#by playing with the same roles and rules of repression!

[scholarschism]

Thinking Utena thoughts

[canisalbus]

To me, Machete kind of has the energy of a secondary villain/coldhearted side character in someone else's story that a lot of fans latch onto, moreso than the protagonist. Question is, would he be the villain in anyone's story?

Why, thank you! I'm actually glad to hear he gives off that vibe. I don't think he set out to become a villain but a lot of people certainly view him as one.

[nqueso-emergency]

From a writer’s perspective, I just don’t see Buddie happening for the same reason I don’t see Eddie finding a LI that lasts anytime soon. Let me know if you agree.

To me, if the whole main cast is already paired up, it can get boring for the GA. There are so many sls you can do with a couple, much less if you have a main cast made only of couples. Having Buddie would, also, change the 118’s dynamic in a way I don’t think would be good.

Up until now Buck was the one they could play as the attractive bachelor, but I think it got old and the GA wanted him to find happiness and a solid partner for once and finally. I haven’t seen that sentiment towards Eddie (so far). Therefore - find Buck his happiness (Tommy) and have Eddie take on the role of bachelor of the 118.

I’ve been thinking this since the end of the season, but marketing pushing RG has made me think I could be somewhat right

You are right but a little wrong.

With the way Eddie's storyline was left at the end of season 7, it is obvious that the last thing Eddie needs is another LI. He's got issues with his past he will need to address before they even think of giving him a new LI.

You are correct in saying that about the main pairings and the way Buddie would change the dynamics. There are real firefighters and regulation managers on set. Sure, they understand it's television and certain belief must be suspended. However, they are sticklers for the rules.

This could be countered with the Bobby/Athena relationship. Just keep in mind that Athena is a Sargent and Bobby is a Captain so disobeying orders wouldn't be met with as much force as it would for two basic firefighters under the same house.

If Eddie or Buck got hurt, the other one would not be able to take part in helping them. They would be pulled off shift and then the 118 would be down two men.

They would have to separate them and then people would bitch about that too.

They part you're wrong about is Buck being a bachelor is boring to the general audience.

Buck, constantly struggling in relationships, was becoming boring for Oliver. He was dying to have Buck experienced domestic scenes and allowing his character to grow through a mature relationship that wasn't one-sided, like in season 1.

Something I'd like everyone to understand and keep in mind is this:

Yes, this is a procedural on network television. You are not going to get six year slow burns or the characters suddenly saying "fuck it" to protocol. (A secret relationship would be grounds for termination.)

Saying that, Tim and the writers are really drawn to representing their general audience and so far, they have.

Hen and Karen: Hen pursuing college after 40. Karen being a genius yet down to earth person. Lesbians. Cheating. Struggling with having children. Foster system. Adoption.

Maddie and Chim: Domestic violence. Second chance. Chim not thinking he's enough in previous relationships. Medical emergencies. Pregnancy. Therapy. Post-partum depression. New mom fears. Marriage. Miscommunication.

Bobby and Athena: Divorce. Betrayal. Alcoholic. Traumatic pasts. Lost fiancé. Lost family. Accepting love again. Support. Found family. House fire. Co-parenting. Recovery.

Eddie: PTSD. Army medic. Parent to special needs child. Single father. Repressed grief. Straight man unable to connect with woman. Anger issues.

Buck: Abandonment issues. Needs companship. Looking for happiness. Jealousy. Young. Sex addict. Rule breaker. Realized he was bisexual at 32.

Tommy: Came out late in life. Mysterious. Kind. Sarcastic. Defense mechanisms. Was forced to play a part of something he hates for most of his life. Army pilot.

It's important that the audience can see themselves in the characters they love.

[astrowithkaro]

❥ 𝐋𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝟏𝟎𝐓𝐇 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄

This post will explain what it means to have Lilith in the 10th house, I will be assuming that you know the basics of Lilith and won't go into details about her symbolism 🌹

(Black moon) Lilith is named after Adam’s first wife before Eve who was the outcast of the garden of Eden as a demon for asserting her sexuality and independence. Lilith represents our worst flaws, our unconscious mind and repressed desires as well as our hidden sexuality. This dark goddess symbolizes lust and carnal desire; she epitomizes all things taboo.

You can find your Lilith by creating a natal chart for yourself on Astro-seek.com and specify Lilith placement (PS: NOT ASTEROID LILITH 1181, it needs to be BLM/h12 that is usually an option in the extended chart settings).

All credits goes to the writer - @astrowithkaro. Do not steal or repost!

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

You guys are made to play out the Lilith in your lives. Lilith will point where your hidden powers lie. People with this placement often have the ever-lasting sense that they are meant for something big. They have a higher calling in life and are often determined. They have long-term goals that are bigger than usual. They posses a lucky-girl mentality, but it comes at a cost.

Since the 10th house rules the eye of the public, your hidden extremities might be an invitation for rumours and scandals. Therefore, this placement can often get caught in drama, both at a young age while being in school, and often tend to manifest into their work life as well. You might have people speaking about you behind your back, but these rumours don't always resemble who you really are. As teens, you might develop crushes on teachers, or anyone that you idolise. In order to get their attention, you might try to seduce them or make yourself look as appealing as possible to the other person's deepest fantasies/desires. You often compare yourself to the best students and look up to the most successful people in your life, and even copy those tactics in order to gain those same traits you lack in yourself. On a darker note, you could have issues with your father or have a father figure that is absent. You might be oblivious to the insecurities that other people reflect onto you, and feel like it burdens you without being able to recognise where it stems from. You might fall in love with difficult people, people that are narcissistic or possess antisocial traits. People who do not have clear motives for you, but still lead you on in ways that would trigger a trauma bond between you two - love bombing is a clear example of that.

You might be labeled as a difficult person to work with and have a lot of competition when it comes to job opportunities. The people who are responsible for your job role/recruiters might ask you for sexual favours in return for a better position or a raise. Refusing to do this might lead to people throwing dirt on your name, you have the choice to stand up for yourself and make authority figures responsible for their bullshit. Having this placement also has a higher chance of working job positions that involve anything sex-and identity related.

There will be a certain fixation on shaming your position, or having people try to barber that recognition out of you. You might feel self-conscious around people who are highly successful. Though, you are able to recognise manipulation tactics used and you are not afraid to use it against anyone else if it comes down to it. But this could be a dangerous move since you can sometimes be vulnerable to Machiavellism due to your emotional side. You might also be prone to sexual partners who toy with your emotions, and want to use you for sex, might even try to shame your sexuality. You have a lot of public influence no matter what you get recognised for, two famous examples are Albert Einstein and Vladimir Putin. Therefore, you need to utilise it carefully.

Since there is a certain fixation on the desire for authority, you may sometimes desire darker powers or leadership, especially for those who meet a lot of resistance that lead to social isolation. You are afraid of failure and might be very responsive to any sort of failure or to be seen as vulnerable. You might develop a hyper-independence complex or a play a damsel-in-distress for people of power. You need to put your feelings aside when it comes to business. Your test in life is connected to having a sense of responsibility. There will be a delay in finding your career path.

There might also be a period during which you feel the need to over-sexualise yourself or romanticise parts of your life that are difficult for you to handle. This is rooted in the need for control over something that seems difficult or hard to reach. You might find it difficult to connect to your own deeper goals and ambitions, often due to unresolved resentment towards certain people or situations. You might hold grudges towards people who did you dirty. The path to empowerment is self-acceptance and moderation. If your needs aren't met, you tend to be ice-cold and might even appeared detached and distant - sometimes even "head in the clouds". You need to draw a line between your emotions and have an endurance.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･

𝕿𝖍𝖆𝖙'𝖘 𝖎𝖙 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖓𝖔𝖜 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖈𝖆𝖓 𝖋𝖎𝖓𝖉 𝖒𝖞 𝖒𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖊

[astroyongie]

Why Am I This Way - Psychology Answers

Note: Another one <3 we are almost done with the How Am I section !!

“How Am I” Section

“Am I Really A Good Person?”

What happens in the unconscious brain: 

To start off, it's important that we understand that being wrong and right are social constructs and they will depend on your cultural background, on you ethnic and the way you were born and social class.

Now these feelings of being a good person, of caring from the social norms and looks come from childhood where the family plays an essential role on how we want to be cared for and loved.

In a dysfunctional family they usually have a closed system. For any interest in these topics you can always check the works that are based on little information and the resources are shared between the family members (communication isn't used often). In this cases (these families) communication tend to be rare and the rules of the family are usually strict and not just, working in the favor of the parent authority 

In contrary, in a functional family, the system us open and the information and the ressources shred is shared through communication between the family 

Basically in dysfunctional families the rules are not said. They learn in silence. In function, the parent actually verbalizes the good and the wrong.

back on the dysfunctional family, the communication is so fragile and limited that the little things that are said are usually harsh, violent and painful to the child (for example the child is make a mistake, the parent will proceed with accusatory screaming or physical abuse)

Because of this, the children who got raised in such an environment learn to mold themselves to reach security. They are always weary of their environment and they tend to read people to accommodate and adapt their behaviors. 

Basically they learn to recognize a bad action and a good acio based on their parents' punishments and because of that they tend to always please others or provoke a better reaction in their counterpart to avoid the violence.

These children (from dysfunctional families) can develop four types of communication patterns when evolving with other people. Those are: 

“Appeased” : they are people pleasers and they will put a lot of effort in for that to happen during arguments. To be a good person they use extreme generosity by neglecting themselves and their needs (because their parents have neglected them so much so why shouldn't they do the same?)

“Accuser”: A mirroying of narcissistic parenting/ defensive category. People like that will try to manipulate the situation and turn the tables to avoid being on the receiving pain end. They try to be a good person by using reverse psychology 

“Congruent”: the person is aware of their surroundings, they are aware of signals that can be potentially triggering. These types of people when arguments happen tend to use verbal and non verbal communication at the same type to smooth the situation and avoid being hit. more of a “fight” response to avoid panic and be a good person.

“Evasive”: they are usually people that often retreat in arguments. They will keep themselves shut because they have learnt that speaking will bring them more pain so they usually try to keep themselves shut and repress emotions in order to be the good person. some of them can also use humor as a mechanism 

Usually people that are always questioning their worth as a good people come mostly from a dysfunctional family weather neglect and violence were the main resource and where the people had to learn strategies to survive in that environment

if you are interested in more of these topics you can check the works of Virginia Satir and Karen Horney

So what can we do?

We cannot allow the limited perceptions of others define us

You need to understand that you have lost touch with your inner self in order to avoid conflict. the important here is to learn that arguments and conflicts are often necessary to solve the issues and they are important to communicate feelings and that one should not stop putting their fears first and take time to open up

now this is hard but with therapy and the right relationship, this gets easier and those behavioral patterns can be changed

There’s also the need to stop blaming yourself for everything and prioritize your happiness. 

Learn to say no, learn to stand for yourself and believe that you are worth more than what the dysfunctional family provided. you are worth love

and no, you're not a bad person you are just hurt

Now, you know where to work to become a better version of yourself 

[moonshynecybin]

you had a fantasy au forever ago… how does marc find out vale loves him

i for one. always believe rosquez is just as horny as it is tortured and just as stupid as it is horny. i think it’s this fraught thing where after a LONG saga of trying to keep marc safe and worrying about him (marc is captain of the guard/general!!! it’s his whole job to keep VALE safe but vale thinks about any scenario where marc sacrifices his life to save him and it feels like open HEART SURGERY…) and after trying to ease him into a more bureaucratic role as “advisor�� (luca voice comma dryly. pecco already does all that. you are teaching him things a consort knows. you do realize that. it’s important to me that you’ve realized that.) by involving him on strategy and policy he i think. entirely without thinking through the emotional implications wherein. decides marc needs to get married to him. truly the only way he can make marc safe the only way he can physically keep him off the battlefield the only way he can. marriage is a political and transactional enterprise to him and he SHANT fall in love anyways so whatever. get married to marc present his most cogent military mind as unequivocally allied with him and keep marc from killing himself 8000x problem solved. the small ruthless part of him also is like. marc cannot leave me and stage a coup with our neighbors to the west if he is legally bound to me :) forever :)

(i would say they have a break up in this universe because vale is a lil insecure about marc’s ability to rule slash uccio meddlings but. it all brings glory to vale here. it’s all under his banner. that’s part of what he liked about marc to begin with… now if marc came from another noble house?? late stage royal parentage reveal??? then shit would get cwazy)

and he lays this all out to our capricorn moon queen marc marquez who sees the logic here and despite KNOWING it’s a bad idea because he is ass over teakettle in love with vale he ALSO sees this as like. the ultimate way to keep vale safe. he can contribute the same way he does now and he knows he’ll never have all of vale but at least he’ll have SOME of him… be able to produce an heir… so he says yes and vale’s like cool. chill. married as work associates. cool.

it’s all this emotional distancing/repression/denial that plays out into what they THINK is a business transaction until it’s the NIGHT OF. and they have to go in there and consummate their MARRIAGE. and vale lays marc out on their fine silken marriage bed and kisses his scarred arm and asks him if it’s okay and watches the way marc’s eyes squeeze shut when he pushes inside of him and the way he shivers when vale’s presses his mouth to the junction of his shoulder and his neck. the flex of his stomach the splay of his thighs the way he’s looking at vale like he’s something new. something that no one has ever seen before… feeling things no one has ever felt before (marc marquez may very well believe valentino rossi invented the prostate orgasm here) and THATS when vale thinks. uh oh !

[meandmacats]

Some sides head cannons, but it’s super obvious who my favorite side is:

Both Remus and Roman glow, but Roman is more of a Disney fairy magic way and Remus is closer to bioluminescent like deep sea creatures

The imagination is not physically split into Remus’ and Roman’s sided, but rather just a collection of both of their creations in a space too big for either to largely effect the other

Remus is a big softie when he’s not being gross

Roman is asexual

Remus is aromantic

Roman and remus have literal twin telepathy

Roman has a black streak(mirroring Remus’ white steak)

Roman can get burnout, but Remus can’t despite them both being creativity(Roman is used as the main creativity)

When in burnout, Roman runs a fever and attempting to interact with any creative pursuits immediately chars it

Roman’s role of Ego is under the Sigmund Froid definition where it is a representation of the self rather than just self worth

Remus played Undertale and first played a true pacifist route where he attacked each monster until they were ready to spare(he loved the amalgamations)

Patton actually can’t cook(not for lack of effort)

Roman is trying to learn more Romance languages

Remus knows German

Janus knows ASL

Logan has always had issues with Pattons black and white thinking, but decided to ignore it

Remus is ferally protective

Janus can smell lies the same way snakes smell(sticking out tongue) so he doesn’t do it often

Repressing Remus is like punching an inflatable punching bag

Janus actually can’t think of lies. He encourages it, but he doesn’t actually come up with the excuses

Janus only knows psychology for lying, he doesn’t know any for the other sides

Intrusive thoughts warn the body of danger and can help keep the shot alert. When this is revealed to the other sides, Remus tries to be as obnoxious and aggressive with the intrusive thoughts as possible to try to convince them otherwise

There is actually a difference in abilities between dark and light sides

Dark sides abilities are:

see no evil-tunnel vision from Remus

hear no evil- Virgil’s voice thing(known to over rule all other sides in input)

speak no evil-Janus silence(literally hiding things from Thomas he doesn’t want to know)

Roman can speak to and understand animals in the Imagination like a Disney Prince

Remus is really good with animals

Roman and Logan bond over rhymes, poetry, and word-play

Logan can cook, but he can’t experiment with cooking

Roman can cook, but he struggles to actually follow the instructions

Remus can “cook,” but it’s not “food”

Janus can cook for himself and no one else

Virgil is to anxious to cook most days, occasionally finds baking relaxing

Patton can bake

Roman and Remus are closer than they present themselves to the others

Roman gets ego bruises

Remus gets antsy if he doesn’t harass Thomas

Roman is a much better actor than he lets on

Roman intentionally played characters badly in Can Lying be Good? because he knew that Thomas would not be able to handle true immersion into the scene

Logan is naturally ambidextrous

Roman learned to be ambidextrous

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Idk what to tell to the people who still don't get that although is okay to teach kids the rules to live in a society (like respect others or don't kill or whatever), Kotaro Shimura, Enji Todoroki and Toga's parents didn't care as much for society rules as they care for the rules that made them feel okay at home.

Which in the end caused the main villain trio to reject authority and society and turn into violence, since they did try to use words as kids and were royally ignored.

Tenko, Touya and Toga tried very hard to be good kids, but in their parents conception it was not enough 'cause they couldn't repress some of their needs: they wanted their dads and moms to accept them as they were, to accept who they wanted to be, to accept the way they expressed love and accept the way they interacted with their surroundings.

In Tenko's case, Kotaro was unable to accept his kid desire to become a hero. His could be the worst case in bnha, given the violence of his tragedy and how misfortune (maybe even something else) played on it ending so badly. Tomura himself said that house rejected his very identity, even tho Hana tried to support him in secret and Nao stood up for him, little too late. For what we saw of him as a child, his only defect as a son was wanting to be a pro-hero, dream that got him beaten up for, grounded in a rather cruelly manner. Kotaro's trauma turned him into an irrational man, his hatred for heroes was both the build up and the catalysis of the tragedy that ended the lives of the people he loved the most.

Tenko didn't become a villain because he was an evil kid. He became a villain because AFO wanting it so and because Kotaro inculcated in him such extreme hatred.

In Touya's case, it's a bit more complicated. I don't believe Enji's obsession was completely evil in nature, although his actions were truly selfish and it became later abusive, when his desperation blinded him to the point he was unable to understand how bad he has turned out to be. Like in Tenko's case, the mother is at fault only in yhe sense that their lack of intervention allowed the situation to escalate 'til they couldn't prevent it anymore. Touya's case differentiates itself in the fact that he was older than Tenko, his behavior declining over the years into extreme violence, unlike the way Tenko exploded in murder glee when Kotaro hit him one last time.

The lack of proper attention from both Enji and Rei allowed Touya's behavior to become a tragedy. Their negligence, Enji's focus on his work and Shouto (as a project not a son) and Rei's role of a caretaker yet not a mother, combined with the incapacity of Natsuo and Fuyumi to understand what Touya was going through (really, only Shouto could, but at that point Touya hated him too much and Shouto was way too young)... Well, it didn't end well for a kid that didn't want help anymore but attention on his own terms. He was tired of adapting, the same way Tenko rebelled in his insistence of acting the hero way.

The same house rule ( YOU CANNOT BE A HERO ) sent them both to AFO's hands, one way or another. They were kids who couldn't act the way their dads wanted, so fuck them I guess.

That part is compatible to Toga's case. Kinda.

Toga's parents are by far the most twisted of the bunch, which is a lot to say considering that Kotaro hit his kids and Enji even hit his wife. Yet, without having to touch a single hair of their little girl, they inflicted damage so deep she preferred to become a runaway criminal than to stay at home one more day.

At least Kotaro and Enji valued at some level Tenko and Touya's existence. Toga's parents didn't care about her at all. She was as good as a broken doll, an imperfect piece of their furniture, something they wish wasn't related to them at all. Enji was at least worry about his son and he loved him at some degree, the same way Kotaro worry over Tenko was born out of his fear of losing his family. Nothing of it excuses what they do and let it be said that Enji and Kotaro did saw Touya and Tenko as monsters at some point (when Touya tried to kill Shouto and on his Dabi era, when Tenko killed his family and turned to Kotaro). Yet it doesn't compare to the way Toga's parents immediately erased her from their lives, even denying any affiliation. They sent her to that therapy like a car needing to be repaired. She was a sign of status, she was an object that they failed to produce, she was an aberration and a freak, she deserved to be put down.

From the three od them, Toga was the one who struggled the most to fit in socially, not to society standards tho. To her parents.

If all these parents had cared for their kids more than they cared for his own stupid rules maybe things would have been different. But that's the core of their problems, they don't need the whole world to accept them, they need to treat the internalized traumas their parents left them with, the self-hatred and the feeling of inadequacy and the need for acceptance (of themselves) and recognition.

That's why Toga, Izuku and Shouto are the key for their recovery. Acting as mirrors, they are meant to provide the closure the villain trio desperately need. It's not just a sibling or a nemesis bond, but a recognition of the self through the other situation.

If they can accept themselves and correct their ways and get free from their parents absurd rules, if they can move past the child need for their parents validation, maybe they can finally exist in a less painful way.

[sanrielle]

I've been thinking a lot about Katara and her feminism vs. her desire to preserve her dying culture. Like I know that the SWT probably isn't as sexist as the NWT, but there are still a lot of enduring practices that have roots in patriarchy, as demonstrated by Sokka's earlier sexism.

So I think Katara would end up with an odd mix. She's obviously a staunch feminist who thinks girls and women should follow their own paths, regardless of what society in general thinks their roles should be. But at the same time, she can't escape from some of the subtler (and possibly more insidious) traditions of 'propriety' and the role of women as the homemakers.

[Obligatory disclaimer that I don't know that much about Inuit culture when it comes to these things. I'm purely basing this off of what is shown in the cartoon itself.]

Something that kinda goes along with this is Katara's necklace. To her, it's a symbol of her grandmother's struggle for independence, as well as a memento of her mother and the sacrificial love she displayed. In the NWT, it represented (at best) a romantic commitment and (at worst) a transfer of property. I don't think she'd associate hers with either, and she'd probably be insulted if Aang tried to give her a new one when proposing.

(I maintain that the necklace she wears as an old lady is the same one she had in childhood. The fact that it looks wonky in that one screenshot is nothing more than lackluster rendering.)

Anyway, I've gone a little off topic. I just think she's a really interesting study in how someone can rail against the negative parts of their culture that don't appeal to them, while also having an internalized fondness for some of those same traditions, simply because they are familiar and nostalgic.

Take Toph for contrast. I don't think she's the butch anti-feminine person a lot of people make her out to be. She just does what she wants. She's perfectly happy to go to the spa or wear dresses and makeup, but only if it's her choice to do so. She's railing against the repressive and oppressive culture of elite EK society simply because she previously had no agency over her life.

Meanwhile, Katara takes an active role in seeing to the physical and emotional needs of her brother/friends. And even though that 'motherly' role is largely a trauma response and something she deeply resents at times, I think it's also a source of comfort to her. Something about her culture that she desperately clings to.

I think a lot about her and Aang's life post-war. They would be very focused on reconstruction for years, most likely. Katara would have her own projects with the Water Tribes, but also spend a lot of time helping Aang. Some part of her craves the validation of appearing to be 'proper' concerning her relationship with him. Maybe she's a bit hypocritical about it: unwilling to wait until they've settled down to be intimate, but also reluctant to publicly break certain social 'rules'.

She keeps telling herself there's so much to do in the world, and maybe she feels this heavy burden to do as much good as she can before allowing herself to rest and slow down and create the family she's always wanted.

But then ten(ish) years have passed and suddenly! Baby on the way! Oops! Katara knows she's a public figure and cares a lot about how she's seen. She wants the respect of the people from her own culture. And so they stop. They get married. They settle down.

Katara becomes the wife and mother, which she definitely wants while also having some lingering regrets and conflicting feelings. She still wants to be a role model for other girls and women, but she likes not being constantly on the move and fighting people and playing politics. She likes getting up in the middle of the night to sing an old Water Tribe lullaby to her baby. She likes it the most when Aang is there because he's always seen her as an equal partner, not a piece of property.

Anyway, I didn't really have a point. Just rambling about my own headcanons. I've always put a lot more thought into Toph and Sokka's characters, but I guess Kataang has been on my mind lately. And tbh I never gave Katara the attention she deserved when writing fics, which is a travesty.

[mamawasatesttube]

When/how do you think Kon started like exploring his gender? Did having to change his look to fit in at smallville have smth to do with it?

you just walked into my askbox and went "i'm gonna activate tumblr user mamawasatesttube's trap card!" i hope you know this.

so YES, firstly. i do believe changing his look to fit in with everyone in smallville had something to do with it, BUT. it's not just a case of "oh small town = conservatism, homophobia, transphobia, etc". it has more to do with him having a civilian persona for the first time in his lifie, and not knowing how to do that. through all of his time in sb94, he's never really fit in with "normal people" - he was always held apart from his classmates in hawaii, then he simply never interacted with regular people while living at cadmus, and finally when he lived in metropolis in the suicide slum it was. well. not good.

so moving to smallville and having a secret identity to protect - not just his own but superman's secret identity - is a lot of pressure to perform a role he's never played before. it's not even so much about small town attitudes so much as it is just the contrast of what he's used to and the concept of "normalcy". superboy, the clone of superman who's a hero and a celebrity, has never had to worry about being normal and not drawing too much attention. conner kent, on the other hand, has to worry about that very much.

he takes out his earring. he cuts off the longer parts of his hair and lets the shaved part grow back in. he grows keenly self-conscious of being a "geek" and making too many references to this or that media. for the first time, he starts paying consistent attention to what other people think of him and how they talk about him. it's not the same as his identity crisis before, when he just was worried about being "cool" and got a makeover about it; this is about something bigger than him, something so much more important than just his reputation. he has to keep this secret. it's not freedom, at first; it's a burden he's trying to learn to carry.

that's part of why he resents smallville at first. it's a whole new set of rules and restrictions and boxes he needs to fit into. and he's used to rules and restrictions and fitting into boxes, but these ones are nothing like the ones he knew before, and the stakes feel so much higher. he misses his "freedom" from before, so he hates "conner kent" and what smallville represents.

at this point, he doesn't really know that his gender and sexuality are involved in this repression. he just knows the way he dressed before and the way he acted before get attention in a way he doesn't want now, and he assumes any feelings of ickiness and missing anything are just tied to his whole resentment of smallville. it doesn't click for a long time. he just straight up doesn't clock that he has any gender-related feelings outside the norm, and he doesn't register any of his attraction to guys as attraction. he's deeply in his "overinvested straight ally" phase (think of his interactions with hero cruz - defending him from sparx and telling her homophobia is Not Cool!!).

and then he dies.

to establish a core part of my feelings about smallville... as someone who grew up queer in small town america, i am Deeply critical of everyone who dismisses rural areas as entirely conservative, intolerant, and bigoted. these people definitely do exist in rural areas, sure, but they are by no means the only ones (and they also very much exist in urban areas, too). to that end, i don't think smallville is just a ~homophobic little town~ where kon is miserable in the closet because of external pressure.

i do think kon does languish miserably in the closet for a time. but it's a lot of internal pressure and identity issues at play, not just the worry of homophobia. he spends a lot of time introspecting after his resurrection, learning to love his life with ma; it's during this time that i think he starts to actually realize his feelings about himself are queer feelings.

one of my personal favorite headcanons is that the first person he ever admits any of this to (first that he thinks he's into guys, bc that's the first one that he actually puts together) is hero cruz. hero is definitely the friend who's been out the longest, and very possibly (though ofc this can depend on personal hcs!) his only friend who's out at this time, given that he and cassie Just broke up.

now a major reason he struggles in the closet here is the idea that being queer as conner kent would mean deviating from the "normal" as conner kent. and conner kent is supposed to be a very normal guy, to fit in and fade into the background, to not draw attention. and that's his major hangup. it's easier to consider if superboy could come out than for conner kent to come out, because superboy has never been normal. he's always been set apart. but conner kent? conner kent has a vital secret to keep. he doesn't want anyone looking at him.

he finds it harder to accept queerness as a civilian than as a hero bc as a hero he's already "weird" and "alien" (literally), right. he can be loud and proud and obnoxious there and it doesnt matter! but conner kent is supposed to be ~normal~ and not like kon-el. conner kent is keenly aware of everything that makes him not fit in, and for a long time those things bring him uncertainty and shame because he is still struggling to try and figure out how even being a civilian works, let alone living a civilian life that's """abnormal""". it takes him a hot minute to work through this.

and then senior year, there's rumors going through smallville high because this one guy wanted to bring his boyfriend to prom but the school prom committee head teacher wouldn't sell a couple's ticket to two boys who are known to be dating despite selling them to plenty of girls who say they're just going as friends, and now a bunch of students are protesting by getting same sex couple's tickets and insisting on going actually as couples, and of course kon has to join in on that, he will always stand up against injustice even as a civilian...

...and one thing leads to another, and conner kent finds himself making out with simon valentine in the back corner of the dance hall, and they crown him prom king despite it (or maybe because of it!) and he's stunned because he didn't know he was popular (because he's kind, and loved, and funny, and good) and he's still popular despite clearly being into men now, and it's not a bad thing in everyone else's eyes, and oh? that was allowed all along?

and it's freeing.

that's the first step to exploring gender. first he has to let himself admit to being queer at all, and admit to being okay with it rather than needing to repress it forever, and it's kon. of course that only happens once he can use "helping someone else" as the reason.

NOW back up a large step. there's a second component to all this i haven't dug into yet, and it's about fashion.

more to the point, it's about ttk. one of my Favorite hcs is that he practices it via fibercrafts, even before his death but especially after. first crochet, then knitting, then bobbin lace, slowly increasing the number of moving parts he's working with; he ends up making a lot of lace.

ma uses some of his little lace scraps as bookmarks. he makes a bunch of doilies and then table runners. it's genuinely great ttk practice, but really, they have a lot of lace. so kon starts learning to sew, so he can start making lace-embellished tablecloths and then some simple circle skirts and things for ma. they sell some of them at local farmers'/crafters' markets.

and kon starts wearing some of it himself. at first he's really self-conscious, but... it's something he made, and he's proud of it, and it does look really good, so. fuck it. he and ma can go to do groceries wearing matching skirts, right? (circle skirts are easier to sew than pants, okay. pants have so much more going on. he's still teaching himself, okay!!!)

it takes him a LONG minute to realize that maybe some of the "oh, i do look good in this!" feelings might, in fact, be gender euphoria. as in, he doesn't realize it until after he starts unpacking his sexuality feelings and going ohhhh. conner kent is actually allowed to be queer and that's okay. only then does he realize that uhm... maybe conner kent is, like, extra queer. like, turn up the dial and add more spice.

with time, support and encouragement from friends and family, and some exploration, he gains more confidence in exploring presentation and actually thinking about gender. he doesn't really care that much about pronouns, but he Does hate being confined to traditional masculinity - he does enjoy being masc sometimes, but he hates the idea of having to fit in it as a box. he's much happier getting to flit around from masc to femme to all sorts of places in between. he finds it freeing.

okay i have rambled so much. this is more or less my idea for how the overall arc of kon exploring queerness goes, but im sure ive forgotten bits and pieces and will remember them within like 5 minutes of hitting post. but here we are here it is ive been typing on and off for like an hour now so im cutting myself off. there it is. my kon gender and sexuality thesis.

oh one other thing. also he loves to be young justice's babygirl. okay im done now

[mswyrr]

At no point is there a single shred of canon in s1 indicating Cooper sees Lucy as a child (he in fact sees her as his former adult self!) Or that she sees him as a father. None. Nada.

"i want to get back my actual Dad someone kidnapped" =/= "i need a father figure"

Especially since it's explicit in the text that, as much as Lucy loved/loves her Dad, she left for so many reasons - curiosity, dissatisfaction with her Vault's corporate cult she'd repressed so hard she didn't even know how to express it.

She's going through an extreme form of the kind of "realizing my parents are flawed" thing people usually do earlier - but 20s is an okay time to do that. Plenty of people do it then, when they're in college or freshly graduated etc. It's about becoming her own adult - sticking her back in a "child" role is revoking her character arc?

Lucy is *explicitly paralleled* in the text with past!Cooper - a grown ass adult man who was married with a child. She's never paralleled with Janey, a literal child, like Ellie and Sarah are in TLOU.

Unless people are going to say that Past!Cooper's naivete makes him a literal child who needed a parent...? actually i'd say one of the major marriage sins Barb committed was treating her husband like a child because he was naive and didn't want to see unpleasant things. An adult who behaves like that is still an adult. They do not, as a byproduct of that, somehow magically revert to being a literal child.

I don't even think C/L are going to get together in canon - but he's important to her arc, as her dark mirror/shadow/narrative foil. And casting her as a literal child rips her arc to shreds and for what? They're writing her with the same damn subtextually erotic bond a male protagonist would have with his dark mirror. And that allows fun room for fandom to do what it does and play with that fraught dynamic, which is actually great. Let people have fun?

In "golden rule, motherfucker" Lucy is, in fact, the *authoritative* one in their dynamic -- making the decisions and instructing him and challenging his worldview -- so are we going to call her Cooper's mother now?? No? Only adult female characters are perpetual children?

IMO, a heroine getting to have that kind of a fraught dynamic with her narrative foil is more fresh and interesting and feminist than "all 20something women are little girls who need a literal parent."

[dailyanarchistposts]

The Roots of the Problem

Since before the establishment of the Israeli state, Israel has been a racist, colonialist society, premised on the notion that Israelis are fundamentally superior to Palestinians. This is the mainstream of Israeli political thought on both its right and so-called left wings. This is the thinking that motivated the mass dispossession of Palestinians that preceded the formation of the state, the ethnic cleansing of the Nakba in 1948, and various forms of apartheid and military rule ever since. In fact, there has only been one year in the history of Israel—1966—in which it did not impose a regime of military dictatorship over at least some of its Palestinian population.

Since long before the current assault on Gaza, the day-to-day reality of Palestinian existence under Israeli rule has been a continuous, ongoing terror in the midst of violence and uncertainty. Being Palestinian means passing through a checkpoint not knowing if you’ll be pulled out and arrested; it means settler mob violence; it means being thrown in jail under administrative detention, not knowing what for or for how long; it means a military raid in the middle of the night. It is all these things and worse, day after day, across a lifetime, across generations. One of the many things that happened on October 7 was that for a brief time, Israelis, too, as a society, experienced that kind of existential terror, that unsettling uncertainty and lack of security.

The events of October 7 have had such an impact in Israeli society that even today, most Israelis continue to center themselves as the chief victims in the narrative. One effect of this is the Israeli obsession with contextualizing the genocide in Gaza in relation to the violence on October 7. A common complaint about the ICJ decision among Israelis is that the court did not mention October 7 in its decision (in fact, it did mention it). At the same time, this demand for context is intended to suppress the larger context. Many people, including on the so-called left, express outrage when the current situation is put in the context of the Nakba, the 1967 occupation, or the ongoing siege. According to this upside-down logic, providing that context is perceived as genocidal against Israelis.

Israeli racism was prevalent before, but since October 7, undisguised genocidal discourse and open calls for actual genocide have become the norm. Within Israeli society, there is no movement of any real significance against the genocide. The protest movements that do exist are of negligible size and influence, or are concerned mostly with demanding a hostage swap deal, or are focused on internal Israeli issues—remnants of the pro-judiciary movement from before October 7.

The tiny isolated islands of resistance to the assault on Gaza and to the broader aspects of Israeli rule are so small that they should be understood as a rounding error, not a real force. The idea that a movement against colonialism and for Palestinian liberation exists within Israeli society is an illusion. To play a role in carving a path towards a future of real freedom, those who come from within this settler society will have to reject Israeli colonialism root and branch. We must bear in mind that as much as we might wish to be part of the solution, we will inherently remain part of the problem, as well.

In approaching the post-genocide future, we must ask how egalitarian ideas will survive in a reality ravaged by war, death, and destruction. It is not clear how we can envision and create a future that can transcend the trauma of the recent past, especially considering that though ruin and violence might decrease once the assault has stopped, Israeli repression will continue.

Nothing about the post-genocide future is clear yet, including what turns the Palestinian movement for liberation will take. That is for Palestinians alone to decide. What is obvious—and should have been clear long before this—is that those who oppose colonialism must not bask in the privileges that it bestows. The exact details of the path towards liberation are uncertain, but it is undeniable that those who want to help pave it can only play a part in doing so within the Palestinian movement. The responsibility of finding ways to do so, to transgress the boundaries of forced national identity that are in place precisely to prevent that, falls upon those who wish to support Palestinians and break out of the confines of colonialism.

[eretzyisrael]

by Seth Mandel

There’s an iconic photo of the demonstrators marching through Sather Gate in November 1964. Ironically, they could not have done so in recent weeks: The antithesis of the Free Speech Movement, at the center of what is now the antithesis of Berkeley 1964, has had the gate blocked off. Pro-Hamas activists on campus have been blocking the gate and harassing any Jewish students in the vicinity. This comes on the heels of the same group’s violent and highly symbolic night of fascist role playing, in which they forced the cancellation of a Jewish speaker by physically assaulting a Jewish woman, spitting on others, smashing the venue’s window and hurling obscenities that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in The Zone of Interest.

It is appropriate, then, that the jackboot siege of Sather Gate was protested on Monday by a peaceful but determined march of Jews reprising their role as enemies of blood-and-soil racial hierarchies. “At noon,” an ABC affiliate reported that “the Jewish students marched onto Sproul Plaza and instead of passing through Sather Gate and past the banner, they avoided a confrontation by literally fording the creek to get to the other side on a foot path.” The report continues: “The crowd of 200 Jewish supporters ended up in front of California Hall where faculty members offered their support, commenting on the Feb. 26 disturbance that forced Jewish students to move off campus.”

That Feb. 26 incident was the breaking point. Anti-Semitic harassment and threats have been part of life for students there since Oct. 7. Other Jews have been assaulted on campus. A federal civil-rights complaint alleges that two-dozen law-school groups have anti-Jewish policies. Kosher restaurants have been targeted. It’s reached the point where one Jewish Berkeley professor is staging a live-in at his campus office.

Berkeley’s repression of Jewish civil rights won’t be solved by one march, but the change in posture to visible protest is welcome. The students and families tried working with the administration but have been ignored at every turn. A school spokesman even admitted the university would not be taking down the Palestine banner blocking part of campus because, although it clearly violates campus rules, “we assessed that using law-enforcement to clear it would create turmoil.” And God forbid there should be turmoil!

[doux-amer]

@atlasblue85 and I are talking about the Ben Daniels interview where he mentioned that Rolin asked if it was okay to make Santiago straight and Ben went "I guess so" to "nvm no<3" and how that corresponds to his acting. As much as the fandom immediately clocked Santiago as queer, it's more interesting to me to consider that's not the impression Santiago wants to make (this is not to say that he has massive hangups about his sexuality that would make him go "no homo" if people made the assumption that he's gay, bi, or pan, but the image he's constructed for himself, or one of images anyway, is a ladies' man). Sure, he's flamboyant, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's not straight; both of us have come across many a theater kid like Santiago who is in fact firmly straight. And initially, that's the vibe we got, other than the fact that he's only seen with women which, like his diva persona, doesn't necessarily mean anything either.

If you consider Ben's interpretation of Santiago, I think it's a deliberate decision that we canonically only see Santiago with women in the show. @atlasblue85 said that makes even more sense in light of what Ben said because "of course he's making a big show of [being with women] to repress these other feelings that he was probably taught to be ashamed of in his human lifetime." This slots in perfectly with what we find out about Santiago's history too, where he's a small, insecure man hiding behind the larger-than-life persona he built, and I love the idea of Santiago being a man of masks, with repression and performance dictating his behavior and navigation of the world, something that Ben mentioned in this TV Insider interview ("I think with Santiago, in the way that I created him, it’s that everything is a facade. He is not that person you first see, I mean, you maybe get glimpses of it along the way").

Ben talked about that seething vitriol masking his desire for Armand and Louis in that first interview I linked and in the TV Insider interview, about how he immediately picks up on Louis's pretense and hates him for it because Santiago himself puts on a façade (I assume he feels the same way about Armand for the same reason). Coupled with his complicated feelings about his attraction to Armand and Louis, I think he hates that they found other ways to move around the world and they're not only able to get what they want, but they do it so openly unlike him too.

Obviously there are more reasons as to why he covets the maître role, but part of why he wants Armand's position is because it instills him with the power to be less restricted. It fuels part of his animosity towards Louis too; there are multiple reasons why he doesn't like Louis, but here comes this guy gallivanting across Europe and through Paris, unbeholden to a coven, unbeholden to any expectations. He sees Louis free of the rigid hierarchy that he's in and he sees Louis be so open about his sexuality—and sees Louis get Armand's interest and affection so quickly.

Meanwhile, Santiago thinks he's made it, that he's become the man he's always wanted to be or convinced others that that's what he is at least, but Louis disabuses him of that notion and makes him come face to face with the fact that he's playing by the Great Laws, the Paris coven rules, human societal expectations that he hasn't unlearned and shaken off entirely, and his own insecurities and weaknesses. He's forced to reckon with the fact that that confident, free-spirited bon vivant persona is an illusion and a prison of his own making, and he loathes Louis for it.

[risingsouls]

So Momo, you mentioned before that Vegeta has complicated feelings about his race. What are they of exactly? Does he mourn the Saiyans being gone? Does he not care? Does he miss the role he was supposed to fulfill as prince, and eventually king? Are there other, obscure factors at play? Do tell, if you want to 👀

[Bless u Nebula for giving me a platform to discuss why I think Vegeta is more complex than we usually get to see.

This got long, so under the cut lmao

To start with the topic at hand, ideas of celebrating the Saiyans makes him itchy because it brings up all his repressed, complicated feelings about his race, most potently just the fact that they're dead. Thus, celebrating something like Saiyan day sounds really stupid to him. But I will try to delve into the depths of those feelings here and address your questions. And maybe some other thing if my mush brain can manage it.

Even though Vegeta has made callous comments about his races demise, up to and including basically suggesting they "deserved it" because they were to weak to stop it, this is all just posturing on his part. An attempt to act strong and unaffected in front of others, especially Nappa and Raditz who he was the sole monarch to after their planet was destroyed. It was also a way for him to cope that was easier for him since that was basically the Saiyan mentality: the strong survive, the weak don't. He just...tries not to think about the fact that the three of them were simply lucky to have been off planet. That they would be space dust with the rest of them if not for that simple fact. Most people, including Nappa and later Raditz, likely see through this, but they don't really dare to correct him. These days, he doesn't say these kinds of things; he's not trying to fool himself anymore, in other words.

That said, he does still mourn the loss of the Saiyans and his home. In truth, this is the first time in his life he's had the chance to, and parsing through it all has been an ongoing process. He won't admit to it or do it openly because of how he was raised, and might even suggest that he doesn't care anymore, but he definitely does mourn them.

As for missing his role as prince/king...I'm not sure if that's the way to word it exactly. In a sense, he didn't really want to be king because the role meant he would be stuck planetside more often than he would like. However, ruling the Saiyans was still his birthright, and it was one he wanted to SOME degree in that sense. It is still complicated though because, on one hand, he does feel he was denied that birthright and all that came with it. But at the same time, it's hard for him to care with the entire race he was meant to rule is dead + depression. So basically, he didn't necessarily want to rule, but that was still supposed to be HIS right.

Additionally, Vegeta feels he failed his people. He failed to save them, even if he was a kid. He failed Nappa and Raditz, the last two Saiyans he knew of before meeting Goku, even if that was partially his own fault for his callous behavior arguably learned from Frieza to certain degrees (I need to write about this again akdfjkladf). He basically feels like a failure who doesn't deserve his title as prince and, on the worst days, doesn't feel he deserves to call himself a Saiyan at all because he's sure his ancestors would be disappointed in him, what happened, and who he became.

The irony in all this is that, even if he were presented with the ability to revive them...it wouldn't be an easy yes for him (as seen in a thread I had long ago with @earthforsaken :'3). On the one hand, it's been so long. The nihilist in him thinks it would be pointless. He sees nothing good coming from reviving them and their planet. It's also about that last point of feeling like a failure. That he wouldn't live up the the high expectations the Saiyans had for him, especially since he had been beaten by Goku, a Saiyan of a lower class. He carries a lot of shame in himself, and he's certain he would see that reflected in his dead race's eyes. He isn't sure he could face that after decades of beating HIMSELF up over it all.

Overall, he is proud of his race. He's proud to call himself a Saiyan for the most part on most days. But between mourning them finally and his own perception of himself in regards to their demise and the like, things become a lot less rosy. He's working on it, on feeling that pride without the baggage attached, but it's not easy for him to do.]

[mariacallous]

The recent reshuffling of the Russian government and presidential administration represent qualitative changes to Vladimir Putin's aging regime. The losers were those directly responsible for the preparation and execution of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Putin's new government is weighted much more clearly in favor of the clans that formed under his rule. According to Alexei Levchenko, editor of The Insider, the rise of the “princelings” — relatives of Putin and his closest associates — suggests that the government is preparing for a new stage in the transition of power.

While most observers are discussing the unexpected appointment of new Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, much less attention has been paid to the simultaneous demotion of the main planners of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Although both Sergei Shoigu and Nikolai Patrushev were given new positions (as we know, Vladimir Putin rarely lets anyone leave his circle completely), the change in their jobs does not look like a promotion — to say the least.

After serving as FSB director from 1999 to 2008, Patrushev was tasked with leading Russia’s Security Council, a coordinating body operating under the authority of the presidential administration and staffed largely with special services officers, generals, and former intelligence officials. Under Patrushev’s highly influential leadership, the council has become a kind of think tank aimed at fighting against “enemies” inside Russia, at masterminding schemes of political repression, and at dealing with any potential threats to Putin's regime of personal power. It is rumored that the lists of foreign agents and new candidates for undesirable organizations are approved at Security Council meetings every Friday.

The Security Council played a key role in the analytical preparation for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The operational reports and coded messages that passed through this body — and which were condensed by Patrushev personally — are believed to have promised a quick and glorious victory on the Ukrainian front.

Success in the “short, victorious war” was to be secured by the shiny new Russian army, a brand created by Sergei Shoigu and triumphantly sold to Vladimir Putin at parades, military exercises, and well-choreographed forums in Moscow’s Patriot Park. The PR successes of Shoigu's tank biathlons were so impressive that even Western military analysts began to consider Russian troops “the second best army in the world.”

The sandcastle collapsed in the first month of the war. Rather than crushing the enemy using its modern Armata “super tanks,” Russian soldiers attempting to advance on Kyiv in Soviet-era T-72s were killed en masse by Ukrainian forces wielding Western-supplied Javelin missiles. ” The Security Council and Ministry of Defense blamed each other, with sources close to the military blaming the very wrong analysis of Patrushev’s group, and sources friendly to the FSB and the Security Council blaming rampant corruption in Shoigu’s ministry.

But the Kremlin could not confess to such a catastrophic failure. That's why the two long-time, high-level Putin confidants were replaced in a manner that made it appear as if it were simply part of a routine, scheduled rotation at the beginning of Putin's new presidential term. In practice, however, neither Shoigu nor Patrushev will have the same opportunities as they did before. Shoigu will not become Russia’s new mastermind of political security, as he lacks the necessary skills and access to the infrastructure of the security services. For Patrushev’s part, the appointment of a man once seen as the second most powerful figure in the country to the role of “presidential aide on shipbuilding” looks like mockery.

The emergence of Andrei Belousov as Defense Minister indicates Putin's deep distrust of the military. But then again, the president has never trusted his country’s generals. That began in 2001, when Putin replaced the last military officer to hold the top job in the MoD, Igor Sergeyev, with his ex-KGB colleague Sergei Ivanov. The Kremlin chief has always been afraid of rebellion — and as demonstrated by Yevgeny Prigozhin's antics of 2023, which were supported by several generals, that fear was not groundless.

Belousov's surprise candidacy for his new post appears natural in hindsight. A workaholic economist absolutely devoted to Putin could not be kept in the job of first deputy prime minister forever. Isolated from all Russian clans and without his own team, Belousov came into conflict with half of Russia's oligarchs and business elite, whose profits he actively “confiscated” for the benefit of the state budget — and also with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, with whom he never found a common language. Putin could not simply throw away such an important and useful person, especially when Belousov’s anomalous attributes — the absence of a personalistic team and no traces of serious corruption, combined with meticulous administrative abilities — were so fitting for the suddenly open post in the Defense Ministry.

For opponents of Russia’s war in Ukraine, this is bad news. Belousov, a cold, introverted statesman, will be expected to cleanse the military establishment of corruption and direct the freed-up funds to the increasingly efficient killing of Ukrainian military personnel and civilians. Shoigu's former economic team is already being dismantled in the harshest possible manner, a process that shows the supreme commander-in-chief's extreme disappointment. However, defeating the military corporation will not be an easy task. In the army, Belousov, who has no military experience, will be seen as nothing less than the second coming of Anatoly Serdyukov.

Serdyukov, a businessman and former tax official who served as Russia’s Defense Minister from 2007 to 2012, was tasked with reforming the country’s armed forces and creating an efficient, “professional” military — better equipped, smaller in troop size, and more financially responsible. Several aspects of the reforms, such as major cuts to Russia’s officer corps, were met with fierce opposition from the army’s “old guard.”

Putin’s other personnel moves appear to preserve the previous balance of factions, at least at first glance. However, while there has been no change in the quantitative nomenclature of positions, there has been a change in the quality of those positions. Mishustin's new government has moved away from the dichotomy of previous cabinets, in which supervisors-slash-deputy ministers and sectoral ministers often came from different teams. This created a conflict that worked to the Kremlin's advantage, allowing it to avoid over-strengthening any of the members of the government.

This time, the clans of the Russian government have distributed responsibility quite openly. The Rostec-Sergei Chemezov vertical has emerged, evident in the link between First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and Minister for Industry Anton Alikhanov. Transportation and logistics are linked to the Rotenbergs, who are close to both Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev and the new Minister of Transportation Roman Starovoit, the former governor of the Kursk Region.

Former FSB men who had previously taken over the agriculture sector retained control not only over the Agriculture Ministry, but also saw the promotion of Dmitry Patrushev — son of the freshly appointed “presidential aide for shipbuilding” Nikolai — to the post of supervising Deputy Prime Minister.

The team of Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin — represented by the head of the Ministry of Economy Maxim Reshetnikov, Minister of Education and Science Valery Falkov, and the Deputy Prime Minister for Construction Marat Khusnullin — has seen its representatives retain their posts. Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev has two ministers of his own — Alexei Chekunkov, head of the Ministry for the Development of the Far East, and Alexei Kozlov, head of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The biggest loser, oddly, looks like Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who lost one of the figures in the new government makeup — Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko. Although the loss does not look critical, the beginning of the cutback in spheres of influence foreshadows a future career decline for Mishustin himself toward the end of Putin's term.

Mishustin has a reputation as an extremely ambitious bureaucrat, but he avoids showing it, remaining the modern equivalent of the inconspicuous Nikita Khrushchev in Stalin's Politburo. However, the post of the Prime Minister is an extremely important one, as in the event of any kind of force majeure, he will become the acting head of state. And the closer we get to 2030, the more arguments Putin will have to appoint a truly “dear” person as prime minister.

As a regime ages, authoritarian leaders have less and less trust, even in their inner circle. Once former friends turn into powerful bosses themselves and start playing their own games. This forces the dictator to periodically thin out and shake up the elites.

During Putin’s 24-year reign, the banker Sergei Pugachev, special services associates Viktor Ivanov and Vladimir Yakunin (who were once considered aces in the Kremlin deck) have fallen out of the boss’s inner circle. At the current stage of the reshuffle, it seems that representatives of the Yeltsin “family” have finally been distanced from the Kremlin. In the newest incarnation of the presidential administration, Alexandra Levitskaya, wife of the once influential Alexander Voloshin, former chief of staff during Putin's first term, has lost her position as an adviser.

And the closer the transition of power gets, the more often the leader’s closest relatives appear to be the most reliable potential successors. Nursultan Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan and Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan, for example, tried to pass power to their daughters — but both failed. Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus also dreams of monarchic succession.

Vladimir Putin's daughters still seem to be on the sidelines, but the appointment of Sergei Tsivilev, husband of Putin’s great-niece Anna, as Minister of Energy, already looks quite revealing. And Anna herself, by the way, also holds an important position in Putin's value system as director of the “Special Military Operation” veterans' fund, which enjoys a multibillion-dollar budget.

The example of the Tsivilevs is not the only case of the rise of “princelings” as a result of the recent reshuffling of power. The appearance of Yuri Kovalchuk's son Boris at the head of the Accounts Chamber and his rise to the position of Deputy Prime Minister of Dmitry Patrushev fall in the same line.

The elite, wanting to consolidate its position, will try to appoint more and more of its children, wives, nieces, and nephews to senior positions. But it is this very symptom that often becomes a harbinger of change, when, in the final stage of a dying regime, the authorities fail to resist the fact that society is tired of stagnation.