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phantom-le6 · 4 years

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Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 (1 of 6)

Well, it’s taken a little while longer than I’d originally planned, but at last I’ve started working my way through the episodes of my Blu-ray collection of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the first of a number of series I will be hoping to tackle in my TV show backlog. For those who haven’t ready any of my TV show reviews from when I used to post them on Facebook notes, the lay out is very similar to what I do for film reviews. I usually do one disc’s worth of episode per article (every show I review is one I own on DVD or Blu-ray), and within that, I post a synopsis of the episode’s plot, followed by my review of that episode. So, if you’ve never watched a certain series and want to skip the plots, or you know the episode from its title alone, just skip the sections headed as ‘plot’ and go straight to the review.

So, now that you know how this is all going to go, let’s warp our way into those first few episodes of TNG’s first season. Reviews, engage…

Episodes 1 & 2: Encounter at Farpoint

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

In 2364, the new flagship of the United Federation of Planets, Starfleet's USS Enterprise, travels to the planet Deneb IV for its maiden voyage. Enterprise is to open relations with the simple Bandi people who have somehow been able to tap immense energy reserves and construct Farpoint Station, much to the surprise of the Federation. En route, the Enterprise is met by an omnipotent being who identifies himself as Q, a member of the Q Continuum. Q, appearing a grand inquisitor from Earth’s post-nuclear age, declares that humanity is being put on trial. A suggestion from Captain Picard results in Q deciding that their actions in their upcoming mission will be used to judge their worthiness and determine their fate as a race. Before letting the ship resume its course, Q warns Captain Picard that he is destined to fail.

As the Enterprise arrives, the crew members explore the offerings of Farpoint Station and establish relations with their Bandi host, Groppler Zorn. The crew becomes suspicious when items they desire seem to appear out of nowhere moments later, and are unable to identify the power source that feeds the station. Deanna Troi, an empath, senses a being with powerful yet despairing emotions nearby, and the crew discover a strange labyrinth beneath the station, but Zorn does not offer an explanation. As the Enterprise crew continues its explorations, a large unknown alien craft enters orbit and begins to fire upon the old Bandi settlement near Farpoint Station, and abducts Zorn. Before Picard orders the ship's phasers to be fired at the craft, Q appears to remind him of humanity's trial and prompts Picard to send an away team to the alien craft. The away team discovers the craft has passages similar to those under Farpoint and they are able to free Zorn. Their actions cause the alien craft to transform into a jellyfish-like space creature, and Picard is able to deduce the mystery of Farpoint Station. He confirms with the apologetic Zorn that the Bandi found a similar lifeform injured on their planet and, while attempting to care for it, they also exploited its ability to synthesize matter to create Farpoint Station. The creature now in orbit is trying to help free its mate by attacking those who hold it captive.

Though Q goads Picard into using violence, Picard refuses, instead ordering the Enterprise to fire a vivifying energy beam onto Farpoint after the station is evacuated. The beam allows the land-bound creature to transform back into its jellyfish-like form, and it flies into orbit to join its fellow being. As the crew watches the reunion of the alien creatures, Q reluctantly tells Picard that they have succeeded in their test, but hints that they will meet again.

Review:

As someone born a couple of years before this show first aired, I missed this pilot and much of the earlier seasons in their original appearance, only getting to see anything of the show in the early-to-mid-1990’s when my family first got Sky TV and I watched some of the later episodes and re-runs of some earlier episodes on Sky 1. Thank goodness for those being my introduction to the show, because as pilot episodes go, this one isn’t great. Granted, very few pilots are ever completely brilliant because the show is starting out anew and will take a while to establish what it is, and there’s no guarantee how long that will take. For some shows, it could be a matter of only a few episodes, such as The West Wing or Friends, whereas others might be more like the Simpsons and M*A*S*H, taking more than just their first season to really find themselves.

The biggest problem this pilot has is a lack of exposition to explain what the show is really about. Ok, we’re on a starship crewed mainly by humans, travelling the galaxy to explore what’s out there, but that’s all you get. That might be sufficient for people who were versed in the franchise of Star Trek from the three-season long original series and the various films it spawned, but what about new audience members? Other shows have made similar assumptions that everyone will know what their show is about based on existing media, and for me it always spoils the pilot. In my view, the only good pilot assumes at least its audience will know nothing about what the show will be about and will tailor at least half its content to educating them in that era, with the rest of the content being about placating the existing fanbase if the show is continuing a franchise or adapting it from another medium.

The episode is also plagued by some poor character interactions, especially Picard’s over-the-top anger at Wesley for no good reason, Troi’s over-the-top whining when she’s in empath-mode, and the less said about Tasha Yar’s histrionics in front of Q during the fake trial set-up the better. Really, it’s down to the performances of Riker, Data, Wesley’s mother Dr Beverly Crusher, Geordi and Worf to elevate the episode to decent, and for Q to be the better guest character than Zorn. This episode is also where Colm Meaney makes his debut as Miles O’Brien, who would spend several seasons as a secondary recurring character in TNG before making the switch to spin-off series Deep Space Nine (which I reviewed some years ago on Facebook) as a series regular.

There’s not much depth or real issue exploration in this episode, we don’t really learn what Star Fleet is or what it represents (the words Yar uses during her court-room meltdown before being thankfully frozen), and really all we do get is some basic character introduction and a Trek show that starts off more on impulse, or at least low warp. Overall score for this combined episode is about 6 out of 10, and I’m probably being a bit charitable at that.

Episode 3: The Naked Now

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The crew of the Enterprise travels to rendezvous with the SS Tsiolkovsky, a science vessel monitoring the collapse of a supergiant star. During a long-range comm exchange, the Enterprise crew are shocked to hear what sounds like a sudden hull breach about the Tsiolkovsky. After the Enterprise secures the Tsiolkovsky via tractor beam, an away team consisting of Commander Riker, Lt. Yar, Lt. Commander Data and Lt. La Forge beams over. They find the crew frozen to death in various stages of dress and undress, including one who was taking a shower fully clad, and whose frozen body falls into La Forge's hands.

Captain Picard orders Dr Crusher to perform full medical examinations of the away team on their return, and the doctor finds La Forge sweating profusely and complaining about the temperature. She orders him to stay in sickbay but he wanders out while she is studying his test results, and makes his way to the quarters of Crusher's son, Wesley. Unaware of La Forge's condition, Wesley shows him a portable tractor beam device and La Forge places an encouraging hand on his shoulder. Meanwhile, acting on a hunch by Riker, who had read a book on past starships named "Enterprise" that included an event involving illness and showering fully dressed, Data locates a historical record identifying the ailment as similar to one encountered by Captain Kirk's USS Enterprise. La Forge returns to sickbay, where D. Crusher quickly becomes concerned when she realizes that the infection is spread by physical contact. Much of the ship's crew comes under the influence of the ailment, including Data, who engages in a sexual encounter with Yar. Dr Crusher, struggling against the effects of the ailment, finds the original antidote documented by Kirk's Enterprise to be ineffective, and begins devising a new version of it.

Now infected, Wesley uses a digital sample of Captain Picard's voice to lure key engineering crew-members away from the engineering deck. He erects a force field around the area with his tractor beam device and assumes control of the ship. He allows Mr Shimoda, one of the engineers who is acting in a childlike manner, into the force field. Shimoda manages to remove all of the isolinear chips from the engine control station and plays with them like toys. As the supergiant star collapses, a fragment is blown into a direct impact course with the two Federation ships, and without the chips in place, they cannot move out of its way. Chief Engineer MacDougal manages to disable Wesley's force field, and Data is sent to replace the chips. He reports that he will not have enough time. Wesley reverses the ship's tractor beam, repelling the Enterprise off the Tsiolkovsky, giving themselves the necessary additional seconds for Data to replace the chips enabling the ship to move out of the way. The crew is cured of the ailment, and Picard partially credits Wesley for helping to prevent a disaster.

Review:

Not only is this Trek at its worst, but it’s actually based on an original series episode with pretty much the exact same core plot; some random configuration of water molecules making an Enterprise crew act like the Trek equivalent of chavvy idiots getting plastered on a night out. It’s an appallingly bad concept, especially when Picard’s closing dialogue suggests the whole thing was meant to be about some kind of exploration of temptation. News flash, folks, but the episode is an abysmal failure in the exploration of that issue. To be successful, you’d have to give the crew the option about whether or not to give in to temptation sober. The crew of the Enterprise doesn’t have a choice here because it’s some weird combination of water molecules acting like an infection that causes drunken-like behaviour. As such, their judgement is impaired against their will, so the point is lost.

The episode is also stupidly sexist in how the infection presents; while more of the men just have a harder time thinking, get morose or go child-like and silly, all three female main cast members throw themselves on the blokes like randy strippers. Tasha Yar sleeps her way through various minor male crew members before seducing Data, Troi seeks out Riker to try for a mind-grope, and Dr Crusher tries it on with Picard. How Roddenbury (who was still alive and producing Trek at this point) allowed such antiquated sexist tripe into the supposedly equality-minded Trek utopia, I have no idea. Given that the show improved in this and related areas when he stepped away from the show, however, I’m wondering if maybe he was somehow part of the problem.

All in all, this episode is something you only watch so you can get what few references there may be to it in later episodes of the series as a whole. I give it a very low 2 out of 10.

Episode 4: Code of Honor

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise arrives at the planet Ligon II to acquire a vaccine needed to combat an outbreak of Anchilles fever on Styris IV. The crew, possessing little information on the Ligonian culture, finds it follows strict customs of status similar to ancient China. Specifically, while the men in their culture rule society, the land itself is controlled by the women. Lutan, the Ligonian leader, transports up to the Enterprise to provide a sample of the vaccine, and is impressed by Lt. Tasha Yar's status as head of security. Yar further demonstrates her aikido skills against a holographic opponent for Lutan on the holodeck. After a tour of the ship, Lutan and the Ligonians abduct Yar as they transport back to the surface. Captain Jean-Luc Picard demands that Lutan return Yar, considering the kidnapping an act of war, but receives no response from the planet. After consultation with his officers, Picard is informed that Lutan took Yar in a "counting coup" as a show of heroism. Picard contacts Lutan in a more peaceful manner, who grants permission for the Enterprise crew to beam down to the planet and promises to return Yar after a banquet in his honor.

Lutan announces at the banquet that he wishes to make Yar his "First one", surprising not only the Enterprise crew but also Yareena who was already Lutan's "First one." Yareena challenges Yar to a fight to the death to claim back the position. When Picard objects to the fight, Lutan refuses to give the Enterprise the rest of the vaccine unless Yar participates. The crew investigates the combat ritual and find that the weapons used are coated with a lethal poison, and also that it is Yareena's wealth to which Lutan owes his position. Picard prepares to have Yar beamed to the Enterprise should she be harmed in the battle. As the match progresses, both Yareena and Yar are equally skilled, but Yar eventually lands a strike on Yareena. Yar quickly covers Yareena and orders the transport of both of them to the Enterprise against the demands of Lutan. Aboard the ship, Dr. Beverly Crusher reaches Yareena moments after death, but is able to counteract the poison and revive the woman's body. When Lutan demands to know the fate of Yareena, Crusher reveals that Yareena died, thus ceding the match to Yar and breaking the "first one" bond. Yareena is now free to select a new mate; she chooses Hagon, one of Lutan's bodyguards, and effectively strips Lutan of his position of power and makes him her "Second One". Hagon lets Yar go and gives the Enterprise their full supply of vaccine.

Review:

This episode wasn’t very well received by the cast and crew that had to make it, and I can certainly see why. The Ligonian race is based on African tribal stereotypes that become obvious as a result of the race being played by Black actors, giving the episode an air of racism that is completely inappropriate to the Trek franchise as a whole. According to Wikipedia, some reviewers have claimed that this issue would not have been seen if the actors had all be white and used the same dialogue. Frankly if the Ligonians had been played by white actors, you’d have had a very early example of cultural appropriation, which is also a form of racism and again inappropriate to Trek.

The episode is also plagued by efforts to try and emulate the original series instead of being its own entity, with the final fight scene near the end really looking too much like a 1960’s throwback rather than fitting into any kind of 1980’s-made Trek. Only the hints of the budding Data-La Forge friendship really make the episode worth a watch, especially since Picard stops himself in the middle of an explanation about the Prime Directive. With that in, we might have had delayed compensation for the lack of exposition in the pilot, but instead…nothing.

Frankly, without fan support and the show being syndicated rather than controlled by a network, I’m pretty sure this episode or the previous one would have killed TNG in its infancy. I’m just lucky that I know the show would later make itself into something worth watching, so I’m ok holding out hope for better episodes as I work my way along. I just the rest of season 1 doesn’t have too many more of these stinker episodes in store. For me, Code of Honour again only warrants 2 out of 10.

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twelvesignsrp · 6 years

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congratulations elaina, scorpio is now wren hugo with the faceclaim bex taylor klaus !

Character Sign: scorpio Character name: wren hugo Birthday: 1997 Sexuality: queer Gender: intersex, but this is not public information. legal documents say "female". has decided that thinking to hard about their gender identity will detract from the causes they support, so currently goes by she/her pronouns. Moon Sign: leo (aquarius rising) Faceclaim: bex taylor klaus Power: sound manipulation (elaboration in bio)

Biography:

1997. wren elizabeth hugo is born to a pair of modern hippies; an american father and german mother living in gao, india. she won't remember having lived there.

1999. the hugos move to kathmandu, nepal. the missionary doctor they see while there points out that something might not be quite right with wren. sure, she seems healthy enough, but something between her legs isn't shaped the way you'd expect it to be shaped.

2002. two surgeries later, the government catches up the the hugos, who disappear dehab, egypt just in time for wren to start school.

2004. the hugos find themselves in ko pha-ngan, thailand. wren goes under the knife again.

2005. their stay in siargo doesn't last terribly too long. wren is nearly kidnapped, but evades capture and the family leaves shortly after.

2005. the family lands in the cyclades, greece. wren faces another surgery and falls in love with computers.

2009. just when wren is starting to think they've found their forever home, the family picks up again and moves to freetown christiania, copenhagen, denmark. mr. and mrs. hugo swear up and down that this is the last move. wren starts getting headaches.

2011. it isn't the last move. amidst civil unrest in the commune, the hugos move once more, this time to glastonbury. wren's headaches get worse, morphing into migraines.

2011. wren's migraines degrade to the point where other surgeries to address her other problems are put on hold. at least once a week- sometimes more frequently- she gets excruciating episodes where it feels as if a rocket is launched from somewhere in the back of her skull and explodes just behind her left eye. no one can explain why. after the worst one of her life, wren writhing and screaming and clawing at her eye to try to get it out, her mother and father frantically pinning her arms to the bed to stop her from hurting herself, everything came to a halt as wren's vision suddenly disappeared from that eye. this leads to the discovery of wren's mystery condition- a demyelinating disease that caused enough nerve damage to irreversibly destroy the connection between wren's eye and her brain.

2012. her other eye begins to deteriorate, as do other nerves in her body. doctors work quickly to get her on the right cocktail of medications to control the pain and seizures that result, and the medications work fairly well. wren still steadily loses vision in her other eye, and occasionally experiences tremors and palsies in her limbs, but the migraines and pain are much more bearable than they were before her diagnosis.

2013. the law finally catches up to mr. and mrs. hugo for tax evasion. wren is taken away from them and dropped into a foster home with minimal contact with her parents. while living in the foster home, with government officials aware of her condition, she's able to receive somewhat better accessibility aids, such as a wheelchair for days when her palsies are more than she can deal with on her own, as well as a service dog (a black lab named pluto). she gets placed in a school that better suits her needs and is finally able to start re-learning how to use a computer and how to read braille, among other important things like how to navigate on her own and how to operate her cell phone.

2014. wren petitions for and receives emancipation at 17. she moves into a co-op with a few other young people nearer her school and works on applying to colleges. as she still struggles to use computers, she lets go of her dream of studying computer science and becoming a hacker; instead, she decides to study sociology and become an activist of some kind. she's tired of thinking about her gender, she's tired of thinking about her disability, she wants to fight for something else. still plagues with nightmares of her near-abduction in siargao, she settles on human trafficking.

2015. thanks in large part to a sob story essay about growing up a disabled nomad, wren is accepted to several schools. she ultimately chooses durham at the recommendation of a school counselor.

2016. welcome to durham. it's a struggle to get situated starting out, but the school gives her some assistance and she's got her feet under her within a few months.

march 2017. that night at the sands... there are too many people. they're too loud. they're too close together. it's cold and wet and sand is hard to navigate and honestly wren just wants to go home and suddenly... the whole world goes silent. every sound cuts out in an instant and wren freezes in place- she's been warned already that her hearing was in danger the same as her eyes, but she hadn't expected it to just disappear like that. completely overtaken with fear, she quietly tells pluto to take her back home and follows him away from the group as quickly as possible. by the time she's off the sand, her hearing returns. overwhelmed by the sudden turn, wren falls to her knees in the grass, barely able to catch her breath. a few moments later, she hears voices approaching behind her; she scrambles to her feet and hurries off with pluto again, not wanting to explain what just happened to anyone. over the next few weeks, as the reality of what they'd experienced became apparent, wren came to realize that her experience was her first run-in with her power of sound manipulation- she was overwhelmed by all the noisy people around her, so she stopped the soundwaves from reaching herself. with time and practice, she started learning the finer points of her power- she could listen in on far-away conversations, she could say something in a quiet voice from one side of the room and send it to a specific person on the other side of the room without anyone else hearing, she could turn off all sounds in an area entirely for everyone- the applications were a bit dizzying. she hasn't developed any subpowers yet, but through the power-ups she's developed a very keen sense of echolocation; through sound she can very accurately determine the shape and contents of the space she's in, and if she knows a person very well she can even figure out where that person is within that space.

Five interesting facts about your character:

1. mother is german, father is american. spoke a mix of both growing up and is functionally fluent in both, but not 100% fluent in either. regarding other languages:

knows a few children's songs in konkani, but left india too young to remember much of the language.

same with nepali from her time in kathmandu.

lived in dehab, egypt in early elementary school and can still read a bit of arabic, but not much.

was reasonably okay at thai at one point after living in ko pha-ngan, but has forgotten most of it.

didn't live in siargao long enough to learn much siargaonon

became very attached to greek while living in the cyclades, is still reasonably conversational.

picked up dutch relatively easily while living in christiania, copenhagen due to already speaking english and german.

wren never feels comfortable communicating; she knows her accent is a muddy mess and that her vocabulary is small. sometimes, to get out of conversations with strangers, she'll speak a made-up language that crosses through all the various languages she knows. she worries that if she picks just one language, the stranger might happen to know how to speak that language. also, in spite of being so uncomfortable with her language skills, she picks up on other languages relatively quickly because she's so used to having to learn fast.

2. wren's memory is impeccable, she'll never forget a kindness or a slight or a random useless piece of trivia.

3. keeps a small fidget toy in her pocket at all times, finds it helps keep her calm and focused.

4. very, very, very particular about her shoes. will wear a pair of shoes until they fall apart before buying a new pair, and it takes her forEVER to settle on a new pair. she's somewhat the same way about her clothes, but it's very pronounced with shoes.

5. wren started losing her sight just as she started wanting to wear makeup. knowing she'd eventually lose most of her vision, she practiced putting her eyeliner and mascara on without a mirror. by the time she lost her sight, she could do so pretty easily, and still does. she doesn't really wear makeup beyond that.

Character Quote:

"Day surprises me and night scares me haunts me and winter follows me An animal walking on the snow has placed Its paws in the sand or in the mud

Its paws have traveled From further afar than my own steps On a path where death Has the imprints of life" from "the human face: vi. a wolf", paul eluard

If your character had a patronus what would it be? and why?

an elephant. they never forget.

#accepted #scorpio #yes i decided to skip the writing example #feel free to skip yours #i know y'all can write

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heromanvasco · 7 years

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☣ Have you ever rp'd with someone you knew for a fact was abusive but tried to give them a chance/to make up your own opinion on the roleplayer? Did they change or did you understand what people were talking about?

Taken from meme: [x] ||No longer accepting||

Warning: This will get long and I will be very mad as I recount this story. Sorry for me getting really riled up about it, but ughhhhhhhhh I just can't. I have to tell the full story to really get the point across.

OKAY SO LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT A PERSON. This person literallybecame the bane of my existence even though I didn't actually interact withthem in the truest sense.

Even though I wish for nothing more than for them to trip over arock and land on a pointy rock, I am still a bit grateful towards them. I'llget on that a lil later down the line.

Let's start with how I know them. As we may probably know, I'vestarted Tumblr rp'ing as an indie, with Haru Miura as my muse. A lot of theissues I have with tumblr rp'ing came about on her blog mainly. Ahahahathere were some hard times, but I stuck with it. I love Haru too much to justditch her, in other words. I'm a stubborn mule, what can I say?

Anyways, she's from the series: Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn! andthere are a lot of attractive male charas in the series. This fandom is justnotorious for the yaoi shipping. Like it's very hardcore. There are sometimeshetero ships too but not a lot of it.

Let's put it this way: I've been turned away many times with the'but my muse is gay' excuse. Like---- okay? Did I ask to get in their pants?No. Canonically, Haru is die-hard in love with 'Tsuna-san' so what now? Don'tuse that against me. B[

Again, lots of very attractive male charas... and these musesattracted a certain muse from the DNangel series. (yes the same one I mentionedin a different ask if you read that one) Daisuke has forever been ruined and Irefuse to even try to read the series because the situation just gave me somuch stress.

So the muse was set to a very young age, most probably the canonage. I forget if that meant he was 16 or younger. I don't know the series so Idon't know the age. Let me tell you, I have so many issues with the person. SO.MANY.

Where to start? There is the fact that even without eveninteracting with the muses to start, they'd instantly try to form relationswith them. Sending some suggestive memes or asks. You cannot just go to aGokudera and have Daisuke glomp him. It doesn't work that way? If you knowGokudera, you should know that he does NOT take kindly to people who act toofamiliar.

The mun could NOT understand for the life of her that mun=/=muse. They kept sending anons about why are they so mean? Be nice to that'Daisuke kid'. Um... no? How about you calm down a bit and actually try tointeract rather than jumping the gun? It was in their rules they wantCHEMISTRY. They want to take things slow and not jump the gun. You broke so manyof their rules. You kept sending in anon asks and even if they tried to talk toyou on im, you'd try to play all the pity cards.

I will NEVER EVER live down the fact that you told someone: I'mtaking medication because of you. It's because of you that I'm depressed so I'mtaking pills.

EXCUSE MOI!?!?!?!?!??!?? What is wrong withyou??????????????????? SHE ACTUALLY LEFT TUMBLR RP BECAUSE OF YOU. I LOST AFRIEND BECAUSE OF YOU. Then you have the gall to say that you never said it?I've seen the screenshots, don't mess with me.

I do NOT condone underaged things at all. Your muse is 16 andthere is no indication as to whether or not you (the mun) were underaged aswell. Of course people will be nervous about the way you kept trying to force18+ content on them. If you are underaged, that's illegal and that can makethings very complicated. People kept telling you they were uncomfortable withit, but all you'd say is: "Age is only a number!~"

YEAH? WELL, JAIL IS JAIL!

Now, I can think of at least 5 muses that I know were heavilyaffected by this person. I know for a FACT that at least 2 left because of themand their constant harassment. A very close friend of mine had to constantlytoggle between enabling and disabling anon asks because they'd send so many.

We don't understand how much anger and stress this caused me. Ireally detest seeing my friends bothered. Having two of them leave the rp sceneforever makes me so angry. They didn't really ever rp with any female muses.Only one that I saw and she was a space sheep alien... I'd show proof but theblogs have long since been deleted---.

Now, it isn't to say that they only targeted KHR muses. Therewere others too from DBZ, Jack Frost, Pitch, a final fantasy character (who Ican't remember), and many... many more.

If you didn't reply to them quickly enough, they would get madat you in im. They'd try to guilt trip you into answering quicker by sayingthings like they felt hated, why don't you like them? Are you avoiding them?Things of that nature. I've seen things of that nature from various people Italked to. I talked to a lot of people about their experiences with this mun.

You could see their ooc posts talking about how they felt and itsounded like this person just had a lot of self-confidence and perhaps trustissues. I know how that is. I felt maybe they were just misunderstood orsomething. IDK. I felt they could be given a chance to talk if someone tried toapproach them slowly. (more on this later)

Though I would look around and see all kinds of interactionswith other characters. Muns getting the same kind of harassments. It was evenWORSE when any of these muses interacted with a certain muse from the KHRfandom. Apparently the muses were dating? idk. Either way, Daisuke washorrendously jealous and territorial.

If you so much as interacted with that KHR muse or had anythingremotely flirty in thread, an anon was sure to tell you to back off. They'dgrill you with questions about 'how do you feel about them?' 'are you datingthem?' things like that. It's annoying. I saw those messages so much. That KHRmuse is sort of a main character so it's hard to NOT interact with them if youare in the KHR fandom?

Like what do you want? Chill out, boo.

I've seen many friends of mine just being harassed by anonsbecause they interacted with them. Hilariously enough that other mun didnothing about it. Even if people asked them to talk to that person. Make themstop harassing people. She apparently doesn't like drama and that's fine--- butif you are the REASON because a lot of the drama because your friend refuses tochill--- That is quite literally your problem.

I do not believe you are being a good friend if you allow suchbehavior to continue. Even if she had a reason to acting that horribly topeople, you could always try to explain to people so they understand. Whenpeople understand, they may be more willing to forgive. The fact that she didabsolutely nothing did absolutely nothing to help either of their case. In theend many people tried to avoid both muns.

I played a female muse so it was fine for me to continueinteracting with them though. I never got hassled by them. I unfollowed thatKHR muse the moment I saw that she went along with doing 18+ stuff with thatunderage muse. I personally couldn't do it. It made me think of something in myown past and it made me feel horrible. I still interact with them, but I don'tfollow em.

So I saw their condescending attitude on many blogs. This onepitch in particular kept getting hounded over why they wouldn't be kind to Daisuke.(We realize this is PITCH, yes?) They were getting hounded by anons over whythey wouldn't give Daisuke (a kid) a chance. Like, it's illegal, that's why.

They weren't replying quickly enough to the threads they onlydid in ask format. The person was getting upset with how 'slow' they werebeing. They had time for 'other people' so why were you avoiding their threads?Why can't you reply already? Then it happened: "I'll give you one morechance to thread with me."

Yes, that is what was sent. I'm dead serious. I got sent thattoo so I mean, yeah.

Let's move away from other people and let's talk about ME. As Isaid, they don't interact with male muses. The only muse that I could possiblyplay as (and was super duper attractive) was Shugarl. I had a lot of caps in mycomputer because I like his face.

I sort of rp'ed as him 2 years prior to that but it didn'treally last as the only friend I interacted with left tumblr rp because ofdrama. So I shelved Shugarl and the Knights from the 'Legend of the Sun Knight'series. So I was like okay why not.

They do know of me from Haru's blog, so I had to make analterego mun. I named them Jay. This version acts like Neo when she's justtired and done with the world. I had to pretend to be a new person. Iinteracted with a close friend who was hassled by Daisuke a ton, and then Iinteracted with the KHR muse that Daisuke apparently is shipping with. That'show Daisuke took the bait and contacted me.

It didn't take long. I mean if you look at how attractiveShugarl is, wouldn't you also bite? lol

Anyways, I tried to talk to them, but unfortunately at the timeI was really sick. I was on a lot of medication because of my gastritis. It wasmost probably stress induced but also because of my diet? When I'm stressed, Icrave spicy food. If you know those super hot fire noodles... let's say I livedon that for a while lol. So yeah it got bad. Just drinking water had methrowing up everything in my stomach. I lost 15+ pounds in under a month.

It was bad. My one medication had a side effect of extremedrowsiness. Let me tell you, EXTREME was right. I was constantly just passingout. So I wasn't around much to talk or thread. Let's say that started gettingthem mad.

Why wasn't I responding? Did I hate them? Stop ignoring them. Ikept having to sorta apologize for being 'busy' aka I was super sick but Ididn't want to admit that. I'm stupid like that, okay?

So I kept asking them how they wanted to interact. I didn't knowa thing about their muse so I asked for their about page. Or even a rules page.They didn't have one. Too much work. Okay no, they had an about page but it wasliterally like their url, the name, age, and gender or something. A very simplebio.

They told me to read wiki to learn about the muse. Are youkidding me? No rules because why do they need one? Mistake number 1. They keptsaying they read rules of many blogs but we know they didn't. They keptbreaking them. It was in Jay's rules to not pester them too much about activitybecause he was a busy college student.

Did that stop them? Nope. //squint

Now let me tell you, even if I was sick, I still visited tumblrevery day. So making them wait for 3-5 hours was too long. I was going to begraduating and I had finals. YEAH, I'M BUSY. I was also super duper sick. Iwon't be online every waking moment, please. Did that stop them from getting somad at me about it? Nope.

I told them that I felt that they were guilt tripping me becausethey kept lamenting over how people don't want to interact with them. They keepgetting 'bullied' by people. I told them that I felt they were guilt trippingme at the moment. They kept saying that they weren't before they blocked me.Then a week passed and they talked to me like 'sorry I accidentally blockedyou!'

Sure. okay.

So I was like 'okay we can thread but I want to talk to youabout how I felt you were guilt tripping me.'

INSTA-BLOCKED.

I'm not kidding. I got blocked by just that. Do you understandhow much my animosity spiked because of that? My blood was curdling I was somad.

So another like half a week passed and they say something alongthe lines of:

"I'll give you another chance, do you want to thread with meor not?"

"I already told you that I want to thread with you. Youkeep asking me this. This is the 5th time you asked me. How many times do Ihave to tell you yes? Do you not understand that I'm busy? I'm a collegestudent. I'm not always online. I also told you saying things like that isreally guilt trippy."

Insta-blocked. I was mad, so I went off so I can understand theblock.

Still.

After being blocked for the THIRD time, I soft-blocked them.They tried to follow me again and sent a message: hi! :) This time Iinsta-blocked them. Not about that life.

I love how they always started and talked with cat emojis. Bylove, I MEAN I HATE IT WITH A DIE HARD PASSION. It was like they cared fornothing that other people felt. It was their way or the high way. They couldn'tbother to learn to do anything for other people.

Don't get me started on the fact that they didn't tag anythingand they NEVER EVER CUT THREADS. NEVER. Do you know how hard it was for me tofind anything on that blog? One thread was over 100 notes long and it wasn'tcut. Let that sink in.

It was long.

I had them followed on Shugarl's first blog. Do you know what mydash looked like? It was one-liner 100+ note uncut thread HELL.

So in other words, I wanted to talk to them and be a friend.Someone that they could talk to. I tried to talk to them many times but theykept saying 'I'm feeling uncomfortable so I don't want to talk about thisanymore'.

Dude, one time all I said was: "I think you should tryputting up a rules page. A lot of people like seeing one."

"I feel uncomfortable so I want to talk about somethingelse."

.... wut. Like, WHAT? I was just... giving you advice? It wasthe start of our interactions too. I just-- what?

I kept asking them if they wanted me to write the starter andthey kept holding back like 'I want to talk it out first' because they didn'tknow my muse. So I explained to them and they kept asking stupid questions.

"So he's an angry human?" "I just told you he's a demon. Like, he’s a real demon." "Oh okay! :) So he's got special powers. He's got angelic powers?""No... I just told you he's a demon." "What powers does he have?" "He makes use of mathematical equations to summon blades and otherthings." "Oh okay."

5 mins later."Can you tell me more about his fire powers?" "... He doesn't have fire powers??? Are you even reading any of what I'msaying? You are the one who asked me to tell you about my muse. It's rude foryou to not be properly reading." "I don't feel comfortable anymore, so I'm going to go to bed. Bye! =^.^="

I legit felt like I got cancer from this person.

I'm so serious. I forever laugh how they tried to make mepromise to be nice to Daisuke.

"I can't promise that. Shugarl is a demon. He's not nice,but he can be nice towards kids sometimes. You need to make Daisukebehave."

"I can make him glomp him and have marshmallows!"

"He will literally kick Daisuke if you do that. I told youhe's not nice."

"He's such a meanie!"

"He's a literal demon."

It was like talking to a 5 year old.

So in the end, I tried to interact with them but they drove meso insane we didn't even get that far before I finally blocked them forever.

---

TLDR: I tried to give them a chance but I couldn't do it. Mypatience reached it's limit and I blocked them. This is the first and only rpblog I ever blocked to truly block them and not to softblock. All because ofthis person, the name 'Daisuke' makes me feel unjust rage, and I'll never everlook at DNangel the same way. I'll never even attempt to touch the serieseither.

#Anonymous ask #anonymous answered #Fatenet meme #Meme answered #answered ask #thanks for the ask!#Neo speaks

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putris-et-mulier · 7 years

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There is this new Korean web comic called Save Me (published in English on lezhin) by 1230 and an issue/episode is released each Wednesday.

As a disabled person in a wheelchair and also a fan of comics I love it. I posted a few panels I liked and my inbox blew up with people asking me what it was and where they can read it for themselves

Save Me is an ongoing web manhwa that's released each week but the first 4 issues are totally free to read on the publisher's English site and you can get those just by clicking: this

Official description: Hyeongoh, the first place student at school, is disabled and has a knack for getting ridiculed by the school's bullies. With no help and no way out, he finds himself in a despairing situation...until someone appears to stand by his side!

Quick description that is far less vague: It begins with Hyeongoh being violently bullied and dumped out of his wheelchair then Namsoo, a new student, happens to be walking by afterword and is happy to see his first classmate but then Hyeongoh begins dragging himself across the pavement toward a wheelchair and he's suddenly not happy anymore.

The 2 protagonists are Hyeongoh

and Cha Namsoo who has multiple distinct looks

When he looks at other people

or sometimes

unless it's Hyeongoh

I am dying to know what people think of this, especially able-bodied people, because it's so… Real.

Also, you see Hyeongoh refuses assistance from anyone even if he clearly needs it. In most cases this would be an ableist trope but this is a bit of a different situation, one I can speak personally to.

If you are being bullied, especially physically, you ask for less help so as to go unnoticed. You refuse help to divert attention away from yourself and to avoid whoever else might come by and take an interest. Many times disabled people will be physically bullied when they are being "assisted" by students and the adults just eat it up when it's actually a game of how discreetly they can punch or pinch you and mock you about how no one's going to notice. You don't tell the staff because nothing will come of it, you will be blamed as a distraction in the class (the equivalent to a halter top on a girl) and told to toughen up because the world won't always baby us.

You don't tell your friends, if you have any, because the first complement you usually get from your peers is about how unlike other crippled people you are because you don't make a big "thing" about it even though they've never met any other disabled people. You don't tell your family because statistically they are also abusing you and/or you have come to realize no one cares and nothing will be solved so it would just be a waste of time. You stop asking for and accepting help from family and friends because you start to feel ashamed of your lack of abilities, not to physically operate but to just deal with the situation or find some way to please everyone. It gets to the point that even if someone hands you something it makes you feel pathetic.

When should you offer to help a disabled person? When you would have offered help if they were able-bodied.

What do you do if your offer is badly received? You get to go home and live your life. No one owes you an explanation and if you judged all able-bodied people by single interactions like you do with disabled people you would never speak to anyone ever again.

Anyway, I think this is a good read.

Not everyone will be able to read the series due to the content but please signal boost. It's the only legitimate representation a teenager in a wheelchair I've ever seen.

Trigger warnings: very realistic ableism which includes verbal, emotional, and physical abuse as well as torture. As I said, it's highly realistic and I think a lot of things might be really jarring if you've never experienced living as a teenager who uses something like a wheelchair.

An educated guess as to why Hyeongoh is disabled/what he has and a grade of the accuracy of the abuse shown below, so spoiler warnings

The protagonist Hyeongoh is disabled and it hasn't yet to been stated exactly what his disability stems from but it seems that he has paralysis

I'm assuming most of you are not disabled and I don't mean to condescend but I want to write this so everyone understands so the series can he read in a more nuanced way

Hyeongoh could have a number of disabilities, he might have Multiple Sclerosis, Multiple Dystrophy (like me!), Cerebral Palsy, Neurofibromatosis or even just a traumatic brain injury but I'd wager that he is supposed to be partially paralyzed in the lower half of his body, it sort of looks like mid thigh up he has some control over

this panel isn't realistic unless the injury causes paralysis below the knees but this is incongruent to how we usually see him so I think it's the author taking liberties

Personally I love that you don't know exactly what he has because the only type of character in a wheelchair you ever see are ones that are paralyzed and they are always paralyzed from the waist down (and they have absolutely no feeling or control below their waist which is not how spinal injuries work.) Leaving his diagnosis unstated is really helpful if an author makes a mistake and it makes the character more relatable not to just disabled people but to able-bodied people, because the character isn't identified as their disease/injury.

I'm guessing he has paralysis since it could work with what we've seen but also because that's the type of disability people always use.

Hyeongoh's strength in the upper part of his legs can give us an indication of what he might have

It's only the top of the spine that, if injured, will make you unable to control your bladder/bowels or feel your genitals 100% guaranteed, below the first six vertebrae you can retain some feeling and control (the lower the better) so it's not as simple (or scary) as it is on TV. From C6 down the more abilities you have, the lower the injury the better. Some people with paralysis can walk for short periods. In real life you don't just get hit in the spine and suddenly your ass and legs don't work

Hyeongoh seems to have something like a C8 injury IMO but we only have a little bit of evidence to go by.

He can extend his arms and fingers completely with seemingly no difficulty; injuries in the first six vertebrae can result in complete inability to use your arms but with the lower C's you lose the ability to open your hand or arm completely.

Hyeongoh can also do things independently with equipment and although we see he doesn't drive he probably could in an accessible car. We also (unfortunately) see that he can control his bowels which is possible with a C8 injury but not to the extent.

Given what we've seen he is able to do he probably can't stand or walk at all but it wouldn't be unrealistic that might be able to but doesn't

It may look like he's pulling himself up with just the strength of his arms but he definitely isn't. A standard manual chair like that would just fall over so he has to have at least partial ability above his knees.

Doing this hurts a bunch and you are completely exhausted afterward

Here he seems to have something less serious than a C8 injury but I'd wager it's the author taking more liberties to get him back in the chair as quickly as he does

This position isn't necessarily telling. If he does have something genetic causing his disability or was disabled at a very early age his foot is probably fine and can be straightened at will. Kids are extremely flexible and can retain that flexibility if they have good physical therapy, which he clearly does.

We had this game when I was a kid where we tried to see who could position themselves in such a way that even the medical or special ed staff would freak out thinking we broke something. As an adult I understand why the adults hated it so much but it's still funny.

Remember, people with damage to the bottom of their spine can sometimes even appear to walk normally and be what we call "invisibly disabled" in that they can pass as able-bodied. Disability is a spectrum and spinal injury is a spectrum within a spectrum.

As for the accuracy of the bullying, this is my opinion in my experience:

Dumped out of his wheelchair – highly common, almost guaranteed

Wheelchair taken from him to be played with – guaranteed

Verbal and emotional violence/abuse – guaranteed

Physical violence/abuse – highly common

Kicked and punched – highly common among peers and even as high as 70% of disabled people in general but only about 60% gets reported. Male victims are less likely to have their attacks reported and it's estimated that if a violent attack doesn't include rape then disabled men are the more likely targets whereas disabled women have around a 90% chance of being violently attacked and raped in their life. Male rape victims who are disabled are too underreported to project any realistic percentages but the estimate is that it's very close to disabled women's.

Stabbed – I'd like to say this isn't common but it happened to me multiple times when I was in school and everyone I've spoken to who was in a wheelchair in school has had similar experiences. What takes place in the comic is extreme but it is normal for children to stab you in the leg with a pencil to "see if it will hurt" or "prove that you are faking it" They will also do this by kicking you in the leg or trying to damage it with another foreign object

Being drugged – rare but being forced to eat something that is inevitable is very common

You or your wheelchair being manhandled to force you to physically do something you don't want to – guaranteed

Students who bullied you help you cover it up, usually working together with you to some extent – highly common

School staff seeing the physical violence not doing anything – highly common. In fifth grade someone punched me in class right in front of the teacher and when I cried out she gave me a demerit for being loud. As for the punch, I was supposed to take this opportunity to learn to have a thicker skin… I guess literally

School staff taking resentment out on disabled children because of their need for accommodation – highly common, almost guaranteed

Photos taken of disabled students without their knowledge to be passed around as entertainment – guaranteed.

I'm not going to perpetuate it by giving you an example but I can describe one that isn't so scary but still really annoying: a student was in the cafeteria getting lunch when he saw a disabled male student eating at a table with two able-bodied male students. Immediately the student knew that the able-bodied guys were doing charity work and took a photo of these three unsuspecting men and it went viral. It was reported in the news nationwide as a fluff piece with an inspirational message of "throw disabled people a bone."

The men in the picture obviously ended up seeing it and it turns out they were just three friends that had the same lunch break and they were just trying to eat in peace. I still see the photo shared with a message to encourage able-bodied people to sit near us more often or that they should be happy they aren't one of us

We are very far into the series but those are the big ones

#Christy creare #ableism #ableism in comics #assault #violence #bullying #Info #Save me #abelism #actually disabled #disability #spoonie #Signal Boost™ disability

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