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bonefall · 7 months

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Looking for advice since you're great with stuff like this: I'm struggling with how to have a character fundamentally change. A character in my cat story loses his memory and ends up working with the main characters to stop his own plan he made to destroy the world (and after the plan is stopped, he regains his memories). I want his time in the Starless to change him, make him less obsessed with power, but I'm really starting to struggle with whether or not that makes sense and how to work that.

Hmm.. well, first bit of advice I always give is that characters are not people. They are writing tools. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be "realistic" or that connecting to the human traits in the audience isn't important.

It means that a character exists to tell a story.

By "tool" I mean "machine." Every trait is a piston, and ideally they work together to drive your story along. What are you saying with each trait? What is your beginning point for the story, and their end? What do you want to explore? What do you want the audience to take away?

So if you feel stuck on a character, find the larger message you want to impart with them. The job they're doing in your narrative.

What do you want to say about power?

What do you want to say about why Character X wanted to destroy the world? Why was he wrong? What feelings and information lead him to that conclusion?

What is his redemption arc doing for your themes?

Every writer answers those questions differently. For example, I feel strongly that power doesn't corrupt, it reveals. When you finally have the influence to make others do what you want, you make them do it. I don't see "power" as being like... a magic, abstract thing, it's influence over other people, and those people are ALSO individuals with their own reasons for following the leader.

Digressing; what I'm getting at is that, as a writer, I have a lot of thoughts on power itself. I got this way with a lot of reading and interest on the topic. You might find it insightful to experience more art, essays, and commentary on the subject, if you ever get stuck, and develop an opinion you feel strongly about.

Not just about power, as broad writing advice.

Anyway.

If I was writing the character, these are the things I'd be thinking about specifically and changes I'd be making on personal taste. I don't know your full story enough so, hopefully it's insightful;

First of all I'm always SUPER wary of the "correct but demonized radical" trope. Does my villain have a point?

Am i just giving them a Kick-a-Baby scene to make them wrong when they should be completely right otherwise

What are my themes and tone? This is VERY important. Steven Universe is about family and emotions with low stakes violence; the Diamonds are essentially abusive grandparents that Steven is coaching through intergenerational trauma. They fit the universe they're in. Jack Horner does not belong in SU.

So I'd look at Character X's purpose.

Knowing me, I'd actually take out full amnesia entirely. I have memory problems related to trauma so I'm a lot more familiar with major, important details blotting out RIGHT when I need them. Enough that I can put myself in the shoes of someone like BB!Fallenleaf who remembers a lot but the details are fuzzy.

So personally I think I could write this villan to be VERY funny lmao

"Hello. I am Gnagnathor the Destroyer."

"No you're not. He has three horns. You have two."

(DID I USED TO HAVE THREE HORNS?????)

I also just find it more resonant when a character still remembers what they did, why they did it, and is able to refute themselves with their own growth.

To me like... when a character remembers NOTHING to the point where they're not informed by their actions or history at all, how are they really still the same person?

in general though I find total amnesia uninteresting. I wish it was less popular.

What did Gnagnathor DO with his power? What did he WANT from it?

The simplest version of this I know is "Gnag was hurting and wanted everyone else to hurt too. Now that he has a happy place, he doesn't want that."

TO BE CLEAR THATS FINE. That's a REALLY common power fantasy and it's not automatically a bad story. It's popular for a reason.

Personally I feel strongly about the idea, though, that people with power don't change unless they lose it. There's no reason to.

People don't change until you break the environment that contributes to the behavior.

Especially with victims unfortunately-- the ugly truth is that a lot of problematic behaviors exist because they protected the victim from their abuser's actions. You need safety to really start to unpack that.

You can personally identify it and address it as much as you want, when your abuser starts to use That Tone you will still seize up. Just try to yank yourself back into your head when you're disassociating during a screaming session; your reward is raw distress.

That said, not all villains HAVE to have tragic motivators like that, or be ex-victims at all. Leveraging power to get what you want can be as ugly as just being taught the people you're hurting are subhuman.

Or making up justifications for why This Is a Good Thing Actually.

Some people will lash out violently when these justifications fall apart, because accepting it would mean they're Being Bad

Most people have an innate desire to Be Good. Like... the vast, vast majority of people. Some sense of morality is observable in all intelligent social animals; dolphins, chimps, elephants.

Tangentially, if you understand that people don't WANT to be bad and that the natural response to a scolding is defensiveness, you understand that convincing people of something is a LOT easier when you approach with kindness.

AND IN TURN: be wary of those who are flattering while trying to convince you of something. This is Manipulation 101.

So back to Gnagnathor

Do I want to talk about environment and how it changes him to be away from power? How traits that previously earned him wealth or influence are suddenly incredibly taboo, so he can't use them here?

On that-- HOW did he get his power in the first place? Re: I'm very wary of the "correct but demonized radical" trope.

Were his minions following him because they have serious issues and he exploited their desperation? .....are you centering the experience of the poor, sad abuser over his victims

Or are they ALL united over something important and legitimate? With the redemption of their villainous leader, how are you planning for that to frame all of their former followers?

(This is why redeeming minions is usually a lot more productive than doing it to the leader, imo. Redeeming Zuko means you can explore the familial legacy, the indoctrination of the Fire Nation's children, their justifications, the way systems make monsters out of people. Redeeming The Firelord would probably have caused Azula, one of his victims, to pick up his slack and now, suddenly, you have a VERY uncomfortable situation where Ozai is thrashing one of his abused children but Good This Time.)

(Not to mention that, again... why would he do this. He has power. He's doing what he wants and is used to this situation. It would be a numbskulled narrative choice.)

Aaaand that's about all I can say without essentially being a cowriter or editor. It's on you to figure out what you're trying to do and say here. I'm a good writer on this subject because I think about it a lot, which has lead to my strong opinions and point of view. Your art is a reflection of you.

#This is mega off topic but the question kinda reminds me of hazbin which I watched a couple days ago #I'm starting to identify why I was dissatisfied with it I think #I didn't dislike it though and I'm waiting for the next season #If only as something I enjoyed but wish could be better.#Bones gives advice

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deadpresidents · 9 months

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If I recall correctly, weren’t you a pretty big fan of Bill Clinton for some time? I recall a lot of posts from you about him that were fairly favorable. When did you finally accept that he was a creep? Do you think there’s finally a chance of accountability? I am truly asking from a place of empathy as I know what it’s like to have someone you looked up turn out to be not so great.

No, you're 100% correct. I was a fan of Bill Clinton for a long time. He was President from the time I was 13 until I was 21, and for a kid who was into Presidential history and Democratic politics, he was a major presence in my life. I still think that he is probably the most naturally-gifted politician of my lifetime. Nobody that I've watched has been able to explain public policy or instantly breeze through complicated press conference questions like Bill Clinton. For years after he left office, I said that he should just be the guy who explains how things work to America; he's remarkably smart.

One of the craziest examples of Clinton's intelligence is that he had to figure out ways to make it look like he doesn't have the answer to everything immediately. Clinton's political advisers thought he came across at times like a know-it-all and that it wasn't a good look on the campaign trail. You know how one of the famous mannerisms of Clinton is how he'll pause while he's speaking and bite his lip, like this?

Well, that was done on purpose. Clinton's advisers thought that his quick, completely formed answers to complicated questions was unnatural and that he needed to make himself seem more thoughtful, so he'd pause and bite his lip almost as an intellectual speed bump. Paul Begala, one of the most important architects of Clinton's 1992 campaign explained:

"He was so smart about so many things but also could connect. The whole thing about his biting his lip -- that was coached. Because he would answer so fast. We'd say, 'Take a beat. Pretend you're thinking about it. Pretend you haven't already got an answer.' It was a studied thing to give himself a second to force himself to slow down."

So, things like that were why I was always so impressed and appreciative of Clinton's skills and political gifts.

But, obviously, as I've gotten older and come to understand his personal actions a lot better, it's really hard not to consider him a creep. I mean, the Epstein thing is obviously impossible to reconcile. Even if it there hasn't been any suggestion of Clinton actually abusing any of the girls in the way that Epstein did, he spent a lot of time around Epstein and it's gross. I think one of Epstein's victims said that Clinton was a "total gentleman" and didn't do anything wrong to her, but that photo of a very young girl giving him a neck message in what looks like an airport terminal is a really bad look. That was clearly after he left office, so that was post-Monica Lewinsky and Clinton should have had the awareness to not even put himself near that type of situation with a girl that young (or any woman who was not his wife) -- even if it was just a neck massage that lasted a short amount of time. Even if the girl offered to do it willingly and had no issues with it, that's not a situation that Clinton -- who was impeached and could have been removed from office because he had an affair with a young woman -- should have have felt comfortable with.

But beyond that, as I've gotten older and as we've all gotten better about recognizing these things, his relationship with Monica Lewinsky is what bothers me because of the position that he put Monica in. She was in her early 20s -- barely older than Clinton's own daughter at the time -- and he was President of the United States. Listen, I don't have any room to criticize someone for dating younger women (seriously), but it's the power dynamic and the manner in which he treated Monica when things started to get difficult for him. That poor girl was in such an unimaginably nightmarish place because of what Clinton did and how he -- the incumbent President of the United States -- spoke about her publicly and treated her privately. When you think about it in terms of a relationship, it's just a crazy situation. And the poise that Monica Lewinsky had then and now speaks volumes about the person she is and has become, so it just makes Clinton look that much more terrible in comparison.

It is disappointing because I was a fan of President Clinton for most of my life. And, like Richard Nixon, he was so gifted when it came to his intellectual powers and, in Clinton's case, his political skills, that his flaws and his actions were overlooked for too long. I don't know what kind of accountability there might be for Clinton now that he's been out of office for nearly 25 years and is a few years away from his 80th birthday. But I can say that I feel like I know who he is now and "creep" seems like a pretty fitting description.

#Bill Clinton #President Clinton #History #Presidents #Politics #Presidential Scandals #Monica Lewinsky #Jeffrey Epstein #Impeachment of Bill Clinton #Clinton Impeachment #Clinton Administration

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jackalopesao3 · 1 year

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Mmm…still kinda leaning towards Michael/Celestial Realm being the big bad of the OM! series. I decided to write down some thoughts and theories regarding Nightbringer and recent developments.

Below are my speculations at antagonists, nightbringer, Michael, Solomon, and the Celestial Realm

Generally speaking

The exchange program didn’t happen until the brothers fell. Michael wouldn’t even speak to or meet with Diavolo before this (assuming because he believes demons are beneath him). It was Lucifer who went. He needs that line of communication open now until he can devise a plan to get the brothers back.

He is jealous of MC and speaks to and about them in a condescending way. He’s told Raphael a lot about MC. It’s not because he’s a fan. He’s keeping tabs on the person that’s suddenly so close to the objects of his desire.

He’s probably not fond of the idea that MC is so close to Solomon and the angels either. He gave Solomon his Ring of Wisdom which is like a pact with an angel. He’s likely not fond of Solomon getting too close to the brothers either.

The Angels

Simeon and Luke are his subordinates and are loyal to him. He was outraged when Simeon stole Lucifer’s ring from his paraphernalia of Lucifer’s belongings. He punished Simeon for doing something noble and altruistic - saving the lives of both MC and Lucifer.

Kinda convenient how fast he was inside MC’s head when they or Lucifer go to stab themselves, eh? I think he would have intervened himself to save Lucifer. He may have been planning on giving the ring to MC because he doesn’t like seeing the brothers hurt by their death or it would have been a convenient way to let MC die - I’m still unsure on this.

Simeon’s punishment for being brave and doing the right thing was being turned into a human. He couldn’t go back to the Celestial Realm. Being made mortal, Simeon’s life was in danger wherever he went. Vindictive much? The response is likely due to both a subordinate “betraying” him and his jealousy of MC and even Simeon’s closeness with Lucifer.

Luke is young so he’s still malleable and I doubt Solmare would have Michael do anything horrible to Luke for being close to MC (because he’s a child). He’s proven to be very manipulative by showing off his best traits in front of him, presenting himself as the very best example of an angel and a fellow lover of sweets. We’ve all seen how Luke wants to bake for Michael.

Raphael is incredibly quiet in the game. Game lore states that he knows Michael best. It seemed to me that he was practicing caution around MC. He heard about MC from Michael but we don’t know what he heard. Raphael is a sensitive angel. He’s an archangel of healing. He probably has at least a little sense of what Michael’s true feelings are. Maybe he knows Michael is at least sus of MC. The problem is, Raphael also trusts Michael. I don’t think Raphael would suspect Michael of any scheming. Raphael is very blunt and simple in his own dealings with conflict. When the brothers were causing trouble in the Celestial Realm his solution was to rain spears down on them. It was simple and effective.

I don’t really see “god” in the picture so authority has defaulted to Michael. Anyone in a position of power has the potential to abuse their powers. Is Michael biding his time?

Solomon

Is it just me or is Solomon weirding anyone else out in Nightbringer?

He seems especially callous to the demons, like his old self many years ago. Pushing Levi into the bathtub first, how he commanded Barbatos to make a portal, and how he doesn’t seem that bothered that Barbatos is ready to violently murder his ancient ass every way possible and impossible.

How can he not remember what would have pissed Barb off? They have a long history and this is definitely a serious spat. Surely you remember the serious fights you have with the people you’re closest to.

I know people are speculating that this Solomon is actually the past Solomon. It very well could be. It’s plausible. I would enjoy that plot twist. However, it could just be that Solomon is trying to act to his character as he was back then. It would raise red flags if he suddenly started acting like bffs.

Solomon has Barbatos at his command and therefor access to timelines. I’ve always HC’d that those two and Diavolo are the most powerful characters for exactly that reason. Fucking with time has major consequences. (I promise this is circling back to Michael.)

Solomon is also trying to get pacts in the past which is beyond shady to me. He tries yet again with Lucifer, asks Lucifer to have one with Levi, and succeeds making one with Asmodeus after saying that he wouldn’t do it. He’s opportunistic. Is he chasing his own goals or is something bigger going on here? Something he’s trying not to get us further involved in?

We know by the end of Lesson 10 that whoever Solomon is talking to, likely Nightbringer (only likely because what if NB is both Michael and someone else which will be explained below) and/or the Antagonist, “made Solomon who he is today”. Solomon received the Ring of Wisdom before making his 72 pacts with the demons. It was through this ring, that he was able to outwit the demons and enslave them to build his temple. Most theology has Solomon receiving the ring from God directly or Michael iirc. In Obey Me, he receives it from Michael. Would it not be Michael who made Solomon who he is today? Who is testing Solomon to choose a side? Diavolo wouldn’t do something to compromise the exchange program. Who does that leave?

Solomon also claims that this person is acting like a demon. You wouldn’t insult or warn a person that they’re acting like a demon.

This person refers to MC in a condescending way when speaking with Solomon, much like a certain angel we have yet to see.

The texts from Nightbringer even sound like Michael’s vague/evasive way of talking.

The big one: MC was sent to the past. You know who was able to send MC to the future after being sent back in time due to Solomon’s cooking? Michael. The game confirms he has some powers concerning time.

Who Else?

I believe if NB is the antagonist they will end up either being Michael or one of two things:

1. What Satan is to Lucifer. New Character.

Lucifer and Michael were often compared to one another. Lucifer created Satan from his anger, much like Zeus created Athena in mythology.

If there are more parallels to Lucifer and Michael, it would make sense for Michael to have created someone too. The closest equivalent would be Metatron. Metatron and Michael are sometimes referred to as one and the same much like the Satan/Lucifer situation in theology.

It could be Michael and Metatron working together either purposely or with the other unaware.

2. A Past or different timeline version of a character we already know.

Maybe someone had regrets. Solomon, Barbatos, or even Michael. It would need to be someone who can mess with time or has access to someone who can. Even MC might be a contender considering how much they’ve been messed around with now in timelines. It wouldn’t make sense but who knows at this point. I’m not placing money on anything right now.

Gonna add on that in some texts, Barbatos was a fallen angel. Could be that NB is a pre-fall Barb. I’m trying to find more info on that but it’s scarce and I don’t remember all the websites I used to get all my occult info from back when it was one of my adhd focuses.

One more contender would be Uriel - the angel that is noted to have time powers in different religious texts.

Ultimate Big Bad(s) Goals

These are speculative from me and if I wrote the script I would totally make them these!

Michael’s Ultimate Goal

To have the brothers back in the Celestial Realm with him.

It’s stated how he keeps pictures of them and also keeps their belongings, especially Lucifer’s.

He’s jealous of MC.

He’s willing to participate in the exchange program. This is likely to keep tabs on the brothers.

He doesn’t know how to get the brothers back without risking the wrath of god or other angels. He is biding his time. Maybe this will tie into NB.

The Celestial Realm’s Ultimate Goal

Supreme reign over all three realms.

We learn in Nightbringer that:

1. Every Demon King before Diavolo’s father has died in combat. They don’t even know what their average lifespan is.

2. Diavolo wants to establish peace like his father and the ones before him.

Just how long has the Devildom been trying to make peace with the Celestial Realm? Why is the Celestial Realm so reluctant?

It has to be that they want control of everything. They believe that their way is the only right way. We saw how terrified Luke was of demons. Yet it seems like demons came around to accept him and Luke made friends. The brothers were met with bigotry when they first fell but became very popular later on.

The Devildom shows more of a willingness to change than the Celestial Realm.

I believe the main takeaway will be Freedom/Ideals (Devildom) vs Truth/Laws (Celestial Realm). It’s never been about Good vs Evil. Diavolo is one of the most pure characters in the game (he still has issues, yes) and he’s the next King of Hell. Michael is a shady AF angel.

Please feel free to comment your thoughts or reblog with your thoughts!

#obey me swd #obey me shall we date #om! swd #obey me spoilers #om! nightbringer #nightbringer spoilers #obey me nightbringer #michael obey me #solomon obey me #barbatos obey me #om! solomon #om! barbatos #nightbringer #obey me theories #obey me theory

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x-manson-annotated · 3 months

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X-Manson Annotated Chapter Three - Part 9 - THE ACCUSATION

I'm going to level with you. If you weren't already put off by this story, this section might seal the deal for you. This section deals with Emma Frost being placed at the center of a scandal where she is accused of sexually abusing her students. It's awful, but it is integral to understanding the world of this story. This will be the last section of Chapter 3.

tw for that, and tw for mentions of attempted suicide.

I'd like to know who this "Weedy Looking Man" is. My assumption is it is the X-Manson version of Trevor Fitzroy.

Like i said, this section isn't pretty. I am of the mindset that nothing happened, but this section will bring to the mind of some people the Satanic Panic and Q Anon conspiracy theories popular among the right wing.

Shinobi Shaw, the son of Sebastian Shaw.

*also, Doug and Marie-Ange are insufferably cute.

**Pot's legal in the United States as of 1990.

This feels like an outlandish parody until you realize that conservative media is exactly like that.

"She knew what could happen to teenaged girls" What the fuck does that mean? That feels close to "Well, you saw what she was wearing. She probably wanted it." It's a cryptic, weird thing to say.

This feels like a reflection of something you would see a lot of later in the 2000s. Ultimate Marvel used to do this thing where psychics would read minds and there would be a joke of "Oh, stop thinking about me naked." or "I wasn't thinking about it until you told me not to think about it." Shit like that. This feels like a more realistic take on how that might feel with someone with psychic powers. It isn't some kind of fun jokey thing for them. It's horrifying.

*I'm detecting a reoccurring argument between them with this line from Marie-Ange.

**That's an incredibly strange way to speak about someone, Douglas.

***She's not wrong for thinking that.

But let's focus on the thirteen students who put forward accusations against Emma.

I can't imagine who they might be. Possibly this world's version of the Hellions, sans Marie-Ange?

What were they arrested for?

Holy shit, Disney is not pissing around when it comes to copyright in this universe.

This makes sense about why Xavier kept his class sizes on the smaller end. Easier for him to be more personable and manipulate the students.

I wonder how much of that is coincidental and how much of it was orchestrated by Xavier.

The system failing to work.

She finds it difficult to maintain romantic connections if she doesn't have access to her psi-ablities? Difficulty reading the emotions of others? Autistic Emma Frost?

A full lobotomy with a gun killed her psychic abilities?

It's interesting that there are still mutant education systems in place in public schools.

I have no idea who this man is meant to be.

Also the "Roy Cohn Professor of American History" Roy Cohn? like the lawyer and all-around bastard who adored Joe McCarthy.

The Hinckley Law. This immediately puts me in mind of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley Jr. Reagan was never Presiden in this Au, so is it possible that Hinckley attempted to assassinate him when he was running for Governer of California?

Furthermore...Did Ronald Reagan destroy Hinckley's personality?

You can tell this is fantasy because the American Left is presenting a unified front against Conservatism.

Mary Jo Kopechne was a mutant with gills!

The pear-shaped man is Sebastian Shaw. This feels like an accurate way to describe the man.

I feel like the molestations stopped around when Emma took over the school. Good god.

Sebastian, his nose heavy with clotted phlegm and coke: how can any red-blooded American man learn in the company of disgusting WHEMEN!

This feels like something from the McMartin Pre-School Scandal where kids were essentially coerced by law enforcement into making up bigger and bigger lies about satanic ritual abuse.

Example Below from the McMartin Preschool Trial's wikipedia page:

Some of the abuse was alleged to have occurred in secret tunnels beneath the school. Several excavations turned up evidence of old buildings on the site and other debris from before the school was built, but no evidence of any secret chambers or tunnels was found. There were claims of orgies at car washes and airports, and of children being flushed down toilets to secret rooms where they would be abused, then cleaned up and presented back to their parents.

The Cuban cigar angle feels like a nod to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.

*This reads like a modern day Trumper losing his shit.

**If you cared about your family's "Good Name" you wouldn't have named your son "Shinobi" you insufferable goddamn weeaboo.

Sebastian: the rich of america are entitled to live as kings! We are not unlike gods!

The mad philosopher Scalia. Is Antonin Scalia a supervillain in this universe?

*Again, you can tell this is a fantasy because we have the misfortune of having had Scalia on the Supreme Court.

Insane.

"That he knew of". I want to know more about what kind of Anti-Psi protection exists in this world.

All this kind of bums me out. I mean, i guess i'm happy about an au where Doug's doing kind of alright after a tragedy. But him becoming this big tech bro kind of sucks to me.

It's kind of cool that he turned Apple into a co-op. I guess.

#marvel #fanfiction #x men #xmen #x-men #Doug Ramsey #Emma Frost #Sebastian Shaw #Annotations #fanfiction analysis #Bill Gates #Mary Jo Kopechne

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literary-illuminati · 7 months

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2024 Book Review #7 – Montress Volume 2: The Blood by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

I am very slowly re-reading this series as what’s likely to be the vast majority of my comic consumption for the year. The deliberately slower pace is almost certainly a good decision, as it means this time around I’m actually appreciating the individual issues and volumes as, like, coherent works in and of themselves rather than just plunging through the entire backlog in one burst.

This volume picks up after some indeterminate timeskip following the first one, opening with Maika Halfwolf, Kippa and Ren arrive in the (aspirationally) neutral port city of Thyria, trashing Maika’s mother’s apartments for clues on what she was researching when she died – and thus, hopefully, clues of Maika’s past and the whole eldritch symbiotic living in her soul that sometimes bursts out to eat people thing. The clues lead them to a cursed island where her mother travelled before she was born to question the god imprisoned within, where both she and Zinn (the aforementioned symbiote) are confronted with thoroughly unwelcome revelations about their pasts. Also so, so many people die.

With the basic conceits of the setting and plot established in the first volume, this one is free to delve deeper in intricacies – the backstories and relationships various characters have to the world, and to a lesser extent the Deep Lore and metaphysics underlying the world (though that is still far less prominent than I recall it getting later). We learn what Zinn’s place in the society of the Monstrum was, and how they came to be trapped and embodied in the mortal world; we likewise learn quite a lot about Maika’s (terrible, horrible, very bad no good) family and childhood, and to a much lesser extent even a bit about what Master Ren got up to before the plot started. We also learn about several historical murders and genocides, and get out first real look at the Shaman Empress, one of the two historical incredibly powerful sorceresses who shaped the history of the world who I kept getting confused in my head when I read this series the first time.

Buried in all the lore we do get a really amazingly realized journey to a creepy cursed island that is revealed to be the overgrown bones of a dead god on which another has been imprisoned for attempted geno- and mass filicide. Nothing about it breaking any new ground in the genre of creepy cursed jungle islands, but it was an exceptionally well-executed example of the form.

But plot and lore aside this really is a character dynamics book – or, well, dynamic singular. Maika’s mom really fucked her up, basically. Not that it’s a good series for healthy parenting generally but discovering you only exist before your mom fucked a guy from a specific bloodline so she could have and use you as a moldable vessel for eldritch rituals has got to be up there, right?

In particular, quite a lot of care and effort is spent on this has fucked Maika up. Basically her entire relationship with Kippa this volume could be cut out as a case study in cycles of abuse and how Maika both deeply resents and knows she was hurt by how her mother raised her but also literally doesn’t have any other model for how to take care of a kid than ‘teach her to swim by throwing her overboard and fishing her back out if it looks like she’s actually going to drown’ repeated ad nauseam. (It’s really very telling that Maika gets far more emotional warmth and physical affection from her godfather – self-described ‘murderous pirate’ – than she ever does from her mother).

It’s far less salient than it will become later, but throughout the volume there’s also very much a secondary theme of what it means to leave with guilt. Or not even guilt so much as culpability – discovering that pre-amnesia you murdered your sibling because they opposed, coming to terms with the fact that your existence is essentially vampiric and your continued life requires the murder of others, a whole mess of dealing with betraying either relationships or principles when the two come in conflict. Not really doing anything with it yet, but the subject’s definitely getting raised.

Anyway, everything I said about the art in my review of volume one still stands – easily the most beautiful comic series I’ve ever read. And if I remember right next volume is when my all-time favorite character gets introduced, so looking forward to it!

#book review #monstress #comic #sff #lesbian space atrocities

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bes-ton · 4 months

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poison trick actually works

Summary:

Technoblade: one of these cups are poisonous Tommy: immediately downs one of them Wilbur and Philza: aghast - how do you know if that one is poison free? Tommy: was kinda hoping it was poisoned

Hero and villan AU

hero philza

hero techno

hero wilbur

vigilantly tommy

note: this is a crack fic but read the warnings, this was written before everything went down with wilbur (fuck him, and give lots of love to shelby) but i still like my writing and hope others enjoy it. ALSO a key of the hero names will be at the bottom

warnings: nonconsensual drug use, child abuse, panic attack? cussing too.

Tommy’s day had a horrible start. He almost slept through his alarm, if not for the other foster kid he shared a room with. Rushing down into the kitchen to grab an apple before running to the bus stop.

But as he made it to the door the foster parents walked down the stairs, blocking the exit. The two of them looked the four kids in front of them and back at each other.

Dale the ‘man of the house’ had a wicked look cross his face before he spoke.

“Me and Sharell have guests coming over tonight and we can’t have you miscreants messing up our image, they will get here around the time you get out of school and they will be here for about three ish hours” a dark look crossed his face but Sharell cut him off

“If we see you before they leave you best believe that you will be severely punished for not listening to you parents” her voice was sickening like it was dipped into a vat of artificial sweetness.

A murmur of “I understand” or”yes ma’am” came from the four teens. A look of rage crossed Dale’s face.

“You don’t believe us! Just watch you-“ he grabbed Tommy by the shirt “can see him as an example of what happens when you disobey us” he balled his fist and landed a strong punch into Tommy’s gut.

A small ‘omph’ left Tommy, but that was all. Any and all noise was seen as arrogance in Dales eyes.

“Get out of my sight! If we get a call from your school that you were late that will be double punishment!”

The four of them scrambled out the door as soon as Dale and Sharell moved out of the way.

They ended up just barely catching the bus.

———

History was a pain in the ass, why the hell does Tommy need to know the exact date the union of supers started, just why? Yes it slingshotted society into accepting super powers but why does he have to know the exact date. It’s stupid.

Since Tommy can’t go back to the house for another three hours which really meant five hours so 8 and curfew’s at 8:30, he should stop patrolling at 7 to get dinner at Puffys diner- dear prime why is he doing math to figure out his schedule.

Guess math can be used in the real world.

Anyway- Tommy has to find Purpled to figure out if he is patrolling alone or not. Walking around campus looking for Purpled was pretty boring, and Tommy had already checked his normal spots.

Just as Tommy was about to stop looking, Purpled materialized in front of him. In his classic purple hoodie and a smirk covering his face.

“Oh you are a dick, how long have you been here?”

———

Running across rooftops was therapeutic to Tommy but Purpled - the bitch - was very communication oriented when it came to being vigilantes something about “being on the same page and having a plan” no, find crime, kick ass offer to call an ambulance and get the hell out of dodge. That is the extent on Tommy’s plan.

“We really need to get new code names because ‘purple’ is too close to my name” Purpled said from the other side of the rooftop.

“Well then what do you want me to call you?”

“Why do you act like I know? I just don’t like it”

“Well, I have to call you something. Oh wait! I know how about-“

“If you start listing purple things I will hurt you.”

“Why would you do that?”

“You named a MOTH after an ORANGE I do not trust you.”

“Her name is clementine not orange you clusterfuck”

“Tommy what the hell is a clusterfuck?”

“What happened to no real names in the field? Also the synonym to clusterfuck is Purpled” Tommy said, smug satisfaction covering his face and lacing his voice.

Purpled threw his hands up in defeat. Throwing a glare at Tommy before pointing down at the ally below them and making a be quiet motion.

A gruff voice broke the silence, the muggers voice sounding like knives on a chalkboard.

“Hand over the money little lady or bad things will happen to you” the mugger threatened.

Purpled and Tommy shared a look. A plan forming in their minds, smoothing out the details through crude hand motions.

With a wink Purpled disappeared. Leaving Tommy to listen for the sound of Purpled dropping down into the ally below.

With the near silent thud of Purpled’s shoes Tommy teleported in between the lady and the mugger.

The mugger a large built dude who towered over Tommy, made a noise of surprise that Sounded like a dog whine and stumbled back. From behind Purpled struck the the muggers knee. Making him fall, Hard.

Snatching the purse from the muggers hand Tommy turned to the lady, her face decorated with shock, handed her purse to her. Clearing his throat Tommy spoke through his mask.

“Here you go, ma’am, do you need us to call someone?” The voice was obviously fake but she didn’t comment.

“No thank you I will be going now” her voice shaking with every word.

———

After stopping five more muggings Purpled and Tommy made it to the warehouse district, it’s almost always riddled with crime, but also hero’s so they have to be extra careful.

Sneaking around between warehouse was stressful and three of the five they passed were empty. The first building that had people was a just group of homeless people.

They always have odd advice, but very interesting.

The second was what they thought was a high end drug deal. Three large crates of sealed packages on one side and two people negotiating. Both people flanked by multiple gunmen.

Walking around the outside of the building, Purpled found a Fire escape.

Once in the building they stuck to the rafters, listening, waiting. The plan was to watch and wait which Tommy thought was stupid.

The sun was just setting when they were doing the trade off.

“Where did you even get this stuff” the one in blue asked

“Oh I made it in my lab it took months to come up with the formula.” The old man with a lab coat and goggles said.

“Why? Why make a drug and sell it to dealers so junkies can shoot it up?”

“The drug isn’t what’s important, the after effects are, having civilians be the ones to be aggressive lets me and others like me do what we want-“

Up in the rafters Purpled and Tommy shared a look. And Purpled mouthed the words ‘he’s monologuing’

“-of course! Having the drug out on the streets occupies the police and hopefully even the hero’s!”

“Good to know.” The brunette in blue pauses, then said “by the wa- WHAT THE FUCK”

Purpled had unarmed the guards behind the crazy scientist while Tommy got the ones behind the blue bitch.

“Oh hello little hero’s! I thought the commission stoped having child soldiers!” Purpled paused but not for long before he landed a solid uppercut and knocked him out.

As Tommy fought the blue one, he oddly knew how to fight, like really really well.

“I know your vigilantes! If you comply you won’t be arrested!” That made Tommy falter. Purpled had even faltered before launching himself across the gap and pinning the blue British man from behind.

Just as Purpled landed on him the door bust open from the front of the warehouse came two members to the dream team.

“Oh fuck.” Was all Tommy could get out before he was handcuffed.

———

The blue drug dealer was actually one of the hero’s in the Dream Team, 404. It was nice that the dude offered to not arrest them but Purpled just had to be a bitch and thought it was a bluff.

Now as they sit next to each other in the back seat of a black minivan while the leader of the Dream Team argues with a police officer over taking the two of them back to headquarters instead of the precinct for questioning. Tommy just really wants to cuss out Purpled for being suspicious.

The police officer walked away from the van and just as Tommy was about to celebrate, the drivers door opened and in popped the hero blaze.

“Now that the custody of you two has been decided, we can finally leave! Now who do you want to be in the back seat with you? Dream or 404?” Blaze asked

Purpled’s head shot up sending a wicked glare at Blaze “Personally I would prefer Gold”

Blaze just gave Purpled the most unimpressed face that Tommy has ever seen, he couldn’t not laugh.

With a sigh Blaze pulled out his phone. A look of horror crossed Purpled’s masked face as he muttered “dream, dream can be back here we don’t mind pleasedontcallGold”

Blaze just gave him a grin and said “to late, he can’t make it to sit with you but he can interrogate you.”

———

Wannabe hero’s group chat

firecracker

one of the two vigilantes is mouthing off can Punz please put the fear of god into them during their interrogation? 🙏

Gold digger

why the hell would I do that?

Blood god

I can do it.

Green teletuby

Dadza

Gogy

Bad idea

Blood god

Why

Cussing police

NO!

Construction worker

No thanks

Firecracker

That’s a great idea 👍

Anteater #1 hater

Blood god

So you want me to interrogate them

Captain

Firecracker

Yes

Gogy

WTF

Firecracker

If Punz says no

Blood god

Gold digger

I’ll do it.

Firecracker

You ruin my fun ☹️

Gogy

Suffer

———

After laughing his ass off Tommy was squished between his best friend and one of the top heroes in the country. That’s pretty cool.

The heroes have an unreasonable amount of buildings that can function as ‘headquarters’ for their interrogation but they passed like five different buildings that Tommy knew were for hero’s and he was getting worried.

“Heyyy what time is it?”

“This is NOT the time to joke red” purpled grumbled

Gogy fished out his phone and started to say something but was cut off.

“Stop being pissy or I will forever call you grape, no matter what you decide to be called- also I am genuinely curious about the time” Tommy explained.

“Wow red I didn’t know you were like that” the tone purpled used was convincingly hurt, it even fooled the hero’s, as concern painted Tommy’s face Purpled continued

“would you call my grape if I said I wanted to change my name for gender reasons” a annoyed sound left Dream and he sat straight up like he was going to say something when Tommy once again cut someone off.

“You already did dumbass are you going to change it again?” Tommy gasped hand to his chest “are you coming out to me again? What changed!”

“I will deck you do you understand me Tommy” purpled said in a flat tone. 404 and Blaze made choking sounds while Dream looked on in amazement, they were self destructive to their vigilante identities.

“Wow what happens to secret identities?” Tommy grumbled

“Shut up Tommy is common as fuck your fine” Blaze had started snickering try and failing to hide it behind a cough. Tommy was making a noise that sounded like a dying cat.

“Oh by the way Tommy it’s like 6:45 for your curiosity” said 404.

———

It hasn’t even started and Tommy never wants to be interrogated ever again. What the hell is this, isn’t there supposed to be someone asking them questions? Aren’t they supposed to be in separate rooms? The two of them could make a cover story! These people are horrible at interrogation.

“I’m board” Tommy’s voice echoed in the silent room. With some shuffling Purpled managed to kick him. And made a shushing gesture- well their hands were cuffed so Purpled couldn’t make the complete motion.

The door opened revealing a blond guy in a white hoodie and Purpled dropped their head onto the table.

“What were you doing in the warehouse district?”

“Doing vigilante shit”

“Why?”

“Because hero’s don’t do shit where they are actually needed- OW why do you keep kicking me?” Purpled turned their head to Tommy glaring at him before gesturing to Gold and it fucking clicked.

Gold the hero, is Punz, Purpled’s older sibling. Punz who taught Tommy how to find good paying side hustles. Punz who hates his job. Punz who tought Tommy how to identify kidnappers and traffickers. Punz who hates hero’s. Punz who reports every foster home Tommy runs from. Punz who treats Tommy and Purpled like twins.

Oh shit.

A look of pure panic covers his face as adrenaline floods his system. Copying Purpled he puts his head down and try’s to calm his breathing.

It was quiet for a long time after that. Punz let go a really deep sigh.

“You’re right you know, hero’s don’t patrol where they’re needed” Tommy turned his head to look at purpled who had turned to look at Tommy. Surprise mirrored in their eyes.

“You two did a good job.” At that purpled shot up in their chair, Tommy followed their example.

A knowing smile like when Punz caught them trying to make cake with monster at 3am because they didn’t know the brownies labeled ‘mine do not touch’ were pot brownies.

“You really thought I wouldn’t recognize the custom sweatshirts I bought for you?”Tommy’s head snapped to Purpled

“You never told me they were custom made!”purpled looked at Tommy with a look that said ‘are you shitting me’

“Why do you act like I know everything!”

“Because your a walking encyclopedia of random knowledge!”

“Wow that’s a big word for you! Do you even know what encyclopedia means?”

“A synonym for encyclopedia is Purpled!”

“Purpled give my your cuffs” Punz said, breaking the loop. Confused Purpled complied. With a turn of a key the cuffs came off.

Punz made a motion for Purpled to follow him out the door, as he got to the door frame he turned back to Tommy who was still cuffed to the table.

“Tommy, there’s always a place for you at our table- I’ll try to find someone who can get you out of here”

Tommy nodded, no one beside an acting guardian could get him out anyway.

——

It had been a long time since Purpled left with Punz, Tommy was surprised that Punz hadn’t found someone to pick him up yet. Or he had and they just haven’t got here yet.

The next time the door opened, instead of his social worker, a gigantic dude with pink hair and a boar mask walked in.

“You took longer to break then last time” the dudes voice was deep an monotone.

“Well Punz said they would find someone to bail me out.” Tommy responded.

“Why would he do that?” The weirdo prodded

“Punz uses they, don’t be transphobic.”Tommy angrily stated

“I didn’t know that.”

“Well you should their your coworker”

“Did you know that you are annoying” the dude drawls

“Yes it’s one of my great qualities.” Tommy snarked

“You don’t like hero’s” he stated

“No I like hero’s but they never patrol where they are needed.”

“What do you mean”

“You really think that rich people are the most likely person to be robbed? That’s fucking stupid.”

“They have money why wouldn’t they be at Risk for being robbed?”

“Because muggers aren’t stupid enough to go where they would be caught”

“What do you mean?”

“Going to a rich neighborhood means that they are more likely to be arrested and they don’t have bail money so they-“

“So your admitting-“

“I’m not done. So they stick to poor less patrolled areas to successfully steal from.” Tommy finished. The dude just stared at Tommy like he was waiting for him to continue.

“Oh, now I’m done” Tommy chirped.

“You do know you have been arrested for vigilante activities.” Tommy nodded in place of a verbal response. The dude just looked disappointed.

The pink haired guy stood and exited the room. Not saying a single thing, Tommy heard a conversation -well more of an argument- start and he came back in with a, bag, holder, case thing.

The big dude methodically set down and opened the case, revealing multiple sharp objects that were way past the title of “knives”. Tommy was starting to get worried, and angry, like what the actual fuck you can’t just torture people.

“So here’s what is going to happen-“

The dude whose hero’s name Tommy found out was “blood god” - which was a shit name, not exactly something that would give the idea that people are safe but okay. - never actually hurt him but damn well wanted to citing how Tommy was a criminal.

The “blood god” got his questions answered, much to Tommy’s dismay and once again left the room, taking the bag of sharp objects away. A new guy in a yellow turtleneck and brown trench coat came in the room with the blood god behind him. The blood god was carrying two cups of water with him now.

“Hello Tommy! You can call me Siren!” The new guy said. He seemed like a wrongun. The two cups were set down, before Tommy could grab one the mashed man spoke.

“One of them is poisoned”

You wouldn��t

Why not you clearly don’t trust hero’s and you’re annoying.

Tommy contemplated and looked at the drinks in front of him. The clear cups made it clear to see that there was no cloudiness or powdery residue in the water.

But the way the cups were set down, one was obviously closer like they wanted him to take it, it was so obvious that any sane person would choose the one farther away, but who said Tommy was sane.

The new guy made a coughing sound but Tommy paid him no mind.

He downed the one closer to him like a shot.

The two opposite of him actually flinched, the brunette looked surprised. Kind of like a gaping fish.

“How did you know that cups not poisoned?”

“Big man, I’m hoping it is.”

The pink giant choked.

Tommy’s arms started to feel numb and he grinned.

Guess I chose right. Tommy promptly passed out.

When Tommy woke up he had a pounding headache, and really really really wanted to vomit. Tommy saw a bucket, and he did.

Tommy’s mask remained fitted to his face.

Looking around Tommy noticed that he wasn’t in an interrogation room or a cell, or looked like an apartment mixed with a office, in one corner there was a kitchen and a dining table across from the kitchen was three desks.

Tommy was on a couch in the fourth corner, looking at the TV mounted on the wall. Standing up, he looked for any sign of other people. Seeing no one he went to snoop around the kitchen for food.

Finding a cup of instant Mac and Cheese, Tommy threw it in the microwave for the recommended time. Checking the stove for the time Tommy froze.

9:56

I’m gonna die.

Checking all of his pockets he couldn’t find his phone or wallet or anything.

Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh hell oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh no oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh fuck.

He couldn’t breathe.

The loud beep of the microwave, someone’s hands on his shoulders, the smell of Mac n cheese, blond hair, green clothes and black wings.

Tommy started to breathe again.

A blond dude clearly old was sitting on the ground in front of him. When did I sit down. Taking a deep breath Tommy looked into the strangers eyes.

“I have to get back to the house” the stranger made a strange noise, like he was in pain.

“You weren’t picked up by your guardians so you’re at an emergency placement for the night.”

“I can’t go back, they’ll kill me” his breath picked up again. Shushing came from the stranger.

Pink hair fell in front of the strangers face and a new guy handed Tommy’s Mac n cheese to him. The gruff voice of who he assumed was he blood gods spoke.

“Let the kid eat, yes on the floor, do you really want to move him? No? Okay get up old man, don’t break your back.”

A manic giggle broke from his mouth at the absurdity of the situation.

A deep sigh and the blood god sat diagonal from him.

“Call my techno, if you don’t want to go back, we can get someone to pick up your stuff.”

Tommy nodded, he would like that. He took off his mask.

“Jesus Christ mate,”

“What the fuck”

“I knew you were a kid but damn,”

“Oh shit, dadza has a new favorite”

“Shut up Wilbur”

key:

Fire cracker / blaze - Sapnap Gogy / 404 - George not found Dream / green Teletubby - dream Blood god - technoblade Dadza - Philza Anteater #1 hater / siren - wilbersoot Gold / Gold digger - Punz Cussing police - badboyhalo Construction worker - foolish gamers Captain- Captain Puffy

#tommyinnit #dream smp #dsmp fanfic #hero and villain

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vivianbernadetteaurora · 4 months

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Part three over sexualisation of women and girls

So let’s get into a bit of an astrology conversation here with that over sexualisation of women which now is my series and this is part three, so they say that Virgo is the sign of grooming and if you think of the film Lolita it’s got very Virgo films and I could imagine lonely to be a Virgo, Virgo is meant to be the virgin Virgo the virgin, I have noticed many times with Virgo females at a young age have ended up with a lot older men when they are in their mid team so let’s say one of them being my sister , we went on holiday to Gran Canaria, and me and my siblings I am one 05 and I’m the youngest and there’s about two years between each of us, my sister my second older sister would’ve been just 15 at the, she met her 20-year-old partner, it sounds wrong but but then it was just normal. I guess well it wasn’t it wasn’t., so two kids were born out of this anyway, but then another example of a young Virgo girl who I knew, she was my first sister, a relationship with one of his friends now there’s five years between them and she was 14 and he was like 20, a lot of the time these men want to control these women. It’s not always about the age thing. It’s about the power and control so they hold them and they can make them be what they wanna be rather than getting with a woman of their own age who anyway women if their own age wanna be more mature man, and they use these girls and say that they’re mature for their age which makes these girls feel powerful and it’s a really big problem in the world and I think people don’t take this situation as seriously as they should. It’s just a part thing topic it’s just a conversation it’s not something that is made to be, a thing.

Anyway, when I put these pictures together, I thought Pam Anderson her whole life and they even did a Hulu Disney series on this about the sex tape they got stolen now a lot of celebrities are full of shit and Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian was stolen and taken away now with Paris Hilton and I actually believe it because she was actually with in the video with Rick Solomon who Pam Anderson actually married twice and Pam Anderson has a history of sex before she was with Tommy Lee, she did a video with so to be honest with you I don’t have much sympathy for this lady which is maybe bad of me or whatever, but it’s one of those things I’m a huge fan of Bobby Jean Brown! was Tommy Lee’s fiance? Wow he actually got with Pam when they were still together they’ve been together for like 18 months and became the worst period of this woman’s life. I blame the man in the more apparently apparently Bobby introduced Pam to Tommy but we do not know the., when this ended the situation and when the sex tape and the marriage came out, Bobby ended up in a really bad place for many years which she says in her book rocket boys, cherry on top, she said her modelling she would use crystal math to get skinny for her shoots but she ended up more deeper into drug abuse because of the breakdown of her relationship that she thought was fine and then she sees her boyfriend with Pam .

After anyway, this is more about Pam Anderson she was Hugh Hefner little Wand pony when you had Madison talk about Hugh Hefner you realise that he was probably actually a really big monster but he, loved and respected by all these people, he was close to people like Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski who would come to the Playboy mansion for parties, Holly knows everything that happened there she was there full-time where is, and would be his prize goal for magazine covers or centrefolds, she said she met Nicole and how she was and I think she said she was quite 🤫 .

Now let’s go onto Sydney Sweeney, who is a Virgo, with a Scorpio Mars another sexual sign specially in the sign of Mars?,,, she was used on euphoria and let’s be real with there. She was a sexual being for this program. Well they showed her big boobs and naked where they didn’t with all the other characters., and they were go on about her body and her body would just get objectified and some Leverson people would talk about this a lot and how we would use people like Lily Rose, And Sydney, who looked like his mother supposedly as his female leads and they’re totally sexualised the news as he’s being, I’ve also added pictures from both lowers the 1961, and the 1997 one, and it shows the girl, Let’s not forget Megan Fox, who is in Michael Bay film Transformers but then they got fired from the role, she has been over sexualised her, and her is constantly changed and now she looks like she’s part of the Genzie generation instead of being a millennial, because she’s got with Machine Gun Kelly who is also millennial but she has constantly changed her and now look like something that she never looked like before before. She seems to be going with the she’s in one of those relationships it’s really toxic where she’s in and out of it and they keep breaking up and getting back together due to the mental health problems and other issues that we may be not aware of.

#astro observations #oversexualization #lolita1997 #lolita1962 #astro placements #pam anderson #megan fox #dolres #rockstarsarepervertedtoo #sydenysweeny

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linkspooky · 2 years

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Jujutsu Kaisen, Chapter 203 Thoughts

As I’ve said before the fights in Jujutsu Kaisen aren’t just a chance to show off cool powers and new super moves, there is a set up and theme to every fight. There is a lot more going on in this fight then just a one-sided last stand between Choso, and the main villain as they try to stop Kenjaku’s theme.

First, there is the history between them, Kenjaku being one of the many abusive fathers (/mothers) in the Jujutsu World abandoning children whenever they’re not needed or don’t suit his purpose, fighting Choso someone for who family and his responsibility as the oldest brother is everything to his character. Kenjaku represents a negative character foil for Choso, when compared to him represents his opposite in every way. Let’s explore their foiling under the cut.

1. The Individual vs. The Collective

The idea of individualism vs. collectivism is a conflict that has come up a lot in Jujutsu Kaisen, though I would say the manga represents these two ideas are not as diametrically opposed as they might seem on the surface. In the sense that it’s not Individualists greedy, selfish, evil, and Collectivists as passive, selfless, good. Gege does not favor one but rather present them as complementary opposites, two seperrate ideas that are seemingly opposing forces, but are actually two necessary sides of the same system.

For example there are some sorcerers who are far more focused on being team players than being superstars. Megumi Fushiguro early on made decisions for the good of the team, Yuta Okkotsu fights for the friends around him directly first and foremost, Kamo Noritoshi fights first for his mother to find a place in the Kamo clan and afterwards for the sake of his comrades.

There are other sorcerers who focus more on their individual strength above all else, Gojo is the most obvious example, but among the kids Yuji is always swinging for the fences fighting alone, Nobara’s an extremely prideful individual who exudes self confidence, it’s also Maki’s pride and desire to be stronger to prove herself to her clan that allowed her to survive her clan’s abuse and strive for something more.

Individualism isn’t bad, Cooperation / Colletivism isn’t bad, these ideas also can work well together too. The main trio in Jujuts Kaisen is made of two individualists (Nobara and Yuji) and then Megumi who holds them together like glue and they were at their strongest in the arc where they fought Choso and his brothers as a team of three. It’s not a coincidence that this fight takes place immediately after Kamo and Maki vs Naoya. Maki was by far the strongest person in that fight, and yet she wouldn’t have won with the fight without the help of other people around her. Maki even references her problem is that she’s always been an individual, she’s never relied on others, so she’s never learned from others either.

Maki is strong, but no person is an island. She only unlocked her power up in the first place, because of Mai’s selfless sacrifice of her life for her done out of love for her sister. She is only able to win this fight by accepting the help of Noritsho Kamo and the others around her for the first time. Even someone who is on the extreme end of individualism like Maki climbed there with the help of others.

The problem arises when these two ideas are out of balance with one another. Enter Kenjaku. If you read his words and actions the past few chapters, it’s pretty clear his beliefes lie on the extreme end of individualism. In the first place, he has almost no interest in other people, or the affect his actions will have on them. To the point where he can casually contemplate that a hundred million people will die in an instant and merge into cursed spirits with cursed energy.

For Kenjaku, the whole purpose of his actions is to create something that excees the boundaries of his own imagination. He references this desire this again when Choso questions him about his motivations. The way Kenjaku phrases his excitements is interesting:

I feel like a toddler holding a crayon with a blank sheet of paper.

He explains his desire to change the world around him, in terms of creativity and artistic creation. Basically, Kenjaku’s goal is him imposing his individual well on reality, to try to change it how he sees fit. This is something that Kenjaku always does and is also good at, considering he has been body hopping for hundreds of years, he is always manipulative enough to get his way, and now possesses the bodies of one of the most powerful sorcerers. His individual will is so strong, he can usually get exactly what he wants out of the world which puts him on the extreme end of individualism. However, in odds to his manipulative nature, what he truly wants is to be surprised, he wants the world to show him something beyond his expectations.

However, while what he wants is a loss of control, Kenjaku still clearly acts and expects like everything will go his way. He has no care for people at all, especially people who aren’t strong and don’t interest him, especially how casually he discusses mass death. The individual might as well not exist for him, and he is so good at making people do what he wants that he simply doesn’t care for their internality (what is going on in the inside of their heads).

Kenjaku also believes that individual might is what trumps everything. He doesn’t even enertain the possibility that Choso might land a scratch on him, because in Suguru Geto’s body a special class sorcerer will always blow a grade one sorcerer out of the water.

Choso represents the opposite end of Kenjaku’s extreme self-centeredness. For Choso, everything is about his duty to his family. Even if he as an individual is worthless, he still must serve his role to his brothers. This is brought up in his fight against Naoya. Choso beliees that his connection to his brothers is what makes him who he is.

Choso is strong, because his older brothers need an example that’s how he learned who he is. At the same time, Choso’s younger brother needed him to serve as an older brother to be their guide and teacher so they can learn who they are. What he is essentially saying is that we are shaped by the relationships we have to other people. Kenjaku only cares about himself, he has no capbility to form relationships, other people are tools to him, but for Choso his relationship to his brothers is everything.

Of course, there’s drawbacks to the way Choso always chooses to prioritize others over himself. Choso has an incredibly low self-esteem and views himself as a failure, he also treats his own life as expendable. There’s a parallle between Kamo in the last fight, and Choso in this one.

Treating your life as worthless is not a good thing (duh), as Gojo pointed out a long time ago, while taking bunts and sacrificing yourself for the team is sometimes a good thing and necessary, you’ll always die alone.

However, because he prioritizes other people, Choso is able to make relationships, value people, and understand them, he is a person made from his conenctions and driven by them in comaprison to Kenjaku who does everything he does for completely empty reasons (because it might be funny lol), Choso’s life is full of duty, responsibility towards his brothers, affections to them reasons to keep on living and fight meanwhile Kenjaku is just bored with everything.

The difference in them can be shown in how they view Yuji. Kenjaku only sees Yuji as the vessel for Sukuna, he is just a cog in his plan. He has no concept of Yuji’s personhood. He just sees Yuji as a magnet for danger and nothing else, Yuji’s life and his intentions and everything he does from now on doesn’t matter to him because Yuji is just the spark that started the fire.

Choso on the other hand cares about Yuji as a person because of the connection they share, rather selflessly may I mention because he did not even find out Yuji was his brother until a week ago. It’s Choso who clarifies that Yuji isn’t responsible for any of the chaos, it’s Kenjaku who created this situation.

To one, Yuji is an object to his plans, to the other Yuji is a person who should be able to live out his own life, worthy of happiness, and most of all a big brother’s love.

Ironically, Choso is an extreme collectivist, and Gojo is an extreme individualist, and ye they are essentially fighting for the same things, kids like Yuji who are younger than them should be able to grow up and live their lives, and their roles are protecting that.

Which is why Choso is able to stand up again and fight even against someone who as an individual outclasses him in every way. Unlike Kenjaku who does everything for the sake of his own amusement, and has no care for other people as objects Choso is able to love his brothers unconditionally and draws his strength quite literally from his bloodline connection to them. Kenjaku will always be alone, and Choso never will be.

#jujutsu kaisen meta #jjk meta #jjk 203 #jujutsu kaisen 203 #jjk 203 spoilers #choso #noritoshi kamo #kenjaku #yuki tsukumo

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secretgamergirl · 1 year

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That thing where bigots accuse trans people of things and then when pressed for examples name people who aren't trans.

The other day I had some random youtube video going in the background because I needed background noise and I don't have TV or a radio, and someone got into an aside about one Jimmy Savile. That name rang a bell, because oh yeah, that's that name that TERFs are always incoherently shouting. I had never heard this name in any other context before (this may be surprising to British people but for real nobody in the vast world outside your tiny bigot-ridden island has heard of ANY of your celebrities outside of like, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Monty Python, Mr. Bean, and the leads from Doctor Who in 1980 and 2008, plus some people who got famous on American TV) so I started paying attention, but the person talking was kind of talking around the subject. So then I looked him up on wikipedia, and first of all, yikes, but also yeah this guy doesn't have the slightest thing to do with trans people, so what the hell?

See to hear TERFs tell it, the world was all sunshine and rainbows forever until the ever-moving target of "just a few years ago" when trans people suddenly started existing and you can't trust them, especially around kids, and then, yeah, they incoherently shout "Jimmy Savile!" Every so often one will be in an interview or something and not just shouting slurs at you in an unmoderated forum and there'll be some followup where they mutter about having absolutely no idea and being totally shocked but again like, none of that holds up? Trans people have been around for the entirety of human history and never actually caused any problems of any sort for anyone, this creep people claim to have had no idea he was a creep until after he died in 2011 had songs (plural!) on the radio about his well-known to anyone who ever interacted with him serial sexual assaults on children as far back as the the mid-1980s, and the particular TERF I most often trying to make some sort of connection here absolutely knew I was trans back when he was apparently trying to get into my pants in 2014, well after they I guess started scrubbing this creep's names off buildings and apparently before trans people existed according their weird sliding timeline.

Being, apparently, quite a few years older than all recorded human history, I also remember that bit where before really going all in on "corrupting our innocent children" BS and dropping other weird angles, there was this desperate flailing about where trans women were like, using our vile shapeshifting powers to sneak into locker rooms and punch people or whatever? In particular, I'm recalling the bit where it first became apparent to the last few hold outs that Rowling's an unhinged bigot, and some of those people had the presence of mind to ask her WTF it was she had against trans people anyway. To which Rowling responded with this non-sequitur about her ex-husband being a violent abuser. I remember at the time a lot of people were surprised, because they had no idea that Rowling's ex was trans. But see, people had no idea about that, because it's not at all true. Like the next day someone dug up the ex in question and asked him, "hey, are you actually a woman or something?" and he responded with a rather confused no.

And like, there's SOME logic to responding to the question "why are you making unfounded claims about a whole group of people being violent?" with "oh I know this person who's violent and I hate him," there's just this unspoken "and I feel like that's a pretty universal reaction, so being violent struck me as a good thing to claim about anyone I want people to hate," ditto with the CSA stuff, but it can't just be rational people with any clue what they're talking about like me who see these totally unrelated claims and go "OK wait though. If trans people are guilty of all these horrible evil things, why is it you literally don't seem to be able to name a single one, and keep just bringing up people who aren't trans?" Happens with sports too! They'll shout about trans people being super athletes and then when they can't actually find examples they point at random cis athletes.

I don't really have a larger point here, just, you know, it's a weird freaking tactic, and people don't call it out the way they should. So I guess I'll just awkwardly transition into begging for money again.

Patreon link.

#terfs #baseless accusations #I feel like I should be more specific here but the whole point is inventing an overlap between innocent people and awfulness

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liskantope · 2 years

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Looking back at the culture war battles of 2022, one development that particularly sticks out to me is the American Republican/anti-woke side latching on to the idea of everything social progressives call for that involves minors being a form of "grooming" and/or adjacent to pedophilia. This welled up during the 2022 midterm campaign season and I doubt it reached its final boil during the elections; it probably isn't dying down anytime just yet.

My first reaction, around mid-2022, to seeing this new-ish trend was that it was once again an example of the Right looking at a rhetorical tactic of the Left (in this case, finding a near-universally despised personal trait and relentlessly tarring as many opinions as possible from the opposing side as coming from that trait) and deciding that hey, two can play at this game. The main name that the Left has taken to using against as many opposing opinions as possible is "racist"/"racism", and what's arguably the one label even worse to have attached to you than "racist"? Probably "pedophile" or (more mildly) "groomer".

From that point of view, I can see where this Republican/anti-woke strategy comes from, to the extent that it's been consciously employed and regardless of how blatantly hypocritical it is. But it still caught me by surprise and feels strange, I think because of my impression of being anti-grooming as more of a liberal progressive cause. Now mind you, I know that anything adjacent to pedophilia is reviled by pretty much all parts of the political spectrum, and I also know that the conservative Right (at least in America) has a history of tarring gay people as secretly pedophiles, insinuating that open homosexuality (and other forms of queerness) corrupts and endangers children, and so on. But over the 5-10 years or so previous to the rise of "groomer" accusations from the conservative side, I had come to firmly code raising the alarm about grooming behavior as more of a progressive SJ-ish thing, naturally occurring as a part of the Me Too movement. I had been exposed to a lot of talk in progressive circles about the power differentials that come with age differentials and so on. The whole Josh Duggar scandal some years back seemed split roughly along political lines, with only conservatives (most infamously Mike Huckabee) being willing to come to his defense. And I had a vague notion that liberal people took child molestation and terrible behavior adjacent to it as a sort of higher-priority societal crisis than conservatives did, much as this was clearly the case with rape in general.

So I had thought of cries of "Groomer!" and "Pedophile!" as similar to cries of "Racist!" in that they involve a name that absolutely nobody wants to be branded with, which refers to a type of person that almost everyone looks down upon and is determined not to be but which the Right has a stricter definition of, doesn't see in as many places, and tends to think the Left is overly paranoid about. And yet, for the time being at least, the Right seems to have gotten hold of "Groomer!" and "Pedophile!".

I found this a sort of bemusing (and also of course disturbing) irony, given the extent to which so many socially progressive people around me see grooming / pedophilia / child abuse as a very serious problem and are very sincere in their concerns about it. And to be honest, one of the things I couldn't help saying to myself was, "Let's see how this goes and how people feel when 'Groomer!' is used against them, when the other side stretches at every possible opportunity to compare our side to something we truly find despicable whenever we stand for something they don't like. Maybe this will give some people a new insight about how ineffective it is to blast everything they don't like on the other side as "racist" or other -ists or otherwise coming from something purely evil. It's going to be interesting to see how this changes the dynamic."

(It's worth mentioning as a qualification that the American Right did do something like this as recently as the mid-00's with comparing everyone less hawkish than them with terrorist-sympathizers, but that was a little less direct and seems to have already faded from many people's memories. A closer example would be some decades earlier when an awful lot of Americans seemed determined to brand anyone to the left of them as a Communist sympathizer, but of course this is even further removed from the present.)

It's interesting to look back on this half a year later, because I definitely intended to write a more sharply pointed post expressing most of my paragraphs above sometime around last summer, but it got lost in the shuffle as many of my potential blog posts do. And now it seems like it sort of came to an anticlimax. Anti-woke conservatives did quite well in the midterms as long as they weren't too Trumpy, but Democrats put in a better-than-expected performance. My liberal colleagues and acquaintances mostly seem to have ignored conservative rhetoric about groomers or just dismissed it as idiotic (which, to be fair, it basically is) rather than let it bother them beyond that, either on a direct, immediate level or in terms of making them rethink messaging or persuasive rhetoric from their/our own side. All of this seems to be fizzling over, relative to what I imagined back around July.

#culture war #midterms #grooming #me too campaign #josh duggar #child molestation #neoconservatism #anti-communism hysteria

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thestrangestthing89 · 1 year

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Random Musing #1: Jonathan doesn't call Lonnie "dad" and instead calls him by his first name. I think this plays into the power of naming things theme that is in both A Neverending Story and A Wizard of Earthsea. And how El and Will both have to learn some distance from their abusers. El started getting closure from Brenner at the end of S4. Him dying could lead to her starting to process her abuse and stop referring to him as Papa and just call him by his name. And Will has some loose ends to tie up with Lonnie. There is clearly more to the story here. He doesn't mention Lonnie ever. We only get a glimpse of him and Jonathan talking about Lonnie in S1. To me, Will seems like he is trying to be a good kid and not cause problems for his parents so he goes along with the plans to go to the baseball game. He's bothered by the fighting and is the kind of kid who would not want to upset anyone even if he's uncomfortable. But Jonathans prompting suggests that he doesn't really like spending time with his father. He grudgingly admits that they never do what he wants to do and it's only about what Lonnie wants. We don't see the two interacting but from the way Jonathan, Joyce, and Hopper respond to Lonnie he isn't well liked and we know he was abusive to both Jonathan and Will (Will seemingly getting the worst of it). So him also learning to separate himself from his father is important.

Hopper could be a good prompt here. Jonathan sets an example of how someone distanced themselves from their abuser - he doesn't forgive Lonnie, doesn't acknowledge him unless he has to, and doesn't accept any implications of closeness to him. Whereas Hopper sets an example of what a good father actually looks like. He's protected both Will and El in the past and I think it's safe to assume he will continue to do so. This also plays into the whole Will and El are interchangeable and El is a projection of Will theory.

Random Musing #2: Totally unrelated to the above. Ted's line of "you see what happens Michael" in S1 in relation to Mike being worried about Will going missing implies that he has discussed this with Mike before. There are a lot of implications of Will having gone missing because he's gay and how the town knows this and is talking about it. A lot of people have already gone into this so I won't here. But Ted saying this line plays into the theory that something already happened with Will and Mike when they were younger and Ted had to talk to him about it. He probably did this in the name of protecting him. A conversation about how it's dangerous to act the way they do when they are together and how people won't understand. And then Will goes missing and "you see what happens Michael". This would just further enforce Mike's behavior in S3 where he overcompensates and tries to push himself to like girls. It's safer.

Random Musing #3: Sort of going along with #2 above. There is a lot of history between Mike and Will - they have known each other since they were 5. Mike's behavior towards El in S1 is interesting because I think he comes across as more mature than Lucas and Dustin who act their age in response to El. Their immediate response to finding her is to get a grown up and Mike's the one who stops that because they will get in trouble. Mike is also the one who knows what to do and problems solves. He's usually the problem solver in stressful situations throughout the series. But here it kind of seems like he's been there before.

So if Lonnie was abusive, Mike would have likely known about it. When the boys are explaining to El what a friend is, they tell her that it's someone you tell anything to and Mike adds a "even things you can't tell your parents". This to me makes it seem like something could have happened with Will and Lonnie and Mike knew about it and helped protect him and it's why he likes the Paladin role and why he immediately went to protect El from the "bad men" and was so opposed to getting help from an adult. He learned not to get help from an adult before. Mike thinks it's his responsibility to protect people and that attitude came from somewhere. Just like how Jonathan feels like he's responsible for taking care of Will and is afraid to leave him. And this also falls into the category of Will and El are interchangeable.

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azure-firecracker · 7 months

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ATLA Live Action Episode 7: Overall Thoughts.

Right so this episode was a mixed bag for me. On paper I should have loved it: it’s two big moments are Azula/Katara scenes and they parallel each other. Those are my two favorite characters and I love exploring how they mirror one another. But the actual execution of some of the scenes was…lacking.

Okay I legitimately forgot that Zhao tried to blow up Zuko’s boat in the original and it was funny bc I was reacting like it was something new this show did…nope lmao. Speaking of Zhao, I feel like this show can’t really decide what they want him to be. In the OG it was pretty clear: he was an asshole with lots of resources and therefore a threat, but he was also cocky and delusional and not very good at his job. Here I feel like this show is flip flopping between having him be legitimately threatening or a delusional idiot. Both are fine choices individually and honestly I don’t really care what they do since it’s not like he was a main character in the OG, but they do need to pick one. Like, objectively, from a writing standpoint.

I know some people disliked the changes to Yue and Sokka’s relationship, but I thought they were cute. I liked that they used the extended time at the North Pole pre-attack to flesh out their relationship more and give them some more bonding moments. It makes me buy into them more (I was never a love at first sight girlie). I agree that Yue’s character in the original was a really well written example of the good and bad things that come with being as loyal/dutiful as she is and that is missing here. But unlike our main cast, if you look at her without the lens of the original, she’s still a fleshed out, decently written character. I think she works (except for her hair of course).

Sokka on the other hand…I like that they’re allowing him to express his insecurities and trying to give him an arc, but I didn’t like Yue saying his heart was the most important thing about him. It’s such a generic line, and out of all of our main cast, it seems to suit him the least. It made it feel like they’re trying to give the whole main trio the same arc, which I…did not appreciate. But he does have good chemistry with Yue.

Speaking of generic arcs for the main trio…dear god I hate what they’re doing with Aang. It’s not offensive but it’s so overdone. Every fantasy protagonist in history has this conflict, and while it works for an episode of a cartoon, it does not work as Aang’s central conflict. Gordon’s doing his best with his lines, but I get bored watching his scenes. Also I didn’t love the stuff with Kuruk. Stay away from the Korra Spirit World stuff. Y’all can’t handle the material you have.

Okay onto my main girlies:

Azula’s arc definitely goes into the “it’s a different choice from the original but it works on its own category.” If you don’t compare her to OG Azula, these writing choices make sense. They work, and they go hand in hand with how this new Ozai is different from OG Ozai. OG Ozai really didn’t seem to care about his kids. They were tools in his play for power. We never got the sense that he’d really thought about either of them succeeding him, and or that he’d ever thought about his own death. This Ozai seems to be trying to turn both Azula and Zuko into younger versions of him (as we saw in the Agni Kai last episode), and he brings up the “heir to the throne” title a lot. This means he wants his kids to have a fighting spirit, a drive. It makes Azula’s defiance all the more twisted because it’s supposed to be this empowering moment for her…but really it’s exactly what Ozai wants. It’s objectively really good writing, and both Lizzy Yu and Daniel Dae Kim do a great job acting it out. At the same time, I feel a little loss of OG Azula. OG Azula was so busy fighting for Ozai’s love, being perfect, that she never had time to think about what she wanted because she was so stifled in the “golden child” role. That’s a type of abuse we don’t see depicted a lot in media, and I do wish the live action show had taken up that challenge. On the other hand, the arc we got was objectively good and I’m not sure they could have handled that subtlety. Overall, my feelings on these scenes are mostly good with some doubts in there. It does make me wonder what they’re going to do now that we know we’re getting a Book 3. Azula’s original Book 3 stuff with Ozai really wouldn’t work now that she’s already become so defiant.

Okay my girl Katara: FINALLY she got an episode to shine rather than being a side piece for Aang or Sokka’s arcs! Funny that all the filler episodes they cut were the Katara centric ones…but I digress. I understand not wanting to cut the stuff with NWT sexism, and I DON’T THINK THEY SHOULD HAVE. But with all their worries about Sokka’s sexism not translating well to a live action, they should have considered the fact that such heavy handed sexism might come off as cartoonish in a live action format. Most real sexism is more subtle, albeit just as frustrating and wrong, and I’m sad the show passed up their opportunity to portray that. I did like that Katara finally got to show both her anger and her hope. I felt like this was the first episode where she really felt in character. While some characters work while being different from the original (mostly FN characters), Katara’s changes made her an objectively more hollow character, so seeing sparks of OG Katara was awesome! She still felt a little flat, but it’s definitely a HUGE step in the right direction. (And Kiawentiio did awesome. Glad she’s finally getting to showcase her range). The end of the Katara/Pakku fight was a little weird but I’ll let it slide because she had that AWESOME line to Aang where she was like (I’m not going to get this exactly) “Fighting is my decision, not you or Pakku’s or anyone else’s.” I was CHEERING! This is the Katara we need more of.

I know I was largely critical in this review, but I really enjoyed this episode. This episode really solidified my belief that you have to think of these characters as totally new people. Different choices are being made, and that’s okay as long as they’re still good characters with ties to the original. Sometimes it works (Azula, Yue) and sometimes it doesn’t (main trio) but if you can enjoy it when it works, you’ll enjoy the whole show a lot more.

I’ll give this one an 8.5/10. Kind of the opposite of the last episode. With that one, there weren’t any great new choices they made (most of the best moments were straight out of the cartoon), but there was also nothing I really disliked. This episode made some great new choices that I thought were interesting and took some steps towards fixing some of the characters they butchered, but there was some stuff in here that I actively disliked (namely Aang and Zhao).

#atla #avatar the last airbender #atla live action #natla #netflix atla #atla stream of consciousness #azula #katara #zhao #yue #sokka #aang #kuruk #yuekka #master pakku

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