#The point was in part that the expectations are extremely inhuman. That the system treats them as unfeeling expendable cogs

[longagoitwastuesday]

I ran out of tags xD

All this could have been managed way better, but the ideas, if bittersweet, are coherent with the entirety of the text and they are good. NOW what I don't understand is the need to make the kids still take missions literally just ten minutes after waking up. Wasn't that the point?

I actually like the last chapter. I think the ideas are very good. I have my qualms on how some things were managed, as I always do, but I think shonen authors get tangled in the expectations of a shonen to the point it jeopardises their writing, often even when they're not lacking in skills

[lady-nightmare]

Google translation:

The expert talks about ordinary Russians. "They start behaving in a scary way"

The former Polish ambassador in Moscow told Wirtualna Polska about what ordinary Russians are like today. It turns out that we really don't know much about this nation yet. Włodzimierz Marciniak also talked about his vision of the future of Russia. The mood in this country is very worrying.

Russia has always based its policy on fear and threats. Many of us think that this country is remote and hostile. The success of Russian propaganda was to create a belief among others that they should be afraid of it. The situation changed in February 2022. After the invasion of Ukraine began, weaknesses came to light, gigantic corruption in the power structures, and above all, lies about its own military power.

Today in Russia, few people see the power, but it still inspires fear. Although we know quite a lot about this country, how well do we know the Russians themselves? Włodzimierz Marciniak, a sovietologist and former ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Moscow, talks about what the Russian nation really is like. As he claims, "in every stereotype we will find a particle of truth."

He knows Russian society inside out. "Programmed submission to expected terror"

Russians are educated but inhumane Russians are an uneducated, backward, cruel nation - we can meet such opinions about our neighbors very often. Negative sentiment is fueled by the fact that Russia has been conducting a brutal invasion of Ukraine for several months.

It is a country of highly educated people who look at social issues mainly from a technical nature - says Marciniak. - The phenomenon of the Soviet system was that a huge part of society was educated in conditions of lack of freedom of speech - he points out.

"In Russia, a man is a wolf to man" Russia is a country with over 143 million citizens. Its area could accommodate almost two Europes, and the entire country stretches across nine time zones. Włodzimierz Marciniak points out that there is no way to define Russians as a unity. The same applies to support for the actions of the Kremlin.

Russian society is extremely stratified. The degree of polarization in terms of property is huge, the expert points out. - Various sociological studies show that support for the war was clearly related to material status. Well-to-do people were willing to accept government policies, he adds.

The former ambassador reminds that in Russia the power was always held by those who could show strength.

Beliefs have formed that only individual survival strategies are justified and proven. When all people follow their own selfish motives, the strongest will always win. It can be interpreted that they need it. If there is no order, someone will naturally impose this order by fist, subordinating everyone to their own interests - says Włodzimierz Marciniak.

Russia is an extremely atomized society, man is a wolf to man - he adds.

At the same time, Marciniak points out that it cannot be said that the invasion of Ukraine is only "Putin's war". According to his words, nothing happens without permission.

Wondering if this is Putin's or the Russians' war, it makes little sense. The society is ruled by a dictator, but there is some synergy and a kind of shaky harmony between these parties, the expert said.

"A Russian sees his flaws in Poles" Włodzimierz Marciniak also talks about the attitude of Russians towards Poles. As he claims, the Russians need approval and respect to consider others as allies.

This society is a collection of narcissists. They are delighted with each other. Others are good when they admire them, says the sovietologist.

The man addressed historical issues between our nations. As he claims, the Russians never treated us as "one of them" - even when for half a century Poland was forced to be a political ally of the USSR.

Poles are not a mirror for a Russian. A Russian sees his flaws in Poles - says Włodzimierz Marciniak. - The Russians have always known that Poland is something else, that we are different - he adds.

What is the future of Russia? "Each version is worse than the last" Nothing indicates that Russia will change its political course and cease to be the opposite pole for the West. There is more and more talk that we are entering the era of "Cold War 2.0". Sovietologist Włodzimierz Marciniak also told Wirtualna Polska about his vision of the future for Russia. She is quite disturbing.

I have a feeling that something will emerge from this war that hasn't been there yet and will not be a repeat of the totalitarian USSR and I do not rule out that something even worse - he says. - In successive versions of the Russian imperial entity, each successive one is worse than the previous one. The one that emerges now could be even worse, he adds.

Marciniak notes that Russian writers described the already existing and changing nightmarish reality of Russia. Over the centuries, the way regimes functioned evolved, but retained similarities. - This system of repression is getting tougher, but it is still not massive - assesses Włodzimierz Marciniak.

If you look at Putin's biography, without the element of a criminal past, we will not understand this system of government at all. Something like an organized crime group has been taken over by the state - informs the expert.

"Their goal is to get rich, like any mafia," he adds.

The future of Russia in black colors

"Once, people who seemed decent - including those I knew personally - start behaving in a terrifying way," Marciniak admits during the conversation. - My friends used to speak human language and were considered liberals, today they say terrible things - adds the former Polish ambassador in Moscow.

Everyone has an instinct for self-preservation, and today's system is heading towards a "digital gulag", where instead of guards, barbed wire and dogs, electronic systems will perform the same functions as they do - he says.

Everyone thinks to save their own skin, but historical experience should suggest that if this roller starts rolling, it will crush everyone - sums up the sovietologist Włodzimierz Marciniak for WP.

[stormblessed95]

The ongoing discourse about that innocent puppy and/or living situation/s is so personally triggering as a gay person. The fact that it takes literally NOTHING for queer relationships to be invalidated is so clear now. You either share compromising details of your personal life on a regular basis or you are just performing queerness and closeness for a consuming audience. Is that where we are at? I know curiosity and the desire for neat, explicit 'answers' is human. But two people whose careers (and the careers of others), and lives would be compromised by certain revelations do not owe anyone that. Yes, revealing parts of our lives can be liberating and relieving to queer people in many ways. But this shit is complicated. Simple truth is the world does not treat us the same. If the world isn't safe for queer couples please do not expect address announcements or christmas cards from us. Don't expect us to make out on the bus or be open with people who find us inhuman and disgusting. Gay conversion therapy is still very much a thing that gets done. It isn't safe out there for all and complaining about a puppy means your priorities are out of order. Those of you clacking away on keyboards worrying about a puppy and what it all means and sending Storm these asks, can we stop pretending there aren't serious systemic obstacles to consider? Kind of sucks that every detail about Jungkook and Jimins lives is set up as having to either prove or disprove a queer relationship. They have to be defiant, self martyring unicorn gays or be seen as disingenuous. That's just unfair. Having privilege isn't problematic in and of itself until it compromises your ability to recognize the struggle and unfairness faced by others. Turning something as vulnerable and personal as cohabitation into a battle ground is the perfect example of this.

Anyway love your blog Storm

Noooo! Because I just want to give you a GIANT hug for this. This is exactly it. And literally right before I opened my inbox again and saw this, I was over on Twitter talking to my bestie about literally EXACTLY this. Same wavelength, you and I. But also just sooo true.

Everything you said. Exactly. On point. 100% with you on every word. Preach it!

I'll add what we were talking about too. About how heteronormitive all this discussions are, because that's what it comes from. The NEED for queer people to continuously PROVE their queerness or their relationship. Emily Blunt and The Rock seemed to be quite good friends. Giggling and teasing each other through interviews over the movie they co starred in. Even making jokes about the romance they played. And yet I have never seen a single person question their personal relationships and marriages or if they are really together. I don't see people trying to use this as proof that Emily is on the outs with her husband or anything else. Yes, they also have the ability to be more open about their relationship, but contrast that with Jojo Siwa too. She is openly out and dating her girlfriend. Posting about her often, gushing over her all the time. Extremely openly queer. And yet now she is on dancing with the stars and there is constant speculation on her relationship, if they broke up, if her gf is jealous of her dancing partner. That her girlfriend hasn't been featured on her tiktok in a week so obviously they are distant and broken up. Regardless that people should instead be enjoying the chemistry she has with her dance partner, that it is going well, that her girlfriend has openly supported her doing this, and that her dance partner is not only straight but is married to another of the professional dancers on the show... it's ABSURD how ridiculous this all is and how love and relationships do not have to been "proven" as much if it's het.

And to bring it back to Jikook and BTS. They have given YEARS worth of "proof" but people jump at every insecurity possible. And yet, I get asks about is JK dating or crushing on some female idol because they legit just walked across the stage the same way and the same time and smiled politely at each other during an award show. Or the way the fandom has created some au level angst exes to Lovers or bad break up with Jimin and the idol from twice because they glanced at each other oddly a couple times. Lmao or how the lizkook ship is going strong off literally nothing. Or how I get asks on occasion about how Yoongi is straight when the man has literally told us that yes, he would date a man and described his ideal man before. Yet half the fandom takes it as a joke or something. Namjoon takes a ring off during an interview and buys a pair of baby booties because he thought they were the cutest things, and that's enough for the fandom to joke about and honestly even believe that he is married with kids, or at the very least has a wife. Yet he posts a bunch of photos of outings with the same guy and shares clothes with him and the same type of jokes about joon his boyfriend are delulu and we don't actually know, etc. JK and Jimin have given multiple hints to being queer over the years regardless of their relationship, yet comp het interview questions or a flirty glance with ARMY is all the proof people need to insist they are straight.

I get being curious. I get wanting to make sure you aren't being delulu. I get wanting to be logical and not make assumptions. Questioning things is fine, making sure you aren't going overboard is fine. But the latching onto the smallest of things, the tiniest of details, thinking that it disproves YEARS upon YEARS of moments and things they have told us. It's too much and all these little details, they don't really matter, do they? We don't need every intimate detail of a het celebrities relationship to believe it exists (Tom holland and zendaya for example, fans knew something was going on long before they said anything or were open about it or their feelings) so we shouldn't need every detail of a queer celebrities relationship to make it valid. Especially if it is technically a closeted queer celebrity couple.

Thanks for putting it all into words and sharing your thoughts here. I'm not totally discouraging these curious or insecure asks, they are okay to a point, but keep in mind how content works and is released and be patient. Relax and just enjoy content as we get it. Enjoy BTS and enjoy jikook as they are. We don't always have to question or answer everything 💜💜 love you all

[ritsushinbro]

My Critique of Rebuild of Evangelion's Characterization: I originally wrote this post on the Evageeks forum and decided to post it here. It discusses the relationship between Misato, WILLE and the pilots and whether it is realistic and in-character. Warning this post contains spoilers and is very long. Also has references to self-harm and suicide.

With each revelation that comes out regarding the measures WILLE take against Shinji and their own pilots, it becomes more and more unrealistic for me to the point where it's almost comical. Let's go through some of them here:

They wear the explosive DSS chokers 24/7 which will kill the pilots should they risk awakening an Eva.

They are kept in a single room rigged with explosives.

In Shinji's case, he is (intended to be) put in 24/7 solitary confinement with explosives fitted as well.

Shinji is escorted around the wunder whilst restrained on a stretcher. (NOTE: The only time he isn't, is when Sakura takes him to Ritsuko).

It is confirmed in another thread that Misato gave clear permission to the crew for them to shoot Shinji on sight if they suspect he is attempting to get into an Eva. 

Now let me attempt to deconstruct these measures one-by-one:

It is understandable that Asuka and Mari wear DSS chokers because after all they are pilots and there is a risk of awakening. However in Shinji's case, he is forbidden from piloting and so there is no risk of awakening (remember Ritsuko did not think NERV would come after him, so they had no reason to think he would escape). So why place the DSS choker on him? Well we have already established it is simply because they have a resentment against him; there is no special, pragmatic reason. Is this realistic? Well I would say no for reasons I will explain later but I can certainly understand why others may say it is.

I don't think I will understand why they would keep their two main "soldiers" if you will, in an explosively rigged room. I believe others have  stated that from a tactical point, it's an extremely dumb move on WILLE's part. After all, if Asuka and Mari didn't have plot armor, what's to stop Gendo from tricking WILLE into killing their own pilots with these explosives? How would WILLE stop Gendo then? Will they use Shinji? No, for reasons I will state later. And another thing, we know that their rooms were already fitted with explosives so why on Earth would they add extra after the events of Q (when they stopped 4th impact). What do they hope to achieve with more bombs? Make the pilots more "deader" than they already are? In my opinion, this doesn't even come across as paranoid but just plain childish. Is this measure realistic from a story standpoint? No not in my eyes.

We know they intended to put Shinji in a solitary cell as this is what they do in Shin. If it was solitary confinement on it's own, then I believe it would be a realistic measure that would happen in real life. However I believe the writers did not factor in the effects of solitary confinement (especially one that is rigged to explode) on fully grown men; never mind a 14 year old who's just come out of a 14 year coma. Many people think solitary confinement is a walk in the park so I made another post a while ago highlighting why that's not the case:

"I remember when before Shin came out people here theorized that if Shinji stayed on the Wunder, they would eventually softened to him and let him help in ways that wouldn't have involved piloting. However with these revelations it looks like they intended to keep him in an isolated room far from everyone else that is (presumably) rigged with explosives as well as keeping the choker on his neck. Not even allowed to freely leave his cell without WILLE's permission (it is unlikely they would let him out judging from these measures). 

Even though Asuka and Mari were treated like this as well, at least they had each other and were able to leave as they had responsibilities in piloting. But Shinji was forbidden from piloting and was to be kept by himself except maybe being checked up on by Sakura now and again. So judging from these leaks (we will have to wait to properly see the full context) WILLE intended to lock Shinji in solitary confinement.

I have copied and pasted some of the effects of Solitary Confinement from Wikipedia below:

“Psychiatric: Research indicates that the psychological effects of solitary confinement may encompass "anxiety, depression, anger, cognitive disturbances, perceptual distortions, obsessive thoughts, paranoia, and psychosis." The lack of human contact, and the sensory deprivation that often go with solitary confinement, can have a severe negative impact on a prisoner's mental state that may lead to certain mental illnesses such as depression, permanent or semi-permanent changes to brain physiology, an existential crisis, and death.

Self-harm: According to a March 2014 article in American Journal of Public Health, "Inmates in jails and prisons attempt to harm themselves in many ways, resulting in outcomes ranging from trivial to fatal." Self harm was seven times higher among the inmates where seven percent of the jail population was confined in isolation. Fifty-three percent of all acts of self harm took place in jail. "Self-harm" included, but was not limited to, cutting, banging heads, self-amputations of fingers or testicles. These inmates were in bare cells, and were prone to jumping off their beds head first into the floor or even biting through their veins in their wrists. A main issue within the prison system and solitary confinement is the high number of inmates who turn to self-harm. Many of the inmates look to self-harm as a way to "avoid the rigors of solitary confinement."

Physical: Solitary confinement has been reported to cause hypertension, headaches and migraines, profuse sweating, dizziness, and heart palpitations. Many inmates also experience extreme weight loss due to digestion complications and abdominal pain. Many of these symptoms are due to the intense anxiety and sensory deprivation. Inmates can also experience neck and back pain and muscle stiffness due to long periods of little to no physical activity. These symptoms often worsen with repeated visits to solitary confinement.

Social: The effects of isolation unfortunately do not stop once the inmate has been released. After release from segregated housing, psychological effects have the ability to sabotage a prisoner's potential to successfully return to the community and adjust back to ‘normal’ life. The inmates are often startled easily, and avoid crowds and public places. They seek out confined small spaces because the public areas overwhelm their sensory stimulation.”

And this is just for solitary confinement. There are so many other things going on with and happening (or could happen) to Shinji such as the things below:

Shinji being only 14 years old.

Shinji being abandoned and neglected by his father.

Shinji being coerced/emotionally blackmailed to pilot Unit 1.

Shinji seeing girls he cared for "die".

Shinji being in a coma for 14 years.

Shinji being told he has a bomb on his neck.

Being told it is because he is being punished.

Being told he cannot pilot the eva anymore (he is effectively "useless" now).

Have his former co-pilot and friend try and punch him after he thought she was dead.

[Potentially] being told he started NTI and devastated the world.

[Potentially] being told that the girl he tried to save is "gone" and that she was a clone of his mother.

Being imprisoned in a cell (presumably) surrounded by explosives and not being able to freely leave.

Be completely isolated from everyone except when being checked up by a girl who's father he got killed. (NOTE: Mari might want to see him so Shinji at least has her, maybe). 

Have his mother figure (the woman who made him pilot the eva the most) threaten to detonate the choker around his neck and blow his head off when he tries to leave.

With the above list, is it any wonder his head is so messed up? I understand the purpose of these films is all about growing up and taking responsibility but expecting Shinji to willingly allow himself to be subjected to the treatment WILLE had in store for him is pure, unadulterated masochism. Much of what was is written here can safely be considered cruel, inhumane and arguably, torture. 

There is a massive difference between taking responsibility for one's mistakes and just letting the whole world torture you because you did something bad. My main fear and problem with Q and Thrice is that their main theme, which is accepting responsibility, is equated with accepting unreasonably cruel treatment. And I just think that is an EXTREMELY unhealthy message to send to people especially if they are depressed or live in abusive relationships."

When you take all these into account, does it place into perspective how messed up Shinji would have been had he stayed on the wunder? This is assuming that they thought they would never have a need for him, but as we find out in Shin, they needed Shinji in the end to defeat Gendo. If Shinji never left with Mark 09 and Misato successfully kept him "protective" custody, then one of three things would have happened when WILLE actually needed him to save everyone:

A: He would not have been in the mental state to pilot Unit 1 and Gendo would have completely wrecked him due to shit synch ratios. 

B: He would have told Misato and co. to fuck off and die. We've seen this nihilism before from Shinji (after the 5th angel). His incarceration alongside the humiliation and guilt from wearing the choker will have ratcheted up by a million.

C: He wouldn't have piloted because he would have killed himself. There's only so much a 14 year old can take and when subjected to a fate that causes even hardened criminals to resort to self-harm, genital mutilation and suicide, then what chance does Shinji have? 

Now back to my original point, do I think this measure is realistic? I would like to say yes if it was the solitary on it's own, however when combined with the other things, then I think the chances of Shinji commiting suicide is extremely high to the point where it's not believable for him to continue as an anime protagonist. You have to make sure the protagonist goes through difficulty in order to experience growth and change, however if you make it too harsh (to the point of committing suicide) then it seems less believable that they live to continue the story. On a separate note, many people think that Shinji was immature for leaving with Mark 09 the first chance he got and that this is proof that he is, in Asuka's words, a "brat". But let's be realistic, if this story is about Shinji's growth and maturation, then how exactly would WILLE's treatment of him be conducive to that? The truth is WILLE's sheer hostility towards him would have completely stunted any emotional growth and maturation in Shinji and it would have destroyed the point of the film. Also no-one can argue that WILLE would have eventually "come round" or "softened-up" towards Shinji because even after 14 years they still don't trust their own pilots. So yeah, Shinji most likely would have been stuck in solitary with a bomb around his neck until he either killed himself or the war ended (but even this doesn't guarantee his freedom).

Regarding the stretcher business. I don't understand why you have to restrain Shinji on a stretcher when the kid has already surrendered himself and has come voluntarily. Maybe WILLE are just full of bondage fetishists; it would certainly explain the chokers as well. 

If the DSS chokers and the explosive rooms weren't enough, Misato actually gave orders to the crew to shoot Shinji if they thought he was trying to pilot again. At this point, I just think this is just overkill. I mean the kid has a bomb on his neck that prevents him from awakening an Eva, you intended to keep him locked up even though he can't really leave the wunder except with outside help and now you intend to shoot him if you think he'll get into an Eva. The problem with this, is that piloting an Eva requires all the bridge-bunnies to sortie the damn thing. Shinji cannot enter Unit 1 by himself, especially since the thing is being used as an engine so why do they assume that Shinji is capable of being Sam Fisher and sneaking into Unit 1? We see that Sakura and Midori are actually willing to shoot Shinji in 3.0+1.0 and do so when he merely suggests that he pilot Unit 1. But seriously what harm would Shinji have done in Unit 1 considering the fact that Gendo was already going to start another impact anyway? Why actively try and kill (or injure in Sakura's case) the only guy that can save your ass? One cannot argue that they were just being "desperate or panicking" because in Midori's case, she actually takes the time to confirm her orders from Misato. This shows that at least, she was still of lucid mind. This particular altercation just beggars belief in my mind and the fact that Misato actually gave those orders on top of all the other measures is absolutely extraordinary. So as you can imagine, I do not think this was realistically executed.

However, I can already hear some detractors say: "So what? Misato hesitated to detonate the DSS choker and also took a bullet for Shinji. She redeemed herself from putting the DSS choker on him and the kill-order for if they thought he would try and get into an Eva." 

And to those people I say….not really. There is an idiom attributed to Benjamin Franklin and it goes like this: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." How does this apply to Misato and Shinji's relationship? Well Misato wouldn't have had to hesitate to pull the trigger if she didn't put it on him in the first place. Misato wouldn't have had to take a bullet for Shinji, if she didn't give permission for the crew to shoot him in the first place. Let's take this following dialogue for example:

916-929:

Kitakami: "It's a good thing we got Major Shikinami back. But why'd we have to take that disease along with her?"

Aoba: "Just leave it alone. Better than Nerv still being able to use him."

Tama: "If he tries to get into an Evangelion, all hands have permission to shoot on sight. There's nothing to worry about this time."

Kitakami: "Come on, that's all for show. The last time he broke out of here, the Captain couldn't put him down. I've got zero trust about this time either."

Nagara: "He was a kid. I can understand why she'd hesitate."

Kitakami: "That 'kid' caused Near Third Impact and murdered my entire family!"

Hyuga: "Near Third was a consequence of what he did, not his goal. The Captain's doing her best to atone for that too."

Takao: "That's right. She's who Kaji entrusted with Wille, and it's our job to trust the captain."

We learn a few things from this dialogue. Firstly, the older WILLE members are much more understanding to Shinji and Misato's situation: Aoba and Hyuga understand that it's better to keep an eye on Shinji and that he never meant to start NTI, Takao is one who always trusts Misato's judgement and Sumire understands that Misato would have found it difficult to kill a child, especially one that Misato was close with. 

Secondly, it appears that the younger WILLE members (Midori, Sakura and Tama) are the ones that are fearful/hateful towards Shinji (NOTE: Tama is a strange case, he strikes me as the sort of kid that just follows what everyone else is feeling. He might not feel anything towards Shinji beyond what you'd expect). 

Finally it appears that most of WILLE crew members are actually reasonable people and are not the extremely desperate and paranoid individuals some people on the forum believe. Remember this is AFTER Shinji started the 4th impact in Q. The fact that some of the WILLE crew members speak of Shinji in this way, show they are capable of understanding. Most actually trust Misato and respect her judgement except for Midori, who questions Misato's capabilities in following through on her threats. 

Which brings me to my next point. Misato has had no hesitation in pulling rank in the past. In 2.0, she even has an altercation with Ritsuko, her best friend, right before they fight the 8th angel. Misato is a woman that will tell even her best friend to STFU, when it comes to doing what she wants. Having said that, (timeskip shenanigans aside) there's no reason why she couldn't have done the same with the younger WILLE crew members. She could have nipped all of it in the bud by telling Sakura, Midori and the rest of them that Shinji was groomed to cause NTI and it was not his fault.

Instead, despite being the captain that everyone loves and fears, she kowtowed to the crew's paranoia and had the pilots fitted with explosive chokers, put in explosively rigged solitary confinement and gave the order to kill Shinji if they feared the worst. This is the sort of thing that drives fully grown men to suicide, never mind 14 year olds that have just come out of a coma. Imagine if Shinji did commit suicide in his cell. Who would Misato and WILLE have turned to in order to defeat Gendo in the end? What if Gendo tricked WILLE into killing their own pilots with the explosives? They would be properly screwed then. If Misato actually cared, as we are led to believe from her hesitation to kill Shinji, then she would have told the rest of the WILLE crew to fuck off, instead of alienating and putting Shinji and the pilots in that much risk. Are we really expected to believe that Misato placed such extreme countermeasures on Shinji just to appease Midori and Sakura? Not likely. This is why I believe that Misato would not have put the DSS choker on Shinji in the first place, and her doing so in Q was extremely unrealistic and out of character, even with anything that happened during the timeskip.

Some of you will say: "Who cares about realism? It's a show about aliens and growing up." While this is true, Anno has proven that he is able to pull the themes off much better when you look at the NGE series. Disregarding the self-contained narrative, it is obvious that the purpose of Q was to bring Shinji to the same point he was at after episode 24 of the series. If we look at how NGE/EOE handled Shinji's depression, we see that it is quite realistic:

The neglect and coercion by the adults in his life, almost dying to angels multiple times, the sexual tension with Asuka, almost killing Touji, finding out Rei is a clone of his mother, Misato putting the moves on him and having to kill Kaworu all culminate towards Shinji's mental state during EOE. Shinji is passively suicidal but it's due to the *situation* and his own introverted tendencies instead of people actively trying to hurt and isolate him. He finds the will to live again due to his mothers words despite knowing just how difficult living might be. If you remove all the Evas and the Angels from the story, the themes that are touched upon (isolation, neglect, misunderstanding) still apply and the audience can still resonate with them. 

The rebuilds however go about it completely differently. They bring Shinji to that same suicidal state by having all the characters/plot actively harm Shinji's mental health by:

Putting him in a coma for 14 years so he is completely clueless. Imagine how groggy you are when you wake up in the morning and then multiply that by a million. 

Have Misato psychologically castrate Shinji by telling him he won't do anything with a look of disdain on her face.

Have Ritsuko make Shinji feel dread by telling him he has a bomb on his neck and it's because he is being "punished".

Not tell him why he is being punished when he asks Misato.

Have Asuka try to punch Shinji after he thought she was dead.

Tell Shinji the girl he saved is "gone”.

Have his "mother figure" threaten to blow his head off for wanting to leave with the girl you just told him is gone.

Have Asuka and Mari attack Shinji in Lilith's chamber even though Shinji was seemingly willing to listen to them had Asuka not kept attacking. (Watch that scene again and you'll see when Asuka learns what Shinji is trying to do, she stops attacking but instead of explaining that he's being manipulated, she just calls him a brat instead).

Even Mari was willing to potentially kill or cripple Shinji with the Anti-AT rounds. (We don't know what the AA rounds are truly capable of because the only time they are used on screen, they don't work. The round cartridges state that they are armor and AT field piercing and have explicit restrictions on their use. The fact that Mari requires Asuka's explicit authorization to use them imply that they are most likely lethal and would have killed/crippled Shinji had he been in a normal Eva). 

Have Shinji's friend's head explode with the device Shinji's "mother figure" actually meant for him. Imagine seeing someone's head explode and then remember that your "mother figure" actually meant that to be for you. That would certainly mess anyone up.

Have Asuka then kick and manhandle him when he is catatonic.

Have Asuka force feed him to the point where he pukes whilst he is still grieving the death of his friend. 

Have Shinji only be escorted whilst tied to a stretcher despite him coming voluntarily.

Have Misato place Shinji in 24/7 solitary confinement in a cell rigged with explosives.

Have Misato tell the WILLE crew to shoot Shinji on sight if they think he's getting into an EVA.

Have people tell Shinji that he's being a brat the entire time for reacting badly to all this.

By having Misato, Asuka, WILLE reject and "punish" Shinji so harshly so it kicks off his isolation and desperation, it makes Shinji's "recovery" seem less believable. Anno himself didn't even know how to make Shinji recover psychologically in 3.0+1.0 and he actually had to ask the voice actors on how to make that happen. The story made the WILLE crew go full scorched-earth and in doing so made Shinji's "growth" and his reconciliation with Misato seem impossible. 

I have already stated that I believe Q represents "Condemnation" and Shin represents "Compassion" and I think both films pull that off brilliantly. But that doesn't mean I think the characters acted in a realistic manner. I do not believe that Misato would have placed such harsh sanctions on Shinji in the first place for the reasons I have stated above. And if she did, I do not believe that Shinji would have easily forgiven Misato (even IF she took a bullet for him) as we see he does in the film. I do not believe that WILLE were merely "scared and desperate" because as the dialogue above shows, they are surprisingly understanding (but still disapproving) of Shinji's situation despite him literally starting another impact. I do not believe that Misato would have bent over to Sakura and Midori's resentment and taken measures against Shinji, just to ease their minds. 

In summary, my main problem with the post-timeskip rebuilds is that I feel they gaslight the audience in thinking that Shinji was just being a "brat" the entire time by having Asuka and Mari say: "You have grown a little/You smell like an adult now." However, the truth is Shinji's been through so much mental suffering perpetrated by the people he cares about, that it's a miracle he's not killed himself. It would certainly break most of us on this forum. The movies seek to show Shinji "finally" taking responsibility when the truth is, the plot went so above and beyond putting him down in such an extreme manner in the first place.

[asgardianthot]

Flesh And Bones - part 1

Sam Wilson x Bucky Barnes

Soulmate AU

In a world where people bond with their soulmates through physical pain, living in the same compound makes the search much easier (or it should, if they weren’t so damn stubborn)

TW: self-inflicted injuries

words: 1742

A/N: this is my first time posting a series on the tumblrs but I’ve had the idea for months so here goes nothing

Series Masterlist

Pain is such human extravaganza.

For your body to react to certain dangers or stimulations that trigger specific nervous patterns, that’s something most living creatures are built with. We are but machines; when you lay your hand over fire and it hurts, your nervous system is alerting the rest of your body of harm and yelling at it to get away from said harm, similar to how old hair dryers would stop functioning when they overheated to prevent explosions.

That, we have a general idea of. Pain is natural and not a construct.

But suffering. Aching from love, or the lack of it… nobody does it better than humans. Super-humans included. Enhanced, hyper-trained, whatever. The pain parade of romance is something so deeply rooted into the dumbest parts of our brains, that that must be the reason behind soulmates.

The point is, it is only logical for such a cruel universe to bond love and pain so tightly.

It’s simple, really. Sometime in the speck of dust of time in which we live, a person will get injured. They’ll bump their toe on a kitchen counter, fall on their butts, cut their finger while chopping vegetables, or maybe get into a chaotic car accident. No matter the damage, when the universe decides that hurt idiot is your hurt idiot, you’ll feel their pain on your own skin. It also didn’t matter if you knew the person or not, only chances were your soulmate was a complete stranger.

At first it comes like a tingle, a small pinch or even the ghost sensation of a scratch. But if your soulmate is nearer than they should without you realizing who they are, the sensation becomes full and the closer they are the more vivid their pain feels on your own skin. It is extremely uncertain, however, if it has to do with spatial proximity, or emotional.

Sam Wilson would eventually sit on the park, after his morning jog, or afternoon jog, and contemplate people. He enjoyed the easiness, the memory of a time before the army, when his life was simple. No PTSD, no Avenging. To be fair, the Avenger life was the cure to the PTSD somehow, for Sam Wilson was a man of action and the more quiet his life was, the more his mind wandered. He loved the agitation, the missions, the feeling of helping people, yet every once in a while, or once a day even, he would simply sit and watch the futility of civilian’s walks around the park.

A woman sat next to him and didn’t offer any sign of kindness. She seemed busy -occupied- in the way that she moved and looked around, which is why he didn’t look at her any longer so she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. However, he then began getting the feeling that she was keeping an eye on him, and when he glanced at her nervous hands, he noticed the poor woman holding a needle to her skin, poking her own hand a few times.

A desperate soul.

On one side of a binary coin, some people don’t believe in soulmates. They aren’t the easiest to spot, and when a couple like that is seen, there is no proof for a simple skeptical individual that they actually felt each other’s pain. There were studies proving the neuronal effects, and were those hard to execute, but not everyone fell for them. Some argued that it was psychological placebo, that the person forced themselves to feel their lover’s feelings, some accused the studies to be biased or false. Some were old and hadn’t found one so why would they believe soulmates were real? They’re not necessary. You don’t just love the person you’ll want to spend the rest of your life with, and them alone, there’s all kinds of love and affection. Then, well… some were simply bitter, covering up their fear of never finding one for themselves.

On the polar opposite, there were the desperate ones. They would inflict harm on themselves in public spaces, expecting a reaction from the passersby.

More than once had Sam seen a man stab their own leg or cut through their palm yelling ‘can anybody feel this?’ as if they feared this was their only shot, forcing the Falcon to run and make them stop hurting themselves along with other civilians. Some couldn’t wait. And Sam never understood why someone wouldn’t be able to enjoy life if they didn’t know their one and only; It made dating much more relaxed and fun and honest. Perhaps that person would eventually become your soulmate, and even though the probabilities of that happening were slim to none, it didn’t need to ruin every romantic relationship in your life.

Therefore with pain in his chest, he addressed the young woman whose eyes were directly analyzing Sam’s hand.

“Hey, lady?” he asked her, earning a big pair of hopeful eyes to find his; yet he had to give her a sad frown to let her know he wasn’t who she was looking for, thus gaining a mimicking disappointed look, “It’s not worth all this trouble.”

Her expression quickly turned into one of distance, like she was trying to protect herself from people who didn’t understand her. She sat back and allowed a smirk to take over her face as she stared into nothingness.

“You’re one of those people who think it’s all a hoax? A construct?” when obtaining no reply, she kept pressuring the Falcon, “Placebo effect? Self-conditioning?”

Sam didn’t give in. He simply took a big breath and sat up from the bench. When he turned to face her, her eyes weren’t as distant.

“No.” He said calmly, “I think yours will come when it’s time. Until then,” he raised his eyebrows a bit, “you’re just hurting yourself for no reason.”

Sam walked away before he could see the young woman’s lower lip tremble.

-

“I didn’t eat your cereal.” Bucky protested, plopped on the couch that faced a flat screen.

Sam, however, wasn’t buying it. He held his ground, one hand on his hip and the other agitating the skimpy remains inside the carton box, making it rattle.

“It’s empty.” He insisted, in a way that screamed paranoia over being accused of overreacting or being crazy.

Instead of acting in an opposite behavior, he gave Bucky all the more reason to treat him as if he were going insane.

“Well, it wasn’t me.” The soldier replied easily, not flipping through the channels anymore but surrendering to a local news one; after a sigh, he looked at the accusatory, “Maybe Steve did it.”

Sam pursed his lips before turning to Steve with a dead look on his face.

“Steve, did you eat my cereal?” he asked condescendingly, already knowing the answer to be no.

As a matter of fact, the blonde’s shirt had small dark spots where he sweat his morning jog on, his hair was still perfect for a regular person but a bit disheveled for Captain America’s inhuman standards, and he was focused on drinking from a water bottle.

He tilted his head to Sam, who nodded, more agreeing with himself than with Rogers.

“You’re the only one who stays on the couch all morning.” He braked back at Barnes.

He didn’t respond this time, perhaps because he was, once again, being accused of being lazy and not using his time nor his gifts wisely. Perhaps because he was just tired of saying he didn’t eat the cereals in question when he had undoubtedly and decisively eaten the cereals in question.

Paying attention to the random local news he’d landed on, he got the gist of what the reporter was saying. They were presenting a quirky story of a bitter man suing his soulmate. He claimed the only reason he got into a car accident was because he felt a sudden sharp pain in his foot and got distracted, and therefore, was asking for his soulmate to pay off the insurance money. Of course they had to find the soulmate who was allegedly responsible for the crash.

“That’s ridiculous.” Bucky mocked.

Sam sat next to him, already having dropped the subject of the missing cereals. He listened to the reporter interviewing the odd man and let an amused but very quickly evaporated smile.

“People have been pulling stunts like these for ages, you can’t be surprised.”

Barnes glanced at him for a second, then returning to the TV. He still thought it was the stupidest reason to sue he’d ever heard of.

“It’s insane.” He said anyways.

“I think it’s sad.” Sam derailed the commentary on an opposite direction, “Can’t be fun starting your lifelong love story through a lawsuit.”

Steve joined the conversation from behind the couch. “I’m pretty sure it’s just a way of getting their attention. You know, find them whatever it takes. It’s actually kind of romantic.”

Bucky scoffed. He couldn’t stop Steve from being such a hopeless romantic and blindly believe in fairy tales where there was none, but he could still be annoyed by the fact.

“A little convenient, isn’t it?” he raised an eyebrow in judgement, yet not turning around to face the blonde.

“What?” Sam shot defiantly, “You don’t believe in this stuff?”

They both knew he was referring to the soulmates paraphernalia. With his glum attitude and dark observations, Barnes did seem like the kind of people to discard the idea of a soulmate. Love that never changes, souls that bond… it did not sound like James Buchanan Barnes’ cup of tea.

“Not the whole part.” He admitted, “I think there’s a lot of bullshit to it.”

The smirk grew on Wilson’s face, “So you’re one of those wacko conspirationists?”

“What if I am?” Bucky shot back, just to mess with him.

He wasn’t though, or not when it came to soulmates, at least. NASA and the government, on the other hand? The man had seen too much inside Hydra to not believe any crazy theory to be possible. He dropped the subject and became more serious, shrugging a little.

“All I’m saying is there’s lots of rules and conditions, I mean, who makes the calls?” Bucky questioned, almost angry, “Who chooses everyone’s partners? And what if you hate your soulmate?”

“That’s the point.” Steve intervened with his bright optimism, “You won’t. They’re your other half.”

Bucky pursed his lips and picked up the remote to switch channels again.

“Sounds real dumb.”

[duskyvision]

agustina bazterrica - tender is the flesh

2021′s first book review is gonna be a heavy one. ever wondered what it’d be like if instead of eating animals we ate human meat, and the system was legalized? no? well, uh, too bad because that’s the whole premise of the book.

picked up the audiobook because i had some audible credits to use and i was very intrigued by the premise, and oh boy. it did just what i expected and even worse, to the point where i feel like i got sucker punched at some points while listening. horror indeed! and i don’t think i’m gonna be in the mood to eat meat in a while. also, i’m writing this review in the heat of the moment (like usual, lmao) so, don’t expect anything too objective as usual.

onto the trigger warnings, since it’s a hard one to digest (no pun intended).

trigger warnings:

cannibalism/gore (major theme)

general themes of human trafficking

r*pe mentions (frequent in the book and with mentioned extreme outcomes)

brutal and detailed dubcon scene (part 1 chapter 18)

child death

animal abuse/death (mentions throughout the book, graphic scene in part 2 chapter 6)

p*dophilia/CSA (part 2 chapter 5)

homophobic slurs (part 2 chapter 5)

--

the entire novel feels more like a worldbuilding experience more than anything else, even if there’s a thread of a plot heading somewhere. you follow marcos, the protagonist, who works at a processing plant/slaughterhouse that slaughters humans instead of animals. why? because there was a virus affecting animals that’s said to be fatal to humans and no cure was ever found for it. some believe the virus is read, and the government does everything in order to keep the belief strong, while others believe it’s just a government conspiracy to effectively reduce the population.

but the fact is- animal meat is no longer consumed. what’s on the market now is “special” meat: human meat. though the ones being consumed are not even considered humans anymore, they’re just called heads, and are treated like cattle. if they’re not being outright bred and slaughtered, they’re kept and raised domestically for later consumption, or to start your own breeding business. others are just let loose in game reserves for people to hunt. (celebrities who are in debt can also choose to be hunted to get rid of their debts. fun worldbuilding facts...?)

anyway, through marcos, you get to discover this whole fuckin shady business and its disgusting aspects, and how in some years what was considered inhumane just became the norm and not a lot of people stop to think that it’s disgusting or anything. it’s just what they do.

a bunch of... distasteful shit is mentioned, and even described throughout the book. i had to take long pauses from a couple of chapters because it was heavy to handle at times. it’s blunt and to the point. shit’s awful, disgusting, and there’s no watering down, even if some people do actively try to water down how awful the system is. some scenes are graphic for that purpose, and that’s why i wouldn’t recommend it to anyone without a strong stomach.

without going into details, the plot thread going alongside the worldbuilding made me feel... mixed emotions. or rather, it felt like some weird emotional elevator. at first it felt odd considering the “rules” the novel’s worldbuilding had set, then it made me feel hopeful, almost sympathetic, and then everything just crashed down and burned by the very end of the book. i’ll be honest, that ending fucked me up real bad. i didn’t expect it to turn out that way, and i guess that’s why, right now, it’s still lingering in my mind like... “what was the fucking point, then? just self satisfaction?”

and i guess that in a way, it’s what this book is about. what the fuck’s the point of killing humans if there are things hinting the virus that caused everything doesn’t exist? what’s the point of abiding by the system? what’s the point of hoping anything will ever change? not to mention the obvious concept that it’s much too easy for some people to categorize other beings, including other people, as “lesser” and thus feel entitled to whether or not they have the right to live or should be used as more fodder for the meatgrinder.

you know, i initially rated this a 4 stars on goodreads at first right after i was done, but the more i mull over the book itself and its scenes while writing this review, the more i find myself turned away from praising it too much due to how prevalent the shock value was, which i suppose is part of the intent but... after a while, too much shock value kills the shock value. that, and the fact that after some thinking, i find myself with a bitter taste in my mouth from the way some characters were portrayed. so i had to downrate it to 3 stars. the worldbuilding is great, the implications were bleak and terrifying, and i found it well written, but ultimately, i find some fault with the character writing and the layers upon layers of depraved shit on top of the shitcake.

i’m not sure how to end this review. i’ve never been very eloquent when it comes to writing them, really. but damn, that book hit hard. it’s blunt, gross, and well-written, i guess. i can’t outright say i’m “glad” for listening to the audiobook, but... i guess that it was effective in its purpose, if the author’s intent was to do a speedrun any% to discourage people from eating meat.

[rilakoya]

No Place Like Home

A Perspective! and Reality!AU

Word Count: 2.2K

Warnings: Raw honesty and social justice themes

A/N: Personal experiences ahead. I call it an AU because sometimes we’re so into escapism that reality feels like the fantasy. 

6:20 pm

“OMG, social media is so dead today!”

It’s Tuesday after the protests have begun, and my roommate is bitching and demanding his privilege. I like to believe that he means well, but he’s also a diva, and complaints are his forte.

“Well, it’s Blackout Tuesday-” I begin, but he cuts me off, eager to make his point, true to form.

“No, look, I get it. Really I do. But all I keep seeing is a black screen. I keep my phone on dark mode for a reason. I don’t want to have to keep downloading games because I need something to occupy my time today.”

Need. That’s definitely a feeling I’m familiar with. I need a sense of false security in order to leave my house and interact with others in a way that meets social expectations. I need a keen sense of self and social awareness and nimble cultural reflexes in order to ensure that I’m not perceived as angry or bitter in my responses to the way the world treats me. So what if I actually am, in fact, angry. Society has taught me that it deems my anger irrelevant, unworthy of notice, and I have been conditioned to recognize that showing it doesn’t get me what I want or need. Which makes me think again about my roommate’s commentary. He needs social media to be more lively, despite the fact that entire people groups are protesting unjust and inhumane treatment. And I need hope that my brothers won’t occupy body bags simply because they exist today.

I guess each person has their own struggles.

I’m a fiction writer. And at the risk of sounding boastful, I’m pretty good at it. But that’s just because good fiction requires a healthy dose of imagination, and I’m a master.

I have to be.

Every day since I was a little girl, I wake up and imagine that the fair rules of engagement apply to me. I imagine that I may expect the same level of courtesy and respect as my fairer-skinned counterparts.

In school, when my teachers would unspokenly expect me to work twice as hard to receive the same level of acceptance, I imagined that they did the same with all the children. When my scores indicated that I was a highly gifted student, multiple grade levels above my peers, but was frequently accused of cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty because my superiors were unable or unwilling to accept that a little black girl could have possibly produced such results, I imagined a world where education systems were tailored to students and where teachers and administrators saw the value in children rather than just their preconceived notions about them because of the color of their skin.

When people granted me interviews because of the “normal” name on my resume and the professionally “white” sound of my voice, only to thank me after minimal interviews and promise to call once they saw me, I imagined that they recognized that my professional experience and qualifications were worth more than the wage that their budget permitted, instead of acknowledging that they often chose to hire someone who was less qualified but whiter than me, and when they paid said person more, I imagined that I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed doing that type of job anyway or working at that company anyway. Even though it was the same at many companies.

When people tell me that I am “pretty for a Black girl,” or “too pretty to ‘just’ be Black,” as though being Black isn’t already the most blessed form in creation, I imagine that what they’re really saying is, “you’re so fucking gorgeous that I don’t even know how to compliment you properly, so please forgive me while I babble like a moron and potentially insult you. I’m so awestruck that I just can’t help myself.”

I wrote my first smut during one of many unjust police stops, when the only purpose of the detainment was to harass me and remind me who was in control. I imagined that it was really a sexy roleplay and that I liked it. And when the trauma and anxiety of constantly wondering if I’m about to be stopped once again for Driving While Black threaten to be too much, I imagine that I’m really just in my house, writing it all down for a story. Even though the stories carry too much shame for me to comfortably share. I imagine that’s all just part of the process.

When I interact with the world, and no matter what, am told that I’m either “too much” or “not enough,” sometimes both at the same time, I imagine that what they’re really saying is that because I originate from the beginnings of creation, because I have both the secrets of the Earth and royalty in my blood, I don’t fit the mold, and they don’t know how to process my greatness. And this enables me to smile when I feel like shattering into a million pieces, when I’m reminded of how I don’t meet the social standard, how I don’t fit in.

Most of all, every day I imagine what it would be like to feel like I truly have a place on this vast Earth that I can safely call home. Home is where we are safe, where we are welcomed, where we belong.

I was born in Germany, but I don’t belong there.

I’ve lived in Mexico and Guatemala, but it’s not safe for me there.

Some of my ancestors were from Africa, but it’s a large continent, made up of many countries, all foreign to me because of cultural eradication, so I could visit, but really I don’t belong there.

My forebears were brought to the Americas as slaves, worked like dogs, and treated as less than animals, and although early settlers were considered “Americans” relatively quickly, after four centuries, I still don’t belong here.

I’m not even 40, but I was born during the Cold War, in a country that has successfully recovered from antisemitism, but not from antiblack sentiment.

Both of my parents were born before the Civil Rights Act was passed, in the middle of the Civils Rights Movement.

My grandparents were born near the end of the Great Depression and lived under Jim Crow law. My grandparents. The ones who told me stories while holding me on their knees, the ones who spent their lives sweating and striving for me to have better.

My grandma’s grandma was a slave. My dad remembers an aunt (a great-aunt) coming to his school in elementary to talk about the fact that she had been born a slave.

I think that people forget that it wasn’t that long ago, forget that the tyranny and oppression has gone on for so long.

They forget that Europeans have been enslaving Africans since the 15th century. For those who hated school, that means the 1400s. Slaves were brought to the Americas as early as 1503. The only reason we didn’t reach the country we now call the U.S. until the early 1600s was because it took England that long to decide to colonize the area.

They forget that in my great-great-grandparents’ time, in my great-grandparents’ time, in my grandparents’ time, at the time my parents were born, I could have been beaten, raped, falsely accused, cheated, ignored, taken advantage of, or killed just for the color of my skin.

They forget that, 401 years later, 155 years after the Civil War, 157 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, 152 years after the 14th Amendment, 57 years after MLK marched, 56 years after the Civil Rights Act was passed, nothing has changed.

They forget that it is our American right to speak out, to decry our oppression.

The First Amendment says that we have the right to freedom of speech and press, that we have the right to peaceably assemble and ask the government for a solution to our complaints of unfair treatment. But we are silenced, gassed when we protest peacefully, and our cries for justice have been ignored for generations.

The Second Amendment says that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Yet time after time, legally armed, law-abiding Blacks are arrested or shot just for being a person of color in possession of a gun, while white gun owners can brandish their weapons freely without fear of being shot or unjustly detained.

The Fourth Amendment says that citizens may not be subject to unreasonable search and seizure. It’s where the concept of a search warrant comes from. Yet Blacks and other people of color have been subject to racial profiling and racially motivated searches, frisking, and seizure of property for as long as we have been citizens of this country.

The Sixth Amendment says that citizens have the right to a public and speedy trial, by an impartial jury, to know what we’re being accused of, to be confronted by the witnesses against us, and to have the opportunity to gain witnesses in our favor, and to have the right to an attorney in our defense. This is one of the biggest jokes. People of color remain in cells for weeks and months before trial, and are often coerced into plea bargains for crimes they didn’t commit in the first place, just so they can get out of jail sooner rather than run the risk of being remaining in jail for months, only to face a courtroom that is predisposed against you because of stereotypes and shady police records, with a public defender that is overworked at best and disinterested or corrupt at worst, resulting in extremely long sentencing with little to no account for the time the individual has already been incarcerated, seemingly as a penalty for refusing to take the fall and essentially “wasting people’s time”.

The Eighth Amendment says that “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” I could laugh if it weren’t such a blatant lie. Bail is disproportionately higher for people of color than for whites, as are the fines, and while cruel and unusual punishments may be subjective, I would argue that legalized slavery for a criminal population that is disproportionately comprised of Blacks and people of color AND murder by law enforcement before even reaching a judge BOTH qualify as cruel and unusual, particularly since it’s extremely notable how many white people, even accused or convicted of especially heinous crimes do not meet this fate, while a Black person could do so for merely moving wrong during a traffic stop.

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime. However, the only thing this changed for Blacks was the beginnings of racially motivated mass incarceration, starting from 1865 until the present.

The Fourteenth Amendment says that anyone born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen of the USA.  It also says that “no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

There are 20 other Amendments as of 2020, but this Amendment alone is the root of the problem. Black Americans are just that- Americans, and yet, we are DENIED equal protection under the law. We are DEPRIVED OF LIFE, LIBERTY AND PROPERTY, without due process of law.

But people seem to forget that Blacks are American citizens, too. And so, they seek to preserve their peace and forget to care.

So, as I turn up my headphones to tune out my roommate’s irritatingly ironic assertions of oppression, I turn my attention to the places where I have a voice, to remind people that this movement is more than just a lofty idea or the overreaction of a group of people that’s too sensitive or hung up on the past. I remind them that the problem is that the actions and attitudes, the injustices and imbalanced systems are still happening NOW, in the present, mid-2020. That’s why we can’t stay silent. Why no one can. I use my influence to remind the world what those who came before me died to obtain:

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the [blatant racist or the white supremacist] but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., excerpted out of order from sections of a letter from Birmingham Jail, Alabama, 16 April 1963

I remind those who care to listen that I exist in this world, hated and unwelcome. My very existence is one of danger and risk, especially if I choose to be myself. For me, there is no place like home.

I remind the world that I can’t breathe, and that for me that’s not just a catchphrase; it’s not just a concept to use for merit mongering or fitting in. It’s the fear that chokes me, the anxiety that suffocates my hopes and dreams. For me, it’s a reality.

[human-enthusiast]

One Piece “isms” - #1

--Episode 2/ Chapters 3 + 4

Theme: Abusive Authority

Details: When Luffy and Coby dock in a town named Shells Town, they quickly learn about their troubles with authority. The mention of Roronoa Zoro and Marine Captain Morgan’s name expels fear in the citizens for some similar reasons. Later, after meeting the Pirate Hunter tied to a post, they learn about Morgan’s tyrant ruling over people. Specifically, those that openly defy his rules and authority, treating them like inhumane scum.

Characteristics:

1. Authoritarian Leadership - (Dictatorship quality)

2. Inferiority (Superiority) Complex

3. Obsession with “treacheries”, insubordination, or lack of power over even small matters.

4. Alignment: Lawful Evil

5. Unfair imprisonment - Zoro and the existence of a Crucifixion Yard.

Very early on in the series, we have, what I would describe as a mild introduction to certain conflicts the protagonists face. Now whether or not you ever watch movies or read books centered around pirates, it’s common sense to know they are enemies to the world’s government(s).

It’s not to say pirates don’t have their own form of government or authority -- any society or civilization has one that was structured around those who first joined-- but they separated themselves from the one governed by kings/queens/emperors/ or anyone who governs with written or traditional laws.

So, if being introduced to a character, who begins his journey as a pirate, we would expect his enemy to be the Marines right off the bat.

Not so unusual. Luffy has shown to have a gray morality or chaotic neutral personality, but this isn’t well defined until way later on. He does what he wants, with a mindset that says ‘consequences be damned’. That is pretty much his motto at this point. That being said, the opposite to what Luffy’s side of the story represents would be lawful and justice.

Captain Morgan is actually the first official Marine we see in the series. By that, I mean he’s the first one actually named and given a personality to judge on. Though technically, Helmeppo would be the first to be seen, but it’s his father whose been alluded to since they arrived. Right off the bat, they both show case the worst possible outcome of authorities: power trips, abusing the system, respect is demanded, and rules are absolute.

Both the anime and manga illustrate Morgan’s delusions of control and megalomaniac personality quite well, and how Helmeppo thrives in it by hand-me-down powers.

Something to note, I just started reading the manga, but I have watched the anime for a few years now (English dub), and I’m now just starting the Dressrosa arc. While the anime is good (not perfect) at adapting from the manga, there are more intriguing details to me that do better in narrating the story (at least with the first few chapters).

Here the manga shows tax exploitations:

Some are fairly easy to miss, but the walls and metal gate show signs of poor treatment, or degradation. The anime does something similar with the gate, having more advantage with coloring:

The door used to have what I believe was a darker green color. But now it’s rusted fairly much, even a little on the hinges, and the paint for the symbols looks a little faded. Now, this may just be a way to give texture to surfaces, which is initially true and what I thought when I first watched/read the series. However, the kicker we learn is a little ways after.

It’s explained that the people are under heavy taxation to the point that it depletes a living wage for everyone. Morgan refers to the people as peasants, so he’s clearly aware of their indigent state. It would explain a little about the state of everything and how he could’ve paid for the erected statue of himself.

The red-circled speech bubbles are especially important, and I think highlight Morgan’s character. It’s my favorite detail with him. I’m not saying I like the character all around; if I ever meet someone like this, I’d probably pull a Luffy and straight take a swing at their throat/junk (although I tend to think of the consequences, so I’d more likely take a legal/other direct action if need be).

No, it’s just...characters with this kind of mindset are fun to observe and explain.

There’s another character that is like a mirror image from this Marine: Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Both are high ranking members of their society, wealthy, completely power hungry, apathetic, and fear inducing to their subjects. There are plenty of complications with Azula, but it definitely shows in her first introduction and later on in Season 3 when she has a psychological break down.

Direct conversation from Season 2 Episode 1:

[Ship Captain]: “Princess, I’m afraid the tides will not allow us to bring the ship into port before nightfall.”

[Azula]: “I’m sorry, captain, but I do not know much about the tides. Can you explain something to me?”

[Captain]: “Of course, your highness.”

[Azula]: “Do the tides command this ship?”

[Captain]: “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

[Azula]: “You said the tides would not allow us to bring the ship in. Do the tides command this ship?”

[Captain]: “No, princess.”

[Azula]: “And if I were to have you thrown overboard, would the tides think twice about smashing you against the rocky shore?”

[Captain]: “No, princess.”

[Azula]: “Well, then maybe you should worry less about the tides, who have already made up their mind about killing you, and worry more about me, who’s still mulling it over.”

I included the exchange between her, the bat-shit crazy royal, and the captain, who has better acknowledgement of the forces of nature, because it’s fairly similar to the exchange between Morgan and the marine he’s talking to about the people’s wealth. The marine and captain regard their authority’s title, and probably have similar worries over their inability to reason maturely.

Any good villain can be vindictive, selfish, and have no regard for others (a lack of empathy), but the one underlining similarity is their negligence with reality. And in order to get like that, there is a deep obsession with control.

Azula wants to disregard nature, specifically ocean tides, rather than change her course and plan. This is a frightening aspect because of her complete ignorance on the mod of reality. She wants to maintain control of her ship, and she is very much willing to sacrifice the safety of others just to feel superior.

While Morgan also wants to keep an iron fist over the citizens. He has this more monetary greed, spending it more in lavish purposes for him and his son. He’s a little more aware of the fact that the people don’t have much money, but to him, it’s no excuse to pay the taxes in full. There’s absolutely no regard for other matters in reality, that including personal finance.

The obstacles or personal matters of those “below” him fly over his head. Because what he believes to be a level of respect is absolute obedience. I almost have no doubt that if Luffy and Coby never made it to Shells Town, it may undergone an actual dictatorship like life. When the people have seemingly ran out of money, an alternative subjection-- or showcase of loyalty--probably would have been enslavement and unpaid labor. Assuming that the money Morgan and Helmeppo spend remains on the island at a high fixation.

Maybe that’s too extreme and would also have economic downfall on the Marines as well, but I wouldn’t put it pass Morgan to come up with anymore extreme ideas.

One other similarity with Azula and Morgan is the insane notion of loyalty. This mental state is compromised more with Azula during the final episodes. At that point, she is given the responsibility of being Fire Lord, and with it, comes absolute hysterics and paranoia about maintaining control over everyone. The slightest missteps from her servants enacts a banishment for them, leaving less people to remain under her control. This may have also been a product of Mei and Ty Lee’s betrayal in the Boiling Rock Part 2 episode, completely warping her sense of trust.

There isn’t much known about Morgan before he was head of the Marine Base that is explanatory of his own behavior, but he has the same obsession over the concept of loyalty and traitors. Whether the actions are from citizens or his own subordinates, there is no excuse for anyone to disobey him. Hell, he found it perfectly acceptable to kill a marine who accidently bumped a part of his statue, that probably didn’t do anything minor to it.

That being said, he has no room to let anyone ignore his orders. When the Lieutenant was ordered to kill Rika because she helped Zoro while tied up, he refused. In response, Morgan went for the kill (he’s very much alive in the anime).

He and Helmeppo also show case this behavior in ways that are actually more foreshadowing for later arcs.

In the manga:

The citizens are bowing as the brat saunters by all high and mighty. This is the earliest render of how Celestial Dragons are introduced. While maybe this isn’t necessarily required for the Marine official, it’s more of a by-product on fear-induced situations. A psychological reaction if anything.

The other foreshadowing is the distinction of what the Marines and the World Government consider justice. What is right to them means following the laws-- obedience and purity are absolute. That’s a whole other topic in of itself. But it sets up the fight that Luffy finds himself in with the Marine. Morgan thinks he’s wrong and worthless, fighting on the grounds while yelling “I am Marine Captain “Ax-Hand” Morgan!”

Names carry power. Titles govern rank and superiority. Morgan believes this should be enough to make Luffy crumble over. It’s not. This is a revelation that goes beyond what someone holds in status. And thus, making Morgan a rather incompetent leader.

It’s also rather ironic how, with their battle, it’s very black and white in terms of morality, and the side that views what’s right is on the ‘wrong’ side (pirates). Pirates aren’t lawfully good, or very empathetic. That’s usually not their objective during the Pirate Era. However, if a group of pirates fight against a base leader, and as a result, creates a more balanced, sustainable life for the citizens in the end, there is something drastically wrong with the authority system.

Morgan really sets up as one of the first Marine antagonists, and it’s done using underlining characteristics of higher powers in more tame situations. What one fight could fix within an hour or two, would take more or less years to handle further along in the Grand Line. What One Piece offers is a focus with a type of matter that resurfaces again with different opponents.

~*~*~*~*~*

[ariadnelives]

Chapter 19 -- The Parting Gifts

[Missed earlier chapters? Go catch up here! Otherwise, welcome back! Oh, and make sure to join our discord server! Chapter can also be found @ ao3”]

“I just don’t really have any use for a bunch of church junk,” Ariadne said, pulling the lumpy duffel bag out of the safe. “It’s not like I believe in this stuff— weird, it’s lighter than I expected— but it feels wrong to sell it on the black market.”

“We could give it to a museum,” Pilar suggested. “It’ll probably do a lot more to reclaim our legend than attacking the cult, I mean, think of how it looks, the cult stole all those priceless artifacts and hoarded them in a basement for decades until real Ariadne’s Angels liberated them and gave them back to the people?”

“Legally speaking, it’s probably for the best that the museum not be linked to a known criminal syndicate,” Ariadne replied, “but you know how rumors are, I’m sure people will talk.”

“Now,” Pilar said, “let’s look inside and see what we’ve won.” She carefully zipped it open and peered inside, then immediately snapped it closed again.

“What is it?” Ariadne asked, “something good?”

“Nope,” Pilar said, “we are definitely not donating this to a museum.”

“What is— let me see,” Ariadne said, snatching the bag away from her, “oh my god?!”

“What do we do with this?!” Pilar tried to maintain some semblance of calm. She was no stranger to fear, of course, the life of a pirate usually gives one a certain tolerance for danger. Surprise, on the other hand, is something that can’t really be trained away. If you have some reason to expect a surprise, the ensuing response can be avoided, but as Pilar had never quite found herself in this situation, she had no reason to expect the contents of the bag and, reasonably, found herself beginning to panic.

“Go… Go get your sister… Sweettalk too… And a bucket.” Ariadne dry-heaved. “Bucket first, time is a factor on the bucket.”

“Was it scary?” ViLaz asked Deathsbane and Sweettalk, who’d come to visit her with a large tub of graham crackers and cannoli cream.

“Was whuh scary?” Sasha asked, her mouth full of cannoli cream.

“The larceny,” ViLaz replied.

“Well, that’s the fanciest word I’ve ever heard for a Stealy Burgle,” Sweettalk said, but ViLaz didn’t seem to register the joke.

“It was scary seeing Sweettalk get shot,” Sasha admitted.

“You got shot?!” ViLaz asked with a mix of genuine concern and somewhat macabre fascination.

“That was my role in the robbery,” Sweettalk explained. “We didn’t want to hurt anyone for real, but we needed the security team to think we were a real threat, so Sasha here gave me a few doses of her healing serum and we let Spacebreather shoot me.”

Sasha hesitated. “I knew she’d be okay, but it was still scary to see my girlfriend shot, you know?”

ViLaz scooped too much cannoli cream onto a single graham cracker. “It wasn’t scary getting shot?”

“I’d trust Spacebreather with my life, even though she hates me,” Sweettalk explained, and created a small sandwich out of the crackers and cream.

Sasha moved to reassure Sweettalk, “She doesn’t hate you, she—”

“Babe, she despises me.”

“I thought she was unaware of your relationship?” ViLaz asked.

Sweettalk laughed. “Yeah, that’s why she didn’t shoot me for real.”

ViLaz looked somewhat disheartened. “Does she have a problem with your… lifestyle?”

“I mean...” Sweettalk seemed confused by this, “we work for her, so I’m pretty sure she knows we’re criminals.”

“Hey, speaking of,” Sasha asked, “you seem pretty chill with us being criminals.”

“Well, casinos are dens of sin, right?” ViLaz said, “so, it isn’t really bad if you steal from them.”

Sweettalk and Sasha exchanged a glance.

“I have problems with… like maybe half of that,” Sasha said.

“I was sorry to hear about Prescott, though,” ViLaz said, twiddling a graham cracker between her fingers.

Sweettalk chuckled. “Why?”

“I assume his death brings you sadness,” ViLaz explained, “you’ve known him for a long time.”

“I don’t even fully believe he’s dead,” Sasha replied casually, “I mean, we just saw how easy it is to fake a fatal shooting, and Prescott’s nothing if he’s not a slippery bastard.”

“He made my life hell, I’m glad he’s gone,” Sweettalk would have elaborated more on this, but she didn’t get the chance, since at this moment Spacebreather came barrelling into the mess hall.

“Sasha, Sweettalk, you’ve g—” she gagged, collected herself, and continued, “—you’ve gotta come to the mess hall right away.”

“Everything okay?” Sasha asked.

“Oh, no, you’ve eaten. Grab a few buckets. ViLaz, you come too, we’re gonna need your input when we pick apart Prescott’s dossier on the Zealot.”

The girls rushed up the stairs to find Ariadne holding the Jumper in her hand and heaving over a bucket, with an open safe on the table and Prescott’s duffel bag laying open in front of it.

None of them blinked for a moment.

“Well, I guess I was wrong,” Sasha said, “Prescott is definitely dead for real.”

Sasha was right, as they could all see, as they looked into Prescott’s lifeless, glazed-over eyes staring back at them sideways from the inside of the bag. His head had been cleanly severed, but there was still a fair amount of blood coming from the area where a screwdriver had been driven through the side of his skull, firmly pinning a blood-stained note to his remains.

The note read, “YOUR MOVE. XOXOXO NICKS”

The head was quickly moved to the infirmary and placed in a stasis jar, with a cloth over it so nobody had to look at it. Sasha, fearing that someone would be curious and peek under the cloth with no way of guessing what was underneath, decided to stick a note to the cloth reading “SEVERED HEAD - DO NOT TOSS.”

Shockingly, the crew had very little experience dealing with human remains. For the most part, Deathsbane was very good at keeping them all alive and, for the most part, functioning. Most of the actual corpses that had seen the inside of the station were medical cadavers that Sasha had gently scammed into her possession for academic purposes. There was at least one instance where Spacebreather had killed an assailant in the station, but in that instance the body didn’t stay onboard for very long.

However, for the most part, the human remains Sasha had to deal with were mostly things like amputated limbs or fingers that had been lost in tragic but absolutely unavoidable fireworks accidents. It rarely fazed her, since she was skilled enough to regrow most lost limbs and damaged organs. The regenerative serum she invented helped, but there were injuries where they would need assistance from lab-grown transplants or, in very extreme cases like ViLaz, she would enlist Ariadne’s help in crafting cybernetic replacements.

This shook her a little more than any of that, though. She briefly wondered if she’d be able to build a life support system that could sustain Prescott if she could heal his injuries, but she knew the deep wound to his brain would prove too much for her to repair to working condition. The serum would be able to repair the physical damage, with a helping hand from Sasha’s own equipment, but the brain was a unique organ.

Most human tissues and organs, even bones, can heal back the way they were before if they’re configured properly, given enough time. Set a broken bone or stitch up a laceration and leave it for long enough, it will eventually heal. Treat it properly and there won’t even be a noticeable scar. Sasha’s serum just changed that process from a matter of weeks or months to a matter of minutes or even seconds. With a quickly-applied dose of her serum, someone could survive a stab to the heart or exposure to the vacuum of deep space, and walk away feeling nothing more severe than a hangover.

What the serum could not do, however, is restore information lost when extensive damage is done to the human brain. If someone, for instance, sustained damage to the part of their brain that allowed them to create and store memories, if applied carefully, the serum could theoretically repair that damage and allow them to create new memories. It could not, however, restore the memories destroyed when their spouse’s lover leapt at them from behind with an icepick.

If Sasha were to build a life support system, she could potentially use the serum to heal the bullet wound to the brain and restore the processes of life in the head. However, she dismissed this thought quickly. It would have no memories or consciousness, no cognitive abilities whatsoever, and no potential for quality of life. Reviving it would be a waste of time and resources, and more importantly, it would be completely inhumane. There’s really no point, Sasha figured, in cheating death at the expense of life.

Once the head was covered, she hurried back to the War Room just in time to hear Ariadne tell her that she and Pilar would be taking ViLaz back to their quarters to discuss Prescott’s dossier on the Zealot, and that they would brief the rest of the crew after dinner that night.

“Oh,” Ariadne added in a hurry. “You might wanna go keep Sweettalk company, Prescott left another document on the drive and addressed it to her. I don’t know what it says, but I doubt it’s something she’ll want to be alone after reading.”

“Roger,” Sasha said, and filed into the War Room to join Sweettalk.

[0100100100101101]

At the beginning of Detroit: Become Human, a video game about American androids fighting for equal rights, a character looks out from the television screen and says, directly to the player, “Remember: This is not just a story. This is our future.”

It’s a bold claim. As Detroit’s story unfolds, the game switches between three different androids: household servant turned revolutionary leader Markus; Kara, a robot fleeing from government persecution with the abused child she rescued from her former boss; and Connor, an agent of the delightfully named megacorp CyberLife who hunts down “deviant androids” disobeying their programming. Through their perspectives, we’re meant to observe a technological future the game wants us to believe is, in fact, soon to come. Connor’s character may sound familiar. That’s because he’s essentially a recast of Rick Deckard, the titular Blade Runner from Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi classic. In each case, Deckard and Connor are hunting aberrant robots, capturing and/or killing those who have broken free of their programming and attempting to live outside their intended roles as servants to humanity.

In both Detroit and Blade Runner the point of these robot hunters is to introduce the question of what separates humanity from a synthetic being so emotionally and intellectually advanced that it is indistinguishable from any member of our species. By the time we’ve watched the monologue from Blade Runner’s bleach blond “replicant” robot Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) about his memories vanishing “like tears in rain,” any hint of inhumanity feels irrelevant. He, like the soulful androids who populate Detroit, remembers his past in the same way we do. He loves. He can be sad. He thinks about his own mortality. The movie ends with the audience having been convinced that a robot with incredibly advanced artificial intelligence deserves to be treated better than a defective home appliance. Blade Runner, it bears repeating, was released in 1982. Detroit: Become Human came out May of this year.

Again and again, Detroit attempts to pull its sci-fi storyline into the real world to convey the same message Blade Runner accomplished so many years ago. It evokes the American civil rights movement (its future Michigan features segregated shops and public transit where androids are kept to the back of city buses; one chapter is even called “Freedom March”), American slavery (the horrific abuses visited on the androids by their masters are regular enough to become numbing), and the Holocaust (extermination camps are set up to house revolutionary androids near the game’s finale) in order to do so. Others have done a great job running down the myriad ways in which Detroit fails in its evocation of the civil rights movement and class-based civil unrest. The poor taste inherent in its decision to make tone-deaf comparisons between its (multi-ethnic, apparently secular) robots and some of human history’s most reprehensible moments of violent prejudice is grotesque enough on its own. But it’s worth noting that on a dramatic level, Detroit also falls completely flat.

Its central point, presented with the satisfied air of a toddler smugly revealing that the family dog feels pain when you yank its tail, is that an android with a sophisticated sense of the world and itself deserves the same rights as any human. This seems like a philosophical problem that ought to have been put to bed around the time Blade Runner made the “dilemma” of android humanity part of mainstream pop culture. For decades now, audiences have watched, read, and played through stories that very persuasively argue there’s no good moral case for treating sufficiently advanced artificial intelligence—especially when housed in an independently thinking and feeling robot body—like dirt. To watch Roy Batty die in Blade Runner and feel nothing isn’t a failure of social and cultural empathy, but the viewer for just kind of being a monster. To release a video game in 2018 where players are honestly expected to experience conflicting emotions or a sense of emotional revelation when a completely humanistic robot is tortured or killed in cold blood ignores decades of genre-advancing history.

Even outside popular art, the past few decades have seen seismic shifts in our relationship with technology that should be impossible to ignore. In the ’80s, a home computer was revolutionary. Now, we live in an era where it’s completely mundane to ask talking boxes for trivia answers and maintain digital extensions of our personae on websites accessed through portable phones. We are not as suspicious of technology as we once were. It’s a part of us now—something we live with.

This shift is pretty clear in other areas of pop culture. Westworld—one of the highest profile sci-fi works in recent years—spent much of its first season retreading some of the same familiar ground as Detroit, but has found a more interesting path as it’s continued onward. While early episodes floundered with dramatically inert questions of whether sexually assaulting, torturing, and murdering lifelike thinking and feeling robots was an okay premise for an amusement park, it’s since moved on from hammering home the simplistic, insultingly moralizing lesson that “treating humanoid androids badly is the wrong thing to do.” At its best, characters like the show’s standout, Bernard Lowe—a tortured robot who is very well aware he is a robot—bring a welcome complexity.

Bernard, in actor Jeffrey Wright’s strongest performance to date, alternates naturally between a machine’s cold, vacant-eyed calculations and the trembling pathos of an android traumatized not only by the loss of his family and the violence of the world in which he lives, but also the knowledge that his memories are artificially coded and that his programming has led him to contribute to the horror of his surroundings. With this focus, viewers are given scenes far more philosophically troubling than the show’s earlier attempts to question whether it’s all right to kill humanlike robots for fun. In season two’s “Les Écorchés,” for example, Bernard is sat in a diagnostic interrogation and tormented by park co-creator Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), who, apparently, has entered his system in the form of a viral digital consciousness. Ford flits about his mind like a demonic possession. Bernard remembers killing others while under the intruder’s control. He cries and shakes like any human wracked with so much psychological pain would. “It’s like he’s trying to debug himself,” a technician notes. A digital read-out of Bernard’s synthetic brain shows his consciousness is “heavily fragmented,” as if under attack from a computer virus.

Rather than focus on simple ideas, the show acknowledges, in instances like these, that its audience is willing to accept an android character like Bernard as “human” enough to deserve empathy while remembering, too, that his mechanical nature introduces more compelling dramatic possibilities. Thankfully, Westworld’s second season has leaned further into this direction, moving (albeit at a glacial pace) toward stories about what it means for robots to embrace their freedom while being both deeply human and, due to their computerized nature, still fundamentally alien. By the end of the season, its earlier concern with flat moral questions has largely been swept away. Its finale, while still prone to narrative cliché elsewhere, shows a greater willingness to delve into explorations of how concepts like free will, mortality, and the nature of reality function for the computerized minds of its characters.

This is the sort of thing that elevates modern sci-fi, that reaffirms its potential for valuable speculation rather than just being a place to indulge familiar tropes and revisit nostalgic aesthetics. We see it in games like Nier: Automata, whose anime-tinged action is set in a far-future world where humanity has gone extinct, leaving behind only androids who must grapple with their minds persisting over centuries of samsara-like cycles of endless war against simpler machines trying to come to grips with their own intellectual awakening. We see it in Soma, which explores similar territory and turns it into soul-shaking horror by telling a story where people’s minds have been transplanted into synthetic consciousnesses, stored immortally on computers that reside in facilities dotting the inky depths of the ocean floor while the Earth dies out far above them. Like Bernard—and like many of the other characters now freeing themselves from both their shackles as Westworld’s park “hosts” and the narrative constraints of the show’s earlier episodes—these games transcend the outdated concerns of a story like Detroit. They give us something new to chew on, concerns that are not only intellectually fuller but also more reflective of where we are now as a technology-dependent species.

There’s no better summary of this change than the extremely belated Blade Runner sequel, Blade Runner 2049. Its predecessor was devoted entirely to convincing audiences that its assumedly inhuman replicants are worthy of empathy. It ended by asking if we’d even be able to tell the difference between a flesh-and-blood person and a synthetic one. Compare that to 2049, where protagonist K—Ryan Gosling playing a character with a suitably product-line-style name—is shown to be an android almost from the start. The plot of the film centers (like Detroit and Westworld) on a fast-approaching revolution where self-sufficient androids will overthrow their human creators, but the heart of its story is about the psychology of artificially intelligent beings. K is depicted as deeply troubled, grasping for affection from the mass-market hologram AI he’s in love with, grappling with the fact that he might be the first replicant to be born from another android, hoping to connect with his possible father, and being tormented by his inability to distinguish between what’s been programmed into his synthetic mind and what’s a “real” memory.

Blade Runner 2049 considers it a given that modern audiences can empathize with this android character without prerequisite arguments—that we’re not instinctively terrified of what he represents but willing to think about what such a creation means when set against age-old concepts of love and selfhood. As a sequel to the movie that did so much to settle questions about whether a robotic being was equal to humanity, it moves its concerns forward in tandem with society itself.

There’s a scene in 2049 where K, having learned of the existence of the first replicant child to be born of two replicant parents, is asked by his boss, Lt. Joshi (Robin Wright), to homicidally erase this revolutionary evidence in order to maintain the world’s status quo. K says he’s never killed something “born” before. When asked why that makes him uncomfortable, he replies that being born means having a soul—that that may be a crucial difference. “You’ve been getting on fine without one,” Joshi says. “What’s that, madam?” K replies. “A soul.”

It’s an exchange that takes moments, but it’s enough to communicate more about the nature of an AI consciousness than Detroit manages over its dozen hours. In these few words, 2049 puts an old debate to rest while raising new questions about what it means for a machine to worry about its place in the world. K doesn’t “have a soul” in the traditional sense, but he is tortured by the knowledge that he, with his need to love and be loved, may possess something quite like it. Modern science fiction is capable of asking us to explore what it means to view technology this way. It’s able to make us consider how our sense of reality may or may not intersect with the ever-more complex computers we create. It is, basically, able to do a lot more than revisit tired questions about whether the kind of highly advanced robots that populate Detroit: Become Human are worth taking seriously enough to care about in the first place.

[newstfionline]

Soon, the most beautiful people in the world may no longer be human

By Peter Holley, Washington Post, August 8, 2018

In the hypercompetitive world of modeling, fateful discovery stories are part of the industry���s lore.

Gisele Bündchen was eating at a McDonald’s in southern Brazil when her life changed forever.

Natalia Vodianova was selling fruit at a market in Russia, and Adriana Lima was spotted at a shopping mall at age 13.

But what if major companies and fashion brands didn’t have to rely on chance--be it a fluke encounter or scrolling through strangers’ Instagram feeds--to find the perfect face for their products?

Cameron-James Wilson maintains that some of them no longer need to.

The 29-year-old London-based photographer is the creator of Shudu, a striking Instagram model from Africa with more than 130,000 followers.

Despite her entrancing beauty, Shudu is a purely digital being, a fact that Wilson revealed after Shudu’s image went viral, ending months of frenzied speculation about her origin this year.

Shudu has been called “the world’s first digital supermodel,” and the obsessive fawning over her lifelike features provoke suggests she won’t be the last.

She arrives at a time in which Instagram, Snapchat filters and photo-editing apps that rely on artificial intelligence have blurred the lines between reality and fantasy, turning ordinary people into paintings or delicately featured digital avatars who preen for “likes.” This summer, Time magazine included a mysterious digital avatar turned style icon named Lil Miquela on its list of the 25 most influential people on the Internet. Miquela--who was being managed by a computer software firm in Los Angeles at one point--has 1.3 million fans. They dissect her online musings and fashion choices and treat Miquela’s implicit artifice like an afterthought.

Virtual models such as Lil Miquela and Shudu are just the beginning of the avatar revolution, some industry observers say. As people grow increasingly comfortable with these manufactured online identities, some brands see an opportunity to capitalize, Wilson said.

“There’s plenty of models out there, but it’s hard to find somebody who is truly unique,” he said. “A 3-D model can’t walk down a runway for you, but they can be digital spokespeople that help you shop or serve as the face of your customer service.”

But brands are picky, Wilson added, and they “want someone that nobody else can have.”

Manipulating digital images of real humans has already been blamed for perpetuating unrealistic beauty standards, which begin to affect children as early as 5 years of age, according to experts. Now some fear an incoming wave of digital models will put even more pressure on people, particularly women, to live up to an extreme, synthetic version of beauty.

Wilson--a fashion photographer by trade and an avid gamer at heart--created models that have dark skin, feminine curves, fine wrinkles and realistic stretch marks, details he added to promote diversity and embrace natural beauty. He recently launched “The Diigitals,” an agency devoted to his growing roster of virtual models, at least one of whom appears to be extraterrestrial.

Wilson said his models appeal to the “luxury market” because of the cost and time it takes to produce a 3-D avatar. A single model can cost thousands of dollars and require hundreds of hours to produce, with Wilson laboring over minute details that bring his models to life, such as stray hairs and eyes that reflect light.

“Do I think 3-D models will impact editorials and put human models out of work--no, not really,” he said. “It’s a completely different space.”

But a British company that launched in April is already marketing itself as an alternative to human models. Irmaz Models calls itself an “Imagined Reality Modeling Agency.” The company’s website says its designers can “make faces to fit” any marketing campaign. Another advantage: Digital models “never argue, need to eat, throw tantrums or get tired,” the company notes.

“Brands can specify the look they’re exactly after, down to the race, gender and hairstyle,” Philip Jay, a former Playboy photographer who founded Irmaz Models with Irma Zucker, told CNN.

Kelvin Boon, the owner of Boon Models, an agency with branches in New York and the District, said he sifts through a daily stream of modeling portfolios in search of “quality models.” Aspiring models don’t always resemble their photos, he said, and those that do often require training before they’re ready for professional work.

If credible-looking digital models emerge, he said, “it’s going to affect the industry a lot.” Why, he asked, would a brand spend thousands of dollars to hire models and photographers for a single photo shoot when you can hire an artist to create images for far less?

“People don’t connect with images that resemble cartoons,” he said. “But if avatars begin to look like real people, it’s going to take a lot of power away from modeling agencies. Brands will only need human models for promotional events and walking the runways, and that’s pretty much it.”

Others, like Wilson, believe we might see a hybrid system in which models and celebrities license out their digital avatar, allowing them to book multiple appearances simultaneously. A model might appear at a New York fashion shoot in person, but their digital avatar would be in China promoting a movie using the local dialect.

Renee Engeln, a Northwestern University professor and psychologist who studies body image, told CNN that there is a troubling downside to normalizing digital models. Critics of the fashion world have long accused the industry of foisting unrealistic expectations upon the public, particularly women. Engeln said digital models could exacerbate that trend.

“There is no world in which this is good for women’s health,” she said. “To know that women are going to be comparing themselves to women who . . . are literally inhuman strikes me as some kind of joke that isn’t very funny.”

[evilelitest2]

Get Out was a great movie then totally broke down in the last third

If you go see the movie, when people start screaming about keys, just leave the theater.  Don’t ask for your money back because the earlier parts of the movie are fantastic and well worth your cash, just leave and make up your own ending in your head, because it just totally fails from that point on, mostly becasue the metaphor completely breaks down and leads to some really uncomfortable places.  

Spoilers below

Ok so Get out is basically “Stepford Wives” but with African Americans and it is a killer premise, the main character Chris is visiting the mega rich mega white family of his girlfriend rose, and whats great about the movie is how much he is expecting to get fucked over by the time the movie starts.  The opening scene is him asking Rose “hey did you tell your parents that I’m black” and she is like “no it isn’t a big deal” and he has this “ah man i’m fucked” expression, its great.  So basically Chris is just being really uncomfortable and upset in this uncomfortably white environment while everybody is trying to be a well meaning liberal “i’m so not racist” white person constantly making really uncomfortable comments or just trying to be too friendly, but everybody is hyper aware of his race in this really uncomfortable setting.  What makes this effective horror is that it is depicting a very normal and common experience and then just making it a tiny bit more extreme is very effective.  

   Chris is obvious uncomfortable and when ever he sees another black person he tries to connect with them and is shocked not only when they rebuff him, but also how they are all acting like creepy personifications of what white people think happy domestic workers act like, they are smiling and extremely happy with their work, submissive, and extremely nonthreatening (to the white characters, they are threatening as fuck to Christ).  Again, like the stepford wives, it is uncomfortable because they aren’t acting like people, they are acting like extensions of the white people.  Its mentioned that Rose’s mom is good at hypnotizing people, and I’m like “oh hey, its a racial take on the stepford wives, a marginalized group being transformed into obedient servants, with all the rich white liberals who all voted for Obama don’t you know, basically doing slavery.  There is a black guy at the party named Andre (not really) and every time Chris tries to talk to him, he basically just acts creepy and inhumane, at one point Chris puts his fist out to pound it, and Andre shakes it with this automated precision thats horrifying.  .  

    Then...the twist happens.  

Actually there are two twists, and both of them are terrible.

The First twist is the basic scheme, it is revealed that the Rose’s grandfather, the runner up to Jesse Owens, devolved a procedure for old white people to basically Body Hop into young black people’s bodies, basically taking over them and living forever while the black person’s mind is trapped in this subconscious hole.  Which....doesn’t make sense with the movie themes or earlier presentation. 

   Firstly, the practical problems. All of the African Americans seen on film act really creepy, like they are lobotomized and are all talking about how work will set them free nonsense.  If those are just old white people in black people’s bodies...wouldn’t they just act...normal?  Like normal people?  Like you could do a movie about whites actively taking over black bodies in order to further their own agenda, particularly in regards to sports, acting, and music, but that doesn’t match the tone set by the movie.  Like if Andre was a white dude taking over a black man’s body, he wouldn’t have behaved so stiff and awkwardly, he would have acted....normal.  Not like...well this 

Or this scene here.  

“Walter” is actually a white guy who has taken over a black guy’s body, so why is he acting like the happy slave cliche?   “Nothing I don’t wanna be doing” is a line that makes sense if the black characters are being forced into mind slavery, but if that just is Grandpa, why is Grandpa being so weird.  “I should get back to work and mind MY own business” again that makes sense if Walter is being forced to work again his will, but if Grandpa has taken over Walter’s body, why is he acting like that?

   For that matter why would a bunch of rich white dudes take over black bodies so they could do domestic work?  I mean these guys are rich, why i are they doing all the physical labor?  Also all of the African Americans in this community are subservient to whites in this really uncomfortable noticeable, way, which just wouldn’t be true if they were these white people’s friends and family, again nobody other than Chris isn’t in on the scheme, literally everybody gets what is happening except Chris, so them being so weird doesn’t really match.  Also I just don’t buy the notion of the most privileged people on the planet willingly giving up so much privilege, there is one Japanese dude who seems to want to become black so he can avoid the racism he experiences as an Asian American and....no dude, being black isn’t going to fix that.  If there was a body hopping scheme, this community I feel would want young white people because you know...they are racist.  

  And there were like 12 other black victims of this scheme, why don’t we see them around?  If they are body hopping, there should be more black people around.  

  If this movie was going to be about white people body hopping, it also should have just been executed differently.  THe community should have been full of black people who were actually black and from Chris perspective it would look temproarily like a post racial society, the white people treat their African American friends just like other white people, and everybody is acting as if there isn’t any systemic racism...except when they talk to Chris, who they view as black.  And we could have weird scenes of white people treating Chris one way and then other black people totally different, and then those same black people treat Chris with the same condescension, dismissive, and fear that the other white people are displaying.  Chris could be like “WTF is going on” because its like the whole community is color blind...except to him.  

Instead we have scenes like this which just....feel like an entirely different theme 

   Also... metaphor broke down, the movie is about how so called progressive white liberal communities are in fact deeply racist and still see black people as nothing more than things they can exploit rather than actual living breathing human beings.  Andre feels like a literal “Black best friend” whose entire existence is just “I’m here to support the white people around me”.  This is why the bidding scene is so well placed and why the party scene is so well done, the way that all of these people (who again, voted for Obama) dehumanize Chris while genuine believing they aren’t racist is extremely powerful.  Which doesn’t really relate to experience of becoming black, that storyline would be more appropriate for something like sports or music or dance where black bodies and talents are exploited for the benefit of whites who love the product but hate the people, or possibly a different type of well meaning liberal who fetishist blackness more than people.  The entire movie prior to the twist seems to be focused on black slaves via low wage domestic labor and the way that black people in white environments are forced to conform and make themselves less threatening to the notoriously skittish white folks (and Daniel Kaluuya does a great job portraying that.)

 The other problem is Rose.  See while everybody else in this movie is mega racist, Rose is very supportive and actively bitches to Chris about how racist her family is...when they aren’t around.  The movie (at first) is a metaphor for a real like experience, and Rose is the person who left her liberal white environment and upon returning is noticing how racist and uncomfortable it actually is, but doesn’t want to cause a fight with her family about it.  There are many places the story can go with that, she could betray Chris but taking her family’s side over his, she could back down and stand aside as he is subjected to racism, she could learn a lesson and stand up to her family even if it makes her uncomfortable, she could flee and abandon him, or she could reveal her own racism deep down.  All types of stories are possible while still fitting the metaphorical story line, the movie is set up to be about how even progressive white people are racist, Rose’s status as an ally can go in many different directions

....and the film chose none of them.  Instead Rose was a (gasp) a honey pot double agent who is luring black men (and a few women) to the family in order to have them captured, and is basically a sociopath with no redeeming qualities.  And ignoring the sexism...actually we shouldn’t ignore the sexism, WTF movie.  Actually there is a scene later in the film where Chris is strangling her to death (Othello reference?) and she looks like she is getting off to it, the entire character is just really fucked up.

(trust me, the scene is really uncomfortable)

  But beyond that metaphorically...that doesn’t make sense. White liberals talking about how much respect they have for black culture while actively trying to destroy it and are terrified of individual black people?  Yeah thats a thing.  White people not able to get past their own fear of African Americans and desire to dehumanize them?  Yeah that is also a thing.  White people actively trying to draw black people into their worlds via white women......what?   No that isn’t....no.  Actually the whole community Rose is from feels like a gated suberia, aka a community that came into being via White Flight and white people’s fear of having to live alongside African Americans.  The opening line of the film is so brilliant because Rose doesn’t think her boyfriend being black is a problem when obviously it is, if this is a giant scheme to trap him because he is black...then that line has no meaning.  It totally undercuts the entire thing the movie was going for.  Rose betraying Chris makes sense to me, Rose ultimately revealing herself to be an antagonist and a racist are ok with me, and rose being shot are ok with me, but this being a giant scheme robs the metaphor of any meaning (and this movie is one giant metaphor so losing that means you lose the film).  Its suppose to be calling out white culture and specifically white allies who are very supportive around cops but shrink in the face of family who they know are being racist, but that isn’t meaningful when she is a plant who is trying to effectively lobotomize her boyfriend.  If the point of the movie is to call out the white audience, that doesn’t work because white people can so “oh...well I”m not actively plotting the destruction of my spouse so....I”m in the clear hooray”.  

The movie is fantastic until a certain point and then it kinda falls apart.  The fact that this is basically the only movie on this subject since “Guess whose coming to dinner” (another flawed film) is sad because this topic could support dozens of movies in many genres, and it would be great if this was the start of a new topic of conversation rather than the last word.  

[iicastleridgeii]

No Humanity in Utopian Society

Set in the future in a utopian society, Damon Knight’s “A Country of the Kind” tells the story of a man under punishment for committing the murder of his girlfriend when he was fifteen years old. In this society, violence has been almost exterminated as it is has become an uncommon characteristic in people. Due to that, the people decide the penalty for his crime to result in a sanction through the three-fold solution: excommunication, a precaution to his violent behavior through epileptic seizures, and a warning to others to stay away by giving him a foul body odor. Because of the punishment, he can go anywhere he wants and seize whatever he wants without being reprimanded. Nonetheless, he craves human interaction, so he acts antisocial to get a response from someone. He even goes as far as making wooden sculptures of a man who is sitting down and looking up while holding a knife with a message asking for anyone who finds them to rebel against society and join him in violence, promising him or her freedom. He has left them in different places all over the world in hope that someone accepts his plea. Ultimately, in “The Country of the Kind” by Damon Knight, the main character’s punishment is inhumane and unethical. 

The main character’s amercement is inequitable because he lacks human interaction, which is a basic need for human beings. Society requires for others to treat him with negligence and reject his words and actions; however, there are scarcely opportunities for him to communicate with someone, and he takes advantage of them. For example, a girl approached and touched him underwater, as she couldn’t smell his odor. After swimming with her, she smells his stench when they come up from underwater and is immediately repulsed by him. Soon after a man approaches her, he hands her a pamphlet that reads the main character’s crime and the three-fold solution (Knight 14). There are rare times such as those that he manages to obtain some sorts of interaction, yet they are extremely short-lived due to it being against the law. Having no human interaction obviously affects him, and one result is that he feels secluded. Although he refers to himself as king of the world, he feels extremely lonely and acts particularly boorish to get a reaction to get people to react to him, even conforming to getting just a scream. Moreover, after the climax of the story he declares, “They had given me all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory thereof, thirty years ago. It was more than one man alone could bear” (21). The main character finally drops his façade of thoroughly enjoying his punishment, and he acknowledges he has grown highly exhausted of it. He wants to talk to people, for people to talk to him, and he craves human interaction, yet for thirty years he had been deprived of that and will presumably continue to destitute it for many years to come. Unquestionably until his death, which is tyrannical.

Furthermore, the main character’s punishment dehumanizes him. Having the story told from his point of view, his name is never mentioned leaving the reader in a state of curiosity. People in this society most likely are aware of his name, but the part of him before the murder and years of alienation is gone because the castigation has reduced him to nothing. Meaning that he exists in this society, but he cannot actually be a part of it in the aspects that truly matter. Additionally, due to everyone neglecting him, he starts to trick himself into thinking he is the king of the world as a way to cope with his punishment. He thinks this way because he is free to do what he pleases, but this only happens because people fail to accept his presence. For instance, in the beginning of the story he damages a car in front of an attendant at a car lot; nevertheless, the attendant does not confront him about the mess he has just created (8). The main character gets away with what he did to the car, but the small good of the situation he is in, him being able to act in whatever way he wants, does not outweigh the bad of it all, human interaction being absent from his life.

On top of that, the epileptic seizures that are a part of the three-fold solution lack compassion towards the main character. It is a part of being human to express oneself through actions of happiness, sadness, shock, and even violence that does not hurt another. However, part of that main character’s punishment is that if he even has violent thoughts against other people then he will suffer from epilepsy. Violent thoughts are a result of his alienation, yet that part of him is not allowed to come forward without an even more brutal consequence. In addition, these seizures he gets are intensely painful. They are being described using clever imagery: “that damned buzzing in my head… took me in the middle of a step, louder, louder, like the end of the world” (21). Afterwards the main character would feel, “weak as death,” and “wanted to die” (11).  Instead of society showing him mercy and allow him to rehabilitate, they treat his situation with indifference or disgust. 

Even though every action has a reaction, a consequence for a wrongdoing, the main character’s sentence is immoral and unconscionable. Just as a student being an outcast in school by being ignored or an inmate being in solitary confinement arises feelings of isolation and rejection, lack of communication is capable to mess with someone’s cognitive thinking and completely alter the way a person’s brain works. Social alienation leads to the feeling of loneliness, which can affect people in negative ways such as to develop chronic stress, have a lower immune system, and an increase possibility of depression. People’s mentality should not transpire to expect that two wrongs will eventually make a right as this shows humankind moving backwards, not forwards, as it should. People should look to others with empathy and clemency, not with disregard, like the society in “The Country of the Kind,” in order to create a better society for all.

_______________________________________________________________________

Works Cited Knight, Damon. “The Country of the Kind.” Modern Classics of Science Fiction. Ed. Gardner Dozois. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. 7-21. Print.

[ansixilus]

While this seems fairly accurate in practice, I must object that it's untrue in principle.

While systemic misogyny is (infuriatingly) seen as the norm, it does not inherently beget misandry. However, before I go any further, I must point out that most of what gets called misandry is very much not. As in the examples above, many men who know the term will bandy it about any time they feel personally attacked. That is not what I'm talking about here.

For anyone unfamiliar with the term, misandry is "hatred of or contempt for men" just as misogyny is "hatred of or contempt for women".

Western society evolved from highly patriarchal cultures that had deeply entrenched misogyny and male supremacy, stretching from the present back to ancient Greece and beyond. It's rather automatic for people to think in misogynistic ways. Then, consider how people respond to this. When people are attacked, they often lash back out. People will return insult for insult, barb for barb. But!

When a man, secure in his masculinity and his male culture, gets insulted, his response depends upon the insultor. If his bro, a masculine man who's part of the same jock flock, insults his masculinity, well that's just play! It's the coarse, jocular fun that they all poke at each other, and none of them take it seriously. On the other hand, if a woman does it, especially one he doesn't personally know well, then BOOM! This stupid bitch female must be a man hater radical feminist and she should learn her place obviously hates men.

If it sounds like I'm reinforcing the presented points instead of countering them, well at this point that's basically true. Systemic misogyny does cause this effect, but misandry can happen without it, all too easily.

For those who haven't seen Wonder Woman (2017), the Amazons are an example of a society that is as matriarchal as our modern society is patriarchal. However, the Amazon society was fundamentally meritocratic, where those most able had the most power, and was built on principles of harmony, a desire to peacefully coexist. They treated the captured male with distrust not because he was male, but because he was a warrior and a deceiver (spy) who brought a conflict unbidden to their home. They treated his wounds without animus or rancor, and while he was imprisoned it was far from inhumane: it was more like house arrest. This egalitarian treatment was because the Amazons believe fundamentally in fairness and justice.

But now, let's examine a less fictional situation. There was a post I saw somewhere on Tumblr about someone whose little girl had seen Wonder Woman, and she chastised a young boy for littering. "Stop littering and polluting our planet! That's why men aren't allowed on Themiscyra." It's an amusing story, and good that the girl both wants to stop littering and is willing to teach others (and that she understood the reasons behind it) but... it demonstrates a misandry so fundamental that most people don't notice it. The girl confused the Amazons, steadfast believers in justice and wisdom, with women in general. She didn't make the connection that Dr Poison, a sadistic and cruel villain from that movie, was also a human woman. Of course, I'm not expecting a little child (I think she was six?) to grasp the nuances of gender politics for another decade or so. It's her parents, and adults who share the story, who I'm hoping will understand. She took an idea of success, and immediately mistranslated it into an idea of superiority. She took "women are good" (a misheard "Amazon ideals are good") and applied it as "men are bad". This is a fundamental weakness of human nature, that we default to extreme reactions and we polarize against what we don't like.

To return to the point: would misandry exist without systemic misogyny? To answer that, imagine a civilization like that of the Amazons: women are strong, women are smart, women are the warriors, women are the rulers. Now, swap the Amazons (a people created by the gods to spread harmony, who fight only to create and protect peace) with humans. Humans who, without any conscious thought, internalize the same (or similar) thought patterns as that child described above. Of course there would be men there; unlike Amazons, humans age and die, and men are necessary for procreation. So of course men would be productive members of society: they'd farm, and craft, they'd help raise children, be weavers, potters, painters, chefs, what have you. It's not as if society could exist without them. No more than it should be run by them. Obviously, women are better at leading and government, just look at how successful this society is! Men are brutish and aggressive, unsuited to tasks of wisdom. There are exceptions, of course, Archimedes, Plato, Socrates, Polybius, there can certainly be wise men... just not most of them.

If females were the physically stronger sex in ancient times, and all other aspects were unchanged, we'd have a modern society of automatic assumptions of matriarchy, systemic (often invisible) misandry, and with the coming of enlightenment and social justice (please don't take that phrase out of relevant context) a movement for gender equality that would spawn the occasional accusations of misogyny, because the 'secure' ego of the majority ruling caste (of course they wouldn't see it that way, just as white men don't see it that way in our situation) is easily offended by barbed jokes.

Misandry isn't caused by systemic misogyny, per se. Systemic misogyny does strongly encourage retaliatory misandry, and males in a misogynistic culture are more likely to be offended into accusations of misandry, but the one does not necessarily cause the other.

People need to avoid falling into logical fallacies, including the Converse Error (if A then B; B therefore A).

So, yeah. TL,DR

A lot of what gets called misandry actually isn't.

A lot of misandry is subtle enough that it's not noticed (as is misogyny, but that's a whole other rant).

Systemic misogyny does not necessarily cause misandry, though it does encourage it.

Misandry can exist independently of misogyny.

Misandry and misogyny are equally wrong (I didn't make this point above, but it's still true) but they are not equally visible* nor equally occurring.*

Humans, unless trained not to,** default to extreme reactions and polarized viewpoints.

People who are injured, oppressed, or insulted tend to lash out in retaliation.

The ruling class (straight white cisgendered masculine males, for our situations) tends to have a sensitive ego that's easily offended.

* in our society

** such training is simply rationality: learning to think about what you think. The fundamental questions of rationality are: "What do I think, and why do I think it?" and "Why do I believe what I believe?"

without systemic misogyny, misandry wouldn’t exist.

[turtle-in-the-mums]

Question for the mun! Do you think every bot is forged to be something specific? Like Ratchet would be forged to be a medic. Or do you think they chose what they do?

(My headcanon is that the majority of bots are Sparked with a “generalist” bot-mode body, capable of doing any number of tasks. I think Vector Sigma does sometimes intentionally skew the Spark specifications of some of the bots it Sparks in order to supply Cybertronian society with a certain minimum population of bots in a profession. Just as some humans seem to be “born to be a doctor”, interested in biology and caring for people from the moment they realize other people exist, some bots emerge from the Well and seem to need only to hear that “medic” is among the available career tracks to choose a profession.)

(The historical caste systems aside, I like to think of the enlightened Cybertronian societies as set up to try and 1) find out what occupation fits a bot’s temperament and capabilities, 2) get that bot trained and placed in that profession, and 3) allow the bot to change his mind and take on a new occupation if he later chooses to. Exactly how it’s handled varies from place to place and depending on the time period–sometimes the intentions match up fairly well with the results, other times, not so much. I vary the details and degrees of inefficiency and oppression depending on the story I want to play out.)

(A job that requires special built-in equipment–like the medical profession–usually involves a prolonged period of training and apprenticeship before the first built-ins are installed, for a number of reasons.)

(Since you mentioned Ratchet–in my head, Vector Sigma didn’t Spark him to be a medic. He came out of the Well with a built-in interest in how small simple parts combine and work together to make large and complex systems–a category that includes but isn’t restricted to living bodies. He could easily have settled into the engineering profession and excelled in it, and he did take some introductory engineering courses and do some of his newspark labor for engineers. Some external factors combined at a critical point in his early life to sway him toward the medical field, and while he might (does) grumble about some parts of his job, he’s a medic to his core and wouldn’t be happy in any other profession. He might not even be able to retire–not completely, anyway.)

(One of the reasons my Prowl is as messed-up as he is is that his designers tried to impose a vocation he wasn’t really suited for on him. In some threads he was Sparked to be Optimus’ Seer–a combination of second-in-command, (nagging) angel on the shoulder, and majordomo with a side order of clairvoyance. In others he wasn’t specifically Sparked to devote his life to advising the Prime and running his administration and he doesn’t have visions–he’s just very, very good at handling logistics and strategy and spotting weaknesses in Op’s reasoning.)

(Optimus himself is a bot in the “wrong” profession. At least he thinks so. He wasn’t exactly happy as a file clerk–his mind was too imaginative and omnivorously inquisitive to be content with just reading and indexing the work of others rather than doing his own original research–but he wasn’t especially unhappy either. Being a leader, especially one who makes life or death decisions and is imbued with religious as well as secular authority, wasn’t something he aspired to, and if his conscience would let him he’d lay down that authority and retire to someplace quiet. Or so he believes. In truth he was Sparked to be a Prime. Vector Sigma tailored his soul for the job, and anyone who thought to look for the signs would have seen them from the very first days of Orion Pax’s life.)

(Megatron is THE cautionary tale about the folly of boxing in a sapient mind. He was assigned to the mines “at birth” and treated as property, but that by itself wasn’t enough to drive him into leading first a protest movement, then a revolt, then a war. Had there been an escape route of some sort, even an incredibly arduous and time-consuming one, he might well have “percolated” up out of the mines and into some other sector of society without hitting the level of despair and desperation that makes the risks of violent rebellion acceptable. Megs is certainly of above-average intelligence and quite adaptable. It’s an interesting question to ponder–what if Megs had been assigned to the mines as a newspark, but told that after some period of time, he’d have a chance to try for something better? Would he have tolerated the injustice if it was a temporary one? It’s still grossly unjust to stamp someone “slave” at birth, but if that slave can metaphorically see a path out from under the injustice, will the slave choose to endure the injustice and wait for the promised opportunity to get out without risk to his life, or will he opt to risk his life to claim freedom right now?)

(At the far extremes of circumstances it’s pretty easy to answer the question. If the conditions of slavery are so bad that there’s a fairly good chance the slave won’t live long enough to see the opportunity for lawful freedom arrive, he’s got nothing to lose and everything to gain by chancing violent rebellion. It’s when you start pushing the metaphorical slide switches up toward less-unbearable conditions that the decision gets harder.)

(Suppose, say, that the society was set up so that every bot who came out of the Well was initially property. Every last Well-born bot started life as a slave–but a slave with certain minimum expectations. (I say expectations because the word “right” in this context implies legal protection–which isn’t necessarily coterminus with social norms. As an example, in the U.S., it is perfectly legal to have your puppy put to sleep for peeing on the rug. A huge percentage of the U.S. population would call someone who did such a thing inhuman, a psychopath, or some other term cutting the perpetrator out of decent society. In the case of Megatron as a Cybertronian slave, what was legally acceptable wouldn’t matter half as much as what was actually happening.))

(Start with the barest minimum–the expectation not to be randomly murdered by one’s owner and to be freed after 50% of the average Cybertronian lifespan. That’s a tiny flicker of light at the end of a very long tunnel–is it enough to convince the likes of Megatron to accept his role in society? Is it enough to inhibit him against using violence, opting for peaceful protest and resistance instead? It probably wouldn’t be enough for Megatron, but it might be for others.)

(Push the sliders another few notches. Megatron begins his life as property that can be freely bought and sold, doing unskilled and unpleasant labor, but his owner sees to it his working conditions are reasonably safe, he has a sheltered if not especially comfortable place to sleep, adequate fuel, medical care if he gets sick or injured, and will free him after 35% of the average lifespan. Now Megs has more to lose if he opts for rebellion. Will he start a protest movement? Will he resort to violence if he doesn’t get some concessions?)

(Another few notches along the sliders. Everyone starts life being owned by an older person, but can expect not just basic comforts and courtesies but some education that will be useful in making a life after manumission, and freedom after 10% of the average lifespan. Now what’s Megs likely to choose?)

(Now push just one slider back down. It’s not everyone who begins life as a slave, just some people. Combined with the other sets of conditions, how does that one gross injustice change Megs’ decisions–or does it change them at all?)

(Another scenario–what if everyone begins life as a slave and almost everyone stays a slave all his or her life, but the terms of that slavery make it possible to rise fairly high in prestige and wealth (based on merit) before hitting the end of the slave chains? Suppose Megs started out as a miner, but had the chance to study and educate himself and work his way into more comfortable and powerful positions? If he could reach the point of managing whole trade networks or running the administrative affairs of a district for his owner, would that be enough for him? If he could not leave his home district without his owner’s permission, and he knew he was unlikely to ever receive permission, would he consider rebellion? What if he could ask to be sold to another owner, one who would put him to work in some profession more to his liking?)

(Okay, that veered way off the original topic–but tossing around hypothetical social structures is one of my favorite pastimes. In fact, it’s most of what my RPs end up about–if the social conditions are this, how do the people in society act?)