#Socialism Destroys Excellent Societies

[whetstonefires]

Very fun thing actually about Jin Guangyao is he spent so much time and energy passing himself off as normal. The Normalest Guy, Look How Normal I Am. The Very Best And Most Skilled At Normal Things, Like Being Normal And Having Normal Opinions.

Which is great because on the one hand it reflects how he was kind of aware he absolutely was not. (And that by default this isolated him and this was Very Unsafe.) But on the other you see, with all the times he falls into the typical mind fallacy under stress and projects weird shit onto people, he also on some level believed everyone was doing this.

That being a Normal Person who had Normal Reactions to things, like being appalled by brutal violence, was an elaborate social lie everyone had to maintain to keep up the facade of civil society, and actually everyone was basically the same as him deep down. He was just better at it, and also the smartest.

Which is a very long way to say his character arc is heavily tied up with his evolving relationship with and skills at masking. I'm not gonna armchair diagnose him because that's beside the point, the point is that he is trying so fucking hard to be normal, but without a particularly well-developed definition of what's abnormal about him to begin with, resulting in some misfires.

And then you contrast him to some other characters and it gets more fun. One of his direct foils is Nie Mingjue, who literally does not know how to mask at all, not the slightest bit, but is fortunate enough to have been born the exact kind of weirdo his position in life demands, with special interests in 'saber training' and 'destroying evil.'

(He explicitly, per narration from wwx being inside his head, has no other interests and doesn't really understand the idea of having more than one activity you care about, do not tell me Nie Mingjue is walking around with a normal brain.)

So he is (jgy has a point about this, although he actually makes it about the luxury of having moral compunctions) free to totally embrace the conviction that everyone should basically be their authentic selves at all times, and just not do evil things about it.

On the other hand, and this really illuminates their relationship for me, Lan Xichen is absolutely trying to be normal. Like, he does try to excel, he wants to be best and he knows he's good, but as a person he is also trying to be as normal as circumstances allow.

He understands 'being normal about things' as a goal not in jgy's terms as an elaborate social fiction but as aspirational shaping of the self; if everyone is normal about everything then there won't be needless conflict. Living as normally as possible will optimize your mental health and your respect for others, and it's just a good baseline from which to be good.

Which is fine as far as it goes, but means harmless eccentricity (including gay) is to be tolerated and swept under the rug rather than really supported, and prejudices him to instinctively side with Jin Guangyao and anyone else who is pushing for Let's Be Normal About This, even when the people being weird are in the right.

(This is also to a non-zero degree a trauma response behavior; what Lan Xichen experienced as the largest existential threat to him growing up was something along the lines of being perceived as a selfish disruptor of norms, like his father.)

And then contrast that to Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji, who are both very concerned at least initially with how things and people and they themselves are supposed to be, and feel some responsibility for ensuring this supposed-to is reflected in reality.

But neither of them makes any particular attempt to be normal about it.

And then ofc Wei Wuxian, another jgy narrative foil, never attempts to pass himself off as normal. He will sell 'I'm better than everyone ever' and 'I'm scum of the earth' in the same breath before he will try for normal.

Except that he genuinely seems to think his most virtuous traits, his throw-himself-between-victim-and-weapon impulses, are basically normal. If not everyone (who isn't a total shithead) does it, it's because not everyone has his insane confidence they can pull it off.

Which in a good mood he would say is fair, because he is in fact awesome and really good at winning. (In a worse state of mind he would definitely hate on all the selfish cowards.)

Nie Huaisang is probably the most genuinely normal human being in the main cast, probably even more normal than Jiang Yanli, and he's very happy to play that up and present himself as actually even more normal and average than he is, in order to keep expectations down.

Up until his whole life gets fucked and this little pretense turns into the most elaborate and successful mask in the entire book.

[masochist-marmot]

Just finished watching MHA season 7

I am not okay. I am in shambles. A shallow husk of a human being. I have exhausted all my emotions and have nothing left to give. I'm sitting right there in the middle of charred earth and ash with tears frozen on my face. I might need a hero to sacrifice themselves to stitch my destroyed heart back together.

The level of character writing in this series is amazing. I stand by my (probably controversial) take that there are some issues with pacing and setup/payoff, though I haven't read the manga so I can't tell how much of that is an issue with the adaptation. But what the show does excel at is portraying a large cast of characters with deep and diverse motivations, and it somehow manages to build on them in a deliberate, believable manner. (Let me piss off another fandom real quick: JJK could never.)

I was spoiled on the Dabi reveal before I started watching the show. In fact, that spoiler got me interested in watching it in the first place. I picked up on the tiny hints that were sprinkled in from very early on and was interested to see how they pull the reveal off. I was a little disappointed with how one-note Dabi was for the entire time up until that point, and the reveal itself was far less effective without the intended shock value. I almost wrote it off as missed potential. However, the seeds that were sown were not in Dabi himself, but the Todoroki family dynamic. Once we get to the flashbacks and eventually the grand emotional showdown, we have already gone through a character arc with Shouto, Endeavor and the rest of the family, and we have seen how All For One grooms vulnerable youth to his cause. In the present, Dabi is only fueled by hatred and revenge. In the past, we see a sad little boy who is raised to believe that his value comes from the strength of his quirk, and who is then told he can't use it (thus stripping him of his value). He's practically abandoned as a failed project, and Endeavor's misguided attempts at discouraging him by distancing himself instead of showing him he's got value beyond his strength and usefulness drives poor Touya even further along his doomed path. And this is incredibly fertile soil for All For One's grooming. It's heartbreaking. The reason Dabi is so one-note is that there's nothing else left in him. He's too far gone to be saved. We can bring the entire Todoroki family together to finally see his cries for help and acknowledgment, but it's simply too late. Sometimes it's just not possible to bring the "black sheep" of the family back from the edge of self-destruction. God, it's too real, and devastating, and narratively satisfying.

And then we have our misguided pansexual queen Himiko Toga. I was pretty neutral on Toga for most of the series, because the yandere archetype never really appeals to me. Turns out there's a lot more to her than that. For her entire childhood, she was ostracised and derided for being different and gross. I see an interesting mix of autism-coding/queercoding in how her innate ways to approach love and affection are seen as wrong and abnormal, and how she fails to conform to social norms because nobody's explaining them to her. I do like how neither allegory is one-to-one, and how it's internally consistent with how the world and Toga as a character work. Her childhood environment stunts her emotional development and leaves her with a black-and-white thinking, where you are either good or evil, cute or gross, completely accepted or completely rejected... a hero or a villain (boy, the society desperately needs reconstruction). It leaves her desperate for deep connections, and the deepest connection she can get is from becoming the target of her affection with her quirk. It's a selfish kind of affection that literally weakens the other party. At the same time, she's sabotaging her relationships by intentionally showing her ugly side and looking for signs of rejection to enforce her expectation of not being accepted for who she is. As someone who's struggled with (and, through therapy, learned to manage) traits of borderline personality disorder, I can relate to her chaotic approach to interpersonal relationships and powerful but volatile emotions. When both Deku and Uraraka very reasonably condemn her actions as a villain, she takes that as a total and complete rejection of her as a person. This is an especially heavy blow to her after the loss of Twice has brought her entire worldview into question. Then, when Uraraka reflects on this more and tries to reach out to her again, she's in full defence mode. She can't risk being rejected again, so she lashes out to keep Uraraka at an arm's length. Yet despite all the maliciousness, despite being stabbed, Uraraka fights to get through to Toga and show her that she sees the beauty in her and is willing to accept her in spite of her flaws. And then, after being properly seen and accepted by someone she loves, she's able to commit a purely selfless act of affection by giving away her own blood to keep Uraraka alive. Blood is her love language, and for once she's able to give instead of taking. It's hauntingly beautiful, and it's heartbreaking, and it closes her character arc wonderfully. (Mind you, I think their relationship would have been toxic and codependent, but I don't care. I'll be a Togachako truther from this moment until the day I die.)

This season alone had a lot of effective (and also some less effective) character moments that I won't touch on because this post is already too long and rambling. I especially have a lot more thoughts about best boi Kacchan, but I'll leave that for another day.

[wordsandrobots]

IBO reference notes on . . . deals with the devil

As @gremoria411 rightly commented, I skipped over Isurugi in my essay on character parallels in Iron-Blooded Orphans, even though he's part of a fourth 'leader/follower' dynamic, after Orga and Mika, Gaelio and Ein, and Rustal and Julieta.

And I was thinking about that and why exactly I left him out of the previous essay (beyond tripartite symmetry) when I got to contemplating an aspect of the show of which he's an excellent illustration. So let's get Faustian and unpick the devil's bargains made throughout IBO. Spoilers, as ever, ahoy, and this was also partly inspired by a post from @ember-amber, so cheers for that!

An arm and a leg

I should start with the obvious. Mikazuki's 'deal' with Barbatos, unleashing the Gundam's full power in exchange for the loss of his motor functions, first in his right arm, then down his whole right side, is the bluntest example of a character bargaining for greater power. Indeed, we might press the point and say it's not just his body Mika gives up for the sake of victory but his soul, tying himself ever closer to his mobile suit to the exclusion of the things he once sought beyond the battlefield. He resigns himself to always being what Barbatos allows him to be: the gun Orga fires to destroy obstacles. The hints of livelier, more well-rounded person are subsumed by unrelenting warfare. A boy who cannot stop, even when there is nobody left to order him into the fray, bound to a mechanical nightmare.

Yet to single this out is to overlook that Barbatos isn't the first devil's bargain Mika and the rest of Tekkadan have made in their short lives. Employment as a child at the CGS is predicated on Alaya-Vijnana surgery, after all, and even if that doesn't cripple them, their elevation from the gutter is marked by exchanging one uncaring environment for another. The Third Group are mistreated by adults who see them as disposable and draw scant distinction between volunteers, like Orga, Mikazuki and Takaki, and Human Debris, indentured workers on whom the surgery is actively imposed.

There is an extent to which the distinct is scant in any case. A choice may still be an active one when it is coerced but there are reasons we consider coercion a factor in making moral judgements. Can people be held responsible for decisions made under duress? We generally agree responsibility is lessened or even mitigated in such cases. And what is more coercive than facing a choice between slow starvation and the offer of being fed and paid, albeit at the cost of risking a much quicker end?

Well. Except we also – socially speaking – judge harshly those who trade acts of violence for money. Even when circumstances are considered to mitigate some of the blame, are we ever prepared to excuse fighting and killing on the basis those responsible would otherwise have suffered in poverty?

I don't raise simply as a vague 'makes you think' point. Iron-Blooded Orphans does not overly concern itself with the morality of killing (I'd go so far as to say it actively dismisses the question as meaningless). It is, however, rooted in a world where killing is an ugly necessity, not just for the sake of various causes, but as an act of survival. That is what Tekkadan becomes, for the CGS Third Group. A means of surviving in the face of forces that really would crush them if they did not take a stand. Through their bargain with the adult mercenaries who augmented them, they entered a life of fight or be killed. A struggle for dominance at the bottom of the heap. And they are damned for it.

In the eyes of their society, they are monstrous aberrations. It does not matter that they are in many respects typical, reflecting the exploitation on which the world runs. Their brief stint as heroes is overshadowed by contempt and disgust, by the social taboos they break simply by existing, and by their status as scapegoats, sinking the entirety of the blame for the violence they were a party to. Isn't that the ultimate cost of the deal they made? Their innocence as perceived by others, tarnished such that they can never again be the children they were when they signed on the dotted line.

It is interesting to consider the implications this has regarding the Calamity War and the origin of the Gundam frames. We know, of course, that Gjallarhorn actively demonised (hur hur) the very technology that staved off humanity's extermination by the mobile armours. This appears to have been an act of self-interest, ensuring those advancements remained solely in their control, though the details are vague at best – as always, McGillis must be considered an unreliable source. Nevertheless, their efforts were only partially successful, with a cruder version of the Alaya-Vijnana becoming prevalent in the outer-spheres of Mars and Jupiter (and indeed the inner-sphere of Venus; basically everywhere outside Earth and the near-Earth colonies). They managed to make the thing taboo at home while failing to suppress its use abroad. Stop me if you've heard this one before.

And yet the fact remains: the Alaya-Vijnana and the Gundam frames ended the War. We get to see exactly what a fully-unleashed Gundam is capable of and if we are to parallel the deal Mikazuki makes with Barbatos to those Tekkadan as a whole made on entering their life as soldiers, what then can we say about the original Gundam pilots? They must have been under immense pressure to achieve victory, with the fate of the species on the line. Said victory depended on releasing limiters placed inside their mobile suits to protect them from the strain maximum power would put on their bodies. How many, therefore, willingly ended up in the same state as Mika – or worse?

We don't know. But I don't think it an irrelevant detail that Gjallarhorn's prominence as a military organisation is rooted in this possibility, especially since there are more direct parallels with Tekkadan. Ein opts to side with those who oppress his mother's home planet on behalf of a distant imperial centre and he too trades something for security with that decision, though what we call it may depend on well-disposed we feel towards him. Self-respect? Loyalty to his fellow Martians? Whatever the case, his fanatical tendencies were likely not mellowed by the weight of his choice.

Moreover, what the boys in Tekkadan materially are is at most an extreme version of what your average Gjallarhorn solider is: somebody selling their capacity for violence for the means to survive. For all that the show focuses on the likes of Ein, Julieta, and the other extra-loyal elite forces, we still get plenty of cutaways to troops just doing their jobs. The captain of the Sleipnir, grudgingly setting sail on his daughter's birthday. The CO on the bridge at Edmonton, refusing to waste his men's effort doing more than holding the line. The men deployed during the final episode, frightened and scrambling to survive Mikazuki's ferocity.

They all signed up to do violence. They must have had some idea about what they were getting into, likely more so than anyone who joined the CGS as a pre-teen. Again, this is their job. It could get them killed, or at least maimed, and will certainly lead to them killing others. But in the end, it beats poverty.

These characters exist on a spectrum of bodily sacrifice in exchange for material gains. From Human Debris (fight or die), through Tekkadan (fight to have basic human necessities), on to Gjallarhorn (fight or have less power within society) and to the original Gundam pilots (fight or watch the entire species die), the divisions are by degree rather than kind.

Even Gaelio, the most privileged and 'righteous' character (in the sense of being driven by moral indignation, not practical concerns), expends his body and personal beliefs to get what he's after. Though ending the series in a state comparable to Mikazuki is a personal decision rather than a direct consequence of his Gundam claiming a price for its power, it still stems from an embrace of the taboo.

A soldier is, definitionally, a paid gun. States and businesses exchange money with those willing to kill others – something otherwise generally agreed to be an act punishable by society's rules. This is, for better and worse, the transaction that defines our cast.

Dealing with the devious

In this context, the Gundams are admirably frank. As machines, they cannot dress up what they offer or will take for it. It is left to human characters to play the part of the deceitful tempter.

Via Hush's flashbacks to a cheery Builth heading off to join the CGS, we can form the impression that Arkay Maruba's men did not initially present themselves as the harsh taskmasters they proved to be for anyone who receive a successful implant. This may seem trivial compared to other lies witnessed throughout the show, but I don't know that the rest are much deeper. Honeyed words covering a brutal reality is par for the course when the world is brutal realities all the way down.

In this regard, there is a distinction to be drawn between those offering things at a terrible cost and those who do so dishonestly. Consider Teiwaz: their wealth is underpinned by cold, ruthless calculation and cold, ruthless violence. The conglomerate is staffed by perfectly nice people like Merribit Stapleton, but run by the likes of McMurdo Barriston and Jasley Donomikols, who will kill those who get in their way. McMurdo displays many endearing traits and an indulgent generosity. He also uses Tekkadan to remove a threat to his power, then cuts them off so this act cannot cause infighting between his other lieutenants. His breaking of the sakazuki cup Orga returns to him is a canny move, as by doing so he washes his hands of culpability in Tekkadan's actions. Given the structure of Teiwaz, the other subsidiary leaders would likely have felt threatened if he'd overtly squashed Jasley. This way, he gets that same outcome while also dispelling any notion he plays favourites, because he instantly expels those punk kids everyone was worried about, despite his proven soft-spot for them. Order and peace are restored; business can continue as usual.

Which is appalling and hardly counterbalanced by the aid he gives to Orga afterwards (although, to be clear, I don't think you can dismiss said aid either: he is taking a risk by helping Tekkadan out of the hole he shoved them into; he's just also the one who shoved them into it in the first place).

But we're told who McMurdo is from the word go. And so are Tekkadan. Naze makes very clear the Old Man is driven primarily by seeking profit. This has an upside in that he is not concerned with how said profits are made or who he has to deal with to get them. It also has a major downside for those exact same reasons. I don't believe he ever misrepresents himself. He is frighteningly blunt with Orga by the end. His actions, ultimately, are in line with everything anybody ever says about him (except Jasley, who makes the mistake of assuming McMurdo growing old represents weakness, not outliving challengers). The grandfatherly persona, the cannoli and the bonsai trees – these aren't affectations concealing monstrous depths. McMurdo Barriston simply happens to be a gentleman getting on in years, who enjoys good food and gardening, who will absolutely crush anyone who obstructs his interests.

No, for the real devious bastards we have to look elsewhere. Let's start with the Moustache Man. Todo Micronen is introduced in all his pot-bellied glory slacking off on beating Takaki, Danji and Ride over being too slow at their mine-laying practice. For a brief, shining moment, he gets to look semi-decent in comparison to the real bruisers of the CGS First Group.

Then he sells the newly-formed Tekkadan out to Gjallarhon.

Todo makes a show of being on Orga's side, ingratiating himself to the new leadership with his connections and greater life-experience. That experience, however, is predicated on looking out for number one. In the face of the space police stomping them all to get hold of Kudelia, Todo makes a deal to save his own skin. Unfortunately for him, he isn't what we might call good at appearing trustworthy. Orga and Biscuit twig he's up to something and Tekkadan escape the trap, leaving a beaten-up Todo for McGillis to find. This nicely demonstrates that our heroes aren't complete suckers: Orga follows Todo's suggestions because he's not in a position refuse the assistance if it's genuine, but he's smart enough to plan for the alternative.

At first, Kudelia's dealings with Nobliss Gordon lack this awareness. Where Todo gives strong used-car salesman vibes, Nobliss is more competent at wrapping other people around his little finger. Additionally, rather than trusting solely to gullibility, he positions Fumitan as a watchdog on Kudelia's actions, so that whatever he says, he'll always have final control of the outcome. And it seems he really would say anything, to anyone, to get what he's after. He deals with virtually every major faction in the show, assisting them by turns, the proverbial arms-dealer who will sell to both sides, willing to set in moment immense amounts of bloodshed if it increases his revenue.

Notably, when Kudelia eventually discovers his true nature, her reaction differs from Orga's jettisoning of Todo. Rather than breaking from Nobliss, she seeks to reverse their relative positions so that she is using him. Thereafter, she continues to take his money in spite of recognising his motives. If he wants her to be the face of a revolutionary movement creating profitable instabilities, he must keep giving her the resources to pursue her goals. It's a tenuous, strained relationship that ultimately proves a hindrance to saving the people she cares for. But it too is an demonstration, of how sometimes one cannot simply extract oneself from bargains that provide material advantages. For the sake of inching the world forward, it can be necessary to make deals you know benefit those whose aims run contrary to your own.

Which brings us to McGillis.

With McGillis, the lines between deceiver and deceived blur. It's hard to claim he's honest in his dealings with Tekkadan. There is a lopsidedness to the arrangement, whereby he exploits their combat ability for his own ends while offering little more than pie in the sky in return. His grand promises amount to nothing and for all the munitions he funnels their way, he never gives them anything that doesn't ultimately serve his goals alone. He simply provides the means to fight more effectively: the thing he needs from them, not what they require to prosper.

On the other hand, did he believe he would be able to fulfil those promises, eventually? McGillis spends the entire series working towards a dream of absolute control over Gjallarhorn, a position from which he would have the means to dispense boons to his supporters. Whether he'd have followed through on doing so is an open question. But his admiration for Tekkadan appears sincere, so he might well have tried, as poor an idea as it is to give planet-ruling power to a bunch of violent children and, by extension, their mafia benefactors.

We don't know for sure, because ultimately the person McGillis fooled most was himself. He sold his soul to an ideal taken from an old book and willingly embraced the cost, taking an active role in tearing apart everything good in his life. He is at once devil and bargainer, spinning fairytales from his own self-deception and becoming a Pied Piper, leading others inexorably to the same doom that awaits him.

Any star in the dark

Knowing what you're getting into is a vital component of Faustian pacts. Some people do, and work frantically to ameliorate the negative consequences. Some do not, and are struck down when things do not work out the way they imagined. Getting out of the bargain, or trying to, is usually the meat of stories that feature this device so it follows that it matters whether entering them is done with knowledge or ignorance.

I've discussed Kudelia, who starts out naïve and learns better, and Orga, who makes some bargains with full understanding (Todo, Teiwaz, Makanai too) and some with a mistaken belief in their worth (McGillis). Of these two, I would categorise Kudelia as a pragmatist who recognises the world is such that a successful path forward is built on compromise, and Orga as a gambler, always seeking the quickest route to the highest reward. I won't dwell here too much on stuff I've discussed elsewhere about what drives Orga to act this way except to say that it is as much about the desperation of his circumstances as the desire to possess greater riches.

This is a pattern throughout the show, with characters committing to long odds and risky activities to escape miserable situations. And it repeats once more with Isurugi Camice, McGillis' stalwart aide-de-camp, introduced at the start of Season 2.

It is clear from the word go that he is as loyal a supporter of McGillis' intentions to reform Gjallarhorn as you could hope to find. Furthermore, McGillis trusts him to an exceptional degree. Isurugi is party to all the technical details of the coup, serving as the means by which the moving parts are organised, representing McGillis when it is no longer possible for 'The General' to leave Earth unnoticed, and acting as his wingman in battle. Eventually, this dogged support proves Isurugi's undoing. He is fatally injured while intercepting a killing blow Gaelio meant for McGillis.

At this point, we learn what lies behind his loyalty: like Ein, he is a colony-born member of Gjallarhorn and without a well-placed patron, he would have no prospects. With McGillis' help, he was able to achieve a higher rank and consequently, as he puts it, in McGillis' presence he was able to dream of a better future. Even if it meant the bloodshed that comes of trying to overthrow the Seven Stars' historical control of the organisation – including his own blood, shed on Gaelio's knee-mounted drill bit – he believed it worthwhile to throw in his lot with his General.

Predictably, Gaelio reacts by declaring this a delusion perpetrated by McGillis, with no real possibility of coming true. And while he is broadly correct about the second part of that conclusion, it's worth stressing that Gaelio is textually Always Wrong™ about McGillis right up to their final scene together. He thoroughly misunderstands his ex-friend's motivations and fails to recognise where McGillis' priorities lie at key moments (see the business with the mobile armour; Gaelio takes a fully cynical view of it, not realising McGillis is about the only person to genuinely comprehend the threat Hashmal poses ahead of time).

Moreover, as Isurugi tells him during a dying monologue, Gaelio lacks first-hand experience of what it's like to have no future worth a damn. For all Ein taught Gaelio to look beyond his privileged life, he never has to live long-term with the knowledge that things cannot get better. Isurugi did. And when given the option, he chose a path offering a chance of improvement, however far-fetched and however costly.

Now, we are talking about another character who voluntarily joined the colonial police to improve his lot. Isurugi is presented more sympathetically than Ein but their similarities extend to partaking in the same moral compromise. Becoming a solider, specifically one tasked with enforcing imperial rule, is a way out of being just another oppressed citizen, sure, but the fact that oppression extends to the inside is perhaps not a sob-story stirring too much sympathy. At the same time, the structure of the dilemma echoes those faced by the members of Tekkadan or the people of the Dorts: when the stakes are (or are perceived to be) extreme, extreme responses become understandable.

Indeed, the Dort arc is a useful point of comparison, since it represents an opposing pole of reaction. Rather than seeking to escape via collaboration with the authorities, the workers aim to match strength with them, forcing conditions on the colonies to be recognised and resolved. Consequently, Mr Navona's union makes a deal with Nobliss Gordon, under the misassumption that he is a benefactor to their cause. In this way, they are set up to take a fall Gjallarhorn wipes out those who wanted merely to strongarm the Dort Company to the negotiation table and allows those in favour of more immediately violent solutions to run riot as an excuse for further executions.

Notable here is that the union commits to the threat of violence when they march on the Company HQ. There are no pacifists in this scenario, only a debate about the most effective use of the available weaponry. Everyone gambles that fighting the system head-on will bring a reward.

And the system slaughters them, because it has a far greater capacity for violence than they could hope to possess. It is only through the last-minute tying of Gjallarhorn's hands that anything good comes out of the uprising (and even this is tainted, both by the bargain Kudelia makes with Nobliss, binding herself closer to the devil she knows, and by the long-term consequences of Gjallarhorn's escalating action against colonial liberation movements come Season 2).

Perhaps having seen this kind of thing happen, it isn't any wonder Isurugi would look to someone within the system for hope. To him, McGillis is a bright spark of possibility, worth chasing because at least then he can believe there might be a better world than the one he currently finds himself in. McGillis has institutional power, he is charismatic and clever, and he wants to sweep aside those who administer an unjust structure without complaint. These are alluring qualities even when it is clear the endeavour will to lead to loss, violence and death.

There is no gain without cost. And sometimes, the cost is worth the prospect of the gain.

The final bargain

To an extent, Iron-Blooded Orphans is a story about how this is a fool's logic. In the end, even Mikazuki's honest bargain with Barbatos is a trap, stripping him of the capacity to be anything more than an instrument of violence. 'When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail' is not quite the phrase we want here, but Tekkadan are certainly a group of people who, via the deals they have made, lack opportunities to learn how to use other tools. In many ways, Kudelia, Ein, Isurugi, Naze, Savarin etc. are no different. So many people driven into arrangements that come around to harm them, because that is the nature of things. However pure or understandable or sympathetic the reasons behind the choice, there are always consequences.

And yet, in a world built from pacts between devils and fools, everyone is subject to the same traps. The figures we can identify as playing Satan to our many Fausts are each themselves someone else's supplicant. Todo becomes McGillis' cat's-paw. Nobliss is cowed by McMurdo's greater power, while McMurdo has to tread carefully around Gjallarhorn, as embodied in Rustal Elion. And Elion himself has to make his own deals. As he admits to Julieta, he is not some bastion of integrity but just another shady adult, doing what's necessary even when it conflicts with his stated principles.

At the end, Supreme Commander Elion, the one person we can confidently say came out of this whole business with his goals achieved, sits across from Kudelia Aina Bernstein, chairperson of a free Mars. The man who stood for a modified status quo, freed of disruptive influences, alongside the Maiden of Revolution, who has gotten a measure of what she sought despite everything he took from her.

Two pragmatists, making their compromises, for the sake of moving forward.

I don't mean to position Elion as 'just as much a victim' as the rest. He clearly isn't. What I'm seeking to highlight is a consistent thread whereby everyone has to make arrangements with forces that could destroy them. Which is a lesson worth taking with us to the real world. Compromise is often the death of good intentions, yes, but absent a socialist paradise dropping from the sky, the steps towards building a better world for the people living in it involves working around those who'd stand in the way. Bringing the beneficiaries of the system to the point where they have to make deals with you is a long, hard process involving a great many costs – including that of accepting it is going to be long, that things won't change at single stroke, and anyone promising such a speedy outcome probably can't or won't deliver the goods.

At the very least, I find something worth grappling with here, viewing the series through this lens. Iron-Blooded Orphans is uncompromising in its depiction of violence carrying horrific consequences. It places the callousness of the boardroom and the cabinet meeting on par with the casual brutality of a police baton or a pirate's gun. There is no 'good' fighting in this show and no untainted cause. Mythic heroes occupy a space defined by child-soldiers who know no reaction beyond 'kill the other guy first'. The result is a frank admission that it's rarely a question of if someone is going to sell their soul.

It's a matter of when, and to whom, and how far they can get before the price comes due.

Other reference posts include:

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 1)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 2)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (corrigendum) [mainly covering my inability to recognise mythical wolves]

IBO reference notes on … three key Yamagi scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Shino scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Eugene scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Ride scenes

IBO reference notes on … the tone of the setting

IBO reference notes on … character parallels and counterpoints

IBO reference notes on … a perfect villain

IBO reference notes on … Iron-Blooded Orphans: Gekko

IBO reference notes on … an act of unspeakable cruelty

IBO reference notes on … original(ish) characters [this one is mainly fanfic]

IBO reference notes on … Kudelia’s decisions

IBO reference notes on … assorted head-canons

IBO reference notes on … actual, proper original characters [explicit fanfic – as in, actually fanfic. None of them have turned up in the smut yet]

IBO reference notes on … the aesthetics of the mobile frame

IBO reference notes on … mobile suit designations

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 1)

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 2)

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 3)

IBO reference notes on … the Turbines, or ‘Tekkadan done right’

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (Addendum 1)

[aetherialpiplup108]

Park Jin and Conflicting Responsibilities

One of the many reasons I love Alchemy of Souls is because the characters and relationships are so intricately designed. Park Jin especially is a fascinating character because he's someone who genuinely tries to do the right thing but is misguided and wrapped up in the corrupt values plaguing a country where peace (read: protection of those in control) is prioritized above anyone and anything else.

Throughout the story, Jin’s character is defined by his responsibility to other people, whether they’re his close loved ones or the entire public living in Songrim and Daeho as a whole. In separation, Jin more than satisfies both groups. As Songrim’s leader, he’s willing to make any sacrifice, be it his own life, to protect those depending on him. Through his relationship with Kim Dojo, we see a softer side of him emerge and he completely disregards social class to openly love a woman the public would regard as “beneath his status". Park Jin also prioritizes his loved ones over his own reputation, demonstrated as he continually takes responsibility for the social nightmares Uk causes routinely, is willing to destroy his image by falsely confessing involvement in an affair (though this is beyond inconsiderate of Do-ha), and even risks Songrim’s honor when he urges Uk not to show up to his duel with the CP.

Clearly, as much as Park Jin values Songrim, he also cares deeply about his family. However, when he must choose between what his loved ones ask of him and his duty to Daeho, time after time we see Park Jin making tough decisions that he believes are necessary for the country. This isn’t inherently wrong. Park Jin’s decision to lock Kim Doju in Jinyowon was tragic, yes, but also a heart-wrenching, selfless act from both that saved many lives. This is leadership. To do what's needed even if it hurts you deeply. In fact, this acceptance of duty is literally Uk and Yeong's character arcs, culminating in their sacrifice of each other at the end to protect Daeho, closely paralleling Kim Dojo and Park Jin's earlier decision.  

However, we begin to see the issue in Park Jin’s almost blind devotion to his duty within his relationship to Uk.

While Jin loves Uk too much to view him as a monster not deserving to live, he can’t ignore the potential Uk has to destroy everything Jin has been conditioned to protect (Daeho’s social structure), and he probably does believe that Uk shouldn’t be alive. This is why Park Jin does everything in his power to obstruct Uk’s growth in hopes of somehow striking a balance where Uk is both safe (if not happy) and doesn’t come in the royal family's way. This mindset is an excellent foil against Uk’s perspective on Yeong, where he similarly recognizes the “monster” inside her, never really refuting Yul or Master Lee or anyone else when they point out how dangerous she is. Unlike Park Jin though, Uk puts his faith in what Yeong has shown him and who he knows her to be over what she could be or was, handing her a sword and trusting her to choose her path. In the end, it’s this—albeit, risky—confidence in her that saves everyone in Jeojingak as Yeong ultimately chooses him.

However, because Park Jin believes that protecting the royal family/unanimous assembly will prevent unnecessary conflict that could harm Daeho's public and is so wrapped up in doing anything to prevent a change to the country’s social structure, he immediately dismisses Uk as a threat without even considering that Uk doesn’t want the throne or political power or…anything, really, other than respect and acknowledgement. And later, justice for a woman who was nothing but controlled and manipulated by the gwanju her entire life long.

Similarly, even though Park Jin recognizes the unfairness of a society which protects murderers like Jin Mu and power-hungry royals and the actual worst piece of scum Jang Gang (boy do I have thoughts on him), he simply accepts it as the way of the world. He lets people tarnish Do-ha's name and protects Jang Gang's reputation until the very end because yeah, sure, dude inflicted unbearable pain on his own wife and friends and caused pretty much 80% of all problems in the series, but he was still the Gwanju, a figure that had to be respected. After Mu-deok dies, Park Jin can see that Uk is right, that it’s unfair Naksu is saddled with all the blame while Jin Mu and the royals lounge away in Cheonbugwan, that the public deserves more than living in fear of what those with authority can do, and he still protects the current hierarchy. Of course, Park Jin does feel some guilt at the torment he’s causing the kid he loves like a son. It's why he pushes Uk towards Bu-yeon hoping she'll act as a salve and, possibly, a distraction shielding the country's hypocrisy.

But while Park Jin might regret his words for their effect on Uk, he never believes himself to be in the wrong because, to be fair, it did bring an inevitable clash to a standstill, preventing a power struggle/vacuum that could have hurt numerous of Daeho’s innocent civilians because if Uk did destroy the Unanimous Assembly/Royal family that early—way before he comes to decent terms with Go Won whom he still blames in part for Yeong’s death—who exactly is going to lead the country? And how are they going to gain legitimacy without some sort of conflict?

But does that mean what Park Jin did was right? Is it okay to crush a few to protect the others or to redirect and hide blame to maintain peace? And is that peace worth having even if it's not true?

tl;dr: Park Jin's a very interesting character to take a look at because for the most part, I feel like his heart is in the right place but either his means are sketchy or he's just not willing to risk Daeho's stability. In general, I love how we see “good” characters or those aligned with the protagonist (Park Jin, Jin Ho-Gyeong, even Seo Yul to a minor extent) upholding Daeho's corrupt system despite how unfair it is due to the stability it offers and protection for the four mage families. This is definitely brought to light in Shaman Choi’s excellent speech where she highlights the blame on all their parts regarding the ice stone coming to light, but I do wish the societal problems were emphasized a bit more, even if I do think it was effective as a backdrop silently influencing every character's action.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

🎮 🎻 🚫 🍔 for my north american trio

🎮 VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER — what are three of your OC's favourite hobbies?

Mari - I've always had a very enlightenment-era baby intellectual bent to her. So, reading and participating in literary culture and criticism over time returned to Juana Inés de la Cruz. There's a mix of her old-school education and folk culture in her love and talent for art. She's got a real knack for beekeeping, too.

Alfred - Lives and dies by his love of math and engineering; he was getting twitchy with the lack of Calculus right before Isaac Newton got on that shit finally, so he became an eternal tinkerer. He loves a good drive and a sky-watching session.

Matt - Woodworking, gardening, hiking.

🎻 VIOLIN — does your oc play any instruments? What is their skill level (beginner/intermediate/advanced/virtuoso/etc)?

In childhood, Maria played the vihuela and baroque guitar and later picked up the bajo de uña and the resulting base guitar. I don't know why I associate her with a drumset, but I like that mental image for some reason, too. She's excellent on all of them.

Alfred is one of those types who skipped from hobby to hobby to hobby as a child and has picked up practically every instrument at some point or another. He played the fucking church organ sometimes, especially when he was feeling weird about religion.

Matt - He's pretty goddamn good on a fiddle, and he can hold a tune, but most of his music is meant for some type of work and the folk scenes are pretty disparate so it's kind of hard to nail down a specifically Canadian musical instrument that hasn't been by and large surpassed by the US.

🚫 PROHIBITED — does your oc drink/smoke? Do they do it regularly, or is it more on occasion or for special events?

Mari - She does mostly beer with some harder alcohol, I think. Not very high consumption; she strikes me as more of a social drinker on special occasions. She can party, but I think she has some pretty hard limits on anything more than the very mainstream.

Alfred - He flies between teetotaller and binge drinker, like that with most things. He can go years with just drinking, but my man likes his stimulants, alas. But the very functional kind. He can

Matt - He would rather not be sober in general.

🍔 HAMBURGER — is your oc good at cooking? are they good at baking? Which one do they prefer?

Mari is pretty good at both but doesn't do it as much as people might think. She's been a very urbanized society for a very long time and various kinds of communal cooking. She knows the best places for Pescado a la talla or who makes the best tlacoyos in the tianguis nearest her primary home but all over the place. I don't know if she'd prefer one or the other. A thought I had is that some of her best cooking exploits are for herself. She participates in a communal culture where cooking and baking are the realm of women in many ways, so being alone in the kitchen and experimenting with her own arroz con leche or barbacoa varieties is an almost self-care ritual she holds.

Alfred - Def more of a cook than a baker. He can bake when he wants to; it's just following the steps of a recipe, but he could be more motivated by domestic things for their own sake. He will cook and bake when people are over, and people are often surprised at the quality of what makes it onto the table. He can eat seven-layer salad and jello monstrosities at a Southern or Midwest table or pull out a Napa Valley salad and wine pairing much to the ire of the old world. Food is one of the few things his hyper-individualism has yet to completely destroy.

Matt - Surprisingly good baker and cook, but not really anything anyone would write home about. Except maybe bread, he bakes a lot of bread and has had a freakishly high consumption of it since the 18th century, so archeologists can tell the bones from the New Englanders who ate a lot more corn. Not exactly internationally renowned for anything except poutine and weed scones, though, rest in pieces. If you've ever eaten anything you thought was pretty good at the time but will never ever think about again, that's Matt in the kitchen, except when he busts out the rye bread but even then no one will really believe he made it.

Character Details Ask Game

[chronurgy]

Okay since it looks like we're really actually genuinely going to (probably) get a new dragon age game soon, here's some (specifically story) stuff I'm hoping to see:

Kal Sharok - either a companion from there or a chance to go there, please please please I HAVE to learn what their deal is

Anderfels companion, especially a warden one - I'd love to get into messy warden politics in the country they rule but don't technically rule

Minrathous - I've needed this city injected into my veins ever since I saw that neon lit, floating building concept art and learned they host laser light shows there it looks sick as hell and I can't wait to see them contrast the barbaric south with the enlightened north and the horrible bloodshed that sustains it 🖤

Par vollen or any sort of permanent qunari settlement - more information about everyday life under the qun please! It's obviously hard to do that when the qunari don't make alliances as a rule and also they're actively at war with the imperium and the rest of thedas, but still

A religious schism within the qun - the qun is all about things following their proper nature, but who decides what the proper nature of things is? People, of course! And people will always disagree. It'd be interesting to meet an offshoot who claim that they're the ones following the "true" qun and it's actually the rest of qunari society that has failed to follow the correct path (I know this will never happen, no one else in the world would actually want to play religious schism simulator 4)

A foreign born mage who came to tevinter to avoid or escape the circle could be fascinating - I think there's a lot of conflict embedded in that character that could be used to great effect. What's their social class in tevinter? How do they justify the things they see? Do they even try?

Sick fucked up red lyrium magic - lyrium potions restore mana, what do red lyrium potions do? Hopefully let you do horrible and fucked up magic. Red lyrium was so cool in da2 and I'd be ecstatic if they'd return to those roots for it

Antiva - a plutocracy with a haunted marsh? Sign me the fuck up

The half destroyed ruins of a city decimated during a past blight - make the blight scary! Remind us of all that has been lost, and let us see some of that history firsthand

Just ANY followup on the lore from the descent dlc - can we get more about the titans please???

A diversity of opinions on Solas and his plan among the dalish - please let them be people with conflicting beliefs and desires and not just one monolithic group I'm begging

Related to the point above - a dalish companion would be excellent, especially if they could help bring that insight to the party

I wanted to get this out before we see the trailer and gameplay so I'm definitely forgetting some stuff. This is also just my personal list of things I'd like to see. I'll probably do another one focusing on more gameplay and mechanical things.

[anamelessfool]

Papa Camino for the OC ask 6, 33, 36! Thank you

Oh wow yayy yes thanks for thinking of Papa Camino! Satanic Archbishop of New York City and Nihil's mentor! Wartime Papa Emeritus! It was fun researching band leaders and the origins of rock music thanks to him. I listened to a lot of tunes from the 1930s and 40s. I just love researching history in general.

Papa Emeritus Camino (1907-1984, Papa 1941-1954)

Notable Ghouls: Group 1 Dewdrop, Phantom; Group 2 Cumulus

6. OC's relationship with Parents

Throughout his whole life he had a strong bond to his family. His father and his two uncles owned a nightclub called Los Trillizos and the entire extended family worked there to some extent. He was taught to be an entertainer from a very young age. Unfortuately one of the uncles got involved in the mob and in 1934 the brothers were murdered, the club destroyed. Camino almost did not recover from the dark self-destructive spiral that ensued. Luckily the Church was a refuge for him.

He has always kept in touch with the rest of his family, writing or calling them once a week for decades, sending gifts to his nieces and nephews.

33. Other's perception of him/His own Perception of himself

Camino has the seemingly unearthly power of remembering the name of every person he's ever met. Siblings under his care consider him an artistic collaborator. He doesn't care what they make or do as long as they put their whole heart into it. Sometimes he's pushy towards siblings who drag their feet, or he puts them in positions outside their comfort zone. But he's always thinking three or four steps ahead. He sees the potential in most everybody, long before they see it in themselves.

Camino was Papa in a blatantly (and legally) segregated society. He had an approved "passing" appearance and a socially approved job in entertainment which gave him a bit more flexibility but he still had to suffer racism and indignity along the way. The ghouls backed him up in the case of any trouble but he had always quietly seethed about the logistics of his reign. When he was appointed Archibishop of the largest location of the Church of the Void he made a point to run the place as a completely open community space-- a raucous 24/7 hopping nightclub space but still a space for everyone.

36. Perfect night out

Camino is all about luxury, but to him luxury is excellence. He finds luxury in the most exclusive nightclubs or expensive steakhouses but also in a great home cooked meal made by one of his sisters. He'd go to a symphony orchestra at Carnegie Hall but then he'd also have a hot dog from the vendor on a street corner, or go to the movies. And he will talk the ear off of anyone, asking them questions about their techniques or their process, chatting and commenting for a solid hour after he's experienced some good art.

Associated fics

With Young Nihil "The Path"

Dewdrop & Phantom/Aeon Ghouls & Camino 1945 "Bestiary"

He will be briefly mentioned in Violence and Gentleness

OC Character Ask Link Here. I'm answering questions about Cardinal Marian, Edelweiss Ghoul, Papa Camino and Mater Jocasta. Still stunned by people's enthusiasm for my characters, thank you...

[dailycharacteroption]

Races Among the Stars 7: Kitsune

And so we come to the end of this special with another species drawn from Golarion and also from real-world folklore. I present the kitsune.

Now, we already know plenty about kitsune thanks to Pathfinder and their presence in that system and setting. We know that generally the kitsune are a good-natured, if reclusive people whose presence has fueled stories of them being otherworldly yokai, about how they have long served as guardians of sacred wild places, but also as masters of trickery and mischief, to say nothing of their mastering of their own natural magics.

Indeed, the kitsune in folklore are tricksters to some, magical guides to others in the same way that kami and yokai are two sides of the same coin in Japanese culture, something I go into a bit further detail in my entry about kitsune in the Pathfinder system.

However… Because kitsune were introduced to Starfinder by way of the Alien Character Deck, we basically know nothing about how the kitsune are in the post-Golarion galaxy. Do they still revere nature and the kami? Are they still tricksters? How does their culture steeped in history and tradition mesh with not just a focus on technology and innovation, but also one where vast stores of knowledge have been damaged or destroyed?

The truth is we may never have those answers, since Starfinder is getting a new edition, one which will make the vast array of playable species harder to put out there given how PF2-style ancestries involve a lot more abilities you pick and choose as you level.

But I’m not here to complain, I’m here to expound, and we can probably infer a few things despite the lack of information. With how integral spirits are to kitsune culture, I severely doubt that the kitsune would have given that up post-Gap. Indeed, since kami are seen often in the parks, menageries, and other cultivated natural preserves on Absalom Station and other large space stations, I can imagine that the kitsune hold a close bond with those spaces even if they do not always live in them. In fact, that love of nature might mean that many kitsune are Xenowardens, or at least share values with them. Much like their past kin though, they have a knack for infiltrating and living alongside other humanoids, though others may join such communities openly. Like all species, it all comes down to personal choice.

 The kitsune in their true form resemble humanoid foxes, with pointed ears, thick fur in a variety of colors, and so on. Some more magically-inclined kitsune might grow more tails are a reflection of their mastery over their internal magics as well.

 Again, we can’t really know for sure what kitsune society is like without any sort of update, but we can infer they likely retain their matriarchal societal structure, and have a knack for integrating with other societies and perhaps incorporating elements of other societies into their own. The idea of kitsune social media influencers and idols in particular holds weight with me for whatever reason.

 Kitsune display natural grace and charm, but they are somewhat less inclined towards musculature.

They make up for this with a knack for agility and athleticism.

The fox folk also typically have a single humanoid form they can take on to disguise themselves, potentially living among them or simply using it as a cover.

They also sport innate magic which is tied to their tail or tails, though at it’s most base level it allows them to create floating lights and perform minor utility functions.

Their eyes are also quite keen, adjusted for low-light.

 Dexterity and Charisma is a good combination if you’re looking to create an envoy or operative character, roles that kitsune excel at. Ranged or finesse solarian is also a good choice as well. Consider also that both precog and witchwarper are natural fits here, and certainly can be flavored with the aesthetic of the kitsune mystic. Their reduced strength does mean that melee combat builds suffer slightly, making most soliders, vanguards, evolutionists, and so on ranged, but not without exception. Their lack of penalties also makes them decent biohackers, mechanics, technomancers, and mystics as well. Indeed, while they may not be the first pick for the front line, the kitsune can excel pretty much anywhere, even if they are sorely in need of expansion.

That does it for this week and this special, but I hope you enjoyed it, and if anyone else is attending GenCon in Indianapolis, I hope you’re having a good time, and perhaps I’ll see you around!

[thatonebirdwrites]

All the art and maps on my Elivera WorldAnvil I drew myself. This is where I dump my lore for my original fiction. I have about half my notes dumped in this wiki. It's a slow process since my notes are scattered in a dozen notebooks around my home. lol

I wanted to share some of my thoughts on how and why I built Elivera the way I did.

Excerpt from my Introduction to my Elivera world:

Housekeeping

  This world was created to explore a solarpunk future that centers accessibility, justice, diversity, abolition, sustainability, and inclusion. I will not be allowing any fascist or capitalist societies in this world.

Introduction

    For a definition of it, I highly recommend Andrewism's What is Solarpunk? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHI61GHNGJM  

Every since I was a kid in high school, I created worlds that were full of life, diversity, community-based living, and communal activities. As I attended college and attempted to work (often losing my job, falling too ill and couldn't work, or hating the job enough to quit), I developed these ideas by reading as many books as I could get my hands upon about community, Leftist thought, antiracism, decolonial thought, and similar topics.  

This is how Elivera became a solarpunk world. I'm going to dig into how I understanding solarpunk, as that shapes why I crafted Elivera the way it currently is.  

Why Capitalism is Bad and Banned from Elivera

  I carefully calculated the necessary parameters to make Elivera a retinal world. Retinal is used for photosynthesis, which makes most plants an indigo or violet color. I wanted to make it visibly different from Earth. Another way I made it visibly different is it is slightly smaller with a slightly smaller gravity, thus allowing massive trees to grow to a kilometer high. So cities are built in massive trees and other ecosystems, where the goal is to build with nature.

This is integral to my approach to solarpunk ideology. We must view nature not as a static place, but as an ever-evolving dynamic process that has every right to exist alongside us.  

Capitalism doesn't view nature as a living and dynamic process. It only views nature as static resources to exploit. When our actions despoil or harm the ecosystems, thus degrading or destroying them, we harm ourselves and our ability to have a future. Capitalism doesn't care about the future. It cares only for short-term profits, and to further grow profits in an unsustainable, endless growth model that devours everything in its path.  

When I was a kid, I watched Fern Gulley and was traumatized for life; it taught me a lot about environmental justice actually. The oil creature monster in that movie devoured all in its path and was an excellent metaphor for what capitalism is.  

This is one of the many reasons I reject capitalism and refuse to include it in my stories. Another reason is capitalism promotes unhealthy competition, individualistic selfishness, and greed.   

When I say unhealthy competition, this isn't to say all competition is bad; no, some competition can be in good sport or help motivate people to innovate or create more art. Competition becomes unhealthy when it's goal is to destroy its competition, to exploit others in its attempt to win or gain more than one's fair share, and/or to destroy/exploit nature until ecosystems are destroyed or harmed beyond repair.  

What do I mean by individualistic selfishness? It is a term for isolation that capitalism does to us. Capitalism tears down solidarity and human being's tendency toward community, collective care, and mutual aid. Capitalism must do this because mutual aid and collective care will tear up its roots and capitalism will collapse. Thus, Capitalism socializes us into this individualistic approach to life: the me-first-everyone-else-last attitude.   

Capitalist Individualism falsely claims the idea that we are all "self-made;" that we never needed, do not need, nor should need help from anyone; that we should all "pull ourselves up by our bootstraps;" and that collective care and community is bad. This gaslighting tries to claim that this is how humanity is - greedy and selfish; when in reality, humanity has never been purely that.

Humanity has only been able to persist because of collective care, mutual aid, and community building. Individualistic selfishness shatters these bonds of solidarity between us. It alienates us and keeps us within strict silos so we can be better exploited and used as labor for the capitalist devouring engines.  

My Solarpunk Manifesto

Solarpunk is a radical hope-infused aesthetic and political ideology centered on building an equitable, sustainable, just, and accessible world where no one is left behind, where we build with nature, where we destroy all forms of exploitation and oppression, where we celebrate the wonderful diversity of humanity and nature, where we live within our planet's optimal boundaries for habitability and survival.

 Solarpunk rejects unhealthy growth. Instead, it embraces harmony with one's environment, degrowth and decolonial concepts that are rooted in unlearning our unhealthy and harmful socializations from past violent regimes. Where we instead build with nature in a collaborative way.

Solarpunk embraces the Pluriverse, where there is no one way for all of society and people to live/exist, but there is a multiplicity in lifestyles, ways of being, and ways of constructing society. Finding the healthiest, care-centric, equitable, just, and accessible way of being in society requires collaboration and exploration by those within that community, and often is unique to that community.  

Solarpunk rejects binary models. Humanity and the natural world exists in multiplicity. There are multiple genders, multiple sexual orientations, multiple ways bodies can appear, and multiple abilities, which all have validity.

Solarpunk embraces accessibility and inclusivity as the foundation in which to build society and relations with one another, where events and places are easily accessible to people of all abilities, gender, race, ethnicity, orientation, and age.

Solarpunk rejects capitalist-individualism. Instead, it embraces collective care and solidarity between fellow human beings and non-human beings and ecosystems, where our unique individuality is celebrated for its diversity and our contributions to our community accepted at the level in which people are able to give.

Solarpunk recognizes the dynamic and ever-evolving process that is nature as well as its right to exist alongside human being's right to exist. We are in community, and that relationship with nature and one another requires collective care and solidarity.  

Solarpunk rejects unhealthy competition and embraces instead collaboration and conflict resolution. To build a community requires collaboration and just conflict resolution strategies.  

Solarpunk rejects greed and hoarding of resources that is endemic to capitalism. Instead, solarpunk embraces sharing and collectively/publicly held goods, land, information, and resources. This isn't to say solarpunk is against us personally owning things, but to say that:

the land itself cannot be owned as property as it holds personhood within our collective Earth community,

the public commons are crucial to survival,

information should be open and free to access and use,

Internet infrastructure should be open and accessible for all to use and held collectively by the people

library systems are critical for the community and provide books, tech equipment, skill swaps, and other necessary items and skills for all to use,

healthcare free and accessible to all,

education free and accessible to all, where a diverse methodology of problem-solving and encouragement of discovery and reading is emphasized,

the goods/resources needed for survival must be shared equitably so no one is left behind and everyone is provided for,

all our infrastructure is collectively held and maintained,

all of our society -- every aspect of our community -- is accessible to all who dwell in it.  

Solarpunk rejects exploitation of others and one's environment. Instead, it embraces collective care and mutual aid, where we honor and respect one another's differences, identities, abilities, and actively listen and care for each other. Where we seek to do no harm and if harm is done, actively hold one another accountable and do repair. Transformative justice is often the framework used in repair. Where we work in collaboration with one another and the ecosystems in which we dwell. That we sustainably source our materials and engage in repair to ecosystems, to give them time to recover for any extraction we do to meet our collective needs. To never take more than we need and to use all that we need to avoid waste. To create things made to last, where we can repair and mend what we have and share those skills within inclusive and accessible systems, like libraries of skills, goods, books, etc.  

Solarpunk rejects racism, rejects white supremacy, rejects ableism, rejects classism, rejects xenophobia, rejects homophobia/transphobia, rejects bigotry that treats a group of people as less-than.

Solarpunk embraces liberation from oppression, equality and equity, where no one is left behind, where non-hierarchical, horizontal democratic practices are utilized.  

Solarpunk rejects borders. Borders are often used to punish migrants and asylum seekers and has been a source of violence against other groups of people that is rooted in supremacy, domination, and xenophobia. Thus, solarpunk rejects it. Instead, solarpunk embraces either open borders or no borders at all. Migrants are welcomed and needs provided for just like any person dwelling in that community.  

This isn't an exhaustive list, but this is how I understand solarpunk. It is how I write my Elivera world, and it is the values that inform it.

Below is a painting I did of a mountainous region that was heavy with lava flows:

[aventurasdeunatortuga]

Monday, July 8th

I’m way behind on posting so I will attempt to catch up today.

Monday and Tuesday there was a literal monsoon in Korea so most outdoor activities were a no go. Luckily Korea has an excellent public transportation system that requires minimal walking on the sidewalk, but lots of time underground in the metro. The ceiling or ac unit or something was leaking on the subway so even inside the train I couldn’t escape the rain. I spent these two days visiting museums as part of my quest to learn more about Korean history.

The first museum I visited on Monday was the National Museum of Korean. It is considered the top museum in Korea, and was enormous. It went through the entire history of Korea pre 20th century, starting with the Three Kingdoms (Baek, Silla, and Goruyeo) who competed with each other for centuries until the Goruyeo kingdom took charge. This evolved into the Joseon Dynasty that lasted from the middle ages until the end of the 19th century. This is considered a golden era in Korean history, with an over 200 year era of peace. Korea interacted a lot with Japan and China but fought fiercely to maintain their independence from these two competing powers as well as Russia. They resisted any western influence and were known as the “hermit kingdom” by the west for their refusal to engage. There was huge flourishing of arts and culture and the hanguel alphabet was developed by King Sejong the Great in the 1440s, who wanted to create a Korean alphabet that was intuitive and easy to learn, previously they had been using Chinese characters to write which are very difficult to learn to read and write. He based the alphabet off of the literal positions of the tongue in your mouth when specific sounds are produced. The linguistic nerd in me found that very cool.

In the 1880s due to military pressure from western powers they begrudgingly opened up diplomatic relations with the west, which resulted in a huge influx of foreign influences. Joseon was very strictly divided based on social class, wealth, Confucian social hierarchy, and status, and there was an enormous gap between the rich and poor. Western powers came in with egalitarian ideas of democracy and equality, which were very appealing to people of the lower classes that had been oppressed by the wealthy for so long. There was a big internal conflict between the wealthy who wanted to maintain tradition and protect Korean culture and the poor who wanted social advancement and rights, were interested in the advancements the west had to offer, and demanded social revolution.

Korea was put in a difficult situation with a lot of pressure from surrounding countries. The King of Joseon, King Gojong, declared that he would make a new government called the Korean Empire, in 1895, in order to assert their independence to competing world powers.

The Japanese, Russians, and Americans took advantage of the social unrest in Korea and slowly began encroaching on Korean society. For example, the Japanese eagerly began building railroads throughout Korea, which people were excited about but resulted in the Japanese slowly getting more and more control over the Korean economy and infrastructure.

In 1904, Russia and Japan fought a war to assert dominance over Manchuria and Korea. Both countries wanted to invade these areas. Japan won in 1905, and that is when the Japanese Invasion of Korea began.

This is where the museum ended, tomorrow I’m visiting Korea’s Independence Hall which goes into what happened next.

The museum was really cool. They had a lot of artifacts but they emphasized again and again that most of the historical artifacts pre Japanese invasion had been destroyed by the Japanese, and the only way these artifacts survived was through ordinary people hiding them and protecting them for decades.

The museum also had a cool virtual reality room where they took ancient Joseon art and made it into an immersive experience which was really cool. One of them recreated a painting of a rainstorm, can’t escape the rain even in the virtual reality experience.

Afterwards I went to Dongdaemun Design Plaza, which is a really cool looking modern building that had a lot of modern art exhibitions. I don’t really get modern art, but the building was really cool. I went to a Hello Kitty exhibit that was going on.

For dinner I had pajeon, potato pancake, it is tradition to eat pajeon in Korea when it rains because when it’s cooking it sounds like rain.

Until tomorrow,

[none-shall-caricature-me]

Shigurui (Death Frenzy) by Takayuki Yamaguchi - Analysis, Ending Explanation and Review

So I found Shigurui recommended on a blog and finished reading it.

PROS : The fight scenes were very good and strategic, and I appreciate the no - holds - barred, brutally honest approach to the living conditions, politics, exploitation and violence that happened in past times (and still does tbh). The ending is a very very good climax of the story's central themes. I also liked that the characters and their actions were mostly very realistic.

CONS : In between the aforementioned excellent scenes are many. many boring diversions to other, insignificant characters, pointless flavour dramatics and details. I'm talking a 60 - 40 or 65 - 35 ratio of slop to brilliance. The plot swings between meh and AWESOME, with no in between.

Overall, whether I would suggest this manga to you depends on your willingness to skim a big big bunch of slow - ass moments for a lesser percentage of great ones (and there are a total of 84 chapters). It's the kind of story that doesn't begin to truly shine until you reach the end, imo. I personally finished it because the anticipation buildup worked on a bored sucker like me. It was the final chapters that gripped me to write the following analysis. HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD.

Speaking of the ending and of Seigen, Fujiki explicitly says in that final arc that Seigen 'was pride itself' and 'was disgusted at being ordered to kill'. Throughout the story we're shown multiple instances of people at all positions in the samurai / feudal hierarchy resolving to humiliate and harm others, or putting themselves in great peril / abjection, because they are ordered to by a superior they respect or fear. The Kogan school does many cruel things like the 'beautification', inventing murder culprits and enacting career - destroying punishment on Seigen, all to maintain their supremacy. Fujiki apathetically slices off the fingers of one who asked for a friendly duel, only because he guilelessly stated the fact of Seigen's victory over Iwamoto Kogan. Of course, these things were sanctioned by the moral code of that time, but then our faithful samurai are often on their receiving end - the futawa to prove absolute obedience, loyalty to your senile master even when he slices your gums open, gratitute to Kogan who gave them the chance to become samurai and rise in society even though it involved incredibly dangerous training. I don't entirely fault the Kogan disciples for this attachment though, seeing as they were struggling in life before their sensei took them in.

On the other hand is Seigen, who embodies individualism and self - determination. He doesn't subscribe to dehumanising merit, fealty before mercy or lauded servitude over concrete personal gain and independence. He wants to be his own master. He's not self - sacrificing, he does kill or endanger lives when he thinks it advantageous to his plans - see him killing his acupressure teacher who disapproved of martial kosshi jutsu, his former martial arts instructor, and - if I'm not wrong - his mother, to either end her misery and his heartbreak over it, avoid shame by association, or as a symbolic sloughing of his burden. He also tries out risky sword techniques on and involves Iku in his revenge plans. It's possible that he was the one who tied Fujiki's armour too tight so he could then rescue and one - up him. But he does this all to rise to a life of security, pleasure and respect from his horrible condition as a prostitute's child. He doesn't play by the feudal system's extortionary and unnatural ideal of bushido and lord - worship. He uses the system to his own ends or rejects it. At the same time, he has a rather humane side - rages at his mother's deprivation, empathises with and looks after a scorned beggar, refuses to allow the Todouza member to demean himself while exalting him, asserts the innate equality of humans across social classes, feels camaraderie with his fellow disciples assuming they shared his views. He does care for Iku, too, and can at the very least recognise Mie's agony at being imperiously pinned down to mate for the sake of the clan.

In the final battle, Fujiki does not waver while rending Seigen's body in two. He reminisces about his past with him, but his thirst for vengeance does not falter. It is only when he is ordered to rip off the head of this rival that he quakes. Like he says, Seigen was pride personified, someone who hated being a tool of others. Fujiki despised Seigen but also genuinely admired him as a swordsman and a paragon of unfettered insight, selfhood and freedom. He also knew that until that point Seigen had the favour of even the Shogun's brother. To see how quickly the aristocrats changed their tune upon his defeat, calling him a presumptuous blind man unfit for the sacred battle grounds, and urging this disrespect to his corpse as both a Samurai rite and a test of deference, breaks Fujiki's worldview. He does it anyway after hesitating a while, probably to restore the Kogan clan's standing in the Shogunate.

He is shell - shocked and looks to Mie for comfort but she has already killed herself. Why ? Because earlier, Mie had latched onto Seigen for being the only one to stand up for her personhood against his lord's orders. She considered him one of the few who were humans and not puppets. After Seigen's 'betrayal' of the clan, she looks to Fujiki as another dude who commits to retribution and restoration against all odds - seemingly a person with agency. But when she sees him, her source of optimism, becoming the ultimate quiescent pawn in desecrating Seigen, she loses all hope in a dignified, self - sovereign life in this cruel society of puppets and puppeteers. To renew the clan would require such acts routinely conducted in unfeeling thraldom and self - preservation. Mie, someone who yearned to break free of such dog - like conduct, could never stomach this.

Some other interesting things I noticed - one, if I'm not misremembering, then Seigen's revenge killings of the Kogan disciples only gave Mie joy for his revival. On the night Seigen was to arrive in person, logically to kill his final wrongdoer, Mie was euphoric. She never expected that he'd kill her dad. Does that mean she believed Fujiki to be the target, and was totally fine with it ? That makes sense considering she likely scorned him for remaining Kogan's lackey even during her coercion and Seigen's despair. Which means that her later acceptance of him was either forgiveness due to his earnestness or pragmatism in order to avenge her father.

But I'm still confused at why Seigen left a cure for Fujiki's coma. It was such a huge risk to his career and his life and he ultimately paid for it.

It's also noteworthy that the instant before Seigen's death has a dream - like vision of him almost embracing Fujiki. That's not at all out of the blue lol, these two could've been friends and at points wished to understand the other but they took opposing paths and were limited by their own biases. Seigen never came to know that Fujiki fawned over violent Kogan not purely due to calculating or dumb complaisance, but due to a family - like bond. Fujiki never considered Seigen's perspective or his pain until the end.

[i-did-not-mean-to]

Crime of passion

So, to finish February...The pseudo-crime-story :D

Words: 2.3 k

Characters: Angbang (Melkor x Mairon)

Prompt: Meeting the family

The first thing Mairon noticed about Melkor was how cleverly he was cheating at cards.

No, that was a cowardly lie; the first thing he had ever noticed was how frighteningly and unconventionally handsome that man was, and it was only after being thoroughly mesmerised by his breath-taking deportment that Mairon–unable to detach his curious, intelligent gaze from the other patron–had caught on to the sleight-of-hand and the affable smile accompanying it.

In his trade, he had, of course, met his fair share of thieves and robbers of all classes and thus he was not overly fazed by the fact that even amongst the most notable peers of the realm one inevitably stumbled upon a few rotten apples.

Indeed, had Lord Melkor–renowned and fabled even in these halls of hushed excellence—been but a common crook, Mairon would have been able to deplore his unlucky taste in potential partners in silence and drown his temporary sorrow in a glass of first-class scotch.

Unfortunately for that discreet P.I., Melkor seemed to swindle his companions for the thrill of it rather than for any gain as he generously paid his plundered comrades’ drinks with as much glee and enthusiasm as he exhibited while defrauding them.

“I have noticed your particular and pointed interest in my dealings tonight,” a low, rumbling voice resounded behind Mairon’s armchair just as he was about to open a letter he had received earlier that day and which he had stowed away in his waistcoat pocket for later perusal. “May I ask if I can be of any assistance?”

Mairon’s bright, shrewd eyes flew up but his hands did not still on the paper he was in the process of meticulously tearing open.

“I should not think so,” he gave back in his sharp, impatient tone; no matter how fascinated he had been with the stately and yet lithe demeanour of the other man, he would not be goaded into a dangerous fling with one of the most powerful men in the land.

“Let me buy you another drink,” Melkor drawled, already waving an indolent but authoritative hand at a passing waiter. “I have seen you here before, but I’ve never had the pleasure of making your acquaintance.”

“Being part of the same gentlemen’s club does not necessarily mean that one frequents the same social circles,” Mairon replied not without a hint of bitterness; he had been born for great things, he was sure of it, but hitherto, he had clawed himself up the steep, slippery ladder of society by the skin of his teeth.

“So you know who I am, good,” Melkor grinned, grabbing the letter in Mairon’s hand quickly and inspecting it. “A private investigator? How charming…and tempting. Tell me, good man, do you enjoy a proper mystery?”

Cocking one eyebrow, Mairon waited in dignified silence while his senses and his impossibly quick mind took stock of the gentleman sitting in the armchair facing him.

Melkor was a tall man of an undeterminable age with long, dark hair and bright, sparkling eyes that almost seemed violet in the dim light of the fireplace in the corner of the room; far from being insipidly “pretty”, he possessed a wild, intimidating, rough beauty that commanded respect and inspired awe, and–judging by the cocky, lopsided smile he flashed Mairon now–he was more than aware of that.

“Why don’t you come up to the House this weekend?” Melkor purred under his breath, leaning closer and batting his lashes at Mairon invitingly. “There is always a mystery or two to solve there. Something is lost. Something is stolen. Something is destroyed. It bores me to death, but–if you were to come and play–it might even be fun.”

Long training and an almost feline disposition for calm observation helped Mairon in keeping his face expressionless with the exception of a tiny twitch of the corners of his mouth.

“Indeed,” he then muttered and, retrieving his letter, returned the missive to his pocket unopened. “I am most intrigued. Are you inviting me to solve a crime you are sure will happen? Are you the perpetrator then?”

“Sometimes,” Melkor admitted good-humouredly, “even though I will say that the others do not need my aid to make a proper mess of things. You’ll see. Do come up and enliven the mausoleum of my father’s fossilised dreams, yes?”

When he extended his hand to Mairon, a sleek, black card had materialised between his strong, broad fingers.

“I’ll think about it,” Mairon conceded and tucked the card away alongside his letter without so much as looking at it once.

“I can’t wait to see you there,” Melkor smirked, radiating with confidence and good cheer. “So long, old chap, so long.”

Having risen through the ranks at a dizzying speed, Mairon felt just a shiver of apprehension travel down his spine as he stood at the foot of the broad marble steps leading up to the main entrance of the sprawling estate he had been invited to.

Even now as he made his way to the heavy door and closed his long, sensitive fingers around the ponderous brass knocker, he was not entirely sure why he had come. Usually, he was not one for social games; he preferred to be regarded–and feared–for his ruthless competence and his uncanny ability to wrestle even the most chaotic of facts into a neat arrangement that revealed the hidden meaning of the whole picture.

Failing to restore order, Mairon had been known to threaten, bully, and manipulate people into betraying themselves in their flustered state of nervous upheaval; he was not a saint, but he was exceptionally good at his job which made his superiors turn a blind eye to his less orthodox habits and techniques.

“Ah,” Melkor gently pushed the pale young woman opening the door out of the way and took Mairon by the elbow to steer him into the bowels of the house. “I am delighted that you have come. Meet the dramatis personae!”

With a flourish, he threw open the heavy double doors at the end of a long corridor containing some of the most exquisite paintings Mairon had ever seen.

“What is it now?” A woman stepped forward but stopped, one hand pressed to her chest as if to clutch her very heart, as she saw Mairon. “Melkor! What is the meaning of this?”

With the singsong voice of a circus ringmaster, Melkor started to introduce everyone within the room as well as a few persons clearly visible through the large French windows in rapid succession.

Thankfully, Mairon had no trouble memorising names and faces and so, he let his polite mask slip and focused solely on filing away the information Melkor so zealously heaped upon him; his eyes were bright and cold over a grimly set mouth as he greedily absorbed his surroundings.

Something about the house or its mood made him think of Melkor’s prediction; at that very moment, as he stood in the middle of a large sitting room, Mairon was intimately convinced that his host would be proven right before long. The air was brimming with just the right kind of tension to breed festering resentment, explosive passion, and–of course–crime.

“Welcome, make yourself at home,” a tall, well-built man with hair as startlingly pale as Melkor’s was dark said in a slightly despondent tone; Manwë, Mairon remembered instantly, the brother and co-heir of his charming host who, meanwhile, was leaning against the wall in a corner like a sleek, lethal, black panther.

“A drink?” His wife–of course, a man like Manwë would have a wife who looked as if someone had cut her out of a magazine–said in a tone that was nowhere near interrogative. She was tall and slender with a frightening intensity in both the rigidity of her gaze and the severe set of her generous mouth.

A dangerous vixen, Mairon decided within a single heartbeat, and steeled himself in anticipation.

“A whiskey, neat,” he then replied suavely, his own blazing eyes locked onto her cold beauty with something midway between admiration and disgust; the smile she gave him as she floated over to the small wooden counter was perfunctory and as cutting as a shard of ice.

“Have a seat, my man,” Manwë invited and waved a vague hand towards the sofas strewn around haphazardly in an otherwise perfectly laid out room.

“No doubt our guest wants to freshen up before dinner,” Melkor interjected so suddenly that everyone turned to him. “I’ll see him to his room.”

The barely held-back energy in his movements and the undeniable authority in his voice brooked no resistance and so, Mairon was ushered out as soon as he had accepted the glass the lady of the house extended with perfect politeness and very little amiability.

As they passed into the corridor, Melkor had the audacity to wink at him as if they were sharing an exquisite joke. “What do you think of our little ménage? Just wait until you meet the Big Man; everything becomes clearer after you make the acquaintance of my esteemed pater.”

Mairon swirled the golden liquid in the thick-walled glass slowly as he recalled all the people he had met to the forefront of his mind as one summoned the actors of a play to the centre of a stage; it was an interesting group, even he couldn’t deny that, and he in fact had to admit that he was almost looking forward to the evening meal.

“I’ll come to pick you up later?” Melkor purred, leaning against the doorframe and interrupting Mairon’s distracted musings by the sheer presence of his massive body filling the space between them. “I wouldn’t want you to get lost in these long, dark hallways.”

“That would be ever so appreciated, thank you,” Mairon replied politely and–struggling against the insane impulse to invite, for reasons he could not yet fathom, that sharply smiling quasi-stranger into the room allotted to him–he resolutely shut the door.

Melkor, he enumerated in his head as soon as he was alone, brother to Manwë who–according to the former–was a dunce and a dangerous disgrace. Manwë was married to Varda–cold, distant, and mesmerising as the night sky bespangled with diamonds–and that matrimonial bond gave him an edge over his bachelor brother for Varda was an accomplished hostess and a paragon of propriety and thus held considerable sway in the community.

The young woman who had first let Mairon in had been Nienna. She and her two brothers were counted amongst the oddities of the manor and–if Melkor was to be believed–his father had built them a gloomy lodge within the sprawling park where her brothers resided with their respective spouses.

Mairon could only surmise that they fulfilled some function and were deemed useful or beneficial to the family in a less self-evident way because, otherwise, it would hardly have been sensible to sustain two couples and a maiden out of pure philanthropy.

Somehow, Mairon doubted that either one of the men of this house would easily be seduced into doing anything for less than perfectly valid, rational, and self-serving reasons; he could respect that for he valued a sound mind over a bleeding heart.

The sweet, effaced Nienna was a spinster though and as such, she was apparently considered the gentle minder and caretaker of all the needs of the other inhabitants of the household.

Hovering around the core group like a benevolent ghost, she probably lived within the manor itself to make sure that she’d always be at the beck and call of whatever whimsy or mood befell the young lords or their prestigious guests.

She was pretty enough in her slightly vague, translucent way and she certainly seemed agreeable and pleasant to the highest degree; maybe, Mairon thought with a smirk as he finally drained his tumbler, that was the very reason why Melkor had elbowed her out of the way so quickly.

He had not yet seen Irmo, the youngest of the three, but he had noticed Námo, Nienna’s oldest brother and the undisputed head of their little family unit.

A morose, somewhat judgemental silhouette in the background of an oddly domestic scene, Námo had thus far done nothing to endear himself to Mairon or win any favours in the young detective’s eyes.

Setting his glass down on a beautifully varnished and dutifully polished dresser, Mairon let his thoughts wander on.

To these colourful characters were added Aulë and Yavanna, groundskeepers and friends of the house more than actual servants; Mairon had caught but a momentary glimpse of them, entertaining a gaggle of dishevelled local kids with their expertise.

By the time Melkor came to fetch Mairon for dinner, the elusive investigator–known and dreaded for his shrewd ability to see right through people’s façades down into their most intimate core–had a pretty good overview of the inhabitants and dependents of the manor.

The ruggedly handsome face of his mysterious benefactor was drawn and pale, and Mairon instinctively knew that something had gone awry while he had been changing into his perfectly tailored evening garb.

“You are in for a treat,” Melkor said with a smile that might have fooled a less perspicacious onlooker. “The hunting party has returned a day early.”

“Hunting party?” Mairon’s gaze fell onto a pile of hunting and fishing gear–messily thrown into a corner of the foyer–as he strode down the broad staircase confidently by Melkor’s side.

“As I said, we had not expected them yet,” Melkor explained sombrely; from the salon, raucous voices–raised in excitement and anger–boomed in a rapid exchange of profanities that were interrupted periodically by the pacifying interjections of the female onlookers.

“Moreover,” the tall, stern man continued, “my father has disappeared. He’s not been seen since before your arrival and he’s nowhere to be found on the grounds.”

“Disappeared?” Mairon echoed, all his senses alight with the thrill of finding a precious and unlooked-for gift addressed to him.

Melkor merely nodded and pushed open the door with a forceful flourish in a grotesque déjà-vu.

“Here are your suspects,” he whispered in a strained voice, “happy hunting.”

I've slightly dropped the ball on this, but (if I get time later today), I might drop another Angbang to at least get Bingo on both sheets.

@fellowshipofthefics here is my (potentially) last entry for this year's February Bingo.

Thank you so much for this amazing event!!!

Lots of love

[stereotypesclass1teachercarmen]

Stereotypes keep people of color in disadvantaged status. 

Lara Gaspar

Is the enduring presence of stereotypes in our society responsible for the conflict and injustice experienced by people of color, ultimately placing them at a disadvantage? The goals and possibilities of people from different racial backgrounds continue to be obstructed by these rooted prejudices and stereotypes, which are supported by misinformation and sustained by systematic injustices. In this essay, we examine stereotypes' enduring effects and how they contribute to the maintenance of people of color's social disadvantage. We seek to emphasize the urgent need to confront and destroy the stereotypes that continue to stand in the way of true equality and justice by looking at the many effects of these prejudiced assumptions. 

Not only are black people disadvantaged by stereotypes, but they also go through a complicated problem that has been extensively studied in a number of sources. For example, the Momentous Institute essay "Why Stereotypes Are Harmful" offers important insights on the harm that prejudices do. It highlights how stereotypes have the potential to become self-fulfilling prophecies, causing people to absorb these unfavorable ideas about themselves. This self-doubt can obstruct career and personal advancement, putting persons of color at a disadvantage in the real world.

"The New Jim Crow Museum: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror" explores how historical stereotypes have influenced the disadvantage of people of color, impacting societal norms and policies that perpetuate discrimination. In addition, it provides a historical overview of the ways in which stereotypes have influenced people of color's disadvantageous situation. It draws attention to the pervasive racial prejudices and stereotypes that have influenced society norms and policy, perpetuating the cycle of disadvantage and discrimination. 

The film 'The Hate U Give' vividly exemplifies how stereotypes fuel racial profiling and police brutality, perpetuating an unjust cycle, highlighting their enduring influence on people of color. Furthermore, the film vividly depicts this problem with a compelling story. It graphically illustrates how racial profiling and police brutality may result from prejudices, feeding a vicious cycle of injustice and disadvantage. The film is an important reminder that in today's culture, stereotypes still have an impact on the chances and lives of people of color. Mental shortcuts, known as heuristics, can lead to damaging assumptions, especially in racial stereotyping. It relates to the theme of stereotypes of disadvantaged people of color by highlighting how these beliefs contribute to racial segregation and discrimination. It emphasizes the importance of evaluating individuals based on their character and actions, not their group identity, stressing the need to challenge stereotypes for a fairer society.

In conclusion, persistent prejudices limit people of color's hopes and prospects by acting as strong obstacles to justice and equality. Momentous Institute insights illustrate how views can become self-fulfilling prophecies, and "The New Jim Crow Museum’s historical perspective demonstrates how these biases impact legislation and societal norms. "The Hate U Give" does an excellent job of illustrating how beliefs feed unfair cycles. Together, society must confront and eliminate these damaging stereotypes in order to create a better tomorrow.

[autolenaphilia]

"She leans forward, smiling gently, adopting the air of a concerned guidance counsellor. “Stef, if I may be blunt — and everyone around me is, constantly, so I believe I shall indulge — you are a woman. You have always been a woman, whatever your external appearance might suggest. You have, therefore, experienced masculinity, and particularly the kind of grasping, possessive, abusive masculinity that we as a society have decided is appropriate to teach our young men, as nothing but a curse, correct? An unpleasant and often entirely irrational system of behaviour to which you have been expected to conform, and uphold in others.”

“Um,” Stefan says, trying to control his reaction to being called a woman, to having his womanhood recognised so casually, acknowledged so completely. “Yes, I suppose.”

“Would you agree that your compliance with masculinity has been, shall we say, coerced? Not something you would have chosen for yourself?”

Stefan nods, and carefully avoids getting lost in memories.

“Then I suspect you will find it hard to believe how… seductive it can be,” Beatrice says. “Imagine that you are a boy. Masculinity, as expressed by the patriarchy, all the way from the repulsive man who currently occupies the office of the prime minister down to your peers at school, your family, and the men you see on the television, tells you what you are. It dictates your behaviour, lays out the rules around which you must structure your life. But in return it offers power. Power over other men, should you make yourself strong enough; power over women, almost by default. ‘You are strong,’ it whispers to you, as you grow taller than the girls at your school. ‘You are powerful,’ it tells you, as you get into your first fight. ‘You deserve her,’ it insists, as you look at a pretty woman at a bar or in the street. And, to those who will listen, it says, ‘Even if she refuses you, she is nonetheless yours. Take her!’” Stefan jumps a little when she raises her voice. “‘Take her and do with her what you will, for it is your right.’

“Most men, of course, are not so ruled by their desires that they will act on every impulse. And many men are capable of ignoring those messages entirely, filtering them, discovering a healthy masculinity inside the radioactive dust that infests our social atmosphere. But, as you have seen, there are men who are overwhelmed by these messages. Who are shaped by them so completely that there is practically nothing else left inside them. They are… broken people. Excellent vessels for the — oh, what did that absurd scientist with the honey fixation call it? — the meme of masculinity. The infectious idea that burrows into the brain and takes over.

“The problem for these men is that masculinity — toxic masculinity, if you will; violent, virulent masculinity — is a seductive lover but an abusive husband. Once you are in its grip, you can never be strong enough, never exercise enough power, never hurt enough people. You find yourself trapped between two destinies.

“Some of these broken men, they despise themselves. They victimise others because they are too weak not to, and they loathe their weakness. Many of them manage to put up a front — brusqueness; belligerence; humour — but the self-hatred eats away at them, and eventually they will be destroyed by it, consumed by the parasite.

“Others become nothing but the violence. They have contempt for their victims, and admire only strength and cruelty. They are, essentially, monsters."

Alyson Greaves - The Sisters of Dorley, Chapter 14: The Sense God Gave Her

[blackberrybrambles]

What kinds of food do the far eat?

What do they wear for clothes?

Do they have familiars?

Can the fae feel the forest? Like, if someone picks a flower or hurts a tree, can they feel it?

That's all I can think of at the moment, I'll probably come up with more questions later

Firstly ily thank you for the questions but also rhtjmj,hngbdfvdaethg THER'S SO MUCH TO DROP HERE so under a cut cause its over 2k of information!

What kinds of food do the Fae eat?

Excellent question! And there’s a lot to establish here.

Lore wise, the Fae Folk are omnivores and are able to eat a wide range of foods. However, the established culture of the Fae Folk has put some pretty strict dietary restrictions on the bulk of the population. So I’ll briefly discuss these believes and restrictions first before I elaborate further on what they do eat and what they’re capable of eating but usually don’t.

For reasons relating to spiritual beliefs (and prejudice), the general population of Fae have very unusual behaviors revolving around meat consumption. That being that they largely avoid eating meat, and when they do so, it must be cooked a particular way or even aged for a specific amount of time before it is considered socially acceptable to consume it.

As a result, consumption of meat is not only rare, but it is generally reserved for specific special occasions. All forms of meat consumed by the Fae are expected to be fully cooked. Different types of meat are expected to be aged for specific amounts of time; meaning that there is a whole curing process involved in preparation of many meat products that are consumed by the Fae.

Consumption of raw meat or carrion is reason for ostracization and individuals caught consuming meat are likely to wind up completely isolated from society. These ostracized individuals will not be allowed to establish proper homes, they will not be allowed to marry or have children, and by and large they will be denied access to any offerings left to the Fae by humans.

If a Fae is caught consuming meat and they have already partaken in these luxuries, then they will be immediately stripped of these luxuries. That meaning that they will be denied access to their home or that their home may be flat out destroyed. Their spouses will abandon them and their Love Garden will be completely uprooted in order to prevent future offspring from being born to the Forsaken. They will also be denied access to any children that they have already managed to produce.

Thanks to these many, many potential risks associated with meat consumption, it has grown more and more common for Fae to refrain from eating meat entirely in order to avoid any accidental mishaps.

Additionally, consumption of anything which thrives off of the consumption of carrion is also considered taboo. So insects that most notoriously consume and break down rotting bodies are not considered edible. Nor are many types of mushroom as they are notoriously known to grow upon rotting corpses. There are even types of bee whose honey can be considered forbidden, as these bees readily consume carrion.

So in other words; no eating raw meat, no eating carrion, and no eating anything that constantly eats carrion. Or you’ll wind up isolated from society and stripped of most of your rights.

Now, with all that being said, I will point out; meat will not make the Fae sick. Their refusal to eat meat specifically comes from prejudice born of negative association with a specific group of their own kind. Meat is actually very good for the Fae, and among those who do endure the isolation for the sake of eating meat, it is said that the meat tastes best raw. But among these individuals, carrion is less likely to be eaten and is generally indirectly consumed through eating something that feeds on rotting meat.

With that explanation out of the way, we’re free to discuss what the Fae actually eat!

The Fae live on a largely vegetarian diet (but may eat meat so long as all rules pertaining to its preparation are followed).

As far as fresh, uncooked foodstuffs go, they eat fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, seeds, milk, and honey. Rarely they might consume raw eggs.

They eat a wide range of cooked and prepared foods. So to quickly summarize, these foods are made up using a base of something like bread, yogurt, or cheese. Often by combining these items in some way. But largely Fae prefer sweeter dishes, so pastries, custards, and sweet puddings are readily made and consumed.

The dietary preferences of Fae Folk are so well known that, more often than not, offerings left for Fae perfectly suit their tastes. Milk, honey, bread, and pastries make up the bulk of these offerings - with items like cheese or eggs being less common but still considered acceptable.

As an additional note! Fae can actually survive on nothing but Milk and Honey. Everything else they eat is more to supplement their diets for the sake of their own happiness. Because a happy Fae is generally going to be a healthier Fae. And healthier Fae are less likely to suffer from physical or mental sicknesses which could destroy them.

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

What do they wear for clothes?

Very good question! Fae clothes are actually made primarily of plants. Usually. Sometimes they might be made of insect or animal parts.

They use a magic process to take plants and turn them into thread. This process revolves around putting them into a special machine powered by a magical crystal, which then turns the plants into thread.

These machines snag hold of the essence of an item and then unfurl it at the seams. Then this essence is carefully reworked into a more suitable shape. Then ta-dah! Thread! Some of these machines even have an open system that allows you to watch the items inside being converted into thread, and its really cool from a human perspective.

You could compare the process, visually, to how something in a video game might grow more and more translucent as it de-loads from the environment. It’s just there, then it’s not fully there, and then it’s gone. It’s essence having been completely reworked to be shaped into thread, which is then made into clothes.

But the process doesn’t have to specifically be used to convert plants into clothing. Rocks, crystals, feathers, insects, and other such items can be put into these machines and converted into thread.

Plants are most commonly use because they create the most comfortable clothes. Flower petals produce fabric which is softer than silk. Fruits likewise produce very comfortable clothing.

But items like rocks produce clothing that feels heavy and uncomfortable. Clothes made from rock are likely to be scratchy. If you were dumb enough to try and make clothes out of meat, then the clothes might not feel horrible but you’ll quickly notice the smell given off by the fabric.

Because these items are broken down to their essence and converted into thread, the resulting thread will still contain evidence of what it once was.

Sweet smelling items will produce thread that gives off a sweet smell. Items that were heavy or unpleasant to the touch will produce thread that makes for very, very uncomfortable clothes. Rose petals might produce a fragrant, comfortable shirt. But if you use its thorny stems, you’ll wind up with a shirt that will be uncomfortable, if not painful to wear because you’ll effectively feel like you’re constantly being pricked by invisible thorns.

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Do they have familiars?

Another wonderful question! The answer is... Yes! But also no, depending on the scenario. I will elaborate without going into to many details. But basically, Fae CAN have familiars but those familiars will not be other Fae.

A Unicorn, for example, is a natural born Fae and is ergo its own independent creature. It might live as a common horse in the wild, but it cannot be treated as such.

A Unicorn which is being ridden by a Fae is either doing so willingly, or it has been enslaved. You’d be able to tell which is which based upon whether or not the Unicorn is without riding equipment.

A Unicorn which is being ridden bareback without a bridle or a harness, is free, and is simply doing another Fae a favor.

A Unicorn which has been dressed in the attire of a working horse, has been enslaved and can only be freed by the removal of the bonds used to enslave it.

Fae cannot take other Fae as familiars, regardless of how animalistic the Fae is. An animalistic Fae is still a Fae, and is ergo considered free.

But Fae can take everyday animals (people included), and bewitch or enchant them to turn them into familiars or servants, often called “Nixies”. These familiars are “Fae Touched”, meaning that a master has willingly given them a connection to their own soul and magic in order to grant them immortality and the ability to use magic.

Note that this does NOT mean that Nixies cannot be killed, it simply means that they cannot die of old age, and that they will not age even if in the mortal realm. Nor does it mean that they die automatically should their master be killed. It simply means that so long as their master lives, they in theory, will not die of natural cause.

The magic that they have access to will also only ever be magic that their mastic could access. That doesn’t mean learning the same spells, but it means the same type of magic. If a Fae can use fire based magic, then their Nixie could potentially learn any magical craft pertaining to fire magic. Some Nixies even master aspects of the magic that even their masters struggle with, which is the main benefit of having them.

By all accounts, Nixies (Specifically the human ones) are technically enslaved by the Fae that command them, but they are not considered slaves. Nixies are also not helpless or without means of getting revenge, it only takes knowledge on how to turn the tables on the Fae to escape them if they are genuinely unwilling to be servants.

It must also be pointed out that by simply existing exclusively in the Fae realm for a long period of time, a mortal creature can become naturally Fae touched. Meaning they themselves become partly transformed into a Fae due to the magic of their environment.

This does not grant them the same status as a Fae or prevent them from becoming enslaved, but it does mean that they naturally gain the ability to use magic independent of a master. Which means that they can theoretically use magic to defend themselves and prevent themselves from becoming enslaved simply by displaying their power. These special cases are called “Nix”s, and they are effectively allowed to fight for their freedom to stand on equal grounds as Fae.

Additionally! As a fun sort of bonus - because of how the Fae realm works, anything born in the realm is automatically considered to be a Fae. A great number of Fae races (especially the non-humanoid ones) are actually the distant descendants of Nixies, aka Fae familiars. So a completely normal mouse, enchanted by a Fae, will give birth to actual Fae creatures if it goes on to reproduce. This same applies to humans.

In these cases, the freshly born 1st generation Fae are fairly sub-par in terms of ability, but the magical capabilities only increase with ensuing generations.

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Can the Fae feel the forest? Like, if someone picks a flower or hurts a tree, can they feel it?

Yet another great question!... Er, questions! The answer is sort of. Can the Fae feel the forest? In a way, yes. They can connect to the Earth itself, and through that connection monitor everything in their territory. The more territory that a Fae has control over, the larger the amount of space that they’ll have a connection with.

They can form a connection with their environment by going still and listening. They can take hold of a nearby tree or plant, or press some manner of wooden tool into the soil. The connection they form allows them to check the status of their territory as a whole.

But can they feel the plight of an individual flower being plucked? No. Plants are consumed every moment of every day. Constantly. From animals as large as elephants to creatures smaller than the eye can see. The ecosystem is a vast, complicated thing that is fairly well at maintaining its own balance. The ecosystem is built on a foundation of consuming and being consumed.

The everyday battle for survival goes unnoticed, as it is mundane and a process that exists to keep the wilderness in check. The plants grow, the animals eat the plants to keep them from getting overgrown, predators eat those animals to keep them from over-grazing, and so on and so forth. A single flower is not going to be noticed if it’s plucked. Being able to detect ever minor detail like that would be maddening, even to something like a Fae.

However, if a large section of the forest starts to suffer for whatever reason, that IS noticed. If a lot of plants start getting sick or dying all in one spot, they’ll sense it. Their territory can cry out in pain. As can the animals that live upon it. The land they inhabit is as alive as they are, and it will communicate with them its needs by telling them about its problems. The Fae detect these problems as a pain in the back of their head. The greater the pain, the more urgent the matter at hand. So they’ll deal with these problems in order of most urgent to least urgent.

[granolagaeilgeoir]

Why are you a transphobe tho?

First of all, the accusation of transphobia implies that I view my transgender brothers and sisters in a negative light and cast judgement upon them. As Catholics we are called to act with love towards all of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and it is not our place to place judgement upon others - that is reserved for God alone.

Second, as a Catholic, I cannot say that I support individuals undergoing surgery to mutilate their body into a biological sex it was not born as. I do not place judgement upon those who do, but I do not support it. We were all created in the image and likeness of God and we are meant to respect our bodies as such.

This is an excellent explanation on Catholicism's views on transgender-related topics:

"A person may experience this tension and alienation between body and soul so profoundly that the person claims an “internal sense” of sexual identity different from his or her biological sex. This condition was labeled by the American Psychiatric Association in 2013 as “gender dysphoria.” 16 From a theological perspective, the experience of this interior conflict is not sinful in itself but must be understood as a disorder reflecting the broader disharmony caused by original sin. It is a particularly painful experience of the wounds we all suffer as a result of original sin. Every individual experiencing this condition should be treated with respect, justice, and charity.

What is new in our times, however, is the growing cultural acceptance of the erroneous claim that some people, including children and adolescents, are “in” the “wrong body” and therefore must undergo “gender transition,” either to relieve distress or as an expression of personal autonomy. Sometimes this involves psycho-social changes: The person asserts a new identity, reinforced by a different name, pronouns, and wardrobe. At other times it involves a medical or surgical change: The person seeks chemical or surgical interventions that alter the body's function and appearance and even impair or destroy otherwise healthy reproductive organs. At its core, this belief in a “transgender” identity rejects the significance of the sexed body and seeks cultural, medical, and legal validation of the person's self-defined identity-an approach called “gender affirmation.” Culturally, these claims have brought challenges to law, medicine, education, business, and religious freedom."

TLDR: As a Catholic, we love all of our transgender brothers and sisters, but do not support the surgical changes being encouraged by society.