#and i often use them to represent and/or be victims of the worst aspects of their industry

[strokeovapen]

What did you think about Sparklecare (and by extension Cometcare) before the doc dropped? Personally, I was a lurker too.

I only really even talked about it to friends to complain about things I disliked about both (the worldbuilding surrounding sex, I REALLY disliked Sly being bullied by Eve and Norma being played for laughs as someone who has a extremely strained relationship with my sister who didnt like me since I was born, etc) but I used to think it was an okay enough, flawed webcomic overall. I agreed with a lot of Sparklecrit takes too.

But now, I cant help but see Cometcare at least in a brand new light. Sparklecare too, but I suppose since the 'secret canon' wouldnt be relevant for a long time in the main comic, its to a lesser extent.

Prior to the document’s release, I had… very mixed feelings about Sparkle/Cometcare.

SC: I really only liked Volume 1 and 2, after that, they lost their charm. The plot became more ship-focused rather than actual corrupt medical experiences, which is what the comic is advertised to be. Not to mention, the woobification of characters.

Uni being my prime example, I absolutely adore Volume 1 Uni, he had character that made him definable. With his “swag bro” talk and general slyness, it made him a very fun and lovable character. After Volume 2, Uni started to become this “cutie who does no wrong” and turned into a bland, emotionless character. Uni literally only exists to be victimized in the comic at this point, and not to actually have character growth and depth. After shuffling through the leaked story, it seemed to be very clear that Uni remained one-dimensional for the rest of the story.

Doom is another good example of this, going from a corrupt nurse to a “nervous malewife who only works at the hospital to protect his sister, also he has a crush on Uni.” I much rather prefer when Doom was mean and gross, and the changes to the text in Volume 1 and 2 was the worst possible thing that could have happened.

Simply put, I’ve been extremely unsatisfied with the story now that Kittycorn decided to focus on shipping-slop of all things. Gross. Learning that Pollarrydoomi was to become a reality in the main comic didn’t exactly leave a good taste on my tongue. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the ship, but this is the furthest you could have strayed from the main plot of the comic.

CC: It was fun, but in terms of writing, it was pretty subpar. Taking it for what it is, it’s nothing more than a typical askblog comic. I really hate that half of the comet characters have little to no depth to them whatsoever.

Polly has not shown up more than a couple times, Frosty and Cream are rarely shown and when they are, they are extremely one-dimensional, the relationship between the kids and their parents aren’t really touched on and have to be read from Toyhou.se pages, Chem is a bland character that doesn’t have much interesting about them, I could go on and on about how uninteresting the cast is. Who gets development is very clearly favoritism.

It’s also very clear that Kittycorn has no actual grasp on what sibling relationships are like. I have ten siblings and almost none of the main dynamics shown in cometcare are realistic depictions in my experience, especially like the constant bullying of Sly, no sibling talks about another sibling’s masturbation habits that often. (Well, we know the source of this now that everything has come out, but still.)

Overall: The worldbuilding isn’t the worst thing in the world and I do enjoy some aspects of it, but it’s not really explained in the comics and have to be taken from the worldbuilding page only. (Which isn’t good for writing, show not tell!)

Kittycorn is just… not good at worldbuilding, at all. A lot of it is very convoluted and I find myself having to relook the worldbuilding page to remember what anything is supposed to represent. Not to mention the sex aspect is just really unnecessary and doesn’t make much sense logistically.

I was hoping this could be elaborated on in Kneeby’s other comics like South Esteam and Karmageddeon (Why is it spelled like that?) but I seriously doubt that it will ever get attention, the fact that Kittycorn expects to make 3 whole series with Sparklecare will have me wondering if this comic will ever be completed. 6 Pages a week is snail’s pace if you really wanted to do this. And since the ZCP is long gone, I expect it to take even longer.

A… lot of the context for SC/CC content has changed my views on it drastically, and a lot of it is the result of just bad writing, I enjoyed the preboot more than this.

[gamebunny-advance]

My LGBT+ Headcanons

(Frank discussion about sex and sexuality ahead.)

I have once again neglected to actually think of art to do for pride month, but as a consolation, here's an update on my list of LGBT+ headcanons (except when they're OCs, in which case it's just canon).

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Notes

*"Genderfucked" just means that their gender identity doesn't easily fit under a specific label, due to complications. It's usually due to the character being non-human and thus existing outside the gender binary by default. In other words, this label means they may not be literally queer depending on your definitions, but they otherwise represent or are informed by a queer identity or experience.

**Bisexuality is trans-inclusive. In the context of this list, I've chosen to use "bisexual" to indicate that the character has some preferences for gender expression, and I'm using "pansexual" to indicate that the character has little to no preference in gender expression. If it's important, then I'll specify what they're attracted to, but it usually isn't.

Examples:

A character that is attracted exclusively to cismen and transwomen would be listed as bisexual.

A character that has no preference for gender, but is exclusively attracted to feminine expressions would also be listed as "bisexual."

A transfemale character that is only attracted to cismen and transmen would be listed as "straight."

***Not all of the characters listed here are what I'd call "positive" representation. Most (I'd say) are, but a handful aren't. Just remember: Depiction is not necessarily endorsement.

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OCs

*I'm only listing OCs that I've talked about at least once this year or are important to said OCs), but effectively every OC I have is queer in some fashion.

Kahon (they/them): Genderfucked. As a sentient arcade machine, Kahon doesn't have an assigned gender. They express a feminine identity when acting through Kun3h0, but doesn't particularly identify with any gender. Only attracted to other arcade machines and the characters in them.

Coexistence!Kun3h0 (any pronouns): Genderfucked. In an AU where Kun3h0 is her own character, Kun3h0 is still genderfucked. She was built and designed as a female, but once they gained sentience he said, "fuck that" and went on to do his own thing.

GAB (she/they): Non-binary/Asexual. They're just a little guy.

Carol (he/him): Transman/Asexual. Was gay in life, but becoming a zombie has been a huge damper on his sex life.

The Prince Formerly Known as Frog (us/we): Cisman/Gay. Uses the royal "we" to refer to themselves, but otherwise uses he/him pronouns.

Floats (he/him): Cisman/Gay (closeted). I want to talk more about his relationship with sexuality since it's a core part of his character, but I think explaining it here would be a little too heavy for a list like this.

Spector (he/him and she/her): *Transwoman/Straight. *Identifies as a cismale and uses he/him pronouns at the beginning of the story, but transitions later. This isn't a character I've talked about too much or even really drawn, but she's Floats' business partner and is inspired by the hypermasculine characters you used to find in early FPS games like Doom and Duke Nukem.

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Smash Bros/Retro Buddies

Mr. G&W (he/him): Genderfucked/Ace. He's a shape-shifter and normally lacks genitalia, but he was considered male when he was "born" and identifies as male in all forms. Normally, he doesn't go through the trouble of recreating sex organs when he transforms, since his transformations are usually just a means to an end. Consequently, his body doesn't normally produce those kinds of hormones, so his libido is very low. Sex for him is just a bonding activity that he doesn't particularly seek out.

ROB (any pronouns, but usually he/him): Genderfucked/Demisexual. Technically speaking, he was never assigned a gender at "birth." Due to the limited A.I. of the other ROBs making them only capable of addressing people in the first person and Master Hand never needing to address ROB in the third person, ROB effectively had no pronouns while living on the Island of the Ancients. He only answers to he/him pronouns out of convenience since people assumed his pronouns due to his masculine name, but he doesn't particularly identify with any gender. In the human!AU, he would have been born with a vagina, but is still indifferent to gender as a concept for the same reasons. Since he lived on an isolated island surrounded only by people he considered family, and the first new people he ever met tortured and enslaved said family, he grew a great distrust of other people and is only attracted to people with whom he's already bonded with.

Puck (Pac-Man) (he/him): Transman/Pansexual. He was already transitioning when he first met Pepper. Since they started as rivals, he didn't bother ever bringing it up. When they later fell in love, he still forgot to mention he was trans because he figured that he already said it at some point. They later had 2 kids and are happily married to this day.

Pepper (Ms. Pac-Man) (she/her): Transwoman/Bisexual. She met Puck pre-transition, when she still went by "Otto." She left Pac-Land briefly to work on her transition, and when she came back and met Puck again, she forgot to clarify that she and Otto were the same person because she thought he would just put 2 and 2 together. He didn't. They both didn't realize the other was trans until a conversation about having kids came up. They both laughed it off and are happily married to this day.

Blinky (he/him): Cisman/Gay. Has a love-hate thing for Puck and won't admit it, but wouldn't do anything to seriously sabotage Puck's marriage lest their rivalry become legitimately hostile. He acts tough, but he's a hopeless romantic.

Pinky (she/her): Transwoman/Pansexual. Joined the Ghost Gang as a man and transitioned over time. Unlike Blinky, she is an aspiring homewrecker, but the Pacs are too loyal to each other for anything to come of it.

Inky (he/they): Non-binary/Asexual. The inner mechanisms of his mind are an enigma.

Clyde (pronouns vary): Genderfluid/Bisexual. Not much to say about Clyde. He just does whatever is comfortable for her at the moment.

Tabuu (any pronouns): Genderfucked/Pansexual. Same situation as G&W. He's a little more sexually active, but only because he can use it to get what he wants.

Duck Hunt (Human AU only): Both are cismen (he/him) and gay, but not in a romantic relationship with each other.

-----------

NSR

DJSS (he/him): Non-binary/Ace. AFAB and rejects gender as a limiting concept that he has grown beyond. He's still a little self-conscious about his height though (HRT helped him get wide, but it didn't really help him get tall). Claims to be "sapiosexual" but is actually just uninterested in relationships under most circumstances and sets impossibly high standards just so he doesn't have to deal with it.

Neon J. (he/him): Transman/Gay. He doesn't actually remember that he's trans due to his memory getting corrupted over time. He assumes that he's a cisman and just lost his penis in the war. Is currently pursuing DJSS because he likes a challenge.

Tatiana (she/her): Ciswoman/Lesbian. Was very sexually active during the Goolings era and has only slowed down due to having a lot of other responsibilities now. Originally assumed she was bi and later figured out she was a lesbian. This isn't public knowledge about Tatiana since she's rather reserved about her personal life, but people who know Kul Fyra know. As an aside, she wouldn't date an employee because she's witnessed first hand that having a relationship with someone who is too involved in her business is a disaster waiting to happen.

Kliff (he/him): Cisman/Bisexual (closeted pre-revolution). Believes he's straight because he's only pursued Tatiana romantically, with the excuse that any encounters he had with men were out of desperation from her not reciprocating. He accepts his sexuality post-revolution after he lets go of his fixation on Tatiana. However, he seems to be attracted specifically to people that have similar traits to Tatiana (like big muscular arms and/or fiery personalities), so how "over it" he is about it is debatable.

Mayday (she/her): Ciswoman/Bisexual. She's inexperienced with any kind of romance and has only recently started exploring her attraction to women. Has yet to consider Zuke as a romantic partner, but it could happen.

Zuke (he/him): Cisman/Bisexual. Primarily straight, but could pursue a male love interest if they hit it off. Has considered the possibility of a romantic relationship with Mayday, but is putting it off until they've had more experience as a band (he doesn't want to repeat what happened between him and Eve).

Zam (he/him): Cisman/Gay. I don't have anything to say about it. I just think he's gay.

Yiruk (he/him): Non-binary/Bisexual. Also not much else to say.

Remi (he/him): Demiboy/Straight? He's put a lot of himself into Sayu and is using her as a way to experiment with his feminine side, but he doesn't really feel like a girl. He hasn't had any interest in a relationship yet, so his sexuality is ambiguous right now.

Dodo (he/they): Non-binary/Pansexual. Is very loose with his gender identity. He likes wearing feminine clothes and make-up, but doesn't identify as female. They just like what they like.

Tila (she/her): Demigirl/Bisexual. Is pretty sure she's a girl, but feels ambiguous about it. She has a crush on Remi and generally likes boys, but she thinks girls are really cute too.

Sofa (he/him): Cisman/Gay. Not much to talk about~ He doesn't currently have any crushes.

Sayu (she/her): N/A. "Officially" (as in officially in my headcanon) Sayu is a blank slate so fans can project anything onto her. The most common interpretation with fans is that she's a transgirl lesbian, but other interpretations go around too.

Eve (she/her): Transwoman/Demisexual. She's really attracted to anyone that she thinks could understand her, and is usually disappointed when they aren't. Post-revolution, she hasn't quite opened up to dating again, but at the very least she's healing.

1010 (he/him): Genderfucked/Pansexual. All 1010s are coded without any particular sexual preference, as to make them incapable of rejecting a fan's affection on the basis of sexuality. In this case of "genderfucked" I actually read them as cismen to go with the theme that they are a manufactured product that are not allowed to display any "unmarketable" traits. They'd partake in "rainbow capitalism" but not actually confirm that any of them could be attracted to men or have a non-male identity.

I know I killed DSYNC, but these are the exceptions in the DSYNC!AU:

Kerinting/DSYNC!Green (pronouns vary): Genderfluid. His personality core uses semi-random programming which has leaked into his gender settings, causing her to randomly change gender at random intervals. Sometimes she'll be one gender for a few weeks. Sometimes it only lasts a day. Either way, it throws his sense of self out of whack when her current identity doesn't match his presentation. Kerinting manages this a little better since she's allowed to alter her body more, while this is a major obstacle for Green.

DSYNC!Blue: Gay (closeted). Is in a similar situation to Green. Blue's personality core makes him hyper focus on singular targets. However, this inadvertently affected his sexuality settings, so he became exclusively homosexual. He tries to hide it as to not start controversy for the group (which is easy to do since his emotional expression is a lot more subtle than the others). White is the only one that knows and hasn't told the Captain at Blue's request.

DSYNC!White: Agender/Asexual. In this AU, he has a very negative reaction to being a sex symbol against his will. As a result, he's rejected his sense of sexuality and is sex/touch repulsed. He only keeps up appearances as it pertains to his job. If he had it his way, he would retire alone near the sea and fish for a living.

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Moonside (My ACNH Island) (Sorry, these aren't as deep as others. The lore on Moonside isn't actually that strong, so I haven't given it much thought U_U)

Fuchsia (she/her and he/him): Ciswoman/Lesbian. Currently pursuing Syrup, but Syrup isn't ready to reciprocate yet.

Norma (she/her): Transwoman/Bisexual. In a relationship with Merengue.

Merengue (she/her): Ciswoman/Lesbian. In a relationship with Norma.

Dotty (she/her): Transwoman/Lesbian. This is a carry-over from New Leaf. She doesn't have a partner on Moonside, but her original partner was Coco.

Rolf (he/him): Transman/Gay

Raymond (he/him): Cisman/Gay

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Misc.

Mike Hatsune (he/him): Transman/Bisexual. I dunno if it's canon that he's Miku's dad/creator, but I prefer to think of him as future Miku after he retires from being an idol and goes on to be Domino's new overlord CEO.

Roba (he/him): Transman/Asexual. I think that's just actually canon through subtext. That would unfortunately mean that his friends are kinda transphobic as they consistently misgender him, but I'd like to think they get better about it later.

Horace (he/him): Bisexual. Also actually canon since we know he likes girls and has also fucked a bear thinking it was his best friend.

Alfe (he/him): Gay. Probably canon, but I don't have much evidence to back it up.

[nebulous-tundra]

oh yeah that absolutely bothers me too, like Lauren DID write a character who has very obvious privilege and is seen multiple times using it and it's Sam, but we're not ever supposed to question that because she's Good and Always Uses It Good. and then she tries to draw all these parallels between Sam and Damien and their backstories which falls totally flat because Sam lost her parents to a car crash at 16 while being filthy fucking rich and therefore having a ton of societal support that allowed her to live comfortably and enabled her to essentially not leave her house (which allowed her to do the Good Pure Trauma Survivor thing of Avoiding People, something Damien actively could not do if he wanted to like. not die in a gutter of exposure and starvation), whereas Damien was deliberately abandoned by his parents much younger (making him a survivor of profound childhood neglect) and with nothing but his ability to survive with and absolutely no social or societal support whatsoever and these are completely fucking different situations that would obviously have different effects on people but also it just solidifies how much privilege Sam has and how we're just not supposed to think about that lmao

i exaggerate a lot of my disdain for Shippen's choices for TBS but i will straight up admit i hate the whole Good Victim horseshit. very often i will see depictions of trauma and grief and mental illness where the characters meant to portray those qualities are essentially sad chew toys that the audience can quietly 'awww' at, and any mention of poor reactions to said issues the character might have aren't mentioned because they're too 'ugly'. it shows a side of our humanity we don't like to think about, that we could have done nothing wrong, but because of something that happened in our past or in our brains, we can develop personality defects that make us cause others harm- even deliberately.

i think one aspect of why people hate on Damien so much is because he represents that, he -just like the vast majority of people- did what he thought best given his knowledge and circumstances, and he ended up making tons or enormous mistakes that hurt both himself and others. people like Shippen will insist that he just needs to 'try harder' to be a good person, but that's not really how that works. what is a good person? what does it mean to be a good person? how does one become 'good'? these are ideas that we develop throughout our childhood, with great guidance from our teachers and peers and parents. if your perception of reality is warped, if your guides are misspoken or absent, your concept of these ideas too will be misinformed, warped, or under-developed. it's scary to think that a person could have done their best but because of circumstances just come out like shit, people want to believe they either do have or can have control over their life, including if they're 'good'. this isn't to say that free will is meaningless, just that is more to being 'good' than just telling someone try harder at being good.

the Good Victim stuff isn't necessarily a poor representation of what can happen in life, i've certainly met some very sweet, traumatized people at my job, however, to say that is the only way to be good, to say you can only experience and express your pain in a certain way to be good is very upsetting. people lash out when they're hurt. they do ugly things to make others hurt before they think you'll hurt them. they force people to be at their side because they don't know how to ask -or even how to have trust in another that they'll do what they say. an abuse survivor could try to seek out therapy, or they could avoid it because every interaction in their life has told them that if you tell people things about yourself- they'll just use them against you later. it's their choice to make, and the 'right' one that might seem obvious to us might, to them, seem to be the worst thing they could do for themselves.

Samantha had a traumatic childhood, never knowing when she would be taken from her loved ones when her emotions got the better of her. her parents, from her recount, seemed very loving and she was definitely more well off than the majority of the world. by the point she lost her parents to the car crash(from her perspective, by her own fault) she was late into her childhood, 16, and had just enough guidance at that point to have her own well-developed answers for what 'good' is, even if she didn't know just yet how to quite pursue it. she had the the resources and support to pursue just about anything she wanted, it was only a matter of overcoming her own insecurities.

Robert, by his very first memories, had his whole reality warped by his ability. his parents catered to him at a very young age, and followed all his wishes up until the moment they abandoned him when he was 13 years old. whether or not they loved him, we will never know because of the nature of his ability. we know from his accounts in A Neon Darkness that they had a corn farm, so from that we can assume they were fairly well off, but not so well of that they didn't worry about money. we know he's from Nebraska which seems to have a decent education system, and we know he attended school for a while after, but with an ability like his that literally warps the behavior and words of those around him w/out him even having to think about his own want, whose to say how faithful that education was? needless to say, Robert's concepts of 'goodness' are completely underdeveloped. that he didn't come out a complete psychopath is nigh a miracle.

the issues that plagued Damien in his childhood followed him into his adulthood, because until he loses his ability, he's working with the same data he's been given his whole life. no wonder he's such a bookworm, even slice of life stuff must seem like fantasy to him. Samantha already had a head start in her childhood, but as she became and adult and attended therapy, she was gradually able to expose herself to new data that guided her on how to master her ability and cope with her anxiety disorder. Damien's ability robbed(heh. Rob.) him of the ability to develop. it's described as a poison but i think rather than degrading him, it's put him in this perverse homeostasis where he never grows because he doesn't know 1.) how to change 2.) what he even needs to change 3.) why he should change, even if he wants to, as he clearly so desperately does.

to say his issue is that he just hasn't "tried hard enough" like Sam or Caleb is just insulting, and i'm sure triggering for anyone who's heard those exact words from their own teachers and parents. he's been put in this impossible situation, made to act realistically, and then blamed for it, over and over again. even in his letter in Some Faraway Place, as much as i loved it, it read's as Damien finally blaming himself too, just like how literally everyone else in the series has, and now it's his turn.

[troquantary]

Cutting Hair as Punishment in the Twilight Saga

Okay, I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts around this into a sort-of-essay format for a while, because I find it disturbingly mean-spirited: Meyer has a pattern of using hair-cutting as a form of punishment for characters, especially female characters, who fail to embrace Bella and the Cullens with open arms. I’m talking particularly about Leah and Lauren, both of whom, while not outright antagonists like Victoria or James, are situated along with Rosalie as “against” Bella throughout the series. The Quileute pack, meanwhile, is situated largely “against” the Cullens, meaning Jacob and the rest of the pack get the Haircut of Shame, too.

(Also, I’ve been creeping through @panlight ‘s blog because I thought she had a recent post relating to this -- I was probably thinking of this submission and her addendum, which does discuss Meyer’s “punishment” of certain characters, but that post was about characters suffering for not waiting for True Love, or daring to do the Devil’s Tango before marriage. Still, it’s on-theme and very much worth reading, like all her stuff!)

So here’s the general outline: first I’m gonna talk about the shapeshifters and how their overall lack of choice frames cutting their hair as something forced on them and therefore punitive. Then I’m going to discuss Meyer’s FAQ response where she reveals that Lauren was tricked into cutting off most of her hair over the summer before New Moon, and how this adds an extra fun misogynistic element to the hair-cutting theme with respect to Lauren and Leah. I also use way too many words to do it, sorry.

Punishment | The Shapeshifters Are Given No Other Option

I don’t have the background or knowledge to discuss the significance of long hair to indigenous culture and identity in detail, and my understanding is that different tribes ascribe different meanings to it. What I’ve read it about it suggests that, generally, long hair represents strength of one’s individual spirit and of the community. It’s a source of pride, and is only cut off voluntarily in extraordinary circumstances, often as an expression of grief, or to mark a significant life change.

This sort of works in the context of the shapeshifters all cutting their hair -- phasing into a giant wolf, discovering the existence of the supernatural, and assuming the role of protectors is a major life event for these characters. But the negative associations make it a troubling choice on Meyer’s part, and that’s without even getting into the problem of her imposing her own worldbuilding onto the legends and culture of a real tribe. Because of the lack of choice involved in becoming a shapeshifter, the whole situation feels like a scenario in which the Quileute characters have their hair forcibly cut -- a degrading and traumatic act that (depending on their particular tribal belief) might symbolically sever them from their sense of cultural identity and connection with the rest of their tribe.

It all kind of begs the question: why does Meyer even have shapeshifting work this way? What narrative utility is there in having the length of their hair in human form determine the length of their fur as wolves, thereby compelling the shapeshifters to cut it so it isn’t a physical impediment? It’s another sign of the changes in Jacob, sure, but he’s already being uncharacteristically cold and distant, plus suddenly has the physique of a fit twenty-five-year-old; Bella already knows something’s very wrong. His short hair is just another jarring thing for Bella to notice and mourn, like the loss of Jacob’s “baby face” and general sunniness.

It does work as a symbolic thing, representing another sacrifice Jacob has to make and the change in how he now has to perceive himself -- but he’s already got a literal giant wolf form to represent that change in identity/self-perception. Forcing him to cut his hair too just feels like piling on. My argument here, which I hope will be supported when I discuss Lauren and Leah further in, is that it’s not just piling on, but actively punitive -- because much like Leah and Lauren are “against” Bella, the pack at large is “against” the Cullens pretty much through the end of the series.

The Quileute pack is definitely not a Cullen fanclub. The entire purpose of their existence is to destroy vampires, and the truce they have with the Cullens isn’t friendly. They still don’t particularly like or trust the Cullens even after allying with them in Eclipse, and in Breaking Dawn Sam is fully prepared to go to war against them to enforce the treaty. Bella expresses frustration with Jacob and the pack for not appreciating the Cullens more, yet is curiously less willing to scold Alice, Edward, or Rosalie when they call the Quileutes dogs and complain about their smell. (I think she might reprimand Edward for it at some point, but I don’t remember the exact passage.) Bella even starts throwing around “dog” and “mutt” as an insult herself -- I think we know whose side ol’ “Switzerland” is on, here, and whose side Meyer is on as well. The Quileutes aren’t exactly enemies, and in fact are crucial to the Cullens’ survival in both the newborn and Volutri conflicts, but they’re punished nonetheless because they aren’t wholeheartedly Team Cullen from the get-go.

So to explain why I’m so convinced that there’s a link between hair-cutting and punishment in particular, let’s talk about Lauren. There’s a definite gendered element to it this time, too -- by being tricked into cutting her hair, Lauren isn’t just diminished/shamed, but rendered (*thunderclap*) unfeminine.

Lauren Was Rude To Bella Like Twice, Let’s Humiliate Her

I think Meyer’s answer to the question “What happened to Lauren’s hair?” on her FAQ page speaks for itself:

Ha ha. I had fun imagining this one—I only wished that it had fit into the book somewhere. Lauren fell victim to the “model discovered in the mall” scam. An alleged modeling agent approached Lauren in a mall in Victoria, B.C., and told her she was a natural model. Lauren ate it up. The agent told her that if she did something edgy with her hair, and took some high quality head shots, her future was assured. Lauren followed the instructions—dropping fifteen grand on the pictures taken by the agent’s partner—and waited for her career to begin. She’s still waiting. Snort.

It’s pretty obvious that this was done spitefully. Here’s the list of Lauren’s crimes against humanity Bella at this point in the series: 1) she was jealous of the attention Bella was getting as the new girl; 2) she talked behind Bella’s back once, saying Bella might as well just sit with the Cullens now (and she isn’t wrong); 3) she eyed Bella “scornfully” the day of the La Push beach trip; and perhaps most damningly, 4) she’s blonde.

Post-haircut, she has the gall not to be thrilled that Bella’s deigning to speak to the lowly non-Cullens again, then sides with Jessica after Bella uses Jessica to make a point to her dad, is shitty company, and then risks getting them both raped and murdered in Port Angeles so she could get off on her hallucination of Edward’s voice.

I think it’s pretty common knowledge that long hair is tied to patriarchal notions of femininity and attractiveness. Women with short hair are still derided for being ugly, or assumed to be lesbians in a derogatory sense, or simply considered less feminine and therefore less desirable/worthy (because a woman’s worth depends on her desirability, after all). For many women and girls, losing their long hair -- whether because of illness, or gum getting stuck in it, or whatever -- is very upsetting and a hard blow to their self-esteem. Just look at Alice as an example of Traumatic Short Hair; her hair was shorn like that because she received electroshock “treatments” in an asylum. (Although in Alice’s case, I don’t think her having short hair is punishment, but a facet of the traumatic backstory all female characters in Twilight have to have for some reason. Plus, she started the series with short hair, which distinguishes her from the pack and Lauren, who were tricked or compelled into cutting their long hair during the series.)

But Lauren’s so bitchy, so she deserves it, right? Ha ha, she was mean to Bella and cared about her appearance too much, so now she’s ~ugly!

Leah Has It the Worst and It Makes Me Want To Burn Everything

The misogynistic aspect of hair-cutting as punishment is taken up to like, twelve with Leah. Not only does she suffer for being “against” the Cullens along with the rest of the pack (and Bella, too, so extra sinning), but she suffers uniquely for being the only female shapeshifter. A bunch of teenage boys regularly see her naked body against her will. Her previously devoted boyfriend imprints on her cousin/best friend, Sam dumps her and can’t even explain why, and the whole pack -- including her own brother -- resents her for being upset about it, even though she can’t help the lack of mental privacy. Because of that same lack of mental privacy, she has to hear every gripe the boys have about her, plus every enthralled thought Sam has about Emily while she’s still deeply wounded by their breakup.

She blames herself for her dad’s death, because she phased at the wrong time. We don’t get any indication that her fellow shapeshifters or the elders are trying to reassure her otherwise.

And of course, because she’s a shapeshifter, she has to cut her hair. In addition, because Leah’s a woman, this has the same misogynistic connotations as it did with Lauren. In Leah’s case, though, the de-feminization is compounded by her sudden infertility. It’s clear that Leah attaches her sense of womanhood to her fertility, rightly or wrongly -- she bitterly calls herself a “genetic dead end” in Breaking Dawn and thinks of herself as a freak. She feels like there must be something wrong with her, some un-womanly flaw, that made her one of the shapeshifters at all.

Then, just when Jacob starts to see her as a human being worthy of compassion, he imprints on Renesmee and doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything else anymore. No more bonding with Leah, no blooming friendship to help her heal and come to terms with the new realities of her life. (This is one of those dropped threads that aggravate me to no end -- what was the point of having Leah opening up to Jacob, or starting Jacob on the path of realizing he was being a dick to her this whole time and that she’s a person with  value, if he was just going to spend the rest of the book as Renesmee’s love-zombie and never think about it again? Disgusting.)

Leah was a lot more forgiving of Jacob than he deserved at that point in the story, for all the good it did her -- I think she’s mentioned maybe once in Book 3 of Breaking Dawn. At least she got her god-tier moment of yelling at a deranged, pregnant Bella Swan.

Speaking of Bella...

I’m just going to note, for no particular reason, that in Breaking Dawn we get to hear explicitly that Bella’s got hair that falls “almost to her waist” and that she looks like “a freaking supermodel” because she’s so “beautiful and pale.” It just strikes me as a telling contrast at this point.

[blacksunscorpio]

Hi, hope you’re well! I was wondering about the hidden enemies aspect of the twelfth house. Does hidden mean the types of people (people with influence of the sign in your 12h) you are unaware are antagonizing you or is it that those characteristics in someone throw you off but you can’t really put your finger on why? Can these people believe that they are helping you but really they’re holding you back in some way? Can the hidden aspect go both ways? Why does 12h synestry have this effect? I have cancer on the 12h cusp and I’ve never really been able to develop any meaningful relationships with any (cancers) that I’ve met though I’ve been trying to emulate characteristics of this sign (12h as repressed tendencies). Note: I unfortunately have no water placements to help me out what so ever lol. Thanks for your help, your blog is absolute gold ✨✨✨

12th House and Hidden Enemies

Since the 12th house is ruled by Neptune, this is the place in our chart where things can be difficult to ascertain. Things are murky and veiled here. Not only can you be unaware of where people are causing trouble for you but there can also be a weird “vibe” that something is not right with something or someone but one may not be readily able to make it out. In the natal chart, synastry, or composite this can display itself as mentioned above. Things can get triggered here in ways you are not altogether comfortable with. And of course, because like the 8th house, things can be deeply buried or repressed. For more insight lets look further:

Aries/Mars in the 12th

Hidden or unconscious foes can often attack a native’s go sense of self. This is because Aries/Mars rules the 1st house of self. “I AM”. Often a native with this placement may wind up feeling victimized without being able to put their finger on the source if said feeling. An astrologer/native will want to observe one’s Mars placement and the contacts it is making to other planets in the natal horoscope or in synastry/composite [Mid-point or Davison]. Ex: Mars in the 1st can indicate conflict to the self. Mars in the 7th can indicate complexity with enemies being close relationships. One can have issues with authority figures or those in leadership. Hidden enemies can be competitors or they may feel anyone who triggers these planets is a rival they need to “beat”. People who trigger “lust” or “Sexual urges” in a native may be perceived as a nemesis. In addition, rivals/enemies might display aggression, antagonism, self-serving habits, and impulsivity. Watch out for those who display toxicity in the form of domination or those who overall try to silence or step on your drive. These people can be ruthless, cruel, “bullies” or simply those who charge in a shoot first/ask questions later. 

Taurus/Venus in the 12th 

Enemies are involved with 2nd house realm of “possessions”. Things we get territorial over. This includes finances and things we appreciate. Enemies may accuse the native of stealing/taking something precious from them. Things they value. Be on guard for those who encourage over-indulgence, general excess, and materialism. Someone who once wore the mask of a friend may turn foe due to being envious of the things a native owns. The things a native has or their wealth. Venusian placements can indicate the type of relationship a native has with their enemy. Ex: Venus in the 4th may indicate secretly toxic family members. Venus in the 11th= friends or those in their general social network. Venus in the 5th, casual lovers, etc. Fixed tendencies or feelings can exist in the underlying relationship between secret enemies. Be on the lookout for undoing in the physical/material realm. This includes thievery, hoarding, over-spending, or living beyond practical means.  Undoing can come from going after comfort and security in toxic or co-dependent ways. Lovers or those who provide wealth and security may become enemies by withholding it from a native or trying to gain control over it behind the native’s back.

Gemini/Mercury in the 12th 

Secret enemies can come in many forms. Generally, this will be in the realm of communication, ideals, or intellect. The interactions may be formidable and stem from communicative interactions or opposing views. A  secret enemy will often challenge the native’s wits or will simply strive to appear more intelligent than them. Superficiality, fakeness, disingenuousness, and two-faced behavior are common threads. Undoing can display itself as blockages to learning, gaining insights, and general discouragement of focus that can make the native grow. An enemy will, in layman’s terms, try to make you look stupid. Insult your mind. Make you lose focus. Mercury aspects and placements can reveal more. Ex: Mercury in the 11th can indicate surface level bonds with peers and communication that is not honest. Friends may lie. Mercury in the 9th possibly indicating enemies who may try to manipulate beliefs or manipulation in regard to teaching and religion. Secret enemies will reveal themselves in their communication methods with the natives. Through dialogue. Enemies here can use sarcasm, cowardly subs, insults veiled through “back-handed compliments”, passive aggression, insult you subliminally so you don’t realize you were attacked or insulted until after-the-fact. Slander, libel, or general shit talking. Think of Regina George:  “OMG I love your skirt!” only to turn around and say “That is the fugliest effing skirt I’ve ever seen”.  with the 3rd house involved, siblings and extended family could be culprits or part of the problem.  A toxic person may try to attack your intellectual confidence. Unethical approaches involved with words and general attacks of the mind. These people may intentionally cause confusion or gaslighting. Watch out for people you perceive to be liars. Therein lies the foe.

Cancer/Moon in the 12th

Veiled Nemesis’ are often difficult to feel. Things will be subtle. Their tactics or vibes will often display themselves in the form of manipulation, passive aggression, or a general “toying with the feelings”. Since the moon/Cancer often represents the “mother”, toxicity from a parent or child may be an issue or the culprit. A native will often feel their sense of security or safety being “attacked”. Enemies will attach their healing methods and/or emotional confidence. The placement of the Moon can indicate where emotional damage typically goes on. Ex: Moon in the 10th can indicate attacks to the public person or prestige or even the career. Coddling, not being able to let go, clinginess and overprotection are general themes. Perhaps a parent or guardian, lover, or close friend is incessantly over-protective that it causes a stunt to general emotional and mental growth. Again, it may be hard to see since it is the moon that can be a mysterious place as is the 12th house. The channel that one discovers said enemy will typically be through intuition and even dreams. Remember, through said over-protection and general fear of letting go can lead to the native’s undoing. We often see the toxic side of femininity with this placement. Mom, Grandma, sister, great grandmother, etc can be involved in the problem here. Child-abuse, using the child as a pawn during custody battles, emotional manipulation in order to get what the enemy wants can be what causes the nemesis theme. A hidden enemy may cloak themselves as “just wanting the best for you” or “I do it because I love you and care.” The enemy may not be able to let go.

Leo/Sun in the 12th

Foes will strive to exert their and dominance over a native. This will display itself as the spirit of competitiveness, bullying, domination, bossiness, arrogance, etc. Think leonine traits at their worst. Leo in the 12th will do this behind the scenes with power plays. How they can lord things over a native. The father could be a culprit in this or the father could be part of the issue. Daddy issue [regardless of sex]. Internalized misogyny. The Sun’s placement can reveal more. Sun in the 3rd will try to influence the mind or dominate the intellect. Sun in the 6th indicates a coworker or boss or one may feel/be overshadowed at work. The battle will always be involved with the core ego or one’s sense of self. A hidden enemy will try to greatly influence this person in this realm. A hidden nemesis will try to act like the dominant parental figure or act as if they are giving good sage-like guidance or person. They will try to act like the authority figure. This person will drain the native’s energy stores. The definition of an energy vampire. Why? because even as humans, we get our energy from the Sun. We are heliocentric. One can often feel drained energetically after dealing with such an individual. This will reveal to you “who” the enemy is. In addition, we can see more themes of toxic masculinity here just like Mars in the 12th. Moreover, the enemy may not be another person but the own native’s hubris. They need to take care not to allow their ego to run roughshod over them. Pride comes before the fall.

Virgo/Mercury in the 12th 

Secret enemies with this placement will often reveal themselves by criticism. More specifically, criticism about things a native is very insecure about. The critiquing will be neither healthy nor remotely helpful. It will scar instead fo heal. Hidden foes will wear the mask of the “caretaker” or “healer”.  Their behavior will simply be a means to an end. The native will often find themselves internalizing the criticism which is exactly what their enemy wants. The words the foe spouts will be sort of like Simon Cowell’s analytical stance. Harsh but not in a way that builds. One may often find the enemy saying things like “that’s just my opinion.” they will veil it under the mask of “honesty” when in reality it is just shit-talking for shit-talking’s sake. These people don’t really care, they just like to take people down a peg. Be on the lookout for those who display “Munchhausen by proxy syndrome” towards you. The caregiver who secretly injures by tries to gaslight and cover it up under the guise of “love”.

Libra/Venus in the 12th 

Like Taurus in the 12th, similar issues will display themselves through relationships. The ones closest to us. Your hidden foes may hide under the mask of “friend”. They are nearer than you are probably comfortable with. Look for those who are near and dear. Now, will all your teammates, family ties or friends be enemies? No. But you’ll want to be careful who you let into your circle with said placement. Best friends turn to enemies. The ones who hate on you when something good happens. The friends who link with you through trauma bonds but when you successfully break that tie, they are angry at every “win” you have. These people will be the ones who don’t clap when you win. The people who say they are “there for you” but stab you in the back.  They’ll secretly compete with you. Those who thrive and gloat when you are down and out. Enemies in this house will threaten your harmony and balance somehow. They will not respond well to diplomacy or will mask their ill-intent through the mask of “sweetness” and “Friendliness”. You’ll feel a shallow vibe from them. They’ll say one thing but their energy screams something else. Friends who are fair weather. Those who take advantage of a native’s attachment, or infatuation. A lover who ghosts or tries to make you co-dependent on them. An enemy or toxic person may actually lust or secretly desire you but manipulate you into thinking you are the one obsessed with them. There will be subtle mind games. They will enjoy toying with you. Delayed gratification or just manipulation. Think 5 of swords and 3 of cups paired.

Scorpio/Pluto in the 12th 

Paranoia resides here. Hidden foes will be quite underhanded and manipulative. Secrecy is seriously involved. People with this placement live by the mantra “expect anything from anyone, the devil was once an angel”. Betrayal, possessiveness, control and power themes, vengeance, and guilt are involved with enemies. Anyone who triggers these themes recurringly may be individuals to keep your distance from. People who trigger self-destructive tendencies are enemies to look out for. Moreover, a native can feel like they are their own worst enemy. Remember, a Scorpion is prone to stinging themselves. Enemies here are prone to trying to turn the native against themselves. This toxic behavior will be intentional. Toxicity will display itself through trauma bonds, possessiveness, gaslighting, manipulation, envy, or just general attempts at control and domination. Remember, the general theme here is “power and transformation.” Enemies are often those who boast a considerable amount of power [over the native or those who are powerful in general]. The danger in this placement? A native may feel a strong magnetic pull or obsessive fascination towards the enemy. This can appear in the natal, synastry, or composite chart. Watch out for the lover who seems to have a hold on you but you don’t know how or can’t seem to break it. They know what they're doing *sucks teeth*. Secret enemies desire to manipulate you or play the ventriloquist. Their goal is to see you be your own downfall. They’ll wade in the shadows, pouring gasoline on the fire of the flames of your self-destruction. Watch out for those who smirk while you’re going through a hard time. Or those who encourage you to do things you inwardly know aren’t good for you. Be on the look out for power-hungry individuals. Those who NEED to be worshipped. The types to lead “cult-like” followings and draw you in. This can often be displayed through seduction.

Sagittarius/Jupiter in the 12th

Hidden enemies/foes will be very fanatical and zealous. Enemies here lie in the realm of philosophies, teaching, higher learning, or religious beliefs. These enemies will be toxic gamblers. People who enable you or encourage self-indulgence, promiscuity, and general recklessness. They won’t ever warn you or ask you to heed caution. Ever. They’ll mislead you, tell you half-truths, or cherry-pick facts and figures to suit their own needs. They’ll make you think you’re getting the full picture but you won’t be. They’ll teach harmful beliefs, things that destroy faith in what is tangible or real. Make shit up to suit their own propaganda. It’s very similar to Neptune since both Jupiter and Neptune rule the spiritual. What they teach you may make you feel bogged down. They’ll use beliefs and doctrine to control. Their passion and zeal may make you feel as if what they are spouting is the end-all-be-all but it tends to be the opposite. Gloating and one-upmanship are themes as well. These hidden enemies will reveal themselves by questioning your beliefs or forcing you to believe theirs or causing dramatic scenes when you don’t conform or question theirs.  The nemesis might be a professor, guru, preacher, priest/priestess, or political leader. They’ll be exaggerators, quite preachy, and cloak their arrogance under another mask. Often it will be “confidence” but ultimately it’s bravado or self-absorption. They’ll be charismatic, yes, but they’ll attack your aspirations, idealism, talents, and dreams or simply try to tell you they’re not there or tell you you don’t really know yourself- they do. They’ll tell you they “know you better than you know yourself”.  Again the theme is “beliefs”. They will dissuade you from forming any thought process that doesn’t align with their own. They won’t encourage you to learn for yourself, cross reference, cite your own sources, or guide you to thinking for yourself. It will always have to be in the confines of what THEY believe for it to be seen as “appropriate”.

Capricorn/Saturn in the 12th

Hidden enemies or foes will often be a threat to growth. They’ll be restrictive. Threaten a native’s ambitions, reputation, prestige, groundedness/security. They may present themselves or even be authority figures. Power games are seen here. Guilt, repression, feelings of guilt, and/or general suppression of self-expression and drive. These individuals will be calculated. Very chess-like. Wealth or the legacy of a native and their possessions will be threatened or at risk when one has this placement. The enemy will display an austere persona. Could even be the father, grandfather, great grandfather, etc. Masculinity is involved here. Disappointment and criticism are extreme themes they’ll subject you to. This is how you’ll figure out who they are. They’ll be cold, want control, or be controlling. EXTREMELY negative. They’ll also be greedy or attempt to hold a native back from success, prosperity, or independence. Maturity will be inhibited. Opportunities thwarted. But they’ll mask it all under “wanting the best for you.”  The enemy could even be an individual's lack of exploration or their own self-repression. They could cause themselves to be too hard on themselves which could lead them into self-imposed depression. They must learn to be free. LIVE.

Aquarius/Uranus in the 12th

Hidden foes and/or enemies can be erratic. They’ll operate in a very unpredictable manner.  Their behavior will be exciting so it may be hard to recognize it at first. They may appear out of the blue. The nemesis might attack a native’s individuality and freedom. They may cause chaos and disruptions in your life. The enemy may not respect your individuality or differences and/or freedom. They’ll disapprove of the unique way of life your lead. [Look at Saturn as well as Uranus]. Your freedom will always be a threat to theirs and vice versa. Look out for those who seem “out there” and who try to coax you into avant-garde ways of doing things. It may not always be in your best interest. You could wind up with sudden breaks, accidents, unpredictable events because of them. They may cause disruptions to your security or cause so much confusion they can cause severe damage to your psyche [Uranus can also rule intelligence and mental dealings]. They’ll be recognizable as the “rebels”. They may not always be the types to intentionally wish you harm but may lead you to it. They’ll be, eccentrics, or anarchists and can lead you astray. Their agenda is to be agents of chaos. Think of the Joker from the Dark Knight. “Do I really look like a guy with a plan?” It will be hard to see. You may even be enthralled. Again this is the 12th house. Lots of instability here. The enemy could even be the individual's need for rebellion which can cause them to get themselves into trouble because they don’t see the threat or danger involved or they simply don’t care.

Pisces/Neptune in the 12th

Hidden foes may have may connections to karma. The feelings will be extremely felt through intuition and psychic insights. You’ll feel them but not really know where they’re coming from. Often there will be a “Nessus/Dejanira” theme going on. The victim and abuser. Often, the native will be the abused.  Strong Manipulation. The enemy will make you drink the “Kool-aid”. Their abuse often stems from their own hurt and trauma. They’ll claim they want to heal you or help you. Their “aid” will be cloaked under sympathy and love. Often it is an illusion. In reality, they’re wanting something. Being used can often be a theme. Themes of addiction or drug abuse can live here, too. Think of Bobby and Whitney or even Syd and Nancy. Enabling addictions are very prevalent. Now the enemy may not even be a person but addictions themselves can be the undoing or downfall. One with this placement must be careful in indulging in mind-altering substances. Alcoholism can be an issue as well. If it is an actual individual, the foe can play the martyr or cause you to sacrifice something precious to you. They can play off your insecurities or weakness and keep you emotionally dependent. They can toxic to your spirituality or try to influence your spirituality as well.

[samiralula01]

Jason Todd is the Anti-Batman

* A pointless rambling of the relationship and parallels between Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd.

Picture this opening scene: There are two boys in a dark alley.

One is dressed in an expensive suit with a tie his dead father helped him with only earlier that evening. His hands are stained red with the same blood now puddled on the grimy cement. His face is in shock.

The second boy is dressed in tattered jeans and hoodie. His hands are stained with tires grease and are clutching a tire iron. His face is in shock.

Decades later, there are two more scenes to consider.

A seriously injured man sits slumped over in his father’s study. Without warning, a bat crashes through the window, and everything falls into place. He now knows what he needs to do.

Elsewhere, an emotionally distraught teenager is curled up into a fetal position on a hotel room floor. Heart wrenching cries can be heard from him. But it is only momentary. He now knows what he needs to do.

These two individuals are Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd. While they are both broken and determined men, Batman is a hero. The Red Hood is not. He is the anti-Batman and this is why.

Two Boys in an Alleyway

Despite similarities in their stories’ early themes and elements, Bruce and Jason came to walk down very different paths. One of justice, and the other vengeance. Batman is determined to protect the innocent and Jason more so on punishing the guilty. Both their ideologies have intrinsic flaws, of course, and will naturally clash often. But this wasn’t always the case.

Before they became a father and son perpetually in mourning for who they once were and what could have been, Bruce and Jason were remarkably similar. The two are cut from the same cloth and Bruce knows this better than anyone else.

In the Dumpster Slasher three-part story line, (Batman #414, #421, #422) Bruce becomes emotional. Violent. He sits in the batcave alone that night and contemplates his emotions.

“Nearly blew it. I let it get too personal. Lost my detachment...nearly lost control. Almost beat Cutter to death. Wouldn’t have been any big loss.”

Only one issue later, at the end of this story arc, Robin is out on the streets and becomes angry when he happens upon a pimp is threatening a prostitute with a knife. Now, I want you to compare his line here to Bruce’s and note what Jim Gordon said to him as well.

Batman: "I think he’s had enough, Robin. What were you trying to do, kill him?" Robin (Jason): “Would it’ve been that big of a loss if I had?”

It is important to note here that Batman is not worried or upset just because Jason roughs up a pimp. That would be hypocritical considering his own earlier actions. If anything, it’s because one of the main reasons Batman even takes in these kids, these ‘robins,’ is because he doesn’t want them to be like him.

And Jason was acting just like him.

Jason can and has screwed up and failed due to his own actions, but it was never the reason Batman became upset with him. His reactions in the comics when Jason does things like running ahead and ‘jumping the gun,’ are more like this:

He either makes a teaching moment out of it or is attempts to understand Jason’s reasons in doing any such thing. When Bruce does become harsh in his discipline, it’s either when he feels as though Jason has endangered his own life or as I said, he acts too much like him.

While there are quite a few more similarities between Bruce and Jason that makes them alike, such as both being introverted and interested in obtaining all sorts of knowledge that they might not even feel is relevant, they are both, at the core of their characters, deeply caring and compassionate people.

The differences only start to show with how they act on it.

The Not-So Dynamic Duo?

“What happened to you as a child, the terror, the pain, the horrors (...) you were broken, and I thought I could put the pieces back together. I thought I could do for you what could never be done for me. Make you whole.”

Hot take. Jason Todd is a villain and is best written as a villain. 

Not in that campy way like he’s written during Dick and Damian’s Batman and Robin run while wearing that stupid pill-headed hood, (although, I grant he has a few lines that are enjoyable to read) but in all his serious, vengeful and downright brutal motives. 

The Red Hood is the perfect Batman villain because he’s so different from what the widely perceived perfect foil to the controlled and disciplined Bat is...the Joker. 

The Red Hood was vengeance at its purest. It is justice without being tempered by mercy. It is the rage of victims who were forgotten to become statistics. While other vigilantes wait for a cure, hope for rehabilitation, and pretend their system works, the Red Hood is a man of no such faith.

And this makes him a villain. And a damn good one.

During the Red Hood’s time as a crime lord in Gotham, he goes around blowing up buildings. He throws grenades into trucks. He mows down his competition with gunfire. Batman comes upon the bloodied hanged corpse of a man he was finished interrogating. 

But what is so compelling about this all is that before all the murder, all the guns and explosions, Jason Todd was a very different little boy. And all the great and memorable villains start that way.

The Joker is not someone you’re meant to sympathize with or even understand. In fact, I find him more terrifying because he’s unknown. He has no backstory (unless you want to believe the one he gave in Killing Joke, but the clown has a new story for every face he meets) and seemingly does what he does for a laugh of all things.

Jason Todd is in pain. He’s traumatized. Betrayed. Buried. Replaced. He is no one’s son because his father abandoned him.

Once upon a time, Jason Todd was a boy who saved himself. One of the biggest lies that Batman himself perpetuates is that he saved Jason from a life of crime. He tells Alfred that Jason was always dangerous. Bruce simply took him off the streets before he could be any worse.

But I don’t believe that’s true.

Jason grew up surrounded by crime, poverty, substance abuse and yet this amazing kid saved himself everyday by making a conscious choice to be kind and care about school, care about keeping his mother alive for over a year when he was just a child himself. That amazing kid was magic. 

Jason Todd as Robin was magic.

“Jason smiles. A bright smile. The kind Robin, the Boy Wonder should have.”

A good portion of his character’s assassination was in order to push the Tim is the perfect Robin idea. It was editorial decisions. The same ‘suits’ who insisted that Tim Drake be the Robin in the New Adventures cartoon despite having Jason’s backstory and personality. But I digress on that. 

Jason Todd was an introverted, studious, and emphatic person. He wanted to make friends with other kids his age even though he was a loner at heart. He joined the school baseball team and was a class officer, even if his training kept him from most social interactions.

He was also very much in tune with non-verbal cues and small changes in the environment around him. He was a thoughtful person who could be found admiring the stars or passing by scenery. When he teams up with the New Teen Titans, we get to see these aspects of his personality:

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful before. We’re actually riding above the clouds.”

“Every so often, I notice you become awfully agitated...like something was going on you didn’t want to be part of. Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

It didn’t take Bruce long to fall in love with this boy and ask to legally adopt him. He found him to be smart, thoughtful, quick at learning and funny as hell. Their first meeting opens with Batman laughing in the very same alley his heart was ripped out decades earlier. 

Even in the Rebirth canon, (RHATO #48) we see that Bruce is already set on taking in Jason while he’s still with Ma Gunn’s school. He likes this kid. A lot.

“Butler, actually. You’ll meet him someday, I’m sure.”

Jason Todd was happy. Most of the time. Unfortunately, he still wrestled with depression and would sleep all day on occasion and could be found crying hidden away on his own, withdrawn from the concerned Bruce and Alfred.

In A Death in the Family, Alfred and Bruce sit down and discuss Jason’s worsening mental health, particularly after the Diplomat’s Son where Jason becomes witness to sexual assault, suicide and the failings of both Batman and the GCPD to protect innocent people. Barbara, his tutor, someone he cared about and got along with, is also shot a few months earlier.

Bruce thinks Jason has become suicidal. Alfred does not disagree with this theory and supplements it with things he’s observed himself about the ‘lad.’

“I’ve come upon him, several times, looking at that battered old photograph of his mother and father, crying. When he’s seen me, he’s hidden the picture and left the room, refusing to talk.”

It is then that Jason discovers the truth about his mother at the worst possible time, when he’s not even thinking straight, and thus leads way to the tragedy that will be his murder at the hand’s of the Joker.

The Curse of Jason Todd

“Do you have any idea what you have done?! Do you? You have no inkling of what you’ve created -- what you have unleashed! You have set free a curse upon this world!”

Red Hood: Lost Days, which depicts Jason’s dark post-resurrection origin, opens with Ra’s al Ghul bellowing this line, the steam from the Lazarus Pit still rising off of him. 

I’m not going to analyze this line, I’m just using it to supplement a point of mine I hope I’m getting through well enough. The Red Hood is a compelling, tragic villain. He is similar to Batman in ways that Bruce always knew and may have even feared because of how intimately he knows his own deepest, darkest thoughts. Jason is the perfect foil as an antagonist for him because of what he represents to Bruce.

And it’s not his anger, or his rage, or even his brutality. 

It’s his compassion. His caring. His emotions. And how they can open up the worst parts of themselves. 

Both are motivated by preventing whatever trauma happened to them from ever happening to anyone else. They both trained for years with this motivation. And they’ve both acted out on the very person who inflicted their trauma onto them.

Here’s where their paths start to differ, however, and what separates them with a line of morality.

They both get angry. They both care so damn much. About Gotham, about innocents, about each other. They both get too emotionally invested and deal with consequences related to that. To manage with that, Bruce shuts down. He creates all these choices, rules and symbols. He uses every ounce of his self control to keep them. 

Bruce Wayne is not a good person. He forces himself to be with discipline and will. He chooses to be a good man and constantly pushes himself to live up to that. Because it’d be too damn easy to be just like the Red Hood.

Jason doesn’t understand that. Because no matter what Bruce had done or will do, he doesn’t hate him. He can’t. Despite his denial of the fact to different people, he still thinks of Bruce as his father. This great figure that so many others revere and are even intimidated by.

He’s not the only bat-kid to think of Bruce in this light despite the fact that the man is not. It took Dick years to overcome that perception. Tim only just started to begin understanding this true nature after his own father was murdered. 

But even if he did understand his (once)father, he still became the complete opposite of him despite so many early parallels. He doesn’t hold back his words and emotions, he doesn’t go into a state of controlled dissociation or emotional disengagement.

Jason Todd—the Red Hood—is Batman without all his rules and control. In a way, he’s what the darkest part of Batman himself wants to be. Jason does what Batman can’t do when it’s needed.

Because in Batman’s book, life beats out justice. Even if he could take down abusers and murderers, he won’t. He will choose saving and protecting lives over the apprehension of killers...he always does.

Batman is justice. Red Hood is vengeance.

Jason is a victim’s fantasy. He punishes and kills the guilty. Something Batman won’t do.

He is the anti-Batman for better or for worse.

[sxvethelastdance]

Okay so, shoutout to @bastardsunlight​ for letting me bomb them with my infodump analysis on a particular trait of Liu Kang’s character that has stood out to me upon analysis of something he said in MK11 that caught my eye. After Liu’s fight with the Revenant Jade he says this: 

“You will not test my faith.”

This got me asking the question of what extent Liu Kang’s faith reaches when compared to someone who’s more prone to expressing doubt, friend or foe. Doesn’t matter.  Now the thing about the Mortal Kombat universe is that the gods ARE real. They have an ‘active’ relationship with the Earthrealmers through Raiden and Fujin. So the faith aspect comes less from a religious context and more from the trust and belief that accompanies having faith in someone or something to do right by you. Even characters like Quan Chi have their own twisted version of faith, trusting Shinnok to reward his loyalty and service. Liu Kang himself doesn’t expect a reward for his faith in the NRS adapation, he seems to practice his beliefs because they extend to him the comfort and explanations that lot of people who engage in this seek. Belief systems are often how people make sense of the world and how they cope with their struggles. This is how Liu Kang deals with his. Faith, or a break from it, seems to be the primary way he reasons with his surroundings in all these different versions of his character. 

More under the cut:

Disclaimer: I’m not religious/do not possess a faith myself. Take this all with a grain of salt. 

In the Netherrealm continuity version of Liu Kang’s character, we see that a good deal of what he does is characterized by his faith in Raiden and by extension: The Elder Gods. He's been a student of the Wu-Shi Academy since infancy, he doesn't carry the trauma of losing his parents and then Chan like MK95 Liu, or implied abuse like the 2021 film version of Liu Kang, has no ties to the outside world, just his community. The temple Elders and Raiden were almost 100% transparent about what he would have to face growing up, communicating an approximation of the expectations that would fulfill his responsibilities to the realm. Liu Kang grew into his duty and thus formed an attachment to it. A part of his identity's tied up in that responsibility, that quality of wanting for nothing because he represents an ideal. He is humble, calm, and faithful to his principles.  He follows Raiden’s lead throughout Mortal Kombat 9 and trusts that what they do under these conditions will give them the answers that they’re looking for. When he and Raiden go to visit the Elder Gods during the last quarter of the game, Liu Kang is faced with the Gods themselves. He has the opportunity to observe them and their priorities, to see that they aren’t here to do right by the people he has sworn to protect. The cracks continue to form in the foundations of his faith as more bodies pile up, until it all comes to a head on the rooftop as Shao Kahn begins the realm merger.  Raiden begs, “Have faith in the elder gods, have faith in me.” and Liu Kang finds that he can’t. It’s cost them too much. It’s that pivotal moment where Liu Kang breaks from his faith and chooses his own way. Ultimately, this is what costs him his life when Raiden accidentally kills him while fending off Liu Kang’s attack. 

It gets even more interesting when you compare this version of him with his Mortal Kombat (1995) counterpart. When we meet that version of Liu Kang it’s immediately obvious that he’s broken from the faith he was raised into. He recognizes Rayden’s status as the god of thunder and in the offhanded way that one would recognize say, an old religious text. Something you know about, and aren’t particularly mystified by because it’s been hammered into your skull for as long as you’ve been alive. Liu knows the stories and the value that they have to people like his grandfather, but it’s something to acknowledge and move along with. The man is burnt out, that much is clear. The movie shows us from the outset doesn’t quite believe in the Gods anymore, that perhaps something happened to make him ask questions of the community’s principles, the ones he inherited by way of cultural osmosis. At some point in his adult life, Liu Kang was confronted with the age old dilemma of ‘seeing is believing’; and when he didn’t see anything, he didn’t believe. So he left to a place where he could be somebody, anybody BUT the chosen one. Which ended up saving his life because otherwise Shang Tsung would’ve swooped in on that technicality and taken him instead of Chan. 

Now what I’m not saying here is that Liu Kang’s faith, religious or otherwise is a character flaw, or that the only reason MK95 Liu survived is that he didn’t believe anymore. No, what I am saying is that MK95 Liu was at a place with his faith where he could handle it if it things fell short of his expectations because he’d already steeled himself for it, where NRS Liu Kang was thoroughly hurt by what looked like confirmation that the foundations of everything he believed in were cracked, that his faith was misplaced. That it cost him everything. He died right on the cusp of realizing a fundamental truth. It’s one thing to die in battle because that’s what you signed up for, that’s the role you were groomed for. It’s another to die when you finally began to ask yourself ‘What AM I fighting for? Who made this decision?’. Then dying for nothing! Nothing at all! Your death wasn’t the absolute that you were told it as by the elders every day of your life either. The realm survived without you. You weren’t... Important. Nothing you did mattered. The rules don’t exist in any meaningful capacity, the elder gods don’t particularly care, you are alone. It’s no wonder his revenant is so bitter! The man set himself on fire to keep everybody warm and now is doomed to burn in the hereafter for it.

Mortal Kombat (2021)’s version of Liu Kang’s faith is a little bit more complicated in my eyes. This depiction of him is more openly faithful than the others. He essentially acts as Raiden’s assistant, wears prayer beads and covets them at difficult moments, frequently meditating. It looks like he uses his faith as a coping mechanism. There’s also another thing to consider, when we look at his past:

Kang has seen the absolute worst of the world, the nitty, gritty, and grimey. The first years of his life were spent suffering abuse as an orphan. It’s implied that he was a victim of human trafficking, which carries another set of implications entirely. Bo Rai Cho did him the kindness of bringing him to the temple, and I’m sure that the Masters did him an even greater kindness of introducing him to techniques that would help him find something resembling peace in himself. But it takes something else to secure someone’s faith in a system when one’s been through the ringer like that:

Trust. And who is it that he trusts more than anyone in the Order of Light? Kung Lao. They were paired up together, presumably to provide him with a peer that he could trust to treat him properly after years of mistreatment (perhaps it was difficult to trust adults with such a fraught history). And Lao did it! He gained his trust! The Liu Kang that we see in the present day is strong in his conviction that what they have committed to is what’s right for themselves, he is fine to save a world that wouldn’t save him if the chips came down to it. His faith in the divine balance isn't blind here, there’s an emphasis on practice. It’s my understanding that it DOESN’T come naturally to him, which sort of adds meaning to the act of believing because it’s a choice. He knows it’s a choice. That faith comes from a place of gratefulness and agency. The way that he talks about Kung Lao, how he builds him up as this amazing figure (at the slightest detriment to recognizing his own talents) tells us that he found something there worth believing in, and that it all started with believing in him. 

For all the shit he's seen, one thing rings true: The world is worth saving because Kung Lao is in it. 

[land-of-classpects-and-analysis]

Mage of Life

There is a beginning to everything, as well as an end. The classic tale of how Life creates these wonderful gifts and then sends them away to eventually reach their beloved: Death. Much like how Seer September had its own mysterious beginning before ending within the vastness of Space, why not begin Oculus October with an Aspect almost as important as Space? While Space may represent new beginnings, Life is an Aspect that represents positivity, good health, and survival. Of course, there are other things it also represents, but it truly depends on the Class it is connected to. With it being a new month and therefore a new beginning, it would only be fitting for the first analysis regarding Mages to be that of the Mage of Life.

At first, the Mage of Life may seem to be quite the puzzle to wrap one’s head around. Life is a warm and positive Aspect, is it not? How then, pray tell, does one somehow manage to suffer in their pursuit of knowledge about this Aspect? If Mages are meant to begin their journey with a horrific introduction to their Aspect, what does a horrific version of Life look like? To put it simply, and to lay out the groundwork for the rest of this; the Mage of Life would most likely be someone who could be deemed as the “Therapy Friend”. As noble of a title this may seem to those who have never been in such a predicament, it is oftentimes far from it. To be the “Therapy Friend” is, more often than not, being the friend who everyone goes to about their problems. The Mage of Life would listen - truly listen - and they may try to give their best advice that they can muster. However, when it comes to their own problems, they are often met with disinterest, apathy, or rudeness and belittlement. 

Due to this, the Mage of Life would most likely be one to bottle up their emotions rather than seek out anyone who may actually want to listen. This can cause quite a bit of tension and stress not only in the Mage of Life’s, well, life, but also within their social circle. As more problems and emotions the Mage bottles up, the closer they get to having a complete and utterly destructive meltdown. It is a horrible habit of the Mage of Life, but it’s one that they unfortunately have deeply ingrained into their way of life. However, this volatile and unhealthy practice will not always leave an aftermath of a simple and easy pick-up. There will be at least one moment where, in the midst of one of their breakdowns, the Mage of Life will commit an act of such a horrible nature that they cannot undo it. No apologies can make it better, and chances are they have no clue how to even go about healing the wounds that they wrought. The Mage of Life has never actually had to do much healing in their life, instead only having to listen and provide words of comfort, encouragement, and reassurance. After the final straw has broken their own back will the journey for the Mage truly begin.

The Mage of Life would be one who has to actively seek out the knowledge of their Aspect and its properties, but they could also actively seek out knowledge through their Aspect. No matter which path calls for the Mage of Life, though, it is most certain that they will face many struggles and hardships throughout their journey. Do not be fooled by the unassuming nature the Life Aspect presents itself to be - it is an Aspect just as capable of bringing about suffering as any of the others. After all, haven’t we all experienced the pricking of a rose thorn, the itchiness of poison ivy, a tree falling atop a house or car, and, for a select few, aren’t seasonal allergies simply the worst? While those bound to Life are known for being on a constant march towards positivity and progress, the Mage of Life is one of the best examples of this. After witnessing the true harm and damage their role as a Therapy Friend has not only brought onto others, but also themself, it will be what truly pushes the Mage towards the true nature of their Aspect and what it means to be bound to Life.

For the Mages of Life who seek out the knowledge of their Aspect, they will soon find that the answer isn’t all that simple. To some it may seem obvious and quite simple; go to therapy, get rid of bad friends, make more positive and healthier choices in their life, and more. However, that isn’t exactly the case, if only because the Mage of Life’s journey can be rather slow. They don’t immediately learn everything about their Aspect by capturing once and taking the knowledge from that. It’s far more like following a trail of breadcrumbs until they finally discover a proper piece of bread from a much larger loaf. These pieces of bread, though, aren’t often found by simply walking down a pleasant forest path or city sidewalk. Heavens, no. Rather, it would be far more like having to crawl under, or perhaps even through, barbed wire at one point, running from a pack of ravenous wolves at another, and so much more torment and turmoil. If anything, the Mage of Life may have one of the hardest journeys out of all the Mages. Their journey is not only meant to teach them how to become a proper healer so that they may make amends with the harm they have caused, but it is also meant to teach them how to be humble and kind to themself. 

One thing that may pose itself to be the biggest issue for the Mage of Life is having to learn that their needs sometimes are required to come first. They have only known self sacrifice for most, if not their entire life. In fact, it may be difficult for the Mage of Life to even perceive their way of life as harmful to themself, and may be overwhelmed at the thought of having to put their needs before others. This is not to say the Mage of Life is a pure, sweet, innocent soul - not at all. However, they are most definitely a victim of people taking advantage of their ability to listen and the patience that comes with it, all while allowing their supposed friends to walk all over them. The Mage would have to face these facts head-on if they ever wanted a fighting chance against their Aspect and the journey ahead of them. For some, or perhaps even most, of the Mages of Life would be terrified to admit that they allowed this to happen to them. Mages can be quite stubborn at times, after all, and having to face the fact they aren’t as strong as they present themself to be can possibly shatter their entire world. Over the course of their journey, though, would they come to learn and realize what true care, towards them specifically, looks like, and by design they will also see the harm that they have allowed to come to them for so long.

The journey of the Mage is meant to bring them to many places, as well as meet twice as many, if not more, people to help them learn and make their discoveries. Mages often prefer working alone, as one of the last things they’d hate to admit to is that they need someone, but they are also sometimes quick to give up in trying to push someone away if said person is especially stubborn. In the beginning, the Mage of Life wouldn’t know anything about proper self-care or how to go about truly fixing things. During their journey, though, they may slowly learn what it means to heal, forgive, and take care of themself by the places they go and the people they meet. Mages have a knack of being at the right place at the right time - even if such a place results in them becoming harmed. The Mage of Life may gain this knowledge by becoming hurt and having to tend to their own flesh wounds, learning from the mistakes they make along the way. They’d most likely be drawn towards places and people involved with healing, or at least things that promise knowledge on the topic. These things could range from various hospitals, libraries with books, various religious groups and buildings, people who may be official doctors, spiritualists, or as simple as an elderly person who has seen the harshness of the world while also seeing the good, or they may seek out fellow Life-bound in general.

As for the Mages of Life who wish to achieve knowledge through Life itself, this can become a far more abstract process of gaining knowledge and, as is often the case, a far tougher challenge to take on. While it may sound like the easier option - acquiring knowledge through the process of healing - it is most definitely anything but. The Mage of Life would have to allow themself to become hurt, sometimes in more ways than one, so that they may find ways to heal from it and gain such knowledge. However, even if they don’t actively seek out these opportunities of pain, the world around them will still see to it that the Mage of Life experiences enough hurt that they will have no choice but to heal. Through each scar they acquire, though, they gain more knowledge of what it means to live, heal, and move on. If they can survive all of these moments of pain and suffering, then they can survive anything. Not only that, but they can use the knowledge they have acquired to come back as a better person and an even better healer. One might even argue that Mages of Life who pick the latter option are the better healers of the two paths, though that is not always the case.

Some Mages of Life who pick this path may come back having more knowledge on healing and how to remain positive in the face of suffering, ready to give more aid and care to those they care about. Then there are those who may try to use the knowledge they received as a means to silence others - play the card of “well, I suffered a lot more than you have, and I turned out just fine. You have nothing to complain about.” Indeed, being a Life-bound does not guarantee that person to be one of kindness and positivity, especially if they begin to believe the world around them is doomed to be void of such things. On their journey, some Mages of Life may fall for this trap and as such believe that the world is beyond fixing, much like themself and everyone else around them. Some of these Mages of Life could be those who failed their journey; finding what was expected of them and their recovery too extreme and terrifying, and so they hid away and eventually came to resent their Aspect and what it stands for. As such, they could become a rather bitter and venomous person to be around - perhaps even becoming like that of the people who hurt and mistreated them in the past. It is hard to tell if those who failed journey have a higher chance of acting hostile due to lack of knowledge or from the fragments they were only ever able to collect before giving up. Either way, though, a Mage of Life at their worst is someone willing to play the long game, so long as they finally get to dig their claws into someone by the end of it.

While the journey for any Mage is daunting, dangerous, and sometimes downright terrifying, the Mage of Life is one who has to live a life of self-sacrifice before they can finally stand up, pack their things, and start their journey. Healing is not always a pretty process, but it is especially not pretty when you are a Mage of Life. As tempting as it may be to give up at times and allow this pain and injustice to continue, if the Mage of Life were to keep going, if only for a little while longer, they could become a valuable ally to have on someone’s team. By the time they have fully realized and captured the true knowledge of their Aspect, they will finally be able to realize their worth as a person and what it means to be a healer to not only those around them, but also to themself. A well-adjusted Mage of Life is one who is most often at the top of their game - full of energy, love, and happiness for everything and everyone around them. While they can’t heal via magical powers, they can most definitely heal their friends and allies through the special means they learned during their journey. 

In a way, the Mage of Life committed the ultimate self-sacrifice by putting themself through a horrible process of trial and errors, bruises and cuts, and so much more, if only so that no one else would have to go through what they did. To those who stayed true to themselves, though, were able to come out of it a better and stronger individual. They may not truly understand their self-worth just yet, but they still would be far quicker to realize when someone is not a good fit for them and as such would be as quick to slice them out of their life. They’ve had their battles, and they’ve gained their scars because of it, but the Mage of Life does not look upon them with shame or anger. Instead, they look at them as marks of progress in their journey. After all, to the Mage of Life, there is no such thing as failure, but rather a chance to learn and grow into something better. That is what the Mage of Life strives towards.

[arcticdementor]

Part III of my series about the changing face of L.A. Click for Parts I and II.

I ended Part II with a look at how L.A. County’s Hispanics are habitual nonvoters. Let’s pick up seamlessly from there, in Compton. Compton used to be so black (over 85%) that at my high school we had a litany of “Compton so black” jokes.

…

Today, the birthplace of “gangsta rap” be not black at all. At last count (prior to the 2020 census), it was 68% Hispanic and 27% black, and I’d bet my house that the new figures will show that the Hispanic number has risen beyond 70% and the black has dropped below 25%.

Compton so Mexican its city hall’s a Home Depot parking lot.

Now dig this: In a city that’s roughly one-quarter black and almost three-quarters Mexican, of the eight elected officials (mayor, city attorney, city clerk, treasurer, and four councilpeople), only one is Hispanic. All the rest are black. And it gets better. That one Hispanic councilman won his election by just one vote, and our Soros-backed DA is prosecuting the guy for fabricating the one vote that put him over the top. Turns out the bean only ran because a black guy who’d lost his primary made a deal with him to run in his stead in exchange for giving the failed black candidate a lucrative city commissioner position if he won, and together they faked the winning vote.

Can you wrap your brain around that? The city is 70% Hispanic, and the only Hispanic council member, who only ran because a black dude made him, won by just one vote, and that vote had to be faked.

Get my point now about Hispanics not voting?

I mean, imagine a city that’s 70% black, but only one out of eight city officials is black. And then the county DA tries to nullify the vote that got that one black elected. There’d be riots! Neighborhoods would be burned to ash. Don Lemon would be screaming about “equity,” and the Biden Justice Department would be investigating the DA.

But Mexicans don’t care. They’re fine with letting the black minority pretend to be da Emperor Jones. That’s how little participatory democracy matters to them. And Dems have no desire to “enfranchise” Compton Mexicans because blacks are their most reliable and manipulatable minions. Never trade a slave for an independent contractor. Plus, as I discussed last week, when Mexicans do vote, it’s all over the map. As Newsweek contributor Richard Hanania pointed out regarding polls that show California Hispanics divided 50/50 on the Newsom recall (blacks are 65/35 against it), “I feel like it’s fun living in a state with many Mexicans because you get a wildcard aspect to politics. Keeps things exciting.”

…

So what we know is that Mexi voting ambivalence is resilient. Would it be equally resilient to rightist coercion? Who knows; no rightists out here are testing the waters. The Hispanic rejection of affirmative action was due in large part to a general dislike of blacks. And in February when the black- and Jew-run L.A. school board defunded all campus police and redirected the $25 million LAUSD security budget to a program to fund the education of only black students, the discontent among L.A. Hispanics was palpable. Blacks make up barely 8% of LAUSD students (Hispanics comprise over 70%). Hispanic Twitter exploded with fury over the “black-only” payday coming at the expense of campus security, and the L.A. Times was forced to admit that Hispanic support for campus cops was massive, especially compared with support from non-Hispanic whites (a whopping 67% to 54%).

So did our local “Republicans” try to make hay out of that? Of course not, because to do so would risk offending blacks, and the GOP establishment has sworn a blood oath that it shall never allow itself any forward motion that might jeopardize its (zero) chance of “winning the black vote.”

There could literally be one black man left in L.A., and the GOP would sacrifice everything for his favor.

…

So, our Mexicans are untested, and our rapidly decreasing blacks, our gradually increasing Asians, and our moneyed and influential secular Jews are a lost cause. What about our non-Jewish non-Hispanic whites?

Ay yi yi, they’re the woist of all. The leftist ones represent the bottom of the barrel of self-hating “please genocide me before I enslave again,” “I hope my son goes tranny so that my foul DNA might dead-end with my progeny’s amputated penis” wastes of space. The mostly non-Jewish white upscale deep-blue city of Manhattan Beach, for example, is filled with self-flagellating WASPs who spend their time trying to make their safe city less safe by “giving land back” to blacks who were supposedly racisted out of town in the 1920s.

And now Manhattan Beach is regularly visited by black criminals, from serial rapists to boardwalk thieves to a home-invasion attempted murder just a week ago. I’m sure the guilt-ridden Robin DiAngelos of Manhattan Beach excuse these crimes as justified reparations owed to noble negroes.

…

Worse still, our “rightist” whites—those who choose to be activists—are just plain batshit crazy. Our MAGAs are violent, self-destructive, foolish, and dim-witted (I’ve covered this before, and I’ll be revisiting it next week in a column that’ll post on the eve of the gubernatorial recall).

…

In largely red Beverly Hills (and surrounding Westside areas), the Persian, Israeli, and Orthodox Jews, who are not suicidal, are holding the line against the violent crime and property crime that still disproportionately come from blacks (ironically, as the county’s black community shrinks, the thugs are forced to venture beyond their comfort zone in search of victims, rather like how bears become more bold as their natural habitat shrinks). But what of the areas that are largely Hispanic? Well, our Hispanics (as the Times pointed out) have a more positive view of police than our whites. That’s something often overlooked by those who claim to study criminality in racial or ethnic groups. It’s never just about criminality; it’s also about acceptance of policing. Whites who dismantle the criminal justice apparatus are as much to blame for rampant criminality as low-IQ thugs. Portland is an example of how poisonous such whites can be; violent crime in that city isn’t the result of a huge population of blacks but a huge population of self-hating anti-cop whites.

…

Our Hispanics occupy a middle ground: between black and white on the criminality scale (not as high as the former, not as low as the latter), but better than both groups on acceptance of policing. Half of L.A.’s cops and sheriff’s deputies are Hispanic, and our sheriff, Alex Villanueva—an unapologetic kick-ass crime fighter—survived the George Floyd purge last summer because his fellow Hispanics backed him against the blacks and whites who sought his ouster.

A county can weather criminality if it allows rigorous enforcement. L.A. had a lower murder rate than it does today back when there were more blacks but also more enforcement. Now that blacks, leftist whites, and secular Jews have decided that enforcement equals genocide, the last hope for the county lies with the Westside Persian/Israeli/Orthodox Jews and the Eastside beans.

There’s a logic to this, as those groups mingle more than you might think. Be it as nannies, gardeners, construction workers, warehouse personnel, or restaurant staff, the Westside is where many Mexicans go to work every day.

As one of those Westside Jews (though an outlier, as I’m “red” without being Persian, Israeli, or Orthodox), I would absolutely throw in with the beans as opposed to the leftist whites or the MAGA whites. Both groups, like blacks, have become suicidal. And suicidal people are dangerous.

Yes, Mexis have gangs, and you don’t want to walk down certain Eastside streets at night. Big shit; no one has reason to except those who live there. In the 1970s those areas were worse when they were black.

But Mexicans do the scut work around here, they don’t riot when one of their own is arrested (indeed they arrest their own), and they aren’t dangerously self-destructive.

I’ll take it.

Not that I have a choice; it’s the way it’s gonna be, demographically, whether I like it or not.

But it’s not the worst-case scenario, or even the second-to-worst. And these days that’s good enough.

[kob131]

RWBY: The White Fang and the De-Evolution of Movements

So...The White Fang. Often said to be one of the worst aspects of RWBY. Honestly it does have problems (that can basically be summed up as “You couldn’t handle dividing up screen time properly, why are you tackling a racism subplot?”) but also to be honest: It does carry a rather...poignant truth about movements in the modern era. Especially the racially focused ones in America.

Again, it’s not surprising to hear that the White Fang is an organization and subplot based around the racism against the fictional race called “Fanaus” in the show, discriminated against due to having animal attributes basically. And I do mean ‘basically’ because the full reason has to do with the Grimm, how they looked like animals but weren’t and were HUGE threats in early Remnant and how the Fanaus also had vague similarities to animals while not being animals too. Which was all rooted in a misguided attempt at survival mixed in with the usual primitive aspect of the human brain to naturally mistrust anything that isn’t like itself.

... Yeah it’s stupid but really: real life racism is even dumber and has even less of a reason to exist so I can’t even call it out.

So back to the White Fang, you'd normally think the plotline would be about a rebellion from the Fanaus to overthrow the evil racist humans right? 

Well, surprisingly (or unsurprisingly given RT’s track record of NOT shying away from Grey morality), it’s actually a lot more complicated than that. The White Fang WERE peaceful protestors trying to get equal rights from the humans before a leader named Sienna Khan pushed for more violent methods in order to ‘gain respect’ from the humans. And then in modern day RWBY, another prominent member named Adam Taurus would go on to push for full on terrorism and racial supremacy before the organization implodes from Adam’s own psychosis and his destructive actions. So yeah, the White Fang kind of just deteriorated over time due to a failure to live up to their own morals and kept trying to take the easy way out of their situation.

Which honestly...is pretty much what happened to movements in general, at least in America. And nowhere better can this be seen than in the big three racial movements: the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panther movement and the BLM movement.

In fact, you can actually line up the three leaders of the White Fang to the three movements I mentioned and see how they reflect each other:

Ghira Belladonna and the CRM are both based around peaceful protest to gain their civil rights, they were met with violent opposition by their racist opponents and their change was slow but stable. There’s a very good reason why the CRM is pretty much seen as the pinnacle of social movements in America.

Sienna Khan and the Black panthers are both based around violent defense of their people in order to gain respect from their oppressors, who would be cowed into compliance by the threat of violence, willing to give them what they want quickly..at the cost of no real change being enacted due to the group’s failure to force change. Thus the change is quick...but ultimately doomed to failure. Again, good reason why the CRM worked and the other....didn’t.

Then we have Adam and the BLM movement, where the movement has become even more violent, losing any kind of restraint that the former iteration had due to it’s members becoming even more jaded and vengeful, losing the nobility of the last two versions...and becoming the most ineffective version, never really causing any sort of change, dividing the very people they claim to fight for and even creating more opponents to them. And ultimately they do nothing and will naturally implode from their ineptitude.

Speaking as someone whose fascinated and in awe of social movements, it’s shocking how closely the downfall of the White Fang mirrors the fall of modern movements. And yes, I do mean modern movements in general because remove the racial aspect of the White Fang and they can be applied to just about any modern American movement. 

So you’d think that this would inversely mean that the humans in RWBY get off scott free right? ... No. In fact, the show makes a point to portray the human side as worse. Unlike the noble Ghira, the well meaning Sienna and the scarred Adam, the representative of the human side here (Jacques Schnee for his abusive labor practices) has no sympathetic traits in the show whatsoever. No really, the character takes aspects of each character (Ghira being a father to a main character, Sienna inheriting her position and Adam’s abuse) and has a worse version of each (Jacques is the worst parent in the show, he stole his position through even more underhanded methods than Sienna and he’s caused more damage to the people in his life than Adam.)

Even the person chosen to represent the more nuanced and sympathetic side of humans (Weiss) isn’t excused for her behaviors and often has to work to make up for her racist attitudes in the beginning. Meanwhile, the more nuanced version of the fanaus, Blake, doesn’t have these issues. So it’s not like the show’s being racist: The Fanaus side is still ultimately more sympathetic.

I should note too that the man who represents the third iteration of the white Fang, Adam, became who he was due to being branded on his face by the company Jacques runs. And Adam’s actions end up making Weiss jaded and racist due to suffering from his actions, direct or indirect. It really emphasizes how easily this stuff can become a cycle of violence and hate as Weiss could have easily continued this cycle if she hadn’t met Blake and was forced to see the error of her ways. (Oh and remember Blake is the daughter of Ghira, the man who lied the original White Fang.)

I should finally note that Adam Taurus, the most violent leader of the White Fang, is still a victim himself. Like I said, he was branded at a young age and that shit screws up someone. Then when he joined the White Fang under Ghira, he first killed a man by accident defending Ghira from human attackers and was visibly shocked he did so. It was only when Sienna started encouraging people to praise him for his saving of Ghira (and implied using of Adam to push her agenda) that he lost that. The guy was a victim of everyone, just like a lot of people in the BLM movement. So these people aren’t the way they are without good reason.

All in all, while I severely doubt the CRWBY wrote these parallels intentionally: what they probably did was observe a pattern in human behavior and write it down. It’s just that this pattern ended up being very resonant with what happened after the show’s inception. So not everything about the White Fang was poorly done.

... Still, this plotline should have been it’s own spinoff.

[linkspooky]

The Characters of Nisiosin (1)

Trickster - Kumagawa 

Nisioisin is a prolific writer famous for the many distinct characters he creates, and writes with a unique sort of empathy that lets them be their weird and crazy selves without judgement. Okay, with plenty of judgment. This is the start of a new series I’ve been working on which analyzes some of the common themes that appears in Nisioisin’s works with more depth, as Nisioisin is the type who reuses, and recontextualizes old ideas a lot. 

The first thing we’re going to be taking a look at is Nisioisin’s take on the Trickster type character with Kumagawa. I’ll be doing Deishuu Kaiki, and Ii (Boku) to follow up. 

 A. Defining the Trickster. 

Before we determine what a Trickster is we have to define what an Archetype is when it comes to character writing. 

In theory, Jungian archetypes refer to unclear underlying forms or the archetypes-as-such from which emerge images and motifs such as the mother, the child, the trickster, and the flood among others. History, culture and personal context shape these manifest representations thereby giving them their specific content. These images and motifs are more precisely called archetypal images.

In other words they are ideas and images that reoccur in stories all around the world. For example a character like Loki has several things in common with the christian idea of satan even though they come from two different mythologies, both subvert the ‘father-figure’ king of their respective heavens, and both are responsible for kickstarting the chain of events that lead to the apocalypse scenario in both religions. 

Archetypes are characters that follow certain pre-determined patterns we all recognize. Luke Skywalker is what most people would recognize as the hero of the story, Obi-Wan Kenobi is the mentor, just by thinking of ‘hero’ and ‘mentor’ you already have a pre-conceived idea of how the character is going to act in the story. This is a good guideline for analyzing the similiarities between the characters Nisioisin uses in his works. 

The Trickster, Jung says, is an aspect of the shadow archetype, at least in its negative traits (see "On the Psychology of the Trickster-Figure".  Examples of the trickster are Satan, Loki, etc.)

The shadow is an archetype that consists of the sex and life instincts. The shadow exists as part of the unconscious mind and is composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, instincts, and shortcomings.

If the Hero is what everyone thinks a good guy is, then the Shadow is playfully the opposite of they. They are what everyone thinks a good guy isn’t. They represent the repressed aspect of our minds, and exist to call into question the common order. 

The trickster, obviously, deceives, often playfully, sometimes painfully.     The Fool is a shadow figure distressed by some unconscious lack of power, often driven by greed or an inordinate desire for fame (all archetypes), who projects his or her inadequacies against scapegoats as described above.  The Fool is not always negative, of course.  A relatively benevolent form of the fool is the Clown, who is more aware of his or her trickster aspect, perhaps, than is the fool.  [Source.]

The trickster is what the hero is not. They are the shadow the hero casts. While the hero’s domain is the light, the trickster often works in the dark, behind the scenes sneaking around in the shadows. The hero is often straightforward, the shadow deceives and obfuscates. The hero is conventional and the trickster unconventional. 

In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human, or anthropomorphisation), which exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge, and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and conventional behaviour.  he trickster crosses and often breaks both physical and societal rules. Tricksters "...violate principles of social and natural order, playfully disrupting normal life and then re-establishing it on a new basis."

[SOURCE.]

To simplify there are four rules I am going to set as reoccuring in Nisioisin’s use of the Trickster Archetype: 

Introduced as a Villain

Subverts Expectations

Lying, Liar who Lies

Inherent themes of Nihilism

1. Introduced as a Villain

Appearances can be deceiving. It is the trickster’s goal to deceive your expectations, and in that they subvert the natural order. In most stories the hero is good and the villain is bad. Straightforward so far, yes? Nothing is straightforward when a trickster is involved. Kumagawa Misogi is someone who is introduced and built up as the ultimate enemy of Kurokami Medaka. A girl with a noble goal of trying to make everyone happy. Therefore anyone who opposes her would have to be ignoble, right?

Kurokami Medaka brings out the best in people, and Kumagawa Misogi brings out the worst. That is the simple, black and white comparison that we’re given between the two of them at the start of the manga. 

Kumagawa is so inhuman when we first meet him that for the first 52 chapters of the manga, when other characters refer to him and as he’s built up as an antagonist his face is always obscured. He’s not even seen as human in the eyes of others.

However, this simple idea is subverted by the manga itself. Medaka and Kumagawa are compared not as opposites but rather as complemtnary forces who not only have several things in common with one another, but also play into each other. 

Kumagawa is someone who can uniquely understand Medaka’s point of view in a way other people cannot. He’s not someone who opposes Medaka, but rather someone set up to oppose her. Kumagawa is not only aware to some extent that Medaka is the hero of the story, but he’s chosen to make himself the villain. 

2. Subverts Expectations

The entire point of Kumagawa’s arc is that even the absolute scariest types of people the minus, aren’t true villains of the story, even when they don’t want to be sympathized with, even when they don’t want to be saved, they are deep downs still people. 

Kumagawa’s arc intentionally sets up the idea that some characters are natural villains who don’t want to be saved, only to subvert that idea in the end. Tricksters are subversive, they exist to flip standard notions of good and evil, black and white ideas on their head. They are transversive, once they have played their role in the story it is impossible to think of things the same way again. 

Kumagawa is a character who exists to subvert what we call traditionally binary opposites. That is ideas that we think oppose each other. Winners and losers, strength and weakness, talented and untalented, all of these ideas tie strongly into Kumagawa’s character.

Ajimu brings up Kumagawa’s bitterness towards the status quo. The people who are happy are the ones who are currently in power. They are the ones who are able to work hard, they are the ones who are able to have friends, they are the ones who always win in the end. 

Kumagawa’s original goal is to flip those ideas on their head. To show that even people who are outside the power structure, outsiders like him, are able to have friends, to work hard, and to win. 

By doing this he subverts the natural order and turns it around. This is what comes to a head in his fight with Medaka. Usually it would be the winner is the strongest, but the idea is flipped in that fight it’s proven the one who loses more and climbs their way back up is the strongest one.

There is strength in weakness and weakness in strength and these ideas never play in the straightforward ways we think they will. That’s why Kumagawa who identifies as weaker than anyone else, is able to easily subvert the balance of power tip it in his favor and overcome strong people. 

3. Lying, Liar who Lies

Basically Kumagawa lies as compulsively.. He says everything in [brackets like this] and it's like always speaking and using airquotes after everything you say. It makes everything he says sound completely insincere. It’s also a pun for ‘To Show Off’ meaning he exaggerates everything he says in order to look cool. 

Kumagawa will just blantantly lie at times for no reason other than to lie. One of his habits is to claim things aren't his fault when they obviously are. His introduction is screwing everyone to a wall, and then standing there covered in their blood go [I'm not the one who did this, it's not my fault.] His introduction is him rattling off lies mainly to confuse people and make himself impossible to read. 

The key word is once again these expectations. The trickster uses lies as a mean of controlling the expectations of others, playing around with them and he gains some measure of power over this. A trickster is often not very traditionally powerful and has to rely on his wits to get by. 

Kumagawa's life is pure chaos and basically everything ever will go wrong for him, so he tells lies to have some kind of illusion of control over that chaos. People who see life as a story do so to give themselves agency, to trick themsleves into believing they’re the ones telling that story. 

Kumagawa pretending that the world is a manga, gives him the illusion that he can read, and anticipate the world like he would a weekly shonen jump manga. When in reality the world is what it’s always been, complete chaos. Kumagawa tells himself that lie to obfuscate himself because he finds safety in those lies, in no one knowing who he truly is. 

He finds his identity in those lies, which is why he intentionally plays the role of the villain when he could be a hero. Kumagawa will lie about his identity, first to be a bad victim, to be an ugly victim, he pretends these things have value because it's all he has. He only has negative experience of the world and the trauma he’s asquired so far and that’s what he finds familiarity in. Kumagawa finds identity in being the world's biggest loser. 

4. Themes of Nihilism

Kumagawa is a character who directly confronts Medaka’s assertion that she was ‘born for a reason’, by asserting the opposite. That there’s no goal in life, no point to being alive, and therefore humans are born for no reason. 

While that seems like a wholly negative statement at first, the point of Nihilism is to question established ideas and power structures. It’s to dismantle what we are told matters, and what we are told has meaning and instead come to understand our own meaning. 

If Medaka is an existence desperately trying to give meaning to life, then Kumagawa is trying to reject the assertion that life has meaning. It’s understandable why. The values that are said to hold true for everybody else have never once held true for Kumagawa. If you work hard you’ll win. Bad people are the only ones that suffer. If you ask for help you’ll get saved. Kumagawa has witnessed all those things he is told should be true about the world proven as falsehoods, and because of that his response is one of rebellion against the order. 

Nihilism is a step on the way to existentialism. 

In the most basic terms possible it's like. Rejection of societal meanings and values that you are told about -> Rejecting everything which leads to moral nihilism (nothing has meaning boo hoo) -> Realization that if everything is just made up value you can make up your own, and that you're not freed from society's obligations and can pursue what you want (sunglasses nihilism, party time).

Kumagawa as a character is firmly in the middle step. He’s a character who rejects everything, because he finds his identity in his rebellion against traditionally held notions. 

Kumagawa is a character trying to reject what everyone else tells him is meaningful, and instead trying to create his own meaning. He’s trying to find the positives in a life that’s literally nothing but suffering. That’s the point of his whole complex about minuses, that people who have everything go wrong for them still have a reason to smile. 

 Basically Kumagawa's philosophy becomes, if I can endure all of this and still keep on laughing and smiling, then you can too. Even living the worst life possible where you can't accmplish a single thing, and can't amount to anything, you can still find something to laugh and smile about.

It’s a philosophy unique to him, and one that he could only come to by challenging the established norm. Not only does Kumagawa’s nihilism help the minuses, but he also ends up helping Medaka herself as she’s the one who has to let go of the ‘reason that she was born’.

Just like Kumagawa, Medaka has to go and seek out her own reason. As in the end the two of them as a pair, hero and villain, are not opposites but rather two sides of the same coin. They are complentary forces that contain parts of each other. 

They are both ultimately, whether trickster or hero, very human characters. The roles in the story they play only serve to flesh out their humanity. Which is another theme in Nisioisin’s writing, but we’ll continue that in the next posts. 

[maddie-grove]

My Top Ten Victorian (Ish) Romance Novels

Notes: Queen Victoria’s reign lasted from 1837 to 1901, but I learned in a literature class that sometimes the Victorian era is defined as lasting from 1832 (when the First Reform Act was passed) to 1901 (when Victoria died). When it comes to historical romance novels, I think the second definition works better; a romance set in 1831 usually comes at the tail end of a series or universe beginning in the 1810s/1820s and still has a Regency flavor, while a romance set 1832-1836 has a decidedly non-Regency feel. Incidentally, I’ve noticed that 1830s-set Harlequin Historicals are labeled “1830s,” rather than “Regency” or “Victorian.” No one knows what to do with the 1830s! Also, many of these novels are set in the USA. Three are specifically set in Chicago, which is kind of weird!

1. The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan (2013) 

Exact Setting: 1860s England.

Premise: Politician Oliver Marshall has ambitions of enacting egalitarian laws, including the proposed Second Reform Bill, but his illegitimate birth and non-aristocratic upbringing make that an uphill battle. Then a marquess makes him a peculiar offer: in exchange for supporting the Second Reform Bill, he wants Oliver to publicly humiliate Jane Fairfield, an heiress who is despised by high society for her bad taste and oblivious rudeness. Oliver, too often the object of aristocratic bullying, has no desire to harm Jane, but he doesn’t feel that he can refuse the marquess outright. Then he realizes that Jane isn’t what she seems; instead, she’s a brave, clever, lonely woman who’s putting on an act so she can stay unmarried and continue protecting her younger sister. Also, he likes her and finds her wildly attractive, despite her nightmarish fashion sense.

Why I Like It: This is my favorite romance EVER. Jane is an all-time-great heroine: intelligent enough to engineer a complicated marriage-repellent scheme (and change it when circumstances require), strong enough to expose herself to ridicule out in the world (and come home to an uncle who thinks she’s inherently a bad person), and vulnerable enough to break your heart. Oliver, a bruised idealist who must reassess his go-along-to-get-along approach, is nearly as compelling. Their romance is full of top-notch banter and solidarity in the face of a world that wants them to be enemies. And there are almost too many excellent subplots to count: Jane’s sister’s secret romance with an Indian student at Cambridge, Oliver’s younger sister’s foray into activism, and Jane’s brittle frenemy-ship with the Johnson twins, to name a few.

Favorite Scene: The first time Jane drops her act in front of Oliver, or the defeat of the marquess.

2. A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole (2017)

Exact Setting: North Carolina, USA, during the Civil War.

Premise: Marlie Lynch's life has always been complicated. The daughter of a free Afro-Caribbean root worker, she spent half her childhood with her mother before being sent to live with her white paternal relatives. Now she works for two different secret organizations: the Underground Railroad (with the help and approval of her white abolitionist sister) and the black-Unionist-run spying organization the Loyal League (with the knowledge of no one). When she’s not doing that, she’s pursuing her scientific interests while still honoring and using her late mother’s rootworking practices. Her situation becomes even more fraught when she agrees to harbor Ewan McCall, an escaped Union POW, in a secret chamber behind her bedroom wall. They bond over their shared intellectual interests, but is there any time for romance when Marlie’s home is being overrun by loathsome Confederates?

Why I Like It: Many historical romances have good love stories but don’t do much with the setting, while a few excel at portraying the past but fail at creating a compelling central relationship. Alyssa Cole’s Loyal League novels are the total package, and the Southern-Gothic-tinged A Hope Divided is the standout among them. Marlie and Ewan’s courtship is portrayed with tenderness, intelligence, and delicacy. Cole brings just as much sharpness and nuance to her portrayal of the time and place, representing groups of people who tend to disappear in popular discussions about the Civil War. I also really appreciate Ewan as a character. His mind works differently from most people’s (in that he would probably now be considered to be on the autism spectrum), and he worries that he’s a bad person because he doesn’t feel a lot of angst about some morally complicated decisions he made in the past. The narrative does a good job of showing that Ewan is no better or worse than anyone else for using tools other than empathy in his moral reasoning. Also, Marlie is a top-tier Gothic heroine.

Favorite Scene: Marlie reflects on the villain’s oh-so-convenient conception of Southern womanhood. I’m also a big fan of the entirety of the bedroom-wall courtship.

3. The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan (2014)

Exact Setting: 1870s England.

Premise: After his hateful father and self-serving brother abandoned him to a grisly fate in war-torn Strasbourg, Edward Delacey narrowly survived, with his faith in himself and the world around him shattered. Now he’s back in England, and his younger brother stands to inherit the viscountcy that legally belongs to him. He’s not interested in the title; however, he does feel compelled to stop his brother from ruining the life of Frederica Marshall, a daring investigative reporter who writes about discrimination against women. As he lends his (jaded, reluctant) assistance, Frederica’s optimism begins to infect him...and that’s not the only reason he wants to stay around her.

Why I Like It: I love Frederica as Oliver’s little sister in The Heiress Effect, and she’s even better as the cocksure firebrand heroine of her own story. It’s rare that a heroine is allowed to be so successful in her chosen field at the beginning of a romance novel, but Milan accomplishes this while still giving Frederica enough vulnerabilities and flaws to make her interesting. Yet Edward, a wounded cynic who chooses to do good despite believing that he’s a garbage bag and the world is a shit-pile, is what really pushes the novel to all-time-great status. Their story is a wonderful illustration of the best things that love can do; his faith in the world is revived by her ideals, and her worst impulses are tempered by hearing about the lessons he’s learned in his darkest moments. Plus, they have some really funny banter. 

Favorite Scene: Edward explains why torture is ineffective and wrong. (I put years of hard work into getting my torture degree at torture college! Fuck off!)

4. After the Wedding by Courtney Milan (2018)

Exact Setting: 1860s England. 

Premise: After her father was accused of treason and committed suicide, Lady Camilla Worth was passed from home to increasingly shabby home, eventually fading into obscurity as Camilla Winters, a housemaid in a corrupt clergyman’s home. Adrian Hunter, the son of a black abolitionist activist and a white duke’s daughter, is visiting the clergyman in disguise to gather information when he and Camilla fall victim to a dastardly plot. Force to wed at literal gunpoint and thrown out of the house, they must work together to annul their marriage and get to the bottom of the clergyman’s sinister doings. 

Why I Like It: Camilla is the first bisexual heroine I ever encountered in romance, so I was already primed to love her, but it would’ve happened regardless of her orientation. Desperate for any kind of affection after losing her family in a particularly cruel way, her struggle to find love while trying to protect herself is extremely moving. Adrian also has an affecting arc, in which he learns how to let go of family members who don’t really care about him and acknowledge his grief for his brothers who died in the Civil War. Finally, the conspiracy plot is absolutely explosive.

Favorite Scene: Camilla deals with trauma through legal research. 

5. An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole (2019)

Exact Setting: USA (mainly Illinois and Mississippi) during the Civil War.

Premise: Daniel Cumberland once believed that freedom and justice would prevail for black people in America, but then he was kidnapped and enslaved for several months. Now free, he works for the Loyal League, fueled not by hope but by pure rage. Janeta Sanchez, a mixed-race Cuban-Floridian lady from a wealthy Confederate family, is also working for the Loyal League...as a double agent, because she believes that’s the only way to save her father. Paired with Daniel to gather intelligence about possible European aid, she begins to question her loyalties as she sees more of the world and gets to know the people her hypocritical white family has kept her away from. Daniel, meanwhile, begins to see a way of coping with his trauma and an uncertain future.

Why I Like It: Historical romance often shies away from the worst parts of history, or at least frames them as remaining firmly in the past. Alyssa Cole not only starkly portrays the horrors of American slavery, but also confronts head-on the terrifying realization that things do not inevitably improve over time. Yet Cole’s frankness doesn’t reduce the novel to a horror show; there is plenty of joy and kindness and hard-won hope between Daniel and Janeta. Deceived and guilted by her family into supporting an appalling cause that hurts her, Janeta is a complex heroine who develops wonderfully throughout the novel. Daniel is also one of the best-written heroes in romance. Finally, as in A Hope Divided, Cole sheds light on an aspect of the Civil War (the involvement of Europe) that doesn’t get a lot of attention in popular culture.

Favorite Scene: Janeta and Daniel talk alone for the first time.

6. Wild at Heart by Patricia Gaffney (1997)

Exact Setting: 1890s USA (Chicago, Illinois).

Premise: Lost as a child and raised by wolves in the wilds of Canada, the Lost Man has been discovered by “civilized” people and forced to “live” with a Chicago anthropologist for study. (Really, he’s being held captive.) Only Sydney Darrow, the anthropologist’s widowed daughter, has the sense/compassion to say,��“Hey, maybe we should treat this man like a person and not keep him locked in a glorified cell where a disgruntled employee can taunt him.” She gently introduces the Lost Man back into human society, and the two find themselves getting along better and better. But can the Lost Man ever truly adjust to the human world? Or will he forever express his love by giving dead fish to people? Or is okay, sometimes, to express you love with dead fish?

Why I Like It: This is one of the most bizarre romances I’ve ever read. It sounds like a romance that someone made up for a sitcom. It sounds like a fever dream. It’s absolutely brilliant, too, because Gaffney commits. The Lost Man thinks of everything in animal terms; he accurately identifies Sydney’s aunt as the “dominant female” of the household, he has decided opinions about which animals are neat and which ones are pains in the ass, and he shows his love with a beautiful, freshly caught fish. There’s a real sense of loss in his arc; it’s necessary for him to transition into human society, but he’s also lost a beautiful, meaningful world. His romance with Sydney is also a great version of the Monster Boyfriend story; she’s the one who sees his humanity and recognizes many of his more “animal” traits as positive. The backdrop of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition is also charming.

Favorite Scene: Michael reflects on who’s hot (otters) and who’s not (wolverines) in the animal kingdom.

7. To Love and to Cherish by Patricia Gaffney (1995)

Exact Setting: 1850s England.

Premise: Jaded Anne Verlaine moves to the tiny village of Wyckerly after her wildly unhappy and unpleasant husband Geoffrey inherits a viscountcy. They’re greeted by Christian “Christy” Morrell, the local vicar and Geoffrey’s childhood best friend. Christy is dismayed to see the man Geoffrey has become, but he’s even more disconcerted by the attraction he feels for Anne...who returns his feelings.

Why I Like It: Although she stopped writing historical romance in the late nineties, Patricia Gaffney remains one of the most stylistically inventive and emotionally intense authors in the sub-genre. Anne, a warm and witty bohemian atheist, is a wonderfully unique heroine, while the sweet and scrupulous Christy is a similarly refreshing hero (and, really, an ideal clergyman, with high standards for himself and hardly a judgmental thought towards others). Despite the (delicious) angst involved in their relationship, they’re one of the most convincingly happy couples I’ve seen in romance; they don’t just grow close because of sexual chemistry or their shared complicated feelings about Geoffrey, but also because of their shared interests, oddly compatible senses of humor, and respect for each others’ differences. The village of Wyckerly is vividly portrayed, plus Gaffney makes great use of Anne’s writings and correspondence with Christy to shape the narrative.

Favorite Scene: Anne gets angry with Christy for being so good in the face of Geoffrey’s bullshit. 

8. Silk Is for Seduction by Loretta Chase (2011)

Exact Setting: Mid-1830s England and France.

Premise: After emigrating from Paris to London, Marcelline Noirot and her two younger sisters started a dress shop catering to newly rich and middle-class women. Thanks to Marcelline’s innovative designs and her sisters’ sales/accounting skills, they now stand a chance to be the favorite shop of the entire aristocracy...but first they need an early adopter. Help comes in the form of Lady Clara Fairfax, a beautiful but dowdily dressed girl who’s starting to have doubts about her perfect-on-paper betrothed, the Duke of Clevedon. As Marcelline devises a new wardrobe for Clara and spends more time with Clevedon, it becomes more and more clear that Clevedon is perfect...for Marcelline.

Why I Like It: I’m a simple woman; I like elaborate descriptions of over-the-top 1830s fashion. What’s more, I love Marcelline. She’s a fully realized character with interests, talents, and history that have nothing to do with Clevedon; she misses the sweet husband she lost to an epidemic, is anxious to build a future for her young daughter and her sisters, and spends a lot of the book demonstrating her talents in gorgeous detail. Just like the massive gigot sleeves on her dresses, she takes up space. Overall, the romance resembles a really good 1930s romantic comedy; Clevedon is a great straight man, the love triangle is elegantly resolved, and everything just feels beautiful. 

Favorite Scene: In one of the best sex scenes in romance, Marcelline tells Clevedon that she loves him, knows they don’t have a future, and wants him for one last night just the same.

9. The Hostage by Susan Wiggs (2000)

Exact Setting: 1870s USA (Chicago, Illinois and Isle Royale, Michigan)

Premise: Beautiful new-money heiress Deborah Sinclair has always done what’s expected of her. When her aristocratic betrothed shows his true colors, though, she works up the courage to tell her dad that she wants out. Unfortunately, Mr. Sinclair is not receptive...and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 is literally happening around them...and this random dude just showed up to kidnap her in all the chaos! Before she knows it, she’s on a boat to remote Isle Royale with Tom Silver, a rugged frontiersman who lost many of his friends and his adopted son in a mining accident caused by Mr. Sinclair’s negligence. Because Mr. Sinclair was found not legally liable, Tom has resorted to holding Deborah for ransom. Although he has no desire to harm her, he’s prepared to hate the daughter of his greatest enemy; she’s also not too fond of him, given that he kidnapped her and all. As they wait for Mr. Sinclair’s reply on Isle Royale, however, they get to know each other better.

Why I Like It: I never thought I’d love a kidnapping romance that wasn’t Beauty and the Beast, but Susan Wiggs can sell me on pretty much anything. (It helps that Tom has excellent motives, yet isn’t validated by the narrative for choosing to kidnap Deborah.) This is one of the best adventure-romances that I’ve ever read; much of the first act is an incredibly tense, complicated chase sequence through the flaming inferno of Chicago, while the later chapters consist of their trying to survive together on Isle Royale in the depths of winter. The emotional  journeys of the characters are just as compelling as their physical ones. One of my favorite romance tropes is when one protagonist feels like they should hate the other one, but instead ends up going “wow, this person is obviously not doing okay...wait, am I worried? Should I help them? Actually, I kind of admire them now???” The Hostage has this trope in abundance.

Favorite Scene: The entire part where they’re trapped on Isle Royale together. So many survival details! So cathartic!

10. The Firebrand by Susan Wiggs (2001)

Exact Setting: 1870s USA (Chicago, Illinois)

Premise: Outspoken and awkward, Lucy Hathaway (Deborah Sinclair’s BFF) is a failure at being a lady, but she’s far too passionate about women’s suffrage and dress reform to care (much) about society’s scorn. On the night of the Great Chicago Fire, her world is upended in two ways: her family loses most of their money, and she catches a baby who got thrown out of a burning hotel window. Years later, she’s a kick-ass activist and single mom running a proto-feminist bookstore. Then she learns that her daughter’s father, banker Randall Higgins, is still alive. Once a proud, thoroughly conventional family man, Rand has been a practical recluse since the fire that scarred his face, ended his marriage, and (he thought) killed his daughter. He’s overjoyed to have his daughter back, but now he and Lucy must figure out a way to raise the child that they both love so much.

Why I Like It: I was worried when I began this novel, because Rand starts out as a smug, boring sexist who thinks that a woman’s place is in the home. I would probably hate the book if Rand didn’t end up completely changing his worldview, agreeing with Lucy’s parenting methods, and risking the wrath of his bank colleagues by joining Lucy at a protest. As it is, Rand’s character development is incredibly satisfying, particularly because it’s emotionally realistic. (Instead of being swayed entirely by romantic love or overwhelmed by Lucy’s vast superiority, he learns to see things from her perspective and recognizes that her actions make the world a better place.) Lucy, for her part, is probably one of my top ten heroines. She’s an active, thoroughly engaged progressive who listens to people more marginalized than her without making a big show of it; she’s a thoughtful mom who genuinely likes her weird kid; and she’s got massive insecurities and a stubborn streak that keep her from being too perfect. 

Favorite Scene: Rand sees Lucy’s ideals reflected in their daughter’s response to his kind-of-messed-up face.

Further Note: Is Victorianish my favorite type of historical romance? I think it is!

[bigskydreaming]

It really, really, really can not be stressed enough, what a disservice fandom has done to the complexity of Dick and Slade’s canon comic book relationship, by simply reducing it to your fairly standard hero/villain trope. As well as making it just a master/apprentice dynamic like in Teen Titans. Their comic book dynamic is just not remotely interchangeable with that one. At all.

Among other things in the comics, in all of their encounters, Slade’s very presence is a constant living, breathing reminder of three of the outright worst moments in Dick’s life, and a walking embodiment of some of his biggest issues, all rolled up in one package.

1) Slade’s entrance to Dick’s life is the accompaniment to one of the greatest betrayals Dick has ever experienced. In order to get revenge for the death of his son, Grant, that he wrongly blamed the Titans for, Slade enlisted Tara Markov as his accomplice BEFORE any of the Titans ever met her. When her ultimate allegiances were revealed in the Judas Contract, and she singlehandedly took down and captured practically every Titan except for Dick, who escaped Slade when the latter saved him for himself....Dick, along with the other Titans, had to reconcile the fact that this woman they’d called their teammate, their friend, that they’d shared so much with, told so much to...had never been one of them. 

Not really. She’d been plotting their betrayal and deaths from the literal first moment they ever met her. With Dick having to shoulder the additional burden that like...he was the team leader. He was the one who ultimately was responsible for approving her addition to the team, who made the decision, who vouched for her and said okay. I am giving you my trust, and by extension, telling everyone of my teammates who puts their trust in me to do right by them, that it is safe for them to trust you as well. Whether or not Dick needed to heft that much responsibility for Terra turning out to be a traitor is really not the point in this specific instance. All that matters is that he did.

Now, as an example....how many fics that touch on Slade and Dick’s relationship in comic book settings in any capacity....how many of them offhandedly reference the fact that Slade is unique among many villains or enemies of the Justice League, Titans and Batfamily, in that he knows Dick’s secret identity...and by extension, has long since figured out those of every other member of the Batfamily?

Now with that in mind.....how many of those fics ever do anything with the fact that....Slade only HAS this knowledge in the first place....because TERRA told him Dick’s secret identity way back when....after Dick trusted HER, his teammate and Slade’s secret plant from day one....with his identity and by extension, Bruce’s as well, and Jason’s, and every other member of their family who was later added in the future?

Like, it isn’t just something where Slade figured it out on his own, or Dick told him....this highly crucial, critical and rare information that Slade has when few others have it, even other heroes....Dick never voluntarily gave to him. Its stolen goods, effectively, with Slade only having gotten it by virtue of Dick’s mislaid trust in someone else entirely.

My point being.....we talk a lot in fandom about how Dick is so trusting, but the reality is....even while Dick does make a point to give people the benefit of the doubt and extend his trust at times to people with not so great reputations....this is a willful, deliberate choice on his part, a conscious effort, and not evidence of Dick having an easy time trusting people or being naive.

The reality is, Dick has massive trust issues, born in large part of the fact that his team once all almost died because he put his trust in the wrong person.....and SLADE IS QUITE LITERALLY THE FACE AT THE ROOT OF MOST OF DICK’S CANON TRUST ISSUES.

(It also needs to be acknowledged that this was while the team was very much the TEEN Titans, and Slade’s earliest appearances absolutely made not at all veiled inferences that Slade seduced Terra and used a sexual and/or romantic relationship to manipulate her and get her allegiance in the first place. When she was very much a teen herself. She was a victim as well, and Slade predatory in his interactions with her. It was statutory rape every bit as much as Liu with Dick. Like.....it is what it is guys, and you might not want to go with that take for him yourself, but no different from when people choose to focus on instances of Bruce’s abuse, you can’t get upset at people who DO want to acknowledge this aspect of things and be like....fuck any kind of Slade redemption or Slade positivity.)

2) Slade also happens to represent one of the single worst moments of Dick’s life, and what he’s often regarded as one of his greatest personal failures.....and that’s Joey’s death. Joey was possessed by the evil spirits left over from Raven’s home dimension after the team finally banished Trigon for good, with his own possession powers having made him particularly vulnerable to them possessing him en masse, and they over time took more and more control of him until he was effectively just a helpless passenger in his own body for a period of months, maybe even longer than a year. 

While these spirits went about using his body to infiltrate and then hijack control of The Wildebeest Society, a group made up of former Titans foes for the express purpose of defeating the Titans.....and then as leader of the Wildebeest Society....having them systematically hunt down every Titan to ever exist, past or present, murdering many of them and capturing most of their superpowered members for the intended use of their bodies as hosts for the spirits sharing Joey’s body.

Now, not only is this a pretty direct parallel to Dick’s own experience being a brainwashed mole of the Church of Blood for over a year, secretly working to undermine his own teammates without any conscious control or even awareness of his own actions there, and with none of his teammates any the wiser, just as Dick himself hadn’t suspected anything wrong with Joey leading up to this reveal....

But after the Wildebeest Society had successfully either captured or killed every other Titan, Dick infiltrated their headquarters in disguise, in an attempt to free his teammates....only to be be caught and imprisoned by ‘Joey.’ With the latter then revealing the truth of why he was acting like this....and then continuing to keep Dick as his prisoner, chained up right by his side and tortured and helpless for over a week, as he and his minions continued with the rest of their work in preparing the carefully drugged/comatose Titans to be the spirits’ new hosts.

Let me reiterate....for over a week, Dick was the prisoner of evil spirits parading around in the body of one of his closest friends - the literal first person Dick chose to place his trust in again after it was first broken by Terra’s betrayal in the first place - while these spirits, did all of this in front of him with Joey’s face and body....gloating, taunting him, trying in every way imaginable to break him and his spirit. The whole time callously speaking of their intentions for the rest of Dick’s closest friends and their bodies, as they went about the final steps of their plan to basically use Dick and his team as the very tools they used to destroy everything they’d ever worked to protect and save.

Dick was only able to stop this and wake up the rest of his team...with Slade’s help, when the latter came in search of Joey himself. And at the end of it all, Joey was able to retake control of himself long enough to beg his father to kill him, before the spirits were able to overpower him again and use him to fulfill the rest of their plans.

Right in front of Dick.

Dick of course had spent the entire time he was a prisoner, trying his best to get through to Joey, believing with all his heart that Joey was in there still and could be saved, and of course, blaming himself for not seeing that something was wrong with Joey and stopping all of this sooner.

And then and there, Dick saw Joey resurface just as Slade did.....but while Dick saw this as proof that Joey was still there, could still be saved, they shouldn’t give up on him....Slade believed that doing the right thing then and there meant honoring Joey’s wishes for one of the first times ever in his life....even though that ultimately meant....also running Joey through with his sword. Again.....with Dick right there, still powerless to do anything to get up and help Joey, stop Slade, or propose another plan of action. He watched one of his best and dearest friends killed by his own father, because...in Dick’s own eyes....he’d failed to come up with an alternative in all the time he was prisoner....and failed to stop things from getting to that point in all the time before that, while Joey was possessed.

My point being....in the comic books, whether Dick and Slade are currently on good terms, bad terms, or neutral terms....they always exist for each other as a constant reminder of the death of one of the most important people in their lives. With that death being something they each blame themselves for and consider one of their greatest failures...as well as that death also being something they each at times have blamed each other for, for failing to come up with a way to save Joey, or protect him before he got to that point.

3) And finally, the third item of importance that I’m gonna gloss over for now as its more directly relevant to a post I wanna make about this later.....Slade’s direct involvement in the destruction of Bludhaven literally can’t be stressed enough. Whether you deem it in character or think he was written largely out of character at the time, with a case to be made for either stance, I think, the point remains that if you’re referencing Bludhaven having been destroyed at all, to any degree....Slade is once again at the heart of that matter, integral to every step of how that ultimately played out....with his position as the Society’s point man on that operation and his own personal grudge with Dick over various things, as well as Dick’s training of his daughter Rose - at Slade’s own insistence, but in ways Slade wasn’t pleased with, since Dick helped cultivate Rose’s actual heroic inclinations and instincts, which Slade did NOT sign off on - like, these things were directly step by step the path towards the Society ultimately following through and dropping Chemo on Bludhaven. With like, that being something that Slade absolutely could have stopped, thanks to his position, and even promised Dick as part of the agreement they made, that he WOULD keep from happening....only to renege on his word there.

In conclusion, Dick and Slade’s relationship and dynamic is SO SO SO SO SO MUCH MORE complex and varied than its basically ever made out to be in fanfics, and stems in large part from this one specific little tidbit that hardly ever seems to make it into fics’ final cuts.....

Slade respects Dick. Even when he doesn’t like him.

And I know, I know that fics pay a lot of lip service to this idea, but for the most part, its not substantiated. Or its clarified as though Slade respects Dick’s potential, or what he could be with Slade’s help or instruction....but that’s literally not the point of their canon.

The point is despite Dick being decades younger, Slade respects Dick as an opponent. As someone who has beaten him, bested him, in various ways and at various points. As well as respecting Dick as being a person who Slade’s son respected, and trusted, and valued a great deal. With a lot of Slade’s own memories of his son transferred onto Dick at times as a proxy, with Dick essentially acting as a stand-in for the son that Slade regrets never taking the time to get to know better...and here’s Dick, who knew and understood Joey better than just about anyone, certainly better than Slade. Which I personally believe Slade resents and even hates Dick for, for being someone that Joey both trusted and loved when Slade knows that likely wasn’t true of Joey’s view of him.....but I believe its also why Slade has never been able to bring himself to actually try and kill Dick and be rid of his threat to his plans for good....because doing so would be like killing the last real link Slade sees to the son he himself killed by his own hand.

Dick Grayson, for Slade....also happens to be the man who had every reason to not want anything to do with anyone associated with Slade, after Terra broke his trust, because of Slade’s own machinations.....while at the same time...Dick Grayson and his willingness to still extend that trust to Slade’s own son not long after that....are the very reasons that Joey ever had the opportunity to be the hero that Joey had always wanted to be....and that people ultimately remembered him as. There’s a reason Slade wanted Dick to be the one to train his daughter, after all - with the reason he was pissed at Dick for it ultimately being that Dick ended up being better at it than Slade had hoped, and Rose ultimately siding with Dick instead of Slade herself.

And even more importantly, IMO, Slade - even at times when he resents Dick for it at the exact same time - respects Dick for the choices Dick makes. For the precise fact that they aren’t the choices that Slade himself would make, that they’re choices Slade often thinks he couldn’t make.

He doesn’t disdain Dick for his choices or priorities or look down on him for them. Dismiss him because of them. They’re the heart and soul of WHY Slade respects Dick....and the fact that even with those extremely different priorities that Slade often doesn’t agree with...Dick STILL manages to come out the winner in a lot of encounters.

So this Slade Wilson who grudgingly admits that Dick Grayson has potential, but that its stunted and wasted without his own training, and because of the ‘weak, ill-advised’ choices that Dick makes and the things Dick prioritizes.....

Like, that has as little to do with actual canon pre-Flashpoint Slade, as the actual canon pre-Flashpoint Dick has to do with the depiction of him in many of these fics. Where Dick feels hopelessly outmatched and inadequate next to Slade or when facing him, like, he desperately starts praying the second Slade enters the fight cuz that’s the only way he’ll survive....or else he feels naive and dumb, or thinks how foolish he must look to Slade, or how raw or untrained or novice.....not to mention the times he’s focused on viewing Slade as a reflection of Bruce in various ways, or his dynamic with Slade as having anything to do with his dynamic with Bruce.

Again...umm, what? No. That’s not how Dick has ever been shown viewing their relationship either. The times he’s in conflict with Slade, he’s not questioning himself or second-guessing his abilities or praying he survives - he’s usually just PISSED, because of whatever thing has brought him into conflict with Slade this time. And not in that fanfic way where he’s unreasonable or irrational because of his anger and it clouds his judgment...in the way where he uses his anger to hone and focus his skills and just keep him going no matter how many hits he takes. Slade is an opponent whose skills Dick absolutely knows better than anyone else, and by extension respects those skills absolutely - but he is at the same time an opponent Dick has faced many times before, AND WALKED AWAY FROM EVERY TIME. 

No, Dick doesn’t take his victory or even his survival against Slade for granted, but he’s not remotely fear-stricken or rendered inadequate by the possibility of failure....he knows that there are no guarantees of success, but by the same token, he’s equally aware that Slade’s reputation is no guarantee of his own failure....with his own track record with the man being proof of that.

And at the same time....when they’re not directly in conflict....Dick does not feel invalidated or naive or dumb when around Slade, because of their age difference. He isn’t suddenly rendered like he feels like he’s a little kid sitting with a grown up. He’s usually just tired. He has as little illusions about Slade as Slade has about him. Dick KNOWS better than ANYONE, just how much Slade doubts and second-guesses his OWN choices, regrets his OWN priorities and decisions at times. So by extension...Dick doesn’t take their encounters OR Slade’s opinion as reason to feel inadequate or second-guess himself? He knows damn well that Slade has a higher opinion of choices that Dick himself even regrets making, than Slade does some of his own decisions. 

There’s not this.....gap between them experience wise, not in the sense that Dick can remotely compare to Slade’s much vaster library of life experiences, but rather in the sense that like.....Dick doesn’t care, you know? That’s not the point. Dick’s never comparing himself or his decisions to Slade’s with a measuring stick any time they encounter each other, because each encounter they have is so vastly more weighted by what they both represent to each other, their shared tragedies and personal failures and regrets, and their mutual awareness of these things and what they embody for each other. Dick - just like Slade himself is - is usually too preoccupied being focused on every thing that being around the other brings up for him....to have any mental energy left over for all this other stuff.

Comic book Dick and Slade, for each other, just carry too much knowledge of the life experiences they both have in common, because of their past interactions and shared connections.

Anyway, I will do another post soon about the comic book Renegade arc in particular, because its SO much more interesting than just the ‘Dick was Slade’s student or apprentice’ facsimile that I think people assume it to be. Like, Dick didn’t go to him as a supplicant, and Slade didn’t for a second think he was actually turning traitor. Slade asked him to train Rose in exchange for Slade’s help with his own plans, in part because Slade RESPECTS Dick’s skills as a trainer of heroes, not seeks him as a student for himself....but ALSO as a kind of manipulation - personally, I think he was hoping to use Dick’s inevitable concern and compassion for Rose as a buffer to keep Dick from betraying Slade or tripping him up when he tried.....and of course Dick actually ended up getting ROSE to turn on Slade instead? 

But at the same time, its not one sided at all, because there was a particularly clever bit about how Dick faced off against Superman as Renegade, and tried to use his heartbeat to send Clark the message that he wasn’t actually betraying the heroes and not to listen to the words he was saying, but the fact that his heartbeat showed that he was lying....except Slade had ANTICIPATED this, and had rigged the glove of Dick’s Renegade costume ahead of time to be like, wirelessly linked to a remote he had as he watched Dick and Clark’s interactions through the video feed on Dick’s mask.....and Slade used this remote to send wireless signals through Dick’s glove that matched the sound of Dick’s heartbeat and in essence let Slade alter the rhythm of what Clark thought was Dick’s heartbeat....but was actually just Slade literally clicking buttons. 

So Dick was getting more and more confused about why even though he was saying all this stuff about being too jaded by the League’s failures and done with heroism, like, why was Clark actually BELIEVING him instead of realizing he was clearly lying from the sound of his heart....and Clark was actively getting more and more upset as he talked and actually trying to FIGHT him and Dick eventually had to flee with Clark actually like.....furious with him, and Dick had no idea why. With this, I think, being one of the things Dick actually full on HATES Slade for the most (and I think what directly motivated Dick getting Rose to turn on her father) - like, Clark has been Dick’s number one support and fan from day one, even when Bruce wasn’t at times. He’s the one person who has pretty much ALWAYS believed in Dick no matter what. 

And Slade managed to take that away. To get Clark to literally look at Dick as the enemy. To not believe him, believe in him. Like. That’s something I don’t think Dick has ever forgiven Slade for or ever will.

So yeah. There’s so much more to Dick and Slade’s dynamic than fics represent, and I wish people delved more into this other stuff, because its so much more INTERESTING in my opinion than just like, your usual ‘older supervillain toys with younger outmatched superhero’ or master and apprentice stuff, etc.

[cutprintscreen]

Ang Nagpapabulag sa Nagpapasilaw

A Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag Analysis

Jobs and occupations are tough to acquire, especially in the Philippines years before. People will go through thick and thin just to earn money or make a living. The Philippines may be advertised to the world for its national beauty and landmarks, but what people fail to see is the struggles daily Filipinos face, especially people who live in poverty, people who struggle to find a well payed job, people who struggle handling the family and household, and people who are victims and witnesses of crimes and wrong doings. Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag, a 1975 drama Film, is considered as one of the most iconic and most prevalent film of the Philippines. Staring Bembol Roco who played as Julio Madiaga, played one of the most memorable roles he played as an actor. Showing the hardships of a Julio, the protagonist, and his way of living, earnings, and “relationship”. The film sheds light to not the beauty of Maynila but the evil that lurks within it and its people.

The film is coherent, original and realistic in nature. It was filmed in various places in Maynila, and depicted the atmosphere and authenticity of Maynila. It also showed how tough it can be living in a very urbanized city especially if you’re not used to it such as Julio when he was working as a construction worker. The moral aspect of the film is strongly not for the underaged, it’s a film that phenomenally showed the sexual side of Maynila and its people. The sexual elements in the film were not romanticized, the sexual elements were not present to woo the audience, but to show how vast it is and how much people desire it most especially in times where you need money. Julio engages with escorts with the intention of getting money, and besides that, the film also covers prostitution (Ligaya and Ah-Tek) and how devious acts like this can still exist in our country. And it shows the complexity of urban cities and the film itself. There are literal people who engage in sexual activity for money because they had no other means of earning, how people can be (easily) tricked in prostitution, how gloomy it can be to work especially as a construction worker, and how family and closed loved ones can be greatly affected with your deeds – all captured into a beautiful 2 hour long film.

The referential meaning of the film has some underlying symbolism. Julio’s last name is Madiaga, a play on the word “Matiyaga” which means hardworking. Ligaya, Julio’s childhood sweetheart, means joy. Ligaya is literally the ligaya is Julio’s life, Ligaya gives Julio the joy and happiness he desires, he sees her as the paradise or his paradise of joy, which is why his heart strongly beats for her. Ah-Tek is a play on “kita”, money. Ah-Tek is a reference to how greedy a person can be and all he cares for is what s/he earns most especially money. And lastly Mrs. Cruz, the one who tricked Ligaya to Maynila for prostitution, is a reference to cruz or cross, meant to represent the “burden” she carries. Cruz can also be an alias, because Cruz is a common Filipino surname, which could explain why she gets away with things and/or not being suspected as a suspicious person. It overall shows the hard work (Julio) we have for our joy in life (Ligaya), and we have to be determined and patient in order to get what we love, even if our burden, sins (Mrs. Cruz) and greediness (Ah-Tek) makes us lose our way towards joy.

The symptomatic meaning is how society comprises a lot of variety in terms of financial recovery, job listings, family struggles, economic decay, and sexual favors, can be hidden in even the central cities of our nation. Our entire world spins if money continues to spin, it is because money is so powerful it can define an entire future. 1 peso today is not much compared to the time of the film, around the 70’s, where 1 peso is worth more than it is. And when people struggle to earn money especially if their job blows, it’s tough to find other ways to getting money that often engaging in sexual favors in exchange for money becomes a legitimate option. People would dare to leave their families and their hometown in hopes of getting better job opportunities. And there are also times where family cannot help you. When Ligaya was held captive by Ah-Tek, she couldn’t even tell her family about her situation especially if her life’s on the line.

It was such a blast watching this film. This film is actually listed in the “1001 movies you must see before you die”, Maynila sa mga kuko ng Liwanag is one of the, if not, the only Filipino film/s present in the list, and it shows. An old classic film cleverly captivates the viewer with it’s story, themes, and social constructs. The implicit meaning for how I interpreted the film is how there’s always a bright side and a dark side in life, and more often than not, the dark side is bigger. Both Julio and Ligaya left home in hopes of getting better jobs, they looked at the bright side where there is more to look forward to in a big city. But only to end up as a construction worker, and held for prostitution, doesn’t seem that much of a bright opportunity. Maynila, as told by a number of characters, is “mahirap”. It is never easy to live in such a city. Sometimes there is also light in the darkness, and darkness in the light as well. Prostitution and escorts are not a pretty “occupation” but at the very least you can technically earn from doing so, which is what both Julio and Ligaya have had in mind, when there’s no other way to go. Again knowing that there’s always darkness in light, Julio and Ligaya plans to escape and go back home, with a plan already in stored what’s the worst that could happen? Apparently, a life’s cost, Ligaya lost her life in attempts of trying to go back with Julio and leaving with her kids. And with Julio’s despair, he plots to kill Ah-Tek, thinking it could bring his emotional peace but only to end up being beaten up himself by a crowd of people. There are times where our deeds often lead to a bright thing but we take for granted the dark side of it, and often times, we have to settle to the darker or more devious choices because it’s our last and only choices.

The explicit meaning is how in the real world, it will not always be pretty, and evil can lurk in any crook, especially in ourselves. In the film, Julio was so retaliated and shocked how he instinctively fought purse snatcher and almost gotten to fight with another man, knowing he will actually end up being a bad guy himself by killing the person who kept Ligaya and (allegedly) killed her. We could take our actions and choices for granted, not knowing where it could lead us. And other thing to add, is how much we can get and lose things in life. Julio has lost so many things in his life, his family when he left, his money, his job, his friends, and Ligaya. While we still have these things with us, let us make the most out of them, and not take the wrong turn that can make us lose all of them one-by-one.

Maynila sa mga kuko ng Liwanag is one of the most profound Philippine films and a definite must-see. Beauty can have its flaws, and beauty can have its ugliness. Maynila is a beautiful city even before, but it’s not always the case because if you take a closer look, and experience the place, you can see how every nook can have its darkness. The film gravely captured how in the real world, how it ugly it can be and how evil can lurk in what’s bright – Maynila in the claws of the light.

Written by Keith Daniel Nicodemus

[pretty-bun]

Which Clover Is Best? - An Analysis By Me

First and foremost, you must all know by now how much I love Clover. I mention her way too much on this blog, and here is my magnum opus – a comprehensive guide on Clover’s character in each version of the story, and my ranking of which Clover is best. Is this excessive? Of course, but I have no other way to use my Tuesday night. Do I have any idea how to analyse characters? Hell no, I’m using Wikihow to help me. Am I going to use my knowledge on Feminist literary theory? Fuck yeah I am.

But here we go. Here is my over analysis of Clover. Heart emoji, rabbit emoji, clover emoji.

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The Novel

“Four rabbits were crowded against the wire, pressing their noses through the mesh. Two – Laurel and Clover – were short-haired black Angoras. […] Clover, the Angora doe – a strong, active rabbit – was clearly excited by Hazel’s description and asked several questions about the warren and the downs.”

Clover in the context of the novel has no real role – she has been given no time for characterisation, as the only doe with any kind of real role is Hyzenthlay. However, Clover plays an importance part of the warren dynamics; she is the first rabbit to bear a litter in Watership Down.

This is a monumental moment for the warren, instantly assuring the rabbits that the warren will continue, if just for a little while, after they pass.

Using the concept of stock characters in fiction, you can attribute the character of “farmer’s daughter” to Clover. These stock characters are portrayed as desirable and naïve, and these characteristics can be seen in the above quote, and often the farmer’s daughter character will be community minded, a concept that is visible in that she is to breed and dig runs for the rest of the warren. But to limit her to such a simple standard can lead to detrimental readings of the story.

The language of the Watership Down novel is highly phallocentric, a term used by the post-structuralist theorist Jacques Derrida, and the phallocentric nature of the novel determines that the meaning is derived from masculine agenda, and the importance of it means that feminine jouissance – a feminine language derived from the French word for the female orgasm – is a deconstruction of the phallic language, threatening to shake the stability of it. The phallocentric culture is derived from binary opposites, such as male/female, language/silence, presence/absence etc., with the first word having meaning over the other. Feminist readings of the novel will note this, and this leads back to Clover in that she is the binary opposite from the masculine characters in the novel – where they have language and presence, she instead has silence and absence; she is only in the novel for a moment to birth the first litter of the down, and then she becomes a static character.

But the novel iteration of Clover is a realistic portrayal of rabbits in nature, so maybe its unimportant to focus on the feminist aspect of the novel, and in nature it is the does role to breed and dig.

However, in the context of each version of the story – novel, film, series and miniseries – Clover’s role is important, and that importance is told to the audience.

 The Film

In the film, Clover has an extremely brief role in the film, and so there is not much to be said about her. The film counterpart of Clover is only added to further the plot of Hazel, rather than to further the plot of the film.

Her scenes could easily be taken from the film with little consequence, the only part which is needed is the part in which Hazel gets shot. In this version, Clover does not escape her hutch, and once freed from it, is immediately caught.

But her design is much cuter, in my opinion. Her white fur and sweet voice is once again indicative of her naïve curiosity to the outside world, with white often being used to describe characters of innocence and purity, but in some instances can be used to represent faith. As she is the reason why Hazel gets shot in the first place, the faith aspect could possibly be representative of death, especially considering how religious the Lapine world is.

 The Television Series

Clover in the children’s series gets more characterisation than the version that exists in both the novel and film, although her characterisation is still limited.

Clover seems to be rather motherly, as she is seen comforting both Pipkin and Blackberry on differing occasions. But her main role is, once again, to be a love interest. This is a reoccurring concept with her character, however in this version, her love interest is Hawkbit, and this is only touched upon in the last season.

She is much more feminine in this version, mostly by virtue of the story revolving more around human characteristics of the characters, and her outward physic is much more sexualised than the other iterations of her design, but this is not necessarily bad, and is more an artistic choice to take. Once again, this is because she is a stylised character in this version compared to the realistic version seen in the novel and film.

Clover has a girl next door kind of quality to her, with a sense of basic wholesomeness as her main focal point; she isn’t a bad character, however is not a good character either. This was likely not intended, and probably the result of no characterisation set for her.

Clover is not the focal point of any larger plot, and mostly sticks to expanding on her friendship with Blackberry and her romantic intentions for Hawkbit. She is just above the film in terms of actual character, however on my own personal opinion, I find her to be the second best designed Clover out of the four, with the films version the best. I think her design is reflective of her character; she is bigger and softer looking than the other rabbits, which leads back into her originally being a hutch rabbit, and her proportions are much more pleasant than some characters (coughcoughprimrosecoughcough), although she does fall victim to the season 3 design change.

Her original colour is a soft peachy pink, which doesn’t feel at all like it clashes with the rest of the colour palette (not in the way I feel Pipkin did), but her season 3 design is a much harsher yellow. It was not at all a good change, and felt totally out of place. Season 3 also took out many of her softer features, such as her slightly rounder physic, and the tufts of fur which gave her a fluffier look.

Season three introduced a much better pacing to the overall show, but failed in the design aspect miserably, and it’s a shame that Clover fell victim to it.

 The Miniseries

Clover in the miniseries is both better and worse than all the other versions, but the things the miniseries did better will come before the things they did worse.

Clover received a lot of characterisation, which finally placed importance on her once again. Although she is not stated to be the mother of the warrens first litter, her importance comes from a different and more empowering source – she helps plan the escape form Efrafa. In a story filled with minimal roles for females to play, changing the narrative to incorporate strong female leads who act independently is fundamental. Alongside this, it also adds something that has never been in the other adaptations. By doing this, the miniseries becomes its own work and not just a CGI version of the film.

Her design is also interesting and different; the muddy browns of her coat give her a much more realistic feel, while still making her separate from the other designs of her. Her coat patterns are beautiful as well and give the audience a tell that she is not a wild rabbit in the same way the plump look of the television series Clover tells the audience she is from a hutch.

That is where the praises stop.

While she received much more characterisation in the miniseries than any other version, her characterisation is almost for the worst. Almost. She and Hazel fall into the trap of archetypal Lovers – this aspect of both of their characters could have been a good dynamic if the writers hadn’t taken them a step too far. The importance scene in all the other adaptations where Fiver finds Hazel after he is shot, a scene to highlight their deep relationship as brothers, is replaced with Clover finding Hazel in the drain. They barely had any interaction up to this point, so Hazel playing damsel in distress to his girlfriend comes off as incredibly cheap as it completely disregards the bond of Hazel and Fiver. Hazel’s motive to take does from Efrafa becomes less about liberation and more about saving his girlfriend, which completely undermines Hazel’s original character. This goes for Hyzenthlay, too; by having Clover take her place in most of the scenes in Efrafa, it makes Hyzenthlay a static character who doesn’t help free the rabbits in an act of mercy.

The writers could have had their lifted characterisation of Clover and kept Hyzenthlay as she is supposed to be if they had just held back from taking Clover too far.

 So which Clover is best?

Based on my own personal opinion, I believe that the television series Clover is best – her design is cute for most of the shows life, and she gets a level of character while still letting the lead characters lead. In basis of character and impact on the story, the film’s Clover comes in last (although if this was based on aesthetics, she’d be first). The difference between the novel and miniseries isn’t much; they’re almost on par with each other, but it bugs me that Clover’s miniseries version takes so much away from the original characters so she comes in third.

With that, here’s the final ranking:

1. TV Series

2. Novel

3. Miniseries

4. Film

[dharc16]

Hello fellow witches! I just thought of dropping something historical today about us witches around the world! 😇 I hope you read it till the end and perhaps share it if you like! But please don’t feel offended! These are the words of a Christian Witch!

THE ORIGINS OF THE MODERN WITCH

A fearsome being of fairytale and myth, the witch has carved out a home in nearly every culture across the world and time. Indeed, the witch represents the dark side of the female presence: she has power that cannot be controlled.

While most people envision witches aging, ugly, hook-nosed women surrounding their cauldrons and inflicting toil and trouble on the masses, history tells us that the witch’s origins are far less sinister. In fact, those whom we consider to be witches have often been healers.

Carole Fontaine, an internationally recognized American biblical scholar, argues in an interview that the idea of the witch has been around as long as humanity has tried to deal with disease and avert disaster.

In the earliest centuries of human civilization, the women doctors, midwives, wise women, and priestesses were revered throughout their communities.

These wise women made house calls, delivered babies, dealt with infertility, and cured impotence. According to Fontaine:

"What’s interesting about them is that they are so clearly understood to be positive figures in their society. No king could be without their counsel, no army could recover from a defeat without their activity, no baby could be born without their presence."

So how did the benevolent image of a wise woman transform into the evil figure of the witch we know today?

Some scholars maintain that the answer may be linked to events long before the birth of Christ, when Indo-Europeans expanded westward, bringing with them a warrior culture that valued aggression and male gods of war, which dominated the once-revered female deities.

The Holy Spirit that we worship was changed from the Hebrew feminine to the Greek neuter to the Roman Latin male.

In the 1300s, when the plague decimated Europe and killed one in three people, it also brought with it hysteria. Amid the panic, many attributed their misfortune to the Devil himself — and his supposed worshipers. At this point the Catholic Church’s Inquisition, which had already been established for decades, expanded its efforts to seek out and punish the non-Catholic causes of the mass deaths, including Devil-doting witches. These women were believed to worship in large nocturnal assemblies, where various social ills were performed, such as promiscuous sex, naked dancing, and gluttonous feasting on the flesh of human infants. At the climax of this festival, people at the time believed that the Devil himself would appear and participate in an unbridled orgy with all attendants.

In order to save the Church and its followers from the Devil, then, these women had to be tamed. It is with that in mind that Catholic Church inquisitors Jacob Springer and Henrik Kramer wrote the Malleus Maleficarum, a book which assisted witch hunters in the gruesome task of diagnosing and punishing so-called witches, who as women were sexually vulnerable and therefore easy prey for the Devil.

“What else is a woman but a foe to friendship?” wrote the monks. “They are evil, lecherous, vein, and lustful. All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is, in women, insatiable.”

The manual’s vivid descriptions would serve as a platform for zealous witch hunters to act on their prejudices for over 200 years. At the time, Malleus Maleficarum was second to the Bible in terms of popularity.

Fontaine notes that while there had been witch hunting manuals prior to the publication of the Malleus Malificarum, these two monks were the first to associate a specific gender with witchcraft.

By the end of the 1600s, the witch hunting hysteria in Europe reached its peak. Witch hunts spread like wildfire across Europe, the worst of which occurred in France and Germany. Würzburg, Germany was home to the worst instance of witch hunting: the magistrates of the time determined that most of the town was possessed by the Devil, and condemned hundreds to death.

Religion professor Barbara McGraw notes in a 1996 interview that there were some towns in Germany where there were no women left.

Thousands were arrested and brought to inquisitors for examination. Under an inquisitor’s brutal scrutiny, the accused were strippped and searched. Any “suspicious” wart, mole, or birthmark could be enough to receive a death sentence.

In order to execute the accused, however, they first needed to confess. Torture seemed to be the best way of inciting confession, and the Church would use instruments such as thumb and leg screws, head clamps, and the iron maiden to generate the “truth” needed to enact death.

While torturing women under examination, the Malleus Maleficarum warned the torturer not to make eye contact with her, as her “evil powers” might cause the torturer to develop feelings of compassion.

When this period ended at approximately the beginning of the 18th century, an estimated 60,000 people in Europe had been killed as witches.

Overseas, the most anthologized witch hunt took place in Salem, Massachusetts. The 17th century settlement had a rough beginning: decades of Indian Wars, land disputes, deep religious divisions and a tendency to look to the supernatural to explain the unknown helped set the grounds for this particularly “New World” brand of hysteria.

The witch hysteria in Salem began in 1692, in the home of a Puritan minister named Samuel Parris. Parris was deeply concerned about a game his daughter Elizabeth and niece Abigail had played, in which the two girls looked into a primitive crystal ball and saw a coffin. This vision sent them into convulsions, and within a few days nine other girls throughout the community were stricken with the same ailment.

Under the pressure of Parris, the girls then named three witches who may have cursed them: Tituba, their household slave, Sarah Good, a beggar woman, and Sarah Osborne, a widow rumored to have had an illicit affair with one of her servants. All three women were social outcasts, and thus easy targets for suspicion.

The 1692 Salem witch trials spread witch hunting hysteria to 24 outlying villages. That year, jails were crowded with more than 200 accused witches, 27 of whom were found guilty. 19 were killed.

The trials met a swift end, however, in part because supposed victims began pointing their fingers at high-ranking figures within the community. When the wife of the governor of Massachusetts was accused of witchcraft, leaders saw to it that the trials ceased immediately.

As to what spurred the girls’ confessions, Fontaine attributes them to a form of social release. The girls had been so tightly controlled in Salem, Fontaine argues, that this confession allowed the girls to receive some kind of attention.

Hundreds of years later, the fearsome image of the witch faded, and was absorbed by a popular culture who used the witch’s violent history as costume inspiration. Others, however, used it as a means to found a new spiritual movement.

In 1921, British archaeologist Margaret Murray penned a book called The Witch Cult in Western Europe, in which she argued that witchcraft had not been an obscure occult, but a dominant religious force. Though Murray’s theories have been widely discredited (proven to be untrue) since the book’s publishing, her work sparked a fascination with witches that had been dormant for three hundred years, eventually helping spawn the pagan Wicca religion.

The religion, which is named after an Anglo Saxon term for “craft of the wise,” circles back to ancient practices that use herbs and other natural elements to promote healing, harmony, love, and wisdom, all following the tenet of “harm none," while rejecting the more violent aspects of the same ancient practices.

However, just like hundreds of thousands of people who have come before us, these same practices of healing and working with nature can also be practiced with the worship of the one true Creator God, who gave us these gifts to begin with.