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uboat53 · 2 years ago

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Over the last few days I've had a good deal of back-and-forths with some people opposed to gun control regarding the recent mass shooting in Texas and I've run into an interesting consistency in those conversations that triggered a thought. LONG RANT (TM) time.

INTRODUCTION

So the basic outline of the conversation is this, I'd mention gun control laws that may have prevented the situation such as Universal Background Checks or Safe Storage laws and the response would pretty much always be some variation of "those laws wouldn't have worked because he already had the gun in his hands."

I would then explain how, yes, he already had a gun in his hands, but the goal of these laws would be to change the situation so that a person like him would not have a gun in his hands in this situation and the response, consistently would be "but he would have gotten a gun and had it in his hands anyways." No matter how many times we went back and forth, this would remain the same.

This was pretty consistent, over several conversations with several people. There was a sort of mental block that prevented them from imagining a sequence of events that did not end with a dangerous man having a gun in his hands at the moment he became enraged.

FIRST THOUGHTS

My first thought was that they genuinely didn't understand the point I was making, but after I made the point in several different ways to several different people with the same result, I started thinking about other possibilities. After a while, my mind went to something else I had been reading lately, the concept of how Calvinism has affected modern conservative thought.

Specifically, Calvinism includes the concept of predestination, that certain people are predestined to be good and certain people are predestined to be bad. It is very much an "us vs them" mentality, similar to what you see spreading today in modern conservatism. Given that the strident opposition to gun control that we see today is fairly recent, starting only in the 1970s along with the entry of the religious right into politics, it's certainly seems possible to me that this could be related.

So let's outline the causal mechanism here. If you believe that certain people, let's call them "criminals", are predestined to be bad and to do bad things, then the situation is irrelevant. In this worldview, the only thing that can be done is to react once the bad person starts doing the bad thing, you cannot actually prevent them from doing it.

CONNECTIONS TO OTHER THINGS

There are two other things I've noticed in discussions with conservatives that seem related to this. The first is that I've often heard conservatives describe gun-control laws as "punishing lawful gun owners" and the second is that you often hear about how "welfare spending doesn't really help people".

What connects those two things is that, when you dig into them, they reveal a fundamental way of thinking about people and the law. The welfare spending one connects pretty clearly to the Calvinist idea; poor people are poor and giving them money will not change that, but the other one is a bit more indirect.

You see, if criminals can't be stopped from being criminals, then the law can't prevent crimes. Fundamentally, the only thing the law can do under this view of the world is punish wrongdoing after the fact. This means that, under this view, gun-control laws, like all laws, are purely punitive and, since they can't stop criminals from committing crimes, the only thing they can do is punish people who are not criminal.

A FUNDAMENTAL VIEW OF SOCIETY AND THE LAW

And that's where you hit a fundamental difference between how liberals and this type of conservative view the law. You see, in the liberal view of the world, crimes happen because of a combination of means, motive, and opportunity. If the law can alter that combination in some way, it can prevent crimes from even happening in the first place. In the case of the Texas shooting, for example, if this man could have been prevented from owning a gun in the first place or if he could have been prevented from having it easily accessible, then the crime might never have occurred.

In this particular conservative view of the world, however, crimes don't happen because of those three factors, crimes happen because some people are simply criminals and are effectively predestined to commit crimes. Laws cannot be made that change destiny or fundamental human nature, they can only punish crimes after they occur. In the case of the Texas shooting, the man was fundamentally a criminal and so he would have found a way to get a gun and commit the crime no matter what laws were passed.

This fundmental difference in how liberals and conservatives see the law seems to percolate into every debate of politics if you look closely enough. Liberals generally view the law as preventative, that the right changes in law can prevent many of the ills of society, while conservatives generally view the law as punitive, that the law exists primarily to punish people. This is why you see the common conservative argument that liberal laws and policies that attempt to change situations that exist are actually "punishments", they cannot conceive of the law any other way.

To a liberal there is no point in punishing someone for something unless that punishment serves a deterrent effect against future wrongdoing while, to a conservative, there is no point in trying to prevent what is predestined to occur anyways.

AN ASIDE ABOUT EVIDENCE

I should note that the evidence is not equal for these two worldviews, in fact it's overwhelmingly on one side. There is an extraordinary amount of evidence showing that welfare substantially reduces poverty and that gun control laws substantially reduce homicide and violent crime in general, for example.

On a great number of issues as well, the concept that the law can prevent bad situations from occurring in the first place is supported by mountains of evidence, though the evidence backing any individual policy may vary. Meanwhile, the evidence that punishment is effective is a bit more mixed, but leans toward the conclusion that punishment alone may not reduce crime.

Of course, conservatives don't support punitive policies for their deterrent effects, they support them because they believe that bad people deserve to be punished. The evidence in this regard is more of an external justification than an internal one.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN

That's the real question, isn't it? Well, I think I have an idea as it regards my specific conversations but there's also the broader implications.

For the conversations I've been having I think the implication is simple, you cannot discuss gun control (or other hot-button issues) without directly addressing the elephant in the room. Unless you address the fundamental idea of whether or not the law can impact behavior, there is no possible way to argue that gun control will make any difference on crime rates.

More specifically, there's no way to do that without addressing this predestination idea. As long as the idea is lodged into their head that criminals are gonna crime no matter what you do, there is no way forward. I'm still working on how to approach that.

As far as the broader implications, yeah, it means that conservatives are going to continue to oppose things like gun-control and welfare no matter how much evidence piles up showing that they work. I'm not sure there's any way to change that either at this point.

THE PERSISTENCE OF THE BELIEF

Now the most confusing part of this to understand from a liberal point of view is the persistence of a belief that is contradicted by just about all available evidence. Now, I could tell you about how there are conservative scholars producing evidence that contradicts the other studies and that this buttresses their beliefs, but it really doesn't. Those studies are basically like the elections that the USSR used to hold, they're just show to give "reasons" for public debate. If you knock them down, and many of them have already been refuted by further research, they'll come up with other "reasons". The reasons themselves are not fundamental to the belief, they're just there as shields for it.

No, the reason for the belief, as far as I can tell, is that it satisfies a psychological need. After all, if there are people predestined to be bad then there are also people predestined to be good, and you might be one of those good people! How do you know if you're one of the good people? Well, simple, good people do good things. As long as you keep doing good things, you must be one of the good people.

How do you know you're doing good things? Well, your community will tell you what things are good and who is doing them. As long as you do the things judged to be good by your community and the community recognizes you as a good person, then you are a good person.

I realize this is a simplification, but it's also fairly accurate to what's going on. Talk to someone who holds these kinds of beliefs enough, dig enough to get down to the foundation of the belief and that's really the core of it. It's a psychological structure built up to convince them that they are one of the good people and, if you were to collapse that structure, they would be bereft. How do I know this? I used to do it.

You see, I went to school in far northern California, in an area I generally referred to as "a slice of the Bible Belt transplanted into California". Nowadays it's known as the place where the Bethel megachurch holds sway and a local militia group has seized control of the county government, so fairly in line with the type of conservatism I described above. As an atheist (I knew fairly early on what I believed religiously) in this environment, it wasn't uncommon for Christian classmates to try to convert me, sometimes forcefully (verbally, not physically). Because of this I got very good at debating and, more than once, I shook the foundation of someone's faith.

So that's why this belief can persevere even in the absence of or against all evidence. It is a structure that meets a psychological need, the need to be, no, to know that you are "good". The evidence and reasons they give are not fundamentally the reasons that they believe it and, if you knock them down, they will just come up with more or find a reason why you must have been wrong.

THE EFFECTS OF THE BELIEF

Honestly, where this gets really interesting is when you start to look into other effects of this belief. I've already covered how this affects law and policy, basically a blanket aversion to any policy that isn't punitive in nature or that doesn't punish the "right" people, but there's even bigger effects that show up when you look for them.

As a particular example, it makes them incredibly vulnerable to racist ideas. Racist ideas also traffic in the concept of inherently "good" and "bad" people and, if you take out the specific descriptions of who, exactly, is "good" and who is "bad", they sound very similar to this kind of predestination thinking.

Pundits like Tucker Carlson and the late Rush Limbaugh have been particularly effective in using this similarity to effectively launder racist ideas like the Great Replacement among others into mainstream conservative thought by presenting them as political rather than racial in nature. Today, for example, two-thirds of Republicans agree with the idea that demographic (racial) changes are not naturally occurring, but are being actively forced in order to replace "conservative white voters" and the theory is voiced by a significant number of Republican elected officials.

CONCLUSION

So yeah, not sure what to make of this or how, exactly to address it, but there's a lot of conservatives out there who form their politics around the idea of predestination. This leads to them being fundamentally unable to understand the concept of using law and policy to change things for the better. It also makes them vulnerable to racist ideas because the fundamental idea of dividing the population into good and bad people isn't actually all that different.

As I said, I'm still in the early phases of figuring this out, so any thoughts anyone has would be appreciated.

#politics #us politics #republicans #conservatives #how to speak conservative #long rant (tm)#gun control #welfare #great replacement #calvinism #predestination

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olderthannetfic · 4 years ago

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I'm a Chinese, nationally and racially. Racial projection seems to be a common practice in western fandom, doesn't it? I find it a bit... weird to witness the drama ignited upon shipping individuals with different races, or the tendency to separate characters into different "colors" even though the world setting doesn't divide races like that. Such practice isn't a thing here. Mind explaining a bit on this phenomenon?

Sure, I can try. But of course, fish aren’t very good at explaining the water they swim in.

Americans aren’t good at detecting our own Americanness, and a lot of what you’re seeing is very much culturally American rather than Western in general. (In much of Europe, “race” is a concept used by racists, or so I’m told, unlike in the US where it’s seen more neutrally.) Majority group members (i.e. me, a white girl) aren’t usually the savviest about minority issues, but I’ll give it a shot.

The big picture is that most US race stuff boils down to our attempts to justify and maintain slavery and that dynamic being applied, awkwardly, to everyone else too, even years after we abolished slavery.

There’s a concept called the “one drop rule” where a person is “black” if they have even one drop of black blood.

We used to outlaw “interracial” marriage until quite recently. (That meant marriage between black people and white people with Asians and Hispanic people and others wedged in awkwardly.) Here’s the Wikipedia article on this, which contains the following map showing when we legalized interracial marriage. The red states are 1967.

That’s within living memory for a ton of people! Yellow is 1948 to 1967. This is just not very long ago at all. (Hell, we only fully banned slavery in 1865, which is also just not that long ago when it comes to human culture.)

Why did we have this bananas-crazy set of laws and this idiotic notion that one remote ancestor defines who you are? It boils down to slavery requiring a constant reaffirming that black people are all the same (and subhuman) while white people are all this completely separate category. The minute you start intermarrying, all of that breaks down. This was particularly important in our history because our system of slavery involved the kids of slaves being slaves and nobody really buying their way out. Globally, historically, there are other systems of slavery where there was more mobility or where enslaved people were debtors with a similar background to owners, and thus the people in power were less threatened by ambiguity in identity.

Post-slavery, this shit hung around because it was in the interests of the people in power to maintain a similar status quo where black people are fundamentally Other.

A lot of our obsession with who counts as what is simply a legacy of our racist past that produced our racist present.

The other big factor in American concepts of identity is that we see ourselves as a nation of immigrants (ignoring our indigenous peoples, as usual). A lot of people’s families arrived here relatively recently, and we often don’t have good records of exactly where they were from, even aside from enslaved people who obviously wouldn’t have those records. Plenty of people still identify with a general nationality (”Italian-American” and such), but the nuance the family might once have had (specific region of Italy, specific hometown) is often lost. Yeah, I know every place has immigrants, and lots of people don’t have good records, but the US is one of those countries where families have on average moved around a lot more and a lot more recently than some, and it affects our concepts of identity. I think some of the willingness to buy into the idea of “races” rather than “ethnicities” has to do with this flattening of identity.

New immigrant groups were often seen as Other and lesser, but over time, the ones who could manage it got added to our concept of “whiteness”, which gave them access to those same social and economic privileges.

Skin color is a big part of this. In a system that is founded on there being two categories, white owners and black slaves, skin color is obviously going to be about that rather than being more of a class marker like it is in a lot of the world.

But it’s not all about skin color since we have plenty of Europeans with somewhat darker skin who are seen as generically white here, while very pale Asians are not. I’m not super familiar with all of the history of anti-Asian racism in the US, but I think this persistent Otherness probably boils down to Western powers trying to justify colonial activities in Asia plus a bunch of religious bullshit about predominantly Christian nations vs. ones that are predominantly Buddhist or some other religion.

In fact, a lot of racist archetypes in English can be traced back to England’s earliest colonial efforts in Ireland. Justifying colonizing Those People because they’re subhuman and/or ignorant and in need of paternalistic rulers or religious conversion is at the bottom of a lot of racist notions. Ironic that we now see Irish people as clearly “white”.

There are a lot of racist porn tropes and racist cultural baggage here around the idea of black people being animalistic. Racist white people think black men want to rape/steal white women from white men. Black women get seen as hypersexual and aggressive. If this sounds like white people projecting in order to justify murder and rape... well, it is.

Similar tropes get applied to a lot of groups, often including Hispanic and Middle Eastern people, though East Asians come in more for creepy fantasies about endlessly submissive and promiscuous women. This nonsense already existed, but it was certainly not helped by WWII servicemen from here and their experiences in Asia. Again, it’s a projection to justify shitty behavior as what the party with less power was “asking for”.

In porn and even romance novels, this tends to turn up as a white character the audience is supposed to identify with paired with an exotic, mysterious Other or an animalistic sexy rapist Other.

A lot of fandoms are based on US media, so all of our racist bullshit does apply to the casting and writing of those, whether or not the fic is by Americans or replicating our racist porn tropes.

(Obviously, things get pretty hilarious and infuriating once Americans get into c-dramas and try to apply the exact same ideas unchanged to mainstream media about the majority group made by a huge and powerful country.)

Politically, within the US, white people have had most of the power most of the time. We also make up a big chunk of the population. (This is starting to change in some areas, which has assholes scared shitless.) This means that other groups tend to band together to accomplish shared political goals. They’re minorities here, so they get lumped together.

A lot of Americans become used to seeing the world in terms of “white people” who are powerful oppressors and “people of color” who are oppressed minorities. They’re trying to be progressive and help people with less power, and that’s good, but it obviously becomes awkward when it’s over-applied to looking at, say, China.

Now... fandom...

I find that fandom, in general, has a bad habit of holding things to double standards: queer things must be Good Representation™ even when they’re not being produced for that purpose. Same for ethnic minorities or any other minority. US-influenced parts of fandom (which includes a lot of English-speaking fandom) tend to not be very good at accepting that things are just fantasy. This has gotten worse in recent years.

As fandom has gotten more mainstream here, general media criticism about better representation (both in terms of number of characters and in terms of how they’re portrayed) has turned into fanfic criticism (not enough fics about ship X, too many about ship Y, problematic tropes that should not be applied to ship X, etc.). I find this extremely misguided considering the smaller reach of fandom but, more importantly, the lack of barriers to entry. If you think my AO3 fic sucks, you can make an account and post other fic that will be just as findable. You don’t need money or industry connections or to pass any particular hurdle to get your work out there too.

People also (understandably) tend to be hypersensitive to anything that looks like a racist porn trope. My feeling is that many of these are general porn tropes and people are reaching. There are specific tropes where black guys are given a huge dick as part of showing that they’re animalistic and hypersexual, but big dicks are really common in porn in general. The latter doesn’t automatically mean you’re doing the former unless there are other elements present. A/B/O or dubcon doesn’t mean it’s this racist trope either, not unless certain cliched elements are present. OTOH, it’s not hard for a/b/o tropes to feel close to “animalistic guy is rapey”, so I can see why it often bothers people.

A huge, huge, huge proportion of wank is “all rape fantasies are bad” crap too, which muddies the waters. I think a lot of people use “it’s racist” as an easy way to force others to agree with their incorrect claims that dubcon, noncon, a/b/o, etc. are fundamentally bad. Many fans, especially white fans, feel like they don’t know enough to refute claims of racism, so they cave to such arguments even when they’re transparently disingenuous.

Not everyone here thinks this way. I know plenty of people offline, particularly a lot of nonwhite people, who think fandom discourse is idiotic and that the people “protecting” people or characters of color are far more racist than the people writing “bad” fic or shipping the wrong thing.

But in general, I’d say that the stuff above is why a lot of us see the world as white people in power vs. everyone else as oppressed victims, interracial relationships as fraught, and porn about them as suspect. Basically, it’s people trying to be more progressive and aware but sometimes causing more harm than good when those attempts go awry.

#Anonymous

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meichenxi · 4 years ago

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Dear ‘White guy speaks perfect X and shocks Y!’ language YouTubers: STOP

A rant about every single fucking video by Xiaomanyc and similar YouTubers all titled things like CLUELESS WHITE GUY/GIRL LEARNS [INSERT NON-WHITE LANGUAGE HERE] AND SHOCKS [INSERT PLACE].

Disclaimer: I am white British, and I am also very often a moron. I'm trying to inform myself more, and would like to learn. So let me know if there is anything I should change, anything I’ve got wrong or any terminology I can change.

So this evening I opened YouTube to get some quality Hikaru no Go content, and saw yet another video recommended to me about Xiaomanyc called Clueless white guy orders in perfect Chinese, shocks patrons and staff!!!!

Really? Really. Ok, his Chinese certainly is good - but it isn't great. And it isn’t necessarily any better than people I've seen in the higher levels of a class at university who have spent some time in China. It's solidly intermediate. That's not an insult - that level of Chinese is hard to attain, and definitely worth celebrating!! Hell, I celebrate every new word I learn. But while it may be unusual, it doesn't forgive the clickbait type videos like 'White guy speaks perfect Chinese and wows [insert place]'.

These kind of clickbait titles rest on a number of assumptions. Before I say any more, I just want to make a note about terminology. Note that ’majority’ and ‘minority’ are not necessarily helpful labels, because they imply both a) a higher number of speakers in a certain place, and b) socially prestigious in some way. Of course a language like standard Mandarin is not a minority in China, but it might be in Germany. Talking about ‘minority’ languages that have a large speaker base outside of the country, like Chinese, is also not the same as talking about languages that have been systematically surpressed by a colonising, dominant language in their original communities, like indigenous languages. In many communities, especially in colonial and post-colonial situations, the language spoken by the majority is not one of prestige at all. Or some languages may be prestigious and expected in oral contexts, but not written - and so on. I use these terms here as best I can, but don't expect them to work 100% of the time.

So let’s unpack these assumptions a little.

1) That there is something inherently more ‘worthy’ in somebody who learns languages because they want to, rather than because they have to: and that, correspondingly, the people who want to are white (spoilers: much of Europe is multilingual, and white immigrants in majority white countries also exist, as well as discrimination against them e.g. Polish people in the UK), and that those who have to learn are not (spoilers: really? There are plenty of non-white monolinguals who are either happy being monolingual, don’t have access to learning, or don’t have to learn another language but are interested in it).

2) That everybody from a certain background automatically speaks all ‘those’ languages already, or that childhood multilingualism is a free pass - spoilers, it isn’t. Achieving high levels of fluency in multiple languages is hard, especially for languages with different writing systems, because no matter how perfect your upbringing, you’re still ultimately exposed to it maximum 50% of the time of monolingual speakers. Realistically, most people get far less exposure than 50% in any of their languages. Also, situations of multilingualism in many parts of the world are far more complex than home language / social language. You might speak one language with your father and his father, another with your mother and her family, another in the community, and another at school. Which one is your native language then? Monolinguals tell horror stories of ‘both cups half empty’ scenarios, but come on - how on earth do you expect a person to have the same size vocabulary in a language they hear only 25% of the time? Also, languages are spoken in different domains, to different people, in different social situations: just because someone hears Farsi at home doesn’t mean they can give a talk on the filing system at their local library. If something is outside of a multilingual person’s langauge domain, they might have to learn the vocabulary for it just like monolinguals. There’s no such thing as the ‘perfect bilingual’.

3) That learning another language imperfectly for leisure is laudable, but learning one imperfectly for work or survival is not. If you’re a speaker of a minority language, learning another language is necessary, ‘just what you have to do’, and if you don’t do it ‘properly’, that’s because of your lack of intelligence / laziness etc. It’s cool for the seconday school student to speak a bit of bad Japanese, but not so cool for the Indian guy who runs her favourite restaurant in Tokyo.

4) That majority speakers learning a minority language is somehow an act of surprising benevolence that should not go unrewarded. Languages are intrinsically tied up with identity - and access to them may not be a right, but a gift. Don’t assume that because you get a good reception with some speakers of one language that speakers of another will be grateful you’re learning their language, or that everyone will react the same. One of the reasons these videos are possible at all is that many Chinese speakers, in my experience, are incredibly welcoming and enthusiastic to non-natives learning Chinese. Some languages and linguistic groups have been so heavily persecuted that imagining such thing as an ‘apolitical’ language learner is a fundamental misunderstanding of the context in which the language is spoken, and essentially an impossibility when the act of speaking claims ownership to a group. Many people will not want you to learn their language, because it has been suppressed for hundreds of years - it’s theirs, not yours. We respect that. Whilst it’s great to learn a minority language, don’t do it for the YouTube likes - do it because you’re genuinely interested in the language, people, culture and history. We don’t deserve anything special for having done so.

5) That speaking a ‘foreign’ (i.e. culturally impressive / prestigious) language is much more impressive and socially acceptable than speaking a heritage language, home language or indigenous language. There are harmful language policies all around the world that simultaneously encourage the learning of ‘educational’ languages like Spanish, and at the same time forbid the use of the child’s mother tongue in class. And many non-majority languages are not foreign at all - they were spoken here, wherever you are, before English or Spanish or Russian or, yes, standard Mandarin Chinese. Policies that encourage standardised testing in English from a very young age like the ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy in the US disproportionately affect indigenous communities that are trying to revitalise their language against overwhelming callousness and cruelty - they expect bilingual children to attain the same level of English as a monolingual in first grade, which in an immersion school, they obviously won’t (and shouldn’t - they’ll get enough exposure to English as they grow up to make it not matter later down the line). But if the schools want funding, their kids have to pass those tests.

There’s more to cover - that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Some people’s response to these videos and why the titles are ‘wrong’ would be: does it matter that he's white? Shouldn't it just be 'second language learner speaks perfect Chinese'? This is the same sort of attitude as ‘I don’t see race’. I think it does matter that he is white - because communities of many languages around the world are so used to them having to learn a second language and colonial powers not bothering to learn theirs. You wouldn't get the same reactions in these videos if he were Asian American but grew up speaking / hearing no Chinese - because then it would be expected. You also wouldn't get the same reaction if he were an immigrant in a Chinese-speaking community from somewhere else in Asia.

It also implies that all white people = monolingual Americans with no interest in other cultures. While we all are complacent and complicit in failing to educate ourselves about the effects of historical and modern colonialism, titles like this perpetuate a very harmful stereotype - and I don't mean harmful as in 'poor Xiaomanyc', but harmful in that it suggests that this attitude is ok, it's part of 'being white', and therefore doesn't need to change. The reaction when someone doesn't engage with other cultures and isn't willing to learn about them shouldn't be 'lmao classic white guy'. That not only puts the subject in a group with other 'classic white guys', but puts a nice acceptable label on what really is privilege, a lack of curiosity, ignorance, and the opportunity (which most non-white people don't have) to have everything you learn in school and university be about you. If you're ignorant - ok. We are all about many things. But you don't have any excuse not to educate yourself. The 'foreigner experience' that white people get in places like China is not the same as immigrants in a predominantly monolingual, predominantly white English speaking area. As we can see in those kind of videos, white foreigners may be stared at, but ultimately enjoy huge privilege in many places around the world. It's not the same.

It also ignores, well, essentially the whole of Europe outside the UK and Ireland and many other places around the globe, where multilingualism is incredibly common - and where the racial dichotomy commonly heard in America isn't quite appropriate, or an oversimplification of many complex ethnic/national/racial/religious/linguistic etc factors that all influence discrimination and privilege. Actually many 'white guys' in Europe and places all around the world speak four or five languages to get by - some in highly privileged upbringings and school systems, yes, but others because they have grown up in a border town, or because they are immigrants and want to give their children a better start than they did, or because they want to work abroad and send home money. Many, like people all around the world, don't get a chance to learn to read and write their first language or dialect, which is considered 'lesser' than the majority language (French, Russian, English etc); many people, like Gaelic speakers in Scotland or speakers of Basque in France, have faced historical persecution and have been denied opportunities for speaking their mother tongue. My mother was beaten and my grandparents denied jobs for being Gaelic speakers. They are white, and they have benefited from being white in lots of other ways - but their linguistic experience is light-years from Xiaomanyc's.

It isn't 'white' to be surprised at a white person speaking another language - it's just ignorant. But the two ARE correlated, because who in modern America can afford to go through twenty one years and still be ignorant? People who have never had to learn a second language; people who have always had everybody adapt to THEIR linguistic needs, and not the other way around. People who have had all media, all books, centred around people who look like them and speak like them. And even in America, that's not just 'white' - that's specifically white (often middle class) English monolinguals.

I'm not saying everybody who doesn't speak a language should feel guilty for not learning one ( it's understandably not the priority for everyone - economic reasons, family, only so many hours in the day - there are plenty of reasons why language learning when you don’t have to is also not accessible to everyone). But be aware of the double standards we have as a society towards other socially/racially/religiously disadvantaged groups versus white college grads. You can't demonise one whilst lauding the other.

To all language YouTubers - do yourself a favour, and stop doing this. Your skills are impressive - that's enough.

tldr; clickbait titles like this rely on double standards and perpetuate harmful ideas - don't write them, and let your own language skills do the talking please.

#linguistics #lingblr #racism #sociolinguistics #languages #langblr #polyglot community #I don't really know what to tag this as #chinese #xiaomanyc #taking a break from my break to clearly post about two (2) things #hualian over on main and this here #meichenxi manages

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wedreamedlove · 4 years ago

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Xu Mo vs. Mo Yi [Character Study]

I can never get over the aesthetic of these two pictures placed side by side LOL. But, anyway, the point of this post is to nip any undue comparisons in the bud and claims of copying organize my thoughts and compare these two characters to highlight their similarities, differences, and further explore each character through these contrasts.

Q) If you like Xu Mo, would you like Mo Yi?

Honestly, I think this depends on what you like most about Xu Mo. I already knew beforehand that I gravitate towards characters who think 5 steps ahead, are predominantly logical, and scholars/gentlemen, so it’s not surprising I bias both Xu Mo and Mo Yi.

However, as I got to know Mo Yi further (Themis is around 6 months old now), I find that he’s distinctively different from Xu Mo on three crucial points that’ll determine whether people from either camp will like the other character.

1) Stance on Others

In a post for Xu Mo, “Into Your World”, I argued that Xu Mo is an alienated genius who had troubles getting along with others, until he mastered the social game as an adult. However, you can still see glimpses of this as he tries to understand MC’s world and shares his own.

To be fair, Mo Yi’s past is still under wraps but I feel confident in saying that, while he was probably highly intelligent compared to his peers [SR Sculpted Heart], his isolation doesn’t seem to come from his innate nature but rather his social position (there’s heavy implications that he’s like some sort of noble or something) [SR Snowy Pine Fairytale].

IMO, these backgrounds really shaped the way these two men interact with the world.

Xu Mo has a detached and indifferent view towards other people. They simply exist and don’t bring anything positive or negative to him. His ambition to ensure the survival of humanity reflects this too because it’s pure utilitarianism; everyone (apart from MC) can be sacrificed equally for the greater good. If anything, he probably finds other people to be interesting subjects to study, no matter what kind of person they are. IIRC the only time he expressed dislike to people, or a group of people, was when he told Hades he enjoyed killing thieves LOL.

Meanwhile, Mo Yi has an elitist streak to the point where he and his MC actually clashed opinions and debated each other [SR Warm Fingertips]. It’s incredibly ironic because he’s a psychiatrist who treats his patients without judgment, but at the same time he looks down on so many things and people (PUAs, people who betray love, hypocrites who only seek power and fame) [Ch2; Personal Story Ch1-3; SSR Moonlit Ball].

One of the things I noticed early on is that Xu Mo draws from the Eastern scholar archetype, “Xu Mo Character Study”, while Mo Yi actually draws more from the Western gentleman archetype.

So, just to summarize this section, Xu Mo is detached from the world naturally and likes to observe people and try to blend in. Mo Yi deliberately draws a line between him and others and, at times, has the casual cruelty of someone born as nobility (arrogance is carved into his bones, even if he tends to keep it low-key because he generally has a “gentle and polite” attitude).

2) Stance on Love

Xu Mo didn’t understand love, or really even emotions. Love is grown between him and his MC (there’s multiple analogies throughout the game about how their love is like a seed). I think [Ch25] pretty much sums it up for Xu Mo, where he goes through that emotional rollercoaster and muses about how, at the end of human evolution, emotions should be discarded. He also admits that MC taught him the “fear” of a normal person, because now he has someone he cannot give up no matter what, which goes against his previous utilitarian beliefs.

Compared to this, Mo Yi fell in love at first sight. Yes, you read that right. The “scientist and logical” archetype fell in love at first sight LOL. Not only does he acknowledge it right off the bat, but he fully embraces it too and believes that real love makes people better versions of themselves [Personal Story]. Mo Yi is a through and through psychiatrist in that he never underestimates how primal emotions (and love) can be.

Heck, not only is this central to his personal story, but we also have hints that one of Mo Yi’s parents fell in love at first sight with the other person (and he inherited their predisposition for that). Unfortunately, their love had a tragic end and Mo Yi seems to have a huge grudge against his father for whatever happened to his mother (again, Mihoyo is keeping this a mystery LOL), but Mo Yi explicitly confirms that even if his love leads to a tragic end he will still walk down this road and attempt to change it [SR Cool Summer].

IMO one other difference between them re: love is this exchange that lives rent free in my head which I saw in a Xu Mo/Reader/Mo Yi fanfiction LOL. Bear with me here.

Mo Yi: Wearing a mask for a long time will tire you.

Xu Mo: It’s enough just to wear one in front of the necessary person.

Xu Mo and his MC make great efforts to understand each other’s worlds, but this understanding comes from the doors he chooses to open to her. He reveals himself as much as possible, but I think he’s an inherently private person (and there’s all that Ares stuff) so there are times where he hides things so that he doesn’t worry his MC. I think this is enough to count as a “mask”. Sometimes he pretends he’s okay when he’s not.

On the other hand, while I think Mo Yi shares the sentiment in not wanting his MC to worry unduly, he tries to reveal himself as much as possible. There’s an amazingly relatable conflict in him here where he wants her to know every side of him, but he’s also terrified of how she’ll react if he shows her his ugliest sides and imperfect sides (he has some sort of phobia or fear about imperfection, but Mihoyo has been keeping mum on the exact details of this so far) [Personal Story; SR Sculpted Heart].

It’s pretty ironic that Mo Yi wants to be perfect, but he realizes that the more perfect he is the more of a sense of distance there’ll be between him and his MC because of the subconscious pressure someone “perfect” brings LOL [SSR Border of Light and Darkness].

3) Stance on Growth

If you haven’t realized that one of Xu Mo’s greatest themes is the phrase “Take your time in growing”, then what have you been reading? Jkjk, but seriously this gets repeated in multiple places, although my brain always goes back to [Blossom Date] for this.

Even if he and his MC start off with fundamental differences (she believes all people have inherent worth and can’t be involuntarily sacrificed), he wants to personally watch the journey of her maturation. He also subtly guides and teaches her. Unfortunately, due to circumstances of the main story, he doesn’t get his wish and she grows up a lot out of his eyes, but their relationship still revolves around him wanting her to have as much time as possible to grow.

He’s, for a lack of better word, extremely gentle about this (setting aside as much of the Ares and story parts as we can, because LovePro’s story is tragedy on tragedy LOL). I think [Autumn Blaze Date] shows a good analogy for this, because he holds the bicycle steady for MC until she can get going on her own, and he also catches her the first time.

Meanwhile, Mo Yi... ha ha ha. I just came out of chapter 3 for his [Personal Story] and let’s just say his philosophy is tough love. It’s ironic because, in many of his other dates, he wrestles with an internal conflict to protect his MC but also to let her experience all sorts of things to both test and temper her.

This is going to touch on the previous topic about love for a moment, but a part of Mo Yi’s love at first sight experience is also “testing” the other person through all sorts of situations and, after seeing all their different sides, he can determine whether his love at first sight is one that’ll last for the rest of his life or if it’s just a fleeting moment of beauty and emotion.

He also extremely respects his MC’s sense of justice and pursuit of the truth in the world, no matter what she encounters, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is what drew him to her in the first place. But MC’s occupation and beliefs will make her confront a lot of dark and dangerous things and so, whenever possible, Mo Yi lets her confront these in “controlled” situations to train her. If I had to make an analogy, IMO, he’d let his MC ride the bicycle and pick her up only after she falls, or when she’s like 0.1cm away from the ground LOL.

Mo Yi is (perhaps rightfully) called out on this by another character, who believes Mo Yi is too arrogant in believing everything is under his control and he can prevent MC from getting hurt whenever he lets her get into dangerous situations, and I’m interested to see if Mihoyo will let him experience failures with his philosophy so he can grow more, like the things Xu Mo went through re: his personal beliefs [Ch24].

Overall

I don’t know how well I explained myself, especially for people who don’t know anything about Mo Yi, and each section goes back and forth between the two characters LOL so here’s another section that attempts to describe their overall atmosphere.

If, like I said in my Headcanon Notes, Xu Mo makes me immediately think of all the words for soft, gentle, light, still, water, etc etc., then the words I constantly think about for Mo Yi is messily human. He’s like a bundle of contradictions, but coherent because it’s being intentionally done.

Mo Yi doesn’t discriminate against his patients, yet he can be elitist and looks down on others. He wants to let MC have dangerous experiences, but also wants to protect her. He wants to be perfect, but he also wants to reveal himself entirely to his MC because that’s real love.

In contrast, Xu Mo has a very clean and orderly personality LOL. You can draw clear cause and effect lines from his personality to his actions.

So, anyway, these are two interesting characters who start off with similar archetypes as scientific logical men of scholar/gentleman dispositions, but yet they’re also on opposite ends for a lot of things such as their approach to emotions and the world.

Oh wait, lastly, because I don’t have a good place to put this—but I think it’s funny—is that both characters are pretty possessive and greedy, but while Xu Mo does things in a sneaky, cunning and fox-like way Mo Yi gets ridiculously open about his jealousy and it’s hilariously cute but also almost childish? I often forget Mo Yi is older than Xu Mo by a year, because Xu Mo honestly feels a bit more mature than him LOL. If we count them actually aging by when their game came out though, then Mo Yi is 28 and Xu Mo is 29 now.

#mr love queen's choice #tears of themis #mlqc xu mo #mlqc lucien #wdsjb mo yi #love and producer #weiding shijian bu #mlqc #love and produc(ing) meta #tears of meta

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evakuality · 4 years ago

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Hanna, episode 7

1. It’s really interesting what they’re doing with Amira this whole season. It’s setting up to a whole lot of the stuff that happens in the later seasons really well. She suffers so many microaggressions all the time, and even here - she makes a joke about costumes parties and they all just swallow it. It’s a really vivid recognition all the way through of exactly how much Amira deals with on a daily basis. Considering we all know where this is leading, it’s difficult to watch, but also it’s good that they do this.

2. But oh yikes, this whole bunch of rumours swirling about Sam ‘making out’ with someone at the party is really well done. It’s pretty obvious that no-one genuinely knows - the only people who know what happened are Hanna and Sam (and ‘making out’ isn’t exactly how I’d describe it) so the rumours are all based on a love of gossip. Who knows how they started, but it’s obvious just how guilty Hanna feels. How awkward for her to be hearing this! Then her very very obvious ‘I have a boyfriend so it wasn't me!!’ move (very similar to Matteo’s in s3 in the discussion about homosexuality with Amira, which is illuminating - they both want to try to ‘prove’ something with these moves). Also, Kiki and her thing about Alex - it’s terrible how invested she is when it’s obvious that he’s being an asshole. The excuses she makes for him unfortunately ring true - this is exactly how people try to convince themselves of this sort of stuff. In reality it’s a shame the girls aren’t more forceful - they clearly want to say Kiki is being an idiot, but after Amira got shut down last time, it seems none of them is keen to be more explicit.

3. Ohhh poor Hanna. This thing has been eating at her and she had to tell someone about it. But choosing Matteo was NOT a good idea. I mean, we all know this is going badly (Snakesak is such an iconic take on the season that even if you forgot everything else, you’d remember that), but even without that, Matteo feels a bit more... I don’t know. Shifty? Somehow? There’s something really calculating in the way he examines her. Like, even without knowing what’s coming, there’s clearly something goin on in his head. With Isak it came out of the blue; he was set up much more supportive/innocent because they wanted the shock value when the reveal happened. But with Matteo there’s something different. I guess at least partly because most people watching would already know what’s coming so hiding it is less imperative. Hanna sees him as a friend and the only one she can tell, but it’s such a weird choice anyway (as it was in the original). He’s Jonas’s best friend. Like he says, why tell him? Even if he wasn’t a little snake, this is putting him in a really difficult place. Effectively this makes him choose between his best friend (who he’s kind of in love with even if she doesn’t know that) and his friend. Him choosing to let Jonas know wouldn’t be all that strange and it’s a big risk to take before she knows he sits in the ‘don’t tell’ camp. I am also baffled that they did this with other people in earshot. It could totally get out, even if this girl agrees she should keep quiet.

4. I really like this adaptation of the ‘claim’ Alex makes into ‘he told me I have a cute stomach’ instead of the hoodie thing in the original (though that works very well too). This way it’s much less overt and also it really plays into Kiki’s fears about her looks. We’ve seen small hints of her eating issues already, so this just adds to the weight of that. Specifically targeting a body part that girls can be sensitive about is clever - at first it can seem sweet, like he’s being so nice about something vulnerable, but then you can see he’s being very deliberate with that impression and it really hammers home the insecurities Kiki is already harbouring.

5. It’s a fascinating dynamic between all the girls in the argument about how Kiki should deal with Alex. I’m with Sam and Amira - stay above it and move on (tbh, Kiki should never have gone there in the first place, but she did so this is her current best option). But the fact that Mia is so strongly in favour of telling him he’s a dick is swaying Kiki. Of course, Mia is a strong person and from her it probably would feel empowered. But Kiki is, and always has been, far more innocent and vulnerable and sensitive. It doesn’t feel like (even without knowing where this goes) that this will go well for Kiki, and the fact that Mia doesn’t get that says a lot about her. I like this; it’s nice to see her not being quite right here - it sets her up for some growth as we move on. And super yikes when he tells Kiki to take a breath and she does. This, the importance she places on him, is exactly why this was a terrible idea, and why Mia’s encouragement was wrong. It’s easy for her - she’s not invested, and her failure to recognise the difference between her and Kiki is really important. And Alex is SUCH an asshole that this scene is so hard to watch. Kiki’s acting is superb in all these scenes and it’s so damn hard to watch her take in ‘you’re not worth it’ but as with the original, Mia’s ‘take down’ doesn’t land for me, probably because while Alex’s acting is far superior to William’s, there’s still a fundamental lack of caring about what she’s said. It doesn’t feel like saving face, but more a genuine lack of care. And this is why I really dislike this ‘William’ character; he doesn’t seem to care. I have said before that I’ve never watched Mia’s season because I cannot stand William in the original. So if I do watch I’ll be interested to see if they can make me like him better. So far, they’re not succeeding.

6. And just like that, we’re back to the soft, dreamy colours and shots of the start of the season. But there’s a harsher light coming in to some of the shots. particularly with Jonas and so it’s not comfortable. This is something on a precipice. The kissing is back and they’re reconnecting on that level, and it’s working again. The darkness is gone, but things are hovering still - that Sam stuff on her phone with Jonas in the background, slightly blurred but very overlit, adds to the sense of unease. You can feel something coming, even if it’s not obvious what that is.

7. Man this fight is so funny. I know I shouldn’t say that, and it’s a very serious moment for Hanna, but the slo-mo and the faces they make! And Amira’s moves! Kiki, full-on legs wrapped around this girl as they both collapse to the ground! Priceless. I do like the way the sound gradually fades out as Hanna’s realisation of what’s happening sets in. That’s really well done.

8. What a change from the earlier moment when Hanna woke with Jonas and they had their sweet little moment. Now we’re fairly tight in on her face as she keeps trying to get hold of him. It sucks a lot, and you can sense the anxiety and worry she’s feeling. Also, I do understand why she feels the way she does about all this, and why she leans on Matteo. Unlike earlier, here it makes sense for her to rely on Jonas’s best friend. He’s the one who has the best line in to Jonas when he’s staying so distant from Hanna. But wow his advice is truly shitty. On the surface it seems sensible, both times. Nah don’t tell him; it’ll only hurt him. Nah leave him be; he needs time and space. But in both instances it’s the complete opposite of how she should be acting. And in both cases, Matteo knows Jonas, he knows what he’s like and how he’ll act. This is so calculated. And he’s still in a space where he has little to lose. He feels like he can still ride the ‘hey I had their best interests at heart’ line and get out of it. I always felt like Isak was more opportunistic in his lying; saying and doing things in the moment. Whereas this really does feel like Matteo has thought it through more - that’s some difference in the way the two characters are presented and acted. But I like that it’s different, and his little hint of a smaile when she collapses on him - Isak seemed a lot more genuinely wrapped up in Eva and his face seemed more overwhelmed. But Matteo really seems to know what he’s doing. Also - sound mixing in this scene: top notch. I love that you can hear every swallow, every breath, every step, movement etc. It really heightens the tension right up til she gets Jonas’s ‘don’t call me’ text.

9. I said it before and I’ll say it again, Leonie’s savage pleasure in Hanna’s troubles is a real reflection on her - and not a good one. I really do get that she’s hurt, but this is vicious and she’s being awful! And Kiki - ugh, just be quiet child. Calling other girls sluts is pretty shitty.

10. I really like that Eva’s mother morphs into Hanna’s father. There’s a difference in this dynamic that builds on that difference. Eva and her mother seem closer, even while her mother isn’t around much. Hanna’s father just feels more absent emotionally, so these moments where he tries to be a dad fail because of that. It’s obvious that he cares for her and that he’s trying, but equally obvious that he just doesn’t know what she needs or how to approach her. Not that Eva’s mother was much better, but it was still a different sort of distance.

anyway, this is suuuuper long because so much happened in this episode. It’s packed with a lot of stuff and while some stuff is starting to resolve, there’s so much that’s hanging over their heads still. I like this one a lot, but I think it could have done with a little bit of breathing room. Maybe that one episode where it felt like things were waiting to happen could have picked up some of this heavy lifting. But either way, this one has a lot going for it and really does set us up for what’s coming in the next few.

#druck #og druck #hanna episode 7 #this one also got reallly long

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betweentheracks · 4 years ago

Note

can you tell us what your credentials are and what sort of studies/coursework did you have to take up to get to your position? and, if not too personal, what your day to day work life might look life in and out awards seasons or other big ticket events your clients might need styled for?

This is long and rambling, I do apologize.

Regarding coursework and education routes into becoming a pro stylist, the thing is that there isn’t necessarily a need for a specific type of education. You could literally drop school and strive for success by the grit of your teeth and iron will alone if you really want and still could gain great acclaim. It isn’t exactly common but it does happen if you strike upon fortunate circumstances and garner experience wherever possible to form the base of your portfolio and profile which will later shape your reputation.

As it is, most studios and clients do tend to give more consideration to those that come from an academic qualifications and learning. While experience if the foreground on which all stylists (and any other set of industry workers) tread, having the support and security of studying styles and fashion and marketing and all manner of related blather gives a sense of merit and provides opportunities for your to be selected for a job despite a lack of reputation or experience. The best stylists fall from both trees and the worst do as well; there is no guaranteed recipe for success in this field as fashion itself is too fluid in expression to be quantified.

As for what I did; I had hands in both pots and have the educational background that assures I know what I am doing in terms of textual/technical understanding as well as experience from moments of pure luck compounded by my audacious efforts. I have a Bachelor’s compromised of fashion merchandising, fashion retailing, marketing, and visual arts. I took side courses at a fashion technical institute with a more tailored program that catered to the fundamentals of fit, body (and measurements) assessment, design and trends, media styling, and fashion industry principles. Additionally I did half a semester of social skills in a business. From there I went on to snatch up an internship and spent a bit more than a year being a shadow of the stylists for the company I work for before grasping a golden chance to become notable and step beyond that restricted role. I also have the certifications of AICI CIC and AICI CIP with hopes to one day finally snag the coveted AICI CIM (respectively; certified image consultant, certified image professional, certified image master).

I had friends that have worked in and out of this end of the industry and knew from the jump that I wanted to pad my portfolio with the safety net provided by academia and use it to bridge the gaps in my experience early on. I figured if I had the knowledge of how to deal with the business side of things as well as the styling side then I was a bit more valuable and, worst case, could go be a consultant or advisor for retailers or big wig company heads. As it is, the only reason I have any clout to my name at all is due to my internship - it paved over all the potholes in the road I was on and has been very favorable, but not everyone is as fortunate as I have been and this is not an easy path to undertake and forge into a career with any real sense of stability or security. Freelance stylists have a completely different struggle despite the majority coming from similar backgrounds as myself.

Now, onto the daily scope and specs of wardrobe styling ~

Please take into consideration that I am an admitted workaholic/perfectionist/overachiever within the boundaries of my work. I’m quite lazy in almost every other sense of living and make existing seem like a wreck and I’m the one driving the struggle-bus that caused it, but for the job I have I am a supremely different breed (though still a lunatic). So yeah, I do a lot more than most would in my position and it is actually something that my company head both loves and hates and is rumored to be writing a clause for all employees regarding allowable working methodology due to the sheer amount of paperwork I alone generate. I am the hazard of our company, but I am also an asset.

Anyway, I start most of my days with a lot of reading through emails that range from client comments and commands to vendors looking to use my company or clientele to bolster their credibility, to brands extending offers of product usage for marketing and campaigning reasons, and a variety of back and forths between me and the PAs or clerks of photographers, other studios, and fashion houses. Next comes hours of phone calls and reviewing schedules to ensure there is no intersections between client-oriented event slots. For one photoshoot I typically spend 3-4 weeks on the semantics of lighting quality and set features and then the rest of the time is dedicated to wardrobe and piecing out however many styles are called for, and then usually adding in at least 2 extras just for good measure. There's so many meetings my butt goes numb and touching base with the other members of my glam teams to reaffirm that we are all working on tandem and on the same page as far as vision goes. I sometimes have a turn in taking care of a new trainee or intern that is wandering our workplace like a fawn on clumsy legs and have questionable instincts.

When it comes to pulling apparel to make up sets, I have been known to be in the rack rooms and show rooms and fashion archives for over 7 hours a day. Our archivists know me as personally as I know my assistants and friends from how often I am in there territory and have to rely on their hardwork and favor. I spend days doing this until I have what I need and then dedicate every bit of my attention designing and creating looks which is another 5+ hours of one day, over the course of many. I have had days where I have been at work for 16 or 17 hours before I realize it, which is why I am such a thorn in my boss’ ass and often told to take a day off or get sent home midway through the morning - my hours alone could have business bureaus raising their eyebrows at the legality of my working hours. (This is cranked to max when shows and events are in the schedule; Awards Season is a nightmare and tours are the bastard offspring of Hell actually. The amount of hours put in are truly horrific).

Also worth mentioning for the sake of perspective is that my job is as expansive as my clients allow; if they request me for one of their various activities in the public eye or in media, if available, I am obligated to prioritize their needs above the projects that my company has assigned to me as per our contract and am expected to either find a replacement or delegate to my assistant and apprentice when possible. The opposite is also true: if my clients have a light workload or are on break from their careers, I am typically doing the busy work of in-studio tasks or tracking rising trends and other features of the fashion forecast. I also host a multitude of temporary contracts with all manner of clientele from brand ambassadors to photographers to celebrities to commercial shoots & services. These jobs come upon official requests made through the company and then negotiated into the terms of how short the working schedule will be, what work I will be undertaking, and an assessment of skills vs revenue to maintain a balance of my time as a professional being properly valued within the sad decline of styling budgets before it will be officially taken on in my name. For these I tend to make better use of my status and hand off most of the project unless I am specifically needed. I make appearances as necessary but am mostly an advisor rather than the producer, instead focusing on my exclusive clients all while staying keyed in so that the work isn't below standard. This is all a badly kept secret of my company and myself - the clients do typically know and accept this is how I handle things in general and are aware that they are paying for an absent role of by way of my name/credentials unless they specify otherwise. There have been times when a side job like this has more prestige than all the years of my experiences combined could generate which ostensibly is treated with much more care and most of my other work pauses in deference to this.

Being a stylist, especially a wardrobe AND fashion stylist, is just so much I don't think I could fully capture the scale of it for a proper index of what we do.

In short, I don't have routine days. I have days that are at the beck and call of a workload that changes at the drop of a pin or the half digit uptick that dictates the emergence of a new trend or the downwind of when a trend skews into becoming mainstream. I can be paced out and looking at a light day at my desk and suddenly be crammed into a pitch meeting or called out to a set. I've also spent many days lounging on the sofa in a client's dressing room playing on my phone and cracking jokes with the glam team as we wait for our client to return between performance takes. And then there are days when I only go into work for our weekly meeting and review before heading back home. It's constant and consuming and sometimes I can't catch my breath before I'm shoved into the show room under a daunting time crunch because an entire ensemble has been misplaced or ruined. Just a matter of days before I was felled by COVID-19 I was having a nap during a photoshoot which I had already fulfilled my purpose and had no further need to participate in.

The reality is that I spend the majority of my time carving out a balance of my work life not superseding my time dedicated to being with my son and making sure he knows no matter what, he is above my hectic career always.

#racks asks

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pi-cat000 · 4 years ago

Text

MSA time travel idea (part 41)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Vivi POV, 8, 9, 10, Lewis POV, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, Lance POV 18, 19, Lewis POV 2, 21 , 22, Vivi POV 2, 24, 25 Lewis POV 3, Mystery POV , Vivi POV 3, 29, Lewis POV 4, 31, ViVi POV 4 , 33, 34, Lewis POV 5, Mystery POV 2, Lewis POV 6, Vivi POV 5, Lewis POV 7 VIVI POV 6

Part 42: here

...

VIVI POV:

The flames are kind of mesmerising, with their dancing oranges and yellows, streaked with green and the occasional blue as various materials reacted differently to the heat. It is easy just to stare and let her attention wander, fatigue turning all her worries into background static. Inside the van, various camping implements twist and warp. It is the ache in her leg muscles that eventually pulls her attention back to the present. Her legs are tired from her earlier search for the van and prolonged restless standing. A reminder that she has a long walk back to Pepper Paradiso and her truck. She feels doubly exhausted just thinking about it.

Vivi glances at Mystery who is also staring into the fire. His expression borders on thoughtfull, lit faintly by the fire. A familiar etherial red light is diffused amongst his fur, barely noticeable alongside the organge glow of the flames. Does the red light mean that Mystery is casting his illusion to hide the fire? She is not sure.

“So what’s the deal with this spiritual residue, physical plane stuff you mentioned earlier? How does that tie into all that stuff about deals, oaths and whatnot?” There is a lot of folklore warning against making deals with supernatural creatures but she wants the actual facts behind it. With her constant vigil at the hospital and Mystery’s own efforts to spy on Milton’s downtown police department, she hasn’t had the opportunity to ask many questions. This is the first time she’s been alone with Mystery and not been distracted chasing around after leads and information related to Arthur’s possession.

Mystery’s head swings around so he is looking right at her. His eyes are backlit by that same red light which shines out from behind his irises. The effect is made more intense by its association to that night outside Pepper Paradiso. It isn’t exactly the same- it is a lot less angry- but the small comparison makes her shiver.

Mystery blinks, ears drooping, and looks off to the side. She wouldn’t think a giant, many tailed kitsune could look awkward but Mystery pulls it off. A sudden change in the wind interrupts her next question. Vivi gets a whiff of burning rubber and melting plastic in all it’s this horridness. Mystery also wrinkles his nose in discomfort. The sheer displeasure splashed across his face reminds her of similar expressions he’d make at his dog food. It is crazy to picture him eating dog food after seeing him like this, with his shimmering white fur, almost silver in the moonlight, tails cascading around him both taking up too much space while also taking no space at all. Not even the fancy, expensive dog food.

/Perhaps we should move further up-wind?/

Vivi nods and they shuffle around as much as the enclosed space allows so the smell isn’t coming right at them. It takes her closer to Mystery but she’s happy to discover that it’s a discomfort she’s willing to bare to avoid the stench. Once they’ve found a slightly new location, Mystery speaks again.

/Your question is difficult to answer because none of these - spiritual residue, the physical plane or oaths- are simple. /

“Well, try. Or at least give me the cliff-notes. Something I can actually do something with. Like, how much can I rely on all those stories, legends and myths I have memorised?”

Mystery considers her, eyes softer, red luminescence dimming to barely an ember as he thinks. / Human belief does hold some influence over how spiritual and magical energies manifest, as does any type of will or resolve. Resolve is what shapes these energies, allowing for us non-physical entities to manipulate reality around us. It is what gives oaths and promises their holding power./

/What is a promise if not the ultimate statement of intention./

“So, it’s a ‘humans believe in fairies so fairies exist’ type scenario?” That would be convenient if only because it would validate all the time she’d spend pouring over old myths and folktales.

/Partially…/ Mystery’s tails twitch, encircling his paws, and he settles himself into a seated position, and Vivi gets the sense that Mystery is summarising and skipping over a lot of detail for her, / Get enough humans believing in the same story for a few hundred years and it will have tangible effects on the type of creatures that come into being. It will influences how the spiritual and non-physical function on this plane of existence, giving animation to what would otherwise be mindless energy. /

The explanation makes sense, in a way. Vivi frowns, mulling it over, following Mystery’s example and moving to the nearest rock with a semi-flat surface and sitting herself down. So far things were relatively straightforward. Supernatural creatures existed because of some non-physical, extradimensional energy which was shaped by will power. It both explained human religion and mythology, as well as the odd system of bargaining Mystery had walked her through already. Only things were never that simple, were they?

“You are the way you are because of myths and stuff?” Vivi speaks up and falters trying to think of a generic term for ‘supernatural creature,’ realising that Mystery hadn’t put a name to what he or any of them were outside of being partly spiritual, non-physical in nature, “But you said it was only partially true? Where does the partially come into all this?”

/Humans are far from the only creatures that have access to the resolve and will power needed to shape these energies. Stories told by humans are rarely completely accurate for a reason./

Well, that sounds super ominous and the way Mystery is watching her. like he is worried about something, isn’t helping. The fox exhales and his ears twitch.

/If you wish it, we can discuss the matter at length another time. Many far wiser than I have dedicated centuries to understanding how creatures like myself come into being and what shapes our growth and development. For now, consider it context. /

“Context?” Is it just her or does Mystery seam doubly tentative now? His tails are shifting in an uncharacteristic display of outward emotion.

/This plane, the physical plane, has its own structures and laws which shape it. Then there are creatures like myself that can alter these structures. Mostly, our influence is very limited, depending on our resolve and power which grow slowly with age and experience. Any alteration too drastic requires a lot of energy and may leave one in danger of fading to nothing./ Mystery lapses into a contemplative silence, attention drifting to the fire. The flames reflect in his eyes, so they dance and flicker a warm yellow which intermingles with the red.

/Gods, deities, higher powers, humans have many names for them, but they do exist, and their resolve is beyond comprehension. More ideas and concept than anything else, their interference here comes in many forms. If one knows how and was willing to take an oath to act as acolytes to the physical plain, then there are a wide range boons available for beings like myself./

Mystery pauses as if to check she’s following the explanation. At this point, Vivi’s just taking everything in stride. Gods exist? Sure, why not. It’s not any crazier than all the other stuff Mystery’s said. What does have her worried is the uncomfortable feeling that Mystery is building up to some sort of unpleasant revelation. The fox looks and sounds dead serious and she gets the sense that he’s explaining something fundamentally important.

/Of course, when you have entities capable of granting abilities with the potential to unravel reality itself, there must be some structure to it otherwise there would be only chaos. A Natural Order exists to maintain balance. /

“Sooo…” She ends up having to prompt when Mystery’s silence stretches too long after the statement, “…you have some sort of supernatural code of conduct that stops you from messing up reality. Good to know.” Ever since Mystery dropped his dog persona, he has never expressed any hesitation when it came to outlining his own abilities. Right now, he is looking very uncertain, almost like he regrets trying to explain this to her.

“Mystery?” She asks again, more insistent, because dammit if she’s going to let him clam-up when she’s finally getting some popper answers.

/ Your investigation, regarding the change in Arthur’s behaviour, I have a… theory… regarding what might have affected him. / Mystery turns back to her, expression serious, /I received a… vision of sorts. A warning... /

Mystery exhales, /One tenant of this Natural Order that is rigorously reinforced is that none can interfere with the progression of time beyond the basic manipulations of time fields and alterations of the perhaps a minute or so, a hour at most. Even these small alternations require immense power and a direct connection to a deity within the correct domain. That or immense personal sacrifice. /

“Time manipulation? That’s possible? Wait…” Vivi’s breath catches because she’s read enough science fiction literature to know that you didn’t just bring up time travel without it being relevant, “Who’s time travelled? Can you time travel?”

/No, I cannot. Not to this extent…Or I should not have been able too./ Several tails unfurl to sway in a slightly agitated pattern, /It is a discussion for another time, maybe. I am not the one who is to be suspected of time-travelling./

“Arthur? You’re saying Arthur time-travelled,” She feels like she should outright reject the implication for being too outlandish. What made time-travel any different from extra-dimensional gods or spiritual energy that was shaped by will-power? Vivi grips the edges of her jacket, clenching it tightly. For the second time that week, her whole world view shakes, reordering as a whole lot of floating pieces and facts finally start coming together into one coherent picture.

“The force behind Arthur’s odd behaviour change is because he time-travelled?”

/It is only a theory. The vision may have been incorrect or I might have misinterpreted it./

“He looks the same though. Wouldn’t he look…older or younger?” It couldn’t be younger because she knows younger Arthur and how terrible he was at lying…Or she hopes she does. Her mind spins as everything she’s worked to piece together over the past few days falls apart. All her theories, useless. Every plan, every detail, now askew.

/ It was implied that he may have travelled backwards from two years beyond our current time. As for appearance, human souls carry an imprint of all their memories and experiences. If one were to send a soul back in time any matching memories would synchronise and newer memories would sit alongside them./

“Okay, okay, say you’re right about the time travel. This is a good thing. It means Arthur was always Arthur, ah...excluding the one day when he wasn’t. The weird behaviour is because we’ve been interacting with an older Arthur.”

Two years wasn’t a huge age gap.

Maybe this, if it were true, was okay. How much could Arthur have possibly changed? Even as she tries to considers the possibility in a positive light, all she feels is apprehension. Before all this, she wouldn’t have thought much about the ramifications of time travel aside from the fact that it was cool. Alas, the shine that uncovering the unknown had once brought is dulled with worry. After having what felt like a lifetime of stress condensed into four days, she knows nothing about this stuff is simple.

/I do not know whether this is good or bad for Arthur, only that such a desperate measure is never taken without dire cause. Divinities that deal in time and fate are incredibly powerful and notoriously unforgiving. I can only assume that whatever this current timeline replaced was worse than drawing ire of fate itself. /

Mystery confirms her fears. His tails finally settle and he exhales unhappily, and she mirrors him.

Warnings of impending doom not withstanding, Vivi tries to picture a future where the only option left for Arthur was to go back and do it all again. Nothing that comes to mind is pleasant. What’s more, it also throws new light onto all her recent interactions with Arthur and she is not sure she likes what any of it implies. Arthur had avoided interacting with them and had snuck off to buy medication alone. He’d had a panic attack, he hadn't had one of those in years. If that wasn’t the work of some demon-possessed asshole, then maybe it was normal behaviour for future-Arthur. Some of what the demon-bastard had said was making more sense now. The body snatcher was right, Arthur was ‘not quite himself’...in a manner of speaking. No wonder Arthur had seemed different, on that day several weeks ago, when she had caught him unawares outside his bathroom and, for a split second, his face had been strange.

But, what could have or caused the change.

‘Flipped a switch on his personality’.

Had something happened between Arthur and Lewis to cause Arthur’s standoffish, bordering of fearful behaviour? What had she done to make Arthur not feel comfortable coming to her for help? She and Lewis would never hurt Arthur. Right?

What could she do to fix something like this?

How much could have possibly changed in two years? She thinks of Lewis, of Mystery biting into his arm, of blood spattering across the face, of blood on her hands, of blood on the ground. Both her friends dying while she’s sitting there useless. A lot...a lot could change and it didn’t need as long as two years to happen. She shakes her head and massages her temples, trying to rid herself of imagery and not to get drawn into thinking up a worse scenario. s it bad that she preferred the scenario in which Arthur had been threatened into lying because he was being stalked by some crazy man in leather?

“You said there’s a chance that you're wrong. How likely is that?” What was the accuracy rate for ‘visions’ anyway? Geez, she’s not even sure how to approach that one.

/From what I have seen of Arthur, despite the impossibility of it all, I cannot rule it out completely. His soul is warped, his aura altered, far too powerful for a human, double what it should be. It could be a result of an older and younger soul merging or it could be the influence of some other force./

She lets out a long, tired breath, watching the fire begin to burn itself out. The cold begins to creep back in and the night seems just a dark as that night outside the diner even when lit by the full moon. Everything feels like it’s too much, too many problems tying themselves on knots. Funnily, it’s the opposite problem of having too little information. She needs time to work through it all and put it in some sort of usable order. Supernatural creatures, gods, spiritual energy, souls, auras, visions, time travel, different planes of reality. She has so many questions about all of it that they’ve all melded together into a confusing mess.

“When Arthur wakes up, I’ll confirm the time travel thing. I’ll figure something out.”

/I will help. I noted a change in Arthur’s aura and did nothing to investigate. I regret it. As unpreceded and worrying as this situation is, I do not want my inaction to lead to further hurt./

Vivi doesn’t answer, opting to continue staring at the van. She’s tempted to let her mind wander and check out of this whole confusing mess. She doesn’t have the energy to reject Mystery’s reassurance like she’d been so adamant in doing over the last few days.

/I will admit, there is a lot I have yet to tell you…/ Mystery continues she feels the slight shift in the air as he tails begin to sway again, /Some of it involves circumstances I am not proud off, unrelated to what is happening now but maybe important for later. I require time to mull it over…I am not accustomed to making decisions so suddenly. It is a very human thing to do./

At least this apology acknowledges the fact that Mystery is still keeping secrets. It is better than a repeat of the ‘I wanted to keep you safe’ bullshit her dad had been spewing. It’s something.

“I just don’t know where to start with this.” She looks to Mystery, trying to keep the strain from her voice. “If your theory is right, what do I say to Arthur?” Honestly, she hadn’t really thought about what she would say to Arthur if…when... he awoke aside from making sure he was okay.

/Whatever you would normally say to offer a friend comfort. His time spent with that parasitic abomination was not kind from what I gathered during our brief interaction and it will have likely left some form of mark behind./

The assertion isn’t much really, but it is something. Mystery is right. She’ll focus on Arthur. Whatever time-travelling disasters might have happened, this was still Arthur and that’s all that mattered in this moment. The bigger picture can wait. She wasn’t going to let the taunting of some bastard demon colour her view of potential-future-Arthur until she knew more. If Lewis were here he would know what to do, he was good at helping people. No. Lewis wasn’t here so she would do what she always did, approach the situation as rationally as possible and give Arthur emotional support whether he wanted it or not. It’s got them through problems in the past and its the only frame of reference she has. At least now she has something concrete to go on and plan around, even if it did suck. And, who knows, maybe Mystery’s theory was wrong. She yawns, now thoroughly mentally and physically exhausted. Maybe, she would fall asleep right here, sitting on this stone.

/We should begin our journey back to your vehicle. It is a significant walk and we should start if we intend to make it before sunrise./ Mystery intones, eyes tracking her as she sways from side to side. The fox stands, stretching his front paws, and she watches his tails fan out then settle.

“We can’t go yet the van is still burning.”

Before she’s even finished the objection the fire undulates, seaming to snuff out, collapsing in on itself. Mystery trots up to the remainder of the van, barely a metal shell now, nudging it with its shoulder. Slowly at first and then all at once, the van rolls over and into the ravine. There is a loud crash, followed by the screech of twisting and crunching metal. Vivi jumps at the sudden noise, standing in her alarm, sleep momentarily forgotten.

/Is this satisfactory?/

She blinks, then approaches the edge of the ravine, peering into it. The blackened, ruined van is at the bottom, warped on the rocks. “Yeah, I guess this is fine.” Not like she had a better plan. No one would see it from the road when it was like this.

/Will you allow me to carry you. It will be significantly faster and allow you time to rest. /

“I…” She looks back over at Mystery, about to refuse outright and insist on walking the whole way under her own power. However, the way Mystery was dipping his head, ears back, head down, makes her hesitate. He is obviously trying to make himself look as unthreatening as possible. She pauses. It is a long way back and she is tired enough that the visions of looming shadows and blood aren’t so dominating without the backdrop of the diner to spur them on.

“Okay…yes. I think I’ll be alright with that.”

Instead of immediately trotting towards her, Mystery hesitates, watching and Vivi realises he’s waiting for her to make the first move. Wind blows through the ravine, whistling, taking the remainder of the burnt rubber smell and black smoke away with it. The space between them is clear and empty of obstruction. Carefully, inching along the ground to moves, stopping a step away. Mystery leans forward, closing the rest of the distance. She holds her breath as his jaws come near to her hand. There is the sensation of something wet against her palm.

Mystery’s nose is wet. He is sniffing her hand like he would have when pretending to be a dog. His many tails swish from side to side like he is attempting to mimic a wagging tail. The whole effect is somewhat ridiculous seeing as he has so many of them.

Hesitant at first then with more confidence, she runs a hand across the fur forming the tuft at the side of his head. It is coarse but easily smoothed under her palm. She draws her hand down his neck. In the places where she touches red light particles jump into the air like dust motes, sticking to her hand before quickly fading. For a moment she smells freshly cooked rice, upturned earth, and fresh rain before that sensation fades as well. Oh...and she begins to understand what Mystery ment when he called himself non-physical. Impressions and sensation run down her arm, tickling her thoughts reminding her of when Mystery uses his thought-speech. The Kitsune feels both solid and transient.

Mystery turns to the side, giving her easy access to his back, waiting patiently. She blinks the non-physical impressions away. More confident, she pulls herself up, gripping onto his fur, feeling his snout poke into her side to nudge her forward.

“I’m still angry at you, you know,” She affirms once she is comfortably situated and Mystery starts walking. The anger and hurt of betrayal still curl tight in her chest, though they have loosened somewhat.

/I understand. /

Nodding once, she relaxes, letting herself rest for what feels like the first time in days. She finds it oddly easy to balance and she ends up leaning forward against Mystery’s neck, finding comfort in the rock of his slightly uneven gate. Would this count as upholding the crappy agreement to sleep she had made earlier with Mystery?

“Why don’t more people know about all this stuff?” The question is soft, muffled by Mystery’s fur as she attempts to ward off her quickly returning fatigue.

/Most manifestations of spiritual energy are subtle, indistinguishable from normal acts of nature. Fully realised creatures like myself are also rare and tend to keep to themselves. It is more common to come across formless entities such as spirits and yokai, and even they leave barely an indent on this plane…hard to notice when one does not know where to look.../

As Mystery talks, sound washing through her mind like a river, fatigue finally catching up with, taking her quickly into a blissful, dreamless sleep.

...

NOTE: THE EXPOSITION NIGHTMARE IS OVER!

And in the end Arthur never had to tell either of his friends about the time-travel.

I have decided I hate exposition writing, this thing took freakin forever and I’m still not sure it made complete sense. Should have explained some of this shit way earlier to make it easier on myself. Anyway, now I can finally shift the focus back to Arthur.

I hope I made this interesting enough seeing as it was just Vivi and Mystery talking for 3000+ words.

Part 42: here

#MSA #mystery skulls animated #fanfiction #time travel #Mystery the dog #Vivi Yukino #mentions of violence #light descriptions of blood #angst #the exposition chapter #stuff gets explained and not one is happy #including the author because making exposition interesting to read is hard yo #msa time travel au

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mira--mira · 4 years ago

Note

One obvious for the ask game. The main protagonist; Naruto Uzumaki and Izuku Midoriya.

@shiryusamarkanda it’s so nice to hear from you again! <3

I totally didn’t forget to post this and had it fully finished in my drafts for days...totally.

Naruto

What I love about them:

Naruto's a bratty kid who’s not afraid to speak up and challenge something he thinks is "wrong". This, of course, is part 1 Naruto. I actually like when he's a bit insensitive without being explicitly malicious bc its very fitting for his background/how he grew up but also gives him a clear path forward as he learns how to work as a team/starts to grow. It wasn’t exactly a smart move, but I really liked how he continued to challenge Zabuza in the Wave Arc saying “he’s still my enemy” after Kakashi told him to back off. This is all good and strong characterization that, to me, was more often endearing than it wasn’t. Naruto had goals and a purpose and in early Naruto that was still clear.

What I hate about them:

Part 2 (Shippuden) Naruto. There’s a lot that goes into this but the core deviation is getting away from the underdog story. In Shippuden Naruto is the son of the 4th, the Child of Prophecy, a reincarnation of the Sage of Six Path’s kid, makes friends with Kurama, and has the most OP power of the them all: Talk no Jutsu. What makes all of this even worse is Naruto went from a loveable bratty kid to an insufferable messiah figure. To be “perfect” his natural personality is shorn down until he’s only allowed occasional “stupid” mistakes rather than mistakes that emerge from his characterization. This also makes his ideological “wins” with villains...completely meaningless. Shippuden Naruto doesn’t really...have beliefs. He wants to be hokage and bring Sasuke back to the village. “Being hokage” was fine as a kid but I expected the progression into shippuden to be “what kind of hokage do I want to be?” This seemed natural bc we get in the Wave arc Naruto pushing against “what a shinobi is supposed to be: a tool” from Haku and declaring he’d make his own ninja way. Flashforward to the chunin arcs: hates Orochimaru for messing with Sasuke (esp when he eventually leaves to join him) and Neji for treating Hinata the way he did until he learned more about the Hyuga before declaring it wasn’t fair and you had to fight against fate and destiny. Tsunade’s arc was more about reemphasizing the village was something worth protecting and the Sasuke retrieval arc, while focused on Sasuke, at least kept up this theme. But these moments of growth are only alluded to in shippuden and by the time the war arc and ending come around...nothing changes. Naruto didn’t upset the status quo, he only maintained it. And once that ending was established it was a lot easier to go back and pick out exactly when his characterization started to fall through and the weird messiah figure took over instead. Part of this, imo, is the focus of his ultimate goal being “bring Sasuke back to the village” rather than understand what Sasuke is doing/why he’s doing it and then deciding to help him or stop him.

Favorite Moment/Quote:

“You’re cute when you’re chubby” [in reference to the frog purse]

I really love the quiet moments Naruto has and watching him live out his daily life. The frog purse is absolutely adorable and I love seeing it crop up time and time again. A close second is when Gai kicks Jiraiya in the face and, a short time later, offers Naruto the green tracksuit which he’s appreciative of.

What I would like to see more focus on:

In Part 2 Naruto having a long-term goal alongside bringing Sasuke back to the village or trying to seriously think about why Sasuke does what he does and how that would potentially affect the plot. If I could go back to the very start, keeping the actual heart and intent of an underdog ninja story rather than everything turning into superpowered mecha/kaiju battles and aliens from space this is the big point that I’d want to address. In general, I really like fics that focus on training and give him a range of jutsu besides spamming shadow clones and rasengan variants. I’ve said this before, but if Naruto really wants to keep the “number 1 unpredictable ninja” moniker, learning a variety of small, diverse jutsu and using them in interesting/creative ways would be the way to go rather than spamming the aforementioned two. I also really like fics that buckle down and just go ham and create their own variety of jutsu, especially if it’s small practical jutsu rather than the latest and greatest OP Power #839281 kind of jutsu.

What I would like to see less focus on:

The messiah figure. Talk no Jutsu. The obsession with having a morally pure hero in a world that routinely employed child soldiers and put them in war. I understand Naruto was a shonen manga first and foremost but like...this was the setting/world Kishimoto decided on having. However, I will say some fics take it to far on the other extreme for my taste, creating a edgy nihilistic Naruto that hates everyone and everything.

Favorite pairing with:

Uhh...I don’t actually have a strong feeling for this one LOL. The most I’ve read has been SasuNaru (Sasuke x Naruto) because I’ve found really interesting set-ups. I like the ship and it does have a decent amount of backing in canon but it’s the little moments (or my ability to see possible little moments) that really make or break a ship for me. SasuNaru is all Big Declarations and I struggle to see how they’d actually settle down post Shippuden time into something sustainable. My favorite iterations of the ship is focused when they’re genin age and have a better relationship...but then I recognize that this is getting closer and closer to Hashimada. The other big things I run into with shipping Naruto with Sasuke is 1. Sasuke needs a shit ton of therapy/willingness to process his family related trauma and 2. Naruto needs a good support network/family outside of a romantic partner because it personally makes me uncomfortable to read ‘you’re my one and only’ (here being: I have no other friends, family, loved ones outside of you). It’s a ship that can work but it’s not my personal OTP.

Favorite friendship:

Canon/OoT - Naruto & Sakura

I do have a softspot for fics where Naruto realizes his crush on Sakura is actually a desire to have friends/someone to care about him and then they do become close. In canon Sasuke was clearly the favorite of Kakashi (if chunin arc is kept the same/similar and he takes him away for the month to train) I really like Naruto and Sakura sticking together and trying to help each other. They’re both loud and can wind each other up but Naruto can help Sakura relax a bit from her rigid view of herself and she can help keep him on track/encourage him.

NOTP:

Again, no real strong opinions here. Probably harems? I remember seeing a lot of those a couple years ago and I fundamentally dislike the harem so it will never be ‘done well’ to my personal taste.

Favorite headcanon:

Naruto is smart, he just needs things to be explained in a way he can understand.

I’m not a fan of ‘he’s the smartest person in the entire world’ trope but Naruto is creative, he created the oiroke jutsu before he graduated to genin and has a lot of stubborn determination. He’s just really bad at typical ‘book learning’ and traditional testing and he’s not a genius/prodigy like Sasuke or Neji.

Read line for BNHA manga spoilers

Izuku

What I love about them:

He’s such a smart kid and while he’s unsure/insecure about himself he still does his best. Honestly the premise of BNHA is amazing and I was so excited to watch this little quirky (heh) boy do his best and outthink heroes, utilizing his intelligence and knowledge of quirks. I really love early Izuku and how he has to approach situations from a different angle bc he grew up quirkless/can’t properly handle OFA. The sports festival arc remains one of my personal favorites and really showed his ingenuity. I also really love that Izuku is openly emotional, he cries, he gets super happy about things, he’s angry, he’s sad, etc.

What I hate about them:

Why do stories insist on calling themselves “underdogs” when for a majority of the time, they’re not? Or not as much as they would be from the original premise? Look, TDP came about exactly bc BNHA was billed as ‘quirkless boy becomes number 1 hero’ it changed rapidly into ‘Izuku gets the strongest quirk but can’t control it’ and while I was...disappointed with that, it happened so quickly I wasn’t really upset. Fast forward to apparently OFA has...what seven(?) quirks inside it and I just...it’s frustrating. Even more the longer we go the more Izuku strays away from a character that is forced to use his intelligence and creatively outthink his opponents and instead becomes...I just have to hit him harder! The Muscular fight already inched towards this but the Overhaul fight just felt like Super Shonen Smack-down 728329. Which, isn’t an inherent problem, it just doesn’t match up to the expectations I had about BNHA I had at the start and how I hoped the series would go. For a character trait that I hate: Izuku is stupidly self-sacrificing. It makes sense with his character but he shoots beyond what is safe and reasonable and I wish there would be more internal emphasis on the question “is it better to save one person today if it meant I couldn’t save ten people tomorrow?” I think he’d choose the former or forsake the question altogether (we touched briefly on this during the overhaul arc with Eri) but I think it’s a serious question needs to be touched on (or I just need to go back and rewatch things again LOL)

Favorite Moment/Quote:

See entire sports festival arc. I don’t really have a favorite moment because I love the entire arc and we get so much out of it.

What I would like to see more focus on:

Quirkless Izuku. There’s already a lot of fics, but I really do love them. It deviates a bit, but I do like the creativity of giving Izuku his own unique quirk and then exploring what he can do with that/how it changes canon. Really I want Izuku to keep his original characterization and not trade his smarts for more punching power or deus ex machinas for quirks hidden inside of OFA. If OFA!Izuku is kept, I like story ideas where he still has to rely on means outside of his quirk. Preferably this is isn’t because he injuries himself so much, but I like toying with the idea that Izuku never gets OFA to All Might’s level so he really does have to make the quirk his own and still rely heavily on his intelligence and quirk journals to become the number 1.

What I would like to see less focus on:

Quirks hidden inside OFA. Strength should have been enough, it was already billed as the most powerful quirk of all. I know this is a common theme for shonen stories, and I don’t mean to harp specifically on Izuku, but again the premise of BNHA was an underdog story.

Favorite pairing with:

Tododeku (Todoroki Shouto x Midoriya Izuku)

Friends to lover and battle couples lads, I am weak to them. I like the contrast between their personalities as well as origins (Shouto being the number 2′s (now 1) kid and Izuku from a quiet civilian background). At the end of the sports festival arc both of them are extremely well characterized and it’s easy for me to imagine how their relationship progresses from there and how they can support each other and help each other grow. It’s a very sweet and wholesome ship the way I write and read it and it’s v cute.

Favorite friendship:

Canon- Midoriya Izuku & Uraraka Ochaco & Iida Tenya

I really like the core trio and think their interactions are really sweet. They balance each other out well and their friendship was immediately believable to me. I also like later when Tsuyu and Shouto start to get included in the group and out of the “main” core friends I’m endlessly entertained whenever Izuku and Tokoyami interact with one another. (This is also because I love my bird son, but you know.)

TDP - Midoriya Izuku & Ashido Mina or Midoriya Izuku & Hatsume Mei

Really, I love all of TDP’s kiddos interactions. Their chemistry is one of my favorite things about the fic and all the villain school kiddos meshed really well and had hilarious interactions. Mina and Mei are my faves but just barely. Mina came out of left field for the fic but she plays a similar role that Ochaco does in canon as a usual source of positivity (but unlike Ochaco with additional chaos). She’s Izuku’s first real friend even before starting HIVVE and wouldn’t hesitate to call Izuku her cousin as she views him as family. In return, Mina’s someone Izuku can completely count and depend on if necessary. Mei is...Mei. Izuku is her best “useful customer” and it’s actually terrifying how similar their thoughts are, just Mei has an (un)healthy dose of Hazmat’s insanity and her own business acumen added into the mix. They have slightly different fields of interest but are intellectual equals that work well together and that’s something new to both of them.

NOTP:

Bakudeku (Bakugo Katsuki x Midoriya Izuku)

It’s unhealthy. Unless it’s an AU that changes what the start of their relationship is like, Bakugo and Izuku will always have a toxic friendship to me and I can’t ever see them in a healthy relationship. Both of them have a lot to learn and I am of the opinion that Bakugo should get the opportunity to grow and become a good person and leave behind his past as a bully. However, I’m also of the opinion that no matter how good of a person a bully becomes their victim is never required to absolve them of past wrongdoings. Izuku and Bakugo were friends once, their relationship turned toxic, and now it’s in the interest of both of them to grow apart from one another. I even hesitate to really say they’ll be friends again because the early characterization of their relationship was so imbalanced to me, but for the right author and the right work I may see them being on good terms. It’s still a romantic relationship that I dislike.

Favorite headcanon:

Crack headcanon? Izuku does have a natural quirk, the force of his tears is clearly superpowered 😂 Regular headcanon, (that is canon in TDP and kindaaa in regular canon(?)) when Izuku gets really engrossed in a super stressful fight he focuses on what will work rather than what is moral. It has...mixed results.

For the ask game.

#shiryusamarkanda #naruto #bnha #mha #naruto uzumaki #izuku midoriya #my fics #the diverging path #out of time #spoliers #bnha manga spoliers #asks

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murasaki-murasame · 4 years ago

Text

Thoughts on Higurashi Gou Ep8

I’ve been thinking for a while that this arc felt almost weirdly similar to the original Watanagashi arc, to the point that maybe the twist was just gonna be that there isn’t actually any major differences this time, but then this episode came around and took us in a whole new direction and now I really feel like we’re all experiencing the feeling of reading through the question arcs for the first time, lol.

Thoughts under the cut. [Also some spoilers about the background meta stuff in Umineko, but I’m trying to keep it vague]

I’ve kinda had a lot of mixed feelings about this arc since it started, since it felt like maybe it was going to just be Gou doing a 1:1 retread of the VN for the sake of giving new fans the necessary character intros and plot exposition to set up the mystery, but thankfully this episode really proved why this is a totally different arc to Watanagashi and Meakashi, even if it’s superficially similar.

It’s actually kinda funny how many elements of this episode were directly inspired by things that happen in the later parts of Watanagashi, but with more or less totally different contexts behind them. I feel like it’s designed to make the preview images for each episode super misleading, lol.

In terms of the storytelling and thematic stuff going on, one of the surprisingly big changes is how the Watanagashi arc really pushed the idea of supernatural possession and demons and whatnot by having Shion [disguised as Mion] going around torturing and killing people, plus the whole “Takano was officially already dead when Keiichi saw her at the festival” thing, but this time around it’s focusing more on the idea of the curse being an excuse that the villagers set up to justify killing enemies of the village each year. Which is closer to the truth, but still not entirely true.

I feel pretty good about most of my theories of what happened in Onidamashi, aside from Satoko and Rika dying, but with this arc I don’t really feel sure about anything. Which is a pretty fun feeling, after having already been aware of Higurashi’s whole mystery for so long.

One of the big things I’m assuming at the moment is that the Mion we see in this episode was really just Mion the whole time. I don’t really think it’s accurate to call her the ‘culprit’ this time around, but I think that for all intents and purposes this is more of a Mion arc than a Shion arc.

I think that it was someone like Shion who killed the family heads, and it just lead to Mion deciding to go ahead with putting an end to the whole tradition. I’m not entirely sure about this, but it’d make sense if Shion was doing her whole arc in the background, but she got killed by Mion before she could kill anyone else.

The whole idea of Mion ever being a killer or getting the syndrome is kinda controversial, but at least going by what we got told in this episode, I think it actually does a pretty good job at showing how this might happen. For one thing, she’s channeling her paranoia into trying to protect Keiichi, which at least feels more consistent with her personality than just snapping and killing anyone. And after how Rika seemed to be at the point of ominously telling people that everyone’s gonna die because she’s given up hope on this timeline, and Mion apparently being convinced that Rika’s behind everything, I can see how maybe she either overheard Rika’s talk with Keiichi, or some time before or after that scene she talked with Rika herself and heard all about how everyone’s gonna die, and how Tomitake and Takano’s bodies should be found soon. I think it’d be pretty understandable at that point for Mion to get pushed over the edge, lol.

I don’t think she’s actually the one who killed Rika, though. Her whole rant in the ladder scene came across more like she thinks Rika’s still around and needs to be stopped. Maybe Rika was killed by the Yamainu after they apparently talked about something, but I’m not sure. At the very least, I think Rika being found in a septic tank probably makes it way less likely that she killed herself, unless someone found her corpse and dumped it into the tank afterward. So someone probably murdered her, but I’m not sure who.

It might have been Shion, but if it wasn’t her at school that day impersonating Mion then that seems unlikely, and I still think it was just Mion the whole time this episode.

One of my main doubts about Mion and her whole story in this episode is that we know from the VN that she knows how the Sonozakis aren’t responsible for any of the curse killings, and are just making themselves look guilty. So her paranoia about the three families being behind everything seems more like something Shion would think. But it’s possible that she doesn’t actually think they’re directly responsible for everything, just that they’re *complicit* in continuing the whole curse narrative, and allowing the deaths to happen each year while sitting back and accepting blame for it. Which I think would make a lot of sense, and might not even require Mion to succumb to full on Hinamizawa Syndrome levels of paranoia.

Even in the VN, I think we see her being upset about the fact that her family knows what’s going on and have basically just been sitting back and letting it happen. So I think this is just an extension of that, and she’s mostly just angry at how the culture of positive communal protection has warped into a string of revenge killings that the three families are allowing to happen.

This is also why I’m not entirely sure whether or not she killed Kimiyoshi and Oryo. It might have just been Shion doing her whole thing from a place of straight up paranoia, but maybe during the whole family party after the festival she basically got pushed over the edge after seeing how those two talked about the idea of the curse and how the people who broke into the Saiguden should be punished.

I’m not sure exactly what Mion’s motive would be for killing Shion, though, if that’s even what happened in the first place. I think Mion would just see Shion as being a victim of the whole curse narrative in the first place, after what happened with Satoshi previously. Even if Shion was the one who killed Oryo and Kimiyoshi, I doubt Mion would kill her over it. It might have just been Shion accidentally falling into the well, since that kinda thing happens sometimes in the VN, but who knows.

Also on the note of Satoshi, he still hasn’t been directly mentioned at all thus far, which is kinda weird. I think Tataridamashi will probably prove whether it’s just a matter of them condensing all of the major references to him from the original question arcs into only one arc in Gou for the sake of avoiding repetition, or if there’s something weird going on. At the moment I’m just leaning toward it being a matter of narrative efficiency.

And even aside from that, there’s lots of reasons why I’m interested to see how Tataridamashi will play out. I’m becoming increasingly convinced at this point that, like most people are thinking, there’s something weird going on with Satoko, and the next arc should give us more evidence for that one way or another. I also think it might diverge more quickly from the VN than these first two arcs did, since Rika has a pretty good motive for trying to immediately avert the whole Teppei abuse situation.

I don’t really know if I think Satoko’s killed anyone yet, but there’s something weird going on with her. Especially after how she wound up dead at the Sonozaki estate along with Mion. I’m starting to lean toward the idea that maybe she’s looping along with Rika, and that she’s basically trying to figure out the mystery in her own way. Which seems a bit more likely to me than her being a criminal mastermind this time around.

Though honestly the question that I just keep going back to when it comes to this whole idea is just . . . what exactly would the point be of doing something like this with Satoko? There has to be something more logical and meaningful going on than just ‘Satoko’s evil this time for Reasons [tm]’. There’s also the fact that we don’t know why Rika herself is looping again, or why the fundamental rules of the game board seem to be at least slightly different this time around, and those questions might tie into whatever’s going on with Satoko.

I think this is ultimately gonna tie into the hints we’ve gotten that there’s something important going on with teenage Satoko in the whole time period where Rika’s a teenager, which seems to be when she got thrown back into the loop. I’m at least becoming more convinced as time goes on that the mysterious girl in the OP is teenage Satoko, since it’d fit what we can see of her hair-style. And since I think Takano is going to be largely irrelevant this time around, it seems more likely for it to be teenage Satoko than teenage Takano.

I’m maybe kinda biased in how I’m interpreting this since I just finished the Umineko Ep8 manga, and since I’m still viewing Gou from the perspective of really wanting it to be a lead-in to an Umineko remake because I just can’t help but get my hopes up, but I think this might connect to my theory of Gou’s game board being along the lines of a novel series that teenage Rika is making based on her memories of the original time loop, in which case Satoko’s role in the new loop might reflect how she feels about the idea of Rika doing this in the first place.

It’s also making me wonder if maybe Lambda’s decided to sponsor Satoko this time around, if she’s basically ditched Takano by this point. Maybe she gave Satoko the ability to go through these loops with Rika to accomplish some sort of goal of hers, which might be in opposition to Rika’s whole goal with all this.

At the very least, in terms of Umineko connections, we’ve already seen Featherine in the OP, so literally anything could happen at this point, lol. I don’t actually think Featherine is directly responsible for what’s going on at the moment, though. I think if anything she’s taking more of a backseat observer role. Which is basically what she was doing already, I guess.

I’m thinking that maybe the final arc of Gou will be at least somewhat about Rika and Satoko in high school, to explain whatever events lead to this new loop, although if we assume that we get a new OP and ED for the second half, Featherine and teenage Satoko being in this OP might imply that they’ll show up before Tataridamashi ends, which would imply that it’ll REALLY diverge from the VN. Which would be pretty fun.

I still really like the idea that this is effectively the origin story of the Bernkastel we see in Umineko. Mostly just because it’d be a cool way to set up for an Umineko remake, but still. I think if we get a look at what’s going on with Rika and Satoko as teenagers, we’re probably gonna find out that Rika ended up getting into contact with Ikuko after attending St Lucia’s, and decided to work with her to write a series of stories based on her memories of the loop. Then, at least on the real world plane, Rika probably just stopped working with her and went on with her life, but on the meta world plane, Bernkastel stuck around as Featherine’s miko and is more or less represented by Ikuko’s pet cat. The timeline on this would also be pretty interesting, since if the teenage Rika and Satoko time period is around 1986, then that lines up with when Umineko takes place.

Though at that point I guess my main question is just what Rika’s whole goal is with writing these new stories, and what Satoko’s goal is if she’s decided to enter the loop because of it. Considering how Umineko went, it might be an ideological conflict about whether the truth should be revealed to the public or not about what happened in Hinamizawa. Which reminds me of how it’d be very interesting if Gou doesn’t even end up explaining what’s going on with the behind the scenes politics, and the Great Hinamizawa Disaster. So maybe there’s some conflict going on about if that whole conspiracy should get revealed to everyone, or if it should be kept secret.

At the very least, if we assume that Gou’s just gonna be 24 episodes long with no second season, I don’t really think they have the time to properly explain all of that stuff, especially since Takano’s already had less of a role in the story thus far than in the VN. I think that, in a sense, Satoko has basically replaced Takano as the main turning point and obstacle of the story for Gou, and that whole concept might end up being relevant on multiple different levels.

Even if we completely ignore Takano and the whole political conspiracy stuff surrounding her that takes up a big chunk of the story, I feel like Gou’s already gonna be kinda short on time if it really wants to be a self-contained story with just 24 episodes. Which is the big reason why I think they’ve basically cut out most/all of the stuff to do with her and replaced it with some sort of new plot point that’ll take less time to deal with.

At the moment, my current theory for the final two arcs of Gou is that the fourth arc will basically be a version of Meakashi that focuses pretty much entirely on flashbacks, and basically ties the flashback half of Meakashi together with some of the flashbacks in Matsuribayashi that deal with the different curse incidents over the years, to set up a more cohesive and linear story arc about both Shion and Satoshi, and their experience with the curse over the years. Then I think the final arc will be a mix of whatever Gou’s original plot stuff will be, and a Matsuribayashi-style series of fragments showing a different perspective on Gou’s question arcs and what was happening behind the scenes in them. I think that’s one of the more realistic ways that they could actually compile all of the important plot points into this one season.

This could all get thrown out of whack if we do actually get a second season for Gou, but I doubt it, so at least for the time being I’m just trying to work out how it’ll all work out with just 24 episodes total.

Anyway, Gou continues to be extremely good, and I continue to be irrationally hyped about the prospect that maybe this is setting up for an Umineko remake, lol.

#murasaki rambles #higurashi #higurashi gou

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howtofightwrite · 5 years ago

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Q&A: Changing Focus

Is it posible for someone to go from display, competitive fighting to practical fighting if given the motivation and training?

Yes, and many do.

So, there’s a few things to understand. Most of these are fairly simple, but aren’t common knowledge outside of martial arts communities. The training itself will be structured differently. There will always be some, “leftover,” muscle memory from prior training, however this matters way less than it may sound. Your outlook, combined with what you know is probably the most important difference.

With some exceptions, martial arts training will assume you’re starting from zero. You have no hand-to-hand background. Even if you do have a background, you’ll go through the motions again. This is partially because there may be discrepancies between what you’ve already learned and the new martial art you’re picking up. In some cases, the martial arts may be completely incompatible. This is rare, but it can happen.

If you’re in a traditional class, you’ll start with the basic rules of the school. How to stand, how to prepare for class, how to interact with your class mates and instructors. From there you’ll transition to basic stances. You’ll be instructed on how to move, and how to hold your body. Gradually you’ll move into things that, as someone without training, you’d think of as techniques, such as basic strikes. As you go, you’ll learn the proper names. Gradually you’ll learn more complicated strikes, learn to move from one strike directly into the next. At some point you’ll learn set routines of moves which can be demonstrated. Along the way, you’ll be drilling with everything you’ve learned until you can execute the movements flawlessly.

In practical training, it’s also going to start with conversation, but the content is going to be very different. For self-defense, the first thing you’re going to learn is threat assessment. There is a similarity here, worth discussing, in both cases the instructor begins by talking about what is most important in your training. For a traditional school, that’s “planting the seed,” for the martial art’s philosophy. For a practical class, this is telling you how to apply what you’ll learn. From there it will quickly cover stances. After that, practical classes will go directly into specific techniques. You may never learn some of the basic techniques that a traditional martial artist would consider, “fundamental,” because there’s no application. You will never learn a kata. If you’re taught a combination, it’s with the express purpose of using it. You will get into things that traditional schools consider advanced very quickly. You’re going to be training with partners, possibly from day one, but long before any traditional martial arts school would let you touch another student. When the class is over, you will be ready to use what you’ve learned in the world.

You cannot compact years of training into eight weeks, however, you don’t need to. Real world combat is messy. While traditional martial arts will teach you to execute techniques flawlessly (eventually), practical training looks at that as unnecessary. If you’re going to use this in a real fight, it doesn’t matter if it’s flawless, the only metric that matters is, “can you make it work?”

I can’t speak for the methodology of competitive sports training, though I do know people who’ve transitioned from traditional into sports, and from sports to practical. I don’t, personally, know anyone who’s run through all three, but over a long enough timescale this should be possible.

It’s also harder to lock down what someone’s training would look like if they were coming out of a non-traditional school. The example that comes to mind are recreational versions of modern practical forms, such as Krav Maga, though some MMA schools would also fall into this category as well.

As I mentioned, muscle memory will linger. This can be a problem for someone with a practical background moving into a recreational martial art. You’ve trained yourself to execute very specific movements, and being asked to subtly adjust them can be remarkably difficult. The basic problem is that practical training tends to permit a kind of sloppiness. Because the goal is to be able to use it in a real situation, being, “perfect,” doesn’t matter. In a real fight, you’re going to be adjusting to fit the situation anyway. However, a traditional school wants to improve the technique, on the idea that if you can execute it perfectly, you’d be able to make those adjustments.

I’ve said this twice, so I should probably clarify, the sloppiness that practical martial artists exhibit isn’t a vulnerability. It’s not beautiful and it doesn’t need to be. It needs to work on another person in the real world; where fights get messy. I was once advised that, “every fight will end up with you both on the ground.” It’s not pretty, and it doesn’t fit the idea of how a fight, “should,” look. But if you’re looking for real things to match their cinematic counterparts, you’re signing up for a lifetime of disappointment.

Beautiful technique is just that: beautiful. It can be a real joy to watch, but, it doesn’t mean the martial artist knows how to fight.

Knowledge is incredibly important. It’s easy to think of “martial arts” a unified skill, but there really is a difference between technical proficiency, and an understanding of combat. This is where I really do not want to sell traditional martial artists short. An experienced artist has developed a great deal of skill, and they have come to a deeper understanding of their martial art, and possibly a deeper understanding of the world they live in. Someone with a combat training background will have a breadth of knowledge regarding how people behave in combat. In a real fight, the latter will be vastly more valuable than the former.

Outlook is a little murkier. This is your willingness to engage in violence. No martial arts instructor (regardless of their field) wants students who will casually engage in violence. It does not make good soldiers. It is actively counterproductive for sports and self-defense. It is a disaster for traditional martial arts.

For most people, the switch over to being willing to harm another human being is not easy. Obviously, this is not everyone, some people come to that decision far easier than others. Practical training will teach to evaluate the situation you’re in, and determine if you need to kick over. It will try to prepare you for that, but nothing short of a real situation can do so fully.

So, with all this said, yes, you can move between these.

Outlook isn’t a fixed thing, and you can change your approach in the moment. Knowledge of how people behave is critical for combat, but it is something that can be learned. Muscle memory can be a bit of a pain, but it’s not the end of the world. All martial arts are built (to some degree) around violence, and learning a new form of hand to hand is easier if you already have the fundamentals. Your muscle memory may mess with you in subtle ways, but it does come with the significant advantage of, “you already have it.”

Moving from one field to another is quite doable. It will take effort, and time, but if you already put the training in to learn one, you can do so again, it’s just a question of having the will to stick with it long enough to make it work.

-Starke

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Q&A: Changing Focus was originally published on How to Fight Write.

#fightwrite answers #Starke answers #writing advice #writing reference #writing tips

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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaoldretired · 5 years ago

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some p!g-drv3 theories (spoilers obvi)

First of all I think people demonize the pg versions wayyy too much because its a good way to be le sexy in like fanfictions. And i get it, villains are hot or whatever. and also hs is a horny age to be. But even the edgiest and horniest of teens aren’t like. that sexual/monstrous. its kind of insane the portrayals people are placing

maybe this could also be like me being older bc when i was early hs i was like yea its fair to place these super mature portrayals on a 18-22 year old they are like adults but young and now im that age and im like woah there pardner. might be an age/maturity thing.

also like its normal for people to relate to and portray characters their same age in a similar fashion, but when adults write more sexual content about the dg kids i get hella fucking sus

idk where i was going with that first comment i guess its like a preface and in the end i think its important when characters especially teenage characters are morally grey not because they’re mature and dark/brooding but because they are still young and learning. fuck im older than like most of them, but im still young and learning. its good to be in turmoil and confused, especially the drv3 cast. they are more confused than anything.

which i think is a reason why people would join dr because if you are completely loss and in turmoil, it is appealing to be given a purpose in life and amazing talents/abilities. despite the morals of danganronpa, it is a simple reality to be told who you are and what to do

OK ONTO HEADCANONS (not doing all bc i dont have thoughts about all)

first of all i understand changing stories but i think, deep down, you can’t change fundamental personalities/values. so while the backstories might be different i think, in the end, a baseline is always the same

SHUICHI being a Bad Boy is like canon obviously but i dont think he’s as manipulative as people make him out to be. i think he falls in the more the bully role that like. mae borowski or tf2′s scout filled before they grew up. rough background, bad anger issues, lots of emotional turmoil, and the only way he knows how to deal with shit is by committing crimes and beating the shit out of people. and, similar to those characters, drv3 represents an older, more emotionally sober yet equally confused version of himself. the urges are still there as foreshadowed in the dialogue. i think he struggles with guilt, mostly survivors, but there is still a lasting impact of guilt of what he did in his past, even if he can’t remember.

KOKICHI is a child. a piece of shit motherfucker child but a child. I really do think he’s like one of the youngest people in the cast. he reminds me a lot of when my brother doesn’t take his adhd medicine and takes jokes way too far and does mean and cruel things because he thinks its funny and that its just a fun joke, but is hurting people. he desperately wants approval, which is why his leader role is so interesting because in the dr narrative he has the approval he craves and so he is satisfied. still, he does try to impress characters like rantaro and values his opinions a lot, even developing a brotherly relationship in the time they knew each other. this being said, its established kokichi was bullied before, but i dont think he’s like. the wimp people make him out to be. i think he’s more of like the class clown who desperately uses humor to make people like him, and ends up resorting to be the butt of most of his jokes. you don’t just develop a good sense of humor out of a brainwash, and that’s not something you can program in. i think that was a remnant of before, and he’s so good at bullying people and coming up with roasts - i just think that in p!g the roasts were about him.

KAEDE is baby but her p!g personality seriously reminds me of any ~quirky/edgy~ girl in a teen coming of age story who tries to be edgy and cool and act like she doesn’t care but deep down, she really does. if she didn’t have an empathetic personality, she wouldn’t want to end the game. i also think she has that self-identifying QuIrKy personality because its like she lives in her own narrative, practically announcing this story is about her and she is the protagonist. i know i used to self narrate like that and distinguish how i was different when i was like. 15-16. she has a tumblr.

I really like the theory where KAITO is a make-a-wish kid who was better when he was younger but relapses later in teens. he never used his wish before, so he decides to use it now to be on danganronpa and become the hero he always wanted to be. i also think he might have joined as a way to raise awareness about adolescent healthcare. definitely the type who puts on a “heroic” character to make everyone else feel better about the fact he is literally dying of a terminal illness, and keeps that act up till the end.

i think KOREKIYO is still a serial killer. i think honestly a reason why he mightve auditioned for danganronpa is because he is a serial killer. maybe his sister found out and he felt so much shame that’s why he auditioned. he probably mentioned why in his interview because duh, tell them im a serial killer and then only reason im coming clean is my sister found out and im ashamed, that is like a guarantee to get on the show. i LOVE the theory that his sister is still alive, however, and has to watch her brother go insane because they wrote her into the story as the villain. because technically, she brought on this guilt, and is the reason why he auditioned - as a way to cause despair, twist it around so she’s the one to blame for his insanity. also, because its pretty accepted DR members become celebrities, kork’s sister is totally bombarded with paparazzi and is demonized in the media. she might end up writing a tell-all memoir about kork’s actual childhood and personality. quiet kid, thoughtful, interested in anthropology, she never thought he’d hurt a fly. watching her brother go insane probably destroyed her.

I also think, timeline wise, kork is probably one of the oldest members along with rantaro. tbh i think kork actually graduated hs and went on a gap year doing the whole “hitchhike around the world to discover myself thing” which is where he began killing people. he was getting ready to go to college when his sister found out about what he did. this is when he decided to go on danganronpa instead of university. this would help explain why he knows so much about other cultures/travel/been so many places with so many memories/killed/is knowledgable on a level most other students are not. this would place him at like, 20-21, where everyone else is like 15-18.

ok so there’s two p!g RANTARO, p!g before 53 and p!p!g before 52. i’d like to establish now i think rantaro is the oldest of the characters, seeing as though he was already pretty old to begin with in 52, it takes time between television seasons, and he was in another game. so im placing him like 21-23, similar to yasuhiro in d1 being so much older than everyone else. i do think, in all iterations, rantaro was pretty much raising his sisters, though i don’t think he had twelve like the story (i think that’s an exaggeration, his sisters mean a lot to him, lets make him have a TON and then lose them all and feel GUILTY) rantaro joined the first game, partially to get money for his family and hopefully establish them as celebrities and let them have a comfy lifestyle, even if he doesn’t live...and also to finally ahve some sort of experience without his siblings tagging along. if he’s been raising his sisters all his life, he’s never had like something that’s JUST his. that’s his adventure. 52 is his ULTIMATE adventure. ahaha. mostly for money, kind of dreading it, still a tiny bit excited

ok p!g rantaro between 52 and 53 probably came back broken. he did the signings and appearances, but mostly wanted to spend time with his family and make sure they were set up. i think he knew the whole like few months between seasons he had to go on another show, but he did’t tell his sisters. his family found out when they saw a billboard with his face plastered on it hyping up the return of a fan favorite. yikes!

ok i get it a lot of people hate HIMIKO but i think she’s not nearly as similar as other “useless” characters in other games. its like, pretty clear she’s depressed, and the only thing she’s holding onto with dear life is magic. lack of hygiene, lack of personal care, constantly tired, social interaction exhausts - she has depression, but she’s not an UWU depressed character. so people find her depressive traits (which are some of the most realistic portrayals of mental health in the series) SUPER annoygin. she joined dr because she was completely lost and needed some sort of direction in her life, even if she’ll die for it. the thing is, even with direction, her mental state didn’t change because she wasn’t getting legitimate help. it’s like that one SNL skit that’s like. same sad you from before but in a new place. i also think she knows the magic is not real, because how could she not. i think she’s so adamant that it IS real, less as a way to convince others, and more of a way to convince herself. it’s like really super cruel that team danganronpa took a girl who is desperate for meaning and gave her literally a meaningless, fake talent.

i also kin himiko and find her a comfort character because i feel seen by her, replacing her useless talent of magic with mine of like shitty film making and comedy. i am seen.

related i don’t think she’s nearly as ugly as everyone says she is, i think she’s probably just depressed and takes absolutely no care of her hygiene and sleep and looks like sick and greasy all the time. same queen.

honest to god i think RYOMA’s backstory, tennis and all, is like 100% real and he’s the only one who keeps all of his memories except for the fact this is a tv show. i think he rolled up, a hot fucking mess, and the danganronpa team were like damn. we cannot improve upon this.

#ryoma hoshi #himiko yumeno #rantaro amami #korekiyo shinguji #kaito momota #kaede akamatsu #shuichi saihara #kokichi ouma #drv3 #killing harmony #pg dr #pre!game danganronpa #danganronpa #theories #danganronpa spoilers

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twentiethcenturymoviesandtv · 4 years ago

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Movie Criticism in a Modern Era

In 1904, near the birth of film itself, a paper was published called: The Optical Lantern and Cinematograph Journal. This paper was a one-of-a-kind at the time, full of interviews, analysis of equipment and methods, letters to editors, and even cartoons that made fun of stereotypes in the movie business that we can recognize today.

But that’s not the most interesting thing about this paper.

What was the most interesting thing is that, amongst all of that content, there was also a series of critical reviews of upcoming films, describing a handful of plots of a few films.

The journal would continue to do something like this for the eleven months before it was cancelled, but not before starting something that we are extremely familiar with today: film-criticism.

All through the 1920s, movie critics were becoming more popular, with newspapers hiring them to start analyzing and reviewing upcoming films. This continued into the 1930s, where the obsession with stardom boosted not only the movies and actors, but the critics, as well. More and more film critics were showing up to red-carpet events, but even with this rise in fame, it wasn’t until the 1940s where movie criticism really took off: when the analysis essay was born.

Movie critics started to write essays full of personality, persuasive papers designed to convince audiences of their argument. During this time, something else major happened: movie criticism went mainstream. Critics began working for newspapers, magazines, and, as time went by, even on television, becoming household names. There is perhaps no better example than the famous duo Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, although others, such as Pauline Kael, Leonard Maltin, and Judith Crist are also contenders for some of the best-known movie critics of all time.

The words of these critics was often highly valued in the film community. They are professionals, well-qualified to study and examine both new and older movies, typically possessing academic backgrounds in film. And then something happened that put an entirely new spin on movie criticism: the internet.

Blogs. YouTube channels. Websites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, began to rise in popularity, and channels like CinemaSins, Cinema Snob, and Nostalgia Critic, began popping up all over the place. Even now, there is a vast ocean of movie review blogs and analysis, not to mention YouTube channels and community review websites. In other words, the ‘power’ of film criticism shifted: from the academics to the amateurs.

While there are still qualified critics who post their reviews, more influential by far is the score on Rotten Tomatoes, or the opinion of a favored internet personality. Once that Metacritic score is set, so, it would seem, is the movie’s reputation. We are living in an age where the average joe can make a blog, a YouTube video, or review on Flixter. Even I could be considered an amateur film critic.

The question is, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

On one hand, those of us without degrees in film are being listened to, and can influence how movies are made and how they are received with our opinions. There are more and more avenues for us to explore our opinions, and more resources for us to back our own opinions up by listening to analyses and arguments from a variety of different places. The movie industry is no longer in the hands of the ‘chosen few’, the ‘elite’ and educated. Now, the power is shared equally, if not disproportionately with the audiences, the average movie watchers. You and me.

On the other hand?

Without a level of objectivity about film, some of these movie watchers who post their opinions online do so without reserve, leaving sometimes vitriolic reviews with little to no reason for their hatred beyond personal preference. It is thanks to this modern phenomenon that has left the paths open for raging, ranting reviews against various films that simply don’t appeal to them, without rhyme or reason. Alternatively, other resources choose to look at films and nitpick them endlessly, adding up minuscule details and ‘plot holes’ and claiming that these make a film good or bad.

It is this type of thinking that leads to the Oscar viewership dropping. It is this phenomenon that leads people to value the score on Rotten Tomatoes over that of the critics.

Once again, it leads one to wonder: is this a good or bad thing?

With this decline in interest in the critics relatively objective verdict of a film due to claims of the critics and audiences never agreeing, all that’s left is to look at what the audiences have to say. Many movie goers point to the box office, or popularity of a film to decide whether a film is good instead, but by that logic, Transformers and The Fast and the Furious are on a level similar to The Lion King and Mission Impossible.

In other words, objectivity can very easily be lost if you pay attention to a movie’s popularity over its quality.

The balance between popularity and quality is not a strange one, especially on this blog. Also familiar to us is the struggle between the word of the critics and the word of the audiences. In an era where anybody can influence how a movie is viewed, it can seem like it’s more important than ever to choose a side, to figure out whose advice they are going to take. Who we’re going to listen to. Does the word of the critics mean anything, or do they simply laud ‘artistic’ films, looking down their noses at the more comprehensible fare that the viewers are more likely to see? Do audiences know an objectively good film when they see it, or will they go down defending popcorn flicks as Oscar contenders?

Which side are we to pick?

As an avid moviewatcher who both enjoys film, and wants to be objective about it, my argument comes down very closely to the same opinions I held in the ��objectivity vs. subjectivity’ article I posted: a little of both.

Is the word of the critics valid? Yes. Critics are people too, and their opinions are (supposed to be) founded on academia. Critics can tell us if a film is objectively good, if the production quality is up-to-snuff, if the performances, pacing, cinematography and story are, by the standards of ‘good filmmaking’, good. By the same token, they can only get you so far.

Any consumption of art is subjective, and the same goes for film. We can search for like-minded reviewers and analysts who we can determine our own judgements over whether or not to see a film, or try to figure out what you liked about it. In other words, there doesn’t have to be a one-or-the-other argument.

So, to answer our previous question, is this new era of the everyman film critic a good thing or a bad thing?

Honestly? I’d say it’s a good thing.

Right now, there are a plethora of opinions that are more likely to match up with the opinions of the audience because they are the audience. By applying analysis and critical thinking to the films that people are interested in, more people are encouraged to think about the films they are watching instead of simply discounting the opinions of the critics, thinking of them as the ‘Hollywood Elite’. Now, there are more resources than ever for finding arguments for and against specific viewpoints or analyses of certain elements of certain films, genres, even directors and actors. We are living in an age where I can type in the name of a film and find more analysis than I know what to do with.

Yes, that’s a good thing. We have more viewpoints to compare, more things to think about, and we can even more easily spot when the critics and the audiences’ opinions do match up. Cases like Star Wars, Dead Poets Society, and Forrest Gump prove that it is possible for the two to agree, and the increase in access to a wider variety of opinions and reasons for opinions can help up-and-coming film critics and movie-goers alike think about what they’re watching, whether they agree with the reviewer or not.

In the end, the purpose of film criticism and analysis is to inform an audience about movies, and point out elements that casual movie-goers might not be paying much attention to. They exist to summarize, highlight, and explain what was good about a film, and what was bad about it. This serves as an excellent aide to our own thought processes as we watch movies ourselves, helping us figure out what we liked or did not like, and why, whether the critic has a degree in film or not. Film critics are there, especially in multitude, to add to the movie experience, to help us think, and to provide information about movies.

In an era where anyone can create a YouTube account or a blog and start reviewing, there are dangers of oversaturation and, of course, there’s always the possibility that you simply won’t agree with any of the opinions out there. There are those who base their reviews solely in subjectivity, and those who do the opposite. But these are problems easily solved, once again, with critical thinking, and using the feedback of others to help us formulate our opinions about whether or not to watch a film, or even to help us think about one we’ve already seen.

A degree in film is not needed to smartly evaluate a film. What is needed is fairness in judgement, and a keen eye. Knowing what to look for certainly helps, but in the end, it’s about offering a thoughtful opinion on something in order to inform and persuade, the same as it has been since 1904. Everyone has their own thoughts to share.

Movie criticism hasn’t changed fundamentally. The things that make a movie good are the same: story, characters, cinematography, performances, and all the rest. What has changed is the number of people, and the number of ways, that those things are analyzed. What we have now that we didn’t before is, primarily, variety, and the technology to spread our ideas.

All in all? This new era of media analysis is far from bad. What matters now is making sure that it’s used well. And that’s what this blog is all about.

Thank you guys so much for reading! Please, don’t forget that the ask box is always open if you have any ideas, suggestions, discussion topics, questions, or just want to say hi! I hope to see you guys in the next article.

#Movies #Film

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ill-be-istj-if-no-one-else-is · 5 years ago

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Hi Em, I'm a 15yo student who's obsessing over their type again. I know I'm xNFP 6w7, and I thought I was ENFP for a while but I'm weirdly not as bored or starved from social interaction as all my ENFP friends during lockdown. From my evidence below, am I likely to be INFP instead? (xnfp1)

I thought I was ENFP because I have a severe inability to process evidence, which is commonly cited inferior Si behaviour. Then I realised that the world was clearer and using logic is the best way to determine moral righteousness. My sense of morals seems to be an abstract but deeply felt gut impulse and my arguments based on these tend to be incoherent. (xnfp2)

When I came back to reality, I realised that my arguments and thoughts were much, much clearer during lockdown. I realised this is because of much less surrounding noise because everyone's opinion deserves thought and analysis which I'm apparently unable to devote to them. Now I'm hearing a lot less from everyone and I love it. (xnfp3)

The insight I now have is that my lack of ability to cope with noise is due to 1. overthinking and 2. improper mastery of logic. The thing about logic is that I'm good with it for Math and Science (my strongest subjects) but that's because I was taught these in a super linear fashion. I struggle with unstructured learning e.g. in Languages and life skills. (xnfp4)

This is because I have a lot of trouble 1. breaking down complex tasks into simple tasks which I can cope with and 2. dealing with complex tasks in the real world without simplification. And what I don't know how to do I don't do (that's human nature right). So I'm stuck. (xnfp5)

And this is, I daresay, my greatest weakness. I can't learn anything without help. Learning at home is excruciating because I can tell I'm not learning properly. My ENTP friend sent me a long lecture about economics the other day which was completely incoherent and I become like that when there's any background noise, or if I'm trying to do anything while thinking (including typing this). (xnfp6) Is what I've written inferior Te, inferior Si or just youth and inexperience with the world? Thanks!

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Hi anon,

I am going to read this all the way through but before I even start: the combination 15 years old and “I might be an ENFP, but” are two blazing sirens that indicate you should sit tight and spend more time developing as a person. 15 is on the young edge of when type even begins to make sense, in my opinion; and the whole “I think I’m an ENFP but [new evidence has appeared and instead of calmly integrating this evidence into what I already know about myself and what led me to type as an ENFP and presenting that whole picture to you I will only focus on the new evidence]” is so common I had to make a masterpost about it. People joke about it.

Reading through completely:

I am not saying you are not an xNFP 6w7, and truthfully from this I don’t know what exactly your type is though ENFP seems very possible and likely to me, but again, 15 is very young. Your personal development in the next 5 years is likely going to be absolutely staggering. There is so much change coming your way, and you may come out of it saying “yes, I was right all along” but you may be like “oh, once I have a large measure of independence and responsibilities that are truly mine and not backed by authority figures...this doesn’t fit at all.” In short, at your age, you are welcome to type but you should keep your mind very open to the fact that you might be very far off - and that’s healthy and normal.

With that in mind: assuming your friends are of similar ages...how confident are you they’re all ENFPs? Some might be ESFPs. Some might be ESFJs. It’s also worth noting that this is going to vary situationally; an ENFP who gets along with their siblings or who has a hobby that can still continue uninterrupted during quarantine like writing or playing an instrument might be doing significantly better than an ENFP who is only child or who finds their siblings annoying and who’s favorite hobby requires going out - and that’s just a tiny part of it - I haven’t even covered things like parental relationships, confounding mental health factors, and so on. It’s not to say that people’s pandemic responses aren’t revealing, but people’s pandemic experiences vary so much that you need to have a pretty complete picture of their specific situation to even begin to understand how they’re doing and why.

I am not sure what “severe inability to process evidence” means exactly, but...if you can’t process evidence you can’t type. That’s what typing is. This whole second part is also kind of a perfect example of why I need examples: “abstract but deeply felt gut impulse” describing morality is just...nothing. I have no idea what you’re trying to say - which doesn’t mean that doesn’t accurately sum up your experience to you, but I am a stranger who does not know you and when people say “my morals are abstract” it doesn’t mean anything because I don’t know what you mean by ‘morals’ and what you mean by ‘abstract’. This could be “I have a big-picture throughline that unites all my personal values”; it could be “I have difficulty implementing my personally held beliefs in the real world”; it could be “I perceive morals as formless shapes in the void.”

I will say that the idea that everyone’s opinion deserves thought and analysis could be Ne, but also it really sounds more like the Ti-Fe spectrum. Te fundamentally doesn’t believe this although you’re young enough that you don’t really have much Te influence yet, so this is something else you should revisit. I also think the trend of understanding things best in a linear manner is a lot more in line with the introverted perceiving functions, as is the feeling of being overwhelmed by a lot of differing perspectives - a high Ne user should probably thrive in those conditions, even if they’re an INFP rather than an ENFP.

You don’t really provide examples in the 5th part which makes it difficult for me to draw conclusions; I don’t know what you see as complex, or what you see as simplification, or what you interpret as an inability to break down complexity.

Getting to the last part:

Most people have difficulty learning without help, especially at your age, and especially if we’re talking traditionally academic means of learning. Moving to at-home learning is a massive disruption that’s an issue for many people, and it’s not really something I’d type off because it’s so disruptive that there’s a good reason basically any type could be struggling.

I do wonder, based on some of the things you’ve said, and this is totally not coming from a place of expertise, if you have some kind of information processing issues going on - if lots of things seem incoherent and you struggle tuning out background noises, that doesn’t seem purely based in typology.

Anyway, my overall takeaway is youth and inexperience, and you’ll be better served by 1. Figuring out what’s going on with the background noises/being overwhelmed by tons of perspectives, 2. Cutting yourself some slack with distance learning/reaching out to teachers if you’re really struggling with independent study, and 3. Just letting time and experience do their jobs.

#mbti #i think one thing i haven't articulated well is i'm not asking for examples just because i'm a sensor #it's because people are subjective and their idea of what's abstract or organized or whatever might not actually be that thing to me #Anonymous

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bbq-hawks-wings · 5 years ago

Text

Series Review Pt. 3/3

Part One

Part Two

All right, last one!

One of the things about adults is that most become increasingly less flexible the older they get. They learn to function in a certain way to get certain results and work themselves into a pattern that inhibits their ability to be creative or dynamic which is compounded the less they are challenged. This isn’t opinion - this has been a scientifically and statistically verified fact. Different levels of physical and emotional development fundamentally changes the way human beings process stimuli and conflict, and factors like physical injuries and trauma affect the ability of one to process and resolve stressful situations. This doesn’t mean adults can’t change the way they think or do things, but it’s much harder for them to mentally and emotionally break out of their preconceived notions unprompted whereas younger adults still largely maintain the ability to criticize and adjust changes in perspective and creatively adapt to new information.

The kids we see in HeroAca are in a particularly unique situation in regards to coming from a background of ideals (“If I work hard, I’ll see the fruits of my labor”) and coming to grips with the inherently unfair nature of the world (“Even the greatest hero can’t save everyone”). Combined with the early exposure they’ve had to the injustices in their society and their general disposition to maximize the positive impact they have on others the “next generation of heroes” is in a unique situation to completely overhaul the current system literally as they enter it by bringing in new ideals and embracing their diversity in thought and background to directly challenge failings in the old system as well as bring awareness to those who exist outside it. With an added sense of camaraderie and teamwork over rivalry they have the ability to foster more “human” conversations with the aim of improving the world as opposed to being purely focused on “business” when in uniform the way their predecessors were.

This isn’t to say that the grown heroes of the series have to be completely done away with, just that they have not had a generation so able to challenge them to action in the way their juniors do now. In fact, it’s a running theme in the series that the next generation of heroes either teach or save their mentors in unexpected ways and with varying degrees of intensity as they work through adversity together.

Red Riot has not only saved Fatgum in a literal sense in the battle with the Shie Hassaikai, but Fatgum explicitly states he underestimated the ability and resolve of the young hero. He also holds faith in his older mentee, Sun Eater, whom he regards as a hero unrivaled in ability in the current climate if he only could overcome his own self-doubt. Sir Nighteye’s confidence in Lemillion is evident from the start and to his dying breath believes the key to his ability to save is not rooted in the strength of his quirk but by his ability to make others smile. Nighteye’s previous disdain of Deku is eventually turned into awe and inspiration when he’s able to do what was previously thought to be impossible and theoretically change destiny itself. All Might’s faith in Deku has also been immediately obvious, but seeing that his symbolic value with the next generation as a hero hasn’t depreciated with his declining ability has given him the resolve to fight for his own survival again. Bakugo in particular has received a new, special place in his heart as a capable hero who together with Deku represents his two separate but related core values in a hero - winning and saving - but with greater potential then All Might was able to achieve alone. Shinsou has served as a personal means for Eraserhead to move past the trauma of violently losing his childhood friend and begin to truly encourage the next generation to accept the risk inherent in this line of work instead of letting his fears inhibit his ability to teach and mentor them. Shouto has been a catalyst for Endeavor to seek to restore to his family what he took away from them and to recognize that he can never fully restore or erase the trauma he inflicted on them nor does he have any right to ask to be included in their lives any further. Even straightforward, straight-laced Tsukoyomi has inspired Hawks to take a second look at what it means to raise up the next generation of heroes outside of his own troubled past with it to the point he now actively encourages and genuinely believes in them as a whole to possess the power to make changes he couldn't.

These conversations have largely not happened with the criminal side of the field as any opportunity for the children to touch the hearts of villains have been marred by the inherent life-or-death struggle of each encounter. Each side is literally too busy fighting for survival/victory to truly have some of these meaningful conversations, but the seeds they’ve planted in the hearts of their mentors as well as the rare heart-to-heart interactions they’ve had with villains have proven they have power; and that’s going to be the deciding factor in this literal war at the end of the manga - that is, this missing piece is going to be an opportunity for the heroes to save the hearts of the villains.

The key to this next generation “saving” an army of villains will be dependent on their ability to advocate for rehabilitation and reintegration into society - both for villains to accept the help and for broader society being willing to forgive them. Hawks has already started with his personal offer to help Twice, but it will be interesting to see how others are able to input offers for reform in the heat of battle and in light of their individual circumstances.

An example I hope we’ll get to see is an interaction between Dabi, Endeavor, and Shouto (assuming, of course, that Dabi is a Todoroki). Shouto would be the main deciding factor in the altercation as he has undergone the same kind of abuse and personal tragedy at the hand of Endeavor as Dabi has; but the outcome was completely different and he therefore may be able to speak to Dabi in a way that Endeavor definitely cannot. Shouto made the personal choice to not let his hatred for his father consume him and instead channeled the resources available to him to become a hero capable of saving others because he determined in and of himself to do so, rather than becoming a person obsessed with personal vengeance or merely operating as his father’s vicarious victory. It’s important to remember that Shouto has looked to the ideals of heroism (mainly through his admiration of All Might) as a good thing from a young age, but those ideals were overshadowed in the face of the constant abuse in his home and he became more and more cynical over time. As he began to accept that he was not bound by the burden of his upbringing and was capable of moving past the trauma to determine his own future despite it, he was not only able to change his entire outlook on his future for his own sake; but Shouto even began to cause Endeavor to reexamine the ethics and consequences of his actions even without the forgiveness of his family simply by operating as the kind of hero Shouto wanted to be for himself instead of the hero Endeavor tried to force upon him.

In this light, Dabi’s personal vendetta is clarified to not be the pursuit of justice but a mere act of vengeance with understandable motivation but ultimately evil justification that has not only failed to constructively address the issue of neglect and abuse in his own home, let alone of hero families as a whole, but has caused undeserved collateral death and grief in the process. Whether this revelation will “save” Dabi is unknown as Shouto and Natsuo also still hold deep contempt for their father; but both of them have begun to move past the events of their childhood (if only in very small steps) and have begun to self-determine their relationship with their father individually, while Dabi is still operating out of pure spite. Interestingly, what we may end up seeing in this situation is a schism resulting in a fight similar to the final showdown between Zuko and Azula in Avatar: the Last Airbender. (And on that note, I don’t know how I didn’t notice the additional parallels between the families sooner between the scar, paternal abuse resulting in an estranged mother, and sibling with blue fire. I called Todoroki Frosty Fire Prince Zuko in the past as a joke, but this feels so obvious now; I’ve clearly been sleeping.) One more wild card thrown in will be if Hawks is present for this interaction and seeing his reaction to it as he will fight Dabi and has a similar story to both him and Shouto.

Where kids like Bakugo and Deku will be most relevant or impactful is not quite clear at the moment, though a clash with Shigaraki feels imminent. We do know at least that each are counted as capable heroes in their own rights with the distinction that Bakugo is a hero who wins fights and Deku is a hero who saves people so their role might look like something along the lines of Bakugo ending a battle and Deku ending the underlying conflict. There seems to be an insinuation that these two things rarely can be done at the same time, and that first the physical threat must be addressed before a sit-down and exchange can be made to talk about the motivations and underlying causes of the fight. Much like with the final fight with Overhaul, Eri was not considered to be completely saved until after she was removed from her situation and then allowed to heal - and even that process is ongoing.

If the heroes are able to refute the viewpoints of the villains at the end of the day and are able to truly move the public on their behalf, those who chose to cooperate will likely be given the chance to start over while those who continue to fight out of spite will be at best detained and at worst killed in the struggle. What this might look like, I’m not sure, as some have hefty crimes to answer for and may not have the opportunity to truly reintegrate. Any country/society/culture with as many people committing as severe crimes as these would have difficulty embracing change that would welcome these people back, let alone the specific context of Japan that brutally punishes criminals and so often permanently damages their reputations and social standing - sometimes for what many would consider only “minor” crimes. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t hope for even the worst of them with a proper change of heart; and the fact that the Meta Liberation Army was as widespread a cultural phenomena as it was offers the idea that enough people are open to the ideas of the radical shifts necessary to address these concerns which increases the chance to make reforms peacefully.

As a focus point, consider Shigaraki. He’s the most important villain to reach not only as the head of this massive villain organization but as a dire victim of the current system’s shortcomings. His own biggest quarrel with hero society as it stands is that it makes people overconfident and apathetic because there's always a hero just around the corner - let them handle this person in need. While Shigaraki is not advocating for individual moral responsibility, a new societal emphasis on it could resolve most of the issues he has with hero society. A big enough cultural shift could also address instances of criminal activity on a case by case basis - a new focus that hurt people lashing out isn't acceptable behavior, but perhaps some other response than immediate punishment should be considered; as well as reconsider the role of the current justice system in the progressive intensity over a person’s criminal history to mitigate these problems before they manifest.

Right now what's holding up Shigaraki's power over others (outside of the terror he inspires) is the support of others predicated on a lie - and this goes both for the League and the PLF. If that lie is exposed, Shigaraki could wind up high, dry, and unsupported - vulnerable - depending on how individuals take the revelation. He does seem to genuinely care for the core members of the League, and their loyalty to him is undeniably profound and far reaching. Despite his nihilism, at the end of the day he’s still a deeply wounded and angry individual looking in extremes for some solace in the injustice of a world that rejected him. There are many ways this can go depending on who faces who in the final showdowns to come; but for that we'll have to wait and see.

If someone as far gone as Shigaraki can be saved then there's a bright future out there for everyone if they are willing to reach out together and grab it.

This review has left out many aspects of the story I reviewed as important but not necessary for this article, and at some 5k words that's probably for the best. Too much speculation at the moment doesn't feel very productive outside of how general themes and plotlines will tie up at the end, but I'll have to save some of those specifics for some other time. Thank you for sticking out with me this far, and thank you again to @baezetsu and @dorito9708 for helping me review and edit all this information!

#bnha meta #mha meta #bnha chapter 264 #MHA Chapter 264 #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #long post

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