#call me biased but loving without being attached is such a core part of my own faith

[fierysakura]

Aite let’s do this. Here’s my thoughts on the Jedi’s Attachment rule and why it exists:

Attachment and love/affection are two very different things. You can be loving and affectionate without being attached to someone.

The same way, letting go doesn’t mean forgetting. It’s accepting the way things are and that death and loss are a natural part of life. You can’t fight what’s natural. It also doesn’t mean to sit back and just accept things as they are, or why would Jedi fight to protect? To change things and save people?

Love is knowing to put the many over the few. If someone you love is in danger, but there’s also a boatload of civilians, it’s going for the civilians, even if you hate them, despite wanting to save the other. ie. Letting go of your feelings. Not being attached.

So why this rule is such a big deal.

For a Jedi, being *attached* poses a much bigger problem than for the average person (looking at you Anakin Skywalker.) If a normal person can go to extremes either as a result of losing someone or wanting to protect them, think of what a Jedi, who feels things more deeply because of the Force, could do if they can’t let go.

The important thing is Jedi don’t say ‘don’t love.’ They don’t say ‘feel nothing.’ In fact you often hear Obi-wan and others say to trust feelings, instincts and refer to each other affectionately.

Anakin: You’re like a father to me.

Obi-Wan: Then why don’t you *listen.*

(Episode II. Not a reprimand for calling him father-like but asking if that’s how he feels, why doesn’t Anakin listen like a son should.)

What they *do* say is don’t get carried away in positive or negative feelings, as both can lead to impulsive actions with long term consequences. It’s a concept that follows the lines of mindfulness and just being *aware* that they have so much power, they can’t afford to be reckless. Because the damage *will* be long lasting.

They say don’t love someone so much that you’ll do anything for them. They say don’t be *possessive.* Because that’s a *very* dangerous place to go for a normal person, let alone a super powerful being who could leave *chaos* behind. Attachment is refusing to let go. Stopping someone from doing what they love because you’re scared. Love is trusting and accepting things can’t/will change even if you don’t like it, and accepting that when there’s nothing you can do without breaking your moral code.

Jedi grieve. They feel loss. They get angry. They *love.* They just don’t let those feelings overwhelm them to the point of irrationality, accepting, understanding, and releasing them because they’ll do no good in the long run. If emotion overwhelms the brain, the logical part shuts down, and we’ve all seen what force fuelled temper/grief can do.

‘Kanan and Ezra don’t follow the rule.’

On the contrary.

You see Kanan learn to let go of his grief and *attachment* which has been holding him back all this time. In doing so he becomes a Knight and Master. He loves Hera, yes, but he loves unconditionally. Not possessively. He’s fine with Hera going on dangerous missions and accepts that there will be times she’s hurt. That there’s always a possibility she might not come back and he’s gonna have to live with that. He doesn’t try to stop her. He doesn’t fall into a rage if she gets hurt. He accepts it, pain, rage, grief and all, but lets it go so he doesn’t become fearful to the point he won’t let *her* go. He accepts Hera loves the Rebellion and compromises even if he doesn’t like it. Love. Nothing wrong with that in the Jedi Order.

In contrast you have Anakin. When Padmé is in danger he will drop *everything* to go to her, including putting his men and padawan in unnecessary danger to do so. You see his jealousy when Clovis is around. His lack of faith in Padmé despite her assurances. How he won’t back down even if it scares or disturbs her. You see how he *refuses* to take any chances at all with her health to the point of breaking his moral code. This isn’t love anymore. This is attachment, possession. This is what the Jedi forbid.

You see Ezra struggle with letting Sabine go on a dangerous mission and Kanan teaching him that he has to accept the danger, that she might not come back. and how to do it. Telling him to respect her abilities, what she wants to do, and not loving her to the point of stifling her. This is what letting go is. This is what the Jedi teach.

Ezra has to learn to let go of his own grief and accept Kanan’s death. This is what love without attachment means. This is what the rule is. Feeling it. Accepting it. Then letting the emotions go so they don’t control your actions more than your mind does.

Also, anyone can leave the Jedi Order. If they don’t agree, there’s nothing forcing them to stay. Being a Jedi is a religion, a way of life. You can discuss and debate the details, but you don’t get to pick and choose what parts to follow.

You can be a force wielder without being a Jedi. The privileges the Jedi received were because of their belief and the respect that earned.

But more importantly, you can happily leave the order, and the Jedi will still welcome you to come hang out. To chill with your friends and walk about the Temple, train with others and catch up. It’s a community. You don’t suddenly lose all of that because you decided following the Jedi way wasn’t for you.

[tokyokookmin]

I really loved your explanation regarding vmin it was retable. kanmom51 anon, Im using a little of your ask for @tokyokookmin to explain and narrate a lil about JIMIN shes a JM biased too so I felt that it would be appropriate to ask her.

"Because it’s no secret that JM doesn’t get any praise from the company, the choreographer, and all."

"When it comes to the members it’s a different topic. They hype Jimin up. We have J-Hope constantly praising JM. Jk completely in awe with JM dance. Jin thanking him for helping him rehearse."

"So for me Bighit for some reason doesn’t do anything for JM, no credit in his work, no acknowledgement, nothing."

I felt that every single word that this anon has said is pure truth and this remark deserves much more attention. We all know what's currently going on with JM, the situation is really bad and its getting worse, toxic solo stans are bashing him and they are comparing him to other members from every perspective + even the hate that he's getting bcuz of him "annoying jk" in that memories 2020.

I need you to explain on how a wonderful person JM is. Your impact makes a huge difference on people mindset. tysm keshhh.

Hey there anon!, I deeply understand your emotions. The hate that JM is going through is really bad and I have personally reported those accounts on twt etc. I even took a few snapshots of a tiktok video comment section... I will surely share them some day or another. Well then lets get started! I can't compare J-HOPE TO JM because they are my biases and both of them captivated my eyes, I just can't resist their flawless moves and they make a great dance unit... it would be incomplete without one of them + JK lol.

Most armies would say that JK is the golden maknae or he's the best overall in the team, well y'all took JM for granted, he's capable of doing so many things as well. But before that we need to talk about his dancing skills, I have made one blog about the 3J. Here's the link if you would like to know about their achievements/viral moments https://tokyokookmin.tumblr.com/post/654670945252933632/a-guide-to-the-dance-line..... this blog was mostly just me collecting info's lmao-.

1. DANCE ☝️

Well I found this incredible video from tiktok and I thought that this video would be perfect to describe his contemporary skills. Utmost respect to the creator for creating such a masterpiece!

Jimin Van Fleet Award!

Do we really need to talk about this? We all knew what impact he had given to audience with his remarkable traditional korean fan dance.He is extremely talented, after all he trained in contemporary.

“I received many really big awards today. I sincerely appreciate it, and it was a day when I thought I would like to share it with you with better music and stage in the future. Thank you all for your support. #JIMIN# We have been unclear” #JiminWorldwideLoved 📷📷📷📷

"As emphasized by the ballet dancer, being lifted is not easy, just like in the case of Jimin in the said stage. A strong core, glutes, and chest are vital for the one being lifted." https://youtu.be/3RW91KT3bXw - another review from a japanese dancer.

He is extremely versatile and he can master any sort of genre.He excels in dancing,his moves and fluidity of his body is astonishing they way he moves every tissue in his body to perfectly to complete the cheoreo is just mind blowing, he is truly the embodiment of dancing! Believe me or not, you should pay more attention on his facial expressions... he keeps it graceful. His fingers and angle are on point.

From MAMA 2016 Lie meets Boy meets evil to MMA 2020 black swan 🦢..I wonder what's coming up next.

2. Loving member

Jimin is the member that I connect emotionally to, he's a sentimental person but he just doesn't show it you just have to pay attention on his behaviour and actions. He consoles many of the members and he provides comfort for them. The picture I attached below sets a great example.

1. BTS MAMA 2018... It was a tough year for them. They were close to disbanding, and the members were emotionally drained. My heart sank when I saw hobi breaking down in front of the crowd, you can find tons of fancams but you should take a close look at Jimin. He handled the situation very well and I love the way he gives his subtle touch of love towards the other members.

2. Taehyung grandma death announcement

I don't think that I need to explain the about the situation. Taehyung was really sad and felt guilty as he couldn't mention his grandma name. He broke down and Jimin immediately noticed him and ran towards him and just gave him little pat/huggie.

3. The Final

Even by looking at the picture you can see the comfort. You know that GCF-TOKYO song “there for you’ which implies that Jk means he will be there for jimin but "you gotta be there for me too” which means jimin gotta be there for him too. So yeah, JM just know jungkook well and he comforts Jk pretty well.It was so cute and i wished i was a part of the audience, i would have had a panic attack looking at them being so cute,fluff,intimate ON STAGE . Too bad it’s impossible now .

3.He's a badass [ athletic/ physical ]

Jimin has often talked about his experience in kendo,japanese fencing,Geomdo (검도, 劍道) “Way of the Sword” & hapkido. HAPKIDO: electid korean martial arts .It is a form of self-defense that employs joint locks, grappling, throwing techniques, kicks, punches, and other striking attacks.

https://youtu.be/oUcHghZQxiw - a video you may refer to.

.4.Academic excellence

After Namjoon Jimin has the most remarkable academic achievements in bts. He was one of the top students in junior high and was THE top student in Busan arts high school from ALL the departments. Fun fact Jimin IQ is 128! He was valedictorian too.

"When he was in junior high, he was one of the top students so Jimin's dad thought of enrolling him in a foreign language school. When he decided to go to an arts school, his teachers tried to stop him and were disappointed. He was accepted as the top of his class and attended Busan High School of Arts. He was doing really good. Then he switched to K-pop dancing and decided to be a trainee in Seoul. Teachers also tried to stop him and were disappointed. Park Jimin's life is really something.

36. Our Jimin didn't spend a lot of time preparing for the arts school. He was dancing popping when he decided to go to the arts school. He then learned modern dancing for a little over a year and was accepted at Busan High School of Arts as the top of his class even though he was a dance majorπ TT TT Every member in this group could've been successful at anything. That group is our pride, BTS.

60. Wow! If there's only one dance class, it's really incredible~ It's hard to get a top student from dance department. And it was achieved by a male student and it's Park Jimin TTTT

67. That's what I know too.. I was looking into Busan Arts School before and one class for dance is probably correct. It was mostly music and art classes that I remember. So from Busan Arts School, one out of ten classes and a male student from dance department getting accepted as the top of the class...the percentage is just incredible. I know that the dance class has about 40 students? And male students could be 25:15 or 30:10. Jimin broke through this and became the top.

Namjoon and Jimin really made a huge gamble. They could've went the easier way. Truthfully, if they went their way, they both would have succeeded. But becoming an idol and not knowing what their future will be and BTS not being successful from the beginning must have been really hard for them. But now I'm glad they're successful and they can realize they've made the right choice."

cr @artimitatesjimin

I really respect and idolize him. His personality is unique and its different.He's been through alot. Being kicked from BTS for 8+ times, the members ranking his looks as the last and being called fat and ugly, that's really disturbing. He starved and went on diets just to please the audience and to have a jawline. He works his ass of and he really deserves more. He's obviously cutie,sexy,lovely,sweet guy! He prioritize his career, family and fans before anything. He has absolute heavenly vocals (+crazyyy high notes) and he is the definition of stage presence. PARK JIMIN IS THE STANDARD. Solo toxic fans are definitely going to attack on me but this is the reality.Jimin deserves more and he's such a sweet person. He performs with his whole heart and expresses it wonderfully,he goes all out and each performance comes out from his soul. He loves to perform. I MEAN FOR THE LOOKS, JIMIN IS THE FIRST FOR JUNGKOOK~.

He once even wasn't able to attend THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW due to his sore muscles.

He went through alot and he deserves the #1 in brand reputation, who doesn't admire his determination?

Each member is unique in their own way. I want no hate or malice on my platform ~

Bits and pieces I collected anon! love ya ~ stay safe.

[gamespritearchive]

yes i like fullmetal alchemist brotherhood a normal amount (<- lying) this post is going to be long so open the readmore at ur own risk

ok this is genuinely going to be a mess because im really terrible at summarizing things and organizing my thoughts so if ur actually gonna read through this then good luck!

here are just some short thoughts before the longer paragraphs

- i absolutely LOVE the note that plays right after the alchemists clap their hands together that indicates that theyre abt to use alchemy. the sound of the clap + the note that plays is incredibly satisfying

- the strong and well-written female characters in this show was a really good touch and i loved how they brought them (izumi and olivier) together at the end :') also their beefy husbands together was super nice too

- my favorite part of the story was actually the part where ed and al go to briggs because thats wher they introduced olivier. it was super nice to see her talk about how strong-willed she is and her army and all of that

- lan fan is another example of a strong female character but a little less favorable since she serves ling yao. that doesnt make her any less cool though she was super badass and i definitely cried over her more than once

- the details in this show was really nice. alphonse's body being malnourished was something that seemed really obvious, but the fact that when ed got his right arm back it was noticeably less muscular and had longer nails than his left was such a good detail

- in the last episode there was a scene where alphonse made a dumb face that was animated just like how ed's faces looked and that made me really happy that we finally get to see al emote just like his brother :')

- im pretty sure i cried through the entirety of the last episode because being able to see the characters laugh and smile without feeling burdoned by anything after youve seen them go through repeated heartache and physical pain for 63 episodes is a super nice feeling

- "i'm a terrible father but i want to make you two proud" .

- "i'll give you half of my life and you give me half of yours" UGH

- also right after this when ed was laughing at how flustered winry got because normally hes the one who gets flustered :') that was so sweet

- i literally guessed that it was morse code whenever they showed selim banging on al's head because its like why would they put so much emphasis on that and let it go on for like 10 seconds without any music over it. this happened like multiple times too and i guessed it before they made it incredibly obvious bye im the smartest guy alive

ok heres where i talk more besties lets go

fmab was absolutely worth watching 64 episodes. i was convinced that i probably wont finish it because i have trouble finishing 12 episodes but as it may be obvious i got super invested. fmab being this long allowed there to be enough time to explain aspects of the story separately and to watch them all come together at some point. it also allowed for a ton of details that even though they're small, they're still important to the story. they rehash a lot of points because it was a simple detail that could get lost through the story but when its rementioned and you recall the time, it's such a nice feeling to have that click in ur mind.

also the character development was really good and ill get more in-depth about characters later but the length of this anime also allowed for a ton of really good character development. it ties into the whole thing where you learn about a characters backstory and you don't understand why it's important to the show until later on and then you're like ohhhh holy shit that makes sense now! also all that time for character development also lets you get attached to more than just the main characters and makes you care more about the role they play in the story.

roy mustang. at first i liked him, but when he started to speak about how he wanted to become the fuhrer president before he knew the military was corrupt, i assumed that he would just become as corrupt as bradley was ("starting wars for no reason"). i was convinced for the longest time that he would eventually just turn out to be the second bad guy and that nearly came true whenever he was trying to kill envy but riza helped him :) i loved the entirety of their relationship they're so sweet and compliment eachother so well. the scene where roy demonstrates the sheer amount of trust he has in riza's abilities by blindly (heh. he was blind during this if u didnt know.) following her directions and hitting their target ... it was just so good. also even though i didnt trust roy i thought he was super badass the sound of him snapping was always super satisfying as well

i almost want to rewatch fmab because it would be really nice to pick up on things that were later referenced in the anime. because of how long it is, its super easy to forget about things that happened early on in the anime (especially for someone with memory issues lol) so being able to watch back with the second half of the show still fresh on my mind would be almost an entirely different experience. the first thing that comes to mind is whenever we were shown kimblee in prison super early on. i know he had dialogue but i remember nothing about it because i was focused on thinking "literally who the fuck is this guy lol" but now i know. wow.

edward elric. im aware that this is going to be incredibly biased but i literally do not care. anyways. character development is always important and needed within a story but i genuinely feel like ed's character development was interesting to watch. it was never super obvious and his core values never changed. he did somewhat have a change in attitude when he nearly died to kimblee, but thats like expected you know ... being that close to death and all. i think that event was essentially the beginning of the end of his naivety. he was always consistent with the people he cared about though :) he never stopped calling them stupid and weird and he never stopped threatening to punch hohenheim whenever he was frustrated even if they were like in the middle of like a life or death situation. i just think he's neat

when ed destroyed pride('s vessel) i felt my heart well up with. pride LOL. that was his very first explicit win against someone who has been against him this entire time, and seeing him defeat pride with his own two hands was such a nice feeling. it wasnt technically his own win since he was only able to get to that point because of his friends and family around him

episode 60 was suuper good it was the part where the father was gonna swallow god because of the solar eclipse. its super hard to explain if uve never seen it but basically the scene was super cool simply because of how well the animation showed the sheer scale of what was happening. like this guy was literally reaching to the moon. theres a lot of unnatural things that are shown in fmab and although this scene didnt introduce any new concepts, it was still incredibly captivating because of how well the animation was

aand thats it i think! i regret not writing down how i feel during the earlier episodes but i think watching it with little to no distractions was a better experience. if u actually read this im giving u a kiss on the cheek rn ilu

[curestardust]

if you want: story, setting and character designs by the same people who worked on Danganronpa / (for those who played the franchise: you know what to expect) / for those who didn’t: crazy shit and an emotional rollercoaster galore / definitely not for everyone but don’t knock it til you try it

This anime’s creator is someone who goes by the humble name of Kodaka Kazutaka. Yes, the dude behind the Danganronpa franchise. Alongside Komatsuzaki Rui, who designed the characters for the same franchise, I knew “Akudama Drive” was gonna be... a wild ride.

This may sound like an exaggeration but playing the Danganronpa games lowkey changed my fucking life. I’ve never seen anything like it before nor to this day. And despite having been writing reviews for years now, aka watching things with a mindset where I can categorize what I like and what I don’t, if you asked me why I consider Danganronpa so incredible you’d only get a blank faced stare. Because I can’t explain it. 

Anyway, I’m talking so much about a seemingly unrelated media because to people who’ve played the games, they’ll know what kind of atmosphere and story beats they’ll see in this anime. And as you’ve probably gathered from what I’ve written above, the second I realised who was behind “Akudama Drive” I became a bit biased, yes, but I also adjusted my mindset. Because if this was gonna be anything like Danganronpa, I knew I couldn’t view it the same way I watch the majority of anime. And that was the right decision.

Komatsuzaki Rui ‘s character designs are probably the most recognizable aspect to those who know his work. Oddly, his designs are both plain and memorable. There’s always something about each character that catches your attention, small details, like a pair of glasses or streaks in a character’s hair. Their designs also perfectly fit with their personalities. The set pieces stood out as well and I loved the way they sometimes transitioned between locations by the set pieces falling in piece by piece or using an “ad” similiar to Monokuma Theater.

For what mindset you needs to enjoy the writing of Kodaka Kazutaka: sit back and watch the story unfold. Yes, that’s it. As to how that’s different from any other media, I’d say the emotional connection. In the similiar way to the designs, the characters personalities feel a bit 1-dimensional in the beginning, having one strong core personality straight that seemingly defines them. But through the story, you get attached to them and what’s happening without noticing. I don’t know how he does that, to be honest. Even if I felt like I couldn’t care less about a character, their death still manages to stir up some emotion inside me.

Death is another thing. Very rarely do I see anime where death could happen at any moment, to anyone, and you’re accutely aware of this. In Danganronpa, death and betrayal was an obvious part of the plot, but even then you sometimes managed to forget and almost hope that no one else will die again even though the rational part of you knows that it will.

As to how any of this can be applied to “Akudama Drive”, here’s a short rundown of the story: we are in a cyberpunk apocalyptic future version of Kansai where “criminals” are called akudama (this word literally means “bad person” but the in-universe meaning of it gets more and more muddled). Multiple S-Rank Akudama with different skillsets get a mission for a pretty sum of money: rescue another S-Rank akudama who’s about to be executed. Somehow, our main character gets mixed up in this whole mess despite her being just an “ordinary person”. Things happen, and our main cast is basically forced into working as a team to complete a goal.

I’m being very vague here but that’s because of what I said above; sit back and watch the story unfold. So I want to spoil as few things as possible. Just let this fictional world and story consume you for 12 episodes, leaving you with a probably very weird feeling in the end.

But I gotta say, while *vaguely gestures* all this is completely my style, not everyone will feel the same way. I could see people hating this anime for the same reasons I liked it. Honestly, I’d tell you to do the usual 3 episode rule but the anime’s true colours don’t show until halfway through so idk.

“Akudama Drive” isn’t perfect. The dialogue was definitely on the weaker side and there’s barely any character progression until near the end. The story can feel unfulfilling as well if it’s not your style. 

To leave you on this final note and something that I can’t believe I missed throughout my whole viewing of this anime: no one has a name. The akudama go by their “professions” so them being referred to as “Doctor” or “Courier” made me ignore it but I only realized about 30 minutes ago that not only them, NO ONE has a name in this anime. And I can’t fucking believe I haven’t noticed that sooner. Thumbs up, Kodaka-sensei, you genius maniac. Make more shit to break my heart, please and thank you (oh and get the dude who made the Danganronpa OSTs on your next anime).

[9/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | There was actual money spent on this

[holyhikari]

Okay. Okay. It’s 2020, most of the world is shut down and the first episode of Digimon Adventure aired yesterday, missing a ‘Butter-Fly’ and with a colon to spare. Life sure is something. 

Gotta say I’m relieved. (For now, at least.) Sure, yeah, I got into the hype train for the reboot from the get-go and determined to just have fun, but. If I can picture all the ways something can go wrong — go BORING — down to excruciating details right from the first episode, why not? That’s what brains are for. So that’s what I did. 

Should have saved all that energy. 

I want to share with all of you my thoughts on this episode, break it down a little bit; how it made me feel, the few character introductions we got, the pace, the plot and its possibilities. 

As much as I want to approach this series keeping the idea of authenticity in mind, it is a reboot. They chose a certain set of (popular!) pre-existent characters to explore, to work with; a balance between creating and adapting. And I’m very interested in seeing how they’ll combine the core elements of Digimon Adventure with all there is unique to this generation of kids, teens and, you know it, adults who stuck around. 

Since all we’ve got is the introduction to the series, I’ll be contrasting TOKYO DIGITAL CRISIS to how the original Adventure kicked off back in 1999 with  ADRIFT? THE ISLAND OF ADVENTURE!

I did try to keep this as coherent and review-like as possible, but there’s a fair amount of fan-girling and it’s all seen through my very biased Adventure-stan-colored lens. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya. 

‘99 starts with an image of our planet, and  ‘20 starts almost the same. This time, though, we can see we aren’t alone. ‘The Digital World affecting the Earth’ is something that happens, I believe, in every Digimon reincarnation. In ‘99, it’s deeply affecting our climate. Now, the issue doesn’t seem so drastic that it’s able to reach influence organic matter and mess up many Nature’s cycles across the globe, but it’s still not looking so good for our kids. (It’s the first episode and Hikari and Yuuko almost get train-sandwiched, but I suppose that almost having your head chopped off, courtesy of Kuwagamon, isn’t lovely either.) 

Anyway. 

I think this Digital World/Network shot isn’t actually part of the episode? I think it’s part of the opening (I mean, not the OP sequence with the song, obviously), and that we’ll be seeing it before each episode starts. Still, it’s an interesting juxtaposition, isn’t it?

A Glorious World is upon us! I wasn’t actually expecting Butter-Fly or anything similar to it, don’t worry. I’m glad the new OP is its own thing! I want Digimon Adventure ‘20 to be as authentic as possible without losing the original’s heart. The song is nice enough. I don’t want to compare it to Butter-Fly, but I’m only human. Give me a few episodes. Gotta let go. 

The OP has way more Taichi than the others. No surprise there. He’s our goggle boy. (Still, since they went for a quick throwback to the original opening, it’s a shame only Taichi was shown falling down towards the Digital World). 

Everyone got a part, though. Shout out to Takeru and Hikari for being yet again the ominous, powerful baby-faced duo that is definitely up to something. 

It’s so interesting that, while the other crests are shown very clearly and surrounded by sparkles, Light and Hope are only shown briefly shining in their partners’ shadows. Why is Takeru so far away from us, why is this so sinister-looking. Hi, mysterious plot. Nice to meet you.

Wherever Hikari is by the end of the OP, it reminds me of Vamdemon’s castle. Maybe she feels connected to Tailmon and follows her somehow? Angemon wasn’t shown in the OP with the older six children’s partners, just Patamon. I wonder if they’ll try to make us grieve for Angemon a second time. It’d work with me. Either way, I imagine we’re in for another last-minute Patamon evolution when everything looks hopeless. 

This time, though, we’ve got Hikari from the beginning (yes, I am VERY excited about this, thank you for asking, THIS IS WHAT I DESERVE), and, while I think Patamon is more powerful in regular conditions (as in, Angemon can probably take Angewomon in a fight despite the level imbalance, but as soon as Hikari starts glowing you know who’s winning), he will now be sharing the spotlight with another Archangel evolution… as his friend or as his foe, considering that Tailmon might be a double agent of some sorts in the beginning. Welp. 

Anyway. Toei isn’t fooling around, in the OP we can see MetalGreymon in a very scary-looking, glitchy fashion that I’m LIVING for, WarGreymon’s silhouette and, good grief, there’s even a glimpse of Omegamon. Talk about too much information. Maybe chill out a little? (I say this, but the adults already know all of their evos, and the kids just want MOOOOOOORE monstahhhhhrrrrrrsss….which is fair.)

MetalGreymon looks dope here. The others, though, are only shown up to their Adult evolution, even Gabumon. I don’t think they will have only Gabumon and Agumon reaching their Mega forms, and then fusing into Omegamon while everyone else only gets as far as Perfect.  Again.

They wouldn’t do this to us. Right? Yeah, they would. Maybe we can have Holydramon/Ophanimon and Seraphimon later on, as a treat. Aaaaaand, depending on how many episodes — how many seasons — this new timeline gets, I’m not giving up hope just yet. Let me have Phoenixmon, Toei, you heartless thing. 

Moving on to the actual episode… The first non-Digimon character to show up is the true protagonist. Our queen is back. Our little Digivice thief, Miko herself.

Just you wait, you ain’t gonna be Hikari’s favorite cat-like creature for long. 

Speaking of Hikari, LOOK AT THIS WITTLE BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2020 Taichi right off the bat was Taichi for me. He’s talking to Yuuko and yells “Hikariii~” so loudly Hikari hears it from where she stands, the short cutie. Their mom just hands down the phone for her without missing a beat so Taichi can comfort her through whatever she’s worrying about (her summer classes, probably). Such a sweet, natural little moment that flashes both characters out. I want more of that, please.

We’re then introduced to Koushiro! I’m not gonna lie, I cringed the first time I heard him speak. I thought the voice didn’t fit him very well. This impression faded quickly enough, though, and I’m already attached to his new voice. Later, I realized that part of the reason he sounded off to me was because of how nervous he seemed — around Taichi, of all people! In this version, they’re just meeting for the first time, so it’s very in-character for him. Guess I was kinda shocked seeing Koushiro not feeling at ease talking to Taichi. Poor thing is Anxious! And he’s overthinking about Summer Camp! And he’s happy Taichi is his neighbor! That certainly would’ve helped during the Vandemon arc back in ‘99. 

Koushiro gets a little bit over his awkwardness upon hearing the news regarding the cyber attack, something he’s curious about, and finally steps towards Taichi instead of away, which is spot on. These two fall into an easy camaraderie, as they SHOULD, and they head to the train station together, where Taichi decides to, I don’t know… run like crazy on the tracks until he gets to the rogue train where his family is and stop it with sheer force of will? Yeah! Sounds like him! 

And now to one of the most interesting parts of this adaption, is that they’re showing us the Crests early on and HOW they’re doing it. 

Taichi is able to meet Koromon because he’s being brave.

I mean, the first time, he was chosen because of his courage, too, but they all go in together. They’re taken. They’re washed off the Earth. And while Taichi had no idea he was going to be pulled into the Net, he chose to try to save Hikari and his mom (and, a few moments later, he chose to dive in towards Koromon). This time, it feels so much more personal. The screen switched back and forth between the Crest of Courage, Taichi and Hikari, who I believed called his name. The scene worked so well! (Following this pattern, Koushiro gets his Digivice when expressing curiosity, the will to pursue an explanation for what was happening!!!!)

On the other hand, it’s sort of bittersweet  they weren’t pulled in together. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they didn’t try to introduce all of them AND the Digital World at the same time again. But… ‘99 established them as a ‘team’ within seconds. It’s interesting, though. I’m VERY curious to see how their bonding will go this time around!

Taichi and Koromon meeting was beautiful. I was worried the soundtrack wouldn’t even stand a chance against the masterpiece that is the original one, but the musing playing was so delicate, so majestic. I felt I was witnessing a precious moment. Also, Koromon’s ears twisting into how we represent the DNA while he was evolving was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SUCH A GOOD DETAIL!!!!!! 

It cracked me up when Koushiro said that what was happening was very surprising while not sounding surprised at all. I wonder how long the kid has been looking into the cyber attacks. Oh, and the Network is pretty. Prettier than I had anticipated, though not that different from Appmon’s style, I think? I can’t wait to get a look at the actual Digital World and see if it has that unique feeling and that odd, watercolor painting aesthetic. I hope I can trust the OP:

 Did you notice that Agumon giggled a few times? He looked at Taichi with such love, familiarity and devotion and like he knew something. It felt… right. My heart. My poor, poor heart. (I know this Agumon probably has met Taichi before inside of this very Universe, like the Hikarigaoka incident in the original version, but I like to think about Universe-hopping platonic soulmates.) 

Overall the sound work was fantastic, but this scene deserves a highlight. The noise of the Kuramon lookalike moving after evolving was genuinely disturbing. And look at how pretty this is:

Speaking of evolution, AGUMON EVOLVING INTO GREYMON WAS THE SHIT. I loved how straight-up FERAL it was, while still keeping the “Digital” part of “Digital Monster” very much present. It reminded me a bit of Hosoda’s Greymon (most amazing Greymon to this day!) in the Digimon Adventure Movie and, now that I think of it, of him fighting in some Tri. Reunion scenes. Scary Greymon is the best Greymon. Yes. I like it when the Digimon manage to disturb and scare me, okay? They aren’t called monsters for nothing. 

I mean we got to see his horn literally bursting out of his skin. This is low-key terrifying. 10/10.

BUT WHERE IS THE EVOLUTION THEME SONG

I am: deceased. Cause of death: Hikari’s soft smile when she realizes her big brother managed to help them. 

Alternatively, this first pic had killed me on the spot.

FINALLY, we get to see Yamato, and of course, he’s staring down dramatically at Taichi on top of Garurumon like the intense person he is. And, no big deal, there’s a cyber attack in a U.S military base and, uh, apparently the next episode is the 2020 version of Bokura no War Game?! 

I— WHAT?!

No pressure, am I right? I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be falling off a good ol’ cliff with my camping buddies. 

To be honest, if they intended to end it like this, it felt like this should’ve been a special episode. Maybe one-hour-long or so? Why……….HOW……….. They wanna go from the pilot straight to a Bokura no War game tribute?! The very movie that introduced Omegamon. I swear, if Omegamon’s debut is the SECOND episode, I’m gonna break. How is this gonna work. Well, at least they have us… intrigued? 

The ED is so Yamato-focused it’s almost weird that his voice actor isn’t the one singing lmao. That amount of Yamatoness got me by surprise. Some of the pics look like a PowerPoint presentation of CD cover ideas for his yet-to-exist (or not) band… and I say this lovingly, okay? I love him so much. 

This is my favorite one!

I lost count of how many times I listened to this song!! It also got me hooked up. What’s up with Takeru and how the writers took the whole Angel aesthetic to a whole new level?! Is he sick? Is he dying? Is this why Yamato is so sad and lonely throughout the ED?????? EVERYONE GO BEFRIEND HIM. I heard he’s a good friend.

Be right back, I’m gonna tattoo this pic to my face.

Bonus commentary!

I bet I wasn’t the only one looking for  random cameos whenever they showed us crowds. Didn’t find anyone we know, but I’m sure this will change. 02 characters cameos, I’m ready for you. 

Soooooooooo the Tachikawa own a tech company this time?? For all we know they own Japan. That’s scarier than the Diablomon-like virus giving Trump a headache. If so, Mimi is gonna be way more spoiled than before. Oh, dear.

I HOPE WE SEE MORE OF THESE PIXEL BABIES! That was a perfect Easter egg.

If none of these icons at the bottom is the Digimon Analyzer, then what’s the point of my entire existence? 

I can’t wait for next Saturday! Even if solely to yell “WHY??????” at my screen.  

I can’t thank you enough if you read this far!

[oldtvandcomics]

Copying this in a separate post because I want it to actually show up in the tags.

@chupacabron asked:

@oldtvandcomics​ haven't seen many lone ranger fics. I barely started getting into the show. If you're still taking requests, I wouldn't mind reading a fic/character study type thing about it!

Hi, @chupacabron! Lovely request, thank you! Is it the tv series from the 50s? I hope you’ll enjoy it!!

I am a bit touchy as far as writing Lone Ranger is concerned, because while I love it very much and think that this is a story with lots and lots of potential for good, there IS a history of racism as far as the writing is concerned. So basically, I refuse to publish any fics without having somebody look it over first, and that is… A lot more difficult to arrange than I thought.

You are right, there really should be more Lone Ranger fics. Well researched and sensitivity read ones, if possible.

But that said, I can still totally tell you about the way I see the characters!

Basically, John Reid is an idiot. Everybody seems to agree there, even the dreaded 2013 movie got it right. It was about the only thing it did (if you are new, than I’m begging you, don’t watch that **@#*#!!). He’s just kind of stuck living in his own fantasy world where people are nice and want to get along. You know, a lot like Clark Kent, just maybe not quite that bad. Because this is a fairy tale, this doesn’t end in a complete disaster within a week, but the people around him actually play along. Part of this is because he is actually helpful, and also he doesn’t stay long enough and doesn’t talk about himself, so he manages to fool everyone in the short run into thinking that he is a serious person who knows what he’s doing. And he is quite clever, actually, he has got good, original ideas that work, but…

So yeah, John’s an idiot. I really love him, because I relate to him a lot.

Tonto is definitely the most interesting character in the story. For starters, he is the one who we can actually imagine staying alive on his own. He is clever, kind, a good fighter, and knows a lot about medicine and following tracks. And he’s great with children, you can tell from his interactions with Dan. He also ended up living alone in the desert with a borderline insane superhero and their two horses (all superheroes are insane, that’s just a Basic Rule), and we know from the first episode that he had been alone before. My headcanon is that he is literately unable to live in a civilised society. Maybe he has got attachment issues due to his entire tribe being killed in front of his eyes, maybe it’s just the way he is, but he couldn’t function properly in a bigger group.

I also found it incredibly interesting how my own view of Tonto changed over time. I started out as seeing him a bit dark, a bit grumpy (I partly blame the actor voicing him having a very deep voice, and also most of the time not speaking in complete sentences). The more I saw of him, the more I’m convinced that he is the nicest person ever, only really, really introverted. I don’t think that there really are any people apart from the Lone Ranger (and later Dan) he feels safe to open up to.

He obviously loves spending time with John and getting in all kinds of weird shenanigans together. My first impression was actually “that guy is only there for fun”, and I mostly maintain this opinion, only adding that with time, his relationship with John and the fact that they are helping people became very important motivations, too.

I have a lot of thoughts and feeling about Tonto.

Dan Reid, you probably haven’t met yet. I’m not talking about John’s brother, but his son, John’s nephew and Britt Reid’s father. He is a teenage sidekick. He reads therefore like pretty much every teenage sidekick Mary Sue character ever. Not that it’s a bad thing, I quite like Dan and the idea of John and Tonto raising a teenager together. Dan calls them Uncle John and Uncle Tonto, and you will not convince me otherwise. But Dan Reid only really gets interesting as an adult. He is one of the few sidekicks who actually managed to leave the superhero life behind and built himself a successful career. He is definitely the sanest person in the entire Reid family.

And the token straight one, I like to think. I adopted the headcanon that Britt is bi and in a relationship with Kato. John and Tonto, I like to headcanon both as aromantic, because I can, and also a- or bisexual, depending my mood. I also read their relationship as queerplatonic. But everybody thinks that they’re married, because this is a fairy tale and homophobia doesn’t exist.

Something I’d definitely would like to see more about is their relationship and how exactly it works, since it is an intercultural one, and that has got to be interesting. Also how it plays out on Dan’s education, and later, Britt’s. There have to be some Comanche elements that get passed down to him.

John and Tonto also move around in an interesting space between cultures, and since they are The Two Idiots Running Around Telling Everyone To Be Nice To One Another, they have to have a huge knowledge and understanding of them all. This is one of the parts where the source material gets a little problematic, so just assume that it’s a biased retelling of an outsider’s biased view of reality, and things got twisted and rewritten along the way. The Lone Ranger is, in his core, a White Saviour, so yeah, as I said, problematic per definition. I like to think that “in reality”, they are much more careful and respectful. Tonto is responsible for the communication with the First Nations, John for the one with the settlers. They both are fluent in multiple languages, at least Comanche, English, Apache, both Eastern and Western, Spanish, and some others. Among themselves, they use English and Comanche, and randomly switch around between the two.

“Kemo Sabe” (still my headcanon) is totally a made-up term, by one of Tonto’s ancestors. It kind of stuck around as term of endearment. His family has been calling their partners “Kemo Sabe” for generations, and it just felt right for him and John to use it. They both call the other so.

[rennyji]

July 14th Morning Tweets...

July 14th Morning Tweets...

So, they say what isn’t from God, doesn’t last.

So while religions fight each other over biases toward each other, they gotta realize it is The Will of God that they all exist to the present day. It is because they are from God that they exist to the present day. When people like me come across religions, I see puzzle pieces to one truth. 

One religion can help us understand the other. 

Hinduism (though seen as polytheistic), in my belief, and probably among the more educated, is a monotheistic religion. Hinduism is what is known as a pluralistic religion. If I remember correctly, the religion, which is not just a religion, but a lifestyle/culture/societal structure, incorporated the local belief practices and idols of the places/local villages it spread. The concept is that it works with peoples existing religions. They first Hindu teachers, spreading their religion, would tell the village they’re trying to include, “join our religion, for ur god is just another face of our One True God.” Technically, the household deity of a Hindu household could be Jesus from Christianity, as Jesus would he seen as “one of many forms” of The One God. 

Now Islam may find problems with some of the idols incorporated because, for one thing, they resemble, in appearance, the Jin from their belief system. While Americans turn the jin into genies, they are actually demons, and not the dedicated house wife blonde in “ I Dream of Jeanie.” Sometimes, because of the business of life and lack of time to think, even the practitioners of     belief of the idols of Hinduism, forget that those idols are accepted in the overall religion because they are possibly believed to be an illusion of appearance of the One God. In their confrontations with Islam, the Muslims may encounter Hindus very much attached to the physical appearance of their idols and forgetting or never realizing that there is only One God. They may encounter tribal practices that the pluralistic Hinduism tolerated, for the purpose of initiating a culture, a structure, to people spread across the vast subcontinent of India, currently home to 1 billion + people.

I think at its core, Hinduism is about the One God taking the forms of the Trimurti, kind of like the Christian Trinity. In Christianity, there is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Muslims call The Father, The Creator. As I understand, they don’t believe in the Son (FYI Muslims see Jesus or Yesu or or some variation of the name as a prophet and not God) and the Holy Spirit.

That being said, The Father is the Creator, The Son is like a Preserver of good and tries to spread it, and the Holy Spirit is the guide to our lives, from my belief. That relates to the Hindu Trinity in that in their Godhead, Brahma is the Creator, Vishnu is the Preserver, and Shiva is the Destroyer. The two religions differ in the third person of the Trinity- I mean the idea of A holy spirit vs. A destroyer (though a destroyer by nature or role, still prayed to by followers for needs/desires ). Like all religions, Hinduism believes we are in End Times. They call it Kali Yuga. Yuga is a reference to a Period of time. After the time of destruction of evil, we enter Satya Yuga, a time of good. But the world goes through a cycle from Satya Yuga to Kali Yuga multiple times because of human nature. It gives a clear understanding of man. During good times, times of peace, people get too comfortable. It can get to the point they are not alert to the changing times, not mindful of their behaviors, or acting like animals which is fueled by desire/impulse and lacking a thinking mind and heart. In the Bible, God sends prophets to warn man of a path that leads to destruction. The message is “Repent, for the time is near or the end is near.”

Here, in my situation, there are advertisements for mind reading/mind control. When Christ returns and/or the 10th Avatar of Vishnu: Kalki (depicted as a rider of a white horse…sounds like something from Revelations), have you wondered what kind of insane army of people fights Christ, following the Rapture? Perhaps the members of the army are mind controlled and lack common sense and free will.

To be honest, I don’t understand what motivates a mass group of people to follow the instructions of a few, surrounding one individual.

I’m just a passerby, going from place to place. If you team up against me, a nobody, suddenly it becomes evident that you will actually fight in defiance against the forces of the end times.

Have you heard of the demon Legion from the Bible that was cast into pigs? The demon says call us Legion, for we are many. You have the conscious instructions of the orchestrators uniting a large group of people against one individual. Was Legion of the Bible also a metaphor for this behavior of mankind I.e. mindless naively-trustful-instruction-following? Well, it sounds corny in America, but in the face of forces against the mind, remember that you consist of mind and heart. Know what’s in ur heart, follow what’s in your heart, while your mind may be susceptible to external influences. Your identity resides in ur heart and cannot be affected by the forces your mind may be susceptible to.

In brushing with Hinduism, I came across the concept that “all is one” and the differences we see are part of the “illusion of life.” Sounds deep for an American. But as a Christian, this helped me understand Holy Communion better. In receiving this Sacrament, we are becoming One with The Body of Christ or One with God Himself. Just like a mother or father tells their children “you are a part of me”, we are destined to be One with Our Father (as Christians say) or One with The Creator ( as Muslims probably say). Our prayers get answered, miracles happen, when we are like a diamond chair that God will find worthy to sit on-Or when we are one in body and mind with The Creator…how do you picture something like that: I.e. being one with God? You can picture it as being in a hug with a Being of Light, or for Christians, being in a hug with Jesus. Through the act of hugging, you occupy one point in space, kind of like being one, physically. How do you become one with God in mind and spirit? By following the Golden Rule: love God first and foremost, and love ur neighbor like urself. In loving God, you live life in a way Big Daddy-O would be proud of. 

You always acknowledge the good things are not because you deserve them, but because The Really Really Big Guy (as Steve Urkel refers to God when talking to Carl Winslow in an episode of Family Matters) or Pops (a.k.a. The Really Really Big Guy), want His children with the best in life. You are “blessed” or privileged because God, your Daddy, wants whats bests for you and for you to have the best. You acknowledge and always remember you are nothing without Him. You love ur neighbor like yourself by being in service to mankind.(in my case, you can be a neighbor to me and tell me what’s going on, cuz I’m sure you wouldn’t wish this on urself or ur loved ones…but getting back to the point…). When people hear things like this, they think priest. When they hear service to mankind, they think something like a missionary. I’m saying you just gotta be ur cool self while holding a door for someone or sticking up for someone or simply being the best version of you and privileging someone with your company- I mean use common sense to be blunt, or live with ur heart.

Oneness with God is the unspoken goal of all religions. We, along with the Universe or the multiverse or whatever, came into being through an explosion or a bang or The Big Bang (sound of an explosion) that comes from God thinking, or voicing His Thought. From the resulting vibrational energy of God thinking/speaking with His powerful voice, like a wave, we echoed into existence. And through the gift that is life, which is a manifestation of God, we echo back. But as there is a heaven/hell or believed to be or if it’s not just a state of mind (as elaborated in previous tweets/blog), existence could be a purification process. We are all part of the Body of Christ. Christ is the mind, the Divine Plan for all Creation, (or for non Christians, the Godhead is the head of the body that is creation) and we are members of the Body of Christ or The Body of the Divine. Bodies can have cancers that need to be removed. Those who misuse the gift of life-assuming life is a purification process in one aspect, from one angle-I think…are removed as tumors from the Body of Christ. They go to hell.

 In the Body of Christ, in this life, in the next, we all have a function. Ive said it before and I’ll say it again: you were born to be a titan, as you are Child of God or have ancestry sourced in something as cosmic and magnificent sounding as “from the beginning of time” (<-you are here today because so was ur great great great to infinity grand parents at the dawn of time). 

You, whatever ur current circumstance in life, are royalty. 

Act with class and dignity.

If we are part of the body of God, then we’re not typical cells and organs. We have super functions and it is our job in life to figure that out, carry it out, and at least follow the Golden Rule. If the heart turns against the kidney or liver, how does the body function? We are all equal parts to a whole, a family of a world before ANY nation, required to help each other, in the same way the heart, kidney, liver, etc. work together to bring harmony in the body. We need to bring harmony to our world, or epically put: our existence. You wanna know what one form of God looks like? Well you see it all round you in people, places, things. Why? Because creation is a manifestation of the Divine. We are God’s thoughts/words taking form. What we view as separate is just an illusion or trick of the mind. The heart and kidneys are nothing on their own. They are identified through, and as part of, the body they reside. Person A and Person B and New York City and Dallas, Texas and the Middle East and the airplanes that go to/from and the phone I’m typing on and the stars and planets in space, are all parts of the Body of Christ or the Body of the Divine or are One Manifestation of the Divine. This ideology I’m sharing is my understanding of the Body of Christ image, through the lens from Hinduism about us being the manifestation of the Divine and things in life depicted under the illusion of separate. A different religion helped me gain better understanding of my own. 

So being the manifestation of the Divine, while alive on this earth, clean up, perfect, beautify yourselves and everything around you. We are One Body and we gotta be our best and look our best. 

We are the suit that God wears or the cool shades on His All Seeing Eyes. It’s a whole new kind of “Representin’…”

We are God’s thoughts echoing into formation, and we will echo back into the light, or another way of putting it: like a mom or dad holding their baby and spending every second with them till it’s time for preschool, in our beginning, before we were formed in our mother’s womb, God held us, and did the hard thing for any parent, and let His kids leave Him to go to the school and series of classes that is life. Jesus says we are to be a light to the world.  Life or our figurative classes or life’s wonders, trials, tribulation is so that we can graduate from “Life School” and be light in this world, and ultimately echo back to The Light or the origin of electromagnetic thought waves or the sound waves resulting from The Powerful Voice commanding our creation. When our wave echoes back to The Source, after completing the training/purifying process of life to be one with God, so that our frequencies match, we are ultimately returning to His embrace or His hug. That is our destiny: Heavenly Bliss.

In the school of Life, we don’t all have to be valedictorians or salutatorians. We don’t all have to go to a figurative college. Do what you can, for you and for others, with what you have- for your Father, your Creator, knows you did your best. So different religions floating through my head helped me put that thought into writing on the fly.

I recently mentioned the power of prayer. Prayer is a way for us to program ourselves and our reality.

From being made in the Image of God, we are children of God,

and thereby little gods.

Act with class, act with dignity, be who you were born to be.

I said prayer is a way to program reality. Im a computer science graduate. I learned to use the language of computers to create what you see on your computer screens. This too has given me perspective as to the value of all the religions in the world. In programming, we have what is known as high level languages and low level languages, if I remember correctly. I see Christianity as a high level language. It encapsulates a lot of complexities and makes things easy for people through “data encapsulation”. Christ blackboxes (I think that’s the word) or hides the hard things you have to learn to be enlightened, by saying “Love God first and foremost, and your neighbor like yourself.” That’s also a summary of the 10 Commandments given to Moses and seen as Judaism. Christ sums up many and deep spiritual lessons in His parables. 

Here’s a computer metaphor: parables are like computer zip files or compressed files. A zip file is a file that can contain multiple files and folders in the convenience of one smaller file. You use a program to unzip that one file to reveal the multiple files and folders. The parables are zip files and you can gain a myriad of advice, lessons, truth from the same story. 

The program you use to unzip a parable is “insight” and “life experience.” These things open our eyes to different perspectives on the same parable, or story. 

I said Christianity is a high level language and that there are low level languages and even machine code. Machine code are the 1’s and 0’s you hear about with computers. To break that down further, a 1 is an electrical charge and 0 is the lack of it. Then there’s what’s known as assembly language. Assembly language puts a sequence of these 1’s and 0’s in association with English keywords. It can be complicated. Then there’s ur high level languages. This allows the programmer to speak to a computer in English while not having to know about special keywords and sequences of 1’s and 0’s or electrical charges. Christ tells us that in order go to Heaven, or from the Buddhist perspective: to reach Enlightenment, follow the Golden Rule and exercise your ability to believe, for this sums up the Commandments from the time of Judaism. Jesus tries to make salvation easy and accessible for everyone. 

Hinduism, from how I see it, is like assembly language and machine code. Being the 1s and 0s of religions, it’s like working under the hood of a running vehicle. Sometimes it is necessary to open the metaphorical “black box” to fix the vehicle as a whole or to put the vehicle in the right direction. However with Hinduism, there’s a lot to learn. Among those things: Mantras, meditation, yoga, a lot to read, and sometimes in Sanskrit. I’m personally interested in it, because Hinduism is not just a religion, but perhaps the source of the culture of one billion people in the subcontinent of India. We have our own health system in Ayurveda. It’s not just about enlightenment, but it gives a specific guide for health, and roles in life. 

The Hindus have a belief that the stars have control over our lives, that there is a fate, hence astrology. I personally like astrology to learn about potential personalities, not really into future predicting. So, according to Hindus, the stars govern us. 

Now from a Christian perspective, when Christ was born, there was a star over His birthplace guiding the Wise Men, who happened to be Iranian Zoroastrians or at least Zoroastrians, if I remember correctly. Just an example of how God, as understood by Christianity, is the God of all religions and Whose family consists of everyone. But regarding the star guiding the wise men to Jesus’ birthplace, I believe the new “Jesus star” is a symbol that we can be more than what the programming of the “already existing” stars from Hinduism dictate for the framework or even future for individual lives. The stars may say person A can only marry person B or that person C had to be a doctor. But Christ says, if we exercises our minds, if we believe we can move mountains and walk on water. Through communication you can resolve relationship problems, console others, leave an impact on this world. 

The Word of God created human beings and the universe, according to belief systems. 

Assuming we are little gods from being made in the Image of God, our words have power. 

If not to command the winds and storms, we can use communication to better all relationships, to practice diplomacy- that itself is a great power, greater than our fists or any weapon.

As I’m Indian, like my Pakistani, and Bangladeshi brothers, we have Indian Hindu ancestry. Things like the restrictions of the caste system, once for the purpose of giving order/structure to a primitive society and making sure every niche or role in society was fulfilled, were among a source of problems, making our ancestors seek alternative options. Seeing a different perspective on faith and life were another reason for alternative options to religion. Ive wondered why my ancestors personally converted from Hinduism to Christianity. There are stories that they were Brahmins (the upper priestly/teacher class) or Ksatriyas (the warrior class). On a sidenote, I remember learning that the first Brahmins who traveled down the vast Indian subcontinent, spreading/teaching the religion, were from around the Punjabi region of India. As Hinduism forgot about its monotheistic roots, one enlightened group of people from the Punjabi region formed Sikhism, with emphasis on whole hearted love for One God being the key attribute of the religion. I believe other religions came about as well, focusing on the mind and monotheism.  

But back to my ancestors and their possible caste roles…When I was in college, I met an Indian from the Indian state of “Gujarat” . Her last name made me think. Her last name was “Brahmaksatriya.” That’s sounds like a combination of the aforementioned words of “Brahmin” and “Ksatriya”. I’d like to think my ancestors were a special breed of what that last name alludes to in my mind: “Warrior Monk” or Brahma-ksatriya. I mean it sounds like Master Roshi from the Dragon Ball series…but it could just be my fantasy…

I think my ancestors converted to Christianity, because it is the metaphorical high level language. You don’t have to know all sorts of texts and ways of life through the Christian path to Oneness with God or The Divine. Was that my ancestors being lazy? Well let’s look at it from the perspective of the orchestrators. They seem to try to control every aspect of my life. With all the random details that come their way from constant monitoring, it’s clouded their vision and made them blind to seeing me, as me. Sometimes too much information can do that. Sometimes you need the highlights. Perhaps all the details around the specifics to the universe like assembly/machine language for computers was just clogging my ancestors minds in trying to achieve new heights in life. Perhaps knowing the Golden Rule and the power of belief gave my ancestors a perspective on moving mountains and walking on water. Perhaps they realized they could be more than priests/monks/warriors/or even warrior monks. Perhaps they saw a limitless approach in the Christian path or gained the idea that they can be and achieve anything, as not even the stars can contain the “Might of Our Existence.”

“Believe and you can move mountains...” Be doubt free that your Father will take care of things, and you can walk on water.

Christians say a prayer at the beginning/end of their day or before every meal to thank God for the food they eat and to bless it and to make them worthy to consume it (as there are people without sustenance in this world). I believe doubtless prayer from strong disciplined minds can make those meals, the Hindu concept of “Saatvic” in nature. I believe the power of prayer can make those meals Halal or Kosher without the physical actions, but through the power of our minds, hearts, and Spirit.  I believe the high level language of Christianity wants us to take things up a notch and strengthen our minds and follow our hearts in practice of the Golden Rule. Doubtless Belief is stronger than any mantra or meditation. But that being said, mantras and meditation can remove the doubts and strengthen belief as one possible route to such belief.

Believe, don’t get lost in the details and rules and regulation of religions. You are royalty in being children of the Divine. Know that you are taken care of, do what’s appropriate for your life using insight that transcends right/wrong, while practicing the Golden Rule. 

Want something secular on the power of belief? Have you heard of the DC superhero: Static Shock? In the animated series, he runs into a future version of himself (time travel stuff) who is more developed, stronger, and a more accomplished version of his younger self. In the face of all that awesomeness, the younger Static Shock asks, “HOW?!” In a powerful/mature tone, despite the whole electricity powers, Static’s future self responds,  “Believe in yourself, for “that” is your greatest power.”

So that’s my long thought on the fly.

[jenifarmalik93-blog]

Love spells the same for the LGBTs

“And that day    I realised

she is the one! She seemed extraordinary, then more beautiful like a butterfly    lurking over the purple orchid    of love. I could not    take my eyes off her. Her smile    was contagious, hairs glossy and    light, skin soft as    feather. But then I saw her beaded eyes, asking    me enormous questions of solace.    I could clearly see her distress, her agony, that’s    when she uttered,    “Will the society accept us?”

We are not normal    for the society that has biased relationships    into genders of opposite. A girl loving a girl will    never go    down well with the society.”

This at all for this has may be a    fiction, but  isn’t untrue happened to many couples belonging to the LGBT    group. Many love stories have remained    unspoken; many shattered, while the ones    which came out of    closet were shunned by    the so-called normal people. Love    has no boundaries, no sex,

               no religion, but just feeling of trust and companionship. LGBT isn’t a new thing; history has proofs of such relationships since the evolution of modern man. Even in India there are stories of transgender and eunuchs performing for kings in royal palaces. Even their blessing used to mean a direct dialect from deity. And yet, today, they have to hide themselves in the darkness of social obligations? Nevertheless, there are a few who still manage to come out and fight for love, trying to prove that their lives are not much different than ours. Falling in love has always been tingly; butterflies in the stomach with constant smile on the face. I met a few such love birds belonging to the LGBT community.

Diksha, a student of Mass Communication in Guwahati, with a bisexual orientation, shared her whimsical love stories. Her typical middle class family lives a sober life, managing within the limits of the society. It was during her Higher Secondary that she fell in love for the

first time with a guy. She stayed in the hostel with her roommate, Jaan, who eventually became her best friend. Slowly, Diksha and her boyfriend began to drift apart due to different circumstances. While she drifted from her boyfriend, Diksha came closer to Jaan. She realized they were turning more than ‘just friends’. That was the time Diksha came out of the closet and got to know her real identity. They enjoyed each other’s company. Diksha never felt so much wanted and loved before. The type of understanding and emotional attachment they shared was impeccable and fluttering. Diksha broke up with her boyfriend and started a new journey with her roomie. Unfortunately, they couldn’t walk much further together because of the latent societal threatening and discriminations. Jaan was apprehensive that if her sexual orientation came out in public, her parents would be devastated. With teary eyes, she bid adieu to their tender first love. 

After joining a reputed institute in Guwahati for a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication, Diksha spent most of her time in depression of losing her love, which she’d once thought, would last till eternity. But her new friends helped her to come out of the trauma a bit. And recently, she discovered love again in her college in a junior student, Nisha. She made her feel loved again, wanted again, adored again. They shared intense intimacy, both physical and emotional. The whole college knew about them. Nisha too was bisexual; they had a healthy relationship until they got separated due to some uncertain reasons. Diksha never hesitated to flaunt her girlfriend. Even in her college farewell speech, she flaunted about the glorious seven months of relationship with Nisha, and how the latter was the core reason that pulled her out of depression. While talking to me, she said, “Though we are not together now, she still talks to me sometimes and tells how she loved being with me.” “But I still miss my first love. If I get a chance, I’ll try my best to get Jaan back into my life”, Diksha expressed.

Adnan, a homosexual from the same college, also shared his experiences. His stories pertain to all kinds of emotions related to betrayal, jealousy, fun, sadness, and joy. He always felt being quite different from the others, being more on the feminine side, but couldn’t figure out what made the difference. During his ninth standard, when he saw his classmates getting into heterogeneous relationships and he couldn’t find any interest in a girl, his confusion reached further heights. His classmates teased him and thrashed him because of his different/feminine nature. Adding to the

woes, he got bullied and molested by one of the bullies, confining him further and traumatizing him. Molestation was all a result of his feminine body language which made perverts threaten him more. And he faced all these because he didn’t match society’s notion of a ‘boy’. Much later did he realise his orientation, and became more open about it, without allowing people to suppress him. First love happened to him during his H.S years over social media where he got rejected being tagged as ‘girly’. Many men came and went with some life- saving lessons to offer, but very few could really make it to his heart. 

The first time Adnan actually fell in love made him blush the whole day. They used to talk whole day over phone, and he’d cry and skip meals on days when they had fights. In due course, Adnan’s first love started ignoring him and eventually they had to part ways. Adnan went into depression and consulted a psychologist. Upon being asked by the doctor, he told his story to the doctor. But instead changed the ‘he’ version to ‘she’ and asked the doctor not to reveal his love story to his family. Being a highly religious middle class family, Adnan knew well that his parents won’t accept any sort of romantic love in their son’s life, not even heterosexual. But the doctor told his family about it, and surprisingly, they reacted lightly thinking he had a break up with a girl. Later in life, Adnan faced betrayal and cheating in his love-life, putting him into a state of depression once again. But this time, he wrote everything as it is to the doctor and again asked him not to reveal about it to his parents. And this time, the doctor didn’t reveal anything. Meanwhile, Adnan has made a lot of friends from his community and has come out of the box from being a timid and shy boy to an extrovert and flamboyant young man.

One common thing about Diksha and Adnan is that both of them wish to share their sexual identity with their families. They feel their guardians should know everything, and aspire to do so in future years when time comes. But, their heart still skips a beat at the thought of a rejection, or adverse reaction from their families in particular, and the society at large. Their love life is no different from others

– the same butterflies in the stomach, the same pangs of separation, and the same recuperation. 

Discrimination in the name of orientations should not be accepted in form. People have the right to live and feel the way they want. In fear of repercussions from a rather orthodox Indian society, people from this community have to live duplex lives where they have to hide or compromise their true identity and live up to the norms of social strands. They are bound to be what they are not, bound to marry whom they not are not attracted to, while living a life of misery and disguise. There had been cases of rapes, molestation and killings of LGBT members, leading to a hurricane of fear among the community, and thus keeping them enclosed within the closet. Also, the parental emotional tortures have broken many of these budding love stories to pieces. Diksha and Adnan’s love life is no different from us – the same butterflies in the stomach, the same pangs of separation, and the same recuperation. The only difference is their gender preference of partners. And that shouldn’t make much difference to us, isn’t it?

 P.S: Names have been changed on demand for privacy requested by the persons in the article.

 Words By: Jenifar Asrana Malik

[itskimngxn-blog]

Blog Post #2

Jonathon Pieslak uses 2 types of evidence to demonstrate how soldiers use music as inspiration for combat: anecdotal (forum posts, interview) and documentary (published work, email, interview). Personally, I think the discussion forum’s post is not a very credible source of information. The person might not have been involved in the war, and only wrote his comment based on someone else’s narrative that he perhaps found interesting. We do not know whether the story is authentic or overstated. (And some were even taken from Yahoo forum! I cannot trust that). The interviews are also an issue. Without the context, it is hard to identify if participants are biased. For example, if interviewees were told beforehand about how the interview sought to understand the importance of music in combat, they would be more likely to alter their experience to support that stated purpose. In other words, this scientific method might not be single-blind. The anonymous email was not a good source, either. Despite these problems relating to credibility, the sources taken from published historical books are trustworthy, as they were written by experts/scholars from the field. 

The most popular genres for soldiers in Iraq were rap and heavy metal. 

The invention of devices used to store music (MP3 players, iPods,...) has changed the way soldiers used music as an emotional tool. Instead of storing music on bulky drives and playing it on speakers attached to trucks, soldiers could save their own preferred types of music, accessible anytime they wanted.

Music is surprisingly a powerful tool in helping soldiers become more motivated during combat, utilized by different troops from multiple parts across the world from as early as the 17th century. Not only has music given soldiers the determination to overcome hardships during war, it also acted as a bridge which connected soldiers being far away from home with their beloved country. The more developed the technology, the tighter the connection between soldiers and music became. It is not wrong to say that music synchronizes with everyone’s own heartbeat, and strengthens a person even during the toughest times with its magical, rhythmic power. 

Song mapping: 

[Intro]

(background music)

Hey [ad lib]

[Chorus]

Havana, ooh na-na (ayy)  [ad lib]

Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh na-na (ayy, ayy)  [ad lib]

He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na, ah

Oh, but my heart is in Havana (ayy)  [ad lib]

There's somethin' 'bout his manners (uh huh)  [ad lib]

Havana, ooh na-na (uh)  [ad lib]

[Verse 1]

He didn't walk up with that "how you doin'?" (uh)  [ad lib]

When he came in the room

He said there's a lot of girls I can do with (uh)  [ad lib]

But I can't without you

I knew him forever in a minute (hey)  [ad lib]

That summer night in June

And papa says he got malo in him (uh)  [ad lib]

He got me feelin' like...

[Pre-Chorus]

Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh (ayy)  [ad lib]

I knew it when I met him (ayy) [ad lib], I loved him when I left him

Got me feelin' like, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

And then I had to tell him, I had to go

Oh na-na-na-na-na (woo)  [ad lib]

[Chorus]

Havana, ooh na-na (ayy, ayy)  [ad lib]

Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh na-na (ayy, ayy)  [ad lib]

He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na (uh huh)  [ad lib]

Oh, but my heart is in Havana (ayy)  [ad lib]

My heart is in Havana (ayy)  [ad lib]

Havana, ooh na-na

[Verse 2]

Jeffery, just graduated, fresh on campus, mmm

Fresh out East Atlanta with no manners, damn (fresh out East Atlanta)

Bump on her bumper like a traffic jam

Hey, I was quick to pay that girl like Uncle Sam (here you go, ayy)  [ad lib]

Back it on me

Shawty cravin' on me, get to eatin' on me (on me)  

She waited on me (then what?)  

Shawty cakin' on me, got the bacon on me (wait up)  

This is history in the makin', on me (on me) 

Point blank, close range, that B

If it cost a million, that's me (that's me)

I was gettin' mula, baby

[Chorus]

Havana, ooh na-na (ayy, ayy)  [ad lib]

Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh na-na (oh, ayy, ayy)  [ad lib]

He took me back (uh huh) to East Atlanta, na-na-na (oh, no)

Oh, but my heart is in Havana (ayy)  [ad lib]

My heart is in Havana (ayy)  [ad lib]

Havana, ooh na-na

[Bridge]

Ooh na-na, oh, na-na-na (oo-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh)

Take me back, back, back like...

Ooh na-na, oh, na-na-na (yeah, babe)

Take me back, back, back like...

Ooh na-na, oh, na-na-na (yeah, yeah)

Take me back, back, back like...

Ooh na-na, oh, na-na-na (yeah, babe)

Take me back, back, back

Hey, hey...

Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh (hey)

Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh (hey)

Take me back to my Havana...

[Chorus]

Havana, ooh na-na (hey)

Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh na-na (oh, yeah)

He took me back to East Atlanta, (ayy, ayy) na-na-na

Oh, but my heart is in Havana

My heart is in Havana (ayy)

Havana, ooh na-na

[Outro]

Uh huh

Oh, na-na-na (oh, na, yeah)

Oh, na-na-na

Oh, na-na-na (no, no, no, take me back)

Oh, na-na-na

Havana, ooh na-na

6. I am going to sound philosophical now, but for me, “feel” has multiple definitions. If you define “feel” as something that makes me become hyped, pumped and sway to the music, this song does the job. I mean it’s a catchy tune, I can “feel” the cheerful atmosphere it brings, so in this context Havana is a great song. The song is syncopated, the intro is infused with a bit of Cuban jazz and nostalgic piano, and the ad-libbed “ayy”s and “uh-huh”s definitely bring the excitement. The beats are quite strong, so the rhythmic feel is obvious, making the song pretty upbeat. The range is wide, she went from the low “na-na-na” to the high “ooooh”, and this creates the complexity of the melody. However, if you define “feel” as something that makes me feel deep (deeper than Adele rolling, even), this song does not succeed in doing so. The lyrics are not really meaningful: it only depicts the singer’s love story with a (somewhat) bad boy from Havana. Furthermore, the harmony is not that complex, it is only the melody that stands out. I think genuinely good music is like an onion: the more you listen, the more layers you peel off, and when you get to the core, you will exclaim: “Oh my God, how can humanity ever understand the true meaning of life without listening to this song? It encapsulates every emotion, and it is just so meaningful I want to stop everything I am doing to carefully listen to it”. And you probably will not like the smell of onion at the beginning: “Geez, this music does not sound catchy at all”. However, as you give it a second chance, and maybe the third, something clicks and you feel...

Actually, I am going to include a song like that. 

I have been through a lot during my high school years and there are times I just wanted to give up on life, but this song gave me the motivation to keep moving forward. I guess I can call this song a savior. If there were aliens coming to Earth and told me I could save humanity from destruction by giving them a song, Saturn would definitely be what I offered them. The surprise factor is (I have to give it away for the sake of analysis) the vocal does not start right away, and the composers built a slight climax beforehand using only the instruments. After the singer starts singing, a harmony between the vocal, the humming and the background music emerges, and the song reaches a climax. I absolutely love these lines: “With shortness of breath, I’ll explain the infinite/How rare and beautiful it truly is that we exist”. I showed this song to a friend who was struggling with college life and she stopped thinking negatively as soon as the song ended. She cried and told me how beautiful she thought it was. Well, I guess that is the power of music, and the “feel” it brings. 

[habitual-irony]

Phonebooth’s "The End of the Earth” (Civitas Project Volume 1)

Introduction

Today, most people live in cities. Night or day, we don’t know how to turn off the lights. We fumbled with myths and the unknown through brilliant constellations, which are now taxidermied inside the books’ print and museums’ glass cases. Through “reason,” we excavated the truths of the world that we couldn’t see (in the field of philosophy of science, this is still disputed, but for the most part we believe this to be “objectivity”), and we achieved many life conveniences. The place known as a “city” can be said to be the focus of those results as well as the outcome.

But reason’s biased nature that only tends toward functionality brought about many problems. It separates places. Doors and walls perfectly block cold and noise, but on the other hand, they also gave rise to a psychological feeling of division and severance. In this environment, we have to endure endless loss and alienation. Also, as an extension of this phenomenon, we suffer with bouts of irrational attachment or compulsion, like we’re poisoned or self-tormenting. 

Our emotions are reflecting the structure of the city. In the field that comprise the humanities, they are working hard to restore a sense of humanity. The understanding of the structure of a city is changing from idealizing “efficiency” to being “nature friendly” and “people-centered.” Meanwhile, attempts to find a suitable balance between people and artificial structures are constantly progressing. But most people are still living within structures that haven’t been narrowed.

The songs born through this project have an overall theme of “Civitas,” which is a Latin word for “community” or “sense of community.” Through these six iterations, we “Phonebooth” will identify our unexpected situations found between the aforementioned human dignity and the unethical structures of a city, and talk about the hope therein.

1. Extension and Roots

Cities start with the extension of all physical functions. The hammer or driver-like tool expands on the hand’s functions, while glasses and TV expand on eyesight functions. Headphones and telephones are hearing. The asphalt extending to the edge of the earth, and the all kinds of vehicles that pass over it, can be seen as the start of the extension of the foot’s functions. (Even outside of this, most inventions are expanding on these functions.) 

The difference between our cities and countrysides are definitively revealed in these points. There are no roots. We are stepping on the ground, but really we are just stepping on the asphalt and concrete blocks laid on the ground. We are not walking on the actual earth. Even if we walk on dirt in a playground or flowerbed, that is but a reproduction. With other physical functions, like using a hammer and other tools, we lose our chance to touch the real thing. The audiovisual experiences we get via TV and headphones are also reproductions of reality; we’re not seeing or hearing the true colors and sounds. If we compare to rural farmers who directly touch the dirt and plant seeds, most of our experiences are achieved indirectly. 

These exact points are the reason us city-dwellers are forced into a sense of endless emptiness and futility. We are constantly isolated from the things we produce. Suburban drainage ditches and streams, fields and the flowers that grow naturally in them, all feel more like a concept. To experience the real thing, we look for places such as flower festivals or arboretums, but that’s just another artificially made realization of the concept of nature. Even so, we think that we have settled in this utterly inescapable virtual world, but there’s a high possibility of it being an illusion. 

When I look around me, I see many more things that I have lost than things I have made. When we die, we must leave the city that we spent most of our time in, and go be buried in some other place. Our emptiness and wandering is because of the urban emotions we have built on this absence of roots. Cities are pushing our lives to extremes based on these emotions.

2. Division and Loss

Paradoxically, cities are stacks of lost things. Every time we walk through the endlessly transforming city, we are easily able to observe the changing streets. Signs are always changing to new words and new lights, and the previous store employees are substituted with new smiles and new faces. As we walk these streets that become more unfamiliar every day, we suddenly wonder where that old sign went, where the owners of that store disappeared to. We don’t know who or what, and we are hit with feelings of suffocation and distance. 

The transformation of my surroundings brings of memories of past transformations, and if that reality no longer exists, the restoration of the memories I have becomes impossible. The endlessly transforming memories and emotions end up like a dog that’s lost its owner: they grow hair down to cover their eyes, become messy, and end up unrecognizable. Like this, damaged memories are obscured (how uncomfortable would it be to be filled with unverifiable memories?), so whenever I identify myself to someone in the city, I must rely on my name, numbers, and scraps of paper. Places and things cannot verify my existence, for they have already disappeared. 

This is a thin existence. The spatiality of the city that easily appears and disappears, general and lacking integration, leads to the ostracizing of the model student that listens to their teacher’s words. It gives rise to a terrible cognitive dissonance in which a man of high social standing puts on a Burberry trench coat and commits sexual assault. And what makes these structures even more hopeless is that nobody can tell us how much pain we must endure or how long we much roam in order to restore our identity and reenact our existence.

3. Elimination and Burial

The verticals of tall buildings were built while ensuring countless crashes. Birds, gusts of wind, and even humans—no matter what road we walk on, we run into endless verticals. And in order to reach that height, we must drop things that are close to us. Friends, family, love, trust, dignity, etc.—when we push away the things of value in our surroundings, we can end up standing alone at the top. Cities in which you have to throw away your humanity to reach higher floors are as hard to handle as children who were raised through sacrifices. 

At the same time, the city buries us. Walls block the way, and the glass windows hung on those walls accumulate warmth and light from the outside, while not letting out even 1 degree of heat. But these things that show no disturbance are the core of the problem. The great system of capitalism institutionally rationalized the erasure of humanity and the use of people as tools, and thoughtlessly destroyed nature. In it, buried in pain and loneliness, we live narrow lives thinking only of our own safety. Without knowing why it must be this way, like chess pieces, we are being buried in life’s wires on every city corner. 

In this city—completed with countless eliminations and burials, divisions and loss, lacking roots—broken winds wander like ghosts between buildings, becoming sharper, colder, and fiercer. Just like us.

Conclusion

The title of this project, “Civitas,” is Latin for community or a sense of community. In the points above, we talked about the devastation and negativity of this place called a city. Truthfully, we may just be listing problems with no clear solution, but even if we don’t mention other problems that exist that we didn’t reference above, everyone can relate. This kind of “no exit” makes us more depressed and exhausted. 

I’ll say it one more time, but we named this project “Civitas.” The reason for this is because we believe the solution is in this word. We want to suggest that the solution is in community, or in other words, “you” and “me.” Now, wherever we go, we are orphans or missing children who have lost their way. In this situation, the thing that will become a lamp for us is the kindred person next to me. In other words, there is only “you.”  We are already living similar lives, and our pain inevitably isn’t that different either. We just can’t see that, and there are many instances in which we pass each other by. 

We believe that the only thing that won’t waste away from life in this fragmented city, the one thing that keeps us from forgetting each other in the midst of these raging seas, is community or a sense of community. And, in this year of 2016, we want to sing of that hope.