hentaiamericax

[virtual-minotaur]

everyone making their dark urges (bg3) be evil and fall in love evilly.............................. sorry i just love trying to make friends w everyone while having murder urges...............

[dailyanarchistposts]

A.2.16 Does anarchism require “perfect” people to work?

No. Anarchy is not a utopia, a “perfect” society. It will be a human society, with all the problems, hopes, and fears associated with human beings. Anarchists do not think that human beings need to be “perfect” for anarchy to work. They only need to be free. Thus Christie and Meltzer:

”[A] common fallacy [is] that revolutionary socialism [i.e. anarchism] is an ‘idealisation’ of the workers and [so] the mere recital of their present faults is a refutation of the class struggle … it seems morally unreasonable that a free society … could exist without moral or ethical perfection. But so far as the overthrow of [existing] society is concerned, we may ignore the fact of people’s shortcomings and prejudices, so long as they do not become institutionalised. One may view without concern the fact … that the workers might achieve control of their places of work long before they had acquired the social graces of the ‘intellectual’ or shed all the prejudices of the present society from family discipline to xenophobia. What does it matter, so long as they can run industry without masters? Prejudices wither in freedom and only flourish while the social climate is favourable to them … What we say is … that once life can continue without imposed authority from above, and imposed authority cannot survive the withdrawal of labour from its service, the prejudices of authoritarianism will disappear. There is no cure for them other than the free process of education.” [The Floodgates of Anarchy, pp. 36–7]

Obviously, though, we think that a free society will produce people who are more in tune with both their own and others individuality and needs, thus reducing individual conflict. Remaining disputes would be solved by reasonable methods, for example, the use of juries, mutual third parties, or community and workplace assemblies (see section I.5.8 for a discussion of how could be done for anti-social activities as well as disputes).

Like the “anarchism-is-against-human-nature” argument (see section A.2.15), opponents of anarchism usually assume “perfect” people — people who are not corrupted by power when placed in positions of authority, people who are strangely unaffected by the distorting effects of hierarchy, privilege, and so forth. However, anarchists make no such claims about human perfection. We simply recognise that vesting power in the hands of one person or an elite is never a good idea, as people are not perfect.

It should be noted that the idea that anarchism requires a “new” (perfect) man or woman is often raised by the opponents of anarchism to discredit it (and, usually, to justify the retention of hierarchical authority, particularly capitalist relations of production). After all, people are not perfect and are unlikely ever to be. As such, they pounce on every example of a government falling and the resulting chaos to dismiss anarchism as unrealistic. The media loves to proclaim a country to be falling into “anarchy” whenever there is a disruption in “law and order” and looting takes place.

Anarchists are not impressed by this argument. A moment’s reflection shows why, for the detractors make the basic mistake of assuming an anarchist society without anarchists! (A variation of such claims is raised by the right-wing “anarcho”-capitalists to discredit real anarchism. However, their “objection” discredits their own claim to be anarchists for they implicitly assume an anarchist society without anarchists!). Needless to say, an “anarchy” made up of people who still saw the need for authority, property and statism would soon become authoritarian (i.e. non-anarchist) again. This is because even if the government disappeared tomorrow, the same system would soon grow up again, because “the strength of the government rests not with itself, but with the people. A great tyrant may be a fool, and not a superman. His strength lies not in himself, but in the superstition of the people who think that it is right to obey him. So long as that superstition exists it is useless for some liberator to cut off the head of tyranny; the people will create another, for they have grown accustomed to rely on something outside themselves.” [George Barrett, Objections to Anarchism, p. 355]

Hence Alexander Berkman:

“Our social institutions are founded on certain ideas; as long as the latter are generally believed, the institutions built on them are safe. Government remains strong because people think political authority and legal compulsion necessary. Capitalism will continue as long as such an economic system is considered adequate and just. The weakening of the ideas which support the evil and oppressive present day conditions means the ultimate breakdown of government and capitalism.” [What is Anarchism?, p. xii]

In other words, anarchy needs anarchists in order to be created and survive. But these anarchists need not be perfect, just people who have freed themselves, by their own efforts, of the superstition that command-and-obedience relations and capitalist property rights are necessary. The implicit assumption in the idea that anarchy needs “perfect” people is that freedom will be given, not taken; hence the obvious conclusion follows that an anarchy requiring “perfect” people will fail. But this argument ignores the need for self-activity and self-liberation in order to create a free society. For anarchists, “history is nothing but a struggle between the rulers and the ruled, the oppressors and the oppressed.” [Peter Kropotkin, Act for Yourselves, p. 85] Ideas change through struggle and, consequently, in the struggle against oppression and exploitation, we not only change the world, we change ourselves at the same time. So it is the struggle for freedom which creates people capable of taking the responsibility for their own lives, communities and planet. People capable of living as equals in a free society, so making anarchy possible.

As such, the chaos which often results when a government disappears is not anarchy nor, in fact, a case against anarchism. It simple means that the necessary preconditions for creating an anarchist society do not exist. Anarchy would be the product of collective struggle at the heart of society, not the product of external shocks. Nor, we should note, do anarchists think that such a society will appear “overnight.” Rather, we see the creation of an anarchist system as a process, not an event. The ins-and-outs of how it would function will evolve over time in the light of experience and objective circumstances, not appear in a perfect form immediately (see section H.2.5 for a discussion of Marxist claims otherwise).

Therefore, anarchists do not conclude that “perfect” people are necessary anarchism to work because the anarchist is “no liberator with a divine mission to free humanity, but he is a part of that humanity struggling onwards towards liberty.” As such, ”[i]f, then, by some external means an Anarchist Revolution could be, so to speak, supplied ready-made and thrust upon the people, it is true that they would reject it and rebuild the old society. If, on the other hand, the people develop their ideas of freedom, and they themselves get rid of the last stronghold of tyranny — the government — then indeed the revolution will be permanently accomplished.” [George Barrett, Op. Cit., p. 355]

This is not to suggest that an anarchist society must wait until everyone is an anarchist. Far from it. It is highly unlikely, for example, that the rich and powerful will suddenly see the errors of their ways and voluntarily renounce their privileges. Faced with a large and growing anarchist movement, the ruling elite has always used repression to defend its position in society. The use of fascism in Spain (see section A.5.6) and Italy (see section A.5.5) show the depths the capitalist class can sink to. Anarchism will be created in the face of opposition by the ruling minorities and, consequently, will need to defend itself against attempts to recreate authority (see section H.2.1 for a refutation of Marxist claims anarchists reject the need to defend an anarchist society against counter-revolution).

Instead anarchists argue that we should focus our activity on convincing those subject to oppression and exploitation that they have the power to resist both and, ultimately, can end both by destroying the social institutions that cause them. As Malatesta argued, “we need the support of the masses to build a force of sufficient strength to achieve our specific task of radical change in the social organism by the direct action of the masses, we must get closer to them, accept them as they are, and from within their ranks seek to ‘push’ them forward as much as possible.” [Errico Malatesta: His Life and Ideas, pp. 155–6] This would create the conditions that make possible a rapid evolution towards anarchism as what was initially accepted by a minority “but increasingly finding popular expression, will make its way among the mass of the people” and “the minority will become the People, the great mass, and that mass rising up against property and the State, will march forward towards anarchist communism.” [Kropotkin, Words of a Rebel, p. 75] Hence the importance anarchists attach to spreading our ideas and arguing the case for anarchism. This creates conscious anarchists from those questioning the injustices of capitalism and the state.

This process is helped by the nature of hierarchical society and the resistance it naturally developed in those subject to it. Anarchist ideas develop spontaneously through struggle. As we discuss in section I.2.3, anarchistic organisations are often created as part of the resistance against oppression and exploitation which marks every hierarchical system and can., potentially, be the framework of a few society. As such, the creation of libertarian institutions is, therefore, always a possibility in any situation. A peoples’ experiences may push them towards anarchist conclusions, namely the awareness that the state exists to protect the wealthy and powerful few and to disempower the many. That while it is needed to maintain class and hierarchical society, it is not needed to organise society nor can it do so in a just and fair way for all. This is possible. However, without a conscious anarchist presence any libertarian tendencies are likely to be used, abused and finally destroyed by parties or religious groups seeking political power over the masses (the Russian Revolution is the most famous example of this process). It is for that reason anarchists organise to influence the struggle and spread our ideas (see section J.3 for details). For it is the case that only when anarchist ideas “acquire a predominating influence” and are “accepted by a sufficiently large section of the population” will we “have achieved anarchy, or taken a step towards anarchy.” For anarchy “cannot be imposed against the wishes of the people.” [Malatesta, Op. Cit., p. 159 and p. 163]

So, to conclude, the creation of an anarchist society is not dependent on people being perfect but it is dependent on a large majority being anarchists and wanting to reorganise society in a libertarian manner. This will not eliminate conflict between individuals nor create a fully formed anarchist humanity overnight but it will lay the ground for the gradual elimination of whatever prejudices and anti-social behaviour that remain after the struggle to change society has revolutionised those doing it.

[themultifanshipper]

I would like to contribute my opinion on the lando/trump situation.

Warning, it's long and a bit nuanced (although slightly more a defence than an accusation but still keep an open mind)

And is edited as i find more things to say

First off, Lando is a victim of the formula one machine just like all the drivers. They are the puppets, the clowns, whatever analogy you want. The people behind the teams (team bosses, ceo's, sponsors etc... are what make the machine run, the drivers are just there to drive. He was approached by the ex president of the country he was in, on a high of winning his first race, and shook his hand while a million cameras were pointing in his direction. That can only happen one way: trump being invited by the team (bosses ceo's, whatever). Now, I despise trump and everything he stands for, but if I was in Lando's situation I would have had to do the same thing. (It so happens I was in a similar situation and had to shut my mouth and shake the hand of a politician I didn't like because I could have caused a diplomatic incident and lost my job and cost a lot of money in sponsorships). Also the alleged comments "It was an honour for him to be there/ you have to have respect for him" etc... are probably bullshit, but in the case that they are not and Lando is actually a trump supporter, if you cancel him for it, you would have to cancel half the drivers/team bosses/Ceo's etc in HISTORY.

The founding of formula one (like any institution ever) is by and for White/Rich/Heterosexual/Males. The FIA is corrupt. The teams are corrupt. It's an industry entirely run by money. It's capitalism in a bottle and some of y'all seem to forget that. The fact is the drivers could all be supporters of the right wing parties in their respective countries, would you cancel all of them?

For example, frank williams, the FOUNDER of Williams f1 team was openly a Thatcher supporter. There is a portrait of the bitch in his house (now his daughter's) as seen below, with a picture of.... george russell??

I also added a picture of Thatcher with Colin Chapman to emphasize that political figures often get involved in sports, doesn't mean the athletes align with their views. Trump, Reagan, Thatcher, Francisco Franco (a literal dictator).... they've all done it.

But let's have a quick look at Georgie boy then. A rich white man, he was quite friendly with Frank Williams, does that mean he's a tory? No. (Tbh he probably is but is smart enough to not talk about it)

Lewis Hamilton of all people was invited to lunch TWICE with the British Royal family (not to mention the knighthood), does that mean he's a racist cunt with no regard for other human lives? No. So why would he associate himself with them? Because he's smart enough to not alienate half the bloody population!

If these people had integrity and perfect morals, they would not be racing in F1. And for the few that are genuinely good people, they're smart enough to just be a cog in the machine to ensure their paycheck. We saw it with the horner situation, they won't get involved unless they actually support the bad guy. Similar situation to palestine, if they speak out either way, they will alienate countless sponsors and probably loose their seat.

Yes it's shit, yes it should be different, yes it should be inclusive but it's just not. It's veeery slowly changing though.

But back to Lando: now he isn't perfect obviously. (He's a white cis probably het man) He might even be right wing who knows, but I think taking alleged comments like "you have to respect the guy" out of context is dangerous. Objectively, yes there is an infinitesimal bit of respect you have to have for trump (hear me out) he managed to become PRESIDENT OF THE UNTIED STATES by manipulating the masses into thinking he was basically the reincarnation of God. Man is a genius, even though he's a cock. He's also a brilliant example of nepotism, capitalism and all round discrimination that represents the system we all live in. Additionally, florida is a pretty right wing state if i'm not mistaken (gun laws/anti abortion/anti lgbt etc...) and if lando had told trump to fuck off, there might have been riots and i'm only barely joking. Lando is a dick for the comments that were perhaps a bit unnecessary but y'all are seeing them as him endorsing trump lmao. As a (hopefully) future public figure, if the president of my country came to see me in front of a bunch of cameras i would also say it was an honour to meet him. At this level it's self preservation.

I will finish this rant by saying that I hope the world of f1 will change for the better in future years, already the gender diversification is going in the right direction, some programs are in place for kids who come from poorer backgrounds etc... but expecting that change to come from the puppets of capitalism is quite unreasonable. Lewis has set some standards that hopefully more and more drivers can stick to, but in the meantime cancelling a dude for breathing the same air as trump is stupid.

Ps: Y'all don't know the half of the awful private corporations and sponsors of the teams and drivers, so if you can't cope with the occasional dick on your screen, you might want to pick a different hobby. Preferably not involving public figures or PR in any capacity.

Edit 1: I've been seing ppl get mad at lando for saying he's his lucky charm and I think it's perhaps a language comprehension barrier thing. He did not say that. Trump said he was lando's lucky charm, then lando mentionned that trump had said it.

Edit 2: I've seen some clips of Zak Brown where he seems to be really friendly with trump. I wouldn't be surprised if it was his idea to introduce him to lando. CEO's are rarely great people, and although i'm glad he's been such a huge part of Lando's journey and success, i'm not a big fan of his. I just wish it would have been with someone a bit less complacent, like max or lewis, they wouldn't have said that stuff and the interaction would have been quite entertaining I reckon.

Edit 3: great post about the misunderstood comments at the press conference here

Don't hesitate to insult me in my asks, i will be answering them with equal enthusiasm :)

[avengerscompound]

The Interview - Chapter 3

The Interview - A Captain America Fanfic

Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Rating:  E

Warnings:  Drinking, sexual innuendo

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Melody Danes

Word Count:   2108

Summary:  Melody Danes gets the break of a lifetime when as a lowly intern, she’s assigned to write a profile piece on Captain America.  Steve Rogers is a hard man not to fall for and as she and Melody get closer and Melody’s career takes off, jealousy leads to sabotage, and the potential to bring her whole world crashing down.

Chapter 3

“Rough night?”

Melody blinked up bleary-eyed and foggy-headed, right into the smiling face of Steve Rogers.  She was mortified.  Now on top of the killer hangover, she was nursing, she also had the supreme embarrassment of Captain America seeing her like this.  It was completely unprofessional given that she was on your way to interview him right now.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” she groaned.  “You weren’t supposed to see me like this.” 

Steve chuckled and shook his head.  “Don’t worry about it.  We’ve all been there.  And I’m friends with Tony Stark.  I’m not thrown off by someone struggling after a night on the town.” 

“I know but - oh god - it’s so unprofessional.  It wasn’t planned.  My cousin wanted to take me out to congratulate me for the interview and then she served me absinthe…”

Steve immediately started laughing.  “Well, that was your first mistake.”

“You’ve had absinthe?” she asked, a little surprised. 

“Well - no.  I mean - yes.  Okay, it’s complicated,” he said.

“We have a train ride to Brooklyn to talk,” she said.  “It doesn’t have to be on the record.”

“No, it can be,” he said.  “I’ve tried it.  I know the whole process.  But I was a super soldier by then, which means I metabolize things fast so I didn’t experience the effects, but I did get to witness how it affected the soldiers I was drinking with.”

“Was that during the war?” she asked.

“Yeah, we were in France, having some time off.  It was - well - soldiers, you know?” Steve said.

The thought of the war and soldiers drinking hallucinogenic cocktails made another thing pop into her head.  “Hey, when you were a kid did they still have cocaine in Coke?”

“Trace amounts from memory.  Not enough that you could feel it.  I’d have to look that up though.  But if you’re asking because you’re wondering if Captain America has consumed cocaine, yeah - I have.  They used it as pain relief.  Heroin too.  And those asthma cigarettes you talked about last time often had cannabis in them.  Things were different back then, but we’ve spoken about that.”

She shook her head.  “And how…” she laughed.

“I am just a guy.  I’m not perfect. I try to do the right thing, but I can’t pretend I always know what that is.  I have a moral compass, and sometimes when I learn more information that compass changes.  I’ve always believed consenting adults should be able to love each other freely and without interference.  I have always believed that people should have a minimum standard of living that’s met even if they’re unable to work.  That means homes, food, electricity, running water, and medical care.  I have always believed that people should be free to worship whatever god they choose - or not - as long as that worship doesn’t interfere with others or harm them.  But the nuances of those things - they’re not always clear.  Things aren’t black and white.  And I’m not an altar boy.  I drink.  I go to parties with my friends.  I even swear.” 

“And you talk about circumcision with strangers,” she said.

He started laughing and his cheeks flushed pink.  “That too.”

“Does it bother you that people see you as some kind of perfect angel?” she asked.

Steve paused to think about the question.  “No.  Generally, I don’t mind how people see me.  They can love me or hate me.  They can think I’m secretly a complete deviant.  What bothers me is when they do that and corrupt the message.  I don’t like when they think I’d be against immigrants because I wear a flag.  Or worse, they think that because they believe I wouldn’t do something, it means I would stop other people from doing it.  Does that make sense?”

“I think so,” she said.  “Like say them decided you wouldn’t have an abortion, and therefore others can’t get an abortion…”

“When I’m pro-choice,” he said.  “Exactly,”

“And are you pro-choice?” she asked.

“I am.  We have body autonomy in this country.  It extends to that too,” he said.

Melody smiled up at him, the conversation had gone a long way to alleviate the hangover.  It was like taking a two-dimensional picture and having it fill out into three-dimensional space.  She liked how the full picture looked.  It was funny, she hadn’t realized that she had formed her own biases toward the man that carried the shield.  The fact he was pro-choice surprised her, but if she thought about it, she wasn't even sure why.

She wondered if there were any other biases she was holding about him.

Melody and Steve switched to more casual banter for the remainder of the trip and got out together when they reached Brooklyn.  “So what’s the plan?” Steve asked as they headed up the stairs and into the sunshine.

“We’re meeting the staff photographer at a bagel place a few blocks down.  He wants to take some photos of you in places you recognize.  I don’t know if the building you grew up in is still here or your school maybe?  Anything that gives you strong feelings of nostalgia I guess?  As for the interview - well you’re welcome to just tell me stories or I’ll ask questions to prod you.  I’m looking for the story of Steve Rogers before he became Captain America and what led you to sign up for the program.”

Steve nodded.  “That’s doable,” he said.  “I’ve got plenty of stories to tell.  I should have brought Bucky with me.  Maybe he’d have helped.”

“You’re more than welcome to bring him along to one of these if you want to,” she said.

“I’ll let him know,” Steve said.  “Well - the first thing you should probably know is I got into a lot of fights.  You point to a spot and I probably started something I couldn’t finish there.”

“Don’t tell me Steve Rogers was a bully?” she said.

Steve laughed and shook his head.  He had shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched forward a little like he was trying to make himself smaller and less noticeable.  Up until now, he’d done things to disguise his features.  He’d put on a hat or glasses, but he walked tall.  This was the first time he seemed to want to hide his size.  “No.  Not at all.  I didn’t like bullies so I was always stepping in when I saw something that didn’t seem right.  Bullying.  Harassment.  That kind of thing.  But I also got bullied a lot.  You know being the little runt that I was, my parents had me selling newspapers when I was only very young.  And kids from the neighborhood would often jump me for them and the money I was making.”

“Why were you selling papers when you were so young?” she asked, knowing full well the larger overarching answer but wanting him to tell the story without being led.

“My parents moved here from Ireland after my dad served in World War I.  They both had work and things were going well, so they had me.  Then later they had another son.”

She pulled a file out of your messenger bag and flicked through it.  “I don’t remember you having any siblings.”

“Ah - only the really big Captain America fans know that little tidbit.  My folks didn’t even get a chance to name him officially.  He died after a couple of days.  It hit Dad hard.  He was already disappointed by how sick I was, and then to have another son die so soon - it destroyed him.  He started drinking.  Then the depression hit and he was the first to lose his job.  There wasn’t much work going for people like him and so he spiralled.  He was angry all the time.  He hit my mom regularly.  So I tried selling papers to take the burden off her.  He died in 1926 from the flu.  I was eight.”

Melody put her hand on his arm, forgetting for a moment she was interviewing him, and seeing him just a man who’d had a violent childhood that was opening up to her.  “I’m so sorry, Steve,” she said.

He turned his head and smiled at her.  There was sadness in it, but there was more than that too.  Gratitude maybe?  Hope?  “That’s something I wish I could help more with.  I want to help people trapped in abusive family situations by making it safe and easy for them to leave.  The way things are now, that’s not often the case.  I feel like America has come forward so much since I was born, and yet I also feel like there are people who are trying to push it back into the dark ages again, and in many ways, they seem to be winning.”

“Yeah.  Two steps forward one step back.  People rail against change,” Melody agreed.  “And the more accepting one part of society gets, the more closed off and angry the other side gets.” 

They arrived at the bagel shop and looked around for Peter Parker, the kid who’d be taking photos of Steve today.  True to form, he came running around the corner and down some steps he had no reason to be on in the first place and was pulling on his clothes like he forgot to dress on the way out of his house that day.  “Hey!” he called. “I’m here! I’m here!  Sorry!”

“It’s okay, Pete,” Melody assured the mousey teen.  “We just got here.”  She turned to Steve.  “Steve Rogers, this is Peter Parker, our photographer.  Pete, this is Steve…”

“I know,” Peter said, holding out his hand to shake Steve’s.  “Of course.  It’s such an honor, sir.  I’m Peter.  Peter Parker.”

“Yes,” Steve said, stifling a laugh as he shook Peter’s hand.  “She said.”

“Oh right.  Of course.  Sorry.”  Peter was making no move to stop shaking Steve’s hand and Steve looked at him, bemused.

“Peter.  Are you ready?” Melody asked.

Peter looked down at his hands and then up at Steve before quickly dropping them.  “Right.  Sorry.  Yep.  Where do we want to do this?”

“Well right down there is where I met Bucky,” Steve suggested.

“That’s a great idea,” she agreed.  “Lead the way.”

Steve led them down to a small alley.  “I was getting beaten up by some bullies who wanted me to pay them for crossing the street.  Bucky came in swinging and we have been friends ever since.”

“You two are very close.  The two of you have to be so different from when you first met.  Was rebuilding that relationship hard when you found him again after all those years?” Melody asked as Peter snapped some candids of Steve.

Steve frowned and his hand went to his hair.  “It was.  You’re right.  We both have changed so much.  People often say he’s a different person now, but so am I. But deep down we have those core things that made us who we are.  He sometimes thinks he doesn’t have it, but he does.”  He paused and looked down the alley.  “He still steps in and saves those little guys who are being picked on by people much bigger than them.”

Peter guided Steve into some posed shots by the alley and then both men looked at Melody.  “Where to now?” Peter asked.

“What do you think, Steve?  What about where you went to school?” you asked. 

“Sure.  George Washington High is here but I’m not sure about Auburndale Art School,” Steve said.  Peter got out his phone and started googling it right away. 

“You went to art school?” she asked.

“Oh yeah,” he said.  “Besides getting my ass kicked, art was my real passion.  I still draw.”

“Really?  Do you think I could see some of your art?” she asked.

“Sure,” Steve said.  “I’ll bring some next time.  Though you need to be nice.  I don’t show too many people.”

“Don’t worry,” she said.  “I don’t want James Barnes to come kick my ass for bullying his friend.”

Steve started laughing and he nudged her arm.  “Thanks.  I appreciate that.”

He paused for a second and looked between Melody and Peter.  “I just had an idea,” he said.  “I might be able to find the spot where they gave me the serum in the first place.  What about that for more photos?”

Peter looked as excited as Melody felt.  She did still want to go to the building he grew up in and his school, but if the secret headquarters for the Strategic Scientific Reserve was still there - it was too good to pass up.  She grinned at Steve. “Let’s do it.”

// NEXT

[possessesnightshift]

my lord seeing all the posts talking about not voting for joe biden like...

im not even gonna push my personal opinion. i just want people to take the time to earnestly reflect about what they're deciding to do

as in. just think "what is the impact of my decision?" think about what would come about if you voted for biden, or against biden, or third party, or (likely the most popular other option ppl want to pursue) didn't vote AT ALL.

then reflect on the actual issues that matter enough to sway your vote. think about palestine. think about queer liberation & disability advocacy. think about the writer's strike and the actors strike and unionizing. think about the environment. the fucking economy. basically anything that's defined the political landscape of the 2020s.

and then circle back to "what is the point of making this specific choice?" in regards to voting in the 2024 election. if you want to make any of these issues better, ask yourself if those changes will be easier to make under a trump administration or a biden administration. would trump be better for palestine than biden? the environment? the economy? even if he's worse than biden in a lot of areas, is there one special issue that could push him over the edge? what are you trying to accomplish with this vote (or lackthereof)?

the reason i felt compelled to lay it all out in this specific manner is quite simple. i want to emphasize something important.

i feel like a lot of people planning to protest their vote for Joe Biden see themselves as possessing a moral high ground with respect to our corrupt political system. by refusing to participate and play the game, you're avoiding complicity in a machine designed to grind people up and spit out their bodies for the sake of profit. i get it. i know exactly why you don't want to take part in something so horrible.

but you DO.

even if you don't want to. you are a part of this system.

withholding a vote isn't exempting you from anything. you are still making a decision. a decision that impacts your life, the lives of those around you, and of course the lives of people overseas caught up in our country's colonialist bullshit

i promise you nobody is keeping score. you won't get extra woke points in heaven because you didn't vote for someone who does bad things. say hypothetically we lived in a country like australia with compulsory voting, and protesting your vote was literally not an option. what would people say then? would the anti-genocide crowd encourage you to vote for trump? vote third party? do these choices make sense??

because at the end of the day, we have 2 choices. we can continue sucking ass. or we can bring in someone else to suck ass EVEN HARDER.

i'm not sure what i can say beyond this much. i get how easy it is to turn off your brain and rail against anyone challenging an opinion that, from your perspective, feels beyond the realm of criticism. these people do not have bad intentions. our brains can't think in terms of stupid political games. we see a man encouraging a genocide running for re-election, and the LAST thing we want to do is reward him.

but the system is illogical by design. (see electoral college for more info.) you can't make it make sense. these people in power aren't gonna buckle to your pressure based on morality or shame because they have none. they know exactly what the fuck is going on. they know what they're doing, and they're doing it on purpose.

if republicans can accept that holding your nose and playing the bs voting game can make the system work in their favor, why the fuck can't college educated socialists come to the same conclusion?

whatever you decide to do come november, just be honest about why you're doing it. whether it's about gaza or trans people or even just the prices of groceries always increasing, it doesn't matter. i know what change i want to see in the world, and i'm doing what i can to help move the needle in that direction.

[mutagn]

@retromutagn 𝗔𝗦𝗞𝗘𝗗 usagi (yojimbo) : acanthus, begonia, tulip

acanthus : is your muse deceptive , or willing to lie or deceive to achieve certain means ? why or why not ?

deceptive? no. willing to lie or deceive? YES. he really does go out of his way to tell the truth and abide by honesty, but wickedness begets wickedness, sometimes. sometimes deceit is the only way to solve a deep rooted problem or weed out corruption. he also just... loves a good scheme. trickery is fun. it does come with guilt, sometimes, but miyamoto does his best to weigh his deeds by the amount of good they do in the long run. as he gets older and more disillusioned with the life he leads, he stops obsessing over his morality and the net good of his mere existence so much, but it's always an effort.

begonia : how cautious is your muse ? are they prone to noticing red flags , or paranoid to the point of untrusting most everyone ? why or why not ?

one of katsuichi's secret tests of character was to frequently and without warning hit usagi over the head with his cane. this ended up teaching miyamoto hypervigilance, an ability to sense danger in the air before signs of it become clear to other onlookers. this means that while he is cautious to an extent, he doesn't need to be looking over his shoulder constantly or consciously on guard. it's something that was literally beat into him as a child and so it comes naturally. it's in his nature to trust people that don't immediately set off this sense, but he's not telepathic or anything. people are still capable of surprising him, and when they do, he takes it really hard, like a failure of sorts. he doesn't often get drunk or overindulge at parties or anything like that, either, just so he remains alert enough for this heightened awareness to stay sharp.

tulip : how does your muse view people in general ?

as a rule, miyamoto loves people. it's why he does what he does. only some of his decision to walk the warrior's path was selfish (and even then only insofar as he felt he had to keep his promise for his own honour's sake) - mostly it was because he was now basically a free man, having performed his last duty and saving his lord's body from desecration. he could have easily become a bandit, using his skills to steal and harm, but he doesn't want to. he wants, at his core, to help, to leave the world a better place than he found it. he wants to contribute to joy and peace and beauty. what's the point, if he doesn't? what's the point of being able to help and choosing not to? what's the point in causing sorrow and hardship? it's why he's friends with so many people that contrast so starkly with his own honour code - they're good people, when you really get down to it, and it's not in his nature to dismiss them outright. not ninja though

[gascon-en-exil]

The Unintentionally Hilarious Echoes of Fire Emblem: Three Houses Discourse in Triangle Strategy

I've been meaning to put this idea to paper (screen?) for about a week now, and with my completion of the final route of Triangle Strategy I at last feel fully equipped to do so. I did think about turning this into a video, but I've got a less niche idea for a thesis that I think would play better on YouTube and that I intend to start working on soon.

I very much doubt that TS's developers even caught so much of a whiff of FE16 online discourse, especially the parts outside Japanese fandom, i.e. all the parts I'm familiar with. Nevertheless, even if unintended the number and degree of parallels between TS and the way fandom has responded to Three Houses in the last two and a half years are so absurd that I just had to compile them.

Be forewarned that this post contains major spoilers for both games. I expect that most people interested in this topic are coming from FE16 discourse first and TS second (or not at all), so I'll be putting more effort into contextualizing elements of TS.

Political Realism! (But Also Democracy is Still Not a Thing)

The game as a whole is more concerned with depicting the political systems of its setting. We get to see a peacetime meritocracy in action in Aesfrost as well as a theocracy that's actually run like a theocracy in Hyzante. Aesfrost boasts of allowing anyone to succeed on their own merits, but it's plagued by poverty and nepotism/cronyism. Hyzante has universal health care but actively excludes or punishes nonbelievers and is looking to expand its faith. The third nation of Glenbrook is a standard pseudo-medieval European fantasy kingdom, albeit with a corrupt group of nobles who want their kings to be ornaments and tend to get treacherous and homicidal when they aren't.

Additionally, while Hyzante takes the expected theocratic approach of wanting to destroy knowledge that it considers dangerous - in this case, Aesfrost's Archives which are the source of its advances in technology - the alternative is implicitly not all that better because it results in Aesfrost essentially bringing Norzelia into the age of gunpowder - which it does even in the golden route. TS has a lot to say about how beneficial technologies can be turned into instruments of warfare, actually, with the concept behind Aesfrost's giant cannon stemming initially from a man who invented bombs to aid in mining. Echoes of the dangerous technologies Rhea banned, perhaps?

Norzelia overall is your boilerplate fantasy of autocrats being autocrats, and this remains the case in all instances including its endings, but TS's central marketing image and core non-combat gameplay mechanic is the Scales of Conviction, a set of scales that burns with magical fire that looks pretty in the trailers and...that's basically it, really. In-game the Scales represent the simple majority of the seven characters to whom protagonist Serenoa awards the right to vote near the start of the game. The voting population is made up of his best friend, his fiancée, and five servants of varying allegiances and job descriptions.

In the leadup to the game's golden ending, Serenoa discards the Scales entirely and makes an executive decision about what to do next, and this is praised by the voting characters as him learning to be a true leader.

Moral Greyness! (But Only in Some Places)

The player is made to feel much more morally grey than Byleth ever is in FE16, with you being allowed to make some highly questionable choices that other characters will criticize you for, or even fight you over and then leave your party when it comes to the final vote. TS pulls far fewer punches in the name of keeping the player comfortable, giving all of its endings (even the golden one, to a degree) unsatisfying edges and even seeing Serenoa sacrifice himself in one of them. Crimson Flower wishes it went that hard. Furthermore, all story splits are predicated on immediately relevant plot points instead of (playable) character sympathy.

As regards major supporting characters, Frederica picks up the Daenerys-esque torch of lead female character with unusually-colored hair whose stated goal is liberation. However, even though her goal of freeing her enslaved people is a righteous one, it also abandons the rest of the continent to constant warfare without anyone to guide it or mediate over its most valuable resource. It is, essentially, the most selfish, and even happens to be the one ending where Serenoa, Frederica's fiancé via arranged marriage, dies. The two of them are even more romantic in her route than in the golden one...but they don't get a happy ending. Benedict meanwhile is as ruthless as Hubert but doesn't wear his evil on his sleeve, and while he's also selfishly motivated to conquer a continent to satisfy his feelings toward a woman who'll never return them (because she's dead), the person he manipulates into continental rule ends up resenting him over his actions. TS as such paints the motivations of characters much like Edelgard and Hubert as negative, even if they're sympathetic or the right thing to do in a vacuum.

Conversely however, you know all that "you wouldn't criticize Edelgard if she were a man!" business? Yep, that's Gustadolph to a tee; no one needs to criticize him when the game does a fine enough job on its own. He doesn't get a sympathetic backstory or motivation, he's called out repeatedly for his hypocrisy and sociopathic treatment of his relatives and underlings as mere pawns, and his touted meritocratic "freedom" is exposed as a flimsy justification to amass more power for himself. In a deeply ironic moment, after killing one of his most loyal followers Gustadolph is denounced as a "feral beast" who needs to be put down. On a metanarrative level, Gustadolph is the antithesis of Edelgard; where she gets all the story prominence and multiple death scenes and a heavily telegraphed romance with the self-insert, Gustadolph never gets to be a final boss even though he's killed in two routes - and in the route where you ally with him he's kept at arm's length and reduced to supporting NPC status.

Idore, similarly, is Rhea stripped of any nuance or sympathetic qualities, and actually is the theocratic tyrant fandom likes to think Rhea is. He rules over the aforementioned Hyzante, which created a secret history for its religion and also engages in the kinds of magical experiments associated with the Agarthans in FE16 - among them weapons powered by human corpses, a bit like Demonic Beasts. The secret history of the Goddess of Salt makes Rhea's secret history positively benevolent by comparison: she wants to protect herself and her remaining family from humans, while he wants to lord power over other humans and maintain a monopoly on the continent's most valuable natural resource. Idore nominally takes orders from the hierophant, highest of the Saintly Seven who is always hidden behind a curtain...but in two endings it's revealed that the hierophant is a actually a robot, a voiceless female automaton used only as a puppet to legitimize Idore's absolute rule. This not only doubles as a hilarious facsimile of Byleth - voiceless and mindless but possessed of unmatched magical power, treated as always female by the fandom, a puppet at the hands of a much more powerful master (the player) - but puts me in mind of how Rhea's detractors think she handles Byleth. Also, upon his death Idore is revealed to be an atheist who was disillusioned by the greed and weakness inherent in human nature - in essence, the Fire Emblem thesis statement - and sought to rule forever through immortality magic and his undying puppet. Serenoa and friends even make similar remarks as Edelgard, that only humans can/should rule over humanity, but here it's directed not at a member of another sapient race but at a mindless robot used as a prop by a human.

Cultural Diversity! (Except It's Still Insensitive, Probably)

The Khalidstans would have a field day with this game. TS goes to much greater lengths than FE16 ever bothers to characterize a culture influenced by a non-European one; Hyzante invites direct comparisons to the Golden Age of Islam and to the Abbasid Caliphate (roughly contemporary with medieval Europe), and while the official art is not terribly consistent on the matter almost all of the game's darker-skinned characters hail from there. However...it's also the theocracy with the slavery and the corpse magic and the literal puppet ruler. What's more, the Hyzantians' slaves, the Roselle, are pale-skinned people with pink hair, recalling the FE16 discourse argument that persecution against the Nabateans doesn't really count because they're basically white people. Rosellan aesthetics and culture draw from both indigenous Japanese and Native American sources, and their main story thrust of escaping slavery to reach a mythical promised land obviously suggests parallels to the Jewish people. The Khalidstans and others like them would very likely consider this mishmash of cultural references to be offensive to all parties, and would be appalled that TS prominently features a mostly dark-skinned people enslaving a light-skinned people.

What's more, while online discourse has no issue with criticizing Catholicism (even when it approaches xenophobia), the idea of similarly condemning a fictional theocracy inspired largely by Islam seems rather more fraught for issues of insensitivity and bigotry. That the Roselle are persecuted by the Hyzantians because they know the truth behind the secret history of their Teachings (which is that rock salt exists - yes, really) is a subject so fraught with potential land mines of discourse if applied to real-world subjects that I'm not going to even attempt to touch that one.

On a somewhat unrelated note, one of the main characters is biracial, but unlike Claude Frederica identifies fully with her minority (Rosellan) heritage - much as the Khalidstans wish Claude Khalid would. You wouldn't even know she was half-Aesfrosti except that she still regards her Aesfrosti relatives as such.

Roland's Just as Bad as Dimitri! (Except Not Really on Either Count)

Prince Roland of Glenbrook is, superficially, very similar to Dimitri. They're both blond, lance-wielding princes fulfilling a standard FE lord role who angst over their capacity to rule and get a little too wrapped up in vengeance sometimes. Each of them even goes through a period where they're essentially someone else: the raging, self-destructive "feral" Dimitri of early Part 2, or Roland who has to fake his own death in the midgame and hide behind the mask of his presumed-dead combat instructor/surrogate father figure. (Side note: Maxwell puts one in mind of Jeritza since they're both aloof, powerful warriors who wear domino masks...but Maxwell isn't a serial killer, or in any way mentally disturbed.)

Bad discourse takes on both characters would make them out to be more religious than they are - Dimitri based solely on his kingdom being the Holy Kingdom and on his alliance with Rhea in Crimson Flower, Roland because his ending sees him give up his crown and his kingdom to Hyzante because he believes the people need a higher power to believe in and that Hyzante can make the most people happy. For starters this makes Dimitri appear vastly less religious by comparison, when not even the alleged status quo that is Azure Moon's ending comes anywhere close to "I'm surrendering my authority to a foreign power to allow them to take control and convert the entire continent." If anything Roland's continued hesitancy about taking power, even in the golden route, brings to mind complaints that Dimitri isn't mentally fit to rule in any scenario and should step down - but the golden ending has Serenoa affirm that he does indeed deserve to be king.

Because TS takes the time to show the far-reaching consequences of each ending, we actually get to see that both Roland and Dimitri make valid points when they each condemn the kind of freedom espoused by Gustadolph and Edelgard respectively. In Benedict's ending where Aesfrost's principles spread to the entire continent poverty becomes more common as it's only the wealthy and well-connected who can prosper under the new merit-based system and there are a lack of systems in place to help the less fortunate. Roland becomes a monk tending to the sick and hungry who've been neglected by their rulers, and in this epilogue it's also shown that even with Hyzante's downfall followers of their goddess continue to persist, because you can't get rid of a religion just by taking out a figurehead or two.

Even in his own ending - which many are already saying is the worst of the four, because theocracy - Roland refuses to give into his desire for vengeance when it's time to deal with Gustadolph, as he undergoes a less extreme version of Dimitri's character arc that benefits immensely from the lack of a self-insert. His main source of support comes from his best friend, but there he suffers compared to Dimitri because....

The Game's Not Horny! (At All!)

Are you an anti? Does the irrepressible, unapologetic horniness of Fire Emblem make you deeply uncomfortable? Do you think that Studentleth is grooming and that Three Houses is disgusting for promoting pedophilia and incest and abusive and/or racist ship dynamics? Well, then I've got a game for you, because Triangle Strategy has possibly the driest, most sexless writing I've ever seen outside of anything written by Tolkien. An entire game's worth of innuendo has to be packed into its dancer character, who is appropriately slutty in voice and appearance and disregard for the main character's engagement status and may thus be roundly condemned, and the only other instance of sex is a scene where an obviously evil character who you'll get to kill in a few chapters is fooling around with an unnamed NPC just off-camera. Aside from that...zilch. This game resists horny; it is afraid to be horny. Not even the core romance of Serenoa and Frederica gets anything spicier than something you'd see in a typical Awakening or Fates A support outside of the one route where Serenoa dies, and even there it never amounts to more than the gifting of a treasured memento that becomes tragic one chapter later.

Naturally this dedicated lack of horniness comes with a total absence of queer subtext much less canon queerness, with the possible exception of the dynamic between two women that's basically what Rhea/Catherine would be if Rhea were a young human princess. I assume this would also be unacceptable, because power dynamics or because it's abusive (the knight character is from an enemy nation and killed the princess's brother) or something.

By hilarious juxtaposition, everyone jumped on Serenoa/Roland after the first demo because they're the two young male leads...but then lategame it's revealed that Serenoa is in reality the bastard son of the late king of Glenbrook and therefore Roland's half-brother...and this becomes a plot point in two routes. The reveal of surprise (fanon) incest has stunned the game's small fandom, and I've already seen people blaming the ship on FE fans because we're just so nasty and horny. I meanwhile can't get invested in the pairing even with the gay brocon angle because, as stated, the writing of TS is so dry that it chokes out even the barest hint of eyebrow-raising subtext. It's like a cast full of Claudes.

To sum up, Triangle Strategy is more or less what you'd get if you told the Western fandom of FE16 to rewrite the game, and each argument was decided by simple majority such that it satisfied no one completely. Thus would the scales speak.

[hqcult]

PERFECT ## oikawa tooru

the air of perfection surrounding you makes him sick. you're worse than the geniuses he hates

. tw misogny, predatory behavior, smut, noncon/dubcon, slight dacryphilia, corruption kink, fingering . wc 1.2k

before his flight to argentina in a few months, oikawa made it a hobby to swing by his alma mater. 

iwa's too busy and he can't possibly bother his best friend when he's working so hard in college. so oikawa tooru goes alone. sometimes, he comes in early while the team's still there. maybe he'll even join matches for fun — coach irihata still has a soft spot for him, apparently. 

but most of the time he comes when the gym is empty; when there's an absence of the squeaking shoes and the ricocheting balls. it never fails to make his heart swell in nostalgia. ah, how he’ll miss this place terribly once he moves to argentina. 

something did change, though. 

oikawa wouldn't call it drastic but the first time he crashed their practice, he was all but pleasantly surprised to see the new aoba johsai manager. 

you were a pretty thing and the boys adore you a lot. you didn't look the type to apply as manager just to score an athlete boyfriend nor did you seem to have any other objective other than taking care of the team. oikawa can say as much because he could see how the new captain looks at you and the way you purposely try to keep things platonic. friendly. you don't let yahaba, or anyone in the team, go the extra mile for you.

and the fact that you can miraculously keep kyoutani in check is the cherry on top. while the said player is still rough around the edges, he learned how to listen to you and the last time kyoutani ever listened to anyone was months ago, when iwaizumi was still in the team. 

team morale is high when you're there to support them on the sidelines. in your white and turquoise tracksuit yet still managing to look attractive. yahaba's got quite the patience, if oikawa do say so himself. 

you were like some sort of goddess to them. it's sickening how dewy-eyed his ex-teammates would get whenever you smile and hand them their water bottles. it was too good to be true. you were too good to be true. there has got to be some sort of conspiracy behind this whole ordeal. 

"oikawa-san, i didn't think you'd be here at this hour."

he turns around at the sound of your voice. there you stood in casual clothes, hair tied up and face bare. with the harsh angles the moonlight created together with the poor lighting of the gym, you look normal. not an air of that perfection he’s always seen circulating around you. 

"how did you get in? only yahaba and i have the keys."

you saunter closer and it wasn't a wise move on your part. while you have aoba johsai as the same denominator, the alumnus was still practically a stranger. quick exchanges of acknowledgments aren't exactly sufficient to get to know someone. let alone be friends with. but you never once thought any of that. how naive.

he smiles as you finally stood next to him. you can't help the slight dread pool in your stomach at the sight of it. with his tall lean frame that can easily overpower you, the smile looked more ominous than friendly. 

"bold of you to assume i gave the keys back. why do you think shigeru had to duplicate them again for you?"

you didn't see it coming, the arm oikawa slings around your shoulders before pulling you flush against him. you would've lost your balance if you hadn't clutched the lapels of his coat. 

"can it be…" his plush lips graze the shell of your ear as he whispers. "our little secret, cutie?"

warning bells are going off in your head. it tells you to run and stay the fuck away from him but you did nothing of the sort, had only forced a polite smile and swiftly ducked around to get his arm off you. 

this is oikawa tooru we're talking about. 

yeah, you know he's quite the ladies man but you doubt he'd go... that far, especially if he knows the person's uncomfortable. not to mention, you're part of the volleyball team! you're managing his past team. surely, maybe, the familial bond extended to you too despite only joining their little family this year. you were just being paranoid. you were reading into it too much. 

"uhm, yes. of-of course."

oikawa does have to admit, seeing little miss perfect stutter and avert her eyes from him did wonders to his ego. well, now you don't look anything like the goddess his ex-team worships. you're not exuding the same level of confidence or reliability that you always carry yourself with. you look unsure of yourself. powerless in the face of real dominance. 

"why are you here?"

"i…" is it really wise for you to say why? "i forgot the team's record notebook in the girl's locker room. i need to pass a summary of it to coach tomorrow.”

oikawa smiles, eyes comically lighting up in excitement before slinging a heavy, oppressive arm around you again. "ooh, i'll come with!"

you walk with shoulders slightly folded in and the ex-captain likes you like this. all meek and submissive. he daresay you look prettier compliant and not like a self-entitled princess who thinks she shouldn't bother being romantically involved with an athlete. he still thinks you were bitchy and idiotic for friend zoning yahaba of all people. he thought you should be very thankful for getting noticed by his junior. 

but oh well, at least oikawa gets to have a go. 

to witness firsthand what the fuss about you is all about.

you wanted to shrug his arm away and he knows that but he won't do it. the fact that you're struggling to even speak up about it makes him smirk. see, now you know your place. as you should. sometimes, girls like you who get silly little ideas in their head should be reminded of where they truly stand in the food chain. oikawa is more than glad to be the one reminding you. 

you told him to wait outside while you sauntered into the girls' locker room and oikawa smiles that innocent smile before nodding. 

a prey really shouldn't have turned her back on a predator.

just as you picked up your blue notebook on the bench, the resounding lock of the door clicking shut sounded too loud in a closed-off space. "oikawa—'

"you know, i'd really appreciate if we drop formalities. i think screaming tooru while i fuck you sound way better. makes things more intimate, dontcha think?"

he was onto you before you even got the chance to turn around. the notebook you were holding drops to the ground as he grabs hold of your wrists, his leg swiping at your ankles to tackle you to the ground. he's quick. the floor is hard and cold when your back crashes into it. you wince, the shock of what's happening yet to register in your system. never before thinking that this sort of thing will happen to you.

oikawa isn't as cruel or disgusting as you think. you were both legal adults. he knows. after all, he was there when the team decided to throw you a surprise birthday party on your 18th. he was also there from around the corner, eavesdropping when yahaba pulled you aside and confessed his feelings to you and you had the fucking audacity to turn him down. 

he doesn't want to call this revenge, not when he'd still do it whether or not shigeru had confessed. 

you were from a different breed of people. worse than geniuses. you are so disgustingly perfect in every sense of the word that it's so fucking unfair. it fueled jealousy more severe than he ever felt from tobio or ushiwaka. 

because people aren't perfect. people aren't meant to be perfect. even oikawa himself is far from it so why should you be any different from him? you're nothing special. you're ordinary just like him. you don't deserve it. you're not even working hard enough like oikawa to fucking deserve it!

you were red in the face when he took a good look at your pinned form underneath him. your eyes are glossy but held fierce contempt as you meet his gaze, your lips sealed shut in a straight line. you were trying to hold yourself back from crying and it only fuels the fire of his anger. 

"what, think i'm not worth your tears?" he growls, a hand coming up to pull your hair. he sits atop you, his legs pinning yours down as he straddles your hips. "think you're so high and mighty that you won't cry for your oh so dependable oikawa-san?" he purposely makes his voice high-pitched like a girl, copying you spitefully. 

"that’s fine, i can give you a real reason to cry."

he rips your flimsy shorts off and ogles at your cute panties. pink with little bows? how innocent. 

his large hand covers your mouth, the heavy pressure keeping your head in place as his other hand cups your sex. the heat of his palms makes you squirm. already simulating the sensitive nerves and you poorly try shaking your head in denial. because no no no your body shouldn't be enjoying it!

"ou're a real piece of work, (name)-chan," he starts, voice conversation as he nudges your underwear aside, the flat of his thumb drawing lazy circles against your bare clit. "why pretend you don't like it? it's okay to accept pleasure from ordinary people like me. you're plain and average at best too, you know."

with both his hands occupied, you can freely try pushing him away but it's futile. he's too strong and your head is starting to ache with how hard he's pressing it against the floor. 

his blissful expression peeves you out entirely. he doesn't look regretful in the slightest. "you should really get off of that high horse, cutie. stop pushing me away. silly little girls like you belong like this, underneath a capable and powerful man to protect you."

you pant, the ministrations on your clit too good but you don't let it blind you. 

"fuck yo—"

but oikawa doesn't let you finish. he swoops in for a kiss, a hand holding your jaw firmly in place so you can't bite him. a particular hard nudge on your clit makes you gasp instinctively and his tongue invades your mouth. he's a good kisser. so damn skilled from all the girls he's kissed before you. maybe if circumstances had been different, you'd have butterflies in your stomach. 

"aw," he coos against your lips. "i see. little miss perfect wants me to fuck her? how cute."

you thrash and squirm, a pathetic sneer on your face as he holds you down with ease. all it takes is one firm hold against your shoulder as he nibbles on your neck, kissing and suckling at your skin until they turn purple and red. he placed them in positions he knows you can never cover even with the official aoba johsai uniform. why would you cover them anyway? you should wear his hickeys with confidence! it's the one evidence to show he even bothered himself with you so you should be grateful to him!

"let go of me, you jer—!"

"i don't think i'll suck on your tits today, cutie. no time. let's get to the fucking already then, yeah?" 

you absolutely hate his voice. it's the signature high-pitched and childlike tone partnered with that goofy smile of his. a facade he always wears when dealing with other people. a show he's mastered to an artform. he looks awfully unbothered by how wrong this is and it chills you to the bone. 

"oikawa-san—please—"

"i told you it's tooru!" he whines, pouting. "how many times do i have to tell you?"

panic seizes you when his ankles hook around your legs to force them open. he hears none of your pleas and shoves two long fingers up your pussy. there's a slight stinging feeling as he looks for that one spot that'll make you succumb, make you admit defeat. 

"if you want my dick inside this pussy you better call me by my given name or you won't cum, baby girl~" he says in a sing-song tone.

"who the fuck told you i wanted your—shit."

your toes curl and your back arches when his fingers grazed around a certain area. you didn't have time to feel betrayed by your body's reaction as the man on top of you chuckles condescendingly, angling his fingers so he hits the spot in every single thrust. "you like that, don't you? you like what my fingers are doing."

"no!"

"no?" oikawa repeats, measured. with a flick of his wrist, he has his thumb pressing firmly against the sensitive nerves of your puffy clit again and he watches you writhe, lose yourself to pleasure, moaning and whining so wantonly under him. "but cutie, i don't think that's what your body is telling me."

you cringe in disgust when his hot tongue laps at the falling tears in your eyes before whispering against your ear. breathy, and desperate, and ever so patronizing. you don't hear the zipper of his pants going down, nor did you realize he wasn't even bothering to hold you down anymore. good. that's a good start. baby steps, oikawa thinks. for someone who sat in a make-shift throne worshipped by hormonal teen athletes for so long, serving the one great king will be a huge reset for you. 

when he enters, it's a tight fit. of-fucking-course you're a virgin. always staying true to that little miss perfect reputation, huh? sweet and gorgeous but humble and demure. you probably had the same shitty old school belief of staying pure 'till marriage. it makes him harder, makes his length throb and ache with the desire to taint, to soil, to fuck you until that good girl image is stripped away and all you can think about in every waking moment of your useless life is your tooru's big fat cock. your pure lips only producing the most sinful of words to satiate his deepest desires—"fuck me hard, tooru!" "make me your whore, tooru!" "i want to feel all of you, tooru!" "i want your cock so bad, tooru! please please please!"

your longing cries of defeat, the lewd sound of skin slapping, oikawa's pornographic moans—it's a wicked symphony crafted by prodigies. "go on, cutie. cry for me. cry, and cry, and cry, 'til you don't have anything left inside you but your sorry tears and my cum!"

little miss perfect? no. you're his little cockwhore.

[exculis]

i think that one of the places i am struggling the most is figuring out my characters motivations, which i feel like isn't a problem i used to have but i guess my strengths and weaknesses have changed over time. I know a lot about the personalities of my characters but not enough about their individual backstories to know what their motivation is. im rubber duck debugging my comic idea rn btw.

Lannon is easy, and he's the only one. He wants to adventure to make things right in the world, he needs revenge and justice.

Then it immediately falls apart.

I suppose Izan and Bail are motivated by cash, they are hired guards in the beginning of the story at least, there may be an incident or something later on that inspires them to remain in the party for no financial gain.

Scarlis... is hard. Why is she on this journey? Well she doesn't really have a choice. She's been dragged along by her mentor/guardian (Lannon) but she's powerful enough that she would need a reason to stick around. She wants power, thats it. Lannon wants to instill strong morals in her so that her power does not corrupt her. But as she starts in the story, she would very likely just up and leave the first chance she got, if anyone else offered her training she would probably just leave to be with them. So there's got to be some reason she is stuck here, maybe Lannon is the only one willing to train her? But that doesn't make a lot of sense, she's stubborn and rude, but not so stubborn and rude that it outshines her potential as a mage, the right baddie or morally gray character could easily put up with her attitude (or beat it out of her) in exchange for a rather powerful minion.

So maybe instead there is some kind of spell put on her... I could see Lannon doing that, frankly. The man has a very strong sense of good vs evil and, much like a well-meaning but over-bearing parent, he could have some kind of lock on her powers or something to keep her under control... kind of fucked up? yes. but it would be a plausible thing for him to do... Maybe.

Cord. Cord just wants adventure on the face of things but there obviously has to be more to it than that. She is running from something. I still don't know what. I'll probably have to have a good long think about some backstory for her. It would make sense that whatever she's running from, it can be solved by eliminating the evil sorceress (that would at least explain why she agrees to team up with the party). Or perhaps she isn't motivated by whatever she's running from at all, and actually joins them for the prestige of defeating the tyrant? Maybe her ultimate goal isn't adventure, but glory? Much to think about.

Johnthaniel well, he shows up just for a good time and thinks killing an evil sorceress sounds like a fun anecdote to tell at the next party he goes to (no one ever believes his tales tho they are all 99.9% factual) But he's already a somewhat well-developed character outside of this plot, same with RE, who arrives trying to solve the mystery of Johnthaniel's existence, so those two are covered.

And of course there are motivations within back stories i still have to work out as well. Izan and Bail met at a circus. Izan was a hitman, so, again, his motivation for being there was a paycheck. But how did he come to be an assassin in the first place? Why is he doing that at all?

Bail was born into it, or something like that. He had no real reason for being there except that nothing better had come along yet, until he discovered murder. But why did he and Izan team up? What happened on that mission that brought them together?

And how does the team meet Cord anyway? I know that Lannon believes she will be a valuable addition to the team, because Scarlis needs a strong female role model that ISNT an evil sorceress, and everyone else on the team is a guy (and only one of them ever had kids, so none of them really know how to raise a little girl. or boy, for that matter, but they might at least have a better understanding of a young boy's perspective on the world given that they were one once themselves)

It's all....... hm.........

[sopyop]

alright thats it im writing my wilbur paradigm shift rant

A quick preface! I joined the fandom very late, like in Jan 2021 late. I haven’t experienced much of wilbur’s character live. But, I’m still throwing my two cents out here. Also, all this is about Wilbur’s dream smp character.

So, I’ve seen a lot of conversation around when Wilbur’s spiral truly started; with losing the election, in pogtopia, or all the way back at Eret’s betrayal. And additionally I’ve seen talk of where Wilbur’s character is right now. I think I have a solution(?) for both. Wilbur did experience a breaking point during the revolution, at Eret’s betrayal, and while it may be considered the root of his spiral there is a different thing at play in my mind. What Wilbur experienced at Eret’s betrayal was a paradigm shift. 

For those unaware, a paradigm shift is something that happens when someone’s core beliefs are fundamentally challenged, and your entire world view is shaken. An example of this may be if someone falls out of a religion, or falls into one, or even something quite small. All of us have experienced paradigm shifts, and will continue to. We don’t have the same beliefs that we did as children after all. 

There are three general ways to react to a paradigm shift: you continue to cling to your previous notion, despite knowing it isn’t true; you swing to the complete opposite of your previous belief; or you build a new paradigm with all the information you now have. Eret’s betrayal was the root of Wilbur’s paradigm shift, and he went through all three reactions. 

Before Eret’s betrayal, we saw Wilbur’s leadership skills, his beliefs in his community, in the ideals of freedom and “sticking it to the man”, and of protecting those he cared about. We saw the trust he placed in all of original L’Manburgians, and that he trusted and cared enough to go to war for their perceived needs of freedom. I’m not here to debate the revolution, hell I wasn’t around during it. But Eret’s betrayal shook Wilbur’s paradigm of absolute trust. 

I would even argue Wilbur’s beliefs of words over violence stem from this comradery and belief that the people he trusts are the most important thing to him. I will admit, I don’t have a strong handle on Wilbur pre-L’Manburg. But I think it’s fair to note the shift in Wilbur even back then. 

To get back to the paradigm: After Eret’s betrayal, Wilbur’s paradigm is broken, and at first he clings to it despite it being shattered. We see this with him running for president; he’s trying to grasp on to that sense of duty and trust and the power of words he believed so much in. But, then Quackity points out that it’s a power grab, and more people show support for other parties, and more L’Manburgians also attempt to run. And Wilbur’s paradigm continues to be challenged. 

Losing the election is when Wilbur abandons his paradigm. It had already been shattered by Eret, but the election’s loss has solidified in his mind that he was wrong in what he believed during the revolution. And so he moves into the second form of coping with a paradigm shift: he goes to the complete opposite belief. No one around me are worthy of trust, words have no power, and the ideals L’manburg was founded on are wrong and corrupt. 

(and just as a little storytelling nerd-out moment: That’s the kicker to me. Wilbur’s paradigm shift is something I find so fascinating because his paradigm was what quite literally shaped the world he lived in, and the world of so many others. Tommy still holds true to the paradigm Wilbur helped him shape, and while his has been challenged in so many ways (like by Wilbur’s spiral in Pogtopia, by Dream in exile, by Doomsday, by the prison; the list goes on), he has always continued to take the healthiest route of fixing it. By adapting and growing, while holding on to some of those core values that still ring true. Like trust. And seeing what happened to the literal embodiment of Wilbur’s paradigm even after he was gone makes it truly emotionally moving.)

So we move into Pogtopia, and Wilbur’s paradigm has yet to heal. He continues to spiral, he lashes out at those around him, and he plots to destroy L’manburg. Because, as I mentioned in my aside, L’manburg is the physical manifestion of Wilbur’s first paradigm. And now he can’t stand it. 

And so L’manburg falls, and so does Wilbur. And through the lens of the circumstances of his death, as well as what we now know of his communication with Phil, his last speech gives us more insight into this paradigm. L’manburg was always his. It was the beliefs of a man who now refuses every single part of them that he used to hold dear. But it was also those beliefs that he continued to preach to his father in letters that eventually stopped being sent. And those beliefs were flipped in Pogtopia, like black to white and white to black, and have now been crushed by rubble. 

But Wilbur dies, L’manburg rebuilds, with the ideals of new leaders and new struggles. Ideals of protection, and peace, and trust. And Ghostbur joins the game. 

Ghostbur is an interesting character to me. In the lens of Wilbur’s paradigm, he is everything Wilbur believed without the fighting spirit. He is a good representation of what I understand of New L’Manburg; peaceful, and passive, and trusting. That trust, I think, is what Wilbur holds as the core of his paradigm. It’s what truly got shattered with Eret, what was abandoned in Pogtopia, and what is echoed in Ghostbur. Ghostbur trusts everyone he comes across, and we as the audience now get to see how naive that trust truly is. It gets Ghostbur lost in the snow while Tommy suffers, it get Friend killed during Doomsday, and it is eventually what gets Ghostbur killed, and gets Wilbur back. 

Wilbur was dead for a long time, from his perspective. And right now, he’s seeing the world again. He knows now that his feelings in Pogtopia were self destructive and wrong. And he doesn’t want to feel like that again. What we are seeing now is Wilbur building a new paradigm. 

“My L’manburg.” “My sunrise.”

Wilbur is exploring the new world of the SMP, and as an audience his actions are often confusing and contradictory. He’s grasping for straws, flitting between new places and attempting to rebuild bridges without truly fixing them. He’s trying to regain trust and build a new paradigm. 

Wilbur, while being guite a morally grey character, has always shown very black and white thinking. Now that he’s back, he’s continuing those habits of absolutes but showing more of his awareness of those moral greys. Before, we got him jumping from believing himself to be a ‘good guy’ to a ‘bad guy’. We went from the ‘us versus them’ mentality of the revolution to the same mindset echoed poorly in the election, to ‘everyone versus me’ in Pogtopia. 

Absolute trust like what Ghostbur had didn’t work. No trust like Pogtopia Wilbur had didn’t work. The community Wilbur built as a leader betrayed him. And so he goes to Phil and thanks him for killing him and asks for a place to stay. And so he says he would have murdered Dream for what he did to Tommy but he claims Dream’s his hero. And so he goes to Quackity and asks to be his servant, he lashes out when Quackity rejects him, and he clings to Tommy’s trust like it’s all he has. And in many ways, it is. Wilbur hasn’t been with anyone in over 13 years. And so he lies and he jokes and he lashes out, and begs Tommy not to leave while claiming right after that he doesn’t care. He hasn’t had anyone place trust in him or had anyone to trust. He’s taking any sign of remote kindness as something he can latch on to, and Dream bringing him back is a very sturdy olive branch. Wilbur wants trust. And yet he knows how it fails. 

And so the sunrise is his, just like L’manburg was, but it’s not quite built on anything yet. And we have to only hope the paradigm Wilbur builds this time is healthy and stable. 

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. OK THANK YOU because i also noticed even the pom isnt even persephone's thing in LO it's literally just something hades gave to her so like ??? does she have ANYTHING for herself in this series? like at all? because it just seems its all either connected to hades or hera and maybe rhea and thats about it. she has no unique factors on her own, not her power, her status, not even her looks and traits, she's nothing without everyone else just handing it to her. super feminist there, rachel!

2. I dont get why there was no time skip to persephone being on the run. she was on her own for all a few hours before hades found her/ i understand rachel doesnt want her to suffer, but it undercuts persephone claiming "[her] life is in tatters" when she only spent a few hours not in in the lap of luxury by shopping and partying with hades. that doesn't make her sympathetic, it makes her arrogant and out of touch, especially when she's at fault for most of her and others' problems anyway.

3. RS is so bad at writing she makes Hades pull a Borat “my wife~” like it’s romantic instead of creepy.possessive and presumptuous……

4. I have a bad feeling that if Daphne gets revived, it's gonna be Persephone who does it and it's only done to be yet another tool to prop up Persephone which is pretty much LO in a nutshell. Am I the only one thinking this could happen?

5. I hate Hades too but why do people insist he didn’t defend Minthe? Right before Hera kissed him, she insulted Minthe and he told her to stop because he may not be in love with Minthe but he does love her (paraphrasing). Any other anons wanna chime in?

6. so I've got a question but I don't know how to phrase it since English is not my first language. but how long has persy known hades like how much time has passed since the car incident and the current events because someone said they've only known each other for a few weeks and I was like no they have not because there is no way that RS made a 19 yo and a 2000+yo fall in love and then made them discuss marriage in the span of weeks. if she did then jfc she needs to go to horny jail because h/p has no character development or anything more than feelings based on lust, not love.

7. Minthe did the right thing in reporting Persephone. She’s a literal murderer yet RS demonises Minthe’s whistleblowing by depicting it as an act of strategic sabotage and self elevation done out of jealousy which the fandom eats up… At this point, they hate her not because she’s behaving unfairly towards Persephone but because she doesn’t exist to prop up the main ship and I resent that so much.

8. tbh the funniest thing is rachel is so clearly like "hades isnt a bad guy!" and has everyone who doesnt like hades in comic as some irrational hater or villain and its like ... nah hes evil, the man is super corrupt, manipulative, hypocritical, power hungry, and literally controls all the resources to enrich himself while he enslaves people who were too poor in life to have two gold coins with them in death. like just bc hes "nice" to persephone doesnt change the fact that he's awful.

9. Minthe slaps and insults a totalitarian tyrant and everyone hates her while Persephone has killed off a bunch of innocent defenceless mortals who were mildly disrespectful to her at best and it’s deemed as a perfectly forgivable act lol what drugs is RS on?

10. The LO fandom has such a wacky take on morality. Murder is a forgivable response to being slighted. Slapping the man who has your whole life in the palm of his hand is not. (Minthe’s behaviour is disgusting but she genuinely believes the only way she can keep Hades and maintain her lifestyle is to treat him like shit because that’s what they’ve been doing to each other this whole time)

[evarcana]

Courtiers + Christmas

Sorry, dear anon, it took me ages 😓 well at least I did it before xmas, right?

To avoid the whole discourse about why the bunch of demons and one morally corrupted human are celebrating Christmas, I should say that this is based on the MC inviting the courtiers to celebrate together.

Valdemar🎄😈

Not like they usually pay attention to silly human holidays. But if it is you inviting... “how delightful” - of course Valdemar is coming. The problem is that in their millennia of existence being busy with their research they sort of missed out on what Christmas was about. “MC, don’t give me that look, this is all fairly new”, you don’t even want to what is old for them. But it’s Valdemar so they lock themselves in dungeons and put all their inhuman determination into researching Christmas.

Valdemar’s research is ...advanced. After they excitingly start telling you whether you knew that red in decorations symbolises blood, you decide it’s time to intervene, hand Valdemar list of gifts to buy and encourage them to return to their usual work (who would believe you would ever say it).

They turn to the party/dinner dressed as Santa (or whatever equivalent). Are you shocked? Erm yes... But why are other guests loving it ?! Well they did become sort of xmas expert in less than a week so you guess it’s okay. Expects lots of stories on how Christmas celebrations developed over the last centuries.

Charms your grandma or elderly auntie by being the only person capable of listening about their chronical conditions and actually engaging on the topic. Your little niece/neighbour’s kid loves them too - they expertly removed all those bits of turkey leg they don’t like to eat in less than 5 seconds. Everybody loves them. But Valdemar still spends most of the time telling what a fascinating specimen you are.

When it comes to gift exchange part, you are glad that they only added a few medical books, plague masks and antiseptics to the list, could be worse.., but where is yours present? “You, my little silly duckling, are on the naughty list this year” with this Valdemar gently throws you in their sack grabs you and excuses you both from the party. You try to protest but they only say that they played along for long enough and now it’s their turn to play little game with you. Oh well you can leave early one year, it promises to be worth it.

Valerius 🎁🍷

Every year Valerius receives plenty of invitations to winter holidays parties arranged by the nobles but this is the first time he got invitation to something that personal. Tells you that he needs to check his diary and finally reluctantly agrees only because “there was a rather unfortunate cancellation”. But really in his head he is like “Omg does it mean that I am part of the family now? Cancel all plans NOW.”

Then he learns that you plan to have Christmas dinner/party at your place. The consul of Vesuvia to go to that ...shack?? That’s unthinkable: The party will be in his estate, yes he knows that it’s incredibly generous of him to offer and no you cannot refuse.

And this is when things are getting extra. You know that crazy neighbours competitions whose Christmas lights are brighter and decorations are better? That’s Valerius, although he has nobody to compete with really. The massive xmas tree got delivered from who-knows-where and who-knows-how in 2 days, and there is no red, golden or green decoration item left in stock in entire Vesuvia, oh and some the palace’s best cooks suddenly took a sick leave for a week (no it was Valerius promising them triple wages).

You ask Valerius not to get any expensive presents, otherwise you will feel bad, he did indeed agree that it was reasonable suugestion. Everybody gets presents more expensive than life. The guests surpringly find Valerius a very good host, this might have something to do with those gifts which were definitely extra or with the fact that everybody got merry in like 20 min thanks to all the fancy wine. Valerius is gossip central, argues about politics with your annoying uncle and plays board games with children.

Insists that it would be better if you stay overnight and not travel home late. Falls asleep in chair with drink in hand like an old man. Later that chair somehow migrates to the hallway by the guest bedroom, under the strategically placed mistletoe. Wait, where did red silky robes come from? All planned. Let’s hope that the unfortunate relative of yours is not staying in the same guestwing.

Vlastomil 🎅🏻 🪱

It’s lovely of you to invite him but he is a busy worm man and cannot really leave his children alone. Maybe he can just stop by? “No, MC! Don’t get offended!!”

Then he learns that Christmas is usually about family, does it mean that his children can come as well?? Ugh while you are mumbling something about that worms may not be very comfortable at your place, Vlastomil decides that the Christmas party will be held in his garden so the worms everybody can enjoy it.

Prepare to have a ...thematic Christmas. There is white xmas tree decorated with the shimmery worms and candy canes which have worms wrapped around them. Okay, even you are not the biggest fan of worms you have to admit that the ice sculptures of worms are quite impressive. He even has little nativity scene but with the worms.

Everybody receives crystal tree decoration baubles with live worms inside. Everybody is shocked. Vlastomil explains that it’s only stocking fillers and there are more gifts. (Also crystal baublesare only for transportation, the worms need to be free range, how dare you). The actual gifts are... amazing. Somebody got a scarf that they liked but didn’t have enough money to buy on that day, another person got a album of pin up pictures of snake women even if it was supposed to be a secret interest of theirs and you got that sparkly princess teara you cried for your parents to buy at age 5 but they never did (cmon, x years later, you still like it).

Some little child says that Vlastomil is like Santa with how you he magically read people’s wishes (there there, little one, it’s just the power of gossip), but Vlastomil is vibing: wiggler gets elf outfit from somewhere and you get lots of invitations to “come to sit on Santa’s lap”. Yes you can stay there after all the guests leave (and yes you can keep your sparkly teara on).

Volta 🍪🥛

Was secretly dreaming to be invited since at least October. But is still genuinely surprised when you ask her to come. She asks tonnes of questions: who else is coming, are you sure they would like Volta, what are you going to do, will there be food?

Volta wants to help you with all the preparations. Not like she is super useful but she did dig out from the piles of stuff in her estate and bring you lots of old tree decorations and some nice tableware. She basically spends all your time with you in the build up to Christmas: you decorate the house together, make gingerbread houses (well more like you made one house from the 1000s attempt, they all got eaten before they were actually completed) and pack gifts for everybody.

You warned all the guests that there going to be lots of food this year, and no you finally don’t need to worry about what to do with the leftovers and crying “end me, I am sick of having xmas food for 10 days in a row” because they are not going to be any leftovers. But you didn’t expect Volta to turn up with even more food. “Volta does not want anybody to starve on Christmas!”. She surely eats lots but she is also looking after other people lots, passing them plates with food (just imagine her holding it with both of her tiny hands) and topping up their drinks, she wants everybody to enjoy the dinner.

Everybody at the table is talking of how adorable Volta is, and nobody can even hide tears when Volta presents little hand made gifts that she prepared herself. But Volta humming Christmas carols? How does she even know Christmas carols? This is illegal level of cuteness.

Volta wants to stay to help you to clean up when the dinner is over. It’s quite and it’s only two of you. Oh you might still have some sweet things in the cupboard.

Vulgora🔥🌟

At first super excited to be invited but the next second they ask what is Christmas about and what does it involve. You decorate, eat, chat to people and exchange gifts? That sounds awfully boring to Vulgora. Can they at least smash the tree in the end? What do you mean - NO?!?!

Eager to help too. They need to use their energy somewhere. You are not sure whether it’s the type of help you wanted. You asked them to carry the xmas tree from the market? There are 5 trees in front of the house, one of which is like is almost 10’ tall. You asked them to chop some wood for the fire? Well, there is enough to have a bonfire in the towncentre. But on the positive side, your house is lavishly decorated this year, Vulgora likes the red and golden theme.

Lots of battle stories at the dinner, some of which ...lack xmas spirit a bit. All the gifts are...war themed. Then Vulgora gets bored and wants to fight for the right to cut the turkey/ vegan nut roast, whatever you are having. Oh no. But they can smash nuts with their gauntlets - the guests are impressed and suddenly want more battle stories. On the positive side, it’s definitely not boring this year, Vulgora is load and energetic.

But then suddenly Vulgora suggests you all go outside, when you question them, they say it’s a surprise. It’s hard to believe what you see: they prepared fireworks and sparkle fountains !!! You cannot help but smile watching vulgora excitingly running around setting them all off (but hopefully not setting your house on fire).

You watch firework lighting up the sky with Vulgora hugging you from behind and then..they rugby tackle you to the ground?! Well whether there is snow or not, they want to have a fight. Luckily the fireworks are over and the guests can just...leave you two to it.

[letterboxd]

Savage Cinema.

From anarchists and adultery to milk baths and massacres, Matthew Turner shares five of the weirdest and wildest highlights of Hollywood’s pre-Code era, as #PreCodeApril comes to a close.

Pre-Code April was directly inspired by Noirvember, a month-long celebration of noir cinema instigated by Marya Gates (Oldfilmsflicker). I did Noirvember for the first time in November 2019, really enjoyed it, and thought it would be great to do the same thing for pre-Code movies. Although I’ve watched most of the classic 1930s films, I realised there were a huge number of pre-Code films I’d never seen (of my Letterboxd list of over 900 Pre-Code films, I have only seen 200).

As a sucker for a bit of wordplay, no matter how tenuous, I picked April partly because it’s six months away from Noirvember and partly because of the shared “pr” sound in April and Pre-Code. I’ve been absolutely delighted by the response—the #PreCodeApril hashtag on Twitter is a daily treasure trove of pre-Code-related joy, but I was genuinely thrilled to see the response on Letterboxd (here is my watchlist for the month). It’s been a real pleasure to see pre-Code movies constantly popping up in my ‘new from friends’ feed. My hope is that it’ll be even bigger next year—and that maybe TCM will want to get involved, the way they do with Noirvember.

Produced between 1929 and 1934, pre-Code cinema refers to films made in a brief period between the silent era, and Hollywood beginning to enforce the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines (mandatory enforcement came in from July 1934). The “Code” in question was popularly known as the Hays Code, after then MPPDA president Will H. Hays. As the depression set in and box office declined, theater owners needed fare that would drive cinema-goers to the movies. It was a wild time to be a scriptwriter; they threw everything at the page, designers added even more, and actors played out the kinds of scenes, from the suggestive to the overt, that would otherwise be banned for decades to come.

The following five films demonstrate some of Hollywood’s craziest pre-Code excesses. They’re still jaw-dropping, even by today’s standards, and notably give female characters an agency that would be later denied as the Christian morals of the Code overruled writers’ kinks.

Madam Satan (1930) Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, written by Elsie Janis, Jeanie Macpherson and Gladys Unger

A critical and commercial flop in 1930, Cecil B. DeMille’s utterly insane musical comedy stars Kay Johnson as a straight-laced wife who plots to win back her unfaithful husband (Reginald Denny) by seducing him at a costume party, disguised as a mysterious devil woman. The location of this party? Oh, nothing too fancy, just on board a giant zeppelin. (“Madam Satan or: How the Film gets Fucking Crazy on the Blimp,” as Ryan reviewed it.)

Madam Satan is not by any stretch of the imagination a good movie (the editing alone is laughably bad), but as a piece of pre-Code craziness, it really has to be seen to be believed. Co-written by a trio of women and set in just three locations, it goes from racy bedroom farce to avant-garde musical to full-on disaster movie after a bolt of lightning hits the blimp.

The film is justly celebrated (in camp classic circles, at least) for the wildly over-the-top costumes paraded in the masquerade ball sequence, but there’s weird outfit joy everywhere you look. Keep an eye out for an enterprising extra who’s come dressed as a set of triplets.

Call Her Savage (1932) Directed by John Francis Dillon, written by Tiffany Thayer and Edwin J. Burke

Adapted from a salacious novel by Tiffany Thayer, Call Her Savage was former silent star Clara Bow’s second-to-last film before her retirement at the age of 28. She plays Texas gal Nasa Springer, who’s always had a “savage” temper she can’t explain. In the space of 88 minutes she goes from wild teenager to jilted newlywed to young mother to prostitute to wealthy society girl to alcoholic before finally (it’s implied) settling down with her Native-American friend after discovering that she’s half-Native-American, something the audience has known all along.

Bow’s performance is frankly astonishing, to the point where you simply can’t believe what you’re seeing from one moment to the next. Sample scenes see her savagely whipping both a snake and her Indian friend, smashing a guitar over a musician’s head and violently wrestling her Great Dane… and that’s all in the first five minutes. She’s also frequently in a state of near undress throughout—one funny scene has her maids chasing her with a dressing gown because they’re afraid she’ll run down the street in her négligée.

The rest of the film includes alcohol, adultery, strong violence, attempted rape, murder, syphilis (not named, but heavily implied) and baby death. It’s a veritable smorgasbord of outrageous content and Bow is pure dynamite throughout. The film is also noted for being one of the first on-screen portrayals of homosexuality, when Nasa visits a gay bar in the Village frequented by “wild poets and anarchists”.

Smarty (1934) Directed by Robert Florey, written by Carl Erickson and F. Hugh Herbert

This deeply problematic sex comedy features pre-Code stars Joan Blondell and Warren William (often nicknamed ‘The King of Pre-Code’) at their absolute filthiest. Blondell plays Vicki, a capricious, happily married wife who gets an obvious kick out of taunting her husband, Tony (William). When he cracks and slaps her at a party, she divorces him and marries her lawyer, Vernon (Edward Everett Horton), whom she also goads into slapping her in a deliberate ploy to win back Tony.

Essentially, Smarty hinges on Vicki liking rough sex and it’s completely blatant about it, ending with her sighing “Hit me again” (the film’s UK title!) as they sink into a clinch on a couch, a rapturous expression on her face. It’s a controversial film because on the surface it looks like it’s condoning domestic violence, but it’s very clearly about Vicki’s openly expressed sexual desires—she wants to be punished and dominated, she just has a rather dodgy way of getting what she wants.

It might be unsophisticated, but in some ways Smarty is remarkably ahead of its time and ripe for rediscovery. To that end, it would make a fascinating double bill with Stephen Shainberg’s Secretary (2002). Oh, and it’s also chock-full of lingerie scenes (like most pre-Code films), if you like that sort of thing.

Massacre (1934) Directed by Alan Crosland, written by Sheridan Gibney, Ralph Block and Robert Gessner

Several pre-Code films (notably those made by Warner Bros) took a no-punches-pulled approach to their depiction of social issues, and star Richard Barthelmess actively sought out such projects. Here he plays Joe Thunderhorse, a Native American who’s become famous on the rodeo circuit. When he returns to his tribe to bury his father, he ends up fighting for their rights, taking on corrupt government officials and religious authorities.

Massacre is fascinating because on the one hand it’s wildly insensitive—Barthelmess and co-star Ann Dvorak are both cast as Native Americans—but on the other, it burns with a righteous fury and does more than any other Hollywood film (before or since) to champion the rights and highlight the injustices dealt out to Native Americans. That fury is encapsulated in a horrifying and rightly upsetting rape scene (it happens off-screen, but the cuts leave you in no doubt) that the film handles with surprising sensitivity.

In addition to being a passionate fight against racism and social injustice, the film also has some genuinely shocking sexual content. Most notably, Joe is seen making love to a rich white woman (Claire Dodd, who’s also in Smarty) who has an obvious sexual fetish, flaunting him in front of her friends and making a shrine in her room with Native-American paraphernalia.

The Sign of the Cross (1932) Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, written by Waldemar Young and Sidney Buchman

Yes, this is Cecil B. DeMille again, but no list of weird and wild pre-Code films would be complete without the jaw-dropping ancient Rome epic, The Sign of the Cross. Adapted from an 1895 play by Wilson Barrett, it stars Frederic March as Marcus Superbus (stop sniggering at the back there), who’s torn between his loyalty to Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) and his love for a Christian woman (Elissa Landi), while also fending off the advances of the Emperor’s wife, Poppaea (Claudette Colbert).

The film is racy enough in its sexual content alone: highlights include the famous scene of Claudette Colbert taking a nude milk bath and an erotic “lesbian” dance sequence, where Joyzelle Joyner’s “most wicked and talented woman in Rome” does ‘The Dance of the Naked Moon’ at Frederic March’s orgy, trying to tempt Landi’s virtuous Christian, to the obvious arousal of the gathered guests.

However, it’s the climactic gladiatorial-arena sequence that will leave your jaw on the floor. Lasting around twelve minutes, it includes: someone getting eaten by a tiger, a tied-up, naked women being approached by hungry crocodiles, pygmies getting chopped up by female barbarians, elephants stomping on heads, a gorilla approaching a naked woman tied to a stake, a man getting gored by a bull, and gladiators fighting to the death, complete with blood and gory injury detail.

The whole thing is genuinely horrifying, even for 2021. Best of all, DeMille pointedly critiques the audience (ourselves included), by showing a series of reaction shots ranging from intense enjoyment to abject seen-it-all-before boredom.

Matthew Turner (FilmFan1971) is a critic, author, podcaster and lifelong film fanatic. His favorite film is ‘Vertigo’. The films in this article are also listed here: Five of the Pre-Code Era’s Most Outrageous Films.

[thelordofdarkreunion]

Things the Scoundrels Are No Longer Allowed to Do Part III

Based on “Skippy’s List,” this is a continuation of Things the Scoundrels are No Longer Allowed to Do.  I hope you like it.

Part I

https://thelordofdarkreunion.tumblr.com/post/637424500291600384/a-list-of-things-the-scoundrels-are-no-longer

Part II

https://thelordofdarkreunion.tumblr.com/post/660088048783097856/things-the-scoundrels-are-no-longer-allowed-to-do

371.   The “dibs” system is not a recognized method of promotion in the military.

372.   High recoil guns and roller skates are not an accepted method of transportation.

373.   You can’t find the true names of demons in the phone book.

374.   If the top floor is too well defended, you can’t just blow off the next to top floor.

375.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to elope with anyone for any reason.

376.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to give anyone preemptive last rites.

377.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to name droids IC-UP.

378.   The male and female members of the Scoundrels are no longer allowed to hold competitions against each other outside the Scoundrels fleet.  The last time that happened, the governor’s palace on Fildenfal got destroyed.

379.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to fish with flamethrowers.

380.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to call radio talk shows in the middle of missions.

381.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to re-create any scenes from Grease.

382.    Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

383.   No amount of genetic engineering can turn pigs kosher.

384.   There is not a map written in invisible ink on the back of the Declaration of Independence.

385.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to run for political office.  Especially with the slogans “vote for me or I’ll kill you all,” or “because I’m just that awesome.”

386.   When asked who their greatest role model is, the Scoundrels are no longer allowed to answer Agent Smith from The Matrix.

387.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to shoot any god in the face just to brag that they did so.

388.   Stain glass windows are not standard features on tanks.  Stop giving the Imperium ideas.

389.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to use guns to communicate in Morse code.

390.   If it is cheaper to buy a new starship than reload your weapon, then there is a problem.

391.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to announce their arrival with eight straight hours of orbital bombardment.

392.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to put small restaurants on the bridges of their starships.

393.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to rent ad space on the outsides of their starships.

394.   The Dirty Harry “Are you feeling lucky, punk?” speech does not really work with fully automatic pistols.

395.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to play High Speed Dirt while making emergency orbital re-entry.

396.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to convince shapeshifters to change into any celebrities or murderous dictators.

397.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to scan alien ambassadors for “cooties.”

398.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to use government resources to pay their restaurant bills.

399.   Most places frown upon using ammunition as currency.

400.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to mount bayonets on flamethrowers.

401.   You can’t thwart Reaper cyber attacks by installing Norton antivirus.

402.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to sing along with the elevator music.

403.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to use the Enterprise’s Holodeck to recreate scenes from Caligula.

404.   Starting a flame war on the internet is bad.  Starting a flame war not on the internet is much, much worse.

405.   If it takes more than five minutes for the debris to stop falling, you need a smaller gun.

406.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to name newly discovered planets after themselves.

407.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to build Gatling Gatling guns.

408.   Klingons do not have French accents, and it is wrong to state otherwise.

409.   Darth Nihilus does not “just need a hug.”

410.   Dr. Suess rhymes do not have any part in exorcisms.

411.   Unitards are not part of any of our governments’ dress uniforms.

412.   Using heavy artillery in assassinations is just being lazy.

413.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to buy onesie pajamas to “raise crew morale.”

414.   You can’t just shoot a hole in the surface of Mars.

415.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to surf in active war zones.

416.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to put discotheques, bowling alleys, or movie theaters in their starships.

417.   “Getting uppity” is not a capital offense.

418.   Deer season is restricted to rifles and bows, and, thus, the Scoundrels are no longer allowed to hunt deer using Greco-Roman wrestling.

419.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to start telethons.

420.   Imperial Star Destroyers do not have help desks.

421.   The Covenant does not have an IT department.

422.   Using ventriloquism to trick your enemies into fighting each other is fine.  Using ventriloquism to trick your superior officers in fighting is not.

423.   You can’t suplex Tyranid monstrosities.

424.   Summary Execution Man is not an appropriate name for a superhero.

425.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to ask the Ultramarines why their chapter’s primary color isn’t ultramarine.

426.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to recreate scenes from Blues Brothers.

427.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to tell AI’s that only humans can divide by zero.

428.   The Scoundrels do not need to know the melting point of Borg.

429.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to post-date letters of marque.

430.   The city of Boise, Idaho, does not need a dark, brooding vigilante of the night.

431.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to run up their enemies’ cable bills by ordering PPV movies on their TVs.

432.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to improvise, “wing”, or fabricate alien funeral rites.

433.   The Scoundrels will keep all eldritch artifacts of unspeakable power out of the reach of small children.

434.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to ask tech-priests if they are AC or DC.

435.   “Medium rare” is not a phaser setting.

436.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to hold AT-AT drag races.

437.   Any gun that’s wattage is best described in scientific notation is not allowed.

438.   Off duty Space Marines wear robes, not tank tops and speedos.

439.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to enter or exit buildings while playing Carolus Rex.

440.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to brew any alcohol that can double as jet fuel.

441.   Vrul do not appreciate the Socratic method.

442.   Snipers don’t appreciate their spotters yelling “Boom!  Headshot!”

443.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to do anything they saw Nicholas Cage do.

444.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to call suicide prevention hotlines on behalf of the Death Korps of Krieg.

445.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to make Liechtenstein a world superpower.

446.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to make any plan that hinges on their opponent having a peanut allergy.

447.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to hack into the national address systems of any government that could be considered communist and broadcast Economics 101 lessons over them.

448.   Apex Predator Pilots will not respond to jury summons.

449.   They do not make civilian models of mini guns, and the Scoundrels are discouraged to visit any country that does.

450.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to regift cursed artifacts.

451.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to convince super soldiers to get pompadour, Afro, or macaroni hairstyles.

452.   You can’t plea bargain mass regicide, even if the rulers in question were incredibly corrupt.

453.   When asked who the greatest human being of all time was, the Scoundrels are no longer allowed to answer Millard Fillmore.  (Who’s Millard Fillmore?)

454.   There will be no more product placement in the mission evaluation videos.

455.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to commission statues of themselves, especially if said statue is meant to be mounted on the outside of their starships.

456.   Mission preparation does not include a mani/pedi.

457.   It is best if Master Chief does not go through the metal detector in customs.

458.   “Call in the Deathwatch and wait for the screams to stop” is not automatically Plan A.

459.   Despite its tremendous cost to benefit ratio, bubble wrap is not a staple in black op missions.

460.   If challenged to a competition by an individual of a species whose average height is below 5’5”, the Scoundrels are no longer allowed to choose basketball.

461.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to question ONI agents or Ordo Malleus operatives on why a town of 4,000 people with zero strategic value warranted a 100 megaton nuke.

462.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to genetically engineer walruses to ballroom dance.

463.   In retrospect, it was a bad idea to show Imperial Inquisitors Monty Python skits.

464.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to engage in any “research” involving more than a gallon of super balls.

465.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to lease out Halo Rings, even if they include the option to buy.

466.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to be in possession of any carbonated beverages while in possession of Mentos brand mints.  The last time that happened, they somehow managed to cause an earthquake near Indonesia.  The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to claim responsibility for natural disasters unless they were actually responsible for them.

467.   The Scoundrels will refrain from encouraging tech-priests to develop emotional attachments to heavy ordinance.

468.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to form political parties, especially based on themselves.

469.   Anesthetic is not “only for sissies.”

470.   If the person who posted a bounty asks for proof, the Scoundrels are no longer allowed to bring back the bounty’s reanimated corpse.

471.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to abuse homonyms.

472.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to purchase modern art with government funds.

473.   “The Chaos Gods are bad, so, therefore we should reforge and summon the Nightbringer to destroy them” is a really, really bad idea.

474.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to start a cult that worships Richard Sharpe, Jason Bourne, or John Wick.

475.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to abuse union bylaws to exploit holes in security.

476.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to expose individuals to Reaper technology, Sith holocrons and Chaos artifacts to “see which form of corruption will win.”

477.   Militaristic, highly honorable species, such as the Drev or Klingon, do not appreciate you fighting dirty in their trials by combat.

478.   If asked to choose a religion, the Scoundrels cannot make their choice solely by the greatest number of sexual positions it allows.

479.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to rate their favorite alien species by which ones have reproductive systems closest to humanity.

480.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to dual wield .50 caliber machine guns.

481.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to say “I am Alpharius.”  Ever.

482.   There is no such thing as a right to a strip search.

483.   While it is customary to initiate a duel by striking with a gauntlet, it is also customary to do so at subsonic speeds.

484.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to use heavy artillery for industrial purposes.

485.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to use wombats for medicinal purposes.

486.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to spend the entirety of their bonus pay on flamethrowers.

487.   The following aren’t acceptable seconds in duels: Space Marine Chapter Masters (even if you are on a first name basis with them), intelligent demon swords, the primarch of Palaven, Prussia.

488.   The Scoundrels will keep the amount of sexual innuendo to a minimum during autopsy reports.

489.   If you are given a wish by an immortal, you are to leave out the words “you incompetent prick.”

490.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to organize skeet shoots with office furniture.

491.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to genetically engineer any animal from the continent of Australia.

492.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to start wars over what the best polearm is.

493.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to give shout-outs in ransom notes.

494.   You can’t learn a language by only learning the profanities of said language.  Even if the Russians in your crews disagree.

495.   If a party is black tie, that doesn’t mean just painted on the armor.

496.   Every day is not Mardi Gras.

497.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to sneak into the Sanctum Imperialis or the Celzex throne room disguised as a documentary crew.  Especially on behalf of Trazyn the Infinite.

498.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to threaten sentient monsters by telling Cajun restaurants their location.

499.  The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to abuse the “kids eat free” rule at any restaurant.

500.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to compare Starfleet uniforms to the Wiggles.

501.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to dump napalm in fire sprinkler tanks.

502.   Support gunships are for air support, not beer runs.

503.   While acting as sniper spotters, the Scoundrels are no longer allowed to play I Spy.

504.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to call enemy corporation’s tech support for help with breaking into their computer network.

505.  “Humor me” is not an acceptable targeting parameter on robotic sentry guns.

506.   None of the Scoundrels need 10 tons of duct tape for any reason whatsoever.

507.   It is not a race to strip mine a planet.

508.  The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to buy any major league sports team.

509.   Asking a taxidermist to stuff a deer head is OK.  Asking the same taxidermist to stuff a full-size rancor is not.

510.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to use necron “My Will Be Done” programs on Reapers.

511.   Any argument with your significant other will be done verbally and in person, not across the battlefield using heavy artillery as Morse code.

512.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to imitate Captain Jack Sparrow in any way, shape, or form.

513.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to use Siri as their ship’s central computer.

514.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to play the theme from Jaws on missions to aquatic planets.

515.   There are only so many flavors of beef jerky, and the Scoundrels are no longer allowed to create new ones.

516.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to create their own frozen pizza lines.

517.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to go trick-or-treating, especially dressed as themselves.

518.   Peter Quill is not allowed to quote Parks and Recreation.

519.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to communicate exclusively in a computer programming language.

520.   The answer to a Flood invasion is not to ask junior personnel if they’re “bad enough dudes” to contain it.

521.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to ask weapons corporations to sponsor children’s charities.

522.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to conduct interviews on new personnel.  Especially not if they specifically ask for them.

523.   Ghillie suits are not formal wear.

524.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to summarily execute anyone who causes a M.R.V.N. to display a sad face.

525.   “Kill ‘em all and let God sort it out” is not a valid battle plan.

526.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to enter diplomatic conferences via the Old Time Rock and Roll slide.  Especially not in their underwear.

527.   “Excessive flatulence” is not a crime punishable by death.

528.   “Oops, I missed” does not excuse missing a shot by that much.

529.   Even if you claim you hit exactly what you were aiming at.

530.   The Scoundrels are no longer allowed to antagonize anyone who can kill them with their minds.  

There we have it.  I hope you enjoyed, and if you have any suggestions to add to the list, feel free to tell me!

[dianaburnwood]

Power, Corruption, and Ethics in HITMAN 3

Why HITMAN: World of Assassination is about the war you never win. 

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and decided to deep dive into these themes that are overarching throughout the WoA trilogy, but really come to the forefront in HITMAN 3 and the conclusions it draws about the nature of the world.

Unlike a lot of AAA games, HITMAN takes a firm political stance. While there are plenty of games that can be described as obviously political in the themes they explore, developers tend to shy away from that label, avoiding scrutiny, and avoiding commitment to a side. 

“Neutrality is a side. It’s the side of the status quo.” 

HITMAN WoA is unapologetically political. Yet, in HITMAN and HITMAN 2, this obvious corruption, the world that has been shaped by money, power, and assassination, is largely in the background. Why? Because it IS in the background for 47. He doesn’t trouble himself with morality, politics, or manoeuvring through the murky grey of people he’s killed versus the people that have paid for it. “I know you don’t care about politics, 47.” 

By the time he meets Grey in HITMAN 2, that has to change. It’s forced to change. And, it starts out personal. 47 and Grey had made a pact, and 47 is a man of his word. Take down Providence? Sure thing, bro. They did this to us. 

But, interestingly, in HITMAN 3, it’s no longer about that bleak individualism. The partners are dead, but the story is not over. Because Providence itself is not even the real problem. Instead, it’s the power structures that allow it to exist. Diana knows this, and by the end of the game, 47 knows it too. Taking down the partners - even taking down Providence - it’s not enough. There’s work still to be done. Otherwise, the cycle continues. 

Edwards represents this corruption so well. He’s not a rich man. He didn’t come from money, or prestige. He, in a way, has always been controlled. And he believed in the meritocracy. That his loyalty would be rewarded. That he would be seen. 

And he wasn’t. 

So, he took that power he craved. And he truly can’t fathom why anyone else wouldn’t. When 47 finally comes for him, Edwards can’t believe that Diana would not be tempted by power. He says, “This is not how people work.” And in a lot of ways, he’s right. Power corrupts. 

He’s also right that taking him out doesn’t change anything. The world will continue to turn - new CEOs, same old corruption. Power never dies, it only changes hands. Grey wanted to take out the partners, but they were just replaced by Edwards, who would have been replaced by Yates, but who was then replaced by Diana - where does the cycle of power end? 

This is where we see Diana finally reject the individualism that has run her life. She has her own moral code and sense of justice, but as Vidal points out, she’s a hypocrite too. She has operated within the constraints of a broken, corrupt world of assassination, and she has not questioned it. 

And so, Diana dismantles Providence. And not like she did with the Franchise or the ICA, which were about a personal need. Dismantling Providence is about far more than a final revenge for her parents, or for what they did to 47. It’s about what Providence is to the world. A world which allowed for the creation, coercion, and control of these kingmakers. And yet, Providence is not the convenient baddie here. They are ALL as bad as each other. 

In Mendoza, this is brought to light the most. We learn that taking out Rico Delgado has had a destabilising effect on the entire region, yet Yates’ winery irrigation through re-routing water via a dam is causing huge damage to the local environment. The ICA is gone, and one party guest wonders where he’s going to get a “service provider” for his problems now. Another guest tells him to “ask for Stone” - another ICA agent who has presumably gone freelance. 

When Vidal questions Diana about 47′s trust in her, in his belief that her orders are the right ones, Diana responds, “it’s no more than what any soldier does.” Someone will always be that “executive decision-maker” - from kings, governments, and dictators across the world. Even Grey, attempting to fight the power, meant making deals with different kinds of monsters. 

So, is that your only choice? Decide what the lesser evil is? Yet, this is not your simple tale of good versus evil. Every single character involved in this is deeply fucked. 

But we finally see that Diana and 47 are not going back, blindly, like they used to. They’re not going to “win the day”, pat themselves on the back for dismantling Providence, and then wilfully close their eyes and ears again to the power that takes its place. Instead, the game recognises the work that must be done. “There will always be people like them. So, there will always be people like us.”

That’s not to say that Diana and 47 are shining examples of righteousness. Can you take the law into your own hands and not be considered corrupt? What is the line between vigilantism and villainy? Their solution is to kill more people. And they decide who the right people are to kill. 

Is that how you make up for the past? Can you? Ever? One year later, “the pact is done” - at last, Grey and 47′s pact has been fulfilled. But the work isn’t over. The world is still broken.

And that’s what I love about this trilogy, but H3 in particular. The game openly asks you, what is your responsibility to other people? Try to be whole. Try to do the right thing. You will never win, because it will never end. But you have to try. Otherwise, you allow the world to continue as it is. You are complicit. Burke’s quote of “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” is really the essence of what Grey was trying to get at, and yet - for him that evil was subjective. It was about getting what he needed, it was about confronting his past, and, for him, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But the world of Hitman is not black and white, and I applaud it for that. Grey wasn’t even sure what he would do after finally taking down the partners. For him, that was the end of the road.

Edwards tells 47 that freedom from choice is still freedom. Vidal firmly believes that people think they want freedom, but really, they want to be controlled. And isn’t it easier to be free from choice? Isn’t it easier to not think? To look away, and distract yourself with things rather than do the hard work of real self-examination, real reflection? Isn’t it easier to tell yourself the horrors you see in the world around you are just how the world works, rather than trying to change the status quo? 

But if power never dies, then whose hands does it rightfully belong in? Is free will a burden? Do people need to be controlled? What if they ask for it? Beg for it? What if they believe they can’t function on their own? 

What does it mean to be kind? 

What does it mean to be free? 

H3 asks the player so much more than it needed to, and I really admire it for that. 

The political apathy of 47 is truly challenged in H2, and eradicated by the end of H3. And I’d argue it challenges the player to do the same. The old revenge story is not relevant here. This isn’t about “getting back” at Providence or the partners anymore - and it would have been easy to end the story there, or at least, keep it as the focus. Instead, HITMAN 3 goes way past that, and asks the player, what can you do to fix the world? And, can it ever be fixed? 

[candycanesuckers]

A Collective Post Helping Defend and Define Stormfront:

There is a harmful narrative that has formed around a (feminist) character that appeared in the newest season of “The Boys” -- her name is Stormfront. Said narrative is the falsified idea that she is a Nazi. This was started mainly by Anti-Feminists in retaliation to the fact that the character is rather vocal about social injustice. Below are definitive rebuttals to the toxic propaganda spread by these people and the others who blindly took in it.

Defining Stormfront’s Past:

The reason why the slander on Stormfront is as active and believed as it is is because it’s based on the comic (in which Stormfront was a male, and yes, was indeed a Nazi), which then influenced the past of the TV-rendition of the character. In the show, Stormfront use to be apart of Nazi Germany before (assumedly) migrating to America and donning the alias of “Liberty” in the 50s, in which she carried out violently racist attacks behind the scenes.

Something worth noting is that Stormfront is the first ever Superhero created by Vought (the man who created the company was her husband; whether she was injected with V -- the serum to give people these super abilities -- when she was a child or well within her maturity is currently unknown). Because she’s the first ever superhero, she has a unique ability that other superheroes (from our current knowledge) lack; immortality. 

Due to her immortality, Stormfront outlived her peers. She watched as the culture around her changed. She eventually had a daughter, which she then lived past, and she too lived past her husband. This means that she lived past the time where Nazi’s were to some degree a social norm, and lived through the period(s) where people actively fight back against Nazi’ism, racism, and other forms of prejudice. She was thrust into new cultures, and in turn, molded her beliefs into something new over the years she had lived through. She no longer had the leader, she no longer had the support, she no longer had the option to use her voice. And because of that, she learned that her beliefs were outdated.

It could be argued that the point to Stormfront’s character is to reflect the social evolution of America -- from how racism was mainstream to now progressivism being rewarded.

The Accusation That Stormfront Said a Slur Towards Kenji and she Killed an Apartment Complex of Black People Simply Because They’re Black:

In episode three, for those who don’t know, there was a super-terrorist (the title given to super-humans who use their abilities to aid in their terrorism), and The Seven were sent out to capture and put the terrorist down. Basically: they were doing their jobs as heroes. During the attempted capture of the terrorist, Stormfront was ultimately the one to get him.

While she was chasing him, they entered an apartment complex; while on the chase, she most likely would have noted that the terrorist isn’t actually doing any active action of terrorism -- he was just running. While she knew, and The Seven knew, that he was a terrorist, the public would probably see it as a superhero harming an innocent. Of course since he was an active threat, she was fast thinking. While chasing him, she stroke down some casualties and destroyed a portion of the apartment complex building that way there would be visible evidence that the terrorist would’ve been a threat to the lives of the public. And it worked. While what she did was arguably corrupt, that’s not the point here; the show makes a point to say all the heroes are corrupt. 

In her fight with the terrorist, she does say something that features unfavorable language -- she called the terrorist a “yellow bastard” -- and while it’s displeasant, it is not a slur. Yellow is a color, and he was rather pigmented. It’s a distasteful descriptor. And she was right in calling him a bastard. He was a terrorist.

The Accusation that Stormfront Didn’t Like A-Train Because he’s Black:

We can assume that Stormfront has a strong sense of morality due to her past connections to Nazi Germany -- while she no longer holds those beliefs, it would suggest that she places importance on morals due to strong “moral” senses of the Nazi party. With her now being in the modern world, her sense of morality probably evolved into applying to more current issues.

In the show, Stormfront is shown to believe in the superiority of Supes (will touch on that even more later). Due to this, is is likely that she would look down on those who have super-abilities but does stuff that would harm them or otherwise negatively impact the performance of their heroics. In season two, it was shown that A-Train -- whose whole shtick was his extreme speed -- could no longer run to such extremes before triggering a possible heart failure. This would clearly motivate Stormfront to look down on A-Train and see him as a waste -- because he is effectively wasting away his own life.

Her saying “some people have quality, other’s don’t” is a clear reference to the fact that his quality of self-control and self-worth is low. He’s an addict, and has let his addiction ruin his life and multiple lives of the people around him.

The Accusation that Stormfront Thinks Black People are Trying to get rid of White People; An In-Depth Dissection on the Conversation Between Stormfront and Homelander in Which she Explains her Past:

The scene opens with her, Stormfront, finding Homelander alone and solemn overlooking the city. He’s being callous and dismissive towards her, and even says a sly comment in which could be taken as a potential murder threat, which obviously effects her and her future plans (since it’s rather clear that she’s merely using him for her own personal agenda). Because of his cold behavior towards her, she decides to bare her all to him.

“I will never lie to you again. I will tell you everything . . . Starting with this,” She begins. Stormfront hesitantly walks to a large brown box, the stoic look on Homelander’s face never leaving as he pointedly watches her every move. She opens the crate, and in it are numerous aged items belonging to her, including her Liberty attire and a collection of black and white photos.

Out of her collection of items, she picks up the photos due to them being an outline of her history and an easy open door to the unique ability she has (since she’s either immortal or has an extended life quantity).

She shows the first image to Homelander, an image that shows her next to a much older woman (who has previously been assumed by the viewer to be her mother or grandmother). “My daughter,” she begins, “Chloe. She died of Alzheimer's a few years ago.”

Before this scene, her unique relation to aging was unknown to Homelander; the only people who knew were Starlight and The Boys. Understandably shocked, Homelander asks Stormfront just how old is she.

“I was born in 1919, in Berlin.”

There’s beats of silence between them. The information that she just revealed settles, to both Homelander and the viewer, and then she flips to the second photo.

It’s of her, dressed in a beautiful, white blazer dress, standing next to three extremely influential figures from history (further highlighting her extreme age). As she flips to the next photo, she says, “And . . . The most important man in the room . . . “ Homelander looks down, and finishes the unsaid sentence: “Frederick Vought.”

The next portion of the conversation is one of the most important, both in-context of the actual conversation but also in terms of the audience finally understanding Stormfront as a person; it gives us an insight to her mentality, it further explores her history with Vought and the relationship she has with the company, while also showing us what seems to be her intentions with Homelander. “He gave me the first successful V injection. He taught me everything. And then we fell in love, and he gave me a daughter. He made me, and his genius made you.”

This one excerpt shows us an important aspect on Stormfront and her mentality: she glorifies and idealizes Vought. The glorification she has of Frederick Vought consumes her, evident through the passion she has while she speaks on how V made her into who she is. The glorification she has for Frederick then streamlines into the next aspect of what she talks about, which is the superiority that comes from being chosen to be a superhero (which she isn’t exactly unjust in; a separate post to discuss, maybe? Although I feel as if it’s pretty obvious how people with super-human abilities that routinely save the world are clearly above just normal civilians).

Emotions are clear on Homelander’s face as he hears all the new information released by Stormfront: he’s shocked, and really just at a loss for words. He turns away from her, almost in a way dismissing the rest of the photos she has as he tries to process everything. She holds the photos to her side, now untouched for the rest of the conversation, and continues to speak: “Frederick didn’t care about all the fans or stardom or any of that shallow bullshit. We are in a war for the culture. The other races are grinding us down and taking what is rightfully ours, but we can fight back. With an army of supermen, millions strong.”

This four-sentence paragraph is the strongest example we currently have from the show that showcases the sense of superiority Stormfront has due to her super-human abilities. This specific excerpt is commonly used as a dog whistle by Stormfront anti’s to push the narrative that she is a Nazi or at the very least a white supremacist, however with the context of her relation to Vought and the fact that she highlights it being an army of supermen, it’s made explicitly clear that the “war for the culture” is a culture where supes are naturally seen as higher than non-supes and don’t have to fear the possibility of public backlash due to “othering” that’s caused by a public that may be scared of people who are different than them -- which may be why Stormfront finds it so important to build an online following who truly knows her as a person, while still being aware that she ultimately has a platform and is in a position of power.

It could be argued that her current arc and characterization of glorification and superiority is meant to be an allegory for Nazi’ism, however, I will say in my own personal opinion that it’s incredibly weak to claim. Nazi allegories need to have someone explicitly shown to be wrong in their beliefs and ideals; Stormfront though, is justified -- or at the very least has solid ground to stand on. I mean, God, it’s shown that mothers and fathers were offering up their newborns to be injected with compound V. That should speak for itself.

Lastly, after Stormfront bore her history and ideals to Homelander, she says one last thing to Homelander, one last confession full of passion and desperation: “So I love you with all of my heart. How could I not? Everyone I have ever loved is in the ground. And then I found you. We found each other. And now neither of us has to be alone ever again.”

I believe this to imply that her sense of superiority is a front that she puts up and her desire to create a culture of supe’s is to create a new race of people that are similar to her in sense of life-span, that way she no longer has to keep losing those she loves and live a life where pain is a constant. I truly do think all of this is an act of longing for a life of less pain 💔

So in conclusion: her idea of a “war on our culture” is the idea of non-supes against those who are. It’s an entirely separate thing from Nazi beliefs and / or ideals.

Discussing Stormfront’s Feminism and Why it Should be Both Admired and Wide-Spread Within our Culture:

Stormfront is a traditional feminist; she doesn’t believe that women are superior to men, but rather that we’re all on equal footing and it’s our own personality and accomplishments that make us. Quoted from episode two, “Why does it matter whether heroes have a dick or vag? I mean, shouldn’t we all just be competent at our jobs? I don’t think girls do anything better, I think chicks and dicks are in it together.” She’s able to point out the systematic advantages men have and the unfair treatment of women by the media, but she’s still able to recognize that it’s an issue of the system that forms our culture rather than an issue of men themselves. She never takes out her issues on random men, but rather at the men in positions of power who fuel this sexist attitude (and the women who stand next to these men, allowing it).

She knows her worth, both as a person and as a woman. Throughout the six she has shown up in so far, Stormfront has been outspoken whenever she has seen someone reducing women to nothing but vapid sex appeal for the male gaze – such as her call-out in episode two towards the man in charge of story-boarding the commercial. She recognizes her worth and is able to voice the issues she has with the sexist disregard for the female characters.

Unlike a lot of people, she knows when to restrict herself. This is a problem with our culture at large – we reward loud, rude behavior (primarily within men) despite the fact that they’re being unnecessarily cruel towards what is a rather harmless individual (ex: Gordon Ramsay). During the scene where Stormfront is with Starlight doing press for the announcement of her being apart of The Seven, she points out the double standard and false idea of “girl power” being pushed. Despite it being a topic she would be passionate about, Stormfront is able to keep her points restricted purely to the topic at hand that she wants to discuss. Other people would be vicious and violently insult the interviewer, and they would be rewarded for it by getting clout on Twitter with strangers gushing about how she “dragged” someone, but Stormfront addressed the interviewer appropriately – she knew he was just a man doing his job.

Another example is the end of episode three. While it is “terrible” that she called the Asian a “yellow bastard” (although it’s not like she called him a Chink or BTS or whatever), she only did so because she believed that she was alone with him. If there was another individual with them, she would have restricted herself from offensive language. In a culture full of fake feminists that spew offensive language openly, I believe she is setting a standard of what the difference between personal behavior and outwards behavior that would have an impact on the world around her is. No one is effected by her saying “yellow bastard” the way she did, since she was alone. She is aware of her platform (since the introduction of her is with her on Instagram live) and knows what she can and cannot feature on her platform.

In conclusion: Stormfront is a good, self-aware, admirable feminist. Be like Stormfront.

The Accusation That People Involved on the Show Have Called her A Nazi:

It’s true. In interviews, multiple people have referred to Stormfront as a Nazi -- however, an important piece of context that these people who are spreading these quotes always seem to miss out, is the fact that every time they have discussed Stormfront being a Nazi, it’s in relation to her past. They never say that her Nazi beliefs are something carried on from Liberty to Stormfront (they refer to her as Stormfront since it’s simply easier to, though). 

Even with that though, sometimes the intent of an author (or producer, or actor, etc.) does not translate to the actual finished product. What we see has more weight than what we’re told; we’ve been told that she’s a “Nazi white supremacist” but what we’ve seen is a deeply flawed character with a troubling past who’s actively working on making herself a better person. The producers, writers -- whatever -- have not translated their intent properly, so, therefore, it is invalid. Their interpretation of the character is wrong.This is something that happens a lot -- where the author means one thing but the product says another. A good example is JK Rowling; she intended to have Snape die with his sins absolved and being a martyr, but all he ended up being was an abusive creep with a vendetta against some child. Do you get it?

The Accusation That Stormfront Caused A Shooting:

So let’s just be clear: Stormfront clearly condemned the actions by the terrorist who shot the convenience clerk; she clearly doesn’t stand by that behavior nor support it. Using it as fuel for your little Stormfront hate-boner is weird and unfounded.

The Accusation That Nothing Shows Stormfront Had Changed as A Person From When she was Liberty:

A lot of people claim that Stormfront has showed no change from in comparison to her present-self to how she acted in the flashbacks, “proving” that she is still a Nazi. However, there are multiple examples that show she has actively became a better person; there are some major elemental changes to her as a person throughout time -- we know this by comparing what we know of her currently to what she used to be.

Firstly: She explicitly says that she “changed with the times,” which is a clear indication that she’s taken purposeful strides to change her values (since racism is no longer something we deem acceptable).

Secondly: While she had the mantle of liberty, she purposefully went out looking for minorities to brutalize them. While we don’t know if she ever said explicit slurs (such as the N-word or the C-word), she did make it apparent that her attack was on the basis of their ethnicity. However, in modern times, her attacks are purely motivated to fuel the reputation of Vought / because she was told to (and with one exception, which was to manipulate Homelander); this is: when she killed Kimiko’s brother, which was because he was deemed a super terrorist, and when she killed the apartment complex, which was to add to the narrative that he was a terrorist, and the exception is when she pushed Homelander into killing the white man (which was to make Homelander believe that the justice system is unjust . . . Which she is right in, to be fair).

Thirdly: Her study in creating a race of literal super-humans was diverse; it included people of all ethnicities and skin tones.

Fourthly: Stormfront herself shows, although not in a direct way, that she has actively changed. In episode five, Starlight confronts her on her past. Stormfront says, “going against your own people,” and clarifies it even further once Starlight assumes she means ‘white people’ with, “Starlight, superheroes. Don’t be racist.” While she was being condescending in what she said, the weight behind it still remains.

The Accusation That Stormfront Admitted to Being A Nazi by Saying People Love What She Says but Hates the Word Nazi:

In the finale, Stormfront’s past was exposed to the public. Because of how sensitive that information is, she got rightfully mad at whoever it was that leaked it. With the fact that Starlight had already tried to antagonize her before, Stormfront knew it was her. She found Starlight, and the two proceeded to fight. 

However, before the fight, Stormfront said that before her past was revealed, people liked what she was saying. They listened to her. They just simply don’t like the word Nazi. She said it in the sense that “Nazi” is a word used to discredit someone, regardless if their views would make them a Nazi or not. You see it a lot now, politically, the opposing side (on both ends) call each other Nazis simply because they don’t have aligning political views. And because Nazi is such a strong word, calling someone one of them would have an impact on their public reception regardless. Stormfront isn’t a Nazi anymore, but people were still calling her one regardless, so the public reception to her changed. Nazi is a strong word. Stormfront was right -- people did like what she was saying, they were listening to her every word, up until she was slandered as a Nazi.

The Accusation that Stormfront Said A Racist Remark About Edgar:

In the finale, Stormfront and Homelander are privately discussing who they believe could be behind a recent terrorist attack that quite clearly was perpetuated by a Supe. Homelander suggested that it was planned by a man called Edgar, and Stormfront said “it’s possible, he is smart. For his kind.” A lot of people have slandered Stormfront further by saying “for his kind” was in reference to his ethnicity. However, with the audience already knowing her superiority complex around Supes, we can understand the remark was in terms of him not having any abilities (that we know of).

The Accusation That Stormfront Believes in The “Great Replacement” Theory:

In the finale, it’s found that Homelander’s son -- Ryan -- is having issues connecting with his powers and triggering them. Homelander says that he found it easy to use his powers by imagining an enemy, a person he hates. However, Ryan tries to do that too but finds that he really just doesn’t hate anyone.

Stormfront, being quick-thinking, delicately says that people are against them because of their skin color, “it’s called white genocide.” While it was tasteless and questionable for her to tell a child, she believed that Ryan needed a clear enemy in his mind and she was simply suppling him with a vague idea that would trigger his abilities for at least one time. No where does she actually say she believes in the outlandish theory; she was simply saying it because she believed it would help Ryan overcome an obstacle he was facing. 

The Accusation That Stormfront is Named After A White-Nationalist Site:

There’s a lot of discourse over her name; a lot of people think a name is a valid reason to call someone a Nazi. I don’t believe I need to point out why that is insane, but I will explain the reasoning behind Stormfront’s name:

Stormfronts powers are based in electricity. They are bolts of electricity that come from the palm of her hand, and can light things of fire, burn people, throw them around, etc. They resemble lightening from a storm, hence her being called Stormfront.