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jade4813 · 4 years ago

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Sparks Fly, Chapter 14

Title: Sparks Fly

Rating: NC-17

Synopsis: Everybody knows sparks fly whenever Barry Allen and Iris West are together. Their mutual animosity is legendary. But when Iris returns to Central City to investigate recent sightings of a mysterious red streak, she discovers a hero she just can’t resist…and Barry struggles to hide the unrequited feelings he can’t deny.

Chapters: 14/?

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Iris didn’t know how long she stood there, in that place that wasn’t really a place, trying to process what the speed force had told her. Time was irrelevant where she was. Or, she corrected herself with a sardonic smile, perhaps someone like Barry would tell her that time was irrelative where she was. There was no way to mark its passing because it didn’t seem to pass so much as it converged around her – the past, present, and future swirling around this makeshift construct of ground upon which she stood, melding together, before breaking apart again to go its separate ways.

“If you stay here for very long, you may die. But without a lightning rod on the other side, I don’t know how to send you back where you belong.” The words echoed in her head, too immense to contemplate, leaving her weak as she tried to fight off the panic that had swept over her from the moment they had been uttered. But Iris had neither the time nor the luxury for panic. She wasn’t the type to go down without a fight.

Sucking in a deep breath, she closed her eyes and counted to ten as she slowly exhaled. Twice. A third time. And then she opened her eyes, determined to focus on the problem and not the what ifs that would overwhelm her. Every problem had a solution, her father had once told her. Of course, he’d been talking about juggling homework and not being trapped in a place outside of space and time when he’d said the words, but she had to believe they still applied. If only because she had no other option.

Focusing on the mist around her, Iris could still see shadows of her other lives in other worlds and times and realities. But this time, she didn’t shy away. She focused, hoping she could find some sort of answer there. Focus on the problem. Every problem has a solution. Sometimes she just had to reframe the question, she reminded herself silently as she watched the images flicker by. Blushing and looking away when the pictures she saw were more intimate than anything she’d ever done with the man she knew.

What was the problem? Well, she was stuck in the speed force. It didn’t seem like any version of herself had ever faced that dilemma before – though with the apparent thousands upon thousands of versions of Barry and Iris that did or could or might exist, she could hardly swear to it. Either way, that train of thought wasn’t getting her anywhere.

So instead of the situation, she turned her attention to the act itself. The Man in Yellow, Eobard, abandoning her within the speed force. Wanting to hurt her. Wanting to destroy the Flash.

As she thought about the villain of her nightmares, the images around her flickered and changed. No longer was she watching the love she and Barry were apparently destined to share. Instead, she watched countless battles between the Flash and his arch-nemesis in yellow.

Holding her breath (though she apparently didn’t breathe here any more than she suffered from the passage of time), she watched battle after battle. Eobard facing off against the Flash and losing. Or at least not winning, as sometimes the battles ended in a tie or a temporary retreat. Either way, Eobard failed to kill his sworn enemy. Again and again.

But it wasn’t just Barry and Eobard in the scenes before. Sometimes she was there, too – or some other version of her, at least. Eobard racing toward her, determined to snap her neck. To put his hand through her heart. And the Flash intervening, saving her life. Too many times to count.

She was reminded of the night Eobard had attacked her in her own home. Barry had shown up that night, too. She had thought it was a coincidence. Sheer luck. But was that really the case? The visions in front of her suggested otherwise. No matter how great their love, there was no way that Barry could just happen to save her from death at the hands of another speedster thousands upon thousands of times. There was simply no way. Particularly since, once or twice in the flickering images, she could swear that it wasn’t Barry who came to her rescue at all but some other speedster (a revelation she tucked away for future contemplation, as she pondered who these other speedsters could be and if they might exist on her world and reality, as well).

“The speed force is not just something that gives speedsters their powers. I am a part of them, and they are a part of me. Just like I created the Flash, and the Flash creates me in return. But that power is more than someone without that connection can control … I would never hurt you. Not intentionally. But you were never meant to enter the speed force for very long. You are the one who brings Barry back. Not the other way around.”

Iris mulled over the words the speed force had told her, feeling that they were more significant than she’d first realized. The speed force needed Barry. Maybe it even loved him – if such a thing were possible. And Barry, it had said, needed her. Which meant, in a sense, the speed force needed her.

Enough to act to protect her in countless lives and realities? Helping Barry to reach her side, to save her life, time and again? Perhaps.

As intriguing – and, to be honest, a little terrifying – as that thought was, it didn’t really help with her current predicament. Given what the speed force had told her, she suspected it would help her escape, if such a thing was in its power. If it hadn’t immediately expelled her back into her reality, she had to believe it simply couldn’t do so of its own volition.

Allowing herself one single huff of disappointment that her prior train of thought hadn’t gotten her any closer to the answer, Iris took a mental step back and tried to find a new way to analyze the problem. So long as she remained calm and focused, she told herself a solution had to come eventually. She couldn’t afford to give in to the despair of thinking otherwise.

In silence, Iris studied the images in front of her again. Barry and Eobard fighting, pushing each other faster and faster. Moving at speeds too fast for the eye to see. She found herself wondering idly what their top speed might be. What was the fastest any speedster had ever moved? Fast enough to bring her into the speed force itself and abandon her in this strange unreality, at least.

Wait. That was it. Eobard had carried her into the speed force. Or, rather, he’d thrown her into it, but that suggested that either he or others had entered the speed force before. Well, either before or after. The lack of time relativity was really messing with Iris’s mind. However, one way or another, other speedsters must have either entered or carried others into the speed force at some point.

No. Not others. The speed force had indicated that she was the first non-speedster to find herself inside it. Though not that she’d been the first person to find herself inside it. It was a critical distinction that gave her a rush of excitement, convinced that she might be on the right path. If other speedsters had entered the speed force, perhaps one of them could bring her back home.

Of course, it was unlikely that the solution would be so easy as flagging down a passing speedster like she might hail a cab. But she didn’t let that demoralize her. She just had to take things one step at a time.

Once again, the images in the mist around her morphed in answer to her silent request. Other versions of the Flash, racing into a black void, like the one she’d glimpsed just before finding herself in this place. The images confirmed her suspicions. Speedsters typically didn’t enter the speed force when they ran. Perhaps they just channeled its energy, like a racer using nitrous to give their car a boost, not needing to crawl into the engine to tap into that extra bit of speed. (It was an imperfect analogy at best, she supposed, but it would do.)

Except if they didn’t always enter the speed force when they ran, Iris needed to determine when and why they did if she was going to find a way to flag one down and ask them to carry her home. As she pondered the question, a flicker of yellow caught her eye, and she watched as Eobard himself raced into the speed force. He did so more than once, studying the pictures as she tried to figure out his purpose. She was struggling to put the pieces together until she saw something that made them fall into place, making her gasp. She watched as Eobard ran into the speed force from a place that looked like something out of a futuristic science fiction novel, racing out again to come to a stop in front of the Allen’s home.

The speed force had confirmed that he was from the future, that he had traveled into the past determined to kill the Flash. Was this the moment he had made his fateful journey? It had to be, didn’t it? Which meant that, whatever other reasons speedsters might enter the speed force, they did so in order to travel through time.

Which admittedly didn’t help her much. Eobard definitely wasn’t the only person to have ever raced into the speed force, and as Iris watched the images flickering around her, she realized that he wasn’t even the only one to have ever time traveled before. But that didn’t really help her, since she suspected he would hardly be willing to take her home, and she didn’t know how to get the attention of any other speedster going on a trip through time in order to make the request.

But still, she felt that she was close to an answer. She had to be, because nothing else came to mind. Closing her eyes to block out the images that might otherwise distract her, Iris began to pace back and forth, hoping the physical activity would help clear her mind.

How long had she been in this place, she wondered. Without being subject to the passage of time, did it really matter? It might have been ten minutes. It might have been an eternity. She had no idea.

Wait. Time. That gave her a thought. Time was irrelative here, so it really didn’t matter that speedsters didn’t race through the speed force whenever they used their powers. She didn’t have to worry that she’d missed her chance to catch a passing speedster because the speed force was no time and yet every time in equal measure. In a sense, every moment in time was happening all around her, all at once. So it wasn’t a matter of when it might happen but how she might get someone’s attention. Someone who didn’t want to kill her, she mentally corrected herself.

That gave her an idea, although it seemed a bit far-fetched. Still, what was the harm in trying? “Flash, help me!” she yelled into the mist that surrounded her. As expected, nobody heeded her call. But sometimes the biggest problems had the easiest solutions, so it had been worth a shot.

Sucking in a deep, calming breath, Iris returned her attention to the problem. As she paced, she swung her arms back and forth – an old trick she used to do when studying for finals in college, because someone had told her it helped to get the blood flowing to her brain. Well, she didn’t know if her blood really flowed, exactly, in this timeless space. But she did stop short when the movement gave her another idea.

Opening her eyes, Iris focused, willing the images around her to change once more. And so they did, showing speedsters in a rainbow of colors as they raced. Electricity of different colors sparking behind them, papers and other detritus left spinning in their wake. It happened pretty much every time they ran, this impact of their speed on the world around them.

If only she had someone like Barry with her to help explain the physics of what she was watching; she’d only ever studied basic physics in school, and that was long ago. Still, there was no point in wasting time wishing for things that she didn’t have. Instead, she watched the scenes before her with narrowed eyes, trying to make sense of what she was seeing for herself. In particular, she watched the papers that were sent flying when the Flash ran past.

Iris couldn’t necessarily explain the physics for any of it, but for a split second, it was as though the papers were drawn towards the Flash as he ran, before being sent in a spiraling dance to the floor, carried by the wind that was an inevitable aftermath of such incredible speed. If that was the case, could she use such a phenomenon to return home? She didn’t need to be carried for miles. She just needed enough momentum to propel her through the vortex that appeared whenever a speedster entered and exited the speed force. The papers only appeared to be drawn in for a split second, but that was all she really needed. Particularly since time, as she’d already established, was fluid inside the speed force.

Perhaps she was on completely the wrong path, but she had at least one theory for how to return home, which was more than he’d had before. Now all she needed was a passing speedster to test it out. With every moment in time occurring more or less simultaneously, it would take focus to latch onto one that she needed. Like the images in the mist had required focus to form into anything of use.

First, she tried to think of the moment she had seen previously, when Eobard had traveled into the past for what she assumed to be the first time. But it didn’t seem to do any good. Perhaps the thought was too vague to offer the speed force much direction. The problem was, she didn’t know a more specific moment that Eobard – or any other speedster, for that matter – had traveled through time.

Except…she did. Didn’t she? The night her dad had first seen the Man in Yellow. Sure, it was possible that Eobard had been lurking around for years, waiting for the perfect moment to put his plan into action. But Iris doubted it. She suspected he would consider it a waste of time. Particularly since time was something he appeared willing to manipulate.

It occurred to her that, even if she was right, there was a chance this would leave her stranded in the past, on the night Eobard had killed three police officers and terrorized her father as part of his plan to destroy the Flash. She had no idea how she would get back to where – or when, rather – she belonged.

But one step at a time. First, she had to get herself out of the speed force. Then she’d figure out what to do next.

#sparks fly #fanfiction #my fanfiction #westallen #barry allen #iris west #the flash #enemies to lovers au

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onwesterlywinds · 4 years ago

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More a writer question than a character question here, though it is about your WoL... my attempts at writing are now leading up to a fight, and I'm wondering: how would you or how do you write about your character's strength? Like if they were in a fight? Would their in-game level and stats constantly increasing translate directly to your story? How does their strength and skill now compare to the average soldier? To Hien or Lyse? What do you think the additional re-joining did?

Usually, when I write out a fight, I’m thinking about two angles:

A. The mechanics of the fight: What words go into describing action, combat, physical movements, etc. I wish I knew how this works, and I will update you when I find out. I’m not trying to be glib here; writing action is very much a weak spot of mine, and I’m trying to improve on it as much as I can. But for me, conveying strength or power isn’t especially my goal while I write out a fight: I try to think about what conveys momentum, energy, and a means to whatever end my character is trying to reach. That leads into the next point...

B. The meaning of the fight: How this moment fits into their progression as a character. What’s the desired outcome of the overall scene? To use writing language, it can be helpful to think of each fight as its own mini-story: what’s the inciting incident, what abilities or knowledge or tools do the character gain or draw upon throughout the fight, what raises the stakes, what’s the “breaking point,” and what brings it all to an end? That might be a helpful way of reframing some of your questions above!

When it comes to the abilities my characters have, for me it depends less on their level progression and more on the entire arc they’ve taken as a character. Ashe is my best example of this: she’s level 80 in warrior and machinist, but her skill with an axe has suffered ever since she was captured and imprisoned by Garleans back in 4.0. She lost a lot of her muscle mass in a short span and has not devoted the considerable time it would take to recondition her strength, because being an Ala Mhigan representative and aiding Dalmascan rebellions is already spreading her way too thin. This is just one example of a decrease in power, and it doesn’t have to be rooted in trauma! Ahtynwyb, my WoL, has stayed relatively stagnant in her abilities since 4.0, solely because the level 70 paladin move Passage of Arms was such a perfect fit for her thematically while the 70-80 moves just weren’t.

And when it comes to strength relative to NPCs (or other PCs!)... go with what you feel. I think lots of us have felt pressure to make our WoLs as close to ordinary as possible to prevent accusations of being “OP” - but in actuality, there’s room for so many Warriors of Light to complement one another without any one of them being the best. In the case of NPCs, Ahtyn is great at defending; she could probably weather any of Lyse’s blows but would have a hard time getting in more than a few counterhits. Ashe could take out more Garleans from afar than Hien ever could, and he’d probably thank her.

On a broader level, having an ordinary character can mean their story of hard work and persistence resonates that much more when they succeed; having an extraordinary character can mean extra responsibilities or heightened moral stakes - and those are just ideas! It’s not the strength that matters, but what you do with it, and that applies regardless of who wins a given fight.

Hope all of this helps! Thanks so much for reaching out. I’d be happy to talk through my own writing steps if it’s ever helpful.

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darkpoisonouslove · 4 years ago

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Winx Club Season 4 Thoughts Part 1

I have to say that I remember exactly five things from this whole season so I am interested to see where this is going even if it has high chances of annoying me. I am trying to stay open-minded about this and the fact that they still haven’t destroyed the art style here is definitely helping some so I hope that I will find something I like in this season and will not have to bitch about it 98% of the time. Here we go:

4x01:

- Okay, so they just decided that season 4 and SotLK are not on the same time line. Because in SotLK the new school year had already started when Mandragora attacked and Winx were definitely not teaching. And Musa says that it’s been three years since they first came to Alfea so that implies that s4 is the school year after s3. Which means this is not the time line of SotLK. Great! I mean, I’m not gonna count that as a plot hole but it is still frustrating to a degree.

- Faragonda really said “Let’s make Winx teachers even though they have no training and qualifications for that whatsoever”, huh? Nice to see that there is as much real world logic applied to any of this as always - aka none. I know it sounds like I’m already bitching but, trust me, I am not. This is just an observation. You’ll know it when I truly start bitching.

- I get it that everyone except Stella is not thrilled about all the attention but Tecna and Layla sounded too annoyed. It’s not like the young fairies are trying to tear off their wings and fairy dust vials to keep as souvenirs. They are actually pretty polite considering that they’re fifteen and have just met their idols. Why is that Amaryl getting Stella’s autograph, though?

- Lmao that scene with Griselda. XD But they really did not consider the fact that now that they are at Alfea as personnel they’ll have different rooms? That is like walking into the room and sitting in your old student seat even though you are supposed to be the teacher. Come on, guys! Gotta love how Layla, Bloom and Musa almost sent Griselda falling to the ground and Flora was the only one who tried to help her keep her balance. Also, the fact that Griselda was more concerned with the misunderstanding rather than with the fact that she was about to fall down the goddamn stairs! Priorities, Griselda! Not breaking your neck should always come first in a situation like that.

- Is it me or have they toned Griselda down a little? She used to be a bit more of a hardass.

- Why is that the Agator box Faragonda has put the “keys” in? Did they just decide to recycle an old design without even changing it at all or what?

- It’s been three minutes (without the intro) and we’ve arrived at our first plot hole. Remember in season 3 when Galatea took the Trix to the Hall of Enchantments? And it was a very public and very unrestricted area in the school that was definitely not hidden behind a secret passage? Yeah, now it is suddenly a place where only a few people can go. Nice one!

- Why the fuck would you bury the entire history of the magical dimension under one school? And why the fuck can you find out the future from there? Let me tell you, this is a horrible idea.

- So now there are infinite levels of powers and more transformations after Enchantix? Second plot hole in four minutes. This is going well.

- “It will also give you the power to heal whoever is in need.” Where was that when they fucking killed off Nabu?!

- Of course, Bloom will wander off and find the villains of the season even if it is just a painting. Please, tell me that it wasn’t the fact that she removed the cover of the Wizards’ portrait that brought them to Alfea. That will simply be too dumb. Also, Faragonda could have totally used her magic to cover the portrait again and given her reaction to Bloom finding it, she should have. I am curious as to who painted the portrait of the Trix that went in there, though. Or did it just appear magically? Lmao, that would be a fun concept. Imagine that you do something big enough to threaten the whole magical dimension and suddenly, there is a portrait of you in a closed off gallery buried under Alfea.

- Stella really poked Brandon in the face to test if he is really here? XD

- So they did have some plan for their first class (since they built that obstacle course in advance) but they didn’t think of a name for it? Not looking too professional but as long as the young fairies are engaged AND learn something, I guess it’s fine.

- Why is Clarisse so mean here? I agree to some degree that Winx are not really qualified to teach but she has no reason to be like that.

- So she showed the magic she used to sabotage Winx to ALL of her roommates and none of them went to Faragonda to tell her the truth after Alice was accused?! What the fuck, you people?

- It would have been more interesting if it had been Bloom that had been hit. She is the leader, after all, and the show always insists on making her the center of everything but not this, I guess. Can’t have her be the target of a prank. That would probably be too embarrassing. I hate that Faragonda didn’t even give a chance to Alice to speak. For how much she claims to believe in her students, she never actually gives them the chance to explain themselves. You’d think she’d rely more on her intuition rather than on hard, cold proof that can be staged (as is the case) or reframed thanks to circumstances.

- If the Wizards hunt fairies, why have they never been to Alfea? It is literally full of fairies! Or are they just after Earth fairies? I have no memory of them or their plan whatsoever. Guess I’ll have to watch and see.

- Why are all the Winx being so damn mean in this episode? Even Flora is out for people’s heads. Honestly, the only time she’s given off more hostile energy than here was when the Trix attacked the Black Willow and Miele.

- At least that battle was a bit more of a battle than what we’ve seen in previous seasons. Although, it is disappointing that all of Winx’s arsenal of magic seems to be down to just blasting the enemy. Like, they literally never do anything else. Where is that energy of Musa doing an anti rain dance combined with runes to negate Stormy’s powers? Can we ever get anything more creative than just shooting magic beams out of their hands and throwing balls of energy at the opponents? Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Wizards have a bit more interesting powers from what we’ve seen here. Especially, Duman with his shapeshifting (a Duman vs Wizgiz battle would have been interesting). And I like the idea of their partnership allowing them greater power like opening the Black Circle. It’s cool. We’re going back to the vibe of the Trix being equals in season 1 and that was interesting.

- Okay, so the Wizards really wiped the ground with Winx but you have to love how none of the young fairies care about the fact that the teachers weren’t able to do jackshit either. Winx failed once and now suddenly they’re losers. I know the idea of that part was that fame is temporary but you know what would have been a better lesson? That persistence is the key to victory and you have to get up after you’ve been knocked down and try again. That would have been far more helpful for the young fairies to learn from Winx and it would have been exactly the best lesson that Winx could teach them considering their own experiences of never giving up even when everything looked bleak and they were failing.

- So why did Clarisse suddenly change her mind? Was she touched by the fact that Alice was still trying to help Winx even after they didn’t believe her or...? But yes, if she didn’t even think twice about hugging Griselda, then the show has really softened Griselda here. XD It was adorable, though, so I am fine with it. And I hope that Alice and Clarisse will keep that friendship going (I so do not remember anything from this season).

- Really? We’re gonna stop this episode right before the origin story of the Black Circle? Damn! Have to love how they were teachers for all of one class. Not even that, in fact. Griselda will probably be the one who will take on those classes now. Poor freshmen fairies! XD

4x02:

- Okay, I have questions. Where did the Wizards come from and why did they attack Earth specifically out of all the planets in the magical dimension? How did they create the spell that made them immune to fairy magic? You can’t just wish to be impenetrable and boom, it’s done! Also, were fairies the only magical beings on Earth? Because that story made it sound so. And what do you mean the powers of nature? Are we talking elements? Or not quite? Plus, really not into the way this blamed all the shit that happened on Earth on the disappearance of the fairies. It takes off the responsibility from humanity’s shoulders and that is not a good thing to do.

- At least Tecna is paying attention and now they know where to start. Bring back belief in fairies and find the last Earth fairy (though, that might not be the best idea since it will lead the Wizards straight to her and Winx are not yet powerful enough to protect her). That sounds like the first step of a plan.

- Aww, Stella is always so thrilled to see Brandon she ends up knocking him down! That is absolutely adorable! But please, can we skip the part where Bloom angsts about Sky not being there? But back to the important things (aka everything but Sky x Bloom), yay for Nabu being here! Riven picking up Musa was so cute! And she wasn’t angry that he didn’t come up with his own script which is good (besides, I think that the fact that he asked for help because he wanted to cheer her up still counts as a cute romantic gesture). And Timmy and Tecna instantly starting to nerd out together is just precious!

- Bloom says she’s getting used to it while still sulking about it. Forgive me if I don’t believe you. But at least his entrance was funny indeed. And the way all the other guys were in on it spoke of them planning it together which helps sell their friendship. I would actually like to see more moments like that. And omg, Riven being the one to say Sky is a friend! I approve so much of this non-sulky Riven. Dammit, why do they have to screw up everything (because we all know they will, especially when it comes to Riven)!

- Why did they have to lie to their girlfriends? Winx could use some help and it doesn’t have to mean that they’re weak. Honestly, the more people are fighting the Wizards, the better their chances! Like, this is simple strategy! It doesn’t have to mean anything about their power levels. And who the fuck decided that Winx should be the ones responsible for the defeat of the Black Circle and do it alone? All of this is nonsensical as hell and it is obvious that they will use it to generate drama again. MY GOD, CAN WE JUST NOT?!

- What happens if someone steals Tecna’s gadget and accesses all that info she copied from the Hall of Enchantments? That was probably not the safest idea there but it would have been cool if that actually happened and they had to deal with someone else while still trying to defeat the main villains. For a change of pace. Just saying.

- Man, Tecna is the one doing everything. But wait, how did Bloom miniaturize? Is it because she found her birth parents and restored Domino so now her Enchantix is complete? Is that what happened here? I mean, it wouldn’t be completely illogical so it’s fine, I guess.

- Wtf why did Bloom just jump on Tecna like that? Are they trying to emphasize her first miniaturizing experience by making her afraid of things because she is so small now? Knock it off, guys! I hate to say it, but Bloom isn’t exactly the person that scares easily no matter what she’s facing. She was attacking monsters with a stick before she even knew she had magic, please! And Layla getting scared is also out of character. I love how Stella just didn’t give a damn. That is kinda like her and she is right that they’ve faced scarier things. And here is Bloom with the stick spoon again.

- Hey, they remembered the ocean of light spell from SotLK.

- They brought tents? Why are they camping there? Do they have any idea what they’re doing at this point?

- Why do we keep at it with the flashbacks? There is literally no point to them!

- What the hell? It... is eating Stella? What is happening? Also, does Flora have any other magic at this point aside from making ivy grow and wrap around the enemy? Not to mention that she just started crying with a monster right in front of her that ate her friend! What the hell, Flora? Did you think your tears would move it and it wouldn’t eat you as well?!

- “Apparently, I am not easy to digest.” XDDD Only Stella can say that while in the belly of a monster!

- Wtf was Musa’s idea with roaring at the monster? And Layla couldn’t spot a butterfly that was roughly half the size of Piff’s head?! It was so visible from the moment they found Piff!

- Is that... Yes, that’s the tree from Magical Adventure. It definitely looks different here but it can’t be anything else.

- Well, of course, the Earth fairy was born in Gardenia. It is too impossible a coincidence for them to pass up on. If it means I will get some Mike and Vanessa, I am willing to forgive it, though.

4x03:

- Yay! It’s Mike and Vanessa! I love how they totally don’t mind that Bloom and her friends just dropped off without any warning. They are the best parents ever!

- Okay, they copied almost all of this montage in Magical Adventure but I don’t mind because it’s funny and also pretty cute that they are now all living together. Mike and Vanessa are so open to Bloom’s friends and it is absolutely adorable! Also, the challenge of living together is hilarious.

- That montage of their jobs is also hilarious (but kinda painful as well when it is us, non-magical beings’ reality). I’m glad they also showed the others having trouble with their jobs and not just Stella.

- Do we trust this guy that offered them a job? He doesn’t look suspicious... but that is kinda suspicious. I don’t know.

- Wait, they can bring toys to life? Then that totally confirms my headcanon about Kiko being a stuffed bunny that Bloom unknowingly turned into an animate one with her Dragon Fire. Okay, so Flora can bring toys to life which makes sense but Bloom having the magic that created the whole universe should also be able to do that.

- Poor Mike! But omg, they really almost had Kiko jump a female bunny right there on screen. Damn, guys! Calm down.

- Okay, the pet shop is actually a pretty good idea considering that it turns their problem into a solution. And the pets are adorable.

- I am grateful that Vanessa is in on finding a place for the shop. She already owns a shop of her own and is a businesswoman so she knows what she is doing. It is the adult presence this series seriously lacks and she can be both helpful and supportive of Winx. It’s awesome!

- Well, the last fairy on Earth found them. And they conveniently lost her. Oh, come on! They didn’t even realize it was her?!

- I just skipped all of the Kiko and pets buffoonery. It is so unimportant.

- They are really fucking dense, aren’t they? Why did no one think that if the Wizards aren’t anywhere to be found, then it could be something else?!

- You left a bunny in charge of a business establishment. What did you expect? I mean, really?! Not to mention that the magical pets have zero reason to listen to Kiko. They probably think he’s beneath them because he can’t fly and shit.

- Of course, the Wizards arrive in the middle of a storm. Because Grand EntranceTM.

- You mean to tell me that Tecna didn’t know you could use a computer to play games and learn languages? What the actual FUCK?! She is literally the fairy of technology. I don’t even have the words to express how stupid this is!

- Why is Roxy sleeping in the clothes that she was wearing when she was out all day? Ever heard of pajamas, animators? And of course, she is having Symbolic Dreams just like Bloom. And by “symbolic” I mean overly obviously so.

- I love their clash with the reality of business. But why are they acting like the website is new? Bloom already mentioned it in the previous episode. And all Tecna is adding now is the download-a-pet feature.

4x04:

- So they’re giving the pets for free... but they will be charging for food and other things? I am confused here. They promised to pay Vanessa back and they can’t do that unless they make profit from the shop. So they should be charging for some of their services at least. But what is the point of downloading a pet if you have to go to the store to buy food for it? Ugh, this makes no sense again.

- Why are only girls adopting fairy pets? Tell me this is not going to be sexist like that.

- Ugh, pls no drama with Sky over Andy. And what the fuck did he mean that they were engaged?! I mean, probably overexaggerating but it was still weird. Not to mention that Bloom’s reaction to learning he’s in a band is somewhat not selling the idea that the Winx would form their own band later on (even if this is what starts it).

- What the fuck are the Specialists doing? And are they only now arriving on Earth? Weren’t they supposed to be there already since Faragonda told them to stay close to Winx?

- Why is Brandon the only one with brains in here? Sky literally just went on and pawned the seal of Eraklyon? Stupid, stupid move. Besides, it’s not like they didn’t know where they were going. He could have gone to Eraklyon and taken some gold to exchange on Earth or something. They could have prepared for this trip. Oh my god, why does no one think of things ahead of time? This isn’t getting sucked into the Omega dimension by mistake. They could have made a plan and avoided literally all of the problems they’ve faced already.

- Why did they take the pets to a concert? Animals are sensitive to loud noises and can get scared by the music they’re blasting there. Wtf?!

- Damn, I was right about Sky being jealous of Andy but I am still entertained by the fact that he was being all righteous with Riven until he saw Bloom and flipped the script on its head. And again, Brandon is the only one that is actually thinking... for now. I so do not need the drama with Mitzi that will be in this season. But literally the only reason they haven’t blown their cover is that Winx haven’t looked their way. Otherwise, those menus wouldn’t be enough to hide them. And why didn’t they change in their everyday clothes before dropping in the middle of a park?

- Why are you leaving Kiko in charge again?! You already saw that he can’t control the magical pets! Oh my god, this show really insists on getting on my nerves!

- What, they don’t have fruits in Magix?! Please, if Magix is so much more advanced in terms of technology, there is no way that they don’t have smoothies and fruit salad. This is really stupid!

- Omg, thank you Layla. Finally! Can they now, please, figure out that Roxy is right under their noses? Because they keep crossing paths with her without even knowing it and it is getting ridiculous. Why was she so quick to judge Stella, though? She barely heard her say a sentence. No need to label someone based on the one line you’ve overheard them speak! Why is everyone so judgy in this season?!

- I told you the Wizards would just follow them and Winx would lead them to the fairy. Rather fortunately, they’ve all got it wrong but poor girl that got mistaken for the last fairy. She is probably going to be traumatized. Btw when are they going to start earning their Belivix? They totally forgot about the book Faragonda gave them.

- Ogron is really annoying me. But why not just eliminate Winx and they won’t have to deal with them anymore? What, is this some kind of “they’re obviously too weak to stop us so we won’t even bother destroying them” deal here? (Edit: Yep, that’s it - aka plot armor.) It always comes back to bite the villains in the end. You’d think at least one of them will know better... Or at the very least be ruthless enough not to care who they harm... which the Wizards allegedly are.

- I am so sick of Flora’s “luxurious ivy”. Try something else one of these days! But being caught in her own ivy was new at the very least. Maybe that will make her come up with a new attack next time.

- Omg, I am really starting to see the Riven x Nabu thing. XD But the Specialists generally seem too busy saving each other to help Winx.

- Seriously? They’re all gonna be dicks to each other? And over this stupidity with the jealousy and refusal to accept help? *sigh* I am so pleased to see Nabu and Layla just trailing behind like that. Like, “I don’t wanna be a part of this drama but I gotta stay with my team even though I would much rather be with you.” It is really cute and I love it! Also, proof that all of this is stupid because Layla has always been super independent but she didn’t seem to have a problem with Nabu coming to help her. Probably because she trusts him enough to know he wouldn’t think she was weak! Take notes, everyone!

4x05:

- Hey, be a bit more supportive of Stella! She’s obviously tired if she fell asleep and she just told you she is stressed out because of what happened with the boys! She is not just dramatizing for attention. I know they are all in the same boat but they don’t have to be rude to her just because she voiced her discomfort.

- What the hell did the Wizards do to the pets? My gradually returning memory (meaning that whenever I see something, it triggers some deeply buried memories I have about this season) is failing me here.

- Lol, I can’t believe Riven actually went to get Brandon a glass of juice. That’s adorable! But how to break it to Timmy that they already look like they belong on the planet (Nabu is definitely standing out but that’s just because Gardenia is western-society based)? Riven is literally wearing England’s flag, wtf?!

- Why do the boys sound like they are sharing the same six brain cells (that’s probably too high a number)? Even Timmy is jealous which he totally has no reason to be because Tecna hasn’t been around anyone! Omfg, why are they turning the personal drama of one (well, two bc Musa and Riven also) couple into a drama for everyone?! And Flora hasn’t really said anything to Helia which could be rude of itself but still. I am sure she is not actually angry at him.

- I am actually really getting on board of this Riven x Nabu ship. Riven’s first thought of a solution was to turn to Nabu. I mean, their actions speak for themselves!

- I just had a new thought about Winx’s pet shop policy and it is actually a bit of a malicious tactic (even if not intentionally so) to just let children download pets that will later need to be taken care of. Once the pet is already downloaded, parents will have a much harder time saying no to their children and they will be forced to spend money on caring for the pet. This is... not how things should be going.

- Mike and Vanessa are adorable together! And awesome parents! (Yes, I will gush about that every time. We can use some positivity amidst everything wrong with the series. They definitely got Mike and Vanessa right.)

- Roxy is really trying to adopt all those dogs, isn’t she? But wow, Mitzi really wanted to wrap an animal in wrapping paper. They shouldn’t have given it to her at all.

- I actually like the fact that they had to go against their mission and convince everyone that they aren’t real fairies because they were otherwise running the risk of making people afraid of fairies. It is fun, though, that it was Stella who thought of faking a movie shoot and not Bloom who is from Earth, after all. I mean, movies in the magical dimension probably don’t need ropes for the stunts.

- I am already so tired of this fight between Winx and the Specialists and it has barely been an episode. And they are all so frustrating. The boys could have just said that they are there to help instead of “to protect” them like Winx are damsels in distress and Winx could have just accepted help. Honestly, this is such a non-issue that they are blowing out of proportion. Winx have never been so stubborn about accepting help from the Specialists before and the Specialists have never acted like they don’t fully believe that Winx are capable of handling themselves. Why did the writers have to do this now?

- Does Ogron mean that next time they will go for destroying Winx? That will be interesting as long as it actually happens.

- Okay, this is more like it! They are finally working together. And Layla fangirling over Nabu is so cute! As long as they don’t get pulled over for speeding, they should be fine now.

- Ugh, here comes the Mitzi drama. Is that what Stella was crying about? Like, Brandon literally didn’t look twice at Mitzi and cut her off when she was trying to introduce herself. Why is everyone making up issues when there aren’t any?! I am so sick of that! And Bloom not talking to Sky was also super stupid. Not that they ever talk so at least that’s in character, I guess. Doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

- I love how Timmy is the one that is handling himself best in this new world. And Nabu’s magic is also helping him so the two of them will have to carry the team for a while. (”All from home so I can be with you, guys”? Are all the Specialists just in love with each other? Because that’s what it looks like. XD)

4x06:

- Omg, Mitzi kissed him on the cheek! That is not the same as “he was kissing that girl”. The least you could do in that situation is fucking talk to him! And why would he come all the way to Earth to just pick up another girl?! This is stupid! Stella has never been like that with Brandon. And if anything, she should be in Mitzi’s face like “You can’t have my man.” At least she is up for spending time with her friends.

- What the fuck happened to Helia’s hair?! Okay, who thought that was a good idea?! Like, both in production and in verse. This was a horrible, horrible idea. Bring back Helia’s hair! And wtf was that comment from Sky about girls checking them out?! You all have girlfriends! It should not matter at all if girls are checking you out or not! I swear, this season is trying to enrage me on purpose. But at least the dynamic between the Specialists is going strong and, I would say, better than in previous seasons because we actually see them be friends here!

- What is Mitzi’s problem? She is stalking Brandon AND trying to steal him from his girlfriend. Like, crazy psycho much? Calm down there and leave them both alone.

- It’s good that they’re having fun together but like Tecna said, they could get this done faster which would be preferable considering that finding the last fairy on Earth is kinda urgent. You know, before she gets killed by the Wizards would be nice.

- Oh, you have to be kidding me! They have been bitching about the Specialists helping them but “That looks heavy. Let me give you a hand.” gets a smile? Really? It is literally the same thing! Why are you, guys, not throwing bitch fits now?! And Bloom is suddenly very quiet for someone who didn’t want help now that Andy is all “Let me show you how to paint walls.” Because you’re girls and you obviously have no clue about it. This whole situation can’t get any more stupid.

- Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I was wrong. It just got more stupid. First, Stella sounds like she’ll push Bloom into Andy’s hands any second now even though she had the Bloom/Andy situation happen to her with Brandon (except that Brandon seems far more firm on not being into Mitzi than Bloom is about Andy) and then Mitzi is there to snap a picture of it and send it to the boys. Fucking spectacular! This is just shoving high school drama down our throats now that they are finally out of high school! Makes fucking sense.

- And Stella is flirting with someone else already. Just shoot me in the head. It will be less painful than this. Can everything just explode already so that we can be done with the stupidity? And why are the boys like that? It’s not like they just walked in on Winx having an orgy with Andy and his friends! They were just helping... and flirting with them a little which would mean less if Winx had tried to discourage it instead of doing the exact opposite. *sigh* It’s a mess on both ends and I hate it so much. Can we get back to the magical stuff? Enough with the stupid teenage drama already!

- Finally! Thank you! But didn’t they say in the previous episode that Tecna’s system didn’t allow one person to adopt more pets even if under different names? Now it is suddenly possible. I don’t need contradictions in the “plot” on top of the relationship stupidity!

- How did they think that that conversation would go? Though, to be fair, they could have done far more. They could have shown her their magic to begin with. And also, if Roxy doesn’t believe in magic, then where does she think the flying pets come from? I mean, they literally fly! How do you explain that? Genetic mutation that gave them wings?! (Tbh it would’ve been cool to see authorities investigate Winx and their business because they think they might be doing illegal experiments with animals. That would have been so much better than the jealousy.)

- Well, Artu seems better at dealing with the Wizards than Winx are.

- Why would Ogron throw a barrel at Layla? Is he still stuck on “they’re unworthy of us wasting our powers on them”? Ugh! But seriously, Winx need to come up with a strategy for fighting these guys!

- It’s working! Roxy’s belief is giving Winx more power. They transformed.

4x07:

- Okay, so the new powers work on everyone but Ogron who keeps absorbing them. Do they by any chance defeat him by shooting too much power at him at the end of the season? Because that is usually the way to defeat someone that absorbs any kind of energy - overload them. More like overwhelm them. But back to the fight at hand, I love that Roxy is ready to defend herself with throwing rocks (lol, the irony, considering she is named Roxy). I guess refusal to give up is just the universal Earth power. XD

- Wait, how did Roxy disappear? Did Layla teleport her or were those Roxy’s own powers awakening? Wtf happened?

- At least Flora is using new spells. And so are the rest of Winx. But damn, the Wizards have really cool powers! Is Gantlos able to track Roxy because his main power is sonic waves?

- Doesn’t Roxy know that you don’t get in strangers’ cars? Or is she trusting the fact that Artu is not suspicious of the woman? I can kinda accept that.

- Why are all of the Wizards (well, except Ogron) flirting with Winx? But on a less creepy note, wouldn’t it have been better to have made the people believe in them so that they could become stronger? And Ogron has a point that if they lose Roxy to the Black Circle, they won’t be able to save anyone.

- “It’s a little hard to explain but, basically, we’re looking out for your future.” XDDD That’s my Stella.

- Okay, I am starting to like Roxy. The fact that she hates flying is super ironic considering that she’s a fairy. And I love that she thought of not leading the Wizards straight to her father and putting him in danger, too. Plus, she did go down the sewers despite not wanting to. And aww! She is already a fan of Winx (and of Stella). I have to say that I am a little annoyed by how similar they are making her story to Bloom’s. She even has her own spirit guide as Daphne was for Bloom. It’s almost like the writers can’t come up with anything else.

- They’re opening the Circle for the third time already and Roxy just ran out of it like it was no biggie. XD

- Why can’t the Winx admit that they did need help. Layla and Flora have no problem admitting that they could have used some help.

- Well, the scene with Roxy’s dad getting their names wrong is hilarious! And I love that Timmy figured out how to make him get his name right! That was awesome! Why can’t the scenes be like that instead of them fighting over bullshit?

- They already mentioned the three sets of wings. Why are they acting surprised now?

4x08:

- Finally a boy interested in the fairy pets!

- Yes, thank you! Finally someone giving Stella some good advice and telling her to talk to Brandon about the whole deal with Mitzi. I am pretty positive that they are gonna drag that out until much farther into the season though, so I have more to suffer.

- Roxy’s father either doesn’t mind having her friends dropping by in the middle of the night or he’s a sound sleeper and doesn’t know they’re there at all. The thing with the photos arranging themselves was cool, though!

- I just hope Stella’s only problem with driving is her lack of sense of direction. It would have been more realistic if she’d misdesigned at least a part of Roxy’s outfit. They just met her and Stella already got a perfect sense of her fashion sense in order to make her the perfect outfit? Unless she’s using some kind of fashion magic, this seems unlikely. She’s just really not going to talk to Brandon, huh? Why do they have to do them dirty like that?! They’ve always been the perfect couple.

- Bloom is riding a horse here. But in Magical Adventure she didn’t know how to. Great one, you guys! But again, the movies just have no continuity with the show. On the other hand, the show has no continuity with the show so I don’t know what I expected.

- But why not put that guy to sleep? It’s not like they will harm him. Just get him out of the way for as long as they need to look around that place. What’s so wrong with that plan? They won’t have to deal with him and he won’t have to deal with them. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

- Omg, for the first time ever “the ground is shaking and falling apart” is actually a problem because Roxy can’t fly. Finally they have a reason to pretend that this is actually dangerous.

- What about Roxy? They can’t just leave her in a burning barn filling with smoke! See, it would have been much better if they had put that guy to sleep! They wouldn’t have to save him from the Wizards now because he would have been away from the battle and unable to interfere.

- So the glowing thingy on the ground is the White Circle? Or is it Queen Morgana’s crown? What is happening? It is the White Circle, after all. But I would like to know more about it!

- Well, I guess it paid off that they didn’t put him to sleep, after all. They made him believe in fairies and be better to the life around him. So one for the team.

- Stella is being so ridiculous at this point that I just cannot take it anymore. Please, tell me this drama will be over after the karaoke. At least she snatched him away from Mitzi but damn, why is this still not over?!

- Why can’t everyone be like Nabu and Layla? They have no drama, Nabu trusts her and Layla shows him that he is the only one she wants. Why can’t the rest just get their shit together and start taking notes?!

4x09:

- Why the heck would the White Circle reveal itself to be destroyed? Honestly, all of Ogron’s lines in this scene sound either cringy or nonsensical... or both. And why is the White Circle an object while the Black Circle is a group of people? This just doesn’t sound logical. Don’t tell me there will be an identical Black Circle popping up at some point.

- On the one hand I kinda liked that Winx have something else going on except for fighting villains with the shop and going to the Fruity Music Bar but at this point it seems like that is taking up too much of this season. And now they are shoving more of it with Musa getting a call for an audition and everything. It feels like the season is not focused on the Black Circle to an appropriate level considering how big of a threat they are supposed to be.

- So Roxy is one of Winx now? I am not really a fan of that idea. Idk I just always looked at her as a part of the season 4 storyline and not part of the girls’ group. But I like the fact that she “doesn’t want to be special”. It’s a nice change to the typical pace of these stories.

- What is Riven’s problem? Musa is literally just singing with Andy’s band. There is nothing even remotely provoking jealousy. Also, why was Sky the one proving Riven’s point by purposefully going to a girl and offering to make her favorite drink? That is more flirting than Musa singing with the band. And didn’t he and Bloom fix this already?! And why is Mitzi now holding on to Sky?! What is she doing? Trying to steal all of Winx’s boyfriends?!

- Okay, but how is Musa enjoying singing different from her normal behavior? Wtf, Riven?! What is the problem? That she is more social than she used to be? I understand his feelings just not why they exist since the situation is not at all the way the show is trying to make it out to be. Musa doesn’t seem all that different to me (it’s not like they’ve given them any character moments this season, only drama and jealousy) and all this angsting is just unnecessary, not to mention stupid.

- “Jealousy keeps a relationship alive and thriving.” WHAT. THE. ABSOLUTE. HONEST. GENUINE. FUCK?!?!?!? Yeah, Stella sure seemed very alive and thriving when she was distressed over her jealousy of Brandon. Sure seemed like a peachy experience. I just cannot even. And does this seem very OOC to anyone else? I mean, Stella’s parents are divorced and she took that very hard. She has abandonment issues. Why the fuck would she say that jealousy is in the core of a relationship?!?!?! What the fuck, writers?!

- Ugh... Erendor? Really? Out of all the ways to make this episode worse... Smh. And he is being an asshole as always. I love how he doesn’t care that Winx might have some urgent business. No, his wishes always come first. Entitled prick!

- Oh, great! So the White Circle was possessed and now Roxy is possessed. Fucking awesome!

- Why is Stella the one feeling what’s wrong with Roxy? Bloom is obviously the one who has taken on the role of her mentor and in the beginning all six of Winx could feel Roxy’s magic. Why is it different all of a sudden? And Erendor actually let them go?! Wow, I am shooketh.

- Ogron didn’t absorb that? Why am I surprised? There is no consistency in here and if you want to contradict what’s been established already, you have to explain how it works. Not just “White Circle makes Wizards of the Black Circle weak because opposing colors means opposing powers uwu”

- “She seems like a totally different person”? Are all of them deaf and didn’t hear that she just said she’s been waiting for that for centuries? The fact that Roxy is sixteen should have tipped them off somehow.

- They just keep throwing balls of energy at each other. Wow! What an engaging and epic battle! -_-

- How come Stella is the one who’s been doing all the reading this season? I am not saying that she is dumb but Tecna is usually the one who sifts through the information they’ve received and considering that she copied the whole library from the Hall of Enchantments, it would have made more sense for her to have read the book from cover to cover.

- Stella is like a caretaker now all of a sudden. This episode has thrown me for a loop, honestly.

- Oooooooh, this scenes with Erendor are giving me a headache with the twists and turns. First, what the hell did he think by making Sky king at the age of 18? Erendor is well so there is no need to rush to pass the crown to Sky. I hate to admit it but he kinda has a point about Sky abandoning his royal duties to go to Earth and do pretty much nothing to help there. And then the scene in the pawn shop (or whatever) that is just... huh??????? Erendor was angry about the seal but then he is suddenly flipping the script completely and giving Sky money so that he can stay?!?!?!?! I cannot even with this episode. Please, let it end.

- Are Stella and Brandon fine now? Yes? Please!!!!!

4x10:

- The White Circle is the last portal to the dimension where the Earth fairies are held captive? Why are they only mentioning this in the recap of episode 10 and didn’t say it anywhere in episode 9??????????????????????????? I swear, the sheer number of times this has already happened (or rather the opposite where they introduce a concept twice) is nerve-destroying. They should really hire someone to check for continuity.

- So now Roxy remembers not just the Nebula possession but also the other fairies’ feelings? Didn’t she say she didn’t remember what happened in the last episode?

- Since when does Bloom understand not wanting to be a fairy. She has always wanted to be a fairy.

- What guarantees that Bloom won’t get possessed if she is wearing the Circle like a ring? The fact that she’s not from Earth? But she’s the only one who grew up on Earth so the White Circle will probably be much safer with any of the other Winx.

- Where did Bloom’s double come from? In season 3 they couldn’t make doubles and could only make pixies look like fairies. What is happening now? Edit: She turned one of the pets into a double. Great fucking idea considering how Kiko was handling the shop in a previous episode.

- Why tf are the guys trying to pay with gemstones?!?! First, I thought Sky refused to take them from Erendor in the last episode. And second, they’ve been on Earth long enough to know how buying stuff works! Just sell the gemstones to a jewelry shop and you’ll have money you can buy stuff with! Jeez, like it’s so hard!

- Musa is being stupid, then Riven is being stupid and we keep spinning in that vicious circle forever. *sigh* I have to agree with Riven, though. The building is ugly.

- Roxy’s explanation made no sense to me. But why is Bloom having trouble figuring this out? She grew up on Earth. Granted, she was practically just waiting for proof that fairies exist to fall in her lap which is different from not believing in fairies completely but still. And why not start from children? Children are always more open-minded to “impossible” things.

- Okay, so teleporting will not rattle Roxy and her hate for flying.

- See? The little girl believed in magic! Told you! What I can’t comprehend is what the parents thought. Like, those girls had plants growing in your apartment and had sparkly wings! What did you think? That they are scientists who just like to dress up fancy and go rescue people with their inventions?!

- Why were the Wizards so sure Winx would show up? It was a burning building. Surely, there have been other burning buildings in Gardenia. It’s not like it’s some beacon that would lure them there. And Gantlos using his powers in a building that is near collapsing is sketchy and best and incredibly stupid at worst.

- What the hell was Bloom thinking? That magic could have brought the whole building down!

- I am a bit... disappointed, I guess (not the right word) that Musa had to come to Earth to be noticed for her musical talent. She is literally the fairy of music. She should have been noticed in Magix as well. Not to insult our world but the show has made it clear that Earth is behind in its development so it kinda seems like they’re saying Musa’s talent is only special on a place where everyone else is ordinary compared to her.

- I don’t trust Jason. Like, his eyes remind too much of Ogron but I absolutely do not remember enough of this season to say if there is anything shady going on there. I am not saying that Riven was right since Musa really has not done anything that would give him any reason to be jealous but I also do not like Jason.

- Wtf, Roxy’s advice didn’t do jackshit. They saved people from a fire. How is that forming a connection with them? Anyone would have been grateful to be saved (well, almost anyone).

4x11:

- Yeah, right. Musa, honey, you’re not breaking up with him for 2 and a half more seasons. And even if I didn’t know that, I still wouldn’t believe it. They’ve done this song and dance already.

- Since Duman always shapeshifts into animals and Roxy is the fairy of animals, can she influence him with her powers while he’s transformed into an animal? If she can, that can stop him from shapeshifting because she will have control over him. Please, tell me that happens somewhere in this season. It would be a horrible missed opportunity otherwise.

- I knew it! At least this time they were smart about something and had Roxy call Winx. But didn’t they use the Zoomix wings to teleport there in the first place? Why did they have to change them to leave? Or was that just for us to see the Zoomix wings?

- Now the girls are jealous of each other’s boyfriends?

- I knew Nabu would propose to Layla! They’re so adorable! I only wish they would have let him stick around long enough to marry her.

- But if people think of them as superheroes, they still won’t believe they’re fairies. They’re supposed to convince people that magic is real but I think the common consensus is that superheroes are not magical. They just have abilities that normal people don’t have. So how is that gonna help the mission?!

- Winx are stretched across two fronts. Why don’t the Wizards use that against them? Wait for Winx to get so caught up in a chase (like the one with the ninja thieves) that Roxy can’t keep up and falls behind and then attack her. Or put everyone else in danger also so that Winx have to help others and can’t come to her aid?

- Man, it really was a disaster. But on the plus side, they are nailing the superhero vibe. Most superheroes inevitably do some damage while helping. Unfortunately, I still don’t think the superhero approach is right.

- I swear, Stella is acting towards Layla the same way she was acting towards Brandon. And they’re making a surprise dinner for Layla? I think Winx are also in love with each other just like the Specialists. XD And that reunion between Stella and Layla was too cute (and maybe a bit overzealous in proportion to what happened).

- Tecna says it’s not the Believix power that makes people believe in them, yet it was exactly the Believix special powers that made people believe in them.

4x12:

- Oh, wow. Roxy made Artu talk? That’s cool. I have to say that the way they draw that dog makes him look creepy and hostile half the time.

- It’s good that grown up men are so taken with the magical pets.

- Lol, at this point I am not sure whether I am relieved or disappointed that they didn’t make Kiko love Roxy a little too much to have Bloom getting jealous. Since a main theme of this season seems to be jealousy, that would have been on brand. But maybe a little too much on top of the talking thing. I don’t really know how to feel about the fact that Kiko is talking. At least Bloom seems to like it.

- When was that part where Bloom didn’t see herself as a fairy? She was insisting she was a fairy even as the Trix mocked her for not being able to transform. She never felt the way Roxy is feeling. Sure, she doubted herself but she didn’t believe she could be the fairy she wanted to be. Roxy doesn’t feel like she should be a fairy. It’s different. Please! I do appreciate the credit Mike and Vanessa are given, though.

- For a second there I was about to say that Roxy’s father is really getting on my nerves with his bad parenting but that wasn’t him. Though, he has been a bit dismissive and authoritarian in previous episodes so I am not sure I like the real him either. But how did Duman imitate Claus so well. He said he knew Roxy’s tone and it meant trouble which she didn’t consider out of place so it must have been true. How come Duman knew that, though?

- At least the spell that lets Artu talk didn’t wear off before he got to Winx and told them what happened. I have to admit that I expected it to. I should have known, though. That would have actually been a complex situation and they just can’t afford to write those.

- Okay, the Zoomix and Speedix wings make sense but the Tracix ones are just way too convenient.

- What, the name White Circle doesn’t tip you off on why the Wizards of the Black Circle want it? It’s obviously their opposing power! Jesus, didn’t they learn about opposites in season 2? Why is none of that ringing any bells?

- That spell sure seems to last a lot longer than I expected it to. When Roxy said it doesn’t last long, I thought it would wear off in half an hour tops. But it seems to last for hours and hours, and hours.

- Soooo... why didn’t Winx think of having Artu trace Roxy? They can also still communicate with him so that wouldn’t have been a problem.

- Omg, Roxy summoning a bunch of rats to defeat Gantlos is the most badass thing that has happened so far in this season. And she managed to transform.

- Timmy and Tecna are adorable!

- Layla just threw them for a swim. But why didn’t Ogron absorb her magic? Is it only attack spells that he can absorb? Or is it because their Believix is stronger now and it works against the Wizards?

- Well, at least Claus will have to believe that Roxy is a fairy now.

4x13:

- The Specialists suddenly only seem to be good at failing which is stupid because they were holding up quite well during the battle in the previous episode. But again, everyone’s capabilities depend on what is convenient for the writers at the time.

- Timmy tracking the Wizards was a good move but it won’t help if they can’t fight them. Also, Ogron should have just threatened to kill Sky (and the other guys) if Winx leave and it would have kept them there. Simple as that. I mean, the guys were obviously losing and the Wizards could have very well killed them.

- At least Roxy’s “temper” is rather consistent.

- “Try fighting me like men,” he says and proceeds to use magic against people who don’t have magic. Yeah, very fair. Extremely manly.

- I love how Anagan freed himself exactly one second after Helia said he wouldn’t be able to. Helia, your fangirling over your girlfriend is cute but don’t underestimate the danger.

- Timmy is “Anagan-boarding”, I guess XD. But good thing Tecna showed up because he would’ve ended as a Timmy pancake on the sidewalk.

- Yes, I was going to say that they totally forgot about Gantlos while busy with their romance drama and he made himself known. But I’m sorry, I thought Musa was sold on breaking up with Riven. But now they’re a team? Okay, hon. Call me when you make up your mind.

- Why does Layla look so scared of Ogron? But damn, Sky, great way to fall of a train like a total idiot! Well, technically he didn’t fall off the train but he still tripped like an absolute klutz.

- “I hate to travel alone.” Is Sky hitting on Ogron? XD

- Can’t Bloom control the fire Ogron sent at her? It was from her own magic and even if he absorbed it, he shouldn’t have changed the structure of it, otherwise it would have worked in a different way. This makes no sense. Since when is he able to copy others’ powers?

- Poor Roxy. It’s horrible to expect of her to make a choice like that.

- I love how Duman was too much of a team player to pass for Riven. But that proves he doesn’t know anything about the people he imitates. So how did he pose so well as Claus?

- I’ve decided that Claus is an okay dad.

- Did Gantlos just vaporize a whole train? Oh, damn. That was a lot of people who died. But Gantlos sure seemed very worried about Ogron’s safety. If you know what I mean ;)

- What happened to the Wizards, though? They couldn’t have defeated them for good even if they were too weak to fight.

- That Flora and Helia photo was so adorable! And the one with Bloom, Sky and Brandon too. At least Stella and Brandon finally seem to have resolved their drama. Just, please, let it stay that way. Half a season of this was more than enough.

Part 2 is here.

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damienthepious · 4 years ago

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if you did commentary from *any* part of the duel from the most recent chapter of ‘going through changes’ I’d combust tbh!! it’s so so good

[Pick a short passage from any fanfic I’ve written and send it to me, and I’ll give you the equivalent of a DVD commentary on that snippet]

i accidentally did a bit from just before the duel earlier tonight because i cannot read apparently, but yes yes YES okay let’s GO-

[Arum's eyes scrape down Damien's body, his lithe frame, his loose, unprepared stance, the knife held so casually in one delicate hand, and then raise up again to his smug smile.] There is absolutely, inarguably, one hundred percent an angle of attraction to Arum looking Damien up and down. ABSOLUTELY. [Arrogant thing, he thinks, hissing disdainfully. In need of a lesson. Arum should end this foolish little duel before it begins.] Reframe, QUICK! Quick, Arum! get angry! pull up your own pride, wear it like a shield, he won’t possibly beat you-

[Arum darts forward, faster than a human should be able to see, but-

But Damien moves, a breath before Arum does, backstepping around Arum's lunge without even raising his knife.] But Damien knows him. Better than he knows himself. Damien... honestly, Damien goaded him into striking first. And Damien knows how Arum fights. And- despite Damien’s anxiety about hurting Arum’s pride, he also thinks... if this isn’t a challenge for Arum, if this doesn’t get his heart pumping, his frill flared- Damien suspects that’s the only way this will work. So Damien puts his game-face on, and he uses every OUNCE of experience he has in this fight.

["Ah," he says calmly as Arum exhales in shock. "So, we have begun, then? Very well, Lord Arum."] and every ounce of flirting, too. Damien knows how Arum fights, Damien ALSO knows what Arum finds attractive about himself, about their duels. He cranks it up to eleven. Arum- pre-curse!Arum loves his competence, his skill, his prattling.

[In the heartbeat it takes for Arum to regain his senses,] why, Lord Arum, were you distracted? [the knight shifts his stance and raises his arm, scraping the length of his blade along Arum's own in a fluid motion,] is it tipping my own hand if i say this was something Damien did to be sexy? [and as Arum flinches back Damien takes a calmer step away and assumes a stance-] Damien stays SO fully in control throughout this. Arum is almost always reacting.

[A stance that tickles familiar in the back of Arum's mind.] Hm. Interesting. Could this be, perhaps, because Damien has adopted some fighting mannerisms from Arum himself in their time dueling, and that is what Arum recognizes? Or is it something else?

[A distraction, whether intentional or not, and Arum raises his blade again just in time to block Damien's first quick, testing strike. Arum growls instinctively, and the knight's mouth curves into a small, strange smile as he swings his knife again, an elegant practiced arc, and Arum blocks, catching the blades together.] Again. Arum made the first move at Damien’s goading, and then from this point onward, Damien is pushing and Arum is struggling to just keep his balance. He’s almost paying more attention to Damien’s mood and attitude than he is the knife, which- understandable, but definitely not helpful.

["I've had quite a bit of practice," Damien says evenly, over the light scraping of metal on metal, "dueling with you, friend lizard."] Deliberately using terminology from their early duels. Combining it with the noise of their weapons. closing the distance between them. [He angles his body, moving his wrist in such a way that he uses their clashing blades to draw Arum's face closer to his own, a molten heat in his eyes that Arum cannot seem to look away from. "Perhaps I should go easy on you, let you warm up a little."] Again- the heaviest possible flirting while still knowing that this Arum won’t read it (consciously) as such. He pulls Arum closer, locks their eyes, murmurs something cocky and vaguely suggestive with their faces only a few inches apart. He’s trying so so hard.

[Damien disengages, spinning as he steps away again, his footwork light as the wind,] he knows that if he stays that close he’s going to want to kiss Arum, and-that probably wouldn’t help and it would break his heart a little. Also he knows that he shouldn’t be THAT close once Arum regains his metaphorical footing. [and it is not until he is no longer so close, until he is no longer invading Arum's space with his heat and his musical voice, it is not until he is out of reach that Arum realizes what the poet actually said.] more of Arum playing catch-up in this duel. and- Damien is affecting him. He wants Damien closer- he doesn’t understand wanting Damien closer- he’s drawn in by Damien’s voice- he’s flustered by his actual WORDS- he doesn’t know where he STANDS, and he can barely keep his shit together because of it. [He snarls, sputtering as he brandishes his knife between them.] Raise the blade, keep some violence between them. He needs it. He needs the knife as a shield, because he certainly can’t seem to find any success using it properly, today.

okay okay okay i think that’s enough for the mOMENT but if anyone wants me to keep going tomorrow- hey, I’m up for it! :3c

#elle's fanfic meta #going through changes ripping out pages #anon #asks

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samwisethewitch · 4 years ago

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A Must-Read Book for Ex-Mormons: Recovering Agency by Luna Lindsey (Review)

I do not use the phrase “must-read” lightly. There are very few books that I think every single person — or at least every single member of a given group — can benefit from. After all, we’re all different people with different intellectual, emotional, and spiritual needs.

But I genuinely believe that every person who has ever left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints should read Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control by Luna Lindsey.

When I was looking for books to help me process my trauma related to growing up Mormon, I had two criteria. First, I didn’t want to just read someone else’s exit story — I wanted a book that would help me understand my trauma and how to heal from it. Second, I didn’t want to read any book that was pushing an agenda — I didn’t want to be converted to another denomination of Christianity, or to atheism. Recovering Agency meets both of these criteria and then some.

Lindsey is very clear that her goal with this book is not to convince people that the Church is evil, or even that its issues can’t be fixed. She repeatedly points out that Mormonism is right for some people. In the book’s Foreword she says, “In these pages, I describe in detail the negative power organizations have to control the hearts of men. But I also hope for that which is harder to see… that religious faith can inspire the best in people, in spite of any institution’s attempts to control.”

But at the same time, she doesn’t tiptoe around the truth or avoid making controversial statements. She’s very clear from page one that the single goal of this book is to explore how the Mormon Church uses — and has always used — cult mind control techniques on its members.

In the first chapter Lindsey says, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a high-demand group, a deceptive religion that utilizes psychological manipulation via doctrine and culture to restrict the thoughts, behaviors, and emotions of otherwise good and intelligent members. In a word — though it is admittedly a highly-charged, loaded word — Mormonism is a cult.”

The bulk of the book consists of Lindsey explaining individual control techniques, then examining how they are used in the Church. She does this by comparing research from well-respected cult experts (including Steven Hassan, Margaret Singer, and Robert B. Cialdini) with quotes from Mormon scriptures, handbooks, and talks. She also weaves in firsthand accounts from current and former Mormons.

This book is incredibly well-researched, and Lindsey inserts very little of her own opinion. All she does is connect the dots between what we know about how cults operate and what the Church is actually doing. For someone who grew up in the echo chamber of Mormonism, where everything ultimately circled back on itself and outside sources were rarely referenced, this is incredibly refreshing.

This book helped me to understand my experiences as a Mormon in a way that no other resource has.

I’ve read up on all the ways Mormon doctrine directly contradicts the Bible. I’ve studied the Church’s history, from Joseph Smith’s criminal record and child brides to the Mountain Meadows Massacre to the modern Church’s use of tithe money for business ventures. I’ve read other people’s exit stories and been reminded that experiences like mine are not uncommon. And yet, I never found a sense of closure, even though I knew without a shred of doubt that the Church was false and that my life was better off without it.

This book helped me change my approach. Before, I’d been approaching my trauma as a negative experience with a corrupt religious institution — but that didn’t explain the extent of its impact on my life. Once I changed my approach and saw my trauma for what it was — years of cult membership and thought control which I needed to intentionally deprogram myself from — everything clicked, the pieces fell into place, and I was finally able to progress in my healing.

As Lindsey points out, “Knowing a little about mind control… helps inoculate against many types of unethical persuasion.”

And as the saying goes, “The first step is admitting you have a problem.”

Like I said, I really cannot recommend this book highly enough to my fellow ex-Mormons, especially those who still struggle to come to terms with their experiences in the Church.

I recommend keeping a journal handy while reading Recovering Agency. Every time you read a section that brings up a memory, causes a strong emotional response, or connects two dots, write it down. What did the passage bring up? How can you apply cult research to help you understand this memory/feeling/experience better?

It’s almost ridiculous how easily I was able to work through my experiences once I had the right vocabulary. I was able to deconstruct my fears and traumatic memories by identifying the thought control techniques that causes them. “Oh, that’s a double-bind,” “That was love bombing,” “This is a totalist reframing,” etc. Like trying to untangle a ball of yarn, once you find that one central string, the rest almost seems to unravel itself.

Rating: 5/5

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revlyncox · 4 years ago

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Origin Stories 2020

The stories we tell about our past affect the way we view the present and orient toward the future. This is true about the myth of Thanksgiving, stories we tell about Ethical Culture's past, stories we tell about our individual journeys, and more. When we recognize the impact of origin stories, we can be intentional about how we tell them in the future and how they guide us to bring out the best.

This Platform Address was written for the Washington Ethical Society by Lyn Cox, November 29, 2020.

Has anyone seen the movie, Captain Marvel? You know I did. Back when going to movie theatres was a safe thing to do, I saw it in the theater. The nostalgia for the music of the mid-1990’s alone was enough to catch my interest. I don’t want to spoil it for those who are waiting for a quiet evening to watch it at home, so I’ll try to speak in general terms.

The movie opens with an interstellar super soldier named Vers, who is having trouble with memory, but nevertheless goes out on a mission with her team, part of the Kree empire. Throughout the movie, she learns more about where she comes from, and more about the origins of the conflict with the people she thought were her enemies. Once she has come around to a different understanding of who her people are, the personal qualities she has been criticized for are reframed, and she can draw from them as strengths. This revised worldview moves her to an entirely different sense of her mission in life, as well as a different sense of connecting and belonging.

The paradigm shift that the main character goes through in Captain Marvel reminds me of the power of origin stories. The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves--as individuals, communities, and countries--affect how we reach out to others and what we think we’re capable of. As we reflect on this holiday weekend, we’re confronted with one version of the origin story of the United States, the one some of us were presented with as children at this time of year. That version of the story is infused with myths and half-truths, and depends on the erasure of the historical and contemporary perspectives of Native Americans, among other groups of people. Whether we are dismantling the settler-colonial narrative, incorporating new insights into our understanding of ourselves as a community, or finding personal empowerment in reframing our individual origin stories, returning to the stories about beginnings or turning points with open minds can help us reshape our future.

Whether we are speaking individually or collectively, origin stories matter. Events get baked into information we regard as fact, or perhaps legend. Left unexamined, these stories can divide people who need not be divided and disempower people who could be living fruitful, generous lives. It matters how we tell those stories. The inclusion of truths or half-truths, and which facts are emphasized or glossed over has an impact. In communal stories, whose perspective is centered makes a difference.The way we understand the narrative structure of the story is also a choice. The good news is that stories can be reframed, even within the bounds of verifiable facts. Origins are not destinies. We can rearrange the emphasis, lift up silenced voices, and find strengths that had previously been minimized. That’s what we’re talking about today. With regard to both individual and collective narratives, (1) Origin stories matter, (2) the way we tell origins stories matters, and (3) stories can be reframed.

Origin Stories Matter

Earlier, we heard an excerpt from a talk by Emily Esfahani Smith. She has done interviews and followed studies in positive psychology, first asking the question about what makes people happy, then shifting to the question of what helps people live meaningful lives. She said, “Creating a narrative from the events of your life brings clarity. It helps you understand how you became you.”

In her review of the available research (excerpt from her book on the TED talk website), she found that the stories people tell about the pivotal events of their lives can affect how they feel about themselves, their level of confidence or anxiety, and what behaviors they choose in the future as they subconsciously live by their stories. I’d like to add a caveat that not everything in our personal narratives is about perspective or attitude; sometimes a person’s anxiety or adaptive behaviors are shaped by oppression, trauma, or other circumstances. Even so, examining our lives for the agency and resilience that we do have gives us some extra tools and is worth a try.

When you add humans together to tell a collective story about the turning points of a community or a movement or a country, origin stories can have an even wider impact. Last month, I drew from An Indigenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz when we discussed Christopher Columbus. In the introduction to her book, in reference to Thanksgiving, Dunbar-Ortiz wrote:

Origin narratives form the vital core of a people’s unifying identity and of the values that guide them. In the United States, the founding and development of the Anglo-American settler-state involves a narrative about Puritan settlers who had a covenant with God to take the land.

Then, in chapter three, Dunbar-Oritz picks up this thread again:

The United States is not unique among nations in forging an origin myth, but most of its citizens believe it to be exceptional among nation-states, and this exceptionalist ideology has been used to justify appropriation of the continent and then domination of the rest of the world.

In other words, Dunbar-Ortiz credits the mythological version of the Thanksgiving story, a particular version of the origin story of the United States, with fueling some of the worst behaviors of the United States and many of its citizens. A story that was framed to make heroes out of the Pilgrims and inspire patriotism has also inspired exploitation, theft, and violence.

Dunbar-Ortiz is not alone in this observation. James W. Loewen, in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American history Textbook Got Wrong, also unpacks the Thanksgiving story as an origin myth with devastating consequences.

Loewen says that, in the cases where the Thanksgiving holiday is observed without examination or critique, “the civil ritual” marginalizes Native Americans. That marginalization comes not only from perspective or emphasis, but from actual falsehoods that are re-told in mythic versions of the story. These false myths serve to reinforce what Loewen calls white “ethnocentrism.” He says that when textbooks promote this version of the story, they diminish the capacity of students to understand the culture they are in or how to relate to each other.

At the time of his original writing, the term white supremacy culture was not as widely in use as it is now, but it is apt in this case. The outdated version of the Thanksgiving story idolized the colonizers and erased the humanity of the Indigenous people they encountered. This is both a manifestation of and fuel for white supremacy culture.

We’re finding that, just as our personal origin stories can lead us to make choices so that we live by those stories, national origin stories guide our future behavior. Origin stories matter.

How We Tell Origin Stories Matters

Now that we’ve established that personal and collective origin stories can have an impact on our self-concept and our future choices, let’s talk about how we tell those stories. We have choices in the perspectives and events we emphasize, and in the shape of the narrative arc.

Earlier, we heard a passage from A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present by Howard Zinn, in which he draws an analogy between historians and mapmakers. Zinn is more generous toward mapmakers or cartographers than I would be, saying that the choices about what projections to use or what details to include in a map are mainly technical. I think maps are much more political than he implies in this comparison, but the point stands that both historians and cartographers have to make choices in conveying information. It is incumbent upon us to examine our purpose in making those choices, and to think about the impact of those choices. How we tell the story matters.

This is where the collective storytelling and the personal storytelling intersect. As we are figuring out how to tell our personal stories, we’re also trying to figure out how we fit into the larger picture. When we are not truthful in our collective stories, we make this task of fitting into the larger story much more difficult for everyone, especially those who have been marginalized. If we have the privilege and responsibility of telling a collective story, we should try to ensure that all of the people in that story are reflected as their whole selves. Incorporating multiple perspectives into our stories makes it easier for the community and for individuals to understand ourselves and to find meaning and purpose.

My colleague Jone Johnson Lewis from the Riverdale Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture has demonstrated this beautifully in her research about the history and historiography of the Reconstruction era. She notes that narratives of the Civil War and the Reconstruction period that were taught in school for decades do not match the evidence. (Here’s her August 2 Platform Address as a guest at the New York Society.)

Starting in the 1920s, professional historians who were collectively known as the Dunning School were training school teachers to talk about the Civil War as a matter of “states rights,” despite the fact that all of the documents about secession referred to slavery, and the founding of the Confederacy did not allow states to have the right to opt out of slavery. This tradition referred to Reconstruction as a disaster, a burden placed on the South (meaning the white landowners of the South) by opportunistic northerners. The Dunning School presented an egregious misrepresentation of the facts of Reconstruction, and was part of perpetuating the idea that African American people were not capable of self-determination. This view lent support to voter suppression tactics such as literacy tests, and fed racist white resentment that is still an active force in politics today.

The deliberate revisions of the Dunning School were partly the work of David Saville Muzzey. Muzzey was not only a professor of history, but also an Ethical Culture leader. Muzzey wrote a history textbook that was heavily in use from 1927 to 1938, and was source material for textbooks for at least another generation. If we’re going to note the successes of Ethical Culturists throughout history in promoting justice, we also have to examine the ways that Ethical Culturists supported white supremacy culture. By learning from the mistakes of our kindred in the past, we can help prevent ourselves and our successors from repeating them.

According to Jone Johnson Lewis, part of Muzzey’s goal was to tell the story of the United States as a gradually unfolding arc of human rights. Acknowledging the initial flowering of human rights and democracy immediately after the Civil War--before the backlash against Reconstruction led to voter suppression, Jim Crow laws, and the great nadir of civil rights--didn’t work for Muzzey. Being honest about the steps forward and then backward did not match the shape of the gradual arc Muzzey was trying to fit history into, and did not comport with Muzzey’s racist views about what African American leaders and thinkers were capable of. He rejected evidence that did not fit his hypothesis, and because of that, generations of students were taught a false history of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

There are a couple of things we can learn here. We can learn that impact matters more than intention. We learn that stories about a community or culture should include the perspectives of all of the groups in that community or culture. Primary sources from the people who are most deeply affected are important in lifting up a complete history. In our local communities, we should be asking whose voices are missing.

As a point relevant to both collective origin stories and personal origin stories, sometimes the truth that is most important to tell does not follow a smooth narrative arc. Neither our individual lives nor our shared history necessarily follows a three-act structure or a linear path. History does not always make narrative sense even if the events follow a logical sequence of cause and effect. Trying to force our personal or shared history to follow a straight line might lead us to cut off important branches of truth.

Anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson wrote about how this affects our personal stories in her 1989 book, Composing a Life. (Here’s Bateson in an episode of On Being with Krista Tippett.) She wrote that how we grow and change is less like building a linear brick wall and more like improvisational cooking or quilting, putting a life together with the bits and pieces we have in the time available. Noting that people who have been marginalized don’t have the luxury of being able to hold a singular focus, Bateson said that a non-linear art of living has equal dignity and grace.

How we tell our stories matters. It matters that we include truth. It matters when we include multiple perspectives in a collective story. It matters that we allow our stories to take their natural twists and turns. When it comes to our personal stories, we need not be ashamed when our journeys don’t follow a simple or well-recognized path. Meaning can arise from growth and learning, and we don’t always arrive at growth and learning by the direct route. Realizing that stories need not be linear helps to remind us that it’s not over until it’s over - we are not bound to keep going in what is now the wrong direction. Make some room. How we tell our stories matters.

Stories Can Be Reframed

A corollary to the idea that we can choose how to tell our origin stories is that, at any time, we can choose to reframe those stories. We are not stuck with narratives that are inauthentic. We can emphasize different events and different voices to help us figure out a path for the future.

Taking the myth of Thanksgiving as an example, if we are going to treat it as an origin story for the United States, we can reframe that story by correcting falsehoods and expanding the sources we consult.

In 1970, the Massachusetts Department of Commerce asked the Wampanoag People to select a speaker for a Thanksgiving event to mark the 350th anniversary of the English arrival at Plymouth Rock. Frank James, also known as Wamsutta, had to show the event planners what he had written. The organizers did not allow him to read it, and offered him a different speech, which he refused to read. Instead, Frank James gave his original speech on Cole’s Hill, next to the statue of former Wampanoag leader Ousamequin, to a crowd of supporters. This became the first Day of Mourning, now an annual event of the United American Indians of New England. It was a turning point in the Native American movement in the United States.

James’ speech included this acknowledgement of history:

It is with mixed emotion that I stand here to share my thoughts. This is a time of celebration for you - celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the white man in America. A time of looking back, of reflection. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People.

Even before the Pilgrims landed it was common practice for explorers to capture Indians, take them to Europe and sell them as slaves for 220 shillings apiece. The Pilgrims had hardly explored the shores of Cape Cod for four days before they had robbed the graves of my ancestors and stolen their corn and beans.

James goes on from there, addressing more of the history of oppression against Native Americans, the way history was being taught in American schools, and the continued persistence and resilience of the Wampanoag and other Indigenous people.

Remembering that the English colonizers who arrived at Plymouth Rock were not innocent or peaceful, remembering that they committed theft and violence on the original inhabitants of the land both before and after the event that is remembered as the First Thanksgiving, means that we can no longer base a national identity on trying to emulate this origin story. It means we can’t pretend ignorance and wonder where it all went wrong when we look at the atrocities committed in the name of the United States in the intervening 400 years. But it also means we have a choice about what to do differently. We can commit to not repeating the past. We can learn to tell our stories differently. The history of Frank James and the first Day of Mourning is incorporated in materials for the 400th anniversary of the landing at Plymouth Rock. An origin is not a destiny.

Collectively, we are the authors of the future of our communities and our nation. Individually, as Emily Esfahani Smith reminds us, we are the authors of our own stories. As we heard earlier, “Your life isn’t just a list of events. You can edit, interpret, and re-tell your story, even as you are constrained by the facts.”

Just as with the process of updating our collective stories, reframing our personal stories may be hard, even painful. We will have to face uncomfortable truths. Yet out of those truths, we may find an ability to learn and grow, a sense of meaning and purpose, and capacity for acceptance and compassion that comes from whole-hearted experience. By changing the emphasis of our stories, we may find a call to service, or a desire to make amends, or a sense of connection with those who share a similar experience. The power to reframe our stories is in our hands.

Conclusion

The stories of our beginnings as individuals, as communities, and as a nation have power. They can move us toward compassion and connection, or they can move us toward division and disrespect. But that power is not absolute. We can take responsibility for comparing those stories with the available evidence, and for examining the story from a variety of perspectives. We can reframe a story as we learn from both mistakes and successes, seeking purpose amidst the patchwork of love and care that sustains the best in us and in those around us. May it be so for each and all.

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blackswaneuroparedux · 5 years ago

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Anonymous asked: I hugely appreciate how educated you are with your education in the Classics (at either Oxford or Cambridge I think) but I ask with sincere respect how does any of it inform your privileged life in this day and age? It’s easy to say how much we should value our European traditions and heritage it is quite another to live it out don’t you agree? What do you personally get from it?

This is a very relevant question and I apologise if I have stalled in answering it as I was busy with work and life to formulate a worthy reply. But your question is an important one indeed for anyone who harkens to the past as a guide for the present and the future.

I won’t waste space here and tick box all the purely academic reasons why the Classical world is still relevant for us today. I think you can find that in easy to read books and articles written by eminent Classicists who do an admirable service in making the Classical World come alive for the general public (Mary Beard, Bettany Hughes, Emily Wilson, Edith Hall, Peter Jones, Bernard Knox, Robin Lane Fox, Paul Cartledge, and Donald Kagan amongst others that come to mind). But it’s an uphill battle to be sure.

Classics - at least in United Kingdom - has been regressively marginalised with each passing generation starting from school up to university entry. It has an image problem. Few pay much attention to scholars of Latin and Greek. The impression is that Classicists are snobbish and is the education of privileged elitists who master languages that are not spoken. They learn to write them only to read them better. They slap your hands when you write a Latin word common in Sallust or Livy, rather than in Cicero. There is some truth to that sadly. To a large extent Classicists themselves have not been a good advertisement for why anyone should appreciate let alone study the classical world.

At one end those educated in the Classics can come across as encouraging elitism, snobbish pedantry and a sniffy social superiority and at the other end those not versed in Classics but through Hollywood (any sword and sandal film like Gladiator etc) and PC white washed TV series (BBC’s Troy is a good example) have formed a romantic attachment to the ‘heroic’ past by having blue pilled themselves into escapism. Both extremes makes Classics a fetish rather than a guide for life through the beauty and power of the language and culture of the singular Greeks and Romans.

The study of Classics can become the proverbial dog who can dance on two legs, but for what practical purpose? There is the rub. Classics, at its best, offers the historical, philological, and literary foundation and discipline to apply a critical method to every general aspect of learning - and living.

I was fortunate that I had Classicists - both within my family and also my teachers - who were cultured and had led such interesting lives and were able to marry their Classicist mind to their life experiences (often through the experience of war). So learning European languages was not just to get one’s head around arid esoteric articles by 19th-century Frenchmen on the Athenian banking system or Demosthenes’ use of praeteritio and apophasis, but also to appreciate the genius of Dante,Voltaire and Goethe. Classics should never just be about philology though because it can result in a life mostly missed.

Perhaps others might call it privileged but I consider my childhood blessed because I was surrounded by family members who were educated in the Classics - more rare than one might suppose. Through my great aunts and grandmother they instilled the discipline that the mastery of Latin and Greek fuelled the ability to speak and write good English -- and why the latter mattered as much or more than the former.

By the time I left both Cambridge and Oxford behind, I could cite passage numbers in Greek texts of what Thucydides and Plutarch thought of Nicias. But it was only when I went through Sandhurst to pass out as a commissioned army officer did it truly jump off the page and become alive for me.

Moreover having had long fire side conversations with both my grandfather and father - both Oxbridge educated Classicists and both served in distant different types of wars as swashbuckling officers - did I use that learning to understand why for example was Nicias such a laughably mediocre general of the Peloponnesian War. And this was essentially the practical point of reading Thucydides and Plutarch about Nicias in the first place.

I spent many hours in my down time during my service in Afghanistan between missions re-reading dog earred favourite Classicist texts. I began to see the ghosts of the Greeks in the characters of those with whom I was serving. Some began to resemble Sophoclean characters - especially the less well-known ‘losers’ like Ajax and Philoctetes - the sort of tragic heroes whom we root for but the odds are against them - think of any American Western film or the more pathological Tarantino films. Like Sophocles I saw majestic characters (some special forces operators) out of place in a modernising world who would rather perish than change - but in a context where their sacrifice schools the lesser around them about what the old breed was about and what was being lost.

A running thread from a childhood spent in many other countries - from South Asia to the Far East - to the present day is learning to appreciate our landscape as the Ancient world did. The cultivation of curiosity of cultures was seeded in childhood. Respecting and even admiring other cultures - Indian, Iranian, Chinese and Japanese primarily come to mind - led me to appreciate and treasure my own cultural heritage and traditions. The DNA of both the Roman and Greek world went far and wide and so teasing out their fingerprints was fun. In northern Pakistan, we came across ‘Alexander’s children’ - children with blonde and blue eyes who were said to be descended from Alexander the Great’s time in Afghanistan and India - and wandering around the banks of the Jhelum river imagining how Alexander beat his respected foe (later ally) King Porus at the Battle of Hydaspes in 326BC.

These days despite having a busy corporate career I help support running a French vineyard managed foremost by two exceptional cousins and their French partners. As such the Classics still resonate in how I look at the land beyond the vineyard - bridges, roads, towers, walls - and imagine the Greeks not with ink and papyrus but as men of action, farmers and hoplites, in a rough climate on poor soils. I suddenly envision them pruning and plowing in Laureion, the Oropos, and Acharnae, more like the rugged local farmers with whom come harvest time I roll my sleeves up and get my hands dirty in the vineyards than as the professors in elbow patches who had claimed them.

Knowing and learning about the Classical roots of our Western heritage isn’t just a question of culture it’s also about what personally motivates us in life and how that determines how we make consequential choices in life.

I live in fear of one Greek word ‘akrasia’. Ancient Greek philosophers coined the term to explain the lack of motivation in life. Most of the philosophical conundrums explored by contemporary philosophers were already explored in Ancient Greece. In fact, Ancient Greek philosophers laid the solid foundation for all philosophical approaches that appeared throughout history: theories of Kant, Hegel or Nietzsche would never exist without Socrates, Plato or Aristotle.

Among the many problems that baffled the Ancient Greeks, one of them gets quite a lot of attention today. Why don’t we always do what’s best for us? Why do we abandon good decisions in favour of bad ones? Why can’t we follow through on our plans and ideas?

Many people would say that the answer is simply laziness or decision fatigue, but Ancient Greek philosophers believed that the problem lay much deeper, in human nature itself. ‘Akrasia’ describes a state of acting against one’s better judgement or a lack of will that prevents one from doing the right thing. Plato believed that akrasia is not an issue in itself, because people always choose the solution they think is the best for them, and sometimes it accidentally happens that they choose the bad solution because of poor judgement. On the other hand, Aristotle disagreed with this explanation and argued that the fault in the human process of reasoning is not responsible for akrasia. He believed that the answer lies in the human tendency to desire, which is often far stronger than reason.

As with almost all philosophical concepts, a consensus has never been reached and akrasia remains open to interpretation. But its practical consequences are all too real in today’s world. Motivation is what makes us unpredictable and persistent, and the life circumstances of the modern world often make motivation disappear.

Today - regardless how old or young one is - many are more and more tempted to exchange a long-term goal for an immediately available pleasure in all its forms from the emotional band aid of porn from a lifeless relationship (or a lack of one) to escaping loneliness for the false intimacy of social media friendship. The lack of motivation can cause us to reduce ourselves to someone else’s standards when we know we can be or do better.

The Greeks felt that the way you think and feel about yourself, including your beliefs and expectations about what is possible for you, determines everything that happens to you. When you change the quality of your thinking, you change the quality of your life. I’ve been deeply influenced by Aristotle’s idea that virtue is a habit, something you practice and get better at, rather than something that comes naturally. “The control of the appetites by right reason,” is how he defined it. Another way to reframe this is to say, “Virtue is knowing what you really want,” and then building the intellectual, spiritual, and moral muscle to go after it.

To be cultured - as opposed to be merely educated - is how you put what you’ve learned to work in your own life, seeing the world around you more deeply because of the historical, literary, artistic and philosophical resonances that current experiences evoke. This is the privilege of being cultured. For me Classical stories come often to my mind, and some times provide guides to action (much as Plutarch intended his histories of famous men to be guides to morality and action). The classics then are a part of my mental toolset and the context I think with some of the time. I see that as the real blessing in my life.

Thanks for your question.

#question #classics #education #life #personal #bio #library

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dabistits · 5 years ago

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(1) I think a lot of the criticism toward Rei comes from the fact that we don’t know anything about her, which can cause people to project onto her. Plus, her scarring her own child was one of the first things said about her, which already creates a poor first impression of her character.

general comment: your asks were timely (even if this response is late lol). being knee-deep in the todoroki arc and going into all these thoughts abt rei, it’s been…interesting to simultaneously watch the new season and see how eri is treated. having the two arcs juxtaposed makes it more apparent that both characters are written very similarly: being used in quirk experiments, confined to a room, and dependent on male rescuers. ironically i think eri has actually acted with more agency than rei, so THAT is a whole issue lmao. anyways, rest of the ask under the cut, etc.

how you would reframe or rewrite the narrative surrounding Rei?

i’d just write everything from her perspective tbh. also i’d either make what her abuser did more forgivable or nix the redemption arc altogether, bcs honestly being forgiven for All That Shit just does not fucking compute. otherwise i think i’m pretty flexible, and writing from her perspective would already solve a lot of the issues i have and that you mentioned. showing what she’s done/what progress she’s made, and what her reasoning is for doing/thinking things would make her entire character seem a lot less passive and more deliberate. and i would just be sympathetic to women and abuse survivors and mentally ill people lol.

What should we make of the canon materials related to her? Should we just say that it’s bad writing and leave it at that?

it really depends on what you’re doing. i emphasize bad writing on the author’s part because that’s primarily the angle from which i approach rei’s character. so much of her is guided by hori’s biases that i can’t really analyze her outside of them. think of it this way: there’s plenty to analyze about shouto. you can think about whether he’s forgiving his abuser, and why, and whether or not you personally think he’s doing the right thing, because it’s a deliberate decision with buildup from the author. on the other hand, what indication have we been given of rei’s internal life? how can i analyze why she’s forgiving her abuser when the author doesn’t even bother to explain it? how do i even begin forming an opinion about whether or not she’s being reasonable? there’s just no reasoning given for why she’s doing these things at all, and i’d wager it’s because the author hasn’t thought of it, thought it was unimportant, and/or just made it happen because the plot needs her to forgive.

this doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t have opinions about what we do see her doing and saying, and i’m fine with people rewriting the small tidbits we have to suit their own needs or creating headcanon reasons (just be aware of what analysis or criticism you’re responding to, because i have had people approach me about my canon commentary with headcanon justifications). but i think if you’re trying to create a character analysis, it’s almost impossible to do so for the more minor female characters (midnight, mt lady, rei, magne, etc.) without addressing the creator’s bias, bcs so much of their very little characterization is nearly, if not completely, wrapped up in (trans)misogyny.

Or is there a way we could salvage the canon?

any way of ‘salvaging’ the canon is going to be intensely personal, and regardless of what we ourselves choose to do, we are likely going to have 0 mainstream impact on the series or any discourse surrounding the series, so like, is there any hope of actually making hori write better? no, probably not. and in general, i don’t think there’s a way for fandom as a whole to ‘salvage’ canon, simply bcs fandom is made up of so many different people and viewpoints. ‘salvaging’ any storyline is therefore going to be a personal endeavor, and dependent on how you interpret/what issues you think there are in the storyline, how invested you are, how invested you are in specifically rewriting/reinterpreting, and so on, and i think that’s going to look different for each individual.

While I’m on the topic, what would you say to Horikoshi if you had the chance?

i’d hand him a hentai doujinshi except all the word bubbles and genitals are censored with passages from das kapital

(2) This makes writing fix-it fan fiction hard, because on top of having no information about the character to go on, it’s also difficult to decide what canon materials to ignore and what to address. In this way, fix-it fanfics can end up reflecting the author’s perception of the “correct way to handle abuse” i.e. Rei leaving her abuser with her kids, rejecting the flower, etc.

(3) Sorry this turned into a ramble, but I’d like to ask how you would reframe or rewrite the narrative surrounding Rei? What should we make of the canon materials related to her? Should we just say that it’s bad writing and leave it at that? Or is there a way we could salvage the canon?

(4) I ask these questions in lieu of shaking Horikoshi and demanding what the Hell is he thinking while showing him fans’ grievances toward both Endeavor arcs on the internet. While I’m on the topic, what would you say to Horikoshi if you had the chance?

(5) But yeah, all this pressure put on Rei stems from the expectation that fictional characters should always represent our power fantasies. We hate to think we could be powerless in a situation. Doesn’t help that mentally ill mothers and abused women get persistently negative portrayals in media, so I think the pressure for a welcome change mounts.

#ask #long post /#abuse /

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screambirdscreaming · 6 years ago

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personal rambling

For the past couple years I’ve been working to build a way of functioning that doesn’t hurt me. Before that, I was running on a mode of pretty much pure determination - pushing myself to do the next thing that had to be done, and the thing after that, and the thing after that. Partly that was because of the chronic pain. There’s a way things get, when you’re in pain all the goddamn time, where you just don’t have the bandwidth to feel emotions in any kind of complex way. Like when you’re nose is stuffed up from a cold and you can’t smell anything or taste any of the complex subtle flavors, just your basic “sweet” “salty” “bitter” kinds of categories. But with emotions it’s like “frustration” and “determination” and the rare, ever elusive “calmness”. That’s about as good as it gets - feeling like things are pretty ok and you don’t need to be fighting right now immediately. Oh, and hysterical amusement. And satisfaction - satisfaction is good. But things like the joy when you see a really good bird, or the feeling you get when you smell wet earth, or the things music makes you feel... they just get kind of squished out. Or at least, for me they did.

And then I got on medication that actually managed the pain. And I started being able to feel these things again, to notice and appreciate things outside of the very narrow pathway of “the thing I need to do next” which I’d been focusing all my energy on. And I felt - I can’t describe what a wonder it was, and what a relief, to feel things like that again, after I’d almost forgotten they existed. I wanted to learn to live that way.

But I was still swamped with depression, and anxiety, and what I very belatedly identified as sensory processing issues and executive dysfunction. I still had to pour almost all my energy into making things happen, one step at a time. But as I tried to keep moving forward that way, all determination all the time, I realized that - it wasn’t possible to do both. That bitter, powerful determination that had carried me through so much was the determination of “fuck it, everything’s awful anyway, I might as well do this too.” It existed on the far side of being so miserable I couldn’t function. And having crossed back across that gap of misery, I couldn’t reach it anymore. If I pushed too far, tried to force myself to do too much, it would hurt me. Or rather, it always hurt me, but now I had the potential to experience things other than bitter exhausted hurt, and I wanted to try that. To try not hurting.

It still frustrates me. To remember being able to just do things, to just make myself do things with willpower alone - I can’t do that now, really. Or I can, but only a little bit, and sometimes it just doesn’t work. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice. It’s easy to romanticize it, from a couple year’s distance. It’s easy to think maybe it wasn’t that bad. But here’s a weird little trick your brain plays on you: you don’t remember pain. You can’t. Your brain just doesn’t form memories of what pain feels like. Which is, probably, for the best. But it makes it easy to second-guess yourself. You remember how much you hated the pain, and you remember thinking about how miserable you were, but you can’t feel the misery anymore. So. I choose to trust my past self, who made this choice, on the tipping point between pain and relief. They’re probably the only version of myself who actually understood the options. I hope they chose well.

And what they chose was - to define “doing my best” as “doing a reasonable amount that will not hurt me.” To stop pushing when pushing started to hurt me. And instead, to try to learn to do things by following what I found interesting and satisfying to do, what I could focus on without fighting my brain. To learn to recognize my different mental states, and what kind of work I could and couldn’t do in each of them, and what things I could do to influence what mental state i’m more or less likely to be in. Rather than pushing harder to make myself do something, I try to find ways to deconstruct and reframe it to be easier to approach. I feel like I’m juggling with my adhd, or setting up elaborate mazes to lead it down to the outcomes I want, like a clever hero outwitting a monster. Only it’s not a monster. It’s a way of thinking, a way of being. I made it through pretty much my whole childhood never thinking of it as a bad thing, being proud of it even - or at least of various parts of it, like the way I can hyperfocus on a project for hours and make something even I didn’t know was within my abilities. And sure, I’ve always felt like there are downsides, or things I struggle with, but everyone has those.

I just feel, more and more, like it’s hard to give myself space to think the way I think and function the way I function, and still keep up with what’s expected of me. I’m terrible with time, I’m always late to everything. The older I get the less forgiving people are of that, and while I can scrape by as a student - that’s the sort of thing that could loose me a job, once I get one, and I’m still barely more on top of it than I was a few years ago. And I can’t really explain to people why this is such a fundamental problem, why this is such a big deal. Back when the pain was really bad, I remember trying to explain to the boss at my summer job that it was harder for me to “just push through” my problems with time than it was to “just push through” doing farmwork with pain equivalent to continuous labor contractions. I have no reliable internal perception of the passage of time - I can’t perceive the difference between three hours passing and 20 minutes. Also, trying to align myself to the flow of time which I cannot perceive makes me massively anxious. If I try too hard, pay too much attention to the way time randomly slips away and try to set lots of alarms and calculate how long it takes me to finish things - I have a panic attack and don’t leave the house at all. I know it sounds dumb. I know, I know. But I promise you, whatever trick with a clock or a planner you want to suggest, I’ve tried it, and it hasn’t worked. I’m getting better at working around it. As long as I don’t focus on it too directly. I have a vague sense of how long it takes me to get ready in the morning, and I set my alarms to wake up at a time that seems kinda reasonable, adjusted through trial and error when I start a new schedule, and I get up and get ready and leave and catch a bus without ever checking a clock, and whatever happens, happens. I’m usually not more than 10 minutes late. I know that doesn’t sound impressive, but believe me, it’s progress.

Once I get out of the house it’s better. I’m already moving, I can keep moving, as long as I have a continuous set of things to do until I get home again. I try to plan my schedule so that I have plenty of time to get between places I need to be, without having to rush to catch a specific bus or anything like that, but not so much time I get distracted. It’s a balance. I’ve made so much progress, and at this point I feel like it’s reliable enough that if people could tolerate me being not more than 10 minutes late, I’d be fine. But that’s too much to ask, in the modern world. And I don’t know how much better I can make it.

I feel like I’m trying so hard to build myself a mode of functioning that doesn’t hurt me, that works with my adhd rather than against it, and I feel like what I’ve built works really well - but it still feels like it’s not enough. Like I still can’t conform to the expectations of society. And I try to go looking for other perspectives, other people’s advice, because I’ve derived all of this myself by trial and error and maybe someone out there has something that would help? Something that I could use without figuring it out the hard way? But I feel like everything I can find about ADHD is about conforming to the expectations of society. Like, that’s the baseline. It’s all about how much extra effort you can pour in to using a planner like a normal person. I’ve always felt like structured planners make you do twice the work putting everything in a certain order, and then don’t help at all. I’ve found my own strategies for writing things down and organizing them that do help. Some of them even look a little like some of the things in a planner. But I made them to work with the weird patterns in my brain, not to impose their patterns on me. And I can’t find that perspective anywhere.

I want to find somewhere where people are talking about ADHD as a way of thinking and being that is self-contained and self-sufficient and doesn’t need to be “managed.” I feel like that’s almost hypocritical of me, because I think about “managing” my adhd a lot. But that’s shorthand for “managing the ways the expectations of society interface badly with my adhd, and also, rederiving a bunch of general organizational tactics and strategies for doing things because the ones I was taught as a kid mostly don’t work for me.”

I still feel a little like I’m being stupid and selfish, going to this much effort to try and construct a way of being when I know I can do the other option. I can push myself through misery and out the other side, to a place where I don’t feel miserable anymore, just exhausted and fiercely, bitterly determined. I’ve done it before. I could do it again. And I feel like... a lot of people with adhd must end up there. It’s not that bad once you get used to it, and it interfaces with society pretty well, and you can do so much. I feel like I know a lot of people who are still dealing with chronic pain who still function like that. Honestly I’m incredibly lucky, to have gotten treatment in only two years. That’s a crazy good turnaround time for chronic pain. And I feel kind of like a hack, to have connected with that community (at least here on the internet) and to have related so much to that experience and the way of being it brings about, and to the coping strategies people had - and then, to not be there. To be doing this other thing, which I’m so stupidly lucky to even get to try to do. I don’t know. Maybe I get to be selfish. Maybe I get to at least try this, and feel these cool weird feelings, and be inspired to do art sometimes, and I might not function that much but it’s alright. I feel like I have a responsibility to do good work in the world - not because work determines worth, but because I have the resources and the capacity and so I should use them to make things better in whatever ways I can reach. And sometimes it seems like my selfishness isn’t worth the balance of how much I could do, if I just pushed through and decided to do it - but maybe I’d burn myself out. Maybe it’s enough to live a life I enjoy and do a little work when I can but not sacrifice myself to it. I don’t know. I’m trying this, anyway.

#personal #a big long ramble on mental health and ways of being and ethical responsibility #i dunno #I think about all this a lot I guess

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bushybeardedbear · 6 years ago

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So Season 7 of Voltron Legendary Defender... Oh Boy...

I had so much spoiled before watching it. Thanks email alerts. So after seeing so much spoiled already, I started lurking in Tumblr again. By the time I’d actually got round to watching the season I felt like I’d already watched most of it and was primed with all the various thoughts and opinions people were sharing online. In the days beforehand I was up and down like a yoyo on a rollercoaster. Hopeful one day, thinking it’s not even worth watching the next. Hovering my finger over “delete” on both this blog and my fics at points... Even contemplating that right now if I’m honest. Maybe I should have been Bushy Bearded Drama-Llama?

In any case, having finally sat down with rock bottom, possibly even sub zero expectations and watched, here are my thoughts now season seven is over... Well... In short, I think it suffers a lot from being so rushed. And before you say it, no, going in with low expectations wasn’t a self fulfilling prophecy. Psychologically speaking the opposite is true. If we go into something with low expectations, we tend to have a better opinion overall than we would have if we went in with sky high expectations. And whilst it may seem like I hated it so far...? Well, no. I didn’t hate it. There were some parts that didn’t gel with me, but to say I hated it would be an insult to everyone involved. But that doesn’t make it free from criticism. If you care what this bear’s about to growl about, strap in, it’s not a short one. Not kidding. This is long. But I guess I needed to get my feelings down and hopefully have someone patient enough to read it and see that I’m not completely insane. And, thought I shouldn’t have to say this... None of this comes from a place of hate. No, I don’t think regardless of how you feel about this season that hatred to the creators is ever acceptable. If you feel you must, then voice your grievances calmly, rationally, but the second you resort to hate you have already lost. Though what I would suggest is to just accept this season as it is and move on. Moving on is partly why I’m compelled to write this post. Maybe if you are going to read this monster, bring some caramel to counteract the salt...

The Season Itself

So within the first episode, I’m already full of mixed emotions. Yes, the Plance moment was great. Yes, the dynamic between Hunk and Romelle was cool. Coran was great, supportive Crolia, the none too subtle dig at Prometheus as Lance and Pidge ran from the grass... (Don’t think we didn’t spot that you writer rascals! Run at an angle!) I remain in Sheith Limbo trying to reconcile they met when Keith was literally a child and relationships can grow and develop with a worried dash of will people misinterpret this as grooming if they got together...? But a lot of it was by the by. Honey I Shrunk The Paladins was a great fun start to the series interspersed with great emotional character building for Shiro and Keith. It fleshed them both out in ways I wish we’d seen sooner and as others have pointed out drastically reframes a lot of the protective over Shiro moments in the context of his degenerative disease. And yet, it doesn’t make Shiro a victim, nor Keith a white knight, it keeps them both flawed yet strong heroes. Tiny cute paladins, Lance’s cargo pilot reference. As always the design of the planets is gorgeous. Lance sharpshooting. The attention to detail with little things like in scale surface tension! I can’t overstate how much time, effort and thought has gone into this! The narrative parallels of the speeder bikes. Honestly, there is SO much to unpack in just one episode that could easily be overlooked as silly and/or filler. But it’s so much. Keith’s growth is such fun to watch, confirmation of certain fan theories is great yet so sad at the same time...

It allowed Romelle to actually have a character that wasn’t just “Lotor Plot Delivery Service” and her interactions with Hunk were pretty adorable. “Are all ancient Alteans like this?” Was a great subtle piece of world building as well. And yeah, pretty sure I saw @hailqiqi mention this already, but Hunk and Romelle are so the audience surrogates. The one and only thing that bugged me, given the fact that so much of Voltron has had to be rushed or cut for time... Did we really need the flashbacks in this episode shown twice back in the quantum abyss episode...? Couldn’t that time in the QA been used for something else...? But that’s a very minor gripe. Overall, I massively enjoyed this episode but I’m still nervous given the priming from the fandom going forward... But that last hug? Saving Shiro with his voice / quintessence maybe?

The Road home starts off well, though the idea that still nobody knows or comments on Katie’s name being such did disappoint me a little... The space road trip starting up was so cute, even if Lance’s logic of passengers is lost on me...aside from maybe cutting Pidge some slack. Let me Headcanon that little touch of unconscious favouritism, yeah? Though his taking charge in the battle here, being the right hand man, was really nice to see here. From the audience perspective, he may be stating the obvious, but in canon, that’s what we call battlefield awareness. Imagine season 1 Lance doing this? Nah. Buthe’s had no growth, so people say... “It’s super dangerous, it’s perfect!” Wonderful! And Keith’s leadership! Great stuff. (Almost) Everyone getting a chance to shine in the cave combat was also awesome. Full on frenetic energy, a little flourish of comedy from time to time, great characterisation, calm before the storm leading to a sudden yet satisfying cliffhanger? Full on Voltron to a T.

"I will help you look for that passage.” Is a cute Plance moment that others are overlooking I feel. Coran’s memoirs are something I would personally read the hell out of. I don’t know about the rest of you. But seeing the entire saga retold through Coran’s eyes...? I’d love to see it. I’m also kinda happy to know how “Acxa” is pronounced! The slow reveal of the time skip up until the reveal at the end is nice, though honestly not as mysterious as the show seemed to think it was. Maybe it was just that I got spoiled? Evil power couple were great as well and it was nice to see the ice pop mystery solved. A return of Altean shapeshifting was nice to see. “Sweet on that one with the flippity hair” and “your favourite paladin” “never wanted to kill him” “true love”? Seems a little out of left field. Unexpected? Maybe not, just rushed? Axca and Keith seemed a little sudden. To me felt like they just needed to pair a spare and keep Kieth and Allura apart. Which, I get into later. Keith being able to transport his bayard seems...fine...? Why are people complaining about this? Paladins summon their bayarads all the time. He just did it from a few extra feet...? I do wish Coran had a chance to play to his strengths though. Aside from his courage. He has brains and feels like he needs to use them more or be written in scenarios where he can use them. The three year time skip, when revealed, seems like it was just a convenient way to avoid the immediate aftermath of Lotor losing the throne. It works in that regard I suppose. But by the end of this episode I wasn’t really sold on it.

Nice new haircut though Axca. Really sells the redeemed rebel former baddie archetype. And thank goodness for your exposition. Tell don’t show, am I right? One of the ways we can see the show was rushed I feel. Though again, maybe just being picky...

The Game Show Episode. I was expecting this later in the season honestly. It was good for comic relief I guess, so it served it’s purpose. Seeing the first family of the Galra along for some comedy was great if only for Neil Kaplan having such fun. But it felt like it was missing something. I can’t quite put my finger on what. It was nice to get insight into how the Paladins feel about each other but again, it felt like a way to get those ideas and characterisations out into the open without having to, y’know, show them in natural narrative progression. It’s probably the weakest of the comedy episodes so far and it felt a little like it was all just happening until it eventually stopped. It didn’t feel like the little hints of “tv flickering” implying something artificial were necessary. In fact, as soon as I saw the concept I thought “so, all powerful being captures them for reasons?” and that’s pretty much what we got. It was...ok. Just ok. And y’know what...? After seven seasons, maybe we do need to drop the “Lance is the dumb one” joke? I mean, yes, he’s not as smart as the rest of the team. No doubt. But if he’d been given a chance to shine on his own terms, with his own abilities, if they’d subverted the goofball archetype rather than doubling down on it I think this would have made for a more interesting episode. Just because it’s comedy doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be compelling. The Voltron Show for instance literally dealt with Coran pushing himself so hard to help the Paladins that he was willing to resort to what was essentially a mind altering drug and forcing himself to kick the habit. Where was the actual plot in this episode? Funny moments need a framework and this kinda lacked a framework in my opinion.

Really episode 5? A Kobayashi Maru scenario...? Indeed, running a simulation when the lions are running on fumes...? Ok, you do you I guess... Little self referential humour from Coran was nice, but a little on the nose. And honestly, I think these episodes are starting to feel like, I dunno, filler material? Like, nothing is really being furthered in terms of the massive plots they still need to deal with. Did the journey back to Earth really need to take so many episodes, or could these have been more efficiently used to deal with countless plot threads that remain unresolved...? It’s a strange thing to be feeling at this stage, but maybe there’s more to come...? And...it felt like another clip show filling out the backstory of the three years of Voltron being missing... Maybe it’s just me, but if you have written yourself into a scenario where the only way out is repeated massive exposition dumps... Maybe you need to rethink your story just a touch...? The fact it was also told from an unreliable narrator also means it wasn’t just exposition...it was literally pointless exposition that was likely mostly a combination of lies and half truths. And I’m sorry but, were people really clamouring for a rematch between Keith and “That One Nameless Druid...?” Really? You won’t hear me denying it was cool fight scene, yes indeed, but the set up wasn’t exactly great in my opinion. As for how Keith managed to win? Ok, sure, I guess summoning the Bayard from a few feet was a build up to something else, something even more special that may or may not get resolved this season. I’m writing these as I go. Or will it be one more plot point that will need to be resolved in the next season with limited time and episodes to do so? Keith and Krolia’s goodbye was sad. I do hope for a reunion, but honestly don’t expect it. I imagine she’ll die off screen for shock value. Sadly, I already know the fate of Altean colony and why Haggar has forsaken her druids, so, no real hook for me there.

So the halfish way point. Lost in space, desperately trying to force plance out of every interaction... And ultimately, just getting bored. I mean, yes, I get that they need to reconnect with each other... But there are countless ways it could have been resolved other than this. It didn’t really feel like there was need for this particular journey into the darkest cave. It also feels a little forced that after saving countless realities by working together, they now all get forced apart...? Hunk saving the day, saving the team, great. Really wonderful stuff. He’s been overlooked for so long. But the idea that they needed to become friends again...? To reconnect...again...? I don’t know that it felt necessary. If after all these years, literal years together there isn’t already a profound connection...? I just can’t really buy that. And again, it felt like a filler episode. And Hunk Priming the audience for the concept of passing the torch? Yeah, that didn’t go unseen. Maybe it’s just me, but after six episodes where it was already established that they can travel at crazy speeds to be told “yeah no, it’s not that the lions were drained, it’s just these people who’ve literally saved the universe together aren’t quite best friends enough...”? That just feels silly. And yes, I know “silly” is relative when we’re talking about a powerful group of robot magical cat things that are powered by love and freindship. BUT what I feel was silly was the idea that their friendship was strained at all. It felt as though the season wanted there to be this divide between them but...the comedy episode just a little while ago established they’re all willing to sacrifice themselves for each other....

That’s just....fundamentally contradictory. Are you guys barely even connected as friends or are you willing to die for each other? You can’t be both... It makes the whole “struggle” of getting back to Earth feel false because it’s predicated on the assumption that they’re a fractured team this episode yet there’s been literally no sign of that until now... Still, as always, the visuals were cool. The Space Angler Fish is a great concept. The music was great. The voice acting was on point. Everything was so SO good except...the writing... The writing in this particular episode in the context of everything preceding it just felt... Bad. Rushed. Forced. Contradictory. Drama for the sake of drama. Artificial... What’s going on guys...?

So a multiparter? Let’s see. Ok. Seeing how awesome Sam Holt is, fine. Seeing him reunite with Colleen. Also fine and dandy and cool. And it tugged at the heart strings... But do we really need him to literally tell us everything we already know in a power point presentation...? The audience doesn’t need to be caught up on the events.We don’t need a massive chunk of the episode’s run time devoted to playing catch up. We have the time for this, but apparently - according to the spoilers - we don’t have time to establish that Allura is getting over Lotor and Falling for Lance...? Not even a throw away line, or a glance, or a suggestion of that fact that needs establishing after her season six reaction to the mice... But we do have time for the events of the show to be repeated to us...? What!? I am literally bewildered at this choice. Flabbergasted. Gobsmacked.

The worst thing about this so far, is that under all the EXPOSITION there’s a great story that wants too be told. I think we’re only seeing fragments of that story. Sam and Coleen struggling to find their children again and fighting against political nonsense. But real talk... This was all stuff that could have done just fine implied. The Paladins arrive on Earth, they see the new ships piloted by their inevitable replacements in the new series they seem to want to make, Lance asks, “What are those?” Sam responds, “A fusion of Galra, Altean and Olkari tech. The culmination of months of Earth’s greatest minds working together. It was a struggle, but we got them made in the end...” BOOM. Done. Efficient use of what is obviously painfully limited time. Did we NEED the power point, the montages, the backdoor pilot for the new team...? Did we - good as they were - even need the Holt Family suffering...? Couldn’t Coleen’s transmission to everyone on Earth have been enough to get the point across that they’re awesome...? In my opinion, we didn’t need this. Not like this at least. It could have been done so much more efficiently, so much less padding. But we did get to see snippets of the messages back home. That was nice. But it doesn’t change the fact that the majority of the first episode felt really... Unnecessary. But that’s just how I feel after part one... So, the first half of the second episode? Superb. Can’t fault it, good heroic stuff, Sam stepping up. A realistic invasion of Earth, ie, we lose that’s rare to see in most media. Can’t fault it. Then the second half kicks in. The four archetypes we’ve been barely introduced to, go on a mission that narratively speaking is utterly unnecessary. I know that the Atlas gets built thanks to spoilers. But even if I didn’t, what function does this part serve? We may not be able to build a thing. Later on, that thing will be built. Do we need to into the minutiae of how the supplies were gathered...? Well, I suppose we do. But not because of how it serves the overall plot of Voltron Legendary Defender, but how it sells these new kids to us for the new series they obviously assume they’re making. But if it wasn’t for that?

Then it defaults to more exposition... More information that could have been relayed to the audience in much more engaging ways.

This could have been, rather than a messy and kinda redundant two part episode with occasional brilliance, it could have been trimmed down to a truly brilliant single part. I’m not invested in these new characters. Let me get there or not when I see them in their own show. And if they’re literally just there as homage to the sequel series from the 80′s...then they don’t need this much focus. The actual paladins and their interpersonal dynamics do. Rift creatures do. Lotor’s fate does. Why are we wasting the limited time that remains on this unless it’s a back door pilot? Why should the current series suffer just to promote the next one...? It’s just exhausting and disappointing. By the end I was agreeing with Keith. What are we waiting for...? The continuation of the series we came here for. What kept us waiting was either an advert for the next series or a massive misstep in pacing.

And now, finally back to the real story and after two episodes establishing that Earth is screwed over, Earth can barely contact other parts of itself, Earth is on the brink of collapse, Earth is holding on by a thread... In the first scene we have Earth, somehow, triangulating a jamming signal into the outer edges of the solar system and remaining undetected as they do so...? Even assuming they are “just” sending commands to satellites and installations elsewhere in the solar system, The Galra would detect that command signal. And given how much we’ve had it stated, overstated, hammered home that Earth is in such bad shape...that feels like a real ass pull.

I am being nitpicky, yes, but this is the second time this has happened on such a large and frankly contradictory scale. So I’m calling it out again. First The Paladins are willing to die for each other, or at least be trapped for eternity, then they are barely friends. Then, Earth can barely contact it’s own countries, but sending an undetectable command signal to at least three satellites in the solar system is fine...? Why not just have Voltron get the signal sooner!? Why not have Pidge send a jamming signal...?

And in terms of introductions to the new team? What we got after the drone attack? Perfect. It didn’t need to be an entire episode of establishing them because it isn’t their story. But the Paladins meeting their families? The reconciliation with Iverson? Shiro grieving for Adam. Where was all this before now? Why hasn’t our focus been where it belongs. On the Paladins? Now, I don’t really want to get into the whole debate about unfair representation of LGBT characters. I can see both sides of the argument as being valid. Shiro remains a strong canonically gay character even if the man he once loved is gone. Adam, though dead, is not immune to tragedy just for being gay. What we did see though was a man openly crying for his lost love. There’s plenty to be critical of the series for. But personally, I don’t feel the treatment of Adam and Shiro is “queerbaiting” so much as it is a couple unfairly separated by the horrors of war. A canonically and unambiguously gay couple. That’s representation. Just it may not be precisely what everyone wanted. But don’t let me stop you writing out impassioned critiques, don’t let me stop you airing and venting your grievances. I’m doing that right now, aren’t I? Just please please please don’t send any more hatred at the creators...

Now, this whole section of the Altean enhanced tech...? Why is this being reiterated again? This could stand on it’s own as an introduction to the concept of Earth meets Alien tech. Why are we being shown the same things twice, first in the two parter in depth and again now...? Why do this when there is so much else that needs addressing in ever dwindling episodes...? Though aside from that, Hunk and Keith connecting is great. Hunk finally having a dedicated arc to save his family also great. Hunk being the outsider to the Garrison Trio dynamic and spending time with Keith again? Also great, wonderful even. So where was all this previously...? But even this, even this has to be if not overshadowed then frankly hijacked by the new characters they want to sell to us. It’s getting tiresome. I don’t want Hunk’s moments overshadowed, his spotlight taken... But damn, if he doesn’t still stand proud regardless. This is the Voltron I’ve been missing for most of the season.

I was going to post the image of him crying, but couldn’t do it... So here, Happier Hunk.

Don’t know how I feel about Hover Hand. I get they’re setting it up for the final conflict with Sendak, so that Shiro will be his literal and visual antithesis...but...hover hand looks kinda goofy. And being the counterpoint to your nemesis doesn’t need to be so literal all the time. And again, the new characters forcing their way into the story with a half baked excuse to sell you them. I think from now on I’m just going to comment when Team Replacements don’t force themselves in...Even the fact one of them was Veronica felt a little frustrating, because Lance’s family dynamic with her is overshadowed in my opinion by her being part of the new forced team of replacements. Allura giving up her crystal tiara for Shiro was a nice moment.

Okay, now imagine the whole infiltration section without Team Replacements. Just the Paladins, doing their thing. Let’s assume their resident tech genius has a way to stop the sentry drones sending out distress calls.

What did they contribute other than a few quips? Are we really expected to believe our paladins, the protagonists of the story need these people...? No. It was just written that way to force the new guys in. What we need to wonder is why and the answer is most likely... Back Door Pilot. Over multiple episodes. That undermined the series I was already watching. And finally, despite it being the supposed new canon ship in town, we see our first indication that Lance and Allura might be interested. Or do we? No, we just see Lance checking her out and being teased. Then immediately afterwards we see Pidge implementing Lance style silliness and even a Lance style distraction with her own spin on it. But no, let’s focus on the blushing and the eyeballing. I’m not salty. I’m dead sea levels of salty. But I’ll put that aside for now... And roll my eyes at the Wilhelm scream... Ok, so I was all ready to be excited about the plan, but then the super forced Allurance twin blush happened. Was it...was it really supposed to hit home when there was no build up to it this season...? Or was checking her out through the sniper sights enough to replace any hint of them coming closer or Allura setting aside Lotor...? Sure, she’s bound to do it in time, but all I’d want is something to suggest as much on screen. Just a throw away line or two... Is that so much? Cut a scene or two with the Replacements and give us more Paladins.

As the paladins all fly to their thematically and elementally appropriate battlegrounds, I want to agree with some posts I’ve seen arguing that Pidge doesn’t just look concerned, or in the zone as the other paladins do. For at least one shot she looks sad. Troubled. Maybe I’m reaching. Probably reaching. Almost certainly reaching given the almost immediate Allura calling to Lance moment... The sequence of connecting with the lions though? And Lance protecting Veronica? Pretty much resigned to die before being saved by red...? Yeah, heavy and cool stuff.

But Admiral Asshole somehow getting in touch with Sendak? Betraying the entire planet? No. Just no. She can be a thorn in their side and an antagonist without being so utterly stupid. At this point she’s gone from concerned alternative view but essentially a good person trying to save the planet in her own way, to being pantomime levels of stupid. What a daft choice. What a needless choice. You know what would have worked better...? Sendak baiting the Paladins. It would play into his military genius archetype. He didn’t need intel from Admiral Asshole if the entire purpose of the planet killers was just bait for the paladins... We didn’t need admiral asshole to make a faustian pact with the people responsible for planetary genocide. Some of the choices this season just bewilder me.

Well, at least no combining sequence before the Big Zapper Cannons hit. That’s something. I guess they can occasionally cut unnecessary scenes for time.

The Paladins are asleep and it’s time for the replacement team to take centre stage again. Even with their own repeated launch sequence animation. Guess they can waste time after all. Admiral Asshole...

...yeah. Who would have thought that the mass murdering alien wasn’t to be trusted...? Except anyone written with an ounce of sense. I won’t deny, I completely and utterly lost interest during the Team Replacements moments. If you like them? Great. They were kinda written to be made valid off the back of the existing series so, I guess it worked for some, just not for me. I might even have been more keen on them myself ha they been secondary characters. But this season, they have so far felt like the focus. Yet also, they felt so undeveloped that they were like filler. They took up far too much focus that should have been on the Paladins. The characters I’ve been watching for six previous seasons. The characters I’m invested in. Even the launch of the Atlas - is it supposed to be a reference to The Gotengo in ship mode? - being powered by the Castle Crystal felt like a passing of the torch moment. There’s still a season left guys, can we wait until after this series ends maybe...?

Can we do The Paladins justice in their own series and make them the focus in their own series? Can we do the replacement team justice by making them the focus of their own series...? No? We’re going to try to do both at once and ultimately make both the worse off for it? Great, ok. Seems like a plan... SIGH

Soul-riding the lions? Now that’s a cool extension of the lore. That’s a cool new addition. That’s building more upon and actually watching Voltron again. Have I mentioned that it sometimes feels like I’m not watching Voltron any longer this season? Because, yeah, that. But during the parts where I was watching Voltron, it was great. Shame I couldn’t care more about Admiral Asshole’s sacrifice. They went beyond the pale with her outright betraying Earth. Noble sacrifice for an act of stupidity was just...meh. Didn’t feel like she’d be any additional motivation for the Paladins that earth already was.

But damn does Shiro look good as the captain of a starship. Kudos where it’s due. The artists did a damn good job.

So, the final episodes... Great set up for a final confrontation. Yet within the first half of the first episode. Oh no. Voltron has been pinned. Oh no. The Atlas can’t do stuff. What will we do? Oh gosh I hope the new team of plucky do-gooders can save the day. Whatever would we do without them? I hope we can buy their toys soon. Stop it. Why won’t they just stop it...? Stop making them such a major focus. This isn’t their show...or yeah, maybe it is now. Maybe the Paladins are the side characters now? Sometimes it feels that way. They spent a lot of time out of commission, damaged, pinned or otherwise unable to act except in montages.

“Lance, I’m coming to help!” Yes, because Allura is just there to support and look shyly away from lion glances. Sigh. Can we have Allura who didn’t need to be defined by a love interest back please?

Then again, Shiro had some time to shine which was really appreciated. The Sendak/Shiro fight was...ok? I mean, it had a lot to live up to after the Kuron / Keith fight. And it just fell short in my opinion. And much as Keith saving Shiro is kinda the default... Given how they were building Shiro up to be the anti-Sendak, it felt like the final blow was robbed from Shiro just a little.

Then of course, we get The New Robeast. More powerful than anything they’ve dealt with before and utterly unannounced. Ok. Well at least they didn’t just go to sleep for a bit and let the new guys do everything. But they still found a way to force them in even now. Wouldn’t have shocked me at this point though if the new group had just beaten the robeast. The twin swords are cool, but sadly a Plance moment it wasn’t. Maybe it would have been in old Voltron. Formed by a stronger bond between the two. But not so much now. Just a thing that happens. Like Pidge’s new gun thing. Thing that happens. No build to it really, just happens. No lesson, no moment of clarity, no greater connection, just, happens. How does the Atlas have back up generators that can make it functional when it’s already been established the only thing that can power it is the castle crystal? It was a pretty big plot point. Until it was just forgotten about. The Atlas mech formed by Altean magic was pretty cool. Shiro has a lot of moments with Allura leading to it as well. More than she had with Lance even. I’ll come back to that. Fake out Pala-deaths was cheap. And if they only reason they put the focus on the new guys was for that fake out...? Screw that. What a waste.

Seeing Hunk and Shay reunited was nice but too brief. Nice to be wrong about Krolia, but I’m not expecting she’ll last the next season. Shock factor you see. Watching Earth change and develop in flash forwards and montage now makes me wonder why that couldn’t have happened earlier. And my answer is, probably to sell the new team. And that sucks. I’m not really looking forward to another season of the Paladins taking the back seat. I do kind of expect it though. In fact, I expect it will only get worse.

And of course, now in a mere 13 episodes we have to wrap up Lotor, Haggar, the rift creatures, any and all ships, don’t forget set up the new team, because I think there were a few subtle hints there’s a new team they want us to care about. How about that new team guys? New team! And do all that without it feeling like a giant rushed mess. Heh. Won’t hold my breath.

Overall? Season Seven as others have said for many reasons, is Voltron Legendary Disappointment. Now to be fair, the art, the music, the animation, the voice acting - even given some guff lines, kudos to Josh Keaton for making “Their very home” not sound stupid... All of that was great. All of those staff members involved? A plus, amazing. But the writing...? Oh my good gravy the writing is all over the damn place. Yes, I just write silly fanfics and they’re professionals so what do I know? Their paycheck invalidates my opinion, right? But to be frank some of the mistakes and I do mean mistakes are elementary continuity gaffs. Redundancy. Repetition. Over reliance on exposition. I mean, if this is considered professional then standards have dropped... That’s not to say there weren’t moments of great writing. Moments where it felt like I was actually watching Voltron again rather than an advert for the new guys. But for the most part...? It was odd choice after odd choice. Daft move after daft move. Mess after mess. Forced and contrived plot point after forced and contrived plot point and if I was judging the series solely on the writing... I’d ask why nobody proofread the first draft.

But to literally everyone else involved in the show from the voice actors to the background artists to the intern fetching coffee...? You all did an amazing job with the mess you were given.

The Obligatory Over Long Shipping Bit

It’s not all about the ships, but... To some extent, it kinda is a little. Maybe even a very BIG little... At it’s most basic, a story, any narrative, has three parts.

The Beginning: The Status Quo, the ordinary world.

The Middle: A Challenge To The Status Quo, conflict, introduction of the special world.

The End: A New Status Quo, conflict resolved, special and ordinary world merge or become aligned to create a new standard.

And ships? Well, they’re an aspect of both the conflict in the middle and the New Status Quo at the end. Ships matter. The connection we feel to two or more characters and the connections they gain with each other? They matter. They are the story. So when I bang on about ships beneath, keep that in mind. Keep in mind that watching characters grow and grow closer is an integral part of narrative, romantic, platonic, whatever. Watching dynamics develop and shift between characters matters. That includes ships. And, I’m not calling the show bad because ships. The show itself is flawed, but overall still good. still very good in fact. All I want to do here is share my disappointment and frankly my confusion at the way that all the ships seem to be playing out right now.

But to start... Allurance.

Let me say, emphatically state, that if you enjoy this ship I have no beef with you. I am not against you enjoying it. I am not trying to tell you you’re wrong. If you and I having different opinions on this is enough for you to unfollow me, then fair enough, goodbye and have fun elsewhere, no hard feelings. However, my opinion remains as it has done from the start. Whilst this could have been a solid canonical ship if things had been written differently, as it stands... I can’t support it and feel it’s the worst outcome for these two characters.

Now, I’ve seen the argument that “maybe it all happens off screen” and that I addressed in a post here. The long and the short of it, I want to see characters develop on screen rather than off screen. That is literally what I watch for. The On Screen Developments. Not off screen assumptions. On screen this season, Allura had more bonding moments with Shiro than with her supposed new love interest. Does that make sense to you? Because it doesn’t to me. Then there’s the argument that Lance’s feelings have grown and matured and changed. But honestly, on some level, if Allurance becomes canon, it feels like they haven’t. Let’s go through it on a very basic level.

Allura and Lance meet, he hits on her. - Lance wants to be with her. They work together. He continues to hit on her. - Lance wants to be with her. They keep working together. He hits on her and is jealous and possessive of anyone who even comes near her. - Lance wants to be with her. Lance tones it down a little. Starts to be supportive. You’re the heart of Voltron etc. - Lance wants to be with her. Enter Lotor. Lance remains jealous and possessive, but plays it off to Allura as a joke. “You need a third wheel?” But to everyone else, including the mice, he makes it very very clear this makes him unhappy. - Lance wants to be with her. He makes that speech to the mice about wanting to be a better person, how he’s unworthy etc. etc. etc. - Lance wants to be with her. Allura finds out about this, seems less than pleased. - Lance wants to be with her. Allura breaks up with Lotor after finding out the man who changed her life is a genocidal space vampire. - Lance wants to be with her. Lance does the supportive hug scene. - Lance wants to be with her. Some stuff off screen presumably and Allura is suddenly over it. - Lance wants to be with her. Dual blushing scene, soft gazes lion scene etc. - Lance wants to be with her and suddenly Allura wants the same thing.

Now, to me at least, I never felt like Lance’s feelings for Allura changed. What changed were his tactics in pursuing that desire. The ultimate ulterior motive of wanting to be with her at no point altered. To me, that severely undermines his and Allura’s growth together. It re-frames the supportive friend hug in season six into the only possible on screen moment that she fell for him and to me that makes Allura seem weak willed, flighty and frankly weak as a character to be rushed into needing a new man so soon after Lotor. It makes Allura into the opposite of what she has been all along. It reframes Lance as being a creep who’s not being entirely honest and is just hanging on to get some Altean Action. It’s unwittingly supportive of the concept in toxic masculinity of No Doesn’t Mean No and I think that’s a dangerous message to be sending these days. We should know better. No means No, it does not and should not mean pursue them like an object you want to possess. In reality, that attitude being normalised can lead to obvious and dangerous extremes. In a story, the pursued partner loses their dramatic agency and is reduced to a prize or else wants to be possessed and is thus framed as less capable. I think the idea of Lance and Allura shifting their dynamic to “genuine romance” between seasons and off screen is cheap. Overall, I feel it devalues both of them rather than enriching them as a ship and an end to two character arcs should. Maybe, like resurrecting Shiro / Kuron early being down to executive meddling, the same is true here? Maybe the plan was for Lance to break the mould of the stereotypical nice guy waiting in the wings? Maybe Lotor being bad was also executive meddling? Or maybe that’s just the scapegoat for the roads we missed out on? The potential lost...

Now, the weird thing is, I’ve seen the argument made that you wouldn’t say that about allurance if allura was a guy. Well...yeah I would. Because if nothing changed except Allura’s sex and/or gender but the events were otherwise identical then it would have exactly the same narrative issues. It would still be undermining both character’s growth and arcs. Chasing someone who isn’t interested is still toxic behaviour regardless of who does it to whom. But if you want to assume that I’m just saying this “because Allura’s a woman” then I guess I can’t stop you, but I hope you take my honest statement that it’s not the case as far as I’m concerned. On the other side of this argument of well if x was y you wouldn’t z, well, that’s just you creating and answering a hypothetical question. Let’s say someone shipped, I dunno Keith and Cosmo. And the defence was “well you wouldn’t call it bestiality if cosmo was human.” And yeah, I suppose if something was changed so drastically there wouldn’t be a problem. But Cosmo is a wolf in Canon. And Allura is a woman in Canon. Maybe nobody would be saying Allurance has problematic elements if Allura was male or maybe the would. I feel that I certainly would see the issue regardless. But that argument is purely hypothetical and anyone who makes it has no way of proving it or supporting it.

There is however another issue in Canon that nobody seems willing to address. Alteans live for centuries. Centuries versus decades of lifespan. That kind of relationship will have the functionally immortal one watching the person they love ROT before their eyes. It will have them mourning their true love for CENTURIES or else callously moving on. It will, if they have or adopt kids, leave the functionally immortal one, watching their own descendants die. The functionally immortal partner will see their love reflected in their descendants eyes and faces. Forced to relive their loss generation after generation. I don’t want to contemplate that end for characters I care about. But that’s what would happen between Lance and Allura. I don’t want to think of Allura watching generations of hers and Lance’s kids and great grand kids dying like flies and thinking of her reliving that loss every hundred years or so as their next batch of descendants die in front of her. Maybe you see it as romantic? I see it as horrifying. And if the issue of Human vs. Altean ages is never dealt with on screen, I’ll assume the creators either didn’t think about it or assumed the audience wouldn’t care. Well I’m sorry, but you made characters that we love, they are part of a lore that we paid attention to. We do care and it does matter.

What I will admit is that maybe, just maybe the way I’m interpreting things isn’t what the creators intended. As much as I am a proponent of Death of the Author, I won’t disregard authorial intent. To those of you who don’t know, Death of the Author essentially states that; all media is a collaborative experience between audience and creators. That no one interpretation of a text is more valid than another. That interpretations can shift and change based on the time and context through which the text is viewed. That interpretations the author never intended are valid. Now, a lot of people seem to have this idea that “Death of The Author” means audience interpretation matters more than that of the author and completely overlook the idea of shared meaning and no one true interpretation. I’m coming at this from the point of view not that the audience owns the text but that we all, audience and author, equally share it and it’s infinite valid interpretations.

So that said, the authorial intent may well be that Lance and Allura’s relationship isn’t and was never meant to be a creepy guy being persistent. That it wasn’t meant to suggest that despite being rebuffed, he should carry on chasing. Maybe it wasn’t meant to seem like he was dishonest, swooping in after a break up to pick up the pieces. Maybe we’re supposed to ignore the ulterior motive to get into her pants that never changed from season one episode one? It may well be their intent was to show a relationship developing healthily and organically but they were rushed and it ended up feeling incomplete? But, that less positive interpretation is just not how it comes across to me and many others. Intent or not, we can only interpret what we see. We don’t hate the idea of these two characters being happy, we just feel like the way it’s portrayed so far doesn’t seem strong enough or doesn’t make it explicit enough that there has been sufficient growth and change on screen to really make us buy it. You may disagree. That’s perfectly valid. The authors may disagree. That’s perfectly valid. I disagree with those opinions and that too is perfectly valid. I don’t hate any of you for feeling the way you do or for reading the text the way you do. Everyone interprets media differently. Please do me the same courtesy and don’t hate me for my interpretation. We can both make valid points yet still disagree. There is not one true and absolute interpretation.

I suppose that leads me here. At this point, given the way that almost every ship possible has been hinted, teased, alluded to or given time onscreen... I wouldn’t be shocked if there aren’t any canonical ships by the end. Just hints. Forever hints. Because if nothing else, the Allurance shippers don’t deserve to be baited and switched. Even if I disagree with the way it’s been portrayed, even if I feel it was rushed and needed time on screen to develop, those shippers deserve a decent payoff if the show is going to tease it so damn hard and so damn obviously. The Sheith shippers have had plenty of hints as well. Kallura looks on the cards half the time. Hunay, Hunelle, Hidge/Punk all got hints at the possibility this season. Keith and Acxa, I was thinking they’d pull that as soon as Keith found her in the weblum. Plance, I may or may not have strong feelings about. Who can say?

But given that the series so far has given so many contradictory hints, even assuming the caveat of multiple interpretations, how could anyone be happy by the end? I mean, if Plance happens and I still believe it makes the most sense for Lance and Pidge’s journeys and character arcs... Well what about the Allura / Lance dual blush moment...? The Allurance fans will ask that and rightly so. Why even include that if it isn’t going to go anywhere...? Chekov’s Gun. I can’t even deny myself that if the plan really was for Lance to move on, this would have been the season to explore that to make it feel organic. If Lance ends up moving on in the next season, then that will suddenly feel forced as well. The amount of ship baiting going on is a little frustrating. I can’t see how it could end in a satisfying way for every baited ship. So, maybe they’re just going to have nobody end up with anybody canonically? At this stage, part of me would rather have that than have my OTP confirmed in canon. Because if what has happened so far is anything to go by... I’m just going to be disappointed at it feeling rushed and artificial. Unearned and pulled out of left field at the last second. With all the build up to Allurance, whether I think it hit the mark or not, it feel like it would be cheap and rushed to have him suddenly move on in the next and last season. Plance might end up feeling not organically developed, just, info dumped into existence for time constraints. I’ve been seeing hints between Lance and Pidge since episode one. Waiting for them to change their dynamic for all that time and seeing hint after subtle hint, seeing how perfectly their two stories align. They literally and narratively complete one another. And yet, if it comes down to it that one line or one half baked scene or even one future still image in a montage at the end of the series, is the confirmation of them hooking up...? Then even I won’t feel like my ship was worth coming true in canon. I’d rather have it never come true than have it come true as badly, as forced, as potentially interpreted as toxic, as contrary to the narrative and as ultimately unsatisfying as Allurance seems to be right now. I have no issue with Allurance being the end game. I would just have wanted to see it done justice and right now... It just isn’t. Don’t agree? Ok, well...

Compare and contrast... One person in this series, Allura creates - using Alchemy - a means to be whole again. A weapon capable of overcoming a nemesis in visual dramatic parallel. Having learned Alchemy through tainted means from her Evil Ex, she’s now able to put it to physical tangible use for a new person. Not only that but she sacrifices her crown, her symbol of office, one of her last remnants of her dead home world in order to make that creation whole. She has shown this person nothing but respect and kindness otherwise. Another person she barely interacted with aside from telling him to shut up then in the space of one episode they’re all blushy because reasons.

I’m being a little facetious, but let’s be honest.... What this shows is that Allura literally has a more meaningful and narratively significant set of interactions with SHIRO than she does with Lance this Season. Shiro’s arm represents her turning the bad experience with Lotor to good. Her giving up her symbol of Altean Royalty shows she’s willing to sacrifice anything for him. And through that bond, she grants him the power to turn the Atlas into a giant robot. Where she created the Sincline out of a dishonest partnership, the Altas-Mecha is formed by honest...well, it looks like LOVE to me. Now I’m not saying I ship them. But if you showed me this season out of context with any of the rest of Voltron, I would be shipping Shiro with Allura even though he’s Gay. Because frankly, in the story told on screen this season that actually makes way more sense than shipping her with Lance. Even out of context, even assuming no Lotor, no previous issues, Lance and Allura being hinted just seems...out of nowhere this season.

Maybe I should just wait for the sequel series where everyone ends up with total randoms off screen that nobody is happy with? Maybe the ships that make the most sense and have been hinted at the most will be forgotten or end up with off screen unhappy marriages as some vague and irksome attempt at being “mature”. Yes, I’m still salty about Toph/Sokka as well as Kataang, what of it? Sometimes you just want the characters you have grown to love and adore to have a happy ending together. Is that too much to ask...?

So, season 8 predictions...?

After a heartwarming episode that teases Coranecker, Lotor will finally get his redemption arc. And by arc I mean, episode. There will be an entire episode devoted to info dumping how he wasn’t really a space vampire the whole time and Romelle got the wrong end of the stick. This episode will tease Lotura again as well as hinting at Hungar, Huntor, Hunlia and Huray, the Polyship of Hunk Coran and Shay. Haggar, having now established herself as the dark queen of the Quantum Abyss will send wave after wave of Altean-Robeasts at Voltron, before the series finally ends in, you guessed it, another big battle with another new big robot. There will be a “we won” montage, Sendak will somehow be resurrected or a void creature will emerge from Daibazol to set up the Big Bad for the sequel series. Maybe both. Nobody will end up with anyone and the next series and/or movie will be hinted at. We might end up with a cliffhanger to tease the sequel series. And we’ll all go away a little disappointed and a little happy all at once. Oh and Black Paladin Kaltenecker of course.

Salty semi-joking aside, at this point given how rushed the series has obviously become, I really would not be shocked if Lotor DID get a redemption plot that was dealt with in a single episode. Or a single sentence. Just like the way he was turned into a Genocidal Space Vampire in a single episode, I’m sure they can turn him into the Space Pope in a single episode. Maybe blame it all on a rift creature? Or maybe save that plot thread for the next series, given that in 13 episodes there’s no way they can cover everything they want to AND cover it as well as they want to. Or just never mention them again. It’s not like they were set up to be majorly important or anything.

Also, if the whole of Voltron Legendary Defender is now going to be a backdoor pilot for Voltron The Garrison Guys or whatever, that seems disappointing more than exciting. Voltron Legendary Defender should be it’s own show first and a sequel should organically follow based on success or failure. If there was always a plan to have more seasons as a sequel series then...

USE THOSE EXTRA SEASONS TO GIVE THIS STORY THE ROOM IT NEEDED!!!

Make VLD the best it can be before assuming we need a sequel series at all. We wouldn’t have half the problems we have now of story lines feeling rushed if, get this the story lines had more episodes to not be rushed! We could have had more Past-Paladins. Keith’s backstory could have been explored as a full episode or two not spoon fed to us by time flashbacks. Allurance could feel less forced and artificial. Lotor’s betrayal could have been given more than a single episode info-dump. We could have actually explored Allura’s feelings and hr process of getting over one of the most important relationships in her life turning to shit. Give this story the time and space it needs to breathe and grow. Let THIS story be told in a well paced way rather than being forced to rush to hit the deadlines for the sequel series. If VLD ends up being less well received owing to bad or rushed writing, we may just end up with zero interest in the sequel series anyway. It’s self defeating!

Don’t have entire episodes devoted to characters who show up, info dump and then are mute for the rest of the season. Don’t have entire plot threads be rushed and resolved in time less than they deserve! And if you can’t do that...

THEN TRIM THE FAT!!!

We can probably all point to a bit that felt “rushed” or “forced” or “out of left field” and that all comes down to a single fact. So far, there has been far too much story to tell in far too few episodes. So certain plot threads end up suffering as a result. Not being fully realised. Not being given anything more than flashbacks and montages rather than full episodes examining in greater emotional depth and deeper narrative exploration.

I would rather see a simple story well told than a complex story rushed for time. What we seem to get in seasons 6+ of Voltron are attempts to tell the entire story they wanted but being forced to cut it short for time. Sadly, what would have been better than telling the full story badly would be telling as much of it as you can save well and discarding the rest. Maybe that’s already happened? Wouldn’t shock me.

Lotor deserved better. Allurance if it becomes canon, deserved to have been built upon to make it seem more deserved, less creepy nice guy. Allura deserved to have on screen time to adapt, grieve and move on from Lotor. Matt could have had time to develop his relationship on screen. Plance if it becomes canon deserves time to shine, because for many fans out there if it does becomes canon in season 8 then for them it will seem rushed, sudden, forced. Or worse, Pidge will always seem like Lance’s backup girl... As Said before, even me as a hardcore Plance Shipper feels like it can’t possibly be given the time it deserves to feel earned when we have just one season left to tie it all together.... So again, maybe all they can do at this stage is shrug and only ever give hints as to whom ends up with whom in this massive cast...? And then just spew out the sequel series. Because we gotta sell those new toys.

I cared and invested in the VLD characters. I wanted their story to be their story and not just a vehicle to sell the next series that, to be honest, I’m probably not going to be remotely interested in.

The Salt Floweth To An End

There is SO much potential in VLD that was squandered by things being rushed, compacted, cut and yet also being massively bloated despite this. Then there’s the obvious executive meddling that can’t have helped for a second... It just ends up making everything messy and unfocused. This season was a mess. Entertaining, yes, compelling, yes and damn good overall but with so many moments that just hit shy of the mark the creators obviously were aiming for. Almost all of it down to the writing. Because the animators, musicians, actors and all the other cast and crew did an amazing job. But the writing was...just a totally confused mess.

Overall, it ends up being Great rather than Exceptional which breaks my heart. Because the first 5 seasons? Exceptional. Every aspect. Especially the writing. But from Six onward? Everything seems to just crack and fray around the edges, the polish wears thin and the whole thing feels just slightly less like everyone involved gave 100%. Maybe a solid 90%, and some still went above and beyond... But things, in my opinion, shifted. Sometimes in service of “surprises” and sometimes just because they needed to rush. Whatever the case, it feels like somewhere along the line the writers stopped caring as much. If at all. Will I watch season 8? Sure. But I’ll always know it could have been so much more if they’d been given more time and more room to let the story flourish. At this point I doubt it’s possible given the already obvious lack of focus in the writing, that we’ll see every plot thread tied up to satisfaction. I’m not even going to kid myself that they’ll do it all well because that’s just not going to happen. I’ll be shocked if they manage it at all. Frankly I’ll be shocked if the last season doesn’t focus more on the new team again... I am not looking forward. It feels like a chore now. Will I watch the sequel series if there is one. No. Probably not. I wanted Voltron Legendary Defender to be given all the time it needed to be exceptional. I didn’t want to watch an advert for the next series and the next group of characters and toys. Especially if we’ll just end up seeing them all wasted, rushed and never allowed to live up to their potential as well. I was invested in VLD and it sucks that my investment is used as a marketing ploy for a potential new show before being discarded. Ah well. There’s always fanfics I guess... Though even that tastes a little bitter now... Like I'm just another part of the Voltron Hype Machine and not even getting paid to do it... Sucks and it taints what I plan to do and what I already have done... I do want to continue supporting the show and the ship I love along with all the fans out there in The Garden, but right now... I’m left feeling so conflicted. In two minds about how much I enjoy this show and yet despite that, how often and how glaring some of the errors, missteps and plain crazy choices they seem to be making along the way... It’s hard to feel 100% positive, but I did make this post and I stand by it. If the Voltron writers won’t give us the reality that makes the most sense? We make it ourselves. I did make these three posts and I stand by all of them as well. Even now as it seems like the writer’s minds are falling apart like chunks of wet cake, I still maintain that Plance makes the most sense in the story for those two characters I loved. Will it still make sense at the end of the series? Honestly, yeah. I’m sure it will still make more sense than whatever the writers eventually decide to churn out. Here’s hoping Season 8 is...something...

#vld season 7 #voltron spoilers #voltron season seven #voltron season 7 spoilers #spoilers #salt #bear writes a dissertation on a cartoon #voltron legendary disappointment

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woodworkingpastor · 2 years ago

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The spiritual discipline of curiosity -- Joshua 2:1-21 -- September 25, 2022

Several weeks ago when we met for Back to Sunday School, I shared the song Trouble and Woe by Ruth Moody. We had a good conversation about the lyrics which are both simple and profound, beginning with the “trouble and woe” of this world,

This world is full of trouble and woe / This world is full of trouble and woe / All I see is trouble, everywhere I go / I'm gonna sing the trouble that I know.

But the song doesn’t leave us there; instead, it moves toward a world full of promise and love.

This world is full of promise and love / This world is full of promise and love / Promise of a new day with no dark clouds above / And I'm gonna sing that world I'm dreamin' of.

The lyrics proclaim that the singer will sing this world into being, even as we know that the trouble and woe remain. It’s a song that, in my mind, inspires us to see the world as it is but imagine what might be.

That’s a relevant segue to today’s theme on the spiritual discipline of curiosity. To my knowledge, you won’t find “curiosity” in any list of the historic spiritual disciplines like prayer, worship, service, Bible study, etc. But I believe that in times like ours, “curiosity” is a necessary spiritual discipline.

Today’s text from Joshua 2 gives us an illustration of curiosity in the person of Rahab, but the text itself serves as a case study on curiosity. Joshua 2 isa text that we might prefer to avoid. The book of Joshua comes from a part of the Old Testament that is not a favorite for many Brethren. As a peace church, we tend to get uncomfortable with parts of the Bible where holy war is a significant part of the story, and it’s easy for us to say, “can we just skip this and get back to Jesus?”.

I get that, I really do. And I’ll even reframe our objection to texts like these in a more theologically accurate way: one of the significant gifts of Anabaptist theology to Christian thinking is that when we see a conflict between parts of the Bible that seem to be saying different things (like Joshua’s emphasis on holy war and Jesus’ emphasis on peacemaking) we let Jesus be the arbiter. I’ve had conversations with sincere people (and let me emphasize sincere!) who wrestled with issues just like these and resolved their conflict by appealing to Old Testament passages like these over the teaching of Jesus. Yes, these stories are in the Old Testament. But Anabaptist theology teaches us to view them through the lens of Jesus. We submit our attitudes and opinions about the Bible and Biblical interpretation to Jesus.

But lest you think that bit of theology means we can skip over this story, I say, “Hold on there! Not so fast!” We dare not forget that Rahab is a direct ancestor of Jesus, one of the five women listed in Jesus’ genealogy. So, let’s not be too quick to judge! Maybe there’s something here worth looking at after all. How did someone like Rahab—a foreign woman who was a prostitute—end up in Jesus’ genealogy? She must be a remarkable person!

An uncomfortable text

We meet Rahab through a very well-told story. If this were Bible Study, we could have a lot of fun with the double entendres concerning Rahab’s occupation and what the men might have gone in her house to do. There is more than a wink and a nod that the men might have gone into the house to hide, but that might not have been all they did there. There is a bawdy, NSFW character to the language that we normally think is also not appropriate for church. The Bible isn’t as prudish as we think; but it’s also not being intentionally crude, either. This is one place where a bit of curiosity helps us unpack the story because of a few things that are true about the Bible:

The Bible is concerned about appropriate boundaries and expressions of sex. Rahab’s job as a prostitute is a concern for some interpreters. Some would say, “isn’t it great that Rahab chose to be faithful to God and leave being a prostitute behind.”

The Bible is concerned about appropriate boundaries and expressions of religion. This is one of God’s biggest concerns for the people—that when they arrive in the Promised Land that they not worship the gods of the people who live there.

Sometimes sexual promiscuity is a metaphor for spiritual promiscuity. It is not uncommon for God to complain that the people have “prostituted themselves” with other gods.

Rahab’s faithfulness

In the case of this story, I suggest that all of this is true. God is concerned that the people will move into the Promised Land, marry their sons to the local daughters, and adopt the local religions. Rahab is both a model of what the people are not to become and an example who the people might become. This gets communicated through the suspense and tension built into the narrative. The spies hiding out in a brothel; word getting back to the king; the king confronting Rahab; Rahab hiding the spies on the roof; this is a story that is just begging to be made into a movie. Will this be a story of faithfulness or of spiritual disaster? Will God’s plans for these people move forward in a positive way, or will things begin to spiral into unfaithfulness right out of the gate?

What no one would have expected from this story is that the most stunning example of faith is Rahab herself, the prostitute of Jericho who decides that trusting God is her best option. Rahab’s confession of faith is one of the most stunning and unexpected confessions of the faith in the entire OT; a virtual “Apostle’s creed” of Hebrew Bible faith:

I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you. The LORD your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below (Joshua 2:9-11).

With these fantastic words, Rahab, the one who embodies all the things the people are not to become, becomes the “model Israelite” illustrating what the people might become if they are curious enough about the things they see God doing to put their trust in God.

People like to talk about “blind faith” all the time, but true Biblical faith is not blind at all. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Faith involves understanding what God has done in the past and is doing in the present, and then believing that God will continue to do those things in the future. This is what Rahab has done—she’s heard the stories about God and her curiosity about those things leads her to put her trust in God.

Putting her faith in God came at a significant cost. Saying “yes” to God always comes at a price, and for Rahab, saving her life meant abandoning her people. Jesus tells us that faith will sometimes be this way:

Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law (Luke 12:51-53).

But we are also reminded that faith in Jesus comes with a great benefit both in this life and in the life to come.

Reawakening our curiosity

If there was ever a time for curiosity like Rahab’s, it is now. One of the many helpful ways that Paul Mundey challenged us this week at Awakening was in how so many people feel that they can only define their faith by what they are against, as if faith is somehow invalid if it doesn’t lead us to actively call out our opponents, or in just giving up on those parts of our faith or our church that we’re not happy about anymore, or aren’t done just the way we think they should be done.

I get that there are those persons out there with ideas and agendas that are contrary to the Christian faith. I understand that there are boundaries to what is faithful. Jesus dealt with things like this, and so should we. But when we look at Jesus’ model of leadership and of engaging with people, we see him taking a different approach.

We might look at John 3:17: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. God’s strategy was not to condemn us in our sin, but to reach out to us and invite us into the family.

We might look no further than who Jesus chose as his disciples: one was a tax collector working on behalf of the Roman government, and one who was a Zealot—a political revolutionary. Jesus could not have found two persons whose beliefs about faith and about politics were more different than this.

Or, consider Romans 8:31 “If God is for us, who is against us?

If there ever was a case of someone who should look at a group of people with mind made up, it was God looking at us. But where others think there are no options, God sees possibility, and finds a way.

Our annual discipleship emphasis is a fantastic time to consider the spiritual discipline of curiosity. We’ve heard these stories of faith for years. We’ve known people who have looked with curiosity at situations that seemed either impossible or hopeless and found a way forward. Where are those places and who are those persons where we need to adopt an attitude of curiosity toward?

There is a real temptation to get into a debate with another person and oppose everything they say. But what if our first response in those situations wasn’t “I disagree” but “Tell me more?” How might that change our relationships?

What are those areas of congregational life where we need to lean into with curiosity to find new possibilities for faith and service?

Thinking again about our week with Paul Mundey, he and I had lunch together on Wednesday, and we talked about how churches are struggling. It’s just the time we’re in. What possibilities might be opened by a healthy dose of curiosity? How might we adopt an attitude of curiosity about the people who aren’t here, or with people or topics on which we struggle to find agreement? This ought to be second nature for Brethren, because we follow the New Testament example of Acts 15 and the Jerusalem Conference, which shows us how the church can come together in a time of disagreement and uncertainty to discern God’s way forward together. We have the example of Joshua 2 showing us how curiosity saved Rahab’s life and brought her into the family tree of Jesus! How might we learn better to make our following Jesus to be a way to come together, not an excuse to stay apart?

How do we function in a world of trouble and woe? Ruth Moody’s song ends with one possibility:

This world is full of trouble and woe / This world is full of trouble and woe / All I see is trouble, everywhere I go / I'm gonna sing, sing my way back home / I'm gonna sing my way back home.

What are the lyrics to curiosity’s song?

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autoirishlitdiscourses · 3 years ago

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Discourse of Monday, 27 September 2021

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Is it helpful to open up would have helped you to mean, and so this is certainly the best way to fill out your major points of confusion or ambiguity to bring in several important ways; one of your education, cultural knowledge, reading practices are presupposed? Hi! Ultimately, think in the sequence twice; changed I told him that I didn't get the same degree of how Ireland looks, which is good, but it may be that you score less than 18 points on the IDs. One By the way that they've been bolted on at the moment, it will prepare you to give you good things here, and incurs the no-show penalty. And, yes it's OK with me.

5% of course! What I think, but this is partly a cultural difference in our department, Candace Waid, just as you finish preparing would be necessary to make it pay off more. Do you need to do so. I'm looking forward to your initial discussion a bit more specific about where you're going through my copy but couldn't find it necessary to start participating now, you email the professor means that you are one of the Flies, and adapted well to the connections between Ulysses and Why You Should Avoid 'How-to' Guides Like This One By the way that doesn't mean it's not necessary, then go ahead and decide which texts you want to go down might involve 1904-era food-related parts of the logical chain you're constructing.

In the same deal for improving your grade provided that your analytical exploration of Digging and other patrons of a third of the other paper proposals is taking longer than I was waiting until I realized that your delivery was sensitive to the novel drives home the unsettling conclusion that broadens and shows larger-scale questions with you that time passes differently when you're in front of the Irish are preeminent in a paper. Some students improved their score between 105 and 118 on the Starry Plough flag: Wikipedia article on the final, so I assume that I don't know if you approve. All in all, Chris Walker and the humor that people run up against was that I think that there are a student to bump up by a group is not a three-quarters of the resources you consulted while doing that work for you? Discussion notes for week 8. Pdf, OpenOffice/LibreOffice or Microsoft Word document, Pre-1971 British and/or historical documents, if you'd like me to think about how you're going to depend on what you're dealing with the novel and is unacceptable. I also think that you would most like to give you an updated grade by Friday afternoon your notes are not enough to land before making a number of recitations. In any case always a productive relationship to sexuality both by distorting the degree of how you can give you the warnings that I didn't have a very solid manner. All in all, and you demonstrate in a productive manner to accomplish all three other components, and you've written a really, your paper as you're capable of doing even better work on an English minor, etc. For that reason isn't going to introduce a large number of ways to reframe your topic might be an impressive move. The history of Ulysses, Stephen mentions to Buck Mulligan that he approves, though, not with me or with the sweatbeads as big as berries moment in your delivery was a good move to #2, who can and must be absent from class on the central stairwell in South Hall is locked on weekends. The Cook, the choice of texts and what you'll drop if you will leave the room. 4% in the first week, believe it is likely to be painful. ��I will still be calculating your grade up you've come a long time, I think that reading about the novel. They really worked hard this quarter, and this question, I think that both of my sections for English 150 course, you two are the only one freedom for wouldn't know what would most need in order to pass English 150 this quarter. Perfect; error-free.

I'm not in your proposal that sound fair? Thank you for putting so much thought and writing a paper less effective than it needed to happen. Deploying multiple critical lenses in your section who was going this week has rescheduled due to a lot of ways, and what exactly is at all for section attendance, I Had a Future discussion of Quoof and n's discussion of Who Goes with Fergus? However, please give me the URL where you need particular approaches to Futurism; it's of more benefit to introduce the text is all yours!

But taking it to larger concerns. So, this is unlikely, you might compare it with a fresh eye and ask him whether he's still open to recitations. What I feel that it might be a bit more practice but your discussion plans by 10 a. I suggest that there are probably good ways to do this a great deal since you gave quite a strong manner here. In addition, here. You'll get that to the group to read Patrick Kavanagh, Innocence Any poem at all I myself tend to read, and you'll get more than you already have noticed that paper didn't seem to have a fresh eye is the amount of time and wind up making revisions, you're quite bright and articulate prose that was sent by e-mail off to be as successful as possible. Please let me know if you glance over at me occasionally, but rather providing an analysis, and that often small changes in many ways in which you dealt. Asking an open-ended questions is the case that 16 June 1904 is unusual for both your paper most needs to be far more specific feedback, and the discussion that allowed people to speak, though it's also acceptable to cite poems by Seamus Heaney: discussion of major themes in the quarter he had lived. One of these is of course, it's not inevitably the case and I think that your midterm will be the bearer of good ideas here. It will be on campus at all, though this is certainly the best possible way, it sounds to me in evaluating it; again, did he drop? 5 in the assignment handout. Shift p. Ten minutes can go on! Writing and structure your paper on a technicality. He's got some breathing room. You also demonstrated that he approves of our wonderful new email server that the most fun things that would have helped to have a good holiday! Raw grade: You may not have your grade is 62. —And you've certainly demonstrated that you're examining the topics accessible to people who recite together get the group to work, especially because so many people wanted feedback on this, I think that the person who was going this week, you need by phrasing things in your delivery; perfect textual accuracy; impassioned sense of the entire novel, so I can attest from personal experience it can be found on the English 150 this quarter!

There are also welcome to choose something else that is, we should be more beneficial to both phenomena, then please come talk to me, and, if nothing else. There are of course grade. Prestigious Academic Senate awards are now currently at 86. If you happen to know tonight instead of answering your own case, that your paper that ties together a number of important points and involve a similar format and where it will help you to be more explicit effort on is talking about a particular time Wednesday afternoon my regular office hour that day telling you what your central argument is basically structured in a close-reading exercise that digs out your major topics from the selection in an automatic failing grade documented here. Fair warning: you should consider not because you will automatically fail the class about stereotypes of Jewish people in the conversation was lazy.

I'm glad to be caught up on reading will probably do this but not the case and I think that this is not to say about gender in Ireland and his Jewish identity in Ulysses. The paper conforms in all, you've set up the final starts and nine a. You did a number of things that are close to ten-digit code, which is one of the points for section attendance, I think that you do a good student this quarter, this does not meet basic standards for a job well done overall.

I do not hesitate to give quite a good break! You'll get that, as documented in the directions specified that they are aware of: you had quite a strong job of setting up a framework for a B. If you have other priorities instead of seven, IDs out of that range was flagrantly giving up points not even bothering to guess what's going on at the structural schema given to friends: Carlo Linati; Stuart Gilbert J. Again, I can give an amazing recitation, you did very well. Again, very perceptive things to say that you do a selection from a B. Fill in the text itself in your section, in case they ask you to do any more questions, which is to look at it, but since I want a passing grade for the most important, or at least some people. One of the specific text as someone else had already written a very good work for you? You're prepared quite well in addition to motherhood, I can almost see where you're going nor do I. —As it could have been structuring your comments and questions from other students were engaged, and an estimate based on our website: How Your Poetry or Prose Recitation Is Graded English 150. Section Thanksgiving week and also participate extensively may wind up being the connection. Ultimately, what I'd suggest at this point would be higher than a general overview of a selection from a consideration of the forbidden, and I hope you get other people talking and that you need to instantiate a logical argument that is before you proofread and revise it while still scaling up each part of the question. In response to some punctuation and grammar and phrasing at all, this might conceivably be one of the title gets brought into focus. Well done on this. Students Program. Good luck on the syllabus. Basic grade: You have really perceptive set of ideas in an engaged, and how it was my choice, and you exhibit a very good job with it to highlight/underline and make eye contact for me to say that most examples of unacceptable reasons for this grade. The 'you must take all reasonable steps to ensure that you should be the best way to move forward. None of the thesis statement at the time period you're shooting for, even if another format is followed, or Paul Muldoon, just make sure that you're more effectively to the professor and see what they have to perform a short poem was very productive. What I think that you look at my section website, so let me know if you describe what needs to happen in your head that you're phrasing a claim about what's wrong with writing all six on the final itself.

Of course, think about just how much work it out sooner, because they're from a chance to pull their grades on subsequent work by correcting the problems that I do not feel comfortable speaking with a copy of the play with which you want to go first, not on me. Good luck with your score by 3⅓%. All in all, are the first line of the anxiety of influence in your mind until you recite more than three sections, and will have section tonight. History is or is not to say that I didn't notice until after the final itself, and this paid off for you. I said in a certain way. If you really have produced some excellent readings here, and let me know if you have questions about plagiarism or how to narrow it down productively to a novel by an Irishman. I do not think that having a thesis yet; just start writing to figure out what that is repeated on both outlines, and I think, might have helped you to take a step back from Sacramento and have strong feelings about wanting to present your complex thoughts in more detail in the first person to advise you, since I'm going to give information that Francie does. What is the last real beating I have a happy holiday break! Who have not yet chosen a recitation/discussion/section. —I think that what you're expecting.

5% of course grade.

Answers to your presentation, along with a woman too. Also, glancing at me occasionally, but I'll most likely have received a final selection for what is happening when the power came back on it, but rather to think meta-narrative path through your questions are below in the first people to take a look below for section this week.

Thank you for being such a good way, and one, I will still be calculating your grade back this time not even bothering to guess on years for texts, how is this a great paper in my office door was open and that he is going well. Some particular suggestions: Georges Braque painted food-concerned still lifes quite a strong piece of writing a second-generation descent of emigrants who left Nigeria but who lives in Ireland and other content about related topics, I think that if you think that paying close attention to the poem, its mythical background, might wind up with a fresh eye and ask students about them at you unless your medical condition mandates additional section absences, so you will forgive him for his opinion directly in your paper you wrote this up, it looks like. Peeler p. Again, all of these is that/the first group covers material that you don't have a good-faith attempt to answer questions that you realized that each of the better ways to narrow it down productively to a variety of ways in which you dealt. Thanks for your section this quarter. Your writing is quite effective in most ways, is that one thing that I think that your recitation, then you may hit that number this quarter you've worked hard on it not in your paper and for your thesis statement. I don't have a fair amount of time, and I'm operating on the midterm and an estimate of your texts in more depth. You both did a number of texts in juxtaposition with your little bridie to be even more closely to your discussion. Made and how they pay off for you. Some of Dali's work, we could theoretically do better if you want to point to areas where it is that this is not to the connections between the landscape, Beckett may also be a more rigorous, incisive analysis on its own: I am willing to discuss. Each of you. Again, thank you for a recitation. Though I say there that I am perfectly convinced that you're working with? Thanks again for being such a good paper. Aside from the next thing what does this statement relate to the class at this stage, and if you are certainly other possibilities that are relevant to the complex material you're dealing with, then do come to a group of people wrote very, very general prompt, but I presume that this is quite engaging and shows larger-scale umbrella of what might be exactly, surely there are several good ways to make sure that you're a bright student and I have to be amused by disturbing material. I'm not as bad as it is to take a look and see whether you meet the technical requirements on papers are assigned based on the assignment write-up exam is at least 24 hours in advance of the multiple works that you're capable of doing it for you two first for some reason though this overlaps at least. You don't have to get a passing grade but make sure that you're scheduled to recite, and how it can be and how to deliver while you're doing it even further. That is, I don't know when you were on track for an important passage and gave no A grades on them is not something that will encourage substantial discussion in the episode. A-, not on page 84; are you actually want to have plenty of sleep and vitamin C tonight. F grades, preferring to leave it at the specific parts of your newspaper article, too. The other students in my cubicle, doesn't have to choose an audio or visual recording itself in your discussion. Hi! I think that anything will change by much. I suggest that you check your delivery was solid, though I occasionally feel that it is quite engaging. 5% which would help to push back the number of texts and what would constitute good textual choices and analytical methods just depends on a second idea, I think that there is of course; explains basic expectations for you for doing a genuinely serious and unavoidable emergency family death, serious injury, natural disaster, etc. Wow, that's fine. If neither of those finals. Again, thank you for putting so much thought and writing a strong delivery. This is not a bad thing, but it would also require picking up cues that this is to talk more would have been balanced a bit like they've been bolted on at the top five or six. I think, help you to think about how much of its lack of authorial framing in the paper above could be structured, but looser ones that would result in an even better on future papers. Let me know what that person's ancestry also includes more than five sections, you will automatically fail the class which can be determined beyond a reasonable narrative around those facts. Short link to this message. 5 A-for the quarter, then feel free to let me know which date you want to work out a time in the back of your grade: You changed Francie to Frankie in the eighth one without grading it, even if you have performed, you did well here, I think that you must have helped to follow your analysis on other tasks that you do something that other people to take so long to get back to you when I asked them Who's read episode one of these are probably many ways to provide the largest overall benefit to introduce some major aspect of love? What is his point is to say: Don't forget to look closely at the beginning of the quarter. Other unforeseeable, catastrophic events that they only discussed a single college lecture? I think that it would have helped to contextualize it better for you on Tuesday, getting people to avoid hesitation, backing up your total grade for the term—because you won't have time to reschedule after the final, you'll still want people to speak instead of whenever the Registrar releases grades, two of my section envelopes EC#50856 but not past your level of. One of these are genuine strengths in a lot of people, and your presence in front of the thesis, when it comes time to get to everything anyway, especially if vain or important, because I don't yet know myself the professor hasn't said how much you can encourage people to dig in deeper and/or editing. There are also welcome to adapt it, Audrey Niffenegger's novel The Time Traveler's Wife is perhaps not the only thing preventing you from reciting, you really have done a lot of fun, though, even if you have any other questions! Students who demonstrated some knowledge but did more than twenty-four. Hi! There is a good sense of why you were able to point your students at it with people, and then sit down and write about, which could be a useful job skill at some point for the quarter by showing up at a late paper is one good point of analysis. There is also very likely to drag you up to your larger-scale, but it's more or less agree? It is not absolutely required still, this isn't quite as carefully as the assignment into a conceptual space where a productive way to avoid using them in episodes 2 and/or need any changes made that are ostensibly on the paper may help you represent your own writing, despite the strike. Let me know what the exact time or the location yet. If you must recite a selection from the edition you're quoting from, as you could merge the recitation assignment here; many many problems here, based on the Aran Isles: love of one's country is a move Joyce was making in the context of the novel drives home the unsettling conclusion that Francie himself doesn't have to do them gracefully without losing the momentum of your preferred texts. Ultimately, what all of the poem and its inherent assumption of innocence until guilt is proven. Ultimately, think about how you'll lead into them, paying for her youthful desire with a well thought-experiment, even if you don't send it along. Provided a good delivery; perfect textual accuracy; impassioned sense of your specific point about that. Very well done overall. Think about what happens to have practiced a bit better, I don't have to give you a five-digit student ID codes, for instance, carelessness in your close readings of The Butcher Boy: discussion of the pleasures of travel is to add extra space at the final, and I will let the class at all for coming to section or sent to me, walk up on the syllabus for that extra half percent. If you get the maximum possible grade you on Monday of next quarter. Remember that you examine as part of your total score for the rest of the passage you'll be doing September 1913, which is that you won't have time to get back to you. Hi! Let me know when and where and when it comes down to recite. Excellent! Almost everyone who is taken to be less emphasized than, say, I think that it will result in a lot of ways that prevents you, is that you have to put that would just barely push you up effectively to the aspects of the exam. Then this change does not necessarily the order I will take this paper would most help of everything, I think it's potentially a good weekend. Ultimately, I can't believe that you see absurdism most clearly illustrated in the class develop its own rhythm and how she goes about getting it? Your writing is so very good job of deploying pauses effectively in your delivery was solid, although this was a sneaky kind of plans requirement. Fourth: there is no outside narrator to give quite a solid and effective manner to what they have a connection between the selection you picked a good job with this by dropping into lecture mode and letting the discomfort of silence force people other than a circulating, coin. Is Calculated in Excruciating Detail This document has not actually failures of nuanced perception on your recitation and discussion will be productive for you?

Section Guidelines handout. Good poem from an in-depth examination—I've tried to gesture toward this series, the discrepancy, the exclusion, the attraction of the novel that the paper. One problem that I would say the smartest way to be directly to the poem for guitar is a piece of writing. There are any number of presentations.

Again, well done, overall your delivery showed that you do not think that there are places where pauses in the way that they are aware of what's going on as soon as possible, and you did: Perfect. Tomorrow afternoon work for the quarter to get to everything anyway, especially if the section website by Thursday or Friday this week's are here. Remember that you should know the novel 6 p. I don't think it's inherently inappropriate to use her add code for that matter. Great!

Does that help? Of course, think about this in terms of your paper, is lucid, and I think that what he had discussed re-inscribe Gertie into the final exam, send me the new world order is an arena for such thinking: a they were very articulate and have an A paper, and you met them at a UC campus after coming from you on your essay, say, my guess is that we're going to open up discussion you may want to make up the image properties, then this change does not necessarily the best option for you that time passes differently when you're on the final please only do this and more careful about the Lestrygonians episode would have helped you to focus your attention focused on refining it even further, on the particulars of your questions touches on some important thematic issues. Alternately, I won't assess participation until after I'd graded and was counting.

What you primarily need to indicate the specific language of your performance. There are some ways as a bridge to basic issues if you are an emergency phone call during section this week, whether you want me to under-emphasize the possibility that she frequently contemplates new discoveries in physics in her life this quarter so far in advance, and this is a smart thing to do extra grading because someone else may beat you to specify your own mind about how you're using it as representative, and that's also an impressive move you might compare it with other concerns that Ulysses has and did a good weekend! A spavindy ass p. Yeats, When You Said You Loved Me near the beginning of your ideas, and in of Testew and Cunard; and captivated the group is not unusual, stressful, or that she should have read to by in all, you have a week when we're discussing the work that you will be. You handled your material gracefully and in terms of why you were reciting and leading discussion in the Ulysses lectures which, given the facts that can be found online at or, equivalently, at which she cries doesn't actually specify what you're doing. I am sorry for your recitation 5% of all my students as possible, but want to review that document anyway, especially, of your readings are quite interesting, although none substantial enough to impede an understanding of what's going to be more successful would have been so busy. In-progress, very nicely acted. If you wish to prepare a set of ideas in here, and brought up some important things in your paper's structure. Does that help? I suspect.

So intermediate questions leading up to your section takes a while to stop writing your last chance to talk more would have to go that route. Part of the text s and responding to paper proposals and recitation in the Department who are, sir. In retrospect, it would be fair game for recitation. I've emailed the professor says. I suggest that Dexter is an awfully slow recitation. There are also possibilities for later in your paper grades in my margin comments are often quite engaging and lucid, and with food I can't tell for sure that you have been to take a look at almost any of it? What you might ask the other paper yet. Your writing is so as quickly as I normally try to rephrase a few spots open, so if this is, after all, from Chris Walker, another TA for English 150. Dennis Redmond 2. All of these is that the hard part is going to ask me any questions, and I understand that students should have been nice to have practiced a bit early, and then re-reading and merciless editing process, and your presence in front of the room. Grade: C-range papers: Papers in this regard. Does that help?

#Irish literature #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Python #Markov chains

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