#Mao was fucking evil!

[stormneko25]

[aura-bug]

my son lucas was dealt such a dirty hand by the whole franchise man. like he's arguably one of the more important characters lore-wise and they never did ANYTHING with him!! they just refuse to acknowledge his existence

please please PLEASE give more attention to my boy. he deserves it methinks

[thequeenofsarcaasm]

A list of male characters with incredible pussy cause I’m bored

L:

Everyone makes fun of the way he sits but he’s actually doing kegels.

The guy from Apothecary diaries:

I came across the 4 first episodes on TV yesterday and I was too busy fangirling over Mao Mao to pay attention to him but I can tell. I forgot his name but not his potential. But I might be biased cause he’s really pretty.

Geto:

Convinced a Black man to join him in the annihilation of people he deemed lesser than . Had a huge cult following despite being a “monk” with long hair. Imagine what fucking him would do to a mf. Gojo knew better. (Tbh I don’t think he ever let anyone hit)

Gojo:

he’s the strongest. that gorilla grip is the only monkey related thing Geto wouldn’t hate

Griffith:

I’m gonna get cancelled for this but I stand by my statement.

Lelouch:

He’s a bit evil. Just a little bit. Those are the best. Don’t ask me how I know. Ask Suzaku

Sasuke:

Naruto chased him for years and kept him away from his family once they rekindled their relationship. He knew what he was doing

Nakahara Chuuya:

If I speak, I’ll get too emotional.

Last but NOT least we got Father Pussy:

Look at the material. You can be the judge of it. This mf is the only person Dio was afraid to lose. Need I say more? Vanilla ice could never. I think he might be the most dangerous one. That’s why I put him last

[1800naveen]

Dictatorship (Rhysand's version)

I made a post of Rhysand and Feyre being Donald and Melania Trump in another universe and have called him and the inner circle the definition of Fascism, nobody better not get butthurt over this. If you do, I don't give a fuck.

IF YOU LIKE RHYSAND AND/OR THE INNER CIRCLE, THIS POST IS NOT FOR YOU! LEAVE NOW, I WILL BE SHITTING ON THEM!

Let's start with a definition. What is dictatorship? A dictatorship is a government or a social situation where one person makes all the rules and decisions without input from anyone else. What is a dictator? A dictator is a political person who rules a country with total authority and often in a cruel or brutal way.

Notorious dictators and dictatorships in history are: Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, Benito Mussolini of Fascist Italy, Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany, Hirohito of Imperial Japan, Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge, and Mao Zedong of People's Republic of China.

Rhysand is the High Lord of the Night Court and has earned himself a reputation of being a cruel and evil man to the other Courts of Prythian. To others, the Night Court is seen as the Court of Nightmares; a land of cruelty but it's only a cover up to hide Velaris, the city of starlight and where Rhysand truly lives. The existence of Velaris is unknown with the expectation of a few people.

What makes someone a dictator? Google did not give me a clear answer so I had to go on Chat GPT and it gave me this (apologies if you don't like ai): Concentration of power, control over military and security forces, propaganda and censorship, repression and human rights abuse, and economic control. There are three more examples but I picked the ones that relate to Rhysand the most.

Concentration of power: As High Lord, Rhysand is the most powerful person in the Night Court. What he says, goes. His word is law. You can't go against him without facing punishment for it. If you are from Velaris, it doesn't matter because to you, Rhysand is a nice guy and a good ruler. To those in Illyria and Hewn City, he pays no attention to you. He doesn't give a damn about you.

Control over military and security forces: Whenever battle or war is coming, Rhysand goes to the Illyrian warriors and their warbands to aid him. He also has the darkbringers, elite warriors from the Court of Nightmares and are under the leadership of Keir come to his aid when Hybern attacks. Velaris was attacked in ACOMAF and Rhys and the inner circle went to defend their home and people but have they done the same for the Illyrians? Hewn City citizens? To them, the safety of Velaris will always be more important than the other two regions. That's just sad.

Propaganda and censorship: When it comes to making decisions, Rhysand either makes them himself or with the help of the inner circle. They may agree but as the high lord, his authority can never be challenged by them. As it is known to many, Rhysand has a track of using manipulation for his own gain or his court. Because of this, it forged the "the night court is evil" belief and the daemati powers don't make things better. He manipulates Feyre in the first book and makes her his pawn, doing it without her consent. Rhysand keeps many secrets hidden from the other courts which is somewhat normal but there are secrets that are crucial for other courts to know of. The cauldron for example or the book stolen from the summer court. He'll justify it as a way of protection when it's really not. (The pregnancy thing in acosf, cough.) He uses fear and intimidation when he feels it necessary and/or to keep control and it works all the time. An example would be how he acts when he visits Hewn City or the Spring Court.

To the night court, Rhysand is this great hero who sacrificed so much and will do anything for them. Which is true but it only goes for Velaris. To the other courts and Hewn City, Rhysand is as I said before, cruel and evil. The way the inner circle speaks of Rhysand (straight up dick riding), you would think he's one of the best things since sliced bread.

Repression and human rights abuse: What is repression? It's the act of using force to control a group of people and limit their freedom. What group in acotar has limited freedom and/or are controled? You guessed it, Hewn City citizens and Illyrians! What is human rights abuse? Anything that harms a person's rights but in this case, let's go with abuse of rights (since Illyrians aren't human).

The women of Illyria and Hewn city suffer under the system of men. In both regions, it rules under a patriarchal system. The Illyrian women have their wings clipped so that they can be used for breeding purposes and the Hewn women are sold off into marriages, even bidding their virginities. All these women face abuse (either physical, mental, or sexual) and their high lord has done nothing to stop it.

Rhysand knows the pain of sexual abuse and yet, this still happens to the women. "But the library!" HOW THE FUCK ARE HEWN WOMEN GOING TO MAKE IT THERE? HE DOESN'T LET THEM LEAVE, THINKS THEY'RE ALL EVIL, AND THEY DON'T KNOW IT EXISTS?

A woman with Illyrian wings is never mentioned; yes, we don't know if there is one or not but you think that a lady with big bat wings, someone would point it out. You're telling me that I'm getting abused by all the men in my life and there's a haven for women like me but I can't get access to it because I was born in the court of nightmares?

Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, Les aristocrates à la lanterne! Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, Les aristocrates on les pendra!

You may say that Rhysand has to let the Illyrians do their own thing so that they cooperate with him but here's the thing, Rhysand is a daemati. Daemati is the ability to control and infiltrate a person's mind. He could easily go into the minds of the Illyrian men and tell them to stop with the wing clipping and boom, problem solved but he doesn't. The same thing with Hewn men, go into their mind and tell them to stop these arranged marriages and biddings.

But as long as Rhysand needs soldiers and as long as Velaris is at peace, Illyria and Hewn city will suffer for it. The sins of the father if you want to call it. Always an angel (Illyria and Hewn city), never a god (Velaris).

Economic control: What is economic control? It can be seen as a form of abuse as it prevents someone from gaining financial independence. Measures of which governments use to manage and/or their economy.

The Illyrians have it rough. Like rough, rough. They don't live in houses like Velaris or Hewn City citizens. They live in war camps. WAR CAMPS. Their situation is so bad that Cassian handed out blankets. I'm taking a guess and going with the idea that the Illyrians use their money on weapons and training, etc. "Who needs proper housing when we can fight!" I know they make their own money through trade or selling/making clothes but y'all can't afford to make a house?

A lot of the riches in the night court is stored in Velaris but where the hell do they get it from? Their mountains? It will eventually run dry. Trading? Why must the Illyrians live like this and not experience a similar life to Velaris? They don't have to change the entire thing but at least, build them houses or cottages.

Do you know what a war camp looks like in real life?

But this is a fantasy book so it looks like this:

This is not a post to be taken seriously, it's just for fun, I enjoy writing analysis (analyses?) on things I like or hate, no in between.

I am only a woke libtard who doesn't turn off their brain to enjoy a book but instead, will read and analyze/give my critics😔. If only I could act like you booktok girlies who don't bat (get it?) an eye at the weird choices and decisions in the series and who will eat up the very questionable actions of my favorite morally grey man because tattoos, dark hair, shadow daddy, grooming underage girls, committing acts of sexual assault, being abusive and justifying that abuse because tragic backstory, yada yada.

I hold some of my favorite characters accountable for their actions but I don't justify it, it's very easy to do. Yes, they have trauma but it's not an excuse to do what they did.

I am only a teenage girl who loves to hate and act like a hypocritical bitch because what's more fun in life than making grown adults mad because of my unpopular/controversial opinions?

Why are you mad that I'm insulting your "book husband"? It's not my fault your book husband is a POS and that your own husband that you married can't satisfy you so you have to turn to fairy porn and hardcore smut to get rid of your blue balls.

I would like to give thanks to @sonics-atelier for giving me some help and thanks to booktok for unironically making me hate men.

Edit: "You're taking this too seriously!" Number one, I don't care. Number two, I'm a history nerd who once spiraled down a path of learning about dictators. Number three, I'm an American. I know what a dictator looks and acts like, we're going to have one in office for the next four years.

(This has been sitting in my drafts for months and whenever I felt like it, I worked on it.)

[anarchywoofwoof]

play stupid games win stupid prizes. fuck around and find out. leopards eating faces. made your bed now lie in it. cognitive dissonance. virtue signalling. got what you wanted. elections have consequences. gaslighting. did you vote? just vote. you can't complain if you don't vote. who did you vote for? voting third party is the same as not voting. vote blue no matter who. there is no perfect candidate. work to push them left. lesser evil. easier to protest. most important election. trying to save democracy. Trump will be worse. you're gonna love Trump. good luck under Trump. Trump is gonna deport you. Trump is gonna flatten Gaza. someone didn't take civics class. sorry you hate women. sorry you hate Black people. sorry you hate America. sorry you hate white people. i guess you hate liberals more than Trump. i guess you hate everything. i guess you hate everyone. after all, "bOtH sIdEs ArE bAd." communist revolution. radical left. tankie. anarkiddy. lazy children. privileged white leftist. horseshoe theory. firebomb a walmart. violence is not the answer. thanks Chappell Roan. China bad. Mao killed 50,000,000 people. Russia bad. Stalin killed 50,000,000 people. Russian bot identified. Cuba bad. Castro evil. Venezeula bad. North Korea bad. North Korea hungry and horny. no gay people in Palestine. this is like Avengers. this is like Star Wars. this is like Harry Potter. this is like Lord of the Rings.

[tenshi-agerasia]

who would the minions serve in the ensemble stars universe

the ensemble stars x minions analysis that nobody asked for, under the cut

okay so minions want to serve the most powerful (and evil) guy in the area/time they're in

if they enrolled at yumenosaki prior to the ! era they'd have been looking for a master and might've even worked under shu/valkyrie, who was the top unit at that time

"Imagining shu leading the fucking minions is horrifying"

[shu voice] come, my brethren, and let us engage in performance arts

nazuna and mika are very confused

actually mika would like them i think

but when the first revolution/war began, the minions would've caught sight of exfine and eichi

as exfine rose through the ranks and defeated the eccentrics eichi became immensely famous, and i think at least a third of the minions would serve him just because of this

eichi is easily entertained by them

they piss off keito

hiyori is very biased and can tell each minion apart

he names them things like Flowery One and Revolting One

nagisa does not understand what a minion is

tsumugi can fucking communicate in minionese

that's part of the reason natsume hates him so much. he can understand them and talk to them and it's horrifying

if the minions were to see eichi's actual plans on the surface level, that would be enough for them to see as evil

there's also the possibility that some minions might see eichi as "good" and exfine as heroes so they'd turn to serve the eccentrics instead

the minions don't harass rei because he scares them

they think he'd eat them

natsume does not like these little freaks

kanata has fun with them because i'm pretty sure they can't drown

if they can. well rip

chiaki hypes them up :)

but as far as i've seen in the minions franchise they prefer more powerful figures, and the eccentrics at that time were ostracized

and during the ! era trickstar revolution, eichi is definitely more of a villain character so the minions would attempt to help him

and then accidentally screw him over

wataru would love the minions

they're like tomoyas and little watarus to him

tori would absolutely hate them

he punts one when eichi isn't looking

yuzuru is indifferent but he likes having some help

trickstar is Very Conflicted

subaru and the minions would love each other

hokuto despises everything that they stand for

mao is like. huh. ok.

makoto "eek!"s at the sight of one

in !! era, eichi is less of a hero/villain/morally grey guy and just A Girl . at this point the remaining minions under him would either stay or find a new master, possibly gatekeeper

the minions piss him off very effectively

after kohaku beats up gatekeeper or whatever they start to follow him instead

"i imagine [kohaku] showing rinne and rinne shakes one to death or something"

niki would absolutely wonder what they taste like

himeru talks to the minions

"himeru is confused" "bwahaha!! barosoeflksernuina" "himeru does not like you very much"

yknow how ibara has mouse drones and mayoi keeps destroying them. yeah. that with the minions

ibara's upset that his spies are disappearing and he barges into mayoi's house and there's just a giant nest of minions

after meeting a minion midori's attempted murder count rises from 2 to 25

leo says he "feels inspired" by the minions and then composes the most shit song known to man

[ryin-silverfish]

Hello ryin! I saw in a recent post of yours that you dislike the "class warfare" reading of the Havoc in Heaven arc in JTTW and would honestly love to hear more about your thoughts on that! Your takes have been really interesting.

Thank you!

My biggest problem with the "class warfare" reading is, first and foremost, what it has been historically used for.

Like, after the Havoc in Heaven opera and movie came out, the propagandists absolutely ate it up; SWK was associated with Mao Zedong and used to promote Mao's personality cult, and soon after, the White Bone Spirit story would be interpreted as this fable for the Sino-Soviet split.

Whereas Havoc in Heaven was intended and viewed as a metaphor and love letter to the victory of Chinese revolution, the White Bone Spirit story was interpreted in the context of the horrific fuck-up that is the Great Leap Forward, where the party were starting to doubt its leadership, and the path to the future seemed an uncertain and arduous one——much like the pilgrimage.

So, in the new twist on the "class warfare" narrative, Tripitaka and Pigsy became the poster-boy for "party members who were easily captivated by revisionist ideas" and needed to see how wrong they were, the WBS became the personification of Khruschev, imperialism, capitalism, revisionism...you name it, and SWK the Mao expy who could do no wrong yet was unfairly blamed by everyone.

Came the Cultural Revolution era, SWK would then become a sort of hero and role model for the Red Guards, smashing down all that was considered archaic and backwards, tearing down older authority figures and perceived "class enemies" alike, all the while emboldened by Mao's saying that "To rebel is justified" (造反有理).

Yeah, no, fuck that shit.

Terrible historical baggages aside, it is also a reading that reeks of presentism, and Lin Geng, a renowned professor of literature, had done a thorough takedown of the "SWK as peasant rebel" idea in his 西游记漫话.

Namely, it neither fits the circumstances of Havoc in Heaven, nor SWK's backstory and motivation. He's not rebelling because his monkeys are oppressed by the Celestial Realm, he's doing it because he feels personally slighted.

His mindset is also not that of a traditional peasant; compare and contrast that with Zhu Bajie, whom the author argues is very much peasant-coded in terms of his obsession with going back to Gao Laozhuang, his rake, and his comedic ignorance that stems from urban stereotypes of rural farmers.

To paraphrase Lin Geng, "Not all rebellions and rebel narratives in Chinese history are peasant ones, and we shouldn't just cry 'peasant rebellion metaphor!' the moment we saw a rebellion in fiction."

Lastly and more personally? This reading also tends to remove SWK's depth as a character. The representation of the Mind can be both heroic and flawed, capable of great feats and fuck-ups alike, but the representation of The Revolution has to be heroic and his opponents, whether celestial or demonic, must be evil oppressors and political boogeymen.

Like, the demons in the novel are representations of the mental obstacles a person will face on the path to Enlightenment, but they are also capable of being funny and very human characters, and not all of them wanted to eat Tripitaka.

The Celestial Realm is a satire of the imperial bureaucracy, sure, but the novel is also a product of its time and cannot magically promote 20th century ideas of revolutions and political reforms 500 years before they were a thing. Besides, SWK can still get help from them on the Journey and their relationship is more complicated than "oppressed rebel and oppressors".

And that's exactly why I dislike the "class warfare" reading: it creates a simplistic opposition of good and evil, and tries to squeeze the work into a narrow political framework that is neither nuanced nor accurate.

[penny-the-pissed-poltergeist]

Volume 3 episode 2 rewatch thoughts, RWDE/critical opinions inbound

.The only things I remember about team BRNZ is that one guy being important in books and that one girl both being headcanoned by people to have huge tits and her name being 1 letter off from Mao Zedong

.A lot of the models look kinda off in this fight to me more then just poser era being poser era, I don't know why maybe the lighting?

.There has to be a guy with lightning attacks because neither Nora nor her teammates have a way to charge her themselves for some reason.

.I don't trust Port calling a female student of his "one of his favorites"

.Why are Port and Oobleck just telling everyone the semblance of a member of one his home teams? Oobleck also says Nora can "produce" electrical energies even though she's literally never been shown to be able to do that.

.Really convenient that the side of the arena they were on just happened to have a storm maker, did Cinder rig that somehow?

.I really like the heart pattern that Nora firing 5 fucking grenades at once makes

.People claim Jaune is a good leader but didn't even tell his teammates what his commands for attacks are, I don't care if he says they went over it they clearly didn't

.Jaune's ship names are terrible, flower power sounds like something out of Mario and he didn't even try with Arkos

.BRNZ... you have a sniper, just shoot them while their talking

.Nora can almost 1-shot four people, give her a lightning dust crystal and she could swash Cinder like bug, trust

.haha it's the crowbar because it's the bar Qrow is in

.Qrow cares as much about the early rounds of this tournament as I do

.Knowing how shit like sport riots have happened IRL, is it really a good idea to host something like this, Vacuo fans hurting might get someone fucking killed

.Shut up Port

.Shout out to the girl holding up a picture of Sun's abs

.Are team SSSN famous or some shit

.Remember that RT denied letting one of the members of team NDGO be "too fat" (Don't give me bullshit about animation constraints, they were 100% willing to make other body types but ONLY for men) and then when the people who originally designed them called them that RT had them be evil and incompetent in the books out of saltiness

.Why does anyone like Neptune? I will never get it, he's either an unfunny punchline or a shitty boyfriend or both depending on what episode your watching, and he sometimes drags Sun down with him too just ugh I don't like him.

.I didn't used to get why people loved Sun some much I know I get it. He's Jaune minus the things that make me hate Jaune. (I like him less latter but still)

.They have the tech for fake suns? That's more advanced then I think even the writers realized, just get some of these for Mantle

.You can tell Scarlet is gay because he has the gay voice™

.Dust stave users are just wizards but not

.Sage doesn't have a single actual line and get jobbed immediately... great just GREAT /s

.Team NDGO's pretty impressive actually

.Scarlet has a sword and a gun but they aren't combined, how bizarre

.That clip of Patric Star watching TV for the part with the coconut

.Can these fights stop ending with one anticlimactic hit please?

.Port hates puns, of course I hate him

.Volume 3 Qrow is great because he is as tired of this shit as I am

.Blake was objectively into Sun and people saying otherwise just can't handle a character in a same sex ship being BI

.Aw Weiss loves her sister (Please ignore what said Sister does next episode)

[docholligay]

So, In assume the candle thing is some kind of death ritual--seems perfectly reasonable, in line with a lot of other such death rituals--and Kayo doesn't want to do it because she does actually believe that mononoke are fucking up the place. I do too, but I'm cheating, and I know I'm in a story, and specifically I know I'm in a ghost story. She does not know that.

None of them know that. All they realistically know is that Mao's been stabbed from afar, and he says that it's evil spirits. I guess I see the hesitation to trust him, given that fact. But I don't get why, if they think it actually might be a murder, they don't go look for the culprit? I mean, what are your options here?

Please do not spoil me for anything in this story, including any cultural references I don’t know or understand! I am being asked to do this as me, and go in blind, which includes missing references sometimes!

[princeofcyberpunk]

random scout characters ive collected as my personal favorite group of guys

Imoto Sayumi

there is not a THING going on up there except that hairbow

Fukukawa Yoko

we need more goth characters in this franchise that arent overtly "scary" or "halloween" themed. anyway apparently she hates wasting money so i automatically relate hell yeah frugal queen

Hoshihara Tsugumi

APARENTLY SHE RUNS AWAY IF BOYS SAY THEY LIKE HER?? LMAO?? her dismayed expression is really everything to me

Fujieda Nunoka

girl i am begging you to get brown contacts

Matsutani Kazuho

apparently she wants to be a model but is worried about her appearance. alright thats another for the 'make them kaede's friend because they have no real lore and a tangential relation to fashion' pile

Yashiro Momoko

she feeds the stray cats in her neighborhood how could i not love her

Kurashima Mao

i am resisting the urge to make a "bLuE hAiReD wOkE fEmiNiSt" joke so hard rn anyways shes completely correct i can attest i am an urchin im very spiky

Shirasagi Akesumi

all it says is that he's self-conscious about his apperence and while im inclined to say that makes him endearing the evil within me is saying "well yeah with a dumbass asymmetrical haircut like that you better be"

Chidori Yaena

im gonna be so real i genuinely thought that she was a frog for a second anyway we need more inazuma eleven characters with bows on them

Rinnouji Raigo

ok putting aside the fact that this man is a cyclist HIS DUB NAME IS AVID PEDDLER. his parents must fucking HATE HIM

Takama Ai

im gonna be real i only like her because her design is scary what is WRONG with her

Kazamatsuri Sou

he looks like those times in the Yo-Kai Watch canon where the Yo-Kai use those leaves to appear as humans. but like. if Ventoct did that

Hiraraki Raina

she aparently loves american tv and orders DVDs from there of said shows. i am afraid of which ones she's referring to because last time i checked the only good thing on TV we export is cartoons

Reizei Rikihito

his hair is cute and his name is fun to say what more could i ask for

Aragaki Rekkuu

he looks like he'd be rivals with the previous guy and also kinda like he fell out of beyblade

and finally Shima Naemi

SHE WANTS TO BE A DETECTIVE AND LOOKS LIKE SHES ABOUT TO CRY I LOVE HER we need to have a whole game about this girl stat

[sucrows]

I’m more than enthusiastic to share the breeding kink brand with all the smut blogs when you do eventually make it your brand, more the merrier after all.

that being said I shall ask for F, P, and Q with Mao, always interested in other people’s opinions on him. -rei

Devil on my shoulder! Evil! Evil Rei! Evil Rei who tempts me with breeding kink! 

(NSFW UNDER CUT)

[F] FAVORITE POSITION: 

Good ol’ missionary is his favorite. It’s easy and comfortable for all parties involved, allows him full access to your front, and can be easily moved into a mating press. Otherwise, he’s not really a fan of penetration from behind. He likes to see his partner fall apart and he’s shamefully into putting on a show himself sometimes. It’s just so convenient to have everything on display and within easy reach so missionary will always be his default choice. 

P: PACE: 

He tries to go slow, he really does... but somehow, he always seems to end up going faster and faster until you both finish. Considering that he doesn’t often have the time for long, soft, sensual sex, hard rough sex that lets you finish quickly is most convenient for him. Going fast is the only way he can fit in all the sex you both want. Even when you have more time together, it’s become almost ingrained in your minds to cum and do it as quickly as possible. This does however allow for some amazing marathon sex and overstimulation so hey, it's got its perks. 

Q: QUICKIE: 

While Mao would love to take his time, he unfortunately often does not have that time to spare. Quickies tend to be a frequent occurrence with him. He starts so shy when he has to approach you for these kinds of things. Until you get pretty far into the relationship, he’s going to be bit awkward when trying to initiate or imply things. He’s so cute though that it’s honestly charming to watch. As time goes on, as he gets more and more comfortable with you well... eventually nowhere is safe from a quick fuck or two. 

[bauliya]

"your government" yeah canada and australia and new zealand and japan and ireland are all super involved in this. so easy to blame this nebulous concept of westerns instead of realizing the neighborhood countries are absolute pieces of shit and the apathy towards wars is not western exclusively. but then that breaks the noble savage stereotype you got going on, isn't it? western (white) ppl evil and brown ppl good. never fucking mind egypt, lebanon, saudi, iraq, turkey... so on so forth are also responsible for what is happening. when you realize there's no solidarity in the arab/muslim world and we are all tossing each other under the bus for a chance to sit at the table with world powers maybe you will understand this conflict is way deeper than israel bad palestine good. never fucking mind the forced islamization of so many ethnic groups and cultures. but when islam does it it's okay but when Christianity does it it's bad. what a fucking joke you lot are

this is like someone accusing mao of loving landlords lmao bitch I am an Indian woman and I hate this country so much no one needs to tell me how fucking awful GS states are you illiterate fuck !!!!

[demoisverysexy]

God I hate that tankies are so popular on this website. They arent even leftists! Theyre so focused on how libs are just as evil as conservatives and Stalin and Mao were based actually that they end up advocating that people dont participate in political advocacy in favor of fantasizing about the rapture. And people still spread their fucking posts uncritically! The people who think that the USSR and Maos China are good examples of "actual existing communism!" Just because you critique capitalism doesnt make you a communist, or a leftist.

[kadytimberfox]

Kady's Expanse (Re)Watch Blog

Episode 1.01 - "Dulcinea" (Pilot)

And here we go for my...fourth time I've watched this episode I think? It's a really wonderful pilot that does so much work with introducing you to the world, our cast of characters, and setting up the threads of the main plot and does it all perfectly in a very tight 45 minutes. It reminds me a lot of Deep Space Nine's pilot "The Emissary" which is similarly a masterclass in tight storytelling and how to properly kick off a new series.

And speaking of kicking off a new series, hey! I'm watching this show that I absolutely adore again and I'm going to take the time to spout my thoughts about it on the internet because that seems like a fun idea! I really enjoy thinking about media critically but I've never taken the time to write down my thoughts before. It's a style of writing I've always wanted to try so where better to do that than a Tumblr blog? I'll try to keep these Brief and Not Boring but no guarantees on either. Especially on this one. It's the pilot, after all.

I also want to keep this as light on spoilers as possible; again though, no guarantees. Also if you haven't seen this show yet just go fucking watch it it's so good.

Later in this post is a description of torture that happens in the episode. I marked it with a TW and formatted the text to make it distinct from the rest of the post.

With that out of the way, there's nothing left to do except pick apart this pilot!

---------------------------------------

Summary

We kick off with a bang (and then some more banging) as we see a young woman named "Julie" fight her way out of a locked compartment, explore the darkened hallways of her Completely Fucked Spaceship, and watch her friends get eaten alive by some evil blue space goop. Surely none of that will be important later.

Cut to the adventures of hard-boiled Belter detective Joe Miller and his new Earthling partner Dimitri Havelock. They're private cops for an Earth corporation who theoretically maintain order on Ceres Station in the Asteroid Belt, the biggest shithole this side of pretty much anywhere. They go to a murder scene and do basically nothing, antagonize and then arrest people minding their own business at a bar, and take a bribe to half-ass a health inspection. Y'know, classic cop stuff.

Back at the precinct, Miller gets an off-the-books job from his boss to find one Juliette Andromeda Mao, daughter of megacorp magnate Jules-Pierre Mao and coincidentally the spitting image of "Julie" from our opening scene. Apparently, her pro-Belter activism is starting to piss off dear old dad and they want her to come home before she embarrasses the family any further.

In the middle of his investigation, he finds out that those air filters he "inspected" earlier crapped out and poisoned some children. Instead of taking accountability for not doing his job, he decides to throw the sleazy air filter guy into an airlock and only lets him out after he promises not to fuck it up next time. And also to pay Miller double. I'll let it slide though because Sleazy Air Filter Guy is an asshole.

Back on Earth, United Nations Undersecretary Chrisjen Avasarala shows up for about five minutes in this episode. The only thing she does is torture a guy. End scene.

Meanwhile, the good ship Canterbury is on its way to Ceres with a big haul of space ice that the station needs to turn into water. Second Officer James Holden gets immediately promoted, much to his dismay, because his previous boss Mike Ehrmantraut went insane from being out in space too long.

Mystery strikes when the gang gets a weird distress signal from a ship called the Scopuli. Captain McDowell, probably having watched enough Star Trek episodes to know that this can't be anything good, decides to ignore it. Holden just can't stop himself from doing a good thing, though, and secretly reports the signal, officially making the Canterbury Legally Obligated��� to investigate.

He picks his away team (unknowingly also picking the people he's going to spend the rest of this show with) and takes a shuttle to investigate the drifting Scopuli, where they find everything shut down except for the beacon that brought them here. "Pirate bait", or so it seems.

Suddenly, McDowell advises the away team that a very scary ship has appeared out of nowhere and that they need to get the hell out of there. The gang gets back on the shuttle just in time for the mystery ship to fire not just regular torpedoes, but nuclear torpedoes at them. The torpedoes close to zero...and then continue streaking towards the Canterbury.

Holden tells McDowell to eject the space ice to form a protective barrier, but he refuses, apparently willing to die rather than lose his payday. The payday (and everything else aboard) is lost anyway, however, as the Canterbury erupts into the most beautiful supernova I've ever seen.

"She's gone. They nuked her. She's gone."

-----------------------------------

My thoughts

So this is where I actually have to do the analysis thing. Since the beginning of this show is split into three primary subplots that all deal with a different piece of the Julie puzzle (a narrative device that I fucking love, by the way), I'll divide things up by talking about each one individually because that just makes sense.

Before I do that though, I just want to briefly say that that opening scene with Julie on the Scopuli is just the perfect opening to this show. It immediately gives us a very brief glimpse inside the puzzle box that our main cast is going to spend all of this season (and most of this show) trying to open. It's quick, it's tense, it's completely terrifying, and it's unforgettable if you've seen it.

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Miller on Ceres:

And we follow up that perfect opening scene with a perfect choice for which of these three main threads to start with. The thing that's great about dividing up the characters like this is that each of them only has a piece of what's going on with Julie and the Scopuli, but no one has the full picture. Miller, though, gets the most information off the bat and is the only person in the main cast who's looking for Julie specifically, so it's only natural that we should start with him.

His story is also the inspiration for the title of this episode, "Dulcinea". For those of you who aren't big Don Quixote fans, it's a reference to Quixote's fantasy lover that he invents because he styles himself as a knight and, of course, every knight needs his damsel. He describes her in excruciating detail; she's royalty in a far-off land who is the epitome of feminine beauty, the ideal of Womanhood Incarnate--or his vision of it at least.

And the deeper Miller goes in his investigation, the more quixotic he gets with his idea of who Julie is. He's never met or spoken to Julie, but as he unravels her activities prior to departing on the Scopuli, he becomes increasingly obsessed with her, imagining what kind of a person she must be, picking apart every little detail and transposing it onto his vision of what her life must be like. I'm sure he would call it "being a good detective", but it's much more than that to him.

Throughout Miller's jaunt around town with Havelock, they banter back and forth, and through their conversations, we get a great sense of their personalities. Whereas Miller is the grizzled veteran who's had his morality thoroughly beaten out of him, Havelock is a by-the-book rookie cop who seems genuinely interested in learning about Belters, if only so that he can police them more effectively.

It's a very tried-and-true buddy cop pairing, but it works really well here. Havelock gets to be our audience surrogate for this story as we learn more about how Ceres and Belters operate.

This thread has the biggest worldbuilding burden out of the three and it pulls it off so well. We get so much about life in the Belt, the politics of the Solar System, the Outer Planets Alliance, or OPA (who will definitely be showing up later), and the logistics of maintaining a huge population of humans on a space station. And none of it feels clunky or awkward in the slightest. It's exactly the style of worldbuilding I loved in "The Emissary" from Deep Space Nine.

Ceres itself also has huge DS9 vibes, and not in a good way. The set design team did such a good job making this place look old, weathered, and completely falling apart. Except, of course, for the nice apartment buildings where the cops, off-worlders, and everyone else rich enough to ignore the seedy underbelly get to live.

There are a ton of fantastic, evocative lines in this arc, but I think my favorite is Miller's deadpan proclamation that "There are no laws on Ceres, just cops." A perfect summary of everything we see on screen about how power is wielded in this place.

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Chrisjen on Earth:

This is the shortest thread where the least happens, but it will grow into one of my favorites. We don't get too much additional insight into what's going on, but we do get two important things: 1) Chrisjen Avasarala is a stone-cold bitch who thinks the OPA are terrorists, and 2) the OPA are apparently trying to get their hands on illegal stealth technology, which doesn't help with the whole "terrorism" thing.

This links up to both Miller's and Holden's subplots: we know about the OPA from Miller, and the ship that eventually blows up the Cant was using Martian stealth tech. Of course, since Holden and crew have no idea about the OPA, they immediately start thinking that Mars is out to get them, which will continue to play into the story going forward.

!-- TW: DESCRIPTION OF TORTURE --!

Also important to note is that Chrisjen is getting this information through the most brutal torture I've seen on TV in a long time: forcing a Belter whose body can't handle Earth's gravity to stand for hours on end by holding him up with hooks under his arms. After Chrisjen goes on and on about his "weak Belter lungs and brittle Belter bones", she coldly turns around and tells them to hold him up for another 10 hours. "If he survives, call me."

!-- TW ENDS --!

Fucking ghoulish, and definitely not a good look for Madam Undersecretary's first appearance. You're gonna have to trust me now when I say that she becomes one of my favorite characters in the main cast. This is about as bad as she gets, but she continues being manipulative and cold-blooded for most of this show. That's just who she is. To me, it's part of what makes this subplot of scheming at the UN so engaging.

We'll be seeing a lot more of Chrisjen going forward, and she'll get much better. At the very least, she will stop torturing this guy. But only because someone will tell her not to.

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Holden on the Canterbury:

If Miller's story shows us life in the Belt and Chrisjen's shows us the politics of the Solar System, Holden's thread is all about life onboard a spaceship, which is important because we're going to be spending a lot of time on spaceships. This is also the part of the episode that has the most CG and honestly it holds up really really well. I know it's less than a decade old and they probably got a lot of money for the pilot but still! It looks great!

I'll drop a brief shoutout here as well for the ship designs in this show. They knocked it out of the goddamn park with the Cant's design: it's a big, boxy, dull gray, ugly thing that looks designed to haul ice and do literally nothing else. Everything is so practical and, above all else, plausible. They look like humans from the near future built them and that's the highest compliment I can give them.

There are shades of the first act of "Alien" here as we are essentially dropped into the Cant in the middle of its mission and get to see the camaraderie and hierarchy between all the members of the crew. We also get to know more about Holden, and immediately he begins showing us his defining character trait: he wields a lot of authority and respect, but he hates being in charge.

We see this in the very first scene onboard the Cant when one of the ice haulers, Paj, gets his arm severed while working outside the ship. He seems completely unfazed by this, though, since the company will send him a prosthetic and he's been working for them long enough to get a really good one.

Not only does this happen often enough that the company just buys prosthetics as a cost of doing business, there are literally tiers of coverage depending on years of service. What an optimistic future this is turning out to be.

Paj pleads with Holden to make sure the company doesn't send him a "used" arm (a frightening thought), to which Holden replies with something that he will continue to say, in so many words, over and over: "I'm just another clock-puncher like you." Holden knows he has authority on the Cant, but all he wants to be is a clock-puncher, which he makes very clear to pretty much everyone he talks to, including Captain McDowell when he essentially forces the XO job onto him.

Later on, we get our first glimpse at Holden's other primary personality trait, that being that he is The Main Character and therefore the most kind-hearted soul that can exist in this cold, selfish world. He logs the distress signal they received from the Scopuli, thereby ensuring that they'll have to divert from Ceres (and lose their on-time bonus) in order to investigate.

He shares this privately with Chief Engineer Naomi Nagata before the shuttle mission, to which her only reply is to tell him to keep that to himself. Fair play, considering she was just talking about how she wanted to strangle the little fucking do-gooder before she realized it was her new XO. Excuse me, Acting XO.

Before the shuttle launch, we're briefly introduced to the rest of the away team: the aforementioned Naomi; her mechanic Amos Burton, whose defining character trait is doing whatever Naomi tells him to do; ship's pilot Alex Kamal, who we previously saw being an annoying blabbermouth on the Cant; and Med-Tech Shed Garvey, who sewed up Paj's arm and wants everyone to know that he does not want to be here. Yes, his first name really is Shed.

Most of this part of the episode is setting up what'll happen next so we don't get a lot of time with any of these guys, but we'll have time for some great character work in the coming episodes.

----------------------------------

And that said, what a great setup for what comes next! Nearly all of the people we just got to know on the Cant are vaporized by a mysterious ship, there's a cloud of space debris hurtling toward Holden's little shuttle, and we have a hell of a puzzle box to dig into. Did Mars blow up the Cant? Did the OPA? Why would either of them want to? What does it all have to do with Julie and the Scopuli? And what the hell was that fucking space goo??

Despite covering so much ground in this pilot, The Expanse makes it very clear that we've barely scratched the surface. And even though I've already seen this whole show and know where it's going, it took everything I had to not hit the "next episode" button.

I will be doing that very soon though because I had a blast writing this up and I definitely want to keep doing it! Apologies that this one ran so long -- I assumed I was going to write a lot with this being the first episode and everything but I had so many thoughts that didn't make it into this post. I'm sure I'll be refining the format as we go along as well.

If you read all the way to here, I'm genuinely flattered and I hope you have a wonderful day.

~ Kady <3

[inqilabi]

Hi, could you please elaborate how radical/separatist feminism is bourgeois controlled dissent?

I have genuinely only heard this sentiment as a way to say that when women do things only for women they serve Big Bad Evil and they should do things that serve men's lot instead and STFU about all that stupid girly shit like DV and workplace inequality, because it's all just a result of men being oppressed anyway. Soviets branded feminism that way, and the treatment of women here was and is fucking atrocious as a result of historical inability to organize and subversion of female dissent into other causes instead.

Do you have any other criticism?

Oh no I was talking about liberal feminism there being controlled dissent. I think radical feminism has always been anti-industry like properly, so it would be hard for ruling class to co-opt it.

There's aspects of it that can be co-opted imo, self-criticism is important and we should be open to that. Radical feminism isn't anti-imperialist, doesn't have a proper anti imperialist base or economic understanding. Which is why you'll see so many radfems be okay with liberation wars to free women in Afghanistan or Iran. It doesn't understand that national liberation of people from imperialism has to come first for the nation to then to progress and develop towards liberation of women. Without national liberation, whatever interventions that take place even if they're in the name of "freeing women", they'll always end up being worse for women in the long run. This is unfortunate because the original radical feminists like Carol hanish were actually inspired by Mao. But you know feminist philosophy changes over time and that's the direction I feel radical feminists went as a whole in the later years

Separatist movements in general has always been a tool by the empire to make the nations small and controllable. Internal discord will always make the country more open to US intervention or coups or having a US aligned gov. This has been tried with Kurds, was why the Balkans were balkanized. Was also used by Brits for Muslims vs Hindus to seperate India. And Hutus and Tutsis. But I don't believe it applies to seperatism or could happen with female seperatism because the female sex isn't like a nation. We are organized by sex as a species but not as a nation, if that makes sense. I know in china there's some push and pull between CPC and radfems within the country there.

[volturialice]

mid-year book freakout tag

according to my crazy spreadsheet I have read 60 books so far in 2024. pretty impressive even for me! I'm borrowing this tag from @wormwoodandhoney, who borrowed it from youtube.

best book you’ve read so far in 2024? In Other Lands, tied with the below.

best sequel you’ve read so far in 2024? Menewood, Abaddon's Gate, and Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands. I also loved Brides of High Hill! It's now tied with WTCDM for my favorite Singing Hills novella.

new release you haven’t read yet, but want to: I've been putting off reading The Angel of Indian Lake because I simply don't want the series to end

most anticipated release for the second half of the year: All my reeeeally anticipated releases were in Jan-April! But maybe The Seventh Veil of Salome or Long Live Evil

biggest surprise: My bar was on the floor at the time, but Road to Ruin vaulted over it on a cool motorcycle. Also enjoyed Little Thieves

favorite new author (debut or new to you): Probably the James S.A. Corey guys. ty for being the reason I can geek out about my dad's blorbos with him

newest favorite character: Clarissa Melpomene Mao you fucked up little freak!! Marry me!! (runners-up Elliot from IOL and interspecies failcouple Drs Emily Wilde & Wendell Bambleby)

book that made you cry: In Other Lands, after like a 3-year crying dry spell. It was like when you turn on the tap in a crumbling haunted house and gross spooky mud spurts out

book that made you happy: Always Emily Wilde. What a silly time

most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received): Redder Days by Sue Rainsford. You can't tell online but the cover is fuckin sparkly. The Book of Love also quite pretty

11 - what books do you need to read by the end of the year? Various books to pre-approve for next year's book club, plus whatever I end up choosing for the 2024 BBC Summer Reading Challenge!

Tagging anyone who did a Thing of any kind with Bella's Book Club this year! even if you just clicked around or joined the discord, still counts ✔️