#anyway it's contextual and depends on the politics

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia, I was talking to a friend the other day and we were debating whether it was ok or not to enjoy media made by people with different political views than your own.

She said it wasn't but I said it depends on the person but also because I think we shouldn't self-censor ourselves or judge the quality of the media by the opinions of the person/s making it. As someone who's studied media what are your takes on this? Thanks in advance ( ^_^)

Anon, this subject is way too broad for me to answer in a single post response.

It also highly depends on what the media is, and what the politics are. There's a difference between consuming something (and giving money to someone) who's just a mild asshole, and someone who is a literal rapist and has never experienced consequences for it, or someone who is literally giving money to movements that will indirectly cause the deaths of trans teenagers and is still actively doing that / not dead yet.

If you're the kind of person to give money to someone who will contribute - and has contributed - to the deaths of trans teenagers, well it's a free world and you can do that, but maybe don't expect to keep a lot of your trans friends and trans ally friends, and you yourself would not be a trans ally. You're not self-censoring, and the world isn't stopping you from doing that, but you might be someone who needs to feel more empathy for the people around you, or work on understanding why giving money to folks with monstrous politics leads to more monstrous politics.

If you don't want to live in that kind of world, you have choices you can make. But they're your choices.

It's not 'censoring' myself to choose not to participate in the works of something by someone who is doing things that could lead to a less safe world for me and fellow trans people as an example. I'm making a choice because I care about other people and because I genuinely would not enjoy the works of a person who created stuff who has said online: 'If you participate in my created works I'm going to assume you support my views (and so will everyone else).'

Making personal choices like this is not censoring, anon. (And I'm pro-censorship, lol, so even if it was, I'd still be like 'yeah contextually sometimes you have to' - censoring =/= banning). Technically censorship is something that can only be done by controlling bodies and government authorities anyway.

But we have to make choices all the time. If your friend is raped by another friend of yours, but that second friend buys you dinner all the time, do you keep seeing that second friend because like, hey free dinner! If your answer to this question is 'of course I would' - then like, well, I don't know what to say to that. We probably can't have a meaningful conversation about compassion or humanity.

Different levels of politics have different ramifications to different areas of society and different people. I'm trans, so I'm not going to support transphobic creators. It's really that simple for me. I don't want my fellow trans people to keep getting hurt by anti-trans rhetoric, and I'm pretty tired of it myself, so I avoid it, and I avoid the people who support folks who literally enable it to keep happening. It's an active issue with active and current repercussions. We're not talking in this instance about the politics of a dead author who can't hurt anyone anymore, or someone in prison, or someone who is so old they have disappeared offline into the ether.

If, on the other hand, I find out someone's a Republican but in all other ways they're mostly just living their life and not trying to actively harm people by funneling all of their personal money into things that will like...cause suicides due to promoting say, transphobia, then yeah, I might still engage with their stuff or support their stuff.

Likewise, if I watch or give money to a movie made by Weinstein, I will often think of all the other crew members and actors who had nothing to do with that behaviour who still deserve residuals or royalties.

Some cases are complicated, but some aren't. Some really are 'this person has said they will give their money to causes and governments that want to hurt us and eradicate us' and supporting that is the action of a transphobic person, even if that person doesn't feel transphobic. If the actions cause more hate towards trans people, it's a transphobic action, and it's kind of that simple.' And trust me, you can be trans and still be transphobic. We see internalised phobias all the time, everywhere.

Yes, I'm talking about JKR here, because I find this kind of question is usually about some obviously monstrous living person who is still doing monstrous things in a very ongoing way, vs. just a regular 'hey I found out this writer is pro-fracking and I hate fracking what do I do' or 'hey this author writes a ship I don't like should I hate them.'

(Look this might not be about JKR but it's certainly the first thing that's going to come to most trans people's minds and I'm trans, anon).

[artbyblastweave]

i only learned recently from a friend's who much more comic literate than I that magneto's backstory as an Auschwitz survivor wasnt planned from the start, which surprised me since it seemed to me a really integral part of his character. anyway, twofold question: how common is it to see capes with backstories tied to very specific historical events, and, as time inevitably passes and real world survivors of those events pass, how do they justify having their characters still alive and kicking? (stay safe on your mountaintop friend)

Depending on how wide you cast the net, this is a pretty big list! There are a lot of comics who's characters cutting-edge ripped-from-the-headlines origin later became a very specific historical event, or at least Of A Specific Moment, in a way the writers had no reason to anticipate the franchise would run long enough to have happen. But to shed pedantry and hone in on some specific ones;

The big one, of course, is Captain America. Superficially Cap's contemporary origin comes with a baked-in means of him making it to the present day- he gets stuck in the ice and then gets unthawed. The fly in the ointment, though, is when he unthaws. When they first brought him back into rotation in 1964, his stint in the ice was only around 20 years; long enough for there to be a significant culture shock, but not long enough that his entire social circle was dead or even culturally sidelined. Nick Fury is still around and kicking ass as a zeitgeist-appropriate 60s superspy. But the further the sliding timeline hauls forward his implicit date of release, the more it changes the tone and tenor of the resulting story. Losing twenty years is different from losing fifty years (as was the case in The Ultimates, where he very explicitly comes back during the Bush years as part of the book's commentary on The War On Terror) and those will both be way different from when we inevitably hit the point where he's lost 100 years and he's the cultural equivalent of a Civil War Vet or something. There's strength to all of those stories but they're undeniably different.

Iron Man's origin was originally explicitly tied to the Vietnam war; he was captured by a detachment of "Red Guerillas" while consulting for the US military and the South Vietnamese government. Unfortunately U.S. foreign policy to this day has prevented this from ever becoming an unresolvable storytelling issue.

The Fantastic Four are a case where their origin was intimately tied to the space race; their untested, cutcorner spaceflight was expressly an attempt to show up the Russians. The extremely specific political context of their test flight is something that sort of gets brushed off; the Ultimate incarnation (written by Warren Ellis) threaded this needle deftly by having the accident be a dimensional expedition instead, circa the early 2000s. I'm not actually sure how the urgency of their test flight is currently contextualized in 616 continuity. Anyone got their finger on that pulse?

The Punisher was also originally a Vietnam vet- but through the jaded cynical lens of the 1980s rather than the straightforwardly peppy and jingoistic lens that defined Iron Man's debut in the 60s. Current continuities I believe have mostly bitten the bullet and updated his origin to the invasion of Afghanistan. However, an interesting decision in the Garth Ennis-spearheaded Punisher MAX continuity of the early 2000s- where Punisher is literally the only costumed vigilante- is that they bit the bullet and posited a version of Frank Castle who really has been killing criminals nonstop since shortly after his return from Vietnam in the 70s, a man well into his 60s who's survivability and efficacy at killing are edging up against the boundaries of magical realism.

Hulk I feel sort of deserves a mention here- he's in a sort of twilight zone on this issue, as there was, uh, a pretty goddamn specific political context in which the Army was having him make them a new kind of bomb, but you can haul that forward in the timeline without complete destruction of suspension of disbelief. Pretty soon it'll be downright topical again.

To circle back around to The X-Men, Claremont introduced a lot of historical specificity with the ANAD lineup. Off the top of my head, Colossus was explicitly a USSR partisan (updated to a gangster forced into crime to survive in the mismanaged chaos of the USSR's collapse in the Ultimate Universe) and Storm was orphaned by a French bombing during the Suez War. More to the point, the timing was such that Magneto, in his upper-middle age, had a pretty strongly defined timeline vis a vis his ideological development vs Xavier; child during the holocaust, Nazi hunter who eventually rifts with Xavier during the mid-to-late 60s, and then the two of them spend their years marshalling their respective resources before coming to blows during the quote-unquote "Age of Heroes," whatever the timeline looked like for that in the 80s. And it was a timeline that held together pretty damn well in the 80s, but it's gotten increasingly awkward as time's gone on. The Fox films completely gave up on having it make sense, near as I can tell. In the comics they've had all sorts of de-aging chicanery occur that very pointedly ignores what an odd timeline that implies for everyone else in the X-books besides Magneto. The Cullen Bunn Magneto standalone from 2014-15 I remember actually leaned into playing up the idea that he's just old as shit and dependent on so many superscience treatments to remain functional that he's basically pickled, which was a take I liked; the comic ended when he died of exertion trying to stop two planets from crashing into each other, right before a brand-wide universal reset. When the MCU was at it's peak and people were wargaming how to integrate the X-Men (lol) you occasionally saw people float "fixes" for the issue, such as making Magneto a survivor of the Bosnian Genocide, or making him black and a survivor of the Rwandan genocide; I remember that this consistently drew a lot of ire from people who (reasonably) thought that his Judaism and connection to the holocaust were deeply important to his character, continuity be damned. But yeah, he's a character dogged by specificity in a way only Cap even slightly approaches. If this is a tractable problem I'm not going to be the one to tract it.

Interestingly, I'm genuinely having a lot of trouble coming up with stuff that's analogous to this at DC comics- almost universally the core roster updates into any given time period much more smoothly. Furthermore, DC stuff has always been much more willing to eschew Marvel's World-Outside-Your-Window philosophy in favor of deliberately obfuscating the time period via the Dark-Deco aesthetic of BTAS's Gotham or the retrofuturism of STAS's Metropolis.

The closest you get to this kind of friction is The Justice Society, who, pre-crisis, were siloed off in a universe where superheroes had existed since the 40s and there was no comic book time, so they were all in their upper-middle-age to old age now, with their kids and grandkids as legacy capes. Post crisis they were (and are) kind of an awkward fit in DC continuity; in the scant few JSA comics from the 90s and early oughts that I read, surviving members of the WW2-era lineup like Alan Scott and Jay Garrick were absolutely written as dependent on their metahuman physiques to have endured up to the present day. I think they're still doing stuff with those guys. I don't know how. I do understand the impulse, though. I also never throw anything out.

[tacit-semantics]

It’s a nice change of pace to see someone say Raph is interesting. So many people just say he’s the angry one and leave it at that but not you.

Yess Raph’s my buddy :) my pal :) I am going under the cut because I got perhaps a little overenthusiastic and produced several hundred words of incoherent (and frankly slightly shaky! We will blame the eight hour shift) Raph discussion :)

Anyways I am a firm Nuance Enjoyer (tm) and Raph is like. A goldmine for that kinda thing asdjk like okay so you’re telling me he’s angry! Great, okay! Why! Where does it come from? What does it look like in practice? How does /he/ respond to it? How do others? What’s the underlying emotion, what’s the underlying situation? Characters, people, whatever, none of it exists in a vacuum- there’s Always something going on somewhere sksk. And beyond that, there’s the matter of casual interaction! I’ve said it before I’ll say it again Raph’s my favorite straight man character when writing. he’s a little grumpy he’s a lot confused but- and this is important- it’s ALSO sorta fun for him to be bothered, because then he gets to be annoyed if that makes sense?? It’s a dynamic I pull straight from my own family, actually. Like a game. Call and response or otherwise leaning into a role.

Speaking of! Raph also exhibits a lot more self awareness than people give him credit for, I think, which is ESPECIALLY reinforced by how well he seems to respond when given like a character parallel or foil to work with. I think he’s got a lot of trouble identifying and actualizing emotions, and seeing an externalized version of what he’s experiencing and how it manifests helps him contextualize things to a greater degree. I am also somewhat Constantly thinking about his 2003 dynamic with mikey in because they have a pretty solid balance there where Mikey gets to instigate Raph gets to respond, and the interpersonal issues crop up when one or the other pushes too hard or reacts too harshly. That said for 2003 they seem pretty aware of this; im a fan across the franchise so I like to specifically contrast this with 2012 where for one reason or another- depending on whether you’re looking from an meta writing or an in-universe perspective- they have trouble striking that same balance, which is how you end up with a dynamic where the baseline is the same, but everyone is just a little too out of step with each other for it to work as smoothly so it ends with frustration on everybody’s end. Definite care there but the execution leaves something to be desired, through frankly that’s like the thesis for the (early episode at least) 2012 team so make of that what you will

Anyways, another thing that I feel also gets a bit overlooked is that Raph has his fair share of Polite Young Man moments like in that one 2003 episode where he helps the lady who was gonna get evicted?? I think don’t quite remember. Side note, I Have a headcanon where they keep in touch and she gives him some of her old knitting/crochet/tatting patterns. Anyways, I also once saw someone somewhere compare him to an old man, and I’ve decided that these two can coexist. In the interest of nuance and linguistic contradiction aside sksjsjdj

Very last semi related note is that I’m an older sibling who semi-compulsively Older Siblings everything from inanimate objects to coworkers to my actual siblings (on occasion sksjsj) and also got into tmnt when I was like 19/20 so I adopted those kids On The Spot which Heavily heavily influences a lot of my character thoughts. Like that’s my kid brother. I’m gonna take him to the arcade :) Anyways I SINCERELY doubt that you were after a ramble but there we go!! Raph thoughts.

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

thanks for answering my question. (Although now I’m horrified that megumi treatment at the zenin clan was even worse then I thought.)

ps do the traditions they forced him to go through actually do anything?

So the short answer is you’ll see.

The long answer is still that you’ll see but also I love prattling on about stories, so some guidelines to sort of contextualize where we are in the story now and what Gojo, Nanami, and Shoko are sort of working with to answer that exact question:

First off, one of the biggest questions is what on earth could be valuable enough to them to risk the sheer shitstorm about to reign down on them.

Like, if there’s this old tradition that they’re trying to fulfill the way Maki thinks they are, you have to ask yourself why they thought it was worth facing the wrath of Gojo Satoru for it. They knew he would find out what they did eventually. They kidnapped Megumi from his goddamn school. His sister fully knew he was missing. While they did cut off their immediate access to him by switching the phone numbers, that’s a very short term solution. Eventually, Gojo’s going to go back to check on his fucking kids again, and it’s either going to be “hey gojo megumis fucking missing” or “hey gojo guess what fun extracurricular activities the Zenin did while you were gone. Also Megumi needs a hospital” depending on how soon he went back. They had to at least accept the danger of "The most powerful man in existence will probably fuck us up over this one."

So maybe the tradition had some kind of special, magical effect that they valued enough to risk it all anyway. Like, Megumi's got the Ten Shadows. It's the pride of their clan. If there's some kind of special, technique specific ritual that would have had a beneficial effect on the techinque itself, and that's what the tradition did, then maybe that would be worth it for them in the long run.

Or maybe they thought it would do something but they're working off of information that's five hundred fucking years out of date. They thought they'd get something out of this and whoopsie, everyone loses.

Or maybe the effect they were chasing didn't directly have anything to do with Megumi at all.

Maybe it was a political move. Like, the Gojo and the Zenin clans are rivals. Gojo is currently at the top of the food chain, to the point where he was able to steal the boy who inherited their most treasured technique right out from under them. That's humiliating for them. He's like, one guy, and he was able to publicly take the kid who should have been their heir from them. He really just said to the entire jujutsu world "yeah so I can and will take whatever I want from the zenin clan and they are all too weak to stop me” and he was fucking right. In their minds, Megumi should have always been theirs to do with as they pleased. They should have been able to perform the traditions around his technique without Gojo ever being a factor. Instead, they have to ask him for his permission and just swallow their pride when he says fuck no.

Actually getting one over on Gojo and performing their tradition anyway would be a public failure of his, and it would serve as a morale booster for the rest of the clan. Like, it's embarrassing for the clan leadership to have not been able to maintain custody over the kid they've been harping on about for literal centuries. Like, they were all probably excited to be alive to witness their clan's mightiest technique, only for the clan leadership to just... lose the literal battle for custody. Maybe the clan leadership wanted to send a message that, Gojo Satoru or not, they would be keeping all the traditions around the technique, and Megumi was just collateral damage to a political machination.

Or maybe it's all of the above. It could be that they thought the tradition would do something but also wanted the political effects. Or it could be none of the above and something else entirely.

That is, effectively, the sort of thought process that Gojo, Nanami, and Shoko have been running themselves through in order to figure out what the fuck happened. But this is all complicated by, secondly, the fact that we have no idea if all of what they did to Megumi was part of a tradition.

Like, Maki's theory that the Zenin did this because of their traditions was formed because of the use of the ceremonial kimono. But there were parts leading up before and after that, and we're sort of building the plane in reverse to figure out which parts they actually needed to do to uphold the tradition.

The thing is that they have wanted Megumi to be in their sole control since he was a little kid. They don't want fucking Teen Dad Gojo Satoru, Elected To Follow The Village Model With These Other Two Teenagers Who Are Also Here rolling up to ask pointed questions about what the fuck they think they're doing. There is probably a laundry list of things they would do to him if given half a chance. This is the first time in years that they've gotten to be in contact with him, and it's the longest time ever that they've gotten with him. So maybe they were just going down a list of things they wanted to get done, not all of which was part of an ancient tradition, and we can't attribute all of the effects of this to whatever tradition they may have been upholding.

Did they have him fight curses for days because the tradition demanded it? Or were they trying to see how he handled combat, because they haven't gotten to assess him themselves in years? Or were they just spiteful and punishing him for not being everything they dreamed of for all those years? Was it something else entirely?

This is not going to be discussed in anymore explicit detail than it already has been in the fic, so I'll go ahead and use it as a good example of what I mean: The entire thing with the private bathhouse and Megumi not being allowed to bathe himself. That wasn't actually required by any tradition. The Zenin could have simply let him bathe himself and chose not to.

I included that part for two reasons: 1) It was a very visceral way of conveying how Megumi was effectively viewed as clan property instead of a person and 2) it really put into perspective Megumi's likely emotional state around the clan.

I tried to imply in other places in the fic that this is not the first time they've forced Megumi to be bathed by Zenin clan servants against his will. When Maki is telling Yuuta about when the Zenin still had visitation, she mentions in passing that the first thing they would do is hand him over to the servants to be made "presentable." Then, later, when Megumi's talking about being handed over to the servants, he says it was “like when he was a kid.” They’ve fully done this to him before. This was a pretty common occurrence back when the Zenin had custody of him, and it was part of the reason why he hated them so much.

I am a firm believer in the fact that kids should be allowed to set their own boundaries and that it's stupid to get mad at people who are very small and under a lot of stress and have no control over their own life and very limited words to express their frustration with when they get upset. Like, from Maki, we get the impression that Megumi was a little hellraiser as a kid, but if you put it in the context of what was going on in his life, it's a lot less of "precocious and poorly behaved kid likes to act out" and more "kid in a very abusive environment is trying to protect himself the only way he knows how."

On its surface, having servants to bathe and dress you is like, very old world nobility. It's something you'd find in a period piece. It made sense to me that the Zenin, who have some very old sensibilities, wouldn't find it as out of the ordinary as most people would. But it's probably not something that the entire compound is doing--that would just be logistically impractical and weird. But Megumi inherited their most treasured technique, so it makes sense that they would sort of exceptionalize him--like with a private bathhouse manned by clan servants.

But when you take into account how badly he did not fucking want to do any of that, then the dynamic shifts more from "important nobility" to "prized dog of noble getting handed over to the servants to be washed."

Like, Megumi explicitly asked to do it himself and they ignored him. As a kid, we know less about what happened, but we also know that he was biting people and stomping the clothes they forced him to wear into the mud, so we can probably guess he wasn't exactly thrilled with the situation.

When he was a kid at least, I always imagined it kind of like the clan leaders trying to scrub away the physical evidence of his life outside of them.

Like, they only got him two or three days out of thirty. He didn't even want to be there during those scant few days. He never took the Zenin name. He'd show up dressed the way he always did for his life outside of it, and it wasn't in accordance with the Zenin way. Everything about him was a reminder that they did not succeed in bringing the Ten Shadows into the clan. But, they still got him for a few days a months. And during those few days, they could force him to fill the shoes of the long-awaited holder of the Ten Shadows technique. So he would get on the compound and be immediately dragged off to have any evidence of the rest of his life washed off and be properly clothed in Zenin fashion.

Only Megumi was a six year old kid who didn’t want to be there to begin with, didn’t want to wear those clothes, and didn’t want strangers touching him. If we recontextualize Megumi’s actions as a kid from “little hellion acting out” to “kid getting steamrolled at every possible turn desperately trying to regain any sense of autonomy or control,” then like. Yeah. It’s pretty safe to say he told them to stop and they just didn’t. He was literally biting people at this time. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to say “hey maybe the kid really wants us to stop touching him.”

And the thing is that the Zenin could have very easily made that concession and didn’t. Like, at age 6, Megumi was old enough to bathe himself and had probably been doing it for a long time, considering he had No Adult Supervision Whatsoever for a while. They could have agreed to just let him do it himself to make him more comfortable. They didn’t, because megumi, at the end of the day, has always been someone the Zenin have felt entitled to.

They have never felt the need to accommodate him or make him want to join the clan because the idea they have to do anything to make the Ten Shadows join the clan is insulting to them. The Ten Shadows belongs to the Zenin. It's always been that way. It's inconceivable that they would ever have to concede anything to get something that, in their minds, is rightfully theirs.

Fundamentally, the clothes he wears or how he looks while at the clan don't really matter. He could probably train better when he was in clothes he was familiar with, so if anything, forcing him to dress in clothes they selected was an active detriment to them. It was legitimately just... ego and stubborn pride driving it. The clan leadership wanted the Ten Shadows to be presented to them precisely as they always imagined him and weren't about to leave a six year old in charge of that because they didn't want the inconvenience of him getting ready differently from the exact preference. Servants could just do it right the first time, and that's enough justification for them to override megumi's bodily autonomy. There's no real deeper meaning behind it than that. It was just a frivolous want on their part, but for Megumi, it was his sense of control over his own life and his physical comfort. They just valued their own passing fancy higher than his mental wellbeing. He had all of the autonomy of a dress up doll when he was on the Zenin clan estate. They wanted him to be someone other than who he was, and they violated a lot of his boundaries to try and force him in those shoes.

Then, you take it in context of what just happened, and it's a lot worse. Like, at least at age six, that's still an age where some kids are still helped in the washroom for safety reasons. Some parenting books even recommend that they still be helped at that age. But when you're fifteen, you absolutely can bathe yourself (barring extenuating circumstances, which didn't exist here). They can't even lie to themselves with "oh he was still a young kid and the fucking dr. oz parenting book says that you should wait until they're seven or eight before you let them be in the bath unsupervised."

To be clear, when you're a young child, you still deserve to be able to safely assert your boundaries and desires, but parents do have to consider factors like "yeah that kid has the motor control of a watermelon on pool noodles they WILL slip and die if we leave them in the shower unsupervised." But it wasn't about that with the Zenin, and the fact that they did this to him again at age 15 really underscores that it had never been about that for them, and they had never seen a problem with it. He was the Ten Shadows, and he belonged to the Zenin clan, and they have always felt entitled to do what the pleased with him. His own desires were so tangentially unimportant that it never gave them pause, and they violated him in a very egregious way. Not even his literal person was off limits for them.

And I think all of this can potentially reflect on Megumi's own emotional state regarding the Zenin clan and trauma surrounding them.

For one thing, being bathed against your will is just sort of humiliating. It requires a lot of vulnerability. You're left completely exposed.

Then there's the added layer of the fact that Megumi's a pretty seasoned combatant at this point, and all Zenin clan servants are mostly noncombatants. Like, under normal circumstances, Megumi should be able to overpower them. For whatever reason this time, he couldn't or didn't. Maybe he was too exhausted and weak after fighting the curses and being actively injured. Maybe they had combatants in the room to restrain him if he resisted. Or maybe they had another way of ensuring his compliance.

I think Megumi's a person who's struggled with control and feelings of helplessness a lot in his life, and his own ability in a fight is one of the ways he's regained a sense of control over his life (like with his bullying days). Here, he was being (from his perspective) humiliated. He either was too weak to protect himself from noncombatant servants, or he had to swallow his pride and allow them to do it even when he could have otherwise stopped them. And it's all reopening the old wounds from his childhood and reminding him of how helpless and powerless he was when the Zenin used to have him.

It is infuriating to be at someone else's mercy. It is mentally traumatizing. Megumi's mostly been unconscious for sea glass gardens, but if he wasn't, well. He would not be doing well mentally or emotionally right now.

That's the real issue with Gojo, Nanami, and Shoko figuring out what the hell happened and why the Zenin did this to him. Maybe the tradition actually does something. Or maybe it was politically motivated. Or maybe they only thought it did something and it did something they weren't expecting entirely. Or maybe it's a mix of motives. Maybe some of the things they did to him were motivated by a tradition and some weren't, and they can't untangle the effects. There's a lot of options and not a lot of leads to follow for the answers, and the only people who have the answers are the Zenin, who have never once willingly shared information about megumi or his technique.

[allbeendonebefore]

weird question but for the sake of fanfic accuracy, how would ralph and oliver like their steaks? my first instinct for ollie is to say well done lol

also this is my first fanfic so i wanna get their portrayals (mostly for ralph) right, as much as i can at least. how do you think they’d interact when it’s just them? personally i see ollie as very reserved/uptight and i feel like ralph would feel awkward bc there’s lots of underlying tension even if they aren’t arguing plus little things ollie says/does that grate on him even if ollie isn’t trying to piss him off.

ah the steak question, the one i always avoid because steak is my least favourite way to eat beef and i know bertie is like. PASSIONATE. about that. I think he'd raise an eyebrow at well done though, i think he is more a medium-rare/medium sort of guy and he is also a fan of beef tartare so the rawness does not bother him but he also wants that sear on the outside, yknow, like the cook put an effort into the Correct Balance. Well done is like. why are you drying out that poor cow, you might as well be eating jerky. [fellow albertans with steak opinions, please by all means tell me]

How they act together is definitely contextual somewhat but yes I agree that Ollie is generally uptight because that's the way he is around everyone, that's the cost of being the Good British Child and the Public Face - and Bertie has this roulette going that will either land on [high strung, take offense] or [make a show of being So Relaxed] because he's the one that Also gets flack for being the Princess Province from everyone, so he is out to prove (both to everyone and to himself) that he's NOT as high strung as OLIVER even though in a lot of ways he Absolutely is. Like, I will be masochistic and tough in situations I wouldn't be in private just to show him what a Real Man (tm) would do. (a real man may choose to buy heated seats for his truck but is not... he's not soft enough to use them... no sir... unless of course YOU want them on, I GUESS. i almost forgot they were there.)

[and like, the implication is that bert is "At Home" in his Element in the comic, which is a little different than Not Being At Home of course. no i didn't specify which airport they're at... oop. entirely depends on the reason why ollie is visiting which i also didn't specify]

Obviously with [gestures at the background radiation of political bullshit] though I think they are both tired. i'm tired. i'm tired of seeing it im tired of hearing it and we all need a break from political theatre. like yes, tension, its real, it's weighing on everyone, i often use it as fuel to vent when i do dumb comics, but its also like. we are in this same bullshit together, like me and my colleagues back in ON watched ford ripping up and selling off the green belt while kenney and smith are still trying to turn the mountains into open pit mines like "same hat". There's a point beyond "you don't get me!!" where it becomes "you get me...", its like, its this assumption that things are never going to change and the assumption about how one is going to react that is the actual crux of the personality conflict, you feel me? i don't know if this makes sense at all its just something i have been chewing on a lot. chewing on it like a dry well done steak

anyway its like. it would feel odd to me if there Wasn't teasing and jabs but for me there is definitely an ironic feeling to it, like they both understand what is actually going on but it's hard to figure out what to do about it and so they kind of get stubborn and stuck in their ways a little, but at the same time its also like "thanks for coming," "you see what i have to deal with," "i picked an activity i think you'd like (i hope you say so, i'm very proud of it even though i pretend its no big deal, this is me actually being very vulnerable and concerned with your opinion, i hope you appreciate it, but also if you did idk how to respond)" or "i knew you weren't going to like this but you should broaden your horizons and loosen up" hahaha...

(you see why i struggle articulating my thoughts, like, how do you Portray that idk man)

like, i do have more to say and im happy to try to be clearer about what i mean or to give some more specific examples or try to detail what i think the [+/- sims friendship points] things might be or those little grating things, I just need to stop somewhere before i stop making sense altogether hahahaha

[diiq]

Humans have made art for just about as long as we have any record of human activity; 50,000 years, anyway. Humans make art when they're enslaved, when they're starving, when they're being hunted, when they're dying. So I wouldn't call it a luxury good, necessarily -- it's not quite in the same category as a birkin. There *is* something essential about it, evidently. BUT! far more humans make art than make art their profession. If art is your profession, you are vulnerable in ways any specific niche of labor is vulnerable. "Being an artist" is not universal in human history. Sometimes art has been at the center of politics. Sometimes it is a rallying cry. These are exceptional cases; they are important, worth considering and maybe emulating, but exceptional. Somewhat more often art has been a way to signal one's politics; and that seems likely to continue to be a booming industry, and can assist with escaping the boot. More often even than that, art has only a contextual relationship with politics. All these things are possible, even simultaneously.

Try out this: artists may or may not have a important role in a strife-filled society, depending on the society and the strife, but making art always has an important role in human life, even in strife. Pragmatic life-saving praxis is important and so is the goopy human stuff. Both! We've always done both!

Words from Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, and James Baldwin about “the vital role that artists play in society generally, and doubly so in the face of authoritarian regimes”.

[theminecraftbox]

Been having some mild brainrot over that one ask about the Sam/Dream/Ponk polycule and how that would work out lol. Like Sam is/was possessive of both Dream and Ponk to different extents (Sam not wanting Ponk to move on with Foolish after the keycard incident, the Everything with Dream in prison) and I just think the dynamic of those 3 together would be interesting with how Sam actually cares for Ponk while Dream is more of a beloathed affair partner. Just curious on your thoughts on this lmao

/dsmp rp

Ooh, I think it depends a lot on the power dynamic, of course: when are they being slammed together? But let’s say it happens in current ish canon, after Dream’s visit to Foolish.

Ponk got angry with Sam for failing his duty to keep Dream imprisoned. Ponk is keenly aware that both Sam’s treatment of him specifically and his more general downward spiral are a direct result of Dream and Sam’s preoccupation with him. This is, in a certain way, Dream’s fault.

Ponk also knows what Sam is like—how cruel he can be. What does he think Sam did to Dream, knowing what he did to his own partner? When faced with a Dream who is clearly Not Okay in various ways, what’s the conclusion Ponk draws? If Dream harangues Sam, does Ponk join in or defend him? I think it depends on what Sam’s said. If Dream’s making a point Ponk agrees with, then sure. But if not, then Ponk might step in and tell Dream to shut up. Which would have Sam like 🥺😭😀😍😍😍🥹😍🥹���

I think Dream’s the most predictable one here: I’m betting it would be really similar to how he acted with Foolish. Ponk is someone Dream doesn’t have any direct quarrels with, an erstwhile ally who could be an ally again. So Dream would be polite and professional to Ponk. And he’d be unnervingly friendly to Sam, including when he casually reveals what Sam allowed to be done to him. Obviously he’s unaffected lmao. Ponk doesn’t need to ask Sam to know if it’s true. He asks anyway. He wants to hear Sam explain it.

As for Sam: he cares about Ponk, and more specifically he cares about what Ponk thinks about him. He’s terrified Dream’s going to hurt Ponk. Dream doesn’t put in any effort to disabuse him of this notion; Sam’s fear is gratifying if misdirected.

I think in front of Dream, Sam probably returns to that old instinct of trying to defend himself to Ponk. Everything was justified, he should have taken it MORE serious, he’d do it all again, etc etc. Ponk’s presence presses deeply on the wounds of insecurity Dream opened in Daedalus. Sam is caught between trying to downplay his more serious crimes and trying to own and contextualize and justify them.

Sam is deeply uncomfortable with Ponk and Dream in the same place. He knows he prioritized Dream over Ponk for a long time. He cut off Ponk’s arm. He never cut off Dream’s. The guilt (for which?) makes him feel sick.

[decepti-thots]

For the fanfic trope I gotta ask my fav 👀 Arranged marriage/Marriage on convenience ?

Depends on what you mean by 'arranged marriage'! That's a lot of different tropes, IME. I only really tend to like it for its own sake when it's of the 'went to a matchmaker' type or whatever, really. Political/etc arranged marriage is kind of contextual to me, but it's not ever likely to be what I go to a fic for regardless. It's not like it's inherently a detriment or anything, just not a trope I seek out. Let's say the former is B-, the latter is C.

Now marriage of CONVENIENCE is different IMO. 'goddammit we have to get married for PLOT REASONS and i'm MAD ABOUT IT' is my fave comedy of errors. Likewise, 'we need to do a mutually beneficial Sham Marriage' is gold. B+, unless the married people don't actually get together in the end and have to endure it anyway, at which point it becomes an A tbh, I love that shit I LOVE IT.

[notfreetoday]

First of all - Sailor Moon was my first anime and I still have the Sailor Moon cards 🤣🤣 Thank you for the tag and the question!! As usual, I have taken something that could be answered in 30secs and turned it into 30mins! I hope you don't mind the length 😅

I'm just wondering if Segasaki choosing to to call him Yoh-kun essentially immediately is something that would be considered normal. I imagine age dynamics/seniority are probably a factor as well

Yes, this would be considered normal, and you are right that seniority plays a part! (the short answer ends here 🤣)

The suffix -kun is usually used for males, although it can, in certain situations, also be used for females. It is considered a polite form of address, though is comparatively a little less polite than -san. Hence, in modern day Japanese, it's usually used to refer to someone who is either of equal rank to you, or lower.

Wrt it being used to signify a close relationship - it really depends on the context. Going from -san to -kun definitely signifies a change in relationship to one that is closer, or more intimate. The use of -kun alone without any prior comparison though, does not tell us anything about the horizontal distance between the two speakers - ie, how close they are - particularly when they are both males, since in University it is very common to use -kun amongst males to address their peers or their juniors (we could sort of take a gander at the possible vertical distance between them though, using other contextual clues).

So, as the senior, Segasaki is well within his right and the social norm to address Yoh as -kun. Of course, if Yoh had actually remembered to give his full name, Tanada Yoh, and Segasaki chose Yoh-kun instead of Tanada-kun, then we could make the argument that Segasaki was at least interested in coming across as friendlier/closer by choosing to use Yoh's first name over his last name. (Going straight to Yoh, without any suffix, would just be plain rude, unless they were in the same university activity club or something similar).

But, if Yoh had jumped straight to Mizuki-kun, then that would be unusual and slightly presumptive, because that would technically imply that he might not be respecting Segasaki's position as his senior, and could come across as rude (again, context plays a big part). Tbf, as the junior in the relationship it's already presumptive to jump straight to Mizuki-san, so the fact that Segasaki simply laughs this off without correcting Yoh signals to us that he's probably a pretty nice guy. (In case you were wondering, both Mizuki and Yoh are very obviously first names, so Yoh can't exactly claim ignorance here.)

This is a slight tangent but - it is common practice to use -kun as a term of reference when addressing fellow politicians at the National Diet (link in Jp), regardless of gender, in order to ensure that social hierarchy does not interfere with the political discussions.

Anyway @halliescomut hope this answers your question and feel free to ask anything else you want to know! Or tag me in your meta again, like that incredibly detailed analysis of Yoh's drawings!

"Ah ... I heard someone call you that."

MY PERSONAL WEATHERMAN (2023). Episode 6.

[aerois]

Remarried Empress: Sovieshu Contextualized and Navier the Unreliable Narrator (SPOILERS!)

So recently I started reading Remarried Empress on WEBTOON. Honestly the whole premise wasn’t my cup of tea and I was solely reading it because it was part of an event where I could get free coins (lol). But then... I got hooked. I got invested. Started drinking in chapters whenever and wherever I could, and even now I still crave more. I wanted Navier to have some semblance of a happy ending (and, let’s be honest, I wanted to drag that precious little bitch Trashta by her fucking hair across the yard). At first it was mostly that. Raging at Trashta and her Simperor, pondering at Heinley’s true intentions, drooling over Kaufman. 

And then, I noticed something odd. I noticed-- the strangest thing-- Sovieshu seemed to be... not as enamored with his mistress as meets the eye. And there was even some hinting that his feelings for Navier weren’t what we assumed.

I have to preface this: I don’t condone Sovieshu’s crappy actions. He’s an idiot, and acts very poorly as a husband. And there’s no excuse for cheating. Absolutely not! So I don’t want this post to come across like In Defense of Sovieshu, because it’s not. But I do think that our view, the reader’s view, of Sovieshu, is warped. And this is mainly because we see the story through Navier’s eyes of course, but we forget that every individual person is fallible. Every person, at some point, harbors false assumptions that color their concepts of truth and reality. Put shortly, Navier is human, and therefore is not a reliable narrator at some points. Especially concerning her husband. We see Sovieshu entirely through the eyes of his wronged wife in the webcomic. Pin that: in the webcomic. Did you know the webcomic is actually based on a mobile game? Yes, it is! And I downloaded it! And I’m playing it! And... I’m actually... hating Sovieshu less?????????? 

Ok, ok, put the pitchforks down! Hear me out! I’m not saying any of the stuff he did was okay! But Navier’s narration of the story paints him as this cold, detached man who grew to hate his wife so much that he flew into the arms of some hussy for warmth and then just cast his wife aside and deliberately acted like a jerk just because he wanted her to suffer.  And there’s a grain of truth to that. There are points where Sovieshu feels bitter and does or says something waspish. But it’s not as black and white as you might assume. I played the mobile game, and decided to take Sovieshu’s route out of spite. I opened this app, saw it was an otome with this garbage-fire, cheating sack of shit for a romance option and thought “Hah! The nerve. Probably some semi-abusive dirtbag route aimed to appeal to girls who like men who treat them badly. You know, that mutually abusive relationship appeal that some girls like because drama.” And I needed to rack up in-game currency anyway (it’s like usual mobile games, where when you wanna make cool choices you gotta cough up cash unless you “diamond-mine” on crappy stories to save up the meager bits of free currency the app gives you for playing) so I figured I’d blast through the Sovieshu route and skip onto my darling Kaufman in playthrough 2.

And then the smoke genuinely compelling character development got me. So I could run y’all through Navier’s version of the events, but you already know that. For Sovieshu though? Here’s the kicker: this idiot has had a raging passion for his wife slowly building up for years throughout their entire lives, and only realizes it about halfway through the events of the story. This idiot, this buffon, this absolute brain-dead dolt... didn’t even realize he was pining over his own wife until he was about to explode from the desperation from it all. God, I wish I was joking. Lemme break it down for you:

Sovieshu’s POV: He and Navier are introduced as kids and are told they’ll be married someday. Life partners. They are raised in tandem to respect and care for one another. Kinda smacks of grooming (go mom and dad!) but whatever, that’s the background. These kids are mentally regarding each other as spouses their entire conscious lives. And Sovieshu, as he grows, quickly comes to realize his intended is a selfless girl who holds everything inside. The first spark of his affection for her is wrapped in this: that Sovieshu longs for Navier to take off her “perfect princess” mask and let herself be vulnerable with him. He admires her intellingence, her grace, and her devotion to her country. He looks at her and sees someone that inspires him. He craves the opportunity to comfort and protect her. He waits, and these opportunities come in small instances. But they get older, their burdens get heavier, and like most young women, Navier gets better at pretending nothing is wrong with her and putting everyone else first. Sovieshu feels more distant from her. But that desire to break through her wall still stands.

They marry, but Navier, in her infinite wisdom, makes the assumption that this marriage is entirely political (despite...the fact... that they were raised together??? they were literally best friends their entire lives??? are y’all seeing how this could be confusing for him???) and that there are absolutely no feelings involved on Sovieshu’s side. Expect there’s that little problem. That little problem. Of Navier’s absolute inability to be vulnerable. And so she starts this marriage all Elsa-Conceal-Don’t-Feel convinced that her husband (whom she is secretly in love with, shocker) holds no warmth for her because she’s never received any from him. 

Now I’ll acknowledge that this is a two way street, where Sovieshu fails as well. Should Navier have made a mature decision and asked for love and support when she needed it? Yes. Should Sovieshu have offered anyway, despite not knowing that she wanted it at all? Yes. They’re both in the wrong here. They’re both too passive, too afraid.

So the first few years of their marriage pass by like this. And Navier kinda melts into more of a depressed state over it, while Sovieshu becomes frustrated. But he doesn’t know why. He hasn’t quite put his finger on the fact that HE’S IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE, GEE WHAT A SURPRISE BUDDY. And then... the little ingenue comes in. Trashta, with her crocodile tears, oversharing of emotions, co-dependent as all get-out. You see where I’m headed, right? It’s not just that she’s the opposite of Navier that gets Sovieshu hooked. It’s that she gives him that opportunity to unburden all this pent up romantic frustration. He can comfort, and protect, and wipe away the tears of a woman who loves him... And for a while, it’s intoxicating. That itch is finally being scratched.

Or so it seems. Because sooner or later, Sovieshu realizes that this woman is not his wife. And she’s a bit clingy, and clueless, and she’s... well, she’s not his wife. She’s not his wife. 

“Oh, dear God...” the idiot finally realizes. “I don’t want this hussy. I want my wife!” 

Ding ding ding! You did it! And it only took you--what? 20 years? After all this time, Sovieshu (and the audience playing his route) realizes. He’s not cheating because he’s bored, or because he hates his wife, or because he’s Inherently An Asshole And That’s What Assholes Do. He’s cheating because he’s using this woman as a stand-in for his wife. He’s been looking straight through this woman and seeking his wife the entire time. He’s cheating because he’s stupid and repressed and misguided and human. And again, that doesn’t excuse it. He still cheated, and that’s something he needs to spend a life-time making up for. It’s a mistake, and a big one. But it’s not fueled by a malicious hatred or a desire to hurt her. It’s fueled by confusion and fear. And, strangely enough, a desire to perform love for his wife.

So anyway, this stupid dweeb finally wakes up and realizes that no matter how much he plays around with the Town Skank, it doesn’t slate that thirst for the woman he’s spent his life growing to love. And that he actually, truly loves her to begin with. Now at this point, Navier was away travelling, doing queenly stuff. And he gets a message from a servant-- his wife is home. This boy books it. This man throws down what he’s doing, sprints across the imperial palace, to stumble at the feet of his wife; red-faced and breathless, absolutely undone. This man is screaming for his wife on the inside and now nothing he can do will quiet it. And his wife, ever the perfect pinnacle of a monarch, just raises a perfectly manicured eyebrow at him and wonders what’s got him in such a tizzy.

This is where the difference between the narratives hits especially hard. Navier has absolutely no clue that her husband is a hair-thin thread of self-control away from all of this just completely spilling out of him. She looks at him and sees a tormentor; someone who’s treating her like a used doll. And he sees this Goddess that’s been hiding in plain sigh the whole time. He sees his sins and repents before this, his wife, his almighty Goddess. But he doesn’t know what to do. She’s still been hurt by him, Trashta is still in their lives, and damn it all, he’s still frustrated. He still feels bitter and abandoned because even after everything, even after the years of marriage, his wife just seems so unaffected by him. This is where Navier’s “perfect queen” image that she tries so hard to curate really bites her in the ass.

These two dumbasses are hopelessly in love with each other but they’re deadlocked in an endless cycle of letting their prides get in the way. Navier doesn’t want to be vulnerable. Sovieshu doesn’t want to compromise, doesn’t know how to not lash out in anger when he’s really feeling sad. Unlike Navier, he can express emotions-- but not in a heathy way. So he says something mean, does something kinda shitty. And Navier thinks it’s because he delights in her suffering. So Sovieshu’s over here in his head like a cranky little child that’s mad at mommy because she’s on the phone, and Navier is over there in her head wondering why on earth her husband can’t notice a love that she’s never actually expressed to him. And it’s just terrible. But kind of hilarious. Mostly sad and terrible. But defintely hilarious.

To further illustrate this: even a lot of Sovieshu’s actions, for that matter, get warped by Navier’s unreliable narration. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE! In the chapter where Trashta is stabbed, Sovieshu immediately screams for guards to surround Navier. So I’ll sum up their thought processes here.

Navier: Oh my God, I can’t believe this asshole. Calling the guards? He really fuckin thinks I did this?! Jerk! Asshole! He really thinks I’d arrange for a pregnant woman to be stabbed!! He’s probably deliberately framing me too, so he can get me out of the way and live happily ever after with her!

Sovieshu: OH MY GOD, MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE COULD GET STABBED NEXT SOMEONE HELP well actually maybe she had something to do with it? nah. prolly not. but even if she did idgaf I LOVE MY WIFE, I’LL COVER FOR YOU BABY I’LL FORGIVE WHATEVER. GUARDS, FIND WHO DID THE STABBING SO THEY DON’T STAB MY PERFECT WIFE NEXT

Like I wish I was joking, but that’s how it read. Anyway, I’m not done with the comic or the game yet. But Sovieshu’s motivations aren’t all as they seem. And while he’s not a perfect husband, he has the capacity to mature, let down his pride, and make steps toward atoning to his wife. I honestly and genuinely believe this marriage could be salvageable if they could come clean with each other. A lot of people want to root for Kaufman or Heinley, and I get it. Those two would probably treat her well. But the fact stands that these two are married, and surprisingly, they both actually still hold a spark of love for one another. If Sovieshu could genuinely repent, and demonstrate this to Navier, they would attain the happy marriage with each other that they both strive for. Anyway, I find myself surprisingly hooked on the story now that I see Sovieshu’s POV. He’s not a hero in this story by any means, but I’m somehow, against my better judgement, rooting for him. I’m rooting for him to make the right choices and repair his marriage. 

It’s a bold strategy, folks. Let’s see how it pays off.

[acaiis]

The Existence of Capitalism in Skyword Sword and How it Makes No Sense Contextually

First off, before I begin, I would like to make it clear that this is not meant to be a a post to bring politics into Zelda; it is my analysis of the information we are given about Skyloft and subsequent questioning of a lot of different canonical aspects. This also won't contain any major spoilers for Skyward Sword, as this is viewed almost entirely from a world-building perspective. Continued beneath the cut (because this is a monstrous post)

The Canon Economy In game, the citizens of Skyloft rely on a monetary system of trade, i.e. using money to purchase goods. This in and of itself works fine for the game, but I'll get into later why it's not very well founded later on. We see that the Skyloftians have to pay for necessities such as food in game. Seeing as this isn't something that carries much weight story-wise, it's hard to find lots of information, but it can be asssumed that Skyloft operates on a typical "use money to purchase goods" system. Furthermore, the only large source of food we see in game (pumpkin island), appears to be owned privately. Patrons must pay to consume pumpkin soup. This indicates that other islands with the means for producing food may also be owned privately, though these theoretical islands do not exist canonically. Most of this will become relevant as this post goes on; for now it offers contextual knowledge. The Money Problem

Across the Zelda franchise, Rupees act as the main currency. It is not stated anywhere how or where Rupees are created, so there's a few potential routes.

1.) Rupees are mined from the earth.

In the very first installation of the franchise, rupees are referred to as Rubies by the game manual. Rubies being used to refer to them implies that they may share similar properties -- so from here we can assume that rupees are some sort of gemstone that are mined from the earth and made into money. If you're thinking, "but money is made out of paper, why would they use gemstones?", then I will direct you to the historical use of silver and gold as currency. 2.) Rupees are created magically.

In game, rupees can be obtained in an eclectic variety of methods. Killing monsters, cutting grass, and so on and so forth. This could imply that they are generated by some outside force at seemingly random. This particular theory is the weakest of the three.

3.) Rupees are formed via living organisms.

Hear me out. Seeing as a potential drop of enemies is rupees, the creation of rupees is not explicitly stated, and they're not so common that they're essentially worthless, one could assume that, similar to pearls, rupees are created by living organisms. This would explain why they are dropped sometimes by enemies, and even why you find them in the grass (outside of the minish) -- if a monster dies, the rupee(s) could be left behind in the grass and so forth. When taken in the context of Skyloft, the theoretical origin of rupees that makes the most sense at a first glance is the second one -- there are few monsters on Skyloft, which rules out no. 3, and seeing as they have very limited ground to work with, mining is out of the question. However, when we look at the option of magical origins, it starts to break down -- they can't exactly disperse any excess money, as they are extremely limited in who they can trade with, and if money just keeps showing up out of nowhere the economy will inevitably undergo inflation, which wouldn't be good for anyone. So, this leaves us with a limited supply of rupees on Skyloft, following either theory 1 or 3.

The problem here is that they live on a floating island, and frequently travel between multiple of these islands. If, say, one was to drop something off the edge, we know that it would be as good as lost canonically -- they cannot reach the surface, and therefore have no method of retrieving any objects lost in this manner.

In my initial ramble about this, the example I used was this: Young children clearly exist on Skyloft, and typically children enjoy playing with things and imitating their parents. I'm sure most people have had an experience in which a young child has either destroyed or lost money. If there's one toddler that has the idea to start chucking money over the edge, they could potentially even wreck the economy depending on the current finite amount of rupees available on Skyloft and the amount of which is being thrown off. Basically, the economy of Skyloft could be wrecked by a child.

They could potentially use something other than rupees as money, but options here are pretty much nonexistent -- what would they use? The amount of resources they'd have to use to produce money simply wouldn't make sense, seeing as they have limited resources -- which brings us to our next section.

Limited Resources

To add to the dubious monetary system of Skyloft, we have the very clearly limited resources. They live on floating islands. In the sky. With no access to the greater world below. They have very limited room for production. Even with the small canonical population of Skyloft (we're strongly going to assume that the npcs present in SkSw are not the extent of the sky's population, however, because otherwise they'd be competing with the lines of the european royalty), managing food would be a large and very important undertaking. In order to keep myself going a rant worthy of its own post, I won't be going too into depth on how they would make use of the land for survival. All that is needed to know is that food is very much limited and also, obviously, essential for survival.

When looking at an isolated community like this, food would likely be the most important part of life on Skyloft. If food isn't available, you die. Given that it is so important to have food in this situation, it would be a reasonable assumption to have a community in which everyone works to ensure the production of food. With these circumstances, the private ownership (for profit) of gardens is both unrealistic and extremely unethical. Farmers could charge a premium for food, making themselves extremely wealthy, and everyone else would be forced to pay these rates in order to survive.

Summary of Canonical Issues

Basically, we have this community in which resources are vastly limited, obtaining replacements for lost money is more-or-less out of the question, and the community would likely be all working together for the collective benefit of said community. In this context, having both money and capitalism make very little sense, and capitalism on its own is horribly unethical.

Potential Solutions

The full scope of world-building solutions to the "look at it wrong and it crumbles" situation of Skyloft gets into far more than the economy, and this post particularly was spawned from a conversation about Skyloftian food production. This will be pretty much a summary, but if I get around to making a separate post for the food and resources of Skyloft, I'll link it here and reblog this with a link as well. Anyways.

The conclusion I eventually came to falls into socialism. There's not really a central government on Skyloft, so production would be in the hands of the community at large. They would all be working for the benefit of one another and continued survival of their civilization, and seeing how essential food is, wages wouldn't really be a factor either -- you garden, or you die. This eliminates the need for money, as essential goods can be obtained via working for them and contributing to the community. Outside of essentials, any luxury items could be obtained through the trade of items or skill, which would make sense. Someone who is, for example, a woodcarver, could want silk from a weaver. Instead of paying in money, which wouldn't serve any purpose outside of luxury items, they could instead carve something for the weaver. This continues to promote the learning and use of specialized skillsets while avoiding the money conundrum. Plus, seeing as Skyloft would likely be tightly knit as a community, it fits far nicer than charging your neighbor ridiculous prices.

Also, as a bonus thought, Rupees would probably just be seen as gemstones on Skyloft. They could be used by craftsman or as decoration. I'm at a loss as to how to end this post, because I pretty much summed up the bulk of everything I could without going on wild tangents, so I leave you with this:

[mitigatedchaos]

Lightly edited. Fake context based on game mechanics and techs not present in the real Alpha Centauri have been added for flavor.

It is not the case that weakness always promotes unethical behavior, but rather weakness reduces the pool of options available to deal with a situation, which may result in unethical behavior.

- Miti Chao, admonishment to a board member that refused exercise

Anyone who isn't invested in either life extension or cryonics is already betting they're going to die on a normal human timescale anyway.

- Miti Chao, "Regarding the change to your life insurance policy"

The flattening effect when discourse escapes from containment, and all the nuance and personal judgment are wrung out, to the point where "don't be mean to cats" becomes "be mean to dogs"... It suggests a maximum complexity, in bits, that society can support in its ideology. Can that be estimated?

- Miti Chao, submitting request for research proposals to the board Unlocked: Ideological Functional Decomposition

I'm up and about because there's necessary work for me to do, and it would be fundamentally nihilistic or self-contradictory not to do it.

- Miti Chao

These statements are a system of criticism, not a basis for the construction of functional systems, and if you try to put the weight of a functional system on them, they immediately collapse into absurdity. People can say that this is unfair, but we had plenty of collapses into absurdity in the 20th century.

- Miti Chao, criticism of Karl Magnussen's "Subdynamic Political Systems"

Problems generally arise not from differences in capability, but whether people are positioned correctly within the system according to their capabilities, whether the system is set up to adequately and sustainably distribute the benefits from those capabilities, and whether the system is able to ameliorate flaws (which all humans have, and which are contextual, but which are not all equally severe in practice) and prevent negative consequences.

- Miti Chao, internal memo First advisor dismissed.

It turns out that loss aversion makes a lot of sense as a strategy for organisms that can't regrow lost limbs.

- Miti Chao Unlocked: Tissue Engineering

The old Western viewpoint of individualism is useful for both for incentivizing economic production, and as a moral firewall against ethnic and clan revenge cycles.

- Miti Chao First clan feud after adopting Organization: Clans ideological tenet.

While life-supporting industrial systems require a great deal of cooperative and coordinated human choice, you are an individual before you are anything else. Think of it this way: as the only unit in the system with agency, and with a greater degree of different causal factors piling up in one spot (social environment, genes, memories), and much more portable than networks or infrastructure (and less dependent on a given infrastructure configuration), the individual is the correct basic unit of analysis.

- Miti Chao, "The Joys of Individualism" Unlocked: Individualist Analysis

We live in a high-energy society right now, but "literally everyone born before 1950 should have just given up" is actually a really weird standard. Likewise, "literally everyone born in the Soviet Union or Communist China should have just given up" is maybe a little less weird, but still pretty weird.

- Miti Chao First base power outage.

If you want to criticize Transhumanism because all of your worst outcomes are on the other side of The Singularity, might I suggest you instead use that gigantic IQ of yours to write about ⇒ Reproductive alignment, potential for value drift in the event of the technological commoditization of childbearing ⇒ The effects of evolution with effectively 'unlimited' 'investment capital,' through the combination of AI and fusion power, potentially rapidly consuming new surplus as soon as it is created ⇒ The apparent "Babel Limit" our civilization may be hitting, where concentrations of truth-production become nodes to be subverted, and information-faking technology increases at pace with information-finding technology ⇒ Risks in rendering so much mass human survival so heavily dependent on industrial technology (already an issue in late modernity) ...instead of trying to, I dunno, do psychological warfare on someone that's in a better position on that front than you are.

- Miti Chao, personal correspondence Unlocked: Growth Vats

Followers of Yudkowsky answer the question, "What should be done about animals that are less optimal than us?" in the context of imagining an animal that is much more optimal than themselves. Thus there is a potential conservative position that, "Nuke the biosphere, it is too full of suffering," is not a particularly wise position for an imperfect animal to hold.

- Miti Chao, message to a political dissident Unlocked: Ideological Tenet: Effective Altruism

Ideologies are based on certain premises. When one of those premises is contradicted by reality, the behavior of the ideology becomes undefined.

- Miti Chao First new ideological tenet discovered.

One reason to doubt speech restrictions is that they can be used to hide contradictions and externalize the costs to the ruling coalition, putting them onto everyone else - in this case, victims are injured or die in leopard attacks while the Release The Leopards Party gets to stay in power.

- Miti Chao, "Basic Instructions: An Introductory Book of Moral Exercises"

There’s only so much harshness from the environment that can be insulated by the system instead of passed through to the individuals before the system itself starts taking damage, gradually reducing its ability to insulate harm from the environment.

- Miti Chao, "Layoff Notice, Facility #17" First production facility deconstructed.

Is good freedom and free love? Is good fidelity and loyalty? Humans are the shape they are because of environmental constraints - or divine action which created those environmental constraints. (There are some of you around here that should never be given access to a genie. No offense.)

- Miti Chao, message to the board, recovered from leaked meeting minutes First fusion power plant constructed.

It’s just that every part of the system is constantly undergoing entropy. ...So at some point, you have to make a cut if the overall level of justice or functioning within the system is to be maintained.

- Miti Chao, "Regarding the Execution of Johann Bacques" Adopted ideological tenet: Death Penalty.

So, uh.

The only real problem is that these aren't bonkers enough for an Alpha Centauri faction leader - it doesn't stick out enough in any one direction.

Well, fuck, I'm going to end up talking like a character from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri at this rate, aren't I.

[stillness-in-green]

MLAWeek Coda: The Lore Post

Sorry this is a few days late!  To the surprise of absolutely no one who has read some of my longer meta posts, I just don’t know how to shut the F up.  (Spoilers: this post is only a few hundred words away from being as long as everything else I wrote for the week put together.)  

Anyway, hit the jump for, in order:

A quick breakdown of the Liberation Army’s general structure.

A list of members, broken down by broad generation, including the ones we have gotten explicitly IDed in canon, the ones I based on figures we see in canon, and the ones I completely made up.

The basic tenets of the MLA and some discussion about their views on quirk supremacy. (feat. fandom salt)

An overview of the way the Advent shook up the political landscape in Japan and the Hearts & Minds Party’s place in that landscape.  Pretty much the same material Trumpet’s victory speech from Day 4 covers, but modestly more in-depth, removed from the need to play well to a crowd, and with some added explanation about the structure of the Diet for readers who are less familiar with it than Trumpet’s audience would be.

A timeline (with only moderately arbitrary dates!) covering the birth of the glowing baby up to the first year of the manga.  Mostly concerned with detailing the events the MLA would care about, but with a few other points of reference to contextualize things for the rest of us.

Bonus Fun Facts: discussion of the considerations that went into the timeline, a look at All For One’s actions re: the MLA, and some miscellaneous blurbs on terminology, worldbuilding and characterization.

A smattering of asides in the form of footnotes.

Note that while this material is based in and accurate to canon as much as I could remember at the time that I was doing my notes on my fills for the week, there’s a lot in here that is based entirely on supposition, interpretation and, at times, just plain-old guessing.  

Thanks to @codenamesazanka and @robotlesbianjavert for their assistance in naming, brainstorming, and just generally putting up with me while the Liberation Army was completely devouring my attention.

@red-the-omnic Somewhat belatedly, here’s that list of MLA members you asked for back during the middle of the week.  Sorry to make you wait so long! 

Enjoy!  

———–      ———–      ———–      ———–

ORGANIZATION

Grand Commander: Destro and Destro’s line of descendants.

The First Families: Those who fought at Destro’s side and escaped to continue the fight, and their descendants.  Veritably all high-ranked within the MLA, their tie to the original incarnation of the Army marks them as elites, whether or not their quirks would do so otherwise. The elders of the First Families do a certain amount of collective decision-making when and if the Grand Commander is unable to do so and has left orders otherwise.

Sanctum: “Sanctum” is a special position in the Army.  The name denotes the person who’s tasked with remembering the MLA’s history, practices and lore—the position is considered contiguous, so even when someone is new to the name, they’re still considered “the longest-serving member of the Liberation Army.”.  When they’re getting on in years, they select an appropriate protégé, to whom the name will pass upon their death/capture.  The name must always go to a member of the First Families (though in truth, they’re only on their third one, so it’s more of a pattern so far than a hard rule).

Commanders & Lieutenants: People in charge of major operations, liberated districts, etc. Frequently, though not always, members of the First Families.  Have discretion over their own assignments, but may not have much influence in the Army’s operations on the whole, depending on who they’re connected to otherwise.

Advisors: This title denotes those who are specifically tapped to give advice and aid to the MLA leadership.  Levels of authority vary depending on who they’re advising.  Advisors of lieutenants, if any, are a step above the rank and file, advisors of commanders are about on par with lieutenants, and advisors to the Grand Commander are considered commanders in their own right, regardless of any other rank they may hold.

Rank and File: Pretty much everyone else.

———–      

KNOWN MEMBERS [1]

The original MLA—

Destro: Yotsubashi Chikara.  Established the Meta Liberation Army in his mid-30s in response to the development of what he felt were overly restrictive laws on the usage of meta-abilities. Having observed evidence that meta-abilities grew stronger generationally, he was particularly concerned that no oppressive laws could be enforced by the generation that established them because the next generation would always be more powerful.  Thus, he believed that establishing the use of meta-abilities as a fundamental right was the only way for society to avoid indefinite intergenerational strife.  He was particularly incensed by the government co-opting the message that got his mother murdered to put a pretty, self-congratulatory sheen on laws that did the exact opposite of what she wished for.  Allegedly committed suicide after some months in prison.  The MLA is highly suspicious of this claim—they’re correct to be, but not for the reasons they think.              His quirk, which his entire line would inherit, turns a key emotion into enhanced strength and resilience in the form of a characteristic ink-blot marking.  While it would develop over time, the basic nature of the quirk remained the same. Chikara’s driving emotion was resolve.

Fathom: Destro’s lover, she dedicated a decade of her life after his capture to building up the survivors he’d left behind.  It’s said her son got his drive from Destro, but his anger from Fathom.  Had a large hand in raising her son to be the sort of man he was, particularly in her decision to commit what many considered to be suicide-by-hero when he was in his teens.  A large part of that choice was wrapped up in her never-fully-assuaged grief over Destro’s loss (and, she believed to the end, his murder), but there was also a cold calculation to it—her making a big show of it would lead the police to believe that her attack was the last gasp of the Liberation Army, ending their investigations into MLA activities.  It would also stoke the fires of her son’s rage, honing him into a stronger weapon against their enemies.  Her judgement in both cases proved broadly on-point, though her death did serve to make her son more cautious than she might have hoped.              Meta-Ability: Antennae.  A pair of insectile feelers emerging from her forehead that give her a passel of sensory boosts, particularly in the taste and smell categories, and which also make her able to detect shifts in the air from quite some distance.)

Cascade: A man whose meta-ability lets him turn body parts into loosely controllable masses of water.  Can’t transform fully.  A quick-thinking type able to make hard calls.

Sweeper: A woman with a radio-scanning quirk.  Caught by police in the same fight as Destro.

Sanctum I: The first bearer of the codename.  Had a protective ability of some sort.

Sanctum II’s father: The same quirk as his daughter; see below.  Known for getting some eight people safely out of a police raid by carrying them all out at once despite not actually having superhuman strength of any kind.  (Probably tore several muscles in the process, but adrenaline is a hell of a thing.)

The Second Generation—

Destro’s son: Raised to deeply resent heroes and the government that put them in place, but he was also very cautious of them.  He was profoundly aware that his death would mean the end of the dream that his father had begun and his mother had cultivated, so he was very meticulous in spreading the MLA’s influence underground, rebuilding their numbers before he even began to consider starting to make attacks again.  Destro’s army had been a guerilla force; his son’s would be something much more dangerous.  His driving emotion was anger, and he had two children before being killed by a cerebral aneurysm at 43.  Was able to use his power to make his body larger.

Sanctum II: A woman with an unusual fondness for the traditional Japanese arts, particularly tea ceremony.  Meta-ability: Stride.  Teleport to any location she can directly see by taking a single step forward.   Can take whoever she can carry under her own power. (First Families lineage)

Anchor: An advisor to Destro’s son.  Prominent bull horns.  Meta-ability: Immobilize.  Similar to Lock Rock’s Lockdown quirk, except it only works on his own body.  Very good at wrestling holds (and holding his breath), he tends to fight with backup that can deliver finishing blows to opponents once he has them pinned down.  (First Families lineage)

The Third Generation—

Yotsubashi Kyouyuki: The elder child of Destro’s son.  Deemed an unsuitable Grand Commander for his driving emotion of joy.  Always presented a façade of being cheerful and upbeat, but the ever-present rhetoric that the MLA pushes about the ongoing suppression of quirks and the misery and injustice it leads to left Kyou always struggling with guilt.  In college, it finally got so bad that he resolved to run away, enlisting the help of a friend with a swap-based teleport quirk to get him out of a party undetected. His fate thereafter is a secret that’s been taken to the grave by the MLA members involved in it, but given the typical reactions of illegal underground cults to members wanting to leave, it’s unlikely that he’s living somewhere in happy anonymity.  (Name means Unyielding Happiness, following in his grandfather and nephew's patterns of having characters in their names meaning power/strength.)

Yotsubashi Yukie: The younger child of Destro’s son, and Rikiya’s mother.  With a driving emotion of sorrow, and having been steadily losing family her entire life, Yukie wrestled with depression for most of her life. The presumptive heir to the title of Re-Destro, she spent considerably more time in training than her older brother, but she never much had the temperament for it.  When her father died only a few scant years after Kyouyuki’s disappearance, she expressed her fears that she was incapable of being the leader the Army needed.  This led to her becoming a mother at a relatively young age, continuing the bloodline rather than picking up the banner.  For all her struggles with her grief, Yukie was very determined to at least be there for the son on whom the weight of leadership would fall.  The world of My Hero Academia is a dangerous one, however, particularly before All Might established himself as Japan’s pillar, and Yukie was a casualty of the chaos of a villain attack when Rikiya was ten.  (Name means Glittering Conqueror, ditto the note above about the family pattern for name kanji.)

Rampart: Guardian and general caretaker for Rikiya in his younger years.  Hand-picked for the role by Yukie, who had considered him a close friend since their school days.  Meta-Ability: An earth manipulation power akin to Pixie-Bob’s, though less powerful.  (First Families lineage)

Shinseigi: Trumpet’s uncle, unspecified code name.  Also in politics, though of a more local variety.  Meta-ability: His speaking voice makes listeners suggestible.  (The phonetic pronunciation of his name sounds like “New Justice,” but the kanji are “Sleeping Voice Technique.”)

The Fourth Generation—

Yotsubashi Rikiya: The current Re-Destro (42); CEO and President of Detnerat.  He took up the former title when he was only 6 years old. With the succession of losses that were his uncle, grandfather and mother, the MLA has been fairly careful with him, grooming him with care and rarely leaving him without some form of supervision, be it Rampart when he was young or Trumpet in college.  An extremely dutiful child grown into an urbane man whose good humor disguises a morose—and occasionally volatile—inner character.  Always under a lot of stress (his MRIs are clear so far, though, haha!), but there’s only so much effort dedicated to mitigating that, since stress is his key emotion.  The first in the family line to be able to separate his power from his own body, in the form of his Stress Bomb attack.

Trumpet: Hanabata Koku (44).  One of Rikiya’s advisors and party leader of the Hearts & Minds Party (see below); has known Rikiya since their preteen years.  The Hanabatas were a political family of old, but largely saw those fortunes crash and burn when they started manifesting quirks a few generations into the Advent.  They’ve been clawing their way back into politics ever since and were an early target for the MLA’s project to infiltrate and/or start their own political party.  It was decided very early on that Koku’s quirk and his family connections made him a good choice to groom for leadership of the HMP, so he and Rikiya bonded over their similar positions.  They would go on to attend the same university, during which time they became romantically involved.  In truth, Koku’s university was functionally chosen for him on the basis of which one Rikiya would be attending; the First Families were not about to lose another Yotsubashi to college life.  Koku is more aware of this particular fact than Rikiya.  Still a little wistful about their college days, his opinions regarding Re-Destro’s big starstruck crush on Shigaraki are borderline unprintable.

Sanctum III: Twice’s No. 1 advisor, the dude with the big imperial handlebar moustache and what looks an awful lot like a dress uniform for the Japanese navy.  A few years older than Trumpet.  (First Families lineage)

Curious: Kizuki Chitose (36).  RD advisor and Shoowaysha Publishing Executive Vice President.[2]  From a relatively small liberated district up near Sendai; the MLA connections plus her own profound ambition got her moving very quickly up the MLA chain of command. Daughter of a wlw couple; got her blue skin from her bio mom.  One younger sibling, a sister.  Masterminded the dinners we see the group having in Chapter 218, originally to make sure Rikiya was getting at least one well-apportioned meal a week and a chance to socialize with the closest thing he has to peers, but also because it proved to be an invaluable opportunity to swap information and rumors.

Skeptic: Chikazoku Tomoyasu (31).  RD advisor and Feel Good Inc. board member.  On the bottom end of the generation age-wise, a prodigy in every sense save his broadly terrible people skills.  Recognizes Rikiya’s stress tells because he shares several of them himself, and is also the only person of Rikiya’s generation with the confidence to verbally push him around a bit.  It’s regarded as borderline scandalous by their elders, but Rikiya himself finds it bracing, and anyway, Skeptic’s ability to organize a schedule for maximum efficiency is nothing less than miraculous.  Got Rikiya onto fidget toys.

Toryu:  Toryu is the family name of Galvanize (aka Taser Face aka Kaminari’s Dad).  Mr. Compress’s No. 1, the dude who strolls out onto the lawn after Cementoss rips the hotel a new one and immediately gets his smarm repackaged and returned to sender by Kaminari and Edgeshot.  Great for morale before that, though!  In Rikiya’s age group, his mother’s side of the family (from which he gets the electricity powers) has been in the Army for at least as far back as her school days. (The name comes from the characters for leaping/rising and current/flow.)

Slidin’ Go: Tokoname Tatsuyuki (37).  He’s Slidin’ Go!  Skeptic’s No. 2, possibly because Slidin’ Go strongly resembles the puppets Skeptic is so used to barking orders at and there’s comfort in familiarity.

Aozono: Family name for another of Rikiya’s childhood peers, nothing is known but that green skin runs in the family as far back as her father.  May or may not be related to Curious’s family.

The Fifth Generation—

Geten: Real name unknown.  Family status unknown.  Age unknown, but I’d peg him in the 18-23 area.  Seems to be allowed to attend the weekly dinners without contributing anything but his incredibly terrible table manners.  Can talk an impassioned game about the Liberation Army’s goals (though he pushes the quirk supremacy line a good deal harder than anyone else in the Army is shown to; it’s not even close), but it’s fairly clear that he’s more personally dedicated to Re-Destro than he is the MLA’s cause in and of itself.  I’ll be honest; I have no idea what Geten’s deal is. My tentative headcanon is that he’s an orphan—the English meaning of his name, Apocrypha, refers to sacred writings of uncertain authorship/authenticity—who’s in some kind of Batman-and-Robin guardian-and-ward situation with Re-Destro, but I didn’t wind up writing enough about him to come up with much beyond that.

Nimble: Spinner’s No. 1, the woman with the weird paper-strip-esque hair who doesn’t seem to be in possession of a nose or mouth.  (She absorbs air through her skin like a frog, which is why no one has ever seen her with that sweater covering both of her shoulders.)  Nimble is a friendly sort, though she regards her outgoing good cheer as being a simple matter of social networking.  Ambitious, but sensible about it.                Meta-ability: Sky Write.  Allows her to project letters and pictures into the air around her, giving her a way to communicate she would have otherwise lacked.  She can create words in air she can’t see, but it takes some concentration, and the closer the better.

Scarecrow: Spinner’s No. 2, 21 years old.  Born with amelia (see link in Day Two’s author’s notes) that disfigured his face and severed his arms in the womb.  His quirk-based forelegs—a pair of spider legs emerging from his shoulders—can do a certain amount of basic object manipulation, but it tends to wig people out, so they push him to use his prosthetics like he’s “supposed” to (see Stray Notes section for more on this).  He was viciously angry about it even as a kid, and his parents were frustrated, making them easy pickings for cult indoctrination.  A family friend recommended that they look into Detnerat, where it wasn’t long before Re-Destro himself took an interest in their situation (or at least in making a good impression on them).  Scarecrow joined the Army as quickly as he was allowed to—16.              Meta-ability: Webbing.  The bug legs can project silk like a webspinner (the insect on which he’s based), allowing him to do anything you might broadly understand Spider-Man to be able to do with his webbing, though he certainly lacks Spider-Man’s strength.

Red: Named in passing in the manga, he’s the laid-back dude with the fluffy hair who serves as Skeptic’s No. 1 post-merger.  Probably invaluable in helping Skeptic maintain what bare vestiges of chill he can muster.  (First Families lineage)

The Sixth Generation—

Every child currently under the age of 10 being raised in MLA households with a picture of Destro over the mantle.  It’s not a small number, representing a group that neither the fandom nor the Hero Commission seem to have even realized exist.

———–      

CORE TENETS & THE MATTER OF QUIRK SUPREMACY

Re-Destro is not (contrary to popular fandom belief) in favor of full-throated, might-makes-right, survival of the fittest Quirk Darwinism.[3]  Destro’s will was for people to be able to use their meta-abilities as they saw fit to the extent that that freedom did not interfere with the freedoms of others. He was against the regulation of meta-abilities, but he was not—to the best of our knowledge—against the regulation of crime.  His belief was that one murderer with a fire ability killing people did not justify barring everyone else with fire abilities from using those powers to fire clay, start campfires, engage in fire-themed performance art, use fire to char wood in artistic patterns for money, help park rangers set and direct controlled burns, coordinate explosions for the movie industry, light cigarettes in public, or any other of dozens of possible uses for a fire ability that don’t involve burning people alive.

The MLA do believe that meta-abilities have an impact on one’s personality, but they also believe that that’s okay; that it should be understood and accepted, not feared and repressed—Curious would not have wanted to turn Toga into a tragedy about the consequences of repression if she didn’t think that a spree of bloodletting murders was a tragedy.  Their belief as an organization is that people should be free to use their powers as they see fit in the same way that they would any other natural talent or cultivated skill.  They believe that people will, if free to do so, naturally gravitate to ways of improving their own lot in life via use of their meta-abilities.

Freedom from regulation and freedom from discrimination—these are the core tenets that the vast majority of the rank and file hold to.  A great many of them are laborers, blue collar types who just want to be able to better support themselves and their families.  Many others are those who suffered discrimination because of their quirks and want better for both themselves and their children.  Of course, the further back their connections go, the more likely they are to both be higher-ranked in the cult (with attendant greater resources) and to have grown up soaking in generations’ worth of resentment, groupthink, and radicalism.

Geten, a particularly virulent and single-minded MLA attack dog, has parsed the tenets to mean that people with strong, well-trained meta-abilities will naturally be able to use their powers to do more and raise their status in the MLA’s ideal society, and thus that those who can’t or don’t choose to will not be able to live lives that Geten personally thinks are worth living.  Likewise, Trumpet doesn’t fault Spinner only for his weak ability, but also for his anti-social tendencies.  Of course a politician who’s deeply invested in a narrative of people uniting to throw off their chains and better themselves would be disdainful of someone who locked himself in his bedroom for years and emerged only to violently lash out at society.  (Spinner’s right to call Trumpet a huge hypocrite on this, mind; terrorist cult members have no business lecturing other terrorists about the correct way to violently reform society.)

The MLA does have a problem with quirk supremacy, but it’s not quite the problem fandom thinks they do, and it’s certainly more nuanced than fandom thinks.[4]  Frankly, I could write a whole post dissecting this, but rather than analyzing the canon at length in a post intending to be about my fanon for a series of slice-of-life MLA fics, let me just lay out some issues I think the MLA have.  Note that these opinions may vary member to member, particularly as you work your way up the chain of command.

Many in the MLA believe that people with poor quirks are less capable of asserting their will and becoming whatever they want to be.  They are not, notably, alone in that that sentiment—we hear versions of it not only from villains like Trumpet and All for One, but from the paralleled parents of Midoriya Inko and Shimura Kotarou, the would-be hero Bakugou, and even the iconic hero paragon All Might.  While it’s not universal, My Hero Academia’s Japan is full of people who believe to some extent or another that people with weak or no quirks are inherently less capable of making their mark on the world.  The MLA is just more blatant about it than most.

The MLA are, as a group, not concerned about the fate of the quirkless.  My suspicion is that this is because they think quirklessness as a trait is on its way out—that the touted 20% of the world population that’s quirkless is hugely weighted towards the elderly, those who are from generations when quirklessness was more common.  Think about it: 20% is two out of every ten people.  Statistically speaking, that’s a huge portion!  You only have to look at Deku’s middle school classroom in Chapter 1—thirty kids, exactly one of whom is quirkless—to begin to suspect that there’s something a bit off with the 20% figure.

Further, the MLA follows Destro’s beliefs, and we know from Destro’s manifesto that he believed meta-abilities were growing stronger over time.  So to their mind, not only is quirklessness becoming a thing of the past, but so are weak quirks in general.  While their clear disdain for both is damning—and certainly discredits them as a group suited to decide how society should be structured!—please understand that, “We’re not very concerned with the rights of the quirkless because we think that there won’t be any such thing as quirkless people within a few more generations,” is not the same statement as, “We are A-OK with 20% of the world’s population being second-class citizens for the entire rest of human history,” and it is really not the same statement as, “People with no quirks, or bodies that can’t handle their quirks, need to be proactively removed from the gene pool and we are actively advocating for a systemic, organized culling.”

That said, their disdain, if blown out to society at large, would absolutely lead to discrimination and, undoubtedly, incidents of the same sort of violence that the MLA themselves were forged from.  That they haven’t thought or don’t care about this is one of many things that make them villains.

Further, there is an ugly strain within the MLA that still recognizes quirk marriages.  Because the MLA values freedom, they’re not as ubiquitous as you might think (at least if you think the MLA is a bunch of quirk supremacists with no other goals or values)—“freedom” does nominally include the freedom to marry who you want rather than let your own meta-ability trap you in a life you hate. However, it’s equally true that in a group that believes very strongly in the value of quirks, the power of quirks in the future, and the necessity of fighting a war to bring about that future, there will obviously be members who support the practice.  There are absolutely men and women who have been bullied and guilted by their families into loveless marriages for the sole purpose of producing children with powerful, desirable quirks.  How likely this is in any given location mostly depends on the commander’s opinion on it, though it’s a very rare one indeed who would go so far as discouraging it entirely.

———–      

THE HEARTS & MINDS PARTY

(Considerations on Japan’s political landscape.)

The current monolith of the Diet, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, managed to hold onto power for a full century after the Advent, but their grasp grew shakier and shakier over time.  Initial measures to bar meta-humans from voting proved increasingly unpopular as the percentage of the population with meta-abilities grew both larger and older.  People with easily-concealed powers gained office, sometimes being outed, sometimes not, but on the whole, decades of oppression and violence led to an ever-more-popular opinion that the LDP had mishandled the whole mess.  They lost their supermajority in the Diet when their longstanding alliance with the Komeito party splintered, regained it again for a few electoral cycles, lost it again when Komeito itself fractured, and so on, their once implacable numbers shrinking year by year.  Still, they managed to hold onto a coalition majority right up until Saneki Yuuichi was elected to the House of Representatives.

Saneki headed up a small party based almost entirely on the issue of meta-human basic rights.  Like many meta-humans of the period, he believed that the best way for meta-humans to attain those rights was to live like so-called “normal humans,” to show that meta-humans were just like everyone else. His party advanced the ideology that meta-humans should only use their powers to help others or better society, not to advance their own self-interest.  They pushed stringently for metas to be allowed equal recognition under the law as any Japanese citizen, but also supported measures such as requiring licenses for the use of meta-abilities and limiting those licenses to those actively engaged in assisting police.  Deeply tied to respectability politics, Saneki’s party contained virtually all emitters, a scant number of transformers, and no heteromorphs, who the party felt were an impediment to reaching their legislative goals, but whose particular needs could be brought back up at a later, more receptive time.

Saneki’s politics gained him many supporters, but also drove many into the arms of the Meta Liberation Army, who vocally loathed him and everything he stood for.  The confluence of public dissatisfaction with the spike in violence represented by the MLA, Saneki’s coalition gathering popular support among both metas and non-metas, and the rise of named, organized hate groups trying to roll back what few advances had been gained in meta-human rights finally spelled the end of the LDP’s majority.

The LDP falling apart prompted a scramble for power that would stretch on for nearly half a century. Old alliances whose only common ground had been opposing the LDP found themselves free to seek groups with more compatible goals.  Young single- or dual-issue parties leapt at the chance to address their issues with more fervor.  New parties sprung up across the country.  Not only meta-humans, but minority groups of all kinds saw new avenues to press for substantive positive changes that had been dead in the water under the LDP.  Voting numbers surged as they had not for decades.

The old, conservative elements of the Diet were not gone, of course—they remained a substantial powerhouse!—but no longer could they muster the undefeatable veto-proof numbers that they had once enjoyed.

Like everyone else, the remnants of the MLA saw opportunity in the new, ever-shifting status quo.  With the place of metas secured for the time being, there was no longer a need for metas to form coalitions in the Diet merely to get their basic needs addressed.  A single-issue party from its inception thirty years prior, Saneki Yuuichi’s party was fragmenting, unable to decide on a single direction now that their uniting issue had been resolved to their satisfaction.  In recognition of meta-humans reaching population parity, the MLA launched a project to begin seeding the ideals of Liberation at the highest levels yet—the Hearts & Minds Party.

Beginning as a local party in a prefecture in which the MLA had gained significant underground support, the HMP campaigned on a platform championing individual freedoms and a wide range of improvements to Japan’s battered and overworked social safety nets.  They made an effort to showcase diverse representation in their leadership and gave impassioned speeches promising to reach across party aisles in searching for nuanced solutions to the various difficulties facing the country.

It’s impossible to say exactly how large the Hearts & Minds Party is compared to the Meta Liberation Army, which is claimed by Re-Destro to have 116,000 action-ready warriors (the “warriors lying in wait, ready to rise to action” description presumably indicating that his count does not include uninducted children).

On the one hand, one can presume that everyone who’s a member of the MLA is voting for the HMP on every ticket they can, but not every member of the MLA—who induct combat-ready warriors as young as 16—is old enough to vote, and many probably live in districts or prefectures where the HMP has yet to establish a campaign-ready foothold. On the other hand, while the HMP certainly serves to funnel people towards the MLA, it doesn’t require membership—indeed, it’s far better for their goals for them not to do so.  Therefore, it’s also probable that the Hearts & Minds Party has many supporters who are not (yet) counted among the Liberation Army’s number.  Thus, for the purposes of ballparking estimates, I opted to simply suppose that the two areas lacking overlap (MLA members who can’t vote for the HMP and HMP supporters who aren’t members of the MLA) are relatively equal.

That established, we’re working with a party that has 116K voters/supporters/members.  The closest thing to that number that I could find numbers for is the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), which counted 300K members as of 2017.  Using their total membership compared to their representation in the Diet (as well as a willingness to viciously bastardize anything resembling reliable political math), I plugged in my estimate for the HMP’s membership and wound up with the Hearts & Minds Party holding four seats in the House of Representatives, five seats in the House of Councillors, and sixty-odd assembly members in various prefectural positions.

For some context to those numbers, the House of Representatives (more powerful, but more vulnerable to sudden electoral shifts) has 465 members, 233 of which are required for a majority, and 310 of which are required to override vetoes imposed by the House of Counsillors. The House of Counsillors (less powerful, but serving longer terms and unable to be dissolved for general elections like the House of Representatives can be) has 245 members, with 123 required for a majority.

As you can see, the HMP holding a handful of seats isn’t going to tilt the My Hero Academia world on its axis.  Still, it’s more seats than any number of real-life Japanese political parties hold, and right up until the one-two punch of Shigaraki taking over the MLA and Hawks outing Trumpet’s allegiances to the Hero Commission, the Hearts & Minds Party was well on-track to continue growing its power and influence.

———–      

TIMELINE

(For ease of calculation, most dates are rounded to the nearest five years.)

1980: A glowing baby is born in Qing Qing City, China, heralding the Advent of the Age of the Extraordinary.  For almost two decades, meta-abilities remain rare and poorly understood—incidents are widespread and show huge variance, so most people write them off as anomalies or hoaxes.  As the years go on, however, meta-abilities become more widespread, moving out of the realm of the odd headline that many people think is an elaborate hoax into an alarmed spotlight as it gradually becomes apparent that this is a thing that all humanity is undergoing.  Most major technological development pivots to trying to understand, undo, document or control this new phenomenon.

2030: The child who will become All for One is born.  By this time, society is breaking down into chaos. Across the globe, measures from outlawing all meta-ability use to internment are seen.  Eugenics laws are discussed or put in place.  Communities attempt to run out metas and, in response, groups of metas attempt to form their own communities.  Infanticide rates are rising alarmingly.

2060: Yotsubashi Chikara and Ujiko (original name unknown) are born.  Japan is in complete disarray, awash in mob violence, with organized groups of both metas and non-metas attacking victims indiscriminately.  Developing an ability can get you disowned.  Divisions among the meta minority are developing a noticeable strain of respectability politics rhetoric.

2065: AFO forces an ability on his younger brother, unintentionally creating One for All.  Chikara’s mother is murdered by an anti-meta mob for attempting to speak out in defense of the normalcy of her child’s ability.

2085-2090: Saneki Yuuichi becomes the first meta-human to attain a seat in the Diet. Despite nearly a century of violence, meta-humans are becoming a larger and larger percentage of the population, and the people of Japan are tired.  The prevailing sense is that it’s time to make peace; however, the peace that is being forged involves laws sharply restricting the use of meta-abilities for those who haven’t been formally licensed.  These restrictions see markedly mixed reactions from metas.  Chikara rallies the most vehement dissenters to create the Meta Liberation Army, calling himself Destro.              Disagreement over how to handle the MLA finally finishing the job of rattling the Diet free of the death-grip of the LDP.  Many years of fractious elections will follow as new coalitions form to try and seize majority power.

2095: Japan signs an international accord acknowledging the fundamental rights of meta-humans.  This gesture begins to splinter both internal support and public sympathy for the MLA.

2097: Destro is captured by police and their newly designated Quirk Unit.  Other surviving members of the MLA are hunted down or go into hiding.

2100: The term “Hero” is formally adopted, having been casually in use for some time.  A Hero is one who is licensed to use their power to fight quirk-based crime in accordance with local and federal laws, assisting the police when requested.  The Hero Commission is established as an agency with oversight in the licensing and regulation of Heros.              Destro dies in prison.  Though the matter is questioned, no proof of foul play is ever brought forward, and the death is ruled a suicide.

2110: Ujiko presents his paper on the Paranormal [5] Singularity Theory.  The paper suggests that the power of quirks is continuing to grow with each generation and will, in time, become more powerful than the human body can control.  His evidence is inconclusive, however, and his citation of some of Destro’s observations on the phenomenon becomes a particular sticking point.  In a country that is finally beginning to get its feet back under it, no one wants to see another widespread panic.  Ujiko is stripped of his position; having been living on campus at the time, he’s left functionally homeless and is approached by All for One not long after.

2120: The population of those with quirks and those without reaches parity in Japan. Seeing an opportunity, the MLA launches the Hearts & Minds Party as a local political party, intending to grow it over time.

(2125: Yagi Toshinori is born.)

2138: Yotsubashi Rikiya is born.

(2148: Debut of All Might.)

(2165: Shimura family tragedy.)

(2174: All Might “defeats” AFO.)

2175: Hanabata Koku is elected to the House of Representatives.  He’s not the youngest party leader in the Diet, but he’s close.

2180: The events of Deku’s freshman year at UA lead the MLA to turn their attention to the League of Villains.

———–      

STRAY FACTS

Why 1980/2180?—

It’s an even number for ease of calculation, triangulated between a few considerations.

Firstly, tasers are mentioned in the One for All dream, so the events of the dream (which themselves are happening far enough into the Advent that society’s had time to slide into all-out chaos) must post-date the invention of the taser, which was in 1993.

Secondly, Spider-Man’s silhouette is seen amongst the group of characters who represent the “fantasy” that became reality.  If we assume that those media properties existed in-universe (since the narration is delivered by Midoriya) and were assumed to be fantastical at the time, they must predate the Advent—Spider-Man is the newest of them and his first appearance was in 1962, his material being translated into Japanese by the 1970s.

Lastly, technological and societal development crashed to a halt with the Advent.  The world of My Hero Academia generally reflects a modern-ish Japan, so I wanted modern technology—and modern social reforms—to still feel modern to the characters.  Thus, the point at which society stopped developing needed to predate the Digital Revolution, which really began to hit its stride in the mid-80s.  Hence, 1980.

The opening period is, admittedly, fairly generous on my part, and does assume a certain amount of modern advances were probably underway, but then were lost, sidelined or rolled back as the chaos spread.  You could probably trim off twenty years by stepping up how quickly quirks begin to appear and spread, but the very beginning is the best window to do so.  I’d still peg the Advent at 1980 based on the calculations above (again, it has to fall somewhere between the mid-70s and 1993) but, for example, maybe All for One is from that first generation, and society only takes 30 years to reach the lowest point of its collapse instead of 80.

As to the 2180, the older characters introduce several requirements for the post-Advent timeline.  Ujiko was 50 at the time that society was beginning to stabilize, while AFO dates to its days of utmost chaos.  AFO also needs to be running on at least one anti-aging quirk prior to meeting Ujiko; if the only one he were running on was Ujiko’s own, then based on his appearance and the mechanics of Ujiko’s quirk, I’d peg AFO at merely 85, and he needs to be not only over 100, but far enough over 100 that he’s described that way rather than as “a century-old evil” or something to that effect.

Meanwhile, All Might can’t really be any younger than 50, and seven generations of OFA bearer predated him, even if they did all die relatively young.  Destro’s mother was killed in those early chaotic days, while Re-Destro (himself no spring chicken) is told as a child that the MLA has been in hiding for generations.  “Generations” implies at least two; I further suppose that Rikiya needs to be at least the original Chikara’s great-grandson for him to describe himself simply as Destro’s descendant, rather than use a more specific relationship term.  All of this points to a fairly lengthy stretch of time, much more than is glossed over by Midoriya’s series-opening narration.

AFO and the MLA—

I mention in the very first story of this series that the MLA’s contacts all go “mysteriously missing” after the capture of Destro.  While the police certainly did their own measure of work in tracking down the Liberation Army’s members and allies, there was another figure with a significant hand in the MLA’s downfall.

All for One, then in his early sixties, had watched the rise of the MLA in some interest.  On a personal level, he admired Yotsubashi’s charisma and resolve, and, of course, he wholly supported the free use of quirks (well, his own free use of quirks, anyway)!  On the other hand, All for One also sought to restore order to society, albeit order as he himself envisioned it.  While he was confident that there was no one who could stand up to him no matter whose ideals won out, Saneki Yuuichi’s way promised a more stable society, and bribable and/or blackmailable bureaucrats seemed easier to manipulate than ideal-driven zealots ready to give their lives for the cause.  Thus, AFO decided to help the police a bit behind the scenes, offering a few tip-offs and hints to guide their efforts to end the threat of the Liberation Army.

Of course, as long as Destro was alive, the cause of Liberation still had its focal point. And AFO was still a bit curious to meet this man, who’d inspired so very many loyal followers.  It was an easy thing to arrange.  An interesting man, and an interesting quirk.

Destro did commit suicide in prison.  A man who had always embraced his meta-ability for motivation, and whose ability transformed that motivation into power in turn, AFO stripped him of in the same moment. Isolation from other contact, separation from his lover, his friends and allies, and his cause, a gap in his psyche like no pain he’d ever experienced--all of these piled up on one another into a fatal despair.  After AFO’s visit, there was no need for anyone to arrange a convenient death for Destro.

(And if in later years, the monstrous Noumu, who are driven entirely by pre-programmed, single-minded resolve, are flint-skinned from head-to-toe, well—who would ever even think to connect those dots?)

The Mother of Quirks—

An interesting thing I observed from Re-Destro’s confrontation with Clone!Shigaraki is that, based on their exchange, it doesn’t seem to be common knowledge that the Mother of Quirks is the mother of the Meta Liberation Army’s leader?  Re-Destro’s apology for assuming Shigaraki wouldn’t recognize the story suggests that it’s a matter of fairly basic historical education, but he then goes on to explain her connection to Destro at some length—if that connection were taught at the same time her story was, surely he’d see no need to do this? Clone-a-raki’s response backs this up—unlike the general existence of the Mother of Quirks, which was such basic knowledge that he was insulted that Re-Destro thought he wouldn’t know about it, her connection to Destro was unknown to him.

Re-Destro describes the connection as “an inconvenient truth.”  This, in turn, suggests that the connection has been actively obscured.  The MLA’s place in history is taught; the originator of the term “quirk” is taught, but the two are not connected to each other. Kids in school aren’t taught that the very child whose mother was murdered for her words hated what his country was using those words, that message, to do.  It’s naked appropriation that continues to this day, and it’s no wonder that the MLA is furious about it.

The Quirk Unit—

An early term for the group that would, in relatively short order after their formation, officially be dubbed Heroes.  Composed of both meta-humans already on the police force and vigilantes willing to remit themselves to legal oversight, they fought quirk-based crime in many forms, from the common mugger to the terrorists of the MLA, and even former allies in vigilantism.  Well-regarded by history thanks to their efforts in reining in crime and disorder, but quite a controversial group in their early years.

MLA Age of Induction—

Being raised in the MLA means being raised with the goal of eventually being assigned a codename and tasked with supporting the Great Cause in whatever fashion your superiors think you best suited.  The minimum age for this is 16, though 18, being the age at which students graduate from high school, is more common.  At no point is there really a safe way to leave once you’re involved; they are, after all, a secret army.  There’s no aging out of the MLA—it’s a lifetime tour—but disability, injury or general decrepitude can get you assigned to work that generally won’t expect you to see open combat.  The Army is composed of a great many lifetime-of-service families, after all, which means they need teachers and caretakers; another option is dedicated work for the Hearts & Minds Party, who always have room for community organizers.

Liberated Districts—

Settlements that are at least 85% MLA-inducted.  At their largest, they’re small towns; rural villages are far more common.  Without exception, they’re isolated or out of the way.  Tend to have unusually good access to city services compared to similarly-sized settlements.  Deika was one of the largest districts the Army had, chosen for the Revival Celebration due to its combination of a sizable population and a particularly closed-off location.  The MLA knew they’d need many warriors to fight the League of Villains, but they also needed a site that was not merely remote, but that had controllable points of access.

It can take well over a decade to hit the 85% saturation mark in even small villages; Deika and the MLA’s handful of other full-fledged towns are the work of generations.  They begin by moving people into an area and setting up gatherings on some useful pretext or another, enthusiastically welcoming newcomers and very, very gradually indoctrinating people further into the ideology.  Financial support, an accepting environment for difficult quirks or those with patchy legal histories, the odd homeless shelter or food kitchen, a robust presence in the foster care network—the MLA is very, very good at making themselves a warm, sincere, reliable presence in peoples’ lives, a group that encourages everyone under their banner to be their best selves. They think everyone deserves that kind of support!

They are also willing to shed quite a lot of blood to make sure that everyone can get it.

On the Intersection of Disability and Quirk Suppression—

There are a few factors contributing to why Scarecrow can’t use his quirk to do things others would.  First, his quirk is the kind of off-putting that gets Gang Orca ranked third-most villainous-looking hero and leads Shoji to wear a mask because his face disturbs people.  So Scarecrow’s quirk is already the kind of visible that makes people look at him askance.  Compounding this, his prosthetics are obvious, visible to any old person, and people have a very ugly tendency towards bootstrap, “you can do it if you try” mentalities around people with disabilities.  These two factors mean that people who are disturbed by his creepy articulate bug legs would much prefer that he use his significantly less-creepy prosthetics, to the degree that they’re willing to suggest that he’s being lazy if he doesn’t.  They cite the quirk-use laws as a deflection tactic, but Scarecrow—whose pattern recognition functions just fine, thanks—is keenly aware of the underlying mindset.

Nimble is in much the same boat—she literally can’t talk without falling back on a visual representation of some kind (sign-language, a text-to-speech reader, etc), and why on earth shouldn’t she be able to use the fastest and most convenient one without people getting up her ass about it?

None of this is the kind of thing that would likely get either of them arrested (though Scarecrow’s creepy enough that the odds are higher for him, “villain quirk” bias being what it is), but the laws-as-written, nonetheless, are discriminatory, and that makes people justly angry.  Angry people are easier to radicalize, and the Liberation Army has been working that angle since their very inception.

Re-Destro and Trumpet’s College Days—

RD’s an Engineering major with a focus in Manufacturing; Trumpet’s in PoliSci.  They’re two grades apart, with Koku being the older.  Those two years of greater experience shift the power balance between them significantly when Rikiya arrives for his freshman year, facing a new place, a new workload, an entirely new rhythm to his life.  For the first time, Koku is not merely a friend in similar circumstances who is still—as they’re both reminded near-constantly—subordinate to Rikiya’s every word.  Rather, he’s a senpai, someone with specific experience in every aspect of this new stage of life—and someone who’s had two years to become more eloquent, more well-studied, more confident, more mature.

Removed from the immediate supervision of the First Families for the first time in his life, Rikiya allows himself to lean on Koku in ways he never would have back home. Koku, for his part, has had his responsibilities here impressed on him by the First Families at some length, and has spent his entire life being groomed to devote himself to his Grand Commander.  Having said Grand Commander looking to him with such glowing esteem in his eyes—well, there’s no denying that it’s pretty enticing.  The two of them enter a romantic relationship that will endure for several years until Rikiya gets his head back around the idea that Koku’s ability to say no to him is fundamentally compromised.

The Bindi Connection—

I had no reason to develop them any, and thus I don’t have names to assign, but it seems that Twice’s No. 3, the smiling old woman with the gingham dress and the rough-and-ready attitude to combat, and Geten’s No. 2, the short-haired woman whose face is being devoured by her out-of-control sweater neck, are related.  Note the bindi on both of them, as well as the similar hair color, particularly in the page introducing all the advisors.  Mutual connection to Dabi’s No. 3, the guy who got into a fight with a hole punch and lost, is uncertain but possible based on the confronting-the-heroes page spread in which Hole Punch dude’s hand lays familiarly on Grandma Bindi’s back while Big Sis Bindi turns partly towards him as if to whisper some sarcastic observation about how lame Cementoss’s ponytail is.

———–      

FOOTNOTES

1: Regarding codenames, the first generation of the MLA tended to have names that reflected their meta-ability in some way.  From the second generation on, at the behest of Destro’s son, the codenames have become less literal, and thus less revealing.

2: Viz renders the job tile “Executive Director,” but having checked the raw, the Japanese term, senmu, is associated with a fairly specific level of executive authority, and it’s lower than I would peg “Executive Director,” which to my ear sounds synonymous or slightly below Chief Executive Officer.  Executive Vice President is wikipedia’s translation; Google returns Senior Managing Director.  In any case, she’s near the top, but not at the top.

3: At least, he wasn’t prior to meeting Shigaraki.  Now he’s pretty much in favor of a very organized and coherent belief structure that can be summarized as, “Watch Shigaraki tear down the world ‘cause he’s beautiful and I love him,” and honestly, mood.

4: I’ll just come out and say it: fandom blew Geten’s words way out of proportion because a bunch of people got mad that he was being mean to Everyone’s Favorite Serial Killer Dabi.

5: An archaic term by this period.  Even “meta-human” saw more use in academic parlance, while the term “quirk” had become much more widespread among the general population since its official adoption during the period of legislation twenty years prior.

[theskeletonflowers]

long rant about usage of japanese words in fics...

...because I want to keep my writing blog drama free and writing centric and I’m open to getting flamed on this account haha. Bring on the hate mail. 

(also if you disagree, you’re free to. These are just my pet peeves, and also guidelines that I personally follow and hold myself to when I write. I’m not telling you that you have to write or feel a certain way. These are just my thoughts and preferences.)

My hot take and rule of thumb: If it’s a word that has a similar usage and meaning in English, then you should just be writing it in English. You don’t need to write it in romanized Japanese (aka, Japanese words in english lettering). 

Anyways, something that almost always turns me off from a fic is unnecessary use of Japanese. Why? Because in so many of these fics, a Japanese word is being written out in romaji for a word that you could just use in english. 

In my opinion, it just ends up looking rather cringe-y and it makes you look like you’re trying to make your fic more ~Japanese-y~. 

Again, my rule of thumb: If it’s a word that has a similar usage and meaning in English, then you should just be writing it in English.

For instance, there is literally no reason to use words like hai, arigatou, baka, etc. All of these words have the same usage in English as they do in Japanese - yes, thank you, idiot. They are used the exact same way, in similar situations. 

Also, when we write about two Japanese characters or in a universe that primarily speaks Japanese...unless you mention otherwise in your fic, it can be assumed that Japanese is the character’s main language. We don’t need to write romanized Japanese out, because we can already assume that they’re speaking Japanese. 

I feel like there’s room for discussion with words like onegaishimasu, itadakimasu, etc, because there’s context within their language of origin for their use- saying ‘thank you for the food’ before eating is a Japanese cultural thing that English speaking cultures don’t really do. Onegaishimasu is in similar territory- it very literally means ‘please’ in a very polite way, but when coupled with yoroshiku (or even just on its own), its often translated as ‘please take care of me’ or ‘pleased to meet you’. It has those meanings, and it doesn’t quite translate to english in a way that makes sense for english speakers. However- English has phrases that match the contextual meanings of both ‘itadakimasu’ and ‘yoroshiku onegaishimasu’- ‘thank you for the food’ and ‘I’m in your care/nice to meet you’. So personally, I don’t usually write out phrases like itadakimasu or yoroshiku onegaishimasu, because we can adequately convey the meaning of these phrases in english. 

So...when do I use Japanese words?: Where I personally draw the line is in words that are very exclusive to Japan/Japanese culture and society and language customs, that can’t be adequately translated without losing their meaning. For instance I’m okay with honorifics like san/kun/chan/sama/dono (lol) (and I prefer to include them) because they don’t really have an adequate translation into English, and usage of honorifics can say a lot about the relationship between two characters, and if it’s changed. That being said I think they can most definitely be over-used in fics (and they are a lot), so I usually tend to include them in places where it would make sense, or if I really want to drive home a certain relationship dynamic between two characters. 

For instance...Akaashi calling Bokuto “Bokuto-san” makes sense- because Bokuto is his school senior, Akaashi speaks very politely in general, and he’s called him that throughout the whole series. On the flip side, an example in which use of honorifics would be weird is if Hinata started calling Ushijima ‘Ushijima-kun’- Hinata and Ushijima are not close and Ushijima is older than him, so unless their relationship changed throughout the course of the fic, it would be strange for Hinata to address him as such. Basically, honorifics can tell you a lot about the relationship between two characters. Do your research into what the characters actually say to each other and apply honorifics accordingly. If you’re not sure, just ask! And of course, its your fic. If you wanted to write a fic about Futakuchi and Yamaguchi becoming best friends, you can do that. Just set it up right!

I also use other words that are very specific to Japanese culture, like certain tools or areas (eg. like a genkan - a traditional Japanese entryway in a home that is a common fixture in most Japanese houses. or the Shinkansen). Honestly, I think this is really gonna depend on the writer. 

At the end of the day, it all depends on how you frame the words. You could put in a sentence like:

“Your mouth curved over the syllables of yoroshiku onegaishimasu along with a haphazard bow to your new boss- but you couldn’t shake the feeling that something was deeply wrong.”

In that sentence, typing out ‘yoroshiku onegaishimasu’ was an extra little touch that was added to the scene of meeting a new boss in a Japanese workplace setting. It added context- it wasn’t just put in for no reason. I think this example could be up for debate depending on the author, but I’m not cringed out by Japanese words used in a way like that sentence. Why? Because it has a purpose for being there. 

All in all...in my opinion, there’s a time and place for writing out romanized Japanese words in fics. But when you do include them, try and think to yourself- does it serve a purpose in my story? Or am I just putting it in to drive home how Japanese they are? Does the word have an adequate translation in English? 

In some really extreme examples, the fics can almost feel as if they’re fetishizing the Japanese language. Like “my fic will sound so much cooler/better if I write out random Japanese words that I know!” You don’t need to do that to make your fic sound cool. 

If you made it to the bottom of this rant...I’ll buy you a drink once covid lets up, haha. And thanks for reading! 

[twitchesandstitches]

💀🥔❤️🗯️💛📚 - Power Girl, Wonder Woman, Tionishia, Centorea, Ranamon, Blue Diamond and Ahsoka Tano. (A bit of a long one, but i hope it works.)

omg that is a LOT tho

Power Girl: am leaning towards ‘rarely’. depends on how villainous they are; if not villain, then probably not. if villain, at least temporarily digestion? if they’re energy-based though, she may do so automatically regardless of whether or not she wants to, due to her powers

Wonder Woman: she follows mythic hero rules, so she does so in the same circumstances of slaying a monster, but she’s not casual about it

tionishia: depends on their threat level and how hungry she is. going with the idea that ogres are prone to extreme overindulgence, she might do so if they taste good or make her feel super FULL

centorea: more likely than not, yes, especially if they are plant-based; it mixes with horse and human cravings a lot, and she regards it as part of the whole point of swallowing someone.

Ranamon: Rarely; its very contextual. she may be called to do it for her duties or removing things that need to be hidden, like consuming forbidden lore.

Blue Diamond: I like to think that she used to be a ferocious and merciless devourer, adn while she’s TRYING to be a better person, the compulsion to simply swallow whole and digest anything offending her on a whim.

Ahsoka: I figure that while the Jedi Code permits this sort of thing (since they don’t have any particular restrictions against necessary killing), overindulgence is frowned upon. This Ahsoka may or may not abide by the Code, but it still influences her, so she tries to restrain herself.

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Does your muse prefer lazy, fat prey?

Power Girl and Wonder Woman: Not really! they tend to view devouring as a tool in their arsenel, not as an end in itself, and they don’t have many preferences.

Tionishia: Almost certainly; she enjoys rich, tasty treats, especially ones that have so much meat and succulent tastes of self-indulgence on them.

Centorea: she doesn’t PREFER them, but she likes this kind of prey, but refuses to admit it; she feels that implying she prefers easily caught prey implies ineptitude.

Ranamon: I think that feels about right for her?

Blue Diamond: Very likely! Perhaps at one point, she created Gems specifically to devour large amounts of resources, getting very big in the process, and BD ate them in turn to recoup the resources.

Ahsoka: Again, no particular preference there.

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Tell us about a great experience your muse has had with vore!

Power Girl: She once ate an entire sun, getting a massive power boost and size increase; we’re talking taller than a solar system, boobs bigger than the rest of her body, and a power increase to match. it didn’t last but it felt REALLY GOOD

Wonder Woman: She slew an incarnation of Jormagundr in this fashion with her god-buddy, Thor; it was the biggest meal she ever had!

Tionishia: She had a date with fem Kimihito, and her ravenous appetite demanded more and more, and Kimihito offered herself to her; it was a very lovely digestion and Tio was so FULL, and suspects it was the love involved that satisfied her.

Centorea: She took part in a competition where the losers would be meals for the winner, and she won in splendid fashion. She was merciful and allowed them to reform not long afterwards, but she was so STRONG, and her gut so swollen with their wriggling bodies as they dissolved into her, and she relishes the pleasure of that day.

Ranamon: Once devoured a terrible grimoire of ultimate evil, obscuring its dreadful secrets from the multiverse; she actually had something of a tummyache for a while, but it was worth it.

Blue Diamond: After reforming her ways, she repopulated multiple worlds by consuming them and gestating entirely new, fertile ones within herself. IT felt intensely pleasurable and the first truly good thing she had done in a long time, and it gave her a sense of purpose after the fall of the Gem empire.

Ahsoka: At one point, confronted and bested a dreadful wizard of the bleakest arts, overcomign his powerful abilities to consume him. at the time she’d been suffering something of a crisis of confidence, and it reignited her sense of skill and purpose.

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Does your muse experience stomach rumbles or burps after eating someone?

Power Girl: unlikely. probably lots of solar glowing, though.

Wonder Woman: Briefly. sounds like continents moving.

Tionishia: Yes. it is VERY loud and sounds like her belly is bigger on the inside.

Centorea: Yes. very, very loud, due to her multiple chambered stomachs (A combo of human stomaches, horse stomaches, and the weird ways they interact together.)

Ranamon: Kind of; no rumbles or burps normally, but there’s a strange sound as they are converted into pure data.

Blue Diamond: She does not burp or rumble at all unless she specifically wants to, because of how Gems work; digestion rarely involves fluids, for example, but converting prey into magical energy to be absorbed directly or reworked into another form. She CAN, if she wants to.

Ahsoka: Yes. pretty noisy, actually.

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What sort of pred does your muse like?

Power Girl, Wonder Woman: They are similar in that they don’t liked to be preyed upon at all; they’re big time heroes and this sets a poor example, and they’re too fierce to easily have the submissive mindset that characterizes prey in one way or another. you must be WORTHY to do so, but their definitions vary; Power Girl thinks you must be strong, while Wondy feels you should just have the courage to try. (You might not be able to survive trying, though.)

Tionishia: She requires that you be at least somewhat polite. Sort of like taking a girl out to dinner, really.

Centorea: She professes to firmly disapprove of this, but in secret, she does like this, but requires a firm subordinate/superior relation between herself and the pred, with pred as superior.

Ranamon: Kind of prefers her preds to be cool and interesting, and technologically based; not out of bias against organics, but due to her composition, she’s only likely to experience anything if they are able to process data. (Which CAN happen with powerful organic preds anyway, but she’s not aware of this.)

Blue Diamond: She does not like to be eaten. She is still proud and mighty, and sees herself as far above the likes of prey!

Ahsoka: Someone who is very much NOT dark side-aligned, emotionally speaking, tends to fit the bill.

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How many times has your muse been digested or inside a pred’s stomach?

Wonder Woman: Rarely. It’s happened a few times, and its treated as the mutually exclusive deaths of heroes in ancient myths, but she’s loath to have repeats.

Power Girl: A few villains have managed it, and some heroines as well; tends to get her miffed, too.

Tionishia: Reasonably common, though they must be pretty big or voracious to contain so much ogre inside them! She thinks its cuddly and sweet.

Centorea: She’s more common a predator than prey, but it’s happened; once by fem!Kimihito, Rachnera and Tio, and most frequently by Miia, who is now sporting a REALLY big pair of boobs that was once Centorea’s physical body in previous times.

Ranamon: She’s embarassed to admit that she’s frequiently called to upload viruses to enemy servers or networks, and this involves getting ‘eaten’ by manifestations of those servers in the digital realm.

Blue Diamond: she’s bigger than a planet even when she’s not trying, and can be considered a goddess by most standards; it’s RARE. but it can happen! (Rose Quartz and Connie have both done it, on separate occasions.) She doesn’t approve of being reminded of it!

Ahsoka: If the Jedi have vore duels, she’s probably lost a fair number of times, though not in recent times. in her travels, she’s lost her fair share of consumption battles, so she’s familiar with the inside of guts.

[hungwy]

it's not so much folk wisdom vs. academic 'knowledge'... the point is for the vanguard party to introduce sophisticated academic concepts to the working class by way of policy, agitation and organization. notions like surplus value are so deeply rooted in economic and political theory that 'folk' explanations of them obviously wouldn't be sufficient

the post recognizes only that there will always be a contextual divide between academics and non-academics (if the structure of academia necessarily distances itself from non-academia of course). its within the nature of academia to produce concepts using a great deal of background knowledge, or intellectual concepts. commonly-educated citizens will not hold this background knowledge naturally, unless for some reason they spend their free time being academic -- at which point id say they’ve transgressed the boundary into academia. what counts as “being academic” is also not the scope of this post lol, i dont mean to socratic dialogue this; just assume there is a difference between being so and not being so. anyway, the capacity for understanding these terms is limited by one’s background knowledge. common folk will not have that capacity and will (generally) not completely comprehend the scope of a given concept, as they essentially are not able to completely understand it without the given background knowledge. even if the concept is successfully transmitted there exist sociolinguistic processes that can also transform the meaning and application of the term over time, turning it into slang and eventually a codified term altogether different in usage from its past. the process of reducing the complexity of and popularizing concepts specifically precedes the formation of “folk understandings of terms”. so long as there exists an academic sphere separate from folk pools of knowledge, there will always be a trickling down of technically-reduced terminology, and thus a disconnect in how the two spheres operate the terms in communication. this is a generic overarching process, though, and like basically every system the more individual you go the more chaotic and broken down the system is. the “atom” of this system is a person; therefore, interest, education, critical thinking skills, and tons of other personal variables will decide what informational bits stick and how creatively or restrictively you use the bits.

despite all this my actual opinion is that both academic and folk spheres aren’t doing anything incorrect. i believe that to understand a word’s definition you must understand all the different contexts and meanings which might apply to that word. that post just means to highlight that the process of transmission from academic to folk spheres is essentially a game of telephone with specific reductive properties but i just worded it really badly.

whether vanguard parties may or may not successfully preserve the full integrity of scientific terms when translating them to the working class is not really the point of the post, as you can see, because it depends on how they would do it. the success of that depends on how successful it is lol