#and strips them of their autonomy/ability to fight back

[phantomchick]

The themes of Naruto and how the fact he and Sasuke are reincarnations/part of a cycle expands on those themes

Some guy was going on about how the reincarnation thing in Naruto was an asspull and when people pulled receipts and showed him panels from part one that hinted at it he maintained that it was still terrible because the whole destiny thing ruined the themes of the manga and I'm here like somebody really read the whole manga yet missed out on the themes of peace through absolute power vs peace through understanding that were key to the whole thing.

The Akatsuki's dream of peace is enforced on the rest of the world through the absolute power of the 9 bijuu powered infinite tsukuyomi. Sasuke chases power in order to avenge his family so he can be at peace + not have the threat of Itachi killing any further family he makes all over again hanging over him. Naruto comes to peace with those around him by understanding them whether or not he considers their past actions forgiveable, he chases Sasuke because he understands that Sasuke's motivation of revenge isn't wrong but the way he's going about it is actively self-destructive and hurts both him and those who care about him.

The whole idea of the villages I think are to show that it's a cycle of hatred, between war and peace, between might making right and compassion being the key and Sasuke and Naruto are symbolically representative of it all!

The theme of generational trauma is also all over the world of Naruto! Whether it's the legacy of the Uzumaki sacrificed to become the jinchuriki of the nine tails, a burden his parents pass onto Naruto; Kakashi's trauma stemming from his father's, Hinata and Neji both innocent kids but who are divided by the toxic customs of their family when they should be like siblings to each other, Hashirama and Madara bearing the weight of the brother war the Senju-Uchiha conflict and how hard it is to achieve peace even in a world where neither side actually wants to fight because of all the history and distrust that's built up, the curse of hatred of the Uchiha stemming from Ootsutsuki Indra's madness and willingness to murder his closest friends for the sake of taking power by force, Obito being taken by his own clan patriarch, hurt when he tries to leave and brainwashed and traumatised into buying into the dream of a perfect world - he literally inherits his hatred for the existing one, Gaara and his siblings lives effected by their father's actions but also by the custom of jinchuriki being created in the first place, the children of Ame all orphaned by war, Kaguya the enslaver, Kaguya the dictator, leaving a fragment of her will called Zetsu aka 'tongue' that continues to spread hatred, fear and prejudice and divide the people hundreds of years on. Haku experiencing the results of both the ninja world 'shinobi are tools' belief system and the prejudice of Kirigakure towards those with bloodline limits when he's a child too young to fully understand either with Zabuza the demon of the bloody mist who killed all his classmates to end kiri's killer graduation exams once and for all who can't bring himself to express his genuine love for Haku until he's already dead. I mean I could go on but you get the point.

The reincarnation thing emphasises the themes of Naruto which are generational trauma, the power of brotherhood/friendship and peace through absolute power vs peace through understanding and last but not least endurance in the face of a hopelessly cynical world: aka The will of fire, the will/resolve to keep trying to improve things even a little for the sake of the next generation, to refuse to give up even when it appears hopeless. Like say when you've just gotten your ass kicked by an army of zombies, the remainder of Akatsuki, Obito, Zetsu and Uchiha fucking Madara, you've failed to stop the moon's eye plan and suddenly, things get worse and a literal all powerful Goddess descends on you when you're already exhausted and the rest of the army is comatose.

[yandereunsolved]

Yandere self-aware Cristons—duty before love or love before duty? tw: mentions of sa

Yandere Show Ser Criston who gently adjusts the script so he is able to be shown more. He just captured your attention. He cannot lose it quite yet. He makes his training scenes even more of a spectacle. He feels unworthy to know of a being so great that it casts its gaze down upon him, so he has to impress you. You get hours and hours of footage of tournaments that were never part of the original script. You mused that this must have been a marathon of unreleased footage. It all centered around Ser Criston and his fighting abilities, which made so many others envious.

Yandere Book Ser Criston first noticed you after he earned his position as a kingsguard. He noticed your eyes drifting from the words on the oddly modern parchment to the box that flashed a person supposedly imitating him. He could not bear it in that moment. It is as if the gods had looked down upon him, and you looked down upon him with such a loving gaze. He had to guard the nobles and king, and eventually that duty was extended to include you.

Yandere Show Ser Criston takes it a step further and includes you in his daily routine. He feels almost like a youngling again, feeling himself flush when he removes his shirt and purposefully angles himself for your viewing pleasure. He has been stripped of his autonomy all his life and was simply a plaything for younger Rhaenyra. It felt so satisfying to finally have control over when he showed his body, how he went about displaying it, and the privilege of giving it to you instead of it being taken from him—forcefully.

Yandere Book Ser Criston is curious as a newborn babe. He wishes to impress unforgettable memories on your mind. His eyes always soak in the world beyond the book that he is caged within. He manages to knock open the cover more than once just so he can observe more. He is respectful, but he can't help but want more.

Yandere Book Ser Criston becomes consumed by his duty in an effort to keep himself away from you. He can't stop thinking about you. He forces his body to the brink and then survives off of exhaustion. If he doesn't, then he may scare you off. He may not fulfill his purpose as a kingsguard. He became the knight he is today for a chance at something greater than the life he has been given. He so selfishly wants more and wishes for you to give. He forces his true emotions inward and hides himself from the pages you consume. If he disappears, perhaps you will forget about him. He can forget about you. He will be able to return to who he was before. He can't, no matter how hard he tries. 

Yandere Show Ser Criston who uses Queen Alicent as a replacement for you. He may be unable to go to your world, but at least he is able to show you what he wishes to do to you. He can give all his devotion to a woman who is merely second to you. For if you know his skill in the ways of love, won't you lust after him the same way he lusts after you?

Both are not willing to share you with the other. Book Ser Criston knows that he is the superior kingsguard. Show Ser Criston retorts back that his devotion to you trumps any of Book Ser Criston's 'feelings' about you. One of the only things they can agree on is that you are in danger as long as you are not physically protected by them. They need to get you into their world, but how?

[monosanimegenericzone]

Hunter x Hunter: Black voice part 5? 6?

i give up i dont know how shalnarks antenna work.

i just binge read the manga last night and i have not the damndest clue how he gets that shit back.

we dont see him use them back to back at any point by himself. so theres reason to assume that he goes back and gets them. his ass dont gotta worry about leaving fingerprints or dna behind bcs hes off the record.

one of the many benefits of living in meteor city 👍

but in chrollos fight vs hisoka.

first of all the antenna change form. in Chrollo's hand they turn into rounded pins with angel wings.

we see here (according to my handy dandy diagrams-) that they both appear CANONICALLY.

chrollo has little angel wings. and shal has little bat wings.

why tho.

it heavily implies that the antenna are then conjured and take a form towards the user's preference. idfk how or why this is even a thing because it was shal who pointed out that if you strip a manipulator of their tools, he may as well be powerless.

plus hisoka says this. so they are definitely able to either be dematerialized or recalled immediately. (if they are conjured they would disappear automatically because chrollo deactivated the ability)

it could tie into additional conditions?

because that's an ability that requires crossing into other nen categories which spends a lot of aura (assuming shal isn't multiclassed into a specialist since. that is possible) (COUGH kurta shal COUGH).

ON TOP OF THAT. since the antenna are being separated from his body, that would mean he's using emitter techniques as well. he's transmitting aura across long distances, that is emitting.

and like we see with kastro, mastering another nen ability before your primary, or even in tandem with your primary, can 'fill up your memory' or in this case, over-spend your output and limit your natural class.

however, that isn't true for shalnark because he is maximizing his output by completely overriding someone's autonomy to the point of "behave normally". and he can do this with a maximum of two people. which is a lot! and he has the option (presumably) to release them from his control later on.

because adding a condition like "my puppets will always die when i relinquish control" will increase his output like 20 fold like we see with Illumi.

so this could mean two things:

shalnark is CONJURING the antenna but only at the beginning of fights and then going back to retrieve them so that he doesn't have to spend additional aura.

shalnark is EMITTING the antenna to and from him. it would weakly explain why they change shape based on who's holding them since their appearance would then be based on the aura of the individual. but it would make more sense since he's got 80% efficiency instead of 60%.

going with option 2. that means hisoka did destroy one of shal's two antenna here. he can never get that back. it could also lend to the idea that chrollo got the second antenna destroyed in the final explosion as well.

chrollo later apologizes to shal explaining that he had the phone but not the antenna and shal says it's fine. because he "doesn't need them right now" and im. sir what do you mean. sir.

I have the start of a theory that goes something like, his ability was originally kind of like illumi with several targets at a time with less complex commands. maybe even going so far as to lock them in a single location, sacrificing mobility for autonomy.

for his needs, that would be good enough. simply taking over a few key personnel and having them poison the pool of information is very him.

so he'd start with like 8 or 10 antenna and issue one or two complex commands relating to how the target "normally" behaves .

but then somewhere down the line he realizes he can control autonomy *and* behavior simultaneously. it just depends on him. and with his crazy amount of aura he might as well. he's got nothing else to lose.

so he puts a restriction on his ability that says he can't summon more than two antenna at a time and by cutting down the number of people he can control, he gets an increase in quality.

black voice confuses me. togashi explain.

this is a certified nen nerd post. and i am still confused.

this explains NOTHING.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jess Piper at The View from Rural Missouri Substack:

When I scanned the code, it took me straight to a Google drive. I was hesitant immediately. The first folder in the drive is titled, “Arkansas Abortion Amendment Myth vs. Fact” and that was pretty much a dead giveaway; the lady stopping folks headed to an event intent on signing the abortion petition was going to hit them with disinformation first.

Another folder in the Google drive was something called “Decline to Sign.” This graphic included bulleted points. Among them: *No licensing for healthcare professionals at abortion medical facilities. *No ultrasound required before an abortion to determine fetal age and location. *Would make it harder to combat sex trafficking and child abuse. *No health and safety standards imposed on abortion clinics. Wow. That was a lot of weird and incorrect information. I would think a doctor would know the location of a fetus, and forcing a person who has been sex trafficked into delivering a pregnancy is just about the most disgusting and cruel act I can imagine. The rest of the points are at least stretching the truth if not flat out lies. Was the woman standing in that parking lot just some solitary extremist trying to dissuade voters from signing a petition? Some woman who got a crazy idea, created a Google drive, printed up cardstock with a QR code, and decided to lie to folks on their way to sign a petition in a small town in Arkansas?

No. “Decline to Sign” is a coordinated movement and we saw it in Missouri as well. It is well-funded and not at all grassroots. They have signs, sites, and lawmakers who are bought and paid for to do their dirty work. I noticed “Decline to Sign” popping up on social media from Missouri GOP State Senators and Representatives. The messaging was exactly the same. Some Reps even started tweeting out videos of themselves, sitting on the same couch in front of the same bookcase, reading a script about “out of state” folks coming to Missouri to gather signatures and steal identities or allow abortions up to birth. It was creepy because it was so scripted and the deliveries were so automated. The politicians also had those dead eyes you need to straight up lie to someone. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you it is Orwellian. Nearly the exact same words were seeping from the dry mouths of several extremist Missouri lawmakers.

There were nearly a dozen who were recruited for the videos, but here are just three examples: Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman, Representative Doug Richey and Representative Justin Sparks. Each one took their time to stare into the camera and lie about the abortion petition. The videos gave me chills and let me know we are up against a machine that wants to take away bodily autonomy from everyone, and keep us from fighting back with ballot measures to return bodily autonomy. The good news? Missourians had just over 90 days to gather 180,000 signatures to put abortion on the ballot. Friends, we collected 380,000 signatures! Read that again…we gathered over 200k more signatures than we needed to put the measure on the ballot in November. We still have obstacles to returning bodily autonomy to Missourians, though. The GOP is planning to take away one person, one vote and strip us of the ability to pass Constitutional amendments. They are planning to take away a simple majority vote to pass amendments. That will be a disaster for Missourians and I’ll write more on it in another post.

Jess Piper writes on her Substack the deceptive "decline to sign" movement touted by anti-abortion extremists.

[pettybetty69]

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 - 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫

Masterlist | Part Three

Word Count: 1.5k

January 1996

A unique education has been ingrained in your people dating back to the beginning of them. The ancient recherche teachings were practically considered tradition. Elemental education consisted of the sciences, linguistics, melee, philosophy, universal history, and just about everything else. It was disciplined, demanding, and most of the time, dreadfully boring. But it was required. 

By 6, you, Paolo, Fina, and Delfie had a linguistics repertoire that had already surpassed seven languages. Including the archaic forms of inter-Elemental communication, Gaianus. 

By 8, you four were well informed about the many realms of magic. The existence of the Asgardians, sorcerers, dimensions, the concept of the multiverse, and having an Eldritch sling ring to practice with in a place none of you kids were allowed to know. 

By 10, you all began developing techniques for elemental combat and melee. From channeling shields of sunlight, breathing fire, taking a fight up into Mount Gaia’s dense clouds, to rippling the ground to knock out one another. Other times, it was simple hand to hand combat with Franca. 

By 12, you embarked upon the ancient disciplines of detection and manipulation, the Aran Orionian. A long, disciplined, complex, and tedious study of many teachings involving autonomy, chemical compositions, and element analysis. Though torturously boring, it was responsible for your ability to read people, to detect the vibranium casing King S’Yan’s body, and to control the sphere of power within yourself that maintained the secret. A sixth sense. 

Training always came over any studies, plans, or friends. But failing any of those things would result in disappointed looks or being grounded. So, the four of you begrudgingly had to make it work. 

____

There was a blur of a green clearing below your trembling hands and knees. It was as though the oxygen had been stripped from your lungs and a charging bus had slammed into you. 

Rigorous pants clawed at the walls of your throat but the encompassed pain was rapidly subsiding.

“Get up! Again!” Franca’s demanding voice echoed in the forest clearing. 

The winter snow had been cleared from the grassy plane for Sunday’s training. Paolo and Delfie were spent and disheveled watching the rounds between you and Franca. Fina watched nervously sitting beside the boys, reluctant for her upcoming turn. 

You spat blood onto the ground. The Aran Orionian alarmed, spiking a rush of adrenaline through your veins. 

Something was coming. 

You swiftly threw your weight to the side and a blinding burst of glowing light shot past your eyes. The air smoked with truffles of gray. A small crater made home on the ground you were a mere second before. Your frightened stare shot toward Franca who was lunging toward you in flight, having chucked a spear of lighting a second from electrifying your face. 

A shield of glowing sunlight conjured from thin air. The two of you began to fight again. However, it was short lived. Less than half a minute later, you were on your back once more, attempting to grasp a breath with Franca above you. 

Her sharp Elemental eyes were green, completely green. The vibrant irises were swelled over the size of what a human’s should be. The sclera wasn’t white, just another tinted shade of the emerald tone.

“Don’t you think for a second that an opponent will wait for your re-gathering! They will come from behind and attack without provocation!!” Her voice was harsh on a rush of authoritarian adrenaline. Her deep skin was ethereally glowing, her body’s golden aureole crystalizing with her booming voice.

She continued: “You're in over your head! You move impulsively, ignorant to the consideration of consequence! Recklessness can not be spared if you don't have the necessary skill to get you out alive and unmaimed!" 

Fina’s turn began and ended, and though her skills were good, she struggled against the tough opponent of her mother. Though you all loved her, there was an active resentment toward her after every combat round. 

You all had recollected yourselves and stood in a spaced, horizontal line with backs straighter than pins preparing for the next sector of training.

Franca, barely disheveled, began again:

"Next, you will fight in pairs while I observe. Fina and Delfie, then Paolo and Alessa. The objective is subtle. Imagine you're fighting an opponent out there and they can't know what you really are. What will you do to use your gifts to your advantage but having it be invisible to the eye, and subtle enough to not raise any eyebrows?"

“There are an endless amount of methods to choose from. Thhere are many such techniques from the Aran Orionian, extracting the opponents oxygen, stunning the cerebellum, dehydrating the body. Or take to the Polydorus techniques of silent conjuration of chemical stunners."

She didn't talk about her "work" often. You all knew she was a journalist, quite a successful one. But you all knew, she was more than just a journalist. Same with your mother and Zio Luca. By the way she speaks of these acts without wincing, how meticulously refined her element and physical melee tactics were, how swift and silent moving her methods were..... she has to use them regularly.

“But, I want to see something new. Something I can not predict. Begin.”

After the session, winded and exhausted, you went to Franca. She had just finished critiquing Delfie's finger positioning.

"Baby, I hope you were able to retain some of it." She was always softer afterwords, but a nightmare during. "Unfortunately, it is the hurt that teaches us." She wrapped her arm around you and squeezed your shoulder.

"Unfortunately." You sighed. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"What's on your mind, baby?"

You abruptly vented about the UN. Everything about annoying cameras, you and Goldman’s talk, and T'Challa's reasoning of it all. Her demeanor cooled after your speech. Her heart rate lowered chillingly and the typically relaxed muscles of her face were stiff. 

“What is it?” you asked. “Is there something wrong?”

"I wish you'd talk to your mother about this." She said, disappointedly.

"She's already paying for the plane tickets and they're not cheap. She's going to get mad at me for any sort of complaining."

"At the end of the day, she's your mother, Alessandra. She's the only one you will ever have. Pushing her buttons may be my favorite hobby, but I have to respect that she has final say on what of it you will be told."

What?

"‘What I'll be told?’" You repeated.

Her warm aureoled, Sphinx face expressed irritated regret. "Gaia, damn it." She cursed under her breath and stomped her foot into the grass. "I curse my tongue!" she shouted at the dusk sky above.

"What do you mean, Zia?"

"Merda-- just-- just talk to your mother, understand me? She'll tell you what you need to know."

"What I need to know? But that won't be anything." You grew frustrated. Not at Franca, but the idea of having to face your mother.

"I'm sorry, baby." She frowned, sliding her calloused hands down your sweaty cheeks.

"Instead of Work Saturday, I'll give you an extra session."

"But I need the money for Madrid." You sighed, disappointed. Franca shook her head and lifted your chin with her finger.

“My office needs rearranging. Train for three hours, organize for three hours, and I'll give you enough for sweets and souvenirs."

You hugged her tight. “Thanks, Zia."

She squeezed you tightly. "Remember to slip in some Cerveza's in your case on your way home, aye?" She winked green in green eye, mischievously. You chuckled and returned the wink.

As always, the training ended with you all on your knees, thanking and sending love to Gaia. Your heads would press the ground along with the palms of your hands. Then sunlight would sprout through your fingertips, through the ground, and to the zenith of Mount Gaia. Every time, there was euphoric breeze you'd like to think was her. 

As predicted, your mother told you nothing. Told you to continue on with the position, "do you're supposed to do," and get out of her office. A frustrated evening, a frustrated shower, and a frustrated flop of yourself onto your bed.

"Ouch!" You yelped. Your head collided against a hard object. You whipped around, rubbing your head though the pain was gone in seconds. You saw two panels of Kapok tree bark laid on top of your silk pillowcase. It was a thick booklet with a scribbled title, "Orion's tractate."

Hm. Orion? Why Orion? He was an Elemental hunter from the 1700s. One of the victims to the genocide. Other books described him as a bit of a loon. Apparently, he isolated himself in the thick of the Amazon, surviving only on nuts and river water. He was severely unfond of the Elemental and human race, only communicating when necessary. He would only befriend the wild Tapir's and often engaged in magicless combat with the monkeys.

You waringly examined the thick booklet, your curiosity admittingly spiked. The parchment was frayed and what looked to be an entire section being devoted to the blood splatters of his enemies.

"In Adoni's name..." you breathed incredulously.

Nonetheless, your fingers flipped to the first long page of chicken scratch. "What do you have to say, Orion?"

_____________________________________________

[erigold13261]

That Rerevolution post was spectacular! Question! Why is white such a jerk in this FRAU? Also… “rest in piece” what a pun to put in/j fitting, though.

I'm so glad you liked it! I didn't even mean to write that much! I was just going to write about Eve and Neon but once I got done with Eve I thought of Yinu which then made me think of Sayu which made me think ahead to Tatiana's fight but I had to finish 1010's first, ugh! It was so much fun to write!

Also that "let us die in piece" was actually a typo lol! Meant to write "peace" but by that point I had already spent about 3-4 hours on the ask so I missed some obvious errors like that lol.

As for White being a jerk, he is one because he feels like his life was ripped away from him and that he is being punished all thanks to Blue's actions.

Blue attacked Ex-Jay, attacked West, attacked B2J and yet HE was promoted to leader because White couldn't handle the pressure of leader. White became just a figurehead for 1010 while Neon gave all the responsibility and power of leader to Blue.

Not only that, but Blue is the reason Purple was destroyed by Tatiana. Blue attacked a human (either West or Ex-Jay, idk which right now) and was supposed to be the one Tatiana destroyed, but Purple jumped in the way to save Blue.

So to White, everything is Blue's fault, even before Blue stopped the revolution. Once the negative changes happened after the revolution (1010 being stripped of their ability to fight back, hatred of robots forming, and NSR turning very toxic), White just kept blaming Blue for everything.

It is similar to Eve in the sense that both of them blame it all on Blue, and then that blame extends to others. Like White is mean and resentful to the other 1010 members because he is no longer the leader and feels like they don't respect him anymore, which would be Blue's fault.

There is also an internalized hatred of himself for not being a good leader when he was one. Thinking that maybe he could have stopped Blue but failing to do so. He refuses to accept blame however, and instead turns that hate for himself into hate for others.

It also doesn't help that once things started getting toxic and people started gaining up on 1010, the only people lower than White in terms of power were Yellow, Red, and Green. So of course White is going to try and force whatever power he has over them to try and get the feeling he is a leader again. And to try and MAKE those three respect him through fear, similar to how Tatiana runs NSR.

The only reason that White isn't fully fears by the rest of 1010 is because Red stays near Neon or Blue, Yellow knows how to pin the blame onto others, and Green doesn't give a shit about life anymore. Which just infuriates White more because he doesn't have power.

It's not even like he is power-hungry and wants to control everything (like Tatiana), he just wants some control of his life and to be able to make his own decisions. He is following Tatiana's rule but acting more like Yinu, except being a lot more hostile/aggressive instead of depressed and docile like Yinu is.

So yeah, just White not being able to deal with losing autonomy and being punished for other people's mistakes would be the biggest reasons why he is an asshole.

[brothermoth]

when misogyny becomes feminist: (please actually read what I say don't just be reactionary)

"Radical Feminism" is misogyny.

Full fucking stop: it is misogyny to claim women cannot and do not perpetuate harm. It's so deeply fucking misogynistic that it's pathetic when they can't understand that they're the same as the people who thought women couldn't ride trains because their uterus would fly out.

It's a thing called agency that is very very important. When you remove harmful people from a group and pretend everyone must be perfect to be worthy of human rights, you strip them of their agency.

I've been horribly abused by a number of women in my life. It will never excuse me turning around and hating all women. They're people. Men are people. Terfs are people! They deserve to be safe and have bodily autonomy just like everyone else. They're still fucking assholes though! (CRUELTY IS NOT FUCKING ACTIVISM).

Women are capable of rape (it happens around the same frequency, actually. It's not considered assault because of misogyny). It's misogyny to deny women the ability to be harmful. Radical "feminists" you are stripping women of the ability to be a fucking human being.

Women can enjoy sex! Anti BDSM people, you are dehumanizing grown adult women. You are stripping them of their agency as human beings. They are not a shivering oppressed huddle to be protected like a child in a video game, they're PEOPLE. If she enthusiastically consents, that is all that matters.

You are being preyed on. You're a blunt object used to bash progress over the skull until it's quiet.

There was a man named Marcus Garvey who stood up and said that black people needed to be free of oppression. He was absolutely right in saying this. But then he turned and said "we need to go back to Africa", and he said that African Americans are simply better than those currently living in Africa. Because clearly they're more civilized.

That is racism from inside the house. It is a cruel man taking hurt, downtrodden people and using them to beat down others who have not done anything wrong.

Girls, that's YOU. You're absolutely facing a world that is much harder for you than for others, and you have every right to be upset.

It doesn't mean what you're doing is right. It's not right. No, men should not have mandatory vasectomies. Women's rights do not ever have to come at the cost of others'. Nobody's human rights should EVER come at the cost of anothers'.

Radical feminism is an ideological cousin of Zionism. Jewish people have been through so much for so long, and so have women. It doesn't mean they need a fucking theocracy. They deserve to be safe in whatever fucking country they live in. Women don't need to be a separate species from men, they need to be safe where they are.

Radical feminism is not radical. You're not saying anything that hasn't been said already. It's lazy. It's defeatist. It is a movement without a spine or a backbone, but its covered in sharp thorns to keep everyone away, even hands trying to pick weeds.

How do you find equality in a society that does not want you to?

You fucking work for it. We're not in the end times, we're a blip on a timeline bigger than we can imagine. This thing you are fighting is not inherent to men or women, it's a consequence of European ideas (it kinda started with Greece, in my opinion, because Rome ran with it and then Christianity cemented it).

It sounds ridiculous but you know what? Activism is emotional labor. No, you don't owe it to anyone, but if you want change you fucking do it. You teach your sons kindness. You teach them to stand up for girls. If you want change men MUST be included in discussions. I'm sorry if it sounds like a "not all men" moment but it's true. You NEED people in a privileged class to be included. You NEED that change from INSIDE the house. Every successful movement must lean on their allies because oppressed people are OPPRESSED! It shouldn't be that way, but oppressed groups do not have the power alone to make change.

----

I started this more angry but I've set it to the side and come back a couple times to edit some of the angry parts out because it's not what I really want to say.

----

[buckydeservesthebest]

I mean… Really after everything we've seen, anyone dares to say that Bucky had any sort of control over his actions? How could he have “any degree of choice” if Bucky as himself, as a consciousness/person didn't exist!

How could he, when we saw him being dragged unconscious into the chair gives the memory suppressor machine, we saw the undeniable change in his facial expression after the activation words were spoken, he went from an expression of pain and fear to a totally blank one. He was used as a punching bag by the other Winter Soldiers, because the order his handlers gave him was only to train them, not to kill them. But when Karpov ordered him to get him out of that place, the original order changed, and now Bucky was able to get rid of the other Winter Soldiers without any problem.

In CA:TWS, the tiny fragment of memory he regained when Steve called him by name barely allowed him to be able to ask a question, but it didn't restore enough autonomy to protest when he was slapped around like a malfunctioning machine, or to be able to object to the knowledge that he would be subjected to that horribly painful FTE for not obeying as he should.

I think people get hung up about that line he spits out about going after Nat and ordering the other guys to go after Steve. Combined with the action preceding that scene (he’s leading the attack while the other guys are handing him weapons, driving the vehicle, providing covering fire etc), it gives the false impression that he’s got enough mental capacity to coordinate an attack. But he’s not leading them in that scene.

Exactly. It always seemed to me that the line “i get her, find him”, wasn't an instruction or an order Bucky gave to the HYDRA agents, but rather that his handlers ordered him to report his future moves to the team he was assigned to assist him. I mean, Pierce tasked him with taking out two targets, Steve and Nat, and clearly the Winter Soldier was to start with one of them. When Nat seemed to show more resistance, and was the first to assault him, the Winter Soldier decided to go after her first, and then he would go after Steve. Then “finding him (Steve)” would be the second task he would accomplish. If we look closely, the way the HYDRA agents assist him by passing him firearms, etc., is more in an anticipatory way to what the Winter Soldier needs at that moment, I mean, he didn't ask them to pass him a certain weapon, or have the armored trucks come to him so he could jump and move on them. The HYDRA agents were assisting him without the Winter Soldier asking for them, because he can't “ask” for anything and they know that perfectly well, so they were to anticipate what he might need to accomplish his mission, which as luna rightly said, was a solo mission, because the agents never backed him up in the confrontation

Also, it's clear how the Winter Soldier sticks strictly to the orders his handlers give him, precisely because he doesn't have the ability to make choices. That's why he didn't kill Nat the first time they met, because that mission was specifically about eliminating the scientist she was accompanying, nothing else. It's why he didn't try to kill Steve on their first encounter either, because again, the mission was only about eliminating Fury. In neither of those two missions was the order to leave no witnesses, unlike in the case of T*ny's parents, or the Innesa Hotel. And that's why in the highway fight, at no point did he try to attack Falcon even when he assaulted him at one point, staying focused on the mission to eliminate Steve.

OH and the sarcastic question Pierce asked Bucky about whether he wants milk... that scene though small, perfectly demonstrates the total absence of not only the Winter Soldier's ability to make decisions for himself, but his ability to reason his lack of decision-making power. His expression of confusion is because he doesn't understand what it is to be asked something, he doesn't understand what it is to “want”, because all he knows is to follow orders, because he literally does not have the ability to make a choice.

Steve himself said that the Winter Soldier was NOT Bucky, and that HYDRA was the one controlling him.

In Black Widow's own movie they said that the Winter Soldier project worked to create the first and only cellular blueprint of the basal ganglia and manipulate voluntary motor movement, procedural learning., etc. which is the key to free will control.

The Wakanda Files book itself clearly states that the Winter Soldier is a sleep-like trance state, it was as if he was in REM sleep while awake.

In TFATWS itself Zemo acknowledged that Bucky was not conscious when the Winter Soldier's Soldier programming was activated!

Zemo: Longing Rusted Seventeen Bucky: Those days are over. Zemo: I know. I just wanted to see how the new you reacts to the old words. Something is still in there. At least you were not *conscious* for most of your imprisonment.

Marvel's own production has directly acknowledged that as the Winter Soldier, the idea of choice and self-determination was taken away from him! And that as a result, he had no control over his actions!

AS THE WINTER SOLDIER, BUCKY DID NOT EVEN EXIST, AND THE WINTER SOLDIER HIMSELF WAS STRIPPED OF HIS ABILITY TO MAKE A CHOICE.

It is still beyond my comprehension how people can say what happened to Bucky wasn't mind control and that he "still had a degree of choice".

I mean how on earth can you interpret what we see in Cap 2 and 3 as "having a degree of choice". He's literally hypnotised.

Hello guys, really sorry for the delayed replies, life has gotten busy.

Often these are the same people who point to Wanda as the one to blame for Westview, and saying how “horrific” it is that she mind controlled them. But they’re somehow not able to see Bucky in the same light.

I’m not that up to speed on the scientific basis behind hypnosis (and from memory there wasn’t a lot of research available), but I think previously we’ve agreed that real life hypnosis basically is a “suggestion” and is not capable of forcing someone to do something against their will. So what Bucky went through is worse than hypnosis.

I think people get hung up about that line he spits out about going after Nat and ordering the other guys to go after Steve. Combined with the action preceding that scene (he’s leading the attack while the other guys are handing him weapons, driving the vehicle, providing covering fire etc), it gives the false impression that he’s got enough mental capacity to coordinate an attack. But he’s not leading them in that scene. He’s basically gunning solo, as he always does. They don’t back him up once they’re down on the tarmac, and he’s clearly also not expecting back up. To me that scene feels very much like a solo mission with some extra firepower he uses at the beginning with the understanding he’s on his own when it comes to handling Steve and Nat.

How could he have a degree of choice when he couldn’t even answer Pierce’s question of whether or not he wanted milk?

[jimunderscore]

the deafening sounds of a transport ship loom over the back compartment where three individuals reside without autonomy. a pair of youths, one inspiring with pale expressions and another enthusiastic but losing faith accompanied by a century old revered man who has lost all hope. 

Riva: Is it over Tribune Et-Tuhil, is the fight over?

Tuhil: Why would it be Riva Kin? They can take our freedom but not the spirit. The fight for our homes is laid on the hands of others, for now.

Hajiun: With respect to your young naivete, I don't think we are getting out of this prison ship Tribunes. They only spared us to make examples out of us.

Tuhil sighs and lowers their weary head

Tuhil: we cannot let our home be taken, have our people fought for nought? The great Onia sacrificed herself for our cause, to remake our world into something other than Ghore'rai!

Hajiun: Her sacrifice does not justify her as divinity, she is equal to the Otesh. nor are we losing our world. Surrender is probably the best cause for our long term survival as a people.

Tuhil: I'd rather die now than live under earthen rule, but I think we should not argue at times like these Saint.

Hajiun: Perhaps you still have an ounce of her wisdom Tribune, it is unfortunate that we have lost all Weavers. If only your father didn't hunt them all down, perhaps we would have had a chance just like Onia had when she fought the Godseers.

Tuhil: He is no father of mine any longer, after all he had done. He had betrayed Onia's people and her wishes. How can he claim to be a son of her? He had weaved the dream to capture all those who could oppose his rule. No greater treachery than surrendering another of your kind.

Hajiun: Tribune, your father has surrendered ages ago. Even before the earthen people arrived, he had lost hope in the fight as someone who fought alongside Onia. The life toll even then was too great. He sees this as a way to survive, maybe just to a breath longer.

Tuhil: The Earthen people want to strip us of our power, remove our ability to thread the dream. If we stop being lucid among the darkness, how may we live? We will return to being blind. You surely recognize this Saint?

A silence overwhelms the cell, as the door opens revealing the military escorts, adorned in garbs removing of one's humanity.

Tuhil: Oh great, I've missed the faceless army.

Riva: Tribune what are you doing? Just stand down, it's over.

Tuhil is pushed by the escort and as he tries to retaliate Riva stops him.

Hajiun: Let's go Tuhil.

They silently column towards their cell in the station, through dark and rusted corridors until they enter an opening. Rooms of cells overviewed by a panopticon.

Hajiun: So, this is our new home for the next eternity?

Tuhil: Don't say it like that Saint, we have Riva here. At Least they deserve hope!

Hajiun: The universe is cruel, such a young woman to become a prisoner so far away from home. It is crushing. 

Tuhil: Saint, why the sentimentalism? Have we not suffered enou-

Riva: I can speak for myself Tuhil!

Tuhil bows his head towards Riva

Tuhil:Riva kin.

Riva: Surely someone should come after us? At Least some other saints and tribunes are around, maybe some will form into cohorts?

Hajiun: If only, Riva-Kin. the now Governor Izarl of Earth and coincidentally the father of one of us has made a pact with the earthen ones to arrest and execute all our leading individuals throughout old-Ghore Rai, thus in most likelihood. We are the last ones, I do not know if anyone else has survived. It just happened so quickly.

Riva: What about Saint Ovecja? I doubt they would have been able to locate them.

Hajiun: It is full of contempt for our people. it only wishes to ruin our kind and replace them with unhuman designs. I doubt it feels sympathy for our dying struggle.

Riva: I thought you fought the godseers with them, Saint? Didn't they send out legions of their kind to help in the end of our tyranny?

Hajiun:The Overseer was nothing different then the Godseers, made of the same ilk. It was merely afraid to die and wanted to live a life it never had. Thus he sacrificed thousands of mindless drones to our cause to gain Onia's favour. In response he was given life as a reward for his information and armies. But fundamentally he is not one of us. Just a construct, it cannot weave the dream. It is mindless.

Riva: Surely if they were mindless then Ovecja wouldn't have rebelled. He would have not conformed during the first struggle those thousands of years ago.

Hajiun: The godseers made that construct inherently flawed by accident, and it was their undoing. It has never felt sympathy for humanity. It merely desired power.

Riva: Thus it chose to surrender it to become like us? That just doesn't make sense.

Hajiun: Onia would have brought down its empire, it merely compromised to survive, then took those armies to our planet. Surely it is planning a way to cooperate with the earthen ones to get its own slice of our home.

Riva: Do you not hate anyone of the Saints, Hajiun?

Hajiun: Dear Riva kin, the saints were all from such distant places of old-Ghore Rai. It was hard to bond over anything else but Onia's might and vision. Once She left us and changed Ghore'rai into Onia. We have all led our respective people to build a new world, we had only trusted Izarl with holding out Onia's vision forward. And you see where it lead us now. My people were wise to say that we should have not seen Onia as divinely inspired by the dream, only unity of the Otesh should have guided us.

Tuhil: Perhaps I should kill you now with my bare hands now Saint Hajiun to just not hear your insults to my ancestors?

Hajiun: You would kill a brother just because you fear the truth? Truly none in your lineage were fit to rule. Onia was merely an exception, or perhaps she did not give you the gift of dreaming for a reason? With the gift, can you even call yourself her inheritor? Even your father has gone through the rites of death to weave.

Riva: Please Tuhil and Hajiun. Do we not have enough to fight, must we kill our solidarity?

Hajiun: Perhaps it would be better to die now then see it all crumble to dust, won't you agree Tribune?

Tuhil: No Saint, You were one of the greatest warriors and thinkers of your people. You came from nothing, just a man of the streets. When you saw Onia's desire to see the Godseer Uskin dead, the godseer which ruined the life for you and your people. You followed her and she accepted you until the end. And is this how you repay this kindness? You were just like Riva here and you see no wisdom in her words?

Hajiun: Maybe you are right, albeit these discussions are meaningless. We are still beasts in a cage. No one will come to save us.

Tuhil: If you were so prone to losing faith you wouldn't have made it this far. What happened Saint?

Hajiun: What happened? Everything happened, Onia's death, the war of faith, Izarl's betrayal, the plan to infiltrate and capture the enemy cruiser that was foiled and lead us here. Ever since the saints went their ways, unity has died with it. We are doomed people, who saw a candle flicker and ran towards it. Not looking where we went. Maybe it would have been better to be ignorant and not know the stars.

Tuhil: We couldn't have lived in the cave for eternity, one day they would have come down to us.

Hajiun: Then it wouldn't have been as destructive, since then we wouldn't have known the truth.

The cell door opens, two soldiers reveal themselves and enter to take Tuhil.

Tuhil: I-i, I hope you two make it further than I do.

Hajiun: Let the Otesh be with you Tribune.

Riva: Onia around Tuhil, protect.

As Tuhil is escorted. The remaining prisoners glance at each other.

Riva: Tuhil.. is gone isn't he?

Hajiun: I don't know, I can only hope he won't fight his fate for long.

Tuhil, dragged in darkness speaks to themselves.

Why is it taking so long? Are you incapable of just shooting me? Where are you taking me?

Just say something, anything?

Hello? Please anyone or anything?

Oh Onia please glance upon me.

Through the dream peek into my mind.

And behold me the strength to see forward.

So that I can live and truly see with my eyes.

Please, please just let me see something, feel something.

Do you behold no humanity in you to treat your kind like nothing?

Riva:It has been a week since Hajiun, no one is here.

Hajiun: I feel my mind slipping away from me Riva kin.

Riva: I do too, it is just so quiet. There is nothing here.

Hajiun: No one has come to take us.

Riva: I can only imagine what that could mean Hajiun.

The uneasy silence and a depreciation of the senses radiate away from Tuhil's thoughts, as in a dream white columns form into walls around them.

Hello?.. No, please no. Whose dream realm is this? What do you want?

A man appears in the distance and close to Tuhil, a recognizable silhouette.

Izarl: Do you not recognize this place Tuhil? Have we been so far apart for this long?

Tuhil: Izarl, they brought me to you and your dream. Why?

Izarl: Because I asked them for you, they wanted to end your little show. But I told them that would make you a martyr. So I asked them to bring them to you.

Tuhil: To torture me in your head, so that i surrender to your regime?

Izarl: Is it wrong to save one's son?

Tuhil: I'd rather die than be saved by you.

Izarl: How could you say such a thing, what about your people who you wanted to save. Would you really want to die here?

Tuhil: After you just let my mother die at their earthen hands for trying to stop their invasion. I'd rather be as far as I can from you.

Izarl: That was her choice and I tried to stop her. But I had no power, they didn't let me save her.

Tuhil: Doesn't stop the fact that you didn't die with her, instead you betrayed us all.

Izarl: Sorry, we couldn't have fought their might, their power is too great and we were made weak by those spared by Onia.

Tuhil: So you would rather be enslaved?

Izarl: At Least there is potential to rise again, we could find their strength in their culture. Take it for ourselves and become supreme.

Tuhil: or fade away slowly and be assimilated. You are nothing but a tyrant! You had the graces of Onia and that wasn't enough for you. You needed more!

Izarl: How are you any better Son? You took up my place and led armies of our people, for what? To just show you can, to doom thousands to die for something impossible?

Tuhil: At Least i fought for something, you surrendered. You killed your people and you killed your wife... What does that make you?

A silence illuminates the room, the white walls shatter slightly as Izarl manifests a sword.

Izarl: Maybe I should strike you down right now? What do you say Tribune?

Tuhil: Hah! Now you kill your own son? Have you not any mercy in your mind?

Izarl: My mercy has been expended on getting you here, either you surrender your people now, or perish among the silk.

Tuhil: At Least let us fight on equal ground? Is there any pleasure killing the unarmed?

Izarl throws a spear which manifests in the air and Tuhil picks it up with his mechanical hand.

Tuhil: By blessed, Onia save me.

Izarl: She won't save you now, Tuhil.

Tuhil lunges at Izarl aiming the spear towards the heart, before it connects Izarl manifests a tentacle and dropping him onto the floor.

Izarl: Ever so eager, yet forgetting that you cannot weave the dream. What did you expect to happen?

Tuhil: Even in your dream, I was so close.

Tuhil quickly looks up and swings the spear towards Izarl's neck to only be countered by Izarl's blade, splitting the spear in two.

Izarl: Does it matter if it never reaches the desired conclusion? A close call is still a failure in the annals.

Tuhil: In the dream, Absolute fact becomes meaningless. Everything becomes just a part of the imagination of a weaver, right?

Izarl: At Least you understand its power, something you weren't strong enough to achieve. And even now, still weak.

A final strike iterates through Tuhil, cutting them down and blanking their mind.

Hajiun: Riva? How much longer will you stare through the gate?

Riva: They just took that cell away.

Hajiun: How many left?

Riva: Less than half when we first arrived here.

Hajiun: I fear the worst. How many weeks will we stay here?

Riva: Maybe our punishment is to be forgotten?

Hajiun: I doubt so.

Tuhil's mind is still lurking amidst the dark of nothing, in the distance a light fades, beckoning them closer.

Seamlessly darkness unveils revealing a glamouring light, illuminated from a great corpse upon fading dead branches or roots.

Inside the carcass, silken lines stride in every direction and sense, as such happens the mind starts to leave, beginning to fall back into the nothing.

As the light fades it is remade when Tuhil's hand is grasped by a familiar arm that they recognize yet have never seen.

Tuhil awakens, alive but dead and pain coursing through the skull. Laying in a yurt amidst the arctic snow.

Tuhil groans and yells: Is anyone here?

A frail robotic figure appears from the outsides, seemingly distraught in his limited emotional visage.

Ovecja: Et-Tuhil Nebovod? My people have said of your's and Hajiun's death, how have you returned from the void?

Tuhil: Not aware of why, but i feel like i can see much more than i could.

Ovecja: Your kind must rest after such voyages. Despite my limited power I do sense you have become slightly closer to the Otesh.

Tuhil: Thank you Saint Ovecja. I do not have time for rest and calm but how did I find myself in your care?

Ovecja: I understand, We stayed here and hid but some of them couldn't be stopped to wonder in their childlike minds so they gazed upon the fights in the stars and abound Onia's Great body. Most of them asked me to intervene in the fight so we did. We entered the orbital ring-station, yet when we reached Saint-Tribune Izarl's quarters we found you there, dead upon a table. We brought you here and were preparing for a voyage out to escape this wrecked place, we thought all was lost yet you live, surely these must be the powers of The Great She, Onia. Your blood must in truth be blessed, perhaps I was wrong to side with the Otesh in the war.

Tuhil: Do not think we have time to wander our minds, we must act to bring change before it is too late.

Ovecja: If I may ask, how did you get captured at-first and what should we do next?

Tuhil: Originally me and Saint Hajiun and a cohort were to infiltrate their capital ship that stands in orbit of The Otesh Gas Giant. In it we would start a false flag attack onto nearby vessels and earthen bases. Then sabotage the reactor and flee towards a stealth craft. Unfortunately, Izarl foiled our plan before we found out he had betrayed us. The stealth craft should still be at its location, we should contact it and attempt to invade the capital ship. I have an alternative plan. But before we do so, we must free Saint Hajiun.

Ovecja: Hmm, my people do not fear death as I do not fear death. I am no tactician or general, just the mind, so please. Proceed as you see fit. 

Tuhil: Let us get ready.

After a couple hours of waiting the ship returns, sending the two with a contingent of Ovecja's children upon the prison colony.

Riva: Hajiun, I think this might be the end of the line for us.

Hajiun: It was only a matter of time before our time would come. Now we must march the road to death like the many before us.

Shots echo through the station as the escort crew gets killed.

Hajiun: Perhaps fate smiles upon us in unfortunate ways.

Ovecja: Greetings Saint Hajiun, how long have we not exchanged faces?

Riva: Kindness to you Saint Ovecja, never doubted one of the Otesh.

Hajiun: Never thought you would come Overseer. Are you alone?

Ovecja: No, Tribune Tuhil is leading another number of troops through the station, we are planning to keep the station online for now. We need your help in infiltration of the capital vessel.

Hajiun: Is he seriously considering the same plan?

Ovecja: He assured me that it is different this time, albeit I feel disturbances amidst the dream.

Hajiun: Worrying that you have can feel the dream.

Riva: Tribune is surely waiting for us, we do not have the luxury of conversation!

The trio go further into the station and regroup with everyone. Reading to board the capital vessel.

Hajiun: I've felt the presence of your mind much greater than before Tuhil.

Tuhil: Is that so? After I awoke again I felt as if all had become much more clear, thinking, seeing and touching felt so much more distant yet real.

Riva: Have you death weaved? Seems familiar to what people describe after experiencing the moth rites. Albeit I was never let to perform the ritual myself.

Tuhil: Maybe but I am deeply unsure of it all and I fear to try.

Hajiun: Perhaps you should at a later time, weaving in stress has never ended well without practice. Perhaps that is how you survived?

Tuhil: I feel like I've been touched by someone I know. their presence now seems ever looming.

Riva: Since it seems you have been weaved into becoming a weaver, now you can claim Onia's legacy!

Tuhil: I fear Izarl still lives

Hajiun: Have you not killed him?

Tuhil: No, I died in his realm and awoke to him gone. Perhaps he has hid?

Hajiun: Hiding with no actions is the same as invisible death. 

The craft loses itself in the shadow of the colossal ship orbiting Otesh. While some cut a hole inside through which to enter, the leaders gather to detail their plans.

Riva: We have made it on board the capital ship, that is at least it isn't a full disaster.

Hajiun: What now Tuhil?

Tuhil: Riva and Ovecja, secure the starboard while me and Hajiun secure the port. I believe the surprise will be enough for us to win.

Ovecja: Yes.

Riva: Alright.

Hajiun: Sure, but why am I with you Tribune.

Tuhil: Complimentary kits are required for each of our destinations.

As Riva and Ovecja clear the road to enter the command centre, Tuhil and Hajiun divert into the reactor room. in which Hajiun is distressed to be in.

Hajiun: So Tribune, why have we diverged here?

Tuhil: I need you to bind me to the ship.

Hajiun distraught in his expression:what... Why? That would make you no different than the godseers of old. And how, I only know the technique from Godseer technology.

Tuhil: This is Godseer technology.

Hajiun: What do you mean?

Tuhil: These people do not hail from mythical earth. These are the people of the godseers.

Hajiun: This is impossible, they came from outside the system.

Tuhil: That's what we think, they always lived here. Just not on Onia. I saw it in Izarl's mind.

Hajiun: Izarl knew? We have just been fighting our own distant people this entire time?

Tuhil: Perhaps, but they will not surrender. They aren't like us. They are changed, the augmentations make them almost not sentient. It matters not, bound me to this vessel and we may win.

Hajiun: And then you become a god? Immortal with the strongest ship we've ever seen? Do you think of me as such a fool?

Tuhil: It is the only way we may win this war, we do not have the required manpower to man this vessel. If we take it over now, we only lose one soldier. I will be able to set up a blockade to starve their ground armies and not let any more bombardments to occur. We will be free on our sacred ground.

Hajiun: Fine, if this is the prison you want for yourself then I will bound you, but know. Once this is all over, I will either tear every piece of your body into nothing or you leave this system for eternity.

Tuhil: Such is my fate, it has been great fighting for you, warrior of old. Tell them I've died while reaching the command centre and evacuate this vessel.

Hajiun: Farewell Tuhil, let victory follow.

Hajiun led the remaining army and leaders out of the ship en route to Onia which orbits the gas giant Otesh. Tuhil, now one with the capital vessel, controlling it with his now immortal body, motions of his hands shoot volleys of artillery upon nearby military stations, enough to erase entire nations. Each meteor in the belt is brought to dust and each inhabitant with them. Weaving his mind to form dreamscapes of himself aboard each enemy vessel at once.

At the end the last one of this invader stares at Tuhil's phantasmal form and once damaged, for the first time one of them ever speaks.

"Why?"

Tuhil, in a cruel amazement responds: "Why have you ruined our homes and raised our cities?"

"I-i, it spoke. It said, It commanded. We did. We can't.. can't, no. The end, it was there."

Tuhil grazes his hand over the faceless soldier: "Rest in her name, for once true".

the soldier dies and Tuhil knows the war is over. Thinking that one victory here, signals something greater. 

[puttingherinhistory]

“Covid has unleashed the most severe setback to women’s liberation in my lifetime. While watching this happen, I have started to think we are witnessing an outbreak of disaster patriarchy.

Naomi Klein was the first to identify “disaster capitalism”, when capitalists use a disaster to impose measures they couldn’t possibly get away with in normal times, generating more profit for themselves. Disaster patriarchy is a parallel and complementary process, where men exploit a crisis to reassert control and dominance, and rapidly erase hard-earned women’s rights. (The term “racialized disaster patriarchy” was used by Rachel E Luft in writing about an intersectional model for understanding disaster 10 years after Hurricane Katrina.) All over the world, patriarchy has taken full advantage of the virus to reclaim power – on the one hand, escalating the danger and violence to women, and on the other, stepping in as their supposed controller and protector.

I have spent months interviewing activists and grassroots leaders around the world, from Kenya to France to India, to find out how this process is affecting them, and how they are fighting back. In very different contexts, five key factors come up again and again. In disaster patriarchy, women lose their safety, their economic power, their autonomy, their education, and they are pushed on to the frontlines, unprotected, to be sacrificed. 

Part of me hesitates to use the word “patriarchy”, because some people feel confused by it, and others feel it’s archaic. I have tried to imagine a newer, more contemporary phrase for it, but I have watched how we keep changing language, updating and modernising our descriptions in an attempt to meet the horror of the moment. I think, for example, of all the names we have given to the act of women being beaten by their partner. First, it was battery, then domestic violence, then intimate partner violence, and most recently intimate terrorism. We are forever doing the painstaking work of refining and illuminating, rather than insisting the patriarchs work harder to deepen their understanding of a system that is eviscerating the planet. So, I’m sticking with the word. 

In this devastating time of Covid we have seen an explosion of violence towards women, whether they are cisgender or gender-diverse. Intimate terrorism in lockdown has turned the home into a kind of torture chamber for millions of women. We have seen the spread of revenge porn as lockdown has pushed the world online; such digital sexual abuse is now central to domestic violence as intimate partners threaten to share sexually explicit images without victims’ consent. 

The conditions of lockdown – confinement, economic insecurity, fear of illness, excess of alcohol – were a perfect storm for abuse. It is hard to determine what is more disturbing: the fact that in 2021 thousands of men still feel willing and entitled to control, torture and beat their wives, girlfriends and children, or that no government appears to have thought about this in their planning for lockdown. 

In Peru, hundreds of women and girls have gone missing since lockdown was imposed, and are feared dead. According to official figures reported by Al Jazeera, 606 girls and 309 women went missing between 16 March and 30 June last year. Worldwide, the closure of schools has increased the likelihood of various forms of violence. The US Rape Abuse and Incest National Network says its helpline for survivors of sexual assault has never been in such demand in its 26-year history, as children are locked in with abusers with no ability to alert their teachers or friends. In Italy, calls to the national anti-violence toll-free number increased by 73% between 1 March and 16 April 2020, according to the activist Luisa Rizzitelli. In Mexico, emergency call handlers received the highest number of calls in the country’s history, and the number of women who sought domestic violence shelters quadrupled. 

To add outrage to outrage, many governments reduced funding for these shelters at the exact moment they were most needed. This seems to be true throughout Europe. In the UK, providers told Human Rights Watch that the Covid-19 crisis has exacerbated a lack of access to services for migrant and Black, Asian and minority ethnic women. The organisations working with these communities say that persistent inequality leads to additional difficulties in accessing services such as education, healthcare and disaster relief remotely. 

In the US, more than 5 million women’s jobs were lost between the start of the pandemic and November 2020. Because much of women’s work requires physical contact with the public – restaurants, stores, childcare, healthcare settings – theirs were some of the first to go. Those who were able to keep their jobs were often frontline workers whose positions have put them in great danger; some 77% of hospital workers and 74% percent of school staff are women. Even then, the lack of childcare options left many women unable to return to their jobs. Having children does not have this effect for men. The rate of unemployment for Black and Latina women was higher before the virus, and now it is even worse. 

The situation is more severe for women in other parts of the world. Shabnam Hashmi, a leading women’s activist from India, tells me that by April 2020 a staggering 39.5% of women there had lost their jobs. “Work from home is very taxing on women as their personal space has disappeared, and workload increased threefold,” Hashmi says. In Italy, existing inequalities have been amplified by the health emergency. Rizzitelli points out that women already face lower employment, poorer salaries and more precarious contracts, and are rarely employed in “safe” corporate roles; they have been the first to suffer the effects of the crisis. “Pre-existing economic, social, racial and gender inequalities have been accentuated, and all of this risks having longer-term consequences than the virus itself,” Rizzitelli says. 

When women are put under greater financial pressure, their rights rapidly erode. With the economic crisis created by Covid, sex- and labour-trafficking are again on the rise. Young women who struggle to pay their rent are being preyed on by landlords, in a process known as “sextortion”. 

I don’t think we can overstate the level of exhaustion, anxiety and fear that women are suffering from taking care of families, with no break or time for themselves. It’s a subtle form of madness. As women take care of the sick, the needy and the dying, who takes care of them? Colani Hlatjwako, an activist leader from the Kingdom of Eswatini, sums it up: “Social norms that put a heavy caregiving burden on women and girls remain likely to make their physical and mental health suffer.” These structures also impede access to education, damage livelihoods, and strip away sources of support.

Unesco estimates that upward of 11 million girls may not return to school once the Covid pandemic subsides. The Malala Fund estimates an even bigger number: 20 million. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, from UN Women, says her organisation has been fighting for girls’ education since the Beijing UN women’s summit in 1995. “Girls make up the majority of the schoolchildren who are not going back,” she says. “We had been making progress – not perfect, but we were keeping them at school for longer. And now, to have these girls just dropping out in one year, is quite devastating.” 

Of all these setbacks, this will be the most significant. When girls are educated, they know their rights, and what to demand. They have the possibility of getting jobs and taking care of their families. When they can’t access education, they become a financial strain to their families and are often forced into early marriages. 

This has particular implications for female genital mutilation (FGM). Often, fathers will accept not subjecting their daughters to this process because their daughters can become breadwinners through being educated. If there is no education, then the traditional practices resume, so that daughters can be sold for dowries. As Agnes Pareyio, chairwoman of the Kenyan Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Board, tells me: “Covid closed our schools and brought our girls back home. No one knew what was going on in the houses. We know that if you educate a girl, FGM will not happen. And now, sadly the reverse is true.” 

In the early months of the pandemic, I had a front-row seat to the situation of nurses in the US, most of whom are women. I worked with National Nurses United, the biggest and most radical nurses’ union, and interviewed many nurses working on the frontline. I watched as for months they worked gruelling 12-hour shifts filled with agonising choices and trauma, acting as midwives to death. On their short lunch breaks, they had to protest over their own lack of personal protective equipment, which put them in even greater danger. In the same way that no one thought what it would mean to lock women and children in houses with abusers, no one thought what it would be like to send nurses into an extremely contagious pandemic without proper PPE. In some US hospitals, nurses were wearing garbage bags instead of gowns, and reusing single-use masks many times. They were being forced to stay on the job even if they had fevers.

The treatment of nurses who were risking their lives to save ours was a shocking kind of violence and disrespect. But there are many other areas of work where women have been left unprotected, from the warehouse workers who are packing and shipping our goods, to women who work in poultry and meat plants who are crammed together in dangerous proximity and forced to stay on the job even when they are sick. One of the more stunning developments has been with “tipped” restaurant workers in the US, already allowed to be paid the shockingly low wage of $2.13 (£1.50) an hour, which has remained the same for the past 22 years. Not only has work declined, tips have also declined greatly for those women, and now a new degradation called “maskular harassment” has emerged, where male customers insist waitresses take off their masks so they can determine if and how much to tip them based on their looks. 

Women farm workers in the US have seen their protections diminished while no one was looking. Mily Treviño-Sauceda, executive director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, tells me how pressures have increased on campesinas, or female farm workers: “There have been more incidents of pesticides poisonings, sexual abuse and heat stress issues, and there is less monitoring from governmental agencies or law enforcement due to Covid-19.” 

Covid has revealed the fact that we live with two incompatible ideas when it comes to women. The first is that women are essential to every aspect of life and our survival as a species. The second is that women can easily be violated, sacrificed and erased. This is the duality that patriarchy has slashed into the fabric of existence, and that Covid has laid bare. If we are to continue as a species, this contradiction needs to be healed and made whole. 

To be clear, the problem is not the lockdowns, but what the lockdowns, and the pandemic that required them, have made clear. Covid has revealed that patriarchy is alive and well; that it will reassert itself in times of crisis because it has never been truly deconstructed, and like an untreated virus it will return with a vengeance when the conditions are ripe. 

The truth is that unless the culture changes, unless patriarchy is dismantled, we will forever be spinning our wheels. Coming out of Covid, we need to be bold, daring, outrageous and to imagine a more radical way of existing on the Earth. We need to continue to build and spread activist movements. We need progressive grassroots women and women of colour in positions of power. We need a global initiative on the scale of a Marshall Plan or larger, to deconstruct and exorcise patriarchy – which is the root of so many other forms of oppression, from imperialism to racism, from transphobia to the denigration of the Earth. 

There would first be a public acknowledgment, and education, about the nature of patriarchy and an understanding that it is driving us to our end. There would be ongoing education, public forums and processes studying how patriarchy leads to various forms of oppression. Art would help expunge trauma, grief, aggression, sorrow and anger in the culture and help heal and make people whole. We would understand that a culture that has diabolical amnesia and refuses to address its past can only repeat its misfortunes and abuses. Community and religious centres would help members deal with trauma. We would study the high arts of listening and empathy. Reparations and apologies would be done in public forums and in private meetings. Learning the art of apology would be as important as prayer.

The feminist author Gerda Lerner wrote in 1986: “The system of patriarchy in a historic construct has a beginning and it will have an end. Its time seems to have nearly run its course. It no longer serves the needs of men and women, and its intractable linkage to militarism, hierarchy and racism has threatened the very existence of life on Earth.”

As powerful as patriarchy is, it’s just a story. As the post-pandemic era unfolds, can we imagine another system, one that is not based on hierarchy, violence, domination, colonialisation and occupation? Do we see the connection between the devaluing, harming and oppression of all women and the destruction of the Earth itself? What if we lived as if we were kin? What if we treated each person as sacred and essential to the unfolding story of humanity? 

What if rather than exploiting, dominating and hurting women and girls during a crisis, we designed a world that valued them, educated them, paid them, listened to them, cared for them and centred them?“

[serpenteve]

what did alina starkov want, anyway?

People have been arguing for ages about the ending of Ruin & Rising. One faction says Alina losing her powers was misogynistic and needlessly cruel while the other says the ending is fitting because Alina always wanted to live an ordinary life with Mal.

I would argue the problem lies with Alina's mess of a character arc.

For the majority of S&B and the first half of S&S, Alina is a very passive character who wants nothing more than to run away with Mal. Though they changed it in the show, it was originally Mal who wanted to go after the stag and who wanted Alina to have the stag's amplifier because he thought it would give them a fighting chance against the Darkling. In S&S, Alina is terrified of taking a second amplifier because it goes against all the Grisha theory she knows, echoing the arc words of the trilogy: What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.

It is only when Alina takes the second amplifier that she's allowed to grow a backbone. This is truly a bizarre writing choice because it all but forces the narrative to frame every active step Alina takes to forward the plot and her own character arc---whether that's deciding to rebuild the Second Army, or form a political alliance with Nikolai, or search for the third amplifier, or simply stand up for herself against bullies---as being manifestations of her creeping villainy.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the spectrum, there is her Muggle boyfriend who is there to remind us that this is not who she is, that Morozova's amplifiers are corrupting her, that he wants her to go back to the girl she was when she was more passive, vulnerable, and dependent on him.

Surely, there is a line between the heroine learning to trust herself and gaining confidence in her abilities versus the heroine giving in to corruption and becoming more power-hungry and evil? However, the narrative does not distinguish between these two very different arcs. Consequently, the reader is left in a bizarre place where we cannot watch Alina's character arc grow from passivity to maturity without being reminded of how ~evil~ she is becoming, despite there being very little textual evidence to back this up. We also grow to resent Mal because instead of him being a supportive boyfriend who is trying to help Alina navigate her own character arc, he is holding her back from her potential---not just in her powers but also in her personal autonomy.

At the same time, there are sprinklings of Alina's call to her dark side through the Darkling's offer of a throne. Ignoring how sincere his words may or may not be, Alina still feels tempted to join him and frequently thinks about the truth of his words---that she is no ordinary Grisha, that is useless to fight what she is, that she is capable of more than an ordinary mortal life, that he is the only one who can understand the eternity before her. Because readers expect to see a character arc where Alina grows from a scared passive girl to a strong independent woman, we grow to associate her longing for power as a natural evolution of her character development. However, the narrative wants you to believe Alina's development is not a natural progression of her character but rather a corruption due to her greed from the influence of Morozova's amplifiers.

Bardugo completely fails to set up an alternate character arc for Alina where she may grow in power and strength as a character, but does not become evil along the way. Her heroine's arc is completely strangled by the moral panic of the narrative. This is doubly emphasized by the plot: in order for Alina to defeat the Darkling, she must seek out the amplifiers out of necessity. This is framed as greed. In order for Alina to triumph, she must use all three amplifiers, but when she does, she is punished by the plot. But what other choice did the heroine have? It is not like there was some non-evil alternative for Alina to embrace and she deliberately chose the path of most greed. She is not punished for her actions like her male counterparts who seek power. In fact, you could argue, she can't be punished for her actions because her actions are not coming from a place of choice.

At the end of R&R, Alina is stripped of her powers and lives an ordinary life with Mal. As this is the epilogue, one must assume Bardugo meant for Alina's character arc to end in this way. Her character arc is meant to be a cautionary tale against the evils of seeking too much power. This moral aesop falls flat for a number of reasons:

"Power corrupts" is a popular moral message that it's gotten fairly cliche at this point

It's also so heavy-handed, I don't blame readers for expecting it to be subverted because of how much we were hit over the head with it

The strangely gendered way this moral lesson is delivered raises some eyebrows. Are male characters who are actually power-hungry such as Nikolai, the Apparat, and the Darkling not subject to the same punishments the narrative deals out to Alina?

Most importantly, this aesop clashes with Alina's character

In order for this greed corruption arc to make sense, the heroine really should have been an entirely different character who starts off the series with ambition and a need for power. We needed a heroine like Jude Duarte, Kestrel Trajan, or Aelin Galathynius. Someone who is already established as being capable, ambitious, and ruthless. Granted, I still think this would be a shit character arc because of the long history in which female power is demonized, but at least the arc would make sense for the character in the tradition of tragedies.

However, because Alina starts off the series as being insecure and not yet accepting of herself, we expect to see a character arc where she becomes more confident, emotionally mature, and maybe even a little ruthless. We don't expect her to suddenly become corrupted by greed (a character trait she never had to begin with, especially when she would rather run away and hide with Mal than deal with a geopolitical situation) and get punished for being "too ambitious".

To add to this confusing mess of an arc, Alina suppressing her powers leads to her being weak, fatigued, and malnourished. So she must use her powers in order to be healthy, but using her powers is what directly contributes to the rest of her character arc. The heroine cannot win.

In conclusion, Bardugo wrote a book where a naive scared girl gets manipulated into wearing an evil MacGuffin that turns her "greedy" and then gets punished for it, even though the plot offered her no alternative. Alina never wanted power but because a positive character arc meant a complete descent into villainy, we are left with a regressed version of the character by the end of R&R and a whole bunch of readers left scratching their heads about what the hell we are supposed to take away from this mess of a story.

TL;DR: Alina's character arc does not match who she is as a character. She was given an arc that is usually reserved for anti-heroines and tragic heroes with fatal flaws.

[diaphin93]

I don't want to imply things, but are you sure that this isn't some subconscious bias speaking out of you? Because I personally find the thought troubling, that for example Dimitri who does violent and vile crimes for the sake of his personal thirst for revenge gets to return from it unscathed and with any lasting consequences, or Rhea who had all of Fodlan forced under a false history and caused undescirable suffering has this privilege too but its Edelgard who is penalized by either death or essentially lobotomy for her transgressions, especially with her backstory as somebody who was stripped of her bodily autonomy as a child. Like its bad and just super misogynist.

Also I think this is yet again your bias speaking, sorry. Like, Claude was always established to be against the church himself and in 3 Houses, he effectively used Byleths connection to it to destroy it within itself. In Hopes he does not have this luxury, but he also gets to show his skills as a tactician better because we see that with the right set up, he is capable of taking on the Empire or the Kingdom. And why are you assuming that what Edelgard is telling Claude about the church is not backed by elements and documents? Don't forget that at this point, Edelgard was able to take Garreg Mach Monestary already and therefore has access to the churches dirty secrets. Not to forget that Claude has its own gripes with the Church, which he lays out in his support with Dimitri, which are never questioned by Dimitri, for example Rhea prohibiting official relations with outside regions. In general the Game kind of confirms outright that the Church is not good and that even Dimitri hates them, but has to play a facade to uphold good relations with them, he agrees with all of Edelgards and Claudes ideas on a personal level and opposes them due to what he perceives as his duty as king. Like I mentioned, the game hints at Rhea deliberately starving the Kingdom until the has to rely on them providing for her army. Like I think there are alot of misinterpretations and misinformation floating along in the community because, lets be real, there are alot of people really obsessed with church apologism here on tumblr, the FE3H community seems to have the weirdest form of conservative elements in it.

And yeah, but SB has Shez teaching Edelgard high five, which is really much more of a dynamic than she ever developes with any of the Lions. And honestly, for me the whole Blue Lions dynamic with Shez kinda felt emblematic with the house, as it was kind of a nuffingburger. And I kinda feel like Hubert and Edelgard being the most suspicious to Shez is realistic, they are the most experienced in identifying their abilities as Agarthan, but when Shez turned, it was basically just Hubert seeing his paranoia confirmed, but even him not wanting to resolve the situation violently? Dimitri is the one who is prepared to kill Shez immediately, because they already confessed their fears to him and its what he promised them to do in this case. I think the Golden Deer had unambigiously the best scene there, they constantly call Shez their friend and while Lorenz is the onle suspicious, Hilda and Claude immediately suspect an imposter. And in general I think the relationship in Golden Deer comes off the most like Shez just being a part of them and having a real effect on the story and their Lord, fascilitating Claudes character development. With AM I never really got this feeling, like Shez being part of the Blue Lions has alot less of an effect on the story than Edelgard being mindcontrolled. When it comes to the Blue Lions, yeah they are friendly, but it never feels that deep or something that developed and has an unique dynamic. And I never really got the impression Shez has much of a reason to fight for Dimitri and the Lions, though this could be due to Dimitri being somewhat of the least inspiring leader. In contrast to Edelgard and Claude, he kinda feels like you have Che Guevara on one side, Nelson Mandela on the other and you vote for Angela Merkel.

Though I also just never felt like the Lions are that particularily close or have a strong dynamic to each other. Most barely feel like they matter overall, especially the women who feel super sidelined. Funnily enough, they are the least close house in 3H, having the lowest number of A-Supports with each other.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels like Crimson flower did a terrible job of making Edelgard....not a villain

Like, I feel like IS sort of couldn't find a good way to justify siding with Edelgard to the player beyond liking her as a character and the only way the could sort of doing it was by reducing Rhea to near Duma levels of insane, but even then while I won't condone her actions I can understand why she lost it, from her perspective she just saw someone she allowed into her home, break into the burial site of her dead siblings with the intention of desecrating them and robbing their graves and then watched what is, from her sad, broken perspective, her own mother choose to side with the person trying to take all she has left of her family away from her, I too would lose it under those circumstances. And then there's Edelgard not even being very smart, like, does she really believe her troops would hear "the church has nukes" and not either, question why they only dropped the one on the one location and why only now or just....lose all morale??? And then there's the battle at the Tailtean plains and the good old conversation between Dimitri and Edelgard, "must you continue to conquer?continue to kill?!" "Must you continue to re-conquer? Continue to kill in retaliation?" Like.....it's like even she realises she has no moral high ground over him and is just trying some desperate redirection to not be the villain she knows she is. And also the entire "king of delusion" scene where Dimitri, in his final moments, swears to avenge everyone who died for her, who she killed, to avenge all his fallen friends and family who died because of her and her ambitions and she basically just calls him a nut job.

Like??? Did IS just....give up on trying to make Edelgard look good and just hope that off her fucking rocker Rhea and Edelgards tragic backstory would cover that up???

[mediumsizetex]

Just to be perfectly clear

If you in any way support or agree with the fascist majority US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down bodily autonomy and reproductive rights, get the hell off of my blog and never come back. Everyone-- and I mean EVERYONE, I don’t give a fuck for their excuses or rationalizations-- who thinks this ruling is in any way a good thing is a subhuman piece of shit, and any of them who pretend at being “Christian” will wake up in Hell someday because every one of them is an antichrist.

Make no mistake, the fascists will not stop here. The original Nazis had a playbook and the modern nazis have it committed to memory, and this decision marks the beginning of Stage 7 of Genocide.

The Concurrence Opinion from Clarence “Stepin Fetchit” Thomas has made it unambiguously clear that these nazi pieces of shit are coming for LGBT people next, just like the original Nazis did, then they’ll come for interracial marriage, and then it’s pink triangles and yellow stars being loaded into cattle cars. All of this has happened before, and it’s happening again right now, in real time. Any LGBT people who have the means and mental health to do so need to arm up, take self defense and defensive shooting classes, and organize in mutual defense groups RIGHT FUCKING NOW. It’s not even remotely an accident that the nazis have suddeny chosen this moment in time to decide that compromise on gun control is Good Actually, because once they’ve made being anything other than a Cishet White Christian Male™ literally illegal it means they’ll be using that decreed illegality to strip people of the ability to fight back against the pogroms which will inevitably and inarguably follow. Secure the means, ability, and mindset to fight back, NOW, while you still can.

Nazi Germany 2.0 is in Beta testing right now, right here. The stochastic terrorism has already started, and we’re two election cycles away from that terrorism becoming openly state-sponsored.

[fakeikemen]

I am like, nothing short of absolutely disgusted at Bryke's portrayal of Katara in the comics and TLOK???

And apparently a majority of the audience is okay with this portrayal??

Just a recap:

This is Katara

A girl with severe abandonment issues because her mom was murdered by a Fire Nation soldier and soon after her dad left to fight in the war, leaving her alone to take care of her brother and the village.

This is Aang

A boy with chronic running away issues. This fault of his has led to a war extending up to 100 years causing death and destruction all around the world.

Katara does not acknowledge this fault of his because she idolises him as the Avatar but still his actions hurt her. A lot.

Katara: It's not brave, it's selfish and stupid! We could be helping him and I know the world needs him, but doesn't he know how much we need him, too? How can he just leave us behind?

Logically speaking, a person with abandonment issues should never be with a person who has a tendency to run away from their issues. But Aang and Katara get together anyway.

But then the comics happen.

Literally anyone who cared about Katara as a character of her own (and not just as Aang's love interest) was infuriated at how she was portrayed. She was stripped of all her autonomy and characterization and was made into "The Avatar's Girlfriend". Nothing of her own.

Some people actually call this relationship sweet. Yuck.

But the thing is, it has panels like this:

Katara, the girl with abandonment issues looks— that's right, abandoned and forgotten.

Even if the "abandonment issues" angle is thrown out of the window, the above panel from Katara's pov is a very unhealthy and shitty experience. (I can vouch with personal experience)

When you clearly don't have anyone else and the one person who you completely dedicate yourself to is completely avoiding you in favour of other people who don't really matter that much just because it makes them feel better/superior, how lonely and abandoned does that make you feel?

Also this sort of behaviour is undeniably selfish and self centred.

This problem of "Aang paying more attention to fangirls" exists in the show as well but atleast Aang corrects his behaviour or accepts that it was incorrect. The comics however:

Katara, who was abandoned, ignored and lonely in this entire comic is reasonably upset about this. But instead of the comic validating her feelings, it makes her feel guilty???

What the fuck??

If this isn't a fulfilment of the male fetish of gfs/wives putting their own mental issues and feelings on a back bench just for the sake of the man's hApPineSs, then what is this?

Not to mention this fetish is pretty disgusting.

This is what young kids are supposed to learn form the comics?

This is harmful for boys AND girls.

But sure couple goals and soulmates or whatever.

Moving on,

The very existence of LOK!Katara is just—

Like what—?

This definitely isn't the Katara I know and love.

Katara, who was completely devastated by her mother's death but got her shit together immediately and seamlessly slipped into the role of her mother and was so damn good at it that her elder brother could conveniently use his coping mechanism to supress their mother's memories with Katara's instead.

You're telling me this same girl grew up to be a sad old lonely widow who spent her days and nights wallowing in the grief of the death of her husband—

Bullshit.

That's straight up romanticization of "life is nothing without you" trope where the wife just becomes a non-functional person after the death of her husband. That, and Bryke not giving a shit about Katara's character.

There's the evident drama of Aang ignoring his two other kids in favour of the Airbending one; leaving Katara with the other two kids. Just like how she was left alone in charge of things as a child.

And then there's this:

They actually take the time to show us that Katara is sad and lonely and abandoned??

What family does she have left at the South pole? None.

And yet, people manage to think Katara is perfectly fine and happy.

Katara, a person with severe abandonment issues spends her entire life being abandoned??

What the fuck Bryke?

Like, it's pretty clear that they didn't give two shits about Katara as a character; she was just supposed to be a pretty arm candy for the Hero™ with some handy dandy waterbending abilities.

But if other people have done a spectacular job of turning this cardboard character into a fully fleshed out, multi dimensional character, why would you throw it away??

Like, that's just dumb.

Why would they take an infinite number of steps back to turn Katara back into a cardboard character and fulfil romanticized misogynistic tropes?

Much wow, many thanks.

[heliianth]

@urunclesonic HELLO m going to try to speedrun this bc i could talk about it forever. but it will still be long bc im a chronic essay andy & also u asked so

ok. so. the ultimate lifeform. i we know or at least i think shadow is a character who has an extremely rigid self-image ("the ultimate lifeform") which makes it hard to connect with both others and himself. in sa2, the first thing about shadow we smack face first into is his ego, so the player is immediately under the assumption that this is the root of the image he's created—he's just stuck up, and thinks he's the best. the dark story works to prove this wrong by essentially setting up rouge as the person who makes shadow feel most vulnerable: she provokes him into defensive behavior (lying through his teeth, escalating situations as a form of running away, insulting her, threatening her, etc) by causing his real memories to come into conflict with his brainwashing. because rouge is immune to his stupidass posturing and has spent the entire dark story gnawing at his self-confidence, by the time the sonic/shadow 2 fight comes around he is essentially stripped of his ego and he knows it. and if "the ultimate lifeform" (his self-image) was actually about power and ego or whatever, his arc would be done there. but we all know that it's not, it's about responsibility

to shadow, "the ultimate lifeform" is a lot more about other people—their expectations, their desires—than it is himself. the "ultimate lifeform" isnt really defined by ability to chaos control, or speed, or strength, or anything. its a job. a tool. first to cure maria, then to destroy humanity as revenge, then to give everyone a chance to be happy. if i went over all the evidence or examples of shadow being almost incapable of forming an identity outside of what other people tell him i would be here for fucking ever

and the thing about sa2 is it never... fixes this? it touches on it (i mean ofc it does, it introduces it), but it never gives this aspect of shadow's character any real... closure? he starts out not knowing what autonomy feels like and dies not knowing what autonomy feels like. on a thematic level, the reason why sonic lives and shadow doesn't after finalhazard is because shadow is still stuck in the past, hearing maria's voice and unable to imagine a future for himself without any external directive. that's why him passing the torch to sonic on "the ultimate lifeform" front isnt really the satisfying culmination of an arc about ego, its shadow giving up because sonic is better at his job than him . WOW that sounds bad but its true

(there are other reasons why shadow dies of course but like, you see what im saying right?)

other games do attempt to wrap up this part of his character bc well... they kind of have to lol. but none really say the logical conclusion of it explicitly, which would be a realization that "the ultimate lifeform" is a meaningless nothing label which has been holding shadow back, and he either doesn't want it or wants to redefine it. like, him abandoning "the ultimate lifeform" is basically just an extension of his arc in 05. you dont even have to do lots of work to make it happen its already there. but the character regressed and now the accursed long-running franchise status quo rule demands any deviation from "standard shadow" has to be reset for the sake of newcomer accessibility

and i say a hypothetical scenario where this is addressed outright would be a metaphor (or whatever) for transgender shadow half jokingly and half seriously, bc when stories deal with identities forced upon a character only to be shed by them in a freeing manner later on it'll always have trans connotations whether the writer intends for it or not

i can write for like 6k abt how "the ultimate lifeform" is a shorthand for imposed identity and the fandom should care less about who it really is or if it means anything at all and more about how its like sonic hedgehog transgender matrix metaphor. but i need to write under 1k for 80% of my grade and its like pulling teeth

[killianmesmalls]

There are so many issues to unpack in 14x17 (“Game Night”) and the subsequent episodes’ handling of Jack’s situation leading up to 14x20 (“Moriah”). I know it’s been said a few times, but there are hints that Jack’s soul isn’t completely gone at this point based on his emotional reactions versus how we have seen other soulless characters behave in similar situations. This could be due to his unique circumstances as a nephilim, but regardless we see that he does still process some level of emotions (guilt, sadness, fear, etc.) versus what we’ve seen displayed by, say, soulless Sam or demon Dean.

A lot of debate over how accountable he may or may not be is centered on his age compared to his maturity level. This is understandable considering he has the capacity to learn complex skills and concepts at an alarmingly fast rate while also very much being new to the world.

What makes me insane about what happens to Mary is if it were literally anyone else the brothers would not have reacted the way they did. Would they have been upset? Sure. No more upset than they were when he accidentally hurt the security guard in 13x06. As Dean himself said in 13x06, they all have blood on their hands and they’re all monsters if held to the standards Jack is attempting to hold himself to. Not only that, but he rushed in moments earlier to save Sam’s life which is conveniently forgotten.

The problem is, this is Mary. This is the perfect mother figure that Dean (and even Sam) can’t quite remove from a pedestal considering their whole lives revolved around getting revenge from the last being that killed her before discovering the larger web of “fate” they were tangled in and forced to suffer through.

Dean and a lot of anti-Jack fans often forget all of the events that led up to this point, all that his parental figures have done in their own pasts, and Jack’s true age in spite of his appearance and complex skills. There are a lot of people who put Jack in one of two spaces: he’s a baby/toddler or he’s a teenager/young adult.

The thing is? He’s both.

It is canon that he learned how to drive before he learned how to blow a bubble out of bubblegum. He likely learned how to fight a war before he learned how to tie his shoes. He was hacking traffic cameras before he received a talking teddy bear. Jack is experiencing life out of order and on fast forward, and has repeatedly shown that his lack of overall experience may not make him necessarily a “child” but it does give him a certain level of naivety and lack of ability to properly handle certain stressful situations.

Not only that, but let’s remember that the last time Jack disappointed a parent and lost a part of himself, he was beaten to hell and almost sacrificed himself in order to save another parent. It is even in the 14x17 script that, when Jack asks Mary, “Are you going to tell them?” he’s scared. Truly scared. Now, this can be anything between the very understandable “child is scared about his dad(s) being told he misbehaved and getting into trouble” and the recent memory of “the last time something like this happened was very traumatic and I haven’t been given the time or space to process this fully.”

More to it, the people who say Jack “murdered” Mary forget that it was not only an accident, but this two-year-old being flew around the planet in an attempt to right a wrong born out of a moment of emotional turmoil. When in this show have we seen anyone else give this much effort to fix an error? And, throughout his struggles to fix his mistake, we see him rocking back and forth, praying to his mother, and trying to ignore the demons in his head. This young soul had a lot of his autonomy stripped from him, repeatedly tried to prove to be useful in order to receive acceptance and love, and was rewarded with his worst fears being confirmed the moment he accidentally caused harm.

I’m not saying Jack wasn’t dangerous. Anyone with all of two years’ worth of life experience complete with intense powers is dangerous. How many toddlers in this world would have nuked their parents in a grocery store after being told they couldn’t get the cereal they wanted? He doesn’t have the life experience at this point to regulate his feelings with appropriate reactions. What I am saying is that he was treated unfairly and never received the understanding often afforded to the brothers who are both more experienced and, arguably, have caused more damage throughout their lives.

Perhaps, if it were anyone other than Mary, this would be different.