grief, he doesn’t criticise it as a lack of faith. Regardless of whether or not she believes her little boy is in heaven, regardless of whether or not it’s fair or makes any sense that a God who already has billions of angels would take a mother’s little boy to be one more angel in heaven with him, the fact is that he’s not there with her, the fact is that she cannot hear his little pat-pat-pat feet any more. And that is soul-crushing and devastating, and of course she cannot be comforted—she should feel no need to be comforted. She has a right to her tears. And his words to her are just so beautiful.

The young widow is very strongly implied to have killed her abusive old husband, but Zosima stops her before she confesses it publicly, which is very interesting. His response to her too, is very compassionate. I love @confessionofanardentheart’s reflections on grief and guilt in this chapter

[karamell-sweetz]

rui kamishiro, the alchemist - an extremely jumbled overanalysis

⚠️ LONG POST AHEAD ⚠️

hello rui fanclub. instead of doing schoolwork i think about rui as the alchemist. what’s new with me i know.

but why is he an alchemist specifically?

because if you look at it simply, rui’s jobs in the shows could also garner the title of ‘mechanic’. where you take a lot of metal and make it into something functional, or fix it so it works again. fundamentally that’s what he does right? with all the robots and staging ideas? and to some extent he could also be a ‘poet’ or ‘philosopher’ because we know he and tsukasa write the shows (during the pxl arc anyway) and he’s constantly coming up with new show ideas. there’s stuff like ‘magician’ or ‘wizard’, which could also be used to describe how he does things with such ease — and we’re not even going to mention ‘genius’ or ‘whiz kid’, okay?

so with all of that said, rui haters /j can essentially say that rui’s title of ‘alchemist’ is just him trying to sound a little cooler — and to some extent they might be correct. like have you seen this man

but let’s get to the nitty gritty of today’s wall of text, because there’s no way sega would call him an alchemist and not know what that entails. putting on my swirly nerd glasses.

✨alchemy✨ according to the merriam-webster kids definition is as follows:

“a medieval chemical science with the goals of changing less valuable metals into gold, discovering a single cure for all diseases, and discovering how to live forever”

and is commonly cited by most articles i read on the topic to have been a mixing of science and magic, having been the predecessor of modern chemistry. that part sounds like rui, doesn’t it?

and honestly, that alone should be enough to stop me from yapping, BUT WE NEED TO HIT THE BOTTOM. HAND ME MY SHOVEL I’M GOING IN /lyr

by the way!! i am completely aware of the more metaphorical meaning of alchemy where it’s essentially synonymous with magic, e.g. “he performed his alchemy o’er the pot and the water became soup”. but since wxs are often cited as the guys with the whimsical references to olden times (gestures wildly at revival my dream) i have no reason NOT to analyse him from the philosophical perspective.

so basically the alchemist has three main goals as we said before and just for my sanity (and my english teacher’s approval even though she’s not ever going to look at this) i’ll use them to organise my thoughts.

⚠️ DISCLAIMER: this post is not properly structured or organised and may be hard to understand. if you need any clarification on anything i say here please let me know! and ofc feel free to add your own ideas! also this is not too serious or in-depth ⚠️

websites used for research have been linked in underlined words :D (ex. wikipedia)

the transmutation of metals a.k.a. turning ‘lesser’ metals into gold

this one is pretty straightforward. rui is somewhat of a metal manipulator by making his robots, and while he doesn’t turn them into gold literally he DOES make them more valuable by giving them something better — life.

now obviously your life is more valuable than gold — although capitalism says otherwise! /j

also, as wxs’ alchemist specifically, rui’s job is to take them as they are — let’s say, their base forms — and make them shine through his directing, thus making them into something brighter, like gold! (addition for all the ruikasers in chat: gold shares its alchemical symbol with the sun and the sun is a star and guess who’s a star COUGH)

something else interesting though: according to the royal society of chemistry:

“To the medieval alchemist's mind the different elements were but the same original substance in varying degrees of purity. Gold was the purest of all and silver followed closely.”

it kinda gives a bit of weight to rui’s character and (just because i have to revise it for school) his relation to the general human experience in a way. we know that rui’s been outcasted for most of his life because of his interest in shows — but at his core he is still human, just like everyone else. i keep thinking about that line from rmd whenever i think about rui and the human experience, where little rui says “i am me, people are people”. it’s not wrong per se — but he’s just as human as everyone else, is he not? that’s why his story (especially pandemonium) hits so hard imo. it also then makes sense why rui treats his robots as his “little darlings” and gives the plants so much care, because all the world is made of the same stuff — according to the alchemist, at least.

…sorry that was me extrapolating. MOVING ON

finding a single cure for all diseases

now we get into the stretchy parts of this analysis.

getting rid of all diseases would theoretically better the entire world, at least in a medical point of view. now what does rui use all of his fancy robots for? as a catalyst for making people smile with his shows, of course! as we all know, laughter is the best medicine, and a smile can brighten someone’s day (so they say).

and furthermore, all of rui’s little exploits, and generally just his character overall, work for the good of others. i don’t know if i’m using this term correctly but i feel that he’s sort of a chaotic good person: working for what is good and just, even if it goes against authority. i mean, we see this right from the start of the game’s story — making nenerobo so nene can continue pursuing her dreams; the mall area conversation where he makes a balloon stegosaurus when the employee isn’t looking, claiming that it’ll be a much better present for the lucky kid who receives it; doing his robot shows in public even if the police chase him and nobody stops by to watch it all anyway, perhaps in the hopes that just one person will be even lightly amused by his antics. even when he intended to work alone, he sought to better other people’s lives, even if they didn’t appreciate him for it. (which ofc makes me so sad)

finding the elixir of immortality

now this one i initially struggled to get a good argument for because there’s a lot of things you can talk about here. the immortalisation of an individual is one of them — in making a show or story you essentially make a permanent memoir of the ideas you had for it, or the world at the time in which you wrote it, and i suppose in the case of the wonder stage immortalising the memory of a person in keeping grandpa otori’s stage alive.

but then it hit me.

rui wants to immortalise a *moment,* not necessarily one person. the time he has with wxs. which we are all aware that they are running out of.

this isn’t that clear in the early story because he’s not as attached to them yet — which i suppose leaves a hole in my argument since he’s used the title since before the main story. but maybe he only gained this goal in its full extent after joining wxs. curtain call and our happy ending make it very clear that rui wants to be with wxs, ideally, forever. and let’s not even MENTION the fact that they worked in phoenix wonderland which is supposed to be an immortal bird!!

i suppose at its core the idea of immortalisation is to spend time with the immortal individual forever, so that they can continue to have all the wonderful moments of life. everyone fears death to some extent, after all. so therefore: rui’s current alchemic quest, alongside/after the wxs training arc, would be to find that elixir for wxs and somehow find a way to make shows with them forever… even though realising that he *needs* to let go is probably going to be the most groundbreaking part of his character progression.

rui’s philosopher’s stone (not the harry potter book)

you might be wondering why i’ve titled this section this way but i promise i’ve got a point

so the philosopher’s stone is basically related to all three of the alchemist’s goals in some form. apparently if you put it in the ground it produces metals faster? (because apparently they thought it just grew like that. you DO get stones from the ground so i guess that checks out. AND THAT’S WHY RUI IS A GEOLOGIST IN THE KIRAPIKA SET.) i think i saw an image with its symbol that called it the ‘end of all ends’. so it’s kind of a miracle object in the sense that, once discovered or created, will instantly fulfil the aims of alchemy.

now obviously being in the modern age, rui isn’t looking for something that can solve all the world’s issues forever, because that’s proven impossible. but maybe there’s something that can do the next best thing — and for rui, that’s doing shows. it might sound silly (and i’ll come back to that in a bit) but rui knows how wonderful shows can be, how they make people smile and forget their ailments for just a small moment — they don’t get rid of them, of course, but they offer the next best thing he can give. that fateful little mermaid show gave him a purpose in life, basically, something he could work towards that could affect people in ways that a robot on its own simply couldn’t.

and i suppose, in that sense, all of wxs are alchemists, too…? well, if we apply this to some sort of medieval fantasy game, they’d be in his party and help him out, right?

the alchemist as an outcasted figure

so basically from most of the stuff i read, alchemy was generally frowned upon (and even outlawed in england) due to being associated with fraud, with con artists of the time utilising the transmutation thing for their own personal gain, and just generally looking for something impossible. i think in some way this could be connected to rui being ostracized by his peers because of his ideas — he’s not a fraud, but the actual alchemists of the time tended to receive the same reputation as the con artists. and i imagine the alchemical experiments were pretty dangerous back in those times, so there’s that whole thing with people not trusting rui’s ideas to be safe and practical.

bonus related discussion: do you think maybe people were envious of rui’s ‘genius brain’ and wished he would use it for something other than shows��� like scientific endeavours? idk this is just a half formed thought i had after writing this particular section. in the same way that alchemy started to become an old practice, did rui’s love for theatre and whimsy grow to be seen as farfetched at any point? maybe in that mysterious elite high school— okay that one is just me grasping at straws. but it makes you think, right?

main conclusion

the role of alchemist really fits rui to a tee, right down to the context of the times. and i’m karamell, chairwoman of the rui fanclub. and there are literally so many things that sega could play with in regards to card symbolism (COUGH the alchemic symbols COUGH COUGH) that i secretly hope to see in the future!

(and now you, dearest reader, have some completely impractical information about a bunch of pixels under your belt. read and flourish!)

bonus: planetary references

in ancient alchemic writings the planetary symbols were actually used for alchemy as well, as in they were used to identify some of the main metals. as such most of the metals are associated with the solar system as well, notably gold with the sun, silver with the moon, and mercury with, well, mercury.

now… what is rui’s colorfes card themed around?

that’s right: SPACE.

now this could be entirely coincidental bc its implied in the story that his colorfes sekai was based on one of his favourite sci-fi books (show? movie? i’m a fake rui fan what text type was Trip to the Moon) but sega likes their extended metaphors and symbolism.

so anyway that’s the REAL end of the post. that will be all. no, i didn’t need to write all of that, but i did because isn’t that what my training is for?

[anti-dazai-blog]

11- There’s no such thing as a coincidence (and other complaints)

And here we are, on the final part of The Dungeon Scene.

—————————

[[ Quick side note: As far as I’m aware of, there’s no proof that Dazai actually sent the letter threatening the mafia that he claims he sent in this chapter. However, I wrote this going off of the assumption that the letter exists. If it doesn’t, it wouldn’t cause any significant changes to this entry of the Anti Dazai Series. But I might make a short post after this one listing the only two changes I’d make to this entry if the letter doesn’t exist. ]]

—————————

When we last left off, Chuuya was about to fight Dazai [as he should. As everyone should.] Now let’s check in with these guys and see how the fight goes.

Chuuya does pretty well for a while. For seven whole pages, he nearly seems like he’s winning. But Dazai turns the tides of the fight when he changes it from a physical battle to a verbal one. He mentions a certain letter he claims to have sent, and it’s all downhill from there.

Of course, there’s nothing innately wrong with defending yourself. If someone’s threatening you, you should defend yourself with any means necessary. And although blackmail’s kinda low, you should do what it takes to survive. So I’m definitely not faulting Dazai for fighting back, nor am I faulting him for using blackmail as his means to do so. 

What I am faulting him for is his way of going about it. He had already unlocked his handcuffs beforehand. He already knew where the mafia keeps their intel on jobs and on potentially hostile organizations. He could have left long before Chuuya arrived. And if he was so desperate to mess with Chuuya a bit before grabbing the information he came here for, he could have mentioned the letter mid-fight. He could have said “hey, better not injure me too badly— the mafia needs me alive, and if you rough me up too much it might look like you were trying to kill me!” Instead, he waited out the entire fight, only revealing his intentions once Chuuya was confident that he won. 

The entire fight was set up to give Chuuya a false sense of control. In fact, I’d go as far as to say the entire point of his being in that dungeon in the first place is to give Chuuya a false sense of control. Everything else that could possibly be cited as a reason for him being there is something he could have easily gotten done without getting captured. He already knew the location of the information on Atsushi’s bounty— he could have broken in and found it on his own. He didn’t need to be there to provoke Akutagawa either— he could have conveniently crossed paths with him anywhere else and taken that opportunity to brutally insult him (after all, Akutagawa respects Dazai too much to simply walk away when he’s talking to him). Same goes for taunting Chuuya— he could have conveniently crossed paths with him and started his usual routine. But of course, Chuuya knows him well enough to know that there’s no such thing as a coincidence when it comes to Dazai. He would have been suspicious from the start if he would have met him “by chance”. He would have kept his guard up, and that’s not something Dazai wants him to do. 

Dazai needs Chuuya to believe that he’s visiting him on his own accord. He wants Chuuya to be at his full confidence, so that he can properly tear it all down. And that’s the one thing Dazai wouldn’t be able to accomplish without getting captured. In any other circumstance, Chuuya would assume Dazai arranged their meeting somehow, but if he has him approach him on his own, he won’t expect their entire meeting and everything that occurs during it to be orchestrated. But of course it is. It always is. Because that’s what Dazai does— he plays with his food. 

Dazai doesn’t just want Chuuya to let his guard down; he wants him to be overconfident. So he allows him to fight him. He’s aware of Chuuya’s martial arts skills, he’s also aware of his own, and he knows the exact outcome of a physical fight between them. He even makes sure to comment on and acknowledge Chuuya’s skills as the top martial artist in the port mafia— something he probably wouldn’t do if his goal wasn’t to build up Chuuya’s confidence before revealing his true intentions. 

All things considered, there was a single red flag the Chuuya probably should have noticed that pointed towards this meeting being a bit more orchestrated than it might seem at first glance. He says “I come back after half a year … only to find you here”. The fact that the moment he returns from a half-year long mission Dazai just conveniently happens to be waiting for him in the mafia’s dungeon is a bit suspicious. Of course it’s not entirely unreasonable, from Chuuya’s perspective, to chalk it up to luck. But from the audience’s perspective, I’d say we can chalk this up to some form of stalking. I doubt that it’s a coincidence that Dazai just happens to get himself captured at the same time as Chuuya’s scheduled return from a six month mission.

So back to where we left off: Dazai and Chuuya have finished the sparring portion of their fight, and are up to the verbal portion. Chuuya begins his interrogation. He wants to know why Dazai allowed himself to get captured. After putting up less resistance than normal, Dazai responds with what sounds like a valid enough answer: he’s here to get some information regarding his new subordinate. 

And that’s enough for Chuuya— upon receiving that answer, he’s satisfied enough to consider that the end of their dungeon encounter. He thinks he accomplished all he came to do, and if things really played out the way he imagined, he probably would have stabbed Dazai nonfatally and left. And right then, when he’s at his most confident, is when Dazai starts laughing. And that’s when he reveals the letter. He reveals it slowly, building on the reveal piece by piece to make sure it’s as excruciating as possible. 

I’ve heard it said that horror comics often leave lingering fear longer than horror movies, because you’re forced to turn the pages yourself. The horror isn’t just thrown at you— you have to actively choose to turn to the next page. The way Dazai reveals the letter and its contents has the same effect. Rather than just summing it all up in a short speech, he breaks down the information into pieces, thus forcing Chuuya into a position where he’ll have to continue asking for the next piece of information. He begins with telling Chuuya that there’ll soon be an executive meeting. He doesn’t continue from there on his own; he waits for Chuuya to ask his expected follow-up question. 

And so Dazai reveals that he sent a letter, and that the contents of the letter will be detrimental to Chuuya’s current objective. And even here, he chooses not to reveal the contents of the letter just yet. Instead, he makes his well-known boastful claim:

“I don’t think you’re gonna kill me. In fact, not only will you release me, you’ll point me towards the bounty too. And you’ll deliver it like a debutante- soft spoken, and with your thighs together.”

These two sentences alone work as an excellent blueprint for how Dazai opporates. Here, he lists the three things he aims to achieve in most of his interactions with every unsuspecting person he meets:

Step 1- Dazai’s opponent will not get what they want.

“I don’t think you’re gonna kill me”. Right now, it goes without saying that Chuuya would like to stab Dazai. I don’t believe that he’d actually kill him, but stabbing him would definitely be satisfying. Regardless of what Chuuya really wants, Dazai will ensure there’s no way he can get it. [Naturally there’s nothing wrong with self-defense. But this carries over into other situations, so I’m bringing it up here and now.]

Step 2- Dazai will get what he wants.

“In fact, not only will you release me, you’ll point me towards the bounty too.” It’s not enough for Dazai to prevent his opponent [and I use that word loosely, since nearly anyone he talks to is automatically his “opponent”] from getting what they want, but he’ll make sure they give him what he wants. He won’t walk away from the situations that he orchestrates empty-handed.

Step 3- Dazai will not let things be over and done with after that

“And you’ll deliver it like a debutante- soft spoken, and with your thighs together”. Dazai isn’t just satisfied with getting what he wants. That isn’t enough for him— he needs to make the entire process be as unpleasant, or as uncomfortable, or as humiliating as possible for his involuntary opponent. Because why not. 

This isn’t the first or last time that Dazai follows this pattern. However, this is the first time that Dazai states it so outright, and lists the steps in such an organized manner. He hands us the blueprints to how he operates, and I look forward to citing this helpful list later on in the Anti-Dazai Series.

But back to the letter. Dazai finally does Chuuya [and the audience] the honor of explaining the contents of it. As per Dazai’s claim, the letter is a threat made out to the port mafia, threatening to release proof of the mafia’s crimes if anything were to happen to Dazai. Whether or not such a threat means anything to the mafia is irrelevant. Such a threat holds a lot of weight to Chuuya. 

Given what we know about the Sheep and their betrayal, Chuuya has his fair share of trauma regarding his closest friends suspecting and accusing him of betraying their group. The situation Dazai has created here is an artificial replay of that. He has once again placed Chuuya in a situation where, if he doesn’t comply with Dazai’s wishes, he’ll be deemed a traitor to his own people- by his own people- and forced out of the group he considers to be his family. 

And Dazai makes a whole show of proving just how close Chuuya was to falling for the same trap he got caught in when he was fifteen. He was already holding a knife to Dazai’s throat when Dazai revealed this— and Dazai wasn’t scared for a second. Instead, he was relishing and reveling in Chuuya’s hastiness and eagerly awaiting the moment he gets to see the look on Chuuya’s face when he realizes he was five seconds away from Dazai tricking him into becoming a traitor again.

By this point, Chuuya sees he clearly lost. So he removes the knife from Dazai’s throat— yet Dazai continues to taunt him. And after Chuuya drops the knife, Dazai still isn’t done mocking him. 

And it all circles back to giving Chuuya his (un)healthy dose of Sheep flashbacks when Dazai states outright “Too bad, it’d have been nice if the organization started pursuing you because of me”. After all, Dazai had so much fun the first time he made that happen— I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d like a round 2. 

Chuuya’s done and just wants to leave at this point. He tells Dazai where he could find information on the weretiger’s bounty (something Dazai already knows), and makes his move to leave. Something that is evidently not that simple to do when dealing with someone like Dazai. 

I’ve seen a lot of posts floating around claiming that Chuuya had no reason to comply with Dazai’s demands, and only did so to “make him laugh”. While I appreciate the optimistic viewpoint and respect those users’ opinions, I’m gonna have to disagree. Their primary argument for why he supposedly “didn’t have to do this” is that he could easily physically overpower Dazai and re-chain him. Only issue is, Chuuya broke the chains. He wouldn’t be able to re-chain him to the same spot— it would be clear that he was moved, and the backs of the original chains still remain broken on the wall. With Dazai’s lockpicking skill, he could easily get out of the new chains as well.

If Chuuya were to go against him right now, he may even frame Chuuya further, rather than just leaving things as they are and allowing the mafia to reach their own conclusion. After all, he already stated that he’d love to see Chuuya hunted down by the mafia. Right now Chuuya desperately needs Dazai to promise and guarantee him his safety. He needs to be sure that after he leaves this room, he’ll still have his job, and the people who he considers to be his new family won’t suddenly turn on him tomorrow.

He’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn’t happen. He’s not in any position to bargain; even if Dazai would have asked for something a thousand times more demanding than doing a rich girl impression he'd have no choice but to comply. And so he does comply. Because he has no choice.

That was long and I’m exhausted. Join me next time on the Anti-Dazai Series where I talk about whatever comes after the dungeon scene— probably Dazai bullying Atsushi more or something. I don’t know. 

[ibijau]

Futures Past pt13 / on AO3

Nie Huaisang is visited again by his future self, which goes even less pleasantly than before

Nie Huaisang did not enjoy in the least being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night, a hand firmly pressed over his mouth to keep him quiet and avoid waking the other Nie disciples.

His future self really needed to find a better way to visit him. They had to decide on a schedule of some sort, Nie Huaisang ranted when they were outside, hidden away near the cabin he currently inhabited. Or a signal. Or something other than the absolute terror of a stranger taking him out of his bed in the dark.

“Couldn’t you at least have told me when you were planning on coming back?” Nie Huaisang complained, to which his future self shrugged.

“I was supposed to, but I forgot,” the older man muttered from being his fan. “Not that I would have kept to the schedule anyway. I had to know how your time in Yunping City went, so I… pushed hard to come here as early as I could. I probably won’t be able to return again until late fall, or even the bew year.”

He did look tired, and had a slight trembling in his hands, Nie Huaisang noted. Though that could just have been excitement rather than a sign something was wrong with him.

“It went well in Yunping City, I think,” Nie Huaisang announced. “I don’t think that Meng Yao will be going to Lanling Jin now, not if he has even a little bit of brain, and…”

“He’s more stupid than you’d expect,” his older self snapped. “I take it he’s still alive then?”

Nie Huaisang hunched his shoulders and looked down at his feet. 

“It’s not like I could actually have killed him! And anyway, he’s nice. Well, I thought he was nice…” The older Nie Huaisang scoffed. “And Lan gongzi thought it too…” Another scoff, and when Nie Huaisang risked a glance, he was met with an expression of disgust. “And Jiang gongzi too had a good opinion of him!”

“You saw Jiang Cheng?” his older self asked, lowering his fan while something shifted in his voice. “How was he? Was Wei Wuxian there too?”

He sounded almost eager to get news, as if he cared about these people.

He sounded almost human.

“I don’t think that other one was there,” Nie Huaisang said, trying to remember. He'd been so nervous about that Meng Yao business, he hadn't paid attention to anything else. “And Jiang gongzi mostly seemed interested in chatting with Lan gongzi. They were getting along just fine. I think they’re writing to each other now? I think Lan gongzi mentioned that the other day.”

Whatever softness had briefly taken over his older self melted in a second, replaced by something dark.

“That’s new,” he said, closing his fan with a flourish before tapping it against his hand. “I knew they would have met briefly in Yunping City, but to my knowledge they didn’t speak at all. We’ll have to be careful. I don’t like the idea of Jiang Cheng siding with that idiot." He sighed. “We’ll see what comes of it in the future. For now, tell me what you’ve done with Meng Yao, since you’re apparently too much of a coward to properly get rid of the man who killed da-ge.”

Nie Huaisang felt breathless at that casual mention of Meng Yao’s true role in his brother’s future death. His older self had said that Meng Yao was involved, that he needed to be dealt with, but Nie Huaisang hadn’t thought…

How could someone like Meng Yao ever kill his brother? Even if he worked day and night, even if he tried as hard as he could, Meng Yao would take years and years to catch up to even a normal cultivator’s level. He would never compare to Nie Mingjue who everyone agreed was a cultivation genius, a force of nature. In a direct confrontation, Meng Yao could never win.

It would have been something more insidious then, Nie Huaisang thought. Poison, or backstabbing, or some other under-handed thing. And since Lan Xichen had appeared so instantly fond of that Meng Yao, since his future self hated him too, maybe he’d accidentally given him the means of coming close to Nie Mingjue. That would certainly explain why that older Nie Huaisang despised both men so intensely.

A little shaken by that theory, Nie Huaisang started recounting what had happened in Yunping City. Or at least, he explained most of it. He was so embarrassed about failing to find the right brothel that he didn’t speak about that, meaning he also didn’t say anything about meeting Lan Xichen in the red district, and that complete breakdown the poor boy had.  And while he proudly explained that Meng Yao was now part of Yunmeng Jiang where he appeared to be doing very well according to letters Lan Xichen had received, Nie Huaisang didn’t mention that to obtain that result he’d insulted a sect leader and gotten harshly punished for it. He didn’t think his older self would show much sympathy for his suffering.

Really, talking to that man was like talking to Nie Mingjue when he asked about his brother’s cultivation progress. Except at least Nie Mingjue was only like that some of the time, when the elders had pestered him about Nie Huaisang’s lack of talent for anything one time too many. His older self felt as if he was this way all the time.

“I suppose Yunmeng will have to do,” the older Nie Huaisang sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “The Jiangs certainly aren’t going to give him a recommendation to join Lanling Jin. Anything is better than Lanling or Qinghe at this point.”

Nie Huaisang pinched his lips, quite glad he hadn’t mentioned his initial plan of bringing Meng Yao to Qinghe. It had been a stupid plan, he now realised. But he hadn’t known that Meng Yao would be his brother’s actual murderer, and his future self hadn’t said anything, and…

“Now that Meng Yao is dealt with, let’s talk about what you have to do next,” the older Nie Huaisang said.

“About… about S-Su She?” Nie Huaisang quickly asked, trying to sound as indifferent as he could.

His older self opened his fan with an elegant gesture that Nie Huaisang was starting to hate, and shook his head with a cruel smirk.

“No. I’ve given this some thought,” the older man explained, fanning himself slowly. “I’ve reached the conclusion that I don’t care much whether Jin Zixun and him kill each other. Good riddance, neither of them are worth even the dirt used to bury them. These two are just…”

“He’s my friend,” Nie Huaisang squeaked. By which he meant Su She of course, but also…

Jin Zixun and him had exchanged a few glances here and there during particularly boring lessons, and they’d chatted a little when they’d been punished again together, this time over a failed assignment. Jin Zixun wasn’t a friend, but he might have become an acquaintance, and that was probably more than anyone could say about Jin Zixun.

His older self closed his fan with a sharp gesture and glared at him.

“He’s not.”

“But he is!” Nie Huaisang insisted. “I met Su-xiong a while ago, and he’s real nice, and we get along fine, and he even…”

“A man like Su She doesn’t have friends. He’s only using you to get something. What did he make you promise? Support? Help? Money?”

“He’s not like that!” Nie Huaisang cried out, letting his voice rise higher than was truly wise at such an hour of the night.

But he couldn’t let Su She be insulted that way. Maybe it was different where his future self came from, maybe Su She and him hadn’t met over there, but they had met here, and they were true friends.

Su She had amply apologised about not coming to see Nie Huaisang that whole week he’d been punished for his fight with Jin Zixun. He had cited his own punishment, as well as Lan Xichen enrolling him in his book-copying scheme. Both were valid reasons, but Su She still appeared very sorry that he’d let Nie Huaisang deal with that on his own, and shared some candies with him as a way of apology.

Su She was the best friend Nie Huaisang had ever had in his life, and he refused to hear anyone insult him, even himself.

“Su She is no friend of yours,” his older self claimed. “Stop whatever acquaintance you have with him right away. Da-ge wouldn’t approve, anyway.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re at the point of my life where I’m a little idiot who cannot do anything right. If you’re making a decision, it’s always going to be the wrong one, and it will anger Da-ge. So drop Su She immediately.”

"Da-ge isn't like that," Nie Huaisang grumbled. 

"I've known him longer than you," his future self retorted. "I know what he thinks of me." 

Which might have been true, but it still felt wrong. Nie Huaisang and his brother had their disagreements, of course. Many of them, in fact. They argued over just about anything, but rarely seriously, or about anything really important, and they always made up quickly. Sure, some people misunderstood their relationship and thought they didn't get along. Some had even tried to take advantage of that perceived rift between them, but both brothers knew where they stood. 

Nie Huaisang knew his brother would like Su She when he met him. In fact, Nie Mingjue had already promised he could invite his new friend to come to the Unclean Realm, provided he passed his exams.

Maybe it had been too long since his future self had last seen Nie Mingjue, if he could only remember their few disputes and none of the affection. 

"The only person you're supposed to pay attention this year to is Lan Xichen," his older self reminded him. "So how are things going on that front? I swear if there's still no progress…" 

"No, there is!" Nie Huaisang said, raising his hands in a defensive gesture. "A lot of progress! We spend at least a shichen together every week lately, sometimes more!" 

"That's a very precise amount," his older self noted. "How do you know it is that much?" 

"Well, see, he gives me music lessons. He says I'm quite good at it actually," Nie Huaisang added with pride.

That pride was met with a dark, angry look. Or perhaps not angry as such, Nie Huaisang thought after a moment. Maybe envious instead. Considering the opinion his future self had of Lan Xichen, it was impossible he'd ever been given those lessons, or surely he wouldn't have hated Lan Xichen so much. And since they were the same person, or at least had been the same person before his future self grew up into an asshole, then they had to have the same tastes, the same aspirations.

"What instrument ?" 

"The guqin, of course. You know, I always figured it'd be really hard, but I'm liking it a lot, and it's really fun to practice a little every day, and Lan Xichen is a really nice teacher, and he's actually fun, and…" 

"He's not," his future self cut him. "And while I'm glad you're finally remembering the part you have to play in our plan, I don't want you to get distracted. Music isn't your goal. Neither is it to actually befriend Lan Xichen. You only need to make him think you're his friend, getting attached as well would be a mistake."

"But…" 

"In fact," his older self continued, slowly fanning himself, "it would be best if you gave up already on the idea of having friends. It's not for the likes of us. If you were a little more charismatic and likeable perhaps… but in the end, none of the 'friends' I made at your age were there for me when I needed them. I had to trick them into helping when the time came to avenge da-ge, or they would have let his murderers live free."

"Well maybe if you weren't such a prick they'd still be yours friends," Nie Huaisang muttered, which earned him a slap. 

It didn't immediately register that he'd been hit. He just stood there, staring at his older self, vaguely aware of a noise too loud in the quiet night of the Cloud Recesses, and a rising sensation of heat on his cheek. 

"I can't believe nobody has ever done that, with how annoying I am," his future self remarked, shaking his hand as if the blow had hurt him too. "Now listen to me. You are not likeable. You are not charismatic. You're not even particularly clever most of the time. Why would anyone want to be friends with you? At best they're tolerating you because it's impossible to just reject the heir of a great sect, but make no mistake, your only quality is Nie Mingjue. In terms of popularity, you rank about as high as someone like Jin Zixun. Do you understand what it means?"

Nie Huaisang failed to contain a few tears as he brought one hand to his smarting cheek. It felt hot to the touch, and he'd have to expend some spiritual energy into it, or else there might be a mark in the morning that would be difficult to explain. 

As for his older self's question, Nie Huaisang shook his head the way he felt might be expected of him.

"It means you have to treat people the way they treat you," his older self said. "Keep your heart closed, and use them for what they're worth. Especially Lan Xichen. Get him to trust you, but don't make the mistake of trusting him back. He is a rather poor friend to those who make that mistake."

Gritting his teeth, Nie Huaisang obediently nodded, fearful of being hit again. 

But it didn't sound right. He refused to believe that people were as bad as his future self said. Surely Su She at least was better than that. Nie Huaisang could doubt anyone in the world, but not Su She, so he was absolutely not going to dump his friend just because some old creep with trust issues told him to. Not even if the old creep was himself.

As for Lan Xichen… not so long ago, Nie Huaisang might have accepted that unkind assessment of his brother’s friend. But now that they hung out together more frequently, he thought Lan Xichen wasn’t so bad. Their music lessons really were nice. Lan Xichen was patient and encouraging, something few teachers in Nie Huaisang’s life had ever been. He didn’t mind when Nie Huaisang got too tired to focus, or when he struggled with something that should have been easy. He also didn’t take Nie Huaisang’s moments of easy success as proof that he was faking whenever he struggled, and for this alone Lan Xichen had Nie Huaisang’s gratitude.

Not only that, but Lan Xichen had proven that he wasn’t as stiff and boring as Nie Huaisang used to think. He’d listened about the problems that Su She had, hadn’t he? And not just listened, but he’d done something about it, and he was still doing something about it, and not only for Su She’s sake either. 

Su She had told Nie Huaisang that any inner clan disciple who bothered an outer disciple was in serious trouble these days if Lan Xichen heard about it… or worse still, if Lan Wangji got involved. He was a stickler for rules that one. Once his brother had casually mentioned to him that some people were breaking Lan principles behind the teachers’ back, Lan Wangji hunted them down and made sure those people regretted it.

All because Nie Huaisang had told Lan Xichen that he didn’t like how people treated his friend.

How could Nie Huaisang not have started liking him a little after that?

“Speaking of making friends,” his future self said, “you remember you need to fail your classes this year, right? We have big plans for next year.”

Nie Huaisang nodded again, with more sincerity this time. Failing his exams would not be difficult. At all. In fact, he was quite good at failing. Lan Qiren could have testified that when it came to failing, he’d never had a student as great as Nie Huaisang.

“Good, excellent. Now, I don’t have much time left here today but… I have a task for you when the classes end.”

“Another thing?” Nie Huaisang lamented. “That wasn’t the deal!”

“It is for da-ge’s good,” his future self snapped, and once again Nie Huaisang wondered if he really loved his brother enough to bother with all this.

He did love Nie Mingjue, no doubt. But he still wondered.

“In fact, it’s for the good of the whole cultivation world,” his future self continued. “This might be the most selfless thing you’re ever going to do, so don’t mess it up. When the classes end, you’re not going home. You’re going to the city of Kuizhou…”

“Really? Oh, that’d be neat. I’ve always wanted to see…”

“You’re not going there to sightsee and think about poetry,” his older self cut him. “You’re going there to find a young criminal by the name of Xue Yang and ensure he never gets to create trouble for the cultivation world. You’ve disappointed me with Meng Yao, but I think you should manage to do the right thing with Xue Yang. He’s only ten or eleven, and you have a sabre, surely it can’t be too hard to dispose of him.”

“You don’t mean…”

The older man closed his fan, his face devoid of emotion. “I would think my meaning is clear enough, but I’m not letting you mess this up as you’ve done with Meng Yao. Xue Yang must die. He grows into too much of a menace as an adult. Even if we're going to make sure his particular skills never become needed by any sect, letting him live is just too risky. He’s devious enough to come up with demonic cultivation all on his own if given the chance to grow up, and he certainly doesn’t have any ideals of justice to help him keep it under control. Kill him before he harms anyone.”

"I'm not a killer!" Nie Huaisang shouted, too loud, far too loud, but he didn’t care, horrified by the very idea of what he his future self was demanding. He felt sorry when fighting fierce corpses and tended to cry at exorcisms, how could he ever… and to a living person, to a child.

And yet his future self rolled his eyes as if his horror were but another minor annoyance to deal with, and started fanning himself again.

"You'll learn fast. Just find a cat, snap its neck, and you'll see how easy it is. After two or three you stop feeling sorry for them, and people aren't so different from cats."

“I don’t think da-ge would want that,” Nie Huaisang protested in a trembling voice. “I don’t think he’d like that at all. It’s just… it’s a kid! Good people don’t kill kids! Even a lot of bad people don’t kill kids!”

“Be quiet, or we’ll be found by whichever Lan disciple is patrolling tonight!”

Good, Nie Huaisang thought. If they were found he’d be punished, sure, but more importantly he’d be forced to tell someone about everything his older self had told him, from the war that was coming, to Nie Mingjue’s death, to killing children. But of course Nie Huaisang couldn’t be so lucky, and no one appeared to have heard him.

“You’re really too naive,” his older self said. “Everyone kills children, they just don’t speak about it and pretend they’re righteous. Even da-ge is no better. I only realised that after the war with the Wens, but it’ll be good for you to grow out of your illusions earlier than that. Besides, you don’t have to tell da-ge that you’ve killed that boy. Keeping secrets is your only real skill, use it.”

“Da-ge isn’t like that,” Nie Huaisang hissed, and felt he’d started crying again.

His brother wasn’t a murderer. He was a good person, he wouldn’t harm anyone who didn’t deserve it… but he might make an exception when it came to the Wens, who nobody in Qinghe Nie really counted as people anymore. 

They were just a disease upon the cultivation world, pests that needed to be eliminated. Nie Huaisang, who had always agreed to that, had never really paused before to think that Qishan Wen also counted a number of children, of elders, of servants, of people who really had nothing to do with his father’s death and maybe didn’t even realise there had ever been such a person in the world.

“Da-ge is only human,” his older self said. “And all humans are ready to kill to get what they want. Da-ge wanted to avenge our father. You want to protect da-ge. It’s not so different. If it helps, Xue Yang really deserves to die, so don’t bother feeling sorry for him. He would kill you for candies, given half a chance.”

“I’m not like that,” Nie Huaisang sobbed.

“Not yet perhaps,” his older self conceded in a softer voice. “But you’ll get there anyway. The world is cruel. We must be worse than it is, if we are to survive, if da-ge is to survive.”

The man raised a hand toward Nie Huaisang's head, wanting perhaps to comfort him by ruffling his hair. It was what Nie Mingjue would have done. But Nie Huaisang flinched, fearing to be struck again, and his older self's hand dropped at his side.

“So remember well,” his older self ordered, his tone dry once more. “An orphan boy named Xue Yang, who lives in Kuizhou. He’s a petty criminal for now, he hasn’t yet switched from theft to violent crimes I think, but it’ll come soon. He would be tall for his age I believe. He has a missing little finger on his left hand, and when he smiles his canines are very prominent. He is a monster, and he cannot be allowed to live. Do you understand?”

Through heavy tears Nie Huaisang nodded. That seemed to satisfy his older self who vanished. 

Nie Huaisang understood indeed, but he didn’t agree and was certain he never would.

[vanquishedvaliant]

So there’s this trend I’m seeing on social media about people boycotting / encouraging people not to buy the upcoming Mass Effect remasters.

The reasonings being somewhat varied, some valid, others not, but mostly centering around one thing in specific; cut content relating to same sex relationships that didn’t make it into the games.

Now, I understand not being interested in the product being offered; I’m probably not going to buy it myself for a lack of specific features like multiplayer and... just not needing the buy the game for my fifth or sixth time. It’s completely valid to think the remasters are just not doing enough for you to justify a purchase, or that their faith in the company doing it properly in their current state isn’t there. I get that.

But the mood that’s come up lately isn’t just disinterest; it’s downright outrage. Violent, ideologically charged opposition to even the concept of the remasters because of a perceived failure to meet their extremely specific and often high standards and notions of progressiveness.

Now it’s not exactly news that Bioware has had a rocky relationship with inclusivity over the years, with queer characters flitting in and out of recognition and prominence, appropriation of queer archetypes, and less than stellar execution of what characters they do include. I’ve had my complaints with these myself from time to time, though it’s still always struck me historically as a generally positive, if clumsy attempt at progress that I appreciated despite the flaws; remember that the original Mass Effect 1 came out in 2007, and was the focus of a major media scandal about even including romantic relationships at all in the game, nevermind same sex ones. That’s 14 years ago! The most recent game in the series is 9 years old!

We can talk about the social standards of the times and the progress we’ve made, and we can also talk about the merits of restoring and improving media as it was, or recreating it to more closely reflect the values of today and which or both of them is a worthwhile pursuit, but I don’t think that’s what’s being sincerely argued here.

What we see instead is some protestation that failure to make the exacting changes that they see fit according to their personal ideology is some kind of radically regressive statement, as if it’s a conscious, malicious decision and not either one made in good faith or not at all. This movement has collectively decided that the remaster needs to contain exactly the changes that fit their fleeting whims or the entire thing’s at best a wash and a wasted effort, and in some cases a ‘homophobic’ statement of hatred, or cynically callous laziness. 

Let’s remember; the focus of this argument is the presence of available simulated dating options in a 14 year old game. The arguments posits that some of these alternative options are ones that were cut from the release of the games, notably the first one, and have some or numerous assets that exist in various forms within the game files that with some work can be accessed in the game with user-made modifications. Some of this is true; though much of it is exaggerated or misconstrued in terms of its scope or viability.

Many of these people just assume that this cut content that someone else has restored in a mod somewhere is just some sort of simple toggle done in moments without effort, ignoring the work those modders did on their own time and money to introduce those features. 

Even if we just hand wave any standards of quality or continuity or polish and integration these mods have, you have to consider the dozens to hundreds of volunteer man hours of labor these fans put into many of those mods to make them viable that a company paying it’s employees a fair wage and time to do without overworking has to budget. Which I should mind to you is something also incredibly topically relevant in game dev these days. Adding new content costs money. Restoring old content, still costs money.

Even then, the viability of many of those original assets is at question in itself; the 'ingredients’ used to create the content are not equivalent to the ‘cooked’ content found in the game files, so some of them are difficult to work with or lacking in features or quality. Hell, we know for a fact that half of the god damn development data for ME1 is just fucking gone, which is why the DLC isn’t making an appearance in the remaster at all; it just doesn’t exist anymore and would need to be remade from utter scratch.

Now there’s a dozen reasons undertakings like these would or wouldn’t make their list of priorities for remaster given the other work they are doing re; texture and model uprezzing, gameplay updates, etc. It’s not exactly strange for them to recreate the game largely as it was with a more limited scope of changes. Perhaps the decision was made to preserve some parts of the game largely as it was; with mostly minor cosmetic changes to things like Miranda’s camera angles; things that don’t have much overhead or ripple effect. Perhaps restoring the content was considered, but didn’t make the cut- maybe for the same reasons it didn’t make it into the game in 2007. Maybe for different ones.

Only the people involved know.

Now, would I like to see some of that content restored and improved? Sure! I think it’d have been a great thing if they’d promoted the series as having new or restored content; if they’d promised us such things. But they haven’t, and while it’s one thing to praise taking an initiative like that if they had, I think it’s completely unreasonable to be outraged that they didn’t.

We can celebrate that kind of outstanding and excellent steps forward in inclusivity, but we have to understand that while someone not being ahead of the curve may not be exciting or even disappointing; it is not in itself an act of directed aggression. And treating it like one is a waste of time and energy that we can direct to protesting actual aggression, or celebrating those outstanding steps.

But here’s the major thing that kills me; all those mods they love and praise aren’t going anywhere.

The remaster will come out and unless Bioware is so completely tone deaf and media blind from the past year they pull a WC3, the old versions of the game will all still be available. All those user made mods they cite in these arguments about “how easy” it is to add content to the game will still be there, ready to play as they always were. Some of them might even work or be easily made to work with the new versions!

All of that will still be there! And we’ll have access to a new version of the trilogy that is far more accessible to new players who haven’t yet been exposed to so much of the games content that they are desperate for more of it.

Just look at Mass Effect 1; that game has not aged well, and it was kind of a sloppy mess even when it came out! How many new players can we get to enjoy all the good things the series has to offer with an easily accessed, more enjoyable package to play through the entire series without issue? I’ve done numerous replays of the trilogy through the years, and Mass Effect 1 is always a huge stumbling block. It’s just a pain in the ass, straight out. Don’t you want at least the option to fix that?

And if not, you don’t have to buy it and no harm is done to you! Enjoy your existing version with your mods and familiar features and flaws.

And if you truly, genuinely care so passionately about Bioware improving their record of inclusivity; look instead to the new game that’s coming out and look forward to that instead. Every game in the franchise has been better than the last at this; ME1 cut the same sex relationships, but ME2 had some. ME3 had even more, and then Andromeda had yet even further than that after patching!

How many will the new game have?

Look forward to that and make it clear to bioware you’re looking for that in their games; just.... ease off this ridiculous vitriol in trying to get people to avoid the remaster because it’s not good enough for you. No one needs to have this bullying done to either the developers themselves or the players looking to buy the game for themselves or others. It’s simply not productive.

Especially with this franchise’s sordid history with excessive media outrage and entitlement that’s been absolutely exhausted.

Just... relax. And have some perspective.

[wisdomrays]

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS: Can We Choose Our Actions?

Based on the verse cited above, it seems that God controls us. However, the Qur'an says that God has given us reason, intellect, and free will so that we can choose the way of good or evil. How can we reconcile these?

The Arabic word hidaya usually is translated as "guidance." However, it also has other meanings: rectitude, the straight way, the way to Islam, and the way of those upon whom God has bestowed His blessings. The Arabic word dalala usually is translated as "going astray." Among its other meanings are corruption, error, the way of those who persistently adhere to false beliefs and willfully break God's law, and those who refuse to listen to the truth and thus go astray out of their own heedlessness or negligence.

Being guided and being left astray relate to God and depend on His Will. He creates hidaya to manifest His Name al-Hadi (the One Who Guides) and dalala to manifest His Name al-Mudil (the One Who Leads Astray). He creates, or in other words, enables or "gives" being guided or being led astray. This does not mean that He leads someone on the right path or astray. Rather, being guided or being led astray result from our own intentions and actions, for such is a consequence of our attitudes and inclinations. It has nothing to do with an arbitrary predestination.

Guidance can be received by various actions: going to a mosque; listening to a sermon, a lecture, or the Qur'an; reflecting seriously on the Qur'an's verses and their meaning; spending time with pious people; receiving advice from sincere, spiritual guides and teachers of religion, and trying to benefit from their purity and lofty ethos; and reflecting on the true nature of life and death. Such practices lead to mental and spiritual enlightenment. If you start to do such things, no matter how apparently small or insignificant, God accepts it as a means to grant guidance. Therefore God guides, but the individual initiates the process. On the other hand, if you frequent such places as bars, nightclubs, or non-Islamic places of worship, in effect you are asking to be led astray. If God wills, He will let you go astray. If He does not, He will save you from such a destiny by any means He wishes.

Our share in determining whether we will be guided or go astray is infinitesimally small. If we follow misguidance, God creates the results from our own actions in accordance with the laws of cause and effect that He has decreed for His creation. It is a necessary condition of moral responsibility that we freely initiate actions that will lead us to misguidance if we choose to do so, despite all the warning and instruction we receive. Later on, God will punish or forgive us as He pleases.

Consider this example. When you listen to the Qur'an or a sermon, or read something about Islam, you experience certain feelings, a kind of inner uplifting and illumination. However, someone living next door to the mosque might consider the call to prayer, the sermons, and the prayers sources of irritation and complain that they are a public disturbance and nuisance. In either case, God uses our reactions and inclinations to create and enable the necessary results, wholly dependent on His Will, that may follow from that response.

Consider a different example. As we eat and drink, all kinds of nutrients, proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, and so on are sent to where they are needed in our bodies. The mere wish or act of placing food in the mouth does not enable nourishment. First the faculties necessary to identify and move the food into the mouth, a complex coordination of brain and muscle activity, must be engaged and operative. No part of this process is controlled consciously or understood by the individual. Then, as the food enters the mouth, salivary glands begin to operate. Data about taste and flavor are passed to the brain, processed, and directed to the stomach, informing it of the precise combination of chemical substances necessary to digest that particular food and turn it into nourishment. And this is only the beginning!

As we have no conscious control over the process of nourishing our own body, we cannot say: "I put the food in my mouth, planned and arranged everything for the meal, digested it, distributed it to where it was needed, and fixed my body temperature for everything to function properly and efficiently. I did all this on my own!" If we did, would we not be ascribing to ourselves the actions of God? We should acknowledge reality: "When I put food in my mouth, wonderful processes begin to operate. An unseen, powerful hand puts these processes in motion for the necessary amount of time. The One who initiates and sustains all these processes is God."

By moving our will and inclination toward Divine Guidance, we may prove ourselves capable and worthy of it. For instance: I long to talk about religion with fullness and ease, to express my heartfelt feelings so well that others may be moved and benefit—but I fail to achieve what I wish, and can do only so much. I wish to convey Qur'anic law and God's commandments through persuasive, sincere words—but I get stuck at some point and become tongue-tied. I long to be totally immersed in the rapture of prayer and to be rid of all worldly concerns while praying—but I can hardly manage one prayer out of a thousand in this way. In sum, I contribute a sincere wish or a will, even though I may not realize my goal. The realization of this belongs to the All-Mighty.

The love and pleasure of faith, the earnest desire for Heaven, and an inclination to be content and submissive in the face of whatever comes from God are gifts that only He can place in our hearts and souls. We choose and incline, and God accepts and bestows His Blessings and Guidance. Saduddin Taftazani said: "Faith is a flame that God lights in a person's soul as a consequence of his or her use of free will." In order to obtain so great a favor, we must use our free will. You press a button and your life is illuminated. This seemingly small effort of will, this inclining toward faith, becomes the means to acquire Guidance and to be illuminated by Divine Light.

Some people may ask: If God lets go astray whomever He wills and guides aright whomever He wills (74:31), how does He call His servants to account?

We cannot attribute evil to God, for that comes from ourselves: Whatever good happens to you is from God; and whatever evil happens to you is from yourself (4:79). We have only ourselves to blame for what we suffer, for God does not wrong any one as much as an atom's weight (4:40). What happens to us is based upon our choices and actions, and accords with the law of cause and effect that God has decreed for His creation. Thus, those who persistently adhere to false beliefs and refuse to listen to and obey Divine commandments gradually lose the ability to perceive the truth, until a seal is set upon their hearts. Since God instituted these laws, sealing the heart and leading astray are attributed to Him. But in reality, such is the consequence of that person's free choice and inclination. Such a fate is neither predestined nor unjust.

Happiness in the Hereafter is the natural consequence of our effort to attain righteousness and inner illumination while alive: None does He cause to go astray save the iniquitous, who break their bond with God after it has been established, and cut asunder what God has joined, and spread corruption on Earth (2:26–27). God does not cause anyone to go astray, except those who He knows will refuse to seek faith. Here the causing to go astray denotes God's leaving the individual alone and removing His blessings. God may forsake one who He knows will choose to deny the truth and persevere in denial. Deserving His favor and blessings or deserving their withdrawal depend upon our free choice, and nothing else.

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

CC1 - The Myth

OR why am I subjecting myself to this nonsense?

As I have mentioned, a friend of mine began reading The Book, and sent me some choice excerpts.  I became intrigued.  Not because it’s good, it actually seems pretty creepy, but because I think Si accidentally wrote a paranormal romance.

So before we even start the book, there’s a disclaimer. IDK if it was in the original book.  It begins “Dearest Gentle Reader,” which is not a great start if I’m the one reading because I hate that sort of affectation in writing.  

Like, if someone writes “dear readers” in a fanfic, it has to be really good for me to continue reading.

This disclaimer is basically saying that although 2012 was such a long time ago, and Simon was an ignorant fool when he wrote this, he can’t be bothered actually editing it properly, so please forgive him ahead of time if he did something wrong.

If you ever find yourself writing something like this, you need an editor.

Just so you know, nothing happens in this chapter.  It’s supposed to be an introduction to Simon and how he’s a monster, but you do NOT need a whole chapter for that.

Simon also really needs an editor.  There are multiple sentences in this chapter that lack correct sentence structure.  

For example, in the first paragraph we have this “Yes, I eat people, though the correct term is anthropophage”.  For this sentence to make sense, anthropophage would need to mean “eating people”, as in the act of eating people, it would need to be a verb.  So, when I google this, which Simon tells you to do, I get this result

An anthropophage or anthropophagus was a member of a mythical race of cannibals

So anthropophage doesn’t refer to the act of eating people.  It’s a noun.  It refers to not just cannibals (which Simon maintains he isn’t) but a specific race of cannibals.  

That sentence makes no sense.  And there are plenty of similar sentence constructions throughout this chapter.  I’m not going to point out all of them, except where they affect the narrative, because we’d be here all day.

After Simon begins his “succinct” first paragraph, in which he repeats himself four times, he decides to open with how we must be feeling.

As many of you may know by now, I am not a fan of being told how I must feel, whether that is to my face, in a blog post, or in a book, so he’s losing me.

I also really hate Simon’s “voice”, because it’s really inconsistent.  He veers wildly between what I assume the author thinks is some sort of period affectation, and modern English, when he could have chosen one.  

This is partly because the person writing doesn’t have a style, and partly because they haven’t had their work edited.  And because Simon doesn’t research.  The best way to mimic a style of writing from a certain period is to read things from that period. You can’t just shove words like “one” or “quaint” into your writing and expect it to sound authentic.

Anyway, Simon’s long and belaboured point, is that everything we think we know about monsters is wrong.  He spends another 3 paragraphs reiterating this and then passes up the opportunity to use the phrase “you may not believe in us, but we believe in you.”  This is a good phrase, human minds like repetition.  Instead we got “you may not be afraid of us, but we are still here.”

Disappointing.

Then we have some maths and may I just say, if maths is not your strong suit, do not try to put it in your book.

Simon has heard that up to fifty thousand people go missing every year.  He doesn’t know that, he’s just heard it, so from the outset, he’s not even using facts.

For some reason, he thinks missing people must either be murdered or assume a new identity. Those are the only two options he has.

In reality, a huge number of missing persons are not exactly missing, they’re people escaping abuse situations, and they get reported missing by their abuser.  Those people aren’t assuming a new identity or dead.

Simon also thinks all humans dump corpses in national forests.  I don’t know why he thinks this.  I expect there’s a lot of cleanup after dumping someone in a park.  Would it really be worth your while to drive all that way when there’s probably somewhere closer in a city where you could get the job done?  This is what cement boots are for, right?  I also don’t think murderers go to all that trouble of dumping a body just to leave it out in the open like that.  They’re going to at least dig a grave.

It’s also apparently unfeasible that anyone could adopt a new identity without a single hitch.  But you don’t actually have to adopt a new identity seamlessly to “go missing”.  The going missing part is just where you drop your old identity.  Hitches in adopting a new one are a separate issue.

Or maybe I’m just sensitive to this because I’m trans.

And then, in explaining why he isn’t going to claim his species is completely responsible for all missing people… Simon cites two things that do not cause people to go missing as examples for humanity’s awesome cruelty.

Awesome?  Not awful?  Okay then.

I understand that he’s trying to make a point, the theme of the book is obviously “humans are more monstrous than a real monster”, but the point loses something if you make it with a stupid example.

Oh and then we come to my favourite part of this chapter.

It is an experiment. A point. An argument for the furthering of knowledge. Mixed with a little boredom, if I am honest. You are a test subject. By reading this, you give consent to tell me what I need to know.

An experiment isn’t supposed to be making a point, Simon.  That’s not what experiments do.  Also, what is that last sentence?  Is he a mind reader now?  

I think Simon may be a little fixated on the “by <performing act> you give consent” concept.  But if you are telling someone something, you’ve presumably given consent.  The act of communicating with someone actually implies more consent than reading a book.

Now I’m gonna skip down to the part where he decides I don’t believe him.  I hope this telling me what I think isn’t going to continue all through the book because I’m not sure I can handle it.

Also, Simon really wishes this book had ended up on CW network. I know this because he says how disappointed he would be if that happened.  I personally wouldn’t write anything about the possibility of my book being adapted for screen in the book itself.  It kind of sounds like you think it’s your due when it’s really not.  Or like the only reason you wrote the book was to get rich off it.

There is one notable part of this chapter, and it’s this

If you are hoping to hear my account of slavery, you should know that I was fixated upon the flavors of meat raised in the terroir of Virginian tobacco plantations, and didn’t even notice the skin color of any given human.

We all know how Simon would excuse this, he’d say it’s not his fault he’s a monster blah blah blah.  But honestly, this is racist.  Even setting skin colour aside, is he trying to tell us he didn’t notice some humans were being treated as chattel?  I would think that’s something he would need to keep abreast of, considering he says he targets his food according to whether they’d be missed.

He also says his purpose isn’t to rewrite our past, which gives a great indication of what he thinks the past is (all the big events you learn about in primary school, no society and culture).  But that’s exactly what he wants to do.

Skipping down some more, over the part where he says if I find him funny, to consider he may not be kidding – it’s okay Simon, I’m laughing at you, not with you – and the part about diaries being a proper pursuit.  Even past the insult about mentally ill people.

BECAUSE THEN WE GET

“harangue me about being a second-rate author; but please be polite.”

Does Simon know what harangue means?  It means a tirade.  It’s not polite.

Another paragraph about how we shouldn’t care about his feelings because he doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks.  And this next bit.

“You are encouraged to embrace this tale however you see fit, communicate with its author any way you can”

Except, apparently, from creating a tumblr blog, that is very wrong.

And that’s it!  Literally nothing happened.  Hopefully things get more exciting in Chapter 2.

[tinyshe]

It's not uncommon in our culture to use the "H" word frequently. We use it to describe our distaste for all things, from food to art and music��and most definitely politics. The line between love and hate, as most of already know, is dangerously thin. Rarely do we feel such compelling emotions for the mediocre. Surely in our mind's cavernous sorting system, the doors for love and hate are adjoining. And while these emotions share an incredibly important common denominator—intense passion—they drive us to do vastly different things. But with that line between the two so thin, is it possible to turn hate into love? Here are a few reasons worthy of giving it a try and some tips on how to do it:

1. Less hate is healthier

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." And he was right on from a health perspective, too. Studies have found being nicer can reduce stress while hate often exacerbates it. Stress is believed to be a huge factor in the development of illnesses ranging from insomnia and digestive disorders to cancer. And decreasing hate supports healthier mental states as well. Healthier bodies and minds make us ripe for healthier relationships, too, which can be rewarding on spiritual and physical levels as well.

2. Less hate could mean a longer life

Author David R. Hamilton, PhD says the brain's production of oxytocin (which happens through emotionally satisfying interactions) can also help to reduce the levels of free radicals and inflammation, which can help to slow aging. He also cites a connection between compassion and the vagus nerve, which controls inflammation in the body. A study conducted on Tibetan Buddhists found kindness and compassion reduced inflammation.

3. Love and kindness make us feel good

When we turn our hatred into love—or at least, kindness—our brain releases chemicals including dopamine, which can improve our mood. According to Hamilton, "On a biochemical level, it is believed that the good feeling we get is due to elevated levels of the brain's natural versions of morphine and heroin, which we know as endogenous opioids. They cause elevated levels of dopamine in the brain, so we get a natural high, often referred to as "Helper's High."

4. Kinder people are more successful

David Brooks wrote for the New York Times that people who are genuinely kind and compassionate are usually the most successful: "In pursuing our self-interested goals, we often have an incentive to repay kindness with kindness, so others will do us favors when we’re in need." And a study published in Psychology Todayfound children who performed acts of kindness "gained an average of 1.5 friends during the four-week period—good support for the idea that “nice guys finish first.”

5. Creativity and kindness go hand-in-hand

While maudlin and depressed may be the more common way we think of great poets, authors, musicians and artists, new research has found a connection between art and kindness. Research conducted by the Centre for the Study of Group Processes at the University of Kent, found that there is potential for the arts to "be at the heart of strengthening our capacity for empathy, friendship, social bonds and concern for others, including future generations."

Turning anger into loving kindness can seem easier said than done. But you can try some of these tips to help you transform hate into love:

1. Be in service

When we help others, we think less about ourselves and those things that frustrate us. And helping others makes us feel better, too.

2. Meditate

Gaining some quiet time for self-reflection can help to shed light on reasons we may be full of hatred and show ways to transmute it. Even just a few minutes a day can help.

3. Think of something (or someone) you love

It's believed that hate and love can't co-exist in your mind, so when you're feeling hatred, try thinking about who or what you love, like a family member, a pet, music, a special place...

4. Be present

Often, our hatred happens when we're in "unconscious" mode. We're letting triggers or memories from the past affect our current actions. By staying in the present moment and observing our feelings, we're more capable of dealing with them properly.

5. Do you really hate it?

Like being unconscious to our actions, a lot of our hatred of things can actually be based on an experience we had a long, long time ago. Maybe it's time to check in and see if you really do hate something as much as you think. I routinely "try" garlic just to be sure I still hate it (and I most definitely do not like it).

6. Find the love in the hate

It's a thin line between the two, right? And as it's often the case in marriages or relationships, we can both love someone and find them extremely irritating at the same time. Can you love the fact that you hate someone or something? Does that change the experience at all?

7. Receive more love

Sometimes our hatred can stem from our own lack of being loved. Spend more time with people who love you or volunteer at an animal shelter or sanctuary where animals easily give you lots of love, and see if that changes your perspective.

8. Evaluate your diet

What we eat profoundly affects every part of our being. Food sensitivities and allergies can certainly impact our moods. So can foods high in processed sugars and flours, as well as caffeine.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

complete article here

[warsmith-38]

How I would do RWBY pt.4

World Travel Arc.

Season Four.

Cinder was found by Salem after fall of Beacon.

Missing arm and eye.

Salem helps her and even rewards her.

She accomplished her goal of shooting Ozpin with the arrow.

It didn’t take, sure, but that’s not Cinder’s fault.

Arm is replaced with grimm arm.

An eye was also offered but Cinder refused because she wants a visceral reminder of her failure.

Translation: Because chuunibyou.

Cinder spends her time training to compensate for and overcome her new disabilities.

Has massive grudge against Ruby.

What should have been two easy wins were stolen from her by sheer dumb luck and circumstance.

She has made it her goal to prove that she is more powerful than Ruby and will do so by tearing her heart out and turning it to ash.

Salem decides that Ruby will be an issue to her long term plans and sends her best assassin, Tyrian, to kill her instead of Cinder.

Just like Summer.

She doesn’t want to send Cinder on the grounds that she thinks that homegirl REALLY needs to chill.

Ruby is full murderhobo.

Killing grimm and taking whatever freelance bounty money she can on her way to Mistral.

Fuck if she knows what she’s going to do when she gets there but she hasn’t planned all that far ahead.

She just wanted to not be stuck at home again.

Finds JNR, who had volunteered for general assistance in the areas around Mistral.

JNR says that there’s both a grimm issue and a bandit issue in the area.

Ruby wants everything to do with it.

Blake is on her way back to Menagerie.

Encounters SSSN who are on light duties and are being sent to putz around in Menagerie.

Sun asks her ‘what the fuck is your plan?’

Blake says that the only place for her in the world is back home with her family.

Weiss is also back home with her family but is far less into the idea.

Dad is distant and detached.

Mother is drunk and miserable.

Winter is the only one she properly interacts with, training and sparring to keep herself in shape.

Winter offers a position in the military, a cushy one at that (Can I get an amen for nepotism?)

Weiss ignores the offer, is depressed, misses her friends.

Yang is stuck at home, also depressed, dealing with deepening abandonment issues, and constantly fiddling with the trinket Raven gave her.

Having Ruby run off only made things worse. Combining her abandonment issues with the feeling of letting her sister down when she needed her most.

Tai barely pays attention to her outside of his constant worrying about Ruby but eventually sees the trinket and tells Yang about Raven.

Is very clearly bitter about the whole thing but is pretending he isn’t.

VERY rose (ha) tinted glasses about Summer.

Not that she was secretly a piece of shit or anything, but to hear Tai talk about her she made saints look like goatfuckers.

Ironwood shows up and gives Yang robo-arm as an apology for saying he’d help her after the fight with Mercury and then letting her down.

Ironwood helps break Yang out of her funk, offers some military style counseling, helping her work off the muscle atrophy, even teaches her some spec-ops chokeholds and the like.

Yang says it’s nice to have an actual male role model/father figure in her life.

Ironwood rips Tai’s shit in for being such a bad parent to Yang.

Tai has no real counters to what Ironwood is saying.

He realizes that he’s been a neglectful asshole and starts helping retrain Yang too.

Weiss makes a scene at an event her father is putting on.

Jacques sits her down after it and says that they’re going to have a completely frank conversation.

Topic shifts to their viewpoints and life choices.

He’s fine with his daughter disagreeing with him, he just wants her to understand him and he her.

Weiss calls him out on the blatantly bad shit the SDC has done.

Jacques defends his points, saying that he tried to make things better for the faunus and the White Fang just made everything worse for everyone.

Weiss tells him that passing the buck is bullshit.

Agree to disagree.

Jacques gives her a spiel laced with double meanings about freedom and making your own path.

Weiss leaves that night. (keikaku doori (Translation: All according to keikaku (Translators note: Keikaku means plan)))

Jacques might be a dick but he does want his family to be as genuinely happy as he can make them.

Blake gets back home.

Gets royal reception on the grounds that she’s the daughter of the chief of the kingdom.

Sun sends SSN to get on with their mission, he’s gonna be a while, faunus business.

They understand, they’re hip to this sort of thing, and tell him that if he needs them they’re just a phone call away.

He calls Blake out for being one of the most privileged faunus alive while lecturing others on said topic.

Blake and Sun walk in on White Fang people trying to recruit Ghira.

Notices Blake in the process of telling them to leave.

Ghira shoves everyone out of his way to embrace his long believed dead daughter.

Emotional reunion.

Sees Sun, makes joke about ‘Adam’s cheerier replacement’.

Blake gets sad.

Ghira assumes Adam died or something and doesn’t press the matter.

Calls for a royal banquet to celebrate the return of his daughter.

Sienna is present.

Sienna is overjoyed to see Blake alive and well.

Blake is happy to see ‘aunty’ Sienna but is apprehensive to talk that much with Sun glaring at them both.

Ilia is there (as head of local White Fang cell) and is happy to see her old friend is alive.

She already knew but has to keep up appearances, especially after The White Fang was seen at Beacon.

Very poor publicity to be seen operating at a place like that.

Ilia had been reassigned to Menagerie before the fall happened so she’s not guilty of taking part.

Later has small meeting with Blake, Sienna, Ilia, Sun, Ghira, and Kali.

Sienna tries (again) to bring Ghira into the White Fang.

His joining would bring all of Menagerie and the connected resources into the conflict.

This is opposed by everyone else present barring Ilia.

Ghira says that he has washed his hands of the problems in Atlas and has local stuff that he believes is more important in the long run.

Supporting Wild Call is how he helps the rest of his people.

Kali’s been running Wild Call since Ghira stepped away to run Menagerie.

Sienna talks about how faunus are treated in certain parts of the world.

It really is nowhere near as bad as she says it is.

Blake brings up terrorist acts in places completely innocent of any faunus abuse.

Sienna ‘condemns’ these acts and blames them on ‘bad apples’ like Adam, citing the fall of Beacon.

Says that Adam was acting alone and without official endorsement.

She’s lying through her fucking teeth, but the only other one who knows that for sure is Ilia.

While taking part in the fall was technically unsanctioned, Sienna knows all about Salem and was okaying Adam’s efforts working with her.

Ilia suddenly feels very guilty for some odd reason.

Ghira is very confused, doesn’t keep up too much with world affairs, generally too busy.

Blake rounds on Sienna for trying to shift the blame to Adam, cites all of the bullshit attacks she was involved in, letting it be known that she herself was in the White Fang.

Ghira and Kali both become enraged at Sienna, who told them that Blake was killed years ago at a protest gone south.

Sienna tries to make excuses for the cause.

Is escorted with Ilia from the palace at gun point.

Kali and Blake reconnect as Ghira has a sit down with Sun, telling him to tell him everything he knows.

Weiss is stowed away on airship bound for Vacuo/Mistral (doesn’t really matter which, ship gets taken down either way).

Ship gets attacked by grimm and gets splashed.

Weiss makes it to shore and travels southward, realizing that maybe she should have planned this a little more than not at all.

Wonder who she picked that up from.

Ends up surrounded by bandits who see the pretty girl from Atlas who might just be worth a lot of cash.

Weiss kicks the shit out of them.

Raven shows up.

Weiss loses.

Yang decides enough of her sulking and gets ready to set off to find Ruby and either 1. Bring her home 2. Look after her and keep her safe on her personal quest 3. Kick her ass for running off and making everyone worried 4. Some combination of the above. (Maybe hit up where Raven’s map leads along the way if she gets the chance)

Tai acknowledges that he can’t always protect his girls.

Tells Yang to not be too hard on Ruby, realizing that she would never have been happy with a calm, sheltered, life.

Summer was the same way.

He also apologizes for neglecting Yang for as long as he did.

Yang gets a hug from Tai, a salute from Ironwood, and a slobbering from Zwei.

Yes, the dog is still here. He’s a good dog. Every story could use a good dog or twelve.

Gets to the continent that Mistral is on. (I do not care about the name)

Starts biking in the direction that the conflict zones are, hoping to find word about Ruby along the way.

Gets accosted by bandits along the way.

Kicks the crap out of them.

Raven shows up saying that she expected nothing less from her daughter.

Yang realizes that she is indeed around where the map was pointing her.

This was supposed to be a test to see if Yang was resourceful enough to track her down.

Didn’t really mean to come this way just yet, but sometimes things just work out that way.

Raven happily takes her daughter to the main camp.

Yang is apprehensive to get comfortable and seems a little disappointed that her mother is just some asshole bandit.

Raven gives her a speech all about survival of the fittest and might makes right and all that jazz.

Yang wants to know why she left her in the first place and why she is suddenly wanting to be back in her life after all this time.

She’s got a lot of questions and Raven has very few answers.

Raven avoids Yang’s questions and says that she’s always been watching her from behind the scenes.

Yang actually dislikes that even more because it means that she could have been there for her the whole time, yet wasn’t.

Raven continues by saying that if Yang’s so weak that she couldn’t beat a pissant like Neo then she really needs mama to teach her what’s what.

Offers Yang a position in the tribe and even offers to make her second in command.

Yang then sees Weiss in a cage.

Raven explains that she’s going to be given to Salem to use as a hostage in Atlas.

Yang had already given up on getting answers and was already going to tell Raven to eat shit but now...

Demolishes the camp, takes Weiss away on the bike, and leaves the trinket Raven gave her in the dirt.

Would have taken the time to kick the shit out of Raven, but she needed to get Weiss out of there.

Raven is livid.

In Menagerie, Ghira and Kali have very upfront conversation with Blake.

They are upset with her that she ran off with terrorists but are happy she’s alive.

They also admonish her for running/taking the easy way out of every problem she’s had.

Blake is exasperated that the last place she could run off to is calling her out for running off so much.

Adam is all like ‘what up bitches, imma kill ya’.

Has sizable team of White Fang commandos with him and some grimm Salem sent.

Ilia shows up with her own commandos to counter his.

Both sides duke it out with the Belladonnas (Nightshades technically) getting pissed and telling all of them to get off their lawn.

Blake fights Adam.

Starts losing.

Sun calls SSN in for the assist.

They help but not all that much.

Sienna shows up to break the stalemate.

Starts kicking the shit out of Adam’s posse.

Officially denounces and attaints Adam for his crimes.

Adam leaves and swears vengeance, telling Blake that if he can’t kill her, he’ll kill RWY and make sure they know it was her that sent him to them.

Blake finally learns her fucking lesson.

Start to pack up to stop Adam before he kills RWY and, either afterwards or in the process, find and reconcile with RWY.

Takes the time to actually explain why she’s leaving this time.

Ghira understands.

Sienna takes partial blame and offers Blake the last known location of a red hooded huntress with a big fucking scythe her spies found.

Blake thanks her, but refuses an escort, hitching a ride back to the mainland with SSSN.

Ghira and Kali thank Sienna for the help but still tell her to get the fuck out and that the White Fang and their war are both not welcome in Menagerie.

In the name of their past friendship, they don’t just shoot her.

Blake has parting conversation with Sun about justifications and personal growth.

She and Sun amicably part ways.

SSSN go back to their usual shit and Blake starts hunting for Ruby.

Her logic is that, as far as she knows, Weiss is surrounded with SDC security and Yang is probably somewhere safe-ish, while Ruby is actively in a dangerous locale and ripe for predation.

Speaking of…

Ruby and JNR are clearing out local grimm around Mistral as expected.

Include sad scene or two there they find the ruins of Nora’s home village, destroyed by bandits.

Tyrian is all like ‘what up bitches, imma kill ya’.

Ruby is actually very eager for a fight against one of the important bad guys.

That excitement is curbed when Tyrian lets her know that he was the one to kill Summer.

Ruby is now more scared than anything.

R+JNR fight him and get their asses handed to them.

They try running but Tyrian isn’t giving up the chase.

Turns into cat and mouse game.

Jaune is pushed to his tactical limit against an incredibly intelligent and just as unpredictable enemy.

Everyone is scared out of their minds.

The cat (Tyrian) is just playing with his food (R+JNR) at this point.

Could have killed them at any point but he’s a sadistic animal that gets off on this shit.

Nora flies into a fury, bellowing that she will never lose anyone close to her ever again.

This creates an opening in Tyrian’s style.

Jaune’s planning manages to exploit this enough so Ruby gets a good hit on him, severing his tail.

He is very unhappy at this development.

Decides that he’s done playing with his food.

Wrecks R+JNR.

About to kill Ruby when Qrow ex machina runs him off.

Jaune discovers his semblance is healing and uses it on everyone that needs it. Which is everyone.

Qrow is annoyed that Ruby ran off on her own but understands.

Says that there’s an abandoned chateau that can serve as a pit-stop.

Been in the Branwen family for ages.

They abandoned it after they lost their fortune and it got overrun with grimm in the past.

Grimm have since moved on but the building is still there.

He’ll explain everything he can when he knows they’re out of danger.

Raven contacts Salem and tells her which direction Yang and Weiss are going.

Salem barely cares about what one of her least important agents is up to.

Notices that Ruby is in the same area and gets wind that Tyrian failed.

Sends Cinder and company to meet up with Raven and get hunting.

Salem makes a point of ordering Cinder to let Tyrian take on Ruby and not get involved against her.

Cinder just happens to ignore that order.

Blake does a little extra tracking but heads in the right direction.

Yang and Weiss hear about a red hooded huntress with a big scythe and follow the rumors.

Everyone converges at the chateau at the same time.

It’s a very all over the place scene.

Ruby is happy to see Weiss and Blake but is a little wary of Yang after how their last conversation went.

Yang is eager to make things up with Ruby but more than a little scornful of Blake.

Blake is scared of everyone’s rejection but understands their anger and is more than willing to work through it if they’d have her.

Weiss is happy to see everyone but her happiness and excitement is curbed by how everyone else is reacting to each other.

The tension explodes when Cinder and co. arrive.

Ruby and Cinder lock eyes.

Ruby goes quiet for a moment-

And then goes completely Broly BERSERK!

Group of boss fights.

Ruby madly charges Cinder in a rage.

JNR, Qrow, and Weiss begin fighting Emerald, Mercury, Tyrian, and grimm they brought.

Blake fights Adam. (again)

Yang fights Raven, constantly calling her on her shit.

Abandoning her and Tai to be some asshole bandit, siding with Salem, being a coward, et cetera.

Says that she has figured out that the reason Raven left was because she’s just a chicken shit coward who can’t deal with the world.

All of her issues and traumas have manifested into a sort of nirvana of wrath that gives her a one-time, ‘fuck you, mom’, power up that puts her at Raven’s power tier level.

Ruby vs Cinder takes them away from the others.

Ruby is in berserk, adrenaline filled, wrath fueled, fugue state, taking hits that should be stopping the fight but aren’t.

Cinder is also not fighting at her best due to A. missing eye, B. her grimm arm having a built in weakness to Ruby, and C. the fact that she had no idea that Ruby would go fucking mental like this.

Ruby eventually knocks Cinder down a pit and promptly passes out from blood loss.

Blake beats Adam and tells him to fuck off, saying that she will not stoop to his level of murder.

Yang overpowers and beats Raven, but barely.

JNR is busy with the grimm and Qrow is busy with Tyrian, who has a freaky grimm tail now.

Weiss is fighting both Emerald and Mercury.

Is losing pretty hard.

Yang shows up to fight Mercury.

WY have their first proper rival fights against E+M.

And proceed to lose.

Raven has heel-face turn and bails them out.

Tyrian is killed at the same time. Small justice for Summer.

Qrow reunites with Raven.

The Branwen siblings intimidate E+M, faking not being fuckoff exhausted.

Dare they stand against this deadly alliance?

Nope.

Emerald and Mercury cheese it.

Raven explains that since Yang beat her, Yang is now in charge of the bandits.

Raven says how proud she is that her daughter is such an ass kicker.

Yang is about to tell her off but then realizes that Ruby is still gone.

They find her in a widening pool of her own blood.

Jaune heals her.

Everyone wonder just what the fuck that was that Ruby did.

It’s not its own power or a sub-power of her new semblance.

She was just that fucking angry at seeing Cinder.

RWBY has a big ‘we beat the middle to high tier bad guys’ group hug.

Ruby affirms that she senses that Cinder is still alive but accepts the hug anyway.

Raven says that Salem’s next target is Mistral itself with Adam’s White Fang hardliners.

Yang says thanks for the info and then tells her to do what she does best and fuck off.

Literally everyone mirrors the sentiment.

Raven leaves in a huff but starts to question her morals.

RWBY is now reunited as a team.

They’re not quite back to normal, but they’re all together again.

Reunited RWBY, JNR, and Qrow now on course to Mistral proper to recoup and make new plans.

Season four done.

[blossomingpink]

A while ago, I wrote down my answers for my Luis de Vega good ending playthrough and thought it might be nice to post them here for anyone who may be struggling to get that ending.

Chapter I

I shout to the grooms to bring buckets of water. The best way to save Francisco is to put out the fire.

Yes, actually.

Daughter

Violeta

de Flores

I spent every moment of my free time in the library. I am well-read in history, literature, mathematics, and foreign languages.

It’s not exactly a skill, but people comment on how sweet I am and how lovely to be around. How charming, in short.

I have only the barest scraping of magical talent. I can handle the very basics, but not anymore than that.

True love. Isn’t that what everyone wishes for, really?

Chapter II

Golden

Gray

The young men.

I shall go and dance.

True love. Surely among all those courtiers, there is someone destined for me, just like in a fairy tale…

Chapter III

Pleased. I will not know anyone at court, after all; it will be good to have someone I can talk to.

“Very well.”

I shall play the role as I was instructed, and gain approval by acting properly and modestly.

Yes.

Chapter IV

Torres is not what I had in mind, exactly, but is better than having no suitor at all. I had better seem interested, at least until something better presents itself.

No, thank you. Don Carlos has gone to get me one.

The king is sending me flowers? It’s like a fairy tale!

Thoughtfully.

Ask my uncle for advice.

Aunt Leonor cautioned me against settling for being the king’s lover.

Accept the king’s invitation and attend the tourney.

Attractive but sensible clothes. This is a sporting event, but the most important thing is keeping the King’s eye on me.

Of course not!

I decline to give the King a token. Let him earn my attentions if he wants them.

The King must feel awful, killing someone through no fault of his own. I comfort him.

I do not want to, but I will agree for the sake of the family.

Things are going exactly according to plan.

Chapter V

I would have made it my business to be well informed even back on my family’s estate. With the greater resources available to me at court, I have become quite expert in all the particulars.

“I do not see things the same as you in this matter.”

This is a great opportunity for the King! He should both seize some of the assets of the borderlords as punishment for their transgressions and also use the incident as a pretext to demand concessions from Sahra.

Determine the positions of the various factions.

No.

Yes, but I want to leave no signs of my involvement at all–a nudge here, a whisper there, that is all that it will take.

No.

I am happy with the current outcome.

Chapter VI

No.

No.

No.

Neither.

No.

By forcing him to chase me, I will inflame his desires all the more. He will be less interested if I am too easily caught.

Chapter VII

No.

Chapter VIII

I regretfully refuse, citing the damage to my reputation if I were to receive gifts from the King.

No. I will leave him to wonder if his offering does not please me, or if he has frightened me with his pursuit. The more he has to chase me, the more he will want to catch me.

Accept the King’s gift with thanks.

No.

Accept.

I will try to use his favor to get involved in the running of the country. In this way, I can both do something that has a real effect, and impress him with my intelligence.

“Improve still further on my position? How? It is not as though we could marry.”

Discover some way to discredit the Queen Consort, so the King is more likely to set her aside.

I will look through old records to see if there is legal precedent for a King setting a Queen Consort aside.

Mind-influencing magic.

Perhaps I could persuade Don Luis de Vega to join my conspiracy.

Speak to the King.

Affairs of the Court: Choice of Intrigues

Chapter IX

Charmingly

Chapter X

I have tried to promote reconciliation between the King and Family de Aguilar (and the rest of the borderlords). I have been unsuccessful so far–and no wonder, all things considered–but I live in hope.

Chapter XI

The respectable and sensible gray gown.

I admit it is true.

I humor Magdalena, even though it is far-fetched.

Pretend I saw nothing, or that I saw but do not care. It is beneath my dignity to challenge the King over his flirtations.

Chapter XII

In a friendly manner. I will not ignore any opportunity to try to build a better relationship with her.

“Well, your half-brother, then. I know it is an awkward situation, Juanita, but he is still your family.”

A king must not allow himself to be blackmailed! He should refuse!

Wait a few moments for the sake of discretion, then follow Luis de Vega to a place where the two of us may confer privately.

“I do not see the situation that way, Don Luis. If we allow Juanita’s betrothal to the Duquesa’s eldest, House Aguilar will accumulate far too much power. And there is a way to peace with Sahra without strengthening House Aguilar–the King should marry Juanita to the eldest Sahran prince.”

Chapter XIII

I will stay by the King’s side, but not because I am jealous of the Delgado girl. I will take advantage of this opportunity to discuss Juanita’s betrothal.

Juanita should be betrothed to a prince of Sahra as a means of ending the southern conflict without giving into Aguilar’s blackmail.

Yes.

Chapter XIV

“I believe that when so great a reward is possible, so great a risk is justified.”

I ignore it. Uncle Pedro’s advice can be useful, and if he sometimes forgets his place, so be it. We all know who truly wields power in the court.

Eliminating the Aguilar threat.

Attempt to convince the King to offer Juanita in marriage to Sahra, in exchange for a stable border. While you speak to His Majesty, Uncle Pedro and Magdalena should stir up approval in the Court for this idea.

Chapter XV

Spend all day with the King, being as sweet and understanding as it is possible to be, so that he feels he can never do without me.

Nothing. After the King makes his decision, I will support him and it in any way I can.

Go with him, of course.

Chapter XVI

Be all sweetness. Build upon last night’s pleasant activities and secure his attention and affection.

Chapter XVII

Reasonably pleased.

Chapter XVIII

I greet him with appropriate formality, but with a warm smile on my face.

I am glad to see an old friend, and not afraid to show it, but he is nothing more to me than that.

Affairs of the Court: Til Death Do Us Part

Chapter XIX

I don’t have a strong opinion, so I plan to stay out of it.

Chapter XX

Yes.

I describe it in as neutral and factual a tone as I can, attempting to give equal weight to both sides of the argument.

Yes. De Vega is going to hate this. I think he would appreciate knowing about it as early as possible.

He is absolutely right.

Yes. I will help de Vega prepare to win the upcoming battle of wills in court.

Condesa Clàudia de Gonsales, the Life Mage.

I logically enumerate all the disadvantages of Death Rods, so that she may understand they will not be a long-term benefit to Life Mages.

Don Felix de Chaves, the commander of the army.

I point out the disadvantages Death Rods would pose to the army.

Doña Natalia Medina, the merchant.

I point out the disadvantages Death Rods would pose to a merchant such as herself.

Yes, of course.

Chapter XXI

Sit beside him.

I put my hand on his shoulder.

…musing on this unexpectedly softer side of Luis de Vega.

“Of course, my friend. Come in and we will drink to her memory.”

“Really?” Your heart is pounding. “And who might that be?”

Kiss him back for a moment before I come to my senses, then break it off and push him away.

My heart aches at the opportunity lost. Such a powerful and brilliant man, and so passionate beneath his cool façade…

Because he was drunk.

Yes.

No.

“So you do not think of me as someone with whom you share a rare connection?”

“What a shame. I was hoping it was not the brandy.”

“More than one. All of them.”

“Surely it is worth the risk, when the reward is so great? My life is so lonely, Luis. Do not deny me this chance of happiness.”

Chapter XXII

Confused. I have so many conflicting thoughts and feelings that I don’t know what to think.

I must get to Agustín quickly, but I can spare a moment to speak with the Royal Physician.

Ask de Vega about why he has issued those orders.

Agustín is better than this. I will persuade him to spare them.

“I think it would be best, for my safety and yours and the safety of my children, that we end our romance.”

…but I resist it nobly.

Chapter XXIII

Flee to de Vega’s chambers–he can keep me safe.

Chapter XXIV

I am in terrible danger. I must strike against my enemy Aguilar without any loss of time.

The attack was an affront against the King. He should be the one to respond.

Evidence and logic.

Yes, it is my duty to Iberia.

“I will stay quiet this time, but in the future I cannot allow fear to prevent me doing my duty to the realm.”

Run to the King’s side.

“Are you mad to say such a thing? The walls have ears!”

Chapter XXV

Yes. I ask Luis de Vega.

Given the King’s recent erratic behavior, I am concerned for the girl. I must come up with some way to detach her from His Majesty without saying anything that could prompt the King to think I have turned against him.

“You said your sister-in-law brought her to court primarily to make a good marriage. Perhaps we can arrange one high enough to satisfy them both and turn Lucia’s attention away from the King.”

Wear a gray gown the color of my eyes, in a dignified style suitable to my age.

Find someone else for Lucia to flirt with.

Promote the romance between Lucia and the Condesa.

Chapter XXVI

He must be a masterful political schemer.

Let him finish. No good can come of interrupting the King at this point.

Follow him.

I shall go to the King at once. He needs me now, more than ever.

“I…am yours to command.”

“Yes, Tomás. Yes. I trust you.”

“I would be happy to tell you a secret in private. But I can’t do that in front of all of these people!”

“I’ve never told anyone, but I caused the death of Queen Consort Inés.

Keep silent.

Allow him to touch my face.

Chapter XVII

Unclean. I have never been so completely violated.

“I am certain.”

“Tomás knows that I can threaten his position. He wants me on his side.”

“Offering the throne to Ricardo is just an inducement to get me to go along with his plan.”

“He must be stopped, at any cost.”

Research ways to break mind control.

Find a way to determine who is under the influence of mind-altering Life Magic.

Ask Aunt Leonor to pay for this from the funds of House de Flores.

Assemble a list of names of people under mind control.

Try to cure some of Tomás’s lackeys.

Carefully attach the thread to a rat.

That’s enough for now. It’s too risky to continue.

Chapter XXVIII

Laugh. Children say the strangest things, don’t they?

I will never be safe as long as Tomás is alive. I must find a way to kill him.

Convince one of the courtiers I freed from Tomás to kill him.

I must poison Agustín–I have enough access to succeed where others have failed. I will be safe with him dead.

Tonight, perhaps for the first time in years, I sleep soundly.

Chapter XXIX

“Uncle, the true prize is safety. I have risked much and won much for my family in this arena–and now the days of risk are done. I will pay homage to Juanita when she arrives, and then we will all depart to voluntary exile, where I may know my family safe from the machinations of the court.”

“Oh, yes!”

Worried. What could she possibly want with us after all this time.

I thank her for the honor she is conferring upon my son.

“No, not at all. Those peaceful years in the country were what I really wanted.”

[roseglimmerofhope]

ᴛɪᴛʟᴇ: English-APP Reading Record (September 14 - September 23)

UNIT 1 : The Nature of Academic Text

In this unit I have learned further knowledge about the Nature of Academic Text. To be honest, I had no idea what an academic text was at first, but thanks to our teacher who elaborate and make me understand what is the purpose for us to learn this lesson. So, according to what I've learned, academic text are specialist texts authored by skilled experts in the given field and they uses formal language. When we say formal, we're not referring to our everyday conversations. In academic writing for example the word didn't, we are obligated to write the two words did not instead of didn't. Academic text also delivers facts rather than our opinions, and it is technical since certain terms or phrases are required for a certain discipline. Another example is when we talk about the word train, it's meaning is strengthening or improving our skills, while another meaning of this is a kind of rail transportation. I also learned the IMRAD structure, which is very familiar to me due to our research subject. IMRAD stands for introduction, method, result, and discussion. The introduction states the issue that what was asked, the method that refers the used in study, the conclusion that what was discovered, and the interpretation of what the findings signify. We've also discussed the primary disciplines and their sub-disciplines, which include here the business, humanities, natural and applied sciences and social sciences. Business for those students like me who choose the ABM strand. Under the business we have accountancy, management, finance, marketing economics, and other fields relating to business ethics that fall under the ABM thread. These are the knowledge that I have learn in this unit. In addition, I now know how to analyze a text and able to figure out the different structures of an academic text.

UNIT 2 : THESIS AND OUTLINING

In this unit I have learned, that a thesis statement is like a roadway map for us readers. It tells us where our essay is about to go. It helps us to guide our ideas. The thesis statement is not only stated a topic, it states the main idea and it reflects our own opinions or our judgement towards about what we've read or in any of our personal experiences. It is comprehensible and expressive most importantly it is base on facts. I also learn that if I will make a thesis statement my thesis statement should be broad enough and will make an appeal or impact to my readers or to my audience and also specific enough for me to narrow it and I will be able to focus on the main points of the details in my argument. I must also have a back up with doing research or seeking information and gather them all with evidences to stand my statement. In this way I can be assure that my thesis statement will be a debatable and base on facts. On the other hand outlining is one of my favourite part of this unit the reason is that because of this I was able to get all of my ideas well organized before I start writing in the actual paper. This helps me to ensure my ideas are clear and connected to each other. My arguments are supported with evidences and I am writing in coherent manner.

UNIT 3 : SUMMARISING

One of the most crucial aspects of summarizing is that we must extract the key events or ideas from the source or in a specific paragraph and put them in our own words. In a nutshell, a summary is nothing more than an abstraction of the original text. It should be kept short and simple because we are only required to cite the main ideas. I used to think that summarizing was simple, but I was mistaken. I need to have a good reading comprehension and a thorough understanding of the entire text in order for me to grasp the important elements. Example of this is when you're telling a long narrative to your friend, but you only retelling the important details to keep the story short and much understandable. When we summarize a text or a paragraph, we must know how to recognize the major ideas, key facts, and supporting details, just like when we are writing an essay or a research paper. Using a single word makes our summary more clear and understandable at the same time. When we say we should use our own words, it doesn't mean that we should analyze and interpret the content according to our own understanding but instead, we should make our own summary sound like an independent piece without incorporating any form of misinterpretation. One thing I've learned is that we need to keep our summaries brief. Because a summary is short, we should be able to avoid repeating ideas while we are writing. This will maintain the flow of our summarized, and coherence is also a key feature. Even if we simply choose the most important points, we should ensure that our summary should be concise and well-organized.

UNIT 4 : PARAPHRASING

This unit has taught me more about paraphrasing. According to what I've learned, paraphrase is the process of rephrasing someone else's work or thoughts into our own words while maintaining the same level of the details. I've noticed that in academic writing, it's usually better to paraphrase rather than restate because it shows that we've read the source and able to understand it, makes our work more authentic, and improves our ability to communicate information. It is disadvantage for me also to take notes before I start paraphrasing for me to be able to create a good paraphrase. I have also learn the techniques in written sources. I recommend that we should be carefully read the original material to ensure that we thoroughly get to understand the text, and then after that we will establish the connections between the given text's concepts and our own ideas. Paraphrasing can truly assist us in putting the concepts of the text into our own words. In addition, I've learned also that paraphrasing is useful when we want to use someone else's notion to support our own ideas, but we shouldn't use their exact words if we want to clarify an author's idea to the readers and most importantly to ourselves.

UNIT 5 : CITING SOURCES

In this unit, I have learned further knowledge about the citing sources and it's importance. As I start my junior highschool life I remember how I usually experience being lazy and irresponsible student everytime our English teacher will gives us a task to do writing essays. Because of my laziness I tend to search and copy someone's else work online, in short I owned it without giving credits to the writer or author of that work. I didn't have any idea that time that it is a serious offense. In my own understanding to cite refers to the process of documenting and identifying the sources that we utilized in a piece of writing. We need to show where we found the information we used. It does not matter what or which type of source it is, whether hard copies or online, or whether it is an image we must do responsibilities to cite and credit the sources. We may commit plagiarism or copying the work of others without proper attribution and if we take someone's idea or information without properly crediting and acknowledging them. Another reason that we must cite the sources is so that our viewers or readers may get the information they need for their own usage and verify that our work is authentic. Citing sources has benefits, such as increasing our implausibility for ourselves and also in our works. It also protects us from plagiarizing. I realize now and regretted my past actions it is really wrong to steal someone's work without indicating its source or without their permission. I should motivate myself that time to do it on my own capability and I should think the efforts and struggle of that author for him/her to be able to finish that work. It is critical that we should aware of and follow these kind of principles. By this we can demonstrate that we appreciate and respect the owner's intellectual property rights by citing their works. For those students like me let's motivate ourselves to act as a responsible leaders and standing for integrity. #NOTOPLAGIARISM #CITETHESOURCES #PLAGIARISMCOMMITSCONSEQUENCES #RESPECTTHEOWNERSINTELLECTUALRIGHTS

[you-know-like-the-bird]

The Day of Projectile Chairs

Alright so this is something I wrote quite a while ago. But thing is I never post it on tumblr (it’s on Ao3 tho), but since I wrote a companion piece for this I decided to send them out together. I’ll figure how to link the two, but until then they have the common tag ‘Days of Chaos’, since that’s the name of the series that these shots belong to. So if you’re looking for these shots, just search that tag in this blog’s search.

The Days Of Chaos are mainly centred around Quirkless!Izuku and his friendship with Mei and Shinsou. There aren’t any romantic elements in this yet, but as I keep on writing I might add them. After all, I did start these with Shindeku in mind.

Anyways! This is the first part, so I hope you enjoy!

Edit: Yooooooo I figured it out! Second part is here!

-

It's by pure chance that when the alarm rings out, Izuku is looking out the window.

"Alert! Alert! There has been a Level 5-"

But Izuku's not really listening, because at that exact moment, he sees a group of people startle into view. What that means is, one moment there was nothing, and then suddenly four people appeared out of thin air. The one walking in the middle, a pale looking man with straight black hair who has a hand touching two others and a fourth person gripping his elbow, looks up in panic as the school wide alarm starts blaring. His friend behind him shoves him roughly, and the man shakes his head, before they all disappear into thin air once again.

'A warping quirk? No... there's a shimmer in the air where the group had been standing, almost like a mirage. So maybe... maybe they're still there, just that I can't see them...'

And it's at that point that the blaring announcement finally registers in Izuku's brain, "-repeat, there has been a Level 5 security breach! All students are requested to reach their classrooms immediately!'

Which means that the group was probably villains.

Izuku's classmates mill about the classroom, talking to each other excitedly as they try to figure out what's going on. Multiple voices, all loud and outgoing, catch at the edge of Izuku's brain, but the words being said enter from one ear and slip right out the other as Izuku scrambles out of his seat. His classroom makes up one corner of the school building’s third floor, which means they have windows all along the side and back of the classroom. With the direction they had been walking in, there’s a chance that Izuku can catch sight of them from the back windows if they accidentally drop whatever quirk that is keeping them hidden again.

Izuku quickly opens the windows and leans out, looking to see if he can see the air shimmer around the corner. He can't, but then something else catches his attention, and he looks in the other direction to see someone walking with a humongous wooden box that seems to be filled with odd bit of machinery. On a closer look, he realizes that it's a girl, with cross-haired eyes and manic pink dreadlocks. She walks with a bounce in her step, and the box in her arms jingles happily with each step.

She's headed straight in the villain's direction.

For a moment, he considers calling out to her, but then reconsiders quickly, because he may be able to warn her, but the villains will hear him too.

Fuck.

During this time, a teacher had already entered the classroom and is trying to get the kids to settle down, so that she can properly explain the situation. Izuku barely registers this as he runs past her, citing some excuse about going to the bathroom, and books it.

-

Hitoshi had conveniently just finished his business in the washroom, when the alarms rang out. He stood stalk still in front of the sinks, hands still under a spray of water as the P.A system informs him that there's been a Level 5 breach in the school, and that he needs to get back to his classroom, immediately. He quickly dries his hands and exits the washroom to do just that, when a green blur shoots past him. He watches a boy skid around the corner, and in that split-second catches sight of his face and realizes that it's a classmate of his. He hasn't really talked to the boy, but from what he remembers, he's pretty sure the boy is just as antisocial as him, albeit probably for different reasons, if his constant nervous fidgeting was anything to go by.

For a moment he wonders what could be so urgent that the boy risked crashing face first into a wall.

As he's about to continue his journey back, he hears an urgent voice coming from his classroom's hallway. Hitoshi inches closer and comes to carefully stands just around the corner, until the voice is clear enough to listen to, "-need someone to look over class 1-C because a kid just took off with a shady as fuck excuse and I am not getting in trouble with the principal for this Sora. You'd think kids at a hero school would be better at following safety protocols but no, and now I gotta hunt this kid down before the principal has my head-"

It takes all of five seconds for Hitoshi to make his decision, before he's running after the kid.

-

Izuku jumps down the stairs five at a time, sure he's going to trip and fall any second now but somehow managing to stay upright. He reaches the first floor and runs towards a separate staircase he knows is closer to where he saw the girl. He runs across an empty classroom but skids to a stop a few meters away and backtracks, because this classroom is the one one floor below his own, but more importantly, it'll give him the perfect vantage point to look and see if the villains have spotted the girl yet.

And to his dismay, they have.

"-must be one of the support brats. Listen girly, just pretend you never saw us, alright? We're hopefully not here to cause trouble."

"Oh but according to the school alarms I think you are!" The girl speaks cheerfully as the metal bits in her box jingle again, "What are you guys even here for at the main building? I thought the attack was at the U.S.J?"

A villain with spiky purple hair snorts, "As if we'd tell you. Sorry kiddo, but villains don't monologue in real life."

The girl just shrugs in faux disappointment, "Ah well, that's a shame. But hey, who cares what you're here for when you're gonna get caught anyways?"

'She's stalling' Izuku realizes with a little bit of awe, 'The security cameras have probably already seen these guys, and she knows that the heroes are going to get here soon.'

"What are you doing?"

Izuku shrieks and jumps a foot in the air from being startled. He quickly backs away from the window, which means that when the villains' heads snap up they don't see anything out of the ordinary.

The boy who snuck up on him, one that he recognizes from his class, stands back and let's Izuku catch his breath.

"Why the fuck would you do that?" Izuku whisper shouts at the boy.

The boy shrugs, "Thought you'd heard me come in."

"What was that?!" The furious shout catches both their attentions, and they exchange a weary glance before creeping back up to the window. It's the guy with purple spikes who shouted this, and looking at the thin metal spikes covering his fist, Izuku realizes he must have activated his quirk. The pale looking guy, who Izuku suspects has the invisibility quirk that got the group this far, stays close to his teammates, hand hovering in the air and ready to touch them and activate his quirk. One woman with neon green flames for hair fiddles with the lighter in her hand, eyes frantically flickering around. Their last party member is hunched over the back-cafeteria door, and it looks like she's trying to get them in with the way she has her hand pressed against the computer pad. (Unbeknownst to everybody, this poor woman is literally trying to hack past the principal of U.A and she is, of course, failing miserably).

'Probably an electricity quirk of some sort, something that'll help her get past the computer pad but it clearly takes away her situational surroundings...'

"I said what the fuck was that?"

"I don't know!" The girl snaps back, much to the purple-spikes' guy's surprise. "I told you that the pros were coming, so are you really that surprised?"

The guy growls, "You..."

Izuku frantically pulls his classmate back from the window, "We need a plan."

"A- what? A plan?"

"Yes." Izuku hisses, "I don't think that girl actually knows how much time it'll take for the pros to get here, and anything can happen between then. We need to help her stall."

"We can't just step in! Those are villains, we could get hurt!" The guy argues back.

"And if we don't do something, she'll get hurt anyways. Come on, if you hadn't scared me, they wouldn't have been agitated in the first place."

His classmate clenches his jaw. Finally, he says, "Fine. What are we going to do?" 

 "-You don't know what you're fucking talking about-"

"Your gear is horrible! Haven't you ever met a decent illegal broker before, dumbass?!" 

 Izuku stares up at his classmate. "What's your quirk?"

The boy in front of him hisses, "What does my quirk have to do with-" 

 "Oi oi, fuck you! You haven't even spent a week in the support course, what the fuck do you know girly?!"

"A lot more that you apparently-" 

 "Your quirk, what is it?"

The boy seems to finally be giving into the pressure as the arguing from down below starts getting louder and more heated, "Brainwashing. I can put someone under my control if they verbally respond to a question."

Izuku nods slowly, "I can work with that."

-

Mei is getting ready to just about throw down the metaphorical gauntlet with how stupid this villain in front of her is, when all of a sudden, they hear a new voice join the fray.

"Ah, yes, Present-Mic sensei? Yeah, I'm- no- I'm actually near the cafeteria back door right now."

Mei and the three idiots in front of her quiet down as a boy with purple hair and eyebags so deep they make Mei want to take a nap comes around the corner with a phone pressed against his ear. He doesn't notice them yet, not immediately, and just continues talking on the phone. "Yes, I know I should be in my classroom, but it's not like I'm out here on purpose. Ah- yes- sorry sensei, it won't happen again."

And then he looks up. He stops abruptly, staring at the odd view Mei and the villains make, with the chick who was trying to get into the school still stuck at the computer pad (it's like she can't hear their commotion at all honestly, and Mei is starting to think it has something to do with her quirk). Its kinda pathetic, how long this woman has been trying and failing to unlock a simple back door, and Mei's half tempted to march up there and unlock it for a her.

The boy stares at them for a moment, before he says, "I-" he cuts himself off to lower the phone from his ear, "Are you guys villains?"

And the Pale Guy with the invisible quirk must be feeling extra dumb today because he says, "Yeah. Yeah we are." He immediately gets a swat on the arm from Fire Lady for that, but it's already too late, because the boy is back to talking to his phone. "Yupp. Villains. Back cafeteria door." There's a pause, before the boy says, "Alright, see you soon Present Mic."

And then he cuts the call.

"So... you guys come here often?"

And Fire Lady loses it, "That's it!" With the stress of getting caught already by two people and the irrefutable knowledge that backup was soon on its way to arrest them, Mei doesn't blame her.

The Pale Guy has other plans though, with how he reaches out towards Fire Lady, "No, wait-"

Surprisingly, Fire Lady stops, but they soon find out it's not because of Pale Guy. The kid with eyebags sighs tiredly, "Just one? Why? Alright then, knock out your teammate with the spikes for me, will you?"

Fire lady turns, a blank look in her eyes, and Spikes Guy takes a step back, "Wha- Haruhi?"

It's like Fire lady can't hear him, when she reaches for her hair and managed to pull a ball of fire away from it, which she subsequently chucks at Spikes. He scrambles back to avoid getting hit, and the game is on. Pale Guy reaches for the chick still trying to work the door and yanks her away from it, and it looks like she's just coming back online when she blinks and looks around confused, "What the fuck is going on?"

Pale Guy has already grabbed her forearm, and is trying to pull her away from the fight between Fire Lady and Spikes. "Come on! We gotta run!"

"On no you don't!"

And then a chair comes sailing through the air, and nails the poor man straight on the nose. Three sets of eyes turn to where the chair came from, Fire Lady and Spikes too busy playing a flammable version of tag and Pale Guy crumpled on the floor with two hands over his poor nose, to see a kid leaning out from one of the classroom windows, breathing heavily from where he just threw a piece of furniture at them. He scrambles away immediately, probably going to get another projectile, when Miss I'm-going-to-break-into-U.A-and-I'm-going-to-succeed-because-I-have-an-electricity-quirk hisses, "You fucking kids. I'll show you-"

She bends down and goes to press her hands flat on the ground, but Mei thinks quickly and fishes out the biggest piece of cobbled together metal and wires she can find in her box, and throws. Instead of hitting Electricity Girl though, it just painfully clips her shoulder and makes her stumble back, before conking Pale Guy straight on the head. It's about all the trauma his head can take and he passes out.

The Electricity Chick scowls at them, "You're dead." She slams her hands down, and another chair comes flying, but this time closer to Eyebags and Mei, and Chair kid shouts, "Jump on!"

And Mei has worked with electronics and people with electrical quirks enough times to somewhat know what's going happen already, because a surge of electricity comes cackling towards them along the ground. Mei jumps, hoping to land on the seat, but at the same time, Eyebags jumps over the back support, and they end up toppling into each other. It works out though, even if they do land in a heap on the ground, because Electricity Girl gets knocked out soon by, guess what?

A chair.

Mei and Eyebags look over to where Spikes is laying flat on the ground, a large bruise forming on his temple, as Fire Lady stands silently besides him.

Mei makes no move to get up from where she's sprawled across Eyebags' legs. "Well. That could have gone worse."

Chair kid gives her a thumbs up, before sinking out of view.

-

They're scolded, of course, almost gloriously so. (Mei finds out that Shinsou's whole call with 'Present Mic' was actually fake, since one; Shinsou doesn't even have his number and two: Present Mic was actually all the way at the U.S.J. All in all, it was a pretty ballsey move, but it did it's job of further scaring the villains). Even if they did manage to get those villains in the end, they shouldn't have been outside their classroom in the first place, and to avoid dangerous scenarios exactly like this, too. Chair kid, who Mei learns is named Izuku Midoriya, tries to defend himself by saying that he panicked when he caught sight of the villains heading in Mei's direction, but the teacher reprimanding them simply shakes their head and says he should've just called a teacher instead.

Which... fair.

Eyebags, or Shinsou Hitoshi, doesn't have an excuse at all, just that he got curious and had decided to follow Midoriya.

And Mei? Well, Mei was just the poor victim of a villain attack.

(She's also very disappointed, because she had a half-finished baby in that box that she was sure she could have used. Oh well, maybe next time, when there's no risk of it blowing up.)

"So… you guys are gen-ed?" Asks Mei as they walk to the infirmary room. They don't really have any injuries, except for Shinsou's scraped elbow from when Mei has toppled into him, but they're going to get checked up anyways for everyone's peace of mind.

"Yupp."

"Huh." Mei counts the tiles of the ceiling as she walks, "You two wanna get onto the hero course or something or...?"

Shinsou rubs the back of his neck and sighs harshly while Midoriya just looks blankly down at the floor.

"That would be ideal," Starts Shinsou, "but people aren't all that receptive towards a brainwashing quirk, not to mention, the Sports Festival is tailor made to cater to physical quirks most of the time."

Midoriya nods absently. "Yeah. Besides," he laughs harshly, "It's a fever dream for me, quirkless and all."

Both Shinsou and Mei look at him surprised, "You're quirkless?"

"Yupp."

The three of them are silent for a while, before Mei says, "Still managed to take those villains down though, so does it matter?"

And Midoriya looks up at her, surprised, with something like relief in the small smile he gives her. Shinsou laughs, "She's not wrong. That plan wasn't half bad back there, short-stack."

"I am not short-"

-

After a trip to Recovery Girl's room, the moment they step out, Mei says, "So, I was thinking..."

Shinsou raises an eyebrow at her, "Yeah?"

Mei smiles, all wide and wicked, "If you're really going to try for the hero course, you might want some support gear to boost that quirk of yours! It's not bad in itself, just that you're at a disadvantage if you can't use it before you get punched in the face."

Shinsou sullenly stuffs his hands into his pockets and scowls, "I know that-"

Midoriya cuts in before he can get very far with that though, "What are you saying Hatsume-chan?"

Mei gives them both a thumbs up, "Since you two helped me out today, I don't mind working on a bit of gear for you! I gotta make stuff for the Sports Festival anyways, but my babies will really shine if they're tailored perfectly for someone else and used by them! And you guys get a advantage over the hero kids! So, what do you say?!"

Midoriya looks surprised, "Even for me?"

"Yeah! You're even easier, since I can give you anything I want."

The way she says it sounds slightly ominous, but Shinsou and Midoriya exchange a glance, before Midoriya smiles warmly at her, "I think that sounds wonderful."

(And that was the day their friendship started, on the day of the Projectile Chairs.)

(Honestly though, with how long Shinsou and Midoriya pine after one another, Mei herself had started to consider throwing a chair at the two oblivious idiots.)

[mysterylover123]

Todoroki’s Relationships Part 5: Training Camp & Hideout Raid Arcs

The Training Camp arc is mostly about Todoroki’s relationship with Bakugou, with a little sidecar for Midoriya.

Todoroki compares Bakugou to Kota; this indicates that he views Katsuki as basically a bratty kid. Baku protests the comparison, and Shoto apologizes (apology #1098234) but doesn’t retract the comparison. 

He gets a chance to use his fire power to help others. Momo steps in to defend him, though also to reprimand her classmates and tell them that they need to learn to be self-reliant. Todoroki tells her it’s fine by him

And helping his friends brings out one of his rare smiles.

We see him thinking in sync with Midoriya and Bakugou 

He comes over to Midoriya after noticing him asking Aizawa about All Might. Midoriya confides in him about Kota.

He shows some impressive respect for Shoto, putting him on the same level as All Might. Shoto then gives him some fantastic advice.

This is very interesting as far as Shoto’s relationships go. It’s clearly an important principle of his that actions speak louder than a person’s words. He often seems to judge people in just that manner: He came to respect Bakugou and Momo for the skills they demonstrated, and didn’t listen to Midoriya until Deku could back up his ideals with actions. Perhaps this also pertains to why Bakugou doesn’t annoy him as much as you’d expect. He isn’t as concerned about what he’s saying.

He also brings up Deku’s words to him, indirectly. He criticizes Izuku again, something he has a surprising tendency to do. Shoto is more of a non-involvement type of person, avoiding meddling in Iida’s personal problems until he was already in trouble, and noticing but not acting on his concern for Momo until it boiled over. Izuku is more interfering, meddlesome, and pushy towards other peoples boundaries. It’s true, as Shoto points out here, that that can be annoying if it isn’t backed up with actions. It’s also absolutely the kind of person Izuku is. This is an interesting difference between them.

He’s paired up with Bakugou for the trial and Bakugou tries to switch with Ojiro. BTW, Ojiro was paired with MINETA. That’s how badly Bakugou apparently wants IcyHot away from him. My god. You couldn’t be more insulting if you tried. 

Shoto’s usual approach to teamwork, as established in previous episodes/chapters, is to take charge and try to handle everything himself. While the members of his Cavalry Battle team, as well as Shoji, were fine with that, neither Deku nor Kacchan is. Both refuse to be bossed around by Shoto. All three are assertive, leader-type characters who take charge and try to handle everything on their own. 

His reaction to hearing Bakugou is being targeted is to reprimand him for his recklessness. He saves Bakugou several times with his ice from Moonfish. Here and there the two achieve smooth communication, though not necessarily great teamwork, usual from coming to similar conclusions at the same time about Moonfish. 

They think rather alike, as both have already figured this out and Bakugou is annoyed with Todoroki for telling him what he already knows. 

Here, they try to negotiate, with Bakugou trying to come up with a plan to take out Moonfish as he drives them into a corner, and Todoroki being more cautious. Another difference between these two is that Bakugou is more reckless, more interested in solving things Right. Now. Shoto, meanwhile, is more cautious, and unless upset emotionally, he generally tries to keep calm. 

However, here their behaviors are reversed. Bakugou is faster to figure things out and realizes exactly what to do, while Shoto wants a quick fix. They are on the same page enough to use fire and explosion simultaneously to calm down Tokoyami. While they don’t work together as smoothly as Shoto and Momo did in the Final Exam arc (after their pep talk), they do work together better than you’d expect, given both of their track records with teamwork.

We get a brief bit of negotiation between him and Izuku, which is mostly them giving each other exposition.

He utters another command to Bakugou, who again hates being bossed.

When Bakugou is taken, we get Shoto’s first extreme reaction to a friend being endangered. While he certainly showed his capacity for anger at the pain of a loved one before (his Mom), this is the first time he’s expressed it about one of his classmates. The first time we get to see Shoto being protective - not just passively concerned and caring about people, but sending a giant ice wall at a villain to save someone.

His reaction to Bakugou’s abduction is not quite as extreme as Deku’s (”GIVE HIM BACK”), but by Todoroki’s standards, this is pretty emotional. He unleashes the power he’s been saving this whole time out of fear of putting others at risk, and grows far more erratic, emotional and expressive.

He takes the time to notice Midoriya’s pain as well, showing concern for him and giving him an order which Deku, being Just Like Kacchan, defies. The difference between Ochaco and Shoto here is she asks, Shoto commands. Deku doesn’t listen to either one of them.

These are his and Izuku’s expressions when they get ahold of the guy who’s taken Bakugou. He’s furious and focused, dead-set on taking him down.

When he thinks Shoji has saved Bakugou he looks happy

Desperation when trying to catch the BakuMarble

And when he fails to  catch the marble...he looks ready to start crying.

And moves in to try and comfort Izuku when he falls over.

What we get from this arc for his relationship with Midoriya is that Shoto notices what’s up with Deku, cares about his wellbeing, can work together with him all right, and finds his interfering personality a little irritating. For Bakugou, we see that Shoto and him aren’t perfectly in sympatico, but can actually work together ok; that Shoto sees Bakugou as kind of childish, but that he cares deeply about him and is rather protective of him. 

HIDEOUT RAID ARC

We get a soft, concerned look at Midoriya when he visits him in the hospital.

He bluntly tells Izuku that Kacchan is gone. This straightforward attitude doesn’t seem to bother Izuku (consider that he grew up around Bakugou, no wonder). Shoto looks pretty devastated himself at Bakugou’s loss.

They must have been going to visit Momo first. 

Shoto makes it clear what’s motivating him here: Bakugou could get killed. He can’t sit around when Bakugou might be in deanger of dying.

However, the decision is Yaoyorozu’s. It’s clear he can’t make her, and he looks surprised when she appears. 

When Iida hits Izuku, Shoto looks properly horrified. We don’t see his reaction to Yaoyorozu saying she’ll help because she trusts him, but it is a moment worth noting. 

Shoto makes it clear that his interest in saving Bakugou is selfish. He isn’t doing it because of what he sees as a pure ideal of heroism, as Izuku and Kirishima both try and justify their actions by bringing up their ideologies. For Shoto, he knows this is because of his own personal desires.

a

This is the first time I can recall of Shoto criticizing Momo, the way he’s wont to critique most of his fiends. He asks her a logical strategy question and she quickly gets defensive and cites reasons that, according to Kirishima’s analysis, are just a cover-up for her real motive. Momo wants to appear good and competent around Todoroki, so she gives a better motive for her actions here than she may actually feel.

He tells them to get moving when creeps start hitting on her, showcasing a kindness and protectiveness of Yaoyorozu here.

When the Pros appear to have handled this situation, he looks back with Izuku, showing that he wasn’t as sanguine about their capacity as Momo and Iida are. Todoroki, being the son of the very flawed #2 hero, most likely has less confidence in their infallability than his peers. 

He looks just as scared of AFO as the others but snaps into dtermined mode like Deku and Kiri when Bakugou is audible...

And moves in to save him with Izuku, having to be stopped by Iida.

He looks very determined to save Bakugou, but can’t act on it. When Midoriya has a plan, Shoto gets a little impatient with him and gives him a very Baku-like order. (in the Viz translation)

He and Momo are left alone and leave together; he calls Midoriya quickly to see if the plan worked successfully and check in on both him and Bakugou. We see some good comfort passing between them.

We don’t see much of Shoto during the All Might vs AFO fight; we meet up with the Rescue Squad again once the furor has died down.

It’s debateable who Momo is speaking to here. "You three” could mean any of the other four. If she includes Todoroki, this is a moment of her reprimanding him mildly.

This arc doesn’t really do much to develop Todoroki’s relationships. He’s worried for Bakugou, he works well with Midoriya, and he’s a little quizzical about Momo.

[medialit-posting]

"My stand about Plagiarism, Piracy Bias Media, and the like.."

NEW BLOG CONTENT AHEAD!!!

We are living in a world where almost everything are readily accessible for all of us. We can easily research almost every information we desire and needed, we can download everything on the Internet; movies? games? music? name it! News and media information are readily available online, from journalistic article, news, blogs literally EVERYTHING is on the Internet and available online... Moreover we also have the presence of new and traditional media to satiate our endless needs. However, this usage lf Internet has its pros and cons. Various issues surfaced online, now I am going tp share to you my stand about my stand about Plagiarism, Piracy Bias Media, and the like... which are mostly issues surfaced in the digital world.

MY STAND ABOUT PLAGIARISM...

Plagiarism is known as the theft and dissemination of other people's words and ideas, if a person commits to this kind of crime he or she uses other people's words and ideas as if itvis theirs. Plagiarism is a heinous offence. It normally earns you an F on your work at the university level. Or if your university is stricy enough you're not able to graduate or finish the course that you're currently taking which would cause to give you a bad reputation or worse a bad life. Given that a student can also get thrown out of the institution if he or she plagiarizes repeatedly, one must avoid in doing or committing this kind of offensive violations. The punishments sanctions and the like, varies from the university or institution that you're part with or the violator's.

Why is plagiarism prevalent across universities? Some of them are linked to the way we access information. Don't you know a question answer? Just google it! Just google it! So we are a little like the dogs of Pavlov. The way we study, the same behaviour. In high school, students sometimes don't have ample research skills and instead look at anything online. This googling culture has a negative influence on the self-confidence of students. Students start most assignments by hearing what others have to suggest rather than thinking about themselves. As a business, we have a responsibility to empower students to feel assured that they can be great critical thinkers. Only thus will plagiarism be treated correctly. If a person is caught plagiarizing, his or her reputation is definitely tarnished and that person might lose their work. We all should obey the law just because we are just avoiding ourselves in getting caught. If we value original thought, personal integrity, and scholarly research, then we will naturally want to avoid plagiarism. That’s why it’s important to cite your sources and know how to integrate quotations properly. But if you only aim to be stop being caught, you're in great danger because you need to follow the law already. You would of course want to stop plagiarism if you respect original thinking, personal integrity and scientific evidence. Therefore, it is necessary to quote your sources and to know how to properly incorporate quotes.

Links for pictures :https://copyleaks.com/blog/how-do-plagiarism-detectors-work/

https://sundial.csun.edu/138189/opinions/the-heightened-use-of-plagiarized-essay-services/

Due to what was discussed above, one might think they would never commit to this kind of crime or act (Plagiarism). Unfortunately, to some or most people who commit to this kind of crime they have a lot of reasons. Here are the possible reasons or factors as to why some good workers and students sometimes plagiarize :

Panic of the last minute

Feels of insufficiency

Incomprehension of what plagiarism is

Note slippery

Copying ideas blindly, often in the same order

Work on a job and handing out similar documents

Quotations from the bibliography, but not from the paper

Yet ignorance is no excuse even when plagiarism is unintentional and unintentional. You must quote your own sources and argue.

From the discussion above, now I can conclude that I myself, all of us should stand AGAINST plagiarism. There are a lot of ways to fight and avoid committing such offensive act. We can always paraphrase, put references and include citations or quotations. Together let's stand AGAINST plagiarism and the people who commit such acts.

MY STAND ABOUT PIRACY...

If a person has a limited knowledge, he or she might say thay piracy only happens in the confines of the Earth's ocean. If you're this person then you need help- you have to be aware and be knowledgeable about the fact that piracy doesn't take place in the sea or ocean - it happens everyday in our lives, in business world, media and most especially it happens online. We love free items right? I mean who would want to spend money on things that we can get for free. However, this kind of mentality might lead us to doing illegal activities such as piracy without even knowing it. According to economic times the definition of piracy is that "Piracy refers to the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted content that is then sold at substantially lower prices in the 'grey' market. The ease of access to technology has meant that over the years, piracy has become more rampant. For example, CD writers are available off the shelf at very low prices, making music piracy a simple affair." There have been several regulations to prohibit secrecy. Internationally, piracy laws are strict and punitive in nature in developing countries. It does not gain attention nationally in Asian countries, and more in India too, because of more engaging topics. However, the industry has been involved in stemming red, in particular IT and music industry. These organisations identify music piracy outlets and then carry out police raids. However, there are few convictions and the punishment is not sufficiently harsh to discourage.

Link for the picture https://haulixdaily.com/2019/02/piracy-access-2019

Video pirates, cable piracy and DVD/CD piracy are achieved in several different ways. The film is made by a video-cassette without the correct permission of the right holder - i.e. producer. Video piracy takes place. Film producers also sell video rights to another group, who makes video cassettes for sale or loaning (typically after six weeks of release in theatres). The on sale video cassettes are only intended for home views. Cable piracy applies to illegal cable network transmission of films. Films, in particular new releases, are often seen via cable without the rights holder's permission. Piracy in satellite channels is an unusual occurrence, since they are structured and do not usually screen movies without purchasing right. Music piracy involves the illegal reuse of music cassettes, which flood the market until a new release is released. The sales of music companies hit hard by the influx of pirated compact disks and cassettes, as they are in store at considerably lower prices. In the foreign market there is DVD/VCD piracy of Indian films. The prints sent for film screening abroad are usually pirated at any airport in the Middle East. Prints of DVD/VCD are able to be sent to Pakistan. Such prints can also travel from Pakistan to Nepal and come by land to the country.

link for the picture https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/piracy-survey-illegal-content-muso-1202829757/amp/

From the discussion given above, I conclude that me and you ; all of us should stand against piracy. Although we get to consume media products for a lower price or some are even free we should remember that the people behind these media products worked really hard fro their movies, songs or music etc. to get produced... We should enable and let humanity win against "practicality". Therefore I encourage everyone to stand AGAINST piracy and against the people who continues to commit this kind of crime.

MY STAND ABOUT BIAS MEDIA AND THE LIKE...

As time continues to pass by, our technology continues to get advance. However, the presence of traditional media is still very much alive and kicking as to this industry continues its best to be in the competition. We continue to use simultaneously the media products offered by both new and traditional media... Now the concern is are we really keen enough in making sure that what media products we consume are not biased? How do I stand in this issue and the like (other related issues regarding media bias, piracy and plagiarism.)

According to lumen learning media bias "Media bias is the bias of journalists and news producers in the selection of events and stories that are reported, and how they are covered." addition to thay according to them "The term “media bias” implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and degree of media bias in various countries is widely disputed." From this we can say that not all information presented in the media are the information that we have to believe to. We should not let ourselves be spoofed by these journalists, television programmers, broadcasters, writers etc. we should take time to analyze and even fact check the information that we have received. Information that you might have read online, heard on the radio, or even the news you watch on your favourite channel. We should analyze and think if the information or news is biased or not.

link for the picture https://dailybruin.com/2019/05/09/the-quad-media-coverage-skewed-by-biases-of-journalists-american-society

"Practical limitations to media neutrality include the inability of journalists to report all available stories and facts, and the requirement that selected facts be linked into a coherent narrative. Because it is impossible to report everything, selectivity is inevitable. Government influence, including overt and covert censorship, biases the media in some countries, for example North Korea and Burma. Market forces that result in a biased presentation include the ownership of the news source, concentration of media ownership, the selection of staff, the preferences of an intended audience, and pressure from advertisers." (Candela, 2019). This is true and is happening in our country, based on what my teacher have said the a television channel is so biased in reporting, writing and heading of news towards the president and the government in general. She also stated how this channel has been violating laws in paying tax that's why it was forced to shutdown from giving its services. Since, I think highly of my teacher I think she really has a point and one might think that the closure of the said station if for everyone's good. We should not tomerate media bias, just like what happened to a certain news channel we should take action if we can to fight media bias.

link for the picture https://thecord.ca/how-media-bias-effects-reader-perception/

There is an attempt to correct bias; the round table is a method used to prevent bias, in which members of opposing viewpoints comment on an issue. This approach allows different viewpoints to be expressed in the media in principle. The organizer of the report is also responsible, however, for selecting people who really represent the broad opinion, for asking non-detrimental questions and fairly editing and arbitrating their statements. A point/counterpoint may be as unjust as a simple biased article if done carelessly, implying that the losing party has lost its merits.

The disclosure of affiliations which can be viewed as a potential conflict of interest is another tactic used to prevent partialism. This is particularly obvious when a news outlet publishes a story that is important to the news organization or its owners or conglomerates. The laws or regulations regulating stocks and shares typically include this divulgation. Commentators on stock news stories are also compelled in these companies or in their rivals to reveal their ownership interests.

Overall what is my standing towards media bias (piracy and plagiarism) and the like... well just like what I have said in the previous paragraphs together we should stand AGAINST media bias, piracy, plagiarism and the like because it is the right thing to do. We should eradicate toxicity and evil in our world whether its digital or not. It is our jobs as human beings to spread humanity whether it is online or not, we should always consider going against issues like this so that slowly but surely we can change the world the we are currently live on for the future generations and for the betterment of all human beings.

REFERENCES :

https://natureofwriting.com/courses/essay-writing/lessons/doing-research-2/topic/plagiarism/

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-politicalscience/chapter/media-bias/

https://m.economictimes.com/definition/piracy

[theparanormalperiodical]

The Real Urban Legend Behind The Grudge (2020) Franchise And The 13 Other Japanese Urban Legends That'll TERRIFY You + Plot Summary And Review

We are living in the age of the reboot.

Maybe it’s our search for nostalgia in a time of Trumpian and post-Brexit uncertainty. Maybe it's a desire to reflect on our past pop culture icons as we enter a new decade. Or maybe it's just a cash grab by greedy producers as they squabble over the latest bonus.

Either way, let’s just hope The Grudge (2020) was better than Cats. 

(Spoiler alert: EVERYTHING was better than Cats.)

The first horror film to signal our entrance into the new era was a true champion of the genre, from the ungodly aesthetic to the nothing’s-off-limits Japanese take on the genre.

Dragging herself into the new year - fit with deathly white face, locks of dark hair, and a vocal style that would give Billie Eilish a run for her money - the ghost of Kayako and son, Toshio found a new way to terrify viewers.

And they weren’t even in the movie. 

(Here’s the trailer:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo_c5lu0W0k

But the true terror behind the film doesn’t start with you paying that much for a small popcorn and Dr. Pepper. 

It doesn’t even end with the credits. 

The Grudge - yes, all 11 movies from 2 separate franchises - is actually based on an urban legend that has haunted Japan to this day.

And if that wasn’t enough, the films capture components of paranormal activity that are awfully accurate to real ghost stories that go beyond the borders of the small island nation. 

So, as your favourite blogger of all things spooky, I thought I’d take us on the express train to Suginami, Japan, to the house that started it all. Today’s post is going to recap the films, explain why the franchise is freak-a-liciously for-real, and go through the other Japanese urban legends you really don’t want to know about. 

What’s The Plot Of The Franchise?

Like most Japanese horror films that have been subject to the American treatment (ahem, The Ring, ahem) too many films have been shat out via the silver screen. 

But that’s not to say The Grudge film series isn’t worth a watch. 

Nevertheless, to save you 20 hours worth of the same jumpscares, jealous ghosts, and attempts to sound out Japanese names, I thought I’d give you the tl;dr on ‘lil Toshio’s afterlife.

The Grudge franchise is actually made up of two films series: the Ju-On (the original Japanese series made up of 7 films) and the Grudge (the 4 American reboots). 

Although the original series follows a much more twisted tale, the American version cuts ‘n’ pastes a couple of scenes from the original scripts replays them in the English language. But nevermind the ogre-like layers of films - the premise is the same in each film:

A curse - also known as the Ju-On - created in a house destroys everyone that comes in contact with it. The curse is reborn with every person that encounters it and is passed like a virus among family members.

Question is, where does this curse come from?

The story goes that a happy family were livin’ their bestest life when some bloke called Takeo believed his wife Kayako was having an affair with their son’s teacher.

In a fit of rage, he kills Kayako, Toshio (their son), and their pet cat.

According to the canon, when someone is murdered whilst angry or jealous, a curse is born and gathers where they died. The curse (or the haunting) then repeats itself, killing anyone that comes into contact with it.

“Hol’ up - a woman with a chilling pale face, a mop of black hair, a curse that kills everyone that comes near it… Doesn’t this sound a tad familiar?”

Yes, the Grudge series is basically the domestic abuse version of The Ring…

(Which you can read all about here - including the terrifying true stories behind it)

But did you know that it’s supposed to be? 

The brains behind the Japanese-American franchise, Takashi Shimizu, was not only inspired and assisted by the brains behind Sadako’s tragic story, but also took inspiration from things that had haunted him throughout his own life:

He cites dancers painting their nude bodies white as the basis of the aesthetic for the film as made evident by the lookbooks of the leading roles, and noted that around the time of watching said dancers there was a notable rise in the number of domestic abuse cases. 

Urban legends or domestic abuse - which scares you more?

Regardless of the backstory to the big screen, what actually happens in the films?

Here’s a quick summary of the Ju-On film series:

The series starts with a handful of abstract short films which dip into the hauntings, then evolving into a couple straight-to-dvd movies. Think Bring It On but with more dead people and less Rihanna. 

Following on from their success, the cinematic hit Ju-On: The Grudge was sent to the big screen.

This is where the story properly starts.

(Here’s the trailer:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYyPTyXlT9w

We finally see Kayako’s and Toshio’s story unfold and the curse attach to all those that come to the house. And this starts with social worker, Rika Nishina, who was summoned after the former social worker mysteriously disappeared.

As with all horror films, paranormal activity goes down, and Rika discovers the truths behind the house. But unlike the other films which just explore the hauntings of the families that just so happen to enter the house, this film explores the rebirth of the curse. 

The basis of this film is that Rika is set to die the same way Kayako did and fulfil the Ju-on. At the same time the powers of the curse are further unleashed as its time travelling capabilities are uncovered: a victim from a past film sees her father just before he encountered Kayako himself, even though he died years before. 

The next film - the final one is the Japanese franchise - sticks to this theme of rebirth, and sticks to it quite literally. 

It starts with a pregnant actress who gets in a car accident caused by Toshio and miscarries.

Well, she thinks she has. A doctor does doctor stuff and discovers she is still carrying a healthy child, but this baby ain’t no normal baby. It’s Kayako. 

Good luck getting on Maury with that.

It is then uncovered that she worked for a paranormal documentary TV show that visited the house haunted by the curse.  

This is confirmed years later, when a young Kayako pushes her mother off an overpass and kills her. The last we see of this franchise is the young girl wandering off into the distance.

Now it’s America’s turn. Here’s a rundown of the Grudge film series:

The first film is a reboot of the Japanese Ju-On: The Grudge, but this time its horror-film-fave Sarah Michelle Gellar who is stepping up to the plate as Karen (aka Rika). But this time Buffy Karen burns the house down at the end of the film.

(Or does she?)

(Oh and here’s the trailer I’m just Oprah for trailers today:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC3bzK_i9_s 

The sequel then follows a school girl who is pressured to enter the house by her friends a la every urban legend ever. But this time, Kayako hits the road and follows her back to Chicago, cursing her apartment. And the schoolgirl ain’t the only one struggling with spooky stuff.

When Karen falls from a hospital roof and dies, Karen’s younger sister investigates the circumstances of her death and stumbles into the legend. This time she attempts to stop the curse. 

4 more films follow this movie, and all stick to the recipe of schoolgirls daring to go into the house or people being through from hospital roofs.

No, I’m being serious. 

The final film prior to the latest reboot takes a different turn, however, and takes inspiration from The Ring to a whole new level. Sadako vs. Kayako is a crossover of these iconic female spirits, and climaxes in the spirits merging into the ultimate ghost: Sadakaya. 

What Happens In The Grudge (2020)?

The film follows 4 different families as they encounter the curse, creating a domino effect that ties each of the stories together. The thing is, only one family actually encounters Kayako and the original haunting that made this franchise famous. 

Nevertheless, in true Grudge style, Kayako possesses the mother of a family who then goes on to kill her family members. 

These ghosts then begin to haunt the following inhabitants of the house and affect all those connected to it. For each story, someone either ends up in an asylum, or kills their entire family, or some chaotic cocktail of the two. 

When I first heard a new Grudge was set to hit the big screen, I was honestly a bit surprised; I hadn’t heard anyone mention it! 

The thing is, I only found this out last week, a whole month after it first premiered. 

I was shooketh. 

How had I heard f*ck all about it? Unfortunately, there’s good reason for that:

A unanimous decision has labelled this film a sequence of boring, dull, thin plots all tied together with a smile depressing aesthetic. No, the reviewers did not hold back.

"I saw this movie in the middle of the day, having had a great night's sleep, and I had to slap myself awake a few times."

Nevertheless, The Grudge (2020) does buck the trend of former films, introducing a new plot style and welcoming a new brand of paranormal activity we haven’t seen fall under the franchise just yet.

But honestly, the franchise - like all horror films - gets messy, twisting into a mop of black hair and a sound byte of a death rattle on a loop.

All you really need to know is there’s a spooky-ass house with some dead-ass people and you either die or end up in a mental hospital. 

And it's not like any horror film has ever done that before, right?

But even if the films aren’t keeping you up tonight, the story it's based on should do the trick - especially considering the films portray it so damn accurately…

What’s The Urban Legend That The Films Based On?

The Grudge franchise might not go down in horror history for a dense plot chock-full of cinematic innovation, but there’s no doubt that Kayako and Toshio will.

The thing is, the characters of this iconic franchise all started as real people with real lives. Well, as real as an urban legend can make them out to be, that is. 

The story goes that Kayako grew up neglected by the members of her family, retreating into her shell and becoming shy. And so, she would write diaries to keep herself company.

In one of these entries from when she was younger, she mentioned a crush. 

Flash forward to years later, and she’s married with a child. Problem is, her husband, Takeo, stumbles upon one of these diaries, and believes she’s having an affair. 

So, like all rational people, he decides to kill her and his son, Toshio. 

How he kills her is a little confused, but we know that at some point she tries to crawl down the stairs and escape, at some point Kayako and Toshio are drowned in a bathtub, and at some point Takeo gets strangled by Kayako with her hair. 

Either way they are all very dead. 

But it's Kayako that returns from the afterlife as the vengeful ghost we all know and love. 

And that’s because Kayako fits perfectly within Japanese folklore, and is an onryo - a vengeful ghost. 

“Hold up - does that mean Sadako/Samara is one of these onryos?”

Nope - Sadako is a yurei, which you can learn all about here.

An onryo is a spirit from japanese folklore, or, more specifically, a ghost that has often been wronged by brutal men. And Kayako is far from alone in the afterlife:

Oiwa has earned her name as the most famous onryo to haunt Japanese literature, and claimed her title by being murdered by her unfaithful husband whilst she was pregnant. At first he tried poison, but she survived the attempt - it just disfigured her face and made her miscarry.

To complete the attack he pushed her off the cliff. And yes, that did the job. 

Or did it?

Oiwa returned as a vengeful ghost who sought to destroy him and everyone around him. 

Sound familiar?

So we know that Kayako’s story doesn’t fall too far from the urban legend inspiring the films, nor the reality of domestic abuse in society - is there anything else that is uncomfortably real about the movies?

*Nods head*

They hit the paranormal activity dead on. 

(Emphasis on the dead bit.)

How Accurate Is The Paranormal Activity?

I could rattle off the movies minute by minute and explain why that door creaking is, like, totally accurate to supernatural theories. But even as a paranormal blogger, I’m not that sad. 

(Yet.)

However, there are 2 key pieces of the paranormal that I wanted to explore to confirm that these films are c-ree-pily real.

1. Possession by a yurei or onryo

Most horror films tend to follow the same ‘ol trajectory:

There is ghost. Ghost does ghosty things. People are scared of ghost. Ghost possesses one of the people. 

All the writers have to do is fill in the blanks. 

The thing is, this only happens a couple times in this franchise, most notably in the 2020 reboot. But it got me thinking:

The whole point of Sadako and Kayako - although different kinds of spirits - is that they want to spread dread and darkness, and that at some point they simply want to be reborn to ensure their ambitions are met.

But aside from waving a rather mangled feminist flag, they don’t fill in the blanks like most horror films. Possession by onryo is supposedly possible, however, and has even been captured by a rather famous if lacking-in-detail case:

Hirotsugu possessed some bloke called Genbo way-back-when and affected his health. Yeah, that’s about it. 

2. Residual hauntings

Another theory the franchise taps into is that of time travel which is known amongst paranormal fanatics like me as a residual haunting.

Also known as Stone Tape theory, this is belief that events with a high energy atmosphere can imprint onto the surroundings like rocks, objects, furniture, and maybe even houses.

Ever heard of Borley Rectory? What about Bethnal Green Underground? 

These are just a few cases of residual hauntings from which these events are replayed in a haunting fashion. 

The 13 Other Japanese Urban Legends That Should Make You Avoid Visiting Asia In The Near Future In Case You Encounter The Slit-Mouthed Woman

Trips to Tokyo, breakfast under sweeps of cherry blossom trees, walks around the temples of Kyoto.

Japan knows how to showcase its culture.

But your next trip to this island in the Pacific might leave you a little more terrified than tourist. And given the size of the island, I don’t think you can hop on a tram without bumping elbows with some legend conjured up from the darkest recesses of the web.

In that case, grab your fanny pack and chuck your passport in the hotel safe - let’s find us an urban legend!

#1 - Aka Manto // Red Cloak

Our first legend haunts toilets. No, I’m not kidding. He’s not even the only Japanese urban legend that specifically haunts the bogs!

This urban legend reportedly haunts the last stall in bathrooms and is cloaked in a red cape.

The story goes that, whilst your mid-shit, he will offer you red or blue toilet paper. Whichever one you pick decides on how you die. If he offers you yellow, however, he will just shove your head down the shitter. 

To avoid either of those fates, don’t pick any toilet paper. Just ignore, and escape.

Drip dry; don’t die.

#2 - Hanasako-san // Hanako Of The Toilet

Our next bathroom related urban legend is clearly much more explicit about her haunting, but bears a striking resemblance to her male counterpart.

With pale skin and a red uniform, she hides in the 3rd bathroom stall, but doesn’t offer you any TP.

Instead, you should knock on the stall door 3 times, ask if she’s there, and wait for her to whisper and confirm her presence. Well, that or she’ll stay silent which is really helpful.

Anyway, once you’ve alerted her that you’re there, she will straight up drag you to hell.

Okay, fine, the legend sounds simplistic - I mean, you do just go to hell - but her backstory is slightly more imaginative. There’s actually 2 potential tales that explain her haunting:

The first is that he hid in the bathroom during a bombing in WW2 and the building collapsed around her; or she was bullied and committed suicide in the bathroom. 

(I mean, I don’t know what you expected, its an urban legend, okurr, shits gon’ be depressing.)

#3 - Jinmenken // Human-Faced Dog

Let’s lighten things up, shall we? I think a comedic dog with the face of a human which is popularly spotted by surfers mid-joint should do the trick...

Jinmenken are dogs with human faces often seen in urban areas. Not only can they talk, they can also be rude - and specifically homophobic - according to some reports. 

The most popular sightings can be traced back to surfers in the 1950s, but the most famous tale can be found in 1810 from which one was supposedly exhibited at a museum.

Gnarly, bro. 

#4 - The Cursed Kleenex Advert

This urban legend has already featured in one of my posts as an iconic cursed video, but here’s the lowdown for people that don’t waste their time looking this up:

A Kleenex advert was released in the 1980s in Japan and featured some rather odd goings-on.

There was a baby painted red like an ogre and sitting on a bed of straw, there was german music singing ‘die’ repeatedly, and there was the sudden deaths or spiralling of all of the film crew and actors into mental health crises.

You know, the usual marketing campaign.

Oh, and I nearly forgot - everyone that watched it had sudden suicidal thoughts!

It was quickly pulled from air due to complaints, and is now known simply as an urban legend.

*mysterious pipe music plays in the distance*

#5 - Kuchisake-onna // The Slit-Mouthed Woman

Equally as famous as Kleenex firing most of their TV advertising department (before they all died, anyway) is the slit-mouthed woman, an onryo just like the main characters of The Grudge. 

A woman (gasp) supposedly wanders the streets of Japan, and, in the dark of the night, wanders up to those walking alone. 

She then asks them how she looks.

If you react with disgust, she will kill you via the scissors she just so happens to have on her. If you react positively and clearly think she's beautiful, she will smile weirdly at you, revealing the slits giving her a permanent smile and repeat the question. If you compliment her, she will give you the same cuts that have slit open a permanent smile. 

If you say she looks average or distract her with food or sweets you will be free to go.

And the moral of this story?

We are all beautiful in our own way. Also pls don’t kill me. 

#6 - Benzaiten’s Curse

Benzaiten is the goddess of everything that flows: time, water, knowledge, the linings of my womb from my nether-regions every 5 weeks.

But, as made clear by the latter, she isn’t necessarily a positive force. Let’s say you take your partner to the Imokashira pond for a romantic row across the river. As the pond and the park containing it are full of her shrines, for some reason she takes delight in ending relationships.

Jealous of the happy couples enjoying the peace of the park, she curses them, leaving them to split down the middle.

Mwahaha?

#7 - Kunekune // Wriggling Body

There’s no backstory, there’s no explanation, and there’s no evidence of the kunekunes. But this doesn’t stop this story being perhaps the most chilling to haunt this blog. 

Kunekunes are slender white figures that stand tall on fields, lingering in the distance. 

Get too close? You go insane.

Touch one? You dead. 

It is believed that this legend could be linked to claims of scarecrows coming to life at night or if you stare at them too long, but regardless of where it evolved from, this shizz be spooky.

#8 - Teke Teke

Got any more room for another onryo? Good. ‘Cause this one involves a woman who was sliced in half by a train. 

Having fallen on a railway and lost her legs to the accident, it is claimed she drags her torso along with her arms, her elbows making the noise titling the legend. 

Don’t fancy an encounter with her? Stay away from urban areas. But if she does happen to, uhh, bump into you, here’s what you have to do to avoid your legs being scythed off. 

(Actually, sorry to interrupt - how in the hell does she do that like surely a scythe is a long boi and like shes only got her arms as her height so how does this work)

She will ask you where her legs are and you either have to tell her that they are on the Meichin Railway or say in perfect Japanese “mask death demon”.

And no, I don’t think she allows you time to pull up Google Translate. 

Oh, and I also just found out that anyone that learns of her story will encounter her within one month. Soz. 

#9 -  Kāneru Sandāsu no Noroi // The Curse Of The Colonel

Honestly, this be a fucking meme. Like this is hilarious. 

This is why I started this blog: for ghosts, for horror films, and for curses relating to fast food restaurants. 

The story goes that in 1985 the Hanshin Tigers basketball team won the Japan Championship series. On the night they won, a statue of Colonel Sanders - yep, the KFC guy - was thrown into a river.

Since 1985 they haven’t won the series, something that has been attributed to the bad luck from the statue still being in the river.

In 2009, they began to recover their lucky charm, and all they need now is to find a hand and his glasses. 

#10 - Cow Head

Sure, this urban legend might not have a descriptive title, but it is probably the most perplexing. Heck, there are even two stories behind it, both of which I assume are related. 

The first claims that a teacher once told his students a story of ‘Cow Head’. They all began to experience strange symptoms over the following days, from seizure-like shaking to their eventual deaths. This slow demise is traced to the story, but only fragments are available to find.

(And, because I’m only gonna let you be haunted by teke teke, I thought I’d let you find that one out for yourself cause I’m nice and also scared.)

The other side of the story goes a little something like this:

A town is cursed after they eat the head of a cow.

Yeah, that's the end of the story.

Or maybe the urban legend is from Ukrainian folklore? A woman received good fortune after offering shelter to a disembodied cow head. 

#11 - Kokkuri

This is a classic: it's basically a Japanese ouija board. 

A favourite among high school students searching for a quick buzz, all this requires is someone that can write out hangara symbols and someone else willing to cough up a coin. 

And all you have to do is ask kokkuri-san a question. Well, the question might go unanswered - they can only tell you of your death. 

If you do so happen to stumble into a sesh, make sure you say goodbye to kokkuri-san, spend the coin she used to point out the answer, and use us all the ink from the pen used to draw the symbols.

Other than that, you’re good to find out when you’ll meet the Grim Reaper!

#12 - Kisaragi Station

This one’s fresh from the new age of the urban legend.

It’s 2002, and we are probably on some dodgy 4-chan-before-4-chan website. 

The story is pretty simple, and claims there is a railway station that is unmarked on maps which someone has reportedly visited. This unmanned station is spook central, with the name of the station roughly translating to ‘demon station’.

The original story claimed a commuter train which normally frequently stopped took a different route and only a few other passengers - all fast asleep - were on board.

No taxis, no buildings, no guards, no timetables…

All aboard the not-sleeping-ever-again train!

#13 - Hasshaku-sama

Similar to the urban legend previously described, this is ripped fresh from the early days of the web. 

It is claimed that a woman towering over 2 metres tall attempts to lure young people into the arms of death, mimicking the voices of their family members. Or, in more simple terms, if she likes you, you gon’ die. 

The story attempts to explain her backstory, claiming she might be a divine spirit, or that she is attached to a village the protagonist of the urban legend must escape to avoid her powers. 

Who Else Ain’t Sleeping Tonight?

(Or taking a bath/shower/going into the bathroom ever again?)

And which urban legend traumatised you the most?

Why not fall further down the rabbit hole and check out my other articles exploring the reality behind your fave horror flicks? 

And while you’re there, be sure to hit follow to see a new ghost story everyday.

(Also this is now you trying to live life but now thinking about the urban legends I told you about lol c ya byeeeeeee)

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

This is the most offensivly ignorant comment I’ve ever had the misfortunte of reading

Unsurprisingly it comes from the King of ‘What you just said is so aggressively idiotic I feel like you just insulted everyone’: RDMacQ. 

For context you need to read this statement from someone else. Whilst I do not agree with this statement I’m not addressing it’s merits or demerits.

“Let me say that I don't like Evil Superman as a concept, but when written well, like Tom Taylor's Injustice comics, where the guy who wrote it clearly has love for the traditional version of Superman and tries to humanize him even at his worst so you can relate and feel for the guy, I accept it, I enjoy it. By that same token, I was always open to Peter/MJ not working out if it was done well, and not done as in the case of OMD/OMIT with the demonstrable intent of slandering MJ's character and making Peter young hip and open to dating younger girls without him coming off as a creep and sleazebag. I am not okay with it happening to preserving Peter's sainthood. I mean the reason I accepted Peter B. in ITSV is that it did that take on the direction the character went into very well. In the case of Life Story #3, you are meant to agree with MJ and she's shown as a moral force, someone who condemns Venom Peter when he is about to kill Kraven-in-Cloth Suit. And of course people need to keep in mind that in Life Story, Reed and Sue didn't work out either, Vision suffers more guilt than even Peter can fathom, Captain America made a bigger and more difficult choice and faces more consequences for his actions than Peter does. So I feel that whatever Zdarsky is doing he's playing fair in the way that other writers don't when they do the story this way. And also tonally, the story is set in the '80s, the age of Watchmen. I think in terms of decade-specific mood and trend, having a story where Spider-man becomes a deadbeat dad worried about not being in prime physical shape and so on...is quite apposite.”

Then we get to RDMacQ’s bullshit

 “Yeah, I find it weird that the main complaint is "This isn't what happened in the original comics" and I'm like "Yeah.... kind of the point!"”

Here is the problem.

Life Story is intended and promoted as a WHAT IF.

 The way a WHAT IF works is that it takes what DID happen and changes variables to explore how that’d impact the outcome.

With Variables A+B you get outcome 1 (the main universe).

 But what if you had Variables C+D? You would get outcome 2.

 Gwen Stacy died so Spider-Man tried (and ultimately refrained) from murdering the Green Goblin.

 But what If Spider-Man saved Gwen Stacy? Then she’d accept him, he’d stop the Goblin, but the Goblin would expose his identity in the interim and thus ruin Peter’s life.

 Kingpin’s assassin injured Aunt May so Peter beat him up.

 But what If the Kingpin’s assassin didn’t injure Aunt May but simply outright killed Mary Jane? Then Peter would directly murder the Kingpin.

 Life Story doesn’t play fair as a What if in the slightest.

 A what if done properly is confined by the parameters of the original story. Everyone still needs to act in character within the context of the new situation as defined by the older stories.

 That isn’t he case in Life Story

 To begin with it isn’t changing just one variable it’s changing multiple. Spider-Man is aging in real time. The events of his life are happening in roughly the same time period they would’ve been published, but not in the same order. The level of realism is drastically higher since Marvel heroes are going to the Vietnam War.

 Characters act arbitrarily differently in ways they wouldn’t do in the context of the new variables. Case in point, why exactly would Norman Osborn pull the scheme he di in issue #2 just because he’s in prison? His plan never made sense. And in issue #4 his plan was even more asinine. He wanted to destroy Spider-Man and due to being too old to do it himself he pulled the Clone Saga and got Doc Ock to attack Spidey on his behalf. But he knew who Peter was, why not just reveal the truth. Doing so couldn’t harm him as he’d already paid for his crimes as the Goblin and his identity was public knowledge.

 That doesn’t make sense. That’s not an opinion that’s just self-evident by the story. The cause and effect of it doesn’t add up.

 But RDMacQ doesn’t believe in that. According to him Norman’s actions are justified because ‘ a crazy person did something that didn’t make sense’. That’s the laziest most pathetic attempt at analysis. And yet this cum bubble of a human being has the audiactity to claim I  don’t analyse.

 To him authorial intent is everything unless he doesn’t like it.

 Because the point is that it’s supposed to be different from canon that means that characters can act in ANY way that’s different. ANY thing that is different is a viable option. Which obviously defeats the entire object of the project. If you are going to do that what is the point of rooting it in 616 canon in the first place? Why rely upon familiarity with the canon universe if you are going to randomly change anything on a whim as opposed to in logical response to a changed variable?

 In doing that all you have accomplished is a weird and unfocussed Ultimate Universe, not a What if.

 But then ol’ Big Mac starts to step up the game.

 “I think probably my issue arises due to certain recent fan outrages, and a lot of the rationalizations and justifications that came from them. The latest episode of Game of Thrones, for example, had a lot of people- and I mean a LOT of people- decrying a character's "Heel" turn and their "Out of character" moments- while at the same time showing a bit of a misreading of the material or the subject matter.”

 Bear in mind when he wrote this the latest episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones was the penultimate episode of it’s eighth and final season. In it, key protagonist, Daenerys slaughtered a whole city full of civilians with a fire breathing dragon and her army. Throughout the show she’d previously been defined as being unwilling to kill innocents on principle, once claiming that each enslaved person in a city was a reason to conquer the city and liberate it’s people. She was so horrified that one of her dragons inadvertently killed a child that she locked them up. She once affirmed that she did not want to be ‘Queen of the Ashes’ amidst her campaign to retake her homeland.

 It’s fair to say the overwhelming majority of viewers AND professional critics took major issue with this and declared it a travesty and out of character.

 Behind-the-scenes stories also heavily point to Emilia Clarke (the actress portraying the character) being upset and disenchanted with her character’s direction.

For my money these two videos are the best examinations of the disaster that was Daenerys heel turn in this episode of Game of Thrones.*

Also please bear in mind the ‘man’ saying people are misreading things is the same man who has continually insisted that Norman Osborn merely wants to kill Spider-Man in spite of me citing examples to the contrary, including this page.

So you know, not exactly demonstrating great analytical skills there. 

“I think it's far too easy to cry "Out of character" when a character does something different, or simply questionable, because it's an easy catch all phrase that sounds like you know something, but in reality it's just a cover for a lack of understanding of things like characterization or plot development.”

Says the ‘man’ who genuinely once said Norman Osborn doing something nonsensical is justified because ‘he’s crazy’.

 Says the ‘man’ who leaned incredibly hard on the idea that Miles Warren in Life Story would not have intervened in Gwen’s marriage to Peter Parker even though his entire character revolves around his jealous obsession over her.

 Says the guy who once said a writer can randomly decide all of Mary Jane’s character development since the 1980s didn’t matter.

 Says the ‘man’ who once claimed Doc Ock at the end of Gage’s Superior run was he real Doc Ock even though he was literally a clone of his mind in a clone of his body…and then he refused to listen to me when I repeatedly spelled that fact out for him. His rationale was ‘Marvel are treating him as the real guy so he is’.

 Says the ‘man’ that in his ‘interpretation’ Spider-Man regarded Ned Leeds as a ‘viper’ after he was revealed as the Hobgoblin, in spite of literally no evidence supporting that interpretation and you know Spider-Man literally saying otherwise multiple times; including in the issue he learned Ned was a villain. In fact when I pointed this out to ol’ big Mac he referred to such things as ‘arbitrary’.

 Says the guy who once said it’s better for stories to be in multi-parters because before the rise of decompression al stories had rushed endings. Remember how Amazing Fantasy #15, The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man, Sensational Annual 2007, The Conversation and When Commeth the Commuter all had ‘rushed’ endings?

 Says the poor excuse for a ‘man’ who once claimed there was nothing wrong with the JMS run having magic but who also lambasted Peter David’s Spider-Man work for involving magic and time travel, even though JMS wrote ASM #500 which is literally about magic time travel.

 What I am trying to say is this ‘man’ has systemically demonstrated immense hypocrisy and stupidity but a staggering deficiency when it comes to literary analytical skills.

 “The movie reviewer Bob Chipman mentioned this in one of his videos where he talked about the problems that a lot of "Modern" viewers have is that they believe because they watch a lot of movies in a year, that somehow makes them film buffs or gives them insight into the storytelling process, when in reality what they are doing is watching all the Marvel movies or all the big releases, and assuming that gives them the same sort of insight that people who go to school to learn this sort of thing do. And I kind of think that's also true of comics as well.”

 Oh boy, is there a lot to unpack here.

 Keeper of the Gate

For starters let’s call this out for what it is. As much as he might be softening the statement by saying ‘kind of’, what he is actually doing right here is GATEKEEPING.**

 He is saying unless you have ‘gone to school to learn this sort of thing’ you don’t COUNT as a critic.***

 Okay let’s dive into that one.

 Schooling ain’t everything

Gone to school to do what exactly? How to make movies? That’s what film school is for right? So you can learn how to write, produce, direct, etc movies. Correct me if I am wrong but film school does not teach you how to CRITIQUE movies.

 So by this logic going to film school wouldn’t qualify you to critique a movie, just how to make them. Except no one argues that. Bob Chipman himself studied film at school and it is from that point of view that his analyses come from.

 So by RDMacQ’s own logic Bob himself isn’t qualified for his own job, let alone RD himself. At which point why does Bob’s words carry any weight at all?

 But wait, we can go yet deeper.

 What if we aren’t talking about film school specifically? What if someone just studied film as their major in college but not strictly film school? Is that good enough to be a film critic or not? If it is are you a lower echelon of film critic?

 What if you minored in film/media studies instead of majored in it? Are you yet lower on the totem pole?

 What if you went to film school but dropped out?

 What if you studied from home and didn’t actually GO to the school itself?

 What if you studied it at A school but pre-college?

 What if you studied it privately outside of an educational institution? In other words a self-taught film student?

 Shit, what about the first ever film critics or the first ever film makers who pioneered techniques and the art form? If they were going through the trial and error of formulating the art form and medium there obviously couldn’t have BEEN film schools back then?

 Do they not count?

 Not to mention the cultural implications of this. If you are an American who attended a French film school are you unqualified to critique American films and only French ones, even if you grew up predominantly with American cinema?

 Let’s change things up a little and look to TV in Britain. One of the most acclaimed British TV writers of all time was a man named John Sullivan. Sullivan created multiple beloved and acclaimed sitcoms, the most famous of which is called Only Fools and Horses. So successful was this show that it was the most viewed TV show in Britain in both the 90s and the 2000s. The latte in particular is an achievement since the show existed purely as reruns in the 2000s sans literally 3 episodes.

 The show had a total of 64 episodes and ran between 1981-2003. Do you know how many of those 64 episodes Sullivan wrote?

 ALL of them.

 And do you know how many of them have predominantly negative reviews? Arguably  just four.

 Not only has the show been positively received it’s been regarded as the singular greatest British comedy of all time, a title it still holds to this day.

 Amidst the praise that the show has received is it’s great characterization, it’s emotional moments and in particular it’s utter command of narrative structure. Not only do the jokes land they land with grace and make the feat seem easy when it’s all over. The cherry on his record was his OBE, an official government recognition of his positive contributions to the arts.

 So you know, this guy clearly knew how to tell a good story. He did like 60 times in a row single handily.

 So when and where did he study film? The answer is, he didn’t.

 He never studied film. His formal education stopped at age 15 when he dropped out of school with no qualifications. Even if he had completed his secondary high school education he’d have not studied film. Film was not on the British curriculum at the time and to my knowledge still isn’t. At best you can study ‘media studies’ starting at age 16-18 before you go on to university. But up until age 16 it’s just not an available option.

 He did go to evening classes for English and read teach yourself books but that was it.

 By Big Mac’s standards this writer who’s been recognized by the government themselves wasn’t qualified to write anything, let alone critique it.

 Additionally let’s consider one teeny weeny little fact. If you’ve lived through the formal education system in pretty much any Western country you have almost certainly been educated on how to gain an insight into the storytelling process. Because that’s a big part of what fucking ENGLISH class is for!****

 MovieBob

I’d say I’m shocked and appalled at RD’s audacity and lack of self-awareness in citing MovieBob Chipman. But I’m not. It actually makes far too much sense.

MovieBob is a broken clock that’s often not even right twice a day. His credibility as a critic and as a human being is also woefully lacking.

For starters RD is a big Spider-Marriage proponent (though he’s recently turned traitor and says he doesn’t really mid if it doesn’t come back). To his credit he has often called out and deconstructed unfair and disingenuous arguments against the Spider-Marriage.

Bob however is staunchly on the other side of that debate.

He’s even said the marriage was never good, came from an illegitimate place, that Spider-Mans imply should never be married and in fact argued that a late Slott era Spider-Man and MJ were more interesting than they were before.

Thus I find RD’s citing of Bob to back up his claims about who is ‘qualified’ to be a critic the height of irony.

But you know, that doesn’t necessarily hurt RD’s argument. Hell, Bob un-ironically believing in eugenics or intelligence testing for voters doesn’t necessarily hurt RD’s argument.

Nor does MovieBob’s weird, weird views on how society apparently punishes the Big Brains like himself of course. Although it’s so telling that an arrogant prick like RD would invoke the words of a ‘brother-in-arms’ like Bob.

 No, what hurts RD’s argument is where Bob was probably coming from with his initial statement.

 See I heavily suspect that RD’s claims about Bob are kind of stem from his interpretations of this video Bob made called ‘BIG PICTURE: PLOTHOLE SURFERS’. Noticeably that video cites this video by another Youtube film critic named Patrick Willems. Called ‘SHUT UP ABOUT PLOT HOLES’.

The sentiments of both videos explicitly or implicitly echo Big MacQuack’s. Everyone is wrong in how they are critiquing movies except them and people like them because they are ‘professionals’ because they went to school.

None of these arguments hold up to scrutiny both due to stuff I have mentioned above but also for various other reasons I’m not going to bother unpacking here. If you want a detailed look at why Chipman and Willems (and by extension RD) are full of shit there are several Youtube videos dissecting their points, particularly Willems’.

However, I’ve found the most detailed to be this video. 

There is also this video where they more directly address Bob’s video.

Fair warning they are long and get less than PC, and yet they do address why the videos don’t hold up to scrutiny.

Self-taught critic

Here is a crazy thought, if you’ve watched all the Marvel movies and big releases every year, why SHOULDN’T that give you a potential insight when critiquing OTHER Marvel movies or big releases? Those things are competing against one another, they are broadly going for the same audience. If you familiarise yourself with them then it is not beyond impossibility that you could mentally play spot the difference in the storytelling and critically evaluate them. It’s almost like in consuming that media you have formulated a CRITERIA which you are then CRITICALLY judging similar such media against.

Hypocrisy

The best part about RD’s statements? He himself has never gone to film school. Nor has he gone to a school specifically teaching him how to analyse comic books nor write them.

By his own logic he has disqualified himself from partaking in critiquing any story, as he did with Life Story or Game of Thrones earlier on.

But the best part?

If you check out the thread this is from and observe the poster called Chase the Blues Away they often disagree. CTBA  points out holes in RD’s arguments and subtly questions his reading comprehension. Entirely separately they also implied they felt GoT’s writing was illogical towards the end of season 8 as well.

Why is CTBA relevant.

Because they actually HAVE gone to film school!

Furthermore, on both Life Story and most other matters related to Spider-Man CTBA and myself have been on the same page, whether this entails agreeing with one another’s statements or by coincidence having similar positions.

Now me?

I NEVER went to film school nor did I study English literature formally beyond age 18. Oh, I’ve read bits and bobs about writing (my favourite being Russell T Davies’ book ‘A Writer’s Tale’). But I have no college level formal education on the craft of writing. My analytical skills were cultivated from my school experiences and a whole load of osmosis and practice.

I have also found myself often on the same page as another person who at least studied English at a college level. They are another poster on the same forum called MacGoblin, perhaps better known as the creator of the (now defunct) SpideyKicksButt website. For many people the site was THE best source of Spider-Man analysis on the web for over a decade.

MadGoblin still participates regularly on a podcast covering new Spider-Man issues and whether or not I agree with all his assessments the manner in which he analyses (with an eye upon continuity) is similar to myself and indeed all the other panellists on the podcast.

One of the former panellists on the podcast (who I have also been on the same page with more often than not) was called Donomark and he too studied English at a college level.

So that’s three people who meet RD’s arbitrary rules for who is a ‘real’ critic. And yet I (someone who doesn’t meet RD’s criteria) have come to mostly the exact same conclusions as they have through entirely independent analysis.

As have other people I know who didn’t study film or English Lit in college.

So, either I’m just an absolute prodigy, or RDMacQ, Willems and MovieBob’s criteria for who can and can’t grasp plot and characters is full of shit.

“A lot of the complaints I've seen is that Peter wouldn't or didn't do this in the original comics. But arguing "Peter wouldn't do this because in ASM #225, on page 11..." isn't pointing out the flaw in the story.”

As always RD is devoid of nuance or appreciating the complexities of things.

If in Life Story or any Spider-Man story in canon Peter acts in a way at odds with his established characterization  which is DEFINED by ASM #225 then absolutely  that’s pointing out a flaw in a story.

Case in point, here is this poorly drawn satire of Superior Spider-Man RDMacQ himself made:

Most of the gags at the expense of Superior Spider-Man in this page was made through the lens of knowing the characters’ past, of knowing what they did and how they acted in older stories.

The confusion over Crazy Town Banana Pants derives from Superior claiming Peter routinely said this when he in fact never did.

Carlie’s suspicions over Superior’s behaviour stems from he fact that the older stories have established how Peter acts and established that Carlie knows how he acts. Therefore Carlie not realizing the truth when she’s been told is illogical. That’s the gag from someone who’s stamped his foot on the ground and angrily refuted that human beings are capable of being logical.

The same is true of this next page too.

Captain America refers to ‘usual’ people involved with the Avengers (super scientists, etc.). Usual means there is a precedent and a precedent can only be defined via a pattern. A pattern of what? A pattern of older stories!

The second panel is bringing up the OLDER STORY ‘Ends of the Earth’ to prove the hypocrisy of Doc Ock

The final panel references SEVERAL past events. The Clone Saga. The Alien Costume Saga. Every time the Chameleon or another shape shifter has impersonated him. Kraven’s Last Hunt.

It’s also referencing the fact that MJ would KNOW about them and even goes really specific by referencing the events of a few pages of one specific issue of Kraven’s Last Hunt. Not the gist of the story, not the climax or the most famous moments. This one scene in the middle of everything else.

RD is using that very specific moment to draw a comparison between it and the events of Superior in order to point out how MJ is not acting consistently.

Almost like she’s, I dunno, OUT OF CHARACTER or something?

Oh, and or the record declaring Peter would or wouldn’t act this way because of ASm #225 p11 is bullshit because Peter isn’t even on that page.

“That's just spouting comic book trivia, which isn't the same thing.”

But referencing events in the middle of KLH which are hardly iconic and immediately memorable and pointing out how MJ didn’t act consistently with them in Superior Spider-Man?

 Oh no, that’s NOT ‘spouting comic book trivia’.

 Can you see the hypocrisy of this creature now?

 Can you see how BROKEN it is to argue a character being established as acting a certain way by an older story DOESN’T mean it matters thereafter?

 And he says I am bad at analysis, Jesus Christ.

 “Knowledge of trivia isn't the same as understanding plot structure, foreshadowing, character development, or knowing or accepting that just because something happens in issue 1 doesn't mean it will stay that way throughout the entire book.”

 First of all the sheer audacity of someone with such non-existent analytical skills to DARE fucking throw shade like this is astounding. That’s like Michael Bay trying to explain how you make a movie with substance.

 Second of all he’s right and wrong here.

 Knowing the history of the characters is not the same as knowing those things.

 But that doesn’t render it trivia because it’s the fucking histories of the characters that define who they goddam are!

 Everyone agrees Spider-Man would not have acted the way he did in One More Day right? And that MJ wouldn’t have acted the way she did in OMIT right?

 Why? Why do people feel the characters would not behave that way?

 Because they read older stories that depicted them acting in certain ways in certain situations that were then contradicted by OMD and OMIT.

 You know like MJ not realising Superior Spidey wasn’t really Peter even though the situation was incredibly similar to Kraven’s Last Hunt and both entailed imposters pretending to be Spider-Man.

 No, knowing the history isn’t the same as knowing all that other stuff.

 But it is undeniably an integral PART of being able to analyse something because if the prior events don’t matter, if they are merely trivia (or worse trivia when he wants it to be but not when he doesn’t) then NOTHING matters.

 Why the fuck should issue #1 matter when reading issue #2? Or issue #3 when reading issue #5?

 What does it matter if chapter 1 established our protagonist as an adult black man with a wife but by chapter 10, with no explanation they are a teenaged white woman claiming they’ve never been married?

 Hey, chapter 1 is just trivia right. Why should that matter?

 By the way, go ask Harry Potter fans if those little details are irrelevant and see how that goes.

 He’s also (unsurprisingly) disgustingly disingenuous in his final point. Yes, things between issue #1 and issue #25 will change. But there is a world of difference between something changing via development vs. lazy contradictive writing.

 Case in point, in ASM #1 Peter Parker doesn’t have a job, is a pariah at school and runs away crying from a failed adventure. In issue #25 he has a freelance job, isn’t running away crying and 2 ladies are interested in him.

 WHAT? Isn’t this a contradiction? Doesn’t accepting this change mean you accept that issue #1 was mere trivia?

 No, because between issue #1 and #25 we saw how and when Peter got a job, those two ladies became interested in him and we saw his skills, experience and confidence grow. The end result is that issue #25 was different to issue #1 because we’d been on a JOURNEY to get us there.

 In contrast in ASM #700 Doc Ock is seemingly turned into a good guy because all of Spider-Man’s memories were beamed into his head, teaching him Uncle Ben’s famous mantra. But in Superior Spider-Man #1 he’s randomly reverted to what he was doing back in ASM #698.

 So that stuff was just trivia? But that stuff was the resolution of ASM #700 and therefore the set up for Superior #1. The latter couldn’t exist without the former and yet it doesn’t make sense.

 And you see that? You see how that cause and effect problem exists? Yeah, that’s PART of critiquing plot structure and foreshadowing. It’s ALMOST like the older stories aren’t merely trivia but actually very important and play a factor  in the other forms of analysis RD listed off.

 Not to mention, the idiocy of saying knowing the trivia doesn’t mean you understand foreshadowing. Motherfucker, the entire concept of foreshadowing is that you establish details in the present because you want to hint at readers about where the story is going to go later. It practically HINGES upon readers remembering that ‘trivia’.

 If ASM #225 p11 had Spider-Man pass by a black cat and say ‘Boy that reminds me of Felicia Hardy.’ THAT would be foreshadowing for the next issue, but you couldn’t appreciate that UNLESS you remembered what happened in ASM #225 p11.

 And the imbecility of bringing this shit up whilst referencing Game of Thrones too? As if Daenerys heel turn was actually foreshadowed and not just created from splicing old voice overs together in the previously segment of the show.

The next bit is in reference to Life Story again by the way.

“I mean, one of the best bits of subtle foreshadowing here is what happens with Peter and Reed's relationship. In issue 2, Peter reflects on how Reed pushed Sue away with his actions, and how he doesn't want to end up like that. But come issue 3, Peter ends up doing just that, despite his best efforts to the contrary and knowing what happened to Reed beforehand. That shows smart plot structure, which doesn't come out and yell at you "THIS IS IMPORTANT!" or hold your hand in any way. That shows that this story is pretty smart with the narrative choices that are being made.”

No it doesn’t.

Because the way in which Peter pushed MJ away contradicted his character and made no fucking sense. He had a mid-life crisis in spite of being well under 40 years old.

Also, you can have, by skill or by fluke, a dash of GOOD writing amidst your shitty writing.

A LOT of people would argue the podrace or Duel of the Fates fight in Phantom Menace were legitimately good sequences in an otherwise bad movie.

People broadbrush 90s Marvel as wall to wall trash but equally everyone praises Spider-Man 2099, Joe Kelly’s Deadpool run, Ron Marz’s Green Lantern run, etc.

Goddammit, 99% of all Doctor Who is fans celebrating the bits that were great amidst the bits that were bad. There are no end of Dr. Who stories were fans will praise the set design or costumes whilst shitting on the over all writing.

Shockingly a piece of media can have good AND bad elements!

Whenever someone says a story is good or bad they are almost always speaking OVERALL. A New Hope is OVERALL good. It’s not claiming there aren’t flaws to it.

Dan Slott’s Spider-Man run was OVERALL bad. Even I have said there are good elements to it.

But the mere existence of good elements doesn’t prove that something is overall one thing or another.

In Life Story’s case, let’s pretend RD is right. Then Zdarsky executed a good bit of foreshadowing.

Key word there: ‘bit’.

It doesn’t PROVE the over all story is smart with its narrative choices.

That’s such an utterly childish  manner of analysis. ‘Well this bit is good that means everything else has to be good’.

Like how the fuck does doing a good bit of foreshadowing prove that Life Story wasn’t mischaracterizing anyone or knew how to tell a good alternate history story?

Shit, DAN SLOTT had foreshadowing, sometimes it was even competently executed. Didn’t mean it wasn’t happening within the context of mischaracterization. 

Trust Bobby Mac to have no grasp  of nuance.

 “But rather than acknowledging that, instead we get stuff like being concerned with that because Gwen finds out Peter's secret identity at the end of issue 1, that therefore means that Peter is going to be hooking up with Gwen throughout the rest of the story, that this is going to be one big Peter/ Gwen book, that Chip Zdarsky is somehow a Gwen shipper because he wanted to just have her as a best friend in Spectacular, that MJ only having two lines in the first issue means her importance will be diminished overall, and that the whole series is going to try and be a rewrite to push that ship.”

None of the allegedly great foreshadowing RD spoke of above was in issue #1

Even if it was nobody could possibly have talked about that as a point of praise because the nature of foreshadowing is we wouldn’t have realised it was goddam foreshadowing until we finally GOT to the bit it was setting up in later issues

RD has been one of the most involved people in discussions about the Spider-Marriage, frequently clashing with a fell named Mister Mets on CBR and on the linked message board. He knows that Marvel from OMD onwards used to spite fans over OMD and the Spider-Marriage and that circa 2019 when Life Story was being released the latest of such instances had occurred maybe just 1 year earlier in Slott’s Red Goblin storyline. He also knows Zdarsky pissed in the well of the Spider-Marriage fans with his FCBD 2017 Spidey story which involved Mary Jane. So for a heavily burned and abused fanbase to suddenly be concerned that Zdarksy would be pushing an agenda was a totally natural and justified reaction to have at the time even if it was proven incorrect in the long run.

RD is being a shithead again. ‘Ugh, look at these overwrought FaNz. wHy CaNt dey celebrate the GUD stuff and not focus on the WRONG stuff’.The wrong stuff being Zdarsky shitting on the Spider-Man marriage, which he clearly did by breaking up Peter and Mj in the 80s when they didn’t break up then but he needed to ship Peter with Jessica Jones I guess

 “Yet here we, two issues later, and Gwen is dead, Peter married MJ and now they have kids.”

And in LF #3 their marriage was in a toxic place and they split up. In issue #4 they get back together but only by Peter giving up being Spider-Man. Almost like the story was saying having a family and being Spidey are incompatible or something.

Shit issue #3 BEGINS with MJ griping about Peter.

 “All the reactionary nonsense turned out to be for naught, since the story was going in a different direction, and just because Gwen was prominent early on didn't mean MJ wasn't going to play an important role later.”

 It wasn’t reactionary nonsense it was entirely justified  reactionary concern. People weren’t concerned that MJ wouldn’t be important but that Zdarsky would be pushing a pro-Gwen/anti-Mj agenda which he at least debatably did and certainly seemed to be doing in the first 3 issues.

 “And yet we still continue to see that reactionary nonsense continue with decrying because Peter and MJ leave off on a bad note here, it therefore means the rest of the series will be an unending slide into misery.”

Which was proven partially true.

Issue #4 Harry dies, Peter quits like a coward.

Issue #5 Peter’s child is crippled, his identity is outted, ben Reilly dies and he becomes a fugitive as a super human civil war breaks out.

Issue #6 the world has turned to shit because of that civil war and the only way to fix it is for Spider-Man to die.

But again, he’s missing the point like the fool that he is.

People were concerned and upset BECAUSE the series split Peter and MJ up in the first place. Both because that defied the mission statement of the series but also because they know Peter and MJ WOULDN’T split up and the circumstances engineering it were fucking contrived shit.

“Which then unfortunately leads into bashing the creator himself, which I find incredibly unreasonable given the tremendous job Zdarsky is doing.”

He didn’t do a tremendous job.

Chase the Blues Away, the film school student, had been saying so and continued to say so after RD made this comment. So I guess by his own metric he was full of shit.

This is one of RD’s fundamental and fatal flaws. He’s a hypocrite. Everything is subjective unless it’s the shit HE likes or hates. Then it’s objectively good or bad.

Not to mention no one had been bashing the creator personally. He can’t grasp this either. He doesn’t grasp the distinction between bashing the work of a writer vs. bashing the writer personally.

E.g. he falsely claims I’ve sworn at him. I have sworn at him…here. On my own blog here I don’t feel the need to play nice.

On a public forum? Never. I’ve sworn in the course of conversations with him. I’ve sworn in regards to his argument but never sworn to attack him personally.

“Decrying Zdarsky as some form of hack because halfway through a six part story he's had the protagonist go through a rough time and that he is just putting out "Fan fiction," or- as I saw someone else argue- that the reason Zdarsky did this was because he himself went through marital troubles at one time in his life is just silly.”

It’s really not. He admitted that he wrote MJ in FCBD 2017 as his ex wife.

Fanfiction is exactly what LF was. Peter hooks up with Jessica Jones because…no given reason. It’d make infinitely more sense for that to have been Felicia but it was Jessica Jones. Zdarsky invents his own personal new spin on the Goblin who’s wearing kewl black because why not. He has characters randomly act in any way he wants for the story to happen regardless of how little sense it makes. That’s bad fanfiction 101. He has logic holes you can drive a truck through. FFS Russia launched nukes on America in issue #3 and this DIDN”T result in all out nuclear Armageddon. That’s amateuris

 “Just like it's silly to say that D&B from GoT are purposefully destroying the show because they hate it and they hate women and they just want to move onto Star Wars,”

This is at worst a strawman.

At best an utterly myopic oversimplification.

The MAJORITY of people crying out against GoT season 8 weren’t claiming D&B were engaging in deliberate sabotage but rather they were ruining the series via their incompetence and RUSHING to get to the end.

Additionally the idea that they are misogynists is REALLY not a ‘silly’ argument. MANY people throughout the show’s history have made that argument, long before the popular opinion was that the show was bad,

A  season 4 subplot that was heavily embellished (to the point of being called practically original) from the books entailed rogue Night’s Watchmen raping a household of women beyond the Wall. The most infamous line from the subplot was ‘Fuck them all to death.’

In that same season Jamie Lannister makes sexual advances on his sister Cersei even though she was saying no.

Sansa Stark, in a scene not in the books, was raped by Ramsey Bolton with the focus being upon Theon Greyjoy’s horror at the situation.

And of course there is ever so slightly a dash of gratuitous nudity involving women in the show.

Look, I’m not even saying for sure that D&B hate women or that that was at the root of how they fucked up Daenerys’ character in season 8.

But it’s idiotic to just dismiss the idea as wholesale silly as Smac a Mac is doing above.

 “when in reality D&B were the reason the show got made in the first place and all those great female characters were brought to television for a wider audience to experience.”

Hollywood had been wanting to adapt George R. R. Martin’s books for years before he let D&B do it

Their first pilot was so bad they had to reshoot it.

They weren’t the reason we got those great female characters. Martin’s writing was why we got those characters and those good stories and why anyone wanted to make his books into a live action property at all.

Again, RD FAILING at nuance. A female character can have good writing AND bad writing. They can be good over all but drop the ball in certain moments. They can be great for 7 seasons but then fumble disastrously at the finish line. An opinion shared by all those critics that went to film school

Writers can be capable of doing good female characters even if they are misogynists. Writers who are not misogynists are capable of still being sexist at times. Friggin Stan Lee had sexist female characters in spite of also inventing Mary Jane who is lauded as a great female character even in the 1960s. Again, nuance. Mac Attac ain’t good at it.

“We can dislike or criticize a work without having to demonize the creators,”

It’s not demonizing D&B or Zdarsky to call them incompetent writers.

“and I think it's just become far too easy nowadays for people to rationalize their statements by making the creators themselves into remorseless villains, since that justifies them acting however they please in response.”

And it’s become far too difficult for me to stomach any more of this piece of shit.

*For what it is worth, these events are also listed on TV Tropes under the Face Heel Turn page:

Daenerys herself falls victim to this in the final seasons. Her actions in Essos had the purest of intentions: fighting against the Dothraki's misogyny and ending slavery in western Essos. Even her morally questionable acts still had these goals in mind. But when she set her sights on conquering Westeros, which is more or less a standard medieval European setting, her only goal was conquest. Even her claim that the Iron Throne is her birthright falls short since her father was killed due to his madness and love of burning things. Dany really doesn't help her case by burning alive any captive soldiers who don't side with her. This culminates with her slaughtering most of King's Landing's civilian population in the penultimate episode. Had the show started with the sixth season, there'd be no question that she is Daddy's Little Villain, her tragic backstory and past heroic deeds being a footnote at best.

**This is especially ironic as he’s accused me of doing the same.

Me, I’ve called people out or corrected them when they have gotten facts wrong. I’ve even said they don’t know what they are talking about. The difference is I’m not doing it just on principal as he is here.

I’ve never said someone doesn’t belong in the fandom or is not a real fan. Yet here RDMacQ is outright disqualifying people from having the legitimacy to critique comic books unless they’ve gone through what he deems the ‘appropriate steps’.

If I have told someone they are wrong or don’t know what they are talking about or don’t understand the material I have corroborative EVIDENCE to back it up. Their own statements prove that point.

E.g. RDMacQ doesn’t understand Norman Osborn’s character. Why? Because his statements contradicts the clear cut TEXT (not the subtext) of the source material. See? The source material is the EVIDENCE that supports my accusation. But RDMacQ doesn’t believe in analysis that way and has told me so himself.

***This laughable in he modern day and age where film criticism is so transparently ideologically driven as opposed to sincerely critiquing the merits of a film.

Hence why Bob Chipman and most other professional critics laud works like the Last Jedi which a fifth grader can see has little internal consistency.