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niseamstories · 4 years ago

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10 Lessons on Realistic Worldbuilding and Mapmaking I Learned Working With a Professional Cartographer and Geodesist

Hi, fellow writers and worldbuilders,

It’s been over a year since my post on realistic swordfighting, and I figured it’s time for another one. I’m guessing the topic is a little less “sexy”, but I’d find this useful as a writer, so here goes: 10 things I learned about realistic worldbuilding and mapmaking while writing my novel.

I’ve always been a sucker for pretty maps, so when I started on my novel, I hired an artist quite early to create a map for me. It was beautiful, but a few things always bothered me, even though I couldn’t put a finger on it. A year later, I met an old friend of mine, who currently does his Ph.D. in cartography and geodesy, the science of measuring the earth. When the conversation shifted to the novel, I showed him the map and asked for his opinion, and he (respectfully) pointed out that it has an awful lot of issues from a realism perspective.

First off, I’m aware that fiction is fiction, and it’s not always about realism; there are plenty of beautiful maps out there (and my old one was one of them) that are a bit fantastical and unrealistic, and that’s all right. Still, considering the lengths I went to ensure realism for other aspects of my worldbuilding, it felt weird to me to simply ignore these discrepancies. With a heavy heart, I scrapped the old map and started over, this time working in tandem with a professional artist, my cartographer friend, and a linguist. Six months later, I’m not only very happy with the new map, but I also learned a lot of things about geography and coherent worldbuilding, which made my universe a lot more realistic.

1) Realism Has an Effect: While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with creating an unrealistic world, realism does affect the plausibility of a world. Even if the vast majority of us probably know little about geography, our brains subconsciously notice discrepancies; we simply get this sense that something isn’t quite right, even if we don’t notice or can’t put our finger on it. In other words, if, for some miraculous reason, an evergreen forest borders on a desert in your novel, it will probably help immersion if you at least explain why this is, no matter how simple.

2) Climate Zones: According to my friend, a cardinal sin in fantasy maps are nonsensical climate zones. A single continent contains hot deserts, forests, and glaciers, and you can get through it all in a single day. This is particularly noticeable in video games, where this is often done to offer visual variety (Enderal, the game I wrote, is very guilty of this). If you aim for realism, run your worldbuilding by someone with a basic grasp of geography and geology, or at least try to match it to real-life examples.

3) Avoid Island Continent Worlds: Another issue that is quite common in fictional worlds is what I would call the “island continents”: a world that is made up of island-like continents surrounded by vast bodies of water. As lovely and romantic as the idea of those distant and secluded worlds may be, it’s deeply unrealistic. Unless your world was shaped by geological forces that differ substantially from Earth’s, it was probably at one point a single landmass that split up into fragmented landmasses separated by waters. Take a look at a proper map of our world: the vast majority of continents could theoretically be reached by foot and relatively manageable sea passages. If it weren’t so, countries such as Australia could have never been colonized – you can’t cross an entire ocean on a raft.

4) Logical City Placement: My novel is set in a Polynesian-inspired tropical archipelago; in the early drafts of the book and on my first map, Uunili, the nation’s capital, stretched along the entire western coast of the main island. This is absurd. Not only because this city would have been laughably big, but also because building a settlement along an unprotected coastline is the dumbest thing you could do considering it directly exposes it to storms, floods, and, in my case, monsoons. Unless there’s a logical reason to do otherwise, always place your coastal settlements in bays or fjords.

Naturally, this extends to city placement in general. If you want realism and coherence, don’t place a city in the middle of a godforsaken wasteland or a swamp just because it’s cool. There needs to be a reason. For example, the wasteland city could have started out as a mining town around a vast mineral deposit, and the swamp town might have a trading post along a vital trade route connecting two nations.

5) Realistic Settlement Sizes: As I’ve mentioned before, my capital Uunili originally extended across the entire western coast. Considering Uunili is roughly two thirds the size of Hawaii the old visuals would have made it twice the size of Mexico City. An easy way to avoid this is to draw the map using a scale and stick to it religiously. For my map, we decided to represent cities and townships with symbols alone.

6) Realistic Megacities: Uunili has a population of about 450,000 people. For a city in a Middle Ages-inspired era, this is humongous. While this isn’t an issue, per se (at its height, ancient Alexandria had a population of about 300,000), a city of that size creates its own set of challenges: you’ll need a complex sewage system (to minimize disease spreading like wildfire) and strong agriculture in the surrounding areas to keep the population fed. Also, only a small part of such a megacity would be enclosed within fantasy’s ever-so-present colossal city walls; the majority of citizens would probably concentrate in an enormous urban sprawl in the surrounding areas. To give you a pointer, with a population of about 50,000, Cologne was Germany’s biggest metropolis for most of the Middle Ages. I’ll say it again: it’s fine to disregard realism for coolness in this case, but at least taking these things into consideration will not only give your world more texture but might even provide you with some interesting plot points.

7) World Origin: This point can be summed up in a single question: why is your world the way it is? If your novel is set in an archipelago like mine is, are the islands of volcanic origin? Did they use to be a single landmass that got flooded with the years? Do the inhabitants of your country know about this? Were there any natural disasters to speak of? Yes, not all of this may be relevant to the story, and the story should take priority over lore, but just like with my previous point, it will make your world more immersive.

8) Maps: Think Purpose! Every map in history had a purpose. Before you start on your map, think about what yours might have been. Was it a map people actually used for navigation? If so, clarity should be paramount. This means little to no distracting ornamentation, a legible font, and a strict focus on relevant information. For example, a map used chiefly for military purposes would naturally highlight different information than a trade map. For my novel, we ultimately decided on a “show-off map” drawn for the Blue Island Coalition, a powerful political entity in the archipelago (depending on your world’s technology level, maps were actually scarce and valuable). Also, think about which technique your in-universe cartographer used to draw your in-universe map. Has copperplate engraving already been invented in your fictional universe? If not, your map shouldn’t use that aesthetic.

9) Maps: Less Is More. If a spot or an area on a map contains no relevant information, it can (and should) stay blank so that the reader’s attention naturally shifts to the critical information. Think of it this way: if your nav system tells you to follow a highway for 500 miles, that’s the information you’ll get, and not “in 100 meters, you’ll drive past a little petrol station on the left, and, oh, did I tell you about that accident that took place here ten years ago?” Traditional maps follow the same principle: if there’s a road leading a two day’s march through a desolate desert, a black line over a blank white ground is entirely sufficient to convey that information.

10) Settlement and Landmark Names: This point will be a bit of a tangent, but it’s still relevant. I worked with a linguist to create a fully functional language for my novel, and one of the things he criticized about my early drafts were the names of my cities. It’s embarrassing when I think about it now, but I really didn’t pay that much attention to how I named my cities; I wanted it to sound good, and that was it. Again: if realism is your goal, that’s a big mistake. Like Point 5, we went back to the drawing board and dove into the archipelago’s history and established naming conventions. In my novel, for example, the islands were inhabited by indigenes called the Makehu before the colonization four hundred years before the events of the story; as it’s usually the case, all settlements and islands had purely descriptive names back then. For example, the main island was called Uni e Li, which translates as “Mighty Hill,” a reference to the vast mountain ranges in the south and north; townships followed the same example (e.g., Tamakaha meaning “Coarse Sands”). When the colonizers arrived, they adopted the Makehu names and adapted them into their own language, changing the accented, long vowels to double vowels: Uni e Li became “Uunili,” Lehō e Āhe became “Lehowai.” Makehu townships kept their names; colonial cities got “English” monikers named after their geographical location, economic significance, or some other original story. Examples of this are Southport, a—you guessed it—port on the southernmost tip of Uunili, or Cale’s Hope, a settlement named after a businessman’s mining venture. It’s all details, and chances are that most readers won’t even pay attention, but I personally found that this added a lot of plausibility and immersion.

I could cover a lot more, but this post is already way too long, so I’ll leave it at that—if there’s enough interest, I’d be happy to make a part two. If not, well, maybe at least a couple of you got something useful out of this. If you’re looking for inspiration/references to show to your illustrator/cartographer, the David Rumsey archive is a treasure trove. Finally, for anyone who doesn’t know and might be interested, my novel is called Dreams of the Dying, and is a blends fantasy, mystery, and psychological horror set in the universe of Enderal, an indie RPG for which I wrote the story. It’s set in a Polynesian-inspired medieval world and has been described as Inception in a fantasy setting by reviewers.

Credit for the map belongs to Dominik Derow, who did the ornamentation, and my friend Fabian Müller, who created the map in QGIS and answered all my questions with divine patience. The linguist’s name is David Müller (no, they’re not related, and, yes, we Germans all have the same last names.)

#enderal #dreams of the dying #worldbuilding #resource #writeblr #writing tips #mapmaking #cartography #illustration #realism #writeblogging #novelwriting #writing research #research #writing

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mysticalmusicwhispers · 4 years ago

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if it’s not too much to ask... india/china hcs pls? i know u ship it so i’d love to hear what ur opinions are!!

Thank you for asking friend!! It’s never a bother :)

Length Warning: Very, Very Long, A Lot Of Rambling

Preface: I honestly don’t know much in-depth stuff about India-China history (all the “history ramblings” is based on my previous knowledge + Wiki), so I don’t have a lot of grounding in what their relationship is like. Also, when writing their history I realized I still see them as a brotp (so the first part isn’t very shippy) but there are romantic ship headcanons at the end. See this cool post for other hcs!

+++

HISTORY RAMBLINGS

- I guess in Ancient Times, I see them having a friendly trading partner vibe; my personal hc of Ancient China is of someone who builds friendships for convenience, and then starts getting attached with time, so I think this is how his attitude was at first. He and India probably had some vague contact through diplomats and travellers who brought back tales to their own country, and then once trading and influence and religious imports (ex. Buddhism) really kicked off, they started actually interacting with each other (as people, not nations) and over time, that just kicked off into being closer and closer friends until they were basically lovers.

- In Hetalia canon China goes along with Zheng He (Ming Dynasty, early 1400s) on his voyages around the world (the episode with a giraffe), and historically they did make stops at India, where they traded and visited Buddhist temples and stuff; this would be fun to examine in terms of Indchu. I’m sure they had more opportunities to visit each other in person (in contrast to Romechu, the true long-distance relationship) but I’d like to see them just checking in on each other, talking about the news of the day and stuff! Talking about trade and the places they’ve seen; Yao rambling on and on about where he’s headed next, India interjecting time to time about things he’s heard about places far away from them. A moment of peace where they’re just super comfortable and relaxed with each other would be amazing

- Ok fast forward a bit to the 1850s-60s: Qing Dynasty is resting in pieces, the Opium Wars have thoroughly beaten China, the government is unstable from the Boxer Rebellion and there’s a bunch of hate at the ruling people, stuff happens. India has been taken by Britain and it’s Not Fun; these two old men are down in the dumps and being bitter together. I don’t think they’re “dating” or whatever rn because there’s just too much on both of their plates, but they are still close friends and still mutually hate England together. I can see them having tense arguments with each other out of pure stress, complaining about who has it worse: India, who has been made into a colony! *gasp* “My pride has been killed, Yao!” and China, who is basically a colony to 5 nations all at once and also reeling from losing HK to Britain. They know exactly how to hurt each other by this point, but they also know they don’t really mean it, and things usually blow over after they’re in their right minds again.

****Also, Indian sepoys were used by Britain to fight China, and Indian opium was shipped to China as well; I think that might have been a sticking point for a while, but I think Yao would’ve slowly accepted that India was not the one making decisions in the end.

- The World Wars: India is in the Gallipoli campaign, conscripted by Britain, China is fighting on the side of the British and French but does not gain a single thing from winning, and has also lost the First Sino-Japanese War (I think Hetalia canon says China got his scar from there). Then Japan invades China, and he and India are fighting together in WWII against China’s estranged sibling/brother/vague relation. Both are beaten to the core, still bitter, but they keep reminding each other that they will just have to weather the storm and wait for their moment. This too shall pass. Same mood as the beginning of imperialism, but more tired and more done.

- After India’s Independence and China’s Government Overhaul: 1950s: India was one of the first non-Communist countries to recognize the PRC instead of the old ROC, but I think they started distancing from each other a little while after? There were territorial disputes with Nepal and I think both countries’ governments might have told them to cut it out and be less friendly with each other because they had rather clashing agendas

- Things seem to be relaxing just a bit, but then the Sino-Indian border dispute (1962) happens, and then there are other clashes near the border, and they don’t know if they can trust each other. Additionally, there’s the Sino-Soviet split, and India is getting help from the Soviets, and it makes things more complicated between them. The relationship is on shaky ground right now, and if they meet in person, both are putting on an impersonal facade. Not very friendly. I think they’re still cooling off until at least the late 1970s, when China’s economic reform happens.

- Skipping to Modern Day: they are cool again and are close friends again. However, they know their countries are competing in population, economy, world status/power, but they’re still friends. They know it might end badly, but I think they’ve learned to roll with the good times and savor it; their pride and hearts have been stomped on already so they don’t care anymore and take risks even if they might come out feeling a bit broken. They are buddies, and they might be dating, and they don’t really care about the boundary between friends and lovers. They are comfortable with each other.

- This article, published in 2007 by Harvard Business Review, presents an interesting take on China and India’s relationship, and in particular, their economies: it says that although people think they’re destined to be rivals because of their competing business sectors, they have developed complementary strengths and it’d be foolish not to work together. I think that could somewhat summarize Indchu’s relationship with each other in the hetaliaverse; they complement each other, and even if they might become competitors, it won’t affect their friendship/relationship because they just fit together. They click; it’s not forced friendship or whatever, they just integrate into each other so well (it’s almost like they’re meant to be together).

- There are border skirmishes (ex. the incident in June 2020), but I’m not really sure how that would factor into their relationship? Maybe they’ve gotten over it and they both know the other personification doesn’t like the fighting, and that their government’s opinions come first? Or maybe it’s still unresolved between them, because India has known Yao for a long time and knows what he’s capable of, and Yao knows what a potent force India can be when he wants? Idk. I think the idea of unresolved tension is more accurate, but I also like this ship because it’s soft and /mostly/ pure in modern day and I sometimes really want to ignore historical accuracy

ONTO THE GENERAL SHIP HEADCANONS!

- They argue with each other a lot, basically like an old married couple; their jibes at each other don’t mean anything though. China insists it’s so their wits stay sharp.

- Also they have debates over various academic topics; it’s basically their fun hobby by now. They’re both intellectually matched and read rather voraciously, so it’s a fun challenge (and keeps their wits sharp)

- I mentioned it before but it’s worth bringing up again: they know exactly how to hurt each other with their words; they just don’t get into bad fights often so they don’t need to cut each other to pieces.

- China is the less sentimental one, but they’re both really good at picking out tasteful, meaningful gifts for each other. “Experiences over material items/gifts” doesn’t really appeal to either of them; they’d much rather stay home being cozy than “gifting” each other a week in the Caribbeans or something.

- T e a l e a v e s (No Teabags unless Strictly Necessary). No coffee, sugar, cream, or milk. Sometimes India jokes about switching over to coffee or drinking tea the British way, and Yao just goes “You’re canceled”, dead seriously.

- They wear each other’s traditional clothing sometimes. Occasionally Yao asks India to wear a hanfu instead of a changshan (men’s equivalent of qipao) because he thinks it’s more traditional (qipao was invented in the 1920s). India has managed to stuff Yao into a qipao at least three times, and has pictures to prove it.

- India likes running his fingers through China’s hair (he says it’s really soft, a comment that makes Yao scoff every time) and he sorta hates his ponytail for that reason alone. Yao knows this, and he tries to make up for it by letting it down more on weekends, when he doesn’t have to look presentable (also India insists Yao looks presentable all the time, another comment that always earns a scoff).

- They teach each other their own dishes. China has been getting in the habit of substituting beef and pork for other things, mainly tofu/chicken/shiitake mushrooms

- They take walks together in the evenings after dinner when they’re in the same place. As long as it’s still light out and the weather’s not too bad, they will do it every day (even if it’s raining, they might just bring an umbrella).

- Their way of showing affection is a) with gifts and b) just talking to each other about anything. It’s their way of winding down for the day and being comfortable with each other; they have long talks about random, silly little things that happened, perhaps a funny (or stupid) meme/joke their siblings sent, or dumb stuff that happened with their boss at a meeting.

- I think they’d call each other nicknames in private. It wouldn’t be something too “sickly sweet” I guess, but something to show they care. They use nicknames sparingly as well, so it doesn’t lose meaning through overuse. (I personally hate nicknames so I’m not giving out any suggestions here, but I think Yao would use something like “亲爱的” for India, basically means “dear/beloved”. Not too flashy or sweet, but still affectionate.)

- China gifts houseplants to India’s apartment/house because he knows India likes them (I think he’s a green thumb). China doesn’t really bother with decorative plants; he prefers to grow spring onions and other low maintenance shit that he can use in his cooking lol he’s all about the practicality

- During ancient times, they had lengthy, invigorating discussions about mathematics, either through letters or in person.

- They aren't really affectionate in public; PDA is limited to hand holding and occasionally a kiss on the cheek. Neither China nor India are the type to “show off” their relationship or their partner.

- Adding onto that, they don’t really announce their relationship to everybody but if you ask them, they’ll tell you. Basically you have to be the one to notice something’s up; they just don’t think it's necessary to share every little bit of information about their lives with people. They're the “secretly married” couple trope; signs of affection are rather subtle but still noticeable because they don’t act that way to other people.

- China forced India to get a Wechat so he can send India 10¥ red packets every week just because he has the app

- Not really a ship headcanon, but these two would throw the best parties??? Like if you want a party that’s really loud and noisy and fun, ask them. They may be old and “not fun” or whatever but they know how to organize large scale events effectively and how to achieve the correct atmosphere, and despite all Yao’s siblings’ trash talk, they usually pull off very stylish, sleek functions/events. Maybe it’s a little tacky here and there but it’s barely noticeable, and everyone is just. Awed.

Yeet that’s it; thank you for reading! This got really long, and I feel like a lot of the headcanons were rather platonic, but yeah! Hope you like it!

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carnal-lnstinct · 5 years ago

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Conton City Lockdown

Summary: Time patrollers have returned from missions carrying an unknown disease and infecting others denizens of Conton City with it, forcing Trunks and Supreme Kai of Time to shut down most operations and training around the City and drastically limit missions for a while until they can get everything under control. Everyone is instructed to stay inside their assigned domiciles until further notice. “Who knows what that could do to the timeline if Patrollers pass it on during a mission?!” Supreme Kai of Time urges Conton. The Conton City Hero has also been quarantined with her current Master, Goku much to both their dismay as there was still so much training left. What other shenanigans can the two saiyans get themselves into while being all cooped up.

Word Count: 2,164 (Chapter 2) AO3 Rating: Mature Warning: ( explicit language ) A/N: Did I yadda yadda some saiyan lore around a story line where anything can happen and be logically possible when time travelling and universe hopping exist on a regular basis? You bet your sweet monkey tail having arse. This one was a little shorter, but the Gitchie, gitchie, ya-ya returns next chapter.

Chapter 2

You're not too keen on traveling to the other world of your own free will just yet. It was barely a pleasant experience travelling to Hell to correct the hitch in the timeline before. Not to mention the Parallel Quests assigned to you to investigate. For a place so colorful and vast...it was Hell. No need to see more of it or anything like it for a while. Your Training Master making the suggestion to travel with him to King Kai's is immediately met with a hard pass. Yes, you had eventually brought out the tracksuit he left behind a while ago as a spare pair of clothing for him. And as predicted he recalled the dead Kai's humble planet. "No one goes there but me, anyways" He pointed out as a matter of fact, "There was no way a dead Kai was going to get sick". As quickly as he could put on the clothes after cleaning up from your passionate moments, he bid you farewell for now and was gone. Leaving you with just the phantom traces of his rough hands abusing your skin and sloppy kisses all over your face and neck. It had only been hours following the powerful experience and you couldn't believe how much you missed his presence already. It would go against your nature to have begged him to stay simply because you wanted to stay close to him a little longer. Maybe the time separated was needed to give you some time to think it over. Goku was your Trainer, after all. Not only yours, either. But he had always praised you as his star pupil. Never have you felt selfish of another person before and blamed it all on still being caught up in the heat of the moment.

As the time passed on and the new day surely came to its expected end, right as you were ready to accept that you were going to be here alone for a while, Goku's energy instantly fills the space and he reappears in front of you. His skin sweaty and tracksuit filthy from his work out, but with that delighted smile of his. Your heart fluttered, not expecting him to return so soon. In his hand was a bundle of boxed food made by the North Kai. What you assumed was some portion of food he saved for himself for later was brought specifically for you. Without warning, you climbed the larger Saiyan with a single leap when he said it, crashing your mouth onto his and practically mounted him right then, his sore muscles and all. Nothing sharing the lunch he brought afterwards didn't fix.

The few days following Goku's awakening into this "new hobby" has been a very informative bonding experience for the two of you. And now you were sure he was trying to kill you with it. Of course, you bring it on yourself having to be the initiator, the latter still not quite able to pick up on your cues or innuendos to jump start a good time. You'd make it clear to him in your frustration after you toss playing coy out the window and spell it out to him. That aggressive tone you embody that would put off anyone else yet it only seemed to make the Saiyan feel embarrassed for his short-comings in the whole thing, but thrilled for the shared pleasure. Goku's gentleness in his approach to it sometimes leaves you somewhat unsatisfied, not that he never made up for in the long run, and boy does he, but he was never just right when you needed him to be.

Granted, your wild fantasy stems from the raunchy mangas you have filled your spare time with, you know the Earthly Saiyan has it in him. He just missuses it. When you want him to challenge your forwardness and press his hard, trained body against yours, squeeze your smaller frame to fit to his and stare you down with his feral eyes, he's tenderly rubbing into the curves of your back and tail, and placing these little warm kisses into your face and neck. But when you want to take it slower after being driven into at different angles and your body aches from the constant stimulation, he does not relent nor does your burning saiyan blood and sex-drunk mind carry the sense to yield even when the azure color fills his eyes and the golden hue vibrates across the outline of his body threatening to revitalize him for another go. You just wanted to see that savage vigor from beginning to end, and then the gentleness can follow.

It was the closest thing the two of you had to training together these days, a challenge of endurance and control. Still, not a day went by you weren't longing for Supreme Kai of Time or the Elder Kai to summon you back to the Time Nest for another special mission. With all the going on of the disease and that creep Fu on the loose as well, work was going to be non-stop to catch up when it was finally okay to head out again and you were looking forward to scratching that fighting itch once more. The worry settling in your bones and the daily complaint of your "cell mate" begging for the same release were beginning to make you stir-crazy. You had to distract him for your sake and his. One more 'It's already been "so-and-so" days, when's it gonna be over?' and you were going to put him through a wall.

Being saiyans on opposite ends of the spectrum did well to draw attention away from the quarantine, as well. You found yourself more intrigued with this version's history that lead him to the man he is today. You know the basics, all the scouted Time Patrollers do, but this variant of the Z Warrior lead a life not too similar with the story and still comes out more powerful than ever. You pressed him for answers, idle chat through the "parrying" game you came up with to keep your focus sharp. Goku sits in front of you with both his hands held up as you try to punch your fists pass them. There was no concern you would land anything. The way he misdirects your fists with hardly a flinch in his posture was pure instinct. As you sat across from him, fists up as you try to think 3 steps ahead and contemplate which one to throw at him, you finally asked.

"What's it like? Living with Earthlings? " Hoping your sudden question would give you the opening you need, throwing a right hook only to be swatted to his right. You recoil back into your stance, continuing. "I didn't grow up on Planet Vegeta either, but I was still raised around other saiyans."

"Really? I thought all of you were coming from another Planet Vegeta in the time-space holes you guys are always working on. I'd love to see what kind of strong warriors you got there, especially if they're as strong as you!" Another success block as you come at him from the right again. "As for Earth, it's pretty amazing! We don't have many saiyans, but we got a pretty strong batch of fighters. If not for guys like Piccolo, Raditz or Vegeta, we would never know how much stronger we could become. But when we're not fighting to get stronger and everything's at peace, it can be pretty beautiful. A little too quiet for me, but I wouldn't want to have it any other way so long as I can always get a good fight in every once in a while. Not to mention all the awesome food!"

Agreed, Earth definitely had some of the best food you ever had in your whole life and was grateful for its abundance here in Conton City. There was so much flavor, and the different consistencies all coming together to make something you couldn't hardly put it into words. It made your mouth water just thinking about it. "What about you, (y/n)?" The Saiyan asks.

"In my timeline, I grew up on Planet Stock. A sub colony of Saiyans our King Vegeta colonized in secret from King Cold as a gift to the Young Prince who would one day rise as a formidable foe to that tyrant Cold and his heirs. Then he would rule over Stock as his own kingdom while Planet Vegeta acted as our hub world. Or... at least that was the plan. One day our planet suddenly stopped getting responses from Planet Vegeta, not even the best scouters could detect it anywhere. Like it disappeared. It was only after I became a Time Patroller I found out Frieza destroyed it." Your fists visibly clench tighter as you opt for a left punch this time. Rather than parrying it this time, Goku catches it in his hand.

"Frieza always prides himself on that. I'm sorry." Your Master offers looking down at you with a softer gaze. You look up from your focal point to see his stare and look away.

"It doesn't matter. Knowing what I know now, even if Planet Vegeta and Stock had hundreds and hundreds of our best warriors there to defend against Frieza's attack, we would be worse for it. I've seen it.. " You withdraw your fist from his hold and roll your shoulders. "And Lord Beerus will destroy us all for it." You lower your stance and release your tensed hands. It's not easy to think that letting one monster destroy the home world of your people was better than the God of Destruction wiping out both worlds. Besides, the scroll of time deemed it the most accurate that Frieza gets to do it. You're still pushing against the Elder Kai and Supreme Kai of Time to use the Dragon Balls to restore Planet Vegeta.

"It's never easy to make decisions like that. There's not a moment I don't think back on the times when I was at my limit and felt like I was gambling with the lives of my friends and the people of earth in order to win a fight. But I always find a way to push through and save everyone. I even thought letting Cell blow me up would spare everyone. " He laughs, but it sounded a little more morose than his usual joy, making you turn your gaze back towards him. "I was foolish, when I had fought Cell we were evenly matched until I used my Kaioken attack and managed to knock Android 18 of him. I gave him a chance to give up and leave the planet and instead I put everyone else in danger.. I even thought if I stayed in the Other World, Earth would be a better place. We still had Piccolo to keep an eye on everything, and Vegeta too. Oh, and Trunks, too! He was going to grow up someday and be a strong warrior just like his father. Everyone else could live the life they wanted."

Goku extends his large hand and cups your small cheek into its curve, you leaning into the warm touch, "Your heart's in the right place. I see why everyone puts so much faith in you to do your best." His smile grows and your cheeks glisten with a pink hue. You avert your eyes as your insides flutter up again to avoid his knowing eyes.

"--W-Whatever, don't go getting all sentimental on me." You shrug trying to fight off your own smile. You raise your fist and give him a playfully nudge on his chin. "See, you're leaving yourself wide open. Keep this up and I'll surpass you in no time." Goku's bright laughter comes full force and he takes your first in his hand again.

"So long as you keep training, I'm sure you will." He brushes your fist pass his lips and delicately places a kiss to your battle-hardened knuckles. "I'll be sure to get stronger, too."

That sounded romantic coming from him, the blush on your face spreading but you keep trying to play it off. A little soft touch...actually does a lot to you. Your chest and your belly are bouncing such a warmth back and forth but it's different from wanting him to pin you down with all his strength and bury himself to the hilt inside you. Just his hand on your cheek and wrapped around your fingers as his lips caressed them was so...fulfilling. Even his laugh, once this goofy sound to your ears was now a blissful tone to your very soul. The Savior of Earth, this immortalized hero across the timelines made you feel like you were blooming. The sensation was only shaken by the sudden growl of his stomach, prompting him to laugh nervously "Whoops, guess I'm hungry again."

You laugh too and shake your head. "Fine, but dishes are on you this time."

#goku x reader #goku imagine #goku dbz #goku dbs #xenoverse 2 #dragon ball z #dragon ball super #my writing

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locoslowpoke · 5 years ago

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The Defense and Prosecution of Pink Diamond /Rose Quartz: An Essay Rant Part 3

Part 1. Part 2.

And finally, the last bad deed that ties into many other ones but I will just summarize in one giant paragraph because I have yet to talk about the good deeds. That’s right y’all, I’m talking about her treatment of the Pearl we know and love today and the secrets she kept from her and the lies she told her. We have learned that ever since the start of Pink’s colony, Pearl has always been by her side. All Pearl wanted to do was to make Pink happy and keep her Diamond in good spirits. Which is why Pearl was the one who suggested that they go down to Earth and why she was the one who made the Gemsona of Rose Quartz in the first place. All she wanted was to make her Diamond happy. Of course, in the process of making Pink happy, Pearl definitely didn’t expect to catch feelings for her, but she did and Pink felt the same way for her too. All’s well that ends well, right. WRONG. As we already know from the song, “It’s Over, Isn’t It”, Rose took a more open approach when it came to their relationship. Pearl, for the most part, was fine with it because she knew that it wouldn’t last and that in the end, Rose would come back to her because she was the one who knew Rose best. She knew all her secrets, likes, dislikes, practically everything. Because to Pearl, Rose was her everything. She was her Diamond, her Rose, her best friend and confidant, and most importantly, her the only person who truly loved her. Rose knew that Pearl would do anything and everything for her.

Just look at the song again. Pearl went through a lot of hardships and obstacles just for the sole purpose of her love and attention. OF COURSE, Rose is not supposed to be held accountable for Pearl’s romantic feelings toward her, but at the very least, I feel like she could’ve tried to sit down and talk with Pearl about her feelings and about how she doesn’t feel the same for her anymore. Rose didn’t even properly prepare Pearl or the other Crystal Gems for her demise. Look at how they almost took out Steven’s gem. An episode I feel shows a ton on evidence supporting this part of my argument is A Single Pale Rose. When Steven starts encountering past versions of Pearl in her mind, one of the ones we meet are Crying Pearl, who is currently devastated that the person she has dedicated her entire life to is going to disappear and there is nothing she can do about it. She states, “What am I going to do when she disappears,” and “I’m going to lose her.”

What trips me up the most though is what that Pearl says before transporting Steven deeper into her mind though. When he ask her where the stupid phone is, she says, “It’s probably where I lost everything else.” Pay attention to that specific line. During the war, Pearl had made friends, just like Bismuth. People she had considered dear to her just like Rose. But when the Diamonds did their counter light attack, she lost everyone and everything that she considered dear to her, other than Garnet and Pearl. Just look at war torn Pearl. She’s devastated that basically everyone she knew is probably dead. She then utters this very important line. “Why did I do it?”. What could that line be referring to? That is none other than the act of helping Pink fake her shattering. Pearl basically realized at that moment that it was foolish to think that they could pull of such a big rebellion without humongous losses. Because of her tricking the other diamonds that Pink had been killed, it lead to the death of all her friends.

Pearl pleaded with Pink to find another way,that the retaliation of the Diamonds was going to be powerful. But Pink just waved off Pearl’s concern and said she had tried everything, which giving Pink credit where it’s due, it appears she did. But what makes me mad about this scene is how Pink says that she just wants to do it and to never look back. How convenient of Pink to do just that huh? Then she forces Pearl to keep her secret which essentially eats away at Pearl as the years go on. Pearl even snaps and loses it when she finds out that Rose kept secrets from her, like Lion and Bismuth, because she was supposed the one she could always trust. Just goes to show you, Rose did care, but Rose never truly cared enough, did she now?

Now, let me give the poor girl a break and stitch her back up now shall we? It’s not a lot, but it’ll do. One of the good things she did was the saving of Earth. Even though her intentions weren’t completely pure, her heart was on the right path. She saw that the human were capable of intelligent thinking and were creatures with their own customs, thoughts, and beliefs. She knew then that what she was doing to that planet was evil and decided to do the right thing and save the planet from any further damage. Another one of the good things we have to give her credit for is that she genuinely wanted the best for her fellow Crystal Gems and even stated that she wanted them to be able to live a good life on the Earth, free of the Diamonds and of their society’s expectations about them. As to why she couldn’t tell them of her true identity, that scenario could’ve gone 2 ways. She would tell them she is Pink Diamond, but that she is fighting for their freedom and to keep her identity a secret. One way it could’ve gone is that they accept and are happy with the fact that an actual Diamond is fighting for them, further invigorating their will to fight and determination. Or it could’ve sowed the seeds of doubt and mistrust. The soldiers would question why a Diamond is supposedly fighting for their rights, if this is just a test to see who is loyal to the Diamond Authority and to weed out bad seeds, and finally, why should they put their lives on the line for a vague promise that a Diamond has made to them. It would either be win-win or lose-lose, more likely the latter.

Another one of the good things she did was the collecting of her corrupted Crystal Gems. She technically didn’t even have to do go out of her way and bubble them, unless you’re counting the humans’ safety, but she did it primarily because she felt guilty. She felt responsible for their corrupted forms and the fact that she bubbled them makes me believe that she was planning on finding some way to heal her friends.

Another one of the good things we also have to give her credit for is Garnet. The Garnet we know and love today would not be who she is if it wasn’t for the guidance and wisdom of Rose. Rose was the one that taught her that she was an experience and that she was not wrong for existing. That she was made of love.

Finally, the last, best, most selfless thing Rose ever did in her life was giving birth to Steven. She was willing to cease existing just for the chance of being able to bring another life into the world. She not only did just that, but so much more. She gave birth to the most empathetic, understanding, and kindest child ever. Steven turned out to be everything Rose hoped she could be. She didn’t really think that the consequences of her actions would come back and haunt her son guys. All she wanted to do was bring forth a new life in this world that she hoped would turn out to be better than she could ever aspire to be. I think we all know how that turned out. She finally succeeded and did one good deed that resulted, for the most part, in only positives and no negatives anywhere to be found.

The main theme of this show is about the ability to change. Pink started out as a bratty, immature,and selfish. Then she grew into Rose, wise, caring, and full of love. She takes a lot of missteps along her journey, but she tries her best to continually evolve into a better version of herself.

Welp, that’s my essay on one of the more complex cartoon characters of the decade. She’s not completely great, but she’s not exactly evil either. She’s just a pure solid grey character in my opinion. And that’s alright by me. Let me know what you guys think. Was there anything I missed that you felt should’ve been in here? I would love to receive asks or feedback and I’m really open to discussion. Thanks so much for reading.

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dukeofriven · 5 years ago

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Re-Reading Good Omens After Fifteen-Plus Years: A Review

[I a so sorry I didn’t get a chance to finish it before the show dropped the way i wanted - I had to bow out of Tumblr for most of the last few weeks to focus on a project. Bugger bugger bugger. Here it is now, later that I would have liked. Apologies, gentle readers. Spoilers, obviously for the whole book] I last read Good Omens some fifteen to seventeen years ago for probably the tenth or even twentieth time. I read it a lot. In the heady days of... I want to say grade ten?... no book seemed smarter, wiser, made me laugh more, and me feel smarter for having read it. I think my order of operations was all the Discworld books (up to, or just before, Night Watch) -> Good Omens -> Sandman, with the later changing how I understood the nature of story itself (but that’s for another day.) I suspect that Good Omens, along with The West Wing, Tolkien, and The Golden Compass, along with an enormous Colonial Chip on my shoulder (and a pretentious stick up the ass) eventually led me to becoming a Classicist after a brief and dreadful dalliance with the theatre. At the very least it certainly helped. So, what do I know think of Good Omens, a book I once read at least ten times (probably more) back when I re-read favourite books the way other people breathed often? (i.e. with constant regularity) Well, it’s not bad. It is not a bad book. It’s just not a great book. It’s not a terribly… cohesive book. It reads exactly like the kind of book that might get written if you and a fellow writer swapped a floppy disc back and forth in the mail a bunch of times adding bits as you went. Which, of course, is exactly what it is. The things I remember about the book remain as good as I remember them being - which is a shame because all the really good bits I remember about the book are, with a few exceptions, in the first half (Death still incorrectly says Revelations instead of Revelation in the second half like I remember. He’s still wrong, and it’s still weird given that the right name is in the book earlier more than once.) Everything goes rapidly downhill the moment Armageddon actually kicks off... something of a problem in a book about Armageddon whose entire second half is Armageddon. I remember Aziraphale and Crowley being great together. What I didn’t remember is that they spend most of the book apart, a crime because they’re at their best bouncing off one-another and far weaker solo, especially Crowley who really only has Hastur to talk to and he’s not a great conversationalist. If I could ditch Crowley Drives Really Hard and swap it for A&C Do Shit Together I would. I remember Newt and Anathema becoming a couple. What I didn’t remember is that they are entirely superfluous to the narrative, as are the prophecies of Agnes Nutter herself. I kept trying to remember why it is that Newt and Anathema needed to be at the military base - turns out they don’t. Newt doesn’t even stop the countdown, that’s all Adam willing it otherwise. N&A then wander over to the main group and just kind of stand around. The only purpose of the prophecies is to give Aziraphale an idea of where Adam is. That’s it. This is extremely frustrating because Anathema talks about how working-out prophecies has allowed her family to triumph down the ages, and it sets Agnes up as someone who was executed for being a truth teller - for being an other - even though one day her prophecies would be so important for the world. But they're not! Their one tangible impact on the plot is to have Aziraphale make a phone call that he immediately hangs up. the prophecies only document the end of the world, they are irrelevent to the aversion of the End Times, which feels like one of several moments where the book Is Making A Point About Human Nature And Reader Expectations but is undone by my old friend lousy framing. Toy cannot position someone as having “they know not what they do” importance and then just not follow-through on that. There is, I think, a sense in the book that What It’s All About is quiet humanism: that the story isn’t really about Armageddon, but the smaller human stories that happened around it: Newt and Anathema falling in... love, I guess? Mindy Newt: Homer Anathema, What’s wrong? Homer Anathema: Like you don’t know! We’re going to have sex! Mindy Newt:: Oh … We don’t have to. Homer Anathema: Yes we do! The cookie Book told me so

Or Shadwell and Madame Tracey. And that’s great - that’s a great theme. But the book fails to pull it off - largely, I think because once Armageddon kicks off it loses the human dimension its trying to argue is important for keeping the planet grounded, not because its trying to make that point, but because the authors get so distracted by writing a bunch of crazy Armageddon stuff that the actual important work - like fleshing-out characters and their stories properly - goes away in the hurly-burly of Important Shit Going down.

Take Adam. Adam lacks any real sense of interiority and wears his heart on his sleeve, which makes the will-he, won’t-he nature of Armageddon on which the whole book rests have... well, zero weight. Will Adam give in to his more evil nature? No. Of course he won’t. It’s not even a case of “of course he won’t ‘cause I know how stories go don’t I ain’t I clever” - it’s that Adam has no evil nature. None at all. A bit of child-like self-absorption , but that’s it. The book climaxes with Aziraphale realizing that the AntiChrist won’t pick sides because he is neither entirely Good or Evil - he is Just A Human, and therefore kind of both. The book has done a great job showing that duality of humanity: Mr. young, for example, isn’t a bad man. Nor is he a good one. He’s an average man, with all sorts of awful little prejudices and thought patterns, but equally enough basic decency that nobody could call him a monster anymore than a saint. So often in the book people do Bad Things without being depraved lunatics - they just get caught up in the churning mediocrity of life, what Arendt dubbed the ‘banality of evil’ after the Eichmann trial. The telemarketers aren’t child killers, and they don’t deserve their (frankly sickening and brutal) deaths - but every day they hurt people in small, irritating, vexing ways, perpetuating some horrid not because they’re nightmares but because it’s just their job. Again, that’s great. That’s why the first part of the book is the strongest: it’s full of the kinds of humanity you don’t normally see in literature outside of the Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B. Desperately ordinary people - the real kind of ordinary, not the ordinary that tends to turn into anime heroes. But Adam isn’t ordinary. Not remotely. The book says this again and again, calling him a young Adonis, alluding to his unearthy Luciferian beauty, to his passions, to his commanding voice, to his leadership skills. His friends adore him, and for all that they might get argumentative with him the sheer god-like weight of his Presence cannot be ignored. So when Aziraphale explains:

"He was left alone! He grew up human! He's not Evil Incarnate or Good Incarnate, he's just… a human incarnate.”

My response is a rather limp “Um, well... no. No he’s not.”

“Aha!” I hear you cry. “The book’s not saying he’s ordinary, it’s saying he’s the embodiment of humanity: all their vices and virtues are amplified within him, and that’s why he has superhuman powers.” To which i reply that yeah, it’s certainly what the book is insisting in the case. But it’s not demonstrated within the text. I said above Adam lacks interiority: what you see is what you get. And what you get has zero amplification of evil. Adam seems like a genuinely good kid - in fact he is such a good kid that the book actually makes a point of commenting on how he is basically living in a parodic homage of a Boy’s Own Adventure novel. If Jack Trent, Frank Hardy, Tom Swift, and half the cast of Aladdin Paperbacks‘ first decade of publishing rolled up in a clown car and asked Adam if he wanted to hang, he’d fit right in. And they’re all painfully decent people. Adam status as a “troublemaker” - that is, even the vaguest implication that he is capable of “mischief” - is undermined by the book highlighting that the kind of people who complain about that sort of thing are Doddering Tory Blowhards like R. P. Taylor who wouldn’t know fun if it dressed like Margaret Thatcher and dry-humped their legs. For Adam to be the incarnation of humanity there has to be a sense that he is more human than human - that his capacity for good and his capacity for evil are so great that with him him the form of gestalt of pure humanity. But that’s rubbish. Because Adam does nothing the book seems to think is worthy of meaningful censure, or at least nothing that literally any child might do as well (like ruining his sisters dress while dunking her in the water). If the best the book can do to balance out Adam’s Local Boy Heroically Saves Summer Camp And Solves The Mystery Of The Puzzle Riddle Enigma is that well he’s kind of inward facing like every other 12 year old then, well... that really takes the wind out of the book’s big summating point. The same kind of language that gets used about Adam feel like you could copy past it into a Discworld book to describe Carrot Ironfoundersson.

So when, as happens. the book shows Adam coming Into his power and talk about Remaking The World, we don’t have to think he will and that all is lost - we know how to read stories, we’re not idiots. But we should at least have a passing moment of worry that he could had the circumstances been slightly different - that he, poised on the edge of good and evil, could go either way were it not for the redemptive power of his ordinary human upbringing keeping him ground. Which, I think is safe to say, is the conclusion the book puts forward. But there is no ‘could.’ Of course he won’t - there’s no tension there at all. The book kills it stone dead, in fact, when it notes that:

Seems to me it ought to be rolled up and started all over again," said Adam. That hadn't sounded like Adam's voice.

and

Adam wasn't listening, at least to any voices outside his own head.

Adam is described as basically being possessed - at the most critical point of Armageddon, when the AntiChrist is placed to make a choice not even between Good and Evil but between The Harbinger Theological Inevitability and Sod All That Let’s Just Keep Living Because I’m A Human it is no choice at all because Theological inevitable is distinctly described as being separate from who Adam is. Which is dreadful! Adam is American Dennis the Menace - he sometimes get Into Mischief and Breaks A Vase or Ruins A Garden but he’ll still hang out being a friend to a lonely old coot - when he ought to be much closer to the British Dennis the Menace - an monster of a child who spent most of his seventy years of existence essentially bullying gay kids (”softies”) but also, now and again, when the moon’s aligned, showed a Heart of Gold under his menacing exterior. Adam didn’t need to be BritDennis, but he damn well needed some kind of edge to him - a REAL edge, not ‘well he can be bossy’ or ‘he had devilment in his eyes’ or ‘he could be thoughtless.’ Adam needed to have scenes of him being a little shithead: not killing pets, but at least being spiteful or snide or capable of sin. In To Kill A Mockingbird Jem destroys Mrs. Dubose's flowers in a fit of pique. That’s something. Adam? Nothing. So there’s nothing to hang the tension on, and any time to book has any anxiety about Adam’s moral character it rings hollow, because Adam is fundamentally decent and good and nothing so much as feints at the idea that any part of him might be otherwise.

Plus, to bring it back to the prophecies being useless, Adam gets upset about the state of the world because he borrows some of Anathema’s Save The Wales magazines, which he would never have been able to do had the Book not made her go to Tadfield in the first place. Now the book has a certain “Butterfly Flaps Its Wings” mindset - sometimes it’s the little things that put big things and motion.

But it’s muddled, because it implies that Armageddon is nothing but a last-minute whim of a mercurial child: which is great for when the plot of your book is a deconstruction of the idea of Inevitability, but a bit rubbish when the OTHER major theme of your book is that human evil is in ordinary narrow-mindedness. The idea of a story where everything builds up to Armageddon - but Armageddon fails to arrive like an eschatological Godot, (leaving everyone standing around a bit puzzled) is a great theme for an ironic novel. But it clashes again and again with the theme of the book’s first half- that humanity is more creatively terrible and kindly virtuous than any devil and or angel could hope to be. The corollary of that ought to be that when Armageddon arrives it is precisely because of that human fallibility. Having all this build up and have it massively fizzle out can work, when written right - The Real Treasure Was The Friendships You Made is always funny when handled correctly. But Good omens builds up to things and drops them half a dozen times in the finale, which ends up not seemingly like comedic point but an inability by two authors to "bring the story home” and tie any of their threads together. I mean take the actual act of Armageddon itself: when Adam starts making the world go doo-lally, we keeping hearing reports of the world getting more agitated: we can see the shape of Armageddon begin to emerge, but because we’re still clever buggers and have read our Eliot we know that what’s likely to break the world isn’t going to be bang but a whimper: General John Amerioman gets off the phone agitated by a telemarketers, years at his secretary until she cries so she forgets to inform him that President McSmith called and because he didn’t call her back the President fails to get the advice she needs and makes a foolish error that pisses-over the Russian president who is then gets petty about something else and on down the line until a series of understandable but critical failures of empathy - don’t yell at your secretary, don’t cold-call people about duct cleaning - sets the table for the nuclear. That Adam stops it is because he shares that same fallibility and knows that punishing humanity for it as a requirement for Divine Inevitability would be unconscionable. But when Armageddon arrives, humanity has literal dick-all to do with it. We get this lovely buildup with the Four Horsemen the entire book - Revelation says they will be present at the Day of judgement so its time to get the band back together. The narrative of the book fixates of the Four Horseman’s ride to the airbase, with the understanding that once they arrive Armageddon will begin because everyone is congregating on that place at this time. So the Four Horseman arrive and... and the disguise themselves as some generals to get on the base, they break into a computer vault, and then... Jesus, War personally fucks with a computer and then Pollution personally corrodes the counter measure systems with Death and Famine stand around and watch (so much bloody standing around watching the plot happen in the part of the book) them do it, at which point all the nuke silos all over the world open up and countdown begins. What. THE FUCK? Humanity is irrelevant to the end of the world, exception in the broadest sense where they had these destructive weapons in the first place. But they also had extensive security systems that the book notes are really good until Two Supernatural Beings Broke In And Destroyed Them. There is no human element in Armageddon: all that chatter on the radio about rising tensions and increased stress? Meaningless. The book’s whole point about evil lurking in the hearts of every ordinary person - that really anyone is capable of being good or evil on a given day, and that one angry secretary is as capable of starting the end times because of a telemarketer as any raving dictator with their finger on the button? Irrelevant. As much as War and Pollution are said to be mere embodiments of humanity’s failings, existing solely in ‘THE MINDS OF MAN” (baffling in and of itself had Pestilence not been swapped-out for Pollution, because lets be honest that would have meant waving a hand at everything from the Black Death to AIDS and calling its source moral failing which what the fuck, T&N?), they’re all actually characters with agency and personality and will. Which means within the context of what’s happening Armageddon is caused by two characters going out of their way to FORCE it to happen.

(It’s! Shit! The book right here? Shit. All the keen oft-comedic insight as to the nature of the human condition is throw away in this moment. A book that seems so devoted to making a reader think seriously about complacency, about letting evil slip on by because its not wearing a big scary mask (and god how prescient that seems in times like these - how horrible correct it was that we were complacency in the 80s and the 90s and didn’t notice the evil rising all around us), drops the ball here and doesn’t require humanity for its climax.

"I don't see what's so triflic about creating people as people and then gettin' upset 'cos they act like people," said Adam severely. "Anyway, if you stopped tellin' people it's all sorted out after they're dead, they might try sorting it all out while they're alive.”

That’s a great sentiment, Adam. Only nobody is this moment is cross about people acting like people because nobody had - the world nearly ended because some Non-people willingly broke shit. Also, in the context of the novel - it being détente and glasnost and the Tear Down This Wall speech and Zhao Ziyang making reforms in China and on and on - as far as anyone could tell people WERE working it out. The book notes this explicitly, in fact:

“...reports available to us would seem to, uh, indicate an increase in international tensions that would have undoubtedly been viewed as impossible this time last week when, er, everyone seemed to be getting on so nicely.”

Again: Armageddon isn’t caused by people. So when Adam tells Heaven that if they just back off people might be able to sort things out for themselves, well... they seemed to have been doing just that, book.You yourself said so. And the end times were brought about by non-human actors.)

So Adam and his friends confront the Horseman and “defeat” them through some last minute cosplay. Why? No clue. The imagery is great but I don’t know why they do it - the Four Horseman are heralds of the end times, and perhaps its chorus, but now they’re villains that need to be defeated I guess (even though Adam fixes what they did with a wave of his hand anyway). Newt and Anathema arrive on the scene because Agnes Nutter told them to, and they get to the computer, and now maybe poor bumbling Newt is going to have to fix a computer when he’s only ever broken them while Anathema... stands there Jesus God... except... except Adam waves his hand and fixes the computer making Newt’s presence irrelevent. Well, still, more book to go, maybe they can pull something good out of this. Armageddon may have fizzled out, but it’s still The Day of Judgement and the Last Battle. Newt and Anathema might not have fixed the computer, but the are here at the airbase, and they make the most of it by doing nothing, providing nothing, and being needed for nothing. Shadwell and Madame Tracey are there - Shadwell is the vessel for Aziraphale, and once he’s out he stands at the sides with A&C and prepares to march with them on the combined hordes of hell and heaven. Except that that doesn’t matter because Adam makes a gesture and gives a nice speech that’s sadly unrelated to to the world as described by Good Omens up to this point, and the Hordes of Heaven and Hell shuffle their feet and decided to go home for a bit to have a good long think about some things ha ha ha how droll. And the Then, oh no, SUDDENLY Satan himself appears - I guess its time to take our issues to upper management, surely Godot- I mean God - will come to and - oh, nope, Adam waved his hand again and its just Mr. Young in his shitty car (that really should have been a Wasabi what the heck, T&N?). It’s anti-climatic. I don’t mean from a standpoint of dramatic irony, I mean everything falls apart in the book as the story comes to a screeching halt. Here you have a reasonable collection of painfully ordinary people (hella white and straight people, but its 1990 we’re not terribly woke yet) - not Generals, not Presidents or Prime Ministers, not Corporate Titans or Dictators or anyone “Important” - just ordinary people present at the End of the World. And what is it in the ineffable plan that requires all these people’s presence at the End Times? Nothing really. Just think about this for a moment. Think about what OUGHT to have happened here. Not a battle, not a fight, not a war - we know from Endgame how disappointing it is to have to sit through a big dumb set piece battle that nobody seems to want: boring slog. No, what OUGHT to have happened is the power of humanity: that these ordinary nobodies come together and halt the end times, make the Legions of Heaven & Hell see - if not reason - then at least reconsider what’s happening, or even confront Satan himself not with the virtue of Saints but simply because they have what made Aziraphale and Crowley fall in love with the Earth the way they did: the charm of humanity. If an angel and a demon can both be redeemed by the love of humanity’s virtues and vices, its deeps and faults, then why couldn’t Satan himself do the same? Well, because Adam fixed everything with a few hand waves and a pissy speech so that’s all that solved. nobody but him needed to be there - not even A&C, who just end up commenting on the action while standing around like everyone else. It’s barmy. No wonder my brain erased it, choosing to remember the book at its best when it was still scaled to humanity. The book ends up having failed to make any of its points stick - the ordinary evil men do has nothing to do with Armageddon so its probably not something we should be terrible concern about - that just us loveable old humans doing as humans do. We learn that if Heaven and hell just stepped back and let people talk things out maybe the world would get better - but that was the case at the start of the book (prologue notwithstanding), and nothing that happened in the book adjusted that in any way.It has a point to make about the unfairness of Moral duality in Theology - except that Adam is parodically virtuous and contains no real evil so.. yeah, Good is great, actually, what was the point you were making, book? The book has a point to make about the value of ordinary people: if you need someone to stand around and observe shit get ordinary people, they’re great last standing around and not meaningfully doing anything.

And don’t even get me started on things like Anathema’s passivity. Look at her character: she passively lives her life by the prophecies until the day after the End Times Newt says ‘hey do you want to be a descendent for the rest of your life’ and Anathema has an epiphany - Oh, No, I Don’t, I Want to Live my Own life On Its Own Terms - and then they burn the sequel Agatha wrote instead of following it. But that’s… aaargh, Jesus, so many problems with that. The moment of epiphany is meaningless because if Agnes-The-Prophet (who would presumably have known that her manuscript was to be burnt) hadn’t sent it, Anathema was free anyways and would have had to live her life as such regardless. You could argue ‘but this way it becomes an active choice rather than a passive acquiescence to something she can’t change’ but the problem is that her decision isn’t rooted in anything except a comment Newt makes. Nothing happened to Anathema that has in any way affected her relationship to Agnes Nutter or her life as a decedent: in the book Anathema talks a lot about prophecies, lends a kid some magazine, boinks a guy who crashed his car, takes him to a military base, does nothing while watching the world end, goes home and boinks the guy again, and then has her memories of a large portion of the last day or so erased by the Anti-Christ. So when Newt asks ‘do you want to be a professional decedent all your life” why would she say “no”? She’s spent her life devoted to the prophecies, even become a watch as some kind of career, and what sense do we have in the story that she is dissatisfied with that? The only disappointment we get is that she’s kind of let down by Newt being not terribly handsome - but that’s Newt’s issue, not Agnes’. The book wants Anathema to realize that she is now ‘free” of living by prophecy - but she doesn’t ever give the sense that she feels imprisoned by prophecy. She seems to feel like its a mark of distinction, and nothing over the last day - even the shit she can’t remember - has done anything to change that. There’s a version of this story where Anathema repeatedly demonstrates that she feels powerless in life: that all her choices were chosen for her, even something as outré as becoming a witch, and so when Newt asks her that question she looks back over the events of the last few days - or even her life - and makes the decision to say ‘no’ as a natural extension of her recent experiences. In this version of the book she and Newt would have to have actively made choices at the airbase of their own free will in contradiction of what Agnes said MUST and WILL happen, and because they did that things are better than Agnes said they would be.

But that doesn’t happen, and instead we get the version where Anathema burns the sequel because Newt’s in her life now and having a man to point out the obvious is what all women need. That’s not what the book is trying to say but this-time-round that’s how it read to me. If Newt had had to run up to London for a couple days and she got the manuscript in the mail she would have kept it, because why wouldn’t she?

(Gosh, Newt. One last point: I hated Newt. Maybe ‘schlubbly ordinary dope who gets the girl’ was revolutionary in 1990 but thirty years of pathetic nerd heroes getting the girl have left me only able to focus on the pathetic. He gets to be the the Jen to Anathema’s Kira - a completely useless dolt who gets lead around by a capable woman who knows everything and has all the skills but he still gets to be The Hero because, well, he’s the dude. He gets to bumble around the missile computers at the climax at the book, framed as a hero while Agetha stands there and pleads with him to fix things. He spends his time getting horny for Anathema and thinking sadboy ‘maybe I’ll get to touch a girl for once’ crap - which made my skin crawl oh sweet Jesus. Basically just fuck that guy and his whiny Pitiful Loser Nerd attitude.)

Look, when the book is good, it is SO GOOD. “Shadwell hated all Southerners and, by inference, was standing at the North Pole” is one of the great lines of literature. Famine and the dieting meals that kill you? Genius. The individual prophecies of Agnes? Wonderful. Shadwell seeing her in a vision (which, alas, comes to nothing because Shadwell having a change of heart about witches comes to nothing really)? Poignant. The Hell’s Angels? Wonderous. The incredible, perfect, oh god I adore is so much defence of the virtues of Rural English life at its best - full of foibles, yes, painfully human, yes, liable to contain shitty old Tories who put people into power who’ll plow it all under for suburbs, yes - but yet, at the same time, wonderful, too. Worth preserving. Worth fighting for. yes yes a thousand times yes let’s seeing a song about it:

youtube

Sure, some of the stuff hasn’t aged well (there’s a bit abut First Nations people that comes to mind), but most of it has - and some of it as bold for its time as it remains now. I frequently found myself thinking “this book is much too complicated for Tumblr” - the Tumblr world of Good or Bad doesn’t really have room for Shadwell, the indiscriminate racist with the heart of gold. Parts like that had me shaking with laughter - I can still recite whole scenes to you with manic glee. But the ending is a mess. It’s bad, actually - just outright bad. The book starts great. It ends terribly. It’s a crushing disappointment to go back too - and when I heard the story on the show was going to be super-faithful to the books I went “shit - but the book’s a bit rubbish on the story front. All the good bits are the characters interacting and the side stories and comedic asides - the actual story is a confusing mess.” That’s why I hope Neil Gaiman brought the writing chops that gave us The Doctor Wife and not, y’know, Nightmare in Silver.

In conclusion: man I remember Good Omens being a whole lot better. (Also, I remember more of Adam’s Gang having more to do, and they didn’t, and they’re all great and that’s a shame.)

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primrose-path-of-dalliance · 6 years ago

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Lotor’s end (?) in s6

i gave in to my terrible impulses and wrote a three-part essay about lotor. it's literally >9k and i ignored all of my other projects for this for over a week. rip.

in these three posts, i talk a lot about lotor from a sympathetic pov. so if that's something that makes your fandom experience uncomfortable, go ahead and ignore this post because it's not for you. stay healthy, and i can only promise you that i hold lotor accountable for every shitty thing he's done (especially when it comes to withholding info from allura because seriously, what bullshit). on the other hand, if you are a person who hates lotor as a piece of evil garbage because ???? fandom and purity culture thought it would be a great idea to hate him without looking very hard at the work the writers put in to make him more complex than the actual pure evil bastard zarkon himself that we already have... i challenge you to read on. do it. i dare you. (at the very least so you might hate him with a better understanding of why.)

so tl;dr: this is the "in this essay i will" meme followed through, if i started talking about how lotor's not a pure evil bastard and is instead the perfect example of a protagonist gone sour through 10,000 years of poor coping choices, oppression, and a lot of actual resentment, as well as a neat talk at the end where i break down lotor's breakdown.

toc 1: i shake out some salt and talk about the altean colony | 2: i question why people keep insisting lotor was "evil all along" | 3: i talk about my favorite parts of lotor’s breakdown

i take a lot of my knowledge and inspiration from @radioactivesupersonic, who writes some awesome meta. (seriously, thank you clockie. you are amazing.) so while i might specifically cite posts of his throughout these three posts, expect his ideas to be everywhere lol. please check him out if you have the time, he's much better at this meta thing than me. (for safety purposes, i'm gonna disclaim: i did not consult with him on anything. so while i synthesize with a lot of his stuff, my thoughts are not necessarily his and i take full responsibility for that shit.)

anyway, i don't make meta posts a lot nor have any good idea of what a good structure for one would be. so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"even after season 6, you still like lotor?"

fuck yeah my pal.

"but why? he's clearly terrible and evil! he killed thousands of alteans and said he was going to conquer the universe, destroy voltron forever, etc.!"

i mean, yeah. but i'm gonna soapbox for a second.

number one: nothing precludes me or anyone else from loving the shit out of an evil character. we're not personally invested in the story in the sense that we have real stakes involved. they're fictional characters, and we are the audience. nothing they've done has any bearing on our reality (barring general patterns that can be established by media as a whole) and therefore it's not our moral responsibility to throw down terrible judgment on a person who isn't real, even if they've done horrible shit.

i'm not saying one can't acknowledge or dislike a character who's a bad person. lotor himself has done terrible things, and if you could not give less of a fuck about him, that's highkey your prerogative and i champion your freedom to have your personal preferences.

but we're not the characters who live in that world. we're spectators to a fictional story, and one thing that means is that we have no obligation to anyone to personally hate a villain, no matter what they've done because put simply, nothing they've done is real. no one has ever been harmed by a singular fictional villain.

the purpose of the villain and their actions is not to be hated by the audience, but to help tell a story. hopefully, they're also helping to paint a picture of the variety of people, perspective, and experience in a respectful manner.

there's a strong trend in fandom now toward purity culture, where we're expected to hate anything that isn't perfect, and that's such a goddamn lie. nothing is perfect. nothing ever will be. we can't reasonably expect that level of performance from content creators.

and what does "perfect" even mean? social justice is an extremely nuanced topic, colored by individual perspective on what's right or good. there's never going to be an ideal piece of media that hits every spot perfectly because there are an infinite number of spots, and what they are changes in importance with every person.

so when it comes to storytelling, we need to focus more on what's practically possible. what's practically admirable. for me, ideally, that's "what have they accomplished? is this story illustrating the richness of human (or alien) experience? and how?"

this includes villains.

number two: i don't believe lotor is a villain in the sense that he's Evil or even necessarily irredeemable. from a personal perspective, i'll direct you to this post (link), which basically sums up my view on forgiving people who've done bad things. but from the third-party perspective as well, lotor isn't someone to find reprehensible or evil—at least, not to the level a lot of other people seem to be compelled to. let's break this down into more questions.

"lotor has killed people for his own personal gain! abused countless alteans, who already experienced a genocide!"

(allura is right there with you guys.)

yes, he did. i don't deny his crimes a single bit. the personal gain point may be arguable, but it still doesn't really make it better.

firstly: this is also addressed to those people who are stalwartly defending lotor's goodness by saying that romelle must have been lying. i haven't read any of the posts myself and only heard some of the points secondhand, and that is because the theory sounds like a load of bollocks (link).

this isn't something out of character for lotor, as much as i might want to believe so. it's really, really not, and i fully acknowledge that. we already know that lotor will do anything to survive if he finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place. that was what happened to narti.

lotor does have good morals. he has an absolute shit ton of them that, honestly, i don't know how to explain in detail without making this post twice as long as it's already going to be. he cares about individual life. he campaigns for conservation. he values people's cultures and would much rather work alongside them than dominate them. he's not cruel or sadistic like many of his peers in the galra empire, and he favors those who are discriminated against. and no, i don't believe any of these were an act. i can point to word of god for the most supportive proof—that "part of Lotor, a portion of Lotor, maybe all of Lotor, is coming from a very genuine place" (link).

(if you want deeper explanations about why these conclusions are accurate, please check out my #voltron meta tag and @radioactivesupersonic. especially him.)

but as it's been established, lotor is willing to break his morals if he feels he's faced with an ultimatum: survive, or die. victory or death.

"but that's a galra chant! he said it during the trials at oriande, and he was unworthy because of it. doesn't that prove he's really selfish at heart and will destroy anything if it means he gets what he wants?"

no. and also another no.

those two links go to really good arguments against that line of thinking. but let me sum it up: lotor has lived 10,000 years with an abusive father in an empire that considers his half-galra status lesser and despises his altean blood especially, and spent much of that in disgraced exile.

"victory or death," to him, doesn't mean that it would be better to die than to accept a loss, as when it's used by his galra peers; it means that he has to win, or else he is left to the mercies of his foes. and none of his foes have ever been merciful. he can never trust that one will ever be.

survival is lotor's most important victory in an empire that has been either apathetic to his existence or outright antagonistic. it represents his entire struggle of living—that he has to stay alive in order to win, and to a lesser extent, that staying alive in his universe is winning.

of course, lotor has larger motivations than merely surviving that he will protect just as ruthlessly. from a general perspective, one can hardly blame him for that. surviving isn't exactly living and being happy, especially in a universe that oppresses people like him, and he wants an escape from the corner he always seems to find himself boxed in. to a slightly lesser extent, he wants to create an escape for the countless societies oppressed under the empire as well. that's where his desire for infinite quintessence comes from.

"so you're telling me that he felt trapped in a corner and forced to break his supposed morals to use countless numbers of his own people as a fuel source. how the hell does that make sense? what trapped him? didn't he have other options? and how does this justify what he did?"

i'm not claiming that lotor was justified in any way. that is a fair grievance for people to have, and frankly, what he did was horrible and ugly and made victims of an already fragile colony, including romelle and her family. understanding the 'why' of what someone did is, shockingly, not the same as justifying them. (and i don't believe people look for the 'why' enough, when understanding the 'why' is an important step toward preventing the 'what'.)

maybe lotor had other options. there's not a lot of exposition that happens in this show, in-story or in interviews or otherwise. there isn't enough information about the canonical process of quintessence collection, or about quintessence in general, to say for certain if lotor could have done something less egregious in his treatment of the altean colony.

either way, he had to harvest quintessence. the likely possibility as to why? the galra empire was limiting his resources, both because he was an exile and because he knew they (particularly haggar) might be watching, and he couldn't let them piece together his plans to usurp power. he needed quintessence in which he controlled every part of the creation process, and he needed to hide as much of how he was using it as possible. the easiest way to do that was for him to get his own source.

contrary to that assertion, i don't believe lotor first created the altean colony with the intention to use them as a quintessence farm. i believe he genuinely cared about preserving what was left of altea, similar to how he cares about preserving culture in general. this would be consistent with his previous characterization as well as lm and jds's assurances that he was coming from a genuine place. most importantly, even according to romelle's story, the second colony is never depicted as an idea lotor conceived from the start. it came much later, after the first colony was well-established.

it's likely that lotor originally had other sources of quintessence, since throk mentioned his possession of multiple colonies in s3e1, or that he hadn't yet come up with his plans in their entirety. maybe haggar or zarkon caught wind of certain plots and thwarted them, destroying his sources in the process. (we certainly get the impression in s3 and s4 that lotor coming up with rebellious plots isn't a new thing to either of them.) maybe his ambitions and travels gradually revealed themselves to need more quintessence than he'd expected. purchasing quintessence from any suppliers would have required an income, a relatively time-consuming and unreliable endeavor that might not have gotten him much in exchange. any quintessence supplies he might have acquired using his identity, if he could acquire any, would almost certainly have been monitored—how much he took, where he received them—to the point where use of them would be incredibly risky. he might have also morally disliked using empire-produced quintessence, since they would've been harvested using empire methods (i.e. "caring about colonies whomst?"). at least with his methods, he would know he wasn't destroying them without regard. either way, whatever previous sources of quintessence he had became too limited an amount for his operations. he needed more.

i get a strong impression that people don't understand what he could be using quintessence for. but we see it everywhere in the empire, in voltron, and in the castle of lions—it's the primary energy source of vld's world that powers machines, fuels ships, assists in experimentation, heals injuries, even prolongs life. nothing else compares. lotor wouldn't have needed it personally for the latter purpose, but one can't exactly travel the universe on an empty tank. without quintessence, he would've essentially been dead in the water. additionally, considering that the quintessence shows up in places not explicitly related to lotor, the fact that we see galra soldiers accompanying lotor on the altean colony when we know he was in exile, and the amount of resources he must have been supplying to the colony in secret, it's also possible he was using it to bribe people into doing things for him and staying silent. it probably would've been effective; it's described as an especially powerful form of quintessence, and he was the only source.

anyway, lotor needed quintessence he could control entirely without having to fear discovery and subsequent destruction. the altean colony was his only colony that he could be reasonably certain the empire would never find. and in true lotor fashion, the first defense he asserted was that he saved what was left of altea from the empire, despite the horrendous crimes he was committing, and could now stop his quintessence farming with his access to the quintessence field. technically, we don't even know whether all of the alteans taken to the second colony are dead (link). the man romelle saw there was still in the tank, as many others must have been.

lotor might have been planning to eventually heal them by using the quintessence field. of course, even if that's true, lotor still took away years of their lives, lied to them and their families, and drained them to near-death. the experience must have been traumatizing. and who knows how well they would be able to recover, if at all. it's little comfort.

(editing, i feel compelled to plug this analysis by @radioactivesupersonic of lotor's arc and relationship with allura as a vampire story because it's interesting as hell, pounds out what i've just said further, and is something i read prior to writing this up so i may have unconsciously stolen from it. (i can only promise that i completely forgot about it until i went looking for all my links rip.))

nevertheless, lotor's first priority for the altean colony was always to preserve them—even if he eventually, essentially started treating them as a renewable resource with his farming's effects on the survival of his people and culture as environmental impacts. make of that what you will.

"if lotor is such a decent person who loves altea and wants to end the galra empire, why didn't he team up with voltron from the beginning? he was around before season 3! why didn't he show up earlier?"

that, my friend, is a good question i've puzzled over too. i have an answer.

number one: lotor has been in the habit of effectively working on his lonesome for about the past 10,000 years and canonically displays a wealth of paranoia and trust issues. teamwork isn't usually the first idea that comes to mind to someone like lotor.

number two: we get a very dramatic hint toward this in the climax of s6 (can't wait until we reach that part!), as well as during his invasion of puig in s3, but i believe lotor didn't have much confidence in voltron's capabilities during the period of s1 and s2 or for some time afterwards. he's a very cautious and careful player, learned from millennia of working against the interests and conventions of an extremely powerful empire.

and if we all remember correctly, voltron lost 10,000 years ago. granted, alfor sent the lions away rather than risk zarkon gaining control of the black lion, but it was still him and the other paladins against zarkon. victory should've been within reach, and yet they lost. so 10,000 years later, voltron appears to have returned, and none of those fears have been assuaged. who are these random newcomers to pilot the lions, and how could they possibly succeed where the original paladins didn't, when they don't even have the might of armies behind them? zarkon could still retake control of the black lion. additionally, lotor's own feelings towards voltron (and symbolically, king alfor) as a savior are extremely complicated. (you cannot believe how excited i am to talk about that. just wait.) he's not going to risk everything he's worked for on a wild card he's incredibly unsure will manage to make a dent. it would even make zarkon stronger if they lost, and therefore his father, one of the people he most wants to avoid the attention of, would be coming after them in a frenzy.

even after the s2 finale where voltron critically injured zarkon, he finds them insufficient. they create the coalition, yet he can essentially retake puig in the span of an hour with a team of five attackers.

clearly, they still weren’t well-equipped enough to stand against the galra empire. it would be in lotor's best interests to avoid voltron like the plague unless he was certain they wouldn't be crushed. so he did just that.

i suspect that before the voltron coalition grew into its own, lotor was planning to independently start a coup of some kind. it would've been pretty easy with unlimited quintessence. but after he was declared an enemy of the empire to be killed on sight, when voltron had gained significant strength and organized rebellion against the empire alongside liberated planets became a genuine and effective possibility, he joins them—right after their surprise attack liberates a full third of the empire and shocks the galra off his trail. the coalition was finally a basket he felt secure putting some of his eggs into.

(part 2)

#voltron #voltron meta #vld s6 #lotor #readmore #long post #prim post #prim says some things

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skinshifts-blog · 7 years ago

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hello hello! i’m julia, and i’m a big hot mess 24 / 7. let’s kick things off!

* CHRIS EVANS & CISMALE / / here we’ve got MORRISON BARLOW, the THREE HUNDRED AND TWO year old VAMPIRE - luckily, HE actually looks about THIRTY SIX years old. with a reputation for being + ALTRUISTIC, + LOYAL, - STUBBORN, and - SHORT-TEMPERED, it’s surprising we haven’t heard more about them. MORRISON has been around faulk hollow for THIRTY - THREE YEARS, but they ain’t leaving anytime soon. you hear TROUBLEMAKER by GRIZFOLK? that means you’ll see ‘em soon. ( penned by julia / 18 / mst / she/her )

this is all a wip right now because it’s 8:05AM and i haven’t really gotten my shit together yet, but here’s the basics:

name. john morrison. alias. morrison barlow. species. vampire. dob. may 23rd, 1715. place of birth. a small town in what is now southern carolina. it’s lost to history. tropes. deadpan snarker, determinator, jerk with a heart of gold, reformed + rejected, what the hell, hero? build. beef. there’s a reason i chose chris evans. call me vain.

took on the name morrison barlow shortly after leaving his home in carolina - his reasons for leaving are his own, and not publicly shared.

turned and then taught by an englishman vampire in ‘51, and stuck by him for longer than he’s willing to admit to. the colonies won, the british left, and with them went morrison’s sire. he found himself stranded without much preparation for it, and the impact of the abandonment definitely had some formation in who he is today. sure, he’ll stick to whoever he thinks deserves it like a fly to honey, but with that comes a fierce short temper from fear of being left again.

took up residency in new orleans up until roughly 1985 before moving northwards. he knows he’s supposed to move frequently, but new orleans made him feel at home; he didn’t see much of a reason to go when no one was hunting him.

kinda touch and go? he’s picky and moody on the best of days (or should i say nights? ha ha, please laugh at my bad jokes) and enjoys his privacy when he can get it. he’ll do his absolute best to avoid going out in the day, even when it’s the dead of winter. it’s not his bag and it makes him feel uncomfortable, like he’s under a public spotlight ---- even if he knows it isn’t true.

has yet to turn anyone, but he can’t say that he’s never felt the need to. that desire for companionship and pure bloodlust most sires and dams have talked about over the years is still very much there. he’s just got a better handle on it than he did in his younger days.

#faulk.intro #me making myself confront why i chose chris evans as a fc like 🔪 BITCH #hi i love yall OKAY OFF TO CLASS I GO uhhhhh let's plot tho!!

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thehandmaidstalehulu · 7 years ago

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The Handmaid’s Tale is the latest in a long run of small-screen book adaptations to announce that it will continue beyond the end of its source material. And unlike the novel that inspired, say, Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, Margaret Atwood’s book doesn’t tell a closed-ended story, leaving open endless storytelling possibilities within the world of Gilead.

Season one left only the epilogue of Atwood’s book untold, taking viewers right up to the point where June (Elisabeth Moss), having finally rebelled openly against Gilead, is whisked away in a black van to destinations unknown, while Moira (Samira Wiley) escaped from the brothel and made it across the border to Canada.

So what exactly will season two of Hulu’s deservedly lauded adaptation look like, when it returns in 2018? Here are six of our best predictions for what’s to come.

1. We’ll see Emily in the Colonies.

The number one on basically everybody’s wish list for season two, whether you’re asking viewers or actors, is to see the Colonies. Sure, there’s an argument that this toxic hellscape, where the condemned are sent to pick up nuclear waste until their skin “peels off in sheets and they die,” is more powerful left to the imagination. But now that we know Alexis Bledel is coming back as a series regular in season two, a storyline following her character Emily into the Colonies—where she was surely sent after publicly running over that soldier—is close to a sure thing.

(Side note: Am I the only one kind of shipping Emily and Moira? I know they have shared exactly 0 seconds of screen time, but it’s not just that they’re both gay women—they’re both such natural born rebels, and such indomitable spirits. My great hope for season two is for them to at least interact.)

2. June will become a new kind of captive.

Before June is led away into the black van by government soldiers, Nick—who is an Eye and effectively one of them—murmurs that she should go with them, and to trust him. Now, on the one hand, Nick has luscious eyebrows and well-defined muscles and seems very sincere about wanting to protect the mother of (probably) his baby. On the other hand, he’s basically a blank slate, and could turn out to be his own brand of controlling misogynist.

I can easily see a season two where June ends up somewhere seemingly safe, under Nick and the Eyes’ protection, only to realise she’s now a new kind of captive. Now that she’s pregnant with his child, maybe Nick feels some ownership over her. And if it turns out Nick has used his influence with the Eyes to engineer this black van scheme and get June out of the handmaid life, isn’t that just one more example of women only having value when they’re pregnant? TL;DR: I don’t like Nick, I don’t trust him, I don’t ship it.

3. Redemption for Serena?

This is maybe an outside shot. After the finale—in which Serena callously taunts June with the sight of her kidnapped daughter Hannah but doesn’t let them reunite—I was pretty sure I had no interest whatsoever in any attempt to redeem this sociopath. Serena’s backstory as a televangelist and “domestic feminist” didn’t seem to leave a lot of room for her to see the light about Gilead, but it’s been increasingly emphasized throughout the show that she’s powerless in ways she didn’t expect to be. Her career is over, her marriage is a sham, and no one can even read her books. Could the loss of her second Handmaid, June—especially just as she has conceived a child—coupled with her husband Waterford’s general jerking around, pave the way for a change of heart? Plus, Yvonne Strahovski is so fascinating in the role that I’m into the notion of Serena becoming more of an anti-hero, purely for that reason alone.

4. There will be consequences for Waterford.

If nothing else, Serena is going to make him suffer, right? Their infuriating showdown in the finale, where she confronted Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) about his infidelity and he responded by telling her “You answer to me,” prompted her to finally put him in his pathetic place. She’s no longer pretending to be the dutiful wife, and his colleague Putnam’s grim fate seems to be foreshadowing his own comeuppance. Serena and Mrs Putnam shared a conversation where their husbands’ indiscretions were explicitly linked—and shortly afterwards, Putnam was punished by having a hand removed, at his wife’s request. Get worried, Fred.

5. Rita and the Marthas will play a larger role.

Right before June’s public rebellion against Aunt Lydia, she drew strength from reading scores of letters from Handmaids across the country, finally confirming that she is not alone. And as she’s being taken from the house, she whispers their location to Rita, who we later see finding them behind the bathtub. So if Rita wasn’t already involved in the Mayday rebellion, she sure will be now, suggesting that actress Amanda Brugel will have a much bigger role in season two. It would also be interesting to get some context on the Marthas—if you’re fertile, you’re a Handmaid, but not all infertile women become Marthas, so what’s the system? Again, I don’t think a world like Gilead benefits from being over-explained, and the show risks losing its intrigue if it gets too weighed down in world-building, but seeing more of the Marthas feels like an important piece to add.

6. A mind-boggling June/Luke/Nick/Waterford/Serena love pentagon is brewing.

Really though. Elisabeth Moss may have been joking when she told us season two would be “the most complicated Real Housewives episode you’ve ever seen,” but these dynamics are getting messy AF. June was married to Luke, and has a daughter with him, and while she thought he was dead she hooked up with Nick, whose baby she is probably pregnant with. But as a Handmaid, she was also forced to have regular sex with Waterford, so there’s an outside shot he could be the father; his wife Serena wants a baby at all costs, but at this point DGAF whose it is, and is also furious to discover that June has been her husband’s mistress. I’m exhausted.

It’s unlikely that all five of these characters will ever be in the same room together, but what a bizarre, charged scene it would be if they were. No matter what, June and Luke’s reunion is going to be in-ter-esting.

#the handmaid's tale #season two #elle #margaret atwood #elisabeth moss #article

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ladypjmoon · 7 years ago

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BTS FF Reads for July...

Greetings Readers!!!

Sorry this is a few days late—I like to post my reviews during the first week of each month—but it’s summer and I’ve been spending time with friends and family...while enjoying the sun and beautiful weather!

So, without further delay...here’s my BTS FanFiction recommended reading list for July!!!

Summertime was made for reading and these are some fantastically amazing stories I’ve had the pleasure to read—and, of course, cheerzzz to all these talented writers...and Thank You for sharing your beautiful works of art with the fandom!

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01) Title: Pull Me Closer

Ship: Yoonmin

Author: by Willow_Odessa2333

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/11002941

Summary: College!AU where Jimin can’t sleep without listening to a *certain someone’s* channel, and then hears someone in the library that sounds JUST like him, but brushes it off until..... Or in which Jimin meets Yoongi, the voice behind the anonymous live stream host he kind of fell in love with.

My Review: I’m starting you out with a sugary delight that’s so sweet it’ll give you cavities—so remember to brush after reading, lol! But seriously, this is Yoonmin at their most romantic—full of fluff and feels galore—and it’s sure to bring a smile to your face...so, enjoy!

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02) Title: Butterfingers

Ship: Yoonmin

Author: by ohdizzy

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/7848391

Summary: Jimin's life is no fairytale. But if it was, it'd go something like this. (Or: the AU in which Jimin is cursed to drop whatever he’s holding every time he sees the person he loves)

My Review: Here’s another Yoonmin gem where Jimin’s lost his creative edge and has a painting project due. Taehyung decides he needs a muse—enter barista Min Yoongi, covered in tattoos. The plot is pure love, the twist is Jimin’s cursed by the gods to drop things around the person he loves because he hates love and the friends to lovers ending is predictably cliché but beautifully done!

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03) Title: Come First

Ship: Yoonjin

Author: by jinified

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/10155545

Summary: “You could go in there, you know.” Hoseok suggests offhandedly. “No,” Seokjin says immediately with a dismissive shake of his head, “he told me to never interrupt him when he’s in there.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’m serious! We have an established boundary zone because—”

“Please don’t.”

“—we’re roommates.”

or: Yoongi has been in the studio too long and Seokjin tries to persuade him to leave. It doesn't go quite according to plan.

My Review: This shorty is pure Yoonjin smut and fun while the simplistic plot only adds to the air of humor and believability—I can actually see this happening...oh yes!

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04) Title: Dahlia

Ship: Yoonseok | Sope

Author: by signifying_nothing

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/8726908

Summary: witchchild jeongguk accidentally summons a pair of demons

My Review: I find the summary on this fic a little misleading because it’s actually quite a soulful piece of work. There’s a lot of meat to this one so don’t be surprised by the plot depth and fully developed characters. Make sure you’re heart, mind and soul are open when you read this one because there’s a fuckton of good questions that are sparked by this basic angel-demon theme. I loved this story a lot and those of you who like to read unusual story lines will too!!!

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05) Title: Daily Smoothies

Ship: Taekook | Vkook

Author: by Missmozzie

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/8291000

Summary: Taehyung likes smoothies, and so does Jeongguk.

My Review: I love awkward Taekook and this is a really cute college au with an added Yoonmin flare...enjoy!

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06) Title: Eternal

Ship: Jikook

Author: by staycute1234

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/6228838

Summary: Jungkook has been chasing Jimin for centuries.

My Review: This story spans a few hundred centuries following the vampire, Jungkook, as he waits for his soulmate, Jimin, to be continually reborn so they can be together for another human lifetime. There is blood and smut in this story but it’s sensual and not gore—however, if you’re the squeamish sort you might want to refrain from reading this one. For all you vamp-lovers, this is a fabulous story and a great read!

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07) Title: Finally

Ship: Vmin

Author: by rosiex

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/10577745

Summary: In which Jimin and Taehyung finally share their first kiss.

My Review: I adore this story—it’s quick but thorough! We follow Jimin’s thought process surrounding his first kiss with Taehyung...which is also his first time kissing a boy. Jimin’s mental dialog is genuine and detailed as he leads the reader through the physical and mental aspects that change his relationship status of his best friend from friend to lover. This is a great little story with a big emotional footprint!

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08) Title: Homefront

Ship: Namji | Minjoon

Author: by ACatWhoWrites

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/7998787

Summary: There were times Jimin felt a lot and didn't feel at all. Times before he was a dad that he'd rather never forget and times he'd rather never think of again. Times when he was alone and choking on ash and slipping in mud made of blood and exposed dirt. Times before dancing with his daughter to animated guitar music and planning dates to pick flowers in the park.

My Review: I don’t normally read fictions that portray BTS members are parents (not my thing) but this one grabbed my heart. This is a multi-layered piece that surrounds a soldier (Jimin) who’s past and military obligations overlap with his life as a single father. I love the underlying theme of finding love when and where you least expect it...because it reminds the reader there’s always hope!

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09) Title: Insanity (in G minor)

Ship: Yoonmin

Author: by neatospiffy

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/9575978

Summary: Yoongi is a pianist who runs a music shop in a small town. Jimin is his unlikely studentroommate? the music!au that nobody asked for tbqh heavily inspired by Yoongi's First Love, the piano version of Butterfly, and several Yoonmin fics I've read in the past.

My Review: I have a hard time reading plots about or with child abuse—however, since it was implied, not graphically depicted, I got through it fine. Most of the fiction revolves around how Jimin comes to live with his piano instructor and how their bond forms over a love of music...eventually, they fall into a romantic relationship. This is a very touching Yoonmin story that deserves your attention and will reward you with a happy heart in the end!

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10) Title: Meet The Parents

Ship: Yoonjin

Author: by rosiex

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/7851541

Summary: Yoongi predicts that meeting Seokjin's parents will be a disaster. He was right.

My Review: An honest and cringe-worthy account of meeting your partner’s parents and knowing they instantly hate you. I found this story both funny and sad as I suffered through second-hand embarrassment and dreaded the ride home and ensuing fight that had the potential to rip them apart, but doesn’t—with an ending that’s pure Yoongi...at least in my mind.

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11) Title: Never Judge a Book by its Cover

Ship: Jikook

Author: by whenIseeUsmile

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/9841067

Summary: Thanks to Jungkook's idiot best friend, he drowned the books he borrowed from the library. Now, he has to work there to work off his debt. He doesn't really like the job but that one boy that always has his nose buried in his books makes his days much better. Or in which Jungkook meets bookworm Jimin and falls harder than he thought he would.

My Review: This story is fabulous! It has a generous amount of fluff and feels along with a well-structured plot that flows easily, making it a great read—and it doesn’t hurt to that there’s a healthy dose of side Taegi either...can I get an Hell Yeah!

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12) Title: Passengers

Ship: Yoonmin

Author: by unclassified_senpai

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/9180250

Summary: The spacecraft Starship Avalon is traveling to a distant colony planet, Homestead II, a journey that will take 120 years to complete. The colonists and the entire crew are in Hibernation Pods, but a malfunction awakens one passenger, mechanical engineer Min Yoongi, 90 years too soon. A YoonMin PassengersAU.

My Review: You all know I’m Yoonmin trash (she said proudly) and this is Yoonmin in epic proportion! This is a must read!!! And, if you’re a stalker (like me) you can go read the comments I made throughout the story however, here’s a section of my last comment...

“Seriously, you did a spectacular job on this story and the research you put into it (behind-the-scenes) shows immensely! I love Yoonmin but in this setting...I don't know, there was just something so beautifully quiet and peaceful about the Yoonmin ship that I haven't found in any of my other reading travels. The characters were so truthful and exactly how I see them in my own mind, including all their pain and insecurities--somehow you managed to keep this same quiet echo through the entire series...which is a feat in and of itself. And Namjoon killed me--every chapter watching his body fade and fail was done with honest and painful simplicity...I cried more for Joonie than I did when Yoonmin separated after their misunderstanding.”

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13) Title: The 8 by 8 Rule

Ship: Taekook | Vkook

Author: by Rix

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/7344526

Summary: Jungkook drinks a lot of water. Taehyung's into it.

My Review: This is another story that won’t be to everyone’s liking so READ the TAGS! I laughed and blushed my way through this one because Rix’s sex scenes are off the MF hook! I enjoyed reading this one—but again, I love me some bottom Jungkookie so yeah...don’t read this one in church, lmfao!

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14) Title: sidereal

Ship: Vmin

Author: by darling

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/8029858

Summary: Here we observe the Earth and the Sun in their natural habitat: each other.

My Review: This story is another with the theme of domestic abuse—it’s heart-wrenching and bittersweet—with a happy ending but I caution you all to READ the TAGS for triggers! Darling is one of my favorite authors because of the unique perspective, style and voice...so I highly encourage you to read this or any other piece by this fantastic writer!

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15) Title: you have 1 new message

Ship: Namjin

Author: by bazooka

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/7481172

Summary:

r u n c h r a n d a.

fuck, this is going to sound like the weirdest shit. okay look i used ur selcas to catfish and this older dude is gonna buy me stuff but i have to send him a selca with a peace sign

~ * ~ pingkeu jin ~ * ~

hahahahahahaha wtf

My Review: This is a long one however, don’t be afraid—it’s written in a texting format so it’s a very fast-paced read. It’s Namjin centric with the other members contributing here and there but the plot spirals into a suspenseful thriller and has a great ending...that’s sure to put a dimple in your smile! ;)

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16) Title: Figuring It Out as We Go

Ship: Jikook

Author: by peppermint_wind

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/6078801

Summary: Jungkook never thought this would happen to him; eighteen years old and questioning everything he used to know. Staying up late watching gay music videos with wide-eyes, phone tucked to his chest, probably isn't helping him much, either, but what is he supposed to do when he realizes seeing two men together makes his whole body ache?

**Based off of Jungkook covering Troye Sivan's, "Fools."

"Jimin’s breathing begins to even, and Jungkook watches his chest rise and fall, steady and slow, like how waves wash up on Busan beaches."

My Review: A very sweet coming about Jungkook discovering and accepting that he’s gay and has feelings for Jimin. The feels in this story are deep and intense—it’ll make your heart beat faster, ngl!

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17) Title: breathing underwater

Ship: Taekook | Vkook

Author: by parallels

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/3604374

Summary: Taehyung meets Jungkook on an impromptu summer road trip to Busan.

My Review: This is an odd little gem that I really love—it’s very poetic and beautiful. I will mention that Taehyung almost drowns and Jungkook saves him so if this is a trigger for you please be careful as drowning is described with great feeling.

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18) Title: describe your ideal type here

Ship: Sugakookie

Author: by fruitily

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/11229873

Summary: he means well. this is what jungkook tells himself when taehyung shoves a sheet of paper in his face at eight in the morning when he’s mechanically shoveling cereal into his mouth at the kitchen table in sort of a dissociative state. TAEHYUNG’S MATCHMAKING SERVICES, it reads at the top in taehyung’s glaring handwriting. jungkook doesn’t even want to read the rest of it. or: taehyung makes a business out of matchmaking. yoongi smiles at jungkook at a coffee shop and it's really a downwards spiral from there on. both jungkook and yoongi probably need new roommates.

My Review: This story is wonderful! Sugakookie done well is always a good time but honestly, I absolutely loved Vmin in this one. The fact that you never know for sure if Vmin is a couple through the entire story is delightful and fun! Definitely read this one!!!

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19) Title: Good Job (with a G and a J)

Ship: Namseok

Author: by taetaetiger (sexyvanillatiger)

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/8045644

Summary: “Good, Hoseok," Namjoon says. "That’s exactly right. Very good.” Oh. Oh, Hoseok thinks. Oh, he feels crawling down his spine. Oh, he sits higher in his seat. Oh, he tightens his legs together and feels a rush through his stomach, through the insides of his thighs, through his groin. Oh.

My Review: A college au story with brilliant Namjoon tutoring Hoseok at Seokjin’s request. This story is cute, funny and all-around a good read so add it to your summer reading list!

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20) Title: when the lights go out (run away with me)

Ship: Sugamon

Author: by JemKay

Link: http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/5690152

Summary: Yoongi’s soft when he’s tipsy, softer when he’s cold, and softest when Namjoon says “I

love you.”

My Review: God this story is “Chick-flick-central” and so worth your time an effort—Namjoon is precious and Yoongi is his spitfire-self that melts in Joonie’s hands—this is a beautiful love story...so check it out!

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Alright, that wraps up my listing for July—it’s a long one because it’s summer and most of you have extra free time on your hands...I know I do!!! So, hope these keep a smile on your face during daylight hours by the pool, lake or beach!

As always, let me know if you’ve fallen in love with a certain story and send me the link so I can check it out!!!

Happy Reading and see you all next month!

^___^ PJ

#bts fanfics #taekook fanfic #vkook fanfic #jikook fanfic #namjin fanfic #sope fanfic #yoonseok fanfic #sugamon fanfic #sugakookie fanfic #namseok fanfic #vmin fanfic #yoonjin fanfic #namji fanfic #minjoon fanfic

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under-the-lake · 8 years ago

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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The film: Deeper First Impressions - Part 2: Law

Wizarding History-wise: Mainly Law

In my first part, which was rather short, I dwelled on immigration laws and speakeasies. The Roaring Twenties. This time I’m going much more gloomy, creepy and even scary. I’m exploring the relations between Wizarding communities and Muggles, and Death Penalty. It’s a bit tougher than the first part, but it’s so important in the film that I reckon it’s capital to be discussed.

Again, feel free, and please do so, to comment or express your doubts or opinions :)

Rappaport’s Law: the Whys and Whens

You might wonder why I’m talking about that, but it’s not totally pointless. Just read on. :P

In 1790, Emily Rappaport, then the 15th President of MACUSA (MACUSA - the Magical Congress of the United States of America - was created in 1693), passed a law that imposed total segregation between Magical and Non-Magical communities. It followed one of the most serious breaches of the International Statute of Secrecy a few years before.

The breach came from within MACUSA.

Rappaport had a trusted Keeper of Treasure and Dragots, Aristotle Twelvetrees. He himself had a dim-witted daughter called Dorcus, who was more interested in fashion and parties than magic. One day, Dorcus met a Muggle called Bartholomew Barebone, who was a descendant of Scourers (see below). Like all Scourers, he believed in magic, and was firmly convinced all wizards and witches were evil. Dorcus, besotted, showed Barty some ‘tricks’, and took his interest to face value. He, however, was genuinely but malevolently interested in what she had to say, and tricked her into answering delicate questions about MACUSA and Ilvermorny. She also happened to tell him how both places concealed their existence to the Muggle world. She was so stupid that ‘be a Dorcus’ became slang for being an idiot.

Having gathered what he needed, Barty (btw Barty seems to be a doomed name in the Wizarding World) stole Dorcus’s wand, showed it to all the journalists he met, gathered a small group of friends and set off to eliminate all the wizards and witches in the neighbourhood. He also printed leaflets with the addresses of suspect people.

He was so entranced by his mission that he shot at a group of people near a ‘suspect’ building. He thought they were wizards, but turned out to be Muggles. The Muggle police arrested him and MACUSA was very relieved they did the job for them.

This led to Dorcus being imprisoned for a year, the uncertainty of every Muggle in contact with Barty’s information being Obliviated, and the creation of Rappaport’s Law.

The Law states that wizards are not permitted to marry or even befriend Muggles. Penalties are strict and harsh. Communication with Muggles was to be limited to the very minimum. It ended up with MACUSA working totally independently from the Muggle government in the USA, whereas there was always co-operation in Europe. It also had that side-effect of Muggles being considered more and more as a threat in the USA, and the wizarding community going more and more underground.

Rappaport’s Law was still strictly followed in 1926 when Newt arrived in New York. So much so that there is a copy of the book in the offices at MACUSA. It is a handbook that is commonly used when tackling offenses to the Statute of Secrecy.

In the 1920s

By 1920, the USA and most of the world had gone through World War One, where both magical and non magical communities fought alongside each other. The old order of the world was dead, the USA were rising as a new power, the United Kingdom was starting to lose its colonies, Europe was the stage for Revolutions and inflation, unemployment and anger. Many people tried to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

While US wizards had done their bit in the war, and one may think that the co-operation with Muggles on the front might have softened MACUSA’s position on Rappaport’s Law, nothing of the sort happened, and the sort of pure-blood ideal of MACUSA was carried on. (Nothing to do with the pure-blood ideal Europe had through such families as the Malfoys or Lestranges, of course). Any breach was punished severely and the Muggles Obliviated immediately. In the film, Tina, after having been demoted as an Auror because of having nearly exposed the Magical community, has to wear an Admonitor Bracelet to monitor her movements. And later both her and Newt are sentenced to death under the chief of having broken the Statute of Secrecy.

MACUSA’s position about beasts, creatures, ghosts and spirits was also much more severe than what Europe stood by, which explains why Newt’s arrival is a threat per se. New York has banned the breeding (and I suppose, by extension, the keeping?) of magical creatures. So when Newt tells Tina he is there to buy an Appaloosa Puffskein, she replies ‘We closed that guy down a year ago. We don’t allow the breeding of magical creatures in New York.’ (scene 19)

At the end of the 19th century, a law was passed that required all witches and wizards of the USA to carry a wand permit (the equivalent of a driving licence in the Muggle world). Its aim was to be able to trace magical activity and identify perpetrators. Honestly, this sounds a lot like dictatorship to me. Like extending the Trace to beyond 17-year old people. Anyway, to enter the USA, Newt Scamander had to have such a permit, but as you know, he never got it. According to the script, he actually never applied (scene 24).

Death Penalty: Muggle World and particularly the USA

Death penalty has been a sentence in human history for millennia. However, for some centuries now, some countries have decided to get rid of it. In Europe, the last country to retain death penalty is Belarus (last execution in 2016) and the last to abolish death penalty (but for how long, now) is Russia (2009). The first countries were San Marino, in 1468, and Liechtenstein in 1785. By that time, the USA were barely born. Great Britain abolished Death Penalty in 1965 (Northern Ireland in 1973).

The USA today still have death penalty in 31 States and the Federal Government has the right to use it under special circumstances. However, the abolition of death penalty in some states goes back as far as 1846, when Michigan abolished it for murder, followed by Wisconsin in 1853 and Maine in 1887. Today, the crimes for which someone can be sentenced to death are mainly aggravated murder and crime against the State. However, each State has their own list of factors that can lead to a death penalty. Twenty people were executed in the USA in 2016.

The main execution method at the time of Newt Scamander was the electric chair, introduced in 1888 in New York, and soon adopted by other states. Hanging, often public, was also in use. In 1924 the State of Nevada decided to try a ‘less painful’ way of killing its citizen, and used cyanide gas for the first time. They tried to inject the gas in the culprit’s cell while he was sleeping, but that proved impossible, so they built the first gas chamber.

Wizarding World

In the Harry Potter series, there is no official death sentence but that of Buckbeak the Hippogriff. Humans aren’t sentenced to death by wizarding law in the UK. However, they are sentenced to Azkaban or to receive the Dementor’s Kiss, which can be related to a sort of death, but none of the two sentences is a plain and straightforward death penalty. In both instances, though, the condemned is fighting the sentence with some kind of will, or at least disagrees with it (usually).

In Fantastic Beasts, the death penalty exists per se for humans, and the condemned are tricked into dying.

Azkaban

Azkaban was not intended as a prison and Dementors weren’t created to guard it. It was the home of a weirdo called Ekrizdis, who dwelled deep into Dark Arts. When he died, and the house became plottable, the Ministry of Magic (MoM) sent people to have a look at the building. The least worse thing, according to the wizards who went to inspect the place, was that it was full of breeding Dementors. To make a long story short, Dementors were considered dangerous and to keep them confined to Azkaban the Minister for Magic of the time, Rowle, made it a prison. This was done after the International Statute of Secrecy had been adopted (signed 1689, established 1692).

Azkaban prisoners are described as getting mad at the contact with Dementors, who are sucking their joy and happiness, leaving them with their worst memories and despair. Most of them end up dying there. Of course, some fight and stay alive, like Sirius or the Death Eaters.

However, mostly, the life prisoners die in Azkaban, and a life sentence there can be assimilated to a sort of death penalty.

The Dementor’s Kiss

The Dementor’s Kiss is a sort of death penalty too, if you consider that losing your soul is dying. It’s a tricky question, the immortality of the soul. Basically in our society, we believe that soul is something immortal, be it a Muggle or Wizard one. So it would survive bodily death.

With Dementors on the loose, it’s a bit more complicated. See, if a Dementor sucks your soul, then only your body survives because its vital functions are untouched, but the soul is dead. As Lupin says when he explains what a Dementor is to Harry in his third year:

‘You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you’ll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no … anything. There’s no chance of recovery. You’ll just - exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever … lost.’ (PoA, Chapter Twelve, The Patronus)

Lupin also tells Harry that the Kiss is much worse than killing. And to a certain extent, it is, because the only thing that made you a ‘living being’ in the human sense of the phrase, that is, one with feelings and memories, which is the soul, has gone. You are only a mechanical and chemical thing working. Biologically you are alive, but that’s about it. I wonder if you can communicate, though. If we concentrate on Lupin’s sentence ‘you’ll just - exist’ that means that you are only a body and not a person anymore, so you wouldn’t need to communicate. Would you eat? Drink? Would any of your bodily needs reach your brain? I suppose so. Primary animals and plants who don’t have a way of feeling like we do still react to stimuli, are aware of their environment, feed themselves and live, biologically speaking.

The body will die eventually, anyway, because it is mortal. The soul couldn’t move on whatever happens to the body, because it’s been sucked out and probably destroyed by the Dementor.

So is the Dementor’s Kiss a death penalty? No. It is worse than death, because even the soul gets killed, so no part of the person can move on.

MACUSA Execution Chamber

In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt Scamander is sentenced to death by MACUSA (in the person of Percival Graves) on the charge of bringing an Obscurus to New York City and breaking the International Statute of Secrecy (scene 65). Of course, Graves knows the Obscurus in Newt’s Trunk is harmless and hasn’t caused any disruption, but he wants Newt out of his way, while himself tracking Credence, an Obscural, in order to use him for his plans. He’s Grindelwald, after all.

The death sentence here is plain and straightforward:

‘[...] you are therefore guilty of a treasonous betrayal of your fellow wizards and are sentenced to death. Miss Goldstein, who has aided and abetted you -[...] - receives the same sentence.’

By the way, Graves says he’s informing Seraphina Pickery himself about the death sentence, but I have a strong feeling he won’t do that.

The Execution Chamber… it’s horrid.

It looks like a mix between the most used method of execution in the Muggle USA at the time, namely electric chair and gas, and the ducking stool, which was a common way of punishment until the early 19th century.

The link with the chair is pretty obvious. The gas would have been used (and is still used) to make the condemned unconscious before he dies properly. The condemned is actually encouraged to inhale the gas deeply to accelerate the process. That’s barbaric.

The ducking stool is a chair made of strong wood, usually oak, that was used in Europe and the first American colonies as a punishment. The condemned was strapped to the chair and the chair was ducked into water with the help of a long wooden beam. The condemned, usually a woman, was then immersed a number of times decided by the jury. That is ducking. It was a scolding method, yet it was sometimes fatal to the condemned.

Now MACUSA has sort of similar methods.

The Interrogation Chamber is a low-ceilinged, metallic, black, cold, suffocating place, situated underground. Not much hope when you enter it.

The Execution Chamber is called the Death Cell. It is white, and has a weird pool in it, full of a strange potion. You enter this place via a black metallic corridor. The chair is floating over the pool. It’s a bit like a giant Pensieve (that was my first idea, and then when I read about the concept art and creation of the Cell it came out it was partly true). David Yates, the director, wanted it to look ‘clinical, cold, austere, frightening’. It certainly does look so. It looks like a hospital cell for severe mental illnesses from forgone times… On the other hand, if you consider the way MACUSA is treating people, they are aliens. As such, they are treated as alienated, mental, weirdos, not fitting, and above all, threats to the Wizarding Community of the USA. Look at pictures of asylums. The Death Cell is exactly modelled on that. White. Cold. Inhuman. Dead.

The fact that it is located so far underground that the very foundations of the Woolworth Building (siege of MACUSA) are visible ABOVE the floor level suggests secrecy, an atmosphere of a mortuary, where both living and dead dwell together. It increases that heaviness and the scary atmosphere of the place.

The liquid in the pool is a bit like the Veil in the Death Chamber of the Department of Mysteries in the London Ministry of Magic. It’s a Gate to the Beyond. The difference resides mainly in the fact that the Veil is not the Killing Means. It’s a mere gate, even if Harry was drawn to it and that he could have died had he stepped beyond it. Yet its first object was never death per se, but hosting the dead. The Silvery Liquid in the Pool of MACUSA Death Cell is way more dangerous. It is the Means of the Death. The way MACUSA executes their condemned.

When Newt and Tina arrive at the Death Cell, the executioner, Bernadette, extracts Tina’s happy or positive memories from her head and pours them into the pool, which begins to show them, like in a Pensieve, while Tina’s expression has become vacant, and she has instantly calmed down from the panic state she was in on entering the room. As if she had been Obliviated (yet she’s not). Tina watches her own childhood memories and smiles. When Bernadette asks her if she wants to join her mum in the pool she nods, still vacantly. Only when the memory with Credence appears does something happen in Tina’s head.

Tina ends up on the chair, yet not strapped like on a ducking stool. She’s still gazing at her memories. The whole aim is to make her so dizzy and absent as to agree to step into the pool and die (of which she wouldn’t be aware of anymore, being bewitched by her own good and nostalgic memories). The potion then rises and engulfs the condemned and their chair into a bubble of lethal liquid which, if my memory is correct, is also very corrosive.

In Fantastic Beasts Tina and Newt escape. But how many have gone through this and willingly jumped into the potion or been swallowed by it? This new series of Wizarding World films seem to explore darkness and justice on yet another level than the Harry Potter books. Not saying it’s Darker. I mean Horcruxes are scary enough. I mean exploring human ways of killing. This one is really barbaric.

Moreover, the fact that the room is white and the executioners are dressed in white smells strongly of psychiatric hospital. It points again to the fact that those sentenced to death are weirdos, aliens to the community. After all, they were sentenced for treason.

The condemned actually are drawn into committing suicide… so that MACUSA wouldn’t be feeling guilty? This is totally deranged.

Sources for part 2

Kaspi, André, Les Américains, I. Naissance et essor des Etats-Unis 1607-1945, Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1986 (last edition exists, printed 2014), chapter 9

Pottermore, History of Magic in North America, Writings by J.K. Rowling

Boboltz Sara, Let’s Talk About That Messed-Up Death Penalty In ‘Fantastic Beasts’ For Just A Minute, Huffington Post, 19.11.2016. Link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lets-talk-about-that-messed-up-death-penalty-in-fantastic-beasts-for-just-a-minute_us_582f07cde4b058ce7aaa9c28

Capital Punishment in Europe, wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Europe

Capital Punishment in the United States, wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States

History of the Death Penalty, Death Penalty Information Centre: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/part-i-history-death-penalty

Sehon Scott, The Soul in Harry Potter, in The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy - Hogwarts for Muggles, edited by Gregory Bassham, Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, Wiley, 2016, pp. 7-21

Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Bloomsbury, 1999

Rowling, Joanne K., Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - The Original Screenplay, Scholastic, 2016

Gas Chamber, wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_chamber#United_States

Cucking Stool, wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucking_stool

Salisbury, Mark, and MinaLima, The Case of Beasts - Explore the Film Wizardry of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Obscurus Books, Diagon Alley, London; Harper Collins, London, 2016

#Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find THem #Death Penalty #Rappaport's Law #Louhi #Azkaban #Dementor's Kiss

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kindabraveandlittlestupid · 6 years ago

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A Love/Hate Review of the movie Black Panther and my thoughts on feelings on this MCU addition. Please note these are just my feelings and thoughts on the film, its an opinion and I am simply one guy from the internet so if there is something you agree with (great) and something you disagree with (also great) just know I am not looking to have a fight over an opinion, which lets be frank have very little influence over the real world and your own like/dislikes.

After watching the trailer and months later stepping into the movie theater, I carried with me three concerns I hopped the movie would address. The first was noting Wakanda’s isolationism in the trailer wondering why a country so advanced would allow so much chaos to go on around them which was addressed and also a main plot point in the movie carrying some good political messages with it. A+. The second was a concern for the score of the movie worried they might go the way of Blade or Daredevil letting a bunch of artists put some random songs to the movie which would feel out of place but instead they opted for the orchestra with some heavy influences from proper African music. A++. The last prejudgment was the suit being bulletproof which I could get behind with Vibranium but somehow not being affected kinetic energy (momentum) from a projectile IE AK 47 being shot at him close range. Which he would have jerked back after being shot but instead shrugged the bullets and absorbed their energy. D -. Call me a stickler but I take the Neil deGrasse Tyson approach to movies and let science influence my opinion when watching while the kinetic energy could be absorbed he is still wearing a soft flexible suit which would have had him bruised and on his ass during that first convoy attack scene.

With those three concerns addressed going into the movie, I found there were some things I loved about the movie and somethings I hated as well. I know not everyone will agree with me on this but like I said its an opinion and we all have the right to be critical of art. It's once you go from being a critic to making personal attacks against other people or the actors/crew themselves that your opinion doesn't matter anymore... looking at you Star Wars Fanboys attacking The Last Jedi.

Shuri (Love) Getting past the immediate point that I think she is beautiful, she is easily my favorite character in the movie. She injected the humor, was a proper heroine and above all else the smart girl in the movie. I don’t know why it's so important to me personally being a white guy and all but I been wanting to see a female scientist role filled by Black Woman. Perhaps it was the fact Ghostbusters 3 had that chance but dropped the ball with Leslie Jones, The Martain had a bunch of white astronauts and only one of them was Latino, Marvel itself had been lacking a smarty character who wasn't Stark or Strange, or perhaps Geostorm (god knows why I watched that movie) had a black astronaut female but I can only remember her in one scene. I know lots of people got excited for Black Panther for its dominantly African American cast (no love for Luke Cage?) but to me personally seeing Shuri as the inventor of Wakanda was the major win in the movie and I hope to see more of her in the next Infinity War and BP2.

Heart-Shaped Herb/Vibranium (Love/Hate) I am used to many films using a MacGuffin and/or Applied Phlebotinum where something or some item seems to have a cure-all effect for the storyline that explains everything away without explaining anything. The Force, the Infinity Stones, Asgard Magic = Science, and so on most of the Marvel movies utilize something like this so I am no subtracting points completely for Black Panther doing the same but whenever I asked questions about how Black Panther never gets bruised I hear (it's because of the Herb) and no one seems too eager to break down the ‘How’ aspect behind the story. With Stark we could believe in the concept of the arc generator powering his suit and keeping shrapnel from his heart, it was explained during the movie. Black Panther, on the other hand, felt like the writers kinda mumbling “Something something something Vibranium allows them to do it” without investing to the audience's intelligence that might be able to follow along with the logic. Maybe I watched too much Star Trek and appreciate a universe that had explanations and limitations for its fantasy tech but there it is.

Killmonger (Hate) Perhaps spoiled again by good writing in other movies or years of reading comics in both the DC and Marvel Universe but Killmonger (to me) was an underdeveloped villain that quite honestly seemed kinda forced on the internet community as "the Best Marvel Villain" which I honestly feel he isn't deserving of. Here is a list of reason why I don't think he was the best.

CIA Colonizer - I realize Colonizer is supposed to be at a sting for early white exploration building colonies around Africa, Asia, India, etc but hard to feel empathy for Killmonger when served their interests so wholeheartedly. He felt justified for learning their tactics by going to Afghanistan and racking up kills of people who were not colonizers at all just Afganies.

Dead Girlfriend - He seemed to have a relationship with one girl who was going to come back with him to Wakanda before Killmonger shot her in order to get to Klaw. I am aware this is supposed to make him look like a cold-hearted killer but its just another victim under his rampage towards the throne.

Civil War - The attempted to play up that this was his plan all along as some sort of calculated long game but the underhanded approach of trying to shame T’Challa only fractured the Wakanda people and undermind his legitimate claim to the throne. Not to mention the resulting battle ended up leaving hundreds of Wakandans dead on a battlefield when the two factions clashed.

A Stupid Fucking Plan - So his plan, in the end, was to export weapons to communities to fight ‘colonizers’ all over the world. Sounds like a solid idea but is it? It was one of those plans that were less sound the more you think about it. Was he going to deliver arms to who? Northern African Terrorists (Boko Haram) the same who kidnapped hundreds of school girls? Was he going to deliver it to inner cities in the United States where there would be massive collateral damage in black neighborhoods and where there is a real chance that some might use their weapons against each other first? If the mission was to simply sow chaos into the world then yeah its a pretty good plan to start distributing Vibranium weapons but that was not his objective, he claimed liberation which would lead to lots of bloodshed that would likely leave African Communities decimated along with most major cities.

So that's why I wasn't a big fan of Killmonger. His story was yes tragic but he adopted the means/methods of the people he hated. He seemed to have killed more of his own people or people in Afghanistan then he did any white oppressor. And lastly, his plan to dishonor T’Challa and deliver weapons around the world wasn’t a strategy of someone playing the long game but rather someone who was acting out in anger and emotion. If that is what makes him a good villain fine but I think Black Mariah tapped into that tragic backstory better.

M'Baku (Love) I suppose I liked M’Baku because he was clearly an honorable leader. Sure he challenged T’Challa for the Throne as was his right but when the others arrived to provide him the flower so he might fight Killmonger himself he instead revealed he saved T’Challa and gave the man who beat him in fair combat. He could have easily taken the flower and attempt to take the throne a second time. He could have let T’Challa float down the river to wherever but he chooses not too. Gotta show him some love for not letting temptation sway him.

W’Kabi (Hate) Not much character development invested into W’Kabi but he was presented as a friend of T’Challa and lover (maybe husband) to Okoye. I suppose what bothered me was how quickly he shifted loyalty from T’Challa to Killmonger. Not the long-standing relationship presented in the movie and also one that shouldn't have happened considering a 30-second conversation with T’Challa would reveal that Eric was working with Klaw and that the only reason WHY Klaw escaped was that Eric blew a hole in the wall. I wonder if there will be redemption for W’Kabi in the next movie or not. I certainly hope so.

Nakia (Love/Hate...Ok Love) I loved her and I hate the fact her role was so little in the movie (doesn't hurt that she to was easy on the eyes). I always appreciate someone who represents the altruistic part of society and isn't willing to sit back and watch the world burn around her. I struggle to think of any male or female character of the MCU who believes in that sort of behavior as purely as she did. Maybe Danny Rand (if he wouldn't shut up about being Iron Fist and training in K'un-Lun) had his altruistic moments by wanting to sell medication at cost but that isn't quite on the level of activity that Nakia was. Either way, I want to see more of her and see her a greater influence on T’Challa. Also, why didn’t she fly to Oakland to help Shuri setup the Wakanda Outreach centers?

Wakanda AI (Love) I know its such a small thing but think Trevor Noah is a great guy. The kind of guy we need more of in the United States to tip the scales away from the more conservative extremists. I was completely unaware he was in the movie and when I found out he was the AI for Shuri’s lab I went back to watch the movie a second time just to hear his voice. As a political nerd and just general nerd, I love little details like that laced into the film as ‘easter’ eggs and putting forward one of South Africas (and now Americas) greatest progressive comedians into the film made me happy.

Attack on Museum (Hate) I understand the whole first act was basically to help establish Killmongers character but his approach of working with Klaw for some reason seemed well... pointless. He could have any point shot Klaw threw his ass on an airplane and flown all the way down to Wakanda and challenged Black Panther for the title of King without any underhanded approach and ALL the tribes would have been loyal to him. I am sure some people think it was a way to disgrace the Black Panther but there was no way he could predict if T’Challa would kill Klaw or put him directly on one of their private jets and flown all the way back to Wakanda after the Hong Kong chase scene. Its one of those things that seemed to rely on chance to much instead of planning it out properly. I am sure someone will say he (Killmonger) tipped off the CIA so they would bring him in first but I dont buy that.

Oakland (Love) Perhaps a little bit too much of community pride is the addition of Oakland to the movie and me being a Bay Area local I am always a bit prideful when one of the local cities makes it into a show or movie. I feel San Francisco has always been our go-to city for movie magic in Nor Cal and even San Jose/Silicon Valley has become popular with the tech community dominating the region but its good to see the 510 get some love as well. Well done Marvel.

Conclusion So all and all Black Panther was pretty good. I think they should explain more the Vibranium and Heart Shaped Herb some more in next movie and apply some limitations. I think this movie has provided a great cast of strong women for young girls to look up too. An I am excited to see a part two and/or part three to the series. Even more so the conclusion of Infinity War.

If I were to put it into my top ten marvel movies...

Iron Man

Thor: Ragnarok

Avengers: Infinity War

Guardians of the Galaxy Part 1

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Spiderman: Homecoming

Black Panther

Guardians of the Galaxy Part 2

Doctor Strange

Captain America: Winter Soldier

Hope no one is upset its not my personal top five but I am trying to be honest with myself in what brought me the most joy. Look on the bright side I didnt add Blade or Deadpool onto the list which might have pushed some movies (including Black Panther) lower on my list. ^_^

With Regards Michael California

#MovieReview #Black Panther

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ghostlybouquetballoonstuff-blog1 · 7 years ago

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Why Travel To New Mexico

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consciousowl · 8 years ago

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Without Imagination … You’re History!

In life, we have our choice of three options:

1. Make History

2. Write History

3. Become History

If we fully use our imagination, and insist on living within the context of possibility, we can make history. If we draw on our imagination from time to time and appreciate what it offers, we can write history. However, if we refuse imagination, we have no choice but to become history.

Becoming history is to cling to tradition in a post-modern world, or to insist that the American Way is the only right way when the entire world is coming together in a new planetary order. Becoming history is to end up in a rut where we can no longer smell the roses or hear the songbirds.

What Is Imagination?

Imagination is our vision, our inner seeing and knowing. It is the avenue to creation. It goes beyond our ability to visualize new combinations of possibilities, and even fresh possibilities that were never before created. It is something that we all have, but which we appreciate only to varying degrees. It is central to what makes us human.

Reproductive Imagination is our ability to close our eyes and recall in great detail what lies before us, much like eidetic memory, where we can glance at a page, close our eyes and recite every word. It is an ability that illustrators and painters develop to a high degree.

They don’t simply see, they observe, they become what they perceive.

Synthetic Imagination is our ability to put together elements of our experience in novel ways to come out with something entirely unique. For example, automobiles change their models every several years. They still have the same basic features: bumper, fenders, hood, cabin and trunk. However, the way these features are shaped can change dramatically. Cars have been small, large, long, round and boxy. Same car, different looks.

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Creative Imagination is our ability to visualize something that has never been in existence before. The classic example is Thomas Edison creating the incandescent light bulb, after literally 10,000 separate attempts. Thomas visualized the bulb in his inner eye, but he couldn’t make it work, no matter what he did. Suddenly, the perfect solution popped into his head, and he became an immortal light bearer to humanity.

Why Imagination Is Supremely Important

Without imagination, we could easily jump off cliffs, being shocked when we landed in a heap. It allows us to foresee the consequences of our actions. It helps us to realize that, when we light a match, we could easily cause a forest fire should we be so careless. It helps us physically survive in countless ways, over and above pure observation.

Imagination has a deeper function in helping us realize that we are in love. It can take mere infatuation and propel your life to ultimate romance. Through imagination, a man feels what his sweetheart is feeling, and she feels his setbacks and upsets as much as if they were his own.

With sufficient imagination, we can stay young years longer, marveling at the intricate possibilities of life.

Imagination ultimately gives us the ability to both know and “see” Whom and What we call “God.” As the Apostle John put it, “How can you love God, Whom you have not seen, and fail to love your brother and sister, whom you have seen?” Imagination is informed by our deepest intuitions and lets us revel in the Mystery that forever continues to present Itself.

How Imagination Creates Your Reality

Olympic athletes often practice their sport with their eyes closed, inclined and totally relaxed. They do a mental rehearsal of their pole vault, and feel their heart beat and their muscles contract as they successfully leap over the tall barrier. Neurophysiologists have discovered that the same parts of the brain are actualized in visualization as in perception.

Reality is not really “out there” in the normal sense of the word. It is constructed out of our experience and interpreted through language. It is all contained within the field of our consciousness, just as the ocean engulfs all the fish within it.

It is our imagination that allows us to feel that this or that is “real.”

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Napoleon Hill advised people who wanted to accumulate money to visualize it as cash lying in front of them, to actually visualize the $100 bill right in front of you, all the while your eyes are closed. He postulated that if you see, feel and believe that you will have it, forces of the Universe would actually come together to make it happen, much as described in the powerful motivational film, The Secret.

Three Men Who Used Imagination to Create the Future

Many distinguished people have used imagination to achieve immortality, including Martin Luther King, President John F. Kennedy, George Lucas and more recently, J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter series. Three of the most useful people to discuss in this light engaged with the “real” world in very different ways.

Albert Einstein

Albert maintained that imagination is more important than knowledge. Although he was a good mathematician with solid reasoning skills, he wasn’t a great mathematician of the order of Sir Isaac Newton, who invented calculus and gave us classical physics. Yet through Albert’s thought experiments, he invented the Theory of Relativity, and made much of Newton’s work obsolete. What is even more amazing is that most of his thought experiments proved uncannily right, such as the idea that space is curved. His strange ideas were irreversibly demonstrated with the detonation of the world’s first nuclear device. Energy and mass are one and the same!

Steve Jobs

Steve was a vegetarian who meditated for hours a day, and traveled throughout India. He was obsessed with what he called “making a dent in the universe.” Steve felt that the best way he could do this was to make a computer that “even his mother could love.” Out of this work came the adorable Macintosh, which is as close to perfection as we are ever likely to see this side of heaven. To forever end people’s fear of computers, Steve gave it a “mouse” that people could hold and an interface that was foolproof. You couldn’t use the mouse the wrong way. Yet Steven wasn’t satisfied with this. He went on to create a device the size of a pack of cigarettes that could carry a whole library of records. He then turned that into a phone, and evolved it all into an ultra-thin notebook that could do almost anything a large computer could do, including play video for hours.

Elon Musk

Elon once applied to Netscape for a job in the early days of the Web. Nobody there took him seriously. He decided to create his own company, which became PayPal, a form of digital currency. Elon successfully sold that, and could have cashed out and lived in luxury for the duration. That wasn’t enough. Elon came across the early stages of making an all-electric sports car, bought it out, and then risked his fortune several times to make it the Tesla we all know and love. Yet that was not enough for him. He dreamed of a private rocket that could land itself back on the very aircraft carrier that launched it. Elon then proceeded to build Space X. If all that were not enough, he built affordable solar panels that could replace tiles on a roof with Solar City. You would think it was now time for him to retire. No, Elon is now immersed in a plan to build a colony on the Planet Mars. There is no limit to his imagination!

How You Can Develop Your Own Imagination

Imagination is like a muscle, in that it never permanently atrophies. You can always rebuild it through exercise, by placing increasing demands upon it. In my earlier years, I had a hard time consciously visualizing. Now it has come much more easily for me, perhaps because I am more fully engaged with digital media.

Imagination for most of us starts with dreams. It is fairly easy to create a dream journal. Studying the work of Carl Jung is a wonderful beginning, especially his beautifully illustrated book, Man and His Symbols. You might also want to consider a course in lucid dreaming.

Story telling is the basis for much imagination. When we were little children, “Let’s pretend…” was a natural expression.

Do you remember those times?

I could easily imagine with my eyes open. I could grab a stick, and it WAS a sword and I WAS a knight in shining amour.

You may not feel that you are a natural storyteller, or even joke teller, but you can now find numerous workshops in the art. What wonderful fun!

Mind Movies are a contemporary way to condition your mind to work night and day to attract good things into your life. With compelling music and appealing, positive images, you can easily project yourself into a wide variety of positive scenes that include romance, wealth and adventure. Software is now available for you to easily put your custom Mind Movie together.

Imagination Is What Makes Us Divine

Steve Jobs downloaded only one book into his own iBooks application on his iPad: Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda. Copies of this perennial best seller were given out to every one in his private memorial service. Yogananda came to America from India on a lifelong mission to fuse Hinduism and Christianity. Early on, he taught Americans to bend their knees and chant “AUM.”

He observed that imagination is the divine faculty that makes us in the Image of God. When you study the actual words of Christ as recorded in the Gospel of John, you find that Jesus was constantly using metaphors: I AM… The Bread of Life… The Light of the World… The Resurrection and the Life. That must actually be how the mind of the greatest Man who ever lived actually worked.

Can we afford to do any less? Time to seize our God-given birthright and exercise our imagination to the hilt!

Without Imagination … You’re History! appeared first on http://consciousowl.com.

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readbookywooks · 8 years ago

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The Pros and Cons

DURING THE PERIOD in which these developments were occurring, I had returned from a scientific undertaking organized to explore the Nebraska badlands in the United States. In my capacity as Assistant Professor at the Paris Museum of Natural History, I had been attached to this expedition by the French government. After spending six months in Nebraska, I arrived in New York laden with valuable collections near the end of March. My departure for France was set for early May. In the meantime, then, I was busy classifying my mineralogical, botanical, and zoological treasures when that incident took place with the Scotia. I was perfectly abreast of this question, which was the big news of the day, and how could I not have been? I had read and reread every American and European newspaper without being any farther along. This mystery puzzled me. Finding it impossible to form any views, I drifted from one extreme to the other. Something was out there, that much was certain, and any doubting Thomas was invited to place his finger on the Scotia's wound. When I arrived in New York, the question was at the boiling point. The hypothesis of a drifting islet or an elusive reef, put forward by people not quite in their right minds, was completely eliminated. And indeed, unless this reef had an engine in its belly, how could it move about with such prodigious speed? Also discredited was the idea of a floating hull or some other enormous wreckage, and again because of this speed of movement. So only two possible solutions to the question were left, creating two very distinct groups of supporters: on one side, those favoring a monster of colossal strength; on the other, those favoring an "underwater boat" of tremendous motor power. Now then, although the latter hypothesis was completely admissible, it couldn't stand up to inquiries conducted in both the New World and the Old. That a private individual had such a mechanism at his disposal was less than probable. Where and when had he built it, and how could he have built it in secret? Only some government could own such an engine of destruction, and in these disaster-filled times, when men tax their ingenuity to build increasingly powerful aggressive weapons, it was possible that, unknown to the rest of the world, some nation could have been testing such a fearsome machine. The Chassepot rifle led to the torpedo, and the torpedo has led to this underwater battering ram, which in turn will lead to the world putting its foot down. At least I hope it will. But this hypothesis of a war machine collapsed in the face of formal denials from the various governments. Since the public interest was at stake and transoceanic travel was suffering, the sincerity of these governments could not be doubted. Besides, how could the assembly of this underwater boat have escaped public notice? Keeping a secret under such circumstances would be difficult enough for an individual, and certainly impossible for a nation whose every move is under constant surveillance by rival powers. So, after inquiries conducted in England, France, Russia, Prussia, Spain, Italy, America, and even Turkey, the hypothesis of an underwater Monitor was ultimately rejected. And so the monster surfaced again, despite the endless witticisms heaped on it by the popular press, and the human imagination soon got caught up in the most ridiculous ichthyological fantasies. After I arrived in New York, several people did me the honor of consulting me on the phenomenon in question. In France I had published a two-volume work, in quarto, entitled The Mysteries of the Great Ocean Depths. Well received in scholarly circles, this book had established me as a specialist in this pretty obscure field of natural history. My views were in demand. As long as I could deny the reality of the business, I confined myself to a flat "no comment." But soon, pinned to the wall, I had to explain myself straight out. And in this vein, "the honorable Pierre Aronnax, Professor at the Paris Museum," was summoned by The New York Herald to formulate his views no matter what. I complied. Since I could no longer hold my tongue, I let it wag. I discussed the question in its every aspect, both political and scientific, and this is an excerpt from the well-padded article I published in the issue of April 30. "Therefore," I wrote, "after examining these different hypotheses one by one, we are forced, every other supposition having been refuted, to accept the existence of an extremely powerful marine animal. "The deepest parts of the ocean are totally unknown to us. No soundings have been able to reach them. What goes on in those distant depths? What creatures inhabit, or could inhabit, those regions twelve or fifteen miles beneath the surface of the water? What is the constitution of these animals? It's almost beyond conjecture. "However, the solution to this problem submitted to me can take the form of a choice between two alternatives. "Either we know every variety of creature populating our planet, or we do not. "If we do not know every one of them, if nature still keeps ichthyological secrets from us, nothing is more admissible than to accept the existence of fish or cetaceans of new species or even new genera, animals with a basically 'cast-iron' constitution that inhabit strata beyond the reach of our soundings, and which some development or other, an urge or a whim if you prefer, can bring to the upper level of the ocean for long intervals. "If, on the other hand, we do know every living species, we must look for the animal in question among those marine creatures already cataloged, and in this event I would be inclined to accept the existence of a giant narwhale. "The common narwhale, or sea unicorn, often reaches a length of sixty feet. Increase its dimensions fivefold or even tenfold, then give this cetacean a strength in proportion to its size while enlarging its offensive weapons, and you have the animal we're looking for. It would have the proportions determined by the officers of the Shannon, the instrument needed to perforate the Scotia, and the power to pierce a steamer's hull. "In essence, the narwhale is armed with a sort of ivory sword, or lance, as certain naturalists have expressed it. It's a king-sized tooth as hard as steel. Some of these teeth have been found buried in the bodies of baleen whales, which the narwhale attacks with invariable success. Others have been wrenched, not without difficulty, from the undersides of vessels that narwhales have pierced clean through, as a gimlet pierces a wine barrel. The museum at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris owns one of these tusks with a length of 2.25 meters and a width at its base of forty-eight centimeters! "All right then! Imagine this weapon to be ten times stronger and the animal ten times more powerful, launch it at a speed of twenty miles per hour, multiply its mass times its velocity, and you get just the collision we need to cause the specified catastrophe. "So, until information becomes more abundant, I plump for a sea unicorn of colossal dimensions, no longer armed with a mere lance but with an actual spur, like ironclad frigates or those warships called 'rams,' whose mass and motor power it would possess simultaneously. "This inexplicable phenomenon is thus explained away - unless it's something else entirely, which, despite everything that has been sighted, studied, explored and experienced, is still possible!" These last words were cowardly of me; but as far as I could, I wanted to protect my professorial dignity and not lay myself open to laughter from the Americans, who when they do laugh, laugh raucously. I had left myself a loophole. Yet deep down, I had accepted the existence of "the monster." My article was hotly debated, causing a fine old uproar. It rallied a number of supporters. Moreover, the solution it proposed allowed for free play of the imagination. The human mind enjoys impressive visions of unearthly creatures. Now then, the sea is precisely their best medium, the only setting suitable for the breeding and growing of such giants - next to which such land animals as elephants or rhinoceroses are mere dwarves. The liquid masses support the largest known species of mammals and perhaps conceal mollusks of incomparable size or crustaceans too frightful to contemplate, such as 100-meter lobsters or crabs weighing 200 metric tons! Why not? Formerly, in prehistoric days, land animals (quadrupeds, apes, reptiles, birds) were built on a gigantic scale. Our Creator cast them using a colossal mold that time has gradually made smaller. With its untold depths, couldn't the sea keep alive such huge specimens of life from another age, this sea that never changes while the land masses undergo almost continuous alteration? Couldn't the heart of the ocean hide the last-remaining varieties of these titanic species, for whom years are centuries and centuries millennia? But I mustn't let these fantasies run away with me! Enough of these fairy tales that time has changed for me into harsh realities. I repeat: opinion had crystallized as to the nature of this phenomenon, and the public accepted without argument the existence of a prodigious creature that had nothing in common with the fabled sea serpent. Yet if some saw it purely as a scientific problem to be solved, more practical people, especially in America and England, were determined to purge the ocean of this daunting monster, to insure the safety of transoceanic travel. The industrial and commercial newspapers dealt with the question chiefly from this viewpoint. The Shipping & Mercantile Gazette, the Lloyd's List, France's Packetboat and Maritime & Colonial Review, all the rags devoted to insurance companies - who threatened to raise their premium rates-were unanimous on this point. Public opinion being pronounced, the States of the Union were the first in the field. In New York preparations were under way for an expedition designed to chase this narwhale. A high-speed frigate, the Abraham Lincoln, was fitted out for putting to sea as soon as possible. The naval arsenals were unlocked for Commander Farragut, who pressed energetically forward with the arming of his frigate. But, as it always happens, just when a decision had been made to chase the monster, the monster put in no further appearances. For two months nobody heard a word about it. Not a single ship encountered it. Apparently the unicorn had gotten wise to these plots being woven around it. People were constantly babbling about the creature, even via the Atlantic Cable! Accordingly, the wags claimed that this slippery rascal had waylaid some passing telegram and was making the most of it. So the frigate was equipped for a far-off voyage and armed with fearsome fishing gear, but nobody knew where to steer it. And impatience grew until, on June 2, word came that the Tampico, a steamer on the San Francisco line sailing from California to Shanghai, had sighted the animal again, three weeks before in the northerly seas of the Pacific. This news caused intense excitement. Not even a 24-hour breather was granted to Commander Farragut. His provisions were loaded on board. His coal bunkers were overflowing. Not a crewman was missing from his post. To cast off, he needed only to fire and stoke his furnaces! Half a day's delay would have been unforgivable! But Commander Farragut wanted nothing more than to go forth. I received a letter three hours before the Abraham Lincoln left its Brooklyn pier;* the letter read as follows: *Author's Note: A pier is a type of wharf expressly set aside for an individual vessel. Pierre Aronnax Professor at the Paris Museum Fifth Avenue Hotel New York Sir: If you would like to join the expedition on the Abraham Lincoln, the government of the Union will be pleased to regard you as France's representative in this undertaking. Commander Farragut has a cabin at your disposal. Very cordially yours, J. B. HOBSON, Secretary of the Navy.

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