#a crime she can never be absolved from.

[moe-broey]

I was maybe halfway into this when I realized this could have been an edit but. Can anyone hear me

[ironunderstands]

These Aventurine, Topaz and Jade comparisons are getting out of hand…

As much as I adore both of them, I think it’s very disingenuous to compare Aventurine and Topaz’s lore and be like “but they are the same!!!! If people like Aventurine and dislike Topaz that’s just misogyny!!! and like… no?

Topaz’s whole thing is that she doesn’t know the extent of the IPC’s evil, and believes that what she’s doing is genuinely the right thing to do. Even if she never had a choice in joining the IPC, she (incorrectly) believes what they did to her and her planet is justified, logical and moral, and for those reasons she stands with them. Part of this is likely IPC brainwashing, as she was probably very young when she became an indentured servant to them, and someone living on a planet on the brink of destruction would likely view anyone who stepped up to save them as heroes (imo the IPC likely waited for the point of no return to establish contact so her people had no other choice to except).

However Topaz got best end of the proverbial stick, her planet and its people were deemed useful by the IPC, and didn’t fight back, even if in the end they were still exploited.

Unfortunately, we have seen through Boothill, Belabog and Aventurine what happens when that isn’t the case.

Boothill’s planet got bombed and people genocided because they had a resource useful to the IPC, but were unwilling to cooperate with them or hand over their home, so the IPC decided to eradicate them.

Belabog had a debt owed to the IPC that was ridiculously high and very unfair to expect them to pay back, and had Topaz not convinced the higher ups to give them some time (which she got demoted for), the IPC would have taken Belabog by force

That leaves us with Aventurine, whose story is in no way on the same level of bad as Topaz’s. Unlike her, he has witnessed and experienced firsthand the truly awful shit the IPC can do.

They took custody of Sigonia and promised to offer the Avgin aid in their fight against the Katacans, at the very least protect them from harm. (Sidenote, since the IPC held control over Sigonia, they should have stopped the fighting in the first place). However, they simply stood by and did nothing, resulting in the deaths of around 6,000 Avgin, with around 3,000 went missing (or injured, I don’t remember, either way it’s bad).

But wait! It gets worse! Aventurine when he was still known as Kakavasha referred to the IPC as “the men in black/the men in black suits”, and his first master says he bought Aventurine from “the men in black/the men in black suits”, likely mocking the way he referred to them. Therefore THE IPC TOOK PART AND LIKELY EVEN CREATED A FUCKING SLAVE TRADE IN SIGONIA

Look being made into an indentured servant isn’t fun, but idk personally I’d take that any day of the week OVER BEING ENSLAVED

That’s not even to mention how horrible of a reputation Sigonian’s have in the galaxy, one likely spread by/resulting from the IPC themselves, as at least on Aventurines planet they do not have the mobility to make a name for themselves. (Honestly it’s a mini theory of mine that Aventurines scam is what partly contributed to this reputation, and his status as a slave is something the IPC conveniently left out in their broadcast about it-)

But, you might be saying, didn’t Aventurine have a choice to join the masked fools and leave the IPC, isn’t he free now? And to that I say, it’s complicated.

Considering the amount of suicidal shit Aventurine has done while being part of the IPC, he clearly hasn’t been having a fun time as a member of one, so why does he stick around, especially with the Fools invite? Even if he was a slave, does that absolve him of the crimes he’s committing now? What could justify his actions?

Revenge, plan and simple.

This is going to delve into some spoiler territory for the end of the Penacony 2.2 quest, something which I didn’t feel like mentioning earlier because I’m sorry but everyone and their mother already knows Boothill’s lore. Now, let’s get into it.

Aventurine accepts Jades offer to join the IPC, and when he becomes a Stoneheart, the first thing he asks about is the fate of the Avgin, to which he then learns that besides him, they are all dead. You see, from birth Kakavasha was pushed onto a pedestal as the savior of the Avgin, but now that there are no more Avgin to save, his primary motivator in becoming a Stoneheart (beyond not being enslaved anymore) is gone.

So what does he do now?

Simple, try to kill the motherfuckers behind it.

That’s why he takes on such risky gambles still, and why he wagers and wants Diamond to promote him to rank p46. The higher Aventurine gets the closer he gets to his goal of taking down the IPC for good.

Which is why his meeting with Boothill is so meaningful. I think Boothill is going to “kidnap” him and together they are gonna take down the wicked bitch that is Oswaldo Schneider for his literal crimes against humanity.

Mark my words, an IPC downfall is going to happen, and I think Topaz, Aventurine, Boothill and Ratio are going to be at the forefront of it.

However, Topaz and Ratio (and by extension the rest of the galaxy) have to learn/realize the true horrors of the IPC (although I can sense Ratio doesn’t really like them, and he’s learned a lot from Aventurine, I doubt he knows the full extent of the situation or is in any way happy about it). Therefore? Topaz mental breakdown arc? Ratio lore? PLEASE??!? The IP3 compliment one another so well and god I can’t wait for that to come to fruition.

I really want to see a Topaz and Ratio centered story leading up to an IPC smackdown, and I think we are gonna learn a lot more about how shitty they are in the later half of 2.2 and in 2.3 when the interlude and Jades release arrive.

As for the aforementioned Jade, she’s gonna need a Aventurine squared amount of trauma or reasoning behind her actions to seem in any way sympathetic, because right now she just seems like an evil bitch (in a semi good way, I will always respect the commitment to the bit) who loves her job and would make Machiavelli weep over how hard her ends are trying to justify her means.

[tls12lessthan3]

rereading the lee jihye cinema scene is really making me think about the parallels between kim dokja and lee jihye in ways that are so evil. like the point of this scene is lee jihye grappling with her trauma from killing na bori with kim dokja's help, with him telling her that its true she did a terrible thing but that all that matters now is she lived, and that she has to continue living. "Atone for the rest of your life or live a garbage life. Just somehow survive!"

lee jihye did something horrible to someone who loved her deeply in order to survive. the fact that na bori gave up her life willingly doesn't ease lee jihye's guilt - she still feels as though she doesn't deserve to be alive. and kim dokja feels so much compassion for her in this moment! he sees her for what she is - a terrified kid who just wanted to live - and fights for her to survive. he encourages her and empathizes with her and generally does his best to ensure she can live on even with all her guilt because he doesn't see her wanting to survive even at the cost of others as an unforgiveable crime.

which makes the fact you can see the clear parallels between lee jihye and the oldest dream here so much more heartbreaking. the oldest dream is an extension of the message that kim dokja passes onto lee jihye here - no matter what, you must somehow survive. thats what the oldest dream's existence is, a kid trying to somehow survive. that desperation is what his all powerful dreams are born out of. he pushes orv's message about living having a cost, and having to bear that cost, to its extreme - oldest dream's survival was very expensive indeed, causing incalculable suffering across universes and taking 1864 of yoo joonghyuk's lives. this is something kim dokja has to bear to keep living - its something hes unable to. orv forgives him for this, but he does not. both lee jihye and oldest dream are kids who want to live, both hurt those closest to them in the process, both are unable to live with that guilt even when absolved of it by the very person they hurt.

but where kim dokja empathizes with lee jihye, where he cares for her, where he sees her as still deserving of a future, he is unable to do so for himself. even in this very scene he is chastising himself for 'using' her, for doing what he has to to survive in an apocalypse, unable to see the irony. all of his companions have made horrible choices to survive in the apocalypse, all of them have chosen to live at an inevitable cost of someone else. and yet kim dokja holds only himself accountable for the crime of survival. it really exposes this supposed accountability for what it is - a deep self-loathing disguised. if it had been any other child sitting at that subway station, kim dokja would have understood. but because it was himself? of course he reacted with disgust and violence - look at the entire book. he's never been able to do anything else when it comes to himself! even when he cares so deeply for the others....oh kim dokja.....

[httpkaulitz]

Can you be my pretty toy?

PAIRINGS: Bill x Female reader

CONTENT: Smut

SYNOPSIS: Bill breaks a promise and you decide to teach him a lesson.

WARNINGS: sub!bill, dom!reader, handjob, overstimulation.

A/N: First time writing sub Bill because I love it but I don't really write it 😋

“I’m so sorry, my love.” Bill hissed, his face turned towards you with a pleading look.

You could feel his body trembling against yours. The heated skin of his back against your chest, his hair sticky with sweat sticking to the skin of your shoulder.

You two had been like this for at least ten minutes now. He apologized to you repeatedly while you stroked his dick with your hand in a firm grip, but at an agonizingly slow speed.

“I won’t do it again, I promise.” He looked away from you, embarrassed at how desperate and pathetic his voice sounded.

“Oh I know you won’t do it again.” You whispered, your tone almost too sweet for someone who was punishing him.

Bill squirmed a little more, desperate as he realized you were nowhere near done with him. He knew very well that you were more than irritated that he disobeyed you.

“It wasn’t my fault, I couldn’t help it.” He whimpered as he gripped the sheets. His thighs trembled every time the soft palm of your hands passed over the head of his dick.

Bill was terribly aroused, to the point of pain.

He looked back at you, his pink lips parted and the black makeup running down his eyes. He seemed almost desperate as he spoke. “I couldn’t ignore her.”

“You couldn’t?” You asked firmly, staring at him. As if he didn’t have the strength to maintain eye contact with you, he looked away.

When he didn’t answer you, you asked again, this time louder. “You couldn’t? Why? Is she special now?”

Bill lets out a sound that’s somewhere between frustration and disappointment when you let go of his cock. Your hand goes straight to his jaw, squeezing it enough to squeeze his pink cheeks. You turn his face, making him look at you again.

“What’s wrong? Did you lost your tongue?” Unable to speak, he just shook his head.

His beautiful brown eyes shine with unshed tears. He knows he shouldn’t touch himself, but he wants to so badly that he has to grip the sheets so his hands don’t fly towards his dick.

You release his jaw and wait patiently for him to respond and after a few seconds he does. “I tried to ignore her, I swear, but she kept coming back every time she saw me.”

You narrowed your eyes at him and he flinched a little more.

“She works with me-” He started to say but you cut him off.

“And what? You don’t have to be friends because of that.” Your hand went back to his cock, but this time you jerked him off fast and precise, just the way you knew he liked.

Bill pressed his lips together trying not to moan so desperately. His hips jerked upwards on their own even though he tried to control it.

“I’m not a bad girlfriend.” You said as you watched him squirm under your touch. His normally pale skin was now pink and sweaty. “I don’t mind when you purposely flirt with your fans, I mean, they deserve some attention.”

“Please… please let me-” The sentence dies in his mouth as you do an especially quick up and down motion a few more times before pulling your hand away from his cock.

Bill whimpers in frustration and need. You smile as his cock twitches and his legs shake involuntarily.

Even though he hasn’t managed to cum yet, he feels on edge, so stimulated that he would do anything to get his release.

“Do you really think you can cum after what you did?” You knew Bill was too kind to ignore anyone, but he had promised and still broke a promise.

You were furious when you saw him talking to her. Smiling as she threw herself on him. You never liked the way she looked at him. As if she didn't care that he was taken, as if she could have a chance with him.

"Please forgive me. I swear I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it." Bill sounded like a criminal desperate to be absolved of his crime.

He leaned towards you, pleading eyes staring at your lips. He had always been sensitive to touch and you could only imagine how needy he was right now.

“Did I say you could move?” You grabbed him by the neck, pulling him back into his place.

“I’m sorry.”

Completely ignoring his apology you asked. “Are you really sorry or do you just want me to touch you?”

The hand that was on his neck moved down his torso, caressing the sweaty and sensitive skin.

“N-no, I’m really sorry.” Bill stammered as he watched your hand slowly move down his body, but away from where he really wanted you to touch.

“So if I left you here alone like this you wouldn’t care?” You could almost see the gears in his mind working to find the right answer.

“Please don’t…touch me, please.” He was close to begging desperately over and over if that was what he needed to do.

You smiled, a mischievous smile before dragging your hand back to his dick.

“Thank you, thank you so much.” Bill said again and again. Relieved that you were touching him again.

You snaked your other arm around him to keep him still in place as your hand moved up and down his cock frantically.

Bill threw his head back on your shoulder, moaning and shaking under your touch.

“Please let me-” it was more than clear what he wanted.

“Let it go, my pretty boy.” You whispered sweetly in his ear and smiled as you watched him come undone in your hands.

His once tense body now relaxed against yours. Your hand slowed to a stop.

Bill looked at you smiling, he looked tired as if he had run a marathon. He was ready to cuddle into you, but your hand attacked him again.

Your touch, so skillful and insistent, was guiding him to painful overstimulation. Bill opened his mouth to scream but you pulled him close and silenced him with an eager kiss that was quickly reciprocated.

You couldn't deny that it was intoxicating to have someone so desperate under your touch.

His head was spinning, his eyes rolling back with the mixture of pleasure and pain as his body shook.

He whimpered, looking down at where your hand was incessantly moving up and down his cock.

"Please, liebe, it hurts." He whispered between breathless moans.

"What's wrong, darling? I'm just doing what you asked so desperately." You said with feigned innocence.

He looked like an expensive painting, messy and incredibly pretty. His makeup was completely smeared, his skin flushed and his normally spiky hair was down and sweaty. You could see the drool running down his face as he moaned nonstop.

His body shook violently and you knew he was cumming again even though there was nothing left of him now.

“I can’t… not anymore, please.” He begged, his legs automatically closing.

He didn’t know how many times he had cum, 5? 7? He lost count, his body was on the edge and he felt like he might pass out from so much stimulation.

“Just one more time, honey, now be a good boy and spread your legs.” You said as you brushed away the strands of hair that were stuck to his face.

Even though his body was determined to disobey, Bill obeyed your command in the same instant.

You stroked the head of his cock knowing how sensitive he was. Every sigh and moan that left him was a reward as you moved your hand, the soothing touch doing nothing to really calm him down.

You had no desire to stop, but by the way he was now almost coming apart in your arms you knew you had to. You watched him cum for the last time, shaking and writhing as tears wet his handsome face.

“Shhh, it’s over. You did great, baby.” You whispered to him as you hugged him and kissed the top of his head. You got ready to get up and get him some water and clean up the mess you made, but Bill held you in place.

“Stay here with me, please.” He says in a sleepy voice. His whole body relaxes in your arms now that he knows you’re not mad at him anymore. You just go back to holding him knowing he’ll soon fall asleep in your arms.

[32beesinatrenchcoat]

So I was going to write a detailed post describing my every thought on the last season of the Umbrella Academy, but that would have taken forever to write and read. Not to mention people here have spoken about most of those things more eloquently than I ever could. Instead, I want to mention a running theme in the show: family. That seems obvious enough on the surface considering the premise is a dysfunctional superhero family. However, each character is motivated by the nebulous concept of a family.

This has a different meaning for each main character. Sometimes it's by blood, by marriage, or by teams. Each character may have different motivations that could come in conflict with each other's. In season 3, Allison is motivated by a loss of her family (Claire and Ray), Diego and Lila are motivated by starting a family together, and Luthor is conflicted between his old family (the umbrella academy) and a new family (the sparrows).

The problem I have with season 4 is that this theme is tossed aside for no reason. They spend very little time with each other, and they seem so miserable whenever they do get together. Viktor wants to help Ben cause he's his brother, but they have no connection beyond Umbrella!Ben. Allison saves Klaus only to have it thrown in her face. Luther spends the first episode trying to bring the family together and never does it again. But at least these people tried to help. The rest of the family would rather do anything else it seems.

Ben and Klaus immediately walk away after the fight in Maine to do whatever they want. It's been shown that Klaus likes to have people when he's hit bottom, whether that's to help him or just provide company. Ben spent the entire wedding episode angry that he was unwanted. It makes no sense he would throw away several chances to be a part of a family just to be an ass.

Diego and Lila chose to have kids and be together last season. Why are they shown to be completely unhappy now? Lila always wanted a family and people who loved her instead of manipulating her. In this timeline, her parents are alive, she has children and a husband, and his siblings are all there for her. What was the point of telling us several times last season how good of a dad Diego would be to not have that shown? Even if his job sucks and his life is stressful and he misses heroism, his children should be the most important thing to him.

Finally, we reach Five. Five's definition of family has always been his siblings. He fought for them. He killed for them. So him wanting to hide away in some fantasy timeline instead of saving his family is ridiculous and completely out of character. I could believe him and Lila being stuck together and they grow close over the years. I could maybe believe some romantic feelings happened if they truly saw no way out. The problem is that they should have gone straight home once the cipher was found.

The biggest issue is that none of these arcs were absolved. Diego/Lila/Five is never reconciled either way, Allison saves Klaus again and he learns nothing from it, Ben dies a painful death again, and the children are punished for the crime of being born by being erased from reality. The conclusion to the theme of the show is not only do they cause problems in every relationship they have, but that they are the problem. The show asks, What is family? The answer: nothing that can last apparently

[gaywarcriminals]

On Mouthwashing, Qijiu, cruel characters, and the role of discomfort in blorbo analysis. 

I recently watched a playthrough and some video essays about the indie horror game Mouthwashing (spoilers ahead). For those not familiar, the game follows a man named Jimmy in a crashed spaceship where he reveals himself to be an unreliable narrator and fucked up in a variety of ways as the game progresses. 

Although I’m not immersed in the fandom and thus have a limited sample size, I noticed that people treat him as nearly inhuman. He’s the sole bad actor, a terrible monster destined to hurt everyone. I find this deeply ironic considering the game’s themes of responsibility and accountability: isn’t this kind of dehumanization absolving him of his responsibility to act decently?

It’s also strange to me, because the game goes at lengths to show Jimmy has an enabler. Captain Curly is Jimmy’s friend and boss who is made aware of Jimmy’s erratic and violent behavior multiple times, chooses to do nothing, and ultimately makes possible many deaths through his inaction. Aside from Jimmy’s public outbursts, there are even scenes with a specific member of their crew expressing how unsafe she feels around Jimmy. Despite this, a decent portion of the fandom sees Curly as nothing more than one of Jimmy’s victims, which is curious to me when placed in contrast with Yue Qingyuan and Shen Jiu.

Yeah yeah I’m blorbo-brained, but I think there’s a lot of points for comparison between Qijiu and Jimmy & Curly, at least in terms of their dynamic and social roles. Jimmy and Shen Jiu are both antisocial assholes with an unhealthy fixation on the generally well liked and affable guy just above them on the totem poll. They’re both convinced their superior is looking down on them, and resent the power he has (SJ less so, he has a lot of other reasons to resent YQY). They both use what power they do have to abuse those below them. Curly and YQY, for their parts, are shown to be explicitly aware of most if not all of their friend’s worrying/dangerous behavior, but do nothing meaningful to stop it. 

If they’re so similar, then why in the case of Mouthwashing is Curly often absolved of his complicity in the face of Jimmy’s overwhelmingly awful actions, whereas in the Scum Villain fandom, it’s just as common to see people pin all of SJ’s actions on YQY and vice versa?

Now, there’s a couple obvious reasons for this. For one, Mouthwashing is a horror game and Jimmy very effectively makes himself the antagonist, which lends itself to the interpretation of him as a the monster afflicting the other characters. For another, Jimmy sexually abused a shipmate, which is a particularly despicable crime (although so, I would argue, is child abuse). There’s also the fact that Curly is very physically robbed of agency for most of the game’s runtime, which might make it harder to see his power and agency before that point, but perhaps the most important difference is that to fans, Jimmy is deeply unlikable, and Shen Jiu is not. 

Personally, I think the reason a lot of people make Jimmy out to be a monster and Shen Jiu to be tragically misunderstood is simple: it can be uncomfortable to like a bad person. 

I don’t think there should be any shame in liking characters who are fucked up people that do horrible things, but I think it chafes at some sensibility within many of us, learned or innate, when we feel such deep emotional connection to a character who’s actions we would normally morally condemn. 

I’ve definitely observed that in some parts of the Shen Jiu fandom– it's the kind of sentiment that leads to discounting his canonical actions in favor of fanon. I’ve never found those fanons very compelling because I have never had any discomfort with Shen Jiu’s canonical actions— in fact, him being a despicable if pitiable mess is what drew me to him (I’m typically quite the fucked-up-evil-guy liker). For once, though, I find myself on the other side of this discomfort with Yue Qingyuan. 

I was thinking today about how one of the earliest things YQY says to SY!SQQ— his 9th line in the novel— was telling SQQ that LBH is strung up in the woodshed, where SQQ always leaves him after beating him. It implies not just that YQY knows about this singular punishment, but that this is an extended pattern of behavior. To me, YQY seems uncomfortable with the situation, but he does nothing to stop LBH from being abused aside from telling SQQ to “be less hard on him”, even though he’s the only person in the sect above SQQ, and potentially the only one with the authority to stop him. 

If Yue Qingyuan knew, did Luo Binghe know the sect leader had found out? Did Luo Binghe know he had been abandoned to his fate?

Like Curly, I think that Yue Qingyuan’s most unforgivable fault as a character was enabling Shen Jiu’s abuse of Luo Binghe and potentially other disciples. I think YQY’s motivations made sense, and I understand the choices he made, but when I think about it for too long I can feel a deep pit in my stomach grow. 

Why does YQY’s arguably lesser crime of enabling SJ bother me so much more than SJ’s own direct actions? Perhaps because I still want to see Yue Qingyuan as a good person, whereas Shen Jiu has already declared himself evil. Maybe I’ve been a little bit caught up in our unreliable narrator’s point of view. 

Fascinatingly, despite his adoration for Luo Binghe, Shen Yuan cum Shen Qingqiu never (to my recollection at least), blames Yue Qingyuan for SJ’s actions. Instead, he sees YQY as one of SJ’s victims— someone that SJ as good as killed, even if it was LBH’s orders that loosed the arrows. 

Shen Qingqiu has a tendency to, for lack of a better term, woobify his favs, and although LBH is by far the most frequent recipient of this treatment, I’d argue that YQY actually receives it more consistently. This is partially because he’s relegated to friendly NPC whereas poor Binghe is the Big Scary Protagonist, but the only time in the whole novel I can think of SQQ seeing YQY as a person capable of harm and fucking up is after YQY’s confession where SQQ puts it together with SJ’s flashbacks, but even then, SQQ sees him more as a cautionary tale for him and Binghe than someone who’s hurt others. Given this narrative bias, I’m honestly surprised* that more of the fandom isn’t simping for YQY too.

Ultimately, I think this discomfort is normal and worthwhile– something to lean into rather than away from. I’d even say it's necessary, should we ever hope to be more media literate than Peerless Cucumber.

*well, I’m not, but that’s a whole piece of fandom history better left untouched

[sepublic]

            Thinking about how Watching and Dreaming is a story about Choices, their relation to Change, and the Responsibility that comes with that.

         It’s about Luz choosing to be a hero, choosing herself, choosing happiness in a world where she’s made any friends; The Titan herself tells Luz that he can’t decide anything for her, it’s Luz’s decision to accept his power and return to the isles to stop Belos. It’s Luz’s choice to be a Good Witch.

         Choosing just one magic course? Luz has always been unique about choices in her own way, she can’t decide on just one thing if she can have them all; Hence why she studies all magic tracks. Why Luz maintains connections to the human and demon realms. Even her bisexuality could be seen as a meta refusal to settle for one; So it all culminates in her palisman String Bean, who represents Luz not so much being indecisive, but rather choosing it all. Choosing all of the choices, with an intent that really does make a difference to her nervousness from before.

         It’s the Collector’s choice to become better, to let go of their anger and loneliness. It’s about choosing to change, something Belos never does; What makes him ‘irredeemable’ is not all of the heinous crimes he’s committed, it’s the fact that no matter how many times he is offered the opportunity to change, even be forgiven, Belos chooses not to take it. He refuses to change.

         But the Collector does. And they’re rewarded when King chooses to give them Francois; And it was always about King’s choice, his decision that the Collector respected. It was never about having Francois, hence why they didn’t cuddle with Francois behind King’s back, rescued him from Belos’ grasp and returned him to where he belonged.

         By contrast, the Collector’s control defies the ability to choose, because they decide everything for everyone. But he can’t force people to be his friends, it’s up to them, especially on whether to forgive. The students at Hexside are understandably scared of the Collector, and in the end, the kid can’t choose for them to be his friends; That’s something they decide for themselves, even if it’s the choice he wouldn’t have liked.

         THAT was the Collector’s mistake with Belos; It was not compassion’s folly. It was that they assumed by giving Belos a chance to change, he would automatically choose to do so; In a sense, the Collector expected that choice to be made for Belos just by offering him the opportunity to take it. But it’s just a change, a possibility, there is no certainty. The Collector can’t make Belos change as a person, they can’t control him either; They can only hope, but never assume on his behalf.

         Belos also chose things for people; Made them decide on just one magic track, and/or servitude to him. Insisted to Luz she ‘choose better’ by settling for humanity, took away agency through direct possession of Raine and the Titan. Both of whom fight back and regain some semblance of change and control but for themselves. In his final moments, Belos pretends he was a victim like them; Absolves himself of responsibility by claiming he didn’t have a choice, that he was forced to by his nebulous ‘curse’, and deep down he must believe God’s Destiny also spares him accountability.

         But by placing himself at Luz’s mercy, it gives Luz the power to decide Belos’ fate; And she doesn’t choose ‘peace’ like Belos hopes, because like with the Collector, merely offering a choice does not make someone take it. Raine and the Titan still managed to fight back and decide things for themselves, as did Hunter, and so many under his coven. Caleb was under the same indoctrination growing up but changed anyway; Philip has nobody but to blame but himself, for being passive.

         People choose to get better, or don’t; There are covenscouts like Tom and his group, confronted by Steve who chose to change and improve. And when offered the compassion and opportunity to do the same, they accepted; They chose improvement. Meanwhile, Coven Heads like Terra, Adrian, and Vitimir choose to stay the same. They don’t want to change, and it’s up to people like Darius and Eberwolf to prevent any more harm from them.

         Alador chooses to change for his kids, because he misses them. He wants to be a dad they can look up to, and love. This is contrasted by Odalia, who bitterly stands off to the side; She could’ve chosen this moment to change, because it’s not like there were any other opportunities to pursue. But she doesn’t want to change.

         And that’s part of theme of Choice, it’s that you have to choose to change, proactively and make it happen, or accept that change has happened regardless of your participation. When you have the ability, you have the responsibility, both in what to choose and the consequences that come. Philip didn’t want to face the consequences of his actions, denied responsibility. But people like Luz and the Collector and so many took responsibility; They saw they were hurting others and/or themselves, stopped and fixed the damage, and grew up. There is a responsibility to always offer compassion, even if you accept that people might reject it anyway.

         Belos didn’t want to change, nor did he accept that times have changed; His brother is dead, there’s no bringing Caleb back. The human world has changed, he saw as such through Hunter’s eyes when the Gravesfield that indoctrinated him ultimately looked back on its witch hunting prejudice and decided that was wrong, admitted it changed.

         Things can’t last forever, the Collector is convinced by Luz to accept change, not just in letting go, but also in learning about and acknowledging death. Just as Luz accepted her father Manny’s death; Belos being a cancerous growth that envelops the Titan, who is a father figure to King and low key Luz herself, is a metaphor for whatever illness killed Manny. By helping the Collector, a child who doesn’t understand death, Luz basically helps her childhood self; And by stopping Belos, she comes to terms with Manny’s death, and conquers her grief to move on and find a new future and a new family.

         Because Luz and the Collector accept change, that means they don’t need to maintain an unnatural stasis; They’re able to wake up from their fantasy dreams by coming to terms with the loss of loved ones, for Luz her dad, for the Collector their previous Titan friends, and their fear of losing King. Belos, he clings to his dream of being a hero, and never wakes up, even insisting in his final words that it’s the witches who are evil, not actually him. Belos clung to the past of Gravesfield and his trauma, and was forced to face the now, the consequences that came afterwards with his sins, in the form of people actually alive and very angry.

         But even with Belos’ death, the isles changed because of him, alas; The left arm has permanently risen, the geography of that area is drastically different and people must adapt. The Titan has finally, truly died, after he moved on, no thanks to Belos; No more of HIS glyphs, but there are King’s. So things change, and Luz accepts that; Even before King’s glyphs develop, the fact that she changed enough to earn String Bean allows her to survive this period of no glyph magic to rely on just fine, and build and plan a future around that.

         There are still scars, like the literal ones of Luz, King, Eda, Hunter, and Raine; Or the emotional scars like the death of Flapjack, the trauma that everyone has suffered and is healing from. But because so many characters chose to change, and to accept change, they themselves became people so radically different, and so much happier for it. So when they all appear before Luz to thank her, to express gratitude for the compassion that enabled them to decide to change, and become new people for it…

         It’s all about Choices. It’s about Freedom. It’s about Change, how you must facilitate and/or accept it. Control is antithetical to this, at least in application to others; But when you can control yourself and exercise autonomy, that’s wonderful. People like Amity, Lilith, Bump, Alador, and so many others chose to change and become better people, to create change in themselves and the world around them. Eda and King took responsibility for their actions, Eda accepting her curse was no excuse to push aside Raine, King becoming responsible with the implications of his divinity by rejecting them to be humble.

         Luz changed people, and she never forced them to. She simply gave them the same choice that she chose for herself, and that’s beautiful. There is no Destiny that’s decided ahead of time for you, no God who decides your role in the world. There is no ‘Chosen One’, one for whom a decision has been made by someone else and thrust upon them, there is only One who Chooses. It’s all about deciding for yourself, and that’s part of the uncertainty but also freedom of growing up.

        Luz chose to enter a foreboding shack. She chose to go back for her father’s book, to remain a weirdo, for herself and for Manny. And she chose to stay in the isles rather than go back. She’s been making choices all this time, deciding her own fate and as Eda advised her, what kind of witch Luz wants to be; A Good Witch.

[moistvonlipwig]

the ozymandias phone call is a rly interesting moment in breaking bad to me for many reasons but one of the biggest ones imo is the fact that like.....a huge part of walt's abuse of skyler has been making her out to be the bad guy. he continually puts her in a position to look like the 'bitch wife' who is shutting him out for 'no reason' or the 'bitch mom' who is taking away flynn's shiny new car or the woman who 'cheated' on him with ted (nevermind that she had already separated from walt and he was refusing to sign the divorce papers and the 'cheating' was a tactic to get him to do so).

additionally she is an imperfect victim and he damn well knows that and uses that to his advantage multiple times to get her to do what he wants. marie has already slapped her and berated her for her complicity in walt's crimes and she doesn't even really understand the full extent to which skyler helped him. and both walt and skyler know full well that no one from the outside looking in (except perhaps jesse) would ever be able to understand why skyler did what she did even if they knew the whole story. because people don't hold compassion or understanding in their hearts for imperfect victims, which is to say, human victims, because no human is perfect. which is one of the things that can make abuse so isolating for the victims -- the shame they feel about their own actions & the fear of how others will judge them. the reality of the abuse becomes an unspeakable, shameful secret that only the abuser & victim know, so the victim comes to rely on the abuser even more, because at least they know the truth.

so the ozymandias phone call is interesting because in that moment walt makes skyler a perfect victim. for the first time, he makes himself out to be the bad guy (which he undeniably is, but which he has refused to appear to be in front of flynn prior to now). the way he talks to skyler on the phone is both true and a lie; he is sanding down her complexities to feed marie, flynn, & the police an abuse narrative they can understand and sympathize with. the abuse he put skyler through never quite looked like that phone call, which is how skyler knows he's putting on an act, but he did abuse her, and in this moment, despite its performative and dishonest nature, he is also, paradoxically, being finally honest and admitting what he did to her, and letting the other people in their lives see their dynamic for what it was. it doesn't heal the wounds he inflicted on skyler, it doesn't absolve him of what he did to her, it probably doesn't even make it easier for her to talk to anyone about what he did to her -- but he speaks aloud the truth he had previously made unspeakable, and he makes it clear, at least to the people who love her, that she was not the bad guy. she never was.

[arashi-no-saxlphone]

Ok I know people on here probably already know this but like. I want to say. Asuka blowing up Japan was not just a "Haha I'm gonna just do this" it was a "Oh fuck what the fuck is happening we need to aim this so the entire earth doesn't get fucked" and last ditch directed it at Japan. I AM NOT EXCUSING THAT! I AM NOT SAYING ASUKA NEVER DID ANYTHING WRONG I JUST WANT PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND THE EVENTS CORRECTLY! Asuka's main goal in turning Aria into Justice was to prevent the Gear Project from being used for war so he created Justice out of Aria (THIS is something you can hate him for this is an extremely fucked up thing to do and I'm not going to analyze what he did to Fredrick and Aria in this post because that's a whole other can of worms) as a command type Gear to be able to PREVENT total war by taking control of ALL gears. However UNBEKNOWNST to him the Universal Will was taking control of Justice/Aria as she awoke and was going to destroy humanity (because The Original fucked up in making the Universal Will and some weird clause happened where "protect humanity" ended up being "humanity is a threat to itself so they all have to die") by mutating the people in Japan into bombs. Asuka realized that if it went on like this the world might be destroyed and in the moment he redirected Justice with the last bit of control he had over her using Manual Override to just destroy Japan to prevent this. It was NOT an easy or light decision that he had time to make! He had to try and stop the Gear Project from being used for warfare and destruction, TWICE, and failed both times and ended up destroying the world anyway. He put the Flame of Corruption in Frederick and turned him into a gear as a failsafe before this, likely because Asuka ONLY had Frederick and Aria to rely on as friends at all. IN ABSOLUTELY NO WAY IS HE ABSOLVED OF ANY OF THOSE CRIMES! HE HASN'T EVEN ABSOLVED HIMSELF! HE DID NOT CHOOSE TO BECOME A MONSTER DOING FUCKED UP SHIT FOR NO REASON HE WAS IN A DIFFICULT POSITION BECAUSE OF WHAT HE CREATED WITH FREDERICK AND ARIA!! HE PLANS TO KILL HIMSELF IN HIS STRIVE ARCADE MODE FROM THE GUILT! STOP MAKING ME GO TO BAT FOR ASUKA BECAUSE PEOPLE WON'T READ! ALL OF THIS IS ON THE GGWIKI YOU ONLY NEED TO READ 2 OR 3 ENTRIES TO GET THAT BASIC LEVEL OF INFORMATION!! PLEASE!

I linked Asuka here but also seeing the entry for "Japan" will explain the situation. I am. NOT saying. Asuka was right. I AM saying that the idea that this is a wholly Black and White "everything in the world is his fault" situation is a GROSS FLANDERIZATION and oversimplification of what is an EXTREMELY compelling, horrifying, and tragic story of a man paving his way to hell with good intentions and I need. People to stop talking about Asuka or Chaos lore when they're on screen in Strive when they don't know what the hell they're talking about. Please.

[soleminisanction]

Do you think Tim would have been more angry at Steph for starting the war games if she survived/didn’t fake her death? Or do you think the fact that she tried to fix it in the end would absolve her of that blame a little bit in his eyes?

I always love your analysis btw! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the world

That's a good question. An interesting complication to the answer being: does canon Tim even know that Steph was responsible for for starting the War Games?

It can be hard to tell because certain people muddled the waters a lot (cough Brian Q Miller cough no-nothing wiki writers cough cough) but near as I've been able to glean from reading the comics, so far as most people in-universe were concerned, the blame for the War Games gang war fell on Batman's shoulders. There was a big publicity campaign during the War Crimes arc that followed that outed Steph as the girl Robin, but it painted her as a martyr and laid all the blame at Batman's feet.

Near as I could tell, the only people who actually knew Steph was involved with causing the war were Bruce, Selina, Black Mask, and Cass; and Bruce also blamed himself. The only person who ever really held Steph responsible was Cass.

So the question is, was Tim only not upset because he didn't know about Steph's involvement? Personally, I like to think that, if Steph had lived/not faked her death, she would've been open about her part, and that she'd continue the arc she showed in War Games of newfound awareness and understanding of how her actions affect others.

And if she did that, I think Tim wouldn't be angry. Hurt, yes. I think the whole mess of emotions surrounding those days, especially the fact that she became Robin in part to deliberately hurt him, would irrevocably damage their relationship to the point where they couldn't date anymore, and they'd need to spend some time apart. Tim would go off to Bludhaven with Cass after his dad dies, and Steph would go... somewhere else, away from Gotham, maybe with her mom, to recover and figure out her own way to move on after everything.

But the parting, I like to think, would be more sad than angry, a mix of remorse and hurt and being glad they're both alive and just... knowing they can't be around each other right now. That they won't be able to stand doing that again for a while.

Eventually, after a few months or years, they might get back to a point where they've worked through the grief and trauma enough to be friends again. And it'll be a different relationship than they had before, but it'd still be good. Or maybe they'd just stay apart from each other and live their own lives. You never know.

So yeah, bit of a ramble, but that's how I figure it'd work. Steph really does show her best character during War Games so I'm inclined to say that people who met her in the immediate aftermath, especially people who knew her before and could see how she'd changed, would give her the benefit of the doubt.

[groove-on-boogie-down]

It’s not explicitly stated, but I do think in a way, Mae and Sol are both on journeys of redemption that are connected and opposite each other.

Mae had a crime pinned on her. The fire she started to figuratively burn Osha’s dreams became much worse than intended and added to chaos. In pursuing the jedi, she sought to clear her name, hoping for a rebirth that she thought her coven and sister would never witness.

Any guilt Mae possibly carried evolved into what the jedi actually did. She pleaded for help and didn’t get it. Instead she watched the “keepers of the peace” invade her home, attack and kill her family and leave her home in ruins. They left her alone and left her for dead.

Sol carried this lie with him for 16 years, and when he reunites with Osha and finds Mae alive he plans to confess the truth. BUT!! He also thinks proving a vergence will outweigh the harm he’s done. That’s why he’s so hellbent on getting both sisters. To clear his name.

Sol thinks that proving the vergence to the council with both twins will absolve him of the crime in interfering with the coven on Brendok in the first place.

So as this journey of retribution evolves into justice, Mae discovers Osha is alive, and she pivots. Being with her sister is more important now. Together, they are the last remnant of the life they had on Brendok. When Osha rejects her, she seeks a confession, through Sol.

When everything comes to a head, Mae prefers Sol tell the truth. But this is before he rambles about the origins of the twin’s birth. He’s telling Mae things she doesn’t care about, buying his time. But Osha overhears the most important detail, the truth that he killed their mother.

Sol spends more time justifying his actions as part of his plan. He wanted everything to go right in his mind, so he could prove everything had a purpose. He tells Osha he did it because he loved her. And he dies with no apology on his tongue. His redemption is not earned.

In the end, his words and actions are cut off, the same way he cut off Mother Aniseya. His reputation is ruined in his death—by a friend, on a large scale—the same way he helped ruin Mae’s reputation in life. It all comes back to bite him.

Mae witnesses the fallout and is freed from burden. She no longer carries her sister’s hate. Their coven lives through them. The Jedi who wronged her are dead. Under the bunta tree, the twins are reborn. Mae’s redemption is earned! But freedom is short lived.

In sacrificing her memories to protect Osha’s choice, Mae is re-traumatized with pain she just released. Back to a starting point we didn’t see on screen. Four jedi have wronged her but they are dead & she doesn’t remember their justice. She doesn’t remember a twin. It’s just her.

This is a death of sorts. She has lost everything. But she is not free like Qimir would suggest.

The Acolyte Season 1 gave us this tragic theme of things uncorrected & left unsaid. However, in Season 2, Mae deserves a healthy, clear mind. Let Mae-Ho Aniseya have the chance to pull the Thread of destiny so that she can be renewed and reborn, again!

End.

[maxdibert]

The attitude that Snape deserved to be sexually assaulted because he used the term ‘mudblood’ is horrifying, but JKR partially enables this…

Because the books obviously intend for the reader to sympathise with Snape in that scene, but ultimately conclude Snape’s crime is the worst offence committed in it. I don’t like that a teen girl’s romantic choice is used as the arbiter of a boy’s moral worth, and I think from the Cormoran Strike series that if JKR had her time again she’d approach this differently now, but it is what it is. Lily choosing James is the in-text evidence of his redemption, of his growth from teen bully to devoted family man who dies recognised as a hero and is reunited with loved ones in the afterlife. Lily rejecting Severus is the in-text evidence that his young self was on an irrevocable path to darkness. JKR doubled down on this in that interview where she said Lily could’ve fallen for him if he’d not been drawn to loathsome people and acts.

But I simply can’t agree with JKR’s and Lily’s assessment. Snape using a slur under duress is a lesser crime than James sexually assaulting another boy. The mixed messaging could’ve been avoided if the books didn’t deify Lily quite so much, if she’d been more of an actual character who the text was allowed to criticise instead of her being a Marian symbol of benevolence.

J.K. Rowling's internalized misogyny becomes quite evident in her work through the representation of women and the way she develops and portrays female characters. Lily Evans is one of the most striking examples. She is essentially turned into a suffering Virgin Mary figure who, through her sacrifice for her son, is elevated to a status of absolute beatification. This grants her the power to decide, based on her choices, which men are good and which are bad. This, once again, reduces women to the trope of beings capable of "changing" men and absolving them of responsibility for their actions if they gain the approval of women deemed "valid" enough to overlook their flaws and accept them.

This is the classic trope of the male gaze, where women are represented as maternal moral compasses around which men pivot. This notion is deeply reactionary and misogynistic because it denies women the right to be imperfect, morally questionable, and to have complex personalities that can be doubted at any moment. Women cease to be people and become almost divine entities through which men achieve their goals. It's truly terrible and incredibly archaic, more typical of a stale male author than a woman who supposedly proclaims herself a feminist. But, alas.

People often say James Potter has a redemption arc, but that arc doesn't exist—we never see it. The narrative only insists that he became a better person, which is why Lily accepted him. This turns her into the arbiter of what is good and evil, reinforcing the quasi-divine vision of her character. But the truth is, a basic rule of storytelling is that you can't just say it—you have to show it. As a reader, I cannot believe that Lily was so good and morally upright that her approval alone is enough to demonstrate a man's redemption. Nobody is so morally upright that they can dictate who is good or bad, especially when we don't know enough about Lily to accept that excuse. She is a character with zero development, and aside from Severus or Petunia, no one else in the series talks about her.

James, on the other hand, has friends who are present in Harry's life and talk to him about his father. James is shown being a bully, morally questionable, and even as a seemingly less influential figure in Harry's life than Lily, Rowling gives him far more layers than her. There’s a dichotomy between the memory of the hero and the school bully, which adds depth to his character, albeit limited. But with Lily, no. Lily is always saintly, pure, and unbreakable. She simply isn’t real. This is even more evident when, through Severus's memories, we see that her moral compass was quite questionable. Lily justifies the bullying by the Marauders simply because they don’t use dark magic—what the hell does that even mean? Does harassment and mistreatment cause less trauma if it’s not done with dark spells? Is that supposed to make it less impactful on the victims?

Moreover, during all her school years, she watched James Potter abuse his status and power against anyone who crossed him, and she still ended up accepting him and marrying him. This also calls her moral rectitude into question. No one with true principles would date someone they’ve repeatedly seen exercising violence against others. No one—unless many years had passed, they met again in entirely different contexts, and their lives had significantly changed. Is it realistic that this happens? Sure, it can happen, but not under the premise of having moral rectitude. It could happen if you don’t care about dating a total jerk, and that is incompatible with being the saintly mother of morality Rowling tries to portray in the books. It’s extremely contradictory and a massive plot hole.

Then there’s the issue of the "slur" and how it’s magnified throughout the story, painted as worse than physical attacks, mistreatment, or even abuse. Sorry, but you can’t sell me the idea that insulting someone immediately after they’ve been publicly humiliated by being stripped in front of the entire school is unforgivable. Even as a teenager—and not being a Severus fan back then—I thought the reason Lily ended their friendship was utterly absurd. In my circle of friends, we’ve said worse things to each other under far less excusable circumstances and still remained friends. Rowling oversimplifies incredibly complex issues that shouldn’t be treated lightly because they distort how such dynamics operate in real life. This, reflected in a children’s/young adult series, sends a dangerous message—for instance, that insulting someone justifies public humiliation or even attempted murder. Sorry, but insulting someone isn’t a crime or, at worst, is a minor offense. Publicly stripping someone or attempting to kill them is a criminal act. These are not comparable things, and what Severus endured is morally and legally far graver than any lousy insult he might have used.

For me, “mudblood” is equivalent to calling him “Snivellus,” which Sirius, for instance, continues to use even when they’re adults. “Snivellus” is also a type of slur in its own way—a slur that ridicules a man for not conforming to traditional masculinity and exhibiting traits deemed unmanly. The problem is that J.K. Rowling is a TERF who literally understands zero about gender issues. She also fails to see that patriarchy harms men too by establishing highly toxic behaviors and dynamics among them. So, she’s content with her rich bully boys being excused for being handsome and choosing "the good side" because her self-insert character, beatified by the Vatican of Magic, dated one and befriended the others. Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. I need you to argue this more convincingly for it to make factual sense.

I’ve been involved in leftist political groups since I was 15 years old. I’ve been in over three Marxist unions, organized strikes and protests, clashed with neo-Nazis at demonstrations, debated with youth spokespersons from right-wing and ultra-conservative groups, attended a Catholic school with people who literally belonged to ultra-conservative religious cults, participated actively in university unions, and currently work as a criminal lawyer. I’ve met many leftist individuals who, despite being activists and supposedly holding values, were terrible people who treated others around them like crap, abused their partners, or displayed highly violent behavior towards socially disadvantaged individuals. I’ve seen people who gave passionate speeches at protests and fought neo-Nazis but then treated waiters, service workers, or customer support staff horribly just because they could. I’ve seen leftists publicly preach feminist ideals and call out misogyny but then send multiple female partners to therapy due to psychological abuse.

To me, the idea that someone is good just because they chose the "right" path without further questioning is neoliberal nonsense. A person’s morality isn’t demonstrated by their vote, their associations, or what they say publicly. It’s demonstrated by how they treat people in their daily life—demonstrated through actions. The facts I have about James Potter are that he was a rich kid who used his position to harass whoever he wanted without consequences. I don’t have evidence of his change; all I know is that he got his high school girlfriend pregnant and then defended his son. That doesn’t make him a hero—it makes him a regular person. You can love your family dearly and still be a terrible person to everyone else (just look the Malfoys). It has nothing to do with one another. I don’t know if James changed, and I refuse to instrumentalize women to act as moral arbiters because we’re not living in a 19th-century Christian commune.

[justalittleconfusing]

12/27/023 a male police officer took my statement over the phone and decided my statement didn’t mean much

03/2024 a female special victims officer retook my statement in person and issued an arrest warrant

10/2024 a male judge threw out my case saying my word was not enough against my assailant to prove I was sexually assaulted beyond a reasonable doubt.

12/2/24 a female solicitor said she thought the judge was wrong and was pursuing the case anyway, even if it meant the burden of proof is now higher. An indictment was filed. I most likely will need to testify before a grand jury. And that is just so the case can go to trial.

We are at almost the one year mark from the date of the assault. I have struggled with sleep, flashbacks, feelings of depression and huge feelings of anxiety.

Tell me again how false reports by women are so prevalent. Tell me again why the words of women are picked apart piece by piece for a shred of non credibility while a man saying “wasn’t me, didn’t happen, it was an accident she misinterpreted” is enough.

Ask me again why, if a crime was committed, why a woman would choose not to report. Ask me again why a woman drops criminal charges and says yes to a settlement and somehow that absolves a man of all his accused sins. Ask me again what it’s like to walk through your community knowing the person who committed a crime against you will most likely never see a single consequence.

Tell me again why facing cross examination and testifying front of your abuser to have your words ripped apart in front of a jury of your peers looking for any sign of lack of credibility, how the burden of proof falls on the person who was hurt.

Tell me again why you report?

I am reporting so a record of arrest is now going to follow. I am reporting because even if this case fails the next time he does this there is a formal record. I am reporting because I want a record with the agency who issues him his license to have a history for when he does this to the next woman. That when she goes to report, her case is already made. Her voice will be believed. Her word will be taken as being enough.

If he walks away with no mark of a crime when he does this again, the next woman will not have to endure what I have. She will be believed and can relax in the comfort that someone will walk through fire to build a case so there will be a pattern. And I will send her all of my warmth and love and my apologies that my path through fire was not enough to protect her.

I am reporting so it will end with us.

[psychicspacesquid]

One death is a comedy, a million a statistic

I'm having thoughts about the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, because it brings into focus the contrast between different types of violence. On one hand, there's the violence of shooting a man in the streets. On the other, there's the systemic violence of many, many people dying from the negligence of health insurance companies. Is shooting someone who has indirectly caused untold deaths justice? What should we do instead if it isn't? And, not unimportantly, should we feel bad about rejoicing that this has happened?

I: Systemic violence

So here's the rub: the CEO undeniably had a lot of blood on his hands. He would otherwise never have seen justice for it, because systemic violence isn't punished, it's treated as a fact of life in the way deaths and injuries due to natural disasters or accidents are. The nature of systemic violence is that no one person is wholly responsible for the violence taking place. Make no mistake, this is intentionally so, because those in power benefit from nobody being responsible. Therefore, we can't put a number on how much blood is on the CEO's hands.

The fact that nobody is responsible is due to two factors. The first is simply that organisations like a health insurance company are structured in a way to avoid personal responsibility. If a claim is denied and leads to someone's death, there's not a single person who pushed the button that lead to that person dying. It's a complex web of bureaucracy and management that absolves any one person working there of the blame. The CEO can thus wash his hands, because he has never seen the claim in his life, it was a dozen employees and their managers who processed it.

Second, a death due to systemic violence is rarely due to even one organization in the system. Say, for instance, someone died of complications of diabetes. The person in this example had insurance, but worked for a job that did not pay enough and was reliant on food stamps. Her claim for insulin gets denied, but with food stamps she can make ends meet. However, her food stamps get cut off, she has to choose between insulin and food, and she dies due to not being able to choose insulin. Now which organisation is responsible? Her health insurance for denying her insulin? Her government for cutting off her food stamps? Her employer for underpaying her? In a sense, all are, and therefore, nobody is responsible. Therefore, we can't put a number on the amount of people the CEO of UnitedHealthcare has indirectly killed. Depending on your definitions it's anywhere from zero to many, many, many thousands. Such is the nature of systemic violence.

Now we run into another issue: systemic violence is still violence. The many thousands of people who died due to their healthcare being denied are just as dead as the CEO who got shot. In a purely utilitarian calculus sense killing thousands is undeniably worse than killing one person. That's an important justification for being in favor of the shooter going free or even cheering them on: after all, why should the shooter, who did a lesser crime causing only one specifically chosen death, face justice, when the CEO who indiscriminately albeit indirectly caused thousands of deaths was never going to face justice and even be rewarded for doing so?

II: Retribution

However, there is another factor that's deeper, more primeval and more emotional. It, for many people, feels good that something bad has happened to someone who did bad things but was never going to face consequences otherwise. It feels like sweet revenge. It feels like justice. But is it justice?

In a retributive sense, it is. Under retributive justice, justice is conceptualized as a settling of the scores. If you did something bad, something bad should happen to you. If you got something in a dishonest manner, you should pay that back plus reparations. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. You caused a death, now you must die.

One appealing feature of retributive justice is that it feels good. We love seeing bad things happen to bad people. That's why this feels like an action movie: the appeal of seeing the villain defeated at the end of the movie is the catharsis of seeing a bad person get what they deserve.

The big downside of retributive justice is that it, in many cases, does not solve the issue at hand. Killing the CEO of a health insurance company does not bring those killed by their negligence back, it does not install a mythical nonexistent "good CEO", it does not automatically change their policy to a better one.

Real, restorative justice, on the other hand, is slow, complex, and not achievable in the short or even medium long term. Justice has in this case, arguably, been achieved, when people no longer die or are otherwise harmed due to the negligence of health insurance companies and those still living that have been harmed by their negligence have been properly reimbursed. Achieving justice would involve completely overhauling the US healthcare system, reworking the entire US social safety net, and restructuring worldwide economic systems that are prerequisite for this injustice to take place. This is not a task achievable by a single human, and we can find ourselves completely crushed under this project if we chase after this impossible goal alone.

III: Justice

Then what are we to do if justice, not retributive justice where those who have done bad are punished but restorative justice where those harmed get made whole again and future harm is prevented, seems out of reach? Is retributive justice then a suitable substitute?

Normally, I would say no. In many cases, retributive justice just leads to more violence. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. However, in this case the violence is wildly disproportionate. To stretch the metaphor, it's not individuals that have been gouging out eyes in a chain of violent acts. It's one large conglommerate that has left everyone without eyes, and one of those blinded has finally decided to take a single eye. This amount of violence is a drop in the bucket. Even if this incident were to happen to every major health insurance company CEO in the US that would be a few dozen deaths tops depending on where we draw the cutoff for "major company" versus thousands upon thousands.

However, for this to be retributive justice instead of just retribution, some step towards true restorative justice has to follow from the violence. Political violence is useful as a tool, but only if it's well-thought out and goal-oriented. Smashing without a plan, however cathartic it might be to smash, leads to all sorts of nasty consequences without any payoff to counter-balance those consequences. Political violence cannot be the only tool in the toolbox and should not be pulled out lightly. Political violence should be a surgical tool, not a baseball bat.

We do not know the shooter's motives at this moment in time, and we can only speculate. However, it's extremely likely that this is an action that was extremely well pre-meditated. We can only speculate whether this was indeed political violence with a specific goal in mind. Time will also have to tell whether any positive consequence will follow from this.

IV: Virtue

Now for the big question: should we feel bad about any of this? Should we feel bad about rejoicing? Here, the utilitarian calculus is less useful. Instead, I want to turn to virtue ethics. In my personal view, virtue ethics is not particularly useful in determining which action is the right one. However, it has useful insights into the process of actually doing the right thing when you know what the right thing is.

Under virtue ethics, morality is like a muscle you need to train. You don't always do the right thing, but you learn and get better at being a moral person. Part of that is that we have the correct emotional responses to justice and injustice. This isn't as simple as feeling good when good things happen and feeling bad when bad things happen. Appropriate moral emotions can be extremely complex. For instance, regret even when you know you did the right thing can be an appropriate moral emotion because it means you are seeing the moral complexities of your actions.

Now is the positive feeling that the CEO who got shot got what he deserved you might be experiencing an appropriate moral emotion? I want to cautiously say yes, with some major caveats. The reason rejoicing at his death is appropriate is because it refocuses however we might be feeling about the (relatively minor, death toll 1) violence of the shooting to the (major, death toll many) systemic violence caused by the negligence of health insurance companies. This emotion, especially on a societal scale, might be the impetus needed to focus the conversation on the systemic injustices that otherwise don't emotionally resonate: one death is a comedy, a million a statistic.

However, this emotion needs to be kept in check. Positive emotions about the deaths of other humans are incredibly, incredibly dangerous. They are part of the engine behind dehumanization and the tragedies that follow dehumanization. As much as we would like to think of CEOs as Not People, if we do not think of them as people we cease to understand them properly and the violence perpetuated by those at the head of companies becomes something mystical and demonic instead of something done ultimately by human hands. It's what leads people chanting "eat the rich" at doctors and movie stars instead of, you know, the wealthy.

I want to argue that the correct emotion to keep our enjoyment at someone's death in check is to feel just a little conflicted about it. Yes, we should celebrate because it re-focuses the conversation on the systemic violence that really matters. But we also should look at each other and grin and giggle uncomfortably and whisper "should we really be doing this?"

Either way, it's the release weekend for Wicked where I live, so: Good news, he's dead.

[chaggie4ever]

What future conflicts do you see happening with Chaggie? Personally, I think it would continue with their whole "Charlie doesn't listen and Vaggie doesn't express herself" issues they had in S1. Plus, the whole trusting Alastor thing might come up. Your predictions?

Absolutely great thoughts! Predictions and talking about HH is the only reason I made a Tumblr account XD

I personally really want Lute to have a role. Charlie seems to hate her even more than Vaggie after the angel reveal. And I think Vaggie will totally be here for this rivalry XD she may have to keep Charlie from killing Lute! A role for Emily in Lute’s possible redemption would be a great addition as they model Chaggie perfectly. Or maybe even Adam’s redemption (I’m convinced he’s coming back as a sinner - his vocals and lines are too great he has to come back). I remain convinced that Vaggie and Lute were frenemies and/or lovers for centuries.

The Alastor stuff is definitely important and will cause conflict for sure. I’m thinking Lilith is involved too (both her and Alastor have been gone for seven years…). I could see Vox getting involved and publicizing Vaggie’s genocidal past and Charlie comforting her.

alas i got sidetracked. Back to Chaggie! I really hope they address their codependency, and Charlie's tendency to steamroll Vaggie… she needs to actually listen to her girlfriend and notice when she is uncomfortable and will need to learn to push a bit more when Vaggie is uncomfortable to make her express herself. Vaggie is one of a few main characters who we have NOT seen cry. She REALLY needs to XD maybe Rosie can be a couple's therapist?

also now that season 3 and 4 are confirmed, im betting on a Chaggie engagement season 2. And if they dont have some down time to have an on screen date or fooling around time imma blow up the studio (no not really). I love that they are established and not the centerpoint of the season - this helps normalize gay relationships. But I also have needs XD maybe Charlie had to wait for Lucifer to come back in her life before she could officially get engaged as queen of hell. Future queens of hell 🥰 this will also likely not go over well in heaven or hell after Vaggie’s exorcist past…

Also… thank goodness Vivi isn’t in charge of writing anymore as she has Satan kill Vaggie after they are engaged and I will kill everyone if this happens

Bonus headcanons (some are stolen):

- Vaggie’s wings come out when she’s aroused - stiffly XD I think they will transition from gray to silver over time as she redeems herself further

- Vaggie and Lute stand trial for crimes by the seraphim. Vaggie is absolved of her disobedience and halo and eye restored (or maybe a weird glowy version so she still keeps her eye patch most of the time). She never wears the halo but it lets her open portals to heaven and hell. Lute is cast out of heaven for killing a member of Lucifer’s family (Dazzle) and attacking them and her vigilante justice on Vaggie. She may lose her wings and an eye too. She will still have one arm as she does not love anyone to restore it (Vaggie’s wings grow back out of love for Charlie and because they weren’t cut off by angelic steel. Lute ripped her arm off and it can also grow back.. if she learns to love).

- Vaggie hides her wings 90% of the time because she’s ashamed of her past (I’d LOVE a B plot episode where Angel Dust helps her with this)

- Charlie is super embarrassed when she demons out when Vaggie teases her publicly (always subtle until Charlie ruins it)

- Vaggie and Nifty bond over shared violence

- They go on flying dates where Vaggie carries Charlie and she loves it. Sometimes Lucifer joins.

- Charlie has picked up stabby Vaggie on several occasions and walked away with her to avoid conflict

- Vaggie’s spear is an emotional support spear and she talks to it and Charlie is jealous and has tried to hide it

- Vaggie spends Sunday dinners with Carmella and her daughters and is basically adopted and Charlie is jealous but also really happy that Vaggie is making her own friends

- Charlie loves when Vaggie speaks Spanish in bed - I also love the theories that they keep ruining beds with Charlie’s horns XD

- EVERYONE has heard them having sex - Charlie is LOUD and sometimes sings + Vaggie avoids Angel Dust the week after particularly loud sessions

- Charlie will propose after a very awkward convo with Lucifer

- Vaggie eventually bonds with sinner Adam and maybe Lute too

- I have an aversion to pregnancy and children but some of the kid theories are cute and Vaggie seems to be the more feminine but I could actually see Charlie carrying 😉😇

Ok imma stop now before this turns into a whole fan fiction XD

[sunshinemayhem]

"the underworld" thoughts

i love every. single. song. in this saga. here's a play by play of me being stabbed by a dagger of sorrow with the first song.

"i no longer dream; only nightmares of those who died"

remember the last time he dreamt? there was penelope and telemachus? and then they opened the bag and everyone DIED? istg even the happy dreams have resulted in overwhelming sadness.

"558 men who died under your command"

the horror. all of his guilt and crimes and mistakes placed in front of him, surrounding him. he's forced to acknowledge the thoughts that have been consuming him, that he has buried deep inside as he compartmentalized throughout the circe saga.

"why would you let the cyclops live?"

my heart. (also the way they said that was so satisfying LOL.)

"when ruthlessness is mercy"

oh- that makes it so much worse. they quoted poseidon. the reason they're dead. no wait- odysseus caused this. the god out to kill him is not wrong. what is right anymore? (okay but i love odysseus going through an existential crisis)

"i keep thinking of the infant from the night, i keep thinking of the infant from the night"

jorge sounds so DISTRESSED. i love it. he's trying to grasp onto something, anything, to absolve his guilt.

"this life is amazing, when you greet it with open arms"

i love polites. so. much. thank you for him being here. Steven has such a hopeful voice. Open Arms is how i want to live my life. there is good in this world. even if it is dead. SOB.

"that voice? it can't be."

let me go cry in a corner for a sec. can i just say i love the lyrics here? he recognizes her voice IMMEDIATELY. he's surprised, then refuses to believe it for a while, then realises he doesn't have the time, then he's gutted.

"mom?"

this was such a good choice of words. or word. no way ancient greeks said "mom". but it captures so much the way it's said? the innocence of a child, the fear of the world --he's seeking protection and love in his mother, who has died. died before he came home.

"odysseus when you come home, i'll be waiting."

but she's NOT. he hasn't come home. also i love how it's "when" not "if". she has faith in her son. she trusts him to come home. like penelope, she doesn't think he's dead. they've waited so long, and they'll keep waiting, for this man they love.

"even if you're the last thing i see, i'll be waiting"

and she knows she's going to die soon, but she wants to see her son one final time. i love awesome portrayals of moms. she's there for you in whatever way she can be. let me go shower my mom with love rn.

"i'm right here, mom. can't you see?"

AHH. EVERY SINGLE LYRIC HERE IS SO GOOD. i love concise lyrics SO MUCH. every word packs a punch. this is why even if an album is only three songs, i will never, NEVER be angry or disappointed or SAD. because everything here is gorgeous.

also this is SO SAD. because he can see her but she can't. and that was her dying wish. so near, yet so far. he can't ever embrace her again. he let down someone he loves. again.

"i took too long."

aksdfhdaksdjss. that had NO RIGHT to be so devastating.

"i'll always love you"

AWW. let me go grab some onions. i also love how jorge's mom is singing. it's beautiful.

*swallows* "bye mom"

the voice crack. he swallows down a sob. JORGE YOU'RE SO GOOD AT THIS.

"the past is always close behind."

the underworld: a summary