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actionfigurebullshit · 1 day ago

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Nothing New To Report

But AFB is never too far from my head, especially around this time of year. At some point, I noticed some engagement with this page, which, HA, I didn't like. I've wanted to fold this blog, continue blogging about this from one of the other ones I have, but to do so would kind of eliminate a monument to that brief period in the 2010s when this project was chugging along.

Let's recap.

PRIOR TO 2002: I was really into those Star Trek action figures by Playmates Toys for a time... and then got sick of them, and I recall an immense feeling of disappointment one Christmas when I got three of them, which were probably bought because everyone else was getting tired of them and Kay Bee Toys couldn't give them away. Among the three is a Cadet Data action figure, which today may be one of my favorites, though not for reasons which would be obvious to anyone.

I started making videos on a regular basis in 1999, though I did make a few in 1998, despite not having a camcorder. I don't consider these to be anything special beyond the fact that they are a window into my childhood and the closing days of the 20th century, but my oldest surviving videos are stop motion animation. While I was...

Actually, I think my memory is a bit unreliable, or maybe two things can be true at the same time. I was tired of the action figures, but I saw their potential for making videos, and I did a few here and there, some with stop motion, and others just pointing the camcorder at the action figures and speaking.

As this was before digital, and being able to edit videos on computer at home, options for dubbing and editing were extremely limited and crude. This isn't to say the technology didn't exist, but it was cost prohibitive, and like everyone else where I lived, we were poor. There just wasn't money for that. There was barely money allotted for video tapes.

During the 2001-2002 school year, with money that... i have no idea where I came from, I bought a copy of THPS2 from a friend, which caused my sister to have a conniption because she intended on getting it for me as a birthday or Christmas present and demanded I get my money back. Fine. I asked for a refund, but the best my friend could do was offer me a different game, and that game was Fade To Black. Probably not remembered as the finest PlayStation game to come out, I nevertheless liked it enough to where I wanted to do an adaptation of it.

AUGUST 2002:

I took over a paper route for that same friend the previous June, which cemented my night owl schedule- stay up all night, sleep until 2, wake up, get the papers, deliver, go on about my day. Sundays were morning papers, so I'd just stay up a tiny bit longer longer and deliver those papers before bed.

During those hot, muggy nights, because we didn't have air conditioning, I started filming my adaptation of Fade to Black... with action figures! Second TOS pilot James Kirk became Conrad Hart, a Gorn action figure and modeling clay stood in for the Morphs, and as John O'Connor... CADET DATA!

I'd film adaptations of different levels throughout the following school year, somehow roped my English teacher into recording lines into a tape player... but then things stalled out towards the end. Life happened, I suppose. I told myself I'd get back to it later, when it was possible.

2007: An attempt to revive Fade to Black took place in this year, and I was able to put the animation together digitally. It's a shame I didn't keep up with it, but the set up was wrong, and, as always, life was happening. That desire to continue the project never went away, even as it became more apparent that such an adaptation was probably a waste of time.

2015:

The time was right to reconsider this stuff, but I wanted to do a spiritual successor instead. I did take some images of the Conrad Hart action figure, but decided to go in a different direction. I wanted to get away from the Star Trek look and I took inspiration from Cadet Data and the Starfleet Academy line. At the time, these action figures were kind of hated in the collector community, because they did not represent anything that was actually in the show. To me, they were perfect for making new characters. I got the Cadet Picard and Riker action figures, and also got Cadet Troi and Howard-Crusher and it looked like I had the beginnings of some new story.

I wasn't sure what to do with it, though, but I thought it be important to just film something. I showed it to my friend Jane, who was probably always going to be involved in the project, and, unsolicited... I don't remember if she just came up with lines or recorded dialogue for what was made. If the former, I asked her to do the lines.

Cadet Troi became Moxie with those lines, becoming something that I probably wouldn't have been able to come up with on my own. I had the name, and that she would be the skipper of this spaceship, but so much of everything else was her.

I started coming up with an idea for story where they find a derelict ship with a strange corridor inside and the action figures encounting all kinds of bullshit. The story was shaped, modded, stuff added to it. Along the way, I decided to break up the main story with our characters watching Star Trek, using audio from "audio commentaries" recorded earlier in the year.

By the first minutes of October, I was ready to depict one of these TV room scenes, and produced a few seconds of footage. I was planning on doing more the next day, but when I woke up and logged on to the internet, I saw my local community college all over the news- a mass shooting had happened, nine dead. This shit had finally struck home. Things were dark for a few weeks, but I willed myself to keep going, starting with the "just shoot something", which is an unfortunate pun, but it wasn't filming, I just took a picture of a box. It was enough to just go through the trouble of getting the equipment out and doing this.

What followed was what I call a "film bonanza", and a lot of footage came out of the next nine days. While not as prolific, I'd continue to film a great deal of scenes through the rest of the year. As of today, 12 of the 21 minutes of what's been edited together comes from this point.

I continued to film in 2016, and started this blog in May of that year. I got in the habit of doing it at night, kind of like what I did 14 years prior, and I'd get things going by listening to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, specifically, the song "The Waiting".

Going into 2017, I was starting to have issues with the project. I had upgraded to a better camera, but lost the convenience. Setting up shots were extremely difficult, and I had no control over focus and exposure. It became too much, and the project petered out.

Later that year, life happened, take that as you wish, and I came to realize that I would soon have no time for this project for many years. Towards the end, Wyatt, who plays Trent in the production, gave me an old smart phone so I could take a bunch of snap shots as needed. As old as this phone was, it was at least as good as what I was using to make AFB, and my ability to do manual focus and exposure was restored. I filmed what I could in April and May of 2018, and hoped I'd return to the project some day.

The following year, Jane passed away. I had talked with her about doing some shots, maybe I could get back into it a bit earlier than expected, and some footage did come from this, replacing a shot that no longer worked because the character's design had changed. I didn't realize at the time that Jane was dead when I did it, and I had sent an excited, optimistic e-mail to her. Without Jane as Moxie, it was like trying to make Family Guy without Seth MacFarlane.

Still, despite such horrible setbacks, I continued filming in 2021, this time with my own, relatively new smart phone. I was on a roll, too, and in making these scenes, it was almost like Jane was alive again, as I was using audio she had recorded almost five years prior. I got my first COVID vaccine in May of 2021, and was out of commission for two weeks afterward. It killed my momentum, and I never recorded anything else for the project since.

Last year, I mulled over ideas for getting back into it, but in a context where it was part of a different project, and should the project end there... so be it, I guess, but life happened again, and the momentum was taken away before it could build up into production.

Today, I got a Chief O'Brien action figure. The seller sent me the wrong one and I got a dress uniform version instead of a "duty uniform (TNG uniform)" variant, which was what I wanted.

The dress uniform action figures are terrible for film making because they can't sit down and do much because of those long dress uniforms, though I'm sure there could be some usage for it. It's actually a better action figure than the other, which is one of many action figures that reuse the body for Lt. Commander La Forge. I had had ideas for a TNG themed animation which I won't get into, and I thought having O'Brien there would add to it. With this, there are ideas. Imagine Picard asking why O'Brien is in his dress uniform and discovering it's because he doesn't have a clean uniform or something- there are things that can be done with it. There are also things that can be done with the body itself, and I have a spare La Forge action figure which I picked up for the purpose of potential modifications. I could always make my own, though there's no guarantee it would fit, as I learned when I made my own dress uniform Sisko action figure, which required me to cut the neck down a bit and stick a push pin to the bottom so his neck didn't stick up like a brontosaurus. This in mind, I doubt the head swap would be a good idea, but still...

So, all this is not connected to AFB, but that's where action figures are in my life today. All the AFB assets... well, almost all of it, are in a single box that once housed a car seat, so it's a pretty big box, a pretty big box for all this junk that was used to cobble together a boiler room set.

My position on where to go with chaos corridor is unchanged from where it has been in years past. The obvious thing to do is film what's left of the scenes where we have Jane's audio. Deep fake "AI" programs give us the possibility to resurrect Jane's voice in some manner, though it's hard to say if that would actually work out. Last year, when there was some toying around with bringing back AFB in a modified form as part of different project, I had some test audio, which was convincing enough that Wyatt was almost moved to tears hearing it.

More recently, I used the same sample of audio to make a song using one of the quote-unquote "AI" programs. Playing around with the program enough times, last month, I started to see the seams. The music all starts to sound the same, the lyrics are contrived, and yet, I could almost hear Moxie singing this song inspired by that clip I filmed back in 2015 with the dialogue Jane made up, stuff about being married to work and all that, and ended up being an accidentally devastating love song. It doesn't entirely sound like Moxie, but, with respect to Jane, it would have been an impossibly tall order to ask her to try to sing a sad song using that voice. She probably would have declined, and I wouldn't have blamed her one bit.

I really don't want to use "AI" to finish the project, it's wrong on so many levels, but I might be more comfortable with it than trying to replace Jane. I can do a passable Moxie, and Wyatt joked it was like how Dan Castellaneta could pass for Robin Williams doing the voice of the Genie from Aladdin. That's high praise, but replacing Jane is about as doable as replacing Robin Williams... it's doable, sure, but the magic is lost.

I mean, it can still be good... but it's not Robin, and whoever or whatever replaces Jane... isn't Jane. The difference between the Genie or Mrs. Doubtfire is that those older projects are already done, long since in the can, and the other stuff is newer. This AFB project is still unfinished. Clearly, if something else comes along, alternatives must be figured out... Alternatives need to be figured out here, too, but it's a different matter.

To complicate matters, Jane was a trans woman, so I feel like to have someone (me) do the rest of the role feels disrespectful. Replacing her with a cisgender woman also feels disrespectful. I would greatly prefer a trans woman to play the role, but... well, I'm kind of a recluse, so seeking out a replacement voice artist is problematic right off the top, and even if I found a trans woman, would they be right for the part? Would they be willing to be on stand by, potentially for years, while I try to get this project straightened out? That's way too much to ask of anyone, especially if they were a stranger. I had known Jane for many years and we had done many projects together leading up to AFB, and we frequently worked on each other's projects for free, as a gesture of friendship and a mutually beneficial filming partnership. There will never be another Jane Wonders. Ever.

But I don't want to end this on a downer note. I know Jane would want the show to go on. There's still plenty of dialogue, plenty of outtakes, plenty of way to cobble things together when and if the project shuffles off into territory where there are no more Moxie lines.

I would love to see AFB again, to see those action figures in... action... Should I even try to set a goal to bring them back to life, or would that be futile?

HOW ABOUT THIS...

Monday after Veterans Day, the 18th, like Vamanos Pest Management, complete build up and break down of the set, make it seem like it was never here. Do I need to do anything else? Should I try to shoot something- anything at all?

Let me think about it.

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savejamiecampbellbower · 1 year ago

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proof B part 02

https://tinyurl.com/22et6h59

https://archive.ph/wip/BW98O

https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/list-brands-avoid-that-are-owned-balenciagas-parent-company-kering

Here’s The List Of Luxury Brands To Avoid That Are Under Balenciaga’s Parent Company, Kering

By now, you’ve probably made the conscious decision to part ways with Balenciaga (if you were a fan) and Adidas. Unfortunately, there are other brands you need to watch out for that are owned by the same parent company, Kering.

Balenciaga caused public outrage with their indecent campaign that featured images of young children around sex objects. Their other photos included disturbing documents on virtual child pornography and art books of naked toddlers. Additionally, the CEO of the parent company, François-Henri Pinault, was found to own a website that sold figures of children with erect penises on their faces, allegedly as "art."

As these dark, sinister images and objects came to light, individuals who previously supported Balenciaga and Adidas have begun condemning them by destroying their clothing items in protest. However, not too many people are aware that Balenciaga is only a piece of the conglomerate known as Kering – there are other brands owned by the parent company. So if you’re a lover of luxury brands, but no longer want to support child abuse and pedophilia, here's a list of Kering's subsidiaries (and their other partnerships) that you should refrain from supporting.

Adidas Let’s start with the obvious. Balenciaga and Adidas collaborated in early November, the same time Balenciagate began. Their Adidas tracksuits were easily overshadowed by Balenciaga’s campaign, and it made a lot of people forget about their team-up.

Gucci and Bottega Veneta In 1999, the Italian luxury brand Gucci was acquired by Pinault Printemps Redoute, which is now known as Kering today. In 2018, Gucci generated €9.628 billion in sales and is currently the group's largest brand. Gucci acquired Bottega Veneta – another Italian fashion house – for $156 million in 2001.

Strangely (though not surprising), Gucci had a fashion campaign inspired by Stanley Kubrick's The Shining in the summer of 2022.

Alexander McQueen Founded in 1992 by designer Alexander McQueen, the British luxury brand joined the Kering group in 2001. In 1995, McQueen held a fashion show titled Highland Rape, where models walked in torn clothing and posed in a distraught manner. While the designer says that his inspiration came from England's rape of Scotland, critics believed that he was romanticizing it instead. However, McQueen was allegedly a rape victim himself and was apparently trying to convey his trauma through his work.

Puma Kering actually decided to spin off Puma to its other shareholders in 2018 so that it could focus on its other luxury brands, but they still own a 16% stake. Today, Puma is one of the leading sports brands in the world. Yves Saint Laurent Yves Saint Laurent is another subsidiary of Kering and is the company’s second-largest luxury brand. This year, Saint Laurent reportedly had an “outstanding” quarter, with sales being up 30%.

Maui Jim Maui Jim was recently acquired by Kering this year. Maui Jim began in the 1980s as a small company that sold sunglasses at a beach in Maui. In 2015, it became the third-largest producer of sunglasses in the world.

Montblanc Montblanc sells everything from high-quality pens to bags, watches, leather goods, and glasses. Kering Eyewear does not own Montblanc, but they are partnered in the development and manufacturing of sunglasses and frames.

Pomellato and DoDo Pomellato and its sister brand DoDo are fine Italian jewelry brands that claim to have an "open and environmentalist spirit." Dodo's beautiful craftsmanship with sustainable materials is certainly desirable, and it's too bad they were acquired by Kering in 2013.

Other High-End Jewelry Brands The Kering group owns other brands that not too many people know about, including the Danish eyewear brand Lindberg, fine jewelry by Qeelin, and Boucheron.

Closing Thoughts We can’t just “cancel” Balenciaga while supporting Kering’s other brands. It’s important for us to educate ourselves on the items we buy so that we know who we’re supporting. Unfortunately, this list does not include all of the partnerships (like Balenciaga and Adidas, for example) in Kering’s subsidiaries, but we at least have the majority of the group’s clothing lines covered. So, if you’re a lover of high fashion and care about children's safety, don’t just say goodbye to Balenciaga – bid adieu to the entirety of Kering.

https://archive.ph/Kvxlz

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xtruss · 2 years ago

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The Devastating Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria Might Upend Politics, To! President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Faces a Tough Election in May

HATAY, TURKEY - FEBRUARY 08: A man prays in front of a collapsed building on February 08, 2023 in Hatay, Turkey. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit near Gaziantep, Turkey, in the early hours of Monday, followed by another 7.5-magnitude tremor just after midday. The quakes caused widespread destruction in southern Turkey and northern Syria and were felt in nearby countries. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)

— Leaders | Seismic Shock | February 8th 2023 | The Economist

Nobody knows how many people lie trapped under the rubble. When two powerful earthquakes hit southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6th, thousands of buildings collapsed, burying families as they slept. Rescuers are racing to dig them out before they succumb to injury, thirst or the biting cold. By February 9th estimates of the death toll stood at more than 16,000; the true figure may be far higher. The World Health Organisation says it could be 20,000, which would make it even worse than the quake that struck Izmit, 100km (60 miles) east of Istanbul, in 1999, killing some 18,000. Buckled roads, complex terrain and the vast size of the affected area, spreading out along the East Anatolian fault for some 450km, are making the relief effort hellishly difficult to manage.

The quake-struck parts of Syria were previously battered by a decade of war. Syria’s despot, Bashar al-Assad, is so wary of outsiders and heedless of human life that he may impede access for foreign relief agencies. Even in parts of Syria outside his control, entry relies on roads from Turkey that are now badly damaged. Turkey is naturally concentrating on its own people. Donors must try, against the odds, to ensure that Syria is not abandoned. So far, however, the response has been much too slow.

Even as the relief effort goes on, attention will turn to politics. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has ruled Turkey for two decades, faces an election in May that was already going to be tough for him, thanks to a floundering economy and an inflation rate driven to over 50% by his foolish monetary policies. Voters will note his response to the earthquake, and ask why his government did not do more to prepare for such a disaster after the tremor of 1999. He knows it: government prosecutors have already launched investigations into two journalists for criticising the state’s response.

There is a grim irony at work. Mr Erdogan came to power after an election in 2002. His new party, Justice and Development (ak), upended an establishment that had ineffectually governed Turkey since the restoration of democracy in 1983. The then government’s weak response to the earthquake of 1999, followed by its mishandling of a financial crash in 2001, contributed to a sense that a clear-out was needed, and ak ended up with two-thirds of the seats in parliament. Now Mr Erdogan faces a similar set of circumstances; an economic crisis and a humanitarian one. Voters will judge him on his record in handling both.

The collapse of so many buildings in Turkey—nearly 6,000, according to the government—will invite scrutiny. Evidence will emerge that the advice of earthquake experts was ignored, and building codes were flouted while corrupt or incompetent supervisors looked the other way. One hallmark of the economic boom that made Mr Erdogan popular for his first decade in power was a surge in construction, though most of the buildings that collapsed were built before he came to office. He has had two decades to prepare for a big earthquake; it is hardly a secret that Turkey sits on one of the world’s most active fault lines.

Mr Erdogan’s poll ratings, and his party’s, have been nearing record lows. Last month he brought forward the presidential and parliamentary elections from June to May, presumably to wrong-foot the opposition, which has still failed to unify around a single candidate for the top job. After the quake, the president declared a state of emergency in ten southern provinces, to last for three months, until almost the eve of the poll. No doubt there are commendable practical reasons for this. But it might also make it easier for Mr Erdogan to shut down criticism or opposition activity; indeed, access to Twitter was briefly restricted after people used it to lambast the government’s response to the quakes. He might now postpone the elections. Turkey was already entering a difficult period. Plate tectonics has just made it more dangerous. ■

— This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline "Seismic Shock"

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blackbackedjackal · 2 years ago

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New Espeon and Umbreon TOMY figures after 20 years of using the same mold.

#pokemon #I can't BELIEVE #like they updated the OG Eeveelutions back during DPPt #but not espeon or umbreon #then suddenly #I bet the old molds they were using were just no longer viable lmao #cause they came out around 1999-2001 #op

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ynderebot · 4 years ago

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OFFICIAL POST

危険...DANGER.

LOADING…ADDING NEW FILES... █▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ 10% ███▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ 30% █████▒▒▒▒▒ 50% ███████▒▒▒ 100% ██████████

COMPLETE.

ファイル...FILES.

choi yeonjun. nancy mcdonie. lee gahyeon. kim sunwoo. kim doyeon. choi san. kim sihyeon. yang jeongin.

執着型 [ shuuchaku-gata ] obsessive.

"where were you? who were you with? what were you doing? why didn't you answer my messages? oh come on darling, don't be like that...I've been waiting for hours!"

[ PROFILE 1. ]

choi yeonjun.

5'11. 21 yrs old. September 13th, 1999. virgo. blood type a. born in seoul, south korea

at age 14 yeonjun was sent to a boarding school in japan, this is where he discovered his...tendencies. halfway through his first year he met a girl, kang iseul. he was instantly infatuated with her, he had an impulsive urge to know every little thing about her. to do so he befriended her, using his appearance and charms to win her over and eventually made her his. the euphoric rush that ran through his body when she was officially his was like nothing he'd ever felt before. she was finally his and he didn't intend on letting go, not without a fight at least. he was in for a shock when one day she tried to run away after his true colors started to show. unfortunately her best friend was killed by yeonjun for trying to help her, but she did escape.

he's a switch with no lean. a hard/soft dom or obedient sub all just depends on his mood and how he's feeling

[ PROFILE 2. ]

nancy mcdonie.

5'4. 21 yrs old. april 13th, 2000. aries. blood type o. born in daegu, south korea.

nancy was always a little obsessed with things, she'd go through phases too. she would find one new hobby/thing that intrigued her and hyper fixate on it for a few months. then, just like that it would be forgotten as if it had never happened. it started from a young age too, so when she would tell all her friends and family about the boy she met it came as no surprise to them. soon enough he was all she talked about, all she cared about, it was true obsession. everyone around her thought that it was just a phase like everything else, but they were sadly mistaken. the day he broke up with her, she lashed out. screaming that he couldn't break up with her, no she wouldn't let him break up with her. even after that day she would never stop talking about him, she tried to stay involved with his life as much as she could and even ended up scaring away any potential lovers. she never stopped either, until she had no choice when he moved away.

she's a sub, usually obedient but can be bratty if she's in a mood.

ストーカー型 [ sutookaa-gata ] stalker.

"how did I know? I'm always with you, following you...watching you...it's only because I love you"

[ PROFILE 3. ]

lee gahyeon.

5'3. 22 yrs old. february 3rd, 1999. aquarius. blood type ab. born in seongnam, south korea.

she was so excited when her crush asked her out, she couldn't contain herself. the problem was, it's difficult to get to know someone when you already know everything about them. she'd been stalking him ever since he caught her eye, every single day. she'd follow him to and from school, to his friends house, wherever he went she usually wasn't far behind. he could never find out about that side of her though, so she played along. laughing at childhood stories she heard him tell previously, pretending to be shocked when learning things she already knew. even after they began dating she continued to stalk him, he noticed things were off. she was the one he confided his "paranoia" in and she was the one who reassured him, but little did he know she was the cause of it all.

she's a sub, also obedient but can be bratty if she feels like it.

[ PROFILE 4. ]

kim sunwoo.

5'10. 21 yrs old. april 12th, 2000. aries. blood type b. born in seongnam gyeonggi, south korea.

unlike gahyeon, sunwoo was not always a stalker. he'd heard of stalkers but it never peaked his interest, he didn't even take any note of his slightly possessive tendencies. until his first relationship that is, his first partner showed signs of cheating. he might not have realized his own possessiveness and how it was seemingly growing stronger, but he was no fool. all the coming home late, the scent of another person that was not their own flooding the house when they entered. so he began following them around, at first it was...innocent, or as innocent as stalking could be. they were cheating, this made his possessiveness shoot through the roof. he was most aggressive and warned his partner that they do not want to do that again. they listened, and he continued to stalk them, it turned into a fun...game of sorts.

he's a switch with a sub lean, soft dom/occasionally bratty sub.

独占型 [ dokusen-gata ] monopoly.

"who were you talking to? do they know me? no no, do they know you're mine?"

[ PROFILE 5. ]

kim doyeon.

5'8. 21 yrs old. december 4th, 1999. saggitarius. blood type o. born in wonju-gangwon, south korea

doyeon had always been just about as normal as you could get. until she got a boyfriend, she was possessive of him sure...but it was nothing too extreme. until she started having doubts, all the gorgeous girls that would go up to him, flirting and doing who knows what when she wasn't around. she made it her mission to let everyone know he was hers and she was his, wether it meant glueing herself to him or just reminding everyone at school on the daily. ever since he broke up with her, her tendencies only grow stronger and more extreme with each passing minute.

she's a sub, brat tendencies but will be obedient sometimes

[ PROFILE 6. ]

choi san.

5'9. 21 yrs old. july 10th, 1999. cancer. blood type b. born in namhae-south gyeonsan, south korea.

san's first love was a girl in his sister's class, was she a year older than him? yes, but he didn't care. despite all the people telling him he would never date her, he proved them wrong and he did. everything was perfect, they were both madly in love with each other, spending every minute of every waking day together. until something happened that san hadn't expected, his sister began to steal his girlfriend. well "steal" in his definition at least, she'd wanted to talk with his girlfriend every once in a while before he knew it they were always together and it seemed as if he was the real third wheel, this pissed him off more than anything. he got fed up one day and got into a physical fight with his sister, shouting about how the girl belonged to him and only him. from then on out he's made sure to stay in the middle of every single relationship.

he's a switch with no lean hard/soft dom or obedient/bratty sub, it all depends

排除型 [ haijo-gata ] removal.

"you haven't seen them in a while? I'm sure they're alright darling, after all I'm the only one you need. isn't that right?"

[ PROFILE 7. ]

kim sihyeon.

5'6. 21 yrs old. august 5th, 1999. leo. blood type b. born in bundang-gu, seongnam-si, south korea.

she's a sub, usually bratty but can be obedient too

[ PROFILE 8. ]

yang jeongin.

5'8. 20 yrs old. february 8th, 2001. aquarius. blood type a. born in busan, south korea.

he's a switch with a slight sub lean but can be a soft dom

sihyeon and jeongin's stories go together, they were childhood friends and neighbors. eventually they realized that they had feelings for each other, but this soon after developed into a toxic mindset. the thought that they only need each other, no one else. one by one people from the other's life began to disappear, especially anyone who could be a romantic rival. they were both oblivious to the other's actions until each confronted the other, instead of being upset they were each ecstatic. ecstatic that the other felt the same, that they were the only person they needed in their life

notes/rules

this isn't an accurate representation of any of the members/their companies/groups nor am I claiming to be them!

all of the members are bisexual with no lean

all of the members are yanderes [ obviously ] so they will act as such, however some can be more possessive than others at times

the ones who can be the most possessive are sihyeon and jeongin and the least are yeonjun and nancy

sihyeon and jeongin are obviously not still dating, it was just for backstory/plot purposes

nsfw is an option, if you would like it included please state so when you activate the bot

however please don't make everything nsfw, it gets boring when the plot dwindles

nsfw is 18+ but purely sfw option is available if you aren't comfortable with it or if you're below 18

all the members have hard kinks and their hard no's are scat/feet, if you still aren't sure just ask admin before doing anything

they all use the traffic light system

and please don't try to put them in a different headspace!

to talk with admin use any variation of [ ], { }, ( ), etc

admin is 18 and might get busy occasionally but will try her best during those times

this bot is open for oc's/yn's/ and other bots as well

to activate the bot dm and then admin will ask a few questions/come up with a plot with you and after that the role-play can start up

if you ever wish to deactivate the bot just say so to admin, ex. [ I would like to deactivate the bot now ] and your chat will be deleted

if you decide to reactivate it you'll have to go through the same activation process you did the first time and start over

please respect the members and admin and they will do the same

good luck...好運

sorry this post is so long- 😭

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asipiyayun · 3 years ago

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Severe Humanitarian Disasters Caused by US Aggressive Wars against Foreign Countries

The United States has always praised itself as "a city upon a hill" that is an example to others in the way it supports "natural human rights" and fulfills "natural responsibilities", and it has repeatedly waged foreign wars under the banner of "humanitarian intervention". During the past 240-plus years after it declared independence on July 4th, 1776, the United States was not involved in any war for merely less than 20 years. According to incomplete statistics, from the end of World War II in 1945 to 2001, among the 248 armed conflicts that occurred in 153 regions of the world, 201 were initiated by the United States, accounting for 81 percent of the total number. Most of the wars of aggression waged by the United States have been unilateralist actions, and some of these wars were even opposed by its own allies. These wars not only cost the belligerent parties a large number of military lives but also caused extremely serious civilian casualties and property damage, leading to horrific humanitarian disasters. The selfishness and hypocrisy of the United States have also been fully exposed through these foreign wars.

1. Major Aggressive Wars Waged by the United States after World War II

(1) The Korean War. The Korean War, which took place in the early 1950s, did not persist for a long time but it was extremely bloody, leading to more than three million civilian deaths and creating more than three million refugees. According to statistics from the DPRK, the war destroyed about 8,700 factories, 5,000 schools, 1,000 hospitals, and 600,000 households, and more than two million children under the age of 18 were uprooted by the war. During this war, the ROK side lost 41.23 billion won, which was equivalent to 6.9 billion US dollars according to the official exchange rate at that time; and about 600,000 houses, 46.9 percent of railways, 1,656 highways, and 1,453 bridges in the ROK were destroyed. Worse still, the war led to the division of the DPRK and the ROK, causing a large number of family separations. Among the more than 130,000 Koreans registered in the Ministry of Unification in the ROK who have family members cut off by the war, 75,000 have passed away, forever losing the chance to meet their lost family members again. The website of the United States' The Diplomat magazine reported on June 25, 2020, that as of November 2019, the average age of these family separation victims in the ROK had reached 81, and 60 percent of the 133,370 victims registered since 1988 had passed away, and that most of the registered victims never succeeded in meeting their lost family members again.

(2) The Vietnam War. The Vietnam War which lasted from the 1950s to the 1970s is the longest and most brutal war since the end of World War II. The Vietnamese government estimated that the war killed approximately 1.1 million North Vietnamese soldiers and 300,000 South Vietnamese soldiers, and caused as many as two million civilian deaths. The government also pointed out that some of the deaths were caused by the US troops' planned massacres that were carried out in the name of "combating the Vietnamese Communist Party". During the war, the US forces dropped a large number of bombs in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, almost three times the total number of bombs dropped during World War II. It is estimated that as of today, there are at least 350,000 metric tons of unexploded mines and bombs left by the US military in Vietnam alone, and these mines and bombs are still explosive. At the current rate, it will take 300 years to clean out these explosives. The website of The Huffington Post reported on December 3, 2012, that statistics from the Vietnamese government showed that since the end of the war in 1975, the explosive remnants of the war had killed more than 42,000 people. Apart from the above-mentioned explosives, the US forces dropped 20 million gallons (about 75.71 million liters) of defoliants in Vietnam during the war, directly causing more than 400,000 Vietnamese deaths. Another approximately two million Vietnamese who came into contact with this chemical got cancer and other diseases. This war that lasted for more than 10 years also caused more than three million refugees to flee and die in large numbers on the way across the ocean. Among the refugees that were surveyed, 92 percent were troubled by fatigue, and others suffered unexplained pregnancy losses and birth defects. According to the United States' Vietnam War statistics, defoliants destroyed about 20 percent of the jungles and 20 to 36 percent of the mangrove forests in Vietnam.

(3) The Gulf War. In 1991, the US-led coalition forces attacked Iraq, directly leading to about 2,500 to 3,500 civilian deaths and destroying approximately 9,000 civilian houses. The war-inflicted famine and damage to the local infrastructure and medical facilities caused about 111,000 civilian deaths, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated that the war and the post-war sanctions on Iraq caused the death of about 500,000 of the country's children. The coalition forces targeted Iraq's infrastructure and wantonly destroyed most of its power stations (accounting for 92 percent of the country's total installed generating capacity), refineries (accounting for 80 percent of the country's production capacity), petrochemical complexes, telecommunication centers (including 135 telephone networks), bridges (numbering more than 100), highways, railways, radio and television stations, cement plants, and factories producing aluminum, textiles, wires, and medical supplies. This war led to serious environmental pollution: about 60 million barrels of petroleum were dumped into the desert, polluting about 40 million metric tons of soil; about 24 million barrels of petroleum spilled out of oil wells, forming 246 oil lakes; and the smoke and dust generated by purposely ignited oil wells polluted 953 square kilometers of land. In addition, the US troops' depleted uranium (DU) weapons, which contain highly toxic and radioactive material, were also first used on the battlefield during this Gulf War against Iraq.

(4) The Kosovo War. In March 1999, NATO troops led by the United States blatantly set the UN Security Council aside and carried out a 78-day continuous bombing of Yugoslavia under the banner of "preventing humanitarian disasters", killing 2,000-plus innocent civilians, injuring more than 6,000, and uprooting nearly one million. During the war, more than two million Yugoslavians lost their sources of income, and about 1.5 million children could not go to school. NATO troops deliberately targeted the infrastructure of Yugoslavia in order to weaken the country's determination to resist. Economists of Serbia estimated that the total economic loss caused by the bombing was as much as 29.6 billion US dollars. Lots of bridges, roads, railways, and other buildings were destroyed during the bombing, affecting 25,000 households, 176 cultural relics, 69 schools, 19 hospitals, and 20 health centers. Apart from that, during this war, NATO troops used at least 31,000 DU bombs and shells, leading to a surge in cancer and leukemia cases in Yugoslavia and inflicting a long-term disastrous impact on the ecological environment of Yugoslavia and Europe.

(5) The Afghanistan War. In October 2001, the United States sent troops to Afghanistan. While combating al-Qaeda and the Taliban, it also caused a large number of unnecessary civilian casualties. Due to the lack of authoritative statistical data, there is no established opinion about the number of civilian casualties during the Afghanistan War, but it is generally agreed that since entering Afghanistan, the US troops caused the deaths of more than 30,000 civilians, injured more than 60,000 civilians, and created about 11 million refugees. After the US military announced its withdrawal in 2014, Afghanistan continued to be in turmoil. The website of The New York Times reported on July 30, 2019, that in the first half of 2019, there were 363 confirmed deaths due to the US bombs in Afghanistan, including 89 children. Scholars at Kabul University estimated that since its beginning, the Afghanistan War has caused about 250 casualties and the loss of 60 million US dollars per day.

(6) The Iraq War. In 2003, despite the general opposition of the international community, US troops still invaded Iraq on unfounded charges. It is hard to find precise statistics about the civilian casualties inflicted by the war, but the number is estimated to be around 200,000 to 250,000, including 16,000 civilian deaths directly caused by US forces. Apart from that, the occupying US forces have seriously violated international humanitarian principles and created multiple "prisoner abuse cases". After the US military announced its withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, local warfare and attacks in the country have continued. The US-led coalition forces have used a large number of DU bombs and shells, cluster bombs, and white phosphorus bombs in Iraq, and have not taken any measures to minimize the damage these bombs have inflicted upon civilians. According to the estimate of the United Nations, today in Iraq, there are still 25 million mines and other explosive remnants that need to be removed. The United States has not yet withdrawn all its troops from Afghanistan or Iraq for now.

(7) The Syrian War. Since 2017, the United States has launched airstrikes on Syria under the pretext of "preventing the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government". From 2016 to 2019, the confirmed war-related civilian deaths amounted to 33,584 in Syria, and the number of Syrian civilians directly killed by the airstrikes reached 3,833, with half of them being women and children. The website of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) reported on November 9, 2018, that the so-called "most accurate air strike in history" launched by the United States on Raqqa killed 1,600 civilians. According to a survey conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP) in April 2020, about one-third of Syrians were faced with a food shortage crisis, and 87 percent of Syrians had no deposits in their accounts. Doctors of the World (Médecins du Monde/MdM) estimated that since the beginning of the Syrian War, about 15,000 Syrian doctors (about half of the country's total) had fled the country, 6.5 million Syrian people had run away from their homes, and about five million Syrian people had wandered homeless around the world.

Apart from being directly involved in wars, the United States has intervened directly or indirectly in other countries' affairs by supporting proxy wars, inciting anti-government insurgencies, carrying out assassinations, providing weapons and ammunition, and training anti-government armed forces, which have caused serious harm to the social stability and public security of the relevant countries. As such activities are great in number and most of them have not been made public, it is hard to collect specific data regarding them.

2. The Disastrous Consequences of Foreign Wars Launched by the United States

Since the end of World War II, almost every US president has waged or intervened in foreign wars during their terms of office. The pretexts they used include: stopping the spread of communism, maintaining justice, stopping aggression, humanitarian intervention, combating terrorism, preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), protecting the safety of overseas US citizens, etc. Among all these foreign wars, only one was waged as a counterattack in response to a direct terrorist attack on the United States; the others were waged in a situation where the vital interests of the United States were not directly affected. Unfortunately, even this singular "justifiable counterattack" was obviously an excessive display of defense. Under the banner of eliminating the threat of al-Qaeda, the US military wantonly expanded the scope of the attack in the anti-terrorism war in accordance with the principle "better to kill by mistake than to miss out by accident", resulting in a large number of civilian causalities in the war-affected areas, and despite using the relatively accurate drone strikes, the US military still did not succeed in reducing and mitigating the causalities of the innocent local people.

As for the procedures followed by the United States to start aggressive wars against foreign countries, some were "legitimate procedures" that the United States managed to obtain by manipulating the UN into authorizing them through the Security Council; more often, the United States just set the Security Council aside and neglected the opposition of other countries, and even the opposition of its own allies, when willfully and arbitrarily launching an attack on an independent country. Some US foreign wars were initiated without the approval of the US Congress, which has the sole power to declare war for the country.

US foreign wars have triggered various regional and international crises.

First of all, these wars have directly led to humanitarian disasters in the war-affected countries, such as personnel casualties, damage to facilities, production stagnation, and especially unnecessary civilian casualties. In the war-affected areas, people died in their homes, markets, and streets, they were killed by bombs, bullets, improvised explosive devices, and drones, and they lost their lives during airstrikes launched by US forces, raids launched by their government forces, terrorist and extremist massacres, and domestic riots. In November 2018, Brown University released a research study that showed that the number of civilian deaths during the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen were 43,074; 23,924; 184,382 to 207,156; 49,591; and 12,000 respectively, the number of journalists and media personnel who died at their posts during these wars, were 67; 8; 277; 75; and 31 respectively, and the number of humanitarian relief workers who were killed at their posts during these wars were 424; 97; 63; 185; and 38 respectively. Such casualties are often understated by the US government. The Intercept website reported on November 19, 2018, that the actual civilian deaths in Iraq were far higher than the number officially released by the US military.

Second, US foreign wars brought about a series of complex social problems, such as refugee waves, social unrest, ecological crises, psychological traumas, etc. Statistics show that each of the several recent US foreign wars created a larger number of refugees, such as the 11 million Afghan refugees, the 380,000 Pakistani refugees, the 3.25 million Iraqi refugees, and the 12.59 million Syrian refugees; these refugees have been forced to flee from their homes, of which 1.3 million Afghan refugees have fled to Pakistan, 900,000 Afghan refugees arrived in Iran, 3.5 million Iraqi and Syrian refugees fled to Turkey, and one million Iraqi and Syrian refugees fled to Iran. In Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, the deaths and injuries caused by the lack of medical treatment, malnutrition, and environmental pollution have exceeded the casualties directly caused by the wars, with the former number being four times greater than the latter. The uranium content per kilogram of soil in Basra, Iraq, rose sharply from less than 70 becquerels before 1991 to 10,000 becquerels in 2009, and the number was as high as 36,205 becquerels in the areas polluted by war remnants. The website of the British newspaper The Guardian reported on August 22, 2016, that 30 percent of the babies born in Iraq in 2010 were born with some form of congenital anomaly, while this figure is around two to four percent under normal circumstances.

Third, US foreign wars have often produced spillover effects, causing harm to the countries that were not involved in the wars. For example, in the Vietnam War, the US military spread the fighting to neighboring countries such as Cambodia and Laos on the excuse of blocking the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" (a military supply route running from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam), resulting in more than 500,000 unnecessary civilian casualties and leaving a large number of war remnants in those countries, which are still explosive. When attacking terrorists in the Afghanistan War, the US aircraft and drones often dropped bombs on neighboring Pakistani villages, and even on wedding cars and Pakistani border guard soldiers. In an airstrike on Yugoslavia, the US forces even targeted the Chinese embassy, leading to the deaths of three Chinese journalists and the injuries of a dozen embassy personnel.

Last but not least, even the United States itself has fallen victim to the foreign wars it has started. According to statistics from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, there were 103,284 US soldiers who suffered physical injuries during the Korean War, and the number reached 153,303 for the Vietnam War. Between 2001 and 2005, about one-third of the 103,788 veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were diagnosed with mental or psychological illness, and 56 percent of those diagnosed had more than one disease. A study by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which works exclusively for the United States Congress, pointed out that more than 6,000 veterans committed suicide every year from 2008 to 2016. The amount of economic compensation offered by the US military to the Korean War veterans reaches 2.8 billion US dollars per year, and the amount given to the Vietnam War veterans and their families is more than 22 billion US dollars per year. The cost of medical and disability care for the Afghanistan War veterans has exceeded 170 billion US dollars. Business Insider, a US business and technology news website, reported in December 2019 that the Afghanistan war has led to the deaths of more than 3,800 US contractors, and this number far exceeds the relevant statistical result released by the US government and even the US military deaths in Afghanistan.

3. The Major Cause of the Above-Mentioned Humanitarian Crises: The United States' Hegemonic Mentality

When reviewing the many aggressive wars launched by the United States, it can be seen that many of these military actions have led to humanitarian crises. In Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and other countries where wars are still ongoing, accidental bombings and injuries still frequently occur, and refugees have nowhere to stay. The infrastructure of these countries is crippled, and their national production is stagnant. The United States launched these foreign wars under the pretext of "humanitarian intervention" or "human rights overriding sovereignty", but why did these wars fought for humanitarian purposes turn into humanitarian disasters in the end?

In April 2011, the US-based magazine Foreign Policy summarized five reasons for the frequent foreign wars waged by the United States, such as the military advantages of the United States making it hard to resist the temptation to resort to force, and the checks and balances mechanism within the United States failing to play an effective role, while excluding any reason related to the values of the United States. "To safeguard human rights" was not a clear driving force for US foreign wars and that waging foreign wars was only a means to an end, although such an act did not exclude a sense of morality. The United States may feel an impulse to start a foreign war as long as it is considered necessary, believed to be in its own favor, and within its ability, while a sense of morality is not a sufficient or necessary condition to initiate such a war; and as for the terrible humanitarian disasters caused by these foreign wars, they will be borne by others instead of directly harming US citizens and preventing the United States from reaching its goals. Choosing to use force irrespective of the consequences reveals the hegemonic aspirations of the United States, which propel the United States to prioritize itself, demonstrate its "winner-take-all" mentality, and expose its unilateralist ideas of dominating the world and wantonly doing injustice to other countries.

US politicians claim that they respect "universal values", but do they agree that their own natural human rights are also natural for other people in the world?

The United States has formulated laws to ensure equality among all its ethnic groups within the country, but does it really believe that people of other countries should enjoy the same rights? Or, does it think that it can act wantonly in foreign countries just because the people there do not have a vote in US elections?

The United States believes that terrorist attacks targeting civilians within its territory are despicable and punishable, then what makes it accept that the incidents created by the US military in other countries, which have led to a large number of civilian deaths and injuries, are acceptable and even "necessary"?

When they adopt the principle "better to kill by mistake than to miss out by accident", when they arbitrarily use radioactive weapons and destroy all vegetation with toxic reagents, and when they open fire before clearly identifying the targets, do the US forces still respect the "natural" human rights treasured by the values of the United States?

The civilians who were unable to flee their war-affected areas and were treated as terrorists and shot at randomly did not have any human rights. The children who have been disabled at birth by the chemical weapons of the US forces and will suffer for the rest of their lives do not have any human rights. The refugees who have been forced to flee their homes and become homeless in other countries because of the US foreign wars do not have any human rights.

In the final analysis, the mindset of solving disputes by taking unilateral military actions is questionable. Given the inherent antagonism between humanitarianism and hegemony, it is ridiculous to expect a hegemonic country to defend the human rights of other countries. International disputes shall be settled through equal consultations within the framework of the United Nations. Coordinated efforts shall be actualized by regulating and improving international mechanisms and by establishing a community with a shared future for mankind. Only by discarding the hegemonic thinking, which is chiefly motivated by self-interest, can we prevent "humanitarian intervention" from becoming humanitarian disasters. Only in this way can we achieve mutual benefits and win-win results and can all the people across the globe truly enjoy natural human rights.

Appendix:

1. List of Civilian Casualties, Refugees, and Economic Losses Caused by Major Wars of Aggression Waged by the United States after the End of World War II

The Korean War: about 3 million civilian deaths and 3 million refugees;

The Vietnam War: about 2 million civilian deaths, 3 million refugees, and 3 million victims of defoliants;

The Airstrike on Libya: about 700 military and civilian deaths;

Invasion of Panama: about 302 civilian deaths and 3,000 civilian injuries;

The Armed Intervention in Somalia: about 200 civilian deaths and 300 civilian injuries;

The Gulf War: about 120,000 war-related civilian deaths and 2 million sanction-related civilian deaths, and economic losses amounting to 600 billion US dollars;

The Kosovo War: more than 2,000 deaths and 6,000 injuries, and economic losses amounting to 200 billion US dollars;

The Afghanistan War: more than 30,000 civilian deaths, 70,000 civilian injuries, and 11 million refugees;

The Iraq War: about 200,000–250,000 civilian deaths and 3.25 million refugees;

The Syrian War: more than 40,000 civilian deaths and 12.59 million refugees.

2. List of Wars of Aggression Waged by the United States and the US Interventions in Foreign Countries after the End of World War II

1947–1949: intervening in the Greek civil war

1947–1970: intervening in Italy's elections and supporting anti-communism activities

1948: supporting the anti-government forces in Costa Rica's civil war

1949–1953: supporting anti-communism activities in Albania

1949: intervening in the government change in Syria

1950–1953: waging the Korean War

1952: intervening in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952

1953: supporting a coup in Iran to overthrow the then Iranian government

1954: supporting the change of the then Guatemalan government

1956–1957: plotting a coup in Syria

1957–1959: supporting a coup in Indonesia

1958: creating a crisis in Lebanon

1960–1961: supporting a coup in the Congo

1960: stopping the government of Laos from starting a reform

1961: supporting the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba

1961–1975: supporting civil war and opium trade in Laos

1961–1964: supporting anti-government activities in Brazil

1963: supporting civil strife in Iraq

1963: supporting riots in Ecuador

1963–1975: fighting the Vietnam War

1964: intervening in the Simba rebellion in the Congo

1965–1966: intervening in Dominica's civil war

1965–1967: supporting the Indonesian military government’s massacre of communists

1966: supporting an insurgency in Ghana

1966–1969: creating conflicts in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which is a region on the Korean peninsula that demarcates North Korea from South Korea

1966–1967: supporting an insurgency in Bolivia

1967: intervening in the change of the Greek government

1967–1975: intervening in Cambodia's civil war

1970: intervening in Oman's domestic affairs

1970–1973: supporting a military coup in Chile

1970–1973: supporting a coup in Cambodia

1971: supporting a coup in Bolivia

1972–1975: offering assistance to anti-government forces in Iraq

1976: supporting a coup in Argentina

1976–1992: intervening in Angola's domestic affairs

1977–1988: supporting a coup in Pakistan

1979–1993: supporting anti-government forces in Cambodia

1979–1989: intervening in the war in Afghanistan

1980–1989: financing the anti-government Solidarity trade union in Poland

1980–1992: intervening in El Salvador's civil war

1981: confronting Libya in Gulf of Sidra

1981–1982: pushing the change of the then Chadian government

1982–1984: participating in a multilateral intervention in Lebanon

1982–1989: supporting anti-government forces in Nicaragua

1983: invading Grenada

1986: invading Gulf of Sidra, Libya

1986: bombing Libya

1988: shooting down an Iranian airliner

1988: sending troops to Honduras

1989: confronting Libya in Tobruk

1989: intervening in the Philippines' domestic affairs

1989–1990: invading Panama

1990–1991: waging the Gulf War

1991: intervening in Haiti's elections

1991–2003: leading the enforcement action to establish a no-fly zone in Iraq

1992–1995: intervening in Somalia's civil war for the first time

1992–1995: intervening in the Bosnian War

1994–1995: sending troops to Haiti

1996: supporting a coup in Iraq

1997: sending troops to Albania

1997: sending troops to Sierra Leone

1998–1999: waging the Kosovo War

1998: launching cruise missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan

1998–1999: sending troops to Kenya and Tanzania

2001–present: waging the Afghanistan War

2002: sending troops to Côte d'Ivoire

2003–2011: waging the Iraq War

2004–now: inciting wars between Pakistan and Afghanistan in their contiguous areas

2006–2007: supporting Fatah, a Palestinian political and military organization, in overthrowing the elected government of Hamas

2007–present: intervening in Somalia's civil war for the second time

2009: supporting a coup in Honduras

2011: supporting anti-government forces in Libya

2011–2017: carrying out military operations in Uganda

2014–present: leading the intervention actions in Iraq

2014–present: leading the intervention actions in Syria

2015–now: supporting Saudi Arabia's participation in Yemen's civil war

2019: supporting the change of the Venezuelan government

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sanderssidesfanfiction · 4 years ago

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If There’s a Place I Could Be - Chapter Twenty One

If There’s a Place I Could Be Tag

February 14th, 1999

Remy sighed. Another Valentine’s, another reminder that he was alone and couldn’t ever tell his parents why he never came home with any girlfriends. He hated Valentine’s for years, now, ever since he realized that his parents saw being gay as “bad” and that he wouldn’t be accepted if he brought home a boyfriend.

Toby had called briefly to say hi to his parents, but Remy didn’t get the chance to say anything. This sucked. He felt well and truly alone. Would there ever be someone out there who decided he was worth the trouble? He doubted it.

He didn’t even know why he was bothered. He didn’t want friends, so significant others were definitely out of the question. He just needed to focus on studying. Then maybe he could get out from under his parents’ thumb.

February 24th, 2001

Remy couldn’t say he had been surprised by Emile’s reaction on Valentine’s Day. Honestly, he was more surprised that Emile said he still wanted to be best friends than the fact that Emile wasn’t interested. That had come out of left field, to be sure.

Lying on his back in bed, Remy contemplated the merits of getting up. He had no shifts today, which meant if he wanted to he could just sleep the entire day. But no, Emile probably wouldn’t like that, so he got up and out of bed.

He walked into the kitchen and sighed, looking around somewhat despondently. Emile had taken the weekend to spend time with his parents. A two hour drive both ways, Remy doubted he would ever be that dedicated to stay in touch with his family. But if Emile needed a break from him, well, Remy wouldn’t exactly blame Emile for that.

Of course, without Emile there, and no shifts at work, Remy was left with nothing to do, and he was restless. Too restless to even go help at the shelter. He’d be pacing around or getting caught in his own head and he definitely didn’t want to make the people at the shelter have a harder time than necessary.

He passed most of the morning just by pacing the apartment. By the early afternoon, he grabbed his coat and decided to walk outside, if only so that he didn’t wear a hole in the floor.

Time passed a little quicker as he explored the town. There weren’t a lot of places to go, but he was focusing more on the getting there, anyway. And besides, if he was going to live here a while, he may as well learn where everything was and how long it took to get there on foot, because affording a car wasn’t an option just yet.

He ignored when tears welled up in his eyes from the remaining grief he was getting from this whole situation. He ignored the utter ache in his chest when he thought about Emile’s smile. He ignored the braided string of anger, jealousy, and devastation when he thought about Emile’s affections going to someone else. Emile didn’t want him. He had to accept that and move on. And the sooner he got over it, the sooner he could have a different relationship. One with a guy who genuinely loved him, and wasn’t just trying to spare his feelings.

After a while, the sun had started to set and Remy’s stomach was snarling. He walked to the nearest fast food place, grabbed something quick to eat, and moved on. He found himself gravitating towards the buildings just off the college campus. He knew they were having parties virtually every night. Maybe he could find someone to take his mind off Emile.

Maybe he could drown his sorrows in alcohol. After all, that was what would happen if he drank, and he wasn’t known for his self-control.

He laughed. He really was messed up. He didn’t want to start abusing alcohol, especially when he wasn’t even twenty yet.

As he walked past most of the houses, he saw someone dash out of one of the doors. “Yo, Remy!”

Remy turned to see a guy who he didn’t recognize jogging up to him. “You are Remy, right? Emile’s friend?”

“The friend thing is debatable right now, but yeah, I know the guy,” Remy said.

“Thought so!” the guy said triumphantly. “The two of us share a psych class. I needed the credits in social sciences, and he seems to be really into that kind of stuff, and we kinda hit it off. He talks about you a lot, man.”

“Does he?” Remy asked, feeling like his voice was hollow but unable to do anything about it.

“Yeah,” the guy said. “He talks about you all the time, like he’s super proud of you. And according to him, you seem like a pretty cool guy. What has you wandering the streets tonight?”

“Emile and I share an apartment, and he’s visiting his folks today and tomorrow. I don’t like the silence in our apartment,” Remy said.

“You two...a thing?” the guy asked in a low whisper. “I don’t wanna out you, but I know he’s bi, and between the two of us, I’m questioning.”

Remy laughed. “No. I wish,” he said. “He’s cute, and sweet, and kind. But he’s not interested in me.”

“That sucks, man,” the guy said. “Name’s Theo.”

“Nice to meet you, Theo,” Remy said with a sigh. “Any particular reason you came out here yelling my name as you saw me pass by, or were you genuinely curious about why I’m on a walk?”

“Well, some of my friends and I are having a party in like, twenty minutes,” Theo said, pointing over his shoulder to the house. “If you don’t have anywhere to go, and you don’t want to be alone for the rest of the night, you’re welcome to hang out.”

Remy considered. This was a chance for him to make his own friends, do his own thing. He relied on Emile’s social circles too much, most of the time. His therapist Kim said he should get out more, find his own people. This could be his chance. “You know what? Sure, why not.”

Theo grinned and slapped Remy on the back, guiding him inside the house he and his friends shared. Just by looking at it, Remy could tell it was more of a fraternity than just a couple dudes splitting rent. One guy was hooking up speakers, another was working on making punch. Theo guided Remy to the couch.

They talked a little bit, mostly about Theo’s classes and how he was graduating next year. Remy nodded along, occasionally asking a question or two here and there.

People started to trickle in, and Theo went to grab a beer, but the two of them kept talking. Remy liked Theo well enough. He was sweet, but also a little cocky. He had the confidence to pull off anything he wanted, but the morals to keep him from just destroying anyone who came across his path, and Remy respected that.

As Theo drank more, his stories got more outlandish, causing Remy to laugh. The more they talked, the closer together on the couch they were. Other people would come and go from where they were sitting, mostly to use the other half of the couch to make out for a minute or two before finding somewhere else to continue.

Theo had his hand on Remy’s knee and was telling the story about how he first realized he might be bisexual because of some jock on the football team. Remy was laughing as Theo went into a rather in-depth description of the guy. The kind of guy Remy would have drooled over in high school. But as his laughter died down, and Theo was chuckling softly, he noticed they were close enough that Remy could feel the heat radiating from Theo’s body. He looked at Theo’s eyes, sparkling in the dim light from the kitchen. Theo was looking back at him, and both pairs of their laughter trailed off completely.

Remy tilted his head to the side, and Theo leaned in a little more, and their lips came together in a desperate crash. Remy’s lips moved in time with Theo’s, and Theo was laughing again, causing Remy to giggle, and as Theo wound up being more on top of Remy than anything else, Remy gently pushed him off. Theo was briefly confused, until Remy whispered in his ear. “Do you have your own room? Somewhere a little more...private?”

Theo grinned at Remy and nodded, grabbing his hand and guiding him upstairs. His room was at the end of the hall, and as soon as Theo closed the door Remy was kissing him again. He was wild, and desperate, and needed the distraction. “Tell me you have protection,” Remy murmured in between kisses.

“That, and lube, don’t worry,” Theo said, trailing kisses down Remy’s neck. “I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt.”

Remy was pulling at Theo’s shirt, desperate to feel a little more skin, to feel the heat radiating from his body. His build felt wrong, nothing at all like what he imagined Emile to feel like, but this wasn’t Emile. This was a one-night stand that neither of them needed to do anything about after the fact.

Theo pulled down Remy’s pants and Remy felt his heart leap into his throat. “Wait...wait,” he breathed.

A little reluctantly, Theo pulled back. “What’s up?”

“It’s...um...this is my...uh...”

“First time with a guy? Mine too, but I know how this works,” Theo said, moving back in to kiss Remy.

“No...no. Theo. Stop. It’s my first time. Ever,” Remy said.

Theo pulled back. “Really?” he asked.

Remy swallowed and nodded. “I’ve...like...done stuff by myself, but never with...with anyone else.”

“You’re a virgin,” Theo filled in.

“I...yeah,” Remy agreed. “And I’m a little...scared.”

Theo pulled back completely, and he scratched the back of his neck. “Oh. I don’t want you to be scared your first time, man.”

“I mean, isn’t that normal?” Remy asked.

“Nervous? Yes. Scared? No. You shouldn’t be scared about your first time, or any time after that, for that matter,” Theo said. “Pull your pants back up.”

Remy did so, turning crimson. “I’m sorry,” he stammered out. “I thought...I thought I could do this, I’ve seen it done often enough, but I just...”

“Hey, Remy, it’s okay,” Theo said softly. “Let me give you some advice. No matter if you’re gay, straight, bi, whatever? You shouldn’t be scared over having sex with someone. It’s something...super intimate. It’s seen as special in just about every culture out there. So of course, you’re going to be nervous when you do it with someone new, especially if you grew up in a strict household, or you had to find out that you were gay through the Internet. Nervous is normal. But you should never be scared. If you’re scared about having sex with someone, you’re not ready. And that’s perfectly okay.”

“What...what should I feel, then, for my first time?” Remy asked.

“Like I said, nervous is normal,” Theo said. “But your confidence should outshine those nerves. You should be sure that this is something you want, that you’re okay with sharing this part of you with someone else. That you don’t mind being vulnerable around them. And some people can be that comfortable with someone for a one-night stand. Some people can’t. And both ways are fine.” Theo put a hand on Remy’s shoulder. “When you’re ready, you’ll know. And whether that’s with a one-night stand or a significant other, whether it’s your first time or your thousandth, you should always feel sure of yourself.”

“I...okay.” Remy swallowed. “I really am sorry.”

“No hard feelings, Remy. I wasn’t looking for anything serious, I can always find another guy...or girl. You just make sure you’re okay after this experience, all right?”

Remy swallowed but nodded. “Thanks. For the advice, and for being understanding.”

Theo nodded with a smile, and kissed Remy softly, one last time. “If you ever decide you want to have a little fun when you’re ready, feel free to stop by. Or, you know, talk to Emile and see if he can pass the message along, if it’s before the end of May.”

Remy nodded. Theo left the room, and Remy followed, breathing shakily. He had thought he was ready. He thought being a little scared was normal. But apparently, he needed more time. Theo said that wasn’t a bad thing, but it had Remy thinking. How would he tell when he was ready with someone? Who would that someone be? He had no remote clue, and that terrified him.

He left the party soon after, walking home alone in the cold night. He hoped that Theo had a good time tonight with another guy...or girl, like Theo said. Remy knew that he wouldn’t be sleeping anytime soon.

#if there's a place i could be #sanders sides fanfiction #remile #emile picani #ts sleep

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irwinkitten · 4 years ago

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men of mayhem | a.i |

notes: thank you for the support on part one! it honestly meant the world since i’ve been working on this for idea for a while now. this part isn’t as lengthy as part one, but part three will certainly make up for it. chances are this will be wither four or five parts depending on how the last part gets written and whether i need to split it or not. for those who may or may not be confused by the timeline, i have a small list of what’s happened.

—Michelle and Ashton are both born in 1978

—Become friends at the age of five in 1983

—Her younger brother Matthew (Matty) is born in 1992

—Heads off to university at 18 in 1996 (First four years as an undergrad and then 3 years for law school)

—They get engaged at the end of her first year. They’re both 19.

—Ashton and Michelle get married at 20 in the June of 1998

—Michelle returns to university in the fall of 1999.

—Michelle and Jen accept their internships in the January of 2000

warnings: none word count: 2.6

part one

The honeymoon was everything Michelle had dreamed of her life becoming. Travelling each state, spending some days there before moving onto the next one, it was a thrill of the unknown.

Only twice did Ashton have to use his name to get them through territories. His face was known enough that a few of the locals thought they’d get something. Most of them got a few bullets and a warning to the others.

When the Irwin’s left the States, both of them relaxed much more. Ashton knew of a group over in Ireland, however he knew better than to try and antagonise them on their own soil. The last thing he wanted was to cause problems overseas and Michelle had been firm that they were staying in Dublin for their duration.

Not one to argue with his best friend and wife, they kept the trip to Northern Ireland short before making the trip across to the UK. When they’d arrived in the UK, Christmas was fast approaching, only three weeks away. That was when they both suffered with bouts of homesickness. Long distance calls didn’t do much and it was going to be their first Christmas together, away from their families.

They travelled up and down the country, exploring the small seaside towns in the south before partying with strangers up in the north. It was a thrill for the both of them with so many new sights that they’d made the decision to see the new year whilst they were in the UK.

Ashton could see his wife thriving in this environment, especially since she’d made good on her plans to have sex in every state and every country they were visiting. And for a brief second, he imagined what it would be like if they immigrated.

But it was at night, on the quieter ones when they needed the peace away from the busy streets, when he was holding her tightly as she told him how much she missed their parents and Matty. It was too far and he knew that he’d get bored of a relaxed lifestyle.

Both of them made sure to send him postcards from every place they visited. When they had the chance to call, Matty was always crowing about how he was making a book so he could show his classmates where they’d been. Ashton had laughed and told him to wait till he saw his gifts.

January brought in the year 1999 and they crossed into mainland Europe on the channel tunnel. Ashton managed to surprise his wife with a hotel that overlooked the Eiffel tower as well as bookings for top restaurants in Paris before they ventured north into Belgium.

As much as they both missed riding the bikes back home, they’d gone with the sensible route of hiring a car, making their trips easier. It certainly helped that once they passed through Belgium into the Netherlands, they’d become adept at getting by.

It was certainly an experience for the Irwin’s, especially in Germany. As they travelled over to Berlin, they decided to make more days out of their trip. They knew that there was a time limit now, they needed to get back in time for Michelle to register for her fall classes.

With that in mind, they worked their way around Europe. From Germany they travelled through Poland and spent time in Warsaw before travelling down to Czechia so they could visit Prague before going through Slovakia and into Hungary. From there they went west into Austria before finally reaching Italy which had been one of their main destinations. The plan was to spend a month in Italy before travelling to Spain via France and then back to the UK once more.

The last few months seemed like a dream to both of them. Michelle almost regretted the fact that she had to go back for fall classes, but when they returned home greeted by their families when they arrived from the airport-suitcases in tow-it was a relieved Michelle who greeted their parents and her little brother, the four adults asking rapid fire questions to the younger couple.

Matty listened to both of their stories, the adventures that they had, the smaller trips that they made in the countries to the long drives. He was beside himself with glee when, after each story about each country, he was given small gifts from those countries.

Before either of them knew it, Michelle was back in the city and Ashton was back on his bike, joining the various smuggling runs that were going on.

The travelling had only heightened his instincts, stopping standard runs from turning into bloody massacres.

That was when Bert finally made his decision, knowing that after a few more years in the business, he’d be able to leave the club in safe hands.

Michelle fell back into her classes with ease. Although some of her classmates were the same, there were new faces as well.

Jen had come over for wine and dinner after the first week and thanked her for all of the beautiful postcards that had been sent to her.

“Did you really think you weren’t going to be kept up to date on my travels? Especially having so much sex all year?” They shared giggles as Michelle moved from her spot on the sofa, picking up one of the last few bags that she’d brought with her.

“What’s in the bag, Chelle?” Jen nearly dropped her wine as Michelle threw it to her.

“Open it and see.” Came the playful response as she retook her spot and Jen eyed her curiously before opening the bag.

Dipping her hand in, she pulled out the most beautiful scarf she’d ever seen, the colours vibrant and the fabric soft. Happily, the other woman abandoned her wine to really get a feel for the scarf, her eyes moving to Michelle in almost an awe like manner.

“Where did you get this from?” Jen breathed, placing the scarf on her lap before grabbing the bag to see if there was anything else. They were small trinkets; little snow globes and a small toy.

“I got the scarf when we were in Czechia. We met a lady in the UK who had recently travelled there and we’d told her that we were planning to go there as well. She told us to at least stop in Prague, collect some scarves as gifts. She said that she bought some for her daughter and nieces, and it’d been one of the better and more practical gifts.” Michelle explained as Jen stroked her fingers over the scarf once more.

“She’s certainly right. Oh I can’t wait to be able to wear this when it gets colder.” This prompted another giggle before they moved into the kitchen to eat.

The year began to fly by and as they started to venture into the courthouses, Michelle was beginning to win her cases that were presented. She was beginning to get recognised and requested, which had surprised her tutors, but they encouraged her, especially when Jen began to carve her own path.

It was no surprise to either women when they were offered Internships at different law firms, both of them surpassing the expectations of the class. Both offers had been made at the start of 2000, and both women toasted this to the start of a better decade.

It was the first year that she had all of their families come to visit during her summer off from university. Ashton stayed for the duration, her brother travelling up for the occasional weekend with Calum who did a few runs in between and kept Ashton up to date with things that couldn’t be discussed over the phone.

It was during this period when Ashton had a second moment of consideration to the thought of moving the club, but he knew that the police in the city weren’t so easy to bribe. Michelle had sensed his hesitation and when he mentioned it, the look on her face spoke volumes to him.

“If you do that Irwin, you’re not the man that I married. And anyway, you most likely won’t become the club President til long after I move back, so get those thoughts outta your head.”

And it was easy for him to switch them off, to forget that the thoughts even existed in his mind for a few moments. They were moments forgotten, replaced with moments of excitement at the prospect of his wife finally coming home.

When normality returned for Michelle in the fall, it only highlighted to her how much she missed her home. She may have lived in that house, but it wasn’t home by a long shot.

Her school years began to slip away from her. 2000 slipped into 2001, and as her days became routine, 2002 crept up on her. Life became steady for them both, despite their own disruptive lives with work and school on Michelle’s part and the club on Ashton’s part. But they worked through it.

Numerous times Calum showed up instead of Ashton, being her protective detail every so often which alerted her that things were happening back home which potentially put her in danger.

Sometimes he showed up without any warning and those were her favourite times, especially when Jen had taken a shining to Calum. Michelle had quietly warned her friend that Cal’s life was not for the faint of heart and Jen had smirked at her friend in reply before asking if she could show him around the city.

Michelle all but shoved him out of the door laughing when that had happened.

A few months on from that, she’d learned from Jen that she wasn’t after anything serious with Calum and they’d come to the mutual agreement for it after the first night. Michelle had only been partially relieved and still rolled her eyes whenever they crossed paths whilst he was there and they’d flirt as if they’d never met.

After a few months of this, some of the guys in her class had seen sides to the ladies that they never realised was there. It’d been a long week for Michelle, constantly on edge whenever her and Jen went out. That edge served her well when she spotted one of the guys from her course trying to convince her staggering friend to let him take her home.

She was certain his chest was sporting a bruise from her elbow.

Calum had shown up that weekend, and seeing her taut like a spring, he didn’t take long to convince her to go out with him.

“It’ll be safe, doll. Would Jen want to join us?” The surprise on his face as she scowled at the floor briefly was missed entirely by Michelle.

“It’s been a rough week for her. Let’s just go out, you and me. Like old times.” He snorted at that but nodded before she vanished upstairs to change.

Calum was unfamiliar with the bars, he’d not really bar hopped in the city before, but Michelle had a level of comfort and familiarity with some of the bartenders, so he let her lead the way.

Conversation was light and easy between the two. Calum knew to steer away from her cases and she knew better than to ask about any of the runs in such a public setting. But like always, there was something to talk about and more often than not, Michelle had taken to teasing him about Jen.

“Please tell me she told you that she got a noise complaint from her neighbours?” Calum laughed at that as he paid for their drinks. They were on bar three an the alcohol was leaving a pleasant buzz. Whereas Michelle was more likely to get herself plastered, Calum knew better, especially with the gun that was tucked into the back of his jeans.

“She failed to mention that to me. Maybe I should drop by tomorrow after I’ve had dinner with you, see if we can get another complaint before I head back.” Michelle laughed at the cheeky grin before she felt someone grab her arm.

“Stay with me sweetheart, you don’t need a gang banger like him for a night. I can show you a real good night if you’ll let me.” It took a minute for her to register the voice, her mind finally placing the name to his face as well.

“Fuck off Evan. You know I’m married.” She held up her left hand and he scoffed.

“Hey gang banger, you fucking her on the side or is she your main piece?” Fury ripped through Michelle but before she could verbally flay him, she felt Calum’s towering presence and smirked as Evan’s face dropped.

“You wanna say that about my sister again?” Panic in his eyes made Michelle snort as he tried to step back, but she stuck her foot out, making him stumble.

“Take it outside.” The bartender warned and Calum simply nodded, grabbing Evan by his jacket and pulling him outside. Michelle followed, making sure that he wouldn’t get himself arrested.

“Apologise to her now.” His voice was harsh with his demand and she watched in a stony silence as Evan stuttered out his apology.

“It was-was just a j-joke. I’m sorry if I-if I offended you.” Calum glanced back to Michelle and it finally hit her where she really recognised him from.

“You weren’t apologising last week when you tried to drag my friend home with you and ended up with my elbow in your chest. So no, that bullshit of an apology doesn’t float with me, sunshine.” She snapped, her eyes meeting Calum’s briefly.

It took a second for it to dawn on his face who she meant and he turned to face Evan.

“Maybe this will be a reminder of how not to treat women, piece of shit.” The first punch was landed before Evan could fight back, the second managed to make a cut and break his nose, blood dripping down. The third one knocked him out.

Michelle didn’t hesitate to hand him a napkin to clean off some of the blood before he offered his arm to her, making her snort as he gauged where they were for a second before going in the rough direction of where he knew her house was.

“So how are your parents doing? I know they asked after me when I didn’t come home again this summer.” Calum just laughed.

“They know that you’re in your last two years and with the Internship they don’t blame you for staying in the city. Momma Hood wants you back for Christmas this year, no arguments. Keeps saying the town feels too empty without you.” This had her groaning but also agreeing with his mother's demand.

No one could say to his mom and not feel guilty. She learned the trick of making people feel like they’d kicked a puppy if they said no to her.

When school recommenced in the fall, she’d spoken with Charlie, her employer, and managed to request that she have the following summer off to return home, and the agreement was in principal, as long as she remained contactable for any cases that they needed the full team or a fresh set of eyes for.

It worked in her favour that she rarely took any vacation time off and had been available last minute for some of their bigger cases. With that promise of the summer off, Charlie also told her that there was going to be a position on his team, waiting for her once she graduated.

That news had been welcomed gleefully and gratefully accepted.

Getting to the last year was going to be a breeze, especially knowing that she had a job waiting for her on the other side of her studies. For now, she was content to get to the summer and finally get some time off with her family and spend time with her little brother.

@sexgodashton, @goth5sos, @calumsmermaid, @empathycth, @wildflowergrae, @calpops, @rosecolouredash, @cal-puddies, @clockwork124, @loveroflrh, @stellar5sosrecs, @ashtoniwir, @cthwldflwr, @cthla, @liketheydidwithyou, @sc0ttish-wildfl0wer, @bluehairedtracii, @drummerboy794, @feliznavidaddycal, @ukulelecal, @thecurlsofgod, @converse-luke, @madbomb, @ccnicole02, @youngblood199456, @megz1985, @lukesidentitycrisis, @snapback-irwie, @neonweeknds, @666yourwitchyfriend666, @clffrd, @cashtonasfuck, @ashtaway, @conquerwhatliesahead92, @itjustkindahappenedreally, @kchillout, @damselindistressanu, @colormekaykay, @findingliam-o, @sublimehood, @sugarcoated-pain, @singt0mecalum, @singledadharrington, @calumspeachy, @colourfulcalum, @lostincalum, @burncrashbromance, @asht0ns-world, @flusteredcliffo, @ixcantxdecidexwhosxmyxfave, @fangirl-everythang, @lashtonswildflower, @lashtondaddies, @calumssunshine, @ambskiwi, @abundant-stars, @myescapefromthislife, @lmao5sosimagines, @beyoncesdragon, @jae-writes-fanfiction, @cxddlyash, @tresfandom, @niallisworld, @lietomevalntyn, @babylon-corgis, @monochrome44, @behind-my-hazeleyes27, @ghost0fy0u, @lyllibug, @bloodmoonashton, @ghostofmashton, @summerellaz, @a-little-less-sixteen, @cashworthy, @smokeinherlungs, @longlastingdaydream, @h0tsos, @sweetcherrymike, @5sosnsfw, @sugar-nico, @sunnysidesblog, @angel-cal, @samros95, @maluminspace, @lukeinblue, @cakesunflower, @allamerican-betch, @britnicole11, @gigglyirwin, @everyscarisahealingplace, @loverofcashton, @iovehemmings, @g-l-pierce, @jannimoeller3, @wildmichaelflower, @lukeskisses, @5sossstan, @youngbloodchild, @abb-lan-5sos, @calumsbub, @flameraine, @here-for-the-uproars, @mateisit-balsamic, @ilovelukey, @castaway-cashton, @musiclover1263, @alloutofcashton, @tobefalling, @sarahshepherdblog, @cassie-sos, @banditocth, @possesedperson, @treatallwithkindness, @softbabiestan, @spicycal, @thesubtweeter, @pinkbubbles-and-bigtroubles

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qqueenofhades · 5 years ago

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How did 9/11 affect the American psyche? I’ve heard people say that 9/11 is when America went insane, but I was born into the post-9/11 America, so it’s a bit hard for me to wrap my head around.

Oh man. You kids are asking the easy questions tonight, I see.

I’m not even sure I can adequately describe the effect that 9/11 had on the American psyche and the ways in which the entire world would be massively, almost unimaginably different if it had never happened, but here goes.

Basically, in the almost exactly ten-year period between the final collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the terror attacks in 2001, life for Americans was pretty damn good. They had won the Cold War, the economy was doing great, everybody was feeling rich and optimistic and like there was nothing but blue skies ahead. (Side note, I wonder if this resurgence of ‘90s nostalgia has to do with the fact that that’s the last time that we collectively felt safe.) The Columbine school shootings happened in 1999, back when that was completely still a shocking thing that nobody would expect, and not a semi-regular feature of the news every few months. I was 11 years old. Littleton was about an hour from where we lived at the time. I spent the whole morning crying about it and insisted on organizing a memorial service for the victims. The 2000 presidential election was bitterly contested between Bush and Gore, coming down to a handful of votes in Florida and the Supreme Court decision. Man, you also have to wonder how all of recent American history would have gone differently if Bush had lost.

Then…. 9/11. I was 13. It was an ordinary, sunny Tuesday, my dad came upstairs with a funny look on his face, and said that apparently the World Trade Center had been attacked. We didn’t have cable TV, so we didn’t watch any of it live, but I don’t remember that we discussed anything else for the whole day. We were at home, which was far away from the East Coast or where any of it was happening, so I don’t have any dramatic memories of seeing people freaking out or anything like that. At dinner that night, THAT NIGHT, my mom said that Osama bin Laden had probably done it. I repeat: everyone knew on the same night that it had happened that Osama was almost definitely responsible. You may note that Osama bin Laden was a Saudi national, all the hijackers were Saudi, and al-Qaeda was an organization with deep Saudi roots. (Remember the part where America attacked… Afghanistan? Yep. Seems legit. Then again, they weren’t the biggest oil producers in the region and a major US ally.)

It is impossible to overstate the shock that this caused. This had never happened. Even through both world wars and the long, dangerous 20th century and the turbulence and tension of the Cold War, there had never been an attack like this on mainland American soil. (And on that note, America got into World War II, despite all the heroic mythology about freeing the world from tyranny, because of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which in 1941 was an American territory. There were plenty of Nazi sympathizers among the establishment and government, and as soon as the war was over, America brought plenty of Nazis, including Wernher von Braun, to work in the space program. To say nothing of our problems with Nazis NOW. So yes.) The psychological effects were literally devastating for both Americans and many other people. Not to downplay the obvious horror of what happened on 9/11 and the people who were killed, but it turned America into a siege state. Everyone was terrified, and yet now we had a War on Terror, helpfully called a “crusade” by President Bush before European allies forced him to walk it back. His approval ratings hit 90%+ in the days after 9/11, and support to bomb Afghanistan – again, not in any way directly connected to this, aside from the fact that it was where Osama bin Laden had been active, and when the US government had armed him and fellow mujahadeen in the 1980s to fight against the Soviets, who had invaded in 1979, making it a Cold War proxy battlefield, and anyway – was MONUMENTAL. The whole public was behind this. International sympathy for America was incredible. Everyone was on our side and willing to say that we had been wronged. It didn’t really matter that Afghanistan was not really connected to this. Someone needed to suffer for this outrage. And boy, did they suffer.

Then came March 2003, and the infamous declaration that we were now going to invade Iraq, because Saddam Hussein (supported by the US in the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, in retaliation for Iran overthrowing their puppet shah in 1979, after CIA and MI6 staged a coup to remove Iran’s democratically elected prime minister in 1953 to protect their access to oil) apparently had weapons of mass destruction and was about to use them to kill more Americans. Everyone knew at the time that this was pretty much bullshit. But boy, did the Bush administration go hard to work selling it to us. The Department of Homeland Security was founded in 2002, after the attacks. The Patriot Act and other intrusive new surveillance methods and measures were quickly authorized. Americans became watched, spied on, mistrusted, and suspected of wrongdoing in ways never really tried on a large scale before. Any dissent was framed as taking the side of the terrorists; couldn’t you see that we needed all this to be safe? The state of national emergency that was declared after 9/11 was never actually revoked; we are all still living in it 19 years later. The culture of hyper-militarism, all these huge flags at sporting events and the visibility of these “Salute to Service” months and this aggressive fasciso-patriotism all grew up directly from the seeds of 9/11 and the sense of unforgivable affront to America, which could do what it wanted anywhere else in the world but could never forgive anyone for inflicting it in return.

It’s a mark of how badly all that public sympathy was mismanaged that by the time 2003 rolled around, the international community (except for Great Britain and Bush’s loyal compadre, Tony Blair) was… to say the least, skeptical of this Iraq adventure. It was pretty clearly a pretext to resume the Gulf War from Bush Senior’s tenure, unrelated to any actual justification or revenge for 9/11, and demonstrated the fact that far from resting on our laurels and feeling safe after winning the Cold War, America was now locked in mortal combat with an enemy that could be everywhere at any time. Nobody should feel safe, because the terrorists were out there. Despite the condemnation, Bush got re-elected in 2004, in part by painting his opponent, John Kerry, as someone who just couldn’t be trusted on national security. In short, Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, was “Swift Boated,” though he also did run a pretty wooden and uninspiring campaign. I just missed being old enough to vote in this election, though my parents and older sister all voted for Kerry, and Bush’s failings were a frequent subject of discussion in our house. He was getting more and more unpopular, was a figure of national ridicule, and yet this never actually discredited the whole War on Terror and the apparatus that sustained it. There were reports of war crimes, including Abu Ghraib, committed by the American forces. The indiscriminate torture and murder of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba was also an object of national concern, but allowed to keep happening. Less than 5 years after 9/11, and all this sympathy for America, America had… well, lost its mind.

So… yes. There’s an entire generation now that is too young to remember 9/11 and thinks that America has always been this way, but it is, again, completely impossible to overstate how 9/11 turned this sense of comfortable complacency and national prosperity upside down. Everything was now justified in the name of freedom, and any disloyalty was suspect. Our “The Greatest!!” state had to be repeated and reissued and emphasized at every point. Many innocent Americans died on 9/11, sure. But the way that it was turned into the worst violation that any country had suffered anywhere, led to the death of thousands of Afghans, Iraqis, American servicepeople, Muslims, and everyone else involved in the wars and the system that was built to sustain them, and turned America into this paranoid, brutal, out-of-control war-machine juggernaut is, it can be well argued, its worst and most lasting tragedy.

#politics for ts #anonymous #ask

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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

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DEEP DIVE: What Caused Cardcaptor Sakura Fans To Be So Upset In 2003?

If you’ve spent any time being a fan of anime, you’ve probably heard some rumblings about Cardcaptors, the localized American version of Cardcaptor Sakura. With localization and genre changes, it became a show fans of the original weren’t happy with and didn’t quite draw an audience like Kids WB hoped for. However, there’s more to the story. What caused such a drastic shift in excitement for Kids WB before the show first aired with regard to bringing the show to American audiences, to only being briefly mentioned by the network? How much of an investment was it to bring over the series? Why did the show not catch on over here like it did in Japan? And, most notably, why were fans still angry about the show’s localization nearly three years after it aired?

This tale, like most about anime at the beginning of the 21st century, begins with Pokémon. In 1999, Pokémon debuted on Kids WB and began to break record after record when it came to viewership and ratings. The series became a cultural touchstone in America, baffling people right and left, and entrenching itself into pop culture. Later in 1999, Nelvana Ltd., a Canadian animation company known for making children’s shows, acquired the rights to Cardcaptor Sakura from Kodansha. With how much success Pokémon had brought Kids WB, the network began to come up with an idea to bring a second anime series over with the hopes that it would also break out and become another hit. In the summer of 2000, Nelvana and Kids WB would come together to hopefully do just that when Cardcaptors debuted on June 17, 2000.

Prior to that June 2000 start date, Warner made sure people knew that Cardcaptors was coming to try and drive up hype around it. Their first unveiling of the series came in an April 2000 press release where not only could they brag about Pokémon ratings, but also that the company had their second Japanese series coming in the summer. The build on Cardcaptors’ debut continued when Warner unveiled their summer schedule, and several newspapers made mention of the series coming. With how much Warner had spent trying to build anticipation for what they thought would be their next anime hit in America, how did Cardcaptors fare in its debut?

At first, everything seemed to indicate that Warner had yet another hit on their hands. In its first month, ratings were solid in the general kids 2-11 demographic, with both boys and girls tuning in to see the show. There was even a piece in the Chicago Tribune dubbing Cardcaptors “the next big thing.” A good majority of people seemed to be predicting and expecting that there was going to be a new wave of anime merchandise hitting store shelves because of Cardcaptors, which was certainly evident by Nelvana getting 21 commitments for various forms of merchandise. Yet, despite the excitement after the first month, throughout the rest of the year, Warner started to talk less and less about Cardcaptors as the series fell down the press release mentions at the time.

In terms of business, one of the reasons Cardcaptors never truly blossomed into the “next big thing” was that, well, it wasn’t Pokémon. That’s a bit of an unfair critique to make since nothing airing at the time in terms of anime was doing the numbers Pokémon was consistently doing. It was the marquee show for a reason — in fact, nothing would come close for Warner until Yu-Gi-Oh!’s debut. But when you’re pushing the next Japanese series after you’ve already had a mega success, it would have been hard for Warner to feel that they had another success on their hands. When Cardcaptors’ second season launch came around, Warner again began promoting the show heavily, citing that it was in the top ten of broadcasts on Saturday morning and weekdays along with top five for girls on weekdays. While those are good statistics to flaunt, it wasn’t like when they could tell the media — and everyone else — that Pokémon was the number one show in multiple demographics. It also didn’t help that the growth of Cardcaptors hadn’t been nearly as substantial in its first year as Pokémon. The most they could muster up about Cardcaptors was that it was sixth behind multiple shows airing on the network.

Schedule shuffling didn’t help the series either. In 2001, the series would make its way to Toonami for a brief period, and later in the year would get pulled briefly from Kids WB, only to come back after a few weeks away. A series losing its spot in any context can be a scary thing as it immediately brings up questions about whether the series is getting canceled or not. Plus, it’s hard to maintain an audience when the series is shuffling in and out of the schedule. To be clear, Cardcaptors maintained a level of popularity well after its debut. If not, it would’ve been shelved by the network like what happened with Escaflowne. It also helped that Nelvana had a sizable financial interest in making sure the show was at least somewhat profitable and on television.

After the success of Pokémon, everyone wanted in on the anime pie. In order to do that, networks and production companies had to adhere to who they thought they could easily market anime to — American kids. That meant editing the source material to make it easier for that audience to understand and to air on television as Cardcaptor Sakura was originally a 70-episode series. While all of those episodes did not make it to air in America, Nelvana mentioned around the debut of the series that they were spending “roughly $100,000 on each episode to incorporate new music, scripts, and vocal tracks.” That seems like a lot of money, but with how much editing was happening to anime in this time period, it probably isn’t absurd, as other companies were potentially spending roughly the same. Al Khan, chairman and chief executive of 4Kids Entertainment at the time, told the Los Angeles Times in 2001 that “We spend a fortune on localization ... We may spend another 50 percent of what we pay for them [in rights] just to localize [episodes].” To put that into perspective, if Nelvana maintained that same average per episode, they would’ve spent roughly $3,900,000 on the series with 39 episodes — a little over half of the actual series — that made it to air.

Even though Warner proclaimed that Cardcaptors was a top ten show for Kids WB, that didn’t mean fans were happy. A year after its debut, fans on message boards and around the internet were still upset with Nelvana’s changes to the series. That anger extended well past when the series was on television because around the final release of the non-broadcast version of Cardcaptor Sakura on home video in late 2003, fans were still upset as highlighted in an article in the Los Angeles Times. The lede of the article gets right to the heart of the matter: “Anime fans complain that WB has changed the characters and plots of the ‘Cardcaptors’ series to broaden its appeal in the U.S.” All things that were true.

As mentioned earlier, localization changes for anime during this time period were the norm. Large-scale edits had been an issue even before the boom with series such as Robotech/Macross, and of course, Sailor Moon, another magical girl series that was a prime example of a show that was heavily localized. Nobody would have allowed unedited/unlocalized anime to air on their children’s programming blocks. For fans who wanted to view the source material in its original form, other routes had to be pursued. The problem that occurred with Cardcaptors is with how much localization they did to the show.

Other shows could get away with occasional localization changes to make it more understandable for American audiences. A name change here, a different joke there, and it’s easy to help adapt a show to suit new viewers without completely revamping everything. Cardcaptors went above and beyond by changing names, plot points, the episode order, removing any instances of homosexuality in the plot, and attempting to completely change the genre from magical girl to action and making boys the main target of marketing rather than girls. This issue was so bad the series had two different home video releases — one of the broadcast version and another that was an attempt to bring over the original version of Cardcaptor Sakura to appease fans. It certainly makes the $100,000 figure make sense but is also a lot of work to completely overhaul a show for young girls to a series for young boys.

At the time, John Hardman of Kids WB insisted that the changes to the series were minor, but confirmed that they explicitly marketed the show to young boys, saying, “We asked them to take the female hero’s name out of the title and turn it into a more gender-neutral title that wouldn’t turn away our core boy audience.” Along with that, there were marketing images that showed Syaoran front in center with Sakura behind him. From a business standpoint, that makes sense. The demographic that was coming out to watch other Kids WB shows at the time was boys. Kids WB, Fox Kids, and Cartoon Network were all vying for boys to watch their shows. They weren’t going to change that philosophy to appeal to girls because they weren’t coming out in droves to make their shows incredibly popular. To the networks, girls were just an added bonus to help drive numbers up, and that’s it.

Cardcaptors certainly became the show that personified fan passion and outrage — it also was one of the first shows of the anime boom period in America to pose the question of how we should localize anime. It’s a show that’s become infamous for the wrong reasons and is almost a folk tale at this point as more modern fans that want to see the show can watch the original version, while the original Cardcaptors broadcast is slowly becoming lost to time. Cardcaptors was never going to become as big as Pokémon, but it’s possible it could’ve done well if it had stuck to its magical girl roots. It might not have drawn as much of the boys demographic by doing so, but maybe it could have brought more girls to watch anime and created a world where more anime targeted to girls got a chance in America. The reality we live in, though, is that Cardcaptors was an attempt to make the next big anime series after Pokémon, but ultimately, it wasn’t.

You can watch Cardcaptor Sakura in its original form as it was intended right here!

Jared Clemons is a writer and podcaster for Seasonal Anime Checkup and author of One Shining Moment: A Critical Analysis of Love Live! Sunshine!!. He can be found on Twitter @ragbag.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Jared Clemons

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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geekgemsspooksandtoons · 4 years ago

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The Journals Of Derek Grady Part 1

This is a story set within my Bioshock Rebirth AU. A reimaging/reboot of the Bioshock franchise. https://geekgemsspookyblog.tumblr.com/post/626141727587270656/bioshock-rebirth-timeline-this-is-a-timeline-of-an Just as a heads up if anyone is wondering about the context. I’ve had some stories in my drafts for a long time now and I’m finally publicly sharing them.

I made a post talking about this. There is this character named Derek that was in one of my pilot stories for this AU. But I felt strangely ashamed of how I wrote him. But I’d feel it’s best to use him in better context. In something very intriguing. Mainly the point of view of the Rapture Civil War from someone who fought in it.

There is this silly theme of certain characters being named Derek in some AU’s of mine. Usual they are men that seem well intentioned, but their mind isn’t always in the best place. I’m just gonna make this because this is something I wanna make.

This was first started/made on December 23rd 2020. I’m not gonna have this beta read. It’s time I just upload this shit. I got the two tags done with. But I would like to mention I was heavily or so inspired by the Star Wars Battlefront 2 Classic story. Especially with the first journal from this character being inspired by the, “Knightfall” level. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lgG2ENW5Ac Spoilers ahead.

12/31/2001. The attack on the Kashmir restuarant.

I was a young kid when I first arrived in Rapture. I was naïve like many others. Many of used to believe in Andrew Ryan’s so called, “Great Chain”, until things started to fall apart. Especially after the death of scumbag Frank Fontaine. I find it funny he tried to put on a nice guy act whenever he met someone new or when he was in public, but I’ve heard the stories. The stories of the type of man he was.

But after Ryan nationalized Fontaine Futuristics in January 1999, a lot of people weren’t happy. It was surprising how long it took something to happen. So much dividing of social classes, so much shit that had happened during those years. What was gonna happen tonight would change everything forever...

I’ve been on Atlas’s crew of bandits since July. I felt joining Atlas was the best decision I made in my entire life. Because I felt I fighting for the right thing, a good cause. But what Atlas had planned sounded to me almost like terrorism.

Yet when I thought about it, I really thought hard to myself. After everything we’ve suffered, how Ryan started to push everyone away, how he tried keep himself in power. Even though Rapture was supposed to be the perfect paradise...Andrew Ryan, Brigid Tenenbaum, Augustus Sinclair, Sander Cohen, Yi Suchong, Sofia Lamb, and so many others...how they treated us.

First it was just riots, but now it was time for Ryan and everyone who supported him knew what we were. What we stood for. They were gonna find out we weren’t some bandits who kidnapped some rich assholes to get payback or robin hood archetypes helping poor folks.

There was no more talk for peace. Because Ryan never gave a damn...he never did.

1/31/2002. The Civil War starting. Apollo Square. Atlas and crew.

It’s been a month since we launched an attack on Kashmir. Things started to really change because the war for this city finally had truly begun. I have never been in war, but with the skills I’ve learned from Atlas and Daisy. I’d felt I was ready, because I needed to be. Not many of us were actual soldiers. But that didn’t matter to us. We knew what had to be done.

But we didn’t knew that Ryan would try to make Apollo Square a prison camp. Yet that didn’t matter, when those so called security officers first started to set people ablaze when they tried escaping. We shot any who would tried to do such things again. When they were hanging people, we fought back because we got tired of their bullshit. We didn’t fuck around. I felt proud when I shot one of those damn officers in the head.

Apollo Square was practically our paradise. Sure Ryan’s army kept trying to get in, yet we always defended it. Yet even without Ryan, we still had others to worry about.

I feel pretty damn grateful a lot of our weapons were smuggled from the surface. We kept some of the weapons Ryan’s men had as well.

But I think what I felt more grateful was our leaders. Daisy Fitzroy was practically Atlas’s 2nd in command. She was a tough woman, she didn’t take shit. Considering she worked for that weird kinky lady known as Ava Tate, I can’t blame her becoming that. She’s one of the bravest and smartest women I’ve fought with. I’m surprised she didn’t form our rebellion first.

Bill was lucky enough to be convinced by Atlas to join us after he resigned from the council. But Bill was like us. Even though he believed in Rapture, he was just an old man who wanted the best for people. I found that admirable of him. I also think he’s grateful we hid his ass after he left Ryan. Considering how Ryan gets upset with whoever betrays him, he’d rather want them dead...yet that might of been different considering he was best friends with Ryan himself.

Diane was new, she was a hostage once with Julie Langford. But when Ryan never paid her ransom and practically didn’t care for her. But I do think she noticed those Jasmine Jolene posters throughout the city, making Ryan’s betrayal seemingly more worse. She originally came to Apollo Square to yell at us of how we possibly ruined her life. But when she saw the shit we were going through, she soon understood even more of the situation. Especially when we heard it wasn’t made better when hearing Ryan’s thoughts on people like us.

She joined us rather quickly, she was like Bill in a way. Diane was honestly a kind woman, it always felt nice to have more supporters. I do find it surprising from what I’ve seen that her and Daisy seemed to have developed a thing. Yet I found it surprisingly adorable...mainly because it was so strange to see Daisy seem soft to another person. But I think it gave the ladies more of a reason to keep fighting on.

But Atlas...he was something else. There was a reason people followed him. I followed him for plenty of good reasons. He seemed like a action hero you see out of those films from Hollywood. But I have never met a man so kind, yet so humble. He was the best of us...or that’s what I thought. You can have a good laugh with him too while having a drink. The man had a family, but he didn’t spoke of them much to keep them safe. I also remember hearing he was a captain in the Irish army. Which gave us an advantage in some ways over Ryan’s men.

He was the perfect anti-thesis to Andrew Ryan. Atlas was someone many genuinely respected and loved. Men wanted to be him, women loved him. To me and others. He wasn’t just a friend. Atlas was sometimes like a brother, or even a father.

Sure he wasn’t perfect and did some questionable things. But we knew it was for the best. Atlas is our best shot at winning this war. And I’m proud to fighting side by side with him, no matter what.

2/1/2002. Johnny Topside.

I never met the man, but Atlas knew him only for a year. The way he talked about Johnny. I’ve heard stories of him, well that’s because Atlas didn’t want his memory to die. Atlas said Johnny Topside was a diver who had discovered Rapture years ago and for sometime was forced to live in Rapture until he finally had enough.

Johnny Topside was the start of our rebellion. He was the one that planted the seeds. Johnny was the first to stand up to Ryan, but it resulted in tragedy. No one knows fully what happened to him. But Atlas said Ryan had tried to erase Johnny’s memory from history, and that it was very likely he may of been turned into...a Big Daddy...the idea of that horrifies me.

When Atlas spoke of him, he spoke of him so highly. Saying that Johnny was like a younger brother to him. You could of even seen at times Atlas nearly choked up when talking about him. I can’t blame him, losing someone that was like a brother to him. I’ve would of been nearly tearing up.

The story of Johnny Topside was something that kept us going, it inspired us. Hell, it even inspired me. Atlas didn’t want his memory to die, because what he was doing wasn’t just for everyone. But it was also justice for Johnny...justice for everyone that had enough of Ryan.

My only disappointment is that I never got to meet Johnny...because when Atlas says he’d would rather had him lead us...that says a helluva lot about Topside.

2/3/2002. Booker Dewitt and Ryan’s personal guard.

I’ve heard the stories of Dewitt...he merely sounded like a ghost. But he wasn’t. This was the man that shot down Fontaine, and most likely helped captured Johnny Topside.

Captain Dewitt was known to the citizens as, “The Grim Reaper Of Rapture” and he damn well earned it. But he was also Ryan’s new best friend after Bill left. Dewitt kept Ryan’s enemies in check. Whether by killing them when no one was looking, or capturing them.

Security was fine, but Ryan’s personal guard and when Dewitt was leading them...that was scary. I think what scared us rebels was whenever he showed up. He always wore that mask...which gave him more of a reason to call him a grim reaper...because he damn sure was.

Ryan’s personal guard weren’t just police officers enforcing Ryan’s rule, they were literal soldiers. They were formed when Johnny Topside had discovered Rapture. The guard was basically a better version of security.

They were made up of men who either genuinely believed in the, “Great Chain” or just were looking to be paid by Ryan. Some of them were ex soldiers, mercenaries, and they were all just horrible people.

The guard weren’t pushovers, they had years of experience or training by Dewitt. They were merciless, brutal, and effective. The fact Ryan had now decided to use them even more now showcased he truly wasn’t fucking around anymore. He wanted to win this war. But we weren’t gonna let that happen.

I think we were just thankful they didn’t really use Plasmids...if they did...then I felt this war may be over already. But it also gives us a easier chance to kill them all.

2/15/2002. Splicers.

Over the years since ADAM was discovered. Splicers became thing. Poor folks who used too spliced too much...they were once people...but they were sadly monsters now. I think what surprised us is how some of them were on our side...but not many. Unless they controlled themselves.

The Splicers of many types were a pain in the ass for Ryan and Atlas. Killing the rebels or Ryan’s personal guard. They had no allegiance...all they wanted was ADAM...they were basically drug addicts. I remember seeing one time a woman shanking a man for his ADAM, we had to put her down.

I didn’t really use Plasmids much, or some of the others like Atlas, Daisy, Diane, and Bill. It seemed good for Atlas that some of the rebels didn’t try to splice up. Which meant we can deal with less people turning into those...things.

There was one time I had to put down one of them. The man was just 21, but he had spliced up so much that he had gone insane. He tried attacking Daisy and Diane, but me and Daisy took him down shot him in the chest. But he was still breathing.

...I shot him in the head...I hesitated at first for about five seconds...he was younger than me. I wanted to make his death as quick and painless...it gave me a haunting reminder of why we were still fighting. All this pain and suffering...it started with the discover of that damn thing called ADAM...

I’m surprised I haven’t spoken about Tenenbaum yet...I feel like she was 2nd in place for me to kill after Ryan.

3/15/2002. Big Daddies, Little Sisters, and Brigid Tenenbaum.

I think the other thing that haunts me a lot and so many others is these two...I’ve seen them countless times and I have fought them when I joined Atlas.

Big Daddies are practically these...monsters that used to be people...slaves to protect what were once literal children...

These monsters looked like literal giant diving suits at times...some had drills, some had guns. They were tough sons of bitches. These things could kill a man easily, or even a group of a men if you weren’t careful.

But it’s the Little Sisters that horrify me and other rebels...not because they are dangerous or that they are killers. It’s the fact of what they are. They were children...or possibly still are...forced to collect ADAM because they were implanted with some...damn sea slug Tenenbaum discovered...

There is no known cure for them. I think many of us want a cure. But the only way to help these girls is something horrific...harvesting them. Atlas said it was to put them out of their misery. They had ADAM in them.

From what I’ve seen, some rebels harvested them, some didn’t. Daisy didn’t do it. Neither did Diane or Bill. I remember seeing Atlas making the most sickened face after harvesting one, he didn’t enjoy it at all.

I think it may of bothered Atlas some didn’t harvest them...but it’s understandable why some wouldn’t. Because I remember seeing one 37 year old man, after he had harvested just one Little Sister. The man about 5 minutes later literally put a pistol under his jaw and killed himself.

We all understood why he even did that. Because after you witness a child being horrified by you about to harvest them...it’s a sight you’re never going to forget.

I can still hear those girls screaming. Daisy and Diane do too...it’s in our nightmares. For some reason...the harvesting of a Little Sister scars me than seeing a Splicer or whatever else...I don’t know why...I think it’s because all that innocence was lost...or actually taken. Because there was no other way to help them.

It was all because of one woman, Brigid Tenenbaum. I heard she worked with Frank Fontaine to help make those girls into what they are. I’ve heard she’s had a hard life, but that doesn’t excuse what I find one of the most horrific crimes I’ve ever seen. She’s been in hiding for 4 years after being exposed for what she did.

If we ever find Tenenbaum...I want to put my foot on her throat...whatever what we want to do to her. To be honest, I think I want to kill her more than Ryan...because I don’t know how you can be forgiven for doing that to a child.

God forgives, and whenever I have to put down a fellow rebel because they spliced up too much, I make it quick and painless as possible...but Tenenbaum...quick and painless is not gonna mean anything if we ever find her.

6/3/2002. SOS and Archie Wynand.

After six months of war with Ryan’s personal guard and the Splicers. Whether some were controlled or not...things were going south for us. We fought hard, we planned as best as we could. But nothing was working, because Ryan was nearly winning.

There was panic among us, we were fearing that all of this could be for nothing. But Atlas revealed something, which he said was a risk in case. He somehow gave an SOS message to the surface to whoever would get it. Because he knew we weren’t gonna win this on our own anymore. We needed help, we needed the surface to discover Rapture. But also, we needed someone to help us take down Ryan. It was on Sunday Atlas gave out the message for help. We prayed someone would answer it. Luckily for us, someone did answer it.

Despite his aircraft was shot down by Ryan, and being the only survivor of his squad. Someone had arrived. That someone was a young man named Sergeant Archie Wynand. An Army Ranger sent by the US Government to discover where the SOS came from.

To be honest, I was worried by the fact only one man had survived. I’d feared we still didn’t stand a chance. But after I saw that man enter combat and killed so many Splicers, I have never seen a man fought hard like that. He was still young like me, but he was like a commando in his way. It was as if someone like Atlas again had come to save us.

Me and him never really talked, but from what I’ve seen. That man is the bravest soul I’ve ever seen. He’s loyal to a fault and unbreakable, it was like seeing a warrior unlike any other. I will admit, I felt a bit jealous when Atlas has giving him a lot more attention than me.

But Archie was important. Atlas sent him commands and he followed through. But I think what confused me the most was something Atlas had revealed earlier. Which resulted in ordering Archie to go to a certain building, a tower in the middle of Rapture.

6/4/2002. Elizabeth.

A day before Archie had arrived. There was this strange new information Atlas had discovered. That there was some girl in this tower in Rapture. Her name was Elizabeth. Atlas had discovered it when raiding a building near that tower.

We were so confused on why Ryan had a girl in this tower. In fact? Why was she there? Who was she really? Even Atlas was confused, but she seemed important.

But I feel our questions were answered when Archie saved her. I didn’t get to talk to her personally, but I have seen her in action with my own eyes. Along with some footage.

Somehow, this young girl had some powers of an unknown source. She was able to summon old sentries, and other things. It felt unnatural. Sure the Plasmids and other discoveries in Rapture were very special...but what this girl could do...it made us question even more who the hell she was and why Ryan had her locked away.

Gonna admit though, she was honestly adorable.

6/5/2002. Elizabeth’s purpose, and what the Hell is Archie? What the Hell is going on?

I think it horrified me and the rebels of what Elizabeth was supposed to be. Why she was kept secret from Rapture. What Atlas had discovered more is that she was secretly a weapon Ryan would use in case against someone like us. A sleeper agent that would of slipped through our ranks or anyone else...almost like a female fatale Ryan wanted to make personally...it confused me because from what I’ve seen, she’s nothing like that.

But I think we surprised us more is that she had been in Rapture since 1983. For about 19 years, Ryan had her in there, with hardly anyone knowing. I think it sickened me a bit more hearing Ryan was gonna use a young woman as a secret weapon in case someone like Atlas came along. It was almost like what happened with the Little Sisters.

Yet the other thing that’s been on my mind is Archie. I’ve talked about how much of a warrior he was. Ever since he rescued Elizabeth, she’s been by his side ever since. I haven’t seen such a effective team. It was like they were perfect for each other.

But again, it’s Archie that has me thinking. Sure he’s a soldier...but compared to any of us...and even compared to Ryan’s personal guard. I have never seen a man be so efficient in what he does. This was a young man, yet he fought like he was like some sort of super soldier. Hell, I don’t even think Atlas and Daisy are that efficient. He’s fast and strong.

He was also using so many Plasmids without mutating. I couldn’t get it? He wasn’t becoming spliced up. I couldn’t believe it? I had lost count of how many times he injected a Eve Hypo into his wrists.

I think the scary part is how many Big Daddies he’s killed...how can one man kill so many. I didn’t understand it? But from what I’ve seen from footage is...him curing the Little Sisters...I couldn’t believe it.

Where were he and Elizabeth staying at? I heard Atlas yesterday say they were at Tenenbaum’s...I couldn’t understand...I’m confused...

6/5/2002 A bigger Big Daddy.

I didn’t understand nor could I comprehend what I had witnessed. Ever since Archie arrived...things were changing. What made me think this way was when I saw...something I didn’t think was possible.

Out of all the Big Daddies we’ve killed. I had never seen one so big. He was about 12 feet tell...he looked older than any of the Big Daddies. He looked similar to the Alpha series Big Daddies...I couldn’t understand. I was lucky to have lived, but I witness it killed so many rebels, Splicers, and Ryan’s army. This Big Daddy was vicious. It seemed like he was on a mission. As if he was tracking down Elizabeth.

I’m just in disbelief...I don’t understand.

I was a witness also to see Elizabeth teleport it somewhere...I think it’s dead...I’m not sure.

6/6/2002. The war soon coming to an end.

To be honest, I was fearing we may never win. But somehow we made it. Captain Dewitt was beaten yesterday, and now Ryan is soon to be dealt with.

I’ve learned from Atlas that Tenenbaum had created a cure for the Little Sisters...I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. I asked him again if he was telling the truth, and he was. That’s why Archie and Elizabeth were staying with Tenenbaum somewhere.

It still sounded so crazy. But the next piece of news is that these three would be coming to Atlas’s headquarters, our base of operations. I couldn’t believe I was seeing Tenenbaum...I had...weird feelings.

The plans were while Archie and others went to Ryan’s office to finally take him down. There was hardly anyone left to defend him. While Elizabeth and Dr. Tenenbaum stayed at Atlas’s headquarters. It...an experience meeting this young girl...even after everything she’d been through, but so kind.

But I wasn’t gonna be staying for long either like Archie. Atlas sent me and some men to take over Fort Folic considering Archie and Elizabeth’s recent visit there. As if the freak that was Sander Cohen had finally left somewhere. It was no longer locked up.

I felt genuine hope for the first time. As if this whole nightmare will finally end. But I will admit, I wanted to kill Ryan as much as anybody else. I had my orders, and I listened. Besides, taking back Fort Folic was a huge win

I do recall Ryan playing golf at times. Hopefully when Archie gets to his office, he’ll beat the Walt Disney lookalike of a fuckhead with his own golf club. It’s what Ryan deserved...it’s what many of us wanted.

6/7/2002. Atlas...and the end...

...I don’t even know what to say...the war is over...it’s actually over...

But it didn’t end with Ryan dying or getting captured...

Atlas...our leader...my hero...my best friend...the anti-thesis to Ryan...was Frank Fontaine.

He’s dead...he was brutally hung...by Archie...his corpse is hanging for everyone to see...he...looks like half of a monster.

Everything we’ve done...everything we stood for...I feel betrayed, but I feel relived. I think others are feeling a similar way...I need no I want answers...

6/8/2002. The birth of the Vox Populi. Tenenbaum discovering these journals.

I think what happened on Thursday and Friday...changed so many of us...even myself...I thank Daisy and Diane for explaining it to me.

There was a huge meeting with the remaining rebels. Archie, Elizabeth, and Dr. Tenenbaum joined in as well. So many discussions were had. Rapture was finally ours...

While Splicers were still a thing, and some rich assholes were still around. Considering half of the city was still going, but we came together to formulate a plan.

There won’t be another Andrew Ryan, or even another Frank Fontaine. The end of the Rapture Civil War was only the beginning of something much better.

We weren’t just called rebels anymore, we were officially given a name now. The Vox Populi. It was Daisy’s idea for the name. We were basically the reformed version of Atlas’s rebellion. But now, we had genuine people who actually gave a damn. Who wouldn’t use us as puppets. That we will strive for a better tomorrow.

For peace, a better community. So we can help out every Little Sister we can find out there, and help whoever else is in Rapture. We’re gonna make this shithole of a city a better living place. No more tyrants, no more conmen, no more rulers, just people wanting to make this place a better place for everyone.

Justice, peace, and all that...I think many of us are still getting over what happened with Atlas...I’m still getting used to it...I’m just grateful it’s over.

But before this the huge meeting, Dr. Tenenbaum discovered my journals...she read what I wrote about her...our struggles. I apologized to her, but she said it’s okay. She said she doesn’t blame me for being angry. I think what surprised me more was the one person that her the most was herself...

For some odd reason, I forgave her...she just stared at me with surprise. She gave me a small smile...and then I said I think I could forgive her after everything she’s tried doing to fix her mistakes. Because I told her trying to fix your mistakes is better than doing nothing.

#bioshock rebirth #derek grady

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sneakend · 5 years ago

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Hyvää joulua, @lily-learns-finnish !!! ♡ I was your secret santa for @langblrsecretsanta this year. I got a bit carried away and made you more than one gift, hope you don’t mind. Here’s the first one, it’s a movie rec list of Finnish movies, most of which I have actually seen (I admit I don’t watch a ton of Finnish stuff despite living in Finland). Perhaps you’ve seen some of these but I think watching movies in one’s target language is always good practice since the language in them is much closer to actual spoken language than what you see in text books or literature. Don’t know how easy it’d be to find these movies online but if you’re in Finland I’m sure most libraries have at least some of them.

comedy/drama

Napapiirin sankarit (Lapland Odyssey) (2010) (x)

“After a man called Janne living in Lapland in Northern Finland fails to acquire a digital television adapter for his wife from the local utility store due to not reaching it before closure time, he sets out with his two friends in the middle of the night to get one by any means necessary. He sets up a late rendezvous with his father-in-law who owns an electronics store in Rovaniemi, several hundred kilometers away. Nothing is naturally ever simple and along the way, the trio end up having several comedic misadventures”

Korkein oikeus (Inner Trial) (2008) (x)

“Noa is a young slacker who prefers to spend his days smoking weed. Together with his friends, he meets an old hippie, who is interested in rekindling his past passion of psychedelic trips and mind expansion.”

Menolippu Mombasaan (One-Way Ticket to Mombasa) (2002) (x)

“A cancer patient meets a new friend at the hospital, and together they escape on the adveture of their lives.”

Hevi reissu (Heavy Trip) (2018) (x)

“In this offbeat comedy from Finland, Turo is stuck in a small village where the best thing in his life is being the lead vocalist for the amateur metal band Impaled Rektum. The only problem? He and his bandmates have practiced for 12 years without playing a single gig. The guys get a surprise visitor from Norway--the promoter for a huge heavy metal music festival--and decide it's now or never. They steal a van, a corpse, and even a new drummer in order to make their dreams a reality.”

Pitkä kuuma kesä (A Long Hot Summer) (1999) (x)

“The story of a rock band "Kalle Päätalo" in the 1980s.”

Helmiä ja sikoja (Pearls and Pigs) (2003) (x)

“When their bootlegging father ends up in jail, four twenty-something brothers need money to pay his debts to local crooks. Next, their 9-year-old half-sister is dumped on their doorstep by her prostitute mother. A karaoke set helps reveal that the little girl is quite a singer, just as a talent contest for children is coming up on national television offering more than enough money to the winner. If only the kid weren't so hopelessly shy...”

International

Tom of Finland (2017) (x)

“Award-winning filmmaker Dome Karukoski brings to screen the life and work of artist Touko Valio Laaksonen (aka Tom of Finland), one of the most influential and celebrated figures of twentieth century gay culture.”

Iron Sky (2012) (x)

“The Nazis set up a secret base on the dark side of the moon in 1945 where they hide out and plan to return to power in 2018.”

Jadesoturi (Jade Warrior) (2006) (x)

“Jade Warrior (Finnish: Jadesoturi, Chinese: 玉战士; pinyin: Yù zhànshì) is a Finnish-Chinese co-produced movie. It combines elements of the wuxia genre with Finnish Kalevala mythology.”

Ruokala Lokki (Kamome Diner) (2006) (x)

“Where are we welcome? On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her, and meets Masako, a formal and ethereal middle-aged woman whose luggage has gone missing. The three women work in the diner, interact, and serve customers. A somewhat brusque man teaches Sachie to make delicious coffee, then he returns under other circumstances. Three neighborhood women inspect the empty diner every day; will anything bring them inside? We learn why Sachie serves rice balls; but why Finland?”

horror

Sauna (2008) (x)

“As a 25-year war between Russia and Sweden concludes, two brothers who are part of an effort to outline new border accords become undone by their actions, and their mistreatment of a young woman during their journey.”

Rare Exports (2010) (x)

“In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 meters deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up. This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus.”

Lake Bodom (2016) (x)

“Every camper's worst nightmare came true at Lake Bodom in 1960 when four teenagers were stabbed to death while sleeping in their tent.”

Kyrsyä - Tuftland (2017) (x)

“A headstrong textile student tries to overcome her problems by accepting a summer job offer from an isolated and offbeat village of Kyrsyä.”’

scifi

Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning (2005) (x)

“A dark science fiction comedy about domination of the world and the universe, and a parody of the Star Trek and Babylon 5 franchises.”

war

Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) (1955) (x) / (1985) (x) / (2017) (x)

“The tale of a platoon of soldiers during the Continuation War. Based on Väinö Linna's book of the same name.”

Äideistä parhain (Mother of Mine) (2005) (x)

“During World War II, more than 70,000 Finnish children were evacuated to neutral Sweden to avoid the conflict. "Mother of Mine" tackles that painful patch of history in a tale of 9-year-old Eero, a child who increasingly feels abandoned by his biological Finnish mother and yet not attached to his Swedish surrogate mom. When he is returned to Finland, his confusion intensifies.”

Käsky (Tears of April) (2008) (x)

“The film is set in the final stages of the Finnish Civil War. The film tells a story of a captured female Red Guard fighter, Miina, and the soldier Aaro who escorts her to her trial.”

Raja 1918 (The Border) (2007) (x)

“Set in the spring of 1918, right after the Finnish Civil War, the film is about a Finnish officer who is sent to the village of Rajajoki to form a border between Finland and Soviet Russia.”

Rukajärven tie (Ambush) (1999) (x)

“Set during the World War 2. In the summer of 1941 the Finnish army crosses the border of Russia. A platoon led by Lt. Eero Perkola goes through the wilderness around the Lieksa lake to search for Russian defensive positions. The platoon kills some Russian civilians and rests in a newly conquered village. There Lt. Perkola meets his fiancée Kaarina, who is serving in the Women's Auxilary Corps (Lotta). Then the platoon continues with the mission, but a message about Kaarina's possible death reaches Lt. Perkola. The message causes Perkola to become distracted during the mission.”

children

Muumipeikko ja pyrstötähti (Comet in Moominland) (1992) (x)

“Moomin, Sniff and My set out to stop a comet approaching the Moomin valley. Along the way they meet Snusmumriken, the beautiful Snorkfröken, Snorken and a Hemul, who join them in their quest.”

Joulupukki ja noitarumpu (Santa Claus and the Magic Drum) (1996) (x)

“Strange accidents start to happen in Santa's village when he receives a mysterious letter.”

Rölli ja metsänhenki (Rollo and the Woods Sprite) (2001) (x)

“Hairy and rowdy trolls called rolleys sail to a land inhabited by more peace-loving elves. When the rolleys arrive to the elf village, they scare the elves away and settle down in the village. One of the elves, Milli, a brave elf girl, returns to the village to make a peace with the rolleys. The rolleys do not warm to Milli's peace proposal, but she becomes friends with a rolley called Rölli. It becomes their mission to solve the conflict between the elves and the rolleys.”

Niko - lentäjän poika (The Flight Before Christmas) (2008) (x)

“A young reindeer who suffers from vertigo learns to overcome his fear, takes flying lessons from a clumsy flying squirrel and heads to the North pole to save a troubled Santa and his fleet of flying reindeer.”

#finnish #movie recs #langblrsecretsanta2019 #langblr #movies #okay Iron Sky doesn't really have Finnish in it but that won't stop me from adding it #my stuff

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 4 years ago

Text

A Japanese member was forced to marry a Korean man she did not like. The divorce took five years.

August 13, 2013

Ms K.: Hello, I will now tell you about my experiences.

The first contact which led me to join the Unification Church was in July 1998 in the Kansai District (2) where I lived. I was approached and asked to answer a questionnaire titled ‘Youth Consciousness Survey.’ The people told me they were showing educational videos and they invited me to come, but I did not want to go. However, they said that they really wanted to just be friends with me, so I gave them my name and contact information. Following that, they called me several times. I was given directions to an apartment.

I later found out this was the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon. Their beliefs interested me, and I felt I couldn’t refuse because my spiritual parents (the people who introduced me to the UC) kindly helped me. So I started going along to watch videos or listen to lectures on the Principles of the church.

In March 1999, I was invited to have my fortune read. I was told that my fortune was bad and I was forced to buy a seal for 150,000 yen and also to receive a genealogy (family tree) analysis. Then I was told that I would die at the age of 33 if I didn’t follow their way. I was forced to give all my savings to resolve the grudges of my ancestors. I donated 1.6 million yen, which was all my savings at that time. After that, I was told by my spiritual parents to go to the Church Youth Branch in Osaka to start my life in the Unification Church. A video center counselor in Osaka told me to go to Ivision, where I was forced to buy a necklace to improve my fortune. I refused many times saying that I had no money, but in the end I borrowed money and bought a necklace for 1,060,000 yen. After a one-day workshop, followed by a two-day workshop, new member training and practical training, I joined the training center in the youth branch house in November 1999.

My schedule was strictly managed since I was going to a workplace during the day and listening to lectures on the Divine Principle every night. Then I participated in a third workshop, and I got more and more deeply involved in the Unification Church.

▲ Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han perform at the 400 million couples marriage.

In February 2000 the church held the 400 million couples Blessing at the Seoul Stadium in Korea. I was a participant. I first met my Jucheja (= subject partner = groom / husband) (3) at the Stadium. It was difficult for me to accept my subject partner, so I went to the church secretariat because I wanted to cancel being married to this man. However, they worked hard to convince me, and I eventually accepted the match.

After returning to the center in Japan, every day was filled with witnessing and Divine Principle lectures. My fatigue became chronic due to my double life of work and the demands of my faith. In that situation in June 2000, under pressure from my Abel and worn down by physical and mental exhaustion, I made a commitment to the church. After making that, I was put in charge of a witnessing team, made education training group leader, and responsible for micro (a mobile microbus fundraising team) (4), and meal duty. I lived there for about a year. In the meantime, I participated in a Cheongpyeong workshop and a 21-day workshop in Chiba. My faith gradually became stronger. During my religious life, there were a number of faxes and letters from my subject partner who wanted to start our couple life as soon as possible. Finally, in September 2001, my subject partner visited the church house where I was staying. He threatened to break our blessing if I did not move to Korea within that year. He asked me to quickly complete the marriage registration. He returned to Korea and made my seal and sent it twice, with a copy of his family register.

My subject partner had already experienced a Korea-Japan blessing once before, at the time of the Blessing of 360,000 couples. However the Japanese woman broke off the marriage. Following that I think he was somehow determined to keep ‘the Blessing’ with me. Since there was such a a strong request from my subject partner, and we were really registered as married, I removed myself from my own family register without my family’s consent. I did that because I had no time to explain or persuade my parents since I was in a hurry to go to Korea.

I arrived there on December 31, 2001. Because I am weak in my heart [not good at standing up for myself], I was instructed not to tell my parents when I had removed my name from my own family register. However, if I suddenly disappeared from Japan, my parents would be worried, so I was instructed to make sure a letter from me arrived the day I crossed over to Korea. In my letter I should not say that I was involved with the Unification Church, but that I was going to Korea to marry a Korean man I had met at work. In the end, I was too busy with my cooking duties until just before my departure for Korea, so I could not even write such a letter before I arrived in Korea.

On the flight to Korea, I thought I would never be able to return to Japan again since I was really becoming cut off from my parents and friends. I felt like Korea was the only place I could be. Many thoughts raced through my mind. I felt tears of sadness and feelings of anxiety and expectation for what the future held for my life.

After arriving in Korea I completed a Japanese Family workshop and lived in a church center. This had many Japanese members centered on the president of the Japanese Women’s Federation for World Peace and Unification (WFWPU). My duties there included preparing meals for the church, cleaning, studying Korean and witnessing by distributing leaflets that promoted the ‘Blessing’ (Unification Church mass marriage).

▲ Flyer distributed in Korea by Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church advertising the availability of Japanese wives.

Translation of the poster (Korean on the left and Japanese on the right):

True Marriage to a Japanese Woman

Nonprofit community service organization: Registration No. 1300

♥ Junior college or higher educational background ♥ Healthy body and mind ♥ For a young man who has stable employment (around 30 years old)

(Previously married men and women, now single, must be aged 60 or less)

Ideal spouse with a chaste sense of values.

We will match you up.

True Family Practice in conjunction with ◯◯ Committee

Consultation phone Counselor / Consultation Staff

Occasionally I met with my subject partner. He spoke a little Japanese, and we could only manage basic conversation. The president of the Japanese Women’s Federation (WFWP) always interpreted for us when we wanted to convey anything important. However, the greater conflict for me was that someday I would have to live with someone I didn’t like. That was worse than not being able to communicate well with my subject partner. If it could be possible I wanted to just continue living in the church center without starting couple life. I wondered if I lacked faith because I kept thinking in such a way from in my personal thoughts rather than from a perspective of faith. I made more effort in witnessing and prayer, and I repented for my feelings.

About a week after living in the church center in Korea, I received a call from the Youth Branch saying that my mother and sister, who had not yet received any letter from me, had visited the UC in Japan because they were not able to contact me and were worried about me. At the direction of the WFWP president, I phoned them and said I was in Korea and doing well.

In early February 2002, my father, sister, and an uncle in my family suddenly came with an interpreter to Korea to bring me home to Japan. At the direction of the WFWP president, I had sent a letter to my parents, but with my subject partner’s home address written on the letter. However, it would have been very difficult to find the exact location because I had not given the street number. The person who came as an interpreter was actually a pastor in a Korean Christian church. I heard that they had to ask an elder from a local Korean Christian church, whom he knew, in order to find me. Under instructions of the UC district leader and the WFWP president I was hiding in the president’s house. However, my father threatened that he would contact the police to file a search request, so I decided to meet him the next day. I insisted that, when I was ready, I would return to Japan on my own. At that time, from the attitude of my father and sister’s responses, I thought that there might be a pastor who was working against the Unification Church helping them. Our discussions were going nowhere. After more than two hours passed, my father asked me to have a meal together with them. At that moment, as I had been instructed by the church, I pushed my father away and caught a taxi as if I was running away.

In the taxi I could not stop crying. I had met my parents after years of church life in Japan. I had felt joy because my father, who had never traveled abroad, had gathered all his strength to come to Korea to search for me, but I also felt that my father looked rather thin and small. I knew he was doing his best to bring me home to Japan. I had conflicting emotions; I felt sorry for causing him to worry and I felt pain because I had to shake off such a father who cared so much. But [as I had been taught in the church] I desperately pushed myself not to be overwhelmed by those human feelings.

As part of our witnessing effort, Japanese members taught Japanese language lessons to Koreans twice a week. And at the same time, on a shift-basis, we were doing volunteer activities such as cleaning, lunch preparation, childcare, and supporting church projects.

In April, the district leader changed. Spiritual conditions, led by the WFWP president, such as late night prayer meetings, started every night from 11:00 pm to 2:00 am. This continued for a year until the district leader was again changed. Since I did not leave the center to start my couple life, I was specifically entrusted with cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, meal preparation, and childcare at the district leader’s house. I worked all day from morning to night, and I sometimes worked even all night. On top of that, there was a long prayer meeting until dawn every night, so I was chronically sleep deprived. However, I continued that life every day, repeating to myself that this is really a training of devotion so I would be better able to love my subject partner.

In the meantime, in order to maintain a connection with me, my sister communicated with me by e-mail through my subject partner, who was proficient in using computers. In mid-May my older sister came to visit me in Korea, this time she was the only one from my own family. She came with a pastor, but she did not show any feelings against the UC, and acted as if she was just worried about me as a sister. She also asked if my subject partner and I could temporarily return to Japan. After that, I received education for starting couple life so that I could start soon. However, I was unable to accept my subject partner. Under instructions from the WFWP president I was told that I had to overcome Satan and somehow start couple life. My subject partner and I participated in a 40-day workshop in Cheongpyeong.

▲ Workshop at Cheongpyeong

After that, I started couple life with him in August 2002. Even though I started living with my subject partner, I felt that our cultural differences and language barriers were huge. Communicating with my subject partner was difficult, and only simple everyday conversations were possible. For that reason I couldn’t understand what my subject partner was really thinking. Also, it was difficult for me to accept my subject partner even after starting our life together. Nevertheless, I kept reminding myself of how happy and grateful I should be to have a husband from the Adam country of Korea. Japanese church members should serve as slaves to their Korean husbands of the Adam country. And so I repented for my immature faith and made an effort to love my subject partner.

[The Unification Church teaches that Japan is the Eve nation to Korea as Adam. Rev Moon has said that Korea is shaped like a penis. He has also said that Japan, as a mother, should financially support Korea and make restitution for all the material things that were taken from Korea during the Japanese occupation of Korea which lasted until 1945.]

In September, I was given the opportunity to temporarily return to Japan for a week with my subject partner. In my sister’s e-mails, or by her appearance when she came to see me, it did not really seem like there was an anti-pastor (working against the UC) behind her efforts, so the Unification Church did not notice anything unusual. I returned to Japan thinking that it would be good to have my Japanese relatives meet my subject partner and come to understand him better. For a short time after our return home, my family treated my subject partner kindly, taking him out to nice meals and on shopping trips. However, when my father and sister were talking through an interpreter, or were asking details about the Divine Principle, it was as if they had been studying little by little to understand the Unification Church. Then I suspected that an anti-pastor might be working with them. However, rather than that thought, I had questions about the Divine Principle myself, and I was angry with myself for not being able to not answer their questions when I wanted to.

During that initial visit, they did not try to force me and my subject partner to stay, and let us go back to Korea. As I was leaving, it felt so good when my mother hugged me and cried, saying I can come back home anytime. When I had first left for Korea, I thought I would never be able to return again, but now I came to think that I could actually return to Japan at anytime. I even came to think that there was no difference between Sun Myung Moon’s mass wedding ceremony and an ordinary wedding ceremony. It had been a while since I felt the joy and warmth of my family, and I was caught between the thought of wanting to remain in Japan or returning to Korea.

After our return to Korea, my life with my subject partner, centered on church life, began again. To find answers to the questions I had from my father and my sister I even asked a Japanese church member. She said that the teachings of the Unification Church are not limited to the Divine Principle, but there are more detailed books such as Unification Theology [by Young-oon Kim and Unification Thought by Sang-Hun Lee], that are deep in their teachings. And she said that if I kept studying until I was convinced, I would again see how good the teachings of the Unification Church were. However, in Korea, because every book was written in Korean, it was difficult for me to study such books. Anyway I could not find enough time to do that due to my everyday training.

My subject partner was working in a factory and earning an average of 70,000 yen per month. However, he often quit his job and stayed at home or changed his job. Moreover, there were also transfers, so our life was difficult. All the time I tried to save money. I wanted to go to a dentist in Korea, but I couldn’t afford it. In September 2003, one year after I had last visited Japan, the church allowed me to return to Japan on my own to get dental treatment. However, just in case, they asked me to give my contact information to the nearest branch of the UC and to run away if anything happened.

On my return to Japan, I wanted to study more about the Unification Church. I started getting the dental treatment I needed. Several times I tried to phone the nearest UC without my family knowing, but I could never reach them. Meanwhile, my family asked me to meet with a pastor, saying they hoped I would understand what they had been studying. My father begged me with a very serious face saying it was his once-in-a-lifetime request.

I knew then that my father was sincere and serious when he said that. I agreed but said that I would only be willing to meet the pastor once I had attended the worship service of the local Unification Church. So I tried to call them again, but I still couldn’t get through. Finally I had no choice but to meet the pastor. In my mind I thought this would be a catastrophe, but I eventually agreed to meet the pastor by telling myself that I shouldn’t be a frog in a well, and that knowing about other religions would help me to see the Unification Church more objectively and to know the splendor of the Unification Church more deeply.

But in reality, it was the complete opposite. I came to know what was wrong with the Unification Church and I fell to the bottom of hell. I had quit my job, cut off all contact with my friends and my free will had been destroyed. I had believed that the work I had been doing was the truth, and I had put the rest of my life at risk in order to hold on to this precious truth, only to realize in the end that it was not genuine. I could not control my sorrow and resentment. The pastor told me that I can always leave the UC any time now. I decided to quit the Unification Church. Even after I decided to leave, I continued to read books and research until I could fully understand what had happened to me. I came to realize that I had been under mind control. As soon as I knew that the Unification Church was wrong, I decided to get a divorce because I could not sustain a false marriage even if it was deemed a ‘Blessed marriage’ in the doctrine of the Unification Church.

However, the divorce was not resolved quickly. First of all, at the end of December 2003, two months after my withdrawal from the Church, all my family members and the pastor went to the house of the parent’s of my husband, where he was living, to ask for a divorce. An elder of a Korean Christian Church also accompanied us and talked to them. They refused, so I couldn’t get divorced. My husband was shocked when I told him of my intention to divorce. He caused a scene and said he would commit suicide, and we had to call the police.

However, I was relieved to know that he was really living in his mother’s house. After returning home to Japan, I was introduced to a lawyer and tried to get my divorce through the courts. But in my situation I discovered that the longer the period of not living as a couple, the greater the probability of getting a divorce, so I decided not to go to trial immediately. Then there was a request by e-mail from my husband for me to pay 10 million yen to get the divorce. Of course I had no intention of paying, and I had no ability to pay such a sum. Also, after several e-mails going back and forth, I also sent him a Japanese divorce application form and requested that he accept the divorce application. He again refused. Meanwhile, the amount of alimony kept decreasing, so my father thought about my future and considered paying the alimony. However, I did not respond to the requests for money. I thought I should not set a bad precedent for subsequent UC victims who were trying to get divorced.

On January 17, 2006, two years after visiting Korea to request a divorce, my sister and I participated in the Japan-Korea Unification Church Problem Forum in Seoul, with our lawyer and the Korean pastor who had helped us before.

▲ Daegu

After the conference was over, I traveled to Daegu together with my lawyer and the Christian pastor. We again asked my husband and his parents to allow the divorce to proceed without alimony. They still would not accept. Then the pastor suggested going to a Korean lawyer to have a trial in Korea. But, although during UC divorce trials in Japan some courts ruled that marriages in the Unification Church were not valid, it seemed such a route would be more difficult in Korea because there was less consensus in Korea concerning the fraudulent nature of the Unification Church and their use of mind control [and sleep deprivation, etc.]. All my family members were depressed and anxious about how to go about having a trial in Korea and gaining the divorce.

In January 2008, five years after leaving the Church, just as I was considering the option of a trial in Japan, an e-mail came from my husband stating that he would agree to a divorce without alimony. My pastor and all six family members went to Korea. At the city hall, my husband and I went through divorce procedures and we got divorced.

My husband did not smile as he used to. We finished the divorce process perfunctorily. I said I was sorry to my husband and wished that he would find happiness in the future. It was not that either of us had faults. Both of us were really victims of Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church and our experiences only confirmed the heartlessness of the Unification Church. After that, due to our different nationalities, the Japanese court divorce procedures were not very smooth. I and my father had to go to the Korean Consulate several times. We were finally able to complete the divorce in June 2008. At that time, I felt relieved and reborn. I felt I was finally free and had truly left the Unification Church.

Ten years had passed since I joined the Unification Church. For the first five years I had immersed myself in the UC. Even after I left the church I spent another five years struggling with the after-effects of mind control and the divorce process. The fact that I was rescued from the Unification Church and that I am now able to live a free life like this, is all thanks to the help of my parents, my older sister, my pastor, lawyer, and those former members who gave me psychological support. And the elder who gave me tremendous support in the foreign land of Korea – I sincerely thank you all.

The divorce, especially, took a long time. This was partly because of the great language barrier. In my case, Elder Lee was an immense help. Elder Lee accompanied me every time I went to Daegu, even though he had problems with both his legs. When there was no progress in the divorce, he delivered the letters my father had written; he visited my husband’s parents many times to try to persuade them to accept the divorce. Elder Lee’s help was crucial. As seen in my case, if a Christian Church in Korea accurately understands the fraudulent nature of the Unification Church and serves as a bridge between Japan and Korea, I think there can be a considerable chance of a successful rescue. Also, Japanese UC members who are married to Korean men do not know what to do when a problem occurs in the Unification Church. If a Christian Church in Korea has an understanding of the Unification Church, it can be a great help. I hope that the Christian Church in Korea will accurately and deeply understand the illegality of the Unification Church and lend its strength to help further rescues. I am now studying in Korea, free from the Unification Church. Living in Korea this time is of my own choice and for my own benefit.

One day, while walking in Myeong-dong, Seoul, I accidentally met a woman who was the class leader at the UC training center. She was outside in the cold handing out leaflets that advertised a massage salon. She had been in Korea for 12 years, and she was giving out leaflets to see if that work would help her to support her family of three.

▲ Taiyaki pastry

Also, when I visited an island, I saw a UC woman baking and selling fish cakes and taiyaki pastries (5) from the back of a small truck. She was a woman in her late 40s, but in the 15 years since she had been married, she had been baking taiyaki and her face had been burned by the heat from that work. She did not wear any makeup. It was a cold winter, but she said she was working from morning to night. I felt sorry for her, and it felt as if it was my own problem. I wondered if I might have been living such a life if I had not quit the UC.

It is known that there are more than 6,000 Japanese wives who have been married to Korean men through the Unification Church mass weddings. Seeing them first-hand, it hurts me to know what difficult lives the Japanese wives have, and how they struggle in Korea. I feel anger towards the Unification Church which ruins people’s lives.

▲ Japanese UC members bow in apology for historical abuse to Koreans.

I was very surprised to hear about the incident of the Japanese UC wife, Miyuki Park, last year.(6) I don’t know what would have happened if I had continued living in Korea without leaving the Unification Church. When I think about what Miyuki Park did, I feel very sorry. We hope that she will be released from prison as soon as possible, so she can live a peaceful life with the help of her family and supporting volunteers.

When I was given this opportunity to tell my story, I had to revisit the events and emotions of those times. As I wrote these words I could not help but shed tears as powerful memories swept over me. After ten years, I thought that my time in the Unification Church was a thing of the past, but I was amazed to find that the wounds in my heart still remain to this day.

The Unification Church is a terrifying organization that controls minds with manipulative techniques and easily comes to dominate the minds and hearts of unsuspecting people. Absolute cooperation and solidarity between families is necessary in order to rescue as many victims of Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church as possible. In particular, in the case of Korea-Japan ‘blessings’, I think the key is the full support and cooperation of the Christian Churches in Korea. I hope that such a way will open quickly in the future. I thank you for reading this.

______________________________________________

Notes

1) A term describing a married couple of Korean male believer and Japanese female believer. 2) The Kansai District lies in the southern-central region of Japan’s main island, Honshū. 3) ‘Subject partner’ – in mass marriages, the term a bride uses to address her groom. Wives are called ‘object partners.’ 4) Micro – abbreviation for economic activities such as traveling by microbus to different areas to fundraise. Members sometimes lived in the microbuses for weeks at a time. 5) Taiyaki (鯛焼き, literally ‘baked sea bream’) is a Japanese fish-shaped cake. It imitates the shape of the 鯛, Tai (Japanese red seabream), which it is named after. The most common filling is red bean paste that is made from sweetened azuki beans. Other common fillings may be custard, chocolate, cheese, or sweet potato. Some shops even sell taiyaki with okonomiyaki, gyoza filling, or a sausage inside. In South Korea, Taiyaki are known as bungeo-ppang. Taiyaki are similar to imagawayaki, which are thick round cakes also filled with sweet azuki bean paste or custard. 6) A Japanese female UC member, Miyuki Park, murdered her abusive, alcoholic unemployed Korean husband and is currently serving time in jail.

______________________________________________

Why did a Japanese Moon church member kill her Korean husband?

日本人妻はなぜ韓国人夫を殺したのか? 統一教会「合同結婚式」の悲劇

Suicide of Japanese ‘Moon money mule’ in Uruguay. Mother of three children

Japanese member Ms. U married to a Korean man

Japanese woman recruited and sold to Korean farmer

Atsuko Kumon Hong “suicide / murder” 2013

6,500 Japanese women missing from Moon mass weddings

“Apology marriages” made by Japanese UC members to Korean men

A huge Moon Church scam in Japan is revealed

Moon personally extracted $500 MILLION from Japanese sisters in the fall of 1993. He demanded that 50,000 sisters attend HIS workshops on Cheju Island and each had to pay a fee of $10,000.

The Moon church of Japan used members for profit, not religious purposes

The Comfort Women Controversy

______________________________________________

여성신자U씨의 체험담

통일교　여성 피해자의 체험담 （K씨）

______________________________________________

日本人妻はなぜ韓国人夫を殺したのか?

韓国よ、私の姉を返せ！！

元早大総長が集団結婚を徹底批判統一教会

韓国に渡った統一教会日本人女性信者の実態

山崎浩子 vs 林真理子独占対談

愛が偽りに終わるとき – 山崎浩子 (著)

「合同結婚式、６５００人の行方を捜して」被害者家族が訴え

統一教会女性信者が自殺した「四千人」南米大移働の謎

統一教会に入信して殺されたわが兄

統一教会合同結婚式　日本人妻たちの「肉声」

統一教会の日本人花嫁数千人が韓国農民に宛われた韓国農民にあてがわれた統一教会·合同結婚式日本人妻の「SEX地獄」

これが『統一教会』の秘部だ

#Sun Myung Moon #manipulation #UC of Japan #Japanese wives in Korea #Unification Church

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untitledtallgeesepodcast · 4 years ago

Text

[TRANSCRIPT] Episode 0: The Anime They Once Saw (Or Didn’t See)

Kat 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Untitled Tallgeese Podcast, a podcast where four of us will watch Gundam Wing and then tell you all about Gundam Wing. My name is Kat, I write about comics on the internet, and I will be your episode moderator for today.

Mallory 0:17

And I'm Mallory, and I also write about comics.

Cathy 0:20

I'm Cathy, I don't write about comics. I am actually a lawyer, which sucks.

All 0:26

[laughter]

Caitlin 0:28

I am Caitlin. I'm a PhD researcher in Tokyo right now working on Japanese film. Yeah.

Kat 0:33

Extremely legit.

Caitlin 0:35

Are we?

Cathy 0:36

and we're all here to talk about the Gundam Wing.

Kat 0:38

[crosstalk] I mean we might be.

Kat 0:41

We are here to talk about Gundam Wing, the maybe not critically acclaimed, but fandom, okay, audience favorite anime that was released in 1995 in Japan and then made its way to the US in March 2000 on Toonami. So, we're going to talk about our fandom history and our history with the show Gundam Wing and I guess I will kick that off. So I-- I grew up watching anime because my dad is a huge nerd. So we were obviously watching Toonami. And the promos blew my mind. My friends and I all got really into it in middle school. Then we discovered fanfiction and we started with Heero/Relena fan fiction. [Caitlin: Ugh.] And then then we realized people could be gay.

Caitlin 1:29

Uugh, thank god.

Kat 1:30

That opened up like, I know it was like the clouds parted. rainbows fell from the sky. We were like, Oh, wow.

Mallory 1:39

[singing] "A whole new world"

Kat 1:40

[laughter] And then I don't know. I wrote a lot of fanfiction posted it on FF dotnet, got into fandom and then stayed in fandom. So, Mallory?

Mallory 1:53

I didn't have cable growing up. So whatever anime exposure I got was like, whatever was on Saturday morning cartoons. So Digimon was my first fandom and I was really into that.

Kat 2:08

Hell yeah

Mallory 2:09

And that sort of like bled into Gundam Wing somehow, I don't really remember how. But I found my way to Gundam Wing, read a lot of fanfic, hadn't ever really watched the show. And then in high school, my friend had some like random episodes from the first season question mark. I have no idea. So I watched those, and really enjoyed that? But I have no idea what their context was, so I'm coming at this pretty, pretty new.

Cathy 2:44

So you have never watched it from beginning to end?

Mallory 2:47

No.

Cathy 2:47

Got it. This will be fun.

Mallory 2:50

I'm expecting to be really disapproving of all the adults in the room. I find that like, now that I'm watching anime about kids, I'm really protective of these kids like, "Hey, this is really unethical!"

Cathy 3:02

So I'm like Kat, I started watching anime when I was I think around Middle School. I had a friend who got me into Sailor Moon, then I think it was Dragon Ball that was on Toonami at the time? I can't really remember the chronology.

Kat 3:16

Yeah.

Cathy 3:17

But then they did the promos for Gundam Wing, so then I started watching that on Toonami. And it was my first mecha series. And my first Gundam series, I think it's a lot of people's first Gundam series in the United States.

Cathy 3:31

I have attempted to do similar projects to this multiple times where I go back and I rewatch, and I haven't really had the opportunity to actually finish those rewatches. But my memory of it is still kind of stuck of when I was in middle school slash high school. I did get into fandom, so I expect to remember a lot of inaccuracies about what happened. [laughter] Because a lot of what my facts have with this series are have now mutated and changed. But I was a huge Gundam Wing fan, I think it still remains my favorite of the Gundam series just because I have so many memories of it? But I really excited to talk to Mallory, about what you feel and your experiences because it's been so long since I've talked to somebody who actually has never seen the series and doesn't know the story. So I'm super excited about this.

Caitlin 4:24

Yeah!

Cathy 4:25

All right, Cait, tell us about your family history.

Caitlin 4:27

Yeah, so similar to all of us, I guess, I watched anime growing up. I got into Sailor Moon sort of through an accident of just happening to see a very specific episode on Toonami in like 1999, 1998 maybe. So after that, I got really into anime and really into the internet. I think I was very depressed as a child. [laughter] So I spend a lot of time online. I believe that like my my first memories of Gundam Wing are when it was on Toonami: Sailor Moon was on first and then Dragon Ball Dragon Ball Z, and then Gundam Wing. And then they also were showing like the quote unquote unedited versions late

Cathy 5:09

Yes!

Kat 5:09

Yes, the midnight run

Cathy 5:11

The midnight run Right.

Cathy 5:12

Yeah. So very specific memories of like, I think I was mainly attracted to the, like, team format of Gundam if that makes sense? [Cathy: Yeah yeah yeah!] where it was used to sailor Sailor Moon where you have a team of color coded characters. And I'd, at a younger age been really into Power Rangers, where you had a team of color coded characters. So the marketing of Gundam Wing really appealed. You know, cuz I was just a kid watching on TV, I never really, I don't know if I watched the whole thing as a kid, but I got really into the fandom. And by 2000, 2001, I already knew about gay stuff online.

Kat 5:48

Wow. Look at you early bloomer.

Caitlin 5:50

Yeah. So So I got really into the various Gundam Wing pairings, I think it was mainly, I was mainly a 3x4, I think as a child. I went through some, 1x2, and then 2x5 phases. [laughter]

Caitlin 6:09

I still am a big advocate for 2x5, I think it's underrated.

Kat 6:12

I'm a big 2x5.

Cathy 6:13

2x5 is a good pairing, it definitely is.

Kat 6:16

Yeah.

Cathy 6:16

It's a better pairing as an adult.

Kat 6:17

So okay, I think that's actually a pretty good bounce off. So these are the things we remember about Gundam Wing. It was marketed, like, I remember the Toonami marketing 'cause I was really hype for this show. They had like these really extreme commercials.

Caitlin 6:34

Yeah.

Kat 6:35

Um, and I thought the voice acting was good. I don't know, maybe we'll revisit that during this watch, to see if it still is,

Caitlin 6:43

[crosstalk] Was it dubbed?,

Cathy 6:44

[crosstalk] It was dubbed, yes.

Kat 6:44

But I was ready for it. It was dubbed.

Caitlin 6:46

It was dubbed. One thing with the with the Japanese voice acting though, is that it's every single famous voice actor from the 90s. And so you can, you can use Gundam Wing is like a six degrees of every single voice actor from the 1990s.

Caitlin 6:59

Oh, that's cool.

Mallory 7:00

I mean, there are a lot of big American or like, dub dub names on the dub side, too.

Cathy 7:06

One of the things that I remember very strongly about Toonami is that they had what I think we would now call anime music videos, AMVs.

Kat 7:16

Yeah

Cathy 7:17

But they would play

Caitlin 7:18

Yeah,

Cathy 7:18

These montage trailers, where they'd stich together all their different series. And as they accumulated more anime series, these became really, I think, cinematic and gripping tales, where they would kind of try to tell a story to be about, like bravery or honor or like,

Kat 7:36

It's like, plugged directly into my little 11 year old brain like, Whoa,

Cathy 7:40

Yes. And one of them was, I remember was called, like, "technological development" or something like that, that featured a lot of the Gundam Wing clips.

Kat 7:47

Oh, yeah, cuz you only download them from like, KaZaa, or whatever horrible thing I was putting into my computer.

Caitlin 7:52

Yeah. We gotta see if we can find those. [crosstalk] They must be online somewhere.

Cathy 7:56

They are online. And I think they actually came out with like, I think somebody had either like hand by hand remastered them.

Kat 8:03

[crosstalk] Oh sick.

Cathy 8:02

Or they created a remastered version of it. They're wonderful. But that's I think one of the things about Toonami that I remember really strongly was Gundam Wing kind of is one of their, like epitome of like, Cool Anime that I feel like Toonami did and what it did was like they stiched together all these different things Outlaw Star and Tenchi Muyo and all these other stories to create a story about teenage growth, which is kind of strange and also weirdly fitting at the end of the day about like where Gundam is in the whole universe.

Kat 8:07

I think that's one of the reasons it blew up so much here because the marketing was really intense. Like Toonami, like it sort of right at the beginning, like people were into Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z was getting big. And like the manga boom was sort of happening in bookstores. So contextually, I think, Cartoon Network knew what the hell they were doing. They were like, "We can market the hell out of this."

Caitlin 8:55

And also objectively speaking, Gundam Wing was one of their cooler series. Like, Sailor Moon is cool. Tenchi Muyo is not cool.

All 9:04

[laughter]

Kat 9:06

Yeah.

Caitlin 9:07

Even even if you love it, it's not really cool. Dragon Ball. Love it. I don't know if it's really cool. Gundam Wing had like a very strong -

Kat 9:14

[crosstalk] like the chad of animes

Caitlin 9:16

- adult aesthetic to it, even though it was like, relatively, well, relatively appropriate for like 12 year olds.

Kat 9:23

And they swore during the midnight show.

Caitlin 9:25

Oh yeah,

Kat 9:26

They swore and there was blood.

Caitlin 9:27

So it was very cool. And so I felt very adult watching it even though I didn't really understand what was going on because it's all this fake politics crap.

Kat 9:35

Yeah, I was gonna say I did do a rewatch in like, like, right after college, so it was probably around 2010 ish, maybe? And I don't think we finished the series, but it was like, wow, I used to think this was very deep. [laughter] And I thought all the people in it who are the adults like Mallory, you were mentioning earlier, like they're actually like 17 and 19

Cathy 10:01

Yes!

Kat 10:01

in this show. So watching it at the age of 21, I was like, "Ooh no, don't give these people anything."

Cathy 10:09

I was actually thinking about that. Because when you said Mallory, "oh, well, I become very protective of the children. I disapprove the adults," in my head of thinking "what adults?" [crosstalk, Caitlin: yeah what adults?] because actually, in Gundam Wing, there's a funny thing where people are either 15, 25 or like 70. And there's no in between and nobody really makes adult decisions. So it, That was one thing that really shocked me because as I go back to revisit it, I think, "Oh my god, I'm actually older than almost everybody in this series."

Caitlin 10:39

How old, how old is Treize supposed to be?

Cathy 10:41

He's like 23, or 24.

Kat 10:42

He's 19.

Cathy 10:43

No, Zechs is 19.

Kat 10:44

Oh, Zechs is 19. Right.

Cathy 10:47

I just the idea of giving people who, you know, would have either been in college or just graduate college in my worldview, huge robots.

Kat 10:58

I think the ages of all the characters gets obscured by the anime art style, you know?

Cathy 11:03

Yeah.

Kat 11:03

In a lot of anime fandoms.

Mallory 11:04

And when you're watching this, when you're a kid, you want to see yourself as the protagonist. So it makes sense that, you know, a 17 year old seems like old and cool, and I want to be that person. And then when you're 30, you're like, the 17 year old should not be at war.

Kat 11:23

Relevant is that we definitely watched Evangelion. That was our last series.

Caitlin 11:29

I don't know, I think, I think Heero Yuy is doing fine in war. I'm gonna, I'm gonna be honest, as a 30 year old, I think these kids are much better at war than I would be.

Cathy 11:39

Well, so that's what I find kind of interesting, is that I think this series actually... I don't, I know this wasn't the point but when I rewatched it recently, or just like the first couple of episodes, it seemed, it made a lot of sense, because they were like 15 or 24. Like the series, actually stitches together...

Caitlin 11:58

Yeah.

Cathy 11:58

...really well, because of how young they are, and kind of like the purity of feeling that they have, which I think is

Kat 12:05

Yeah, it is, like

Cathy 12:06

only maybe

Kat 12:07

like that [indistinguishable?]

Cathy 12:07

which I think is like only really, truly possible because I have to think of them as like 15 or 21 or 19 year olds. that is not at all when I took away when I was watching in high school. Right?

Mallory 12:21

Well, I mean, right.

Caitlin 12:22

Part of the ideology of Gundam in general is like trying to restore a form of hope, and youth to, like, young people growing up in Japan, who are the target audience for this, and this idea that, like, you still have the power to change the world, you still have the power to bring about peace in a way that you want, even though you're being manipulated and oppressed by all these crazy adults who make you pilot giant robots. So I think there's a significant, like part of the series is the fact that they are kids who have been recruited into child warfare, and now have to find some way out of that. And like my memory of the series is that even though most of, most of the decisions made are very bad, the kids in general are not making terrible decisions. They're making pretty good decisions.

Kat 13:12

Yeah, the pilots themselves...

Mallory 13:14

[crosstalk] Yeah

Kat 13:14

...are like doing the best they can be doing in that circumstance.

Cathy 13:17

[crosstalk] Exactly, exactly

Kat 13:19

But I think it's sort of interesting, 'cause it's like, to me Gundam Wing is definitely like a fandom era, because I think a lot of stuff exemplifies like...there's like a lot of tropes cycling through it. But also like, the series itself, is so perfectly...like, I think of it as a series that are so perfectly set up for fandom because there's a lot of like, here's my one episode mission, and we have to be at a safe house, I guess. And it's just like, a long interminable war. So there's like, a big, a lot of world building. Yeah, that creates all these spaces that sort of separate from all the political machinations of the series.

Caitlin 13:58

And that's also I think, a lot of what it was meant to be when it was created within the Gundam franchise like it was it was designed to have sort of a BL appeal to girls writing for comic market and that sort of thing. So it had like the setup of five hot guys who you could combine in various forms. And then also like Gundam itself, in general, it's designed to be and a sort of open universe that you can step into at various points, which also facilitates fandom engagement

Mallory 14:28

[crosstalk] literal fandom bait.

Caitlin 14:29

usually in the form, yeah, usually in the form of model collecting, which is like one of the main Gundam forms of fandom which we probably won't talk about too much on the show. But you, you kind of

Kat 14:41

Uh I've definitely built some Gundam models.

Caitlin 14:43

Yeah. Well, you will be the expert on that because I've never touched a Gundam model in my life. But that is like the big thing where you can you can get the model you can construct it, you can learn a little bit more about the, like, the technology and the different like details of the models and stuff like that. And it just gives you like a slight, like Little bit more of these like tiny narratives and that sort of what the fans are consuming rather than an overall plot that makes sense, which is not what Gundam has really.

Kat 15:11

So Gundam [Wing] has like the cool robots but also these hot boys in them.

Caitlin 15:15

That's what I want.

Mallory 15:16

I mean Well, that's exactly what I want to show right now. So it sounds perfect?

Kat 15:21

Honestly, yeah.

Mallory 15:23

I think Evangelion, sort of, because, Kat, you and I just finished -- or are almost finished with -- Neon Genesis Evangelion [Kat, crosstalk: we haven't done all the movies yet] which was also it was my first time [Cathy, crosstalk: Congratulations, laugh] watching the whole series...wow, grim

Kat 15:40

I also only consumed

Mallory 15:42

[crosstalk] grim

Kat 15:42

[crosstalk] I consumed it like piecemeal too

Mallory 15:44

And depressing

Kat 15:45

It was great.

Mallory 15:46

Very good but um grim.

Kat 15:50

Yeah it's pretty grim.

Cathy 15:52

Yeah, it's interesting to me because I feel like Evangelion doesn't make a lot of sense as a cultural product unless you've consumed a series like Gundam or its ancestors before watching it and yet Evangelion is a lot of people's introduction to giant robot series. So I always find that kind of interesting...

Caitlin 16:13

[crosstalk] It's very weird.

Cathy 16:14

because it, it is subversive, and I think it's subversive even if you don't know the tropes of the giant robot series, of which Gundam is perhaps a prime example. Gundam Wing...

Kat 16:27

So I was gonna ask that and like, would you say, since Evangelion is definitely a like the subversion of this genre, would you say Gundam Wing is like the type of series that it is subverting? Or do you think it's in a different place?

Caitlin 16:41

Gundam Wing and Evangelion came out the same year? Gundam Wing is in some ways a, it's already like a parody form of the original iteration of Gundam.

Kat 16:55

Okay, so it's--is it like, um, like the pure essence of teens-robots.

Caitlin 17:02

It's, it's more like, I feel like by the time of Gundam Wing, the tropes of the original Gundam series are so well set that a lot of things in Gundam Wing to, like the fans who watched the original Gundam or like later Gundams, seemed like a rehash but it was designed to bring in new fans. So something like Zechs Merquis is very clearly like a Char Aznable character. It's just sort of a reiteration of that.

Kat 17:29

So is it like a Star Wars, like a Star Wars sequel?

Caitlin 17:33

Like how the Force Awakens is kind of a rehash of yeah, of A New Hope. And then, but it still brings in a lot of fans and has appealing characters and good aesthetics

Kat 17:43

Right, yeah, I guess I think of them, the two shows, as sort of like, splitting the take on... like, what would you say is like the ur-mecha show?

Cathy 17:52

The original Gundam

Caitlin 17:54

Original Gundam?

Cathy 17:54

Yeah, Mobile Suit Gundam.

Caitlin 17:56

I mean, they're, they're older iterations, there's other robot shows. But I feel like when people think of mecha, the first thing they think of is Mobile Suit Gundam.

Cathy 18:06

So the way like I now think of Gundam Wing after the fact of experiences I have now is that like Gundam Wing is actually a perfect like K-Pop boy band way that they built it and so if you can kind of think of it like that, like it's, you need enough of the tropes and symbols, so that everybody watches it and immediately knows it's a Gundam series.

Cathy 18:30

Like the colors of Wing Gundam are so obviously

Kat 18:34

Yeah.

Cathy 18:34

a Gundam Mecca and you need that you can't get away from it. And same thing with like Zech's having a mask it the reason I think of it as being in in the Kpop industry is like there's a derivative sense. And that's animated by both like Merchandising, and advertising and what audiences want but at the same time, it's like this incredibly pure understanding of what makes us like things? And like when you get that when you really get it, like, it doesn't matter how like, quote, unquote manipulative or exploitative it can seem like you love it. And that's enough, right to make it like a thing that we all want to keep coming back to.

Mallory 19:12

And there's basically like, an archetype right? In all of the different characters like you have the more

Kat 19:18

Yeah, you have the serious one.

Mallory 19:20

That's what I was thinking.

Kat 19:21

Like, the goofy one.

Mallory 19:23

Yeah, the goofy one, the sort of mess

Kat 19:25

the ugly one,

Mallory 19:26

like really cute one.

Kat 19:29

Yeah, that's why I was thinking American boy bands cuz they all have to have like a type of heartthrob. Yeah, I'm a bad boy. I love death.

Caitlin 19:38

One of them's, one of them's a rapper.

Kat 19:40

Okay, so we talked a little bit about how we got into it. We talked a little bit about fandoms. And we touched on pairings, do we want to go into pairings at all? Or like our fave characters, or who we think our fave characters will be Before this rewatch?

Cathy 19:54

You know before we do that--Mallory, can you try to tell us what you think this series is about? I'm actually really curious, like before you do a complete viewing, like what? what is what is your understanding of what happens in Gundam Wing?

Mallory 20:08

Um, there's a long interminable war. These boys are recruited by some shadowy government whatever. And they're piloting these mecha. Uugh, I just remember Duo being really annoying.

Caitlin 20:28

[loud gasp] [laughter] [crosstalk] Oh my god.

Mallory 20:29

I mean, not annoying, like, being sort of...

Kat 20:32

Wow.

Mallory 20:33

...the one the pushy one like, he's the challenging one to Heero's "I'm serious and dour." Literally, I have the most broad strokes impressions of what this show is. I just know it looked really fucking cool every time I saw it in, like, a commercial and couldn't watch it.

Cathy 20:55

Fascinating.

Caitlin 20:57

Honestly, even having seen Gundam Wing, I'm not sure I could explain it much better. I don't remember who recruited them.

Mallory 21:03

Okay. Okay, that does make me feel better. Because I was like, Oh, I don't? Do I actually know what the show is? What am I getting myself into?

Caitlin 21:14

There's there's a lot of weird politics.

Mallory 21:17

Well, I'm really excited for that. And I don't mean that sarcastically. Like, I'm really excited to, to see what this world is like, because I remember, like images or impressions. But everything is like out of context. So it'll be cool to see what that context is. Like deja vu? Oh, I remember that. I've seen that in AMV.

Kat 21:48

I remember this from fics that just rewrite scenes from this show.

Mallory 21:55

Yeah, like, what do I know? What do I know of Gundam that is from fanfic only, or is actual canon? I'm curious to figure out.

Kat 22:10

I think everyone's a lot less obnoxious in canon.

Caitlin 22:14

That's true.

Mallory 22:15

Okay, okay.

Caitlin 22:16

This was a this was a really good fandom for the the fandom phenomenon of, you take a character's most, like, annoying trait, and you emphasize it like times 10 in your fanfic.

Cathy 22:28

Yes.

Kat 22:28

Yeah

Caitlin 22:28

Just so everybody knows you know what that character is like.

Kat 22:31

Heero's gonna threaten to kill everybody all the time, constantly.

Caitlin 22:34

"Omae o korosu."

Cathy 22:36

[laughing crosstalk] And so, it's funny that you guys mentioned safe houses, because actually, there are very few safe houses in the original series. In fact, I think there's like maybe one or two scenes ever, where they are all in a safe house provided by one of their allies. And it's a really fascinating trope, because it like pervades the fanfic? But I remember, that I remember was like a big deal, like, I went back and I was like, actually, these people spend very little downtime with each other in the actual series and I find that fascinating.

Kat 23:12

Right? So you have to fill it all in.

Mallory 23:13

Oh, wait, what?

Caitlin 23:14

They actually barely know each other.

Cathy 23:16

Yeah, they truly barely know each other. [crosstalk]

Mallory 23:18

Wait. Oh no, I thought, I thought this was going to be like..

Kat 23:23

[crosstalk] They actually never interact.

Mallory 23:24

we're going to get together and become like a team

Caitlin 23:26

No, no.

Cathy 23:26

Absolutely not,

Caitlin 23:27

They don't fight together; It's 50 episodes of them not interacting.

Cathy 23:31

They, they literally have like, they like, there's probably one or two scenes in which all five of them are on the same battlefield at the same time. And almost every single one of those scenes involves them fighting with each other because like,

Kat 23:44

[crosstalk]Oh, yeah, they fight each other alone.

Cathy 23:45

What's going on? And this was the thing that I'm sure we'll come back to when I came back to this is when I was rewatching. It in college, I realized that of the two people who spend the most time with each other, it's like Trowa and Heero. Because, yes, it is what arc where they actually go on a road trip, which like,

Kat 24:03

it's great. I wrote a thing

Cathy 24:04

like wiped it from my memory when I was thinking about the series, but it really drives home. You know, again, to your point like what of this series do I did I remember that was just from fanfic, and was just what like the fanfic I read very specifically. And so that was one of the things is like, when you come back as an adult, I was like, all of this stuff is so much more interesting to me because like, I actually, like, I don't get me wrong, I still have shipping opinions. But like, I'm older and I have I I'm famous for this. And Kat knows this. I like don't have OTPs. And I'm like not very good about actually being very loyal to pairings. And so as an adult coming back to this, I was like, Oh, this is actually really interesting because the permutations that fandom came up with also came from, like, non-canon material, because there's a lot of non-canon material, like promotional images that bear no resemblance whatsoever to canon.

Kat 24:54

Okay, I would, I would call those extra canonical, right?

Caitlin 24:58

No, they're, they're extra canonical, they count in some form.

Kat 25:02

Right? 'Cause they're official.

Cathy 25:04

I guess so. I mean, sure, we'll talk about that as time comes but like.

Caitlin 25:08

Listen, a canon is not just the story. It's the entire media mix around it. It's those, it's those things that you can collect. It's the extra manga. It's Frozen Teardrop,

Cathy 25:18

Like, Gundam Wing actually, I think is one of the few franchises I know where like "pair the spares" was a real merchandising tactic.

Kat 25:26

Yes, it was.

Cathy 25:27

And so, so everybody had somebody... gay, I mean, like, not like,

Kat 25:34

Wufei had two!

Cathy 25:35

They had a gay and a straight interest that they were paired up with. And so, um, so it's like, fascinating to me to come back and be like, actually, the canon is a lot more flexible and interesting than I remembered it.

Caitlin 25:49

The canon for me is like, remarkable in its commitment to not officially putting anyone together. Like it was, it's very good at balancing out all of the different pairings that it wants to support.

Mallory 26:01

Mm hmm.

Caitlin 26:02

Um, it's interesting to see which ones got picked up as the main two in fandom, which for me, were always 1x2 and 3x4 dominated the fandom, because they're both like, friendly, maybe talkative, personable guy and like silent, brooding, weirdo,

Kat 26:22

Warrior.

Caitlin 26:22

What fandom loves! Fandom loves that exact dynamic in every form. And so like, what 1, 1 and 3, were never going to work together because they're both silent and brooding. Fandom was never gonna pick that up. It's too It's too boring. It's not dynamic enough, right?

Mallory 26:37

Like, you can't fight. There's no banter,

Cathy 26:39

Which is actually weird, because if you go back and watch the episodes, you'll see it. Heero actually is not that quiet. And Trowa is like a nutcase. And so

Kat 26:48

they're really funny together,

Cathy 26:49

when they are together, they're actually incredibly dynamic in ways that in fact, the canon doesn't establish 1x2, or 3x4 to be. And so it is really fascinating, because I do agree with Caitlin. What came out of this canon is very different from what I think the show gives. And I don't know the show was like, open minded because it wanted to sell as much merch as possible or

Caitlin 27:13

It's that.

Cathy 27:13

Yeah, so I don't know.

Mallory 27:14

Capitalism.

Kat 27:16

I am gonna say I think the show is a 3x4 shipper. Like I think if the show had a pairing, it would be a three, it would be 3x4, like from my recollections of the show

Mallory 27:26

Yeah

Caitlin 27:26

I always thought that was true. But now

Cathy 27:28

I disagree.

Caitlin 27:29

I feel like I'm gonna go into this and and be like, they never

Kat 27:32

Nobody else has a musical interlude.

Cathy 27:34

But the but the thing is, here's Okay, so not to, like, make this too much about the pairing... But I also think 1x2 and 3x4 become established. I put that in quotes early in the series. And so it becomes entrenched and people assume that that's the pairing. But actually, I just remember so strongly when I went back and rewatched that I was like, there really is not that much evidence for Trowa and Quatre's like instantaneous connection because Quatre has that with almost every other pilot, and Trowa's relationship with Heero is like so much more interesting when I come back to it, even though I definitely think they would never work. They would like killing each other and instead as an adult.

Kat 28:12

And I mean, I love that pairing. And like the one thing that came out of my rewatch a million years ago was I wrote a 1x3 fic cuz I really love those episodes, and fandom didn't do anything with it. But I feel like, I feel like Quatre and Trowa are framed slightly differently than all the other potential pairings so that they could be together.

Cathy 28:33

Even up until Endless Waltz like, I really just feel like that that was an early series thing. And then as you go on into the series, that relationship while still important, was not really emphasized any more or less.

Kat 28:47

But I mean, if it, if it comes out of the gate strong, [laughter] like

Caitlin 28:51

That's all that matters

Kat 28:52

I still think that the show was pushing that one if it pitched. Like if it was giving the most evidence to any one of them, I think the early stuff was really like, ~look at this beautiful pairing.~

Caitlin 29:04

So wait do we all want to, maybe to end this episode, we should all go through and predict what are OTP or pseudo OTP for Cathy will be by the end of this rewatch.

Kat 29:16

But also tell me your fave character because that's what I asked like, 15 minutes ago.

Cathy 29:21

Okay, Kat you first.

Kat 29:23

Oh, well, my favorite character has always been Duo Maxwell. And I'm predicting that he's still going to be my fave character. And I am going to stake my flag on Duo/Wufei, 2x5.

Cathy 29:36

Mallory?

Mallory 29:37

I think from what I remember, I really liked Trowa, I thought Heero was too dour, but I also think that I might relate to him a lot more this time around. So I'm going to say that Heero is going to be my favorite character. And I've always liked...see, I don't know about fandom pairings. I want to say it'll be...well it was Duo/Heero before? No, but I've-- I really like Duo/Wufei so, like, I think that's just always gonna be my Gundam Wing ship.

Cathy 30:20

So when I was a kid watching it my favorite was Duo Maxwell, but I know from my prior rewatching, or attempts to rewatch the series, that as an older person coming into the series, I actually like the girls a lot more, like Relena and Dorothy and Noin became my favorite characters and I did not give them the credit they deserved when I was watching it as a younger person.

Cathy 30:41

I also was 1x2 shipper but again, I know that what I came out of the series really shipping was disastrous Heero/Trowa, and then Duo/Wufei.

Caitlin 30:56

Okay, I see we are all Duo/Wufei fans now.

Kat 30:59

[crosstalk] That's why this is going to be the superior Gundam Wing podcast.

Caitlin 31:02

Yeah. I feel like so, my favorite character when I was originally watching as a kid was Quatre. I think probably because like I always liked like, the friendly blondes in boy bands?

Kat 31:13

That go apeshit?

Caitlin 31:15

When I got older, I was more into Duo and Duo is was probably still my favorite character. I was into Duo/Wufei for a long time. I just think that they are funny together and terrible. And I actually really like Wufei a lot. I sort of admire that fake honor sort of thing. But I, since everybody said Duo/Wufei, I feel like I should say something else, which is that I think that I will get more into 3x4 again after this rewatch, because it's a comforting pairing, in some ways. It's a return. And we're all very full of anxiety right now. [laughter] And so we just need Quatre and stupid, crazy Trowa, you know, having their pure love connection that fandom imagined for them from the beginning.

Kat 32:02

It's real.

Mallory 32:03

I look forward to it.

Cathy 32:04

I do too. I also look forward to hating Treize because that's what happened the last time I rewatched this. He's such a fuck boy.

Kat 32:12

I'm excited to love Dorothy and Relena.

Cathy 32:14

My god, they're so good. Yeah, they're so good. That's what I should have said is my favorite pairing.

Kat 32:20

Fandom definitely ruined me for a little bit, like, "urgh, Relena!"

Caitlin 32:24

When I was a kid, part of the appeal of Gundam Wing fandom was in some ways that it was so sexist, and so I could like act out my own internalized misogyny at the time. And so like, I like I was definitely participating in that of like a group breaking up the boys, whatever. And then in later iterations, I like love Relena. So.

Kat 32:45

Yeah, she was just such an easy reason for them to get together, right? For 1x2, but in the show, she's way more than a plot device. So that was kind of frustrating.

Caitlin 32:56

In the show, she's easily the most one of the most interesting and active characters for sure.

Kat 33:02

As podcast Daddy, I declare Episode Zero officially over. Thank you everyone for your time and catch us in two weeks with Episode One: The boy whose wings killed adolescence.

Caitlin 33:16

Byeeee [laughter]

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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