#as someone who focused on genocide and human rights for two years in school

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

I have now seen someone say that what the RDA and Quaritch did in the first Avatar wasn’t genocide. Shoutout to the Olangi clan, you guys may be gone but I’ll never forget you. 🫡🫡

[luulapants]

Teen Wolf’s Skinwalkers and the Terminal Narrative

There are plenty of plot holes and missed opportunities to bitch about in Teen Wolf, but the one that gets me worked up the most is probably the skinwalkers storyline. I’ve written a ficlet based on my headcanons for them, mostly out of my ire that they didn’t even get names, but today I’d like to rant at you about how the skinwalkers storyline is a symptom and perpetuation of a toxic way that non-indigenous North Americans talk about indigenous peoples: the terminal narrative.

What is a terminal narrative?

The phrase is used to describe two deeply interrelated trends in modern accounts of Native Americans. The first is the tendency to talk about colonial-era Indigenous Americans as if they were already a dead/dying race, to insist that the Americas were sparsely populated when Europeans first arrived and, “anyway, disease is really what mostly killed them off, not colonizers.” The second is to continue that trend on into the modern day, talking about indigenous peoples as a relic of the past, extinct. This second narrative may agree that the genocide of the Americas was truly horrific but, you see, it’s already over, nothing to be done about it now! Ignoring, of course, that there is still a large, vibrant population of indigenous people in North America, that their abuse is not some long-past historical lesson (the last residential school closed in the 1990s!), and that the horrendous effects of colonial displacement, genocide, and cultural suppression are still felt to this day. Terminal narratives are a means of minimizing the modern white American’s responsibility to make reparations to indigenous people.

Okay, so let’s go back to Teen Wolf - how do the Skinwalkers play into the terminal narrative?

To refresh your memory, the skinwalkers are introduced in season 4 when Kira is having trouble controlling her kitsune powers. For some reason, her mother Noshiko decides that the skinwalkers are the right people to help her. They drive to New Mexico, where they meet these ladies:

The skinwalkers are portrayed as nameless relics of the past

The skinwalkers are terrifying, ferocious, covered in dust and clothed only in animal pelts. To be fair, this isn’t entirely out of line with the skinwalker myth as far as it is known by outsiders. (Disclaimer: this, like many Navajo myths, is not openly shared with outsiders, and so my knowledge, as someone who is not Navajo, is incomplete.) Traditionally, a skinwalker is an evil witch (of any gender) who began as a shaman but was unable to resist the allure of dark magic. They can don animal pelts and acquire the abilities of those animals and even shapeshift into them.

However, even if this image of the skinwalkers makes sense purely in the context of myth, it does not fit within the framework of how other mythical beings operate in the Teen Wolf universe. Even if Teen Wolf were following the ‘evil witch’ story, evil characters are routinely humanized on the show. In fact, the story of how one becomes a skinwalker sounds very much like the story, which Teen Wolf explains in detail, of how a Druid becomes a Darach (which itself is a bit of a bastardization of Celtic mythology). But unlike the white Darach (who gets significant screen and speaking time, a dramatic back story, and not one but two names), the skinwalkers are nameless, given no backstory, and have very few lines, all of them focused on Kira’s problem.

(I won’t get into how their role in the story basically reduces them to the trope of Magical Native American or Noble Savage, but there is a LOT to be said there.)

Furthermore, every other magical being in Teen Wolf is fully modernized. Noshiko Yukimura, despite being 900 years old, is fully integrated into modern society. The werewolves and druids are not shown to have much in the way of old-school lifestyles or dress. Even the family of wendigos, insatiable cannibals, have modernized so well that they live in a McMansion with a walk-in freezer full of human corpses! Wendigos are another indigenous mythical creature, but the one we meet is portrayed by a white actor and gets a name - Sean Walcott - despite his very brief appearance. (Side note, I don’t consider it whitewashing for a white actor to portray a wendigo. In fact, many post-contact wendigo stories, told by several native tribes, were about ill-prepared white colonists who got lost in the woods, resorted to cannibalizing their traveling companions, and became monsters.)

Yet, despite every other mythical being in Teen Wolf wearing the latest from Macy’s, the skinwalkers are clad in nothing but animal skins, face paint, and dust. They look like something from the past, practically primeval. They are nameless, without context, a mysterious people so far removed from us that they hardly seem like people at all.

The skinwalkers are completely separate from reality and civilization

Kira is warned, when she goes to the skinwalkers for help, that if she is unable to control her powers, she will be forced to stay and become one of them until she learns. Being with the skinwalkers means being completely cut off from the rest of the world, unable to see or talk to her friends or family. (What, the skinwalkers can’t get Skype?)

We aren’t told how old the skinwalkers are, but given how long a kitsune can live, it’s suggested that her banishment might continue longer than her friends will even be alive. To stay with them is a fate so horrible that her mother, who brought her to them in the first place, helps to fight them off so Kira can escape.

The skinwalkers come to represent death and nonexistence

Later, when the skinwalkers help Kira to defeat Theo, we are thrown an odd curveball: they are somehow in contact with Theo’s sister, who drags him to the underworld, where she is, to torture him. There’s a lot to unpack in that storyline, but most relevant to our topic is this: the skinwalkers are connected to the underworld and death.

Considering how the prospect of Kira going with them is framed, it’s almost as if they are death itself. Indeed, when the showrunners decided to get rid of Kira’s character, they did so by sending her away with the skinwalkers, never to be seen again. By becoming a skinwalker, Kira basically ceases to exist.

In summary, these native characters are framed as dead, as death, as ageless figures from an unknown time past. They are not people, not really. Like the shrieking savages in old Western movies, they are an exotic action sequence. They are part of the scenery in the desert, showing us a wild and mythic past which is not part of our modern world. There is no talk of modern indigenous people, not even an implication of them. The Yukimuras never stop by one of the nearby Navajo reservations to ask a modern Navajo in modern clothes where they can find the skinwalkers.

No, like in our myth of the colonial past, they journey directly into a mostly empty wilderness, where the few inhabitants are strange, violent, and unknowable primitives, who vanish into the dust when they are no longer relevant to the story.

[theparanormalperiodical]

Top 10 Controversial Horror Films That Are Famous For All The Wrong Reasons *gags* *cries*

At the beating heart of horror is offence.

From that undeniable sense of something not being quite right, to the CGI-blood-spurtin’-adrenaline-fuelled scenes that leave us shaking in our boots, horror pivots on the knife edge of controversy.

It’s used to drive plots. It’s used to drive hype. And at the end of the month, it drives studio executives to the bank.

Horror films can be traumatic enough. But there are some films that bear the cross of controversy more than others. There are some films that have been branded as so damaging to their potential viewers that merely circulating copies of the film is illegal.

And yet their infamy has forged cult viewership. What was once shielded from us has now become ‘must see’.

Today we are going to be counting down horror’s most controversial films and what made them quite so topical.

*I’m going to star the ones that you can actually watch without getting traumatised. Some are controversial not because of their content but because some religious or political groups disagreed with them*

#10 - The Blair Witch Project (1999)*

Let’s ease in with a classic - a classic you can watch without sleeping with the light on.

In this found-footage flick we see a team of film students as they explore a local urban legend. But what they find leads them to unknown and ungodly territory.

The problem with this film is that it was marketed as a true story. No, not based on a true story, a true story. Yep, they claimed what we were seeing was real, found footage of some teens going mad as they forage deeper into mysterious woods.

IMBd went so far as to report that the actors were dead. Then, the movie studio super-charged their efforts to confirm to the public that not only was this film 100% real, the three main actors were still missing. The parents of the actors then started receiving sympathy cards.

There’s even a mocked up website that perpetuates these claims. 

#9 - Night Of The Living Dead (1968)*

Time for another not-too-disturbing film.

This is the original zombie apocalypse film saw a group of Americans attempt to survive an incoming attack of the undead while trapped in a rural farmhouse.

But the Motion Picture Association of America wasn’t too happy about it. The film rating system was yet to be in place, allowing children to also show up for an afternoon screening and be greeted by a 97 minute montage of extreme violence.

“The kids in the audience were stunned. There was almost complete silence. The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. There was a little girl across the aisle from me, maybe nine years old, who was sitting very still in her seat and crying”

#8 - Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

In this psychological film, we watch a random crime spree take place at the hands of a couple serial killers. Loosely based on real murderers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole, its controversial reputation was founded on the gore ‘n’ guts screened in the movie.

Whilst it didn’t receive much attention from the public, various classification boards across the world ensured new versions edited with certain scenes - often involving sexual assault and necrophilia - removed for viewers.

In 2003, the BBFC (the UK classification board) finally allowed the uncut version to be released and Australia followed suit in 2005.

#7 - I Spit On Your Grave (1978)

It’s the original rape-revenge flick. And it managed to piss everyone off.

Originally titled Day of the Woman, it tells the story of a fiction writer who exacts revenge on a group of four men who gang rape her.

Despite its pro-women claim-to-fame, the 30 minute rape scene begs to differ. Furious debate surrounds its feminist label as a film that forces the audience to endure rape from a female perspective and long-winded violence against men (something which is often reserved for women in horror). Regardless, the graphic violence earned it a steady ban in Ireland, Norway, Iceland, and West Germany.

#6 - Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)*

You don’t get many controversial Christmas films. They typically stick to a cookie-cutter plot ‘n’ purpose every holiday season. But there are no strong women who need to rediscover the meaning of Christmas here.

Instead, we see a child traumatised by seeing his parents murdered on Christmas Eve go on a seasonal rampage as an adult.

A week after its release in the early 80s, it was pulled from theatres due to backlash. Marketing was focused on a Santa Claus killer with adverts often airing during family-friendly TV programmes and meant numerous children developed a phobia of Father Christmas. Large crowds protested cinemas with one notable protest involving angry families singing carols at the Interboro Quad Theater in The Bronx.

It was only in 2009 - 25 years after its original release - that a DVD of the film was first made available for purchase in the UK.

#5 - Psycho (1960)*

This legendary film follows the disappearance of a young woman after her encounter with a strange man called Norman Bates, one of horror’s most iconic figures. The controversy that would engulf this fim lay not in the violent attack on an innocent woman or even the disturbing content of the film.

Oh, no. It was because of what the leading lady was wearing.

In the opening scene of the film, we see Janet Leigh wearing nothing but a bra.

*gasp*

This racy attire was emblazoned across promotional material, meeting Hitchcock’s high standards of creating controversy around the movie. There was a no late admission policy for movie theaters, and the posters told viewers “Do not reveal the surprises!” to maintain a mysterious aura around the plot twist.

#4 - The Human Centipede (2009) (all of ‘em)

I’ve watched a lot of horror films, in case you couldn’t tell.

I’m used to watching a scary movie, shaking off the anxiety, and moving on with my life. But there are some that stayed with me. I only watched the trailer for the first movie, and it legitimately traumatised me. It gave me quite a severe, sudden bout of a depression for a solid month when I was 13.

Throughout horror’s goriest franchise, we see an evil doctor and amateur mad scientist attempt to sow several people together into a centipede-like chain from mouth to anus.

*retches*

At the heart of promoting the franchise was controversy. Tom Six, the director, forced a narrative that claimed from the first film that this was "100% medically accurate". He even alleged a Dutch doctor helped inspire the film, confirming that with an IV drip, this was entirely possible.

Although it didn’t receive furore that amounted to serious censorship or long-term banning, it was infamous for having its viewers vomiting in the cinema aisles.

The second film, however, was subject to much more severe controversy and could not legally be supplied in the UK until 2011 due to its heavy focus on sexual abuse, more graphic violence than the original film, and it’s pretty vile depiction of a murderer that was intellectually disabled.

Audiences were used to the graphic nature of the franchise by the third and final release. As the least-controversial and least-enjoyable film according to critics, it barely made a dent in the horror community.

Good riddance, I guess?

#3 - Faces Of Death (1978)

I’m not sure I’d recommend this one per se - but I will give it credit for being an interesting project.

This documentary-style film is a montage of footage of people dying in different ways. As a result of its very graphic and very real content, it was banned and censored in many countries. Only in 2003 was it released on DVD in the UK after a scene was cut featuring dogs fighting and a monkey being beaten to death.

Germany, Australia, and New Zealand followed suit, reversing their bans and releasing edited versions.

However, 7 years after its release, the media revamped its interest in the film after a maths teacher showed it to his class at a Californian high school. Two of his students claimed they were so traumatised they received a costly settlement to reimburse their emotional distress. Things took a darker turn a year later, when a 14 year old bludgeoned a classmate to death with a baseball bat; he claimed he wanted to see what it would be like to actually kill someone after watching Faces of Death.

#2 - Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

This Italian film’s title alone hints towards two frightening things: flesh-eating humans and genocide. In this found-footage movie we see an anthropologist lead a rescue team into the Amazon rainforest to find a group of filmmakers that went missing.

The rampant graphic content including sexual assault and animal cruelty showcased in the film (7 animals were killed during filming in some pretty horrific ways) led to it being banned in 50 countries.

Some also alleged that a handful of deaths seen in the film were real, as were the missing film crew. In fact, the actors portraying the documentarians signed contracts that stopped them appearing in motion pictures for an entire year to maintain the illusion of reality.

And only 10 days after its premiere, the director was charged with obscenity and the film confiscated. All copies were to be turned over to the authorities. There are currently a range of versions that have been edited to varying degrees and are allowed for circulation.

#1 - A Serbian Film (2010)

No.

Nope.

Don’t do it. Don’t watch this film.

A Serbian Film follows a retired porn star who agrees to feature in an “art film” for some cash. Little does he know this film will include rape, incest, pedophilia, necrophilia…

Just don’t watch it.

It is still banned in South Korea, New Zealand, Australia. It is supposedly a parody of politically correct films made in Serbia that are funded by foreign groups and allegedly speaks openly about post-war society and the struggle for survival.

*shakes head*

Off to have a 3 hour shower, brb.

If you, uhhh, liked this post please like and reblog.

And if you want to hear more about horror and the supernatural every week hit follow!

[lunammoon]

The Problem With Hetalia (As told by someone who actually in the fandom until like, 2016)

I'm hoping this post will explain to people who are still into Hetalia why a lot of people have an issue with from the perspective of someone who knows a lot about the show. 

TL;DR: By making the WW2 axis powers come across as a lovable idiot, his serious friend, and the stoic voice of reason, it downplays the serious nature of what the Axis did and seeing as the real-life Axis harmed real-life people, many people have a justifiable huge issue with this. 

I will go more into depth about this under the cut.

A lot of people are talking about how Hetalia is coming back after 5 years and a lot of people are rightfully annoyed at the show. But what I'm seeing is that a lot of the people who are upset are people who clearly haven't watched the show and therefore are unable to explain to people who have watched it why it’s bad. The most that you hear is:

"it glorifies the Axis Powers" (which isn't 100% accurate although the assessment that they are portrayed in a way that makes them seem less bad is accurate) 

"Hetalia Cosplayers wore Nazi uniforms in front of a Holocaust memorial" (which I'd say is more of an issue with fans than the show). 

That is not to say that there isn't an issue with the show, because there really is. But these observations are unlikely to mean much to someone who watches Hetalia. So, in this thread, I'm going to explain why Hetalia is Problematic with the added context perspective of someone who was into the show during most of middle school and until Freshman year of high school. 

I knew the human names, used to jam to "Always With You" and "Pub and Go" and “It’ll Settle Itself Somehow” and “Light my Heart” and “Absolute British Gentleman” and “Mein Gott” and “World Rondo” and “Excuse Me, I’m Sorry” and so, so many more. 

I lost my shit with everyone else when the season 6 ep dropped and Italy danced like he was possessed by a demon. When I hear “ACE” family, I don’t think of Youtubers. I actually took a side on the FruUK vs UsUk debate and if you look in my archive, you can probably find some Hetalia posts that I’m too lazy to delete.

The point here being, I’ve actually seen the show so I know what I’m talking about. This isn’t an outsiders perspective is what I’m saying.

So, let’s get right into it. While technically only seasons 1-2 are officially actually called "Axis Powers" (Seasons 3-4 are called "World Series" Season 5 is "Beautiful World" and Season 6 is called "World Twinkle") WW2 and things relating to the Axis Powers are an important part of every season and appear prominently.

While Hetalia has covered many things from all different time periods, the two most common periods covered are the modern-day and of course, the second World War. The show is Japanese and (I assume) because Japan was on the Axis side, these portions focus more on the Axis Powers of Italy, Japan, and Germany. The Allies do come into play. And while the Allies aren't directly like, evil, which would've been FAR WORSE they've got a kind of Team Rocket-esque thing going on? They're not exactly mustache-twirling villains but they're clear antagonists. Make no mistakes.

I think the deserted Island arc is the best example of the problems many people have with the show.

Take for example, that beach fight. If you've watched Hetalia, you'll know the one I'm talking about. The one that they reused like, 50 times. The Allies are clearly shown as the antagonists/aggressors while the Axis are literally just vibing on a (kinda) deserted island and defending themselves. 

Now, if this was three dudes chilling on the beach and they suddenly got attacked by another five dudes also on the beach who they then fought off until the five attackers ran away that’s be one thing.

The issue is that this is supposed to be a representation of WW2. It's basically saying "oh, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy were literally just vibing, not bothering anyone when suddenly, the Allies attacked for no reason. Luckily, they (the Allies) retreated because the Allies are Cowardly but they keep coming back and bothering them,". Do you see the issue there? Most of the beach arc seems to be the writer forgetting that these are supposed to be Nations, not a random Italian dude, a German dude, and a Japanese dude.

“Oh, but they don’t glorify Nazi Germany. They don’t really even talk about what Germany was doing! Look at this pic of Germany in a lab coat holding a dandelion :)“

That’s not the defense that you think it is and it’s actually a main part of the issue that I, and many other people have with Hetalia.

I think the scene where this issue is the most obvious is the one where they are gathering around a campfire and talking and one of them comes up with the name "the Axis". The whole scene has the same energy characters in a moe anime coming up with a band name.

They’re sitting on a beach at night. I think there might’ve been a campfire, the stars are out, and the three of them talk about their dream of making a world that revolved around them. One of them comes up with the name “the axis” and then they all talk about how you would translate "axis" in their language. It’s all very found family-esque. The way the scene is framed is to encourage you to route for them to reach their goal. It’s the same kind of tone you’d see in a shoujo with a girl telling her friends about how she wants to win the singing competition no matter what or in Sword Art Online when Kirito talks about saving Asuna.

The issue is that their goal isn’t to win some competition or to save someone they care about. It’s to spread facism, imperialism, and bring about genocide.

There of course don’t SAY that that’s their goal, and outside of a one off line in the English dub that’s been since censored, they don’t really bring up what Germany was up to during WW2 vis-a-vie the Holocaust and if they did bring it up, I either wasn’t paying attention, it was in the manga, or it was in one of Germany’s character songs.

The issue is that during WW2 the show seems to at best forget and at worst, gloss over it that the main trio that they're focusing on are the villains. And not like, fantasy villains. Actual real-life villains that hurt real people in the real world. Imagine if instead of Ludwig Beilschmidt and Feliciano Vargas, it was Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. 

Are you seeing the problem yet?

I get why people like to watch the show. Ignoring the WW2 bits, it’s actually pretty good. I, as an American, really like Alfred F. Jones and the way he’s portrayed.

If Hetalia had stuck to non-WW2 related things such as that episode where the nations all talk about how horror movies differ in their nations, or they talked about their Christmas traditions. Or the ones where America and Japan are roommates. Or when they showed that time when America airdropped XL condoms on Russia labeling them as "small" for intimidation reasons. Or that series of episodes where they talked about Micronations. Or that time they all had to come together to fight aliens. Or the bit where they talked about the WW1 Christmas Armistice. Then it would be fine.

The issue is that they didn’t.

If they kept WW2 stuff for SOME reason. They had two options. 

Make the axis as proper villains

 Be explicit in showing that the nations will doesn't reflect what their leader wants. 

The first option wouldn’t be ideal if they wanted to cover any time period other than World War 2. The axis would be too unlikable and I doubt that an anime where Japan is the villain would appeal much to Japanese audiences.

But what about the second option. Have a bit where Ludwig is passing out White Rose pamphlets or smuggling people to safety.

Have Kiku (Japan for people who don’t watch Hetalia) purposefully looking the other way as Sugihara writes visas to get people to safety and covering for him against his boss. SOMETHING!

But instead of doing either of those, they took the bad third option which was, their choice to instead make the axis seem like likable individuals who are a group of three good friends who work together will in contrast with the “bumbling Allies” who are barely cohesive and constantly fight and argue. At best, makes it seem like both sides had a point and at worst, makes it seem like the Axis was a better than the Allies.

All of this is to say that liking Hetalia does not make you inherently a bad person, but you need to be more critical of what you watch and understand that there is a reason that some people have a genuine issue with it and they have a very good reason for that. You can still watch it the show, but do keep this information in the back of your brain as you do

[dascarecrow]

Death Battle - Oscar Pine

Wiz- Since humanity’s earliest age the world of Remnant has been plagued by the creatures of Grimm. 

Boomstick- AKA a cheap rip off of the Heartless. These bad boys are destruction incarnate which sounds awesome at first but it really just means they live to ruin your day. 

Wiz- Yet for as long as the Grimm have haunted humanity they have been protected by the elite warriors known as Huntsmen. 

Boomstick- These kick ass fighters are the best of the best and the baddest of the bad. They also wield some of the most awesome weapons ever made. Because nearly all of them? Are also a gun. 

Wiz- Huntsmen are trained at combat academies across the world. And the greatest of them are trained at the main academies of each major kingdom. Shade Academy in Vacuo, Haven Academy in Mistral, Atlas Academy in Atlas- 

Boomstick- Real original there. 

Wiz- And Beacon Academy in Vale. 

Boomstick- Man a school where you learn how to beat the snot out of people, hunt evil monsters and build cool weapons? If they had that kind of curriculum when I was in high school I definitely would have paid more attention. At least try to get a B+ on something instead of all those Fs and Cs. 

Wiz- Unknown to the public however is that the headmasters of each Academy are part of a secret alliance dedicated to protecting the people of Remnant and ensuring their prosperity led by the headmaster Beacon Academy, Ozpin. 

Boomstick- And like any good conspiracy the Ozluminati knows a whole bunch of secrets. Like the true origin of Dust and who faked the moon breaking. 

Wiz- One of the greatest secrets that they have kept is existence of magic in Remnant. 

Boomstick- Like actual wave your hand and make stuff happen magic. Which I don’t really get keeping hidden. I mean Huntsmen can do a whole bunch of stuff that’s pretty much magic anyways. And even stuff that magic doesn’t do. So why hide it from people?

Wiz- That’s actually because of the prospective dangers that magic could bring. 

Boomstick- Oh yeah like what? 

*Scenes play of Raven, Penny and Fria using their magic and devastating their enemies* 

Boomstick- Never mind. I’ll take being able to call up hurricanes whenever I want over a scythe that turns into a rifle. 

Wiz- Ozpin led the other headmasters and select other agents in keeping several secrets, including magic, hidden away because he feared the turmoil and destruction that would result if they were ever discovered. 

Boomstick- And it actually went pretty well. Remnant had it’s problems but it was actually looking pretty good. Until some crazy fire lady *a picture of Cinder appears* found out about magic, went “I want me some of that”, teamed up with a terrorist organization and decided to get her hands on the nearest available bit of magic. Which was hidden under Beacon Academy. 

Wiz- Dark forces would attack in the tragedy that would become known as the Fall of Beacon. The school would be devastated, the students harmed and traumatized beyond measure and Ozpin himself would fall during the battle. But this would not be the end for Ozpin. 

Boomstick- Yeah turns out Dumbledore here actually had quite a few secrets of his own. One of which is that he was at this job a lot longer than anyone ever knew. 

Wiz- In ancient times the Gods of Light and Darkness who had created Remnant saw the trials humanity endured to survive with each passing day and sought to give their creation a chance at salvation. They reached into the afterlife and returned to Remnant the greatest warrior to ever walk its surface, a mage knight known as Ozma.  

Boomstick- Of course because Gods are kind of jerks they gave the Wizard of Oz a skewed deal.  

Wiz- The Gods tasked Ozma with uniting humanity together and calling them to return to Remnant so they may pass judgement. Should humanity be in harmony upon their return the Gods would walk alongside them once more and grant to humanity grand gifts as reward. 

Boomstick- Not a bad deal really. Everyone plays all nice and you get some sweet magic powers out of it. Why wouldn’t you want to do that? 

Wiz- But if the Gods returned to find humanity divided and selfishly demanding that which was never theirs then it would be final day Remnant would ever see for humanity would be destroyed. 

Boomstick- Oh right. How is that supposed to work then? I mean the gods come back and they see some guys arguing over their favorite sports team and they just go “Your no good. Gonna kill you all”. I mean I get the appeal of having magic powers but does that really outweigh complete genocide? Huntsmen have their own personal superpowers and Dust is as good as magic anyway.  

Wiz- Regardless Ozma agreed to the gods request, motivated by his sense of justice and belief in the inherent good of humanity. 

Boomstick- And the chance to see his ex again. *Picture of Salem appears* Can’t forget about that. 

Wiz- Indeed. Of course the Gods recognized that the work they tasked Ozma with could take quite some time so they made arrangements which resulted in a rather unusual return for him. 

Boomstick- The Gods kind of have a thing against full blown resurrection so they didn’t just zap their newest employee back to Remnant. No they decided to stuff Ozzy Osbourne’s soul into some random sucker so he could get to work. 

Wiz- The Gods did not wish Ozma to bear the burden of his work alone so they made it that he would return in the body of another, which carried a like minded soul that his own would merge with. In the course of his work Ozma would discover that death was no longer the same for him. 

Boomstick- The Gods basically made him the Avatar. *Shows picture of Aang* Whenever Willy Wonka wound up biting it his soul would crop up again in some other schmuck and merge with whatever soul was already living there. Rinse and repeat for the next few thousand years. 

Wiz- The man known as Ozpin would wind up being the latest in this long line of reincarnations, continuing his past lives work in uniting the people of Remnant so they may pass the Gods Judgement.  

Boomstick- And once Gandalf here was down for the count it was time for another round of musical souls. Where he stops who the heck knows. 

Wiz- Ozpin’s would wind up reincarnating in a young farmhand known as Oscar Pine, who would find himself continuing the work that Ozma had began millennia ago and the inheritor of his countless lives knowledge and power. 

Boomstick- Man I don’t know who to feel worse for. Pinecone for having an old dude stuck in his head that can see all of his private thoughts. Or the Clockwork Wizard for being stuck in the head of a kid that’s just starting puberty.  

Wiz- As a result of this merger of souls Oscar would inherit Ozpin’s memories and more importantly his fighting skill and powers. 

Boomstick- As the headmaster of a school for hunting literal soulless monsters Ozpin knew how to throw down with the best of them and Oscar got everything the old professor knew downloaded straight to his brain, none of that pesky learning stuff the hard way needed. He would even be given Ozpin’s own personal weapon... a cane. A cane. That was seriously this guys weapon? He fights for thousands of years to protect humanity, counter hordes of dark mosters and try to make it so the Gods give Remnant a passing grade and his personal way of beating people up was with a walking stick. Starting to see why it took him so long to get people up to snuff. 

Wiz- Don’t be so quick to judge Boomstick. Ozpin was supremely gifted with his weapon, often using it like a rapier to rapidly jab at enemies and wear them down faster then they could respond. *Scenes of Ozpin’s fight with Cinder* And because he has Ozpin’s memories Oscar can do this just as well. *Scenes of Oscar’s fight with Hazel* However Oscar has chosen to focus on his own fighting style instead of simply repeating Ozpin’s. Oscar’s own personal style has a greater emphasis on striking power than  speed, being centered around strong, focused blows instead of the rapid fire technique Ozpin preferred. 

Boomstick- Finally someone who gets that the best way of doing things is by hitting the crap out of them as hard as possible. And it works pretty well for the farm boy. He was able to one shot a Sabyr, which was about two and a half times his size. And keep in mind Grimm are pretty much all bulk. Oscar pretty much killed that thing by stabbing it with a blunt object. Not to mention that he was able to smack someone so hard that they tumbled down the stairs and made Hazel stagger back a few feet when they collided with him. Hazel, who was able to catch the mini wrecking ball that is Magnhild and was stabbed through his stomach by a giant ice wasp and got back up like it was nothing.  

Wiz- Given the loss of energy that would have resulted from rolling down the steps and Hazel’s own notable durability then we can safely say that Oscar used an extreme amount of force in this one attack. 

Boomstick- And if Alpine gets tired of trying to whack people with a overhyped brake lever than he has some decent hand to hand skill as well. He was able to round a corner, close the distance and punch Neo so hard that she went flying down the hallway, all faster than she could react. And Neo’s whole thing is that she can literally dance around just about anyone like they’re moving in slow motion. Oscar was able to outpace her a few times during their fight and that’s immediately after he’d already taken some bad hits. She’d have done even worse if he’d been starting fresh. Not bad for a farm hand. 

Wiz- Oscar’s impressive performance is probably helped by his Aura. 

Boomstick- You mean that rip off of the force from Pokemon? Wait do Pokemon live on Remnant? Are the Grimm actually Pokemon and they’re what happens when humanity doesn’t learn how to make Pokeballs? Does this mean animal slavery is actually perfectly justified? 

Wiz- No. On all acccounts. 

Boomstick (disappointed)- Aaaaah. 

Aura 

- Grants shielding 

- Empowers strikes 

- Environmental Protection 

- Heightened Awareness 

- Enhances Healing 

Wiz- Aura is the soul made manifest, the user’s essence rendered into tangible form. 

Boomstick- Is that supposed to be arousing or the complete opposite? 

Wiz- Aura grants anyone who possesses it a great many benefits, primarily in terms of defense. Anyone with an active Aura automatically receives a shield that protects them from harm and damage. Oscar was able to take hits from flaming boulders and barely showed any hint that he even felt the attack. 

Boomstick- Wait, wait, wait. You mean that if someone gets this Aura stuff they automatically become invulnerable to being hurt? Wiz I’m calling in three of the favors you owe me to give me some of that stuff. 

Wiz- Aura doesn’t just prevent users from coming to harm though. It can also enhance striking power, be channeled through weaponry to increase it’s power, protect the user from harsh environmental factors like extreme cold, give someone heightened awareness of their surrounding to the point they can detect approaching enemies and even boost one’s healing. 

Boomstick- Alright Wiz I’ll make it seven favors and I’ll use Jocelyn’s credit card the next time I get drunk and come up with an awesome idea. Man thousands of years of of combat experience and a personal force field that increases strength and healing? This kid must kick all sorts of- 

*Montage of Oscar getting attacked by Ruby, Qrow, Jaune, the Hound and ends with him being shot by Ironwood* 

Boomstick- *now depressed* Oh right. Aura kind of sucks. 

Wiz- While Aura is formidable it does have it’s limits. Every blow it takes will cause one’s Aura to wear down and deplete. The stronger the hit the more damage Aura will take from it. And even those gifted with extraordinary amounts can’t maintain it indefinitely. 

Boomstick- Yep. Take it from me folks it doesn’t matter how big the bottle is. If you keep drinking from it, sooner or later you’re going to run out. 

Wiz- And once it’s completely depleted Aura will break, leaving the user vulnerable. 

Boomstick- How the heck does that work? I mean it’s your soul. You always have it. So shouldn’t this Aura stuff always be going? And if it breaks shouldn’t you I don’t know die or something? 

Wiz- To be exact Aura isn’t actually the user’s soul, but rather a type of energy harnessed from it. So it’s depletion and breaking isn’t actually fatal to the user. It also isn’t something that runs automatically. Aura has to be consciously activated and dismissed by the user. So it is possible for someone to be caught off guard because they don’t their Aura running. 

Boomstick- Figures. You find a super cool energy that can give everyone super powers and it turns out to suck eggs. 

Wiz- Well just because your Aura runs out doesn’t mean it’s the end of fight. It does recover over time and trained users can speed up how fast it rebuilds with just a bit of focus and willpower. Oscar’s teammate Jaune has shown the ability to restore his Aura after focusing for a brief moment. And given Ozpin’s countless lifetimes of experience it stands to reason that Oscar has the ability to do this as well.  

Boomstick- And even if Oscar’s Aura does wind up failing him he still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Magic ones. Remember Ozma wasn’t just a highly skilled warrior he was also gifted mage. So his whole conga line of souls also gets cool magic powers. 

Magic 

Controls the elements (fire, ice, wind , lightning, etc.) 

Energy blasts 

Creates shields 

Telekinetic movement 

Wiz- Quite right Boomstick among all the denizens of Remnant, Oscar is one of the rare few gifted with magic in the current age. While the exact abilities Oscar can use are nebulous we can infer some details going by what other magic users have done. He can unleash streams of pure power as an attack. 

Boomstick- And these emerald streamers pack a punch. Salem was able to shrug off Hazel literally splattering her all over the ground and returned the beating without missing a beat. 

Wiz- While Salem can regenerate from any damage done to her she still feels pain and can be hurt, even if the damage is undone. 

Boomstick- Oscar brought her to her knees with one blast of his magic, which also left her in visible pain. So it’s safe to say he hit her way harder than Hazel was able to. And that guy dropped a friggin meteor on top of her. *Shows clip of Hazel doing just that* 

Wiz- We have also seen magic be shaped into different forms so presumably Oscar can do this as well. His past lives have been seen creating fields of magic that can move others in a telekinetic fashion and there’s no reason to believe Oscar can’t still do so in present day, albeit not quite on the scale Ozma was once able to. 

Boomstick- Yeah one of the lives of Doctor Who did something kind of dumb. A bunch of sisters came by his house and were all “hope, joy and love” and he decided to give them almost all of his magic because of good vibes or something. I mean why would you give up actual magic powers that made you such a kick ass knight in the first place?  

Wiz- (annoyed) Anyways... Oscar lacks the reserves of magic power that Ozma once held and while we don’t have an exact measure we’re going to go with about a rate of 5 to 10 percent remaining. Fortunately for Oscar magic doesn’t deplete the way Aura does so he can use it almost without limit. And the power of the Maidens, that is the sisters he gave his magic to, gives us a view of what Oscar can accomplish. Namely the power of the elements 

Elemental Magic 

Fire  

Ice 

Lightning 

Wind 

Plant life 

Boomstick- Most folks on Remnant can do stuff like throw around fireballs or lightning bolts with the use of Dust. But magic lets you do that stuff all on your own and with no limit either. 

Wiz- Mind you Oscar’s lesser reserves mean he can’t do anything on the scale of the Maidens but he does still have the capacity to control the elements, just to a lesser degree than most magic users.  But the greatest asset magic grants Oscar is his shield. 

Boomstick- Don’t let the fact that it looks like a glass bubble fool you, this mystical barrier is actually pretty sturdy. It’s stood up to the full power of the Fall Maiden, allowed Oscar to survive a several miles long fall without any injury whatsoever and is so strong that it let him crash right through the bottom of Atlas and keep on going with no problem. 

Wiz- Actually Boomstick that last feat wasn’t a result of Oscar’s magic. 

Boomstick- Oh? I guess you’re going to tell me that glorified bike handle of his did it. 

Wiz- It did as a matter of fact. 

Boomstick- Wait what? How is that possible? It’s a cane for crying out loud. It’s something old people use for getting around and whupping the young, not the tool of a seasoned warrior and mage. 

Wiz- Oscar’s cane, much like it’s holder, far more than it appears and has quite a few surprises. 

Boomstick- Oh this should be good. 

The Long Memory 

Oscar’s personal weapon 

Once wielded by Ozpin 

Incredibly durable 

Focus for magic 

Stores kinetic energy 

Wiz- Oscar’s weapon, known as the Long Memory, is a collapsible cane that he carries at almost all times. The cane itself is highly durable, able to take hits from a Dust empowered Hazel without any sign of strain or damage. Hazel boasted immense physical strength on his lonesome and the benefit of Dust significantly increased his damage output.  

Boomstick- Okay so it’s a pretty strong cane. But it’s still just a cane. 

Wiz- The Long Memory is also a channel and focus for Oscar’s magic, enabling him to use it on a higher scale than he would be able to on his own merits. 

Boomstick- Oh like a magic wand. 

Wiz- More like a scepter. 

Boomstick- Like a magic staff? 

Wiz- Scepter. 

Boomstick- I get you, it’s like a magic rod. 

Wiz- Boomstick I swear if I have to get the shock collar again... 

Boomstick- Geez calm down Wiz I’m just funning ya. So this walking stick is pretty much a *Wiz glares at Boomstick* “magic scepter” that lets pine tree use magic better than he can by himself. That’s kind of cool actually but why make it something that looks like an emergency brake? 

Wiz- The Long Memory has one more special trick, completely separate from Aura and magic. It can store and carry kinetic energy. 

Boomstick- I’m sorry what kind of energy? 

Wiz- *exasperated* Stuff that make bullets go shoot. 

Boomstick- I know what it is Wiz. No need to get snippy. Man you are so juvenile. Anyways why is that so special? 

Wiz- *trying to be professional* With each passing moment and every blow struck The Long Memory accumulates kinetic energy and having been crafted centuries ago it has quite a reservoir of power to access. Oscar can access this stored up energy whenever he wishes, unleashing bolts and waves sheer power. This allowed him to blast a hole through the bottom of Atlas when he was sent plummeting to his doom in the Vault of the Winter Maiden. 

Boomstick- Huh. Not a bad parlor trick I’ll admit but how much damage can he really do with that thin- 

*Scene of Oscar destroying Monstra plays* 

Boomstick stares in open mouthed shock while Wiz looks on with a smug grin.  

Wiz- You were saying? 

Boomstick- HOLY MOTHERF*BLEEP*ING S*BLEEP*T!  Did that kid just fire off a magic nuke?  

Wiz-To be fair Oscar can’t throw around attacks like that too often. This particular instance used up the majority of stored up power that the Long Memory had available. And that power was gathered across several lifetimes if not centuries. He definitely wouldn’t be able to use an attack on this level repeatedly. He would be able to recover some of the kinetic energy however because the Long Memory gathers and stores it away automatically. Smaller expenditures may not necessarily be reclaimed but the cane would definitely avoid running completely out of power with this aspect of it’s abilities. Anything you’d like to add Boomstick?

Boomstick- *still in shock* I-, Yeah not really, my mind is going to be stuck on that nuke thing for a while. 

Wiz- *shrugging it off* Okay then. Come back in a few days where we’ll cover Oscar’s opponent, Izuku Midoriya. 

[geejaysmith]

Kat and I have amazing conversations sometimes and I felt they had to be shared. Also, alienfuckers, dad jokes, Maxwell’s alternative lifestyle and other headcanons, and Ace Attorney: Doug Eiffel edition. Full transcript under the cut.

Gill [Yesterday at 6:05 PM]: On an Unrelated topic: after the finale the crew remembers "OH YEAH, EIFFEL ACTUALLY HAD A FACE-TO-FACE CONVERSATION WITH ALIENS" and now in addition to all the other reasons to want him to Remember they're really freakin' curious to know how that went

Kat [Yesterday at 6:11 PM]: Minkowski: so what did they look like Eiffel: me (They do seem to like his body, they had a few models to choose from when talking to Cutter.)

Gill [Yesterday at 6:13 PM]: Eiffel, probably: at least the aliens think I'm cool I know what was meant by that but your phrasing made me think "In a shocking turn of events, it is the aliens who are attracted to the human." The aliens... are alienfuckers

Kat [Yesterday at 6:17 PM]: I don't think that's their jam but that WOULD be just his luck

Gill [Yesterday at 6:18 PM]: It is unlikely, but also: it would be hilarious

Kat [Yesterday at 6:21 PM]: the aliens keep sending me mental sexts and i crave death

Gill [Yesterday at 6:22 PM]: And lo another shitpost transforms into a fanfic concept, like a humble irradiated lizard becoming Godzilla: "would you fuck your clone?"

Kat [Yesterday at 6:28 PM]: leave him alone has the man not suffered enough

Gill [Yesterday at 6:28 PM]: No

Kat [Yesterday at 6:29 PM]: sigh

Gill [Yesterday at 6:29 PM]: Dance for my amusement, Douglas And also because I earnestly suspect that in the case of Eiffel and an interested alien-consciousness-in-the-form-of-a-Xerox-copy-of-him the answer would end up being "yes"

Kat [Yesterday at 6:34 PM]: idk i feel like it'd be more like "Oh what you spend two fucking years trying to drag us into the star because you can't be assed to make an appearance but you'll teleport across the galaxy for a booty call? Fuck you and I mean that figuratively" later sluts

Gill [Yesterday at 6:36 PM]: Bob is a bad datemate Is this entire train of thought brought on by the fact I still think of the person who expressed they shipped Bob/Eiffel in the tags of the "Take your double to Disneyland" post? Perhaps

Kat [Yesterday at 6:39 PM]: i don't know that you can have this at the same time as 'what if the aliens' bodies are still the people suppressed' without it getting Fucked Up but that's your perogative I guess as long as I don't have to hear about it family can't walk w me tonight so i need to hit the treadmill for a bit. ttyl

Gill [Yesterday at 6:41 PM]: See u in a bit! But ah yes, I hadn't thought of that til you brought it up Points at one explanation of Dear Listener manifestations for some ideas, points at a different explanation for ideas that would become unintentionally Pretty Fucked Up under the first explanation Although there is comedy potential to be found in Eiffel and Eiffel-2 having the "are we down with this" conversation In the /Justin McElroy voice, "someone just discovered they have ~the world's worst fetish~" sense

Kat [Yesterday at 7:33 PM]: a different terrible concept: eiffel with his pop culture references restored will likely be called upon to testify at the united nations

Gill [Yesterday at 7:37 PM]: O h  g o d Ace Attorney: Doug Eiffel edition

Kat [Yesterday at 7:46 PM]: i mean they're gonna have to tell the world SOMEHOW and i'd think the international court would want to know and he's the one with the subconscious recall implanted sidenote if the DL can do that mental transfer could they have just... asked them to reupload whatever their most recent scan of eiffel was there are so many ways around this that's why it failed to get much of an emotional rxn from me

Gill [Yesterday at 7:47 PM]: Minkowski and Lovelace trying to get him to practice his testimony bc if they hit enough subconscious recall triggers they can at LEAST get thru an explanation of the aliens without Eiffel going off into a tangent Once they're off the Dear Listeners' script though all bets are off

Kat [Yesterday at 7:48 PM]: here's a list of preplanned questions your honor we're not responsible if you ask anything else

Gill [Yesterday at 7:51 PM]: Eiffel, maybe: now Goddard didn't send up us there to bring home any xenomorphs but let me tell you, with the Decima project? They might as WELL have let a facehugger get up close and personal with me The translators rapidly swapping notes on late 70's sci-of cinema because a handful of them actually know what he's talking about

Kat [Yesterday at 7:54 PM]: Minkowski headdesking behind him Eiffel English isn't most of these people's first languages

Gill [Yesterday at 7:57 PM]: The news cameras are all dead-focused on Eiffel. He's hit his stride and is picking up steam. "And it was right around the time I was coughing up my liquefied respiratory system that I thought to myself, gee, I'd MUCH rather get a face of alien wing-wong than deal with this!" Minkowski is off to the side. She is visibly restraining herself. No poker face in the world can hide how hard she is longing for death. Whether it is hers or Eiffel's is a subject of contentious debate.

Kat [Yesterday at 7:58 PM]: someone at an elementary school: hey Garcia, is that your dad

Gill [Yesterday at 8:01 PM]: Anne, who was four the last time she saw her father in person, gets one look at the man weaving an intricate Star Wars metaphor out of crimes against humanity and recognizes him instantly, but signs back "I have never seen this guy before in my life."

Kat [Yesterday at 8:04 PM]: good call kiddo

============

Gill [Yesterday at 8:10 PM]: Honestly I love the concept that no matter how much Eiffel may drive them up the wall sometimes the rest of the crew would meet Anne and immediately be ready to kill a man for her sake

Kat [Yesterday at 8:15 PM]: as far as we know he's the only crewmember with kids women in the military... it wouldn't be easy even if you wanted one, which idk if any of them did

Gill [Yesterday at 8:15 PM]: Wait wait, brainwave: it is actually AMAZING that Minkowski had no idea Eiffel had a child because... does he seem like the kind of guy. Who would ever resist a Dad Joke.

Kat [Yesterday at 8:15 PM]: haha fair

Gill [Yesterday at 8:16 PM]: Eiffel: Actually, I have amazing self-restraint when I choose to exercise it. (Various noises of disbelief.) Eiffel: have you ever heard me tell a dad joke? No? I rest my case

Kat [Yesterday at 8:21 PM]: biggest plot hole of the series more like it was too painful a memory but still

Gill [Yesterday at 8:22 PM]: If he ever patches that connection it'll open the floodgates

Kat [Yesterday at 8:26 PM]: He'll become the Maes Hughes of the gang, except with fewer war crimes

Gill [Yesterday at 8:27 PM]: ...has anyone on this crew done war crimes? SI-5 excepted of course, they have obviously done war crimes

Kat [Yesterday at 8:32 PM]: yeah SI5 is war crime central I'm not sure about some of the other stuff executing a prisoner? idk about Minkowski

Gill [Yesterday at 8:32 PM]: Also my thought

Kat [Yesterday at 8:32 PM]: she wasn't a formal pow though it was an ongoing engagement I don't know the rules

Gill [Yesterday at 8:32 PM]: Minkowski Has Done One (1) War Crime (Goddard Futuristics attempts to bring that against her in the court case only for Maxwell to stroll in like lol what's up gang)

Kat [Yesterday at 8:37 PM]: does Goddard in its current incarnation last long enough to sue anyone i mean i think you could sue them for attempted genocide

Gill [Yesterday at 8:38 PM]: Look I have had one semester of business law You were the one who almost went to law school Also re: other characters being parents, the only one I could see going kiiiinda either way on the subject is Lovelace and it wouldn't have been terribly high on her priority list prior to the Hephaestus mission I can see characters having the opinion that they could see Minkowski as a mom but she and her husband both strike me as understanding themselves and one another as being more career-oriented

Kat [Yesterday at 8:44 PM]: yeah if she wanted to rise in the ranks of the military... that would probably be a strike against her

Gill [Yesterday at 8:44 PM] And the implication she's got a Complex about her parents having both left promising careers to raise her Also, Lovelace: Well I always said I could see myself settling down someday, maybe have a family if I met the right person, but when I took the job with Goddard it was legally dubious whether I could actually do that- Eiffel: Because you're an alien? Eiffel: Eiffel: ...wait a sec

Kat [Yesterday at 8:54 PM]: ha It's ok to be gay in space

Gill [Yesterday at 8:56 PM]: Alternatively it's Hera who said that bc didn't connect those dots right away, meanwhile Eiffel saw Lovelace in a flannel shirt once and Knew Immediately Eiffel may be dumb but somehow his Bi-Fi has yet to fail him

Kat [Yesterday at 8:59 PM]: Hera doesn't grasp  human sexuality nuances

Gill [Yesterday at 9:01 PM]: Funny addition to above thought: Eiffel put together that Jacobi was gay after like three days on the Urania, was the only one on the Hephaestus crew to do so, and just never felt it was relevant to bring up Hera, my child... you have much to learn (Also, Hera, probably: I'm experimenting at the moment, I'm looking for a torrent so I can download lesbianism)

Kat [Yesterday at 9:04 PM]: I don't know which option is funnier, that Jacobi is just Really Fucking Obvious but Eiffel was the only one paying attention or that it was super subtle and everyone's like How Did You Do That lovelace's righteous fury overwhelmed her gaydar, she was too mad to go 'same hat'

Gill [Yesterday at 9:07 PM]: Eiffel: I have something to confess to all of you... Jacobi: Eiffel literally not a single person on this ship is straight Eiffel: Oh I was just going to recount a PG version of my wild younger days, let's just say I know a thing or two because I've seen a thing or two.

Kat [Yesterday at 9:07 PM]: Jacobi on Earth: Just matched with myself on Grinder a-fucking-GAIN

Gill [Yesterday at 9:10 PM]: Jacobi: Oh I definitely picked up on it but who wants to go playing into stereotypes by speculating on what may or may not be a promiscuous history? Eiffel: Promiscuous? Look I've got notches in my belt but mostly I just ended up laying in somebody's bathtub at a house party while just conscious enough to nod along to someone else's relationship drama. Eiffel: to several sororities, I was the Gay Bathtub Wizard.

Kat [Yesterday at 9:11 PM]: Maxwell on day one of orientation: So if SI5 is paramilitary what's their stance on alternative lifestyles? Jacobi: I was recruited in a gay bar.

Gill [Yesterday at 9:12 PM]: Her asking the question has my brain going in several different directions

Kat [Yesterday at 9:13 PM]: I think she was recruited right after dadt was repealed... if obama exists in this universe fantasy obama

Gill [Yesterday at 9:15 PM]: One part of my brain: Maxwell is also gay Another part of my brain: Maxwell is exclusively attracted to nonhuman persons Yet another part of my brain, most adjacent to number #2: Maxwell voice, who in their right mind would build a robot that can't fuck? The 4th part of my brain: Maxwell wants to know how chill they'll be with her living exclusively off energy drinks and frozen yogurt for weeks at a time

Kat [Yesterday at 9:15 PM]: honestly I figured whatever it was it was MUCH weirder than just being gay

Gill [Yesterday at 9:15 PM]: Maxwell: I have plans to take over the world with my army of battle bots and rule as their robot queen.

Kat [Yesterday at 9:16 PM]: Maxwell: wait if you were recruited in a gay bar does that mean our boss frequents those or did he just go there to get you Jacobi: Believe me the question haunts me also Jacobi: sounds great i'm in

Gill [Yesterday at 9:16 PM]: Or, Maxwell: I am not joking for an instant when I say that I for one welcome our alien overlords "When I was 13 I tried to get myself abducted by aliens" except it's not a joke it's an actual minor headcanon of mine Also I almost typed "adopted" rather than "abducted" which shows you why Alana would probably want to do that

Kat [Yesterday at 9:19 PM]: she did say she's on bad terms with her family

Gill [Yesterday at 9:20 PM]: She grew up a pastor's kid in a tiny rural town in Montana, hearing that they don't get along is the furthest thing from a surprise to me. The surprise is that Maxwell has a restraining order against them

Kat [Yesterday at 9:21 PM]: tht implies the court found reasonable cause to issue one wack anyway i had a long day, i'm gonna call it a night

Gill [Yesterday at 9:21 PM]: o/ But yeah that Maxwell empathizes with nonhumans, apparently more than with most regular humans, that makes perfect sense to me I can see her frustration with the AI Ethics board in her last job Expressing Their Concerns and her suppressing flashbacks to many a Creationist rant, and trying to keep her eye from twitching visibly, and no I am not projecting I am just coloring in blank spaces in the narrative with my relevant life experience

[ober-affen-geil]

I want to talk about some of the human side of what we saw in 1x12, so far as morality goes. Because we get some really excellent examples of what is at the core of some of the human characters and how it speaks to the “ideal” of each of their professions, and I want to get into it. CW for discussion of torture, abuse, and genocide.

This gets long so I’m putting a break.

We’ll start with Liz. The truth-seeker. She is a scientist, and at the heart of science (and by association, those who practice it) is curiosity. There doesn’t have to be a good reason as to why, so long as the question “can it be done” is answered. 

But Liz specifically works in the biomedical field, which means she has a strict set of rule to adhere to in order to prevent harm. She would be very familiar with moral guidelines around human (and animal) subjects. In the biomedical code of ethics, the number one direction under professional obligations is to use “knowledge, skills, and abilities to enhance the safety, health, and welfare of the public.” (Find a complete list here.) 

Within the scientific field there is also a distinction about “life”, sentient life is treated differently. There are separate rules for how to conduct experiments with plants versus mammals. It comes down to self-awareness and cognitive ability, but suffice it to say that moral and ethical regulations exist specifically to protect these subjects. In a perfect world of medical science, experiments are conducted without any harm coming to the participants, and the results are used to further the ability to help people.

Liz doesn’t get as much focus in 1x12 but there is one scene that is critical to her character and how she fits into the scientific ideal. In fact it comes down to one line: “My serum is right now killing a living thing capable of fear.” x

This is Liz acknowledging that Noah, as a non-human, has sentience. (She has indisputable proof because she is literally mentally connected to him.) She is giving Noah the same moral consideration that she would a human subject. As any good scientist should. But more importantly, this is Liz taking direct responsibility for Noah’s imminent death. “My serum”. Not only is she the one who injected him with it (in self defense tbf), she is the one who created it. In her own words she never meant for it to be used, but it doesn’t change the fact that she is the reason it exists.

During her interview in 1x05 it is revealed that the type of research Liz is involved with deals with regenerative study; she’s focused on healing. (This kind of science, healing what others believe to be irreparable, is important to me.) The fact that Liz, who has every conceivable reason to want Noah dead, is applying this focus to him as well is extremely indicative of her resolve to stand for her morals, and the morals of the biomedical field of study.

Now for Kyle. The healer. He is a doctor, specifically a surgeon. He went to medical school. He most likely would have taken some kind of physician’s oath when he graduated, to the effect of how to adhere to a code when practicing medicine. (There are actually several different oaths, but the most famous is the Hippocratic Oath. Find the full text here.) He also would have been taught medical ethics in school which has four main pillars of ideals, the most well known being “First, do no harm”. (Find more details here.)

These things speak to the absolute core of the medical profession; about what it means to be a doctor. Both the oath and the ethics principles emphasize the care of the patient above all else.

We saw in Kyle’s interaction with Isobel in 1x08 that he very staunchly believes in upholding medical morals; when you have a patient, you treat them to the best of your ability. End of story. We also see him, very early in the season, tell off Jesse Manes for trying to get him to break doctor patient confidentiality. Kyle works very hard to conform to the moral code he was taught, the medical ideal. Fundamentally, Kyle is a good doctor.

When he and Michael enter room 7A, what he sees are living beings that have been in captivity for decades. Michael quickly confirms they are aliens, but Kyle reacts the way he has been trained to anyway: evaluate and diagnose. (Their bodies are covered in bruises, scarring, needle tracks. Anti-social behavior indicates prolonged trauma.) He is aware however, that these people are subjects because they are not human. (Note his first reaction when they hear someone coming is to hide Michael.)

But all he sees are patients, regardless of species. In his conversation with the unnamed guard, Kyle calls subject N38 “he”. The guard uses “it”. A minor difference, but an extremely important one. 

Kyle sees the aliens as living beings deserving of the same considerations he gives to humans. The guard does not. 

Kyle recognizes that what has been going on in Caulfield for 70 years is inhumane and goes against every code of medical ethics he has ever been taught. Which is why, when Flint verifies that his father was a participant in the project, Kyle immediately condemns his actions. x

Kyle applies the same ethical principles to the aliens that he does to his human patients, like any good doctor should. And when he learns that his father did not do the same, he rejects him. As Kyle has been investigating his father’s death for most of the season, this is a major indication of exactly how much he believes in and upholds the codes of his profession.

Last but not least, Alex. The protector. He is an airman in the US Air Force, a member of the US military. The armed forces exist, ideally, to defend and serve their countries. This is why people like Alex are called “service members”. Admittedly warfare is by nature violent, and people get hurt. Alex talks about this at the end of the episode, “...you look around and you realize that the evil is you.” He has enough sense to recognize the faults the military has.

But because of this fault, this very real danger of crossing moral lines that don’t exist in the heat of battle, there are rules. The Geneva Conventions, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Articles of War before that, and countless international treaties exist to prevent war crimes. 

Ideally, the only people who should be in danger during a war are active enemy combatants. Civilians and prisoners of war are explicitly protected groups. 

It is part of Alex’s job to be informed on these issues, and during his conversation with Flint it’s clear he knows his stuff. “Bioweapons are banned by international treaty” is Alex explicitly referencing a UN regulation to Flint, in reaction to seeing a prototype for a smart bomb that targets DNA. But it’s the next line that is the most revealing about Alex’s personal mindset. Flint tries to argue that the UN doesn’t have a say when it comes to an alien enemy (The UN’s jurisdiction ends at the ozone layer) and Alex disagrees in no uncertain terms (The jurisdiction on genocide?).

(You guys I’m so sorry, this isn’t my gif but I could not for the life of me find a source for it.)

Alex is viewing the alien survivors as civilians. Flint is viewing them as an active hostile force. 

We know from Noah’s explanation at the beginning of the episode that the aliens are quite literally refugees fleeing a war, but Alex doesn’t know that yet. (Even if they were an invading force, they are clearly imprisoned now and should fall under the protection of the Geneva Conventions. Find the POW provisions here.) The fact that Alex is applying the regulations that exist to protect humans to aliens as well speaks very strongly to his sense of justice and moral right. 

tl;dr In 1x12 each of these three characters prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they consider the aliens to be deserving of treatment and consideration equal to that of humans, despite two of them having very good reasons to despise them. (Interestingly these are not the same two who have romantic/sexual relationships with said aliens.) Doing so also emphasizes how each of them fulfill the ideals of each of their professional roles and I think it makes for a very telling character study.

[the-apocryphal-one]

More than a Waifu: or, an analysis on Chiaki

This was typed up for a thing over on reddit, and I decided to share it here because I already put several hours into it, no sense letting it go to waste, right? Basically, it’s an analysis on Chiaki (both of them) and why she’s an interesting and relatable character, beyond mere “waifu bait”, as she is sometimes derogatorily called.

I’m aware DR3 doesn’t have the best reputation among the fanbase, but I still think covering the Chiaki there is important for understanding AI Chiaki, and I genuinely like her. So, let’s start:

Chiaki in DR3:

We’re introduced to Chiaki Nanami in the first episode when she literally bumps into Hajime while playing her game. After a couple seconds, she mumbles that she’s okay and is ready to move on with her life when he asks if she’s playing Gala Omega. Her blank demeanor changes and she becomes super excited, talking about how it’s such a classic and asking him how many times he’s played it as she gets up in his face. At this moment, Chisa arrives to pick her up, and before she leaves, Chiaki tells Hajime she thinks having a talent isn’t a big deal—“all I have are games”, while he can “go anywhere and become anything”.

An intro should establish some character traits, and this does a good job—she’s into games, she’s got some social awkwardness issues (not noticing she’s literally walked into someone or that he’s holding his hands up when she enters his personal space), she’s kind, and she doesn’t think much of herself or her talent. She’s also got some cute, romantically-lit moments with Hajime, establishing herself as #1 love interest candidate and a potential friend/emotional support.

Over the course of DR3, she has an arc where she grows from loner to class rep (and no she did not do this in less than a day, there’s mention of multiple lunches or classes, so it took her several to put everything together), becoming the heart of Class 77 and bringing them all together. She doesn’t do this on her own, however, because she feels that she can’t make friends with games—it takes Chisa’s encouragement to get her to try, and later Chisa’s pushing and nomination for her to actually accept the class rep position. She also, as expected, becomes Hajime’s friend at Hope’s Peak, reassuring him whenever he dwells on his lack of talent. Unfortunately, she’s not able to do enough to help him, and after he gets beaten down by Juzo Sakakura in Episode 3, he goes through with the Kamukura Project, disappearing for a whole year.

Episodes 4-7 don’t show us much of Chiaki, probably because they’re very focused on first Nagito, then Junko, Ryota, and Izuru. When we do see her, she’s usually looking sad, playing a game as she waits at their old haunts. I have my grips with this section because Episode 4 should have had more focus on Class 77’s reaction to Twilight Syndrome, to say nothing of how the six-month timeskip in Episode 5 should have been an episode of itself, because that would have been a great time to show more of her leadership growth. The qualities exist, but like almost everything else, they’re brushed over. Her waiting around does, however, indicate she’s very attached to Hajime and either very patient, clingy, or both, which makes sense—her various comments in Episode 1 indicate she had no friends before HPA, and he was the first one she made.

Anyway, after Episode 7 and the Tragedy of Hope’s Peak Academy, the Reserve Course starts parading, Mikan goes missing, and to top it off, it’s raining. Nagito makes his return from his year-long suspension, telling everyone he saw Mikan on the grounds, and they all split up to look for him—Chiaki going with Nagito. They stumble across the real Ryota Mitarai and Junko Enoshima, where Nagito reveals that he plans to kill her so she can be a stepping stone for hope. Chiaki protests at the idea of killing anyone, but its all moot as Nagito spends too long on speeches and Izuru comes in and shoots him. Chiaki recognizes Izuru as Hajime, but he doesn’t recognize her, and while they’re holding gazes, Chisa comes in to rescue them! But she stays behind to cover their escape. So Chiaki half-carries Nagito back to their class, where she rallies them together to go back and save their teacher and Hajime! And here is where everything goes downhill for her, because of her.

First, let’s just start with the fact that she didn’t tell anyone where they were going, or even leave this to the authorities. We know they have cell phones, we see her using hers as a light, and we know there are police. Hell, someone should have stayed behind with Nagito, who is half-conscious and just got shot in the chest—probably Mikan since she’s the nurse. Nobody in Class 77 thinks of this, but I hold Chiaki the most accountable since she’s their leader. She was warned several times—first by Chisa herself telling her to leave, then by Peko coming in injured from her fight with Mukuro, and then by Nagito Komaeda telling them to give up (and while he says he was testing her, she has no way of knowing that at the time)—and she still charged in, without a real plan and without a way out if things went wrong. She genuinely believed they could do this, that the power of their bonds as a class would triumph and save the day like in one of her video games. So no need for planning, right? Wrong.

Her attempted rescue goes exactly as well as you’d expect—Junko outplays them, separates Chiaki from the group, traps her in a dungeon, and then brutally tortures her to death while making Class 77 watch. It’s still really sad two years later and I’m not going to cover everything she goes through, but even here she still shows her grit and determination as she struggles on through a lot of wounds to make it to the end. Which is a trap, of course, and she’s impaled several times over. With that, Junko successfully brainwashes Class 77 into despair—which is a sticky issue among the franchise, and one I’m not gonna get into more than to point out that it was a combination of the brainwashing and the death that made them Ultimate Despair; Chiaki’s death on its own wouldn’t have worked.

Izuru comes in to talk to her, at which point she starts crying as she talks about how she regrets not being able to help anyone, how she doesn’t want to die, and how she just wanted to play games with him again. After she stops moving, he then picks up her hairpin and cries too, and is seen carrying it around with him after. It’s been established multiple times in Dangan Ronpa that people who lose their memories still carry feelings; Ryoko is still in love with Yasuke, Toko and Genocider both share their feelings for Byakuya and friendship for Komaru, and both the DR and SDR2 casts reform their bonds very quickly. So Izuru retaining Hajime’s feelings for Chiaki follows the series’ trend.

That’s pretty much the end of her story, except for two things—one, her struggle, speech, and death motivate Izuru to examine hope as something that could bring unpredictability into his life, which is why he masterminds the Killing School Trip. And two, in said Killing School Trip, there’s an AI who scans the patients’ memories so it can form their ideal person. As it happens, the entire class had an ideal person in mind, leading to…

AI Chiaki:

AI Chiaki stays in the background for most of the prologue—she doesn’t make herself a huge presence, like the Imposter or Nagito. Hajime’s introduction to her is similar to her DR3 counterpart, in that she’s gaming and there are some long pauses where she doesn’t respond, but it’s also relatively different. For one, she starts to nod off near the end of the conversation, and for another she stays relatively calm all throughout it. I mention this because while she’s based off human!Chiaki, she’s not the same person as her, and has her own differences—two of them being, she falls asleep a lot (theorized to be because she’s an AI and ‘loading’, but there’s no real proof of that), and she’s far calmer and more rational. The fact they aren’t the same person is something I think needs to be emphasized, because I know there are some people who consider them the same character.

In the first chapter, she’s relatively minor, keeping to herself. The moment she first starts to stand out is at the party, where she offers to stand guard with Monomi, and after the Imposter is murdered, where she uses her knowledge of video games to suggest keeping watch at the crime scene. She’s useful throughout the trial, but her big moment comes around the time Nagito reveals himself to not be your “ally character” like you’d thought, which I think is good timing. She makes the deduction that the ‘killer’ found their way to the table using the lamp cord, which stops everyone from giving up and moves the case forward.

After this, she becomes more important during the chapters—she’s Hajime’s primary investigation partner in Chapter 2, she helps him investigate the hospital in Chapter 3, she puts together what she thinks is a map of the Funhouse in Chapter 4, she stops Hajime from going into the Final Dead Room in that same chapter, and she’s a trial-point-getter up until her death. Before I cover that, I’m going to cover something else—her personality, or why calling her a Mary Sue is just using a stupid blanket term that doesn’t even make sense—*deep breath*

AI Chiaki is strange. If you’ve heard the term ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’, she’s like that, except instead of drawing the protagonist in with her strangeness, she irritates him. She’s either falling asleep when they investigate a new area, or she’s got her head in the clouds. And when she wants people to go somewhere, like to or from the ruins in Chapter 2, she gets a little forceful about making sure they go to that place. In the first two chapters, Hajime makes several inward comments about how annoying or pushy she is. Even after he’s warmed to her, he still gets baffled by her train of thought, sometimes wondering, “what even is this conversation?” She’s also kind of childish, which makes sense since she hasn’t been alive very long—during the Chapter 3 investigation, she tries to pull a prank on Hajime by pretending she wants him to gouge his eyes out before turning on the light in a room, because it’d be embarrassing if he “saw”. It’s like something in a bad anime, and it falls flat on its face. The writing and drawings in her diary are sloppy and crude, more akin to what you’d see from a pre-schooler than a teenage girl. This quirkiness is endearing on the surface, but in-universe, it’s not.

Her Free-Time Events also show that she lacks a lot of basic knowledge about the world, like what Girls’ Day is or where milk comes from, and mentions the flaw tied back to that strangeness—she doesn’t get dating sims. Or, to be more serious, she doesn’t get people. In her words, she’s not good at games where she has to maintain relationships and guess what characters are feeling. She can be good at the latter (which I’ll mention below), but she also makes her share of misses (as mentioned above) and isn’t the greatest at knowing when to share her guesses. She’s nervous about how people will react when she does something, and feels she’s best standing on the sidelines. This is why she doesn’t take a leadership role except in trials—the Imposter tries first, so she doesn’t feel it necessary, and after he dies the group just…splinters. You’ve got Kazuichi and Nekomaru tying up Nagito, Akane running off to fight Monokuma, Fuyuhiko sulking on his own, Hiyoko bullying Mikan, they’re a mess. She’s good at games dealing with calculations, so she can handle the trials, but she doesn’t feel like she can handle her classmates, so she doesn’t try—and this ties back to her human counterpart well. Yes, human!Chiaki became class rep, but only after being pushed to by Chisa. Without that push, she would have stayed on her own, like AI Chiaki does. It’s a nice little character trait that got strengthened by the anime, in my opinion.

So she’s kind of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, except her strangeness isn’t what makes Hajime like and rely on her more—it’s the moments where she’s kind and sensible. Like her human counterpart, she has a strong moral compass, and whenever she displays it, that’s when Hajime’s impressed. She’s usually compassionate towards the murderers and even jerks like Hiyoko or pre-development Fuyuhiko. She’s insightful, if a bit insensitive, like when she suggests the reason Fuyuhiko lived isn’t because of luck, but because Peko deliberately sacrificed herself for him, while Fuyuhiko is in the room and feeling depressed that is Peko is dead. Surprise, surprise, being reminded that Peko died for him makes his mood take a dive and he just wants to be left alone. She also has a very firm stance on killing: it’s wrong.

Throughout the game, AI Chiaki makes declarations that she hates the murders and won’t allow it to happen, but she frequently fails to accomplish this. In Chapter 1, she stands guard, but she’s at the completely wrong area to stop a murder (and even if she were in the cabin, she probably couldn’t have stopped it anyway). In Chapter 2, she plays the game, but doesn’t get the special prize before Fuyuhiko. In Chapter 3, she tries to find a cure for the despair disease with everyone else, but a murder happens first. In Chapter 4, there’s nothing to be done except starve to death. Her efforts are either wasted or not good enough.

Chapter 5 is the first time where she really could have made a difference—the conflict of that chapter is that Nagito is seeking the Future Foundation ‘traitor’, which is her, and takes increasingly drastic measures to do so. First by blowing up the hotel, then by threatening to blow up an island, and finally by masterminding his own death to get everyone but the traitor executed. As Chiaki herself muses in the final trial, if the traitor had revealed themselves, maybe Nagito wouldn’t have gone so far…except she literally couldn’t, because it was against her programming. When she was able to earlier help, her actions weren’t enough to prevent a killing; now that her actions could have prevented it, she is unable to do them. All she can do is drop a butt-ton of hints that she’s the traitor, forcing Hajime to oust her in order to save everyone else.

And there’s the crux. For all her declarations, all her tries, she’s powerless. Her programming, her very nature, makes her powerless. She could break it enough to think that she wanted to save everyone, and that’s incredible, but she needed the others’ help to complete her sacrifice. If Hajime hadn’t gone along with her, or if her diary hadn’t been found to prove she was the traitor, would she have been able to convince them anyway? We don’t know. What we do know is that her thinking freely is a miracle, yet she was still bound by her coding.

Her execution probably highlights the differences between her and her human counterpart the best—while human!Chiaki is crying, gasping in pain, and screaming, AI Chiaki keeps a relatively blank face all throughout. She doesn’t panic or flinch when the huge tank is bearing down on her, nor when Tetris blocks are falling all around her. She tries to escape, but when she has nowhere to run, she accepts it. She goes to her death willingly and with a smile, whereas human!Chiaki had a more, well, human reaction of not wanting to die.

Finally, AI Chiaki makes an appearance to Hajime in the last trial, when he’s spiraling into despair and doubt over all the pressure being placed on him. She delivers a speech about how he’s not part of the game and can make his own future, while reassuring him that she knows he’s scared and that she will never disappear so long as they keep moving forward. She also acts more like her human counterpart here, reciting words human Chiaki told Izuru (“If you just do it, things will work out okay!”) and referencing that she knew him in the past. The scene is pretty ambiguous about whether she’s really there or just Hajime’s hallucination/memories, and I think it’s the better for it, honestly. However, some small part of her is able to help him defeat AI Junko, as shown by her declaring “no, that’s wrong!” in time with him, and she answers his thanks (after he’s gone, of course) with a declaration that she’ll always be watching them…from somewhere. It’s a poignant moment made more poignant when you compare it to last chapter; then, who and what she was—a traitor and an AI—stopped her from preventing a disaster, and it was only with Hajime’s help that she was able to successfully sacrifice herself. Here, who and what she is—Chiaki Nanami, Hajime’s emotional support/love interest/friend/potential ghost or hallucination—is what enables her to successfully prevent a disaster, and she’s able to lift Hajime up on her own.

She doesn’t show up in Side:Hope for more than a brief moment, and fun fact, it’s still ambiguous if she’s really there and if Hajime can see her or not—his dialogue is written in a way that could be construed as him talking to himself. Her brief screentime has her explaining what I explained at the beginning—that she’s an AI who took on Chiaki’s form from their memories—and that this is the future she gave her life for. She then fades away with a smile as Hajime rejoins the rest of the class.

Conclusion:

Frankly, I think there’s a lot to love about Chiaki. She’s a socially-awkward gamer, which is something a lot of us either like (being gamers) or can relate to. She has an arc about growing from that loner to someone who can be counted on. She’s a sweetheart who does her best to help her friends succeed; sometimes that isn’t enough, like DR3 Chiaki, and sometimes she needs help herself, like AI Chiaki, but she doesn’t let it stop her from still trying. There are stumbles in DR3 Chiaki’s writing, but I still believe she’s a good character, and that both she and her AI counterpart have nice relationships with Hajime and Class 77. They’re great girls, and I hope this analysis helped fans remember what we love about Chiaki beyond “she’s my waifu”.

[awed-frog]

tl;dr: nope

I got a couple of anon asks about this, and I’m also tagging @twist-shout-and-shells because they asked me to, but I have to say - I don’t know anything about comics, I don’t know Marvel at all, so this review is just a meaningless rant. Like, I know so little about this universe that the first superhero movie I ever saw in my life was Thor, and the only reason they got me was because my mythology-loving ass assumed this would be about the actual god, you know?, so that was a very confusing two hours. Anyway - after this, I’m done with them. The ridiculous hype campaign they created around Infinity War actually activated my crow brain, which means I rushed to the theater because I was sort of expecting this would be a shocking masterpiece and any spoiler would ruin it for me, and - yeah. Never doing that again. Because, whatever - they do manage to come up with some good writing from time to time, and Black Panther’s success had made me hope they’d finally recognize that a solid, coherent and meaningful story is really the first thing you need, but apparently not? 

Ugh.

Anyway, here are main reasons why I didn’t like Infinity War.

1) No, we don’t need a new plague

Problem number one with this movie is that it fails to take into account that our IQ as a people has dropped about twenty points over the last thirty years (and I’m not even joking) and that means even a guy nicknamed ‘Mad Titan’ is actually given the benefit of the doubt (I don’t remember anyone thinking Hela might have had a point, but then again, women are known to be emotionally compromised at all times, right, so all that rage was probably PMS and crazy bitches, amirite?, can’t live with them, can’t live without them). And here, predictably, is the result:

I even checked Breitbart so you wouldn’t have to and while they seem confused as to whether they should support this movie or not (don’t watch because Captain America is played by ‘Comrade Communism’, do watch because Chris Pratt is a Good Christian Man), it’s still clear to everybody over there that Thanos, “an environmentalist wacko obsessed with salvaging the natural resources of the universe” is “espousing liberal jibberish”.

So, I’m going to keep it short and mostly sourceless because I saw a lot of people discussing this, but just to be clear: yeah, it is worrying that human population has basically tripled in thirty years, but the correlation ‘more people = more damage & fewer resources’ isn’t as clear-cut as some like to think. Also, research shows that women being recognized as human beings - that’s the actual way to solve this problem (see also x, x), which means that if Thanos had meant business, he could have used those frwaking stones to build schools and family planning centres. 

2) Your plan against evil can’t be just saying no

This is probably what bugs me the most both in fiction and IRL: saying ‘Trump is a moron’, ‘capitalism is bad’ or ‘genocide is wrong’ is not a political program. It’s a moral stance, and kudos to you, but if you want to make the world a better place, you need a lot more than that. But, nope - IW fell into this trap with such relish I can actually believe no one saw this as a problem - at all. When Thanos pointed out, rather smugly, that decimating Gamora’s planet had led to a new era of happiness and prosperity, she didn’t react in any way. We never saw Tony or Shuri mentioning the outlandish, extravagant idea that better and greener technology could actually save us all. We never saw anyone point out that when the richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, wiping out half of a Nairobi slum isn’t likely to do much for the environment. I guess it wasn’t relevant to the plot?

3) Turning your audience against the good guys = dick move

That said, our planet is objectively in bad shape, and writers and artists who are (or like to think of themselves as) engagés are more than welcome to discuss this - for all her faults, JK Rowling did that to perfection in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, focusing on the importance of conservation and taking a clear stance against animal trafficking. Other movies, of course, went a lot farther than that: my movie rec of the day is Okja, a masterful and soulwrenching look at how capitalism manages food production. But IW, on top of everything else, manages to be an anti-green movement movie? As if that was needed in any way? Apparently comic!Thanos’ goal was to impress Lady Death or something, and maybe they should have gone with that, because to me, movie!Thanos’ plan sounds like an ill-conceived and unfortunate parody of the green movement. In fact, eminent biologist E. O. Wilson’s Half-Earth explores this exact possibility - which is not about killing off 50% of the population, thank you very much, but about improving agriculture and urban structures so we can leave 50% of the world to the rest of the ecosystem. And maybe it’s just me, but isn’t it a bit weird the book came out at about the same time when IW’s script was being written? I try not to be a paranoid nutcase, but come on. Because what the movie does is that it turns Thanos into a sort of green Hitler whose only focus is the environment (“But he was a vegetarian!”), cue the creepy final shot of him going all ‘Schwarzy in the forest’ surrounded by clean-water creeks and happy animals while we are left counting our dead. The metaphor couldn’t be more obvious, and to be honest it is most unwelcome. Time and place, guys? I really haven’t seen something so revolting since I got to the end of the Da Vinci Code and realized atheists were the true monsters all along.

4) Being a hero doesn’t mean saving your friends

So this is starting to become a trend, and seriously, enough. If you’re a hero, then you need to think of something greater than yourself, and this is why your life will suck and suck and suck until your untimely death. Deal with it? And I can understand Loki giving up the Tesseract for his brother, because he’s always been more of an anti-hero than a hero, and his morals are shot to hell in any case, and I’ll forgive Dr Strange because he clearly saw something we didn’t, but what the hell was Steve thinking? Seriously, I keep seeing posts about how Pure and Noble Steve is, and guys, did we even see the same movie? Bringing Vision to Wakanda meant endangering an entire nation, and thousands of people there paid for that choice with their lives. It’s because Steve insisted in not seeing the big picture - or accepting Vision’s own wishes - that Thanos even succeeded in the first place. If they’d destroyed the stone, Thanos would never have gotten his hands on it, and Wakanda would not have been attacked by a horde of alien demons. Sacrificing hundreds or thousands of nameless (black, African) warriors to keep one (white) man safe is not heroism - it’s cowardice. It’s assuming your own feelings and your friends’ lives count more than the lives of strangers, and this is the exact opposite of how a hero should think. Not that I’m surprised, since Steve already condoned the destruction of half of Bucharest to save Bucky, but whatever. Compare and contrast with Tony, by the way, who first tried to destroy the Time stone, then chose to sacrifice himself to save someone he didn’t even like? Yeah, that’s more like it. #TeamStark

5) Every single woman is defined by her relationship to a man

With the caveat that no emotion, connection or motivation is throroughly explored in IW because it’s an action-packed movie during which people never speak an honest word to each other (relying instead on posturing, movie quotes and sarcastic remarks), here is basically what happens: men have things, and women have men. Tony’s journey is mostly about saving Peter and also sacrificing himself for the world. Steve is all about his friends and various heroics. Dr Strange is a sort of ascetic monk playing the long game. Thanos wants to save the universe or something. And Vision is on a quest towards humanity? Maybe? But the women - Gamora is important because she’s Thanos’ daughter. Scarlet Witch is important because she loves Vision. Natasha (I think she’s in the movie? I don’t actually remember if we hear her speak) is on Cap’s side because Cap. Pepper only appears to remind us of what Tony has to lose. Exceptions to this rule include Shuri, whom IW didn’t quite manage to destroy; Loki, who was always female- and queer-coded, so I’m not surprised he ends up dying for the handsome and suitably Aryan hero; and arguably Starlord, who mostly fights for Gamora (what is a virtue in a woman, however, is a weakness in a man, because Starlord ends up fucking up the plan because of his love for her). And I know they probably tried to compensate for the complete lack of women in the movie by highlighting how powerful Scarlet Witch is and focusing so much on Gamora, but I’m an annoying person, so that didn’t work for me. Because, again, Scarlet Witch is a 2D character plucked directly from a Victorian dictionary’s definition of ‘woman’ (while the menfolk around her worry about the possible demise of the Entire Earth, there she is, channelling all her energy in being a good and loyal companion to her robot husband) and Gamora has no more control over her life in this movie than she had as a child? Her main narrative purpose in IW is to make us feel bad for her boyfriend and father, who’re both driven to kill her (for very different reasons) and suffer for her death (and don’t get me started on Thanos suddenly loving someone and what a stroke of luck, the one person in the universe he gives a damn about just happens to be standing next to him on top of a cliff when he needs to kill her). Seriously, why is it that female characters’ concerns still begin and end with romantic love? This trope that romance is the most important thing for every single woman needed to die, like, yesterday.

6) None of that actually means anything

Look, I’m a sucker of time-travel of any description, but I also think time-travel must be done honestly or not at all. Movies like Back to the Future or Arrival both use time bending to great effect, because the stakes are real and painful and there are all sort of complex decisions facing our heroes. But IW doesn’t care about any of that. The existence of the Time stone is not about ethical dilemmas or even turning up the drama to eleven - the one purpose of that thing is to make us hope that our personal fave is not dead after all, so we’ll keep watching this stupid franchise until the end of times. That finale could have been innovative and heartwrenching, and instead we already know it wasn’t. Samuel L. Jackson is apparently confirmed in Captain Marvel, which will be released next year, and we also know they’re working on Spider-Man 2, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Black Panther 2 and Doctor Strange 2. Capitalism has very nearly killed the possibility of creating a well-written and gutting story, because the rule is, If it makes money, it goes the fuck on. Hence TV shows which no longer make any kind of sense but we all keep watching out of nostalgia, affection for the characters or dissatisfaction with our own lives, and also franchises which stretch the plot to new and boring limits (for instance, it beggars belief that Tony and Steve didn’t even meet in IW, and their fight never came up at all: I guess we’ll have to wait for IW 2, or Avengers 37: The One with The Talk). And here, again, studios are so greedy that they willingly disregard the fact audiences will reward ‘complete’ stories: for instance, Logan was critically acclaimed and made tons of money, but the risk of ‘permanently’ killing off a beloved character is still considered too high. And playing it safe actually works: IW costed $320 million, which is about 5% of the studio’s budget, and that investment has already been repaid in full (the movie made double that in the first two weeks).  

(Meanwhile, 21st Century Fox gained more than one billion dollars from Trump’s TAX REFORM THAT WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN - probably a disappointing amount of money for owner Richard Murdoch, who has a net worth of 15 billion and is known to use some of that hard-earned cash to support laudable & important causes such as the privatization of public education, but hey, we all need to make do and move on, right? Right.)

So this is mostly it. To be fair, IW was mildly entertaining, and I thought they sort of did a good job in juggling twenty leads - we got no character development at all and no meaningful dialogue, but we saw everybody at least once and their lines were funny? Some moments were genuinely good despite a couple of bizarre plot points (I’m still unclear on why Strange didn’t create a circle of fire around Thanos’ arm, and very tired of the overused ‘Yeah, let’s save the most powerful weapons for last’ trope), so I wouldn’t say this was the worst movie ever made, but as I said, I’m done. I’ve given more than enough money to this franchise, so when IW 2 comes out, I think I’ll be a boring adult and watch it on TV as I’m doing my ironing or something. Good times.

[aschenink]

10 Questions Tag :)

I was tagged by the lovely @doctor-q, thanks hon! <3

1: What’s your preferred written genre?  Probably fantasy?  I really enjoy the process of world-building, and since I grew up reading mostly fantasy it’s all the genre that I’m most familiar with.  But considering the WIPs I’ve had over the years (1 adventure, 1 scifi, 2 contemporary thrillers, 2 fantasy) the only actual consistency in genre I have is that they all have romantic subplots at some point.  I don’t consider myself a romance writer, but the facts say I’m just in denial 😂

2: What’s your preferred reading genre?  Okay, this one is a definite vote for fantasy.  My parents are both bookworms and, as a general rule, fantasy is their preferred genre too--which explains why I read and reread Tolkien (LotR) and Feist (Riftwar Saga) a lot while growing up.  I love everything about fantasy, there’s nothing that’s off the table.  A lot of old fantasy has escapist elements which appeals to me, but I also love the cultural elements--basing systems off certain cultures or mythologies, or reading about completely new/fictitious cultures.

3: What’s a trope that absolutely speaks to your heart?  Pyrrhic victories!  Not a trope that I consume a lot of, but one I absolutely love creating.  Considering I play a lot with black and gray morality in my writing, it’s unfortunately the case that the costs usually end up being higher than the reward.  I also love character deaths, which contribute to pyrrhic victories too. 

4: Is Science Fiction also Fantasy? Discuss.  So, for me, this is like... squares and rectangles.  All SciFi is Fantasy, but not all Fantasy is SciFi.  In my opinion, fantasy really just means “a story set in a fictitious world”.  SciFi, no matter how probable it can be at times, is set in a fictitious world.  Even near-future or contemporary SciFi still involves changing an element from reality that makes the setting fictitious.  But not all Fantasy is SciFi, because SciFi to me means “a story set in a fictitious world that focuses on or highlights elements of which science is a core component”.  Sure, all fantasy stories will have scientific components--I’ve yet to find a story that doesn’t play by some rule of physics/chemistry/etc--but most of the time, if you’re reading a fantasy novel about dragons, the novel doesn’t go on about the anatomical structure or biological functions of the dragons, right?  The scientific component is technically there, but completely ignored.  A SciFi story is a fantasy novel that would/does go into those components.  That’s just my two cents idk

5: What’s the synopsis of your WIP? Ahh, I’m just going to include super short mini-synopses of my two big WIPs...

For Alight in Ashes... 

In a society constantly uprooted by revolution, humans have been designated as the inferior species and are beset by disease, slavery, and genocidal Hunts.  Cassandra, a petty thief, is determined to prove that humans are capable of fighting back, regardless of the cost.

For Eosophobia...

Rumors of a cure for the engineered supervirus Dawn have begun to circle the forested region of Cascadia, dragging out the remnants of human civilization from hiding–and also their mutated cousins, Biotics.  With competing groups desperate to get their hands on any possible cure the Columbia Gorge transforms into a battleground waiting to explode. 

6: If you could speed date any literary character who would it be?  Mara.  Oh my god.  I would marry her.  I haven’t read The Empire Trilogy in years, which is my loss, because it’s fantastic and I have such a crush on the protagonist/MC, Mara.  She’s such a powerful character, and I love how ambitious and resourceful and reckless she is, in a way.  

7: If you were a literary character who would you be?  Haha, okay, I’m totally Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.  Not the “super rich” part, which is unfortunate, but the arrogant, prideful, honest part?  The best-known-for-my-poorly-worded-and-soul-crushing-love-confessions part?  That’s me. 

8: What’s a big theme you notice in your writing? Moral subjectivity!  I love bringing it up in my writing and reflecting it in my characters.  I just have fun with making readers root for someone who goes against standard morality--rooting for villains, or dark anti-heroes, etc. It’s my goal to write characters that are so likeable or powerful that my readers will root for them, no matter how the odds look or what actions “need” to be taken. 

9: What is a theme you hate seeing in writing?  I hate “love conquers all”, which is somewhat ironic considering I’m a self-described romantic.  But I’m a strong believer that love only works if you’re willing to put in the necessary work that a relationship requires.  I’m tired of love being portrayed as “if it’s meant to be, it will be”.  It’s not inherently a bad theme, but one that’s vastly overused.

10: What was your opinion of your last high school Literature teacher?  I... honestly don’t even remember his name.  He was a nice and reasonable guy as a person, and was pretty laid back for the most part.  But he felt out of touch with his students--I don’t remember ever being invested in his class (to be fair, high school was all easy As for me (that’s not bragging, I went to a really shitty high school where they were just trying to pass as many of us as they could because graduation rates were atrocious. haha and then i dropped out but whatever)).

My Questions for Ya’ll

1. Do you have any writing habits or rituals?

2. If you had to be one of your characters for a day, who would you choose to be?

3. Character death, yay or nay? 

4. Which tropes, if you’re aware of any, are in your WIP?

5. Favorite hero from any book/movie/etc.? 

6. Favorite villain from any book/movie/etc.?

7. What’s your favorite part of the writing process? 

8. If you were locked in a room with your OCs, how would you fare? 

9. What scene in your WIP are you most excited about?  Why?

10. If you had to use a different title for your WIP than the one you’re currently using, what would it be?  If it doesn’t have a title, choose an alternative name for your MC. 

Tagging (feel free to ignore): @oheoo @madmooninc @ashtrieswriting @toboldlywrite @relevy @theguildedtypewriter @dragonscanbeplantstoo and of course, anyone else who would to join in!

[ahistoricalramblings]

Say What?: The Importance of Language and Word Choice in Genocide Studies

                                                                                           November 1, 2020

This past week we talked about dark tourism in class. This is right up my alley as in undergrad my focus was histories of violence. In particular, my focus was how violence has been commemorated. So, as I said—right up my alley. Despite this, I’d never actually considered the commodification of these sites. I’ve been so focused on how commemoration affects victims and survivors that I hadn’t ever considered who else would care. 

Anyway, we talked very briefly about Auschwitz and we had an optional reading on the topic. I’m not actually going to name the reading because my comments are about discourse about the Holocaust generally and the reading just sparked a much bigger fire in my soul. 

The main portion of this post will be about language and word choice—something that is deeply important to Holocaust studies (and if you ask me, all history).

  The one that is most important is the use of the term concentration camp. I would search Twitter for this reference but I actually dislike Twitter and avoid it at all costs—I’ll just tell you the story instead. 

A couple years ago, it was released that the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had separated families and interned them in concentration camps. The use of the term enraged some twitter users who couldn’t believe someone would compare an immigration detention centre to Auschwitz. I’m hoping you see where I’m going with this. The ICE camps are concentration camps. Auschwitz wasn’t (well, not really -- more on this in a moment). 

Left: Concentration camps in Greater Germany. Right: the six killing centres

When I teach about the Holocaust, I use these maps because they telling you everything with just one look.  Look at how many dots there are on the left, and those are just major camps. Compare it to the right. This contrast tells us everything we need to know. 

The basic etymology here is that there were over 1000 concentration camps and sub-camps in German-occupied Europe and five (or six, depending on the scholar you ask) killing centres. The five were Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor, and Belzec (the sixth is Majdanek but recently some scholars have argued that Majdanek was a holding site for transfers to killing centres not a killing centre itself). 

The difference is crucial to understanding how and why we use the term concentration camp in cases like the ICE centres. While concentrations camps did have lots of death via disease, torture, and starvation, their purpose was not solely to kill. They were meant to concentrate people into one area from which they couldn’t leave. Killing centres were solely designed for the purpose of killing. 

Left: map of Dachau concentration camp in 1944. Right: Map of Belzec killing centre 1942. 

I also use these maps as they show the difference in an important way. Dachau is largely barracks (most of the long buildings are barracks with a few exceptions). Belzec has almost no barracks. That’s because almost every Jew transferred to Belzec would be killed immediately. 

“But wait,” you say “I read Night/The Awakening/any other memoir of an Auschwitz survivor!” 

And you have, you’re not wrong. Which is of course what makes this conversation so hard to squeeze into laymen’s terms (not that I think you’re laymen). I will explain this as basic as possible (so don’t come at me). 

Auschwitz was actually a system of camps and sub-camps that we now use one term to describe. So, within what we now call Auschwitz there was a killing centre and a series of concentration camps—to make it difficult the Germans referred to them as Auschwitz I, II, and III (the killing centre was Auschwitz II). Basically, we use one term to describe more than one thing, convenient I know.  

I could go on about this issue and why Auschwitz looms so large in popular history but Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka don’t. I won’t for the sake of not talking your ear off but let me know if you want to talk about it more. 

I’m sticking to language for a second and talking about word choice. This isn’t the case for every scholar, but I was taught the majority of my undergrad Holocaust education by Doris Bergen and she really emphasized the importance of language. And so, I have continued this line of thinking. 

Language is so hard when we talk about the Holocaust. What terms do we use? We use concentration camp (Konzentration Lager in German) but we don’t use KZ (the acronym used by guards and prisoners alike). * Do we use ‘Final Solution’? It’s the terminology of the Germans but in its subtext, it implies that Jewish life is a problem. Do we use extermination? Its use was directly meant to evoke thoughts of bugs and pests. Do we use euthanasia? It’s a euphemism and it directly contradicts what actually happened in the T4 program. Do we use T4? It’s also a euphemism. This an endless cycle. The answer I give is that we use the term when talking about planning and documents and terminology but when we talk about victims, we talk death and murder not extermination or euthanasia. 

Let’s talk about the Wannsee Conference. Wannsee was a meeting on January 20, 1942 and has been cited in popular history as the ‘decision point for mass killings’. If you learned about it in high school, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were taught it was the start of mass killings. It wasn’t. Not even by a long shot. But it has often been depicted as such. 

Here’s why it’s not the start of mass killings in any context. Mass killing in the T4 program began in 1938 via mass starvation and injection, mass death in Polish ghettos had been happening since occupation in September 1939, and the Holocaust by bullets had killed 1.5 million Jews in the USSR since invasion in 1941. So Wannsee wasn’t the beginning of mass death. But was it the beginning of gas chambers? No. Gas chambers were being used to kill in the T4 program as well as to kill Russian POWs as early as 1940. Okay… so was it the beginning of gas chambers in German-occupied Poland? No. Chelmno, the previously mentioned killing centre, opened 2 months before Wannsee in December 1941. 

And yet, we are taught that Wannsee as this defining moment in the narrative of the Holocaust. I could do an analysis about why I think this is the case and I could cite modern scholars’ thoughts on what Wannsee actually was, but again, I want you stay awake. 

The last thing that bothers me about popular understanding of the Holocaust is about the term genocide. Quick background: genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1933. Lemkin was a Polish law student who had watched the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian who killed Talaat Pasha. 

I know those two names probably mean nothing to you. Pasha was instrumental in the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1921 (or 1917 depending on the scholar you ask). 

Lemkin watched the trial and wondered why Pasha wasn’t tried for killing a million people (the popular estimate for the Armenian Genocide puts the death toll at about 1.5 million). And so, he began to develop a term that could be codified to ensure that people like Pasha could be tried for their crimes. 

In the wake of the Holocaust, the world was confused about what to do in the face of mass death at the hands of the Germans. And Lemkin went to the UN to propose what he had proposed to the League of Nations in 1933. This time, they actually took the suggestion and drafted the Genocide Convention. **

This is a long-winded background, I know. But here’s the important bit—Lemkin based the definition off of the Armenian genocide, not the Holocaust. Despite the invocation of the law in 1948, the term itself is not inherently tied to the Holocaust. Why does this matter? Because of something Samantha Power calls the ‘Holocaust Standard’ which basically means that people compare all accusations of genocide against the Holocaust and if it’s not the same, it’s not genocide. You can see how this makes me angry. 

This was very popular in Canada last summer when the MMIW commission came back and said ‘this is genocide’. You can imagine how many people turned to me and asked if I agreed expecting me to say no. 

This is all to say: we need a total change in popular understanding of the Holocaust. Not only because it’s crucial to how we understand the history itself but also because the world today is influenced by our understanding of the Holocaust. From ICE detention centres to the MMIW commission, the Holocaust is living and breathing in the way we understand contemporary human rights discourse. And if it’s largely incorrect, where does that leave us? 

If I made any mistakes in terms of dates, names, etc., let me know (I did this all on memory... whoops). And if you have questions or what to continue the conversation in the replies or my ask box, do it! If you can’t tell, I love having conversations like this.  

I hope this was interesting/informative for you. Language and word choice are some of my favourite histories of violence topics and I could truly go on about it forever. 

Next week I will actually post the photography thing I meant to, I swear. 

Until then, stay savvy. 

*I could easily go off about the term GULag in this moment, but I won’t.  

**I would like to mention that Canada did not sign the Genocide Convention because they read it and said “umm that’s us, can’t sign that…”

[mysticalmindblog]

Today's society with the prevalence of Social Media and personal blogs has led to a glut of fake personalities, narcissism, and overindulgent bullying egos. How do you keep yourself in check without bending to peer pressure?

How Many Layers of Mediocrity Did You Add to Your Shell Today?

For most, the above question would be deemed offensive and condescending. It implies that by default the person being asked leads a mediocre life, and generally acts rather than being genuine.

Some context is needed for us to properly break this down into something profoundly meaningful.

So let's just get you to do a simple 5-Step Mind and Memory Challenge.

Think back to last Tuesday.  Take a minute or two, and remember your day, as much as you can, from the time you woke up, until the time you went to sleep.

Now, think back to the Tuesday before that, and also try to remember the day from start to finish.

And again, cast your mind back to the Tuesday before that - so now you are looking roughly 3 weeks into your past. Try hard to remember the day from start to finish. Are you having difficulty yet? Can you remember anything especially significant about that specific Tuesday?

Now go back in your mind to the Tuesday before that. You are trying to remember the Tuesday approximately 4 weeks ago.

Finally, using your memory again, ask yourself what distinguished each Tuesday as being different from the other. What stands out in your mind?

Such Challenges are especially useful for getting mentally prepared to prompt your thought processes into a type of internal investigation that it rarely, if ever, does.

I actually did this challenge quite some time back, and I was more than hard pressed to remember any differences. Sadly, all I could vaguely remember was that there was no break from the same routine for those Tuesdays. That's it, that's all I could say, I knew I had carried on the same routine for those Tuesdays that I always did. In fact, practically every day was indistinguishable, repetitive, and I couldn't name the day or date of the last thing that occurred that stood out as being a significant positive occurrence.

Negative occurrences..? That was another matter. I always had a lot to groan about.

I have tried this on several individuals also, and had pretty much the same results. It makes you think, and can make you uncomfortable in a deep and unfamiliar way. Why is that..?

Obsession with Happiness without knowing what True Happiness is

It all comes down to catching a glimpse of the preposterous nature of our lives which can be summarized as follows: A Pursuit of Happiness through a competitive obsession to obtain pleasures and comforts via the acquisition of impermanent consumables, which serve as addictive yet unsatisfactory finite attachments, prompting a compulsive, repetitive, and exponential drive to seek an ever greater amount of impermanent consumables by any means necessary, at whatever cost, without any limits; often compelled by a herd instinct to imitate the actions of others in an attempt to manufacture a corporately approved shell of ego while seeking an agreeable sense of individuality and self validation in addition to a perpetual quest seeking positive peer affirmation.

That's quite a mouthful, right..? Can I simplify it down a bit..?

I sure can.

Basically, we are indoctrinated from a very young age that stuff, and lots of stuff, can make us happy, feel mental and physical pleasure, and be comfortable. To be attractive to others, the more stuff you get and show off, the better it will be. Especially the stuff that gets advertised to you as being the most essential, trendiest and most in-demand stuff. So study hard, be someone who is competitive, get a good job that pays good money, and get good stuff. Don't stop there, be more competitive, get a better job, get more money, get more stuff. Be a winner, and don't stop there, don't let anyone be above you, just fight hand, tooth, and nail to get what you want. Just do it. And do it again, and again, and again...

And then, maybe when you least expect it, you will find yourself drawing in your last breath, and in that moment - do you think you will FINALLY be happy**..?** It will all have been worth it**..?**

The above is the reality for billions of people worldwide, so, it's got to be OK, right**..?**

It's not like anyone has an option, unless they are born into wealth and don't have to endure all the struggling and suffering in the pursuit of happiness, right**..?**

They say that money is the root of all evil, but I do my best and work my hardest to get the things that me and my family need to be happy and comfortable, so I will be happy one day, right**..?**

No pain, no gain, right**..?**

Fake it until you make it, right**..?**

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

The precise thing that is wrong with these assumptions, and the nature of life described above, is that from the level of the individual, all the way through to entire populations spanning the world, they all have been sold on the concept and blind pursuit of FAKE HAPPINESS. That's it.

A terrible misconception of what the True Happiness in being Alive really is.

Sufferings, trials, and tribulations of life

Entire generations being born, pursuing materialistically based happiness that they see normalized by the majority, enduring the sufferings, trials, and tribulations of a life dedicated to that pursuit, sometimes corruptly, and many times at the expense of others, to never actually experience true bliss - even to the moment of their last breath.

It is this lack of understanding that can be found at the root of every conflict, every war, genocide, famine, and crime. Whether seeking power, wealth, fame, notoriety, or just trying to live a decent, *normal* life, the desired bliss can never be found, because once you have made the attachments, they will bring you suffering.  

The more 'stuff' you have, the more possessive you will be about guarding that stuff, while always looking for bigger, better, newer versions. The chase will not end in your lifetime.

Without truly understanding what Happiness is, mankind blunderingly assumes it is to be found in the taking on of the role of a mindless drone, following the herd instinct, earning and spending, attaching to the idea that the more stuff you have, the happier you will be. What a perfect deception that ultimately only benefits a select few whose hands are all over the money made from giving you the proverbial 'stuff'.

Youth Mind and the Societal Programming

We aren't created as mindless drones. We humans come from the womb wide eyed and with a pure mind, pure consciousness,helpless and dependent for a time on our parents love, nurturing, and nourishment. It's not long after that we begin to choose to accept what is thrust in our faces throughout our younger years by the Corporations, by the Mainstream Media, by the Movie and Pop Music Industries, the Fashion Houses, by what we see our friends wearing, what we see our parents buying. It's like kids are shuffled through Elementary and High School learning as if they are drones being built on an assembly line of indoctrination. By the time they leave high school, the ink has dried, the glue has set, and with raging hormones and a magnified desire to stand out in a crowd they launch into early adulthood wishing to be years older already and on top of the game. It doesn't take too long for the metamorphosis to occur, and the routine to lock itself in place, before they are no more than mindless drones following the beat of a silent drum.

We humans complain. For every challenge and every problem in life, we complain. About the challenges and problems in our society and governments, and those around us, we complain. We call for change, but are unwilling to change ourselves. We stay as mindless drones on the path that we think will take us to happiness. We humans get so self-absorbed in our own little worlds, our own little melodramas, that we ignore the true issue of knowing what is true happiness, and because we want to stay on our path, we complain about the problems around us, but do nothing except blame others.

So, if the problem is not having an understanding of what Happiness is, what can be done..?

First, recognize that you have to do a clean-out of the mind. It has become noisy, disordered, and littered with a lot of useless junk.

We spend a lot of attention, time, and money - for grooming our outward appearance, be it the hair, clothes, shoes, accessories, or even in some cases modifying through cosmetic surgeries.

We also spend a lot of time caring for the appearance of our vehicles, our homes, and in recent years, a huge amount of time and attention to crafting our online profiles through various social media platforms... But what about our mind..?

At the end of the day, when we feel tired and somewhat dirty, we go to the shower or bathe to cleanse ourselves, using pleasant smelling shampoo and body washes. We like to then dress in clean clothes or nightwear. All clean, all fresh, all sanitized.

But what about Your mind..?

How do we clean and sanitize our mind in such a way as to begin to have clarity to accurately contemplate what it means to be truly happy..?

Peace and Quiet

Make time, even a few minutes, to retreat away from the noisy world and be alone, and sit down. Close your eyes. Imagine a volume dial in your mind that controls all the noisy thoughts, and begin to turn it down. Quieten those thoughts. Actually, dismiss those thoughts. One by one, just like you are closing the window panes on a computer, shut off the thoughts. If a thought like "I wonder what I will eat tonight?", for example, pops up in your mind, dismiss it. Finding it difficult..?

A 'FIND YOURSELF' MEDITATION

Try concentrating on slowly counting down from 10 to 1. Regardless of how long you spend on focusing on a number, forget time, just focus ONLY on the number. See it in your mind, hear it in your mind. Don't have any other thoughts except that number. Quite quickly you will find yourself in a very peaceful state of mind; and actually for the first time in a very, very long time, you will begin to feel a sense of deep, inner peace. What you are doing is cleaning your mind through meditation. If your are counting down, then you are meditating, and contemplating numbers. Your mind is 100% switching on, your mind is taking a beautiful shower of its own, and any brain fog will be washed away.

As you sense this inner peace, your very essence, your 'pure mind' (consciousness without noisy thoughts) will emerge. You will begin to perceive a sense of deep inner satisfaction - almost as if for the first time you experience yourself, you, the REAL you, to the point where you will almost want to say "Here I am..!!  After all this time, I have found myself..!!", and this perception, this feeling, can be profoundly satisfying and life-changing. It is the proverbial mirror on the wall which you will see clearly as you have now cleansed your mind in the moment of the noisy thoughts and distracting concepts.

There - did you see them..? The keywords I used..?

PROFOUNDLY SATISFYING and LIFE-CHANGING

It is a state of mind then, that most amazing feeling.

You see, the capacity to know true happiness is already within you. You will not meet it somewhere outside of yourself, and you cannot buy it. It must well up like a fountain from deep within your heart - and it will seem like a rushing torrent of purpose, and it will be a compassionate heart..!!  How so..?  Because you will suddenly feel like you can save the world, that you have found the secret to save many from suffering - and indeed you would be right, because it will just be the very start of an amazing journey, a pilgrimage to know the essence of who you are, and to be able to release others from the same suffering you endured for so long.

The capacity to know true happiness is already within you. You will not meet it somewhere outside of yourself, and you cannot buy it. It must well up like a fountain from deep within you.

Instead of rushing out to trade in your 9 month old cellphone for the latest version, take time to sit quietly, and contemplate what you have to do to see yourself as a member of the human race; and that race, gender, wealth and status mean nothing to the fact. You are not above, or below, anyone. You are unique as the person you are, but you are simply a member of the human race. Look at all others with compassion, as equals, the majority of which are suffering their own daily ordeals and tragedies.

Acts of selfishness and greed are not positive things, even though many encourage the 'Do what you want, when and how you want to do it' mentality, to find happiness - they are negative things, and provoke ignorance, arrogance, and suffering. Cause and effect will always balance out your actions by repaying you what you give. Promotion of ego, and acts derived from attention craving, will lead to rampant narcissism and put you far away from having a compassionate heart.

Clear out the Clutter of the Mind

Pretty soon after cultivating more time to yourself to meditate and contemplate like this, you will see how so much of the junk you have accumulated around you is just that - junk. You'll begin to see how much worrying, stress, anxiety, and suffering you have gone through for just obtaining unrewarding impermanent junk. You will begin to instinctively feel the artificial distractions as just that, junk that is so unnecessary, and will want to begin trashing it, or donating it. You clear out the clutter in your mind, you better believe you will begin to clear out the clutter around you. Life changes will occur, as you begin to live clear minded more and more. It's a most fascinating and wonderful journey that guarantees you will see yourself, this world, and all people differently, and in ways you could never have previously imagined.

The Core of Life is the Struggle for Survival and the Suffering in-between

Will there still be suffering in your life..? Of course..!!  

The world, and this life, is guaranteed to bring suffering, but finally you will have a method to master how your mind deals with that suffering, how to recognize it, and how to transmute it into something else, not just lessons to learn from, but lessons in compassion to help others who you perceive and observe going through the same crises that you have already emerged from.

Remember that Suffering is also Nature's hard-wired way of teaching us essential lessons. We cannot effectively avoid it our whole lives, but it is better to learn from it so as not to repeat the same mistakes over and over.

Don't settle for mediocrity, or living as a mindless drone for the Materialistic World

Make a pledge, a vow, an irreversible promise to become a new person by cleansing the mind and finding the supreme satisfaction of meeting the person you really are in essence, and take the most noble of journeys to be compassionate, clear minded, patient, loving, honest, and satisfied. It's not too late. All it takes is you, to get the journey started.

[wr8tur]

SUPERGIRL RANT !!

As a shipper of SuperCorp, I have mentioned how I recognize that it will never happen. I have expressed feeling like show runners and writers missed the opportunity because Sanvers is already a thing and they won’t let Supergirl and her sister be gay. Like I also said, I really have nothing against Sanvers or the actresses but I feel like SuperCorp would have been a better story to tell because we have had the Luthor/Super friendship before in Smallville.

Fine they’re going to differentiate somehow, possibly by not making Lena evil, but that’s not really that big of a difference because we’ve seen these dynamics before. 

I ship SuperCorp because of Katie McGrath, yes, but also because of the potential between the characters.

The story of the disregarded disgrace that was Lena Luthor and the hopeful heroine Kara Zor-El. That to me has always been a more appealing tale, not so much because of sexuality, but because of who they are.

I don’t want LGBT+ relationships to keep being portrayed in a way where the focus is on someone’s coming out. It’s like sexuality is some hindrance we should learn to get over. The narrative of watching someone realize something that shows and movies have been telling us for so many years; that it’s okay to be gay, has just been so repetitive for me. I don’t know about you, but I find the constant reassurance to be irritating and unnecessary in today’s story telling.

And I understand there are others there that are struggling, that are hiding, and are in need of reassurance, that they feel represented and validated.

I remind you that this is just my opinion because I’ve watched/read many tales where sexuality is something that has to be put under microscope, where it’s something that should discussed, something that needs to be justified instead of just being taken as what it is: two people who love and care for each other unconditionally.

Wouldn’t you rather have two same sex partners show you that they’re just like any other couple rather than have everyone else tell you that it’s okay?

I don’t know if that makes any sense....

I’ve never watched The 100 but I’ve heard people praise it because when CLexa got together, sexuality wasn’t made a big deal. SPOILER But then again, they gave Lexa an exit by killing her after she and Clarke had sex, so that’s taking the step towards the gay cliché yet again.

I would really like to see an LGBT+ relationship where sexuality isn’t an issue. It’s not about two women loving each other or two men being attracted to one another. I would love to see a show that will just show focus on the couple themselves, treat them essentially like a straight couple, without focusing on the gay agenda (telling us something we should already know such as it’s normal to be gay) or sticking to the gay cliché (giving the LGBT+ an unhappy ending by way of death).

The reason why I’m bringing all this up, is because of what happened during SDCC with the Supergirl cast.

First of all, why did Jeremy Jordan react like that? He literally yelled “They’re just friends” to the camera. As a singer (because he himself said he went to theater school and he was in a musical with Anna Kendrick), he knows how to control tone and voice, so why did he blatantly feel the need to point this out?

His reaction makes it seem like he isn’t joking, more like he’s exhausted with dealing with SuperCorp fans, and was lashing out.

And if that was the case, I understand because there were people kind of bashing the idea of Winn and Lena getting together and I’m not going to lie, while I believe I never disrespected either Winn or Jeremy Jordan, I myself said I don’t want Lena/Winn because it’s just like Sanvers where the relationship would have too many similarities between the characters, thus making it a dull and predictable relationship.

But then if that was his reasoning, if he was sick of dealing with the zealous nature of some fans, then he should have definitely expressed himself better.

He’s a professional actor, which means he should know how to conduct himself during interviews. What he did just showed that he is just as immature and disrespectful as those fans that treat him and his character like trash.

And I understand that he’s a human being, that he too makes mistakes.

But even the way he apologized didn’t feel like an apology. It felt like he was saying “I’m sorry you were offended but I am not a homophobe because I have gay friends, but really, you guys should just get over it because life is too short”. In the second part of his apology, it just seemed like he realized how badly he messed up and was probably reminded that the show is still in limbo given that they were only given one season approval, and they need as many viewers as they can get to assure a fourth season.

In the end, he was still disregarding SuperCorp shippers feelings and his ultimate apology feels like a cop out.

He wasn’t the only one.

As I mentioned earlier I know there are those thinking that because I think too many similarities means boring, that I should be on board with KaraMel. I am not. Because I think Mon needs more growing up before he even gets with anyone. His character lacks motivation and an actual arc in my opinion.

He was weak, and with the exception of the Jeremiah Danvers episode (which I feel like was a cop out, like honestly, out of all the people it was Mon who dared question what was going on? Like come freaking on! The writers obviously feel obligated to better him and they always do it by throwing other people under the bus!), he has always been wrong and angry and just downright derogatory whenever he is reminded of his mistakes.

I mentioned before that the writers could have done a better job. They could have built Mon up without tearing Kara down. They turned Kara into a foolhardy muscle head this season. She’s a far cry from what Supergirl was supposed to be.

Supergirl is the symbol of strength, of resolve, of righteousness, and justice.

Yet this TV version of Supergirl is so dependent on her lover, is so selfish that she is willing to let Earth suffer just so she can have a love life with someone she won’t crush when they have sex, then what the hell is the message that they’re trying to release to the little girls and boys who aspire to be heroes today?

They made her entire family, save for Clark, a bunch of arrogant conquerors who use their intelligence and military to prove their superiority. They made them no better than Daxamite slavers, if not worse since Kryptonians are so willing to commit genocide in order to protect themselves. The writers and show runners literally found a reason for Kara to hate her own flesh and blood just so she wouldn’t feel like she’s betraying her kind by falling in love with a Daxamite… If they used this story line in SuperCorp, I still would have hated it.

Honestly, the fact that they had to cheapen Kara’s whole heritage to make her equal to Mon is insulting. And also, they basically turned Kryptonians into the Lillian and Lex.

To speak of another insult, I understand Chris and Melissa are dating, I understand why he would be upset that someone doesn’t ship he and his actual girlfriend on the show, but I feel like he was mocking Katie’s ideals. He interrupted her response, and I know she was almost done, but countering it with his ‘sarcastic’ comment about how people’s sexuality should be defined by others basically dismisses Katie’s ideals, her belief that characters are open to interpretation and fans have a right to see what they want to see. And the thing is it definitely should be open to interpretation/ limitless in one’s imagination when you’re talking about FICTIONAL characters.

The fact that he thinks people should just take things at face value, well it’s disrespectful and downright ignorant.

He’s basically telling people to not see what they see, to not feel what they feel, because it’s not written that way therefore whatever the fan interpretation is, it is ultimately meaningless.

I’m taking it as a disrespectful remark, kind of like that person who drew Demi Lovato as a mermaid and she responded by saying it’s not her body… like obviously we all know she doesn’t have a tail. We also can see that the artist captured her facial features well so obviously, it was the artist’s choice to draw her that way, to turn her into a majestic mythical creature.

The reason I’m bringing it up is because my works are created with my own interpretation of how things are, with my vision of how they could be.

And whatever art form one makes, whether it’s writing, drawing, sculpting, the point is when someone makes something they tend to put effort in their works and, while that might not be the case for Supergirl writers, that’s certainly the case for fans who take the time to draw, write, make videos, sculptures, who make anything to portray their love for the character/characters and the couples they ship.

I feel like Chris Wood and Jeremy Jordan basically told us we are stupid for seeing something that isn’t there. Like we are wasting our time shipping something that will never happen.

All those works we created are worthless because our ship does not and will never exist, because characters should be defined solely by what’s written in their script, that there are no other interpretations, that the scenarios only have one meaning: the one we are given at face value.

They are basically saying we should not look for substance in their show, for artists to stifle their creativity with their renditions, for people to restrict their imaginations, to just watch the damn show, to let Chris and Melissa enjoy being a couple off and on screen, and ultimately for SuperCorp shippers to be quiet about our non existent never going to happen ship.

To learn that the actors on the show actually feel that it’s okay to ridicule fans, the people who watch the show, the reason why their show exists in the first place, well now I am torn between my hatred for their disrespectful behavior to SuperCorp shippers and my wish to show my support for Katie McGrath…..

I can’t comment on what Melissa said because I didn’t read/watch exactly happened about what she said… but from Katie’s reactions at some videos of her signing some SuperCorp stuff, I’m pretty sure Melissa isn’t a fan either.

Honestly, I don’t know if I’m still going to watch next season.

And I definitely don’t know how I’m going to feel inspired to continue writing my series or even support SuperCorp Week….

To those that feel like I’m over reacting, well I will say this once again.

I am tired of the crumbs they feed us.

I am tired of the way the media placates us.

I am tired of the way Hollywood tell us it’s okay to be gay, but still make us feel alienated by not letting people in the LGBT+ community get proper representation.

WE DESERVE BETTER!

[ljones41]

“X-MEN:  FIRST CLASS” (2011) Review

"X-MEN: FIRST CLASS" (2011) Review Several years ago, I had come across a comment that the 2009 "X-MEN" movie, "X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE", was a failure. I found this opinion surprising, considering that it actually made a profit at the box office. Failure or not, Marvel Studios decided to continue the movie franchise with a fifth entry called "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS". Directed by Matthew Vaughn, "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS" is, like the 2009 movie, another origins tale. Only it traced the beginnings of the two friends-turned-adversaries, Charles "Professor X" Xavier and Erik "Magneto" Lensherr. The movie began in a scene straight out of 2000's "X-MEN" - at a concentration camp in 1944 Poland. While young Erik Lensherr was being separated from his parents by Nazi guards, he displayed an ability for magnetism manipulation by tearing at one of the camp's gates. This ability attracted the attention of the camp's scientist, Dr. Klaus Schmidt, who tried to coerce Erik into using his ability again by threatening his mother with death. Unfortunately, Erik failed and Dr. Schmidt killed Mrs. Lensherr. At an estate in Westchester, New York of the same year, young Charles Xavier was awakened from a deep sleep by a noise from the kitchen. He investigated and found his mother searching for something to eat. However, being a telepath, Charles was able to discover that he was facing a stranger. The stranger turned out to be a young, blue-skinned shapeshifter named Raven "Mystique" Darkhölme. Charles invited the young stranger to stay at the Xavier mansion and the two became close friends. "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS" jumped another eighteen years forward to 1962. Charles Xavier has become an instructor on genetics at Oxford University. Raven has remained his close companion in a sibling-like capacity. Erik Lensherr has spent the last decade or so, hunting down Nazis that escaped prosecution by the Allies - especially those who had served at the concentration camp where he had been imprisoned. He has especially become interested in finding and killing Dr. Schmidt out of revenge for his mother's death. The story shifted to Las Vegas, Nevada; where one Moira MacTaggart and other CIA agents are investigating the Hellfire Club, a social organization led by Sebastian Shaw (aka Dr. Schmidt). After infiltrating the club as an "escort", Moira discovered that Shaw and his mutant followers - Emma Frost, Azazel, and Riptide - are intimidating a high ranking Army officer into relocating military missiles to Turkey. Moira sought help from Charles and Raven to provide information to her CIA bosses about mutants. They also met Erik, during a trip to Miami to track down Shaw. After preventing Erik from drowning during an attempt to kill Shaw, Charles became close friends with the Holocaust survivor; as they work with Moira and the CIA to bring down Shaw. Personally, I do not believe that "X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE" deserved its low reputation. I thought it was a pretty damn good movie - not perfect, but entertaining. However, I do believe I could say the same about "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS". I would add that it might be better than the 2009 film. Despite its flaws. In fact, "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS" turned out to be a cleverly written movie that managed to weave two historical events - the Holocaust and the Cuban Missile Crisis - into its plot. Director Matthew Vaughn did an excellent job in maintaining an even pace for a movie not only filled with exciting and occasionally exaggerated action sequences and dramatic scenes. But aside from the director, the movie's main virtue proved to be its first-rate cast. Someone once pointed out that the X-MEN movie franchise did an excellent job of using the topic of "mutation" or psychic abilities to reflect upon the themes of bigotry and tolerance in our society. This theme became even more relevant, considering the movie's setting of 1962 - a period that reflected the height of the Civil Rights Movement. I can go further and commend screenwriters Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman and Vaughn for daring to explore all aspects of the bigotry experienced and engaged by the characters. Some of the movie's main characters experienced intolerance at the hands of others. Holocaust survivor Erik Lensherr not only suffered under the Nazi regime as a Jew, but also endured the U.S. government's (in the form of C.I.A. officials) wariness and contempt toward mutants, as did fellow mutants such as Charles Xavier, Raven Darkhölme, Hank McCoy and the group of young mutants they had recruited. C.I.A. officials Director McCone and William Stryker Sr. (father of the villain from the second and fourth movies) were ready to imprison Charles and Raven upon discovering their mutations. Fortunately, one C.I.A. man in particular - the nameless Man in Black - prevented this from happening. The script also focused upon the two mutants regarded as "odd men out" because their mutations were reflected physically. Raven's natural blue skin led her to maintain a "human" form that allowed her to blend with other humans and mutants. And C.I.A. scientist who constantly wore shoes to hide his mutation - animal-like feet. Their desperation to blend with the others on a regular basis led Hand to create a formula that eventually backfired. Finally, the movie also focused on those mutants that viewed their mutation as signs of their superiority over non-mutant humans. Characters such as villain Sebastian Shaw and his Hellfire Club followers, and eventually Erik and Raven allowed their dislike toward humans to manifest into a bigotry that encouraged them to engage in plots of genocide that made the Nazis, North Americans of the 18th and 19th centuries and other bigoted societies look like amateurs. One such plot served as the background of "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS". The movie revolved around Sebastian Shaw's efforts to use his connections to the U.S. and Soviet military to start a third world war between the superpowers. Such a war would bring humanity to the brink of extinction, allowing mutants (with Shaw as the leader) to dominate the world. This plot eventually resulted in the Cuban Missile Crisis. The producers of "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS" chose the right actors to portray the younger versions of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr. James McAvoy perfectly captured all of Charles' intelligence, talent for leadership and subtle wit. He also delved deeper into the character's idealism and occasional naivety. And McAvoy gave audiences an audacious peek into Charles' penchant for little seduction with pick-up lines that were both charming and wince-inducing. Michael Fassbender portrayed all of the intensity and anger of the vengeance-seeking Erik Lensherr. Every once in a while, an actor comes along with the ability to perfectly walk the fine line between heroism and villainy. Fassbender certainly achieved this in his portrayal of Erik. And looking at the screen chemistry between McAvoy and Fassbender, it seemed a pity that they had never shared a scene when they appeared in the 2001 miniseries, "BAND OF BROTHERS". Because they were dynamite together. The supporting cast also proved to be top-notch. The X-MEN movieverse has always provided first-rate villains. Kevin Bacon's portrayal of the villainous Sebastian Shaw/Dr. Schmidt was no exception. If I must be honest, his Shaw may prove to be my favorite "X-MEN" villain. Aside from intelligence, wit and a taste for grandiose plotting and gadgets that rivaled a Bond villain, Bacon injected a joie de vivre into Shaw's character that I found very entertaining. Some critics and fans have criticized January Jones' portrayal of Shaw's consort, Emma Frost, accusing her of being "wooden". I am sorry, but I do not agree with this opinion. Yes, Jones portrayed Emma as Miss 'Cool Hand Luke'. But she also did a first rate job of conveying the character's strong attraction to Shaw and dislike of his occasional sexist attitudes. And thanks to her subtle comic timing, she provided the movie's funniest moment in a scene that featured Emma having 'telepathic' sex with a Soviet general. Her reaction to being caught had me laughing in the aisle. Instead of Rebecca Romijn, the film's producers chose Jennifer Lawrence to portray the younger Raven Darkhölme aka Mystique. And I thought she did a pretty damn good job. I have nothing against Romijn's portrayal of Mystique, but I believe that Lawrence was given a better opportunity for a deeper exploration of the character . . . and she made the best of it. The movie also featured fine support from the likes of Rose Byrne as C.I.A. agent and ally Moira MacTaggart, Nicholas Hoult as the young Hank McCoy, Jason Flemyng as the frightening teleporter Azazel, Oliver Platt as the C.I.A. 'Man in Black', and Zoë Kravitz's subtle and passionate performance as mutant Angel Salvadore. As I had earlier hinted, "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS" is not perfect. I believe it has two major flaws that prevented it from potentially becoming the best film in the franchise. The movie's biggest flaw proved to be its lack of continuity with the other four films. "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS" included the beginning of Charles Xavier's paralysis and the end of his partnership with Erik Lensherr. Yet, Charles was still walking and working with Erik in a flashback set around the beginning of the 1980s in 2006's "X-MEN: THE LAST STAND". I am aware that Raven's cells allowed her to mature very slowly. But did the same happen to Dr. Hank McCoy? He was in his early-to-mid 20s in "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS". Yet, he looked somewhere in his 40s in the third "X-MEN", which was set some 40 years later. And the Emma Frost portrayed by actress Tahyna Tozzi in "X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE" looked at least five to ten years younger than January Jones' Emma in this latest film. And "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS" is supposed to be set 17 years before the 2009 film. Charles began his school for young mutants in this movie. However, he told Wolverine in 2000's "X-MEN" that Scott "Cyclops" Summers and Jean Grey were his first students. They are no where to be seen and quite frankly, I could have done without this early edition of the Xavier School of Mutants. I found it annoying. Another major problem proved to be the film's costumes - especially for women. The movie is set mainly in 1962. Yet, Sammy Sheldon's costumes reflected the late 1960s, not the early years of that decade. Just to prove my point, look at the following photographs: 1962 Fashions For Women

January Jones in "MAD MEN" Season Two (set in 196

2)

January Jones in "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS" (set in 1962)

In fact, the costumes and hairstyles for other female characters DO NOT reflect the year 1962, as well:

Both actresses Rose Byrne and Zoë Kravitz are wearing knee-high boots, which WERE NOT in fashion in 1962. Yes, "X-MEN: FIRST-CLASS" had some major flaws. But I cannot deny that I still managed to enjoy the movie very much. Screenwriters Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn wrote a flawed, but very entertaining and epic story. The movie also boasted first-rate performances from a cast led by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. And Vaughn brought all of these factors together with some fine direction. "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS"has made me an even bigger fan of the franchise and I would heartily recommend it for anyone's viewing pleasure.

[yanocon-blog]

Offcode - Chapter 1

**NOTE FROM THE CREATOR - I made this in Office, and there you can choose different fonts... Since that didn’t copy to here... here is a note: ANYTHING THAT IS WRITTEN LIKE THIS is actually written in Wingdings... Okay, now the story can begin...

“Aaand... there! Done!”

As the text editor in the laptop closed down, Yan laid back in his chair, stretching his arms and legs. After a extremely tirying hour, the college essay he needed to do was done and he could finally relax.

“Well, since now I don't have anything else to do, maybe I can finish it now...” - he thought to himself, while double-clicking the heart icon in the desktop. He was ready to face the final boss on yet another Undertale pacifist run. It was his third one, and he loved each one of them...

Yan was focused on the screen at that moment. He already had dinner and was back from the college about two hours ago. He studied at night, in a college near the exit of the city. It wasn't far away from his home, so he used to have dinner after 10PM. Yan lived with his parents, and didn't work, but was always trying to help everyone in every way he could. His dad worked at the city hall, and his mom was a music teacher. Yan himself was studying to become a teacher, and dreamed about one day having his own school.

The screen went white. The player defeated the final boss and destroyed the barrier once again.

That filled him with DETERMINATION...

Yan learned about Undertale a year ago, but he only got the game two months before. He was amazed that even after a year of spoilers, the game still managed to surprise him and make him laugh. Playing games on the computer wasn't on his list of “favorite things to do”. He preferred to play games on his console and on his phone, but Undertale changed that. Ever since he bought it, he went crazy about it and everything related to it. So he knew all about the different timelines and possibilities that the game offered. He told himself he'd NEVER do a genocide run, since he knew that doing that would corrupt his game, and he didn't want that.

All the characters were facing towards the sun. They were free.

“Ok, done. I should go sleep now, it's late...” - Yan said to himself. The player hold down the ESC key, ready to close the game and turn off the computer.

BUT IT REFUSED...

“Huh...? Why is it taking this long to close? Did it crash?”

The player tried again...

BUT IT REFUSED AGAIN...

“Ok, that's enough...”

The player hit CTRL+ALT+DEL, bringing the task manager up, and tried to force close the game...

But it failed...

As the player closed the task manager and attempted to hit the RESTART button, the screen suddenly turned white...

THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT

SEEMS

VERY

VERY

INTERESTING

...

A bright green light warped through the power cord of the computer and when it reached the power brick, it went through its blue LED, emitting a glaring flash for a few seconds.

When it faded, Yan almost screamed out loud (he held up because of the time). Laid down on the floor, unconciously, was...

sans...

“WHAT? Am I dreaming? It must be... this is just on my head... right? There's no way he is re... … al... ...”

He stopped when he looked at his computer screen. It was back to normal, but the game window was black and had something written on it...

WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK

“... no... it's true... sans is here...” - the thought terrified Yan. How could this even be possible?

Sans was still unconcious, so that gave time for the player to analyze him. For the most part, he was the same, but strangely his jacket wasn't blue as usual. Instead, it resembled the color of the glare that ran through the power cord. A light-green, almost as the leaves in a tree. It reminded Yan about the text in the old computers he usually sees in videos...

… the color of code …

“ugh... where am i...?” - said Sans with a lazy voice... He woke up...

At first, Sans was confused. It seems like he didn't know what happened. He looked to the sides, analyzing the room trying to identify it. He failed.

“um... Are you okay?” - the player asked.

“yeah... i am... thanks for aski...” - he stopped when he looked at Yan, in shock...

“HEEYY!!! who are you??? where are the others???” - Sans screamed, running away on his back, accidentally hitting the wall. He was panicking.

“Oh, right... My name is Yan, and you are in my room. So... I think your name is Sans, right?”

“how do you know my name? where are the others? what did you do to them?” - Sans was talking out loud and harsh. He looked mad.

“Let's just say that... I know a lot about you... and you know me too... well... not personally...” Yan was sweating... How would he explain to Sans that he lived in a world that didn't exist? And all of his friends were inside a computer? How would he react when he discovered that himself was not real?

“hey, you didn't answer my last question... i'll give you another chance... answer me or you'll regret it”

* Yan - the sweating intensifies

“... … um... … how can i put this in words... …”

* The player tried to think of something to say...

* He failed.

“that's it. bud, you're gonna have a b... ...” - Sans stopped. He started to sweat, his face was perplexed. - “... wh-what... what happened to... my... powers...? i can't use them...”

Sans looked at Yan... worried...

“wh-what have y-you... done to me? what are you?”

Yan felt his sins crawling on his back... It was the time to answer Sans... *Why do I have to do this now? Please, he still needs to believe me after that...* - the player thought to himself... - *Well, here goes nothing...*

“I haven't done anything to you... You appeared here suddenly... I don't know how this was even possible... You couldn't... You aren't supposed to... You shouldn't...”

“Y O U    S H O U L D N ' T    B E    R E A L . . .”

Sans took a step back, terrified. What did he mean with “You shouldn't be real”?

“You seem a little unsettled about what I said... Maybe you felt a chill run down your spine? Heh...” - The player was looking at Sans with a mischievous smile on his face...

Sans was unsettled. Did Yan make a joke with him? Or was it a threat? Either way, it wasn't the right moment.

Yan stopped.

“Sorry if I startled you, that wasn't the intention... I thought that since you like puns, you'd laugh... That would make this whole situation a little lighter...” - Yan said, with a sad smile in his face. He was being sincere.

“um... don't sweat about that, pal... i'm just trying to understand what's happening, i'm totally lost... how do you know i like puns? do we know each other?”

“Yeah, I know you... We've met before, but not face-to-face like that... Actually, we've met like that... but you may know me by another name... since, well... 'i am the legendary fartmaster', heh heh heh...” - Yan started to laugh... Sans halted...

“wait... did you just said my secret codework? no one knows about it, except....... …. the kid..... ….”

Sans stopped again... He started to understand what was happening. And he didn't like what he was thinking...

“are... are you... Frisk?”

“No... I'm not Frisk... and yet... at the same time... I am... As I said before... My name is Yan... I   A M   T H E   P L A Y E R . . .”

Yan was talking in a calm, serious and cold tone... Sans's thoughts started to become a reality...

“so it's you... the anomaly is you... you're the one responsible for the resets in the timeline...”

“Don't call me that, I'm not an anomaly... As i said, I am the player... Come on Sans, I know that you're a smart guy... You already understood...” - Sans flinched.

“I heard that code because you told it to me... I know about the lab behind your house in Snowdin because I went in there... I know about how you gave up on trying to go home because you said that in our dinner... And I know all that because I am the player... I bought it... I played it... Sans... It's hard for me to say that... but... YOU LIVE IN A GAME... YOU SHOULDN'T BE REAL BECAUSE YOU'RE PART OF A GAME... A GAME I PLAYED...”

Sans's expression was empty. He felt like someone had taken his SOUL and smashed it with a sledgehammer. Everything he knew, everyone he met and lived with, all of that... Nothing was real... That explained the resets, the fear of constantly going back in time... reliving those same 6 hours... It was just a few times, but that still hurts...

“... a... game...? so... everything i lived thus far... wasn't real? all of the people i know... toriel... undyne... alphys... asgore...” - Sans took a deep and depressing breath - “... my brother... me… all of us are nothing more than pieces in a game?”

“Technically yes... sorry, I didn't want to cause this on you... After all of that, you may think that I don't care about you or your friends... but... Observing your lifes really helped me understand myself... So... I want to help you.”

“why even bother... it's all just a game... it's not real... it doesn't matter...”

Yan couldn't believe on what he just heard... Sans was once again, giving up on going back to his home because, in his vision, it didn't matter...

“DON'T SAY THAT!!! Sans, you should never give up... Because there are a lot of people that really care about you... being real or not!!! And don't even try to argue with me!!! We will find out why you lost your powers and I will return you home! That's a promise!!!”

Sans looked into Yan's eyes... Those deep brown eyes staring at him, with a sparkle he would never forget about it... That was definitely the kid he knew and liked to prank with. The same kid that made his brother love the humans, the same one that saved the life of Undyne and helped Mettaton reach his dream viewer milestone, the same one that helped Alphys with his secret... the same one that destroyed the barrier and freed the monsters from the Underground...

Those sparkly eyes never ceased to amaze him... And even now, in front of the anomaly he was searching for, he still felt the same about it... That feeling was comforting...

“hey kid... you know how i am with promises... so don't even think about breaking this 'bone'... i... … i believe you...”

The player was happy. It is still a mystery what happened... But both Sans and Yan are willing to uncover this as soon as possible... but... it was late...

“WHOA, look at the time!!! It's too late!!! We should go sleep... Please Sans, stay here in my room until tomorrow... I think you shouldn't go far from me since... well... you are a skeleton... and everyone else here is a human...”

“don't sweat about that, bud... you're not going to get rid of me anytime soon... g'night...”

* You turned off the computer and the light, and laid down on your bed...

* The promise to help an old friend to go home...

* It filled you with DETERMINATION.

[dangan-analysis]

Character Analysis - Mukuro Ikusaba

Name: Mukuro Ikusaba (戦刃 む���ろ)

Title: Super High School Level Soldier (超高校級の「軍人」)

Appearances: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (video game), Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - The Animation (anime), Danganronpa: The Manga (manga), Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF (light novel), Danganronpa/Zero (light novel), Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak Academy - Side: Despair (anime), Super Danganronpa 2.5: Nagito Komaeda and the Destroyer of the World (OVA // cameo), Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer (manga)

WARNING: UNTAGGED SPOILERS FOLLOW

Introduction

Mukuro Ikusaba. The sixteenth student. Lying hidden somewhere in this school. The one they call the SHSL Despair… Watch out for her...

This ominous quote from Kirigiri from the end of Chapter 4 is our first introduction to the mysterious and potentially dangerous Mukuro Ikusaba. 

Revealed to be Enoshima’s older twin sister and right hand woman, Ikusaba helped her sister plot the downfall of the world into despair. Following her sister’s instructions, Ikusaba disguised herself as her sister and participated in the School Life of Mutual Killing; however, she was ultimately betrayed by Enoshima in the end, violently stabbed to death by multiple spears in a surprise attack. Not only did she die brutally, but Ikusaba’s corpse was disfigured in an explosion during Chapter 5, serving as the trial victim for that particular chapter. The topic of her true identity arises during Chapter 6 and highlights Enoshima’s willingness to achieve ultimate despair.

Ikusaba’s character arc allows for very little information about her past and personality. However, from what we can infer from her FTEs where she breaks character and her accompanying side novels, Ikusaba was an emotionally distant but kind, loyal older sister, albeit submissive, who truly cared for her sister and only wanted to guarantee her younger sister’s happiness.

Backstory

Ikusaba’s FTEs are truly unique because not only is she acting as someone else during them, but you view them a whole different way after you realize her true identity.

One of her first slips in character is when she complains about how she’d rather be homeless, which she’s “done before, ya know”, than be bored in the Killing School Life. 

This is obviously her attempt at mimicking her sister’s hate for boredom, which foreshadows Enoshima’s love for despair later on. 

Regardless, this slip, among many others, reveals that Ikusaba and Enoshima must’ve lived in harsh environments as they grew up. 

And yet, if Ikusaba and Enoshima were homeless, how could Ikusaba run away to join Fenrir during a surely expensive family vacation to Europe? 

In addition, what environmental factors inspired her interest in the military, encouraging her to win a survival game tournament and began writing for military magazines during elementary school?

A possible theory is that Ikusaba and Enoshima were raised by a parent, relative, or guardian that was involved in the Japanese military somehow. It is also likely that this guardian was not very responsible, given that their environment was described as “harsh” and the sisters were once homeless at a certain point in their past; perhaps the guardian was discharged from the military.

Regardless, I believe that, despite Japan’s strict legal system that “almost never cuts parental rights”, the twins somehow up under the care of a foster family. If this so, the sisters must’ve been under the age of 6 since Japanese adoption regulations won’t allow adoptions of children older than 6. A new foster family would satisfy the fact that her family had enough money to go on a vacation despite being raised in a hostile environment. Perhaps Enoshima met Matsuda while she was with her new foster family. 

Of course, there are more possibilities for the twins’ past considering how little we know about it, but this seems more realistic and plausible than some other theories.

Now that we’ve cleared up some sketchy childhood questions, let’s talk about a bit more well-known part of Ikusaba’s past — her past as a member of the mercenary group Fenrir. As previously stated, Ikusaba somehow made her way to the Middle East to join Fenrir after she ran away during a family vacation in Europe. What happened then?

We know that Ikusaba was constantly catcalled by her fellow mercenaries. Her first FTE consists of mostly telling Naegi to not plan any sexual activities with her, claiming that “all men eventually turn into savage beasts”, “men always gather around me”, “I always have to keep them away!” This level of generalization is similar to Koizumi’s, and yet Ikusaba immediately brightens when Naegi agrees with her (we’ll find out later why).

Like any soldier, Ikusaba went through harsh experiences on the battlefield. For example, here’s a portion of her second FTE:

Ikusaba: Don't underestimate sleeping outside! It was a warzone! You never knew when some kind of enemy would attack you! Naegi: ...Warzone? Enemies? Ikusaba: I mean, there were guys preying weak and helpless girls all around. Isn't our entire world nothing but war zones and enemies? Oh, well. Since I've left that cruel life behind me I only became stronger...

Despite a young, inexperienced prepubescent female, Ikusaba somehow trained herself so that she made it out of several years on the battlefield without suffering from a single injury. Her abilities, demonstrated in Danganronpa/Zero, including dodging bullets and administrating first aid.

And despite being such a talented soldier,

Although Ikusaba was a Super High School Level Soldier, her skills were largely limited to battle. In fact, even an average high school student could probably best her in matters of war strategy and negotiation.

There’s some pretty interesting things to conclude from this revelation. First of all, both war strategy and negotiation involve foresight. In order to strategize well, you need to be able to see all possibilities in a given situation and know the results of choosing each possibility. Similarly, negotiation involves social skills and being able to make compromises that give you the most benefits. Since both skills involve insight, we can thus conclude that Ikusaba isn’t dumb, she’s not as holistic as she needs to be to be able to use those skills well.

On the other hand, Ikusaba is smart enough to manipulate her enemies into fighting each other on the battlefield (see: making Genocider and Oogami fight each other in DR:IF) and understanding of Enoshima enough to outsmart her  escape Hope’s Peak Academy with the other students in DR:IF. So she’s not dumb, she’s just too focused on one singular thing to see the big picture, which is necessary in war strategy and negotiation.

Also, a bit of trivia that might be worth noting: the kanji for her name literally translates to “corpse warblade”. It is extremely likely that Mukuro Ikusaba is a code name, not her birth name, and likely why Enoshima is so tired of explaining the “cheesy” reason she and Ikusaba don’t have the same surnames despite being twins.

After spending at least two years fighting with Fenrir, Ikusaba returned to Japan to be with her sister. Around this time, Enoshima was inspired to start “The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History” — The Tragedy. She enlisted her sister’s help in accomplishing ultimate despair by initiating a series of unfortunate events at Hope’s Peak Academy. Enoshima enrolled both her sister and herself in Hope’s Peak Academy as the part of the 78th Class, and while attending Hope’s Peak, Ikusaba met Naegi, who would eventually change how she perceived the world.

Character

Ikusaba’s character consists of key qualities for a SHSL Soldier, yet her care for others heavily contrasts with it.

For example, she’s determined to achieve her goals. Whether it be an order from her commander or a personal one, Ikusaba makes sure her goals are completed, no matter the obstacles, making her capable of initiating change. 

And despite having the capabilities of taking initiative, Enoshima’s deprecation of Ikusaba during their childhood has transformed her into a generally submissive, shy, and not very emotionally-invested or eloquent individual. But her care for others is genuine; it’s so great that she virtually has no concern for her own safety or opinions. Her singular goal in Danganronpa/Zero is to help all of her cherished classmates escape Hope’s Peak while hesitating to betray Enoshima despite her commitment to her.

Additionally, although she can’t really see the big picture, her high detail orientation allows for near-perfection in fighting on the battlefield and executing plans.

Thus, Ikusaba’s character can be summarized into the following qualities:

Determination and commitment

Submissiveness

Focus on details

Selflessness and loyalty to others

Although these characteristics combine in negative ways (following orders blindly), the events of the Killing School Life help Ikusaba discover herself as an individual.

Killing School Life

We know that Ikusaba had never quite agreed with Enoshima’s vision of wrecking despair all over the world; however, since she wanted to guarantee her sister’s happiness, Ikusaba put aside her morality and helped her sister initiate The Tragedy.

Again, since Ikusaba’s never really had a voice for herself, Ikusaba agrees to participate in the Killing School Life disguised as her twin. I’m not sure what Ikusaba felt about sending her classmates into doom like this, but again, her devotion to Enoshima negated her love for her classmates.

Outside of her FTEs, Ikusaba doesn’t play a crucial role in the storyline — while she’s alive, that is (and she serves more as a plot point than a character postmortem). Again, acting as a loyal sister, Ikusaba does her part to make Enoshima’s plan of scaring the other students into submission successful. Following their plan, Ikusaba attacks Monokuma disguised as her sister, expecting to be imprisoned for rebelling against the headmaster; however, Enoshima releases a trap that kills Ikusaba. 

In the moments before he death, Ikusaba is shocked; why would her sister, the person she cared about the most in the world, deliberately betray her? Ikusaba dies heartbroken, not knowing that Enoshima had killed her to bring both of them what she valued the most — despair.

During her FTEs, however, we see a side of Ikusaba that we don’t really get to see until DR:IF. Ikusaba reveals that she’s emotionally sensitive, such as when Naegi worries about her. Although she’s initially shocked by Naegi’s supposed perception of her as a potential killer because she’s hurt that he sees her as a monster, Ikusaba is touched by how Naegi worries about her. Living with abusive people (including Enoshima) has resulted in Ikusaba receiving little concern from others, so she’s moved by how Naegi cares for her.

Meeting Naegi changed how Ikusaba perceived the world; previously apathetic and content with murdering for the sake of her love of the military, when Ikusaba meets Naegi, she realizes the importance of showing love and care for not only other individuals but herself. In her final FTE, she becomes motivated to search not only for her dreams but discover herself; unfortunately, she never finishes this as she is soon stabbed to death.

Danganronpa:IF

Unlike Danganronpa, DR:IF is primarily focused on Ikusaba’s narrative. It offers a great amount of insight into her character, such as her crush on Naegi and relationship with Enoshima.

DR:IF reveals that Ikusaba isn’t really aware of her thoughts and feelings — she really doesn’t realize that she likes Naegi until Enoshima points it out, and she doesn’t realize her disgruntlement as a SHSL Despair, dissatisfied with both wrecking havoc upon the world and following in her sister’s footsteps. In fact, we can easily point out that the only reason Ikusaba is involved in SHSL Despair is because Enoshima, who represents a major figure in her life, is involved. Specifically,

Mukuro Ikusaba, meanwhile, had neither hope for the world nor despair at it. At least, not while she was a member of Fenrir. She had only come to believe that she was among those who brought despair because she grew up with Junko. She had nothing against the world, and only followed her sister because she believed this was her mission.

Up until the events of DR:IF, Ikusaba’s entire world was “Enoshima, Enoshima, Enoshima”. I mean, what else would you do if you’ve never had a proper guardian to show you how to find your own purpose in life? Although Enoshima was abusive and showed little care for Ikusaba, she at least gave Ikusaba a life purpose.

When she meets Naegi, everything changes. Again, as I previously stated, she realizes the importance of showing love and care for not only other individuals but herself. When Naegi shoves her out of the way of the Spears of Gungnir, Ikusaba is spurred to action; because of her previous submissiveness, she has followed in Enoshima’s footsteps of wrecking havoc on the world. But now that her passiveness has resulted in the injury of her cherished classmate, the person who has revolutionized how she perceives the world, she can’t take it anymore; Ikusaba wants out of SHSL Despair and Enoshima’s vision. 

This is why she sacrifices almost everything that she’s ever known — Enoshima, Fenrir, SHSL Despair — in a seemingly-futile effort to defeat the SHSL Analyst and escape with all her classmates alive. And through her skills and determination, she succeeds; and when Enoshima ultimately rejects her, Ikusaba feels pain, but she’s even more motivated to fulfill Enoshima’s dream of ultimate despair for both Enoshima and herself by moving on with her betrayal. 

Summary

Mukuro Ikusaba never received much care from the people in her life, causing her to feel very apathetic about the state of the world and preventing her from developing a voice of her own. She blindly follows her dreams of serving in the military and making her sister happy, much too focused on these two goals to realize the negative effects of her unconditional loyalty and selflessness.

However, upon meeting Makoto Naegi, Ikusaba learns to care for both other individuals and herself. In Danganronpa:IF, she tests the limits of her skills and dedication in an effort to save her classmates from the cruelty of her sister, determined to find a new dream for herself after leaving behind her past.

The evolution of Ikusaba’s character in Danganronpa:IF is truly extraordinary; she transforms from someone without a voice for herself to a caring, motivated individual that abandons all she’s ever known in hopes of creating a better world.

Author’s Notes

Oh my god. This took waaaaaaayyyy longer than expected. Like how hard do you have to procrastinate on something to take almost one whole month to write? I’m really really sorry about taking this long :( Thanks to all of you for your  patience.

In all honesty, there was a lot of content to cover (and exactly why this ended up begin 2600+ words), and I felt conflicted about skipping out on the less important parts (DR3 for example, but I wasn’t a big fan of it in the first place and I like to pretend it doesn’t exist :P). Regardless, I hope that this analysis was less of a ramble that it ended up becoming and more comprehensive instead.

Anyways, the next character up for an analysis is Byakuya Togami SHSL Imposter, who I’m definitely excited to write about since he’s one of my favorite SDR2 characters. Hopefully, he’ll be done faster than poor Ikusaba.

As always, the ask box is open for any lingering questions you have. Again, thank you for reading this character analysis and your continued support of this blog! I hope you enjoyed this analysis as much as I enjoy Ikusaba’s character :)