#Ralph's hatred of 'good women'

[renaultphile]

Good Women are not my cup of tea

Apologies in advance to @eclare1000 for this totally unsolicited follow-up ramble that no doubt strays even further from your actual question!!

I thought I would try a different tack on the 'Plymouth Brethren' reference, looking from a literary point of view and focusing on what is not said and why.

The first thing I notice is the context for this scene, Laurie opening up about his mother re-marrying.

Ralph goes into generic ‘there’s no accounting for women’ mode, and refers to his first captain finding a wife against the odds.  Laurie notices his eyes ‘contract in sudden anxiety’.  Then he drops the ‘none of my girlfriends went in for that sort of thing’.  Still no mention of his mother.  He claims ignorance on family relationships.

The only women are the ones in his ‘experiment’.  I’ve always found this whole passage strange, such a bizarre topic of conversation but in the context of avoiding other, more ‘dangerous’ (ie personal) topics, it might just make sense.

Towards the end he drops the ‘good women are not my cup of tea’ line, again in that rather strange context.  He is clearly thinking of his mother but still not wanting to say it.

We are then told, again, how keen Ralph is to close the subject and how Laurie uncharacteristically pushes for more.

Then we get ‘Give me the Nazis any day’.  Mary must have been searching for the most extreme thing a war veteran could say.  She then makes Ralph’s embarrassment at having said it very clear.

Laurie, most uncharacteristically, pushes on.

And then, after a very long and circuitous discussion, we finally get ‘She couldn’t help what she felt about it.  Her parents were Plymouth Brethren’.

After that Ralph clams up altogether, and we are told the topic never came up again, ever.

So where does that leave us? I wonder if the PB reference is meant to be a conversation-stopper, not an opener at all, to provide heat but not light.  If it is meant to be understood by readers in a superficial way, the two elements that spring to mind about PB would be impossible standards of ‘purity’ and a tendency to believe in an unforgiving God. 

But as with almost every important scene in the book, we are none the wiser what actually happened.  We know almost nothing of the incident, and Ralph’s description of his mother’s little ‘talk’ is such a caricature.  I wonder if Mary deliberately made it his grandparents to leave a little hint of doubt about what his childhood actually looked like?  Perhaps his mother wasn’t that strict?  Hard to say when we don't really know what happened. The important thing is how the young Ralph makes sense of the experience rather than the details. 

What does shine through in this scene is the extent to which Ralph finds it painful to talk about his childhood.  It’s a new piece of information for Laurie, and he immediately makes a very literal connection between ‘learning a clean life’ and the tic where Ralph touches his ‘spotless collar’.

Mary makes use of her highly intuitive narrator to again convey Ralph’s state of mind, with almost no factual information.  The more she hides, the more painful it becomes for the reader.  And it worked for me because reading back through for that passage to write this was hard!

And perhaps this is the first small hint that Laurie is someone who can make a difference to Ralph, who sees something the others don’t, and who might just be able to take him down a different path.  If Ralph will let him.

[dat-asslyn]

It's okay OP you can say Alice Quinn

the way people treat girl characters in fandom joker-ifies me

[itsalwayswellattheworldsend]

Book 3 Chapter 1 - An Adventure in the Wood Under the Mountains

Text Audio

Synopsis:

Ralph meets a woman in the woods and uncovers a conspiracy.

Summary:

"By thine eyes I swear that this is sooth, and that there is naught else in it than this: My lady set her love, when first she set her eyes upon thee—as forsooth all women must:”

Two hours after midnight—at the time he had planned—Ralph stepped out of his tent wearing his armor and weapons, and he went to the fallen oak, where he found Redhead with a single horse. From this, Ralph knew that he was keeping to his plan of going to Utterbol. Ralph took him by the shoulder and hugged him, though he was a rough man, and Redhead knelt to him briefly, then stood and went off into the night.

Ralph quickly mounted his horse and rode carefully across the highway and into the woods, where he found no one to stop him. Although there was only starlight to see by, there was a path and the horse found it, so he made it a good distance before even the first glimmer of dawn, especially since the woods thinned some after the first mile and he found clearings here and there.

So Ralph rode until the sun was about to ride, and he was near the middle of one of those grassy clearings when he saw thicker underbrush ahead than he had seen before. So he stopped and looked around for a moment, and as he did he heard a sound even gentler than the cy of a jay in a beech-tree, and more shrill than the morning breeze moving through the woods. He sat and listened carefully, and he thought he heard the voice of a woman, and he remembered his that old, dear adventure in the Wood Perilous, for he was dreamy with eagerness and the long, lonely night. But he wasn’t sure about the voice he heard, so moved on, thinking it best not to linger.

His horse had barely taken a step before a woman came running out of the woods in front of him, coming towards him through the grass. So he immediately dismounted and went to meet her, leading his horse, and as he drew close he could see she was in poor condition. She had gathered up her skirt to run better, and her legs and feet were bare, her cap having fallen off at some point and her black hair streaming out behind her.  Her gown was torn around the shoulders and chest so that one of her sleeves hung in tatters, as if someone had grabbed it.

She ran up to him, crying out: “Help, knight, help us!” and then she fell at his feet panting and sobbing.

He bent and helped her up, and said with a kind voice: “What’s wrong, fair woman? What happened, and how can I help? Is someone chasing you?”

She stood there crying for a moment, and then took hold of his hands and said: “Oh, fair lord, please come and help my lady![1] I’m already safe, now that I’m with you.”

“Should I mount up?” he asked, moving away from her, but she held on to his hands and seemed to enjoy it. She did not say anything for a while, but stared earnestly into his face. She was a fair woman, dark and slim… for in truth she was none other than Agatha, who was spoken of before.[2]

Ralph was somewhat embarrassed by her forwardness, and he lowered his eyes, but he could not help but notice that despite the briars and brambles of the woods she had run through, there were no scratches on her bare legs and her arm was not bruised where the sleeve was torn away.

At last she slowly, as though thinking about it, said: “Oh knight, I compel you by your oath as a knight to come help my lady! She nad I have been captured by evil men, and I fear that they will put her to shame and torture her before they take her away, for they were tying her to a tree when I escaped. They paid little attention to me as I am only a maid, and they had my lady in their hands.”

“All right,” he said, “And who is your lady?”

“She is the Lady of the Burnt Rock; and I fear that these men are the Riders of Utterbol, and that they will treat her harshly, for there is nothing but hatred between my lord and the tyrant of Utterbol.”[3]

“How many of them are there,” asked Ralph.

“Only three, fair lord, only three,” she said, “And you are so fair and strong, like the god of war himself.”

Ralph laughed: “Three to one is long odds,” he said, “but I will come with you once you let go of my hands and I can mount my horse. You should ride behind me, fair woman, as tired as you must be after the night you’ve had.”

She looked at him curiously and placed one hand on his chest. The rings of his chainmail tinkled beneath his embroidered overcoat. She said: “No, I should go on foot ahead of you, as disarrayed as I am.”

Then she let him go, but followed him with her eyes as he got himself into the saddle. She walked by the horse’s head, and Ralph wondered at how calmly she went, having just been so desperate moments before. She stepped carefully, gracefully avoiding rough patches as she went.

They went on like this through the underbrush, and the woman cautiously held aside the briars and thorns as she went, which slowed their pace even further, until they came to a pleasant place with oak trees and green grass. Here she stopped and turned to face Ralph and say something. Her voice was different than before, now no longer pleading, but filled with something like mocking and glee.

“Sir knight,” she said, ”I have something to tell you, and this is a nice place for us to talk together as it is neither too near or far from her, so I can easily find my way back to her. Now, lord, I ask that you dismount and listen to me.” With that, she sat down on the grass as the base of a great oak.

“But your lady,” said Ralph, “What about her?”

“Oh sir,” she said; “My lady will be all right. She is tied loosely enough that she can free herself if she needs to. Come down, dear lord, come down!”

But Ralph sat on his horse and furrowed his brow and said: “What is this, woman? Have you been leading me on? Where is your lady whom you wanted me to rescue? If this is a game, let me go on my way; I have an important task, and time is short.”

She stood up and came close to him, placing one hand on his knee and looking wistfully into his face. She said with a sigh: “No then, I can tell you while you sit in your saddle, then, since I think you will leave me quickly once I am done.”

Then Ralph felt bad about how he spoke to her, and she now became gentle, sweet, and alluring, and sadness tinged her voice. So he got off his horse and tied him to a tree, then went to stand by the woman as she reclined on the grass. He said: “I ask that you tell me your story and then let me go, if there is nothing I can do to help you.”

Then she said: “The first thing is that I lied about Red Rock. My lady is the Queen of Utterbol, and I am her thrall, and it is I who have led you here from the camp.”

Ralph’s face reddened in anger when he thought about how he had been dragged here and there by other people with their own goals ever since he left Upmeads. But he said nothing, and Agatha looked at him timidly, saying: "I say that I am her thrall, and I did it to serve her and because she asked me to.”

Ralph said roughly: “And Redhead, whom, I saved from torture and death; do you know him? Did you know him?”

“Yes,” she said, “I learned about you from him and the captains, and then I put words in his mouth.”

“Yes then, so he is also a traitor!”

“No, no,” she said, “He is an honest man and he loves you, and whatever he has told you, he believes it, himself. Furthermore, I tell you here and now that all he told you about the affairs of Utterbol and your fate there are true, very true.”

She jumped to her feet then and stood in front of him with her hands clasped in front of her. “I know that you are seeking the Well at the World’s End and freedom for the woman whom the Lord stole from the wild man. Now I swear by your mouth that if you go to Utterbol, it will be your undoing and you will meet a terrible fate there. Furthermore, doing so would bring terrible shame and torture to the young woman.”

“But how is she now?”

Agatha said: “She is all right, for my lady does not hate her yet, or hates her only a little. And more importantly, my lord loves her in his own way, and I think fears her somewhat. Because despite the fact that he has completely refused his advances, he has hardly threatened her, which is unheard of. Had any other woman done this, she would have known all the bitterness that leads to death in Utterbol by now.” She smiled and spoke delicately: “Many people tell me what I want to know, and that is sometimes because I take the information from them with my wits, and sometimes because I buy them with my body. Anyway, what I tell you about the young woman is the truth: though she is in danger, she would be in immediate, life-threatening danger if you were to go to Utterbol. You, who are her lover…”

“No,” said Ralph angrily, “I am not her lover, I merely care about her wellbeing.”[5]

“Well,” said Agatha, looking down and furrowing her brow, “when your good will towards her becomes known, she will at once be thrown into the pit of my lord’s cruelty. Yes, to tell the truth as it is, for your sake (since I don’t care about her), I hope that the lord returns to Utterbol to find her missing.”

“Yes,” said Ralph, reddening, “and is there any hope of her escaping?”

“I think so,” said Agatha. She was silent for a while, then said in a low voice: “It is said that any man who sees her loves her. Yes, and they will be her friend, even if she rejects their advances.[6] She may have already left Utterbol.”

Ralph stood silent for a while with a troubled face. Then he said: “You have not yet told me why you put on this whole charade, tricking me into escaping from the camp. Tell me your reasons so I may forgive you and be on my way.”

“I swear by your eyes that this is true, and that there is nothing else to it than this: My lady fell in love with you when she first saw you—as all women must, in truth. As for me, I had not seen you (though I told my lady that I had), until just before when we met in the woods.”

Then she sighed and with her right hand, toyed with the rip in her gown over her chest. She said: “She thought that if you were taken to Utterbol as a thrall, she might command your body, but she could not gain your love. But maybe if you found her in danger and could rescue her, you might pity her, and love might come from it as has often happened before, as my lady is a beautiful woman. Therefore I, who am my lady’s servant and thrall, and who, I ask you to remember, had not seen you, set this adventure in motion, like a minstrel’s play done in real life. Also, I spoke to my lord and told him about it, and though he laughed at my lady to me, he was content because he wanted her to completely set her heart on you, since he feared her jealousy and possible meddling in his relationship with his new love. Therefore, he set you free (in words, at least), and when he had you in his clutches at Utterbol (as he did not doubt he would) he could do whatever he needed to do to you, depending on the situation.

“In his heart, he hates you, which I could see plainly. So a little before you left the camp, the Queen and I snuck out into the woods a little way from here. There, I disarrayed both my lady and myself, as much as we needed to make the ruse believable. Then I came to you, pretending it to be by chance, so I could take you to her. If you had followed, we had a story for you, which your knighthood would tie you to, so that you would help her and take her where she needed. Eventually, this would be Utterbol, but in the meantime you would have gone to a nearby stronghold. This is the whole story, and now if you wish, you may pardon me or take out your sword and cut off my head. Indeed, I think that would be the better act.”

She knelt in front of him and put her palms together, looking up at him pleadingly. His expression darkened when he saw her like this, but at last it cleared and he said: “Woman, you would make a bad playwright, and the whole show is for nothing.[7] I would have figured out the whole trick once we reached Utterbol, and I would have hated the lady for it.”

“Yes, but by then my lady might have had enough of your love, and likely would have let you fall into the hands of the Lord. Look! I’ve saved you from this, so now you are free from the Lord and the lady and from me. And again I say that you could hardly have avoided a miserable ending for yourself and the young woman at Utterbol.”

“Yes,” said Ralph, softly, as though speaking to himself, “but I am lonely and friendless.” Then he turned to Agatha and said: “The end of all of this is that I pardon you and must go immediately, for when you two get back to camp, they’ll come after me.”

She got up from her knees and stood before him humbly and said: “No, I will repay your forgiveness by telling my lady a story which will keep us in the woods for two or three days, which we brought supplies for already.”

“I will at least thank you for that, and I believe that you will keep your word.”

“Then may I ask one gift from you? For, in truth, terrible things away me in Utterbol.”

“I’ll give it to you,” he said.

“I ask that you give me a kiss before we part.”

“I said that I would,” said Ralph, “But I must tell you that the kiss will carry little love with it.”

She said nothing, but placed her hands on his chest and turned her face up to him, and he kissed her lips. Then she said: “Knight, you have kissed a thrall and a deceitful woman, but one who will strike for you. Therefore, do not regret the kiss or your kind forgiveness.”

“What will happen to you?” he asked.

She looked at him with a steadfast expression for a moment, then said: “Farewell, may all things go well with you.” Then she turned away and walked off slowly into the woods, and he pitied her somewhat.

As he got in his saddle, he sighed to himself: “How could I help her? It’s true that she’s in a bad spot, but I can’t save everyone.” Then he shook his rein and rode on.[8]

Notes:

[1] Lowercase in the original, as are the other instances here. Unsure if this chapter is an anomaly on Morris’ part, or Agatha intentionally giving less respect to her masters while they aren’t present. There may have been a long break between ending Book 2 and starting Book 3, which may have altered Morris’ writing habits (consistency is not one of his strong suits).

[2] I was going to change “fair” to “beautiful” here as I often do, but I left it to specifically illustrate the issue I run into doing that, as “fair” means both “beautiful” and “fair-skinned.” This is a good example, since Agatha is specified to have a dark complexion (even in this sentence), so it shows the ambiguity. Also, another instance of the narrative speaking to the audience.

[3] We haven’t heard of a place called “Burnt Rock,” but given that Agatha knows Ralph is unfamiliar with the area, it’s possible that it’s a total fabrication. I think that’s likely, since we were previously told that the Lord of Utterbol controls everything between Goldburg and the mountains, and everything within 100 miles north or south of Utterbol. As we’re currently in the heart of the Lord’s territory, it’s hard to believe there’s any enemy place nearby. Unless Burnt Rock is a real place, but one that is just part of the Lord’s territory.

[4] She’s definitely trying to appeal to Ralph’s ego here, but I’m not sure if the “war-god” (as it is in the original) is meant to be taken as a reference to the eastlands’ heathenness or not.

[5] Whatever you say, Ralph.

[6] See my previous notes about the use of the word “friend” in this time period. In short, a friend is an ally or someone who wants to help someone, not necessarily two people who are on equal emotional terms. Also, this might be the first time that Dorothea is referenced as someone people all fall in love with? At least explicitly and with the same terminology used for Ralph and the Lady.

[7] There’s been a running metaphor with this whole act being called a “play,” which (like most metaphors I think could be ambiguous), I changed to a clearer phrasing. Here, Ralph says she would be a poor “maker,” which is an old term for a poet, which I extended to “playwright” given the context and the historical entanglement of the two professions.

[8] A disappointing conclusion to the intrigues of Utterbol. I have a feeling that by the time he started Book 3, Morris was tired and just wanted to get on to the Well, so he tied up his other loose ends to quickly set Ralph’s course. As with most of his shortcuts, it’s reasonably justified in-world, but it’s not as interesting as it could have been. I don’t think it would have even been too much more writing to have the act play out and let Ralph realize what’s going on and escape on his own, considering how long this already chapter is. 

Map:

[postmoderntongues]

So are you a radfem or are you thirsting for girlcock? You are so all over with your posts are you pro-woman or pro-trans?

It has been like 2 years since I claimed the radfem label, I think they have a lot of really regressive ideas about horror and horror is my special interest as an autistic person and I really can't handle people who try to moralize fiction instead of calling their local precincts in a phone-bank situation and demanding that the untested rape kits be run or writing letters to women in prison/visiting elderly women in nursing homes, running drives for supplies for single mothers, escorting at a clinic, anything that takes more effort than going "that art that was made to be disturbing is disturbing so anybody who interacts with it or appreciates any aspect of it as art is immoral and a bad feminist". Like Yeah I like early Lucifer Valentine movies because they were a major part of my teen years and as a bulimic I relate to them in a weird way but Ive also volunteered as a clinic escort 3 times this year for a 7 hour shift in the freezing cold and last time I was in the hospital took both a girl who had never been before and was just 18 under my wing and protected her from the heroin fuckboys and also an older woman who was half-lucid I would personally go to her room when there was a meal or activity to make sure she didn't get left behind and we bonded over liking VC Andrews and she called me her "bonus granddaughter" by the time I was discharged, and then I called her twice a week until she was discharged and we lost touch. Can yall who judge me say that you've done as much? What are you actually doing for women if you are wasting time moralizing fiction?

Also i consider gender dysphoria to be a mental illness, which I personally have, I am detransitioned. I don't want people who have cocks in some of my private spaces but Im also a strong believer that we need to create 3rd sex safe spaces and cis-free spaces for trans people to be safe in. But im not "sucking girlcock" (im guessing you are a "rudefem" or whatever) by trying to be inclusive when I can be and treat everybody with dignity and basic respect regardless of their gender. I don't like making people feel bad because Im not trying to put myself in the place of the bullies who hurt me in my teens to feel better, it doesn't make me feel good to point out ways trans women don't pass or misgender them on purpose. When I feel as if I've hurt somebody's feelings, I feel bad. I don't have this hatred for trans people that a lot of the radfem community professes, another reason why I stopped identifying with the community. Again, when I was in the hospital, everybody under 20 was trans. I protected those kids FIRECLY. I corrected the old people immediately when they misgendered them ("You're so silly, Mr. Smith, Aiden is a boy, he just has a young face") and we had a lot of really great conversations about dysphoria which one of them later contact me on facebook and said I gave them the courage to detransition.

Im not trying to post "consistent" politics because I disagree with and agree with different aspects of most political issues and I don't owe anybody consistency. This is my personal vent blog Im not running for office. Ralph Waldo Emmerson wrote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood." I think that sums it up better than I could.

[deathodil]

You are what you think

Dear diary,

Its easy to get loss in radical, mean thoughts when it comes to my body. Having a bad day When? Its because your fat. Your skin doesn't bounce back like it used to, you see every flaw as a failure and then bury your hatred in diet coke and cardio, but are those thoughts really doing you any good? When it comes to eating and managing our weight and our health, it is important to acknowledge the importance of the mind-body connection. Our hectic, jam-packed lives may literally be weighing us down.

Stop and think for a moment if you have experienced any of the following lately:

Stress or emotional eating - this usually occurs when people tend to eat and overeat because of strong emotions or feelings, rather than responding to their own internal cues of hunger. Sometimes when we experience strong emotions, these emotions can outweigh our physical feelings of fullness and satiation, and this can result in us overeating. In these cases, food is used as a coping mechanism, dulling strong emotions momentarily. However, it’s essential to acknowledge that this experience contributes toward perpetuating a cycle. Feeling stressful emotions can lead to overeating, which leads to guilt or shame, circling back to feeling — and not being able to process or handle — negative emotions or stress.

Stress or emotional starving - Ah your unintended go to Deathodil. Your anxiety triggers emotional and psychological changes in your body to help you deal with the stress. These changes often affect the stomach and digestive tract and can make you lose your appetite. If stress is the reason, your hunger usually returns once you're feeling more relaxed, which where the term "fat and happy" comes from. When you get comfortable you start to eat again. Sound familiar?

Maybe your more of a means point person. Your internal thoughts keep you caged and dictate what you can and can't have because you are projecting hatred towards yourself because its easier to hate yourself than to think others hate you, but this method also backfires because at some point you become defiant and want to show yourself who's boss so you either double down or rebell.

I'm sure a lot of us have felt this way diary, and we cycle through these stages over and over because we are what we think. So the biggest question is...

How do you counteract this?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “You are what you think all day long."

If I explore the term "fake it till you make it" than if I change my thoughts to ones that promote the type of life I want to live and do the things my best self would do, then maybe I can break the cycle.

Ways to change your thoughts:

1. "I'm afraid — therefore I can't."

It’s amazing how easily being afraid translates into “There’s no point in trying". Instead, try introducing a concept designed to change your thinking: Be afraid and do it anyway. This creates a space for you to consider the idea that the fear doesn't have to hijack moving ahead in life. You can be open to addressing, confronting, and working with you fear — rather than making decisions to simply avoid the thing that evoked it. Practice breath work to calm your system, guided imagery to imagine success, and positive self-talk to celebrate small steps forward.

2. "I'll never find anything or anyone better; this is as good as it gets."

Countless men and women apply this mindset to unhappy relationships, dead-end jobs, and their weightloss journey's regularly. Imagine being in a long-term relationship and you clearly feel like you're not getting your needs met, but you're afraid that no one better will come along, or that you won't be okay if you aren't in a relationship. This translates into “Therefore, I have to settle.” The new thought: I don't have to settle, and I don't have to settle, and I don't have to put a glass ceiling on how good things can be." Try instead to focus on the standards you hold for your friends who were dating, so you could begin to hold to those same, higher standards in your own relationships. If you wouldn’t encourage your friends to settle, why would you? If your friend was trying to lose weight and was struggling, would you encourage them to binge on cookies or berate them for being weak? I would hope not. Start giving yourself advice you would to a friend if you aren't ready to be nice to yourself yet.

3. "I made my bed. Now I have to lie in it."

Many families and cultures promote this idea, especially in older generations. Once you’ve made a choice, the thinking goes, you can’t deviate from it or change your mind. To do so is associated with “giving up,” “weakness,” or “failure.” Your new thought should be, "Deciding to make a change is a sign of courage and strength, and it's my right to do so." This gives you permission to listen to your own inner truths. Whether it's to change something small like adding green tea to your diet or large like moving away from a toxic home, remember deep down you can always pivot and its okay.

You are what you think, so today choose to think positively, romanticize the drama of life and know you can move on tomorrow.

With love,

Deathodil

[coochiequeens]

“I can't understand the vitriol directed at her," says the 'Harry Potter' actor.

Ralph Fiennes is wading into the heated controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling's stance on transgender rights.

The actor, who played the villainous Lord Voldemort across four Harry Potter films, expressed sympathy for the franchise author, whose comments have received widespread criticism.

”I can’t understand the vitriol directed at her," the actor told The Telegraph in an interview published Wednesday. "I can understand the heat of an argument, but I find this age of accusation and the need to condemn irrational. I find the level of hatred that people express about views that differ from theirs, and the violence of language towards others, disturbing."

Fiennes split with many of his fellow Harry Potter castmates — including stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — who have reacted to the uproar by issuing statements of support for the trans community.

The controversy began in June 2020, when the author first tweeted about an op-ed piece regarding “people who menstruate" and mocked the story for not using the word "women." The tweet generated backlash, which promoted the author to repeatedly and ever more adamantly defend herself and elaborate on her views in a lengthy essay.

In essence, the author insists, "I know and love trans people," and that she's "been empathetic to trans people for decades," yet also strongly criticizes the use of hormones and surgery in young people ("Many, myself included, believe we are watching a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people, who are being set on a lifelong path of medicalization that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function"), fears the rights of cis women are being overlooked ("When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman, ... then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside"), and claims she's been subjected to online abuse for her views. Rowling's latest novel, Troubled Blood, then raised eyebrows in September as it followed a detective hunting a male serial killer who dresses as a woman.

GLAAD has countered Rowling with the following statement, among others: "It seems J.K. is good at only one thing: writing fantasy. Her misinformed and dangerous missive about transgender people flies in the face of medical and psychological experts and devalues trans people accounts of their own lives. She is sowing divisiveness in a time when real leaders are driving toward unity. And to all the trans and cisgender youth raised on her books who are now loudly speaking up in support of the trans people you know and love, you are the future and we can’t wait to read and watch the beautiful art you will create."

The Harry Potter actors have avoided the specifics of the debate, but issued statements of trans community support in reaction to the controversy.

Radcliffe has stated, "I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what’s important right now. ... Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I. ... To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you. … And in my opinion, nobody can touch that."

Added Watson: "Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are. I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you, and love you for who you are."

Chimed in Grint: “I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers. Trans women are women. Trans men are men."

Warner Bros., which is making the third Fantastic Beasts film, co-written by Rowling, likewise put out a statement last year in response: “The events in the last several weeks have firmed our resolve as a company to confront difficult societal issues. Warner Bros.’ position on inclusiveness is well established, and fostering a diverse and inclusive culture has never been more important to our company and to our audiences around the world. We deeply value the work of our storytellers who give so much of themselves in sharing their creations with us all. We recognize our responsibility to foster empathy and advocate understanding of all communities and all people, particularly those we work with and those we reach through our content.”

Hopefully now more of the older cast members will feel comfortable to also show JK Rowling.

[creativeanchorage]

The 96-page essay...explores whether women have good reason to hate men. “I am married to a man, who is great and really supports my writing. But in general I mistrust men I don’t know,” Harmange said. I Hate Men was published on 19 August when much of France was enjoying the summer holiday, and it almost certainly would have passed unnoticed had Ralph Zurmély, an adviser to France’s gender equality ministry, not written to threaten legal action.  ...  “I was shocked. This man works for the secretary of state for equality between men and women, whose mission is to do something about sexual assaults and rapes. It seemed outrageous that he was more concerned about censoring a small feminist book instead of doing his job.”

She said misandry was often seen as a joke or, worse, a tool to discredit feminists, but she believes there is nothing wrong with owning this hatred, which she says is legitimate given the harm men do to women.

“Misandry exists only as a reaction to misogyny, which is at the root of systemic violence,” she writes. The book cites statistics from 2018 showing that 96% of people convicted of domestic violence were men and 99% of those convicted of sexual violence were men. “Whereas misandry has never killed anyone,” Harmange writes.

[auntynationalsblog]

Good Father or Godfather?

Why ‘The Sopranos’ is the best possible shit you could watch this quarantine.

NO SPOILERS. 

Okay, so as the picture depicts, The Sopranos is a male-dominated show. It definitely is, there is absolutely no denying that. While there are a few crucial female characters, out of which some are really, REALLY important to the series, the spotlights mostly belong to the men, like Tony, Chris, Paulie or Silvio (from right to left in the above image). It is also set in a time and space where most women are treated as objects and servants. The wives and girlfriends are expected to stay home and cook dinner while the men do the business. They’re expected to look pretty and accompany the men to important events, like the welcome party of a new member of the mob, or a funeral. 

But despite carrying such a high level of toxic masculinity, The Sopranos has often been cited as one of the best TV shows of all time, if not the best. I’d like to write about my perspective on why The Sopranos does indeed deserve all the credit.

The Many Lives of Tony Soprano  

The title of the blog, “Good Father or Godfather”, is inspired by the two main themes of The Sopranos. The first theme is his mob life. The story begins with Tony Soprano’s (played by the great James Gandolfini) quest for power as the skipper of the DiMeo crime family based in New Jersey. His most immediate rival is his deceased father’s (a former boss himself) brother, Corrado John “Junior” Soprano Jr. Uncle Jun and Tony’s rivalry forms the crux of the first season, as Jun battles old age and Tony’s rising influence. Technically, Tony’s job is that of a solid-waste management consultant, but we can all guess that’s not where his money comes from. 

The second theme and some would argue that it is more important than the first theme, is his family. The Sopranos is a brilliant depiction of how a mobster with unlimited money and influence, struggles at the face of familial issues like his marriage, or the upbringing and education of his two kids, and making sure that they develop enough self-sufficiency to not follow their father’s footsteps into the mafia life. The picture below shows Anthony “A.J.” Junior Soprano, Tony, Meadow Soprano and Tony’s wife Carmela Soprano. 

The third crucial theme is Tony’s battles with his own demons. This theme is presented through Tony’s therapy sessions with a psychiatrist, who is, in my opinion, the most indispensable character of the show - Dr. Jennifer Melfi - portrayed by Lorraine Bracco (you might remember her from the superhit mafia film Goodfellas). Tony’s relationship with the psychiatrist is arguably the most interesting relationship between any two people throughout the series, as Dr. Melfi herself struggles to come to terms with the fact that she is psychologically helping a man whose food on the table comes from gambling, prostitution, and murder. 

The Intensity of the Characters 

The only other television show that can match the intensity and diversity of the character line-up of The Sopranos is Game of Thrones. It is hard not to develop a certain attachment to every major character of The Sopranos, and this attachment is not necessarily one of admiration and respect. The amount of contempt I have for Ralph Cifaretto (played by the bald guy from Baby’s Day Out) is unparalleled to my hatred for any other character from any other show (Ramsay Bolton and Dodd Gerhardt come close). The point being, the characters are so beautifully developed throughout the show, that there is not a single dull moment in any episode, simply because of the director’s (David Henry Chase) ability to connect us to every character. 

While an analysis of characters, or ranking them, deserve blogs of their own, my point is that the characters are so well made, that we are likely to identify each character with someone we personally know. Silvio and Paulie might be your funny old uncles, while Christopher might be you yourself during some stage of your life. While getting arrested in the finale of season three, Silvio tells the officer that in the previous year he made bail so fast that his soup was still warm when he got home. We’ve all been in Meadow’s shoes at some point in our lives, and Tony, well, he’s a complicated guy. I’m sure you’ll see some part of yourself in the man. 

Just the Right Amount of Violence    

You might have an apprehension of dismissing The Sopranos as an ordinary action-packed TV show with guns, blood and a lot of kicks and punches. While the show obviously consists of violent scenes, it really does not overkill. 

The only drawback might be the sound effects. The punches, to some ears, may not sound as...punches. But I am willing to let that slip because the plot keeps my mind too engaged with questions related to the story of the episode, like why the guy is being beaten up, or why was Tony betrayed, you get what I mean. 

Dramatic, but not Overdramatic 

Lastly, one of the many reasons why The Sopranos is one of the greatest television shows ever is that it does justice to good old-fashioned TV drama. It maintains its realistic narrative. It does not spice up the plot, because the spice was never necessary for a plot which was already so deep and meaningful. It is very well-paced. It is neither too slow (the description which Breaking Bad haters use for Breaking Bad), nor does one episode cover a massive portion of the plot. The plot is not huge, it is not complicated but it is covered patiently enough, for viewers to immerse themselves in it. It does not depict unnecessary violence, or unnecessary screaming or crying like we see on Indian television. That is why this show keeps its viewers glued to the television. It just seems so real. 

James Gandolfini’s performance as Tony Soprano is said to have redefined the world of television. But it would be fair to say that he may not have managed it without a cast that has often been branded as legendary. There are six seasons and eighty-six episodes. If you pace yourself, then your quarantine would fly by. Don’t binge one season a day, there’s no pleasure in that. It’s not that type of a show. 

You can thank me later. Trust me on this recommendation. 

[erinptah]

Super Drags review (tl;dr Show Good)

The post where I do my best to spread the Good News, that there exists a saucy gay drag-queen magical-girl animated comedy and everyone should watch it.

Okay, not everyone -- I'll give some caveats at the end -- but definitely a heck of a lot more people than Netflix has bothered to advertise it to.

Look at this! Why did nobody tell me about this??

What is Super Drags?

Fast facts:

It's a 1-season, 5-episode adult animated comedy series, released in November 2018

Here's the official page, with a free-to-view trailer

It packs more explicit, unashamed queerness into those 5 episodes than any other cartoon I can think of

The only possible competitor would be if you took the whole 5000-episode run of Steven Universe and pared it down to a supercut of Just The Gay Parts

This in spite of being produced in Brazil, which (in my broad understanding, as a total non-authority on the subject) is more oppressively, dangerously homophobic than the US

The original is in Portuguese

There is an English dub, fabulously voiced by contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race

It's wrapped in "for adults only!" warnings, not because the content is any less child-friendly than (say) your Bojacks Horsemen or your Ricks and Mortys, but because Brazilian authorities tried to get it shut down on the grounds of this much gay being Harmful For Children

It was (heartbreakingly) not renewed for a second season

Here's a promo video, in which the main characters (Portuguese, with subtitles) play Drag Race judges for Shangela, who ends up voicing Scarlet in English.

And here's a beautiful flashy music video of the big musical number! (Also Portuguese, no subtitles, but the melody and the visuals stand on their own.)

Plot and worldbuilding stuff!

The elevator pitch is "What if Charlie's Angels, but also drag queens, with superpowers, because magical-girl transformations?"

In this universe, all LGBTQ people have magical energy. The Big Bad is an evil magical-drag-queen nemesis who tries to drain our energy for her own purposes. It's like if Ursula from The Little Mermaid was a first-season Sailor Moon villain.

...sidenote, in case you were worried, the representation isn't "cis gay men and nobody else." There's a butch lesbian in the recurring cast, a genderfluid person (in that specific word!) as a one-off love interest, and all the ensemble scenes are wonderful collages of different races, body types, and gender presentations.

Our heroes also fight non-magical everyday homophobes, who get written with scathing realism.

The moment I knew the show wasn't pulling any punches was in the first episode, where a newscaster complains about being Silenced by the Law of Political Correctness, then chirps "however, we have a special guest who is thankfully above the law!"

According to the reviews I've found from Brazilian viewers, it's also pitch-perfect when it comes to local queer culture, community dynamics, slang and speech patterns, even memes. All of which flies right over my head, so here's a post (with no-context spoilers) about one viewer's favorite details.

The handful of reaction posts on Tumblr have a dramatic split between "Brazilian viewers fiercely defending the show as culturally-accurate, uplifting, and brave in a terrifying political moment" and "American viewers complaining that the show is problematic because it's a comedy about drag queens with no perfect role models and lots of sex jokes."

As the Super Drags tell their nemesis (and this is also in the first episode): "How dare you try to turn the LGBTQXYZ community against each other? We do enough of that on our own!"

In between missions, our girls work sitcom retail jobs and deal with other everyday problems. All of which are written in amazingly nuanced and thoughtful ways for a show that also features "defeating an orgy monster with a lip-sync battle."

Detailed character stuff!

Our heroes are Color Coded For Your Convenience!

The Super Drags themselves go by "she" in-uniform, and a lot of the time when out of it. Like the Sailor Starlights, only more so. I'll roll with that.

In blue: Safira Cyan, or Ralph by day, an excitable college-age kid who's built like a football player and squees like a fangirl. (She's an anime fan in the original, and for some reason all the otaku references were replaced in the dub, but you can see them in the subtitles.)

Ralph lives with her younger sister (they play video games together!) and their dad, comes out to them mid-series, and is very shippable with another young guy who starts out reciting the homophobic beliefs he was raised with but whose heart clearly isn't in it.

Safira's weapon is a classic magical-girl wand that casts protective force-fields. Which are shaped like condoms. Because of course.

In yellow: Lemon Chiffon, aka Patrick, the oldest of the group and generally the smartest/most strategic. In most cases, the other two treat her as the de facto team leader -- unless she pushes it too far.

By day she's a single guy with thick thighs and thinning hair, who has some body-image insecurities on the dating scene. And this show has Things To Say about unrealistic beauty standards within the community...not to mention, about masc guys who look down on anyone too flaming or femme because straight people disapprove.

Lemon's weapon is a fluffy boa that can be used as a whip or a lasso, especially when there's a bondage joke to be made.

In red: Scarlet Carmesim, also Donizete, the loudest and most aggressive teammate with the most cutting insults, who refuses to suppress that attitude in an attempt to appease racists. (But will give it a shot when trying not to get fired.)

Donny still lives in her religious/homophobic mom's apartment, and I'm pretty sure it's because neither of them can afford to move out. Her rock-solid sense of fierce self-confidence is the reason it doesn't bring her down.

Scarlet's weapon is a fan that she uses to throw shade. Yeah, you knew that was coming.

The Charlie to these angels is Champagne, who runs operations from a cool magitech compound and breaks the fourth wall at the end to petition for viewers' support in getting a second season.

...we let her down, folks :(

So here's a thing. The show never draws a sharp line between "people who become drag queens because it's a way they're driven to express themselves as gay men" and "people who become drag queens because they were trans women all along." That's consistent with how South American LGBT+ culture works. (Again: best of my knowledge, not personally an authority on this, etc etc.)

Many of the characters, including Champagne, never describe themselves in ways that translate to one of our sharply-defined Anglo-USian identity categories. And I'm not going to try to impose any English labels on them here.

But I can say (in contrast to Safira, Lemon, and Scarlet), Champagne never switches out of her "drag" name/voice/presentation, not even in the most candid off-duty scenes, and still has the same bustline when naked in the tub. Make of that what you will.

You Should Watch This Show

If you have a Netflix subscription, watch Super Drags!

If you ever do a Netflix free trial month in the future, make a note to yourself to watch Super Drags!

It's one of their original productions, so there's no risk of missing your chance because the license expired. But it's absolutely not getting the promotion it deserves. Which means potentially interested viewers won't find it, which means Netflix will think there's no interest, which means they'll keep not promoting it...etc etc etc.

No idea if there's any chance of getting it un-canceled, but maybe we can at least convince them to release it on DVD.

And the sheer gutsiness it took for a group of Brazilian creators to produce this show in the first place -- that deserves to be rewarded with your attention.

In spite of various anti-discrimination laws that sound good on paper, the country has serious problems with homophobia, transphobia, and anti-LGBT violence (warning, article has a violent image which is only partly blurred).

Maybe the creators could've gotten a second season if they made this one softer, less sexually-explicit, more restrained...but honestly? I bet that wouldn't have helped.

Consider Danger & Eggs, an Amazon original cartoon. It was made in the US, thoroughly child-friendly, and restricts its LGBT+ representation to things like "characters go to a Pride celebration...where nobody ever names or describes the quality they're proud of."

And it didn't get renewed past the first season either.

(Note: it had a trans woman showrunner and a queer-heavy creative staff, so I blame all that restraint on executive meddling, not the creators themselves. The showrunner even liked the tweet of my review that complains about it.)

So there's something very satisfying about how Super Drags went all-out, balls-to-the-wall (sometimes literally), all the rep explicit and unapologetic, packing every 25-minute episode with all kinds of queer content that would be censored or muted elsewhere -- but here it's exaggerated and celebrated and just keeps coming.

(...as do jokes like that, and I'm not sorry.)

Okay, there are a few legitimate reasons to not watch this show

Some caveats.

None of these things are Objectively Bad Problems that the show itself should be shamed for...but maybe they're genuinely not your cup of tea.

It does have actual Adult Content beyond "the existence of gay people." This show loves to swing barely-clothed cartoon genitalia in your face. There is, as mentioned, an orgy monster. If that kind of humor is going to bother you too much to appreciate the rest of the show, give it a pass.

I wasn't kidding about how realistic the homophobes are. Opening of the first episode has a guy trying to murder a busload of people while shouting slurs at them. If that level of hatred on-screen is gonna crush your soul, even in a show about sparkly queens flying to the rescue with dick-shaped magical weapons, don't push yourself.

Any fiction with this much crossdressing and gender-transgressing is going to hit some trans viewers in a bad way. Because trans people are such a broad group, with so many different experiences, that Every Possible Trope Involved pushes somebody's buttons. (See also: "some trans readers complain about a storyline that turns out to be drawn from a trans writer's actual life experience".) If this show goes does gender things that turn out to be personally distressing for you...or even just distressing for this specific time in your life...don't feel obligated to keep watching.

It has aggressively-sassy queer characters making jokes and calling each other things that are affectionate in-context, but would not be okay coming from straight/cis people. If you can't wrap your head around that, go watch something else.

Other Than That, Go Watch This Show

For all its big heart, big ambitions, and big gay energy, Super Drags is tiny enough that I've binged the whole show 2 times in the past 2 weeks. Thankfully, it's highly re-watchable -- lots of fun background gags and subtle foreshadowing that you don't catch on the first round.

(Pausing one last time to appreciate that a show with elements like "the high-tech robot assistant is called D.I.L.D.O." can be subtle at all, let alone be this good at it.)

I've also paged through all the fanart on Tumblr and Deviantart, looked up the single fanfic on the AO3, and started brainstorming plans to request it in Yuletide next year. Someone, please, come join me in (the English-language side of) the itty-bitty fandom for this ridiculous, glittery, over-the-top, fabulous series.

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

hi! just wanted to say - if you ever feel like elaborating on what you said about tess ward and lou teasdale’s podcast (?) - there’sa crowd! and it’s me! have a good day ralph ✩

Thanks anon

I feel like I should start by orienting myself a bit when it comes to beauty culture.  As an individual I am profoundly unengaged with what gets called beauty.  Politically, I think it’s important not to denigrate beauty or beauty culture or to suggest that there’s anything wrong with individuals engaging.  But I am profoundly disappointed at the lack of substantial feminist response to the compulsory nature of beauty culture.  And it’s even obvious to me (who barely undrestands any of it), how much more beauty work is expected of women now than when I was a teenager.  I think the political goal has to be making beauty culture truly optional.  And not in a meaningless faux-feminism I choose my choice isn’t that great kind of way (lets all ignore under the circumstances that are very much not of my own choosing that are part of that).  But what would it mean to have a beauty culture that was truly optional? Where there were no rewards for participating and no consequences for not participating.  Where having a face and body that changed and varied, and the full range of faces and bodies that exist, were all fundamentally OK?  And in the meantime? Given that we don’t live in that society - how do we try and change it without making it about how individual women navigate this world that none of us choose.

That’s a bit of a rant (and I already just wrote it in another post - but I started this draft before I wrote that one), but I think it’s important to understand how I responded to the podcast.  In particular, how little I know about beauty and how I think about it.

Reasonably early on in the podcast, Tess Ward started talking about her feelings about body positive instagram accounts from people who are not thin (I don’t think she was quite that explicit, but it was clear about what it means). She said that she was really into aesthetics, so she didn’t like it when people made themselves look deliberately ugly (fat), or posted from bad angles (weren’t ashamed of fat).  And then she started talking about how she was more and more into the mind and that’s why she didn’t like (fat) people taking pictures she found aesthetically unplesaing, because they reduced us to our bodies (thin people taking aesthetically pleasing pictures obviously transcend their bodies, for reasons Tess Ward was unable to explain).

Lou T, objected to some of the most outrageous parts of what she said, but was mindblowing banal about the interaction of beauty culture and the world.  She was all about how social media had opened up the world and what great work brands do.

And then after this small brush with having an opinion, the rest of the conversation was just super banal.  Occasionally they’d acknowledge that there were bad things about the ecosystem they operated in, but whenever they discussed any response (like Jamila Jamil’s raging, or disabling likes on instagram) they just said that they didn’t agree, without offering any sense on where they stood or what could change the problems they talked about.

Then towards the end there was a super basic and uninteresting discussion of make-up - including statements about how blush goes on the front of the face (I don’t swear to remember the details right) and how you had to do less with your eyes if you were going to wear a strong lipstick colour.  And I was like? There has to be something more interesting to do with make-up?

The thing is - usually I find it interesting listening to people talk about the things they’re passionate about, even if I’m not myself that interested.  And the fact that the only interesting thing about the whole podcast was how much Tess Ward felt comfortable talking about her hatred of fat people was really noticeable.

And it made me wonder how much that’s basically what Lou T’s job is.  She can’t be interested or engaged in any of the contradictions of her industry, she either is, or has become, or has to pretend to become, an image that creates no friction for brands.  (I do think it’s interesting that Tess Ward can make money and have opinions, where Lou T can’t, and expect that’s about class).  

[aboriginalnewswire]

Warning: The following article contains disturbing and graphic language regarding the volatile and often violent nature of religious beliefs. It is meant to illustrate how religion has been used to spread hatred and intolerance of worldwide, in a variety of faiths. This short article is meant for educational purposes only, in the hope that humanity will learn from its past and not repeat it. Please note that it is almost entirely composed of quotes from other publications. Many people believe that religion is a force for good that has brought God into their lives. But, does the record of religious belief reveal it as a force for good or evil? Christianity--The Roots of Anti-Semitism "With the wrath of an Old Testament prophet, historian Dagobert Runes (whose mother was killed by the Nazis) blamed the Christian church for the Holocaust. He wrote: "'Everything Hitler did to the Jews, all the horribly unspeakable misdeeds, had already been done to the smitten people before by the Christian churches.... The isolation of Jews into ghetto camps, the wearing of the yellow spot, the burning of Jewish books, and finally the burning of the people--Hitler learned it all from the church. However, the church burned Jewish women and children alive, while Hitler granted them a quicker death, choking them first with gas.' "Dr Runes said Christian priests and ministers still were inculcating hostility to Jews as the Third Reich arrived. "'The clergymen don't tell you whom to kill; they just tell you whom to hate,' he wrote. 'The Christian clergymen start teaching their young at the tenderest age that THE Jews killed the beloved, gentle Son of God; that God Himself, the Father, punished THE Jews by dispension and the burning of their holy city; that God holds THE Jews accursed forever....' "'For all the 2,000 years, there was no act of war against the Jews in which the church didn't play an intrinsic part. And whenever there was a trace of mercy, charity, or tolerance to be found amid the savagery, it came not from the church but from humanitarians in the civil world, as in Napoleonic France or during the American Revolution....' "'Some fancy that these brutal outrages...occurred only in the Dark Ages, as if this were an excuse. Nay, when George Washington was president, Jewish people were burning on the spit in Mexico.... Wherever there are Christian churches there is anti-Semitism.'" Source:Holy Horrors by James Haught. Judaism--4,000 Years of Massacring Neighbors "The massacre at Dueima in 1948 was perpetrated by the official Labor Zionist Israeli army, the Israel Defense Forces (Tzeva Haganah le-Israel or ZA-HAL). The account of the massacre, as described by a soldier who participated in the horror, was published in Davar, the official Hebrew daily newspaper of the Labor-Zionist-run Histadrut General Federation of workers: "'They killed between eighty to one hundred Arab men, women and children. To kill the children they [soldiers] fractured their heads with sticks. There was not one home without corpses. The men and women of the villages were pushed into houses without food or water. Then the saboteurs came to dynamite them. "'One commander ordered a soldier to bring two women into a building he was about to blow up.... Another soldier prided himself upon having raped an Arab woman before shooting her to death. Another Arab woman with her newborn baby was made to clean the place for a couple of days, and then they shot her and the baby. Educated and well-mannered commanders who were considered "good guys"...became base murderers, and this is not in the storm of battle, but as a method of expulsion and extermination. The fewer the Arabs who remain, the better.'" Source:The Hidden History of Zionism by Ralph Schoenman. Slavery by the "Good People" "In another area of human rights, many Christian clergymen advocated slavery. Historians Larry Hise notes in his book, Proslavery, that ministers 'wrote almost half of all defenses of slavery published in America.' He listed 275 men of the cloth who use the Bible to prove that white people were entitled to own black people as work animals." Source:Holy Horrors God is a Psycho "In December 1984, on Mohammed's birthday, Khomeini told his people: "'War is a blessing for the world and for all nations. It is God who incites men to fight and to kill.The Koran says, "Fight until all corruption and all rebellion have ceased." The wars the Prophet led against the infidels were a blessing for all humanity. Imagine that we soon will win the war. That will not be enough, for corruption and resistance to Islam will still exist. The Koran says, "War, war until victory!..." The mullahs with corrupt hearts who say that all this is contrary to the teachings of the Koran are unworthy of Islam. Thanks to God, our young people are now, to the limits of their means, putting God's commandments into action. They know that to kill the unbelievers is one of man's greatest missions.' "Amid all the killing, Iran also declared war on sexuality. Women were commanded to shroud themselves so completely that no lock of hair showed. Morality patrols in white jeeps cruised streets, arresting women for being 'badly veiled' and sending them to prison camps for three-month rehabilitation courses. Western magazines entering Iran went first to censors who laboriously blacked out every woman's picture except for her eyes." Source:Holy Horrors Religion is Mental Illness "Philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote: "'Religion is based...mainly upon fear...fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand.... My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.'" Source:Holy Horrors NEED WE SAY MORE? RELIGION EQUALS RACISM, SEXISM, SPECIESISM, SELF-HATRED, EXPLOITATION, SLAVERY, WAR. WE THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH ARE ONE. NO RACES, NO RELIGIONS, NO DUALITY, NO WAR. ALL BELIEFS COMPRISE DOUBTS. KNOW THE TRUTH. STOP THE KILLING!! GO BEYOND BELIEF INTO THE KNOWN! BECOME RELIGIOUSNESS. MEDITATE.

[westallenfun]

Before the Hood - 1/6

For @jade4813 from @backtothestart02​ -I’m not going to lie. This gets pretty angsty pretty quickly and ends on a bittersweet note. But it’s meant to be the prequel to my Robin Hood westallen AU that I plan to write eventually (yes, this is a Robin Hood AU, you got me), and that fic will end very happily, so if you’d like, you can consider that your fic too. I hope you’re able to enjoy this fic though!

I so appreciate you as a person and a shipper and a writer. I am always so inspired by you and your talent and appreciate so much how kind you are. So I was unbelievably excited when I received your name as my giftee (you write such incredible AUs!). Hopefully you will enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it and be hopeful about what comes after instead of in a puddle of tears. I hope I can do your masterpieces some justice and that you have an amazing Christmas and holiday season!!

Merry Christmas!

…

(All of these chapters have been lightly proofread, so feel free to do a re-read once I post them to AO3 & FFnet, b/c I’m sure they’ll be in much better condition then.)

Fun Fact: I did some medieval research for this story that I did try to incorporate. (1) People were not meant to be educated unless they were upperclass/royalty/clergymen. (2) Women were rarely educated period, unless upperclass and then very little. They were expected to marry and raise children. (3) The Crusades and everything according to the Robin Hood legend that I googled I tried to incorporate to some degree, since I did keep the story set in the Middle Ages. (There’s prob more, but I can’t think of what at the moment.)

…

Chapter 1 -

Collin Woods.

A place thick with trees, alive with wildlife, and far from any central city on the map, two hundred miles away from the literal Central City. Within the woods contained the small town of the same name, the only structure cresting above the trees being the stone castle of the royals. Previously residing there was King Richard – a loyal, good king who took care of his people and flourished the town with bountiful riches and a thriving population. But within the past several months he had left the town and its people to embark on the noble quest of fighting in the Crusades. In his place, he left his younger brother, Prince John, a selfish, spoiled, adolescent fool who little by little drained the small town of its resources until the only thing rich and satisfying to the eye could be found within the castle grounds.

Many of the young men of the town had gone off to fight in the Crusades with their King. Not all could go, because work needed to be done that could not only be sustained by older men, women, and children. But some left not only for the cause itself but to escape the death trap that had become their once thriving homeland. War with all its drudgery, pain, and rate of death on the battlefield was still a welcome reprieve. To those that survived, they only hoped their king would return with them and so sustain the lands they used to call home and create a small paradise once again for themselves and those they loved.

Beside Prince John was his wise and yet often taken for granted advisor, Sir Hiss – not his actual name of course, but his natural born lisp that often affected his speech had granted him the title. The superficial prince did nothing to correct it. Since he relished as well as mocked his only true friend – if he could be called that – the name suited him in the latter case. Trained guards were at Prince John’s disposal, as well as the particularly greedy Sheriff of Collin Woods, Clifford Devoe.

Amongst the townspeople was the West family, but with the father, Joseph, and the son, Wallace, off to fight in the Crusades, and the mother, Francine, passed many years ago, the daughter, Maid Iris, was ordered by Prince John to live under the care of Sheriff DeVoe and his wife, Marlise. Iris was rarely seen after that, except for at festivals hosted by Prince John. And by one other, who she risked everything to see night after night by moonlight, hidden amongst the trees lining Silver Lake.

Barry Allen.

Bartholomew was his given name, but hardly rolling off the tongue, his best friend, Cisco – who’d also shortened his name – decided on a nick name for the young Allen. To those around him, it had stuck.

Barry was the only child of Henry and Nora Allen. The former was the only doctor in the town. He had taken a young pupil under his wing, a girl – which was most unheard of, Caitlin Snow. He’d tried to lure his son into the teachings of medicine. There were few things greater than the ability to heal, he would say. But young Barry would have none of it. And being a friend of Caitlin himself, Barry encouraged the union. There should be more than two doctors in one town, should one fall ill, heaven forbid. But it wasn’t going to be him. Most of the time when he wasn’t home, he traveled into town to offer his skills – that of repairing homes and entertaining children – as proof of his servitude. His mother, Nora, who was a seamstress to nearly everyone found this to be a great addition to the work force. And since she needed to do little to win over her husband, most of the time he relented.

But Barry didn’t spend all of his time tending to the needs of the townsfolk. His favorite pastimes were narrowed down to three: fishing with his best friend, Cisco, practicing archery from his handmade bow and arrows, and visiting Maid Iris by moonlight.

One late afternoon in June, finished with his tasks for today, Barry idly leaned against a tree and carved himself some new arrows, preparing to get some practice in. For the Crusades he would tell his father if the subject ever arose. But it hadn’t yet. Only his friends knew of his hobby, and it was kept amongst them. It was no secret Barry didn’t want to go to war.

“Hey!”

The disgruntled voice pulled Barry out of his reverie, and he saw an unamused Cisco standing inches beneath where his arrow had landed, a hole piercing his new hat as it stay pinned against the tree behind him.

Barry had the decency to blush.

“Sorry, Cisco.”

Cisco carefully pulled the arrow free and his hat with it and placed it back on his head.

“Watch it. My mother made that.”

Cisco’s mother was not the greatest seamstress – as was evidenced by the seams falling apart of the hats she made for her son, even without arrows being shot through them. But his parents looked down upon the Allen’s for Henry’s audacity to train a young girl in medicine, to educate a peasant girl whose duty it was to marry and raise children, not attempt to heal people. And also, because Barry’s parents were not stricter with him. As a result, they forbid their son from being friends with Barry – an order he ignored fervently.

“My mother could make you a new one,” Barry offered, not for the first time, as he turned his full attention to his friend.

Cisco snorted. “My mother would know. She knows she can’t sew. It has never been her talent. And if she saw how neatly the seams were sewn, she’d know where I had been.”

Barry nodded. He knew. He just couldn’t help but offer.

“Did you see Caitlin today?” Cisco asked casually, leaning against the tree beside Barry.

Barry shook his head. “I left early this morning. Ralph was off with Sue again, so he wasn’t around to watch his younger brothers and sisters. I offered my services.”

Cisco’s lips turned up in a smirk. “Of course you did.”

“It is my contribution,” Barry said, picking up another arrow and shaving down the sides so it would fly more smoothly.

“You don’t sound happy about it.”

He shrugged.

“Maybe you’re just jealous Ralph can spend time with Sue in broad daylight when you have to sneak around with Iris by moonlight.”

Barry froze, his eyes wide as he turned to look at his friend.

“What? You thought I didn’t know?”

Barry turned his body fully.

“I’m your best friend,” Cisco said, offended.

“You’re not- You didn’t- Does anyone else-”

He rolled his eyes. “Of course no one else knows. At least not because of me. I won’t tell a soul.” He paused. “At least not until you do.”

Barry snorted and returned to his arrows.

“I’ll never be able to do that,” he muttered under his breath.

“You never know,” Cisco said, softening.

Barry picked up his bow and arrow and aimed for a farther tree.

“As long as King Richard is fighting in the Crusades and Iris is cooped up with that awful Sheriff DeVoe, there’s no way we can be together openly. She’ll probably marry that awful knight Julian,” Barry said, scowling.

“I thought he’s planning to leave for the Crusades,” Cisco said, his brows fusing together.

“Not before obtaining a marriage proposal, I bet.”

“And why would the Sheriff say yes to him? He gains too much by keeping Iris locked up. He feeds off her inheritance.”

Barry lowered his bow. “Because Julian is a knight, and his father is in Prince John’s royal guard. He probably thinks Julian won’t return from the Crusades and he won’t have to worry about it.”

“But if he does return…”

“He’ll have to own up to the promise. And Maid Iris will have no choice in the matter.”

Cisco shoulders slumped, and then he gathered himself together, determined to let them not both be burdened down by this possibility.

“It might not happen,” he offered. “Julian’s thirst for war might overcome his desire for Iris.”

Barry looked at him. “It does.”

Cisco’s brows furrowed again.

“Julian wants her because I have her. It’s his petty jealousy for everything I have that is greater than his thirst for war. All the medals and glory in the world would mean nothing to him if they didn’t also crush me into the ground in the process.”

He shot off another arrow, this one recklessly into the air at a distance. Someone could trace it, find him, discover his hobby and somehow use it against him. But he didn’t care. Few things stifled his hatred for Julian Albert, son of the guard, knight in training, who gloated about all that he would receive on his return from the Crusades. More than once Barry had wanted to retort bitterly, ‘If you return.’ But he’d held his breath. He wouldn’t sink to his level.

“And what do you have that he doesn’t?” Cisco asked, though he knew at least some of what his answer would be.

“Both parents, friends, the right to choose what I want to do, and a father who is willing to bend the rules for the sake of the people.”

“And the love of Iris,” Cisco added, which made Barry’s anger finally fizzle out.

“Yes. And that.”

…

In the quiet cottage just off the edge of town, Nora Allen sat in her rocking chair and picking up a new color of yarn to add to her nearest quilt. She hummed quietly to herself, a melody to harmonize with the blue birds chirping outside the window. The sun shone through it, warming her face, and with the scent of biscuits wafting out of the oven, she knew dinner would soon be at hand. The chicken was ready, and the corn. With the prepared food would come her husband, her son, and the young girl Henry had taken under his wing, Caitlin Snow.

Caitlin was a quiet one. With long brown locks and the same purple, cotton dress she wore day after day, only changing the ribbons in her hair on occasion, Nora had taken to mothering her. She’d never had a daughter, and there was much about Caitlin that appealed to her. From her determination to chase after her dreams to her polite refusal of anything that might inconvenience anyone, Nora welcomed having her in their home and at their table. A few times she had studied her son’s interactions with her to see if there was any spark. She certainly wouldn’t mind having Caitlin officially part of their family.

But Caitlin, it seemed, was in love with a slightly older boy, Ronnie Raymond, who had gone off to fight in the Crusades. And Nora’s boy, Barry, she had begun to suspect, still fancied Maid Iris.

It was a star-crossed romance she’d hoped her son could avoid. Not because she held anything against Iris or her family, but because it would be nearly impossible for them to find happiness together in a practical sense with Iris being elevated in her father’s and brother’s absence. In addition, she knew the feelings had not been one-sided before Joseph and Wallace had left for Crusades. That made the young romance even more devastating.

But Iris lived with Sheriff DeVoe now, who was snide and arrogant and in line with that terrible Prince John who was constantly raising the taxes. She hoped Marlise DeVoe, who while loyal to her husband, didn’t appreciate his tactics, had taken Iris under her wing and protected her. Heaven only knows what kind of atmosphere existed in that house if she hadn’t.

With Prince John’s almost constant raising of taxes – and demand in paying them being more frequent – Nora worried that soon Henry would allow appointments without pay. He tried to be firm and decisive on the outside, but on the inside his love for her and his son and the townspeople had turned him to mush. After all, once Barry had made it clear he would not be following in his footsteps, Henry had sought out a pupil and had no qualms whatsoever about taking on Caitlin Snow.

The sound of the heavy wooden door being opened interrupted her thoughts, and the sound of her husband’s warm voice made the sadness of her thoughts all but disappear.

“Something smells good,” Henry said, walking through the door. “You smell that, Caitlin?” The young girl nodded beside him. “It smells wonderful.”

Nora smiled to herself, set aside her tools and yarn and walked into the entryway adjoining the kitchen.

“You’re home,” she said, to which her husband crossed the distance between them and placed a kiss on her cheek. “It smells so good.” He pulled back. “Is it biscuits?”

She nodded. “Yes. And chicken and potatoes.”

Caitlin’s eyes lit up. “You have potatoes?”

“Yes. And I’m going to mash them. Would you like to help?”

Caitlin nearly bounced up on her toes. It never ceased to amazing Nora how this girl could go from being shy to eager and excited when new opportunities presented themselves. She wondered what that meant about her home life but decided not to think on it.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she chuckled. “Come on.” She nodded her head towards the hot pot over the fire and grabbed some pot warmers so as not to burn herself. “Grab a bowl from the bottom shelf. We’ll put them in there first.”

Caitlin did as she was told and used the large spoon to transfer the vegetable. Nora looked over her shoulder at her husband as she did so.

“Have you seen Barry today?”

“Not this morning,” he said on a sigh. “But the Dibny’s informed me he spent all morning with their rambunctious children, so he must’ve done some good today.”

“Henry.” Her voice lowered, and he reined himself in.

“I’m sorry. I know it’s a good thing what he’s doing. It’s better than just lying around this place all day. I’m glad he’s getting work in and that he’ll help out with the harvest in the fall.”

“Oh!” Caitlin interjected, spying the individual in question walking passed the distant window. “I think I see him.”

Moments later, the door opened and Barry walked in, a basket of freshly pulled carrots in his arms.

“Carrots,” Caitlin said, awe-struck by yet another delicious food being added to the menu.

“What a brilliant idea, Barry. Thank you for thinking of it,” his mother said.

He forced a smile that matched his father’s until Henry felt the glare his wife was delivering to the back of his head.

“I thought it might…add something,” Barry added lamely, avoiding his father’s gaze.

“I talked to the Dibny’s earlier today,” Henry said, pushing bitter feelings behind him for the sake of the meal and the company. “It sounds like you were very helpful to them this morning.”

Barry looked at him, then glanced at his mother and Caitlin and knew he had to do something to release the tension.

“Well, someone had to be, what with Ralph running off with Sue just as his brothers and sisters were waking up.”

Henry softened, a proud smile gracing his features.

“I’m glad you stepped up, son.” He gripped his shoulder. “It’s good to know what’s important in life and not go running after a lass before you’ve found your place.”

He glanced over at Caitlin.

“Nothing against you, of course, Caitlin.”

She grinned sardonically.

“Of course not. I’m special.”

Barry shook his head at the comment, but it had the whole family laughing, and so the tension was broken.

…

Night descended over Collin Woods about an hour after dinner. Caitlin had returned home, promising to meet Henry at his clinic the next day as early as she could. He promised to bring food with him and Nora insisted she come home with Henry for dinner again. Caitlin was reluctant to make that promise, so she just smiled as a goodbye and waved her hand on the way out. Barry watched her from the front window and thought about the impact she made on their home. He was glad to have her in his life, and glad even more so that she’d provided an escape for him from his father’s profession. But he worried some about her home life. Whenever he saw her about in town, there was no light in her eyes. She looked sullen, almost like a young child. And he saw the tight grip her mother always had on her even though she was three years into adulthood at age fifteen. It just made him more aware of the destruction Prince John had brought upon their little town.

Barry lay in bed until he could hear his parents’ snores drifting down the hall. Deeming it safe to slip out, he pushed open his window and carefully climbed over the ledge to the other side. He closed it after he’d landed in the grass, keeping it open a crack so he wouldn’t have difficulty going in, and then slinked away from his home, taking off as fast as one of his arrows as soon as he’d reached the cluster of trees thickening like a swarm of flies on the way to Central Pond.

He got to the edge of the water, looked up and saw some hazy clouds crossing over the moon. He worried for a moment that she wouldn’t come. They had always said that if it was a cloudy night, maybe it was a sign they shouldn’t meet up that night, that there was somehow a better likelihood of them being caught, even if logically that didn’t make sense. They should be harder to see with no grand moonlight making figures known amongst the trees.

But he didn’t have to worry long. Because mere moments later, a tap came on his shoulder, and he nearly fell into the water because of it.

“Barry!” she quietly shrieked, pulling him back by the fabric of his shirt, and then dissolving into a fit of giggles when she did. Putting a hand over her mouth, she tried to compose herself. “I’m sorry.”

He was flushed, breathing heavily for a few moments, but then a silly grin stretched across his face.

“No apology needed,” he said, then took her hand and led her away from the water into the woods. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come.”

“So was I,” she said. “The clouds were so much thicker from my bedroom window.” She came to a stop and held both of her hands in his, swinging a little on the balls of her feet. “But I thought I’d make a try for it. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you.”

In truth it had been two days, and the only reason they hadn’t met up was because of storms, rain that poured hard and for hours. But it still felt like an eternity. Every moment apart felt like a lifetime.

“I know,” he said, intertwining their fingers together. “It’s been forever.”

He couldn’t wait any longer. He pulled on her hands with his own, instantly bringing her closer, and met her lips with a sudden kiss. She melted into it, and so did he. His arms moved to settle on her waist as hers wrapped around his neck. And for a while they stood there in the filtered moonlight, just ignoring the world around them.

“Oh, Barry,” she murmured, eventually pulling back enough to lay her head on his chest. He swayed them gently. “I wish it could be like this forever.”

He rested his cheek on the top of her head and shut his eyes, listening to the sway of her long dress in the night breeze.

“So do I.”

“I dream at night about us, you know.”

He smiled to himself. “You do?”

“Well, don’t you?” She lifted her head to look up at him.

“Of course, Iris. I dream about you even when I’m not sleeping. I almost shot Cisco with an arrow today because I was so distracted dreaming of you.”

Her eyes sparkled. “You wouldn’t have hit him.”

“I don’t know…I was pretty distracted.”

“You never miss,” she said. “Not even when you’re distracted.”

“I might’ve made an exception for Julian,” he joked lightly.

She smirked. “I might’ve let you.”

He didn’t know if her not liking Julian any more than he did made their situation even more tragic, but he decided he liked it. Better the knight not be his competition when it came to Iris’ heart. In any other way, he could deal, even if he didn’t want to, but if he was unsure about where her heart lie, he was sure he would die.

“Come on,” he said, stepping back enough to just hold her hand. “I want to show you something.”

Iris bit her bottom lip and ran with him through the woods until they came to a large tree. She stopped before he did and looked up at the spectacle before them.

“It’s amazing,” she said, awestruck.

“It’s old,” he responded. “And probably shouldn’t be climbed on.” He bent down to pick something off the grass just around the old oak. “But it’s unlike any other tree in the whole forest, and I think we should make it our own.”

He came back to her and handed her a rock, sharp and narrow at the end. She looked at it strangely and met his eyes with a quizzical expression.

“What are you thinking, Barry?”

He grinned and pulled her to the large, oak tree. Then she watched as he used his own rock to painstakingly carve his initials into the wood. He made a small cross beneath it and stepped back. He glanced at her when she didn’t move.

“Your turn,” he said.

Excitedly, though she tried to contain herself, Iris stepped forward and carved her own initials in. Then, without any prodding, she drew a large heart around their letters and stepped back, looking at their masterpiece proudly.

“I love you, Iris,” he said, softly, and she turned to find him staring at her, so much love in his eyes. She didn’t doubt his declaration for a second.

“I love you, too, Barry,” she returned, taking both his hands in hers as they’d been before.

“I don’t know how long we can be like this,” he admitted. “But I’m going to treasure every moment.” He brought their clasped hands to his heart and held them there. “You’re my home, Iris. And that’s one thing that will never change.”

Her heart aflutter, and all words fallen away from her memory, she smiled softly in response. Then she tilted her face up, closed her eyes, and waited for him to kiss her.

[jigpowoodza1981-blog]

I took my first step into the apartment and my shoes started crunching cat litter. The litter was scattered all over the kitchen floor. The dishes were growing things in the sink. I feel you on this. I look at Instagram fitness accounts and when I see people ONLY photograph/ film from that 3/4 ass angle to make their butts look bigger I immediately block or choose the "don show me this nonsense" option. It sounds extreme, but I try to not engage positively/passively with that type of content at all bc it not what I want to see or encourage.. The main one is from silicates. As they mix with glycerin it creates a paste that dries on the skin and gives you lifting, tightening, pulling effect. Other ingredients to look for are caffeine, constricts blood vessels, hyaloronic acid, anti ox dabtss neutralize free radicals and peptides trigger collagen formation to thicken the skin. If this frustrating hair removal cycle sounds all too familiar, rest assured that you are not alone. According to one women's magazine, 73 percent of females try to get rid of leg hair around three times every week [source: Goins]. That adds up to a lot of hours spent shaving. With each episode, I just love Soo Im more and more. She doesn shy away from what she truly believes in and carries herself with so much class. For this reason, it so easy to root for her as a viewer. 마산출장안마 This trope, known as wuquf al atlal, or by the ruins recurs throughout the history of Arabic poetry. In these poems, ruins are spectral and ephemeral things, that in the words of Tarafa, and fade, like the trace of a tattoo / on the back of a hand. Medieval depictions of Britain Stone Age ruins showed them as places associated with magic and Arthurian legends. 마산출장안마 Game play changes drastically once you hit Torment levels. Each torment you feel self development and understanding of your character. Im at T10 and took a long ass time from T9. This guy had her in bed within 3 dates, and suddenly stopped calling her. To make a long story short, she wooed him back. The last thing she wanted was to be dumped by this guy. Before there were shows like "Ice Road Truckers" and "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila," there was "This is Your Life." It originally broadcast on the radio in the late 1940s and made the switch to television in the early 1950s. "This is Your Life" was reality TV because it presented the story of a real person's life and relied on the participation of real people, who were shot in front of a live audience or filmed on location. It didn't matter if the subject was Joe Schmo or Johnny Cash they were all surprised by host Ralph Edwards and his camera crew (they famously surprised Cash on stage in the middle of a concert).. That's the way it's always been for me. I've never asked, because I think it's tacky, but I would say a decent majority of POTs have gifted at the end of the meet and greet of their own volition. It is definitely an act good faith and shows some generosity and will help you stand out from other POTs.. No it's not. He's just telling her that like hey, I'm here for you. This hurts me to but I'm here for you. All of this work is very personal and comes from a more primitive place in my heart. It's steeped in pain, fear, and sometimes self hatred. Some of it is fiction built upon deeper truths I'm not yet ready to face eye to eye.

[tomioneer]

yyh rewatch number 11 WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY KIDS NOW

been a few days bc I am BUSY AF irl, and I made it through the dr ichigaki fight--just barely without tears--by watching with a friend. now we’re at episode 35 and watch straight through to 42, and I can’t help but blog about it because HELLOOOO, NINJA BABES

guess who’s here

it’s jin and TOUYA BITCHES

kurama recognizes them, I wonder if he's actually fought them before

I remember that hiei and kuwabara both get taken out of the fight, but can’t recall if genkai does as well

what I figured out when my friend asked why koenma knows genkai’s younger face is that since she was on a mostly human team in the past, she was probably one of the special guests at the tournament? and thus a member of a team koenma technically owned 

it’s upsetting that toguro didn’t seem to recognize his EX GIRLFRIEND.

jin speaks so quickly I can hardly understand him

it’s like merida in the new wreck it ralph trailer, just.. irish

ps JERRY FUCKING JEWELL again, for those keeping track

I’m gonna go ahead and mark yusuke and jin down as a ship now before I lose control

also, jin and touya

ship count: 8/400

I should really make a list of whose’ who in that count lol

oh yeah, here’s the medical exam, I remember it

her hair is gorgeous I would marry him if she asked

WOW she doesn’t even take kuwabara just genkai and hiei

a barrier master

and she’s just

oh man she took her coat off and I melted

STOP ELECTROCUTING MY KID BABE

epilepsy warning for this whole arc

koenma you’re a jerk

jin decides to fuck off because he doesn’t like fixed fights, bless him, he’s a terrible shinobi

demon makeup cool. not cool? the FUCKING RACIST image in the back during the explanation. I SAW that feathered headdress, togashi!!

kurama isn’t BOTHERING to attack because he’s observing

and hiei tells us why kurama is going to be fucked

jin is so done with this subterfuge bullshit

the audience is eating this up and touya speaks at last, my love, my darling, my short spiky blue beautiful man

I would kill to be able to put on makeup that perfectly, that easily

I know how kurama finishes this fight, but my friend can’t remember. I love it, this is so good.

“with his hair??” she asks, shocked

“only an amateur depends on arms and legs for victory”--kurama, with a whip coming out of his hair

“How is he controlling that?”

“With his spirit energy?”

isn’t there more behind why this guy is trying os hard? they’re not being blackmailed are they

oh.

there’s more, the patterns--

fuuuuck

and of COURSE his reiki is sealed, and as long as he’s standing--goddamn

wait

touya fights an immobilized kurama?

I don’t remember that!!!! son of a BITCH

“how will yusuke’s shattered team survive” asks the narrator. “This is bad” says yusuke

this is not good

I hate that kurama seemed to observe that gama’s paint was made of blood but didn’t like. pay attention to it?

friend just punned: “Touya is a cool dude”

I’m screaming she hates puns

one of the black black club just asked sakya why he is sharing “Ass space” with demons. fucking. what.

why does the committee want yusuke so dead, when they invted him? I guess that’s the whole REASON they invited him, ugh.

genkai tries to be optimistic for the first time in this series, and kiei shuts her down immediately

ohhhh the shinobi just need attention so they keep getting jobs

koto freezes to death, it’s very sad

touya somehow thinks a theif can’t keep running.. and seems to be right

“running like a baby is perfectly brave if the odds are uneven enough”--Koenma’s words of wisdom

such an inspiring leader the spirit world has

doesn’t he smudge the seal withhis own blood HEY he does

I am remembering these things seconds before it comes into play

touya’s attacks are honestly amazing

koto is a bit twisted

kurama plants something in himself, and then that’s what holds him immobile for the next guy right?? the big one yusuke kills

why doesn’t touya know who he is??? I thought, if they called him a traitor, we could ASSUME they knoew who kurama was??

why was touya blishin’?

the ICE SWORD man oh man one of my old old old old mary sues had that attack

oh yeah there it is, the arm wound, he plants it in that

“son of a frickin bitch”--yusuke urameshi

Koenma: Why do I get the feeling our most intelligent fighter is about to do something incredibly stupid?

Kurama: Let me do what I must... *does something stupid*

touya decides they’re friends now, so he wants to kill kurama painlessly

is

is touya fucking DEAD

oh good he’s alive

but also it’s not good

oh but okay kurama won

three more then

I know kurama vs. bakken is terrible

kurama also thinks they’re friends

faint heartbeat

amazing

ah, bakken

I hate him

“a fighter standing in the ring cannot be removed agains this will. as will cannot be determined...”

hatred

hiei is ready to go to war for his man

how is that motherfucker even a shinobi

yikes that last shot of the ep is absolutely awful

yusuke promises the audience that of he goes, it will be with a bang. I remember more of a whimper when sensui kills him.

who is that last guy on team masho? I remember bakken, and it’s clearly jin, but the third one, I can’t remember

BAKKEN JUST BITCH SLAPPED KOTO

yusuke is my BOY

I love him

this “kill the traitor” count is just. horrible

kuwabara is STILL out for the count

kick his ass baby boy

yusuke is my hero

why is uh. bakken sweating so much

mist made from his own uh. sweat. that’s pretty nasty

yusuke: I hate saunas.

I don’t remember this fight taking even this long???

yusuke has such great eyelashes

boy is already so like. pumped to fight jin. 

yusuke just used eighth grade science”you can get on your hands an knees and start begging.and maybe, just maybe, I’ll listen.”--yusuke urameshi

KILL HIM YUSUKE 

he’s ready to commmit murder and it’s amazing

jin didn’t even flinch

“That’s a pretty good fight”

kurama’s gorgeous and also awake

he’s making plant jokes and I hate it

I STILL DONT REMEMBER THIS RISHO BITCH

look how great these kids are. 

I DID remember about ruka’s barrier thing healing hiei

no way jin can’t fight first if he does how does yusuke fight him SECOND????

“If I win my whole team’s screwed and if I lose I have to fight again.”

jin is amazing. seriously. also, can these boys get married please?

you know I’m a multi shipper right 

well that was a fun match, sad it’s over

jin is just

such a happy guy I love it

they call them brothers but really the chu thing is much closer to that

“ass space” bbc guy now claims to pull the tournament committee by his the “ass hairs”

so quick!!

kuwabara seems insistent on the fact that he is “spiritually aware” in situations where he lacks that talent to actually observe

yusuke lands exactly one punch and jin floats up to let the impact wear off

“Hey, I needed that!” says yusuke when his spirit gun is deflected by jins wind 

jin thinks he’s very funny

he’s right

why is boan lashing out at kuwabara, when she’s supposed to be TREATING HIM

somehow Jin with his irish accent--or rather, Jerry fucking jewell  with his irish accent--isn’t triggering at all lmao. maybe because this is how I prefer him

yusuke’s hero eyes, at it again

how many reigun shots does yusuke have left?

jin’s so good at fights I love him so much

“something always comes ot me at the end” say yusuke about his battle stretegy

hiei

genkai, sarcastic: you truly havbe a way with women, hiei

JIN IS HUMMING LOVE HIM

yusuke plans to try the spirit wave, somehow forgetting his shotgun move???

shizuru once again knows exactly what’s up

bless the kuwabara family sixth sense

it’s so weird how genkai is speaking in third person

have I mentioned how much I love Jin’s eyes? 

yusuke call shimself a freak because he enjoys fighting

okay we’re back to who the fuck risho is???

if jin’s the official captain---

oh my god I just screamed when risho revealed himself and dropped my laptop holy shit

like a gut punching, throat-tearing godawful scream. 

“IT’S YOU!!!”

oh my god I don’t reember anyting about him other than earth and rocks and how much I HATE HIM

does he fight kuwabara? yukina just showed up trying to get in to see the tournament, does she heal kuwabara for this fight?

touya comes up. does risho attack him? that would explain why I hate him

yusuke defends koto, who he doesn’t like

hiei

i love

these two children are so angry

lkjlkjdasdflkjsadfkhjsdfasdf;lkjsadf

shizuru finds yukina and recognizes her from watchign that video, bless her

girls helpin’ girls

kuwabara was never technically ruled ineligible to fight, and I hate life

ginger son, don’t do it

he is so goddamn fucking helplessly sacrificial

yukina, go inside and heal your goddamn boyfriend

yukina is looking for her brother, oh SHOCK

shizuru intimadates an entire crowd of demons

her legs oh my god

just wait kuwbara, your girl with healing powers will be there soon

kuwabara is doing his best

keiko gets hit on by a bouncer and murders him

shizuru once again takes out a demon

can kuwabara shizuru marry kino makoto please???

risho is a dick

koto is clearly a sado-masochist

hiei GET OUT OF THERE

ruka is just like. a fetish indulgence of the artists. I know she’s hot but how long are they going to draw this out? 

koto: I’m goign to take the ocunt now, so everybody make sure to tell me how I’m doing it wrong, okay?

savage

START the DOUNT KOTO, he’s OUT of the ring

shizuru WRECK THEM

oh yukina has ptsd flashbacks when she runs into toguro

sakyo lets shizuru escape bless her

kuwabara prepares to sacrifice his ENTIRE FUCKING LIFE and becomes telpathic?? bless

kuwabara can’t imagine what to say to yusuke, who means so much to him, goddamnit

yukina is in the stadium, babies

YOU’VE GOT TO BELIIIIIIIIIIIIEVE IN THE POWER OF LOOOOVE

IT GIVE MEANING TO EACH MOMENT

IT’S WHAT OUR HEARTS ARE ALL MADE OF (just look inside)

oh my god

amazing

“That’s my girlfriend!”--Kuwabara Kazuma, aged fourteen

yusuke is astounded by his boy

koto isn’t counting either of them

SPIRIT SWORD

GET IN THE RING 

damn kuwabara

I can’t beleive he did it that’ s an highly unlikely triumph

hiei

“She’s... really here.”

Kuwabara bonds with yukina while keikpo and keiko FINALLY talk

KILL HIM BABY GIRL

pls get married

t;dr I would marry shizuru in a heartbeat if I didn’t know she was meant for sailor jupiter

shoutout to @batmares!!! thank you ever so much for joining me today for the Urameshi vs. Ninja arc of the dark tournament saga!

[aminiatureworld]

If you get this, answer with 3 random facts about your-self and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not! Let's get to know the person behind the blog<333

hello i hope you’re having a wonderful day/night<3

Ahh thank you so much!❤

Hmm... random facts about me (that aren't in my About Me page lmao)

I'm 18 hours into my first read through of the Higurashi visual novel (in fact I just finished a reading session of it). It's really quite good, even the "slower" parts are really enthralling, I don't feel the need to skip the earlier parts of each arc or anything. 11/10 highly recommend.

Last year I read 142 books. My favorite new book I read was Wuthering Heights, my favorite reread was The Sunne in Splendor (or maybe the Kamisama Kiss binge half-reread), and my last favorite read was Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. The reason was not so much the goal of the book, Ellison's wish to use shock to express the vile and horrific system of racism is perfectly valid, and even smart. Unfortunately his grotesque hatred of women made every page a slog, and I ended up rather hating it.

I've never broken a bone or got a cavity (so far, plz save my teeth), but I did get stung by a wasp on my birthday once.

Hope these weren't too irritating or boring haha. Thank you again for the ask and I hope you too have a wonderful day!

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

The Emoji Movie review

[NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS AN OVEREXAGGERATION. PLEASE DO NOT WORRY OR TAKE HOW I SAY THINGS 100% SERIOUSLY. THIS MOVIE HAS NOT ACTUALLY MADE ME SUICIDAL.] 

This is it. The Emoji Movie. A film I and the rest of the world have been dreading. Today I have finally seen this film, and… it has drained me of all will to live. This is it; I can’t live in this world any longer after having seen this movie. This has to be my last review, because I can no longer live in a world where this movie exists.

 Is it because it’s so abysmally bad as all the reviews said? Is it truly the worst animated film ever made, an utterly soulless cash grab of a movie? What could drive me to my death like this?

 The fact that… I just… even after seeing it, I just can’t muster up the absolutely vitriolic hatred everyone else seems to have for it. It’s not even bad. It’s not even good. It’s just… meh. This movie is meh. And after getting so hyped up to see the worst animated film ever, this is… disappointing. Heart-breakingly, soul-crushingly disappointing.

So, what is the story here? Well, Ralph is a villain who feels out of pl- uh, sorry, Emmet is a LEGO man who wants to conform but ju- oh, um, pardon. Joy is an emotion who… okay, you get the idea. This film is nothing but a bald-faced, shameless ripoff of the plots of a dozen better films. The “Be yourself” message, the hero who wants to conform but learns to love being expressive, the journey to find oneself… it has been done to death, and done a billion times better. This movie is just every animated cliché ever. Fuck, the whole trailer revealed the entire plot and story arc in two minutes.

God… the worst thing, aside from the plot, is the main characters… But they aren’t even bad enough. They’re all so unbearably generic and trite. Gene is your average hero questioning his identity. He’s Ralph, he’s Emmet, he’s basically every goddamn animated protagonist for years and years, only with most of his personality excised and replaced with all the beats but none of the character. For an emoji with so many expressions beyond the one he’s supposed to have, he’s not very expressive. And even with all that, he’s just so inoffensively bland it’s hard to hate him. Hi-5 is an obnoxious comedy sidekick who contributes very little to the story and serves as a hindrance more often than not. But… he’s still got a few good jokes in him, and while he’s absolutely obnoxious and selfish, he’s still not as awful as he could be. Jailbreak is a ripoff of all the blue-haired action girls you can imagine, shamelessly cribbing Sombra, Chloe Price, Wyldstyle, and more, just subtracting anything that makes those characters interesting… and even then, she’s still not totally void of good moments. These three characters are who we spend time with so much, and they aren’t more than depressingly bland, generic archetypes. It hurts. Why couldn’t they just be absolutely, unlikably awful? Like, they all suck, but they just don’t suck enough!

And goddamn, is this plot filled with horrible, awful stupidity! We have Jailbreak spouting off terrible, hamfisted feminist messages by stating men take credit for things women say all the time, we have the human characters acting like words are uncool and emojis are the only worthwhile form of communication, we have the conceit that phones have firewalls and that internet trolls can just simply be deleted forever with the click of a button… oh, if only. There’s just so much that is unbelievably stupid and pathetic and poorly done, the whole story feels like nothing but a first draft that somehow got greenlit with no corrections done. And that’s not getting in to all of the blatant product placement, such as the cringeworthy portrayal of Dropbox as some sort of heavenly safehaven, Twitter ending up being a savior, outdated meme videos playing on YouTube, and the extended Candy Crush scene.

But I wouldn’t feel like dying if there wasn’t those few things of value, those things that keep me from letting loose pure unbridled hatred as so many others have, and saving myself. For instance, the animation… God, this film is an absolute treat for the eyes. The backgrounds, the visuals, the human characters, there is just so much visual stimulation in this film. It’s plain fun to look at, and it’s such a shame that so much talent and effort was used to make… this. It honestly hurts worse knowing that this gorgeous film is a subpar animated comedy.

Oh, but even more depressing is that the film has some genuinely good characters. The villain, Smiler, is so absolutely blatantly villainous due to how passive-agressively nice she constantly has to be she ends up being far more likable and entertaining than the so-called heroes. It helps too that she lives in what can only be described as a cosmic horror story, a Baby’s First Lovecraft if you will: she lives in a universe controlled by a fickle teenage boy whose first reaction to even the slightest malfunction is DELETE EVERYTHING. She has every right to be as concerned to the point of madness, as even the slightest fuckup would result in the utter annihilation of her entire universe; it’s to the point where she, despite the fact that in any other movie she would have crossed a million lines, comes across as one of the most reasonable characters in the film.

Then we have Poop, the character voiced by Patrick Stewart, and a shining example of how this film wastes brilliance. Poop has maybe ten lines in the movie and a few visual jokes, but everything he says tends to be rather funny, and he even manages to squeeze in a Star Trek joke. Why didn’t he get to go on the journey instead of Hi-5? If we’re going to listen to a bunch of jokes, even shit jokes, for 80 or so minutes, at least it’s Patrick Stewart telling them.

Next are Gene’s parents, Mary and Mel. These two are, without a doubt, the funniest characters in the entire movie, due to being in a constant state of “meh.” They react to even the most intense and stressful situations with just the most hilarious indifference, and even more baffling, they get a truly beautiful and emotional scene late in the film (!!!). Yes, you read that right: there is actually a beautiful and emotional scene in this movie. This only further compounds my sadness; why was the movie not about these two? They’re the best characters! Why is the spotlight on their boring son, instead of on these two hilariously indifferent emojis who can actually pull off a genuinely tender moment?

Finally, we have Akiko Glitter, a joyous, bouncy dancer who appears in the Just Dance app. She’s sweet, she’s fun, she’s cute, she plays Wham! She’s such a kind and bouncy character! …And at the end of her only scene she is coldly and brutally murdered by Smiler’s robots as her game is being deleted from the phone. Her death is bizarrely shocking and depressing for this film, and even worse… we see what happens to her after being deleted. She is trapped in the garbage, continuously dancing in agony as it is all she knows how to do, her eyes dead as she goes through the motions of a job that no longer exists. And despite her  kindness to Gene and friends, Gene opts to leave her to die in the trash, not even bothering to save her when he comes to save Hi-5. And yes: she dies down there. This wonderful, fun-loving lady is left to die in a hellhole filled with garbage, trolls, and spam. Fucking Christ. If I was not depressed before, I am now.

So to sum things up, this movie has four redeeming features: evil brought on by existential dread, shit, unadulterated indifference, and the horrific death of beauty and joy. That sounds eerily like every review has painted this film, and yet… and yet… It really isn’t close to being that bad. Chicken Little was way worse. Doogal was way worse. There are so many movies that are absolutely, horrendously, abysmally awful, so many films unfathomably worse than this movie, that the hatred feels overblown to the point of being hollow. And I wanted so badly to hate this movie! I wanted to join in with the crowds, and cast this down as the worst animated film ever! But, I just can’t in good conscience do that, because it truly isn’t. The hatred for this movie is just a knee-jerk reaction to the soulless cash grab feel it has. And it is that, but it’s just not bad enough even with that glaringly obvious fact permeating it. I can’t even tell you if it’s so bad it’s good… it just kind of… exists. It has highs, it has lows, and I just can’t really sum up how I feel about it accurately…

Well… I guess I can… This movie is “meh.” I cannot bring myself to feel strongly about it one way or the other. And that’s why I can’t bear to live anymore; this movie let me down in the worst possible way. It just wasn’t bad enough to warrant my vitriol, or good enough to warrant my praise. This movie promised to give me at least one extreme, and I silently prayed for the other against all odds… and it delivered nothing. It delivered a depressingly middling experience.

So farewell. This is it. The big finish. There’s only one way I can truly end my life after seeing this, and that is by calling upon the one true awful emoji film…

I did it for the lulz.

I did it for the lulz.

I did it for the lulz.